Hacker claims credit for DNC breach, posts stolen files
online
A hacker claiming responsibility for the recent
data breach of the Democractic National Committee apparently has posted the
stolen files online.
The posted files
include a 231-page dossier containing opposition research on presumptive
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. They also include documents concerning
expected Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s election strategy, items on U.S.
foreign policy, and donor lists.
… Guccifer 2.0
said the rest of the files have been sent to Wikileaks for posting.
… CrowdStrike still stands by its findings that Russian
government hackers were involved. The
company is working to verify the documents' authenticity and origin and said
the Guccifer 2.0 postings could be part of a disinformation campaign.
This just sounds wrong. And apparently someone panicked. (Maybe a reporter?)
Marcus Weisgerber reports:
The U.S. Air
Force has lost records concerning 100,000 investigations into everything from
workplace disputes to fraud.
A database that hosts files from
the Air Force’s inspector general and legislative liaison divisions became
corrupted last month, destroying data created between 2004 and now, service
officials said. Neither the Air Force
nor Lockheed Martin, the defense firm that runs the database, could say why it
became corrupted or whether they’ll be able to recover the information.
Read more on DefenseOne.
So you’re probably wondering, as I was, “Wait. Isn’t there
a backup somewhere?” The answer seems to
be that there is no one complete backup. Why, I have no damned idea, but they report:
It’s possible that some data is
backed up at local bases where investigations originated.
Update: Data
recovered.
[From the update:
After aggressively leveraging all vendor and department
capabilities, the Air Force made a full recovery of the Automated Case Tracking
System database, the Air Force inspector general system of record for all
records related to IG complaints, investigations and appeals.
Although the brief data loss caused some delays in
processing IG inquiries, the recovery allows the service to move forward with
minimal impact.
The Air Force has no technical indicators to believe that
the loss was the result of any malicious activity.
I’m gonna dig out my Phantom of the Opera mask.
FBI has 411 million photos in its facial recognition system,
and a federal watchdog isn't happy
The FBI has amassed more than 411 million photos as part
of its vast facial recognition database, according to a government watchdog --
which in a new report criticized the system for its lack of safeguards and
protections.
That includes millions of individuals' driving license
photos, as well as photos of foreigners applying for visas, and criminal
mugshots.
But the Government Accountability Office (GAO) criticized
the FBI in a new report, published
Wednesday, saying that the agency had not properly tested the system or
balanced civil liberties and privacy.
This should be great for my students who can’t write worth
a darn!
5 Steps You Should Take to Prepare for Facebook's 'All Video'
Future
The written word is on its deathbed, croaking its last
breath in outmoded syllables and syntax, or so Facebook would have us think.
The social media giant’s vice president of Europe, the
Middle East and Africa (EMEA) inspired grunts, groans, sad faces and sighs throughout the publishing
industry when she boldly predicted that the site would be “probably all
video” within the next five years.
… five basic steps
businesses can take when creating video for Facebook and the web:
1. Accept that video is the future
and act accordingly.
2. Know what makes compelling
video.
3. Get the right tools.
4. Make it fast and informative.
5. Track your impact.
This is how Walmart “negotiates” with their product
vendors, why not use the same tactics with their service vendors? Any opportunity here? Write a credit App for local banks?
Walmart using customers as ‘leverage,’ Visa says as battle
over credit card fees heats up
Visa is ratcheting up a battle with Walmart over credit
card fees by exposing elements of private negotiations between the pair, a move
the credit card company says was prompted by Walmart’s announcement that it
will stop accepting Visa cards at its Canadian stores beginning next month.
In an open letter to cardholders and other merchants to be
published Thursday, including in the National Post, Visa says the retail giant
has demanded rates that are even lower than what the credit card company
charges charities and schools.
Who needs this much info?
Amusement parks? Police &
Fire Departments?
IBM, The Weather Company use machine learning to predict
impact of weather
The Weather Company on Wednesday announced it's launching
a hyper-local, short-term custom forecaster called Deep Thunder. The new
predictive model will use historical weather data to train machine learning
models, which will help businesses better predict the real-world effects of
weather.
… Already, The
Weather Company analyzes more than 100
terabytes of third-party data daily, and businesses around the world
use its regional models to get new guidance every three hours. The new models, developed by IBM Research, are
highly customized for business clients and have zeroed in on hyper-local forecasts,
at a 0.2 to 1.2 mile resolution. They
also take into account other environmental data like vegetation and soil
conditions.
… Deep Thunder will also use machine learning-based weather
impact models to help businesses predict the impact of even modest variations
in temperature. For instance, a retailer
could more accurately determine how it should stock shelves in anticipation of
changed consumer behavior, insurance companies could more accurately assess the
validity of insurance claims, or a utility company could better manage its
repair crews.
I gotta learn more.
Microsoft Launches Blockchain Fabric to Help Enterprises Form
Consortia
Microsoft today unveiled a new project designed to make it
easier for businesses across a wide range of industries to build consortiums
that better take advantage of blockchain technology.
Since a distributed ledger technology is only as powerful
as the number people or companies that use it, Microsoft intends this new suite
of tools to help build those networks.
To date, a number of blockchain consortiums have been
formed to test the technology, with the most notable including banking
consortium R3CEV, the
Post-Trade Distributed Ledger Group (PTDL)
and Dubai's Global Blockchain Council (GBC).
… The entire white
paper is available here and more information about Project Bletchley will be
disclosed at Microsoft's World Wide Partner Conference from 12th to 16th July
in Toronto, Canada. Pilots of the service are expected to be ready later this
summer.
Better tools mean better research?
LLSDC announces new sources and tools to research the Federal
Register and CRF
by Sabrina
I. Pacifici on Jun 15, 2016
Via Rick McKinney – “The Legislative Research Special
Interest Section of the Law Librarians’ Society of Washington, D.C. is
pleased to announce the availability of two new items on its Legislative
Source Book entitled “Sources and Tools to the Federal
Register and Sources and Tools to the Code of
Federal Regulations. The new websites attempt to show and link to nearly
all the sources and research tools available, both free and commercial, for
these primary U.S. regulatory publications. The new websites also indicate the years
available for each source as well how well accessible the source is in terms of
its capabilities to search, browse, and cite retrieve specific documents or
groups of documents.”
Worth repeating on occasion.
How to Legally Download Office 2016 & 2013 Free From
Microsoft
A carrot for my students.
Computer science salaries rise with demand for new graduates
… “Not only does
computer science provide every student foundational knowledge, it also leads to
the highest-paying, fastest-growing jobs in the U.S. economy. There are currently over 500,000 open
computing jobs, in every sector, from manufacturing to banking, from
agriculture to healthcare, but only 50,000 computer science graduates a year,”
reads an open
letter released by the nonprofit Computer Science Education Coalition in
partnership with Code.org.
… The overall average salary for bachelor's degree graduates
earning computer science degrees is projected to be $61,321 this year,
according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). That’s the second-highest
starting salary, behind only engineering graduates, who are
projected to earn $64,891. Additionally, NACE reports that among the 2015 crop
of new graduates, those majoring in computer science enjoyed the highest
full-time employment rate (76%) within six months of their
graduation.
For my students who (for some strange reason) call it
football.
How to play Facebook Messenger's hidden soccer minigame
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