In a development that I can only characterize as completely and totally awesome, UCLA’s computer system was hacked in October 2005, and administrators didn’t discover it until now, giving the hackers 14 months to steal personal information from as many as 800,000 Bruins. (I know that seems like a big number, but you should see the class sizes at UCLA. The student-to-teacher ratio is only slightly higher than the student-to-identify-thief ratio.)

Current and former students, faculty and administrators were all affected, meaning Mike Tran may have unknowingly purchased a “girl robot” by now, and Karl Dorrell could potentially be on the hook for a $1,500 leather bustier. (”It lifts and separates!”) To which I can only say: “Shoot. Yeah. Shoot.”

But of course I’m just speculating. According to university officials, “there is no evidence that any data has been misused.” Well, that’s a relief! I’m sure the hackers were just messing around. It’s not like names, Social Security numbers and birth dates — all of which were available for the taking — are “the trifecta for identity thieves” or anything. Oh, wait…

The good news is, I think we can all rest easy that Luc Richard Mbah a Moute’s identity is safe. Because really, nobody except Luc Richard Mbah a Moute could possibly pass as Luc Richard Mbah a Moute.

Anyway, I was kidding about the “completely and totally awesome” thing… sorta. I mean, it sucks for everybody who’s affected, and I do feel kinda bad for them, even if they are Bruins. But at the same time, well, if they had gone to USC instead of UCLA, they wouldn’t be poring over their credit-card statements right now, asking their wives questions like, “Honey, did you go to the spa while I was on that business trip last month?” That’s all I’m saying. :)

Here’s the L.A. Times article about what’s being called “one of the largest computer security breaches ever at an American university.” Excerpt:

Besides names, Social Security numbers and birth dates of those affected, the database includes home addresses and contact information, officials said. It does not contain driver’s license numbers or credit card or banking information.

Jim Davis, UCLA’s associate vice chancellor for information technology, described the attack as sophisticated, saying it used a program designed to exploit a flaw in a single software application among the many hundreds used throughout the Westwood campus.

“An attacker found one small vulnerability and was able to exploit it, and then cover their tracks,” Davis said. [Heh. “Small vulnerabilty,” my arse. -ed.]

He said the problem was spotted when computer security technicians noticed an unusually high number of suspicious queries to the database. It took several days for investigators to be sure that it was an attack and to learn that Social Security numbers were the target, he said.

Davis said the investigation was continuing, but that university officials had decided to notify potential victims now.

“UCLA and its community are the victims of this, and despite the great deal of effort we put into security, this really is a breach of trust with our community,” he said. “Given that we saw intent in this, we needed to let people know.”

UCLA has established a website to provide information and answer questions about the incident at http://www.identityalert.ucla.edu a toll-free call center, (877) 533-8082.

Laura Eimiller, spokeswoman for the FBI’s Los Angeles office, said the agency was investigating the breach, but said she could not comment further.

Although Eimiller would not elaborate, a source in her office added that the FBI is tracking the movements of a certain poodle who has become a prime suspect because, until earlier this month — shortly after the hack attack was halted — “he always seemed to have UCLA’s number.”

The source added that the bureau believes a “Trojan horse” may have been involved. Traveler VII could not be reached for comment.

;)

Okay, okay, I’m clearly having way too much fun with this, and I need to get back to work. First, though, a disclaimer: in case any humorless libel lawyers are reading this, please note that the two preceding paragraphs (prior to the smiley face) are jokes; I’m just kidding. Also, I don’t think a horse can sue for libel, or anything else for that matter, so you may want to find a new client.

(Hat tip: Dane. No hat tip to Mike Tran, who told me about this story a few minutes too late. Hmm, do you think Dane hacked into Mike’s computer and stole the idea from him?)

P.S. One other thing from that FBI source… Karl Dorrell has been ruled out as a suspect after investigators realized they had misinterpreted earlier intelligence that seemed to suggest he might be responsible. The intercepted communications, investigators now realize, referred to Dorrell as a “hack,” not as a “hacker.” They realized their mistake when said chatter mysteriously died down starting on the evening of December 2.

Remember to keep looking up… the best meteor shower of the year peaks Wednesday night into Thursday morning:

Start watching on Wednesday evening, Dec. 13th, around 9 p.m. local time. The display will start small but grow in intensity as the night wears on. By Thursday morning, Dec. 14th, people in dark, rural areas could see one or two meteors every minute.

In other news related to, uh, things happening in the sky, the Virginia rocket launch that could cause spectacular contrails visible all across the eastern U.S. has been delayed until Friday at the earliest:

The TacSat-2/Minotaur 1 launch set for Monday, Dec. 11, has been delayed with Friday, Dec. 15 as the earliest possible launch date. Analysis and testing continue on the TacSat-2 flight software and the ground-based simulator at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M. The launch window now extends to Dec. 22. Launch time remains 7 to 10 a.m. each day. As information becomes available, updates will be provided on this web site and on the launch status line at 757-824-2050.

Hmm. Y’know, come dawn on the 21st and 22nd, I’ll be in Knoxville, Tennessee, from where the contrails may potentially be visible on the eastern horizon. I hope the launch gets delayed till then!

Dr. Jeff Masters looks at why the hurricane-season predictions were so wrong.

Apparently feeling that the 23 delegates he won in 2004 are a sign of boundless potential, Dennis Kucinich announced today that he’ll run for president again in 2008. If nothing else, this guarantees that John Kerry won’t finish last among the “do-over” candidates.

In other news, here’s a funny CNN item regarding another possible ‘08 candidate — one who could actually, you know, win:

Heh. (Downloaded from here.)

Speaking of Obama, for those (er, myself included) who may have missed it last night, here he is during the intro to Monday Night Football, before the Bears-Rams game…

Heh, again. Da Bears won, by the way. They’re 11-2, tied with the Chargers for best in the NFL.

Casey says of “Bill Kristol, Jonah Goldberg, Charles Krauthammer, and the entire nexus of idiots who bugled the Iraq war into being”:

I am disgusted by how these men are still trumpeting belligerence from the mountaintops with only the most superficial and self-serving of soul-searching over their previous fatal blunders. I don’t just question the competence of these men. I question their character, their morality, and to be frank, their faith in God.

And their timing. Always question the timing.

Well, Domers of the world, you may be squeezing an excellent talent from the prospective ranks of future Volunteers next season.

Harrison Smith, a 6′2″/201 RB/LB Senior from Knoxville Catholic High School (with 4.3-4.4 speed), has been in the middle of a huge recruiting battle, primarily between Notre Dame and Tennessee.

Harrison just recently made his official visit to Tennessee, but today, Knoxvillians have been graced by the portly presence of Charlie Weis, in an attempt to get Mr. Smith to go to South Bend.

Harrison has had a tremendous season in an incredibly tough league this year, leading his Knoxville Catholic Fighting Irish to an undefeated regular season, losing to the ultimate state champions in the state quarterfinals. He’s being recruited as an “athlete” and would be a great addition to either the Irish or the Vols on either side of the ball.

His dad, a UT alum, is somewhat ticked at UT, and Harrison has been leaning toward ND in most people’s opinion. Don’t know if we’ll know anytime soon, but I’m guessing the Weis home visit won’t hurt.

To any other Safari users who have had the same problem I have — hitting Apple-Q when you meant to hit Apple-W, and thus losing all of your tabs as the application quits (when all you wanted to do was close one freakin’ tab) — I thought I’d pass on this brilliant solution that I just discovered:

Open System Preferences, click the “Keyboard and Mouse” icon, then click the “Keyboard Shortcuts” tab. Click the “+” sign at the bottom of the window. When the dialog comes up, enter “Quit Safari” (or any other menu item you want to to change, *exactly* as it is shown in the menu), then go to the “Keyboard Shortcut” field and type what you want it to be. I use Command-Option-Q.

Do that, then quit Safari (if you have it running). Next time you use Safari, Apple-Q (a.k.a. Command-Q) will no longer work… you’ll have to hit Apple-Option-Q instead. Thus, you no longer have to worry about accidentally hitting Apple-Q when your finger strays one key over from the “W.” Brilliant!

Thank goodness we have airport security to prevent Troy Smith lookalikes from disguising bombs as Heisman Trophies and bringing them onto airplanes. I think we can all sleep easier knowing that.

UPDATE: Apparently this story was incorrect. “Smith didn’t even take the…statue to the airport,” according to the Columbus Dispatch. (Hat tip: Below the Beltway.) Damn you and your lies, Associated Press! Forcing me to retract a mildly humorous blog post! Harumph.

The white seats are undecided: TX-23 and FL-13.

Voters in Texas’s 23rd Congressional District go to the polls today for a runoff election between Republican incumbent Henry Bonilla and Democratic challenger Ciro Rodriguez. Bonilla received 48.6% of the vote on November 7, while Rodriguez got just 19.9% — but he was trailed by a whole panoply of Democrats whose vote totals, combined with his, add up to 48.7%. (An independent candidate got 2.7%.) Polls show a close race in today’s runoff, with Bonilla slightly ahead.

Results will be available here. The polls close at 8:00 PM EST.

If Rodriguez pulls the upset, Tony Badger will win the BrendanLoy.com House Contest. If Bonilla prevails, Patrick Cullen will win — unless GOP incumbent Vern Buchanan’s apparent 369-vote victory over Democratic challenger Christine Jennings in Florida’s 13th Congressional District is overturned.

Jennings has sued, claiming errors caused by electronic voting machines cost her the election, and Dem party chairman Howard Dean has called for a new election and urged Democrats in Congress to deny Buchanan the seat unless a revote occurs. “This election is not valid,” Dean said. “You cannot seat someone if you don’t have an election that’s valid.” In an interview with the St. Petersburg Times that was published yesterday, Jennings said, “I am not giving up until we have an answer about what happened in this race.” (The Times’s headline reads, “Candidate vows not to give up vote fight,” but an early edition headlined the same article, “The woman who refuses to admit she didn’t win.” The Times has editorialized that Jennings should concede.)

Anyway, a Rodriguez win in Texas tonight would make the Florida battle moot for BrendanLoy.com House Contest purposes. But if Bonilla wins in Texas, the contest will be decided by the final outcome in the Sunshine State. If Buchanan ultimately prevails there, Cullen would win the contest; if Jennings wins, Badger would be victorious.

Badger predicted a 30-seat Democratic gain in the House — the largest gain predicted by any contestant. Cullen predicted a 29-seat gain, which is where things stand presently, barring Dem pickups in either Texas or Florida.

Cullen was the runner-up in the BrendanLoy.com Senate Contest, which Greg Rauen won by a margin of 227 votes in Connecticut.

UPDATE: Rodriguez and Badger win!

Heh: “I have a two-pronged test that helps me determine when a former Clinton apparatchik is lying. First, I look to see if his or her lips are moving. If they are, then I know something might well be afoot. Then I listen to hear if they’re evading direct questions by answering unasked questions as opposed to talking like normal people with nothing to hide. When the former is the case (as it usually is), you can be pretty sure they’re lying.” (Hat tip: InstaPundit.)

“Only manager manages management information,” and other gems from Casey. Heh.

Someone needs to do something similar for law-school exams. Or give me a link to where someone already has. :)

P.S. Also: the Cheeseburger of Tomorrow. Sounds kinda like a ride at Epcot.

The New York Film Critics named United 93 the best movie of the year yesterday.

I haven’t seen enough movies to know whether it was the best of the year, but it was certainly very, very good. (More here and here.)

How embarrassing.

Ann Althouse asks: “Remember how the Democrats ran on the competence issue?” (Hat tip: InstaPundit.)

But hey, at least he’s not Alcee Hastings, right?

Cripes.

UPDATE: In the interest of bipartisanship, it should be noted that Reyes isn’t the only member of the Intelligence Committee lacking in intelligence. The full article from CQ notes that whereas the new Dem chairman at least knew the basics about “the 1,400- year-old split in Islam between Sunnis and Shiites” — he just didn’t know which side of the line our principal adversary in the war on terror falls on — “two key Republicans on the Intelligence Committee…were flummoxed by such basic questions [about the difference between Sunnis and Shiites], as were several top counterterrorism officials at the FBI.” The Republicans in question are Reps. Jo Ann Davis, R-Va., and Terry Everett, R-Ala. (Hat tip: Mike.)

Alas, there is enough ignorance and incompetence to go around, in both parties.

Good. Though I have to wonder what will happen to the hecklers. Ahmadinejad, for his part, accused them of “oppression” … and then changed the subject to America-bashing. Heh. Typical.

In the second stabbing incident involving Newington High School in the last month, a 2006 NHS graduate was stabbed by a Wethersfield High School student at a hockey tournament in Newington yesterday. The Hartford Courant reports:

According to Newington police, two Wethersfield High students, including the suspect, went to the Newington fan section about 7:40 p.m. and started taunting people in the stands, using profanity and obscene gestures.

At that point, a small group of Newington fans confronted the Wethersfield students and a fight broke out, Lt. Stephen Clark said. During the altercation, the 16-year-old pulled out a spring-loaded clip knife and stabbed the 18-year-old once in the chest, police said.

The wound was more than an inch deep and required stitches, Clark said. The 18-year-old, a 2006 Newington High School graduate whom police did not identify, was treated at Hartford Hospital and released.

As police arrived at the center, the 16-year-old, whose name was also not released, was quickly identified by hockey fans and arrested, Clark said. Aside from the knife, the student was found with a marijuana pipe and 11 small bags of marijuana packaged for sale, police said.

He was charged with second-degree assault, carrying a dangerous weapon, breach of peace, possessing marijuana with the intent to sell and possessing drug paraphernalia. He was released after posting $10,000 bail and is scheduled to face the charges Dec. 22 in Superior Court in New Britain.

Police are still investigating, and more arrests are possible, Clark said.

WTNH quotes an eyewitness:

Lindsey DeJohn was there and says her 18-year-old friend who just graduated from Newington High was just sticking up for his school.

“One of the kids from Wethersfield pulled out a knife on him and stabbed him. It was completely crazy,” says Lindsey DeJohn.

As an aside, the quote from Ms. DeJohn raises an interesting question of journalistic ethics. The police chose not to identify the stabbing victim, even though he’s 18 years old. That’s their prerogative, I guess. But if Lindsey DeJohn is the victim’s friend, presumably she gave the reporter his name (or could have, if asked). So why didn’t WTNH publish it? He’s not a minor, so that’s not an issue. He’s not being accused of doing anything wrong, so there’s no libel concern. And he’s been treated and released, so this isn’t like a deadly car crash where you don’t want family members to hear the news on TV.

The only potentially valid reason I can think of is that the reporter didn’t want to rely on a “friend” to identify the victim — but why would that be? It certainly doesn’t seem like standard journalistic practice. If they trust Ms. DeJohn to be honest in giving her own name, why doesn’t that trust extend to her friend’s name as well? Besides, I’m sure they could have confirmed the name from numerous other eyewitnesses. And if they were worried about simple inaccuracies (as opposed to lies), such as spelling errors, once they had the name they could have used a phone book (or an NHS yearbook, if they could get their hands on one) to confirm the spelling. So “we couldn’t confirm the name” doesn’t seem like valid reasoning.

Of course, if the only confirmation you’ll accept is official confirmation, that’s extremely problematic, because that means you’re ceding your journalistic decision-making process to the government. And yet I think that’s precisely what’s going on here: the media is simply playing nice and obsequiously going along with the police’s decision not to identify the (non-student, non-minor) victim. What bothers me about this is, I wonder if the reporters even stopped to question what they were doing… if they even considered that maybe they ought to publish the victim’s name, given that they probably knew it or, if not, could easily have obtained it, and there was no clear justification for not publishing it. A journalist’s “default” setting should always be to release information, not withhold it; it should only be withheld if there’s a very good reason. And “because the police said so” is not, by itself, a good enough reason.

Anyway, enough journalistic ethics, back to the issue at hand…

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