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Superior court judge who suspected DA hacked her computer is charged with computer trespassing

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October 4, 2019

Superior court judge who suspected DA hacked her computer is charged with computer trespassing

By Debra Cassens Weiss

A superior court judge in Gwinnett County, Georgia, has been indicted on three counts of computer trespass for allegedly allowing outsiders to access the county computer system, reportedly to investigate whether the district attorney had hacked her computer.

Judge Kathryn Schrader was indicted Wednesday along with a private investigator and two computer specialists allegedly given access to the computer system and data. One of the experts had been convicted of child molestation. Law.com, the Gwinnett Daily Post, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Associated Press have coverage; a press release is here.

The indictment has few details. But a March court filing by a lawyer for the convicted child molester said the Georgia Bureau of Investigation was investigating whether Schrader allowed the experts to access the county computer system because she suspected that Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter had hacked her computer. The Gwinnett Daily Post had coverage.

The court filing said one of the experts had installed a WireShark device on Schrader’s computer in February to monitor suspicious activity on the computer network. The convicted child molester, Ed Kramer, was hired to analyze data collected by the device.

According to the filing, Kramer found “clear signs” that someone had accessed Schrader’s computer without permission, according to the AP.

During the time period when Kramer was monitoring the data, he was accused of violating probation for taking a photo of a child at a doctor’s office. The court filing by Kramer’s lawyer sought to disqualify Porter in the parole violation case on the grounds that he was a potential witness in the computer-access investigation.

Porter had learned that Kramer had access to county computers after his office seized Kramer’s electronic devices to look for photos of the child in the doctor’s office, the court filing said.

Porter has denied hacking Schrader’s computer. The criminal case was handled by the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia because Porter is considered a witness.

Schrader is no longer hearing criminal cases as a result of the investigation.

Schrader’s lawyer, B.J. Bernstein, issued this statement: “Judge Schrader has spent her career pursuing justice as an attorney and as a judge. She believes in the justice system and knows from her years of experience the presumption of innocence is real and necessary because she’s seen the innocent needing a trial to undo an allegation. Standing unfairly accused she will rely on her deep faith, family and her belief in justice to defend herself.”

Culled from ABA Journalhttp://www.abajournal.com/news/article/judge-said-to-believe-da-hacked-her-computer-is-charged-with-computer-trespassing

The dangers of repudiating history

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October 3, 2019

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By Chris Akor

had decided to write on the trampling of the rule of law by the Buhari government. But just as I started, I chanced upon this article I wrote last year. It captured exactly everything I wanted to say. I reproduce it again with minor modifications. This article was first published August 30^th 2018.

Following early signals that the Buhari administration was not totally committed to upholding the rule of law and due process, I started writing, since 2016, to warn about the administration’s gradual descent into autocracy. Of course, not many people took me seriously. I was dismissed as a “wailer” and an unrepentant critic of President Buhari who was just doing his utmost to deal with the miasma left by 16 years of the People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) rule.

The silence from the bar, academics and thought leaders was noticeably loud. I guess, haven invested so much energy and reputation into the Buhari project, they could not turn their backs on him.

But much more dangerous was a belief, prevalent in Nigeria at the time, that corruption could not be effectively fought within the ambits of the rule of law. We were therefore willing to overlook the occasional disregard of the law and the judiciary and the employment of unconventional and unlawful methods in dealing with the hoard of corrupt officials in Nigeria.

However, with the recent happenings in the polity – the wilful disregard of the rule of law, wanton human rights abuses, the not-so-subtle attempts to silence all opposition and divergent voices, and to illegally remove and replace the leadership of the national assembly – Nigerians are beginning to see a pattern. And when a democratically elected president looks all citizens in the eyes and tell them national security and public interests would come before individuals’ rights, then they know no one is really safe from the clutches of such a state.

But Buhari didn’t just take us by surprise. He has a history which we all failed to take into account. In the run up to the 2015 general elections, I’d watched with shock and horror how we all repudiated our history – of events that happened between 1984 and 1985 – and proclaimed Buhari to be the answer to all our national woes and the best person to fix our ailing economy.

Being a keen student of Nigerian government and politics, I’d read virtually every available historical account of the Buhari military regime – and there was almost a universal consensus that the regime was a major economic disaster. Unable to convince multilateral agencies to advance lines of credit to Nigeria following the regime’s stubborn refusal to countenance even a partial devaluation of the country’s currency and due to the drying up of the country’s foreign reserves in the face of declining oil prices, the regime chose rather to engage in counter-trading (or more appropriately trade by barter) where the country bartered its oil cheaply for spare parts and other raw materials to escape from its economic immobilism.

Expectedly, the measure only worsened the country’s dire economic situations. Wages still went unpaid and there were general shortages of basic commodities like rice, milk, sugar, etc and the helpless masses had to queue endlessly to get to these items. Industries had to close shop and those that managed to remain open operated at very low capacity.

Confronted by the apparent failure of its policies to revamp the economy, the regime became even more oppressive and intolerant of criticism. As Adebayo Olukoshi and Tajudeen Abdulraheem rightly noted, “The Nigerian Security Organisation’s powers were significantly expanded. Then the state began to play the old card of blaming so-called illegal ECOWAS immigrants, especially from Ghana, for the continued shortage of commodities and jobs. But the diversion created by the second mass expulsion of aliens early in 1985 was only short-lived and was soon exhausted.”

As rational explanations ran dry, repression became the norm. The famous decree 4 that prohibited journalists from reporting anything that could embarrass the regime, even if it were true, was promulgated. It did not take long before two journalists fell fowl of the law and were consequently locked up. Soldiers were sent out with whips to enforce order and discipline on the streets and ensure cleanliness in people’s homes.

Special secret military tribunals were set up to try politicians accused of corruption despite protests and boycotts of the tribunals by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). The accused were all presumed guilty until they could prove their innocence, and few managed that task. Most were given ridiculously long sentences, some running into hundreds of years. Certain crimes like drug trafficking, smuggling, and oil bunkering were made to carry the death sentence and three Nigerians were retroactively executed under this law.

The most sensational example of the regime’s recklessness was the botched attempted kidnap and forced repatriation of Nigeria’s former transport minister under the Shagari regime, Umaru Dikko, who was found drugged in a crate in a London airport that had been tagged as diplomatic baggage. This led to a break-up of diplomatic relations between Nigeria and the Britain.

The history we all rejected and repudiated has come back to haunt us. Just like 1984/85, we have had to endure the worst economic recession in Nigeria in almost 30 years, watched as hyper-inflation and rapid depreciation of the naira erode the spending power of Nigerians and threw millions of Nigerians into extreme poverty. Even, various attempts have been made to bring back the infamous “Decree 4” in form of the “Anti-Social Media Bill”. With the president’s stand on the rule of law, Nigerians should be ready for a full-blown dictatorship in his second term – and perhaps after.

There are feelers that some persons are working on a life presidency project for the president. Recently, the APC candidate for the Senatorial bye-election in Bauchi south, Lawal Yahaya-Gusau stated explicitly that he had only one agenda for seeking to go to the senate – to work towards a constitutional amendment to pave the way for Buhari to become president-for-life. Yahaya-Gusau did win the election and there has been no word of caution or denunciation from either the party or the presidency. Considering how Obasanjo’s third-term project started, we will be foolish to dismiss Yahaya-Gusau’s campaign promise as wishful thinking.

Culled from BusinessDay

Exploring new frontiers in research for the legal industry

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October 3, 2019

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Exploring new frontiers in research for the legal industry

By Jason Tashea

It’s been a surprise to legal tech blogger Bob Ambrogi that legal research has become a hotbed of new entrants with novel approaches to legal research.

“If five years ago you had said to me, ‘What’s one area of technology that going to see a significant degree of innovation over the next few years?’ I think legal research probably would have been the last one I would have identified,” he says.

In an industry that was dominated by two major players just a decade ago, “startups are reimagining, rethinking the way we do research,” he says, which is impacting those legacy companies.

Why scraping publicly available information online isn’t a crime

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October 3, 2019

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Why scraping publicly available information online isn’t a crime

BY Jason Tashea

Earlier this month, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at San Francisco took a stand for an open internet. A three-judge panel found that automated searching of a public website, also called web scraping, is not a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the country’s main anti-hacking law.

At issue was whether or not hiQ Labs, a data analytics company, could continue to scrape publicly available data from LinkedIn, which is owned by Microsoft, even after the resumé website sent a cease-and-desist letter.

LinkedIn argued that, after receiving the cease-and-desist letter, hiQ Labs’s scraping was “unauthorized access”—the internet’s version of trespass—under the CFAA. HiQ Labs thought that, since the data it collected was public, its actions were legal. The appellate court sided with hiQ Labs.

How to prepare yourself and your clients to respond to data breaches

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October 3, 2019

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How to prepare yourself and your clients to respond to data breaches

BY James M. Davis AND Bradley H. Dlatt

Data breaches are everywhere, and they are expensive. In the first six months of 2019, there were more than 3,800 reported data breaches—a 54% increase from the same period last year—exposing more than 4.1 billion records. The average reported cost of a data breach for an American company is $8.2 million.

We work every day with individuals and businesses that face the real prospect of a network intrusion, a data breach or other cyber-related event that—if successful—comes with potentially staggering costs. Experts caution businesses to treat these attacks as inevitable. In addition to looking out for our clients, lawyers and law firms themselves need to be ready.

Last October, the ABA’s Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility issued Formal Opinion 483: “Lawyers’ Obligations After an Electronic Data Breach or Cyberattack,” which acknowledged that lawyers and law firms are a target for hackers and addressed many of the key concerns lawyers and law firms must consider when responding to a breach of their own systems. The steps in this article apply equally to your own practice.

As counselors and trusted advisers, it is our job to ensure that our clients, and our own law firms, take the necessary precautions to prepare for a possible cyber-related event.

Sex, Food and Dating—The (Other) News This Week

Opinion

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October 3, 2019

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Sex, Food and Dating—The (Other) News This Week

I know I should be poring over that whistleblower’s complaint. But instead, let me give you something that’s much more invigorating: news and gossip you definitely do not need.

By Vivia Chen

I don’t know about you, but I am at a saturation point with news about our Dear Leader and his dealings with Ukraine. I know I should be poring over that whistleblower’s complaint, the details of Trump’s conversation with the Ukraine leader and the testimony of acting National Intelligence director Joseph Maguire (the latest contender for the weasel of the year award), but where would that take us? It’ll just get us all riled up, then depressed.

Instead, let me give you something that’s much more invigorating: news and gossip you definitely do not need. Here’s my People magazine edition of the happenings of the day:

Does your job cover you for death via sex? Now that we know our new labor secretary Eugene Scalia has a much more liberal attitude about sexual mores than his dad, I’ve been wondering if he’s ready to apply the French rule to sex on the job.

The New York Times reports: “A court in France has ruled that a man who died from a heart attack after having sex during a business trip had suffered a work-related accident and that his employer was liable.”

Melinda Gates: Here’s Why I’m Committing $1 Billion to Promote Gender Equality

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October 3, 2019

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Melinda Gates: Here’s Why I’m Committing $1 Billion to Promote Gender Equality

By Melinda Gates

In 2018, there were more men named James running Fortune 500 companies than there were women. This year, only one CEO on that list of 500 is a woman of color. Women are 51 percent of the population but hold only 24 percent of the seats in Congress.

My reaction to facts like these is a complicated mix of outrage and optimism. I imagine I’m not alone. It’s frustrating—even heartbreaking—to confront evidence of the many ways our country continues to hold women back.

Then again, for most of our history, women’s absence from positions of power and influence wasn’t newsworthy; it was normal. The fact we’re now talking about these inequities is itself a sign of progress.

A window of opportunity has opened. Or, more accurately, it was painstakingly pried open by the hundreds of thousands of people who have joined marches across the country, the millions of women who summoned the courage to tell their #MeToo stories, the record number of women who ran for office in 2018 and won— and by the women who are working multiple jobs, caring for multiple loved ones, and proving you don’t have to protest or enter politics to challenge a system stacked against you. It wasn’t just grand gestures that got us here. It was daily acts of courage, too.

The first black Professor honoured with a portrait at St. Peter’s College, Oxford University is a Nigerian

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October 3, 2019

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The first black Professor honoured with a portrait at St. Peter’s College, Oxford University is a Nigerian

UK-based Nigerian professor of public international law, Dapo Akande has been honoured with a portrait at St Peter’s College, Oxford University.

Akande will be the first black professor to stand gallantly in the halls of the college located in the prestigious and current world’s number University

The 46-year-old educator has spent most of his adult life lecturing at great institutions in the United Kingdom

Professor of Public international law, Dapo Akande has been honoured with a portrait at St. Peter’s College in Oxford University, United Kingdom, making him the first black professor to be bestowed such an honour in the college of the prestigious university.

Akande who is Yamani Fellow at St. Peter’s College and Co-Director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict (ELAC) has spent most of his adult life as an educator. Starting as a part-time lecturer at London School of Economics and then at Christ’s College and Wolfson College, Cambridge from 1994 to 1998.

From 1998 to 2004, Akande made giant strides as he was lecturer in law at the University of Nottingham School of Law and University of Durham. He then moved on to University of Miami School of Law till 2009, when he Yale Law School as a visiting associate professor and Robinna Foundation International Fellow.

Not only is he a remarkable educator, he has advised states and international organizations on matters of international law as well as advised and assisted counsel, provided expert opinions in cases before the International Court of Justice, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, international arbitral tribunals, WTO and NAFTA Dispute Settlement Panels as well as cases in England and the United States of America.

Little wonder that Akande, who is currently a professor of public international law at the Blavatnik School of Government, was nominated alongside two other colleagues for teaching awards in 2018. The 46-year-old professor was nominated under the most acclaimed lecturer category.

A Facebook user Yomi Layinka had this to say about the brilliant educator below:

Dapo Akande(1973- ) is a Professor of Public International Law at the prestigious Oxford University.
On Monday the 23rd of September, history was made when he became the first Black Professor to be honoured with a portrait at St. Peter’s College, Oxford University.

Dapo is also a Fellow at Exeter College and Co-Director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict (ELAC) & the Oxford Martin Programme on Human Rights for Future Generations. He has held visiting professorships at Yale Law School (where he was also Robinna Foundation International Fellow), the University of Miami School of Law and the Catolica Global Law School, Lisbon. Before taking up his position in Oxford in 2004, he was Lecturer in Law at the University of Nottingham School of Law (1998-2000) and at the University of Durham (2000-2004). From 1994 to 1998, he taught international law (part-time) at the London School of Economics and at Christ’s College and Wolfson College, University of Cambridge. His father is Emeritus Professor Ebenezer Oluwole Akande who was the first Chief Medical Director of the University College of Hospital, Ibadan in 1978 to 1984 and former Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Ibadan.

The Portrait is by Catherine Goodman, Artistic Director of the Royal Drawing School.

The Portrait was created by Catherine Goodman, Artistic Director of the Royal Drawing School, England.

Interestingly, Akande is an apple who didn’t fall far from its tree. His father is emeritus Professor Ebenezer Oluwole Akande, who was the first Chief Medical Director of the University College of Hospital, Ibadan in 1978 to 1984 and former Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at University of Ibadan.

Indeed, the Akandes have one hell of a legacy.

The Nigerian professor who heads a US hospital and institute

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October 3, 2019

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The Nigerian professor who heads a US hospital and institute

Philip O. Ozuah, a Nigerian by birth, is one of the very recognised doctors in the US and as well an academic- Ozuah got his first degree in medicine from University of Ibadan before he went to South California to bag his Masters- The Nigerian doctor has gotten many awards for his exceptional services, one of which is the famed Harry Gordon Award for Outsanding Clinical Teaching

Philip O. Ozuah, a Nigerian medical doctor, is one of the best in the US as he is a professor in the departments of pediatrics and epidemiology and population health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

In 1992, he joined the very important faculty at Montefiore and was the head of the residency training affairs of the college and got a very big promotion to the level of a professor of pediatrics and family medicine and community health.

As if that was not enough, the Nigerian in 2015 got a feather added to his numerous awards as he was promoted to the level of the university chairman of the department in the college and at Montefiore.

It should be noted the Ozuah had his medical degree certification at University of Ibadan, Nigeria and did his internship at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital before he proceeded to Southern California for his Masters programme, and got his PhD from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.The Nigerian has also gotten several awards, out of which are the Lewis M. Fraad Award for Excellence in Resident Teaching, the Harry Gordon Award for Outstanding Clinical Teaching, among several others.Ozuah is not just a world recognised medical practitioner, he is a teacher and writer of several publications that have helped advance the medical field.

SOURCE: legit.com

Meet the Nigerian neurosurgeon who risks his life to jet home every month from US to perform free surgery

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October 3, 2019

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Meet the Nigerian neurosurgeon who risks his life to jet home every month from US to perform free surgery

Neurosurgeons are known as skilled operators. But straddling surgeries across two continents? That’s a different skill entirely.

Dr. Olawale Sulaiman, 41, is a professor of neurosurgery and spinal surgery and chairman for the neurosurgery department and back and spine center at the Ochsner Neuroscience Institute in New Orleans. He lives in Louisiana, but splits his time between the US and Nigeria, spending up to 12 days each month providing healthcare in the country of his birth — sometimes for free.

Born in Lagos Island, Lagos, Sulaiman says his motivation comes from growing up in a relatively poor region.

“I am one of 10 children born into a polygamous family. My siblings and I shared one room where we often found ourselves sleeping on a mat on the floor,” he told CNN.

His parents could not afford his university tuition, but Sulaiman said at the age of 19, he received a scholarship to study medicine in Bulgaria through the Bureau for External Aid, a Nigerian government program targeted at improving the quality of life for Nigeria’s most vulnerable communities.

Sulaiman said the scholarship opened many doors and, in turn, he feels responsible to give back through healthcare. “Africans who have had the privilege of getting outstanding training and education abroad must mobilize their network of influence to transform our continent,” he said.

According to a report by the Global Health Workforce Alliance, Nigeria’s healthcare system does not have enough personnel to effectively deliver essential health services to the country’s large population.

Sulaiman says he wants to use his knowledge to improve the healthcare system. “As I often do, I consulted with my loving and devoted wife for advice. We both decided that giving back was the only option for both of us, and for our family. We have never looked back,” he added.

Starting a health company

In 2010, Sulaiman established RNZ Global, a healthcare development company with his wife, Patricia. The company provides medical services including neuro and spinal surgery, and offers health courses like first aid CPR in Nigeria and the US

Noting a shortfall in physician-scientists (doctors with a combined degree in medicine and a PhD) like himself, Sulaiman decided it was important to extend his expertise to Nigeria too.

“I would use my vacation times for the medical missions, which were also planned with education and training sessions. We donated a lot of medications, equipment and hands-on training on surgical techniques,” he said.

Sulaiman said he negotiated a 25% pay cut with his American employer in exchange for longer holidays to Nigeria to pursue his passion. RNZ Global has treated more than 500 patients and provided preventative medicine to up to 5,000 people in the US and Nigeria.

Dr. Yusuf Salman, a neurosurgeon based in Abuja, Nigeria has known Sulaiman since 2006. In 2013, through a partnership with MPAC, a faith-related organization, both doctors worked together to provide free spinal surgeries to underprivileged Nigerians in Kwara, north-central Nigeria.

“(Sulaiman) came to Nigeria with implants and equipment from the US so that we could operate for free on people with spine-related problems. He was the lead surgeon and I and a couple of others assisted him at the time. We did about 10 surgeries,” Salman said.

“Over the years, I have learned a lot about minimally invasive spine surgery just from working closely with him. It is a complex procedure and we don’t have a lot of experts on it over here,” he added.

Life-changing surgery

One of his former patients Philomena Arah described his surgeries as “life-changing.”

Arah met Sulaiman for the first time in Lagos in 2018 through a friend. Before meeting him, she had spent more than 15 years trying to find a permanent solution to her frequent excruciating back pain.

“Walking was unbearable, I couldn’t even stand straight. I was not happy. The pain stopped me from socializing, from participating in many things. I could not even exercise the way I wanted,” Arah told CNN.

She would later find out from Sulaiman and his team that she needed a laminectomy, a surgical procedure where part or all of a vertebral bone is removed to relieve pressure on the spinal cord. According to Arah, the surgery in Nigeria cost considerably less than if she had traveled to the US for the procedure.

RNZ Global also has a not-for-profit arm called RNZ foundation. The foundation, registered in 2019, focuses on managing patients with neurological diseases for free.

“We offer free services and surgery for those that are less privileged and cannot afford the cost,” said Blessing Holison, patient care coordinator for RNZ Global.

Sulaiman hopes to establish at least four neuroscience centers in Nigeria in the coming years.

“I believe that happiness doesn’t come from what you get, rather, it comes from what you give,” he said. “There is always room to give; you don’t need to be a millionaire to give.”

CNN.com

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