Security
There’s not much research on getting a new program in place, but police chiefs who have been there have a lot of ideas about what to do — and what not to do.
Several Internet service providers (ISPs) are claiming that Maine’s user privacy protection laws are imposing “unduly burdensome restrictions.” But the state is just regulating where the federal government would not.
As New York workers are now remote to avoid the coronavirus, technological challenges arise, revealing weaknesses. From VPN access to phishing scams, some businesses aren’t prepared for the mass remote work.
Health officials will employ artificial intelligence to scan some 24,000 papers on COVID-19 to find patterns and insights about the pandemic. “Our hope is that AI can be used to help find answers to a key set of questions.”
There were 15 reported ransomware attacks in New Mexico in 2019 and only seven the year prior. Cyberattacks are a growing threat to the state and officials are making security plans to prevent further loss.
Hennepin, Minn., investigator requested the encrypted Facebook messages of a criminal suspect via warrant. Many are concerned about whether Facebook should release the messages or if that would compromise privacy.
A December 2018 data breach in the Oklahoma Department of Securities allegedly released names, Social Security numbers and other information of more than 300,000 people. A class-action lawsuit has been filed in response.
Intel’s Portland office will begin using facial recognition to identify “high risk individuals.” The company touts the tech as being used for safety, but many are concerned about privacy and surveillance.
A cybersecurity firm says Los Angeles’ Department of Water and Power and the mayor are covering up an “extremely high number of unpatched vulnerabilities” in the utility’s cybersecurity. The firm claims that DWP still owes $3M.
Amazon’s Ring works with over 950 police departments nationwide and has great stores of recordings. Many are concerned about how Ring controls what police can say about the tech and about neighbor privacy and safety.
While the Pennsylvania city says it has not yet established a facial recognition (FR) policy, the city police have been working with Clearview AI, a FR company that is controversial for its photo mining practices.
Despite some no-shows at the RSA conference, the event showcased important information on cybersecurity. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles County, a $280 million voting system ran into technical issues during its debut.
Refusing to pay in a ransomware cyberattack can end up costing millions of dollars and weeks of backed-up work. Some governments pay ransom and have insurance cover the bulk of it, others refuse the extortion.
The Maine public safety commissioner recently acknowledged that the state police use facial recognition and other surveillance technologies as part of their investigations. Lawmakers are concerned about citizen privacy.
A letter posted online last week expressed opposition to use of facial recognition on college and university campuses as it “poses a unique threat to safety, civil liberties, and academic freedom on campus.”
Federal immigration officers have accessed the Motor Vehicle Association’s database of drivers numerous times in the past two years and lawmakers hope to end that. But some fear the bill’s “potential implications.”
A community discussion was held on the usefulness and benefits of facial recognition systems in schools, which “would have been great to have had before we wrote the check.” The technology has been in use in New York since January.
After tensions escalated between Iran and the U.S., government officials warned of potential cyberattacks, including against our vulnerable electric grid. “It is not a matter of if, but when, an attack will happen.”
Researchers from the University of Michigan are concerned about health privacy as tech and health become more intertwined. A study found that 19 of 24 prominent health apps were sharing user data.
A Tesla crashed while Autopilot was engaged, but Tesla won’t release the car’s data that is stored in it’s cloud. Turns out, no current laws give car owners the right to access operational, safety data.
The state of Oregon has already banned police from using body cameras with facial recognition, but the city wants to take the ban further. “We felt a moral obligation to develop a broader approach.”
Plus, Kentucky officials report regular scans of their election systems by foreign adversaries; surveillance becomes normalized thanks to the growing popularity of doorbell cameras; and more.
An audit released Wednesday revealed that 19 state agencies have significant IT weaknesses and no significant progress has been made to amend the situation. “It’s a very serious situation.”
In response to a study last year that found facial recognition programs disproportionately misidentified minority groups, legislation was proposed to ban the technology’s use by local and state government.
An Iowa senator proposed a “right to be forgotten” bill that would allow users to hide “content of minimal value” from public access. The bill’s sponsor hopes to provide online recourse “to take down or revise or correct content.”
Pennsylvania experienced problems with the new voting machines used last November. Then the Iowa failure happened. Now, with new election laws and, again, new voting machines, the state is nervous about the April primary.
The California state auditor found that four law enforcement agencies have “risked individuals’ privacy” through an insecure license plate database. The report’s data suggests the problem could be statewide.
Florida’s supervisor of elections has divulged a previously unreported ransomware virus in the elections department just weeks before the 2016 election. As the state preps for March primaries, concerns of security are amplified.
Clearview AI stands apart from other facial recognition companies because it pulls photos from commercial sites, like Facebook and Twitter, for its image database. Some are concerned by the company’s access.
Cybercriminals are targeting the often outdated security precautions of state and local governments as evidenced by the increasing rates of ransomware attacks. Experts caution they’ll only stop once cybersecurity measures get better at the local level.
With electronic voting and vote-counting machines susceptible to hacking, paper ballots ensure recounts are possible – and accurate.
