Saturday, January 12, 2019

I should poll my students.
Most People Expect a Serious Cyberattack Against Their Country
People across the world are expecting major cyber-attacks against their own country. A Pew Research survey of more than 27,000 respondents across 26 countries shows that the majority of people expect that sensitive national security information will be accessed (74%), the public infrastructure will be damaged (69%), and elections will be targeted (61%).
In all these areas, American concerns are higher than average. Eighty-three percent are worried about attacks on the infrastructure, 82% fear that national security information will be accessed, and 78% expect election tampering. The breakdown within each area follows political party associations. For example, Democrats (87%) in the U.S. are more concerned about election tampering than Republicans (66%).




I think the “Tell us now and then tell us when the number changes” bit could be interesting.
David M. Brown of Baker Hostetler writes:
On Jan. 10, 2019, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker signed legislation that will significantly amend the state’s data breach notification law. The amendments become effective on April 11, 2019.
One of the significant changes includes a new requirement to provide an offer of complimentary credit monitoring for “a period of not less than 18 months” when the data security incident involves a Massachusetts resident’s Social Security number. With this new obligation, Massachusetts joins Connecticut and Delaware as states that require an offer of complimentary credit monitoring when the incident involves a resident’s Social Security number. There was no update to the timing of any required individual notice obligations, which remains “as soon as practicable and without unreasonable delay”; but the new amendments require a rolling notification to individuals under certain circumstances: “A notice provided pursuant to this section shall not be delayed on grounds that the total number of residents affected is not yet ascertained. In such case, and where otherwise necessary to update or correct the information required, a person or agency shall provide additional notice as soon as practicable and without unreasonable delay upon learning such additional information.” Additionally, the notice to individuals must now identify the name of the parent or affiliated corporation if the organization that experienced a breach of security is owned by another person or corporation.
Read more on Data Privacy Monitor.




Is it private if I make it public? Is that how I should read this?
hn Wesley Hall notes a court opinion on FourthAmendment.com that some readers may wish to note — particularly if they are confessing to criminal conduct in their “private” communications:
There is no Fourth Amendment issue in a police officer posing as a false friend on social media accounts to see defendant’s private pages he shares with others. Here, defendant was seen wearing a gold chain taken from his robbery victim, and it was admissible in evidence. People v. Pride, 2019 Cal. App. LEXIS 34 (4th Dist. Jan. 11, 2019).




Not sure all that ducking and weaving is good in the long term, but if their goal is to avoid negative headlines it seems to be working.
The “original gangster of big tech” has managed to dodge the bad headlines and congressional grilling that have ensnared its rivals by working with regulators and advocating its own solutions.




I don’t understand why people believe that the government is capable of keeping something like this a secret. They can’t even keep real secrets secret.
Alex Jones, Infowars Must Hand Over Documents to Sandy Hook Families Suing Conspiracy-Minded Host
Alex Jones and Infowars must provide a wide array of documents to plaintiffs in a Connecticut defamation lawsuit. The suit was brought by six families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and an FBI agent swept up in conspiracy theories that the shooting was staged.
Judge Barbara Bellis responded Jan. 10 to objections by Jones and several affiliated companies about the types of documents they needed to turn over during the discovery phase of the trial.
… The lawsuit arises from Jones’s extensive popularizing of a theory that the Sandy Hook shooting was staged by the federal government, and that no adults nor children were injured or killed. Rather, he put forward, so-called “crisis actors” portrayed the various parents and relatives of murdered students and educators in the media or appeared in video and photos as victims.
Conspiracy theorists have harassed victims’ families, first responders, and some entirely unconnected individuals starting within minutes of the reports coming out about the shooting. Many affected parents, relatives, and others have had to move, often repeatedly, to avoid letters, phone calls, and sometimes in-person confrontations.
… Jones has been banned from nearly every social-media network, payment system, and media-distribution platform.


(Related)
Infowars Makes a Stealth Return to YouTube
… the site’s conspiracy videos are still making their way online. Some of the videos are uploaded by Infowars fans. Others videos come from spam accounts, apparently trying to leech views off Infowars fans. And a large subset come from smaller Infowars-owned accounts that were unaffected by the ban.




The Arthur C Clarke quote goes, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." I guess that goes for antiquated tech too.
Hilarious video: Teens struggle to figure out how to use rotary phone
Kevin Bumstead, of Chicago, decided to challenge younger family members on Christmas after seeing a similar YouTube video.
The hilarious video of his son Jake and nephew Kyle has now been viewed on Facebook more than 16 million times as of Friday.
“My money was on them not figuring it out,” Kevin Bumstead said.
In the video, they can been seen struggling to figure out how dialing the phone works. Neither teen had ever seen or used a rotary phone before.


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