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On December 8, I noticed the Govt. of Alberta had posted a new video to YouTube titled, FOIP Request Service Guided Tour. You know what? I’ve honestly always wanted to submit a FOIP request! Here are some initial thoughts on how it went, and I’ll report back if/when I hear something. So we start at […]
December 2020 LC LABS LETTERA Monthly Roundup of News and Thoughts from the Library of Congress Labs Team Our Projects Can the Library of Congress Labs team interview you? Would you or someone you know be willing to (virtually) sit down with us for a 1-on-1 interview? We are looking for people to take part in […]
U.S. government cybersecurity agencies warned this week that the attackers behind the widespread hacking spree stemming from the compromise at network software firm SolarWinds used weaknesses in other, non-SolarWinds products to attack high-value targets. According to sources, among those was a flaw in software virtualization platform VMware, which the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) warned […]
Experimenting toward the Digital Strategy Visualization of the American English Dialect Recordings Collection (held by the American Folklife Center) in Citizen DJ, a recent experiment from LC Labs. In LC Labs we work collaboratively across the Library of Congress, and with external partners, to advance and the agency’s Digital Strategy. We do this through experimentation, […]
On this week’s Princh Library Blog post we have guest writer Stephen Abram sharing his thoughts on how the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has affected libraries, and how libraries can adopt to create the “new norm”. What we learnt A few things are clear now: The COVID-19 crisis and the attendant behavioural changes will last a […]
A key malicious domain name used to control potentially thousands of computer systems compromised via the months-long breach at network monitoring software vendor SolarWinds was commandeered by security experts and used as a “killswitch” designed to turn the sprawling cybercrime operation against itself, KrebsOnSecurity has learned. Austin, Texas-based SolarWinds disclosed this week that a compromise […]
The still-unfolding breach at network management software firm SolarWinds may have resulted in malicious code being pushed to nearly 18,000 customers, the company said in a legal filing on Monday. Meanwhile, Microsoft should soon have some idea which and how many SolarWinds customers were affected, as it recently took possession of a key domain name […]
Communications at the U.S. Treasury and Commerce Departments were reportedly compromised by a supply chain attack on SolarWinds, a security vendor that helps the federal government and a range of Fortune 500 companies monitor the health of their IT networks. Given the breadth of the company’s customer base, experts say the incident may be just […]
The Lighting the Way project team is pleased to announce the publication of Lighting the Way: A Preliminary Report on the National Forum on Archival Discovery and Delivery, which summarizes and synthesizes the activities and outcome from the event hosted by Stanford Libraries in February 2020. The Forum focused on information sharing and collaborative problem […]
Payment card processing giant TSYS suffered a ransomware attack earlier this month. Since then reams of data stolen from the company have been posted online, with the attackers promising to publish more in the coming days. But the company says the malware did not jeopardize card data, and that the incident was limited to administrative […]
Academic librarianship has faced a great amount of change during the past two decades. Libraries from the higher education system, along with those outsides of it, have handled multiple technological and socio-cultural paradigm shifts, by changing their organizational strategies and services. For example, information today is created, shared, and stored differently than is has been […]
The 2020 Staff Innovator project brought together two different parts of the Library of Congress—the Library Collections and Services Group (LCSG) and the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO). LCSG sponsored a 120-day detail that temporarily placed a staff member from LCSG in my team, LC Labs to work together on a problem that […]
Microsoft today issued its final batch of security updates for Windows PCs in 2020, ending the year with a relatively light patch load. Nine of the 58 security vulnerabilities addressed this month earned Microsoft’s most-dire “critical” label, meaning they can be abused by malware or miscreants to seize remote control over PCs without any help […]
For a meeting last week at MPOW we were asked to read Algorithms of Oppression, by Safiya Umoja Noble. As a cis, white male, I found it a good reminder of a lot of stuff I am vaguely aware of, but don’t have to “deal with” in the same way as the majority of the […]
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) said this week that beginning in 2021 it will allow all taxpayers to apply for an identity protection personal identification number (IP PIN), a single-use code designed to block identity thieves from falsely claiming a tax refund in your name. Currently, IP PINs are issued only to those who […]
What is a librarian’s worst nightmare? No, it is not the loud patrons, not the damaged books, and not even the romantic rendezvous that take place at their libraries. It is, in fact, the book thieves. Historically, libraries tried not to release information about the theft and mutilation of very rare and precious books, due […]
The following is a guest post by the 2021 Innovator in Residence Courtney McClellan, a research-based artist who lives in Atlanta, Georgia. With a subject focus on speech and civic engagement, McClellan works in a range of media including sculpture, performance, photography, and writing. She has served as studio art faculty at Virginia Commonwealth University, […]
For at least the third time in its existence, OGUsers — a forum overrun with people looking to buy, sell and trade access to compromised social media accounts — has been hacked. An offer by the apparent hackers of OGUsers, offering to remove account information from the eventual database leak in exchange for payment. Roughly […]
Our online column Letters of the Law explores a wide range of legal issues that arise in libraries, with the help of a pair of leading authorities: Mary Minow, a librarian who became a lawyer; and Tomas A. Lipinski, a lawyer who became a librarian. Together they have authored four books on the subject, including […]
Gift-giving in 2020 should be all about whimsy, relaxation, and most important—comfort. And while your favorite librarians and book lovers probably don’t need more reading material, you can indulge them with thoughtful presents that help them enjoy the books they have. On our list, everything is priced under $50, from cozy clothes and decadent treats […]
