Friday, June 03, 2016

Makes me wonder what else they do that they shouldn’t.
The secret government requests for customer information Yahoo made public Wednesday reveal that the FBI is still demanding email records from companies without a warrant, despite being told by Justice Department lawyers in 2008 that it doesn’t have the lawful authority to do so.
That comes as a particular surprise given that FBI Director James Comey has said that one of his top legislative priorities this year is to get the right to acquire precisely such records with those warrantless secret requests, called national security letters, or NSLs.  “We need it very much,” Comey told Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., during a congressional hearing in February.


Who would have expected honest answers from advertising?  (Or has Watson gone to the Dark Side?)
IBM Watson Is Now Offering AI-Powered Digital Ads That Answer Consumers' Questions


Perspective.
More Bad News for Twitter as Snapchat Jumps Ahead in Popularity
A new report from Vanity Fair’s Nick Bilton reads like a tick-tock of the company, which has struggled with flatlining user-growth and a free-falling stock price.  If three-time C.E.O. Jack Dorsey can’t pull it off this time, it could be curtains for him, and possibly for the start-up, too.  “There is no Plan B,” Twitter executives say.  “This is it.”  Now, a new report from Bloomberg suggests Twitter has another thing to worry about.  Snapchat has 150 million people using its app every day, according to the report—much more than use Twitter.  And unlike Twitter, which seems to have lost its ability to attract new users, Snapchat is continuing to grow quickly.  In December, Bloomberg reports, Snapchat had 110 million daily active users—meaning that in the last five months, it grew its user base by more than 35 percent.  Twitter has grown its own user base by just 3 percent globally, according to its most recent quarterly report, and is estimated to have about 136 million daily active users.


For my Computer Security students.
Security Pros Show Extensive Distrust of IoT Security
Security testing firm IOActive recently surveyed 129 security professionals on the security of Internet of Things devices at its IOAsis San Francisco 2016 event March 1-2, 2016.  The result shows extensive distrust of IoT security.
According to Gartner, there will be 6.4 billion connected things this year.  That number will more than triple to 21 billion connected things by 2020.  "Your refrigerator, smoke detector, doorbell and air freshener may already be.  Next, clothes, traffic lights and pedestrian walk buttons - and every part of a factory - and even your home's windows, will all be connected, sharing information..." commented a CNBC report in February.


For my Computer Security / encryption talk.
How to Password Protect & Encrypt Your Microsoft Office Files


For my student researchers.
Announcing the Net Data Directory
by Sabrina I. Pacifici on
“The Berkman Center for Internet & Society is delighted to announce the launch of the Net Data Directory, a free, publicly available, searchable database of different sources of data about the Internet.  The directory is intended to make finding useful quantitative data about a broad range of Internet-related topics—broadband, cybersecurity, freedom of expression, and more—easier for researchers, policymakers, journalists, and the public.”


For our Criminal Justice students.
U.S. Supreme Court: Policies and Perspectives on Video and Audio Coverage of Appellate Court Proceedings
by Sabrina I. Pacifici on
U.S. Supreme Court: Policies and Perspectives on Video and Audio Coverage of Appellate Court Proceedings, GAO-16-437: Published: Apr 28, 2016. Publicly Released: May 31, 2016
“The U.S. Supreme Court (the Court) posts audio recordings of oral arguments on its website at the end of each argument week, but does not provide video coverage of these arguments.   In addition, starting in 2000, the Court began granting requests for access to audio recordings of oral arguments on the same day arguments are heard in selected cases.  As of October 4, 2015, the Court had received media requests for access to same-day audio recordings in 58 cases and had granted them in 26 cases.  Other selected appellate courts have varying policies on video and audio coverage of oral arguments.  For example,
[Much omitted.  Bob]

No comments: