Anonymous has attained notorious status for targeting governments, corporations, and (most recently) the Spanish police.  Another group, though, looks to be competing with Anonymous for hacker glory.  LulzSec has targeted Epic, Nintendo, Bethesda, Pron.com, and Congress in recent days, shutting down servers, nabbing user information, and generally making a nuisance of themselves.

Ostensibly, LulzSec claims to be trying to make a point about Internet security, presumably how companies need stronger measures in place.  Things get a little sketchy, though, when the group posts fake news stories, or encourages their members to try to access Facebook accounts using information from the porn site in order to shame the users.  That’s just standard douchebag trolling, not a useful service.

It is, though, a good reminder to shore up your passwords; diversify and complicate them.  I know I’ve been kind of lax, choosing ease of use over security by keeping my email, social network, and other less sensitive passwords fairly similar.  With so many different sites requiring individual logins, it’s tempting to take the easy path, but the massive run of hacks recently should give plenty of reason to make your passwords strong and varied.

Following a question The Holmberg asked on our forums, I thought a primer on how bills pass through the house and senate might help before Jeff, Darryl, and I talk health care and other pending issues.

Items Explained are…

• Sponsored bills
• Conference committees and reports
• Concurrent resolutions
• Super Majorities
• Filibusters
• Reconciliation
• Senate Rule XXII

For additional information, I recommend Project Vote Smart. It has a lot of good information.

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