Someone looked for weak security.
(Note that this may not be a new breach)
Hackers
steal info on 200,000 Navy personnel (updated)
September 19, 2012 by
admin
Navy Times reports:
The private
information of more than 200,000 current and former Navy personnel
was compromised in June when hackers broke into the Navy’s Smart
Web Move Internet site, an application used to
arrange household moves on official orders that was
subsequently suspended, Naval Supply Systems Command confirmed
Wednesday.
The
compromised database stored 11 years of private information,
but officials said there is only evidence that the personal data for
20 people was posted online.
The rest of their story is behind a
paywall on
Navy
Times.
The Hacker News
reports
that the hack was by “digital-corruption” and a partial data dump
revealed usernames, email addresses, and “Security Questions –
Answers of all users.” The paste has been removed from Pastebin,
so I could not confirm that.
Update: see
comment
from Adam, below, indicating that this claimed hack had been
claimed and disclosed previously by other hackers.
A target for my Ethical Hackers?
"Currently — as most of us
know — TSA agents briefly examine government ID and boarding passes
as each passenger presents their documents at a checkpoint at the end
of a security line but Thom Patterson writes at CNN that under a 2008
Apple patent application that was approved in July and filed under
the working title "iTravel," a traveler's phone
would automatically send electronic identification to a TSA agent
as soon as the traveler got in line and as each traveler waits in
line, TSA agents would examine the electronic ID at an electronic
viewing station. Next, at the X-ray stations, a
traveler's phone would confirm to security agents that the traveler's
ID had already been checked. Apple's
patent calls for the placement of special kiosks (PDF) around the
airport which will automatically exchange data with your phone via a
close range wireless technology called near field communication
(NFC). Throughout the process, the phone photo could be displayed on
a screen for comparison with the traveler. Facial
recognition software could be included in the process.
Several experts say a key question that must be answered is: How
would you prove that the phone is yours? To get around this problem,
future phones or electronic ID may require some form of biometric
security function including photo,
fingerprint and photo retinal scan comparisons. Of course, there
is still a ways to go. If consumers, airlines, airports and the TSA
don't embrace the NFC kiosks, experts say it's unlikely Apple's
vision would become reality. 'First you would have to sell industry
on Apple's idea. Then you'd have to sell it to travel consumers,'
says Neil Hughes of Apple Insider. 'It's a chicken-and-egg
problem.'"
Training our children...
"In a cool yet creepy marketing
campaign, Nestle plans to stalk UK consumers.
The company kicked off a unique promotion called 'We will
find you' that involves GPS
trackers embedded in chocolate bars. When a winning consumer
opens the wrapper, it activates and notifies the prize team who
promises to track them down within 24 hours to deliver a check for
£10,000. A Nestle spokesman added that 'inside their wrappers, the
GPS-enabled bars looked just like normal chocolate bars.'"
[But don't throw your wrapper away! Bob]
Too much “Wow, I didn't think of
that...” going around.
When
Privacy Gets Personal For Policymakers
Jay Stanley of the ACLU writes:
Data from license
plate readers in Minnesota was obtained by a St. Paul car dealer
using open-records laws, and used to repossess at least one car,
according to a
recent
article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The article included
this amusing tidbit:
When the Star
Tribune published data tracking Mayor R.T. Rybak’s city-owned car
over the past year, the mayor asked police Chief Tim Dolan to make a
recommendation for a new policy about data retention.
To those of us who
think about privacy a lot, it’s not just funny but also amazing
how, when public officials discover that they can be at the receiving
end of bad privacy policies, it tends to produce an immediate,
electric effect on policy.
For my Data Mining and Data Analytics
students.
Big
Data for All
Omer Tene writes:
Much has been
written over the past couple of years about “big data” (See, for
example,
here
and
here and
here).
In a new article,
Big Data for All:
Privacy and User Control in the Age of Analytics, which will be
published in the Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual
Property,
Jules
Polonetsky and I try to reconcile the inherent tension between
big data business models and individual privacy rights. We argue
that going forward, organizations should provide individuals with
practical, easy to use access to their information, so they can
become active participants in the data economy. In addition,
organizations should be required to be transparent about the
decisional criteria underlying their data processing activities.
Read more on
Concurring
Opinions. I’ll withhold commenting on their proposal until
I’ve had time to read through their article.
“When the politics get rough it's
time to change the subject!” Was this “a conversation” as
defined by this law? Can any candidate give an “off the record”
speech?
Lawyers
Ponder Whether ‘Secret Video’ of Romney Violated Privacy Laws
Bruce Carton writes:
Politicos want to
know whether the “secret video” of Mitt Romney speaking at a
private fundraising event will hurt his chances in the upcoming
presidential election, but some lawyers are pondering a different
question: Did the person who made the tape violate state law?
CNBC
reports
that in Florida, both parties to a conversation must give their
consent before it can be recorded legally.
Read more on
Law.com.
Some of the quotes obtained from legal experts in the related
Politico
piece are certainly intriguing.
If the pen is mighter than the sword,
is tweeting just overkill? How simple it is to make a state cower in
fear...
Magazine
Cartoon Prompts French Embassy Closures
France plans to close its embassies,
consulates, cultural centers and schools in 20 countries Friday as a
precautionary measure after a French satirical magazine published
cartoons featuring the Prophet Muhammad.
(Related) What should we call this?
“Actor rights?” Do they get to veto any post production changes?
Is this just fear of retaliation?
YouTube
slapped with lawsuit by 'Innocence of Muslims' actress
… Cindy Lee Garcia, who has a role
in "Innocence of Muslims," said that she did not know about
the movie's anti-Muslim content while filming and her script did not
mention the prophet Muhammad, religion, or sexual content, according
to The
Huffington
Post.
A most interesting question. If Google
could do this, should they charge for it?
Should
the Duchess of Cambridge call upon Google to assist in restoring her
privacy?
When I read the headline of the blog
entry by Tim Lowles on
Inforrm’s
Blog, ”Should the Duchess of Cambridge call upon Google to
assist in restoring her privacy?” my first thought was, “Why
bother asking?”
For the longer version and explanation
of why asking Google is generally a waste of time,
read
Tim’s commentary.
Another way for my Ethical Hackers to
“Vote early, vote often!” (In the Chicago style)
California
joins other states in allowing online voter registration
… "Today, the Internet
replaces the mailbox for thousands of Californians wishing to
register to vote," she said,
according
to the Los Angeles Times. "Today we are taking the next
step in the never-ending evolution of democracy and reaching every
Californian."
Within the first 12 hours of the launch
of California's
new
system,
3,000 people had already used it to
register to vote. [and 2,000 of them are in my class! Bob]
Another example of bad journalism, or
poor editing, or a case of the “who cares?”
Pasco
teacher fired over Facebook snooping
There was a small item on
Bay
News 9 that caught my eye:
The Pasco County
School Board has fired a high school Spanish teacher who was accused
of snooping on her students’ Facebook accounts.
Angelica
Cruikshank, who taught Spanish at Land O’ Lakes High School, was
let go Tuesday.
Attorneys said
Cruikshank wanted to see if students were talking bad about her.
She said she was
trying to protect a student from being fired. [That's
what the article says... Bob]
So how was she snooping? Was she just
reading their public posts? If so, does that violate District
policy? Or was she snooping via other means? And how did the high
school become aware of the snooping? Did the teacher comment on post
to a student?
It would be nice to have more details
on this case.
[After some (12 seconds) research:
… Students said Angelica Cruikshank
told them she was withholding permission in January for some of them
to attend a field trip because of suspected negative comments about
her on a private Facebook page. They said she then intimidated the
students into letting her look at the Facebook page through their
accounts to determine who, if anyone, had made disparaging remarks.
… In her testimony during the July
hearing, Cruikshank said she was trying to root out
whether one of her own students was being bullied on the
Facebook page in question. She said a school assistant principal
told her she needed proof, so she set about getting that proof.
(Related)
September 19, 2012
Bullying
in a Networked Era: A Literature Review
"The Berkman Center for Internet &
Society at Harvard University is pleased to share a new literature
review by the Youth and Media team, contributing to The Kinder &
Braver World Project led by danah boyd and John Palfrey -
Bullying
in a Networked Era: A Literature Review, by Nathaniel Levy,
Sandra Cortesi, Urs Gasser, Edward Crowley, Meredith Beaton, June
Casey, and Caroline Nolan, presents an aggregation and summary of
recent academic literature on youth bullying and seeks to make
scholarly work on this important topic more broadly accessible to a
concerned public audience, including parents, caregivers, educators,
and practitioners. The document is guided by two questions: “What
is bullying?” and “What can be done about bullying?” and
focuses on the online and offline contexts in which bullying occurs.
Although the medium or means through which bullying takes place
influence bullying dynamics, as previous research demonstrates,
online and offline bullying are more similar than
different. This dynamic is especially true as a result of
the increasing convergence of technologies. Looking broadly at the
commonalities as well as the differences between offline and online
phenomena fosters greater understanding of the overall system of
which each is a part and highlights both the off- and online
experiences of young people – whose involvement is not typically
limited to one end of the spectrum."
Another consequence of Social
Networking?
SternisheFan
writes with an AP story as carried by Yahoo that illustrates one of
the boundaries of free speech online:
"A
California man accused of posting comments on ESPN's website saying
he was watching kids and wouldn't mind killing them was in jail
Tuesday on $1 million bail after he was arrested
for investigation of making terrorist threats, authorities said.
Several guns were found Monday at the home of former Yale University
student Eric Yee, said Los Angeles County sheriff's Lt. Steve Low.
Yee was arrested after the sports network ESPN reported threatening
posts were made in a reader response section to an online ESPN story
on Thursday about new Nike sneakers named after LeBron James that
cost $270 a pair. Some of the nearly 3,000 reader comments on the
story talked about children possibly getting killed over the sneakers
because of how expensive they are, said ESPN spokesman Mike Soltys.
'What he was posting had nothing to do with sports," Soltys said
Tuesday. "We closely monitor the message boards and anytime we
get a threat, we're alerting law enforcement officials.' An employee
at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Conn., notified local police the
same day and they linked the posting to Yee's home in Santa Clarita
in northern Los Angeles County."
Useful?
September 19, 2012
Congress.gov:
The New Home for Legislative Information
"
Congress.gov
makes federal United States legislative information freely available
to the public. Launched Sept. 19, 2012, this version of the site is
an initial beta release of Congress.gov, created as a
successor to THOMAS.gov,
the current public site for legislative information. The
Congress.gov beta site contains legislation from the 107th Congress
(2001) to the present, member of Congress profiles from the 93rd
Congress (1973) to the present, and selected member profiles from the
80th through the 92nd Congresses (1947 to 1972). Over the next two
years, Congress.gov will be adding information and features,
eventually incorporating all of the information
currently available on THOMAS.gov.
(To compare the scope of legislative information available on
THOMAS.gov and
the scope of legislative information on the beta site, see
Coverage
Dates for Legislative Information.)"
Do lawyers actually use this?
September 18, 2012
New
on LLRX - Bluebook Technologies
Via
LLRX.com:
Bluebook
Technologies - The Bluebook is
the standard
citation guide for legal materials. There are now three
format choices for the Bluebook: paper, online subscription (since
2008), and as of August 10, 2012 - iPad app. Law Librarian, author,
research instructor and blogger
Mary
Whisner's guide discusses and illustrates the features and
pricing of each.
Al Gore gave us the Internet, what do
these clowns offer?
September 19, 2012
Comparing
the 2012 Presidential Candidates’ Technology and Innovation
Policies
"Despite the obligatory
acknowledgment of innovation’s central role in U.S. economic
growth, the 2012 campaign has not yet seen a serious conversation
emerge regarding the policies sorely needed to revitalize U.S.
innovation-based economic competitiveness. Moreover, rather than
adopt an “all of the above” approach to innovation policy that
includes corporate tax and regulatory reform as well as increased
federal investment in research and development (R&D), digital
infrastructure, and skills, the candidates stress policies from
“each column,” with Governor Romney focusing more on the former
and President Obama more on the latter. This is unfortunate. For,
as we write in the book Innovation Economics: The Race for Global
Advantage, U.S. policymakers need to recognize that the United
States is engaged in a fierce race for innovation-based economic
growth. To win this race, the United States will need to adopt a
new, bipartisan Washington Innovation Consensus that places science,
technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship at the center of
economic policy-making and recognizes that both parties bring good
ideas to the table in this regard. This report highlights the
candidates' technology and innovation policies with the aim of
amplifying the national dialogue around bolstering innovation-based
economic growth. The report begins with an overview of each
candidate’s general philosophy on technology, innovation, and
trade policy, and then compares the candidates’ specific policy
positions across 10 policy areas."
Is this the future?
"Students at Ontario College of
Art and Design were forced to buy a $180 textbook filled with blank
squares. Instead of images of paintings and sculpture throughout
history (that presumably would fall under fair-use) the textbook for
'Global Visual and Material Culture: Prehistory to 1800' features
placeholders with a link to an online image. A letter from the
school's dean stated that had they decided to clear all the images
for copyright to print, the book would have cost a whopping $800.
The screengrabs are pretty hilarious, or depressing, depending on
your point of view."
(Related) Perhaps this is the
future...
New
School: A Tumblr for Making Your Own Textbooks
… The Hasbroucks are working on a
start-up called
GinkgoTree,
which Scott says "will enable professors to divorce textbooks
entirely."
… Ginkgo Tree presents an
intuitive, visual interface, not unlike Tumblr's dashboard. For each
course and subject, professors can upload links and images, embed
video, post comments, and--significantly--import a chunk of scanned
pages from print books. All of those resources get bundled into
modules and arrayed in a navigable grid.
When all is said and done, the use of
Ginkgo Tree will cost professors nothing, says Scott, and cost
students far less than they would pay for the typical boatload of
textbooks--he estimates between $50-100 total per school term.
Through an agreement with
Copyright
Clearance Center, scanned text costs around $0.15 per page
(though it varies by book). So, as Lida points out, even a 100-page
excerpt costs a fraction of a textbook's sale price.
Ginkgo Tree is set to launch in two
weeks, with the goal of getting a critical mass of professors to
adopt the technology for spring semester. "We just want it to
be very simple, easy to use, and we're going to start small and build
based on user feedback," says Scott, "Basically, it turns
making your own textbook into a Tumblr blog."
This sounds like a perfect project to
fund via KickStarter! (The Comments point to existing Apps)
"I am a musician/IT guy whose
hearing has suffered from VERY LOUD guitar players, (yes I do use
earplugs now, but too late), and am faced with the outrageously
priced hearing aids $4.5K+/pair and was appalled at their lack of
integration with smart phones. It seems obvious to me that I should
be able to control the hearing aids via a smart phone interface so I
can shape the profile for different environments, and also control
features like 'hearing loops' and Bluetooth connections. I have done
some research, but my guess is that the hearing aid companies want
proprietary systems and don't want a smartphone interface since they
would loose control and it would allow for competition for cheaper &
better programs. I am not convinced that a combination of good
ear-buds, good microphone(s), and a smartphone interface couldn't
totally replace these overpriced solutions."
More on the e-University...
Education
Site Expands Slate of Universities and Courses
Coursera,
a start-up online education company that has enrolled 1.35
million students in its free online courses since it began just five
months ago, is now more than doubling, to 33, its partners,
universities that will offer classes on its platform. All together,
Coursera will provide more than 200 free “massive open online
courses,” known as MOOCs.
…
The caliber of Coursera’s partners — Princeton, Stanford and the
University of Pennsylvania were among the original partners — has
given it credibility and cachet in higher education circles, so much
so that some university presidents have begun to fret
that it will reflect badly on them if they fail to sign on.
…
A report from Moody’s Investors Service last week predicted that
the rise of MOOCs might help leading universities reach more
students, bolster their reputation and eventually generate revenue
from distributing content or issuing certificates. The report
warned, however, that the growing popularity of free online courses
could be a problem for small local colleges and for-profit
institutions.
…
A revenue stream may not be long in the making. Mr. Mitchell said he
could imagine licensing courses, with other colleges paying a fee to
use the material, just as they would for a textbook.
