Alternative News

No Free Sun for You! Why Arizona Wants to ‘Tax’ Solar Power

"On July 12, Arizona’s largest electric utility announced a plan to drastically change net-metering, the way in which homeowners and businesses with solar rooftops sell excess power back to the grid. Net-metering is the foundation for all solar leasing; without it, solar companies can’t entice homeowners with the promise of 'cut your electric bill, no money down' but instead would rely on sales of expensive systems. The proposal would slap existing solar-paneled homeowners with a fee of up to $100 per month for the privilege of selling excess power back to APS. If you don’t already have solar panels, you can never share in net-metering as we know it." Continue reading →

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Police Ordered To Return $1 Million An Exotic Dancer Saved In $1 Bills

"A stripper just won a lawsuit against Nebraska police who confiscated over $1,000,000 in $10,000 bundles tied with hair ties after a routine traffic stop. Tara Mishra, 33, had stripped for 15 years and managed to save $1,074,000. So she gave the cash to friends to open a New Jersey nightclub. But when those friends were pulled over in Nebraska, the cops suspected the money was tied to drugs and confiscated all the cash. This week, a judge ruled that since the police failed to find evidence of drug activity, and since a canine search revealed only trace amounts of illegal drugs on the money, the cash had to be returned." Continue reading →

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In Profit-Sharing Scheme, Oklahoma DA Used Contractor for Highway Drug Stops

"An asset forfeiture scheme that utilized a private security contractor to stop vehicles on Interstate 40 in Caddo County, Oklahoma, has been shut down after garnering strong criticism. Beyond paying the private operators to train police, the contract DA Hicks agreed to in January gave Desert Snow 25% of all assets seized during training days and 10% of all assets seized even on days the contractors were not present. Hicks told The Oklahoman he hired the contractors 'because his drug task force had little success on drug stops' and because 'he hoped to make money for his office from the drug stops because of a loss of federal funds.'" Continue reading →

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NSA Taps Directly Into Undersea Fiber-optic Data Cables

"Of course, by tapping directly into the beams of light transferring this data around the globe — apparently with the cooperation of the world’s chief technology companies — the federal government bypasses all legal and constitutional restraints on its already immense power. Remarkably, there does not seem to be a corresponding flight by Americans from the devices or services being monitored by the federal government. As one brick after another is stacked on the ever-growing walls of the 21st-century Panopticon, it appears that nothing will dissuade Americans from growing increasingly reliant on the very tools being used in the construction." Continue reading →

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2013 Bitcoin Mid-Year Review and Outlook

"The past six months may one day prove to be among the most important in bitcoin’s history. As global events sparked increasing need for frictionless wealth transfers, bitcoin’s popularity ballooned and ignited a conversation that will likely continue to flourish in the years to come. Growth in bitcoin’s value was outpaced only by the incredible interest from entrepreneurs, investors and the press. In this 27-page report we cover the major events from the first half of 2013 and what to look out for in the months ahead." Continue reading →

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Bitcoin exchange opens in Hong Kong

"Anti-money laundering and know-your-customer compliance is easier for banking and financial institutions when they deal with virtual currency exchanges rather than cash, says the founder of what may be Hong Kong’s first licensed Bitcoin exchange. Aurélien Menant, a former investment banker at Société Générale and now chief executive and founder of Gate Digital Services, said Bitcoin’s traceability feature would help institutions with compliance and risk management." Continue reading →

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CryptoParty: Party like it’s December 31st, 1983

"Attend a CryptoParty to learn and teach how to use basic cryptography tools. A CryptoParty is free, public and fun. People bring their computers, mobile devices, and a willingness to learn! CryptoParty is a decentralized, global initiative to introduce the most basic cryptography software and the fundamental concepts of their operation to the general public, such as the Tor anonymity network, public key encryption (PGP/GPG), and OTR (Off The Record messaging). CryptoParties are free to attend, public, and commercially and politically non-aligned." Continue reading →

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Data, meet spies: The unfinished state of Web crypto

"Most Internet companies do not use an privacy-protective encryption technique that has existed for over 20 years -- it's called forward secrecy -- that cleverly encodes Web browsing and Web e-mail in a way that frustrates fiber taps by national governments. Lack of adoption by Apple, Twitter, Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL and others is probably due to 'performance concerns and not valuing forward secrecy enough,' says Ivan Ristic, director of engineering at the cloud security firm Qualys. Google, by contrast, adopted it two years ago." Continue reading →

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Google strengthens Android security with NSA’s SELinux; TPM also coming

"Originally developed by programmers from the National Security Agency, SELinux enforces a much finer-grained series of mandatory access control policies. the other big security enhancement introduced in Android 4.3 is a more robust way to store cryptographic credentials used to access sensitive information and resources. 'With the keychain enhancements, the system-wide keys are bound to a hardware-based root of trust process devices that support this,' said Pau Oliva Fora, senior mobile security engineer at viaForensics. 'The phone needs to have a secure element such as a Trusted Platform Module so that private keys can't be stolen.'" Continue reading →

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Feds put heat on Web firms for master encryption keys

"These demands for master encryption keys, which have not been disclosed previously, represent a technological escalation in the clandestine methods that the FBI and the National Security Agency employ when conducting electronic surveillance against Internet users. If the government obtains a company's master encryption key, agents could decrypt the contents of communications intercepted through a wiretap or by invoking the potent surveillance authorities of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Web encryption -- which often appears in a browser with a HTTPS lock icon when enabled -- uses a technique called SSL, or Secure Sockets Layer." Continue reading →

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