Strange
as it may seem, this is part of “We listen to everything.”
I can almost hear Bob
Dylan singing, “Everybody must get surveilled.” Well, not
really, but you know what I mean.
The
US National Security Agency spied on emails, phone calls and text
messages of the presidents of Brazil and Mexico, a Brazilian news
programme has reported.
The
report by Globo’s news programme Fantastico was based on documents
that Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald obtained from former NSA
contractor Edward Snowden.
Read more on RTÉ.
For
my Ethical Hackers: Told ya!
How
the US Could Cyber Attack Syria, Too
Over the weekend, President Obama announced that he would seek
Congressional approval for a strike on Syria, and immediately began
a "lobbying blitz" to bolster public and political
support for intervention. But Obama needs no such
approval from Congress for a cyber strike. [Why
do they think that is so? Bob] And according to both
Foreign Policy magazine and The Washington Free Beacon,
some form of cyber attack on Syria will accompany a missile strike,
if it isn’t happening already.
The relatively new US Cyber Command will be testing out new cyberwar
capabilities, military sources told the Free
Beacon, with Syrian targets including the “electronic
command and control systems used by the Syrian military forces, air
defense computers, and other military communications networks.”
I
think I'm seeing a general trend to view poor security as negligence.
Interesting.
It seems it isn’t all
over for a lawsuit by nine financial institutions against Heartland
Payment Systems following a mammoth breach disclosed in
January 2009. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the
district court’s dismissal of negligence claims and remanded.
Here’s part of the opinion, issued yesterday:
Turning
to the case sub judice, we hold the economic loss doctrine
under New Jersey law does not preclude the Issuer Banks’ negligence
claim against Heartland at the motion to dismiss stage. First, the
Issuer Banks constitute an “identifiable class” as contemplated
by People Express. 495 A.2d at 116. Heartland had reason to
foresee the Issuer Banks would be the entities to suffer economic
losses were Heartland negligent. See id. The identities,
nature, and number of the victims are easily foreseeable, as the
Issuer Banks are the very entities to which Heartland sends payment
card information. See id. Furthermore, Heartland would not
be exposed to “boundless liability,” but rather to the reasonable
amount of loss from a limited number of entities. Id.
Accordingly, even absent physical harm, Heartland may
owe the Issuer Banks a duty of care and may be liable for
their purely economic losses. See id.; Carter Lincoln-Mercury,
Inc., Leasing Div. v. EMAR Grp., Inc., 638 A.2d 1288, 1294 (N.J.
1994) (holding economic loss doctrine no bar to tort claim regardless
of physical harm “if the plaintiff was a member of an identifiable
class that the defendant should have reasonably foreseen was likely
to be injured by the defendant’s conduct” (citing People
Express, 495 A.2d at 116)).
Second,
viewing the pleadings in the light most favorable to the Issuer
Banks, in the absence of a tort remedy, the Issuer Banks would be
left with no remedy for Heartland’s alleged negligence, defying
“notions of fairness, common sense and morality.”
The court declined
Heartland’s urging to uphold the district court’s dismissal on
any one of four grounds, sending the case back to the district court
to consider:
Heartland
asserts that even if it owes the Issuer Banks a duty of care under
People Express and the economic loss doctrine does not bar
the Issuer Banks’ negligence claim at this stage of the litigation,
we should affirm the district court on any of four grounds: (1) the
Issuer Banks are bound by the allegation in their complaint that
Heartland has contracts with Visa and MasterCard, so they should be
limited to the contractual remedies available through the Visa and
MasterCard networks; (2) Texas law, not New Jersey law, is
controlling; (3) the Issuer Banks fail to state a claim under
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8(a); and (4) some of the Issuer
Banks are collaterally estopped from pursuing this negligence claim
because the district court’s disposition of their separate claim
against the Acquirer Banks involved the same issue. Though “[w]e
are free to uphold the district court’s judgment on any basis that
is supported by the record,” Zuspann v. Brown, 60 F.3d
1156, 1160 (5th Cir. 1995), we decline to decide these complex issues
as they are better addressed by the district court in the first
instance. See U.S. ex rel. Branch Consultants v. Allstate Ins.
Co., 560 F.3d 371, 381 (5th Cir. 2009) (remanding so district
court can consider issues in first instance) (citing Breaux v.
Dilsaver, 254 F.3d 533, 538 (5th Cir. 2001) (“Although this
court may decide a case on any ground that was presented to the trial
court, we are not required to do so.”)).
You can access the full
opinion here
(pdf, 10 pp.).
The latest episode. It
may further complicate extradition if he is elected.
Kim
Dotcom exits Mega post to follow other pursuits
Kim Dotcom is resigning
from data storage provider Mega in order to focus on his extradition
case and political aspirations.
The New
Zealand Herald reports that the flamboyant director of Mega
resigned August 29 and was replaced by Hong Kong-based Bonnie Lam the
same day, according to Companies Office filings.
… Earlier this
month, Dotcom told his Twitter following that he planned to follow
political aspirations and launch a political party in New Zealand.
The 39-year-old plans to
contest in next year's elections, campaigning to improve the
country's IT infrastructure and push for "fair Internet pricing
and no more data caps."
… Federal agencies
seized and shut down the file-sharing service at the beginning of
2012, which caused
outrage after leaving millions of users stranded without access
to their files, some of which were legitimately stored on the
service.
Kumar says that the
Mega service currently accounts for over
4 million users, a few thousand of whom are paid customers.
… Mega is built
around security and fully encrypted file sharing rather than storing
and sharing IP infringing material, Kumar said. To this end, the
"privacy company" is developing secure
e-mail services to run on its entirely non-U.S.-based server
network in order to replace Lavabit, a secure email service which has
recently closed down.
The Mega founder is
currently battling a case brought forward by US authorities to
extradite him. DotCom may have to wait
until next year for the hearing, which will decide whether Dotcom
will be extradited to the United States, where he is wanted on
charges of copyright infringement and money laundering through the
Megaupload service.
The original hearing
date was scheduled for last August, but complications and confusion
around legal arguments have continually delayed the case.
The high-profile case
resulted in an overhaul of New Zealand's Government Communications
Security Bureau (GCSB). The agency was found to have
unlawfully spied on Dotcom's activities as he had been
granted residency. Recently, New Zealand police said
that they will
not charge anyone in the agency for illegally spying, because
there was "a lack of criminal intent."
Now
all I need to do is convince the wife.
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For
all my students
Get
Paragon Drive Copy 12 Compact (PC) for free
… as with any
storage upgrade, half the challenge lies in moving everything from
old drive to new. Not many drives come with the software to aid in
such a move.
Thankfully, there are
third-party options, and for a very limited time, you can snag one
gratis: Today only, BitsDuJour is offering Paragon
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$29.95.
Update (9/4/13):
Looks like the deal has been extended for a second day to
accommodate users who weren't able to connect yesterday.
Also
for all my students
The
70 Best Apps For Teachers And Students
We
just purchased a pair of these for our students. Perhaps we should
join this group?
…
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