Thousands of Credit Card Records Stolen (Partially)

Citi-oops for Citigroup: Late this week, Citigroup confirmed that cyber-thieves have gained access to the data from about 210,000 of its bank card customers. Citi has 21 million North American bank card customers, so that's around 1 percent. The bank says it is contacting customers whose information "was impacted".

Impacted. What an interesting word. Would "stolen" be a bit too clear for the bank's spin-meisters?

The story does have some good news and it suggests that Citi's security experts are sufficiently savvy that they don't keep all the data in a single basket. The break in may have "impacted" (stolen) customers’ names, account numbers, addresses and e-mail addresses, but other information that's needed to make use of the "impacted" (stolen) information was not. That includes the card holders' Social Security number, data of birth, card expiration date, and security code.

Citi says it discovered the unauthorized access at its online banking service, Citi Account Online, through routine monitoring. The bank discovered the breach in early May and says that it has taken steps to insure that the techniques used in this attack cannot be repeated.

The fact that the breach was discovered in early May raises* the question: Why is Citigroup just now getting around to letting its customers know?

*Please, not "begs the question". This little bit of illiteracy is rampant in the US news industry today, appearing even on NPR where I keep hoping that they would know better. "Begging the question" (petitio principii in Latin, which translates to "assuming the initial point") is a type of logical fallacy in which the proposition to be proven is assumed implicitly or explicitly in the premise. Here's an example of begging the question from Wikipedia:
     Person 1: Bob is annoyed right now.
     Person 2: How do you know?
     Person 1: Well, because he is really angry.
Please, US news media, learn the difference between "begging the question" and "raising the question". They are not synonymous.

Hackers can break into almost any network and Citibank officials have admitted that breaches are simply a fact of life for financial institutions. All banks can do is monitor closely and take action when the problems are discovered. In addition to easy targets such as Sony, thieves have even broken in to supposedly secure systems such as the one operated by defense contractor Lockheed Martin.

And security provider RSA's computer networks were recently attacked and the data breach affected RSA’s SecurID technology, the two-factor authentication technology that many large companies use to secure their networks. Now RSA, a division of EMC, has confirmed that the break in at Lockheed Martin was made possible by data stolen in the March attack. As a result, RSA says it will replace all of the 40 million SecurID tokens being used in government and corporations.

The cows, however, have already found the egress in the agricultural storage building.

The Future of Print: Cloudy but Bright

This would be an exciting time to be involved in print media. Between the sheer terror of wondering whether you'll have a job tomorrow and the excitement of dealing with enticing new technologies means that no day will ever be dull. Adobe InDesign has center stage on both sides. It's an application that allows publishers to maintain the status quo with fewer people, but it also makes possible an explosion of options that add value to publications.

In a perfect world, all publishers would be smart enough to recognize that providing a better product is the better choice. We all know that this isn't a perfect world.

But Adobe's latest version of InDesign makes me wish fervently that I was involved with a forward-thinking, progressive publication. Most print publications have some presence on the Internet, usually a Web presence. Progressive designers and editors realize that this new medium frees them from the constraints of paper.

Both paper publications and websites have a limited width, but that's where the similarity ends. A Web page can be of any length. An editor or designer could never approve 100 images for a publication simply because of the cost of creating separations, preparing plates, and printing all of the images. Paper and ink are expensive. So is postage. But 100 images on a Web page add very little to the production cost and nothing to the distribution cost.

Instead of a single, static image the article can now include a slide show.

Or video. Or audio. Video and audio added to InDesign layouts that are exported to EPUB format create more engaging digital books and embedded audio and video play on mobile devices that support HTML5. That includes the Ipad and, increasingly, most smart phones.

It's been more than a decade since I wrote that InDesign was the future of publishing. In that regard I was exactly right. But I was also wrong: InDesign is becoming an indispensable part of both publishing and the ancillary functions that exist in conjunction with (or instead of) the "dead trees" version of publications.

How to Get There from Here

One of the biggest problem print designers have faced in recent years is how to repurpose print work for various other media. You want to make some or all of your print content available online. Or via the Epub format.

"Easy" is not a word that anyone would choose to describe the process.

Article ordering has always been a problem. Here's what I mean by that: In print, sidebar articles, call-outs, images, captions, tables, and the like are placed so that they are visually appealing on the page. But when it's time to export these various components of an article to an HTML file for the Web or to an Epub file for an electronic reader, there was no way to control the positioning of these supplemental materials.

As a result, a sidebar might appear at the beginning of an article instead of following the section that it's related to. So the reader is confused by having what appears to be unrelated information in an important position.

Adobe InDesign CS5.5 has solved that problem by adding a new Article Panel. Instead of allowing the application to place components in a static order determined by formula, the designer now has control over when and where a component appears.

I am indebted to James Fritz and Lynda.com for assistance in understanding the changes brought to the publishing world by InDesign CS5.5.

Print Designers Have a Lot to be Excited About

Many of the new features are somewhat esoteric—the kinds of things that might not seem important to the average computer user, but I can guarantee you that print professionals are all but bouncing off the ceiling because of the new capabilities I've already mentioned, but consider these two additional points:

Those are in addition to the features I've already mentioned and in addition to all the improvements made in InDesign CS5. If you're still stuck on CS3 or CS4, it's time to upgrade! CS3 was a ground breaking application. CS4 extended InDesign's increasingly powerful feature set. CS5 and CS5.5 take the application where you want it to go.

Social Media: Killer App and Business Killer

Missing in action: Common sense. If seen, please call 555-1212. The National Labor Relations Board says that an Arizona newspaper was justified in firing a reporter who sent the following message on Twitter: "Aug. 30: What?!?!? No overnight homicide? WTF? You’re slacking Tucson." Satire? Yes. Irony? Maybe. Appropriate for a reporter? No! On the other hand, the NLRB is supporting the rights of employees at Hispanics United of Buffalo who were fired after posting uncomplimentary statements about their employer.

I may be alone here, but it seems to me that the NLRB was right in both cases.

According to Tech Republic, one employee at Hispanics United of Buffalo posted a comment on her Facebook page by a co-worker who complained that other employees did not do enough to help the organization’s clients. This was followed by at least five other employees defending themselves and pointing out the excessive workload and poor working conditions.

There's a discernible difference between the two situations, or it seems to me that there is.

As one who has worked as a reporter, I can understand the newspaper's concern about the reporter's comments. And that's not to say that I've always managed to keep my opinions out of the story. But tweeted comments that seem to encourage homicides, even though clearly satirical, seem out of place for a news reporter. On the other hand, the employees at Hispanics United of Buffalo would seem to be covered by whatever protections are afforded whistle blowers.

Tech Republic says: "The NLRB ruled on the firing, saying that it did not violate a provision of the National Labor Relations Act that protects communications by employees as long as they relate to working conditions or employment terms."

Changing the Way We Buy Things

I will readily admit that I dislike shopping. Driving from store to store wastes time, money, and fuel so I became an online buyer long before most other people. In the early days, you had to know exactly what you were looking for. With luck, you might find a site with pictures. All that has changed in such fundamental ways that online shopping is not only easier and faster than in-store shopping; it's also better.

The last time I bought a camera, I could have gone to a store to touch the camera first. I didn't.

I'm talking about cameras here, but this also applies to phones, personal stereo equipment, televisions, digital video recorders, amplifiers, and most other electronic devices.

Shoppers have 3 primary choices for cameras and other electronic devices: Big box stores, camera stores, and online stores.

When you've winnowed the list down to about 5 or 6 cameras, you can display a chart that shows various criteria (number of pixels, size and type of sensor, shutter speeds, ISO range, size, weight, ability to use an external flash, and so on). Using this kind of chart makes it easy to develop you own rating chart on which you can assign each camera's strengths and weaknesses a numerical value: A device that's clearly better in a category you consider important receives a 5 while a competing device that's deficient in that category receives a score of 1 or 0 or even -5. Where a device is clearly better, but in a category you don't care much about, the score might be 1 or 0 instead of 5.

Finish that analysis and you'll probably have one or two clear leaders.

An online store, unlike its real-world counterpart, may then allow you to read the camera's instruction manual and full specifications as provided by the manufacturer. You may find consumer reviews, too. A prime example of this kind of online operation is B&H Photo and Video in New York City.

The only problem with the online merchant is the fact that you must then wait 2 or 3 days for your purchase to arrive (unless you're willing to pay a steep overnight shipping fee). But maybe that's not so bad after all.

In the old days, I'd take a new camera home, open the box, set the instruction book aside, and start working with the camera. When something didn't work as expected or it seemed that I was about to break something, I would open the manual, figure out how to solve the problem at hand, and then set it aside again.

Now, after making a purchase, the buyer can review the instruction manual while waiting for the device to arrive.

When the box arrives, I still open it, set the instruction book (if there is one*) aside, and start playing with the camera. The difference is that this time I've read the manual.

*Manufacturers have decided to save a few dollars by providing a quick-start leaflet and including the manual on a CD or DVD that ships with the device. It's easy to carry a paper manual in the camera bag. It's also easy to carry a CD or DVD but finding a way to use it in the field is a challenge. In most cases, these on-disc manuals are in Adobe PDF format, so you can load the manual onto your phone or electronic reading device.

Given the advantages offered by online shopping, there are only a few products that are still better bought in person. Fresh fruits and vegetables, for example, which may be why online grocery shopping has never taken off.