The
impact of security breaches are often understated in the initial
announcements. (Possibly better than overstating.) But repeated
“corrections,” each increasing the scope of the breach, really
undermines the organizations credibility. Worse is having another
group point out that you understated the breach. (By the way, how
many people is that?)
Federal
Union Says OPM Data Breach Hit Every Single Federal Employee
The American Federation of Government Employees
claimed Thursday that all federal employees and retirees, as well as
one million former federal employees, had their personal information
stolen in the federal data breach disclosed by the Office of
Personnel Management
last week. If accurate, the claim–which was presented in a letter
from the union’s president to the OPM–would expand the impact of
the breach far beyond the four million federal employees the OPM said
were impacted upon disclosing the breach last Thursday.
AFGE President J. David Cox, who represents more
than 670,000 federal employees in the union, began his letter to OPM
Director Katherine Archuleta by saying that “very little
substantive information had been shared” with the union.
… On top of that, Cox said he believed that
the government hadn’t encrypted the Social Security numbers, which
he called a “cybersecurity failure that is absolutely indefensible
and outrageous.” In his closing, Cox described the breach as an
“abysmal failure” by the OPM to “guard data that has been
entrusted to it by the federal workforce.”
Sure to be something interesting!
‘Big
Parenting': How data and technology are changing our families
… The
annual Security and Human Behavior Workshop is not your
average technology show. There are only a few dozen participants, and
they are handpicked. There are no formal presentations, just quick
10-minute talks followed by a half-hour or more of free-flowing
discussion. And the prized participants aren’t computer scientists.
They are behavioral economists, medical experts, even magicians.
[Look at
Past Workshops:
For my Computer Security students.
State-by-State
Listing of Data Loss and Freedom of Information Legislation
by Sabrina
I. Pacifici on Jun 11, 2015
DataLossDB
– Open Security Foundation: “In order to request data breach
notification reports from governments, several critieria need to
exist. The state must have Freedom of Information or Open Records
legislation. The state must have Breach Notification legislation,
and the state must require notifications to a centralized authority
(like an Attorney General, or a Consumer Protection division). At
this time, only 12 states meet the requirements for gathering Primary
Sources. 35 states have data loss notification legislation, but no
centralized reporting. 4 states have no data loss notification
legislation. See our Federal
Data Breach Notification Legislation page for our analysis of
federal legislation.”
For my Intro to IT studnets.
Think
Before You Post: Can You Be Sued For Libelous Tweets and Facebook
Posts?
In most countries around the world, saying or
writing something that’s untrue and harms the reputation of another
person is a civil offense. While this has been the case for
centuries, most people were essentially immune from prosecution —
unless you had a public platform reaching a wide audience, meeting
the bar for defamation was next to impossible.
Social media changed this.
Now anyone with a Facebook or Twitter account can
theoretically reach the entire Internet using population. If the
message being shared is positive, the
Internet can do wonderful things. If the message being shared is
defamatory, there might be a very expensive lawsuit.
I've been saying this for years. Consumer
complaints apparently do not outweigh Monopoly PACs.
U.S.
Internet users pay more and have fewer choices than Europeans
by Sabrina
I. Pacifici on Jun 11, 2015
“More than a quarter of Americans cannot go
online at home to check their children’s grades at school, apply
for jobs, pay bills or research health issues. They don’t have
what has become a crucial service for participation in modern
society: Internet service at home. The proportion of households with
Internet service had been rising steadily for decades, according to
the Pew Research Center, until the past few years when the adoption
rate slowed.
One reason? The high cost of broadband and the lack
of competition that leads to those high prices. A Center
for Public Integrity analysis of Internet prices in five U.S. cities
and five comparable French cities found that prices in the U.S.
were as much as 3 ½ times higher than those in France for similar
service. The analysis shows that consumers in France have a choice
between a far greater number of providers — seven on average —
than those in the U.S., where most residents can get service from no
more than two companies. The Center’s analysis echoes the findings
of several studies on Internet pricing disparities worldwide.”
Technology changes fast and significantly.
(Digest Item #3)
Twitter
Breaks 140-Character Limit
Twitter is removing the 140-character
limit for direct messages (Dms). Instead, from
July, private messages sent via Twitter can be up to 10,000
characters in length. Which is a rather extreme change by
any standards you care to mention. Public posts, more commonly known
as tweets, will still be limited to 140 characters.
The character limit for private messages never
really made much sense, and this change is well overdue. Developers
are being warned in advance in order to reduce the chances of apps
using the Twitter API from breaking.
Need a good example of inflation?
Zimbabwe
finally ditches ‘worthless’ currency for the US dollar
… the RBZ said that accounts “with balances
of zero to Z$175 quadrillion will be paid a flat US$5”.
“Hyperinflation” does not begin to explain the
monetary problems in Zimbabwe, which denominates currencies with this
many zeroes: 000,000,000,000.
Need a good example of wishful thinking?
Russia's
military modernization plans, Armata tank imposing high cost on
country
… President Vladimir Putin's expensive arms
build-up faces major hurdles as Russia's economy sinks under the
weight of Western sanctions and falling oil prices. The 22-trillion
ruble (about $400-billion) program, which envisages the acquisition
of 2,300 new tanks, hundreds of aircraft and missiles and dozens of
navy ships, was conceived back at the time when Russia's coffers were
brimming with petrodollars.
I'm not sure I understand this slideshow, and I
probably should.
An
investment bank made this epic presentation on the future of digital
media
Investment banker Terrence Kawaja, founder and CEO
of LUMA Partners, the company famed for its LUMAscapes,
has a new, epic presentation on the state of digital media.
It takes a specific focus on digital media and
marketing. The central themes are around "open" platforms
versus "closed" ones.
The top 5 trends LUMA picks out for 2015 and
beyond are: Programmatic, mobile, omnichannel/personalization,
identity, and convergent TV.
For my Business Intelligence students.
Why
marketers are betting big on predictive analytics
… Tapping into the analytics
trend that's being felt throughout the business world as a whole,
predictive marketing applies algorithms and machine learning to big
data to help marketers direct their efforts in the most profitable
directions. Predictive-analytics tools can help marketers gauge
ahead of time what a particular customer will buy, for example, as
well as when and how much. Equipped with that information, companies
can tailor their campaigns accordingly.
Amazon is a shining example: Its recommendations
engine reportedly
accounts for roughly 30 percent of the company's sales.
A freebie for my Data Governance students.
DCIM for
Dummies e-book
Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) is the discipline of
managing the physical infrastructure of a data center and optimizing
its ongoing operation.
For my students who read (both of them)
Listen Up,
Book Lovers: 10 of the Best Podcasts for Bibliophiles
… As a proud
bibliophile myself, I am thrilled to get the chance to share some
of my favorite podcasts about books and literature, as well as some
crowd-sourced suggestions I wish I had been listening to for years.
There is some solid content here, so if you have
the time to spare and are always on the lookout for great
book recommendations, look no further. These will keep your “to
read” list full, and offer some insightful commentary into the
lives of authors everywhere.
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