CIA Files Reveal How U.S. Used Psychics to Spy on Iran
February 10th, 2017Via: Miami Herald:
“The stuff that the CIA has declassified is garbage,” one of the Grill Flame psychics, Joseph McMoneagle, told the Miami Herald. “They haven’t declassified any of the stuff that worked.” Agreed Edwin May, a physicist who oversaw parapsychology research for government intelligence agencies for 20 years: “The psychics were able to tell, in some cases, where the hostages were moved to. They were able to see the degree of their health…. If you can sit in Fort Meade and describe the health of hostages who are going to be released, so that the right doctors can be on hand, that’s very helpful.”
Republicans and Democrats Reportedly Using Self-Destructing Message Apps to Avoid Leaks
February 10th, 2017Via: The Verge:
Trump administration members and other Republicans are using the encrypted, self-destructing messaging app Confide to keep conversations private in the wake of hacks and leaks, according to Jonathan Swan and David McCabe at Axios. Axios writes that “numerous senior GOP operatives and several members of the Trump administration” have downloaded Confide, which automatically wipes messages after they’re read.
…
Encrypted message apps like Signal, Telegram, and WhatsApp apparently spiked in popularity after Trump’s election, and the Clinton campaign reportedly adopted Signal after the DNC hack was discovered.
Cortana Now Reminds You to Do the Things You Promised in Emails
February 9th, 2017haha.
Just cut to the chase and release a Cortana anal suppository.
Via: The Verge:
Microsoft is adding a new feature to Cortana today that will remind you to keep your promises. Suggested reminders lets Cortana remind you when you’ve promised to do something in an email. Microsoft is using machine learning to highlight phrases in emails where you might promise your boss something, or make a commitment to a friend or family member. The result is a reminder that pops up telling you “don’t forget you mentioned this.”
Cortana’s suggested reminders will be available in the US first on Windows 10 PCs, and Microsoft is planning to bring them to iOS and Android in the coming weeks. Microsoft is supporting Outlook.com and Office 365 accounts for these reminders, and other accounts like Gmail will be supported soon. You’ll need to connect an Outlook.com or Office 365 account to Cortana to enable the feature, and you’ll start receiving reminders once the service detects your promises and commitments.
Record Number Renounce U.S. Citizenship in 2016
February 9th, 2017Via: U.S. News and World Report:
A record number of individuals renounced their U.S. citizenship or chose to expatriate in 2016, according to data published by the Internal Revenue Service today.
The government agency, a bureau of the U.S. Treasury Department, publishes the names of those individuals in a list each quarter, in accordance with the Internal Revenue Code. Before 2011, less than 1,000 individuals chose to expatriate each year, according to the lists published on the Federal Register. More than 2,300 expatriated in the last quarter of 2016 alone, and this year’s total of 5,411 individuals is 26 percent more than last year’s 4,279.
As Goldman Embraces Automation, Even the Masters of the Universe Are Threatened
February 9th, 2017Via: MIT Technology Review:
At its height back in 2000, the U.S. cash equities trading desk at Goldman Sachs’s New York headquarters employed 600 traders, buying and selling stock on the orders of the investment bank’s large clients. Today there are just two equity traders left.
Automated trading programs have taken over the rest of the work, supported by 200 computer engineers. Marty Chavez, the company’s deputy chief financial officer and former chief information officer, explained all this to attendees at a symposium on computing’s impact on economic activity held by Harvard’s Institute for Applied Computational Science last month.
The experience of its New York traders is just one early example of a transformation of Goldman Sachs, and increasingly other Wall Street firms, that began with the rise in computerized trading, but has accelerated over the past five years, moving into more fields of finance that humans once dominated. Chavez, who will become chief financial officer in April, says areas of trading like currencies and even parts of business lines like investment banking are moving in the same automated direction that equities have already traveled.
NSA Contractor Indicted Over Mammoth Theft of Classified Data
February 8th, 2017Via: Reuters:
A former National Security Agency contractor was indicted on Wednesday by a federal grand jury on charges he willfully retained national defense information, in what U.S. officials have said may have been the largest heist of classified government information in history.
The indictment alleges that Harold Thomas Martin, 52, spent up to 20 years stealing highly sensitive government material from the U.S. intelligence community related to national defense, collecting a trove of secrets he hoarded at his home in Glen Burnie, Maryland.
The government has not said what, if anything, Martin did with the stolen data.
Martin faces 20 criminal counts, each punishable by up to 10 years in prison, the Justice Department said.
Bank of America Opens Branches Without Employees
February 8th, 2017Via: Reuters:
Bank of America Corp has opened three completely automated branches over the past month, where customers can use ATMs and have video conferences with employees at other branches, according to spokeswoman Anne Pace.
Like many U.S. banks in recent years, Bank of America has been reducing its overall branch count to cut costs even as it opens new branches in select markets. New branches are typically smaller, employ more technology, and are aimed at selling mortgages, credit cards and auto loans rather than simple transactions such as cashing checks.
Pace said there is one completely automated branch in Minneapolis and one in Denver, both of which are relatively new markets for the bank’s consumer business. They are about a quarter of the size of a typical branch.
Hydrologist Needed
February 8th, 2017A friend, and Cryptogon reader, is behind an effort to protect a valued body of water in New Zealand. She requires an experienced hydrologist for a paid consulting job involving, “A critical review of a critique of a heavily math-based, computer conceptual model.”
If you know of a hydrologist who would like a consulting job, please contact me and I will pass the information on to my friend.
Thank you!
Intel to invest $7 Billion in Factory in Arizona, Employ 3,000
February 8th, 2017Via: CNBC:
Intel chief executive Brian Krzanich met with President Donald Trump on Wednesday, where the company announced it will invest $7 billion in a factory employing up to 3,000 people.
The factory will be in Chandler, Arizona, the company said, and over 10,000 people in the Arizona area will support the factory. Krzanich confirmed to CNBC that the investment over the next three to four years would be to complete a previous plant, Fab 42, that was started and then left vacant.
The 7 nanometer chips will be produced there will be “the most powerful computer chips on the planet,” Krzanich said in the Oval Office with the Trump administration. Most Intel manufacturing happens in the U.S., Krzanich said.
Cellphone Spy Tools Have Flooded Local Police Departments
February 8th, 2017Via: CityLab:
Major cities throughout the U.S. have spent millions on mobile surveillance tools—but there are still few rules about what happens to the information they capture.
