Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Security Stuff: Cyber and Otherwise

I've mentioned the case of Matt Bandy here the last couple days. He's the 16 (now 18) year old that was arrested for having child pornography on his family's computer.

Looks like a web site is up dealing with his case.

CLS, over at the Classically Liberal blog, is still pursuing this issue with more information out on the case and cyber security today.

One thing that still puzzles me, cyber- security aside, I believe I alluded to before and it hasn't been answered:

How can they threaten a 16 year old with life in prison unless he's been deemed fit to be tried as an adult? There's no mention of him being tried as an adult.

The only thing I can think of is Arizona law must be quite a bit different than California law in regards to juveniles. In California a juvenile can't be sentenced to the Youth Authority past his 25th birthday, unless the court has deemed him fit to be tried as an adult and he's tried as an adult.

I don't believe they require juveniles to register as sex offenders in California, either, although I can't say that for sure.

I noticed today that Bandy was sentenced when he was 18. That shouldn't make any difference. In California, it matters how old a kid is when the crime occured, not when he finishes going through the court system. Maybe Arizona's different, but it would have to be quite a bit different to consider someone an adult just because he was 18 when he was sentenced.

Then again, maybe 16 is the age of majority in Arizona? I don't know.
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Speaking of security, I was up at the Zonelabs web site this morning. I decided to take advantage of what I thought was their free online spyware search of my computer. I could of sworn that's where I did it before but couldn't find any link for it. Oh well.

I did notice one thing in regards to what Rose asked on Chris Crawford's blog: Zonelabs says their spyware protection actually keeps spyware from getting on your machine rather than just locating it once it's there. Hmmm...didn't know that.
***
I also found an interesting page from a link on Zonelabs regarding credit card applications and the security thereof. The guy is pretty much as uptight about throwing away credit card applications as I am. The difference being he was just tearing his up.

I usually tear out any fields on the application with my name on them and throw the rest of the application in with the magazines that I'll be taking to the recycling center, credit card applications nearly always being printed on glossy magazine type paper that can't be recycled with office paper. That really irks me.

Anyway, looks like even if you tear the application up, at least some credit card companies still accept them. Check out this guy's experiment. Scroll down to the bottom to get the link to the next page. It's three or four pages but they're short.

20 Comments:

At 9:41 AM, Blogger Hank Sims said...

Zonelabs says their spyware protection actually keeps spyware from getting on your machine rather than just locating it once it's there.

You want Spybot Search and Destroy. Thorough, easy to use and it lets you get as deep and technical as you wanna be.

Or, if you've got one ounce of tech savvy, you want to do the smartest thing, which is move to Linux. I did it about a year ago, at home and at work, and I've never been happier in my life.

 
At 10:48 AM, Blogger Anon.R.mous said...

Hank Sims, you knucklehead, you should KNOW for a FACT that Fred plays Aces High, which does not have a Looooonix port. Did you also know that saying "Install Linux, problem solved" has also become a bannable catchphrase on the internet? Fred doesn't have a neckbeard or isn't a mouthbreather and doesn't live in the basement, so linux is not a choice for him.

Sygate Firewall, Ad-aware, and anti-vir is the way to go. Heck, if you are running through a router, you really don't need a firewall anyway. Just don't be a dumbass when looking at porn sites and you'll be fine.

And I'm gonna have to pull your nerd card Hank, you didn't say which "flavor" of Loonix to install.

 
At 11:58 AM, Blogger Hank Sims said...

Gotta hand it to you, Anon.R -- you make being wrong into a new and spectacular form of art.

Fred could either dual-boot to get into Aces High, like most gamers do, or he could do it The Right Way(TM) -- by running XP and DirectX as an independent system process within an open-source Xen virtual machine! Problem solved!

 
At 12:23 PM, Blogger Anon.R.mous said...

WRONG WRONG WRONG

Fred does not have the CPU power to VM the system, You'd know this if you GAMED AT ALL.

Sure he could dual boot, heck he could dual boot into MacOSX if he wanted to, but why dual boot if with just a couple of free programs his system could be locked up tight as can be?

The wrong way® is to install Loonix, the right way is to just keep your box updated and don't download trash.

And what flavor of looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooonix do you run? I'm surprised you haven't said "LOL M$ LAWLZ" yet.

You loonix fanboys are funny.

You like to sit around and mount your drives don't you Hank? lol.

 
At 12:41 PM, Blogger Anon.R.mous said...

http://www.ubuntu.com/

If you want to try Linux. They have Live CD if you want to just fart around with it without installing it on your computer.

 
At 12:50 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Actually looked up article on shredded credit card application. His experiment prooves that a shredder comes in handy. Even though someone might be able to put together a shredded application, I think most would just look for something a little easier in someone else's trash.

At Christmas the latest scam was for someone to go to a store that sells gift cards write down the numbers and call it in to activate the card.

 
At 12:56 PM, Blogger Hank Sims said...

sudo apt-get shut-the-fuck-up

A gamer calling me a geek That's precious.

I'm going to throw a party when Vista finally tanks the Beast. Hooo, great, you've got a stripped-down, buggy implementation of all the goofy geegaws Beryl has entertained me with over the last six months. And there's maybe a 10 percent chance that it will run on your machine, and 100 percent change that it will crash constantly even if it does. Fun stuff!

But hey, no, by all means keep signing over your paychecks for crap software if it makes you happy. (Or, more likely, keep on Bittorrenting it. You think we don't know why you're such a spyware expert?)

You really want to know my distro, huh? I'm surprised you don't know already, you sneaky tech wizard, you. But here -- I'll go wget your homepage 1000 times, just so's to make it so obvious that even a Microsoft drone might catch on.

 
At 2:19 PM, Blogger Anon.R.mous said...

I'll wget you so hard your mom's internet service will feel it.

It doesn't say which distro, or maybe I really didn't look into that deep, it just says LOOOOONIX.

LOOOOOOOOOONIX.

And you are mad as a hatter if you think I'd bittorrent off a public site. MAD AS A HATTER.

Oh hey, there you are Ubuntu Boy. I shoulda known.

UBUNTU LOOOOONIX.

 
At 4:25 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow guys, I think you could outgeek some local shut-in 14 year olds. Of course maybe thats how old the two of you are. Hank, are you the least bit concerned about your reputation? .r., everyone knows linux is the best, and has been the best for quite some time now.

 
At 4:54 PM, Blogger Hank Sims said...

Hank, are you the least bit concerned about your reputation?

Yes. I'm concerned that people may not know how totally HARDCORE I am. They might not be aware of all the many ways in which you shouldn't mess with me.

Ah, don't take this back-and-forth with The Mouse so seriously. Everyone in the blogosphere knows that I love the shlub, despite everything.

 
At 4:59 PM, Blogger Anon.R.mous said...

Anonymous said...

Wow guys, I think you could outgeek some local shut-in 14 year olds. Of course maybe thats how old the two of you are. Hank, are you the least bit concerned about your reputation? .r., everyone knows linux is the best, and has been the best for quite some time now.


Now now, I'm just having fun, and anyone REALLY knows that Windows isn't that bad. And shouldn't that be shut in 35 year olds, 14 year old are too busy trying to get porn, 35 year olds are the ones that really get into this Linux/Windows wars.

 
At 6:03 PM, Blogger Hank Sims said...

Aha! From the College of the Redwoods CSEA Chapter 509's website...

Chapter President:

Jose Ramirez is a Systems Operator at the Eureka Branch. Jose was hired after he finished his schooling at CR.

Jose was born and raised in Los Angeles. He left SoCal in 1995 and moved to the North Coast. Jose is a member of the Humboldt Linux Users Group and a volunteer/advocate for the American Cancer Society.


And that's the tasty kernel at the center of your nut! Admit it!

 
At 7:55 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

You both come off as closet World of Warcraft fanatics. Admit your addiction.

 
At 8:20 PM, Blogger Hank Sims said...

Oh! I can take my laptop
computer anywhere
and e-mail from the front porch
and cyber from the stairs.
And while I do my laundry,
if I wash my clothes at home,
I can play some World of Warcrarft
with my badass warlock gnome.

Cheers, Matthew!

 
At 9:48 PM, Blogger Anon.R.mous said...

Hank Sims said...

Aha! From the College of the Redwoods CSEA Chapter 509's website...

Chapter President:

Jose Ramirez is a Systems Operator at the Eureka Branch. Jose was hired after he finished his schooling at CR.

Jose was born and raised in Los Angeles. He left SoCal in 1995 and moved to the North Coast. Jose is a member of the Humboldt Linux Users Group and a volunteer/advocate for the American Cancer Society.

And that's the tasty kernel at the center of your nut! Admit it!


Naw, I don't dislike Jose for using Linux. But I will admit, it's pretty lame joining a club over a OS, don't you think? I have other hobbies other then computers and I don't even join clubs or user groups. So Hank, we are you going to talk to them about all the real odd stuff going on out there at CR away? Find out who is paying Joe's wage yet?

Anonymous said...

You both come off as closet World of Warcraft fanatics. Admit your addiction.


Please WoW is like for lamers, dude. I am 31337, and would not dirty my hands with that game.

 
At 8:30 AM, Blogger Derchoadus said...

Hank got pwn3d

 
At 9:04 AM, Blogger Hank Sims said...

d3rch04du5 is teh l4me

 
At 10:12 AM, Blogger Anon.R.mous said...

Sounds like we need a deathmatch server. I mean how much fun would it be to blow up Heraldo over and over again.

 
At 10:18 AM, Blogger Derchoadus said...

j00 ph34r |\/|y 1337 sk1llz! 1ll R1-Up d00d!

hehe

 
At 4:16 PM, Blogger Jonathan Bernstein said...

Hi, this is Jonathan Bernstein, the geek and crisis management consultant who took the Bandy's story to 20/20 and helped them launch www.justice4matt.com. Matt was tried as an adult because the law related to "sex crimes, in Arizona, allows the prosecutor that discretion from age 14 onwards. But when 20/20 tried to interview the state's attorney general, they were turned down because Matt was a minor! Anyhow, the family and I appreciate all the buzz and distribution of the website address. They still don't have an Internet connection back up at their house, but will have one -- with a Mac vs a PC -- sometime soon. But Matt can't go online other than for work or school for another 17 mos of probation on his "crime" of showing Playboy to three friends, which was the only thing he actually did "wrong" under AZ law. Unbleeping amazing, huh?

 

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