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Daily Archives: May 4, 2022

LLRX April 2022 Issue

Articles and Columns for April 2022

  • Web Guide for the New Economy 2022 – Accurate and actionable data on the economy is critical to many aspects of our research and scholarship. This guide by research expert Marcus P. Zillman provides researchers with links to information on a range of sources focused on new economy data and analysis from the public and private sectors, as well as scholarly work, news, government information, reports and alerts.
  • Elon Musk’s plans for Twitter could make its misinformation problems worse – As a researcher of social media platforms, Anjana Susarla, the Omura-Saxena Professorship in Responsible AI at the Broad College of Business, finds that Musk’s ownership of Twitter and his stated reasons for buying the company raise important issues. Those issues stem from the nature of the social media platform and what sets it apart from others.
  • Propaganda, Mis- and Disinformation, and Censorship: The War for Hearts and Minds – Author and blogger Dave Pollard addresses the incendiary global war of lies vs. truth, Pollard posits the most effective way to win and retain political power is by seizing the hearts and minds of citizens through a mix of propaganda, mis- and disinformation, and censorship. He continues, this is especially true now, living with a ubiquitous and unceasing firehose of often-conflicting information, and exploitative for-profit “social” media controlled by a handful of dimwitted and unstable western oligarchs.
  • Libraries around the world are helping safeguard Ukrainian books and culture – Ksenya Kiebuzinski, Slavic Resources Coordinator, and Head, Petro Jacyk Resource Centre, University of Toronto Libraries, University of Toronto informs us about the critical work of 1,000 volunteers, in partnership with universities in Canada and the United States, who are participating in the crowd-sourced project called Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online (SUCHO) to preserve and secure digitized manuscripts, music, photographs, 3D architectural models and other publications. So far, the team has captured 15,000 files, which are accessible via the Internet Archive.
  • The FBI is breaking into corporate computers to remove malicious code – smart cyber defense or government overreach? – What use are we in helping to solve difficult global challenges if we’re so depressed and cognitively depleted that we can’t think of the best actions to take? Ukraine doomscrolling can harm your cognition as well as your mood. Professors Barbara Jacquelyn Sahakian, Christelle Langley, Chun Shen and Jianfeng Feng describe their research findings on what to do about it.
  • How QR codes work and what makes them dangerous – a computer scientist explainsScott Ruoti, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, University of Tennessee discusses security issues respective to QR codes. He states that these codes are not inherently dangerous. They are simply a way to store data. However, just as it can be hazardous to click links in emails, visiting URLs stored in QR codes can also be risky in several ways.
  • Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, April 30, 2022 – Four highlights from this week: Amazon Workers Can Now Keep Cell Phones at Work; Best Reverse Image Search Tool: Google, Bing, Pixsy, Tineye; Google adds more ways to remove yourself from Search results; and Shut Stalkers Out of Your Tech.
  • Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, April 23, 2022 – Four highlights from this week: Report Finds Identity Fraud Up 167% In USPS Change Of Address Requests; Cell carriers can use your web history for ads; The FBI is breaking into corporate computers to remove malicious code – smart cyber defense or government overreach?; and Microsoft Teams Adds an Emergency Call Alert.
  • Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, April 16, 2022 – Four highlights from this week: Data From Friends and Strangers Show Where You Are; TSA’s Terrorist Watch List Comes for Amtrak Passengers; Facial recognition not required as tax ID – yet. But the tech spreads; You’re muted… or are you? Videoconferencing apps may listen even when mic is off; and Mismanaged Cloud Services Put User Data at Risk.
  • Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, April 9, 2022Four highlights from this week: Blockchain can power up government processes, GAO says; How QR codes work and what makes them dangerous – a computer scientist explains; Thieves hit on a new scam: Synthetic identity fraud; and Report: One in four employees who made security mistakes lost their job.
  • Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, April 2, 2022Four highlights from this week: Almost 50M US Residents Lost Health Data in Breaches Last Year; FCC Adds Kaspersky and Chinese Telecom Firms to National Security Threat List; Why digital ID for airport check-in is taking so long; and Hackers Are Impersonating Police to Subpoena People’s Data.
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Meet the Reddit ‘Aunties’ covertly helping people get abortions

The Washington Post: “In the hours since a leaked draft opinion signaled the Supreme Court is likely to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark law legalizing abortion nationwide, thousands of people have flocked to a Reddit community called the Auntie Network, a pseudo-underground gathering space aimed to facilitate abortions in an age of diminishing access.… Continue Reading

10 Lessons from Bellingcat’s Logan Williams on Digital Forensic Techniques

Global Investigative Journalism Network: “Logan Williams is a data scientist on the Bellingcat investigative technology team. He spoke about digital forensic reporting labs at the 2022 International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Italy. GIJN attended the panel and caught up with Williams afterward to hear his top tips and advice for using digital forensic techniques in… Continue Reading

How US state abortion laws compare globally

Quartz: “Despite efforts to limit access to abortion, Roe v. Wade has preserved American women’s right to terminate a pregnancy, a basic protection not available to many women around the world. If the US Supreme overturns the decision, as suggested by a leaked draft opinion, abortion would become illegal in many US states, putting them on… Continue Reading

The Roe v. Wade Opinion Is Not the First Supreme Court Leak

Wired: “…People have claimed that this week’s leak of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is “unprecedented,” but that’s not the case. Take the dreadful Dred Scott decision that in the mid-1800s upheld slavery, one of the very first leaks, if not the first. Three months ahead of the final opinion, newspapers began reporting the… Continue Reading

2022 World Changing Ideas Awards

“Every year, Fast Company’s World-Changing Ideas Awards honor the innovative ways businesses and organizations are tackling the biggest challenges of our time. Amid the seemingly endless stream of disastrous news, these awards provide more than 1,000 reasons to feel some hope. One thousand fifty-three, to be exact. That’s the total number of honorees that our… Continue Reading