Senator Blumenthal Leverages Bully Pulpit to Hold Sony Accountable to Consumers for Data Breach

The Democratic Unity Press is an underutilized Yahoo Group that some Democratic campaigns and offices add to their press lists to share news about their candidate / official. It’s been a great resource for me in observing the various ways that Democratic press shops are reaching out to the media, and for keeping up with one of my favorite new U.S. senators from my home state of Connecticut, Senator Richard Blumenthal.

This evening I saw a release and accompanying letter that might be of interest to anyone who still stops by this site (I’ve missed you and hope we keep catching up soon!) as it highlights in new concerns that our exponentially developing technology poses for policy makers. And it highlights the ways that our elected officials can leverage their bully pulpit to advocate for their citizens.

As you probably know, about a week ago news broke that “Sony suffered a massive breach in its video game online network that led to the theft of names, addresses and possibly credit card data belonging to 77 million user accounts in what is one of the largest-ever Internet security break-ins.” The breach targeted their PlayStation Network. If you haven’t heard about it yet, don’t feel bad as Sony; many users reported delays in being notified about the breach (if you’re still waiting, here’s the message from Sony).

According to Infosecurity part of the reason it took Sony a week to go public and begin notifying customers incident was because they were “waiting for outside experts to conduct forensic analysis and for Sony experts to understand the scope of the breach.” As you’ll note in the release and note below, there was yet another revelation about another 24.6 million users’ information being compromised. And, as you’ll note, Sony has been further delayed in notifying customers due to an apparent constraint of only being able to notify 500,000 people per hour, meaning it would take 8 days before the last of 100,000,000 customers could be reached.

Some international leaders have recently issued their own warnings to Sony and other companies on privacy, and while the United States still has not passed comprehensive federal legislation around data breach notifications, Senator Blumenthal is making me proud by putting his past advocacy as a champion for consumers in his last position as Connecticut’s attorney general (not sure why this hasn’t been updated yet…) to use. Rather than merely calling for hearings (and I assume they will happen eventually), the Senator is using his influence and the power of his voice through the media to call for immediate actions on behalf of consumers across America, including:

1. Demanding immediate action to expedite notifications
2. Pursuing the source of the latest round of breached accounts
3. Discussing the issue with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder during tomorrow’s Judiciary Committee hearing
4. Calling for direct, public answers and increased transparency
5. Encouraging the company to provide two years of free credit reporting services and identity theft insurance to customers who were affected

Check out Senator Blumenthal’s full release and letter to Sony Chairman Kazuo Hazai and President/CEO Jack Tretton after the jump, and let me know how you think our elected leaders should respond to the ever-changing technological enviroment that we live in.

What do you think of the two privacy and data breach notification bills that Congress failed to past lass session? What other effective examples have you seen of elected officials helping citizens outside their formal lawmaking and hearing powers?

Quick Thoughts on Listening from the #MAPoli Elections

Today one of my enjoyable chores significantly streamlined my Tweetdeck client as I shed many list and search columns that were dedicated to listening to the Twitter chatter about the 2010 Massachusetts elections.

Filtering is one of the most important ways of efficiently finding the information you want to see on Twitter and using Tweetdeck columns to keep tabs on lists and searches is one of the easiest ways to keep an eye on the Twittersphere.  Paying attention to what all sides are saying is a great way to find messaging, events, & commentary to share and/or respond to, so I thought I’d quickly share what I listened to and why in case it can be helpful for you during future elections, or as you plan for other types of campaigns.

For me, there are a few important considerations on how to think about what you should listen to:

1. To state the obvious: hashtags that supporters and opponents are using to talk about the election (BONUS TIP: when setting up searches, leave out the “#” as long as it won’t flood the search stream too much by searching just for the word.  Occasionally, people forget the pound-sign, use a “@” instead, or in some instances you’ll want to hear when people are using a word outside of the hashtag.)
2. Candidate names (the ones you support and the ones you don’t) so you can hear the good and bad said about the candidates and help amplify whichever you might want to share by retweeting them (BONUS TIP: Retweet the old fashion way so you can add the hashtag and get the tweet more visibility.)
3. Media outlets give you a quick glimpse at the headlines of the day (BONUS TIP: You can use Tweetdeck’s Filter Button to quickly see if there are any stories about the candidates that have been tweeted recently)
4. Supporters to see what they’re saying and respond/retweet accordingly
5. Campaign tweeps can give you a view of what the candidates are doing on a daily basis and a window into what they’re doing outside the popular hashtags (if anything)
6. Relevant issues and keywords like the big dig, race to the top, tolls, yobgolins, loscocco, bakerbots, cape wind and other topics that might come up in the course of the campaign so you can respond/retweet accordingly

Lists

• Michael Durant’s Twitter list of #MAGov candidates
• Young Democrats of Massachusetts’ media list
• YDM’s Board member list
• My mongrel list of Massachusetts politics and Young Dems tweeps (which is admittedly in need of a little curating)
• If I were trying to pay closer attention to what the campaigns were doing and saying off-hashtag, I’d probably create or use an existing list of campaign staff (here’s @VoteDeval’s and @BakerforGov’s – @timforgovernor never made one)

Searches (note: some of these columns lasted longer in Tweetdeck than others, but for posterity & nostalgia’s sake, here’s as many as I can recall)

• magov
• mapoli OR masspoli
• malegis
• bospoli
• ma2010
• votedeval
• massgovernor
• devalpatrick OR “Deval Patrick” OR “Gov. Patrick” OR “Governor Patrick”
• timforgovernor OR “Tim Cahill”
• bakerforgov OR “Charlie Baker”
• bigdigbaker
• mahadenough
• hadenough
• bakerbot OR bakerbots
• timsteam
• ivotedeval
• got50

If you keep an ear out for Twitter chatter about campaigns or nonprofits, how do you decide what to search for?

Have other good tips for effective listening?

What was your favorite hashtag from the campaign trail?

Ranting on Nonprofit Media Coverage

Before I could recap some of the great lessons that we could learn from the innovation that nonprofits are doing in Elkhart, Ind. there were a few things I had to rant about in article, and coverage in general when it comes to our sector.  I share these rants with you and am very interested in your take on them…

<rant1>

Nonprofits learn to stretch a buck?  We are the sector that has been caring for vulnerable members of our community, educating our children, instilling our values, creating positive change, and otherwise strenthing our communities – always on a shoestring.

The shoestring has gotten shorter and feels like it might be a lot closer to tearing now, but our history is built on stretching a buck.  So, MSNBC, please don’t overlook that history or perpetuate the misconception that we don’t already know how to spend wisely or do more with less.

</rant1>

<rant2>

Throughout the history of mankind societies have recognized the need for organizations that serve a public good and play a role that neither government nor business can (check out pg. 8 of this Introduction to the Law
of Tax-Exempt Healthcare Organizations for a great history of nonprofits in the United States) . According to that chapter the American nonprofit sector goes back to the colonies starting with religious institutions.  This third of our economy has been along as our country has.

While it might be the smallest third, the sector employs 11% of America’s workforce and contributes $322 billion in payroll wages.  Interconnected with government and business, the third sector isn’t just vital to our communities for the public benefit they provide, it’s vital to our economy.  For some local flavor, see on how nonprofit human service providers contribute to the Massachusetts economy.

I shouldn’t be surprised or excited to see major news networks covering the sector – I should be used to it.  Much of the public’s lack of understanding for nonprofits stems from the fact that in between new, business, style, and other sections of the media, there is a lack of attention to this economic engine.

So, MSNBC, kudos on this piece, it’s full of interesting information. But, let’s step it up a bit.  I guarantee we’ll have newsworthy industry information tomorrow and the day after that as well if you’re interested.

</rant2>

Do you feel like you learn enough about the nonprofit sector from major media?  How is your organization’s relationship with the media?

Also, for any Massachusetts-based nonprofits, it would be a disservice to you and me if I didn’t shamelessly plug our Two Penny Project, which can help you develop strategies for delivering your message to the media and elected officials.  Download the Two Penny Maual for some great tips on framing if you’re interested.