Blog Post

Jeffrey Cullen

A recent issue in cyber security is China’s efforts to hack and steal intellectual property from the United States. Thousands of Chinese hackers have gained the ability to steal intellectual property from United States industries. This information is then used to produce identical products and sell those products at low rates that companies are unable compete with.[1] According to Blackwell’s article, the U.S. International Trade Commission report cited potential losses of over $300 billion due to these cyber hacks.[2] It is vitally important that this issue be addressed. The cyber theft of intellectual property is harming our economy and is detrimental to our national defense. “If China can steal from one company and flood US markets with their cut rate goods, then thousands of US businesses, along with potentially millions of jobs, are at risk.”[3] Our intellectual property is very vulnerable. If the country’s leaders in manufacturing are unable to protect their data and trade secrets from cyber attacks, where does that leave the individual in society?

 

[1] Ken Blackwell, China’s cyber and trade war has US firms, national security in crosshairs, The Hill (Oct. 6, 2016), http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/defense/299663-chinas-cyber-and-trade-war-has-us-firms-in-crosshairs

[2] Blackwell, supra note 1.

[3] Id.

Nicholas Fedorka

Russian hackers have been accused by the United States for carrying out a series of attacks against political organizations.  United States officials claim it’s an attempt “to interfere with the US election.”  Specifically, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton claims her party had been targeted.   This is all happening at a time when Russia’s relations with the West is at its lowest point since the end of the Cold War.  

Defense Secretary Ash Carter has warned Russia against “interfering with the democratic processes.”  Recently, Germany’s domestic agency (BfV) reported what it believed was a russian attempt to sabotage Germany’s political internet infrastructure.  Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin states that “Russia never does this at a state level.”  Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov described the allegations as nonsense, while ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharov said “not once” had America provided facts to support such claims.  

Teal Johnson

Yahoo had a system intended for scanning emails of child pornography and spam which has helped Yahoo search messages for a computer “signature” tied to communications of a state-sponsored terrorist organization because of a secret court order.  Last year a judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court barred Yahoo from disclosing the matter.  The court order involved the systematic scanning of all Yahoo users’ emails rather than individual accounts.

This issue touches on and expands past conflicts between Silicon Valley companies and the United States government.  Investigators found out that agents of the foreign terrorist organization were communicating using Yahoo’s email service using the unique identifier or signature.  They did not know which accounts were using this signature, however.  The officials did not name the terrorist organization.

This use of unusual surveillance has sparked outrage among privacy and technology specialists.  Suzanne Philion, a Yahoo spokeswoman, said the company “narrowly interprets every government request for user data to minimize disclosure.  The mail scanning described in the article does not exist on our systems.”

Tech companies complain that such orders make it impossible for them to explain to customers what data they do and do not turn over.  Twitter and Microsoft have both sued the Justice Department over this gag order practice and both the cases are pending.

See original New York Times article here.

Samantha Cirillo

In California, the law on prostitution is beginning to shift away from prosecuting the children and young women that may have been forced into the industry. This is largely a result of organizations such as “Saving Innocence” and “Rights4Girls”, and their efforts to show that minors are victims, not criminals. [1]

On Monday, August 26, 2016, Governor Jerry Brown addressed these widespread concerns by signing several bills that decriminalize prostitution and provide protections and services for minor victims. [2] One of the bills, Senate Bill 1322, was created to make “the crimes of solicitation and loitering with intent to commit prostitution misdemeanors inapplicable to children younger than 18”. [3] The bill also allows law enforcement to take children into temporary custody if leaving them unattended would involve a threat to their safety. [4]

Another bill passed will make it easier for minors to share their painful experiences by allowing them to testify through closed-circuit televisions outside of the courtroom. [5]

[1] Mike McPhate, California Today: A Shift in the Child Sex Trafficking Trade, NY T???? (Oct. 3, 2016) http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/03/us/california-today-child-sex-trafficking.html.

[2] Jazmine Ulloa, California decriminalizes prostitution for minors after Gov. Jerry Brown signs bills to aid trafficking victims, L?? A?????? T???? (Sept. 26, 2016) http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-sac-essential-politics-updates-california-decriminalizes-prostitution-1474918476-htmlstory.html.

[3] Id.

[4] Id.

[5] Id.

Lindsey Marie Round

It is that time of the year again. Over the past week and this coming week, the Nobel Prize recipients have been or will be announced in anticipation of the Nobel Prize Awards ceremony in December. It is always exciting to hear will be receiving the awards each year. On Wednesday, October 3, 2016, the recipients of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry were announced.[1] This year, the award will be shared amongst three individuals, Jean-Pierre Sauvage, J. Fraser Stoddart, and Bernard L. Feringa.[2] These three individuals have forged the way in the field of nanomachines made of moving molecules.[3] They follow the path of Dr. Richard Feynman, who was also a Nobel Laureate, who looked at nanotechnology.[4] While these machines may not be large, in fact, they are quite the opposite measuring the size of approximately one-thousandth the width of a single strand of hair, they are revolutionary in the science world.[5] While they are still in the beginning stages, these machines show great potential. These three men have contributed much to the future of this field and are most deserving of this prestigious award.

 

[1] Kenneth Chang and Sewell Chan, 3 Makers of World’s Smallest Machines Awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry, N.Y. Times (Oct 5, 2016), http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/06/science/nobel-prize-chemistry.html

[2] Id.

[3] Id.

[4] Id.

[5] Id.

Cecilia Santostefano

Charges against Harold Martin, a contractor with the National Security Agency became unsealed on Wednesday, October 5, 2016. The fifty-one-year-old from Maryland has been charged with theft of government property and the unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials.[1] Materials include a highly classified code generated to break into the electronic systems of agency adversaries, including Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea.[2]

Officials often rely on psychological and behavioral profiles to uncover possible “insider threats.”[3] For example, Edward Snowden was driven by political motives to protect the rights of Americans when he spoke of government monitoring programs to journalists.[4] This, however, is not the case for Harold Martin. Officials say Martin does not fit the usual profile of an insider threat.[5] His motive, among many other aspects of the investigation, is still unclear. There is currently a large wave of secrecy surrounding the proceedings. Regardless, the N.S.A. will have to take remedial measures, as it did following Snowden’s disclosures a few years back, in an era where people are speaking more openly about the agency and its practices.[6]

 

[1] Ian Duncan, Federal contractor from Glen Burnie charged with stealing top secret information, The Baltimore Sun, (Oct. 5, 2016, 2:44 PM), http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/federal-workplace/bs-md-contract-arrest-secrets-20161005-story.html.

[2] Jo Becker, Adam Goldman, Michael S. Schmidt, and Matt Apuzzo, N.S.A. Contractor Arrested in Possible New Theft of Secrets, NY Times, (Oct. 5, 2015), http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/06/us/nsa-leak-booz-allen-hamilton.html?ref=technology&_r=0.

[3] See Becker, supra note 2.

[4] Id.

[5] Id.

[6] See id.

By: Samantha Cirillo

With cameras located at street corners, ATMs and even traffic lights, Americans may have a hard time avoiding being recorded on a daily basis. Given the current use of surveillance technology, does the City of Baltimore’s new system which uses airborne cameras to provide a live stream of a 32-mile radius surrounding the city go a step too far?1

Police Commissioner, Kevin Davis, has used the program created by Persistent Surveillance Systems, to record over 300 hours of footage without informing city officials or the citizens of Baltimore.2 Unsurprisingly, civil liberties advocates are outraged by the invasion of privacy without as much as a public hearing.3 Supporters of the program, however, argue that any measures that may effectively reduce the crime rates in a crime stricken community are well worth the invasion.4

The surveillance program works by attaching industrial imaging cameras to the bottom of a plane flown approximately 8,000 feet above the City of Baltimore.5 The images are then transmitted to a computer program that allows analysts to use the continuous stream to move forward and backward through the recorded events.6 The program’s creator, Ross McNutt, refers to the technology as “Google Earth with TiVo Capability”.7

Each morning, the Persistent Surveillance Team receives the previous day’s crime report and working with a former city police officer, the analysts track down the location of the crimes.8 They further document and track every car or individual entering or leaving the crime scene.9 Although the program does not yet have the resolution to detect an individual’s face, analysts can cross reference information from the program with street based surveillance footage.10 Therefore, the tracking capability allows police officers to locate suspects long after the crime has been committed.

The courts have been unable to keep up with the rapid advances made in surveillance technology. With at least five open cases using evidence gathered from McNutt’s program, the court will soon have to face the question of whether this evidence should be admissible in court.11

 

1 Surveillance Program Raises Questions About Tech, Privacy, N.Y. T???? (Aug. 26, 2016), http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/08/26/us/ap-us-baltimore-police-surveillance-.html.

2 Kevin Rector, Commissioner Davis avoids answering questions on secret surveillance program, T?? B???????? S?? (Sept. 8, 2016), http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/bs-md-ci-davis-on-surveillance-20160906-story.html.1 Surveillance Program Raises Questions About Tech, Privacy, N.Y. T???? (Aug. 26, 2016), http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/08/26/us/ap-us-baltimore-police-surveillance-.html.

3 Monte Reel, Secret Cameras Record Baltimore’s Every Move From Above, B???????? B??????????? (Aug. 23, 2016), https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-baltimore-secret-surveillance/.

4 Surveillance Program Raises Questions About Tech, Privacy, N.Y. T???? (Aug. 26, 2016), http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/08/26/us/ap-us-baltimore-police-surveillance-.html.

5 Id.

6 Monte Reel, supra note 3.

7 Id.

8 Id.

9 Id.

10 Id.

11 Surveillance Program Raises Questions About Tech, Privacy, N.Y. T???? (Aug. 26, 2016), http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/08/26/us/ap-us-baltimore-police-surveillance-.html.

By: Samantha Dente

As part of the agency’s Opioids Action Plan, the FDA issued its strongest warning, a required boxed warning, as well as class-wide changes to drug labeling after significant scientific evidence showed the serious risks associated with combining opioid medications with benzodiazepines.[1]

The Opioids Action Plan is an initiative to revise policies to address the prescription opioid abuse epidemic.[2] Benzodiazepines are a class of central nervous system (CNS) depressant drugs.[3] There are about 400 of them currently on the market.[4] Research found that if used at the same time as opioids for pain management, risks include extreme sleepiness, respiratory depression, coma, and death.[5]

The data review found that physicians were increasingly prescribing opioids and benzodiazepines together.[6] The FDA Commissioner has dubbed these findings as a “public health crisis.”[7] Both are widely used drug classes, and when used together have a lethal effect.[8] However, the resulting drug overdoses and deaths are avoidable and preventable, and the FDA’s warning marks a step in the right direction.  The FDA’s actions are consistent with the Affordable Care Act’s public health approach focused on prevention, treatment, and intervention.

Eddie Montesdeoca

The European Union stated that Apple owes Ireland $14.5 Billion dollars in back taxes. The basis of which the tax agreement with Apple is anti-competitive, given the disparity that exist between the profits that Apple makes in Ireland compared to what they pay in taxes.[1]   For instance, Apple profited 22 Billion from Ireland in 2011. [2] Of this, the Irish Tax authority found that only 50 Million Euros worth was taxable.[3]  Ireland themselves, do not wish the European Union’s decision to stand.  The agreement between Ireland and Apple was favorable to both parties.  Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan stated that he profoundly disagreed with the European Union’s decision and would appeal.[4]  If the decision were to stand, it may threaten Ireland’s low corporate tax rate, which remains Ireland’s most attractive draw from multinational companies.[5]  Further, there is doubt that the European Union’s decision would stand if appealed in courts.  Tax experts doubt that the European Union would be able to set a precedent to determine whether countries have applied their tax regulations fairly, even under the guise of them being anti-competitive. [6]

[1] Chee, Foo & Halpin, Padraic, EU hits Apple with $14.5 billion Irish tax demand, Reuters, Aug. 30, 2016; http://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-apple-taxavoidance-idUSKCN114211

[2] Id.

[3] Id.

[4] Id.

[5] Id.

[6] Kanter, James & Scott, Mark, Apple Owes $14.5 Billion in Back Taxes to Ireland, E.U. Says, Nytimes, Aug. 30, 2016; http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/31/technology/apple-tax-eu-ireland.html