“A person commits a crime, and the detective uses DNA evidence collected from the crime scene to track the criminal down. An outbreak of foodborne illness makes people sick, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) uses DNA evidence to track down the bacteria that caused it. Sound far-fetched? It’s not. The FDA has… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: June 2016
Supreme Court Justice uses link shortener in decision
Via Fortune after Josh Blackman’s blog posting on this subject: “A Supreme Court decision got huge attention this week for a stinging dissent by Justice Sotomayor that some have called the court’s “Black Lives Matter” moment. But the decision is also significant because it contains a strange short phrase — http://goo.gl/3Yq3Nd No, that’s not a… Continue Reading
Income inequality in the U.S. by state, metropolitan area, and county
Income inequality in the U.S. by state, metropolitan area, and county – Report By Estelle Sommeiller, Mark Price, and Ellis Wazeter, June 16, 2016. Economic Policy Institute. “What this report finds: Income inequality has risen in every state since the 1970s and in many states is up in the post–Great Recession era. In 24 states,… Continue Reading
Federal Court: The Fourth Amendment Does Not Protect Your Home Computer
Via EFF, Mark Rumold: “In a dangerously flawed decision unsealed today, a federal district court in Virginia ruled that a criminal defendant has no “reasonable expectation of privacy” in his personal computer, located inside his home. According to the court, the federal government does not need a warrant to hack into an individual’s computer. This… Continue Reading
memhole2 expands resources page
The Memory Hole 2 Resources – “The Memory Hole 2 – run by Russ Kick – saves important documents from oblivion. Its predecessor, The Memory Hole (2002-2009), posted hundreds of documents, many of which will be reposted on the new site.” Continue Reading
KSN Report: Ransomware in 2014-2016 The evolution of the threat and its future
Kaspersky Lab, June 22, 2016: “Ransomware is a type of malware that, upon infecting a device, blocks access to it or to some or all of the information stored on it. In order to unlock either the device or the data, the user is required to pay a ransom, usually in bitcoins or another widely… Continue Reading
Detect, Disrupt, Deter: A Whole-of-Government Approach to National Security Cyber Threats
Detect, Disrupt, Deter: A Whole-of-Government Approach to National Security Cyber Threats – by John P. Carlin, Harvard Law School National Security Journal. Volume 7, Issue 2: “With increasing network intrusions affecting the U.S. government and American companies, and unsecured connectivity creating new vulnerabilities to cyber attacks, the United States is implementing a whole-of-government, all-tools approach to… Continue Reading
Paper – A More Timely House Price Index
Anenberg, Elliot and Laufer, Steven, A More Timely House Price Index (June 15, 2016). Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2555765 “Using listings data, we construct a new repeat-sales house price index that describes house values at the contract date when the price is determined rather than the closing date when the property is transferred. We… Continue Reading
Paper – Southern Europe’s Institutional Decline
Challe, Edouard and Lopez, Jose Ignacio and Mengus, Eric, Southern Europe’s Institutional Decline (June 9, 2016). HEC Paris Research Paper No. ECO/SCD-2016-1148. Available for dowload at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2792621 “The run up to the euro currency initiated a period of capital inflows into southern European countries, i.e., Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. We document that those… Continue Reading
2012 Economic Census Subject Series: Management of Companies and Enterprises
Via Census – “These reports present data for a variety of industry-specific topics, such as end of year inventories, for establishments of firms with payroll. Presentation of data varies by kind of business. This concludes the subject series for the management of companies and enterprises sector.” Continue Reading
Continued Decline in Patent Lawsuits
“The latest available data from the federal courts show that during the first eight months of fiscal year 2016 the government reported the filing of 3,478 patent-related lawsuits. If this pace continues through the remaining four months, there will be a total of 5,217 new filings of this type. This represents a decrease of 6.2… Continue Reading
GAO – IRS Needs to Update Its Risk Assessment for the Taxpayer Protection Program
Identity Theft and Tax Fraud: IRS Needs to Update Its Risk Assessment for the Taxpayer Protection Program, GAO-16-508: Published: May 24, 2016. Publicly Released: Jun 23, 2016. “Taxpayer Protection Program (TPP). While the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has made efforts to strengthen TPP—a program to authenticate the identities of suspicious tax return filers and prevent… Continue Reading
