This (very brief) article sounds to me like a practice terror attack.  Without details, how do we tell the difference?  They can’t take off but landing is no problem?  Don’t they communicate with planes attempting to land? 

http://in.reuters.com/article/sweden-airport-idINS3N15W01G

Planes grounded at Stockholm airports due to communication problem

No planes are allowed to take off from Stockholm airports and those in the air are being called down due to a network communication problem, the Air Traffic Authority said on Thursday.

"No planes are allowed to take off at the moment and we're taking down the planes in the air," said spokesman Per Froberg. "It's a network communications problem."

He declined to give further details.

Why do you think I’m teaching two sections of Computer Security every quarter?

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-finance-summit-sec-idUSKCN0Y82K4

SEC says cyber security biggest risk to financial system

Cyber security is the biggest risk facing the financial system, the chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on Tuesday, in one of the frankest assessments yet of the threat to Wall Street from digital attacks.

Banks around the world have been rattled by a $81 million cyber theft from the Bangladesh central bank that was funneled through SWIFT, a member-owned industry cooperative that handles the bulk of cross-border payment instructions between banks.

The SEC, which regulates securities markets, has found some major exchanges, dark pools and clearing houses did not have cyber policies in place that matched the sort of risks they faced, SEC Chair Mary Jo White told the Reuters Financial Regulation Summit in Washington D.C.

The speed with which the industry is adopting encryption has accelerated since the FBI started pushing for access and demanding backdoors.  Bad strategy, FBI. 

http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/280422-new-google-messaging-app-to-offer-optional-end-to-end-encryption

New Google messaging app to offer optional end-to-end encryption

Google on Wednesday announced that its new messaging service, Allo, will offer end-to-end encryption.

That means that not even Google will be able to access the content of users’ messages, a position that echoes the robust privacy posture of Apple’s iMessage and Facebook’s WhatsApp.

In fact, Allo will use the same encryption protocol that WhatsApp uses — as well as the private messaging app Signal.

Looking at this as an IT manager, this is almost impossible to believe.  You would have to make a real effort to eliminate all copies and then the original.

Looking at this as political a** covering, it was the plan from the beginning.

http://www.bespacific.com/49221-2/

CIA allegedly destroyed sole copy of Senate torture report

by Sabrina I. Pacifici on May 18, 2016

The Independent: “The CIA inspector general’s office has said it “mistakenly” destroyed its only copy of a comprehensive Senate torture report, despite lawyers for the Justice Department assuring a federal judge that copies of the documents were being preserved.  The erasure of the document by the spy agency’s internal watchdog was deemed an “inadvertent” foul-up by the inspector general, according to Yahoo News.  One intelligence community source told Yahoo News, which first reported the development, that last summer CIA inspector general officials deleted an uploaded computer file with the report and then accidentally destroyed a disk that also contained the document.  The 6,700-page report contains thousands of secret files about the CIA’s use of “enhanced” interrogation methods, including waterboarding, sleep deprivation and other aggressive interrogation techniques at “black site” prisons overseas.  The full version of the report remains classified, but a 500-page executive summary was released to the public in 2014…”

Local. 

Schools are now ‘soft targets’ for companies to collect data and market to kids — report

Valerie Strauss reports:

Schools have become “soft targets” for companies trying to gather data and market to children because of the push in education to adopt new technology and in part because of the rise of computer-administered Common Core tests, according to a new annual report. 

The report, titled “Learning to be Watched: Surveillance Culture at School” and published Tuesday by the National Center for Education Policy at the University of Colorado at Boulder, is the 18th annual report about schoolhouse commercialism trends.

Read more on Washington Post.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/05/17/schools-are-now-soft-targets-for-companies-to-collect-data-and-market-to-kids-report/

Think of it as a license plate reader for your face.  I’m surprised that Facebook hasn’t already released one here.  (I bet the FBI already has one that works on multiple social networks.) 

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/may/17/findface-face-recognition-app-end-public-anonymity-vkontakte

Face recognition app taking Russia by storm may bring end to public anonymity

If the founders of a new face recognition app get their way, anonymity in public could soon be a thing of the past.  FindFace, launched two months ago and currently taking Russia by storm, allows users to photograph people in a crowd and work out their identities, with 70% reliability.

It works by comparing photographs to profile pictures on Vkontakte, a social network popular in Russia and the former Soviet Union, with more than 200 million accounts.  In future, the designers imagine a world where people walking past you on the street could find your social network profile by sneaking a photograph of you, and shops, advertisers and the police could pick your face out of crowds and track you down via social networks.  

…   Unlike other face recognition technology, their algorithm allows quick searches in big data sets.  “Three million searches in a database of nearly 1bn photographs: that’s hundreds of trillions of comparisons, and all on four normal servers.  With this algorithm, you can search through a billion photographs in less than a second from a normal computer,” said Kabakov, during an interview at the company’s modest central Moscow office.  The app will give you the most likely match to the face that is uploaded, as well as 10 people it thinks look similar.

Perspective.  Is this because Uber and Lyft are so good or because traditional taxis are so bad?

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-uber-public-opinion-20160518-snap-story.html

Uber and Lyft have built loyal following, survey finds

Americans who use ride-hailing apps believe the services are a positive force in the economy, and they should not be regulated like traditional taxis, according to a survey conducted by an independent research group.

The survey, released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center, suggests that companies operating in the sharing economy have created a loyal following among the relatively small slice of Americans who do business with them.

http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/05/19/the-new-digital-economy/

Re-architecting a legacy business model.

http://www.networkworld.com/article/3071340/internet-of-things/john-deere-is-plowing-iot-into-its-farm-equipment.html?google_editors_picks=true

John Deere is plowing IoT into its farm equipment

John Deere is taking the Internet of Things out into the field by developing new technologies and embracing existing ones to boost the efficiency of prepping, planting, feeding and harvesting with the goal of improving per-acre crop yields.

These technologies include IoT sensors, wireless communications, cloud apps and even a steering-wheel replacement that guides precision passes across arable land, says Ron Zink, director of On-Board Applications in the company’s Intelligent Solutions Group.

…   For example, iPads are a part of John Deere’s technology arsenal.  The company created an iPad app with nine mapping layers that track what’s happening in the field.  Users can set, for example, how many seeds are planted per acre, and precisely how far apart they are planted.

One mapping layer called singulation shows a groups of up to 10 seeds (the number distributed in 20 millisec) and shows on the iPad exactly where they are located and whether they are spaced properly, seed-by-seed, he says.

I see some very interesting homework in my student’s future. 

http://www.labnol.org/internet/create-video-presentations/29141/

Make Stunning Video Presentations with Spark Video from Adobe

…   All you have to do import your photos, type some text, add your own voice narration and a stunning video is ready for uploading on to YouTube or Facebook.

…   Adobe has quietly launched a new suite of web apps that, among other things, will let you use Adobe Voice inside your desktop browser. The suite, known as Adobe Spark, includes tools for creating video stories, magazine-style web pages and typography posters (think of Typorama but for the web).

And the price is just right. $0.

To get started, go to spark.adobe.com and sign-in with your Facebook or Google Account.  This is mandatory because all your work will be auto-saved under this account and will also be accessible on your iPad and iPhone.

I’ve heard of one of those.

http://www.javaworld.com/article/3071623/salary/want-to-boost-your-salary-learn-scala-golang-or-python.html?google_editors_picks=true

Want to boost your salary? Learn Scala, Golang, or Python

…   PayScale used its pay-tracking database to determine which job skills provide the largest average boost in pay, and presented the results in its 2016 Workforce-Skills Preparedness Report, "Leveling Up: How to Win in the Skills Economy."

“Well of course I locked the barn door.  Then I carefully hung the key right there next to the lock.  And yet, someone stole all my horses!”

NC: Stolen Blue Ridge Surgery Center laptop was encrypted, but password was with it

Blue Ridge Surgery Center, an affiliate of Surgical Care Affiliates, has posted a breach notification to patients:

On March 17, 2016, BRSC learned that an employee’s encrypted work laptop had been stolen during a break-in at the employee’s residence that same day.  The employee reported the theft to law enforcement and we immediately began our own investigation.  Our investigation determined that the password was with the laptop at the time of the theft, and the laptop contained email files that may have included patients’ names, addresses, treatment information and health insurers’ names, identification numbers and in some instances, Social Security numbers.

We deeply regret any inconvenience this may cause our patients.  To help prevent something like this from happening in the future, we have re-enforced training with all of our employees regarding securing passwords.

The incident is not yet up on HHS’s public breach tool and the total number affected has not yet been disclosed.

But how frustrating – to remember to deploy encryption and then to leave the password with the device.  Of course, we don’t know if the level of encryption was sufficient to offer any safe harbor under state laws or HITECH (and a risk assessment would still need to be conducted), but yeah, re-train employees regularly….

What really happen here?  Was the teacher “hacked” or did the student find or guess her password?  

AZ: Gilbert Public Schools email hacked by junior high school student

AP reports:

A junior high school student reportedly hacked into the email system of Gilbert Public Schools and sent inappropriate messages to other students.

District officials said the Highland Junior High student got access to the teacher’s login information and emailed messages to other students over the weekend.

Read more on The Arizona Republic.

And the FBI was called in…… why?  Well, it turns out that the student reportedly sent x-rated images (aka porn).

[From the Arizona Republic article: 

I have reported the crime to the Mesa Police Department and also the FBI since they are the ones who handle all internet fraud.

Have you been using LinkedIn for four or five years?  

117 Million LinkedIn Emails And Passwords up for sale

Lorenzo Franceschai-Bicchierai reports:

A hacker is trying to sell the account information, including emails and passwords, of 117 million LinkedIn users.

The hacker, who goes by the name “Peace,” told Motherboard that the data was stolen during the LinkedIn breach of 2012.  At the time, only around 6.5 million encrypted passwords were posted online, and LinkedIn never clarified how many users were affected by that breach.

Turns out it was much worse than anybody thought.

[…]

Both Peace and the one of the people behind LeakedSource said that there are 167 million accounts in the hacked database.  Of those, around 117 million have both emails and encrypted passwords.

Read more on Motherboard.

…for targeting missiles? 

http://www.bespacific.com/mit-oxford-researchers-document-availability-twitter-user-location-data/

MIT and Oxford researchers document availability of Twitter user location data

by Sabrina I. Pacifici on May 17, 2016

Larry Hardesty, MIT News Office May 17, 2016: “Researchers at MIT and Oxford University have shown that the location stamps on just a handful of Twitter posts — as few as eight over the course of a single day — can be enough to disclose the addresses of the poster’s home and workplace to a relatively low-tech snooper.  The tweets themselves might be otherwise innocuous — links to funny videos, say, or comments on the news.  The location information comes from geographic coordinates automatically associated with the tweets.  Twitter’s location-reporting service is off by default, but many Twitter users choose to activate it.  The new study is part of a more general project at MIT’s Internet Policy Research Initiative to help raise awareness about just how much privacy people may be giving up when they use social media.”

·         Note – please see https://twitter.com/settings/security to manage settings and privacy.

Speaking of targeting missiles…

https://hbr.org/2016/05/when-to-trust-robots-with-decisions-and-when-not-to

When to Trust Robots with Decisions, and When Not To

Because we need more devices listening to everything we say? 

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/18/technology/google-to-introduce-its-voice-activated-home-device.html?_r=0

Google to Introduce Its Voice-Activated Home Device

Google will introduce its much-anticipated entry into the voice-activated home device market on Wednesday, according to people who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Named Google Home, the device is a virtual agent that answers simple questions and carries out basic tasks.  It is to be announced at Google’s annual developers’ conference in Silicon Valley.

Thinking about IT Architecture

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/05/smartphones-take-over/482880/?utm_source=feed

Smartphones Rule the Internet

…   In 2014, by several measures, total mobile Internet usage outpaced desktop Internet access.  In Africa and Asia, people of all ages call smartphones—not laptops—the most important device they use to go online, according to a GlobalWebIndex survey last year.  Worldwide, most people under age 34 say the same thing.

A look at the web’s most popular sites is similarly telling.  More than half of Facebook’s roughly 1.7 billion monthly users visit the site exclusively from their smartphones—that’s 894 million mobile-only users each month, up from 581 million such users last year and 341 million mobile-only users in 2014, according to the company’s latest earnings report.

Google confirmed last year that more searches come from mobile devices than computers in 10 countries, including the United States.  Over the holiday season, Amazon said more than 60 percent of shoppers used mobile.  And Wikipedia, which recently revamped the way it tracks site traffic, says it’s getting more mobile than desktop visits to its English language site.

…   Last month, the audience-tracking firm Nielsen found that smartphones are the most-used medium in the United States—beating out television, radio, and desktops, even though more Americans own TVs and radios than smartphones.

“Consumers carry their phones everywhere,” said Glenn Enoch, a vice president at Nielsen, in a statement about the findings.  “High penetration plus portability and customized functionality have made them a staple of consumers’ media diet.”

(Related)  Not “feature phones”

http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/18/11699660/microsoft-foxconn-feature-phone-sale

Microsoft is selling its feature phone business to Foxconn for $350 million

Microsoft is selling its feature phone business to FIH Mobile, a subsidiary of Foxconn, for $350 million.

…   Nokia is now planning to license its brand to a newly created company called HMD global, which will produce and sell a range of Android smartphones and tablets.

This deal will only affect Microsoft's feature phone business, which is currently still using the Nokia brand for basic phones.  Microsoft says it will continue to develop Windows 10 Mobile and support Lumia phones and Windows Phone devices from partners like Acer, Alcatel, HP, Trinity and VAIO.

Telling my students where to go?

http://www.bespacific.com/cyberstates-2016-report/

Cyberstates 2016 Report

by Sabrina I. Pacifici on May 17, 2016

“CompTIA’s 17th annual Cyberstates is the definitive source for state-by-state analysis of the U.S. information technology industry and the tech workforce.  The report quantifies the size and scope of the tech sector and tech occupations across multiple vectors, while providing context with time-series trending, economic impact, average wages, business establishment analysis, IT jobs postings, career opportunities, gender ratios, tech patents, and more.  Moreover, Cyberstates helps to connect the dots with emerging trends.  Cloud computing, big data, automation, IoT, cybersecurity, and social technologies will continue to reshape businesses large and small, driving innovation and digital business transformation across the U.S. economy.  As with any sector-level report, there are varying interpretations of what constitutes the tech sector and the tech workforce.  Some of this variance may be attributed to the objectives of the author.  Is the goal to depict the broadest possible representation of STEM and digital economy fields, or a more narrowly defined technology subset?  Is the goal to capture all possible knowledge workers, or a more narrowly defined technology subset?  For the purposes of this report, CompTIA focuses on the more narrowly defined technology subset.  See the methodology section for details of the specific NAICS codes and SOC codes CompTIA uses in its definitions of the tech sector and the tech workforce.”

I suspect we could build a non-profit here that gave free training to the survivors of the initial challenge.  Would graduates of a program like that be just what employers want?

http://techcrunch.com/2016/05/17/coding-school-42-plans-to-educate-10000-students-in-silicon-valley-for-free/

Coding school 42 plans to educate 10,000 students in Silicon Valley for free

…   42 welcomes all students between 18 and 30. After filling out your online application, the real challenge starts.  The 42 team has created a computer science version of the Hunger Games.  They call it the swimming pool because they want to see if you can swim by throwing you into the figurative pool.  You and 1,000 others students face the same coding and logic challenges.

You only have 4 weeks, and you can code from Monday to Sunday, day and night.  After these insanely intensive 4 weeks, the best students get to study at 42.

Not sure why I should run out and buy one.

http://www.pcmag.com/news/344543/researchers-unveil-phone-that-morphs-like-a-rubix-cube

Researchers Unveil Phone That Morphs Like a Rubix Cube

…   a team made up of researchers from Purdue and three English universities may have just developed the world's first Rubix Cube smartphone.  Dubbed "Cubimorph," the device has OLED touchscreens on each of its six faces and uses a hinge-mounted turntable mechanism to self-reconfigure in the user's hand.

Like a Rubix Cube, its faces are permanently connected so you can't lose one.  The reconfiguration process is automatic thanks to the motorized turntables, which receive instructions from a computer running algorithms to determine how best to configure the faces based on what the user wants to do.

The idea behind the morphable prototype is to create what its designers call "programmable matter."  The concept is similar to 3D printing, except instead of printing what you need, you shape your existing device into a form factor that can accomplish the task.

Perhaps an 8X10 foot poster in the library? 

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/learn-how-to-use-the-confusing-apostrophe-with-this-quick-guide/

Learn How to Use The Confusing Apostrophe With this Quick Guide

In English, theres no more confusing (and useful) punctuation mark than the apostrophe.  It let’s us shorten words.  It let’s us show ownership . It even let’s us look stupid.  Wait what?

Perhaps I should have looked at the guide below before I wrote this post, as a matter of fact…  How many incorrect (or missing) apostrophe’s can you spot in this post?

Via thevisualcommunicationguy

That’s some escalation!  One small bank to an entire country.  What’s next? 

http://www.securityweek.com/vietnams-tien-phong-bank-victim-swift-based-attack

Vietnam's Tien Phong Bank Victim of SWIFT-based Attack

Hanoi-based Tien Phong Bank (TPBank) released a statement late on Sunday saying that it had interrupted the attempted theft of approximately $1.1 million via fraudulent SWIFT messages.  It would appear that the statement was in response to inquiries from Reuters, following clues in BAE System's Cyber Heist Attribution report published late last week.

BAE Systems said that it knew of a second attempted SWIFT fraud on a commercial bank in Vietnam using techniques similar to those used in the successful theft of $81 million from the Bangladesh Central Bank.  BAE Systems conjectured that it was the same gang behind both attacks. 

…   According to Reuters, TPBank recognized suspicious SWIFT messages attempting to transfer $1.1 million and was able to prevent any loss by immediately contacting all involved parties.

…   What isn't yet clear is whether TPBank discovered the attack independently or was warned by either BAE Systems or SWIFT.  The published timings, however, suggest it was independent.  Its own attack was towards the end of 2015, while the attack on the Bangladesh central bank and its disclosure happened in February 2016.

Apparently not much security to get past.  I wonder if this was the weakest link, or merely the most obvious?

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-16/ukranian-hacker-admits-stealing-pr-newswire-press-releases

Ukranian Hacker Admits Stealing PR Newswire Press Releases

A Ukranian hacker pleaded guilty to stealing unpublished news releases that helped a criminal network make $30 million by trading on nonpublic information about corporate earnings.

…   Prosecutors said that from February 2010 to November 2014, the hackers broke into computer networks at the three companies and stole draft releases that they shared with others who made stock trades in advance of the public dissemination of the corporate earnings.  The hackers periodically moved among servers at the three companies as they were discovered and lost access to the releases.

Curious?

http://www.bespacific.com/intercept-announces-greater-access-snowden-archive/

The Intercept announces greater access to Snowden archive

by Sabrina I. Pacifici on May 16, 2016

Via The Intercept: The Intercept Is Broadening Access to the Snowden Archive. Here’s Why – “Today, The Intercept is announcing two innovations in how we report on and publish these materials.  Both measures are designed to ensure that reporting on the archive continues in as expeditious and informative a manner as possible, in accordance with the agreements we entered into with our source about how these materials would be disclosed, a framework that he, and we, have publicly described on numerous occasions.

“SIDtoday is the internal newsletter for the NSA’s most important division, the Signals Intelligence Directorate.  After editorial review, The Intercept is releasing nine years’ worth of newsletters in batches, starting with 2003.  The agency’s spies explain a surprising amount about what they were doing, how they were doing it, and why.”

Never in the history of the world have males entering puberty ever found the female of the species interesting enough to snap pictures of…  Sure, that’s why the most popular site in the world is named “go ogle”

IA: ‘Degrading’ blog features students’ backsides

Maybe it’s just selective attention, but it seems that there are more reports coming out of  students taking problematic pictures of other students in public spaces of schools.  In today’s news, Ryan Smith reports on a situation in Des Moines, Iowa:

Polk County authorities are investigating a scandalous blog featuring the backsides of multiple girls at Saydel High School.

School officials alerted the girls Thursday that their pictures showed up on a Tumblr page.

The school’s response does not sound as supportive of the victims as the students and their parents might hope:

Most of the pics show close ups of girls’ backsides in yoga pants.  Some victims contacted KCCI upset that school officials had responded by criticizing their choice in clothing.

“Instead of putting blame where it should be, which is this little boy being a pervert, they are shaming little girls into thinking it’s their fault for wearing yoga pants,” said Dhabolt.

The district does not agree with the characterization of their response as unsupportive.

Read more on KCCI.

Do you think the district should handle this in-house as a student disciplinary issue, or do you think law enforcement should be involved?  I vote for the former approach (in-house).

Somehow the “security by design” team missed this?

Database mix-up let some smart doorbell users see video from others’ homes

Graham Cluley reports:

A mix-up involving two databases allowed some users of a popular smart doorbell to view live footage from complete strangers’ front porches.

Earlier this month, Android Central began receiving reports from some Ring Doorbell Pro users that they could view video feeds that were not attached to their houses.

Read more on GrahamCluley.com.

Is “refusing to decrypt” a crime?  Is he doing it at the advice of his lawyer?  Should lawyers advise anyone in similar circumstances to comply with a decrypt order?  

Indefinite prison for suspect who won’t decrypt hard drives, feds say

David Kravets reports:

US federal prosecutors urged a federal appeals court late Monday to keep a child-porn suspect behind bars—where he already has been for seven months—until he unlocks two hard drives that the government claims contain kid smut.

The suspect, a Philadelphia police sergeant relieved of his duties, has refused to unlock two hard drives and has been in jail ever since a judge’s order seven months ago—and after being found in contempt of court.  The defendant can remain locked up until a judge lifts the contempt order.

[….]

The suspect has not been charged with any child-porn related crimes, yet he is imprisoned in Philadelphia’s Federal Detention Center for refusing to decrypt two drives encrypted with Apple’s FileVault software in a case that highlights the federal government’s war on encryption.  A federal magistrate has ordered him imprisoned “until such time that he fully complies” with the decryption order.  The man’s attorney, Federal Public Defender Keith Donoghue, is demanding that the appeals court immediately release his client from prison because he is being “held without charges.” (PDF)

Read more on Ars Technica.

What would happen if China did not understand the technology or just didn’t like it?  Would we ever see these “executives” again?

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/17/technology/china-quietly-targets-us-tech-companies-in-security-reviews.html?_r=0

China Quietly Targets U.S. Tech Companies in Security Reviews

Chinese authorities are quietly scrutinizing technology products sold in China by Apple and other big foreign companies, focusing on whether they pose potential security threats to the country and its consumers and opening up a new front in an already tense relationship with Washington over digital security.

Apple and other companies in recent months have been subjected to reviews that target encryption and the data storage of tech products, said people briefed on the reviews who spoke on the condition of anonymity.  In the reviews, Chinese officials require executives or employees of the foreign tech companies to answer questions about the products in person, according to these people.

Now who would expect privacy at a bus stop.  (Me, for one) 

Hidden Microphones Exposed As Part of Government Surveillance Program In The Bay Area

Jackie Ward reports:

 Hidden microphones that are part of a clandestine government surveillance program that has been operating around the Bay Area has been exposed.

Imagine standing at a bus stop, talking to your friend and having your conversation recorded without you knowing.   It happens all the time, and the FBI doesn’t even need a warrant to do it.

Federal agents are planting microphones to secretly record conversations.

Jeff Harp, a KPIX 5 security analyst and former FBI special agent said, “They put microphones under rocks, they put microphones in trees, they plant microphones in equipment.  I mean, there’s microphones that are planted in places that people don’t think about, because that’s the intent!”

FBI agents hid microphones inside light fixtures and at a bus stop outside the Oakland Courthouse without a warrant to record conversations, between March 2010 and January 2011.

Federal authorities are trying to prove real estate investors in San Mateo and Alameda counties are guilty of bid rigging and fraud and used these recordings as evidence.

Read more on CBS. See also East Bay Express and Network World.

This is what I told my Computer Security class when we talked about encryption.

Stanford computer scientists show telephone metadata can reveal surprisingly sensitive personal information

Bjorn Carey of Stanford University writes:

Most people might not give telephone metadata – the numbers you dial, the length of your calls – a second thought.  Some government officials probably view it as similarly trivial, which is why this information can be obtained without a warrant.

But a new analysis by Stanford computer scientists shows that it is possible to identify a person’s private information – such as health details – from metadata alone.  Additionally, following metadata “hops” from one person’s communications can involve thousands of other people.

…   The findings, reported today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provide the first empirical data on the privacy properties of telephone metadata.

…   One of the government’s justifications for allowing law enforcement and national security agencies to access metadata without warrants is the underlying belief that it’s not sensitive information.  This work shows that assumption is not true.

…   The study, “Evaluating the privacy properties of telephone metadata”

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/05/10/1508081113.abstract

http://www.pnas.org/content/suppl/2016/05/11/1508081113.DCSupplemental

Perspective.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/3071636/software/firefoxs-market-share-is-bigger-than-that-of-all-microsofts-browsers-combined.html

Firefox’s market share is bigger than all Microsoft’s browsers combined

Firefox now has more desktop users than both Microsoft’s web browsers combined—but it’s a rivalry that is increasingly irrelevant as Google Chrome has almost twice the share of Firefox and Microsoft together.

The latest figures from Statcounter show that Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer combined had a 15.5 percent share of worldwide desktop browser usage in April, a decline from 15.8 percent in March.

…   Firefox’s share was just ahead of Microsoft’s, at 15.6 percent—but only by virtue of having declined more slowly, from 15.7 percent in March.

Chrome’s share just keeps on climbing, to 60.5 percent in April from 60.1 percent in March.

The only thing wrong with what politicians say is that they insist on saying it out loud.

http://www.citywatchla.com/index.php/world-views/11107-dust-up-in-west-virginia-about-economic-justice

Dust-up in West Virginia about Economic Justice

Politicians have a knack for making some of the dumbest statements. Hillary Clinton not only made one, but chose the worst place to utter it. 

Saying, “...we’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business…” in a state that mines 10% of the nation’s output of the fossil fuel seems comparable to some of Donald Trump’s many foot-in-mouthisms. 

The statement was taken out of context – Clinton did indicate her administration would help prepare coal miners for different careers – but specific solutions were neither offered nor alluded to beyond unspecified retraining. 

This technology is ready.  Is the insurance industry, law enforcement, etc. ready?

https://backchannel.com/the-man-who-built-googles-first-self-driving-car-is-now-a-trucker-aa1726d3a36f

The Man Who Built Google’s First Self-Driving Car Is Now a Trucker

…   The nation’s highways are slowly filling up with intelligent trucks. Silicon Valley start-up Peloton has carried out tens of thousands of miles of tests of its efficient platooning technologies in Texas and Utah, while Daimler has been conducting trials of semi-autonomous trucks in Nevada.

Otto, which came out of stealth today, is less interested in brand new trucks than in the estimated 4.3m big rigs already on American roads.  Otto has already bought and retro-fitted three Volvo cabs with lidar, radar and cameras, and driven a handful of fully autonomous miles — without even a safety driver — on the highways of Nevada.

(Related)  See cartoon number three for one more potential issue with self-driving cars.

https://hbr.org/2016/05/strategic-humor-cartoons-from-the-june-2016-issue

Another “Sin Tax,” like the revenue from casinos and lottery.  I have no doubt most states will follow the money.

http://www.kdrv.com/news/Study_Shows_that_States_are_Losing_Billions_by_Not_Legalizing_Marijuana.html

Study Shows that States are Losing Billions by Not Legalizing Marijuana

A new study says federal and state governments are missing out on 28 billion dollars by not legalizing marijuana.

The study comes from the “Tax Foundation,” an independent think tank.

Experts say most of that revenue would be from tax on pot.

Critics worry legalizing marijuana could lead to more drug abuse and addiction.

But experts at the Tax Foundation say people who abuse marijuana do so regardless of whether or not it's legal.

http://taxfoundation.org/article/marijuana-legalization-and-taxes-federal-revenue-impact

Tools when I need them.

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2016/05/great-tools-for-creating-screencasts.html

Great Tools for Creating Screencasts - A PDF Handout

This could be valuable.  I’ll never miss the deadline to apply for tickets to the Great American Beer Festival again!

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-awesome-event-calendars-always-know-whats-coming/

5 Awesome Event Calendars to Always Know What’s Coming Up

…   A few event-tracking calendars will keep you updated about what’s happening across various topics.  For example, knowing when the next episode is out can help you avoid Game of Thrones spoilers.

A new toy for my geeky friends.

http://hothardware.com/news/raspberry-pi-zero-gains-fpc-camera-connector?google_editors_picks=true

Pint-Sized Raspberry Pi Zero Gains FPC Camera Connector, Keeps $5 Price

Oh, I want one!  We could probably get plenty of funding to create a generalized version that could be taught to teach. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2016/05/11/this-professor-stunned-his-students-when-he-revealed-the-secret-identity-of-his-teaching-assistant/

What happened when a professor built a chatbot to be his teaching assistant

To help with his class this spring, a Georgia Tech professor hired Jill Watson, a teaching assistant unlike any other in the world.  Throughout the semester, she answered questions online for students, relieving the professor’s overworked teaching staff.

But, in fact, Jill Watson was an artificial intelligence bot.

Ashok Goel, a computer science professor, did not reveal Watson’s true identity to students until after they’d turned in their final exams.

…   Now Goel is forming a business to bring the chatbot to the wider world of education.  While he doesn’t foresee the chatbot replacing teaching assistants or professors, he expects the chatbot’s question-answering abilities to be an invaluable asset for massive online open courses, where students often drop out and generally don’t receive the chance to engage with a human instructor.  With more human-like interaction, Goel expects online learning could become more appealing to students and lead to better educational outcomes.

…   As Goel looked for a technology that could help, he settled on IBM Watson, which he had used for several other projects.  Watson, an artificial intelligence system, was designed to answer questions, so it seemed like a strong fit.

To train the system to answer questions correctly, Goel fed it forum posts from the class’s previous semesters.  This gave Jill an extensive background in common questions and how they should be answered.

…   The system is only allowed to answer questions if it calculates that it is 97 percent or more confident in its answer.  Goel found that was the threshold at which he could guarantee the system was accurate.

An App for my niece, “The Guitar Goddess”

http://www.cnet.com/products/music-memos-ios/

Apple's new Music Memos app is instant gratification for musicians, backing band included

…   This simple app is a new type of voice-memo recorder, built around capturing musical ideas, giving them a slight polish, and sending the best ones on to a more powerful music tool, such as Apple's own GarageBand or Logic Pro.  It's completely free, and should be available on the App Store later today.

…   It's what happens next that makes Music Memos stand out from a standard memo-recording app.  If you recorded some acoustic guitar or piano, Music Memos analyses the audio input and attempts to chop your song demo into bars, in the appropriate time signature, and then adds chord labels.

Cut, fold, glue, watch.  What could be easier?

http://www.macrumors.com/2016/05/16/youtube-ios-app-google-cardboard-support/

YouTube for iOS Now Supports Google Cardboard

YouTube for iOS has been updated today with Google Cardboard support, allowing for all videos to be watched in VR mode on iPhone.  The functionality was previously limited to the YouTube app on Android smartphones since November 2015.

I have got to try this with my students!

http://dilbert.com/strip/2016-05-17

Hack the hackers – but keep it quiet!  On the other hand, there may be a potential Ethical Hacking instructor in this archive…

http://www.securityweek.com/data-leaked-hacker-forum-nulledio

Data Leaked From Hacker Forum Nulled.io

The popular hacker forum Nulled.io has been breached and its members’ details have been made public, Risk Based Security reported last week.

Nulled.io is a forum where roughly 500,000 users have discussed leaks, monetization methods, cracks, and coding. The website is also a place where people buy and sell services, products and compromised credentials.

On May 6, hackers leaked a 1.3Gb archive containing a 9.45Gb database file that stores the details of more than 536,000 Nulled.io user accounts, including usernames, email addresses, hashed passwords, registration dates and IP addresses.

…   Risk Based Security has analyzed the exposed email addresses and found that some of them are hosted on government domains from the United States, Philippines, Jordan, Brazil, Malaysia, Macao and Turkey.

Well, maybe not everything, but some things.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/sheerafrenkel/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-how-isis-uses-the-i?utm_term=.ouz6N4LPJ#.dc4JEw3aL

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About How ISIS Uses The Internet

An infographic for almost anyone…  Particularly for my Architecture classes.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-privacy-at-work/

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Privacy at Work

Do you have a boss who stands over your shoulder all day and an IT department that looks at your every move?

Are there any kind of privacy rights that you have? Is it wrong for work to monitor everything you do online? The answer might surprise you…

http://cdn.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/privacy-at-work.jpg?ff68e0

Perspective.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-incredible-facts-stats-about-reddit/

5 Incredible Facts & Stats About Reddit

3. And yet, Reddit only accounts for 2% of all U.S. social media shares.  This is worse than Twitter (6%), Pinterest (7%), and Facebook (81%).  Does Reddit play an important role in making memes go viral?  Absolutely — but maybe not as much as we think.

Employment for Liberal Arts majors?  (With some technical training.)  Something for my architecture students to consider.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/16/technology/social-media-finds-new-roles-as-news-and-entertainment-curators.html?ref=business&_r=0

Social Media Finds New Role as News and Entertainment Curator

By the end of last week, Mark Zuckerberg said that Facebook would conduct “a full investigation” into accusations that editors at the company prevented news stories from conservative outlets from appearing in a section of the social network’s service.

But the statement, issued after a weeklong crush of attention about the accusation, leapfrogged a perhaps more obvious question — one that Facebook’s 1.65 billion monthly users around the world may not have considered.

Facebook has editors?

It does, and it isn’t alone.  Most major social media platforms have, in recent years, amassed editorial teams of their own, groups that select, tame and fill gaps in the material produced by users and media companies.

Enquiring minds want to know?

What we know about how the FBI hacks people – and what we don’t know

Over on Wired, Kim Zetter reviews what’s been revealed in court cases and the media about how the FBI hacks individuals’ computers.   Some of the names and cases may seem familiar to you, like Carnivore and Magic Lantern, and more recently, the PlayPen operation, but as Kim rightly notes, there’s more that we don’t know than we do know:

For example, what exactly is the government doing with these tools?  Are they just grabbing IP addresses and information from a computer’s registry?  Or are they doing more invasive things—like activating the webcam to take pictures of anyone using a targeted machine, as they sought to do in a 2013 case?  How are the tools tested to make sure they don’t damage the machines they infect?  The latter is particularly important if the government installs any tool on the machines of botnet victims, as the recent Rule 41 changes suggest they might do.

Do investigators always obtain a search warrant to use the tools?  If yes, do the spy tools remain on systems after the term of the search warrant ends or do the tools self-delete on a specified date?  Or do the tools require law enforcement to send a kill command to disable and erase them?  How often does the government use zero-day vulnerabilities and exploits to covertly slip their spyware onto systems?  And how long do they withhold information about those vulnerabilities from software vendors so they can be exploited instead of patched?

Read more on Wired.

Realistically, there’s no way we will ever know all the tools and methods the FBI uses – at least until such methods are long-retired.  Nor would most people want such full disclosure and transparency if it would hamper law enforcement from going after “the bad guys.”   The problem, as always, stems from abuses and over-use.  If the FBI were really held to getting probable cause warrants before such techniques could be used, and if ISPs were able to notify their users at some point instead of being gagged, would you still be as concerned?  I suspect some of my readers would be, but that the majority of Americans might think that as long as such protections were in place, it would be a “reasonable” balance.

“Those who do not understand science should understand that repeating the claim that, ‘Science is hard!’ is no substitute for progress.”  Last week my entire Computer Security class worked the math to generate RSA public keys, and encrypt a message to me, as an in-class exercise.  Any one of them could manage this effort better than the existing OPM “leadership.”  See this Dilbert: http://dilbert.com/strip/2016-05-06

http://www.bespacific.com/fcw-opms-sensitive-data-feds-still-not-encrypted/

FCW – OPM’s sensitive data on feds still not encrypted

by Sabrina I. Pacifici on May 14, 2016

Federal Computer Week, Adam Mazmania, May 13, 2016 – “More than a year after a hack of Office of Personnel Management systems compromised more than 22 million records, the agency has not been able to encrypt all the sensitive data on 4 million federal employees, including Social Security numbers.  “There are still elements of OPM systems that are difficult to encrypt,” acting OPM Director Beth Cobert said during a May 13 hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee…”

“Und vat evil do you vish us to forget for you, mein herr?” 

http://www.bespacific.com/report-75-percent-of-requests-to-be-forgotten-denied-by-google/

Report – 75 percent of requests to be forgotten denied by Google

by Sabrina I. Pacifici on May 14, 2016

Report: 2 years in, 75 percent of Right to Be Forgotten asks denied by Google More than 50 percent of requests come from Germany and the UK.  Greg Sterling, Search Engine Land: “Google refuses roughly 70 percent to 75 percent of requests, according to the data.  The chart reflects the most common categories or justifications for URL removal requests, on the left.  On the right are the reasons that Google typically denies RTBF requests.  Google most frequently denies removal requests that concern professional activity.  Following that, Google often denies requests where the individual involved is the source of the content sought to be removed.”

I think we will always have people who criticize science – the problem is that only a small proportion of the population cares about the criticism.  And we shouldn’t waste much time criticizing astrology, intelligent design, or alien autopsies. 

http://www.bespacific.com/commentary-risk-becoming-society-technological-prowess-philosophical-illiteracy/

Commentary – We risk becoming a society of technological prowess and philosophical illiteracy

by Sabrina I. Pacifici on May 14, 2016

Chronicle of Higher Education – John Kaag and David O’Hara May 13, 2016 – “We are on the verge of becoming the best trained, and least educated, society since the Romans — and reducing the humanities to a type of soft science will only hasten this trend.  As the sciences rightly grow, a free society must ensure that criticism of the sciences grows apace.  Effective criticism depends on distance, in this case on an unshakeable difference, between the humanities and the STEM fields.  That is not to say that STEM researchers can’t or shouldn’t be experts in the humanities, but rather that the work that the humanities do should not be judged by the metrics of hard science.  As Aristotle, Plato’s most famous student, suggests at the beginning of the Nicomachean Ethics, “precision is not to be sought for alike in all discussions.”  Similarly, we should not expect the humanities to be driven or dominated by the objectives of science.  Plato teaches us that part of the liberal arts’ enduring mission is precisely to critique these objectives…”

We debated this in class.  Our take was that Facebook was telling India what it needed, not listening.  Sounds like the Guardian agrees. 

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/may/12/facebook-free-basics-india-zuckerberg

The inside story of Facebook’s biggest setback

Perspective.  How to kill the cable industry?

http://www.recode.net/2016/5/11/11613308/google-fiber-alphabet

Google Fiber is the most audacious part of the whole Alphabet

…   Google began digging up dirt and laying fiber optic pipes in Kansas City, Kan., five years ago in April. Its first customers were wired the following year.

For the years after, it was unclear — certainly outside of Google — just what Google wanted to accomplish with this first venture outside of its core business.  Now it's evident: Google was using Kansas City as a testbed for an audacious project — one to take on broadband providers like Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Verizon, which enjoy long-held duopolies and monopolies across the country, and build out a national service.  To provide real competition.

Googlers won't say this out loud, but they despise the cable industry.  They find it inert, predatory and, worst, anti-innovation.  So Google wants to replace it.

…   Wireless is a big deal for Alphabet.  If it works, it means it can deliver broadband without having to build out or buy fiber networks.  No dirt to dig up; no last mile to cross.  That means its network can swell much more, much faster.

Pipes aren't cheap.  It cost Google more than $1 billion to spread across the Kansas City region and will likely cost as much in each new Fiber city, according to sources.

But wireless could be far cheaper — a fifth of the cost of fiber, which is roughly $1,000 per home, according to industry insiders.

No doubt this will enliven my PowerPoint presentations. 

http://www.vox.com/2016/5/14/11674074/simpsons-gifs-generator-meme

Everything’s coming up Simpsons: make your favorite Simpsons quotes into GIFs with this new generator

Just in case you didn't have enough outlets for indulging your TV geek tendencies on the internet, the Simpsons quote generator Frinkiac has added a whole new dimension to its already thorough search engine.

Whereas before you could merely search Frinkiac for your favorite Simpsons quote and attach it to the accompanying image from the show, you can now search for your favorite Simpsons quote and attach it to an accompanying GIF, which everyone knows is just the more fun evolution of a boring old still photo.

…   To make a GIF with Frankiac, search for a Simpsons quote, select the frames from the accompanying scene that you'd like to include in the GIF, and then click "make GIF."