Cybersecurity Experts Warn of DeepSeek Vulnerabilities as Governments Ban App

Gizmodo: “A cybersecurity company is warning businesses and organizations not to use a popular app from the generative AI company DeepSeek, saying that the program contains a number of security vulnerabilities that could compromise users’ data. The DeepSeek app, which shocked the stock market when it moved to the top of the Apple App Store …

Subjects: AI, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, E-Records, Internet, Privacy

All the ways Elon Musk is breaking the law, explained by a law professor

Vox [unpaywalled]- “There are a lot of them. Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is moving fast and breaking the law — lots of laws. The scope of Trump and Musk’s sweeping effort to purge the federal workforce and slash government spending has shocked the political world — in part for its ambition, but also …

Subjects: Courts, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research

Trump Administration Foreign Policy Tracker: February

FDD: “Welcome to the inaugural edition of the Trump Administration Foreign Policy Tracker. As readers of our Biden Administration Foreign Policy Tracker will know, this is a monthly publication in which FDD’s experts and scholars assess the administration’s foreign policy. They provide trendlines of very positive, positive, neutral, negative, or very negative for the areas …

Subjects: Defense, Government Documents, Legal Research, Legislation

The List of Trump’s Forbidden Words That Will Get Your Paper Flagged at NSF

Gizmodo –  “It’s fascism, plain and simple.Every federal agency in the U.S. is currently trying to figure out how to purge forbidden words from documents posted online, in a desperate attempt to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order to purge “DEI” from every facet of American life. And nowhere is that effort more bizarre …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Education, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research

Executive Actions and Legal Challenges in President Trump’s First 100 Days

Lawfare: “On Jan. 20, 2025, Donald Trump became the 47th president of the United States. After taking the oath of office, President Trump began signing executive orders pardoning Jan. 6 defendants, implementing Schedule F to reclassify civil servants as political appointees, declaring a national emergency at the border, and more.  Executive actions related to national …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Government Documents, Legal Research

Elon Musk’s AI Fueled War on Human Agency

The New Yorker [unpaywalled]: “…To run his agency [DOGE], Musk brought on a group of tech-company managers and inexperienced twentysomethings whose credentials included internships at SpaceX. We watched as this crew began interrogating federal employees about their jobs, interfering with the system that controls payments at the Treasury Department, and trawling government budgets while Musk …

Subjects: AI, Censorship, Civil Liberties, Climate Change, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Economy, Financial System, Government Documents

GovWayback

“GovWayback is a simple tool to quickly access archived versions of government websites from before January 20, 2025 – just add “wayback.com” after “.gov” in any government URL. GovWayback automatically redirects you to that page’s archived version from the Internet Archive. Why January 20, 2025? January 20th is Inauguration Day for the U.S. presidential term. …

Subjects: E-Government, E-Records, Education, Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

Musk associates access confidential info about X’s competitors via CFPB takeover

Musk Watch and Bloomberg – “Just nine days before his DOGE team visited CFPB, Musk’s X — the former Twitter — announced that it had struck a deal with Visa to process peer-to-peer payments. Musk has publicly mused about expanding into payment-services since he first took control of X in 2022. Entering that business could …

Subjects: Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, E-Commerce, Economy, Financial System, Government Documents, Intellectual Property, Legal Research, Marketing, Social Media

Recent CRS and GAO Reports Highlight Key Issues of Trump Administration

2/3 – USAID Under the Trump Administration (CRS) 2/3 – No More Deference: Sixth Circuit Relies on Loper Bright to Strike Down Net Neutrality Rules (CRS) 2/3 – Food Safety: Status of Foodborne Illness in the U.S. (GAO) 2/4 – Recent White House Actions on Immigration (CRS) 2/6 – Federal Workforce Downsizing: Voluntary and Involuntary …

Subjects: Censorship, Economy, Food and Nutrition, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Health Care, Internet, Legal Research

The Fragile States Index

“The Fragile States Index is based on a conflict assessment framework – known as “CAST” – that was developed by FFP nearly a quarter-century ago for assessing the vulnerability of states to collapse. The CAST framework was originally designed to measure this vulnerability and assess how it might affect projects in the field, and continues …

Subjects: Defense, Economy, Financial System

NSA can track powered-down phones: how to actually protect your privacy

BoingBoing – Ellsworth Toohey: “Yesterday I wrote about Privacy Guide’s mobile phone privacy and security guide for protesters. Today, Randy Zar, CEO of Faraday pouch manufacturer SLNT wrote: “Just want to let you know your cell phone is tracking you regardless if you have it in airplane mode or not.  It even ping’s when it’s …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, E-Records, Internet, Legal Research, Privacy, Social Media

State Chief Data Officer (CDO) Tracker

“The State Chief Data Officer Tracker, created by the Beeck Center’s Digital Service Network and Data Labs teams, is a first-of-its-kind resource that tracks the evolving role of CDOs in state governments and their efforts to advance data-informed decision-making and collaboration across agencies. Data is a powerful tool for improving government transparency, accountability, and service …

Subjects: E-Government, E-Records, Government Documents, Legal Research, Legislation