Saturday, January 12, 2013

...and here I thought they were supposed to set a GOOD example. Well, they are a government agency so no matter how poorly managed they are they will face no consequences. Better to spend your day asking for more funding that to manage the operations you are already responsible for.
… On Jan. 2, DJJ reported the theft of a mobile device containing youth and employee records to the Tallahassee Police Department (TPD), which is currently investigating the theft. DJJ has also notified the Office of Information Security.
The device, which was stolen from a secure DJJ office, was not encrypted or password-protected as required by DJJ’s technology policy.
… DJJ confirms that more than 100,000 records may have been compromised, and the agency is currently working to determine the affected individuals.
… DJJ issued emails with a policy reminder and prospective security instructions to all employees and contracted provider programs requiring the immediate encryption of all mobile devices [Why not all devices? Bob] that are not already protected and contain confidential data.


How does one do this? List at least 5 ways... (That's a homework question, Ethical Hackers)
If you eat at Zaxby’s, you should check to see if your location is affected/ by a security breach. Yesterday, the chain announced that some of their stores (108, so far, by their list) had suspicious files found on their systems that may have exfiltrated customer credit and debit card info.
Although the press release does not say that they were definitely breached (the release is couched in “may have’s), the press release states that stores were identified as the common point of purchase by credit card companies investigating fraudulent use of cards.


Dude, I hope you stashed enough to pay for a bunch of lawyers...
"A 24-year-old Algerian man remains in a Thai jail awaiting extradition to the United States, where he is suspected of masterminding more than $100 million in global bank heists using the ZeuS and SpyEye Trojans. Malaysian authorities believe they've apprehended the hacker Hamza Bendelladj, who they say has been jetsetting around the world using millions of dollars stolen online from various banks. He was arrested at a Bangkok airport en route from Malaysia to Egypt. The hacker had developed a considerable reputation as a major operator of ZeuS-powered botnets and bragged about his exploits"
[From the article:
Bendelladj is suspected of stealing funds from 127 U.S. banks in the past six years using ZeuS- and SpyEye-infected machines to drain accounts in minutes. Victims are said to have been compromised through fake financial Web pages between December 2009 and September 2011. The FBI, which has been hunting for the hacker behind the schemes for three years, has not released details of alleged crimes listed in arrest warrants awaiting the man after he is extradicted to the agency's Georgia division.


So much more convenient when the plane lands right in front of your house!
Hackers say coming air traffic control system lets them hijack planes
An ongoing multibillion-dollar overhaul of the nation's air traffic control (ATC) system is designed to make commercial aviation more efficient, more environmentally friendly and safer by 2025.
But some white-hat hackers are questioning the safety part. The Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) will rely on Global Positioning Systems (GPS) instead of radar. And so far, several hackers have said they were able to demonstrate the capability to hijack aircraft by spoofing their GPS components.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has declared that it already has multiple measures to detect fake signals. But it has so far not allowed any independent testing of the system. [“Hey, you can trust us!” Bob]


Did DHS take Oracles word for it or did they actually do their own testing or did they find it first?
Yesterday, the Department of Homeland Security issued a warning regarding Java, advising users to disable it in their web browsers. Following this was a Critical Patch Update Pre-Release Announcement from Oracle, which suggests that users temporarily disable it because of security issues. Says the advisement, Java leaves the computer open to attack.


What do these people smoke?
Facebook is at it again, folks. The social network giant is testing out yet another new feature, and this time it’s almost too ridiculous to believe. Facebook is testing a new service that charges you $100 to send a message to a stranger. So, instead of having the message land in their “Other” inbox, it will go straight to their main inbox.
… Facebook first began experimenting with this kind of option last month when it first introduced filters, including the “Other” folder. In initial tests, the fee was just $1. However, according to Mashable, Facebook confirms the $100 option is part of that test, and they say they’re testing “some extreme price points to see what works to filter spam.”


Any chance we could get US (or even Colorado) zoning boards to do something similar?
"Only a small number of U.S. cities can boast fiber optic connections, but in China, it's either fiber or bust. China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has now ordered all newly built residences to install fiber optic connections in any city or county 'where a public fiber optic telecom network is available.' The new standards will take effect starting on April 1, 2013, and residents will be able to choose their own ISP with equal connections to services. The Chinese government reportedly hopes to have 40 million families connected to fiber networks by 2015."


Helps to understand what information is shared with websites...
… While you could get the detailed information by diving deep into the browser’s properties, a simpler alternative is a website called About My Browser.
About My Browser is a free to use web service that lets you find out more about the web browser you are using. All you have to do is visit the website and it will gather information about your web browser.
Similar tool: Internet Anonymity Test.


I find this amusing...
… St. Vrain Valley School district in Colorado plans to implement a GPS-tracking system on students’ bus passes so that the district will be able to tell when and where students get on and off the bus. The system will cost about $131,540. Parents will be able to sign up for messages alerting them to their children’s whereabouts. Train ‘em young to accept the surveillance state, right?
… Also at CES, McGraw-Hill demoed its “SmartBook,” a textbook that promises adaptivity to the needs of individual students. According to The Wall Street Journal, “All readers essentially see the same textbook as they read for the first five minutes. But as a reader answers review questions placed throughout the chapter, different passages become highlighted to point the reader to where he or she should focus attention.” McGraw-Hill says the adaptive textbook will be available for about 90 courses in the spring.
… Edmodo says it’s updated and clarified the language in its Terms of Service. (Wow, still pretty unclear to me. And it says that schools and not Edmodo are responsible for complying with COPPA — is that right?!)
… Free online graphing calculator Desmos has added a very cool new feature: tables of data. Creating tables of data is an important step in understanding and solving equations, statistics, and so on. And this is definitely something your handheld TI calculator doesn’t do.
… The learn-to-code site Codecademy has added new lessons with training on using the YouTube, NPR, Stripe, Bit.ly, and other partner APIs.
… The Chronicle of Higher Education now hosts the data from the Adjunct Project, a crowdsourced project to identify the pay and working conditions for higher education’s mostly adjunct labor force.
… Because it wouldn’t be a weekly news roundup without some MOOC news: Coursera unveiled SignatureTrack — its plans to verify students’ identities so that it could confidently award “certifiable course records” (for a fee). How will it identify you? In part through “your photo ID and unique typing pattern.”
… According to the latest Babson Survey of Online Learning, more than 6.7 milion university students — about a third — took an online course for credit in the fall of 2011. The increase in enrollment — 9.3% — is actually the smallest percentage increase since Babson began tracking this figure a decade ago. And despite all the MOOC-related frenzy from last year, just 2.6% of higher education institutions say they offer one with just 9.4% more saying they’re planning to do so. The full report is available here.

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