“Generals are always
preparing to fight the last war.” Not sure who said that first,
but let's hope this Blog article isn't too accurate.
Putin
learning what U.S. didn’t
After America’s
ignominious defeat and hurried departure from Vietnam in 1973 —
when the world’s richest and mightiest nation was humbled by the
stolid determination of ill-equipped, ideologically inspired peasants
— it was generally assumed the United States would not wage war
again until the lessons of the Viet Cong victory were taken to heart.
When Soviet forces
hastily retreated with a bloody nose from their nine-year occupation
of Afghanistan in 1989, similar lessons were suggested about the
impossibility of militarily holding a country with a universally
hostile population.
In his stealth
occupation of Crimea and eastern Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin of
Russia appears to have learned the lessons of both Vietnam and
Afghanistan.
Successive U.S.
presidents, however, seem to have failed to understand how military
strategy was forever changed by what happened in those two chastening
conflicts. Rather, they have gone on to repeat their predecessors’
mistakes.
That’s not all. The
fleet of U.S. stealth bombers ($810
million each) and the fleet
of nuclear submarines ($8.2 billion each) armed
with Trident nuclear missiles ($31
million each) are of little use against Russian
intelligence agents provocateurs disguised as Ukrainian
protesters arriving by civilian airliner.
For my lawyer friends.
Fine him 1000 times what he was paid! (1000 * 0 = 0)
HEARTBLEED:
A Lawyer’s Perspective On Cyber Liability and the Biggest
Programming Error in History
Always innovative,
those evil hackers.
Phishers
Divert Home Loan Earnest Money
It looks like it’s
time to update my Value
of a Hacked Email Account graphic: Real estate and title agencies
are being warned about a new fraud scheme in which email bandits
target consumers who are in the process of purchasing a home.
In this scheme, the
attackers intercept emails from title agencies providing wire
transfer information for borrowers to transmit earnest money for an
upcoming transaction. The scammers then substitute the title
company’s bank account information with their own, and the
unsuspecting would-be homeowner wires their down payment directly to
the fraudsters.
Is there much demand
for this? I can see the need for things like Google's self-driving
cars, but I suspect it is focused more on utility companies, gas
pipelines, medical devices... You get the idea.
AIG
Expands Coverage to Include Physical Damage Caused By Cyber Attacks
Insurance giant
American International Group (AIG) announced on Wednesday that it has
expanded its cyber insurance offering to include property damage and
bodily injury that could be caused as a result of cyber attacks.
The new cyber offering
is designed to provide its commercial customers a way to manage
physical risks to their operations from cyber attacks and cyber
security failures.
“AIG’s
expanded cyber insurance solution, CyberEdge
PC, is a response to growing incidents and threats of cyber
attacks directed at commercial industries that can lead to equipment
failure, physical damage to property, and physical harm to people,”
AIG said in its announcement.
Was there really a huge
customer demand for this product? Drop the 10 second limit and you
have a bug that tweets. Why?
Luke Funk reports:
A
tiny new spy device aims to automatically transcribe
and Tweet overheard conversations. It’s called
Conversnitch.
Brian
House and Kyle McDonald are behind the eavesdropping device.
They
say it bridges the gap between (presumed) private physical space and
public space online.
One
of the creators, Kyle McDonald, released a video of the device being
connected to a table lamp at a bank, in a hanging lamp at a
McDonald’s, in a library light, and even a street lamp in a New
York City park.
The
device needs to have continuous access to an Internet-connected
wireless network to work. It continually records 10
second samples, analyzes for interesting audio and uploads
a transcribed version of it.
Their
Twitter
feed shows conversations they say have been captured by their
device.
Read more on MyFoxNY.
Improving your image
comes with certain risks...
NYPD
Twitter campaign 'backfires' after hashtag hijacked
Users were asked to
tweet a photo of themselves with officers and add the hashtag #myNYPD
as part of a social media campaign.
But instead of a steady
stream of friendly photos, the hashtag was quickly adopted by users
posting images of possible police aggression.
… By Wednesday, the
hashtag had become one of Twitter's top trending terms.
… Other Twitter
interactions that have backfired include US Airways posting an
explicit photo in response to a customer's tweet and McDonald's using
a hashtag to highlight its farmers that quickly got taken over by
people sharing their bad experiences of the burger chain.
Siri, met your
competition. Windows users, let's hope she is less annoying than
that paper clip guy...
Microsoft's
Cortana mixes AI with human-added humour
Earlier this month
Microsoft unveiled its smart virtual assistant, which will work on
Windows Phone smartphones, and eventually across other services too.
Cortana has been
described as a cross between Apple's Siri and predictive assistant,
Google Now. It is inspired by the digital guide in Microsoft's
bestselling console game franchise Halo.
For my vets.
New
Website Helps Vets Manage Benefits, Apply for Loans
by Sabrina
I. Pacifici on April 23, 2014
“eBenefits
is a portal; a central location for Veterans, Service Members,
and their families to research, find, access, and, in time, manage
their benefits and personal information. eBenefits offers:
- A personalized workspace called My Dashboard that provides quick access to eBenefits tools. Using eBenefits tools, you can complete various tasks. You can apply for benefits, download your DD 214, view your benefits status, in addition to other actions as needed. This workspace is available to you once you have created an eBenefits account
- A catalog of links to other sites that provide information about military and Veteran benefits.”
For my students.
Ace
Your Next Exam Using Flashcard Apps for iPhone or iPad
In addition to reading
annotations, they offer one of the best proven methods for
studying for an exam.
Just as there are some
awesome flashcard
apps for Android, the iTunes App Store has a healthy selection
for iOS too.
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