Category X Cyber-Malfeseance
Senate passes cybercrime bill after numerous tweaks – The Express Tribune
A Senate standing committee has proposed 47 amendments to the bill passed earlier by the lower house on April 13. With eight more amendments proposed on Friday by Aitzaz Ahsan, Shibli Faraz and Sherry Rehman, the total amendments proposed by opposition jumped to 55.The bill seeks punishment for facilitating hate speech, cyber terrorism, illegal issuance […]
Obama administration spied on German media, government – CNNPolitics.com
On Thursday, the German government’s intelligence coordinator, Günter Heiss, testified before a parliamentary investigative committee of the German parliament, the Bundestag, focused on the activities of the U.S. National Security Agency’s spying on Germany and the knowledge and/or role of German intelligence, the Bundesnachrichtendienst or BND.That the NSA was spying in German officials is not […]
Google eavesdropping tool installed on computers without permission | Technology | The Guardian
After having identified Chromium as the culprit, developer Ofer Zelig said in a blog post: “While I was working I thought ‘I’m noticing that an LED goes on and off, on the corner of my eyesight [webcam]’. And after a few times when it just seemed weird, I sat to watch for it and saw […]
EFF and Eight Other Privacy Organizations Back Out of NTIA Face Recognition Multi-Stakeholder Process | Electronic Frontier Foundation
EFF, along with eight other consumer-focused privacy advocacy organizations has backed out of the National Telecommunications Information Administration’s multi-stakeholder process to develop a privacy-protective code of conduct for companies using face recognition. After 16 months of active engagement in the process, we decided this week it was no longer an effective use of our resources […]
▶ WikiLeaks Leaks Controversial Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Documents – YouTube
“The WikiLeaks release of the text comes ahead of the decisive TPP Chief Negotiators summit in Salt Lake City, Utah, on 19-24 November 2013. The chapter published by WikiLeaks is perhaps the most controversial chapter of the TPP due to its wide-ranging effects on medicines, publishers, internet services, civil liberties and biological patents.” Remember NATFTA? […]
Deleting your browser history could land you 20 years in prison
There are numerous entirely legitimate reasons to turn private browsing on or opt to clear history. For example, many people prefer to research medical problems privately to protect their privacy. Young people looking for sexual health resources often clear their history to avoid attracting attention from their parents, as do those looking for help with […]
NSA Running a Massive IDS on the Internet Backbone – Schneier on Security
The effort is the latest known expansion of the N.S.A.’s warrantless surveillance program, which allows the government to intercept Americans’ cross-border communications if the target is a foreigner abroad. While the N.S.A. has long searched for specific email addresses and phone numbers of foreign intelligence targets, the Obama administration three years ago started allowing the […]
DEA, US Army bought $1.2M worth of hacking tools in recent years | Ars Technica
The evidence that those two American government agencies purchased from Hacking Team stems from public records. Those filings show that a company called Cicom USA was hired by the US Army in 2011 to do two jobs worth $365,225 and seven more with the DEA worth $927,000 between 2012 and 2014. A March 2012 Request […]
New crypto-ransomware encrypts files then disguises them as quarantined
Aside from the above, CRYPVAULT also manages to extract stored login passwords for Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera and Chrome, through downloading and opening the Browser Password Dump hacking tool. What is more distinct about this malware is that the ransomware was written in batch scripts while the downloader, in JavaScript. According to Marcos, opting […]
Wikimedia v. NSA: Standing and the Fight for Free Speech and Privacy | Just Security
Some commentators have asked whether Wikimedia and the other plaintiffs in this suit have standing to pursue their claims, in light of the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Clapper v. Amnesty International. In Clapper, the ACLU represented plaintiffs in a facial challenge to the constitutionality of the 2008 FISA Amendments Act (FAA) — the same statute […]
UK Police Deem Snowden Leak Investigation a State Secret – The Intercept
The Met said the information requested may have been “supplied by, or concerning, certain security bodies” that don’t have to abide by normal transparency requirements, such as the secretive surveillance agency Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ. The Met also claimed that it “would not be in the public interest” to reveal basic information about the […]
‘Privacy killer’: Senate panel quitely passes CISA ‘cybersecurity’ bill amid fresh surveillance fears — RT USA
Ever since hackers breached Sony’s internal networks last year, encouraging information-sharing between corporations and the government has become a top priority. Supporters say the bill would allow the two sides to better coordinate, detect and potentially stop cyber threats before they cause serious damage. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) acknowledged that the bill […]
Snowden Docs: CIA Tried to Hack Apple for Years / Sputnik International
One such plan was the forging of a phony, government-approved version of Apple’s Xcode software. That software serves as a template, and is used by hundreds of thousands of independent developers to create the apps we all know and love. Flappy Bird, Angry Birds, iBird Pro Guide to Birds. Any of these app developers who used the CIA counterfeit software would unknowingly infect millions […]
Gemalto Doesn’t Know What It Doesn’t Know – The Intercept
Gemalto, which is the largest manufacturer of SIM cards in the world, launched an internal investigation after The Intercept six days ago revealed that the NSA and its British counterpart GCHQ hacked the company and cyberstalked its employees. In the secret documents, provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the intelligence agencies described a successful effort […]
Equation Group: NSA-linked spying team have software to hack into any computer – News – Gadgets and Tech – The Independent
The group’s tools are complicated and expensive to develop, the report said. They are used to infect victims and steal their data, and are developed to go unnoticed.Most of the tools are Trojans, which are implanted secretly on users’ computers and then give the group access to them.Once a drive is infected, the only way […]
Gaza ‘porn star video’ spread malware in Israel, says report | The Times of Israel
“Israel is one of the most highly defended countries in the world, sheltered behind the legendary ‘Iron Dome,’ said the Trend Micro report, called, appropriately enough, “Operation Arid Viper: Bypassing the Iron Dome.” While few Hamas rockets were able to affect major Israeli targets because of the IDF’s anti-missile system, the same was not necessarily […]
Indiĝenaj Inteligenteco 