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Curiouser and Curiouser

YouTube - 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests

Posted: June 3rd, 2009, 11:45am CDT

Tags: Current Events [edit]

video of the Tank Man.

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Rational Survivability

Privacy Execs: Orange Jumpsuits In Your Future? Google's Privacy Counsel Criminally Charged

Posted: February 2nd, 2009, 11:27pm CST by beaker

Tags: Current Affairs [edit]

I find this case extremely fascinating on many levels. From eWeek:

Italian officials charge Google Global Privacy Counsel Peter Fleischer* with criminal charges of defamation and failure to exercise control over personal data two years after Google posted a video depicting fellow students harassing a student with Down syndrome.

Unlike Italian Internet service providers, who are not responsible for posted content, content providers like Google can be held liable for delivered materials.

According to the International Association of Privacy Professionals, the charges are thought to be the first criminal sanction ever pursued against a privacy professional for his company's actions.

You can see the original story from the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) here.

The implications of this are quite profound as you can imagine. CEO's and CFO's can be held accountable for crimes committed under their watch, so it's not too far of a stretch to see how privacy officers like Fleischer will have their feet held to the fire when subject to international law that takes a different perspective on the responsibilities associated with privacy than we might.

How many indictments have we had in the U.S. for the release of information in corporate breaches? The U.K.?

I'm not making a judgment call on this particular case because I certainly don't have all of the details, but it sets a very interseting precedent.

Imagine if you were a Chief Privacy Officer or perhaps a Chief Information Officer subject to this sort of scrutiny outside of the due care and stewardship requirements of the job in general. If something bad happens, generally the worst thing that might occur is you lose your job.

Imagine if you were personally liable for the posting of content from millions of users globally and could be sentenced to share a shower and a cell with an angry Italian man who can't get a decent cappuccino. I can't imagine what that would be like.

This may be the first time a privacy professional has been charged on behalf of the company he/she is employed by, but I will bet this won't be the last time it happens, either.

Besides the impact this can have on employees of providers of service, Google suggests it calls into focus larger issues of Net Neutrality:
Google issued a statement late Feb. 2 stressing the company's sympathy for the victim and his family, but insisted, "We feel that bringing this case to court is totally wrong. It's akin to prosecuting mail service employees for hate speech letters sent in the post.

What's more, seeking to hold neutral platforms liable for content posted on them is a direct attack on a free, open Internet. We will continue to vigorously defend our employees in this prosecution."

An interesting argument for sure and one I can see being debated vigorously. It's clear Google operates globally, so they must understand this sort of thing could happen. What about Facebook (sorry, Chris) or MySpace? What happens when Amazon is used to host data that is mishandled by someone. What then?

Imagine what fun it's going to be when we're all cloudified and the mash-up frenzy makes the cross-pollenization of information today look orderly; who's responsible then?

What do you think? Should privacy officers be liable for events like this? Should CSO's/CISO's and Compliance Managers be liable when a breach occurs exposing protected information? Think about that answer very carefully.

/Hoff

*You can find Peter Fleischer's blog here.

Curiouser and Curiouser

6 Myths About GM, Ford, and Chrysler

Posted: December 19th, 2008, 8:54am CST

Tags: Current Events [edit]

I much enjoyed this article.

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The Bailout Round II: Adult Version?

Posted: September 30th, 2008, 11:40pm CDT

Tags: Current Events [edit]

Watching Dean Baker on CSPAN at the moment, visited his think tank's site, lots of interesting talking point memos.

With much of this equity now eliminated by the collapse of the bubble, many families can no longer sustain their levels of consumption. The main reason that banks won't lend to these families is that they no longer have home equity to serve as collateral. It wouldn't matter how much money the banks had, they are not going to make mortgage loans to people who have no equity.

And house prices are not going to come back. This is like Pets.com. We are not going to get the price of $200,000 homes in central California back up to $500,000.

...

How do we go about getting the banks in order? Almost every economist I know rejects the Paulson approach and argues instead for directly injecting capital into the banks. The taxpayers give them the money and then we own some, or all, of the bank. (That's what Warren Buffet did with Goldman Sachs.)

This isn't about begging for a sliver of equity as a concession for a $700 billion bailout, this is about constructing a bank rescue the way that business people would do it. We have an interest in a well-operating financial system. There is zero public interest in giving away taxpayer dollars to the Wall Street banks and their executives.

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Speaking at BlackHat 2008:

Posted: May 16th, 2008, 8:13am CDT

Tags: Current Events [edit]

Circumventing Automated JavaScript Analysis Tools
Billy Hoffman

[snip]

Next we explore multiple new techniques to circumvent the current generation of automated analysis tools by detecting their presence from inside malicious JavaScript. (JSPill? hmmmm) These methods include HTTP/browser fingerprinting, DOM testing and encrypting, Doman and Network testing, Execution environment testing, and cross plugin communication testing. We will demonstrate malicious JavaScript detecting analysis tools using these methods and refusing to give up its secrets until its running in the web browser of choice. We’ll demonstrate encrypting JavaScript to only run in particular browsers or environments. We’ll also demonstrate a couple other tricks, such as encoding malicious JavaScript as nothing but white space, and function clobbering for fun and profit.

Time to kick CaffineMonkey in the ass. Sorry Ben, I owe you a beer.

And, as is often the case, this technology has no legitimate use.

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Who needs security when you have a robot? | ajc.com

Posted: February 22nd, 2008, 11:44am CST

Tags: Current Events [edit]

Late at night several times a week, Terrill powers up the 4-foot-tall, 300 pound device and reaches for a remote control packed with two joysticks and various knobs and switches. Standing on a nearby corner, he maneuvers the machine down the block, often to a daycare center where it accosts what Terrill says are drug dealers, vagrants and others who shouldn't be there.
He flashes the robot's spotlight and grabs a walkie-talkie, which he uses to boom his disembodied voice over the robot's sound system.
"I tell them they are trespassing, it's private property, and they have to leave," he said. "They throw bottles and cans at it. That's when I shoot the water cannon. They just scatter like roaches."
OMG, I can't believe he actually built it, and I can't believe it actually works.
You now have something more to look forward to at O'Terrill's besides the fish and chips!

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Taxi to the Dark Side

Posted: February 9th, 2008, 10:30pm CST

Tags: Current Events [edit]

Put people in a crazy situation and people do crazy things
You have no right to a lawyer
you have no right to witnesses
You don't really know what the charges are
And you certainly don't know what the secret evidence is against you
Its not about left or right, its about right and wrong
This is playing in Atlanta at The Landmark

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Defense Minister: How can offensive-forbidden Japan stop UFO Attack

Posted: January 22nd, 2008, 2:42pm CST

Tags: Current Events [edit]

Japan's Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba is considering how his Self-Defense Forces could respond to an attack by space aliens while adhering to limits on military action under the country's war-renouncing Constitution.
Ishiba said yesterday a Japanese military response, such as those in the Godzilla movie series, would require legal review and said he is studying ways Japan could deal with an attack. Ishiba said his comments represent a ``personal view,'' and not Defense Ministry policy, according to the transcript of the press conference published on the ministry's Web Site.
``There are no grounds for us to deny there are unidentified flying objects and some life-form that controls them,'' Ishiba said. ``Few discussions have been held on what the legal grounds are'' for a military response.
A most interesting problem to have. I suggest building a giant robotic lizard and hiding him in a volcano until the aliens attack.

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Down in it.

Posted: December 19th, 2007, 4:53pm CST

Tags: Current Events [edit]

All the SPI folks are in our new office and all of SPI senior management that used to have offices now has cubes like the rest of us.
I was up above it.
I was up above it.
Now I'm down in it
I was up above it.
I was up above it.
Now I'm down in it
-Nine Inch Nails, Down in it

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Toothbursh... or Sex Device?

Posted: December 17th, 2007, 3:29pm CST

Tags: Current Events [edit]

Lawyers representing Procter & Gamble send a 66-page cease-and-desist letter to British sex-toy company Love Honey, demanding that it stop using images of its Oral B electric toothbrushes to promote a product called the Brush Bunny - a rabbit-shaped piece of plastic that slips over the top of an Oral B to turn it into a vibrator.

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My Security Planet » Tags » Current

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10 items tagged "Current"

Curiouser and Curiouser

YouTube - 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests

Posted: June 3rd, 2009, 11:45am CDT

Tags: Current Events [edit]

Rational Survivability

Privacy Execs: Orange Jumpsuits In Your Future? Google's Privacy Counsel Criminally Charged

Posted: February 2nd, 2009, 11:27pm CST by beaker

Tags: Current Affairs [edit]

Curiouser and Curiouser

6 Myths About GM, Ford, and Chrysler

Posted: December 19th, 2008, 8:54am CST

Tags: Current Events [edit]

The Bailout Round II: Adult Version?

Posted: September 30th, 2008, 11:40pm CDT

Tags: Current Events [edit]

Speaking at BlackHat 2008:

Posted: May 16th, 2008, 8:13am CDT

Tags: Current Events [edit]

Who needs security when you have a robot? | ajc.com

Posted: February 22nd, 2008, 11:44am CST

Tags: Current Events [edit]

Taxi to the Dark Side

Posted: February 9th, 2008, 10:30pm CST

Tags: Current Events [edit]

Defense Minister: How can offensive-forbidden Japan stop UFO Attack

Posted: January 22nd, 2008, 2:42pm CST

Tags: Current Events [edit]

Down in it.

Posted: December 19th, 2007, 4:53pm CST

Tags: Current Events [edit]

Toothbursh... or Sex Device?

Posted: December 17th, 2007, 3:29pm CST

Tags: Current Events [edit]