Archive for the 'Technology' Category
Chimeras: Japan Lifting Ban on Growing Human Organs in Animals
June 20th, 2013Via: Asahi Shimbun: The government plans to lift a ban on basic scientific research to grow human internal organs in the bodies of other animals for potential use in transplants, raising concerns about compromising the dignity of human beings. The proposed policy change was presented June 18 during a meeting of an expert panel under […]
Never Give Stores Your Zip Code
June 20th, 2013Via: Forbes: Why make such a big deal over five digits that only records that someone lives in the same area as many thousands of others? Because along with other information, the ZIP code may provide the final clue to figuring out your address, phone number and past purchasing details, if a sales clerk sees […]
U.S. and Russia: Cyberwar Hotline
June 20th, 2013Via: Ars Technica: As leaked details of ongoing network surveillance and espionage programs by the National Security Agency (NSA) continue to stir up international concern about how deep US intelligence is reaching into IT operations worldwide, Russia and the US have taken steps to cooperate on cybersecurity—or at least prevent an accidental cyberwar. During talks […]
India: Central Monitoring System
June 20th, 2013Via: Times of India: India has launched a wide-ranging surveillance program that will give its security agencies and even income tax officials the ability to tap directly into e-mails and phone calls without oversight by courts or parliament, several sources said. The expanded surveillance in the world’s most populous democracy, which the government says will […]
FBI Has Started Using Surveillance Drones Inside U.S.
June 19th, 2013Via: Huffington Post: FBI Director Robert Mueller revealed Wednesday that the bureau uses drones to conduct surveillance on U.S. soil. Asked by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) if the FBI was following in the footsteps of the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in pursuing the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, […]
Offensive Cyber Effect Operations
June 19th, 2013Via: CNN: Today, the United States is conducting offensive cyberwar actions around the world. More than passively eavesdropping, we’re penetrating and damaging foreign networks for both espionage and to ready them for attack. We’re creating custom-designed Internet weapons, pre-targeted and ready to be “fired” against some piece of another country’s electronic infrastructure on a moment’s […]
3 NSA Veterans Speak Out On Snowden: We Told You So
June 19th, 2013Update: New Tice Interview — I wonder if Tice was invited to participate in this… Via: USA Today: In a roundtable discussion, a trio of former National Security Agency whistle-blowers tell USA TODAY that Edward Snowden succeeded where they failed. When a National Security Agency contractor revealed top-secret details this month on the government’s collection […]
GCHQ: Fake Internet Cafes
June 17th, 2013The fact that GCHQ spied on G20 delegates is just more intelligence agency non-news, which, for some reason, is very popular in the media these days. Targeting diplomatic traffic is a routine activity that all states carry out. You can read yourself to sleep with Bamford’s Puzzle Palace, published in 1982, if this comes as […]
Australia: Government Building New Data Center for Communications Intercepts
June 16th, 2013Via: The Age: The Australian government has been building a state-of-the art, secret data storage facility just outside Canberra to enable intelligence agencies to deal with a ”data deluge” siphoned from the internet and global telecommunications networks. The high-security facility nearing completion at the HMAS Harman communications base will support the operations of Australia’s signals […]
NSA Admits Listening to U.S. Phone Calls Without Warrants
June 16th, 2013Via: cnet: The National Security Agency has acknowledged in a new classified briefing that it does not need court authorization to listen to domestic phone calls. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat, disclosed this week that during a secret briefing to members of Congress, he was told that the contents of a phone call […]
