Losing control of people's personal information

It seems like every month now I hear of another breach of security that has release people's personal information into the world for crooks to use. Sometimes it is crooks that have broken into a company's computer to steal the information. Sometimes it is a mistake by a company or government agency that allows the information to get published on the internet. Sometimes it is a stolen laptop.

Of all these ways for people's personal information to get released having a laptop stolen is the most preventable. A work laptop should never contain data. Ever. It should contain programs to access the data but the data should never be stored on the laptop. If for some reason it absolutely must be stored on the laptop it should be encrypted.

The next most preventable mistake is allowing crooks to steal the information. A company or government agency should have people protecting their computers. Their software should have the latest security patches and the access of data should be constantly monitored for suspicious activity.

The least preventable is mistakes. These are preventable but will always happen. It doesn't mean they should be tolerated, and certainly all efforts should be made to prevent them.

I think we should have laws to protect people's information. I think a company that loses control of a person's information and reports it immediately should pay the person a huge amount of money. A company that loses control and doesn't report it should pay that same amount for each day it went unreported. Government agencies that lose control should pay the same huge amount but also require firing of all involved up through and including the president of the country if necessary. And if the agency doesn't report the lose then jail terms of one week for every day before the incident was reported should be imposed.

Will it ever happen? No. But that is what should happen.

A bit of insanity

I read a news story today about an 83 year old Wal-Mart greeter who ended his shift, put on a disguise, and went back in to hold up the store. They caught him of course. The real question is why did he do it? After discussing it a bit with someone we came up with a simple truth - it was cheaper than a nursing home and he will probably get better care at a prison than in a privately run nursing home. Of course he probably won't get prison but still it points out a bit of insanity about how our lives our structured. An elderly person who isn't wealthy is better off in prison than "free". Rather sad commentary.

Enough with the snow already!

Stop the snow, I have had enough. You know why retirees move south for the winter? Because they can.

As I am sure I have said before - The older I get the less I like winter. This winter has had lots of snow. Nowhere near what others have gotten but more than enough for me. Stop it. Now.

Politeness seen as lack of interest or as a weakness

Sometimes people mistake politeness as a lack of interest or as a weakness. Just because I don't stare at your breasts does not mean I am not interested, I might just be polite. Just because I don't assert myself at every instance doesn't mean I am afraid of you, I might just be polite.

This is one of those "first impression" type of things that annoy me. You should not make grand assumptions on first impressions. First impressions are often wrong. You should reserve judgement until you know more about a person or situation.

I guess this is one of my shorter posts. I really don't understand why people would make grand assumptions based on little evidence, I just know that they do and that they often mistake politeness for something else.