Obama Asserts Executive Privilege on Fast and Furious Documents
June 20th, 2012Via: CNN:
President Barack Obama has asserted executive privilege over documents sought by a House committee investigating the botched Fast and Furious gun-running sting, according to a letter to the panel Wednesday from Deputy Attorney Gen. James Cole.
The move means the Department of Justice can withhold the documents from the House Oversight Committee, which was scheduled to consider a contempt measure Wednesday against Holder.
May Earnings
June 20th, 2012Earnings in May totaled $1076.80.
Thanks go out to the five readers below who sent funds directly:
Pookie $75
Eileen $104
MS CA$15
CD $10
JR $40
Thanks to the owners of mh and birdprises.com for signing up for hosting with BlueHost. Cryptogon received $180 as a result.
Finally, thanks to all of you who started your Amazon sessions via Cryptogon.
NSA Claims It Would Violate Americans’ Privacy To Say How Many Of Us It Spied On
June 20th, 2012Via: Network World:
How many Americans had their privacy violated via the NSA warrantless wiretap powers granted under the FISA Amendment Act of 2008? The NSA Inspector General said they can’t tell us as that would violate Americans’ privacy.
U.S., Israel Developed Flame Computer Virus
June 20th, 2012Via: Washington Post:
The United States and Israel jointly developed a sophisticated computer virus nicknamed Flame that collected intelligence in preparation for cyber-sabotage aimed at slowing Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon, according to Western officials with knowledge of the effort.
The massive piece of malware secretly mapped and monitored Iran’s computer networks, sending back a steady stream of intelligence to prepare for a cyberwarfare campaign, according to the officials.
The effort, involving the National Security Agency, the CIA and Israel’s military, has included the use of destructive software such as the Stuxnet virus to cause malfunctions in Iran’s nuclear-enrichment equipment.
The emerging details about Flame provide new clues to what is thought to be the first sustained campaign of cyber-sabotage against an adversary of the United States.
“This is about preparing the battlefield for another type of covert action,” said one former high-ranking U.S. intelligence official, who added that Flame and Stuxnet were elements of a broader assault that continues today. “Cyber-collection against the Iranian program is way further down the road than this.”
Flame came to light last month after Iran detected a series of cyberattacks on its oil industry. The disruption was directed by Israel in a unilateral operation that apparently caught its American partners off guard, according to several U.S. and Western officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
There has been speculation that the United States had a role in developing Flame, but the collaboration on the virus between Washington and Israel has not been previously confirmed. Commercial security researchers last week reported that Flame contained some of the same code as Stuxnet. Experts described the overlap as DNA-like evidence that the two sets of malware were parallel projects run by the same entity.
Spokesmen for the CIA, the NSA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, as well as the Israeli Embassy in Washington, declined to comment.
U.S. Plans Significant Military Presence in Kuwait
June 19th, 2012Imagine our shock.
Via: AP:
The United States is planning a significant military presence of 13,500 troops in Kuwait to give it the flexibility to respond to sudden conflicts in the region as Iraq adjusts to the withdrawal of American combat forces and the world nervously eyes Iran, according to a congressional report.
Fujitsu Cracks ‘Next Generation’ Encryption Standard in 148 Days
June 19th, 2012Via: Tech Week Europe:
Fujitsu Laboratories said on Monday it has successfully cracked a next-generation cryptography standard known as pairing-based cryptography, breaking a world record.
Fujitsu and its partners, Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) and Kyushu University, took 148.2 days to carry out a cryptanalysis of the 278-digit (923-bit) pairing-based cryptography, a task that had been thought to require several hundred thousand years.
Net Worth Implosion: It’s Not Just Housing
June 19th, 2012Via: CNN:
Americans’ net worth collapsed in recent years, but don’t blame the housing market for it all.
New Census Bureau data shows that median household net worth, excluding home equity, fell by 25% between 2005 and 2010. That decline was driven largely by the plummeting stock market, which devastated Americans’ portfolios and retirement accounts.
Overall, median household net worth declined 35% to $66,740 in 2010.
The median worth of stock and mutual fund portfolios fell 33%, while the median home equity value dropped 28%.
“One of the significant factors is housing, of course, but it’s not that alone” said Alfred Gottschalck, an economist with the Census Bureau. “It’s how business conditions affect stock and retirement accounts.”
The estimates are generally in line with what other government reports have found. Last week, the Federal Reserve released its triennial study that showed median family net worth overall dropped nearly 40%, between 2007 and 2010. The Fed study surveys a smaller number of people.
The Great Recession — including the housing and stock market collapses — wiped out nearly 30 years of net worth gains for the typical household.
“The median household is no wealthier than they were in 1984,” said Scott Winship, economic studies fellow at Brookings Institution.
Rate on Spanish 10-Year Bonds Hits Fresh High at 7.18 Percent
June 18th, 2012Via: AP:
Spain’s ability to manage its debt without an international bailout was thrown into doubt Monday after investors pushed its borrowing rates up to the level at which Greece, Portugal and Ireland had sought help.
Investor sentiment improved briefly in the morning as electoral results in Greece suggested the country would not drop out of the euro currency union, a scenario that would have put severe stress on Spain’s markets.
But that market relief quickly transformed into concern in Madrid as it became clear that Spain’s fundamental economic and fiscal problems remain huge.
The interest rate on Spain’s 10-year bonds — an indicator of market confidence in how well a country can pay down its debt —hit a fresh eurozone era high of 7.18 percent before easing in the afternoon and closing at 7.12 percent. It is the first time since Spain joined the eurozone that it ended above 7 percent. Stocks plunged 3 percent on Madrid’s main index.
Man on Life Support After Minneapolis Cop Punches Him for ‘Talking Loud’
June 18th, 2012Via: Raw Story:
Sgt. David Clifford, a member of the Minneapolis SWAT team, turned himself in to authorities on Sunday after a father of four who he reportedly “sucker punched” for talking too loud spent Father’s Day in intensive care.
Mike Archambault told KMSP-TV that his longtime friend, Brian Vander Lee, was at a restaurant in Andover on Saturday when a stranger at another table asked him to be quiet.
“He did a Superman punch,” Archambault recalled. “Brian went back, feet up in the air, and the guy landed on top of him and his head bounced off the concrete.”
Archambault said the suspected fled the scene and Vander Lee was taken to a nearby hospital where doctors performed emergency surgery for bleeding on his brain.
…
After two brain surgeries, Vander Lee was still on life support Sunday. Doctors are hopeful that he will recover.
MIT: Textured Surface Could Reduce Thickness of Silicon Used in Solar Cells by More Than 90 Percent
June 18th, 2012Via: MIT News:
Highly purified silicon represents up to 40 percent of the overall costs of conventional solar-cell arrays — so researchers have long sought to maximize power output while minimizing silicon usage. Now, a team at MIT has found a new approach that could reduce the thickness of the silicon used by more than 90 percent while still maintaining high efficiency.
