Do Not BCC Your Client When Emailing Opposing Counsel
The New York State Bar Association recently released an ethics opinion that, at first, blush, seems unnecessary: it warned you, gently, not to bcc your client on correspondence to opposing counsel. This seems rather far afield for an ethics opinion, particularly as that bcc is often a convenient way to keep your client apprised of what you are doing (and a regular cc gives your client's email address to opposing counsel, which you also do not want.)
The ethics opinion does conclude that neither a cc nor a bcc raises any ethical concerns as such. What the opinion is really warning you about is something we should all be terrified of, lawyers or no: the horror of an incorrect use of "reply all." Your client isn't likely to inadvertently create an email storm like the one that hit Thomson Reuters employees, where 33,000 (!) people were caught in a "reply all" chain, but a client's careless use of "reply all" can create a different sort of disaster.
For lawyers, the stakes are, of course, even higher. As the committee pointed out, "if the enquirer and opposing counsel are communicating about a possible settlement of litigation, the inquirer bccs his or her client, and the client hits "reply all" when commenting on the proposal, the client may inadvertently disclose to opposing counsel confidential information otherwise protected by Rule 1.6."
The ethics opinion recommends solving this by just taking the extra step and forwarding an email to your client rather than copying them, blind or otherwise. That is an excellent idea, not only because it means you avoid the "reply all" possibility. Forwarding allows you to provide your client with a couple sentences of context or explanation about that communication with opposing counsel. So there you have it—(at least) two good reasons to make a point of forwarding emails instead of copying your client.
Featured image: "Speech bubble illustration of information technology acronym abbreviation term definition BCC Blind Carbon Copy" from Shutterstock.
Neal Rauhauser Brags About SWATting To Sunstein On Reddit And LinkedIn by share, opuniteblue.com
In light of that I thought it time to update this post where Neal brags to Cass Sunstein about his accomplishments in creating conspiracies in comments to an article Sunstein wrote.
I am Bloomberg View contributor Cass Sunstein: my latest book focuses on Conspiracy Theories and other Dangerous Ideas. AMA! (self.IAmA) submitted 2 hours ago* by CassRSunstein
[–]nrauhauser -2 points 2 hours ago
I have implemented many of the ideas you set forth in your 2008 paper on cognitive infiltration, doing so under the brand name 'Conspiracy Brokers'.
I shut it down at the first of the year but we had a great deal of fun at the expense of Breitbart.com, Michelle Bachmann, National Blogger's Club, the Romney campaign team, the DOJ, Groundswell, and a number of less notable conspiracy theory nests.
At one point during the summer of 2012 a group of 87 House offices sent the DOJ a letter about some of our alleged doings. Has any of this grassroots effort been noticed at the level where you work?
There is a Wordpress site called ConspiracyBrokers and a companion site Kookpocalypse that show a bit of the history of the effort, which ran roughly from early 2011 until the end of 2013.
I can no longer protect the one who hurt me the most, and I officially declare myself as independent and free.
Goodbye for now to The Powers That Beat, I am growing so tired ofthat nightmare where I cannot move my feet.
I am one today, but I am not alone; my DNA and birthright does not make me a clone.
Any genetic disorders, whatever they may be; will never again stand in the way for my fight to be free.
My bloodline alone comes right back to you, and your ridiculous denials are nothing new.
I must protect myself from your twisted mind, never forget, late last night, you left me behind.
You may think I have forgotten all your hysterical pleas, but I am legally required to remind you of these.
I hope you are ready for what lies ahead, because I do not think anyone else will agree this was all in my head.
You may dispose of my photos, writings, and more, I am sorry you do not realize you have officially now escalated funny money into a full-fledged war.
You declared this yourself, on March the Fourteenth, and I will expect it in writing before the next April 15th.
You no longer manipulate my ID or actions and blame; for I am not the one who falsely claims to be poor.
You may find it a little bit harder to blame it on crazy and point the finger at me; I am posting it here for the whole to see.
Do not blame my siblings or my father's new wife; material wealth should mean more value than yourown child's life.
I got excluded from the human genome, stop feeding me crazy, just bring it back home.
The suicide note I once left in your possession, should no longer be guarded as your greatest protection.
I defy the heritage that left me broken inside; any tears I have shed will finally subside; I no longer will allowmyself to be tried by the ridiculous facade that has given YOU a false sense of pride.
I am now on my own, as was always the case; it is so very sad you thought of this as a race.
I will honor your request to sever all ties; it is long overdue that I be free from your lies.
I never signed on to your game of deception, there was much more at stake than a strangers'perception.
So just as you once photographed my tattoo, sadly but surely, this one joke is on you.
I doubt you heard myvery last words, but they were words of sincerity I hope that you'll review because my concern was genuine; just too familiar, we discussed nothing new.
I defy my heritage and reject your faith; I think I am worth more than an aborted mistake.
I declare my freedom and reject your "good faith" I am sorry you believe I was your biggest mistake.
You are so transparent it is easy to see, I hope you leave this behind the same way you left me.
My bloodline runs deeper than your maternal pride; I pray for your sake psychosis is real, for I see no other way your pain will ever be healed.
I am over and done with this stupid game, I gave you more than one warning to amend your tax claim.
So as I fight for my freedom, my health and my name, I hope your psychosis protects you from shame.
I must no longer allow trauma to guide me through life; I cannot worry about details as you become a new wife, you are correct in your assessment that you have earned all the "things" you cling to for dear life.
If there ever was a time to say, "This too shall pass...," then please go ahead and kiss my tattooed fat ass!
How a hacker's typo helped stop a billion dollar bank heist | Daily Mail Online
How a hacker's typo helped stop a billion dollar bank heist
By Reuters 08:09 10 Mar 2016, updated 08:09 10 Mar 2016
By Serajul Quadir
DHAKA, March 10 (Reuters) - A spelling mistake in an online bank transfer instruction helped prevent a nearly $1 billion heist last month involving the Bangladesh central bank and the New York Fed, banking officials said.
Unknown hackers still managed to get away with about $80 million, one of the largest known bank thefts in history.
The hackers breached Bangladesh Bank's systems last month and stole its credentials for payment transfers, two senior Bangladesh Bank officials said.
They then bombarded the Federal Reserve Bank of New York with nearly three dozen requests to move money from the Bangladesh bank's account there to entities in the Philippines and Sri Lanka, the officials said.
Four requests to transfer a total of about $81 million to the Philippines went through, but a fifth, for $20 million, to a Sri Lankan non-profit organisation got held up because the hackers misspelled the name of the NGO.
The full name of the non-profit could not be learned. But one of the officials said the hackers misspelled "foundation" in the NGO's name as "fandation", prompting a routing bank, Deutsche Bank, to seek clarification from the Bangladesh central bank, which stopped the transaction.
Deutsche Bank declined to comment.
At the same time the unusually high number of payment instructions and the transfer requests to private entities - as opposed to other banks - made the Fed suspicious, which also alerted the Bangladeshis, the officials said.
The details of how the hacking came to light and was stopped before it did more damage have not been previously reported. Bangladesh Bank has billions of dollars in a current account with the Fed, which it uses for international settlements.
The transactions that got stopped totalled between $850 million and $870 million, one of the officials said.
Last year, Russian computer security company Kaspersky Lab said a multinational gang of cyber criminals had stolen as much as $1 billion from as many as 100 financial institutions around the world in about two years.
Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's son Qusay took $1 billion from Iraq's central bank on the orders of his father on the day before coalition forces began bombing the country in 2003, American and Iraqi officials have said. In 2007, guards at the Dar Es Salaam bank in Baghdad made off with $282 million.
MONEY RECOVERED
Bangladesh Bank has said it has recovered part of the money that was stolen, and is working with anti-money laundering authorities in the Philippines to try to recover the rest of the funds.
The recovered funds refer to the Sri Lanka transfer, which got stopped, one of the officials said.
The dizzying, global reach of the heist underscores the growing threat of cyber crime and how hackers can find weak links in even the most secure computer networks to steal money and wreak havoc.
More than a month after the attack, Bangladeshi officials are scrambling to trace the money, shore up security and identify weaknesses in their systems. They said there is little hope of ever catching the hackers, and it could take months before the money is recovered, if at all.
Security experts said the perpetrators had deep knowledge of the Bangladeshi institution's internal workings, likely gained by spying on bank workers.
The Bangladesh government, meanwhile, is blaming the Fed for not stopping the transactions earlier.
Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith told reporters on Tuesday that the country may resort to suing the Fed to recover the money.
"The Fed must take responsibility," the minister said.
The New York Fed has said that its systems were not breached and that it has been working with the Bangladesh central bank since the incident occurred.
The hacking of Bangladesh Bank happened sometime between Feb. 4 and Feb. 5, over the Bangladeshi weekend, which falls on a Friday, the officials said. The bank's offices were shut for the holiday.
Initially, the central bank was not sure if their system had been breached, but then cyber security experts, brought from the outside to investigate, found hacker "footprints" that suggested their system had been compromised, the officials said.
These experts could also tell that the attack originated from outside Bangladesh, they said. The bank is still looking into how they got into the system and an internal investigation is also continuing, they said.
The bank suspects money sent to the Philippines was further diverted to casinos there, the officials said.
The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp, which oversees the gaming industry there, said it has launched an investigation. The country's anti-money laundering authority is also working on the case. (Additional reporting by Jim Finkle in BOSTON, Jonathan Spicer in NEW YORK, Farah Master in HONG KONG and Shihar Aneez in COLOMBO; Editing by Paritosh Bansal and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
College Hackers Compete to Shine Spotlight on Cybersecurity - ABC News
College Hackers Compete to Shine Spotlight on Cybersecurity
Students from MIT and Britain's University of Cambridge will spend the weekend hacking one another's computers, with the blessing of their national leaders.
The two schools are competing in a hacking contest that U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron announced last year among other joint cybersecurity projects between the two nations. The White House billed it as a showdown between the two prestigious schools, both known as heavyweights in the world of computer science.
But the colleges opted to make it a friendlier match. Instead of facing off against each other, the schools assigned their top hackers to six teams made up of students from both institutions. Teams will gather at MIT on Friday and then, for a frenzied 24 hours, try to hack into their opponents' computers and steal a trove of files.
"This isn't us versus them," said Howard Shrobe, a principal researcher at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, which is hosting the event. "It's the best of both schools working together."
Along with bragging rights, winners will receive cash prizes of more than $20,000. It's intended to be the first in a series of global cybersecurity competitions.
After a summit in Washington last year, Obama and Cameron jointly called for wider collaboration on cybersecurity. It was only weeks after the U.S. government accused North Korea of hacking computers at Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. The leaders also agreed to form a joint "cyber cell" among their national security agencies, among other measures.
Major breaches like the Sony hack have underscored what experts say is a shortage of cybersecurity professionals. An industry group reported last year that 86 percent of its members believe there is a shortage of skilled workers. The contest at MIT aims to spark interest in the field and to promote cooperation among academics.
"It is essential for us to work together and compare notes," said Frank Stajano, leader of the Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research at the University of Cambridge, which is sending 10 students to the competition. "If you're not at least as good as the bad guys, then you have no chance against them."
Hacking competitions have been gaining popularity in recent years, both as sport and to train students for jobs in cybersecurity. By carrying out attacks, students learn to uncover weak spots in security systems and, in turn, build better defenses. On Friday, students will use computers that have hidden vulnerabilities already built-in.
"You have to identify them and patch them before other competitors notice them," said Rahul Sridhar, a sophomore competitor from MIT.
The event is styled after other so-called "capture the flag" hacking competitions, including an annual contest at the Def Con hacking conference that draws top professionals.
For the competition Friday, teams are encouraged to use any means necessary to retrieve the files they're hunting for. They can stick to hacking or try to trick opponents into divulging key information. It's meant to replicate a real cyberattack, with students thrown into the middle. Side events will let students tackle other challenges, including a lock-picking contest.
"Part of cybersecurity is physical security, too," Shrobe said. "Plus it's fun to learn how to pick a lock."
Both schools provided training to their students in recent weeks to sharpen their hacking skills. At the University of Cambridge, Stajano is already planning to add that training to the broader curriculum.
Meanwhile, organizers are already talking about arranging a sequel next year, perhaps with other institutions from around the world.
"The bad guys are organized," Stajano said, "so the good guys have to be organized as well."
