(Yet another “We don't want to spend
the money, let's ask the government to “do it for us!”) Where's
the fun in that? My Ethical Hackers would be happy to see if they
can speed up or shut off your pacemaker.
Board
Urges Feds to Prevent Medical Device Hacking
In the wake of increasing concern about
the security of wireless medical devices, a privacy and security
advisory board is calling on the government to grant the FDA or other
federal entity the authority to assess the security of devices before
they’re released for sale to the market.
Clear legal reasoning is like
pornography – I know it when I see it. Unfortunately, I see lots
more pornography than clear reasoning. (And this from the 9th!
Go figure.)
Court
Rebukes DOJ, Says Hacking Required to Be Prosecuted as Hacker
Employees may not be prosecuted under a
federal anti-hacking statute for simply violating their employer’s
computer use policy, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday, dealing a
blow to the Obama administration’s Justice Department, which is
trying to use the same theory to prosecute alleged WikiLeaks leaker
Bradley Manning.
The case, decided by the 9th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals, concerns the Computer
Fraud and Abuse Act, which was passed in 1984 to enhance the
government’s ability to prosecute hackers who accessed computers to
steal information or to disrupt or destroy computer functionality.
At least, that’s what the court says
is the act’s purpose.
The government, however, has
interpreted the anti-hacking provisions to include activities such as
violating
a website’s terms of service or a company’s computer usage
policy, a position the court said means “millions of unsuspecting
individuals would find that they are engaging in criminal conduct.”
The court said that violations of employee contract agreements and
websites’ terms of service were better left to civil lawsuits.
“Under the government’s proposed
interpretation of the CFAA, posting for sale an item prohibited by
Craigslist’s policy, or describing yourself as ‘tall, dark and
handsome,’ when you are actually short and homely, will earn you a
handsome orange jumpsuit,” the court ruled, adding in a footnote
that the government’s interpretation of the law opens employees up
to be arrested, not merely fired, for playing Farmville at work.
Two in a row? I'm
stunned!
Fifth
Circuit Considers Constitutionality of Cell Site Location Data
April 11, 2012 by Dissent
Susan Freiwald writes:
Department of
Justice litigators just filed a reply
brief in an exciting but complex case in the Fifth Circuit that
concerns law enforcement access to cell site location data. As
amicus curiae, I hope to deepen readers’ understanding of the basic
issues in the case and also to provide some insider’s insights.
This blog post will furnish the background that later postings will
draw upon.
The litigation
began when Magistrate Judge Smith rejected three
government applications for cell site location data that did not
purport to satisfy probable cause. I highly recommend Judge Smith’s
thoughtful
opinion that holds that agents must obtain a warrant
to compel service providers to disclose a target subscriber’s
stored records of cell phone location data. Justice Department
lawyers appealed Judge Smith’s denial, as well as the District
Court’s order
that agreed with Judge Smith, because they
claim the right to compel disclosure whenever they satisfy the
“relevance standard” under 18
U.S.C. § 2703(d) (“D order”).
Read more on Concurring
Opinions.
(Related) I'll believe it when my
Ethical Hackers can't get in...
This
Internet provider pledges to put your privacy first. Always.
… The ISP would not merely employ
every technological means at its disposal, including encryption and
limited logging, to protect its customers. It would also -- and in
practice this is likely more important -- challenge government
surveillance demands of dubious legality or constitutionality.
A decade of revelations has underlined
the intimate relationship between many telecommunications companies
and Washington officialdom. Leading providers including AT&T and
Verizon handed
billions of customer telephone records to the National Security
Agency; only Qwest refused to participate. Verizon turned
over customer data to the FBI without court orders. An AT&T
whistleblower accused the company of illegally opening
its network to the NSA, a practice that the U.S. Congress
retroactively made
legal in 2008.
By contrast, Merrill says his ISP, to
be run by a non-profit called the Calyx
Institute with for-profit subsidiaries, will put customers first.
"Calyx will use all legal and technical means available to
protect the privacy and integrity of user data," he says
Maury
Nichols sent the link to this article. Always
gratifying to know someone reads my Clippings...
Can
the Government Force the Surrender of Encryption Keys?
… Encrypted data is accessible only
through the use of a password or encryption key, and this encryption
raises several questions. What happens when the government wants to
read encrypted documents? Can the government make you turn over your
password or encryption key? Does the right to remain silent or the
privilege against self-incrimination provide any protection? Some
believe that the answer to this question may be one of the most
important technology-related legal questions of the next decade.
Yesterday the FBI told us there is no
security. Today there is a suggestion that Privacy is pretty much
non-existent too.
UK:
New smart meter privacy guidelines restrict suppliers’ access to
data
April 11, 2012 by Dissent
Derek Du Preez reports:
The Department of
Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has proposed tough new measures that
would restrict how suppliers and network operators access and use
consumer data obtained via smart meters.
For instance,
suppliers of gas or electricity could end up only having access to
monthly energy consumption data, which they could only use for
billing purposes.
Read more on Computerworld
(NZ)
If they really spent $1 Billion to keep
Instagram away from Twitter, that's paranoia. But now that they have
it...
Privacy
concerns after Instagram’s acquisition by Facebook
April 11, 2012 by Dissent
Graham Cluley writes:
It’s the big
tech headline of the week: Facebook has announced it is buying the
popular photo-sharing app Instagram for a cool billion dollars.
But should
Instagram’s 30 million users – who are reportedly uploading five
million new photos to the service each day – have worries about the
acquisition?
Read more on NakedSecurity.
If you believe that you
are completely unable to say “No!” then it makes sense to ask the
government to “do it for you.” After all, they want to do
everything for you. If you don't need the government to intervene,
then you must be a small government advocate.
Maryland
becomes first state to ban employers from asking for social media
passwords
April 10, 2012 by Dissent
Kevin Rector reports:
Employers in
Maryland would be prohibited from asking current and prospective
employees for their user names and passwords to websites such as
Facebook and Twitter under legislation that passed the General
Assembly and now awaits signature from Gov. Martin O’Malley.
Read more in the Baltimore
Sun.
Because it was a Maryland
state agency case that really
raised public consciousness about this issue, it seems only right
that they’d be the first state to pass a law prohibiting it.
Well done, folks. Now let’s see if
Montana also passes one, as this whole matter first really came to
public attention over Bozeman’s
hiring policies.
No surprises here... (May include a
dash of bias...)
"Jonathan Corbett, creator of
the video showing that TSA's body scanners can't
see metal objects on our sides, has a new video out. This time
he's interviewing an experienced TSA screener identified only as
'Jennifer,' and her
allegations point to 'fatal flaws' in TSA and its procedures.
Worse, TSA's screeners are well aware of these flaws. According to
Jennifer, body scanners frequently fail to detect objects on
passengers, and this flaw is well known to the screeners on the job.
People with visible items in their pockets can pass through scanners
without detection, even when the items are simulated weapons or
explosives. Jennifer also alleges that training for screeners is
severely lacking. Screeners are directed to operate body scanners,
even the X-ray scanners, without any training whatsoever. The manual
of standard operating procedures often can't be found at the
checkpoints, let alone read. Jennifer was so alarmed by what she
experienced that she wrote her congressional representative to
complain. She was ultimately fired as a result, effective
yesterday."
Perspective
April 10, 2012
Gartner
Says Worldwide Media Tablets Sales to Reach 119 Million Units in 2012
News
release: Worldwide media tablet
sales to end users are forecast to total 118.9 million units in 2012,
a 98 percent increase from 2011 sales of 60 million units, according
to Gartner, Inc. Apple's iOS continues to be the dominant media
tablet operating system (OS), as it is projected to account for 61.4
percent of worldwide media tablet sales to end users in 2012.
Despite the arrival of Microsoft-based devices to this market, and
the expected international rollout of the Kindle Fire, Apple will
continue to be the market leader through the forecast period.
"Despite PC vendors and phone manufacturers wanting a piece of
the pie and launching themselves into the media tablet market, so
far, we have seen very limited success outside of Apple with its
iPad," said Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at
Gartner. "As vendors struggled to compete on price and
differentiate enough on either the hardware or ecosystem, inventories
were built and only 60 million units actually reached the hands of
consumers across the world. The situation has not improved in early
2012, when the arrival of the new iPad has reset the benchmark for
the product to beat."
A lot of this is already
accessible via WolframAlpha.
April 10, 2012
World
Bank Publications and Research Now Easier to Access, Reuse
News
release: "Two years after opening its vast storehouse of
data to the public, the World Bank is consolidating more than 2,000
books, articles, reports and research papers in a search-engine
friendly Open
Knowledge Repository, and allowing the public to distribute,
reuse and build upon much of its work—including commercially. The
repository, launched today, is a one-stop-shop for most of the Bank’s
research outputs and knowledge products, providing free and
unrestricted access to students, libraries, government officials and
anyone interested in the Bank’s knowledge. Additional material,
including foreign language editions and links to datasets, will be
added in the coming year. And, in a bid to promote knowledge-sharing
around the world, the Bank has become the first major international
organization to require open access under copyright licensing from
Creative Commons — a
non-profit organization whose copyright licenses are designed to
accommodate the expanded access to information afforded by the
Internet."
Most interesting, but you can only sign
up using your Facebook account? Bummer!
Wavii
Vows to Understand Entire Internet
Adrian Aoun wants to build a system
that instantly understands everything posted to the internet.
He started the project about three
years ago, and on Wednesday, he and his company, Wavii,
unveiled version number one. As it stands, Wavii’s
online service is a Facebook-like newsfeed for everything other than
Facebook. It feeds you news about what’s going on in
the world at large, not just random thoughts from your friends and
family. But in building this service, Aoun and company are tackling
a much larger problem. They’re trying to organize the internet’s
information in ways that machines can understand it.
I'll add this one to my
Math tools
Percentage
Calculator
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