This does not sound good. Replacing cards
suggests the breached information has been used to extract cash. Why
is everyone else claiming ignorance?
Cole Epley reports:
A large data breach at an unidentified, national business has prompted First National Bank of Omaha to issue new debit cards to customers in seven states.
The Omaha-based bank with operations in Nebraska, Illinois, Iowa, South Dakota, Kansas, Colorado and Texas recently sent new cards to customers with a letter explaining that its routine fraud-monitoring efforts had determined those customers’ cards were at risk of being compromised due to that breach.
Read more on Omaha.com
[From
the article:
“The company affected, the card networks and
investigators are still working to determine the extent of the
exposure,” Langin said.
Citing the ongoing investigation, he wouldn’t
say exactly how many customers were affected. Only
debit cards are being reissued, not credit cards.
… Langin said he expects the issue also will
affect other banks. Large metro-area institutions, including Mutual
of Omaha Bank, SAC Federal Credit Union, Wells Fargo, Pinnacle Bank
and Great Western Bank, all
said they were not yet aware of any such breaches. [Very
strange. Bob]
Update. If this breach was caused by a couple of
kids poking at their security, imagine what a serious player could
do.
There’s been a second arrest in the TalkTalk
data breach case. And again, it’s a teenager that’s been
arrested. Police confirmed that an unnamed male 16-year old from
Feltham, West London, was arrested on charges under the Computer
Misuse Act. He’s out on bail now.
Read more on Bit-Tech.
If TalkTalk wants to argue its data security is
appropriate and they had no obligation to encrypt data, how will they
respond to those who would point out that they’re getting hacked by
kids?
No doubt the FBI will view this as a tool for
uncatchable criminals. Everyone else may view it as a tool to avoid
the minions of the surveillance state.
Tor
Messenger Beta: Chat over Tor, Easily
Today we are releasing a new, beta version of Tor
Messenger, based on Instantbird,
an instant messaging client developed in the Mozilla community.
What is it?
Tor Messenger is a cross-platform chat program
that aims to be secure by default and sends all of its traffic over
Tor. It supports a wide variety of transport networks, including
Jabber (XMPP), IRC, Google Talk, Facebook Chat, Twitter, Yahoo, and
others; enables Off-the-Record
(OTR) Messaging automatically; and has an easy-to-use graphical
user interface localized into multiple languages.
Tin foil hat time! Imagine Big Brother giving
everyone a surveillance device cleverly disguised as a tool to
connect your laptop to the Internet…
From Daily Mail:
Using
a wireless transmitter fitted behind a wall, computer scientists have
developed a device that can map a nearby room in 3D while scanning
for human bodies. Using the signals that reflect off these people,
the device creates an accurate silhouette (pictured) and can even use
this silhouette to identify who that person is.
The
device is called RF Capture and it was developed by researchers at
MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL).
Read more on Daily
Mail.
I'll add this to my collection.
Guiding
Principles on Privacy and Security of Personal Wellness Data
by Sabrina
I. Pacifici on Oct 29, 2015
Consumer Electronics Association:
“Wellness-related
wearable devices represent one of the fastest-growing
segments of the Internet of Things. Consumers now harness data about
themselves — calories, steps, heart rate, and more — to improve
their well-being. In the future, these devices will tell consumers
even more about themselves, providing analytics and insights that
will empower them to lead richer and healthier lives. Society also
will benefit as we develop sophisticated tools to research health and
wellness on an aggregated basis. All of these benefits depend on the
collection and use of data, some of which can be considered personal
or sensitive. Companies in the health and fitness ecosystem
understand that they must be good stewards of that data to maintain
consumer trust. With trust in mind, these Guiding
Principles (“Principles”) articulate the Consumer Electronics
Association’s (“CEA”) recommendations
for voluntary best practices that mitigate risks that
consumers may perceive with respect to personal wellness data. These
Principles articulate practices that can be followed by a broad
variety of companies in the health and fitness wearable ecosystem.
If adopted, they may help companies obtain and maintain consumer
trust. Since the Principles are baseline recommendations, companies
following them will retain flexibility on how to implement them,
accounting for each company’s unique combination of products,
services, and users..”
A most formidable task. Consider drones created
on a 3D printer or those stuffed in Christmas stockings. If junior
is orbiting his drone around the Christmas tree, will SWAT teams
break down doors to put a stop to his criminal activity? Will it be
a crime to interfere with drones delivering your purchases?
Google,
Amazon and Wal-Mart join FAA drone task force
… At a NASA-run conference in Silicon Valley
in July, Vos proposed that every drone, including those flown by
hobbyists for pleasure, constantly
transmit its identification and location so airspace access and
collision avoidance can be managed by computer.
He envisioned drone users entering a flight plan
and getting approval before any flight took place. It's a
self-serving proposal, because Google wants a high degree of computer
control so it can efficiently and quickly deliver packages via drone.
Perspective. The world is taking all the
computing power they want in their back pocket.
Technology
Device Ownership: 2015
Today, 68% of U.S.
adults have a smartphone, up from 35% in 2011, and tablet computer
ownership has edged up to 45% among adults, according to newly
released survey data from the Pew Research Center.1
Smartphone ownership is nearing the saturation point with some
groups: 86% of those ages 18-29 have a smartphone, as do 83% of those
ages 30-49 and 87% of those living in households earning $75,000 and
up annually.
At the same time, the surveys suggest the adoption
of some digital devices has slowed and even declined in recent years.
Interesting?
McKinsey
Quarterly 2015 Number 3
by
Sabrina I.
Pacifici on Oct 29, 2015
“Introduces McKinsey’s
metric for a company’s digital maturity: the Digital Quotient.
Also examines a new approach to business-model innovation, simple
rules for breakthrough ideas, and a guide to machine learning.”
Issue contents:
Digital Quotient
• Raising your Digital Quotient
• An executive’s guide to machine learning
• Repelling the cyberattackers
• Getting a sharper picture of social media’s influence
Something I'll add to my Math classes. Not too
simple nor too complex for my students, I hope.
An
Illustrated Mathematics Dictionary
Math
is Fun is a free website that offers math games, puzzles, and
tutorials. One of the tutorial resources that they offer is an
illustrated
mathematics dictionary. The Math
is Fun dictionary offers more than 700 definitions of mathematics
terms. All of the definitions include an illustration. Nearly 200
of the definitions include an animation. Some of the animations are
interactive tutorials.
I love it! A tool to hone my rudeness!
How Rude
Are Your Emails? Get Rated From 0 to 100 Now
… Using the Politeness
Checker by FoxType Labs, you can check the “politeness
rating” of any particular phrase, which can be instrumental in
maintaining good relationships with your friends, family, and
coworkers. For now, it only works in English.
Of course, this tool can be used for more than
just email, but they provide a free
Gmail plugin that can quickly scan and rate your emails before you
send them out. The tool provides suggestions on
rewriting sentences to have a better tone.
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