[vox-tech] Legal Ethics Tech Question

[Bill Kendrick]

On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 11:05:10PM -0800, Alex Mandel wrote:
> Ah yes, local encryption of important files would be good too. For this
> there are software and hardware solutions. Note this also applies to
> data stored on usb or external harddrives. You may remember some recent
> Federal scandals where agency employees took home unencrypted hard
> drives that were then stolen...

Then there's your computer exposing the data _for you_:

  http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2003/6/27/virus-leaks-files-from-university-hall/

  "[Administrators'] personal correspondence -- including a memo
  concerning a case before the Administrative Board -- found its way to
  mere acquaintances. The administrative glasnost was not intentional,
  however, caused instead by a computer virus that swept across the
  Internet in early June and infected a number of University Hall
  machines. ... Harvard students reported receiving a variety of
  seemingly misaddressed, unusual messages... at least one message, sent
  from an infected machine on the second floor of University Hall and
  received by at least three Harvard undergraduates, contained a
  confidential memo [between the Secretary and Dean of the Faculty]."

(Admittedly a 6.5yr old article, but it's always stuck in my mind as
a great example of the dangers of computers and networks.
For more fun, peruse: http://lugod.org/microsoft/index.php
Especially: http://lugod.org/microsoft/index.php?filter=priv
and: http://lugod.org/microsoft/index.php?filter=hole 
Over the last 10+ years, I've amassed nearly 700 articles in that list. Damn!)


-bill!