Late Monday three separate media outlets reported on how the NSA snoops on data transmitted from cell phone apps. The New York Times, The Guardian, and ProPublica each covered how apps like Angry Birds, report geo-location, buddy lists, and URLs visited, obviously in clear text, to be hoovered up by the NSA’s taps on global…
DetailsThe CEO of Bitcoin New York-based exchange BitInstant, Charlie Shrem, was arrested and charged with money laundering. In the federal criminal complaint, the Southern District of New York charges that Shrem knowingly helped underground Bitcoin exchanger Robert M. Faiella, known as “BTCKing,” purchase bitcoins for his customers to use to make illicit purchases on the notorious…
DetailsIn an interview with the BBC well know security expert Bruce Schneier declaimed that intelligence agency attacks on Internet infrastructure have broken trust. “The fact that it has been subverted in ways we don’t understand… we don’t know what to trust. And that is an enormous blow to the global promise of the Internet.” In the short…
DetailsHey, here’s a good idea: let’s have the part of facilities management that deals with the physical security of the office park, the factory, and the government facility work with the folks that handle IT Security. Let’s put those folks together in a room, see where there’s overlap, eliminate duplication of effort and maybe even…
DetailsWhile crass and underhanded, it is not out of the norm for those losing a debate to resort to character assassination. The side that is on the defensive argues by ad hominem attack. As certain members of Congress, the President, and members of the media find it harder and harder to defend the surveillance state…
DetailsSome of the biggest names in cryptography and computer sciences condemned the US government’s surveillance practices in an open letter. “Media reports since last June have revealed that the US government conducts domestic and international surveillance on a massive scale, that it engages in deliberate and covert weakening of Internet security standards, and that it…
DetailsMicrosoft will allow international customers to store their data on servers located outside US borders, Microsoft’s general counsel said Wednesday. The fallout from documents leaked by ex-Booz Hamilton contractor Edward Snowden made this decision necessary, Brad Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel, told the Financial Times (FT) in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos,…
DetailsIn a live chat hosted by The Courage Foundation Edward Snowden called on the US to stop the mass collection of telephone records by the NSA, authorized under section 215 of the Patriot Act. The Courage Foundation is a trust, audited by accountants Derek Rothera & Company in the UK, for the purpose of providing legal defence and…
DetailsIt’s a toss-up as to whether retailer card breaches or NSA activity is the hotter news story of the day. So far, 2014 has seen its fair share of security news and if the security industry wasn’t mentioned by an everyday-Joe in the past, it is now. The everyday-Joe reference is people who are not…
DetailsThe reactions to the depth and scope of the NSA’s surveillance apparatus has varied from ho-hum, “that’s their job,” to OMG “it’s the end of the world as we know it!” Somewhere in the middle is the slow-boil rage that is going to transform the IT industry. If you are of the ho-hum mindset that…
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