“Eight of the 15 cities or towns with the largest population gains were located in the South in 2017, with three of the top five in Texas, according to new population estimates released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. “San Antonio, Texas, tops the list with the largest population gain with an increase of over… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: May 2018
Amazon Echo device recorded private conversation – relayed it to person on contact list
Washington Post – An Amazon Echo recorded a family’s conversation, then sent it to a random person in their contacts, report says… Bloomberg – This Is How Alexa Can Record Private Conversations – “…Amazon explained the series of events that triggered the episode in an emailed statement. The Echo woke after hearing a word in… Continue Reading
Justice Department Independence and White House Control
Wright, Andrew McCanse, Justice Department Independence and White House Control (February 18, 2018). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3125848 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3125848 [h/t Joe Hodnicki] “Problematic relations between the White House and the U.S. Department of Justice stand out amidst the broader tumult of President Donald Trump’s first year in office. With respect to written policy restricting contacts… Continue Reading
21st century Noah’s ark – is this the only hope for world wildlife?
Washington Post: MAJETE WILDLIFE RESERVE, Malawi – “Two decades ago, this patch of Malawian forest was almost emptied of wildlife. The last elephants had been poached. The lions had been caught in snare traps. Other species died off as their range was diced by machete-wielding farmers. Now the animals have returned in a modern-day Noah’s… Continue Reading
New Tool Provides Conservation Report Card for Every Land Parcel in Maryland
“The Maryland Department of Natural Resources launched an innovative new tool to evaluate the conservation benefits and ecosystem “value” of every parcel of land across the state. The Parcel Evaluation Tool was designed to identify and prioritize the conservation and protection of ecologically important, sensitive, and valuable land and watershed resources in Maryland for use by the department, land… Continue Reading
Politico – Trump reject security rules and keeps tweeting on his iPhones
‘Too inconvenient’: Trump goes rogue on phone security – The president has kept features at risk for hacking and resisted efforts by staff to inspect the phones he uses for tweeting. “President Donald Trump uses a White House cellphone that isn’t equipped with sophisticated security features designed to shield his communications, according to two senior… Continue Reading
Modern Bank Heists: Cybersecurity Threats Facing the Financial Sector
Carbon Black: “Despite investing heavily in security, financial institutions continue to experience cyber attacks at a rapid pace. Conducted primarily for the purpose of yielding illicit financial gain, cyber attacks against the financial services industry are increasing in sophistication and are often undetectable, global and instantaneous. This will be one of the themes of this… Continue Reading
The Wayback Machine is Deleting Evidence of Malware Sold to Stalkers
Motherboard: This story is part of When Spies Come Home, a Motherboard series about powerful surveillance software ordinary people use to spy on their loved ones. “The Internet Archive’s goal, according to its website, is “universal access to all knowledge.” As part of that mission, the non-profit runs the Wayback Machine, an online tool that… Continue Reading
Women, Gender, Sexuality, and Computing History
David Brock, Computer History Museum: “The experience of women, and the issues of gender and sexuality, are vitally important to our understanding of the story of computing, and hence our contemporary world, for many reasons. Perhaps most straightforwardly, women have been ubiquitous throughout the history of computing as makers and users of it. As Eileen… Continue Reading
Dept. of the Interior Interior moves to lift restrictions on hunting bears, wolves using bait and spotlights
AP: “The Trump administration is moving to reverse Obama-era rules barring hunters on some public lands in Alaska from baiting brown bears with bacon and doughnuts and using spotlights to shoot mother black bears and cubs hibernating in their dens. The National Park Service issued a notice Monday of its intent to amend regulations for… Continue Reading
CRS – False Statements and Perjury: An Overview of Federal Criminal Law
CRS report via FAS – False Statements and Perjury: An Overview of Federal Criminal Law, Charles Doyle, Senior Specialist in American Public Law. May 11, 2018. “Special Counsel Robert Mueller reportedly warned President Trump’s lawyers in a March meeting that if the President declined to participate in a voluntary interview, Mueller could issue a subpoena… Continue Reading
Amazon is selling police departments a real-time facial recognition system
The Verge: “Documents obtained by the ACLU of Northern California have shed new light on Rekognition, Amazon’s little-known facial recognition project. Rekognition is currently used by police in Orlando and Oregon’s Washington County, often using nondisclosure agreements to avoid public disclosure. The result is a powerful real-time facial recognition system that can tap into police… Continue Reading
