Security & Privacy – Page 9

Wifi laptops exposure and reproductive health

June 2, 2011 by timbatchelder, posted in Cognitive Science, Data Governance, Health Informatics, Network Science, Security & Privacy, Systems Science

English: Electron microscope image of sperm. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For years, other countries have been far more cautious about the impacts of electromagnetic radiation on human health than in the US and far too little is known about this as we increasingly expose ourselves to these fields. In parts of Europe for example there are much stricter regulations on exposure to EMFs than in the US. Recently new research shows an additional area of potential concern: Wifi signal and a laptop can damage sperm performance including causing a decrease in human sperm motility, sperm DNA fragmentation (irreversible changes in the genetic code), damaging up to 25% of the sperm. As a result, while we may need many technologies to work, we should be careful to limit my exposure through certain measures. Personally I am cautious to ensure adequate distance between electric sources since EMFs decrease significantly with distance.

Wi-Fi Laptops Harm Sperm Motility And Increase Sperm DNA Fragmentation.

Donor Sperm Quality: The little cells that make a big difference (europeanspermbankusa.com)
If WiFi and cell phone radiation are safe, why has Belgium’s telecomm boss banned them from his offices? (ascendingstarseed.wordpress.com)
TV Bad, Exercise Good for Sperm Count in Young Men (news.health.com)
If WiFi and cell phone radiation are safe, why has Belgium’s telecomm boss banned them from his offices? (thetruthseeker.co.uk)
Too Much TV Tied to Lower Sperm Count in Young Men (news.health.com)
Jet fuel, plastics exposures cause disease in later generations; Reproductive diseases, obesity (sciencedaily.com)
A Cell Phone in a Pocket can Drastically Reduce Sperm Count and Motility (Arousal) According to Author Peter McIntosh of ‘A Subtle Addiction’ the eBook of 2013 (virtual-strategy.com)
A Sedentary Lifestyle Can Reduce Sperm Quality (medicalnewstoday.com)
Wifi (triformblog.wordpress.com)

Prey: Affordable tools emerge to track and visualize the travels of your devices

June 2, 2011 by timbatchelder, posted in Cognitive Science, Data Governance, Design UX, Information Visualization, Knowledge Management, Metadata Masterdata, Security & Privacy

Over the past years, I’ve realized that my devices and the information they store is increasingly important to me. But unlike many commercial sectors from pharmaceuticals to shipping, there was no consumer level technology to easily, inexpensively and legally monitor them and their use. However recently new applications such as Prey and Apple’s Find my iPhone have emerged that will do just that. This technology uses GPS and Wifi (such as Boston’s Skyhook Wireless, which looks for nearby Wi-Fi networks). Other remote access programs such as TeamViewer can be used similarly and take photos and videos remotely. And even automate cloud based backup programs such as Mozy, Backblaze, and SugarSync can be used to view files accidentally stored by a thief. Bentley University student, Mark Bao, hilariously posted a video of a thief who stole his $1800 MacBook Pro and was dancing in his kitchen on YouTube. And often thieves will access key personal sites such as Facebook. Some services such as Zoombak allow you to monitor anything you can stick a tracker on but fees are still expensive for widespread use. Sometimes, the application is not specific enough to locate the device since GPS is not totally precise.

Owners of missing gadgets can now do their own sleuthing – Boston.com.

Identify The Guy Who Stole Your Phone, Tablet Or Laptop (makeuseof.com)
Lookout app snaps a picture of any thief breaking into your phone (digitaltrends.com)
Apple Patents Visual iPhone Unlock Method (techweekeurope.co.uk)
Prey Anti-Theft – Fork Ltd. (itunes.apple.com)
It Just Became Easier To Find A Lost Phone (techwench.com)
Top 10 – Travel Gadgets featuring GPS, headphones and cameras (essentialtravel.co.uk)
Be mobile-smart this Christmas (xlntelecom.co.uk)
SafariMobile Releases MoneyTrack for iPhone/iPad/iPod touch (prweb.com)
Moves For iPhone – Activity Tracking Done Right [iOS] (makeuseof.com)

PerkStreet: disrupting financial services (finance 2.0)

June 1, 2011 by timbatchelder, posted in Cognitive Science, Design UX, Information Visualization, Knowledge Management, Security & Privacy

Version of an image of a credit card (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’ve been an early adopter of services such as Mint to track my spending but I have just never been able to get around to switching my checking account out of the mega banks and into a more web friendly, agile resource. Finally it seems that the Internet is penetrating the previously fortified world of consumer banking. PerkStreet one a slew of new players in the start up web based banking field, is staffed by laptop totting hipsters in casual clothing, paid partly in stock options working on nice Ikea blonde furniture. Gotta love those startups! The perks? Better rates on almost every instrument than a mega bank, given its high overhead for advertising and inefficiencies, can afford. Other companies include Square Inc., launched by Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey, which is offering a free app and thumb-size credit card scanner that plugs into a smartphone or iPad, allowing almost anyone to accept credit card payments. The revenue model is also decent: 2.75 percent of every transaction.

The unbanks – Boston.com.

Introducing Ally Perks Weekly Updates (community.ally.com)
More retailers issuing credit cards that carry rewards and perks (lexingtonlaw.com)
More lenders pushing prepaid cards for college students (lexingtonlaw.com)
How to Use Credit Cards Wisely – College Spending (bigfuture.collegeboard.org)
6 Ways To Cut Your Credit Card Interest Payments (businessinsider.com)
The Benefit Information Center Tells You All the Perks Your Credit Card Offers (lifehacker.com)
5 Best Online Checking Accounts (wisebread.com)

Intelligence agencies, mired in inefficiencies, begin to adopt social science and crowd sourcing methods

May 30, 2011 by timbatchelder, posted in Data Governance, Design UX, Digital health, Information Visualization, Linguistic Search, Security & Privacy

US Director of National Intelligence seal (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As with other fields such as medicine, after years of massive costs and sometimes ineffective methods, resulting in catastrophic failures such as 9/11, new leadership at our intelligence agencies such as Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper are adopting digital and social science methods such as crowd sourcing, data science, knowledge management. Social scientists have found that combining many people’s predictions — even if they are not experts — usually yields better results than any single person’s judgment. With 200,000 people in its direct employ, and nearly 1 million outsiders holding security clearances, the US intelligence network would seem to be a perfect place to take advantage of the wisdom of the herd — except that so many of these people work in compartmentalized and secretive units. To solve this problem, IARPA is awarding grants to teams of social scientists to craft the best approaches to pooling multiple sources of intelligence analysis, generating more accurate predictions than individual departments might manage on their own.

The examined spy – Boston.com.

How To Crowd Source Your Dream Cycle Tour (essentialtravel.co.uk)
Online Social Science: Can the Web Graduate from Digital Petri Dish to Virtual Laboratory? (scientificamerican.com)

A scientific ethics of code

May 9, 2011 by timbatchelder, posted in Data Governance, Information Visualization, Knowledge Management, Security & Privacy

31/365 - Tape measure — 31/365 – Tape measure (Photo credit: Ruth_W)

A scientific ethics of code : Effect Measure.

With Morality Seemingly in Decline, the In View with Larry King TV Series Announces Plans for A New Series on Business Ethics (prweb.com)
Male Scientists More Likely to Commit Research Misconduct than Females (sci-news.com)
Men more likely than women to commit scientific fraud (eurekalert.org)

The Accidental Guerrilla by David Kilcullen

May 9, 2011 by timbatchelder, posted in Data Governance, Digital health, Security & Privacy

Book Review – ‘The Accidental Guerrilla,’ by David Kilcullen – NYTimes.com.

Anthropologist David Kilcullen is a former officer in the Australian Army, a strategist and a scholar. He is also an expert on counterinsurgency, or how to combat a rebellion, and one of the few brave souls who had the ear of people in the Bush White House and advised against the invasion of Iraq. Great book.

.@JohnPollock – People Power 2.0: How civilians helped win the Libyan information war (nextlevelofnews.com)
Guerrilla Blog Dispatches – February 7, 2013 (theguerrillablog.wordpress.com)
Guerrilla Gardening – Man Fills Potholes with Flowers (proflowers.com)
Guerrilla Benchers replace street furniture removed to discourage homeless people (boingboing.net)

To improve drug safety, FDA should check its mixed-up files

April 12, 2011 by timbatchelder, posted in Data Governance, Health Informatics, Linguistic Search, Security & Privacy

English: Logo of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (2006) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This is really kind of sad…To improve drug safety, FDA should check its mixed-up files – The Boston Globe.

FDA Issues New Cautionary Guidelines for Metal-on-Metal Hip Implants, Parker Waichman LLP Reports (prweb.com)
DrugRisk Announces Updated Information on Mirena Lawsuits (prweb.com)
FDA’s Hazard Analysis and Risk-Based Preventive Controls for Human Food and Current Good Manufacturing Practice (Part 2 of 3) (prweb.com)
FDA Gives Nod to Celgene For Multiple Myeloma Drug ‘Pomalyst’ (guardianlv.com)
Social Media Guidance Countdown Continues: 576, 575, 574 . . . (druganddevicelaw.blogspot.com)
The State of Drug Safety Surveillance in the U.S.: Much Improved, More to Come (brookings.edu)

Health problems of victims of Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear plant take years to appear

February 1, 2011 by timbatchelder, posted in Cognitive Science, Data Governance, Health Informatics, Network Science, Security & Privacy, Systems Science

Popular movies like the new Chernobyl film point to a disturbing trend: Many of the residents of radiation exposure such as Chernobyl and Fukushima experience long term health problems such as thyroid disease, heart disease, heart valve/vascular disease that take decades to appear leaving them disabled and requiring disability benefits but with little sources of support.

For Japan, Chernobyl may hint at future – Boston.com.

Official data now estimates Chernobyl death toll at 1.5 million (nuclear-news.net)
Former judge urges the evacuation of Fukushima’s children (nuclear-news.net)
Japan -Namie To Conduct Independent Radiation Exposure Exams with some history. (nuclear-news.net)
Fukushima victims to get extra €5.5bn in compensation (independent.ie)
Japanese Judge: Already signs of major health hazard in Fukushima – Kids may end up like those around Chernobyl – Urgent need for evacuation (VIDEO) (enenews.com)
Fukushima survivors to file class action lawsuit against Japanese govt, plant operator (rt.com)
Fukushima Video: “Our hometown became Chernobyl” – Nuke worker: “I’ve finally understood you… Mom, you’re right! Tepco got to hell!” (enenews.com)

Tech hiring on upswing due to personal informatics

January 23, 2011 by timbatchelder, posted in Digital health, Health Informatics, Knowledge Management, Network Science, Regenerative Economy, Security & Privacy

Tech hiring is on upswing, but not where you’d expect – The Boston Globe.

Pathology Informatics Conference Moved to May 13-16, 2014 (labsoftnews.typepad.com)
National Informatics Center of India Hacked by Code Injector and Yash (news.softpedia.com)
Week 1: What is Social Informatics? (taylormharvey.wordpress.com)

BleepingComputer Discussion Forums

January 23, 2011 by timbatchelder, posted in Cognitive Science, Digital health, Knowledge Management, Metadata Masterdata, Security & Privacy

BleepingComputer Discussion Forums.

Is Your Computer Infected? If So, These 3 Forums Could Be Your Lifeline (makeuseof.com)
Cloud computing: 9 in 10 are positive on it, survey says (zdnet.com)
Cloud Computing is Having a Disruptive Impact on Sales (customerthink.com)
Giving great technical support at a small software company without being swamped (successfulsoftware.net)
Tech Support Answers, Part Dos (rasjacobson.com)
? Apple stores see 300 million visitors in FY 2012, 50,000 Genius Bar visits a day (loopinsight.com)
For Your Mobile Enterprise, Build a Genius Bar, NOT A Help Desk (zdnet.com)
Apple says it sees 50,000 Genius Bar visits a day… that’s across 375 stores (9to5mac.com)
What to do if iPhone button won’t work (stuff.co.nz)
Report: 300 Million Apple Store Visitors Since October (pcmag.com)

Hyperoffice Collaboration Software: Share Documents Online, Cloud Email, Task and Mobile Collaboration

August 23, 2010 by timbatchelder, posted in Design UX, Information Visualization, Knowledge Management, Linguistic Search, Metadata Masterdata, Security & Privacy, Sustainable Design

I’ve been using this a bit and it isn’t half bad.

Collaboration Software: Share Documents Online, Cloud Email, Task and Mobile Collaboration.

Are online collaboration tools ready for your business? (zdnet.com)
Video Conferencing & Unified Collaboration Solution Now Available at No Cost (virtual-strategy.com)
Top 5 Social Enterprise Technologies for Business (mashable.com)
Rackspace and OpenStack – An update under 5 minutes (rackspace.com)
Enterprise 2.0 Gets Down to Business (blogs.wsj.com)
Let’s Rebrand The IT Department As The Collaboration Department (insidehighered.com)
Cut Cost in your Small Business by Using Cloud-Based Software (smallbizbee.com)
3 Simple And Powerful Online Collaboration Tools For Your Business (smallbiztechnology.com)
Document Collaboration, Sharing and Cloud Storage With Docuter (sys-con.com)
Bitrix24 Social Intranet: Collaborate and Get Social in the Cloud (noobpreneur.com)

Employment Screening, Verification and Background Checks – LexisNexis

August 23, 2010 by timbatchelder, posted in Data Governance, Information Visualization, Knowledge Management, Metadata Masterdata, Security & Privacy

Employment Screening, Verification and Background Checks – LexisNexis.

Be sure to check your credit, identity periodically with data brokers. others include zaba search, intelius, voompeople, equifax, lexis nexis, center for tech and democracy,

Pre-employment Screening, Criminal Record Checks, Background Check Services & More… (kellybusinessadvisors.com)
Realtor background checks include reputation, character: legal? (agbeat.com)
3 Little Known Reasons Employers Ask for a Background Check (kellybusinessadvisors.com)
LexisNexis Named Official Online Research Provider for 2012 GOP Convention (lsnewsgroup.com)
Background Checks Do’s and Don’t’s (kellybusinessadvisors.com)
Info Quest Inc can assist you with your pre-employment background screening needs. (backgroundchex.wordpress.com)
Employment Background Screening Company to Pay $2.6 Million Penalty for Multiple Violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (ftc.gov)
The LexisNexis 14th Annual Mortgage Fraud Report (bespacific.com)
LexisNexis Named Official Online Research Provider for 2012 GOP Convention (virtual-strategy.com)

Category: Security & Privacy

Wifi laptops exposure and reproductive health

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Prey: Affordable tools emerge to track and visualize the travels of your devices

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PerkStreet: disrupting financial services (finance 2.0)

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Intelligence agencies, mired in inefficiencies, begin to adopt social science and crowd sourcing methods

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A scientific ethics of code

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The Accidental Guerrilla by David Kilcullen

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To improve drug safety, FDA should check its mixed-up files

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Health problems of victims of Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear plant take years to appear

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Tech hiring on upswing due to personal informatics

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BleepingComputer Discussion Forums

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Hyperoffice Collaboration Software: Share Documents Online, Cloud Email, Task and Mobile Collaboration

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Employment Screening, Verification and Background Checks – LexisNexis

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