“Do
you want heat next winter? We'll turn the gas on when you give us
the Ukraine.”
Ukraine
crisis: Russia halts gas supplies to Kiev
"Gas
supplies to Ukraine have been reduced to zero," Ukrainian Energy
Minister Yuri Prodan said.
Russia's
state-owned gas giant Gazprom said Ukraine had to pay upfront for its
gas supplies, after Kiev failed to settle its huge debt.
…
The Russian firm said it would continue to supply gas to Europe.
[Until winter? Bob]
Has
the bank changed its security?
Ruling
Raises Stakes for Cyberheist Victims
A
Missouri firm that unsuccessfully sued its bank to recover $440,000
stolen in a
2010 cyberheist may now be on the hook to cover the financial
institution’s legal fees, an appeals court has ruled. Legal
experts say the decision is likely to discourage future victims from
pursuing such cases.
Choice
Escrow and Land Title LLC sued Tupelo, Miss. based BancorpSouth Inc.,
after hackers who had stolen the firm’s online banking ID and
password used the information to make a single unauthorized wire
transfer for $440,000 to a corporate bank account in Cyprus.
…
A copy of the appeals court’s ruling is available here
(PDF).
Perhaps
we need an App for warrants? (The rest of the world has adopted
automation.)
Warrant
Needed to Identify Internet Users: Canada Top Court
The
Supreme Court of Canada ruled Friday that police must obtain a
warrant to access basic information on Internet users, affirming
online anonymity as a privacy right.
The
unanimous 8-0 decision in the case of a Saskatchewan man accused of
possessing child pornography on his computer could make it harder to
prosecute illegal downloading and other Internet crimes.
The
ruling also sets the stage for a constitutional challenge of proposed
laws being considered by Parliament that would expand police powers
to snoop online.
Authorities
needed to determine the location of the desktop computer by matching
the Internet Protocol (IP) address with a physical address.
So
they simply asked Internet service provider Shaw Communications for
the name, address and phone number of their customer associated with
the IP address, and used this information to obtain a warrant to
search the suspect's home and seize his computer.
(Related)
This is what awaits those sneaky Canadian terrorists!
TSA
Out of Our Pants! writes:
Last week, the 11th Circuit heard
oral arguments in my case against the nude body
scanners and pat-downs, but in the meantime, the judges in my other
TSA case, challenging whether officers may:
- Read through your personal documents at checkpoints
- Threaten travelers with false arrest and forcible search
- Conduct retaliatory searches that last for up to an hour
- Refuse to identify its screeners at checkpoints
- Lie about the existence of checkpoint videos in response to a FOIA request
…ruled that the TSA may indeed do all of the above. In its 32 page
opinion, the court ruled
that it’s perfectly reasonable for the TSA to read through your
documents (maybe even digital documents) because it might prove that
you have a fake ID, or it might provide additional suspicion if you
have literature that the state doesn’t like.
Read
more on TSA
Out of Our Pants!
Because
if we knew what they were doing...
Jack
Gillum and Eileen Sullivan report:
The Obama administration has been quietly advising local police not
to disclose details about surveillance technology they are using to
sweep up basic cellphone data from entire neighborhoods, The
Associated Press has learned.
Citing security reasons, the U.S. has intervened in routine state
public records cases and criminal trials regarding use of the
technology. This has resulted in police departments withholding
materials or heavily censoring documents in rare instances when they
disclose any about the purchase and use of such powerful surveillance
equipment.
Might
be useful...
Handbook
on European data protection law
by
Sabrina
I. Pacifici on June 15, 2014
“This
handbook
on European data protection law is jointly
prepared by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA)
and the Council of Europe together with the Registry of the European
Court of Human Rights. It is the third in a series of legal
handbooks jointly prepared by FRA and the Council of Europe. In
March 2011, a first handbook was published on European
non-discrimination law and, in June 2013, a second one on European
law relating to asylum, borders and immigration. This handbook on
European data protection law is jointly prepared by the European
Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) and the Council of Europe
together with the Registry of the European Court of Human Rights. It
is the third in a series of legal handbooks jointly prepared by FRA
and the Council of Europe.”
(Related)
It can't hurt.
How
could I resist posting an item the title, The paranoid computer
user’s guide to privacy, security and encryption? I’m not
presenting it as an endorsement of any content or recommendations,
but for your consideration. The guide
to safer computing was prepared by the staff of the Globe and
Mail in Canada.
Making
buying from Amazon easier?
Will
Smartphone Add $3.5 Billion To Amazon's Revenues?
…
The smartphone market is huge — 990 million were sold in 2013–
and people are spending more time there –
eMarketer expects people to spend 2 hours 51 minutes on
smartphones in 2014 while PC time keeps falling to 2 hours 12
minutes. But Apple
and Samsung — with 15.3% and 31.3% of the global market,
respectively according to IDC
— are controlling most of the market’s revenues and profits.
…
Odds are good that Amazon will sell the device at cost in order to
boost $99 Amazon prime subscriptions that will in turn increase
Amazon’s e-commerce revenues.
The
smartphone Amazon could add $3 billion to Amazon’s revenue and $500
million to its prime subscription revenue. If we assume that Amazon
can grab 1% of the one billion smartphones sold — or 10 million
units — and sold them at cost — which The
Motley Fool estimates at $300 (including those four
cameras), Amazon would add
$3 billion to its top line.
Do
we really need a serch engine? #confused
–
Hashtags are one of the best ways to find and reach the right
audience for your message on social media. Hashtagify.me allows you
to search among 32,627,832 Twitter hashtags and quickly find the best
ones for your need based on their popularity, relationships,
languages, influencers and other metrics. In April 2011
hashtagify.me started collecting information about hashtags usage
patterns on Twitter, examining 2,364,785,101 tweets.
A
tip for my students. I can't imagine how this would work, so based
on my track record, this is likely to be the “Next Big Thing!”
Chat
app Line rakes in $1.5m in just one month of users creating and
selling their own stickers
Messaging
app Line opened a marketplace in
April that lets anyone create and sell their own stickers, with
sales starting on May 8. Today it announced
that the Line Creators Market has drawn over 80,000 creators and
12,000 sticker sets since it opened up to users, of which a total of
1,200 sticker sets went on sale.
In
the first month since the service went live, 1.7 million sticker sets
were sold in all, with total sales reaching 150 million yen ($1.47
million). The average sales for the top 10 selling ones on the
market reached 4.7 million yen, while 61.7 percent of sticker sets
available for purchase have passed over 10,000 yen in sales, which
shows that users are attracted to a wide variety of stickers and not
just a handful of top ranking ones.
…
Line reveals that users who purchased stickers from the market sent
over 81 million messages featuring creators’ stickers, which forms
a type of organic marketing for the initiative.
For
my students? Probably not. Might make for some interesting deals
between schools with online programs and companies with lots of
younger workers. That's a lot of “extra pay,” let's hope they
all take advantage of it.
Starbucks
Will Pay Full College Tuition For Thousands Of Its Workers
Starbucks
announced late Sunday it will pay for thousands of its workers to
take courses through Arizona State University to complete their
Bachelor's degree.
The
Starbucks College Achievement plan will let full- and part-time
workers choose from 40 undergraduate degree programs at ASU that will
be delivered online. 135,000 employees are eligible.
…
Workers admitted as a junior or senior will earn full tuition
reimbursement. Freshmen and sophomores will receive a partial
scholarship and need-based financial aid. Students will have no
commitment to remain at Starbucks past graduation.
Arizona
state's online courses are valued at $10,000 a year.
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