June 26, 2009
Update covering June 19 - 25, 2009
Welcome to Tech Talk! In this edition, Tech Talk Editors Andy Zavoina and John Burnett write about merchant compliance costs, big fines, mobile banking, and more.
Our selections from this week's tech news:
- MasterCard ups the security ante
- Processor hit with stiff penalty
- M-banking at BofA
- The dangers of dated data
- Cybersquatting: Leggo my Lego
- A city asks for trouble
- XP - eXtended Play?
- Google softens its pitch
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- Firefox's update candidate
- Another Adobe patch
- Chrome gap plugged
- New life for an old PC
- Spammers to face the music
- Clear losers get back in line
- Changing terms of service
- and on the lighter side...
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Get the details below.
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MasterCard compliance isn't priceless
MasterCard is strengthening the security requirements that businesses handling between one and six million transactions annually must follow. The change is effective at the end of 2010 and on-site security assessments will be required, in place of self assessments. Read more in ITWorld.
In a related story, CNNMoney.com reports that TJX has settled with 41 states for $9.8 million to settle their data breach case.
FTC belts payment processor
The Federal Trade Commission got a $1.7 million judgment in its suit against a payment processor that failed to follow its own procedures. InterBill failed to complete specific due diligence requirements on a new customer, Pharmacycards.com, more than 70 percent of whose transactions were returned as fraudulent. Consumer bank accounts were hit with more than $2.4 million in charges. Read more on this story at the FTC website.
BofA goes mobile in a big way
Bank of America reports that it has 2.7 million mobile banking users (iPhone users are 40 percent of their user group). A Q&A session with Douglas Brown, senior vice president for mobile product development at Bank of America, discusses the strengths and directions of mobile banking. This may help you determine your bank's stance on mobile banking and certainly shines light on what a major player is doing. Computerworld has the Q&A.
Why you need to destroy old data
A technology attorney explains why it is important to have a data destruction policy in a recent security article. Gone are the days when you had a warehouse with shelves full of banker boxes with a "destroy after" date written on it. Now we have backup drives and disks that are easy to store. So why bother to get rid of the old data? A better question is, why keep bits and bytes that can bite back? Read about destroying those ones and zeros in this CIO article.
Fighting cybersquatters
When you think about cybersquatters and mis-use of a brand name, Legos are probably not the first thing to come to mind. But Lego Juris AS, the owner of the Legos brand, recently fought off and won a cybersquatting case against FreeLegoPorn.com. The battle wasn't in the courts; it was much more efficient than that. You can read about the lewd Legos case in this Computerworld article. A companion article discusses seven ways you can protect your brand.
City crosses line asking for network logons
If you applied for a job with the city of Bozeman, Montana, you may have been asked to give up your logon information for any social networking sites you use. The city said the information would be used as part of its background investigations. Is this something you would even consider at your bank? Read NetworkWorld for more, and be sure to click on the link to an update story that reveals that the city backed quickly away from the requirement after it caught a lot of flak.
The OS that refuses to die
With Microsoft poised to release its new Windows 7 operating system later this year and Vista currently available, you might recall that XP was supposed to be switched off, although it is currently available as a downgrade. Microsoft has given XP a new lease on life and will allow it to be shipped until 2011. You can get the specifics on XP availability in Techworld.
Google lowers expectations
We reported a few weeks ago that Google was releasing a program to interface with Outlook, to help Gmail users work seamlessly with Google's programs. There were bugs and some components of Outlook appear untouchable, so Google is toning down the fanfare. What can you expect? Read more in Techworld.
Firefox 3.5RC
Mozilla still plans to release the newest version of its Firefox browser by the end of this month. In preparation, they have made a Firefox 3.5 Release Candidate available. Mozilla skipped over its original 3.1 designation for the release because of the number of enhancements that have been made. You can read more on the release candidate in Computerworld.
Shockwave update
In another off-cycle security alert, Adobe has announced a problem with its Shockwave Player 11.5.0.596 and earlier versions. An attacker taking advantage of the vulnerabilty could take control of a computer. Adobe recommends uninstalling the program and upgrading. Read more on the solution at the Adobe site.
Chrome security patch
If you are using Google's Chrome browser and you are concerned about security, your version should be 2.0.172.33, which plugs a security gap that could allow a malicious hacker to execute a buffer overflow attack to crash your computer, or allow the hacker to run code on your machine. For more on this exploit and patch, read PCWorld.
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To replace or not to replace is the question
Instead of replacing an aged PC, you may want to consider a "budget affordable" revitalization. A recent article describes an old $1,700 PC with an upgrade budget of $375. Improvements that will yield a 30 percent speed boost as well as a TV tuner, a webcam and a wireless keyboard and mouse are planned. Can it be done, and done with only a screwdriver? Read Computerworld to find out.
What does email cost?
Email is taken for granted these days, at least by many users who don't look beyond the savings in paper and postage. Your IT department has to put a dollar figure on the costs of running email in-house, perhaps in an effort to decide whether using cloud computing is less expensive. First you need to really know your costs, including software, hardware, power, storage and more, all of which may surprise you. This article provides some things you should consider, and a cost example. Read the ZDNet Blogs for more information.
More spammers to face fines and jail time
Alan Ralsky has pleaded guilty to charges of wire fraud, money laundering and violating the CAN-SPAM Act. Ralsky sent tens of millions of emails using botnets, often propping up the value of Chinese penny stocks with his messages. He is now facing a million dollar fine and 87 months in prison. His son-in-law is facing a similar fine and 78 months' confinement. Read about more people associated with this case in The Washington Post, Security Fix.
We are reading more and more about spam and malware being spread through social networking sites. Some of the more recent stories involve a worm being spread among Twitter users. A warning to those who tweet — watch out for unexpected ZIP files. The "why" is in this PCW Business Center article. Another recent article explains how followers of venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki were exposed to a purported porn link that actually delivered a virus affecting both Windows and Mac computers. CIO has those details.
It's Clear — Get back in line
Frequent flyers who wanted to get out of the long security lines at airports were paying $200 for the Clear security program. As of Monday, the program was shut down. It is clear, however, that credit cards were being charged up until Verified Identity Pass, Clear's operator, announced the shutdown. This may impact you or others at your bank, and your customers. We expect many cardholder disputes as Clear members attempt to recover membership fee charges. Read more at CNet News.
There are also concerns for what may happen to the confidential data Clear obtained on its 260,000 customers. Read Computerworld for more on that side of the story.
Keeping up with changing service terms
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has a free service that monitors the Terms of Service for many companies. You can learn about such a change by reviewing the EFF website. Some of the companies monitored include Apple, GoDaddy, Comcast, Time Warner, Verizon, Google, AT&T and many more. Read about the EFF service and how you might be helped at The Washington Post.
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