security

Report of FBI back door roils OpenBSD community [2010]

"The report surfaced in e-mail made public yesterday from a former government contractor, who alleged that he worked with the FBI to implement 'a number of back doors' in OpenBSD, which has a reputation for high security and is used in some commercial products. He said the project was a 'circa 1999 joint research and development project between the FBI and the NSA,' which is part of the Defense Department. The OpenBSD project, which was once funded by DARPA but had its funding yanked in 2003 for unspecified reasons, says that it takes an 'uncompromising view toward increased security.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingReport of FBI back door roils OpenBSD community [2010]

Security-Enhanced Android: NSA Edition

"Through its open-source Android project, Google has agreed to incorporate code, first developed by the agency in 2011, into future versions of its mobile operating system, which according to market researcher IDC runs on three-quarters of the smartphones shipped globally in the first quarter. NSA officials say their code, known as Security Enhancements for Android, isolates apps to prevent hackers and marketers from gaining access to personal or corporate data stored on a device. Eventually all new phones, tablets, televisions, cars, and other devices that rely on Android will include NSA code, agency spokeswoman Vanee’ Vines said." Continue reading →

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Bitcoin wallet service to issue refunds after users’ funds stolen

"A widely used Bitcoin wallet service plans to issue refunds to people who saw their bitcoins stolen as a result of a weakness in its application. Blockchain.info, which has a Web-based service called My Wallet, has also upgraded its application after finding a vulnerability similar to one discovered earlier this month in some Bitcoin wallet programs running on the Android mobile OS. Interest in Bitcoin has surged since its debut just four years ago. The system offers a low-cost way to transmit virtual currency over the Internet, and many companies and entrepreneurs are working to solve concerns around how to safeguard bitcoins from hackers." Continue reading →

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Secret Service nabs Oklahoma driver’s license equipment burglars

"Two men are accused of committing multiple felony burglaries at metro area tag agencies. They were after the equipment and supplies needed to make Oklahoma driver’s licenses and ID cards. 591 customers had their personal information stolen along with the equipment. We keep piling on security feature like biometrics to our state driver’s license but the weakest link is the local DMV or tag agencies. This sort of crime is happening all over the country. All the personal data and high tech security features in the world will not make the card secure. Instead what it does is make the document a hot commodity for crooks." Continue reading →

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If You Have Nothing to Hide, Be Very Worried

"Surveillance of health made the eugenics movement possible in 30 states. In North Carolina alone, 7,600 individuals were sterilized from 1929-74. Government ID papers have made checkpoints more productive and less costly. Saying that some government activities have to be more costly is the same as saying they should be constrained. There is a second reason why private information must stay private. It is simply that you may well be breaking criminal laws without knowing it. Many people are not convicted felons only because the government does not know which paper crimes they have committed." Continue reading →

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Obama administration asks Supreme Court to allow warrantless cellphone searches

"If the police arrest you, do they need a warrant to rifle through your cellphone? Courts have been split on the question. Last week the Obama administration asked the Supreme Court to resolve the issue and rule that the Fourth Amendment allows warrantless cellphone searches. But as the storage capacity of cellphones rises, that position could become harder to defend. Our smart phones increasingly contain everything about our digital lives: our e-mails, text messages, photographs, browser histories and more. It would be troubling if the police had the power to get all that information with no warrant merely by arresting a suspect." Continue reading →

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David Miranda: I was treated like a threat to the United Kingdom

"David Miranda, the partner of the Guardian journalist who broke stories of mass surveillance by the US National Security Agency, has accused Britain of a 'total abuse of power' for interrogating him for almost nine hours at Heathrow under the Terrorism Act. In his first interview since returning to his home in Rio de Janeiro early on Monday, Miranda said the authorities in the UK had pandered to the US in trying to intimidate him and force him to reveal the passwords to his computer and mobile phone. During that time, he said, he was not allowed to call his partner, who is a qualified lawyer in the US, nor was he given an interpreter." Continue reading →

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“The Internet Police” Shines a Light on the Online Surveillance State

"When Ars Technica editor Nate Anderson sat down to write The Internet Police, Edward Snowden hadn’t yet decided to add some excitement to the National Security Agency’s summer by leaking a trove of surveillance secrets to The Guardian. As a result, Anderson’s book doesn’t mention Snowden’s escapade, which will likely become the security-and-paranoia story of the year, if not the decade. However, The Internet Police is a handy guide to the slow and unstoppable rise of the online security state, as well as the libertarian and criminal elements that have done their level best to counter that surveillance." Continue reading →

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LA Businessman Shoots Five Robbers Dead in Four Separate Incidents

"Five robbers made bad decisions. They decided to rob this man’s watch repair shop. They came in armed. They went out feet first. Yet the end of the story is sad. The gangs vowed revenge. He closed his store. He no longer has walk-in customers. Los Angeles is gang-ridden. The social breakdown in this welfare state is obvious to victims. Self-government is declining in a society where the state funds irresponsibility in the name of compassion. Today, California has eleven bills in the legislature to make gun ownership more difficult. The gangs favor these bills. It makes their work so much safer." Continue reading →

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Welcome To Coincanna

"With crypto currency like Bitcoin & Litecoin, a grower can sell his or her strains and concentrates to a dispensary using Bitcoin or Litecoin, removing the large amounts of cash on site at the dispensary as well as the growers money is now safe on the blockchain, before they even leave the site of the trade. So this way no law enforcement encounter nor thief can take away the money involved with the grower or dispensaries trades. In the same way the dispensary can now accept Bitcoin & Litecoin from their patients for their medicine, removing the large amounts of cash from the site of the dispensary." Continue reading →

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