Centennial Man: 2020-04-12

Saturday, April 18, 2020

Another virus impact.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-cyber-corporations-idUSKBN21Z0Y6

Hacking against corporations surges as workers take computers home

Hacking activity against corporations in the United States and other countries more than doubled by some measures last month as digital thieves took advantage of security weakened by pandemic work-from-home policies, researchers said.

Unsure of their process?

https://data-economy.com/ico-confirms-second-deferral-for-ba-and-marriotts-gdpr-fines/

ICO Confirms Second Deferral For BA And Marriott’s GDPR Fines

The fines, issued two days apart in July last year, will be deferred until later in 2020 “pending further investigations”.

It is the second time a deferral has been announced, following the first in January 2020.

Given the fines were the ICO’s first flex of its newly strengthened GDPR muscle – and the fact that, to negotiate a deferral it has to seek agreement from the entities being penalised Under Schedule 16 of the Data Protection Act 2018 – it’s a less than ideal situation for the a regulator to be in.

Perspective.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/17/mary-meeker-covid-19-report-online-businesses-beating-laggards.html

Investor Mary Meeker says Covid-19 crisis is separating businesses with strong online strategies from laggards

Mary Meeker, the former tech investment banker who has spent the past decade in venture capital, is out with a new 29-page report on how the coronavirus is shaping economic activity, consumer behavior and technology.

The report, which Axios published on Friday, says businesses that are doing the best in the current crisis use cloud technologies, sell products that are always needed, can easily be found online, make other businesses more efficient and have a good social media presence.

Shopify Surges After CTO Touts ‘Black Friday Level Traffic’

Shopify Inc. shares are on track for a record high after an executive said the e-commerce company was experiencing traffic similar to peak holiday levels and predicted even more growth.

… Shopify gained as much as 11% on Friday, after rising 5.9% on Thursday. During the course of its current seven-day winning streak the stock has gained 50%, adding $23 billion in market value.

These might be useful in normal times.

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/job-boards-find-work-home-gigs-remote-jobs/

5 Job Boards to Find Work From Home Gigs and Remote Jobs

Friday, April 17, 2020

Value other than money?

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-cyber-idUSKBN21Y3GL

FBI official says foreign hackers have targeted COVID-19 research

A senior cybersecurity official with the Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Thursday that foreign government hackers have broken into companies conducting research into treatments for COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus.

… “We certainly have seen reconnaissance activity, and some intrusions, into some of those institutions, especially those that have publicly identified themselves as working on COVID-related research,” she said.

Ugoretz said it made sense for institutions working on promising treatments or a potential vaccine to tout their work publicly. However, she said, “The sad flipside is that it kind of makes them a mark for other nation-states that are interested in gleaning details about what exactly they’re doing and maybe even stealing proprietary information that those institutions have.”

A topic in Computer Security / Disaster Recovery. Computers are cheaper than most weapons of war.

https://www.cpomagazine.com/cyber-security/cyberwar-how-it-could-unfold-and-how-we-can-defend-against-it/

Cyberwar: How It Could Unfold and How We Can Defend Against It

What will a cyberwar look like?

Will it be a blitzkrieg-like invasion where a nation’s critical energy and water systems are suddenly destroyed, plunging society into chaos and panic? Or will it consist of a series of persistent guerilla attacks that aggravate the populace, weaken institutions and erode everyone’s confidence in their daily systems?

Or will it revolve around employing falsified data to control the “decision space,” which Vincent R. Stewart, USMC, calls “fifth generation warfare”? In this situation, hackers inject erroneous data into the system to coax last line of defense operators and engineers toward hazards like energizing an area in the midst of extreme wildfire danger. Even getting individuals to doubt their data is a victory.

Or will it be a shadow war, similar to the espionage during the Cold War, where security analysts will need to spend considerable time following up leads to determine whether an incident was a real attack or just a mindless bot? Significantly, more effort is needed to support criminal investigation of opportunistic mercenaries as well as geopolitical smoke screens.

As a pragmatist, I believe it will likely be, and already is, all of the above.

Creating a “this person is healthy” passport looks more and more likely. You may need to present your ‘papers’ to fly, join any gathering, visit a government office...

https://www.justsecurity.org/69724/is-the-roberts-court-going-to-let-coronavirus-kill-us/

Is the Roberts Court Going to Let Coronavirus Kill Us?

It is looking increasingly as though a nationwide program of testing, and hopefully vaccination, may be the only way to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus and bring back the U.S. economy. Unfortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2012 Obamacare decision may actually stand in the way of effective congressional action just when it is most needed.

In the Obamacare case, NFIB v. Sebelius, Chief Justice John Roberts declared that Congress could not constitutionally require people to obtain health insurance, relying on a novel distinction between activity and inactivity. “Construing the Commerce Clause to permit Congress to regulate individuals precisely because they are doing nothing would open a new and potentially vast domain to congressional authority (emphasis in original).”

Is ‘stay at home’ legal?

https://www.bespacific.com/freedom-of-association-in-the-wake-of-coronavirus/

Freedom of Association in the Wake of Coronavirus

CRS Legal Sidebar – Freedom of Association in the Wake of Coronavirus, April 16, 2020: “…At least 42 U.S. states have issued emergency orders directing residents to “stay at home,”with many states prohibiting gatherings of various sizes to control the spread of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).

… This post discusses the legal standards that those courts applied as well as background First Amendment principles that are likely to continue to inform judicial review of free speech–related challenges to gathering bans. Religious exercise principles are discussed separately in this posting…”

COVID-19, Digital Surveillance, and Privacy: Fourth Amendment Considerations

CRS Legal Sidebar – COVID-19, Digital Surveillance, and Privacy: Fourth Amendment Considerations, April 16, 2020: “As COVID-19 has spread across the globe, countries like South Korea and Israel have employed digital surveillance measures using cell phone location data, among other things, in an effort to track and limit the virus’s transmission. In the United States, the federal government and some state and local governments have reportedly begun to gather geolocation data voluntarily provided by the mobile advertising industry to assess how people are continuing to move and congregate during the pandemic. Technology companies such as Google and Facebook have also discussed leveraging some of their aggregated and anonymized location data for similar purposes. Moreover, the recently passed CARES Act provides, as part of new funding for the Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), that the CDC must report to Congress within 30 days on “the development of a public health surveillance and data collection system for coronavirus.” In light of these developments, some commentators have speculated about the potential in the United States for more invasive, obligatory data collection and tracking practices emulating the measures taken in some other parts of the world. Actions by the federal or state governments to surveil U.S. citizens in response to the COVID-19 pandemic could raise a host of legal issues, but as one commentator recently recognized, the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution may “determine the outer bounds of permissible surveillance at the federal and state levels” in this context. This Sidebar accordingly provides an overview of the Fourth Amendment and certain relevant doctrines and exceptions before discussing how the relevant legal frameworks could apply to coronavirus-related government surveillance…”

Concern: Will pent up demand crash the Internet?

https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/16/amazon-flipkart-and-other-e-commerce-firms-in-india-to-resume-sales-of-non-essential-items-from-april-20/

Amazon, Flipkart and other e-commerce firms in India to resume sales of non-essential items from April 20 – TechCrunch

Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal and other online shopping firms will resume selling “non-essential” items to customers in India starting April 20, weeks after New Delhi imposed a lockdown in the country that has cost e-commerce companies more than a billion dollars in sales.

New Delhi said on Thursday that e-commerce companies can resume accepting customers orders for non-essential items including smartphones and laptops starting next Tuesday. Spokespeople of Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal, and Paytm Mall confirmed to TechCrunch that they will be complying with the new direction.

For those working on AI at home.

https://tdwi.org/articles/2020/04/17/adv-all-ai-and-analytics-coming-to-a-process-near-you.aspx

AI and Analytics: Coming to a Process Near You

Accelerating speed to insight from data is critical to nearly all types of organizations, especially as managers seek to develop strategies for responding to unexpected and rapidly changing circumstances such as the global coronavirus outbreak. TDWI's recently published Best Practices Report, Faster Insights from Faster Data, takes an in-depth look at practice and technology issues that matter most in reducing delays in data life cycles and putting well-prepared and relevant data in the hands of users sooner.

“I’m shocked. Shocked I tell you!”

https://www.bespacific.com/study-students-often-do-not-question-online-information/

Study – Students often do not question online information

PHYS.org: “The Internet and social media are among the most frequently used sources of information today. Students, too, often prefer online information rather than traditional teaching materials provided by universities. According to a study conducted by Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and Goethe University Frankfurt, students struggle to critically assess information from the Internet and are often influenced by unreliable sources. In this study, students from various disciplines such as medicine and economics took part in an online test, the Critical Online Reasoning Assessment (CORA). “Unfortunately, it is becoming evident that a large proportion of students are tempted to use irrelevant and unreliable information from the Internet when solving the CORA tasks,” reported Professor Olga Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia from JGU. The study was carried out as part of the Rhine-Main Universities (RMU) alliance…”

As long as you have extra time on your hands…

https://www.bespacific.com/harvard-offering-access-to-64-different-courses-online-for-free/

Harvard offering access to 64 different courses online for free

Harvard is now offering 64 free courses in 11 subject areas

Thursday, April 16, 2020

No surprise.

https://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/alerts/aa20-106a

Guidance on the North Korean Cyber Threat

The U.S. Departments of State, the Treasury, and Homeland Security, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are issuing this advisory as a comprehensive resource on the North Korean cyber threat for the international community, network defenders, and the public. The advisory highlights the cyber threat posed by North Korea – formally known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) – and provides recommended steps to mitigate the threat. In particular, Annex 1 lists U.S. government resources related to DPRK cyber threats and Annex 2 includes a link to the UN 1718 Sanctions Committee (DPRK) Panel of Experts reports.

The DPRK’s malicious cyber activities threaten the United States and the broader international community and, in particular, pose a significant threat to the integrity and stability of the international financial system. Under the pressure of robust U.S. and UN sanctions, the DPRK has increasingly relied on illicit activities – including cybercrime – to generate revenue for its weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs.

Coming at it from an old ‘new direction!’

Could Unjust Enrichment Be a New Weapon in Privacy Enforcement?

Alaina Lancaster reports:

In a case over Facebook’s alleged use of plug-ins to catalog users’ browsing histories in order to sell that data, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that plaintiffs have standing to sue over an alleged infringement of privacy rights covered in the Wiretap Act, Stored Communications Act and the California Invasion of Privacy Act.

But what might be more interesting is the court finding the plaintiffs also have standing to sue the tech giant for unjust enrichment. Bernard Chao, a law professor at University of Denver Sturm College of Law, said he’s noticed lawyers often drop their unjust enrichment argument shortly after raising it. That could change after this decision.

Wednesday, April 15, 2020

The impact continues...

https://www.databreaches.net/equifax-settles-indiana-case-over-massive-data-breach-for-19-5-million/

Equifax settles Indiana case over massive data breach for $19.5 million

Nate Raymond reports:

Equifax Inc will pay Indiana $19.5 million to resolve claims it failed to protect residents whose personal information was exposed in a data breach that affected 147 million people, the state’s attorney general said on Monday.

Tuesday, April 14, 2020

This is an industry I could do very well in. Shame it’s not legal.

https://www.darkreading.com/vulnerabilities---threats/cybercrime-may-be-the-worlds-third-largest-economy-by-2021/a/d-id/1337475?&web_view=true

Cybercrime May Be the World's Third-Largest Economy by 2021

As organizations go digital, so does crime. Today, cybercrime is a massive business in its own right, and criminals everywhere are clamoring to get a piece of the action as companies and consumers invest trillions to stake their claim in the digital universe.

That's why the World Economic Forum's (WEF) "Global Risks Report 2020” states that cybercrime will be the second most-concerning risk for global commerce over the next decade until 2030. It's also the seventh most-likely risk to occur, and eighth most impactful. And the stakes have never been higher. Revenue, profits, and the brand reputations of enterprises are on the line; mission-critical infrastructure is being exposed to threats; and nation-states are engaging in cyber warfare and cyber espionage with each other.

A complex solution to a complex problem.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2020/04/14/synthetic-data/

GDPR, CCPA and beyond: How synthetic data can reduce the scope of stringent regulations

As many organizations are still discovering, compliance is complicated. Stringent regulations, like the GDPR and the CCPA, require multiple steps from numerous departments within an enterprise in order to achieve and maintain compliance. From understanding the regulations, implementing technologies that satisfy legal requirements, hiring qualified staff and training, to documentation updating and reporting – ongoing compliance can be costly and time intensive.

… If an organization can identify all of its personal data, take it out of the data security and compliance equation completely – rending it useless to hackers, insider threats, and regulation scope – it can eliminate a huge amount of risk, and drastically the reduce the cost of compliance.

… Synthetic data makes this possible by removing identifiable characteristics of the institution, customer and transaction to create what is called a synthetic data set. Personally identifiable information is rendered unrecognizable by a one-way hash process that cannot be reversed. A cutting-edge data engine makes minor and random field changes to the original data, keeping the consumer identity and transaction associated with that consumer completely protected.

Once the data is synthetized, it’s impossible for a hacker or malicious insider to reverse-engineer the data.

Hasn’t this been the goal and the fear since the start?

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/04/artificial-intelligence-evolving-all-itself#

Artificial intelligence is evolving all by itself

Artificial intelligence (AI) is evolving—literally. Researchers have created software that borrows concepts from Darwinian evolution, including “survival of the fittest,” to build AI programs that improve generation after generation without human input. The program replicated decades of AI research in a matter of days, and its designers think that one day, it could discover new approaches to AI.

… In a preprint paper published last month on arXiv, the researchers show the approach can stumble on a number of classic machine learning techniques, including neural networks. The solutions are simple compared with today’s most advanced algorithms, admits Le, but he says the work is a proof of principle and he’s optimistic it can be scaled up to create much more complex AIs.

I imagine this would be irritating. Is it also negligent?

https://www.databreaches.net/ransomware-attacks-lock-2-manitoba-law-firms-out-of-computer-systems/

Ransomware attacks lock 2 Manitoba law firms out of computer systems

Sean Kavanagh reports:

Work at two Manitoba law firms is at a virtual standstill after cyber attacks left staff without access to their computer systems, locking out digital files, emails and data backups.

Monday, April 13, 2020

Surveillance by any other name…

https://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2020/04/12/contact-tracing-in-the-real-world/

Contact Tracing in the Real World

There have recently been several proposals for pseudonymous contact tracing, including from Apple and Google. To both cryptographers and privacy advocates, this might seem the obvious way to protect public health and privacy at the same time. Meanwhile other cryptographers have been pointing out some of the flaws.

There are also real systems being built by governments. Singapore has already deployed and open-sourced one that uses contact tracing based on bluetooth beacons. Most of the academic and tech industry proposals follow this strategy, as the “obvious” way to tell who’s been within a few metres of you and for how long. The UK’s National Health Service is working on one too, and I’m one of a group of people being consulted on the privacy and security.

But contact tracing in the real world is not quite as many of the academic and industry proposals assume.

First, it isn’t anonymous.

(Related) It’s not just the doing, it’s the undoing.

The Surveillance State Thrives During the Pandemic

J.D. Tuccille writes:

From cellphone tracking to drone eyes in the sky, perused health records, and GPS ankle bracelets, an epidemic of surveillance-state measures is spreading across the world. It’s all done in the name of battling the spread of COVID-19, of course, since every crisis is used to justify incursions into our liberty. But long after the virus has done its worst and moved on, we’re likely to be stuck with these invasions of our privacy—unless we push back, hard.

The rationales for surveillance are easy to understand, within certain limits. Public health authorities battling the pandemic want to know who is spreading the virus, which people they may have infected, and the movements of those potentially carrying the bug.

Centennial Man

Saturday, April 18, 2020

Friday, April 17, 2020

Thursday, April 16, 2020

Wednesday, April 15, 2020

Tuesday, April 14, 2020

Monday, April 13, 2020

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