Thursday, April 20, 2017

Apparently, management is unable to learn from their mistakes. 
Nothing new in UK Govt cyber security survey
The 2017 UK Govt produced Cyber Security Breaches Survey is out and it says nothing new.  Across 66 pages it repeats what businesses and the industry already know.  Businesses are under prepared, under skilled and prone to cyber security breaches.  What is worrying is that this is a situation that is not getting better.
   The numbers from the report say that 46% of all UK businesses identified at least one cyber security breach or attack.  The larger the business the more attacks they reported.  The number was 66% for medium-sized business and 68% for large companies.
[British Chambers of Commerce report:   BCC Digital Economy Survey Part 3


Might be educational.
Mike Carter reports:
In Russian cybercrime mastermind Roman Seleznev, the Department of Justice is boasting it finally caught and convicted a big fish in the often impenetrable world of global computer theft — and now the agency intends to make a lesson of him.
Federal prosecutors will ask a Seattle judge Friday to sentence the 32-year-old Seleznev to 30 years in prison for operating a massive — maybe unprecedented — credit-card theft scheme from behind keyboards in Vladivostok, Russia, and Bali, Indonesia.  Over a decade, Seleznev stole and sold on the black market more than 2 million credit-card numbers, resulting in losses of at least $170 million, and maybe into the billions, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle.
Read more on Seattle Times. It’s a good read with a lot of background on Seleznev.


What were they thinking?
Gareth Corfield reports:
London gun owners are asking questions of the Metropolitan Police after the force seemingly handed the addresses of 30,000 firearm and shotgun owners to a direct mail marketing agency for a commercial firm’s advertising campaign.
The first any of the affected people knew about the blunder was when the leaflet (pictured below) landed on their doormats in Tuesday’s post.
Read more on The Register.


Should be amusing to watch.
These Popular Headphones Spy on Users, Lawsuit Says
The audio maker Bose, whose wireless headphones sell for up to $350, uses an app to collect the listening habits of its customers and provide that information to third parties—all without the knowledge and permission of the users, according to a lawsuit filed in Chicago on Tuesday.
The complaint accuses Boston-based Bose of violating the WireTap Act and a variety of state privacy laws, adding that a person's audio history can include a window into a person's life and views.
"Indeed, one’s personal audio selections – including music, radio broadcast, Podcast, and lecture choices – provide an incredible amount of insight into his or her personality, behavior, political views, and personal identity," says the complaint, noting a person's audio history may contain files like LGBT podcasts or Muslim call-to-prayer recordings.


Are articles like this appearing around the world?  Probably.
The Register's guide to protecting your data when visiting the US
Summary: You're (mostly) screwed without preparation


Perspective.
Just one autonomous car will use 4,000 GB of data/day
Two real-life, practical, semi-autonomous vehicle launches next year are an indication that the self-driving car is really happening.
Audi is expected to make its up-to-35-mph hands-free driving system available late next year in some 2018 vehicles.
And Volvo will start testing Drive Me, an autopilot that will introduce 100 Swedish XC90 owners to autonomous driving, according to an Automotive News supplement produced for the Los Angeles Auto Show last month.
Two mega-strides forward.  But if you’re impatient and wondering why it’s taking so long for car makers to offer full autonomy, as in eye-free driving, one clue is in the data.  The amounts of datasets that need to be produced and then shared in real time to make it all work are absolutely staggering.


Vehicles will generate and consume roughly 40 terabytes of data for every eight hours of driving, according to Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, speaking at the auto show’s technology pavilion, Automobility.  [1 TB = 1000 GB so, either this paragraph or the headline is wrong.  Bob]  


We need an in-car App that blocks/jams phone reception when the car is in gear. 
Motor vehicle fatalities increase as drivers continue phone use
by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Apr 19, 2017
Axios: “…Zendrive studied actual device use among 3.1 million drivers over 5.6 billion miles of driving and found that in 88 percent of trips, drivers made at least some use of their phones.  On average, drivers spent 3.5 minutes per hour on their device.  Some important context: The number of traffic deaths has been increasing since 2015 after a 40-year decline, with more than 40,000 people dying on the roads last year for the first time in a decade.  It is estimated that a 2-second distraction increases the risk of a collision by 20 times.”


Even the government is going mobile and using social media!  
GPO Launches New GPO.gov website
by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Apr 19, 2017
“The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) launches a newly designed, user-friendly agency website for customers, vendors, Federal agencies, libraries and the public looking for access to Government information, the latest GPO news, and GPO products and services.  The beta site features a simple, mobile-friendly structure that connects the user in a more streamlined digital manner with GPO.  Once out of beta, this site will replace the current site that was launched in 2009.  Try our new site: https://beta.gpo.gov/
Some of the new features include:
  • mobile friendly
  • improved internal site search
  • improved user experience
  • easy access to GPO products and services
  • easy access events and training
  • easy access to GPO social media platforms
  • locating Federal Depository Libraries”


Perspective.  (And something my spreadsheet class could do for Denver light rail?) 
New York City Rents By Subway Stop 2017


Venezuela announces it no longer needs foreign inventors. 
GM says Venezuelan car plant is seized by government

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