Virus AH1N1 Flu: WHO Outbreak Map

The outbreak of the AH1N1 virus has triggered the fear of another deadly flu virus like the previous SARS or even the deadly Spanish Flu which killed 40 million people.

BBC News has come out with a day-to-day WHO outbreak map to put into visual on how the virus spread throughout the world. Click here to view the full map.



Hope that this pandemic will stop and cured in the shortest time that is possible.

Personal Details for sale - $0.10 per record

Beware when you starts to receive multiple sales calls from nowhere or some commercial sms. This could be due to the fact that your personal data has been compromised by some of the companies.

The Star run a special report on the individual data protection issue on Sunday, 3rd May 2009. These are some of the except:

"KUALA LUMPUR: For a mere 10 sen, your personal data are being sold to unauthorised bodies. A list of 1,000 entries containing names, handphone numbers, type of credit card owned and issuing banks, and place of work costs only RM100.

If you regularly receive unsolicited sales calls, messages or e-mails, then in all likelihood, your data have been collected and sold to third parties.

With such baseline information in the hands of the unscrupulous, more particulars could easily be gathered and your identity stolen – for transactions and the purchase of goods or services without your knowledge.

........

The fact is any database is vulnerable – from loyalty cards and telecommunications companies to housing developers to members-only clubs – and there will be a demand for it as it represents a list of potential customers.

An entry from a database of an exclusive club comprising Datuks and Tan Sris, for example, could fetch RM3 each and resold for RM4."

Source: The Star

My two cents:

This is really frightening that individual personal information such as banking and contact information can be obtain so easily. The most worrying part is the possibilities of the data to be misused by those irresponsible parties such as applying bank loans, credit cards, or even from the shark loan. Something has to be done by all parties to protect the customer's privacy.