Instant background research?
Quora + CrunchBase + LinkedIn = Best Extension Ever?
… The straightforward app is very, very slick. You simply visit the website of a company you’re interested in, hit the extension button, and you get an overlay of the CrunchBase, LinkedIn, and Quora data for the company. The CrunchBase column shows you the funding information, the LinkedIn column shows you your connections within the company, and the Quora column shows you some of the Q&A conversations going on about about company.
… Polaris Insights is Chrome-only for now, but Spoon says that if it’s popular enough, they’ll gladly do a Firefox version.
Facebook addresses Security...
http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=19957
Facebook: A Continued Commitment to Security
January 26, 2011 by Dissent
Alex Rice announces a welcome decision on Facebook’s blog:
This Friday is Data Privacy Day, an international effort by governments, businesses and advocacy groups to raise awareness about the importance of staying in control of personal information. A key part of controlling information has always been protecting it from security threats like viruses, malware and hackers.
That’s why we’ve developed a number of complex systems that operate behind the scenes to keep you secure on Facebook. In addition, we’ve created some advanced features you can use to help protect yourself even more, such as remote logout and one-time passwords. These features are especially useful when you’re uncertain whether your network or computer is secure. Today, we’re announcing two new such features.
A Secured Connection
If you’ve ever done your shopping or banking online, you may have noticed a small “lock” icon appear in your address bar, or that the address bar has turned green. This indicates that your browser is using a secure connection (“HTTPS”) to communicate with the website and ensure that the information you send remains private. Facebook currently uses HTTPS whenever your password is sent to us, but today we’re expanding its usage in order to help keep your data even more secure.
Starting today we’ll provide you with the ability to experience Facebook entirely over HTTPS. You should consider enabling this option if you frequently use Facebook from public Internet access points found at coffee shops, airports, libraries or schools. The option will exist as part of our advanced security features, which you can find in the “Account Security” section of the Account Settings page.
[...]
Social Authentication
[...]
Instead of showing you a traditional captcha on Facebook, one of the ways we may help verify your identity is through social authentication. We will show you a few pictures of your friends and ask you to name the person in those photos. Hackers halfway across the world might know your password, but they don’t know who your friends are. [Unless they ask and you answer... Bob]
Read the entire post on Facebook’s blog.
(Related) ...but not very well.
http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=19972
Facebook roll-out of new features encounters some bumps
January 26, 2011 by Dissent
Facebook’s roll-out of its new security feature, social authentication, is not without its problems, it seems. Helen A.S. Popkin writes:
If you’ve spent any time on Facebook today, no doubt you’ve seen more than a few of your Facebook friends describing the hoops they had to jump through just to log on — that is, if you’ve managed to log on yourself. If you haven’t yet tried, be prepared to correctly identify a series of photos from the accounts of random friends to prove you are who you say you are.
Read more on MSNBC.
And over on Digital Society, George Ou writes that the other new security feature, HTTPS, isn’t going so swimmingly either:
… there are some major problems with this update from Facebook. First, the feature doesn’t work yet even though they’re saying it’s available as of today, and I can’t enable the always enable HTTPS whenever possible option under account settings. Second, the feature should be turned on for everyone automatically because most people won’t even know about this.
Read more on Digital Society.
US ISP's will not go this way, because then they can't do Behavioral Advertising and have no basis for charging more...
Swedish ISPs To Thwart EU Data Retention Law
"After a leaked document from the department of justice showed police will be able to demand extensive private information for minor offenses, some Swedish ISPs have decided to fight back (translated article). By routing all traffic through VPN, they plan to make the gathered data pointless. ISP Bahnhof says they will give you the option to opt out of VPN, but giving up your privacy will cost extra."
[From the article:
Bahnhof choose a technical solution that allows them to not know what their customers do online, which they sent or are talking to. The information that they save is thus irrelevant to the police.
Even if not passed, this is a stab at a definition of Network neutrality.
Senators Bash ISP and Push Extensive Net Neutrality
"Remember when Verizon sued the FCC over net neutrality rules? Well, Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Al Franken (D-MN) see it a bit differently and have authored a new working bill titled 'Internet Freedom, Broadband Promotion, and Consumer Protection Act of 2011 (PDF).' The bill lays out some stark clarity on what is meant by Net Neutrality by outright banning ISPs from doing many things including '(6) charge[ing] a content, application, or service provider for access to the broadband Internet access service providers' end users based on differing levels of quality of service or prioritized delivery of Internet protocol packets; (7) prioritiz[ing] among or between content, applications, and services, or among or between different types of content, applications, and services unless the end user requests to have such prioritization... (9) refus[ing] to interconnect on just and reasonable terms and conditions.' And that doesn't count for packets sent over just the internet connections but also wireless, radio, cell phone or pigeon carrier. Franken has constantly reiterated that this is the free speech issue of our time and Cantwell said, 'If we let telecom oligarchs control access to the Internet, consumers will lose. The actions that the FCC and Congress take now will set the ground rules for competition on the broadband Internet, impacting innovation, investment, and jobs for years to come. My bill returns the broadband cop back to the beat, and creates the same set of obligations regardless of how consumers get their broadband.'"
(Related)
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-20029728-261.html
Is Netflix trying to embarrass certain ISPs?
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said it is "inappropriate" for Internet service providers to require his company to pay all the costs of delivering streaming video to a subscriber's home, and tomorrow he plans to do something about it.
In a letter from Hastings to Netflix shareholders published today, he said it is only fair for ISPs to accept some of the financial burden since it is the ISPs' customers who have requested Netflix's content. Hastings made it clear that he hasn't received enough cooperation from ISPs.
In response, Netflix plans to publish statistics about which ISPs are best at delivering "the best, most-consistent high speed Internet for streaming Netflix."
(Related)
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/012411-puppy-cams-threaten-internet.html
Cisco: Puppy cams threaten Internet
Network demand will explode, fueled by unexpected growth in ambient video, like puppy cams and surveillance video, according to reports from the 33rd Pacific Telecommunications Council (PTC) conference held last week in Hawaii.
… Telegeography Research presented estimates that global broadband Internet subscribers will climb to more than 700 million by 2013, with more than 300 million from Asia, compared to about 100 million in North America, and nearly 200 million in Europe.
And Robert Pepper, Cisco vice president for global technology policy, presented findings from the company's Visual Networking Index, which showed that global IP traffic is expected to increase more than fourfold (4.3 times) from 2009 to 2014.
In fact, global IP traffic is expected to reach 63.9 exabytes per month in 2014. This is equivalent to 766.8 exabytes per year -- almost three-quarters of a zettabyte. The most surprising trend is that video traffic surpassed peer-to-peer volumes in 2010 for the first time.
An unexpected driver in this overall growth of Internet traffic is the surge in ambient video. This is so-called "puppy cam" traffic -- fixed video sources featuring pets, so-called "nanny cam" child care and health monitoring video streams, and especially security camera applications.
“This a much bigger deal than anyone thought,'' said Pepper. He added that the popular Shiba Inu Puppy Cam site was said to have more Internet viewing hours than all of ESPN online video. In fact, of the top online video sites in Europe last year, "three of the top 20 are ambient video, and these didn't exist a year ago."
“We can't lower the threat level. If something happened when we said there was little risk, we'd look foolish!”
DHS to End Color-Coded ‘Threat Level’ Advisories
The changeover comes more than a year after the Homeland Security Advisory Council recommended altering the terror-alert code.
… The threat level has not changed in more than four years.
Perception is everything. No one asks, “Will it work?”
Even DHS Is Freaked Out by Spy Drones Over America
Police departments around the country are warming up to unmanned spy planes. But don’t expect the Department of Homeland Security to catch drone fever anytime soon. It’s too controversial for an agency already getting hammered for naked scanners and junk-touching.
For my Computer Security students
http://www.databreaches.net/?p=16526
Trustwave 2011 Global Security Report Reveals Shift in Cybercrime
January 26, 2011 by admin
Missed a press release from Trustwave last week, but worth noting:
Today Trustwave unveiled its 2011 Global Security Report, which reveals the target of attacks has shifted from traditional infrastructure to mobile users and endpoint devices. This trend combined with the popularity of mobile devices and social media is providing the perfect recipe for cybercriminals looking to compromise business, customer and user private and sensitive information. The report offers analyses of data compromise investigations, offensive security exercises and defense strategies taken directly from Trustwave’s expansive global client base.
Key Report Findings
Food and beverage regained its title as the most breached industry-representing 57% of the investigations.
Third-party vendors continue to put companies at risk-88% of breaches resulting from insecure software code or lax security practices in the management of third-party technology.
Cybercriminals got fresh in 2010-because in-transit credit card data is usually more recently created (more fresh) than stored data, 66% of investigations found the theft of data in transit.
A single organized crime syndicate may be responsible for more than 30% of all 2010 data breaches.
Evolving Threats
Among the most interesting and surprising elements of the report is the rate and sophistication of attacks against mobile platforms and social networking sites. As the security of mobile networks has improved, mobile devices are increasingly the target of attacks, while social networking sites are quickly becoming cybercriminals’ platform of choice to expand and propagate destructive botnets. Drive-by infections and mobile phishing attacks were among the most popular client-side attacks in 2010.
Geolocation data is helping cybercriminals launch more sophisticated and targeted attacks against social networks.
Mobile devices offer cybercriminals an open door to corporate authentication credentials, sensitive data and trade secrets.
Anti-virus software is losing the battle against malware – the new breed of malware is virtually undetectable by current scanning software.
A complete copy of the “2011 Global Security Report” is available at: https://www.trustwave.com/GSR.
Report Methodology
The foundation of Trustwave’s Global Security Report 2011 is data from real-world investigations and research that SpiderLabs performed in 2010. Results are based on information gathered from over 200 data breach investigations, 2,300 penetration tests and other security-as-a-service (SaaS) activities conducted for our clients. Standardized tools were used to record data, as well as other relevant details for each case or test.
Also for my Computer Security students
http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=19962
Why Corporate Counsel Should Lose Sleep Over the Federal Wiretap Act
January 26, 2011 by Dissent
Philip L. Gordon writes:
Once seen only in the shadows of the war against organized crime, the Federal Wiretap Act should now be moving steadily and rapidly toward the top of the corporate compliance checklist. Robust civil remedies, recent court decisions and technological developments have transformed the act’s risk profile from a nonevent to a statute worthy of significant attention.
Although principally a criminal statute, the Federal Wiretap Act is unique among privacy laws in that it provides for substantial monetary damages without proof of actual harm.
Read the legal commentary on U.S. v. Szymuszkiewicz and other court decisions and their implications on Law.com.
For my Intro to IT students. No wonder you're confused... If you can't (or won't) meet the standards, change the standards!
Wired Explains: What U.S. Carriers Mean by ‘4G’
… Loosely defined, 4G stands for the the fourth generation of cellular wireless standards. In the narrow terms originally defined by International Telecommunication Union standards, it doesn’t count as 4G unless it offers download speeds of 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps. That’s about 100 times faster than any speeds we’re seeing on networks now.
If we were to judge the networks available to us now by this standard, none of them would be considered 4G.
Luckily for the carriers, we aren’t judging that way — at least, not anymore. In December at the ITU World Radiocommunication Seminar in Geneva, the ITU allowed the term “4G” to “also be applied to the forerunners of these technologies, LTE and WiMax, and to other evolved 3G technologies providing a substantial level of improvement” compared to current 3G networks.
People at the extreme ends of the Bell Curve are difficult to categorize.
Xbox Live Labels Autistic Boy "Cheater"
"Jennifer Zdenek, the mother of an 11-year-old boy who lives with autism, is outraged at Microsoft Xbox Live for labeling her son a 'cheater' and taking away everything he's earned online. She says her son, Julias Jackson, is so good at playing X-Box games, Xbox LIVE thought he cheated. She says her son got online last week to play Xbox LIVE and saw that he was labeled a cheater and had zero achievements. Microsoft continues to ignore her requests to take 'cheater' off of his account."
Tools & Techniques Take all your Hacking tools with you!
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/pac-easily-create-portable-apps-programming-knowledge-required-windows/
PAC: Easily Create Your Own Portable Apps – No Programming Knowledge Required [Windows]
The concept of portable apps gives you the convenience of always having all of your favorite applications all of the time without the trouble of installing them on every computer you use. Just put them on your USB thumb drive, and you are good to go.
You can begin building your portable apps collection by going through the list on this article: 100 Portable Apps for your USB Stick, by visiting PortableApps, or by using a search engine. Most popular applications (and some of the not-so popular ones) are available as portable apps, so there are plenty for you to play with. But if you can’t find the ones that you need, you can build your own. The adventurous types can try the manual way, while the more practical types can use PAC – Portable App Creator.
For my Visual Learners (i.e. Students who won't read...)
How Big Is The Internet? (Infographic)
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