Archive for the 'Technology' Category
Digital Darkness: U.S., U.K. Companies Help Egyptian Regime Shut Down Telecommunications and Identify Dissidents
February 2nd, 2011Via: Democracy Now: Doing the regime’s bidding, British-based Vodafone shut down Egypt’s phone and internet service. The American company called Narus — owned by Boeing — sold Egypt the surveillance technology that helped identify dissident voices. We are joined by Tim Karr of Free Press and CUNY Professor C.W. Anderson. Karr outlines how communications was […]
Air Force’s Second X-37B Space Plane Nears Launch
February 1st, 2011Via: Space Flight Now: Two months after a sister ship successfully concluded a demo flight, the U.S. military’s second robotic X-37B space plane is in Florida preparing for blastoff March 4 on another secret mission, according to an Air Force official. The 29-foot-long, 14-foot-wide space plane is being readied for flight in a processing facility […]
Old Technology Finds Role in Egyptian Protests
January 31st, 2011Echoes of the collapse of the USSR. Via: BBC: Fax machines, ham radio and dial-up modems are helping to avoid the net block imposed on Egypt. On 27 January, Egypt fell off the internet as virtually all international connections were cut following an order from the government. But older technologies proved their worth as net […]
Certified Lies: Detecting and Defeating Government Interception Attacks Against SSL
January 31st, 2011Via: Cloud Privacy [PDF]: This paper introduces the compelled certificate creation attack, in which government agencies may compel a certificate authority to issue false SSL certificates that can be used by intelligence agencies to covertly intercept and hijack individuals’ secure Web-based communications. Although we do not have direct evidence that this form of active surveillance […]
Russia to Adopt Universal ID Card in 2012
January 29th, 2011It’s somewhat funny that articles like this mock conspiracy theorists and then go on to report that what some of us have been saying for years is now actually occurring. Via: Singularity Hub: For all those conspiracy theorists out there, 2012 just got a little more ominous. As required by legislation passed this last summer, […]
Britain: Intelligence Agencies Urged to Track Social Media Sites More Closely
January 29th, 2011This is ridiculous. The implications of the Internet for radical political movements were well known to the Pentagon at least as far back as 1995 (Strategic Assessment: The Internet, 1995). Britain and the U.S. are joined at the hip. So, are we expected to believe that this is somehow news to the British Intelligence establishment, […]
Syria Further Restricting Internet Use; Preventing Operation of Various Social Networking Applications
January 29th, 2011In Syria, Internet freedom ranges from bad to worse, so this definitely isn’t a surprise. Via: Reuters: Syrian authorities have banned programmes that allow access to Facebook Chat from cellphones, tightening already severe restrictions on the Internet in the wake of the unrest in Tunisia, users said on Wednesday. Nimbuzz and eBuddy, two programmes that […]
World’s First Brain Scanner Made for Two
January 28th, 2011Via: New Scientist: TWO heads are better than one – particularly if you’re studying the brain activity underlying social interaction. The problem is that imaging technologies such as MRI have only been able to handle one brain at a time – until now. Ray Lee at Princeton University has developed the world’s first dual-headed fMRI […]
FBI Knocks Down 40 Doors in Probe of Pro-WikiLeaks Attackers
January 28th, 2011Via: Wired: The FBI has joined in the hunt for those who participated in the retaliation attacks against companies that cut off services to Wikileaks, executing more than 40 search warrants across the United States on Thursday, the bureau announced. In what seem to be timed raids, British police arrested five men Thursday morning who […]
Internet Remains Down in Egypt
January 28th, 2011In other news, Obama’s Internet ‘Kill Switch’ Bill Will Return Later This Year. Via: Telegraph: The Egyptian government’s action is unprecedented in the history of the internet. Countries such as China, Iran, Thailand and Tunisia have cut off access to news websites and social networking services during periods of unrest, as Egypt did when it […]
