What
took ya so long?
The
'Yo' App Everyone Is Talking About Has Been Hacked
Yo
has reportedly been hacked and the phone numbers of those using the
app could be at risk, according to The
Wall Street Journal.
"Security
researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology found a glaring
hole...
...The
students apparently found a way to access the cell phone numbers of
every Yo user, including the founder of the app, Or Arbel.
The students, still unidentified, emailed their findings to
TechCrunch
last night.
"The
best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft agley"
Google
Play stares at serious security breach: Study
Using
a new tool called PlayDrone, researchers at Columbia Engineering have
discovered a crucial security problem in Google Play - the official
Android app store where millions of Android users get their apps.
They
found that developers often store their secret keys in their app's
code, similar to usernames/passwords info.
These
can be then used by anyone to maliciously steal user data or
resources from service providers such as Amazon and Facebook.
These
vulnerabilities can affect users even if they are not actively
running the Android apps.
…
PlayDrone scales by simply adding more servers and is fast enough
to crawl Google Play on a daily basis, downloading more than 1.1
million Android apps and decompiling over 880,000 free applications.
…
Google is now using our techniques to proactively scan apps for
these problems to prevent this from happening again in the future, he
added in a paper presented at the ACM SIGMETRICS conference.
Follow-up
for my student Vets and something for my Computer Forensic students.
Note that I have skipped a lot of this report. The important thing
seems to be that the VA doesn't bother to encrypt patient data. (The
“due to being attached” excuse is an outright lie since the
laptops were not attached.)
A
breach involving the Denver VA center was reported in the VA’s most
recent monthly
report to Congress. I’m including it here because it shows how
thorough the VA can be in investigating breaches – and how
time-consuming and labor-intensive it can be when someone neglects
security measures like a cable:
Incident
Summary
Two biomedical device laptops were discovered missing on 05/20/14.
VA Police were notified of the event. The two missing laptops were
password protected but not
encrypted due to being attached to biomedical devices.
The laptops were located on mobile test stations in the Pulmonary
Department.
“I'm
shocked, shocked I tell you!” (Full text omitted)
Julian
Hattem reports:
The federal court overseeing the country’s spy agencies renewed an
order Friday allowing the National Security Agency to collect phone
records of people in the United States.
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court’s renewal of the
contested program, authorized under Section 215 of the Patriot Act,
comes as lawmakers continue to debate reform legislation.
“Given that legislation has not yet been enacted, and given the
importance of maintaining the capabilities of the Section 215
telephony metadata program, the government has sought a 90-day
reauthorization of the existing program,” the Justice Department
and Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said in a
joint statement.
Read
more on The
Hill.
The
Privacy invasion continues! “No wonder you keep your thermostat
set so high – you wander around nude!”
http://online.wsj.com/articles/googles-nest-labs-to-buy-video-monitoring-security-startup-1403308929
Google's
Nest to Buy Video-Monitoring Security Startup for $555 Million
Google
Inc.'s Nest Labs said it agreed to buy video-monitoring and security
startup Dropcam Inc. for $555 million as part
of a push to become the dominant operating system for connected
devices in and around the home.
Nest,
which makes Internet-connected thermostats and smoke detectors, is
paying cash for the startup and will work with Dropcam to develop
products and services that connect users to their homes...
…
Dropcam sells an Internet-connected video-monitoring service that
streams live video to mobile apps, sends alerts based on activity
that its small cameras sense and lets users communicate with people
in their homes while they are away. It markets itself and is often
used as a home-security system.
Is
Dilbert suggesting a modification to Google Glasses?
Perspective.
This is why I'm training the students who will program the robots.
(I'll wager the robot doctors will make house calls, the lawyers will
speak plain English and the architects will bring a 3D printer...)
UK
Guardian – Robot doctors, online lawyers and automated architects:
the future of the professions?
…
“Last year, reporters for the Associated Press attempted to figure
out which jobs were being lost to new technology. They analysed
employment data from 20 countries and interviewed experts,
software developers and CEOs. They found that almost all the jobs
that had disappeared in the past four years were not low-skilled,
low-paid roles, but fairly well-paid positions in traditionally
middle-class careers. Software was replacing administrators and
travel agents, bookkeepers and secretaries, and at alarming rates.
Economists and futurists know it’s not all doom and gloom, but it
is all change. Oxford academics Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael A
Osborne have predicted computerisation could make nearly half of jobs
redundant within 10 to 20 years. Office work and service roles, they
wrote, were particularly at risk. But almost nothing is
impervious to automation. It has swept through shop floors and
factories, transformed businesses big and small, and is beginning to
revolutionise the professions…”
(Related)
On the other hand...
This
is Probably a Good Time to Say That I Don’t Believe Robots Will Eat
All the Jobs …
Do
they have a plan or are they just tossing out some big numbers to
impress the peasants?
FCC
proposes $1B per year for Wi-Fi in schools
…
E-Rate was established in 1996 and is too tied to the technologies
of that era, according to Wheeler. His plan calls for a transition
in funding from technologies such as dial-up and pagers to broadband
and Wi-Fi in order to serve students on tablets and other personal
devices. In past years, the program has only been able to support
Wi-Fi in 5 percent of schools and 1 percent of libraries, Wheeler
said. E-Rate provides a total of $2.4 billion per year in funding.
For
my students. No doubt the Apps for other devices will follow.
Meet
LinkedIn Job Search: The company’s first standalone app for iOS
In a
bid to cash in on the growing mobile traffic, LinkedIn has launched
its first standalone mobile app called LinkedIn Job Search. The app
can be downloaded for free from the iTunes
store.
…
The app lets users search and apply for jobs on LinkedIn. The
company also ensures that your job search app is private. In its
official
blog, LinkedIn writes, “Our goal is to help make this
process easier for you and to help you be discreet. Everything you
do within the app will be completely private and not shared with your
network.”
…
In October last year, the company had revealed that 38 percent of
LinkedIn unique visits now come from mobile devices.
Too
cool!
Interactive
Model Skeletons
eSkeletons
is a great website produced by the Department of Anthropology at the
University of Texas at Austin.
eSkeletons features interactive models of mammal skeletons. Select a
model from the menu on the home page then click on any bone in the
model to view it in detail. After select a bone to view you can
choose from a menu of viewing angles. In many cases eSkeletons
offers a short video display of the bone you've selected from the
menu.
Applications for Education
eSkeletons
gives students the option to compare bones across models. Select two
or more animals from the menu then select a bone and a small gallery
of comparative images will be generated. eSkeletons
offers a glossary of terms and a legend to help students understand
what they are viewing. Even without the models, the glossary is a
good resource for anatomy students.
For
my students. You can skip the “free laptop” stuff, but the
second half of the article is interesting.
Online
Colleges That Offer Free Laptops For Students
…
Other Ways to Get a Laptop
Finding
a school with a laptop program is only one way that a student can
reduce his or her tuition bill. If your dream school doesn’t
include laptops in its package, several manufacturers offer student
discounts on specific products. There are also public organizations,
grants, and scholarships across the United States that help students
purchase laptops and other college material necessary for success. A
few starting points include:
- Apple Store for Education is Apple’s discount on specific products designed for the classroom (including Macbook laptops and iPads). The discount is available to students accepted to college, and includes up to $200 for a new Mac laptop or up to $30 off a new iPad.
- Dell University, which encompasses discounts and technology for students, offers a free Dell tablet when students purchase a PC that is $699 or more.
- Notebooks For Students is a nonprofit founded in 1998. It helps college students and faculty find affordable laptops and technical support. NFS offers refurbished and new laptops, from many different brands, at affordable prices.
Although
a large percentage of colleges do not include laptops in their
tuition, financial aid offices often know of places to acquire
college preparedness scholarships that help students to purchase
computers (sometimes offered by the school itself). The best way to
find out if such a program exists at your school of choice is to
contact the financial aid office directly and speak to an advisor.
Additionally, your local library may have resources about
organizations and resources for college preparedness in your
community.
My
weekly amusement. (Okay, not much this week)
…
The LAUSD school board has reappointed
Stuart Magruder. Magruder, an outspoken critic of the district’s
iPad investment, was voted off the panel last month.
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