Week in Review
Posted by LS on April 9th, 2012. Category: Blog
Hello all, hope you had a lovely and cyber safe long weekend. As we approach this lovely short work week, we bring you our latest finds for news pieces you should keep top of mind while surfing the net and working about.
Hackers are busy down at Anonymous breaking into UK government sites and planning their attacks on more Chinese sites.
This time, the hackers announced in advance that they would be hacking into UK government sites, leaving UK officials time for preperation. Sunday evening,
“The resulting distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks disrupted the target websites for a time. Tweets apparently from Anonymous described this as a “digital protest” rather than hacking and threatened further similar actions every Saturday against U.K. government sites” – Wall Street Journal
To read more: http://on.wsj.com/HnLJCC
“The activist hacker group Anonymous plans to launch further attacks on Chinese government websites in a bid to uncover corruption and lobby for human rights, a member of the group said on Monday.”
Currently, China blocks Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and many other websites citing a need to maintain social stability.
To read more: http://bit.ly/HnMiwd
Is CISPA the new enemy? We saw the backlash of SOPA and PIPA and watched the drama unfold. Now, a new legislation that has “wide-ranging privacy implications”, enter: CISPA.
“The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, or CISPA, focuses on defending companies from cyber-attacks and theft… CISPA addresses how information would be shared between private companies and the government to catch malicious actors breaching networks to steal information or sabotaging systems.”
To read more: http://bit.ly/HnMlIq
UK teachers have recently reported widespread cyber bullying by pupils and… wait for it.. parents! These teachers have been issued with death threats, accused of serious crimes against children and sexist/racial abuse.
“Almost half (49%) of teachers who were subjected to abusive comments from parents said they did not feel supported or had no action taken as a result, with just 29% feeling that appropriate action was taken.”
To read more: http://bit.ly/HS0CxU
And that is just the beginning folks, stay tuned to all of our regular cyber related updates @fednetworks on twitter!
What is Privacy by Design
Posted by LS on March 8th, 2012. Category: Blog
Privacy by Design is a concept developed by Ann Cavoukian, Ph.D., the Informtaion & Privacy Commissioner of Ontario. This was designed to address the “ever-growing and systemic effects of Information and Communication Technologies, and of large-scale networked data systems.”
Taken together, the three pieces of legislation will diminish the privacy rights of Ontarians, and indeed, of all Canadians.” –www.ipc.on.ca
Ann Cavoukian, is a leader in the issues surrounding privacy in Canada. She recognized that legislation and regulation would no longer be sufficient to safeguard privacy and that Canadian’s deserved their right to an effectively designed system.
“In my view, with the increasing complexity and interconnectedness of information technologies, nothing short of building privacy right into system design could suffice. So I developed the concept of Privacy by Design (PbD), to describe the philosophy of embedding privacy proactively into technology itself – making it the default.” (October 2008) – http://privacybydesign.ca
The 7 Foundational Principles of Privacy, designed by Cavoukian, ensures privacy and personal control for both individuals and organization:
1. Proactive
2. Be Default
3. Embedded
4. Positive-Sum
5. Lifecycle Protection
6. Visibility/Transparency
7. Respect for Users
To learn more, please visit privacybydesign.ca, and educate yourself on the better ways to ensure the safety of your personal privacy, your business and your family.
What can you do to help ensure your privacy?
We have to be concerned! The proposed bills compromise our rights as Canadians,and our privacy is too valuable to be taken lightly.
Among the specific concerns raised by these proposed bills:
Bill C-50 would make it easier for the police to obtain judicial approval of multiple tracking warrants and production orders, to access and track e-communications.
Bill C-51 would give the police new powers to obtain court orders for remote live tracking, as well as weaker suspicion-based orders (rather than a “reasonableness” standard) requiring telecommunication service providers and other companies to preserve and turn over date of interest to the police.
Bill C-52 would require telecommunication service providers to build and maintain intercept capability into their networks for use by law enforcement, and would give the police warrantless power to access subscriber information – including IP addresses and personally-identifiable information, that goes far beyond address and phone number.
Sift through the below noted websites, and become aware and educated on the information regarding upcoming legislations, SOPA & PIPA, and privacy in Canada AND contact your MP to highlight your concerns.
Contact MP here: http://www.privacybydesign.ca/embedprivacy/
Websites to reference:
http://www.realprivacy.ca
http://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/cons/la-al/sum-res/faq.html