“It's your personnal information, the
state just makes it available to criminals for free.” Why would
this employee confess to the Fire Department? Lot's of “worst
practices' here.
Michael McFall reports:
A Utah
Division of Motor Vehicles employee was fired in
March after the agency discovered she allegedly gave
out people’s personal information.
In response to a
Salt Lake Tribune inquiry, DMV spokesman Charlie Roberts confirmed
that the agency first learned from the Salt Lake City
Fire Department in mid-March that the employee, who was
not immediately identified, had allegedly released Utahns’
confidential information taken from DMV databases.
Read more on Salt
Lake Tribune, Fox13
provides additional details suggesting that this
may have been going on for a long time [See below. Bob]
and that the information was being used to commit crimes such as
revenge arson.
This is not the first time we’ve seen
reports of insider breaches resulting in non-financial crimes. A
case in Canada
comes to mind, where an employee allegedly gave out contact
information on dozens of people, many of whom then had their homes
fire-bombed or found themselves shot at.
[From the Fox article:
But state officials acknowledge they
may have no way of knowing how widespread the problem is.
… “I believe she stated she’s
been doing it for 14 years,” Ellis said.
Someone is getting serious...
China Daily reports:
Police have busted
4,382 cases of personal information theft, involving 5 billion pieces
of stolen information, People’s Daily reported Thursday.
More than 4,000
suspects have been arrested in three national crackdowns launched in
2012 and 2013, and at least 1,200 gangs selling and buying personal
information illegally have been destroyed.
More than 200
suspects have been punished for providing, selling and obtaining
personal information illegally, and the rest face punishment.
That’s impressive. I wish I could
find the article on People’s Daily, but haven’t been able to
track it down yet.
Does this have broader implications?
Hard to see how it could not... So if politics is not a valid reason
to sieze laptops, what is?
In a settlement reached with human
rights activist David House, the government has
agreed to destroy all data it obtained from his laptop and other
electronics when he entered the U.S. after a vacation, the
American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Massachusetts
announced today. House, who was then working with the Bradley
Manning Support Network, an organization created to raise funds for
the legal defense of the soldier who has admitted to leaking material
to WikiLeaks, charged in a lawsuit that the seizure violated his
Fourth Amendment rights by subjecting him to unreasonable search and
seizure, and violated his First Amendment right to freedom of
association.
In November 2010, Department of
Homeland Security agents stopped House at O’Hare International
Airport in Chicago and questioned him about his political activities
and beliefs. They then confiscated his laptop, camera, and USB
drive, which contained information identifying members and supporters
of the Bradley Manning Support Network. The government copied
House’s cell phone at the airport and held his laptop and other
devices for 49 days. The data taken from House’s materials was
then turned over to the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division
(CID), which concluded that it would not use the information.
… The government will also hand
over numerous documents, including reports describing Army CID’s
inspection of House’s data as well as the DHS “Lookout” telling
agents to stop House as he entered the country.
… “The seizure of David House’s
computer is a chilling example of the government’s overbroad
ability to conduct a search at the border that intrudes into a
person’s political beliefs and associations,” said John
Reinstein, an attorney with the ACLU of Massachusetts.
The settlement is available at:
aclu.org/technology-and-liberty/house-v-napolitano-settlement-agreement
More information on the case is at:
aclu.org/house
Texas?
I was so intrigued reading this bill
yesterday that I forgot to blog about it, it seems.
Cyrus Farivar reports:
Assuming that Texas Governor Rick Perry does not veto it, the
Lone Star State appears
set to enact the nation’s strongest e-mail privacy bill. The
proposed legislation requires state law enforcement agencies to get a
warrant for all e-mails regardless of the age of the e-mail.
On Tuesday, the
Texas bill (HB
2268) was sent to Gov. Perry’s desk, and he has until June 16,
2013 to sign it or veto it. If he does neither, it will pass
automatically and take effect on September 1, 2013. The bill would
give Texans more privacy over their inbox to shield against
state-level snooping, but the bill would not protect against federal
investigations. The bill passed both houses of the state
legislature earlier this year without a single “nay” vote.
Read more on Ars
Technica.
(Related) Really? Texas? Who'd a
thunk it? Not just the “Skeet & Drone Gun Club?”
Texas is turning out to be a hotbed of
privacy-protective legislation recently. D. Goodwin writes:
A Texas bill that
would nullify warrantless drone spying gained final approval this
week and now heads to Gov. Rick Perry’s desk for his signature.
HB912
would virtually eliminate all warrantless drone spying in the
Lone Star State and criminalizes all drone use
outside of carefully prescribed parameters.
The Texas Privacy
Act states that “a person commits an offense if the person uses or
authorizes the use of an unmanned vehicle or aircraft to capture an
image without the express consent of the person who owns or lawfully
occupies the real property captured in the image.” The offender
would be charged with a Class C misdemeanor if they were caught
violating this part of the law.
The bill then
outlines acceptable application of drones, including pursuant to a
criminal warrant.
Read more on Tenth
Amendment Center.
Perhaps my Computer Security students
could turn their rants about stupid laws into a cogently argued
article? Nah....
SSRN
Launches New Cyberspace Law – Student Authors and Intellectual
Property Law Section
“We are pleased to announce the
creation of Cyberspace
Law – Student Authors and Intellectual Property Law – Student
Authors eJournals within the Legal Scholarship Network (LSN). These
eJournals are designed for submissions by students or
others without or prior to receiving an advanced academic degree.
They can include Law Review student notes or other student papers.”
This could be interesting. Imagine a
similar business model for college students. Sign up for a Semester
of Math videos or a Quarter of IP Law. How about a hobby channel?
Summer guide to growing tomatos.
With
Skillfeed, Shutterstock aims to rework online training
Shutterstock has launched a new
subscription service called Skillfeed
designed to connect professionals who need to learn how to use their
computers with creative types who want to make videos that do the
teaching.
With the $19-per-month service,
subscribers can watch as many videos as they want, either longer-form
courses or shorter "snacks" good for smaller periods of
free time, said David Fraga, Skillfeed's general manager. And
content contributors get paid: Shutterstock keeps 70 percent of the
proceeds, but the rest is divided among all contributors based on
what fraction their videos were of the total time watched.
For my Statistics students
Principles
and Practices for a Federal Statistical Agency: Fifth Edition
“Publicly available statistics from
government agencies that are credible, relevant, accurate, and timely
are essential for policy makers, individuals, households, businesses,
academic institutions, and other organizations to make informed
decisions. Even more, the effective operation of a democratic system
of government depends on the unhindered flow of statistical
information to its citizens. In the United States, federal
statistical agencies in cabinet departments and independent agencies
are the governmental units whose principal function is to compile,
analyze, and disseminate information for such statistical purposes as
describing population characteristics and trends, planning and
monitoring programs, and conducting research and evaluation. The
work of these agencies is coordinated by the U.S. Office of
Management and Budget. Statistical agencies may acquire
information not only from surveys or censuses of people and
organizations, but also from such sources as government
administrative records, private-sector datasets, and Internet sources
that are judged of suitable quality and relevance for statistical
use. They may conduct analyses, but they do not advocate policies or
take partisan positions. Statistical purposes for which they provide
information relate to descriptions of groups and exclude any interest
in or identification of an individual person, institution, or
economic unit. Four principles are fundamental for a federal
statistical agency: relevance to policy issues, credibility among
data users, trust among data providers, and independence from
political and other undue external influence. Principles
and Practices for a Federal Statistical Agency: Fifth Edition
explains these four principles in detail.”
My Intro to IT students seem to like
this type of article.
2013
Internet Trends Report – Slides from Mary Meeker and Liang Wu
Published May 2013 by Mary
Meeker and Liang
Wu - “The latest
edition of the annual Internet Trends report finds continued
robust online growth. There are now 2.4 billion Internet users
around the world, and the total continues to grow apace. Mobile
usage is expanding rapidly, while the mobile advertising opportunity
remains largely untapped. The report reviews the shifting online
landscape, which has become more social and content rich, with
expanded use of photos, video and audio. Looking ahead, the
report finds early signs of growth for wearable computing devices,
like glasses, connected wrist bands and watches – and the emergence
of connected cars, drones and other new platforms.”
(Related) It's a mobile world...
IDC
Reports PC Outlook Falls As Market Increasingly Looks to Tablets
News
release: “Worldwide PC shipments are now expected to fall by
-7.8% in 2013 according to the International Data Corporation (IDC)
Worldwide
Quarterly PC Tracker. The new forecast reflects a shift in PC
buying trends as users increasingly consider alternatives such as
delaying a PC purchase or using tablets and smartphones for more
of their computing needs. In place of a limited decline of -1.3%
in 2013 followed by a gradual increase in volume, the new outlook
calls for a more substantial decline of -7.8% in 2013 and -1.2% in
2014 with shipment volume reaching only 333 million in 2017 – still
below the 349 million shipped in 2012 and a peak of more than 363
million shipped in 2011. The updated forecast reflects the
significant drop in volume during the first quarter of 2013 as well
as the transitions happening in PC design as vendors bring products
to market that are optimized for Windows 8, including more thin,
convertible, touch, and slate models…” In addition, the BYOD
(Bring Your Own Device) phenomenon has moved from smartphones to
tablets and PCs with nearly 25% of employees in
organizations larger than 10 people claiming to have purchased the
primary PC they use for work,” said Bob
O’Donnell, Program Vice President, Clients and Displays. “This
means that some of the corporate PC purchases we expected this year
will no longer happen.”
My students should be paying attention
to these articles too
Report:
Hard Times – College Majors, Employment and Earnings
Georgetown Public Policy
Institute Report – Hard
Times – College Majors, Employment and Earnings: ”In
the past, a college degree all but assured job seekers employment and
high earnings, but today, what you make depends on what you take. In
Hard Times 2013, we show differences in unemployment and earnings
based on major for BA and graduate degree holders. We
show that STEM — Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
— majors typically offer the best opportunities for employment and
earnings, while unemployment is higher for graduates with
non-technical degrees.
I happen to know where I can get my
hands on the perfect printer...
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