Gary Alexander provides an article that just makes me giggle... I will definitely be using this one in my classes. (Note that studying ethics does not make you ethical...)
Feds: Harvard fellow hacked millions of papers
A Harvard University fellow who was studying ethics was charged with hacking into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's computer network to steal nearly 5 million academic articles.
… In an indictment released Tuesday, prosecutors say Swartz stole 4.8 million articles between September 2010 and January after breaking into a computer wiring closet on MIT's campus. Swartz, a student at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, downloaded so many documents during one October day that some of JSTOR's computer servers crashed, according to the indictment.
… A spokeswoman for JSTOR said Tuesday that Swartz had agreed to return all the articles so the company can ensure they aren't distributed. [How could either side prove that this happened? Bob]
… Demand Progress's executive director David Segal said on the website that the charges against Swartz don't make sense.
"It's like trying to put someone in jail for allegedly checking too many books out of the library," he said.
… Swartz had legitimate access to JSTOR through Harvard, but the company has usage restrictions that would have prevented such colossal downloads.
… According to the indictment, Swartz connected a laptop to MIT's system in September 2010 through a basement network wiring closet and registered as a guest under the fictitious name, Gary Host, in which the first initial and last name spell "ghost." [Apparently there was no restriction if you registered as “Guest?” Bob] He then used a software program to "rapidly download at extraordinary volume of articles from JSTOR," according to the indictment.
In the following months, MIT and JSTOR tried to block the recurring and massive downloads, on occasion denying all MIT users access to JSTOR. But Swartz allegedly got around it, in part, by disguising the computer source of the demands for data.
In November and December, Swartz allegedly made 2 million downloads from JSTOR, 100 times the number made during the same period by all legitimate JSTOR users at MIT.
Banks can't control how you build and maintain your end of the “secure transaction” link. But should they assume you didn't do it correctly?
http://www.databreaches.net/?p=19738
IL: Crystal Lake District 47 sues Home State Bank to recover hacking losses
July 21, 2011 by admin
Sarah Sutschek reports on another interesting case to follow in the courts:
About two years after losing more than $300,000 when its computer system was hacked, Crystal Lake District 47 is suing Home State Bank.
The lawsuit, filed in McHenry County, seeks $306,014 and “whatever other relief this court deems appropriate.”
According to the lawsuit, filed this week, unknown individuals hacked into the District 47 computer system in June 2009 through a “Clampi virus” and gained access to user names and passwords.
That information then was used to access the online banking system of Home State Bank, where the district had an account used to make direct deposit payroll payments for employees. A total of 46 fraudulent transfers were made.
Read more on Northwest Herald.
A government privacy standard?
http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=23787
NIST proposes new privacy controls for federal information systems and organizations
July 21, 2011 by Dissent
… The new document, Privacy Control Catalog, will become Appendix J of Security Controls for Federal Information Systems and Organizations (NIST Special Publication 800-53, Revision 4). One of the foundational Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) documents, SP 800-53 is being updated to Revision 4 in December, 2011. SP 800-53 is also one of the Joint Task Force Transformation Initiative documents that NIST produces with the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community.
“Privacy and security controls in federal information systems are complementary and mutually reinforcing in trying to achieve the privacy and security objectives of organizations,” said NIST Fellow Ron Ross, project leader of the FISMA Implementation Project and Joint Task Force.
Incorporating privacy controls into SP 800-53 and taking advantage of established security controls to provide a solid foundation for information security helps to ensure that privacy requirements will be satisfied in a comprehensive, cost-effective, and risk-based manner.
[...]
The publication may be found at http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/PubsDrafts.html#SP-800-53-Appendix%20J
Read the full press release.
[From the press release:
The new privacy appendix:
Provides a structured set of privacy controls, based on international standards and best practices, that help organizations enforce requirements deriving from federal privacy legislation, policies, regulations, directives, standards and guidance;
Establishes a linkage and relationship between privacy and security controls for purposes of enforcing respective privacy and security requirements, which may overlap in concept and in implementation within federal information systems and organizations;
Demonstrates the applicability of the NIST Risk Management Framework in the selection, implementation, assessment and monitoring of privacy controls deployed in federal information systems and organizations; and
Promotes closer cooperation between privacy and security officials within the federal government to help achieve the objectives of senior leaders/executives in enforcing the requirements in federal privacy legislation, policies, regulations, directives, standards and guidance.
Gee, maybe the People's Republic of Massachusetts doesn't have “Secret” police. Even “activists” can understand the law, why can't the police?
Jury Acquits Citizens of Illegally Filming Police
"The Springfield (MA) Republican reports two men accused of illegally filming the process as they bailed friends out of jail that last summer, were acquitted of all charges Tuesday. Pete Eyre and Adam Mueller initially were granted permission to film the bail process, but later were forbidden by jail officials from recording the procedure. When they continued to digitally recording their encounter with jail officials, they were arrested by police. Eyre and Mueller testified that they never attempted to hide the fact that they were recording at the jail. Not only did they ask permission to film the bail-out process — which initially was granted — but their recording devices were 'out in the open,' Eyre said. The Jury found the defendants not guilty of three criminal counts: Each was acquitted of unlawful wiretapping, while Mueller also was acquitted of a charge of resisting arrest."
[From the article:
The prosecution claimed the defendants recorded law enforcement officials, then posted the nearly 28-minute video clip on the Internet without the officers' knowledge.
Northwestern Assistant District Attorney Jeffrey Banks argued that because the officers were unaware their images were transmitted to a third party and uploaded to the Web, that process took place in secrecy -- a violation of a so-called wiretapping statute forbidding the secret recording or hearing of a conversation, or aiding in the transmission or hearing of that conversation.
[Apparently it would have been Okay to record the officers as long as no one actually looked at the recording... Bob]
Privacy theater. They overlay a neutral image on the scan image. I must assume that the original image is still there and could be saved and retrieved at will.
TSA Announces Privacy Overhaul of Nude Airport Scanners
… The announcement came despite a federal appeals court decision last week upholding the government’s right to use the advanced imaging technology, or AIT, scanners. The scanners produce a virtual nude image of travelers before they enter the terminal areas. The software upgrade, which will be installed on all the 250-plus scanners employing millimeter wave technology, will instead show a “generic outline of a person,” the TSA said.
Why yes, now that you point it out, those data centers are completely worthless. But you have to remember, they were built to pay back people who contributed to our campaign fund, not for any useful purpose.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-20081384-38/government-shutting-down-hundreds-of-data-centers/
Government shutting down hundreds of data centers
The U.S. government is aiming to pull the plug on hundreds of unneeded data centers over the next few years in an attempt to save the taxpayers some hard-earned cash.
In blog published yesterday, the White House's Office of Management and Budget admitted that instead of consolidating data centers as many businesses have done in recent years, the government went in the opposite direction. Between 1998 and 2010, federal agencies actually quadrupled their number of data centers despite increases in the efficiency of data storage.
It's not hardware, it's not software, it's “Cloudware” (can I register that trademark?)
OS X 10.7 Lion Ditches the Disk, Offers Cloud-Only Recovery
… The very first thing that is impossible to ignore is that Lion only exists in the ether. There are not, nor will there be, physical media carrying the installer. Instead, you have to either buy a new Mac with Lion pre-installed, or download the 3.5GB installer from the Mac App Store. [UPDATE 2011-07-21 09:49:45. Apple will sell a Lion USB thumb drive for $70, starting in August. It will still be a lot cheaper to make your own]
… And what happens if your computer goes belly-up? Is there a recovery disk in the box? Nope. Apple gets around this by partitioning the boot drive and putting a utility called Lion Recovery onto it. When you have trouble, press Command-R when you start up and you’ll be booted into recovery mode. From there you can repair the disk, reinstall Lion or restore from a Time Machine backup.
I know what you’re thinking. What if the drive is completely dead? How do I rescue my Mac then? Well, the news is good and bad. The good is that, even if you slot in a brand-new, bare hard drive, the Mac will boot into “Internet Recovery” mode. This connects to Apple’s servers and grabs a copy of Lion Recovery, and you go from there. This works thanks to firmware installed on Lion-capable Macs bought from now on.
Logically, I wouldn't bother to pirate a copy of something I wasn't interested in (unless I was doing it for someone who was interested) so let's assume “interest” It follows that this report makes sense.
Suppressed Report Shows Pirates Are Good Customers
"The movie and music industry think pirates are criminals and parasites who cost both industries billions of dollars in lost sales. In order to prove this fact a number of studies have been commissioned to help demonstrate the effect a pirate has on sales of entertainment. GfK Group is one of the largest market research companies in the world and is often used by the movie industry to carry out research and studies into piracy. Talking to a source within GfK who wished to remain anonymous, Telepolis found that a recent study looking at pirates and their purchasing activities found them to be almost the complete opposite of the criminal parasites the entertainment industry want them to be. The study states that it is much more typical for a pirate to download an illegal copy of a movie to try it before purchasing. They are also found to purchase more DVDs than the average consumer, and they visit the movie theater more, especially for opening weekend releases which typically cost more to attend."
For my students. I don't care what you use, as long as you use something!
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2388652,00.asp
The Best Free Antivirus Software
(Ditto) Because free is good
Ten Great Free Alternatives to Adobe Acrobat For Editing PDF
(Double Ditto)
Thursday, July 21, 2011
7 Tools for Creating Mind Maps and Outlines Online
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