technology

What It’s Like to Get a National-Security Letter

"I spoke with Brewster Kahle, the founder of the nonprofit Internet Archive, perhaps the greatest of our digital libraries, and of the Wayback Machine, which allows you to browse an archive of the Web that reaches back to 1996. He is one of very few people in the United States who can talk about receiving a national-security letter. Hundreds of thousands of national-security letters have been sent. But only the plaintiffs in the three successful challenges so far—Kahle; Nicholas Merrill, of Calyx Internet Access; and the Connecticut librarians George Christian, Barbara Bailey, Peter Chase, and Janet Nocek—are known to have had them rescinded." Continue reading →

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Targeted booze strikes: Aerial drone drops beer at South Africa music festival

"Revellers at a South African outdoor rock festival no longer need to queue to slake their thirst — a flying robot will drop them beer by parachute. After clients place an order using a smartphone app, a drone zooms 15 metres (50 feet) above the heads of the festival-goers to make the delivery. Carel Hoffmann, director of the Oppikoppi festival held on a dusty farm in the country’s northern Limpopo province, said the app registers the position of users using the GPS satellite chips on their phones. 'The delivery guys have a calibrated delivery drone. They send it to the GPS position and drops it with a parachute,' he explained." Continue reading →

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Another US encrypted email service, founded by PGP inventor, also shuts down

"Later on Thursday, an executive with a better-known provider of secure email said his company had also shut down that service. Jon Callas, co-founder of Silent Circle Inc, said on Twitter and in a blog post that Silent Circle had ended Silent Mail. 'We see the writing the wall, and we have decided that it is best for us to shut down Silent Mail now. We have not received subpoenas, warrants, security letters, or anything else by any government, and this is why we are acting now,' Mr Callas wrote. Silent Circle, co-founded by the PGP cryptography inventor Phil Zimmermann, will continue to offer secure texting and secure phone calls." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAnother US encrypted email service, founded by PGP inventor, also shuts down

Obama met with tech executives privately to discuss government surveillance

"President Barack Obama quietly met with the CEOs of Apple Inc, AT&T Inc as well as other technology and privacy representatives on Thursday to discuss government surveillance. Google Inc computer scientist Vint Cerf and civil liberties leaders also participated in the meeting, along with Apple’s Tim Cook and AT&T’s Randall Stephenson, Politico said late Thursday, citing sources familiar with the matter. The closed-door meeting followed another private session on Tuesday between top Obama administration officials, industry lobbyists and privacy advocates, Politico reported, adding that the latest meeting 'was organized with greater secrecy.'" Continue reading →

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SpaceX to launch radar satellite network for Germany

"Privately owned Space Exploration Technologies won a two-flight contract to launch a radar satellite network for Germany, the company announced on Thursday. SpaceX will launch a trio of spacecraft that comprise a radar reconnaissance network for Germany’s defense department. The company’s Falcon 9 rocket so far has flown five times – all successfully – including three missions to launch cargo capsules to the International Space Station for NASA. The privately owned firm, founded and operated by Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk, also is competing to provide flight services for NASA astronauts to and from the station." Continue reading →

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Facing pressure from U.S., encrypted email service Lavabit shuts down

"An encrypted email service believed to have been used by US leaker Edward Snowden shut down on Thursday apparently as a result of pressure from US authorities. Lavabit owner Ladar Levison posted a message at the website telling users that the he was pulling the plug on the secure email service launched in Texas nearly a decade ago. Levison lamented that he was barred from sharing details of what prompted Lavabit’s demise. US law allows national security officials to make requests to companies that come with the caveat they must be kept secret." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFacing pressure from U.S., encrypted email service Lavabit shuts down

Meshnet activists rebuilding the internet from scratch

"Across the US, from Maryland to Seattle, work is underway to construct user-owned wireless networks that will permit secure communication without surveillance or any centralised organisation. They are known as meshnets and ultimately, if their designers get their way, they will span the country. The Seattle Meshnet has just completed a successful crowdfunding campaign for meshboxes – routers that come preloaded with the cjdns software needed to join Hyperboria. Users will just plug the routers into their existing internet connection and be ready to go on the virtual meshnet – or a local physical meshnet when one becomes available." Continue reading →

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Fears of NSA surveillance hurting the U.S. cloud computing industry

"American technology businesses fear they could lose between $21.5bn and $35bn in cloud computing contracts worldwide over the next three years, as part of the fallout from the NSA revelations. Some US companies said they have already lost business, while UK rivals said that UK and European businesses are increasingly wary of trusting their data to American organisations, which might have to turn it over secretly to the National Security Agency. The ITIF survey found that of those outside the US, 10% had cancelled a project with a US-based cloud computing provider, and 56% would be 'less likely' to use a US-based cloud computing service." Continue reading →

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Bitcoin upgrade aims for smoother e-commerce

"Payment requests will use digital certificates, the same kind of security technology indicated by a padlock in a web browser. Specifically, the payment requests will use X.509 certificates, which underpin SSL (Secure Sockets Layer), which encrypts data traffic between two parties. The communication between a customer and company will be performed over SSL and will not be part of the so-called 'blockchain,' the public ledger that shows bitcoin transactions, Andresen said. The payment protocol will not touch the core code that drives Bitcoin's network." Continue reading →

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Tor Urges Users To Leave Insecure Windows Operating System

"In a critical security advisory issued over the weekend, the Tor Project told its users that they should seriously consider migrating away from Microsoft’s Windows operating system and disabling JavaScript. The Tor Project security advisory was a response to revelations on Sunday that an attack had targeted users of the Tor Browser. According to the advisory, the attack exploited a Firefox JavaScript vulnerability that has already been resolved. The vulnerability is a cross-platform threat, but the exploit in this case was Windows-specific. Tor Browser Bundle users on Linux, OS X, and LiveCD systems like Tails were never at risk of exploit." Continue reading →

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