After the fact, will your security practices look as dumb as this one?

Let’s send an unencrypted thumb drive via mail. What can possibly go wrong, right?

No, Human Resource Advantage. You do not get to put an unencrypted thumb drive with employee records in the regular mail to TrustHCS and then claim you take the security of personal information in your control “very seriously.”

From your own investigation, that drive contained names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, bank account information, postal and email addresses, and any leave of absence requests, including those submitted under the Family Medical Leave Act for several current and former employees of TrustHCS.

Heck, there wasn’t even any password protection (not that that would have done much).

“Very seriously?”

No way.

And where were you in all this, TrustHCS? Did your contract with Human Resource Advantage permit them to send you sensitive employee records without any encryption or protection? If it did, why? And if it didn’t, are you still using them?

For my Computer Security students. What if this is just practice? Also should be food for tought for my Risk Analysis students.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-31/nationwide-power-outages-in-turkey-disrupt-transport-industry

Turkey Investigates Cause of Worst Power Outages in 15 Years

The most extensive power failure in 15 years disrupted services across Turkey, with the prime minister saying all possible causes including terrorism were being investigated.

… Yildiz ruled out insufficient energy supply, while saying he couldn’t yet exclude the possibility of a cyber attack. The ministry was also investigating whether a disruption at a power plant in Izmit could have created a “domino effect” of power failures nationwide, he said.

… The nationwide failures expose vulnerability in Turkey’s electricity infrastructure, according to Aaron Stein, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, who wrote about the subject in a report published this year by Edam, an Istanbul-based think tank.

“Turkey has yet to formulate a policy regarding the defense of critical national infrastructure,” Stein said by e-mail from Geneva today. “Turkey has never defined critical national infrastructure and therefore does not have a national plan to defend these non-defined sites.”

(Related) You have to exercise your talents.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2015/0330/Why-experts-think-China-launched-the-cyberattacks-against-GitHub

Why experts think China launched the cyberattacks against GitHub

… The attack began when an individual or group hacked software used by Baidu, China’s largest search engine. The attackers altered the software Baidu uses to serve ads on Chinese websites, causing Baidu users’ computers to automatically and repeatedly connect to other sites. The attack was invisible, so Baidu users didn’t know that their browsers were hammering away at other servers.

That flood of traffic was directed toward two anti-censorship tools hosted on GitHub. One is a piece of software developed by GreatFire, a non-profit group that monitors censorship in China. The Chinese government harshly restricts what websites its people may visit, and has repeatedly censored products from Google and other Western companies in recent years. The other tool under attack allows Chinese users to access a translated version of The New York Times, which is blocked in China. It isn’t known who is behind the software that copies the Times’s content.

(Related)

http://hothardware.com/News/rutgers-university-suffers-ddos-attack-at-the-hand-of-china-and-ukraine?google_editors_picks=true

Rutgers University Faces China And Ukraine In ‘March Madness’ DDoS Attack

… In an email sent out Sunday to tens of thousands of Rutgers students at 2:30PM EST, approximately an hour after the university's website went down for 15 minutes, Rutgers vice president of Information Technology Don Smith acknowledged the cyberattack, saying "The Rutgers Office of Information Technology (OIT) has been working around the clock to resolve service interruptions caused by a Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) that began Friday afternoon."
Reports are saying that although certain tools used by Rutgers students and faculty have been affected — for instance, the university's Sakai learning software was not available off-campus on Sunday — the university has not detected any thefts of personal or confidential information up until this point.

Guidelines for my Ethical Hackers.

http://www.securityweek.com/pci-security-standards-council-releases-guidance-pen-testing

PCI Security Standards Council Releases Guidance on Pen Testing

… The report, available here, was developed by a PCI Special Interest Group of industry experts and is aimed at organizations of all sizes, budgets and sectors. Specifically, the guidance focuses on understanding the different components comprising a penetration test and how they differ from a vulnerability scan in terms of scope, application and network layer testing, segmentation checks and social engineering. It also provides advice on determining the qualifications of a pen tester as well as information related to the "three primary parts of a penetration test": pre-engagement, engagement and post-engagement.

Important because my Computer Security students will monitor activity to locate threats and forecast operational issues before they result in failures. We will need to know where the line is to avoid crossing it.

Ca: Key features of District of Saanich employee monitoring software violate employee privacy rights

In an investigation report released today, B.C. Information and Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham is recommending that the District of Saanich disable key features of its employee monitoring software including keystroke logging, automated screen shots and continuous tracking of computer program activity because they violate the privacy rights of employees and elected officials.

Commissioner Denham has also recommended the District destroy all data collected by the software, Spector 360. The District has agreed to do so following the conclusion of the Commissioner’s investigation.

“Public bodies have a responsibility to secure and protect their computers and networked systems against internal and external threats, however they must also respect an employee’s legal right to privacy,” said Commissioner Denham.

… “The District can only collect personal information that is directly related to and necessary for the protection of IT systems and infrastructure. An employee’s every keystroke and email, or screen captures of computing activities at 30-second intervals clearly exceeds that purpose and is not authorized by privacy law.”

The Commissioner also found that the District failed to provide adequate notice to employees and elected officials about the amount and type of personal information it was collecting.

… Investigation Report F15-01: Use of employee monitoring software by the District of Saanich is available for download at: https://www.oipc.bc.ca/report/investigation-reports/

A lot of little dips into the Big Data pool.

http://www.securityweek.com/microsoft-just-three-enterprises-impacted-law-enforcement-requests-2h-2014

Microsoft: Just Three Enterprises Impacted by Law Enforcement Requests in 2H 2014

In its transparency report, Microsoft said that the total number of law enforcement requests received in the second half of 2014 was 31,002, bringing to the total for the year to 65,496, down from 72,279 in 2013.

… Of the data provided to law enforcement, which requires a court order or a warrant, 3 percent was content customers created, shared or stored on Microsoft services, such as email. The remaining 97 percent of data disclosed was non-content data, Microsoft said, including things such name, email address, email address, name, state, country, ZIP code and IP address captured at the time of registration.

Have we just outlawed news helicopters?

No drone surveillance of crime scene (even from 150 feet above), police say

Eugene Volokh writes:

Does the First Amendment include a right to gather information using flying drones? The federal trial court decision in Rivera v. Foley (D. Conn. Mar. 23) is to my knowledge the first court decision to consider the matter, and it’s largely skeptical of the First Amendment claim — though of course it won’t be the last word on the subject, both because it is just a trial court opinion, and because it mostly holds that any right to use drones wasn’t “clearly established” at the time of the events.

Read more on The Volokh Conspiracy.

[From the article:

The court concluded that no right to gather information through videorecording had been recognized under Supreme Court and Second Circuit precedent. (Several decisions from other circuits have recognized such a right, but two others have held that no such right was clearly established at the time of those decisions, and in any event the Second Circuit, in which this particular case arose, hadn’t spoken.)

But the court went further, concluding that, even if a right to videorecord was recognized, it did not clearly extended to hovering above — even 150 feet above — “the site of a major motor vehicle accident and the responding officers within it, effectively trespassing onto an active crime scene”

Big Data and Analytics?

https://fortune.com/2015/03/31/ibm-3-billion-internet-of-things/

IBM’s latest big bet: $3 billion on the Internet of things

Imagine adjusting store merchandising based on whether it will rain or snow over the next 48 hours. Alerting auto insurance policy holders to find shelter as a hailstorm approaches. Or anticipating spikes in electricity demand, using temperature and humidity metrics to consider historical data.

Those are just three scenarios made possible through a new global, strategic relationship between IBM and The Weather Company, parent of the Weather Channel and WSI, which licenses forecast information to businesses.

… Right now, IBM figures that up to 90% of the data generated by devices such as appliances, connected vehicles, smartphones and other connected devices is never analyzed.

… Among other things, IBM will train at least 10,000 consultants on data services in the coming months, including 5,000 weather specialists. It will also fund market development, research and development, and additional alliances, he said. “We are looking at non-traditional sources, data sources that people have had trouble integrating into operational systems,” Cawley said.

… Another high-profile example is Oracle’s buyout of Datalogix, which collects insights about more than $2 trillion in consumer spending that could serve as the foundation for new marketing services. Expect more of the same from Google, Microsoft, and Amazon Web Services.

“All of these guys are racing to find companies to partner with that have these huge sources of data,” Gens said. “It will become an arms race of who can accumulate the most valuable sources.”

Something to tease my Business Intelligence students?

http://www.bespacific.com/the-importance-of-data-occupations-in-the-u-s-economy/

The Importance of Data Occupations in the U.S. Economy

Economics & Statistics Administration, Department of Commerce. By William Hawk, Regina Powers, Economists, and Robert Rubinovitz Deputy Chief Economist Economics and Statistics Administration Office of the Chief Economist. ESA Issue Brief #01 -15. March 12, 2015.

“The growing importance of data in the economy is hard to dispute. But what does this mean for workers and jobs? A lot, as it turns out: higher paying (over $40/hour), faster growing jobs. In this report we identify occupations where data analysis and processing are central to the work performed and measure the size of employment and earnings in these occupations , as well as in the industries that have the highest concentration of these data occupations. Key findings of the report include:

• Employment where data is central to the job was about 10.3 million in 2013 (of which 1.6 million were government workers), or about 7.8 percent of all employment. However, including occupations where working with data is at least an important part of the job dramatically increases that number: to 74.3 million jobs, or over half of the workforce.

• Hourly wages for private-sector workers in data occupations, which are concentrated in the broad categories of business and computer/mathematical occupations, averaged $40.30 in 2013, about 68 percent higher for all occupations.

• For these top data occupations, two-thirds or more of the workers have at least a college degree; in comparison about one-third of workers across all occupations have a bachelor’s degree or higher.

That's “suspects” not those wearing bracelets in lieu of jail. (This “suspect” is “a recidivist sex offender.” Apparently, the bracelet was seen as an extension of the “always let law enforcement know where you are” laws.)

Affixing ankle bracelet to monitor suspect is a “search,” Supreme Court holds

Orin Kerr writes:

The case is Grady v. North Carolina. Held: Forcing someone to wear an ankle bracelet to monitor location is a Fourth Amendment search. The new decision extends the Jones search doctrine to searches of persons, and it provides more opportunity to ponder what the Jones test means. I’ll start with the history, then discuss the new decision, and then offer some thoughts on the new case.

Read more on The Volokh Conspiracy.

Interesting.

Does Scholarship Really Have an Impact? The Article that Revolutionized Privacy Law

Daniel Solove writes:

Does scholarship really have an impact? For a long time, naysayers have attacked scholarship, especially scholarship about law. U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts once remarked: “Pick up a copy of any law review that you see, and the first article is likely to be, you know, the influence of Immanuel Kant on evidentiary approaches in 18th Century Bulgaria, or something.” He noted that when the academy addresses legal issues at “a particularly abstract, philosophical level . . . they shouldn’t expect that it would be of any particular help or even interest to the members of the practice of the bar or judges.” Judge Harry Edwards also has attacked legal scholarship as largely irrelevant.

Critics are quick to point out that much legal scholarship is not cited much — and many articles are never even cited by anyone other than the authors themselves in subsequent works.

But I think that a lot can be learned from the story of one of the most influential law articles of all. That article was Samuel D. Warren & Louis D. Brandeis, The Right to Privacy, 4 Harvard Law Review 193 (1890).

Read more on Concurring Opinions.

Related: Orin Kerr has now uploaded a short paper to SSRN called, “The Influence of Immanuel Kant on Evidentiary Approaches in Eighteenth Century Bulgaria.” As Orin writes, “Well, someone had to do it.”

...or perhaps Russia needs to sell the gas? They don't have enough storage and they can't shut down the wells.

http://www.businessinsider.com/russia-pushing-gazprom-to-provide-discount-gas-to-ukraine-2015-3?google_editors_picks=true

Why Russia suddenly wants to supply cheap gas to Ukraine

… So why is Russia suddenly offering to help the country it has spent the past few months undermining?

Last week the European Commission sent a letter to the Russian government asking it to consider granting Kiev a discount on its gas from Russia, such as abolishing the export duty, which now costs $100 per thousand cubic metres of gas.

The Russian response — requesting Gazprom lower its prices for Ukraine — hints that Russia is seeking to cool tensions in the region to wriggle out of international sanctions as it attempts to pull itself out a deep economic downturn.

For my Android toting students.

http://www.technewstoday.com/22483-whatsapp-voice-calls-open-to-all-no-invites-needed/

WhatsApp Voice Calls Open To All - No Invites Needed

… Today however, the voice call feature is literally open for all.

… The feature has currently been rolled out to the Android platform, so others may need to wait a bit.

… To download the update if your Play Store hasn’t prompted you yet, you can head over to APK Mirror and download the file or if you want to play it official then go to the WhatsApp Website to download it. If you are someone who plays by the book and would wait for the automatic update then it may take a day or so for it to be available on the Google Play Store.

For my cable cutting students, but many are public domain so I might find a use for them in the classroom.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-lesser-known-free-sites-watching-tv-shows/

5 Lesser-Known Free Sites for Watching TV Shows

Funny that they reached the same conclusion we have.

https://hbr.org/2015/03/what-mit-is-learning-about-online-courses-and-working-from-home

What MIT Is Learning About Online Courses and Working from Home

“Virtual work” is increasingly just “work” for most of us – whether we’re dialing into a conference call with our branch offices in London and New York, or VPN-ing in from home to catch up with work after-hours, remote work is the new normal.

… What we’re seeing most recently, and what I’m very excited about, is going from that linear model to a much more non-linear idea. The digital learning experience is becoming really a collection of inter-related learning nuggets, that you might take very different paths through, depending who you are and what your needs are, and how you learn most effectively. So that’s where I’m seeing some interesting changes happening.

Tools for my toolkit.

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2015/03/convert-pdfs-to-google-docs-to.html#.VRqqpI4srgw

Convert PDFs to Google Docs to Differentiate Instructional Materials

Recently, we discovered a feature of Google Drive that has changed how we prepare and access materials and resources for our students. As we attempt to make all curricula digital and thus make it available to all students, the idea of using PDFs was always a problem. PDFs are just not editable in most situations, and this was an issue when it came to modifying and differentiating documents. Adobe Acrobat was our “go to” application for this type of conversion, but it was costly and often hard to come by in an educational setting. Note: We still use Adobe Acrobat for complex projects or documents that do not convert well in Google Drive. With the most recent update to Google Drive, OCR (Optical Character Recognition) capabilities are better and easier than ever.

Here is how it works:

1. Open and sign into Google Drive
2. Upload a PDF document to your Drive
3. Right-Click on the document once it is uploaded.
4. Choose Open with>Google Docs

The original PDF remains in your Drive and a new, converted document is created. You can open your new document and rename, edit, annotate, share, etc. just as you can do with any other Google Doc, Slides or Sheets. This works best with PDF documents that are clear and mostly text-based. Tables, images and formatted text can be a bit of a challenge for Google Docs (images and tables tend to end up on one page and text on a separate page), but I am sure it’ll get even better and easier in the next update.

Privacy Law and Data Brokers The next seminar from the Privacy Foundation at the Sturm College of Law, Friday April 3^rd. Go to http://www.law.du.edu/index.php/privacy-foundation and click on the link for the flyer. A cheap source of CLE credit and they include lunch!

For my Ethical Hackers

http://www.labnol.org/internet/geo-location/27878/

How to Fake your Location in Google Chrome

… Earlier, websites would use the IP address to determine your approximate location but with the HTML5 Geolocation API, web browsers can more accurately detect your location using data from GPS, Wi-Fi networks, cell towers, Bluetooth and the computer’s IP address. If you agree to share your location with the browser, it will send these details to Google Location Services for estimating your location which is then shared with the requesting website.

… The option to fake your geolocation is not available in the DevTools of Mozilla Firefox but you can use the Geolocator addon to send any preferred location to the HTML5 Location API.

I'm thinking of having my students write a version for Adjuncts. “How to teach using technology”

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-is-the-internet-changing-the-traditional-workplace/

How is the Internet Changing the Traditional Workplace?

… Just how much has the Internet changed the workplace? Is the Internet killing the traditional office? Take a look at this infographic for a fascinating breakdown.

Via Intuit

http://cdn.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Workplace-of-the-future-1.png?69fac7

For more of my students than I'd like... (Article 4)

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/apple-discrimination-europe-geo-blocking-tech-news-digest/

Play Super Mario 64 in Your Browser

You can now play Super Mario 64 in your Web browser, with computer science student and Unity developer Erik Roystan Ross having recreated the game using Unity. Unfortunately, it’s only the first level of Super Mario 64, but it IS presented in glorious HD. Which is a bonus.

Ross recreated the game (minus a few minor details) to demonstrate his Super Character Controller project, and he has no plans to either fix any bugs or recreate any more of the game. Still, provided you have the Unity Web Player installed, this should provide a few hours of fun.

For all my students.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/244399

The Do's and Don'ts of the Modern Resumé (Infographic)

… In the infographic below, created for resume-template site Template.net, you’ll find even more tips and tricks that’ll land your resume on someone’s desk rather than someone’s “circular file.” Happy hunting, job seekers!

https://assets.entrepreneur.com/static/1427479015-resume-info.jpg

A bit of a language problem, but you get the idea.

This New Service Pinpoints Every Fake Cell Tower Spying On You

… the CEO of ESD America, Les Goldsmith told that the interceptors exist and it was not until now that the company has claimed to launch a real-time Overwatch service that will locate such spy towers.

The company has developed towers called IMSI catchers, short for International Mobile Subscriber Identity, an identity associated with all the mobiles. These towers are used as simulators for the original ones and they reroute cell phone transmissions that take place near them.

… However, Goldsmith said that there are only a few interceptors with domestic U.S configurations. He also said that considering the sophistication of many of the towers located, it is likely that they are not domestically engineered.

They more likely to be laptop devices as most of the interceptors use OpenBTS which implies that the towers are more likely to be used by laptop hobbyists. Moreover, most of the towers were of commercial-grade and non-domestic.

Is there anyone who didn't think Google could make itself heard if it chose to?

http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/27/8302571/google-denies-ftc-influence

Google admits it has huge influence in Washington as it tries to deny having influence

It's no secret that Google has been a major influencer in US politics for years now — the company just doesn't want you to know it. But today, it admitted in a roundabout way just how deep its ties into the government go as it defended itself against claims it tampered with an FTC investigation back in 2012.

Last week, a Wall Street Journal report suggested Google tampered with an FTC investigation that was looking to see if the search giant was engaging in anti-competitive practices. While the FTC ultimately decided not to bring a lawsuit against Google, reports published by the WSJ indicated the commission was deeply divided on whether it should sue — and another report exposed the close ties that Google has with the Obama administration. The implication was that Google used its influence in the White House to ultimately sway the FTC's decision in its favor — something that Google is now vigorously denying in an unusual post today on its public policy blog.

… Google says that it wasn't visiting to discuss the anti-trust investigation — it was there to discuss a huge host of other concerns, including "patent reform, STEM education, self-driving cars, mental health, advertising, Internet censorship," and a host of others. Ironically, Google's attempt at claiming it doesn't have influence in the government goes a long way towards showing just how much of a seat at the table the company really has.

Because we've been tracking satellites for some years, we know their resolution is at least an order of magnitude better than any images they release.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/03/the-animals-you-can-see-from-space/388502/?google_editors_picks=true

What Elephants and Whales Look Like From Space

Strategy is as strategy does. Clearly we lost the opportunity to lead China into the future we desire. Do we have any idea where they will lead others?

http://www.rferl.org/content/china-development-bank-major-us-headache/26926375.html

New Chinese Bank Becomes Major Headache For U.S.

… Russia is the latest in a string of countries, including many of the United States' closest allies in Europe and Asia, to announce plans to join the bank ahead of a March 31 deadline to become a charter member.

In recent days, Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, and South Korea have all said they intend to join the $50 billion bank, which would be used to fund infrastructure improvements, like new roads and rail lines, in Asia.

On its face, a country's decision to join a global development bank wouldn't normally make headlines, but this time around membership is seen as a clear rebuke to the wishes of Washington. The United States has reportedly spent weeks quietly trying to convince friends around the world to decline or at least delay joining the bank.

… The U.S. concern, Biswas says, "is that the new development institution could potentially compete with existing institutions, such as the World Bank." While China participates in those organizations, its limited influence there is no longer commensurate with its growing economic strength, and efforts to reform the IMF to give China a greater role have languished in the U.S. Congress.

News agencies, especially in China, have had a field day with the U.S. position, as countries seemingly fall over themselves to join the new bank. The official Chinese news agency Xinhua says the United States looks "petulant" and "cynical" and has called Washington's apparent lack of support "sour grapes."

More stuff to inflict on my students.

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2015/03/dozens-of-alternatives-to-youtube.html#.VRfxEY4srgw

Dozens of Alternatives to YouTube

Over the last few years I've seen more schools opening up access to YouTube, at least to teachers, than I had in the past. YouTube for Schools has partially contributed to that trend. Tools like ViewPure and Watchkin have made using YouTube videos in schools a little less scary too. All that said, there are still lots of schools that block access to YouTube. That's why a few years ago I started to maintain a list of alternatives to YouTube.

This week I updated my list of alternatives to YouTube. I removed some options that have disappeared and edited information about sites that have changed. The updated list and video search engine can be found here.

For my Math students. PhotoMath is now available for Android.

https://colleenyoung.wordpress.com/2015/03/28/photomath/

PhotoMath

PhotoMath is a free camera calculator phone app now available on Android as well as iOS and Windows. To use point the camera towards a printed mathematical expression and the app gives the solution, step-by-step solutions are also available. The problem types are limited to those shown below (also see the examples here)

For my Computer Security students. Something for the toolkit.

http://www.bespacific.com/detekt-free-tool-that-scans-your-windows-computer-for-traces-of-commercial-surveillance-spyware/

Detekt – free tool that scans your Windows computer for traces of commercial surveillance spyware

Via FastCoExit: “Spyware like FinFisher contributes to a multi-billion dollar business. But until last week, activists had few ways to defend themselves, aside from the well-placed bit of duct tape over the computer camera and rigorous digital hygiene practices. That’s why Amnesty International, Privacy International, Digitale Gesellschaft, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation rolled out a new tool, called Detekt, that lets you know when you’ve been hacked. “If the last 10 to 15 years of spying has been interception, search and seizure, and detaining, this is the future of government spying,” says Privacy International deputy director Eric King. “Detekt has only been up for a day, and I know there’s already been hundreds of thousands of hits on the website. My inbox is full of people who have been infected.” Anyone can freely download Detekt’s open-source software, but if the tool does detect spyware, getting rid of it is another matter entirely. The Detekt website does link to instructions to help people clear their machines, but it’s also no safeguard against the NSA or GCHQ’s sophisticated mass surveillance methods, the likes of which were revealed by Edward Snowden in June of 2013.”

How to look completely innocent.

TSA’s Secret Behavior Checklist to Spot Terrorists

Fidgeting, whistling, sweaty palms. These are just a few of the suspicious signs that the Transportation Security Administration directs its officers to look out for in airport travelers, according to a confidential document obtained exclusively by The Intercept.

Read more on The Intercept.

In related news, Joe Cadillic discusses the new use of biometric iris and fingerprint scans at airports.

My students seem to put everything on the credit cards, including stuff from the school vending machines.

Would You Want Your Bank To Mine Your Data And Offer You Deals?

Mark Wilson reports:

It’s disconcerting when you consider just how much your bank or credit card company can see without even really trying: everywhere you shop, eat, and play—right down to how much you spend and when. (Suddenly, even Uber’s God View doesn’t seem so scary.)

Capital One is developing an app called Ideas—an optional stand-alone app from their main one—that mines customers’ spending histories to offer them relevant deals and events (for which Capital One takes no cut). Each day, it produces a short, personalized list of coupons (like save 10% at J. Crew) and things to do (like check out The Book of Mormon), all translated to a short, image-forward list you swipe through, kind of like Tinder. If a customer likes an event, she can save it to be reminded later. If a customer likes a deal, he can virtually clip the coupon. And if that coupon goes unspent, then shortly before it expires, Ideas will SMS the customer to warn him about it.

Read more on FastCompany.

Eventually, this will lead to “self-driving” scalpels.

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/03/27/google-moves-to-the-operating-room-in-robotics-deal-with-jj/

Google Moves to the Operating Room in Robotics Deal With J&J

… The search giant is pooling resources and intellectual property with Johnson & Johnson to develop robots to assist surgeons. No financial terms were disclosed. J&J said in a statement that the deal is expected to close in the second quarter and has to be reviewed by antitrust authorities.

Google reckons it can use its machine-vision and image-analysis software to help surgeons see better as they operate or make it easier for them to get information that’s relevant to the surgery.

Perspective. Lest you think all drones are the size of model airplanes.

http://hothardware.com/News/facebooks-aquila-internet-drone-has-wingspan-of-a-boeing-737-will-take-flight-this-summer?google_editors_picks=true

Facebook's Internet-Beaming Aquila Drone Has Wingspan Of A Boeing 737, Will Take Flight This Summer

… The drones are capable of cruising at an altitude of 60,000 to 90,000 feet, and can stay aloft for months at a time thanks to solar panels embedded in the massive wings and onboard lithium-ion batteries. Each drone will be capable of “[beaming] down backbone Internet access” to people across the globe — those who otherwise wouldn’t have easy access to Internet connectivity — as part of the Facebook’s Internet.org efforts. According to Facebook’s estimates, there are anywhere from between 1.1 billion to 2.8 billion people on the planet that don’t have access to the Internet.

This could be very interesting. Imagine replacing the redacted text with you own words (a la Woody Allen's “What's up tiger lilly?”)

http://www.bespacific.com/fcc-releases-redacted-manual-for-mobile-surveillance/

FCC Releases Redacted Manual for Mobile Surveillance

Follow up to previous posting – StingRay surveillance device intercepts a cellphone signals, capture texts, calls, emails and other data – via Slate, via TheBlot: A heavily redacted copy of the 2010 manual for StingRay and KingFish mobile data surveillance equipment was released by the FCC in response to a FOIA request by TheBlot over the strong objections of the equipment manufacturer. Matthew Keys for TheBlot: “On March 23 — more than six months after the request had been filed and two months after the January call — the FCC delivered a heavily redacted user manual covering the StingRay, StingRay II and KingFish devices. The manual, which appears to be the same copy submitted to the FCC by Harris in 2010, reveals the StingRay and KingFish equipment are likely individual components that comprise a cellphone surveillance kit marketed and sold to police. The manual indicates the StingRay and KingFish devices are sold as part of a larger surveillance kit that includes third-party software and laptops. Tables that contain the names of the other equipment is redacted in the copy provided by the FCC, but other records reviewed by TheBlot indicate the laptops are manufactured by Dell and Panasonic, while the software is designed by Pen-Link, a company that makes programs for cellphone forensics. Numerous warnings note that the manual is “confidential,” “not for public inspection” and contains information that falls under the purview of the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), a federal statute that prohibits certain defense information and equipment from being distributed outside the United States. Harris also warns that the manual “may be provided only to … government law enforcement agencies or communication service providers,” and that the document contains material related to a “restricted use item” that is “associated with the monitoring of cellular transmissions.” (The latter phrasing appears clearly in one section of the manual, despite being redacted on other pages.) None of the redactions made to the document were explained by the FCC as information withheld pursuant to national security interests. Instead, the FCC explained its redactions through Exemption 4 of the FOIA law, which protects the release of trade secrets and certain confidential business information submitted to the government.”

Well blogged, every week.

http://hackeducation.com/2015/03/27/hack-education-weekly-news/

Hack Education Weekly News

… Enrollment at the University of Phoenix is down by over 50% over the past 5 years, reports CNN.

… According to a report released by the Education Department's National Center for Education Statistics, “After taking grants into account, the average full-time undergraduate in 2011–12 paid a net price of $11,700 to attend a public two-year college and $18,000 for public four-year college. Include loans, work-study and other forms of aid and the out-of-pocket costs come in at $9,900 and $11,800, respectively.”

… “In Defense of Snow Days” – according to research published by Education Next, school closures due to bad weather have little or no effect on student achievement. [Who paid for that study? Bob]

… From the American Association of University Women: “Solving the Equation: The Variables for Women's Success in Engineering and Computing.”

An infographic for my students. May they become rich and famous (and hire me as a consultant)

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/244433?google_editors_picks=true

30 Inspirational Quotes for Entrepreneurs (Infographic)

https://assets.entrepreneur.com/static/1427466922-30-inspirational-quotes-entrepreneurs-infographic.jpg

The more you know, the more you want to keep your old car running.

Driver beware: Your new car may be spying on you

Jesse Tahirali reports:

Your new car is probably spying on you.

Modern vehicles are powerful data-scraping machines, warns a group of B.C. privacy advocates, and Canada urgently needs to regulate what companies can do with the information cars send them.

The British Columbia Freedom of Information and Privacy Association (FIPA) published a 123-page report Wednesday, detailing what your vehicle might know about you and who can access that information.

In the report, which is the culmination of a year’s worth of research, the group calls for immediate action in creating standards for “connected cars” — vehicles equipped with the Internet, providing features like navigation and parking assistance, in-car entertainment and a range of safety features.

Read more on CTV News.

(Related)

Klobuchar, Hoeven Reintroduce Bill to Ensure Personal Privacy of Owner of Vehicle is Protected

U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and John Hoeven (R-ND) reintroduced their Driver Privacy Act, legislation that protects a driver’s personal privacy by making it clear that the owner of a vehicle is also the owner of any information collected by an Event Data Recorder (EDR).

An EDR is an onboard electronic device that has the ability to continuously collect at least 43 pieces of information about a vehicle’s operation. This includes direction, speed, seatbelt usage and other data. The senators’ legislation would ensure that the vehicle owner controls the data and their personal privacy is protected.

… Fifteen states, including North Dakota, have passed laws related to EDRs. States with laws protecting drivers’ ownership of EDR data include Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Washington.

As I understand it, “stories” are investigated by local teams and then the stars of 60 Minutes swoop in and do the “reporting.” This would seem to create a real potential for error. If 60 Minutes can't be held accountable, Bloggers should be untouchable.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/2015/03/26/lumber-liquidators-weighs-libel-suit-against-cbs/?cmpid=edpick&google_editors_picks=true

Lumber Liquidators Weighs Libel Suit Against CBS

Executives at Lumber Liquidators, the controversial discount floor retailer, are telling investors they are feeling so emboldened by a recent regulatory announcement they may sue the news program “60 Minutes” over its reporting that raised issues about the safety of the company’s products, the FOX Business Network has learned.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced it will conduct an investigation into the company’s laminate flooring. However, the agency said it would not use the same “destructive” testing method used by '60 Minutes.'

… The deconstructive method for testing flooring is conducted by taking the product apart, and then testing each individual piece for the toxin. But the safety commission said Wednesday it would be testing only the finished goods, similar to the methods Lumber Liquidators uses, and one in which the carcinogen level in the flooring appears much lower.

We seem to be heading toward e-Textbooks. I wonder what those all-in-one printers that “print and bind a book” cost?

http://www.bespacific.com/for-young-readers-print-and-digital-coexist/

For young readers – print and digital coexist

Young readers prefer printed books – By Cory Doctorow

“A new book called Words Onscreen: The Fate of Reading in a Digital World cites surveys that say that young readers increasingly prefer to read books from paper, not screens. More than that, though, they find ebooks and printed books complementary. Printed books are good for protracted reading and comprehension. Ebooks are good for subsequent reference and convenient access. I started arguing this in 2008, and it certainly reflects my own experience. The future composts the past. [What the hell does that mean? Bob] The advent of films made it possible for performances that couldn’t work onstage to be born and it moved all the plays that were uncomfortable fits onstage to the screen. What it left behind were plays that were more like plays — and a theater industry that’s still going strong, even if it’s dwarfed by the screen. By the same token, books are becoming more booklike. Books that work best as ebooks — for example, big reference books; but also short works that are too slight to rest comfortably on their own between covers — are moving to ebook-land. Things that are produced as printed books have passed a test in which someone has asked, “Is there an important reason for this to exist in print, instead of exclusively onscreen?”

How to become a “Chief Economist?”

http://dilbert.com/strip/2015-03-27

The downside of looking for live on the Internet? The Bad guys are looking for loot.

http://www.securityweek.com/sextortion-schemes-using-mobile-malware-asia-trend-micro

Sextortion Schemes Using Mobile Malware in Asia: Trend Micro

Cybercriminals in Asia are taking advantage of smartphones and mobile malware to rake in significant profits through sextortion schemes, a report from Trend Micro has found.

In sextortion cases, a victim is lured into performing explicit acts that are secretly recorded and then blackmailed with the video. In a new report, researchers at Trend Micro detailed how these sextortion gangs are operating. In one case, police in Japan arrested two men suspected of being part of a gang that stole at least Ɏ3.5 million (US$29,204.88) from 22 victims between December 2013 and January 2014.

Might be fun to see if this is related to population (if so, why is India not number one) or

http://www.securityweek.com/china-named-top-originator-attack-traffic-q4-2014-akamai

China Named Top Originator of Attack Traffic in Q4 2014: Akamai

A new report from Akamai Technologies names China as the top source of attack traffic on the Web.

In its 'Fourth Quarter, 2014 State of the Internet Report', Akamai cited China as the originator of 41 percent of observed attack traffic. According to the report, during the fourth quarter of last year Akamai observed attack traffic originating from 199 unique countries and regions. Out of the 199, China was the clear leader of the pack, accounting for more than triple the amount originating from the U.S.

… "The overall concentration of observed attack traffic decreased in the fourth quarter, with the top 10 countries/regions originating 75% of observed attacks, down from 84% and 82% in the second and third quarters, respectively," according to the report. [Everyone is getting into the act. Bob]

For my Computer Security students. Remember, it's your job to fix each of these! (Assuming you work 50 weeks each year, you need to fix roughly 62 vulnerabilities every day.)

http://www.securityweek.com/over-15000-vulnerabilities-detected-2014-secunia

Over 15,000 Vulnerabilities Detected in 2014: Secunia

IT security solutions provider Secunia today published its annual vulnerability review. The report provides facts and details on the security flaws uncovered in 2014.

According to the security firm, a total of 15,435 vulnerabilities were identified in 2014 in 3,870 applications from 500 vendors. This represents an 18 percent increase compared to the previous year, and a 55 percent increase over five years.

The complete Secunia Vulnerability Review 2015 is available online.

Knowing is not as effective as nagging? Good News/Bad News: Here is a good way to get educate users about privacy and the discontinue the App. Sounds like a business opportunity I should run by may students.

Study Shows People Act To Protect Privacy When Told How Often Phone Apps Share Personal Information

Byron Spice writes:

Many smartphone users know that free apps sometimes share private information with third parties, but few, if any, are aware of how frequently this occurs. An experiment at Carnegie Mellon University shows that when people learn exactly how many times these apps share that information they rapidly act to limit further sharing.

In one phase of a study that evaluated the benefits of app permission managers – software that gives people control over what sensitive information their apps can access – 23 smartphone users received a daily message, or “privacy nudge,” telling them how many times information such as location, contact lists or phone call logs had been shared.

Some nudges were alarming. One notable example: “Your location has been shared 5,398 times with Facebook, Groupon, GO Launcher EX and seven other apps in the last 14 days.”

In interviews, the research subjects repeatedly said the frequency of access to their personal information caught them by surprise.

… “The vast majority of people have no clue about what’s going on,” said Norman Sadeh, a professor in the School of Computer Science’s Institute for Software Research. Most smartphone users, in fact, have no way of obtaining this data about app behavior. But the study shows that when they do, they tend to act rapidly to change their privacy settings.

… An app permission manager allows smartphone users to decide which apps have access to personal information and sensitive functionality. The study used a permission manager for Android 4.3 called AppOps.

… When the participants were given access to AppOps, they collectively reviewed their app permissions 51 times and restricted 272 permissions on 76 distinct apps. Only one participant failed to review permissions.

But once the participants had set their preferences over the first few days, they stopped making changes. When they began getting the privacy nudges, however, they went back to their privacy settings and further restricted many of them.

… Sadeh said when people download an Android app, they are told what information the app is permitted to access, but few pay much attention, and fewer understand the implications of those permissions.

“The fact that users respond to privacy nudges indicate that they really care about privacy, but were just unaware of how much information was being collected about them,” Sadeh said.

The AppOps software was discontinued on later versions of Android. While iPhones do have a privacy manager, it does not tell users how often their information is used or for what purpose and does not nudge users to regularly review their settings.

SOURCE: Carnegie Mellon University News

All employees are trustworthy up until the moment they're not.

Companies Are Tracking Employees to Nab Traitors

Dune Lawrence reports:

Whether you call Edward Snowden a traitor or a whistle-blower, he earned one label about which there’s no debate: insider threat.

Guarding against such risks is an expanding niche in the security industry, with at least 20 companies marketing software tools for tracking and analyzing employee behavior. “The bad guys helped us,” says Idan Tendler, the founder and chief executive officer of Fortscale Security in San Francisco. “It started with Snowden, and people said, ‘Wow, if that happened in the NSA, it could happen to us.’ ”

[…]

Companies are also realizing that tracking insiders may improve their odds of catching outside hackers.

Read more on BloombergBusiness.

Interesting, but will it change their practices going forward?

Judge Rejects FBI Claims in Muslim Case

Elizabeth Warmerdam reports:

The FBI can no longer withhold thousands of pages of surveillance files of Muslim communities by claiming the “law enforcement” exemption of the Freedom of Information Act, a federal judge ruled Monday.

U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg found that the exemption “is not the appropriate umbrella under which to shield these documents from public view.”

The American Civil Liberties Union, the Asian Law Caucus and the San Francisco Bay Guardian in 2010 requested records concerning the FBI’s investigation and surveillance of Muslim communities in Northern California.

Read more on Courthouse News.

[From the article:

Although the FBI submitted a lengthy declaration describing how the type of documents it withheld advance law enforcement interests, it did not sufficiently "establish a rational nexus between the enforcement of a federal law and the documents for which it claims Exemption 7 applies," Seeborg wrote in a 7-page ruling.

… "The FBI's refrain at oral argument that many of the withheld documents do not relate to particular investigations, and thus cannot be linked to any particular provision of law, only serves to emphasize the point that Exemption 7 is not the appropriate umbrella under which to shield these documents from public view," Seeborg wrote.

The concern, Dear Feds, is that the pass was not free.

http://thehill.com/policy/technology/236962-feds-we-didnt-give-google-a-free-pass

Feds: We didn't give Google a free pass

Federal regulators are pushing back against suggestions that they gave Google a free pass under antitrust law, potentially out of deference to the Obama administration.

After stories in the Wall Street Journal showing that Federal Trade Commission (FTC) staff urged the agency to take action against the Web giant — which it ultimately did not — and detailing Google’s close ties to the White House, members of the FTC are pushing back.

My students may not know it yet, but they need social media.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/kickstart-new-social-media-accounts/

How To Kickstart Your New Social Media Accounts

… Before we start, I just need to point something out. Obviously there are numerous social media sites out there — too many to count. So to make things easy, in this article, I am just going to go with Twitter. However, the principles below apply to any social media site. Twitter not your gig? Then take the advice below and apply it/adapt it to that site.

Why would this be funny? It is exactly the techno-babble Economists speak!

http://dilbert.com/strip/2015-03-26