March 2021 Archives

Howard Greenwald, a trial attorney with Chopra & Nocerino, told Justice Lawrence Knipel, administrative judge for civil matters in Kings County, that he had begun to participate in proceedings wearing a face shield but was told he had to wear a mask, according to a transcript of the proceedings.

"I complied with that," Greenwald said. "I attempted to do this for a couple of minutes. I had particular difficulty. Just talking to Your Honor right now with the mask, my nose fills. I can't breathe."

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Let's say you have a Zoom meeting, but your normal work-from-home space is occupied, or worse, a mess. You have no time to clean it up, or find a neutral, privacy-maintaining space to set up, and panic sets in. Don't worry--you have options built right into Zoom to hide the space behind you: background blurring. 

This easily toggleable option can keep your space private, or render messy rooms indeterminably fuzzy, and it's available in Zoom right now.

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Think of an NFT as a certificate of authenticity. But instead of a sheet of paper, it's a unique string of characters. For example, the NFT for this piece of digital artwork created by actress Lindsay Lohan is 0x60f80121c31a0d46b5279700f9df786054aa5ee5. 

That string is connected to a blockchain, the same concept that powers cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. The main difference is that bitcoins are fungible, which means they are essentially the same. NFTs are non-fungible -- each one is unique. 

Blockchains work by using groups of computers to create a shared digital ledger that no one computer can change. Instead, they must agree by performing complex calculations -- a system that yields a secure and unchangeable document. 

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Two top state court officials have issued a memorandum emphasizing appropriate decorum and etiquette for all virtual court proceedings.

The memorandum was sent to all administrative judges statewide by Hon. Vito C. Caruso, deputy chief administrative judge for the courts outside New York City, and Hon. George J. Silver, deputy chief administrative judge for the New York City Courts.

Law on Call--touted as the first entirely nonlawyer owned law firm in the United States--is open for business in Utah.

Law on Call is operating as a result of legal reforms approved by the Utah Supreme Court in August 2020, according to a March 15 press release.

The two-year pilot project allows law firms with nonlawyer owners and nontraditional legal service providers to operate in a "regulatory sandbox" in the state.

Law.com and Reuters Legal have coverage.

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On Mar. 17, 2021, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released the U.S. intelligence community's unclassified assessment of domestic violent extremism in the United States. The four-page document states that "domestic violent extremists (DVEs) who are motivated by a range of ideologies and galvanized by recent political and societal events in the United States pose an elevated threat" to homeland security this year. It cites unsubstantiated claims of fraud in the 2020 election, the Jan. 6 Capitol breach, pandemic-related conditions and conspiracy theories as sociopolitical developments that could embolden or spur violence in 2021. 

The report details that "lone offenders or small cells of DVEs adhering to a diverse set of violent extremist ideologies are more likely to carry out violent attacks in the Homeland than organizations that allegedly advocate a DVE ideology" as such attackers are often radicalized online and mobilize without direction--a dynamic that makes it more difficult for U.S. officials to detect and thwart the planned violence, according to the document. 

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You can read the threat assessment here.

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Hafnium has now exploited zero-day vulnerabilities in Microsoft's Exchange servers' Outlook Web Access to indiscriminately compromise no fewer than tens of thousands of email servers, according to sources with knowledge of the investigation into the hacking campaign who spoke to WIRED. The intrusions, first spotted by security firm Volexity, began as early as January 6, with a noticeable uptick starting last Friday and spiking early this week. The hackers appear to have responded to Microsoft's patch, released Tuesday, by ramping up and automating their hacking campaign. One security researcher involved in the investigation who spoke to WIRED on the condition of anonymity put the number of hacked Exchange servers at more than 30,000 in the US alone, and hundreds of thousands worldwide, all apparently by the same group. Independent cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs first reported that 30,000 figure Friday, citing sources who had briefed national security officials.

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A week after Microsoft announced that its widely used email server program had been hacked, experts are not encouraged by what they have found.

"In short, it's gotten really messy," said Katie Nickels, the director of intelligence at the cybersecurity firm Red Canary. "We are seeing no signs of this slowing down."

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CISA urges ALL organizations across ALL sectors to follow guidance to address the widespread domestic and international exploitation of Microsoft Exchange Server product vulnerabilities; see CISA's newly released web page for details. https://go.usa.gov/xsmzH. #Cyber #InfoSec

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Do you have clients who did not receive an Economic Impact Payment or received less than the full amount? If so, they may be eligible to claim the Recovery Rebate Credit. Individuals who were eligible but did not receive the first or second Economic Impact Payment, or received less than the full amounts, may be eligible to claim the Recovery Rebate Credit and must file a 2020 federal tax return, even if they do not usually file a tax return.

For more information about the Recovery Rebate Credit, see Frequently Asked Questions at IRS.gov.

A new U.S. Courts video highlights a simple technique used to protect court users: a smoke test, which makes air currents inside buildings visible. The tests have helped federal courts in New York, the District of Columbia, and Maryland to ensure that employees and the public do not inadvertently inhale air exhaled by someone nearby.

Dr. Rainald Lohner, a professor of fluid dynamics at George Mason University, demonstrates the technique in the video, saying the smoke trails make clear how to keep court users appropriately separated. In-court proceedings were scaled back dramatically because of the pandemic, but courts are beginning to expand courthouse activity, such as jury trials.

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https://youtu.be/xLhyA9vRC0U

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