Paul Sperry reports:
Federal authorities are investigating
whether sensitive data was stolen from congressional offices by several
Pakistani-American tech staffers and sold to Pakistani or Russian
intelligence, knowledgeable sources say.
What started out 16 months ago as
a scandal involving the alleged theft of computer equipment from Congress has
turned into a national-security investigation involving FBI surveillance of the
suspects.
Read more on NY
Post.
[From the
article:
When the suspected IT workers couldn’t produce the missing
invoiced equipment, sources say, they were removed from working on the computer
network in early February.
During the probe, investigators found valuable government
data that is believed to have been taken from the network and placed on offsite
servers, setting off more alarms. Some
80 offices were potentially compromised.
… For more than a
decade, Awan, his wife, two relatives and a friend worked for 30 House
Democrats.
… The Democrats
who hired the five suspects apparently did a poor job vetting them.
… Most had
relatively little IT experience. Yet
they hauled in a combined $4 million-plus over the past decade. One, a former McDonald’s worker, was suddenly
making as much as a chief of staff.
… Awan had access
to Wasserman Schultz’s e-mails at both Congress and the DNC, where he had been given the password to her iPad. After DNC e-mails and research files were
stolen during the presidential election, Wasserman Schultz reportedly refused
to turn over the server to the FBI and instead called in a private firm to
investigate and ID the hackers. The firm
blamed the Russian government, while admitting, “We don’t have hard evidence.” The corrupted DNC server, held in storage,
still has not been examined by the FBI.
Dealing with hacking anywhere?
Alex Berengaut of Covington & Burling analyzes some of
the legal issues raised by the indictment of Marcus Hutchins (@malwaretechblog)
for allegedly creating and conspiring to sell malware known as the Kronos
banking trojan. He writes, in part:
Since Hutchins’ indictment,
commentators have questioned whether the creation and selling of
malware—without actually using the malware—violates the two statutes under
which Hutchins was charged: the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the Wiretap
Act.[1] It is likely that these issues
will be litigated as the case unfolds.
But there is another question
raised by the indictment: whether it violates Hutchins’ constitutional rights
to charge him for his alleged conduct under any statute in this country. Several circuits—including the Seventh
Circuit, where Hutchins’ case will be heard—have recognized that the federal
government cannot charge anyone, anywhere in the world irrespective of their
connections to the United States.[2] As
the Second Circuit has put it, “[i]n order to apply extraterritorially a
federal criminal statute to a defendant consistently with due process, there
must be a sufficient nexus between the defendant and the United States so that
such application would not be arbitrary and fundamentally unfair.”[3]
Read more on Covington & Burling Inside
Privacy.
Perspective. Why AI
is finding a home in businesses?
CenturyLink Using AI to Boost Sales Efficiency
… Working with a
company called Conversica Inc.
and its AI agent named Angie, CenturyLink
Inc. can much more quickly work through the thousands of sales leads
generated each month through a variety of sources to focus on the ones that can
most quickly and effectively become sales and generate revenue. Conversica's software-as-a-service AI offering
has been so successful that for every
$1 CenturyLink spends on the service, it generates $20 in revenue,
according to a video you can watch here.
… Angie also gets
smarter, Gerber says. "What we call
AI is actually a bunch of AIs and some real intelligence too," he
comments. "There is an AI that can
interpret what is the best message to send, another focused on how to generate
the best response, an AI that actually reads it [and interprets it], another AI
that measures intent, and another that says what is the right way to
respond."
How would Martha Steward get her insider stick tips
today?
Guide to Social Media and Securities Laws
by
on
Jay Baris and Bradley Berman, MOFO Jumpstarter, August 14, 2017.
“The growing use of social media has created challenges
for federal securities regulators, who must enforce antifraud rules that were
written at a time when the prevailing technology was the newspaper. This Guide summarizes how regulation has
evolved in the face of the growing use of social media. Our guide discusses the principal areas of
focus for SEC-reporting companies, registered investment advisers, registered
investment companies, and registered broker-dealers that use social media. Read our Guide to Social Media and the
Securities Laws.”
Something to inspire my students.
40 Under 40
(Related). Even
better?
35 Innovators Under 35
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