Database of California Electric Utility Exposed Online
MacKeeper researcher Chris Vickery, who has spent the past
months identifying misconfigured databases that had been publicly
accessible online, said the PG&E database he discovered appeared to be part
of an asset management system and it contained information on 47,000 computers,
servers, virtual machines and other devices belonging to the company.
The exposed information, which could have been accessed by
anyone without authentication, included IP addresses, hostnames, MAC addresses,
locations, operating system data, and over 100 employee passwords. While some of the passwords were hashed, the
expert also found ones stored in clear text.
PG&E told Vickery that the unprotected database was
fake, but the researcher doubts this is the case, especially since it also
included more than 688,000 unique log entries.
… The researcher
said the database was quickly taken down on May 26 after he notified PG&E,
but he made a copy of the data, which
he plans on providing to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The DHS is interested in incidents involving electric
utilities since these types of organizations are considered part of the
country’s critical infrastructure.
It’s okay to read them (after all, they have been using
the old mark one eyeball for years) it’s the “forever database” they really don’t
like. In other words, if you are looking
for a particular plate, that process still works. If you want to see if a plate was at the scene
(in the neighborhood) of a series of crimes committed over many years, that’s
out. Because there is no way to ensure a
search of this database is ethical?
Mike Maharrey reports:
A Massachusetts House committee
has passed a bill that would put limitations on the storage and sharing of
information collected by law enforcement agencies using Automated License
Plate Readers (ALPRs) in the state, and place significant roadblocks in the way
of a federal program using states to help track the location of millions of
everyday people through pictures of their license plates.
The
Joint Committee on Transportation created House Bill 4322 (H.4322) after considering
several bills that would limit the use of ALPRs.
Read more on Activist
Post.
I guess it’s worth a try.
Would his lawyers also accept payment in Bitcoin?
Miami money-laundering case may define whether Bitcoin is
really money
In a Miami money-laundering case that is being closely
watched around the world, an economics professor took to the witness stand
Friday to offer a tutorial on the widely known, if poorly understood, virtual
currency known as Bitcoin.
The takeaway: Bitcoin isn’t really money, professor
Charles Evans said.
No central government or bank backs Bitcoin, like
the United States does the dollar. Government
regulation of Bitcoin remains a messy hodgepodge from state to state, country
to country. The IRS considers Bitcoin
deals no more than bartering, he said.
“Basically, it’s poker chips that people are willing to
buy from you,” said Evans, a Barry University economics professor who, yes, was paid $3,000 worth of Bitcoins for
his appearance as a defense witness.
… The hearing
unfolded in the case of Michell Espinoza, who is accused of illegally selling
and laundering $1,500 worth of Bitcoins to undercover detectives who claimed
they wanted to use them to buy stolen credit card numbers.
His lawyers, Prieto and Rene Palomino, are asking a court
to dismiss the case against him, arguing that Bitcoin isn’t technically money
under Florida law so laundering charges don’t apply.
… The prosecution of Espinoza is being watched closely,
especially in financial and tech circles, because it is believed to
be the first money-laundering case against someone for dealing in Bitcoins.
As the currency has gained in
popularity, law enforcement has struggled to figure out how it fits into
illegal activities.
The political equivalent of “It is more important to look
good than to feel good” is “It is important to ‘do something now!’ even if it
makes little sense.”
Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Microsoft Sign Hate Speech
Agreement
Some of the biggest U.S. tech firms have signed up to a code
of conduct formulated by the European Commission, in which they agree to
help fight against the spread of hate speech in Europe.
Online rights groups have reacted with outrage, saying
they have no confidence in the agreement because they were left out of the
discussions leading up to it (a point now being investigated
by an EU watchdog) and they think the deal fails to protect free speech
rights.
… Based on a 2008 piece
of legislation, the code of conduct describes the
illegal material as “all conduct publicly inciting to violence or hatred
directed against a group of persons or a member of such a group defined by
reference to race, color, religion, descent or national or ethnic origin.”
… “The ‘code of
conduct’ downgrades the law to a second-class status, behind the ‘leading role’
of private companies that are being asked to arbitrarily implement their terms
of service,” the groups said in a
statement. “This process,
established outside an accountable democratic framework, exploits unclear
liability rules for companies. It also
creates serious risks for freedom of expression as legal but controversial
content may well be deleted as a result of this voluntary and unaccountable
take down mechanism.”
“It will, in practical terms, overturn case law of the
European Court of Human Rights on the defense of legal speech,” they added.
In every class, I try to convince my students that I am
not perfect and therefore do not know everything there is to know about every
subject. I encourage them to find
additional resources – free ones if possible.
A Large Collection of Free eTextbooks for High School &
College Students
Bookboon
is a service that offers free etextbooks to high school and college students. The textbook section of Bookboon offers more
than 500 digital textbooks. On Bookboon there are
etextbooks available in ten core subject areas with additional subtopics with
each subject area. The bulk of the
etextbooks are focused on economics, engineering, and IT. You can browse the title lists to find a book
you want or you can search Bookboon by keyword. Bookboon hosts books written in five
languages. All of the books are free to
download. The only catch is that you
have to provide an email address before you can download the books.
Applications for Education
Bookboon's books are targeted to
university students, but that doesn't mean that some of the books couldn't be
used with high school students. And
since the books are free it wouldn't hurt to download one that you think might
work for your class and use excerpts of it to supplement other materials that
you are already using in your classroom.
Since we’re encouraging our students to start putting
their work online, this may be useful.
Rubrics for Assessing Wikis, Blogs, Podcasts, and Digital
Portfolios
The University of Wisconsin, Stout has organized a nice
collection of rubrics
for assessing digital projects. In the collection you will find rubrics for
assessing student blogging, student wikis, podcasts, and video projects. Beyond the rubrics for digital projects there
are rubrics for activities that aren't necessarily digital in nature. For example, you can find rubrics for writing,
research, and oral presentations.
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