Items Of Interest, Oct. 4th

Folks, a few topics for your consideration.

* Five-minute security: The elevator pitch

“Dominic Vogel says that it’s wrong to give up on instilling security awareness in users, but skipping the jargon and getting back to simple common sense is the key.” Read more..

(I disagree, and think people simply won’t care until the banks/credit card co’s/lending co’s stop replacing their stolen funds. But I’m a grouchy old curmudgeon, jaded by what I see people do in RL. [Just yesterday I had a client using one password for every single conceivable account..])

How about some good news?

* Regulators smash global phone tech support scam operation

“The FTC announced a crackdown on a massive international computer tech support scam that allegedly swindled tens of thousands of consumers in six countries.” Read more..

* National STOP. THINK. CONNECT.™ Campaign Celebrates Two-Year Anniversary and Achieves Rapid Growth Since Launch Expands Beyond U.S. Borders with Public Safety Canada Partnership for
“Get Cyber Safe” Campaign

WASHINGTON, October 4, 2012 – As leaders of the national STOP. THINK. CONNECT.™ Campaign on cybersecurity awareness, the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) and the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) along with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which leads the effort in the Federal Government, today announced that the public-private partnership has achieved significant growth since its launch on October 4, 2010 in conjunction with National Cyber Security Awareness Month.

Business as usual..

* Ghostshell leaks 120,000 records from top 100 universities

“The hacktivist group behind Project Hellfire claims to have leaked records from 100 of the top universities around the world.” Read more..

(I am getting tired of the seeing the term “hacktivist”. What they really are are criminals [by definition] but not for cash.. To me, it’s like calling taggers “graffiti artists”. These guys want to “raising awareness towards the changes made in today’s education, how new laws imposed by politicians affect us, our economy and overall, our way of life,” — and to make their presence known, how better than to dump data and expose vulnerabilities in university networks?” Yes.. what better way..?)

Busy day here (not “winding down my week”) and I have to run. At least not all the news was bad. Right? (I wonder what they’re going to do to those phone scammers…? Not enough, I’m sure.)

Have a great day!

Copyright 2007-2012 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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