surveillance infrastructure

Another component of the surveillance infrastructure, content filtering and recognition:

February 19, 2007
New Weapon in Web War Over Piracy
By BRAD STONE and MIGUEL HELFT
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 18 — As media companies struggle to reclaim control over their movies, television shows and music in a world of online file-sharing software, they have found an ally in software of another kind.
The new technological weapon is content-recognition software, which makes it possible to identify copyrighted material, even, for example, from blurry video clips.
The technology could address what the entertainment industry sees as one of its biggest problems — songs and videos being posted on the Web without permission.
Last week, Vance Ikezoye, the chief executive of Audible Magic in Los Gatos, Calif., demonstrated the technology by downloading a two-minute clip from YouTube and feeding it into his company’s new video-recognition system.
The clip — drained of color, with dialogue dubbed in Chinese — appeared to have been recorded with a camcorder in a dark movie theater before it was uploaded to the Web, so the image quality was poor.
Still, Mr. Ikezoye’s filtering software quickly identified it as the sword-training scene that begins 49 minutes and 37 seconds into the Miramax film “Kill Bill: Vol. 2.”
The entertainment industry is clamoring for Internet companies to adopt the technology for music files as well as for video clips. The social networking site MySpace, owned by the News Corporation, said last week that it would use Audible Magic’s system to identify copyrighted material on its pages. But not every Internet company is rushing to go along. The video-sharing site YouTube, which Google bought last year, is the major holdout so far.
Though YouTube’s co-founders said publicly that they would start using filtering technology by the end of last year, the site has yet to do so. And they have further angered some media companies by saying they would only use such technology to detect clips owned by companies that agree to broader licensing deals with YouTube.
The pressure is on. Executives at media companies like NBC and Viacom have criticized Google for the delay. Earlier this month, Viacom asked YouTube to remove 100,000 clips of its shows, like music videos from MTV and excerpts from Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.”
In a statement, YouTube said that identifying which video clips had been uploaded without permission was a complex problem that required the cooperation of the copyright owners. “On YouTube, identifying copyrighted material cannot be a single automated process,” it said in the statement.
The systems being developed by companies like Audible Magic and Gracenote make use of vast databases that store digital representations of copyrighted songs, TV shows and movies.
When new files are uploaded to a Web site that is using the system, it checks the database for matches using a technique known as digital fingerprinting. Copyrighted material can then be blocked or posted, depending on whether it is licensed for use on the site.
“This is capable of helping the film and TV studios comprehensively protect their works,” Mr. Ikezoye said. “This could put the genie back in the bottle.”
Audio fingerprinting technologies have been used successfully for some time to detect copyrighted music on file-sharing networks and, to a smaller degree, to identify music tracks on social-networking Web sites like MySpace.
Systems that can identify video files hold even greater promise to improve relations between traditional media companies and Internet companies like YouTube. But the technology is not quite ready.
“Video is much more complex to analyze, and more information needs to be captured in the fingerprint,” said Bill Rosenblatt, president of GiantSteps Media Technology Strategies, a consulting firm based in New York. He noted that there were also more ways to fool the technology — for example, by cropping the image.
Screening for video is also more difficult because of the sheer volume of new material broadcast on television each day, all of which must be captured in the database.
And deploying any type of fingerprinting technology can carry a price. Users tend to leave filtered Web sites and migrate to more anything-goes online destinations.
Nevertheless, some file-sharing networks and smaller video sites like Guba.com and Grouper.com are already using more basic filters that monitor video soundtracks and music files, hoping to appease copyright holders and stay out of the courtroom.
Last week, they got some company: MySpace announced that it would expand on early filtering efforts and license Audible Magic’s audio and video fingerprinting technology. It will use the system to identify and obtain authorization for material from Universal Music, NBC Universal and Fox, three media companies that have wanted more control over their content on the site. The move ratchets up the pressure on YouTube, the largest video site on the Web.
Hollywood, long tormented by digital piracy, is growing excited about the possibilities of digital fingerprinting and filtering — in part because it is tired of having to ask YouTube and other sites to remove individual clips, only to find them posted again by other users.
“To the extent you can readily and easily identify one film or TV show from the next, it enables different licensing models and the opportunity to protect your content,” said Dean Garfield, executive vice president of the Motion Picture Association of America.
For now, however, audio fingerprinting is all that is widely available, and it can fall short in some situations, like when someone pairs a song with an unrelated piece of video.
For example, last December, one YouTube user uploaded scenes from the Warner Brothers movie “Superman Returns,” matched to the song “Superman,” by Five for Fighting of Columbia Records, a unit of Sony BMG Music.
With acoustic fingerprinting, Sony could authorize the use of the song and get a slice of the advertising revenue the clip generates, but Warner Brothers could not because the filter does not scrutinize video images.
Hoping to nurture the development of more advanced video fingerprinting, the film association asked technology companies last fall to submit video filtering systems for testing. Mr. Garfield of the association said 13 companies responded; their systems are now being evaluated.
Perhaps not surprisingly, there is now a flurry of interest in digital fingerprinting in Silicon Valley. Sean Varah, an electronic-music researcher who once worked for Sony music’s venture capital group, founded the start-up MotionDSP in 2005 to develop technology to improve the quality of video images. But he changed the company’s direction last year after seeing an opportunity in the filtering business.
“The television and movie producers have learned a lesson from Napster,” he said, referring to the music-sharing service that first got the attention of media companies. “They are not going to wait and see what happens.”
Attributor, another start-up based in Redwood City, Calif., is taking a different approach to filtering. It is developing automated software that will travel the Internet looking for copyrighted text, audio and video.
Setting up filters for each and every Web site and peer-to-peer network “is not a long-term solution,” said Jim Brock, a former Yahoo executive and the chief executive of Attributor. Rights holders “need to have these kinds of solutions across the Internet,” he said.
Audible Magic, which is considered to be an early leader in the field, started out with a system to recognize songs played on the radio, so it could offer listeners an opportunity to buy the music online. The company later adapted that technology to create an audio fingerprinting system.
Mr. Ikezoye, a former Hewlett-Packard marketing executive, recently set out to expand into video recognition. Last year, he licensed an invention called Motional Media ID, created by David W. Stebbings, a former executive at the Recording Industry Association of America.
Neither Mr. Ikezoye nor Mr. Stebbings would offer details on Motional Media ID (which identified the “Kill Bill” clip), citing the newly competitive environment around digital fingerprinting. Mr. Ikezoye acknowledged that it did not work well for very short clips and said that he would probably have to buy or develop additional technology.
Deploying any type of fingerprinting filter can have both good and bad effects. Guba.com, a video-sharing site similar to YouTube, developed its own filtering system, which it calls Johnny. Having won the favor of the film industry, the company now has deals to sell Warner and Sony films on its site.
But when Guba began blocking many copyrighted clips last April, its popularity plunged.
“We took a huge hit,” said Eric Lambrecht, Guba’s chief technology officer. “We all know what people want to see, but we looked at it as a long-term business decision.”
Some experts believe wide adoption of the technology is inevitable.
“As technology companies mature, they are realizing that the rule of law is better than the anarchy in which they were formed,” said Paul Kocher, chief executive of Cryptography Research, a company that has studied the security of digital fingerprinting technology.

VA data loss

Again. one million potentially impacted - great stuff. If you wonder what happens after your info is stolen, scroll down for some interesting articles on the identity marketplace.

http://www.fcw.com/article97665-02-14-07-Web&printLayout

More than 1 million individuals' data at riskBY David HublerPublished on Feb. 14, 2007 The Department of Veterans Affairs says the missing government-owned, portable hard drive used by an employee at a VA medical facility in Birmingham, Ala., may have held sensitive VA-related information on about half a million individuals and more than 1 million physicians.“Our investigation into this incident continues, but I believe it is important to provide the public additional details as quickly as we can,” said VA Secretary Jim Nicholson, in a statement released Feb. 10. “I am concerned and will remain so until we have notified those potentially affected and get to the bottom of what happened. VA will continue working around the clock to determine every possible detail we can.”


Combating The Black Market In Personal Data <https://wmail.austin.utexas.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://update.informationweek.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/n4Yx0HtFjq0G4n0E3Zm0Ez>
Be afraid, be very afraid -- but read this cover story on the hacker economy anyway. It will both fascinate and scare the pants off you at the same time, as it details how our personal identities and financial histories are harvested, dissected in online chop shops, and sold in multipack bundles to anyone willing to fork over a small investment in cash in return for making a big score in hours or days. (If you read nothing else, check out the price list for your personal data.)

Buy This Shampoo Or You'll Never See Your Data Again <https://wmail.austin.utexas.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://update.informationweek.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/n4Yx0HtFjq0G4n0E38B0Ei>
While researching the hacker economy for Monday's InformationWeek lead feature story, I came across a lot of clever and devious tricks that cybercriminals use to lie, cheat, and steal their way through life. But none was as bizarre as a cyberransom scam I came across in my reporting. If you haven't had your daily dose of weird today, keep reading.

A Walk Through Cybercrime's Underworld <https://wmail.austin.utexas.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://update.informationweek.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/n4Yx0HtFjq0G4n0E3Zi0Ev>
What's a piece of data worth? It's not too hard to find out. Just go to one of the dozens of online marketplaces where stolen credit card numbers, PINs, and Social Security numbers can be purchased -- individually or in bundles -- starting at just a few dollars. A few dollars is all that's needed to ruin someone's credit rating, drive up his debt, and make him question whether to trust you with his information next time.

government archives

Exciting news, the government printing office may convert to digital technology! Only ten years behind, but at least they are solicitng input before designing the system. I hope there is some thought put into the preservation and archives potential of the system:

http://www.fcw.com/article97664-02-14-07-Web&printLayout


GPO requests enhanced technology information for FDsys projectBY Brian RobinsonPublished on Feb. 14, 2007 The Government Printing Office is asking for industry input on the current availability of enhanced content technology for its Future Digital System (FDsys) project, the first beta version of which is expected to roll out in April.Depending on the replies it receives to its request for information (RFI), GPO said the plans and documentation for the project could change.The $29-million system was first outlined in 2004 as a way for GPO to transform itself from what it described as a 19th-century printing press operation to a 21st-century electronic information agency.The primary intent of the GPO program is to create a system that will allow government content to be created and managed, along with all of the relevant authentication and version data, in perpetuity, through using technologies that are independent of specific hardware and software platforms.The program is expected to eventually provide services for more than 5,000 content creation users in all branches of government, more than 500 government service specialists, more than 25,000 private-sector service providers, 1,300 depository libraries and about 50 end-user information providers. The ultimate end-users, GPO said, are “the citizenry of the United States and the world.”Harris was awarded a contract in August 2006 to serve as master integrator for the program.Depending on the result of the most recent RFI, the system is expected to open to the public by the end of this year, and will support Web browsing, search, document downloads and printing.Current plans call for GPO to add enhanced content creation capabilities in the second release of FDsys, due about six months after the first version’s public release.

peer to peer misleading articles

P2P has become synonymous with illegal music downloading, which of course it isn't. The other misleading aspect is assuming that the 1 billion tracks downloaded each month (how do we come up with that number?) would be converted to sales. Total revenue of the music industry isn't mentioned, the rise and fall of which would be a better indicator of the impact of illegal file downloading.


http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2091472,00.asp?kc=EWGOVEMNL021407EOAD

Despite Lawsuits, Digital Music Downloads Grow
By Yinka Adegoke, Reuters February 7, 2007

3 comments posted Add your opinion
NEW YORK (Reuters)—Despite success in suing people who download music illegally and in reaching deals with personal networking sites like YouTube, the music industry is still bleeding millions of dollars in sales to online piracy.
It is a major issue for an industry that is desperately trying to boost revenue from legal downloads to make up for falling sales of Compact Discs, which declined 23 percent globally between 2000 to 2006.

Great new bill

Personal Data privacy and security act would actually have some aspects of the original 1974 Privacy Act Fair Information Practices included - actually the reccomendations from the Health Education and Welfare committee that studied the act. Access to personal information collected by corporations and the ability to correct that information would be an important change in current law.

Personal Data Privacy and Security Act Of 2007 (pdf):
http://www.epic.org/privacy/pdf/DPSA2007.pdf

Comments of Senator Leahy on the Personal Data Privacy and Security Act Of 2007:
http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200702/020607.html

Cyber warfare strategy dysfunctional

Cartwright: Cyber warfare strategy 'dysfunctional'
DOD's strategy for cyberspace is divided among three groups that operate independently and don't effectively share information on their activities, says the U.S. Strategic Commander.
http://www.fcw.com/article97618-02-09-07-Web&newsletter=yes

Air Force Image Intel

Sharing image intel from multiple sources makes a lot of sense when you are dealing with a battle field situation, knowing where your troops are, where the opposing forces are and being able to "see" changes as they happen is critical to success. What happens when the battlefield is the "homeland"?


http://www.fcw.com/article97617-02-09-07-Web&newsletter=yes

Air Force activates intelligence pipelineBY Josh RoginPublished on Feb. 9, 2007

The Air Force has moved one step closer to intelligence integration by activating the first parts of the Distributed Common Ground Systems’ (DCGS) Integrated Backbone, known as the DIB.The DIB will provide a pipeline on DOD’s Secret IP Router Network to enable military officials worldwide to locate, share and analyze imagery from manned and unmanned systems, in real time.

Bush asks for 3 percent increase in IT spending

Budget time fun, that 3 percent increase should go to shoring up security, and increasing transparency on what the government is doing with the info. Actually implementing the privacy act of 74 and performing an audit of all government databases would be a start.

http://www.fcw.com/article97562-02-05-07-Web&newsletter=yes

The Bush administration’s fiscal 2008 budget proposal asks for a 3 percent increase to $65 billion in information technology funding as departments set priorities and seek to offer better results from their services, according to the document released today.

Bush asks for $5M for e-gov fund

Oversight and accountability should increase with increased funding. With federal agencies receiving a D in security, we should see a major overhaul before spending more taxpayer dollars on e-initiatives.

http://www.fcw.com/article97559-02-05-07-Web&newsletter=yes

The proposed fiscal 2008 budget requests $5 million for the E-Government Fund and again proposes the use of surplus Acquisition Services Fund (ASF) money to help pay for the initiatives, according to the budget, which was released today.The General Services Administration, which largely institutes the e-government initiatives, wants its administrator to retain as much as $40 million in surplus funds in any fiscal year generated by the operation of the ASF for the initiatives, the budget states.

VA data missing again

Undoubtedly the VA budget will increase, if only there were some accountability in the system. New regulations requiring a bitlocker equivalent in all laptops could help, if implemented correctly.


http://govhealthit.com/article97549-02-05-07-Web&newsletter=yes

The Department of Veterans Affairs is again the victim of data loss. A VA-owned, portable hard drive potentially containing personal information on an unknown number of veterans has been reported missing from a VA facility in Alabama.

CDC to realign BioSense to focus on most populous cities

Bio Sense - another example of a good idea, that when combined with other good ideas can have a deleterious effect on privacy. Flu outbreaks, combined with genetic databases and traveller awareness programs equates to some very enticing info for insurance companies and other, less noble causes.

http://www.fcw.com/article97564-02-05-07-Web&newsletter=yes

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) plans to narrow the focus of its key disease surveillance system, BioSense, and proposes to reduce 2008 funding for state and local programs and projects to respond to pandemic flu outbreaks by $125 million, compared with 2007 levels.