Reporters use Google, find breach, get branded as “hackers”

May 24, 2013 — Leave a comment

Call it security through absurdity: a pair of telecom firms have branded reporters for Scripps News as “hackers” after they discovered the personal data of over 170,000 customers—including social security numbers and other identifying data that could be used for identity theft—sitting on a publicly accessible server. While the reporters claim to have discovered the data with a simple Google search, the firms’ lawyer claims they used “automated” means to gain access to the company’s confidential data and that in doing so the reporters violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act with their leet hacker skills.

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Pay Phone

May 23, 2013 — Leave a comment

Pay Phone

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Snooping and the News Media: It’s a 2-Way Street

May 23, 2013 — Leave a comment

Word on Monday that the Justice Department had obtained the records of more than 20 phone lines at The Associated Press sent the Fourth Estate into a frenzy. Big Government, Big Data, Big Brother, all the symbols of an increasingly surveillance-driven age were invoked.

“There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters,” Gary Pruitt, president and chief executive of The Associated Press, wrote in a letter of protest to Eric H. Holder Jr., the United States attorney general.

Given that the government has brought six cases against people suspected of leaking classified information, under an administration that has set a record for the use of the Espionage Act, the Associated Press story adds to a growing atmosphere in which working reporters always need to worry that someone is looking over their shoulder while they type.

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How to tell if the IRS is eyeing you

May 23, 2013 — Leave a comment

You consider yourself a law abiding citizen, and you are not starting a nonprofit organization with conservative ties.

Even so, you may be a candidate for a tax audit—and you may have no clue what you have done to warrant the attention of the IRS.

The nation’s tax collectors have long made it a practice to look for discrepancies, omissions and suspicious activity to uncover tax evasion and fraud. And lately, the IRS has expanded its monitoring to include social media.

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Hear Ye, Future Deep Throats: This Is How to Leak to the Press

May 23, 2013 — Leave a comment

We now live in a world where public servants informing the public about government behavior or wrongdoing must practice the tradecraft of drug dealers and spies. Otherwise, these informants could get caught in the web of administrations that view George Orwell’s 1984 as an operations manual.

With the recent revelation that the Department of Justice under the Obama administration secretly obtained phone records for Associated Press journalists — and previous subpoenas by the Bush administration targeting the Washington Post and New York Times — it is clear that whether Democrat or Republican, we now live in a surveillance dystopia beyond Orwell’s Big Brother vision. Even privately collected data isn’t immune, and some highly sensitive data is particularly vulnerable thanks to the Third Party Doctrine.

So how can one safely leak information to the press?

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A rare peek into a Justice Department leak probe

May 23, 2013 — Leave a comment

When the Justice Department began investigating possible leaks of classified information about North Korea in 2009, investigators did more than obtain telephone records of a working journalist suspected of receiving the secret material.

They used security badge access records to track the reporter’s comings and goings from the State Department, according to a newly obtained court affidavit. They traced the timing of his calls with a State Department security adviser suspected of sharing the classified report. They obtained a search warrant for the reporter’s personal e-mails.

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‘I Bet Your Mama Was a Tent-Show Queen’

May 23, 2013 — Leave a comment

Fifty years ago, a gay, cross-dressing, black singer named Jackie Shane scored a surprise radio hit in what was then staid and uptight Toronto. A few years later, he disappeared. On Shane’s legacy, and the under-appreciated gifts he gave to a sometimes self-congratulatory city.

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Disney Pulls Redesigned ‘Brave’ Character From Princess Website

May 23, 2013 — Leave a comment

After facing criticism for its redesign of Brave’s Merida — including by Brenda Chapman, the former director of the film — Disney has apparently pulled the new look of the character from its princess website.

“Numerous supporters have written to us to share the news that the new makeover version of Merida is no longer appearing on Disney.com,” wrote Carolyn Danckaert, co-founder of the website A Mighty Girl, who launched the Change.org petition calling for Disney to “say no to the Merida makeover.” The petition included a letter to Disney chairman Robert Iger.

Disney has seen a wave of protests online about the newly redesigned princess. In the movie, the character is seen wielding a bow and arrow, while the new look Merida was given what one Jezebel writer deemed “a pretty pretty princess makeover” in appearance and dress.

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A Place for Sharing Ideas and Stories: The Making Of Medium

May 23, 2013 — Leave a comment

There is plenty of media in the world already. And no matter what happens to traditional media economics, there’s nothing to stop the torrent of information rushing from smartphones, corporations, and new-fangled media startups onto the Internet, available for the world to see.

While it continues to be more and more efficient to put media-type stuff out there, we think there are big improvements to be made in a particular type of media “stuff”: That which is not necessarily personal and not necessarily news. That which we might just call ideas.

What kind of ideas? Many kinds: A particular viewpoint on the happenings of the day (or of the past), hard-earned knowledge about how to do something better, a story that makes people laugh, smile, or feel something meaningful. If you have thoughts to share that you want to impact or influence people with—beyond just your friends and beyond 140 characters—we want to provide the tools and the place.

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In Florida, a food-stamp recruiter deals with wrenching choices

May 23, 2013 — Leave a comment

A good recruiter needs to be liked, so Dillie Nerios filled gift bags with dog toys for the dog people and cat food for the cat people. She packed crates of cookies, croissants, vegetables and fresh fruit. She curled her hair and painted her nails fluorescent pink. “A happy, it’s-all-good look,” she said, checking her reflection in the rearview mirror. Then she drove along the Florida coast to sign people up for food stamps.

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