Saturday, June 13, 2015

Journalism and Hacking

Hack Attack by Nick Davies who is in Sydney this month

Abuse of power in a democracy “needs concealment like a vampire needs the dark,” or the “story hit the power elite like a fan dancer at a funeral.” And when describing his anonymous contacts Davies sounds like a thriller writer decidedly manqué: “I’ll call him Mr Apollo,” “I’ll call him Imrich...” 

On 8 June 1949 George Orwell published 1984

Journalism Resources on the Internet: Marcus P. Zillman’s new guide is a selective, comprehensive bibliography of reliable, subject specific and actionable sources of journalism resources and sites for researchers in all sectors.

The International Journal of Press/Politics 1–20 DOI: 10.1177/1940161215581924 – The Media’s Role in Lawmaking: A Case Study Analysis. Lotte Melenhorst, June 1, 2015.
“Despite the ongoing debate about the role the media play in democracies, there is little empirical research on its role in lawmaking.

Up and Out: Journalism, Social Media, and Historical Sensibility, C.W. Anderson. Social Media + Society April-June 2015 1: 2056305115578674, first published on May 11, 2015 doi:10.1177/2056305115578674
“Much of the modern theorizing about journalism and communication attained its robustness due to a powerful convergence of distinct middle-range scholarly findings that emerged primarily in the 1970s and 1980s.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) argued Friday that public and private data are both vulnerable to breaches if Congress doesn't act. “Whether a government agency or private company, no one is immune to attacks by increasingly sophisticated adversaries,” McCain said in a statement. “We cannot sit idly-by, accepting a situation in which persistent cyber-attacks and data insecurity are the new norm.” McCain: 'No one is immune' to hacking


“The United States Department of Justice wants to broaden its ability to hack criminal suspects’ computers, according to a new legal proposal that was first published by The Wall Street Journal on [March 27, 2015]. The 402-page document entitled “Advisory Committee on Criminal Rules” is scheduled to be discussed at an upcoming Department of Justice (DOJ) meeting [April 2015] in New Orleans. Federal agents have been known to use such tactics in past and ongoing cases: a Colorado federal magistrate judge approved sending malware to a suspect’s known e-mail address in 2012.
·        2015 Cost of Data Breach Study: Global Analysis Benchmark research sponsored by IBM Independently conducted by Ponemon Institute LLC, May 2015.
“The study found the average consolidated total cost of a data breach is $3.8 million representing a 23% increase since 2013. The study also reports that the cost incurred for each lost or stolen record containing sensitive and confidential information increased six percent from a consolidated average of $145 to $154.”



The Office of Personnel Management is being called to the carpet by lawmakers over a massive cyber breach that may have exposed the personal and financial information of millions of federal employees.  Lawmakers fault OPM over massive cyber breach