Christopher Calhoun's List: 2.5 Researching Credible Connections

• Officials said the boy, who was shot twice in the face, was the intended target. A classmate said the shooter apparently was being bullied.

  • More details on the exact nature of the “bullying” could be included.
• Carranza described the shooter as a “smart kid and a nice kid” and said she believed he had been bullied.

  • Direct quote from Odiee Carranza

• Sixth-grade student Anyssa Vegara said she was talking to a security guard when she heard a shot.

  “I turned around, and all I saw was someone on the floor with their arm bleeding,” Anyssa told the Albuquerque Journal.

  She said the security guard ran to assist the injured student, and school officials ordered all the students to their classrooms.

  Eventually, she was able to text her mother, Monica Vegara.

  • Direct quote from Anyssa Vegara
• “From the time hearing about it until the time she texted, it was a nightmare,” Monica Vegara said.

  • Direct quote from Monica Vegara
    
    
    
    Online experience point of view to the story. Monica Vegara was notified about the event via text message.
• “This is something that strikes people to the core,” Pastor Chris Mullennix told AP. “We’re not talking about a flesh wound or just a mental wound, we’re talking about the very souls of people being shaken and rocked by something like this.”

  • Direct quote from Pastor Chris Mullennix
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• Lorena Beltran told the Albuquerque Journal that her daughter, who goes to the school, said a male student was shot in the face. Hospital spokesman Eric Finley says information from nurses treating the boy indicates he was the target of the attack.

  • Additional information

• While most of the software is inserted by gaining access to computer networks, the N.S.A. has increasingly made use of a secret technology that enables it to enter and alter data in computers even if they are not connected to the Internet, according to N.S.A. documents, computer experts and American officials.

  • While not necessarily applicable to the average consumer, it is interesting to note as a digital literate that Secret technology exists “that enables [the device] to enter and alter data in computers even if they are not connected to the Internet”.
• “What’s new here is the scale and the sophistication of the intelligence agency’s ability to get into computers and networks to which no one has ever had access before,” said James Andrew Lewis, the cybersecurity expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “Some of these capabilities have been around for a while, but the combination of learning how to penetrate systems to insert software and learning how to do that using radio frequencies has given the U.S. a window it’s never had before.”

  • Direct quote from James Andrew Lewis
• “N.S.A.’s activities are focused and specifically deployed against — and only against — valid foreign intelligence targets in response to intelligence requirements,” Vanee Vines, an agency spokeswoman, said in a statement. “We do not use foreign intelligence capabilities to steal the trade secrets of foreign companies on behalf of — or give intelligence we collect to — U.S. companies to enhance their international competitiveness or increase their bottom line.”

  • Direct quote from Vanee Vines

• Richard A. Clarke, an official in the Clinton and Bush administrations who served as one of the five members of the advisory panel, explained the group’s reasoning in an email last week, saying that “it is more important that we defend ourselves than that we attack others.”

  “Holes in encryption software would be more of a risk to us than a benefit,” he said, adding: “If we can find the vulnerability, so can others. It’s more important that we protect our power grid than that we get into China’s.”

  • Direct quote from Richard A. Clarke

• “How do you ensure that Cyber Command people” are able to look at “those that are attacking us?” a senior official, who compared it to submarine warfare, asked in an interview several months ago.

  “That is what the submarines do all the time,” said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe policy. “They track the adversary submarines.” In cyberspace, he said, the United States tries “to silently track the adversaries while they’re trying to silently track you.”

  • Direct quote from "a senior official"
• “The argument is not working,” said Peter W. Singer of the Brookings Institution, a co-author of a new book called “Cybersecurity and Cyberwar.” “To the Chinese, gaining economic advantage is part of national security. And the Snowden revelations have taken a lot of the pressure off” the Chinese. Still, the United States has banned the sale of computer servers from a major Chinese manufacturer, Huawei, for fear that they could contain technology to penetrate American networks.

  • Direct quote from Peter W. Singer
• One, called Cottonmouth I, looks like a normal USB plug but has a tiny transceiver buried in it. According to the catalog, it transmits information swept from the computer “through a covert channel” that allows “data infiltration and exfiltration.” Another variant of the technology involves tiny circuit boards that can be inserted in a laptop computer — either in the field or when they are shipped from manufacturers — so that the computer is broadcasting to the N.S.A. even while the computer’s user enjoys the false confidence that being walled off from the Internet constitutes real protection.

  • Q.) "Is there a digital literacy or online experience point of view to the story? What is it?"
    
    
    
    While not necessarily applicable to the average consumer, it is interesting to note as a digital literate that Secret technology exists “that enables [the device] to enter and alter data in computers even if they are not connected to the Internet”.
    
    
• “Continuous and selective publication of specific techniques and tools used by N.S.A. to pursue legitimate foreign intelligence targets is detrimental to the security of the United States and our allies,” Ms. Vines, the N.S.A. spokeswoman, said.

  • Direct quote from Vanee Vines
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• The Clinton Administration is studying whether to allow the general export of products based on the new N.S.A.-designed coding system, although industry executives say they doubt that foreign buyers, especially foreign Governments, would want to use codes designed by American spy masters.

• To demonstrate just how easy unauthorized use might be, Mr. Gage, the Sun Microsystems executive, brought a computer hacker with him to the recent House hearing.

  Punching a special code into a standard cellular phone, the hacker quickly converted the phone into a scanner capable of eavesdropping on all the cellular channels being used on or near Capitol Hill. The intercepted snatches of innocuous conversation were amplified to the amusement and discomfort of those in the subcommittee hearing room -- including a woman in the audience who had her own cellular phone at her side.

  "This demonstration," Mr. Gage said, "shows it's not really safe to talk on the phone."

  • Additional information

• A federal appeals court ruled Friday that bloggers and the public have the same First Amendment protections as journalists when sued for defamation: If the issue is of public concern, plaintiffs have to prove negligence to win damages.

  • Q.) Is there a digital literacy or online experience point of view to the story? What is it?
• "It's not a special right to the news media," he said. "So it's a good thing for bloggers and citizen journalists and others."

  • Direct quote from Gregg Leslie

• Crystal L. Cox, a blogger from Eureka, Mont., now living in Port Townshend, Wash., was sued for defamation by Bend attorney Kevin Padrick and his company, Obsidian Finance Group LLC, after she made posts on several websites she created accusing them of fraud, corruption, money-laundering and other illegal activities. The appeals court noted Padrick and Obsidian were hired by Summit Accommodators to advise them before filing for bankruptcy, and that the U.S. Bankruptcy Court later appointed Padrick trustee in the Chapter 11 case. The court added that Summit had defrauded investors in its real estate operations through a Ponzi scheme.

    

  A jury in 2011 had awarded Padrick and Obsidian $2.5 million.

  • I find some of the articles information to be written in less than the most clear way possible.
• "Because Cox's blog post addressed a matter of public concern, even assuming that Gertz is limited to such speech, the district court should have instructed the jury that it could not find Cox liable for defamation unless it found that she acted negligently," judge Andrew D. Hurwitz wrote. "We hold that liability for a defamatory blog post involving a matter of public concern cannot be imposed without proof of fault and actual damages."

  • Direct quote from judge Andrew D. Hurwitz
• "It makes clear that bloggers have the same First Amendment rights as professional journalists," he said. "There had been similar precedents before concerning advocacy groups, other writers and book authors. This follows a fairly well established chain of precedents. I believe it is the first federal appeals court level ruling that applies to bloggers."

  • Direct Quote from UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh

• An attorney for Padrick said in an email that while they were disappointed in the ruling, they noted the court found "there was no dispute that the statements were false and defamatory."

    

  "Ms. Cox's false and defamatory statements have caused substantial damage to our clients, and we are evaluating our options with respect to the court's decision," wrote Steven M. Wilker.

  • The article could be updated in the future. The article ends by stating that the party that had unsuccessfully sued for defamation is evaluating their further options.
    
    
    
    Direct quote from an attorney for Padrick
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• The district court held that all but one of Cox's blog posts were constitutionally protected opinions because they employed figurative and hyperbolic language and could not be proved true or false. Obsidian Fin. Grp., LLC v. Cox, 812 F. Supp. 2d 1220, 1232-34 (D. Or. 2011).  [*4] The court held, however, that a December 25, 2010 blog post on bankruptcycorruption.com made "fairly specific allegations [that] a reasonable reader could understand . . . to imply a provable fact assertion"—i.e., that Padrick, in his capacity as bankruptcy trustee, failed to pay $174,000 in taxes owed by Summit. Id. at 1238. The district judge therefore allowed that single defamation claim to proceed to a jury trial. The jury found in favor of Padrick and Obsidian, awarding the former $1.5 million and the latter $1 million in compensatory damages.

  • The article includes more detailed, specific information about the entire court proceedings.

• The U.S. government announced plans to sell a whopping $28 million worth of bitcoins, the volatile digital currency that’s taking the Internet by storm.

    

  Bitcoins are a form of currency, like the U.S. dollar, the British pound or the Indian Rupee. But Bitcoins aren’t tied to any country or even to physical paper or coins at all. Instead, computers “mint” them according to complex algorithms, adding a new coin to a database at a slow but steady rate.

    

  The currency’s exchange rate has seen wide swings, soaring up from about $125 U.S. dollars per bitcoin to over $1,000 apiece in late December. They currently trade for around $800.

    

  And the Feds will soon sell a massive stash.

  • Q.) Is there a digital literacy or online experience point of view to the story? What is it?

• He called Silk Road "a global cyber business designed to broker criminal transactions." The website is believed to have collected more than $1 billion in revenue from more than 100,000 customers.

    

  "These bitcoins were forfeited not because they are bitcoins, but because they were, as the court found, the proceeds of crimes,"

  • Direct quote from U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara
• The Associated Press contributed to this report.

  • Q.) Did the article or information within it originate at this publication? Is there another source listed?
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• Keith Bristow, the NCA director-general, said the arrests demonstrated that the "hidden internet isn't hidden".

  "It's impossible for criminals to completely erase their digital footprint," he said. "No matter how technology-savvy the offender, they will always make mistakes and this brings law enforcement closer to them."

  The four men, one in his early 50s from Devon and three in their early 20s from Manchester, were arrested hours after the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Ross Ulbricht, Silk Road's alleged founder, seized $3.6m of Bitcoins and shut down the site.

  US authorities described it as "an anonymous Amazon", in reference to the shopping website, and "a sprawling black market bazaar".

  The FBI believes thousands of people used Silk Road in its two-and-a-half year existence to buy and sell drugs, forged identity papers and other illegal goods, and order assassinations. The total value of the trades exceeded $1.2bn, the FBI believes.

  • Q.) What information or metadata did you find in Lexis-Nexis that was not listed on the original web site?

• Most of the top patent producers are technology companies active in a wide range of businesses. Companies such as IBM (IBM), Canon, and Panasonic are involved in a variety of different businesses. Toshiba is active in sectors ranging from consumer electronics to nuclear power.

  • Q.) Is there a digital literacy or online experience point of view to the story? What is it?
• According to Mike Baycroft, CEO of IFI CLAIMS Patent Services, these companies have a track record of developing intellectual property, "and they're there to stay."

  • Direct quote from Mike Baycroft
• 24/7 Wall St. is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news and commentary. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.

  • Q.) Did the article or information within it originate at this publication? Is there another source listed?
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• Shunpei Yamazaki, Japan, 1,432 patents. Yes, it seems to be true: The top individual holder of U.S. patents is based at Tokyo tech research firm Semiconductor Energy Laboratory. For decades, the popular assumption has been that Thomas Edison is the all-time patent king with 1,093 patents. Yamazaki blows away Edison, and he is still inventing and getting patents.

  • Q.) What information or metadata did you find in Lexis-Nexis that was not listed on the original web site?