Interesting that this could go on for 20 months before anyone noticed. I suspect they noticed when they looked at the child porn TOR emails (and all the other email)? How else would they have a reason to ask for a search warrant?

http://krebsonsecurity.com/2014/01/feds-infiltrate-bust-counterfeit-card-shop/

Feds Infiltrate, Bust Counterfeit Card Shop

Federal authorities in New Jersey announced a series of arrests and indictments of 14 individuals thought to be connected to an online one-stop shop selling embossed, counterfeit credit cards and holographic overlays.

According to documents released by prosecutors in New Jersey and North Carolina, the men ran or otherwise profited from the Web site fakeplastic[dot]net, which specializes in selling high-quality, custom-made counterfeit credit and debit cards, as well as holographic overlays used to create fake driver’s licenses.

The FBI and the U.S. Postal Investigative Service began investigating fakeplastic[dot]net in January 2013. Charged with running the site is 39-year-old Sean Roberson of Palm Bay, Fla. Investigators allege that Roberson began selling counterfeit cards in April 2011, and launched the site in June 2012. Since then, Roberson and two accomplices fulfilled orders for approximately 69,000 counterfeit cards — both embossed and unembossed; more than 35,000 holographic stickers used to make counterfeit cards appear more legitimate; and more than 30,000 state identification card holographic overlays. All of the orders — 36,000 parcels in total — were shipped by the site to customers via the U.S. mail.

… Interestingly, the feds used information gleaned from an incident last summer in which federal agents compromised TorMail as part of an investigation into a child pornography network. To wit:

Between July 22, 2013 and August 2, 2013, in connection with an unrelated criminal investigation, the FBI obtained a copy of a computer server located in France via a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty request to France, which contained data and information from the Tormail email server, including the content of Tormail e-mail accounts. On or about September 24, 2013, law enforcement obtained a search warrant to search the contents of the Platplus Tormail Account, which resided on the seized Tormail server.

Just in time for Data Privacy Day. Does the “need” for new laws always assume that the old laws were poorly written? Does new technology create new “Privacy” that we didn't know needed protection? Must the "right to be left alone" be restated for each new technology?

New Laws Are Needed To Protect Student Data In The Digital Age

Bradley Shear writes:

Students and schools around the country are utilizing new digital technologies in ways many people did not imagine at the turn of the century and those technologies offer great promise. Just ten years ago, terms like “big data”, “the cloud”, “data mining”, and “social media” were not well known by students, parents, and school officials. To lower costs and to help our students learn more effectively, thousands of schools across the country have adopted new digital technologies. Unfortunately, the current legal framework designed to protect student privacy and safety has not kept up with the rapid advancements that have been created by the Digital Age.

Read more of his commentary on Shear on Social Media Law.

(Ditto)

Rethinking the privacy laws

Orin Kerr writes:

The final version of my new article, The Next Generation Communications Privacy Act, 162 U. Pa. L. Rev. 373 (2014), has just been published. The article considers how Congress should update the privacy laws that regulate government access to e-mail and other Internet communications, both for contents and metadata, in criminal investigations.

Read more on WaPo The Volokh Conspiracy. And yes, it will take me time to get to used to that.

Because you can get “Security” wrong!

Constitutional Challenge to No Fly List Upheld

Lorraine Bailey reports:

Government agencies must face claims that they wrongly placed a U.S. citizen on the No Fly list and had him tortured in a Kuwaiti prison, a federal judge ruled.

“A No Fly List designation transforms a person into a second class citizen, or worse,” U.S. District Judge Anthony Tsenga said. “The issue, then, is whether and under what circumstances the government should have the ability to impose such a disability on an American citizen, who should make any such decision, according to what process, and by what standard of proof.”

Read more on Courthouse News.

An interesting risk with BYOD. Got Backups? Or perhaps a business opportunity for my Ethical Hackers, “Remote Phone Wiping for fun and profit.)

http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/01/yes-your-company-can-wipe-your-personal-phone-for-now/

Yes, Your Company Can Wipe Your Personal Phone (for Now)

The most common complaint the nonprofit National Workrights Institute receives from workers is phone wiping — companies remotely clearing out the contents of personal smartphones that employees sometimes use for work purposes. In fact, a recent survey by Acronis found that 21% of companies "perform remote wipes when an employee quits or is terminated." Why is this happening? More and more companies require workers to be connected when they leave the office, though that doesn't necessarily mean the employers are providing phones to be connected on.

Interesting industry shift.

http://www.securityweek.com/chinas-lenovo-buy-ibms-low-end-server-business-23-billion

China's Lenovo to Buy IBM's Low-end Server Business for $2.3 Billion

IBM will receive $2.07 billion in cash and the rest in shares for the x86 business, Lenovo said, in a deal that would help the Chinese firm diversify away from the slumping market for PCs.

IBM will still provide maintenance on behalf of Lenovo, while some 7,500 members of staff worldwide will be offered employment by the Chinese company, according to a statement from the American technology giant.

Because I like lists, and I know a few lawyers who will be writing a blog... Perhaps they can come up with a better list?

http://www.bespacific.com/8-great-legal-research-and-writing-blogs/

8 Great Legal Research and Writing Blogs

by Sabrina I. Pacifici on January 24, 2014

8 Great Legal Research and Writing Blogs Posted on January 23, 2014 by Cheryl Niemeier

Einstein once said “if we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn’t be called ‘research,’ would it?” The following blogs about legal research and writing will help shorten the time it takes to get from research to knowledge:

1. Adams Contract Drafting provides practical posts about contract drafting, language and contract automation, as well as critiques of the various available document assembly systems.
2. Briefly Writing provides valuable detailed articles covering issues related to writing appellate and complex trial court briefs.
3. eDiscoveryDaily offers tips on conducting electronic discovery, data searches, management techniques and new e-Discovery technologies.
4. InternetForLawyers covers the plethora of low-cost and free investigative and legal research tools available on the Internet and provides tips and tricks for getting great results when using Internet search engines with a focus on Google.
5. Legal Research Plus posts are penned by the law librarians who also happen to be the legal research instructors at Stanford Law School who cover what they know and continue to learn “about the ins and outs of legal research.”
6. LLRX is a web journal that covers legal research and technology topics and resources relevant to librarians, lawyers and law firms. Its companion beSpacific blog has been posting articles on accurate, focused research about law, technology and knowledge discovery since 2002 and offers a searchable database of 32,000 postings.
7. MyCase blog posts provide practical legal management tips, tricks and suggestions ranging from cloud storage to rainmaking for today’s legal professionals.
8. Witnesseth provides “insights from quantitative legal research on corporate law, capital markets, finance, and mergers and acquisitions.”

Another resource for my Digital Design students?

http://www.bespacific.com/download-over-250-free-art-books-from-the-getty-museum/

Download Over 250 Free Art Books From the Getty Museum

by Sabrina I. Pacifici on January 24, 2014

“Yesterday, we wrote about the Wellcome Library’s opening up of its digital archives and making over 100,000 medical images freely available online. If you’ve already made your way through this choice selection (or if the prospect of viewing a 19^th century leg amputation doesn’t quite pique your curiosity) have no fear. Getty Publications just announced the launch of its Virtual Library, where readers can freely browse and download over 250 art books from the publisher’s backlist catalogue. The Virtual Library consists of texts associated with several Getty institutions.

… All of the Getty’s virtual library volumes are available in PDF format, and can be added to your Google Books library. If you’re looking for more free art books, don’t miss our post from last year: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Guggenheim Offer 474 Free Art Books Online. [via Connie Crosby]

[...and if you would rather have the ePub format: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G74n_wGI1Q

Tools for my Math students!

Glean

– there are incredible educational lessons all over the web but they’re hard to find. Glean helps find the best ones for students. Hundreds of amazing teachers post educational videos online every day. Glean has structured and organized these videos, tagged them by educational standard, and wrapped them in interactive tools (like Q & A and practice exercises).