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Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

Pirate Party Keeps a Seat At The European Parliament | TorrentFreak - 0 views

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    " Ernesto on May 26, 2014 C: 6 Breaking A few hours after all polling booths across Europe closed, it now becomes clear that the Pirate Party has kept a seat at the European Parliament. The results show that the Pirates won one seat in Germany. That's also the only one, although the Czech Republic Pirates came awfully close. "
Paul Merrell

Vodafone reveals existence of secret wires that allow state surveillance | Business | T... - 0 views

  • Vodafone, one of the world's largest mobile phone groups, has revealed the existence of secret wires that allow government agencies to listen to all conversations on its networks, saying they are widely used in some of the 29 countries in which it operates in Europe and beyond.The company has broken its silence on government surveillance in order to push back against the increasingly widespread use of phone and broadband networks to spy on citizens, and will publish its first Law Enforcement Disclosure Report on Friday. At 40,000 words, it is the most comprehensive survey yet of how governments monitor the conversations and whereabouts of their people.The company said wires had been connected directly to its network and those of other telecoms groups, allowing agencies to listen to or record live conversations and, in certain cases, track the whereabouts of a customer. Privacy campaigners said the revelations were a "nightmare scenario" that confirmed their worst fears on the extent of snooping.
  • Vodafone's group privacy officer, Stephen Deadman, said: "These pipes exist, the direct access model exists."We are making a call to end direct access as a means of government agencies obtaining people's communication data. Without an official warrant, there is no external visibility. If we receive a demand we can push back against the agency. The fact that a government has to issue a piece of paper is an important constraint on how powers are used."Vodafone is calling for all direct-access pipes to be disconnected, and for the laws that make them legal to be amended. It says governments should "discourage agencies and authorities from seeking direct access to an operator's communications infrastructure without a lawful mandate".
  • In America, Verizon and AT&T have published data, but only on their domestic operations. Deutsche Telekom in Germany and Telstra in Australia have also broken ground at home. Vodafone is the first to produce a global survey.
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  • Peter Micek, policy counsel at the campaign group Access, said: "In a sector that has historically been quiet about how it facilitates government access to user data, Vodafone has for the first time shone a bright light on the challenges of a global telecom giant, giving users a greater understanding of the demands governments make of telcos. Vodafone's report also highlights how few governments issue any transparency reports, with little to no information about the number of wiretaps, cell site tower dumps, and other invasive surveillance practices."
  • Snowden, the National Security Agency whistleblower, joined Google, Reddit, Mozilla and other tech firms and privacy groups on Thursday to call for a strengthening of privacy rights online in a "Reset the net" campaign.Twelve months after revelations about the scale of the US government's surveillance programs were first published in the Guardian and the Washington Post, Snowden said: "One year ago, we learned that the internet is under surveillance, and our activities are being monitored to create permanent records of our private lives – no matter how innocent or ordinary those lives might be. Today, we can begin the work of effectively shutting down the collection of our online communications, even if the US Congress fails to do the same."
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    The Vodafone disclosures will undoubtedly have a very large ripple effect. Note carefully that this is the first major telephone service in the world to break ranks with the others and come out swinging at secret government voyeur agencies. Will others follow. If you follow the links to the Vodafone report, you'll find a very handy big PDF providing an overview of the relevant laws in each of the customer nations. There's a cute Guardian table that shows the aggregate number of warrants for interception of content via Vodafone for each of those nations, broken down by content type. That table has white-on-black cells noting where disclosure of those types of surveillance statistics are prohibited by law. So it is far from a complete picture, but it's a heck of a good start.  But several of those customer nations are members of the E.U., where digital privacy rights are enshrined as human rights under an EU-wide treaty. So expect some heat to roll downhill on those nations from the European treaty organizations, particularly the European Court of Human Rights, staffed with civil libertarian judges, from which there is no appeal.     
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

Putin: Pirate Site Blocking Has Failed to End Piracy | TorrentFreak - 0 views

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    " Andy on March 29, 2014 C: 6 Breaking It was supposed to be the world's toughest anti-piracy regime but Russia's site blocking legislation just isn't working. That's not just the opinion of irate movie and music companies either, but comments from Vladimir Putin himself." [* #Time for a #New #Approach... as #continuously #suggested]
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

UK Users Need 27 Services to Get Most Popular Films, Report Finds | TorrentFreak - 0 views

    • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.
       
      # is it, or isn't it '#censorship' this '#Media #Distribution' scheme..?
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    [ Andy on December 8, 2014 C: 38 Breaking If UK Internet users want access to most recent popular film content they'll need to remember a lot of passwords. A new survey from KPMG has found that while overall availability is good, users wanting the best will have to use to a patience-challenging 27 services ...]
Paul Merrell

Why the Sony hack is unlikely to be the work of North Korea. | Marc's Security Ramblings - 0 views

  • Everyone seems to be eager to pin the blame for the Sony hack on North Korea. However, I think it’s unlikely. Here’s why:1. The broken English looks deliberately bad and doesn’t exhibit any of the classic comprehension mistakes you actually expect to see in “Konglish”. i.e it reads to me like an English speaker pretending to be bad at writing English. 2. The fact that the code was written on a PC with Korean locale & language actually makes it less likely to be North Korea. Not least because they don’t speak traditional “Korean” in North Korea, they speak their own dialect and traditional Korean is forbidden. This is one of the key things that has made communication with North Korean refugees difficult. I would find the presence of Chinese far more plausible.
  • 3. It’s clear from the hard-coded paths and passwords in the malware that whoever wrote it had extensive knowledge of Sony’s internal architecture and access to key passwords. While it’s plausible that an attacker could have built up this knowledge over time and then used it to make the malware, Occam’s razor suggests the simpler explanation of an insider. It also fits with the pure revenge tact that this started out as. 4. Whoever did this is in it for revenge. The info and access they had could have easily been used to cash out, yet, instead, they are making every effort to burn Sony down. Just think what they could have done with passwords to all of Sony’s financial accounts? With the competitive intelligence in their business documents? From simple theft, to the sale of intellectual property, or even extortion – the attackers had many ways to become rich. Yet, instead, they chose to dump the data, rendering it useless. Likewise, I find it hard to believe that a “Nation State” which lives by propaganda would be so willing to just throw away such an unprecedented level of access to the beating heart of Hollywood itself.
  • 5. The attackers only latched onto “The Interview” after the media did – the film was never mentioned by GOP right at the start of their campaign. It was only after a few people started speculating in the media that this and the communication from DPRK “might be linked” that suddenly it became linked. I think the attackers both saw this as an opportunity for “lulz” and as a way to misdirect everyone into thinking it was a nation state. After all, if everyone believes it’s a nation state, then the criminal investigation will likely die.
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  • 6. Whoever is doing this is VERY net and social media savvy. That, and the sophistication of the operation, do not match with the profile of DPRK up until now. Grugq did an excellent analysis of this aspect his findings are here – http://0paste.com/6875#md 7. Finally, blaming North Korea is the easy way out for a number of folks, including the security vendors and Sony management who are under the microscope for this. Let’s face it – most of today’s so-called “cutting edge” security defenses are either so specific, or so brittle, that they really don’t offer much meaningful protection against a sophisticated attacker or group of attackers.
  • 8. It probably also suits a number of political agendas to have something that justifies sabre-rattling at North Korea, which is why I’m not that surprised to see politicians starting to point their fingers at the DPRK also. 9. It’s clear from the leaked data that Sony has a culture which doesn’t take security very seriously. From plaintext password files, to using “password” as the password in business critical certificates, through to just the shear volume of aging unclassified yet highly sensitive data left out in the open. This isn’t a simple slip-up or a “weak link in the chain” – this is a serious organization-wide failure to implement anything like a reasonable security architecture.
  • The reality is, as things stand, Sony has little choice but to burn everything down and start again. Every password, every key, every certificate is tainted now and that’s a terrifying place for an organization to find itself. This hack should be used as the definitive lesson in why security matters and just how bad things can get if you don’t take it seriously. 10. Who do I think is behind this? My money is on a disgruntled (possibly ex) employee of Sony.
  • EDIT: This appears (at least in part) to be substantiated by a conversation the Verge had with one of the alleged hackers – http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/25/7281097/sony-pictures-hackers-say-they-want-equality-worked-with-staff-to-break-in Finally for an EXCELLENT blow by blow analysis of the breach and the events that followed, read the following post by my friends from Risk Based Security – https://www.riskbasedsecurity.com/2014/12/a-breakdown-and-analysis-of-the-december-2014-sony-hack EDIT: Also make sure you read my good friend Krypt3ia’s post on the hack – http://krypt3ia.wordpress.com/2014/12/18/sony-hack-winners-and-losers/
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    Seems that the FBI overlooked a few clues before it told Obama to go ahead and declare war against North Korea. 
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

Researchers Make BitTorrent Anonymous and Impossible to Shut Down | TorrentFreak [# Via... - 1 views

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    [ Ernesto on December 18, 2014 C: 0 Breaking While the BitTorrent ecosystem is filled with uncertainty and doubt, researchers at Delft University of Technology have released the first version of their anonymous and decentralized BitTorrent network. "Tribler makes BitTorrent anonymous and impossible to shut down," lead researcher Prof. Pouwelse says. ...]
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

U.S. 'Strikes' Scheme Fails to Impact Piracy Landscape | TorrentFreak - 0 views

    • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.
       
      [... The movie group currently has no idea...]
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    [ Andy on January 11, 2015 C: 0 Breaking According to leaked MPAA documents the U.S. "six strikes" ISP warning scheme has thus far failed to impact the overall piracy landscape.]
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

Hollywood Director: Abusing Staff Can Lead to Movie Leaks | TorrentFreak - 0 views

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    [# Everybody kbows # ! ... that there is not such thing called '#Leak'. # ! It's #Promotion # ! #critics to #sharing are #resources to get extra money from # ! Authorities plus an attempt to #control the #culture #flow....] _________________ " Andy on August 6, 2014 C: 31 Breaking Outspoken movie director Lexi Alexander says that movie leaks, such as the recent one involving The Expendables 3, can happen as a result of directors and producers abusing their assistants. In a move further likely to irritate her Hollywood overlords, Alexander suggests that a high-security leaking mechanism could help to cut down on abuse. "
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

U.S. Internet Provider Refuses to Expose Alleged Pirates | TorrentFreak - 1 views

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    " Ernesto on September 9, 2014 C: 16 Breaking Rightscorp, a prominent piracy monitoring firm that works with Warner Bros. and other copyright holders, wants Grande Communications to reveal the identities alleged pirates linked to 30,000 IP-addresses/timestamp combinations. Unlike other providers the Texas ISP refused to give in easily, instead deciding to fight the request in court." [ ...DMCA subpoenas are not allowed in file-sharing cases...]
Gary Edwards

Huddle: Consumer cloud services causing 'security time-bomb' for enterprises | ZDNet - 0 views

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    "AN FRANCISCO -- As more employees continue to access consumer cloud accounts at work (regardless of IT rules), the enterprise world is about to reach a breaking point, based on a new report. Quite simply, U.K. cloud collaboration company Huddle described the trend as a "security time-bomb." At least 38 percent of U.S. office workers are said to have admitted to storing work documents on personal cloud tools and services, while a whopping 91 percent of workers added they use personal devices (i.e. USB drives) to store and share sensitive company documents. Huddle argued that this means enterprise and government organizations are at severe risk of losing both data intellectual property forever as this fragmentation continues. The London-headquartered company published its first State of the Enterprise assessment report amid the official opening of its San Francisco offices on Thursday morning as Huddle branches out to attract a U.S. customer base. "Legacy technologies create barriers to how we want to work," said Mitchell. Huddle produces a team-based collaboration platform designed for large teams within enterprises storing content securely and individually. The idea behind Huddle is to replace personal USB drives and "dumb file storage" platforms with open-security models and folder-based content. As the cloud-based storage and collaboration market grows, it looks like Huddle will be aiming to take on the likes of Box, Google Drive, Microsoft SkyDrive, and Dropbox, among others. Huddle is framing itself as different in that it constructs a single network for working and collaborating beyond a firewall, removing VPN complexities with single, company-wide login. Huddle CEO Alastair Mitchell described during an inaugural media presentation that its customers are replacing legacy technologies, calling out SharePoint and Outlook in particular as users move content collaboration out of email. "Legacy technologies create barriers to how we want to work," sai
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

MPAA: We're Not Going to Arrest 14 Year Olds, We Educate Them | TorrentFreak - 0 views

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    [# ! ... #industry #understands. # ! And starts moving...] " Andy on September 11, 2014 C: 30 Breaking In yet more signs that Hollywood is trying to repair its battered image over piracy, the head of the MPAA has indicated that fresh legislation will not solve the problem. "Arresting 14-year-olds" isn't going to work, Chris Dodd says, but making content widely available at a fair price is. Your move Google."
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

Pirate Party Becomes Iceland's Most Popular Political Party | TorrentFreak - 0 views

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    " Andy on March 19, 2015 C: 0 Breaking The results of a new poll published today in Iceland indicates that the Pirate Party has just become the country's most popular political party. According to the results, almost a quarter of all citizens would vote Pirate today. Speaking with TF, movement founder Rick Falkvinge describes the result as an "extraordinary accomplishment.""
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

Hollywood Director Slams "Pathetic" Anti-Piracy Crusade | TorrentFreak - 0 views

    • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.
       
      # we need Tens, Hundreds, Thousands of Directors saying so... let's the time go...
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    [ Ernesto on July 8, 2014 C: 27 Breaking Movie director Lexi Alexander wants to "occupy Hollywood" by bridging the gap between pirates and filmmakers. Sporting a banner to free Pirate Bay founder Peter Sunde, Alexander says that the criminalization of file-sharing is "pathetic", while calling out the losses claimed by the MPAA as "bullshit"....]
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

Anonymizing Networks - GNU/Linux - PRISM Break - 0 views

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    "e Recommendations freenet.png Freenet Decentralized censorship-resistant network. gnunet.png GNUnet GNUnet is a fully free P2P network. i2p.png I2P The invisible internet project. syndie.png Syndie Distributed, anonymous forum software. tor.png Tor Free software for enabling online anonymity. Tor directs Internet traffic through a free, worldwide, volunteer network consisting of more th… "
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

Minister: Sue Mums, Dads, Students To Send Anti-Piracy Message | TorrentFreak - 0 views

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    " Andy on August 1, 2014 C: 53 Breaking Just as discussion moves away from the punitive measures that did little to curtail piracy in the last decade, an Australian minister has urged a return. Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull says that in order to send a clear message, rightsholders need to "roll up their sleeves" and strategically sue some "moms, dads and students.""
Gary Edwards

With faster Chrome browser, Google offers an Android alternative - CNET - 0 views

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    "On mobile devices, the Web hasn't lived up to its promise of a universal programming foundation. Google is trying to change that." Android hogged the spotlight at Google I/O, but performance improvements in Google's Chrome browser show that the company hasn't given up on trying to advance its other programming foundation -- the Web. The mobile version of Chrome has become much more responsive since 2013, said Paul Irish, a developer advocate on the Chrome team, speaking at the San Francisco conference. "We've improved the speed of animation by 75 percent and of scrolling 35 percent," Irish told developers Thursday. "We're committed to getting you 60 frames per second on the mobile Web." That performance is crucial for persuading people to use Web sites rather than native apps for things like posting on social networks, reading news, and playing games. It's also key to getting programmers to take the Web path when so many today focus on native apps written directly for Google's Android operating system and Apple's iOS competitor. The 60 frames-per-second rate refers to how fast the screen redraws when elements are in motion, either during games or when people are doing things like swiping among pages and dragging icons. The 60fps threshold is the minimum that game developers strive for, and to achieve it with no distracting stutters, a device must calculate how to update its entire screen every 16.7 milliseconds. Google, whose Android operating system initially lagged Apple's rival iOS significantly in this domain of responsiveness, has made great strides in improving its OS and its apps. But the mobile Web hasn't kept pace, and that means programmers have been more likely to aim for native apps rather than Web-based apps that can run on any device. ............................ Good review focused on the growing threat that native "paltform specific" apps are replacing Web apps as the developer's best choice. Florian thinks that native apps will win
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

Lawsuit threatens to break new ground on the GPL and software licensing issues | Openso... - 3 views

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    "When Versata Software sued Ameriprise Financial Services for breaching its software license, it unwittingly unearthed a GPL violation of its own and touched off another lawsuit that could prove to be a leading case on free and open source software licensing. This post takes a look at the legal issues raised by both cases and what they mean for FOSS producers and users."
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

Artists and Labels Now Sue Chrysler Over CD-Ripping Cars | TorrentFreak - 1 views

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    " Ernesto on November 19, 2014 C: 42 Breaking The Alliance of Artists and Recording Companies has launched a new lawsuit targeting Chrysler for allowing car owners to rip CDs without paying royalties. The lawsuit follows a similar class action suit against Ford and General Motors, which is still ongoing. " [# ! Another #Betamax case # ! ...at sight. # ! Perhaps #RecordingIndustry have no other #strategy... # Please: Less #lawsuits and More #Good (#affordable) )#Music.]
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

Unprecedented Music Piracy Collapse Fails to Boost Revenues | TorrentFreak - 0 views

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    " Andy on January 26, 2015 C: 94 Breaking A survey carried out by music industry group IFPI has revealed that just 4% of Norwegians under 30 are now using illegal file-sharing platforms to obtain music, down from 70% in 2009. But while that achievement is unprecedented, overall music industry revenues have remained static."
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

Media Companies Track Pirated Downloads For Marketing Purposes | TorrentFreak [# ! note... - 0 views

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    [ Ernesto on February 18, 2015 C: 0 Breaking A new report released by Tru Optik shows that there are hundreds of millions of active BitTorrent users who together shared 18 billion files last year. The data is being used to show media companies the scale of the "unmonetized" demand for their products while offering a tool to target pirates with the right offerings. ...] [# ! yes, sharers must be respected and rewarded as industry # ! advanced advisors, instead of being persecuted...]
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