Tag Archives: False Sense Of Security

Federal cybersecurity official going to jail on child porn charges

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“The former acting cybersecurity director for the US Department of Health and Human Services, Tim DeFoggi, was convicted yesterday on three child porn charges.  As reported by Wired, DeFoggi is the sixth suspect to be caught by the FBI’s Operation Torpedo, which used controversial methods of defeating the Tor anonymizing software in order to find child porn suspects.  One site frequented by DeFoggi was PedoBook, hosted by a Nebraska man who was convicted earlier for his role in the operations. DeFoggi used names such as ‘fuckchrist’ and ‘PTasseater’ to register on the sites, where he could view more than 100 videos and more than 17,000 child porn images.”

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/08/federal-cybersecurity-official-going-to-jail-on-child-porn-charges/

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Inevitable Terrorist Attack: Will You Be Manipulated?

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“So-called ‘security experts’ on Fox News are warning of an impending terrorist attack. These ‘insiders’ claim to know things. Maybe so, but…  The last time our so-called security bureaucracy knew enough to stop a terrorist attack, 9-11 happened. In other words…  Their so-called special knowledge didn’t protect anyone. Even worse…  9-11 was used as an excuse to invade Afghanistan and Iraq. Those invasions caused much of the chaos that now dominates the headlines. So here’s the question…  Will you be fooled again? Will you be exploited again?   The next time the politicians want to use some incident to scare you into war, will you fall for it?”

https://secure.downsizedc.org/blog/inevitable-terrorist-attack-will-you-be-manipulated

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Researchers Easily Slipped Weapons Past TSA’s X-Ray Body Scanners

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“Two years ago, a blogger named Jonathan Corbett published a YouTube video that seemed to show a facepalm-worthy vulnerability in the TSA’s Rapiscan full-body X-ray scanners.  The TSA dismissed Corbett’s findings, and even called reporters to caution them not to cover his video.  Now a team of security researchers from the University of California at San Diego, the University of Michigan, and Johns Hopkins plans to reveal their own results from months of testing that same model of scanner. And not only did they find that Corbett’s weapon-hiding tactic worked; they also found that they could pull off a disturbing list of other possible tricks.”

http://www.wired.com/2014/08/study-shows-how-easily-weapons-can-be-smuggled-past-tsas-x-ray-body-scanners/

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U.S. traveler finds feds kept a 76-page file on him, including credit cards

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“The 76 new pages of data, covering 2005 through 2013, show that CBP retains massive amounts of data on us when we travel internationally. My own PNRs include not just every mailing address, e-mail, and phone number I’ve ever used; some of them also contain:  The IP address that I used to buy the ticket; My credit card number (in full); The language I used; Notes on my phone calls to airlines, even for something as minor as a seat change.  The breadth of long-term data retention illustrates yet another way that the federal government enforces its post-September 11 ‘collect it all’ mentality.”

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/07/ars-editor-learns-feds-have-his-old-ip-addresses-full-credit-card-numbers/

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H.K. Politician’s Son-In-Law Won’t Face Charges For TSA Impersonation

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“When high-powered finance guy Eric Slighton was arrested at SFO after allegedly impersonating a TSA agent and luring women into ‘private screenings,’officials hoped the women he pulled aside would come forward so he could face charges stronger than the public drunkenness and ‘suspicious occurrence’ ones they initially slapped him with. A month later, however, the women have not come forward, and Slighton, who has connections at the very top of Hong Kong’s government, will not be charged.  Reports at the time say that he had entered the security area in khaki pants, a blue polo shirt and blue rubber gloves that officers suspected he swiped ‘to look the part.'”

http://sfist.com/2014/08/18/son-in-law_of_high-ranking_hong_kon.php

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New FAA ruling effectively bans ridesharing for planes

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“A recent FAA ruling has left Uber of air travel-hopeful AirPooler and other startups like it in a legal bind. The agency yesterday stated that private pilots who don’t hold a special government-issued certificate are banned from publicly offering seats on their planes for a fee.  The ruling is meant to keep consumers safe from flying with unseasoned pilots, but it also makes it more expensive for pilots to fly while also making it harder for planesharing companies to do business.  The ruling is meant to clarify a 1963 proposal that allows for pilots to privately ask passengers to split travel expenses like the cost of fuel. Up until now, pilots could seek out passengers for trips.”

http://www.theverge.com/2014/8/16/6009055/new-faa-ruling-effectively-bans-ridesharing-for-planes

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Moody’s, Goldman, feds fight the last war on financial excess

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“During the current five-year surge in stocks, confidence that a crash isn’t likely has remained below 40% among individual investors. During the comparable span of 2004 to early 2007, confidence was never as low as 40%, and peaked near 50%. ‘Twice bitten, thrice shy’ seems to be the prevailing attitude, after the market was cut in half twice in eight years’ time. This persistent mood of suspicion probably creates its own check against too much giddiness infusing the markets too quickly. But it doesn’t provide much protection against a whole new, unexpected financial bug coming to bite us from a place we haven’t thought to look.”

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/moody-s–goldman–feds-fight-the-last-war-on-financial-excess–are-we-safer-181328063.html

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Former Fed Chair: ‘We Are Running Out Of Buffer In The Economy’

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“In an appearance on ‘In The Loop With Betty Liu,‘ Greenspan warned that the economy has almost no room to maneuver if faced with a security threat:  ‘We are running out of buffer in the economy. We don’t have the capability should, for example, we run into a major conflict in the Middle East or elsewhere where it requires a major increase in our defense budget. Our defense budget is heading in a direction where in a couple, two or three years it will be at the lowest level relative to GDP since before World War II. We don’t have the physical resources to respond.’  Greenspan believes a correction is likely given current valuations, but it’s impossible to say when it will hit.”

http://www.businessinsider.com/greenspan-we-are-running-out-of-buffer-in-the-economy-2014-7

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Researcher Identifies Hidden Data-Acquisition Services in iOS

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“There are a number of undocumented and hidden features and services in Apple iOS that can be used to bypass the backup encryption on iOS devices and remove large amounts of users’ personal data. Several of these features began as benign services but have evolved in recent years to become powerful tools for acquiring user data.  Using the hidden services that bypass the encrypted backup protection don’t require the use of developer mode and many of them have been present in iOS for five years.  Some of the undocumented services and features in iOS map pretty closely to capabilities attributed to some of the NSA’s tools, specifically DROPOUTJEEP.”

http://threatpost.com/researcher-identifies-hidden-data-acquisition-services-in-ios/107335

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Edward Snowden: The Untold Story

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“If other leakers exist within the NSA, it would be more than another nightmare for the agency—it would underscore its inability to control its own information and might indicate that Snowden’s rogue protest of government overreach has inspired others within the intelligence community. ‘They still haven’t fixed their problems,’ Snowden says. ‘They still have negligent auditing, they still have things going for a walk, and they have no idea where they’re coming from and they have no idea where they’re going. And if that’s the case, how can we as the public trust the NSA with all of our information, with all of our private records, the permanent record of our lives?'”

http://www.wired.com/2014/08/edward-snowden/

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