The permanence of social media such as tweets presents an important challenge for data protection and privacy. This is particularly true when social media is used to communicate during crises. Indeed, social media users tend to volunteer personal identifying information during disasters that they otherwise would not share, such as phone numbers and home addresses. They typically share this sensitive information to offer help or seek assistance. What if we could limit the visibility of these messages after their initial use?
Blog Archives
Abdullah Azzam Brigades Claims Responsibility for Rocket Attack on Israel
In a statement posted to jihadist forums yesterday, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades took official responsibility for the Aug. 22 rocket attack on Israel from Lebanon. In the statement, which was obtained and translated by the SITE Intelligence Group, the group said that fighters from its Ziad Jarrah Battalions fired four Grad rockets towards the northern Israeli cities of Acre and Nahariya.
“This operation comes within the series of our jihadi work directed at the Jews,” the statement said.
Shabaab Urges Egyptian Muslims to ‘Pick Up Arms and Defend Yourself’
In a series of tweets posted to its official Twitter account today, Shabaab commented on the ongoing crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. The jihadist group had previously chastised the Muslim Brotherhood on Twitter following the ouster of Mohammed Morsi in early July.
Israel Thwarts Hamas Terror Plots Involving Qatar-based Terrorist
Today Israeli authorities announced the arrest of a Hamas operative in the West Bank who was “planning to carry out terror attacks involving shooting and kidnapping Israelis.” Baker Atallah Samiach Saad, a resident of Ramallah, was helped in planning his attacks by a Hamas terrorist released in the exchange for Gilad Shalit in October 2011. According to the Israel Defense Forces, Saad met Qatar-based Hisham Abed Elkader Ibrahim Hajaz in April in Jordan.
Hajaz was exiled to Qatar as part of the exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in October 2011. Prior to being exiled, Hajaz had been given 10 life sentences for his role in terror attacks against Israelis between 2001 and 2003.
During the April meeting in Jordan, Hajaz encouraged Saad to carry out terror attacks against Israelis, including kidnappings. Saad was also asked to recruit more people to carry out additional attacks.
Transgender Navy SEAL Publishes Book Entitled ‘Warrior Princess’
A former Navy SEAL has come out publicly to say she is now a woman. Kristin Beck, formerly Chris Beck served 20 years as a Navy SEAL. Beck co-wrote a book entitled “Warrior Princess,” which was published over the weekend. According the description on Amazon, the book is the journey of a girl in a man’s body and her road to self-actualization as a woman amdist the PTSD of war, family rejection and our society’s strict gender rules and perceptions. It is about a fight to be free inside one’s own body, a fight that requires the strength of a Warrior Princess.
A former SEAL, Brandon Webb, spoke of Beck’s reputation in the SEALs as a good one and said she was, by all appearances, the “consummate guy’s guy.”
Source: Breitbart
Data Mining Wikipedia in Real Time for Disaster Response
My colleague Fernando Diaz has continued working on an interesting Wikipedia project since he first discussed the idea with me last year. Since Wikipedia is increasingly used to crowdsource live reports on breaking news such as sudden-onset humanitarian crisis and disasters, why not mine these pages for structured information relevant to humanitarian response professionals?
American Gets Targeted by Digital Spy Tool Sold to Foreign Governments
The email appeared to come from a trusted colleague at a renowned academic institution and referenced a subject that was a hot-button issue for the recipient, including a link to a website where she could obtain more information about it.
The email contained a link to a web site in Turkey, where a malicious downloader file was waiting to install on her computer…
But when the recipient looked closely at the sender’s email address, a tell-tale misspelling gave the phishing attempt away — the email purported to come from a professor at Harvard University, but instead of harvard.edu, the email address read “hardward.edu”.
Not exactly a professional con-job from nation-state hackers, but that’s exactly who may have sent the email to an American woman, who believes she was targeted by forces in Turkey connected to or sympathetic to the powerful Gülen Movement, which has infiltrated parts of the Turkish government.