EPIC has posted some insights into the history of the US Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and why privacy protections for personal information succeeded despite opposition from the banking industry:

Critical support for the Markey Amendment came from Representative Joe Barton (R-TX). Barton expressed concern that his credit union had sold his address to Victoria’s Secret. Representative Barton noted that he started receiving Victoria’s Secret catalogs at his Washington home. This was troubling—he didn’t want his wife thinking that he bought lingerie for women in Washington, or that he spent his time browsing through such material.

Barton explained that he maintained an account in Washington for incidental expenses, but used it very little. Neither he nor his wife had purchased anything from Victoria’s Secret at the Washington address. Barton smelled a skunk; he reasoned that since he spent so little money in Washington, his credit union was the only business with his address. Barton believed that he should be able to stop financial institutions from selling personal information to third parties, and supported the Markey Amendment. Congress enacted the bill, and now individuals have the right to direct financial institutions not to sell personal information to third parties.

I guess we can say thank you to Victoria’s Secret for putting fear into the heart of the American congress. Financial loss did not seem to bother them, guns and ammo magazines probably never even raised an eyebrow, but one lingerie catalog to a representative from Texas and the bi-partisan privacy advocacy movement was set in motion. Note that Markey was considered a liberal of Massachusetts while Barton was a conservative Texan.

The area of Snow Bird that I recently reviewed has claimed the life of a young woman. The Post Chronicle reports that she died Sunday evening after being stuck in the snow for an hour:

The incident occurred Sunday afternoon at the Utah Snowbird ski resort in the Eye of the Needle area, halfway down the mountain. Heather Gross was skiing when an avalanche buried her, concealing her from rescue for nearly an hour before her death later that evening.

The Salt Lake Tribute explains more about the victim, the time (12:30pm) and conditions:

“Heather is skiing freshness for the next mannny [sic] days,” she wrote on her Facebook page Thursday.

That’s mannny as in one more day than manny (the n works as a multiplier on Facebook updates). Had the snow been more fresh, she might have written freshnessss.

The SLTrib provides a thorough report, but I find the risk management explanation by Bruce Tremper, director of the Utah Avalanche Center, a bit curious:

Early winter brings some of the most dangerous conditions for avalanches in the backcountry, Tremper said. First, people are not used to paying attention to risks until they experience a “wake-up call” each year.

Second, he said, heavy early snows fall on a weak underlying layer.

“We have windblown snow and new snow on top of it,” Tremper said. “Kind of like putting a brick on potato chips.”

Ok, I admit I don’t get it. Brick on potato chips? If you eat potato chips a brick falls on your head? Don’t ski when you see bricks sitting on chips? Is that easy to recognize?

Things are heating up for what some are calling an Extremely Dangerous Internet Explorer Security Hole. Microsoft’s Security Advisory 961051 is for all versions of Internet Explorer. Patch now!

What systems are primarily at risk from the vulnerability?

This vulnerability requires that a user is logged on and reading e-mail messages or is visiting Web sites for any malicious action to occur. Therefore, any systems where e-mail messages are read or where Internet Explorer is used frequently, such as workstations or terminal servers, are at the most risk from this vulnerability. However, best practices for servers discourage users from browsing and reading e-mail on servers, to reduce the level of vulnerability.

You also could stop reading email or visiting web sites with IE. Your choice.

I like the part about “discourage users”. That totally obscures the fact that any administrator worth his/her salt would never need to be discouraged from browsing with IE on a server. Here’s an idea, Microsoft. Stop installing IE on servers. Oh, it breaks the OS “design”? Well, then, perhaps it is time for something a little more useful in server security rather than “discourage users” advice?