What went wrong with this 'wikitorial'
I could mention the latest data theft because it's a mammoth one -- up to 40 million MasterCard, Visa, Discover and American Express cardholders could have their accounts used for fraud. Most interesting may be who blew the whistle -- MasterCard, not the company that was attacked by hackers. MasterCard and Visa hired someone to do a security audit after fraud claims spiked at CardSystems Solutions' Tucson facility. In fact, CardSystems' executives were apparently "blindsided" by the press release, which makes sense since they also violated the card companies' basic policies and stored all transactions instead of wiping them out after processing.
But instead I'm going to note a failed experiment just north of here at the Los Angeles Times. Last weekend it tried out what it called 'wikitorials' in which readers created encyclopedic-like entries on a variety of subjects, a la the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. But the "public beta" went bust a few days later when pornography promoters got into the game. One story says the mischief began when the experiment was published on Slashdot.org, a popular posting site for geeks of all stripes. The porn industry has had a close alliance with the hacker underground for quite awhile. And if you are a regular reader or poster to any online message board, chances are good you've had some peddler of drugs or sex invade the space. To date, this remains a manual problem that no machine can regulate. I guess my only surprise is that it took them 48 hours to find a way to foul the LA Times' experiment.
But instead I'm going to note a failed experiment just north of here at the Los Angeles Times. Last weekend it tried out what it called 'wikitorials' in which readers created encyclopedic-like entries on a variety of subjects, a la the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. But the "public beta" went bust a few days later when pornography promoters got into the game. One story says the mischief began when the experiment was published on Slashdot.org, a popular posting site for geeks of all stripes. The porn industry has had a close alliance with the hacker underground for quite awhile. And if you are a regular reader or poster to any online message board, chances are good you've had some peddler of drugs or sex invade the space. To date, this remains a manual problem that no machine can regulate. I guess my only surprise is that it took them 48 hours to find a way to foul the LA Times' experiment.
