Loose flops since ships

This article from the Winnipeg Free Press discusses how everyone may play an unwitting role in cyber spy attempts to do damage.
Consumers are also vulnerable, said Parry Aftab, chairwoman of anti-virus software maker McAfee’s consumer advisory board.
Software on their computers may allow others to steal information, she said.
“Many of us who may casually download pictures [...]

Posner — Why the market needs supervision

Here’s a book that will relegate Judge Posner to be adjudged as  a sure fire liberal:
In “Catastrophe: Risk and Response” (2004), he took up the problem of low-probability, high-impact events. The financial meltdown certainly qualifies. In this compact and bracingly lucid volume, he offers a simple, but not simplistic, primer: “a concise, constructive, jargon- and [...]

An admonition to those who created/sold financial derivatives

Actually, this admonition applies to all who say they can deliver a future full of wealth:
See, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, says the Lord, and who tell them, and who lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness, when I did not send them or appoint them;  so they do [...]

Stem Cell Policy – battles begin anew

President Obama is announcing his much anticipated change in stem cell policy.
The president’s action, which will carry out a campaign pledge, involves a long-controversial intersection of science and personal moral beliefs.  NYT
Monday’s announcement will not mean an immediate change in policy as the NIH will take several months to create the new regulations.  However, that [...]

Community Reaction to Adobe Security threat

SecurityFix describes the Adobe vs cybersec community discourse concerning a flaw that was discovered last year.  The organizations noted in this report represent a volunteer group (shadowserver), a proprietary intrusion prevention company (Sourcefire).  No government organizations mentioned regarding an event that touches many users across all organizational sectors.
There is a blog (VRT) that reports on [...]

Darwinian View to Cybersecurity

Interesting….
Take A Darwinian Approach To A Dangerous World: Ecologist Preaches ‘Natural’ Security For Homeland Defense
ScienceDaily (2009-02-23) — Global society is undergoing rapid political and socioeconomic changes, to which our security measures must adapt. Fortunately, we’re surrounded by millions of examples of security measures from nature that do just that.

CyberSecurity Updates

Univ Florida – breach – 97,000 id’s
Norton unveils product to help parents manage children’s access to the web.  Has the market done what Government could not?
Citing a Rochester Institute of Technology study that found a huge gap between the percentage of parents versus children who report no online supervision, Symantec says that Online Family is [...]

Responses to Cyber Leap Year

CAIDA —

FAA Security Problems in Cyberspace

Despite efforts to secure the federal territory in cyber space, the FAA finds its admin server hacked – and employee records were compromised:
While the FAA was hit this time, it certainly is not alone. Uncle Sam’s main jobs database, USAJobs, which is run by Monster.com, was hacked last month.
The security of government computers has been [...]

Remember when?

Oil refiners claimed that because regulations had prevented them from building needed refineries, they could not produce the gasoline necessary to keep up with demand (and thereby mollify the price increases)?
Well, now look at what the refiners are doing:
So now they are storing oil or selling it to traders, or retooling their refineries to produce [...]