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Washington: An unencrypted laptop computer stolen from NASA last year contained command codes used to control the International Space Station (ISS), media reports said.

The PC Magazine reported that the March 2011 theft of the computer containing the ISS command algorithms was just one of "5,408 computer security incidents (in 2010 and 2011) that resulted in the installation of malicious software on or unauthorized access to (NASA) systems", the agency's Inspector General Paul Martin informed the US House of Representatives in the letter dated Wednesday.

Other laptops stolen during the period in question contained data related to Orion, the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) being built for NASA's future manned spaceflight missions. NASA reported "the loss or theft of 48 Agency mobile computing devices" between April 2009 and April 2011, reported Xinhua.

Such security incidents resulted in losses of more than $7 million. NASA believes some IT security breaches in the past two years originated from amateur hackers and cybercriminals, but that others may have been the work of foreign agents.

NASA has a $1.5 billion annual IT budget, of which approximately $58 million is spent on IT security. But the space agency is behind the curve when it comes to encrypting some of its most vulnerable IT assets, said the magazine.

Federal agencies encrypt about 54 percent of their laptops and other mobile devices on average, but as of Feb 1, 2012, NASA had only encrypted 1 percent of its own mobile systems.

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NASA loses command codes to control space station

One of the best kept secrets of President Obamas 2007-08 campaign was how much its structure and strategic focus was influenced by the Bush-Cheney reelection strategy. Obama wanted to create the same kind of voter databases and contact schemes. He marveled at the Bush operations ability to identify potential supporters, learn their likes and dislikes, and keep them motivated.

Obamas team looked at the 2004 race with a mixture of revulsion and awe. Bushs composite approval rating on Election Day was 48.9 percent (48 percent according to Gallup). The country was becoming more dubious about the Iraq war. Bushs Supreme-Court-sanctified presidency looked to be in jeopardy.

Bushs challenger, John Kerry, harnessed every available tool within the Democratic Party to build voter turnout. Labor unions and party activists abetted those efforts with the most expensive and far-flung get-out-the-vote effort ever. And it worked. Kerry expanded the Democratic vote by more than 8 millionfrom Al Gores 50,999,897 to his 59,028,444. The only two comparable cycle-to-cycle boosts in voter turnout were President Carters 11.6-million-vote gain over George McGoverns lackluster 1972 campaign, and President Johnsons 8.9-million-vote vault over President Kennedys 1960 total. But Kerrys was more impressive. He took on a White House incumbent, built off Gores 2000 plurality of 48.4 percent, and found 8 million new votes.

And lost.

Because Bush was the better community organizer.

Bush increased his vote by 11.6 million, also without precedent in modern Republican Party presidential politics. In the key state of Ohio, the president upped his vote by more than 500,000. Bush also won two states that he had lost to Gore: Iowa and New Mexico. The Bush ground game increased its cycle-to-cycle vote in Iowa by more than 117,000 (18 percent) and in New Mexico by more than 110,000 (41 percent). Neither state, unlike Ohio, had a ballot initiative to ban gay marriage (which Democrats argue artificially increased that states GOP turnout). Bush became the first president to win reelection with a 48 percent approval ratingby organizing a bigger Bush-Cheney community.

Obama and his team went to work on Bushs get-out-the-vote efforts and microtargetinga new method of voter outreach that combined consumer preferences with polling data to sharpen voter appeals and increase the success of direct campaign contact with potential voters. Obama also built permanent grassroots organizations and harnessed enthusiasm for change.

The enthusiasm for Obama now is not like it was then. But ground operations are robust. In just about any big city, one can find Obama reelection events. Take Las Vegas. From Tuesday until March 31, the campaign has 156 (you read that right, 156) events plannedmeet-ups, voter-registration drives, phone banks, neighborhood walks, house parties, and coffees. An outlier? The campaign has 63 events scheduled for the same period in Raleigh, N.C. Obamas Chicago headquarters builds awareness and connectedness to these events and reelection messaging via Facebook (25.3 million likes), Twitter (12.7 million followers) and other social-media platforms.

They have taken a majority of the voter-contact techniques that were the hallmark of the Bush-Cheney campaign and the [Republican National Committee and] taken it into the data arena with social media, said former RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie. They are storing data and matching it up. They are very far ahead of the curve on this, and on the conservative/Republican side, we are dangerously behind. I dont know why.

Gillespie knows that Obama doesnt need the turnout operation he had in 2008 to win. Obama won 52.9 percent of the vote four years ago, and he can slough off 2.5 percent and still prevail, even more if a third-party candidate is in the mix. They know they wont have as much organic turnout as they did in 2008, Gillespie said. So they are trying to offset it with manufactured turnout. I do admire it.

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Ground Control

GIVING a statutory body the power to force news outlets to publish an apology smacks of government control, the media union says.

An independent media inquiry, headed by former Federal Court judge Ray Finkelstein QC, has recommended that a News Media Council be created to regulate news and current affairs coverage in print, online, radio and television.

It would combine the roles of Australian Press Council and relevant functions of the Australian Communications and Media Authority to enforce standards and deal with complaints.

But Christopher Warren, the federal secretary of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, said government regulation of the media should be resisted.

"Where the Media Alliance parts company with Mr Finkelstein is this notion that a government can somehow impose self-regulation on the news industry by statute," he said.

"As far as we are concerned, a government-funded body with the power to determine what newspapers should and shouldn't publish smacks of an attempt to impose government control on a free press."

Under Mr Finkelstein's proposal, the News Media Council would be an independent statutory body funded by the government instead of the current arrangement where industry funds the Press Council.

It would have the power to require news outlets to publish an apology, correction, retraction or give a person a right of reply.

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Media union to fight 'government control'

FORT LEE, N.J., March 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Inflation Association is getting ready to release a brand new report about the enterprise social networking industry on Friday, March 2nd, at 10 A.M. EST. The report will be entitled '2012 Social Network Stocks 2.0 Report' and it will feature almost every major publicly traded social networking company as well as most private enterprise social networking companies with the potential to go public within the next two years.

This will be a sequel to NIA's original critically acclaimed '2012 Social Network Stocks Report' that was released on January 3rd, 2012. In NIA's original report, NIA featured BroadVision Inc. as its #1 favorite publicly traded social networking stock market opportunity of 2012 and the stock has so far gained 257% from its year-end 2011 closing price. With Yammer announcing Wednesday evening that they raised $85 million in private venture capital funding, NIA believes BroadVision Inc. now has substantially greater short and long-term potential. BroadVision will once again be featured as NIA's #1 favorite publicly traded social networking company in NIA's brand new report coming tomorrow. NIA still considers BroadVision to be undiscovered by the investment community.

NIA believes that BroadVision stands to benefit more than any other publicly traded company from Yammer's just announced $85 million in venture capital funding. BroadVision is the only publicly traded company in the world that utilizes a "freemium" enterprise social networking business model just like Yammer. BroadVision allows any employee at any company to sign-up instantly for free at http://clearvale.com to deploy their own enterprise social network through BroadVision's Twitter-like 'Clearvale Express' platform. Just like Yammer, BroadVision makes money when companies outgrow Clearvale Express and they choose to upgrade to BroadVision's fully featured paid Facebook-like platform 'Clearvale Enterprise.'

While Yammer's paid platform is simply their free platform with new features that were added on top of it, BroadVision's paid 'Clearvale Enterprise' platform has been developed by the company from scratch into one of the world's leading top-tier enterprise social platforms with just about every imaginable feature and function that businesses are eager to offer through their enterprise social networks. BroadVision's 'Clearvale Enterprise' has many unique features that no other enterprise social companies offer, such as the ability for businesses to create separate networks for management, employees, partners, customers, etc. and manage these separate networks together as one enterprise social ecosystem. Through BroadVision's 'Clearvale Enterprise' social ecosystems, businesses can create a series of internal and external connected networks with the ability to have them overlap in terms of members and content.

BroadVision's market cap as of Wednesday's market closing price is only $176.54 million and BroadVision has $54.4 million in cash and no debt. This means BroadVision's enterprise value as of Wednesday's market closing price is only $122.14 million, while Yammer is rumored to now have an implied value in between $500 million and $1 billion after their latest round of funding. BroadVision along with Microsoft, Cisco Systems, Adobe, and Juniper are event partners of the Digital London Summit coming up on March 13-14, which NIA will be attending. BroadVision and Yammer will both be making major enterprise social presentations at the summit. NIA will be reporting live from the Digital London Summit to its report recipients about any new major developments regarding Yammer and BroadVision.

Other companies to be featured in NIA's exclusive report being released tomorrow include Jive Software, Telligent, Moxie Software, Lithium Technologies, NewsGator, Facebook, LinkedIn, Zynga, Renren, and others. To be the first to receive NIA's exclusive new report, simply visit the following link on Friday, March 2nd, 2012, at 10 A.M. EST: http://inflation.us/social2012.html

About NIA:

The National Inflation Association is an organization that is dedicated to preparing Americans for hyperinflation. NIA offers free membership at http://www.inflation.us and provides its members with articles about the U.S. economy and inflation, daily news stories and blog updates, and important charts not shown by the mainstream media. NIA is the producer of economic documentaries that have received a combined 17 million views including the critically acclaimed 'Meltup,' 'The Dollar Bubble,' 'End of Liberty,' 'Hyperinflation Nation,' and brand new 'College Conspiracy.' NIA provides unbiased reviews of the major online sellers of gold and silver bullion and also offers profiles of gold, silver, agriculture, oil, and alternative energy companies that could prosper in an inflationary environment. NIA is the creator of 'NIAnswers,' the world's most comprehensive database of questions and answers about inflation, currencies, debt, and precious metals.

Legal Disclaimer:

NIA owns 140,600 shares of BroadVision at the time this press release was distributed. NIA intends to sell its shares and can sell them at any time. NIA reserves the right to accumulate more shares at any time. NIA's co-founders have also been referred business in the past from somebody who has filed as a large BroadVision shareholder. NIA's report is intended for informational purposes only and does not provide investment advice. Neither NIA nor its co-founders are investment advisors or broker/dealers. Past performance is not an indicator of future returns. NIA's stock suggestions are not a solicitation or recommendation to buy or sell any security. Never make investment decisions based on anything NIA says. Do not rely on information from NIA to make investment decisions. Only use the information contained in NIA's report as a starting point for you to conduct your own research and make your own investment decisions. NIA does not guarantee the accuracy of information in its report. Stock market investing is extremely risky. NIA's co-founders may have previously discussed some companies in other media outlets.

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Yammer's $85 Million in Funding to be Featured in New Enterprise Social Report

A popular social networking site aimed at youth breached Canada's privacy law, says Canada's privacy commissioner.

Nexopia.com, based in Edmonton, has more than 1.6 million registered users, half of them from Alberta and British Columbia.

"Our investigation found Nexopia has inappropriate default privacy settings; provided inadequate information about a number of privacy practices; and keeps personal information indefinitely even after people select a 'Delete Account' option," commissioner Jennifer Stoddart said in a statement.

Nexopia advertises itself as "the place to be for teens looking to express themselves to the world." More than one-third of active Nexopia users are between the ages of 13 and 18, Stoddart said.

"The fact that the site is targeted at younger people strongly influenced our approach in this investigation. Given that so many of Nexopia's users are young, extra care is needed to ensure that they understand the site's privacy practices," Stoddart said.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner received good co-operation from Nexopia throughout the investigation, Stoddart said, but Nexopia only responded satisfactorily to 20 of 24 recommendations.

Nexopia agreed to implement corrective measures for those 20 recommendations and said it will change its default privacy settings by June 30. The four unresolved recommendations target Nexopia's retention of personal information. The website keeps personal information indefinitely.

The investigation was undertaken in response to a complaint filed two years ago by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC).

The Ottawa-based consumer advocacy on Thursday applauded the privacy commissioner's recommendations.

"The privacy commissioner's finding tells social networking sites with teen users that these services must create spaces for expression that are privacy-respecting and give real control to teens over their online privacy," said John Lawford, co-counsel for PIAC.

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Youth social networking site Nexopia breached privacy law: privacy commissioner