Today, there is a story that those who are following the tabloid story of Twilight star Kristen Stewart's affair with the director of her new Snow White movie are vulnerable to malware attacks. Seems that evildoers like to tag their malware (viruses and the like) to popular topics -- and this Twilight saga split of the Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson is right up their alley.
One of my clients is very concerned about this, since her kids love Twitter and Facebook and use her laptop routinely - and in doing so, they've already opened the door to one or more viruses which her tech support believes gained access through those shrunk links that appear on tweets and the like. It's called "clickjacking."
Which brings us to passwords. My client's biggest concern was protecting her financial sites as well as her blogging account. Could the virus circumvent her passwords? How do you create a strong password? How can you make passwords that are strong and that are also easy to use (and remember)?
Passwords need to be easy for you to remember and hard for those computer villains to figure out, even with their sneaky password finding software. Don't share them with anyone. Don't put them on sticky notes on your monitor. Remember to change them -- say on the 1st of every month.
Here are five (5) tips for creating strong, easy to use passwords:
1. Use a quote or a short sentence that is personal to you.
Carnegie Mellon's Computer Science Department recommends sentences such as "I have two kids: Jack and Jill." For sites that only allow a certain number of characters, they suggest you memorize a short version of this sentence and use it: "Ih2K:JaJ"
2. Use two unrelated words and then add some tweaks
Tweaks? They can be whatever works for you: like added punctuation and a capital letter or two which will be easy for you to remember.
Carnegie Mellon gives an example here of "book and goat" which then becomes "bo!ok29goat"
3. Use different passwords, and change them often.
PCMag recommends that you change your passwords as often as you change your underwear. PCMag also recommends that you use different passwords for different sites: never use the same password for different things. Don't use the same password for your online banking and your email account. That's just asking for trouble.
4. Move your hands on the keyboard.
PCMag has another good idea: once you have your secret password, move your hands on your keyboard so they are one row up or one column over -- then type.
5. Make things easier to remember by having your own password themes.
ComputerWorld suggests having a personal theme to your passwords that relate to a personal life event, such as the birth of a child. OneMorePush and IceChips were given as some of their examples here.
What I'm Doing With My Passwords These Days.
Not too long ago, I was hit by an evildoer that did get one of my email account passwords. However, the damage wasn't too bad -- it was an account I had set up to receive all those newsletters, daily quotes, etc. and not my personal or professional stuff. Still, it was scary enough that I spent most of a workday setting up all new passwords and a password-changing schedule (not on the 1st). I feel safer for it, and I think you will, too.
Another thing I did: I stopped opening those shrunken links. If the tweet doesn't give me enough info for me to google the site, and if I'm not interested enough to do a Google search, then so be it. Turns out to be a nice time saving tool as well as a security strategy.
For more:
Microsoft suggestions on passwords.
Microsoft Password Strength Checker (input your password for evaluation).
8/13/12
7/16/12
Are Westlaw and Lexis Violating Lawyer Copyrights By Publishing Legal Briefs and Memoranda In Their Databases? New York Lawsuit Filed for Damages Under U.S. Copyright Law
Well, this seems silly. As a lawyer, whenever I filed something in the public record of a court case - and I did this for over 20 years - never once did I think WAIT, I better make sure I've protected my copyright on this thing. I mean really.
However, two lawyers up in New York are suing both West Publishing Company and LexisNexis for having the audacity of taking documents like briefs and legal memoranda, copying them, and placing them on their databases. That's right. The lawyers are arguing that they are due actual and punitive damages for a violation of federal copyright laws because West and Lexis have digitally collected and sold these public records to their clients.
Oh my, oh my.
The lawsuit isn't new. It was filed as White v. West Publishing Company & Reed Elsevier Inc. in the Southern District of New York back on February 22, 2012. You can read the complaint here.
UCLA Law Professor Eugene Volokh wasted no time in writing about this, and his blog post is worth your time to read.
From Professor Volokh's perspective, the issue here isn't the existence of a copyright -- he argues that the briefs are copyrighted material of the lawyers who wrote them (or maybe the law firm, or maybe the client, too - but this is a rabbit trail and Prof. V argues work for hire doesn't extend this far) -- it's the question of whether or not the fair use doctrine will apply here to allow the two big legal research companies the ability to share these briefs for their own profit under the fair use defense to copyright infringement under federal law.
Meanwhile, up in Canada there's another case dealing with a similar issue of copyright violation of lawyers whose briefs have been copied and then placed into legal software databases and it's been certified as a class action. More on that case here.
Another law professor shares his take on things over at the Law Librarian Blog; it comforted me to read that he thought this to be a little silly, too.
However, two lawyers up in New York are suing both West Publishing Company and LexisNexis for having the audacity of taking documents like briefs and legal memoranda, copying them, and placing them on their databases. That's right. The lawyers are arguing that they are due actual and punitive damages for a violation of federal copyright laws because West and Lexis have digitally collected and sold these public records to their clients.
Oh my, oh my.
The lawsuit isn't new. It was filed as White v. West Publishing Company & Reed Elsevier Inc. in the Southern District of New York back on February 22, 2012. You can read the complaint here.
UCLA Law Professor Eugene Volokh wasted no time in writing about this, and his blog post is worth your time to read.
From Professor Volokh's perspective, the issue here isn't the existence of a copyright -- he argues that the briefs are copyrighted material of the lawyers who wrote them (or maybe the law firm, or maybe the client, too - but this is a rabbit trail and Prof. V argues work for hire doesn't extend this far) -- it's the question of whether or not the fair use doctrine will apply here to allow the two big legal research companies the ability to share these briefs for their own profit under the fair use defense to copyright infringement under federal law.
Meanwhile, up in Canada there's another case dealing with a similar issue of copyright violation of lawyers whose briefs have been copied and then placed into legal software databases and it's been certified as a class action. More on that case here.
Another law professor shares his take on things over at the Law Librarian Blog; it comforted me to read that he thought this to be a little silly, too.
7/9/12
Twitter Cuts LinkedIn App - So How Does Your LinkedIn Account Look Now? Are You Now More Interested in LinkedIn Account Than UR Twitter Page?
LinkedIn is much more than an online resource for employers and job seekers these days, especially for lawyers, law firms, other professionals, and businesses. My clients like LinkedIn, one attorney calling it "more than Twitter, less than Facebook."
Chances are your teenager isn't on LinkedIn; chances are you're not reading nor are you considering writing about your summer vacation plans on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is different.
LinkedIn is a place where more and more professional discussion happens. Another client has been having lots of networking success by beginning some discussions and contributing to others via LinkedIn Groups that are filled with members in niches in which she has an interest. She's found that even though some people don't go to the LinkedIn site to read the Discussion itself, they do catch her name in their email notification of the Group's Discussion and this has resulted in one or more email or phone one-on-one chat with referrals and clients.
Which means that I have had more than one phone call to complain about Tweets disappearing from LinkedIn because Twitter has blocked the old LinkedIn application. No more automatic sharing of tweets over on the LinkedIn account. (You can tweet on LinkedIn and have it appear on Twitter; just not vice versa.)
There's been lots of discussion on why Twitter has done this. Some good reads if you want to delve into this further include:
What does this mean to you and me?
I don't know of any client that goes directly to Twitter.com to tweet. Or to LinkedIn for that matter. They use other sites like HootSuite or MyYahoo or Google+ to coordinate their social media. (Not Tweetdeck, since it dropped everything but Facebook after Twitter bought it last fall. Guess that was a hint of things to come, huh?)
So, this news isn't impacting how they tweet. It is impacting their consideration of LinkedIn - more than one lawyer has voiced more interest in communicating at a site that has a "professional demeanor" (to quote one client) than to be concerned with Twitter. It's actually made some take a closer look at LinkedIn, and how to become more involved there in a proactive way.
They want a way to get around the Twitter block because they want to build their presence on LinkedIn. Not Twitter. Not Facebook. Facebook is for their personal stuff.
It's too soon to tell, but from what I'm hearing right now, many pros are discovering a loyalty and curiosity in LinkedIn that they didn't know they had before Twitter decided to dis LinkedIn. We'll see what happens... after all, Facebook has decided to compete with LinkedIn in the near future ....
Chances are your teenager isn't on LinkedIn; chances are you're not reading nor are you considering writing about your summer vacation plans on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is different.
LinkedIn is a place where more and more professional discussion happens. Another client has been having lots of networking success by beginning some discussions and contributing to others via LinkedIn Groups that are filled with members in niches in which she has an interest. She's found that even though some people don't go to the LinkedIn site to read the Discussion itself, they do catch her name in their email notification of the Group's Discussion and this has resulted in one or more email or phone one-on-one chat with referrals and clients.
Which means that I have had more than one phone call to complain about Tweets disappearing from LinkedIn because Twitter has blocked the old LinkedIn application. No more automatic sharing of tweets over on the LinkedIn account. (You can tweet on LinkedIn and have it appear on Twitter; just not vice versa.)
There's been lots of discussion on why Twitter has done this. Some good reads if you want to delve into this further include:
- ZDNet's article, "Twitter mimics Facebook, kills own ecosystem," where writer Stilgherrian wonders if Twitter has hit its own self-destruct button by blocking LinkedIn.
- Fortune has an interesting piece with a consumer vs business discussion by HootSuite CEO Ryan Holmes, "Inside the LinkedIn Twitter Divorce."
- Business Insider has Owen Thomas take on things with his piece, "Twitter Gives LinkedIn the Bird," where Thomas points out that with one hand, Twitter abandons LinkedIn while recently allowing Facebook to do exactly what it's now forbidden to LinkedIn.
What does this mean to you and me?
I don't know of any client that goes directly to Twitter.com to tweet. Or to LinkedIn for that matter. They use other sites like HootSuite or MyYahoo or Google+ to coordinate their social media. (Not Tweetdeck, since it dropped everything but Facebook after Twitter bought it last fall. Guess that was a hint of things to come, huh?)
So, this news isn't impacting how they tweet. It is impacting their consideration of LinkedIn - more than one lawyer has voiced more interest in communicating at a site that has a "professional demeanor" (to quote one client) than to be concerned with Twitter. It's actually made some take a closer look at LinkedIn, and how to become more involved there in a proactive way.
They want a way to get around the Twitter block because they want to build their presence on LinkedIn. Not Twitter. Not Facebook. Facebook is for their personal stuff.
It's too soon to tell, but from what I'm hearing right now, many pros are discovering a loyalty and curiosity in LinkedIn that they didn't know they had before Twitter decided to dis LinkedIn. We'll see what happens... after all, Facebook has decided to compete with LinkedIn in the near future ....
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