The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has released a report (PDF) to IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman regarding the state of the IRS' information security system. In its last audit of the IRS, the GAO identified 115 areas or systems as problematic. The IRS accepted the findings and agreed to remedy the situation. GAO's most recent audit (released this January) notes that the IRS has made progress—49 of the 115 vulnerabilities have been corrected—but must continue to act on the remaining 66. That may not be as bad as it sounds, as there's a certain gray area regarding how many of the 66 recommendations/changes have been partially adopted vs. not adopted at all; the report indicates that a number of the organization's changes are at least partly in place.

GAO notes IRS security improvements; wants further action

If there's anything the Internet likes to do, it's amateur detective work. And what better way to put such inklings to work than for the police to use social networking sites to help solve crimes? Such is the case with a New Zealand police department, who used Facebook to identify a man accused of trying to crack a safe by posting security camera footage to the site. The trick is clever and apparently works, though it has privacy advocates concerned.

Kiwi police use Facebook to nab failed safecracker

There are a number of reasons to think twice (or three times, or four times, or fifty times) before sending a nude photo of yourself to someone electronically. But, if you're under the age of 18, there's at least one big, glaring, serious reason: you and the recipient could be charged with trafficking child pornography. If you think this sounds crazy, it is exactly what happened in Greensburg, Pennsylvania after two teenage girls send nude photos to some teenage boys.

Teens send nude pics to one other, face kiddie porn charges

How's It Going To End?

On May 9, 1973, Schlesinger signed a directive commanding senior officers to compile a report of current or past CIA actions that may have fallen outside the agency's charter. The resulting report, which was in the form of a 693-page loose-leaf book of memos, was passed on to William Colby when he succeeded Schlesinger as Director of Central Intelligence in late 1973.

hmmm, that sounds cool.

The reports describe numerous activities conducted by the CIA during the 1950s to 1970s that violated its charter. According to a briefing provided by CIA Director William Colby to the Justice Department on December 31, 1974, these included 18 issues which were of legal concern:

And then, like a surprise chocolate center, amongst admissions of assassination attempts, overthrowing governments, and giving unsuspecting people LSD, we have this gem:

18: Testing of electronic equipment on U.S. telephone circuits.

Nice to know that even the CIA goes boxing. ;-)

Family Jewels (Central Intelligence Agency)

Digital never quite knew what to do with its software prodigy; it spun out AltaVista as a subsidiary, then pulled it back in. Acquired by Compaq when Compaq acquired Digital, AltaVista still languished in a company that didn't know what to do with a software asset.

haha! I think the next fish down that chain is just as clueless ;-)

Ha!

World War Z (BTW) is a little slice of excellence that if you are not reading it you are not living a full and healthy life.

Penny Arcade! - Once More Unto The Breach

ARRRRRRRRRRRR! [Rages at specific website] Its supposed to be commas damn it! Then for some reason people get IIS to spit out semicolons. But how in gods name did you get it to use a semicolon to delimit between #1 and #2 but a comma between #2 and #3.

The web is a dirty dirty place (and I'm not talking about YouPorn). "Whats that sweetness? A vengeful rain will come and wash the streets clean?" I sure hope so.

Hurray! No more work until Jan 5th!

I think this might be my first CVE.

MFSA 2008-45: Uninitialized memory reading