Tuesday, February 06, 2018

Who enforces Net Neutrality in NJ?
ISPs must follow net neutrality in New Jersey, governor declares
New Jersey is enforcing net neutrality with a new executive order that requires ISPs to follow neutrality rules if they sell Internet service to state agencies.
The executive order announced today by Governor Phil Murphy is similar to ones previously signed by the governors of New York and Montana. States are taking action because the Federal Communications Commission repealed federal net neutrality rules.
The executive order says that New Jersey state agencies may only buy Internet service from ISPs that adhere to net neutrality principles. But the net neutrality protections will cover ordinary residents as well as government officials. That's because the order says that "adherence to 'net neutrality' principles means that an ISP shall not [violate the rules] with respect to any consumers in New Jersey (including but not limited to State entities)."
ISPs doing business with the state would not be allowed to block or throttle lawful Internet traffic for any consumer in New Jersey. Paid prioritization will also be off-limits.
… Separately, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal announced today that his state will join 21 other states and the District of Columbia in a lawsuit against the FCC. The suit attempts to reverse the net neutrality repeal.




Bad news, good news? How companies should respond to security failures.
Security hole meant Grammarly would fix your typos, but let snoopers read your every word
A Google vulnerability researcher has found a gaping security hole in a popular web browser extension, that could have potentially exposed your private writings on the internet.
… Ormandy discovered that a simple piece of JavaScript hidden on a malicious website could secretly trick the Grammarly extension for Firefox and Chrome into handing over a user’s authentication token.
With such a token, a malicious hacker could log into your Grammarly account, access Grammarly’s online editor, and unlock your “documents, history, logs, and all other data.”
The good news is that Grammarly responded with impressive speed after being informed of the problem by Ormandy. Even though the Google security researcher gave Grammarly 90 days to fix the issue, it was actually resolved within a few hours – a response time that Ormandy described as “really impressive.”




Do we condemn it or emulate it? Each time we adopt one of China’s surveillance techniques, I have to wonder.
China's Surveillance State Should Scare Everyone
The country is perfecting a vast network of digital espionage as a means of social control—with implications for democracies worldwide.
Imagine a society in which you are rated by the government on your trustworthiness. Your “citizen score” follows you wherever you go. A high score allows you access to faster internet service or a fast-tracked visa to Europe. If you make political posts online without a permit, or question or contradict the government’s official narrative on current events, however, your score decreases. To calculate the score, private companies working with your government constantly trawl through vast amounts of your social media and online shopping data.
When you step outside your door, your actions in the physical world are also swept into the dragnet: The government gathers an enormous collection of information through the video cameras placed on your street and all over your city.




All businesses get a “Get out of jail free” card?
Exclusive: U.S. consumer protection official puts Equifax probe on ice - sources
Mick Mulvaney, head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has pulled back from a full-scale probe of how Equifax Inc failed to protect the personal data of millions of consumers, according to people familiar with the matter.
Equifax said in September that hackers stole personal data it had collected on some 143 million Americans. Richard Cordray, then the CFPB director, authorized an investigation that month, said former officials familiar with the probe.
But Cordray resigned in November and was replaced by Mulvaney, President Donald Trump’s budget chief. The CFPB effort against Equifax has sputtered since then, said several government and industry sources, raising questions about how Mulvaney will police a data-warehousing industry that has enormous sway over how much consumers pay to borrow money.
… Three sources say, though, Mulvaney, the new CFPB chief, has not ordered subpoenas against Equifax or sought sworn testimony from executives, routine steps when launching a full-scale probe. Meanwhile the CFPB has shelved plans for on-the-ground tests of how Equifax protects data, an idea backed by Cordray.
The CFPB also recently rebuffed bank regulators at the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency when they offered to help with on-site exams of credit bureaus, said two sources familiar with the matter.
Equifax has said it is under investigation by every state attorney general and faces more than 240 class action lawsuits.




For my Data Management students.
How Big Data and AI are Driving Business Innovation in 2018
After years of hope and promise, 2018 may be the year when artificial intelligence (AI) gains meaningful traction within Fortune 1000 corporations. This is a key finding of NewVantage Partners’ annual executive survey, first published in 2012.
The main finding of the 2018 survey is that an overwhelming 97.2% of executives report that their companies are investing in building or launching big data and AI initiatives. Among surveyed executives, a growing consensus is emerging that AI and big data initiatives are becoming closely intertwined, with 76.5% of executives indicating that the proliferation and greater availability of data is empowering AI and cognitive initiatives within their organizations.




Eventually, someone will want to research even Grover Cleveland?
Presidential research resources: A guide to online information
DELUCA, Lisa. Presidential research resources: A guide to online information. College & Research Libraries News, [S.l.], v. 79, n. 2, p. 93, feb. 2018. ISSN 2150-6698. Available at: <http://crln.acrl.org/index.php/crlnews/article/view/16883>. Date accessed: 05 feb. 2018. doi:https://doi.org/10.5860/crln.79.2.93. “This article highlights the breadth of freely available digital collections of presidential documents. These repositories are excellent resources for presidential, political science, history, and foreign relations research. From the resources listed in this article, librarians can choose multiple starting points for student and faculty research inquiries for primary and secondary sources that include handwritten documents by the founding fathers, interview transcriptions, digitized documents, and photographs, to name a few. This article does not contain public opinion, election, or media content sources, which are an important component of presidential research.”


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