EA/Origin Rewards Adopters Of Extra Security By Scaring The Shit Out Of Them

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In our ongoing discussions about the new platform wars going on between Steam and the Epic Store, perhaps we've been unfair to another participant in those wars: EA's Origin. Except that no we haven't, since Origin is strictly used for EA published games, and now EA is pushing out games on Steam as well. All of which is to say that Origin, somehow, is still a thing.Enough of a thing, actually, for EA to have tried to do something beneficial around Cybersecurity Month. For Origin users that enabled two-factor authentication on the platform, EA promised to reward those users with a free month of Origin Access Basic. That free month would give those that had enabled better security on their accounts access to discounts on new games and downloads of old games. Cool, right?Well, sure, except that the method by which EA decided to make good on its promise basically scared the shit out of a whole bunch of people.

This morning at around 3am, jolted awake by an antsy newborn, I rolled over to check my email and was alarmed to see a message from EA with the subject: “You’ve redeemed an Origin Access Membership Code.” Goddamnit, I thought. Did someone hack me? Turns out it was just EA starting off everyone’s day with a nice little scare.

Ironically, this email came as the result of an EA initiative to reward users of its PC platform with more security. Last month, EA quietly announced that Origin users with two-step verification enabled (in honor of “National Cybersecurity Month”) would get a free month of Origin Access Basic, which offers discounts and access to a bunch of old games. This was them making good on that promise.Now if only “making good” hadn’t also equated to “scaring the hell out of users into thinking they’d been hacked and might have even lost all of their progress in Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order and had to start from scratch just like their buddy Kirk did.” Telling people that they’ve redeemed a code out of the blue is a good way to get them to immediately freak out and change all their passwords, especially in a world where just about every company (EA included) has been the target of a massive security breach.

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Court Says Portland, Oregon City Government Can No Longer Screw Public Records Requesters With Excessive Fees

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It's a small win for the plaintiff -- probably less than $100 in total -- but it's a bigger win for the residents of Portland, Oregon. The Multnomah County Court says the city has been routinely overcharging public records requesters for fulfilling routine public records requests. (via Merrick Law, LLC)The brief ruling [PDF] contains enough detail to show how city employees inflated costs they passed on to requesters who were made to pay up front before document searches would commence. In this case, the requester (Alan Kessler) sought metadata from four government email accounts. The city first gave him an estimate of $205.61, based on an estimated two hours of search and prep time with a 39% markup for "overhead costs."As the court notes, the city admitted the overhead costs collected rarely went to cover employee overhead. On top of that, the hourly rate used was calculated using the hourly wages of the employees performing the search. This sounds reasonable, but it actually isn't. In this case, the search was performed by two of the city's higher-paid employees, both of whom appear to be overqualified for the work they'd been tasked to do.

Mike Nichols, an Information Systems Technical Analyst V, conducted the search of relevant email accounts. The City's estimate for Nichols wage rate was $78.15 per hour. This rate was incorrect. The actual wage rale plus 39% should have been $66.09 per hour. Nichols' actual time billed for the search was 1.25 hours. Nichols' time record attributed 1 hour to the search.[...]Paul Rothi, the City Enterprise Architect Manager, conducted the oversight and record keeping at a rate of $91.92 per hour for 0.5 hours, Rothi's records show the time he billed to plaintiff's request totaled 37 minutes, rather than 30.

Here, the City presented testimony and evidence of the hourly rates (including the 39% mark-up for benefits) for two employees involved in responding to plaintiff's public records request along with the City's fee schedule established by City ordinance. The City also presented testimony that no study had been done relating to the fees charged by the Bureau of Technology Services, rather the City occasionally brought in consultants to review rates and overhead costs.Rothi testified that when preparing an estimate for a public records requester, he prepared a "worst case" estimate. Rothi and Nichols are two highly paid members of the BTS department. The City presented no evidence of the rates charged for other members of the department who may have been available to conduct the records search. The City presented no evidence of the rates charged for Baribeau's records review.

The City's current method for determining fees for routine email and document search, including providing a "worst case estimate" IS NOT reasonably calculated to reimburse it for its actual cost of making the records available and results in overcharging the public records requester without providing a method to refund of any overcharges.The City is hereby enjoined from charging excessive fees for routine email and document searches.The City must recalculate the time spent responding to Plaintiff's public records request at the lowest hourly rate charged by any department personnel who could be responsible for responding to public records requests, plus any overhead factor, and refund Plaintiff the difference, if any, over and above the $52.00 already refunded to Plaintiff.

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