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2006 Computer News History Archives


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2006 Computer Archive:

20061113

Richard Shelby

Corporate

Crime

Government

Law

Politics

Digital

Technology

Online

Consumer

California

Alabama

"Inside America's Richest Insurance Racket: Title insurance firms rake in $18 billion a year for a product that is outdated, largely unneeded--and protected by law." ... "Parker Kennedy's roots run deep in the California company his family founded 112 years ago. Through four generations the clan (unrelated to the Massachusetts political dynasty) has run what today is First American [Corporation], the largest title-insurance company in the nation. It collects $5.8 billion a year selling this age-old mainstay of homeownership." ... "All that cash--for an outdated product that should have been all but wiped out by digital technology." ... "Title companies appeared a century ago, helping to protect home buyers from being swindled by crooks who sold properties they didn't own. A title insurance policy protects the buyer in case the deed turns out to be defective but the seller cannot be collared to refund the purchase price. It is far less necessary in these days of computerized records, online searches and rare instances of title fraud or hidden liens." ... "Yet First American and its two main rivals--number two Fidelity National (no relation to Fidelity mutual funds) and third-ranked LandAmerica--are fat and thriving in an $18-billion-a-year business that has quadrupled in ten years." ... "First American has doubled its prices in a decade, to an average charge of $1,472 per home for a title search and insurance. Meanwhile, thanks to computerized record-keeping, the cost of searching for a home's ownership records online has fallen to as low as $25. Technology also has helped make mistakes rarer; now only $74 of each policy goes to pay claims--that is, make home buyers with defective deeds whole. That leaves a $1,373 spread for overhead and for profit." ... "Fancy this: racetracks that keep 93% of your money and return only 5% in winning tickets. They wouldn't last long, not unless they could somehow rig the rules to both forbid price competition and make the purchase of race bets mandatory. That's more or less what the title insurance industry has done to American homeowners." ... "Kennedy attributes his profits to the long housing boom and the efforts his company has made to deploy technology and move jobs offshore. "Nobody's cutting a fat hog," he says." ... "But the title industry's halcyon days owe much to antiquated state laws that thwart new competition, allow prices to soar despite declining costs and force almost every home buyer to pay for insurance that most of them will never need. In all but a handful of states, laws bar insurance giants in other fields, such as AIG or State Farm, from offering title insurance and undercutting incumbents' prices. It also is illegal for anyone to offer guarantees that provide the same protection as title insurance." ... "In 2004 the title industry stared down another threat, this one in Washington, D.C. HUD [Housing and Urban Development] had pushed for rules that would allow lenders to package title insurance with a mortgage, something federal law currently forbids. The title industry, fearing the power of banks to negotiate lower title insurance rates, was violently opposed to the rules and found a key ally in [Alabama Republican] Senator Richard Shelby, the Alabama Republican who is chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs Committee--and who owns the Tuscaloosa Title Co. [Company.] (A Shelby spokesman says the senator's attitude toward HUD's proposals is unrelated to his sideline business.) HUD is now considering other options for reforming the industry." ... "Yet another movement for change comes from efforts by the nation's county recorders to agree on a uniform way to store property records online, which could severely curtail the need for title insurers. But even if they succeed, most state legislatures would have to lift a thicket of creaky old laws that have enriched the title industry for decades--and bilked home buyers out of billions of dollars." (1, 2) -By Scott Woolley

-Forbes

Note: First American Corp contributed $56,000 to Alabama Republican Senator Richard Shelby (2001-2006)

via -OpenSecrets.org

20061107

Voting Machine Problems - Indiana - Illinois - Ohio - Florida - Utah - Kentucky - 2006 Election - Politics - "Voting machine problems bedevil multiple states." ... "As both parties revved up their massive get-out-the-vote operations across the nation, programming errors and inexperience dealing with electronic voting machines caused some early problems:" ... "• Election officials in Delaware County, Ind., planned to seek a court order to extend voting after an apparent computer error prevented voters from casting ballots in 75 precincts. Delaware County Clerk Karen Wenger said the cards that activate the machines were programmed incorrectly. "We are working with precincts one-by-one over the telephone to get the problem fixed," Wenger said." ... "• Illinois officials were swamped with calls from voters complaining that poll workers did not know how to operate new electronic equipment[.]" ... "• In Ohio, some machines wouldn't function."We got five machines — one of them's got to work," said Willette Scullank, a troubleshooter from the Cuyahoga County, Ohio, elections board." ... "• In Florida, voting was briefly delayed at four districts because of either mixed up ballots or electronic activators being unintentionally wiped out, according to Mary Cooney, spokeswoman for the Broward County Supervisor of Elections. Voters were forced to use paper ballots after an electronic machine broke in the Jacksonville suburb of Orange Park." ... "• In Utah County, Utah, workers failed to properly encode some of the cards that voters use to bring up touchscreen ballots." ... "• In Kentucky, a school board race was inadvertently left off the touchscreen ballot in two precincts in Bourbon County, requiring the county clerk to make paper ballots on the spot. " -By Douglas Stanglin with contributions by Bill Nichols, Kathy Kiely, and David Jackson -AP via -USATODAY

20061024

Virginia - Electronic - Voting Machines - Election 2006 - "Some Voting Machines Chop Off Candidates' Names: Computer Glitch Affects Voters in 3 Jurisdictions; Error Cannot Be Fixed by Nov. 7 [2006 election]." ... "U.S. Senate candidate James Webb's last name has been cut off on part of the electronic ballot used by voters in [the Virginia state cities of] Alexandria, Falls Church and Charlottesville because of a computer glitch that also affects other candidates with long names, city officials said yesterday." ... "The error shows up only on the summary page, where voters are asked to review their selections before hitting the button to cast their votes. Webb's full name appears on the page where voters choose for whom to vote." ... "Thus, Democratic candidate Webb will appear with his first name and nickname only -- or "James H. 'Jim' " -- on summary pages in Alexandria, Falls Church and Charlottesville, the only jurisdictions in Virginia that use balloting machines manufactured by Hart InterCivic of Austin." -By Leef Smith -WashingtonPost

20061022

Secret - Electronic - Voting Machines - Company- Hackers - Technology - Election 2006 - Politics - Maryland - "Electronic Voting Machines Could Skew Elections: Researchers, Candidates Have Little Confidence in Machines Designed to Make Elections Easier to Call." ... "Cheryl Kagan, a former Maryland Democratic legislator, was shocked when she opened her mail Wednesday morning." ... "Inside, she discovered three computer discs. With them was an anonymous letter saying the discs contained the secret source code for vote-counting that could be used to alter the votes cast through Maryland's new electronic voting machines." ... ""My understanding is that with these disks a malicious person could skew the outcome of an election," Kagan said." ... "Diebold, the company that makes the voting machines, told ABC News, "These discs do not alter the security of the Diebold touch-screen system in any way," because election workers can set their own passwords." ... "But ABC News has obtained an independent report commissioned by the state of Maryland and conducted by Science Applications International Corporation revealing that the original Diebold factory passwords are still being used on many voting machines." ... "The SAIC study also shows myriad other security flaws, including administrative over-ride passwords that cannot be changed by local officials but can be used by hackers or those who have seen the discs." (1, 2) -By Jake Tapper, Rebecca Abrahams, and Eduardo Sunol -ABCNEWS.com

20061004

Hastert - Reynolds - Foley - Computer - Messages - Teenage - Lawmaker - Law Enforcement - 2006 Election - Illinois - New York - Florida - "Aide says he told Hastert's office about Foley's conduct more than 3 years ago." ... "House Speaker [Illinois Republican] Dennis Hastert's political support showed signs of cracking on Wednesday as Republicans fled an election-year [2006] scandal spawned by steamy computer messages from former Rep. Mark Foley to teenage male pages." ... "At the same time, Foley's former chief of staff said in an Associated Press interview that he first warned Hastert's aides more than three years ago that Foley's behavior toward pages was troublesome. That was long before GOP leaders acknowledged learning of the problem." ... "Kirk Fordham, who was Foley's top aide until January 2004, said he had "more than one conversation with senior staff at the highest level of the House of Representatives asking them to intervene" several years ago." ... "Fordham resigned Wednesday as staff chief for another lawmaker caught up in the scandal, New York [Republican] Rep. Thomas Reynolds, the House GOP campaign chief who says he alerted Hastert to concerns about Foley last spring." ... "The Justice Department ordered House officials to "preserve all records" related to Foley's electronic correspondence with teenagers, and one law enforcement official said FBI agents have begun interviewing participants in the House page program." -By Devlin Barrett with contributions by Andrew Taylor, Lara Jakes Jordan, David Hammer, Laurie Kellman, Bruce Schreiner, and Marus Kabel -AP via -STLtoday.com

20061001

Mark Foley - Computer - E-Mail - Messages- Laws - Children - Politics - Dennis Hastert - Illinois - Florida - Nevada - California - Louisiana - "FBI looking into Foley computer exchanges." ... "The FBI is looking at whether former Florida [Republican] Rep. Mark Foley's computer exchanges with underage House pages broke any laws, an FBI spokesman said late Sunday." ... "Under fire from Democrats, House Speaker Dennis Hastert [Illinois Republican] also asked Sunday that [Republican] U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales - and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement - look into the case." ... "Foley, a Florida Republican, gave no reason for leaving but said he was "deeply sorry" and resigned Friday after the subsequent, sexually explicit instant messages were disclosed by ABC News." ... "Earlier Sunday, Democrats in both chambers, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, called for investigations." ... "Hastert's office said Saturday his office was contacted last fall by a staff member in the office of Louisiana Republican Rep. Rodney Alexander, where the page once worked. The boy said in an e-mail to Alexander's office that the computer exchange with Foley "freaked him out" and was "sick..sick..sick."" -By Lesley Clark -McClatchy via -MercuryNews

20060915

2006 Election - Computer - Voting Machine - Hacking - Politics - "Elections Easy to Steal, Say Computer Scientists: Princeton Team Shows How a Computer Virus Might Do It; Voting Machine Maker Objects." ... "In 2001, [Princeton University professor Edward W.] Felten raised hackles in the music industry by showing how hard it was to keep a recording from being copied. He's written software to show how easily private computer networks can be breached." ... "And now he's violated the sanctuary of the voting booth by hacking into the electronic voting machines that were designed to prevent election fraud." ... "Felten and two Princeton graduate students, Ariel Feldman and Alex Halderman, created a computer virus that they say could "steal" votes from one candidate and give them to another — and go undetected." ... ""You have to be a good programmer — not a genius — to do this," Halderman said. "I believe a good programmer could reproduce our virus without very much effort."" (1, 2) -By Ned Potter -ABCNEWS.com
Hacking - Electronic - Voting Machine - Technology - Business - 2006 Election - Maryland - "Worse to Come in Fall Elections, Officials Fear." ... "As officials investigated the human errors that disrupted Maryland's primary election, there were renewed fears yesterday that electronic malfunctions could cause even greater problems in November." ... "Computer scientists at Princeton University released a study, including a video, that demonstrated how they were able to hack into the type of electronic voting machines used in Maryland and install malicious software that could sway an election. The machines' manufacturer swiftly denounced the study as "unrealistic and inaccurate."" ... "Meanwhile, frustrated election judges and voters continued to report widespread trouble with voting apparatuses during Tuesday's primary -- machines that froze, access cards that stopped working and computerized voter lists that crashed. The glitches led to long lines at many polling places and caused some voters to worry that their ballots had not been recorded properly, if at all." ... "Edward W. Felten, a professor of computer science and public affairs, said that he and two of his graduate students spent several months studying a Diebold AccuVote-TS voting machine. They were easily able to break into the machine and insert malicious software, he said." ... ""The malicious code can steal votes in a manner that's undetectable or nearly undetectable," Felten said. "And the code can spread like a virus from one machine to another."" (1, 2) -By Christian Davenport, Miranda S. Spivack and Cameron W. Barr -WashingtonPost

20060913

Hacking - Voting Machines - 2006 Election - Computer - Politics - "Princeton professor raises alarm over electronic voting, hacks test machine." ... "A Princeton University computer science professor added new fuel Wednesday to claims that electronic voting machines used across much of the country are vulnerable to hacking that could alter vote totals or disable machines." ... "In a paper posted on the university's website, Edward Felten and two graduate students described how they had tested a Diebold AccuVote-TS machine they obtained, found ways to quickly upload malicious programs and even developed a computer virus able to spread such programs between machines." ... "The researchers say they designed software capable of modifying all records, audit logs and counters kept by the voting machine, ensuring that a careful forensic examination would find nothing wrong." ... "The programs were able to modify vote totals or cause machines to break down, something that could alter the course of an election if machines were located in crucial polling stations." ... "It was also possible to design a computer virus to spread malicious programs to multiple machines by piggybacking on a new software download or an election information file being transferred from machine to machine, Felten said." -AP via -USATODAY

20060908

Richard Shelby

Corporate

Politics

Government

Military

Legislation

Space

Computer

Technology

Alabama

"Shelby Steers $50 Million to Projects, Aiding Donor (Update1)." ... "[Alabama Republican] Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama has steered at least $50 million over the past decade, including $10 million approved by the Senate yesterday, to military projects benefiting a company owned by one of his largest campaign contributors." ... "Shelby, a senior Republican on the Appropriations Committee, has inserted the funds into legislation at the request of Huntsville[ Alabama]-based COLSA Corp. [Corporation], a privately held space-and missile- defense company. Its owner, Francisco J. Collazo, has known Shelby for 20 years and has contributed more than $400,000 to his campaigns and committees since hiring a former Shelby aide as a lobbyist in 1996." ... "The $10 million Shelby added for COLSA in the 2007 measure is designated for ``Missile Aero-propulsion Computer System Modernization.''" ... "In a November 1995 press release, the senator announced he had secured $30 million for the [COLSA Advanced Research Center] program. He added another $20 million to the budget request for the research center over the next three years." ... "In the fiscal year that ended [September] Sept. 30, the latest for which figures are available, COLSA had $107 million in federal contracts, up from $46 million for 1999, according to government procurement figures compiled by Eagle Eye Publishers Inc., a Fairfax, Virginia, company that tracks federal spending." ... "In 1996, Collazo hired G. Stewart Hall, a former Shelby aide, to lobby for research, development and engineering funding in defense measures. In September 1998, Alabama records show Collazo gave $50,000 and Hall $25,000 to Shelby's state political action committee on the same day. Collazo gave another $50,000 to the PAC [Political Action Committee] a month later. Hall, who made $240,000 lobbying for COLSA two years ago, declined to comment." ... "In early 1999, COLSA received a contract to operate, maintain and provide engineering support for the center. Since then, that contract has produced $224 million in revenue for the company, according to federal procurement data." ... "Collazo's holding company gave $100,000 donations to two national Republican campaign committees in 2000 and 2001, and he gave Shelby's state PAC three $100,000 donations between June 2001 and September 2002, according to campaign-finance reports." ... "In May 2002, Shelby wrote a 25-page letter to an Appropriations subcommittee making 106 requests, totaling more than $500 million, for the 2003 defense-spending measure. The first item on the list was $20.4 million for the center. That October, Shelby announced Congress had funded the entire amount." ... "In 2004, Shelby asked for $21.3 million and got $15 million for a ``Hypersonic Army Missile Technology'' project at the center -- another COLSA request, according to the company." -By Charles R. Babcock and Brian Faler

-Bloomberg

20060902

California - Oregon - Arizona - Computer - Intel - Jobs - "Intel to shed up to 20,000 jobs with AMD on its heels." ... "It will be a long holiday weekend for about 100,000 Intel Corp. employees, with the world's largest chipmaker --facing tough competition from chief rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. -- expected to announce as many as 20,000 job cuts next week, its largest retrenchment in two decades." ... "Chief Executive Officer Paul Otellini, who already has begun to slash jobs and sell businesses in response to falling sales and market share, is expected to discuss with employees the results of a 90-day stem-to-stern review of company operations on Tuesday via Webcast" ... "Intel has about 6,000 employees in its Santa Clara [California] headquarters and about 7,000 in Folsom. Other large West Coast operations include about 17,000 employees in Oregon and 11,000 in Arizona." -By Jessica Guynn -SFGate.com

20060804

DCI - Marketing - Oil - Corporation - Politics - Global - Climate - Internet - Computer- Entertainment - - Environment - Al Gore - "Al Gore YouTube Spoof Not So Amateurish: Republican PR [public relations] Firm Said to Be Behind 'Inconvenient Truth' Spoof." ... "A tiny little movie making fun of Al Gore, supposedly made by an amateur filmmaker, recently appeared on the popular Web site YouTube.com." ... "At first blush, the spoof seemed like a scrappy little homemade film poking fun at Gore and his anti-global warming crusade." ... "The film actually came from a slick Republican public relations firm called DCI, which just happens to have oil giant Exxon as a client." ... "Public relations firms have long used computer technology to create bogus grassroots campaigns, which are called "Astroturf."" ... "Now these firms are being hired to push illusions on the Internet to create the false impression of real people blogging, e-mailing and making films. " (1, 2) -By Jake Tapper and Max Culhane -ABCNEWS.com

20060803

DCI - Marketing - Psychology - Oil - Corporation - Politics - Opinion - Internet - Video - California - Entertainment - Media - Search Engine - Computer - Communications - EMail - Environmental - Science - Global - Climate - Al Gore - "Where did that video spoofing Gore's film come from?" ... "Everyone knows Al Gore stars in the global warming documentary "An Inconvenient Truth." But who created "Al Gore's Penguin Army," a two-minute video now playing on YouTube.com?" ... "Like other videos on the popular YouTube site, it has a home-made, humorous quality. The video's maker is listed as "Toutsmith," a 29-year-old who identifies himself as being from Beverly Hills [California] in an Internet profile." ... "In an email exchange with The Wall Street Journal, Toutsmith didn't answer when asked who he was or why he made the video, which has just over 59,000 views on YouTube. However, computer routing information contained in an email sent from Toutsmith's Yahoo account indicate it didn't come from an amateur working out of his basement." ... "Instead, the email originated from a computer registered to DCI Group, a Washington, D.C., public relations and lobbying firm whose clients include oil company Exxon Mobil Corp [Corporation]." ... "The anti-Gore video represents a less well-known side of YouTube. As its popularity has exploded, the public video-sharing site has drawn marketers looking to build buzz for new music releases and summer blockbusters. Now, it's being tapped by political operatives, public relations experts and ad agencies to sway opinions." ... "DCI is no stranger to the debate over global warming. Partly through Tech Central Station, an opinion Web site it operates, DCI has sought to raise doubts about the science of global warming and about Mr. Gore's film, placing skeptical scientists on talk-radio shows and paying them to write editorials." ... "Internet videos could prove particularly potent, because they may influence watchers in ways they don't realize. Nancy Snow, a communications professor at California State University, Fullerton, viewed the penguin video and calls it a lesson in "Propaganda 101." It contains no factual information, but presents a highly negative image of the former vice president, she says. The purpose of such images is to harden the views of those who already view Mr. Gore negatively, Dr. Snow says." ... "Traffic to the penguin video, first posted on YouTube.com in May, got a boost from prominently placed sponsored links that appeared on the Google search engine when users typed in "Al Gore" or "Global Warming." The ads, which didn't indicate who had paid for them, were removed shortly after The Wall Street Journal contacted DCI Group on Tuesday." -By Antonio Regalado and Dionne Searcey with contributions by Jeffrey Ball -WSJ.com via -Post-Gazette.com

20060612

Hacker - Government - Nuclear - Energy - Computer- Identity Theft - New Mexico - "Energy Dept. Tells Workers of Data Theft." ... "Energy Department officials have informed nearly 1,500 individuals that their Social Security numbers and other information may have been compromised when a hacker gained entry to a department computer system eight months ago, a spokesman said Monday." ... "The computer theft occurred last September, but Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman and his deputy, Clay Sell, were not informed of it until last week. It was first publicly disclosed at a congressional hearing on Friday." ... "The file that was compromised contained the names, Social Security numbers, security clearance levels and place of employment of 1,502 people working throughout the government nuclear weapons complex [in New Mexico]." -H. Josef Herbert -AP via -HoustonChronicle.com

20060610

Hacker - Government- Nuclear - Energy - Military - Intelligence - Computer - Identity Theft - N.M. - "DOE computers hacked; info on 1,500 taken." ... "A hacker stole a file containing the names and Social Security numbers of 1,500 people working for the Energy Department's nuclear weapons agency." ... "The data theft occurred in a computer system at a service center belonging to the National Nuclear Security Administration in Albuquerque, N.M. The file contained information about contract workers throughout the agency's nuclear weapons complex, a department spokesman said." ... "NNSA Administrator Linton Brooks told a House hearing that he learned of the security breach late last September, but did not inform Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman about it. It had occurred earlier that month." ... "Brooks blamed a misunderstanding for the failure to inform either Bodman or Deputy Energy Secretary Clay Sell about the security breach. Brooks' NNSA is a semiautonomous agency within the department and he said he assumed DOE's counterintelligence office would have briefed the two senior officials." -By H. Josef Herbert -AP via -BusinessWeek
Internet - Phone - Privacy - Politics - Electronic - Technology - Police - "Appeals court backs Bush on wiretaps." ... "A federal appeals court sided with the Bush administration Friday on an electronic surveillance issue, making it easier to tap into Internet phone calls and broadband transmissions." ... "The court ruled 2-1 in favor of the Federal Communications Commission, which says equipment using the new technologies must be able to accommodate police wiretaps under the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, known as CALEA." ... "Judge David Sentelle called the agency's reading of the law a reasonable interpretation. In dissent, Judge Harry Edwards said the FCC gutted an exemption for information services that he said covered the Internet and broadband." ... "The FCC "apparently forgot to read the words of the statute," Edwards wrote." -AP via -USATODAY

20060607

Noteworthy - Government - Military - Intelligence - Computer - Database - Identity Theft - Law Enforcement - Maryland - "Data Theft Affected Most in Military: National Security Concerns Raised." ... "Social Security numbers and other personal information for as many as 2.2 million U.S. military personnel -- including nearly 80 percent of the active-duty force -- were among the data stolen from the home of a Department of Veterans Affairs analyst last month, federal officials said yesterday, raising concerns about national security as well as identity theft." ... "The department announced that personal data for as many as 1.1 million active-duty military personnel, 430,000 National Guard members and 645,000 reserve members may have been included on an electronic file stolen May 3 from a department employee's house in Aspen Hill [Maryland]. The data include names, birth dates and Social Security numbers, VA spokesman Matt Burns said." ... "Defense officials said the loss is unprecedented and raises concerns about the safety of U.S. military forces. But they cautioned that law enforcement agencies investigating the incident have not found evidence that the stolen information has been used to commit identity theft." ... "Army spokesman Paul Boyce said: "Obviously there are issues associated with identity theft and force protection."" ... "For example, security experts said, the information could be used to find out where military personnel live. "This essentially can create a Zip code for where each of the service members and [their] families live, and if it fell into the wrong hands could potentially put them at jeopardy of being targeted," said David Heyman, director of the homeland security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)." ... "Another worry is that the information could reach foreign governments and their intelligence services or other hostile forces, allowing them to target service members and their families, the experts said." (1, 2) -By Ann Scott Tyson and Christopher Lee with contributions by Ernesto Londoño -WashingtonPost
Government - Military - Computer - Database - Identity Theft - People - Homes - Education - Consumer - "Data on 2.2M Active Troops Stolen From VA: Pentagon Says Data on About 2.2 Million Active-Duty Troops Among Material Stolen From VA Employee." ... "Nearly all active-duty military, Guard and Reserve members about 2.2 million total may be at risk for identity theft because their personal information was among those stolen from a Veterans Affairs employee last month." ... "In a new disclosure Tuesday, VA Secretary Jim Nicholson said the agency was mistaken when it said over the weekend that up to 50,000 Navy and National Guard personnel were among the 26.5 million veterans whose names, birthdates and Social Security numbers were stolen on May 3." ... "The number is actually much higher because the VA realized it had records on file for most active-duty personnel because they are eligible to receive VA benefits such as GI Bill educational assistance and the home loan guarantee program." (1, 2) -Hope Yen -AP via -ABCNEWS.com

20060603

Government - Military - History - Computer - Identity Theft - "IDs of active personnel on stolen laptop." ... "Personal data on up to 50,000 active Navy and National Guard personnel were among those stolen from a Veterans Affairs employee last month, the government said Saturday in a disclosure that goes beyond what VA initially reported." ... "The VA has previously said the stolen data involved up to 26.5 million veterans discharged since 1975, as well as some of their spouses; veterans discharged before 1975 also were deemed at risk if they submitted claims to the agency." -AP via -USATODAY

20060530

Political - Hacking - Technology - Business - Voting Machine Risks - Utah- California - Pennsylvania - "Debating the Bugs of High-Tech Voting: Test of Software in Machines Renews Security Concerns." ... "A coalition of voting rights activists and prominent computer scientists argues that some of the machines are not sufficiently secure against tampering and could result in disputed elections, while voting machine vendors and many election officials say that view is exaggerated." ... "The latest dispute occurred several weeks ago after it was discovered at a test in Utah that someone with a reasonable knowledge of computer code could gain access to and tamper with the system software on a popular brand of voting machine manufactured by Diebold Election Systems. The developments prompted California and Pennsylvania to send urgent warnings to counties that use Diebold's touch-screen voting systems to take additional steps to secure them." ... "In California, David Jefferson, a computer scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory who consults with the state on its elections, said he was "stunned when he found out" about the vulnerability identified in the Utah test and agreed with the "frequently expressed opinion that this is the worst vulnerability that we have ever seen."" -By Zachary A. Goldfarb -WashingtonPost

20060523

Police - Military - Identity Theft - Hacking - Electronic - Consumer - "Personal Data on Veterans Is Stolen: Burglary Leaves Millions at Risk Of Identity Theft." ... "As many as 26.5 million veterans were placed at risk of identity theft after an intruder stole an electronic data file this month containing their names, birth dates and Social Security numbers from the home of a Department of Veterans Affairs employee, Secretary Jim Nicholson said yesterday." ... "A career data analyst, who was not authorized to take the information home, has been put on administrative leave pending the outcome of investigations by the FBI, local police and the VA inspector general, Nicholson said. He would not identify the employee by name or title." ... "The theft represents the biggest unauthorized disclosure ever of Social Security data, and it could make affected veterans vulnerable to credit card fraud if the burglars realize the value of the data, one expert said." ... "Although publicly revealing the incident may alert the thieves to the value of the data, Nicholson said VA officials decided that veterans needed to know to monitor their credit scores and credit card and bank statements." (1, 2) -By Christopher Lee and Steve Vogel-WashingtonPost

20060521

2006 Election - Political - Hacker - Technology - "Will Your Vote Count in 2006? 'When you're using a paperless voting system, there is no security,' says Stanford's David Dill." ... "Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the voting booth, here comes more disturbing news about the trustworthiness of electronic touchscreen ballot machines. Earlier this month a report by Finnish security expert Harri Hursti analyzed Diebold voting machines for an organization called Black Box Voting. Hursti found unheralded vulnerabilities in the machines that are currently entrusted to faithfully record the votes of millions of Americans." ... "How bad are the problems? Experts are calling them the most serious voting-machine flaws ever documented. Basically the trouble stems from the ease with which the machine's software can be altered. It requires only a few minutes of pre-election access to a Diebold machine to open the machine and insert a PC card that, if it contained malicious code, could reprogram the machine to give control to the violator. The machine could go dead on Election Day or throw votes to the wrong candidate. Worse, it's even possible for such ballot-tampering software to trick authorized technicians into thinking that everything is working fine, an illusion you couldn't pull off with pre-electronic systems. "If Diebold had set out to build a system as insecure as they possibly could, this would be it," says Avi Rubin, a Johns Hopkins University computer-science professor and elections-security expert." -By Steven Levy 20060529Issue -MSNBC/Newsweek

20060516

Government - Terrorism - Intelligence - Electronic - Communications - Companies - Consumers - Privacy - Politics - "FCC chief calls for probe of phone cos.." ... "The Federal Communications Commission, which regulates the telephone industry, should open an investigation into whether the nation's phone companies broke the law by turning over millions of calling records to the government, an FCC commissioner says." ... "The National Security Agency has been collecting records of calls made in the U.S. by ordinary Americans as part of its anti-terrorism efforts, according to USA Today. The newspaper story followed reports that the NSA has been conducting eavesdropping on the electronic communications of suspected al-Qaida members and their contacts in the U.S. without warrants." ... ""There is no doubt that protecting the security of the American people is our government's No. 1 responsibility," Commissioner Michael J. Copps, a Democrat, said in a statement Monday. "But in a digital age where collecting, distributing and manipulating consumers' personal information is as easy as a click of a button, the privacy of our citizens must still matter."" -By Douglass K. Daniel -AP via -MercuryNews

20060512

Noteworthy - Voting Machines - Science - Hacker - Politics - Business - 2006 Election - 2008 Election - Pennsylvania - California - Iowa- "New Fears of Security Risks in Electronic Voting Systems." ... "With primary election dates fast approaching in many states, officials in Pennsylvania and California issued urgent directives in recent days about a potential security risk in their Diebold Election Systems touch-screen voting machines, while other states with similar equipment hurried to assess the seriousness of the problem." ... ""It's the most severe security flaw ever discovered in a voting system," said Michael I. Shamos, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University who is an examiner of electronic voting systems for Pennsylvania, where the primary is to take place on Tuesday." ... ""This is the barn door being wide open, while people were arguing over the lock on the front door," said Douglas W. Jones, a professor of computer science at the University of Iowa, a state where the primary is June 6." ... "The new concerns about Diebold's equipment were discovered by Harri Hursti, a Finnish computer expert who was working at the request of Black Box Voting Inc., a nonprofit group that has been critical of electronic voting in the past." ... "Aviel Rubin, a professor of computer science at Johns Hopkins University, did the first in-depth analysis of the security flaws in the source code for Diebold touch-screen machines in 2003. After studying the latest problem, he said: "I almost had a heart attack. The implications of this are pretty astounding."" -By Monica Davey with contributions by Gretchen Ruethling and John Schwartz -NYTimes

20060509

China - Free Speech - Education - Computer - Internet - Politics - Police - "As Chinese Students Go Online, Little Sister Is Watching." ... "For several hours each week she [sophomore Hu Yingying of Shanghai Normal University] repairs to a little-known on-campus office crammed with computers, where she logs in unsuspected by other students to help police her school's Internet forums." ... "Once online, following suggestions from professors or older students, she introduces politically correct or innocuous themes for discussion." ... "Politics, even school politics, is banned on university bulletin boards like these. Ms. Hu says she and her fellow moderators try to steer what they consider negative conversations in a positive direction with well-placed comments of their own. Anything they deem offensive, she says, they report to the school's Web master for deletion." ... "Part traffic cop, part informer, part discussion moderator — and all without the knowledge of her fellow students — Ms. Hu is a small part of a huge national effort to sanitize the Internet. For years China has had its Internet police, reportedly as many as 50,000 state agents who troll online, blocking Web sites, erasing commentary and arresting people for what is deemed anti-Communist Party or antisocial speech." ... "But Ms. Hu, one of 500 students at her university's newly bolstered, student-run Internet monitoring group, is a cog in a different kind of force, an ostensibly all-volunteer one that the Chinese government is mobilizing to help it manage the monumental task of censoring the Web." (1, 2) -By Howard W. French -NYTimes

20060508

US - International - Michael Hayden - Government - Military - Terrorism - Electronic - Communications - Intelligence - Privacy - Law - Pennsylvania - "Bush Names Hayden to Head CIA Amid Lawmakers' Unease (Update1)." ... "President George W. Bush named General Michael Hayden to head the Central Intelligence Agency today, even as lawmakers from both parties signaled concern about putting a military officer atop a civilian spy agency." ... "Hayden, 61, is currently the No. 2 official in the Office of National Intelligence, a post to which he was named in August. He was director of the National Security Agency from 1999 to 2005." ... "The super-secret NSA runs massive electronic surveillance programs of international communications and operates a much- criticized domestic wiretapping program as well." ... "Under the spying program approved by Bush in 2001, the NSA monitored conversations between U.S. residents and suspected foreign terrorists without seeking a court warrant, as prescribed by the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. [Pennsylvania Senator Arlen] Specter has said the court set up by the act should approve surveillance requests." -By Jeff Bliss -Bloomberg

20060424

Computer - Business - Accounting - "Ex-Computer Associates Chairman Kumar Pleads Guilty (Update4)." ... "Sanjay Kumar, former chief executive officer of Computer Associates International Inc., pleaded guilty to charges he led a $2.2 billion accounting fraud at the company, two weeks before he and an ex-colleague were to begin trial." ... "Kumar, 44, and his co-defendant, former sales executive Stephen Richards, 41, entered guilty pleas before U.S. District Judge I. Leo Glasser, in federal court in Brooklyn, New York. The two men, who were scheduled to stand trial on May 8, pleaded guilty to all the charges against them in the 2004 indictment." ... "Kumar and Richards were charged with illegally inflating revenue at Islandia, New York-based Computer Associates in 2000 by backdating contracts. In 2004, the company, now known as CA Inc., agreed to make corporate governance changes and pay $225 million in restitution to avoid criminal prosecution. CA is the No. 2 maker of mainframe computer software." -By Patricia Hurtado -Bloomberg

20060323

US - Global -