Is This Happening In NH?
I just read a disturbing account of personal information being accessed by employees in various companies and state agencies in Wisconsin.
In this report from the Associated Press [RYAN J. FOLEY]:
"Worker Snooping on Customer Data Common"
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A landlord snooped on tenants to find out information about their finances. A woman repeatedly accessed her ex-boyfriend's account after a difficult breakup. Another obtained her child's father's address so she could serve him court papers.
All worked for Wisconsin's largest utility, where employees routinely accessed confidential information about acquaintances, local celebrities and others from its massive customer database.
In a quote from a deposition:
"People were looking at an incredible number of accounts," Joan Shafer, WE Energies' vice president of customer service, said during a sworn deposition last year. "Politicians, community leaders, board members, officers, family, friends. All over the place."
I'd like to know how much of this goes on in New Hampshire with our personal information. I'd also like to know what kind of protections and controls are in place in companies across the state to keep employees who have no legitimate reason to access personal data, away from it. I'd also like to know what legislation is presently in place, and what is planned for the future to protect citizens of New Hampshire.
The advances in technology we're seeing these days are a two-edged sword. They are making records and other information much easier and cheaper to manage. They are also making that same data easier to access by people who have no right/need to see it.
Thankfully technology also makes it possible to protect and control who has access to data, record all access to it, and protect it from outside threats. What articles like this should do is remind everyone that threats to personal and confidential data can [more] easily come from insiders and 'trusted' employees than outside hackers.
These are questions we all need to ask of our Representatives. Apart from civil litigation there is little to no disclosure that this is even happening, and unless legislation is put in place to force public disclosure of breaches (in a timely manner), and to prevent unauthorized employees from gaining access to personal/private data, you can be relatively certain that it will be.
We also need to work on mandating encryption of confidential data being held, especially if it leaves the business or data center. All too often (daily/weekly) I read about laptops being stolen or lost with various confidential data on them, thumbdrives also. In almost all cases the information on them was unsecured by encryption, and at most protected by a simple password!
The only remedy is substantial penalties commensurate to the violation, and mandated procedures for employees (and third-parties) to follow paired with serious training and emphasis on the importance of protecting confidential data.
Stay safe folks, and look for the release of AVG 8.0. I'll have more to say about that in my next post, so stay tuned.
Also, if you use Mozilla's Thunderbird Email client you should update it to the latest version (2.0.0.12). The latest version fixes some security vulnerabilities. You can download the latest release here, or open up Thunderbird and click on the Help button and then "Check for Updates".
Re: Firefox & Thunderbird
Hello Susan,
I think Firefox is an excellent browser. There are lots of reasons for that. I have found so many useful add-ons ("extensions") that make my life easier, not just while browsing but in general.
Since I spend so much time on the internet, being able to customize my browsing 'environment' really helps. I think that I originally switched from IE to Firefox mainly because of the 'Tabs' feature. I just wasn't comfortable opening up a new window for every web site, and when I saw Firefox being used on TV (on the former cable network "TechTV") it looked like a great feature.
I deal with serious ADD (among other things) and when I start reading email newsletters and other things on web sites, everything that catches my interest (which is almost everything!) I open up in a separate 'Tab' to check out later. If I did that with the older version of Internet Explorer ((before they started using Tabs like Firefox) I'd have a bunch of separate windows open filling up the Taskbar on my desktop. So that's the original reason I tried out the Firefox browser.
When I think about the switch, I recall being a bit apprehensive about trying something new. I was a fairly new computer user at that time and I recall that I wasn't even sure that I could have two browsers on my PC at the same time! I think that there are many people going through the same thing all the time. It's difficult to change from something familiar to something new.
In your case I'd look into why you were having problems with IE "freezing up". That [obviously] shouldn't happen normally, and it indicates that there is something amiss with your system. Your system needs to be checked out and the issue(s) resolved before they get worse.
That issue aside, I'm glad to hear you haven't had the same problems with Firefox. In general, I think browsers like Firefox and Opera are safer and their security issues get fixed faster most of the time. Most people knowledgeable in security would probably agree that Firefox (with the "NoScript" extension/add-on installed) is much more secure than Internet Explorer. Also there are a number of other 'extensions' available to enhance security in Firefox.
Not too long from now Firefox version 3 will be released which will be even more secure than the current version.
But there's one issue that occurs every time a major version change is made, and that is the effect it has on all those 'extensions'. They are developed by 'Third-Parties' apart from Firefox-Mozilla, and they have to change the computer code that makes their product work with the new version of Firefox. That takes time because many of those people develop these add-ons in their spare time outside of their full time jobs. It amazes me that so many people are willing to spend so much time on something that they give away for free (and get so much grief when it doesn't work perfectly!).
So for a while it's typical for many extensions to not be compatible with the new version (changes from v1.* to v2.* and now from v2.0.0.12 [or from what I read v2.0.0.13] to v3.0). When you install the new version a box pops up telling you which of your extensions aren't compatible with the new version, which is convenient. But as time goes by more and more are updated to work again with the new version and all is well until the next big version change.
Personally I'm very anxious to have the "ReminderFox" extension updated to work with version 3.0. It's replaced the multitude of sticky notes I used to have everywhere (like that squirrel in the old Post-It commercial ). It pretty much replaces my (non-existent) short-term memory and I rely on it greatly. I know that there are other 'reminder' programs available, but this is the first one I've liked and stuck with for some reason.
I use Thunderbird too, and in general I like it. There are extensions you can add to customize Thunderbird also, including some that make it more secure, like "Allow HTML".
I had (and still have) issues with Thunderbird's Spam/Junk mail feature. I've 'trained' it for well over a year, labeling email as either "Junk" or "Not Junk", and for the longest time it didn't seem to make any difference. lately it's been catching most Spam and I think it's finally 'learning'! It still identifies some of my regular newsletters as "Thunderbird thinks this may be a potential scam", and no matter how many times I click on the "Not a scam" button, it keeps identifying the same newsletter as a potential scam.
I don't think Mozilla put the same effort into Thunderbird that they did with Firefox, but recently they announced 'bigger and better plans' for Thunderbird 3.0, so I expect they will put more resources into it's development.
I hope I've answered your main questions somewhere in my rambling response! I'm still working on self-editing and brevity when I write.
Please get your IE-freezing issue diagnosed. It's similar to your body. If something isn't right physically and you don't get it diagnosed and corrected it's liable to get worse and possibly affect other things in time.
And as I told Ken Braiterman (and it goes for everyone else too), if I can help in any way please let me know. If I can't help directly I can try to get you pointed in the right direction.
Thanks for the comment. It always makes my day when I get one, and it's even better if I can help someone.
All the Best,
TR
Thank You!
Thanks so much for your insight! You have verified for me what I have been thinking for a while about Firefox. The ability for a company to be responsive to issues with software is important, and Firefox does that.
As for my IE issue, we hardly use IE anymore, and lately the 'freezing up' hasn't been an issue. I have to believe that my firewall and AVG, in cooperation with using Ad-Aware have been beneficial to ridding my computer of unwanted bugs and scripts.
I have decided that my next computer will be a Mac. When I started using computers, I used Macs, and I really enjoyed the easier interface, and now that my daughter has a Mac, I use hers when I'm visiting at her house.
Again, Thanks!
What is your impression of Firefox? I"m currently using this as my main browser, because I've had such bad luck with IE freezing up. I have to say that I haven't had Firefox give me the issues that IE has. I'm also a big fan of Thunderbird. I've consolidated several e-mail accounts under Thunderbird and find this very convenient.