When you hear about whistle blowers, you usually think of ENRON or some other large company. The last thing I would ever expect to hear about would be someone working at the NSA, the spookiest of the spooks in my opinion, whistle blowing on that agency to the NY Times and then offering to testify to congress.
The case in question involves a man named Russel Tice who worked for the agency and grew weary of the abuses he saw being committed in the name of justice. Evidently phone monitoring systems are in place to catch key words like "jihad" and then pull that persons entire phone conversation and log it for later analysis.
Tice says that the number of Americans being affected and watched could theoretically reach into the millions, especially if the citizen made an oversea phone call since 9/11. Not unsurprisingly Tice lost his security clearance for supposed psychological concerns and was later dismissed.
Ross, By Brian. "NSA Whistleblower Alleges Illegal Spying - ABC News." ABCNews.com - ABCNews.com: Breaking News, Vote 2010 Elections, Politics, World News, Good Morning America, Exclusive Interviews - ABC News. 10 Jan. 2006. Web. 14 Nov. 2010. <http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Investigation/story?id=1491889>.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Consumer Rights
Imagine that you get a bill that you know to be wildly inaccurate, with the way companies have set their phone systems up now it is going to take you hours of leg work and waiting to straighten out the companies mistake. What rights do you have?
I was personally harassed for months by collection agencies about a cell phone bill that was way out of proportion to my actual charges. The problem was that the old company, SunCom, had been bought out by AT&T and then replaced with T-Mobile. T-Mobile had taken my closed account and was attempting to charge me over a thousand dollars for the supposed closed account. I had to repeatedly fax letters of dispute to each collection agency that contacted me. It was until the third collection agency dropped the case and didn't sell my bill off that it disappeared from my credit report.
So what are our rights as consumers? Various searches have netted me the same results. The following link is a government site that list your rights under the Fair Credit Billing Act: .http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre16.shtm
Basically you have the right to dispute, send in a letter in a certain format etc. There is no law stating that you be compensated for the time and energy you have to put in except that you can sue the company in question (good luck with legal fees). From personal experience I can tell you the only way to win an unfair dispute is to play the bureaucratic game. Paper work the company in question to death and eventually there will be some sort of resolution, whether you like the outcome or not.
I was personally harassed for months by collection agencies about a cell phone bill that was way out of proportion to my actual charges. The problem was that the old company, SunCom, had been bought out by AT&T and then replaced with T-Mobile. T-Mobile had taken my closed account and was attempting to charge me over a thousand dollars for the supposed closed account. I had to repeatedly fax letters of dispute to each collection agency that contacted me. It was until the third collection agency dropped the case and didn't sell my bill off that it disappeared from my credit report.
So what are our rights as consumers? Various searches have netted me the same results. The following link is a government site that list your rights under the Fair Credit Billing Act: .http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre16.shtm
Basically you have the right to dispute, send in a letter in a certain format etc. There is no law stating that you be compensated for the time and energy you have to put in except that you can sue the company in question (good luck with legal fees). From personal experience I can tell you the only way to win an unfair dispute is to play the bureaucratic game. Paper work the company in question to death and eventually there will be some sort of resolution, whether you like the outcome or not.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
DoS against Twitter
In August of 2009 Twitter was hit by a DoS attack. With a social site like this, the only reason I could possibly think of a someone committing this attack is because it is high profile. It would be a great chance to earn bragging rights while only causing the company itself real issues.
Now hurting a company just for bragging rights, especially one that has such a tenuous grasp on how to make a profit (sure the site is neat and all but how do you convert that into currency?). If I were to speculate, and that is precisely what I am preparing to do, I would have to question whether it would behoove other social media sites to try and hurt the emergence of a new kid on the block. Purely speculation.
Overall this seems like a huge annoyance, I can't really justify having the feds look into it, I think a group of independents would be better off following the trail. DoS them once you find them, sweet revenge.
Denial-of-Service Attack Knocks Twitter Offline. (2009, 08 5). Retrieved 10 17, 2010, from Wired: http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/08/twitter-apparently-down/
Now hurting a company just for bragging rights, especially one that has such a tenuous grasp on how to make a profit (sure the site is neat and all but how do you convert that into currency?). If I were to speculate, and that is precisely what I am preparing to do, I would have to question whether it would behoove other social media sites to try and hurt the emergence of a new kid on the block. Purely speculation.
Overall this seems like a huge annoyance, I can't really justify having the feds look into it, I think a group of independents would be better off following the trail. DoS them once you find them, sweet revenge.
Denial-of-Service Attack Knocks Twitter Offline. (2009, 08 5). Retrieved 10 17, 2010, from Wired: http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/08/twitter-apparently-down/
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Short Bio same as posted on Lamp
Hello everyone,
My name is Hans and I am an IT major here at LR. I have an A.A.S in Network Technology and am passionate about systems as a whole.I also sing for the LR A Capella Choir so you should come see us sometime. I have a 5 year old daughter who lives with me, a wonderful girlfriend who is a culinary student, and an enjoyable job as an IT Tech/System Admin for a local company. I look forward to pursuing my studies and allowing knowledge to take me where it will.
My name is Hans and I am an IT major here at LR. I have an A.A.S in Network Technology and am passionate about systems as a whole.I also sing for the LR A Capella Choir so you should come see us sometime. I have a 5 year old daughter who lives with me, a wonderful girlfriend who is a culinary student, and an enjoyable job as an IT Tech/System Admin for a local company. I look forward to pursuing my studies and allowing knowledge to take me where it will.
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