Fifty years ago, a superhero leaped tall buildings in a single bound and used x-ray vision to catch evil criminals. Today, some of the world’s most threatening criminals are computer hackers. Superman may not be able to save us from cataclysmic cyber attacks, but we can rest a little easier knowing seven cyber guardians are holding keys to one of society’s most valuable commodities—the internet.
ICAAN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, has provided “keys” to the internet to seven members of the global community. As discussed in prior posts, ICAAN is a non-profit watchdog group that helped establish Domain Name System Security Extensions, or DNSSEC. The DNSSEC—which just became enabled this year— is a critical security technology that lies at the core of the internet’s global addressing system. It protects the very heart of the internet by ensuring that users reach the intended web address.
Google, Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare—millions of Americans, including myself, depend on these cyber sites as their gateway to information and communication in the outside world. What we may not realize, or choose to ignore for convenience’s sake, is that this gateway lies on a two-way street. The information that we seek using websites such as Google and what we communicate on Facebook and Twitter provide companies with vital data to better market their products to us. This use of information is referred to as “data mining. ”
An example of data mining can be seen in the advertisements that pop up on the side of your Facebook home page. Such ads are often relevant to the information posted on your “Profile” page, such as advertisements promoting products from your college alma mater.
At the outset, data mining seems like a win-win situation for both the consumer and the seller—the consumer is marketed with a product in which they are seemingly interested and the company has utilized its advertising budget in an informed, cost-effective manner. At the same time, however, the threat of an invasion of privacy is real and has the attention of members of Congress and federal officials to create legislation regulating the way in which, and the extent to which, our personal information is shared with third parties.
One of the difficult things to predict with regard to the use of social media in the employment setting continues to be the extent to which traditional legal claims apply equally to new social media outlets. We continue to advise employers that it is imperative to ensure that care is also taken to create policies and train employees on the use of social media in and out of the office setting, and not to let the informality and ease of the Internet lull employers into a false sense of security. On July 22, 2010, a New York Supreme Court Judge applied the tort of defamation to statements on Facebook in a case that offers an important message to employers.
The case of Finkel v. Dauber (New York Supreme Court, Nassau County) centered on statements posted by a Facebook group known as “90 Cents Short of a Dollar.” Plaintiff alleged that she was defamed by the group’s postings that stated “unbeknownst to many, [plaintiff] acquired AIDS while on a cruise to Africa” and then “persisted to screw a baboon which caused the epidemic to spread.” The postings further defamed plaintiff, she alleged, by stating “[w]hile in Africa she was seen fucking a horse.” And other intelligent banter.
On July 23, 2010, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit issued an important decision in Eyeblaster, Inc. v. Federal Ins. Co., 2010, U.S. App. LEXIS 15152, No. Civ. A. 08-3640, finding concurrent coverage under both a General Liability (“CGL”) insurance policy and a separate Information and Network Technology Errors and Omissions Liability (“E&O”) policy in circumstances where an online marketing company installed software on a consumer’s computer system, allegedly corrupting the computer’s software operating system.
Eyeblaster Inc. (“Eyeblaster”), the policyholder, is a company that creates, delivers and manages online interactive advertising. For the period December 5, 2006, to December 5, 2007, it was insured under two concurrent policies issued by Federal Insurance Company (“Federal”): (1) a CGL policy covering occurrences which cause damage to tangible property, and (2) an E&O policy which covered claims for financial loss caused by a wrongful act in connection with a product’s failure to perform its intended function or serve its intended purpose, resulting in damage to intangible property. As to the latter policy, intangible property included software, data and other electronic information. Both policies were “duty to defend” forms.
Lest one question the severity of the evolving challenges in our rapidly growing cyber world, President Obama has crystallized it succinctly: (1) “cyber threat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation;” and (2) “America’s economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on cybersecurity.” In other words, President Obama has declared cybersecurity to be a national security priority.
While that’s obviously good news, the follow-up question is “how are we doing in meeting the associated demands?” Regrettably, not so well, it seems.
Speaking before cybersecurity and privacy experts from government, law enforcement, the private sector, academia and privacy and civil liberties groups, President Obama, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Cyber Coordinator Howard Schmidt and other Administration officials uniformly acknowledged that far more work needs to be done to protect digital communications and information infrastructure and make it more difficult and costly for cybercrimimals.
“A lawyer is never entirely comfortable with a friendly divorce, anymore than a good mortician wants to finish his job and then have the patient sit up on the table.” Jean Kerr
A new company out of Dallas, DivorceApps.com, is selling applications aimed at helping people navigate the legal waters of divorce. A Texas family lawyer, Michelle May O’Neil, started the company in March of this year. Two apps currently are for sale on iphones at a cost of $9.99 USD. Applications that are currently available online are described as follows:
(1) Cost and PrepApplication: A system that 1) tracks the information that will be required either by legal counsel or the other side of the case and 2) helps the user track the costs of divorce. For example, the “Divorce Cost” portion of the application provides a scroll down list of categories that enables the user to gain a better understanding of the costs of divorce. The “Scroll Down” component of the application allows the user to scroll through the categories of information to determine the documents and information that will be applicable to their case.
(2) Estate Divider Application: The “Estate Divider” is a system that purports to allow a user to work through the overall division of their Estate. The user can:
Apparently feeling that they’ve resolved the longstanding issue of illegal immigration and can move on to the next crisis, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) and the U.S. Justice Department have identified a new enemy in their ongoing stuggle to protect truth, justice and the American way: Internet sites that sell counterfeit goods and pirated movies.
Indeed, just this month, government officials announced that they have shut down nine websites as part of their newly announced initiative, “Operation In Our Sites,” which is intended to protect Hollywood’s intellectual property. Officials estimated that nearly 7 million pirated movies and shows per month were downloaded from the offending websites.
The announcement was held on a soundstage at The Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, CA. Neither Johnny Depp nor Captain Hook reportedly was present.
We’ve all heard the story of the clerk at the local gas station who was double-swiping credit cards in order to make fraudulent copies. Online banking, restaurants, clothing retailers…every industry is potentially a target. Yet the industry that was the subject of more credit card thefts than any other sector in 2009? Hotels.
To the point, SpiderLabs (an affiliate of Trustwave, a data-security consulting firm) has published a study which reports that 38% of the credit card hacking events in 2009 involved the hospitality industry. Over one-third of all thefts of credit card numbers occurred at hotels. Much to my surprise, given the wealth of reporting on the subject, the financial services industry lagged well behind at a comparatively minor 19%. Retail followed at 14.2% while restaurants and bars were fourth at 13%.
I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised, though, as my own credit card number was stolen several years back while i was staying at a business travelers’ hotel in New York City. I had gone to the City for a Cinco de Mayo event sponsored by a major international insurer. Several days later, I received a call from my credit card company asking if I had bought gasoline on Long Island or a $5000 television at a big box retailer. While I do buy gasoline, I hadn’t been on Long Island. And while I certainly would have loved a $5000 television (or, for economy’s sake, something less pricey), I hadn’t bought that either. The conclusion was simple: my credit card number had been stolen when I used it at the New York hotel.
So, why hotels? According to security analysts, they’re generally easy targets. The large chain hotels may employ sophisticated security technology or other protections. Or they may not. In either case, how about smaller or private owned, non-chain hotels? The next time you check into a hotel, ask what security methods they use to protect credit card information. You probably won’t like the answer. The credit card number that you provide at check-in may sit in a folder or a file maintained right at the front desk. Who would prevent someone from simply lifting the file? Especially in the middle of the night. The single desk clerk on overnight duty?
It is tempting to think, with more sources of information instantly available to us than ever before, that people are much better informed on the issues of the day, especially those that have a major impact on world affairs. But is that the reality? Does this availability of information translate into a better informed, better educated world population? I speak of course, of people who have uncensored access to the Internet (unlike, say, the population of North Korea where many people do not even know of its existence – see the great article “Nothing Left“ in this week’s New Yorker by Barbara Demick).
I was led to muse on this topic while reading William L. Shirer’s The Nightmare Years, his book about his time as a journalist in Hitler’s Germany. Shirer recounts a brief visit to New York after a number of years based in Berlin. Full of the horrors of Nazi Germany, and Hitler’s recent renunciation of Versailles and Locarno, and the sending of troops into the Rhineland, he naturally expected that his fellow countrymen would be agog to hear his news and discuss the ramifications of what was happening in Europe. He was appalled to find that no-one was interested, that domestic concerns were of far more interest and that people thought he was exaggerating what was happening to the Jews in Germany.
People in the 1930s, Shirer’s fellow Americans, did not have the Internet, but they did not lack for sources of information. Foreign correspondents, like Shirer, sent daily reports by telegram. People had alternative sources that spun the news different ways – just like today. In fact one of the fascinating aspects of Shirer’s story is his telling of the great difficulty that the Berlin correspondent of the Times (the London one) had in getting his paper to print anything that was at all negative about Hitler’s Germany.
I was recently introduced to a great new Scrabble word: “meme”. According to wikipedia, my source for all things “e-”, a meme, in reference to the Internet, is ‘the propagation of a digital file or hyperlink’ that contains content consisting of a saying or joke, a rumor, an altered or original image, a complete website, a video clip or animation, or an offbeat news story, among many other possibilities. In other words, an Internet meme is an inside joke that is shared between a large number of Internet users.
Internet memes have a tendency to evolve and spread extremely swiftly, sometimes going in and out of popularity in just days. They are spread organically, voluntarily, and peer to peer, rather than by compulsion, predetermined path, or completely automated means. The term ‘meme’ can refer to the content that spreads from user to user, the idea behind the content, or the phenomenon of its spread.
Ally McBeal fans may now appreciate the reference to the dancing ‘oogachucka’ baby. In an effort to be a bit more up-to-date in my meme references, I’ve embedded some of them, below. If you’re seeing them for the first time, you may experience the ‘lightbulb effect’ – that is, you’ll actually get the joke behind certain late night comedy skits that just didn’t seem all that funny.
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Fifty years ago, a superhero leaped tall buildings in a single bound and used x-ray vision to catch evil criminals. Today, some of the world’s most threatening criminals are computer hackers. Superman may not be able to save us from cataclysmic cyber attacks, but we can rest a little easier knowing seven cyber guardians are holding keys to one of society’s most valuable commodities—the internet. 
