Tag Archives: Security

90% of NSA-intercepted chats found to be non-targeted Web users

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“Ordinary Internet users, American and non-American alike, far outnumber legally targeted foreigners in the communications intercepted by the National Security Agency from U.S. digital networks.  Nine of 10 account holders found in a large cache of intercepted conversations, which former NSA contractor Edward Snowden provided in full to The Post, were not the intended surveillance targets but were caught in a net the agency had cast for somebody else.   Many of them were Americans. Nearly half of the surveillance files, a strikingly high proportion, contained names, e-mail addresses or other details that the NSA marked as belonging to U.S. citizens or residents.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/in-nsa-intercepted-data-those-not-targeted-far-outnumber-the-foreigners-who-are/2014/07/05/8139adf8-045a-11e4-8572-4b1b969b6322_story.html

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Suspect in terror sting jailed for refusing to divulge his password

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“A convicted terrorist will serve additional time in jail after he was found guilty of refusing to supply police with the password for a memory stick that they could not crack. The refusal was contrary to section 53 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, the UK’s wiretapping law.  Police had issued Hussain with the notice under section 49 of RIPA to force him to let the cops into his USB stick.  Along with three other men, Hussain pleaded guilty to plotting to use a remote-control toy car to plant a homemade bomb at the TA centre. The suspects were arrested before any preparations for an attack were put together.”

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/16/password_refusal_earns_terror_suspect_extra_jail_time/

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The Ex-Google Hacker Taking on the World’s Spy Agencies

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“During his last six years working as an elite security researcher for Google, the hacker known as Morgan Mayhem spent his nights and weekends hunting down the malware used to spy on vulnerable targets like human rights activists and political dissidents.  His new job tasks him with defending a different endangered species: American national security journalists.  34-year-old Morgan Marquis-Boire [is now] the director of security for First Look Media, the media startup founded by eBay billionaire Pierre Omidyar that has recruited journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras.  The website has become the most prolific publisher of NSA leaker Edward Snowden’s remaining secrets.”

http://www.wired.com/2014/07/morgan-marquis-boire-first-look-media/

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Could Keith Alexander’s Advice Possibly Be Worth $600K a Month?

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“Ex-NSA director Keith Alexander has his own consulting company: IronNet Cybersecurity Inc. His advice does not come cheap.  Alexander offered to provide advice to Sifma for $1 million a month, according to two people briefed on the talks. The asking price later dropped to $600,000, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the negotiation was private.  Alexander declined to comment on the details, except to say that his firm will have contracts ‘in the near future.’   SIFMA is the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association. Think of how much actual security they could buy with that $600K a month. Unless he’s giving them classified information.”

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/06/could_keith_ale.html

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Blockchain’s SharedCoin Users Can Be Identified, Says Security Expert

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“Bitcoin users in need of serious transaction privacy should avoid popular services like Blockchain’s SharedCoin and other CoinJoin implementations, according to a well-known security expert.  Consultant Kristov Atlas, author of the book Anonymous Bitcoin, published a security advisory today saying weaknesses in SharedCoin offered privacy only from ‘unskilled examiners of the bitcoin blockchain’ – and even then, only until more sophisticated analysis tools were made user-friendly enough for the average user to deploy.  Atlas recommended anyone using SharedCoin set the number of cycles to the maximum 10, while remembering that even this did not guarantee 100% privacy.”

http://www.coindesk.com/blockchains-sharedcoin-users-can-identified-says-security-expert/

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Warrantless cellphone location tracking is illegal, US circuit court rules

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“A US Appellate Court has ruled that police must obtain a warrant before collecting cellphone location data, finding that acquiring records of what cell towers a phone connected to and when it was connected to them constitutes a Fourth Amendment search. This ruling, from the 11th Circuit, is in opposition to a ruling made nearly a year ago by a separate appellate court.  In its reasoning, the court notes that while the Fourth Amendment has traditionally been applied to property rights, it’s gradually expanded to protect much more, including communications.  The court cites a Supreme Court ruling that found that tracking a person using a GPS unit installed in their car requires a warrant.”

http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/11/5801238/warrantless-cellphone-location-tracking-illegal-us-court-rules

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Florida cops went door to door with fake cell device to find one man

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“This newly released transcript (PDF) provides what is likely the first-ever verbatim account of how stingrays are used in actual police operations. And it shows that stingrays are so accurate, they can pinpoint the very room in which a phone is located.  After learning the phone’s general location, cops deployed a vehicle-mounted stingray and cruised the streets. Verizon had already provided them with the phone’s unique IMSI identifier, which told the stingray exactly which handset to track. Such searches are controversial in part because stingrays necessarily capture data about all other compatible phones nearby.  Stingrays force a connected phone to transmit at full power.”

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/06/how-florida-cops-went-door-to-door-with-fake-cell-device-to-find-one-man/

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Root backdoor found in surveillance gear used by law enforcement

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“Software used by law enforcement organizations to intercept the communications of suspected criminals contains a litany of critical weaknesses, including an undocumented backdoor secured with a hardcoded password, security researchers said today.  In a scathing advisory published Wednesday, the researchers recommended people stop using the Nice Recording eXpress voice-recording package.  It is one of several software offerings provided by Ra’anana, Israel-based Nice Systems, a company that markets itself as providing ‘mission-critical lawful interception solutions to support the fight against organized crime, drug trafficking and terrorist activities.'”

http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/05/root-backdoor-found-in-surveillance-gear-used-by-law-enforcement/

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Google Now Offers End-to-End Encryption on Email

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“Google has released the source code for a new extension for Chrome. It’s called End-to-End, and it will provide users with the ability to encrypt their email the whole way from outbox to recipient.  The new system uses the open-source encryption standard OpenPGP, and should make it easy for users to read encrypted emails that arrive in their inbox. Clearly, it will require both sender and receiver use End-to-End or another encryption tool—but the idea here is to make encryption more accessible.  It’s releasing the code so that devs, engineers and other wildly enthusiastic early adopters can test and evaluate it, to make sure it’s user-friendly, bug-free and secure.”

http://gizmodo.com/google-now-offers-end-to-end-encryption-on-email-1585831839

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VTA can keep transit cardholders’ personal data for seven years [2012]

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“The resolution also calls on the commission to encrypt travel information on the Clipper card, which can be read by scanning it with a smartphone app called FareBot.  Randy Rentschler, a spokesman for the transportation commission, said he did not see the need for the legislation.  Use of the card, accepted by every major Bay Area public transit system, is soaring with 689,000 transactions a day and more than 1 million active Clipper cards. Every time a user swipes the card for BART or Muni, the information is saved.  In 2010, California enacted a law limiting the use of data collected on bridges and toll roads through FasTrak devices, but Clipper cards were not included in the legislation.”

https://www.baycitizen.org/news/transportation/supervisor-seeks-more-privacy-clipper/

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