Chris Dudley Says Oregon’s Economic Future Depends On Education System That Is Effective And Successful VIDEO

Today, Chris Dudley released the following statement after Oregon’s application for participation in the federal “Race to the Top” education innovation funding program was graded 7th worst among the 40 states that applied. Oregon earned 292.6 points out of a possible 500. Chris Dudley believes instituting new leadership and new ideas can help to get Oregon’s education system back on track:

“Oregon’s economic future depends on a education system that is successful and effective. Regrettably, today’s broken system and the current lack of leadership in Salem are hurting our children and Oregon’s tomorrow.

The Oregonian said, ‘Oregon’s biggest weak spot: extremely weak plans to guarantee highly effective teachers and principals.’ It is frustrating at best that the politicians in Salem refuse to take a stand, reform our system, and move Oregon forward for the future of our children and our state.

As Governor, I will ensure that we educate for our economic future by instituting plans to improve our system through stabilized K-12 funding, increased professional training for our teaches, added incentives for outstanding performance, and a reformed PERS system to curb long-term budget impacts.

We can create an education system that ranks among the best in the country but we need someone from the outside who is not afraid to take a stand and change the status quo in Salem.” Read The Full Oregonian Story Here.

VIDEO CREDIT: ChrisDudley2010

TEXT CREDIT: FRIENDS OF CHRIS DUDLEY

Chinese Cyber Attack on Vietnamese Computer Users

The chilling effects of malware Tuesday, March 30, 2010 2:05 PM Posted by Neel Mehta, Security Team. Google Online Security Blog The latest news and insights from Google on security and safety on the Internet.

In January, we discussed a set of highly sophisticated cyber attacks that originated in China and targeted many corporations around the world. We believe that malware is a general threat to the Internet, but it is especially harmful when it is used to suppress opinions of dissent. In that case, the attacks involved surveillance of email accounts belonging to Chinese human rights activists. Perhaps unsurprisingly, these are not the only examples of malicious software being used for political ends. We have gathered information about a separate cyber threat that was less sophisticated but that nonetheless was employed against another community.

This particular malware broadly targeted Vietnamese computer users around the world. The malware infected the computers of potentially tens of thousands of users who downloaded Vietnamese keyboard language software and possibly other legitimate software that was altered to infect users. While the malware itself was not especially sophisticated, it has nonetheless been used for damaging purposes. These infected machines have been used both to spy on their owners as well as participate in distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against blogs containing messages of political dissent. Specifically, these attacks have tried to squelch opposition to bauxite mining efforts in Vietnam, an important and emotionally charged issue in the country.

Since some anti-virus vendors have already introduced signatures to help detect this specific malware, we recommend the following actions, particularly if you believe that you may have been exposed to the malware: run regular anti-virus as well as anti-spyware scans from trusted vendors, and be sure to install all web browser and operating system updates to ensure you’re using only the latest versions. New technology like our suspicious account activity alerts in Gmail should also help detect surveillance efforts. At a larger scale, we feel the international community needs to take cybersecurity seriously to help keep free opinion flowing.

The chilling effects of malware