Perspective. I’m seeing many articles reflecting this theme.

https://www.usip.org/publications/2022/02/ukraine-putin-chooses-his-forever-war

Ukraine: Putin Chooses His ‘Forever War’

… Putin faces a domestic political risk as Russian soldiers die in Ukraine. Ukrainian troops cannot repulse an invasion by a Russian military that analysts say has three times the personnel and 10 times the budget of Ukraine’s. But Ukraine now defends itself with a vastly bigger, better equipped and more combat-experienced army than in 2014, when Russia quickly seized Crimea and part of Donbas. And Ukrainians—military veterans and civilians—have trained and prepared to fight urban and guerrilla warfare that would mean terrible casualties not only for Ukraine but for Russia.

Putin has shown he fears the risk that Russian casualties could undermine his rule.

(Related) Logistically the cheapest and fastest to implement?

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2022/02/russia-sanctions-may-spark-escalating-cyber-conflict/

Russia Sanctions May Spark Escalating Cyber Conflict

President Biden joined European leaders this week in enacting economic sanctions against Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine. The West has promised tougher sanctions are coming, but experts warn these will almost certainly trigger a Russian retaliation against America and its allies, which could escalate into cyber attacks on Western financial institutions and energy infrastructure.

Michael Daniel is a former cybersecurity advisor to the White House during the Obama administration who now heads the Cyber Threat Alliance, an industry group focused on sharing threat intelligence among members. Daniel said there are two primary types of cyber threats the group is concerned about potentially coming in response to sanctions on Russia.

The first involves what Daniel called “spillover and collateral damage” — a global malware contagion akin to a NotPeyta event — basically some type of cyber weapon that has self-propagating capabilities and may even leverage a previously unknown security flaw in a widely-used piece of hardware or software.

… “The second level [is that] in retaliation for sanctions or perceived interference, Russia steps up more direct attacks on Western organizations,” Daniel said

(Related)

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3651498/conti-gang-says-its-ready-to-hit-critical-infrastructure-in-support-of-russian-government.html#tk.rss_all

Conti gang says it's ready to hit critical infrastructure in support of Russian government

The ransomware group's claims follow a threat from the hacktivist group Anonymous to conduct cyberattacks against Russian targets.

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. That includes whoever decided they didn’t need backups.

https://www.databreaches.net/dallas-it-worker-erased-police-files-by-accident-didnt-have-enough-training-report-says/

Dallas IT worker erased police files by accident, didn’t have enough training, report says

Everton Bailey Jr. reports:

A former Dallas IT worker fired after deleting millions of police files last year while trying to move them from online storage didn’t have enough training to do the job properly, according to an independent investigation of the incident.

Despite his job primarily being focused on working with Commvault, the software company the city contracts with for cloud storage management, the former city technician only received training on the software twice since 2018, said a report analyzing the incident released this week to city officials by law firm Kirkland & Ellis.

Read more at Dallas News.

What comes next?

https://www.databreaches.net/at-least-22-states-have-consumer-privacy-legislation-pending-will-2022-be-the-year-for-more-state-privacy-laws/

At Least 22 States Have Consumer Privacy Legislation Pending – Will 2022 Be the Year for More State Privacy Laws?

Deborah George of Robinson & Cole writes:

California is the gold standard for state privacy laws, having recently enacted the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA). Virginia and Colorado also have enacted comprehensive privacy laws, which will take effect in 2023. Recently, the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) released its state privacy legislation tracker. The IAPP offers a map of the states that shows all the states and the status of any privacy legislation. The map shows the various stages of any privacy legislation, from bills introduced all the way through bills signed.

In addition, IAPP has compiled a handy chart of pending comprehensive privacy legislation that provides the name of the bill, a link to the bill, and whether the bill provides various consumer rights, business obligations, and a private right of action, similar to the consumer privacy laws passed in California, Virginia, and Colorado.

Read more at The National Law Review.

Perspective.

https://appleinsider.com/articles/22/02/25/surveillance-firm-says-apple-is-phenomenal-for-law-enforcement

Surveillance firm says Apple is 'phenomenal' for law enforcement

Secret recordings of a surveillance firm's presentation show how much iCloud data Apple surrenders to law enforcement with a warrant — though it's Google and Facebook that can track a suspect to within three feet.

PenLink is a little-known firm from Nebraska which earns $20 million annually from helping the US government track criminal suspects. PenLink also sells its services to local law enforcement - and it's from such a sales presentation that details of iCloud warrants has emerged.

… Apple is open about what it does in the event of a suboena from law enforcement. It's specific about how it will not unlock iPhones, for instance, but it will surrender information from iCloud backups that are stored on its servers.

"If you did something bad," said Tuma, "I bet you I could find it on that backup."

An addition to the strategic calculus of war. Cut of from hard currencies? Move to virtual currencies.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/02/25/cryptocurrency-ukraine-russia-war-impact/

Russia-Ukraine: In the world’s first crypto war, uncertainty about who will benefit

There is the $400,000 in cryptocurrency donations raised by a Kyiv IT professional to support the Ukrainian army.

There are calls from Western cryptocurrency activists to mobilize on behalf of the Ukrainian people.

And there are fears that Russia could use cryptocurrency to avoid the effects of Western sanctions.

As Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces mount an invasion against Ukraine, two economies that have led the way in embracing the new form of digital money are each turning to it to gain an edge in the geopolitical showdown. The first major conflict of the crypto era also means that, for the first time ever, a tool that can move billions of dollars easily across borders is available to be marshaled by both sides.

“Because there is no central controller who can impose their morals on its user, crypto can be used to crowdfund for the Ukrainian army or help Russia evade sanctions,” said Tom Robinson, chief scientist and co-founder at the crypto analytics firm Elliptic. “No one can really prevent it from being used in either way.”

(Related) Is Russia seeking another way to pressure the west?

https://www.reuters.com/breakingviews/ukraine-war-flashes-neon-warning-lights-chips-2022-02-24/

Ukraine war flashes neon warning lights for chips

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by land, air and sea risks reverberating across the global chip industry and exacerbating current supply-chain constraints. Ukraine is a major producer of neon gas critical for lasers used in chipmaking and supplies more than 90% of U.S. semiconductor-grade neon, according to estimates from research firm Techcet.

Who are they trying to fool?

https://threatpost.com/white-house-denies-mulling-massive-cyberattacks-against-russia/178658/

White House Denies Mulling Massive Cyberattacks Against Russia

The options reportedly included tampering with trains, electric service and internet connectivity, hampering Russia’s military operations in Ukraine.

The White House has denied reports that President Biden has been presented with an arsenal of ways to launch massive cyberattacks against Russia – attacks designed to disrupt the country’s ability to sustain its military operations in Ukraine.

NBC News on Thursday reported that the options included “disrupting internet connectivity across Russia, shutting off electric power, and tampering with railroad switches to hamper Russia’s ability to resupply its forces.”

(Related) Chairborn soldiers?

https://www.reuters.com/world/exclusive-ukraine-calls-hacker-underground-defend-against-russia-2022-02-24/

EXCLUSIVE Ukraine calls on hacker underground to defend against Russia

Just because…

https://fpf.org/blog/privacy-harms-global-privacy-regulation-and-algorithmic-decision-making-are-major-topics-during-privacy-papers-for-policymakers-event/

PRIVACY HARMS, GLOBAL PRIVACY REGULATION, AND ALGORITHMIC DECISION MAKING ARE MAJOR TOPICS DURING PRIVACY PAPERS FOR POLICYMAKERS EVENT

… Click the links below to read each of the winning papers, or read the 2021 PPPM Digest, which includes summaries of the papers and more information about the authors and judges.

Hope for the domestic front?

https://www.bespacific.com/how-biden-defeated-putins-ukraine-disinformation-campaign/

How Biden defeated Putin’s Ukraine disinformation campaign

Quartz: “…As Putin and his allies have claimed, falsely, that Ukraine is committing genocide, controlled by Nazis, developing nuclear weapons, or launching attacks on pro-Russian civilians, the US has worked to “prebunk” these narratives, Harding says, arguing that “the final accounting is going to show that the strategy made Russia’s life much harder.”

Our theory has been that putting true information into the public domain, which was bearing out in real time because everybody can see what they’re actually doing, was the best way to prevent the Russians and what they always do, which is to try to control the narrative with disinformation,” an anonymous US official told the New York Times …”

Lawyers picking targets?

https://federalnewsnetwork.com/defense-main/2022/02/military-legal-advisors-are-about-to-get-a-boost-from-artificial-intelligence/

Military legal advisors are about to get a boost from artificial intelligence

When the U.S. military actually uses force, it does so after getting legal advice from the Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps. To improve and speed up the assembly of that advice, the Air Force is looking to see if artificial intelligence can help. The Federal Drive with Tom Temin spoke to West Point law professor Hitoshi Nasu and Alex Heit, vice president of AI vendor VISIMO, to explain this initiative.

Interview transcript:

Tom Temin: And tell us, Professor, what it is we’re trying to solve here, what is the issue that artificial intelligence might come into play for the JAGs?

Hitoshi Nasu: So during the military operations for each targeting decision, JAG officers, the legal advisers for commanders, need to assimilate and assess a large amount of information. And sometimes they’re required to do so in a very constrained timeframe. So we are trying to develop the AI-based tool to help them so that they can focus their time on looking at the most pragmatic aspects of targeting information from this vast amount of information available to them.

Perspective. There may be hope for us yet.

https://phys.org/news/2022-02-reveals-strong-demand-open-access-science.html

Study reveals strong demand for open-access science

While a dominant narrative of American life paints a bleak picture of poorly informed internet partisans duking it out over a landscape denuded of anything resembling truth or reality, a new study from the Georgia Tech School of Public Policy offers a different take while also advancing the use of machine learning in the social sciences and an understanding of the importance of open-access, science-based information to everyday Americans.

The study, published Feb. 23, 2022, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), analyzed the reasons for 1.6 million downloads of National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) consensus reports, considered among the highest credibility science-based literature.

… They found that while nearly half of the reports were downloaded for academic purposes, even more were accessed by people outside strictly educational settings, such as veterans, chaplains, and writers. The word "edification" appeared 3,700 times in the data set, signaling a strong desire for lifelong learning among users.

"This study shows strong demand among everyday Americans for the highest quality information to help improve at their jobs, to help their relatives, neighbors, and communities, and in some cases simply to learn for learning's sake," said Hicks. "We never hear these stories because everyone is focusing on all the misinformation that goes out over social media."

Diversions.

https://www.makeuseof.com/free-video-streaming-services/

The 7 Best Free Video Streaming Services Everybody Should Use

Video streaming is a huge part of many people's lives these days, and there are plenty of free services available. Which are the best ones, though?

In modern wars, not everything goes “Boom!” Some things go silent. How long could you tolerate being unable to access online services? What if you bank was offline for a month?

https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/23/europe/ukraine-government-commercial-organizations-data-wiping-hack/index.html

Key Ukrainian government websites hit by series of cyberattacks

… The websites of the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers, and those of the ministries of foreign affairs, infrastructure, education and others, were experiencing disruptions.

In a separate and potentially more serious hacking incident hours earlier, a data-wiping tool was found on hundreds of computers in Ukraine, according to cybersecurity researchers, raising concerns that a destructive cyberattack was unfolding amid Russia's military escalation.

… US officials have warned that Russia will very likely use cyber operations in conjunction with military action in Ukraine. President Joe Biden said last month the US could respond with cyberoperations of its own if Russia conducts additional cyberattacks in Ukraine.

The website disruptions early Thursday in Ukraine followed news Wednesday afternoon of a cyberattack that temporarily knocked offline the websites of the Ukrainian parliament, Security Service and Cabinet of Ministers.

Perspective. Rather eye opening.

https://surfshark.com/cost-of-data-breaches

The Estimated Cost of the Most Expensive Data Breaches

… And the cost to the company that was breached? According to IBM, businesses face four substantial bills in the aftermath of a data hack:

• Detection and escalation. Including investigations and crisis management.

• Notification. Communicating with customers, regulators, and lawyers.

• Lost business. Downtime, dropped stock prices, lost customers, and damaged reputation.

• Post-breach response. Restoring and improving security, legal expenses, fines, and compensation.

To create their annual “Cost of Data Breach Study,” IBM applied activity-based costing to these four categories for thefts of up to 101,000 records. For larger ‘mega-breaches,’ IBM has used the algorithm-based Monte Carlo Simulation. This method has revealed that a breach of 50-65 million records costs a company $401 million on average.

… Key Findings

• The biggest data breach of the past two years was the Advanced Info Service (AIS) hack, which may have cost $58,103,238,250 ($58 billion) to resolve.

• America’s biggest data breach of the 2020s so far was at ‘big data’ analysis firm BlueKai, where two billion records were exposed at a potential cost of $13.94bn.

• The Microsoft leak in December 2019 may have cost as much as $1,742,500,000 to rectify.

Crooks are dishonest? Whoda thunk it?

https://www.databreaches.net/ransomware-extortion-doesnt-stop-after-paying-the-ransom/

Ransomware extortion doesn’t stop after paying the ransom

Who would have thought that criminals might lie? Where’s my shocked face?

Bill Toulas reports on findings from a survey by Venafi. Here is some of what they found:

• 83% of all ransomware victims who paid the requested amount were extorted again, twice, or even three times.

• 18% of victims who paid the ransom still had their data exposed on the dark web.

• 8% refused to pay the ransom, and the attackers tried to extort their customers.

• 35% of victims paid the ransom but were still unable to retrieve their data.

Read more at BleepingComputer.

How will they prosper using their current strategy?

https://www.insideprivacy.com/united-states/litigation/court-rejects-dismissal-of-illinois-biometric-information-privacy-act-against-clearview-ai-in-pending-multidistrict-litigation/

Court Rejects Dismissal of Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act Against Clearview AI in Pending Multidistrict Litigation

An Illinois federal district court recently rejected dismissal of Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”) claims in In re Clearview AI, Inc., Consumer Privacy Litigation, No. 21-cv-135 (N.D. Ill.). The Clearview plaintiffs alleged that Clearview violated their privacy rights without their knowledge and consent by scraping more than three billion photographs of facial images from the internet and using artificial intelligence algorithms on the images to harvest individuals’ unique facial biometric identifiers and corresponding biometric information. Clearview sought dismissal of the BIPA claims under the First Amendment, extraterritoriality doctrine, dormant commerce clause, and BIPA’s express exemption for photographs. The court rejected these grounds, and declined to dismiss the BIPA claims.

History, such as it is…

https://www.makeuseof.com/evolution-of-facebook/

The Evolution of Facebook: From 2004 to Meta

A resource?

https://www.theverge.com/22944579/crypto-bitcoin-internet-law-nft-tiktok-dances-tonya-evans-interview?scrolla=5eb6d68b7fedc32c19ef33b4

CAN THE LAW KEEP UP WITH CRYPTO?

… So, today, I’m talking to Tonya Evans, a law professor at Penn State Dickinson Law. She teaches IP law, copyright, and blockchain. She also hosts the Tech Intersect podcast,

[ https://techintersectpodcast.com/ ] where she covers how law and technology intersect She has spent a lot of time thinking about crypto assets and how they interact with the law. Tonya’s point of view is that we shouldn’t just abandon many of the legal frameworks we have today — she just wants them to adapt to this new internet.

Who controls the security? Often the abuser…

https://thenextweb.com/news/domestic-abusers-are-weaponizing-everyday-tech-and-theres-no-quick-fix

Domestic abusers are weaponizing everyday tech — and there’s no quick fix

Perpetrators of domestic abuse are increasingly exploiting digital tools to coerce and control their victims. Where there is abuse in a relationship, technology will also feature in how that abuse is conducted. Police forces now expect as much, when responding to cases of domestic abuse.

Such technological abuse features everyday tools, from smart devices to online platforms and mobile phone apps. And the information on where to find them and how to use them is easily accessible online, often using a simple Google search.

We found that abusers often have physical access to their partners’ devices and use them to monitor, harass and humiliate. Abusers can force their victims to disclose passwords, PIN codes or swipe patterns to get into their devices so they can install sypware – all without sophisticated tech knowledge.

Geolocation software and other surveillance spyware provide new possibilities for abusers to monitor and track victims’ movements. In our study, we found hundreds of tools online that could be used for these purposes.

Soon, every country but the US will have a Privacy law.

https://www.pogowasright.org/oman-data-protection-law-2022/

Oman Data Protection Law 2022

Oman has recently enacted a new personal data protection law, royal decree no 6/2022 (DP Law), to regulate the processing of personal data in the sultanate of Oman

The DP Law was issued on 9 February 2022 and will come into effect on 13 February 2023. The executive regulations (Regulations), which will clarify various elements of the DP Law, are yet to be released by the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology (Ministry). The Regulations are expected to be issued within this period (i.e. before February 2023).

Read more at Addleshaw Goddard.

(Related)

https://www.insideprivacy.com/united-states/federal-trade-commission/2021-trends-in-privacy-regulatory-enforcement-and-litigation/

2021 Trends in Privacy Regulatory Enforcement and Litigation

2021 was another busy year for data privacy regulatory enforcement and litigation. With some distance to reflect on last year, we have prepared this post identifying and describing important trends from 2021 that can help provide insight into what to expect in the data privacy landscape in 2022.

Like his real estate deals, “Vast promises, half-vast results.”

https://goodwordnews.com/trumps-social-truth-collapses-in-disastrous-launch-raising-doubts-about-long-term-viability/

Trump’s social truth collapses in disastrous launch, raising doubts about long-term viability

The site had been heralded for months as the crown jewel of Trump’s post-presidential business ambitions, with allies promising it would revolutionize social media and eliminate traditional social networks where Trump is banned.

But early glimpses of Truth Social suggest its offerings are nearly identical to what Twitter and other sites have been offering for years — except tweets are called “Truths” and retweets are called “ReTruths.”

… “The basic thing they needed to be successful in getting someone in the door, they couldn’t achieve,” said privacy researcher Bill Fitzgerald. “The ineptitude of the deployment,” he added, could be a warning of future problems to come: “There is no better sign of a rushed implementation than the fact that you cannot embark person. So I find it hard to understand why anyone would want to believe that these people would keep their information safe.

The site’s problems go beyond its waiting list: its logo — a broken capital “T” with a dot — is identical to the logo of Trailar, a British seller of solar panels for trucks. A company executive told the Washington Post that he was “seeking legal advice to understand the next steps and options available to protect our brand.”

… The site’s terms of service also show it’s designed to benefit from Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which Trump says should be “completely terminated” because it protects tech companies from lawsuits. for what their users post.

Worth trying?

https://techcrunch.com/2022/02/22/semi-technologies-search-engine-data/

SeMI Technologies’ search engine opens up new ways to query your data

Companies sit on a lot of unstructured data and often don’t have the capabilities to get much out of it.

Now imagine having a way to store data and actually be able to ask it questions, for example, “When did ABC Company sign its first contract with us?” or “Show me videos that contain blue skies.”

That is what SeMI Technologies is building with Weaviate, a vector search engine

… SeMI’s goal is to commoditize this technology and has an open source business model so that anyone can use it.

Van Luijt gave my colleague, Alex Wilhelm, a look under the hood of the technology last year by creating a semantic search engine that does question-answering on 2021 Techcrunch articles.

Tools & Techniques.

https://www.freetech4teachers.com/2022/02/what-is-sub-image-search-and-why-would.html

What is Sub-image Search? - And Why Would Your Students Would Use It?

Sub-image search is one of the search strategies that I use a lot when trying to find out what an unfamiliar object is. I've used it to identify some old farm equipment, to find the origins of some flea market pottery, and to identify types of plants whose names I don't know. It's that last example that I share in my course on Search Strategies Students Need to Know.

Simply put, sub-image search is the process of cropping an image to focus on just the most important part and then conducting a reverse image search for that cropped image. Cropping the image removes any extraneous information that isn't helpful in the reverse image process. For example an example of sub-image search, watch this new video that I made. In the video below I provide a demonstration of what happens when I conduct a reverse image search of mushroom surrounded by brown leaves and what happens when I conduct a reverse image search of the cropped version of that same image.

Getting the attention of your Board of Directors keeps getting easier.

https://www.cpomagazine.com/cyber-security/potential-board-liability-for-cybersecurity-failures-under-caremark-law/

Potential Board Liability for Cybersecurity Failures Under Caremark Law

Cybersecurity is now among the most critical risk-areas for companies across industries, and boards of directors must be vigilant in overseeing their companies’ cybersecurity efforts. Failing to do so not only increases risks for the company, but may also expose board members to personal liability. Developments in Delaware’s Caremark doctrine for breaches of fiduciary duty have paved a narrow path for plaintiffs to hold directors liable for failing to adequately address and oversee their company’s cybersecurity and data privacy risks.

… The Court’s 1996 landmark decision in Caremark established a legal framework for holding directors personally liable for breaching the duty of loyalty when the directors fail to “appropriately monitor and supervise the enterprise.” Under Caremark, directors may be liable in two distinct contexts: (1) “a board decision that results in a loss because that decision was ill advised or ‘negligent,’” or (2) “an unconsidered failure of the board to act in circumstances in which due attention would, arguably, have prevented the loss.” For liability to attach under the Caremark theory, the board must have entirely failed to provide any reasonable oversight in a “sustained and systematic fashion,” or the information reporting system on which the board relied must be deemed an “utter failure.”

… In 2019, the Delaware Supreme Court issued a noteworthy decision concerning the Caremark standard. Marchand v. Barnhill involved a board’s alleged failure to oversee the company’s food manufacturing and safety procedures. The company, an American ice cream manufacturer regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, conducted a product recall after a listeria outbreak connected to its products resulted in three deaths. The product recall and related plant shutdowns translated into a monetary loss for investors. Plaintiffs brought a Caremark action against the company’s directors, alleging that the board failed to oversee the company’s food safety procedures. On appeal, the Court reversed the Chancery Court’s dismissal of the Caremark claim and allowed the case to proceed against the directors. The key allegations that the Court focused on in its decision to allow the claim to proceed included: (1) the non-existence of a board committee that addressed food safety; (2) the lack of reports and/or procedures requiring management to keep the board apprised of food safety compliance practices; (3) lack of evidence that “red” or “yellow” flags related to the outbreak and contained in management reports were disclosed to the board; (4) the fact that the board was presented with favorable information about food safety but not advised of negative reports that existed; and (5) board meetings lacked any regular discussions of food safety issues.

A step toward autonomous weapons? Armed drones can find threats autonomously, but require humans to release the weapons.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/21/us-navy-plans-launch-of-middle-east-drone-force-with-allies

US Navy plans launch of Middle East drone force with allies

The United States Navy has announced the launch of a new joint fleet of unmanned drones in the Middle East with allied nations to patrol vast swaths of volatile waters as tensions simmer with Iran.

Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, who leads the 5th Fleet, said 100 unmanned drones, both sailing and submersible, would dramatically multiply the surveillance capacities of the US Navy, allowing it to keep a close eye on waters critical to the flow of global oil and shipping. Trade at sea has been targeted in recent years as Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers collapsed.

… As Yemen’s seven-year-old civil war grinds on, the Iran-backed Houthi rebels have dispatched bomb-laden drone boats towards Saudi waters that have damaged vessels and oil facilities.

“What the Houthis are doing, it is an entirely completely different operation that’s offensively oriented,” Cooper said. “What we are doing is inherently defensively oriented.”

Why you really need an upgrade strategy.

https://www.axios.com/att-3g-sunset-wireless-disrupt-devices-728228cf-e15e-48b4-9896-d32dfd93e0ce.html

Ending 3G service sparks fears of an "alarmaggedon"

AT&T's planned shutdown of its 3G network Tuesday has sparked fears that home security systems, medical alert monitors and a range of other devices will stop working.

… AT&T says phone coverage will not be affected, but it's not just phones that use the company's 3G network.

• 3G-connected cars — including some that are only a few years old — may require software or hardware upgrades, or could lose automatic crash notifications and other features entirely.

• As much as 10% of all public school buses across the country will lose GPS and communications services, according to a filing from AASA, The School Superintendents Association.

• San Francisco warned bus riders that more than 650 prediction display systems at bus shelters that rely on AT&T's 3G service will stop displaying real-time information.

Someone is unsure of their own gender? Who is liable if the school gets it wrong?

https://www.pogowasright.org/amendment-to-floridas-dont-say-gay-bill-would-force-schools-to-out-students-in-6-weeks/

Amendment to Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill would force schools to out students in 6 weeks

This will get some children beat up, killed, or driven to suicide.

Sam Sachs reports:

A new amendment to Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill would explicitly require schools to inform parents of their child’s sexual orientation, and put a deadline on how soon they must tell the family.

The amendment filed by bill sponsor Rep. Joe Harding, R-Williston, on Feb. 18 changes the bill to instead not only require disclosure, but requires schools to tell parents within six weeks of learning the student is any sexual orientation other than straight.

Read more at WFLA.

Will AI eventually be able to copyright? My AI says yes. If we have a “first encounter” with beings from another planet, can I steal their technology because they (as non-humans) can’t patent or copyright their tech?

https://www.engadget.com/us-copyright-office-art-ai-creativity-machine-190722809.html

You can’t copyright AI-created art, according to US officials

The US Copyright Office has once again denied an effort to copyright a work of art that was created by an artificial intelligence system. Dr. Stephen Thaler attempted to copyright a piece of art titled A Recent Entrance to Paradise, claiming in a second request for reconsideration of a 2019 ruling that the USCO's “human authorship” requirement was unconstitutional.

In its latest ruling, which was spotted by The Verge, the agency accepted that the work was created by an AI, which Thaler calls the Creativity Machine. Thaler applied to register the work as "as a work-for-hire to the owner of the Creativity Machine.”

However, the office said that current copyright law only offers protections to "the fruits of intellectual labor” that “are founded in the creative powers of the [human] mind.” As such, a copyrighted work "must be created by a human being” and the office says it won't register works “produced by a machine or mere mechanical process” that lack intervention or creative input from a human author.

The agency said Thaler failed to provide evidence that A Recent Entrance to Paradise is the result of human authorship. It also stated he was unable to convince the USCO's "to depart from a century of copyright jurisprudence" — in other words, to change the rules.