Archive for August 21, 2014

Craigslist Goes Down… World Goes Bonkers [UPDATED]

Posted in Commentary with tags on August 21, 2014 by itnerd

Just before 11PM EST tonight, Craigslist went down leaving millions without the ability to buy and sell stuff or hook up with each other. The reaction online was interesting to watch.

I must admit that I had some fun taking some cheap shots via Twitter:

As I type this, it is 32 minutes into the great Craigslist outage and civilization as we know it is hanging by a thread until it comes back online.

UPDATE: Craigslist is back online after being down for 46 minutes. The planet can breath a sigh of relief as the crisis is over.

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Microsoft To Hold Press Event To Announce Windows 9 In September?

Posted in Commentary with tags on August 21, 2014 by itnerd

The Verge is reporting that Microsoft is going to start putting the nails in the coffin of Windows 8 by having a press event in September:

Microsoft is planning to unveil its Windows 8 successor next month at a special press event. Sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans tell The Verge that the software maker is tentatively planning its press event for September 30th to detail upcoming changes to Windows as part of a release codenamed “Threshold.” This date may change, but the Threshold version of Windows is currently in development and Microsoft plans to release a preview version of what will likely be named Windows 9 to developers on September 30th or shortly afterwards. The date follows recent reports from ZDNet that suggested Microsoft is planning to release a preview version of Windows 9 in late September or early October.

Let’s face it. Windows 8 has absolutely failed. And we’re talking Vista levels of failure. The only way it could be worse is if Apple ran commercials that made fun of it like they did with Vista. So clearly they want to move on as quickly as possible.

This should be fun to watch.

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UPS Stores Get Hacked And Credit Card Data Possibly Stolen

Posted in Commentary with tags , on August 21, 2014 by itnerd

One has to wonder when this sort of thing swill end. I say that because there apparently has been another hack that is bound to make some people very nervous. According to news.com, The UPS Store has been hacked:

The shipping and business services store announced Wednesday that 51 US stores in 24 states had been hacked via a malware intrusion on the store’s computer systems. The breach affected about 1 percent of all UPS Stores.

The company has determined that customers who used a credit or debit card at these stores between January 20, 2014, and August 11, 2014, could have been exposed to the breach. Private customer information that may have been leaked includes names, postal addresses, email addresses, and credit and debit card data.

The use of malware to get into and steal info from companies seems to be a trend on the upswing. A very bad trend. What’s worse is this:

The company became aware of the breach after the US government notified the chain it had discovered a “broad-based malware intrusion” in its system. The UPS Store hired an IT security firm to investigate further. This firm then located the malware in the 51 stores’ systems.

That meant that the company had no clue that they were in trouble. That fact is not to be ignored. The fact that someone else has to tell them that they were hacked shows that they really didn’t take IT security seriously. This is why I’ve always advocated for legislation that makes companies accountable when this sort of thing happens. If such legislation existed, then companies would have a major incentive to take IT security seriously.

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