"would have no valid reason to remove pens from the property"

A Bourne man was arraigned in Wrentham District Court Friday on charges that he stole as much as $54,000 worth of pens from a Franklin business. 

Gregory Loonan, 55, of 22 Carnoustie Road, pleaded not guilty to charges of felony breaking and entering during the daytime and larceny valued more than $250. He was released on $1,000 bail. 

Franklin Police Detective Eric Zimmerman wrote in an affidavit that the security director of Kuehne + Nagel, the local branch of an international shipping firm, contacted police in August regarding a large number of missing Cross pens. The company, he said, handles some packaging and distribution work for Cross.

Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)
http://www.milforddailynews.com/article/20151002/NEWS/151008283/1994/NEWS

screen grab of Kuehne + Nagel webpage

How does this amazing mind reader do it?

How does this amazing mind reader do it?





A nice lesson here. What are you revealing online?

---------------

A couple of related links on privacy. Well worth spending some time reading!

"Why I make my kids read privacy policies"
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Passcode/Passcode-Voices/2015/0513/Why-I-make-my-kids-read-privacy-policies

"Is student privacy erased as classrooms turn digital?"
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Passcode/Passcode-Voices/2015/0513/Is-student-privacy-erased-as-classrooms-turn-digital

PC Handyman: Encryption malware —"Ransomware"— Is your data protected?

Recently, The Boston Globe and other news media reported that a file server at the Tewksbury Police Department was infected with a strain of malware, which had encrypted all of the files stored on this server. These files were arrest and incident records. When someone tried to access these records, they found that the files could not be opened because they were corrupted. Then they found a document that explained that the files had been encrypted and gave instructions on how they could pay $500 to get the encryption key to recover their files. 

PC  Handyman

After several days of trying to recover the files, with the aid of federal and state computer experts and 2 outside IT firms, they finally paid the $500, using an electronic form of payment called Bitcoin, and got the data back.   

This sort of thing has been happening for a while now to all sorts of businesses and individuals—this got media attention because public money was used to pay the ransom, so it became public information. Payment forms like Bitcoin and MoneyPak are used because the payment is not traceable to the recipient.
 Can it happen to you? Yes! 

This malware is usually installed through an email attachment, often in an email supposedly from FedEx or UPS about a package being delivered. There is also evidence that it can be installed by a hacker getting into a server through a remote connection. Sometimes the encrypted data is recoverable through Windows, and sometimes with a 3rd party application. Usually, the malware turns off features like System Restore and Volume Shadow Copy so that these recovery methods are no longer available.  I'm sure that the Tewksbury people tried everything.

Another scary thing—if the infected PC is connected to mapped network drives, such as on a file server, those files can be encrypted too. And if a backup drive is connected to the PC, doing automatic or periodic backups, the files on the backup drive will be overwritten with the encrypted versions, since the files have been changed to newer versions. Cloud-based backup services may save previous versions of backed up files—you should ask your backup service. 

The best strategy against this issue seems to be keeping a periodic manual backup to a drive that is disconnected after the backup is completed. Frequency of the backups determines how much data is at risk. I can set this up for you, including providing the drive. I can come in to your business on a regular basis and run the backups too.  Let me know if you need help. 

Is your data protected? 

The PC Handyman, 508 346-3502 info@pchman.com

Attention Franklin Residents: Letter from the Police Chief

March 12, 2015

To all Franklin Residents

Greetings,
               
Let me begin by saying I am sure everyone is aware that on March 10, 2015 the Franklin Police and Fire Departments responded to a bomb scare threat at the Franklin High School.  This is the second such threat at the High School this Academic School Year.  The first was on September 30, 2014.  We believe that we have some very solid information to work with and our Detective Division is aggressively following up on every lead imaginable. 
               
In light of these situations and the obvious concerns and fears associated with them I feel it necessary to write you this letter. It is important that I assure you your Emergency Services personnel, as well as your school staff, faculty and especially the students have handled each of these situations with courage; working in mutual cooperation to bring an end to a bad situation as quickly as possible. Police, fire and school officials continually educate and train in the best practice methods of dealing with situations as these.  

I would like to tell you that there is one accepted method of emergency response that will guarantee the safety of everyone in these situations. Unfortunately that would be naive and is not the case. There is no one given response or proven method that can possibly cover all of the potential variables for every bad scenario we may face.  The one most difficult variable would be within the mind of the perpetrator(s) themselves.  Only he or she would know what they are thinking.  Given this, we use those methods that have proven to be effective.  We train with those methods in mind and we adapt those methods to what we believe works well for Franklin and the given circumstance(s) at the time.

Some of the keys to limiting or averting tragedy are being well trained and equipped, which we are. Working cooperatively with the schools and students, which we do.  Responding quickly and decisively. Accurately assessing the situation and then attacking the threat with every asset we have at our disposal. It's important to understand that at the same time we must do our best to control the initial potential for chaos. As other police units arrive we will then begin with a safe and orderly exit for all of the students, school staff and faculty.  

I would guess that not many of you have experienced a situation like this.  As a first responder, me and my police officers, the fire personnel, school staff and faculty have.  I can tell you there is no greater sinking feeling than responding to, or being involved in a call for emergency service that has the potential for such disaster. 

I want you to rest assured that even faced with such circumstances your police, fire and school officials maintain composure and focus on the task at hand which is to respond, assess, attack or eliminate the threat, all the while worrying about providing the necessary safety and security for all of the school children or civilians involved.  No small feat by any means.  

I am confident in telling you that the response of Franklin Emergency personnel and school staff is done well and with the safety and security of all of the school children, school faculty and civilians paramount in our response protocols and decision making.  None of us would or should expect anything less.

Sincerely

Stephan H. Semerjian
Chief of Police

This e-mail has been sent to you by TOWN OF FRANKLIN. To maximize their communication with you, you may be receiving this e-mail in addition to a phone call.

School Committee gets updated on FHS, receives feedback on security incidents

The School Committee meeting was held in the Lecture Hall at Franklin High School on Tuesday. This had been scheduled for January but was snowed out at that time. Yesterday was another challenging day for the schools and in particular for FHS with the bomb threat. This was not like the ones that occured in September (where the notification went to the high school) as this notification was received directly by the Franklin Police Department. Investigation is underway.

As the meeting was held in the Lecture Hall, it was not available for broadcast. Wireless internet was available in the room but only as part of the School network, hence access to certain parts of the internet (i.e. Facebook) were not available. I was able to record the meeting. Assuming the audio is worth listening too, I'll make it available this week.

about 15 parents participated in the School Committee meeting at the FHS Lecture Hall on Tuesday

The focal point of the meeting were several updates on the high school and all the good work being done there. Check the live reporting for updated links, photos and notes on the individual presentations covering

• the high school overall
• Panther TV
• Health and physical education
• Science, Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) program
• the transition of the Tutoring Center to the Academic Center
• recently released numbers on the graduation rate and drop out rate
• Commencement planning

There was a good communiy presence to discuss the recent Parmenter incident and Tuesday's FHS incident. Most of the parents left after that portion of the meeting. Check the live reported notes for details on this portion of the meeting. The quick summary is the school district is 

• re-evaluating their current access process
• some of the buildings (i.e. the older ones) would need renovation to provide a more secure access
• the facility cost would need to be allocated as part of the Town budget
• parents would prefer to ere on the side of caution and have more 'administrative lockdowns' than less

Good Friday, Apr 3rd will be a half-day if necessary. Apr 11 and Apr 21 will also be used if the current 2 snow days available are used up. This passed by a 5-2 vote with some interesting discussion where Committee Chair Muallen went on record to agree with opposing views expressed by Committee members O'Malley and Jewel.


For all the live reporting captured during the meeting check here

• Live reporting - Closing

• Live reporting: Action Items

• Live reporting - Discussion only (continued)

• Live reporting: Discussion only items

• Live reporting: FHS Update (continued)

• Live reporting: School Committee - Mar 10, 2015

• 
  

Live reporting: Discussion only items

3. Discussion Only Items

School Safety Update 

Sally Winslow, Asst Superintendent
(Superintendent Sabolinski recovering from a broken ankle and while remote has been in regular contact)

actions of staff at Parmenter may have contributed to the incident
have been dealing with 'rumor' issues raised via social media
meeting held last Tuesday night with Parmenter parents

Q - can you state what did happen?
what occurred, someone came to the school, knocked to come in
buzzed in, was let in, but instead of checking in, proceeded down one of the corridors
intercepted by a teacher and custodian, secretary joined them
queried individual about his presence, he was asked to leave, he did
Central Office was called, Franklin Police was called 
photo shared and individual identified

Next day, a retired secretary was on site stationed by the door for check ins
school working on getting schedule of parent volunteers for check in, also looking for Senior Center volunteers

Notified other schools of incident, including photo of individual

Adding signage and consistent language around check in process at each school

Want to address 'tail gating', need to be checked in separately

Parmenter establishing a school wide committee for re-evaluation of school safety

School Dept will sit with the Police Dept to review the process, what worked, what could be improved

We did get questions on why we did not get into 'lock down'?
the individual did leave without threat, other schools were notified
concerned with physical and emotional safety for all the students
did confer with Police and Admin office before that decision was made

Met with vendor last Friday who had installed the security system for options and improvements

possible pilot program being explored for a software program for facial recognition

any renovations for the buildings would require Facilities which is part of the Town side of the budget

audience participating at the School Committee at Franklin High School

O'Malley - unfortunate, yes. I feel confident our schools are safe

Trahan - I felt I needed to review our policies, we did follow the policies and procedures. Steps are being taken to address where possible.

Q - what was the decision on not telling the parents of the other schools. I have been in frequently and while buzzed in, was not checked in but maybe once in all the time
A - Winslow - we felt it was a Parmenter issue. It became apparent after the Tuesday meeting that we needed to do more.
A - Mullen - we do have to say how lucky we were that nothing did happen. We are re-visiting the policy. we do need to look at how the schools work.

Q - I would respectfully disagree with the decision to not go with a town-wide lockdown. My kids are at Jefferson but the guy could have tried one, and could go elsewhere.
Winslow - we relied on input from the Police

Police Officer - We had an incident today for a couple of different reasons. I did not see it required that under the circumstances. If it was a breach, i.e. he had run through. He had been immediately addressed upon his entrance. The way it played out, there was not lock down called. Really not necessary.

I have the same amount of interest. I have a family member in every level of the school district. I understand where you are coming from but it was not required.

This guy is at a facility now. We have been busy but we want to get out to the older schools to see how we can harden the entrance. The newer schools have that entry where you can get in the first door but not the second.

Dave Nee - I understand that it was what it was. Sandy Hook took only 7 minutes. It may not have been a threat, ere on the side of caution.  I am a roofer, I go to different schools, the others have a better system than we do. I go to Parmenter and it is an honor system, I'll admit I don't always check in. there was a failure last Monday. I am glad to see solutions being put together. 

I think the town as a whole needs to embrace social media. There needs to be better communications.

Trahan - there needs to be some discussion on what is posted. I don't know why people don't get the connectED message. If they can't, they should and we need to figure that out. I got the messages today. I don't want that on Facebook so someone could know what was going on and endanger our children.

Nee - Don't discount it, embrace it. Control it and send it yourself

Mullen - there isn't any one person who could keep up with it. 

Winslow - the struggle we have is we need to get our info correct before sending out. Kids are tweeting out so kids at Tri-County are finding out before I can get to send out the right info

Selena Cousins - I would beg you as a parent to ere on the side of safety. Layers of security make it harder and harder to get into the building. While Parmenter is doing stuff, this needs to be a district wide effort. Not the most effective way to address the issue. I got the notice today and appreciated it. When you ask people to honestly sign in, you could check in later and find Mickey Mouse signed in. Do we test trying to get in? We should try that as part of the evaluation. I was a school principal for 8 years. if upsets someone in the short run, so be it. We should be partners in this. We can use social media to help.

Winslow - custodians do a sweep of the building after events, but it raises questions about the music and other evening events

Parent teacher at Tri-County - my students knew before I did and my phone did blow up with notifications. The younger kids had no idea of the administrative lockdown today. The admin lockdown should always be an option. That little bit of safety is worth it. It was a brilliant call today. There were some bad comments on Facebook. It finallly shut down with the good ConnectEd notifications. 

Q - how is a volunteer going to help if the person has a weapon?
A - the volunteers would be a work in progress to getting something better at the doorways

Peter Light - FHS incident

during the lunch block the Franklin Police received a call with a threat
Sgt Spillane was notified, based upon the nature of the threat we did not lockdown, we did evacuate, as the evacuation occured, the piolice and fire were arriving and secured the campus. Horace Mann/Oak St were notified and went it lockdown. The Asst Superintendent put the district into lockdown

Police needed to sweep the building, it was about 90 mins before dismissal but we expedited the busses to arrive early. Students who drove and had keys with them, were allowed to leave. After the State Police completed the sweep, faculty and then student were allowed back into the building for their belongings. We wanted to return to normalcy as soon as possible. We had evening events, performance, as well as this School Committee meeting.

Some things from the fall incident were incorporated into the ConnectED messages. Parents were told not to leave their vehicles when students were dismissed. Parent night will go into more detail Wednesday night.

Investigation is still underway. Students are updated via the faculty. it wil be short and brief Wednesday morning. 

Schools were dismissed at normal times, after school events went on as scheduled.

Parents who did attempt to get their students were turned away. During lockdown, no one is allowed to leave.

Feedback from the Police was positive about the reaction of the students and faculty. Holmes Bus company stepped up to work with us. Had busses on the scene within 10 minutes. Really outstanding response by them!

Custodians came into the school when it was safe. When you dismiss students from the cafeteria and library when they are eating lunch, it does leave a mess behind.

5 minute recess

Franklin Public Schools: Follow up to today's incident

A message from FRANKLIN PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT

March 10, 2015

Dear Franklin Families and Staff,

Early this afternoon, the Franklin Police notified school administration that there had been a bomb threat made to Franklin High School.  The Franklin Police and Fire Departments arrived on the scene quickly and assisted school administration and staff in the evacuation process to ensure that all high school students and staff were safe.  

Because of the proximity to the high school, the Oak/Horace Mann and ECDC Complex were immediately placed in administrative lockdown. As an additional safety precaution, all other schools in the district were also placed on Administrative Lock Down shortly thereafter.  Administrative lockdown means that students and staff remain inside the building while continuing with their school day and that no individuals are allowed to enter or exit the building during this time. 

Parents were provided with both written and verbal communications regarding the situation via the district's emergency Blackboard Connect system. High school students were safely evacuated to the designated evacuation area.  At that time, they were dismissed early to allow police, fire, and safety personnel to respond to the threat and ensure that the area was secured.  Administrative lockdown was lifted in time for dismissal to proceed as usual in all the other schools. 

In speaking with the Franklin Police, it is our understanding that the call came in to the business line at the police department.  The Police are conducting a thorough investigation into the matter. Police report that both the evacuation and lock down went smoothly as expected. Additionally, students and staff proceeded in an orderly manner, which was further facilitated by parent cooperation with police and administrative requests.

As always, the safety of our students and staff is our number one priority.  We plan to debrief with the police to review our implementation of our safety protocols.

Thank you for your continued understanding and support. 

This e-mail has been sent to you by FRANKLIN PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT. To maximize their communication with you, you may be receiving this e-mail in addition to a phone call with the same message. 

Franklin Schools: Administrative Lock Down Over

A message from FRANKLIN PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT

Hello,

We just received word from the Franklin Police that administrative lockdown is over at all of our schools.  Students at Franklin High School have already been dismissed and other schools in the district will be dismissed at the usual time.
We will provide you with further information as appropriate and based upon the direction from the police department.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

Sally Winslow
Assistant Superintendent of Schools

This e-mail has been sent to you by FRANKLIN PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT. To maximize their communication with you, you may be receiving this e-mail in addition to a phone call with the same message.

Franklin Public Schools: Administrative Lock down for schools

A message from FRANKLIN PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT

Hello,

We have just been informed by the Franklin Police that there has been a bomb threat made to Franklin High School. The Franklin Police and Fire Departments are on the scene and are assisting school administration and staff in the evacuation process and all high school students are safe.  

As a safety precaution, all other schools in the district have been placed in Administrative Lock Down.  This means that students and staff will remain inside but will continue with their school day.  No one will be allowed to enter or exit the buildings during this time.  

Please do not go to the schools to try to pick up your children as it may interfere with our safety protocol. Parents have been directed to the police not to come to Franklin High School.  No one will be allowed on or off campus until deemed safe by the police. Please do not call the school at this time.

We will provide more information as soon as it is made available to us.

Thank you,

Sally Winslow
Assistant Superintendent of Schools

This e-mail has been sent to you by FRANKLIN PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT. To maximize their communication with you, you may be receiving this e-mail in addition to a phone call with the same message. 

"online security can be a complicated task"

October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month. The MA.GOV blog has a good posting with good tips like:

The internet enables people to conduct everyday transactions from anywhere, at any time, including the convenience of online commerce. As we become more dependent on this technology, we also become more exposed to the threat of cybercrime. By taking some simple cybersecurity steps, you can better safeguard yourself against it.

• Prioritize laptop and wireless security. Stay away from unsecure internet connections.

• Create strong passwords for your wireless internet network, restricting unwanted users.

• Update antivirus software to protect your laptop or desktop from viruses, spyware, and malware.

• Monitor your child’s internet use and social interaction online.

National Cyber Security Awareness Month

There are security measures I take with the postings I male here and on Facebook to hopefully help all of us stay secure. I vet all links before I post them. I generally will layout the link in detail so you'll know where you are going before you click. 

Be safe. Be secure. Share good info!

 

Is your email shielded from snooping?

Are your emails safe? Last week, thousands of Take Action members joined us and many other groups in pressing for real surveillance reform in the USA FREEDOM Act. But whether or not Congress pulls through, there are things you should know about keeping your emails safe and secure. An email actually goes through a lot of steps between when you hit "Send" and when it lands in the recipient's inbox. Your message is secure only if both the sender's and recipient's email providers encrypt them in transit. We've put together a page that details how this kind of encryption works, and which email providers support it. Take a look, and see how your provider, and those of your friends, performs. Educate your friends about email security. Share this: Gmail has supported encryption in transit since 2010. But 50% of the email sent from other providers to Gmail users and 35% of the email sent from Gmail users to other providers is not encrypted in transit. That's why we're working to make end-to-end email encryption more accessible to every user, regardless of their email provider. A big part of making everyone's email safer is educating your friends about why it's important. Do your part by spreading the word today: https://takeaction.withgoogle.com/f/safer-email More soon, Derek Slater Google Inc. P.S. June 5th is Reset the Net Day and we're taking part. Join this effort, and find out what you can do to secure your part of the web. © 2014 Google Inc. 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA

National Defense Authorization Act: What Would Benjamin Franklin Do?

From Rich Aucoin:

For those interested, below is the text of the speech I delivered before the Franklin Town Council last night.

____________________________

What Would Benjamin Franklin Do?

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is routine legislation passed annually to finance US military operations overseas.

But new language was quietly added to the NDAA in 2012 which authorizes Guantanamo Bay-style indefinite detentions on US soil.

The new language is dangerously vague and strongly implies that America is now a "battlefield" in the war on terror and that anyone, including US citizens, can now be denied constitutional protections and be subjected to the laws of war: kidnapped in the middle of the night on accusation alone, hooded, shackled and locked away possibly for life with no right to counsel, no right to face her accuser, no right to a jury of his peers.

So dangerous is this new language that President Obama issued a signing statement promising that his administration would never indefinitely detain Americans under the laws of war but warned that future presidents could do so unless the new language is fixed.

Benjamin Franklin's famous quote comes to mind: "They who sacrifice essential liberty to gain temporary safety shall have neither."

Franklin and the Founders took great pains to guarantee the Rights of due process and trial by jury. They carefully enumerated these Rights in both our state and federal Constitutions to ensure they could never be nullified.

To ensure these Rights would live on forever, the Founders devised a system of checks and balances, a constitutional structure of human "pillars" to uphold the rule of law. All elected office holders, including local councilors like yourselves, were to swear an oath to protect and defend constitutional governance. If at any time state or federal officials failed in their pillar duty, then the local pillars would be a last line of defense, standing by ready to take up the load and save the structure from collapsing. Each of you is a pillar in this system. Each of you bears the duty to stand up when other office holders stand down. Some local officials in other towns have claimed they do not have the authority to uphold constitutional government. But if so, why did they swear to uphold something that they did not have the authority to uphold?

The resolution I will be bringing supports constitutional government by reasserting the Right of Due Process for the people of Franklin, as enumerated in Articles 12 and 18 of our state Constitution and Amendments 5 and 14 of the US Constitution.

Congressman Jim McGovern has voiced strong support for this resolution, helping it win passage in towns like Oxford and Webster. Representatives Jeff Roy (D) and Ryan Fattman (R) have also stood up for this resolution.

Everyone watching this meeting knows how Benjamin Franklin would vote if he were here today. I am asking you to vote how Franklin would vote. I am asking you to honor his legacy. I am asking you to defend both liberty AND security. I am asking you to be a pillar for the rule of law to ensure that our children and their children will inherit the same America that we were blessed to inherit. I am asking you to keep your oath.

The draft resolution can be found here

http://www.franklinmatters.org/2014/03/proposed-resolution-restoring.html