Purveyor of High-Quality Verbiage http://lisavaas.com writing and speaking about technology, diabetes, information security, careers, candy, health, bees, neuroanatomy, yadda yadda Wed, 16 Jan 2013 16:53:41 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 Ridiculously redacted interpretation of FISA snooping law released http://lisavaas.com/2013/01/16/ridiculously-redacted-interpretation-of-fisa-snooping-law-released/ http://lisavaas.com/2013/01/16/ridiculously-redacted-interpretation-of-fisa-snooping-law-released/#comments Wed, 16 Jan 2013 16:53:41 +0000 Lisa Vaas http://lisavaas.com/?p=1808 Posted  January 16, 2013

US privacy organization EFF invites you to click on thumbnails of the summaries it managed to pry out of the government, but let’s save your finger muscles the workout with this summaries summary: ——————————.

Read the full story, in which I use words, punctuation and the like, because I am not the government.

]]> http://lisavaas.com/2013/01/16/ridiculously-redacted-interpretation-of-fisa-snooping-law-released/feed/ 0 Medical group fined $140K for tossing patients’ health records into public dump http://lisavaas.com/2013/01/15/medical-group-fined-140k-for-tossing-patients-health-records-into-public-dump/ http://lisavaas.com/2013/01/15/medical-group-fined-140k-for-tossing-patients-health-records-into-public-dump/#comments Tue, 15 Jan 2013 16:46:30 +0000 Lisa Vaas http://lisavaas.com/?p=1804 Posted  January 15, 2013

Medical diagnoses for cancer patients, names and Social Security numbers all went into the trash, unredacted and unshredded, probably in a very misguided effort to save a few bucks on proper record destruction.

Read the full story on Naked Security.

]]> http://lisavaas.com/2013/01/15/medical-group-fined-140k-for-tossing-patients-health-records-into-public-dump/feed/ 0 Texas student appeals court order to wear “Mark of the Beast” RFID tracking badge http://lisavaas.com/2013/01/15/texas-student-appeals-court-order-to-wear-mark-of-the-beast-rfid-tracking-badge/ http://lisavaas.com/2013/01/15/texas-student-appeals-court-order-to-wear-mark-of-the-beast-rfid-tracking-badge/#comments Tue, 15 Jan 2013 16:43:52 +0000 Lisa Vaas http://lisavaas.com/?p=1800 Posted Jan. 14, 2013

Andrea Hernandez on Tuesday was ordered to wear an RFID tracking badge that she claims bears the “mark of the beast”, but by Friday she had turned the case right back around, asking a federal appeals court to overturn the order to either wear a chip-less badge or change schools. Here’s the full story, with plenty of passionate comments ripping around at the bottom.

]]> http://lisavaas.com/2013/01/15/texas-student-appeals-court-order-to-wear-mark-of-the-beast-rfid-tracking-badge/feed/ 0 Crunch Your Own Damn Resumé http://lisavaas.com/2013/01/10/crunch-your-own-damn-resume/ http://lisavaas.com/2013/01/10/crunch-your-own-damn-resume/#comments Thu, 10 Jan 2013 15:54:41 +0000 Lisa Vaas http://lisavaas.com/?p=1794 Are you tired of kissing your resume goodbye, consigning it to the black hole of automated resume processing systems, never to hear a peep from people who, for all you know, are laughing at whatever came out the other end? Now, (finally!) there are tools that (try to) predict the garbled gunk into which many resumes are automatically translated. But… Is that enough?

Probably not. But then again, you shouldn’t be wasting so much time on automated resume submission anyway. You should, instead, get your ass out of the chair and actually meet people. Blind resume submissions account for a miserable fraction of the ways people get jobs, so limit the time you spend on this method (14%, to be exact).

Read the full piece here.

]]> http://lisavaas.com/2013/01/10/crunch-your-own-damn-resume/feed/ 0 NASA suffers major data breach over stolen laptop that wasn’t encrypted http://lisavaas.com/2012/12/29/nasa-suffers-major-data-breach-over-stolen-laptop-that-wasnt-encrypted-2/ http://lisavaas.com/2012/12/29/nasa-suffers-major-data-breach-over-stolen-laptop-that-wasnt-encrypted-2/#comments Sun, 30 Dec 2012 01:28:01 +0000 Lisa Vaas http://lisavaas.com/?p=1621 Posted November 15, 2012

The space agency is now, finally, after yet another unencrypted laptop theft, scrambling to require full disk encryption agency-wide.

For more, here’s the story.

]]> http://lisavaas.com/2012/12/29/nasa-suffers-major-data-breach-over-stolen-laptop-that-wasnt-encrypted-2/feed/ 0 Internet Explorer flaw allows attackers to track your mouse movements http://lisavaas.com/2012/12/27/internet-explorer-flaw-allows-attackers-to-track-your-mouse-movements/ http://lisavaas.com/2012/12/27/internet-explorer-flaw-allows-attackers-to-track-your-mouse-movements/#comments Thu, 27 Dec 2012 21:40:45 +0000 Lisa Vaas http://lisavaas.com/?p=1719 Posted December 14, 2012

An Internet Explorer vulnerability allows hackers to track mouse cursor movement anywhere on the screen, even if a given window is inactive, unfocused or minimised. It can also compromise the security of virtual keyboards and keypads, thereby thwarting their use against keyloggers.

Here’s more.

 

]]> http://lisavaas.com/2012/12/27/internet-explorer-flaw-allows-attackers-to-track-your-mouse-movements/feed/ 0 Facebook privacy control overhaul will remove ability to limit who can find us http://lisavaas.com/2012/12/13/facebook-privacy-control-overhaul-will-remove-ability-to-limit-who-can-find-us/ http://lisavaas.com/2012/12/13/facebook-privacy-control-overhaul-will-remove-ability-to-limit-who-can-find-us/#comments Thu, 13 Dec 2012 13:58:37 +0000 Lisa Vaas http://lisavaas.com/?p=1708 Posted December 12, 2012

Facebook’s most recent round of changes carry some good privacy tidings, including Privacy shortcuts from the main page drop-down menu, plus a new Request Removal tool for getting untagged (and telling the tagger why) in multiple photos.

But it’s also a story of missed opportunities and privacy features being taken away.

For more, here’s the story.

]]> http://lisavaas.com/2012/12/13/facebook-privacy-control-overhaul-will-remove-ability-to-limit-who-can-find-us/feed/ 0 Samsung Smart TV security hole allows hackers to watch you, change channels or plug in malware http://lisavaas.com/2012/12/13/samsung-smart-tv-security-hole-allows-hackers-to-watch-you-change-channels-or-plug-in-malware/ http://lisavaas.com/2012/12/13/samsung-smart-tv-security-hole-allows-hackers-to-watch-you-change-channels-or-plug-in-malware/#comments Thu, 13 Dec 2012 13:55:45 +0000 Lisa Vaas http://lisavaas.com/?p=1704 Posted December 12, 2012

Researchers have found a vulnerability in an unspecified model of a Samsung LED 3D TV that they exploited to get root access to the TV and any attached USB drives. The bug, which can be used to gain root access, affects multiple Samsung models and device generations, they say.

Read all about it.

]]> http://lisavaas.com/2012/12/13/samsung-smart-tv-security-hole-allows-hackers-to-watch-you-change-channels-or-plug-in-malware/feed/ 0 Cyber attackers seize, encrypt and ransom medical centre’s patient database http://lisavaas.com/2012/12/12/cyber-attackers-seize-encrypt-and-ransom-medical-centres-patient-database/ http://lisavaas.com/2012/12/12/cyber-attackers-seize-encrypt-and-ransom-medical-centres-patient-database/#comments Wed, 12 Dec 2012 15:30:53 +0000 Lisa Vaas http://lisavaas.com/?p=1700 Posted December 12, 2012

The data-kidnappers are demanding $4,000 to release thousands of patient records belonging to the Miami Family Medical Centre on Australia’s Gold Coast.

Read more.

]]> http://lisavaas.com/2012/12/12/cyber-attackers-seize-encrypt-and-ransom-medical-centres-patient-database/feed/ 0 Mobile apps for kids collecting and sharing information with third parties http://lisavaas.com/2012/12/12/mobile-apps-for-kids-collecting-and-sharing-information-with-third-parties/ http://lisavaas.com/2012/12/12/mobile-apps-for-kids-collecting-and-sharing-information-with-third-parties/#comments Wed, 12 Dec 2012 15:28:07 +0000 Lisa Vaas http://lisavaas.com/?p=1696 Posted December 12, 2012

The second of two FTC reports on kids’ mobile apps shows that the industry hasn’t improved with regards to privacy, with many apps sharing personal information with third parties, all without notifying parents or asking for their permission.

Read the story now.

]]> http://lisavaas.com/2012/12/12/mobile-apps-for-kids-collecting-and-sharing-information-with-third-parties/feed/ 0