New Zealand’s Chris Ogle probably thought he was getting a good deal when he plunked down a little bit of money (reports range from $9 to $18) to buy a used iPod from an Oklahoma thrift outlet…but when he hooked up the iPod, he found some 60 pages of U.S. military data, including information on soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, equipment deployment lists, and mission information. Some of the information included private details about U.S. military personnel; most of the data dates from 2005.
Tag Archive: Oklahoma
Dell Settles Finance Claims for $3.35 Mln
Computer maker Dell has agreed to pay some $3.35 million to settle 34 states’ allegations that the company’s warranty, financing, and rebate offers were deceptive and misled consumers. The agreement has Dell paying $1.5 million into a restitution account; impacted consumers will be able to submit claims for compensation. The other $1.85 million will go towards the states’ legal costs.
“More than the money, this agreement provides profoundly important business practice reforms,” said Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal, in a statement. “No more bait-and-switch financing—offers touting zero-interest that become surprise high-interest charges or astounding late penalties. Our strong coalition of states will closely monitor and enforce this agreement, which has been reached with Dell’s cooperation.”
AT&T Takes U-verse to Circuit City, Walmart
Telecommunications operator AT&T has announced it will begin selling its U-verse broadband Internet and digital video service through retailers Circuit City and Walmart beginning this month. The offerings will be available in more than 600 retail locations in and near neighborhoods where U-verse services are available: right now, that includes regions of Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, and Wisconsin, although AT&T plans to expand the offering to other locations in the future.
Spam King Soloway Gets Four Years
A judge has sentenced Seattle-based "Spam King" Robert Soloway to just under four years in prison on charges related to fraud and failing to file a tax return. Prosecutors have asked that Soloway be sentenced to nine years in jail for sending tens of millions of spam messages using a "zombie" network of compromised Windows PCs ; however, judge Marsha Pechman noted that legislation governing spam was very new territory, and the federal CAN-SPAM act allows for a maximum sentence of five years.
Akamai: China and U.S. Lead in Net Attacks
Internet distribution company Akamai has issued the first of what it claims will be an ongoing series of State of the Internet reports. (Registration required to view the full text.) In the report, the company finds that during the first quarter of 2008, China and the United States accounted for about 30 percent of all “attack traffic” on the Internet—but, surprisingly, a lot of that traffic was directed at network ports and services that haven’t had major vulnerabilities for several years, suggesting the number of unpatched, still-vulnerable Windows systems connected to the Internet worldwide is still significant.
Preparing for the Apple iPhone 3G
The new Apple iPhone (expected to be here June 9th) addresses a number of shortcomings the 1st gen product had and will likely be much more popular as a result. It is expected to be less expensive, have much better wireless performance, and work much better with corporate email systems. I feel sorry for my IT friends who think they can keep this version off their networks because I’m afraid that won’t work this time.
Seattle Spam King Pleads Guilty
Seattle’s notorious “spam king” Robert Soloway has plead guilty to three charges in U.S. District Court in Seattle today, including fraud, email fraud, and failing to file a tax return. The fraud charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years; the email fraud charge has a maximum sentence of five years, while failing to file an income tax return might net Soloway another year.
Boost Lands the Motorola KRZR
Motorola might have rolled out the MOTOKRZR way back in mid-2006 when it was trying to capitalize on the starting-to-wane popularity of its RAZR phones. But Boost Mobile thinks now is the “perfect time” to add the flip phone to its lineup—specifically, its Unlimited by Boost offering available at wireless retailers as well as locations like Radio Shack, Wal-Mart, and Sprint retail stores (Boost is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sprint.)
“Now is the perfect time for us to introduce the popular MOTOKRZR to our Unlimited by Boost handset lineup,” said Boost’s VP of product development Neil Lindsay, in a statement. “We doubled our base from 224,000 to 500,000 Unlimited by Boost customers in Q4 alone, and introducing this feature-rich handset will help us keep the momentum going.”
AT&T Hangs Up on Pay Phones
The preponderance of cell phones in U.S. society may be creating all sorts of businesses opportunities that didn’t exist two decades ago, but it’s bad news for at least one former stalwart of the American landscape: pay phones. Over the last few years, public coin-operated phones have gone from being something one could see on many street corners and in most businesses to quaint rarities…nowadays, if you need one, you can expect to spend a lot of time trying to find one, and, if you can find one, you’ll be astonished at the cost of a single local call. There used to be almost 3 million public pay phones in the U.S.; now, there are an estimated 1 million in service.
Sony BMG Settles with 39 States
Following immediately on its settlements with Texas and California, music label Sony BMG has agreed to pay some $4.25 million as part of settlement agreements with 39 U.S. states and the District of Columbia regarding copy protection software included on some of the labels music CDs which caused computers to malfunction and exposed users to security threats.
