Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Wow! I'm going to put a notice in my secure file area that I store nude photos – if that's not enough to scare hacker off, the 10 year sentence might be. Actually, this is more a “sex crime” than a hacking crime.
Hacker Who Leaked Nude Scarlett Johansen Photos Gets 10 Years in Prison
December 18, 2012 by Dissent
I generally don’t cover leaks of celebrities’ private info – whether it’s sex tapes or the contacts in their address books, etc. But the sentencing in this case is so severe compared to others, that it seems worth mentioning. Jason Mick reports:
Between November 2010 and October 2011, there were a rash of hacking of high-profile celebrities smartphones. Starlets like Scarlett Johansson, Christina Aguilera, Mila Kunis had sexually explicit or provocative pictures stolen from their devices and released onto the internet.
In Scarlett Johansson’s case fully nude pictures, meant to be seen by then-husband Ryan Reynolds were exposed for the world to see. She recalls, “I have been truly humiliated and embarrassed.”
But intrusions weren’t the work of a team of savvy hackers; they were the twisted hobby-horse of a single man, according to federal prosecutors – Christopher Chaney, a 35-year-old Jacksonville, Fla. resident.
On Monday, justice was served… The federal judge gave the hacker a prison sentence of 10 years after pleading guilty of several criminal counts under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 (18 USC § 1030) — unauthorized access to a computer and illegal wiretapping.
Read more on DailyTech.
[From the article:
Mr. Chaney could have faced a maximum sentence of 60 years in prison, but the sentence he did receive wasn't exactly lenient either. Prosecutors were only seeking a sentence of 6 years, but Judge Otero was concerned that Mr. Chaney hadn't truly changed his ways and needed longer away from the world of electronics. According to the Judge, prosecutors presented evidence that Mr. Chaney continued to pursue and harass women online after his arrest in October 2011.


That's not true, is it? Did I miss that line in the Constitution or is it a “Double Secret Probation” kind of law?
Feds spying on innocent Americans just in case we might commit future crimes
December 17, 2012 by Dissent
Darlene Storm reports:
As an innocent American, have you ever wondered how the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) agency gets around your privacy rights when it holds your information in databases for five years to analyze it for suspicious patterns of behavior. . . just in case you might commit future crimes? “All you have to do is publish a notice in the Federal Register and you can do whatever you want,” stated Robert Gellman who assists U.S. government agencies in developing policies on how to comply with the Federal Privacy Act.
Read more on Computerworld.

(Related) On the other hand...
"A leading Australian Internet service provider has pulled out of negotiations to create a warning notice scheme aimed at reducing online piracy. iiNet, the ISP that was sued by Hollywood after refusing to help chase down alleged infringers, said that it can't make any progress with rightsholders if they don't make their content freely available at a reasonable price. The ISP adds that holding extra data on customers' habits is inappropriate and not their responsibility."


As I read this, the guy left the drive at the school and someone looked inside to see if they could determine who owned it? (None of this is in the article) When they saw all this personel information they called the cops, suspecting that the schools info had been compromised? (speculation on my part) Interesting that the police got a search warrant before going any further.
Arizona man arrested for fraud after illegal info found on flash drive
December 18, 2012 by admin
KVOA reports:
A 34-year-old man was arrested Friday in Tempe after a tax fraud and identity theft investigation that began early this year, when authorities found a flash drive containing hundreds of names and personal information at Cochise College.
Back in February, the Sierra Vista Police Department was contacted by Cochise College employees after a flash drive was left in a school computer. On it were 800 to 900 names and associated personal information, according to a news release from SVPD.
The data seemingly had nothing to do with Cochise College, however, and law enforcement’s investigation revealed that Osabuohien Odyssey Oronsaye had purchased the identity info and financial info online. The data and details were reportedly acquired from phishing schemes.
Read more on KVOA.
So for $1.50, your details can be purchased for a tax refund fraud scheme that could lead to big headaches for you for years to come. And all because you fell for a phishing scheme. Kinda makes you want to slow down a bit before you click on links, doesn’t it? [Nopt in my experience Bob]
[From the article:
Detective Colin Festa obtained a search warrant for the drive and uncovered files with stolen identities and financial information, the release states. Because much of the information involved people from other states, assistance was obtained from the IRS and the Secret Service.


Have we learned nothing? It's hard to teach children the difference between “can” and “may” but it's even harder to teach the marketing department to run their great ideas past the lawyers...
Google Maps for iPhone violates European data protection law, German watchdog says
December 18, 2012 by Dissent
Loek Essers reports:
When users install Google Maps on their iPhone, the option to share location data with Google is switched on by default. By doing this, Google violates European data protection law, according to a German data protection watchdog.
Google Maps for iPhone appeared in the App Store on Wednesday and was welcomed by many after Apple stumbled with its own maps application. Google Maps quickly became the most popular free app in the App Store.
When the app is downloaded, Google prompts users to accept its terms of service and privacy policy in the startup screen.
Read more on Computerworld.
You really can’t read this story without thinking how here, Microsoft turning on DoNotTrack by default in IE10 resulted in such strong resistance and plans to disable it. Maybe I’m living in the wrong country when it comes to privacy.

(Related)
"A German privacy regulator ordered Facebook to stop enforcing its real name policy because it violates a German law that gives users the right to use nicknames online. 'We believe the orders are without merit, a waste of German taxpayers' money and we will fight it vigorously,' a Facebook spokeswoman said in an emailed statement."

(Related)
"Many Instagram users have reacted angrily to a proposed change to the apps terms of service by owner Facebook, which would give the social network 'perpetual' rights to all photos on Instagram, allowing it to sell the photos to advertisers without notice — or payment to the user. The new policy will come into effect on 16 January, just four months after Facebook completed its $1bn acquisition of Instagram. It states that Facebook has a right to distribute any content posted on Instagram without paying the user royalties:"
Also worth reading Declan McCullagh's take on it.
If Instagram‘s change of policy allowing it to sell photos has turned you off the sharing service, then you’ll be pleased to hear that there are tools to help you extract your digital life before shutting down your account. The terms of service tweaks which give Instagram license to sell rights to user images to advertisers and others has many looking for an escape route: read on for the free tools you’ll need.

(Related)
Would you like some spam with those fries?
December 18, 2012 by Dissent
Hamish Barwick reports:
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has issued a formal warning to McDonald’s Australia for sending emails which did not meet the requirements of the Spam Act.
An ACMA investigation found that emails sent via the McDonald’s Happy Meal website using the ‘send to friends’ option were sent without ensuring friend’s consent. The emails had no unsubscribe option either, which is required under the Act.
Read more on Computerworld (AU)


There are some examples we shouldn't follow.
Colombia Adopts Mandatory Backdoor and Data Retention Mandates
December 18, 2012 by Dissent
Katitza Rodriguez writes:
It seems like only yesterday that the Colombian government misused United States’ aid to spy on political opponents and human rights activists. Back in 2009, the “Las Chuzadas” scandal surrounding former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe landed former head of the intelligence agency Jorge Noguera in jail for 25 years for targeting political activists and collaborating with paramilitary death squads. This, and other various surveillance scandals, ultimately led to the dissolution of the Colombian intelligence agency.
But despite this history of human rights abuses, the Colombian Ministry of Justice and Technology has issued a decree that will further undermine the privacy rights of law-abiding Colombians.
Read more on EFF.


How to do it...
Deep Web Research and Discovery Resources 2013
By Marcus P. Zillman, Published on December 18, 2012
Bots, Blogs and News Aggregators (http://www.BotsBlogs.com/) is a keynote presentation that I have been delivering over the last several years, and much of my information comes from the extensive research that I have completed over the years into the "invisible" or what I like to call the "deep" web. The Deep Web covers somewhere in the vicinity of 1 trillion plus pages of information located through the world wide web in various files and formats that the current search engines on the Internet either cannot find or have difficulty accessing. The current search engines find hundreds of billions of pages at the present time of this writing. This report constantly updated at http://DeepWeb.us/ .


It's that time of year when we start seeing lists of “The Best” or “The Top” or “The Next”
"Shaun McGlaun of Slashgear writes: IBM has offered up its annual list of five innovations that will change our lives within five years. IBM calls the list the 'IBM 5 in 5.' The list covers innovations that IBM believes that the potential change the way people work, live, and interact over the next five years. The five innovations IBM lists this year include touch, sight, hearing, taste, and smell. "

(Related)
From Apple Maps to Epic Hacks: The Year’s Top Tech Fails


Tools for my AI class...
Mahout, There It Is! Open Source Algorithms Remake Overstock.com
Judd Bagley set out to build a web app that would serve up a never-ending stream of news stories tailored to your particular tastes. And he did. It’s called MyCurrent. But in creating this clever little app, Bagley also pushed online retailer Overstock.com away from the $2-million-a-year service it was using to generate product recommendations for web shoppers, and onto a system that did the same thing for free — and did it better.
… In building MyCurrent, Bagley and his O Labs cohorts stumbled onto an open source software project known as Mahout. Founded in 2009, Mahout provides the world with a set of freely available machine learning algorithms — algorithms that give computing systems at least a modicum of artificial intelligence, letting them adjust their behavior according to what’s happened in the past.


Tools for home...
… These nifty tools can help you optimize your PC and get the best out of it. The best part is that all these tools are freeware! So check them out and pick the ones you like the best.

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