Thursday, June 14, 2018

A question for my Computer Security students. Should the US do this? Can we assume that Russia is getting some value from this effort or do you think it is only done because they are paranoid?
World Cup: US Spy Warns Russians Will Hack Phones, Computers
A top US intelligence official warned football fans traveling to Russia for the World Cup that their phones and computers could be hacked by Moscow's cyber spies.
William Evanina, Director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, said that in Russia, even people who believe they are too unimportant to be hacked can be targeted.
"Corporate and government officials are most at risk, but don’t assume you're too insignificant to be targeted."




Interesting talk (in English) on Complexity.
Complexity and Security




What should Apple do, leave all their customers vulnerable?
Apple is reportedly closing a security loophole that will prevent police from accessing iPhones
Apple is reportedly changing the default settings on iPhones to close a loophole which can be used to access locked phones via the charging and data port.
The software update, reported by The New York Times, will disable the iPhone's Lightning port an hour after the phone is locked. After that, a user will be able to charge the phone, but unable to transfer any data to or from the device unless the passcode is entered.
The update will block anyone using a GrayKey device, which costs $15,000 (£11,000) and can be used to hack into iPhones via the Lightning port. Multiple US law enforcement agencies have purchased such devices, including the Drug Enforcement Administration.
… "We're constantly strengthening the security protections in every Apple product to help customers defend against hackers, identity thieves and intrusions into their personal data," Apple spokesman, Fred Sainz, said in an email quoted by the New York Times.
"We have the greatest respect for law enforcement, and we don't design our security improvements to frustrate their efforts to do their jobs."




No unexpected.
Mozilla Asked People How They Feel About Facebook. Here’s What They Said
Medium: “47,000 people responded to our survey asking how they feel about Facebook. The data is interesting and open for your exploration. Facebook has been in the news a lot lately. It started with the announcement that over 87 million Facebook users had their personal information shared with the private firm Cambridge Analytica without their knowledge. Since then, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has testified twice in front of the US Congress and people all around the world have been talking about Facebook’s data practices. We took this opportunity to survey people on how they felt about Facebook these days. The results are in and they are interesting. The top takeaways? Most people (76%) say they are very concerned about the safety of their personal information online. Yet few people (24%) reported making changes to their Facebook accounts following the recent news of privacy concerns around Facebook. The majority of people who responded to our survey (65%) see themselves — rather than companies or the government — as being most responsible for protecting their personal information online. And very few people (only 12%) said they would consider paying for Facebook, even a version of Facebook that doesn’t make money by collecting and selling personal data…”




For my next Data Management class.
A new way to look at knowledge management

Nick Milton – Knoco: The relationship between knowledge and information has always been problematical. Here is a new way to look at it.

The Data/Information/Knowledge/Wisdom pyramid is a very common diagram in the KM world, but despite its ubiquity and simplicity it has many problems:





An over-reactive strategy? Amazon did it, so we have to jump on it too or Amazon will own the market? Easy to sell to any company that feels threatened, but what is Amazon determined that it was a bad idea?
Exclusive: Microsoft takes aim at Amazon with push for checkout-free retail
Microsoft Corp is working on technology that would eliminate cashiers and checkout lines from stores, in a nascent challenge to Amazon.com Inc’s automated grocery shop, six people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
… Microsoft’s technology aims to help retailers keep pace with Amazon Go, a highly automated store that opened to the public in Seattle in January. Amazon customers scan their smartphones at a turnstile to enter. Cameras and sensors identify what they remove from the shelves. When customers are finished shopping, they simply leave the store and Amazon bills their credit cards on file.




Perspective. Wakanda is real? Perhaps I should expand my list of tech cultures.
Google will open an AI center in Ghana later this year, its first in Africa
… Today, Google announced its next AI research center will be in Accra, Ghana.
“In recent years, we’ve … witnessed an increasing interest in machine learning research across the continent,” senior Google AI fellow Jeff Dean and staff research scientist Moustapha Cisse wrote in a blog post. “Events like Data Science Africa 2017 in Tanzania, the 2017 Deep Learning Indaba event in South Africa, and follow-on IndabaX events in 2018 in multiple countries have shown an exciting and continuing growth of the computer science research community in Africa.”
Google said that employees in the new AI center, which will open later this year, will work closely with local universities, other research centers, and policymakers on the potential uses of AI in Africa. This is Google’s first center devoted solely to AI research in Africa and, as far as we can tell, the first from any tech giant (beating Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft to the punch).
… Google isn’t the only one investing in AI programs abroad. Early in 2018, Samsung announced the opening of new research centers in Toronto; Moscow; and Cambridge, England. Ecommerce company Etsy said it would open AI R&D offices in Toronto by the end of this year. And in January, Google and Facebook pledged to expand their AI investment in France.




Schooling the Justice Department. Definitely worth reading!
This week’s decision by U.S. District Judge Richard Leon to allow AT&T and Time Warner to complete their merger will bring to a close a deal that has been pending for almost two years.
In his blistering, 172-page decision, Judge Leon did much more than simply reject the government’s claim that combining two companies that do not compete with each other would harm consumers. He also made clear, as a matter of federal law, that the U.S. Justice Department’s view of a static media landscape is dead and buried.
“If there ever were an antitrust case where the parties had a dramatically different assessment of the current state of the relevant market and a fundamentally different vision of its future development,” Judge Leon began his decision, “this is the one.”




A new legal specialty!
… As more and more lawyers specialize in cannabis law, that means increasing competition among them. As competition increases, firms ramp up their cannabis-related marketing. For many, a key piece of that marketing is a cannabis law blog.




So clearly it’s not the ability to do math.
Where Boys Outperform Girls in Math: Rich, White and Suburban Districts
In much of the country, the stereotype that boys do better than girls at math isn’t true – on average, they perform about the same, at least through eighth grade. But there’s a notable exception.
In school districts that are mostly rich, white and suburban, boys are much more likely to outperform girls in math, according to a new study from Stanford researchers, one of the most comprehensive looks at the gender gap in test scores at the school district level.
… On English tests, girls test better than boys regardless of their parents’ socioeconomic status.


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