Stronger Laws for ID Theft

Looks like the government is feeling the pressure of identity theft and security. The ID Task Force created by President George Bush has been on the hot seat and is putting companies and organizations (private and public) on the hot seat.

If you go to idtheft.gov you can see a report that the ID Task Force has recommended. There are many recommendations. The article "ID Theft Task Force Wants Stronger Laws" by Grant Gross, IDG News Service, talks about the efforts that this task force has day in and out attempted to pass. It has been successful very few times but for the most part it is challenged by their very own... federal agencies...

The biggest effort and recommendation that the ID Task Force has been trying to push is to educate agencies about data security best practices and regulations in place. This is extremely important because if companies don't know that they are doing something wrong or that there is a better way to do something in order to secure personal information, then they have a resposibility to their customers, employees, etc... to educate themselves and learn how they can protect themselves and everyone else. Every company, small or large needs to do this, a comprehensive approach is needed.

Bloggers, A Journalist Source

As I was reading some headlines regarding the Virginia Tech masacre, I ran into an article, "Journalists look to bloggers for Virginia Tech story" By Daniel Terdiman, Staff Writer, CNET News.com, which demonstrates how Blogging has become another source for Journalist.

This article is about how journalist are using blogs as a source to the information they may need. Allowing it for a faster and more efficient process. "The Web basically cuts the middleman out of the picture, and allows the people who were there on the scene to get their story out to a global audience immediately...Of course, journalists can follow up on that, find these first-person witnesses or potential witnesses and interview them to draw more details out of them to further complete the story. So it allows the whole newsgathering process to move much more quickly."

The example used was that of a blogger who posted his girfriends story and experience in the Virginia Tech massacre. Reporters from various organizations got wind of this blog entry and immediate tried to contact the person to get first hand information and interview the blogger (ideally girlfriend).

Web 2.0

As I was reading the article "Why the Web is like a Rain Forest" by Steven Johnson, it confirmed my sense of where we were, are, and going with technology, specifically with the Web. As stated in the article "For many of us, our first encounter with the World Wide Web a decade ago was one of those transformative experiences..." and it goes further to say that "There is a comparable quiet revolution under way right now... The changes are technical and involve thousands of individual programmers, dozens of start-ups and a few of the largest software companies in the world."

I think this "revolution" has significantly changed our way of life in many aspects. Web 2.0 offers those looking or not for something a tremendous array of information, networking, and services. And this change is obvious, "the difference between Web 2.0 model and the previous one is directly equivalent to the difference between a rainforest and a desert."

This revolution is a competitive one that has created countless new jobs and a very competitive market!

Hacking, It's Just not Right!

Computer hackers have definitely driven not only technology but people to be on their toes. Just as new technologies are being invented and introduced to the public, and measures are taken to secure technology, there is almost always some genious who will take it upon him/herself to find a way to break in- whether it is with malicious intent or just for the challenge.

The paranoia that people have due to personal experiences is not going away, especially here in the United States. The Los Angeles times reports in an article “U.S. is no. 1 source of hacking, firm says” (March 19, 2007), and that here in the U.S. we have “more than half of the world's "underground-economy servers" — typically corporate computers that have been commandeered to facilitate clandestine transactions involving stolen data.” Incredible! But I believe it. When someone can break into your computer records, take your information and very easly sell it, and then anyone can buy it and use it… well there goes your personal identity!

In reading the various definitions (wikipedia) for a hacker and the different types of hackers (“white hat”, “blue hat” or “black hat”) it makes me believe that no matter how many “white hats” or “blue hats” are out troubleshooting and trying to find gaps or exploits, there are just as many “black hat” hackers trying to work around it. And who knows, what’s to say that the “blue” and “white hats” are not “black hats” in their spare time!

Google and Books Online

I had heard about Google making books available online- about 7 months ago, and about 2 months ago, I was looking for a particular book (copyright 1952) I just couldn’t get my hands on, and remembered about Googles plan… So I quickly got on Google and guess what, there it was. As I read through the article“Throwing Google at the book" by Farhad Manjoo, it helped me understand some of the issues that Google had in making this happen.


Google claims that publishing these books publicly can only help the authors and publishers. It is putting their work out there, where there is more access, interest and especially exposure to their work. Purchasing this book with this exposure, will of course favor Google, but will definitely the author/publisher as well.
Google has become a favorite among many- lately (at least for me it has), and adding this new feature of cataloging books and articles was bound to happen (whether it was Google or not). I’m glad it was Google, a trusted resource to me.

iPods in flights

As I was reading some technology headlines, I ran into "Mexican Airline Begins Renting iPods to Passengers", at first I was a bit skeptical, I thought about my experiences in travel, remembered how more than 3/4 of the passengers engage in some time of multimedia device (mp3, hand held, laptop, etc)... as I keep thinking about this I think its a wonderful idea... For one, if we know there will be an ipod available, we can plan on not bringing or appropriately storing our multimedia (this would eventually also help in reducing the security clearance wait time). Another important point is that each passenger will have a choice in movie, music, sitcom options...

The article further talks about how major airlines are looking to offer IPOD seat connections, but this airline specifically is renting iPods. I think either way is good, I like the second option better (rent or provide for free), especially since that is the last thing I remember to pack.

I would be concerned with the cleanliness and functionality (maintenance) of these devices- especially if they are handles my many...

Blogs! in the Workplace

Blogging has become a way to communicate to the masses and become a very popular and effective form of marketing tool. They allow you to write what you are thinking about today and it allows for immediate feedback and response.

Blogs are ever more popular in the workplace with today's technology. Corporations are now using blogging as a form of communication with their employees and prospective candidates. Some companies are using blogs s a recruiting tool- the prospective candidate has an opportunity to research company work environment and culture.

The following are examples of company blogs:

Honeywell Corp.
Cisco
IBM