Government Leak of Information

Today the public got wind of a very serious government leak of public information. The US Census Bureau came out, and said that it was brought to their attention that nearly 63,000 individuals many of them farmers, and other people who receive government financial aid. They were very vulnerable to identity theft, because the bureau put these people's social security numbers on a website that was open to the public. The fact that the government could drop the ball this badly is very scary for a few reasons.

The first of which is that they are always preaching to the public not to give out their information unless it is absolutely necessary, and they also have initiatives to curve the amount of identity theft over the Internet, and here they are basically placing peoples private information in the hands of anyone. Secondly, the government are the ones who publish our social security numbers, and in essence they are the one's who create our identities, and they should be doing a better job of protecting that information from getting into the wrong hands.

The other disheartening thing about the government incompetence in this matter is that it was not some sort of governmental review that brought to light this security breach, but it was a farmer in the Midwest who had some free time, and decided to Google her farm's name, to see what popped up, and what she found was a link to a government spending watch dog website, which had a way to search for institutions that were receiving financial aid. Along with some inane information the site's search results also revealed the recipients social security number. When the census bureau looked into this breach it was revealed that the social security numbers had not been available for public viewing for a few days or weeks or even months it had been nearly 10 years.

Once their shortcomings were brought to their attention the government has responded quickly, by removing all of the information, and taking full responsibly for their mistake. They have offered every person involved free credit monitoring for a year. Hopefully, their pro activeness in this matter will prevent future breaches in security, and make this very insecure world a little bit safer.

Internet Security

Recently in the UK two people have been arrested for driving to a neighborhood and stealing people's Internet access. The two individuals who were caught on separate instances were caught sitting in their car and browsing the Internet. They were accessing a home's Internet, because their network was not secure and protected by a password.

These people of course deserved to be arrested not really because what they were engaging in was so harmful, but because if you allowed these people to scan areas for people whose Internet was insecure then camping out in front of the home to exploit free access. Then the problem could become out of control. Imagine driving through the streets and seeing cars parked in front of random houses all with people using the Internet that would not be a very safe situation.

However, an equally unsafe situation is for private residents and corporations alike not securing their Internet, and limiting the people who use it. They are opening themselves up for hacker's and individuals who are out trying to steal identities and personal information. Encrypting your wireless network is something that is not difficult to do, and it can protect you from people who are looking for more than a free way to access the web.

Cyber- Bulling

Bullying in schools has always been a problem, and in the recent decade there has been a correlation between bullying and school shootings. On most middle and high school campuses bullying has never been something that has been tolerated for obvious reasons, and these recent connections to shootings such as the Columbine shooting nearly eight years ago have furthered lawmaker's and school officials to fight back against the bullying that goes on in America's schools. Time and data will tell us if they are making any such headway on campus, but now there is a whole new aspect of bullying that administrators need to fend off from wreaking havoc among there student body.

This is of course cyber- bullying with social networking sites becoming more and more popular by students bullying has moved into that arena, and in most cases it goes nearly unpunished and undetected by the school administrators who are slower to catch onto the new technology. Cyber- bullying is the action of posting negative and harmful messages about classmates on message boards, facebook or myspace. It is usually done in an open forum setting where most of the schools students frequently visit. It can be as damaging as being made fun of everyday during recess, and with the Internet the moment will never end as long as that posting is still there. In the most recent and severe case a video surfaced on YouTube of several girls beating up another girl while she was sitting out in her front yard. Taping there actions of course was not the smartest idea and publishing them on the Internet was even dumber because it landed the girls expelled from school and in trouble with the police.

In a school district in Ontario school administrators and lawmakers are beginning to fight the cyber- bullying battle by monitoring websites such as facebook and MySpace, but they admit it is necessary for students to help them in this movement by reporting to school officials any website where bullying exists. Hopefully Ontario can be successful and a model for how school officials and students can work together, because that is the only way school communities will be able to fully rid themselves of cyber- bullying.