Observations on articles I read to keep current about technology. My interests are: Privacy, security, business, the computer industry, and geeky stuff that catches my eye.
I don't think I have an agenda beyond my own amusement.
Note that I lump all my comments into a single post. This is not a typical BLOG technique, It's just an indication that I'm lazy.
Yahoo has responded to the letter
sent by Republican Senators John Thune, Commerce Committee Chairman, and Jerry
Moran, Consumer Protection, Product Safety, Insurance and Data Security
Subcommittee Chairman. The letter had
been sent because the senators felt they
weren’t getting enough cooperation from the firm.
You can read Yahoo’s response here
(pdf). See what you think. The firm hasn’t yet identified the intrusion
associated with the recently revealed 2013 incident that compromised over one
billion accounts. They first learned of
that one in November 2016 when law enforcement brought them data.
As readers likely know, Yahoo’s claims about
state-sponsored actors has been disputed
by InfoArmor, who cite evidence from their investigations and operations on
the dark web and who provide a different understanding of the breaches. And while Yahoo did not appear to accept
InfoArmor’s findings or claims, the proof is somewhat in the pudding, as it was
InfoArmor who subsequently brought evidence of the then-undetected 2013 breach
to law enforcement that law enforcement then took to Yahoo. InfoArmor seemed to know much more about their
breaches than the firm did.
So why is Yahoo still claiming state actors were involved
in their response to Congress? Where is
that evidence?
Optimistic or naive?IF you know you are in this database and IF you can find your picture and
IF you make a request then that particular picture will be deleted UNLESS it is
“necessary for a policing purpose.”(Like
the entire database is necessary?)
The home secretary has ordered
police forces to delete on request millions of images of innocent people
unlawfully retained on a searchable national police database.
A Home Office review published on
Friday found that police forces make extensive use of more than 19m pictures
and videos, known as custody images, of people they have arrested or questioned
on the police national database.
Despite a high
court ruling in 2012 that keeping images of innocent people was unlawful,
police forces have quietly continued to build
up a massive database without any of the controls or privacy
safeguards that apply to police DNA and fingerprint databases.
Industry: Philadelphia soda tax killing sales, layoffs loom
Some Philadelphia supermarkets and beverage distributors
say they’re gearing up for layoffs because the city’s new tax on soft drinks
has cut beverage sales by 30 percent to 50 percent — worse than the city
predicted.
Jeff Brown, who owns six local ShopRite supermarkets, told
The Philadelphia Inquirer (http://bit.ly/2loWwJi ) he expects to cut 300 jobs. Bob Brockway, chief operating officer of
Canada Dry Delaware Valley, has predicted a 20 percent workforce reduction by
March.
…Mayor Jim Kenney
pushed through the 1.5 cent-per-ounce tax on sweetened and diet beverages to
pay for nearly 2,000 pre-kindergarten slots and other programs. The tax amounts to $1.44 on a six-pack of
16-ounce bottles.
In dismissing reports of forthcoming layoffs, the
Democratic mayor told the Inquirer he doesn’t
think it’s possible for the industry “to be any greedier.”[How to win friends and influence
people?Bob]
Friday, February 24, 2017
An update.Not as
widely watched as the Apple iPhone vs. FBI case, because there aren’t as many
Alexa devices out there yet?
Amazon Asserts Alexa First Amendment Speech Protection For
Echo Speaker In Murder Case
Is Amazon’s Alexa
protected under the First Amendment of the United States? As part of an ongoing homicide investigation, Amazon argues that any
information contained or recorded by the device is protected under “freedom of
speech”. The corporation claims that it
is not trying to obstruct the investigation, but protect the privacy rights of
its customers.
James Andrew Bates of Bentonville, Arkansas has been
accused of drowning his friend Victor Collins in a hot tub back in November
2015
…Bates owned an
Amazon Echo and the Bentonville
police believe that recordings from the device may provide evidence for the
case. Amazon Echo speakers technically
only record information after hearing their “wake” word, “Alexa”. The devices, however, continuously listen for
a command and therefore could potentially also record background noise.
Amazon has so far provided the police with the suspect’s
account information and purchase history, but
not with the recordings from the Echo. In December 2016 it stated, “Amazon will not
release customer information without a valid and binding legal demand properly
served on us. Amazon objects to
overbroad or otherwise inappropriate demands as a matter of course.” The Bentonville police subsequently responded
with a search warrant. Amazon has now filed a 90-page motion to stop the
warrant.
Amazon argued that the recordings would reveal too much
about the user and their private life.
…For the time being, the warrant has been tabled. Amazon has
requested that if the court decides that they do have a “compelling need” for
the Echo recordings, that the court review the requested material first to
guarantee that it is relevant to the case.
Law enforcement is compelling
Apple and Facebook to hand over the personal information of users who were mass
arrested at protests against the inauguration of Donald Trump in Washington,
D.C., AlterNet has confirmed. The tech
giants appear to be complying with the data-mining requests, amid mounting
concerns over the heavy-handed crackdown against the more than 200 people
detained on January 20, among them journalists, legal observers and medics.
Billions of dollars are
spent every year on cyber security products; and yet those products continually
fail to protect businesses. Thousands of reports analyze breaches and provide reams of
data on what happened; but still the picture worsens. A new study takes a different approach;
instead of trying to prevent hacking based on what hacking has achieved, it
asks real hackers, how do you do it?
The hackers in question are the legal pentesters attending
last Summer's DEFCON conference. Seventy
were asked about what they do, how they do it, and why they do it -- and the
responses are sobering. The resulting report,
The Black Report
by Nuix, is a fascinating read. It includes sections on the psycho-social
origins of cybercrime and a view from law enforcement: but nothing is as
valuable as the views from the hackers themselves. These views directly threaten many of the
sacred cows of cyber security. They are
worth considering: "The only difference between me and a terrorist is a
piece of paper [a statement of work] making what I do legal. The attacks, the tools, the methodology; it's
all the same."
A
federal magistrate judge in Chicago has rejected a request by the government
for a provision in a search warrant that would authorize agents to compel
people present to unlock seized phones using biometric readers. I think the judge was right to reject the
provision, although I disagree with substantial parts of the reasoning.
For an article that lands on the social marketer like a
proverbial ton of bricks, check out "What's
the Value of a Like?" in the March-April issue of the Harvard
Business Review.
"Social media doesn't work the way many marketers
think it does. The mere act of endorsing
a brand does not affect a customer's behavior or lead to increased purchasing,
nor does it spur purchasing by friends," concluded authors Leslie K. John,
Daniel Mochon, Oliver Emrich, and Janet Schwartz in their report on four years
of experiments, 23 in all, that engaged 18,000 people.
If that's all you read, you might believe that everything
we've thought and acted upon involving social media marketing was wrong. However, it's not -- though the research
clearly signals that we have to adjust our thinking.
Dakota Access developer ‘underestimated’ social media
opposition
The chief executive of the company developing the Dakota
Access pipeline said he “underestimated the power of social media” in the wake
of massive protests agains the project.
On a call with investors on Thursday, Energy Transfer
Partners CEO Kelcy Warren said he was surprised by the way Dakota Access
opponents could share stories about the project online and “get away with it,”
Bloomberg reports.
“There was no way we can defend ourselves,” Warren said,
according to the report. “That was a
mistake on my part.”
Perhaps we should send it to all our elected
officials.
“This paper offers a straight forward introduction to
encryption, as it is implemented in modern systems, at a level of detail
suitable for policy discussions. No prior background on encryption or data security is
assumed.Encryption is used
in two main scenarios. Encrypted storage
allows information to be stored on a device, with encryption protecting the
data should a malicious party get access to the device. Encrypted communication allows information to
be transmitted from one party to another party, often across a network, with
encryption protecting the data should a malicious party get access to the data
while it is in transit. Encryption is
used somewhat differently in these two scenarios, so it makes sense to present
them separately. We’ll discuss encrypted
storage first, because it is simpler. We
emphasize that the approaches described here are not detailed description s of
any particular existing system, but rather generic descriptions of how
state-of-the-art systems typically operate. Specific products and standards fill in the
details differently, but they are roughly similar at the level of detail given
here.”
I’ve been out of this too long to have a good read on
North Korea, but these events are what we used to call “significant.” Is North Korea coming apart at last?
So when its state-run news agency appeared to lash out at
key supporter China — alleging it was "dancing to the tune of the
U.S." — it raised eyebrows.
(Related).Is the
BBC suggesting it was not Kim Jong Un?(Technically,
using VX is the same as using nuclear weapons.)
Nudge - Interactive Algebra Lessons on iPads and Android
Tablets
Nudge
is a free iPad and Android app that provides students with interactive,
on-demand algebra tutorials. The free
app provides students with practice problems that they attempt to solve on
their iPads or Android devices. When
they get stuck on a problem students can ask for hint or for a demonstration of
how to solve the problem. In addition to
showing students hints and demonstrations, Nudge will show them where they made
their mistakes in solving a problem.
Amid the hustle and bustle of the RSA Security Conference
in San Francisco last week, researchers at RSA released a startling report that
received very little press coverage relative to its overall importance. The report detailed a malware campaign
that piggybacked on a popular piece of software used by system administrators
at some of the nation’s largest companies. Incredibly, the report did not name the
affected software, and the vendor in question has apparently chosen to bury its
breach disclosure. This post is an
attempt to remedy that.
Something to keep my Computer Security students busy.
Netflix Releases Open Source Security Tool
"Stethoscope"
Netflix this week released
Stethoscope, an open source web application that gives users specific
recommendations for securing their computers, smartphones and tablets.
Stethoscope was developed by Netflix as part of its “user
focused security” approach, which is based on the theory that it is better to
provide employees actionable information and low-friction tools, rather than
relying on heavy-handed policy enforcement.
Netflix
believes employees are more productive when they don’t have to deal
with too many rules and processes.
…The Stethoscope source code,
along with instructions for installation and configuration, are available on
GitHub.
Consider this: Self-driving cars will be more “software
complex” than the cars in this article.
…In its annual
Vehicle Dependability Study, J.D. Power & Associates saw the average number
of problems increase for the second year in a row, with the audio, communication, entertainment and navigation
issues being the most commonly reported.
I wonder which parts of town they are surveilling?
GE, Intel, AT&T team up to put cameras, mics in San Diego
General Electric will put cameras, microphones and sensors
on 3,200 street lights in San Diego this year, marking the first large-scale
use of "smart city" tools GE says can help monitor traffic and
pinpoint crime, but raising potential privacy concerns.
Based on technology from GE's Current division,
Intel Corp and AT&T Inc, the system will use sensing nodes on light poles
to locate gunshots, estimate crowd sizes, check vehicle speeds and other tasks,
GE and the city said on Wednesday. The
city will provide the data to entrepreneurs and students to develop
applications.
Companies expect a growing
market for such systems as cities seek better data to plan and run their
operations. San Diego is a test of "internet of things" technology
that GE Current provides for commercial buildings and industrial sites.
…A 2014
estimate by Frost & Sullivan predicted the market for cities could be
valued at $1.5 trillion by 2020, she said.
Why is this a bad thing?Should the NSA not use tools that analyze Big Data?
…Palantir
has never masked its ambitions, in particular the desire to sell its services
to the U.S. government — the CIA itself was an early investor in the startup
through In-Q-Tel, the agency’s venture capital branch.
…Palantir
Gotham (formerly Palantir Government) is designed for the needs of
intelligence, law enforcement, and homeland security customers. Gotham works by importing large reams of
“structured” data (like spreadsheets) and “unstructured” data (like images)
into one centralized database, where all of the information can be visualized
and analyzed in one workspace. For
example, a 2010 demo
showed how Palantir Government could be used to chart the flow of weapons
throughout the Middle East by importing disparate data sources like equipment
lot numbers, manufacturer data, and the locations of Hezbollah training camps. Palantir’s chief appeal is that it’s not
designed to do any single thing in particular, but is flexible and powerful
enough to accommodate the requirements of any organization that needs to
process large amounts of both personal and abstract data.
Interesting change in approach. Cheapest is not always bestest?
Federal IT Acquisition Worth $50B Cleared for Takeoff
…Under the
"lowest price technically acceptable" (LPTA) method, agencies focused
provider selections on cost, as long as the vendor displayed a minimum
technical competency.
GSA specifically ruled out the LPTA method with Alliant 2.
Instead, GSA appeared to flip the LPTA
concept around and instead focused on vendor quality with a selection criteria
based on "highest technically rated, with fair and reasonable price."
What that means is that under Alliant 2, GSA first will
rank vendors using a quality rating scale for various categories of IT and
organizational competency. Then, after
developing a list of qualified vendors, GSA will assess whether the prices are
fair and reasonable.
…Building LEGO in
the real world is great, but it can be a pain if you don’t have the right
bricks to realize your imagination. Enter LEGO Digital Designer, an entirely free and official tool
that allows you to build virtual LEGO creations. You select bricks from the vast sets and can
build whatever your heart desires. You
can stack, align, rotate and color the bricks, giving you almost endless
options.
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Think about this one, Computer Security students.Why can’t they identify (or at least
communicate with) people who purchased their analyzer?
Serious Breach Linked to Chinese APTs Comes to Light
A report published earlier this month by RSA describes Kingslayer,
a supply chain attack that apparently targeted system administrators in some
large organizations. The attackers
breached the systems of a company that offers event log analyzers and replaced
a legitimate application and its updates with a backdoored version.
…While it’s
unclear exactly how many organizations downloaded the backdoored software in
the April 9-25 timeframe, RSA said the portal that hosted it had numerous
subscribers, including four major telecoms providers, over ten western military
organizations, more than two dozen Fortune 500 companies, five major defense
contractors, and tens of IT solutions providers, government organizations,
banks and universities.
While RSA has not named the company whose systems were
compromised, investigative journalist Brian
Krebs determined that it was Canada-based Altair Technologies Ltd.
…The EventID.Net
website hosted EvLog, the software hijacked by the attackers. A notice posted on
the site on June 2016 provides some details on the incident and recommendations
for potentially affected users.
However, as Krebs pointed out, the advisory does not
appear to have been shared on social media and there was no link to it from
anywhere on the site – a link was added this week after the journalist
contacted Altair Technologies. The company told Krebs it had no way of knowing who
downloaded the software so potential victims were not notified directly either.
Before fighting everyone in the
room to plug your smartphone into the communal charger: please don’t.
Or at least, beware.
Coffee shops, airports and almost
every other kind of public meeting space have become regular safe havens
whenever we’re desperate for that extra juice. But with the ubiquity of USB ports built into
today’s phone chargers, this flow of “juice” isn’t just power anymore – it’s
data. Important data.
All it takes is one easily
disguised charging kiosk, or even a power strip, for hackers to hijack your
charge, and once you’re juice-jacked,
there’s little that can be done to stop it; from installing malware onto your
device, to sucking out personal messages, photos and information – all for the
simple cost of offering sweet-relief and a fully-powered phone.
You can tell a lot about a person from how they react to
something.
That’s why Facebook’s various “Like” buttons are so powerful.
Clicking a reaction icon isn’t just a
way to register an emotional response, it’s also a way for Facebook to refine
its sense of who you are. So when you
“Love” a photo of a friend’s baby, and click “Angry” on an article about the
New England Patriots winning the Super Bowl, you’re training Facebook to see
you a certain way: You are a person who seems to love babies and hate Tom
Brady.
About time. Note
that apparently, there was nothing illegal here, it was ‘just’ unethical.No way to recover any money (from bonuses
already paid).
…Wells Fargo
announced Tuesday that it has terminated four current or former senior managers
from the community banking division based on the bank's board of directors'
investigation into the phony account scandal.
…All four
individuals have been terminated for cause by a unanimous vote by the board of
directors. None will receive a bonus for
2016, Wells said, and they will forfeit all of their unvested equity awards and
vested outstanding options.
…Consumers have
exacted their own sort of punishment on the bank: account openings in October,
the first full month of results after news of the account scandal broke, plunged
44%. Account openings in November fell 41% and, in a banking activity report released last
week, Wells said that account openings in December fell 31% compared to the
prior year.
Interesting but futile? “If we can’t operate under these rule, we’ll
re-write them!”
I still worry that I will have to have a (several?) smartphones
or social media accounts to get back in the country.Currently, I have neither.
A Stand Against Invasive Phone Searches at the U.S. Border
…Senator Ron
Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, has a few questions about that legal authority. He sent a letter to the
secretary of the Department of Homeland Security on Monday, expressing dismay
at reports that people were being asked to unlock and hand over their
smartphones at the border. He also said
he’s planning on introducing a bill to require agents to get a warrant before
searching a device, and to prevent DHS from implementing a new policy that
would require foreign visitors to turn over their online passcodes before
visiting the U.S.
…Wyden asked DHS
Secretary John Kelly for detailed statistics on the number of times customs
agents asked for or demanded a smartphone or computer password in the past five
years as well as since Trump took office in January. He also asked how Customs and Border
Protection, or CBP, justifies these searches legally, focusing specifically on
the Fifth Amendment, which protects people from testifying against themselves. (I’ve written before how
the Fifth Amendment prevents law enforcement from demanding that someone give
up a password—and how it may not apply to devices that are unlocked via
fingerprint, iris scans, or speech patterns.)
…The senator also
took aim at a proposal that Kelly put forward in front of the House Homeland
Security Committee two weeks ago. He
suggested that visitors may be required to turn over
passwords to their social-media accounts or risk being denied entry. The idea alarmed privacy advocates, who say
such a rule would give CBP agents an overly broad look into travelers’ digital
lives.
Issuing a blanket approval for social-media searches at
the border could run into thorny legal issues, too. To get a subject’s personal information from a
company like Facebook, Google, or Apple, law enforcement must first obtain a
subpoena or a search warrant, which it can then use to ask the company to turn
over relevant data. Getting social media
passwords straight from a traveler would end-run this system.
If a police agency gets a search
warrant and seizes a target’s iPhone, can the agency share a copy of all of the
phone’s data with other government agencies in the spirit of “collaborative law
enforcement among different agencies”? Not
without the Fourth Amendment coming into play, a federal court ruled last week
in United States v. Hulscher, 2017 WL 657436
(D.S.D. February 17, 2017).
Artificial intelligence (AI) holds substantial promise for
organizations to reduce costs and increase quality, but how AI affects
organizations’ use of and relationship to time — in reacting, managing, and
learning — may be the most jarring.
Another interesting move.Why start in India?A deal with
Modi?Need for workers in the smartphone
factories?
LinkedIn will help people in India train for semi-skilled
jobs
Microsoft has launched Project Sangam, a cloud service
integrated with LinkedIn that will help train and generate employment for
middle and low-skilled workers.
The professional network that was acquired by Microsoft in
December has been generally associated with educated urban professionals, but
the company is now planning to extend its reach to semi-skilled people in
India.
Having connected white-collared professionals around the
world with the right job opportunities and training through LinkedIn Learning,
the platform is now developing a new set of products that extends this service
to low- and semi-skilled workers, said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at an event
on digital transformation in Mumbai on Wednesday.
Project Sangam, which is in private preview, is “the first
project that is now the coming together of LinkedIn and Microsoft, where we are
building this cloud service with deep integration with LinkedIn, so that we can
start tackling that enormous challenge in front of us of how to provide every
person in India the opportunity to skill themselves for the jobs that are going
to be available.”
Chopra, Yakshup and Prabhala, Nagpurnanand and Tantri,
Prasanna L., Bank Accounts for the Unbanked: Evidence from a Big Bang
Experiment (February 12, 2017). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2919091
“Over 2.5 billion individuals around the world are
unbanked. How they can be brought into
the formal financial system is a question of policy and academic interest. We provide evidence on this question from
India’s PMJDY program, a “big bang” shock that supplied bank accounts to
virtually all of its 260 million unbanked. We analyze activity in the new PMJDY accounts
using actual transaction data in the accounts. While the newly included individuals are
typically poor, unfamiliar with banking, and do not undergo literacy or other
training, transaction levels nevertheless increase as accounts age and converge
or exceed levels in non-PMJDY accounts of similar vintage. Usage is led by active transactions and is
aided but not entirely explained by benefit transfer programs. The results suggest that the unbanked have
unmet (possibly latent) demand for banking, or that the supply of banking
perhaps stimulates its own demand.”
Switzerland's ABB hit by $100 million South Korean fraud
Swiss engineering group ABB revealed the discovery of what
it called a "sophisticated criminal scheme" in its South Korean
subsidiary on Wednesday, which it expects will result in a $100 million pre-tax
charge.
…The Swiss
company said the alleged theft was limited to South Korea, where it employs
around 800 people and generated sales of $525 million in 2015. [And this
guy stole 20% of everything they sold?Bob]
"The treasurer of the South Korean unit is suspected
of forging documentation and colluding with third parties to steal from the
company," ABB said.
A “little” change, but a big investment.How do they “Deliver?”Fly over and just drop the package?Fly onto your porch and set it in full view
of package thieves?Open the garage door
and set it on your work bench?
…The logistics
juggernaut specifically launched an octocopter, or multi-rotor drone, from the
top of a delivery van. The drone
delivered a package directly to a home, then returned to the van which had now
moved down the road to a new location.
…The truck for
the test was custom-built to be able to launch the HorseFly drone from
its roof, then grab it upon its return with robotic arms. A cage suspended beneath the drone extends
through a hatch in the truck, where the drone can be lowered down and
loaded up with another package. While
docked, the drone recharges through a physical connection between its arms and the
truck’s electric battery.
Not even as an historical collection?If I faced or used these weapons, shouldn’t I
be allowed to show others what they can do? Am I limited to guns labeled “Not for military
use?”
Slate – Appeals Court Rules that Second Amendment Doesn’t
Protect Right to Assault Weapons: “On Tuesday [February 21, 2017] , the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit ruled that the Second Amendment
doesn’t protect assault weapons—an extraordinary decision keenly
attuned to the brutal havoc these firearms can wreak. Issued by the court sitting en banc, Tuesday’s
decision reversed a previous ruling in which a panel of judges had struck down
Maryland’s ban on assault weapons and detachable large capacity magazines. Today’s ruling is a remarkable victory for gun
safety advocates and a serious setback for gun proponents who believe the
Second Amendment exempts weapons of war from regulation…”
Something all my students should read.In particular, those who think our writing
center won’t help them.
…this is the
story of how a group of bank examiners at the Federal Reserve Bank of
Philadelphia, one of 12 banks in the U.S.’s Federal Reserve System,
dramatically improved the clarity and impact of their written reports.
Researchers have uncovered an
advanced malware-based operation that siphoned more than 600 gigabytes from
about 70 targets in a broad range of industries, including critical
infrastructure, news media, and scientific research.
The operation uses malware to
capture audio recordings of conversations, screen shots, documents, and
passwords, according to a blog
post published last week by security firm CyberX. Targets are initially infected using malicious
Microsoft Word documents sent in phishing e-mails. Once compromised, infected machines upload the
pilfered audio and data to Dropbox, where it’s retrieved by the attackers.
New York financial firms will have to implement cybersecurity
programs
…“These strong,
first-in-the-nation protections will help ensure this industry has the necessary
safeguards in place in order to protect themselves and the New Yorkers they
serve from the serious economic harm caused by these devastating cyber crimes,”
New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said in a news release.
The state's move comes as the Federal Reserve and Federal
Deposit Insurance Corp. are seeking suggestions and comments for potential
cybersecurity requirements for U.S. banks.
Requirements under the new regulation include:
a cybersecurity program based on a risk assessment of each regulated firm;
a written cybersecurity
policy approved by each firm's senior officer or board of
directors;
a chief information
security officer appointed by each firm;
annual testing
of cybersecurity systems and biannual system vulnerability assessments;
an audit trail
for all cyber activity;
multifactor or risk-based authentication procedures
for all system users' access; and
secure processes for data disposal.
The New York DFS cybersecurity regulation is available on
the department's website.
At Kroger, Technology Is Changing the Grocery-Store Shopping
Experience
…For a glimpse of
how technology can affect shopping, consider Kroger Co., whose 2,778 stores make it the largest
supermarket chain in the U.S. Kroger has
deployed cameras and infrared sensors to monitor foot traffic, and is using
data algorithms to help schedule cashiers in real time. Its mobile app can analyze shopping habits and
produce relevant digital coupons. Kroger’s
latest move: testing sensor-laden interactive shelves that detect shoppers in
the aisles via their smartphones to offer them personal pricing and product
suggestions as they walk along.
…In an interview,
Mr. Hjelm discussed the imperative to make store
shopping more like online shopping—cutting wait times and creating a
more interactive experience—with technology such as the Internet of Things,
data analytics and video. Edited
excerpts follow:
Interesting.Should
my rates drop because I don’t have a smartphone? Is the assumption that everyone has one?
Smartphone addicts driving car insurance rates higher
Distracted by their smartphones, America’s drivers are
becoming more dangerous by the day. And as The Wall Street Journal
reports, their behavior is pushing auto-insurance rates even higher as insurers
struggle to keep up.
Costs associated with crashes are outpacing premium
increases for some companies, and insurers say the use of smartphones to talk,
text and access the internet while on the road is a new and important factor
behind the wrecks.
TransferWise launches international money transfers via
Facebook
Money transfer company TransferWise has launched a new
service that allows users to send money internationally through Facebook Inc's
chat application, as competition in the digital payments landscape intensifies.
The London-based startup
said on Tuesday that it had developed a Facebook Messenger "chatbot",
or an automated program that can help users communicate with businesses and
carry out tasks such as online purchases.
Alibaba’s Ant Financial Will Invest $200 Million in This
Korean Payment Firm
China's Ant Financial will invest $200 million in Kakao
Pay, the mobile payment subsidiary of South Korean messaging platform giant
Kakao Corp, extending a major
push by the Chinese firm to create a global network of financial assets.
…"Ant's
ultimate goal is to become a global payments monster—the biggest, broadest
option for consumers," said Ben Cavender, Shanghai-based principle for China
Market Research.
"The challenge is facing strong
local players around the world, so it's cheaper to buy into these companies
rather than burning money to steal market share from them."
Spending spree: Samsung rumored to have $1 billion put aside
to buy AI companies
…The massive sum
won’t only be used for acquisitions, but also to invest in companies involved
in AI. Although there’s no question a
billion dollars will buy you plenty of talent and tech, it’s still only a
fraction of the $8 billion Samsung recently spent acquiring Harman
International. However, while the two
may not initially seem connected — Harman is best known for its in-car
infotainment systems and other audio/visual equipment — it has divisions hard
at work on AI projects, smart cities, and voice
control. These are all key applications
for AI and machine learning technology.
Widely used metaphors for
understanding today’s mass surveillance — such as references to Nazi Germany,
the Stasi or George Orwell’s Big Brother — run the risk of distracting
attention from the horrors and crimes of past totalitarian regimes. But as measures against present abuses of
power, like the fact that the NSA can collect 5 billion cell phone records per day, such
comparisons can offer important insight. The Germany-based OpenDataCity compared
the volume of records that the Stasi stored to the NSA’s capacity to store
data. They determined that Stasi files
would fill 48,000 filing cabinets, while just a single NSA server would fill 42 trillion filing cabinets.The organization concludes that the NSA can
capture 1 billion times more data than the Stasi could.
India is leapfrogging into the
digital future by offering the world’s largest biometric-identity database for
use by tech firms, health-care providers and novice app developers—an
opportunity that excites fans of cyber transactions but worries privacy
advocates.
The Indian government has gathered
digital-identification records, including fingerprint impressions and eye
scans, of nearly all of its 1.2 billion citizens. Now a government-backed initiative known as
“India Stack” aims to standardize ways to exchange the data digitally to
facilitate the transfer of signatures and official documents that citizens need
to get jobs, make financial transactions or access government services.
By allowing developers to
incorporate use of government identification records in their commercial
websites and apps, the initiative envisions Indians—with mobile phones in
hand—using iris and fingerprint scans to sign up for insurance, invest in
mutual funds, receive health-care subsidies and verify their identity for
school examinations.
So they’re allowing just anyone to get access to the
production database or to get the real data? No test database for development purposes? And where are the background/security checks
on the businesses/individuals to whom they’re granting access to real data?
Seriously??
WSJ’s headline for the story was “India Begins Building on
Its Citizens’ Biometrics.” I changed it
to, “India Begins Exposing Its Citizens’ Biometrics to Just Anybody.”
Barbie Is Now A Hologram And Can Help With Dental Hygiene
Toys and technology have always blended well together, and
now, one of the biggest toy classics has ascended to the next level of entertainment.
Barbie, the epitome of girly fun and
fashion, has been upgraded to a hologram. Not only is it incredibly fun to play with
since it can answer questions from
children, it can even function as a decent smart assistant.
Called Hello Barbie, Mattel unveiled their newest offering
during the New York Toy Fair, Wired reports. The
hologram is contained inside a glass box, where the image is projected in a 3D
state. It responds to voice commands as
well, which anyone who has ever used Amazon’s Alexa or Google Home will already
be familiar with.
It can do things like tell the weather and answer
questions, along with giving reminders such as telling kids when to brush their
teeth. To wake her up, users must say “Hello Barbie,” which will make her appear. Once she’s out, users will be able to change
her appearance, make it stay lit at night, or dance and sing.
Is the ‘right to lie about my age’ similar to the ‘right
to be forgotten?’
A federal judge warned California
on Thursday that continuing to defend a seemingly unconstitutional law that
restricts the publication of actors’ ages will likely
divert more taxpayer dollars to the Internet Movie Database’s attorneys.
“I used to be a lawyer for the
government, and I defended a number of laws that were very challenging to
defend,” U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria told a California deputy attorney
general at a hearing on Thursday. “I’m
trying to remember if I defended a law as challenging to defend as the one
you’re defending now.”
Chhabria was referring to AB
1687, a state law passed in September that requires “commercial online
entertainment service providers” like the movie industry website IMDb to take down
actors’ ages upon request.
…Organizers of
high-profile events, including the demonstrations against the Dakota Access
Pipeline and the record-setting Women's March on Inauguration weekend, are
using a new platform from the nonprofit group The Action Network to improve
communications with members and organize on the fly.
Another
new digital tool is Hustle, a growing mass-texting app, that lets groups better
communicate directly with supporters on the ground.
…The Action
Network's website offers
organizers tools including the ability to send mass emails, promote digital
petitions, and encourage letter writing campaigns from a central hub. Organizers can also organize events, track RSVPs
and sell tickets.
…Hustle CEO Roddy
Lindsay said the app lets organizers maintain “dozens, hundreds or even
thousands” of conversations with those interested in their issues.
Hustle CEO Roddy Lindsay said the app lets organizers
maintain “dozens, hundreds or even thousands” of conversations with those
interested in their issues.
For Generation Z, ‘Live Chilling’ Replaces Hanging Out in
Person
Almost every day when they get home from school, Gracie,
age 16, and Sarah, age 14, open the app
Houseparty , where they can video chat with to up to seven of their friends
at once. The sisters, who live in
Danville, Calif., use it to socialize and collaborate on homework, for 15
minutes to an hour. When they first open
it they may be chatting with just one friend, but everyone they’re connected to
on Houseparty gets a push alert that they’re “in the house,” and, soon enough,
the room fills up. It might even spill
over into other rooms, growing organically, just like a real house party.
Teens have been hanging out online for 20 years, but
in 2017 they’re doing it on group video chat apps, in a way that feels like the
real thing, not just a poor substitute. Ranging
in age from adolescents to their early 20s—the group loosely defined as “Generation
Z” —these young people are leaving the apps open, in order to hang out
casually with peers in a trend some call “live chilling.”
This phenomenon is made possible by the sudden
ubiquity of video chat, in messaging apps such as Kik
and Facebook
Messenger , as well as stand-alone apps including Houseparty, Fam, Tribe, Airtime
and ooVoo.
Hang tough, Kim.Don’t let a bunch of unanimous decisions get you worried.
New Zealand court: Megaupload’s Kim Dotcom can be extradited
to U.S. over fraud charges
A New Zealand court ruled on Monday that internet
entrepreneur Kim Dotcom could be extradited to the United States to face
charges relating to his Megaupload website, which was shutdown in 2012
following an FBI-ordered raid on his Auckland mansion.
The
Auckland High Court upheld the decision by a lower court in 2015 on
13 counts, including allegations of conspiracy to commit racketeering,
copyright infringement, money laundering and wire fraud, although it described that decision as “flawed” in several areas.
Dotcom’s lawyer Ron Mansfield said in a statement the
decision was “extremely disappointing” and that Dotcom would appeal to New
Zealand’s Court of Appeal.
…High Court judge
Murray Gilbert said that there was no crime for copyright in New Zealand law
that would justify extradition but that the Megaupload-founder could be sent to
the United States to face allegations of fraud.
David Nakamura, The Washington Post – “Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly
has signed sweeping new guidelines that empower federal authorities to more
aggressively detain and deport illegal immigrants inside the United States and
at the border. In a pair of memos, Kelly offered more detail on
plans for the agency to hire thousands of additional enforcement agents, expand
the pool of immigrants who are prioritized for removal, speed up deportation
hearings and enlist local law enforcement to help make arrests. The new
directives would supersede nearly all of those issued under previous
administrations, Kelly said, including measures from President
Barack Obama aimed at focusing deportations exclusively on hardened criminals
and those with terrorist ties.
I learned something new! Hitler’s dial telephone surprised me.But the first patent for a dial phone was
issued in the 1890’s.
I live in Centennial Colorado. (I'm not actually 100 years old., but I hope to be some day.) I'm an independant computer consultant, specializing in solving problems that traditional IT personnel tend to have difficulty with... That includes everything from inventorying hardware & software, to converting systems & data, to training end-users. I particularly enjoy taking on projects that IT has attempted several times before with no success. I also teach at two local Universities: everything from Introduction to Microcomputers through Business Continuity and Security Management. My background includes IT Audit, Computer Security, and a variety of unique IT projects.
