Thursday, September 13, 2018

Another, “We forgot the default was No Security.”
Veeam Leaks 200 GB Customer Database, Goldmine for Phishers
A database containing 200 gigabytes of customer data, estimated to harbor around 445 million records, has been exposed online by backup and recovery company Veeam, thanks to an improperly secured server hosted on Amazon.
The database apparently contained names, email address, IP addresses, referrer URL addresses, customer organization size, and much more.




If you ask me, it’s a good thing.
U.S. Silently Enters New Age of Cyberwarfare
… This past month, buried beneath an ant mound of political scandal and news cacophony, President Trump set in motion a plan to gut Presidential Policy Directive 20, an Obama-era policy limiting the use of destructive offensive cyberweapons like Stuxnet. What exactly will replace PPD-20 remains clouded in uncertainty, but one thing seems clear: The military’s gloves are off. Without PPD-20, the U.S. military can now use hacking weapons with far less oversight from the State Department, Commerce Department, and intelligence agencies. A paper released earlier this year by U.S. Cyber Command, the hacking arm of the U.S. military, outlines a proposed policy of increased military intervention, and paints a landscape of nations under constant cyberassault. It’s not a stretch to say the removal of PPD-20 may fundamentally restructure the way America conducts war in cyberspace. Whether or not that is a good thing depends on whom you ask.




For my Computer Security students. Much of their work is insuring that evidence (logs) exists! (And to stop nonsense like this when it doesn't!)
Lisa Joy reports:
An east-central Alberta woman feels vindicated after winning a wrongful termination case against a medical centre society where she worked as a receptionist. The woman claimed she was terminated without just cause and publicly humiliated. Red Deer Judge Andreassen agreed and awarded her $25,600 in compensation.
The Consort and District Medical Centre Society, months after terminating Sherri Galloway, claimed she violated privacy laws by viewing confidential patient medical records. Judge Andreassen, however, not only ruled there was no evidence to back up the board’s claims but also slammed their actions.
Read more on Red Deer Advocate.




Are we at the point where “If you don’t Tweet, you won’t be counted?”
Researchers Are Now Turning to Twitter to Track Immigrant Migration
More than 250 million people migrated away from their birth country in 2017, according to the United Nations. However, tracking migration through surveys, like an official census, is costly and can take years to complete. To answer those concerns, researchers from the Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Physics and Complex Systems have developed a new method—tracking migration using data from the social media platform Twitter, which provides more frequent, nuanced, and perhaps more accurate information.




You hear that Russia? Let this be fair warning that we will definitely consider maybe doing something if you mess with us again.
Trump signs order to combat election interference
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order aimed at discouraging foreign countries and actors from tampering with U.S. elections, two top national security officials said in a conference call with reporters Wednesday.


(Related) So why don’t I have that warm fuzzy feeling?
Facebook ‘Better Prepared’ to Fight Election Interference, Mark Zuckerberg Says
… On Wednesday, Mr. Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, published a roughly 3,300-word blog post cataloging all the steps the company has taken.




Perspective. I see the same effort from my Chinese students
China Is Overtaking the U.S. in Scientific Research
… Qingnan Xie of Nanjing University of Science & Technology and Richard Freeman of Harvard University have studied China’s contribution to global scientific output. They document a rapid expansion between 2000 and 2016, as the Chinese share of global publications in physical sciences, engineering and math quadrupled. By 2016, the Chinese share exceeded that of the U.S.
Furthermore, the authors argue that these metrics -- which are based on the addresses of the authors -- understate China's impact. The data don't count papers written by Chinese researchers located in other countries with addresses outside China and exclude most papers written in Chinese publications. The researchers adjusted for both factors and conclude that Chinese academics now account for more than one-third of global publications in these scientific fields.




Keeping up.
Council for Economic Education
The Council for Economic Education is pleased to offer professional development webinars for teachers nationwide. The webinars cover multiple topics on how to integrate personal finance and economics in the classroom and create a fun learning experience for your students.
When you attend the webinar(s), you will leave with relevant lessons, resources and tools that can be implemented the next day. Also, New York State teachers earn one Continuing Education Unit (CEU) for each webinar. If you are interested, but cannot attend the live webinar, please register to get access to the archived version. You must attend a live webinar or listen to a recorded webinar for at least 45 minutes in order to receive a certificate.




For the Disaster Recovery toolkit.
12+ tools and resources useful during hurricanes and other disasters




Another source of classic science fiction. (And other genre)
PDF Books World


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