Ken Garen, CPA, Co-Founder and President, UBCC

NSA Data Have No Impact on Terrorism: Report By Chris Strohm  Jan 13, 2014 1:07 PM PT  A public policy group says a review of U.S. terrorist arrests shows the government’s collection of bulk phone records does little to prevent terrorism, adding fuel to a debate over whether the spy program should be ended. The nonprofit New America Foundation, based in Washington, analyzed cases involving 225 people recruited by al-Qaeda or other terrorist groups and charged in the U.S. since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The majority of cases started with traditional techniques, such as use of “informants, tips from local communities, and targeted intelligence operations,” according to a report today from the group, which has been critical of the NSA spy programs. “Our investigation found that bulk collection of American phone metadata has had no discernible impact on preventing acts of terrorism and only the most marginal of impacts on preventing terrorist-related activity, ...

Appeals court strikes down FCC net neutrality rule The court says the agency does not have the authority to regulate broadband By Grant Gross, IDG News Service January 14, 2014 11:06 AM ET The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District Columbia Circuit on Tuesday ruled that the FCC does not have the authority to implement the rules prohibiting broadband providers from selectively blocking or slowing Web traffic. The FCC passed the net neutrality rules, also called open Internet rules, in December 2010, but Verizon Communications challenged the rules, saying Congress did not give the agency the authority to regulate broadband providers. "We're disappointed that the court came to this conclusion," Craig Aaron, president and CEO of digital rights group Free Press, said in a statement. "Its ruling means that Internet users will be pitted against the biggest phone and cable companies -- and in the absence of any oversight, these companies can now block and ...

Supercomputer models one second of human brain activity The most accurate simulation of the human brain ever has been carried out, but a single second’s worth of activity took one of the world’s largest supercomputers 40 minutes to calculate Men’s and women's brains are wired differently The simulation will help scientists create more accurate models in future By Matthew Sparkes 10:04AM GMT 13 Jan 2014 The most accurate simulation of the human brain to date has been carried out in a Japanese supercomputer, with a single second’s worth of activity from just one per cent of the complex organ taking one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers 40 minutes to calculate. Researchers used the K computer in Japan, currently the fourth most powerful in the world, to simulate human brain activity. The computer has 705,024 processor cores and 1.4 million GB of RAM, but still took 40 minutes to crunch the data for just one second of brain activity. The proje...

Supreme Court to Hear Aereo Case JANUARY 10, 2014 | 11:53AM PT Ted Johnson Senior Editor The Supreme Court will hear broadcasters’ challenge to the legality of startup Aereo, in a case that may not only determine the future of digital streaming of station signals but of network television itself. Without comment, the justices on Friday agreed to accept ABC Television Stations vs. Aereo, in which the television networks are seeking to halt the Barry Diller-backed venture, contending that its offering of streams of station signals in New York and other markets violates the public performance provisions of the Copyright Act. Justice Samuel Alito took no part in the consideration of the petition, the court said, without elaborating. Typically such recusals are for a potential conflict of interest, and Alito has previously said that his family owned stock in the Walt Disney Co. “We are pleased the Court has agreed to hear this important case,” Fox, Univision, PBS and othe...

YELP critics must be identified, court rules in online landscape altering decision Decision could reshape rules for online consumer reviews of products, businesses By Kellan Howell and Phillip Swarts-The Washington Times Wednesday, January 8, 2014 In a decision that could reshape the rules for online consumer reviews, a Virginia court has ruled that the popular website Yelp must turn over the names of seven reviewers who anonymously criticized a prominent local carpet cleaning business. The case revolves around negative feedback against Virginia-based Hadeed Carpet Cleaning. The owner, Joe Hadeed, said the users leaving bad reviews were not real customers of the cleaning service — something that would violate Yelp's terms of service. His attorneys issued a subpoena demanding the names of seven anonymous reviewers, and a judge in Alexandria ruled that Yelp had to comply. The Virginia Court of Appeals agreed this week, ruling that the comments were not protected ...

NSA Spying Sends Data Clients North of the Border By Hugo Miller  Jan 9, 2014 10:34 AM PT  In the British Columbia town of Kamloops, arid as a desert with cool summer nights, Telus Corp. (T) only has to turn on the air conditioning about 40 hours a year to keep its computer servers from overheating. The chilly temperatures are part of Canadian companies’ sales pitch to businesses looking for places to store their growing troves of digital information as cheaply as possible. They also boast of inexpensive hydroelectric power and low seismic activity. And now they’re touting what they say is a new advantage: less snooping. Revelations that the U.S. National Security Agency has spied on data networks run by American companies have given Canadian data-center operators an opportunity. They’re telling customers from Europe and Asia that laws north of the border are more protective of privacy. Sales of storage services in Canada are growing 20 percent a year at Telus...

Feds move to block discovery in NSA lawsuits By JOSH GERSTEIN | 1/8/14 8:57 PM EST The Justice Department moved Wednesday night to block the plaintiffs in the most successful legal challenges to the National Security Agency's call-tracking program from obtaining more details about how the surveillance effort operates. In a motion filed with U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon, government lawyers asked the judge to halt further proceedings before him while appeals go forward in a pair of lawsuits brought by conservative legal activist Larry Klayman. The suits led last month to Leon's landmark ruling that the NSA's call database, aimed at making it easier for the government to trace leads in potential terrorism cases, likely violated the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. "Even if the mere collection of information about Plaintiffs’ communications constitutes a Fourth Amendment search...conclusively resolving the reasonableness of that search ...