False Sense Of Security

Prosecutors charge 6 in $300M credit card hacking scheme

"Russian Dmitriy Smilianets, 29, is accused of selling the stolen data and distributing the profits. Prosecutors said he charged $10 for U.S. cards, $15 for ones from Canada and $50 for European cards, which are more expensive because they have computer chips that make them more secure. The five concealed their efforts by disabling anti-virus software on victims computers and storing data on multiple hacking platforms, prosecutors said. They sold the payment card numbers to resellers, who then sold them on online forums or to 'cashers' who encode the numbers onto blank plastic cards." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingProsecutors charge 6 in $300M credit card hacking scheme

Canadian officials deny that pooping geese could have spread GMO wheat seeds

"Canadian agricultural officials exchanged a series of emails in late August of 2012 outlining a crisis plan explaining how personnel at the country’s agricultural agency should deal with inquiries about whether experimental Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) wheat could be spread in the feces of Canadian geese. The Ottawa Citizen said Tuesday that it has received heavily redacted copies of the emails, which point toward a concerted effort to squelch the notion that GMO wheat could have escaped its growing area at Agriculture Canada’s Experimental Farm in Ottawa in the digestive tracts of Canadian geese." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCanadian officials deny that pooping geese could have spread GMO wheat seeds

Homeland Security’s Future Home: A Former Mental Hospital

"Chris Mills frequently gives tours of St. Elizabeths Hospital, a former mental institution where the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is building a $4.5 billion headquarters. It’s the largest construction project in the District of Columbia since the Pentagon was completed in 1943. The project is moving slowly, even by the geologic standards of the U.S. government. It’s been plagued by delays and mounting costs. People might not even remember Napolitano when the building is completed, which might be around 2026. Today, DHS has 240,000 employees and a yearly budget of $60 billion." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHomeland Security’s Future Home: A Former Mental Hospital

Cheese shop owner on crusade to block FDA ban on mimolette

"The US fate of the bright-orange, mild-tasting French cheese has been in jeopardy for months and the Food and Drug Administration has blocked all further imports. Why? Because US regulators determined the cantaloupe-like rind of the cheese was covered with too many cheese mites, even though the tiny bugs give mimolette its unique flavor. 1.5 tonnes (3,300 pounds) of cheese were blocked from being imported. Benoit de Vitton of French import company Isigny says those 1.5 tonnes were eventually destroyed. Mmenus inform diners about the FDA decision, noting that mimolette has been 'the National Cheese of France since King Louis XIV.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCheese shop owner on crusade to block FDA ban on mimolette

Whitfield Diffie (Wikipedia)

"Bailey Whitfield 'Whit' Diffie is an American cryptographer and one of the pioneers of public-key cryptography. In 1975-76, Diffie and Martin Hellman criticized the NBS proposed Data Encryption Standard, largely because its 56-bit key length was too short to prevent Brute-force attack. Subsequent history has shown not only that NSA actively intervened with IBM and NBS to shorten the key size, but also that the short key size enabled exactly the kind of massively parallel key crackers that Hellman and Diffie sketched out. When these were ultimately built outside the classified world, they made it clear that DES was insecure and obsolete." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWhitfield Diffie (Wikipedia)

Data Encryption Standard – NSA’s involvement in the design (Wikipedia)

"In 1973 NBS solicited private industry for a data encryption standard (DES). The first offerings were disappointing, so NSA began working on its own algorithm. Then Howard Rosenblum, deputy director for research and engineering, discovered that Walter Tuchman of IBM was working on a modification to Lucifer for general use. NSA gave Tuchman a clearance and brought him in ...] NSA worked closely with IBM to strengthen the algorithm against all except brute force attacks and to strengthen S-boxes. Conversely, NSA tried to convince IBM to reduce the length of the key from 64 to 48 bits. Ultimately they compromised on a 56-bit key." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingData Encryption Standard – NSA’s involvement in the design (Wikipedia)

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 →

Continue ReadingData, meet spies: The unfinished state of Web crypto

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 →

Continue ReadingFeds put heat on Web firms for master encryption keys

Pennsylvania police chief: ‘F*ck all you libtards out there, you take it in the a**’

"The mayor of Gilberton, Pennsylvania is standing by her city’s police chief despite a series of profanity-laced and threatening videos. In a video that has received wide attention, police chief Mark Kessler repeatedly tells those upset by his use of profanity to 'go f*ck yourself' as he fires various automatic weapons. Mayor Mary Lou Hannon told The Morning Call that Kessler had the right to express himself. The city would 'not take action to quash free speech, whether or not each member of council or any member of council agrees with it.' In one video, Kessler berates 'libtards' and warns of an armed rebellion against the government." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPennsylvania police chief: ‘F*ck all you libtards out there, you take it in the a**’

Texas man raised over $4.5M in 2012 Bitcoin Ponzi scheme, feds allege

"The government's financial regulator alleges that Shavers violated a number of federal financial regulations. In court documents, the SEC wrote: 'Shavers falsely promised investors up to 7 percent interest weekly based on BTCST’s purported BTC market arbitrage activity, including selling BTC to individuals who wished to buy BTC 'off the radar,' quickly, or in large quantities. In reality, the BTCST offering was a sham and a Ponzi scheme whereby Shavers used new BTCST investors’ BTC to pay the promised returns on outstanding BTCST investments and misappropriated BTCST investors’ [bitcoins] for his personal use.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingTexas man raised over $4.5M in 2012 Bitcoin Ponzi scheme, feds allege