Stories by Evan Schuman

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Privacy and the data toothpaste problem

Two prominent appellate courts have ruled in two unrelated privacy cases and dealt dual blows to privacy. A New York state appeals court said that Facebook had no right to resist coughing up extensive details about what its users are saying, while a federal appeals court said that anyone who unintentionally telephones someone -- a pocket-dial, sometimes known a bit more impolitely -- can't expect the listener to not listen and use the information.

Evan Schuman | 28 Jul | Read more

Sony reminds us all what a pathetically weak link email is

Sony is reliving the nightmare that <a href="http://www.computerworld.com/article/2858358/fbi-calls-sony-hack-organized-but-declines-to-name-source-or-finger-north-korea.html">its hacked databases</a> gave rise to late last year, now that <a href="http://www.computerworld.com/article/2910891/wikileaks-publishes-searchable-database-of-hacked-sony-docs.html">Wikileaks has thoughtfully published all of the leaked documents in a searchable database</a>. Really, they are the most courteous hoodlums ever.

Evan Schuman | 21 Apr | Read more

Where's the data?

It's a time-honored tradition: U.S. businesses find ways to skirt inconvenient or expensive laws by moving operations to other countries. Thus we have had U.S. corporations operating overseas to exploit child labor, run sweatshops or avoid taxes and rigorous health and safety inspections. Now the U.S. government says something similar is happening in regards to email.

Evan Schuman | 18 Mar | Read more

Can you trust Amazon's WorkMail?

When Amazon unveiled its cloud-based corporate <a href="http://www.computerworld.com/article/2877217/aws-launches-workmail-for-the-enterprise.html">WorkMail email offering</a> last week (Jan. 28), it stressed the high-level of encryption it would use and the fact that corporate users would control their own decryption keys. But Amazon neglected to mention that it will retain full access to those messages -- along with the ability to both analyze data for e-commerce marketing and to give data to law enforcement should subpoenas show up. 

Evan Schuman | 03 Feb | Read more

Are fingerprints PINs or physical artifacts?

In security and privacy circles today, no good deed goes unpunished. Consider Apple's recent privacy initiative. Under its new encryption policy, Apple can't divulge confidential information about its customers' data, because only the consumer's credentials can unlock the data -- and those credentials are completely under the control of the customer. For added security, Apple layered biometric authentication (fingerprint) on top, so that people wouldn't have to type their passwords/PINs in public, exposing themselves to the dangers of shoulder-surfing.

Evan Schuman | 11 Nov | Read more