Criminal Justice Identification in the Cloud

Courts have an unending problem with criminal defendant identification.  If one thinks about this issue for a minute, in many instances it is a benefit to the defendant to not be properly identified.  As most of you know, there have been biometric systems (fingerprint, face recognition for example) available for law enforcement, prosecutors, and courts for many years.  But there has been a significant initial cost barrier.  Last week I saw an interesting possible “cloud based” solution that may help.

CourtHack 2016 a Great Success!

This past weekend the NCSC team working with HackerNest held the first ever CourtHack event.  I can say without qualification that it was great!  More...

How Courts Should Respond to a Cyber Attack

The COSCA/NACM Joint Technology Committee has issued a new report, Responding to a Cyber Attack.  The report notes that “accepting that courts will face cybersecurity incidents is essential. Prevention efforts are still important. However, prevention efforts must now be coupled with preparations to respond when the inevitable occurs.”

This and That in Court Technology – Late February 2016

A lot of news to share in this edition of our regular roundup of news and events.  We learned about Bots in the UK Courts, a new NCSC Report on Body Worn Cameras and the Courts, an Court Technology Director job opening in Seattle, Washington, Ravel Law judicial analytic services expansion, CenturyLink's new governmental cloud service, Microsoft "Plumbago", Pennsylvania Courts online payment system performance for 2015, and what the deal is with Windows 10 "telemetry" reporting.

Legislatures are starting to tell data services – clean your records

Legislative action in Colorado in 2011/2014 and Virginia this year are requiring public data service they must remove expunged records.  More below.

Stand Up for your Health

In the past year I have been using a reminder app to stand up and stretch once an hour.  It has helped me to feel better, especially in my neck and upper back area.  We discuss the application I use and some options below.

Microsoft Ends Older Internet Explorer Browser Support

Because the majority of our CTB readers use this browser, we recommend that you should plan to update or change in the very near future.

Watson Law

An article about a talk by Ms. Kyla Moran, IBM senior consultant with the Watson Industry Leadership group at a Legal Futures Annual Conference in London, England has me thinking…

This and That in Court Technology – October, 2015

News about CourtHack, a new judge research tool for lawyers, the FBI’s NextGen identification system, online digital record preservation classes, a new high-speed departmental scanner, and just what everyone needs: a “Flux Capacitor” for your car.

Chip Credit Cards – Has your court made the switch?

New credit card readers are needed by courts starting October 1, 2015 (yes, two weeks ago).  The COSCA/NACM Joint Technology Committee wants to remind you about this requirement.  And, they have a Resource Bulletin that can help you to understand what is happening and what you need to do.

Cloud Data Security and Encryption

Secret decoder ring

Last week I saw an article about Microsoft’s new secure cloud network connection tool for government called ExpressRoute.  So that got me thinking...

This and That in Court Technology – Post CTC, September 2015

In this edition we note CTC-2015, another report of handwritten signature failure, iPhone software changes, the Chief Justice of Tennessee announces technology agenda, Intellidact and Tyler partner, and Ohio Supreme Court provides grants to support local technology initiatives.

This and That in Court Technology – September, 2015

This month we have news and notes about a crowdsourcing funding project, advances in artificial intelligence powered speech recognition, criminal case E-filing in Illinois, some comments about the new Apple's iPad Pro and Pencil, a new tiny cheap computer, IBM pitches Watson to trial lawyers, solar windows, and cleaning your gadgets.

No Power? Some Ideas and Strategies to Consider

Morgan County, WV Courthouse Power

I suppose that the 10th Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina has me thinking about strategies for keeping the courthouse open.  In other words…”Plan B”.  And since, as you know, computers don’t work very well without some kind of “juice”, we will discuss aspects of electrical power.

Make Your Home Wi-Fi Work Better

A quick note before the weekend starts.  We received a link from our NCSC IT staff about a short online video by Vox.com on how to improve your home wireless (Wi-Fi) network performance.  It is really good. Check it out on YouTube by clicking here.

Cloud Backup

Former Intel CEO Andy Grove titled his 1999 book “Only the Paranoid Survive” which provides a good motto for thinking about protecting your personal and court data.  One potential solution that we will discuss in this article is backing your data up to “the cloud”.

User Interface Changes – Are They Worth It?

I read a terrific blog post last month regarding the problems that result when websites or computer applications change their user interfaces.  We discuss below.

This and That in Court Technology – August, 2015

Lots of news for a hot and sticky summer week from Pennsylvania, Open Law Labs, Adobe, Washington DC, Arizona, Nebraska, and fun tech toy land.

Windows 10 – Very good so far, but be careful

I did my first Windows 10 computer upgrade yesterday.  And I learned some things to watch out for.

Legacy Systems, Cost Savings, Yes… But the Risk?

Many courts use very old computer software and hardware systems.  They save a lot of money doing that; but there are dangers that we discuss below.