Hackers Came, but the French Were Prepared
Everyone saw the hackers coming.
The National
Security Agency in Washington picked up the signs. So did Emmanuel Macron’s bare-bones technology
team. And mindful of what happened in
the American presidential campaign, the team created dozens of false email
accounts, complete with phony documents, to confuse the attackers.
The Russians, for
their part, were rushed and a bit sloppy, leaving a trail of evidence that was
not enough to prove for certain they were working for the government of
President Vladimir V. Putin but which strongly suggested they were part of his
broader “information warfare” campaign.
… The phishing
mails were “high quality,” said Mr. Macron’s digital director, Mounir Mahjoubi:
They included the actual names of members of the campaign staff, and at first
glance appeared to come from them. Typical
was the very last one the campaign received, several days before the election
on Sunday, which purported to have come from Mr. Mahjoubi himself.
“It was almost
like a joke, like giving us all the finger,” Mr. Mahjoubi said in an interview
on Tuesday. The final email enjoined recipients to download several files “to protect
yourself.”
Unfortunately, this is too common. Read the entire article.
Yesterday, DataBreaches.net reported
on a misconfigured rsync backup that had been detected by Kromtech Security.
The security firm had contacted
DataBreaches.net for notification assistance on May 3 after unsuccessfully
trying to notify iHealth Innovations that patient data from Bronx-Lebanon Hospital
Center could be accessed
and downloaded without any login required.
One week later, we still do not have answers to some
pretty basic questions – like why iHealth Innovations actually needs all those
sensitive records and details, but Mary Emily O’Hara of NBC News estimates that at least
7,000 patients had their data exposed.
Last night, a spokesperson for iHealth Innovations
contacted DataBreaches.net and asked that we report the following statement:
iHealth Innovations and
Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center recently became aware that a single individual
gained unapproved access to certain Bronx-Lebanon Hospital data.
[ … ]
Note that on the one hand, iHealth does not blatantly
“shoot the messenger” by claiming that Kromtech Security “hacked” them, but by
the same token, iHealth does not actually admit that they made a mistake and
left the data open to anyone who wished to download it. For its part, the hospital, which had declined
to give DataBreaches.net any kind of substantive statement, reportedly told
NBC News via email that their vendor had been “hacked:”
Something my Computer Security students need to
understand. And an illustration that you
need to be the best at everything you do.
Amazon trounces rivals in battle of the shopping 'bots'
Earlier this year, engineers at Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N)
who track rivals' prices online got a rude surprise: the technology they were
using to check Amazon.com several
million times a day suddenly stopped working.
Losing access to Amazon.com
Inc's (AMZN.O)
data was no small matter. Like most big
retailers, Wal-Mart relies on computer programs that scan prices on
competitors' websites so it can adjust its listings accordingly. A difference of even 50 cents can mean losing
a sale.
But a new tactic by Amazon
to block these programs - known commonly as robots or bots - thwarted the
Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer.
… Dexterity with
bots allows Amazon not only to see what its rivals are doing, but increasingly
to keep them in the dark when it undercuts them on price or is quietly charging
more.
… According
to one U.S. patent application, Amazon is working on encryption technology that
would force bots, but not humans, to solve a complicated algorithm to gain
access to its Web pages. [For full
patent record - click tmsnrt.rs/2qXbYwp]
Data Centers are expensive. Reno is giving 8-to-5 odds that it won’t be
the last expansion.
Apple Plans $1 Billion Expansion At Data Center in Nevada
Apple announced plans Wednesday for a $1 billion expansion
of its massive data center east of Reno, doubling its investment and roughly
tripling its workforce at the technology campus where company officials expect
to hire 100 additional workers.
The announcement came as the Reno City Council approved
Apple's plans to build a $4 million shipping and receiving warehouse on a
vacant lot in downtown Reno that will make it eligible for millions of dollars
in tax breaks.
Another perspective.
McKinsey – What’s new with the Internet of Things?
by Sabrina
I. Pacifici on May 10, 2017
“..Although some analysts are excited about the IoT’s
potential, others have argued that it is overhyped. We take a more balanced view, based on
our extensive research as well as our direct work with IoT application
developers and their customers. Like
the optimists, we believe that the IoT could have a significant, and possibly
revolutionary, impact across society. But
we also think that the lead time to achieve these benefits, as well as the widespread
adoption of IoT applications, may take
longer than anticipated. The
uptake of IoT applications could be particularly slow in the industrial sector,
since companies are often constrained by long capital cycles, organizational
inertia, and a shortage of talented staff that can develop and deploy IoT
solutions…”
Have we become so used to technology that we don’t notice
the impact? Is checking email on a
smartphone easy compared to walking to your desktop computer and signing
on?
Gallup – Email Outside of Working Hours Not a Burden to US
Workers
by Sabrina
I. Pacifici on May 10, 2017
“Checking email outside of normal business hours does not
appear to be a burden for U.S. workers. About six in 10 workers say they check
email outside of normal business hours. Of these, few claim the amount of emails they
have to respond to during off hours is unreasonable, or that it negatively
affects their personal well-being or relationships with friends and family.” So working all
the time is the new normal.
Perception is everything.
Apparently, the world does not see what he sees.
Edward Lampert: Sears' Troubles Are Everyone's Fault But Mine
In a somewhat hard-to-believe interview with the Chicago Tribune, Lampert gave many
reasons for the company’s continued downward spiral. His claim: he is going to “...[turn] Sears
into a 21st-century merchant focused on catering to its best customers.” It remains a mystery how that will be
supported after selling off iconic brands, running the company without a
seasoned merchant at the helm, and spinning off parts of the business that
actually added value (Lands End).
Yet Lampert seems to think he’s made great progress.
… Fellow analyst Cathy Hotka has
repeatedly called the Sears Holdings situation “the world’s longest liquidation
sale.” It’s very hard to disagree.
To help my students select the next programming language
to learn.
Introducing Stack Overflow Trends
On a typical day, developers ask over 8,000 questions on
Stack Overflow about programming problems they run into in their work. Which technologies are they asking about, and
how has that changed over time?
Today, we’re introducing the Stack
Overflow Trends tool to track interest in programming languages and
technologies, based on the number of Stack Overflow questions asked per month.
… Don’t see your
favorite language, technology, or framework in this post? Use the Stack
Overflow Trends tool to create your own graphs, and see what you can learn
about how the developer ecosystem is changing and where it might be going in
the future.
Anyone can be President, or anyone can keep Trump from a
second term?
Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson considering run for White House
After conquering Hollywood, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson
may have his sights set on the White House.
The actor and former pro wrestler tells GQ that he thinks a
presidential run is "a real possibility."
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