Local
and probably impacting my student Vets.
Two
laptops stolen from Denver's VA hospital
Two
laptop computers containing information on 239 veterans have been
reported stolen from the Denver VA Medical Center.
The
laptops, used for mobile pulmonary tests, were discovered missing
from a laboratory May 20, said Daniel Warvi , spokesman for the VA
Eastern Colorado Health System.
"This
was a crime," Warvi said. "Somebody broke into a locked
lab and stole laptops. They weren't left in a coffee shop."
There's
nothing wrong with our security, except of course it didn't work.
And we're going to make some changes to improve our perfect security.
Clara
O’Brien reports:
Streaming music service Spotify
has become the latest company
to be hit by a security breach as it admitted that it had uncovered
“unauthorised access” to its systems.
However, the firm said its investigation had shown only one user’s
data had been accessed, and said it was not aware of any increased
risk to users as a result of the breach, and said no password,
financial or payment information had been accessed.
Read
more on Irish
Times.
An
“Internet of Things” creates a “target rich environment.”
Why would we not hack the low lying fruit – they create more every
day!
Botnet
of PoS Systems Uncovered: IntelCrawler
Researchers
at IntelCrawler have pulled the covers away from a cybercrime
operation that has compromised nearly 1,500 point-of-sale (PoS)
terminals and other systems around the world.
The
firm calls the botnet 'Nemanja'. Composed of PoS terminals,
accounting systems and grocery management platforms, the researchers
said they discovered it earlier this year.
"The
assigned name is related to potential roots of bad actors with
similar nicknames from Serbia," according
to a blog post by the firm.
Since
the cost is really nominal, why wouldn't everyone do this?
Abby
Sewell reports:
Following a break-in at a county health contractor’s office that
led to the theft of computers containing personal information about
more than 342,000 patients, Los Angeles County supervisors moved to
tighten protocols for protecting data.
The county already requires
that workers’ laptops be encrypted. The supervisors voted Tuesday
to extend that policy to also encrypt all county departments’
computer workstation hard drives.
Read
more on Los
Angeles Times.
Is
this “Pile on eBay” week, or are they really this screwed up?
eBay
riddled with XSS flaws
eBay
seems to be going through a rough road since it admitted the breach
last week, as yet some more flaws are discovered that haven’t been
fixed and can be exploited to hijack user accounts.
Jordan
Jones, the security researcher who reported the major vulnerability
in eBay’s website last week, has published
details of a second vulnerability that hadn’t
been fixed as of Monday.
…
German security researcher Michael E has spotted another persistent
cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability that allows the hacker to
inject arbitrary HTML and JavaScript code into the eBay website to
create auction pages with unauthorized JavaScript code. The
malicious code in turn can steal the visitors’ account cookies,
allowing attackers to hijack the users’ accounts.
The
Hacker News reported that eBay “accepts the
same login cookies again and again, even if the victims have logged
out or reset their passwords.”
Ah,
you finally noticed that, did you. Report should be worth reading!
Brokers
use ‘billions’ of data points to profile Americans
Are
you a financially strapped working mother who smokes? A Jewish
retiree with a fondness for Caribbean cruises? Or a Spanish-speaking
professional with allergies, a dog and a collection of Elvis
memorabilia? All this information and much, much more is being
quietly collected, analyzed and distributed by the nation’s
burgeoning data-broker industry, which uses billions of individual
data points to produce detailed portraits of virtually every American
consumer, the Federal
Trade Commission reported Tuesday.
The
FTC report provided an unusually detailed account of the system of
commercial surveillance that draws on government records, shopping
habits and social-media postings to help marketers hone their
advertising pitches. Officials said the intimacy of these profiles
would unnerve some consumers who have little ability to track what’s
being collected or how it’s used — or even to correct false
information. The FTC called for legislation to bring transparency to
the multibillion-dollar industry and give consumers some control over
how their data is used.
Data
brokers’ portraits feature traditional demographics such as age,
race and income, as well as political leanings, religious
affiliations, Social Security numbers, gun-ownership records, favored
movie genres and gambling preferences (casino or state lottery?).
Interest in health issues — such as diabetes, HIV infection and
depression — can be tracked as well.
This
is interesting.
Andrea
Vance reports some changes in New Zealand:
Identity theft is to be outlawed with a fine of up to $10,000 under
an overhaul of privacy laws.
The Government is to beef up the watchdog powers of the privacy
commissioner. Organisations will also be required to report data
breaches to the commissioner, and notify those affected in serious
cases.
Penalty fines are to be increased and two new offences created.
Failing to notify the commissioner of a privacy breach or
impersonating someone to obtain their personal information will be
illegal and carry a fine of up to $10,000.
It will also be against the
law to destroy documents containing personal information that a
person has sought access to. [I
don't recall seeing that one before. Bob]
Read
more on Stuff.
You
know Facebook's Privacy Policy is questionable when Iran wants the US
to extradite Mark Zuckerberg.
Iranian
judge summons Facebook CEO for breach of privacy
A
conservative Iranian court opened a case against instant messaging
services WhatsApp and Instagram while also summoning Facebook CEO
Mark Zuckerberg over complaints of privacy violation, state news
agency ISNA reported on Tuesday.
Perhaps
one day I'll get an email from Google that says, “Bob, we've
noticed you are going bald. Kick here for a list of products to keep
you looking 'Mavalous.'”
After
drones, Google and Facebook eye satellites to expand internet access
Google
and Facebook already compete on PCs, mobile devices and recently
their rivalry has moved to the skies, but a new report from The
Information suggests it could move even further from land.
Over the last year or so, both looked at drone maker Titan Aerospace
before
Google acquired it, adding to a portfolio that includes its
Project
Loon experiments. Not to be outdone, Facebook is said to have
acquired a drone maker from the UK called Ascenta. The only thing
left? Space. The Information follows up on claims that
Google is looking at a satellite company called Skybox Imaging by
noting recent hires and investments in companies that deal with
satellite-delivered internet. Craig Barratt is named as leading
several teams at Google developing wireless internet technology to
connect the rest of the world (white
spaces, municipal WiFi, community
routers for businesses etc.) while Google X teams work on the
drones and balloons. Facebook's interests in (the) space are not as
well-documented, but we can only guess that the race will reach
low-orbit soon, and collect a few more startups and giants as
competitors. Maybe DirecTV
made its deal with AT&T too soon?
Interesting
contrast.
Army
of robots to invade Amazon warehouses
CEO
Jeff Bezos told investors at a shareholder meeting Wednesday that he
expects to significantly increase the number of robots used to
fulfill customer orders.
There are currently about 1,000 robot workers on Amazon floors. The
increase won't change the number of actual people employed,
an Amazon spokeswoman said.
The
robots are made by Kiva
Systems, a company Amazon bought for $775
million two years ago.
(Related)
This might be because fast-food workers want $15 per hour.
Robots
will replace fast-food workers
Questions.
Not just self-driving but “completely human free!” What happens
when the systems crash? You can't take control and putter on home,
you are dead in the water (dead in the fast lane?)
Google's
Self-Driving Car Prototype Ditches the Steering Wheel
…
The small, Volkswagen Bug-esque vehicle does not have a steering
wheel, accelerator pedal, or brake pedal, "because they don't
need them," Google said in a blog
post. Just get in, and Google's car will take you to your
destination with the push of a button.
Interesting.
If it was oil or even coal they would already be exploiting it.
Probably not worth shipping to Europe to replace Russian gas.
Colossal
peat bog discovered in Congo
The
bog covers an area the size of England and is thought to
contain billions of tonnes of peat.
Scientists
say investigating the carbon-rich material could shed light on 10,000
years of environmental change in this little-studied region.
Dr
Simon Lewis, from the University of Leeds, said: "It's
remarkable that there are parts of the planet that are still
uncharted territory."
For
my “early adopter” students. Worth $170?
Mozilla’s
new Firefox OS Flame smartphone is now available for preorder
After
years of talking about a Firefox OS and a few different phone models,
Mozilla is finally making its heralded Flame available.
The
company announced today that it has opened preoders for the
new Firefox OS Flame
phone. Mozilla partnered with independent design house and
manufacturer T2Mobile to manufacture the phone, and you can now
preorder it through
everbuying.com, according
to a company blog post.
For
my students who think the textbooks are written in a foreign
language.
Google
Buys Visual Translation App Word Lens – Then Gives It Away For Free
Google
has always put a lot of work into their translation app, so much so
that it has become a very effective and powerful app for getting
yourself out of linguistic tangles. But now Google has gone one
better by buying Word Lens, the visual
translation app, and then giving it away for free
for a limited time.
What
makes Word Lens special? Simply this. If
you see something written in a foreign language (such as a sign), you
just point the iOS
or Android
app at it. It then translates the language into your chosen
language, all in real time, using your phone’s built-in
camera – no Internet connection required.
…
As I said, everything is free for the moment – the app, and all of
the language packs which must be downloaded and installed separately.
But when the limited offer ends, whenever that may be, the app
itself will be free but the language packs will have to be bought.
…
Since Google hasn’t indicated when the limited offer will end,
it’s best to grab this right now. The app is fantastic and should
be on every phone, along with Google
Translate and other great
translation apps for travelling.
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