Congress might finally take some action. Lots of them are old enough to need drug pumps, pacemakers, etc. The FDA hasn't looked at this new technology seriously. I wonder how the manufacturers justify the liability risk?

http://thehill.com/policy/technology/244265-researcher-says-drug-pumps-could-be-hacked-to-give-fatal-dose

Researcher warns drug pumps could be hacked to give fatal dose

A researcher says a line of IV drug pumps can be remotely hacked to deliver an incorrect, and possibly fatal, dosage of drugs to patients.

Security researcher Billy Rios told Wired that a range of pumps from manufacturer Hospira, including one line that the company stopped selling in 2013, include a flaw that allows someone to alter the device’s software to change the dosage.

Hospira is able to update the pumps’ firmware, but Rios says the devices aren’t able to recognize the difference between an update from the manufacturer or from another party. He also said a hacker could make it look as though the pump was still delivering the correct dosage of the drug.

… He also says he told Hospira about the flaw in one of the lines of pumps allowing hackers to deliver an incorrect dosage a year ago, but the company said it was not a problem. He then tested other pumps produced by the company. The Food and Drug Administration released an alert last month about vulnerabilities in the line of pumps that Rios says he warned the company about last year.

But is it still spreading?

http://www.securityweek.com/stuxnet-still-present-some-organizations-researchers

Stuxnet Still Present in Some Organizations: Researchers

The notorious Stuxnet malware is still actively running on some computers and while the threat cannot be controlled by the original attackers, its presence demonstrates the weak security posture of these organizations.

Stuxnet, reportedly developed by the United States and Israel, is a worm designed to target industrial systems. The malware became known as the world’s first cyber weapons after it caused serious damage at Iranian nuclear facilities.

Now, five years after it was first discovered, Stuxnet infections still exist, according to Czech Republic-based security firm Kleissner & Associates, which operates the botnet monitoring system Virus Tracker.

In a paper published last week, titled “Internet Attacks Against Nuclear Power Plants,” the company provided some Stuxnet-related statistics from Virus Tracker. Kleissner & Associates has the ability to monitor Stuxnet infections because it has acquired two of the command and control (C&C) domains used by the worm and pointed them to Virus Tracker sinkhole servers.

According to Kleissner, there were at least 153 unique machines infected with Stuxnet in 2013 and 2014. Nearly half of these infections were traced back to Iran, but some infected devices had also been spotted in India, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan and China.

[The report: http://kleissner.org/download/Internet%20Attacks%20Against%20Nuclear%20Power%20Plants.pdf

This is what happens when you let computers vote! (You have no constitutional right to drive.)

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/247100?ctp=BizDev&src=Syndication&msc=google-editors-pick&google_editors_picks=true

Poll: 1 in 4 Americans Supports Laws Restricting Human-Driven Cars

Never mind those occasional fender-benders, humans. Face it. Robots are better drivers than you because they don’t drive drunk, they don’t do drugs, they don’t doze off and they don’t get distracted.

… Removing humans from the driving equation might sound scary, but it seems more Americans could be warming up to the Jetson-esque idea. Some are even in favor of laws that would limit people driving cars, if the results of a poll recently conducted by the Ferenstein Wire, via Google Survey, are any indication.

Per the notably unscientific Internet-based poll, 27 percent of those surveyed -- more than one in four -- support laws restricting human-driven vehicles. In other words, they would be okay with giving up their right to drive in order to pave the way for possibly safer computer-driven cars.

(Related)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dr-gridlock/wp/2015/06/08/there-are-about-1-7-million-rear-end-collisions-on-u-s-roads-each-year-heres-how-to-stop-them/

There are about 1.7 million rear-end collisions on U.S. roads each year. Here’s how to stop them.

There are about 1.7 million rear-end collisions on U.S. roadways each year. About 1,7000 people die in those collisions and another 500,000 are hurt.

Many of those most-common-of-all car accidents could be avoided if auto makers begin making collision avoidance systems standard equipment in their vehicles, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a recommendation issued Monday.

Enough of these and you have a zone of barrage balloons. Makes it hard for me to fly my drones safely.

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_28276831/traffic-monitoring-blimp-launch-three-day-trial-tuesday

CDOT launching blimp to monitor I-25 traffic in Denver area

The Colorado Department of Transportation is launching a helium-filled "half-blimp, half-kite" above Interstate 25 on Tuesday for a three-day trial to see how well it monitors traffic, officials said.

The 1,600-cubic-foot device, called a SkySentry, will be tethered above I-25 and 70th Avenue and will use cameras to assess traffic conditions, CDOT spokeswoman Amy Ford said Monday.

Law enforcement agencies and other groups have used the device for monitoring, Ford said, but CDOT is the first department to use it for traffic-monitoring purposes.

Speaking of drones... Many NFL stadiums have overhead cameras that run on wires, but college and high school football programs will no doubt want this technology. (Perhaps I could write an App to turn players into little X's and O's to match the playbook?)

http://thehill.com/policy/transportation/244279-nfl-team-using-drone-to-film-practice

NFL team using drone to film practice

The National Football League’s Dallas Cowboys are using a drone to record footage of their practice sessions, ESPN reports.

The team uses the drone to capture footage directly overhead players in an attempt to supplement existing aerial cameras in other areas of its practice field, according to the report.

For my Risk Management students. Notice that TSA can not protect US infrastructure from “rouge bull squirrels.” Fortunately, they are not well organized.

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-squirrel-knocks-out-power-to-thousands-in-san-francisco-bay-area-2015-6

Squirrel knocks out power to thousands in San Francisco bay area

… PG&E spokesman J.D. Guidi told the Contra Costa Times that power was down in cities east of San Francisco, including Berkeley and Oakland, on Monday night after a squirrel "impacted equipment" at the El Cerrito substation. He gave no details

For my students, all of whom seem to need it.

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/technology/story/with-skype-translator-microsoft-wants-you-to-speak-in-4-languages/1/443232.html

Skype Translator coming as app, Microsoft wants you to speak in 4 languages

Microsoft has announced that its Skype Translator, which can allow people to speak and understand 4 languages in real time, will be coming to computers as an app by the end of July.

… Skype Translator is a tool that integrates with Skype, a popular VoIP app that allows people to make voice and video calls using internet. With the Translator, according to Microsoft, people can talk to others in four languages -- Italian, Spanish, Mandarin and English. So for example if they you are an Indian and wants to talk to a Spanish person who doesn't know English, you can use the Translator feature. You can speak in English and it will be translated into Spanish in real time.

Skype Translator was first announced in December 2014. It was available to users through a web page. But now with Microsoft coming out with an app, more people will be comfortable using it.

I sense a challenge for my students!

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-sms-services-offer-internet-without-data-plan/

These 5 SMS Services Offer You the Internet Without a Data Plan

… Today Cool Websites and Apps outlines services that take advantage of SMS to give you access to web services without actually connecting to the Internet. Call it the offline web.

Whether you’re hoping to make your dumb phone smart or just save money on your phone bill by ditching mobile data entirely, these apps give you access to information without the need for Internet access – thanks to SMS.

Send in the geeks! Some of my students will love this, others will see it as just another language to learn.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/wwdc-15-everything-need-know-apples-event-one-place/

Swift Goes Open Source

Among all the talk about watch faces, music streaming and iOS 9 many failed to grab a hold of perhaps the biggest story of the day. Last year Apple introduced Swift, a revolutionary new programming language that makes it easy to get started programming, removing the reliance on Objective-C and simplifying much of the process involved in turning raw code into finished apps.

Despite a massive surge of interest, many were concerned that developing with Swift would see them hemmed-in to Apple’s ecosystem. Apple just burst that bubble by announcing that the language is to be made open source (“later this year”), providing all developers full access to Swift’s inner workings regardless of platform. It’s worth pointing out you’ll still need to pay the $99 developer fee to get your app listed on the App Store, but that doesn’t mean you can’t build Swift apps for another platform completely free of charge.

“We think Swift is the next big programming language, the one that we’ll all be doing application and system programming on for 20 years to come,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s SVP of software engineering. It’s also been updated to version 2.0, with an assortment of improvements and tools for porting your old Swift 1.2 code.

Suggests (to me at least) that there might be a business opportunity for services that can prove they don't invade your privacy. Big Brother is not inevitable.

http://www.bespacific.com/new-study-americans-have-given-up-on-privacy-rights/

New Study – Americans Losing Battle on Privacy Rights

by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Jun 7, 2015

The Tradeoff Fallacy – How Marketers Are Misrepresenting American Consumers and Opening Them Up to Exploitation – Joseph Turow, Ph.D.; Michael Hennessy, Ph.D; Nora Draper, Ph.D. June 2015. A Report from the Anneberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania.

“New Annenberg survey results indicate that marketers are misrepresenting a large majority of Americans by claiming that Americans give out information about themselves as a tradeoff for benefits they receive. To the contrary, the survey reveals most Americans do not believe that ‘data for discounts’ is a square deal. The findings also suggest, in contrast to other academics’ claims, that Americans’ willingness to provide personal information to marketers cannot be explained by the public’s poor knowledge of the ins and outs of digital commerce. In fact, people who know more about ways marketers can use their personal information are more likely rather than less likely to accept discounts in exchange for data when presented with a real-life scenario. The findings, instead, support a new explanation: a majority of Americans are resigned to giving up their data—and that is why many appear to be engaging in tradeoffs. Resignation occurs when a person believes an undesirable outcome is inevitable and feels powerless to stop it. Rather than feeling able to make choices, Americans believe it is futile to manage what companies can learn about them. The study reveals that more than half do not want to lose control over their information but also believe this loss of control has already happened.”

“We can, therefore we must!” Will this rise above “annoying?”

AU: Big Brother in schools tracking students’ digital footprints

Eryk Bagshaw reports:

Sydney schools are employing “big brother” data collection technology to track whether students are finishing their homework, skipping classes as well as how much their parents are likely to donate.

This week it was revealed that 34 schools in NSW – including The King’s School and Barker College – were using software that allowed them to track how much parents were likely to donate based on the amount and type of emails they sent, the wealth of the suburb they live in, their volunteering efforts, and community involvement.

Read more on Brisbane Times.

[From the article:

Every time a student opens a textbook on their tablet or laptop in the digital textbook library, their school and teachers are able to track their movements.

… The program creates a mountain of data on how, when and where different types books are being read not only for schools, teachers, and pupils, but for text book publishers - an industry worth about $620 million in Australia.

… Calendars, cancellations, school notices, school information, school timetables, parent sick note forms and school documents are all digitised, their data kept so that a student's attendance or lack thereof can be mapped and patterns drawn out of it.

… "Right now individual teachers might not spot a student struggling in one class if they only see them a couple of times a week," Dr Timms said. [Australia must have really bad teachers. Bob]

… But there remain concerns over just how schools will keep all this data secure.

Oh, that's Okay then.

http://www.businessinsider.com/google-were-not-trying-to-destroy-humanity-with-artificial-intelligence-2015-6?google_editors_picks=true

Google: The artificial intelligence we're working on won't destroy humanity

(Related) I've blogged about automating legal services before. (I can't find the part that says “In the future, lawyers will be loved.”)

http://www.bespacific.com/how-machine-intelligence-will-transform-the-role-of-lawyers-in-the-delivery-of-legal-services/

How Machine Intelligence Will Transform the Role of Lawyers in the Delivery of Legal Services

by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Jun 7, 2015

The Great Disruption: How Machine Intelligence Will Transform the Role of Lawyers in the Delivery of Legal Services, John O. McGinnis & Russell G. Pearce, Fordham Law Review, Volume 82, No. 6. May 2015, pps 3041-3066.

“Law is an information technology—a code that regulates social life. In our age, the machinery of information technology is growing exponentially in power, not only in hardware, but also in the software capacity of the programs that run on computers. As a result, the legal profession faces a great disruption. Information technology has already had a huge impact on traditional journalism, causing revenues to fall by about a third and employment to decrease by about 17,000 people in the last eight years and very substantially decreasing the market value of newspapers. Because law consists of more specialized and personalized information, the disruption is beginning in law after journalism. But, its effects will be as wide ranging. Indeed they may ultimately be greater, because legal information is generally of higher value, being central to the protection of individuals’ lives and property. The disruption has already begun. In discovery, for instance, computationally based services are already replacing the task of document review that lawyers have performed in the past. But computational services are on the cusp of substituting for other legal tasks—from the generation of legal documents to predicting outcomes in litigation. And when machine intelligence becomes as good as lawyers in developing some service or some factor of production that contributes to a service, it does not stop improving. Intelligent machines will become better and better, both in terms of performance and cost. And unlike humans, they can work ceaselessly around the clock, without sleep or caffeine. Such continuous technological acceleration in computational power is the difference between previous technological improvements in legal services and those driven by machine intelligence. This difference makes it the single most important phenomenon with which the legal profession will need to grapple in the coming decades. These developments have enormous implications for every aspect of law—legal practice, jurisprudence, and legal education. Here, we focus on one important consequence: the weakening of lawyers’ market power over providing legal services. We argue that these developments will generally increase competition. They will commoditize legal services, permitting clients to make easier price comparisons. They will also bring in new entrants, both as direct suppliers of services and low-cost providers of inputs to services of lawyers.”

Yeah, biometrics. Tools for my computer security students.

http://www.businessinsider.com/behaviosec-the-banking-security-company-that-can-tell-your-identity-from-the-way-you-touch-phone-2015-6?google_editors_picks=true

This US military-funded security company can tell who you are just from the way you touch your phone

… BehavioSec […] provides a layer of so-called biometric security that lets banks tell who you are just from the way you type, move your mouse or touch your phone screen.

BehavioSec tracks these movements and maps them against past interactions to see if they match up. If they don't — if you're typing much faster than normal or pressing a phone screen harder — the company will let the bank know it thinks someone else is trying to get into your bank account.

Ah, clarity!

http://www.winbeta.org/news/stopping-fud-there-no-yearly-subscription-fee-windows-10?google_editors_picks=true

Stopping the FUD: There is no yearly subscription fee for Windows 10

… Windows 10 will not have an annual fee. Windows 10 will not charge you a yearly subscription after the free-for-one-year upgrade offer expires.

… Between July 29th 2015 and July 29th 2016, you will have the chance to snag a free upgrade to Windows 10. After July 29th 2016, you will have to pay for a Windows 10 license.

… Microsoft may have confused people by mentioning Windows 10 "as a service" causing people to believe there will be a subscription fee of sorts. There is no subscription model for Windows 10. Instead, Windows 10 "as a service" simply implies that Microsoft plans to update the operating system with smaller, more frequent updates, rather than larger Service Pack-like updates. Think of it like an app that gets updated regularly.

For the student clubs? (Digest Item #3)

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/microsoft-skype-web-amazon-echoes-audiobooks-tech-news-digest/

Popcorn Buzz Enables Group Calling

Japanese messaging startup Line has launched Popcorn Buzz, a free group calling service that lets up to 200 people take part in a single conversation. Only registered users can start a call, but even non-users can join an existing call by clicking on a shared URL.

Line states, “Popcorn Buzz can be used to talk with friends and family, catch up with classmates, make plans with club members, and more. Popcorn Buzz accommodates both personal and business usage, all for free.” Businesses could also use Popcorn Buzz.

Popcorn Buzz is initially available on Android, with an iOS version due at a later date. The app supports an impressive number of languages, including English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Japanese, and Chinese.

Marcus Zillman seems to list almost every resource on whatever topic he chooses. May help my students research.

http://www.bespacific.com/new-on-llrx-journalism-resources-on-the-internet/

New on LLRX – Journalism Resources on the Internet

by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Jun 7, 2015

Via LLRX.com – Journalism Resources on the Internet: Marcus P. Zillman’s new guide is a selective, comprehensive bibliography of reliable, subject specific and actionable sources of journalism resources and sites for researchers in all sectors. This guide will support your goal to discover new sources, refresh your acquaintance with sources you know but that have evolved, and provide additional strategic methods to locate and leverage information in your work.

[Some I find interesting:

http://www.ire.org/nicar/

The National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting maintains a library of federal databases, employs journalism students, and trains journalists in the practical skills of getting and analyzing electronic information

http://www.virtualprivatelibrary.com/

The Virtual Private Library™ creates private libraries powered by Subject Tracer Information Bots™ on various subjects

This one has some potential for amusement.

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2015/06/my-five-favorite-classtoolsnet-tools.html#.VXWG3VIsr4Q

My Five Favorite Classtools.net Tools

The Classtools Fake SMS Generator is free to use and does not require students to register to use it. In the video below I demonstrate how to create a fictitious text message exchange between historical characters. As I mentioned in the video, the Fake SMS Generator could also be used to create visuals for lessons on cyber-safety and etiquette.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uygtmx2F3c#t=171

Think strategically and security breaches take on a whole different level of risk.

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/06/why-did-china-hack-federal-employees-data/395096/

Why Did China Hack Federal Employees' Data?

… There’s still a great deal that hasn’t been explained about why and how the hack happened, and whose data was compromised. (Angry federal employees took to the Facebook page of the Office of Personnel Management to complain about feeling left in the dark about the attacks.) There are, however, some emerging answers to three key questions: Who did it, why, and how it happened.

Early on, the government fingered Chinese hackers in the leak. Bruce Schneier has written for The Atlantic about the dangers of uncritically accepting initial attributions for attacks. The Chinese government has also rejected the claim, saying that it’s a victim of hacking itself. (That’s probably true—and the U.S. admits that it also hacks foreign governments.) But officials says there are fingerprints of known Chinese hackers.

… “They didn’t go to sell the data, which is what criminal groups usually do,” James Lewis of the Center for Strategic and International Studies told The New York Times. The government and outside experts think that, along with the fact that the leak targeted government employees suggest an elaborate effort to build a huge database of information on federal employees. The data reportedly cover employees going back as far as 1985, and includes information on employees who applied for security clearances.

… The government will now institute two-step verification—a step that longtime Atlantic readers will remember James Fallows exhorting them to take as early as the spring of 2011.

… Critics have also wryly noted that a huge incursion into sensitive employee information tends to undermine the government’s claims that its intelligence apparatus can protect huge amounts of personal information swept up in surveillance dragnets. As one former senior official told the Times, “The mystery here is not how they got cleaned out by the Chinese. The mystery is what took the Chinese so long.”

I'm not sure you can turn off the wipe feature. Perhaps a custom built browser?

You Can Be Prosecuted for Clearing Your Browser History

When Joe Cadillic sent me a link to this article, the headline sounded so far-fetched that I figured it was some wild conspiracy theory. But it turns out it’s not.

Juliana DeVries reports that people are being prosecuted under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act for destroying evidence – including browser history – even if they were unaware that they were under investigation at the time of the destruction!

The law was, in part, intended to prohibit corporations under federal investigation from shredding incriminating documents. But since Sarbanes-Oxley was passed in 2002 federal prosecutors have applied the law to a wider range of activities. A police officer in Colorado who falsified a report to cover up a brutality case was convicted under the act, as was a woman in Illinois who destroyed her boyfriend’s child pornography.

Prosecutors are able to apply the law broadly because they do not have to show that the person deleting evidence knew there was an investigation underway. In other words, a person could theoretically be charged under Sarbanes-Oxley for deleting her dealer’s number from her phone even if she were unaware that the feds were getting a search warrant to find her marijuana. The application of the law to digital data has been particularly far-reaching because this type of information is so easy to delete. Deleting digital data can inadvertently occur in normal computer use, and often does.

[…]

Hanni Fakhoury, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, says the feds’ broad interpretation of Sarbanes-Oxley in the digital age is part of a wider trend: federal agents’ feeling “entitled” to digital data.

Read more on The Nation.

As I read this, only law abiding drone operators would be monitored and controlled. Hijack a drone (or leave off the communications and control electronics) and like the hijacked planes of 9/11, there is nothing NASA or the FAA or anyone can do about it.

NASA and Verizon plan to monitor US drone network from phone towers

Here’s another one I missed while I away at the Health Privacy Summit this week, but thankfully, Joe Cadillic sent it to me.

Mark Harris reports:

Verizon, the US’s largest wireless telecom company, is developing technology with Nasa to direct and monitor America’s growing fleet of civilian and commercial drones from its network of phone towers.

According to documents obtained by the Guardian, Verizon signed an agreement last year with Nasa “to jointly explore whether cell towers … could support communications and surveillance of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) at low altitudes”.

That $500,000 project is now underway at Nasa’s Ames Research Center in the heart of Silicon Valley. Nasa is planning the first tests of an air traffic control system for drones there this summer, with Verizon scheduled to introduce a concept for using cell coverage for data, navigation, surveillance and tracking of drones by 2017. The phone company is scheduled to finalise its concept by 2019.

Read more on The Guardian.

Like BitCoins, this moves money outside the control of governments. Will governments respond? Perhaps I could combine BitCoins and mobile cash to create my own money? How much would “One Bob” be worth? On second thought, don't answer that.

http://www.bespacific.com/disruptive-financial-technology-startup-mobile-payments/

Disruptive Financial Technology Startup – Mobile Payments

by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Jun 6, 2015

Exponential Finance: Who Will Be the Instagram or Uber of Finance? – Jason Dorrier: “Abra is exemplary of what happens when several digital technologies converge in one product. Combining an Uber-like peer-to-peer network with smartphone technology and blockchain, Abra literally stashes the cash in your pocket on your smartphone. From there, users can send cash as easy as they send a text. All this happens without a bank. Abra’s founder, Bill Barhydt, estimates we’re three years away from wireless carriers cycling off every feature phone—simple cell phones—sold when the iPhone and Android first came out. As smartphones become ubiquitous in the developing world, it’s possible many of the world’s unbanked billions in developing countries will skip traditional finance, a little like how they leapfrogged landlines for cell phones. It’s a radical thought. But with Abra, it’s plausible that bank-free, digital cash will be a force to be reckoned with.”

My weekly giggle generator.

http://hackeducation.com/2015/06/05/hack-education-weekly-news/

Hack Education Weekly News

… “Washington State Passes Bill Strengthening Computer Science Education.” [Actually: would establish computer science standards, create a computer science teaching endorsement, and make grants available to train teachers in the subject in Washington state is now headed to Gov. Jay Inslee for his signature.

… Via the NSBA’s Legal Clips blog: “Utah Court of Appeals rules that video from school camera was subject to FERPA disclosure restrictions because it was an ‘education record.’”

… “Google Teams with Udacity to Offer Nanodegrees.” “Thrun sees nanodegrees as key to ed democratization.”

… “An Increasingly Popular Job Perk: Online Education.” – “A partnership between Southern New Hampshire and Anthem Inc., a health-insurance company, will allow some 55,000 Anthem employees to earn associate or bachelor’s degrees through the university’s College for America, a competency-based assessment program.”

… It’s 2015 and school districts are still freaking out about teachers interacting with students on social media.

… The University of Florida will use Yik Yak to deliver campus news updates.

… Via the BBC: “Schools are being offered new software that helps teachers spy on pupils’ potentially extremist online activity. It alerts teachers if pupils use specific terrorism-related terms or phrases or visit extremist websites on school computers, laptops or tablets.”

… Via the Orlando Sentinel: “What Orange County students – and staff – post on social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube is now being monitored by their school district to ‘ensure safe school operations.’”

Because the government keeps data longer than the Internet (which keeps it forever)?

Data hacked from U.S. government dates back to 1985: U.S. official

Andrea Shalal and Matt Spetalnick report:

Data stolen from U.S. government computers by suspected Chinese hackers included security clearance information and background checks dating back three decades, U.S. officials said on Friday, underlining the scope of one of the largest known cyber attacks on federal networks.

Of the four million federal employees whose data were caught up in the breach, 2.1 million are reportedly current government employees, and the fear is that their information could be used for spear-phishing and to obtain even more sensitive information.

Read more on Reuters.

Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post reports that according to unnamed agency officials, the information obtained in the hack included employees’ Social Security numbers, job assignments, performance ratings and training information but

OPM officials declined to comment on whether payroll data was exposed other than to say that no direct-deposit information was compromised. They could not say for certain what data was taken, only what the hackers gained access to.

And of course, the finger-pointing has begun. As the New York Times reports, an audit of the government’s computer security had as recently as November pointed out the serious security shortcomings.

But watch out for those who attempt to use this hack to support irrelevant or harmful legislation. Any legislation proposed should seriously consider the opinions of actual infosecurity and technology experts. So far, the government’s ridiculous claims that we can have strong encryption but the government should be able to break it makes many of us wonder what color the sky is in Washington these days.

(Related)

China’s Hack of U.S. Data Tied to Health-Care Record Thefts

Michael A Riley and John Walcott report:

The disclosure by U.S. officials that Chinese hackers stole records of as many as 4 million government workers is now being linked to the thefts of personal information from health-care companies.

Forensic evidence indicates that the group of hackers responsible for the U.S. government breach announced Thursday likely carried out attacks on health-insurance providers Anthem Inc. and Premera Blue Cross that were reported earlier this year, said John Hultquist of iSight Partners Inc., a cyber-intelligence company that works with federal investigators.

Read more on Bloomberg.

State sponsored hacking, without actually hacking. (Apple and Microsoft have already greased this slope.) Probably simpler to use Chinese software in China and keep the domestic software secret.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102734535?__source=google|editorspicks|&par=google&google_editors_picks=true

China may try to force US tech firms to give up code

While U.S. officials investigate whether Chinese hackers breached data for millions of federal employees, Beijing is working on a series of rules to protect itself from foreign cyber incursions—or maybe to get its hands on American tech secrets, or maybe both.

Beijing wants foreign technology firms to give up their source code in exchange for Chinese business, and new rules are set to make that happen, focusing first on the banking sector, and then moving to other important markets.

The first set of rules, from earlier this year, mandated that domestic banks move to "safe and controllable" technology—meaning any tech firm interested in doing business with most Chinese financial institutions would need to hand over its relevant source code and encryption keys. [Would you trust a bank that did that? Bob]

We could use this!

After breaches, higher-ed schools adopt two-factor authentication

Ann Bednarz reports:

Payday didn’t go as planned on January 2, 2014, for some Boston University employees. On that day, about a dozen faculty members discovered their paychecks hadn’t been deposited into their bank accounts. Thieves had changed the victims’ direct deposit information and rerouted their pay. BU’s IT security team traced the attack to a phishing email sent to 160 people at the university. The email – which prompted BU faculty to click on a link and confirm their log-in details – led to the compromise of 33 accounts. Thirteen faculty members had their paychecks stolen.

[…]

After BU warned faculty and staff of the paycheck heist, the attackers send another phishing attempt that played off BU’s warning and directed recipients to another bogus site. “The folks who sent the original message were actively watching us,” Shamblin said. “They coopted my authority for a second attack on my people.”

[…]

Meanwhile, 1,200 miles away, University of Iowa experienced similar attacks.

Read more on Network World if you have an Insider account. I refuse to sign up because they require that you enable third-party cookies and javascript.

For my Computer Security students.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/a-look-at-some-of-the-worst-computer-viruses-in-history/

A Look at Some of the Worst Computer Viruses in History

When you get a virus on your computer, the results can be devastating to you, personally. Some viruses, however, take the destruction and devastation far beyond a few people. Some computer viruses have caused million in damages the world over.

Which computer viruses have been the most destructive throughout history? Check out the infographic below for an extremely detailed look and prepare to be surprised, because some of the damage caused by these viruses is truly hard to comprehend.

Via WhoIsHostingThis

Like those devices that monitor your “safe driving,” insurance companies will likely be all over these devices. Perhaps this is the one where they switch from “discounts for users” to “penalties for non-users.” Or governments could require them on all new cars.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/joannmuller/2015/06/05/your-mom-might-not-know-youve-been-drinking-but-your-car-will/

Feds And Carmakers Unveil Systems To Disable Your Car If You've Been Drinking

… The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration unveiled a prototype vehicle with an advanced alcohol detection system that could ultimately prevent vehicles from being operated by a drunken driver.

The Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety — known as “DADSS” — is a noninvasive system aimed at detecting when a driver is above the legal alcohol limit by instantly measuring the driver’s breath or skin. If your blood alcohol level is above 0.08 percent — the legal limit in all 50 states — the car will be disabled.

If increased revenue is greater than legal fees, then: Give the users what they want and let the lawyers figure it out?

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/247047?ctp=BizDev&src=Syndication&msc=google-editors-pick&google_editors_picks=true

As Facebook Video Swells, YouTube Creators Cry Foul Over Copyright Infringement

As Facebook has briskly emerged as YouTube’s first forbidding challenger in online video, racking up 4 billion views per day, the social network may have a mounting copyright issue on its hands -- one that smacks of a similar conflict YouTube faced in its early days.

Increasingly, YouTube creators are alleging that their popular videos are being pilfered from the platform and uploaded to Facebook. A new term has even been coined for this practice: ‘freebooting.’

Because Facebook doesn’t offer adequate copyright protection or give creators the ability to monetize their videos just yet, argues George Strompolos, CEO of leading YouTube network Fullscreen, freebooting is detracting from ever-valuable YouTube views.

From a culture that honors age (and success) this makes perfect sense. Still, Warren isn't likely to buy them.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102737897

Chinese online gaming company wins Buffett lunch for $2.3M

Time to start planning.

http://hothardware.com/news/microsoft-office-2016-updated-with-collaborative-real-time-presence-contextual-insights?google_editors_picks=true

Microsoft Office 2016 Updated With Collaborative Real Time Presence, Contextual Insights

Microsoft is planning to release a new version of its Office productivity suite, Office 2016, sometime later this year. In the meantime, Microsoft has made available an Office 2016 Public Preview, which is also available for Mac users, and there are a few new features that were just added.

Plan for this too since it's the path to Skye's real time translation service.

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/58444/20150606/you-can-now-use-skype-for-web-beta-if-youre-in-the-us-or-uk.htm

You Can Now Use Skype For Web (Beta) If You're In The U.S. Or UK

Skype's web-based client is now available to all U.S. and UK users in open beta, no longer requiring any invites.

For my Business Intelligence students.

https://hbr.org/2015/06/the-internet-of-things-is-changing-how-we-manage-customer-relationships

The Internet of Things Is Changing How We Manage Customer Relationships

… But now that Big Data and the Internet of Things have come along, we can go beyond the transaction to every little detail of the customer’s actual experience. You can know when customers enter your store, how long they are there, what products they look at, and for how long. When they buy something, you can know how long that item had been on the shelf and whether that shelf is in an area of things that usually sell fast or slowly. And then you can view that data by shoppers’ age, gender, average spend, brand loyalty, and so on.

(Related)

http://www.bespacific.com/data-collection-from-consumers-continues-without-transparency/

Data Collection From Consumers Continues Without Transparency

by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Jun 5, 2015

National Journal – “Don’t be fooled: Congress may have finally passed the bill reining in the National Security Agency’s bulk-surveillance programs [USA Freedom Act of 2015], but your data is still being collected on the Internet. Lost in the debate over the NSA is the fact that companies like Google and Facebook continue to vacuum up vast troves of consumer data and use it for marketing. The private-sector tech companies that run the social networks and email services Americans use every day are relatively opaque when it comes to their data-collection and retention policies, which are engineered not to preserve national security but to bolster the companies’ bottom lines. Critics say the consumer data that private companies collect can paint as detailed a picture of an individual as the metadata that got caught up in the NSA’s dragnets. Companies like Google and Facebook comb through customers’ usage statistics in order to precisely tailor marketing to their users, a valuable service that advertisers pay the companies dearly to access. “What both types of information collection show is that metadata—data about data—can in many cases be more revelatory than content,” said Gabe Rottman, legislative counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union. “You see that given the granularity with which private data collection can discern very intimate details about your life… For their part, various tech companies are paying attention to the trend. Google on Monday unveiled a frequently asked questions page to address users’ privacy concerns, answering questions like “Does Google sell my personal information?” and “How does Google keep my information safe?” It also revamped its account settings page, offering privacy and security “checkups” to walk users through steps to keep their data safe. On the same day, Facebook announced it will offer the option to send sensitive information, like password reset links, in encrypted emails. (“New Facebook feature shows actual respect for your privacy,” read a Wired headline on an article about the announcement.) Facebook already encrypts traffic to and from its site, and offers privacy fanatics—or those who fear government retribution for their actions on the social network—access to its services via the Tor browser, widely regarded as the most secure and private way to access the Internet.”

• See also NYT – Sharing Data, but Not Happily

I've been thinking about re-writing my handouts. “Captain Math!” “SecurityMan”

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/best-apps-reading-comics-ipad/

The Best Apps for Reading Comics on Your iPad

Dilbert has some ideas for responding to my students!

http://dilbert.com/strip/2015-06-06