- http://isc.sans.org/diary.php?storyid=1554
Last Updated: 2006-08-08 00:58:41 UTC
"The Good http://www.activevirusshield.com/
AOL is giving away free Anti Virus software powered by Kaspersky. It's called Active Virus Shield. There are already some free offerings, but more cannot be a bad thing… The Bad
…AOL leaked some search logs. Interesting to note that many people seem to be outraged by such a leak and feel their privacy violated, yet those same people don't bother/ask to encrypt the connection to search engines. Somehow there seems a lack of balance to me. Worse, once you searched for something and click on the search results, the referer header will reveal the search terms you used to the website you are heading to. The Ugly
AOL also announced a few days ago another free service. They intend to offer free storage of 5Gbyte. The warez dudes will love this: more than a DVD full of illegal copies. I'm happy to say I'm not the one who'll have to play "whack-a-mole" on this project. I do hope they build in loads of measures to prevent this before they go public with this."
- http://tinyurl.com/kgbxe
Aug 9, 2006
"Web search leader Google Inc., which stores vast amounts of data on the Web surfing habits of its users, sees government intrusions rather than accidental public disclosures of data as the greatest threat to online privacy, its chief executive said on Wednesday. CEO Eric Schmidt told the Search Engine Strategies industry conference here that Google had put all necessary safeguards in place to protect its users' personal data from theft or accidental release. His remarks followed last weekend's discovery by online privacy sleuths that AOL, a key Google search customer, had mistakenly released personally identifiable data on 20 million keyword searches by its users. But Schmidt said a more serious threat to user privacy lay in potential demands on Google by governments to make the company give up data on its customer's surfing habits… The federal Sarbanes-Oxley law also requires companies to have demonstrable procedures for protecting against not just external threats but also the risk that a company insider could release Google data, he said."
AOL Reportedly Fires CTO In Privacy Flap
- http://www.techweb.com/article/printableAr…_section=700029
August 21, 2006
"AOL has fired its chief technology officer and two other employees over the embarrassing release of search queries that angered privacy advocates… Maureen Govern, hired as CTO in September, headed the division that released on the Web search queries of 658,000 AOL subscribers, the Wall Street Journal said, quoting people familiar with the matter. The researcher and manager responsible for the research in which the data originated were also dismissed. AOL was not immediately available for comment. The incident rekindled debate over the need for government regulation to protect the privacy of people who use search engines. Even though the names of subscribers were replaced with numbers in order to hide their identity, the search data was sufficient enough for the New York Times to find and interview people on the list…"
Search Engine Tool Gets You Lost In The Crowd
- http://www.techweb.com/article/printableAr…_section=700028
August 21, 2006
"Web developers at Unspam Technologies Inc. have created a new tool that helps consumers protect their privacy by sending erroneous search data to AOL, Ask, Google, MSN, and Yahoo on their behalf. Unspam CEO Matthew Prince said "Lost In The Crowd" took one week to build. The company built the tool in response to the recent AOL Inc. debacle, where thousands of subscribers found their search data had spilled onto the Internet. Lost In The Crowd* randomly generates queries to confuse anyone who might look through future search records. Users download a search engine bookmark from Lost In The Crowd before going to the search engine and clicking on the bookmark. Downloading the bookmark hands the Web cookie for the search engine to another computer operated by Unspam, which runs random searches on the searcher's behalf, several times daily for up to six months. The debate over whether or not consumers have the right to keep their search information private, or does Google and other search engines have the right to aggregate and sell it supports the premise for building the site, Prince said. "It's really a proof of concept," he said. "It creates deniability around any search you run." To stop the process, searchers return to the search engine and click on the Lost In The Crowd bookmark. This displays the quantity and the last erroneous search description run on the user's behalf, and an option to remove the bookmark and cookie… Reis said people must become aware that discrete pieces of information can tie together to identify or locate them, suggesting to avoid "vanity searches," especially when searching for information they would prefer not be linked with…"
