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Daily Archives: November 6, 2011

The Socialbot Network: When Bots Socialize for Fame and Money

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The Socialbot Network: When Bots Socialize for Fame and Money –
Yazan Boshmaf, Ildar Muslukhov, Konstantin Beznosov, Matei Ripeanu –
University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada

  • “Online Social Networks (OSNs) have become an integral part of today’s Web. Politicians, celebrities, revolutionists, and others use OSNs as a podium to deliver their message to millions of active web users. Unfortunately, in the wrong hands, OSNs can be used to run astroturf campaigns to spread misinformation and propaganda. Such campaigns usually start by in filrating a targeted OSN on a large scale. In this paper, we evaluate how vulnerable OSNs are to a large-scale infiltration by socialbots: computer programs that control OSN accounts and mimic real users. We adopt a traditional web-based botnet design and built a Socialbot Network (SbN): a group of adaptive socialbots that are orchestrated in a command-and-control fashion. We operated such an SbN on Facebook|a 750 million user OSN|for about 8 weeks. We collected data related to users’ behavior in response to a large-scale in filtration where socialbots were used to connect to a large number of Facebook users. Our results show that (1) OSNs, such as Facebook, can be in filtrated with a success rate of up to 80%, (2) depending on users’ privacy settings, a successful in filtration can result in privacy breaches where even more users’ data are exposed when compared to a purely public access, and (3) in practice, OSN security defenses, such as the Facebook Immune System, are not e ffective enough in detecting or stopping a large-scale in filtration as it occurs.”

    • New Paper: Why parents help their children lie to Facebook about age: Unintended consequences of the COPPA

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    “The Berkman Center for Internet & Society is pleased to share a new paper published in First Monday, Why parents help their children lie to Facebook about age: Unintended consequences of the ‘Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act,’ authored by Berkman community members danah boyd, Eszter Hargittai, Jason Schultz, and John Palfrey. Abstract from the authors:… Continue Reading

    Report to Congress: Mandatory Minimum Penalties in the Federal Criminal Justice System

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    Follow up to previous postings on sentencing guidelines, see the following Report to Congress: Mandatory Minimum Penalties in the Federal Criminal Justice System, October 2011: “This report assesses the impact of mandatory minimum penalties on federal sentencing, particularly in light of the Supreme Court’s decision in Booker v. United States, which rendered the federal sentencing… Continue Reading

    Pew – The Generation Gap and the 2012 Election

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    The Generation Gap and the 2012 Election – Angry Silents, Disengaged Millennials, November 3, 2011 “In the last four national elections, generational differences have mattered more than they have in decades. According to the exit polls, younger people have voted substantially more Democratic than other age groups in each election since 2004, while older voters… Continue Reading

    'Thinking' in a Deweyan Perspective: The Law School Exam as a Case Study for Thinking in Lawyering

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    ‘Thinking’ in a Deweyan Perspective: The Law School Exam as a Case Study for Thinking in Lawyering, Donald J. Kochan, Chapman University School of Law, November 4, 2011, Nevada Law Journal, Forthcoming “As creatures of thought, we are thinking all the time, but that does not necessarily mean that we are thinking well. Answering the… Continue Reading

    UNESCO Global Open Access Portal launched

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    “The Global Open Access Portal (GOAP) presents a snapshot of the status of Open Access (OA) to scientific information around the world. For countries that have been more successful in implementing Open Access, the portal highlights critical success factors and aspects of the enabling environment. For countries and regions that are still in the early… Continue Reading

    2011 Federal Sentencing Guidelines Manual Now Online

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    Follow up to previous postings on sentencing guidelines, the 2011 Guidelines Manual (effective November 1, 2011) is available in HTML and Adobe PDF formats (large file and broken into chapters), which can be viewed, downloaded or printed via the website. Individual Chapters 1-8 and Guidelines in HTML or PDF Format View the 2011 Federal Sentencing… Continue Reading

    Unemployment and Earnings Losses: The Long-Term Impacts of The Great Recession

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    Brookings/Hamilton Project – Unemployment and Earnings Losses: The Long-Term Impacts of The Great Recession, November 2011 “The labor market has shown another month of growth, according to [November 4, 2011] employment report. Payroll employment increased by 80,000 jobs in October; private sector employment was up by 104,000, while governments continued to shed jobs. Additionally, the… Continue Reading

    The Subprime Crisis: Is Government Housing Policy to Blame?

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    The Subprime Crisis: Is Government Housing Policy to Blame?, Robert B. Avery and Kenneth P. Brevoort, 2011-36, Finance and Economics Discussion Series, Divisions of Research & Statistics and Monetary Affairs, Federal Reserve Board, Washington, D.C. “A growing literature suggests that housing policy, embodied by the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) and the affordable housing goals of… Continue Reading