FrankenStorm Sandy,

Day 4 of SANDY Recovery continues.

TIPS OF THE DAY:

Tip #1: Check your INSURANCE POLICY for UTILITIES INTERRUPTION RIDER.

TIP #2 – Several clients are getting new computers that will get paid for by the insurance company

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JOKE OF THE DAY:

NYC has a NEW COCKTAIL!

A guy walks into the bar and says “Barkeep, Give me a SANDY!”
Bartender: What’s a Sandy?
Customer:  You know, a WATERED DOWN Manhattan

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Day 3 Update

Brainlink Crisis Contact Info
support@brainlink.com
Raj – 917-685-7731

Day 3 of SANDY Recovery continues.  Most of our clients are back online (rest, whenever ConEd restores power).

If you (or people you love) need assistance of any type – food, transport, IT support, etc, please contact me.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES #3

1) FLEXIBLE OFFICE SPACE in Manhattan

We’re getting a lot of requests for OFFICE SPACE IN MANHATTAN outside the blackout zones.
I recommend OFFICELINKS – www.officelink.com or email contact@officelinks.com

2) TRANSPORT

The MTA has published a map of the active Subway & LIRR lines
SCHEDULE – http://www.mta.info/sites/default/files/pdf/StormNov1SubServiceA103112.pdf
MAP – http://www.mta.info/sites/default/files/pdf/HurricaneRecoveryMapOct312012.pdf

3) FOOD

Wazi, CEO of LetsOrderNow.com is providing food to anyone/everyone who requests it.
Contact Wazi at 1.212.OrderNow (673.3766)
wazi@letsordernow.com

Funny Picture of the Day

Day 2 BRAINLINK UPDATE:
All our clients who are not in the ConEd/LIPA power outage areas are back online!

So, if you or your office needs help, give me a call. We can assist.

We’re also working with vendors to get special deals and offers for UPSes, new Servers, etc.

-Raj Goel

917-685-7731

raj@brainlink.com

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES:
Here are some resources for business owners who need help:

1. Low Interest Loans for disaster recovery: Both the SBA and the USDA provide low interest loans to business owners to help them repair and replace property and equipment that have been destroyed by the hurricane. Disaster assistance is available through the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) http://www.sba.gov/content/disaster-assistance

2. Economic Injury Disaster Loans: These loans are available for businesses that suffer “substantial economic injury.” http://www.sba.gov/content/economic-injury-disaster-loans

3. Free Legal Services: There are free legal services available for your business through FEMA for areas the President declares a disaster to help provide you legal assistance with filing insurance claims, landlord issues, etc. Additional information on this can be found at: http://www.fema.gov/additional-assistance and http://www.disasterlegalaid.org/

4. Tax Relief: For areas that the government federally declares a disaster, business owners can apply for tax relief, which allows for expedited refunds or delayed tax filings. Additional information on these programs can be found at: http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-Employed/Disaster-Assistance-and-Emergency-Relief-for-Individuals-and-Businesses-1

5. Online Questionnaire and Application For Assistance: Business owners can fill out an online questionnaire to see which types of assistance you qualify for, and fill in an online application by going to: http://www.disasterassistance.gov/

6. Instructions on Cleaning Up after a Hurricane: The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has provided instructions on cleaning up your office after a hurricane, such as how to remove drywall, clean surfaces, etc. This can be found at: http://www.bt.cdc.gov/disasters/floods/cleanupwater.asp

NEW YORK HAS A NEW T-SHIRT

http://media.caglecartoons.com/media/cartoons/127/2012/10/30/121390_600.jpg

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BEST JOKE HEARD YESTERDAY:

They should have called the storm A-Rod.
Why?
That way, it wouldn’t have hit anything

Welcome to the Balkanization of the internet.

While I’m no fan of Facebook, laws like these will hamper freedom & civil rights.

I’ve always said that with Social Media, you need to worry about your friends – even if you do everything right, and your friends make a mistake or break the law, you may be found guilty by association.

This law turns that premise into reality.  If you ‘like’ a friend’s post, and that friend is found guilty of ["cybersex," identity theft, hacking, spamming, or pornography], then you are automatically guilty of the same.

From CBSnews.com

With more than 25 million Filipinos on Facebook and close to 10 million on Twitter, Filipinos rank among the top 10 users of both sites in the world.

But if you’re one of those who seldom think twice about “liking” a friend’s post on Facebook or re-tweeting someone else’s tweet, think again. Doing so in the Philippines may land you in jail.

On Sept. 12, President Benigno Aquino III signed into law the Cybercrime Prevention Act, which defines several new acts of crimes committed online, including, among others, “cybersex,” identity theft, hacking, spamming, and pornography.But while all that’s good, certain provisions of the law have millions of Filipinos up in arms – foremost of which is online libel.

“If you click ‘like,’ you can be sued, and if you share, you can also be sued,” said Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, one of the lawmakers who voted against the passage of the law.

“Even Mark Zuckerberg can be charged with cyber-libel,” the senator said.

via Facebook’s “like” may land Filipinos in jail – CBS News.

As you prepare for the storm, you should ensure you have the following:

6) If we have severe flooding, subway/bus shutdowns, do you & your staff know to STAY HOME / WORK FROM HOME Mon & Tuesday?

My staff has been instructed to
A) take care of themselves & their families
B) work from home (ONLY if they are safe, there are no health & safety issues)
C) Assist others.  If you’re safe, and your neighbors aren’t – lend them a hand.

Have you communicated that to your staff?  A day of downtime is cheaper than endangering staff.
Using telecommuting dramatically decreases downtime / increased productivity.

If you need help in getting any of this done, feel free to contact me.

Also see What’s the Difference between Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity?

Here’s a 3d Model of Sandy’s RAIN TOWERS –

Here’s another good reason to educate your kids and keep them off social media.

Parasite websites are popping up that exist solely to grab suggestive and sexually explicit photos of teens/tweens from Social Media and post them on adult websites.

This is Girls Gone Wild – Social media style.

Children and young people are posting thousands of sexually explicit images of themselves and their peers online, which are then being stolen by porn websites, according to a leading internet safety organisation.

A study by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) reveals that 88% of self-made sexual or suggestive images and videos posted by young people, often on social networking sites, are taken from their original online location and uploaded on to other websites.

Reams of sexually explicit images and videos are being uploaded by children and young people, the study found. During 47 hours, over a four-week period, a total of 12,224 images and videos were analysed and logged. The majority of these were then mined by “parasite websites” created for the sole purpose of displaying sexually explicit images and videos of young people.

via ‘Parasite’ porn websites stealing images and videos posted by young people | Technology | guardian.co.uk.

In the 1990′s we spent $ 2.5 BILLION to sequence the human genome.

Thanks to Moore’s law (computing power doubles every 18 months) and revolutionary breakthroughs in DNA sequencing, pretty soon, DNA sequencing will cost less than $ 1,000 per sample.

And several companies, including easyDNA are marketing their services to employers, spouses and lawyers.

So, who’s been tracking YOUR DNA? No one knows.

What rights do you have to data about your DNA?  None.

They’re called discreet DNA samples, and the Elk Grove, California, genetic-testing company easyDNA says it can handle many kinds, from toothpicks to tampons.Blood stains from bandages and tampons? Ship them in a paper envelope for paternity, ancestry or health testing. EasyDNA also welcomes cigarette butts two to four, dental floss “do not touch the floss with your fingers”, razor clippings, gum, toothpicks, licked stamps and used tissues if the more standard cheek swab or tube of saliva isn’t obtainable.If the availability of such services seems like an invitation to mischief or worse – imagine a discarded tissue from a prospective employee being tested to determine whether she’s at risk for an expensive disease, for instance – the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues agrees.

via Citing privacy concerns, U.S. panel urges end to secret DNA testing | Reuters.

Amazon closed a Norwegian woman’s Amazon account AND DELETED all books off her Kindle for violating some secret Amazon policy.

Amazon will NOT disclose what policy she violated; nor restore her books; nor provide refunds for all the books that she purchased.

Moral of the story:  You do NOT own ebooks (or downloaded music, movies or games).  You are merely RENTING IT as a serfs from the digital landlord.  As a serf, the only rights you have are given to you by the landlord, and can be revoked at whim.

This isn’t the first time Amazon played digital bully.  In 2009, they settled a lawsuit for deleting 1984 from kindles (irony, thy name is Amazon!).  See http://www.pcworld.com/article/172953/amazon_kindle_1984_lawsuit.html

Amazon just closed her account and wiped her Kindle. Without notice. Without explanation. This is DRM at it’s worst.Linn travels a lot and therefore has, or should I say had, a lot of books on her Kindle, purchased from Amazon. Suddenly, her Kindle was wiped and her account was closed. Being convinced that something wrong had happened, she sent an e-mail to Amazon, asking for help. This was the answer:

Dear Linn [last name], My name is Michael Murphy and I represent Executive Customer Relations within Amazon.co.uk. One of our mandates is to address the most acute account and order problems, and in this capacity your account and orders have been brought to my attention. We have found your account is directly related to another which has been previously closed for abuse of our policies. As such, your Amazon.co.uk account has been closed and any open orders have been cancelled. Per our Conditions of Use which state in part: Amazon.co.uk and its affiliates reserve the right to refuse service, terminate accounts, remove or edit content, or cancel orders at their sole discretion. Please know that any attempt to open a new account will meet with the same action. You may direct any questions to me at resolution-uk@amazon.co.uk. Thank you for your attention to this email. Regards Michael Murphy Executive Customer Relations Amazon.co.uk

via Outlawed by Amazon DRM « Martin Bekkelund.

Cop posts his photo on Facebook.

Cop goes undercover, and a convict’s girlfriend outs him.

Umm…remind me again why cops need a facebook page?

A Texas woman (Melissa Walthall) has been arrested and charged with a felony for posting a publicly available photograph of an undercover police officer to her Facebook profile, reports say.According to the Associated Press, Melissa Walthall, 30, of Mesquite, Tex., was arrested last week and charged with retaliation, a felony, for posting the photo.

via Melissa Walthall, Texas Woman, Arrested For Posting Photo Of Undercover Cop On Facebook.

Historically, I’ve spoken about the stupid/vain/dump things that users do on their Facebook profiles.

I’ve also warned about friending people.

Here’s an unfortunate case of social media revealing hidden data in VERY public manner.

From the Oct 14, 2012 Wall Street Journal

Bobbi Duncan desperately wanted her father not to know she is lesbian. Facebook told him anyway.

One evening last fall, the president of the Queer Chorus, a choir group she had recently joined, inadvertently exposed Ms. Duncan’s sexuality to her nearly 200 Facebook friends, including her father, by adding her to a Facebook Inc. discussion group. That night, Ms. Duncan’s father left vitriolic messages on her phone, demanding she renounce same-sex relationships, she says, and threatening to sever family ties.The 22-year-old cried all night on a friend’s couch. “I felt like someone had hit me in the stomach …

via When the Most Personal Secrets Get Outed on Facebook – WSJ.com.

A Canadian Sub-Lieutenant pled guilty to selling secrets to the Russians.

What is amusing, is how he defeated the complex technical controls present within the Canadian military.

He simply copied information to NOTEPAD and saved it on a FLOPPY.

Furthermore, when he got home, he composed EMAIL DRAFTS in a shared email account that the Russians had access to.

The latter technique is an Al-Qaeda favorite – use shared webmail accounts and transfer information via DRAFT messages.

 

How Delisle spied

Information presented at Delisle’s bail hearing detailed how Delisle would browse for material on the secure computer at Trinity, save it in the notepad feature, then transfer it to a floppy disk drive. He would take the floppy out of the secure computer, transfer it to an unsecure system and make a USB copy. After taking the USB home, he would access an email account given to him by the Russians and write in drafts. None of the material was ever transmitted, but the Russians could access the account and read the drafts.

…

it seems Canada didn’t learn from the American experience with army private Bradley Manning. Manning copied hundreds of thousands of diplomatic notes as well as Iraq and Afghanistan war logs, and then leaked them to WikiLeaks. “In the aftermath of that, the Americans had been warning all their allies, don’t get caught out in the way we did, don’t let someone steal information in the way Bradley Manning has done.”

In the wake of Manning’s arrest, President Barack Obama issued an executive order to strengthen his government’s computer security policies for all federal agencies.

Wark also points out that the other members of the “Five Eyes”, the U.S., the U.K., Australia and New Zealand, might have reason to be upset by Delisle’s spying. “What Delisle might have been able to tell the Russians that’s very, very damaging is how the communications systems themselves worked and the codes and processes they used to protect secrets. If the Russians have that, it’s a huge advantage for them, it’s a key into communications systems of not just Canada but all of our allies.”

via Spy Delisle’s guilty plea preserves Navy secrets – Politics – CBC News.

Does the school administration (or the district, or the state) realize what a HUGE landmine they are burying in front of their faces?

A) Students are being trained in being permanently tracked

B) All the data that the RFID trackers will generate – how long will it be kept?  Who will analyze it?

C) Has anyone calculated the ediscovery & litigation costs for storing this data?

What are they SMOKING in Texas?  This is just insane…at what point do we declare Texas a failed state and provide it with some ADULT supervision?

John Jay High School in San Antoni, Texas, has launched a new program to increase attendance. The “Student Locator Project” requires students to wear their microchip-embedded school IDs around their necks at all times and have their location tracked and monitored.

And now, apparently, the students refusing to use the new IDs are not going to be allowed to vote for Homecoming court. One objector, Andrea Hernandez, has been told that if she continues to refuse the new IDs, she won’t be allowed to vote for homecoming royalty. This is, of course, deplorable, as the most vital, inalienable right of any high school student is the right to choose which popular kid is the MOST popular and will therefore rule over them.

via Students Refusing Tracking ID Cards Unable to Vote for Homecoming? | SMOSH.