Private policing and public safety

In June 2010, Andrew Auernheimer, a well-known Internet security expert, discovered a gaping hole in AT&T’s website that exposed 114,000 email addresses belonging to the wireless giant’s Apple iPad customers. After a colleague downloaded the data, Auernheimer passed the information to a journalist at the wesbite Gawker. The episode was a major embarrassment for AT&T because the list included thousands of high-profile individuals, including New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and then-White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. AT&T quickly patched the hole.

In June 2010, Andrew Auernheimer, a well-known Internet security expert, discovered a gaping hole in AT&T’s website that exposed 114,000 email addresses belonging to the wireless giant’s Apple iPad customers. After a colleague downloaded the data, Auernheimer passed the information to a journalist at the wesbite Gawker. The episode was a major embarrassment for AT&T because the list included thousands of high-profile individuals, including New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and then-White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. AT&T quickly patched the hole.

Federal departments and agencies spent about $3.1-billion less on public safety and anti-terrorism activities than they were allocated, and no there was no explanation for the gap. In a report released Tuesday, Michael Ferguson revealed that the Harper government has been unable to explain why so much money set aside in recent years for the anti-terrorism initiative has simply gone missing.

Washington's Blog submits: Still on vacation for a bit. Stopping in to note that the Senate subcommittee on investigation just released its massive 650 page report, Wall Street and the Financial Crisis: Anatomy of a Financial Collapse. There’s a lot to go through in this report, headed by Carl Levin (D-MI) and Tom Coburn (R-OK), and I’ve just started it.