http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=11945
Opt-Out Privacy Policy for Govt Web Sites “Weird” – EPIC
July 1, 2010 by Dissent
From EPIC.org:
The White House has announced a new “Clear Notice and Personal Choice” policy for the use of Web Measurement and Customization Technologies for government web sites. The policy is remarkable in that there does not appear to be any legal basis to allow federal agencies to routinely disclose personal information of citizens to private companies. The policy is accompanied by new Guidance for Agency Use of Third-Party Websites and Applications. The White House also announced a National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace. EPIC had urged the White House to uphold Privacy Act obligations in use of web 2.0 services. For more information, see EPIC – Privacy and Government Contracts with Social Media Companies.
If you haven't tried spokeo.com you should. Even the free preview illustrates what you can grab (no matter how inaccurately) from the Internet.
http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=11939
CDT Files FTC Complaint Against Spokeo
June 30, 2010 by Dissent
Sean Brooks of CDT writes:
Today we filed a complaint with the FTC and multiple state attorney generals’ offices against online data broker and aggregator Spokeo, Inc. We hope the FTC will view this complaint as an opportunity to tackle the growing issue of online — and offline — data aggregators offering unregulated consumer profiles.
Read more on CDT.
Grant Gross of IDG has more on this.
For my Ethical Hacker class. Also I wonder why there has been so much information released about these people? Is the FBI bragging or laying the foundation for a budget request?
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/063010-russian-spy-ring.html?hpg1=bn
Russian spy ring needed some serious IT help
The Russian ring charged this week with spying on the United States faced some of the common security problems that plague many companies -- misconfigured wireless networks, users writing passwords on slips of paper and laptop help desk issues that take months to resolve.
In addition, the alleged conspirators used a range of technologies to pass data among themselves and back to their handlers in Moscow including PC-to-PC open wireless networking and digital steganography to hide messages and retrieve them from images on Web sites.
So apparently this list isn't to ensure that extra attention is paid when these folks travel (run them through the nude image scanner, full cavity search, etc.) it's to allow discrimination based on religion? Or maybe it's based on ethnicity or national origin... Or maybe (and this is truly scary) there is “no particular reason”
Too Scary to Fly, Not Scary Enough to Arrest
Ten U.S citizens and residents, three of whom are veterans, are stuck abroad or cannot fly within or out of the United States because they are wrongly on a no-fly list, according to a federal lawsuit lodged Wednesday.
The Oregon federal court case claims the plaintiffs, many with Middle Eastern names who have committed no legal wrongdoing, have asked the Department of Homeland Security and Transportation Security Administration for an explanation, to no avail.
If they are US citizens pirating US films, what are ICE and Homeland Security doing there?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-20009348-261.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Feds seize cash, Web sites of alleged film pirates
A week after U.S. Vice President Joe Biden warned that the government would start cracking down on illegal file sharing, the feds swooped in and seized assets belonging to operators of accused movie-pirating sites.
… Authorities are searching for operators of the sites as part of an ongoing criminal investigation, according to Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The crimes that the operators are accused of committing weren't clear, but some of the sites are accused of distributing film copies prior to their theatrical release. [So these were foreign films? Bob]
As of 3 p.m. PDT, some of the sites were still operating, but government officials said they anticipated the sites would come under government control within hours. [I wonder how much of this is currently 'in the cloud' and how much will be driven there by these actions? Bob]
The investigation involved multiple law enforcement groups, including the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and ICE, a unit of the Department of Homeland Security.
Last week, Biden and Victoria Espinel, the U.S. intellectual property enforcement coordinator, told reporters that they wanted to send a message to counterfeiters and pirates that this administration was intent on protecting the nation's intellectual property.
(Related) This could be a government attempting to control the information available to its citizens – or maybe they too have an active movie/music lobby.
http://torrentfreak.com/damaging-to-culture-online-library-smashed-by-police-100630/
“Damaging To Culture”, Online Library Smashed By Police
There is outrage amongst sections of the online community as it is revealed that at the behest of copyright holders, a free online library has been raided by police. Chitanka carried user translated and submitted books, poems and other literature and as an “altruistic library” was thought to be legal under current legislation. Instead the site was raided and subjected to criminal procedures.
Mon Dieu! Have the French gone completely bonkers?
France Says D-Star Ham Radio Mode Is Illegal
Posted by timothy on Wednesday June 30, @03:15PM
"Citing 'national security concerns,' the French Autorité de Régulation des Communications Électroniques et des Postes (ARCEP, France's equivalent of the US's FCC) has ruled that D-Star, an amateur radio digital signal mode used world-wide, is illegal because it could allow operators to connect to the Internet. The ARCEP also cites alleged concerns regarding cryptography and national security as well as the use of a proprietary codec. While it's true that the D-Star codec is proprietary, its owner has openly licensed it (for a fee, of course) to any manufacturer who wants to build it into their equipment. Any licensed amateur radio operator who lives within the EU can sign an online petition protesting this decision."
Isn't this just polite behavior that all online services should provide? Corporate Security Managers should be checking employee login locations and flagging those that fall outside normal parameters. Think of banks that fail to check the IP address of customers who move money via electronic banking systems.
Suspicious login protection extended to all Google accounts
When your credit card gets too much activity from random parts of the world, your bank usually shuts it off, or at least gives you a call to make sure all those charges are legit. Now, Google is implementing a similar strategy across all elements of your Google account: if the company detects what it considers to be suspicious logins for your Gmail, Google Calendar, Blogger, Buzz, or other Google accounts, it will flag your dashboard and let you decide how to proceed.
Just in time for my next Statistics class. Also, I'm noting this type of display more frequently – there must be tools that make this a much simpler process than it used to be.
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/024614.html
June 30, 2010
BLS: New Data Access Tool Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages - State and county map application
"The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has developed an interactive state and county map application available at beta.bls.gov. The application displays geographic economic data through maps, charts, and tables, allowing users to explore employment and wage data of private industry at the National, State, and county level. Throughout this application, URLs are specific to the data displayed, so links can be bookmarked, reused, and shared. The application includes maps, charts, tables, and a link to standard BLS data tables and graphs."
Everything old is new again. I had hoped this would be more useful, but there are already many free password crackers out there.
New Tool Reveals Internet Passwords
Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday July 01, @09:18AM
"A new password cracking tool was released today that instantly reveals cached passwords to Web sites in Microsoft Internet Explorer, mailbox and identity passwords in all versions of Microsoft Outlook Express, Outlook, Windows Mail and Windows Live Mail."
[For example:
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/#password_utils
For researchin' stuff. Searches in many search engines at the same time.
Nginer
This looks interesting (besides, I couldn't ignore the Swiss Army knife bit)
http://www.killerstartups.com/Web-App-Tools/usekit-com-an-advanced-way-to-capture-information
UseKit.com - An Advanced Way To Capture Information
While I was testing UseKit I found myself thinking, “Boy, this is a bit like a Swiss Army knife for the Internet”. And I wouldn’t be surprised if most people who test it out feel exactly like that at the end of the trial.
UseKit can not be termed “a tool”; it is “a collection of tools” that are not necessarily interconnected, but they do have one common denominator: they all make for increasing your productivity when it comes to accessing and processing information found online.
For starters, UseKit will let you capture information via a provided bookmarklet, and once you have retrieved it you can proceed to share it with whomever you want. Besides, you will be capable of using sticky notes and a virtual highlighter in order to further capture information without having to leave the page that you are viewing.
In order to give UseKit a try, all that you need to do is drag and drop the provided bookmarklet into position. Upon doing so, the UseKit toolbar will become visible. And note that you can actually personalize it in order to make it fully accommodate your needs.
[From the website:
No installation required. Register it's free.
Another multi-tool, including Bibliography creator! Includes a Teacher's Guide
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
YoLink - Search Refinement and Bookmarking
YoLink is a free service that helps students refine their web searches and easily bookmark their findings in Diigo and EasyBib. YoLink also integrates with Google Docs account so that users can quickly move the content you bookmark in YoLink into a document. YoLink is plug-in for Firefox and Chrome.
I've linked to several of these videos for my Math classes. Better than most Math videos!
http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/mathtv-com-math-problems-solved-online
MathTV.com: See Math Problems Solved & Explained Online
Similar sites: Multiplication Tool, MathRun, Carrots Sticks, MathWay, and Sporcle.
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