For my Ethical Hacking students. Grab it now,
before the panic! (Also see the next article)
Should
Websites That Explain How to Hack Be Blocked by Google?
With the number of high profile hacks in the last
few years, it seems like hackers — rather than security
researchers — have the upper hand. This is obviously a cause
for concern, and governments are beginning to take notice.
For example, the UK Government recently
released some (terribly misguided) guidelines on how to spot if
your child is turning into a cyber criminal. One of the ideas that
that more totalitarian governments such as China’s have tried is to
block access
to sites like Github where some of the offending material is
located. While it’s unlikely a more liberal government would take
such an extreme measure, if the problem gets bad enough they could
try a similar approach to that used for pirated material: ask
Google to remove the links from its database.
As has been shown with pirated material, however,
any attempt to block access to offending content is a terrible idea
that just doesn’t work.
(Related) How can you make the computer your pal?
The risks
-- and benefits -- of letting algorithms judge us
China is considering a new "social
credit" system, designed to rate everyone's trustworthiness.
Many fear that it will become a tool of social control -- but in
reality it has a lot in common with the algorithms and systems that
score and classify us all every day.
Human judgment is being replaced by automatic
algorithms, and that brings with it both enormous benefits and risks.
The technology is enabling a new form of social control, sometimes
deliberately and sometimes as a side effect. And as the Internet of
Things ushers in an era of more sensors and more data -- and more
algorithms -- we need to ensure that we reap the benefits while
avoiding the harms.
… The secrecy
of the algorithms further pushes people toward conformity. If
you are worried that the U.S. government will classify you as a
potential terrorist, you're less likely to friend Muslims on
Facebook. If you know that your Sesame Credit score is partly based
on your not buying "subversive" products or being friends
with dissidents, you're more likely to overcompensate by not buying
anything but the most innocuous books or corresponding with the most
boring people.
Uber is an example of how this works. Passengers
rate drivers and drivers rate passengers; both risk getting booted
out of the system if their rankings get too low.
Obfuscation is a lawyers friend?
Appeals
court upholds deal allowing kids’ images in Facebook ads
On
Wednesday, a federal appeals court in San Francisco upheld
a 2013 settlement between Facebook and a number of advocacy
groups representing minors whose images were used in "Sponsored
Stories." That agreement resulted in Facebook paying each
member of the class $15 and imposed some changes to the social media
giant's disclosure policies.
"It
is not clear whether Facebook’s use of minors’ names
and likenesses in Sponsored Stories violated California law,"
the court wrote.
"It is also not clear
whether the settlement at issue—which provides more protection for
minors from Facebook’s advertising practices than existed
before—violates state law.
The district court did not abuse its discretion in approving the
settlement in the face of this uncertainty."
By the government, for the government?
No Longer a
Neutral Magistrate: The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in
the Wake of the War on Terror
by Sabrina
I. Pacifici on Jan 10, 2016
Mondale, Walter F. and Stein, Robert A. and
Fisher, Caitlinrose, No Longer a Neutral Magistrate: The Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Court in the Wake of the War on Terror
(January 1, 2016). Minnesota Law Review, Forthcoming. Available for
download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2712892
… In response to the Church Committee’s
recommendations, among other reforms, Congress enacted the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and created the FISA Court.
FISA conformed with the Church Committee’s recommendations for over
two decades, but, in the wake of 9/11, Congress significantly altered
FISA’s scheme, opening the door once again to executive overreach.
… This Article chronicles the evolution of
FISA and the FISA Court. Drawing from the unique perspective of Vice
President Mondale — who, while a Senator, served as a member of the
Church Committee and as chairman of the subcommittee that drafted the
Church Committee’s final report on domestic intelligence
activities, and, as Vice President, was instrumental to the enactment
of FISA — the Article analyzes the ways in which the post-9/11 Act
and Court are at odds with their original design.
… The FISA Court no longer serves its intended
function as a specialized Article III Court of limited jurisdiction.
Rather, the FISA Court is
more akin to an adjunct to the executive branch, lending legitimacy
to intelligence operations without practically limiting executive
authority.
Rethinking the “auto” industry?
Ford's
revolutionary FordPass app aims do for mobility what iTunes did for
music
… On Monday morning at the North American
International Auto Show, Ford unveiled an all-new app called
FordPass. With it, Ford owners — or anyone else — will be able
to use the app to get around more easily thanks to car-sharing
features and more.
Granted, this first generation of FordPass seems
to be a bit more style than substance. That said, it is most
certainly the first glimpse into what the new mobility universe will
look and operate like in the coming decades. Let's look at why.
First off, FordPass incorporates several different
separate sub-systems: FordGuides, FordPay and FlightCar.
FordGuides will be kind of like General Motors'
OnStar, but rather than simply helping you with navigation, roadside
assistance or restaurant reservations, FordGuides will help you solve
your mobility concerns. Essentially, think of them as your personal
mobility concierge — free of charge.
… FordPay is essentially what it sounds like:
A way to pay for features of FordPass. With this initial
introduction of FordPass, Ford has partnered with McDonald's and
7-Eleven to make consuming fast food easier.
FlightCar, to me, might be the most interesting
part of the FordPass app. At first, it'll be used to help you share
or borrow a vehicle when you travel, which is neat. However, down
the road, it'll be utilized for ride sharing, car sharing and
multi-modal transportation. That means, in the future, FlightCar
will get you from door to door anyway it needs to — from ride share
to public light-rail to bicycle.
Another social App I can be anti-
Peach Is
The Cool New Messaging App Everyone’s Talking About: Here’s How
To Use It
… only available for iOS.
… What makes the social network out-of-the-box
and interesting is that it lets you play around with things the site
calls "magic words." Specific features are activated when
you key in these magic words. For instance, these trigger words will
let you add a doodle, a location, a GIF or other forms of media to
your home screen.
Here's a full
list of magic words
Free is good!
How to Get
Free eBooks on Your Mobile Device
With the rise and prominence of eBooks have come a
number of resources for educators and students to access free content
on virtually any device. Using e-readers, tablets, or computers; in
conjunction with apps such as Kindle,
Nook,
iBooks,
Google Play
Books, and OverDrive;
you can access libraries of books for free on virtually any device.
By downloading these free apps, you make your device a digital
reading device that is not dependent on a specific vendor.
Once you have the apps installed on your device,
there are many resources you can use to find free eBooks. While
books in the public domain are readily available, there are also
self-published books, books
available to educators, books on special promotions, and
even places that will allow you to check out books temporarily. Here
are a few places that you can go to find free eBooks:
-
Kindle books - Kindle curates a list of free and low priced books ($1.99) here; come back regularly for newly added materials, especially during promotions and the holiday season. If your school has signed up for Amazon’s Whispercast service, you can even push books directly to students’ Amazon accounts.
-
Nook Books - Barnes and Noble curates a list of free eBooks on this site.
-
Google Play Books - Google Books allows you to search their store and sort by cost. So search or select a genre, select price, and then indicate: free.
-
Google Books - Connected to Google (but outside of the play store), Google Books is accessible online and provides free previews and full length books for its users.
-
Feedbooks - Feedbooks contains a list of free public domain books that you can download and install on your device.
-
Goodreads - In addition to being a social media site for readers, Goodreads also publishes a list of free eBooks in ePub format.
-
Project Gutenberg - Project Gutenberg is one of the most popular resources for free eBooks that you can download as epub, kindle, or read online.
-
iBooks - iBooks is proprietary and only available on Mac and iOS. Within the iBooks Store, you can select that tab labeled “free” to access all free iBooks available.
-
Project Muse - Hosted and curated by Johns Hopkins University, Project Muse is a great resources for more advanced readers and researchers; they are a repository of more than 300,000 peer-reviewed journals and 700,000 chapters of academic books.
Another resource for free eBooks is your school
and local library. Many libraries have made their resources
available digitally via tools such as Kindle and OverDrive. This
will only cost you a library card (usually free)! If you have a
local College or University, you may wish to explore their lending
privileges. A small fee may grant you even broader access to books.
No comments:
Post a Comment