This
is more than a bit concerning. I like to think I know a bit more
about securing my computers than the average user and I hope my
students complete their Computer Security classes as “above
average” also. Will than mean they automatically become suspected
terrorists? What happens if their security is better than the
FBI's hacking? Can the FBI call in air strikes?
DOJ
wants to give the FBI permission to hack into PCs of Tor and VPN
users
When
people use anonymizing tech such as Tor or a VPN, then that should
not imply they are trying to “hide” because they are up to no
good. It does make it challenging for law enforcement to know the
location of the person trying to protect his or her anonymity as well
as to know what district has legal jurisdiction to issue a warrant.
However, the DOJ has proposed changes to Rule 41 that would allow
U.S. law enforcement to hack into computers of people using
anonymizing services without needing to first know the location of
those computers. According to law professor Ahmed Ghappour, the
proposed amendment could
result in “possibly the broadest expansion of
extraterritorial surveillance power since the FBI’s inception.”
While
that doesn’t mean the FBI would use malware to infect the PCs of
all people using anonymizing services, it
could mean the government would legally be allowed to secretly
deploy malware for remote searches on PCs.
That malware would allow the FBI to go through and covertly upload
files, photos, emails, or do anything the computer is capable of
doing, such as turning on the webcam and microphone. It also means
the location of the PC doesn’t matter, be it domestic or on foreign
soil.
The
DOJ said (pdf)
it is not looking for the power to search electronic storage in
foreign countries, as the Fourth Amendment does not apply to non-U.S.
persons, but Ghappour argues,
"the practical reality of the underlying technology means doing
so is almost unavoidable."
(Related)
If my students write their own secure Apps, the FBI would have to
capture and analyze all communications in order to “isolate”
those they believe are trying to protect communications.
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/forget-whatsapp-6-secure-communication-apps-youve-probably-never-heard/
Forget
WhatsApp: 6 Secure Communication Apps You’ve Probably Never Heard
Of
(Related)
Just a reminder of how well the DOJ's ideas of what is acceptable
have worked in the past.
The
Justice Department will pay $134,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by a
woman who was impersonated online by a Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)
officer without her knowledge.
The
settlement was revealed in a court filing made available on Tuesday.
It was first reported by the Associated Press.
The
woman, Sondra Arquiett, was arrested as part of a drug case in 2010.
An agent with the DEA used her name and images from her phone to
create a sham Facebook profile designed to target others they
suspected were involved in the case while she was awaiting trial.
Analyzing
the Internet of Things. If you had this information, could you build
a business around it?
Snowplow
tracking apps hold cities accountable for cleanup
As
another storm flung snow at Chicago, Alexandra Clark wondered how
she'd get to work. Like an increasing number of snowbound city
dwellers, she had a ready tool at hand: an
app that tracks hundreds of city snowplows in close to real time.
But
something seemed out of whack.
"Plow
tracker said my street was plowed an hour ago - Pull the other leg,"
the 31-year-old video producer tweeted at the mayor's office,
including a photo of her snowed-in street.
Across
the country, local leaders have made plow-tracking data public in
free mobile apps, turning citizens into snow watchdogs and giving
them a place to look for answers instead of clogging phone lines at
city call centers to fume.
…
The apps tap into GPS data already collected by the city to direct
plows, so no extra money is spent in the creation. It's a
politically deft move by cities where bungled storm responses have
cost officials their jobs, and a way to show skeptics that plow
drivers are working hard — and not just clearing the streets of the
wealthy and well-connected.
Looks
like we're already doing most of this...
Training
Students to Extract Value from Big Data
“As
the availability of high-throughput data-collection technologies,
such as information-sensing mobile devices, remote sensing, internet
log records, and wireless sensor networks has grown, science,
engineering, and business have rapidly transitioned from striving to
develop information from scant data to a situation in which the
challenge is now that the amount of information exceeds a human’s
ability to examine, let alone absorb, it. Data sets are increasingly
complex, and this potentially increases the problems associated with
such concerns as missing information and other quality concerns, data
heterogeneity, and differing data formats. The nation’s ability to
make use of data depends heavily on the availability of a workforce
that is properly trained and ready to tackle high-need areas.
Training students to be
capable in exploiting big data requires experience with statistical
analysis, machine learning, and computational infrastructure that
permits the real problems associated with massive data to be revealed
and, ultimately, addressed. Analysis of big data requires
cross-disciplinary skills, including the ability to make modeling
decisions while balancing trade-offs between optimization and
approximation, all while being attentive to useful metrics and system
robustness. To develop those skills in students, it is important to
identify whom to teach, that is, the educational background,
experience, and characteristics of a prospective data-science
student; what to teach, that is, the technical and practical content
that should be taught to the student; and how to teach, that is, the
structure and organization of a data-science program. Training
Students to Extract Value from Big Data
summarizes a workshop convened in April 2014 by the National Research
Council’s Committee on Applied and Theoretical Statistics to
explore how best to train students to use big data. The workshop
explored the need for training and curricula and coursework that
should be included. One impetus for the workshop was the current
fragmented view of what is meant by analysis of big data, data
analytics, or data science. New graduate programs are introduced
regularly, and they have their own notions of what is meant by those
terms and, most important, of what students need to know to be
proficient in data-intensive work. This report provides a variety of
perspectives about those elements and about their integration into
courses and curricula.”
For
my Analytics students. Same techniques used for judging
“significant” scientific papers, in far less than 25 years.
Big
data tops humans at picking 'significant' films: study
The
most accurate predictions of which movies the U.S. Library of
Congress will deem "culturally, historically, or aesthetically
significant" are not the views of critics or fans but a simple
algorithm applied to a database, according to a study published on
Monday.
The
crucial data, scientists reported in Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, are what the Internet Movie Database (IMDb.com)
calls "Connections" - films, television episodes and other
works that allude to an earlier movie.
…
The 1972 classic "The Godfather," for instance, is
referred to by 1,323 films and television episodes, which as recently
as 2014 quoted the "offer he can't refuse" line, referred
to the famous horse-head scene, or played the theme music, for
instance. "Godfather" made the registry in 1990.
For
my students.
Intellectual
Property and Trust in the Age of Digital Media
“The
2015
Edelman Trust Barometer reveals a
new formula for building trust, one in which
engagement carries a multiplier effect. Engagement and
ongoing communication and dialogue with multiple stakeholders are
both more critical than ever, but also more difficult to execute
well. Today’s reality is that CEOs are not trusted to be credible
spokespersons for their organization (only 43 percent believe CEOs
have credibility) and more
people now look for business information on search engines (31
percent) than television (22 percent) or newspapers (21 percent).
Businesses and other institutions need a new strategy for starting
and influencing conversations about their organization or industry,
one in which the creation and stewardship of intellectual property
plays a key role. Today’s media landscape is vastly different
compared to 15 years ago, when the Trust Barometer was first fielded.
For the first time in
2015, search engines are now the most trusted source for general news
and information among the informed public, surpassing
traditional media by two percentage points among the global informed
public, and by eight percentage points among Millennials. Social
media has risen to a trust level of 48 percent (59 percent among
Millennials). Today, it’s all about starting peer-to-peer
conversations and making sure that your content is easy to find.”
(Related)
It's one thing to “know” about social tools, it's quite another
to implement them.
Transforming
the business through social tools
“After
years of rapid and increasing adoption, the
use of social technologies has become a common business practice.
[Really? Bob] Now
the responses to McKinsey’s latest survey on these technologies
indicate that in certain functions (namely, sales and marketing),
companies are applying social tools extensively and becoming more
digital organizations overall. We asked executives about their
companies’ use of social tools in 18 specific business processes.
Among them, social technologies are the least integrated into the
work flow for operations processes, such as order to cash and demand
planning. They are the most integrated into public-relations,
customer-relationship-management (CRM), and marketing processes—where
these technologies are a natural extension of existing tools. As a
result, executives say the use and integration of social tools have
had the most significant impact on the day-to-day work for many
customer-facing activities.”
Something
to motivate my students? Better than mowing lawns or shoveling
snow... (Remember, your professor gets one percent.)
How
one boy grew a popular Instagram feed into a social media empire
Tanner
Zagarino is a typical 16-year-old boy. He goes to public high school
on Long Island, where he competes for the school wrestling team. He
likes clothes and posting selfies with his friends. He jokes around
with his mom, who gets roped into those selfies sometimes. He’s
typical in every way but one: Zagarino rakes in more than $10,000 a
month from social media.
His
Instagram
photos have attracted 439,000 fans. His tweets
have drawn more than 93,000 followers. Judging from the comments on
his posts, most of his fans are teen and tween girls. Advertisers
consider him an “influencer,” a guy who can get people to buy
stuff. Zagarino already has a fashion
blog and is establishing a YouTube presence.
He just started a year-long stint as a “Hot Guy” panelist for
Seventeen magazine. He can pull in up to $35,000 a month
from all this work, says manager Kyle Santillo.
Just
because I like books...
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For
my next Intro to Computer Security class.
Which
Web Browser Is The Most Secure?
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