We called this “target acquisition.”
Researcher Shows How
Adversaries Can Gather Intel on U.S. Critical Infrastructure
A
researcher has used a free tool that he created and open source
intelligence (OSINT) to demonstrate how easy it is for adversaries to
gather intelligence on critical infrastructure in the United States.
The
researcher, known online as Wojciech,
used his Kamerka tool to find industrial control systems (ICS) in the
United States, map them to geographical locations, and identify
critical infrastructure targets that could be of interest to a threat
actor. He believes the U.S. government should also conduct these
types of tests to identify possible targets of potentially damaging
attacks.
Kamerka
is
an open source tool that Wojciech launched in November 2018. The
tool was initially designed to identify nearby surveillance cameras
exposed to the internet
Probably worth checking to see if you have languages you can’t
support. (As an ‘old guy’ I programmed in a couple of these.)
5 Programming Languages That
Refuse to Die
COBOL
FORTRAN OBJECTIVE C R PHP
At
least they haven’t claimed that “people don’t want secure
communications,” yet.
Officials
Push Facebook for Way to Peek at Encrypted Messages
Officials
are calling on Facebook not to use encryption in its messaging
services that does not provide authorities a way to see what is being
sent.
The
request
was
made in a letter signed by US Attorney General William Barr, British
home secretary Priti Patel and Australian minister for home affairs
Peter Dutton.
At
a time when may countries are considering laws to limit facial
recognition… What could possibly go wrong?
Helene
Fouquet reports:
France is poised to become the first European country to use facial recognition technology to give citizens a secure digital identity — whether they want it or not.
Saying it wants to make the state more efficient, President Emmanuel Macron’s government is pushing through plans to roll out an ID program, dubbed Alicem, in November, earlier than an initial Christmas target.
Read
more on Bloomberg.
(Related)
A bit further down the slippery slope…
Billie
Thomson reports:
China has stepped up its internet censorship by demanding its citizens pass a facial-recognition test to be able to use web services.
People who want to have the internet installed at home or on their phones must have their faces scanned by the Chinese authority to prove their identities, according to a new regulation.
The rule, which will take effect on December 1, is said to be part of the social credit system which rates the Chinese citizens based on their daily behaviour.
Read
more on The
Daily Mail.
Significance
beyond this case. Could I get this data for a Data Analytics class?
San
Francisco—Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the American
Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California (ACLU SoCal)
have reached an agreement with Los Angeles law enforcement agencies
under which the police and sheriff’s departments will turn over
license plate data they indiscriminately collected on millions of
law-abiding drivers in Southern California.
The
data, which has been deidentified
to protect drivers’ privacy, [Want
to bet? Bob] will allow EFF and ACLU SoCal to learn how
the agencies are using automated license plate reader (ALPR) systems
throughout the city and county of Los Angeles and educate the public
on the privacy risks posed by this intrusive technology. A weeks’
worth of data, composed of nearly 3 million data points, will be
examined.
ALPR
systems
include cameras mounted on police cars and at fixed locations that
scan every license plate that comes into view—up to 1,800 plates
per minute. They
record data on
each plate, including the precise time, date, and place it was
encountered.
The two Los Angeles agencies scan about 3 million plates every week
and store the data for years at a time. Using this data, police can
learn where we were in the past and infer intimate details of our
daily lives such as where we work and live, who our friends are, what
religious or political activities we attend, and much more.
Millions
of vehicles across the country have had their license plates scanned
by police
—
and more than 99% of them weren’t associated with any crimes. Yet
law enforcement agencies often share ALPR information with their
counterparts in other jurisdictions, as well as with border agents,
airport security, and university police.
EFF
and ACLU SoCal reached the agreement with the Los Angeles Police and
Sheriff’s Departments after winning a precedent-setting decision
in
2017 from the California Supreme Court in our public records lawsuit
against the two agencies. The
court held
that
the data are not investigative records under the California Public
Records Act that law enforcement can keep secret.
“After
six
years of
litigation, EFF and ACLU SoCal are finally getting access to millions
of ALPR scans that will shed light on how the technology is being
used, where it’s being used, and how it affects people’s
privacy,” said EFF Surveillance Litigation Director Jennifer Lynch.
“We persevered and won a tough battle against law enforcement
agencies that wanted to keep this information from the public. We
have a right to information about how government agencies are using
high-tech systems to track our locations, surveil our neighborhoods,
and collect private information without our knowledge and consent.”
The
California Supreme Court ruling has significance beyond the ALPR
case. It set a groundbreaking precedent that mass, indiscriminate
data collection by the police can’t be withheld just because the
information may contain some data related to criminal investigations.
For
more on this case:
https://www.eff.org/cases/automated-license-plate-readers-aclu-eff-v-lapd-lasd
For
more on ALPRs:
https://www.eff.org/pages/automated-license-plate-readers-alpr
Lawyers
using tech! (Scary, isn’t it?)
ABA
Tech Report 2019
Tech
Report 2019 – Cloud Computing – Law Technology Today:
“…To keep it simple, the 2019
Legal Technology Survey has
focused on the basic concept of a “web-based software service or
solution,” including SaaS. In practical terms, you can understand
cloud computing as software or services that can be accessed and used
over the internet using a browser (or, commonly now, a mobile app),
where the software itself is not installed locally on the computer or
phone being used by the lawyer accessing the service. Your data are
also processed and stored on remote servers rather than on local
computers and hard drives. Cloud applications might also be referred
to as “web services” or “hosted services.” Cloud services
might be hosted by a third party (most commonly Amazon or Microsoft)
or, more commonly in the legal profession, by a provider running its
services on Amazon, Microsoft, or another cloud data center provider.
It’s also possible, though unlikely, that a law firm could host
and provide its own private cloud services…The 2019
Legal Technology Survey shows
that for a
small, but slowly growing, majority of lawyers and firms, cloud
services are now part of the IT equation.
Overall, reported growth in cloud use stayed relatively flat in
2019. The
continuing lack of actual attention to confidentiality, security, and
due diligence issues, however, remains a serious and disturbing
concern,
especially with the growth in mobile apps running on cloud services.
The results on security procedures will continue to fuel client
concerns about whether their outside law firms are making adequate
efforts on cybersecurity, and
the numbers indicate that they should be worried…”
Worth
a read.
The
Artificial Intelligence Apocalypse (Part 3)
In
Part
1 of
this 3-part miniseries, we discussed the origins of artificial
intelligence (AI), and we considered some low-hanging AI-enabled
fruit in the form of speech recognition, voice control, and machine
vision. In Part
2,
we noted some of the positive applications of AI, like recognizing
skin cancer, identifying the source of outbreaks of food poisoning,
and the early detection of potential pandemics.
A sure sign of
things to come. (The Tax Man comeith!) I’m surprised it took them
this long to ‘determine’ what is taxable.
Italy
to Investigate Netflix for Failing to File Tax Return
Italian
prosecutors are investigating Netflix Inc. after the U.S. streaming
company failed to file a tax return, according to people familiar
with the matter.
The Milan
tribunal opened the probe as the prosecutors believe Netflix has
enough of a physical presence in Italy -- including fiber optic
cables and servers -- to qualify as a local business that should be
paying taxes, said the people, who asked not to be named as the
investigation is not public.
Expensive.
Will it be worth it?
5G
explained for the rest of us
5G
is the fifth generation of wireless data networks and an
upgrade that you will want
sooner or later, depending on your appetite for wireless
bugs and growing pains.
It is much
more than the simple bandwidth or "speed" improvement
on
your phone that you're used to from the history of 4G and 3G before
it. 5G boasts low latency, intelligent power consumption, high
density and network slicing -- attributes that make it a
breakthrough, and
perhaps a confusing bore.
So
we've decided to make 5G understandable for you, the person who just
wants to use it and understand what it's worth, because it
will come at additional cost.
… To
get there you
will need to replace everything you currently own
that accesses a cellular network, as the 5G
wireless gear is distinct from today's 4G technology.
That means billions
of new devices over
the next few years, making it clear why carriers and device makers
are pretty excited about 5G.
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