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wavxmaster, re "The Quiet Launch".
I keep reminding myself of a time when Microsoft, Sun, & Oracle were not household words.
Thanks for all your latest updates.
Regards
Elan
oknpv, only in hindsight can one appreciate ones lack of prescient vision....or something like that. I can certainly see where the Waveoids might have hoped for the endle$$ cha-ching of the meter. Well it ain't over...yet.
re: paranoia. Who wouldn't be. For the life of me, after last weeks stunning good news, I just can not figure how in the world we could be still sitting sub $3. If this was 1999 we'd be 300....and that was another time....in a far distant galaxy.
I remain extremely optimistic, am continuing to add, feeling we are just not in play, for whatever reason.
If not this Q then next we may see enough cash to break this open once & for all.
At least I hope so.
Regards
Elan
oknpv, Imagine that..Sumner Redstone wanting to be compensated for his company's property.
Google must have known this was coming, sure they have zillions to toss around but did they ever believe that they were the only ones to profit from a others copyrighted work.
Sounds like they need a meter.
Regards
Elan
PS BTW your take on why our SP languishes is right on imho.
Microsoft Extends Secure Access Platform With Launch of Intelligent Application Gateway 2007
______________________________________________
This may be irrelevant but thought perhaps worth looking at.
Sorry if this was already posted and i missed it.
E.V,
______________________________________________
Feb 01 4:00 AM US/Eastern
REDMOND, Wash., Feb. 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) today announced the general availability of Intelligent Application Gateway (IAG) 2007. IAG 2007 combines the secure sockets layer virtual private networking (SSL VPN) and Web application firewall product obtained in the acquisition of Whale Communications in July 2006, with the Microsoft(R) Internet Security and Acceleration Server (ISA Server), integrated to provide a single, consolidated appliance for network perimeter defense, remote access, endpoint security management and application-layer protection. More information about ISA Server and Whale Communications can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/forefront/edgesecurity.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20000822/MSFTLOGO )
With the new integrated solution, Microsoft also announced two original equipment manufacturing (OEM) partnerships with leading appliance manufacturing and distribution companies and unveiled a new pricing and licensing model to make SSL VPNs more cost-effective for all small businesses -- from small to large enterprises -- and for all deployments.
"Web-based remote access is becoming ubiquitous, for companies big and small. With the need to provide access from diverse endpoints to multiple applications, it is imperative that enterprises have remote access solutions that can meet expanded connection and security needs," said Charles Kolodgy of IDC. "Microsoft's Intelligent Application Gateway provides the functionality companies require while incorporating Microsoft's standard licensing model."
IAG 2007 is now available in pre-installed and configured appliances manufactured by Celestix Networks Inc. and Network Engines Inc. and sold through a wide range of reseller partners. To meet the needs of security resellers and make SSL VPNs more affordable for all customers, Microsoft has simplified pricing and licensing for IAG 2007, which will now include all-in-one pricing for the gateway, and all Intelligent Application Optimizers, Network Connectors and security modules developed for business-critical applications to implement specific client-side and enhanced application-layer security policies. In addition, client access licenses will now be based on the number of authenticated users or devices connecting to IAG appliances rather than on concurrent users, providing customers with more flexible and scalable pricing and licensing.
"To thrive in today's fast-paced interconnected world, businesses need to balance secure access with protecting applications and network infrastructure," said Margaret Arakawa, senior director of the Security and Access Product Group at Microsoft. "Working together with Celestix and Network Engines, we're providing a comprehensive platform that meets both of these needs cost-effectively. Building on our line-of-edge security and access products -- ISA Server and IAG -- we will continue to bring innovative and flexible solutions to our customers, and build on our vision to provide secure, seamless connections in today's always-on, always-connected world."
"Microsoft is expanding its networking security solutions to meet the demanding needs of today's business and communications applications," said Greg Shortell, president and CEO at Network Engines. "Microsoft's best-in- class network security is now tightly integrated with Network Engines' easily deployable appliances. This solution will allow us to deliver a whole new level of security solutions."
"We are excited to be able to offer Microsoft's next-generation security technologies to our customers," said Ravi Lingarkar, CEO of Celestix Networks. "We have worked closely with Microsoft's development teams to help ensure a robust, scalable and highly secure product in IAG 2007."
Founded in 1975, Microsoft is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
NOTE: Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
SOURCE Microsoft Corp.
http://www.breitbart.com/?id=prnw.20070201.SFTH049&show_article=1&cat=tech&ck=Microsoft+...
perhaps not so OT... Digital Fingerprints
Tiny behavioral differences can reveal your identity online.
Fascinating reading none the less.
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070113/bob9.asp
Week of Jan. 13, 2007; Vol. 171, No. 2 , p. 26
Digital Fingerprints
Tiny behavioral differences can reveal your identity online
Julie J. Rehmeyer
Early during World War II, British intelligence officers eavesdropped on German radio transmissions, but because the messages were in an encrypted version of Morse code, the British couldn't understand the content. The dots and dashes came in distinctive rhythms, and the Allied spies quickly learned to recognize each Morse code operator's particular style, which the listeners called the operator's "fist."
a8044_1883.jpg
As people type messages on their computer keyboards and browse Web sites, they leave a trail of electronic fingerprints. Scientists are investigating those keystroke and mouse-use patterns to develop methods to strengthen security and reduce online fraud.
iStockphoto
Having identified the individual code senders, the intelligence officers triangulated signals and traced the operators' movements across the continent—thus tracking the movement of their military units.
Morse code transmissions have, for the most part, been supplanted by more-elaborate forms of electronic communication, the latest being the Internet. And differences remain in the way that people tap out their electronic secrets. Internet users have characteristic patterns of how they time their keystrokes, browse Web sites, and write messages for posting on online bulletin boards. Scientists are learning to use these typeprints, clickprints, and writeprints, respectively, as digital forms of fingerprints.
While the aims of this research are to strengthen password security, reduce online fraud, identify online pornographers, and catch terrorists, the technology is raising some troubling possibilities. "It's a bit scary," says Jaideep Srivastava, a Web researcher at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. "The privacy implications are huge." This technology might make it impossible for a person to use the Web anonymously.
Typeprints
In 1980, researchers at the Rand Corporation in Santa Monica, Calif., were looking for ways to increase the security of passwords used for logging into computers. They hit on an idea inspired by the World War II fists. Typists, like Morse code operators, might be identifiable by their rhythms.
The scientists kept track of the time between strokes as seven trained typists each entered three passages of about 300 words. Four months later, the volunteers repeated the task. The researchers found that even without any sophisticated analysis, a person could look at the grids of data showing average pauses between pairs of letters and, without fail, match each pair of samples from each of the typists.
Several companies already sell software packages that take advantage of this phenomenon to strengthen password security. Steven Bender, chief operating officer of iMagic Software in Solvang, Calif., says that because people type passwords so frequently, "we start to move it from the conscious mind to the unconscious, just like a dance step or golf swing." As a result, password typing has a nearly identical rhythm every time a person does it.
The typical typeprint-security package asks a user initially to type in his or her password several times. The program then derives statistics, such as the average time between the strokes. The next time the user logs in, the program permits access only if the keystroke timing is sufficiently similar to its initial data.
A major advantage of this kind of identity verification, unlike retinal scanning and other forms of biometrics, is that it doesn't require any sophisticated equipment at the user's end, Bender says.
Researchers are now developing the technique for application beyond password verification. Daniele Gunetti and Claudia Picardi of the University of Torino in Italy are creating a system that examines typing rhythms—sometimes called keystroke dynamics—while a person uses a computer, not just at log-in. "We are particularly interested in applying the system to track illegal activities around the Internet," Picardi says.
The researchers' system scans a person's normal typing to learn all his or her various typing rhythms, not just the ones that occur in a password. It then continually monitors these rhythms.
If a hacker manages to get into someone's computer account, the typeprint system will notice the different pattern and raise an alarm, perhaps by notifying the system administrator. The researchers reported in 2005 that the system produced about one false alarm in every 200 typing sessions.
This approach could also be used for identifying users of a Web site that requires a significant amount of typing. Online e-mail services such as Gmail or Yahoo are candidates for such protection, Picardi says.
Picardi also points to online bulletin boards. The program could identify posters performing illegal activities, such as soliciting sex from children, says Picardi.
Typeprint analysis raises a number of Orwellian possibilities. Conceivably, police could compile a log of many individuals' typing patterns and then identify users of public computers, such as those in libraries, Picardi says.
Even without a database of individuals' typeprints, authorities might glean information about someone on a public computer or online bulletin board just from that person's keystroke rhythms. For example, they might learn a person's native language because the common keystroke combinations that are typed most quickly vary depending upon the person's native language.
People who write and sell software that directly records the content of what's being typed have been prosecuted for violating wiretap laws. Because keystroke-dynamics programs don't record contents, they aren't expected to be subject to such laws, and no legal difficulties have arisen so far. But in some circumstances, keystroke-timing data might be used to reconstruct a password or even the content of a message.
Gunetti and Picardi's program, for example, records the average time elapsed between keystrokes for each pair of letters but doesn't keep track of the order of the keystroke pairs. In a short typing session, however, that might be enough for someone to guess how to put together the keystrokes into the full message.
Typeprint analysis could also be troublesome in hackers' hands. In 2001, researchers pointed out that typeprints could be used by hackers to listen in when people are working on a computer from a remote location. Secure communication protocols send each keystroke across the Internet encoded in a separate data packet. A hacker can't read the encoded packets directly, but by analyzing the rhythm of the packets, he or she might narrow the possibilities for what has been typed. This vulnerability would be difficult to remove but, so far, it has also proved difficult to exploit.
Challenges remain even for using keystroke analysis to strengthen passwords or to identify the user of a Web site. Keystroke-dynamics software may be fooled if people type differently when they're using an unfamiliar keyboard or when they're tired or drunk or distracted. On the other hand, those variations may be valuable to detect fatigue in situations where alertness is essential.
Clickprints
The keyboard isn't the only method of computer input. With the rise of the Internet and its click-through format, input devices such as the computer mouse are playing an increasingly important role.
a8044_2642.jpg
SIGNING BY MOUSE-STROKE. To strengthen passwords, researchers developed a system that requires users to move a mouse to mimic their pen-on-paper signatures or to create a doodle.
McOwan
Picardi and Gunetti are testing ways to detect intruders on a computer system by their mouse movements. The researchers suspect that people have identifiable patterns in the shapes and speeds of their usual mouse motions.
Mouse movements can be used to produce signatures, says Peter McOwan of Queen Mary, University of London. He recorded his test subjects as they drew signatures using the mouse—either an imitation of their normal, pen-and-paper signatures or a drawing of their choosing. He used these digital signatures as additions to password entry to strengthen authentication of computer users' identities.
To challenge the strength of his program, he gave test participants the password of a person whose keystroke pattern and tracing signature had been previously recorded. The combined digital signature and keystroke-dynamic analyses rejected more than 95 percent of participants who were acting as intruders, while accepting the legitimate users more than 99 percent of the time, McOwan reported in 2003.
Other researchers are working to identify patterns in the ways in which people click and scroll through Web sites. Balaji Padmanabhan of the Wharton School in Philadelphia and Yinghui Yang of the University of California, Davis are looking for ways to employ what they call clickstream data—what a user clicks on and when—to verify Web site visitors' claimed identities and to prevent fraud online.
Suppose that a person ordinarily visits an online bookseller only on Sunday afternoons, spends around 15 minutes looking through the site, reads reviews of gardening books, and always buys one book with a registered credit card. If on a Monday morning, someone claims to be that person and after 8 minutes tries to buy five books on science fiction, the seller might well suspect fraudulent activity. The seller could then ask for additional verification of the visitor's identity, for example by sending a message to that person's e-mail address on file.
The key to verifying someone's identity lies in accumulating data about that person's behavior from multiple browsing sessions. The researchers' experimental program kept track only of the session's length, time of day, and day of the week and the number of pages viewed. In their study, Padmanabhan and Yang found that a clickstream-data program within a Web site getting small amounts of traffic would need at least 30 browsing sessions to discern the habits of a user. And even then, the program would be only about 80 percent accurate.
Web sites getting more traffic would require analysis of more habits, the researchers say.
If someone didn't want to be identified by clickprint, he or she could easily alter behavior to elude detection, Padmanabhan and Yang say. On the other hand, it would be difficult for crooks to be successful impersonators. "They'd really have to change their behavior in a way that's exactly like the person they're mimicking," Padmanabhan says.
Writeprints
On July 11, 1804, Alexander Hamilton had no idea that he was laying the groundwork for research into online bulletin boards. On that night, as Hamilton prepared for a morning duel with Aaron Burr, he made a list of which of the 85 essays in the Federalist Papers he'd written and which ones had been penned by James Madison or John Jay. The duel proved fatal to Hamilton, and Madison subsequently disputed Hamilton's claim of authorship on 12 of the articles.
a8044_3977.jpg
THE RIGHT WRITEPRINT? A new technique for identifying Internet abusers analyzes a message and plots characteristics of several traits, such as punctuation. The similar shapes show that the top two sets of graphs come from messages by one author, and the bottom two from messages by another.
A. Abbasi and Chen
With the scandal, a puzzle was set for scientists, who have since tried various statistical techniques to characterize the writing styles of the three men. Altogether, researchers have considered more than 1,000 features of writing style. Nearly all the analyses have vindicated Madison.
Hsinchun Chen, a researcher in information systems at the University of Arizona in Tucson, realized that such analysis could be applied to a quite different problem. "It could be used to track anyone who is trying to hide their identity on the Web," Chen says. "They'll leave a trace."
People commonly post anonymously to message boards or employ different user names. Chen seeks to enable law-enforcement officers to detect whether various threatening or illegal posts come from a single user.
Chen and his colleagues have studied messages from the White Knights, a chapter of the Ku Klux Klan; the Al-Aqsa Martyrs, an anti–United States Palestinian group; and English and Chinese bulletin boards where pirated software and music are commonly sold.
The researchers considered the same writing habits that analysts of the Federalist Papers had relied on. These include word choice, punctuation, frequency of the passive voice, ratio of upper case letters to lowercase ones, paragraph length, and indentation. Chen's team also analyzed content, looking for hate speech and words such as "for sale."
The online messages presented the researchers with some different challenges from those encountered by analysts of the Federalist Papers and other published matter. Web messages tend to be shorter and more casual, with more misspellings and punctuation errors. Furthermore, the researchers had to distinguish individuals among the hundreds of people who post to a bulletin board rather than just among Hamilton, Madison, and Jay.
On the other hand, bulletin board postings offer multiple fonts and colors, greetings, links, varying styles of quotations, and other analyzable features that rarely appear in essays and books.
Chen and his colleagues identified 270 features of English usage and then used a computer program to pick those that most successfully distinguished among writers on bulletin boards. They then employed those 134 features to analyze bulletin board messages. They also chose features valuable for analyzing messages written in Chinese and Arabic.
The team generated a graphic representation, called a writeprint, which showed how consistent each writer was in traits such as punctuation and word length. To do this, the program broke each message into chunks of 50 or 60 words, analyzed the chunks individually, and then plotted the most revealing aspects of the writer's habits. Subsequent messages from that author would be expected to show a similar pattern.
The researchers reported in the April 2006 Communications of the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) that after running an analysis on 30 to 40 messages from any known author, the program could identify subsequent messages by that author with 93 percent accuracy in Chinese, 95 percent in Arabic, and 99 percent in English.
Chen says that he isn't free to discuss details about how his system has been used for law enforcement. He offers only, "We've been successful at bringing up clues that will alert authorities about suspicious people."
He acknowledges that his team's creation could be employed in ways that raise privacy concerns. Governments "could use it to probe political forums or to create a profile of people," he says. "That's the part we want to avoid."
Peter Eckersley, staff technologist with the Internet-privacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco, worries that writeprints will have a chilling effect on whistle blowing and public speech in general. "From this point on," he says, "the writer who would remain anonymous in the face of serious scrutiny will have to take unusual recourse to the thesaurus and a syntactic scrambler."
Eckersley has additional worries about the writeprint program's future potential for abuse. "If a malicious linguist decided that she didn't like a particular Muslim community leader, what would stop her from making anonymous, terrorism-inciting posts [to the Web], deliberately crafted to match his writing style?" asks Eckersley. "Could she get his home raided just by doing that?"
It may be many years before the full impact of digital fingerprints become clear. But the effect that telegraphers' fists had on World War II suggests that subtle patterns of people's Internet communication will yield powerful information.
References:
Abbasi, A., and H. Chen. 2005. Applying authorship analysis to extremist-group web forum messages. IEEE Intelligent Systems 20(September):67–75. Abstract available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/MIS.2005.81.
Everitt, R.A.J., and P. McOwan. 2003. Java-based Internet biometric authentication system. IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence 25(September):1166-1172. Abstract available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TPAMI.2003.1227991
Gaines, R.S., et al. 1980. Authentication by keystroke timing: Some preliminary results. Rand. Report R-256-NSF. Rand Corporation. Available at http://www.rand.org/pubs/reports/R2526/.
Gunetti, D., and C. Picardi. 2005. Keystroke analysis of free text. ACM Transactions on Information and System Security 8(August):312–347. Available at http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1085129.
Li, J., R. Zheng, and H. Chen. 2006. From fingerprint to writeprint. Communications of the ACM 49(April):76-82. Abstract available at http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1121949.1121951.
Padmanabhan, B. and Y. Yang. Unpublished manuscript. Clickprints on the Web: Are there signatures in Web browsing data? Available at http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/papers/1323.pdf?
CFID=720523&CFTOKEN=57530247.
Song, D., et al. 2001. Timing analysis of keystrokes and timing attacks on SSH. Proceedings of the 10th USENIX Security Symposium. Available online at http://www.usenix.org/publications/library/
Sources:
Steven Bender
iMagic Software
565 Rancho Alisal Drive
Solvang, CA 93463
Hsinchun Chen
Department of MIS
College of BPA
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721
Peter Eckersley
Electronic Frontier Foundation
454 Shotwell Street
San Francisco, CA 94110-1914
Peter McOwan
Department of Computer Science
Queen Mary, University of London
Mile End Road
London E1 4NS
United Kingdom
Balaji Padmanabhan
Wharton School
University of Pennsylvania
561 Jon M Huntsman Hall
3730 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Claudia Picardi
c/o Dipartimento di Informatica
corso Svizzera 185
10149 Torino
Italy
Jaideep Srivastava
University of Minnesota
EE/CS 5-209
200 Union Street SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Yinghui Yang
Graduate School of Management
University of California, Davis
Roo
From Science News, Vol. 171, No. 2, Jan. 13, 2007, p. 26.
toro, I went back to BB for a 2nd opinion & found more of the same. Then I contacted my local store rather than the 888 number. Again somewhat the blank stare. Yeah they knew about TPM...yada yada...but more lip service than facts.
We've got a ways to go.
But that could all change rather quickly
but jmho
regards
Elan
barge,probably. At least that's what they kinda/sort of just told me.
I called Best Buy and got through to a geek squad chap who assured me the TPM was there, but as to TVtonic, neither he nor anyone within shouting distance had ever heard of it. As far as the built in TV monitor was concerned, they said, "it will do anything your present TV will do." FWTW
I thanked them and told them you were on the way to bring them up to speed.
Regards
Elan
Here's Gates w/ John Stewart
scoll to: Bill Gates pt2
& don't miss Bill Gates crashes
http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/the_daily_show/index.jhtml
barge, Has Steve Ballmer been reading your posts?
Don't let up please. You're a real beacon.
elan
Thank You Countryboy. This is stunning. After reading nearly 10 years of Wave PR re: strategic alliances, to see this in vivid DELL blue is....well...beyond words.
Regards
Elan
wavemaster, re:Soleil
"Soleil has received venture capital from its management, Bain Capital"
Would this be the same Bain of year 2000 PP fame?
Regards
Elan
OT lugan, I guess we don't quality as "volatile" anymore. My buy went through as well, but I'd like to get a straight answer from them re: their future plans for when we do come in to play.
Regards
Elan
Say barge, reading the Apple pre-news reports yesterday, before the big event, I couldn't help but feel I'd heard it all before...like right here.
From you.
6 months ago.
And something about a picture of a little 2 story building in Cupertino.
Great stuff
Elan
cosign, Last month Dell offered pretty much the same Vista upgrade package w/ our new Dimension E521.
I asked the sales rep about TPMs and much to my delight found that she was well aware of them. That in itself is a big change from a short while ago.
regards
Elan
Banker & Bone, how 'bout revenew$
For now I'm happy we're holding.
Elan
thnx Pavlath. What an eye opener. I started with TD H2O because they seemed so staid in a kookoo online world. Time for a new assesment.
Regards
elan
SlateColt, I certainly agree with you. They were more than happy to accept an order BTW, offering no disparaging comments aside from the "the list", which seemed a non-issue... but his remark about my identity really got my attention, especially after he corrected/covered himself.
Hey, who knows, maybe true online trust at the edge security is the next big Wave of the future.
Regards
Elan
fwiw..just spoke with a broker @ TD Ameritrade after getting a "We are not accepting orders on this security at this time" notice. Surprised the heck out of me to hear WAVX was on a list made up mostly of pink sheets and those about to be delisted. I advised him of the recent RS, PP, and relisting and asked him if that combination might have raised a red flag at headquarters.
"Perhaps", says he, but not his dept., that's Compliance
This was the kicker, he said they wanted to make sure it was me online.
Then quickly back pedaled to something like; they just wanted to make sure I was aware of what I might be buying.
OK, I accept his explanation & while thankful for their concern, parts of the exchange took me by surprise to say the least.
Elan
Gosh barge, you make my required reading regimen a downright pleasure.
Many thanks from me & Mrs. Vital
wavxmaster, thanks for that most excellent article. eom
How might this effect those DoD laptop purchases?
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060607/D8I32RVO1.html
Data on 2.2M Active Troops Stolen From VA
Email this Story
Jun 6, 9:37 PM (ET)
By HOPE YEN
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WASHINGTON (AP) - Personal data on about 2.2 million active-duty military, Guard and Reserve personnel - not just 50,000 as initially believed - were among those stolen from a Veterans Affairs employee last month, the government said Tuesday.
VA Secretary Jim Nicholson said the agency was mistaken when it said over the weekend that up to 50,000 Navy and National Guard personnel - and no other active-duty personnel - were affected by the May 3 burglary.
In fact, names, birth dates and Social Security numbers of as many as 1.1 million active-duty personnel from all the armed forces - or 80 percent of all active-duty members - are believed to have been included, along with 430,000 members of the National Guard, and 645,000 members of the Reserves.
"VA remains committed to providing updates on this incident as new information is learned," Nicholson said in a statement, explaining that it discovered the larger numbers after the VA and Pentagon compared their electronic files more closely.
His announcement came shortly after the Pentagon distributed a briefing memo to Congress - obtained by The Associated Press - that said the 50,000 figure cited over the weekend was understated.
The disclosure is the latest in a series of revisions by the government as to who was affected since publicizing the burglary on May 22. At the time, the VA said the stolen data involved up to 26.5 million veterans discharged since 1975, as well as some of their spouses.
It also came as a coalition of veterans' groups charged in a lawsuit against the federal government Tuesday that their privacy rights were violated by the theft. The class-action lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, is the second suit since the VA disclosed the burglary two weeks ago.
Veterans advocates immediately expressed outrage.
"The magnitude of this data breach is simply breathtaking and overwhelming," said Rep. Lane Evans, D-Ill., the top Democrat on the House Veterans' Affairs Committee. He called on the Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm, to launch an investigation and get a full accounting.
"Instead of continuing to eke out the information, drip by drip, on an almost daily basis, adding to the list of those whose personal information is at risk, the Department of Veterans Affairs must get to the bottom of this now, fix the problem and put veterans' minds at ease," he said.
Joe Davis, a spokesman for Veterans of Foreign Wars, said the VA must come clean after three weeks of "this debacle."
"This confirms the VFW's worst fear from day one - that the loss of data encompasses every single person who did wear the uniform and does wear the uniform today," he said.
In the VA statement, Nicholson said the total number of military personnel affected by the theft - 26.5 million - remains unchanged.
The VA initially assumed its data would only include veterans, but upon closer investigation it realized it had records for active-duty personnel because they are eligible to receive certain VA benefits such as GI Bill educational assistance and the home loan guarantee program.
The VA previously has said that veterans discharged before 1975 might also be affected if they submitted claims.
The lawsuit filed Tuesday demands that the VA fully disclose which military personnel are affected by the data theft and seeks $1,000 in damages for each person - up to $26.5 billion total. The veterans are also seeking a court order barring VA employees from using sensitive data until independent experts determine proper safeguards.
"VA arrogantly compounded its disregard for veterans' privacy rights by recklessly failing to make even the most rudimentary effort to safeguard this trove of the personally identifiable information from unauthorized disclosure," the complaint says.
In response to the lawsuit, the VA said it is in discussions with credit-monitoring services to determine "how veterans and others potentially affected can best be served" in the aftermath of the theft, said spokesman Matt Burns.
Maryland authorities, meanwhile, announced they were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the return of ,the laptop or media drive taken during the May 3 burglary at a VA data analyst's home in Aspen Hill, Md.
Veterans groups have criticized the VA for a three-week delay in publicizing the burglary. The VA initially disclosed the burglary May 22, saying it involved the names, birth dates and Social Security numbers - and in some cases, disability codes - of veterans discharged since 1975.
Since then, it also has acknowledged after an internal investigation that the data could also include phone numbers and addresses of those veterans.
There have been no reports that the stolen data have been used for identity theft in what has become one of the nation's largest security breaches.
On Tuesday, the Montgomery County, Md., police department stepped up efforts to apprehend the burglars, asking the public to contact authorities if they recently purchased a used Hewlett-Packard laptop or HP external drive.
Anyone who purchased a used Hewlett Packard Laptop model zv5360us or HP external personal media drive after May 3 was asked to call Montgomery County Crime Solvers at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477). Anyone with the stolen equipment can turn it in anonymously and become eligible for the $50,000 reward, police said.
The five veterans' groups involved in the lawsuit are Citizen Soldier in New York; National Gulf War Resource Center in Kansas City; Radiated Veterans of America in Carson City, Nev.; Veterans for Peace in St. Louis; and Vietnam Veterans of America in Silver Spring, Md.
Separately, a Democratic activist also has sued the VA in federal court in Cincinnati.
flyfisher, todays WSJ pg.B1 reports 2X the number of cell phones vs PCs worldwide.
Bodes well for our future
Elan
helpfulbacteria, profound find on Carl Landwehr. thnx
Bagram, Afghanistan/U.S. military computers stolen
An Afghan bazaar is doing a thriving business in stolen U.S. military computer hard drives, the Los Angeles Times reported this week. Documents on some of the flash drives contain officers’ names and cell phone numbers. One drive held a manual on how to interrogate and control detainees by striking pressure points on their faces and limbs. After the Times first reported seeing the computers on sale in Bagram, two weeks ago, U.S. soldiers bought up as many as they could. But just a few days later, new drives freshly smuggled off the base were showing up in the market again. “The command in Afghanistan is taking this very seriously,” said Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Todd Vician.
http://www.theweekmagazine.com/glance_view.aspx?g_date=4/28/2006
kitesurf, that was brilliant and worth printing out, which I did.
Your reasoned approach to all things WAVX is more than a breath of fresh air, it's a gift.
Thanks
Elan
barge, it takes Agility to be a Juggler.
Snackman, I got your message.
Let me assure you I'm not taking it anywhere.
Elan
New Wave, we've some very gracious and articulate types here who could probably handle this quite well.
Your point about it being a waste of time....well, you never know.
Regards
Elan
perhaps one of our resident Doctors of Waveology could contact Cheng & bring him up to speed.
Elan
Gosh barge, your exuberance is downright exhilarating.
I can hardly wait to see what's under my tree
Regards
Elan
kitesurf
please don't put me in the dismiss MSFT group. They're more than a gorilla...more like a heard on monsterous gorillas. It makes me sick to think of how they could manhandle Wave should they choose.
But from a speculative investor point of view I'd rather my free cash ride WAVX, and would love nothing better than to go really long.
Regards
Elan
WAVX more likely to hit 2 before MSFT ever sees 50 bucks again.
And Vista is not about to drive Mr Softie to such heights.
Thanks to all longs for your perseverance & integrity.
You guys are amazing
Elan
awk, I was afraid you might say that. Though I wonder why they still bother w/it.
Well the rest of this is a hoot. What an amazing day.
Regards
Elan
Snackman,couldn't it be said HP already has done something
http://h20331.www2.hp.com/Hpsub/cache/292227-0-0-225-121.html
regards
Elan
sam, you can get it down under as well.http://www.digitalcameras.com.au/review.asp?catcode=112
Elan
CSCO/Scientific Atlanta/KiSS...WAVX conjunct?
Can one of you guys w/ a Wave doctoral please help me here...and TIA
28 Aug 1999 KiSS announced an agreement to bundle Wave’s e-commerce system with products offered by KiSS Nordic.
Finished? Backburner?
Cisco now owns KiSS
Cisco now ownes Scientific-Atalanta as of this past Monday.
Now somewhere I recall reading something about a S-A Wave connection. This was yrs ago & not on this board, and maybe it was only some cosmicvoid ramblings.
Then tension is building here and Tues WSJ article re: The Cisco /S-A deal emphasizes Cisco desire to diversify.
Any insight would be appreciated.
Thanks
Elan
Feeney loan is a red herring. Something's up and it has nothing to do w/ Wave's ethics.
zen, I agree. It's unlawful to sell encryption techniques that the US Govt doesn't approve. Which means in essense ;if they can't break it, you can't sell it. Exporting encryption products is strictly controlled by the US Govt as well . You have to have a license, and they're the ones issuing those.
Tricky...perhaps ,but all the hub-bub from this guy in London is a moot point imo.
Regards
Elan
internet, wonderful post for wavering wavoids.Concise & to the point.
I remember not so long ago when very few had ever heard of routers & Cisco was confused w/ Sysco. IMHO WAVX day is close at hand. What do you guys call it? Ubiquidy
Anyway, here we are and it's grand.
Regards
Elan
JKIRK, I'd be more concerned if GG wasn't buying. I believed he's refered to WAVX as risky, or something atune to that, and yet he's right in the middle of it.
Gotta like that.
imho they'll be plenty to be made after WAVX hits $4...or $10...or $20, when it's considered safe.
If you like GG check his link and scroll 2/3 down the speakers list.
http://www.gildertech.com/public/Telecosm2006/Speakers.htm
Enjoy the ride
Elan