LOTD for July 31

The House passed a food safety bill that requires more government inspections and imposes new penalties on those who violate the law:
http://homelandsecuritynewswire.com/single.php?id=8429

Nasal vaccine developed for the swine flu, with Medimmune expecting to make as many as 200 million doses by March:
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2009/07/31/Nasal-vaccine-developed-for-swine-flu/UPI-59971249049383/

Fort Meade is currently in the lead to be selected for the military’s new center for cybersecurity–competition is fierce for the location because it could bring as many as 50,000 government and contracting jobs with $1.7 billion in salary annually alone:
http://baltimore.bizjournals.com/baltimore/stories/2009/08/03/story2.html?b=1249272000^1870068

US government secrets have been leaked on file-sharing sites…including sensitive information like the location of Secret Service safehouses!
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-326045.html

The UK ended its troop presence in Iraq after being there the past 6 years:
http://www.asd-network.com/press_detail_B.asp?ID=22157&NID=284998

Text messages appear on mobile phones without any interaction from the user and may have just limited interference from the cellular network operators, so criminals can use it as a way to break into cell phones. This was demonstrated on iPhones, Android phones, and Windows Mobile phones yesterday. Even security conscious users cannot protect themselves from clever text message attacks. For example, it was demonstrated that a hacker can disconnect an iPhone from the cellular network by sending a single malicious text message that the victim never actually sees! Spammers are *already* using this in Europe and Asia to force cell phones to visit certain websites:
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D99P18081.htm

Anti-theft software built into many laptops at the factory (even uninstalling the operating software won’t delete it!) in the BIOS opens a serious security hole. So, users don’t know that the software is there and cannot stop criminals from taking over their computer!
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gDEcxr3CSkM0RlVSqVzNWlccf6XwD99P33N82

Fast-spreading computer virus attacks financial accounts that are used by businesses. At least 500,000 computers have been infected by Clampi since March and it is continuing to infect business computers. These types of banking Trojans are so widespread that businesses are recommended to only make online financial transactions on computers dedicated to financial transactions and not use those computers for e-mail, social networks or browsing the network:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2009-07-30-clampi-computer-virus_N.htm

These hackers gave a tutorial on how to hack San Francisco parking meters:
http://www.infoworld.com/d/security-central/black-hat-2009-how-hack-parking-meter-786

The RIAA won another file-swapping court case–downloading 30 songs on Kazaa will result in millions of dollars in penalties:
http://www.infoworld.com/d/adventures-in-it/riaa-v-tenenbaum-defense-made-styrofoam-878?source=IFWNLE_nlt_blogs_2009-07-31

The new head of the FCC is examining exclusivity agreements between certain phones (he specifically cites the iPhone and the Pre) and carriers:
http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUSTRE56U0HI20090731

Analysis about why RIM is trying to block the Ericsson purchase of Nortel’s CDMA/LTE assets:
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090730-724429.html?mod=dist_smartbrief

The recession has really been hurting brothels, so German brothels have a new promotion that is based on all-you-can-eat buffets:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/5922789/Recession-hit-brothels-offer-novel-promotions.html

32-story Florida condo has just *1* tenant! They say that it can be spooky living in such a deserted place:
http://www.news-press.com/article/20090730/NEWS0110/90729077/1076