Big population, big breach.

Leaked data from Chinese hotel chain may affect 130 million customers

Nicole Jao reports:

Personal data and booking information from 13 hotels operated by Huazhu Hotels Group (华住酒店集团) has reportedly been leaked in what could be the largest data breach in China in five years, according to Chinese cybersecurity media FreeBuf (in Chinese).

This morning, a post on a Chinese dark web forum titled “Huazhu-owned hotels booking data” claimed to be selling personal data and information of customers from Huazhu-owned hotels including Hanting Inns and Hotels (汉庭酒店), Hi Inn (海友酒店), and JI Hotel (全季酒店).

Read more on TechNode.

[From the article: Leaked information potentially includes 240 million lines of data containing phone numbers, email addresses, bank account numbers, and booking details.

Security isn’t perfect. That’s why we need to educate employees.

https://www.securityweek.com/email-impersonation-attacks-increase-80

Email Impersonation Attacks Increase by 80%

The latest ESRA report from Mimecast indicates just why email attacks are so loved by cybercriminals, and why organizations need to take email security more seriously.

ESRA is Mimecast's ongoing Email Security Risk Assessment quarterly analysis. Working with 37 organizations across 20 different industries, Mimecast compares the email threats it detects to those detected by the organizations' incumbent email security technologies. The results provide two major sets of statistics: the volume of threats that go undetected by the incumbent technologies; and the sheer size of the email threat.

The latest report (PDF) covers more than 142 million emails received by almost 261,924 users. The incumbent email security was Office 365 and Proofpoint.

ESRA's analysis shows that a total of more than 19 million spam emails; 13,176 emails containing dangerous file types; and 15,656 malware attachments were missed by the incumbent security and delivered to users' inboxes. It also discovered 203,000 malicious links within just over 10 million emails that were delivered to inboxes – a ratio of around one unstopped malicious link in every fifty inspected emails.

This doesn't mean that the bad emails were effective, only that they were delivered to their destination.

“Generals are always prepared to fight the last war.”

https://taskandpurpose.com/likewar-review-social-media/

LikeWar: How Social Media Became The Locus Of 21st Century War

… In LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media, authors Peter W. Singer (Ghost Fleet) and Emerson T. Brooking (Interesting Times) examine this new 21st century way of war. It’s a battlefield whose soldiers are Russian trolls and whose generals include a World of Warcraft player who proved Russian forces downed a passenger jet over Ukraine. Most importantly, it’s a battlefield in which every American is a potential target.

Is DNA unlike any other evidence left at a crime scene?

Don’t want the police to find you through a DNA database? It may already be too late.

Stuart Leavenworth reports:

It’s a forensics technique that has helped crack several cold cases. Across the country, investigators are analyzing DNA and using basic genealogy to find relatives of potential suspects in the hope that these “familial searches” will lead them to the killer.

Familial searches led California authorities to arrest Joseph James DeAngelo in the Golden State Killer probe in April, and investigators have since used it to make breakthroughs in several other unsolved murder cases, including four in Washington state, Pennsylvania, Texas and North Carolina.

But as these searches proliferate, they are raising concerns about police engagement in “DNA dragnets” and “genetic stop and frisk” techniques. And as public DNA databases grow and are accessed by law enforcement, investigators may soon have the ability to track down nearly anyone, even people who never submitted their genetic material for analysis.

Read more on McClatchyDC.

Amazon is like ‘climate change’ for the economy.

https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-effect-on-retail-pricing-study-alberto-cavallo-explains-how-its-changed-2018-8

Amazon effect study: Cavallo explains how retail pricing has changed

Over time, it's become a widely accepted fact that Amazon has pushed retail prices lower.

The company's offerings are so diverse that they can afford to sell many products at razor-thin margins, then make up for it in other, less competitive areas.

In the process, Amazon forces other retailers to lower their prices, putting pressure on their bottom lines. And, in many cases, it's forced these competitors to permanently alter their pricing strategies.

But it doesn't end there. A new study from Harvard Business School argues that the so-called "Amazon effect" has increased both the frequency and magnitude of retail price fluctuations.

The paper, written by associate professor Alberto Cavallo and presented at the Kansas City Fed's annual symposium, looks at how these two measures have changed over the past decade.

Cavallo finds that the Amazon effect has streamlined retail pricing and forced companies to be more adaptable to conditions. Further, as a byproduct of that, he notes that pricing has become more uniform across locations.

… Elsewhere in his paper, Cavallo breaks down how the Amazon effect is impacting the Federal Reserve. After all, consumer price inflation is arguably the most important piece of the central bank's monetary policy — and the rate at which it's planning to hike interest rates.

… Cavallo sums it all up nicely in his study:

"Retail prices are becoming less 'insulated' from these common nationwide shocks," he said. "Fuel prices, exchange-rate fluctuations, or any other force affecting costs that may enter the pricing algorithms used by these firms are more likely to have a faster and larger impact on retail prices that in the past."

Perspective.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/pwc-regulatory-uncertainty-and-lack-of-user-trust-inhibit-blockchain-adoption

PwC: Regulatory Uncertainty and Lack of User Trust Inhibit Blockchain Adoption

Regulatory uncertainty and trust are major barriers to blockchain adoption among businesses, according to a study released August 27 by ‘Big Four’ auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

… According to the study, four in five executives worldwide, which represent 84 percent of respondents, have blockchain initiatives in progress, 25 percent of which have fully live blockchain implementations or launched pilot projects.

46 percent of respondents identified the financial sector as the leader in terms of blockchain development in the next three to five years. Respondents also identified sectors with emerging potential for the same period of time as energy and utilities (14 percent), healthcare (14 percent), and industrial manufacturing (12 percent).

I can create my own emoji? Life is now perfect!

https://www.engadget.com/2018/08/27/google-gboard-mini/

Google Gboard can use selfies to create a 'Mini' version of you

If you want to send friends custom emoji using Gboard, you can either tap into your Bitmoji sticker collection... or use the keyboard's latest feature. Google has launched "Mini" stickers for iOS and Android, which use machine learning to craft personalized emoji from your photo. More precisely, the feature uses a combination of machine learning, neural networks and artist illustrations to conjure up the best representation of you, taking into account various characteristics like your skin tone, hair color and style, eye color, face shape and facial hair. Just access Mini from within Gboard and start the creation process by taking a selfie. It will then automatically create your avatar and generate packs of stickers you can use.

A question: Suppressing or can’t find?

https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/28/17790164/president-trump-google-left-wing-bias-claims

Trump claims Google is suppressing positive news about him and ‘will be addressed’

For my fellow teachers.

https://www.freetech4teachers.com/2018/08/get-your-copy-of-2018-19-practical-ed.html

Get Your Copy of the 2018-19 Practical Ed Tech Handbook

Last night subscribers to the Practical Ed Tech Newsletter were sent copies of the 2018-19 Practical Ed Tech Handbook. This annual publication is a free, 36 page PDF that highlights my favorite educational technology sites and apps.

The Practical Ed Tech Handbook is organized into nine sections. Those sections are:

• Communication tools and strategies.
• Search strategies.
• Digital citizenship.
• Video creation and flipped lessons.
• Audio recording and publishing.
• Backchannels and informal assessments.
• Digital portfolios.
• Augmented reality and virtual reality.
• Programming.

You can download a copy of the Practical Ed Tech Handbook here, view it as a Google Doc, or view it as embedded below.