If the US had been the target, would we
consider ourselves at war? And with whom?
NATO
Researchers: Stuxnet Attack on Iran Was Illegal ‘Act of Force’
A cyberattack that sabotaged Iran’s
uranium enrichment program was an “act of force” and was likely
illegal, according to research commissioned by NATO’s cyberwarfare
center.
“Acts that kill or injure persons or
destroy or damage objects are unambiguously uses of force” and
likely violate international law, according to the Tallinn Manual on
the International Law Applicable to Cyber Warfare, a study produced
by international legal experts at the request of NATO’s Cooperative
Cyber Defense Center of Excellence in Estonia.
Acts of force are prohibited under the
United Nations charter, except when done in self-defense, Michael
Schmitt, professor of international law at the U.S. Naval War College
in Rhode Island and lead author of the study, told
the Washington Times.
The 20 experts who produced the study
were unanimous that Stuxnet was an act of force, but were less clear
about whether the cyber sabotage against Iran’s nuclear program
constituted an “armed attack,” which would entitle Iran to use
counterforce in self-defense. An armed attack constitutes a start of
international hostilities under which the Geneva Convention’s laws
of war would apply.
Why? Is Saudi Arabia far less stable
than we think? Could Arab Spring come again? Is it only the
disruption of old technologies?
Saudi
Arabia 'threatens Skype ban'
Encrypted
messaging services such as Skype, Viber and WhatsApp could be blocked
in Saudi Arabia, the telecommunications regulator there is reported
to have warned.
It is demanding a means to monitor such
applications, but Saudis say that would seriously inhibit their
communications.
Saudi newspapers are reporting that the
companies behind the applications have been given a week to respond.
No explanation has been given of why
the demand has been made.
Ahmed Omran, a Saudi blogger who runs
the Riyadh Bureau site, says
that Saudi telecom companies may be tempted to go along with the
request from the regulator - even though it will upset their
customers - because of the loss of revenue they suffer from
the free apps, which are hugely popular in the country.
… Outside interest in the
phenomenon has largely focused on how this has allowed Saudis to
express themselves in a public forum on social or political issues in
an unprecedented way.
Saudis see this latest threat a little
differently, our correspondent says. Any move to monitor or block
sites like Skype and WhatsApp would potentially deprive them of what
has become an essential means of simply communicating with friends
and family.
… If it did happen, though, one
Saudi told the BBC that it would not take long for people to find a
new way to communicate for free.
Drones as advertising? Attach
Behavioral Advertising techniques and I expect a swarm of drones over
my house spelling out “Still uses last year's technology!”
"As a harbinger for the
Paramount film 'Star Trek — Into Darkness', starting in May in
Europe's cinemas, last night a swarm of 30 mini-helicopters
equipped with the LED lights drew the Star Trek logo into the
skies over London. The choreography for the show was developed by
Ars Electronica Futurelab from Linz (Austria). Quadrocopter maker
Ascending Technologies GmbH from Munich (Germany) provided the
aircrafts."
The postal service's hidden cost
factor? As far as I can determine from this fluffy article, the
“fraud” they catch is phoney postage meters... I don't see how
that pays for the system.
The United States Postal Service is at
the cutting edge of supercomputing technologies and the big data
revolution, operating one of the most powerful non-classified
supercomputing databases on the planet to process and detect fraud on
over 528 million mail pieces every day.
… The technological specs of the
facility Atkins is allowed to publicly share are impressive: 16
terabytes of in-memory computing coupled with transactional database
record ingest rates that allow it to run comparative analysis on a
database of about 400 billion records faster than you can blink.
… The information from each mail
piece is then compared in the database to some 400 billion records,
and complex algorithms help carry out fraud detection and other tests
on the data before it is routed back through the Postal Routed
Network to the delivery center.
Congress asked for information on the
Cloud? Uh-oh...
March 25, 2013
Cloud
Computing: Constitutional and Statutory Privacy Protections
CRS - Cloud
Computing: Constitutional and Statutory Privacy Protections,
Richard M. Thompson II, Legislative Attorney. March 22, 2013
- "...cloud computing is a web-based service that allows users to access anything from e-mail to social media on a third-party computer. For instance, Gmail and Yahoo are cloud-based email services that allow users to access and store emails that are saved on each respective service’s computer, rather than on the individual’s computer. As more communications are facilitated through these cloud-based programs, it is no surprise that government and law enforcement would seek to access this stored information to conduct criminal investigations, prevent cyber threats, and thwart terrorist attacks, among other purposes. This prompts the following questions: (1) What legal protections are in place for information shared and stored in the cloud? (2) What legal process must the government follow to obtain this information? and (3) How do these rules differ from those applied in the physical world?"
It's always amusing to watch the
bureaucratic brain at work...
"3D-printing gun parts has
taken off, thanks to the likes of Cody Wilson and Defense
Distributed. While the technology adds a rather interesting
wrinkle to the gun control debate, the ATF currently is pretty
hands-off, ... 'We are aware of all the 3D printing of firearms and
have been tracking it for quite a while,' Earl Woodham, spokesperson
for the ATF field office in Charlotte, said. 'Our firearms
technology people have looked at it, and we have not yet seen a
consistently reliable firearm made with 3D printing.' A reporter
called the ATF's Washington headquarters to get a better idea of what
it took to make a gun 'consistently reliable,' and program manager
George Semonick said the guns should be 'made
to last years or generations.' In other words,
because 3D-printed guns aren't yet as durable as their metal
counterparts, the ATF
doesn't yet consider them as much of a concern."
Interesting. Leave the processing and
storage and Internet connections in your home computer closet and
connect a touch screen via WiFi...
"GeekWire
reports on Amazon
CEO Jeff Bezos' pending patent on remote displays that communicate
with base stations and operate on wireless power. Reducing
devices to mere screens with minimal storage that receive
pre-rendered content (e.g., bitmap images), the patent
application explains, eliminates the need for bulky batteries or
processors, and employing techniques like electromagnetic or
electrostatic induction allows one to cut the cord completely. Such
remote displays, Amazon suggests, could find a home on college
campuses (tablets), in your car (windshield displays or DVD players),
and even on your face (eyeglasses)."
There's already a (not wirelessly
powered) device
similar to the one described in the patent.
For my spreadsheet students...
A Canadian
accountant has built a role playing game (RPG) inside of Excel.
It’s called Arena.Xlsm, and it does in fact work.
Why build an RPG inside of Excel? The
question is backwards. Why the hell wouldn’t we? Anyone who spent
the majority of math in High School programming their TI-83 to
prevent boredom knows what I’m talking about.
You can download
the game here.
Note: While TNW tested it on Excel
2010, your mileage may vary. Also, you have to enable the
spreadsheet twice, one for editing and second for content. Excel’s
protections built to keep you safe in this case are roadblocks in
between you and some fun.
“Stuff Students Should Know” At
least, my Intro to IT class... We need the next e-Mily Post?
How
We’re Turning Digital Natives Into Etiquette Sociopaths
Let’s face it: Technology and
etiquette have been colliding for some time now, and things have
finally boiled over if the recent spate of media criticisms is
anything to go by. There’s the voicemail, not to be left unless
you’re “dying.”
There’s the e-mail signoff that we need to “kill.”
And then there’s the observation that what was once normal —
like asking someone for directions — is now considered
“uncivilized.”
Cyber-savvy folks are arguing for such
new etiquette rules because in an information-overloaded world,
time-wasting communication is not just outdated — it’s rude. But
while living according to the gospel of technological
efficiency and frictionless sharing is fine as a Silicon Valley
innovation ethos, it makes for a downright depressing social ethic.
People like Nick Bilton over at The
New York Times Bits blog argue that norms like
thank-you messages can cost more in time and efficiency than they
are worth. However, such etiquette norms aren’t just about
efficiency: They’re actually about building thoughtful and
pro-social character.
A version for “Student Success?
Might be an interesting e-book project for my Intro to IT students.
The
Most Effective Strategies for Success
For years, I've been trying to convince
people that success is not about who you are, but about what
you do.
Roughly two years ago, I wrote about
the "Nine
Things Successful People Do Differently," which became HBR's
most-read piece of content over that time span. It was a list of
strategies, based on decades of scientific research, proven effective
for setting and reaching challenging goals. I later expanded that
post into a short
e-book, explaining how you can make each one a habit. But how
would readers know if they were doing enough of each "Thing"?
(After all, we're terrible
judges of ourselves.) To help answer that question, last spring
I created something I called the Nine
Things Diagnostics — it's a free, online set of questionnaires
designed to measure your own use of each of the nine things in
pursuit of your personal and professional goals.
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