[ECP] Educational CyberPlayGround NetHappenings Newsletter

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[ECP] Educational CyberPlayGround NetHappenings Mailing List 1989

*Link to the Educational CyberPlayGround
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com

*Link to the Educational CyberPlayGround Blog:
http://blog.edu-cyberpg.com/

*Find your School in the ECP K-12 School Directory
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/schools/
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Greetings,
Happy Reading for today.

<Karen>



Holy War! Researchers say EEs have a 'terrorist mindset'
http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=205920319
MANHASSET, N.Y. " Is there a thread that ties engineers to Islamic
terrorism?
There certainly is, according to Diego Gambetta and Steffen Hertog at
Oxford University, who recently published a paper titled, "Engineers of
Jihad." The authors call the link to terrorism "the engineer's mindset."
[1]
The sociology paper published last November, which has been making
rounds over the Internet and was recently picked up by The Atlantic [2],
uses illustrative statistics and qualitative data to conclude that there
is a strong relationship between an engineering background and
involvement in a variety of Islamic terrorist groups. The authors have
found that graduates in subjects such as science, engineering, and
medicine are strongly overrepresented among Islamist movements in the
Muslim world. The authors also note that engineers, alone, are strongly
over-represented among graduates who gravitate to violent groups.
However, contrary to popular speculation, it's not technical skills that
make engineers attractive recruits to radical groups. Rather, the
authors pose the hypothesis that "engineers have a 'mindset' that makes
them a particularly good match for Islamism," which becomes explosive
when fused by the repression and vigorous radicalization triggered by
the social conditions they endured in Islamic countries.
But what is the engineer's mindset?
The authors call it a mindset that inclines them to take more extreme
conservative and religious positions.
A past survey in the United States has already shown that the proportion
of engineers who declare themselves to be on the right of the political
spectrum is greater than any other disciplinary groups--such as
economists, doctors, scientists, and those in the humanities and social
sciences.
The authors note that the mindset is universal.
Whether American, Canadian or Islamic, they pointed out that a
disproportionate share of engineers seem to have a mindset that makes
them open to the quintessential right-wing features of "monism" (why
argue where there is one best solution) and by "simplism" (if only
people were rational, remedies would be simple).

[1] http://www.nuff.ox.ac.uk/users/gambetta/Engineers%20of%20Jihad.pdf
[2] http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200801/primarysources/2


Details of Scots on stolen laptop
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/7214464.stm
BBC News 29 January 2008
A stolen Ministry of Defence computer had the personal details of almost
60,000 Scots stored on it.
The revelation came in a written parliamentary answer to SNP defence
spokesman Angus Robertson MP.
The laptop, which was taken from a Royal Navy officer in Birmingham on 9
January, contained information about 600,000 people.
The MoD has set up a freephone help number on 0800 085 3600 for anyone
who thinks they may have been affected.
The breakdown given to Mr Robertson disclosed that the details of 59,553
people in Scotland were lost as a result of the theft.
In Wales, the details of 37,546 people were lost, while in Northern
Ireland 14,223 people were affected.
The details of 459,778 people from England and 34,667 people from
elsewhere were also on the laptop.
Mr Robertson said the scale of the problem was "staggering" and called
for a thorough investigation.

New data security breaches come in fours
By Jaikumar Vijayan January 29, 2008 Computerworld
What do Fallon Community Health Plan, Pennsylvania State University,
OmniAmerican Bank and T. Rowe Price Group Inc. all have in common?
Each of them recently joined the seemingly never-ending parade of
organizations that have disclosed security breaches resulting in the
potential compromise of personal data.
Leading the pack in terms of the number of data records known to be
involved was T. Rowe Price. Two weeks ago, the Baltimore-based
investment management firm's retirement plan services group began
notifying about 35,000 current and former participants in "several
hundred" plans that their names and Social Security numbers might have
been compromised, a company spokesman confirmed today.
The spokesman said that the possible breach resulted from the theft of
computers containing the data from the offices of CBIZ Benefits and
Insurance Services Inc., a third-party services provider that was
preparing tax-related forms on behalf of T. Rowe Price. The theft took
place during the last week of December, he added.

Industry experts question $6 billion Bush cybersecurity plan
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=39150
A system that focuses on network protection will do little to fend off
intruders, industry sources argue in response to reports that President
Bush will allocate $6 billion in his 2009 budget to a cybersecurity
project meant to shield communication networks from terrorists and
hackers.
The Wall Street Journal reported [1] on Monday that the administration
plans to reduce access points from the Internet to government networks
and better monitor intrusion attempts through the use of network sensors
that detect suspicious patterns. Once implemented in government, the
program would be adapted to private networks. Former officials told The
Wall Street Journal that the $6 billion would be the initial part of a
potential total cost of $30 billion over seven years.
"Five years ago we needed this type of investment," said Howard Schmidt,
president and CEO of R&H Security Consulting, former vice chairman of
the president's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board and special
adviser to the White House on cyberspace security. "Is it enough? Only
time will tell, but it seems to be a good amount to deal with some of
the issues we've identified for the past five years."