Friday, July 18, 2014

We know this can happen, yet we choose to ignore that troubling little fact.
Report – Elite Russian hackers breached Nasdaq and inserted a digital bomb
by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Jul 17, 2014
BloombergBusinessWeek – Mike Riley: “In October 2010, a Federal Bureau of Investigation system monitoring U.S. Internet traffic picked up an alert. The signal was coming from Nasdaq. It looked like malware had snuck into the company’s central servers. There were indications that the intruder was not a kid somewhere, but the intelligence agency of another country. More troubling still: When the U.S. experts got a better look at the malware, they realized it was attack code, designed to cause damage… While the hack was successfully disrupted, it revealed how vulnerable financial exchanges—as well as banks, chemical refineries, water plants, and electric utilities—are to digital assault. One official who experienced the event firsthand says he thought the attack would change everything, that it would force the U.S. to get serious about preparing for a new era of conflict by computer. He was wrong.”

(Related) Gee, maybe everyone should read “The Prince.”
Global Cybercrime: The Interplay of Politics and Law
by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Jul 17, 2014
The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) - Aaron Shull, June 2014
“Examining global cybercrime as solely a legal issue misses an important facet of the problem. Understanding the applicable legal rules, both domestically and internationally, is important. However, major state actors are using concerted efforts to engage in nefarious cyber activities with the intention of advancing their economic and geostrategic interests. This paper explores the recent unsealing of a 31-count indictment against five Chinese government officials and a significant cyber breach, perpetrated by Chinese actors against Western oil, energy and petrochemical companies. The paper concludes by noting that increased cooperation among governments is necessary, but unlikely to occur as long as the discourse surrounding cybercrime remains so heavily politicized and securitized. If governments coalesced around the notion of trying to prevent the long-term degradation of trust in the online economy, they may profitably advance the dialogue away from mutual suspicion and toward mutual cooperation.”


“If you build it, they will come.” (Makes me think I should start a new blog, titled: Field of Memes.)
Hogan Lovells today published Pan-American Governmental Access to Data in the Cloud, the fifth installment in a series of White Papers examining government access to data held by Cloud service providers. Examining the right of governments in the United States and Latin America to access data in the Cloud, the White Paper concludes that the physical location of Cloud servers does not significantly affect government access to data stored on those servers, and that it is fundamentally incorrect to assume that the United States government’s access to data in the Cloud is greater than that in the Latin American countries examined.
Read more on Hogan Lovells Chronicle of Data Protection.


“As goes France, so goes only France...”
Marianne Le Moullec writes:
According to the French Data Protection Authority’s (“CNIL”) recently issued activity report for 2013 (http://www.cnil.fr/fileadmin/documents/La_CNIL/publications/CNIL_34e_Rapport_annuel_2013.pdf), the CNIL was especially busy in 2013. The main topics addressed by the CNIL in 2013 were the creation of a national consumer credit database, the right to be forgotten, the right to refuse cookies, the proposed EU Regulation, and, of course, the revelations concerning the U.S. Prism program and the surveillance of European citizens’ personal data by foreign entities.
[...]
With regards to of the CNIL’s auditing and sanctions in 2013, the CNIL’s priorities remained committed to training, promoting awareness on data protection and issuing guidance for companies. Imposing financial penalties remains an exception. Statistics of the CNIL’s auditing and sanctions activities in 2013 demonstrate this quite clearly
Read more on Proskauer


Good marketing. Now owning a multimillion dollar mansion, a yacht and a Ferrari don't mean a thing if you aren't recognized by Facebook as being a “real celebrity.” (Will you be able to opt out, so you can pretend to be humble?)
Facebook Launches New App for Celebrities Only
Facebook has launched a new app aimed at celebrities only that will let public figures more easily interact with their fans.
The app called 'Mentions' is aimed at helping the Facebook-recognised or verified celebrities manage their public figure pages on the social network.


“What we got here, is failure to communicate!”
Lawmakers ask GM to fire its top lawyer, Michael Millikin
On Thursday, a Senate subcommittee asked automaker General Motors (GM) - which is currently dealing with a safety recall crisis of sorts - to dismiss the company's chief corporate counsel, Michael Millikin.
… The report alleged that the GM lawyers did not alert the company's engineers or top executives to a potential safety issue.
Against the backdrop of Valukas' report, McCaskill questioned why Millikin has failed to inform the GM board or the US Securities and Exchange Commission of the potential for punitive damages when the cases involving faulty ignition switches were being settled by GM. McCaskill said Millikin's actions amounted to "either gross negligence or gross incompetence on the part of a lawyer."


My Math students already know this. (I hope.)
5 Cool Math Calculations You Can Do with Google Search
1.) Perform Basic Math Calculations
2.) Perform Advanced Math Computation
This includes trigonometric function, inverse trigonometric functions, hyperbolic functions, logarithms (base 10, e, and 2), exponential functions, factorial, and combinations.
3.) Convert Measures
it can convert currency, mass, length, volume, area, time, electricity, energy, and power. It is also capable of converting information (bytes, kilobytes, etc.) and number systems.
4. Set Timer or Alarm
5.) Graph Functions
Note that you can also display the Google calculator on your browser just by typing calculator on Google search.


For my researching students.
7 Free Online PDF Tools That Could Save You A Lot Of Work

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