From jericho at attrition.org Tue Oct 13 18:39:40 2009 From: jericho at attrition.org (security curmudgeon) Date: Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:39:40 +0000 (UTC) Subject: [attrition] Has "Data Loss" Jumped The Shark? Message-ID: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: lyger To: dataloss , dataloss-discuss Date: Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:00:33 +0000 (UTC) Subject: [Dataloss] Has "Data Loss" Jumped The Shark? http://datalossdb.org/incident_highlights/38-has-data-loss-jumped-the-shark For those who aren't familiar with it, the phrase "jump the shark" originates with an episode of the American TV series "Happy Days", where one of the primary characters, Fonzie, literally (at least in the show) jumps over a shark while on water skis. The episode was designed as a desperate attempt to draw in viewers since the overall content of the show had become rather, well, "bleh". Things were never the same after that episode, and it was generally concluded that once Fonzie "jumped the shark", the show really had nowhere else to go but up. But it never did. About six weeks ago, I reposted a question sent to the Data Loss mail list from an earlier post made over two years prior asking the same question. To date, the replies we have received can be counted on one hand, but the evidence shown at the top of the main DataLossDB page is somewhat clear: for the last several months, we (meaning OSF) have received less reports and have seen less news about breaches involving personally identifying information. One or two people have questioned why, and the answer is simple: we don't know. We still look for news, we still post what we find, but the decrease in events since the beginning of the year... well, we just don't know. [...] _______________________________________________ Dataloss Mailing List (dataloss at datalossdb.org) Get business, compliance, IT and security staff on the same page with CREDANT Technologies: The Shortcut Guide to Understanding Data Protection from Four Critical Perspectives. The eBook begins with considerations important to executives and business leaders. http://www.credant.com/campaigns/ebook-chpt-one-web.php From lyger at attrition.org Sun Oct 25 03:42:17 2009 From: lyger at attrition.org (lyger) Date: Sun, 25 Oct 2009 03:42:17 +0000 (UTC) Subject: [attrition] Don't kill bugs Message-ID: So, earlier this week, I spied a wolf spider crawling on the wall under the west window in the dining room. Being, well, me, I grabbed it in my bare hand to show the wife before "disposing" (read: smooshing) it. Took it over to her, opened my hand, and it jumped onto the couch next to her. This made her jump. That made me jump. I grabbed it again to take it to the terlet (read: potential "target practice"). Within a second, I felt a small but sharp pain on my right index finger. "OW" "Did it bite you?" "YES IT BIT ME" I took Mister Pidey into the bathroom and, admittedly a bit pissed off, threw him into the terlet. Well, not really... apparently, I missed the terlet and Mister Pidey hit the floor and disappeared. Like, vanished. I looked and could not find him on the floor, in the terlet, or anywhere else. Gone. Disappointed, I spent the next ten minutes smooshing my finger to get Pidey venom out of it, which actually did make my finger feel better. Tonight, we were infested by Asian beetles (again), which look like ladybugs, but they're a tad more aggressive. They bite too. I saw one crawl in through the west window in the dining room, so I grabbed it to show to the wife. This time, instead of showing her, I said "follow me", meaning I was taking it to the bathroom terlet for "disposal" (read: malicious "target practice"). Once again, I threw it into the terlet... we heard a sound as it hit. Both of us heard it, no mass psychosis here. We looked... It was gone. Not in the terlet, not on the floor. We shook out the rugs. We looked in the sink. We looked on the ceiling. It was... gone. Thusly, we have deemed that our second guest bathroom is an alternate universe where things may enter but never be seen nor heard from again. This concerns us since Taki and Fuzz (our cats) peek in there occasionaly, but we notice they never actually GO in there. R cats R smrt. They know. Oh, they know. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66IEW-X0N7U Amen. From jericho at attrition.org Mon Oct 26 21:26:14 2009 From: jericho at attrition.org (security curmudgeon) Date: Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:26:14 +0000 (UTC) Subject: [attrition] Contest: Name Our Mascot Message-ID: (Really, click the URL so you can see the mascot before sending in suggestions!) http://attrition.org/news/content/09-10-26.001.html Contest: Name Our Mascot Mon Oct 26 17:22:47 EDT 2009 Attrition Staff In another part of the Internets, there lives a nice squirrel named Buck. Buck is a happy squirrel, full of life and wonder. With a carefree attitude and great friends like Eli, Buck lives a squirrel's dream; frolicking with a healthy dose of nuts. What Buck didn't realize is that he had an evil distant cousin. A squirrel filled with seething rage, bitter contempt, perverse humor and a raw sense of justice. Buck knew he had to keep his distance from this squirrel, and attrition.org, where the new squirrel had begun to nest. For over ten years, we have done our best to provide unbiased information about the information security industry. Along the way, we've mirrored defacements, held the security industry accountable, tracked corporate neglect of consumer information and written movie and music reviews. We've even managed to provide a smile or two along the way. Not that we really give a fuck about smiles or your happiness, but if you're one of those "shiny happy people" that we generally despise, great. Enjoy. Really. We (almost) mean that. Other people think we're a bit nutty. Maybe we are, but we won't pay a shrink to confirm it. Instead, we will embrace our spirit animal and keep doing what we always do. Over the past few weeks, we decided that we needed a mascot; a simple visual image to help promote attrition.org's ideals, and something fun for us that can be easily understood, if not hated. For those of you who already know us, it shouldn't come as a surprise that we chose a squirrel to be our mascot. Squirrels are cute and fuzzy (like d2d), confusing and perplexing (like Lyger), survivalists (like Cancer Omega), mischievous (like Jericho) and like to stuff their faces full of nuts (like Mal Vu). With that said, we now have a friend of attrition, a squirrel, and he will boldly represent us. Your task: name him. Even though there is no visible penis attached to his groin, it's a "he". We haven't chosen a name yet, so the best name that we (meaning attrition staff) decide upon will win our contest. The winner will receive a public flogging in a future news update, and probably an official attrition.org t-shirt with the mascot printed somewhere upon it once we profit from our 419 mails and get the shirts made. Send in your ideas fast. The contest will close on November 10, 2009, or sooner if we figure out a name we like. We'll notify the winner(s) shortly after, and then let the named fuzzy little bastard run amok over attrition.org, just the way Mom would want it. Meaning your Mom, not ours. The Rules No purchase necessary, enter as often as you'd like Lazlo. Submit entries via Twitter (DM to @attritionorg) or e-mail namehim[at]attrition.org. Winner chosen at attrition.org staff discretion. In the case of the same name submitted by multiple people, we will award the winner to whoever sent it first, or whoever is cuter (or scares us less). The Rejects Names we are rejecting up front: Anything with 'nut' in it (probably), any variation of 'squirrel'. Any name or handle already affiliated with Attrition. "Attrition". The Reward Infamy. Your name will be on attrition.org somewhere, and not the Going Postal section! When we get around to making them, you will receive one t-shirt with the new mascot, probably some stickers, and whatever else we can put in the box with it. The Props Our new mascot is a comissioned original piece by Joanna Goldman. Contact her for all your logo, custom character and illustration needs.