The DB carries an article about how surveillance cameras haven’t reduced crime in the residential areas around campus. When do cameras work? During the day when there is light. When does the vandalism which was used as excuse to spend lavishly on cameras occur? At night. You’d think someone would have figured that out before spending lavishly.
In fairness, some think the cameras a success. Vendors who sold the gear, for example. After all, the check cleared.
The ‘internet of things’ has much allure, but also danger, as this Reuters report describes. The feds are looking into what flaws may expose these devices to cyber exploits. No surprise here – more connectivity and more complex functionality will leave more opportunities for unintended consequences from how the systems are used, or in some cases, misused. In these cases there is a lot of potential down side for patients.
“It’s a mistake to conflate that with the abduction of the University of Virginia undergraduate.” Those are the words of scholar and commentator Heather MacDonald in her latest article The Culture of Campus ‘Rape Culture’. And it contains some very useful advice.
MacDonald goes on in greater detail about the “weirdness of the campus sex scene” in another article, titled “Neo-Victorianism on Campus” in the Weekly Standard.
All of which contrasts starkly with this week’s Diamondback promotion of sex at College Park.
This interview reveals what is almost routine sorts of news, that commonly used apps – flashlights in this case – give away your world. But it is nevertheless one of the more extreme examples both in terms of silliness (no justification for requesting, much less receiving, permission to access some kinds of data) and extent (impact over number of people). Nothing short of nation states are interested in things at this scale
To save you some clicking around, this is the full list of apps on which they report.
“Britons must accept a greater loss of digital freedoms in return for greater safety from serious criminals and terrorists in the internet age, according to the country’s top law enforcement officer.” Wolves often find it useful to remind the flock that it must regularly push the outliers and stragglers out for dinner so the pack can stay safe bunched together.
Apple will no longer provide decryption service to authorities, even with a search warrant, in their new iOS 8 devices. This is a sound business move – the overhead to do that in present models has to be high, and it is not like that is a profit center for the company – and not to mention how increasingly unpopular that service turns out to be with consumers as we all move forward.
(Weren’t we all excited about getting Maryland hooked in with Coursera a few short years ago? Where is all the hoopla now?)
Apparently the CIA really did conduct an improper search of senate computers. See, the government can be trusted to tell the truth — err, at least after enough resources are poured into investigating it and its nose is rubbed into the evidence.
That’s the conclusion one draws from a RAND Corporation report “H4CKERS WANTED” as related in the linked article.
There is of course rising demand, but judging from this report the demand is easily being met at most levels, especially the entry level. If the NSA has no issues filling cyber security slots, then those who believe in the law of supply and demand will look skeptically on claims that the commercial sector (where salaries and benefits are much greater) is having a problem.
If there is an area where cyber security opportunities are not being as easily filled then it is at the more senior levels, where other skill sets – broader technical skills, business experience and managerial preparation – become key. Those are all things not found in the burgeoning cyber security preparation tracks on campuses, and while that fact might give pause to someone considering such a college focus, another should scream at them: the report considers effective hackers as “born, not made.” Recruiters thus focus on identifying prospects based on talent, not credentials, and at least at the NSA these hires will then be sent to the fed’s own training programs.
Do you have a Bachelor degree in CS with lots of classes in cyber security? After graduation you could end up side-by-side with an 18-year-old in the same training class for potentially several years more training by the feds. Any differential in career advancement potential might take many more years to manifest itself and even then will rely on content not typically taught in cyber security tech tracks on campus.
Some might thus say that the best long-term strategy for a successful career in cyber security would involve excelling in more traditional computer science and business tracks – the ‘liberal arts’ sort of message that recruiters don’t want parroted lest it impact their ability to land hires inexpensively in support of short-term contracts.