Thursday, April 10, 2014

Any “strategy” is better than nothing. At minimum, it stimulates discussion.
McAfee Outlines Strategy for Securing Internet of Things
Intel's McAfee security division offered some details today about its strategy for protecting the Internet of Things as the number of connected devices continues to grow.
Analyst firm IDC has projected that by the end of 2020, the installed base of the Internet of Things (IoT) will reach roughly 212 billion devices around the world - roughly two dozen devices for every person on earth.
Recently both researchers and attackers alike seem to be paying more attention to the Internet of Things. At last year's Black Hat conference in Las Vegas for example, there were presentations on hacking everything from smart TVs to surveillance cameras. Meanwhile, researchers at Proofpoint said earlier this year they had spotted possibly the first proven cyber-attack leveraging the Internet of Things.


Not yet able to replace a real lawyer, but it's a start!
if you run a website, a Facebook app, or a mobile app, you may have a legal obligation to set out clearly your privacy policy. Or at the very least, show your visitors that their data is safe with you. iUbenda helps you to generate a privacy policy in seconds.


I don't like this at all. If we're going to play a cops & robbers version of “Six degrees of Kevin Bacon” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Degrees_of_Kevin_Bacon then I need to stop associating with good and noble lawyers who associate with the scum of the earth! And I need to stop associating with anyone who associates with people who associate with them...
Kay Fate reports:
The smartphones Rochester Police officers carry are about to get a whole lot smarter.
For Tim Heroff, captain of the services division, it also means his officers will be a whole lot safer.
The department has been using an IBM-created investigative software called Identity Insight, or i2, for a little more than a year “to help us understand the non-obvious relationship associations” between people they encounter on a relatively regular basis.
More useful data
Most record management systems have the ability to tell officers who’s been directly associated with a vehicle; the i2, Heroff explained, “takes that out to several degrees of separation.
“That’s what sets us apart from others,” he said. “It’s easy to keep track of who’s associated with that vehicle, but when you add that next layer or two on, it’s possible to see other associations.
“If we can map those connections, those associations, out a few layers, all of a sudden it makes sense that this guy would be out in that car” during any given crime, because he’s linked with someone who’s been linked with that vehicle in the past.
Heroff isn’t aware of any other agencies in the country using it, but the department’s programmers took it a step further.
“We actually wrote an Android app in-house that interfaced with the Identity Insight analytics,” Heroff said.
Read more on Post Bulletin.


Think not? Follow the money.
Surveillance is the Business Model of the Internet: Bruce Schneier
Data is a natural consequence of computing, and as search tools get better, it shifts the balance of power towards mass collection and surveillance, renowned security expert Bruce Schneier said at the SOURCE Boston conference on Wednesday.
Surveillance is the business model of the Internet,” Schneier told attendees. “We build systems that spy on people in exchange for services. Corporations call it marketing."
… “That's how you get weird situations where Syrian dissidents use Facebook to organize, and the government uses Facebook to arrest its citizens,” Schneier said.


New tech buys old tech – who benefits more?
Alaska Dispatch to buy Anchorage Daily News from McClatchy Co.
The McClatchy Co. announced Tuesday that it has reached an agreement to sell the Anchorage Daily News to Alaska Dispatch Publishing. The transaction is expected to close in May.
… "We are proud to return the Anchorage Daily News to Alaska ownership once again," said Alice Rogoff, owner of Anchorage-based Alaska Dispatch Publishing LLC, which publishes the AlaskaDispatch.com news website.


Is this bio-warfare? (Who does not eat pork?)
Bacon prices rise as virus kills baby pigs
A virus never before seen in the U.S. has killed millions of baby pigs in less than a year, and with little known about how it spreads or how to stop it, it’s threatening pork production and pushing up prices by 10 percent or more.


For my students. A bit late, but better than no backups.
– is a campaign which encourages people to backup the contents of their computers, in case of catastrophic hard-drive failure. The site gives you several options for backing up your data, and then shows you what to do to get it done.

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