Yet I still fall
victim to “The Wife Effect” – “Yeah, yeah. Now take out the
garbage...”
“The
Haley Effect?”
November 22, 2012 by admin
In response to my post yesterday about
Governor Haley’s
repeated mis-statements, Centennial
Man writes:
Perhaps we have a
new meme to complement the Streisand Effect. The Haley Effect is the
repeated attempt by politicians to convince voters that they know
something when they clearly do not…
There’s always room for a good meme.
The Haley Effect works for me.
Would
you put this into the “Worst Practices” category? Machiavelli
certainly would. In The Prince he says, “Hence it is to be
remarked that, in seizing a state, [or becoming CEO
Bob] the usurper ought to examine closely into all those
injuries which it is necessary for him to inflict, and to do
them all at one stroke so as not to have to repeat them daily;
and thus by not unsettling men he will be able to reassure them, and
win them to himself by benefits. ”
Numbers
from Nationwide Insurance breach dribble out
November 22, 2012 by admin
I wish companies would heed my advice
and get the bad news out at all once instead of staying in the news
cycle as each new revelation hits the media.
We are starting to get numbers on the
hack of Nationwide
Insurance and Allied Insurance that I reported here on November
17:
and we know that California
and Vermont
also have affected residents, although we don’t those numbers yet.
So this looks to be a nationwide breach
(no pun intended) and it may be a while before we know how many
people were affected, total.
“I hack, therefore I am?” Most
likely the semi-public face of a state actor or maybe a way for
criminal types to advertise?
Hacking
For The Sake Of It: ‘Eboz’ Downed Google, Apple, 300 Other
Pakistani Sites, And Many More Just To Show It Can?
Pakistan’s internet-using population
were slammed today with a systematic
take-down of local versions of some of the world’s biggest
names in tech, and several hours after first going down, Google.pk,
Google.com.pk, Yahoo.pk, Apple.pk, Microsoft.pk still do not appear
to be working. In all, it appears that 279
other sites in Pakistan were hacked by a group that appears to be
Turkish and calls itself Eboz. Little else is known about Eboz, but
it appears that Eboz has been hacking into many other sites, with
Pakistan merely today’s target.
Here’s what else we have found:
A search
in the Zone-h archive of defaced websites, notes hundreds of sites
that have been defaced by Eboz — in all, the number totals 313,
with 85 single IP and 228 “mass defacements.”. Many are Turkish
but the full list covers a number of countries and top-level domains.
This list doesn’t appear to contain today’s Pakistani list,
meaning that Eboz is now linked to some 600 take-downs.
I do love a good catch phrase...
The
Fourth Amendment and Faulty Originalism
November 24, 2012 by Dissent
FourthAmendment.com
points us to an essay by Joseph R. Stromberg on the Foundation for
Economic Education (FEE). Here’s how it begins:
“All arrests are at the
peril of the party making them.”
—Alexander H. Stephens, August 27, 1863
—Alexander H. Stephens, August 27, 1863
These days the
Fourth Amendment to the Constitution means next to nothing.
Consider, for example, the choice offered a few years ago:
surveillance under routine, easy “warrants” from the
drive-through FISA Court or warrantless surveillance at the whim of
George W. Bush and his allegedly boundless reserve of
unitary-executive authority. A January 2006 Justice Department memo
(“Legal Authorities Supporting the Activities of the National
Security Agency . . .”) explained the executive’s claims in
mind-numbing and unconvincing detail. But the memo at least
suggested how far below any practical service to Americans’ liberty
the Fourth Amendment has fallen, and did so by heaping up available
(and rather bad) search-and-seizure precedents, many of which arose
from the terminally futile war on drugs (pages 37–38). The result
is something like “your Constitution on drugs”—with
the searchers and seizers on steroids.
Read the full essay on FEE.
How do I stalk thee? Let me count the
ways.
I stalk thee to the depth and breadth
and height the Internet can reach
… Doxing is a term that describes
the process of obtaining or deducing information about a person based
on a limited set of initial information. Or in layman’s terms,
doxing is the act of searching around on the Internet for someone’s
personal details. Another way to view doxing is to see it as taking
a piece of information (e.g., email address) and identifying someone
based on that.
The term “doxing” derives from
“document tracing” which means to gather documents on a
particular person or company to learn more about them. In the age of
the Internet, doxing is more like social engineering – gathering
information on someone using publicly available sources.
If that doesn't work, I'm sure there
are other things they could cut off...
"Pakistan's interior minister
Friday said the government will
suspend cell phone services in most parts of the country over the
next two days to prevent attacks against Shia Muslims during a key
religious commemoration. Militants often detonate bombs using cell
phones and this is the first time the government has implemented such
a wide-scale suspension. Saturday and Sunday are the most important
days of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar, especially
important to Shias. Pakistani Shias Sunday observe Ashoura,
commemorating the 7th century death of Imam Hussein, the Prophet
Muhammad's grandson. Different parts of the Muslim world mark
Ashoura on different days —neighbouring Afghanistan, for example,
observes it on Saturday. 'The suspension of cell phone services will
begin at 6 am Saturday and run through the next day,' Interior
Minister Rehman Malik told reporters in Pakistan's capital,
Islamabad. He said 90 per cent of the bombs set off by militants in
Pakistan have been detonated using cell phones. Some criticized the
government for suspending services, saying it was a huge
inconvenience."
“Even if you can't know, we'll treat
you as if you did know.”
Anonymous file-sharing is booming.
Whether it’s BitTorrent through a VPN, proxy, or other anonymizing
services, people are increasingly looking to hide their identities
online.
One application that gained interest
earlier this year is RetroShare.
… The RetroShare network allows
people to create a private and encrypted file-sharing network. Users
add friends by exchanging PGP certificates with people they trust.
All the communication is encrypted using OpenSSL and files that are
downloaded from strangers always go through a trusted friend.
… This week a Hamburg court ruled
against a RetroShare user who passed on an encrypted transfer that
turned out to be a copyrighted music file. The user
in question was not aware of the transfer, and merely passed on the
data in a way similar to how TOR
works.
The court, however, ruled that the user
in question, who was identified by the copyright holder, is
responsible for passing on the encrypted song.
… “The defendant is liable for
the infringement of troublemakers,” the court explained in its
ruling.
… RetroShare derives its security
from the fact that all transfers go through “trusted friends” who
users themselves add. In this case, the defendant
added the anti-piracy monitoring company as a friend, which allowed
him to be “caught.” [This suggests that the “monitoring
company” send the file to themselves. How else would they know
what was inside the encrypted file? Bob]
More troubling is the precedent the
ruling sets for people who run open wireless networks, as the same
issues arise there. According to this ruling Internet subscribers
are responsible for the transfers that take place on their networks,
making them liable for the copyright infringements of others.
Update: Contrary
to the U.S. and elsewhere, a previous
ruling in Germany already makes wireless network operators liable
for copyright infringements of others.
“We want to welcome y'all back to
school and assure you that there will be no repercusions. We even
got you this nifty T-shirt with a big red 'A' to ensure your
'Acceptance.'”
"A district court judge for
Bexar County has granted
a temporary restraining order (TRO) to ensure that Andrea
Hernandez, a San Antonio high school student from John Jay High
School's Science and Engineering Academy, can continue her studies
pending an upcoming trial. The Northside Independent School District
(NISD) in Texas recently informed the sophomore student that she
would
be suspended for refusing to wear a 'Smart' Student ID card
embedded with a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tracking chip."
Perhaps their
politicians are more thoughtful than our politicians? But clearly,
this is going to happen in some form eventually.
Uzbekistan
To Create National DNA Database
November 23, 2012 by Dissent
RIA
Novosti reports:
Uzbekistan will
create a national DNA database to help track and fight crime, a
spokesperson for the country’s Legislative Chamber told RIA Novosti
Friday.
The parliament is
expected to formulate a law “on genetic registration,” which will
establish a legal basis for the collection and storage of citizens’
biological samples, by 2013.
The plan, approved
by the government last week, is sponsored by Uzbekistan’s Ministry
of Justice, the spokesperson said, and will “serve as a deterrent
against those convicted of crime and will have preventive value” on
crime in Uzbekistan.
While the
spokesman said DNA registration, which will be overseen by interior
officials, will be voluntary, it will be required of those convicted
of or currently serving a sentence for grave crimes.
Actually, that’s less Orwellian than
what we have here in the U.S., where many states have enacted
legislation authorizing collection of DNA samples from those simply
arrested for crimes (not just following conviction).
This will never catch on as a legal
specialty. How would you find a lawyer by word of mouth?
"Computerworld asks: What will
happen if big advertisers declare AdBlock Plus a clear and present
danger to online business models? Hint: it
will probably involve lawyers. From the article: 'Could browser
ad blocking one day become so prevalent that it jeopardises
potentially billions of dollars of online ad revenue, and the primary
business models of many online and new media businesses? If so, it
will inevitably face legal attack.'"
This could get
real messy but I 'm not sure there will be any useful precedents.
"A pretrial hearing in the case
against accused LulzSec hacker Jeremy Hammond this week ended with
the 27-year-old Chicago man being told he could
be sentenced to life in prison for compromising the computers of
Stratfor. Judge Loretta Preska told Hammond in a Manhattan courtroom
on Tuesday that he could be sentenced to serve anywhere from 360
months-to-life if convicted on all charges relating to last year's
hack of Strategic Forecasting, or Stratfor, a global intelligence
company whose servers were infiltrated by an offshoot of the
hacktivist collective Anonymous. Hammond is not likely to take the
stand until next year, but so far has been imprisoned for eight
months without trial. Legal proceedings in the case might soon be
called into question, however, after it's been revealed that Judge
Preska's husband was a victim of the Stratfor hack."
Take this
course, solve the “problem,” win a prize. Interesting idea.
"UNSW professor Richard
Buckland, lecturer of the famous Computing 1 course on YouTube,
is now running a large scale open online Computer Science course for
the world. UNSW
Computing 1 — PuzzleQuest and the Art of Programming starts off
with microprocessors and works it way through C with interactive
activities while taking students on an
adventure of hacking, cracking and problem solving.
It's based around a three month long PuzzleQuest with grand and
suspiciously unspecified prizes as well as fame and glory for the
intrepid. The next class starts December 3rd 2012."
Hmmm. I already
have several students with Top Secret Codeword clearance...
"The Los Angeles Times has a
story about the two-year University
of Tulsa Cyber Corps Program. About '85% of the 260 graduates
since 2003 have gone to the NSA, which students call "the
fraternity," or the CIA, which they call "the sorority."'
'Other graduates have taken positions with the FBI, NASA and the
Department of Homeland Security.' According to the University
of Tulsa website, two programs — the National Science
Foundation's Federal Cyber Service: Scholarship for Service and the
Department of Defense's (DOD's) Information Assurance Scholarship
Program — provide scholarships to Cyber Corps students."
I have no
artistic ability so it amuses me to watch those who do.
… If you are looking for a tool
that helps you create patterns in an easier way, then you need to
look for something made specifically with user friendliness in mind.
You need an app that offers intuitive
controls and lets you work with patterns and images that you already
have. All of this is offered by a web service called SymmetryMill.
Works well in Chrome, Firefox, and
Internet Explorer.
The bits I find interesting...
… Another week, another round of
MOOC-related news: This week, MassBay and Bunker Hill community
colleges became the
first community colleges to join edX, the
Harvard-MIT-UT-UC Berkeley-MOOC platform. The two colleges will
offer “MITx 6.00x Introduction to Computer Science and Programming”
in a “blended” format — that is, with both virtual and
face-to-face components. Students will pay the same
for these classes as they would regular classes — yet
another indication that this whole MOOC acronym doesn’t really work
any more.
…
The City University of New York launched “Commons
in a Box” this week, its open source platform to make
it easier for groups to create and maintain online communities.
Commons in a Box is built on WordPress and Buddy Press and is
designed to be simple to install, as well as to make online
communication and collaboration easier.
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