Interesting (if slightly misleading) headline.  Should we be sharing this information with foreign governments?  Didn’t President Obama tell Asian leaders that, “Yes Trump is crazy, but he is unlikely to be elected?”

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/06/russian-hackers-infiltrate-dnc-systems/487016/?google_editors_picks=true

A Watergate Break-In For the 21st Century

Two groups of hackers sponsored by the Russian government broke into the computer systems of the Democratic National Committee and accessed emails, chat logs, and a trove of detailed opposition research on Donald Trump assembled by the party’s researchers.

The hackers were removed from the system over the weekend, officials told The Washington Post, but not before they were able to comb through staff members’ day-to-day communications and their research on the presumptive Republican nominee.

One hacking group entered the system last year, and been monitoring DNC communications since then, the Post’s Ellen Nakashima reported.  This April, the other group gained access to the Trump files.

Yep, a record year for sure.

45 million records from over 1100 Verticalscope.com domains and communities hacked and leaked

LeakedSource has done it again:

Verticalscope.com and all of their domains were hacked in February of 2016.  LeakedSource has obtained and added a copy of this data to its ever-growing searchable repository of leaked data.

[…]

This data set contains nearly 45 million records from over 1100 websites and communities.  Some of the larger domains include Techsupportforum.com MobileCampsites.com Pbnation.com and Motorcycle.com.  Each record may contain an email address, a username, an IP address, one password and in some cases a second password.  We added this data set to LeakedSource on April 27th 2016 but only analyzed it now.

Given the massive scale of this breach, it is also likely that VerticalScope stored all of their data on interconnected or even the same servers as there is no other way to explain a theft on such a large scale.  ZDNET reporter Zack Whittaker contacted VerticalScope on our behalf and they confirmed the breach in addition to our verification from May.

[…]

Passwords were stored in various encryption methods but less than 10% of the domains which account for a very small amount of leaked records used difficult to break encryption (less than a couple million).  Most of the records (over 40 million) were just MD5 with salting and this is insufficient.

For my Computer Security students.  Remember this when it comes time to ask for a bigger budget.

http://www.computerworld.com/article/3083916/security/cost-of-a-data-breach-4m-benefits-of-responding-quickly-priceless.html

Cost of a data breach: $4M: Benefits of responding quickly: Priceless.

The bad news is that data breaches are becoming ever more common.  The worse news is that the cost they represent for companies is going through the roof.

Those are two conclusions from a study released Wednesday by IBM Security and the Ponemon Institute, which found that the average cost of a data breach has grown to $4 million.  That's a hefty jump compared with last year's $3.79 million, and it represents an increase of almost 30 percent since 2013.

"Data breaches are now a consistent 'cost of doing business' in the cybercrime era," said Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of the Ponemon Institute, a research firm focused on security.  "The evidence shows that this is a permanent cost organizations need to be prepared to deal with and incorporate in their data protection strategies.”

The annual Cost of a Data Breach study examines both direct and indirect costs to companies in dealing with a single data breach incident.

…   This year's data uncovered a 64 percent increase in reported security incidents between 2014 and 2015.  Meanwhile, the study found that companies now lose some $158 per compromised record.  In highly regulated industries like healthcare, the damage is even worse, reaching $355 per record.

(Related)  Another “must do” for Security managers?

http://www.securityweek.com/cisos-risk-getting-fired-over-poor-reporting-survey

CISOs Risk Getting Fired Over Poor Reporting

Board members are paying attention to the cyber risk information reported to them and many say that cybersecurity executives could lose their jobs if they fail to provide useful, actionable information, a recent survey from Bay Dynamics reveals.

According to the study, 89% of board members surveyed said they are very involved in making cyber risk decisions, while 74% of them said the cyber risk information is provided to them weekly.  However, they also say that IT and security executives should be held accountable for presenting quality reports, with 59% of respondents saying security executives will lose their jobs as a result of failing to provide useful, actionable information.

…   Dubbed “How Boards of Directors Really Feel about Cyber Security Reports,” the study (PDF) complements a February report from Bay Dynamics, titled “Reporting to the Board: Where CISOs and the Board are Missing the Mark” and meant to discover how IT and security executives feel about their information reports presented to the board.

(Related)

http://www.securityweek.com/iot-devices-not-properly-secured-enterprise-networks-survey

IoT Devices Not Properly Secured on Enterprise Networks: Survey

According to the research, nearly three quarters of enterprises either don’t have efficient protection methods for their IoT devices, or are not aware of what is being used.  At the other end, only 19% of organizations have a specialized agent that monitors the network, while 7% say they use a different approach to securing IoT devices, the report says.

…   Produced by Webtorials and sponsored by ForeScout, the new research shows not only that many organizations lack the proper security policies for IoT devices in their networks, but also that a large number of professionals working within these organizations lack the necessary awareness regarding these devices.

(Related)  Automating attacks is cheap.

http://www.networkworld.com/article/3079987/massive-ddos-attacks-reach-record-levels-as-botnets-make-them-cheaper-to-launch.html?google_editors_picks=true

Massive DDoS attacks reach record levels as botnets make them cheaper to launch

There were 19 distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks that exceeded 100 Gbps during the first three months of the year, almost four times more than in the previous quarter.

For my IT Architecture class.

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/jamie-moldafsky-interview/

How Wells Fargo is Reaching the Digital Customer

Banks today are seeing their businesses disrupted by fintech – startups offering mobile payments, loans, virtual currencies and the like.  To compete with digital startups and meet the heightened expectations of customers who want 24/7 access, engagement and security, Wells Fargo is actively bridging the gap between its cyber and physical operations.  Jamie Moldafsky, the bank’s chief marketing officer, spoke about the company’s digital efforts on the Knowledge@Wharton show on Wharton Business Radio, which aired on SiriusXM channel 111.

She said the bank is changing to meet the needs of the digital customer, such as rethinking its marketing approach from straight-out selling to customer engagement.  Wells Fargo also is interested in using biometrics tools like retina scanning to boost the security of customer information.

An edited transcript of the conversation appears below.

Perspective.

https://hbr.org/2016/06/what-marketers-need-to-know-about-chat-apps

What Marketers Need to Know About Chat Apps

The rise of social media changed marketing. Now, before some marketers have even fully adapted to that world, the social web is transforming again.  The rise of private social networks and messaging apps will challenge the strategies that marketers developed for public social networks.

If your company is still trying to figure out how to make the most of Facebook and Twitter, consider:

·         WhatsApp has rapidly become the biggest messaging service in the world with more than a billion users.

·         Snapchat is a juggernaut with the 18-24 age group, now earning more daily check-ins than Facebook.  The company founder insists it is “not a social network.”

·         Facebook is the social network for most of the world, yet their major investment is in the development of private Facebook Messenger, including bots that would help companies scale “human” interaction through the service.  More than 900 million people use Messenger now.  Other private messaging services like Viber and Kik have attracted millions of users.

·         Of the Fortune 100 companies, 77 use Slack.  The average Slack user keeps the app running 10 hours a day, and is actively using it for over 2 hours a day.

·         Instagram started private DM in 2014 that focuses on the sharing of content with up to 15 people in a threaded approach.

·         Twitter has experimented with Snapchat-style doodles and photo editing and in 2015 expanded the character limit via private direct messaging.

I would have expected the opposite when Democrats rule.  Where have they spent their fury?

http://www.bespacific.com/government-regulatory-prosecutions-fall-to-record-low/

Government Regulatory Prosecutions Fall to Record Low

by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Jun 14, 2016

“The latest case-by-case data from the Justice Department show that in April 2016 there were 76 new prosecutions for government regulatory matters.  This is the lowest count in this program category for a single month since October 1998, the start of TRAC’s monthly time series.  Government regulatory prosecutions have fallen 17 percent from the same period in the previous year, and are down 30.5 percent from levels reported five years ago in 2011.  The data were collected from federal prosecutors by the Executive Office for United States Attorneys and obtained by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse under the Freedom of Information Act.  For more details, including a timeline of prosecutions and top district rankings, see the report at: http://trac.syr.edu/tracreports/crim/426/“

Think this will be enough?  Now we go after those content sources that don’t count against you “data limits?”  

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/court-upholds-net-neutrality-rules-for-internet-access/2016/06/14/84a8371e-323b-11e6-ab9d-1da2b0f24f93_story.html

‘Net neutrality’ rules for fair internet access win in court

A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld the government’s “net neutrality” rules, preserving regulations that force internet providers such as Comcast and AT&T to treat all online traffic — everything from Netflix and cat videos to games and downloads — equally.

The 2-1 ruling is a sweeping victory for the Obama administration and the consumer groups and internet companies that have pushed net neutrality for years.  The Federal Communications Commission’s rules block internet service providers from favoring their own services and disadvantaging others; blocking other sites and apps; and creating “fast lanes” for video and other data services that pay for the privilege.

…   That sets the stage for what Ammori and several analysts see as the next big battle.  That will likely involve “zero rating” — the practice of exempting preferred video services from customer data caps.

Comcast, for example, lets you can watch video at home with its Stream service with no danger of bumping against your data cap (if you have one).  T-Mobile’s Binge On program lets you watch any video you want from Netflix and many other providers without counting it as data use.

Just because it amuses me.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/55-awesome-facts-you-never-knew-about-google/

55 Awesome Facts You Never Knew About Google

http://cdn.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/HJJ8RXnM.jpg?6f25c7

Something my students should play with.

http://techcrunch.com/2016/06/14/chefs-new-habitat-project-wants-to-make-applications-infrastructure-independent/

Chef’s new Habitat project wants to make applications infrastructure-independent

Chef today launched Habitat, a new open source project that allows developers to package their applications and run them on a wide variety of infrastructures.

Habitat essentially wraps applications into their own lightweight runtime environments and then allows you to run them in any environment, ranging from bare metal servers to virtual machines, Docker containers (and their respective container management services), and PaaS systems like Cloud Foundry.

…   If you’re interested in giving Habitat a try, Chef offers a set of tutorials, as well as an interactive demo.

Free online university?  Is it worth the cost?

http://www.lightreading.com/analytics/go-beyond-the-basics-of-big-data-analytics-with-upskill-u/a/d-id/724098?f_src=lightreading_editorspicks_rss_latest&google_editors_picks=true

Go Beyond the Basics of Big Data Analytics With Upskill U

Today at 1 p.m. ET, Sachin Katti, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Stanford University , will kick off a new learning module at Upskill U on Big Data Analytics.  In Analytics & Virtualization 101, Katti will examine the fundamental questions as to the role of big data and advanced analytics and explain what service providers need to be doing as they prepare for virtualized networks.  Future courses in this series will deep-dive into big data analytics through the lens of security, customer experience management and IoT.

(Register for Analytics & Virtualization 101.)

I’ve always wanted my students to write their own textbook.  On the other hand, there could be an opportunity here for a rating system linked to the open source texts. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/06/15/college-courses-without-textbooks-these-schools-are-giving-it-a-shot/

College courses without textbooks? These schools are giving it a shot.

A community college reform group has selected a handful of schools in Virginia and Maryland to develop degree programs using open-source materials in place of textbooks

…   Achieving the Dream, an education advocacy groups based in Silver Spring, Md., aims to change that by offering $9.8 million in grants to support the development of open-source degree programs at 38 colleges in 13 states.

…   Officials at Achieving the Dream say there are enough open-source materials to replace textbooks in all required courses for degrees in business administration, general education, computer science and social science.

…   One of the largest providers of open-source materials is OpenStax College, a nonprofit tied to Rice University in Houston.

Not bad for a country that probably doesn’t have 140,000 computers the south could hack into in retaliation.

North Korea hacked 140,000 South Korean computers in a huge campaign

Jack Kim reports:

North Korea hacked into more than 140,000 computers at 160 South Korean firms and government agencies, planting malicious code under a long-term plan laying groundwork for a massive cyber attack against its rival, police in the South said on Monday.

South Korea has been on heightened alert against cyber attacks by the North after Pyongyang conducted a nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket launch in February that led to new U.N. sanctions.

The North has always denied wrongdoing.

Read more from Reuters on Business Insider.

See also FedScoop for how U.S. fighter jet blueprints wound up in the breach.

A bad year keeps getting worse?

51 Million iMesh Passwords Dumped Online

Paul Wagenseil reports:

If you’re suffering from data-breach fatigue, tough luck.  LeakedSource, the shadowy website that broke the recent news of the LinkedIn and MySpace breaches, today (June 13) announced that 51 million account credentials for iMesh, a defunct file-sharing service, were being sold online.

Read more on Tom’s Guide.

In its blog post, LeakedSource explains:

iMesh.com (now defunct) was hacked on September 22nd, 2013.  LeakedSource has obtained and added a copy of this data to its ever-growing searchable repository of leaked data.

Strange that this is now one of the first questions asked after a mass shooting.

http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/283303-orlando-shooter-used-samsung-phone-report

Orlando shooter used Samsung phone: report

FBI Director James Comey on Monday declined to tell reporters whether the Orlando shooter’s communications were encrypted, but reports indicate that he likely used an Android device — not an iPhone.

Since very few Android devices boast stiff encryption, should those reports be confirmed, investigators would likely be able to access the contents of gunman Omar Mateen’s device without technical assistance from the manufacturer.

Comey said Monday that investigators know the make of the phone but that he could not reveal it. [I wonder why?  Bob]

A new buzzword.  The trick is to ensure the identifiable data gets deleted after it is merged with the database.

http://www.macrumors.com/2016/06/14/apple-touts-differential-privacy-in-ios-10/

Apple Touts 'Differential Privacy' Data Gathering Technique in iOS 10

With the announcement of iOS 10 at WWDC on Monday, Apple mentioned its adoption of "Differential Privacy" – a mathematical technique that allows the company to collect user information that helps it enhance its apps and services while keeping the data of individual users private.

…   Wired has now published an article on the subject that lays out in clearer detail some of the practical implications and potential pitfalls of Apple's latest statistical data gathering technique.

Differential privacy, translated from Apple-speak, is the statistical science of trying to learn as much as possible about a group while learning as little as possible about any individual in it.  With differential privacy, Apple can collect and store its users' data in a format that lets it glean useful notions about what people do, say, like and want.  But it can't extract anything about a single, specific one of those people that might represent a privacy violation.  And neither, in theory, could hackers or intelligence agencies.

Wired notes that the technique claims to have a mathematically "provable guarantee" that its generated data sets are impervious to outside attempts to de-anonymize the information.  It does however caution that such complicated techniques rely on the rigor of their implementation to retain any guarantee of privacy during transmission.

You can read the full article on the subject of differential privacy here.

(Related)  Would Differential Privacy work here?  No.  You need the name of the student who borrowed the book.

Australian high schools mull biometrics for attendance, libraries

Planet Biometrics reports:

Plans by Western Australian high schools to use fingerprint and other biometric authentication methods for library loaning and attendance have been criticised by privacy advocates.

Churchlands Senior High School plans to install biometrics finger scanning for library book withdrawals this year and Byford Secondary College and Atwell College have used biometrics to monitor student attendance since 2014.

The plans have been described as “overkill” by Biometrics Institute privacy expert group chairman Terry Aulich.

Read more on Planet Biometrics.

So if I get encrypted data I have to treat it exactly like a particular type of unencrypted data even if I have no way of knowing it is that type of data?

Tennessee Breach-Notification Law Indicative of Data-Security Regulators’ Lack of Creativity

David Zetoony of Bryan Cave writes:

There is no shortage of data-privacy and security laws in the United States.  By our count there are now about 300 state and federal statutes.  They include breach-notification laws, data-disposal laws, data-safeguard laws, payment card information-protection laws … the list goes on and on.  Many of these laws, and practical strategies for managing compliance with them, are discussed in a Washington Legal Foundation Contemporary Legal Notes paper I authored, Data Privacy and Security Practical Guide for In-House Counsel.

Nonetheless the push continues to be a push for more regulation to make sure that the consumer data held by companies is secure.

Quantity does not, in this case, equal quality.  In fact, it means the opposite.

Read more on Lexology to find out what Zetoony does recommend.

Perhaps my Statistics students could design and execute an analytics program.  It might teach them a lot!

Is predictive analytics a step too far in student assistance?

Jarrett Carter writes:

The concept of academic intrusion isn’t novel, but the usage of monitoring technology invites a lot of questions and possibilities for things that can go wrong.  Institutions should be extraordinarily careful not to paint a particular type of student with data points on academic performance, without the investment in the human resources to help these students manage the issues which may be causing poor performance.

Factors like how often one visits the cafeteria or swipes into the library could be indicators of how much time a student spends on campus, and since national data show more students are opting out of dorms, they could lead to false correlations.

Read more on EducationDive.

The always mysterious ways of the Justice Department?  This article suggests they are coming in on Facebook’s side.  Why? 

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/06/eu-facebook-schrems-case-us-government-amicus-curiae/

In “an unusual move,” US government asks to join key EU Facebook privacy case

The US government has asked to be joined as a party in the Irish High Court case between the Austrian privacy activist and lawyer Max Schrems, and the social network Facebook. In a press release, Schrems called this "an unusual move."

…   Schrems speculated that the US government has made this move because it wanted to defend its surveillance laws before the European Courts.  "I think this move will be very interesting," he told Ars.  "The US has previously maintained that we all misunderstood US surveillance."

The Court of Justice of the European Union struck down the Safe Harbour agreement between the EU and the US largely because of fears that personal data sent from the EU to the US would be subject to US surveillance without sufficient safeguards.  The latest move seems to be an attempt by the US government to convince European courts that personal data is adequately protected when it is transferred to the US.

But as Schrems notes in his press release, the US government's bold approach carries risks.

…   Schrems told Ars that he hopes to use this unexpected opportunity to grill the US government to the maximum.  "Now they have every chance to make their point, but we also have every chance to ask questions they have previously not had to respond to."

…   Since the invalidation of the Safe Harbour framework, many companies have turned to so-called "model contracts" as a way of ensuring that the data transfers across the Atlantic comply with EU privacy laws.  However, as Schrems points out, "this shift in the legal basis does not remedy the fact that Facebook is still subject to US mass surveillance laws and programs, which the CJEU already found to be conflicting with EU law."

The current action in the Irish High Court will play a major role in establishing whether that is the case, which no doubt partly explains the US government's unusual intervention.

(Related)  I think the previous article got it right.  Justice is not going to like the questions asked about surveillance.

Feds sue Seattle to keep FBI surveillance camera program secret

Levi Pulkkinen reports:

The Justice Department has sued the city of Seattle in an effort to hide details of FBI surveillance efforts in the city.

Attorneys for the federal government are seeking a court order preventing the city from releasing Seattle City Light documents related to FBI-operated surveillance cameras installed on power poles.  In a lawsuit filed Monday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office contends the information requested through Washington’s Public Records Act would expose the covert video surveillance effort.

Read more on Seattle PI.

Update: And they got a temporary injunction.

Will pressure from the Feds always outweigh pressure from the voters? 

New Hampshire Backs Down On Driver Privacy

New Hampshire once had the strongest protections in the nation for the privacy of its drivers.  State officials were explicitly prohibited from participating in any way with national licensing databases, and neither photo enforcement nor automated license plate readers (ALPR, also known as ANPR) could be used, with the exception of license plate readers on toll roads.  Governor Maggie Hassan (D) set a different course last month as she signed legislation eliminating these protections.

House Bill 1154 repealed the existing prohibition on “highway surveillance.”  In its place is a blanket authorization allowing any law enforcement agency in the state to use camera systems to record the movements of motorists with license plate reader systems.  The state attorney general will have the authority to audit any department’s use of license plate cameras.  The revised language, which takes effect July 18, does not authorize the use of red light cameras or speed cameras.

Read more on TheNewspaper.com.  See also TenthAmendmentCenter.com.

[From the article:

The governor also signed House Bill 1616, which brings the state in line with the federal driver's license system established under Real ID.  Previous law prohibited any participation in the national program.

Remember the old days, when I sent you ads when you landed on my web page?

Yeah, but they became annoying, so I blocked them.

I know, then I had to find software that detected and avoided you Ad Blocker.

And I found software that detected you Anti-Ad Blocker and blocked it. 

(You can guess the next 600 lines of this dialog.)

http://www.wsj.com/article_email/the-rise-of-the-anti-ad-blockers-1465805039-lMyQjAxMTE2ODE2MzIxOTM1Wj

The Rise of the Anti-Ad Blockers

As consumer adoption of online ad-blocking tools continues to grow, publishers and media companies are experimenting with various ways to limit the impact of ad-blocking on their businesses.

That’s given rise to a new breed of “anti-ad-blockers”, or technology companies hoping to cash in on the situation by selling software designed to counteract the effects of ad-blocking.

PageFair, Sourcepoint, Secret Media and Admiral are among the companies currently in the market pitching publishers that technology.  The companies are taking somewhat different approaches to the issue, but they all promise media companies one thing: to help recapture revenues lost because of ad-blocking users.

Microsoft is changing its business model and not everyone is happy.  Not sure Bill Gates would have/could have done this. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/06/13/microsoft-is-about-to-add-linkedin-to-its-professional-network/

Microsoft is adding LinkedIn to its professional network

Microsoft is buying LinkedIn for $26.2 billion

…   The two companies cater to similar customers.  Under Nadella's tenure, Microsoft has sought to become a cloud-computing powerhouse that largely serves businesses.  LinkedIn also primarily targets professionals and is the United States' 11th-largest website by traffic and visitors, according to the online index Alexa.  In a sign of LinkedIn's importance to corporations, executives have been known to publish blog posts on the platform that act as corporate statements.

…   LinkedIn is a major brand name with 433 million users and $3 billion a year in revenue, according to a company-wide email that Weiner sent to staff.

…   Microsoft may also capitalize on Lynda.com — a LinkedIn-owned website offering online courses on everything from big data to design and marketing — to become a leader in professional development, she added.

(Related)

http://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2016/06/13/4-reasons-microsoft-wasted-26-2-billion-to-buy-linkedin/#7b02a51b533d

4 Reasons Microsoft Wasted $26.2 Billion To Buy LinkedIn

…   It fails the four tests of a successful acquisition.

While the deal certainly rescues LinkedIn from a huge growth problem that slashed the value of its shares in February, it is unclear how Microsoft will generate a return on that $26.2 billion investment.

…   Here’s why I believe the deal fails the four tests.

1. Industry is not attractive.

If the industry of business social networking were attractive, LinkedIn — which is a leader — would likely enjoy the economies of scale needed to make it profitable.  But the company lost $166 million on $2.9 billion in sales in 2015.

To be sure, LinkedIn considers it unsophisticated for people to look at its Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) net income.  Instead, it wants analysts to value it based on Earnings Before Interest Taxes Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) which strips out stock-based compensation.

This reveals another fundamental flaw with the industry — profits are so slim in the industry that LinkedIn must use more stock than its peers to attract and retain talent.  [Worked out pretty good for the talent, didn’t it?  Bob] 

2. Combined companies will not be better off. 

There is no scenario I can envision in which the combined companies will be better off.

While I have no doubt that Microsoft will try to use the 433 million people who have their profiles on LinkedIn to sell them software and services, there is no reason to believe that Microsoft has the strategic skills needed to revive LinkedIn’s growth.

3. Microsoft will not earn a positive net present value on its investment.

To be sure, I have not reviewed the financial projections on which Microsoft justified paying a near 50% premium for LinkedIn.

But since LinkedIn is losing money, there is little reason to believe that Microsoft will boost its cash flow — which has fluctuated from negative to positive over the last few years — enough to earn back the $26.2 billion it is paying.

4. It will be difficult to integrate the two companies.

How will Weiner continue to be CEO of LinkedIn?  Sure he can keep the title if he wants — but he will report to Nadella instead of a board of directors.  So he is no longer CEO.

What process will he have to go through if he wants to introduce a new service, make an acquisition, or target a new set of customers?

It is also unclear why employees will want to stay at LinkedIn once it is owned by Microsoft.

(Related)  Harvard will see your four and raise you three more.

https://hbr.org/2016/06/7-ways-microsoft-can-make-linkedin-worth-26-billion

7 Ways Microsoft Can Make LinkedIn Worth $26 Billion

…   Microsoft is known for overpaying for its acquisitions, including Skype, Nokia’s handset business, aQuantive, and the attempted deal for Yahoo.  So how can it avoid repeating its past mistakes?

I like to go to the big used book sales the libraries hold once or twice a year.  Often, on the last day they let you fill a grocery bag for 5 or six bucks.  Then I grab anything that looks like it will fit in the bag.  This is clearly more scientific.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-curious-ways-find-interesting-books-read/

5 Curious Ways to Find Interesting Books to Read

Because you never know when a dancing gerbil could become your best illustrator of quantum computing?

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-best-tools-make-animated-gifs-images-windows/

3 Best Tools to Make Animated GIFs Images on Windows

I asked my Computer Security class to list the risks of ordering Apps.  Dominos may have solved a few.

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/06/09/dominos-roll-out-upgraded-tech-driven-offerings-such-as-zero-click-pizza-order.html

You could soon order a Domino’s pizza online without a single click

…   One of the ten new services announced at Domino's Abacus tech series event in Sydney is the "zero click order" which is expected to be launched in coming months.  This service simplifies the order process down to launching the Domino's mobile app which will count down 10 seconds before sending an order for the customer's favorite pizza or previous order.

There are security measures in place for the service so customers don't accidentally order pizzas, such as the choice to lock the app,

…   Another new service is the "on-time cooking" for pick up customers.  With the use of a GPS customer tracker, Domino's will only start making the pizza when the customer is in close proximity to the store.  This will help to ensure that customers receive their pizzas fresh.

…   The pizza chain is also planning to cut delivery time down to ten minutes, with the program first expected to roll out in Australia, followed by New Zealand, Japan and Europe.  The average delivery time globally is 22 minutes.

…   Earlier in March, the company announced the launch of a four-wheeled autonomous delivery vehicle known as Domino's Robotic Unit (DRU) to deliver pizza to customers' doorsteps, but the service is still being trialed.

An interesting article for my Architecture students.  What business is Microsoft in? 

http://fortune.com/microsoft-fortune-500-cloud-computing/

Microsoft Will Serve You Now

For all my twit students.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/twitter-hack-not-title-article/

How to Check If Your Twitter Password Has Leaked & What to Do Next

…   if you have taken precautions to stay safe from being hacked on Twitter, there’s a chance that your details have been leaked.  Twitter itself has attempted to notify users who are affected by this, asking them to change their passwords.

Check If Your Account is Compromised

The bad news is taken care of; let’s move to the good news.  There’s actually one single place to check if your account is among those compromised by this leak.

The leak was detected by LeakedSource, a new database of over 1.8 billion leaked records across different sites and sources.  LeakedSource obtained a copy of the Twitter leak and added it to its repository, thus making it possible for you to search for your account.

Interesting.  What will be the impact of listing music that is no longer covered by a copyright?  Will they do that?

http://www.wbur.org/artery/2016/06/13/berklee-mit-music-rights-database

Enough With The Lawsuits: Berklee, MIT Lead Effort To Create Ownership Rights Database For Music Industry

Berklee College of Music and the MIT Media Lab are leading a new initiative they hope will one day solve complicated, expensive music industry issues involving licensing, distribution and ownership rights.

Big names are signing on, including Spotify, Pandora, YouTube, Netflix, Soundcloud, NPR and major record label/entertainment groups Sony, Universal and Warner.  If it succeeds, this broad constellation of players believe it could change the many-layered, multi-organism music ecosystem as we know it.

…   “It’s one of the few industries that I know where you can use something and it's OK to not really know who to pay,” he said with a laugh. “Well we don’t think that that should be acceptable.”

…   “You're performing live, you're recording music, your music is being streamed on Spotify or it's on YouTube.  The amount of income streams that they have for any piece of music they create is bewildering, and there really is no simple way for you as a musician to know if what you're getting paid is accurate,” he said.

It’s good to be a business in the gig economy. 

http://www.wsj.com/article_email/china-life-insurance-to-invest-more-than-500-million-in-ride-hailing-firm-didi-chuxing-1465770069-lMyQjAxMTA2NjE2MjUxOTI4Wj

Didi Chuxing Gets Investment of More Than $500 Million From China Life

China’s top life insurer is making a big investment in the country’s $25 billion homegrown competitor to Uber Technologies Inc., despite already investing in Uber’s global operation, according to people familiar with the situation.

China Life Insurance Co. is plowing more than $500 million into Didi Chuxing Technology Co., after Apple Inc. made a $1 billion investment in the firm, China’s biggest ride-sharing company, according to one of the people.

(Related)

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/06/lyfts-plan-self-driving-cars-uber-world-domination

Lyft’s $5.5 Billion Plan for World Domination

Perspective.  It’s a liberal thing.  All good comes from the state and therefore the state should control all.  Remember, Al Gore invented the Internet and Global Warming! 

http://hothardware.com/news/clueless-politician-rep-nancy-pelosi-says-thank-your-government-for-creating-smartphone-technology

Rep Nancy Pelosi Says Thank Your Government For Creating Smartphone Technology

U.S. House of Representatives Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi claimed at a Democratic National Convention Platform Hearing that the vast majority of smartphone technology was “invented” by the federal government.  Her argument was for more more research and development spending in the federal budget.

Pelosi explained, “Anybody here have a smartphone?  In this smartphone, almost everything came from federal investments and research.  GPS, created by the military, flatscreens, LLD [sic], digital camera, wireless data compression, research into metal alloys for strength and lightweight, voice recognition — the list goes on and on….   They say Steve Jobs did a good idea designing it and putting it together.  Federal research invented it.”

Something my students need to know.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/upload-perfect-native-video-social-network/

How to Upload Perfect Native Video on Each Social Network

Every social network worth its salt now supports videos.  It’s estimated that by 2019, 80% of the world’s Internet traffic will be used in watching videos.  If you want people to pay attention to you on Facebook or other social profiles, you’d better learn the tricks to upload perfect videos.

The biggest mistake you can make is to upload the same video on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat by using a mass uploader like Buffer Video.  What draws eyeballs on Twitter might not get anyone interested on YouTube.  Like with anything else, you need to customize content for every type of audience.

Dilbert illustrates the power of social media.

http://dilbert.com/strip/2016-06-13

How the government “handles” breach notification?  That’s why we love ya, IRS!

http://inhomelandsecurity.com/irs-did-not-identify-assist-all-potentially-affected-taxpayers-after-get-transcript-access/?google_editors_picks=true

IRS Did Not Identify, Assist All Potentially Affected Taxpayers After ‘Get Transcript’ Access

In May 2015, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced that identity thieves had illegally accessed tax information tied to taxpayer accounts.  In February 2016, the IRS announced that the attack was worse than initially thought: approximately 390,000 additional taxpayer accounts were potentially accessed with more accounts – 295,000 taxpayers – targeted.  As a result, IRS shut down the “Get Transcript” online tool and pledged to notify taxpayers about the unauthorized access and access attempts.

Following that initial announcement, a Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) audit was conducted to evaluate IRS identification and assistance to affected taxpayers.  Assistance included a combination of sending potential victims a notification letter, marking affected accounts with an identity theft incident marker, offering free credit monitoring and/or issuing an Identity Protection Personal Identification Number (IP PIN), depending on the level of access.

·         In its audit, TIGTA found that the IRS did not identify all potentially affected taxpayers about the access or attempted access.

·         TIGTA also found that the IRS did not place identity theft incident markers on the tax accounts of 3,206 potentially affected taxpayers

·         The IRS did not offer an Identity Protection Personal Identification Number (IP PIN) or free credit monitoring to 79,122 individuals whose tax accounts the IRS identified as being involved in an attempted access.

Will the FBI brand Vermont as a haven for terrorists?  (If not, why not?)

Signed By the Governor: Sweeping Vermont Privacy Law Will Hinder Several Federal Surveillance Programs

Tenth Amendment Center writes:

Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin has signed a sweeping bill that establishes robust privacy protections in the state into law.  It not only limits warrantless surveillance and helps ensure electronic privacy in Vermont, it will also hinder several federal surveillance programs that rely on cooperation and data from state and local law enforcement.

The new law bans warrantless use of stingray devices to track the location of phones and sweep up electronic communications, restricts the use of drones for surveillance by police, and generally prohibits law enforcement officers from obtaining electronic data from service providers without a warrant or a judicially issued subpoena.

Read more on Tenth Amendment Center.

Vermont may need another law…

DEA Wants Inside Your Medical Records to Fight the War on Drugs

The government continues to assert the right to warrantless access to fight the war on drugs.  I’ve previously noted that Utah was fighting them.  It appears Oregon is, too. Joe Cadillic sends this report by Christopher Moraff:

… The DEA has claimed for years that under federal law it has the authority to access the state’s Prescription Drug Monitor Program database using only an “administrative subpoena.”  These are unilaterally issued orders that do not require a showing of probable cause before a court, like what’s required to obtain a warrant.

In 2012 Oregon sued the DEA to prevent it from enforcing the subpoenas to snoop around its drug registry.  Two years ago a U.S. District Court found in favor of the state, ruling that prescription data is covered by the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unlawful search and seizure.

But the DEA didn’t stop there.  It appealed the ruling to the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco and has been fighting tooth and nail ever since to access Oregon’s files on its own terms.

Read more on The Daily Beast.

Again I suggest a “public” account where you can to put pictures of you rescuing kittens from a burning building, and a “real” account that lets you talk with your fellow soccer hooligans. 

http://www.bespacific.com/uk-company-proposes-extensive-data-mining-on-renters-for-landlords-benefit/

UK company proposes extensive data mining on renters for landlords benefit

by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Jun 11, 2016

Washington Post – Creepy startup will help landlords, employers and online dates strip-mine intimate data from your Facebook page

“…Tenant Assured, is already live: After your would-be landlord sends you a request through the service, you’re required to grant it full access to your Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and/or Instagram profiles.  From there, Tenant Assured scrapes your site activity, including entire conversation threads and private messages; runs it through natural language processing and other analytic software; and finally, spits out a report that catalogues everything from your personality to your “financial stress level.”

(Related)  Refusing to admit anyone who might fail would also increase graduation rates. 

Maryland universities to use data to predict student success — or failure

Carrie Wells reports:

Officials at the University System of Maryland have begun to analyze student data — grades, financial aid information, demographics, even how often they swipe their ID cards at the library or the dining hall — to find undergraduates who are at risk of dropping out.

Law enforcement agencies, political campaigns, retailers and other universities all mine data to help focus their efforts.  University system officials say the practice, called predictive analysis, will boost graduation rates by enabling educators to intervene with struggling students before failure becomes inevitable.

Read more on Baltimore Sun.

Something for my Ethical Hacking students?  I certainly hope not!  If he really is the best, what can we learn from him?  (Long and fluffy article)

https://www.buzzfeed.com/josephbernstein/meet-the-maserati-driving-deadhead-lawyer-who-stands-between?utm_term=.jnXxDEvQr#.ok1YxKpWq

Meet The Maserati-Driving Deadhead Lawyer Who Stands Between Hackers And Prison

A summary.  Interesting that MakeUseOf is writing this.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/clinton-email-storm/

Hillary Clinton’s Email Scandal: What You Need to Know

Perspective.  For my IT Architecture class.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-gms-president-says-you-wont-be-driving-its-cars-2016-06-01?reflink=MW_GoogleNews&google_editors_picks=true

The auto industry will change more in next five years than prior 50, says GM’s president

“We see more change in the next five years than there’s been in the last 50,” said Dan Ammann, president of General Motors in an interview.  Ammann sat down with MarketWatch and The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday to discuss the company’s recent acquisitions and the road ahead for transportation technology.

Specifically, the shift in consumer behavior from car ownership to ride sharing will drive the development of self-driving cars and electric vehicles, Ammann said.  As people drive less — vehicles spend only about 5% of the time on the road, he estimates — and the opportunity cost of driving increases with the inability to perform tasks on a mobile device while driving, [I must admit, I had not considered that.  Bob] consumers will gradually turn to ride-sharing and ride-hailing services.  In January, GM announced a $500 million investment in ride-hailing company Lyft.

…   “The average age of a car on the road is 11 years.  This is a decades-long transition.”

…   Driverless cars are also much more efficient than taxis and other ride-hailing vehicles currently on the road.  A self-driving car operated by a ride-hailing service could generate revenue 85% of the time it spends on the road, compared with the current rate of 49% for New York City taxis and 53% for UberX vehicles, according to a March report by Deutsche Bank.

…   Along with more ride-hailing and self-driving cars, electric vehicles will also soon become more prevalent, Ammann said.

…   The timeline of these transitions is still unclear, Ammann said, but they are inevitable.

A lesson in basic economics?  Milton Freeman talked about making a pencil.  Same idea.  His video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5Gppi-O3a8

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601491/the-all-american-iphone/

The All-American iPhone

Donald Trump says that if he becomes president, he will “get Apple to start making their computers and their iPhones on our land, not in China.” Bernie ­Sanders has also called for Apple to manufacture some devices in the U.S. instead of China.

Why they are “immune” is interesting.  They became Amazon-like.

http://www.barrons.com/articles/retailer-williams-sonoma-is-amazon-proof-1465628943?google_editors_picks=true

Retailer Williams-Sonoma Is “Amazon-Proof”

…   Williams-Sonoma has differentiated itself from the sector with one of the most robust Internet operations in retail, a crucial advantage as brick-and-mortar stores struggle with an existential crisis.  The company garners just over half its revenue online and has built a customer database of nearly 60 million households.  It calls the stores “billboards for our brands” that inspire customers to shop online.  Internet sales also carry higher margins than in-store sales and are growing faster—8.2% versus 4.7% in the most recent quarter.

…   “Williams-Sonoma is very Amazon-proof,” says Cody Wheaton, an analyst and assistant portfolio manager at Janus Capital, which boosted its stake in the company in the most recent quarter.  “Because Williams-Sonoma controls its own inventory—it’s exclusive to their channel and their brand—and it has a very strong e-commerce business, the company is more immune than most to the lurking Amazon threat.”

We should be teaching all of these in our MBA program.

http://www.enterpriseappstoday.com/business-intelligence/top-10-mobile-business-intelligence-apps.html?google_editors_picks=true

Top 10 Mobile Business Intelligence Apps

What would a viable application for self-education look like?  Is there a way to identify a potential Mozart, Einstein, DaVinci? 

http://www.bespacific.com/the-high-cost-and-complex-barriers-to-open-access-knowledge/

The high cost and complex barriers to open access knowledge

by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Jun 11, 2016

Via ars technica uk this is a long read that documents the long, circuitous, challenging and unfulfilled promise of access to human knowledge provided without impediments specific to economic or social status, country of origin, age, ethnicity, i.e., for everyone – Open access: All human knowledge is there—so why can’t everybody access it?

“…imagine, for a moment, if it were possible to provide access not just to those books, but to all knowledge for everyone, everywhere—the ultimate realisation of Anthony Panizzi [who later became principal librarian of the British Museum] dream.  In fact, we don’t have to imagine: it is possible today, thanks to the combined technologies of digital texts and the Internet.  The former means that we can make as many copies of a work as we want, for vanishingly small cost; the latter provides a way to provide those copies to anyone with an Internet connection.  The global rise of low-cost smartphones means that group will soon include even the poorest members of society in every country.  That is to say, we have the technical means to share all knowledge, and yet we are nowhere near providing everyone with the ability to indulge their learned curiosity…”