Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Virtual Streams and Best Tasting Tap Water in Australia

Dramatic Romances, by Robert Browning


Which council has Australia’s best-tasting water?
Every year Australia’s councils contest the 'Academy Awards' of the water industry: the Best Tasting Tap Water in Australia.

Tasmania Police issue scam alert about fake ATO email and voice messages ...


Half of cryptocurrency users happily admit to lying to the IRS

Despite the promise that the IRS would be targeting cryptocurrency profits this year, much like the ATO is, plenty of people are willing to risk the IRS' ire rather than pay taxes. However, those who used Coinbase between 2013 and 2015 might be less likely to get away with it. 
We all know that dogs, as our best animal friends, are loyal, friendly, and kind. People born under the sign of the dog are said to share those traits
2018 The Year of Earth Dog

When Lionel Messi scores a goal, the city of Barcelona literally shakes, says a seismometer installed nearby 
BBC News


Open banking and digital identity


“It is crucial that any open data regime is subject to strong monitoring and enforcement to ensure that the risk of fraud, identity theft and security breaches are minimised.” Macquarie Bank has also launched an open banking program which will enable customers to connect to FinTechs and other third parties, as well as share ...


Guilty verdicts on eight fraud charges 'unsustainable' lawyer argues

Russian hacking: Up to 400 Australian companies caught up in cyber attacks blamed on Moscow 
Trend:  YouTube confessional videos from self-proclaimed time travellers from the future


Business people make six times as many FOI requests as journos in NSW.
Journalists only made 3% of requests for New South Wales government information in the last financial year, while six times as many came from private sector companies.

  

U.S. Cyber Command chief calls for debate around hacking unit's authorities

CyberScoop A Lawmakers and Pentagon leadership are considering plans that could one day provide U.S. Cyber Command with additional authorities to more easily operate outside declared war zones, two senior U.S. officials acknowledged Wednesday during an open congressional hearing.  





CyberScoop - April 11, 2018
Following years of effort and billions of dollars’ worth of research and planning, the nation finally has a fully operational force of cyberwarriors at U.S. Cyber Command. Yet, as those troops confront adversaries around the world, there’s uncertainty across government about how to best make use of them. While lawmakers push the Trump administration to exact revenge for years of cyberattacks on U.S. targets, a quiet but constant tug of war is raging between the intelligence community and the military over the future of government-backed hacking operations. 


What if we paid for Facebook? It would cost us about $20 per user per year. (Also, Cowen's point that WhatsApp is a suitable 1-to-1 replacement for FB seems wrong.)


 

What Mark Zuckerberg should know about testifying before Congress.
"You need to focus on the purpose of the hearing and what the officials on the dais want to hear." (Harvard Business Review)



TAxing Column 8


Gov Info Security

Federal regulators are warning the healthcare sector about ongoing attacks involving SamSam ransomware that have impacted at least eight U.S. organizations so far this year. A recent alert from the Department of Health and Human Services' Healthcare Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center notes that the SamSam malware, active since 2016, has been largely associated with ransomware attacks against hospitals and others in the healthcare and public health sector. Rich Curtiss, CISO at the consultancy Clearwater Compliance, says that heathcare has been hard-hit in recent SamSam attacks for key reasons: "Healthcare, in general, is and has been the number one critical infrastructure sector to be targeted by cybercriminals. Healthcare is a soft target, and as long as cybersecurity is cast as an IT problem, it will remain a soft target. This virtually ensures any new attacks will target healthcare organizations first and foremost." The alert notes that in recent SamSam incidents, victim organizations reported that their files were encrypted with the ".weapologize" extension that displayed a "sorry" message.




Politico - April 12, 2018

The State Department on Thursday warned employees about a tidal wave of malicious messages attempting to trick staffers into opening a door for hackers. “Personnel are advised to be alert for suspicious activity related to ongoing cyber operations targeting the Department,” the agency’s Cyber and Technology Security Directorate said in an email sent early Thursday morning to all workers. Last month, more than 2,000 employees received emails, texts and social media messages designed to fool them into either downloading malware or handing over their login information, according to the email, which multiple sources provided to POLITICO. The warning encouraged employees to report the malicious messages to help cyber experts “understand the broadened scope of cyber targeting against the Department.”
  
The suburb wooing millennials with avocados and cheap houses.
"In a new comic-strip ad campaign, Homewood, Illinois, bills itself as a hip, diverse, urban neighborhood that Millennials can afford." (CityLab)