This article is a rather interesting look at what sensitive data tech-heads like myself might be inadvertently giving away, whenever we grow tired of our current smartphone and eBay it for the Next Big Thing. Evidently, the reset feature available on most smartphones doesn’t always do the trick as effectively as one would think:

A company, Trust Digital of McLean, Va., bought 10 different phones on eBay this summer to test phone-security tools it sells for businesses. The phones all were fairly sophisticated models capable of working with corporate e-mail systems.

Curious software experts at Trust Digital resurrected information on nearly all the used phones, including the racy exchanges between guarded lovers.

The other phones contained:

-One company’s plans to win a multimillion-dollar federal transportation contract.

-E-mails about another firm’s $50,000 payment for a software license.

-Bank accounts and passwords.

-Details of prescriptions and receipts for one worker’s utility payments.

The recovered information was equal to 27,000 pages – a stack of printouts 8 feet high.

“We found just a mountain of personal and corporate data,” said Nick Magliato, Trust Digital’s chief executive.

Sadly, this article is a thinky-veiled informercial for an upcoming product that TrustDigital intends to sell to capitalize on the FUD factor of identify theft and smartphones. But in spite of this, the article really sheds light on the fact that once again, “deleting” data on an electronic device doesn’t guarantee that the information is truly gone.

Not too long ago, this issue wasn’t really a huge problem. Cell phones were much simpler just a couple years ago, not as readily capable of exchanging e-mails, IM-style text messages with multimedia, and even Word and MS Office documents, like they can now. And even the few models that did have a high level of sophitiscation were at the time built with DRAM, a type of memory that required constant power to retain data, and which really could be thoroughly wiped by simply disconnecting the battery.

But, batteries run down and inadvertent phone amnesia was common, frustrating users who were unfortunate enough to not recharge their smart devices in time. So, around 2003-2004, hardware makers made the switch to flash memory, which required no power to retain data, but were also much harder to permanently wipe.

For those Treo users who are interested, the article makes note of the “zero out reset” function, which does actively clear data from the handheld. Info on how to perform this type of reset can be found here. Just beware that as the page indicates, you have be one heck of a contortionist to perform this function by yourself, and a willing “dexterous friend” is often necessary.

Aish, an Israel-based organization, has recently released a flash video that highlights what it claims could evidence of a systematic campaign to distort the truth about what’s happening in Lebanon in ways that are anti-Israel.
Granted, the source should be considered, as certainly they have a vested interest in this situation and in painting Israel as the victim in all of this. But it’s already clear that a gigantic fraud has been widely publicized involving at least two photos. So one must ask: is there a Hezbollah propaganda machine in the works here?

At the very least, the implications dn’t bode well for newsgathering organizations. it seems clear that in their rush to gather news, they have failed to put in basic checks to at least deter photo fraud by significantly increasing it complexity. For isntance, allowing a photojournalist to send in only a Photoshopped JPG or TIF of their work is a very shoddy policy, in my opinion. A the very least, a RAW output from the camera, or a digital negative should be required before a photo is considered for filing, helping to ensure the photo is authentic (or if faked, at least they did a damn good job and spent a lot of time and effort).

The issue of the Beirut “smoke” photo and the fact it even made it to press greatly disturbs me. Do the folks at Reuters know that PhotoShop exists? And even if they didn’t, did they not find it somewhat odd that the smoke was a bit… artificial and repetitive? Did anyone even bother to look at the photographer’s work before it was published?

It would appear that with America Online, not even death is an excuse to escape the wrath of its customer service and collections agents. While the company has been hemorraging users for years now to higher-speed broadband competitors, customers wishing to cancel are the targets of verbal abuse by those trying to “persuade” them to stay on.

Case in point: Maxine Gauthier and her late father, and the ordeal she has been put through:

The problem? An AOL account once held by Gauthier’s late father still showed billing charges accumulating against it. The account had been dormant for months; the credit card he used for it was inactive at least as long.

Nevertheless, AOL kept charging $25.90 each month for dial-up online access. Late fees for non-payment accumulated on the credit card, too.

Gauthier even offered to send a copy of her father’s obituary as proof he truly was dead. AOL was unmoved.

“An AOL service guy told me to stop complaining and learn to use a computer,” she said. “Then he hung up.”

Isn’t it funny how they can insult people like this, and yet AOL’s bread and butter are people who don’t know how to use computers very well? Those of us with some decent level of expertise wouldn’t touch AOL with a ten foot pole; the “protection” they offer for $26 a month can be found free elsewhere, and now even DSL is cheaper, at speeds at least ten times as fast as AOL’s dialup. So it’s no surprise that as America’s computer users actually learn that they’ve been had by AOL, the company starts using pressure tactics to keep people signed up.

Well, it appears that our favorite Leisure Suit Larry of politics is in for the fight of his political life, as a same-party challenger seeks to dethrone him in Congress.  And now, Lieberman’s site is down for the count, due to a denial of service attack.

Naturally, he blames his opponent.   And naturally, his opponent denies everything.  Are we surprised?

But! A new political term has been spawned from all of this.  Rovian – or, that which is Karl Rove-like.  To whit:

“This type of dirty politics has been a staple of the Lamont campaign from the beginning, from the nonstop personal attacks to the intimidation tactics and offensive displays to these coordinated efforts to disable our Web site,” said [Lieberman campaign manager Sean Smith] in a statement e-mailed to reporters Monday evening.

“There is no place for these Rovian tactics in Democratic politics, and we demand that our opponent call off his supporters and their online attack dogs.”

Gee, I didnt’t know that Lieberman was a CIA spy, and that his web site was his blown cover.  Or… something.  Yeah, the joke doesn’t gel, but then neither does the Karl Rove reference.  I guess the Lieberman campaing will blame their impending loss on anything.  Given Lieberman’s pro-war stance and his past history of supporting net censorship, it’s about time another liberal took him on.