Saturday, October 27, 2018

I was at the Privacy Foundation (https://www.law.du.edu/privacy-foundation) seminar yesterday and spent much of the time thinking about how I have to revise my lectures and assignments for the classes I’m teaching this quarter.
Granted, the speakers told us that much of the GDPR (and the copycat laws) are still in flux. Granted, they believe that a good faith effort will keep the regulators from jumping in with maximum penalties, at least in the near term. However, that will change, and probably quickly.
My problem is I have to teach my students how to build and secure systems that will work in that not-too-distant future.
One analogy that sprang to (my simple) mind is the concept of “Sources and uses of funds.” I can easily explain to my non-accountants that this requires them to total up income (sales, interest, income from investments, etc) and then show where that money went (purchase of raw materials, manufacturing processes, salaries & benefits, advertising, taxes, and (if anything is left) profit.
Now think of a “Sources and uses of data” statement. Something I think we will need. As I see it, the GDPR will require me to add significant metadata to each record from each user. Recording everything I need to properly handle that record; how it entered my systems, where it came from (not just the user’s location, but which website, App or sensor), what applications it passed through, every place it was stored, when it left that storage (was it deleted or did it move elsewhere), and where (multiple locations) it now resides.
Will I need to determine in advance who might need to see that record? (See the hospital article below). Do I need to append all this information to each record? What must happen as I aggregate that information, for example in a customer dossier with data from other sources.
If a user requires me to delete his or her data, does that missing data taint other data? For example, if the deletion includes a record of a sale, what do I need to do to explain that missing information in my financial statements? How can I show that I wasn’t just laundering money?
Yoiks!


(Related) How can your data be secure if you don’t control access?
Anna Oberschelp de Meneses and Kristof Van Quathem write:
On July 17, 2018, the Portuguese Supervisory Authority (“CNPD”) imposed a fine of 400.000 € on a hospital for infringement of the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”). The decision has not been made public. Earlier this week, the hospital publicly announced that it will contest the fine.
According to press reports, the CNPD carried out an investigation at the hospital which revealed that the hospital’s staff, psychologists, dietitians and other professionals had access to patient data through false profiles. The profile management system appeared deficient – the hospital had 985 registered doctor profiles while only having 296 doctors. Moreover, doctors had unrestricted access to all patient files, regardless of the doctor’s specialty. The CNPD reportedly concluded that the hospital did not put in place appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect patient data.
Read more on Covington & Burling Inside Privacy.


(Related)
Apple CEO Backs Privacy Laws, Warns Data Being 'Weaponized'
Speaking at an international conference on data privacy, Apple CEO Tim Cook applauded European Union authorities for bringing in a strict new data privacy law in May and said the iPhone maker supports a U.S. federal privacy law.
Cook's speech, along with video comments from Google and Facebook top bosses, in the European Union's home base in Brussels, underscores how the U.S. tech giants are jostling to curry favor in the region as regulators tighten their scrutiny.
His speech comes a week after Apple unveiled expanded privacy protection measures for people in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand, including allowing them to download all personal data held by Apple. European users already had access to this feature after GDPR took effect. Apple plans to expand it worldwide.
The 28-nation EU took on global leadership of the issue when it launched GDPR. The new rules require companies to justify the collection and use of personal data gleaned from phones, apps and visited websites. They must also give EU users the ability to access and delete data, and to object to data use.




A legal tip for my Ethical hackers? (With, of course, implications under GDPR)




Told ya.
The midterms are already hacked. You just don’t know it yet.
… With the midterms two weeks away, news of electoral cyberattacks has begun to appear with growing frequency. In 2018, at least a dozen races for the House and Senate, mostly Democrats, have been the public targets of malicious cyber campaigns, in a variety of attacks that suggests the breadth of the threat: Campaigns have been besieged by network penetration attempts, spearphishing campaigns, dummy websites, email hacking, and at least one near-miss attempt to rob a Senate campaign of untold thousands of dollars.
“The Russians will attempt, with cyberattacks and with information operations, to go after us again,” said Eric Rosenbach, the former Pentagon chief of staff and so-called cyber czar, now at the Harvard Belfer Center, when I talked to him this summer. In fact, he added, “They’re doing it right now.”




Why would any intelligence service ignore the low hanging fruit?
Nobody’s Cellphone Is Really That Secure
But most of us aren’t the president of the United States.
Earlier this week, The New York Times reported that the Russians and the Chinese were eavesdropping on President Donald Trump’s personal cellphone and using the information gleaned to better influence his behavior. This should surprise no one. Security experts have been talking about the potential security vulnerabilities in Trump’s cellphone use since he became president. And President Barack Obama bristled at—but acquiesced to—the security rules prohibiting him from using a “regular” cellphone throughout his presidency.
Three broader questions obviously emerge from the story. Who else is listening in on Trump’s cellphone calls?
… There are two basic places to eavesdrop on pretty much any communications system: at the end points and during transmission. This means that a cellphone attacker can either compromise one of the two phones or eavesdrop on the cellular network. Both approaches have their benefits and drawbacks.
… an attacker could intercept the radio signals between a cellphone and a tower. Encryption ranges from very weak to possibly strong, depending on which flavor the system uses. Don’t think the attacker has to put his eavesdropping antenna on the White House lawn; the Russian Embassy is close enough.




Because we don’t have enough data to sift through? Typically, the USPS suggests a vast improvement in service but delivers only a half-vast result.
The US Postal Service will email you photos of your mail before it’s delivered
For those in the US now concerned about the contents of their mailboxes, rest assured. There is a way to check that whatever is delivered to you is safe and familiar. The United States Postal Service (USPS) has a free system that will email you images of your physical mail before it reaches you, called “Informed Delivery.”
The system is free and offers a number of conveniences, apart from the ability to screen incoming mail. “Digitally preview your mail and manage your packages scheduled to arrive soon! Informed Delivery allows you to view greyscale images of the exterior, address side of letter-sized mailpieces and track packages in one convenient location,” according to the USPS website. You can also leave instructions if you won’t be home for a delivery, reschedule deliveries, and set up notifications so that you’re aware of what mail is coming when.
The service does have limitations. For one, it seems that not every zip code qualifies, though there is a handy search tool that allows you to check if yours does before you sign up. And images of your mail will only be sent for letter-sized mail processed through USPS’ automated equipment, according to the postal service.




Propaganda is easy.
Iranian Propaganda Targeted Americans With Tom Hanks




The auto industry is shifting.
GM pushes national electric car plan as Trump tries to roll back emissions standards
General Motors is calling for the federal government to start a nationwide program that would put more electric vehicles on the roads and turbocharge innovation.
… GM's plan would be modeled on California's Zero Emission Vehicle program. Automakers would be required to sell a certain percentage of zero emissions vehicles, which are usually electric powered, or pay credits to other companies that make such vehicles.
… A program like this could make good business sense for GM. It would give the company a competitive advantage over most other automakers. GM has already invested heavily in creating the Chevrolet Bolt EV and Chevrolet Volt plug-in vehicles and committed to launch 20 emission-free models by 2023. That could include hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, which also qualify as zero emissions.
Under GM's proposal, 7% of vehicles each automaker sells in 2021 would have to qualify as "zero emissions."




I have to try this...
An Easy Way to Create Your Own Captioned Flipped Video Lessons
Two weeks ago I published a video about how to use the automatic captioning feature in Google Slides. A lot of people have asked if there is a way to download the captions that are automatically generated when you speak while presenting your slides. Unfortunately, there isn't a downloadable transcript of the captions. However, you could use a screencasting tool like Screencastify or Screencast-o-matic to easily make a video that includes the captions. And by doing that you would be making a video that could be used as a flipped lesson. Here's the outline of how you can use Google Slides and screencasting to create a captioned flipped lesson.


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