Who listens to U.S. intelligence agencies? Not US
bureaucrats.
Shane Harris reports:
Five years ago, U.S. officials refused to merge a database containing classified personnel records of intelligence agency employees with another run by the Office of Personnel Management, fearing that if the two systems were linked up, it could expose the personal information of covert operatives to leakers and hackers.
Those concerns look prescient now that the OPM, the government’s human resources department, has been overwhelmed by hackers who exploited the agency’s weak computer security and made off with huge amounts of personal information on millions of government employees and contractors. But that incident has also raised troubling questions about whether U.S. spy agencies actually heeded their own advice and have kept their records physically segregated from the OPM systems that were recently hacked, presumably by spies in China.
Read more on The
Daily Beast.
(Related) 4-6 weeks? Seems a long time to patch
an identified bug.
OPM
Suspends Background Check System to Patch Security Bug
The
U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) announced on Monday that it
has temporarily suspended its Electronic Questionnaires for
Investigations Processing (e-QIP) system after discovering the
existence of a security bug.
Following
the recent data
breach, in which attackers are said to have gained access to the
details of as many as 18 million federal employees, the OPM started
conducting a comprehensive security review of its IT systems.
The
audit revealed the existence of a vulnerability in e-QIP, a web-based
system used to conduct background checks for federal security,
fitness, suitability, and credentialing purposes.
According
to the OPM, the temporary shutdown of the e-QIP system is not related
to the recent breach; it is a proactive step taken to
ensure the security of the organization’s network. There is no
evidence that the security flaw uncovered during the review has been
exploited, the agency said.
… The
background investigations system will be offline for 4-6 weeks while
security enhancements are put into place.
… The
American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) has filed a class
action lawsuit against the OPM, its director, and its chief
information officer. The complaint also names KeyPoint Government
Solutions, a private contractor that handled a majority of OPM’s
background checks. KeyPoint announced suffering a data breach in
December 2014.
The
AFGE has pointed out that the audits conducted by the OPM’s Office
of Inspector General over the past years have revealed the existence
of several security issues. The report published by the OIG in
November 2014 revealed that the cyber security deficiencies “could
potentially have national security implications.”
The
AFGE said the OPM failed to take proper measures to protect sensitive
information despite knowing of the KeyPoint hack and the security
weaknesses that plagued its own systems.
“Your
Privacy is important to us, unless we can make more money by selling
you out.”
Natasha
Singer and Jeremy B. Scahill report:
The privacy policy for Hulu, a video-streaming service with about 9 million subscribers, opens with a declaration that the company “respects your privacy.”
That respect could lapse, however, if the company is ever sold or goes bankrupt. At that point, according to a clause several screens deep in the policy, the host of details Hulu can gather about subscribers — names, birth dates, email addresses, videos watched, device locations and more — could be transferred to “one or more third parties as part of the transaction.” The policy does not promise to contact users if their data changes hands.
Provisions like that act as a sort of data fire-sale clause.
Read more on Seattle
Times.
How does this help Google strategically?
Google
manipulates search results and hurts users in the process, new
Yelp-funded study says
Google manipulates its search results in a way
that hurts both its competitors and its users, according
to a new research paper from prominent law professor and Internet
scholar, Tim Wu and funded by Google critic Yelp.
The study claims that when Google privileges its
own content over the “organic” results its search algorithm
picks, as in the case of restaurant reviews, it actually reduces
“social welfare.”
… “The main surprising and shocking
realisation is that Google is not presenting its best product,” Wu
told
Re/Code. “In fact, it’s presenting a version of the product
that’s degraded and intentionally worse for consumers.”
“Surveillance, there's a whole bunch of Apps for
that!”
Apple's new
music streaming app can scan your music library to find out what
genres and artists you like
Apple's new music streaming service, Apple Music,
launches today, and a handful of publications got an early look at
the service. One interesting detail picked up by both Rolling
Stone and Re/code
is that Apple Music has a clever way of figuring out what music
you like.
Rolling
Stone writes that when you first sign into Apple Music, it
encourages you to let it scan your existing music library.
(Related) Flagging everyone you meet and how you
greet them.
Apple Watch
may get handshake, hug gesture recognition
A new Apple
patent posted on the World Intellectual
Property Organization site suggests a gesture-based way where Apple
Watch can exchange information with a similar device.
“The exchange of information can be wholly or
partially automated and can occur in response to a device detecting
a ‘greeting event.’ In some embodiments, a greeting
event is detected when two user devices belonging to different users
are in proximity and the users of the devices concurrently execute a
greeting gesture, such as a handshake, bow, hand slap, hug, or the
like,” it
said.
… The device can then send contextual
information such as current location, access to particular networks
or other resources, or even information about the user of the sending
device.
On the other hand, a sending device can generate a
cryptographic key and can use this key to encrypt information it
sends to the receiving device.
(Related)
Facebook is
monitoring videos you watch
Facebook has yet again tinkered with its news feed
algorithm -- this time to show you more videos similar to ones you
expand to full-screen, un-mute or opt to watch in HD.
Facebook would take it for granted that you loved
that particular video, even if you do not like, share or comment.
Those same signals will tell Facebook that a video
is enjoyable so the News Feed shows it to more people, TechCrunch
reported.
The more Facebook understands which videos are
great and which are boring to which people, the faster it will grow
its view count, which has already reached four billion per day. That
is enormous growth considering it was at one billion per day in
September.
Just a few weeks ago, Facebook's algorithm started
factoring in how long you linger looking at posts and videos.
(Related)
Android app
secretly mines for Dogecoin, FTC not amused
When you say your app is free of malware but does
exactly the opposite, you aren't just lying, you could also be
committing a crime. That is exactly what Prized app developers
Equiliv Investments and Ryan Ramminger learned the hard way when they
were slapped with an FTC
complaint because their app actually used infected smartphones to
help the developers mine for cryptocurrency like Dogecoin. The
defendants wisely decided to settle out of court, which included a
monetary judgment of $50,000, which is no small amount for someone
desperately hunting for digital currency.
Surveillance from space. Because satellite
technology is amusing. Interesting gif and videos.
A View From
Space So Clear You Can See the Cars Moving
Even from outer space, Fenway Park is immediately
recognizable.
… Here’s footage from UrtheCast’s
ultra high-definition camera aboard the International Space Station:
https://vimeo.com/130889258
… “Impressive stuff,” another Vimeo
commenter wrote of UrtheCast’s latest offerings. “Only
a matter of time before Google Earth is live.”
UrtheCast also posted videos of London:
https://vimeo.com/130889259
And Barcelona: https://vimeo.com/130908246
Perspective. It sounds much worse than it is.
So long and
thanks for all the ads! Here's why Microsoft is exiting the $74
billion display advertising business
Microsoft just announced a big shift in operations
that signals it is close to exiting the highly-competitive display
advertising business.
… Microsoft's share of the $74 billion global
display advertising market has been eroding over recent years.
EMarketer predicts its share of the sector will decline to 1.2% this
year, down from a 1.4% share in 2014 and a 2.1% share in 2013.
And while the global display ad market grew 22.4%
last year, Microsoft's display revenues dropped 15.5% in 2014,
according to eMarketer.
… However, rumors of an exit from advertising
have been looming for some time. In 2012, Microsoft
took a $6.2 billion write-down on aQuantive, the company it
acquired in 2007 in the hope of taking on Google. Microsoft ended up
selling off the remnant parts of that business, the Atlas ad server,
to Facebook last year. In the US, Facebook is the biggest seller of
display advertising, estimated
by eMarketer to take a 25% share of the market in 2015. Google
will have a 15% share, eMarketer predicts.
Interesting, if measurable. Another indicator of
well managed risk?
How
Disaster Risk Is Priced into the Stock Market
…
If
stock prices fall in the event of a disaster — and that is an
important risk that investors take into account — that can explain
why in normal times we have such high returns on stock prices, which
has long been a puzzle. It can also explain why stock prices are so
volatile, because this risk is hard to calculate, and as investor’s
perceptions of it move around, that can move around stock prices.
How should my IT Governance students change their
strategy based on this article?
The
Internet of Things Changes the Company-Customer Relationship
… It used to be that most of the value we
derived from our devices was the result of direct physical
interaction: For example, we turned a key in a door look, flipped a
light switch, or twisted the dial on a thermostat. Now,
however, our interaction with devices is profoundly changing – they
are becoming more like interconnected services
than products. Soon it will be common to drive up to
one’s house – which has adjusted heating or cooling in
anticipation of your arrival — and have the garage door
automatically open, the security system disarm, the doors unlock and
lights come on. This impending future creates a conundrum for “thing
makers” as the way that services must be supported is profoundly
different from the way that devices are.
… Some firms may look at this situation and
see operational headaches and increased service costs. Others — the
companies that will be the winners in the IoT — will see
opportunity.
… The companies that see service in an IoT
world as a competitive differentiator — a brand and growth
opportunity — will thrive; those that continue to view service as
an episodic cost obligation will lose out.
An Infographic to help my students with their
presentations.
9 Steps to
Becoming a Better Public Speaker
… Make sure your public speaking skills are up
to par with by following the 9 simple steps outlined on the
infographic below.
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