Oh, now you get serious about security... (Rutgers is actually better than that.)

Who hacked Rutgers? University spending up to $3M to stop next cyber attack

Speaking of universities getting hacked, Kelly Heyboer reports that multiple attacks on Rutgers University that have resulted in the university investing seriously in preventing the next attack.

Heyboer reports, in part:

It is unclear if one cyber attacker was responsible for the series of disruptions that knocked Rutgers’ vast computer network offline four times during the 2014-2015 school year. But, school officials said the attacks appeared to be related.

An alleged hacker who goes by the name Exfocus claimed responsibility for the attacks, boasting he or she was paid $500 an hour in Bitcoin by a client with a grudge against Rutgers to disrupt the university’s computer systems.

Exfocus taunted Rutgers officials and students on Reddit, Twitter and other social media sites last spring.

“Honestly, I am sitting here dumbfounded at the amount of incompetence displayed once again by the Rutgers IT department. I’m fairly certain I could run circles around all of you with my eyes closed, and one leg amputated,” Exfocus said in an April 29 post on the website Pastebin.

The hacker also allegedly gave a brief interview to a local tech blogger, who released a transcript of their conversation.

Read more on NJ.com,

Most schools do not have someone allegedly arranging to DDoS them because of some grudge, but at any point in time, any university may be fighting off numerous attacks as well as phishing attempts. Given the wealth of data universities collect and retain on students, investing in data security and training is not only reasonable, but downright necessary.

Are these low-hanging fruit or is this hacker better than average?

More American universities hacked by JM511

Well, they can’t say they weren’t warned. The hacker who uses the nick “JM511” has been busy hacking more universities and has dumped some data from the University of California at Los Angeles. In a tweet last night, @JM511 noted that they had been warned twice:

JM511 Hacker☠

‏@JM511

You've bEEn #warned #2times

@UCLA

2:37 AM - 23 Aug 2015

According to JM511, he warned them via email more than one week before the attack. Minutes ago, he tweeted a link to the data dump.

In the paste, JM511 included sample data from UCLA tables that include userids, usernames, and passwords. Other tables include university email addresses, first and last names, usernames, and passwords. Most of the passwords dumped were not plain-text, although one table does appear to have plain-text passwords.

As he has done in other cases, JM511 posted information about the system:

web application technology: Apache 2.2.2, PHP 5.2.5
back-end DBMS: MySQL 5.0.12
banner: ‘5.0.22-log’
[04:42:18] [INFO] fetching current user
current user: ‘celf@localhost’
[04:42:18] [INFO] fetching current database
current database: ‘celf’

UCLA is not the only university JM511 reports attacking via SQLinjection and XSS, however. In other tweets overnight, he also notified Western Governor’s University in Utah, the University of Minnesota, DePaul University, and Northern Illinois University that he had hacked them. His tweets provide links showing the vulnerable urls that he used.

JM511 does not appear to have dumped any personal data from those additional universities, but of concern, in another tweet, he suggests that he may soon be dumping data from Southern Illinois University, a university whose infosecurity was found concerning in a 2014 audit.

Whether the universities’ social media teams will understand his tweets to them and contact their university’s IT security immediately remains to be seen.

A human perspective.

http://www.troyhunt.com/2015/08/heres-what-ashley-madison-members-have.html

Here’s what Ashley Madison members have told me

This would explain why politicians listen to Google.

http://www.bespacific.com/researcher-claims-google-can-manipulate-election-results/

Researcher claims Google can manipulate election results

by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Aug 23, 2015

Politico.com,Robert Epstein: “America’s next president could be eased into office not just by TV ads or speeches, but by Google’s secret decisions, and no one—except for me and perhaps a few other obscure researchers—would know how this was accomplished. Research I have been directing in recent years suggests that Google, Inc., has amassed far more power to control elections—indeed, to control a wide variety of opinions and beliefs—than any company in history has ever had. Google’s search algorithm can easily shift the voting preferences of undecided voters by 20 percent or more—up to 80 percent in some demographic groups—with virtually no one knowing they are being manipulated, according to experiments I conducted recently with Ronald E. Robertson. Given that many elections are won by small margins, this gives Google the power, right now, to flip upwards of 25 percent of the national elections worldwide. In the United States, half of our presidential elections have been won by margins under 7.6 percent, and the 2012 election was won by a margin of only 3.9 percent—well within Google’s control…”

Holding data is not a privacy violation. It's all about how you use that data.

Privacy Is a Human Right: Data Retention Violates That Right

Katitza Rodriguez writes:

In March 2015, the United Nations Human Rights Council endorsed the creation of a special rapporteur on privacy. The landmark resolution, spearheaded by Brazil and Germany and cosponsored by 46 states, including 10 other Latin American countries, gives the right to privacy the international recognition and protection it deserves.

For Latin America, this resolution couldn’t have come at a better time. An alarming legislative trend is unfolding in several countries in the region, aimed at passing data retention laws that compel telecommunications companies to retain the details of customers’ activities for future review by government agencies. Such details include whom they communicate with, for how long and from where. No one is exempt from this data collection, which is kept available for law enforcement (and other government bodies) to examine in the future.

Read more on Americas Quarterly.

Gee, it would be nice if the U.S. recognized a right to privacy as a human right not to be trampled by government agencies…

What world do school administrators live in?

http://www.wired.com/2015/08/schools-dont-think-kids-want-learn-computer-science/

Huh? Schools Think Kids Don’t Want to Learn Computer Science

Times have never been better for computer science workers. Jobs in computing are growing at twice the national rate of other types of jobs. By 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there will be 1 million more computer science-related jobs than graduating students qualified to fill them.

If any company has a vested interest in cultivating a strong talent pool of computer scientists, it’s Google. So the search giant set out to learn why students in the US aren’t being prepared to bridge the talent deficit. In a big survey conducted with Gallup and released today, Google found a range of dysfunctional reasons more K-12 students aren’t learning computer science skills. Perhaps the most surprising: schools don’t think the demand from parents and students is there.

… A full nine in ten parents surveyed viewed computer science education as a good use of school resources. It’s the gap between actual and perceived demand that appears to be the problem.

Hey! I like those Chrome extensions, let me copy them to Firefox!

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/78693/20150824/mozilla-bringing-chrome-extensions-firefox-heres-good-bad.htm

Mozilla Bringing Chrome Extensions To Firefox: Here's The Good And The Bad

In a major announcement, Mozilla has announced that Firefox will be implementing a new extension API that will be compatible with the one used by Chrome and Opera. Basically, many Chrome extensions could soon be coming to Firefox.

The API, called WebExtensions API, will mean that developers will only need to make a few small changes to their code in order to bring their extensions to Firefox. So, while users won't be able to install Chrome extensions themselves to Firefox, many developers will likely make the small alterations in order to cater to Firefox users.

For the next time I teach statistics. (My students need to look outside the US)

http://www.bespacific.com/eurostat-your-key-to-european-statistics/

Eurostat – Your key to European statistics

by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Aug 23, 2015

“Eurostat’s mission: to be the leading provider of high quality statistics on Europe. Eurostat is the statistical office of the European Union situated in Luxembourg. Its task is to provide the European Union with statistics at European level that enable comparisons between countries and regions. This is a key task. Democratic societies do not function properly without a solid basis of reliable and objective statistics. On one hand, decision-makers at EU level, in Member States, in local government and in business need statistics to make those decisions. On the other hand, the public and media need statistics for an accurate picture of contemporary society and to evaluate the performance of politicians and others. Of course, national statistics are still important for national purposes in Member States whereas EU statistics are essential for decisions and evaluation at European level. Statistics can answer many questions. Is society heading in the direction promised by politicians? Is unemployment up or down? Are there more CO2 emissions compared to ten years ago? How many women go to work? How is your country’s economy performing compared to other EU Member States? International statistics are a way of getting to know your neighbours in Member States and countries outside the EU. They are an important, objective and down-to-earth way of measuring how we all live.”

For my science fiction reading students.

http://www.thehugoawards.org/2015/08/2014-hugo-award-winners-announced/

2015 Hugo Award Winners Announced

Dilbert predicts future technology law?

http://dilbert.com/strip/2015-08-24

What? You expected a high level of integrity from a site devoted to cheating?

Leaked Ashley Madison emails reveals 2012 hack

Mikael Thalen reports:

Leaked emails from Avid Life Media CEO Noel Biderman reveal that a disgruntled user of the online cheating service Ashley Madison hacked hundreds of the site’s user accounts in 2012.

[…]

One such email from Biderman in October of 2012 details how one Ashley Madison user “hacked” multiple accounts and attempted to extort the company.

Yesterday a user of our site ‘hacked’ a number of accounts on Ashleymadison.com by running a script that would guess at their password,” Biderman wrote. “He then contacted us and attempted to extort free ‘credits/membership’ from us.”

Retaliating against Ashley Madison for allegedly creating fake female profiles, the hacker, who specifically targeted fellow users in Brazil, used the script to breach any account with the password “123456.”

Read more on InfoWars.

(Related) I guess we'll see a lot of this kind of “Fraud.”

UK Islamist Hamza Tzortzis “found” in leaked Ashley Madison database

It could be very dirty (clever) politics to create Ashley Madison accounts for people you might want to discredit politically – particularly when the site doesn’t verify email addresses.

And that’s what a UK Islamist preacher, Hamza Tzortzis, claimed happened to him. When he learned his name was in the leaked database, he took to his Facebook page to explain that it was an “obvious case of fraud.”

The main problem he’s having is that not everyone believes his claims because although some information about him would be publicly available, the Ashley Madison site had his credit card number, and the account went on for months.

In response, Tzortzis allegedly deleted the snarky or skeptical comments from his Facebook page and further clarified that some of the activities on Ashley Madison are permissible under Islam (even though he didn’t partake of them).

He currently continues to deny the account was his and claims to have filed a police report.

Read about it on Breitbart.

I'm teaching my students to govern their IT departments when they become CIOs. Nothing teaches like a bad example and there are plenty to choose from.

http://www.bespacific.com/administrative-investigation-improper-use-of-web-based-collaboration-technology-va-office-of-info-tech/

Administrative Investigation, Improper Use of Web-based Collaboration Technology, VA Office of Info Tech

by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Aug 22, 2015

Office of Inspector General Office of Veterans Affairs – Report Number: 13-03054-463 – Redacted – 8/17/2015.

“VA employees improperly used Yammer.com, a Web-based collaboration technology, which was not approved or monitored as required by VA policy. Further, the website had vulnerable security features, recurring website malfunctions, and users engaged in a misuse of time and resources. Although One VA Technical Reference Model (TRM) approved, with constraints, the installation of Yammer’s Notifier, a Windows desktop application, use of the Yammer social network was not VA-approved for employee use. Further, it was not only promoted by VA employees, but it was used and showcased in June 2013 by the former Executive in Charge of Information Technology (IT) and Chief Information Officer (CIO), for an open chat forum, as well as in a June 2014 CIO Message reminding employees to comply with VA Directive 6515 when using Yammer, giving the false impression that VA approved the use of Yammer.com. The Yammer website did not have an administrator or system set in place to ensure removal of former VA or contractor employees and the relatively simple process to post to Yammer not only made VA vulnerable from user uploading, on purpose or accidentally, personally identifiable information (PII), protected health information (PHI), or VA sensitive information, of which any current or former employee remaining active on the site would have access. Yammer users violated VA policy when they downloaded and shared files, videos, and images, risking malware or viruses spreading quickly from the site. Further, Yammer regularly spammed and excessively emailed users, as well as VA employees who had no interest in joining the site, and users were unable to remove the Online Now instant messaging feature, resulting in every user violating VA policy simply by logging onto the site. There were numerous user posts that were non-VA related, unprofessional, or had disparaging content that reflected a broad misuse of time and resources. Moreover, the continuous data streams, instant messaging, video, audio, large files and attachments, and other uploaded non-VA content to the site may cause congestion, delay, or disruption of service and degrade the performance of VA’s network.”

You didn't think the US was the only target, did you?

http://www.securityweek.com/chinese-hackers-most-likely-targeting-india-experts

Chinese Hackers Most Likely Targeting India: Experts

Cyber spies most probably based in China have been snooping on Indian government bodies and universities since 2012 for sensitive material on its rival neighbor, Internet security company FireEye said Friday.

FireEye said the hackers seemed particularly interested in India's border dispute with neighbouing giant China as well as information on Tibetan activists.

… "It's also well resourced and works around the clock. We found indicators in their malware that the group behind it may speak Chinese."

The hackers sent phishing emails with attachments containing a script called watermain which when opened allowed them to infect and access computers.

… Experts have questioned India's cyber defenses in recent years for reasons including the fact that many government officials still use Hotmail and Gmail in their official communications.

“Why can't we all just get along?” A phrase that has never been uttered by a lawyer?

http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/08/20/us-microsoft-interdigital-us-idINKCN0QP2CU20150820

Microsoft files antitrust suit against InterDigital in patent feud

InterDigital Inc has violated U.S. antitrust law by failing to keep its promise to fairly license its technology considered essential to mobile phone communications, Microsoft Corp said in a lawsuit on Thursday.

The complaint against InterDigital, filed in federal court in Wilmington, Delaware, deepens a long-standing fight over patent licensing between the two companies.

It comes as the U.S. International Trade Commission is set to rule this month on whether Microsoft smartphones should be banned from being imported into the United States for infringing two of InterDigital's patents.

Wilmington is the home base of InterDigital, which makes money through the licensing of patents.

How not to do that lawyer thing.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/08/at-long-last-prenda-mastermind-hit-with-state-bar-complaint/

At long last, Prenda mastermind hit with state bar complaint

The Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (ARDC) has filed a complaint against John Steele, one of two lawyers believed to be the masterminds behind the Prenda Law copyright-trolling scheme.

… This amended complaint has become public more than two years after US District Judge Otis Wright blasted Steele and his Prenda colleagues, referring them to state bar investigators (as well as the IRS and Department of Justice.)

… Steele is charged with repeatedly defrauding courts, charging ahead with discovery against Internet users when he shouldn't have, and blocking legitimate discovery efforts against him. He filed frivolous lawsuits and sent "shakedown letters... for purposes of extracting settlements," the Illinois ARDC contends.

The document explains how mystery LLCs were set up as St. Nevis-based owners of porn movie copyrights, then sued more than 15,000 defendants over the course of a course of eighteen months, between fall 2010 and February 2012. By 2012, none of the defendants had been served with process. Rather, Prenda just went far enough to get discovery against large numbers of Internet users, then threatened them by phone and mail. Demands ranged from $2,500 to $4,000 to avoid a lawsuit. "If you act promptly you will avoid being named as a Defendant," a typical letter concluded.

By late 2012, about 5,000 of the accused had paid up to Steele and his colleague Paul Hansmeier. It's unclear how much money they made, but the complaint states it's in the millions.

Lots of stuff to quote. Some things just jump out at me.

http://www.bespacific.com/searching-for-computer-science-access-and-barriers-in-u-s-k-12-education/

Searching for Computer Science Access and Barriers in U.S. K-12 Education

by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Aug 22, 2015

Google Report, released August 20, 2015 – Searching for Computer Science Access and Barriers in U.S. K-12 Education

Principals and superintendents from schools and districts that do not offer computer science learning opportunities are most likely to say the main reason their schools do not offer computer science is the limited time they have to devote to classes that are not tied to testing requirements

It could be worse, we could be blaring political stump speeches.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/24/world/asia/with-force-deployments-north-korea-raises-stakes-of-talks-with-south.html?_r=0

With Force Deployments, North Korea Raises Stakes of Talks With South

North Korea had deployed twice as many artillery pieces as usual along the border with South Korea on Sunday, and most of its submarines had departed from their bases, as the two Koreas held a second day of talks to try to break a tense military standoff, officials said.

Negotiators from both sides resumed talks in the border village of Panmunjom on Sunday afternoon after a marathon overnight meeting failed to reach a compromise over the terms under which South Korea would withdraw 11 batteries of propaganda loudspeakers from the border. The North calls the broadcasts by the speakers, which include criticism of its political system and its leader, Kim Jong-un, an “act of war.”

I like the (Free) Microsoft Mathematics calculator, but some people swear by these. (The process is a bit complicated.)

http://mathandmultimedia.com/2015/08/23/download-ti-84-calculator/

How to Download the TI-84 Calculator on Your Computer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=178&v=ZX6JoWShL8c

No doubt my geeky students will jump on these.

http://www.programmableweb.com/news/phd-apis-or-how-to-get-benefit-data-scientist-without-hiring-one/analysis/2015/08/22?google_editors_picks=true

PhD APIs (Or, How to Get the Benefit of a Data Scientist without Hiring One)

By now, most IT professionals and line-of-business managers “get” APIs. They know that application programming interfaces enable them to quickly and easily add capabilities to their own products and services, and that offering APIs is a terrific opportunity to expand audience and gain mindshare. But now comes a new generation of APIs--ones that are faster, smarter, better. Think of them as graduate-level interfaces—heck, with some of the capabilities these APIs now provide, you could call them the “PhDs of programming.”

ProgrammableWeb has more than 13,000 APIs in its database, a figure that has doubled since 2012 and continues to increase. What’s also increasing is the level of sophistication of APIs.

While many of us are familiar with APIs that add straightforward features and capabilities such as maps, calendars, logins and the like—none of which should be sneezed at – PhD APIs pack the power of a team of doctoral students and researchers. And, just as leveraging a mapping API means you don’t have to have the wherewithal to build a mapping API yourself, making use of PhD-level APIs means you can add highly sophisticated (and often expensive) features that will benefit the business and the business’s customers.

Dilbert illustrates the power of an APP.

http://dilbert.com/strip/2015-08-23

Worth reading. (Stop smirking.)

http://www.pymnts.com/in-depth/2015/why-the-ashley-madison-hack-is-more-scary-than-funny/

Why The Ashley Madison Hack Is More Scary Than Funny

… After almost two years of unending data breaches, everyone knows cybercrime is bad, damaging and dangerous. And yet the Ashley Madison hack made us smile

… At the time of the breach, the group claiming credit, the Impact Team, made the breach known by posting a small amount of a supposedly larger cache of stolen (and identifying) user data and made Ashley Madison’s owner, Avid Life Media, an offer: take down the site, or see all the data go up for public consumption.

And then … nothing. For about a month the issue didn’t progress – Ashley Madison stayed up, and the data remained under wraps.

Until this week.

That’s when the whole breach went up on the Web in the form of a giant data dump. And this time around, smirks certainly abound.

… The Ashley Madison hack in terms of the sheer amount of data was massive — 10 GB of data (and that was compressed) from over 33 million accounts

… The Ashley Madison hack in terms of the sheer amount of data was massive — 10 GB of data (and that was compressed) from over 33 million accounts — or the equivalent of four motion pictures worth of data. And within those accounts is a virtual buffet of personal information.

Home addresses, 36 million email addresses, phone numbers, partial payment data, first and last names and hashed passwords — and financial transactions.

Paid extra for the premium “guaranteed affair within three months” service? That’s in the records. Paid the company to delete your account and forget they ever saw you? That’s there too. All in, records documenting 9.6 million transactions were included in the full data dump – all of which appeared on an Onion (Tor) website.

… TrustedSec researcher Dave Kennedy wrote in a blog post. “This is much more problematic as it’s not just a database dump, this is a full scale compromise of the entire company’s infrastructure including Windows domain and more.”

(Related) An interview of the hackers. Apparently, there was no security.

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/ashley-madison-hackers-speak-out-nobody-was-watching

Ashley Madison Hackers Speak Out: 'Nobody Was Watching'

(Related) Now this is curious. I wonder whose name they are trying to hide?

UK: Personal data in leaked datasets is still personal data

Now the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office has posted something about the legalities concerning the Ashley Madison data leak. Simon Rice writes, in part:

Wherever your sympathies might lie in relation to the people identified in the published data set, the fact remains that such details are personal information, with certain protections in law.

Like many online attacks, the data protection response is international. In this case, we’re liaising with our counterparts in Canada, where the company is based.

But with cases like this, there is still a domestic aspect to consider.

Anyone in the UK who might download, collect or otherwise process the leaked data needs to be aware they could be taking on data protection responsibilities defined in the UK’s Data Protection Act.

Similarly, seeking to identify an individual from a leaked dataset will be an intrusion into their private life and could also lead to a breach of the DPA.

[…]

It’s worth noting too that any individual or organisation seeking to rely on the journalism exemption should be reminded that this is not a blanket exemption to the DPA and be encouraged to read our detailed guide on how the DPA applies to journalism.

Read more on the ICO’s blog.

How does a company screw up so spectacularly? What did they do wrong?

Spotify Tries to Put Out a Privacy Fire

Peter Kafka reports:

No, Spotify doesn’t want to root around your phone’s address book, or your photos.

That’s the message the music service is sending out today — after clumsily suggesting otherwise earlier this week.

“We should have done a better job in communicating what these policies mean and how any information you choose to share will — and will not — be used,” the company says in a post attributed to CEO Daniel Ek. “We understand people’s concerns about their personal information and are 100 percent committed to protecting our users’ privacy and ensuring that you have control over the information you share.”

Read more on Re/Code.

This may come up in other elections this year. (There is still the possibility the comments were factual.)

http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/comcast-releases-username-that-suggested-u-s-politician-molested-children-1.2527127

Comcast releases username that suggested U.S. politician molested children

Comcast Cable Communications has given a northern Illinois politician the identity of an Internet service subscriber whose account was used to post an anonymous comment online suggesting the politician molests children.

Comcast turned over the name of the subscriber on Aug. 14, attorney Andrew Smith said Thursday, almost two months after the Illinois Supreme Court upheld lower court rulings that Internet service providers have no obligation to withhold the identity of a commenter if their comments could be considered defamatory.

This should raise “sexting” to interesting heights. Perhaps I can connect my dash-cam directly to my lawyer…

http://www.engadget.com/2015/08/21/comcast-xfinity-share-wide-release/

Comcast releases its livestreaming app to all subscribers

Comcast says its livestreaming app did very well during its limited release, so the company's now making it available to all Xfinity customers. The app, called Xfinity Share, gives you a way to broadcast video streams, photos and even previously recorded videos not just on your own TVs, but on other subscribers' TVs. It also lets you share from mobile to mobile, though, if that's more convenient. Xfinity Share used to be exclusive to Triple Play package customers, but now it can be accessed by every voice, video, home and internet subscriber. However, the recipient still needs to have an X1 DVR-ready set-top box to see what you're trying to send them on a bigger screen.

Say, you want to livestream your kids' next game to their grandparents' TV: just grab the app from iTunes or Google Play, then follow these instructions:

To stream to the TV, users just need to follow these simple steps: open the Xfinity Share app, select "Stream Live," select "Stream to other contacts," enter the home phone number or comcast.net email address for the person you want to see the video, and click "Stream." A notification will pop up on that person's TV, and all that person needs to do to watch the live streaming is click the "Info" button on the X1 TV remote.

For my Website students.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/learn-html-css-step-step-tutorials/

Learn HTML and CSS with These Step by Step Tutorials

For all my students.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/turn-iphone-personal-security-device-emergencies/

Turn Your iPhone Into A Personal Security Device for Emergencies

I must have a couple of students who are Dr Who fans…

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/make-own-doctor-who-adventure-bbc/

How to Make Your Own Doctor Who Adventure for the BBC

I smile when I see this post. Evil ain't I?

http://hackeducation.com/2015/08/21/hack-education-weekly-news/

Hack Education Weekly News

… British Prime Minister David Cameron wants every school in England and Wales to become an academy (that is, a school independent of local control).

… Via Education Week: “The Department of Education is asking for bids to design a prototype system to quickly evaluate ed-tech in K–12 schools, in hopes of making it easier for educators to figure out what works in products they purchase with federal funding.” [This will never happen. Bob]

… A US District Court judge has begun hearing a lawsuit brought against Compton Unified School District, claiming “trauma is a disability and that schools are required – by federal law – to make accommodations for traumatized students, not expel them.

… The ACT makes the case for multiple choice tests – they “can and do efficiently assess students’ higher-order thinking skills and reflect their real-world problem solving skills.”

… Inside Higher Ed reports that there are 74,468 unique email addresses from .edu domains released as part of the hack of the Ashley Madison website.

… Teachers applying for a Google Certified Educator certificate will be monitored via their webcams.

… Gallup has released the results of a poll about the availability of computer science in schools. Among the findings, “just 7% of principals and 6% of superintendents surveyed report that demand for it is high among parents in their school or district.”

I think we'll see lots of this.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/08/21/prying-eyes-alibis-and-a-global-hunt-for-ashley-madison-users/?tid=hpModule_9d3add6c-8a79-11e2-98d9-3012c1cd8d1e

Prying eyes, alibis and a global hunt for Ashley Madison users

Two Republican politicians from Louisiana took the initiative and confessed Thursday that their names are on a list of clients for the cheating Web site Ashley Madison. But both were quick to say that while they know what people might be thinking, it wasn’t that, the old “I can explain everything” line.

(Related) Ah, the Class Actions begin. (For a minute there I thought the lawyers had been “customers.”

Toronto-area lawyers file class action over Ashley Madison breach

Jenny Yuen of Toronto Sun reports on a potential class action lawsuit filed in Toronto.

The plaintiff in the lawsuit is Eliot Shore, a disabled widower in Ottawa, who after 30 years of marriage lost his wife to breast cancer. He joined Ashley Madison for a short time seeking companionship, but never met anyone online.

The data breach includes users’ personal names, e-mails, home addresses and profile information for public viewing.

Charney said since the first information dump on Tuesday, more than 50 people — one-third of which are women — approached the lawyers — and more should come forward, he said.

Read more on Toronto Sun.

[From the article:

“It seems massive in some respects, but for us, it’s a classic privacy breach case where you’ve got a number of people who are similarly situated, who the corporation made the same promises to, in terms of confidentiality and ... their personal information disclosed to the public at large.”

(Related) ...and it will get worse.

Second Ashley Madison data dump, bigger than the first, lays bare their source code

Yeah, it's complicated. And expensive.

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34015894

Google ordered to remove 'right to be forgotten' links

Google has been ordered to remove nine links to news stories by the UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) under the "right to be forgotten".

… In a statement, the ICO revealed that Google had refused to remove the links when asked by the complainant, which is why officials are now stepping in.

Being able to access the links by searching for the complainant by name constitutes a breach of the Data Protection Act, according to the ICO.

… Dr Walden added that as the complexity of removal requests grows, it's possible that search engines like Google may become less willing to challenge them.

"In five years' time perhaps Google will say, 'It's not worth the hassle, let's take down more stuff, let's not spend as much time evaluating the case,' - they obviously have to employ people for this," he said.

How to ruin a perfectly good business model?

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34016658

Spotify's new privacy policy angers users

Some high-profile Spotify users say they have left the music service over changes in its terms and conditions.

The streaming platform now wants access to pictures, contact phone numbers and sensor data stored on the user's smartphone as well as permission to view social media activity.

… Spotify said the changes would help it "tailor improved user experience".

Sensor data, such as how fast the user's phone is moving, helped the Swedish firm develop Spotify Running, a new feature that tailors music playlists to physical activity.

… The firm has 75 million active users and 20 million subscribers in 58 countries, according to its own figures. [Let's see how many leave. Bob]

Somehow this does not inspire confidence.

http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/251549-background-check-company-that-screened-snowden-to-forfeit-30-million

Background check company that screened Snowden to forfeit $30M

The personnel vetting company that screened government leaker Edward Snowden and Washington Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis has agreed to give up $30 million to settle federal fraud charges.

In order to pay the settlement, the Justice Department announced on Wednesday that United States Investigations Services (USIS) — the largest private background check firm used by the government, based in Falls Church, Va. — has agreed to forgo payments that it was otherwise owed by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

According to federal law enforcement officials, USIS officials carried out a plot to “flush” or “dump” individual cases that they deemed to be low-level in order to meet internal goals.

Very curious to see how quickly this is adopted and what difference it makes.

http://www.bespacific.com/review-federal-agencies-on-yelp/

Review Federal Agencies on Yelp

by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Aug 20, 2015

Yelp Official Blog: “We are excited to announce that Yelp has concluded an agreement with the federal government that will allow federal agencies and offices to claim their Yelp pages, read and respond to reviews, and incorporate that feedback into service improvements. We encourage Yelpers to review any of the thousands of agency field offices, TSA checkpoints, national parks, Social Security Administration offices, landmarks and other places already listed on Yelp if you have good or bad feedback to share about your experiences. Not only is it helpful to others who are looking for information on these services, but you can actually make an impact by sharing your feedback directly with the source. It’s clear Washington is eager to engage with people directly through social media. Earlier this year a group of 46 lawmakers called for the creation of a “Yelp for Government” in order to boost transparency and accountability, and Representative Ron Kind reiterated this call in a letter to the General Services Administration (GSA). Luckily for them, there’s no need to create a new platform now that government agencies can engage directly on Yelp. As this agreement is fully implemented in the weeks and months ahead, we’re excited to help the federal government more directly interact with and respond to the needs of citizens and to further empower the millions of Americans who use Yelp every day. In addition to working with the federal government, last week we announced our our partnership with ProPublica to incorporate health care statistics and consumer opinion survey data onto the Yelp business pages of more than 25,000 medical treatment facilities. We’ve also partnered with local governments in expanding the LIVES open data standard to show restaurant health scores on Yelp. All of these things fall under Yelp’s Consumer Protection Initiative, a concerted effort to empower and protect consumers on our site. We’re constantly looking for new ways to improve our user experience, so if you have other ideas for this initiative or feedback on efforts Yelp currently has underway, including this new agreement with the federal government, please share it here.”

So... Talking favorably about a Copyright infringer can get you arrested?

https://torrentfreak.com/police-arrest-men-for-spreading-popcorn-time-information-150819/

Police Arrest Men For Spreading Popcorn Time Information

Police in Denmark have arrested the alleged operators of two Popcorn Time guide websites. The domains of both operations have also been seized by the authorities. The case is controversial in that both sites were Popcorn Time information resources and neither linked to copyright-infringing material.

… Popcorn Time is increasingly attracting the attention of copyright holders, anti-piracy groups and law enforcement agencies.

While neither of the main forks have yet been targeted, others around them are feeling the heat. In fact, the latest news coming out of Denmark suggests that the authorities are even prepared to hit those barely on the perimeter.

… While arrests of file-sharers and those running sites that closely facilitate infringement are nothing new, this week’s arrests appear to go way beyond anything seen before. The two men are not connected to the development of Popcorn Time and have not been offering copyrighted content for download.

Both sites were information resources, offering recent news on Popcorn Time related developments, guides, FAQ sections and tips on how to use the software.

I always have time for a good argument.

The Intersection Of Trade Secret Law And Social Media Privacy Legislation

Eric F. Barton, Esq. of Seyfarth Shaw LLP writes:

There is no question that social media privacy issues now permeate the workplace. In an attempt to provide further guidance and regulation in this area, since April 2012, a growing number of state legislatures in the United States have passed various forms of social media privacy legislation. In fact, to date, nearly all state legislatures, as well as the United States Congress, have considered or are considering some kind of social media privacy legislation.

The precise impact that these new social media privacy laws have on existing trade secret law is still very much in its infancy. Compounding matters, the plain language of several recently enacted privacy laws directly conflicts with judicial decisions regarding “company vs. employee” ownership of social media content that may otherwise constitute protectable trade secrets, including contact lists and business relationships. Moreover, very few court decisions have yet to interpret any of the new social media privacy laws.

Read more on Intellectual Property Watch.

Interesting business model: Every tool you'll ever need all in one place. Great if it works.

http://techcrunch.com/2015/08/20/vurbchat/

Search App Vurb Adds Messaging To Become The U.S. WeChat

WeChat dominates China with its messaging hub that lets you shop, call a taxi, and pay bills — all from one app. Now, mobile search startup Vurb wants to bring the monolithic app style to the United States with the help of Tencent, WeChat’s developer which has secretly been an investor in Vurb’s $10 million of funding.

… But what’s perhaps more interesting is the opportunity this primes for Vurb. In China, rather than every little business or utility getting its own app, they create “official accounts” on WeChat. These work similar to connecting with a new friend to talk, but instead offer unique functionality like ecommerce that taps into WeChat’s mobile payments wallet.

Vurb’s founder Bobby Lo tells me that’s the direction his app is going. Eventually, businesses could build official accounts into Vurb so people could order their movie tickets, book reservations, and more without leaving the app.

Trying to keep my students current.

http://www.enterpriseappstoday.com/data-management/5-best-practices-for-fast-data.html?google_editors_picks=true

5 Best Practices for Fast Data

Big Data is so 2012. Fast Data is the latest data processing and analytics trend. Best practices are beginning to emerge, based on early use cases.

(Related) It can't hurt to read this one too.

http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/News/Networking/what-the-internet-of-things-means-for-small-business.html?google_editors_picks=true

What the 'Internet of Things' Means For Small Business

Twenty years ago, tech experts urged small businesses to get on the World Wide Web or die. Perhaps they overstated things a bit, but it certainly held true for many industries. Now the call is to get ready for the Internet of Things (IoT) or face extinction. Again, it may not apply to all fields, but it certainly does apply to many—and probably more than you think.

...and you might not even notice. Worth reading.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-machine-learning-algorithms-shape-life/

4 Machine Learning Algorithms That Shape Your Life

Software is getting smart. It’s a slow, uneven process — but it’s also seemingly unstoppable. One by one, the hard problems of machine learning are falling to powerful new theoretical tools, letting us build software that can do some truly impressive things.

Some applications, like self-driving cars, are a few years off. What you may not realize, though, is that machine learning is already all around you, and it can exert a surprising degree of influence over your life. Don’t believe me? You might be surprised.

Tools I might use...

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/8-formatting-tips-perfect-tables-microsoft-word/

8 Formatting Tips for Perfect Tables in Microsoft Word

(Related)

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-simple-microsoft-word-hacks-everyone-can/

10 Simple Microsoft Word Hacks Everyone Can Do

Dilbert points out a future legal issue!

http://dilbert.com/strip/2015-08-21

Something my Computer Security students should be talking about.

http://www.troyhunt.com/2015/08/ashley-madison-data-breach-q.html

Ashley Madison data breach Q&A

This was always going to be a huge incident given not just the scale of the number of accounts impacted by the Ashley Madison breach (well over 30M), but the sensitivity of the data within it. However the interest has surprised even me – I loaded the breached data into Have I been pwned? (HIBP) about 8 hours ago and I’m presently seeing about 30k visitors an hour to the site. I’ve had a commensurate number of media and support queries such that I just can’t respond to them all individually so I’m putting together this Q&A instead.

(Related) Do you think they will be treated as fairly as any other company that suffered a breach?

http://www.theverge.com/2015/8/19/9178855/ashley-madison-data-breach-implications

The mind-bending messiness of the Ashley Madison data dump

… The apparent release last night of personal information for 32 million registered users of AshleyMadison.com, a website for connecting people who want to have affairs, is likely to have much more profound consequences. Impact Team, the group of anonymous hackers who are taking credit for the breach, sought to have Ashley Madison’s website taken down in protest of the company’s business practices and its encouragement of adultery. But the practical impact of the breach is likely to be much broader. There are a lot of threads here, and it’s worth sorting them out.

The consequences for Ashley Madison are likely to be catastrophic. A CEO who routinely bragged about the company’s privacy features now seems likely to face a barrage of lawsuits from members who have found their information exposed. And a site that depends on privacy and security to earn members’ trust may find it impossible to win it back.

You should try hard to learn from bad management so you don't need to make the same mistake.

http://www.bespacific.com/how-victims-can-regain-control-mitigate-threats-in-wake-of-opm-breach/

How Victims Can Regain Control Mitigate Threats in Wake of OPM Breach

by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Aug 19, 2015

“In June 2015, the Nation learned that the personnel records of 21.5 million United States citizens had been exfiltrated by an unknown adversary from the Office of Personnel Management, one of the largest known breaches in the history of the U.S. Government. The immediate public outcry included congressional hearings attributing the breach to OPM administrators and nation states and a nationwide media frenzy consumed with criticizing the government’s cybersecurity posture. Noticeably absent from the response however has been sustained and meaningful support for the victims of the breach. In ICIT’s most recent legislative brief entitled “Moving Forward: How Victims Can Regain Control & Mitigate Threats in the Wake of the OPM Breach“, the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology (ICIT) Fellows discuss the short-term (6-12 months), medium-term (1-5 years) and long-term (5-10+ years) threats faced by federal agencies and victims of the OPM breach. The brief also provides recommendations on how agencies and victims can mitigate these risks through a combination of vigilance, governance, and technology. This brief will be distributed and presented to members of the House and Senate, federal agency technology leaders and members of the critical infrastructure community.”

For my IT Governance students who might have thought really big companies never made mistakes.

http://fortune.com/2015/08/20/google-lost-data-after-lightning-hit-belgian-data-center/

Google lost data after lightning hit Belgian data center

Despite the popular saying, lightning does strike twice, or even four times — as it did at a Google data center in Belgium last Thursday, causing problems for the next several days and leading to permanent data loss for a small percentage of unlucky users.

The problem began when the facility lost power briefly during one of the late-summer thunderstorms common in the area. That caused problems with reading or writing data for about five percent of disks in the data center. Most were fixed but data on .000001% of the center’s total disk space was lost. “In these cases, full recovery is not possible,” the company said in a statement.

Google accepts full responsibility for the incident and says it is making upgrades to prevent something like this from happening again.

In retaliation, detect the Ad Blockers and require a Captcha to prove the user is human? Add a very obvious watermark?

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/20/technology/personaltech/ad-blockers-and-the-nuisance-at-the-heart-of-the-modern-web.html?_r=0

Ad Blockers and the Nuisance at the Heart of the Modern Web

The great philosopher Homer Simpson once memorably described alcohol as “the cause of and solution to all of life’s problems.” Internet advertising is a bit like that — the funder of and terrible nuisance baked into everything you do online.

… Now, more and more web users are escaping the daily bombardment of online advertising by installing an ad blocker. This simple, free software lets you roam the web without encountering any ads that shunt themselves between you and the content you want to read or watch. With an ad blocker, your web browser will generally run faster, you’ll waste less bandwidth downloading ads, and you’ll suffer fewer annoyances when navigating the Internet.

Ad blocking has been around for years, but adoption is now rising steeply, at a pace that some in the ad industry say could prove catastrophic for the economic structure underlying the web. That has spurred a debate about the ethic of ad blocking. Some publishers and advertisers say ad blocking violates the implicit contract that girds the Internet — the idea that in return for free content, we all tolerate a constant barrage of ads.

An interesting application of the Internet of Things and some wise advice.

http://fortune.com/2015/08/19/ring-richard-branson/

Meet Ring, the connected door bell company that just scored Richard Branson as an investor

… The doorbell attaches to the side of the house and can connect to existing wiring or work off a battery. When someone rings the doorbell it opens an app that runs on the user’s mobile phone. The user can see and communicate with the person at the door through the app, which comes in handy for home security, or if you’d simply like to tell the FedEx carrier where to drop a package.

That last use case is how Branson found the company. A visitor to his island spoke with a delivery person who rang his doorbell, all while thousands of miles away. Branson was intrigued enough to ask questions—immediately—of Siminoff over email. Later Branson offered to invest. “When Richard Branson asks if he can invest in your company, I think there’s only one answer you can give,” Siminoff says.

The “gig economy” keeps expanding.

http://thehill.com/policy/transportation/251470-uber-expanding-ubereats-food-delivery-service

Uber expanding 'UberEats' food delivery service

Popular ride-hailing company Uber is expanding its food delivery service, UberEats, to San Francisco.

… Uber has touted its food service as an "ultrafast" alternative to traditional delivery and online competitors such as GrubHub and TakeoutTaxi.

… It’s same cashless payment as an Uber ride. So just tap the app, meet your driver outside, and enjoy."

Perspective.

http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/08/19/mobile-messaging-and-social-media-2015/

Mobile Messaging and Social Media 2015

… 2015 marks the first time Pew Research Center has asked specifically about mobile messaging apps as a separate kind of mobile activity apart from cell phone texting. And already, according to a new survey, 36% of smartphone owners report using messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Kik or iMessage, and 17% use apps that automatically delete sent messages such as Snapchat or Wickr.

… The results in this report reflect the noteworthy and rapid emergence of different kinds of communications tools serving different social needs.

… Overall, this survey found that 85% of adults are internet users and 67% are smartphone users.

Interesting. Is Australia the cheapest place to sell bonds?

http://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/apple-launches-australian-dollar-kangaroo-bond-issue-20150819-gj3b3j.html

Apple launches iBonds in Australia

US technology giant Apple has formally launched a "benchmark"-sized Australian dollar corporate bond issue, its first ever sale in the currency, with order books swelling to $1.2 billion within two hours.

… The company said the intended use of proceeds are for 'general corporate purposes' including share buy-backs, dividend payments and to fund working capital, capital expenditure, acquisitions and debt repayments.

Apple which has so far raised $US50 billion ($68 billion) of debt since May 2013 has a cash balance of over $US200 billion, but since most of the funds are in offshore jurisdictions it borrows money to return funds to shareholders to avoid paying a large tax bill.

Yep, the Democrats are distancing themselves because they think she's going to tank. Small players so far, but I expect it will grow.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/clinton-comes-under-friendly-fire/ar-BBlRIir?ocid=mailsignout

Clinton comes under friendly fire

… Martin O’Malley (D), the former governor of Maryland who remains mired in low single digits in most polls, said during an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday that Clinton faced “a legitimate question” over her use of the server.

O’Malley also pointedly asserted that such a question could be answered by “Secretary Clinton and her lawyers,” a clear reference to the choppy legal waters into which Clinton appears to be sailing.

On Monday, Eugene Robinson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning liberal opinion-writer for the Washington Post, published a column excoriating the Democratic frontrunner, under the headline, “Hillary Clinton is her own worst enemy.”

… Before her latest comments, Dan Pfeiffer, a former senior adviser to President Obama, offered a backhanded compliment in an interview with the Washington Post while seeking to defend Clinton.

“She isn’t as natural a politician as Barack Obama or Bill Clinton, but that’s like saying Scottie Pippen isn’t as talented as Michael Jordan or Magic Johnson,” Pfeiffer said.

Given the comparison, and Clinton’s new stumbles on Tuesday, Pfeiffer’s comments only seemed to underline Hillary Clinton’s perceived political deficiencies to both her husband and Obama.

… Julie Roginsky, a former aide to Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), told Fox News’s “Media Buzz” over the weekend that the criticism Clinton had received was “deserved and it is entirely self-inflicted by Hillary Clinton…

You don't need to actually meet anyone, just use your App to find the skills you need, then email them.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kathleenchaykowski/2015/08/19/linkedins-new-employee-directory-app-lookup-daily-activity-network/

LinkedIn's New Employee Directory App 'Lookup' Could Boost Daily Activity On Its Network

On Wednesday, the Mountain View, Calif.-based professional social network launched Lookup, an employee directory app aimed at letting users easily find, learn about and contact their coworkers, through in-app messaging or by email. Lookup is available on Apple iOS and will reach Android soon, the company said.

… LinkedIn also says the app doesn’t compete with office chatroom services like Slack or Hipchat. Instead, it’s intended to spark just enough dialogue to lead to a phone call, meeting or email exchange. The standalone app is free and currently isn’t monetized.

… Lookup is part of a larger plan by LinkedIn to make more products that satisfy companies’ internal needs.

The next Big Thing? Probably not, but definitely a trend.

http://www.enterpriseappstoday.com/data-management/5-best-practices-for-fast-data.html?google_editors_picks=true

5 Best Practices for Fast Data

As vendors and users testified at last month's In-Memory Computing Summit, the relatively low cost of flash memory is driving databases and apps toward leveraging Fast Data – mobile and sensor cloud data – using systems whose storage is predominantly or even entirely composed of main and flash memory. One use case cited by a presenter employed one terabyte of main memory and one petabyte of flash.

What is driving this shift in databases and the applications that use them?

Increasingly, enterprises are realizing that "almost-real-time" handling of massive streams of data from cars, cell phones, GPS and the like is the new frontier -- not only of analytics but also of operational systems that handle the Internet of Things (IoT). As one participant noted, this kind of real-time data-chewing not only allows your car to warn of traffic ahead, but also to detect another car parked around the corner in a dangerous position.

(Related) How to make fast, faster.

Pulling Back the Curtain on Google’s Network Infrastructure

… Today, at the ACM SIGCOMM conference, we are presenting a paper with the technical details on five generations of our in-house data center network architecture. This paper presents the technical details behind a talk we presented at Open Network Summit a few months ago.

From relatively humble beginnings, and after a misstep or two, we’ve built and deployed five generations of datacenter network infrastructure. Our latest-generation Jupiter network has improved capacity by more than 100x relative to our first generation network, delivering more than 1 petabit/sec of total bisection bandwidth. This means that each of 100,000 servers can communicate with one another in an arbitrary pattern at 10Gb/s.

For my Python programming students (and my Math students). Download the free ebook!

http://www.businessinsider.com/algebraix-data-algebra-solving-data-analytics-etl-problem-2015-8?google_editors_picks=true

This company is using insanely complicated math to save its customers tons of cash

Analysts estimate that the market for data analytics — the industry term for sifting through mountains of data until you actually learn something useful from it — will hit $125 billion this year.

… To get all of your data nice and tidy for analysis, it has to go through a process called "ETL," which stands for "extract, transform, load." It can be a costly, time-consuming, and error-prone process.

ETL software can cost big enterprises hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing; hiring consultants to put it all into place can drive the price tag into the millions.

Enter Algebraix Data, a California-based data analytics startup that's changing the equation with what it calls "data algebra."

… For the first five years of the company's existence, Algebraix played its cards close to the chest and kept data algebra as a company secret.

But just recently, the company has started to open the door a little bit: It's published a book by two of its in-house mathematicians called "The Algebra of Data," and it's made the core data algebra algorithms available for any programmer anywhere to download.

The gist is that Algebraix is hoping to force data algebra into the spotlight, placing itself into the center of what it hopes becomes the next wave of analytics. Other programmers can use Algebraix's technology, but as the inventors, and the holders of the patents, the company stands to profit most.

… The Algebraix Technology Core Library is available as a Python library at http://algebraixlib.readthedocs.org/en/latest/

More arrows in Cable's back?

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/cut-the-cord-tv-streaming-channels/

Cut the Cord Forever With These 15 TV Streaming Channels

Tools for students. Make following easier.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/turn-website-rss-feed/

How to Turn Any Website into an RSS Feed

Still paying for the breach.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/target-reaches-settlement-with-visa-over-2013-data-breach-1439912013

Target to Settle Claims Over Data Breach

Target Corp. agreed to reimburse thousands of financial institutions as much as $67 million for costs incurred from a massive 2013 data breach that damaged the retailer’s reputation with shoppers and cut into sales.

… Target also said it is working with MasterCard Inc. on a similar deal for its card issuers.

The size of the two settlements could rival a 2010 agreement in which Heartland Payment Systems Inc. agreed to pay more than $100 million to Visa and MasterCard for a large 2008 breach.

Target’s data breach exposed 40 million credit and debit cards to fraud during the 2013 holiday season.

… The exact amount of fraud that resulted from the Target breach still isn’t known. Trade groups representing community banks and credit unions estimate that they spent more than $350 million to reissue credit and debit cards and deal with other issues tied to the Target breach and the subsequent Home Depot hack.

(Related) Apparently, the breach didn't turn customers away.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-19/target-s-earnings-beat-estimates-after-ceo-reins-in-expenses

Target’s Earnings Beat Estimates After CEO Reins In Expenses

I doubt this embarrasses them at all...

http://www.businessinsider.com/pirate-bay-is-serving-an-ashley-madison-ad-next-to-the-ashely-madison-data-dump-2015-8?google_editors_picks=true

People searching for the Ashley Madison data on Pirate Bay will also find ... an ad for Ashley Madison

Hackers who stole personal data from the Ashley Madison website leaked the personal details of millions of users of the extramarital affairs dating website on Tuesday.

… And, in a further embarrassment for Ashley Madison, people looking to get their hands on the data by searching the popular bittorrent indexer The Pirate Bay have also been served banner ads for Ashley Madison.

Interesting argument?

Yahoo says email scanning not surreptitious in eavesdropping class action; No reasonable expectation of privacy

The Madison Record reports:

Yahoo answers a class action complaint of privacy invasion by pleading that no one can call its scanning practices surreptitious.

“Yahoo’s scanning of emails has been the subject of media reports for years,” Peter Herzog of St. Louis wrote on Aug. 17.

He moved to dismiss a suit that Kaylynn Rehberger of Highland filed at U.S. district court in June, alleging violation of the Illinois Eavesdropping Statute.

Read more on Madison Record.

We knew that, right?

Facebook wasn’t great at respecting privacy in the first place. It’s gotten much worse.

Henry Farrell reports:

Facebook’s privacy practices have always been controversial. It doesn’t charge its users–because its users are the product. The company sells information on its users, their social networks, services they like, and a multitude of other forms of information to advertisers and marketers. This gives Facebook a strong incentive to push privacy boundaries constantly, since the more personal information Facebook gathers on its users, the more money Facebook will be able to make by selling this information on to marketers.

This has meant, for example, that Facebook has frequently changed its privacy policies, often in confusing ways. Jennifer Shore and Jill Steinman, two undergraduate students at Harvard have just published a new research article in Technology Science showing that, over time, these changes have led to Facebook’s privacy policy becoming much, much worse.

Read more on Washington Post.

A tool for anyone who does not want people reading over their shoulders?

http://venturebeat.com/2015/08/18/confide-brings-ephemeral-messaging-to-desktop-with-mac-and-windows-clients/

Confide brings ephemeral messaging to desktop, with Mac and Windows clients

When off-the-record messenger Confide launched more than a year ago, its main goal was to secure business communications. It started by making a mobile app for ephemeral text messaging and then expanded to include document and photo sharing. Now the company is rolling out a desktop version for both Windows and Mac to help employees share sensitive documents without having to reach for their phone.

… To make its app more widely available, Confide will be launching a paid business version later this year.

The service will allow businesses to deploy Confide broadly, rather than relying on individuals to download the app. Confide in its current incarnation is free, but Co-founder Jon Brod says the enterprise level Confide will charge companies a monthly fee per-user when it does launch.

For my Computer Security students. The Coasties are unusually effective, I think because of a very low BS factor. Let's follow this.

http://inpublicsafety.com/2015/08/maritime-experts-gather-to-define-cybersecurity-research-challenges/

Maritime Experts Gather to Define Cybersecurity Research Challenges

In June, the Maritime Cyber Research Summit (MCRS) was held at the Cal Maritime Safety and Security Center. This summit was an intensive focus session on maritime cybersecurity risks and vulnerabilities.

… In a fortuitous combination of events, the USCG released its Cyber Strategy (PDF) one day prior to the event, which was made available to all MCRS participants.

… The purpose of the summit was to address the research challenges put forth by Vice Admiral Chuck Michel during the Maritime Cyber Security Symposium. The admiral challenged the assembled academics, industry, and federal, state, and local attendees to leverage their collective capability to help the USCG rigorously explore research areas and identify research priorities.

… During the summit, participants fleshed out six research challenges, identifying key priority topics and important research questions. The challenge areas are as follows:

1. Vulnerabilities: What analysis could be employed to identify the greatest cyber vulnerabilities in the maritime domain/Maritime Transportation System (MTS), both shipboard and ashore?
2. Resilience: Identify the best options for operational and systems cyber resilience. This research would include definition, operational, and legal considerations.
3. Threats: What analysis framework and tools could be used to map and predict dynamic maritime cyber threats?
4. Impacts: What framework should be employed for impact analysis for the MTS? What are the cascading consequences to the nation and economy of a cyber incident?
5. Critical Points: What approach should be used to conduct nodal analysis to identify single points of failure for maritime cyber events within the MTS, including navigation systems?
6. Info Sharing: How would a framework for network analysis be developed to support optimal information sharing with partners to address maritime cyber issues?

See? It's not just police-cams and license plate readers and cellphone interception and facial recognition and …

http://www.rand.org/news/press/2015/08/17.html

Internet Technology Could Aid Police, Courts and Prisons; Resolving Privacy Issues Key to Future Use

New Internet-based technology may aid criminal justice agencies through tools such as better criminal databases, remotely conducted criminal trials and electronic monitoring of parolees in the community, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

Top criminal justice priorities for new Internet tools include developing a common criminal history record that can be shared across agencies, developing real-time language translation tools and improved video displays for law enforcement officers to adapt to changing needs, according to the analysis.

Background for my IT Governance class as we consider unregulated technologies.

http://www.bespacific.com/regulation-of-emerging-risks/

Regulation of Emerging Risks

by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Aug 18, 2015

Wansley, Matthew, Regulation of Emerging Risks (August 17, 2015). Vanderbilt Law Review, Forthcoming. Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2646316

“Why has the EPA not regulated fracking? Why has the FDA not regulated e-cigarettes? Why has NHTSA not regulated autonomous vehicles? This Article argues that administrative agencies predictably fail to regulate emerging risks when the political environment for regulation is favorable. The cause is a combination of administrative law and interest group politics. Agencies must satisfy high, initial informational thresholds to regulate, so they postpone rulemaking in the face of uncertainty about the effects of new technologies. But while regulators passively acquire more information, fledgling industries consolidate and become politically entrenched. By the time agencies can justify regulation, the newly entrenched industries have the political capital to thwart them. This Article offers a prophylactic against this predictable regulatory failure. It defends an experimentalist model of regulation, in which agencies are empowered to impose moratoria on risky emerging technologies while regulators organize experiments to learn about the risks they pose and the means to mitigate them. The agency-coordinated experiments would expedite the promulgation of empirically informed rules. The moratoria would extend the political window for regulatory action and protect the public in the interim. The Article applies this experimentalist model to the regulation of fracking, e-cigarettes, and autonomous vehicles. It also identifies legal strategies for implementing experimental regulation under existing law. It challenges the conventional wisdom that agencies should postpone regulation until they can confidently predict the effects of new risky technologies.”

(Related) Speaking of unregulated... Another article for my future executives. (That's you, students!)

http://www.bespacific.com/mckinsey-an-executives-guide-to-the-internet-of-things/

McKinsey – An executive’s guide to the Internet of Things

by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Aug 18, 2015

“As the Internet of Things (IoT) has gained popular attention in the five years since we first published on the topic, it has also beguiled executives. When physical assets equipped with sensors give an information system the ability to capture, communicate, and process data—and even, in a sense, to collaborate—they create game-changing opportunities: production efficiency, distribution, and innovation all stand to benefit immensely. While the consumer’s adoption of fitness bands and connected household appliances might generate more media buzz, the potential for business usage is much greater. Research from the McKinsey Global Institute suggests that the operational efficiencies and greater market reach IoT affords will create substantial value in many industries. (For more, see the video “What’s the one piece of advice for a business leader interested in the Internet of Things?” And to see how experts believe the Internet of Things will evolve, see “The Internet of Things: Five critical questions.”)

She doesn't seem “above the fray” rather she seems “deliberately ignorant” for someone who must know the questions will be asked again and again.

http://www.businessinsider.com/hillary-clinton-wiped-email-server-2015-8?google_editors_picks=true

Hillary Clinton had a testy press conference filled with questions about her email server

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton endured an at-times combative press conference Tuesday, during which she could not answer whether her email server, which was turned over to the FBI last week, had been "wiped" clean of data.

… "What, like with a cloth or something?" Clinton joked, before saying she didn't "know how it works digitally at all." [You'd think she would ask. Bob]

… Two sources close to the FBI investigation told NBC that an "attempt" was made to wipe Clinton's server sometime before it was handed over to the FBI. (It is unclear, however, when that attempt was made.) But federal agents are reportedly confident they can recover at least some of the deleted files.

This should be really interesting.

http://thehill.com/policy/technology/251386-the-government-wants-your-yelp-reviews

The government wants your Yelp reviews

… Yelp on Tuesday announced it reached a terms of service agreement with the federal government that will allow agencies and branch offices to set up their own Yelp pages and respond to constituent comments.

… “With the addition of Public Services and Government under the Yelp umbrella, agencies can continue to find new ways to use customer insights to improve citizen services,” said Justin Herman, who works for DigitalGov, within the General Services Administration.

Herman revealed the agreement earlier this month in a little noticed blog post.

It is unclear exactly which agencies and branch departments will utilize the new tool. A host of government pages have existed for years for local post offices, libraries and TSA posts.

The agreement will allow those branches to claim the existing pages if they want.

Making my students employable.

http://smallbiztrends.com/2015/08/commandments-of-business-networking.html?google_editors_picks=true

The 59 Commandments of Business Networking

Not free, but I bet my students will want it anyway.

http://fortune.com/2015/08/18/nuance-dictation-app/

This new dictation app is more powerful than any you've ever seen

Nuance plans to launch its new Dragon Anywhere dictation app this fall on iOS and Android, the Verge reports.

Most of us already have basic dictation features that come with our phones, but this app is much more powerful than any of the features offered by Apple and Google. Those companies’ features require you to constantly stop and wait, and with varying levels of success. Dragon Anywhere, on the other hand, has proved to be “quite accurate.”

… The only downside about this app is that it will exclusively be available as a subscription, the price of which has yet to be determined because running the servers to keep up with all the transcriptions will be expensive for Nuance. The desktop application will be sold at a flat rate.

[The video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=55&v=rnsqVawvuJU

Another toy for my students. (Digest Item #2)

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/hackers-ashley-madison-speak-stephen-hawking-tech-news-digest/

Get Stephen Hawking’s Voice Software

The speech software that gives Stephen Hawking a voice despite his severe physical disabilities is now available for free. Intel has released the Assistive Context-Aware Toolkit (ACAT) as open-source code in the hopes that developers will expand its capabilities to a wider range of disabilities.

ACAT allows Hawking to express himself using nothing more than small facial movements, which are translated into text. The software has allowed Hawking, the world’s most famous theoretical physicist, to enjoy a long and illustrious career despite being diagnosed with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) at the age of 21.

Sai Prasad, ACAT’s project owner, said, “Our hope is that, by open sourcing this configurable platform, developers will continue to expand on this system by adding new user interfaces, new sensing modalities, word prediction and many other features”. The software and user guide can be found on Github.

Dilbert on “undue reliance.”

http://dilbert.com/strip/2015-08-19