Thursday, January 21, 2016

The downside of being connected to the whole world? Another area where ignorance is rampant?
Broadly Shared Files a High Risk for Enterprise Data: Report
Broadly shared files represent a high security risk for organizations, as 1 in 10 contain sensitive corporate data, Blue Coat’s Shadow Data Report for the second half of 2015 reveals.
According to the report (PDF), many organizations are not aware of the fact that 26 percent of documents shared in cloud services are broadly shared. Employees are increasingly using cloud apps to share information within the organization and with partners and customers, which creates a threat otherwise known as “Shadow Data”.
Shadow data includes sensitive information uploaded and shared via cloud apps without prior consent from the IT security team.
According to Blue Coat, the concept of Shadow Data is different from that of Shadow IT, which involves the use of IT systems and applications, including SaaS apps, without the knowledge or consent of a company’s IT department. According to a recent study from Cisco, large enterprises use on average 1,220 individual public cloud services, 25 times more than IT professionals estimate.




Our strategy is to do pretty much anything we want to do, whenever we want to do it, no matter how it relates to secure transportation. Our security theater is better (more dramatic, not more secure) if we can force people to enter a box where we can zap them with x-rays.”
Derrick Broze reports:
On January 13, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) issued a letter to the Transportation Security Administration and lawmakers regarding the TSA’s recent decision to make airport body scans a mandatory procedure.
The coalition, which includes the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and anti-biometrics group the Constitutional Alliance, said they were writing to Congress “regarding the TSA’s recent claim that it can mandate whole body scanning for airline passengers.”
Read more on Truth in Media.
[From the article:
As was widely reported, new TSA security procedures were instituted without notice in December 2015, just prior to the 2015 holiday travel crush. The new procedures made mandatory a full body scan for some passengers.
… Details regarding the legal background on the new procedures and on the TSA’s failure to issue a final rule can be found in the coalition letter. Additional background on the TSA’s new no opt-out scans policy implemented in December can be found here.


(Related) It's not secret, we just won't tell you what it is.
… In an ongoing Freedom of Information Act suit, the Freedom of the Press Foundation has sought the guidelines used by the Justice Department in deciding when federal agents can use National Security Letters to pursue information about reporters. DOJ recently produced documents in response to the suit. They confirm that the rules governing the use of NSLs in media leak cases remain classified. That undue secrecy cripples any real opportunity for public oversight of a process already encased in layers of secrecy.




I think it still needs some tweeking.
Michael Power writes:
Manitoba’s Intimate Image Protection Act came into force on 15 January 2016. The statute does something that I think is especially noteworthy – it creates a new privacy tort concerning the “non-consensual distribution of intimate images”. In short, Manitoba becomes the first Canadian province to provide victims of revenge porn with a common law remedy and the ability to sue the perpetrators for damages.
Read more on MichaelPower.ca.




It's not a funny now.
Evan Brown writes:
A federal court has held that a plaintiff has successfully pled a claim of “appropriation” (essentially, right of publicity claim) against former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal, for Shaq’s use of plaintiff’s photo on Twitter and Instagram. The case is useful inasmuch as it shows how courts will consider social media as providing a benefit to its user.
Shaq acquired a photo of plaintiff, who suffers from a condition that affects his hair, skin and teeth, then placed a photo of himself making a contorted face next to the photo, apparently to imitate the way plaintiff appeared. Given that Shaq has millions of followers, this garnered many, many likes and comments. (I of course won’t republish the image here, but if you really want to see it, just do a Google Image search using the parties’ last names.)
Plaintiff sued under several theories, including intentional infliction of emotional distress, appropriation, and unjust enrichment.
Read more on InternetCases.




Amusing.
Emma Reynolds reports on how fraudster Daniel Rigmaiden became suspicious of how the government had tracked his movements and began to investigate. From jail, he filed freedom of information requests and reached out to then-graduate student Chris Soghoian. For the past three years, the two have continued trying to uncover the use of “stingray” devices by law enforcement around the country.
Read more on news.com.au. Reynolds really has the makings of a made-for-tv movie with this story!
[From the article:
… Rigmaiden was released on a plea deal after five years in jail. He was taking up too much time and resources, he believes, with three prosecutors assigned to his case, along with the FBI and Internal Revenue Service (IRS).




Should schools block this?
Yik Yak Launches On The Web
Yik Yak, the anonymous, location-based social network that has taken college campuses by storm, has today launched a web client.
… To get going on the web, users simply add the same phone number they use with the mobile app, and verify their anonymous web profile to sync up with the profile they use in the mobile app. This way, things like Yik Yak Karma and comments, etc. are all the same from mobile to web.
After that, pretty much everything on the web version looks and feels the same as the mobile version, except now users can type out their yaks on a real keyboard.




The world is changing. My students love Uber and are willing to pay more than bus fare to get a door-to-door ride.
GM Enters Car-Sharing With Limited Rollout
The nation’s largest auto maker is placing a bet on a future where more people don’t own their own vehicles.
General Motors Co. launched a car-sharing service on Wednesday that competes with Zipcar, Car2Go and similar companies that target students, city-dwellers and others who don’t own vehicles but would rent one on occasion.


(Related) There will soon be an App for that.
Urban Transport App Citymapper Snags $40M From Index, Benchmark, Yuri Milner, Others
People who don’t take Uber frequently take the bus. And those Europeans folks now include some rather high profile investors in London-based urban transport startup Citymapper — who have just poured $40 million into a new Series B round for its app which algorithmically knits together different transit options to help city dwellers quickly figure out how to get from A to B.




If there is pressure to allow longer tweets, why do my students groan and moan when I ask them to write a short paper?
Weibo, Beating Twitter to the Punch, Lengthens its 140-Character Limit
Weibo Corp., China’s homegrown version of Twitter Inc. that is part of Chinese Internet company Sina Corp., said it is planning to ditch its 140-character limit so users can write longer posts, according to China’s Xinhua News.




“The hills are alive
With a kind of droning...”
After scolding from FAA, Dallas Cowboys get permission to fly drones at practice
Back in April of 2015, Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett held a press conference, during which he casually mentioned that the team had started to use drones during practice
… A very cool use of technology, but unfortunately one that is currently illegal without special permission from the Federal Aviation Administration. After the FAA brought the issue to the team, the Cowboys applied for a 333 exemption, which the FAA granted to the team last week.
… The National Football League, a larger entity that sits atop of the individual teams, has also been granted permission to fly drones. Don't be surprised to see the NFL try out some interesting new camera angles in the years to come, or perhaps even at the league's upcoming milestone, Superbowl 50.


(Related) It's probably safer than all those selfie sticks...
FAA approves ski-video drones
… The drone startup Cape Productions follows skiers down the slopes with remote-controlled aircraft to record video of their runs. The San Francisco company announced Wednesday that the Federal Aviation Administration gave it approval to fly hundreds of feet closer to people than previously allowed.
… The FAA approval will allow Cape Productions to bring home the knowledge accumulated recording skiers since December 2014 at the Fernie Alpine Resort in British Columbia, where regulations made it easier to fly drones. Cape also recorded the U.S. Ski Team in New Zealand to supplement training.
… The company plans to expand later this season to Winter Park, Colo.; Powder Mountain Resort in Utah; Timberline Lodge and Ski Area and Mount Hood Meadows Resort in Oregon; Mountain Creek Resort in New Jersey and Schweitzer Mountain Resort in Idaho.




“...and your point is?”
Apple says it has helped create over a million European jobs
Apple’s relationship with Europe intensified this morning, as the company announced its new App Development Center in Italy and revealed previously unseen data exploring the impact of the App economy on European employment.
iOpportunity
It is interesting to note the claims on job creation come as European tax authorities continue to consider how much tax the company owes in the region. Apple claims to have helped create well over a million jobs across Europe.




A question for my students. Will this catch on or die?
Brave Software's New Browser Nukes Ads That Track You
… Eich’s new startup Brave Software aims to chlorinate online advertising with a new ad-blocking Web browser it released today for software developers and early adopters (that means not mere mortals like us yet), along with a connected cloud service that will enable placement of select new ads that don’t track your online activities




“We know you guys are extremely gullible, so you will probably believe that we are sorry that we have to do this and that it has nothing to do with our bank accounts in Switzerland.”
ISIS cuts its fighters' salaries by 50%
… ISIS soldiers earn between $400 and $1,200 a month, plus a $50 stipend for their wives and $25 for each child, according to the Congressional Research Service.




For my Data Management students. Feeding our ongoing debate about Facebook taking over the world.
The Facebook-Loving Farmers of Myanmar
… Many of the farmers we spoke with had never owned a smartphone before. The villages were often without running water or electricity, but they buzzed with newly minted cell towers and strong 3G signals. For them, everything networked was new.
Almost all of the farmers we spoke with were Facebook users. None had heard of Twitter. How they used Facebook was not dissimilar to how many of us in the west see and think of Twitter: as a source of news, a place where you can follow your interests. The majority, however, didn’t see the social platform as a place to be particularly social or to connect with and stay up to date on comings and goings within their villages.




My students were discussing how Google made money.
Google’s new Real-Time Ads sound a lot like Twitter
Aiming to sell more ads during live events, Google officially unveiled a new ad product today called Real-Time Ads.
The product, Google says, enables brands to push out ads in real time to YouTube, as well as to “hundreds of thousands of apps, and the 2 million plus sites in the Google Display Network.” Still in beta, the product’s first major test will be the upcoming Super Bowl — and site-builder Wix has committed to using it during the event, Google said.




Perhaps the greatest self-promoter since P.T.Barnum?
The MegaNet: How an Internet Without IP Addresses Would Work
The Internet is without a doubt one of the most important inventions in modern history. Never before have we had unfettered access to the wealth of the world’s knowledge with just a few keystrokes.
It’s also a flawed vehicle that’s ripe for corruption, and Kim Dotcom hopes to change all that.
According to him, MegaNet will be a newer, better version of the same Internet we all know and love. It’ll feature heavy end-to-end encryption, no IP addresses, and a decentralized structure that makes operation a “for the people, by the people” proposition rather than relying on gatekeepers and government regulation.




For my nerdy geeks who read.
The Best Star Wars Books All Fans Need to Read


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