A final (???) salute to Attrition.org's Data Loss Database - Open Source

I came across some pretty sad news on Tom Fragala's blog that Attrition.org was throwing in the towel on their well respected DLDOS (Data Loss Database - Open Source).

In their own words, this is the reason why they are shutting down:

Much like Attrition.org's past defacement mirror, the time has come for us to say "no mas". In the past few weeks, it has come to our attention that too many people are more concerned with making a profit off of our work without any offer of acknowledgement or compensation. For those who aren't familiar with Attrition, we're a non-profit hobby site that takes on "projects" as we see fit, when we want to, and when we have time. For those who *are* familiar with Attrition, you probably know that we don't take kindly to being dealt with unfairly. Commercial entities, including "identity-theft prevention" upstarts and book authors, will gladly contact us, ask for information and advice, and then not even offer us the equivalent of a reach-around when selling their materials. We don't pimp our resources to others; they come to us. Unfortunately, more often than not, they won't even send us a "thank you". We've mentioned it in the past, but we're not going to mention it in the future. This is the last mention.

I've often mentioned the fine work the good folks at Attrition did on being a honest (not motivated by money) voice in what most of us agree is a serious problem. Because of this, I've always tried to point people directly to their work.

Perhaps, as I lamented in an earlier post, the pay for protection racket is getting a little out of hand? A good example of the frustration Attrition might feel is evidenced by some of the comment spam at the bottom of that post.

Please note for the record that I consider this blog a small one-person effort, which couldn't hope to keep up with the extensive amount of work the Attrition.org team put into maintaining this now "historical database."

Maybe this will be the last time, I can thank them publicly. Saying that, I will do so one last time for all they "did" for who really matters in the growing problem of too much information being stored in not very safe places. If you want to know who I am referring to, all you need to do is look in the mirror.

After all, most us have probably had our information compromised (sometimes more than once) in one of the data breaches catalouged in the Data Loss Database - Open Source.

I guess the old saying is true, "money is the root of all evil."

You can read the post from Attrition on this matter on their site, here.

Update 4/17/08: It appears that the DDLOS database might not be completely inactive. Emergent Chaos and Entering the Networked World are reporting that the database is generating new material.

If you go to Attrition's news page, Lyger has done a post "A new beginning." In it he announces a partnership with a new identity theft protection service:

Going forward, we would like to announce that we have a new partnership with Identity-Love-Sock, a trusted provider of identity theft prevention services. Not only can Identity-Love-Sock protect YOU from IDENTITY THEFT, it also provides several guarantees for your PROTECTION should YOU be affected by IDENTITY THEFT. With the services provided by Identity-Love-Sock , YOU will NEVER have to WORRY about your IDENTITY being STOLEN, MISUSED, or otherwise COMPROMISED. For more details on how YOU can be COVERED and PROTECTED, please visit Identity-Love-Sock . You'll be glad you did.

Hmmmm...I've been looking for an ehtical way to monetize this blog, I wonder if they are accepting affiliates?