Lesson: Listen to your auditors...
Foreign Hackers Attack Canadian Government
"According to the CBC: 'An unprecedented cyberattack on the Canadian government from China has given foreign hackers access to highly classified federal information, and forced at least two key departments off the internet, CBC News has learned. The attack, first detected in early January, left Canadian counter-espionage agents scrambling to determine how much sensitive government information may have been stolen and by whom.' It should be noted that the Auditor-General warned of this months ago and was ignored by everyone as she usually is. It should also be noted that public sentiment towards China is getting very, very testy."
“Just a bit over aggressive” or practicing for the Internet Kill Switch?
US Gov't Mistakenly Shuts Down 84,000 Sites
"Last Friday, the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) seized ten websites accused of selling counterfeit goods or trafficking in child pornography. However, in the process, about 84,000 unrelated websites were taken offline when the government mistakenly seized the domain of a large DNS provider, FreeDNS. By now, the mistake has been corrected and most of the websites' domains again point to the sites themselves, rather than an intimidating domain seizure image. In a press release, the DHS praised themselves for taking down those ten websites, but completely failed to acknowledge their massive blunder."
Will this eventually force us to “design for surveillance?”
http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=20907
FBI to Announce New Internet-Wiretapping Push
February 17, 2011 by Dissent
Yesterday, I noted that there is a hearing in the House of Representatives this morning on surveillance. Declan McCullagh reports:
The FBI is expected to reveal Thursday that because of the rise of Web-based e-mail and social networks, it’s “increasingly unable” to conduct certain types of surveillance that would be possible on cellular and traditional telephones.
FBI general counsel Valerie Caproni will outline what the bureau is calling the “Going Dark” problem, meaning that police can be thwarted when conducting court-authorized eavesdropping because Internet companies aren’t required to build in backdoors in advance, or because technology doesn’t permit it.
Read more on CBS.
(Related)
http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=20896
Hearing: “Going Dark: Lawful Electronic Surveillance in the Face of New Technologies”
February 16, 2011 by Dissent
The House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security is holding a hearing Thursday morning, Feb. 17 at 10:00 am:
“Going Dark: Lawful Electronic Surveillance in the Face of New Technologies”
The scheduled witness list is:
Valerie E. Caproni General Counsel, Federal Bureau of Investigation
Chief Mark A. Marshall President, International Association of Chiefs of Police
Susan Landau, PhD Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University
Their written statements will most likely be available on the hearing page during the hearing.
“An OVER-abundance of caution?”
http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=20904
AU: Accused win battle to delete web history
February 17, 2011 by Dissent
Geesche Jacobsen reports:
Newspapers, including the Herald, have been ordered to remove old articles from their websites after a court ruled they might interfere with a fair trial.
The decision, one of the first of its kind, came after lawyers for three accused men argued jurors might develop prejudice by reading any of 10 selected articles.
The Supreme Court yesterday ordered the removal of these reports from the online sites of various newspapers for the duration of the trial over the death of the former drug dealer Terry Falconer, due to start next week.
Read more in The Age.
[From the article:
But the decision has no impact on thousands of other internet hits for the names of one or more of the accused - Anthony John Michael Perish, Mathew Robert Lawton, and Andrew Michael Perish. The court heard a Google search last month found 6930 references to the name of one of the men on Australian sites alone.
The order was imposed even though jurors will be told not to look up the case on the internet or discuss it with anyone.
… The barrister Dauid Sibtain had argued the orders were unnecessary and the media organisations should not be in a position ''less favourable'' than others who had posted material.
The orders ''lacked practical utility'' because other copies of the article may remain online, but Justice Price rejected this.
Sort of like a fear of public speaking, but with a global audience?
Number of Facebook Friends Linked To Anxiety
"WebProNews reports that according to a new survey, the more Facebook friends you have, the more likely you are to feel stressed out by the site. 'The results threw up a number of paradoxes,' says Dr Kathy Charles, who led the study. 'For instance, although there is great pressure to be on Facebook there is also considerable ambivalence amongst users about its benefits.' Causes of stress included deleting unwanted contacts, the pressure to be entertaining, and having to use appropriate etiquette for different types of friends. 'Like gambling, Facebook keeps users in a neurotic limbo, not knowing whether they should hang on in there just in case they miss out on something good.'"
Concise.
http://www.phiprivacy.net/?p=5960
The Personally Controlled eHealth Record (PCEHR) Checklist of Privacy Concerns
By Dissent, February 17, 2011
Draft paper by the Australian Privacy Foundation can be found on their site. Many of the concerns they raise are the same ones we’ve seen here and elsewhere, and need to be addressed.
Another privacy guide...
http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=20893
Data at Your Fingertips: Biometrics and the Challenges to Privacy
February 16, 2011 by Dissent
From the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada:
Canadians are witnessing a growing interest among government and private-sector organizations in adopting systems that use biometric characteristics to automatically identify people or verify their identity. But whether a fingertip, a face or an iris is being scanned, what’s being collected is personal information about an identifiable individual.
And that makes it our interest too.
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada has prepared this primer on biometrics and the systems that use them. It also describes some of the privacy implications raised by this emerging field, as well as measures to mitigate the risks.
Data at Your Fingertips: Biometrics and the Challenges to Privacy (pdf)
Clearly, the future is cloudy...
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/026538.html
February 16, 2011
Federal Cloud Computing Strategy Published
"The Federal Cloud Computing Strategy was published February 13, 2011, marking a milestone in the Administration’s 25-Point Implementation Plan To Reform Federal IT Management. The strategy is designed to help the government deliver value to the public by increasing the operational efficiency of Federal IT dollars, and responding faster to taxpayer needs. In releasing the report, Federal CIO Vivek Kundra noted, “The adoption of cloud computing will play a pivotal role in helping the government close the productivity gap between the public and private sectors.” The strategy outlines how the Federal government can accelerate the safe, secure adoption of cloud computing, and provides agencies with a framework for migrating to the cloud. It also examines how agencies can address challenges related to the adoption of cloud computing, such as privacy, procurement, standards, and governance... Moving forward, agencies are required to evaluate their technology sourcing strategies so that cloud computing options are fully considered, consistent with the “Cloud First” policy outlined in the 25-Point Implementation Plan, which states: “The three-part strategy on cloud technology will revolve around using commercial cloud technologies where feasible, launching private government clouds, and utilizing regional clouds with state and local governments where appropriate.”
“You can 'buy' our toy, but you have to play the games we want you to play – or we take our toy and go home.”
Sony's Official Statement Regarding PS3 Hacking
"Sony has stepped up its stance on anyone circumventing protection of any kind on the PlayStation 3 and released a statement addressing it. Most recently Sony had barred George Hotz (Geohot) from releasing any more information about the console whatsoever. Now, Sony has their eyes set on other users that may be trying to use pirated software or modded PlayStation consoles on their network. The statement reads: 'Notice: Unauthorized circumvention devices for the PlayStation 3 system have been recently released by hackers. These devices permit the use of unauthorized or pirated software. Use of such devices or software violates the terms of the "System Software License Agreement for the PlayStation 3 System" and the "Terms of Services and User Agreement" for the PlayStation Network/Qriocity and its Community Code of Conduct provisions. Violation of the System Software Licence Agreement for the PlayStation 3 System invalidates the consumer guarantee for that system. In addition, copying or playing pirated software is a violation of International Copyright Laws. Consumers using circumvention devices or running unauthorized or pirated software will have access to the PlayStation Network and access to Qriocity services through PlayStation 3 system terminated permanently.'"
Finding 'stuff' in your many online tools...
Greplin’s Social Search Opens Its Doors To All
Greplin, the service that indexes and lets you search all of your online social stuff (Gmail, Twitter, Facebook, etc.), has just opened its doors to everyone.
… Why would you want to use Greplin? Because it lets you search across all of your emails, Facebook data and Twitter stuff with one query. And they haven’t stopped there. You can also authorize Google Apps, Dropbox, LinkedIn, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Evernote, Yammer, Salesforce, Box.net, Basecamp, Google Voice, Google Reader, Google Contacts and more. And then find stuff in those apps with a single query.
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