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McAfee Leaks Conference Attendees' Personal Info
Timmy writes "In the cruelest of ironies, e-mail security vendor McAfee has accidentally coughed up the personal details of some 1400 attendees of its recent security conference in Sydney, Australia. Those who were sent the list — attached as a spreadsheet to a thank you e-mail — are far from pleased that such an extraordinary thing could happen. McAfee, which sells products to 'stop sensitive and protected data from leaving the enterprise through email and web traffic' has blamed 'human error' for the blunder and is 'taking steps to ensure it doesn't happen again.' Doh!"
Title should say "attendees'", not "attendee's".
"Oppression and harassment is a small price to pay to live in the land of the free." -- Montgomery Burns.
Further proof that no matter how good of a system we design, the universe will design a better idiot to use it.
Dear Ms Morissette,
This is irony. Please take note.
Yours truly
This is why I don't want my personal information in any database anywhere.
Good luck with that.
I'm not saying this would be impossible but it would be very difficult to achieve in todays world as you would have to live completly off the grid...
Think about it, how many databases have your personal info (or at least that of someone you live with). Any phone service (Cell or Land Line), Internet service, Electricity, Trash, Water, Natural Gas. These are all databases, and if you ever live on your own all of these will will include your personal info.
Also, do you have a drivers liscense? If you do your state government has your personal info (and thats if they didn't have it already).
Social Security (assuming your not a member of a religion that has contrary religous beliefs), congrats, the government has you on a list and, while this list doesn't directly include any personal information, what is the one thing that will get someone all the info they will ever want about you?
You wouldn't happen to own a car or house? Or do you live in an appartment with your name on the lease??
Do you have a job that pays other than cash?
Do you have a credit card?
These are just the lists that come to mind offhand, if I put my mind to it I'm sure I can think of more...
--- When you start with the conclusion that you want, then throw out any facts that don't agree, is it true?
Further proof that security is a human problem. Technology can help in some areas, and hinder in others, but at the end of the day it's the monkey at the keyboard banging out the works of Shakespeare that is the weak link in the chain.
Computers would be secure against viruses if people didn't open attachments or surf to dodgy sites. Phishing emails wouldn't work if people didn't reply to them, same goes for 419 scams.
Security is a human issue, it's not a technological issue and a purely technical solution will never work 100%.
Specialist Mac support for creative pros, Melbourne
I actually READ TFA.
Turns out the summary was pretty accurate.
Just thought I'd mention that.