Archive for September 28, 2019

| September 28, 2019
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Data Privacy End Run

Data Privacy End RunIn an attempt to end-run stricter data privacy regulation the Business Roundtable, an association of CEOs of America’s largest companies, sent an open letter to the U.S. House and Senate urging the politicians to pass a comprehensive national data privacy law. According to CircleID, the heart of the letter is the creation of federal privacy laws that the companies argue should replace various state-level laws that have already been passed.

CEOs of America's largest companiesThe CEOs want one law that governs all user privacy and data protection across the U.S., which would simplify their lives. From the letter:

Now is the time for Congress to act and ensure that consumers are not faced with confusion about their rights and protections based on a patchwork of inconsistent state laws.

Among the items hidden deep in the CEO’s “consumer privacy framework [more here]” are some onerous provisions.

  • Private individuals should not be allowed to sue companies if those companies violate the data privacy law itself.
  • Potential pay-for-privacy schemes and
  • Overriding existing state data privacy protections already signed into law.

The Data Privacy Blog points out that in 2019, a number of states passed new and expanded data breach notification laws, including:

  • California.
  • data breach notification lawsIllinois,
  • Maine,
  • Maryland,
  • Massachusetts,
  • New Jersey,
  • New York,
  • Oregon,
  • Texas, and
  • Washington.

Also, since July 1, 2019, Delaware, New Hampshire, and Connecticut have enacted laws imposing new cybersecurity requirements on insurance companies.

ZDnet points out that many privacy advocates (and even some tech CEOs) believe the CEOs aren’t really looking after users’ interests, but their own. There’s a belief that companies are trying to aggregate any privacy lawmaking in Congress, where lobby groups can water down any meaningful user protections that may impact bottom lines. Open Secrets reports that the Business Roundtable has spent over $6.6M lobbying in D.C. so far in 2019. As followers of the Bach Seat know, money talk and citizens walk in D.C.

Among the CEOs who were involved in the end run included;

The Data Privacy Blog points out the coincidence that the CEO’s framework comes just months before the California Consumer Protection Act is set to go into effect in 2020.

throw money at the politiciansFollowers of the Bach Seat know many companies make money by selling customers’ personal or device-usage data. Privacy policies with too many teeth could prevent companies from selling your data to pay the CEO’s average salary of $17.2M. The LA Times reports that compensation for American chief executives increased by 940% from 1978 to 2018, while pay for the average worker rose only 12% over the same 40-year period.

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Seems to me that the goal of this proposal of the leading CEO’s is not to protect our privacy. Their goal is to centralize the rule-making in the D.C. swamp and throw money at the politicians to do the Business Roundtable’s bidding. Then the CEOs will be able to maintain the status-quo and normalize the existing digital surveillance system that serves them well.

LobbyingThe CEO’s sudden interest in data privacy has more to do with the growing wave of real reform at the state level and the calculation that Trump will be booted from office and less business-friendly POTUS will take his place in 2020. And little to do with citizen’s privacy.

The digital rights organization Electronic Frontier Foundation supports a private right of action for any national consumer privacy law, as such a right would further enable members of the public to fight back against companies that violate the law.

The EFF wrote the best way to protect ordinary people’s privacy is action.

It is not enough for government to pass laws that protect consumers from corporations … to ensure companies do not ignore them … empower ordinary consumers to bring their own lawsuits against the companies that violate their privacy rights.

Signatures from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Apple CEO Tim Cook were notably absent from the list although both have, in the past, supported a comprehensive federal privacy law.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

Category: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
| September 19, 2019
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Out of This World Ethernet

Out of This World EthernetA while ago I wrote about Ethernet marching on. The IEEE had ratified the IEEE 802.3bp Ethernet standard which addresses how Ethernet operates in harsh environments. Now Ethernet has been installed in the harshest environment where we live, the International Space Station. During an April 2019 Extravehicular Activities (EVA), U.S. astronaut Anne McClain and Canadian astronaut David Saint Jacques upgraded the International Space Station’s communication systems by installing Ethernet cables.

Cabling Install and Maintenance reports that during a six-plus-hour spacewalk the astronauts installed Ethernet cables on the exterior of the space station to upgrade the wireless communication system and to improve its hard-wired communication system.

CBS News says the spacewalker’s connected Ethernet cabling at the forward end of the station’s  U.S.’s primary research laboratory for U.S. payloads module (Destiny module) that will extend wireless connectivity for science instruments mounted outside the space station.

NASA Tweeted a video clip of the cable installation during which the narrator explained, “... They’ll be de-mating and mating some cables to provide additional Ethernet to the International Space Station.”

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Pulling more cable to expand wireless coverage – nice to know some things are truly universal. Whether you call it cable pulling, or mating cables, the truck-roll cost to the ISS must be pretty steep. At least NASA installers don’t need ladders.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| September 13, 2019
Comments Off on What is the Most Productive Time to Start a Project

What is the Most Productive Time to Start a Project

What is the Most Productive Time to Start a ProjectFall is coming. Fall means football, leaf-peeping, cider and winter is coming. The season is also time to start that big project. New data from Redbooth maker of a web-based workplace collaboration tool says that Autumn is the most productive time to start a project. The San Francisco, CA-based firm looked at 1.8 million projects and 28 million tasks over a four-year period and quantified what a lot of us already intuitively know.

Fall is the most productive time to start a project

The data found that the average person gets more work done in the fall than in any other season. The study found that people are:

  • Fall is the Most Productive Time to Start a Project20% more productive in autumn than in winter
  • 11% more productive in autumn than in spring
  • 7% more productive in autumn than summer

It should not surprise anyone who has lived through a Detroit winter that we are less productive in winter. Snow – cold – no Sun – SADD. It is a bit surprising to me that summer is a more productive season to start a project. We are actually more productive in summer than spring.

October is the most productive month

Redbooth monthly productivityRedbooth found that October is the most productive month followed by September and November. The least productive time to start a project is in January. People complete 9.5% of tasks in October, while in January they only do 7.2%. The researchers surmised that it could be the holiday rush that pressures people into getting more done or perhaps even adults have that refreshed, back to school feeling in the fall.

Monday is the most productive day

Redbooth daily productivityThis one is a bit more surprising. Even though don’t like Mondays, Redbooth says we work well on them. Monday is the most productive time to start a project. People reported completing the most tasks at 20.4%. Only 16.7% of tasks are completed on Fridays, making Friday nearly 20% less productive than Monday.

The author speculates that given the relatively low completion levels on the latter days of the week, it’s likely that Monday is the “catch up” day at work. Studies have shown that as many as 81% of workers get the “Sunday Blues” — or an impending feeling of dread over the work week ahead. It’s possible that this dread pushes us to work harder earlier in the week.

11 AM is the most productive time

Redbooth hourly productivityWe work best just before Lunch. Productivity peaks at 11 AM with 9.7% of tasks completed. After that, the effects of food set in, and a slump tends to occur after 1 PM.  After 1 PM, productivity never quite returns to its peak, due to the “post-lunch dip.”

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So the data says you should start your most critical projects on a Monday at 11 AM in October.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

Category: Project Management | Tags: , , , , , ,
| September 7, 2019
Comments Off on $2.9M Per Minute Lost to Cybercriminals

$2.9M Per Minute Lost to Cybercriminals

Updated 10/27/2019 – On October 22, 2019, the FBI issued a warning about cybercriminals running e-skimming attacks, also known as Magecart attacks. These attacks have been happening since 2016, but have intensified during 2018 and 2019. These attacks started out by exploiting vulnerabilities in open-source e-shopping platforms. However, over the past two years, attackers evolved their attack methodology, and any online store is now susceptible to attacks, regardless if it runs on top of an open-source platform or a cloud-hosted service.

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$2.9M Per Minute Lost to CybercriminalsCybercriminals cost the global economy $2.9 million every minute of 2018. This shocking statistic comes from RiskIQ‘s latest Evil Minute report. RiskIQ specializes in online attack surface management, providing threat discovery, intelligence, and mitigation. The San Francisco, CA-based firm figured that a total of $1.5 trillion was lost to cyber-criminals in 2018. Some of the more ominous info-bits they presented include:

  • RiskIQ logo$25 per minute, the cost to top companies due to security breaches.
  • $17,700: lost from phishing attacks per minute
  • $22,184: the projected by-the-minute cost of global ransomware events in 2019

Other statistics include:

  • 8,100: identifier records compromised every minute
  • 2.4: phish traversing the internet per minute
  • 0.32: blacklisted apps by-the-minute
  • 0.21: Magecart attacks detected every minute

Lou Manousos, CEO of RiskIQ said in the presser, “As the scale of the internet continues to proliferate, so does the threat landscape.”

Magecart hacks

Magento .logoThe report specifically calls out attacks that target e-commerce. They focus on the Magecart hacks. Magecart hacks have increased by 20% in the last year. By some estimates, the Magecart supply chain attacks have resulted in the theft of more credit card information than more infamous breaches at Home Depot and Target. According to reports, Magecart was behind the 2018 cyber-attacks on British Airways and Ticketmaster which together compromised the info of over 425,000 of the firm’s customers.

Magecart attack is a credit card skimmer that intercepts card numbers and information when a payment card is swiped at the point of sale. Unlike gas card or ATM skimmers, there is almost no way for a consumer to determine that Magecart skimming is about to take place. There is no physical manifestation of Magecart and it is not always easy to catch, because it takes advantage of universal code and other applications not typically related to payments.

ecommerace

Magecart is a consortium of at least six different hacking groups that target flaws in online shopping cart systems. The attackers like Magento to steal customer payment card information. Magento, an open-source e-commerce platform written in open-source PHP. At least initially attackers exploited a PHP Object Injection flaw (CVE-2016-4010) in the popular online shopping cart.

In order to run this compromise, the Magecart attacker substitutes a piece of Javascript code, either by altering the Magento source code or by redirecting the shopping cart using an injection to a website that hosts the malware to steal the credit card and user information.

Trend Micro Mirrorthief attack chainRiskIQ CEO Manousos warns;

Without greater awareness and an increased effort to implement necessary security controls, there will be more attacks using an ever-expanding range of technologies and strategies.

 

RiskIQ infographic

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Firms that fall victim to attacks don’t just lose card info. They also lose time and productivity. Restoring hacked data and systems takes time and resources. The damage to a company’s reputation can cost it new and existing customers. Then there are the legal penalties from PCI, HIPAA, and the courts that come with mishandling customer information.

Like I keep saying – time to go back to the cash economy.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| September 1, 2019
Comments Off on Are You Middle Class This Labor Day

Are You Middle Class This Labor Day

Are You Middle Class This Labor Day

It is Labor Day in the U.S. Organized labor created the U.S. middle class. Now the middle class is being squeezed out of existence. Considerable reports that the Pew Research Center has concluded that 52% of Americans qualify as middle class. 29% in lower-income households and 19% in upper-income households.

Middle class squeezeThe researchers found that today, roughly half of American households fall into the middle class, over time the middle class has been shrinking. In 1971, 61% of adults lived in middle-class households. During this time both upper and lower-income segments of the population have been growing at the expense of the middle class. Plus, the upper class has seen bigger income gains, widening the income gap.

Pew found that the highest concentrations of middle-class Americans reside in the Midwest and Northeast. Sheboygan, WI has the largest percentage of middle-class adults in the U.S., others are:

  1. Sheboygan, WI – 65.2%
  2. Elkhart-Goshen, IN – 64.4%
  3. East Stroudsburg, PA – 63.7%
  4. Ogden-Clearfield, UT – 63.1%

The areas with the highest concentration of upper-class households should not surprise anyone.

  1. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA – 31.6%
  2. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV – 30.6%
  3. San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA – 30.4%
  4. Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT – 30.2%

The national average middle-class household income is $78,442 according to the Pew data. The Michigan middle-class benchmark is just over $79,000 and is placed in the middle at the 27th place nationally, between New Mexico and Maine. The Michigan middle-class household earns on average $600 more than the national average.

As for metro regions, the highest income to be middle class in the U.S. belongs to:

  1. Iowa City, IA  $90,158
  2. Auburn-Opelika, AL $87,363
  3. Monroe, MI $87,330
  4. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV  $86,645

Being middle class requires the least income in:

  1. El Centro, CA $69,338
  2. Merced, CA $71,319
  3. Lewiston-Auburn, ME $71,612
  4. Coeur d’Alene, ID $71,726

The Pew data says that in order to be middle class in Michigan the major metro-areas a household needs to have the following incomes.

  1. Muskegon, MI $76,699
  2. Saginaw, MI $77,731
  3. Lansing-East Lansing, MI $79,522
  4. Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI $80,159
  5. Grand Rapids-Wyoming, MI $80,166
  6. Niles-Benton Harbor, MI $80,302
  7. Ann Arbor, MI $80,907
  8. Kalamazoo-Portage, MI $81,003
  9. Jackson, MI $81,710
  10. Monroe, MI $87,330

In the table below, you’ll find the median incomes for each U.S. state for a three-person middle-class household, adjusted for the cost of living in the states. The amounts vary because Pew adjusts the data to reflect the cost of living around the country. Keep in mind the this is based on 2016 income, but since inflation has been modest in recent years the exact number probably won’t have changed much.

 

How much income it takes to be middle class

RankStateIncome
1District of Columbia$88,579
2Rhode Island$84,413
3Maryland$84,372
4Alaska$84,015
5Massachusetts$83,923
6North Dakota$83,494
7Connecticut$82,747
8Minnesota$82,173
9New Jersey$81,950
10South Dakota$81,334
11Virginia$81,309
12Colorado$81,234
13Iowa$81,167
14Wisconsin$81,053
15Illinois$81,010
16New Hampshire$80,656
17Washington$80,615
18Wyoming$80,217
19Hawaii$80,168
20Ohio$80,033
21Delaware$79,959
22Pennsylvania$79,717
23Nebraska$79,549
24Kentucky$79,216
25Missouri$79,189
26Maine$79,060
27Michigan$79,042
28New Mexico$79,012
29Kansas$78,971
30Georgia$78,961
31Vermont$78,877
32Texas$78,866
33Montana$78,854
34Alabama$78,624
35North Carolina$78,624
36Oregon$78,550
37Nevada$78,461
38New York$78,412
39South Carolina$78,016
40Indiana$77,941
41California$77,806
42Oklahoma$77,658
43Utah$77,575
44Tennessee$77,495
45Louisiana$77,351
46Arizona$76,860
47Idaho$76,849
48Mississippi$76,666
49West Virginia$76,629
50Arkansas$76,569
51Florida$75,414
In 2016 dollars, reflects three-person household, and adjusted for cost of living in the states. Source: Pew Research Center analysis of 2016 American Community Survey (IPUMS)

 

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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