How
important is your data? Would you notice that it was unreadable in
less than 6 months? Would your database accept records without an
edit? (e.g. a zipcode of “pZ3&g”?)
Cybercriminals
Encrypt Website Databases in “RansomWeb” Attacks
…
researchers
at High-Tech Bridge have spotted a new type of attack that threatens
businesses.
The
technique, dubbed “RansomWeb,”
targets sensitive information stored in website databases. These
attacks require a lot of patience, but they can be highly profitable
for cybercriminals.
The
attackers first compromise the targeted company’s Web application.
Then, they modify server scripts so that data is encrypted on-the-fly
before it’s inserted into the database. This encryption process
happens over a long period of time to avoid raising any suspicion.
Once the data is encrypted, victims are sent a ransom demand.
In
one operation observed by researchers, the attackers encrypted the
database of a financial company over a six-month period.
During this time, even the backups were overwritten with encrypted
entries, making it difficult to recover the data.
Think
of it as an intelligence service that is actually doing its job. All
you need to stop this is an accurate prediction of the data you will
not need.
Canada’s
top surveillance agency has been tapping into Internet cables to
collect vast troves of upload and download data from popular
file-sharing websites, The Intercept and CBC News reported.
The
program, known as Levitation, indiscriminately sucks up and analyzes
the records of up to 15 million downloads each day. The surveillance
spans North America, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.
After
all, If he's got nothing to hide, why would this bother him (I'm not
sure congress get's sarcasm. Or anything else) I will send the
Congressman an email asking if I can have the surveillance details
for our “Big Data” class.
Mike
Masnick writes:
Rep. Jared Polis has a bit of a history of making hilarious, but
incredibly on point, sarcastic and satirical suggestions in response
to government officials saying something stupid. Last year, he asked
the Treasury Department to ban
dollar bills after Senator Joe Manchin asked the Treasury
Department to ban
Bitcoin. Polis, of course, took the same arguments Manchin used
against Bitcoin and highlighted how dollar bills had the same
characteristics.
His latest move is in response to Senator Marco Rubio’s ridiculous
and clueless call for greater levels of mass surveillance of
Americans. Rubio calls for new laws to force tech companies to
help the government spy on everyone and also a permanent extension
of the controversial Section 215 of the Patriot Act, the part of the
law that was twisted by the DOJ and the NSA to pretend it means they
can demand every phone record on every American because they
might be able to sniff through it all and find something interesting.
In response, Polis has
asked the US Intelligence Community to begin “24 hour monitoring”
of Senator Rubio
Read
more on TechDirt.
A
business opportunity for my Ethical Hackers. If manufacturers will
create “no fly” zones (based on GPS) as part of their operating
software, replace the operating software (or delete the restrictions
or remove the GPS antenna).
http://thehill.com/policy/technology/230980-drone-maker-will-block-dc-flight-after-white-house-crash
The
manufacturer of a drone that crashed on the White house grounds this
week will introduce technology to block its machines from flying
around downtown Washington, it said on Wednesday.
…
Under the new mandatory software update, the drones will not be able
to take off from or fly into a zone that extends 15.5 miles out from
downtown Washington in all directions.
…
Current FAA regulations make it illegal to fly a drone in
Washington, even recreationally. [Not
sure that is true Bob]
DJI
has already programmed its machines to prevent them from flying into
the airspace above many of the nation’s airports, which it imposes
by keeping tabs on their GPS data.
“Trust
us, we'll protect your personal information. Except when we share
it.” Includes a look at the UK, Australia and the US as well.
From
the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) of
Alberta:
In recognition of Data Privacy Day, the Office of the Information and
Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) has released independent research it had
commissioned to provide a privacy perspective on multi-stakeholder
government information sharing projects.
The paper entitled Government Information Sharing: Is Data Going
Out of the Silos, Into the Mines? provides an overview of
government information sharing projects across Canada and
internationally, potential frameworks for analysis, citizen
expectations, and an examination of actions taken to protect privacy.
As the authors stated, this paper scratches the surface on the number
of multi-stakeholder, citizen-centred government information sharing
projects occurring but provides a critical look at the variety of
projects undertaken, the concept of big data, the transparency or
lack thereof involved in projects, and citizen reactions to different
projects.
The paper concludes with an analysis of the risk involved in
information sharing projects and proposals, including but not limited
to legal authority, security management, organizational commitment to
privacy, and public relations and communications.
The paper is available on the OIPC website at:
Darn!
I was going to fly my “football inflation measurement” App.
Super
Bowl is a 'no drone zone'
The
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued
a warning Wednesday to remind fans of both football and unmanned
aircraft that the Super Bowl is “strictly a ‘no drone zone.'”
It is illegal to fly unauthorized aircraft, such as a drone, over or
near any NFL games, not just Sunday’s championship game, according
to the FAA. The same restriction also applies Major League Baseball
games, several Nascar events and any college sporting event taking
place in a stadium that seats at least 30,000 fans.
Okay,
so I can't read a calendar. At least I found this reading list... I
should remind myself to check next January.
It’s
Data Privacy Day 2015, and Dave Piscitello (@SecuritySkeptic)
compiled his reading list, which he has kindly shared with this site:
- Cloudward.net’s Data Privacy Day 2015: Top Experts Comment on Privacy Issues
- Internet Society’s Four Basic Steps to Protecting Your Digital Privacy in 2015
- The US Federal Trade Commission’s Privacy & Identity and Protecting Personal Information: A Guide for Business pages
- Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society’s Privacy and Security Awareness Initiatives
- Privacy By Design’s A Primer on Metadata: Separating Fact from Fiction
- Trend Micro’s Why Data Privacy is Important?
- Articles I’ve written about privacy also explain how each of us is often our own worst privacy enemy. These articles in particular remain timely and relevant:
Perspective.
Extrapolating existing trends.
What
Will Social Media Look Like in 2015?
At
the start of the New Year, many small business marketers think about
what the social media landscape may look like as they strive to reach
their business goals. It seems that each passing year brings more
competition as social media platforms shift in popularity and
networks continue to change the rules for marketers.
In
this ever-shifting environment, we look at some of the social
media marketing trends that small business owners can
expect in 2015.
Big
Data requires a Big Index?
Open
Database Of The Corporate World
“OpenCorporates
aims to do a straightforward (though big) thing: have a
URL for every company in the world. We’ve grown from 3
territories and a few million companies to over 75 jurisdictions and
55 million companies, and are working with the open data community to
add more each week. How can we get hold of the data? We have a new
API service, as well as our highly popular Google Refine
reconciliation service (see documentation),
and this allows access to the information as JSON or XML. If
you need data in bulk, either for academic research work, for another
cool open data project, or commercially, drop us an email at
info@opencorporates.com.
Under what licence is the data published? In collecting this
information, and matching up to other data, OpenCorporates has
acquired database rights, but we strongly believe this information
should be freely reusable, and so make it available (to the extent
that we have the rights) under the share-alike attribution Open
Database Licence. For details, please see our licence
page.”
Who
would you pay $5 to hear?
Louis
CK Releases Comedy Special Online
Controversial
comedian Louis CK has released another comedy special online, cutting
out the middleman and delivering his jokes directly to his fans.
Louis
CK: Live At The Comedy Store, CK’s first nightclub special, is
available to stream online in 1080p or as a DRM-free download, and is
priced at just $5.
Interesting.
Trading on their name and their ability to replicate a “Best
Practices” infrastructure.
Amazon's
New WorkMail Targets Business Users
On
Jan. 28, Amazon announced its latest business product, a cloud-based
email and calendaring service called WorkMail that one analyst said
could be the first of many follow-on offerings.
…
Amazon will charge a monthly subscription fee of $4 per inbox,
similar to what Microsoft and Google charge. The new Amazon service
includes 50G of storage per user.
…
Company officials said the advantage is companies won't have to
invest in their own email servers and management software as that
will also be handled by Amazon—which, among other things, will
encrypt emails to help ensure their security.
Because:
Hype!
Facebook
Launches Super Bowl Experience
Facebook
has launched the Super Bowl Experience just in time for Super
Bowl XLIX on Sunday (Feb. 1). The Super Bowl Experience on Facebook,
located at facebook.com/superbowl,
focuses the whole Facebook experience on the Super Bowl before,
during, and after the game.
The
Super Bowl Experience features posts about the game between the
Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots, real-time reactions to
events on the pitch, play-by-play updates, and media content from
news outlets covering the game. All of which saves you from ever
leaving
Facebook. Which is the idea.
An
amusing look at how much fun it must be to spend big money.
Infographic
Understanding
Why Google Spends Billions on Acquisitions
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