May 16, 2007
Privacy and Security Watch: IBM loses tapes with personal information on current and former employees
According to this article, "An outside vendor was transporting the tapes from one IBM facility to another on Feb. 23 when the tapes fell out of a contractor's vehicle in Westchester County, N.Y., not far from IBM headquarters in Armonk. IBM representatives went to the scene and couldn't find the tapes."
For some reason, only some of the missing tapes were encrypted.
Richard Kuper
The Kuper Report
http://TheKuperReport.com
Labels: breach, data security, IBM, Kuper, kuper report, lost, personal data, privacy, private, richard kuper
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May 11, 2007
Home Entertainment Show May 11-13, 2007
Although some of the audio demonstrations were pleasing to the ear and in some cases more than pleasing, I had to quickly walk out of many of the rooms I walked into because the sound was so offensive. Many of the manufacturers and demonstrators apparently feel that they must play whatever they are demonstrating very loudly, and by doing so often present distorted sound that hurts the ears.
My recommendation to the manufacturers and demonstrators is to turn down the volume a bit, and try not to choose music choices that do a poor job of showing off your systems.
My recommendation to the show organizers is to rename the show to more accurately represent what is being presented. The products were, primarily, high end audio, not what most average consumers would consider purchasing when creating a home entertainment system. I would guess that the average consumer, when upgrading to a high definition TV for example, would either listen through the speakers provided with the TV, or, perhaps, simply buy whatever the store salesperson convinced them to buy to create surround sound. And for most, that would be just fine, because they either really can't hear the difference, or don't really care. That is not the audience this show is targeted to. There were, however, a few systems that were tied in with Windows Vista, for those who truly want to marry technology with high-end sound and video. And there was a product that you could connect to the internet that could broadcast internet radio to your stereo system - but the price tag was several times the cost of an average personal computer.
So if you are into high-end audio, or want to see what high-end is all about, then check out the show. More information can be found here.
Richard Kuper
The Kuper Report
http://TheKuperReport.com
Labels: audio, audiophile, consumer, entertainment, high end, high-end, home, Kuper, kuper report, richard kuper, sound, video
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May 10, 2007
Privacy and Security Watch: University of Missouri Hacked For Second Time This Year
Back in January, there was a similar breach. In that case, "a hacker obtained the Social Security numbers of 1,220 university researchers, as well as personal passwords of as many as 2,500 people who used an online grant application system."
Richard Kuper
The Kuper Report
http://TheKuperReport.com
Labels: breach, college, data security, hack, Kuper, kuper report, personal data, privacy, richard kuper, school, security
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May 09, 2007
Court Permits Search of Personal Computer in Workplace
As the article concludes, "if you want to maintain your privacy rights under the Constitution, you yourself must keep your private matters private."
Richard Kuper
The Kuper Report
http://TheKuperReport.com
Labels: barrows, computer, constitution, court, Fourth Amendment, Kuper, kuper report, law, oklahoma, privacy, richard kuper, rights, search, seizure
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May 05, 2007
Transportation Security Administration, a division of Homeland Security, loses hard drive with personal data on 100,000
The privacy and security of personal information is clearly not being addressed by government agencies, as previously reported in The Kuper Report and in various news reports over the years. This breach by a division of the Homeland Security Department is just the latest reported problem. As the Congress perhaps begins to address this problem in the private sector, it needs to also address this problem in the public sector. However, unless there are severe consequences for breaching the privacy, this problem will not end.
Richard Kuper
The Kuper Report
http://TheKuperReport.com
Labels: breach, data security, government, homeland security, Kuper, kuper report, personal data, privacy, richard kuper, security, transportation security administration, tsa
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May 01, 2007
There's More To Search Than Google!
* Do you have difficulty finding what you are looking for whenever you do a search on the internet?
Then you'll want to attend this presentation for ideas and tips on how to find what you are looking for.
* Limited Seating *
** Door Prize **
More information and registration:
http://FindItSeminar.com
Richard Kuper
The Kuper Report
http://TheKuperReport.com
Labels: browse, find, google, internet, Kuper, kuper report, look, richard kuper, search, search engine, web, yahoo
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Review: MSGTAG Status - Version 2
Most email products (except for most online email services) provide a return receipt request feature. Unlike postal mail return receipts, email return receipts can be ignored.
MSGTAG (http://msgtag.com) has created a service that it claims will notify the sender of the following:
* The message that has been received;
* The time that it was received;
* The time it was sent;
* The time elapsed between sending and receiving.
The recipient has no action to take, and won't even know that you are tracking that they have received it.
The website says the product will work with almost any email program, including Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, Pegasus, Netscape Mail and Incredimail. I do not use any of those. I use Mozilla Thunderbird for outgoing email. It took a little doing and guesswork, but I was able to get it to work.
You cannot use this product to track emails sent from any online email product, such as yahoo mail or hotmail or gmail. As stated on the MSGTAG website: "You need to be using an SMTP mail server, which almost every home computer uses." Also, MSGTAG will not work with an MS Exchange mail server.
Here, basically, are my findings:
MSGTAG will only report that an email has been received if the recipient is using an email client set to receive HTML mail. If the recipient has their email set to only accept text emails (the more secure option), or if they use text-only email clients, including some PDAs and mobile phones, then you will not receive any notice that the email has been received. It seems, however, that a significant number of computer users use HTML-rendering email clients and MSGTAG works for these recipients. The important note here, though, is that you cannot make the assumption that if you do not get a receipt, the email was not received.
There are three flavors of MSGTAG. The version tested is the full-featured version for $59.99, which includes:
* A handy dashboard for tracking receipts
* The ability to customize how the product tracks email receipts
* The ability to flag specific emails or domains to ignore if you send group mail and don't need all those receipts
* The ability to customize email footers
* An option to have recipients who are set up to receive text messages to have to acknowledge receipt - like the existing option in most emails.
There is a less featured version for $19.99 and there is also a free version that will send you an email every time a tagged message has been opened (subject to the limitations I described above).
Richard Kuper
The Kuper Report
http://TheKuperReport.com
Labels: email, Kuper, kuper report, mail, msgtag, return receipt, richard kuper, track
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