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Daily Archives: December 29, 2013

Spiegel – Inside TAO: Documents Reveal Top NSA Hacking Unit

The NSA’s TAO hacking unit is considered to be the intelligence agency’s top secret weapon. It maintains its own covert network, infiltrates computers around the world and even intercepts shipping deliveries to plant back doors in electronics ordered by those it is targeting.” [TAO – Tailored Access Operations]

“TAO specialists have directly accessed the protected networks of democratically elected leaders of countries. They infiltrated networks of European telecommunications companies and gained access to and read mails sent over Blackberry’s BES email servers, which until then were believed to be securely encrypted. Achieving this last goal required a “sustained TAO operation,” one document states. This TAO unit is born of the Internet — created in 1997, a time when not even 2 percent of the world’s population had Internet access and no one had yet thought of Facebook, YouTube or Twitter. From the time the first TAO employees moved into offices at NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland, the unit was housed in a separate wing, set apart from the rest of the agency. Their task was clear from the beginning — to work around the clock to find ways to hack into global communications traffic.”

The International Children’s Digital Library is a research project funded to create a digital library of outstanding children’s books from all over the world

“The mission of the International Children’s Digital Library Foundation (ICDL Foundation) is to support the world’s children in becoming effective members of the global community – who exhibit tolerance and respect for diverse cultures, languages and ideas — by making the best in children’s literature available online free of charge. The Foundation pursues its vision… Continue Reading

Kenneth Feinberg: The Nation’s Leading Expert in Picking up the Pieces

After the tragedies that come all too often—9/11, the Gulf, Newtown—the call goes out to Ken Feinberg to do what no man can possibly do: ease the pain by Chris Jones. Published in the January 2014 issue of Esquire. “We live in the age of Feinberg. Between September 11 and today, he has overseen the accounting… Continue Reading

The 2013 Cybersecurity Executive Order: Overview and Considerations for Congress

CRS – The 2013 Cybersecurity Executive Order: Overview and Considerations for Congress. November 8, 2013 “Cyberthreats to U.S. infrastructure and other assets are a growing concern to policymakers. Information and communications technology (ICT) is ubiquitous and relied upon for government services, corporate business processes, and individual professional and personal pursuits—almost every facet of modern life. Many ICT devices and other… Continue Reading

New GAO Reports – HHS National Preparedness, Social Security Death Data, Financial Audit of the SEC

NATIONAL PREPAREDNESS – HHS Is Monitoring the Progress of Its Medical Countermeasure Efforts but Has Not Provided Previously Recommended Spending Estimates, GAO-14-90, Dec 27, 2013 SOCIAL SECURITY DEATH DATA – Additional Action Needed to Address Data Errors and Federal Agency Access, GAO-14-46, Nov 27, 2013 FINANCIAL AUDIT – Securities and Exchange Commission’s Fiscal Years 2013 and 2012 Financial Statements [Reissued… Continue Reading

New on LLRX – Making the national digital library dream come true for the Hernandezes

Via LLRX – Making the national digital library dream come true for the Hernandezes–not just the American elite: Strategies for librarians and public officials This is the last article David Rothman’s current series mapping out a path for planners of America’s digital libraries. Part One encouraged librarians to be open to new ideas likeBiblioTech, especially from friends outside the profession. Part… Continue Reading

How the Hernandez family will benefit from two well-stocked national digital library systems and a digital library endowment

Via LLRX.com – How the Hernandez family will benefit from two well-stocked national digital library systems and a digital library endowment – This is Part Two of LibraryCity’s series, by David Rothman, mapping out a digital future for U.S. libraries to better our lives. Part One is on the need for librarians to open their minds to innovations like the BiblioTech digital… Continue Reading

New on LLRX – Commentary – public libraries: You’ll go the way of print newspapers if you automatically diss nonlibrarians’ gutsy ideas

Via LLRX.com – Beware, public libraries: You’ll go the way of print newspapers if you automatically diss nonlibrarians’ gutsy ideas This is the first article in a three-part series by David Rothman, all three of which are published here at LLRX.com. Part Two is about Carmela Hernandez and family. Set in the San Antonio area, a future scenario shows how a national… Continue Reading

New on LLRX – Voice Dream text-to-speech app can now play audiobooks

Via LLRX.com – Voice Dream text-to-speech app can now play audiobooks, too, and soon you may be able to hear audios of PDFs while seeing the original layouts David Rothman gives kudos to the latest version of the Voice Dream text-to-speech app that can now play audiobooks. David also let’s us know that soon you may be… Continue Reading

CRS – Federal Pollution Control Laws: How Are They Enforced?

Federal Pollution Control Laws: How Are They Enforced? by Robert Esworthy, Specialist in Environmental Policy. December 16, 2013 “This report focuses on enforcement of federal environmental pollution control requirements under the Clean Air Act (CAA); the Clean Water Act (CWA); the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA or Superfund); and other statutes for which EPA is the primary federal… Continue Reading