Saturday, November 19, 2011


Local low-life
16 Indicted In Colorado ID Theft Ring With 100+ Victims
November 18, 2011 by admin
Wayne Harrison reports:
CENTENNIAL, Colo. — Sixteen people have been indicted by a grand jury on 168 counts, after law enforcement discovered that the group was responsible for a statewide identity theft ring that victimized over a hundred individuals and businesses across Colorado.
Read more on The Denver Channel, but the coverage doesn’t give a clue how they obtained the identity information they misused.


Will this agreement be available in the US? (probably not without some FOIA lawsuits) What information would be so onerous that our government would be reluctant to tell us they collect and share it?
EU parliamentarians speak out over gag order on data deal
November 18, 2011 by Dissent
Jennifer Baker reports:
A leading Member of the European Parliament (MEP) has said that she will not be silenced on the shortcomings of a new deal to pass European airline travelers’ information to the United States.
Dutch Liberal MEP Sophie In’t Veld made the comments on Friday after the European Commission issued a press release extolling the virtues of the Passenger Name Register (PNR) agreement. Parliamentarians have been banned from talking about the content of the deal or making notes on the document and may only read it in a “sealed room.”
In’t Veld believes this is ridiculous. “This is highly unfortunate. MEPs can read it, but citizens should also have access to what is decided about their rights. I don’t feel particularly bound to any confidentiality, especially as the Commission has been making public statements, why should I be quiet about it? The whole situation is not very confidence inspiring,” she said.
Read more on TechWorld and a huge thumbs up to Ms In’t Veld.


I agree that once your data is captured for someone's database, it is unlikely that removal will stop the re-capture process.
Unenforceable’ right to be forgotten should not be included in new EU data laws, ICO says
November 18, 2011 by Dissent
Giving individuals the right to force organisations to delete the personal information they store them about would be misleading, unenforceable and have “implications” for free speech, the UK’s data protection watchdog said.
“The framework should strengthen individual rights to object to and block processing, and to have their data deleted, and reverse the burden of proof so the organisation has to provide compelling legitimate grounds for continuing processing,” the ICO said in a briefing (4-page / 113KB PDF) on what it would like revised EU data protection laws to provide for.
Read more on Out-Law.com.


How quickly (non-US) out-of-office politicians fall to “second class citizen” status... I doubt anyone at TSA was fired, but it will be interesting to see if TSA says anything.
Unconfirmed: U.S. Officials Sacked for Frisking India’s Former President; Did TSA Go Too Far?
November 18, 2011 by Dissent
Sanskrity Sinha reports:
Two Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) officials involved in the recent frisking incident of former Indian president Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam at a U.S. airport have reportedly been sacked, according to an Indian national daily.
Though there are no confirmed reports of the lay-off either by TSA or U.S. Government, the Hindustan Times reported Thursday that the U.S. authorities had fired the executives for “exceeding their brief” as they made former Kalam, who is also an eminent scientist, face security checks a second time after he had boarded his aircraft.
Read more on IBTraveler. Additional background on the incident can be found on The Global Indian and Deccan Chronicle.
From the IBTraveler article:
"Appropriate procedures for expedited screening of dignitaries had not been followed," said the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi in a statement.
… under existing US regulation, Abdul Kalam does not fall into the category of persons exempt from security screening.
U.S. dignitaries, in contrast, are always exempt from security checks as a gesture of courtesy and respect in India.


Perspective
November 17, 2011
Pew: 46% - Paying for Apps
"Just under half (46%) of cell phone and tablet users who have downloaded apps say they have paid for an app at some point, according to a survey conducted July 25-Aug. 26, 2011 by the Pew Internet & American Life project. That number is statistically equivalent to the 47% who reported doing so in May 2010. However, the number of people who have downloaded an application has grown, so only 16% of all U.S. adults have ever paid for an app -- this compares with 13% who said so in May 2010. This is a small but statistically significant increase."
  • Digital Trends: "What app developers might find interesting is that it appears owners of tablets are more likely to pay for an app than those downloading to a smartphone. Furthermore, those with tablets are more likely to spend a greater amount on an app than those who buy an app for use on a smartphone."


Perspective The second Infographic is eye opening...
November 17, 2011
2011 Cisco Connected World Technology Report
News release: "Demonstrating the increasing role of the network in people's lives, an international workforce study announced today by Cisco revealed that one in three college students and young professionals considers the Internet to be as important as fundamental human resources like air, water, food and shelter. The 2011 Cisco Connected World Technology Report also found that more than half of the study's respondents say they could not live without the Internet and cite it as an "integral part of their lives" – in some cases more integral than cars, dating, and partying. These and numerous other findings provide insight into the mindset, expectations, and behavior of the world's next generation of workers and how they will influence everything from business communications and mobile lifestyles to hiring, corporate security, and companies' abilities to compete."


Thanks to Gary Alexander, I didn't miss this entirely. It is a bit pricy, but it's almost Christmas so I'm sure the school will “Gift” me the registration fee...
2ND ANNUAL CYBERSECURITY SUMMIT--WEST: Securing Cyber, Mobile and the Cloud
Monday, December 5, 2011 from 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM (MT) Denver, CO


Toys for Hackers. Boot from the USB port and bypass all that password nonsense...
Tiny USB Stick Brings Android to PCs, TVs


A question for my Ethical Hackers: How come your hacker-wiki has 10X more entries than the government's?
The Surveillance Catalog: Where governments get their tools
November 19, 2011 by Dissent
From the WSJ:
Documents obtained by The Wall Street Journal open a rare window into a new global market for the off-the-shelf surveillance technology that has arisen in the decade since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The techniques described in the trove of 200-plus marketing documents include hacking tools that enable governments to break into people’s computers and cellphones, and “massive intercept” gear that can gather all Internet communications in a country.
The documents—the highlights of which are cataloged and searchable here—were obtained from attendees of a secretive surveillance conference held near Washington, D.C., last month.
Read more on The Wall Street Journal. I haven’t had time to read this all yet, but will definitely want to know what U.S. companies are enabling oppressive regimes.
[From the article:
The documents fall into five general categories: hacking, intercept, data analysis, web scraping and anonymity.


For my Ethical Hackers. Should make an interesting target...
"'Sometime early next year, Ford will mail USB sticks to about 250,000 owners of vehicles with its advanced touchscreen control panel. The stick will contain a major upgrade to the software for that screen. With it, Ford breaks the model in which the technology in a car essentially stayed unchanged from assembly line to junk yard' — and Ford becomes a software company. This shift created a hot new tech job at Ford: human-machine interface engineers — people who come from a range of backgrounds, from software development to mechanical engineers, and who can live in the worlds of art and science at once."


I'm always looking for ways to bring good, relatable science into the classroom...
How Many Sips in a Bottle of Beer?

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