“Facts”
are leaking rather than being disclosed. Note: “Korean” is not a
programming language.
Malware
fuels growing suspicion that North Korea hacked Sony Pictures
The
destructive malware that infected Sony Pictures’ network last week
was written in Korean, a source familiar with a recent FBI alert told
Fox News, further fueling suspicions
that North Korea launched the cyber attack.
The
source added that the Korean-written malware also may have been an
effort to confuse investigators about its origin.
…
Fox News is told that the malware has two destructive threads: it
overwrites data and it interrupts execution processes, such as a
computer’s start-up functions. The
FBI warns that the malware can be so destructive that the data is not
recoverable or it is too costly a process to retrieve. [Have
you backed up your data recently? Bob]
(Related)
So now we have a “new” group to blame for Sony and perhaps the
Ukrainian reactor?
Iranian hackers were identified in a report
released Tuesday as the source of coordinated attacks against
more than 50 targets in 16 countries, many of them corporate and
government entities that manage critical energy, transportation and
medical services.
Over
the course of two years, according to Cylance, a security firm based
in Irvine, Calif., Iranian hackers managed to steal confidential data
from a long list of targets and, in some cases, infiltrated victims’
computer networks to such an extent that they could take over,
manipulate or easily destroy data on those machines.
… But the “most bone-chilling evidence” Cylance said it
collected was of attacks on transportation networks, including
airlines and airports in South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
Researchers said they had found evidence that hackers had gained
complete remote access to airport gates and security control systems,
“potentially allowing them to spoof gate credentials.”
A
sidebar on Big Data? Lesson: If you handle Big Data, make sure your
programs can count big numbers?
'Gangnam
Style' Has Been Viewed So Many Times It Has Actually Broken YouTube
PSY's
music video has now had so many views on YouTube that the video
sharing platform has had to "upgrade" so people can still
watch it.
On
its Google+ page, YouTube says it didn't ever think something
like this would ever happen, "until we met PSY".
The
South Korean pop sensation has now amassed well over 2 billion views
on his original Gangnam Style music video, alongside nearly 9 million
'likes' and just over 1 million 'dislikes'. That turns out to be
more numbers than YouTube is coded to display, based on a 32-integer
system
Technology
probably can't prevent harassment, but it can collect evidence. The
question is, what do we do with it?
A
New Harassment Policy for Twitter
It’s
no secret that Twitter is currently playing host to an uptick in
targeted harassment. The site has long provided an easy way for
people to lob hostile and threatening messages into someone’s
timeline, but things seem to be getting worse, not better. Gamergate
targets like Zoe Quinn, Anita Sarkeesian, and Breanna Wu have all
been inundated with death and rape threats that have forced them to
cancel talks and flee their homes. After her father’s death, Zelda
Williams—Robin Williams's daughter—quit the social network after
sustained harassment. A
recent PEW study found that half of women have been sexually
harassed online.
Twitter
has admitted there is a problem. After Zelda Williams
signed off for good, the service re-upped its efforts to handle
abuse. And today, the service announced a handful of changes aimed
at making it easier for victims of harassment to report abusers.
Perhaps
even judges have had enough?
Ross
Todd reports:
A federal magistrate judge in San Jose has refused
to sign off on an indefinite gag order prohibiting
Microsoft Corp. from disclosing a warrant for access to a Hotmail
account holder’s email.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal, who has previously pushed back
against government requests for electronic surveillance, ruled Nov.
25 that investigators are not entitled to delay notification without
specifying an end point.
Read
more on The
Recorder. (Free sub. Required)
(Related)
It's contagious!
Matt
Reynolds reports:
A federal judge ordered the federal government Monday to provide more
detail on a “mysterious” law enforcement database that sparked
the investigation of a man charged with violating the trade embargo
against Iran.
The U.S. government maintains that Homeland Security investigators
did not spy on defendant Shantia Hassanshahi using the National
Security Agency’s bulk telephony metadata program, which collects
individuals’ phone calls and records.
But Hassanshahi argues that the government used the mass surveillance
program, or at least something like it, to access telephone records
that helped secure his arrest.
Read
more about the opinion in U.S.
v. Hassanshahi on Courthouse
News.
Perhaps
we should watch “Minority Report” again?
Anucyia
Victor reports:
It can tell you what you want to eat in the blink of an eye, simply
by tracking the movement of your retina.
In exactly 2.5 seconds the subconscious menu reads the minds of
customers, by using a mathematical algorithm to identify a customer’s
perfect pizza.
The incredible software was developed for Pizza Hut by Swedish eye
tracking technology pioneers Tobii Technology.
Read
more on Daily
Mail.
Definitions
can change. (Perhaps not in government bureaucracies)
Steve
Kolowich writes:
The U.S. Education Department wants to encourage colleges and the
tech companies they work with to protect student data from misuse.
But the agency’s power to protect the privacy of people taking
free, online courses is essentially nonexistent.
“Data in the higher-education context for MOOCs is seldom
Ferpa-protected,” Kathleen Styles, the Education Department’s
chief privacy officer, said Tuesday at a symposium on student
privacy.
Read
more on Chronicle
of Higher Education.
For
my fellow teachers. (I've heard this before, haven't I?)
Change
Is Coming: What U.S. Colleges Must Do To Survive
Universities
and colleges across the nation are getting it wrong.
So
says University of Delaware president Patrick Harker, who has a plan
to transform traditional Ivory Tower institutions into
student-focused powerhouses that will shatter old educational models
and usher in a new era of educational excellence.
The
problem is, he says, it will be painfully difficult and some schools
are bound to be left behind.
...
a
thought-provoking paper about major challenges facing the
education system.
…
But technology enables new processes, and those new processes can
deliver lower costs and higher quality. For example, massive open
online courses (MOOCS) can play a role. We’re also starting to see
more interactive, problem-based learning that allows students to
learn by doing, which is a positive sign.
Why
I'm never in a Dilbert cartoon: I don't even have a flip phone.
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