Thursday, May 31, 2018

Interesting. Every country does this. Are they asking the BND to disclose exactly how and what they are doing and justify it by citing laws?
Operator of World's Top Internet Hub Sues German Spy Agency
The BND foreign intelligence service has long tapped international data flows through the De-Cix exchange based in the German city of Frankfurt.
But the operator argues the agency is breaking the law by also capturing German domestic communications.
"With the lawsuit, we seek judicial clarification and, in particular, legal certainty for our customers and our company," the company said.
Given the mass of daily phone calls, emails, chats, internet searches, streamed videos and other online communications, an effective fire-walling of purely German communications is unrealistic, activists argue.
The De-Cix operator says its Frankfurt hub is the world's biggest Internet Exchange, bundling data flows from as far as China, Russia, the Middle East and Africa, and handles more than 6 terabits per second at peak traffic.
It said the BND, a partner of the US National Security Agency (NSA), has placed so-called Y-piece prisms into its data-carrying fibre optic cables that give it an unfiltered and complete copy of the data flow.




More like ‘Crack.’
Law Firm Data is Catnip for Hackers
Security Boulevard: “Dig into a law firm, and you’ll find secrets. Sometimes these secrets are mundane, like who’s getting divorced, or who’s getting cut out of the will. Sometimes, however, these secrets can shake nations and economies. Huge companies are merging and getting acquired, national leaders are hiding graft in numbered accounts, and you might find all those secrets within the server at a nondescript law firm – which might be possibly the most unsafe place to hide it. Law firms may be extremely discrete when protecting their clients’ identities from judges, the media, and other lawyers, but their track record is less than stellar when it comes to the digital realm. Those who’ve heard of the firm Mossack Fonseca or the Panama Papers (a 2TB data leak that exposed how the wealthy avoid paying taxes) may know that the firm in question was:
  • Running a version of WordPress that was 2 years out of date.
  • Running a version of Drupal that was three years out of date.
  • Running its web server on the same network as its mail server.
  • Running its web server without a firewall.
  • Running an out-of-date plugin known as “Revolution Slider,” which contained a file upload vulnerability that had been documented since 2014.
This multitude of sins collectively led to a scandal that, among other things, brought down the Icelandic Prime Minister. What’s more troubling, however, is that Mossack Fonseca wasn’t a standout among law firms. Many if not most law firms have an equally bad security posture…”




Perhaps North Korea is serious about the summit. One easy way to break it off ‘accidentally’ is to cause a hacking incident. I keep coming back to the question, “What happened to cause this?”
North Korea-Linked Group Stops Targeting U.S.
A threat actor linked to North Korea’s Lazarus Group has stopped targeting organizations in the United States, but remains active in Europe and East Asia.
The group, tracked by industrial cybersecurity firm Dragos as Covellite, has been known to target civilian electric energy organizations in an effort to collect intellectual property and information on industrial operations.




I’m sure I agree with one of these…
Jim Garland and Katharine Goodloe of Covington & Burling write:
Two federal appellate courts are taking sharply different views on whether—and why—government agents must have some amount of suspicion to conduct forensic searches of electronic devices seized at the border.
The Fourth Circuit on May 9, 2018, held that government agents must have reasonable suspicion to conduct forensic searches of cell phones seized at the border. It said that decision was based on the Supreme Court’s recognition in Riley v. California that phones contain information with a “uniquely sensitive nature.” The Fourth Circuit and Ninth Circuit are the only two federal appellate courts to require reasonable suspicion for forensic border searches.
In contrast, the Eleventh Circuit on May 23, 2018, rejected that position—and held that no suspicion is required for forensic border searches of electronic devices.
Read more on Inside Privacy.




Anyone doing anything can be measured. Analyzing the results of that measurement is the tricky part.
Arthur O’Connor writes:
Orwellian technology, capable of monitoring your every message and conversation, may be coming to your office soon.
In keeping with the management adage, “What you can’t measure, you can’t manage,” new employee monitoring methods called talent analytics (or workforce analytics) are hitting the corporate market.
From small startups to global giants such as IBM, tech vendors are offering employers the promise of quantitative, data-driven precision in determining who is a high performer and who is a slacker.
Read more on WhoWhatWhy?




So much easier electronically. Could the emergency rooms pay to lock out the ads?
Digital Ambulance Chasers? Law Firms Send Ads To Patients' Phones Inside ERs
Patients sitting in emergency rooms, at chiropractors' offices and at pain clinics in the Philadelphia area may start noticing on their phones the kind of messages typically seen along highway billboards and public transit: personal injury law firms looking for business by casting mobile online ads at patients.
The potentially creepy part? They're only getting fed the ad because somebody knows they are in an emergency room.
The technology behind the ads, known as geofencing, or placing a digital perimeter around a specific location, has been deployed by retailers for years to offer coupons and special offers to customers as they shop. Bringing it into health care spaces, however, is raising alarm among privacy experts.
"It's really, I think, the closest thing an attorney can do to putting a digital kiosk inside of an emergency room," says digital marketer Bill Kakis, who runs the Long Island, N.Y.-based firm Tell All Digital. Kakis says he recently inked deals with personal injury law firms in the Philadelphia area to target patients.
Law firms and marketing companies from Tennessee to California are also testing out the technology in hospital settings.
… The advertisers identify someone's location by grabbing what is known as "phone ID" from Wi-Fi, cell data or an app using GPS.
Once someone crosses the digital fence, Kakis says, the ads can show up for more than a month — and on multiple devices.




An update, that doesn’t seem like an update.
Full video and transcript: Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and CTO Mike Schroepfer at Code 2018
To this day, we still don’t actually know what data Cambridge Analytica had.”
[Video and transcript]




We ain’t afraid of no GDPR!”
Google Emerges as Early Winner From Europe’s New Data Privacy Law
GDPR, the European Union’s new privacy law, is drawing advertising money toward Google’s online-ad services and away from competitors that are straining to show they’re complying with the sweeping regulation.
The reason: the Alphabet Inc. ad giant is gathering individuals’ consent for targeted advertising at far higher rates than many competing online-ad services, early data show.




Perspective. This is a big deal every year.
Mary Meeker just presented 294 slides on the future of the internet — read them here
There's a "privacy paradox" surrounding data collection for profit, and that theme could come to dominate the internet in 2018, according to Mary Meeker.
More than half the world's population is now online, time spent on the internet is higher than many would like, and regulators are starting to question whether buying in is costing users.
In other words, growth means scrutiny.




Think of the ‘goods and services tax’ as a general tariff. Is it wise to keep your citizens from the global marketplace?
Amazon to block Australians from using US store after new GST rules
Amazon will not ship overseas goods to Australian customers after new GST rules that target international retailers come into effect in July.
Amazon’s new rule, announced on Thursday, will prevent Australians from buying from the Amazon US store – or any international Amazon stores – which frequently have cheaper goods and a greater range compared with the Australian Amazon store.
… The move is a response to a new GST policy that will apply 10% tax to all overseas purchases under $1,000 announced by the Turnbull government last year in a bid to “level the playing field” between Australian and overseas retailers.




Perspective. Keep the rankings straight.
Reddit beats out Facebook to become the third-most-popular site on the web
Reddit has now surpassed Facebook and is now the third-most-popular internet destination for users in the United States, according to rankings published by Amazon subsidiary Alexa (no, not that Alexa), a website that tracks and analyzes web traffic. Despite its recent controversial site redesign, this means that Reddit now trails Google and YouTube, but ranks ahead of Facebook and Amazon.




Perspective. The end of an era.
Canon ends film camera sales for good
Canon stopped building film cameras eight years ago, but it had still been selling them from old stock. Now, it has quietly announced that it will end sales of its last film SLR, the EOS-1V, marking an end to an era that started in 1934 with its first camera, the Kwanon.




Good on ya, Red Robin!
Red Robin offering a free meal for teachers
Teachers will be treated to a free meal at any Red Robin restaurant in the United States on June 5.
Teachers and school administrators who display school identification will receive one of Red Robin's five Tavern Double Burgers, with steak fries. The offer is good for take-out and dine-in orders.
… For more information on Red Robin's free meal for teachers, click here.


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