In December it was revealed that Target suffered a data breach that involved more than 40 million credit and debit card accounts. The unauthorized access may impact guests who made credit or debit card purchases in our U.S. stores from Nov. 27 to Dec. 15, 2013.

Director of the UMBC Center for Cybersecurity and CSEE Professor Anupam Joshi discussed the possible consequences of the breach in video reports by local affiliates for both ABC and NBC. Dr. Joshi outlined some of the possible ways that the data breach might have happened and pointed out that while the lost data could be used to make illegal charges to the accounts, it was unlikely to lead to larger identity theft problems.

In an op-ed published in The Baltimore Sun, media and communication studies assistant professor Rebecca Adelman describes how pictures and video of chemical weapons casualties in the Syrian civil war did not follow the traditional model for war images.

In her op-ed titled “Atypical images of war,” Adelman writes about how the images required extensive explanation and interpretation due to what they were depicting:

The amateur photos and videos of the victims of the attacks do not follow the familiar model of the war casualty image. They were recognizable as such primarily in their quantitative aspects: the number of images and the astonishing volume of casualties (many of them grouped together) that they depicted. The scale of death bespoke militarized violence, but the qualitative dimension of those images was a bit more equivocal.

Adelman also notes how many of the images raise concerns and confusion as it relates to how they will be viewed in the future.

“Myriad uncertainties hover around these pictures. We cannot know how they will function or signify in the future, especially because changing dynamics in the region might compel the United States to negotiate with the Assad regime to prevent a jihadist takeover of the country,” Adelman writes.

You can read the full op-ed in The Baltimore Sun here.

When Maryland state lawmakers return to Annapolis this week to begin the annual legislative session, raising the minimum wage, the state online health insurance exchange, and stormwater fees are expected to be leading items on the agenda.

The session comes this year in the midst of an election season where campaigning overlaps with lawmaking. The filing deadline is February and many sitting lawmakers are running for higher office. In an article in The Baltimore Sun, public policy professor and chair Donald Norris said legislative sessions during election years tend to be politics-heavy  without significant legislative achievements.

“I suspect there will be a fair amount of posturing on a variety of issues,” Norris said.

You can read the full article in The Baltimore Sun here.

Editor’s note: Students come to UMBC to get an education, but they end up getting so much more. Catherine ’12, English, and Josh Kruder ’11, computer science, happened to fall in love. Lucky for us, they were generous enough to share their story.

“My husband and I just celebrated our one-year wedding anniversary, after meeting and falling in love at UMBC in 2009. Now, this isn’t your run-of-the-mill Retriever love story. There was no eying each other in Chemistry 101; and there was no relating to common interests at a Resident Student Association movie night.

You see, my mom had been taking classes at the university and when I got there in 2008, I was still living at home and we were carpooling to school. In February 2009, she came home one night gushing about this “really cute” boy in her class with “these adorable blue eyes and blonde hair!” She said, “You come see me tomorrow and I will introduce you”… you know with that all-assuring “I got this” smirk on her face. Needless to say, children aren’t really that fond of their parents’ advice, and certainly not when it comes to dating! Did I mention that my mom was taking Computer Science classes? “Oh no,” I thought. “Geek alert!” But I decided to go anyway, just for the fun of it.

The next day, I walked into her classroom and see her talking to, well, a really cute, blonde-haired, blue-eyed guy! Go figure. She introduces us, we make small talk about my major and how hard their professor was, and when it’s time for class to start, I go to leave. I barely get out the door before I hear my mom’s voice trickle off, “I know I don’t look old enough to have a daughter, Josh. Isn’t she beautiful?” This would have been what they call a “face-palm” moment. Forget the subtleties, that boy was definitely scared off!

That night is one I’ll never forget. My mom came home with her goofy smile that reeked of accomplishment and pride.

Mom: “So, how are we going to do this? I could give him your phone number. Or… you could email him!”
Me: “Mom, I don’t want to be some creeper, weirdo. What if he already has a girlfriend?”
Mom: “All is fair in love and war.”
Me: “Why don’t I just Facebook him.”
Mom: “Oh, you can do that? Yes, do that.”

The next day, I got my friend request confirmed and an unread message from that really cute boy in my mom’s class. And three days later, we had our first date and we’ve been inseparable ever since. We were married on September 22, 2012.

Looking back, I joke with my husband, “You know you were set up, right?” He smiles and nods his head, “I know… and I’m okay with that.” And then there’s the always hilarious disclaimer, “You can never complain about my family… you knew the crazy before ever meeting me!”

I tell you this because the details matter. I wouldn’t have found my soul mate at UMBC if it hadn’t been for my mom. I got my fairytale… even if it was sort of picked out for me.”

If you met your sweetheart at UMBC, send your pictures and story to retrievernet@umbc.edu and you could be featured here, too!