It's an 'arms race' and Moore's Law
applies.
"Distributed denial of service
attacks have increased
their bandwidth by 700 percent in the last quarter, according to
DDoS specialist Prolexic. the average bandwidth has gone up from
5/9Gbps to 48.25Gbps — and the number of packets-per-second is also
up. However, claims of a 300Gbps attack on Spamhaus are almost
certainly false."
It's simple! Have your toaster call my
coffee maker for full details.
The staff of the Federal Trade
Commission is interested in the consumer privacy and security issues
posed by the growing connectivity of consumer devices, such as cars,
appliances, and medical devices, and invites comments on these issues
in advance of a public workshop to be held on November 21, 2013 in
Washington, D.C.
The ability of everyday devices to
communicate with each other and with people is becoming more
prevalent and often is referred to as “The Internet of Things.”
Consumers already are able to use their mobile phones to open their
car doors, turn off their home lights, adjust their thermostats, and
have their vital signs, such as blood pressure, EKG, and blood sugar
levels, remotely monitored by their physicians. In the not too
distant future, consumers approaching a grocery store might receive
messages from their refrigerator reminding them that they are running
out of milk.
Connected devices can communicate with
consumers, transmit data back to companies, and compile
data for third parties such as researchers, health care providers, or
even other consumers, who can measure how their product
usage compares with that of their neighbors. The devices can provide
important benefits to consumers: they can handle tasks on a
consumer’s behalf, improve efficiency, and enable consumers to
control elements of their home or work environment from a distance.
At the same time, the data collection and sharing that smart devices
and greater connectivity enable pose privacy and security risks.
FTC staff seeks input on the privacy
and security implications of these developments. For example:
- What are the significant developments in services and products that make use of this connectivity (including prevalence and predictions)?
- What are the various technologies that enable this connectivity (e.g., RFID, barcodes, wired and wireless connections)?
- What types of companies make up the smart ecosystem?
- What are the current and future uses of smart technology?
- How can consumers benefit from the technology?
- What are the unique privacy and security concerns associated with smart technology and its data? For example, how can companies implement security patching [Suggests security was not considered at the design phase. Very “old school.” Bob] for smart devices? What steps can be taken to prevent smart devices from becoming targets of or vectors for malware or adware?
- How should privacy risks be weighed against potential societal benefits, such as the ability to generate better data to improve health-care decisionmaking or to promote energy efficiency? Can and should de-identified data from smart devices be used for these purposes, and if so, under what circumstances?
FTC staff will accept submissions
through June 1, 2013, electronically throughiot@ftc.gov
or in written form. Paper submissions should be mailed or delivered
to: 600 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W., Room H-113 (Annex B), Washington,
DC 20580. The FTC requests that any paper submissions be sent by
courier or overnight service, if possible, because postal mail in the
Washington area and at the Commission is subject to delay due to
heightened security precautions.
SOURCE: FTC
(Related) The technology required to
gather data like how much milk is in your refrigerator is so cheap,
there is no real obsticle to using it to gather data about anyone,
anywhere, at any time. We can, therefore we must?
What
if Your Boss Tracked Your Sleep, Diet, and Exercise?
… at Citizen
— a Portland, Oregon company that designs mobile technology —
things are a little different. Employees at the company are now
uploading data on how much they exercise, what they eat, and how much
they sleep to a central server, as part of an effort to determine
whether healthy employees are actually happier and more productive.
The ultimate aim is to explicitly show employees how they can improve
their work through better personal habits.
If I understand this 'strongly worded
letter,” they are saying, “It's perfectly legal, but we'd kind of
like you to promise not to do it.” Rather than, “That illegal.
Stop it!”
Senators
to IRS: Don't snoop on taxpayers' private messages
A dozen senators, including Democrats
and Republicans, want the IRS to pledge publicly not to snoop on
Americans' Twitter and Facebook messages and other correspondence
without a warrant.
Cool! Now let's put signs in front of
elected officials' homes...
Sex
Offenders in Florida Now Have Warning Signs Outside Their Homes
… Florida statutes say that we must
notify the public of any sex offenders in our jurisdiction. We
already do that with Facebook and by going out into the area to
notify people when the person first moves in, but we realized there
was a possible issue with continued notification. For instance, if
somebody moves in after we've gone around notifying people, then
they're not aware that there's a predator there. We're just trying
to do everything we can to make the public aware. And, in a certain
sense, it protects the predator from having people, especially
children, approaching their residence without being duly notified.
So I could add President Bush to the
“Broccoli Lovers” Facebook Group, without his knowledge or
permission, and it's his responsibility to control all those “I
love broccoli” comments?
"The CBC reports that
publicly-elected Gerry Rogers, member of the Provincial Government
for Newfoundland and Labrador, 'has been
removed from the house of assembly for refusing
to apologize for comments made by other users on a Facebook group
of which she had been added to as a member.'
Rogers was unwillingly added to a Facebook Group which included
comments of death threats aimed at Premier Kathy Dunderdale from
other users. From the article: 'Dunderdale said her government
understands how Facebook groups work, and she said it is up
to every MHA to monitor the comments posted on Facebook groups to
which they belong.' Facebook's
policies for Groups are somewhat clear, even if they don't
actually answer the question of 'Can I prevent people from adding me
to a new group?'"
One of those cute things iPhone owners
love to show off is, “Siri, Where is a good place to bury a body?”
Siri
Remembers Your Secrets, But for How Long?
Not everyone realizes this, but
whenever you use Siri, Apple’s voice-controlled digital assistant,
she remembers what you tell her.
How long does she remember? Apple
isn’t saying. And the American Civil Liberties Union is concerned.
… What happens with everything that
Siri learns is a big enough concern that last year IBM CIO Jeanette
Horan told MIT’s Technology Review that she’d banned
Siri outright on IBM’s networks, worrying that what people said
to Siri might be stored somewhere.
It wouldn't be “fair” if we didn't
treat everyone like an illegal alien... (Guilty, until e-Verified
innocent!)
Chris Calabrese of the ACLU writes:
Today’s release
of an immigration reform proposal from the Gang of Eight raises a
host of civil liberties issues, many of which the ACLU will
undoubtedly be commenting on in the coming days and weeks.
Today, I’m
focusing on our concerns with one particular program, E-Verify.
Currently, E-Verify is a largely voluntary system where employers
can check with the Department of Homeland Security to see if someone
is allowed to work. Basically it’s a giant list of everyone –
immigrants and citizens – legally in the United States.
Read more on ACLU’s
blog.
Beat
the Chip writes that the bill
is a very
noticeable overreach for an employment system used by small
businesses. Without much stretch, it really inducts working America
into a level of data and intellegence sharing which would match
Philip K. Dick’s Minority
Report.
It is one of the least trustworthy
developments on Immigration reform.
Let me be certain I understand: Stuff
that is sold as “explosive” is not regulated, but fertilizer is
restricted. We don't teach logic in our schools any more, do we.
FBI
Warned in March That ‘Exploding Targets’ Could Fuel Homemade
Bombs
… Exploding targets like Tannerite,
which consists of a mixture of ammonium nitrate and aluminum powder,
are legal; available at sporting-goods stores and websites; and
retail for fairly cheap.
… The FBI recently expressed
concern that tighter restrictions on common bomb precursor materials
like ammonium nitrate fertilizer could lead wannabe domestic
extremists to pack their homemade bombs with the stuff.
For my Intro to IT class. I wonder if
you could make a living dealing with “Data after Death?”
Alt
Text: Your Guide to Data After Death
Google has introduced the “Inactive
Account Manager,” which is a polite way of saying “Decide
what you want us to do with your data after you’re dead, because we
will outlive you and your children and your children’s children.
… Now we all know that Google is
rarely the first to do things. It generally takes existing services
— search, e-mail, ignoring your privacy settings — and attempts
to improve on them. This is no exception. Here are some other
services that actually exist to help you deal with your data after
you’ve kicked the bit bucket.
Legacy
Organiser (iOS app)
My vote for App of the Year!
BeerHunt
app wants you to have fun and free beer
Also for my Intro to IT class. (Very
cute image)
… There are three basic stages for
a search engine: crawling – where content is discovered;
indexing, where it is analysed and stored in huge databases;
and retrieval, where a user query fetches a list of relevant
pages.
… If you found this interesting,
you might also like to learn about how
image search engines work.
Yep. Another list.
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