CASCADES project: Cost-effective Outbreak Detection in Networks (Hello readers of the CMU Blog report)
CASCADES project: Cost-effective Outbreak Detection in Networks ( a study by School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University): "Rankings are based on the following question: Which blogs should one read to be most up to date, i.e., to quickly know about important stories that propagate over the blogosphere?
Budget=100 blogs:
If I can read 100 blogs, which should I read to be most up to date? Unit cost (each blog costs 1 unit), optimizing the information captured -- population affected (we want to be the first to know about something with many people blogging about the story after us) [ Read more ... ]
To thwart keyloggers, Facebook introduces one-time passwords
To thwart keyloggers, Facebook introduces one-time passwords: Via Computerworld Security News.
Worried about logging into Facebook from a strange computer? There's now a way to get into the popular social network without entering your regular Facebook password.
It's called a temporary password, and Facebook announced the new service on Tuesday.
The idea is to make it "safer to use public computers in places like hotels, cafes or airport," said Facebook Product Manager Jake Brill in a blog post. "If you have any concerns about security of the computer you're using while accessing Facebook, we can text you a one-time password to use instead of your regular password."
The service is being rolled out gradually to Facebook users and will be available worldwide in the next few weeks. [ Read more ... ]
New FOIA Documents Reveal DHS Social Media Monitoring During Obama Inauguration
New FOIA Documents Reveal DHS Social Media Monitoring During Obama Inauguration: Via EFF.org Updates.
This is part two of a two part series. Read part one.
As noted in our first post, EFF recently received new documents via our FOIA lawsuit on social network surveillance that reveal two ways the government has been tracking people online: Citizenship and Immigration’s surveillance of social networks to investigate citizenship petitions and the DHS’s use of a “Social Networking Monitoring Center” to collect and analyze online public communication during President Obama’s inauguration. This is the second of two posts describing these documents and some of their implications.
In addition to learning about surveillance of citizenship petitioners, EFF also learned that leading up to President Obama’s January 2009 inauguration, DHS established a Social Networking Monitoring Center (SNMC) to monitor social networking sites for “items of interest.” In a set of slides [PDF] outlining the effort, DHS discusses both the massive collection and use of social network information as well as the privacy principles it sought to employ when doing so. [ Read more ... ]
Supreme Court Will Not Yet Hear Case Of Denver Residents Ejected From Bush Event
Supreme Court Will Not Yet Hear Case Of Denver Residents Ejected From Bush Event: Via American Civil Liberties Union.
ACLU Continues To Challenge First Amendment Violation In Parallel Lawsuits Against Government Officials
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear a case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of two Denver residents who were ejected from a speech by President Bush in 2005 for arriving in a car with a bumper sticker that read "No More Blood for Oil." The lawsuit charged that the constitutional rights of Leslie Weise and Alex Young were violated when they were removed from the public event because their opinions differed with those of the president. The ACLU then filed a certiorari petition asking the Supreme Court to hear the case after a federal district court dismissed the case and an appeals court upheld that ruling.
The lawsuit was filed against two volunteers who removed Weise and Young from the event under the direction of government officials. The Court declined to hear the case, but the denial of certiorari in the case against the volunteers leaves open the possibility that it could eventually hear one of two other ACLU cases arising from the same incident that were filed against the government employees who authorized the removal. [ Read more ... ]
Should Government Mandate "Backdoors" for Snooping on the Internet?
Should Government Mandate "Backdoors" for Snooping on the Internet?: Via Center for Democracy & Technology - Keeping the Internet Open, Innovative and Free.
According to reports, the FBI is asking for the authority to require all Internet communications platforms build in a "backdoor" allowing law enforcement easy wiretapping access. This proposal could impact the Internet in three vital areas.
First, security could be endangered because, ironically, easy-to-access backdoors invite hackers - whether foreign–governments, criminals or other malicious actors - to find those doors to perpetrate crimes and threaten national security.
Second, our personal privacy will be further jeopardized as we edge closer and closer to being a surveillance state. In 2009, 2,376 federal and state wiretaps were conducted in criminal investigations, a figure that eclipses any other year; 82 percent of captured communications were non-incriminating.
Finally, innovation, the very trait that brought the Internet into being and allowed it to flourish, will be put at risk. If the FBI's proposal goes through, what will it mean for innovation to have government be the final arbiter of technical design? [ Read more ... ]
School District Pays $610,000 to Settle Webcam Spying Lawsuits
School District Pays $610,000 to Settle Webcam Spying Lawsuits: Via Threat Level.
A suburban Philadelphia school district is agreeing to pay $610,000 to settle two lawsuits brought by students who were victims of a webcam spying scandal in which high school-issued laptops secretly snapped thousands of pictures of pupils.
The agreed payout by the Lower Merion School District comes two months after federal authorities announced they would not prosecute administrators.
Prosecutors and the FBI opened an inquiry following a February privacy lawsuit accusing administrators of spying on students with webcams on the 2,300 district-issued MacBooks. The lawyers who filed lawsuits on behalf of two students acquired evidence in pretrial proceedings showing that the district secretly snapped thousands of webcam images of students, including pictures of youths at home, in bed or even “partially dressed.” [ Read more ... ]
Escaping the ‘Scrapers’ - WSJ
Escaping the ‘Scrapers': Via Digits - WSJ.
The Internet has given rise to a dizzying array of people-search sites and data brokers that gather and compile public information and social-networking profiles. The sites gather information from public sources such as property records and telephone listings, and other information is harvested by “scraping” — or copying — websites where people post information about themselves.
The fact that the information is from public records or posted on the Internet generally means that the companies have a right to use it. And many of the firms emphasize that the data will still be available in public records or elsewhere online, even if the information is removed from specific sites. As long as the source of the information remains available, it can simply be scraped again. But determined consumers willing to navigate the maze of companies have some options for requesting that their data be removed from certain sites. [ Read more ... ]
Caught Spying on Student, FBI Demands GPS Tracker Back
Caught Spying on Student, FBI Demands GPS Tracker Back: Via Threat Level.
A California student got a visit from the FBI this week after he found a secret GPS tracking device on his car, and a friend posted photos of it online. The post prompted wide speculation about whether the device was real, whether the young Arab-American was being targeted in a terrorism investigation and what the authorities would do.
It took just 48 hours to find out: The device was real, the student was being secretly tracked and the FBI wanted their expensive device back, the student told Wired.com in an interview Wednesday.
The answer came when half-a-dozen FBI agents and police officers appeared at Yasir Afifi’s apartment complex in Santa Clara, California, on Tuesday demanding he return the device.
Afifi, a 20-year-old U.S.-born citizen, cooperated willingly and said he’d done nothing to merit attention from authorities. Comments the agents made during their visit suggested he’d been under FBI surveillance for three to six months.
An FBI spokesman wouldn’t acknowledge that the device belonged to the agency or that agents appeared at Afifi’s house. [ Read more ... ]
Facebook Moves Closer to EFF Bill of Privacy Rights
Facebook Moves Closer to EFF Bill of Privacy Rights: Via EFF.org Updates.
Today Facebook announced three new features that help move the social networking giant closer to satisfying EFF's Bill of Privacy Rights for Social Networking. While EFF continues to have outstanding issues with Facebook, we greatly appreciate these important steps toward giving Facebook users more transparency and control when it comes to how the information they post to Facebook is shared, and more power to take their Facebook data with them if they ever choose to leave the service. While Facebook has taken some good steps here, and we recognize that this is just the first iteration of the new features, we do have several additional recommendations, noted below. We will continue to dialogue with Facebook on these issues. [ Read more ... ]
Clearer Application Controls and The Right to Informed Decision-Making
Hacked Voting System Stored Accessible Password, Encryption Key
Hacked Voting System Stored Accessible Password, Encryption Key: Via Threat Level.
An internet-based voting system that was hacked last week by researchers at the University of Michigan stored its database username, password and encryption key on a server open to attack.
Alex Halderman, a computer scientist at the university, has detailed the vulnerabilities and hacking techniques his students used to completely control the system last week. The hack allowed them to change votes and program the system to play his school’s fight song “Hail to the Victors” after each voter cast their ballot.
The hack, unnoticed by election officials until researchers notified them, forced election officials to take the system offline and adopt a contingency plan for the November elections.
Washington, DC, began testing its internet voting system last Tuesday in advance of the November elections. The system, paid for in part with a $300,000 federal grant, is designed to let overseas military and civilian voters cast ballots quickly, instead of relying on the postal system to deliver their votes in a timely manner.
But within 36 hours of the system going live, Halderman’s team found and exploited a shell-injection vulnerability that “gave us almost total control of the server software, including the ability to change votes and reveal voters’ secret ballots.” [ Read more ... ]
Facebook Innovations Jumpstart 'Privacy-Plus 2.0'
Facebook Innovations Jumpstart 'Privacy-Plus 2.0': Via Center for Democracy & Technology - Keeping the Internet Open, Innovative and Free.
Earlier today, Facebook announced three important – and potentially game-changing – innovations, firmly staking its ground as a force to be reckoned with on matters of user privacy. The new features - Groups, a data download product, and enhanced privacy controls for applications - demonstrate that Facebook has listened to past criticisms about its practices and is ready to play a leadership role when it comes to user privacy.
Facebook’s new products come at a time when stewards of user data are facing challenges far more complicated than how to design defaults and privacy controls: you can call it "privacy-plus 2.0." Today, operators of social networks and similar platforms must also decide how to handle data access by third-party applications, whether or not to afford users data portability, and what types of processes should govern content removal and account deactivations. These are not easy waters to navigate, but today’s announcement represents a huge win for Facebook users.
Facebook Groups: Reconceived and revitalized [ Read more ... ]
Protecting Outrageous, Offensive Speech (ACLU & Supreme Court)
Protecting Outrageous, Offensive Speech: Via Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Today, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a crucial First Amendment case.
Most people are at least somewhat aware of Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church, notorious for protesting military funerals with its "God Hates Fags" and "Thank God for Dead Soldiers" signs. Albert Snyder, the father of slain Iraq war soldier Matthew Snyder, sued Phelps after he protested at Matthew's funeral.
The protestors consulted with the police beforehand, and stood where they were instructed.
The district court jury was told that they could hold Phelps liable in this case if they found the speech at Matthew Snyder's funeral protest outrageous or offensive. And that's exactly what happened: following the jury trial, Snyder was awarded $5 million for the intentional infliction of emotional distress. Phelps appealed that decision to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals and won; the appeals court found Phelps' speech was protected by the First Amendment.
Snyder appealed that decision, which brought the case, Snyder v. Phelps, before the Supreme Court this morning. [ Read more ... ]
Expert: ACTA No Longer Gutting Internet Freedom
Expert: ACTA No Longer Gutting Internet Freedom: Via Threat Level.
The United States is caving on the internet section of a proposed international intellectual property treaty, meaning its one-time quest to globally dictate Draconian copyright rules has come to an abrupt halt.
That’s what Michael Geist, an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement expert at the University of Ottawa, concluded Wednesday after the United States released the proposal’s latest draft. (.pdf)
“If you’re a Wired U.S. reader, from an internet perspective, this really doesn’t change much of anything,” Geist said in a telephone interview.
At one point, the United States was demanding the nine negotiating nations and the European Union adopt rules similar to the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which gives internet service providers immunity from copyright violations if they take down content at the request of a rights holder. In Canada, where Geist teaches, there is no such take down requirement.
All Rise: Supreme Court’s Geekiest Generation Begins
All Rise: Supreme Court’s Geekiest Generation Begins: Via Threat Level.
The U.S. Supreme Court begins a new term Monday with a slew of technology and civil rights issues queued on its docket, some of which could have far-reaching implications for the Freedom of Information Act, copyright, warrantless searches of private residences, the “state secrets” privilege and freedom of expression.
The cases we’re tracking involve regulation of videogame sales, the limits of the Copyright Act’s first-sale doctrine and the power of the government to collect sensitive data on employees. Another case asks whether convicted defendants have a right to use modern DNA testing to prove their innocence.
Ruling on these issues is a rapidly changing high court, with four new appointees in five years, creating the youngest court in the modern, digital age. [ Read more ... ]
Victory: Internet Censorship Bill is Delayed, For Now
Victory: Internet Censorship Bill is Delayed, For Now: Via EFF.org Updates.
This morning's Politico brought with it great news for those who care about free speech and fair use online:
A markup on SJC Chairman Leahy’s IP infringement bill was postponed late Wednesday, as staffers anticipated the chamber would finish legislative work and adjourn for recess before the hearing could commence. The change in plans should delight some of the bill’s critics, at least, who expressed concern that the legislation was moving forward quickly.
Translation: The Senate Judiciary Committee won't be considering the dangerously flawed "Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act" (COICA) bill until after the midterm elections, at least.
This is a real victory! [ Read more ... ]
Video Tutorials for Anti-Censorship Tools
Video Tutorials for Anti-Censorship Tools: Via Center for Democracy & Technology - Keeping the Internet Open, Innovative and Free.
12pm Tutorials' YouTube channel offers several video tutorials on how to use online anti-censorship tools. Produced by colleagues of CDT, the tutorials are featured in different languages and include tips on using tools such as Tor, "a network of virtual tunnels that allows people and groups to improve their privacy and security on the Internet," as well as Hotspot Shield and Psiphon 2.
These technologies are an essential item in the toolbox for the human rights community in the fight for global Internet freedom .
CDT hopes the tutorials found on the YouTube channel highlighted above will provide a better understanding of how to implement these critical tools in the pursuit of global Internet freedom. Please help us spread the word about these tutorials by sharing this post using the "retweet" button. Below is a sample tutorial from 12pm Tutorial's YouTube channel on how to install and use the Tor software.
Read Original Article:(Via Center for Democracy & Technology - Keeping the Internet Open, Innovative and Free.)
Texting Censorship Flap Settled Out of Court
Texting Censorship Flap Settled Out of Court: Via Threat Level.
A legal flap concerning whether wireless carriers may censor text messages was settled out of court Friday, leaving unanswered the highly contentious question of whether wireless carriers have the same “must carry” obligations as traditional phone companies.
The month-old New York federal case pitted T-Mobile against a texting service, which claimed the Bellevue, Washington-based wireless carrier unlawfully blocked its clients after the service sent messages on behalf of a California medical-marijuana dispensary listing site.
The full terms of the settlement were not disclosed. Lawyers involved said the agreement requires T-Mobile to stop blocking the New York-based EZ Texting service’s thousands of clients, if they meet T-Mobile’s approval. The medical-marijuana info service, which used texts to tell its users where the nearest medical-marijuana store was, remains blocked.
The dispute comes as the Federal Communications Commission has been dragging its feet over clarifying the rules for wireless carriers. [ Read more ... ]
New Wiretapping Mandates Could Harm Privacy, Innovation and Security (CDT)
New Wiretapping Mandates Could Harm Privacy, Innovation and Security: Via Center for Democracy & Technology - Keeping the Internet Open, Innovative and Free.
CDT Senior Counsel Gregory T. Nojeim recently wrote a guest post for The Hill's Congress Blog: New Wiretapping Mandates Could Harm Privacy, Innovation and Security. The post lays out the potential consequences of the FBI's plan to require that communications applications be wiretap-friendly.
It could seriously stifle innovation – in an area where the U.S. has been a global leader – to require government pre-clearance for the innovator making the next great communications application in his garage or dorm room. Some current applications would have to change so drastically that they would become unrecognizable to current users. Others might be outlawed altogether.
Read Original Article:(Via Center for Democracy & Technology - Keeping the Internet Open, Innovative and Free.)
The Social Network: Facebook Behind the Scenes
The Social Network: Facebook Behind the Scenes: Via Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union.
The Social Network biopic that opens in theaters today chronicles Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and the beginnings of Facebook. The social network behemoth and its young and oft-embroiled founder and CEO are ripe fodder for Hollywood. But looking beyond the manufactured drama and snappy dialogue, we are right to be concerned about this company that knows and collects so much information about our personal lives: pictures, list of friends, location, religious and political preferences, sexual orientation, interests, and more.
Facebook started as a "dorm room project" whose founder's indifference to privacy is seen in instant messages from his Harvard years that surfaced earlier this year. In those messages he offers to reveal personal information he collected on thousands of his classmates, saying that people inexplicably trusted him with their personal information and derisively calling those trusting masses a word that cannot be printed.
While Facebook has matured to a company worth $30 billion with more than 500 million users, its privacy practices have continued to disappoint. [ Read more ... ]
A Field Guide to Copyright Trolls
A Field Guide to Copyright Trolls: Via EFF.org Updates.
With all of this talk about copyright trolls and spamigation, it is easy to get confused. Who is suing over copies of Far Cry and The Hurt Locker? Who is suing bloggers? Who is trying to protect their anonymity? Who is defending fair use? What do newspapers have to do with any of this? In order to cut through the confusion, here’s a concise guide to copyright trolls currently in the wild, with status updates.
Leading the pack for sheer numbers is a Washington, D.C., law firm calling itself the U.S. Copyright Group (USCG), that has filed several "John Doe" lawsuits in D.C., implicating well over 14,000 individuals. This firm has learned one lesson from the RIAA suits: the only group whose bottom line benefits from this kind of mass litigation is the lawyers. As we reported last week, several of the Does in these cases are fighting back in earnest, albeit with mixed results: on the one hand the judge in two of the cases has rejected various efforts to protect the anonymity of the Does, insisting that they cannot file papers anonymously. However, the same judge has issued orders requiring USCG to justify suing two of the Does in the District of Columbia, as the Defendants claim to have no contacts with the District. [ Read more ... ]
Tell Your Senator: No Website Blacklists, No Internet Censorship!
Tell Your Senator: No Website Blacklists, No Internet Censorship!: Via EFF.org Updates.
The "Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act" (COICA) is yet another attempt to squash online copyright infringement — this time using dangerous, overbroad procedures that would take huge numbers of law-abiding websites offline, censor speech and curtail Internet freedom worldwide.
The bill would allow the Attorney General and the Department of Justice to break the Internet one domain at a time — by requiring ISPs, domain registrars, DNS providers, and others to block Internet users from reaching certain websites. Chillingly, the bill also allows the Justice Department to create a de facto blacklist of sites "dedicated to infringing activities" that ISPs and others will be encouraged to block. [ Read more ... ]
U.N. Report Highlights Need For U.S. Civil And Human Rights Commission
U.N. Report Highlights Need For U.S. Civil And Human Rights Commission: Via ACLU online newsroom.
U.S. Should Implement Working Group Recommendations, Says ACLU
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
(212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org
(202) 675-2312; media@dcaclu.org
NEW YORK – A report examining the state of human rights of people of African descent in the United States was presented to the U.N. Human Rights Council today. The U.N. Working Group on the Rights of People of African Descent reported that, while the U.S. government has taken some steps to promote the rights of people of African descent, much more needs to be done to bring the U.S. into compliance with international treaty obligations. The international group of experts visited the United States last January at the invitation of the U.S. government, meeting with local, state and federal officials and human and civil rights groups including the American Civil Liberties Union and conducting a thorough examination of laws and policies and their impact on people of African descent. [ Read more ... ]
An Open Letter From Internet Engineers to the Senate Judiciary Committee
An Open Letter From Internet Engineers to the Senate Judiciary Committee: Via EFF.org Updates.
Today, 87 prominent Internet engineers sent a joint letter the US Senate Judiciary Committee, declaring their opposition to the "Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act" (COICA). The text of the letter is below.
Readers are encouraged to themselves write the Senate Judiciary Committee and ask them to reject this bill. [ Read more ... ]
British ISP Sky Broadband Cuts Off ACS:Law
British ISP Sky Broadband Cuts Off ACS:Law: Via Slashdot: Your Rights Online.
An anonymous reader writes "British ISP Sky Broadband cuts off ACS:Law and refuse to cooperate after at least 4,000 of their customers' information was carelessly leaked. According to Sky Broadband, 'We have suspended all co-operation with ACS:Law with immediate effect. This suspension will remain in place until ACS:Law demonstrates adequate measures to protect the security of personal information.' Sky Broadband had been providing customer information to ACS:Law as part of their anti-piracy operation."
Read Original Article (Via Slashdot: Your Rights Online.)
Government Seeks Back Door Into All Our Communications (EFF)
Government Seeks Back Door Into All Our Communications: Via EFF.org Updates.
The New York Times reported this morning on a Federal government plan to put government-mandated back doors in all communications systems, including all encryption software. The Times said the Obama administration is drafting a law that would impose a new "mandate" that all communications services be "able to intercept and unscramble encrypted messages" — including ordering "[d]evelopers of software that enables peer-to-peer communication [to] redesign their service to allow interception".
Throughout the 1990s, EFF and others fought the "crypto wars" to ensure that the public would have the right to strong encryption tools that protect our privacy and security — with no back doors and no intentional weaknesses. We fought in court and in Congress to protect privacy rights and challenge restrictions on encryption, and to make sure the public could use encryption to protect itself. In a 1999 decision in the EFF-led Bernstein case, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals observed that [ Read more ... ]
Recent blog posts
- To thwart keyloggers, Facebook introduces one-time passwords
- New FOIA Documents Reveal DHS Social Media Monitoring During Obama Inauguration
- Supreme Court Will Not Yet Hear Case Of Denver Residents Ejected From Bush Event
- Should Government Mandate "Backdoors" for Snooping on the Internet?
- School District Pays $610,000 to Settle Webcam Spying Lawsuits
- Escaping the ‘Scrapers’ - WSJ
- Caught Spying on Student, FBI Demands GPS Tracker Back
- Facebook Moves Closer to EFF Bill of Privacy Rights
- Hacked Voting System Stored Accessible Password, Encryption Key
- Facebook Innovations Jumpstart 'Privacy-Plus 2.0'