Category Archives: Privacy

Maybe It’s Time

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Banks fear a growing number of employees are unwittingly exposing valuable information to hackers or in some cases leaving digital clues that make a breach possible.

And

Several banks are also increasingly testing whether their employees unintentionally leave them susceptible to hackers by falling prey to “spear-phishing” attempts, in which criminals lure recipients to click on links.

And

Weeks after JP Morgan Chase & Co was hit with a massive data breach that exposed information from 76 million households, the country’s biggest bank by assets sent a fake phishing email as a test to its more than 250,000 employees. Roughly 20% of them clicked on it, according to people familiar with the email.

There’s no excuse for employees, in this day and age, being so gullible or so careless.

If employees are going to continue to be willfully irresponsible, maybe it’s time for employers to get hard-nosed in the workplace: company equipment is for company business exclusively, including during lunch or other breaks. With firing being the default sanction for misuse.

Full stop.

Encryption and Backdoors

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Senator Dianne Feinstein (D, CA) wants (this is old news) a means for Government to read our private communications, most especially those we’ve chosen to encrypt. She wants Government to be able to penetrate that encryption, via, perhaps, a backdoor.

I think that Silicon Valley has to take a look at their products. [I]f you create a product that allows evil monsters to communicate in this way,…that is a big problem.

They have apps to communicate on, which cannot be pierced even with a court order[.]

On the one hand, perhaps hammers and screwdrivers should be Government controlled—they get used by evil monsters to commit mayhem.

Perhaps guns should be Government controlled—oh, wait….

Then, there’s this:

A major breach at computer network company Juniper Networks has US officials worried that hackers working for a foreign government were able to spy on the encrypted communications of the US government and private companies for the past three years.

The FBI is investigating the breach, which involved hackers installing a back door on computer equipment, US officials told CNN.

Yet, Government, folks like Feinstein who should know better and others who are simply pandering, wants a deliberate backdoor inserted into our private communications.

I’ll say it again. There is no safety without intact individual liberty.

Apology and Action

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I would like to publicly renew my apology for this breach of trust and affirm my commitment to restoring it[.]

That’s what Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy said to a joint session of the House and Senate Homeland Security committees. The hearing focused on the Secret Service’s illegal search of Congressman Jason Chaffetz’ (R, UT) background. He also told the session that “dozens were being disciplined.” That discipline is limited to some agents—who are getting a whole 3-12 days of suspension—while no supervisors have been sanctioned.

We don’t even get to know who these few wrist-slappees are.

Clancy’s words of apology are exactly that: words. Nothing more. What is Clancy actually doing to clean up this stopped up sewer? Apparently not much.

American Companies Beholden to Foreign Governments?

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Now it appears that the Obama administration is taking yet another step to make us look like Europe: he’s negotiating an agreement that could end up requiring American companies, domiciled in America and operating in America, to report to European Union authorities.

Recall the European Court of Justice’s ruling last month that European citizens’ personal data that winds up being stored in the US as a result of various business deals is too exposed and the 15-yr-old, successful data-transfer Safe Harbor agreement between the US and the EU. This is the arrangement that’s being renegotiated, and potentially included in the new agreement is this:

American businesses could be required to report requests by US intelligence services for the data of European users under a trans-Atlantic data-transfer pact now being negotiated, according to the European Union’s justice commissioner.

Worse, it seems to be one-sided: EU companies in the US aren’t being required under this new deal to make similar reports to US authorities.

Hmm….

Religious Bigotry in our High Schools

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Bremerton, WA, High School football assistant coach Joe Kennedy has been suspended from coaching his high school football teams because after each game he leads a voluntary prayer session with his players and others wishing to join in at the 50 yard line.

The school district says it’s afraid of being seen as endorsing religion. It prefers, instead, to be seen as banning religion.

While the district appreciates Kennedy’s many positive contributions to the [Bremerton] football program, Kennedy’s conduct poses a genuine risk that the district will be liable for violating the federal and state constitutional rights of students or others[.]

This is plainly bogus. No one is forced to participate in the prayer sessions. They occur after school functions—like the football game—have ended. According to the players themselves, he doesn’t even invite them to participate: he just does his thing, and the players on their own initiative join in. Or don’t.

It gets…better. As part of Kennedy’s suspension, Superintendent Aaron Leavell told him what else he’s not allowed to do.

He was also ordered to avoid kneeling, bowing his head, or doing anything that could remotely be seen as religious.

And

Leavell had offered to let the coach engage in “private prayer” following the football games—provided no child could see the coach petitioning the Almighty[.]

Because Christianity and being Christian are such shameful things, apparently, that they need to be kept hidden away in a back bedroom.

It’s interesting, too, that Kennedy has been doing these private, voluntary prayer sessions since 2008, yet “the school district” says it only just noticed them.

That’s such blatant nonsense that it’s a clear indication of the level of integrity with which the district is approaching this problem which it’s created.