Tuesday, May 21, 2013

How big a straw is this on the “Let's not go to war again” camel?
"Government institutions are among the targets of an attack on Pakistani bodies, which originates in India, according to reports. The campaign is using vulnerabilities in Microsoft software to install the HangOver malware, according to Norwegian security firm Norman Shark (PDF). From the article:
'In the attacks on Pakistani organizations, spear phishing emails were sent out purporting to contain information on "ongoing conflicts in the region, regional culture and religious matters," according to Norman.
Norman could not provide direct attribution to the attacks, but its report did note the following: "The continued targeting of Pakistani interests and origins suggested that the attacker was of Indian origin." Snorre Fagerland, principal security researcher in the Malware Detection Team at Norman, told TechWeekEurope it appeared Pakistani government bodies had been attacked.'"


Why would this information be online? I can see a need for parts of the subpoenas you are currently working on, but why keep all of them online?
Ellen Nakashima reports:
Chinese hackers who breached Google’s servers several years ago gained access to a sensitive database with years’ worth of information about U.S. surveillance targets, according to current and former government officials.
The breach appears to have been aimed at unearthing the identities of Chinese intelligence operatives in the United States who may have been under surveillance by American law enforcement agencies.
Read more on Washington Post.
[From the article:
The database included information about court orders authorizing surveillance — orders that could have signaled active espionage investigations into Chinese agents who maintained e-mail accounts through Google’s Gmail service.


When the “government before citizens” folks are in charge, “wrongs overrule rights.”
Feds Tracked Reporter’s Movements, Personal E-Mail in Criminal Conspiracy Investigation
In an effort to unmask a leaker who fed a reporter classified information about North Korea, FBI investigators tracked the journalist’s movements in and out of a government building, obtained copies of e-mails from his personal account and also took the unprecedented step of alleging that the reporter engaged in a criminal conspiracy simply for doing his job.
Investigators tracked the reporter’s movement using security badge access records as he left and returned to the State Department’s headquarters in Washington, DC, and also obtained two days’ worth of e-mail correspondence from his Gmail account.
The FBI took the aggressive steps in 2009 against Fox News reporter James Rosen, the news outlet’s chief Washington, DC correspondent, over a story Rosen published online in June that year, according to the Washington Post.
“Never in the history of the Espionage Act has the government accused a reporter of violating the law for urging a source to disclose information,” Ben Wizner, director of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project said in a statement. “This is a dangerous precedent that threatens to criminalize routine investigative journalism.”
… According to the affidavit (.pdf), FBI Agent Reginald Reyes told the judge there was probable cause to believe that Rosen had violated the Espionage Act by serving “as an aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator” in the leak. The federal judge found there was probable cause to believe that Rosen was a co-conspirator and approved the warrant.

(Related)
May 20, 2013
DOJ IG Report of Investigation Concerning the Improper Disclosure of DOJ Information to a Member of the Media
  • "...In Section II of this report, we provide background information about the Dodson memorandum and the Department policies that govern the disclosure of information to the media by Department officials, including U.S. Attorneys. Section III describes our factual findings concerning the disclosure of the Dodson memorandum. We also include in this section a description of relevant information the Department learned during its review of another disclosure to the media in the summer of 2011 of confidential Department information relating to Operation Fast and Furious. Section IV sets forth our analysis and conclusions."


The ayes have it! (But is the language too restrictive?)
California continues to lead the way in protecting consumers whose data have been breached. By a vote of 37-0-1 last week, the Senate passed S.B. 46, a bill introduced by Senator Ellen Corbett.
The bill amends existing law to expand required notification to situations involving access to an online account. The law would still incorporate an acquisition standard as a trigger for notification, but the definition of personal information is amended to replace “username, password” with “(2) A user name or email address, in combination with a password or security question and answer that would permit access to an online account.”
The bill now moves to the House.


Must have missed this. I wonder if it is still downloadable at their website? (Yes, they are!)
By Dissent, May 20, 2013 1:48 pm Via PPR:
Tonight “The Willis Report” starts an investigative series titled “Medical Privacy Week.” The opening night will feature Patient Privacy Rights’ Founder, Dr. Deborah Peel, and Marc Rotenberg, Executive Director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. Tomorrow the show features Pam Dixon with the World Privacy Forum. This is the first series on national TV news to examine Americans’ lack of control over their sensitive electronic health information, from prescription records to DNA to diagnoses.
Date: Monday, May 20, 2013 Time: 6:00pm ET / 5:00pm CT
Please check your local listings or use the Fox Business Channel Finder

(Related)
The current (May) issue of Harvard Law Review has papers from a Privacy and Technology Symposium. You can download the full papers from the links below:
SYMPOSIUM PRIVACY AND TECHNOLOGY
Introduction: Privacy Self-Management and the Consent Dilemmas Daniel J. Solove
What Privacy is For Julie E. Cohen
The Dangers of Surveillance Neil M. Richards


Bad lawyers! Bad, bad lawyers!
rudy_wayne writes with news that the Prenda lawyers recently sanctioned by a federal judge are starting to face consequences. From the article:
"On Friday, Paul Hansmeier, a Minnesota attorney who has been pointed to as one of the masterminds of the Prenda copyright-trolling scheme, filed an emergency motion to stay the $81,000 sanctions order while he and his colleagues could mount an appeal. Today the appeals court flatly denied his motion. Two appellate judges signed this order, and it gives Hansmeier the option to make a plea for delay with the district court judge. That would be U.S. District Judge Otis Wright, the judge who sanctioned Hansmeier in the first place. Hansmeier is also getting kicked off a case he was working on that was totally unrelated to Prenda's scheme of making copyright accusations over alleged pornography downloads. On Friday, the 9th Circuit Commissioner ordered Hansmeier, in no uncertain terms, to withdraw from a case involving Groupon since he has been referred to the Minnesota State Bar for investigation. The commissioner has delayed Hansmeier's admission to the 9th Circuit because of Wright's order, which refers to Wright's finding of 'moral turpitude.'"


Told ya!
"Had Locked Down: Information Security for Lawyers not been published by the American Bar Association (ABA) and 2 of its 3 authors not been attorneys; one would have thought the book is a reproach against attorneys for their obliviousness towards information security and privacy. In numerous places, the book notes that lawyers are often clueless when it comes to digital security. With that, the book is a long-overdue and valuable information security reference for anyone, not just lawyers."
… A pervasive aspect of the book is ABA rule 1.6 regarding the confidentiality of information regarding client-lawyer relationships.


For my Intro to IT students. A Swiss Army Tool for tour Swiss Army folder on your thumb drive...
… Ubiquitous Player is a completely portable application that runs on any version of Windows from XP onward. It’s 100% free and even works on tablet or touchscreen devices. This application aims to serve every purpose of your daily PC routine. It’s packed with a media player, image viewer, file manager, text editor, browser, bookmark manager, notes keeper, calculator, color picker, screenshot tool, clipboard monitor, and even more.


Perspective for my Intro to IT students. Infographic
The Digital Footprint Of 3 Different Generations
… We currently create 5 billion gigabytes worth of data every two days. By 2014 we will create that every 10 minutes.


I was thinking of reprinting (in nice leather with gold tipped pages) “The Care & Feeding of Waterbuffalo” NOTE: It does look like they have some interesting stuff on law, education, etc.
May 20, 2013
UNESCO to make its publications available free of charge as part of a new Open Access policy
New Policy: "UNESCO will make its digital publications available to millions of people around the world free-of-charge with an open license. Following a decision by the Organization’s Executive Board in April, UNESCO has become the first member of the United Nations to adopt such an Open Access policy for its publications. The new policy means that anyone will be able to download, translate, adapt, distribute and re-share UNESCO publications and data without paying."
[From the UNESCO website:
Contains over 130 000 free downloadable documents in six official languages covering all UNESCO fields of competence since 1945 and publications edited by the Organization.


Hey, why not... (I like the first one: 'Advice for Liberal Arts majors')
Strategic Humor: Cartoons from the June 2013 Issue

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)