Syria army pounds Aleppo rebels; Russia vows no let-up AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at December 9, 2016, 11:30 pm)

Forces have captured about 85 percent of the city's rebel-held east with people trapped in increasingly grim conditions.
Syria army pounds Aleppo rebels; Russia vows no let-up AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at December 9, 2016, 11:30 pm)

Forces have captured about 85 percent of the city's rebel-held east with people trapped in increasingly grim conditions.
HIPAA Guidance Focuses on Disclosing PHI for Public Health (InfoRiskToday) SANS ISC SecNewsFeed(cached at December 9, 2016, 11:30 pm)

DHS Tried To Breach Our Firewall, Says Georgia's Secretary of State Slashdotby BeauHD on government at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at December 9, 2016, 11:04 pm)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CyberScoop: Georgia's secretary of state has claimed the Department of Homeland Security tried to breach his office's firewall and has issued a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson asking for an explanation. Brian Kemp issued a letter to Johnson on Thursday after the state's third-party cybersecurity provider detected an IP address from the agency's Southwest D.C. office trying to penetrate the state's firewall. According to the letter, the attempt was unsuccessful. The attempt took place on Nov. 15, a few days after the presidential election. The office of the Georgia Secretary of State is responsible for overseeing the state's elections. "At no time has my office agreed to or permitted DHS to conduct penetration testing or security scans of our network," Kemp wrote in the letter, which was also sent to the state's federal representatives and senators. "Moreover, your department has not contacted my office since this unsuccessful incident to alert us of any security event that would require testing or scanning of our network. This is especially odd and concerning since I serve on the Election Cyber Security Working Group that your office created." "The Department of Homeland Security has received Secretary Kemp's letter," a DHS spokesperson told CyberScoop. "We are looking into the matter. DHS takes the trust of our public and private sector partners seriously, and we will respond to Secretary Kemp directly." Georgia was one of two states that refused cyber-hygiene support and penetration testing from DHS in the leadup to the presidential election. The department had made a significant push for it after hackers spent months exposing the Democratic National Committee's internal communications and data.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

DHS Tried To Breach Our Firewall, Says Georgia's Secretary of State Slashdotby BeauHD on government at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at December 9, 2016, 11:04 pm)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CyberScoop: Georgia's secretary of state has claimed the Department of Homeland Security tried to breach his office's firewall and has issued a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson asking for an explanation. Brian Kemp issued a letter to Johnson on Thursday after the state's third-party cybersecurity provider detected an IP address from the agency's Southwest D.C. office trying to penetrate the state's firewall. According to the letter, the attempt was unsuccessful. The attempt took place on Nov. 15, a few days after the presidential election. The office of the Georgia Secretary of State is responsible for overseeing the state's elections. "At no time has my office agreed to or permitted DHS to conduct penetration testing or security scans of our network," Kemp wrote in the letter, which was also sent to the state's federal representatives and senators. "Moreover, your department has not contacted my office since this unsuccessful incident to alert us of any security event that would require testing or scanning of our network. This is especially odd and concerning since I serve on the Election Cyber Security Working Group that your office created." "The Department of Homeland Security has received Secretary Kemp's letter," a DHS spokesperson told CyberScoop. "We are looking into the matter. DHS takes the trust of our public and private sector partners seriously, and we will respond to Secretary Kemp directly." Georgia was one of two states that refused cyber-hygiene support and penetration testing from DHS in the leadup to the presidential election. The department had made a significant push for it after hackers spent months exposing the Democratic National Committee's internal communications and data.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

White nationalist Richard Spencer talks to Al Jazeera AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at December 9, 2016, 10:30 pm)

After rising to fame for Nazi salutes praising Donald Trump, National Policy Institute president explains himself.
Mangobeat Amplifies iPhone Volume Naturally and Sustainably TidBITS(cached at December 9, 2016, 10:05 pm)

Looking for a simple solution for amplifying your iPhone’s speaker? The Mangobeat is an all-natural amplifier made by an independent craftsman.

 

Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

Twitter Cuts API Access For Media Sonar, Spy Tool Used To Target Black Lives Matter Slashdotby msmash on privacy at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at December 9, 2016, 10:04 pm)

Police have now one less tool to monitor users on Twitter. The Daily Dot is reporting that Twitter has cut ties with a third-party social network surveillance firm, citing company policies intended to safeguard users against the surreptitious collection of data by law enforcement agencies. From the report: The severed contract follows Twitter nullifying the commercial data agreements of two other leading social-network-surveillance firms, Geofeedia and Snaptrends. Previously unreported, Twitter severed the access of Media Sonar, an Ontario-based company founded in 2012, which has sold surveillance software to police departments across the United States. Nineteen local government services are known to have each spent at least $10,000 on the software between 2014 and 2016, according to documents acquired under state open-records laws. Twitter informed the Daily Dot this week that it had terminated Media Sonar's access to its public API in October. If the company attempts to create other API keys, Twitter said, "we will terminate those as well and take further action as appropriate."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Twitter Cuts API Access For Media Sonar, Spy Tool Used To Target Black Lives Matter Slashdotby msmash on privacy at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at December 9, 2016, 10:04 pm)

Police have now one less tool to monitor users on Twitter. The Daily Dot is reporting that Twitter has cut ties with a third-party social network surveillance firm, citing company policies intended to safeguard users against the surreptitious collection of data by law enforcement agencies. From the report: The severed contract follows Twitter nullifying the commercial data agreements of two other leading social-network-surveillance firms, Geofeedia and Snaptrends. Previously unreported, Twitter severed the access of Media Sonar, an Ontario-based company founded in 2012, which has sold surveillance software to police departments across the United States. Nineteen local government services are known to have each spent at least $10,000 on the software between 2014 and 2016, according to documents acquired under state open-records laws. Twitter informed the Daily Dot this week that it had terminated Media Sonar's access to its public API in October. If the company attempts to create other API keys, Twitter said, "we will terminate those as well and take further action as appropriate."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

App-DuckPAN-1013 search.cpan.orgby DuckDuckGo Inc. at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at December 9, 2016, 10:03 pm)

The DuckDuckGo DuckPAN client
Moo-2.003000 search.cpan.orgby Graham Knop at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at December 9, 2016, 10:03 pm)

Minimalist Object Orientation (with Moose compatibility)
Pcore-WebDriver-v0.2.2 search.cpan.orgby Dmytro Zagashev at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at December 9, 2016, 10:03 pm)

non-blocking WebDriver protocol implementation
Ghana: Akufo-Addo wins presidential election AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at December 9, 2016, 10:00 pm)

President Mahama concedes defeat to former foreign minister Akufo-Addo, who was making his third bid for the top job.
Ransomware Decrypts Your Files For Free If You Infect Your Friends (Forbes) SANS ISC SecNewsFeed(cached at December 9, 2016, 10:00 pm)

Ransomware Decrypts Your Files For Free If You Infect Your Friends (Forbes) SANS ISC SecNewsFeed(cached at December 9, 2016, 10:00 pm)