Clausewitz wrote that,
“war is the continuation of politics by other means.” I've
always taken that to mean that when politicians fail (i.e. really
screw up) the result is war. That does not mean that both sides have
to screw up. I also remember a Will Rogers quote, “ Diplomacy is
the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock.”
Ukraine
crisis 'created artificially' - Russia's Lavrov
Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov has said the crisis in Ukraine was "created
artificially for purely geopolitical reasons".
He confirmed Russia had
contacts with Ukraine's interim government but said Kiev was beholden
to the radical right.
Russia, he said, was
open to further dialogue with the West if it was "honest and
partner-like".
Any “new” system
runs the risk of unrecognized vulnerabilities. (There is low hanging
fruit everywhere) Again we seem to have systems designed without
considering “Best Practices.”
The Office of the
Inspector General (OIG) of HHS recently released an audit that found
pervasive high-risk security vulnerabilities at 10 state Medicaid
agencies. The report is written so as not to provide a road map for
attackers who might want to exploit the vulnerabilities but to raise
awareness of concerns, i.e., the states are not identified in the
report. The audit period included calendar years 2010 to 2012.
Seventy-nine individual
audit findings were grouped into 15 security control areas within 3
information system general control categories: entitywide controls,
access controls, and network operations controls.
You can download the
full report here
(.pdf).
Now this is nuts.
Stingray and Hailstorm are tools, like a radar gun, and it might be
useful to know how they work. (and how they fail) Could the vendors
of “Red Light Cameras” hide behind a similar NDA?
I thought it was
outrageous that law enforcement claimed they couldn’t tell a
defendant that they had obtained evidence against him using Stingray
because of a nondisclosure
agreement with Harris, but it turns out that’s not the only
police department citing a nondisclosure agreement with Harris as the
basis for withholding information.
Jamie Ross reports:
A
reporter sued the Tucson Police Department for records on the
surveillance equipment it uses to collect data from cellphones.
Beau
Hodai sued Tucson and its Police Department Tucson in Pima County
Court, seeking an order to show cause why the Tucson PD should not
have to comply with the public records act.
Hodai
submitted his first records request to Tucson police on Oct. 11,
2013, “concerning TPD’s purchase and use of Stingray and Stingray
II cell phone tracking equipment from Harris Corporation.”
[…]
In
response to Hodai’s request, TPD provided him with four documents,
but redacted them, citing exemptions in the Freedom of Information
Act and a nondisclosure agreement with Harris Corp.
and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The
Tucson PD, however, failed to provide Hodai with “work product
resulting from the use of Stingray or Stingray II,” requests or
authorizations of Harris Corp. products in any police operations,
training materials, and internal policies. The agency also failed to
produce TPD memos describing when to use Stingray and external
correspondence concerning the program.
The
nondisclosure agreement between Harris Corp. and Tucson states: “The
City of Tucson shall not discuss, publish, release or disclose any
information pertaining to the Products covered under this NDA to any
third party individual, corporation, or other entity, including any
affiliated or unaffiliated State, County, City, Town or Village, or
other governmental entity without the prior written consent of Harris
… The City of Tucson is subject to the Arizona Public Records Law.
A.R.S. sec 39-121, et seq. While the City will not voluntarily
disclose any Protected Product, in the event that the city receives a
Public Records request from a third party relating to any Protected
Product, or other information Harris deems confidential, the City
will notify Harris of such a request and allow Harris to challenge
any such request in court. The City will not take a position with
respect to the release of such material, beyond its contractual
duties, but will assist Harris in any such challenge.”
Read more on Courthouse
News.
Wow. So the city will
assist business in trying to keep information from the public that
the public has a right to know? Impressive.
Makes me think that the
government should try to hire lawyers who have actually been to law
school.
A
federal judge with a secret court has refused the Obama
administration’s request to extend storage of classified National
Security Agency telephone surveillance data beyond the current
five-year limit.
The
Justice Department had argued several pending lawsuits over the bulk
data collection program require it to preserve the records for a
longer period of time.
Judge
Reggie Walton, who presides over the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Court, concluded on Friday the government had not
overcome larger privacy concerns.
Read more on KEYT.
[From
the article:
"The government
makes no attempt to explain why it believes the records that are
subject to destruction are relevant to the civil cases," said
Walton in his 12-page order.
Is “they've screwed
up before” a sufficient argument?
Seth Rosenblatt
reports:
The
proposed
sale of WhatsApp to Facebook will violate the privacy
expectations of WhatsApp’s users, two privacy groups argued
Thursday in a formal complaint to the Federal Trade Commission.
Filed
by the Washington, D.C.-based Electronic
Privacy Information Center and the Center
for Digital Democracy, the “unfair and deceptive practices”
complaint states that WhatsApp’s privacy policy is incompatible
with Facebook’s. They request that the FTC “halt Facebook’s
proposed acquisition of WhatsApp” until the issues listed in the
complaint are “adequately resolved.”
Read more on CNET.
[From
the article:
Facebook responded with
an e-mailed statement to CNET that said, "As we have said
repeatedly, Whatsapp will operate as a separate company and will
honor its commitments to privacy and security."
For my Computer
Security students. This works on Google, Facebook, Apple ID,
Microsoft, Twitter, and other social media, gaming services and cloud
storage sites.
Lock
Down These Services Now With Two-Factor Authentication
Two-factor
authentication is the
smart way to protect your online accounts using something you
know (like a password) and something you have (like a smartphone).
Also known as two-step verification, it involves entering a code when
logging in on new devices, and provides an excellent level of
protection.
… We’ve already
taken a look at the
intricacies of two-factor authentication, and if a service you’re
reliant on offers it; you should enable it. With two-factor
authentication, every new log in attempt will require you input a
code sent to you – normally via text message to a standard mobile
number – before letting you in.
Every now and then,
someone looks at old technology and says, “Why have we been doing
it that way?”
Manu
Prakash: A 50-cent microscope that folds like origami
(Related) A few other
examples...
Democratized
Science Instrumentation
https://www.ida.org/stpi/occasionalpapers/papers/OP-7-2012-DemocratizedScienceInstrumentation-v1.pdf
Good things from
strange sources? Should I have my students create a version of this
App for Colorado? (If not, why not?) Could this work for ballot
initiatives?
http://tvnz.co.nz/politics-news/michael-parkin-internet-party-s-app-force-others-follow-suit-5860378
Michael
Parkin: Internet Party's app will force others to follow suit
The week after next Kim
Dotcom's Internet Party will push the go button in a very
literal way.
The party is completing
testing on its app, to allow would-be party members to sign up, pay
their fees and submit their signature all at the flick of their
fingers.
The party believes it
has the Electoral Commission onside with the app having seen the
Commission forced into the iPhone-age by, of all people, Peter Dunne,
who was outraged that signatures could not be collected
electronically as he tried to keep United Future above the 500 member
threshold.
… Whatever the fate
of the Internet Party might be two things are likely to result from
its campaign:
1)
The novelty value of an app to join a political party will ensure the
Internet Party gathers the 500 members needed to register.
2)
The app's popularity will force most other parties to follow suit by
2017.
For my Database
students.
A
Brief History of Databases
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