Appeals court upholds border laptop searches

*sigh*

So I guess the easiest thing to do if you're traveling to another country and returning is to replace your hard drive, fresh install the OS, install the minimum amount of programs and data that you need, and be ready to lose your equipment when you return to the good ol' U.S. of A.

From the article: In dissent, Judge Betty Fletcher wrote that the government should have had a better reason to search Cotterman other than him being a convicted in 1992 of child molestation.

“I add my voice to the chorus lamenting the apparent demise of the Fourth Amendment,” Fletcher wrote.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/04/border-search/

List of companies' email lists compromised in the Epsilon breach

1-800-Flowers, AbeBooks, Air Miles, Ameriprise Financial, Barclays Bank Delaware, Beachbody, Bebe, Benefit Cosmetics, Best Buy, Borders, Brookstone, Capital One, Chase, Citi, City Market, The College Board, Dillons, Disney Destinations, Eileen Fisher, Ethan Allen, Food4Less, Fred Meyer, Fry’s, Hilton Hhonors, Home Shopping Network (HSN), Jay C, JPMorgan Chase, King Soopers, Kroger, LaCoste, LL Bean Visa Card, Marriott Rewards, McKinsey Quarterly, Meijer, New York & Company, QFC, Ralphs, Red Roof Inn, Ritz-Carlton Rewards, Robert Half Technologies, Smith Brands, soccer.com, Target, TigerDirect, TiVo, US Bank, Verizon, Visa, Walgreens.

I've received another one today and, judging by this list, I'll have a couple more coming in.

This list came from a Geekmom post, http://www.geekmom.com/2011/04/not-so-trusted-third-parties-why-youve-been-getting-your-email-was-leaked-notices/

Ars Technica has a slightly more detailed description as to what happened, but when you get down to it, there's not much of a story: service provider's server got hacked, data was downloaded by parties unknown, assume that spam levels and spear phishing attacks will rise.

http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2011/04/marketers-security-blunder-means-headaches-for-tivo-chase-users.ars