Archive for December, 2011
Google Wallet Stores Some Payment Card Data In Plain Text
December 17th, 2011Via: Dark Reading: Google’s much-anticipated mobile payment application locally stores some sensitive user information unencrypted, such as a cardholder’s name, transaction dates, email address, and account balance, new research released today reveals. Researchers from viaForensics tested the security of Google Wallet — which lets consumers transact credit-card charges, redeem gift cards, and use loyalty membership […]
UMG Claims “Right to Block or Remove” YouTube Videos it Doesn’t Own
December 17th, 2011Via: Ars Technica: Universal Music Group has responded to Megaupload’s request for a temporary restraining order barring the music giant from further interference with the distribution of its “Mega Song.” UMG insists that it had a right to take down the video—not under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, as Megaupload had assumed, but under a […]
Coming Soon: Retroactive Surveillance on Anyone
December 17th, 2011Via: Network World: As the price of digital storage drops and the technology to tap electronic communication improves, authoritarian governments will soon be able to perform retroactive surveillance on anyone within their borders, according to a Brookings Institute report. These regimes will store every phone call, instant message, email, social media interaction, text message, movements […]
Sprint Orders All OEMs to Strip Carrier IQ from Their Hardware
December 17th, 2011Via: geek.com: In an attempt to distance themselves from the increasingly volatile Carrier IQ situation, we’ve been told that Sprint has ordered that all of their hardware partners remove the Carrier IQ software from Sprint devices as soon as possible. … Sources at HTC have told us that, as a result of the lawsuits targeting […]
SEC Charges Ex-Fannie, Freddie CEOs with Fraud
December 17th, 2011Ya think? Via: AP: Two former CEOs at mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on Friday became the highest-profile individuals to be charged in connection with the 2008 financial crisis. In a lawsuit filed in New York, the Securities and Exchange Commission brought civil fraud charges against six former executives at the two firms, […]
Russia: Founder of Newspaper That Investigated Government Corruption Shot Dead
December 16th, 2011Via: Guardian: The founder of a newspaper that investigated government corruption has been shot dead outside the newspaper’s office in Russia’s North Caucasus region, police say. A gunman shot Gadzhimurat Kamalov as he was leaving the offices of the newspaper Chernovik in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan province, shortly before midnight on Thursday, the regional […]
Six Waltons Have More Wealth Than the Bottom 30% of Americans
December 15th, 2011Via: Bloomberg: The brand-new Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in the small northwest Arkansas city of Bentonville is the creation of Alice Walton, the daughter of the late Sam Walton, who founded Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT), the largest retailer in the world. Alice Walton, who is worth about $21 billion, has achieved her dream […]
Half of Americans Poor or Near Poor
December 15th, 2011Via: CBS: Squeezed by rising living costs, a record number of Americans — nearly 1 in 2 — have fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low income. The latest census data depict a middle class that’s shrinking as unemployment stays high and the government’s safety net frays. The […]
American Citizens Can Be Arrested As Terrorists On Home Soil And Held Indefinitely Without Trial
December 15th, 2011Now with even more Hope and Change. Via: Guardian: Barack Obama has abandoned a commitment to veto a new security law that allows the military to indefinitely detain without trial American terrorism suspects arrested on US soil who could then be shipped to Guantánamo Bay. Human rights groups accused the president of deserting his principles […]
9/11: A Conspiracy Theory
December 15th, 2011Via: The Corbett Report:
