Thursday, June 04, 2020


Always a question: How far can you push before someone (everyone?) pushes back harder?
Europe nears tipping point on Russian hacking
The European Union is getting ready to slap sanctions on a group of Russian hackers, according to three diplomats involved — a move that would mark a turning point in the bloc's efforts to address foreign hacking.
The sanctions, expected later this year, come after the German government announced it "had evidence" tying members of a Russian hacking group to the cyberattack on the Bundestag in 2015.
European countries have weighed sanctioning foreign nationals and entities involved in hacking for months, but talks were mired in secrecy as governments weighed their options. That changed when Chancellor Angela Merkel — previously reluctant to chide Russia over hacking — said last month that Berlin could not "simply ignore" an "outrageous" attack, and her government called for an EU response.
Capitals "may want to use this occasion to demonstrate that similar attacks against any member state are significant enough to merit sanctions," said Patryk Pawlak, executive officer at the EU Institute for Security Studies, the in-house think tank of the Council of the European Union.




Another tipping point?
Cyber Insurance Becoming a Necessity, No Longer a Luxury for Prepared Companies




An overview.
Cybercriminals exposed 5 billion records in 2019, costing U.S. organizations over $1.2 trillion
Cybercriminals exposed over 5 billion records in 2019, costing over $1.2 trillion to U.S. organizations, according to ForgeRock.
Healthcare emerged as the most targeted industry in 2019, accounting for 382 breaches and costing over $2.45B, an increase from 164 incidents costing over $633 million in 2018.
Based on Q1 2020 data, 2020 is set to outpace 2019 in terms of records breached, despite the fact the number of breaches tracks down by 57%. There have been 92 data breaches affecting 1.6 billion records in Q1 2020 alone, 9% more records than Q1 2019.




Do we implement all privacy regulations for all customers or create a unique process for each law?
Privacy Compliance Budget Increasing as Regulatory Landscape Continues to Evolve, Report Reveals
While organizations of all kinds are beginning to understand the importance of expanding their approaches to privacy compliance in order to meet the demands of expanding laws around the world, more than one-third of organizations are concerned about compliance budget structuring in light of regulatory uncertainty.
This is according to a new study by FTI Consulting, which explored privacy compliance spending and the challenges it faces, especially in light of evolving data privacy laws around the globe. According to its findings, legal and compliance budget spending are heavily dependent on the broader regulatory landscape, further suggesting a crucial role for governments in ensuring that personal information remains protected by organizations.
A movement that took the international stage with the enactment of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2018—and gained momentum with the passage of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and Brazil’s General Data Protection Law (LGPD)—is building into a tidal wave of anticipated regulations worldwide,” the researchers wrote.




Apparently, it ain’t easy.
Endgame Issues: New Brookings Report on Paths to Federal Privacy Legislation
This afternoon, The Brookings Institution released a new report, Bridging the gaps: A path forward to federal privacy legislation, a comprehensive analysis of the most challenging obstacles to Congress passing a comprehensive federal privacy law. The report includes a detailed range of practical recommendations and options for legislative text, the result of work with a range of stakeholders to attempt to draft a consensus-driven model privacy bill that would bridge the gaps between sharply divided stakeholders (read the full legislative text of that effort here ).




Is over-reliance likely if we use a flawed technology?
Thermal Imaging as Pandemic Exit Strategy: Limitations, Use Cases and Privacy Implications
Around the world, governments, companies, and other entities are either using or planning to rely on thermal imaging as an integral part of their strategy to reopen economies. The announced purpose of using this technology is to detect potential cases of COVID-19 and filter out individuals in public spaces who are suspected of suffering from the virus. Experts agree that the technology cannot directly identify COVID-19. Instead, it detects heightened temperature that may be due to a fever, one of the most common symptoms of the disease. Heightened temperature can also indicate a fever resulting from a non-COVID-19 illness or non-viral causes such as pregnancy, menopause, or inflammation. Not all COVID-19 patients experience heightened temperature, and individuals routinely reduce their temperatures through the use of common medication.
In this post, we (1) map out the leading technologies and products used for thermal imaging, (2) provide an overview of the use cases currently being considered for the use of thermal imaging, (3) review the key technical limitations of thermal scanning as described in scientific literature, (4) summarize the chief concerns articulated by privacy and civil rights advocates, and finally, (5) provide an in depth overview of regulatory guidance from the US, Europe and Singapore regarding thermal imaging and temperature measurement as part of the deconfinement responses, before reaching (6) conclusions.


(Related)
How Digital Contact Tracing for COVID-19 Could Worsen Inequality
Amid protests against racism and police brutality in Minneapolis, Minnesota Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington likened police investigations of arrested protesters and their associates to contact tracing for COVID-19. This reckless analogy stokes fear that governments will seize on the pandemic to introduce intrusive surveillance in the guise of measures for the public’s health.
We are particularly concerned that the normalization of digital contact tracing would be a double blow for communities in the United States and abroad that have suffered longstanding human rights abuses. First, experiments with unproven technology could displace funds for basic measures that are known to be effective in protecting those most vulnerable in the pandemic. Secondly, such tracking could open a dangerous new front in the surveillance and repression of marginalized groups.




Overreaction?
Section 230 and the Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship
CRS Legal Sidebar via LC – Section 230 and the Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship – June 3, 2020: “On May 28, 2020, President Trump issued the Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship (EO), expressing the executive branch’s views on Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act. As discussed in this Legal Sidebar, Section 230, under certain circumstances, immunizes online content providers from liability for merely hosting others’ content. The EO stakes out a position in existing interpretive disputes about the law’s meaning and instructs federal agencies, including the Department of Commerce, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and the Department of Justice, to take certain actions to implement this understanding. This Legal Sidebar explores the legal implications of the EO. It first briefly describes how courts have interpreted Section 230 before explaining what the EO says. Next, the Sidebar discusses the FCC and FTC’s authority to enforce Section 230, focusing on the EO’s instructions to these agencies, before concluding with a discussion of how international trade obligations affect the United States’ ability to modify Section 230…”




Getting out while staying in.
101+ Virtual Tours of Popular Tourist Attractions Around the World [2020]
Upgraded Points: “Do canceled travel plans have you stuck at home wishing you were anywhere else? We all know how that feels, but luckily, we have a solution. You can still satisfy your wanderlust by exploring famous sights — from your couch! We’ve put together a list of 101 virtual tours from over 35 countries around the world so that you can explore without having to catch a flight or spend a dime! We’ve organized this gigantic list by country so you can easily navigate to your country of choice… or simply work your way down the list and digitally travel all over the globe…”


(Related) Birding through a window.
Try Your Hand at Bird Identification With the Audubon Bird App
The Audubon Bird Guide app is very helpful in identifying the birds that you see but don't know the names of. When you open the app tap on "identify bird" and you'll be taken to a screen where you then make a few selections to narrow down the list of birds that are possibly in your area. Those selections include your location, the month of the year, the relative size of the bird, the color(s) of the bird, and activity of the bird. After making those selections you'll see a list of birds with pictures. My favorite part of the app is that you can listen to recordings of bird songs/ calls to further help you identify the bird that you saw.




Trump’s people?



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