About two months ago, Ahmed Mansour was working quietly at his desk when he was jolted by sharp beeps from his mobile. Mr Mansour had received some rather unusual text messages.
“How bad is it?” asked one. Another text, just a few minutes later, told him that “help was on its way”. The messages, Mr Mansour says, were from his friends. But he was confused by their meaning.
Unsourced rumors that Last.fm handed over user data to the RIAA have resurfaced thanks to renewed and revised accusations against Last.fm's parent company, CBS. We reached out to the targets of the rumor to see if they had official comment. Both Last.fm and CBS vehemently deny the claims, in broad terms, with one going so far as to call the story an instance of "irresponsible journalism" off the record.
Imagine if today at work you were watched for every single minute.
Not just when you arrived and left, or when you went for your lunch. But every task, every conversation, every moment observed and logged. Modern surveillance can offer that and many employers find it attractive. Andy Loizou lost his job after getting back from his break a few minutes late. It was one a series of incidents logged by his employer, the AA. Andy's patrol-van was connected to the company's computer.
A 42-year-old public servant who asked to be identified only by his surname, Kim, complains that his phone receives five to six spam text messages a day, promising, “You can get an immediate loan” or “up to 30 million won is available.”
“I suspect that my personal information including my cell phone number was leaked when I took out loans from a bank through a loan consultant last year,” he said.
Cell phones, instant messages and global positioning satellites are everywhere. But awareness that information sent over these devices is traceable doesn't seem to be.
"I think people, in their lazy behavior, think they're communicating one on one," said John Donovan, a technology expert whose company, Telecom Visions Inc., is based in Garden City. "But there's no real guarantee of privacy."
The Pensions Trust has confirmed that a laptop containing confidential data on 109,000 Britons was stolen from the offices of its software provider, NorthgateArinso. `The laptop contained data from 2007, including names, addresses, National Insurance numbers, salary details and in some cases bank details. The data was not encrypted, but the laptop had password protection.
Embarrassing pictures of Sue Brearley, were accidentally loaded onto a computer at Whitecross School, in Lydney, Glos, it was reported.
Pupils allegedly discovered the private images and passed them around the school IT system. They are being treated as stolen and two teenage boys have been spoken to by police about the matter.
We are at the beginning stages of criminal hackers developing tools and techniques to steal your money using your own cell phone. History proves it.
Fifteen years ago cell phones used to be bagged, then bricks, and made calls that dropped every other minute. Cell phones have evolved. Now a cell phone is a lot more than a phone. It’s a computer that rivals many desktops and laptops being manufactured today. A cell phone can pretty much do everything a PC can do, including shopping online, banking and merchant credit card processing.
At one time or another, you might need to get the goods on a stranger, like a prospective nanny or a business contact. Public records and people-finder sites are often the place to look; we list the best ones here. These sites use cool, Web 2.0 techniques to help you locate people, then (if need be) dig deep to find the "sensitive" intel about them you need.
HOW curious. Early this year my bank sent me a replacement credit card. I hadn't asked for one, and the bank did not elaborate except to refer vaguely to "security" issues.
