Group items tagged

A breach in supposedly secure keys given to employees by private companies vindicates previous warnings by cryptographers that companies should use more difficult keys, and that companies have not been cautious enough using such keys because of their assumed security.

Interesting article about how recent terror events will change how individuals and tech companies monitor/ regulate use on the internet, but not the government

Has the government been reading your email, Facebook posts, tweets, etc.? Yes, yes they have.

"A factory refurbished Thinkpad shipped with Windows 7 and a scheduler app that ran once a day, collecting usage data about what you do with your computer and exfiltrating it to an analytics company. "

The FCC decided Friday that it can't force Internet companies like Google, Facebook and ad providers from tracking users online.

Here's another company that's been hacked.

We need to really pay attention to how many different apps and resources we have connected to big sites like facebook, and google. Heck, Apple as a whole essentially has our entire lives on record. Don't link everything to facebook or google, and maybe consider diversifying your technology.

Companies don't require a warrant to conduct data searches of their customers. The safest way to ensure that your data remains private while using services from a company is to use client based end to end encryption.

This article describes how, during the Cold War, the major distributor of cryptography machines (Crypto AG) worked with the NSA. This professional relationship provided the NSA with shortcuts on how to break ciphers created from the different machines. Also, Crypto AG was revealed as not having given the most up to date models to all countries, probably through deception. This raises the question of morality involving basic warfare. How is it moral for this supposedly trusted third party company to have special allegiances with the United States?Would the United States have the same opinion on this actions morality if they were the ones being sold out of date equipment? Or if one of their opponents had shortcuts?

Malicious adverts have been found on the UK version of the Match.com dating website. Anyone caught out by the booby-trapped ads could fall victim to ransomware, said security company Malwarebytes, which spotted the cyber-threat. The malicious ads appeared on pages of the dating site via an ad network that pipes content to Match and many other places.

A security blog created by a multinational software company.

Apple CEO Tim Cook was on 60 Minutes yesterday, reiterating his company's support for strong encryption. Today, Senator Tom Cotton called on Apple and other companies to install "back doors" for law enforcement agencies. I wonder if Tom Cotton has read the "Keys Under Doormats" report by Schneier, Rivest, Diffie, et al.

To any future college students: Be careful of what you type on the internet or reveal about yourself in an online forum. Despite the shocking revelations of the size and scope of the government's surveillance programs revealed by Edward Snowden, the majority of Americans don't understand the kind of information the government has on them, have taken few steps to protect their online data, and believe that such programs don't go far enough in tackling terrorism. Ironically, these same Americans also overwhelmingly believe that consumers have lost protection of their data to companies who have used their clients' privacy as a commodity. I would advise you to be careful of what you post online, and follow a few steps, such as passwords, encryption, and clearing your cookies, to help protect at least some of your data online and allow you to remain private. These programs continue to this day, and it's important that you protect what little privacy remains.

What are the mechanisms behind surveillance? How precisely are people surveilled in the US?