Tag Archives: cybersecurity

Feb 22 2012
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A Conversation on Cyber Security

George Washington University’s Homeland Security Policy Institute hosted “A Conversation on Cyber Security Legislation,” this morning. The participants included Adm. Mike McConnell, former Director of National Intelligence, Michael Chertoff, former Director of the Department of Homeland Security, Tommy Ross from the Senate Office of Majority Leader, Jeffrey Ratner from the Homeland Security Governmental Affairs Committee (Majority), Nick Rossi from the same committee (Minority), Tom Corcoran from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and Kevin Gronberg from the House Committee on Homeland Security.

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Jan 13 2012
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Morning Stories (1-13-2012)

  • The Hill reports that Sen. Patrick Leahy will be putting forth a manager’s amendment of PIPA for the January 24 vote, pledging to cut the DNS blocking provision from the legislation. Mike Masnick at TechDirt provides some critical analysis.
  • Meanwhile, Rep. Jared Polis has taken to the League of Legends gaming forum to rally the opposition to PIPA and SOPA. And Carl Franzen at TPM asks what the upcoming January 18th “Blackout” and House Oversight Committee hearing will accomplish.
  • Gen. Keith Alexander, head of US Cyber Command,  reiterates that active defenses are increasingly necessary to thwart cyber threats, suggesting the current approach used by most businesses is akin to the “Maginot Line.”
  • At the Technology Liberation Front, Berin Szoka, Geoffrey Manne, and Ryan Radia have a thoughtful piece on Google’s Search Plus Your World:

All the usual blustering and speculation in the latest Google antitrust debate has obscured what should, however, be the two key prior questions: (1) Did Google violate the antitrust laws by not including data from Facebook, Twitter and other social networks in its new SPYW program alongside Google+ content; and (2) How might antitrust restrain Google in conditioning participation in this program in the future?

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Jan 10 2012
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Morning Stories (1-10-2012)

  • Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) announced the House Oversight Committee will hold a hearing on the technical consequences of SOPA on January 18. Andy Greenberg at Forbes has more.
  • Liz Gannes at Digits has an interesting piece on Twitter’s photo-sharing numbers, and what happened to the third party services when Twitter offered users built-in image hosting.
  • In other Twitter news, Daniel Freedman discusses the quickly deteriorating relationship between Twitter and the US government amid calls for shutting down accounts operated by terrorist groups and other developments.
  • Finally, Google is transforming search once again, with “Search, plus Your World.” Brendan Sasso at Hillicon Valley discusses some of the details.
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Jan 09 2012
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Morning Stories (1-9-2012)

  • Adam Clark Estes at the Atlantic and Adam Thierer at TechLiberation present their takes on Vint Cerf’s NY Times op-ed from last week on Internet as human right.
  • CSIS Has A Set of Critical Questions For 2012. The entire list is worth reading, but I wanted to highlight the technology segment and cybersecurity segment for particular attention, both of which were written by CSIS’s James A. Lewis.
  • Apple’s Siri is a data hog, and highlights looming spectrum crunch facing mobile providers.
  • The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) asked the FTC to probe Facebook over privacy concerns with the social media giant’s new Timeline feature.
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Dec 29 2011
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Morning Stories (12-29-2011)

  • The CEO of Rackspace, Lanham Napier, writes that SOPA will lead to censorship, and is worse than the problem it purports to solve. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) provided a response.
  • Quinn Norton at ars technica provides a further update on the STRATFOR hack.
  • John Paul Titlow at ReadWriteWeb asks if the world’s next political revolution can be predicted by computers.
  • Meanwhile, cnet’s Declan McCullagh and Business Insider’s Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry provide 2012 predictions. Among them: Google will  jump into the tablet market, Facebook will surprise everyone with more rapid-than-predicted growth, SOPA’s major opponents will undertake significant efforts to thwart the legislation, and aggressive antitrust enforcement will continue.
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Dec 26 2011
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Morning Stories (12-26-2011)

  • STRATFOR, a private intelligence firm, announced over the weekend it had suffered a data breach. Member credit card numbers and massive amounts of emails were accessed. DataBreach.net provides a brief rundown.
  • Public outcry over GoDaddy’s support of SOPA has led the company to change its position on the legislation.
  • Apple has provided its users with a comprehensive guide for which types of purchased media users will be able to “redownload” in their respective countries. The document can be viewed here.
  • Bevil Wooding CircleID discusses the five major tech issues facing emerging markets in 2012.
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Dec 21 2011
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Morning Stories (12-21-2011)

  • The continued markup of SOPA has been delayed until next year. As reported at engadget, a petition at WhiteHouse.gov calling on the President to veto SOPA and similar legislation has already gained nearly 32,000 signatures.
  • Tools and methods of circumventing SOPA provisions are already being deployed, according to a report by Forbes. SOPA’s flaws demonstrate that the law would merely “reinforce the Internet’s fundamental security problems without blocking access to copyright-infringing sites for any user savvy enough to use simple software tools.”
  • This morning the WSJ reported that hackers in China had successfully breached the systems of the US Chamber of Commerce, accessing “everything stored on its systems, including information about its three million members.” The breach was discovered and thwarted back in the spring 2010, though two sources suggested the hackers may have had access to the systems for over a year.
  • Better policy is needed to keep entrepreneurs coming to the US and creating jobs with venture-funded businesses, according to a study by the National Foundation for American Policy.
  • National Journal reports that the swift moves by the DOJ and FCC to stifle the AT&T / T-Mobile merger may chill any future mergers for the duration of the Obama administration.
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Dec 16 2011
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Morning Stories

  • The House Judiciary Committee’s markup of SOPA is scheduled to continue today. You can view it at the Committee’s website or at KeepTheWebOpen.
  • Cecilia Kang at the Washington Post has a good review of yesterday’s hearing.
  • Marvin has a piece up at the Atlantic on the consequences of SOPA and the tension between copyright protection and speech rights – it’s a good read as the markup continues today.
  • Computer game publisher Square Enix is investigating its second security breach this year – with up to 1.8 million users across North America and Japan affected.
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Dec 14 2011
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Morning Stories (12-14-2011)

  • Foreign Affairs has a good article discussing Russia’s recent parliamentary elections, allegations that authorities interfered with reporting from news sites and blogs, and the role played by social networks like Facebook in providing an outlet for political activism
  • Threat Post discusses the story of an Austrian law student’s request for all of his Facebook data, and the 1222 PDF CD that arrived in response
  • Defence Professionals gives a quick rundown on the US “Blueprint for a Secure Cyber Future;” you can read the full report here
  • The Guardian reports that VOIP companies have gained support of European Ministers, who are calling for regulators to monitor ISPs that engage in blocking or otherwise degrade VOIP services like Skype
  •  OECD countries have issued a call for member states to preserve Internet freedoms, observing that investments in networks and light regulatory efforts are necessary for “promoting economic growth via the Internet.”
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May 18 2011
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Do Sony PlayStation Network Subscribers Have Legal Claims for Violations of Their Privacy Arising Out of the Data Breach?

The California federal courts may have an opportunity to resolve this question in ruling on a class action complaint alleging claims of negligence, unjust enrichment, unfair competition, and other claims against Sony.  The negligence count states:

50. Defendants breached their duty when they failed to properly protect their data systems from unauthorized access by third parties.

51. Defendants reasonably should have known about the security defect to their data systems before Plaintiffs’ and the other members of the Class’ personal and financial information was obtained by an unauthorized third party. Had Sony properly designed, inspected, and tested their data security system, it would have discovered and remedied the security defect.

The complaint was filed on behalf of Christopher McKewon and Christoper Wilson by the law firms of Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP, in San Diego and Chicago, Doyle Lowther LLP in San Diego, and Goldfarb Branham LLP, in Dallas, Texas.

A similar class action involving a data breach on a much smaller scale, but similar legal theories, was allowed to go forward in Maine in 2009.  Another was rejected by the Seventh Circuit in 2007.  The Mass. Supreme Judicial Court rejected another one against BJ’s Wholesale Club in 2010.

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