Eventually,
Russia will be attacked – even if that attack takes place well
inside the Ukraine.
The
White House Has No Idea What's Going On With The Russian Convoy In
Ukraine
Despite
eyewitnesses
seeing a column of Russian military vehicles crossing into
Ukraine on Thursday that was reportedly attacked on Friday by the
Ukrainian military, The White House released a statement saying it
was "not currently in a position to confirm" this series of
events.
…
"Even as we work to gather information, we reiterate our
concern about repeated Russian and Russian-supported incursions into
Ukraine. Russia has no right to send vehicles, persons, or cargo of
any kind into Ukraine, under any pretext, without the Government of
Ukraine’s permission."
(Related)
An
Economic Explanation for Putin’s Recklessness
…
What is Vladimir Putin to do? Boosting the economy would likely
require reforms (opening up the energy industry to foreign investors,
improving the business climate with a more reliable regulatory and
legal climate) that would loosen his grip on power and at best result
in a modest growth uptick — especially compared to those crazy
leaps of a decade ago. So Putin has gotten his country into a scrap
with Ukraine and the West that is probably depressing growth, but has
also rallied
the country’s people around him. And it’s unlikely to hurt
the economy that much, write economists Clifford G. Gaddy
and Barry W. Ickes in one
of a pair of enlightening recent essays:
Security
Theater “You can fool some of the people all of the time...”
Paper
– TSA device flaws compromise airport security
by
Sabrina I.
Pacifici on Aug 15, 2014
Via
FCW.com:
“The cybersecurity vulnerabilities uncovered in a number of the
Transportation Security Administration’s electronic security and
personnel management devices are part of a growing problem for
federal IT managers, according to the expert that discovered and
reported the flaws. Billy Rios, director of threat intelligence at
Qualys, a large security tech firm, presented a
paper in early August at the Black Hat cybersecurity
convention that showed electronic backdoors, hard-coded credentials
and other fundamental security flaws in a number of the TSA’s
detection, management and security devices.”
- Understanding Airport Security, Billy Rios, Director of Threat Intelligence, Qualys. August 2014.
(Related)
We must identify any security vulnerability that a moderately
knowledgeable teenager could find – let alone well funded terrorist
organizations. What is the alternative? Ignore open doors into
secret data files? “Gentlemen do not read other gentleman's mail?”
“Can't we all just get along?”
Report:
British spy agency scanned for vulnerable systems in 32 countries
by
Sabrina I.
Pacifici on Aug 15, 2014
PCWorld
via Mikael Ricknäs: “British intelligence agency GCHQ used
port scanning as part of the “Hacienda” program to find
vulnerable systems it and other agencies could compromise across at
least 27 countries, German news site Heise Online has revealed. The
use of so-called port scanning has long been a trusty tool used by
hackers to find systems they can potentially access. In top-secret
documents published by Heise
on Friday, it is revealed that in 2009, GCHQ started using
the technology against entire nations. One of the documents states
that full scans of network ports of 27 countries and partial scans of
another five countries had been carried out. Targets included ports
using protocols such as SSH (Secure Shell) and SNMP (Simple Network
Management Protocol), which are used for remote access and network
administration. The results were then shared with other spy agencies
in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia and New Zealand.
“Mailorder” is described in the documents as a secure way for
them to exchange collected data. Gathering the information is only
the first step, according to Heise Online. The documents also reveal
“Landmark,” a program started by the Canadian spy agency CSEC to
find what it calls ORBs (Operational Relay Boxes), which are used to
hide the location of the attacker when it launches exploits against
targets or steals data, Heise said. For example, during an exercise
in February 2010, eight groups of three “network exploitation
analysts” were able to find 3,000 potential ORBs, which could then
potentially be used by CSEC.”
Perspective.
Is Cable TV obsolete?
http://news.gnom.es/news/in-a-first-cable-companies-broadband-subscriptions-surpass-tv-subscriptions
In
a first, cable companies’ broadband subscriptions surpass TV
subscriptions
Perspective.
A
Record 300 Million Smartphones Shipped in Q2: IDC
…
Shipments shot up 25.3 percent, from 240.5 million units a year ago.
A major driver: the growing popularity of inexpensive smartphones
that run Google's Android mobile operating system (OS).
If
we no longer teach cursive, will these documents become another “lost
language?”
Smithsonian
Project Brings Rare Historical Documents Online for Public Access
by
Sabrina I.
Pacifici on Aug 15, 2014
FCW.com:
“Volunteers are powering an effort by the Smithsonian Institution
to create online, searchable versions of its vast collections of
diaries, journals, biological specimens and other historical gems.
After more than a year of testing, the project came out of beta Aug.
12, with officials inviting the public to join in the massive
transcription and labeling effort. The Transcription
Center attracted about 1,000 active volunteers during its
testing phase, and that group has grown by more than 800 since the
public launch, according to project coordinator Meghan Ferriter.
Volunteers dive into a variety of projects, including transcribing
texts that are often handwritten and occasionally in
languages other than English. Volunteers also review submitted work
before it is published.”
For
my Ethical Hackers. The story of a hack – the potentials are
limitless on the Internet of Things.
Water
by
Ramez Naam
[Download
the PDF at:
http://www.iftf.org/fileadmin/user_upload/downloads/th/4._Water_RamezNaam.pdf
For
my student gamers... (Also some cheap, but not free stuff)
App
Store Animated Savings: Disney, Adventure Time & Powerpuff Girls
[iOS Sales]
Rollercoaster
Tycoon 4 Mobile ($0.99, now free)
(Related)
Love
Exploring? These RPGs Are Made For You
I
often think of lists like this as checklists for my students.
10
Excuses That Unproductive People Come Up With
Laughter
is the best medicine.
…
“Education Department
Awards
40 States, D.C., and the Virgin Islands $28.4 Million in Grants to
Help Low-Income Students Take Advanced
Placement Tests”
– so congrats to the College
Board that will
profit handily (wink wink) from this boost.
…
Meanwhile, the Republican
National Committee
has denounced
the the College
Board for new
frameworks it has issued for the AP
US History exam,
claiming it promotes a "radically revisionist view of American
history that emphasizes negative aspects of our nation’s history
while omitting or minimizing positive aspects."
…
The Cape Henlopen School Board in
Delaware
has scrapped
its summer reading list for incoming high school students.
Originally the board chose to remove from the list The
Miseducation of Cameron Post,
a coming-of-age story about a gay teen in Montana. But when
anti-censorship
groups questioned that decision, the school board ditched the
recommended reading list altogether. [Confirms
my belief that School Boards don't understand how education works.
Bob]
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