I know the French were collaborators during WWII, but shouldn’t they have learned their lesson then?!
France wants proposed rules applied to EU citizens as well
Source: Fingerprints, facial scans, EU border data slurp too tasty for French to resist
Today’s release by Wikileaks of what is believed to be the current and essentially final version of the intellectual property (IP) chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) confirms our worst fears about the agreement, and dashes the few hopes that we held out that its most onerous provisions wouldn’t survive to the end of the negotiations.
Source: The Final Leaked TPP Text is All That We Feared | Electronic Frontier Foundation
Copyright, one of the largest blockers of innovation and totally ridiculous: why not work for a living instead of coasting on a past success is now set to life + 70 years!
DRM is no longer allowed to be circumvented. “someone tinkering with a file or device that contains a copyrighted work can be made liable (criminally so, if wilfullness and a commercial motive can be shown), for doing so even when no copyright infringement is committed.”
Hackers can now be rersecuted for minor infringements…
It’s a mess 🙁
Such as your name, frequent flyer number and record locator, which allows you to log into the company website and view the rest of your flights…
Source: What’s in a Boarding Pass Barcode? A Lot — Krebs on Security
CHISINAU, Moldova — In the backwaters of Eastern Europe, authorities working with the FBI have interrupted four attempts in the past five years by gangs with suspected Russian connections that sought to sell radioactive material to Middle Eastern extremists, The Associated Press has learned. The latest known case came in February this year, when a smuggler offered a huge cache of deadly cesium — enough to contaminate several city blocks — and specifically sought a buyer from the Islamic State group.
Criminal organizations, some with ties to the Russian KGB’s successor agency, are driving a thriving black market in nuclear materials in the tiny and impoverished Eastern European country of Moldova, investigators say. The successful busts, however, were undercut by striking shortcomings: Kingpins got away, and those arrested evaded long prison sentences, sometimes quickly returning to nuclear smuggling, AP found.
Source: Military.com
The EU courts have found that Safe Harbour means that the 4th Reich may not have EU citizens’ data beamed to it, unless the company doing the beaming (eg Facebook) is prepared to safeguard the data from spying by the KGB. I mean Stazi. I mean NSA.
Companies are whining that this will be bad for the EU economy, but I don’t see particularly that Chinese people are much the worse off for not having Facebook, and I’m sure that not having US government spying on the EU and then passing relevant information on to US companies gets rid of quite a significant competitive edge, allowing EU companies to grow a bit more fairly.
We collect non-personal data to make money from our free offerings so we can keep them free, including:
Advertising ID associated with your device.
Browsing and search history, including meta data.
Internet service provider or mobile network you use to connect to our products.
Information regarding other applications you may have on your device and how they are used.
Source: AVG to flog your web browsing, search history from mid-October • The Register
Time to quit using that then!
By 2010, GCHQ stated it was logging “30bn metadata records per day. By 2012, collection had increased to 50 billion per day, and work was underway to double capacity to 100 billion.”GCHQ has since “developed new population scale analytics for multi-petabyte cluster,” which allows “population scale target discovery.”In a vision document for 2013, its aim was to have created “the world’s biggest SIGINT engine to run cyber operations and to enable IA, Effects and SIGINT … [as well as] to perform CNE exfiltration, eAD, beaconry, and geo-location.”
The strategy, known as predictive policing, combines elements of traditional policing, like increased attention to crime “hot spots” and close monitoring of recent parolees. But it often also uses other data, including information about friendships, social media activity and drug use, to identify “hot people” and aid the authorities in forecasting crime.
Source: Police Program Aims to Pinpoint Those Most Likely to Commit Crimes
This is very worrying. Reading the article it seems they are handling it well – they are inviting potential purpetrators in and explaining what’s going on, hoping to shock them. If a crime is committed, everyone in the predictive chain is picked up and they sling the book at them for everything they can find. Fair enough, they shouldn’t have been breaking the law anyway and if they get picked up for it because they were in an associative chain is just as good as if they get picked up due to any other reason.
However, if you are friends with a criminal, you may get invited to the courts again and again and again, even if you did nothing wrong yourself – the same problem no-fly lists have: false positives. Another thing is that you need to troll through huge amounts of personal data in order to get these predictive models to work. This means that people and organisations could (in practice shows they do!) misuse their access to your personal data.
The article has some figures on how well this does compared to traditional policing and other predictive models, but the jury is still out on that really. It needs longer and more testing.
US spied on Japanese PM Abe, Mitsubishi, and so much more • The Register
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/07/31/nsa_spied_on_japan_mitsubishi/
Fundamentally, users of the mobile apps are affected because those invisible ads are burning though gigabytes of their data plan every day. The smartphone is slowed down; the ads eat away at batteries too. Performance issues are almost certainly caused by the extra load resulting from the apps’ secondary functions, said Forensiq in Bloomberg Business.Forensiq carried out a ten-day study exploring instances of unseen ads. “About 1% of mobile devices that Forensiq observed in the U.S. and 2% to 3% in Europe and Asia were seen running ‘infected’ apps, including those operating Google Android and Apple iOS operating systems, as well as Microsoft’s Windows Mobile,” said Jack Marshall, who covers marketing and the media for The Wall Street Journal. He also quoted Forensiq founder and CEO David Sendroff: “Users may see one ad on their screen, but there might be 5 or 10 in the background that were never viewable.”
Source: Study uncovers invisible mobile app ads gumming up the works
The judges identified two key problems with the law: that it does not provide for independent court or judicial scrutiny to ensure that only data deemed “strictly necessary” is examined; and that there is no definition of what constitutes “serious offences” in relation to which material can be investigated. For legal authority, the judges relied on an earlier decision, known as Digital Rights Ireland, by the European Court of Justice in Luxemburg, which is binding on UK courts.In their challenge, Davis and Watson argued that the law allowed the police and security services to spy on citizens without sufficient privacy safeguards.They said the legislation was incompatible with article eight of the European convention on human rights, the right to respect for private and family life, and articles seven and eight of the EU charter of fundamental rights, respect for private and family life and protection of personal data.The MPs complained that use of communications data was not limited to cases involving serious crime, that individual notices of data retention were kept secret, and that no provision was made for those under obligation of professional confidentiality, in particular lawyers and journalists. Nor, they argued, were there adequate safeguards against communications data leaving the EU.
Source: High court rules data retention and surveillance legislation unlawful | World news | The Guardian
Nice to see that at least EU courts can display sanity from time to time!
ProxyGambit is a simple anonymization device that allows you to access the Internet from anywhere in the world without revealing your true location or IP, fracturing your traffic from the Internet/IP through either a long distance radio link or a reverse tunneled GSM bridge that ultimately drops back onto the Internet and exits through a wireless network you’re no where near.
While a point to point link is supported, the reverse GSM-to-TCP bridge allows you to proxy from thousands of miles away with nothing other than a computer and Internet with no direct link back to your originating machine.
Sky News has found evidence that rogue mobile phone towers, which can listen in on people’s calls without their knowledge, are being operated in the UK.IMSI catchers, also known as Stingrays, mimic mobile phone masts and trick phones into logging on.The controversial surveillance technology is used by police agencies worldwide to target the communications of criminals.However, Stingrays also collect the data of all other phones in the area, meaning innocent people’s communications are spied on.
NB this means they can also collect en masse without a warrant…
BSecurity researchers have voiced their concerns in the two weeks since the proposed rules were made public that the U.S. rules definition of intrusion software is too broad, and legitimate vulnerability research and proof-of-concept development will come under regulation. – See more at: https://threatpost.com/bug-bounties-in-crosshairs-of-proposed-us-wassenaar-rules/113204#sthash.cL00eTWJ.dpuf
Not only that, but using vague terminology means that the US could basically force almost anything they want to have to be cleared through the government before being able to export it.
Mooney aka Suicide Girl has her picturers reused by Prince. Prince’s images, which consist of screen shots of other people’s Instagram photos enlarged to 4×5 foot inkjet prints with a single banal comment by Prince, have reportedly sold for $90,000.In response Mooney produced her own prints, identical in every way to Prince’s except for an additional, equally banal comment. She is offering them for peanuts – $90.The question of day:Could Richard Prince’s work be considered fair use while at the same time Selena Mooney’s print of Prince’s appropriation, whose primary element is her own photograph, be copyright infringement?
Source: The Richard Prince – Suicide Girls Circus
get it here
MIAMI (AP) — Investigators do not need a search warrant to obtain cellphone tower location records in criminal prosecutions, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday in a closely-watched case involving the rules for changing technology.
via News from The Associated Press.
Moar grip on your hapless citizens, comrade?
His step-by-step instructions for making a clandestine phone call are as follows:
Analyze your daily movements, paying special attention to anchor points (basis of operation like home or work) and dormant periods in schedules (8-12 p.m. or when cell phones aren’t changing locations);
Leave your daily cell phone behind during dormant periods and purchase a prepaid no-contract cell phone (“burner phone”);
After storing burner phone in a Faraday bag, activate it using a clean computer connected to a public Wi-Fi network;
Encrypt the cell phone number using a onetime pad (OTP) system and rename an image file with the encrypted code. Using Tor to hide your web traffic, post the image to an agreed upon anonymous Twitter account, which signals a communications request to your partner;
Leave cell phone behind, avoid anchor points, and receive phone call from partner on burner phone at 9:30 p.m.—or another pre-arranged “dormant” time—on the following day;
Wipe down and destroy handset.
http://m.fastcompany.com/3044637/secret-phone-network
this is part of an art project which was looking at the surveillance state we live in
as we’ve long suspected, the computers in today’s cars can be hijacked wirelessly by feeding specially crafted packets of data into their networks. There’s often no need for physical contact; no leaving of evidence lying around after getting your hands dirty.
This means, depending on the circumstances, the software running in your dashboard can be forced to unlock doors, or become infected with malware, and records on where you’ve have been and how fast you were going may be obtained. The lack of encryption in various models means sniffed packets may be readable.
Key systems to start up engines, the electronics connecting up vital things like the steering wheel and brakes, and stuff on the CAN bus, tend to be isolated and secure, we’re told.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/09/car_security_senator_report/
A new executive order signed into law this week by the president has one online community up in arms, after its loose wording effectively ruled out donating to Edward Snowden and others.
In a post on Reddit’s Bitcoin subreddit, members pledged to donate to the whistleblower’s relief fund, despite the wording of the new executive order suggesting that doing so was illegal.
In the new executive order, signed into law on Wednesday, US President Barack Obama declared cyber-threats aimed at the US a "national emergency." The order threatens sanctions against those (including US residents) who engage in cyberattacks and espionage activities that threaten US interests at home and abroad.
Any regrets, Edward Snowden? "I’d have come forward sooner"
The former NSA contractor turned whistleblower said during a Reddit question-and-answer session that the leaks have also improved security and encryption in Silicon Valley.
Read More
The wording of the order specifically addresses any person whose "property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order who might have a constitutional presence in the United States."
Redditors were quick to assume (likely correctly) that this includes Edward Snowden, who for more than a year-and-a-half has lived in Russia, evading US justice.
via After Obama's cybersecurity order threatens Snowden fund, bitcoin donations spike | ZDNet.
As Bloomberg reports, RadioShack is offering up more than 13 million email addresses and 65 million physical addresses to the highest bidder
via RadioShack Selling Customer Data In Bankruptcy Auction.
Didn’t see that coming…
This year, we are going to see the transformation of Uber into a big data company cut from the same cloth as Google, Facebook and Visa – using the wealth of information they know about me and you to deliver new services and generate revenue by selling this data to others.Starwood is Just the beginningRecently, Uber launched a service that lets its customers connect their Uber account to their Starwood Prefered Guest account. The benefit to customers: get points when you take Uber. The quid pro quo? Customers give Uber the right to share all Uber ride information with Starwood.
via Uber: The Big Data Company.
Graham told a confused Bloomberg News: "I’ve tried not to have a system where I can just say the first dumb thing that comes to my mind. I’ve always been concerned. I can get texts, and I call you back, if I want."
McCain meanwhile said this: "I’m afraid that if I was emailing, given my solid, always calm temperament that I might email something that I might regret. You could send out an email that you would regret later on and would be maybe taken out of context."
This makes perfect sense to me – people are people, not reasoning machines. People make mistakes and they don’t want their mistakes to be replayable through never deletable digital media. The article slams them for this, but basically the writers are saying there should be no expectation of people in power actually being humans. Because people can be called out for any infestimally stupid thing they ever do over email, far after the fact and without any context attached these people have been pushed out of using modern communications because the risks far outweigh the usefulness.
Dutch courts have decided that the ubiquitous tracking of every person in the nation is at variance with the right to having a private life and has to be stopped immediately.
Hopefully the NL Gov (of which the Justice department is very disappointed with the verdict, the house of commons less so) will not appeal this decision but instead make a different law that mandates the collection of this kind of data only after a judge has deemed it necessary on a case by case basis.
ECLI:NL:RBDHA:2015:2498, Rechtbank Den Haag, C/09/480009 / KG ZA 14/1575.
Once Apple saw it they went for the patent and yesterday got it. Prior art? Never heard of it. Well done Apple for copying someone else – yet again. And well done the patent system for giving up patents to people who have not rights to them. Yet again.
Apple patenteert Samsungs Edge-scherm – Webwereld.