FBI Is Losing Track of Classified and Sensitive Data, Watchdog Finds

by  Adam Mazmanian

The bureau is failing to account for electronic storage media that are marked for destruction at secure facilities.

The FBI needs to do a better job keeping track of electronic media slated for destruction and disposal at bureau facilities, according to an advisory memo from the Justice Department's Inspector General publicly released on Thursday.

The bureau isn't labeling and tracking internal hard drives with sensitive and even top secret national security information once they're removed from computers and servers, according to the memo from DOJ IG Michael E. Horowitz, and FBI officials aren't able to confirm when such drives were destroyed in accordance with bureau policy. Similarly, thumb drives, flash drives and floppy disks are also being handled in ways that don't comport with bureau policies.

"The lack of accountability of these media increases the risk of loss or theft without possibility of detection," Horowitz wrote.

 Read full story at Government Exercutive…

Opinion: How to Design a US Data Privacy Law

by  Nick Dedeke

Why you should care about the GDPR, and how the US could develop a better version.

… In this piece, I will highlight the price of ignoring the GDPR. Then, I will present several conceptual flaws of the GDPR [General Data Protection Regulation] that have been acknowledged by one of the lead architects of the law. Next, I will propose certain characteristics and design requirements that countries like the United States should consider when developing a privacy protection law. Lastly, I provide a few reasons why everyone should care about this project.

 Read full story at arsTechnica…

States Move to Cloud for Improved Citizen Services

by  Chris Hayhurst

Government transformation often involves adoption of Software as a Service.

Jessica Gateff was an Oklahoma citizen before she took her first job with the state. And it was in her role as citizen that she learned how cloud migration can instantly change the way government works, she says.

It was early 2020, and Gateff had been searching the internet for official information on the spread of COVID-19 in the state. One day, she recalls, she couldn't find anything, "and then, a week later, everything I needed was up and easily accessible on the health department website.""

When Gateff was hired three years later as deputy director of data services with the Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterprise Services, she was brought up to speed on the pandemic-era project that made that visibility possible. OMES had contracted with Google Cloud to quickly build what she describes as a "hub and spoke model" for managing the state's data, she says.

 Read full story at StatTech…

Google's Hidden AI Tool Turns Your Text Into Stunningly Lifelike Podcasts - for Free. Listen for Yourself

by  David Gewirtz

I've [David Gewirtz] been studying AI for years, and Google's new AI podcast tool still astonishes me. Seriously, you have to hear this to believe it. But humans will beat the machines in the end. Here's why.

I am not at all religious, but when I discovered this tool, I wanted to scream, "This is the devil's work!"

When I played the audio included below for you to my editor, she slacked back, "WHAT KIND OF SORCERY IS THIS?" I've worked with her for 10 years, during which time we have slacked back and forth just about every day, and that's the first all-caps I've ever seen from her.

Later, she shared with me, "This is 100% the most terrifying thing I've seen so far in the generative AI race."

If you are at all interested in artificial intelligence, what I've found could shake you up as much as it did us. We may be at a watershed moment.

 Read full story at ZDNET…

macOS vs. Windows: Which OS Is Best?

by  Michael Muchmore

When it comes to desktop operating systems, how do Apple and Microsoft compare in terms of usability, security, hardware compatibility, and 15 other important factors? We break it down feature by feature to declare a winner.

Most tech users are vehemently loyal when it comes to their platform choices. But I suspect there are open-minded people on both sides of the macOS vs. Windows operating system debate who aren't aware of what the other side has to offer—or maybe they're just curious. Here, I compare the standard operating system features from Microsoft and Apple one by one. Each category has a winner or is declared a tie, and, at the end, I tally up the points to declare an overall winner.

The factors I cover below are only a few of those that you need to consider when choosing an operating system. You might also base your decision on what the people around you use, your device ecosystem (including your smartphone and tablet), your business needs, and your personality. And don't forget that Linux and ChromeOS are options, too, as long as you don'' need to run demanding software like professional video editing programs. For most people, the choice is between the big two operating systems: macOS or Windows.

 Read full story at PCMagazine…

Meta Pays the Price for Storing Hundreds of Millions of Passwords in Plaintext

by  Dan Goodin

Company failed to follow one of the most sacrosanct rules for password storage

Officials in Ireland have fined Meta $101 million for storing hundreds of millions of user passwords in plaintext and making them broadly available to company employees.

Meta disclosed the lapse in early 2019. The company said that apps for connecting to various Meta-owned social networks had logged user passwords in plaintext and stored them in a database that had been searched by roughly 2,000 company engineers, who collectively queried the stash more than 9 million times.

Meta officials said at the time that the error was found during a routine security review of the company's internal network data storage practices. They went on to say that they uncovered no evidence that anyone internally improperly accessed the passcodes or that the passcodes were ever accessible to people outside the company.

 Read full story at arsTechnica…

Arizona Electric Power Cooperative Secures $485 Million USDA Grant

by  T&D World Staff

The new ERA grant opportunity will help AEPCO to retire its last remaining coal assets by the end of 2027 and make major investments in new utility scale renewable energy projects

Arizona Electric Power Cooperative (AEPCO) is selected to receive $485 million in funding through the US Departments of Agriculture's (USDA) New Empowering Rural America (ERA) Program.

"We are investing historic resources in innovative solutions to help Arizona communities reduce wildfire risk and adapt in the face of drought," said Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack. "At the same time, we are looking to the future by investing in clean energy infrastructure, creating new jobs, and building prosperity in rural communities."

The new ERA grant opportunity will help AEPCO to retire its last remaining coal assets by the end of 2027 and make major investments in new utility scale renewable energy projects, including 730 MW of solar and 2,910 MW hours of battery energy storage to serve 40 member cooperatives and public power utilities across the rural Southwest.

 Read full story at T&D World…

Results Show Carbon Capture's Alleged Promises Are Full of Hot Air

by  Dennis Wamsted

The happy-talk DOE press information says nothing about the difficulties associated with building a first-of-its kind technology and hooking it up to a large-scale electric generator.

The Department of Energy's wholehearted support for carbon capture and storage rests on vaporous assumptions about the technical capabilities of unbuilt projects. It's time to clear the air.

As Exhibit A, let's look at the department's recent announcement that it will pay for 50% of a $13.1 million front end engineering and design study for the potential retrofit of CCS equipment at the two-unit, coal-fired Four Corners power plant in northwest New Mexico. In the fact sheet explaining the project, DOE says the goal is to install CCS equipment at the 1,540 MW plant capable of capturing 10 million tons of carbon dioxide annually.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, capturing 10 million tons of CO2 annually would be the same as taking about 2.4 million cars off the road, but there's a problem — a big one, in fact. The plant has only emitted more than 10 million tons of CO2 once in the past eight years, and it is not likely to top that level ever again.

 Read full story at UtilityDive…

Rising Electricity Demand Could Bring Three Mile Island and Other Prematurely Shuttered Nuclear Plants Back to Life

by  Todd Allen

With electricity demand rising, especially to power data centers and electric vehicles, some nuclear plants are becoming candidates for reopening.

Constellation, an energy company that provides electricity and natural gas to customers in 16 states and Washington, announced on Sept. 20, 2024, that it plans to restore and restart Unit 1 at Three Mile Island, a nuclear plant near Middletown, Pennsylvania, that was shut down in 2019. Microsoft has signed a 20-year agreement to purchase electricity generated by the plant to offset power demand from its data centers in the mid-Atlantic region.

Three Mile Island was the site in 1979 of a partial meltdown at the plant's Unit 2 reactor. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission calls this event "the most serious accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant operating history,"" although only small amounts of radiation were released, and no health effects on plant workers or the public were detected. Unit 1 was not affected by the accident. University of Michigan nuclear engineering professor Todd Allen explains what restarting Unit 1 will involve, and why some other shuttered nuclear plants may also get new leases on life.

 Read full story at Power Engineering…