Interesting. Read the whole post.
Jon Swaine and George Joseph report:
Private files belonging to America’s biggest police union, including the names and addresses of officers, forum posts critical of Barack Obama, and controversial contracts made with city authorities, were posted online Thursday after a hacker breached its website.
The Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), which says it represents about 330,000 law enforcement officers across the US, said the FBI was investigating after 2.5GB of data taken from its servers was dumped online and swiftly shared on social media. The union’s national site, fop.net, remained offline on Thursday evening.
“We have contacted the office of the assistant attorney general in charge of cyber crime, and officials from FBI field offices have already made contact with our staff,” Chuck Canterbury, the FOP’s national president, said in an interview.
Read more on The
Guardian.
Joseph Cox of Motherboard
takes a more critical look at the data and questions why FOP’s
statement about the incident attributed the hack to Anonymous, as
there’s nothing about this incident to suggest the involvement of
Anonymous. The FOP’s statement not only misattributes the hack
(perhaps that’s intentional, though?), but consistently misspells
“breach:”
… An individual known as @CthulhuSec
on Twitter took responsibility for dumping the data, but not for
hacking/acquiring it, as explained in this
statement.
Worth browsing.
FTC
Announces Significant Enhancements to IdentityTheft.gov
by Sabrina
I. Pacifici on Jan 28, 2016
“For the first time, identity theft victims can
now go online and get a free,
personalized identity theft recovery plan as a result of
significant enhancements to the Federal Trade Commission’s
IdentityTheft.gov
website. The new one-stop website is integrated with the FTC’s
consumer complaint system, allowing consumers who are victims of
identity theft to rapidly file a complaint with the FTC and then get
a personalized guide to recovery that helps streamline many of the
steps involved. The upgraded site, which is mobile and tablet
accessible, offers an array of easy-to-use tools, that enables
identity theft victims to create the documents they need to alert
police, the main credit bureaus and the IRS among others.”
Trust but verify? What would advance notice of an
attack on Iranian nuclear facilities be worth?
Snowden
files reveal US and UK spied on feeds from Israeli drones and jets
A joint UK-US intelligence programme has been
spying on electronic feeds – including video – from
Israel’s military drones and jet fighters going back to 1998.
In a potentially embarrassing disclosure for
Israel, which prides itself on its technical capabilities, a new
release from material held by the former NSA contractor Edward
Snowden has revealed that UK and US intelligence officials have
been regularly accessing Israeli cockpit cameras even in the midst of
operations in Gaza and Lebanon.
Codenamed Anarchist, the programme was revealed by
the Intercept, a US website
edited by Glenn Greenwald.
… The drone feeds were reportedly hacked using
freely available software similar to that used to access
subscriber-only TV channels, the report said.
… In one memo reporting on interception of an
Israeli drones, an official in Cyprus noted: “Our ability to
collect and track and report this activity is important for the
initial detection and tip-off for any potential pre-emptive or
retaliatory strike against Iran.” [Thought
so. Bob]
Somehow I don't see this as a victory. The attack
tried to deny access to your website. Shutting it down did exactly
that. Where is your victory?
Cyber
Attack Targets Britain's HSBC Bank
"HSBC
UK Internet banking was attacked this morning. We successfully
defended our systems," HSBC UK tweeted. "We are working
hard to restore services, and normal service is now being resumed,"
it said.
A
spokesman specified that the attack was a "denial of service
attack", which slows down or disables a network by flooding it
with communication requests.
Users
attempting to access the bank online were met with a message saying:
"Sorry, there appears to be a system problem. Please try again
later."
“We
don't need no stinking encryption!” “We do need to follow
existing procedures!”
VICTORIA—In an investigation report released
today, B.C. Information and Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham
found that the Ministry of Education failed to protect the personal
information of 3.4 million B.C. and Yukon students stored on a
portable hard drive.
… The ministry used the portable hard drive as
a backup for the purpose of disaster recovery of ministry research
data. The information was moved from a secure server to the hard
drive in an attempt to decrease electronic storage costs, and was
ultimately sent to an off-site warehouse for storage.
The ministry declared the hard drive to be lost
when employees were unable to locate it in the warehouse after a
series of extensive searches.
… The ministry did not ensure the information
was encrypted, did not store the portable hard drive in an approved
off-site warehouse and did not adequately document the contents or
location of the portable hard drive.
… “There are many important lessons to be
learned from this investigation, not only for the Ministry of
Education, but for other public agencies as well. This
is an example of a breach that was completely preventable.
If the ministry had implemented any one of a number of safeguards
and followed existing policy, the breach would not have happened.
… Investigation Report F16-01: Ministry of
Education is available at:
www.oipc.bc.ca/report/investigation-reports/
Drones could get really expensive.
Unmanned
Aircraft Operations in Domestic Airspace : U.S. Policy Perspectives
and the Regulatory Landscape
by Sabrina
I. Pacifici on Jan 28, 2016
Via FAS – CRS report – Unmanned
Aircraft Operations in Domestic Airspace: U.S. Policy Perspectives
and the Regulatory Landscape. Bart Elias, Specialist in Aviation
Policy. January 27, 2016.
“…Many of the commercial applications
envisioned for UAS, such as express package delivery, remote
monitoring of utilities and infrastructure, and imagery collection
and analysis to support precision agriculture, most
likely will not be viable without development of technological
capabilities that allow for the complete integration of UAS in the
national airspace. These include technologies to enable
drones to sense and avoid other air traffic ; manage
low-altitude airspace and detect and prevent unauthorized use of
airspace; mitigate risks to persons and property on the ground;
provide secure command and control linkages between drone aircraft
and their operators; and enable
automated operations. There are also issues related to
operator training and operator qualification standards. A number of
bills introduced in the 114th Congress address UAS safety, and these
topics may be considered in further detail in forthcoming FAA
reauthorization debate…”
Who is gullible here? Journalists? Politicians?
The public?
The myth of
the ISIS encrypted messaging app
Despite widespread media reports to the contrary,
an app created for Islamic
State militants to send private encrypted messages does not
exist, a Daily Dot investigation found.
On Jan. 12, Defense
One reported that the Islamic State allegedly built a new Android
app called Alrawi for exchanging encrypted messages, based on claims
from self-proclaimed online counterterrorism outfit Ghost Security
Group (GSG). The claim was quickly reprinted by Newsweek,
Fortune,
TechCrunch,
and the Times
of India—the largest English-language newspaper in the
world—among many others.
… Followers of ISIS,
excited by the news of a custom encrypted messaging app, asked on
forums and social media where they could find the app, but we found
no instances of anyone able to share it. Western security experts
wondered why they couldn’t find a copy on any of the official or
unofficial ISIS channels. [Anyone
who asked is a terrorist? Bob]
Amusing and perhaps thought provoking.
Hype vs.
Reality: A Reality Check on the Internet of Things
The Internet of Things has plenty of hype — it’s
going to be big, really big — but also plenty of detractors. The
naysayers breathily predict everything from the surveillance state to
a wrecked economy to people enslaved by machines. Here are nine bits
of information to consider:
We'll pay you to borrow money from us. The rate
is -0.1%
Stocks
Rally on BOJ Surprise Cut
… “I’m amazed at the power central banks
have over markets,” said Mr. Dryden. “We saw it last week with
the European Central Bank, and now Japan—it just takes a little bit
of action for a big move in equities,” he added.
By applying negative rates, the Bank of Japan is
trying to keep the yen from strengthening while demonstrating its
resolve to stimulate inflation, strategists said.
This is one my students did not come up with this
week. (I can't tell you about some of the others because they might
start those businesses themselves.)
This
Startup That Fills Your Gas Tank on Demand Just Raised $9 Million
… With the Booster app, you can request your
car to be filled up with gas while you are at work.
The team has hit a nerve. Billed
as the “Uber for gas” in its Crunchbase profile, Booster
announced today that it has raised a $9 million series A round from
Madrona Venture Group, Version One Ventures and RRE Ventures,
according to the public fundraising database. Currently, Booster
services are available in the San Francisco Bay area and the
Dallas-Fort Worth area.
… To “order” a tank of gas, customers
download the free app and then order a fill up between 7 a.m. and 4
p.m. Booster uses “proprietary” GPS technology to locate your
vehicle and confirms it is yours with the make, model, color and
license plate. A large industrial truck full of gas then fills your
tank. Customers must leave their tanks ajar while waiting for the
service. [Opportunity! We
need an APP to allow Booster to unlock your gas cap. Could be worth
billions! Bob]
(Related) They had several variations of this
one.
Uber announced today its plans to expand its
application program interface, or API, project to its nascent
delivery service, UberRUSH. By adding just a few lines of code,
businesses such as Nordstrom and 1800flowers can now integrate
UberRUSH's one-hour delivery service directly into their digital
products.
Perspective.
Amazon
shares plunge as record profit still misses estimates
… "By
comparative retail standards, Amazon's level of profitability is
still painfully weak," said Neil Saunders, head of retail
analyst firm Conlumino, who is still positive on Amazon's prospects.
"For every dollar the company takes, it makes just 0.75 of a
cent in profit."
Coming soon?
Starry Eyes
Speedy Internet Access
Project
Decibel on Wednesday announced Starry,
a company that promises easy broadband Internet access at speeds
of up to 1 GB with no caps….
Initial deployment will be a beta in Boston in the
summer.
Starry has an FCC license to run pilots for 24
months in Boston and 14 other cities: New York, Washington, Los
Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, Houston, Philadelphia, Detroit,
Atlanta, Miami, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Seattle, Denver
and Chicago.
All my students should read this.
Facebook
for Business: Everything You Need to Know
… If you're ready to take on Facebook for your
business, here's everything you need to know to get you started.
(Related) and this!
This is how
you live stream on Facebook
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