O-TTPS and Huawei

The Open Group Releases Global Technology Supply Chain Security Standard
From the press release, "Specifically intended to prevent maliciously tainted and counterfeit products from entering the supply chain, this first release of the O-TTPS codifies best practices across the entire COTS ICT product lifecycle, including the design, sourcing, build, fulfilment, distribution, sustainment, and disposal phases."

Meanwhile, the head of Huawei admits "challenges and problems" in America.

So, even though the new O-TTPS is supposed to create trust within the supply chain for COTS, could Huawei, even if it were a software company, ever use it? I doubt any type of certification will overcome the deep mistrust of enterprises owned by either the PRC or the PLA.

To Hack Health Care Costs, Employers Can Now Track How You Grocery Shop

"'Your boss will never know what you’re eating,' says NutriSavings CEO."

Sure. I believe that. 

I think because I buy so little at the grocery store, and because whatever savings I get from use of the store card is minimal, I should consider not using it. It should be a simple habit to break.

Don't you wish you could see the aggregated data about you? Or maybe not. Life off the grid is looking better and better. I'm already starting to use cash more often, and hit the 'net anonymously.

There was a story in the local paper this morning about a town who surrendered citizens' email addresses
because of a FOIA request. Strange, though, how easily government gives up information like this, but is willing to fight to the death against providing information pertaining to its own perfidy.

It's a scary world.

He Said; She Said

Anonymous Hackers Declare Assault on Israel in support of Palestinians

Israel Says It Repelled Most Attacks on Its Web Sites by Pro-Palestinian Hackers

Anonymous hacks Israel; Israel says they're amateurs. He said; she said. We'll never know.

Use of Personal Data on Internet Is ‘Out of Control’

86% of Consumers Think They Have Little or No Say About How Corporations Use Personal Information; 81% Want More Control Back

TETTNANG, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Security expert Avira announced today the results of its latest online research survey that found that 86 percent of consumers worldwide felt they had little or no control over how corporations use their personal information online.

The personal information survey was presented to a random sample of Avira’s website visitors during February and March of 2013. There were 950 respondents with a margin of error of +/- of 3.18 percent. The two-part question asked:

How much of a say do you feel you have today over your personal information on the Internet?

A) 54.53% - I feel like I have almost no say over how companies use my personal information online.

B) 32.11% - I feel like I have a little say over how companies use my personal information online.

C) 7.16% - I feel like I have a lot of say over how companies use my personal information online.

D) 6.21% - I feel like I have an almost complete say over how companies use my personal information online.

A follow-up question asked:
How much control would you like to have over your personal information on the Internet?

A) 80.95% - I'd like more control.

B) 16.53% - I'm happy with how much control I have.

C) 2.53% - I’d like less control.

“Most consumers don’t really understand what is happening with the information about them and this scares many of them. The reality is that they have more control than they think,” said Sorin Mustaca, IT security expert at Avira. “For example, only few know that they can disable the advertising tracker in their iPhones, they can install a do-not-track extension into their web browsers, and that they can control many privacy and security settings in Facebook and other social networking websites. Last but not least, no tool or security solution is able to replace a healthy common sense: do not share information about you which you don’t want to be public.”

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FROM THE EDITOR
While I agree with these findings, I wonder about the respondents. If they were mostly European, it could skew the findings. In general, Europeans are much more aware of privacy issues than Americans; and European privacy protection laws are very tough, especially when compared to American laws, which are basically non-existent.
I posted here about a NY Times story that consumers would sell their privacy very cheaply.
So, who really cares about online privacy, the dangers of aggregators of personal information, and intrusive advertising?

How the Biggest DDOS Attack in History Could Have Been Easily Avoided, or Not

Varonis technical director Rob Sobers explains how organizations have to focus on the basics and gives a top 5 list for defense.

It's Official. Consumers Don't Care Much Online Privacy

This interesting NY Times story  focuses on the reseach of Alessandro Acquisti, co-editor of Digital Privacy: Theory, Technologies, and Practices.

And, if they don't care much about their own privacy, they likely care less about security at work.

Mainframe Masters: Students Bring New Blood to Venerable IBM Units

We used to joke about all the old IBM programmers retiring, and the world coming to a screaching halt. This was also a fear surrounding Y2K. Who was going to change all the two-digit date fields to four to accomodate the new millennium? It was time to reprint all the IBM programming books and make a killing. Well, obviously there was no Y2K disaster and we didn't make a killing on mainframe books.

So now the Journal News, my local newspaper (yes, I still read physical newspapers), reports that IBM has a mainframe contest. Yes, big iron still rules, and MIPS is still a "meaningless indicator of processor speed."

I should run a contest to see who can expand acronmys like CICS, REXX, VSE, MVS TSO, DASD, RACF. Anyone care to try?