Why
are old, crash prone operating systems still in use?
Hackers Go
After X-Ray, MRI Machines for Corporate Espionage
Fortunately, sabotage and patient data collection
doesn't appear to be a motive behind the hacking. The attackers were
probably focused on
corporate espionage and studying how the medical software
onboard the computers worked, the security firm Symantec said
on Monday.
Over the past three years, the hacking group
Orangeworm has been secretly delivering the Windows-based malware
to about 100 different organizations, said Jon DiMaggio, a security
researcher at Symantec. The biggest number of victims, at 17
percent, have been based in the US.
The
hackers have been particularly interested in legacy Windows 95
systems, which can end up controlling the X-ray and MRI
machines, he said. The malware used was capable of taking remote
control over a computer, and spreading itself over a network.
I’m shocked, shocked I tell you! Where is
Captain Obvious when the CIA needs him?
CIA agents
in 'about 30 countries' being tracked by technology, top official
says
CIA officers working overseas used to expect to be
followed after hours by adversarial spies hoping to find their
sources.
But now, foreign
spies often don't need to bother because technology can do it for
them, said Dawn Meyerriecks, deputy director of the CIA's
science and technology division.
Digital surveillance, including closed-circuit
television and wireless infrastructure, in about 30 countries is so
good that physical tracking is no longer necessary, Meyerriecks told
the audience at an intelligence conference in Tampa, Florida, on
Sunday.
… But the CIA is spying back, she said. As of
six months ago, the agency has been pursuing nearly 140 artificial
intelligence projects.
In one, a small team "took a bunch of
unclassified overhead and street view" and paired it with
machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms to create "a
map of cameras in one of the big capitals that we don't have easy
access to," Meyerriecks said.
That way, agents can try to figure out where they
are being surveilled and how they might evade the camera eye.
Just in case someone does not take my Computer
Security class.
Five myths
about internet privacy where nothing is what is seems to be
You have precious little privacy on the web –
whether you are browsing, using Facebook or Gmail, public WiFi, disk
cleaning applications, or using the same “strong” passwords on
multiple sites. USAToday reports – Many of us think we’re taking
the right precautions, when in fact we’re putting our info at risk.
The
following are five such misconceptions, the truth behind them, and
what to do about it…”
Interesting arguments? Here or nowhere?
Alexander Berengaut writes:
Last summer, Marcus Hutchins, the security researcher who stopped the
“WannaCry” malware attack, was arrested and charged for his role
in allegedly creating and conspiring to sell a different piece of
malware, known as Kronos. As we have previously discussed on this
blog, however, the indictment was notable for its lack of allegations
connecting Hutchins to the United States, which raises constitutional
due process issues, and Hutchins subsequently moved to dismiss the
indictment on this basis.
The government has now responded to Hutchins’ motion. It makes two
main arguments. First, the government maintains—as a factual
matter—that the allegations in the indictment do allege a
sufficient nexus between Hutchins and the United States. Second, the
government argues, as a legal matter, that if
Hutchins’ indictment is defective because it fails to allege
conduct specifically directed at the United States, then there is no
country on Earth where Hutchins could be prosecuted. Both
arguments appear to fall short.
Another legal conflict?
Clear Scope
for Conflict Between Privacy Laws
The
Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act, or CLOUD Act, was enacted
into U.S. federal law on March 23, 2018. It had been attached, at
page 2212 of 2232 pages, to the omnibus spending bill, and allows law
enforcement to demand access to data of concern wherever in the world
that data is stored.
The
General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR,
becomes European Law on May 25, 2018. It restricts companies that
operate in Europe or process EU citizen data from transferring that
data to third parties.
On
the surface, there is clear scope for conflict between these two
laws; but as always, it is more complex than that. The two key
elements are, for CLOUD, section 2713; and for GDPR, article 48.
Section
2713 reads, "A provider of electronic communication service or
remote computing service shall comply with the obligations of this
chapter to preserve, backup, or disclose the contents of a wire of
electronic communication and any record or other information relating
to a customer or subscriber within such provider’s possession,
custody, or control, regardless
of whether such communication, record, or other information is
located within or outside the United States."
Article
48 of GDPR states, "Any judgment of a court or tribunal and any
decision of an administrative authority of a third country requiring
a controller or processor to transfer or disclose personal data may
only be recognised or enforceable in any manner if based on an
international agreement, such as a mutual legal assistance
treaty, in force between the requesting third country and the Union
or a Member State, without prejudice to other grounds for transfer
pursuant to this Chapter."
It
gets complicated because CLOUD specifically allows for 'international
agreements', but not mutual legal assistance treaties (MLATs), which
it does not mention at all. Indeed, the U.S. government has always
complained that MLATs are too complex and slow to be of any value to
a fast-moving investigation.
Trying to keep up.
Lawmakers
grill academic at heart of Facebook scandal
… Cambridge University researcher Aleksandr
Kogan told "60 Minutes" he was "sincerely sorry"
about the way he and "tens of thousands" of other app
developers took advantage of what he said was Facebook's lax data
policy enforcement, but he doesn't think he really did anything
wrong.
On Tuesday, he told members of the British
Parliament that Cambridge Analytica's suspended CEO, Alexander Nix,
had blatantly lied to them during his testimony on the relationship
between that company and his own.
(Related)
Facebook
reveals 25 pages of takedown rules for hate speech and more
Facebook has never before made public the
guidelines its moderators use to decide whether to remove violence,
spam, harassment, self-harm, terrorism, intellectual property theft,
and hate speech from social network until
now. The company hoped to avoid making it easy to game these
rules, but that worry has been overridden by the public’s constant
calls for clarity and protests about its decisions. Today Facebook
published 25
pages of detailed criteria and examples for what is
and isn’t allowed.
Compare & contrast.
YouTube
Took Down Over 8 Million Videos In 3 Months, And Machines Did Most Of
The Work
Google-owned YouTube took down 8.3 million videos
in the last three months of 2017, with machines doing most of the
work in cleaning up the video-sharing platform.
The announcement comes alongside the launch of the
Reporting History dashboard, which will allow YouTube
users to see the status of videos that they have flagged.
What happens if you don’t want Amazon opening
your front door?
Introducing
In-Car Delivery
As a Prime member, get your Amazon packages
securely delivered right into your vehicle parked at home, at work or
near other locations in your address book. Park your vehicle in a
publicly accessible area to receive in-car deliveries, and track your
packages with real-time notifications. FREE for Prime members in
select cities and surrounding areas with supported vehicles. Check
your eligibility, or download the Amazon Key App to get started.
Amazon Key In-Car Delivery supports most 2015
model year or newer Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac, and Volvo
vehicles with an active
connected car service plan such as OnStar or Volvo On
Call. Stay tuned for future partner announcements.
Strangely enough, I’m in agreement.
Surprise!
Monkeys can't sue for copyright, not even for 'monkey selfies.'
Here's why.
As bananas as it sounds, the Ninth
U.S. Court of Appeals ruled on Monday that monkeys do not have
the right to sue for copyright infringement as argued in the case of
a monkey whose selfie went viral around the world.
… After the image went viral, the site
Wikimedia Commons — which is the media repository for Wikipedia —
uploaded
the image as an image in the public domain. It argued that
“because as the work of a non-human animal, it has no human author
in whom copyright is vested.”
… PETA used a rule called “next friend”
that allowed the organization to sue on behalf of an animal. For a
while, it wasn’t
even clear that PETA was representing the right monkey. PETA
argued
that animals are so intelligent that they are capable of holding
legal ownership of intellectual property.
Still, the case continued and in
2016 a federal judge ruled that a monkey cannot own copyright.
The next year, PETA settled
the suit with Slater but the
Ninth Circuit refused to let either side drop the case.
And on Monday, the Ninth Circuit delivered a
conclusive blow to one of the most-talked about copyright cases in
modern times, and one that generated a wide range of reactions given
its implications about the work of non-humans, including
artificially intelligent machines.
Why does this sound like Hillary Clinton? It’s
going to be difficult to plead ignorance after comments he made
during the campaign.
Trump ramps
up personal cell phone use
President Donald Trump is increasingly relying on
his personal cell phone to contact outside advisers, multiple sources
inside and outside the White House told CNN, as Trump
returns to the free-wheeling mode of operation that characterized
the earliest days of his administration.
… Sources cited Trump's stepped-up cell phone
use as an example of chief of staff John Kelly's waning influence
over who gets access to the President.
… While Trump never entirely gave up his
personal cell phone once Kelly came aboard, one source close to the
White House speculated that the President is ramping up the use of
his personal device recently in part because "he doesn't want
Kelly to know who he's talking to."
A toolkit for my Android using students.
The best
privacy and security apps for Android
Table of Contents
For all that data I’ve been trying to explain.
Creating
Data Visualizations Without Knowing How to Code
Center
for Data Innovation: “A research collaboration between Adobe
and Georgia Tech has published a free data visualization tool called
Data Illustrator that allows users to create visualizations in a
graphical interface without having to know how to code.
Additionally, Dutch data visualization firm Vizualism has published
a tutorial for Data Illustrator to walk users through how to
create a visualization using data about life expectancy in Dutch
cities.”
(Related)
Storyline
JS - Turn Your Spreadsheets Into Stories
In yesterday's Practical
Ed Tech Tip of the Week I featured the storytelling tools
produced by Knight Lab at Northwestern University. One of those
tools is called Storyline
JS. Storyline JS lets you create an interactive, annotated line
chart. The purpose of Storyline JS is to enable you to add detailed
annotations to the data points displayed on your line charts. Watch
my video
below to see how to create an annotated line chart with Storyline JS.
Storyline JS could be a great tool for students to
use to demonstrate their understanding of what the data in a line
chart actually means. Similarly, using Storyline JS could be a good
way for students to explain the causes for changes in the data
displayed in their line charts.
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