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Sign Your Address Up For USPS Informed Delivery Before Scammers Do

Photo: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

If you haven’t signed up for the US Postal Service’s Informed Delivery service, you might want to do so now.

The service lets you see what’s expected to arrive in your mailbox soon. It’s great for knowing that a check or invite you’ve been waiting for is literally in the mail. And f you don’t sign up for it? You’re opening yourself up to someone signing up for the service as you and swiping your important mail before you ever see it.

On November 6th the Secret Service reportedly sent an internal alert to its law enforcement partners warning them of a scam where criminals would sign up for other people’s mailboxes and then steal credit cards from those people’s mailboxes, reports KrebsOnSecurity.

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According to the report, seven people in Michigan used the service to apply for fraudulent credit cards and then steal those cards out of their recipient’s mailboxes. The mailbox owners never knew the cards were even applied for, much less stolen. In that case, the defendants were able to run up nearly $400,000 in charges on the stolen cards.

KrebsOnSecurity notes that any adult that lives at your address can sign up for an account, so if you do want to claim your address you should do so for every eligible person. You can also reportedly opt your address out of the service entirely by emailing eSafe@usps.gov, although the publication did not have any luck getting a response from that address.

It also suggested a credit freeze might help prevent fraudulent signups since USPS uses security questions from Equifax in order to verify accounts. That said, several readers of the site claimed they were able to sign up even though they had credit freezes in place, so your mileage may vary.

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And as always, this a good reminder to sign up for alerts for when your credit report changes. If you have alerts set up you’ll find out about fraudulent cards and loans sooner rather than later.


via Lifehacker
Sign Your Address Up For USPS Informed Delivery Before Scammers Do

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Watch real-life Iron Men do the first jetpack launch from the ground



XDubai

Iron Man might make flying look easy, but strapping on a jetpack and wings ranks as one of the more dangerous things you could every try. Jetman Yves Rossy and his two protégés (Fred Fugen and Vince Reffet) are bringing you closer to that action with the launch of a documentary called Loft: The Jetman Story.

In a teaser trailer for the film, produced in collaboration with XDubai, the trio show off some formation flying through the Fjords of Norway. It demonstrates the extreme risk (“if something goes wrong you have to react fast,” says Reffet) along with some pretty incredible high-speed visuals. You also get to see the first time the team has launched from a ground-based platform, albeit a high ramp in the mountains, rather than the helicopters or planes they usually use.






via MAKE Magazine
Weekend Watch: Welcome to Shedlandia

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Building a Laravel Translation Package – Wrangling Translations



Laravel Tutorials
/
November 02, 2018

Building a Laravel Translation Package – Wrangling Translations

As we’ve discussed earlier in the series, out of the box, Laravel translations are stored in language files. These can be either PHP array-style syntax or straight up JSON files.

The Laravel Translation package interacts with the files in order to achieve the following:

  • List all languages
  • Add a language
  • List all translations
  • Add a translation
  • Update existing translations

The plan for the package is, much like many features of Laravel, to expose multiple drivers to power the translation management. The first driver will utilize Laravel’s existing file-based translations with plans to later add a database driver. With this in mind, we first define a contract to which driver will implement to ensure all the required methods are available to the package.

The file driver needs to interrogate the filesystem in order to return the data in the required format. This involves a lot of filtering, mapping and iterating, so we will lean quite heavily on Laravel’s collections.

Listing languages

To generate a collection of languages, we use the filesystem to get an array of directories from the configured language path, wrapping the result in a collection.

$directories = Collection::make($this->disk->directories($this->languageFilesPath));

Next, we utilize the mapWithKeys function to iterate over the directories, stripping the language from the path (it will be the last segment) and returning a key => value array.

return $directories->mapWithKeys(function ($directory) {
    $language = basename($directory);
    return [$language => $language];
});

The result looks something like this:

// $this->allLanguages()->toArray();

[
    ‘en’ => ‘en’,
    ‘fr’ => ‘fr’,
    ‘es’ => ‘es’,
];

Adding languages

To create a new language, we need to add a new directory and empty JSON file to the configured language path and name it after the language we’re adding.

$this->disk->makeDirectory(“{$this->languageFilesPath}/$language”);

if (! $this->disk->exists(“{$this->languageFilesPath}/{$language}.json”)) {
    $this->disk->put(
        “{$this->languageFilesPath}/$language.json”,
        json_encode((object) [], JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE | JSON_PRETTY_PRINT)
    );
}

Then, we use the filesystem to add a new file to the language path containing an empty JSON encoded array.

Using the JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE | JSON_PRETTY_PRINT constants ensure the generated JSON is in the right format.

Listing translations

When listing translations we want to ensure we differentiate the group (array style) translations from the single (JSON style).

Group
To get the group translations, we can use the filesystem to get all the files from the language directory.

$groups Collection($this->disk->allFiles(“{$this->languageFilesPath}/{$language}“));

Then, to get the translations, we can iterate over all the files in the directory and use the filesystem’s getRequire method to require the file giving us direct access to the array.

$groups->mapWithKeys(function ($group) {
    return [$group->getBasename(‘.php’) => $this->disk->getRequire($group->getPathname())];
});

The result looks something like this:

[
    ‘auth’ => [
        ‘failed’ => ‘These credentials do not match our records’,
    ],
]

Single

We can get the single translations by using json_decode on the contents of the file.

if ($this->disk->exists($this->languageFilesPath.“/$language.json”)) {
    return new Collection(json_decode($this->disk->get($singlePath), true));
}

The result looks something like this:

[
    ‘hello’ => ‘hello’,
]

Adding/updating translations

Translations are added and updated in largely the same fashion. First, we get the contents of the file the translation should be added to in array format. Then, we check whether or not the key to be added already exists. If it does, we update the value and if not, we append the new key and value to the array. Finally, the whole array is written back to the file.

Group

$translations = $this->getGroupTranslationsFor($language);
$values = $translations->get($group);
$values[$key] = $value;
$translations->put($group, $values);
$this->disk->put(
    “{$this->languageFilesPath}/{$language}/{$group}.php”,
    “<?php\n\nreturn “.var_export($translations, true).‘;’.\PHP_EOL
);

Single

$translations = $this->getSingleTranslationsFor($language);
$translations->put($key, $value);
$this->disk->put(
    “{$this->languageFilesPath}/$language.json”,
    json_encode((object) $translations, JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE | JSON_PRETTY_PRINT)
);

Some of the code samples have been truncated for clarity. You can see the full code for the files mentioned in the article below:

Driver Interface
File Driver

This driver lays the foundation from which we can build upon. Next time, we’ll build out the user interface which will ship with the package. It utilizes a combination of Tailwind CSS and Vue.js, two frameworks which have been widely adopted by the Laravel community.


via Laravel News
Building a Laravel Translation Package – Wrangling Translations

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Harvard Opens Up Its Massive Caselaw Access Project

Almost exactly three years ago, we wrote about the launch of an ambitious project by Harvard Law School to scan all federal and state court cases and get them online (for free) in a machine readable format (not just PDFs!), with open APIs for anyone to use. And, earlier this week, case.law officially launched, with 6.4 million cases, some going back as far as 1658. There are still some limitations — some placed on the project by its funding partner, Ravel, which was acquired by LexisNexis last year (though, the structure of the deal will mean some of these restrictions will likely decrease over time).

Also, the focus right now is really on providing this setup as a tool for others to build on, rather than as a straight up interface for anyone to use. As it stands, you can either access data via the site’s API, or by doing bulk downloads. Of course, the bulk downloads are, unfortunately, part of what’s limited by the Ravel/LexisNexis data. Bulk downloads are available for cases in Illinois and Arkansas, but that’s only because both of those states already make cases available online. Still, even with the Ravel/LexisNexis limitation, individual users can download up to 500 cases per day.

The real question is what will others build with the API. The site has launched with four sample applications that are all pretty cool.

  • H2O is a tool that law professors can use to easily create casebooks for students in various areas of law. Anything published on H2O gets a Creative Commons license and can then be shared widely. I wonder if professors like Eric Goldman, who offers an Internet Law Casebook, or James Grimmelmann, who has a different Internet Law Casebook, will eventually port them over to a platform like H2O.
  • A wordcloud app that currently shows the "most used words" in California cases in various years. Here, for example, are the word clouds in California cases from 1871… and 2012. See if you can tell which one’s which.
   
  • Caselaw Limericks that appears to randomly generate what it believes is a rhyming limerick from the case law. Here’s what I got:

Her son Julius is a confirmed thief.
He did not turn over a new leaf.
The vessel, not.
the parking lot.
Respondent concedes this in its brief.

    The quality overall is… a bit mixed. But it’s fun.
  • And, finally, in time for Halloween, Witchcraft in Law, which totals up cases that cite "witchcraft" by state.

Hopefully this inspires a lot more on the development side as well.

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via Techdirt
Harvard Opens Up Its Massive Caselaw Access Project

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How Much Do Your Employees Actually Know About Cybersecurity?

Image Credit: TheDigitalArtist on Pixabay

In 2017, the globally known company Deloitte faced a cybersecurity crisis. That is, a cyber attack led to their blue-chip client data being compromised. The reason? The admin account that had access to their global email server did not have two-factor authentication.

Another catastrophic data breach took place at American Superconductor Corp (AMSC). That incident was caused by a former employee who brought the company’s intellectual property to his new employer, Sinovel. To make matters worse, Sinovel and AMSC are competitors. As a result of this former employee’s treachery, AMSC’s losses exceeded $1 billion. Plus, they almost went out of business.

 

RELATED ARTICLE: WEBSITE VULNERABILITIES: DON’T LET THEM SLOW YOUR BUSINESS DOWN

 

Do You Think It Will Never Happen to You?

These stories may seem like it-will-never-happen-in-my-company narratives. But let’s agree on this: your partners, your suppliers, your third-party vendors, and your current employees all represent a significant threat to your cybersecurity. Nonetheless, studies reveal that companies often miss this fact. When they do, they end up suffering sometimes ruinous losses.

A report from Shred-it shows that employee negligence—for example, an accidental loss of a device—caused 47 percent of organizations’ data breaches. Moreover, these data breaches cost organizations an average of $3,6 million globally in 2017. The report also revealed that more than 25 percent of respondents leave their computers unlocked and unattended. These numbers prove that even small mistakes can backfire and cause significant harm.

So, what actions could you implement to minimize the risks of a data breach in your company?

 

  • Communicate the Idea of Cybersecurity to Your Employees Clearly, Consistently, and Often

First of all, before you start, take the time to analyze the weakest points in your company’s cybersecurity. Then, define your company’s cybersecurity policy based on those weak points.

However, don’t forget to add basic information about how to read URL links. You want your employees to be able to recognize malicious emails or phishing attacks. What’s more, if your company has remote workers, ensure that those employees apply good cybersecurity practices outside of the office.

If you already have a good cybersecurity policy in hand, start a cybersecurity onboarding program for your employees based on that. However, remember that new vulnerabilities arise every day. Therefore, your IT department should continuously work to inform employees about possible types of attacks. Communication is key. Moreover, leaving your cybersecurity policy in a drawer is not an option.

 

  • Ensure Passwords Are Strong Enough

Remember Deloitte’s case mentioned earlier? A weak password cost them a lot. Make sure your employees understand the difference between strong and weak passwords. Two-factor authentication (also known as multi-factor authentication) is a way to ensure additional protection. Implementing two-factor authentication in your employees’ daily practices can be a huge step forward.

 

  • Communicate the Importance of Encryption

A study by Zug revealed that 70 percent of professionals work remotely at least once a week. Around 53 percent do so for at least half of the week. However, according to the study, more than half of small business owners admit they don’t have a cybersecurity policy for their remote workers.

If you are in a similar situation, you need to make sure your remote employees’ Internet connections are as secure as those for your in house employees. This can be tricky, as unsecured WiFi at various coffee shops can cause a serious threat to employees working remotely.

One of the solutions for upgrading security to the next level is a third-party VPN (virtual private network) service. A VPN can encrypt traffic and establish a secure and private user’s connection to the Internet. By rerouting all traffic that travels between the device and the web’s servers, a VPN creates a secure tunnel that is virtually impenetrable.

However, choose your VPN wisely. Look for the ones offering a no logs policy. That’s because if your VPN retains user activity logs, third parties could get access to your transferred data.

 

  • Help Employees Understand the Importance of Backups

Your employees don’t necessarily know how important backups are. They also might not understand that sometimes backups don’t work.

In some cases, when a cyber-criminal takes over access to a computer, the victim panics and even thinks about paying a ransom to get their files unlocked. Various companies are the primary target for criminals working on this kind of attack. And this comes as no surprise, as firms are often ready to pay much more than individual users are for getting their important data back.

Therefore, take the time to teach the employees the 3-2-1 backup rule. This rule suggests keeping three copies of all data. They should be stored on two different media, and one backup copy should be stored offsite. If something terrible happens, you can quickly restore data and avoid the possible stress and losses.

 

Strong Cybersecurity Is an Ongoing Concern

Creating a strong cybersecurity culture in your company won’t be a one-day job. On the contrary, it’s a never-ending process with a single primary goal. This goal—changing your employees’ mindset —is not an easy goal to reach. However, work diligently toward helping employees understand that small habits are of enormous importance. What’s more, all of those small habits will pay off in the long run.

The post How Much Do Your Employees Actually Know About Cybersecurity? appeared first on Business Opportunities.


via Business Opportunities Weblog
How Much Do Your Employees Actually Know About Cybersecurity?