In a recent Brandchanel piece, Abram Sauer posits there are four states of mind for viewing Gawker blogs, different states positions ways to view Gawker blogs, “uncaring unfamiliarity,” fanboysim, playa haterism, and fear. Sauer writes “Consumerist.com has the most fear-provoking potential. This is because Consumerist.com is a brand killer. “
security
UK Lightens Security Measures… Still Fears Liquids
By 8.15.06
Well, at the very least, the UK seems to have come to their senses, ratcheting down their terror level: British travelers can now carry-on one piece of luggage, including laptops and iPods, with the only stipulation that it can’t be a liquid or a case full of dynamite.
HSBC Security Hole Leaves 3M Customers’ Accounts Vulnerable
By 8.14.06
If you’ve got your money tied up with HSBC, better be on your tip-toes: a research team from Cardiff University has discovered a flaw in HSBC’s banking system that exposes three million customers’ accounts to the theft of wily hackers.
EFF’s Talking Points For Contacting AOL on Data Leak
By 8.14.06
The EFF was none too happy about the AOL Search Records Data Leak. This is exactly the sort of thing that gets them to pull their lower lip over their heads in paranoid frustration.
Insurers to Travelers: “Lost Laptop? Not Our Problem.”
By 8.14.06
If you’re flying out of Britain to the United States, you’ve got an 8 hour in-flight of dreary ennui ahead of you. Your laptops, your PDAs, your cellphones, your shiny PSP must all be left in check-in, to be flung about, searched and rooted through by an armada of anonymous baggage check monkeys.
AOL’s Search Leak and You
By 8.14.06
We’ve had a lot of fun with the AOL search results leak. In fact, some people have been confused by our glee in posting some of the more hilariously depraved records. Don’t we care about privacy?
War on Juicy Juice Leads To Unexpected Upsides
By 8.14.06
Though powers that be would like you to cower in fear at that young pretty girl drinking a bottle of water, or that gentleman next to you with his coiffure slick with gel; though your in-flight entertainment will now be limited to staring straight ahead with excruciating bovinity, or engaging in conversations with the 50 year old German woman next to you about the boils on her legs… always look on the sunny side of life! Our good buddy Mark over at Upgrade Travel has posted a list of unexpected perks of the War on Juicy Juice:
VA Loses Another 38,000 Records
By 8.9.06
A drop in the bucket compared to the 26.5 million veteran’s records they lost before, but the VA has lost another 38,000 veterans records.
US Threatens to Sue if Maine Probes Verizon’s Phone Record Gift to NSA
By 8.8.06
Verizon customers in Maine asked the Public Utilities Commission to investigate whether the cellphone company handed over their phone records to the NSA. A July 28th letter from the DOJ to the PUC asked them to demure, and intimated at possible legal action.
2 Young Scalawags Charged in Veteran Data Theft
By 8.8.06
Nineteen-year-old Jesus Alex Pineda 19, and Christian Brian Montano were charged Saturday in the left of a laptop containing 26.5 million veteran’s records.
Innocent Citizens Placed On Terrorist Watch Lists To Meet Federal Air Marshall Quotas
By 7.26.06
Federal air marshals are being encouraged to use “creative writing” when they file surveillance reports, landing law-abiding citizens on terror watch lists.
Dell Keylogs As We Blanche
By 7.24.06
UPDATE 8/16: DELL DOES NOT PUT KEYLOGGERS IN ITS LAPTOPS. THE WEBSITE THIS POST LINKS TO IS A WELL-DEBUNKED HOAX.
UPDATE: Petty Power Trips at Dulles Airport
By 7.20.06
Last month, we wrote about crazy, wild-eyed technohippy Edward Hasbrouck’s harassment by power-tripping rent-a-cops employed by the TSA. He’s followed it up with a complete copy of his dialogue with TSA officials subsequent to the entire ridiculous fiasco.
180solutions’ Serves Up MySpace Spyware
By 7.11.06
Just when we think that MySpace couldn’t sink any lower in our esteems unless a gigantic bottomless pit opened up beneath the corporate headquarters and the tentacles of Cthulhu him/her/itself coiled around it to drag it into the chthonic pit… MySpace starts infecting users with spyware.
