Tuesday, May 15, 2012


It's not always people who don't know any better...
California DOJ notifies those affected by a hack of a retired agent’s email accounts
May 15, 2012 by admin
Have I mentioned how valuable it is when states post breach notices online? A reader points me to a new addition to California’s security notices page from the DOJ’s Computer and Technology Crime High-Tech Response Team (C.A.T.C.H.). The incident they are reporting was a hack by those affiliated with Anonymous in 2011:
In November 2011, hackers affiliated with the group Anonymous accessed and released private email accounts belonging to a retired agent for the Department of Justice who was a member of the Computer and Technology Crime High-Tech Response Team (CATCH). CATCH is a multi-agency task force that was formed to apprehend and prosecute criminals who use technology to prey on the citizens of San Diego, Imperial Valley, and Riverside Counties. Some of emails that the hackers released included data that contained your personal information including, but not limited to, your name, address, date of birth, and Social Security number (SSN).
Others received a letter that began:
In November 2011, hackers affiliated with the group Anonymous accessed and released private email accounts belonging to a retired agent from the Department of Justice who was a member of the Computer and Technology Crime High-Tech Response Team (CATCH). CATCH is a multi-agency task force that was formed to apprehend and prosecute all criminals who use technology to prey on the citizens of San Diego, Imperial Valley, and Riverside Counties. Some of the emails the hackers released included closed identity theft case files that contained some of your personal information including, but not limited to, your name, financial account information or credit card number, and possibly your Social Security number.
The letter to those in the second group also contained the following statement:
In addition, although it appears that the identity theft case file in which your information was contained has been closed, you may want to confirm that your financial account has been closed. If it has not, we suggest that you immediately contact the financial institution and close your account. Tell them that your account may have been compromised, and ask that they report it as “closed at customer request.” If you want to open a new account, ask them to give you a PIN or password. This will help control access to the account.
No explanation was provided as to why there was such a delay between the incident and the notification letters to individuals. Did they delay because it took them time to figure out who had data exposed? Did they delay so that the disclosure would not interfere with any criminal investigation? If people’s accounts were exposed, I hope they contacted them all promptly by phone if not by letter.
Keep in mind that entities only have to file these breach reports with California if the breach affected more than 500 individuals.


The 'gift card' that keeps on giving. Another case of “further investigation” significantly increasing the scope of the breach.
Global Payments Breach Fueled Prepaid Card Fraud
… According to Fuller, Higgins said the fraudsters were coming to the stores to buy low-denomination Safeway branded prepaid cards, and then encoding debit card accounts issued by USB onto the magnetic stripe on the backs of the prepaid cards. The thieves then used those cards to purchase additional prepaid cards with much higher values, which were then used to buy electronics and other high-priced goods from other retailers.
… Initial alerts about the breach from Visa and MasterCard stated that the breach at Global Payments compromised both Track 1 and Track 2 data from affected card accounts, meaning thieves could produce counterfeit versions of the cards and possibly commit other acts of identity theft against cardholders. Global Payments claims that only Track 2 data was taken, and that cardholder names, addresses and other data were not obtained by the criminals.
Yet, as USB’s story shows, the data on Track 2 alone was enough for the crooks to encode the card number and expiration date onto any cards equipped with a magnetic stripe. The cards could then be used at any merchant that accepts signature debit — transactions that do not require the cardholder to enter his or her PIN.
Visa and MasterCard each have revoked their certification of Global Payments as a compliant card processor. Global Payments said it is still investigating the cause and extent of the incident. The company maintains that fewer than 1.5 million card accounts were stolen, but some in the industry now believe more than 7 million card accounts may have been compromised. Meanwhile, the card associations keep broadening the window of time in which hackers likely had access to the processor’s network. Initially, Visa and MasterCard said the breach window at Global Payments was between January and February 2012, but in the latest round of alerts sent to banks affected by the breach, the card brands warned that the breach dates back to at least early June 2011.


Any techie-stalker knows this. You can use the cameras to find and follow anyone. Or, to remove your self from the picture – how do you think I appear to move like the wind?
Popular Surveillance Cameras Open to Hackers, Researcher Says
In a world where security cameras are nearly as ubiquitous as light fixtures, someone is always watching you.
But the watcher might not always be who you think it is.
Three of the most popular brands of closed-circuit surveillance cameras are sold with remote internet access enabled by default, and with weak password security — a classic recipe for security failure that could allow hackers to remotely tap into the video feeds, according to new research.
The cameras, used by banks, retailers, hotels, hospitals and corporations, are often configured insecurely — thanks to these manufacturer default settings, according to researcher Justin Cacak, senior security engineer at Gotham Digital Science. As a result, he says, attackers can seize control of the systems to view live footage, archived footage or control the direction and zoom of cameras that are adjustable.


We should have seen this one coming... Now my car can rat me out to billboards pointing to every donut shop in Denver.
OnStar Files Patents for Minority Report-Style Billboards
Two weeks ago, a patent filing by General Motors was uncovered that proposed using data collected from its OnStar service to tailor public advertisements to individual drivers.
Like the billboards Tom Cruise encountered in Minority Report, the OnStar-linked ads would be tailored to passing motorists based on personal information they’d shared with their telematics service. Perusing the patent’s text, nightmare scenarios flooded our thoughts. Kids in the backseat? Be prepared to see ads for Happy Meals and nearby amusement parks. Headed to the doctor’s office? A friendly reminder to schedule a colonoscopy, in flashing 40-foot letters.


Makes you think about sharing information at sea.
Pentagon Wants Web Apps to Stop Piracy, for Some Reason
The Navy’s far-out research wing thinks it’s found a way to cut down on the scourge of maritime piracy: apps. Commence the face-palming.
The Office of Naval Research announced on Monday that it’s awarding $1 million in grants to develop a suite of web applications to “analyze data and other information to combat pirates, drug smugglers, arms traffickers, illegal fishermen and other nefarious groups.”


Apparently there are a lot more “security events” than TSA reports.
May 14, 2012
TSA's Efforts To Identify and Track Security Breaches at Our Nation’s Airports
  • "Senator Frank Lautenberg requested an investigation into media reports focused on security breaches at Newark Liberty International Airport, including the contributing factors that led to the security breaches. He requested that we compare the incident rate of breaches at Newark to other airports in the region and comparable airports. He asked us to determine whether corrective action had been taken on the specific security incidents. We determined whether the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) at Newark had more security breaches than at other airports. We also determined whether TSA has an effective mechanism to use the information gathered from individual airports to identify measures that could be used to improve security nationwide."


Interesting concept. If you have a simple way to excerpt the text, infringement is easier to prove...
McGruber writes with news of a ruling in a copyright case brought against Georgia State by several publishers over the university's electronic reserve system:
"The Atlanta Journal Constitution is reporting that a federal judge has ruled in favor of Georgia State University on 69 of 74 copyright claims filed by Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, and SAGE Publications. In a 350-page ruling, Senior U.S. District Judge Orinda Evans found that 'fair use protected a Georgia State University professor's decision to allow students to access an excerpt online through the university's Electronic Reserves System.' While the 69 of the 74 claims were rejected, the judge also found that five violations did occur 'when the publisher lost money because a professor had provided free electronic access to selected chapters in textbooks.' SAGE Publications prevailed on four of these five claims, while Oxford University Press won the fifth claim. Cambridge University Press lost all its claims."
From Inside Higher Ed: "And the judge also rejected the publishers' ideas about how to regulate e-reserves — ideas that many academic librarians said would be unworkable. At the same time, however, the judge imposed a strict limit of 10 percent on the volume of a book that may be covered by fair use (a proportion that would cover much, but by no means all, of what was in e-reserves at Georgia State, and probably at many other colleges). And the judge ruled that publishers may have more claims against college and university e-reserves if the publishers offer convenient, reasonably priced systems for getting permission (at a price) to use book excerpts online. The lack of such systems today favored Georgia State, but librarians who were anxiously going through the decision were speculating that some publishers might be prompted now to create such systems, and to charge as much as the courts would permit."

(Related) If they can immunize ISPs, why not me?
"In Finland, the operator of an open WiFi access point was found not guilty for copyright infringement allegedly committed over said access point. The operation of such access points would have become legally risky were this decided otherwise. Appeal by the Finnish Anti-Piracy Center is still possible for this district court ruling."


How to be a Government Twit?
May 14, 2012
Working the Network: A Manager’s Guide for Using Twitter in Government
Working the Network: A Manager’s Guide for Using Twitter in Government, Ines Mergel - Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University. May 14, 2012.
  • "As of this writing, the federal government operates over 1,000 Twitter feeds. Federal civilian agencies maintain over 360 Twitter feeds, while the Department of Defense hosts more than 650. In addition to its official English feed, the State Department produces Twitter feeds in Turkish, Farsi, Arabic, Spanish, and French. It is fair to say that the federal government is embracing Twitter as a tool for citizen engagement. But is government realizing the panoply of benefits that a comprehensive understanding of this tool promises? Beyond acting as a broadcasting channel—supplementing the website by promoting press releases or announcing new initiatives—Twitter can help agencies follow public conversations on issues relevant to their organizations."


The new legal specialty: e-State Planning?
The Social Media Will: An Expert Guide to Your Digital Afterlife


English teachers rejoice? Probably best to search several ways to get elusive results.
May 14, 2012
Google expands punctuation and symbols in search
Google Inside Search - "Punctuation and symbols in search - Generally, most punctuation and special characters are ignored in Google Search. However, we’re expanding our search capabilities to support some characters that modify search terms and help Google find exactly what you’re looking for. Here are some examples from the growing list of popular symbols that are supported.." [Search Engine Showdown]


This could be extremely handy!
Monday, May 14, 2012
The web is full of webinars, webcasts, and video lessons of all types. Searching the content of those videos can be difficult and time-consuming if you can't find the transcripts of those videos. That's a problem that can be addressed by using a tool that Stephen Ransom shared on Twitter this morning.
Talk Miner is a tool for searching the contents of webinars, webcasts, and video lectures. Talk Miner searches the slides, images, and text within videos to take you to the scenes that match your search query. Watch the video below to learn more about Talk Miner.


For my Intro students...
Hitch a ride through Google's cloud
Your Gmail box lives somewhere in the jumble of servers, cables, and hard drives known as the "cloud" but it often migrates in search of the ideal location.
Google today released an animation that answers the question: what happens when I press send on Gmail? The company created the interactive feature called The Story of Send to highlight the security and relatively low energy footprint of its data centers. The graphics repeat Google's estimate that its data centers use 50 percent less energy than a typical data center and 30 percent of their data center energy is supplied from renewable sources, including wind and solar.


Free is good, and eventually I'll move to Windows 7
Get Laplink PCmover Windows 7 Upgrade Assistant for free
Today only, in honor of its 29th birthday, Laplink is offering PCmover Windows 7 Upgrade Assistant absolutely free. It regularly sells for $29.95.
To get the software, click here, then click the little "Add to cart" box in the upper-right corner of the free-PCmover banner. Scroll down and click "Proceed to Cart." Follow the instructions on the following page.
… If you're an XP user, you can't do an in-place upgrade -- meaning Windows 7 effectively wipes your programs and data as part of the installation process. The same is true if you're moving from a 32-bit version of Vista to 64-bit Windows 7.
PCmover overcomes that limitation, packaging up all your programs and data and then restoring them after Windows 7 finishes installing.

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Monday, May 14, 2012


One of the few acknowledged breaches covering an entire country. If I'm correct, the Population Registry records births, deaths, citizenship, current address, etc. for Israelis anywhere, not just in Israel.
Il: Six indicted over Population Registry data theft
May 13, 2012 by admin
More on a breach previously mentioned on this blog last year. Joanna Parasczuk reports on the evolution of a data breach that started in 2006 as an insider breach and ultimately affected everyone in Israel, it seems:
The Tel Aviv District Attorney has charged six people, including a computer programmer formerly employed as a Social Affairs Ministry contractor, in connection with a massive data theft that exposed the personal details of millions of Israelis.
The theft, which took place in 2006, included the publication of detailed personal information on nine million Israelis, among them minors, deceased persons and citizens living abroad.
According to the indictment, Shalom Bilik, who had access to the database during his work at the ministry, copied the data and took a copy of the database home.
After Bilik’s contract with the ministry ended in 2006, he began to provide computing services to an ultra-Orthodox organization in Jerusalem, and allegedly installed the database on computers there.
Indicted alongside Bilik are Avraham Adam, Yosef Vitman, Haim Aharon, Moshe Moskovitz and Meir Leiver.
Adam, who worked at the ultra-Orthodox charity, allegedly used the stolen data [Knowing it was stolen? Bob] after Bilik gave it him.
Allegedly, Adam passed the data on to Vitman, who volunteered at the charity.
Vitman then sold a copy of the stolen database to Aharon, an independent computer consultant, who combined it with a copy of the voter registration database and eleven other databases, the indictment said.
Aharon then sold the combined database to several people, and also gave it to Moskovitz, a computer programmer, to sell.
Moskovitz enhanced the database with a sophisticated search program he had written, and called the final database ‘Agron’. He then sold it on to various acquaintances.
At this stage, the indictment said, the database ended up in the hands of Leiver, who renamed it aRi and sold it to several overseas internet sites.
Read more on Jerusalem Post.
So… what do you think the punishment or sentence should be for someone who’s responsible for starting a mammoth privacy breach like this? There’s no closing this particular barn door any more, either, and the potential remains to combine the database with new or future databases.
Is this Mark Zuckerberg’s wet dream or what? Or maybe NSA’s? Or maybe both, for different reasons.

(Related) A much larger target. But then, every country seems to want all of the data about their citizens in one basket.
Indian ID scheme has already enrolled 160 million citizens
May 14, 2012 by Dissent
Karl Flinders reports:
The Indian government’s plan to issue all of its 1.2 billion citizens with biometric ID cards is gathering pace, with the IT firm that built and supports the software to enroll citizens revealing that it is completing 14 million enrollments a month.
In 2010, tier-two Indian supplier MindTree won the contract to create and support the software used to enroll citizens, which includes the use of biometrics.
Read more on ComputerWeekly.com.


One use for ubiquitous surveillance. I wonder if they ever do the same thing in reverse to make someone's life miserable? I think it could be automated to allow muckety-mucks to zoom past us “second class” citizens.
"Does it count as a hack if you change your own system? Vanity Fair report that during the bidding process for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the London Streets Traffic Control Center followed each vehicle using CCTV, 'and when they came up to traffic lights,' [bid committee CEO Keith] Mills said, 'we turned them green.'"


It's probably not that people are better educated about Privacy, but that the number of aggressive, irritating invasions of their privacy have (at last) reached a tipping point.
Complaints Related to Misuse of Personal Data Increasing
May 14, 2012 by Dissent
Some data from Estonia reported by Ingrid Teesalu of Estonia Public Broadcasting:
The number of complaints over misuse of personal data has increased sevenfold in the last five years, according to the Data Protection Inspectorate.
While in 2007 there were 110 registered complaints, last year the number had climbed to 818, the agency said in a statement, adding that people’s awareness on the importance of personal data protection is also increasing.
Read more on ERR.

(Related) In the US, an invasion of privacy means we sue... My first question: When did you stop using Hulu?
Hulu Said to Disclose Users’ Viewing Habits
May 14, 2012 by Dissent
Nick McCann reports;
A class of Hulu subscribers who claim the website discloses what they watch to third parties without their consent argued that their action should continue in San Jose’s federal court.
In their amended class action complaint, six Hulu subscribers said the video site “repurposed” its browser cache so a marketing analyst service called KISSmetrics could store their private data.
The class also claims Hulu shared their private viewing choices with Facebook, Google Analytics, and other online market research and ad companies.
Read more on Courthouse News.


I'm not sure lawyers are ready for this, but I suspect there will be a market for “Train the Client” consultants.
ABA Commission Proposes Ethics Rule Requiring Adequate Data Security
May 14, 2012 by Dissent
Scott Loughlin writes:
Data protection long has been a legal responsibility for lawyers. The American Bar Association now is proposing to make clear that the protection of a client’s data is an ethical responsibility of the lawyer as well.
The Commission on Ethics 20/20 of the American Bar Association released its Report to the House of Delegates recommending several modifications to the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct regarding lawyers’ use of technology and protection of client confidences. The proposals will be considered at the ABA’s 2012 Annual Meeting, and several of these proposed modifications incorporate established concepts from existing data protection and breach notification laws.
Read more on Hogan Lovells Chronicle of Data Protection.
[From the article:
The proposed Model Rule 1.6(c), which uses language commonly found in data breach notification statutes, states:
A lawyer shall make reasonable efforts to prevent the inadvertent or unauthorized disclosure of, or unauthorized access to information relating to the representation of a client.


Got facts? This 'free to copy' book shows you how to gather, analyze and report them.
May 13, 2012
Free Online Data Journalism Handbook
"The Data Journalism Handbook (Beta) is an initiative of the European Journalism Centre and the Open Knowledge Foundation. It is published by O'Reilly Media and freely available online under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license."


I'll never get rich blogging (my wife will see to that) but the odd million now and then would be useful...


This will inspire my Apple-loving students and completely depress my Windows-lovers...


Something for to make me gooder.
… Edshelf hopes to become a go-to site where teachers can recommend to one another what’s worked for them, and it’s building a directory of educational materials that have been reviewed for educators by educators. Apps and websites are reviewed based on student engagement and pedagogical effectiveness, as well as on how hard these tools are to learn.
… Edshelf has a number of direct and indirect competitors. Kindertown (which I covered here) provides reviews on educational content written by educators for parents. Edsurge, a weekly newsletter that covers education entpreneurship, recently launched its own review site. I’ve also covered Chalkable, a New York City-based startup that wants to blend the app store with the LMS – part of its value proposition is easier procurement and single sign-on. That’s also what platforms like Edmodo and Google’s Chrome Web Store promise too. And then there’s Apple and iTunes.

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Sunday, May 13, 2012


Does anyone read these articles before they are published? Doesn't this raise more questions than it answers?
California Dept of Social Services notifying over 700,000 In-Home Supportive Services providers and recipients after payroll data lost in the mail
May 12, 2012 by admin
California Department of Social Services is notifying over 700,000 In-Home Supportive Services providers and recipients that their data may have been lost. An FAQ on the department’s web site explains that CDSS became aware of the breach on May 9. The information was in a package that was damaged in transit between a Hewlett Packard processing center and the State Compensation Insurance Fund.
The information included IHSS providers’ names and Social Security numbers as well as their case numbers and provider’s numbers. For recipients, the data included employer identification numbers. [Why not SSAN? Surely the “recipients” do not employ the “providers” – do they? Bob]
The package, which was mailed on April 26 via U.S.P.S., arrived on May 1, but was not intact.
According to Chris Megerian of the Los Angeles Times:
The possibly compromised information, dating from October to December 2011, [Very slow compensation? Bob] for 375,000 workers included names, Social Security numbers and wages. For 326,000 recipients, state identification numbers may have been compromised. [Note that there is almost a one to one “provider” to “recipient” ratio. No wonder health care is expensive! Bob]
Not addressed on the state’s web site were answers to these two questions:
  1. Why was Hewlett Packard using U.S.P.S. to ship payroll data, and
  2. What format were these documents in? It sounds like these may have been paper documents in the package. If so, Why not electronic and secure transmission?
[From the FAQ:
What personal information was released?
The documents that were missing contained the following information:
If you are an IHSS provider
  • Your name
  • Your Social Security number
  • Your IHSS provider number
  • Your IHSS case number
  • If you are an IHSS recipient your employer identification number
[Note that what looks like a simple formatting error hides “recipient” information as a bullet point under “provider” Bob]


It was a lousy marketing idea... Was it also illegal?
wiredmikey writes with a followup to Thursday's news that Adobe was recommending paid software upgrades in lieu of fixing security holes in some of its applications. After receiving criticism for the security bulletin, Adobe changed its mind and announced that it's developing patches to fix the vulnerabilities.
"Developing a patch, especially for three different applications, can be costly and time consuming. Developing these patches consumes development resources, then must run through a QA process, and the patch needs to be communicated and distributed to users. And for a company like Adobe with a massive customer base using its Photoshop, Illustrator, and Flash Professional, the bandwidth cost alone can be substantial. For a popular product that was just over two years old, providing a fix to address a serious security flaw its what customers deserve. And while Adobe may have originally tried to sneak by without addressing the issue and pushing users to upgrade to its new product, the company made the right move in the end."


Useful security tool?
FBI actions mean 350,000 computers – all infected with the “DNSchanger” malware – will be cut off from the Internet on July 9, 2012.
Am I Infected?
Naturally, after reading that, you’re curious to find out whether or not you’re infected. The quickest way to see if your computer is infected with the DNS Changer trojan is to visit this site. If you see red, you’ve got the virus. If you see green, you’re (probably) okay.
There are more things you can do to check; the FBI can help with that. Follow the instructions provided there to figure out whether your DNS servers are good or evil.
Did you find out you’ve got a trojan? Don’t panic! This malware is relatively old, and we’ve outlined more than a few free anti-virus programs that can help.


A new surveillance tool and new privacy questions. Do you suppose every state has radioactivity detectors?
"A Milford, CT man was pulled over when a state police car radioactivity scanner flagged his car as being radioactive. The man had been given a cardiac exam using radioactive dye, and had a note from his physician attesting to this, [Was this incidental or was the “note” in anticipation of this kind of stop? What would have happened if he didn't have a note? Bob] but it raises questions about the legality of the stop. Given that it is not illegal to own or purchase or transport radioactive materials (within limits for hobbyist use), should the police be allowed to stop and search vehicles which show a slight level of radioactivity?"


Making it easy for anyone interested in surveillance? Why not just use the tools & techniques already demonstrated by hackers?
"CNET's Declan McCullagh reported last week on the FBI's argument that the massive shift of communications from the telephone system to the Internet 'has made it far more difficult for the agency to wiretap Americans suspected of illegal activities.' The law has already been expanded once, in 2004, to include broadband networks, but still excludes Web companies. The FBI says its surveillance efforts are in danger of 'going dark' if it is not allowed to monitor the way people communicate now. Not surprisingly, a range of opponents, from privacy advocates to legal experts, disagree — strongly. On key tech hitch with the plan, per ACLU attorney Mark Rumold and others: There is a difference between wiretapping phones and demanding a backdoor to Internet services. 'A backdoor doesn't just make it accessible to the FBI — it makes it vulnerable to others,' Rumold says."


...maybe if you encrypt the note before you upload it?
This note will self-destruct after you read it... Okay, so that's not true, but if this note was written on Burn Note it would be true. Burn Note is a free service for sending messages that self-destruct after they are read by their recipients. To use Burn Note just visit their homepage and start typing your note. When your note is complete a unique URL is generated for you to share. Once that URL has been used by someone else, it no longer works.


Does this surprise anyone?
UK: Trade in sensitive personal data uncovered by secret investigation
May 12, 2012 by Dissent
Mark Townsend reports:
The ease with which private investigators can access highly personal and sensitive information stored in secure government databases has been exposed by a report that will intensify calls to regulate the industry.
An investigation by Channel 4′s Dispatches programme reveals how a London firm of private detectives sold personal data on individuals, including details of bank accounts, benefit claims and even a national insurance number.
Undercover reporters also recorded Stephen Anderson, director of private investigators Crown Intelligence, disclosing medical details including the name of one of the volunteers’ doctors, recent appointments with a GP and, in one instance, confirmation of a medical condition. On several occasions, the investigator provided information for payment that appears to be covered by the Data Protection Act, which makes it an offence to “obtain or disclose data without permission or procure the disclosure to another person”.
Read more on The Guardian.


Perhaps this is how you respond to a Senator. Perhaps this is how a very large team of lawyers “almost-responds” to a Senator. At least Franken asks the questions.
By Dissent, May 12, 2012
Melanie Evans reports:
In comments to U.S. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), Accretive Health rejected a recent report that suggested the healthcare billing and collection company violated emergency-room access, patient privacy and debt collection laws.
Accretive’s 29-page comment letter (PDF) came in response to questions from the senator following a highly critical report from Minnesota’s attorney general on Accretive’s business practices. The report said Accretive employees, under contract for Fairview Health Services, sought payment from emergency room and hospital patients before or as they sought care.
Read more on Modern Healthcare. The data breach part of their response begins on p. 24 of Accretive’s letter.


Loss leader or advertising gimmick or an attempt to replace the world's libraries?
Pottermore CEO: New Amazon deal so big, any lost Harry Potter sales “more than made up for”
Here’s the “wizardry” that Amazon teased yesterday: Through an “exclusive license” with Pottermore, Amazon will make all seven Harry Potter e-books free through the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library starting June 19. KOLL allows Amazon Prime members who own a Kindle to borrow one e-book free each month.
… “It’s a commercial deal that makes sense even with a level of cannibalization of my sales,” Pottermore CEO Charlie Redmayne tells paidContent, “but I believe it will actually drive greater sales.” [Baen Publishing has been giving away electronic versions of many of their books for years and have always seen sales go up. Bob]
“The way the deal is structured means that any lost sales are more than made up for,” Redmayne says. “Yes, some people will borrow from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library and therefore not buy, but Amazon is paying us a large amount of money for that right, and I believe it’s a commercial deal that makes sense.”


View it for the “sources and uses” of energy – not what I thought...
May 12, 2012
CBO Publishes Report and Infographic on Energy Security in the United States
  • "Energy use is pervasive throughout the U.S. economy. Households and businesses use energy from oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear power, and renewable sources (such as wind and the sun) to generate electricity, provide transportation, and heat and cool buildings. In 2010, energy consumption represented 8.4 percent of U.S. gross domestic product. Disruptions in the supply of commodities used to produce energy tend to raise energy prices, imposing an increased burden on U.S. households and businesses. Disruptions can also reduce the nation’s economic output and thus people’s income. This paper examines energy security in the United States—that is, the ability of U.S. households and businesses to accommodate disruptions of supply in energy markets—and actions that the government could take to reduce the effects of such disruptions."


Perspective An Infographic


My online Math Lab uses a strip of film to indicate a video. Problem is, what do you replace these icons with?
"The Floppy Disk Icon, observes Scott Hanselman, means 'save' for a whole generation of people who have never seen one. That, and other old people icons that don't make sense anymore — Radio Buttons, Clipboards, Bookmarks, Address Books and Calendars, Voicemail, Manila Folder, Handset Phone, Magnifying Glass and Binoculars, Envelopes, Wrenches and Gears, Microphones, Photography, Televisions, Carbon Copies and Blueprints — are the subject of Hanselman's post on icons that are near or past retirement age, whose continued use is likely to make them iconic glyphs whose origins are shrouded in mystery to many."


This could be very interesting if we connect it to our free e-textbooks...
Daily Pages is a free to use web service that will email you a chapter of a book every so often. When you visit the site you will find a list of books that you can browse through. In front of each book you will find the number of its members and the number of upcoming readings to be emailed to its group list.

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Saturday, May 12, 2012


If you were not at the Privacy Foundation Seminar yesterday, shame on you. Nothing beats having the people who are actually involved with the topics under discussion exchanging information. It was probably educational but definitely amusing – what could be more fun than watching lawyers argue hypothetical scenarios that involve technology they almost understand.

(Related) This is one of the Privacy related topics debated at the seminar... It's interesting to see that the NJ judge reached the same conclusions as some of the lawyers on the panel.
Judge: Cellphone password off-limits
A tractor-trailer driver allegedly found with 364 pounds of marijuana in his rig in Mount Olive cannot be forced to reveal the password to unlock his Nextel BlackBerry phone, a judge ruled Thursday.
State Superior Court Judge Stuart Minkowitz, sitting in Morristown, found that suspect J. Arturo Vergara’s Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination would be violated if authorities compelled him to testify, in effect, by disclosing the password to his BlackBerry.
… The judge noted that, under certain circumstances, a person could be required to give up a password or decrypt a computer hard-drive for police. But those circumstances involve proof that the device absolutely belongs to the suspect and independent information that makes it a “foregone conclusion” that evidence will be found on the device.


Perhaps they can “notify” users by changing their “Status” from “Mr. Friendly” to “Stalker”
Facebook Fleshes Out Privacy Policy To Comply With Data Protection Audits, Will Hold Q&A On Monday
May 12, 2012 by Dissent
John Constine reports:
Today Facebook will start sending the first of three billion notices to users about proposed changes to its privacy policy, which were made to comply with a Spring deadline for implementing recommendations from an audit by the Irish Data Protection Commissioner. The three biggest changes Facebook’s Chief Privacy Officer for Policy Erin Egan told me about when we spoke this morning are several clarifications of existing but sometimes vague policies:
  • A clarification regarding Facebook’s existing policy that it may use your data to serve you ads outside of Facebook.com while you’re on other websites
Read more on TechCrunch, while I mull over Facebook’s “clarification” that it can follow you around on other web sites to serve you ads based on your data.
Kash Hill has more on this on Forbes.


Another “audit failure”
May 11, 2012
DHS OIG - U.S. Customs and Border Protection Privacy Stewardship
  • "CBP has made limited progress toward instilling a culture of privacy that protects sensitive personally identifiable information. This is in part because it has not established a strong organizational approach to address privacy issues across the component. To strengthen its organizational approach to privacy, CBP needs to establish an Office of Privacy with adequate resources and staffing and hold Assistant Commissioners and Directors accountable for their employees’ understanding of and compliance with their privacy responsibilities. In addition, CBP needs to improve its compliance with Federal privacy laws and regulations. Specifically, it needs to develop a complete inventory of its personally identifiable information holdings, complete privacy threshold analyses for all systems, and develop accurate system of records notices for its systems. CBP also needs to ensure that privacy impact assessments are conducted for all personally identifiable information systems."


This should not be a surprise. They took the money for rural phone access and did nothing there either.
AT&T, Feds Neglect Low-Price Mandate Designed to Help Schools
At the dawn of the Internet era, Congress set out to avert a digital divide between rich and poor students. In a landmark bill, lawmakers required the nation’s phone companies to provide bargain voice and data rates to schools and to subsidize the cost of equipment and services, with the biggest subsidies going to the schools with the most disadvantaged children.
More than a decade later, as schools struggle for funding amid widespread budget cuts, there is growing evidence that the program’s crucial low-price requirement has been widely neglected by federal regulators and at least one telecom giant.
A decade after the program started, AT&T was still not training its employees about the mandatory low rates, which are supposed to be set at the lowest price offered to comparable customers. Lawsuits and other legal actions in Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan and New York have turned up evidence that AT&T and Verizon charged local school districts much higher rates than it gave to similar customers or more than what the program allowed.


Of course they do. And of course they must deny or “no comment” the relationship.
Court Upholds Google-NSA Relationship Secrecy
A federal appeals court on Friday upheld the National Security Agency’s decision to withhold from the public documents confirming or denying any relationship it has with Google concerning encryption and cybersecurity.
That’s despite the fact that Google itself admitted it turned to “U.S. authorities,” which obviously includes the NSA, after the search giant’s Chinese operation was deeply hacked. Former NSA chief Mike McConnell told the Washington Post that collaboration between the NSA and private companies like Google was “inevitable.”


A point in the technical/legal debate yesterday. If everyone is using location services, can they argue that they didn't know they could be tracked?
May 11, 2012
Pew - Three-quarters of smartphone owners use location-based services
  • "A new report finds that 74% of smartphone owners use their phone to get real-time location-based information, and 18% use a geosocial service to “check in” to certain locations or share their location with friends. Over the past year, smartphone ownership among American adults has risen from 35% of adults in 2011 to 46% in 2012. This means that the overall proportion of U.S. adults who get location-based information has almost doubled over that time period, from 23% in May 2011 to 41% in February 2012. The percentage of adults who use geosocial services like Foursquare has likewise risen from 4% in 2011 to 10% in 2012."


I wonder if they are more concerned with the hackers or the politicians reaction to the hackers...
More Americans Worried About Cybarmegeddon Than Terrorism, Study Finds
More Americans want the presidential candidates to focus on protecting the government and the electrical grid against hackers than fighting terrorism groups.
That’s according to a new security study by Unisys (.pdf), which found that the three highest priorities for Americans when it comes to security issues in the presidential campaign are:
  1. Protecting government computer systems against hackers and criminals (74 percent)
  2. Protecting our electric power grid, water utilities and transportation systems against computer or terrorist attacks (73 percent)
  3. Homeland security issues such as terrorism (68 percent)


Tools for teachers?
Video Collaboration Service TenHands Launches Free Browser-Based WebEx Competitor
As the capabilities of modern browsers expand and developing standards like Google’s WebRTC initiative for real-time communications slowly find their way into most popular browsers, we’ll likely see more video collaboration software that’s currently still client-based move to the browser as well. TenHands, which is launching its private beta today (you can request an invite here) wants to be the first out of the gate in this market and sees itself as a direct competitor to Cisco’s WebEx, Microsoft Lync and other incumbents in this space. The service offers free video conference calls, screensharing, as well as built-in support for sharing documents from your desktop and Box.net.
As for pricing, TenHands’ COO and co-founder Jack Blaeser told me earlier today, the company is planning to use a freemium model after the beta phase ends. Users will get three free hours of usage per month and will have to pay $10/month if they need more time.


Interesting. “Learn anywhere, pay for credit here.” One possible “Future of education?”
Groups Team Up to Turn Free Online Courses Into Cheap College Credit
The Saylor Foundation has been building an online catalog of free, self-paced college courses since 2010. But students who completed those courses could not typically earn credit toward a degree, since the nonprofit group is not an accredited institution. Saylor’s new partnership with the online course-provider StraighterLine seeks to change that, giving students an inexpensive way to earn academic credit using freely available materials.
The collaboration, announced today, will give students two different ways to save money when pursuing academic credit. Beginning in the fall, students can study free courses on Saylor.org and then enroll at StraighterLine to take an exam. After passing, they will receive American Council on Education recommended credit. Students could also enroll in a StraighterLine program, using Saylor’s free course materials as they go along.


You still need more artistic talent than I have...
Infographics are all over the web right now because they can be great for displaying and sharing information. If you have wanted to try making infographics or try having your students make them, but were worried that you needed to possess some talent for design, you need to try Easel.ly.
… Easel.ly provides a canvas on which you can build your own infographic by dragging and dropping pre-made design elements. You can use a blank canvas or build upon one of Easel.ly's themes. If Easel.ly doesn't have enough pre-made elements for you, you can upload your own graphics to include in your infographic. Your completed infographic can be exported and saved as PNG, JPG, PDG, and SVG files. Watch the video below for an overview of Easel.ly.


Did you ever smack yourself upside the head when you realized you missed a great opportunity? (Far greater than “I could have had a V8”) This one nearly gave me a concussion!
GoGoFantasy Is A New Kinkstarter For Porn
GoGoFantasy is a patent-pending system for crowdfunding porn. Folks with fetishes, grandmas with groin urgings, and couples into copulating can create projects and request cash in return for filming certain acts. For example, one young lady will mount two cameras in a small plane and film her activity in the cabin. And she won’t be reading her Kindle and eating peanuts, if you catch my meaning.
… the creators of GoGoFantasy have patented their idea so expect to see some delightful lawsuits in the future

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Friday, May 11, 2012


Why would elevators or boilers be connected to the Internet?
"Imagine what would happen if an attacker broke into the network for the industrial control systems for New York City's elevators and boiler systems and decided to disrupt them, imperiling the lives of hundreds of thousands of residents relying on them. Think it could never happen? Think again. 'You could increase the speed of how elevators go up or down,' says Steve Ramirez, business analyst, analysis and communications in the Office of the CIO of the New York City Housing Authority, which provides public housing for low- to moderate-income families in the five boroughs of the city. And if attackers ever successfully penetrated the network-based industrial control systems for the boilers, they could raise the heat levels for municipal boilers, causing them to explode."


Paranoia or do they know something we don't? How will they determine I have an iPhone in the package I'm mailing? Are they saying any iPad may suddenly burst into flame because Apple didn't properly install the battery?
USPS to ban overseas shipments on tablets, smartphones, more
As of next week, the United States Postal Service, or USPS, is banning all international shipments containing lithium ion batteries, which many electronics have (see the full list below).
The most likely reason for the ban is that if lithium ion batteries are fully charged or not correctly stored or packed, they can catch fire or combust -- something obviously best to avoid while shipping.
… The USPS says it may change the ban on January 1, 2013 and allow customers to mail certain quantities of lithium ion batteries internationally, including to APO and FPO locations, "when the batteries are properly installed in the personal electronic devices they are intended to operate."


We have become a nation of corporate sheep. Profit over principle.
Few Companies Fight Patriot Act Gag Orders, FBI Admits
Since the Patriot Act broadly expanded the power of the government to issue National Security Letters demanding customer records, more than 200,000 have been issued to U.S. companies by the FBI. But the perpetual gag orders that accompany them are rarely challenged by the ISPs and other recipients served with such letters.
Just how rare these challenges are became more evident following the recent release of a 2010 letter from the Justice Department to a federal lawmaker.
In December 2010 in a letter (.pdf) from Attorney General Eric Holder to Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), the FBI asserted that in February 2009 it began telling recipients they had a right to challenge the built-in gag order that prevents them from disclosing to anyone, including customers, that the government is seeking customer records. That policy was mandated by a 2008 appellate court decision, which found that the never-ending, hard-to-challenge gag order was unconstitutional.
Holder noted, however, that in the year and 10 months since the FBI started notifying recipients of this right, only a small handful had asserted that right.
“Thus far, there have been only four challenges to the non-disclosure requirement,” Holder wrote, “and in two of the challenges, the FBI permitted the recipient to disclose the fact that an NSL was received.” [“the FBI permitted” 'cause a judge would have tossed the whole request? Bob]

(Related) Apparently someone told the Senator what was happening right under his nose.
Senator seeks DOJ cellphone tracking data
May 11, 2012 by Dissent
John Ribeiro reports:
U.S. Senator Al Franken has in a letter asked the Department of Justice for information on its practices in requesting location information from wireless carriers, following reports that law enforcement agencies are requesting such information sometimes without warrants.
Franken, a Minnesota Democrat, said he was concerned about reports that after a Supreme Court decision on tracking using GPS devices, state and local law enforcement agencies may be requesting the location records of individuals directly from their wireless carriers instead of tracking individuals through GPS devices installed on vehicles, according to a copy of the letter on the website of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Read more on Computerworld.


Cute, catchy name, but in the end a call for more government workers?
May 09, 2012
Insourcing Functions Performed by Federal Contractors: An Overview of the Legal Issues
CRS: Insourcing Functions Performed by Federal Contractors: An Overview of the Legal Issues - Kate M. Manuel, Legislative Attorney; Jack Maskell, Legislative Attorney, May 7, 2012
  • "Recent Congresses and the Obama Administration have taken numerous actions to promote “insourcing,” or the use of government personnel to perform functions that contractors have performed on behalf of federal agencies. Among other things, the 109th through the 111th Congresses enacted several statutes requiring the development of policies and guidelines to ensure that agencies “consider” using government employees to perform functions previously performed by contractors, as well as any new functions. These statutes require that “special consideration” be given to using government personnel to perform those functions (1) recently performed by government employees, (2) closely associated with the performance of inherently governmental functions, (3) performed pursuant to a contract awarded on a non-competitive basis, or (4) performed poorly by a contractor because of excessive costs or inferior quality. The Obama Administration has similarly promoted insourcing. For example, in February 2010, the Secretary of the Army testified that the Army intended to insource 7,162 positions in FY2010 and 11,084 positions in FY2011 through FY2015. Although the Department of Defense (DOD) subsequently abandoned such insourcing initiatives because the initiatives did not result in significant savings, several contractors filed suit alleging that DOD failed to comply with the applicable guidelines when insourcing particular functions."


Free is good...
5 Reasons to Download Autodesk Inventor Fusion Now
… The product is currently in a “Technical Preview,” which means you can download it for free until the end of the year.
… One warning, CAD programs take hundreds, if not thousands of hours to become expert on. I’ve been using a competitive product, Solidworks, for years, so I understood the basics going in. If you are coming to this with little experience, brace for frustration. It takes time to learn, but the payoff is enormous.


Of course, as a true conspiracy theorist I know this looks like something the government would fake (the timing is just too convenient) to reduce panic as the end nears. I would be certain of somehow Al Gore was involved...
End of the World Averted: New Archeological Find Proves Mayan Calendar Doesn’t End
So much for the world ending on December 21, 2012. We’ve been saying it for years, but a new find by archaeologists confirms the Mayan calendar indeed does not end this year but keeps going, just like turning a page to a new calendar.
“It’s very clear that the 2012 date, while important as Baktun 13, was turning the page,” David Stuart, quoted by Alan Boyle on MSNBC’s Cosmic Log. “Baktun 14 was going to be coming, and Baktun 15 and Baktun 16. … The Maya calendar is going to keep going, and keep going for billions, trillions, octillions of years into the future.”


One tool of future education.
"Univ. of MN is cataloging open-access textbooks and enticing faculty to review the texts by offering $500 per review. From the article: 'The project is meant to address two faculty critiques of open-source texts: they are hard to locate and they are of indeterminate quality. By building up a peer-reviewed collection of textbooks, available to instructors anywhere, Minnesota officials hope to provide some of the same quality control that historically has come from publishers of traditional textbooks.'"

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