Tuesday, October 23, 2012

For my Ethical Hacker/Entrepreneurs: Okay, now you have managed to let everyone know... Time to raise your prices.
Service Sells Access to Fortune 500 Firms
October 22, 2012 by admin
An increasing number of services offered in the cybercrime underground allow miscreants to purchase access to hacked computers at specific organizations. For just a few dollars, [Keep this tag line, but get rid of the Clint Eastwood picture – you don't want to mess with the Copyright Cops. Bob] these services offer the ability to buy your way inside of Fortune 500 company networks.
The service I examined for this post currently is renting access to nearly 17,000 computers worldwide, although almost 300,000 compromised systems have passed through this service since its inception in early 2010.
Read more on Krebs on Security.


Could it be that someone actually noticed what is going on? Or just noticed that even the agents didn't know how their “tools” worked.
Judge Questions Tools That Grab Cellphone Data on Innocent People
October 22, 2012 by Dissent
Jennifer Valentino-DeVries reports:
A judge in Texas is raising questions about whether investigators are giving courts enough details on technological tools that let them get data on all the cellphones in an area, including those of innocent people.
In two cases, Magistrate Judge Brian Owsley rejected federal requests to allow the warrantless use of “stingrays” and “cell tower dumps,” two different tools that are used for cellphone tracking. The judge said the government should apply for warrants in the cases, but the attorneys had instead applied for lesser court orders.
Read more on WSJ.
[From the article:
Among the judge’s biggest concerns: that the agents and U.S. attorneys making the requests didn’t provide details on how the tools worked or would be used — and even seemed to have trouble explaining the technology.
“Without such an understanding, they cannot appreciate the constitutional implications of their requests,” Magistrate Judge Brian Owsley wrote in an order last month, adding the government was essentially asking him to allow “a very broad and invasive search affecting likely hundreds of individuals in violation of the Fourth Amendment.”

(Related) Mentioned in the article above, and based on the Fourth Amendment (cites lots of cases and other sources) but “The government cannot obtain judicial approval for a search using sophisticated, uniquely invasive technology that it never explained to the magistrate ”
In Court: Uncovering Stingrays, A Troubling New Location Tracking Device
October 22, 2012 by Dissent
Linda Lye of the ACLU writes:
The ACLU and Electronic Frontier Foundation have filed an amicus brief in what will be the first case in the country to address the constitutional implications of a so-called “stingray,” a little known device that can be used to track a suspect’s location and engage in other types of surveillance. We argue that if the government wants to use invasive surveillance technology like this, it must explain the technology to the courts so they can perform their judicial oversight function as required by the Constitution.
The case is highly significant for two reasons. First, it shows that the government is using new types of technology—not just GPS and cell site location records—to track location. Second, it shows that the government is going to great lengths to keep its surveillance practices secret.
Read more on ACLU.


My concern is throwing the baby out with the bath water... Would the UN have blocked the communications that brought about Arab Spring?
U.N. calls for 'anti-terror' Internet surveillance
The United Nations is calling for more surveillance of Internet users, saying it would help to investigate and prosecute terrorists.
A 148-page report (PDF) released today titled "The Use of the Internet for Terrorist Purposes" warns that terrorists are using social networks and other sharing sites including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Dropbox, to spread "propaganda."
"Potential terrorists use advanced communications technology often involving the Internet to reach a worldwide audience with relative anonymity and at a low cost," said Yury Fedotov, executive director of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
… That echoes the U.S. Department of Justice's lobbying efforts aimed at convincing Congress to require Internet service providers to keep track of their customers -- in case police want to review those logs in the future. Privacy groups mounted a campaign earlier this year against the legislation, which has already been approved by a House committee.
… Other excerpts from the UN report address:
Open Wi-Fi networks: "Requiring registration for the use of Wi-Fi networks or cybercafes could provide an important data source for criminal investigations... There is some doubt about the utility of targeting such measures at Internet cafes only when other forms of public Internet access (e.g. airports, libraries and public Wi-Fi hotspots) offer criminals (including terrorists) the same access opportunities and are unregulated."
Cell phone tracking: "Location data is also important when used by law enforcement to exclude suspects from crime scenes and to verify alibis."
Terror video games: "Video footage of violent acts of terrorism or video games developed by terrorist organizations that simulate acts of terrorism and encourage the user to engage in role-play, by acting the part of a virtual terrorist."
Paying companies for surveillance: "It is therefore desirable that Governments provide a clear legal basis for the obligations placed on private sector parties, including... how the cost of providing such capabilities is to be met."


It's called “BYOT” Bring Your Own Technology and it has been around at least since accountants started sneaking Apples with VisiCalc into accounting departments.
Cell phones are replacing pagers in pediatric hospitals
Ah, pagers -- still beloved by a wide range of users, from physicians to restaurant hostesses to bird watchers to drug dealers.
And given the simple telecommunication tech has been around for more than half a century, it should come as no surprise that it is gradually being replaced -- at least in hospital settings -- by cell phones.
That's according to an electronic survey administered by researchers out of the University of Kansas and presented this week at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) National Conference and Exhibition in New Orleans.
Of the 106 pediatric hospital physicians surveyed, 96 percent say they text and 90 percent say they use a smartphone, with 57 percent of the physicians reporting they've sent or received work-related text messages and 49 percent even when they weren't working or on call.
… The underlying issue with this shift toward texting over paging is that few of the physicians said their hospital had Health Insurance Portability and Protection Act (HIPPA)-encrypted software for texting, let alone an actual policy regarding texting at the hospital.
Cell phones in hospitals pose numerous potential privacy breaches, be it taking photos of patients or routinely texting them about a range of health issues, including extremely personal ones such as drug use and sex.


Sort of the reciprocal of “Best Practices” these are “Likely to get you involved with the FTC Practices”
Data security flaws part of FTC complaint against Compete
October 22, 2012 by admin
The FTC has been active in going after companies that do not provide adequate data security. Today, they announced that Compete, Inc. had settled charges involving unfair or deceptive practices associated with collecting and sharing personal information of users. Of interest here, however, are the charges in the complaint that relate to data security:
Compete’s Data Security Practices
16. In addition to the representations made about the collection of data, Compete made statements about the security of user data such as the following:
We take reasonable security measures to protect against unauthorized access to or unauthorized alteration, disclosure or destruction of personal information. These measures include internal reviews of our data collection, storage and processing practices and security practices.
See General Compete Privacy Policy, Exhibit 5.
17. Respondent engaged in a number of practices that, taken together, failed to provide reasonable and appropriate security for consumer information collected and transmitted by Compete. Among other things, respondent:
a. created unnecessary risks of unauthorized access to consumer information by transmitting sensitive information from secure web pages, such as financial account numbers and security codes, in clear readable text over the Internet; [i.e Unencrypted Bob]
b. failed to design and implement reasonable information safeguards to control the risks to customer information; and
c. failed to use readily available, low-cost measures to assess and address the risk that the data collection software would collect sensitive consumer information that it was not authorized to collect. [In other words, acting link the FBI? Bob]
18. These security failures resulted in the creation of unnecessary risk to consumers’ personal information. Compete transmitted the information it gathered – including sensitive information – over the Internet in clear readable text. Tools for capturing data in transit over unsecured wireless networks, such as those often provided in coffee shops and other public spaces, are commonly available, making such clear-text data vulnerable to interception. The misuse of such information, particularly financial account information and Social Security numbers, can facilitate identity theft and related consumer harms.
19. After flaws in Compete’s data collection practices were revealed publicly in January 2010, Compete upgraded its filters, added new algorithms to screen out information such as credit card numbers, and began encrypting data in transit.
The settlement doesn’t require any admission of guilt, but it is encouraging to see the FTC continue to protect consumers from the risk of ID theft by insisting on adequate security.


Think advertisers will ignore this? I know they'd like to and after all they're only guidelines...
FTC publishes guidelines for facial recognition
October 22, 2012 by Dissent
You can read “Best Practices for Common Uses of Facial Recognition Technologies” on the FTC’s site. Here’s a snippet from the Executive Summary:
Finally, there are at least two scenarios in which companies should obtain consumers’ affirmative express consent before collecting or using biometric data from facial images.
First, they should obtain a consumer’s affirmative express consent before using a consumer’s image or any biometric data derived from that image in a materially different manner than they represented when they collected the data.
Second, companies should not use facial recognition to identify anonymous images of a consumer to someone who could not otherwise identify him or her, without obtaining the consumer’s affirmative express consent.
Consider the example of a mobile app that allows users to identify strangers in public places, such as on the street or in a bar. If such an app were to exist, a stranger could surreptitiously use the camera on his mobile phone to take a photo of an individual who is walking to work or meeting a friend for a drink and learn that individual’s identity – and possibly more information, such as her address – without the individual even being aware that her photo was taken. Given the significant privacy and safety risks [wouldn't a law be better than some “guidelines?” Bob] that such an app would raise, only consumers who have affirmatively chosen to participate in such a system should be identified.


This is not deterrence... Pay off the attorneys, give a nominal amount to the victims who started the lawsuit, and promise not to use outdated technology any more? What we need is someone with both a law degree and an economics degree (hint, hint) to determine what amount puts the punitive back in punitive.
KISSmetrics Settles Supercookies Lawsuit
October 22, 2012 by Dissent
Wendy Davis reports:
Analytics company KISSmetrics has agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit by promising to avoid using ETags or other “supercookies” to track people online without first notifying them and giving them a choice.
The company also will pay $2,500 each to the consumers who sued — John Kim and Dan Schutzman — and around $500,000 to the attorneys who brought the case, according to court papers filed on Thursday.
If approved by U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler in San Francisco, the settlement would resolve a dispute alleging that KISSmetrics violated wiretap laws by using ETags (and other supercookies) for tracking.
Read more on MediaPost.


99 cans of worms on the wall, 99 cans of worms...
USPTO nixes Apple patent used in victory over Samsung
Apple might have some trouble on its hands.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) yesterday ruled that all twenty claims included in Apple's so-called "rubber-banding" patent are invalid, according to Foss Patents' Florian Mueller, who first discovered the rejection. Following that ruling, Samsung quickly filed a motion with Judge Lucy Koh, informing her of the USPTO's decision.


At least tell me why...
Remote Wipe of Customer’s Kindle Highlights Perils of DRM (Updated)
Imagine having every book on your Kindle remotely wiped, with no way to get it back. If you’ve invested hundreds or even thousands of dollars, that may seem frightening, if unlikely. Yet it’s exactly what happened to one Amazon customer in Europe. And even more shockingly, it was apparently the company itself responsible for deleting her library. According to Linn Nygaard, an IT consultant living in Norway, Amazon remotely wiped her Kindle and closed her Amazon account for as yet unspecified violations to its terms of service. It’s frightening evidence that when you buy into an ecosystem built on DRM, while you may own your device, you don’t own the data that lives on it.
… (It seems likely that it was because she was using her Kindle in Norway to buy content licensed in the U.K.)


Something every Ethical Hacker should know...
October 22, 2012
UK Report - The Future of Computer Trading in Financial Markets
"A new two-year Foresight study The Future of Computer Trading in Financial Markets - An International Perspective, sheds new light on technological advances which have transformed market structures in recent years. The independent and international study has involved 150 leading experts from more 20 countries to provide the best possible analysis on computer trading to date. Sponsored by Her Majesty's Treasury, the project was led by the Government Office for Science under the direction of the Government's Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor Sir John Beddington. It has involved leading experts in the field and explores how computer generated trading in financial markets will evolve over the next 10 years. It assembles and analyses evidence on the effect of HFT on financial markets looking out to 2022."


Now here's an interesting use of “Social Media”
Icelanders 'like' their crowdsourced constitution
In the wake of a crushing recession and raging protests, the government decided to rewrite its constitution and asked its citizens for help. Rather than requesting petitions, letters, or phone calls, the government asked people to help draft the new constitution through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr.
Over the course of the year, Iceland's citizens offered roughly 3,600 comments and 370 suggestions on the draft constitution, which was then drawn up by 25 members of a constitutional council, according to Reuters.
[The draft:


Add this to your 3D Printer and perhaps you can make guns at home...
"Affordable 3-D printers and CNC mills are popping up everywhere, opening up new worlds of production to wide ranges of designers. However, one major tool still hasn’t received a DIY overhaul: the laser cutter. Maybe people are sensitive because Goldfinger tried to cut James Bond in half with one, but all that changes now with Patrick Hood-Daniel’s new Kickstarter, 'Build Your Own Laser Cutter.' ... A 40-watt laser tube and power supply means it can cut a variety of materials: wood, plastic, fabric, and paper. ... There is one major red flag, however. The machine’s frame is built from of Medium Density Overlay (MDO) — a type of plywood. Hood-Daniels says this is a feature, making the blackTooth less sensitive to thermal distortion and inaccuracy than a metal frame, but it also creates a serious, fire-breathing concern. ... When asked for comment, Hood-Daniel says 'Initially, I had the same thoughts as to the precarious use of wood for the structure, but even with long burns to the structure which were made on accident when starting a run, there was no ignition.'"

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Monday, October 22, 2012

Any clarification is welcome...
The Southern District of Florida Weighs In On Data Breach Lawsuits
October 22, 2012 by admin
A few months ago, I noted a lawsuit by a former Winn-Dixie employee against Purchasing Power. The complaint in Burrows v. Purchasing Power alleged that Winn-Dixie shared employee data with Purchasing Power to administer its employee benefits program, but also sent them data on employees not enrolled in the program. The complaint also alleged that although Purchasing Power became an insider breach in October 2011, Winn-Dixie employees were not notified until January 27, 2012.
Today, Al Saikali writes:
Late last week, another Federal District Court (the Southern District of Florida) weighed in on the circumstances under which a plaintiff may sue a breached entity civilly for damages when the plaintiff’s personally identifiable information (PII) is inappropriately accessed or acquired. The Court allowed the case to proceed with counts for violation of Florida’s Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act and negligence (assuming Plaintiff can clarify the damages he is seeking).


Build your own Drone! (Apparently, they 'printed' an engine too)
In an effort that took four months and $2000, instead of the quarter million dollars and two years they estimate it would have using conventional design methods, a group of University of Virginia engineering students has built and flown an airplane of parts created on a 3-D printer. The plane is 6.5 feet in wingspan, and cruises at 45 mph. I only wish this had been sponsored by Estes or Makerbot rather than the MITRE Corporation; it would be great for every high school or hobbyist group that can scrape together the printing time to have one of these on demand. (HT to Gaël Duval.)


Yes, Microsoft could have an answer here... (Also, it might be an interesting project for students of Contract Law to try drafting “Model Contract Language”)
Outsourcing Privacy in Higher Education
October 22, 2012 by Dissent
Steve Kolowich reports:
After several years of negotiating, a dozen colleges have reached an agreement with Microsoft that could inspire more institutions to outsource their internal communications and data storage systems to the company and its far-flung servers — even when those systems hold sensitive student and research data.
Since 2010 Microsoft had been in talks with a dozen universities about drawing up a standard contract that would address colleges universities’ obligations to federal privacy laws such at the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The idea was to eliminate the tedium and expense of negotiating around these compliance issues with each and every university client.
Read more on Inside Higher Ed.
If Microsoft really adheres to FERPA and HIPAA requirements with the status of “school official,” and agrees not to data mine or use the data for other purposes, what risks, if any, do readers see in this arrangement? While the idea of outsourcing might make people uncomfortable, this might actually improve data security and protection of student records, as the firm presumably invests much more in security than some institutions might.

(Related) ...but I'd be very careful. What they don't have is a great track record.
Thundering silence when Microsoft changes services agreement – do the changes affect privacy?
October 21, 2012 by Dissent
Edward Wyatt and Nick Wingfield report:
Microsoft instituted a policy on Friday that gives the company broad leeway over how it gathers and uses personal information from consumers of its free, Web-based products like e-mail, search and instant messaging.
Almost no one noticed, however, even though Microsoft’s policy changes are much the same as those that Google made to its privacy rules this year.
Read more on New York Times. Does changing the Services Agreement significantly change the Privacy Policy even if that policy is not changed on paper? Microsoft does not see the changes as impact consumer privacy, but it will be interesting to read analyses of the changes by privacy advocates.


Did someone finally get it right?
October 21, 2012
IBM - Smart policies for Smartphones: Acceptable Online Activities During Work Hours
  • "IBM has published a social media policy that I think is exemplary for any organization that wants to pursue the dual goals of encouraging employees to engage in social media and protecting the organization's reputation."


Another good news/bad news kind of thing. Might make for a more interesting debate that a couple of presidential candidates...
October 21, 2012
Pew - Social Media and Political Engagement
Social Media and Political Engagement, by Lee Rainie, Aaron Smith, Kay Lehman Schlozman, Henry Brady, Sidney Verba. Oct 19, 2012
  • "The use of social media is becoming a feature of political and civic engagement for many Americans. Some 60% of American adults use either social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter, and a new survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project finds that 66% of those social media users—or 39% of all American adults—have done at least one of eight civic or political activities with social media. 66% of social media users have employed the platforms to post their thoughts about civic and political issues, react to others’ postings, press friends to act on issues and vote, follow candidates, ‘like’ and link to others’ content, and belong to groups formed on social networking sites."

(Related) ...but it's for your own good!
"Mother Jones reports on Obama's Digital Gurus, the top-secret team of analytics engineers and scientists led by hipster CTO Harper Reed who work on text analytics, social network/media analysis, web personalization, computational advertising, and online experiments & testing from the campaign's Chicago HQ and satellite offices. For OFA (Obama for America), writes Tim Murphy, there is no such thing as Too Much Information. 'In terms of just the sheer amount of data that political candidates have on you,' says UNC Prof Daniel Kreiss, 'I think everyone finds it creepy.' Still playing catch-up to OFA in its data efforts is Team Romney, which reportedly hired former employees from places like Google Analytics, Apple, Ominture, and Overstock.com in an attempt to reverse engineer the Obama campaign's strategy."


It's probably not just for lawyers... I probably won't get sued for reading these article...
October 21, 2012
New on LLRX - Reference apps for the mobile lawyer
Via LLRX.com - Reference apps for the mobile lawyer - For mobile lawyers, tech savvy attorney Nicole Black recommends a range of topical, go-to reference apps that will save you time and effort while providing reliable, high quality information. Most of the apps are free or very low cost, and include Wolfram Alpha Lawyer’s Professional Assistant, iThesaurus, Recalls app, and the Wikipanion app.

(Related) Tip #1: Make sure your links work...
October 21, 2012
New on LLRX - Internet research tips and tricks for lawyers
Via LLRX.com - Internet research tips and tricks for lawyers - This is attorney Nicole Black's review of The Cybersleuth’s Guide to the Internet, 12th edition, a book that helps lawyers learn how to use the Internet to conduct effective and free investigative and legal research.


Seems line a day for lawyer stuff...
October 21, 2012
JAG - The Operational Law Handbook
"The Operational Law Handbook is a “how to” guide for Judge Advocates practicing operational law. It provides references and describes tactics and techniques for the practice of operational law. The Operational Law Handbook is not a substitute for official references. Like operational law itself, the Handbook is a focused collection of diverse legal and practical information. The handbook is not intended to provide “the school solution” to a particular problem, but to help Judge Advocates recognize, analyze, and resolve problems they will encounter in the operational context. Similarly, the Handbook is not intended to represent official U.S. policy regarding the binding application of varied sources of law, though it may reference source documents which themselves do so. The Handbook was designed and written for Judge Advocates practicing operational law. The size and contents of the Handbook are controlled by this focus. Frequently, the authors were forced to strike a balance between the temptation to include more information and the need to retain the Handbook in its current size and configuration. Simply put, the Handbook is made for the Soldiers, Marines, Sailors, Airmen, and Coast Guardsmen of the military Judge Advocate General’s Corps, who serve alongside their clients in the operational context. Accordingly, the Operational Law Handbook is compatible with current joint and combined doctrine."


In addition to encryption, this would allow you to “randomly” switch frequencies to avoid interception, increasing security of communications even more. Besides, thinkof the applications for my Ethical Hackers!
"Over the weekend at the ToorCon hacker conference in San Diego, Michael Ossmann of Great Scott Gadgets revealed a beta version of the HackRF Jawbreaker, the latest model of the wireless Swiss-army knife tools known as 'software-defined radios.' Like any software-defined radio, the HackRF can shift between different frequencies as easily as a computer switches between applications–It can both read and transmit signals from 100 megahertz to 6 gigahertz, intercepting or reproducing frequencies used by everything from FM radios to police communications to garage door openers to WiFi and GSM to next-generation air traffic control system messages. At Ossmann's target price of $300, the versatile, open-source devices would cost less than half as much as currently existing software-defined radios with the same capabilities. And to fund the beta testing phase of HackRF, the Department of Defense research arm known as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) pitched in $200,000 last February as part of its Cyber Fast Track program."


Worth looking at...
Below are the notes from my workshop at this weekend's THATCamp Hybrid Pedagogy, along with a Storify of notes and tweets from the entire unconference.
Created for: THATCamp Hybrid Pedagogy, October 2012
Google Doc: http://bit.ly/publishingoutsideac
Workshop Description: Although many traditional academic presses are struggling to stay afloat, it’s actually easier than ever for academics themselves to publish their work — outside the academy, that is. This workshop will address how and why scholars should write for publications outside “traditional” academic ones. This can include both writing about one’s scholarly research as well as writing about the academy itself. We’ll discuss some of the practicalities of doing so — blogging versus freelancing versus self-publishing, for example — and the technical, financial, rhetorical, political and licensing questions these raise. The workshop will also talk about promoting your work through various social networks (again, academic and otherwise).

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Sunday, October 21, 2012

The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft agley
...not to mention really poorly thought out “plans”
"Cyber-scammers have started using '1.usa.gov' links in their spam campaigns in a bid to fool gullible users into thinking that the links they see on a website or have received in their mail or newsletter are legitimate U.S. Government websites. Spammers have created these shortened URLs through a loophole in the URL shortening service provided by bit.ly. USA.gov and bit.ly have collaborated, enabling anyone to shorten a .gov or .mil URL into a 'trustworthy' 1.usa.gov URL. Further, according to an explanation provided by HowTo.gov, creating these usa.gov short URLs does not require a login."
Which might not be a big deal, except that the service lets through URLs with embedded redirects, and it is to these redirected addresses that scammers are luring their victims.


Another reason not to be blabbing on your phone as you walk along the streets of (any city?)
"The Associated Press reports that smartphone robberies now account for nearly half of all robberies in San Francisco, as well as an impressive 40 percent here in New York City. And the numbers aren't just high, they're getting higher fast. In Los Angeles, smartphone robberies are up 27 percent from last year, with no signs of slowing down. The thefts come in all varieties as well. Victims have reported having their phones—iPhones in particular (surprise!)—yanked out of their hands while talking, snatched just as public transit reaches a stop, or even taken at gunpoint."
When I was relieved at gunpoint of my (very, very dumb) phone a few years ago in Philadelphia (very, very dumb), it made for a lousy evening. Have you been robbed (or accosted) like this? If so, where?


Should read, “undercover car page” but who thinks anymore... Still, an interesting response, if true.
"Facebook has refused a request from Australian police to take down a page with details of undercover police vehicles saying it cannot stop people taking photos in public places. The original story is paywalled and it doesn't give a link to the relevant page which seems to be here . This page for the state of Victoria has 12000 likes but a similar page for the state of Queensland has over 34000, and there are other Australian pages too."


Subject for a future seminar?
The fundamental privacy challenges in biometrics
October 20, 2012 by Dissent
Steven Wilson writes:
The EPIC privacy tweet chat of October 16 included “the Privacy Perils of Biometric Security”. Consumers and privacy advocates are often wary of this technology, sometimes fearing a hidden agenda. To be fair, function creep and unauthorised sharing of biometric data are issues that are anticipated by standard data protection regulations and can be well managed by judicious design in line with privacy law.
However, there is a host of deeper privacy problems in biometrics that are not often aired.
Read more on LockStep.
[From the article:
And finally, there is something of a cultural gap between privacy and technology that causes blind spots amongst biometrics developers. Too many times, biometrics advocates misapprehend what information privacy is all about. It's been said more than once that "faces are not private" and there is "no expectation or privacy" with regards to one's face in public. Even if they were true, these judgement calls are moot, for information privacy laws are concerned with any data about identifiable individuals. So when facial recognition technology takes anonymous imagery from CCTV or photo albums and attaches names to it, Personal Information is being collected, and the law applies. It is this type of crucial technicality that Facebook has smacked into headlong in Germany.


Another subject for a future seminar. Especially since academics are always looking for Research tools
Thoughts on Privacy and the Use of Facebook to Recruit Research Subjects
October 20, 2012 by Dissent
Michael Zimmer writes:
Recently, I was approached by a team of researchers concerned with the research ethics issues related to using Facebook to recruit human subjects. Specifically, the team was planning to use Facebook advertisements in order to target certain users for a research study evaluating the effectiveness of a particular educational strategy aimed at decreasing the occurrence of a particular high risk behavior. The researchers were also considering creating a Facebook page in order to manage communication with potential (and perhaps even actual) subjects in the study.
Here’s my initial assessment of the privacy concerns, with some information changed to keep the researchers and the project confidential.
Read more on Michael’s blog.


For my CJ students?
… social media is being increasingly used by law enforcement agencies to hunt down criminals, gather evidence, assess tips, and build cases. Look at it this way – how many idiots have committed a crime then gone on YouTube to brag about it? How many smartphone owners have filmed crimes in progress or photographed them, then uploaded it to the Internet? It seems that these days, when someone has evidence of a crime, their first port of call isn’t to dial the emergency services, but to go online and find their five minutes of fame.

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Saturday, October 20, 2012

How to phrase your “Get out of jail Free!” card?
Judge Dismisses Much of PlayStation Hacking Suit
October 19, 2012 by admin
Lucille Scott reports that a federal judge has thrown out much of the potential class action lawsuit by PlayStation users who say that the Sony security breach exposed more than 69 million personal and credit card accounts to theft. Scott reports:
The 36-page order dismisses several claims such as negligence, unjust enrichment, bailment and violations of California consumer protection statutes.
Sony did not violate consumer-protection laws “because none of the named plaintiffs subscribed to premium PSN services, and thus received the PSN services free of cost,” Battaglia wrote.
Read more on Courthouse News.
Somewhat disturbingly, the judge held that Sony’s Privacy Policy included “clear admonitory language that Sony’s security was not ‘perfect,’” therefore “no reasonable consumer could have been deceived.”
So as long as a site puts in some disclaimer like “we’re not perfect in our security,” there is no recourse for what might be really sloppy security? Wow. How would that play out in other cases that have been litigated already or in the hopper to be litigated?
Venkat Balasubramani also blogged about this dismissal last week, but I missed it somehow. Do check his blog entry for more on the various issues raised in the case.


Attention Ethical Hackers. Technique #406 is out of the bag.
St. Scholastica hack sheds light on Macalester IT security
October 19, 2012 by admin
Emma WestRasmus reports:
“What was the name of your first pet? What’s your favorite color? What’s your mother’s maiden name?”
We all know the drill. Whenever we start a new account we are prompted for answers to challenge questions that will surely be easy to remember. But for more than two dozen students at the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth the answers to questions needed to reset their student account passwords might have been just a little too easy to figure out. Earlier this month 28 students’ email accounts at St. Scholastica were hacked when hackers were able to answer the student’s challenge questions on their Self-Service Password Reset service simply through information obtained through the students’ social media pages.
Read more on The Mac Weekly. Once the hackers were able to access the e-mail accounts, they reportedly used information found in the accounts for fraudulent purposes.


Attention my fellow vets! Is encryption required on all Consultant computers (since that's where the data resided last time.)
VA Computers Remain Unencrypted, Years After Breach
October 19, 2012 by admin
Patience Wait reports:
Following a high-profile data breach six years ago, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs spent almost $6 million on encryption software for its PCs and laptops. But an investigation by the department’s inspector general determined that the encryption software has been installed on only 16% of its computers.
Read more on InformationWeek.
Related: Department of Veterans Affairs Review of Alleged Incomplete Installation of Encryption Software Licenses. OIG report, October 11, 2012.


“We have lots of room left in Gaantanamo and we're trying to fill it.”
"The New Matilda reports how the U.S. is now able to extradite people for minor offences, and asks why foreign governments so willingly give up their nationals to the U.S. to 'face justice' over minor crimes committed outside US borders? Lawyer Kellie Tranter writes 'the long arm of the Government is using criminal enforcement powers to enforce commercial interests at the behest of corporations and their lobbyists.' A Former NSW Chief Judge said it was bizarre 'that people are being extradited to the US to face criminal charges when they have never been to the U.S. and the alleged act occurred wholly outside the U.S.' He said although copyright violations are a great problem, a country 'must protect its nationals from being removed from their homeland to a foreign country merely because the commercial interests of that foreign country.' Australia recently 'streamlined' its laws to make extradition to the U.S. even easier."


Ah, English! Such a confusing language, espically when spoken by bureaucrats... “They didn't withhold anything, but we need to determine if the didn't disclose something...”
SEC finds Facebook didn't hold back info from investors -- report
The Securities and Exchange Commission didn't find any evidence that Facebook withheld pertinent information from investors prior to its initial public offering, Bloomberg reported today.
… While the investigation isn't over, the commission has determined that Facebook did not act wrongly, an unnamed source told Bloomberg. The SEC is still looking at whether or not retail investors lost money because the company didn't disclose certain information about mobile's impact on Facebook's business.


It's a simple technique (operative word: “simple”) that anyone including my students can use. Since it allow you to plant or remove evidence, you do need to use it only with adult supervision. Why would the cops want to remove evidence? (Perhaps the RIAA wants them to?)
Dutch government seeks to let law enforcement hack foreign computers
October 19, 2012 by admin
Lucian Constantin reports:
The Dutch government wants to give law enforcement authorities the power to hack into computers, including those located in other countries, for the purpose of discovering and gathering evidence during cybercrime investigations.
In a letter that was sent to the lower house of the Dutch parliament on Monday, the Dutch Minister of Security and Justice Ivo Opstelten outlined the government’s plan to draft a bill in upcoming months that would provide law enforcement authorities with new investigative powers on the Internet.
According to the letter, the new legislation would allow cybercrime investigators to remotely infiltrate computers in order to install monitoring software or to search them for evidence. Investigators would also be allowed to destroy illegal content, like child pornography, found during such searches.
Read more on IT World.


Essentially, they pretend to be a cell phone tower, but with a stronger signal that others in the neighborhood.
FBI Accused of Dragging Feet on Release of Info About “Stingray” Surveillance Technology
October 19, 2012 by Dissent
Ryan Gallagher reports:
Tracking cell phones by tricking them into operating on a bogus network is a law enforcement tactic shrouded in secrecy. Now the FBI is under pressure to release information about it—but the bureau doesn’t want to let go of 25,000 pages of documents on sophisticated cell surveillance technology.
Read more on Slate.
[From the article:
The FBI has found 25,000 pages of documents that relate to the request, about 6,000 of which are classified—but says it may need up to three years to process the files before they can be released. [We don't read so good... Bob]
In a bid to appease EPIC’s grumbles about timescale, earlier this month the bureau released a 0.3 percent slither of the 25,000. The meager 67 pages were heavily redacted—containing only a glossary of jargon that related to cell networks along with blanked out copies of an internal manual called "GSM cell phone tracking for dummies.”
… But this isn’t just a federal-level issue. According to a report by LA Weekly last month, state cops in California, Florida, Texas, and Arizona have also used Stingray technology. Farther afield, in the Czech Republic, there are concerns that similar devices may be in the hands of criminals. And DIY Stingrays can be built by anyone with $1,500 to burn and a bit of hacker savvy. One way to help protect yourself is to use encryption.


Another shot at protecting data. Can the US be far behind? (unfortunately, yes)
Colombia Enacts Data Protection Law
October 19, 2012 by Dissent
Colombia enacted an omnibus data protection law this week. Read about it on Privacy and Information Security Law Blog.

(Related) There must be something we can learn from this...
National Comprehensive Data Protection/Privacy Laws and Bills 2012 Map
October 19, 2012 by Dissent
A great resource by David Banisar, Senior Legal Counsel of Article19.org, has been updated and uploaded to SSRN. Here’s the abstract:
Over 90 countries and jurisdictions around the world have adopted comprehensive data protection/privacy laws to protect personal data held by both governments and private companies. This map shows which countries have adopted laws or have pending initiatives to adopt one. The new version now includes small jurisdictions and island states.
You can download the map here.


“You were right to think your computer was private, unfortunately for you we're not going to let that get in the way of sending you to jail.”
Supreme Court of Canada finds reasonable expectation of privacy in work-issued laptop
October 19, 2012 by Dissent
David T. Fraser writes:
The Supreme Court of Canada just released its decision in R v Cole, 2012 SCC 53, in which a majority of justices of the Court held that a teacher at a school had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents of his work-issued laptop. Nevertheless, evidence of child pornography found on it by the school, which was then given to the police, was found to be admissible evidence.


Interesting.
Google’s Knowledge Graph Now Explains Connections Between Your Query And Items In “People Also Search For” Section
Google just announced a small but interesting update to its Knowledge Graph panels. Instead of just showing you a list of related items that other people also searched for, hovering over these icons now shows you how they are related to your search query.
Currently, Google says, this works for actors, movies and TV shows, as well as “family connections amongst famous people in the Knowledge Graph.”
… Just recently, for example, Google used this information to power its Bacon Number calculator and started highlighting the Knowledge Graph boxes even more prominently by moving the results to the top of the screen for some searches.


Just for me...
… British Columbia announced its support for open textbooks at the Open Education 2012 conference this week, becoming the first Canadian province to do so. BC will create openly licensed textbooks for the 40 most popular first- and second-year courses in its university system.
… Random House says that libraries own their e-books. That’s the headline of a LibraryJournal article, and it’s a pretty big deal considering that many of the other Big 6 Publishers have been acting as though libraries license rather than own e-books when they purchase them.
… The University of Phoenix will be closing 115 locations, its parent company the Apollo Group announced, following a fall by 60% in its fourth quarter net income. Some 13,000 students will be affected.
[From the article:
University of Phoenix currently has about 328,000 students, down from a peak of more than 400,000. Following the closures, it will be left with 112 locations in 36 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
… Udacity announced several new classes this week that point to a possible business model and curriculum trajectory for the startup. The new classes are a collaboration with corporations — Google, NVIDIA, Microsoft, Autodesk, Cadence, and Wolfram to start — and teach skills and systems pertaining to those companies’ products.


If you go to the same sites each day, this might make your life simpler...
If you’re a big fan of RSS feeds for getting your daily dose of news and fun, then you’ll love Feedly. It’s one of the most stylish, intuitive ways to read RSS feeds and Twitter content. So, Firefox users will also be pleased to note that it’s available as a Firefox extension and works beautifully in the browser.
… Now, to make Feedly amazing you really need to start an account and customise your feeds and social networks. Feedly works closely with Google Reader RSS feeds, so it should come as no surprise that you need to log in to Feedly using your Google account. Feedly will then regenerate your Feedly page using your RSS feeds from Google Reader.
… Feedly is not just available in Firefox. It’s also available as a Chrome extension and for various mobile devices, so you can keep using Feedly as your main RSS reader and social network catch-up anywhere you go.
Similar Tools
There are plenty of great RSS readers, and many recently have taken to the magazine style format. If you want to see some similar alternatives, check out Pulse and iPad RSS readers such as Flipboard.


I'll be posting this for my students
Resources for Data Literacy
The single most important tool I’ve found for improving Digital Literacy is Wolfram Alpha. At your fingertips, whether on your phone, tablet, or laptop, you have access to all the world’s readily available data. All you have to do is ask. The best thing I can do to improve data literacy is to teach students (and other adults I know) to question the facts they are being quoted as gospel. Here are a bunch of searches I’ve done recently to verify or refute data someone has told me in conversation.
While my top choice for digital literacy is Wolfram Alpha, there are some other resources that are great for understanding, interpreting, and visualizing data. Here are a few:
  • Gapminder (the software used by Hans Rosling in his many, many TED Talks)
  • Worldmapper (territories are scaled/resized according to the subject of interest)
  • Measure of America (look at interactive maps and data about Social Science in the U.S.)
  • Human Development Reports (explore public data from the United Nations using a variety of visualizations)
  • Visual.ly (create your own infographic around a set of data)
  • Many Eyes (from IBM, create a visualization around your data)
  • Google Trends (explore how a search term has fared over time)
  • Google Correlate (find searches that correlate with real world data)
  • Google Fusion Tables (fuse two sets of data together and visualize)
There are also a few sites that do a fantastic job of creating and sharing data visualizations:


You should really really watch this! A really short video that promises a lot!
Ryan Merkley: Online video -- annotated, remixed and popped
Talks: In less than 6 minutes
Videos on the web should work like the web itself: Dynamic, full of links, maps and information that can be edited and updated live, says Mozilla Foundation COO Ryan Merkley. On the TED stage he demos Popcorn Maker, a new web-based tool for easy video remixing. (Watch a remixed TEDTalk using Popcorn Maker -- and remix it yourself.)

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Friday, October 19, 2012

The correct question is, “Who should NOT use encryption technology?”
New “Surveillance-Proof” App To Secure Communications Has Governments Nervous
October 18, 2012 by Dissent
Ryan Gallagher reports:
Lately, Mike Janke has been getting what he calls the “hairy eyeball” from international government agencies. The 44-year-old former Navy SEAL commando, together with two of the world’s most renowned cryptographers, was always bound to ruffle some high-level feathers with his new project—a surveillance-resistant communications platform that makes complex encryption so simple your grandma can use it.
This week, after more than two years of preparation, the finished product has hit the market. Named Silent Circle, it is in essence a series of applications that can be used on a mobile device to encrypt communications—text messages, plus voice and video calls.
Read more on Slate.

(Related) Here's a small breach to illustrate my point...
By Dissent, October 18, 2012
The Maryville Daily Times reports:
Blount Memorial Hospital has informed patients of the theft of a hospital laptop containing registration records of Blount Heart Consultants.
The laptop was reported stolen from an employee’s home on Aug. 25 and has not yet been recovered.
Read more on The Maryville Daily Times. There does not seem to be any notice on the hospital’s web site at the time of this posting although they apparently sent out a press release. I’ll update this entry if/when I find the full release or notice but The Maryville Daily Times provides details on types of information, etc.


“Some conversation may be recorded for quality assurance purposes...” Perhaps they will flash custom ads to their passengers in exchange for free bus service?
MD: MTA recording bus conversations to eavesdrop on trouble
October 18, 2012 by Dissent
Candy Thomson reports:
A Maryland Transit Administration decision to record the conversations of bus drivers and passengers to investigate crimes, accidents and poor customer service has come under attack from privacy advocates and state lawmakers who say it may go too far.
The first 10 buses — marked with signs to alert passengers to the open microphones — began service this week in Baltimore, and officials expect to expand that to 340 buses, about half the fleet, by next summer. Microphones are incorporated in the video surveillance system that has been in place for years. [So it's no big deal... Bob]
Read more on The Baltimore Sun.


Those who do not have security/privacy policies have a policy of failure – they just don't know it yet.
Canadian town employee sends financial info to residents via Facebook account?
October 18, 2012 by Dissent
A town employee in La Scie, Canada, used his personal Facebook email account to send private information to two individuals, who then filed a privacy complaint over, inter alia, the insecure method of sending financial information. The town attempted to justify their action by saying that they had no other way to contact the residents as they had no phone numbers and… wait for it… the account was password protected (insert *facepalm* here).
From the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Newfoundland and Labrador:
The Information and Privacy Commissioner, Ed Ring, has released his Report P-2012-001 under authority of theAccess to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. A summary of the Report is included below.
To view the Report in its entirety, please go to www.oipc.nl.ca/privacyreports.htm
Report: P-2012-001 Report Date: September 27, 2012 Public Body: Town of La Scie
Summary: On January 19, 2012 the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner received a Privacy Complaint under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (“ATIPPA”) filed collectively by two individuals regarding the Town of La Scie (the “Town”). The Complainants stated that their personal information had been sent to one of the Complainants by a Town employee via a private message on a social media website (“Facebook”). The message was sent using the employee’s personal Facebook account. The Complainants alleged that their personal information was not adequately protected pursuant to section 36; was improperly used pursuant to section 38; and was improperly disclosed pursuant to section 39.
The Commissioner found that the disclosure of the Complainants’ personal information was not contrary to the ATIPPA as the message was sent only to the Complainants. The Commissioner found that the Facebook message was a use of the Complainant’s personal information and that the method by which this use was carried out (i.e. Facebook) did not meet the limitations set out in section 38(2) or standard of necessity required by sections 38(1)(a) and 40(b) of the ATIPPA and, consequently, amounted to an improper use of personal information. Finally, the Commissioner found that the personal information had not been adequately protected. The Commissioner also provided commentary on the use of social media by public bodies and concluded that outside of community matters, announcements and notices, social media websites should not be used by public bodies to collect, use or disclose personal information regardless of the mechanism of delivery. The Commissioner recommended that the Town create and implement polices and practices regarding the use of social media and ensure that privacy training is provided to all Town employees.


Who'd a thunk it?
Article: Fear and Loathing at the U.S. Border
October 19, 2012 by Dissent
Janet C. Hoeffel and Stephen Singer have an article in Mississippi Law Journal, Vol. 82, No. 4, 2013. Here’s the abstract:
In this paper, we argue that when technology crosses the border in the form of personal electronic devices (PEDs), there is a unique confluence of factors that requires a fresh look at the border search exception. International travel is now commonplace, or at least relatively routine, and personal electronic devices are ubiquitous and often necessary during travel. In this context, combining the Supreme Court’s refusal to question individual officers’ motives for a search with current border search law results in government searches which, we submit, are “unreasonable” under the Fourth Amendment. We demonstrate how the border search exception to the Fourth Amendment has never actually gone through a doctrinal development, and, as such, it is rather thoughtless. We show how the doctrine should appear if developed as an administrative search rather than a sui generis historical exception, and we demonstrate why the doctrine dictates that motive matters, at least when it comes to PEDs. Finally, we suggest that a correct Fourth Amendment analysis would allow a continuance of the suspicionless border searches that everyone undergoes, but that before a person can be targeted for a more intrusive, discretionary secondary search or seizure, agents must have at least reasonable suspicion of criminal activity.
You can download the full article from SSRN.


So what else is new?
Article: Why the Right to Data Portability Likely Reduces Consumer Welfare: Antitrust and Privacy Critique
October 19, 2012 by Dissent
Peter Swire and Yianni Lagos have an article in a forthcoming issue of Maryland Law Review that challenges the EU’s draft Data Protection Regulation on the issue of a right to data portability. Here’s the abstract:
In its draft Data Protection Regulation, the European Union has announced a major new economic and human right – the right to data portability (‘RDP’). The basic idea of the RDP is that an individual would be able to transfer his or her material from one information service to another, without hindrance. For instance, consumers would have a legal right to get an immediate and full download of their data held by a social network such as Facebook, a cloud provider, or a smartphone app.
Although the idea of data portability is appealing, the RDP as defined in Article 18 of the draft Regulation is unprecedented and problematic. Part I explains Article 18, whose text appears to require software and online service providers to create what we call an ‘Export-Import Module,’ or software code that exports data seamlessly from the first service to the second service. The requirements would apply globally, for any entity that sells to an E.U. resident.
Part II critiques the RDP in light of the teachings of E.U. competition and U.S. antitrust law. Competition law has long addressed the problems of lock-in and high switching costs that form a chief justification for the RDP. The RDP, however, applies to small enterprises, where there is essentially no risk of lock-in. In contrast to competition law, the RDP applies to all online services even where there is no market power and no barrier to entry. Article 18 more generally is in conflict with the rules in competition law about exclusionary conduct – it creates a per se prohibition where competition law would apply a rule of reason approach. Competition law would consider the many efficiencies that result from a service provider deciding which functions and formats to include in its products, which undergo rapid innovation.
Part III shows that Article 18 also suffers serious difficulties as a matter of privacy or data protection law. Proponents have claimed the RDP is a new fundamental human right, aiding the individual’s autonomy for online activities. No jurisdiction has experimented with anything resembling the proposed Article 18, however, casting serious doubt on its status as a new human right. Among other difficulties, Article 18 poses serious risks to a long-established E.U. fundamental right of data protection, the right to security of a person’s data. Previous access requests by individuals were limited in scope and format. By contrast, when an individual’s lifetime of data must be exported ‘without hindrance,’ then one moment of identity fraud can turn into a lifetime breach of personal data. Part IV shows that Article 18 goes far beyond previous legal rules that specifically address interoperability.
In conclusion, the novel RDP is justified by the supposed benefits to consumers. As drafted, however, the RDP likely reduces consumer welfare, as articulated after long experience in competition law. It also creates risks to privacy that are not addressed in the current text. The RDP deserves far more scrutiny before becoming a mandate that applies globally to software and online services.
You can download the full paper on SSRN.


For my Computer geeks... (I'm having touble with the video, but there is a transcript)
Eben Moglen, says Wikipedia, "is a professor of law and legal history at Columbia University, and is the founder, Director-Counsel and Chairman of [the] Software Freedom Law Center, whose client list includes numerous pro bono clients, such as the Free Software Foundation." And if that wasn't enough, since 2011 he's been working with FreedomBox, a project working toward "a personal server running a free software operating system, with free applications designed to create and preserve personal privacy." Prof. Moglen is also one of the most polished speakers anywhere, on any topic, ever. That's why, instead of editing this interview Timothy Lord did with him, we simply cut it in half, removed a little introductory and end conversation, and let the Professor roll on. The second half of this interview will run tomorrow. It's at least as worthwhile as the first half, especially if you are interested in Free Software.


Once again, the French may find there are some things they can't control. Once again, that won't stop them from trying.
"Google has threatened to exclude French media sites from search results if France goes ahead with plans to make search engines pay for content. In a letter sent to several ministerial offices, Google said such a law 'would threaten its very existence.' French newspaper publishers have been pushing for the law, saying it is unfair that Google receives advertising revenue from searches for news. French Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti also favors the idea. She told a parliamentary commission it was 'a tool that it seems important to me to develop.'"


Perspective And here I thought we were talking a lot of money...
October 18, 2012
IAB internet advertising revenue report 2012
IAB internet advertising revenue report 2012 first six months' results, October 2012. An industry survey conducted by PwC and sponsored by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)
  • "Internet advertising revenues (“revenues”) in the United States totaled $17.0 billion for the first six months of 2012, with Q1 2012 accounting for approximately $8.3 billion and Q2 2012 totaling approximately $8.7 billion. Revenues for the first six months of 2012 increased 14% over the first six months of 2011... “This report establishes that marketers increasingly embrace mobile and digital video, as well as the entire panoply of interactive platforms to reach consumers in innovative and creative ways," said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO, IAB. “These half-year figures come on the heels of a study from Harvard Business School researchers that points to the ad-supported internet ecosystem as a critical driver of the U.S. economy. Clearly, the digital marketing industry is on a positive trajectory that will propel the entire American business landscape forward.” — Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO, IAB


Fight technology with technology? “Assist law enforcement! Illuminate your plate!” It enahances the lights that come with the car...
License Plate Frame Foils Irksome Traffic-Light Cameras
Traffic-light tickets have ticked off a gazillion drivers, some of whom have had to fork over $500 for running a light. Now there’s a way for you to throw a monkey wrench into that money-making machine.
Jonathan Dandrow has developed noPhoto, which renders the pix snapped by those revenue-generating robo-cams useless. The technology behind noPhoto is fairly simple. At the top of the gadget, which doubles as a license plate frame, there’s an optical flash trigger that detects the flash of the traffic-light camera. That trigger sets off one or both xenon flashes in the sides of the noPhoto, so when the traffic-light camera opens its shutter, there’s too much light and the picture of your license plate is overexposed. Big Brother can’t read your plate.


“Send Guido! Done deal. Gimme the $50,000.” Tony Soprano
"It's not clear if the Federal Trade Commission is throwing up its hands at the problem or just wants some new ideas about how to combat it, but the agency is now offering $50,000 to anyone who can create what it calls an innovative way to block illegal commercial robocalls on landlines and mobile phones."

(Related) In New Jersey it's: “Siri, start dis car and dem two ova dare..”
Siri, Start My Car
The latest version of Viper’s SmartStart app also lets you lock and unlock your vehicle directly from your iPhone 4S or 5 running iOS 6.
The promise of Siri’s app integration hasn’t been fully realized since Apple updated iOS last month, but Viper is the first automotive accessory company to tap Siri’s voice controls on its line of SmartStart products.


For my Ethical Hackers.. When numbers identifying people (like SSAN's) or things have “meaning” they are much less random and therefore much less difficult to “hack.”


For my Intro to Computer Security students (Actually, for scaring the bejesus out of them)
… PrivacyFix is an extension for Firefox and Chrome that points out settings you’ll want to change and also helps you stop ad networks from tracking you.
Managing your privacy online can be a hassle. PrivacyFix won’t completely solve the problem, but it makes finding key privacy settings for Facebook and Google trivial. Even more important: it’s incredibly simple to use. Just follow the step-by-step directions, deciding which privacy settings do and do not matter to you.
… Head to PrivacyFix to get started. You’ll need to install an extension for Chrome or Firefox, depending on your browser of choice. Sorry, users of other browsers: you’re out of luck for now.


Another in a long line of “there has to be something better than PowerPoint!” software.
… Presentista is a new way to create presentations, and it works right from your web browser.
… When you are creating in Presentista, everything is on one screen. You add your stuff and create a flow, which are akin to slides. The link in the flow is how it determines which section to jump to next. It is a really clean, fluid way to make a presentation.
… Like any presentation, you can include text and graphics. With Presentista, you can also add YouTube videos, Google Images and photos from Flickr.
Similar tools: SlideShark, Appafolio and Present.me.


Wisdom from the mouths of cartoon characters. The Perfect CEO response to eDiscovery!

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