The Center for Research on Computation and Society continues its weekly lunch seminar:

CRCS Privacy and Security Lunch Seminar
Date: Wednesday, 13 February 2008
Time: 12:00pm-1:30 pm
Place: Maxwell Dworkin 319

Topic: The dotCrime Manifesto: How to Stop Internet Crime

Speaker: Phil Hallam-Baker, Principal Scientist, Verisign

Abstract:
As business has moved to the Internet, crime has followed. Today
the Internet ‘is where the money is’. Internet crime is professional
and organized according to the decentralized, market driven collective
models of Web 2.0. Many people have analyzed Internet crime, the
point is to stop it. But is this even possible?

Clearly we cannot eliminate the possibility of Internet crime any more
than we can eliminate crime in the offline world. But we can certainly
make the Internet a less crime-permissive environment and we can stop
many Internet crimes completely. There is a precedent for this, the
booming business in pirate satellite TV decoders that existed in the mid
1990s was shut down within a few years through a combination of
technical and law enforcement means.

The technical infrastructure has scaled much more gracefuly than the
social infrastructure. In particular the accountability mechanisms that
were present in the primordial Internet have snapped. To defeat Internet
crime we must establish reliably marked areas of the Internet where
businesses (and in some cases users) are subject to accountability.

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The Center for Research on Computation and Society continues its weekly lunch seminar:

CRCS Privacy and Security Lunch Seminar
Date: Wednesday, 27 February 2008
Time: 12:00pm-1:30pm
Place: Maxwell Dworkin 119

Topic: Expectations of Privacy for a Database Age

Speaker: Wendy Seltzer: Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society and
Visiting Professor, Northeastern University School of Law
http://wendy.seltzer.org/blog/

Abstract:
Much of privacy law centers on the public’s “reasonable
expectations of privacy.” Yet in the Internet era, our expectations and
experiences may become disconnected: we don’t often realize how much
information we’ve given to search engines, social network sites, and
other Internet intermediaries, nor how that information looks when
aggregated. How can we balance the interests of the collectors and the
collected? Can technologists help us to understand the identifying
implications of data collection?

Bio:
Wendy is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Northeastern University
Law School, studying intellectual property, privacy, and free expression
online. As a Fellow with Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet &
Society, Wendy founded and leads the Chilling Effects Clearinghouse,
helping Internet users to understand their rights in response to
cease-and-desist threats. She has an A.B. from Harvard College and J.D.
from Harvard Law School, and occasionally takes a break from legal code
to program (Perl and MythTV).

The Center for Research on Computation and Society continues its weekly lunch seminar:

CRCS Privacy and Security Lunch Seminar
Date: Wednesday, 20 February 2008
Time: 12:00pm-1:30pm
Place: Maxwell Dworkin 319

Topic: Seeing the Light: The Simplest Problems are the Hardest
or: Shining Light on the Federal Speech Commission and the Opportunity Dynamic

Speaker: Bob Frankston

Abstract:

A light switch seems very simple — you just turn it on and the bulb
lights. What happens when that relationship is no longer implicit and
we can rethink even the simplest assumptions? Seemingly simple
problems force us to confront our understanding. If we can’t
understand the relationship between a light switch and whatever it is
supposed to do how can we begin to understand the Internet which is
about relationships and not about telecommunications?

When we can decouple systems we have an opportunity to discover new
possibilities yet we can pretend that nothing has changed. We find
ourselves talking past each other. We can’t begin to communicate until
we recognize that we aren’t communicating. Computing and understanding
information should be part of our basic literacy and not just
something done by skilled professionals. How else can we describe and
understand our dynamic and evolving world?

Normally we resolve such conflicts by waiting for a generation to
select for those who understand the new possibilities. Can we do
better?

Bio:
Bob Frankston has been working with computers since 1963. His academic
work involved Multics and the predecessor to the internet. In the
business world, Bob and Dan Bricklin created the VisiCalc spreadsheet
program, known as the first “killer app.” Other adventures in the
software industry include creating Lotus Express, working on early
pen-based mobile computing and playing a central role in making home
networking happen while at Microsoft. He has applied his experience to
understanding the Internet and related policy issues.

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