Thinking
about the inevitable?
What
the COVID-19 pandemic teaches us about cybersecurity – and how to
prepare for the inevitable global cyberattack
… COVID-19
is not the only risk with the ability to quickly and exponentially
disrupt the way we live. The crisis shows that the world is far more
prone to disturbance by pandemics, cyberattacks or environmental
tipping points than history indicates.
Our
"new normal" isn’t COVID-19 itself – it's COVID-like
incidents.
And
a cyber pandemic is probably as inevitable as a future disease
pandemic. The time to start thinking about the response is – as
always – yesterday.
To
start that process, it’s important to examine the lessons of the
COVID-19 pandemic – and use them to prepare for a future global
cyberattack.
Lesson
#1: A cyberattack with characteristics similar to the coronavirus
would spread faster and further than any biological virus.
Lesson
#2: The economic impact of a widespread digital shutdown would be of
the same magnitude – or greater – than what we’re currently
seeing.
Lesson
#3: Recovery from the widespread destruction of digital systems would
be extremely challenging.
Is
automating facial recognition truly different from noticing a face on
a social media platform that matches your ‘suspect?’
Tim
Cushing writes:
Clearview is currently being sued by the attorney general of Vermont for violating the privacy rights of the state’s residents. As the AG’s office pointed out in its lawsuit, users of social media services agree to many things when signing up, but the use of their photos and personal information as fodder for facial recognition software sold to government agencies and a variety of private companies isn’t one of them.
[T]he term “publicly available” does not have any meaning in the manner used by Clearview, as even though a photograph is being displayed on a certain social media website, it is being displayed subject to all of the rights and agreements associated with the website, the law, and reasonable expectations. One of those expectations was not that someone would amass an enormous facial-recognition-fueled surveillance database, as the idea that this would be, permitted in the United States was, until recently, unthinkable.
(Related)
David
Gershgorn writes:
Historically, federal agencies like the FBI and Department of Homeland Security have had to rely on their own data to run facial recognition or automated fingerprint searches. For example, the DHS has access to photos of people who have crossed the U.S. border; the FBI has a database of mugshots.
But now federal agencies are working to greatly expand access to each others’ facial recognition databases, according to a privacy assessment released by the Department of Homeland Security earlier this month. The move would allow DHS to more easily search the enormous databases of passport or visa holders, as well as many who have been in contact with the criminal justice system.
(Related)
Mapped:
The State of Facial Recognition Around the World
… In
its most benign form, facial recognition technology is a convenient
way to unlock your smartphone. At the state level though, facial
recognition is a key component of mass surveillance, and it already
touches half the global population on a regular basis.
Today’s
visualizations from SurfShark
classify
194 countries and regions based on the extent of surveillance.
It’s
going to take some time for me to wrap my brain around this.
Internet
Users of All Kinds Should Be Concerned by a New Copyright Office
Report
… Last
week, the president issued
an order taking
on one legal foundation for online expression: Section
230.
This week, the
Senate is focusing on
another: Section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
The
stage for this week’s hearing was set by a massive
report from
the Copyright Office that’s been five years in the making.
(Related)
Publishers
File Suit Against Internet Archive for Systematic Mass Scanning and
Distribution of Literary Works
Association
of American Publishers:
“Today, member companies of the Association of American Publishers
(AAP) filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Internet Archive
(“IA”) in the United States District Court for the Southern
District of New York. The suit asks the Court to enjoin IA’s mass
scanning, public display, and distribution of entire literary works
[Internet
Archive Blog Posting ],
which it offers to the public at large through global-facing
businesses coined “Open Library” and “National Emergency
Library,” accessible at both openlibrary.org and archive.org. IA
has brazenly reproduced some 1.3 million bootleg scans of print
books, including recent works, commercial fiction and non-fiction,
thrillers, and children’s books. The plaintiffs—Hachette Book
Group, HarperCollins Publishers, John Wiley & Sons and Penguin
Random House—publish many of the world’s preeminent authors,
including winners of the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, Newbery
Medal, Man Booker Prize, Caldecott Medal and Nobel Prize.
Despite the self-serving library branding of its operations, IA’s conduct bears little resemblance to the trusted role that thousands of American libraries play within their communities and as participants in the lawful copyright marketplace. IA scans books from cover to cover, posts complete digital files to its website, and solicits users to access them for free by signing up for Internet Archive Accounts. The sheer scale of IA’s infringement described in the complaint—and its stated objective to enlarge its illegal trove with abandon—appear to make it one of the largest known book pirate sites in the world. IA publicly reports millions of dollars in revenue each year, including financial schemes that support its infringement design…”
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