For my Computer Security students. Remember, the
government wants to gather all your health data in one probably not
too secure database. What a target!
Erin McCann reports:
The IT infrastructure office at the Department of Health and Human Services has some serious security problems. This after the office received a less than satisfactory security report card from the Office of Inspector General this week.
After reviewing the security controls at HHS’ Office of Information Technology Infrastructure and Operations, or ITIO, OIG officials found significant security deficiencies in several areas that could impact data security at multiple divisions of HHS.
Read more on HealthcareITNews.
[From the
article:
"We identified some vulnerabilities that, if
exploited, could have led to unauthorized disclosure, modification or
unavailability of critical data," OIG officials wrote in the
report.
Due to security reasons, those vulnerabilities
were not specifically identified.
Other failings identified included improper
antivirus management, inadequate tracking of IT assets and poor
configuration management and USB port control access.
After conducting a similar review on HRSA IT
security controls, the Office of Inspector General found similar
deficiencies, with one of them being substandard encryption and
anti-virus practices. HRSA which currently has a database of some 22
million people to whom it currently provides healthcare services.
The better trained your employees are, the more
secure you are. What is security worth? Worth reading the entire
post.
Today, Intel Security released the findings of
their phishing quiz which tested consumer knowledge of, and ability
to detect, phishing emails. The quiz presented 10 emails compiled by
Intel Security and asked respondents to identify which of the emails
were phishing attempts designed to steal personal information and
which were legitimate. Of
the approximately 19,000 survey respondents from 144 countries, only
3% were able to identify every example correctly and 80%
of all respondents misidentified at least one of the phishing emails,
which is all it takes to fall victim to an attack.
Cyberscammers use phishing emails to get consumers
to click on links to websites they’ve created solely for the
purpose of information theft. They trick users into typing their
names, addresses, login IDs, passwords, and/or credit card
information into fields on sites that look like they belong to real
companies. In some cases, just clicking the link provided in the
email will automatically download malware onto the user’s device.
Once the malware is installed, hackers can easily steal the victim’s
information without their knowledge.
Globally, the 35-44 year old age group performed
best, answering an average of 68%
of questions accurately. On average, women under the age of 18 and
over the age of 55 appeared to have the most difficulty
differentiating between legitimate and phony emails, identifying six
out of 10 messages correctly. On the whole, men gave slightly more
correct answers than women, averaging a 67% accuracy rate versus a
63% rate for women.
… For more information, please visit:
- Gary Davis’ tips on how to protect yourself from phishing scams: https://blogs.mcafee.com/consumer/phishing-quiz-results
- To join the conversation, use hashtag #PhishingQuiz at www.facebook.com/IntelSecurity and follow @IntelSec_Home on Twitter
Another book on Privacy, on hold at my local
library.
Randy Bean reports:
I recently attended a talk on the topic of intellectual privacy by Neil M. Richards, Professor of Law at Washington University in St. Louis, and author of the recently published book, Intellectual Privacy: Rethinking Civil Liberties in the Digital Age (Oxford University Press). The underlying message of his talk was bracing and cautionary. Privacy breaches, unethical hacking, and other invasions of data privacy so often lead to the establishment of guardrails and restrictions that limit our ability to experience greater convenience, enjoy more personalized consumer experiences, benefit from greater customer self-service, or learn from data that we now have access to. We don’t want to surrender our freedoms. We want the freedom to do with “our data” whatever we damn well please. Our intentions are good — upward and onward for the greater benefit of mankind, or for users of the next personalized mobile application.
Read more on Wall
Street Journal.
In the post-Snowden era, it seems to be difficult
to keep up all that Big Brother surveillance.
Russell Brandom reports:
On Monday, Washington state passed a new law requiring police to get a warrant before they use cell-site simulator tracking devices, known commonly as Stingrays. The devices have been widely deployed by law enforcement groups throughout the country but kept largely secret thanks to non-disclosure agreements and parallel construction techniques. The new Washington state law will be one of the most aggressive anti-tracking measures in the nation, although Virginia and Minnesota have adopted similar measures. It will also have an immediate effect on the Tacoma Police Department, which has been using a Stingray device in 2008.
Read more on The
Verge.
[Parallel
Construction defined:
(Related) Perhaps you should clear these more
“innovative” ideas with the DA before you waste time and taint
evidence? (Would it have been legal to put live police officers in
place?)
David Kravets reports:
The Justice Department on Tuesday withdrew its appeal of a lower court’s December ruling that said it was illegal for police to attach a webcam to a utility pole and spy on a suspected drug dealer’s house in rural Washington state for six weeks.
The government did not comment on its decision to drop the appeal in a brief filing to the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals.
Read more on Ars
Technica.
[From
the “illegal for police” article:
The Justice Department contended that the webcam,
with pan-and-zoom capabilities that were operated from afar, was no
different from a police officer's observation from the public
right-of-way.
The government argued
(PDF):
… US District Judge Edward Shea disagreed and
ruled
(PDF) that a warrant was necessary to spy on Leonel Vargas via a
webcam controlled by local police.
… Strangely, the judge noted, when the
authorities raided the house in May 2013, the camera was panned on
nearby sagebrush and not the house.
Sort of like a 'fence' for stolen goods. In this
case, the crammers trick users into clicking on a link then the ISPs
launder the money for them. It's unclear if any of the crammers are
refunding money.
Sprint,
Verizon to pay $158 MILLION over bogus bill 'cramming' charges
… According to the
FCC, the carriers looked the other way when dodgy companies
signed customers up for services without warning them that would be
billed recurring monthly charges.
Under the terms of the deal, Sprint will pay $68m
in fines, while Verizon will cough $90m. Those figures will include
$50m and $70m in consumer refunds, respectively.
The shady offerings – often advertised as
offering horoscope readings or "life predictions" – hid
the fact that they were subscription services that were billed as
monthly recurring charges. A portion of the charges were kicked back
to the telcos – 35 per cent in Sprint's case and 30 per cent for
Verizon – which is why they are being held culpable.
A really interesting article.
What Is
Strategy, Again?
This means my International students could use
their smartphones to translate my lectures in real time!
Skype's
amazing real-time Translator Preview now available to all
Your Star Trek-style universal communicator is
ready for download.
Well, it's not exactly universal, but Microsoft's
Skype Translator Preview is a step into the future. The company
announced on Tuesday that the beta app is now available to all
Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 Technical Preview users, no sign-up
or wait list needed.
If you want to have a translated, spoken
conversation with someone who speaks Italian, Mandarin, or Spanish,
just download
the free app from the Windows Store. Microsoft says Skype
Translator works with almost
any Skype client, meaning only you need to be the one with the
Translator app enabled.
The app can also translate
instant message conversations in more than 50 languages including
the oh-so-geeky favorite: Klingon.
… During a Translator call, Microsoft advises
you to use a headset with a microphone instead of a stand-alone mic.
You should also use a wired connection rather than Wi-Fi. Translated
calls also take longer to connect than a typical Skype call. You can
find a complete list of Translator
tips on Skype's site.
Clearly, I'm out of touch. I only recognize one
name on this list.
How Much do
the World’s Biggest YouTube Stars Make?
Who are the biggest money-makers on Google’s
massive video service?
… Check out the infographic below for a
fascinating breakdown of the dollars and cents. There’s also a
fascinating look at the backstories of some of these YouTube
superstars.
Check out the image and then hit the comments
section below and let us know who are your favorite YouTube
personalities out there right now!
Via WhoIsHostingThis
For my non-geeky students. (The geeky one already
know how)
Install
Ubuntu On Your Computer Using a USB Flash Drive
Obtaining Ubuntu is super easy — all you have to
do is download it from their website. But once you have the ISO
file, what do you do with it? You could burn it to a DVD, or you can
use a highly-reusable USB flash drive to get the job done.
Want to know more? Let me show you the entire
process for every machine so you know exactly what you need to do to
install Ubuntu properly on your computer with a USB flash drive.
Yeah, sure, I absolutely agree with Dilbert here.
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