What
security failure would terrorists expect to exploit to be successful?
Does TSA not x-ray shoes any more?
Sources:
Airlines warned to beware of possible shoe bombs
… The officials
stressed there is no specific threat or known plot.
(Related???)
Damning with faint
praiser? You really couldn't find a better example?
Seema Mehta reports:
Sen.
Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) offered a full-throated defense of the
government’s collection of data on billions of American phone
calls, saying Wednesday that the National Security Agency’s
practices have safeguarded the nation without trampling on civil
liberties.
“What
keeps me up at night, candidly, is another attack against the United
States. And I see enough of the threat stream to know that is
possible,” Feinstein said at a Pacific Council on International
Policy dinner in Century City.
She
pointed to a warning Wednesday about potential bombs hidden in the
shoes of passengers on flights bound for the United States.
Read more on The
Los Angeles Times.
Did they ignore their
Privacy Office or not bother to contact them?
Ellen Nakashima and
Josh Hicks report:
Homeland
Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on Wednesday ordered the cancellation
of a plan by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to
develop a national license plate tracking system after
privacy advocates raised concern about the initiative.
The
order came just days after ICE solicited proposals from companies to
compile a database of license plate information from commercial and
law enforcement tag readers.
Read more on the
Washington
Post.
[From the DHS Privacy
Office mission statement:
We work with every
component and program to ensure that privacy considerations are
addressed when planning or updating any program, system or
initiative.
But it
sounded so friendly!
Tinder
Leaks Users' Locations For Months, Doesn't Tell Public
Tinder is a great tool
if you're on the hunt for a random hookup, or if you'd like the
exact geographic location of Your Prey. It turns out a security
snafu in the popular dating—sorry, hook-up—app exposed its users'
exact locations for several months with nary a word of warning to the
public from developers.
According to
researchers at Include
Security, Tinder was exposing its users' locations down to 100
feet for between "40 and 165 days," Bloomberg
Businessweek reports, noting that while the information wasn't
exactly broadcasted, it was accessible to anyone with "rudimentary"
hacking skills—possibly the same people who possess "rudimentary"
breaking-and-entering skills and "rudimentary" kidnapping
skills!
So, what does the
Privacy Commissioner's website recommend? Look for yourself:
http://www.privacy.org.nz/
3News reports that NZ’s
new privacy commissioner, John Edwards, is concerned – and
disturbed – by how people respond to privacy breaches involving
others’ information, such as misaddressed mail that they receive.
“No
right minded member of the community would think when they stumbled
across a wallet containing identifying details and $1000 that they
had a right to keep that,” Mr Edwards said.
“We
are instilled as children with the moral obligation that we must
return this to its rightful owner and not take advantage of that
accident.”
However,
Mr Edwards said there seems to be an increasing trend that when
somebody receives information mistakenly that they are “entitled to
give some publicity to it or use it as a mechanism for obtaining some
advantage or creating some stress or drama for the organisation with
which they may be in conflict”.
“I’m
as disturbed by that I think as I am by the weakness at the other
end,” he said.
That’s an interesting
observation about a shift in behavior, but could there be other
explanations or motivations? Yes, some people may be in conflict
with an entity and want to exact revenge by embarrassing them
publicly, but in other cases, could running to the media to report
the breach just be the public’s way of saying that they don’t
want privacy breaches swept under a rug or covered up? Certainly
we’ve seen cases here and elsewhere where people initially refuse
to return documents or files they should not have received. Often it
seems their motivation is to simply ensure that the breach will not
be ignored.
So… are more New
Zealand residents going public in a “naming and shaming” strategy
to try to effect more responsible data protection? And is their
behavior an almost predictable response to a culture or society in
which there’s no law requiring data breach disclosures?
I don’t have any
answers, but it’s an intriguing question and it will be interesting
to see how Privacy Commissioner Edwards attempts to address his
observations.
Someone is
thinking? Are we sure this is the FCC?
FCC
to rewrite net neutrality rules, won’t appeal court ruling
The Federal
Communications Commission said Wednesday it will rewrite sweeping
broadband Internet rules known as net neutrality, ending a legal
battle that has thrown into question the agency’s ability to
protect consumers on the Web.
… The move comes
after a federal appeals court last month vacated the FCC’s 2010
Open Internet rules. The U.S. District Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia said the agency overstepped its authority with
the rules but also noted that the agency has some oversight over the
broadband industry.
FCC Chairman Tom
Wheeler said the agency won’t appeal the court’s decision, adding
that the court opinion allows for the agency to rewrite
net neutrality rules that conform with communications laws. [What
a concept! Bob]
Oh swell. Another
rehash of Betamax. If I set up an antenna to capture Denver
broadcast TV stations and then piped the signal through the Cloud
(over the internet, wirelessly to my cellphone) would this be an
issue? What if I recorded the evening news so I could watch it at a
more reasonable hour (when I was awake) in my hotel in Sapporo,
Japan?
Federal
court in Utah sides with broadcasters against Aereo
Aereo's streak of legal
victories over the broadcasting industry has come to an end.
The startup company,
which sends broadcast television signals to consumers via the
Internet, will have to shut down its operations in Utah and Colorado
thanks to a ruling by the U.S. District Court in Utah.
The ruling, which
covers the 10th Circuit, grants a request for
preliminary injunction against Aereo that was sought by
Fox Broadcasting Co. and other TV station owners.
… The Utah ruling
is important because it is the first a court has sided with
broadcasters in their fight against Aereo.
… Aereo distributes
broadcast signals via a tiny antenna and offers customers access to a
cloud-based digital video recorder that holds up to 60 hours of
content. The service costs $8 to $12 a month.
… In the 26-page
ruling, Judge Dale Kimball said the broadcasters made the case that
their fight against Aereo will succeed on the merits.
"Based on the plain language of the 1976 Copyright Act and the
clear intent of Congress,
this court concludes that Aereo is engaging in copyright infringement
of Plaintiffs' programs," Kimball wrote. "Despite its
attempt to design a device or process outside the scope of the 1976
Copyright Act, Aereo's device or process transmits
Plaintiffs' copyrighted programs to the public."
(Related) See?
Harvard agrees with me! (Don't they?)
… Because when
copyright protection is granted today, it is granted essentially for
an entire century, the scope of copyright protection is among the
most contested areas of law. The fight most often comes down to what
constitutes unlawful copying and what is fair use.
… Big broadcasters
such as ABC are claiming that small tech startups like Aero and TV
Catchup, which allow audiences to watch their favorite TV shows on
their laptops, tablets, and smartphones, infringe on their
copyrighted programs. In this case, like in analogous cases in the
past such as the Sony Betamax VCR and the Cablevision DVR, the
court should allow new technology to stand as long as the device is
capable of substantial non-infringing uses.
… The principle
that has been established in this line of cases is that technology
providers are not infringing copyright when they aid individual
consumer to control the ways in which they privately watch
programming. Like with previous technologies, Aero is providing
viewers a new way to access content, this time through the Internet.
Copyright law was not intended to prevent the introduction of such
new technology.
For my “Lets Program
a Billion Dollar App” students. (Okay, I haven't taught the class
yet, but this should help me get students signed up!)
Facebook
to Buy WhatsApp, a Messaging Start-Up, in a $16 Billion Deal
The frenzy to acquire
fast-growing technology start-ups reached new heights on Wednesday as
Facebook
announced its largest acquisition ever, saying it would pay at least
$16 billion for WhatsApp, a text messaging application with 450
million users around the world who pay little or no money for it.
[From
http://www.whatsapp.com/
WhatsApp Messenger is a
cross-platform mobile messaging app which allows you to exchange
messages without having to pay for SMS. WhatsApp Messenger is
available for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Phone and Nokia
(Related)
With $19
billion, Facebook could have purchased Sony or Gap or four
aircraft carriers. Instead, it bought WhatsApp, a tiny startup that
so far had accumulated barely $60M
in funding, mostly from Sequoia.
But think about what
exactly Facebook is buying:
Young
users.
A
new business model.
Enhancements
to the existing business model.
Internationalization
If you list all these
reasons for the deal, and throw in some competitive pressure from the
likes of Google, the $19 billion number might not look so silly after
all. Time will tell. But regardless of how this deal turns out, the
one unambiguous loser, in our opinion, is the telecom industry,
which currently enjoys about $100 billion year in revenues from SMS
services globally.
Moral
of the story: If you don’t create an alternative yourself, others
will disrupt your business model for you.
Something for my
“Gaming Club” students. (and you can make a political statement
at the same time!)
– the Flappy Bird
game may now be unavailable but that doesn’t mean that Flappy is
gone forever. Flappy Generator is an app which enables you to make
your own version. Replace the image and pipe with your own versions,
and off you go.
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