Tag Archives: Schadenfreude

NSA Cheerleaders Discover Value of Privacy Only When Their Own Is Violated

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“The NSA under President Obama targeted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his top aides for surveillance. In the process, the agency ended up eavesdropping on ‘the contents of some of their private conversations with U.S. lawmakers and American-Jewish groups’ about how to sabotage the Iran Deal. All sorts of people who spent many years cheering for and defending the NSA and its programs of mass surveillance are suddenly indignant now that they know the eavesdropping included them and their American and Israeli friends rather than just ordinary people.”

https://theintercept.com/2015/12/30/spying-on-congress-and-israel-nsa-cheerleaders-discover-value-of-privacy-only-when-their-own-is-violated/

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Women posed as fake brides to scam ISIS out of $3000

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“It started a few months ago, when one of the women – whose first name is Mary (or Maryam), according to Life News Russia – got a message on a social network from a stranger.  The young man said he was from Syria. After correspondence went back and forth for a while, he invited Mary to drop everything and start a new life with the militants.  Sure, sounds great, Mary said, but no can do – I’m broke.  No problem, he said, and threw some money her way.  Mary allegedly agreed, took the money, and shut down her social media accounts.  According to Life News, the three women had other men to milk, and two other members of the Islamic State transferred more money, with similar results.”

https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2015/08/04/women-posed-as-fake-brides-to-scam-isis-out-of-3000/

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Hacking Team Breach Shows a Global Spying Firm Run Amok

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“Few news events can unleash more schadenfreude within the security community than watching a notorious firm of hackers-for-hire become a hack target themselves. In the case of the freshly disemboweled Italian surveillance firm Hacking Team, the company may also serve as a dark example of a global surveillance industry that often sells to any government willing to pay, with little regard for that regime’s human rights record. On Sunday night, unidentified hackers published a massive, 400 gigabyte trove on bittorrent of internal documents from the Milan-based Hacking Team, a firm long accused of unethical sales of tools that help governments break into target computers and phones.”

http://www.wired.com/2015/07/hacking-team-breach-shows-global-spying-firm-run-amok/

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The Ominous Warning in Denny Hastert’s Downfall

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“The speaker who pushed through financial monitoring provisions of the USA Patriot Act found himself ensnared in the same law. By ‘structuring’ his cash withdrawals to avoid reporting requirements, he aroused suspicions at his bank and gave the FBI reason to investigate. As delightful as it is to see the mighty brought low, Hastert may also be victim of a grave injustice. If the government thinks it can prove Hastert committed a sex crime, the right course would be to file charges and let a jury decide. Law enforcement now has the power to bypass courts and inflict punishment without trial. Before we relish Hastert’s downfall, we should remember that any one of us could be next.”

http://www.thedailybell.com/news-analysis/36329/The-Ominous-Warning-in-Denny-Hasterts-Downfall/

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Millions of US government workers hit by data breach

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“Chinese hackers are suspected of carrying out a ‘massive breach’ affecting the data of millions of US government workers, officials said.  The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) confirmed on Thursday that almost four million current and past employees have been affected.  The breach could potentially affect every federal agency, officials said.  Susan Collins, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the attack was thought to originate in China.  OPM serves as the human resource department for the federal government.  The agency issues security clearances and compiles records of all federal government employees.”

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-33017310

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How I tracked FBI aerial surveillance

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“I have a little software defined radio dongle that I use to pick up aircraft transponder pings. I log up to one ping per second per aircraft in a database. You can see more information about the setup and information I can receive at this page: Tracking Aircraft Over Los Angeles.  Since I had two months worth of transponder pings at this point, including transponder squawk codes and callsigns, I checked to see if there was anything to it.  Of the 15,000 or so aircraft I had tracked, I found 8 that had used 4414/4415, and one with a JENNA callsign—that also had squawked 4414. And they were all registered to generically named companies. I felt like there might be something to this.”

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/06/how-i-tracked-fbi-aerial-surveillance/

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Germany’s top publisher bows to Google in news licensing row

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“Germany’s biggest news publisher Axel Springer has scrapped a move to block Google from running snippets of articles from its newspapers, saying that the experiment had caused traffic to its sites to plunge.  Springer said a two-week-old experiment to restrict access by Google to some of its publications had caused web traffic to plunge for these sites, leading it to row back and let Google once again showcase Springer news stories in its search results.  Chief Executive Mathias Doepfner said on Wednesday that his company would have ‘shot ourselves out of the market’ if it had continued with its demands for the U.S. firm to pay licensing fees.”

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/05/us-google-axel-sprngr-idUSKBN0IP1YT20141105

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Ex-Fed chief Bernanke denied loan to refinance his home

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“Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke revealed last week that he was turned down when he tried to refinance his home loan.  ‘I think it’s entirely possible’ that lenders ‘may have gone a little bit too far on mortgage credit conditions,’ he said.  Bernanke also told the conference of the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing and Care that the first-time homebuyer market is ‘not what it should be.’  Bernanke was paid $199,750 annually as head of the central bank and reportedly earned $250,000 in March for his first public speaking engagement since stepping down in January.  He also reportedly received $1 million in a deal to write his memoirs.”

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/10/06/ex-fed-chief-bernanke-denied-loan-to-refinance-his-home/

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Man sics cops on kid’s lemonade stand, now in license trouble himself

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“A Florida man who became an Internet villain after his quest to shut down a child’s lemonade stand went viral is now under investigation for potentially running an unlicensed home business.  Doug Wilkey, 61, has contacted city officials in Dunedin at least four times in the past two years in an attempt to get law enforcement to shut down the lemonade stand operated by his young neighbor, T.J. Guerrero. Wilkey’s complaint, the Tampa Bay Times reported last weekend, is that the lemonade stand is an “’illegal business’ that causes excessive traffic, noise, trash, illegal parking and other problems that reduce his property values.'”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/08/29/the-man-who-tried-to-shut-down-a-kids-lemonade-stand-is-now-under-investigation/

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Detroit makes millions from parking meters, can’t afford to power them

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“Detroit is missing out on potentially millions in revenue because just about half of its 3,404 parking meters are out of service, according to city officials. It’s estimated that the city could get an extra $6 million in revenue just by getting the rest of the meters in working condition.  As part of efforts to reduce city spending, the Duracell batteries that power the meters were swapped out with off-brand units. The cheaper batteries apparently can’t hold a charge as long as the Duracells.  To make matters worse, the old locks used to secure the batteries easily seize up from water or grime, leaving even more meters out of service.”

http://www.theverge.com/2014/8/10/5988135/detroit-makes-millions-from-parking-meters-but-cant-afford-batteries

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