Africa's digital poster child - Jonathan Fildes, BBC News
There is a race to connect the next billion people worldwide and one of the main arenas where it is being played out is Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa. In the West African nation, home to more than 140m people, humanitarian efforts rub shoulders with commercial schemes to bridge the digital divide. The Ministry of Education is currently evaluating schemes from Microsoft, Intel and the One Laptop per Child group to give the country's 30 million school-aged children access to computers. Although no decision has been made about which, if any, it will buy into on a large scale, some schemes are already starting to move ahead.

I bought one to see what the technology is like. <Karen>


2.
American Airlines will be announcing that starting next year, many transcontinental 767-200s will be equipped with Wi-Fi and broadband access via Aircell - all for free.

3.
Here we go again! Remember when they spent all that money to integrate their gov't fbi/cia computers and failed?
Story :
National Security Agency is drawing up plans for a new domestic assignment: helping protect government and private communications networks from cyberattacks and infiltration by terrorists and hackers.

Securing info systems could cost $28 billion, budget office says
Story: The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the E-Government Reauthorization Act could cost the government about $29 billion over a four-year period, mainly for securing agencies information systems. The Office of Management and Budget said agencies spent about $5.5 billion in fiscal 2006 to meet the Federal Information Security Management Act, according to a CBO cost estimate report released today about the reauthorization legislation.
Continuing the same updates, FISMA requirements would consume $27.9 billion of the $29 billion that the legislation would cost the government between 2008 and 2012, which includes adjustments for anticipated inflation, according to CBO. It also estimates that continuing current activities and starting new programs authorized by bill would make up the remaining $1.1 billion.

Cyber hackers hit ORNL; thousands potentially affected
OAK RIDGE - Oak Ridge National Laboratory was the target of a
sophisticated cyber attack that potentially gave hackers access to the
personal information of thousands of visitors to the lab from 1990 to
2004, the laboratory confirmed today.
ORNL Director Thom Mason informed lab staff members of the issue earlier
this week and said the lab would attempt to notify as many persons as
possible whose personal information may have been stolen.
Lab spokesman Billy Stair said today about 12,000 letters had been sent
to potential victims.

US helps enhance cops skills vs cyber-terrorism
DAVAO CITY - The United States is helping enhance the capabilities of
policemen in Southern Mindanao in the fight against cyber-terrorism,
which has been widely used by terrorists in their operations.


Air Force pushes cyber warrior training
The Air Force is establishing a professional force of cyber operators
and developing cyber career paths for officers, enlisted personnel and
civilians. The new Air Force Cyber Command and the Air National Guard
are among the focal points of the plan.


4.
Forrester Loses Laptop Containing Personnel Data
The incident appears to be a clear case of, "Do as I say, not as I do."
Thieves stole a laptop from the home of a Forrester Research employee
during the week of Nov. 26, potentially exposing the names, addresses
and Social Security numbers of an undisclosed number of current and
former employees and directors, the company said in a letter mailed to
those affected on Dec. 3.


Hackers may have accessed Duke information
Duke Law School announced this week that it has alerted 1,400 people that their Social Security numbers may have been stolen by identity thieves. The numbers were on a school Web site that was hacked. The people were prospective applicants requesting information from the school

Educational CyberPlayGround: How to Get your Credit Report Repair,Get your Credit
If you suspect you're a victim of identity theft: FIX ERRORS ON ... companies now offer identity theft protection policies. Privacy ... want to consider identity theft insurance to cover
Educational CyberPlayGround: Online credit card fraud and how to fix your credit...
From a company that provides anti-identity theft tools. Getting information ... reporting point possible. Identity Theft Turning Point? 7 ... point in the identity theft wars.

Can a school or college use my Social Security number as an identification number?  Do I need to provide my SSN to the school?
Publicly-funded schools and those that receive federal funding must comply with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act in order to retain their funding (FERPA, also known as the "Buckley Amendment," enacted in 1974, 20 USC 1232g). One of FERPA's provisions requires written consent for the release of “educational records” or personally identifiable information, with some exceptions. The courts have stated that SSNs fall within this provision. (See Krebs v. Rutgers, 797 F. Supp. 1246 (D.N.J. 1992)).

Student rights to privacy and K12 School Rights vs. Students Online privacy rights.
 
Selling student information is a common practice.
EDUCATION Selling K-12 student INFORMATION and their rights to privacy Privacy and disclosing student information.

Story: College turns off social networking sites
Frustrated that some students were using library computers for personal use while others needed the machines for homework, officials at Middle Georgia College began blocking access to social-networking sites in some campus locations this fall. "It's not that we're opposed to people doing social networking and socializing," said Mary Ellen Wilson, vice president for academic affairs, in an interview Tuesday. "There are other open labs on campus where they can do that." She says no one has complained to her about the policy.

YOUR SSN NUMBER Security Ranked by State - IRS - General Accounting Office online Security


5.
Hackers force mass website closures
Hundreds of websites have been shut down temporarily by one of the
largest web hosting companies in Britain after the personal details of
customers were stolen by computer hackers.

6.
Mobile Data a Moving Liability
SAN FRANCISCO -- By his own account, Tory Skyers lives on the edge --
the storage edge.
He defines that place as the point in the enterprise network where any
kind of mobile device contributes content to the SAN. This device menu
runs the gamut from iPod, to Zune, PSP, Treo, Blackberry, Psion, laptop
or desktop computer, USB flash drive, and external hard drive, to name a
few.
He uses two incentives to get unthinking users to follow policy or stop
doing dumb things. "Fear and money are great motivators," he told an
audience here at the Storage Decisions conference this morning.


7.
Phone phreaks spoof LSD-induced multiple homicide
Three more individuals have admitted they participated in a series of
phone phreak hoaxes that prompted raids by armed special weapons and
tactic police teams on the homes of unsuspecting victims.

8.
READ THIS STORY: Marcus Ranum's Wild Security Ride
best known for his pioneering work in firewalls.
He doesn't take credit for inventing the firewall -- only for
synthesizing and streamlining the concepts of a firewall into the DEC
SEAL, which he did while working on DEC's internal Internet gateway.
"This whole business of calling me the inventor is wrong... It was some
marketing BS," says Ranum, who designed and deployed the DEC SEAL in
1990, which is considered by some to be the first commercial firewall.
"The DEC SEAL was interesting because it had a part number and a manual
and corporation behind it," he says, which at the time was unique.

Personality Bytes

* What scares Ranum most: "There's a lot of outsourcing happening, and
  we've de-skilled our federal workforce. That scares the hell out of
  me. We should be worried about how we spend our money on the best and
  brightest in the government."

* On cyberwarfare: "How can you dare talk about fighting cyberwarfare
  when college kids in China can penetrate the Defense Department
  network like Swiss cheese?"

* What most people don't know about him: "I'd rather be an artist."

* Biggest pet peeve: "Intellectual dishonesty."

* Biggest regret: "I wish I had patented some of my work."

* Favorite hangout: "Home."

* Comfort food: "Tapioca pudding."

* Music: "I dont download music. I buy it and rip CDs. The latest thing
  I bought was Robert Plant and Alison Krause's [CD]."

* Wheels: "A '74 Belarus 547 tractor, and a GMC Suburban."

* PC or Mac: "I hate all of them... I have an eight-year-old laptop."

* What Ranum would like to be most known for: "Telling the truth."

9.
Bruce Schneier Blazes Through Your Questions
Freakonomics Story
Last week, we solicited your questions for Internet security guru Bruce Shneier. He responded in force, taking on nearly every question, and his
answers are extraordinarily interesting, providing mandatory reading for anyone who uses a computer. He also plainly thinks like an economist:
search below for crime pays to see his sober assessment of why its better to earn a living as a security expert than as a computer criminal.

Educational CyberPlayGround: FUTURE TRENDS IN COMPUTING


11.
STORY DUH!  How stupid are these professors?
who don't know that motivation starts all learning and that play is a great motivator. How do these people get to waste our tax dollars being this stupid!?!
"Since what I really need is a world with lots of players in it for me to run experiments on, I decided I needed a completely different approach." The article says that a game on the scale of World of Warcraft costs about $75-million to develop, so as generous as the MacArthur folks might be, Arden may seem a little lean. Mr. Castronova is giving the public Arden as is, says the article, along with this guidance for other academics who think their research might translate into virtual fun: "What we've really learned is, you've got to start with a game first." FUN FUN FUN

The Importance of Play and Laughter in Learning Research!

The Secret to Motivation



12.
Bill Gates is investing tens of his millions along with the Rockefeller Foundation, Monsanto Corporation, Syngenta Foundation and the Government of Norway, among others, in what is called the 'doomsday seed bank.' Officially the project is named the Svalbard Global Seed Vault on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, part of the Svalbard island group.
article by Seabrook in the New Yorker discussion of the global seed bank