Tag Archives: Software

Amid the Greek Crisis, Bitcoin Reminds Everyone It’s Not Perfect

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“The economic crisis in Greece has turned some attention to Bitcoin again. The price of the digital currency has rallied over the past few days, partly because some Greeks have been snapping up the currency amid bank closures and cash withdrawal limits.  But over the weekend, Bitcoin’s software provided a well-timed reminder of why it’s not the perfect financial system, either. Bitcoin transactions have been taking five times longer than usual to complete, according to Gil Luria, an analyst at Wedbush Securities. The problems stem from a new version of the Bitcoin software that runs on PCs and servers underpinning the currency’s decentralized system.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-06/amid-the-greek-crisis-bitcoin-reminds-everyone-it-s-not-perfect

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Privacy tools – encryption against global mass surveillance

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“You are being watched. Private and state-sponsored organizations are monitoring and recording your online activities. privacytools.io provides knowledge and tools to protect your privacy against global mass surveillance.”

https://www.privacytools.io/

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The Ghosts of Spying Past

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“In the 1990s, the Clinton administration fought furiously against privacy and security in communication, and we’re still hurting from it today. Yet people in powerful positions are trying to commit the same mistakes all over again.  Doing business safely requires data security: If unauthorized parties can grab credit card numbers or issue fake orders, nobody is safe. However, the Clinton administration considered communication security a threat to national security.  Attorney General Janet Reno said, ‘Without encryption safeguards, all Americans will be endangered.’ She didn’t mean that we needed the safeguard of encryption, but that we had to be protected from encryption.”

http://fee.org/anythingpeaceful/detail/the-ghosts-of-spying-past

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Critical OpenSSL bug allows attackers to impersonate any trusted server

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“There’s a critical vulnerability in some versions of the widely used OpenSSL code library that in some cases allows attackers to impersonate cryptographically protected websites, e-mail servers, and virtual private networks, according to an advisory issued early Thursday morning.  The bug allows attackers to force vulnerable end-user applications into treating an invalid certificate as a legitimate transport layer security (TLS) or secure sockets layer (SSL) credential. As a result, adversaries with the ability to monitor a connection between the end user and trusted server could intercept or even modify data passing between them.”

http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/07/critical-openssl-bug-allows-attackers-to-impersonate-any-trusted-server/

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Google reveals Adobe/Windows font bugs that enable system hijacking

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“A Google Project Zero researcher has publicly disclosed details on a number of patched Adobe and Microsoft vulnerabilities, including one in the Adobe Type Manager Font Driver that could enable takeover of a number of systems supporting modern font engines. ATMFD.dll has supported Type 1 and OpenType fonts in the Windows kernel dating back to NT 4.0. The researcher said that the Windows kernel module has used the same interpreter for both Type 1 and OpenType CharStrings, supporting every function in the specification, bloating it unnecessarily. The bug could enable an attacker to chain together exploits that result in full system compromise using just the one vulnerability.”

https://threatpost.com/details-available-on-patched-adobe-windows-font-vulnerabilities/113454

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Google pulls listening software from Chromium

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“Google has pulled its listening software from the open-source Chromium browser after complaints from developers and privacy campaigners.  The tool, which uses the computer’s microphone to listen out for the ‘OK, Google’ hotword to trigger voice searches, was silently downloaded with updates of Chromium by default.  Open-source advocates complained that Google was downloading a ‘black box’ on to their machines that was not open source and therefore could not be verified to be doing what it said it was meant to do. Google has now made it an optional download that will not be installed unless a user adds it from the Chrome Web Store and opts into the voice-search functionality.”

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jun/25/google-pulls-listening-software-chromium

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Airbus confirms software configuration error caused plane crash

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“An executive of Airbus Group has confirmed that the crash of an Airbus A400M military transport was caused by a faulty software configuration. Marwan Lahoud, chief marketing and strategy officer for Airbus, told the German newspaper Handelsblatt on Friday that there was a ‘quality issue in the final assembly’ of the components of the aircraft engine.  As Ars reported on May 19, Airbus had issued a warning to its military customers about a potential software problem in the engine control software for the A400M. The release of the exact cause of the crash, however, had been delayed because a Spanish magistrate placed the flight data recorders from the aircraft under seal.”

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/06/airbus-confirms-software-configuration-error-caused-plane-crash/

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You’re a Criminal in a Mass Surveillance World – How to Not Get Caught

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“To apologists of mass surveillance, what did Anne Frank have to hide? I ask because the person credited with popularizing the nothing-to-hide argument is none other than Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda for the Third Reich.  Minister Goebbels would have wrung his hands with delight at having this depth of data on his regime’s citizens. But this data is absolutely trivial compared to what the U.S. government actually knows about you. Thanks to William Binney and Edward Snowden, we know that the U.S. regime has for many years been secretly constructing the means to monitor and record every aspect of our lives.”

https://bananas.liberty.me/youre-a-criminal-in-a-mass-surveillance-world-how-to-not-get-caught/

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Creator of PGP explains why he moved his company to Switzerland

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“When Philip Zimmermann was campaigning for nuclear disarmament in the 1980s, he kept an escape plan in his back pocket. The inventor of the world’s most widely used email encryption system, Pretty Good Privacy – more commonly known as PGP – was ready to move his family from Colorado to New Zealand at a moment’s notice.  The button was never pressed and the Zimmermanns stayed put. Until this year, that is. At 61, the Internet Hall of Fame inductee and founder of three-year-old mobile encryption startup Silent Circle has just left the US for Switzerland. In the end, it was not the nuclear threat that convinced him to leave his homeland, but the surveillance arms race.”

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/may/25/philip-zimmermann-king-encryption-reveals-fears-privacy

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Skype Translator Preview now open to all Windows users

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“When I used Skype Translator in December last year, it was breathtaking. I held a conversation with a native Spanish speaker in spite of not speaking a word of Spanish.  Since then, Skype Translator has added more languages—it now speaks Mandarin and Italian in addition to English and Spanish—and in instant messaging it handles many more, some fifty in total, including Klingon.  Until now, the preview has had only limited availability; interested parties had to sign up specially and could not get immediate access. That limitation ends today. The preview is now freely downloadable (Windows Store link) and available to anyone using Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 preview.”

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/05/skype-translator-preview-now-open-to-all/

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