Monday, November 09, 2009

Does using a computer make it a “computer crime?” There is nothing here that “requires” a computer. Surely there is precedent from the “dark ages before computers.”

http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=5162

2,000-Year-Old Scrolls, Internet-Era Crime

November 8, 2009 by Dissent Filed under Court, Internet

Jim Dwyer reports:

Early one morning in March, the law banged on the door of an apartment on Thompson Street in Greenwich Village. Investigators had a warrant to arrest Raphael Haim Golb and seize his computer. He was caught red-handed.

Mr. Golb is, or was, a guerrilla fighter in a cyberbrawl over the Dead Sea Scrolls, a war about the origins of 2,000-year-old documents that has consumed the energy of academics around the globe.

Read more in the New York Times.

Jennifer Peltz of the Associated Press begins her coverage with a focus on the legal question and implications for trolling and spoofing on the Web:

Parodies, pranks and freewheeling Internet discussion are at risk in a criminal case against a man accused of using online aliases to discredit his father’s rivals in a debate over the Dead Sea Scrolls, his lawyer said Wednesday.

Such tactics may be irritating, but they’re not crimes, attorney Ronald Kuby argued in legal papers asking a court to throw out nearly all the criminal charges against Raphael Golb. The court hasn’t yet ruled.

In this case, however, the defendant is alleged to have sent out an e-mailed confession under someone else’s name in order to discredit him. Golb denies the allegations, but his attorney argues that whoever did do that was only engaging in an “intellectual prank” and engaged in protected free speech.

Sorry, Mr. Kuby, but this is not a parody situation and this blogger does not think that sending out an e-mail while posing as someone else and “confessing” to plagiarism or anything other discrediting is protected speech. Should it be considered a criminal act, though, or is it “just” a civil matter? If someone spoofs your e-mail address and uses it to send out hate e-mail or e-mail encouraging attacks on others, is that a civil matter or criminal one?

It will be interesting to see what the court does with this case.


(Related) Here's a much nastier tool.

http://it.slashdot.org/story/09/11/08/2135245/Malware-Can-Download-Child-Porn-To-Your-Computer?from=rss

Malware Can Download Child Porn To Your Computer

Posted by timothy on Sunday November 08, @04:47PM from the where's-dexter-when-needed? dept.

2muchcoffeeman writes

"The Associated Press tells the story of Michael Fiola, a former Massachusetts government employee who was arrested in 2007 after child porn was found on his state-issued laptop computer. He was eventually cleared of all charges after some digging by the defense found that the laptop was infected with malware that was 'programmed to visit as many as 40 child porn sites per minute — an inhuman feat. While Fiola and his wife were out to dinner one night, someone logged on to the computer and porn flowed in for an hour and a half. [Now will you encrypt your WiFi? Bob] Prosecutors performed another test and confirmed the defense findings. The charge was dropped — 11 months after it was filed.' The article also discusses the technical aspects of how it could happen and about similar cases in the United Kingdom in 2003."

[From the article:

Pedophiles can tap viruses in several ways. The simplest is to force someone else's computer to surf child porn sites, collecting images along the way. Or a computer can be made into a warehouse for pictures and videos that can be viewed remotely when the PC is online.

… But pedophiles need not be involved: Child porn can land on a computer in a sick prank or an attempt to frame the PC's owner.



For my Disaster Recovery class.

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/11/09/0012226

Massive Power Outages In Brazil Caused By Hackers

Posted by timothy on Sunday November 08, @07:17PM from the mongering-engine-warming-up dept.

Hugh Pickens writes

"CBS reports on 60 minutes that a massive two-day power outage in Brazil's Espirito Santo State affecting more than three million people in 2007, and another, smaller event in three cities north of Rio de Janeiro in January 2005, were perpetrated by hackers manipulating control systems. Former Chief of US National Intelligence Retired Adm. Mike McConnell says that the 'United States is not prepared for such an attack' and believes it could happen in America. 'If I were an attacker and wanted to do strategic damage to the United States, I would either take the cold of winter or the heat of summer,' says McConnell, 'I would probably sack electric power on the US East Coast, maybe the West Coast and attempt to cause a cascading effect.' Congressman Jim Langevin says that US power companies need to be forced to deal with the issue after they told Congress they would take steps to defend their operations but did not follow up. 'They admit that they misled Congress. The private sector has different priorities than we do in providing security. Their bottom line is about profits,' says Langevin. 'We need to change their motivation so that when see vulnerability like this, we can require them to fix it.' [That's a very Liberal, government-knows-best kinda statement. No doubt government (i.e. taxpayers) should pay for the fix, too. Bob] McConnell adds that a similar attack to the one in Brazil is poised to take place on US soil and that it may take some horrific event to get the country focused on shoring up cyber security. 'If the power grid was taken off line in the middle of winter and it caused people to suffer and die, that would galvanize the nation. I hope we don't get there.'"



Are we forcing users to store their identities the Cloud? Aside from providing a central target for all those user IDs, what exactly is the benefit? Risks include error in the central repository and the impact of downtime (think of it as a cyber war target).

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/022752.html

November 08, 2009

CDT Highlights Policy Issues Related to New Identity Management Systems

"CDT released a whitepaper highlighting policy issues related to responsible user-centric identification systems. The paper comes as the U.S. Government begins launching a series of pilot programs that will use third party user credentials to authenticate users to federal Web sites and discusses possible challenges to be considered as these activities are expanded in order to provide a better user experience."



Rupert Murdoch talks about taking “fair use” to court, suing the BBC and other ways to “protect” (require payment for) their content.

http://mumbrella.com.au/murdoch-well-probably-remove-our-sites-from-googles-index-11366

Murdoch: We’ll probably remove our sites from Google’s index

Rupert Murdoch has suggested that News Corporation is likely to make its content unfindable to users on Google when it launches its paid content strategy .



OMG Dood, Colorado Tech is offering a PhD in Social Media. Where have you been?

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/022753.html

November 08, 2009

2009 Business Social Media Benchmarking Study

2009 Business Social Media Benchmarking Study "was designed to assess current trends in the use of social media in North American businesses. Based on 2,948 valid responses to our online Business Social Media Benchmarking Survey during August and early September, 2009, the results provide a very useful benchmark for where businesses, and business people, are finding value in social media across different activities and sites. The study was focused on social media utilization – how people and companies are using social media in a work context today – and not on adoption. All study participants currently used social media in their day-to-day jobs as a resource for business-relevant information and/or worked for a company currently managing, developing or planning social media initiatives."

[From the Study:

This is clearly an area of particular interest to business-to-business (B2B) marketers but establishing clear benchmarks in this area has much larger ramifications at a time where, according to a recent study by Robert Half International2, 54% of companies ban two of the most popular social media sites for business, Facebook and Twitter and only 10% of the 1,400 CIOs surveyed indicated that they give employees full access to social networks at work. This knee-jerk concern about squandering work time on personal issues has been seen many times before (telephones, cell phones, Internet, e-mail, etc.) and establishing the business value in social media can help companies placing themselves in the position of attempting to understand and utilize this new communication channel without the ability to actually use it at work.


(Related) Playing catch-up to the technology. Squatting on a brand name is tricky, but can pay off big time.

http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=140377

GM, Kellogg, Nestle Beat to the Tweet as Squatters Take Over Twitter Names

Marketers That Have Not Registered Handles Fear Brand Reputation at Risk

by Rupal Parekh Published: November 09, 2009

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- On Twitter's @Hyundai page, there is a collection of 140-character blasts in English and Korean about oysters, cellphones and the Yankees. Clicking on a profile photo reveals a collage of scantily clad ladies bearing cleavage and more, and a caption saying, "Have a Lustful Day."

Among the multinational corporations whose Twitter accounts are being squatted upon: General Motors, General Electric, Diageo, Coty, Comcast, Eli Lilly, Kellogg Co., MasterCard, Nestle and Walt Disney (see chart above).


(Related) Looks like you won't stop talking if you start tweeting or texting or whatevering. (If you don't tweet are you anti-social?)

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9140455/Got_friends_Now_you_can_thank_Facebook

Got friends? Now you can thank Facebook

Study finds that social networking actually improves face-to-face communication

By Sharon Gaudin November 6, 2009 02:25 PM ET

Computerworld - Despite a widespread belief that social networks like Facebook and Myspace are isolating people from other humans, a new study found that the social networks are more likely helping to expand social circles.

The Pew Internet and American Life Project's Social Isolation and New Technology study, released this week, shows that Americans aren't as isolated due to technology use as previously thought. In fact, the study found that technology is helping, not hindering, our social lives.



How to improve your surveillance. (Because you can't watch 24/7)

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10392844-56.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Ex-Palm trio loads up on Vitamin D

by Ina Fried November 9, 2009 3:00 AM PST

Vitamin D, a start-up formed by three ex-Palm executives, is releasing a public beta of software that consumers can use to detect human motion in their security cameras and create rules on what to do when someone is spotted coming or going.

Haitani gave a preview of the technology at this year's Demo conference. There's also a video of the technology in action on Vitamin D's Web site.



Another tool gets sharpened. (The Supremes aren't twittering, yet, so this will have to do.)

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/022754.html

November 08, 2009

Widely Cited Supreme Court Database Made More Accessible

News release: "The success of the highly regarded Supreme Court Database has been unparalleled. Information from the database is cited in the majority of peer-reviewed articles about the workings of the court. A team including Northwestern University School of Law's Lee Epstein, a specialist in the politics of the Supreme Court, has expanded the database -- with funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the latest in today's technology -- to make the resource easily accessible to a wider audience. Now, a streamlined interface allows anyone to go online and pull up cases with ease... By modernizing the Supreme Court Database, Epstein and her team are expanding Michigan State University Law Professor Harold Spaeth's original invention and using technology that wasn't available at its inception. Currently, cases from 1953 to 2008 are available. New funding from NSF means the database can be expanded to include information dating back to the court's first decision in 1792. The Supreme Court Database began with Spaeth's work in the late 1980s. Spaeth was able to collect decades of data on the court and put it together in a comprehensive database available to the public."

  • The Supreme Court Database is accessible here. The online version and a downloadable version are available. The database is updated every term.



Is this another valuable research tool? I'm just glad they don't clutter my coffee table any longer.

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/022755.html

November 08, 2009

List of all magazines now available in Google Books

Jeffrey Peng, Software Engineer, Google Books, a software engineer on Google Books: "One of my main projects is adding magazine content and features to the site. In September we were excited to announce the availability of over 1,860 issues of the iconic LIFE magazine on Google Books. One of the feature requests that I got from friends and family was to add a way to browse all the magazines available... I'm happy to announce that last week I coded up a page on Google Books that lets you browse the available magazine titles. You can view the page here."



For my website students

http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/11/08/193209/Tired-of-Flash-HTML5-Viewer-For-YouTube?from=rss

Tired of Flash? HTML5 Viewer For YouTube

Posted by timothy on Sunday November 08, @02:32PM from the that-taste-great-together dept.

An anonymous reader writes

"Instead of spending the next 10 years trying to find a Flash implementation for Linux or OS X that doesn't drain CPU cycles like there's no tomorrow, NeoSmart Technologies has made an HTML5 viewer for YouTube videos. It loads YouTube videos in an HTML5 video container and streams (with skip/skim/pause/resume) against an MP4 resource, and an (optional) userscript file can update YouTube pages with the HTML5 viewer. The latest versions of Firefox, Chrome, and Safari are supported. Personally, I can't wait until the major video sites default to HTML5 and we can finally say goodbye to Flash."

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