(20.08.2024)
The UK‘s new Online Safety Bill, which is set to take effect next year and aims to curb speculative news and online hate speech, has gained renewed attention after far-right groups used social media to incite violence.
Archiv: data – procurement / theft / storage / banks / analysis / transfer / trade / networks
Starmer in Germany for first bilateral trip as UK PM
Starmer‘s Labour party had said it would seek a security and defence treaty with Germany if it won the July 4 general election, which it did by a landslide — propelling him to the premiership.
How to Change Your DNS on Any Device
(20.01.2024)
A Domain Name System (DNS) matches human-friendly domain names to computer-friendly IP addresses.
When you type in a domain name like cyberghost.com, for example, your web browser sends the request to your ISP via your router. Your ISP refers the request to its default DNS server. The DNS server then supplies the relevant IP address so your browser can load the appropriate page.
A DNS also saves a local copy or cache of sites you’ve recently visited on your device for quick and easy reference.
It seems like a streamlined service; what could go wrong? Check the following reasons why you should change your DNS.
Privacy-oriented X front-end Nitter is shutting down following changes to guest accounts
(29.01.2024)
Although some Nitter instances are currently still operational, it is anticipated they will cease functioning shortly as they expire. This development leaves those who were using Nitter to monitor or follow X/Twitter users without an account with fewer options.
Israel has waged one of this century’s most destructive wars in Gaza
The Washington Post analyzed satellite imagery, airstrike data and U.N. damage assessments, and interviewed more than 20 aid workers, health-care providers, and experts in munitions and aerial warfare. The evidence shows that Israel has carried out its war in Gaza at a pace and level of devastation that likely exceeds any recent conflict, destroying more buildings, in far less time, than were destroyed during the Syrian regime’s battle for Aleppo from 2013 to 2016 and the U.S.-led campaign to defeat the Islamic State in Mosul, Iraq, and Raqqa, Syria, in 2017.
A Times Investigation Tracked Israel’s Use of One of Its Most Destructive Bombs in South Gaza
The Times programmed an artificial intelligence tool to scan satellite imagery of south Gaza for bomb craters. Times reporters manually reviewed the search results, looking for craters measuring roughly 40 feet across or larger. Munitions experts say typically only 2,000-pound bombs form craters of that size in Gaza’s light, sandy soil.
Ultimately, the investigation identified 208 craters in satellite imagery and drone footage.
„During the first six weeks of the war in Gaza, Israel routinely used one of its biggest and most destructive bombs in areas it designated safe for civilians.“ Specifically: it used 2,000-pound bombs for this, which not even the US will use in cities:
US has sent Israel data on aid group locations to try to prevent strikes
The Biden administration has been providing Israel with the location of humanitarian groups in Gaza for weeks to prevent strikes against their facilities. But Israel has continued to hit such sites.
The information included GPS coordinates of a number of medical facilities and information on movements of aid groups in Gaza to the Israeli government for at least a month, according to three people familiar with the communications. All were granted anonymity because they feared speaking publicly would make it more difficult for aid groups to operate in Gaza.
A complete Guide to Changing your DNS Settings
The Domain Name System (DNS) is used to translate the easy-to-understand and remember web addresses that we are familiar with, to their „true“ numerical IP addresses that computers understand: for example translating the domain name proprivacy.com to its IP(v4) address of 104.20.10.58.
What countries are in the 5 Eyes, 9 Eyes, and 14 Eyes agreements?
Fourteen Eyes agreement countries
Fourteen Eyes (or 14 Eyes) refers to the intelligence group that consists of the Five Eyes member countries plus:
– Belgium
– Denmark
– France
– Germany
– Italy
– The Netherlands
– Norway
– Spain
– Sweden
These countries participate in SIGINT sharing as third parties. The official name of the Fourteen Eyes is the SIGINT Seniors of Europe (SSEUR), which has existed in one form or another since 1982. Similar to the UKUSA Agreement, its original mission was to uncover information about the USSR.
A SIGINT Seniors Meeting is attended by the heads of the SIGINT agencies (NSA, GCHQ, BND, the French DGSE, etc.) and is where they can share intelligence and discuss related issues. While this group has many of the same members as the “Nine Eyes”, it is a different group. According to leaked documents, the Fourteen Eyes is not a formal treaty but rather an agreement made between SIGINT agencies.
A Surveillance Primer: 5 Eyes, 9 Eyes, 14 Eyes
(August 15, 2022)
The Five Eyes (FVEY) surveillance alliance includes the following countries:
– Australia
– Canada
– New Zealand
– United Kingdom
– United States
(…)
The Nine Eyes countries include:
– 5 Eyes countries +
– Denmark
– France
– Netherlands
– Norway
(…)
The 14 Eyes surveillance countries include:
– 9 Eyes countries +
– Germany
– Belgium
– Italy
– Sweden
– Spain
‘All systems need to be hardened’: Officials, industry sound the alarm on quantum threat to encryption
(September 29, 2023)
Such an all-conquering computer doesn’t actually exist yet. But there lies the paradox of what’s called quantum-resistant or “post-quantum” encryption: You don’t need a quantum computer to start laying the foundations for a quantum-powered hack — or, fortunately, to start building a defense.
The threat is a tactic called “collect now, decrypt later.” Well-heeled foreign intelligence agencies (and the American NSA) already scoop up terabytes of encrypted communication. Whatever they can’t crack today can just go into long-term storage, waiting for quantum computers to get powerful enough to break them.
Israel-Hamas war: a visual guide in maps, video and satellite images
(16.10.2023)
Just in Russian Foreign Ministry says Israel should provide satellite images to prove it’s not behind the strike on the Hospital.
Akevot Institute for Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Research: What We Do
Akevot Institute for Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Research was founded in 2014 out of a recognition of the unique role archives can play in breaking conflict-enhancing myths, fostering fact-based discourse, and supporting the work of human rights defenders. We make archives a tool for change by researching and exposing mechanisms, processes and events who play a role in the perpetuation of the Conflict. We assist human rights defenders and civil society organizations in accessing archival documentation relevant to their work. We campaign to expand the public’s access to government archives to promote transparency and freedom of information.
Yesh Din: About Us
Yesh Din – Volunteers for Human Rights is an Israeli organization registered as a non-profit in Israel. Yesh Din is subject to Israeli law and is served by a volunteer corps and by a professional staff, lawyers and human rights experts. Yesh Din was established in 2005 and has since worked to protect the human rights of Palestinians living under Israeli armed forces’ occupation. We view the occupation as a main source of the violation of the human rights and therefore seek to end it.
Yesh Din documents, collects and disseminates reliable and updated information regarding systematic human rights violations in the OPT.
Surveillance made in France
The French SME had a major advantage: since 2012 it had had a commercial arm based in the Emirates, Advanced Middle East Systems. “This creation was done with the greatest transparency of information with the French services”, Nexa Technologies still asserts. On 24 March 2014, its directors, Stéphane Salies and Olivier Bohbot, won an €11.4 million contract to install its flagship software, Cerebro, in Cairo. According to a confidential document obtained by Disclose, Cerebro is said to be able to “analyse data to understand the relationships and behaviour of suspects, going back in time to find relevant information in billions of recorded conversations”. The contract was called “Toblerone”, after the Swiss chocolate in the shape of a pyramid.
In the wake of this, Stéphane Salies, Nexa‘s CEO, advised the Emiratis to bring in Ercom-Suneris. Jackpot. In the summer of 2014, Pierre-Mayeul Badaire, Ercom‘s CEO, signed a contract for nearly €15 million to spy on phones up and down the Nile. The Egyptian military was primarily interested in one feature: geolocating their targets in real time using their Cortex Vortex software. “It‘s like a spy movie”, explains a former Ercom engineer, speaking on condition of anonymity. “You can geolocate a person by triangulating the position of the base stations which their phone is connected to, even without them making any calls”.
New predictions of genetic variant pathogenicity using AlphaFold protein structures
(19.09.2023)
Google DeepMind has developed a new tool called AlphaMissense, which uses the AlphaFold human protein structure models to predict whether a sequence variant which changes one amino acid in a protein is likely to be tolerated or to impact protein function.
The Ensembl Variant Effect Predictor now integrates Google DeepMind’s new AlphaMissense Catalogue.
AlphaFold, meet AlphaMissense: Google DeepMind‘s AI successor predicts how 71M mutations cause disease
Google DeepMind has developed an AI system that predicts the chances that tens of millions of genetic variants will cause disease.
A more diverse human reference genome
(10 May 2023)
The work was led by the international Human Pangenome Reference Consortium (HPRC), a group funded by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and consisting of 14 institutes, including EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI). (…)
The majority of the genomes used to create the human pangenome reference were collected as part of the 1000 genomes project, the largest public catalogue of human variation and genotype data from a wide range of populations. (…)
In order to understand the differences in the genes present across the individual genomes represented in the human pangenome, researchers in EMBL-EBI’s Ensembl team needed to map the high-quality annotations on the reference human genome generated as part of the GENCODE project, across the pangenome.
1000 Genomes Project
Some genomic differences may not affect fitness. Neutral variation, previously thought to be “junk” DNA, is unaffected by natural selection resulting in higher genetic variation at such sites when compared to sites where variation does influence fitness.[14]
It is not fully clear how natural selection has shaped population differences; however, genetic candidate regions under selection have been identified recently. (…)
It was found that on average, each person carries around 250–300 loss-of-function variants in annotated genes and 50-100 variants previously implicated in inherited disorders. Based on the two trios, it is estimated that the rate of de novo germline mutation is approximately 10−8 per base per generation.
The 1000 Genomes Project: Welcome to a New World
(Dec 2015)
“Now this is not the end… But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning” as Winston Churchill said. Large-scale sequencing projects will continue for more regional or ethnic groups, in order to extend the global coverage. Much effort will focus on a better understanding of the relationship between genetic variation and common disorders. The translation of this massive genetic information to human health will benefit from the development of complex databases gathering genetic, clinical, and biological data, such as multi-omics profiles, while maintaining protection of potentially sensitive personal information (3). Efforts are also underway to increase genetic awareness in the public and to educate health professionals
GENCODE
The goal of the GENCODE project is to identify and classify all gene features in the human and mouse genomes with high accuracy based on biological evidence, and to release these annotations for the benefit of biomedical research and genome interpretation.
The Human Genome Project at 20: interview with Ewan Birney
(25 April 2023)
EMBL-EBI Director Ewan Birney was a graduate student in the 90s, when the Human Genome Project was in full swing. On the project’s 20th anniversary, he shares his memories of the slow but incredibly accurate analysis software he developed, how the private initiative sped up the public one, and how a betting book highlighted how little we knew about the human genome at the time.
DeepMind and EMBL release the most complete database of predicted 3D structures of human proteins
(22 July 2021)
For those scientists who rely on experimental protein structure determination, AlphaFold’s predictions have helped accelerate their research. For example, a team at the University of Colorado Boulder is finding promise in using AlphaFold predictions to study antibiotic resistance, while a group at the University of California San Francisco has used them to increase their understanding of SARS-CoV-2 biology.
The AlphaFold Protein Structure Database builds on many contributions from the international scientific community, as well as AlphaFold’s sophisticated algorithmic innovations and EMBL-EBI’s decades of experience in sharing the world’s biological data. DeepMind and EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) are providing access to AlphaFold’s predictions so that others can use the system as a tool to enable and accelerate research and open up completely new avenues of scientific discovery.
Mayday calls
If a mayday call cannot be sent because a radio is not available, a variety of other distress signals and calls for help can be used. Additionally, a mayday call can be sent on behalf of one vessel by another; this is known as a mayday relay.
How Windows 11 scrapes your data before you’re even connected to the internet
(February 8, 2023)
Using the Wireshark network protocol analyzer, the YouTubers were able to uncover some interesting, yet unsurprising, information about what kind of telemetry was being sent by Windows 11. At boot-up, even before an internet connection was made, they found that Windows 11 was already busy sending information to Microsoft and third-party servers. For example, the information went to software servers (possibly for updates, antivirus refresh, to check for trial versions, etc.) and to marketing/advertising networks.
In stark contrast, the 20-year-old Windows XP 64-bit version barely made a pip, if at all. The only telemetry that was sent was to Microsoft servers to check for OS updates.
Homeland Security report details how teen hackers exploited security weaknesses in some of the world’s biggest companies
(August 10, 2023)
Staffed by senior US cybersecurity officials and executives at major technology firms like Google, the board does not have regulatory authority, but its recommendations could shape legislation in Congress and future directives from federal agencies.
Known DNS Providers
Here we suggest a list of trusted DNS providers.
A complete Guide to Changing your DNS Settings
The Domain Name System (DNS) is used to translate the easy-to-understand and remember web addresses that we are familiar with, to their „true“ numerical IP addresses that computers understand: for example translating the domain name proprivacy.com to its IP(v4) address of 104.20.10.58.
Pakistan’s Spy Agency Buys Israeli Cellphone Hacking Tech
As Haaretz has reported on numerous occasions, Cellebrite’s clients have included oppressive regimes that were or still are subject to sanctions, including Belarus, China (including Hong Kong), Uganda, Venezuela, Indonesia, the Philippines, Russia and Ethiopia, as well as Bangladesh’s notorious Rapid Action Battalion.
The security forces in Pakistan are known to commit serious violations of human rights and freedom of expression.
Privacy RSS Feed Readers
Privacy-focused RSS feed readers to help you stay up-to-date while preserving your privacy. Get the latest news and stories without compromising your personal information.
List of World Wide Free DNS Servers
ISPs on every country in the world have a pair, two pair or more DNS servers, which are used and assigned at your home or office router when you connect to the Internet…
DNS servers in Brazil
This Brazil DNS server list was last updated in July, 20
Five Eyes, Six Eyes, Europe’s Eyes? Europe-Five Eyes Cooperation in the Face of China
(Mar 27, 2021)
In the short term, Europe may be able to shrug off the illegality of its data-sharing practices under the GDPR, and please privacy advocates with adequacy reviews, but in the long term the violation of Europe’s own data privacy crownpiece is sure to harm its international credibility.
OpenNIC Public Servers
Anonymized logs
No logs kept
DNScrypt
DoH
DoT
Whitelisting
Blocklist
Known DNS Providers
Here we suggest a list of trusted DNS providers.
A complete Guide to Changing your DNS Settings
The Domain Name System (DNS) is used to translate the easy-to-understand and remember web addresses that we are familiar with, to their „true“ numerical IP addresses that computers understand: for example translating the domain name proprivacy.com to its IP(v4) address of 104.20.10.58.
The FBI abused its surveillance of Americans 278,000 times in 18 months
Section 702 of the FISA Act allows agencies like the NSA to eavesdrop on foreign nationals overseas. It prohibits spying on US citizens or anyone who‘s within the United States. (…)
In practice, then, NSA maintains a huge database of information about the communications of US citizens. Agencies like the FBI are allowed to query this database, but only under strict rules. The primary rule is that queries can only be done if they are related to foreign intelligence or are likely to show evidence of a crime.
Citing cyber investigations, officials ask Congress to renew surveillance powers
(14.06.2023)
In a joint written testimony from the Biden administration witnesses, the NSA, FBI and CIA all cited Section 702’s usefulness for cybersecurity.
US intelligence community presses for FISA Section 702 reauthorization
(13.06.2023)
Officials from U.S. intelligence agencies backed reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act ahead of a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing Tuesday. One official characterized a potential lapse or „unusable“ modifications to Section 702 as „grave national security risks.“ The support for full reauthorization came as 21 advocacy groups joined on a letter urging reform of Section 702. Meanwhile, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a report regarding purchases of commercially available personal information by the U.S. intelligence community.
In response to my request, DNI Haines has confirmed that the government is buying Americans‘ private data with no guardrails for when and how that data is used. If this isn‘t a wake up call for Congress to stop feds from buying up Americans‘ information, I don‘t know what is.
Office of the Director of National Intelligence Senior Advisory Group Panel on Commercially Available Information
(27 January 2022, approved for release by ODNI on 5 June 2023)
(U) EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
(U) There is today a large and growing amount of what the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) refers to as “Commercially Available Information” (CAI). As the acronym indicates, and as we use the term in this report, CAI is information that is available commercially to the general public, and as such, is a subset of publicly available information (PAI). We do not use the term CAI to include, and we do not address in this report, commercial information that is available exclusively to governments. The volume and sensitivity of CAI have expanded in recent years mainly due to the advancement of digital technology, including location-tracking and other features of smartphones and other electronic devices, and the advertising-based monetization models that underlie many commercial offerings available on the Internet. Although CAI may be “anonymized,” it is often possible (using other CAI) to deanonymize and identify individuals, including U.S. persons.
(…)
Today, in a way that far fewer Americans seem to understand, and even fewer of them can avoid, CAI includes information on nearly everyone that is of a type and level of sensitivity that historically could have been obtained, if at all, only through targeted (and predicated) collection, and that could be used to cause harm to an individual’s reputation, emotional well-being, or physical safety.
(…)
(U) A May 2014 report from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) provides a similar account:
(U) Data brokers collect data from commercial, government, and other publicly available sources. Data collected could include bankruptcy information, voting registration, consumer purchase data, web browsing activities, warranty registrations, and other details of consumers’ everyday interactions.
(…)
1.3. (U) Examples of CAI. We do not attempt a comprehensive description of the scope and scale of data that are available as CAI, or the relevant markets, in part because they are so large and so dynamic. However, a few examples of CAI offerings will illustrate the current nature of available offerings:
• (U) “Thomson Reuters CLEAR is powered by billions of data points and leverages cutting-edge public records technology to bring all key content together in a customizable dashboard.”
• (U) LexisNexis offers more than “84B records from 10,000+ sources, including alternative data that helps surface more of the 63M unbanked/underbanked U.S. adults.”
• (U) Exactis has “over 3.5 billion records (updated monthly)” in its “universal data warehouse.”
• (U) PeekYou “collects and combines scattered content from social sites, news sources, homepages, and blog platforms to present comprehensive online identities.”
(…)
As the FTC explained in its May 2014 report:
(U) Data brokers rely on websites with registration features and cookies to find consumers online and target Internet advertisements to them based on their offline activities. Once a data broker locates a consumer online and places a cookie on the consumer’s browser, the data broker’s client can advertise to that consumer across the Internet for as long as the cookie stays on the consumer’s browser. Consumers may not be aware that data brokers are providing companies with products to allow them to advertise to consumers online based on their offline activities. Some data brokers are using similar technology to serve targeted advertisements to consumers on mobile devices.
(…)
2.2. (U) Examples of CAI Contracts. The IC currently acquires a large amount of CAI. Unclassified IC and other contracts for CAI can be found at Sam.Gov, a U.S. government website that allows searching by agency or sub-agency and by keywords, among other things. By way of example only, this website shows that the following agencies have, have had, have considered, or are considering the following contracts or proposals related to CAI:
• (U) The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) with ZeroFox for social media alerting (15F06721P0002431)
• (censored)
• U) The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) for social media reports on individuals who are seeking a security clearance (HHM402-16-SM-CHECKS), and with LexisNexis for “retrieval of comprehensive on-line search results related to commercial due diligence from a maximum number of sources (news, company, public records, legal, regulatory financial, and industry information),” among other things (HHM402-21-Q-0094)
• (U) The U.S. Navy with Sayari Analytics, Inc. for access to its database that “contains tens of thousands of previously-unidentified specific nodes, facilities and key people related to US sanctioned actors including ‘2+3’ threats to national security” (N0001518PR11212)
• (U) Various offices within the Treasury Department for access to Banker’s Almanac (RFQ-FIN-55100-21-0010)
• (U) The Department of Defense (DOD) for access to Jane’s online (W31P4Q17T0009)
• (U) The Coast Guard with Babel Street for “Open Source Data Collection, Translation, Analysis Application” (70Z08419QVA044).
(U) In addition, DIA has provided the following information about a CAI contract in an unclassified and publicly-available paper sent to Congress on January 15, 2021:
(U) DIA currently provides funding to another agency that purchases commercially available geolocation metadata aggregated from smartphones.
……………………………………
US intelligence agencies buy Americans’ personal data, new report says
The report was completed in January 2022 but only recently declassified. Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon asked the ODNI for the report.
“Congress needs to pass legislation to put guardrails around government purchases, to rein in private companies that collect and sell this data, and keep Americans’ personal information out of the hands of our adversaries,” Wyden said in a statement Monday in response to the report.
Top-level study on Intel Community, Space Force satellite control coming soon
Since the Space Force’s inception three years ago, there’s been some tension between the newest military service and spy satellite agencies over who’s responsible for acquiring satellite imagery and ISR products and providing actionable information to military commanders.
Boris Johnson hands his unredacted WhatsApps to Cabinet Office
Baroness Hallett, the chair of the inquiry, has threatened the Government with legal action if it refuses to comply with her order for full copies of Mr Johnson’s communications and diaries, and the messages of a key aide, with a deadline of 4pm on Thursday to fulfil her demand.
But last night, Whitehall sources indicated that Mr Sunak would stand firm and refuse to submit unredacted material, from him or any minister, to the inquiry.
Europe’s Moral Crusader Lays Down the Law on Encryption
Arrayed against her is a fierce coalition of privacy advocates, American YouTubers, German soccer fans, and tech executives who argue that the proposal would severely impact online privacy. They call it the “chat control” bill and warn that it would open dangerous backdoors into encrypted apps. Because Johansson has made herself the face of this bill, criticism is lobbed at her personally. “Either she’s stupid or she’s evil,” says Jan Jonsson, CEO of Swedish VPN service Mullvad. In February, she was given a dubious “prize” at the Dutch Big Brother Awards, an event organized by digital rights group Bits of Freedom, which identifies heroes and villains in the fight for privacy.
Remember the days when the idea of ubiquitous surveillance cameras was repugnant? An Orwellian nightmare fit for the old Soviet Union perhaps, but never for America. #Kennedy24
Eyes on the poor: Cameras, facial recognition watch over public housing
No data is available on how often the cameras are used for this purpose. But the previously unreported practice highlights how efforts to make public housing safer are subjecting many of the 1.6 million Americans who live there — overwhelmingly people of color — to round-the-clock surveillance. If evicted, former tenants can face difficulties finding housing and employment for the rest of their lives.
South Pole Station November 2022 -40.4 °C, coldest since 1987 December 2022 -29.1 °C, coldest since 2006 January 2023 probably -31.3 °C, coldest since 1995 Summer 2022-23 ~ -30.2 °C, coldest since 1999-2000 Singularity or new climatic phase?
(Jan 29, 2023)