Archive for the 'Technology' Category
U.S. Widens Surveillance to Include ‘Homegrown Violent Extremists’
October 25th, 2017Mmm hmm. Via: Reuters: The U.S. government has broadened an interpretation of which citizens can be subject to physical or digital surveillance to include “homegrown violent extremists,” according to official documents seen by Reuters. The change last year to a Department of Defense manual on procedures governing its intelligence activities was made possible by a […]
Tech Firms Seek Washington’s Prized Asset: Top-Secret Clearances
October 23rd, 2017Via: Bloomberg: In doing so, companies such as Facebook Inc. are competing with defense contractors, financial firms and the U.S. government itself. Security clearances are a rare and valued commodity, whether at a bank trying to prevent hackers from stealing credit-card data and emptying accounts or at a manufacturer building parts for a stealth fighter […]
‘Why ProtonMail Is More Secure Than Gmail’
October 23rd, 2017Disclosure: I have no relationship with ProtonMail, besides being a user of the service. — While I wouldn’t assume that ProtonMail is as secure as they claim it to be, what is very clear is that far less of your personal information is going to leak from ProtonMail than it would from Gmail, which essentially […]
China Is Creating a Database of Its Citizens’ Voices to Boost its Surveillance Capability
October 23rd, 2017In other news, Google Home Capable of Voice Printing Multiple Users. Via: Time: The Chinese government has collected tens of thousands of “voice pattern” samples from targeted citizens and is inputting them into a national voice biometric database, according to a Human Rights Watch report published Monday. The idea is that an automated system, thought […]
China Speeds Ahead of U.S. as Quantum Computing Race Escalates
October 23rd, 2017Via: McClatchy: U.S. and other Western scientists voice awe, and even alarm, at China’s quickening advances and spending on quantum communications and computing, revolutionary technologies that could give a huge military and commercial advantage to the nation that conquers them. The concerns echo — although to a lesser degree — the shock in the West […]
Boom Has 76 Pre Orders for Future Supersonic Passenger Jets
October 22nd, 2017Via: TechCrunch: Boom has a new design for its XB-1 Supersonic Demonstrator jet, the working prototype aircraft it’s creating to prove out its tech before beginning work on building real, commercial supersonic passenger aircraft. The new design was revealed Tuesday at the Paris Air Show, along with new business milestones: Boom has orders for 76 […]
UK Spies Using Social Media Data for Mass Surveillance
October 18th, 2017Via: TechCrunch: Privacy rights group Privacy International says it has obtained evidence for the first time that UK spy agencies are collecting social media information on potentially millions of people. It has also obtained letters it says show the intelligence agencies’ oversight body had not been informed that UK intelligence agencies had shared bulk databases […]
LAPD Becomes Nation’s Largest Police Department to Test Drones
October 18th, 2017Via: Los Angeles Times: After months of often-heated debate, a civilian oversight panel Tuesday signed off on a yearlong test of drones by the Los Angeles Police Department, which will become the largest police department in the nation to deploy the controversial technology. The Police Commission’s 3-1 vote prompted jeers, cursing and a small protest […]
WPA2 Cracked
October 16th, 2017Via: KRACK Attacks: We discovered serious weaknesses in WPA2, a protocol that secures all modern protected Wi-Fi networks. An attacker within range of a victim can exploit these weaknesses using key reinstallation attacks (KRACKs). Concretely, attackers can use this novel attack technique to read information that was previously assumed to be safely encrypted. This can […]
The USA Liberty Act
October 12th, 2017A double round o’ Freedom Fries for everyone! Via: Register: The US Senate Judiciary Committee has unveiled its answer to a controversial spying program run by the NSA and used by the FBI to fish for crime leads. Unsurprisingly, the proposed legislation [PDF] reauthorizes Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) – which […]
