Michigan Rep. John Conyers says he is stepping aside as the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee as he is being investigated for allegations for sexually harassing female staff members. The 88-year-old says he denies the allegations and would like to keep his leadership role on the panel, in a statement on Sunday. However, he says he "cannot in good conscience" allow the charges to be an undue distraction to his House colleagues while the investigation continues. The House Ethics Committee is investigating Conyers after receiving allegations of sexual harassment and age discrimination involving staff members as well as using "official resources for impermissible personal purposes." House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi refuses to criticize Conyers, "John Conyers is an icon in our country. He's done a great deal to protect women." Pelosi placed responsibility on the House Ethics Committee to investigate the allegations, and for Conyers to "do the right thing." Sources: www.click2houston.com/news/rep-john-conyers-steps-aside-as-top-democrat-on-house-judiciary-committee http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/26/politics/pelosi-conyers-icon-mtp/index.html
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CHICAGO - Announcing Friday that he has been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, Rev. Jesse Jackson plans to dedicate himself to physical therapy. He says the diagnosis isn't a sign to stop working, but a signal to make life changes to slow the progression of the chronic neurological disorder that causes movement difficulties. Tremors, stiffness and problems with balancing, walking and coordination can result from the disease. "My family and I began to notice changes about three years ago," Jackson wrote in a statement. "After a battery of tests, my physicians identified the issue as Parkinson's disease, a disease that bested my father." The civil rights leader took to Twitter to post the news today. "Recognition of the effects of this disease on me has been painful, and I have been slow to grasp the gravity of it." Finding it increasingly difficult to perform routine tasks, Jackson says he is dedicating himself to physical therapy, but wants to continue to serve. "This diagnosis is personal but it is more than that," the 76-year-old says, "It is an opportunity for me to use my voice to help in finding a cure for a disease that afflicts 7 to 10 million worldwide." Ending his statement with a positive note, Jackson signs, "KEEP HOPE ALIVE!" The full statement can be read here San Francisco - Google has been investigating different ways hackers are stealing personal information over Google Accounts Google researchers identified 788,000 potential victims of keylogging and 12.4 million potential victims of phishing. Google says on average, the phishing tools they studied collect 234,887 potential valid login credentials, and key logging tools collected 14,879 credentials, each week. It also uncovered billions of usernames and passwords indirectly exposed in third-party breaches.
All of the data has been collected between March 2016 and March 2017, Google publishing the information on Thursday. Google said it is the first study taking a long term and comprehensive look at how criminals steal your data, and what tools are most popular. The most popular method of stealing information is phishing, which is posting as a trustworthy person or entity to trick you into giving up your information. These are the emails you get asking for bank account information, or more recently, the Facebook friend requests from fake accounts of your real friends. Because passwords are often not enough to access online accounts, cyber criminals are trying to collect other data, too. Researchers found that some phishers try and siphon location, phone numbers, or other sensitive data while stealing login credentials. Keylogging, which is recording what you type on your computer, is another popular way of stealing your information. Even with no hacking experience, someone can find these tools on criminal hacker forums. Data breaches, such as the recent Equifax hack, are the most common ways hackers can get your data. In one year, researchers found 1.9 billion usernames and passwords exposed by breaches. The company continued to study this through September 2017 and found a total of 3.3 billion credentials. Google has some precautions already set in place to protect your information, but they are implementing more safety measures after receiving this data. Google can automatically recognize when you're logging in from somewhere unusual. If the company sees you attempting to login from another country when you usually login in from Texas, Google will ask to verify if it's you. As a result of the data, Google has tightened the location radius around what it considers to be usual login areas. Google has also implemented additional layers of email security on its official Gmail app. The company said that applying the research insights to its security protections prevented 67 million Google accounts from being abused. Last month, the company launched a handful of tools for people to further protect themselves, including a personalized account security checkup, new phishing warnings, and the Advanced Protection Program for Google's most at-risk users. Sources: www.click2houston.com/tech/google-says-hackers-steal-almost-250000-logins-each-week Congress released some of the 3,000 Facebook ads and Twitter accounts created by Russian operatives to try and sway American voters in the 2016 Presidential Election. Seen by up to 126 million Americans, the posts raise questions about why social media giants hadn't done more to fight against Russian interference on their sites. U.S. Intelligence services say the Russian use of social media was part of an effort to sway the election in favor of Donald Trump. The ads encouraged protests and demonstrations, exploiting social issues. The Russian operatives used Facebook tools to target people with strong feelings about gun rights, African American political activism, illegal immigration or issues that might affect how Americans cast their vote, according to lawmakers. One ad, aimed at those with an interest in civil rights and their leaders, showed a man claiming to be Bill Clinton's illegitimate son. Advertisements were not only in support for Trump, but also in opposition to his campaign. Another video parodying Trump was targeted towards people interested in BlackNews.com, HuffPost Politics or HuffPost Black Voices. Facebook's top lawyer told Congress on Wednesday the Russian effort was "fairly rudimentary." All kinds of companies use these same tools, targeting potential customers. As Facebook's lawyer was referencing, it's the same idea as when you search for something online and see advertisements for that item everywhere on Facebook. Spreading fake content is another Russian strategy aimed at undermining trust in information sources, Clint Watts, from George Washington University's Center for Cyber and Homeland Security, said. Facebook company executives said that going forward they would verify political ad buyers in federal elections, requiring them to reveal correct names and locations. The site will also create new graphics where users can click on the ads and find out who is really behind them. Below are images from The Washington Post, explaining how these ads worked: Among the advertisements that were released, the targeting options for those posts can also be seen. Some of the posts seemed like they were from trustworthy organizations. The Russian pages paid to promote about 3,000 advertisements, reaching 11.4 million people.
Some Facebook users who saw the ads, liked the pages that promoted them. Other users shared the ads, which caused them to show up on their own or friends' feeds. After users engaging with these ads, the reach of these posts grew to 126 million people. These posts were not only shared by ordinary Americans, but by members of the candidate's campaigns and family members. You might have seen or even shared these posts on Facebook during the campaign. You're not alone. Instances like these show how easily false information can be spread over the Internet. That is why it is important to take verifying information into your own hands. Sources: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/11/01/how-russian-trolls-got-into-your-facebook-feed/?utm_term=.97874a98c7c3 https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/business/russian-ads-facebook-anatomy/?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.9ac757785913 http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-russian-facebook-ads-20171101-story.html |
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July 2019
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