CONCORD, N.H. (May 8, 2017) – A New Hampshire bill that would close a federal loophole allowing state and local police to circumvent stringent state asset forfeiture laws by passing cases off to the feds will go to the Senate floor later this week facing fierce oppostion. Rep, Michael Sylvia (R-Belmont) and Rep. John Burt (R-Goffstown)…
Can the federal government just withhold all money to get state and local governments to do things? The short answer is no.
"The unidentified attackers exploited weaknesses in Signalling System No. 7, a telephony signaling language that more than 800 telecommunications companies around the world use to ensure their networks interoperate. SS7, as the protocol is known, makes it possible for a person in one country to send text messages to someone in another country. It also allows phone calls to go uninterrupted when the caller is traveling on a train. The same functionality can be used to eavesdrop on conversations, track geographic whereabouts, or intercept text messages." Continue reading →
AUSTIN, Texas (May 7, 2017) – On Thursday, a Texas House committee passed a bill that would create a mechanism to review federal laws and end state cooperation with enforcement of those determined to violate the U.S. Constitution. This process would set the stage to effectively block some federal laws and acts in the Lone…
"You can imagine my surprise when I found out that SWIFT runs on Windows Vista - an obsolete operating system that Microsoft no longer supports. When my bank received its SWIFT code, we were told that we had to have a computer running Vista in the office in order to connect to SWIFT. It was such an absurd exercise to find an obsolete computer running an obsolete operating system to connect to the supposedly most advanced and important international payment network in the world. Unsurprisingly, SWIFT has been hacked numerous times, both by the NSA as well as private hackers who have stolen a great deal of money from their victims." Continue reading →
"In its latest John Doe summons, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is requiring American Express to send account information of Dutch residents with credit or debit cards linked to bank accounts outside the Netherlands to U.S. tax authorities. The IRS had requested the information in cooperation with the Dutch government as part of an investigation to determine whether Dutch citizens living outside the Netherlands are complying with tax laws." Continue reading →
"All of Europe is dangerous enough to elicit a warning from the State Department? But no warnings against visiting places inside the U.S. like Chicago." Continue reading →
"Travel is not an inherently suspicious activity. It’s the exercise of a Constitutional and human right, and cannot in itself be the basis for warrant checks." Continue reading →
"Because the NSA collects data on numbers that are 'two hops' away from a targeted phone, records would be collected from any number that called or was called by the target number, and then every number each of those numbers interacted with. As a result, collection expands exponentially as additional targets are added." Continue reading →
"FBI Director James Comey has put to rest any hope of achieving privacy in the United States. Speaking at a cybersecurity conference at Boston College on Wednesday, Comey said that 'there is no such thing as absolute privacy in America.' He added that everything Americans engage in, including conversations with members of the clergy and their attorneys, live within 'judicial reach.' 'In appropriate circumstances, a judge can compel any one of us to testify in court about those very private communications,' Comey said, according to CNN, which obtained a video of his remarks." Continue reading →