Information Technology

April 2, 2010

Obtaining and Using Evidence From Social Network Sites

On October 6, 2009 the Electronic Frontier Foundation submitted a request to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for access to records concerning “use of social networking websites (including, but not limited to Facebook, MYSpace, Twitter, Flickr and other online social media) for investigative (crimiinal or otherwise) data gathering purposes created since January 2003…”. The response from DOJ, date stamped March 3, 2010 states that “While processing your request we located one record totaling 33 pages. After careful review of this document we determined to release this item in part.”. It goes on to explain that material being witheld from this one document, Obtaining and Using Evidence From Social Networking Sites, consists of work telephone numbers and e-mail addresses of DOJ attorneys..

Click here to download the document: OBTAINING AND USING EVIDENCE FROM SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES

March 16, 2010

FCC Introduces Sweeping National Broaband Plan

by David Badertscher

Udated March 17, 2010.

On Tuesday March 16, 2010 the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced a proposal to overhaul the U.S. broadband* policy by introducing a plan that would provide higher speed internet access and much faster internet connections thoughout the U.S. than are presently available. The plan sets a goal of connecting 100 million U.S. households to broadband connections of 100 megabits per secondf, at least 20 times faster than most home connections now, by 2020.

The plan also calls for every american conmunity to have at least one “anchor” institution, such as a school, library, or hospital that has ultra high speed internet access. The FCC defines ultra high speed in this eontext as at least a gigabit per second, 10 times faster than the 100 megabit per second envisioned for home connections.

March 10, 2010

What New Information or Data Would You Like Federal Agencies to Publish Online?

by David Badertscher

Mary Alice Baish, Director of Government Relations and Emily Feldman, Advocacy Communications Assistant (both of the American Association of Law Libraries, AALL), have been doing a tremendous job serving as advocates for high quality and highly accessible legal information on the web in a format that can be authenticated.

The following is an e-mail from Emily which mentions the work of the White House open government working group and includes a request for suggestions regarding specific types of information and datasets you would like to see agencies publish. Although Emily’s e-mail is directed primarily to law librarians I am posting it here because of the value of this initiative to the entire legal community.

FROM: Emily Feldman March 10, 2010

March 8, 2010

Cyber Crime: A Clear and Present Danger

by David Badertscher

The 2010 CyberSecurity Watch Survey, sponsored by Deloitte and conducted in collaboration with CSO Magazine, the U.S. Secret Service, and the CERT Coordination Center at Carnegie Mellon, indicates that threats posed by cyber crime have increased faster than potential victims — or cyber security professionals — can cope with, placing targeted organizations at significant risk.

While we cannot provide you a copy of the actual Survey, the Deloitte whitepaper, Cyber Crime: A Clear and Present Danger reports on several of the survey findings and includes Deloitte’s interpretation of key results. Quoting from the Introduction to the white papter: “By its very nature, interpretation goes beyond simple reporting of results…and may prompt disagreement and even controversy”

With that, we invite you to download the white paper from the link below, read it, and draw your own conclusions

February 23, 2010

Eben Moglen’s Speech: “Freedom in the Cloud”

by David Badertscher

The webcast of Eben Moglen’s speech ‘Freedom in The Cloud’ is proving to be one of most popular ever, and has received over 20,000 hits representing about a 1000 views since Feb 14. In the talk Eben challenges the tech community to provide the public with the means to recapture its privacy from social media/cloud juggernaut through the development of personal social media servers operating in a robust distributed network.

Note that free DVDs of this talk are available to libraries,

educators, and other interested in running screenings – email dvd@isoc-ny.org and ask for DVD1710.

February 2, 2010

Position: Senior Level Digital Library Programming Analyst

by David Badertscher

SigInt Technologies, LLC seeks a Senior Level Digital Library Programmer Analyst to support a US Government Agency.

Salary range: $125,000.00 – $135,000.00

We are growing our hardcopy-centric collection to include a substantial amount of digital content. You will have the opportunity to chart the course as we incorporate a variety of electronic data sources into the collection and make them available to our users. You will have the freedom to select the tools you deem best and implement them as you see fit. You’ll work directly with library management to collect requirements and propose and implement solutions. You will lead and direct other developers who will assist with the implementation.

February 2, 2010

CLLB Information Security Newsletter. Volume 3 Number 1 January 2010.

by David Badertscher

Volume3 Number 1 January 2010

From the Desk of David Badertscher

As we begin the new year, it’s an opportune time to assess the cyber security landscape and prepare for what new challenges may lie ahead, as well as what current threats may continue.

January 29, 2010

2009 End of Year Message from Internet Society President and CEO

by David Badertscher

Although addressed primarily to Internet Society members, the following message contains information which should be of interest to librarians, lawyers and other important stakeholders in the internet community who need to follow ongoing developments.

Dear Members, Friends, and Colleagues,

The end of 2009 is here – and what a year it has been. The Internet

January 28, 2010

NCSC: Social Media and the Courts

by David Badertscher

Includes both useful resources and a request for information from the courts.

Nora Sydow reports that the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) has recently developed a Social Media and the Courts web module. Included in this module is a state links page that links to courts that are using Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc. In an effort to make this page as complete as possible, we are asking for your help.

(1) If your court is using a social media site, could you please send me the link(s) so we can include them in our state links page?

January 28, 2010

D-Lib Magazine

by David Badertscher

January – February 2010 Issue:

The January/February 2010 issue of D-Lib Magazine (http://www.dlib.org/) is now available.

This issue contains eight articles, two conference reports, the ‘In Brief’ column, excerpts from recent press releases, and news of upcoming conferences and other items of interest in ‘Clips and Pointers’. This month, D-Lib features The Swingle Plant Anatomy Reference Collection, a historical collection of plant anatomical microscope slides, courtesy of University of Miami Libraries.