U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) seized 82 domain names of commercial websites allegedly engaged in the illegal sale and distribution of counterfeit goods and copyrighted works. Sites like cheapscarfshop.com and mydreamwatches.com. But Number 80 on the list has drawn some attention, as torrent-finder.com supposedly did not actually host this kind of content.
[From ICE.gov]
NOT SO SECRET DAILYCRUD 000001
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/01/2010 TAGS: WTF SUBJECT: PSST, DONT TELL ANYONE ABOUT THIS
WikiLeaks press-released a pending leak of 251,287 U.S. diplomatic cables fetched from SIPRNET, probably via USB-based memory stick. Only 220 of those cables were available at the time of this post, but many more have been shared with the NY Times and other mainstream media outlets.
Fantastic reading for foreign affairs junkies. Check it out [possibly NSFW if you are US Gov't]
[Picture from NSA with enhancement by Jerry Proc shows a far more secure network -- the Washington-Moscow hotline back in the day before USB memory sticks.]
The company that runs ThinkGeek, Slashdot, and Geek.com is moving their corporate headquarters from Mountain View, CA to Fairfax.
Geeknet also named Scott Collison president and general manager of media and CFO Patty Morris has resigned.
Maryland Board of Public Works plans to approve a $345 million contract to Motorola (with optional contract extensions) to build a network to allow federal, state, and local police, fire departments, and emergency medical workers to communicate in emergencies.
[From Gazette]
The Franklin D. Reeves Center in DC now has a public, curbside electric vehicle (EV) charging station.
It’s a 240V Level II Coulomb ChargePoint station, part of the ChargePoint network of EV charging stations.
Yes, you can charge your charge to a credit card.
Installation by PEPCO and NovaCharge, LLC of Tampa.
[Photo by Coulomb Technologies.]
John Bax joins LivingSocial today as the new CFO.
John was most recently CFO at RecycleBank (not a bank) and the media buzz is that he was formerly VP of Planning and Analysis at Wal-Mart and CFO of walmart.com.
His old bio says he is married to the former supermodel, Camille.
Maryland seeks corporate interest in a a possible wind farm off the Maryland coast, south of Fenwick Island, DE and east of Ocean City, MD.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement published the RFI in the Federal Register on November 9, 2010 under Docket ID: BOEM-2010-0038.
There is a cool map showing where these wind farms might go.
[From Gazette; Photo from CGPGrey.com]
A GSA employee accidentally sent the names and Social Security numbers of the agency’s entire staff of over 12,000 people to a private e-mail address.
GSA notified employees of the breach via security alert e-mails, “which employees said they received frequently and often ignored.”
Sounds like a strong culture of information security at GSA!
Casey Coleman (GSA CIO, pictured) and Gail Lovelace (GSA Chief Human Capital Officer) later sent letters via the postal mail to warn employees of the privacy breach.
[From NYTimes; photo from U.S. Government]
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency has rolled out their Global Entry program to speed up the customs process at some U.S. airports. To join the program, you pay $100, pass a government background check, and get fingerprinted. Then, you can use a kiosk instead of waiting in line for a customs agent.
At Washington Dulles (IAD), the average processing time at peak hours (using human agents) is one hour. Using the Global Entry machines, that average time is reduced to one minute and four seconds.
If you’ve got goods to declare, you must then go through normal inspection. Some travelers will be spot checked the old fashioned way.
[From Wall Street Journal; image from U.S. Government]
Our POTUS revealed to Ryan Seacrest that he gets a hotel-style wake up call every morning instead of using any of that new-fangled alarm technology.
[Via Politico]
