Monthly Archives: August 2015

War: Still a Racket

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“President Obama has been spending American blood and treasure in and around Syria for a full year now.  Whether attacking the Islamic State is necessary or advisable is beside the point. The War Powers Resolution clearly requires the president to withdraw from hostilities within 60 days unless Congress consents. It has not.  Keep in mind, this same Congress claims Obama has overstepped his authority in other areas and has taken many symbolic votes to prove it. They have filed lawsuits against him on matters far less serious than an illegal war. Yet in this case, they are happy to let him keep bombing. Why?  The real answer is that war is very profitable.”

http://www.thedailybell.com/news-analysis/36474/War-Still-a-Racket/

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We’re a year into the unofficial war against Isis with nothing to show for it

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“This Saturday marks one full year since the US military began its still-undeclared war against Islamic State that the government officials openly acknowledge will last indefinitely. What do we have to show for it? So far, billions of dollars have been spent, thousands of bombs have been dropped, hundreds of civilians have been killed and Isis is no weaker than it was last August, when the airstrikes began.  But don’t take it from me – that’s the conclusion of the US intelligence community itself. As the Associated Press reported a few days ago, the consensus view of the US intelligence agencies is that Isis is just as powerful as it was a year ago, and they can replace fighters faster than they are getting killed.”

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/08/unofficial-war-isis-nothing-to-show-for

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The War on Air Conditioning Heats Up

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“It started with the pope. In his recent encyclical, Laudato Si’, he singled out air conditioning as a particularly good example of wasteful habits and excessive consumption that overcome our better natures.  Now, it seems to be open season on air conditioning. From a raging Facebook debate over an article that claims that air conditioning is an oppressive tool of the patriarchy to an article in the Washington Post that calls the American use of air conditioning an ‘addiction’ and compares it unfavorably to the European willingness to sweat through the heat of summer, air conditioning is under attack. So I want to defend it.”

http://fee.org/freeman/detail/the-war-on-air-conditioning-heats-up

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Jeffrey Tucker: Who Will Lose in the War on Contractors?

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“The haters of the sharing economy are rallying around a plan for destroying the most spectacular ad innovative sector of modern economic life.  The hint came from a speech by Hillary Clinton at the New School in which she suggested that current ‘contractors’ be redefined as ’employees.’ According to her, this means that the workers can then enjoy new human rights, as if by magic. Hillary’s comments amount to a cloud no bigger than a man’s hand. She was speaking for the entire cabal of special interests who dream of crushing innovation.  Hillary poses as a spokesperson for the worker. What it actually means for employment is that many will be out of a job.”

http://fee.org/anythingpeaceful/detail/whats-at-stake-in-the-war-on-contractors

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Hackers turn Square reader into card skimmer in under 10 minutes

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“Square created their tiny, portable card reader to revolutionize the credit card processing business. As it turns out, they may have unwittingly revolutionized card skimming, too.  Researchers Alexandrea Mellen  and John Moore were on hand at this year’s Black Hat conference demonstrating that it only takes 10 minutes to turn an ordinary Square reader into a portable skimmer. It simply requires very little work, and a high level of skill isn’t needed to pull it off. All the duo had to do to hack the reader was to solder in a short length of wire to bypass Square’s built-in encryption chip. Once the wire is in place, the reader can then slurp up and spit out credit card swipe data in the clear.”

http://www.geek.com/mobile/hackers-turn-square-reader-into-card-skimmer-in-under-10-minutes-1630512/

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Hacked: yup, even your skateboard isn’t safe

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“Every young person I knew who came out of the theatre after watching ‘Back to the Future’ shared dreams of Marty McFly’s hoverboarding future as they hopped onto their trusty skateboards, wishing away the years until their current mode of transport could be both self-propelled and capable of hovering in the air.  Both of those wishes have just about come true in the form of the Lexus hoverboard. But those of you with more modest means may have settled upon a non-liquid-nitrogen, electric version of the skateboard.  And that, for the time being at least, may have been a mistake.  As Wired reports, massive flaws exist that allow Bluetooth-enabled skateboards to be hacked.”

https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2015/08/05/hacked-yup-even-your-skateboard-isnt-safe/

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Rootkit uses Thunderbolt accessories to infect Mac firmware

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“Dubbed ‘Thunderstrike 2,’ the new proof-of-concept attack still spreads primarily through infected Thunderbolt accessories. But where the original Thunderstrike required a malicious user to have physical access to your computer to work—something sometimes referred to as an ‘evil maid’ attack—the new one can be spread remotely. The malware can be delivered ‘via a phishing e-mail and malicious Web site,’ and once downloaded it can infect connected accessories that use Option ROM (Apple’s Thunderbolt-to-gigabit-Ethernet accessory is a commonly cited example). Once the accessory is infected, the malware can spread to any Mac that you plug the accessory into.”

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/08/thunderstrike-2-rootkit-uses-thunderbolt-accessories-to-infect-mac-firmware/

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Even when told not to, Windows 10 just can’t stop talking to Microsoft

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“Windows 10 uses the Internet a lot to support many of its features. The operating system also sports numerous knobs to twiddle that are supposed to disable most of these features and the potentially privacy-compromising connections that go with them.  Unfortunately for privacy advocates, these controls don’t appear to be sufficient to completely prevent the operating system from going online and communicating with Microsoft’s servers.  We’ve argued recently that operating systems will continue to make privacy-functionality trade-offs.  But the flip side of this is that disabling these services for those who don’t want to use them should really disable them.”

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/08/even-when-told-not-to-windows-10-just-cant-stop-talking-to-microsoft/

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Lenovo Caught Using Rootkit to Secretly Install Unremovable Software

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“Two years ago Chinese firm Lenovo got banned from supplying equipment for networks of the intelligence and defense services various countries due to hacking and spying concerns.  Earlier this year, Lenovo was caught red-handed for selling laptops pre-installed with Superfish malware.  One of the most popular Chinese computer manufacturers ‘Lenovo’ has been caught once again using a hidden Windows feature to preinstall unwanted and unremovable rootkit software on certain Lenovo laptop and desktop systems it sells.  The feature is known as ‘Lenovo Service Engine’ (LSE) – a piece of code presents into the firmware on the computer’s motherboard.”

http://thehackernews.com/2015/08/lenovo-rootkit-malware.html

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The NSA Playset: Espionage tools for the rest of us

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“When Der Spiegel and Jacob Appelbaum published leaked pages of the National Security Agency’s ANT Catalog—the collection of tools and software created for NSA’s Tailored Access Operations (TAO) division—it triggered shock, awe, and a range of other emotions around the world. Among some hardware hackers and security researchers, it triggered something else, too—a desire to replicate the capabilities of TAO’s toolbox to conduct research on how the same approaches might be used by other adversaries.  The NSA Playset project has done just that. The collection boasts over a dozen devices that put the power of the NSA’s TAO into the hands of researchers.”

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/08/the-nsa-playset-espionage-tools-for-the-rest-of-us/

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