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Daily Archives: October 4, 2021

Data of Over 1.5 Billion Facebook Users Sold on Hacker Forum

Privacy Affairs: “The private and personal information of over 1.5 billion Facebook users is being sold on a popular hacking-related forum, potentially enabling cybercriminals and unscrupulous advertisers to target Internet users globally.…Data Obtained by Scraping – The traders claim to have obtained the data by scraping rather than hacking or compromising individual users’ accounts. Scraping is a process of web data extraction or harvesting where publicly available data is accessed and organized into lists and databases. While technically, no accounts have been compromised, this is little solace to those whose data may now end up in the hands of unscrupulous internet marketers and likely also in the hands of cybercriminals. Unethical marketers may utilize this data to bombard specific individuals or groups of individuals with unsolicited advertising. The fact that phone numbers, real-life location, and users’ full names are included in the data is especially concerning. In addition, SMS and Push notification spam are becoming increasingly more prevalent even though most countries made these practices illegal many years ago…”

We don’t know where all the lead pipes are. This tool helps find them

Fast Company – “President Biden wants to replace all the lead pipes left in the U.S. The only problem is we have very little idea where they are…That means that cities typically have to dig to figure out whether a pipe buried underground is lead or copper—and each dig can cost thousands of dollars. Schwartz,… Continue Reading

What to do if you think you’ve been hacked

PopSci: “Being hacked can feel like a personal attack: You go to log into Facebook, Gmail, or iCloud—and your password doesn’t work, leaving you unable to access your most important online accounts. This worst-case scenario might bring on feelings of nausea and helplessness. Fortunately, you can take action in the face of digital vandalism. If… Continue Reading

Information Security in the Courts

Katz, Emile, Information Security in the Courts (September 28, 2021). Emile J. Katz, Information Security in the Courts, 126 Penn St. L. Rev. Penn Statim 26 (2021), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3932722 “Devices with recording capabilities have become pervasive in modern life. That pervasiveness becomes concerning in areas such as Judicial chambers, where confidentiality is particularly… Continue Reading

FDA publicly lists ingredients in approved COVID-19 vaccines

This Vaccine Information Fact Sheet for Recipients and Caregivers comprises the Fact Sheet for the authorized Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine and also includes information about the FDA-licensed vaccine, COMIRNATY (COVID-19 Vaccine, mRNA). The FDA-approved COMIRNATY (COVID-19 Vaccine, mRNA) and the FDA-authorized Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine under Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) have the same formulation and can be… Continue Reading

A World Without Sci-Hub

Palladium Mag: “…The success of Sci-Hub has made it a target for injunctions and investigations. Academic publishers have sued Sci-Hub repeatedly, opponents have accused the site’s creators of collaborating with Russian intelligence, and private sector critics have dubbed it a threat to “national security.” Elbakyan recently tweeted out a notification she received that the FBI… Continue Reading

The Wall Street Journal Facebook Files

The Facebook Files – A Wall Street Journal investigation – “Facebook Inc. knows, in acute detail, that its platforms are riddled with flaws that cause harm, often in ways only the company fully understands. That is the central finding of a Wall Street Journal series, based on a review of internal Facebook documents, including research… Continue Reading

This wild Chrome extension lets you bend websites to your will

FastCompany – “PixieBrix can declutter Amazon, bring to-do lists into Gmail, add custom search options to Google, and more…The ability to remove the unwanted parts of any website is just one of PixieBrix’s features. You can also add custom action buttons to your favorite sites, create sidebars that gather supplemental information as you browse, and… Continue Reading