Tuesday, August 06, 2019


A challenge for my Computer Security students.
Connected Cars Could be a Threat to National Security, Group Claims
The cyber threat to connected cars (cars with a connection to the internet) is known and accepted. Now Los Angeles-based Consumer Watchdog (CW) has elevated that threat to one of national security in a new report titled, "Kill Switch: Why Connected Cars Can be Killing Machines and How to Turn Them Off."
CW claims to have talked to an unnamed but concerned group "of car industry technologists and engineers" in compiling its report (PDF ).




Who would you like to win and by how much?
The scramble to secure America’s voting machines
Paperless voting devices are a gaping weakness in the patchwork U.S. election system, security experts say. But among these 14 states and their counties, efforts to replace these machines are slow and uneven, a POLITICO survey reveals.




Not “raised” in the Venture Capital sense, more in the Bonnie & Clyde sense.
UN Report: North Korea Cyber Experts Raised Up to $2 Billion
A panel monitoring U.N. sanctions says North Korean cyber experts have illegally raised money for the country’s weapons of mass destruction programs “with total proceeds to date estimated at up to $2 billion.”
The experts said in a new report to the Security Council that North Korea is using cyberspace “to launch increasingly sophisticated attacks to steal funds from financial institutions and cryptocurrency exchanges to generate income” in violation of sanctions.
The experts’ report, seen Monday by The Associated Press, said large-scale attacks against cryptocurrency exchanges by North Korea allow the country “to generate income in ways that are harder to trace and subject to less government oversight and regulation than the traditional banking sector.”
North Korea also continues to have access to the global financial system, “through bank representatives and networks operating worldwide” as a result of “deficiencies” by U.N. member states in implementing financial sanctions and Pyongyang’s “deceptive practices,” the experts said.




When $5,000,000,000 is chicken feed.
EPIC Privacy Group to Challenge $5 Billion FTC-Facebook Settlement
Perhaps it was inevitable. As soon as the FTC announced that it was letting social media giant Facebook off the hook with what now appears to be an incredibly lenient penalty of $5 billion, privacy advocates went into overdrive, challenging the fairness and adequacy of the Facebook settlement. Within days of the announced FTC-Facebook settlement, consumer privacy group EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center) filed a motion with a federal district court in Washington, asking it to intervene in the settlement.




Banking for the un-banked” is a big market.
Privacy Watchdogs Warn Facebook Over Libra Currency
Global privacy regulators joined forces Tuesday to demand guarantees from Facebook on how it will protect users' financial data when it launches its planned cryptocurrency, Libra.
The watchdogs from Australia, the US, EU, Britain, Canada and other countries issued an open letter calling on Facebook to respond to more than a dozen concerns over how it will handle sensitive personal information of users of the digital currency.
The watchdogs said that Facebook and its subsidiary Calibra "have failed to specifically address the information handling practices that will be in place to secure and protect personal information".
Facebook's handling of user data, highlighted by the Cambridge Analytica scandal, had "not met the expectations of regulators or their own users", they said.




My students tell me they VPN to EU servers so they can access US resources without tracking. Are we seeing a flight to stronger Privacy laws?
Twitter users are escaping online hate by switching profiles to Germany, where Nazism is illegal
CNBC:
    • Seeking to shield themselves from online hatred, some Twitter users say they’ve switched their account locations to Germany where local laws prevent pro-Nazi content.
    • While German laws make it harder for explicitly hateful content to remain online, local researchers say it is not a hate-free internet utopia.
    • Germany has imposed stricter laws on social media companies about content moderation as some conservative American lawmakers have criticized the companies of showing bias in their content removal decisions…”




Will we reach a point where “everything has already been invented?”
Two AI-led inventions poke at future of patent law
A University of Surrey-based team have filed the first patent applications for inventions created by a machine. Applications were made to the US, EU and UK patent offices; they are for a machine using artificial intelligence as the inventor of two ideas for a beverage container and a flashing light.
Media's attention toward this move resonates with last year's prediction by Baker McKenzie that "Patentability of AI-created inventions, liability for infringement by AI, and patent subject-matter eligibility of AI technologies are the top three areas of patent law that will be disrupted by AI."
There is now a site for a project focused on intellectual property rights and the output of artificial intelligence. This is the Artificial Inventor Project, and it can clarify why the topic of AI and patents is so relevant today.




Mr Zillman collects very complete (huge) and useful lists.
Healthcare Bots and Subject Directories 2019
This guide focuses on a wide range of selected resources from health sciences, technology, academic, government and genetic research sectors, identifying traditional, complimentary and alternative sources to execute expert healthcare related subject matter searches. It is divided into three categories: 1) Search Engines and Selected Bots and 2) Directories, Subject Trees and Subject Tracers 3) Health Forums Online for Expert Support.




My students seem divided on the digital vs paper bit. (But agree, cheaper is better.)
The Radical Transformation of the Textbook
Wired – Digital-first. Open source. Subscription. The way textbooks are bought and sold is changing—with serious implications for higher education: “For several decades, textbook publishers followed the same basic model: Pitch a hefty tome of knowledge to faculty for inclusion in lesson plans; charge students an equally hefty sum; revise and update its content as needed every few years. Repeat. But the last several years have seen a shift at colleges and universities—one that has more recently turned tectonic. In a way, the evolution of the textbook has mirrored that in every other industry. Ownership has given way to rentals, and analog to digital. Within the broad strokes of that transition, though, lie divergent ideas about not just what learning should look like in the 21st century but how affordable to make it…
“The major publishers are publicly traded companies, under pressure to demonstrate constant growth. Pearson’s digital-first strategy is a significant step toward a more sustainable business model. Under the new system, ebooks will cost an average of $40. Those who prefer actual paper can pay $60 for the privilege of a rental, with the option to purchase the book at the end of the term. The price of a new print textbook can easily reach into the hundreds of dollars; under digital-first, students have to actively want to pay that much after a course is already over, making it an unlikely option for most…”



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