Month: December 2015

Event Horizon Telescope reveals magnetic fields at Milky Way’s central black hole

Posted on by Robin Edgar

If the black hole is spinning, it can generate strong jets that blast across thousands of light-years and shape entire galaxies. These black hole engines are thought to be powered by magnetic fields. For the first time, astronomers have detected magnetic fields just outside the event horizon of the black hole at the center of Read more about Event Horizon Telescope reveals magnetic fields at Milky Way’s central black hole[…]

Top Programming Languages That Generate Software Vulnerabilities (Hint: PHP)

Posted on by Robin Edgar

PHP continues to be one of the main sources for many security bugs With a huge fanbase and used in countless of apps and websites around the Internet, PHP is ranked the worst when it came to command injection bugs, but also came close to the top when it came to SQL injections, cross-site scripting Read more about Top Programming Languages That Generate Software Vulnerabilities (Hint: PHP)[…]

Russia’s blanket phone spying busted Europe’s human rights laws

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Russia’s legal framework around the mass surveillance was found to be unfit because it did not limit the circumstances in which public authorities were allowed to conduct their surveillance activities, nor were there any limits on the duration of those activities. Additionally, there was insufficient supervision of the interception and a lack of “procedures for Read more about Russia’s blanket phone spying busted Europe’s human rights laws[…]

China ‘clone factory’ scientist eyes human replication

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The Chinese scientist behind the world’s biggest cloning factory has technology advanced enough to replicate humans, he told AFP, and is only holding off for fear of the public reaction. Boyalife Group and its partners are building the giant plant in the northern Chinese port of Tianjin, where it is due to go into production Read more about China ‘clone factory’ scientist eyes human replication[…]

Hacker Obtained Children’s Headshots and Chatlogs From Toymaker VTech

Posted on by Robin Edgar

If storing the personal data of almost 5 million parents and more than 200,000 kids wasn’t bad enough, it turns out that hacked toymaker VTech also left thousands of pictures of parents and kids and a year’s worth of chat logs stored online in a way easily accessible to hackers. On Friday, Motherboard revealed that Read more about Hacker Obtained Children’s Headshots and Chatlogs From Toymaker VTech[…]

Anti-NSA Easter egg in HTTP/2: every connection starts with PRISM

Posted on by Robin Edgar

British programmer and writer John Graham-Cumming has spotted something interesting in the opening protocol of any HTTP/2 connection: an array of explicitly formatted code which spells the word PRISM, in an apparent reference to the NSA’s primary program for mass-surveillance of the internet, as disclosed by Edward Snowden in 2013. The HTTP/2 client connection begins Read more about Anti-NSA Easter egg in HTTP/2: every connection starts with PRISM[…]

Revealed: What info the FBI can collect with a National Security Letter. Hint – a lot.

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Merrill is now able to reveal that the FBI believes it can force online companies to turn over the following information simply by sending an NSL demanding it: an individual’s complete web browsing history; the IP addresses of everyone a person has corresponded with; and records of all online purchases. The FBI also claims authority Read more about Revealed: What info the FBI can collect with a National Security Letter. Hint – a lot.[…]

Patent troll reckons it owns https via TLS

Posted on by Robin Edgar

It appears in May this year CryptoPeak Solutions, based in Longview, Texas, got its hands on US Patent 6,202,150, which describes “auto-escrowable and auto-certifiable cryptosystems.” CryptoPeak reckons TLS-secured websites that use elliptic curve cryptography are infringing the patent – so it’s suing owners of HTTPS websites that use ECC. Top tip: loads of websites use Read more about Patent troll reckons it owns https via TLS[…]

TrackMeNot – run random searches in the background

Posted on by Robin Edgar

TrackMeNot runs in Firefox and Chrome as a low-priority background process that periodically issues randomized search-queries to popular search engines, e.g., AOL, Yahoo!, Google, and Bing. It hides users’ actual search trails in a cloud of ‘ghost’ queries, significantly increasing the difficulty of aggregating such data into accurate or identifying user profiles. TMN serves as Read more about TrackMeNot – run random searches in the background[…]

ADNAUSEAM – Clicking Ads So You Don’t Have To

Posted on by Robin Edgar

AdNauseam is a browser extension designed to obfuscate browsing data and protect users from surveillance and tracking by advertising networks. Simultaneously, AdNauseam serves as a means of amplifying users’ discontent with advertising networks that disregard privacy and facilitate bulk surveillance agendas. Source: ADNAUSEAM – Clicking Ads So You Don’t Have To