Monthly Archives: May 2014

EFF awards Apple, Google perfect privacy scores

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“Over the past 12 months, nine technology companies have drastically improved the way that they handle government data requests and as a result, the EFF says that they have received perfect scores from their point of view.  In its annual Who Has Your Back report, the EFF says that eleven companies overall now have perfect scores. Last year, the only two companies that scored as highly were Sonic.net and Twitter but outrage over NSA revelations and other disturbing things has brought about change in many companies.  The EFF says that there are now 20 technology companies out of the ones surveyed that are publishing those reports.”

http://www.technologytell.com/gadgets/144227/eff-awards-apple-google-perfect-privacy-scores/

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FBI withdraws NSL after Microsoft challenge; takes data directly instead

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“The FBI withdrew a national security letter targeting an Office 365 enterprise customer following Microsoft’s challenge to a provision of the letter gagging the company from informing the target, according to court documents unsealed Thursday. The existence of the legal tussle between the FBI and Microsoft was unsealed in court documents (PDF) Thursday. The name of the targeted Microsoft customer was blacked out in the records. The 2013 national security letter was not included in the documents.  Still, the authorities managed to prevail anyway and scored the information directly from Microsoft’s customer, according to the record.”

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/05/fbi-withdraws-national-security-letter-following-microsoft-challenge/

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Secrets, lies and Snowden’s email: why I was forced to shut down Lavabit

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“It took a week for me to identify an attorney who could adequately represent me, given the complex technological and legal issues involved – and we were in contact for less than a day when agents served me with a summons ordering me to appear in a Virginia courtroom, over 1,000 miles from my home. Two days later, I was served the first subpoena for the encryption keys.  With such short notice, my first attorney was unable to appear alongside me in court. Because the whole case was under seal, I couldn’t even admit to anyone who wasn’t an attorney that I needed a lawyer, let alone why. I also discovered that as a third party in a federal criminal indictment, I had no right to counsel.”

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/20/why-did-lavabit-shut-down-snowden-email

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The Revolutionary Quantum Computer That May Not Be Quantum at All

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“It was just a thought experiment until 1994, when mathematician Peter Shor hit upon a killer app: a quantum algorithm that could find the prime factors of massive numbers. Cryptography, the science of making and breaking codes, relies on a quirk of math, which is that if you multiply two large prime numbers together, it’s devilishly hard to break the answer back down into its constituent parts. You need huge amounts of processing power and lots of time. But if you had a quantum computer and Shor’s algorithm, you could cheat that math.  [..]  D-Wave pulled in $100 million from investors like Jeff Bezos and In-Q-Tel, the venture capital arm of the CIA.”

http://www.wired.com/2014/05/quantum-computing

 

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Adobe Shockwave bundles Flash that’s 15 mo. behind on security fixes

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“The advisory about the risk from Shockwave, which was published in late 2012 by security researcher Will Dormann for Carnegie Mellon University’s CERT, escaped public notice until Wednesday, when it was reported by KrebsOnSecurity. In the 15 months since the initial post, Adobe has made little progress. According to reporter Brian Krebs, the current version of Shockwave for both Windows and Mac systems lacks any of the Flash security fixes released since January 2013. That includes almost 20 different patches for security holes, some that fixed critical holes that real-world hackers exploited in the wild to commandeer end users’ computers.”

http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/05/adobe-shockwave-bundles-flash-thats-15-months-behind-on-security-fixes/

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China responds to NSA tampering with network gear vetting process

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“The US government used security concerns to essentially drive Chinese companies out of the American networking marketplace. Now China is doing the same thing, as the Chinese government is planning to require all products sold in the country to pass a ‘cyber security vetting process,’ the state-controlled Xinhua News Agency reported.  Jiang Jun, a spokesman for the State Internet Information Office, told Xinhua that the move was to counter large-scale spying, saying that the networks of Chinese government agencies, universities, businesses and telecommunications providers have ‘suffered extensive invasion and wiretapping,’ the news service reported.”

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/05/china-responds-to-nsa-tampering-with-network-gear-with-vetting-process/

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House legalizes NSA domestic spying with gutted ‘USA Freedom Act’

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“Under the legislation, instead of the NSA collecting and housing the metadata from every phone call made to and from the United States, that data will remain in the hands of the telecoms. Previously, there were no laws barring the NSA from searching the data carte blanche, although the agency promised it would only do so if it had a ‘reasonable, articulable suspicion’ against a terrorism target.  The USA Freedom Act, however, demands that the NSA get approval for a search from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court before demanding that the telecoms hand over metadata. However, no ‘probable-cause’ Fourth Amendment standard is required to access the database.”

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/05/nsa-reform-falters-as-house-passes-gutted-usa-freedom-act/

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John Kerry Responds To Military Coup In Thailand

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“U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry issued a statement saying: ‘There is no justification for this military coup. While we value our long friendship with the Thai people, this act will have negative implications for the U.S.-Thai relationship, especially for our relationship with the Thai military.’  Who is Kerry kidding? The U.S. national-security state loves military dictatorships for the precise reason given by Thailand’s military dictators as the justification for their coup: establishing order and stability within the country.  U.S. officials, especially those in the Pentagon and CIA, believe in this way of life. They build up military dictatorships. They install them into power. They support them. They partner with them.”

http://fff.org/2014/05/23/a-military-coup-in-thailand/

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Russia moves to make failure to declare dual citizenship a crime

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“Parliament approved legislation on Tuesday requiring Russians to declare dual citizenship or face criminal prosecution.  The bill will impose a fine of up to 200,000 rubles ($5,800) or 400 hours of community service on Russians who have citizenship in another country and fail to tell the authorities.  Critics said the law would place people with two passports under suspicion and expressed fear its aim was to whip up nationalist fervor by hinting dissenters are in the service of foreign governments.  The law includes an exemption for Russians with dual citizenship who live abroad and for residents of Crimea, where Russia is busily issuing passports.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/20/us-russia-bill-dualcitizens-idUSBREA4J0MJ20140520

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Puerto Rico as an Alternative to Renunciation

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“What if I were to tell you that you can gain many of the tax benefits of expatriation without giving up your US citizenship?  Puerto Ricans are US citizens, and the currency is the US dollar. No passport is required for travel to Puerto Rico by US citizens. However, Puerto Rico has its own tax system.  Bona fide residents of Puerto Rico who have Puerto Rican-sourced income are exempt from US taxation.  Under the new law, a US taxpayer who gains Puerto Rican tax residency will be exempt on his short-term and long-term capital gain income for US federal and Puerto Rican tax purposes.  Dividend and portfolio interest income are also exempt from Puerto Rican tax.”

http://www.internationalman.com/articles/puerto-rico-as-an-alternative-to-renunciation

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