8 pages to say, “let people know
before they become victims?”
Executive
Order Aims to Facilitate Sharing of Information on Threats
President Barack Obama signed an
executive order on Tuesday designed to make it easier to disseminate
classified information on threats against critical infrastructure
systems and to lay the groundwork for obtaining information from the
private sector that would help the government protect critical
infrastructures in the U.S.
The order, which
runs eight pages (.pdf), directs the Attorney General’s office,
the office of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and the
Director of National Intelligence to issue instructions to their
agencies that would “ensure the timely production of unclassified
reports of cyberthreats to the U.S. homeland that identify
a specific targeted entity” [Perhaps they will stop with the “Pearl
Harbor” nonsense Bob] to Congress and also develop a
program for providing “classified cyber threat and technical
information from the Government to eligible critical infrastructure
companies or commercial service providers that offer security
services to critical infrastructure,” according to the document.
...becoming obvious?
By now many
lawyers and business managers have heard of the term “Big Data,”
but many may not understand exactly what it refers to, and still more
likely do not know how it will impact their clients and business (or
perhaps it already is). Big Data is everywhere
(quite literally). We see it drive the creative processes
used by entertainment
companies to construct the perfect television series based on
their customer’s specific preferences. We see Big Data in action
when data brokers collect detailed
employment information concerning 190 million persons (including
salary information) and sell it to debt collectors, financial
institutions and other entities. Big Data is in play when retailers
can
determine when its customers are pregnant without being told, and
send them marketing materials early on in order to win business. Big
Data may also eventually help
find the cure to cancer and other diseases
The potential uses
and benefits of Big Data are endless. Unfortunately, Big Data also
poses some risk to both the companies seeking to unlock its
potential, and the individuals whose information is now continuously
being collected, combined, mined, analyzed, disclosed and acted upon.
This post explores the concept of Big Data and some of the
privacy-related legal issues and risks associated with it.
Read more on InformationLawGroup.
“Welcome to Texas, where cattle are
cattle no matter how many legs they have.”
The State of Texas
made millions of dollars selling your private information last year.
We’re talking about your name, address, and even what kind of car
you drive.
The Texas
Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) claims protecting your information
is a top priority for them. A federal law guides them on just who
can buy your private information and how they use it. But we found
out the Texas DMV might not be monitoring this as closely as they
claim.
[...]
CBS 11’s I-Team
Investigator Mireya Villarreal discovered nearly 2,500 agencies or
businesses purchased the DMV’s data in some form last year. On
this list there are towing companies, collection agencies, insurance
companies, hospitals, banks, schools, city governments, and even
private investigators. How much they pay depends on the kind of
information or quantity they’re looking for.
Read more on CBS.
And if you make it deeper into the article, you’ll find this
interesting statement:
The Driver Privacy
Protection Act is a federal law. And the fine print actually says
businesses can use your information for marketing or solicitations if
the state has obtained your consent. That means, some drivers can
opt in or out of these databases.
Problem is –
Texas
didn’t adopt that portion of the law. So, drivers in the Lone
Star State are stuck. But Elliston says if you feel like your
information is being abused you can report the company.
CBS also provides a spreadsheet
that lists all the companies that purchased personal information in
2012. If you’re a Texan, you may want to take a look at that.
The schools listed seem to be universities, and it’s
often their campus police or parking departments that have purchased
information.
Stranger and stranger...
February 12, 2013
EPIC
Obtains New Documents About FBI Cellphone Tracking Technology
EPIC - "In the fifth
interim release of documents in EPIC
v. FBI, a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, the agency has
turned over nearly 300 pages about the surveillance
technique directed toward users of mobile phones. The
documents obtained by EPIC reveal that agents have been using "cell
site simulator" technologies, also known as "StingRay,"
"Triggerfish," or "Digital Analyzers" to monitor
cell phones since
1995. Internal FBI e-mails, also obtained by EPIC,
reveal that agents went through extensive training on these devices
in 2007. [12 years after first use? Bob]
In addition, a presentation from the agency's Wireless Intercept and
Tracking Team argues that cell site simulators qualify for a low
legal standard as a "pen register device," an
interpretation that was recently rejected
by a federal court in Texas. For more information, see EPIC
v. FBI (StingRay)."
“We're going to give every soldier a
smartphone!”
“Okay, we're not going to give
everyone a smartphone, we're going to allow them to BYOD to the war.”
“Okay, we're not really going to
allow them to bring their own insecure phones...”
“We are designing this for three
years out because we know what the smartphones will be able to do in
three years.”
Okay, we don't really know, but we
kinda know...”
Okay, we're hoping you forget all about
this in three years...”
Pentagon
Inks Deal for Smartphone Tool That Scans Your Face, Eyes, Thumbs
In a few years, the soldier, marine or
special operator out on patrol might be able to record the facial
features or iris signature of a suspicious person all from his or her
smartphone — and at a distance, too.
The Defense Department has awarded a $3
million research contract to California-based AOptix to examine its
“Smart Mobile Identity” biometrics identification package, Danger
Room has learned. At the end of two years of research to validate
the concepts of what the company built, AOptix will provide the
Defense Department with a hardware peripheral and software suite that
turns a commercially available smartphone into a device that scans
and transmits data from someone’s eyes, face, thumbs and voice.
This is a joke, right?
Crisis:
Teens have started sleep-texting
… As Elizabeth Dowdell, a nursing
professor at Pennsylvania's Villanova University, told
CBS Philadelphia: "The phone will beep, they'll answer the
text. They'll either respond in words or gibberish."
So far, then, it's no different from
when they're awake.
However, the professor warned
portentously that these texts "can even be inappropriate."
So far, then, it still no different
from when they're awake. Though one imagines that it's slightly
harder to sext when you're not exactly conscious. Or perhaps not.
The professor says that when the teens
wake up they have no memory of these texts.
This could be useful...
Mobile devices are merely the product
of convergence: telegraphs, telephones, letters, newspapers,
magazines, and books are now all in one paper-thin package (not
to mention video games, maps, and other virtual tools).
… This is where RSS
feeds come in: they send the content – and only the
content – to your RSS reader of choice.
Byline
is what I would consider to be a meta-reader. It takes your feeds
from Google
Reader (as well as Instapaper
and Pocket),
and converts each title to be readable on your iPhone.
… Avoiding data rate charges can be
a hassle, but with Byline, all your reading material is regularly
saved all at once via WiFi for offline browsing. This means there is
no need to sync with your data plan while on the go. Everything is
stored (even the images) to the RSS browser for you to check out
later. In fact, you can store up to 2000 items!
The death of an academic “tradition?”
"Academic
researchers want to make their papers open access for the world to
read. If they use traditional publishers like Elsevier, Springer or
Taylor & Francis, they'll be charged $3000 to bring their work
out from behind the paywall. But PeerJ,
a new megajournal launched today and funded by Tim O'Reilly,
publishes open access articles for $99. That's not done by cutting
corners: the editorial process is thorough, and they use rigorous
peer-review. The cost savings come from running
lean and mean on a born-digital system. The initial batch of 30
papers includes one on a
Penn and Teller trick and one
on the long necks of dinosaurs."
$99 entitles you to publish an article
a year, for life. $300 nets you unlimited articles published per
year.
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