Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues October 21 2018

Subject: How to Recover Google Contacts
Source: Digital Trends
https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-recover-google-contacts/

It makes sense that you might want to prune the list from time to time, but what if you accidentally remove an important contact? Restoring lost contacts is an easy process, although it has some limitations. We’ll show you how to do it. And if you need other tips to make the most out of your Gmail account, we’ve got a guide to that, too.

How to restore contacts

The good news is that you can restore contacts you have deleted; the bad news is that you can only undo changes to your contacts up to 30 days after they happen.

First, go to Google Contacts.

Editors’ Recommendations

NB other COMPUTING articles from Digital Trends – https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/

RSS: https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/feed/


Subject: ‘Marsy’s Law’ Protections for Crime Victims Sound Great, but Could Cause Problems
Source: Stateline blog – The Pew Charitable Trusts
https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2018/10/12/marsys-law-protections-for-crime-victims-sound-great-but-could-cause-problems

Voters in six states soon will face a ballot initiative that for some seems like a no-brainer: whether to grant crime victims certain rights under the state constitution, such as the right to be treated with fairness, the right to confer with the prosecution and the right to attend key court proceedings. But even as a coordinated, billionaire-backed campaign spreads across the country, some lawyers and civil rights experts say the push to give crime victims constitutional rights equal to those of criminal defendants could set up a clash over core aspects of the U.S. legal system, such as the accused person’s Sixth Amendment right to due process and the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.

“It undermines our system of justice as we know it,” said Holly Welborn, policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada.

bonus RSS feed for blog:

https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline?feed=rss

Special Features – Stateline Legislative Review 2018 Stateline Calendar 2018 ‘Free and Fair’ Elections? Marijuana in the States The Opioid Crisis

Featured Analysis – State Prison Partnerships Would You Know if Your State Was in a Recession? Legal Judgments Can Add to Local Government Distress


Subject: How to Protect Your iCloud Account
Source: Digital Trends
https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-protect-your-icloud-account/

If you haven’t heard, iCloud security is a hot topic these days. From claims that China infiltrated Apple with hidden spy chips (reports that Apple vigorously denies) to last year’s threats from the “Turkish Crime Family” regarding stolen account passwords, it’s understandable if you’re worried about how safe your iCloud data is. You can learn more about how Apple works on end-to-end encryption that has thus far kept iCloud largely safe from hackers. But there’s plenty you can do on your end to help make iCloud safer and well protected as well. Here are the basic steps you should to increase your iCloud security.


Subject: Supply Chain Security 101: An Expert’s View
Source: Krebs on Security
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2018/10/supply-chain-security-101-an-experts-view/

Earlier this month I spoke at a cybersecurity conference in Albany, N.Y. alongside Tony Sager, senior vice president and chief evangelist at the Center for Internet Security and a former bug hunter at the U.S. National Security Agency. We talked at length about many issues, including supply chain security, and I asked Sager whether he’d heard anything about rumors that Supermicro — a high tech firm in San Jose, Calif. — had allegedly inserted hardware backdoors in technology sold to a number of American companies.

The event Sager and I spoke at was prior to the publication of Bloomberg Businessweek‘s controversial story alleging that Supermicro had duped almost 30 companies into buying backdoored hardware. Sager said he hadn’t heard anything about Supermicro specifically, but we chatted at length about the challenges of policing the technology supply chain.

Below are some excerpts from our conversation. I learned quite bit, and I hope you will, too…

Since Bloomberg’s story broke, The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the National Cyber Security Centre, a unit of Britain’s eavesdropping agency, GCHQ, both came out with statements saying they had no reason to doubt vehement denials by Amazon and Apple that they were affected by any incidents involving Supermicro’s supply chain security. Apple also penned a strongly-worded letter to lawmakers denying claims in the story.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reporters published a follow-up story citing new, on-the-record evidence to back up claims made in their original story.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 12th, 2018 at 9:03 pm and is filed under A Little Sunshine, The Coming Storm. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a comment. Pinging is currently not allowed.


Subject: How to ditch Google
Source: Business Insider
https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-ditch-google-2018-10

After news of the Google+ fiasco, we know at least some of you do. But it’s hard to leave Google — for most, Google powers much of our daily, digital lives. Its tremendous array of useful apps and services makes it really easy to stay with Google forever.

Luckily, a list recently appeared on ProductHunt — called “No More Google” — that provides “privacy-friendly alternatives to Google products.” It’s solid advice on how to break free from Google’s grip without being any less productive and knowledgeable.


Subject: ‘Do Not Track’ Privacy Tool Doesn’t Do Anything
Source: Gizmodo
https://gizmodo.com/do-not-track-the-privacy-tool-used-by-millions-of-peop-1828868324

When you go into the privacy settings on your browser, there’s a little option there to turn on the “Do Not Track” function, which will send an invisible request on your behalf to all the websites you visit telling them not to track you. A reasonable person might think that enabling it will stop a porn site from keeping track of what she watches, or keep Facebook from collecting the addresses of all the places she visits on the internet, or prevent third-party trackers she’s never heard of from following her from site to site. According to a recent survey by Forrester Research, a quarter of American adults use “Do Not Track” to protect their privacy. (Our own stats at Gizmodo Media Group show that 9% of visitors have it turned on.) We’ve got bad news for those millions of privacy-minded people, though: “Do Not Track” is like spray-on sunscreen, a product that makes you feel safe while doing little to actually protect you.

Why do we have this meaningless option in browsers? The main reason why Do Not Track, or DNT, as insiders call it, became a useless tool is that the government refused to step in and give it any kind of legal authority. If a telemarketer violates the Do Not Call list, they can be fined up to $16,000 per violation. There is no penalty for ignoring Do Not Track.


Subject: The Employer Surveillance State
Source: The Atlantic via beSpacific
https://www.bespacific.com/the-employer-surveillance-state/

The Atlantic – The more bosses try to keep track of their workers, the more precious time employees waste trying to evade them.

Employers monitor workers because they can.

Perhaps the most common argument for surveillance—one often deployed by firms that make employee-monitoring products—is that it can make workers more productive. Purveyors of monitoring software claim they can help managers reduce the number of wasted hours and ensure that employees make better use of their time…The proposition that job performance improves when employees are monitored, and thereby theoretically deprived of the opportunity to steal, is not a hopeful one…”

beSpacific Subjects: Courts, E-Mail, Internet, Legal Research, Privacy

The Atlantic topic:

https://www.theatlantic.com/projects/human-capital/

RSS feed for the Best of The Atlantic:

https://www.theatlantic.com/feed/best-of/


Subject: U.S. consumers need more control over social media data: lawmaker.
Source: Reuters via Yahoo
https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-consumers-more-control-over-social-media-data-221214580–finance.html

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. consumers should be able to easily move data like photographs and contacts from one social media application to another, potentially opening up a path for new tech entrants to compete with companies like Facebook, a lawmaker set to take a lead on antitrust issues said.

Representative David Cicilline, a Democrat, is in line to lead the House Judiciary Committee’s antitrust subcommittee if, as expected, the Democrats win a majority of seats in the House of Representatives next month. The position would empower him to promote antitrust legislation and to draw more attention to the public debate over the power of tech companies. In an interview with Reuters last week, Cicilline said that giving consumers the power to move their data would spur the growth of new social media alternatives that could offer features such as greater privacy or less advertising.

The Internet Association, a group representing tech companies, last month backed the idea of allowing consumers to download personal information they had already provided to one company and easily upload it to a different one in what is known as “data portability.”


Subject: Scams near you, by the numbers
Source: FTC Consumer Information
h10/scams-near-you-numbers” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener” ttps://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2018/10/scams-near-you-numbers

Every day, people across the country are telling the FTC what happened to them. Maybe they lost money to a scam, lost their identity, or just spotted something that looked fishy and wanted somebody to know. All of that information helps FTC and other law enforcement agencies investigate and bring cases against scammers. And, every year, we roll up all that data and give it back to you in an annual data book. Now, though, you don’t have to wait a year to find out what’s happening.

Starting today, the FTC is making that Consumer Sentinel data available to you every quarter. If you visit ftc.gov/data, you’ll find an interactive online tool that lets you find things like….

Tagged with: data

Blog Topics: Privacy, Identity & Online Security

Some FTC RSS feeds: https://www.ftc.gov/stay-connected#RSS


Subject: Apple Launches a New Privacy Website that Lets You Find all the Data the Company Has on You
Source: CNBC via LJ infoDOCKET
https://www.infodocket.com/2018/10/17/apple-launches-a-new-privacy-website-that-lets-you-find-all-the-data-the-company-has-on-you/

From CNBC:

Apple is moving forward several privacy upgrades Wednesday, including launching a portal that allows customers to search and see what kind of data the company has kept on them.

The privacy portal was already tested in the European Union in May, coinciding with the EU’s launch of restrictive privacy legislation called the General Data Protection Legislation (GDPR). The information collected may include data such as calendar entries, photos, reminders, documents, website bookmarks, App Store purchases or support history of repairs to your devices, among other items.

Filed Under: News
RSS feed:
https://www.infodocket.com/category/news/feed/


Subject: How to delete your account with Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple, and more.
Source: Business Insider
https://www.businessinsider.com/delete-your-account-facebook-amazon-google-apple-twitter-2018-10

The only way to ensure your sensitive data can’t be compromised is by removing your information from the Internet entirely. In other words, if you’re really worried about protecting your data from any future hacks…now is the time to delete your account.

Here’s how to delete your accounts for many of the major websites, apps, and services…


Subject: Fighting Election Interference in Real Time
Source: Facebook Newsroom
https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/10/war-room/

Over the past two years, we’ve made steady progress preventing election interference on Facebook. But as our teams have gotten smarter, so have the adversaries seeking to misuse our services. So in September, ahead of the Brazilian and US elections, we opened our first physical elections war room in Menlo Park, California. Our goal: to get the right subject-matter experts from across the company in one place so they can address potential problems identified by our technology in real time and respond quickly.

The war room has over two dozen experts from across the company – including from our threat intelligence, data science, software engineering, research, community operations and legal teams. These employees represent and are supported by the more than 20,000 people working on safety and security across Facebook. When everyone is in the same place, the teams can make decisions more quickly, reacting immediately to any threats identified by our systems, which can reduce the spread of potentially harmful content. Our dashboards offer real-time monitoring on key elections issues, such as efforts to prevent people from voting, increases in spam, potential foreign interference, or reports of content that violates our policies..


Subject: Surveillance, facial recognition, law enforcement
Security: Homeland Security Newswire
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/dr20181018-the-problem-with-using-super-recognizers-to-spot-criminals-in-a-crowd

People often say that they never forget a face, but for some people, this claim might actually be true. So-called super recognizers are said to possess exceptional face recognition abilities, often remembering the faces of those they have only briefly encountered or haven’t seen for many years. Their unique skills have even caught the attention of policing and security organizations, who have begun using super recognizers to match photographs of suspects or missing persons to blurry CCTV footage. But recent research shows that the methods used to identify super recognizers are limited, and that the people recruited for this work might not always be as super as initially thought.

…Emma Portch is Lecturer in Psychology, Bournemouth University. This article is published courtesy of The Conversation.

Posted in: Big Data, Civil Liberties, Congress, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, E-Commerce, E-Government, Email, KM, Legal Research, Privacy, Social Media, Spyware