FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Remarks on U.S.-China Relations
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies
Washington, DC
November 4, 2014
SECRETARY KERRY: Well, thank you very much, Dean Nasr. I’ve had the privilege of knowing Vali for a while. When I was in the Senate, he was a very valuable advisor, and I can remember coming down to the State Department and meeting with him and with Richard Holbrooke and others in the early days of working on what was then called AfPak – Afghanistan, Pakistan, and particularly Afghanistan. So Vali, thank you for your journey. Thanks for imparting your wisdom here at SAIS.
And thank you all very, very much here at SAIS for allowing me to come here today to share a few thoughts with you about this special relationship with China, an important relationship. And I’m happy to be here, staring at a lot of mobile devices. (Laughter.) It’s a whole new world out there. I’ll tell you, when I ran for president in 2004 I never saw this barrage of rectangular devices facing you when you were talking. (Laughter.) It was usually just one, and it was the opposition guy, listening to everything you said in order to get you into trouble, if you didn’t get yourself into trouble.
Anyway, I’m getting ready to leave in a very few hours – in fact, I go directly from here to the airport – on a typical Secretary of State journey – to Paris this evening, meetings tomorrow, then to Beijing, to Muscat, discussions on Iran nuclear program, then back to Beijing for bilateral meetings with the Chinese Government, then back to somewhere, perhaps Washington, but at this moment, with a lot of things in the air, it’s hard to say. So it’s nice for me to get a chance before I take off to talk substance with all of you and to talk about a critical issue before I depart.
This school was founded during World War II by Paul Nitze and Christian Herter, both of whom I’m very proud to say were from Massachusetts. (Laughter.) They could – they had a great skill, those of you who have read about them, to see that even then, the world was going to be a fundamentally changed place after World War II and that foreign policy makers would need to change with it, not just to keep pace but to set the pace, to express a vision, to be able to see over the horizon and define how the United States would stay strong and lead and join with other countries, increasingly in empowering those other countries. And we did with the Marshall Plan, which as many of you may know, was unpopular at the time, but succeeded in rebuilding whole nations, creating democracies, and setting a new direction.
The world has continued to change in the 70-plus years since, almost certainly in ways that Herter and Nitze could only have dreamed of. And it has changed, I might say, for the better, despite the headlines and the challenges of religious, radical extremism and terrorism. It has nevertheless changed for the better in large measure precisely because of the careful and creative analysis that these men so believed and hoped would, in fact, shape a world that is more free, more prosperous, and more humane. And despite the headlines and places of tension, the world is, in fact, those things.
The great American philosopher Yogi Berra once said, “It’s tough to make predications, especially about the future.” (Laughter.) He really said that. (Laughter.) While I am reminded that speculating about the future is obviously always risky, there are two predictions that I am very certain about. The Asia Pacific is one of the most promising places on the planet, and America’s future and security and prosperity are closely and increasingly linked to that region.
Back in August, when I was returning from a trip to Burma and Australia, I delivered a speech at the East-West Center in Honolulu about President Obama’s rebalance towards the Asia Pacific and the enormous value that we place on longstanding alliances with Japan, South Korea, Australia, Thailand, and the Philippines and our bourgeoning relationships with ASEAN and countries in Southeast Asia. In that speech, I outlined four specific opportunities that define the rebalance, goals if you will.
First, the opportunity to create sustainable economic growth, which includes finalizing the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The TPP is not only a trade agreement, but also a strategic opportunity for the United States and other Pacific nations to come together, to bind together, so that we can all prosper together. Second, powering a clean energy revolution that will help us address climate change while simultaneously jumpstarting economies around the world. Third, reducing tensions and promoting regional cooperation by strengthening the institutions and reinforcing the norms that contribute to a rules-based, stable region. And fourth, empowering people throughout the Asia Pacific to live with dignity, security, and opportunity.
These are our goals for the rebalance. These are the objectives that we are working to pursue. And we are working together with our allies and our partners across Asia. And these are the goals that the President will discuss with other leaders next week at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Beijing and also at the East Asia Summit that follows in Burma.
The goal of the rebalance is not a strategic initiative to affect one nation or push people in any direction. It is an inclusive invitation to join in this march towards prosperity, dignity, and stability for countries. I can reaffirm today that the Obama Administration is absolutely committed to seeing through all of these goals.
But there should be no doubt that a key component of our rebalance strategy is also about strengthening U.S-China relations. Why? Because a stronger relationship between our two nations will benefit not just the United States and China, not just the Asia Pacific, but the world. One of the many very accomplished alumni of this school is China’s Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai, and we’re delighted that he’s here today. Thank you, Mr. Ambassador, for being here with us.
Ambassador Cui spoke at SAIS about one year ago and he described the U.S.-China relationship as, quote, “the most important as well as the most sensitive, the most comprehensive as well as the most complex, and the most promising as well as the most challenging.” All of those attributes are true, but I would respectfully add one more to that list: The U.S.-China relationship is the most consequential in the world today, period, and it will do much to determine the shape of the 21st century.
That means that we have to get it right. Since President Obama first took office, that’s exactly what he has focused on doing. What he has worked to build over the past six years and what we are committed to advancing over the next two as well is a principled and productive relationship with China. That’s why he and I have both met each with our Chinese counterparts in person dozens of times. It’s why President Obama hosted the Sunnylands summit last June, shortly after President Xi took office. It’s why a couple of weeks ago, I invited Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi and the ambassador and others in his delegation to my hometown of Boston, where we spent a day and a half together charting new opportunities for our bilateral relationship. And it’s why I will join the President in China next week on what will be my fourth trip to the country since I became Secretary of State less than two years ago.
The sheer size of China and its economy, coupled with the rapid and significant changes that are taking place there, means that our relationship by definition has vast potential. As two of the world’s major powers and largest economies, we have a profound opportunity to set a constructive course on any number of issues, from climate change to global trade, and obviously, we have a fundamental interest in doing so. For that reason, our relationship has to be carefully managed and guided – not by news hooks and grand gestures, but by a long-term strategic vision, by hard work, by good diplomacy, and by good relationships.
It’s important to remember that not too long ago U.S.-China ties were centered on a relatively narrow set of bilateral and regional matters. But today, thanks to focused diplomacy on both sides, the leadership President Obama and President Xi have displayed, our nations are collaborating to tackle some of the most complex global challenges that the world has ever seen. And we’re able to do that because together our nations are working closely in order to avoid the historic pitfall of strategic rivalry between an emerging power and an existing power. Instead, we’re focused on the steps that we need to ensure that we not only coexist, but that we cooperate.
America’s China policy is really built on two pillars: Constructively managing our differences – and there are differences – and just as constructively coordinating our efforts on the wide range of issues where our interests are aligned. Now make no mistake, we are clear-eyed about the fact that the United States and China are markedly different countries. We have different political systems, different histories, different cultures, and most importantly, different views on certain significant issues. And the leaders of both nations believe it is important to put our disagreements on the table, talk through them, and manage and then work to narrow the differences over time. And these debates, frankly, don’t take place in the spotlight, and much of what we say usually doesn’t end up in the headlines. But I assure you that tough issues are discussed at length whenever our leaders come together.
And when we talk about managing our differences, that is not code for agree to disagree. For example, we do not simply agree to disagree when it comes to maritime security, especially in the South and East China Seas. The United States is not a claimant, and we do not take a position on the various territorial claims of others. But we take a strong position on how those claims are pursued and how those disputes are going to be resolved. So we are deeply concerned about mounting tension in the South China Sea and we consistently urge all the parties to pursue claims in accordance with international law, to exercise self-restraint, to peacefully resolve disputes, and to make rapid, meaningful progress to complete a code of conduct that will help reduce the potential for conflict in the years to come. And the United States will work, without getting involved in the merits of the claim, on helping that process to be effectuated, because doing so brings greater stability, brings more opportunity for cooperation in other areas.
We do not agree to disagree when it comes to cyber issues. We’ve been very clear about how strongly we object to any cyber-enabled theft of trade secrets and other sensitive information from our companies, whoever may be doing it. And we are convinced that it is in China’s interest to help put an end to this practice. Foreign companies will invest more in China if they can be confident that when they do their intellectual property will be safeguarded. Chinese markets will be more attractive to international industries if China shows that it’s serious about addressing global cyber concerns. And China’s own industries will only prosper if they are generating their own intellectual property, ultimately, and if their government enforces the rules fully and fairly for everybody. The United States is committed to using an open and frank dialogue to help build trust and develop common rules of the road on those pressing economic and security challenges.
And we certainly do not agree to disagree when it comes to human rights. The United States will always advocate for all countries to permit their citizens to express their grievances freely, publicly, peacefully, and without fear of retribution. That’s why we’ve spoken out about the situation in Hong Kong and human rights issues elsewhere in China, because respect for fundamental freedoms is now and always has been a centerpiece of American foreign policy, and because we have seen again and again that respect for rule of law and the protection of human rights are essential to any country’s long-term growth, prosperity, and stability, and to their respect in the world.
Let me be clear: The United States will never shy away from articulating our deeply held values or defending our interests, our allies, and our partners throughout the region. And China is well aware of that. But the relationship between our two countries has developed and matured significantly over time. Our differences will undoubtedly continue to test the relationship; they always do, between people, between families, between countries. But they should not, and in fact, must not prevent us from acting cooperatively in other areas.
So what are those areas? Where are the great opportunities? Well, it starts with economics. Thirty-five years ago when diplomatic relations began between the United States and China, trade between our two countries was virtually nonexistent. Today, our businesses exchange nearly $600 billion in goods and services every single year. Our mutual investments are close to $100 billion. You read a lot about American businesses going over to China. Well, let me tell you something. The truth is that today, even more Chinese businesses are setting up shop in the United States. And we welcome that. In fact, we do a lot to encourage Chinese investment here, while our embassies and consulates in China are simultaneously doing great work in order to identify opportunities for American companies over there.
Even as U.S. and Chinese businesses compete in the marketplace, we each have a huge stake in the economic health of the other. And the fact is that the world as a whole has a huge stake in the economic vibrancy of both China and the United States. That is why we’re focused on enhancing trade and investment between our countries, including through the ongoing negotiations of a high-standard bilateral investment treaty. Established rules of the road that do more to protect businesses and investors on both sides of the Pacific will help both of our economies to be able to continue to grow and to prosper. One recent study by the Peterson Institute for International Economics found that if we’re able to open up trade and investment significantly, our countries could share gains of almost half a trillion dollars a year.
So let me underscore: Our aligned interests are more than just economic and cooperation is more than just commercial. As China pursues interests well beyond the Asia Pacific, there is both opportunity and necessity to coordinate our efforts to address global security concerns. Our shared efforts to respond to the global threat of climate change are a perfect example. The UN climate report that was released over this last weekend is another wakeup call to everybody. The science could not be clearer. Our planet is warming and it is warming due to our actions, human input. And the damage is already visible, and it is visible at a faster and greater rate than scientists predicted. That’s why there’s cause for alarm, because everything that they predicted is happening, but happening faster and happening to a greater degree. The solutions are within reach, but they will require ambitious, decisive, and immediate action.
Last year in Beijing, State Councilor Yang and I launched the U.S.-China Climate Change Working Group, which is already engaged in pilot projects, policy exchanges, and more. We raised the climate change issue to the ministerial level so that we would be dealing with it on an ongoing high-level basis. And we’ve also been engaged since then in constant discussions aimed at ensuring that the global community can do everything possible to be able to reach a successful, ambitious climate agreement when we all meet in Paris next year. In February, we announced plans to exchange information and to discuss policies to develop respective plans to strengthen domestic emissions targets for the 2015 UN climate negotiations, what I just referred to. And by the way, we’ll be meeting shortly in Lima, Peru as the lead-up to this particular meeting next year in Paris. So there’s a lot of work going into this.
Next year, countries are supposed to come forward with their stated goals. And we hope that the partnership between China and the United States can help set an example for global leadership and for the seriousness of purpose on those targets and on the negotiations overall. If the two countries that together are nearing 50 percent of all the emissions in the world, which happen to be also the two largest economies in the world – if they can come together and show seriousness of purpose, imagine what the impact could be on the rest of the world. The United States and China are the two largest consumers of energy, and we are the world’s two largest emitters of global greenhouse gases. Together, we account for that roughly – it’s about 45 percent and climbing, unfortunately.
So we need to solve this problem together. Why? Because neither one of us can possibly solve it alone. Even if every single American biked to work or carpooled to school or used only solar panels to power their homes – if we reduced our emissions to zero, if we planted each of us in America a dozen trees, if we somehow eliminated all of our domestic greenhouse gas emissions, guess what? That still wouldn’t be enough to counteract the carbon pollution coming from China and the rest of the world. And the same would be true for China if they reduced everything and we continued. We would wipe out their gains; they would wipe out our gains. Because today, if even one or two major economies neglects to respond to this threat, it will erase the good work done everywhere else.
Never before has there been a greater urgency to countries around the world coming together to meet what is not just an environmental threat but an economic threat, a security threat, a health threat, and a security threat because we will see refugees in certain parts of the country displaced by vast changes in the ability to grow food, the ability to receive water, and the ability to survive, and that will change the nature of security and conflict in the world. That’s the reality of what we’re up against. And that’s why it is so imperative that the United States and China lead the world with genuine reductions that put us on a path to real progress.
The good news is that our shared responsibility to address climate change brings with it one of the greatest economic opportunities in history. With shared responsibility can come shared prosperity. The solution to climate change is as clear as the problem itself. And it’s not somewhere out there, pie in the sky, over the horizon, impossible to grab ahold of; it’s staring us in the face. The solution is energy policy. It’s as simple as that. Make the right choices in your energy policy, you solve the problem of climate change.
Guess what? You also happen to kick your economies into gear. You produce millions of jobs. You create economic opportunity unlike any that we have ever known, because the global energy market of the future is poised to be the largest market the world has ever known. Between now and 2035, investment in the sector is expected to reach nearly $17 trillion. The market that made everybody wealthy in America – everybody saw their income go up in the 1990s, and the greatest wealth in the history of our nation was created in the 1990s. It was a $1 trillion market with one billion users. The energy market is a $6 trillion market with four to five billion users today, and it’s going to grow to maybe nine billion users over the next 30, 40, 50 years. Think of that. Seventeen trillion dollars is more than the entire GDP of China and India combined. And with a few smart choices, together we can ensure that clean energy is the most attractive investment in the global energy sector and that entrepreneurs around the world can prosper as they help us innovate our way out of this mess and towards a healthier planet.
And none of this will happen if we don’t make it happen. How our two countries lead – China and the United States – or don’t lead on climate and clean energy will make the difference as to whether or not we’re able to fully take advantage of this unprecedented economic opportunity and whether the world is able to effectively address climate change and the threat that it poses to global security, prosperity, and health.
Our cooperation also makes a difference when it comes to nuclear proliferation. We are very encouraged by China’s serious engagement on the Iran negotiations as a full partner in the P5+1, and we’re very hopeful that working more closely together the United States and China will ultimately bring North Korea to the realization that its current approach is leading to a dead end, and the only path that will bring it security and prosperity is to make real progress towards denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula. Our cooperation there also can make a difference.
It can also make a difference in countering violent extremist groups like ISIL, which seek to harm people in every corner of the globe. And it can help in bringing stability to places like Afghanistan, where today we are partnering to support political cohesiveness and prevent Afghanistan from again becoming a safe haven for terrorists. We welcome China’s role as a critical player in the Afghan region. And just last week, in fact, President Ghani, our Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Dan Feldman, and President Obama’s counselor John Podesta all traveled to Beijing to participate in a conference focused on supporting Afghan peace and reconstruction.
And as we’ve seen recently with the Ebola epidemic, China has also shown that it is prepared to take on a bigger role in addressing international crises – including those that emerge far from Asia, even those on the opposite side of the globe. We’re very grateful that China has committed more than $130 million to date in aid and supplies to help address the Ebola crisis. And last week, China announced its plans to dispatch a unit from the People’s Liberation Army to Liberia to help manage the crisis. That’s global leadership, and it’s important, and that cooperation with us is more than welcome.
We all need to do more, and fast. But the kind of support from China that we’ve seen is critical, and it speaks to China’s understanding of global interests and responsibilities. The fact is that among the major threats and crises that face the world today, there really isn’t one that couldn’t be addressed more effectively with expanded U.S.-China cooperation.
But as State Councilor Yang and I discussed earlier this month in Boston, with China engaged more and more on the global stage, our cooperation can also be used to seize opportunities for change and for growth, like the many opportunities for development in Africa, Central America, and other parts of Asia. And we talked about that in Boston, about the possibility of the United States and China cooperating on specific development targets.
There are countries across these regions where both China and the United States are already deeply invested. If we double-down on coordinating our assistance and development work, if we ensure that our approaches are complementary and coordinated, we can bring more communities into the 21st century faster, we could help millions of families lift themselves out of poverty, we can give more people across the world the tools and the data to shape their own future. And as we help more countries to make the transition from foreign aid to foreign trade, we’ll all benefit in terms of economic growth, expanded export markets, job creation, and ultimately, the stability and the prosperity and the dignity that comes from that. Beyond that, as these regions become more prosperous, believe me, they’re going to become more stable. And that, in the end, means we can all be more secure.
The bottom line is this: The United States and China comprise one quarter of the global population. We make up one third of the global economy. We generate one fifth of the global trade. And when we are pulling in the same direction on any issue, we can bend the curve in a way that few other nations on Earth can accomplish.
Between governments, we’re doing more than ever in order to ensure that that is the case. Jack Lew, our Secretary of Treasury, and I meet regularly with our counterparts in the Strategic and Economic Dialogue with China. Today, although we have more than a hundred different bilateral dialogues on everything from trade to transportation, we are, in fact, focused at the highest level on a regular basis.
But I’ll tell you, if this relationship is going to live up to its full potential, government-to-government cooperation alone is not enough. We have to continue also to deepen our people-to-people ties. A recent poll indicated that Americans view China less favorably than they did just a few years ago, and vice versa; Chinese view us less favorably. So obviously, we need to do more to connect our peoples and to make sure that we’re communicating effectively between each other so that we are communicating to our peoples effectively. We need to build on the sense of common purpose and camaraderie that can be essential to sustaining our relationship for decades to come. And that is the logic behind the dialogue on exchange that I co-chair with China’s Vice Premier Madame Liu.
One of the best ways for us to improve our connection is by expanding the student exchanges – I just stopped and met with a bunch of students who have been part of the exchange here from SAIS, and we all – I hope you’re all aware of President Obama’s 100,000 Strong initiative. Today, more students from China study in the United States than any other foreign country, and we are actively investing in ways to expand study abroad opportunities for American students in China, because we recognize that nothing brings about a common understanding more than effectively getting the chance to live in another country, see the world through another lens, and forge friendships that can last for decades.
I’ll just tell you very quickly the number of foreign ministers that I interact with very regularly in the Middle East and elsewhere, proudly sit in front of me and talk to me about their graduate school or undergraduate school experiences in the United States. It has lasted with them forever, and it helps them and us to be able to work through difficult moments.
Let me take this opportunity to note that this is not an earthshattering new principle I’ve just articulated. It is something that SAIS has long understood. You’ve had an international campus in Nanjing for nearly 30 years, and it focuses on everything, from facilitating student exchanges to all the prospects of business and relationships in the future. And as a result, its students are better prepared than most for the globalized world that we live in. But believe it or not, there are a lot of places that don’t take it for granted the way you do, for whom this would actually be a new enterprise, even now in 2014.
So I want to thank David Lampton and the others as SAIS for their leadership on this effort. Ultimately, the United States and China need to find more ways to interact at more levels of government, across more sectors and among more people who live in all the corners of our nations. And these connections will help us to understand each other better and to forge a better relationship going forward. They’ll help us work through our differences, and these connections will ultimately erase the misperceptions and stereotypes that fuel mistrust, and these connections will help us pull in the same direction and take advantage of the unique opportunities our countries have to help each other and ultimately to help the world.
We don’t underestimate – I certainly don’t – the complexity of the world we’re living in today and the sensitivity of this challenge that we face. The path to a productive relationship between the United States and China has seen its bumps, and it may see more. But the fact is that it has never been more important to us to be able to continue down the path that we are on. Our two nations face a genuine test of leadership. We have to make the right choices in both Washington and in Beijing.
In many ways, the world we’re living in today is much more like 19th-century and 18th-century global diplomacy, the balance of power and different interests, than it is the bifurcated, bipolar world we lived in in the Cold War and much of the 20th century. This is a new bursting on the scene of new powers. But guess what? They’re doing the things we wanted them to do. At least 15 of today’s donor countries giving aid to other countries were only 10 and 15 years ago recipient countries of aid themselves. And we welcome the growth of these nations to their global responsibilities and to the assumption of increased global ability to make a difference.
But it’s more complicated. When other countries have stronger economies and when there’s more competition for goods and services and for market share, it’s a more complicated world. And with the release of sectarianism and radical religious extremism and other things that have come with this transformation and confrontation with modernity, we all face a more difficult, complex diplomatic path.
But it is clear that coming from the different places we come from, China and the United States, we actually do have the opportunity as two leading powers to find solutions to major challenges facing the world today. And if we can cooperate together and help show the way, that will help bring other nations along and establish the norms for the rest of the world. We have an opportunity to demonstrate how a major power and an emerging power can cooperate to serve the interests of both, and in doing so, improve the prospects for stability, prosperity, and peace around the equator, from pole to pole, throughout this world we live in.
Maybe that’s a lofty objective; I don’t think it’s too lofty. I think it’s easy to say it in a speech, yes – a lot harder to produce it. But it will be in the doing of it, in the quality of our dialogue, in the persistent search for solutions to issues large and small, in the determination to manage the differences and find the big places to cooperate, and in order to seize the opportunities when they arise, that will provide the real measure of failure or success in this approach.
When he was in the twilight of his life, Paul Nitze was asked about the extraordinary contributions he had made to the Marshall Plan, to NATO, to the U.S.-Soviet relations. He didn’t brag, he didn’t boast, he just said: “I have been extremely lucky. I have been around at a time when important things needed to be done.”
There has never been a demand more than there is today for important things to be done. I hope that the United States and China – who are both blessed with great strength, with ample resources, with extraordinary people – can do important things now and can do them together. And I hope that as we come together in Beijing in the days ahead, as we work together in the months and years to come, that we are going to meet that charge and live up to the standard that Paul Nitze said, not just when he founded this school but when he lived his life.
Thank you all very much. (Applause.)
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
DOJ INFORMS PUBLIC ON RIGHT TO VOTE AND BALLOT FRAUD
FROM: U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Monday, November 3, 2014
Justice Department Releases Information on Election Day Efforts to Protect the Right to Vote and Prosecute Ballot Fraud
In anticipation of tomorrow’s general election, the Justice Department today provided information about its efforts, through the Civil Rights Division and Criminal Division, to ensure that all qualified voters have the opportunity to cast their ballots and have their votes counted free of discrimination, intimidation or fraud in the election process.
Civil Rights Division:
The Civil Rights Division is responsible for ensuring compliance with the civil provisions of federal statutes that protect the right to vote, and with the criminal provisions of federal statutes prohibiting discriminatory interference with that right.
The Civil Rights Division’s Voting Section enforces the civil provisions of a wide range of federal statutes that protect the right to vote including: the Voting Rights Act; the National Voter Registration Act; the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act; and the Help America Vote Act. Among other things, collectively, these laws:
prohibit election practices that have either a discriminatory purpose based on race or membership in a minority language group or a discriminatory result of members of racial or language minority groups having less opportunity than other citizens to participate in the political process;
prohibit intimidation of voters;
provide that voters who need assistance in voting because of disability or illiteracy can obtain assistance from a person of their choice;
require minority language election materials and assistance in certain jurisdictions;
provide for accessible election machines for voters with disabilities;
require provisional ballots for voters who assert they are eligible but whose names do not appear on poll books;
provide for absentee ballots for service members, their family members and U.S. citizens living abroad;
require states to ensure that citizens can register at drivers’ license offices, public assistance offices, other state agencies and through the mail; and
include requirements regarding maintaining voter registration lists.
The Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section enforces federal criminal statutes that prohibit voter intimidation and vote suppression based on race, color, national origin or religion.
On Election Day, Nov. 4, 2014, the Civil Rights Division will implement a comprehensive program to help ensure the right to vote that will include the following:
The Civil Rights Division will conduct monitoring in the field at polling places.
Civil Rights Division attorneys in both the Voting and Criminal Sections in Washington, D.C., will be ready to receive election-related complaints of potential violations relating to any of the statutes the Civil Rights Division enforces. Attorneys in the division will take appropriate action and will consult and coordinate with local U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and with other entities within the Department of Justice concerning these complaints before, during, and after Election Day.
Civil Rights Division staff will be available by phone to receive complaints related to voting rights (1-800-253-3931 toll free or 202-307-2767) or by TTY (202-305-0082). In addition, individuals may also report complaints, problems, or concerns related to voting by fax to 202-307-3961, by email to voting.section@usdoj.govEmail links icon, and, by complaint forms that may be submitted through a link on the Department’s website, at www.justice.gov/crt/about/vot/.
Complaints related to violence, threats of violence, or intimidation at a polling place should always be reported immediately to local police authorities by calling 911. They should also be reported to the Department after local authorities are contacted.
Criminal Division and the Department’s 94 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices:
The Department’s Criminal Division oversees the enforcement of federal laws that criminalize certain forms of election fraud and vindicate the integrity of the federal election process.
The Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section and the Department’s 94 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices are responsible for enforcing the federal criminal laws that prohibit various forms of election fraud, such as vote buying, multiple voting, submission of fraudulent ballots or registrations, destruction of ballots or registrations, alteration of votes, and malfeasance by election officials. The Criminal Division is also responsible for enforcing federal criminal law prohibiting voter intimidation for reasons other than race, color, national origin or religion (as noted above, voter intimidation that has a basis in race, color, national origin or religion is addressed by the Civil Rights Division).
The U.S. Attorney’s Offices around the country designate Assistant U.S. Attorneys who serve as district election officers (DEOs) in their respective districts. DEOs are responsible for overseeing potential election-crime matters in their districts, and for coordinating with the department’s election-crime experts in Washington, D.C.
On Nov. 4, 2014, the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices will work with specially trained Federal Bureau of Investigation personnel in each district to ensure that complaints from the public involving possible voter fraud are handled appropriately. Specifically:
In consultation with federal prosecutors at the Public Integrity Section in Washington, D.C., the District Election Officers in U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, FBI officials at headquarters in Washington, D.C., and FBI Special Agents serving as Election Crime Coordinators in the FBI’s 56 field offices will be on duty while polls are open, to receive complaints from the public.
Election-crime complaints should be directed to the local U.S. Attorney’s Office or the local FBI office. A list of U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and their telephone numbers can be found at http://www.justice.gov/usao/districts/. A list of FBI offices and accompanying telephone numbers can be found at www.fbi.gov/contact-us.
Public Integrity Section prosecutors are available to consult and coordinate with the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the FBI regarding the handling of election-crime allegations.
Again, complaints related to violence, threats of violence, or intimidation at a polling place should be reported first to local police authorities by calling 911.
Both protecting the right to vote and combating election fraud are essential to maintaining the confidence of all Americans in our democratic system of government. The department encourages anyone who has information suggesting voting discrimination or ballot fraud to contact the appropriate authorities.
Monday, November 3, 2014
Justice Department Releases Information on Election Day Efforts to Protect the Right to Vote and Prosecute Ballot Fraud
In anticipation of tomorrow’s general election, the Justice Department today provided information about its efforts, through the Civil Rights Division and Criminal Division, to ensure that all qualified voters have the opportunity to cast their ballots and have their votes counted free of discrimination, intimidation or fraud in the election process.
Civil Rights Division:
The Civil Rights Division is responsible for ensuring compliance with the civil provisions of federal statutes that protect the right to vote, and with the criminal provisions of federal statutes prohibiting discriminatory interference with that right.
The Civil Rights Division’s Voting Section enforces the civil provisions of a wide range of federal statutes that protect the right to vote including: the Voting Rights Act; the National Voter Registration Act; the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act; and the Help America Vote Act. Among other things, collectively, these laws:
prohibit election practices that have either a discriminatory purpose based on race or membership in a minority language group or a discriminatory result of members of racial or language minority groups having less opportunity than other citizens to participate in the political process;
prohibit intimidation of voters;
provide that voters who need assistance in voting because of disability or illiteracy can obtain assistance from a person of their choice;
require minority language election materials and assistance in certain jurisdictions;
provide for accessible election machines for voters with disabilities;
require provisional ballots for voters who assert they are eligible but whose names do not appear on poll books;
provide for absentee ballots for service members, their family members and U.S. citizens living abroad;
require states to ensure that citizens can register at drivers’ license offices, public assistance offices, other state agencies and through the mail; and
include requirements regarding maintaining voter registration lists.
The Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section enforces federal criminal statutes that prohibit voter intimidation and vote suppression based on race, color, national origin or religion.
On Election Day, Nov. 4, 2014, the Civil Rights Division will implement a comprehensive program to help ensure the right to vote that will include the following:
The Civil Rights Division will conduct monitoring in the field at polling places.
Civil Rights Division attorneys in both the Voting and Criminal Sections in Washington, D.C., will be ready to receive election-related complaints of potential violations relating to any of the statutes the Civil Rights Division enforces. Attorneys in the division will take appropriate action and will consult and coordinate with local U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and with other entities within the Department of Justice concerning these complaints before, during, and after Election Day.
Civil Rights Division staff will be available by phone to receive complaints related to voting rights (1-800-253-3931 toll free or 202-307-2767) or by TTY (202-305-0082). In addition, individuals may also report complaints, problems, or concerns related to voting by fax to 202-307-3961, by email to voting.section@usdoj.govEmail links icon, and, by complaint forms that may be submitted through a link on the Department’s website, at www.justice.gov/crt/about/vot/.
Complaints related to violence, threats of violence, or intimidation at a polling place should always be reported immediately to local police authorities by calling 911. They should also be reported to the Department after local authorities are contacted.
Criminal Division and the Department’s 94 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices:
The Department’s Criminal Division oversees the enforcement of federal laws that criminalize certain forms of election fraud and vindicate the integrity of the federal election process.
The Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section and the Department’s 94 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices are responsible for enforcing the federal criminal laws that prohibit various forms of election fraud, such as vote buying, multiple voting, submission of fraudulent ballots or registrations, destruction of ballots or registrations, alteration of votes, and malfeasance by election officials. The Criminal Division is also responsible for enforcing federal criminal law prohibiting voter intimidation for reasons other than race, color, national origin or religion (as noted above, voter intimidation that has a basis in race, color, national origin or religion is addressed by the Civil Rights Division).
The U.S. Attorney’s Offices around the country designate Assistant U.S. Attorneys who serve as district election officers (DEOs) in their respective districts. DEOs are responsible for overseeing potential election-crime matters in their districts, and for coordinating with the department’s election-crime experts in Washington, D.C.
On Nov. 4, 2014, the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices will work with specially trained Federal Bureau of Investigation personnel in each district to ensure that complaints from the public involving possible voter fraud are handled appropriately. Specifically:
In consultation with federal prosecutors at the Public Integrity Section in Washington, D.C., the District Election Officers in U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, FBI officials at headquarters in Washington, D.C., and FBI Special Agents serving as Election Crime Coordinators in the FBI’s 56 field offices will be on duty while polls are open, to receive complaints from the public.
Election-crime complaints should be directed to the local U.S. Attorney’s Office or the local FBI office. A list of U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and their telephone numbers can be found at http://www.justice.gov/usao/districts/. A list of FBI offices and accompanying telephone numbers can be found at www.fbi.gov/contact-us.
Public Integrity Section prosecutors are available to consult and coordinate with the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the FBI regarding the handling of election-crime allegations.
Again, complaints related to violence, threats of violence, or intimidation at a polling place should be reported first to local police authorities by calling 911.
Both protecting the right to vote and combating election fraud are essential to maintaining the confidence of all Americans in our democratic system of government. The department encourages anyone who has information suggesting voting discrimination or ballot fraud to contact the appropriate authorities.
U.S. SETTLES GREENHOUSE GAS ENFORCEMENT CASE WITH HYUNDAI AND KIA
FROM: U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Monday, November 3, 2014
United States Reaches Settlement with Hyundai And Kia in a Historic Greenhouse Gas Enforcement Case
The Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a historic settlement with the automakers Hyundai and Kia that will resolve alleged Clean Air Act violations based on their sale of close to 1.2 million vehicles that will emit approximately 4.75 million metric tons of greenhouse gases in excess of what the automakers certified to EPA.
The automakers will pay a $100 million civil penalty, the largest in Clean Air Act history, to resolve violations concerning the testing and certification of vehicles sold in America and spend approximately $50 million on measures to prevent any future violations. Hyundai and Kia will also forfeit 4.75 million greenhouse gas emission credits that the companies previously claimed, which are estimated to be worth over $200 million. Automakers earn greenhouse gas emissions credits for building vehicles with lower emissions than required by law. These credits can be used to offset emissions from less fuel efficient vehicle models or sold or traded to other automakers for the same purpose. The greenhouse gas emissions that the forfeited credits would have allowed are equal to the emissions from powering more than 433,000 homes for a year.
“This unprecedented resolution with Hyundai and Kia underscores the Justice Department’s firm commitment to safeguarding American consumers, ensuring fairness in every marketplace, protecting the environment, and relentlessly pursuing companies that make misrepresentations and violate the law,” said Attorney General Eric Holder. “This type of conduct quite simply will not be tolerated. And the Justice Department will never rest or waver in our determination to take action against any company that engages in such activities – whenever and wherever they are uncovered.”
“Greenhouse gas emission laws protect the public from the dangers of climate change, and today’s action reinforces EPA’s commitment to see those laws through,” said EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. “Businesses that play by the rules shouldn’t have to compete with those breaking the law. This settlement upholds the integrity of the nation’s fuel economy and greenhouse gas programs and supports all Americans who want to save fuel costs and reduce their environmental impact.”
The complaint was filed today jointly by the United States and the California Air Resources Board in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. It alleges that the car companies sold close to 1.2 million cars and SUVs from model years 2012 and 2013 whose design specifications did not conform to the specifications the companies certified to EPA, which led to the misstatements of greenhouse gas emissions. These allegations concern the Hyundai Accent, Elantra, Veloster and Santa Fe vehicles and the Kia Rio and Soul vehicles.
Additionally Hyundai and Kia gave consumers inaccurate information about the real-world fuel economy performance of many of these vehicles. Hyundai and Kia overstated the fuel economy by one to six miles per gallon, depending on the vehicle. Similarly, they understated the emissions of greenhouse gases by their fleets by approximately 4.75 million metric tons over the estimated lifetime of the vehicles.
In order to reduce the likelihood of future vehicle greenhouse gas emission miscalculations, Hyundai and Kia have agreed to reorganize their emissions certification group, revise test protocols, improve management of test data and enhance employee training before they conduct emissions testing to certify their model year 2017 vehicles. In the meantime, Hyundai and Kia must audit their fleets for model years 2015 and 2016 to ensure that vehicles sold to the public conform to the description and data provided to EPA.
EPA discovered these violations in 2012 during audit testing. Subsequent investigation revealed that Hyundai’s and Kia’s testing protocol included numerous elements that led to inaccurately higher fuel economy ratings. In processing test data, Hyundai and Kia allegedly chose favorable results rather than average results from a large number of tests.
In November 2012, Hyundai and Kia responded to the EPA’s findings by correcting the fuel economy ratings for many of their 2011, 2012 and 2013 model year vehicles and establishing a reimbursement program to compensate owners for increased fuel costs due to overstated fuel economy.
This case involves five different entities: Hyundai Motor Company, Hyundai Motor America, Kia Motors Corporation, Kia Motors America and Hyundai America Technical Center Inc.
The California Air Resources Board joined the United States as a co-plaintiff in this settlement, and will receive $6,343,400 of the $100 million civil penalty.
Monday, November 3, 2014
United States Reaches Settlement with Hyundai And Kia in a Historic Greenhouse Gas Enforcement Case
The Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a historic settlement with the automakers Hyundai and Kia that will resolve alleged Clean Air Act violations based on their sale of close to 1.2 million vehicles that will emit approximately 4.75 million metric tons of greenhouse gases in excess of what the automakers certified to EPA.
The automakers will pay a $100 million civil penalty, the largest in Clean Air Act history, to resolve violations concerning the testing and certification of vehicles sold in America and spend approximately $50 million on measures to prevent any future violations. Hyundai and Kia will also forfeit 4.75 million greenhouse gas emission credits that the companies previously claimed, which are estimated to be worth over $200 million. Automakers earn greenhouse gas emissions credits for building vehicles with lower emissions than required by law. These credits can be used to offset emissions from less fuel efficient vehicle models or sold or traded to other automakers for the same purpose. The greenhouse gas emissions that the forfeited credits would have allowed are equal to the emissions from powering more than 433,000 homes for a year.
“This unprecedented resolution with Hyundai and Kia underscores the Justice Department’s firm commitment to safeguarding American consumers, ensuring fairness in every marketplace, protecting the environment, and relentlessly pursuing companies that make misrepresentations and violate the law,” said Attorney General Eric Holder. “This type of conduct quite simply will not be tolerated. And the Justice Department will never rest or waver in our determination to take action against any company that engages in such activities – whenever and wherever they are uncovered.”
“Greenhouse gas emission laws protect the public from the dangers of climate change, and today’s action reinforces EPA’s commitment to see those laws through,” said EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. “Businesses that play by the rules shouldn’t have to compete with those breaking the law. This settlement upholds the integrity of the nation’s fuel economy and greenhouse gas programs and supports all Americans who want to save fuel costs and reduce their environmental impact.”
The complaint was filed today jointly by the United States and the California Air Resources Board in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. It alleges that the car companies sold close to 1.2 million cars and SUVs from model years 2012 and 2013 whose design specifications did not conform to the specifications the companies certified to EPA, which led to the misstatements of greenhouse gas emissions. These allegations concern the Hyundai Accent, Elantra, Veloster and Santa Fe vehicles and the Kia Rio and Soul vehicles.
Additionally Hyundai and Kia gave consumers inaccurate information about the real-world fuel economy performance of many of these vehicles. Hyundai and Kia overstated the fuel economy by one to six miles per gallon, depending on the vehicle. Similarly, they understated the emissions of greenhouse gases by their fleets by approximately 4.75 million metric tons over the estimated lifetime of the vehicles.
In order to reduce the likelihood of future vehicle greenhouse gas emission miscalculations, Hyundai and Kia have agreed to reorganize their emissions certification group, revise test protocols, improve management of test data and enhance employee training before they conduct emissions testing to certify their model year 2017 vehicles. In the meantime, Hyundai and Kia must audit their fleets for model years 2015 and 2016 to ensure that vehicles sold to the public conform to the description and data provided to EPA.
EPA discovered these violations in 2012 during audit testing. Subsequent investigation revealed that Hyundai’s and Kia’s testing protocol included numerous elements that led to inaccurately higher fuel economy ratings. In processing test data, Hyundai and Kia allegedly chose favorable results rather than average results from a large number of tests.
In November 2012, Hyundai and Kia responded to the EPA’s findings by correcting the fuel economy ratings for many of their 2011, 2012 and 2013 model year vehicles and establishing a reimbursement program to compensate owners for increased fuel costs due to overstated fuel economy.
This case involves five different entities: Hyundai Motor Company, Hyundai Motor America, Kia Motors Corporation, Kia Motors America and Hyundai America Technical Center Inc.
The California Air Resources Board joined the United States as a co-plaintiff in this settlement, and will receive $6,343,400 of the $100 million civil penalty.
DATING SERVICE WILL NO LONGER USE FAKE PROFILES
FROM: U.S. FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
Online Dating Service Agrees to Stop Deceptive Use of Fake Profiles
Note: Steve Baker, Director of the FTC’s Midwest Region Office, will take reporters’ questions by phone:
Date: October 29, 2014
Time: 2 p.m. ET
In its first law enforcement action against an online dating service, the Federal Trade Commission has reached a settlement that prohibits JDI Dating Ltd., an England-based company, from using fake, computer-generated profiles to trick users into upgrading to paid memberships and charging these members a recurring monthly fee without their consent. The settlement also requires the defendants to pay $616,165 in redress.
“JDI Dating used fake profiles to make people think they were hearing from real love interests and to trick them into upgrading to paid memberships,” said Jessica Rich, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Adding insult to injury, users were charged automatically to renew their subscriptions – often without their consent.”
According to a complaint filed by the FTC, JDI Dating and William Mark Thomas operate a worldwide dating service via 18 websites, including cupidswand.com, flirtcrowd.com and findmelove.com. The defendants offered a free plan that allowed users to set up a profile with personal information and photos. As soon as a new user set up a free profile, he or she began to receive messages that appeared to be from other members living nearby, expressing romantic interest or a desire to meet. However, users were unable to respond to these messages without upgrading to a paid membership. Membership plans cost from $10 to $30 per month, with subscriptions generally ranging from one to 12 months.
The messages were almost always from fake, computer-generated profiles – “Virtual Cupids” – created by the defendants, with photos and information designed to closely mimic the profiles of real people. A small “v” encircled by a “C” on the profile page was the only indication that the profiles were fake. Users were not likely to see – much less understand – this icon. The fake profiles and messages caused many users to upgrade to paid subscriptions.
In addition, the defendants failed to tell subscribers that their subscriptions would be renewed automatically and that they would continue to be charged until they canceled. To avoid additional charges, members had to cancel at least 48 hours before their subscriptions ended. Information about the automatic renewal feature was buried in multiple pages of densely worded text that consumers could see only by clicking a “Terms and Conditions” hyperlink. Consumers were not required to access this hyperlink as part of the enrollment process.
The Commission’s complaint charges JDI Dating and Thomas with violating the FTC Act by misrepresenting the source of the communications from fake profiles and by failing to disclose the automatic renewal terms. The complaint also charges the defendants with violating the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act (ROSCA) by failing to: disclose clearly the terms of the negative-option plan, obtain express informed consent before charging consumers, and provide a simple way to stop recurring charges.
The settlement order prohibits the defendants from misrepresenting material facts about any product or service and, from failing to disclose clearly to potential members that they will receive communications from virtual profiles who are not real people. The order requires that, before obtaining consumers’ billing information for a product with a negative-option feature, the defendants must clearly disclose the name of the seller or provider, a product description and its cost, the length of any trial period, the fact that charges will continue unless the consumer cancels, the deadline for canceling, and the mechanism to stop recurring charges. The order also bars the defendants from using consumers’ billing information to obtain payment without their informed consent.
The injunction also bars the defendants from misrepresenting refund and cancellation policies, and failing to disclose clearly the terms of a negative option plan – before a consumer consents to pay. In addition, the defendants are prohibited from failing to honor a refund or cancellation request that complies with their policies, and failing to provide a simple mechanism for consumers to stop recurring charges – at least as simple as the mechanism consumers used to initiate them.
The order also prohibits JDI Dating and Thomas from violating the ROSCA and selling or otherwise benefitting from customers’ personal information, and requires them to pay $616,165 in redress.
The Commission vote authorizing the staff to file the complaint and proposed stipulated order for permanent injunction was 5-0. The complaint and stipulated final order were filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, on October 27, 2014.
NOTE: The Commission authorizes the filing of a complaint when it has “reason to believe” that the law has been or is being violated, and it appears to the Commission that a proceeding is in the public interest. Stipulated orders have the force of law when signed by the District Court judge.
Online Dating Service Agrees to Stop Deceptive Use of Fake Profiles
Note: Steve Baker, Director of the FTC’s Midwest Region Office, will take reporters’ questions by phone:
Date: October 29, 2014
Time: 2 p.m. ET
In its first law enforcement action against an online dating service, the Federal Trade Commission has reached a settlement that prohibits JDI Dating Ltd., an England-based company, from using fake, computer-generated profiles to trick users into upgrading to paid memberships and charging these members a recurring monthly fee without their consent. The settlement also requires the defendants to pay $616,165 in redress.
“JDI Dating used fake profiles to make people think they were hearing from real love interests and to trick them into upgrading to paid memberships,” said Jessica Rich, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Adding insult to injury, users were charged automatically to renew their subscriptions – often without their consent.”
According to a complaint filed by the FTC, JDI Dating and William Mark Thomas operate a worldwide dating service via 18 websites, including cupidswand.com, flirtcrowd.com and findmelove.com. The defendants offered a free plan that allowed users to set up a profile with personal information and photos. As soon as a new user set up a free profile, he or she began to receive messages that appeared to be from other members living nearby, expressing romantic interest or a desire to meet. However, users were unable to respond to these messages without upgrading to a paid membership. Membership plans cost from $10 to $30 per month, with subscriptions generally ranging from one to 12 months.
The messages were almost always from fake, computer-generated profiles – “Virtual Cupids” – created by the defendants, with photos and information designed to closely mimic the profiles of real people. A small “v” encircled by a “C” on the profile page was the only indication that the profiles were fake. Users were not likely to see – much less understand – this icon. The fake profiles and messages caused many users to upgrade to paid subscriptions.
In addition, the defendants failed to tell subscribers that their subscriptions would be renewed automatically and that they would continue to be charged until they canceled. To avoid additional charges, members had to cancel at least 48 hours before their subscriptions ended. Information about the automatic renewal feature was buried in multiple pages of densely worded text that consumers could see only by clicking a “Terms and Conditions” hyperlink. Consumers were not required to access this hyperlink as part of the enrollment process.
The Commission’s complaint charges JDI Dating and Thomas with violating the FTC Act by misrepresenting the source of the communications from fake profiles and by failing to disclose the automatic renewal terms. The complaint also charges the defendants with violating the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act (ROSCA) by failing to: disclose clearly the terms of the negative-option plan, obtain express informed consent before charging consumers, and provide a simple way to stop recurring charges.
The settlement order prohibits the defendants from misrepresenting material facts about any product or service and, from failing to disclose clearly to potential members that they will receive communications from virtual profiles who are not real people. The order requires that, before obtaining consumers’ billing information for a product with a negative-option feature, the defendants must clearly disclose the name of the seller or provider, a product description and its cost, the length of any trial period, the fact that charges will continue unless the consumer cancels, the deadline for canceling, and the mechanism to stop recurring charges. The order also bars the defendants from using consumers’ billing information to obtain payment without their informed consent.
The injunction also bars the defendants from misrepresenting refund and cancellation policies, and failing to disclose clearly the terms of a negative option plan – before a consumer consents to pay. In addition, the defendants are prohibited from failing to honor a refund or cancellation request that complies with their policies, and failing to provide a simple mechanism for consumers to stop recurring charges – at least as simple as the mechanism consumers used to initiate them.
The order also prohibits JDI Dating and Thomas from violating the ROSCA and selling or otherwise benefitting from customers’ personal information, and requires them to pay $616,165 in redress.
The Commission vote authorizing the staff to file the complaint and proposed stipulated order for permanent injunction was 5-0. The complaint and stipulated final order were filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, on October 27, 2014.
NOTE: The Commission authorizes the filing of a complaint when it has “reason to believe” that the law has been or is being violated, and it appears to the Commission that a proceeding is in the public interest. Stipulated orders have the force of law when signed by the District Court judge.
NSF FUNDS PROJET INVESTIGATING COMPUTER SECURITY
FROM: NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Experts identify easy way to improve smartphone security
Assigning risk scores to apps may slow down unwarranted access to personal information
What information is beaming from your mobile phone over various computer networks this very second without you being aware of it?
Experts say your contact lists, email messages, surfed webpages, browsing histories, usage patterns, online purchase records and even password protected accounts may all be sharing data with intrusive and sometimes malicious applications, and you may have given permission.
"Smartphones and tablets used by today's consumers include many kinds of sensitive information," says Ninghui Li, a professor of Computer Science at Purdue University in Indiana.
The apps downloaded to them can potentially track a user's locations, monitor his or her phone calls and even monitor the messages a user sends and receives--including authentication messages used by online banking and other sites, he says, explaining why unsecured digital data are such a big issue.
Li, along with Robert Proctor and Luo Si, also professors at Purdue, lead a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded project "User-Centric Risk Communication and Control on Mobile Devices," that investigates computer security. The work pays special attention to user control of security features in mobile systems.
Li, Proctor and Si believe they may have a simple solution for users, who unknowingly allow voluntary access to their personal data.
Most users pay little attention
"Although strong security measures are in place for most mobile systems," they write in a recent report inthe journal IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, "the area where these systems often fail is the reliance on the user to make decisions that impact the security of a device."
Most users pay little attention, say the researchers, to unwanted access to their personal information. Instead, they have become habituated to ignore security warnings and tend to consent to all app permissions.
"If users do not understand the warnings or their consequences, they will not consider them," says Proctor, a Distinguished Professor of psychological sciences at Purdue.
"If users do not associate violations of the warnings with bad consequences of their actions, they will likely ignore them," adds Jing Chen, a psychology Ph.D. student who works on the project.
In addition, there are other influences that contribute to users ignoring security warnings. In the case of Android app permissions, of which there are more than 200, many do not make sense to the average user or at best require time and considerable mental effort to comprehend.
"Permissions are not the only factor in users' decisions," says Si, an associate professor of Computer Science at Purdue, who also led research on a paper with Li that analyzed app reviews.
"Users also look at average ratings, number of downloads and user comments," Si says. "In our studies, we found that there exist correlations between the quality of an app and the average rating from users, as well as the ratio of negative comments about security and privacy."
"This is a classic example of the links between humans and technology," says Heng Xu, program director in the Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace program in NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate. "The Android smartphones studied by this group of scientists reveals the great need to understand human perception as it relates to their own privacy and security."
"The complexity of modern access control mechanisms in smartphones can confuse even security experts," says Jeremy Epstein, lead program director for the Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace program in NSF's Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering, which funded the research.
"Safeguards and protection mechanisms that protect privacy and personal security must be usable by all smartphone users, to avoid the syndrome of just clicking 'yes' to get the job done. The SaTC program encourages research like Dr. Li's and colleagues that helps address security usability challenges."
Numbers speak to the amount of unsecured personal data
According to Google, the current developer of the Android operating system, more than 400 million Android devices were activated in 2012. As of July 2013, users had downloaded more than 50 billion apps from Google Play, Android's official app store.
The numbers speak to the amount of unsecured personal data now available for offsite storage and use by third parties.
In an effort to make it easier for users to understand what information an app can access, the online Google Play store arranged app permissions into categories available for review before an app is purchased.
One category, "Contacts/Calendar," warns that when users are faced with giving permission for this group, the app may use the device's contacts and/or calendar information to "read your contacts, modify your contacts, read your calendar events plus confidential information, add or modify calendar events and send email to guests without owners' knowledge."
Another category, "Cellular data settings" warns the app "can use settings that control your mobile data connection and potentially the data you receive."
Smartphone security researchers identify these requests as "dangerous permissions," because they come with associated risks. Furthermore, Li and colleagues argue that nearly all apps make permission requests with such risks.
Including a risk score has "significant positive effects"
The researchers believe, however, that assigning a risk score to each app and displaying a summary of that information may slow down unwarranted access to personal information by making the risk more transparent and by giving incentive to developers to use less personal information.
Li and his team conducted several experiments that employed a risk score strategy. They found including a risk score had "significant positive effects" for those selecting apps to install on a user's Android smartphone. They also reported that risk scores could lead to more user curiosity about security-related information thereby reducing how often security warnings are disregarded.
Experiments asked participants to select between two apps presented to them in three ways: with risk summary information not displayed, with risk summary information displayed as text and/or with risk summary information displayed as a series of filled ovals similar to the one to five stars used to present consumer ratings.
In a first experiment, the researchers verified that the presence of risk-summary text could influence participants' decisions as to whether to install an app. Participants chose the app identified as less-risky 77 percent of the time.
In another experiment, the researchers focused on how risk information is communicated to the consumer. They wanted to know whether users would be more responsive to "risk information" or "safety information." Li and colleagues tested the question using a number of filled circles--for half of the participants, they framed the filled circles to mean more risk. For the other half, they framed the filled circles to mean less risk or more security.
The researchers compared the response times for the two different ways of communicating risk. They found consumer decisions to install the app were faster when information was presented in the safety condition, indicating people have a natural tendency to react to safety information over risk information.
The outcome suggests it may be better to present permission warnings as safety information rather than the more common risk assessments.
"This result is surprising in one sense because security warnings typically are conveyed as risks," says Li. "However, in another sense it is not too surprising because the positive framing of safety is more compatible with other aspects of selecting a desirable app."
"When technologists design and implement security mechanisms for systems used by the mass population, they should not design for other technologists," Li says. "Instead, they need to understand what can be comprehended and effectively used by the mass population."
Christopher Gates, a Computer Science Ph.D. student now with Symantec, Inc.; Jing Chen, a Psychology Ph.D. student and Lei Cen, a Computer Science graduate student also contributed to the research.
-- Bobbie Mixon,
Investigators
Luo Si
Ninghui Li
Robert Proctor
Related Institutions/Organizations
Purdue University
Experts identify easy way to improve smartphone security
Assigning risk scores to apps may slow down unwarranted access to personal information
What information is beaming from your mobile phone over various computer networks this very second without you being aware of it?
Experts say your contact lists, email messages, surfed webpages, browsing histories, usage patterns, online purchase records and even password protected accounts may all be sharing data with intrusive and sometimes malicious applications, and you may have given permission.
"Smartphones and tablets used by today's consumers include many kinds of sensitive information," says Ninghui Li, a professor of Computer Science at Purdue University in Indiana.
The apps downloaded to them can potentially track a user's locations, monitor his or her phone calls and even monitor the messages a user sends and receives--including authentication messages used by online banking and other sites, he says, explaining why unsecured digital data are such a big issue.
Li, along with Robert Proctor and Luo Si, also professors at Purdue, lead a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded project "User-Centric Risk Communication and Control on Mobile Devices," that investigates computer security. The work pays special attention to user control of security features in mobile systems.
Li, Proctor and Si believe they may have a simple solution for users, who unknowingly allow voluntary access to their personal data.
Most users pay little attention
"Although strong security measures are in place for most mobile systems," they write in a recent report inthe journal IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, "the area where these systems often fail is the reliance on the user to make decisions that impact the security of a device."
Most users pay little attention, say the researchers, to unwanted access to their personal information. Instead, they have become habituated to ignore security warnings and tend to consent to all app permissions.
"If users do not understand the warnings or their consequences, they will not consider them," says Proctor, a Distinguished Professor of psychological sciences at Purdue.
"If users do not associate violations of the warnings with bad consequences of their actions, they will likely ignore them," adds Jing Chen, a psychology Ph.D. student who works on the project.
In addition, there are other influences that contribute to users ignoring security warnings. In the case of Android app permissions, of which there are more than 200, many do not make sense to the average user or at best require time and considerable mental effort to comprehend.
"Permissions are not the only factor in users' decisions," says Si, an associate professor of Computer Science at Purdue, who also led research on a paper with Li that analyzed app reviews.
"Users also look at average ratings, number of downloads and user comments," Si says. "In our studies, we found that there exist correlations between the quality of an app and the average rating from users, as well as the ratio of negative comments about security and privacy."
"This is a classic example of the links between humans and technology," says Heng Xu, program director in the Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace program in NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate. "The Android smartphones studied by this group of scientists reveals the great need to understand human perception as it relates to their own privacy and security."
"The complexity of modern access control mechanisms in smartphones can confuse even security experts," says Jeremy Epstein, lead program director for the Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace program in NSF's Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering, which funded the research.
"Safeguards and protection mechanisms that protect privacy and personal security must be usable by all smartphone users, to avoid the syndrome of just clicking 'yes' to get the job done. The SaTC program encourages research like Dr. Li's and colleagues that helps address security usability challenges."
Numbers speak to the amount of unsecured personal data
According to Google, the current developer of the Android operating system, more than 400 million Android devices were activated in 2012. As of July 2013, users had downloaded more than 50 billion apps from Google Play, Android's official app store.
The numbers speak to the amount of unsecured personal data now available for offsite storage and use by third parties.
In an effort to make it easier for users to understand what information an app can access, the online Google Play store arranged app permissions into categories available for review before an app is purchased.
One category, "Contacts/Calendar," warns that when users are faced with giving permission for this group, the app may use the device's contacts and/or calendar information to "read your contacts, modify your contacts, read your calendar events plus confidential information, add or modify calendar events and send email to guests without owners' knowledge."
Another category, "Cellular data settings" warns the app "can use settings that control your mobile data connection and potentially the data you receive."
Smartphone security researchers identify these requests as "dangerous permissions," because they come with associated risks. Furthermore, Li and colleagues argue that nearly all apps make permission requests with such risks.
Including a risk score has "significant positive effects"
The researchers believe, however, that assigning a risk score to each app and displaying a summary of that information may slow down unwarranted access to personal information by making the risk more transparent and by giving incentive to developers to use less personal information.
Li and his team conducted several experiments that employed a risk score strategy. They found including a risk score had "significant positive effects" for those selecting apps to install on a user's Android smartphone. They also reported that risk scores could lead to more user curiosity about security-related information thereby reducing how often security warnings are disregarded.
Experiments asked participants to select between two apps presented to them in three ways: with risk summary information not displayed, with risk summary information displayed as text and/or with risk summary information displayed as a series of filled ovals similar to the one to five stars used to present consumer ratings.
In a first experiment, the researchers verified that the presence of risk-summary text could influence participants' decisions as to whether to install an app. Participants chose the app identified as less-risky 77 percent of the time.
In another experiment, the researchers focused on how risk information is communicated to the consumer. They wanted to know whether users would be more responsive to "risk information" or "safety information." Li and colleagues tested the question using a number of filled circles--for half of the participants, they framed the filled circles to mean more risk. For the other half, they framed the filled circles to mean less risk or more security.
The researchers compared the response times for the two different ways of communicating risk. They found consumer decisions to install the app were faster when information was presented in the safety condition, indicating people have a natural tendency to react to safety information over risk information.
The outcome suggests it may be better to present permission warnings as safety information rather than the more common risk assessments.
"This result is surprising in one sense because security warnings typically are conveyed as risks," says Li. "However, in another sense it is not too surprising because the positive framing of safety is more compatible with other aspects of selecting a desirable app."
"When technologists design and implement security mechanisms for systems used by the mass population, they should not design for other technologists," Li says. "Instead, they need to understand what can be comprehended and effectively used by the mass population."
Christopher Gates, a Computer Science Ph.D. student now with Symantec, Inc.; Jing Chen, a Psychology Ph.D. student and Lei Cen, a Computer Science graduate student also contributed to the research.
-- Bobbie Mixon,
Investigators
Luo Si
Ninghui Li
Robert Proctor
Related Institutions/Organizations
Purdue University
U.S. SENDS WARMEST WISHES TO PEOPLE OF KINGDOM OF TONGA ON THEIR NATIONAL DAY
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Tonga Independence Day
Press Statement
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
October 31, 2014
On behalf of President Obama and the people of the United States, I send my warmest wishes to the people of the Kingdom of Tonga on your national day this November 4.
The United States and Tonga share a history of close partnership rooted in our commitment to international security and environmental conservation. We hope to strengthen our relationship in the future through continued promotion of open and transparent governance and cooperation on issues of mutual concern like climate change and natural resource management.
As you celebrate your national day, know that the United States remains a partner and friend to your country. We wish you and the people of Tonga peace and prosperity in the years to come.
Monday, November 3, 2014
NSC SPOKESPERSON'S STATEMENT ON SEPARATIST ELECTIONS IN EASTERN UKRAINE
FROM: THE WHITE HOUSE
November 03, 2014
Statement by NSC Spokesperson Bernadette Meehan on the Illegal Separatist Elections in Eastern Ukraine
The United States condemns the illegitimate, so-called “elections” held on Sunday by Russia-backed separatists in parts of Donetsk and Luhansk. These sham elections contravened Ukraine’s constitution, the law on “special status,” and the most basic electoral norms. Both Russia and its separatist proxies had agreed to honor Ukraine’s special status electoral law when they signed the Minsk Protocol of September 5. They therefore violated the terms of that protocol with these so-called “elections” on November 2. As we have said previously, the United States will not recognize the authority of any individuals claiming to represent parts of Donetsk and Luhansk on the basis of this illegal vote.
We are concerned by a Russian Foreign Ministry statement today that seeks to legitimizes these sham “elections.” We also continue to be concerned by reports that Russia is once more moving its troops and military equipment to portions of the international border. The Russia-Ukraine border remains unmonitored and outside of Ukrainian government control despite Russia’s commitment to facilitate the establishment of an effective international monitoring mission. We are also concerned by OSCE reports that OSCE Special Monitoring Mission UAVs operating east of the control line have come under attack in recent days. More broadly, Moscow’s continued failure to fulfill its obligations under the Minsk agreements calls into question its commitment to supporting a peaceful resolution to the conflict in parts of eastern Ukraine.
We call on Russia’s leaders to adhere to the commitments they made in Minsk to include the full withdrawal of foreign forces, the restoration of Ukrainian control of its sovereignty over the border with OSCE monitoring, and local elections in accordance with the special status law, which set these for December 7. As we have said repeatedly, Russia has a choice. If it supports the peace process and adheres to its Minsk commitments, the costs for Russia’s destabilizing actions against Ukraine will lessen. Should Moscow continue to ignore the commitments that it made in Minsk and continue its destabilizing and dangerous actions, the costs to Russia will rise.
November 03, 2014
Statement by NSC Spokesperson Bernadette Meehan on the Illegal Separatist Elections in Eastern Ukraine
The United States condemns the illegitimate, so-called “elections” held on Sunday by Russia-backed separatists in parts of Donetsk and Luhansk. These sham elections contravened Ukraine’s constitution, the law on “special status,” and the most basic electoral norms. Both Russia and its separatist proxies had agreed to honor Ukraine’s special status electoral law when they signed the Minsk Protocol of September 5. They therefore violated the terms of that protocol with these so-called “elections” on November 2. As we have said previously, the United States will not recognize the authority of any individuals claiming to represent parts of Donetsk and Luhansk on the basis of this illegal vote.
We are concerned by a Russian Foreign Ministry statement today that seeks to legitimizes these sham “elections.” We also continue to be concerned by reports that Russia is once more moving its troops and military equipment to portions of the international border. The Russia-Ukraine border remains unmonitored and outside of Ukrainian government control despite Russia’s commitment to facilitate the establishment of an effective international monitoring mission. We are also concerned by OSCE reports that OSCE Special Monitoring Mission UAVs operating east of the control line have come under attack in recent days. More broadly, Moscow’s continued failure to fulfill its obligations under the Minsk agreements calls into question its commitment to supporting a peaceful resolution to the conflict in parts of eastern Ukraine.
We call on Russia’s leaders to adhere to the commitments they made in Minsk to include the full withdrawal of foreign forces, the restoration of Ukrainian control of its sovereignty over the border with OSCE monitoring, and local elections in accordance with the special status law, which set these for December 7. As we have said repeatedly, Russia has a choice. If it supports the peace process and adheres to its Minsk commitments, the costs for Russia’s destabilizing actions against Ukraine will lessen. Should Moscow continue to ignore the commitments that it made in Minsk and continue its destabilizing and dangerous actions, the costs to Russia will rise.
AG HOLDER DISPATCHES POLL MONITORS TO HELP PREVENT VOTER DISCRIMINATION
FROM: U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Monday, November 3, 2014
Ahead of Election Day, Attorney General Holder Dispatches Federal Poll Monitors to Aid in Efforts to Prevent Voter Discrimination
In an effort to reaffirm the Justice Department’s commitment and responsibility to protect eligible Americans from discrimination at the ballot box, Attorney General Eric Holder released a video today to announce that the Department of Justice will send federal monitors to 18 states across the country. These monitors will be on the ground gathering information on numerous aspects of local election procedures including voter discrimination, resources for bilingual voters, and adequate services for individuals with disabilities.
“This year, as citizens across the country go to the polls on Election Day, I want the American people to know that the Justice Department will stand vigilant – working, in a fair and nonpartisan manner, to ensure that every voter can cast his or her ballot free of intimidation, discrimination, or obstruction,” said Attorney General Holder in a video message recorded for the Justice Department’s website. “Over the last few months, leaders from the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division have received information from a wide variety of citizens and groups. Based upon our independent and non-partisan consideration and expertise, we have dispatched federal monitors to polling places around the country – just as we do during every election season.”
The complete text of the Attorney General’s video message is below:
“One of the Justice Department’s most sacred responsibilities is ensuring access to the ballot box for every eligible American. Over the last six years, my colleagues and I have taken robust action to safeguard this fundamental right: challenging unnecessarily restrictive proposals like certain voter ID laws; advocating for accessible polling places in remote and underserved communities; and fighting back against redistricting proposals and early voting limits that may prevent many Americans from making their voices heard.
“This year, as citizens across the country go to the polls on Election Day, I want the American people to know that the Justice Department will stand vigilant – working, in a fair and nonpartisan manner, to ensure that every voter can cast his or her ballot free of intimidation, discrimination, or obstruction. Over the last few months, leaders from the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division have received information from a wide variety of citizens and groups. Based upon our independent and non-partisan consideration and expertise, we have dispatched federal monitors to polling places around the country – just as we do during every election season.
“These officials will gather information on numerous aspects of local election procedures, including whether voters are treated differently depending on their race or color; whether jurisdictions are adequately serving individuals with disabilities; whether jurisdictions are complying with the provisional ballot requirements of the Help America Vote Act; and whether jurisdictions are complying with the Voting Rights Act’s requirement to provide bilingual election materials and assistance in areas of need.
“The integrity of our elections, and the ability of our citizens to access the franchise, are fundamental to who we are – both as a nation and as a people. That’s why, last year, President Obama established a bipartisan Presidential Commission on Election Administration to recommend a series of steps to make it simpler to cast a ballot. The Commission’s recommendations included expanding online voter registration and early balloting, updating electronic voting equipment, and making polling places more accessible. The Commission also suggested that bilingual poll workers should be available at any polling place with a significant number of voters who do not speak English.
“These are promising – and necessary – reforms, and I call upon jurisdictions across the country to adopt them. In the meantime, we must also ensure that the way we administer the laws currently on the books is appropriate, and lives up to our highest values. Making it more difficult to vote with restrictive measures like burdensome voter ID laws is out of step with our history.
“So I call on election officials and poll workers around the country to consider, as they perform their duties, the importance of the responsibilities that they are working to fulfil. I encourage every citizen of this country to remember the sacrifices made by generations of patriots to expand and ensure the franchise. And I urge all eligible Americans – no matter their party affiliation or political views – to exercise their own sacred duty to cast a ballot, to make their voices heard, and to contribute to the direction of our great democracy.”
NSF FUNDS SIMULATIONS TO TRAIN STUDENTS IN CYBERSECURITY
FROM: NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Cybersecurity: It's about way more than countering hackers
Growing professionals in cybersecurity means supporting an interdisciplinary approach that develops sophisticated thinkers
It's tense in the situation room. A cyber attack on the electrical grid in New York City has plunged Manhattan into darkness on a day that happens to be the coldest in the year. Concurrently, the cellular phone network has been attacked, silencing smartphones and sowing confusion and panic. A foreign power has claimed responsibility for the attacks and says more are coming. Your job is to look at geopolitical factors, intelligence feeds, military movements and clues in cyberspace to predict what may be happening next. Your goal is to make a recommendation to the President.
This scenario is thankfully not real, but it is the kind of simulation planned for students in the cybersecurity program at California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB). With funding from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) CyberCorps®: Scholarships for Service (SFS) program, undergraduate and graduate students take an interdisciplinary approach to cybersecurity.
"We provide an environment where business students can work with engineers on drones, and students from political science can work on predictive modeling," said Principal Investigator (PI) Tony Coulson. "Our students can major in business, public administration, criminal justice, computer science, intelligence, all with cyber security as an option. We produce students who can problem-solve--people who can understand politics and finance as well as computer science."
Cybersecurity is a field that has received a lot of attention in recent years because of hacking episodes that have compromised networks, and in turn, the personal information of citizens who depend on a safe cyberspace to do such activities as banking and shopping. Following such a breach, attention is generally focused on identifying the hackers and their methods.
Among the options for students supported through San Bernardino's SFS program is being educated in cyber intelligence to deal proactively with cyber threats--to predict malicious behavior before it happens. Doing so draws not only on a background in computer and information science, but also on an understanding of human behavior and psychology and the political and economic environment. About 50 students have gone through the program, including completing internship requirements, and Coulson reports 100 percent placement with employers.
"The San Bernardino project is one of 166 active projects around the country fully or partly funded by SFS," said SFS Lead Program Director Victor Piotrowski. "Cybersecurity is a dynamic and evolving field, and the country needs talented people with the skills to protect U.S. interests around the world. Through SFS, we prepare students for high-paying careers in government, and increase the capacity of institutions to offer quality course work in this area."
A condition of students' receiving support through SFS is that they put their skills to work in a government agency for a period equal to the duration of their scholarship. Coulson says that after completing the program at CSUSB, students often have to choose from multiple offers. The program boasts having students placed in many areas of government.
"CSUSB students have a depth of skills and often pick their dream jobs," said Coulson, including a student who got a job at his first-choice agency--the National Archives.
San Bernardino is a poor community, and the good jobs available to SFS graduates can make a huge difference to them and their families. To promote their success in finding and keeping employment, the professional development offered to students goes beyond their academic work to include business etiquette, mentoring, how to succeed at an internship, and how to conduct oneself successfully in an office. The goal is to produce a graduate ready to be hired.
In addition to traditional essay-based projects, students have to complete a very hands-on final exam, requiring that they pick locks and use digital and biometric information to hack into a network. According to Coulson, they enjoy the challenge.
Along with running the SFS project, Coulson is co-PI on another NSF-supported project, CyberWatch West, funded through the Advanced Technological Education program (ATE).
"Despite Silicon Valley being on the West coast, and California having the largest population of community colleges in the country, there are very few cybersecurity programs here," said Coulson.
So CyberWatch West aims to help community colleges, K-12 schools and universities link together in 13 western states to develop faculty and students in cybersecurity. The project is a resource for faculty to identify curriculum pathways and outreach, find mentors and engage students in competitions, events and presentations.
"There's such a need in the Los Angeles and Orange County areas," said Coulson. There are something like 2,500 open positions, and we're graduating 200 kids."
Bringing together cybersecurity, law and digital forensics
Also responding to the need for a cybersecurity workforce prepared to deal with today's complex problems is an SFS project for undergraduates and graduate students at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). The project has graduated 25 students who are already working in government (reflecting another 100 percentage placement rate), and another 20 are set to graduate next May.
Since last year, this project offers scholarships to law students as well as engineering and computer science students. According to PI Roy Campbell, few lawyers understand cybersecurity and few computer scientists understand the legal framework involved in prosecuting and preventing cyber crimes.
The first law student to be accepted in the program, Whitney Merrill, is a recent law school graduate currently practicing as an attorney while completing her master's in computer science at UIUC. She found the combination of cybersecurity and law in the UIUC program to be valuable.
"The two fields are fiercely intertwined," said Merrill. "Understanding both fields allows me to better serve and advocate for my clients. Additionally, I hope to be able to help the two communities more effectively communicate with each other to create tools and a body of law that reflects accurately an understanding of both law and technology."
Merrill found the program challenging at first.
"But my interest and love for the subject matter made the challenging workload (29 credits last semester) enjoyable," she added. "Working towards a mastery in both fields has also helped me to spot legal issues where I would not have before."
Next summer Merrill will be working as a summer intern at the Federal Trade Commission in their Division of Privacy and Identity Protection. She graduates in December 2015.
With additional NSF support, a new related program in digital forensics at UIUC has the goal of building a curriculum that will teach students about cybersecurity in the context of the law enforcement, the judicial system, and privacy laws.
"Digital forensics is not the sort of area a computer scientist can just jump into," Campbell said. "It's not just malware or outcropping of hacking techniques. It has to be done in a deliberate way to produce evidence that would be acceptable to courts and other entities."
Co-PI Masooda Bashir says digital forensics gets to the heart of the multidisciplinary nature of cybersecurity.
"If you think about the amount of digital information that is being generated, exchanged, and stored daily you begin to understand the impact that the field of Digital Forensics is going to have in the coming years, " she said. "But Digital Forensics (DF) is not only a technical discipline, but a multidisciplinary profession that draws on a range of other fields, including law and courtroom procedure, forensic science, criminal justice and psychology."
She added, " I believe it is through integration of such relevant nontechnical disciplines into the DF education we can help students develop the comprehensive understanding that they will need in order to conduct examinations and analyses whose processes and findings are not just technically sound, but legal, ethical, admissible in court, and otherwise effective in achieving the desired real-world goal."
As the new program evolves, Masooda is drawing on her background as a computer scientist/psychologist to add the psychology of cybercrime to the curriculum. She's also working on a project examining cybersecurity competitions to understand their impact on the cybersecurity workforce and also to better understand the psychological factors and motivations of cyber security specialist and hackers.
Students with an interest in cybersecurity can start planning now
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management maintains a website where students can get information of SFS and the institutions that are participating in it. Meanwhile, PIs can update their project pages and agency officials can check resumes for students with the qualifications they need.
In the evolving field of cybersecurity, individuals with technical skills and knowledge of the social and legal context for what they do will continue to be highly desirable workers
Cybersecurity: It's about way more than countering hackers
Growing professionals in cybersecurity means supporting an interdisciplinary approach that develops sophisticated thinkers
It's tense in the situation room. A cyber attack on the electrical grid in New York City has plunged Manhattan into darkness on a day that happens to be the coldest in the year. Concurrently, the cellular phone network has been attacked, silencing smartphones and sowing confusion and panic. A foreign power has claimed responsibility for the attacks and says more are coming. Your job is to look at geopolitical factors, intelligence feeds, military movements and clues in cyberspace to predict what may be happening next. Your goal is to make a recommendation to the President.
This scenario is thankfully not real, but it is the kind of simulation planned for students in the cybersecurity program at California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB). With funding from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) CyberCorps®: Scholarships for Service (SFS) program, undergraduate and graduate students take an interdisciplinary approach to cybersecurity.
"We provide an environment where business students can work with engineers on drones, and students from political science can work on predictive modeling," said Principal Investigator (PI) Tony Coulson. "Our students can major in business, public administration, criminal justice, computer science, intelligence, all with cyber security as an option. We produce students who can problem-solve--people who can understand politics and finance as well as computer science."
Cybersecurity is a field that has received a lot of attention in recent years because of hacking episodes that have compromised networks, and in turn, the personal information of citizens who depend on a safe cyberspace to do such activities as banking and shopping. Following such a breach, attention is generally focused on identifying the hackers and their methods.
Among the options for students supported through San Bernardino's SFS program is being educated in cyber intelligence to deal proactively with cyber threats--to predict malicious behavior before it happens. Doing so draws not only on a background in computer and information science, but also on an understanding of human behavior and psychology and the political and economic environment. About 50 students have gone through the program, including completing internship requirements, and Coulson reports 100 percent placement with employers.
"The San Bernardino project is one of 166 active projects around the country fully or partly funded by SFS," said SFS Lead Program Director Victor Piotrowski. "Cybersecurity is a dynamic and evolving field, and the country needs talented people with the skills to protect U.S. interests around the world. Through SFS, we prepare students for high-paying careers in government, and increase the capacity of institutions to offer quality course work in this area."
A condition of students' receiving support through SFS is that they put their skills to work in a government agency for a period equal to the duration of their scholarship. Coulson says that after completing the program at CSUSB, students often have to choose from multiple offers. The program boasts having students placed in many areas of government.
"CSUSB students have a depth of skills and often pick their dream jobs," said Coulson, including a student who got a job at his first-choice agency--the National Archives.
San Bernardino is a poor community, and the good jobs available to SFS graduates can make a huge difference to them and their families. To promote their success in finding and keeping employment, the professional development offered to students goes beyond their academic work to include business etiquette, mentoring, how to succeed at an internship, and how to conduct oneself successfully in an office. The goal is to produce a graduate ready to be hired.
In addition to traditional essay-based projects, students have to complete a very hands-on final exam, requiring that they pick locks and use digital and biometric information to hack into a network. According to Coulson, they enjoy the challenge.
Along with running the SFS project, Coulson is co-PI on another NSF-supported project, CyberWatch West, funded through the Advanced Technological Education program (ATE).
"Despite Silicon Valley being on the West coast, and California having the largest population of community colleges in the country, there are very few cybersecurity programs here," said Coulson.
So CyberWatch West aims to help community colleges, K-12 schools and universities link together in 13 western states to develop faculty and students in cybersecurity. The project is a resource for faculty to identify curriculum pathways and outreach, find mentors and engage students in competitions, events and presentations.
"There's such a need in the Los Angeles and Orange County areas," said Coulson. There are something like 2,500 open positions, and we're graduating 200 kids."
Bringing together cybersecurity, law and digital forensics
Also responding to the need for a cybersecurity workforce prepared to deal with today's complex problems is an SFS project for undergraduates and graduate students at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). The project has graduated 25 students who are already working in government (reflecting another 100 percentage placement rate), and another 20 are set to graduate next May.
Since last year, this project offers scholarships to law students as well as engineering and computer science students. According to PI Roy Campbell, few lawyers understand cybersecurity and few computer scientists understand the legal framework involved in prosecuting and preventing cyber crimes.
The first law student to be accepted in the program, Whitney Merrill, is a recent law school graduate currently practicing as an attorney while completing her master's in computer science at UIUC. She found the combination of cybersecurity and law in the UIUC program to be valuable.
"The two fields are fiercely intertwined," said Merrill. "Understanding both fields allows me to better serve and advocate for my clients. Additionally, I hope to be able to help the two communities more effectively communicate with each other to create tools and a body of law that reflects accurately an understanding of both law and technology."
Merrill found the program challenging at first.
"But my interest and love for the subject matter made the challenging workload (29 credits last semester) enjoyable," she added. "Working towards a mastery in both fields has also helped me to spot legal issues where I would not have before."
Next summer Merrill will be working as a summer intern at the Federal Trade Commission in their Division of Privacy and Identity Protection. She graduates in December 2015.
With additional NSF support, a new related program in digital forensics at UIUC has the goal of building a curriculum that will teach students about cybersecurity in the context of the law enforcement, the judicial system, and privacy laws.
"Digital forensics is not the sort of area a computer scientist can just jump into," Campbell said. "It's not just malware or outcropping of hacking techniques. It has to be done in a deliberate way to produce evidence that would be acceptable to courts and other entities."
Co-PI Masooda Bashir says digital forensics gets to the heart of the multidisciplinary nature of cybersecurity.
"If you think about the amount of digital information that is being generated, exchanged, and stored daily you begin to understand the impact that the field of Digital Forensics is going to have in the coming years, " she said. "But Digital Forensics (DF) is not only a technical discipline, but a multidisciplinary profession that draws on a range of other fields, including law and courtroom procedure, forensic science, criminal justice and psychology."
She added, " I believe it is through integration of such relevant nontechnical disciplines into the DF education we can help students develop the comprehensive understanding that they will need in order to conduct examinations and analyses whose processes and findings are not just technically sound, but legal, ethical, admissible in court, and otherwise effective in achieving the desired real-world goal."
As the new program evolves, Masooda is drawing on her background as a computer scientist/psychologist to add the psychology of cybercrime to the curriculum. She's also working on a project examining cybersecurity competitions to understand their impact on the cybersecurity workforce and also to better understand the psychological factors and motivations of cyber security specialist and hackers.
Students with an interest in cybersecurity can start planning now
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management maintains a website where students can get information of SFS and the institutions that are participating in it. Meanwhile, PIs can update their project pages and agency officials can check resumes for students with the qualifications they need.
In the evolving field of cybersecurity, individuals with technical skills and knowledge of the social and legal context for what they do will continue to be highly desirable workers
SUN GLINTS OFF TITAN'S POLAR SEAS
FROM: NASA
This near-infrared, color mosaic from NASA's Cassini spacecraft shows the sun glinting off of Titan's north polar seas. While Cassini has captured, separately, views of the polar seas (see PIA17470) and the sun glinting off of them (see PIA12481 and PIA18433) in the past, this is the first time both have been seen together in the same view. The sunglint, also called a specular reflection, is the bright area near the 11 o'clock position at upper left. This mirror-like reflection, known as the specular point, is in the south of Titan's largest sea, Kraken Mare, just north of an island archipelago separating two separate parts of the sea. This particular sunglint was so bright as to saturate the detector of Cassini's Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) instrument, which captures the view. It is also the sunglint seen with the highest observation elevation so far -- the sun was a full 40 degrees above the horizon as seen from Kraken Mare at this time -- much higher than the 22 degrees seen in PIA18433. Because it was so bright, this glint was visible through the haze at much lower wavelengths than before, down to 1.3 microns. The southern portion of Kraken Mare (the area surrounding the specular feature toward upper left) displays a "bathtub ring" -- a bright margin of evaporate deposits -- which indicates that the sea was larger at some point in the past and has become smaller due to evaporation. The deposits are material left behind after the methane & ethane liquid evaporates, somewhat akin to the saline crust on a salt flat. The highest resolution data from this flyby -- the area seen immediately to the right of the sunglint -- cover the labyrinth of channels that connect Kraken Mare to another large sea, Ligeia Mare. Ligeia Mare itself is partially covered in its northern reaches by a bright, arrow-shaped complex of clouds. The clouds are made of liquid methane droplets, and could be actively refilling the lakes with rainfall. The view was acquired during Cassini's August 21, 2014, flyby of Titan, also referred to as "T104" by the Cassini team. The view contains real color information, although it is not the natural color the human eye would see. Here, red in the image corresponds to 5.0 microns, green to 2.0 microns, and blue to 1.3 microns. These wavelengths correspond to atmospheric windows through which Titan's surface is visible. The unaided human eye would see nothing but haze, as in PIA12528. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The VIMS team is based at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/University of Idaho.
FTC ALLEGES GERBER FALSELY ADVERTISED GOOD START GENTLE FORMULA PRODUCTS
FROM: U.S. FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
FTC Charges Gerber with Falsely Advertising Its Good Start Gentle Formula Protects Infants from Developing Allergies
The Federal Trade Commission has charged Gerber Products Co., also doing business as Nestlé Nutrition, with deceptively advertising that feeding its Good Start Gentle formula to infants with a family history of allergies prevents or reduces the risk that they will develop allergies.
The agency also alleges that Gerber has falsely advertised Good Start Gentle’s health claims as FDA-approved. Through its federal court enforcement action, the Commission is seeking to prohibit Gerber from making the alleged false and unsubstantiated allergy-prevention claims.
“Parents trusted Gerber to tell the truth about the health benefits of its formula, and the company’s ads failed to live up to that trust,” said Jessica Rich, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Gerber didn’t have evidence to back up its claim that Good Start Gentle formula reduces the risk of babies developing their parents’ allergies.”
In its complaint, the FTC alleges that since 2011, Gerber has advertised its Good Start Gentle formula through advertisements that ran on television, in magazines, at point-of-sale displays, online, and in other promotional material. Good Start Gentle sells for about $24 for a 23.2-ounce package of powdered formula.
Good Start Gentle is made with partially hydrolyzed whey proteins (PHWP). Gerber claims that feeding babies this formula, instead of formula made with intact cow’s milk proteins, will prevent or reduce the risk that they will develop allergies. In its ads, Gerber promotes Good Start Gentle by saying, for example:
“You want your baby to have your imagination…Your smile…Your eyes…Not your allergies.”
Also, a sticker on the package states that Good Start Gentle Formula is the:
“1st & ONLY Routine Formula TO REDUCE THE RISK OF DEVELOPING ALLERGIES.”
The agency’s complaint charges that Gerber lacked the scientific substantiation to make these general allergy-prevention claims, in violation of the FTC Act.
In addition, according to the FTC, Gerber’s ads also misrepresent that Good Start Gentle has qualified or received approval for a Food and Drug Administration health claim. For example, some ads prominently featured a gold badge stating that Good Start Gentle is the “1st and Only” formula that “Meets FDA Qualified Health Claim.”
In 2009, Gerber petitioned the FDA for permission to make a claim connecting PWHP with the reduced risk of one type of allergy, atopic dermatitis, in infants. The FDA allowed Gerber to make the narrow claim but only if Gerber carefully qualified its statement to make it clear that there is “little scientific evidence” for the relationship.
The Commission vote authorizing staff to file the federal court complaint was 5-0. The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey on October 29, 2014.
NOTE: The Commission files a complaint when it has “reason to believe” that the law has been or is being violated and it appears to the Commission that a proceeding is in the public interest. The case will be decided by the court.
OPERATION KINGDOM CONQUEROR SENDS 11 MEN TO PRISON FOR ROLES IN CHILD EXPLOITATION
FROM: U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Eleven Men Sentenced to Prison in Connection with International Child Exploitation Enterprise
Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Michael W. Cotter of the District of Montana and Special Agent in Charge Mary Rook of the FBI’s Salt Lake City Division made the announcement.
According to court documents, in November 2009, an early participant in the conspiracy designed and created an online bulletin board that allowed members to exchange images, including child pornography. As the conspiracy progressed, additional members contributed to the design and operations of the board. Between Nov. 6, 2009, and March 19, 2012, members of the conspiracy used the online bulletin board to share pictures and videos of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct. During that same time period, the participants agreed to use the online bulletin board to solicit additional images of child pornography, which they would then share and broadcast on the Internet. Thirteen defendants have been charged and convicted for their participation in this child pornography network.
The following defendants pleaded guilty in April 2014 to conspiracy to advertise child pornography and were sentenced by U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy of the District of Montana:
Tony Bronson, 53, of Gary, Indiana, was sentenced to serve 224 months on Oct. 28, 2014.
Charles Crosby, 43, of Trenton, New Jersey, was sentenced to serve 210 months in prison on Oct. 23, 2014.
Steve Humiston, 57, of Tacoma, Washington, was sentenced to serve 210 months in prison and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine on Oct. 23, 2014.
John Johnson, 58, of Locust Grove, Virginia, was sentenced to serve 180 months in prison on Oct. 22, 2014.
Robert Krise, 66, of Gaithersburg, Maryland, was sentenced to serve 180 months in prison on Oct. 22, 2014.
Scott Long, 53, of Portland, Oregon, was sentenced to serve 200 months in prison on Oct. 21, 2014.
Ian Nosek, 42, of Charlottesville, Virginia, was sentenced to serve 216 months in prison on Oct. 23, 2014.
Phillip Morris, 42, of Jeffersonville, Indiana, was sentenced to serve 216 months in prison on Oct. 22, 2014.
Joseph Purificato, 23, of Mount Vernon, Missouri, was sentenced to serve 180 months in prison on Oct. 28, 2014.
Paul Wencewicz, 48, of Polson, Montana, was sentenced to serve 200 months in prison on Oct. 21, 2014.
Jeffrey Woolley, 53, of Nicholasville, Kentucky, was sentenced to serve 180 months in prison and ordered to pay a $5000 fine on Oct. 28, 2014.
All of the defendants were ordered to forfeit their computers and storage devices. Purificato received a 10-year term of supervised release following his prison sentence. All other defendants received lifetime terms of supervised release. All defendants are required to pay $29,859 restitution.
Two additional defendants, Joshua Peterson, 45, of Prescott, Arizona, and Steven Grovo, 35, of Shirley, Massachusetts, were found guilty of participating in a child exploitation enterprise and a conspiracy to advertise child pornography on Oct. 9, 2014. Both men are scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 22, 2015, in Missoula, Montana.
The investigation, referred to as Operation Kingdom Conqueror, is an ongoing cooperative effort between the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, FBI, Montana Department of Criminal Investigations, Helena and Polson Police Departments, Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, Montana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, and the States of Jersey Police Department, Isle of Jersey.
Trial Attorney Maureen C. Cain of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Cyndee L. Peterson of the District of Montana prosecuted the case.
This case was initiated under the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood initiative which was launched in 2006 to combat the proliferation of technology-facilitated crimes involving the sexual exploitation of children. Through a network of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies and advocacy organizations, Project Safe Childhood attempts to protect children by investigating and prosecuting offenders involved in child sexual exploitation. It is implemented through partnerships including the Montana Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force. The ICAC Task Force Program was created to assist state and local law enforcement agencies by enhancing their investigative response to technology facilitated crimes against children.
NSC SPOKESPERSONS STATEMENT MEETING WITH YEZIDI LEADERS ON ISIL
FROM: THE WHITE HOUSE
October 31, 2014
Statement by NSC Spokesperson Bernadette Meehan on Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications Benjamin Rhodes’ Meeting with Yezidi Leaders
Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes met today at the White House with Baba Sheikh Khurto Hajji Ismail – the leader of the Yezidi Supreme Religious Council – and other leaders of the Iraqi Yezidi community to discuss the ongoing threat to the community from ISIL and to provide an update on coalition efforts to counter ISIL in Iraq. Mr. Rhodes condemned ISIL’s ongoing attacks on the Yezidi community and other religious minorities in northern Iraq, including Christians, Turkmen, and Shabak, as well as their perpetration of bombings in Shi’a areas and massacre of Sunnis. On behalf of the President, he offered condolences for those who lost their lives in the violence of the past few months in Ninawa province and elsewhere.
Mr. Rhodes thanked the participants for relaying the latest information on the humanitarian situation of the thousands of Yezidi refugees who fled during the ISIL assault on Mount Sinjar over the summer. As part of the military campaign, Mr. Rhodes noted that the coalition had conducted airstrikes against ISIL positions around Mount Sinjar in recent days. He underscored that ISIL’s continued acts of abuse, kidnapping, torture, forced conversion, horrific violence against women and girls, and murder only further serve to highlight the group’s inhumanity and reinforce the international community’s resolve to counter this common threat. Mr. Rhodes urged all Iraqis, including Iraqi Security Forces, Kurdish Peshmerga, tribes, and minority and vulnerable communities to work together to counter the common ISIL enemy. He also discussed plans by the Iraqi Government to develop a National Guard in which communities could help provide for their own security.
Mr. Rhodes reiterated the United States’ commitment to the safety and security of the Yezidi community within a unified and pluralistic Iraq. He noted the recent positive steps in the formation of an Iraqi government under the leadership of Prime Minister Abadi and stressed continued U.S. support for the development of a national program in Iraq that addresses the interests and desires of all its communities. He pledged continued humanitarian assistance for those who have been displaced inside Iraq, including the Yezidi population, and expressed our determination to provide support for Yezidi women and girls who have faced terrible abuse from ISIL.
U.S. CONGRATULATES PEOPLE OF DOMINICA ON THEIR INDEPENDENCE DAY
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Dominica's Independence Day
Press Statement
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
October 31, 2014
On behalf of President Obama and the people of the United States, I congratulate the people of Dominica on the 36th anniversary of your independence on November 3.
As the first country in the Americas to elect a female prime minister, you remain a symbol of gender equality for the region and the world.
The United States shares a cooperative relationship with Dominica through the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative and the U.S. Caribbean Basin Initiative, which grants duty-free entry into the United States for many goods. Our mutual interests in promoting trade and educational opportunities through USAID and the Peace Corps will continue to unite us in the future.
I wish you the best during your Independence Day celebrations.
Sunday, November 2, 2014
WHITE HOUSE READOUT: PRESIDENT OBAMA CALLS SERVICE MEMBERS IN W. AFRICA
FROM: THE WHITE HOUSE
November 01, 2014
Readout of the President's Call with U.S. Service Members in West Africa
The President spoke by phone on Saturday afternoon with U.S. service members in Liberia and Senegal taking part in Operation United Assistance, the U.S. military mission to contain the Ebola outbreak at its source. The President, on behalf of the American people, offered his profound gratitude to the dedicated men and women providing logistics support, engineering expertise, construction services, and other elements needed to bring the epidemic under control. The President underscored that the civilian-led, whole of government strategy to tackle Ebola on the frontlines is the most effective way to prevent further spread of the disease and protect the American people from additional cases at home. He concluded the call by noting that, while we must not relent in this campaign, initial signs of progress in Liberia were a testament to the skill and determination of these service members and their civilian counterparts. Their service embodies American leadership at its finest.
November 01, 2014
Readout of the President's Call with U.S. Service Members in West Africa
The President spoke by phone on Saturday afternoon with U.S. service members in Liberia and Senegal taking part in Operation United Assistance, the U.S. military mission to contain the Ebola outbreak at its source. The President, on behalf of the American people, offered his profound gratitude to the dedicated men and women providing logistics support, engineering expertise, construction services, and other elements needed to bring the epidemic under control. The President underscored that the civilian-led, whole of government strategy to tackle Ebola on the frontlines is the most effective way to prevent further spread of the disease and protect the American people from additional cases at home. He concluded the call by noting that, while we must not relent in this campaign, initial signs of progress in Liberia were a testament to the skill and determination of these service members and their civilian counterparts. Their service embodies American leadership at its finest.
SEC. KERRY'S PRESS STATEMENT ON CLIMATE CHANGE REPORT
FROM: THE STATE DEPARTMENT
Release of the Synthesis Report of the Fifth Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Press Statement
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
November 2, 2014
This report is another canary in the coal mine.
Greenhouse gas emissions from human activity are higher than ever, and we're seeing more and more extreme weather and climate events, whether it's storm surges, devastating heat waves, and torrential rain, across the globe. It's not a coincidence. With this report, we have yet another round of authoritative, peer-reviewed science to prove it.
The bottom line is that our planet is warming due to human actions, the damage is already visible, and the challenge requires ambitious, decisive and immediate action.
We can't prevent a large scale disaster if we don't heed this kind of hard science. The longer we are stuck in a debate over ideology and politics, the more the costs of inaction grow and grow. Those who choose to ignore or dispute the science so clearly laid out in this report do so at great risk for all of us and for our kids and grandkids.
Release of the Synthesis Report of the Fifth Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Press Statement
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
November 2, 2014
This report is another canary in the coal mine.
Greenhouse gas emissions from human activity are higher than ever, and we're seeing more and more extreme weather and climate events, whether it's storm surges, devastating heat waves, and torrential rain, across the globe. It's not a coincidence. With this report, we have yet another round of authoritative, peer-reviewed science to prove it.
The bottom line is that our planet is warming due to human actions, the damage is already visible, and the challenge requires ambitious, decisive and immediate action.
We can't prevent a large scale disaster if we don't heed this kind of hard science. The longer we are stuck in a debate over ideology and politics, the more the costs of inaction grow and grow. Those who choose to ignore or dispute the science so clearly laid out in this report do so at great risk for all of us and for our kids and grandkids.
BACK TO 1999 AND THE CHANDRA X-RAY OBSERVATORY
This Chandra X-ray Observatory image of the Hydra A galaxy cluster was taken on Oct. 30, 1999, with the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS) in an observation that lasted about six hours. Hydra A is a galaxy cluster that is 840 million light years from Earth. The cluster gets its name from the strong radio source, Hydra A, that originates in a galaxy near the center of the cluster. Optical observations show a few hundred galaxies in the cluster.
Chandra X-ray observations reveal a large cloud of hot gas that extends throughout the cluster. The gas cloud is several million light years across and has a temperature of about 40 million degrees in the outer parts decreasing to about 35 million degrees in the inner region.
NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory was launched into space fifteen years ago aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia. Since its deployment on July 23, 1999, Chandra has helped revolutionize our understanding of the universe through its unrivaled X-ray vision. Chandra, one of NASA's current "Great Observatories," along with the Hubble Space Telescope and Spitzer Space Telescope, is specially designed to detect X-ray emission from hot and energetic regions of the universe. Image Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO.
DOJ ANNOUNCES AGREEMENT WITH CITY OF ALBUQUERQUE ON USE OF FORCE REFORMS FOR POLICE
FROM: U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Friday, October 31, 2014
Justice Department Reaches Agreement with the City of Albuquerque to Implement Sweeping Reforms On Use of Force By the Albuquerque Police Department
The Justice Department today announced it has reached a comprehensive settlement agreement with the city of Albuquerque that will bring wide-ranging reforms to the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) and its use of force against civilians. The Justice Department and the city have agreed to enter into a court-enforceable settlement agreement that will overhaul the way in which APD handles use of force by its officers following a year-long investigation into the department’s practices and letter of findings released by the Justice Department in April 2014. Once the Albuquerque City Council considers the settlement agreement in a special session scheduled for the week of Nov. 3, the Justice Department and the city will file the settlement agreement with the United States District Court for approval and entry as an order.
"The overwhelming majority of our nation’s law enforcement officials perform their duties with exceptional courage, integrity, and professionalism—risking their lives every day to keep their communities safe,” said Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. “But whenever a pattern of troubling conduct is uncovered, or that high standard is not met, the Department of Justice must and will take action. The far-reaching agreement we have secured in this case will transform the culture and practices of the Albuquerque Police Department. And I am confident that, with the cooperation of city leaders and brave law enforcement officials, we will take significant steps to restore trust with local citizens and build for Albuquerque’s residents the stronger, safer, and more secure communities that all Americans deserve.“
In addition to use of force practices, The Justice Department’s investigation found that officers routinely use deadly force and less lethal force in an unreasonable manner and that systemic deficiencies in policies, training, supervision, and oversight contributed to the pattern or practice. Following the release of the investigative findings, the Justice Department engaged in extensive community outreach to solicit feedback and recommendations on reform from a wide variety of stakeholders, including police officers, community leaders, mental health advocates, family members, and other Albuquerque residents. The feedback played a critical role in tailoring the settlement agreement to the unique needs of the Albuquerque community and APD.
“Today’s landmark settlement agreement will begin the process of restoring trust and cooperation between the Albuquerque community and law enforcement,” said Vanita Gupta, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “Constitutional policing is key to building trust between police departments and the communities they serve, and trust is of course key to ensuring public and officer safety. The settlement agreement provides a blue print for sustainable reform that will foster continued collaboration and participation from the community. We thank Mayor Berry, Chief Eden, and all of the individuals who came forward to share their experiences concerning APD to make this historic settlement agreement possible.”
“We are extremely proud of our community and police department for coming together in a time of serious challenges to the city to offer their advice and recommendations on a path forward,” said Damon P. Martinez, United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico. “Reform will not take place overnight and it will take time to heal our community, but we are well on our way. Through the settlement agreement reached today, the city agrees to implement fundamental reforms in a transparent manner that will ensure that force is used in accordance with constitutional rights and that promotes greater trust among the hard working men and women of the Albuquerque Police Department and the residents they are sworn to protect.”
Under the settlement agreement, the city and APD will implement comprehensive reforms in nine substantive areas. An independent monitoring team will be selected jointly and will oversee the reforms, which are expected to be implemented within four years. The areas covered by the settlement agreement are:
Use of force: including requiring supervisors to report to the scene of uses of force; providing medical care to subjects of force immediately after an incident; improving the quality of force investigations; developing a force review board to detect and correct patterns and trends, and utilizing surrounding law enforcement agencies as part of a multi-agency task force to investigate officer-involves shootings to provide greater objectivity and accountability;
Specialized units: including measures that require clearly defined missions and duties for specialized tactical and investigative units; ensuring that officers are sufficiently trained to save lives in high-risk situations; and dismantling APD’s repeat offender project to restore its core mission as an investigative, rather than tactical, unit;
Crisis intervention: including establishing a mental health response advisory committee; providing behavioral health training to all officers, police dispatchers, and 9-1-1 operators; and maintaining groups of specially-trained first responders, detectives, and mental health professionals that provide crisis intervention and ongoing support to individuals with serious mental illness or who are chronically homeless;
Policies and training: including developing clear and comprehensive policies on use of force, preventing retaliation, supporting officers who report misconduct, and improving the field training program to ensure that officers develop the necessary technical and practical skills required to use force in a lawful and effective manner;
Internal and civilian complaint investigations: including measures to eliminate arbitrary deadlines for the submission of civilian complaints; standards for conducting objective, thorough, and timely investigations; steps to ensure that the disciplinary system is fair and consistent; and protocols to protect officers’ rights against self-incrimination;
Staffing and supervision: including completing a staffing and resource study to determine the appropriate allocation of resources; holding supervisors accountable for close and effective supervision; and providing guidance on the effective use of on-body recording systems to promote accountability and strengthen public trust;
Recruitment and promotions: including developing a strategic recruitment plan that includes clear goals, objectives, and action steps for attracting qualified applicants from a broad cross section of the community and ensuring that fair and consistent promotion practices are implemented;
Officer assistance and support: including measures to ensure that APD personnel have ready access to mental health services and that supervisors are trained in making referrals in a manner that minimizes stigma; and
Community engagement and oversight: including measures to strengthen the city’s civilian oversight process; public information programs that keep members of the public informed of APD’s progress toward reform; requirements on fostering community policing at all levels of APD; and establishing community policing councils throughout the city to ensure that meaningful feedback is obtained from the community.
The independent monitoring team will oversee the implementation of reforms, provide technical assistance, and report on the city’s compliance through periodic and public reports. The monitoring team will have access to all documents, personnel, facilities and information related to the settlement agreement and will engage with officers and community members on an ongoing basis. The monitoring team will also be responsible for conducting outcome assessments to determine whether the goals of the settlement agreement are being met through compliance indicators and objective measures. The settlement agreement requires two years of sustained compliance with the agreement before the agreement may be terminated.
NSF ARTICLE: TESTING FOR PATHOGENS
FROM: NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Testing for pathogens
Innovation Corps researchers focus on medical applications rather than food safety in response to customer needs
When Sunny Shah and his research colleagues at the University of Notre Dame developed a new diagnostic tool for detecting the presence of bacteria, viruses and other pathogens, they assumed that the food industry would be the perfect market.
It made sense, particularly amid ongoing concerns over food safety. The test could identify, among other things, E. coli 0157, which has caused a number of deadly outbreaks in the United States, as well as the bacterium responsible for brucellosis, a disease caused by eating undercooked meat or unpasteurized dairy products.
Their test was accurate and inexpensive. It just wasn't fast enough.
"Even though we could provide a cheaper test than what is already available, they said they would be willing to pay more for a faster test," Shah says, referring to his conversations with representatives from food processing plants, health agencies and food testing labs. "They said we needed to produce results within two hours, not two days, because they wouldn't be able to ship anything out, and had to pay for refrigeration, while waiting for test results."
So the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded scientist switched his focus--he likes to call it a "pivot"--from food safety to medical applications. In addition to food-borne bacteria, the test also can recognize the virus that causes Dengue fever, potentially valuable for surveillance activities both here and abroad, and human papillomavirus (HPV), which is linked to cervical and oral cancers.
Shah, who also is assistant director for the ESTEEM graduate program, which exposes those with STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) backgrounds to business and entrepreneurial courses, received $50,000 in 2013 from NSF's Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program. I-Corps helps scientists assess how, and whether, they can translate their promising discoveries into viable commercial products.
The award supports a set of activities and programs that prepare scientists and engineers to extend their focus beyond the laboratory into the commercial world, with the idea of providing near-term benefits for the economy and society.
It is a public-private partnership program that teaches grantees to identify valuable product opportunities that can emerge from academic research, and offers entrepreneurship training to student participants.
Although things did not turn out as originally planned in this case, Shah's experience nevertheless actually embodies the I-Corps philosophy, since one of its major goals is to mentor scientists in ways that allow them to evaluate the commercial potential of their discoveries, and send them in different directions if necessary to ensure their research ends up in the best possible place to do the most good at an affordable price.
"It doesn't matter what we, as researchers, think is the value of our technology," Shah says. "It's what the customer thinks that is important and the only way to identify this customer need is by getting out and interviewing them."
NSF also earlier supported the research that developed the test in 2011. Shah's research colleagues on this project include Hsueh-Chia Chang, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, Satyajyoti Senapati, research assistant professor, and Zdenek Slouka, postdoctoral associate in the Chang group. For the I-Corps grant, Kerry Wilson, managing director of Springboard Engineers, played the role of the business mentor, while Shah was the entrepreneurial lead
The test uses a biochip that can detect the DNA or RNA of a particular pathogen.
"Every pathogen has a unique biomarker, and what we do is put a probe on our biochip that captures that biomarker," Shah says. "If the sample has that particular pathogen, then its biomarker will bind to this probe and give us a signal. There are changes in the electrical properties, so it gives us a visual electrical signal that can easily be translated into a target present/absent signal."
Each chip is programmed for a specific pathogen, "but in the future we hope to develop what we call a multiplex biochip that can detect numerous pathogens all on the same device," Shah adds.
The plan now is to develop the tool for future use by dentists to test their patients during office visits for early detection of HPV-related oral cancer before there are visible signs of disease.
"Usually dentists now just examine you visually for lesions, but this would be a sample swab that could give you advance warning," he says.
The test also might be useful as a diagnostic tool for food-borne disease after infection, that is, in testing an already ill patient's blood, he says.
The team recently received a National Institutes of Health grant to study a possible future surveillance role for the test in screening mosquitoes for the presence of Dengue Fever.
"This is not a huge problem for the United States, although there have been a number of cases in parts of Florida in recent years, but it is an issue in South America, Brazil and India, and other areas, " he says.
The impact of I-Corps allowed Shah to make the transition. "Knowing the market and the customer early is extremely important in the technology commercialization process," he says. The program helped him to "quickly assess a particular market to identify customer need and be ready to pivot from one market to another, if needed."
-- Marlene Cimons, National Science Foundation
Investigators
Sunny Shah
Li-Jing Cheng
Hsueh-Chia Chang
Satyajyoti Senapati
Related Institutions/Organizations
University of Notre Dame
SECRETARY KERRY'S REMARKS REGARDING THE NEW EUROPEAN COMMISSION
FROM: THE STATE DEPARTMENT
The New European Commission
Press Statement
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
October 31, 2014
I look forward to collaborating with a new European Commission that will take office on November 1 under the leadership of President Jean-Claude Juncker.
He has assembled a talented group of European leaders for his new Commission, including old friends like incoming High Representative Federica Mogherini.
The United States and the European Union share a common past – one we honor a century after the start of the First World War. Today, we share a common vision for a Europe whole, free, and at peace.
Almost two decades ago, leaders of the United States and the European Union committed to work together to promote peace, stability, and democracy around the world. We agreed to respond to global challenges, together. And we agreed to expand world trade, bring our economies closer together, and build transatlantic bridges for people and ideas.
The issues we confront have changed over the years. But we have stayed true to our bedrock commitments. Today, we face serious threats to peace and stability from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, ISIL in the Middle East, and Russia’s actions in Ukraine. These are crises we will combat together. And we are negotiating an ambitious trade and investment partnership to bring our economies even closer.
After a decade of his remarkable leadership at the helm of this Commission, I thank outgoing Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso. I am also grateful for High Representative Catherine Ashton’s partnership over the years.
As the new Commission takes office, I look forward to working closely with them to reinforce the ties that bind the United States and the European Union.
U.S. CONGRATULATES PEOPLE OF PANAMA ON THEIR FIESTAS PATRIAS CELEBRATIONS
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Panama's Independence Day
Press Statement
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
October 31, 2014
On behalf of President Obama and the people of the United States, I congratulate the people of Panama as you begin Fiestas Patrias celebrations on November 3.
The Republic of Panama has much to celebrate this year. You marked the 100-year anniversary of the Panama Canal. Your government created the Panama Bilingue initiative which will significantly increase educational exchanges between our two nations. And you inaugurated a new president after a spirited campaign.
I was honored to attend President Varela’s inauguration this July. I watched as thousands of Panamanians in Rommel Fernandez Stadium celebrated another peaceful transfer of power – the hallmark of a strong democracy. I visited Panama as a young Navy officer in 1969. To return to your country decades later and witness the great strides you have made in bringing prosperity to your people and building a lasting democracy is remarkable.
Alongside all Panamanians, the United States looks forward to the upcoming Summit of the Americas and the expansion of the Panama Canal. You have a pivotal role to play in helping further democratic ideals, advancing the role of civil society, protecting human rights, and expanding economic development for the benefit of all peoples of our hemisphere.
On this day of celebration, I send best wishes to all Panamanians. Felicidades!
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