Editorials

Lately the news has been buzzing with the possibility of a new battle ground for Samsung and Apple. This is the Smart Watch arena and both companies appear to be preparing to fight it out here. Already Samsung has made their offering public well ahead of anything that we have heard from Apple… at least officially. On the rumor front we have heard that Apple might have a smart watch ready for their next release cycle. However, as the title suggests, both of these companies are very late to the party as the concept of the smart watch is not new.

An important step for privacy on the internet and actually people’s general right to privacy happened yesterday. Most of us have heard the rumblings of the CISPA (Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act) and also the Executive Order signed by the US president that allows law enforcement to simply ask for user information. These laws also remove the right to privacy and in some cases the right to anonymity from the public on the internet. What many might not know is that a limited form of these acts has been in effect for some time inside the infamous Patriot Act.

Over the past year or two we have watched as companies like Microsoft, Crytek, Ubisoft and others push their business model into the cloud. At the same time we have watched as the number of cyber-attacks and data breaches increase. These attacks have also increased in sophistication and in some cases have not been detected until after the breach has been made and data lost. Still companies try to make the claim that their services, out of all of the others, are secure. Simply put (as we have always said) there is no such thing as a secure service, operating system, network or anything else. If it is connected or even powered on it is in danger.

The collection of personal data has reach an all-time high (or low as the case may be) today as it has been announced that a massive database of voter personal information has been released for the expressed purpose of advancing a political agenda. According to a statement made by the political action group OFA (Organizing for Action) the Obama campaign has given them access to their database of voter information. The database has more than personal information of more than 4 Million Donors and millions of other voters. The data is a collection of personal information including Facebook interactions (Friends and likes) Cell Phone numbers and more.