Saturday, September 19, 2015

There will be a lot of discussion on this topic.
Avery Dial and Rory Eric Jurman of Fowler White Burnett, P.A., write:
As it is commonly understood, the Great Fire of London spawned two fixtures of the modern world: advancements in firefighting and property insurance. The risk of fire was seen as a threat to society as a whole and mechanisms to mitigate that risk were naturally born. Now, the world has ubiquitous measures to minimize the risk of fire. However, in the modern era, we are facing a new fire: data breaches. In the words of the Talking Heads “[h]old tight, we’re in for nasty weather.“
Read more on JDSupra.


(Related) Another decision impacting businesses with inadequate security. (In this case, “Pretty Good Practices” vs. “Best Practices?”)
Jody Godoy reports:
The Seventh Circuit declined to rehear an appeal it decided against Neiman Marcus over a payment card data breach on Thursday, leaving in place the precedential ruling that held plaintiffs can sue for the trouble and expense of preventing fraud on their accounts.
The ruling will allow the suit in Illinois federal court, which has been on ice for a year during the appeal, to move forward. The plaintiffs claim their payment card details were compromised in the 2013 breach of Neiman Marcus systems that affected a proposed class of 350,000 customers, saying the retailer cut corners on security measures that could have prevented or mitigated the breach and didn’t give them timely notice of the attack.
Read more on Law360.




You don't hear about many of these. Are they not news?
Jenn Schanz reports:
FBI officials and U.S. Attorney William Hochul called 38-year-old James Allen “a master manipulator.”
The Detroit man was convicted of Child Pornography and Cyber Stalking for harassing 18 Western New York girls online between April and August of 2012.
Monday, Allen was sentenced to more than 20 years behind bars.
Assistant Special Agent in Charge with the FBI in Buffalo, Holly Hubert, said despite Allen’s invasive crimes, he wasn’t an expert hacker or computer genius.
Read more on WIAT.




Isn't context important?
Remember when people put that “RTs ≠ endorsements” disclaimer in their Twitter bios, like that would offer some form of protection from the being associated with what they retweeted? Well, a retweet can be seen as an endorsement. It can also apparently be used as evidence that you’re trying to join ISIS.




Not surprising.
Judge Says Hillary Clinton Didn’t Follow Government Email Policies
A federal judge on Thursday said that Hillary did not comply with government policies in her exclusive use of a personal email account while she was secretary of state, challenging her longstanding position that she abided by the rules.
… At a hearing for a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the State Department, the judge, Emmet G. Sullivan, pictured, of Federal District Court for the District of Columbia, said that “we wouldn’t be here today if the employee had followed government policy.”
Judge Sullivan also opened the door for the FBI, which is ever-so-slowly investigating whether there was classified information on Clinton’s email server, to expand its inquiry to pursue emails that she may have deleted. The judge ordered the State Department to ask the FBI to give it any emails recovered from Clinton’s private server that were not already in the State Department’s possession or that may be related to the lawsuit.
… In doublespeak that would have embarrassed Orwell, the Justice Department, which oversees the FBI, has argued before Judge Sullivan that Freedom of Information Act searches do not typically involve a government employee’s personal email account. Of course, had Clinton followed the rules and acted like ever other government employee, including the rank-and-file who worked for her at State, none of this would be considered personal email.




I've been following this for years. Amazing that the government got off so cheap.
Feds agree to pay $940 million to settle claims that US government shorted tribes on contracts
The Obama administration has agreed to pay hundreds of Native American tribes nearly $1 billion to settle a decades-old claim that the government failed to adequately compensate tribes while they managed education, law enforcement and other federal services.




Weekly Waff?
Hack Education Weekly News
… Jared Keller on Ahmed Mohamed's experiences and “The Criminalization of the American Schoolyard”:
… Manitoba announced an Open Textbook Initiative, that will create a library of free and openly licensed textbooks for the province’s most highly enrolled college classes.
Did you really read the syllabus? A test.
Gawker on “exam-time spyware software” ProctorTrack: “Students Wonder When Creepy-As Hell App That Watches Them During Exams Plans on Deleting Their Data.” (The answer: once the media picks up on the story.)
Via the LA School Report: “While LA Unified may still be struggling to integrate its iPads and other digital devices into the classroom, its police department has found a few useful things to do with theirs.” (That is, monitoring schools for “vulnerabilities.”)




Is Dilbert suggesting that Trump is in trouble?


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