Archiv: electronic colonies / data mining zones

01.12.2021 - 19:41 [ Center for Countering Digital Hate / filesusr.com ]

Pandemic Profiteers – The business of anti-Vaxx

The Centerfor Countering Digital Hate is a not-for-profit NGO that seeks to disrupt the architecture of online hate and misinformation.

Digital technology has changed forever the way we communicate, build relationships, share knowledge, set social standards, and negotiate and assert our society’s values.

Digital spaces have been colonised and their unique dynamics exploited by fringe movements that instrumentalise hate and misinformation. These movements are opportunistic, agile and confident in exerting influenceand persuading people.Over time these actors, advocating diverse causes – from anti-feminism to ethnic nationalism to denial of scientific consensus – have formed a Digital Counter Enlightenment.

Their trolling, disinformation and skilled advocacy of their causes has resocialised the offline world for the worse.The Center’s work combines both analysis and active disruption of these networks. CCDH’s solutions seek to increase the economic, political and social costs of all parts of the infrastructure -the actors, systems and culture -that support, and often profit from hate and misinformation.

13.11.2021 - 20:25 [ Caitlin Johnstone ]

Billionaires Are Not Morally Qualified To Shape Human Civilization

Take Bill Gates. He spends a fortune on narrative control ranging from immense contributions to The Guardian to tens of billions of dollars in grants, and he’s committed hundreds of millions of dollars to shady political influence groups as well. He’s been influencing Covid policies around the world, from intervening against the waiving of vaccine patent restrictions to facilitating the worldwide rollout of digital vaccine passports; he’s been giving countless media interviews about Covid-19 and vaccines despite having no medical degree or indeed any qualifications at all apart from a net worth of $136 billion. This is after falsely pledging to give his immense fortune away over a decade ago; his net worth has more than doubled in that time.

27.10.2021 - 13:45 [ .theHinduBusinessLine.com ]

What has the US-China trade ‘war’ achieved?

(04.10.2021)

On July 6, 2018, US President Donald Trump unilaterally imposed a 25 per cent tariff on Chinese imports of around $34 billion, and further tariffs in 2018 and 2019 — claiming that trade between US and China had been unfairly skewed in China’s favour and needed to be rebalanced. The ostensible reason put forward was the persistence of what were called “unfair trade practices” and “technology theft” by China.

Thereafter, the trade war has continued into the administration of President Joe Biden, and morphed into a technology war, which is probably what it was always about.

21.10.2021 - 17:12 [ PrivacyTools.io ]

Privacy Tools – Encryption Against Mass Surveillance

You are being watched. Private and state-sponsored organizations are monitoring and recording your online activities. privacytools.io provides services, tools and knowledge to protect your privacy against global mass surveillance.

19.10.2021 - 20:22 [ DeviceInfo.me ]

Device Info

Device Type / Model:

Operating System:

True Operating System Core:

Browser:

True Browser Core:

Browser Build Number / Identifier:

IP Address (WAN)

Tor Relay IP Address:

VPN IP Address:

Proxy IP Address:

Hostname:

Location:

Country:

Region:

City:

Latitude & Longitude:

Geolocation:

……………………………

19.10.2021 - 20:12 [ Browserleaks.com ]

What Is My IP Address

IP address:
Hostname:
Country:
State/Region:
City:
ISP:
Organization:
Connection Type:
Timezone:
Local Time:
Coordinates:

IPv6 Leak Test:
IPv6 Address:

WebRTC Leak Test:
Local IP address:
Public IP address:

DNS Leak Test:
Test Results Found …
Your DNS Servers:

19.10.2021 - 20:00 [ DNSleaktest.com ]

DNS leak test

Hello (…)

from (…)

19.10.2021 - 09:12 [ PrivacyTools.io ]

Privacy Tools – Encryption Against Mass Surveillance

19.10.2021 - 07:24 [ theRegister.com ]

EU and US seek ‚common principles‘ for data governance and AI

(30.09.2021)

Launched by president Joe Biden, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, and European Council president Charles Michel at the U.S.-EU Summit in June 2021, the Council held its first meeting yesterday.

At the meeting, the United States and European Union decided to closely coordinate on an expansive set of critical economic and technology issues over the coming months and achieve concrete outcomes by the next meeting. These include joint work on the semi-conductor supply chain and Artificial Intelligence, as well as data governance, the joint statement said.

19.10.2021 - 07:15 [ techcrunch.com ]

ProtonMail, Threema, Tresorit and Tutanota warn EU lawmakers over ‘anti-encryption’ push

(27.01.2021)

Four European apps which secure user data via end-to-end encryption, ProtonMail, Threema, Tresorit and Tutanota, have issued a joint-statement warning over recent moves by EU institutions that they say are setting lawmakers on a dangerous path to backdooring encryption.

End-to-end encryption refers to a form of encryption where the service provider does not hold keys to decrypt the data, thereby enhancing user privacy — as there’s no third party in the loop with the technical capability to access data in a decrypted form.

19.10.2021 - 07:03 [ techcrunch.com ]

On encryption and counter-terrorism, EU lawmakers say they’ll work for ‘lawful’ data access

(09.12.2020)

At the same time, such pressure isn’t exactly new. Albeit, the rule of crypto wars history is the access issue must roll around afresh again and again. And last month a draft resolution from the Council of the European Union triggered a fresh wave of anxiety that an EU ban on e2e encryption might be in the works.

Today’s Commission agenda is unlikely to lay such fears to rest entirely.

Perhaps mostly for its tortured language — with oxymoronical talk of “‘improved access” to encrypted information in a text that’s simultaneously peppered with caveats about “respecting the right to privacy”.

19.10.2021 - 06:54 [ Electronic Frontier Foundation ]

Orders from the Top: The EU’s Timetable for Dismantling End-to-End Encryption

(06.10.2020)

The last few months have seen a steady stream of proposals, encouraged by the advocacy of the FBI and Department of Justice, to provide “lawful access” to end-to-end encrypted services in the United States. Now lobbying has moved from the U.S., where Congress has been largely paralyzed by the nation’s polarization problems, to the European Union—where advocates for anti-encryption laws hope to have a smoother ride. A series of leaked documents from the EU’s highest institutions show a blueprint for how they intend to make that happen, with the apparent intention of presenting anti-encryption law to the European Parliament within the next year.

24.09.2021 - 17:02 [ DeviceInfo.me ]

Device Info

Device Type / Model:

Operating System:

True Operating System Core:

Browser:

True Browser Core:

Browser Build Number / Identifier:

IP Address (WAN)

Tor Relay IP Address:

VPN IP Address:

Proxy IP Address:

Hostname:

Location:

Country:

Region:

City:

Latitude & Longitude:

Geolocation:

……………………………

24.09.2021 - 16:58 [ DNSleaktest.com ]

DNS leak test

Hello (…)

from (…)

24.09.2021 - 16:49 [ Browserleaks.com ]

What Is My IP Address

IP address:
Hostname:
Country:
State/Region:
City:
ISP:
Organization:
Connection Type:
Timezone:
Local Time:
Coordinates:

IPv6 Leak Test:
IPv6 Address:

WebRTC Leak Test:
Local IP address:
Public IP address:

DNS Leak Test:
Test Results Found …
Your DNS Servers:

20.09.2021 - 23:32 [ Christiane Amanpour, @CNN Chief International Anchor / Twitter ]

Exclusive: @EU_Commission President @vonderleyen reacts to the AUKUS fallout. “One of our member states has been treated in a way that is not acceptable,” she tells me. “We want to know what happened and why.”

Full interview airs at 7pCET @CNNi
and tonight @PBS
(listings vary).

20.09.2021 - 17:31 [ Institution of Engineering and Technology - theiet.org ]

View from Washington: Aukus looms over AI and quantum

Then, some of the more notable consequences may be for the global research infrastructure, one that had become increasingly freewheeling since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Some familiar voices are already proclaiming Aukus as evidence of the ‘Brexit dividend’. Never mind the facts that technological collaboration between the three members is already taking place through the Five Eyes intelligence alliance (with New Zealand and Canada, both not part of this agreement);

20.09.2021 - 16:52 [ Economist.com ]

The strategic reverberations of the AUKUS deal will be big and lasting: A profound geopolitical shift is happening

After news of the AUKUS deal emerged, a German official called for “coherence and unity” among Western powers, which he said would require “a lot of effort” to bring about. France has concluded that it will struggle for fair treatment in the face of the reflexes of Anglophone allies to club together (the trilateral deal comes on top of the “Five Eyes” intelligence-sharing alliance that involves the same three countries plus Canada and New Zealand).

20.09.2021 - 16:28 [ theConversation.com ]

Undersea internet cables connect Pacific islands to the world. But geopolitical tension is tugging at the wires

The laying of undersea internet cables has become entwined with geopolitics.

20.09.2021 - 16:25 [ punchng.com ]

‘Africa to get eight new submarine cables soon’

The experts said that as the world’s second most populous continent with 1.4 billion people and covering 20 per cent of the planet’s landmass, adequate availability of digital infrastructure across the continent would play a crucial socioeconomic role in helping to increase critical connectivity options.

According to them, only 25 per cent of the 1.4 billion African people are connected to the internet presently.

20.09.2021 - 16:01 [ CNN ]

The global internet is powered by vast undersea cables. But they’re vulnerable.

(July 26, 2019)

Clatterbuck, the Seacom CEO, was skeptical about how much use tapping an undersea cable would be, pointing to the huge amounts of data passing through it every second, creating a huge hayfield in which to look for needles.
„If you wanted to spy on people would you put a giant microphone over the US and spy on everyone?“

19.09.2021 - 14:25 [ World Economic Forum ]

This map shows how undersea cables move internet traffic around the world

(24 Nov 2016)

Some worry about more sinister attacks. “Russian submarines and spy ships are aggressively operating near the vital undersea cables that carry almost all global internet communications, raising concerns among some American military and intelligence officials that the Russians might be planning to attack those lines in times of tension or conflict,” explained a recent New York Times piece.

19.09.2021 - 14:13 [ Sydney Morning Herald ]

‘Deep and grave concerns’: French should have seen sub decision coming, PM says

Mr Dutton said the risk of the local power industry or internet banking being shut down by overseas actors was very real, arguing the agreement with Britain and America would boost Australia’s chances to retaliate.

19.09.2021 - 13:44 [ France 24 ]

PM Morrison rejects France’s accusation that Australia lied over cancelled submarine deal

„I think they would have had every reason to know that we had deep and grave concerns that the capability being delivered by the Attack Class submarine was not going to meet our strategic interests and we made very clear that we would be making a decision based on our strategic national interest,“ he told reporters in Sydney.

19.09.2021 - 13:25 [ Liz Truss / Telegraph.co.uk ]

Global Britain is planting its flag on the world stage

But freedoms need to be defended, so we are also building strong security ties around the world. That is why last week the Prime Minister announced, alongside our friends President Biden and Prime Minister Morrison, the creation of a new security partnership called AUKUS.

We will be working closer together to use a wide range of cutting-edge technologies, from nuclear-powered submarines at first and then looking at artificial intelligence and quantum computing.

19.09.2021 - 13:11 [ BBC ]

Aukus: French minister condemns US and Australia ‚lies‘ over security pact

The pact means Australia will become just the seventh nation in the world to operate nuclear-powered submarines. It will also see the allies share cyber capabilities, artificial intelligence and other undersea technologies.

07.09.2021 - 04:26 [ Glenn Greenwald ]

Ben Rhodes‘ Book Proves Obama Officials‘ Lies, and His Own, About Edward Snowden and Russia

The memoir of Rhodes, now appropriately an MSNBC contributor, is an incredibly self-serving homage to himself that repeatedly attempts to demonstrate his own importance and accomplishments. The passage about Rhodes’ conduct regarding Snowden is very much aligned with those goals. While repeatedly emphasizing how traumatic the Snowden revelations were for the Obama administrations, Rhodes boasts of the crucial role he played in preventing Snowden from leaving Russia as the NSA whistleblower was desperately attempting to do so — exactly the opposite of what people like Rhodes and Hillary Clinton were telling the public about Snowden.

It is really beyond words how willing these people are to lie.

18.08.2021 - 10:45 [ Glenn Greenwald ]

The U.S. Government Lied For Two Decades About Afghanistan

That is particularly true given how heavily the U.S. had Afghanistan under every conceivable kind of electronic surveillance for more than a decade. A significant portion of the archive provided to me by Edward Snowden detailed the extensive surveillance the NSA had imposed on all of Afghanistan. In accordance with the guidelines he required, we never published most of those documents about U.S. surveillance in Afghanistan on the ground that it could endanger people without adding to the public interest, but some of the reporting gave a glimpse into just how comprehensively monitored the country was by U.S. security services.

14.07.2021 - 08:22 [ .SearchEngineJournal.com ]

WordPress Powers 39.5% of All Websites

(04.01.2021)

WordPress is now powering 39.5% of all websites in 2021, up from powering 35% of sites in 2020.

Counting only sites that use a content management system (CMS), WordPress has a market share of 64.1%.

14.07.2021 - 08:17 [ Helen 侯-Sandí, @WordPress Lead Developer / Twitter, ]

Of the 35 WP core committers, 22 do not work for Automattic. Just in case you were still thinking that WordPress is an Automattic project.

(Dec 30, 2015)

14.07.2021 - 08:09 [ @codehawkfalcon / Twitter ]

Great quote I heard recently: „Wordpress is a backdoor with a blog feature“

(Oct 7, 2015)

14.07.2021 - 08:07 [ Websiteplanet.com ]

One of the Biggest Website Hosting Providers, DreamHost, Leaked 814 Million Records Online Including Customer Data

(25.07.2021)

A database owned by DreamHost, DreamPress managed WordPress hosting, was publically accessible online.

3 Years of DreamPress Customer and User Data Exposed Online 2021)

14.07.2021 - 07:55 [ MakeUseOf.com ]

Is WordPress Still Worth Using in 2021?

(09.06.2021)

1. Security Risks

WordPress is prone to cyber-attacks. Around 90 percent of CMS-based websites that are hacked use WordPress.

06.07.2021 - 10:10 [ Google News ]

AI, emotional analysis

(search results)

10.06.2021 - 10:14 [ theGuardian.com ]

„Any Palestinian is exposed to monitoring by the Israeli Big Brother“: Testimonies from people who worked in the Israeli Intelligence Corps tell of a system where there were no boundaries

(12 Sep 2014)

„From a political standpoint, information is collected that can serve to manipulate Israeli, Palestinian and international politics.

Although ours is not actual field work, it has serious impact on the lives of many people, and this is something that I think soldiers in the unit forget when everyone just does their part. Since we’re so focused on not missing any important developments, we always prefer to assume the worst. For example, if anyone is suspected, even very faintly, it is possible that the stain will never fade, and that person will suffer sanctions as a result.

Our daily service dulls everyone’s sensitivity and this is reflected, for example, in running jokes about very personal things that come up in our intelligence material. Or, for instance, in the expression “blood on the headset”, or X’s marked on our headsets after assassinations.

After my discharge from the Intelligence Corps, I had a moment of shock while watching the film The Lives of Others, about the secret police in East Germany.

On the one hand, I felt solidarity with the victims, with the oppressed people who were denied such basic rights as I take for granted to be mine. On the other hand, I realised that the job I had done during my military service was that of the oppressor.

My first reaction as a discharged soldier was that we do the same things, only much more efficiently.“

01.03.2021 - 08:59 [ Haaretz ]

Israeli Cyber Czar Wants Access to Private Firms‘ Computers, Content

Igal Una, who heads the cyber directorate, is promoting the legislation and has the support of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The background to the legislative push is the string of cyberattacks against Israeli companies during the past year.

20.02.2021 - 06:54 [ connect.geant.org ]

Running your own DNS service? There may be changes ahead.

(22.01.2021)

As a consequence of this directive’s quite broad definition of DNS, every organisation or individual running their own DNS will have to comply by registering their DNS service with ENISA, the EU agency for Cyber Security. This applies not only to top level domain DNS, but also to universities, companies of all sizes and ICT-enthusiasts who run their own DNS service at home.

20.02.2021 - 06:20 [ jdsupra.com ]

New EU Cybersecurity Strategy: European Commission Accelerates Push for EU to Lead in Cybersecurity Regulation

(24.12.2020)

Broadening the extra-territorial effect already in place under the current regime, selected providers of digital infrastructure or digital services who do not have a European establishment, but offer services in the EU, will also fall under the scope of the proposed NIS 2 Directive (and, to that end, will have to designate a representative in the EU). This will affect DNS service providers, TLD name registries, cloud computing service providers, data centre service providers and content delivery network providers, as well as providers of online marketplaces, online search engines and social networking services platforms.

20.02.2021 - 06:06 [ ec.europa.eu ]

Proposal for directive on measures for high common level of cybersecurity across the Union

(16.12.2020)

The Commission proposal establishes a basic framework with responsible key actors on coordinated vulnerability disclosure for newly discovered vulnerabilities across the EU and creating an EU registry on that operated by the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA).

20.02.2021 - 05:55 [ jdsupra.com ]

Meet the ECCC – the EU’s new cybersecurity competence center

(18.02.2021)

Cybersecurity and cyber-resilience has been an overarching priority of EU financial services policymakers and an area that the European Commission has been seeking to improve for all market participants in the EU’s Single Market. This issue has increased in priority in line with the exponential growth in cyber-incidents and threats, including throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

14.12.2020 - 06:09 [ Omer Benjakob / Twitter ]

This is CRAZY Israel’s police have a secret backdoor that allows them to follow any Israeli online or track anyone who visits a certain website: “We say China’s a technological dystopia, but here we live in one too and just don’t know it“

13.12.2020 - 19:46 [ Haaretz ]

Police Spying on Israelis Online via Secret Backdoor

“This system allows authorities to follow everything someone does online, and even permits them to manipulate the website these users visit,” said ethical hacker Noam Rotem, from the CyberCyber podcast. “This system allows tracking of each and every citizen or resident of Israel. But it’s not just that; the system is built in such a way that it can also follow intentions or motivations, and not just specific people. For example, it can track everyone who visited the website of the protest movement against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and can even block the real website and change what people are seeing,” Rotem said.

30.11.2020 - 10:11 [ PrivacyIsNotACrime / Twitter ]

According to leaked documents from the @ORF , secret services from the so called „five eyes“ are initiators of the EU Resolution in the #encryptionban. For them this would be a very easy way to monitor all our messages and data, without the possibility to hide them.

17.11.2020 - 20:34 [ International Network of Civil Liberties Organizations ]

INCLO CALLS ON STATES TO DEFEND END-TO-END ENCRYPTION

Fourteen members of INCLO express grave concerns regarding recent moves by various groups to breakencryption. We note with alarm calls from the Council of the European Union, the EuropeanCommission, and the Department of Justice in the US, with support from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India, Japan and the UK, to allow police authorities intercept encrypted communications.

17.11.2020 - 20:29 [ europa.eu ]

Joint statement by the EU home affairs ministers on the recent terrorist attacks in Europe

(13.11.2020)

We will also examine with interest the Commission’s announced proposal to designate hate speech and hate crime and incitement as criminal offences that are provided for and regulated under European Union law.

In the same vein, the Council must consider the matter of data encryption so that digital evidence can be lawfully collected and used by the competent authorities while maintaining the trustworthiness of the products and services based on encryption technology.

16.11.2020 - 11:14 [ NLTimes.nl ]

U.S spied on allies, including Netherlands, through Denmark

According to the Danish broadcaster, the NSA and Danish military service FE signed an agreement in 2008, which stated that the Americans would help Denmark tap internet cables in the European country. In return, the NSA gained access to internet cables to Eastern Europe. Together they processed the data in a data center near Copenhagen Airport, which was built for that purpose.

But the United States also used that internet access to spy on Denmark itself, and surrounding countries including the Netherlands, Germany and Sweden, the whistleblower, a former employee of the FE, said to DR.

16.11.2020 - 11:11 [ privateinternetaccess.com ]

The head of Denmark’s spy program has been fired for snooping on citizens and lying about it

(26.08.2020)

The government in Denmark has fired 3 top officials from the country’s foreign intelligence agency, the Forsvarets Efterretningstjeneste (FE), following revelations from a whistleblower. The officials, including the head of the agency, Lars Finden, have been “relieved of duty for the time being” following the release of a trove of documents. The documents detailed that the FE has been illegally spying on Danish citizens in the last six years and were released by an unnamed whistleblower to the independent regulator of Danish security services which is known as Tilsynet med Efterretningstjenesterne (TET).

09.11.2020 - 09:50 [ .euractiv.com ]

‘Five Eyes’ alliance demands ways to access encrypted apps

(12.10.2020)

The top justice officials of the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand said in a statement that the growth of end-to-end encrypted apps that make official oversight impossible – like Signal, Telegram, FaceBook Messenger and WhatsApp – “pose significant challenges to public safety.”

“There is increasing consensus across governments and international institutions that action must be taken,” they said.

09.11.2020 - 09:39 [ Geheimdienste-Allianz Five Eyes / US Justizministerium ]

International Statement: End-To-End Encryption and Public Safety

(11.10.2020)

We urge industry to address our serious concerns where encryption is applied in a way that wholly precludes any legal access to content. We call on technology companies to work with governments to take the following steps, focused on reasonable, technically feasible solutions:

– Embed the safety of the public in system designs, thereby enabling companies to act against illegal content and activity effectively with no reduction to safety, and facilitating the investigation and prosecution of offences and safeguarding the vulnerable;
– Enable law enforcement access to content in a readable and usable format where an authorisation is lawfully issued, is necessary and proportionate, and is subject to strong safeguards and oversight; and
– Engage in consultation with governments and other stakeholders to facilitate legal access in a way that is substantive and genuinely influences design decisions.

09.11.2020 - 09:30 [ Electronic Frontier Foundation ]

Orders from the Top: The EU’s Timetable for Dismantling End-to-End Encryption

(06.10.2020)

09.11.2020 - 09:22 [ tech.newstatesman.com ]

The EU is set to declare war on encryption

(20.09.2020)

The EU is set to declare war on encryption with plans to allow law enforcement officials “targeted lawful access” to protected communications, according to a European Commission internal note seen by the Financial Times.

The note outlines the commission’s aim to “stimulate a discussion” among EU member states “on the issues posed by end-to-end encryption” for the purpose of tackling child abuse and other organised crime networks.

09.11.2020 - 09:16 [ Telegraph.co.uk ]

Five governments line up legal challenge to Facebook’s ‚dangerous‘ encryption of messages between terrorists, paedophiles and criminals

(15.05.2020)

The “Five Eyes” intelligence network of nations is preparing a legal challenge to Facebook’s plan for end-to-end encryption amid fears the platform will become a haven for terrorists and paedophiles.

Ministers from the UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are due to meet next week to consider legal measures to hold Facebook and other social media platforms liable for messages that could lead to serious criminality.

16.08.2020 - 07:09 [ Cory Doctorow / Wired ]

The Age of Mass Surveillance Will Not Last Forever – The power to end it is in your hands.

(28.07.2020)

What I showed those journalists was proof, in the form of the government’s own classified documents, that the self-described “Five Eyes”—the state security organs of the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada—had together conspired to weaken their laws. They had forced clandestine access to the networks of their largest telecommunications and internet titans (some of whom hadn’t needed much in the way of arm-twisting) in pursuit of a single goal: the transformation of the free and fragmented internet into history’s first centralized means of global mass surveillance.

16.08.2020 - 06:49 [ Glenn Greenwald / Twitter ]

National Security apparatchiks like @AmbassadorRice (no longer an Ambassador) have wanted Snowden in prison for years because he exposed how they secretly and illegally converted the internet into their spying playground. As for her claim that pardoning Snowden is a GOP view:

16.08.2020 - 06:15 [ Thomas Massie, Abgeordneter im US Repräsentantenhaus / Twitter ]

Employees of the US government violated the Constitution and lied to Congress and the American people about it. @Snowden exposed them. This is bigger than him. If he’s punished for his service to the Constitution, there will be more violations of the Constitution, and more lies.

21.07.2020 - 12:15 [ thePrint.in ]

After Pompeo visit, British MPs to ask Boris Johnson to get even tougher on China

Johnson’s government has pleased President Donald Trump’s administration in recent weeks as it blocked telecoms giant Huawei Technologies Co. and took action over Hong Kong, but has stopped short of the kind of sanctions imposed on individuals and companies by Washington. While Pompeo’s goal is not to ask for more, according to people familiar with his plans, the MPs will try to get him to carry their demands to his meeting with Johnson.

21.07.2020 - 11:56 [ Marketwatch.com ]

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visits the U.K. — here is what to look out for

The U.S. welcomed the U.K.’s announcement in July that it would remove Huawei from its future telecommunications infrastructure.

The U.K. will eliminate Chinese telecoms giant Huawei from its 5G network by 2027, after pressure from Sino-skeptic lawmakers and U.S. politicians.

“We convinced many countries…not to use Huawei,” U.S. President Trump said after the U.K. announced the removal.

14.07.2020 - 16:37 [ New York Times ]

U.K. Bans Huawei From 5G Network, Raising Tensions With China

Banning the use of the Chinese tech giant’s equipment in high-speed wireless infrastructure is a major reversal by Prime Minister Boris Johnson — and a big victory for the Trump administration.

18.05.2020 - 19:26 [ Vox.com ]

The Senate voted to let the government keep surveilling your online life without a warrant

(14.05.2020)

Many senators wanted to forbid the government from secretly collecting information about your internet habits, but an amendment failed by just one vote.

12.03.2020 - 13:41 [ New York Times ]

Trial of Programmer Accused in C.I.A. Leak Ends in Hung Jury

Prosecutors were careful to avoid details about specific operations. During cross-examination, Ms. Shroff asked one C.I.A. witness: “Do you recall a time when the C.I.A. covertly tried to read Angela Merkel’s emails?” referring to the German chancellor.

The government objected, and the judge stopped the witness from answering.

11.02.2020 - 15:19 [ Washington Post ]

‘The intelligence coup of the century’: For decades, the CIA read the encrypted communications of allies and adversaries.

For more than half a century, governments all over the world trusted a single company to keep the communications of their spies, soldiers and diplomats secret.

The company, Crypto AG, got its first break with a contract to build code-making machines for U.S. troops during World War II. Flush with cash, it became a dominant maker of encryption devices for decades, navigating waves of technology from mechanical gears to electronic circuits and, finally, silicon chips and software.

25.01.2020 - 11:50 [ New York Times ]

You Are Now Remotely Controlled

Surveillance capitalists control the science and the scientists, the secrets and the truth.

02.08.2019 - 17:56 [ theGuardian.com ]

Pentagon testing mass surveillance balloons across the US

The FCC documents show that Southcom’s balloons are carrying small, satellite-like vehicles housing sophisticated sensors and communication gear. One of those sensors is a synthetic aperture radar intended to detect every car or boat in motion on a 25-mile swath beneath the balloon.

The balloons also have advanced mesh networking technologies that allow them to communicate with one another, share data and pass it to receivers on the ground below.

21.07.2019 - 14:21 [ CNN ]

An entire nation just got hacked

(21.07.2019)

Asen Genov is pretty furious. His personal data was made public this week after records of more than 5 million Bulgarians got stolen by hackers from the country’s tax revenue office.
In a country of just 7 million people, the scale of the hack means that just about every working adult has been affected.

08.06.2019 - 10:13 [ Matthias Monroy ‏/ Twitter ]

EU surveillance state: This week the Justice and Home Affairs Ministers debated increasing the surveillance in their Member States. US authorities could soon also wiretap legally in Europe. #5G #DataRetention #eEvidence #cloudACT

06.06.2019 - 19:52 [ Techdirt ]

AG William Barr Doesn’t Want The Government Spying On The President But Thinks It’s OK If It Spies On Everyone Else

Let me restate that: William Barr is opposed to certain, very narrow subsets of domestic surveillance. Specifically, Barr doesn’t think the government should have spied on Trump and his campaign staff, if that’s what actually happened, which Barr doesn’t actually seem to know.

But if you’re literally anyone else, domestic surveillance is just another name for national security, whether you’re a random Verizon customer or one of the world’s most useful websites.

The Wikimedia Foundation sued the federal government over domestic surveillance back in 2015. The suit lives on four years later …

06.06.2019 - 19:22 [ europa.eu ]

Security Union: Commission receives mandate to start negotiating international rules for obtaining electronic evidence

Today, EU Member States agreed to give two mandates to the Commission to engage in international negotiations to improve cross-border access to electronic evidence in criminal investigations.The Council agreed to provide the Commission with negotiating mandates for negotiations with the United States and for the Second Additional Protocol to the Council of Europe “Budapest” Convention on Cybercrime.

20.05.2019 - 08:33 [ theGuardian.com ]

Google ‚blocks Huawei access to Android updates‘ after blacklisting

Google has suspended Huawei’s access to updates of its Android operating system in a fresh blow to the Chinese technology company that the US government has sought to blacklist around the world.

Google said it was complying with Trump’s executive order and was reviewing the “implications”, after Reuters initially reported the story.

09.05.2019 - 21:57 [ Electronic Frontier Foundation ]

Judge Dodges Legality of NSA Mass Spying, Citing Secrecy Claims

The Justice Department insists that our legal fight against this spying is bound by a Catch-22: no one can sue unless the court first determines that they were certainly touched by the vast surveillance mechanisms of the NSA. But, the government argued successfully, the court cannot decide whether any particular person’s email, web searches, social media or phone calls were touched by the surveillance unless the government admits it. Which, of course, it will not do.

03.05.2019 - 15:40 [ Radio.cz ]

Prague conference seeks to find consensus on approaching 5G cyber threats

“Over the past several years we have seen a big growth in communication technologies and systems. This trend will continue with the fifth generation of networks known as 5G. It will fundamentally transform the way we communicate and live.”

Launching the government’s Prague 5G Security Conference on Thursday, Andrej Babiš emphasised the revolutionary nature of 5G.

03.05.2019 - 11:27 [ Außenministerium der Tschechischen Republik ]

Prague 5G Security Conference

May 2, 2019

9:00 am Start of the Plenary Session
9:15 – 9:45 am Welcome speech by Mr Andrej Babiš, Prime Minister of the Czech Republic
9:45 am – 12:00 pm Welcome speech by Mr Tomáš Petříček, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic
9:45 am – 12:00 pm National Perspectives on 5G Security with Q&A

May 3, 2019 1 pm – 2:30 pm Working Group Chairs to Report Findings to the Plenary

03.05.2019 - 11:09 [ Reuters ]

Global security officials to hammer out united 5G security approach

Officials say they hope to conclude the meeting — attended by representatives from 30 European Union, NATO and countries such as the United States, Germany, Japan and Australia — with an outline of practices that could form a basis for a coordinated approach to shared security and policy measures.

02.05.2019 - 12:51 [ IrishExaminer.com ]

Five Eyes intelligence experts meet amid Huawei 5G controversy

(24.04.2019)

Representatives from the UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand will meet at the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) annual two-day conference, CYBERUK, in Glasgow on Wednesday.

It comes as the Daily Telegraph reported that Huawei will have limited access to build “non-core” infrastructure like antennas despite warnings of potential national security threats.

02.05.2019 - 12:47 [ scmp.com ]

Geopolitics – Huawei ban: Australia becomes increasingly isolated among Five Eyes partners if UK includes Chinese firm in 5G network

(26.04.2019)

The US has urged other Five Eyes members – the UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia – to exclude Huawei from the construction of new telecommunications networks, claiming the company could provide covert access for Chinese intelligence collection, making secure data vulnerable.

However, if the reports from the UK prove accurate, Australia would stand alone as the only member of the Five Eyes alliance – aside from the US – with an all-out ban on Chinese telecoms equipment. Australia, for its part, on Thursday reaffirmed the ban.

01.05.2019 - 20:52 [ theSun.co.uk ]

Western ‘five eyes’ spy chiefs plotted to bring down Huawei over fears it is SPYING for Chinese government

(17.12.2018)

The meeting was first reported by The Australian Financial Review after intelligence officials had publicly voiced concerns about Huawei and China’s „cyber espionage capabilities”.

Huawei has denied the accusations, and Western intelligence agencies have not released any evidence to back up the claims.

31.03.2019 - 18:38 [ ForeignPolicy.com ]

U.S. Firms Are Helping Build China’s Orwellian State

(19.3.2019) When a Dutch cybersecurity researcher disclosed last month that Chinese security contractor SenseNets left a massive facial recognition database tracking the movements of over 2.5 million people in China’s Xinjiang province unsecured on the internet, it briefly shone a spotlight on the alarming scope of the Chinese surveillance state.

But SenseNets is a symptom of a much larger phenomenon: Tech firms in the United States are lending expertise, reputational credence, and even technology to Chinese surveillance companies, wittingly or otherwise.

12.03.2019 - 09:59 [ CNN ]

US warns Germany that using Huawei tech will come at a cost

The letter, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, echoes a steady drumbeat of warnings by top US officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, who flagged Huawei’s alleged connections to Chinese intelligence and its ability to compromise national security by selling equipment with „backdoors“ that could allow for unauthorized surveillance.

03.03.2019 - 17:40 [ Forbes ]

China Goes ‚1984‘ While America Goes ‚Brave New World‘–But What’s Next?

(11.7.2018)

Postman’s key point was that Big Brother didn’t need to bother watching John Doe or controlling him, because John Doe probably was already willing to be controlled by forces that rendered him harmless to Big Brother. Postman argued that Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World was more prescient than Orwell’s 1984, because in his book Huxley portrayed a citizenry perfectly willing to give up its most sacred possessions for trivial things.

03.03.2019 - 17:32 [ Steven Kaufman / Entrepreneur.com ]

‚Social Credit‘ Tech Is Coming: 5 Ways for U.S. Entrepreneurs to Capitalize

(12.10.2018)

This may all sound frightening, but a system devised by human beings to control others can also be controlled, if you know what you’re doing. If you’re a true entrepreneur, then you see the opportunity in every social evolution. And big changes mean even bigger opportunities. Are you ready?

03.03.2019 - 17:27 [ Daily Caller ]

Democratic 2020 Candidate Wants Government-Sponsored ‘Social Credit’ System Comparable To China’s

(17.11.2018)

New York entrepreneur and Democratic 2020 candidate Andrew Yang wants to implement a system in which a government-run mobile app rewards Americans with “digital social credits” (DSCs) for good behavior.

Americans would receive DSCs under Yang’s system for things such as “participating in a town fair,” “fixing a neighbor’s appliance” or “tutoring a student,” his presidential campaign website explains.

03.03.2019 - 17:22 [ Phys.org - News and Articles on Science and Technology ]

Is China’s social credit system really the dystopian sci-fi scenario that many fear?

(6.12.2018)

To use Jamie Horsley’s argument in Foreign Policy, „China’s Orwellian social credit score isn’t real…There is no such thing as a national ’social credit score‘.“

Apart from the (negative) political implications of the work-in-progress social credit system, we should also consider the economic implication of such a system.

03.03.2019 - 17:16 [ Digitaltrends.com ]

We’re closer to China’s disturbing ‘Social Credit System’ than you realize

In addition to more mundane areas like whether you pay your community charge on time, the system’s reputational algorithm will also factor in your choice of online friends. That person who complains about how the government is doing its job could suddenly cost you some serious social cred. Befriend too many wrongthinkers and you could quickly find yourself classed as a wrongthinker too.

03.03.2019 - 17:12 [ fox11online.com ]

Social Credit System being tested in China; could the U.S. be next?

(11.2.2019) „We’re beginning to see it already where insurance companies affect your premium based on whether you’re eating healthy, getting a good night’s sleep or getting enough exercise,“ he said, adding that the need for Congress to act is urgent.

But Chertoff said the emphasis needs to change from how do we keep things confidential, and instead pass laws that focus on who controls the data once it’s been generated.

03.03.2019 - 17:07 [ Washington Post ]

China’s plan to organize its society relies on ‘big data’ to rate everyone

(22. Oktober 2016)

The ambition is to collect every scrap of information available online about China’s companies and citizens in a single place — and then assign each of them a score based on their political, commercial, social and legal “credit.”

The government hasn’t announced exactly how the plan will work — for example, how scores will be compiled and different qualities weighted against one another. But the idea is that good behavior will be rewarded and bad behavior punished, with the Communist Party acting as the ultimate judge.

03.03.2019 - 16:46 [ technode.com ]

Blacklists and redlists: How China’s Social Credit System actually works

(23.10.2018) The idea is simple: By keeping and aggregating records throughout the government’s various ministries and departments, Chinese officials can gain insight into how people behave and develop ways to control them.

The goal writes Rogier Creemers, a postdoctoral scholar specializing in the law and governance of China at Leiden University in The Netherlands, is “cybernetic” behavioral control, allowing individuals to be monitored and immediately confronted with the consequences of their actions. In so doing, authorities can enhance the county’s expanding surveillance apparatus.

03.03.2019 - 15:09 [ Human Rights Watch ]

China: Police DNA Database Threatens Privacy

(15.5.2017) The issue of DNA collection has received some press attention. In one case in Shandong province, police collected DNA from more than 5,000 male students in one college in October 2013. The students were given no explanation about why their information was taken, and many “did not understand nor felt comfortable about it.” When reached by journalists, the school said it was to cooperate with the police’s request to establish a database about migrant populations, but the police said it was to solve a number of theft cases on the campus.

03.03.2019 - 13:41 [ Washington Post ]

China has turned Xinjiang into a zone of repression — and a frightening window into the future

(23.2.2019) When George Orwell’s “1984” was published seven decades ago, it seemed a dire warning of a future dystopia ruled by thought police and authoritarian control. Today, such a world is becoming a reality in Xinjiang. We agree with human rights groups who have urged the United Nations Human Rights Council, when it meets starting Monday, to launch an international fact-finding mission to Xinjiang to expose this unsettling experiment in state control of human behavior.

03.03.2019 - 11:47 [ Middle East Eye ]

Abu Dhabi announces launch of Israeli-installed mass surveillance system

(14.7.2016) Tools for the collection of data include all manner of devices, from cameras on the street to smart devices connected to the internet.

“Every person is monitored from the moment they leave their doorstep to the moment they return to it. Their work, social and behavioural patterns are recorded, analysed and archived,” a source close to the project told MEE at the time.

02.03.2019 - 14:08 [ ijust.info ]

South Africa – E-Evidence Training

(1.3.2019) The event was a great example of collaborative working between intergovernmental organisations, 14 Focal Points, representatives from the US and U.K. Central Authorities and Service Providers.

Next we move onto the Caribbean and then Australia!

13.02.2019 - 18:19 [ Financial Times ]

Huawei accuses US of ‘political’ campaign against telecoms group

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“Some say that because these countries are using Huawei equipment, it makes it harder for US agencies to obtain these countries’ data,” he added.

Mr Xu also revealed that Huawei would spend more than $2bn to restructure the code used in its telecoms services worldwide after a series of “confrontational” meetings with Britain’s cyber security agency over the issue.

13.02.2019 - 18:01 [ sdxcentral.com ]

Huawei Works With Arm, Not Intel, on New CPU

(7.1.2019) William Xu, director of the board and chief strategy marketing officer of Huawei, noted that Huawei had worked extensively with Intel. But he said a diversity of applications and data is driving varied computing requirements. “Huawei has long partnered with Intel to make great achievements,” said Xu in a statement. “Together we have contributed to the development of the ICT industry. Huawei and Intel will continue our long-term strategic partnerships and continue to innovate together.”

13.02.2019 - 17:56 [ theVerge.com ]

Don’t use Huawei phones, say heads of FBI, CIA, and NSA

During his testimony, FBI Director Chris Wray said the government was “deeply concerned about the risks of allowing any company or entity that is beholden to foreign governments that don’t share our values to gain positions of power inside our telecommunications networks.” He added that this would provide “the capacity to maliciously modify or steal information. And it provides the capacity to conduct undetected espionage.”

13.02.2019 - 12:56 [ National Security Agency ]

TEMPEST: A Signal Problem

(1972) Now, let´s go back to the beginning. During World War II, the backbone systems for Army und Navy secure teletypewriter communications were one-time tapes and the primitive crypto-equipment SIGTOT. For encrypting, the Services used a Bell-telephone mixing device, called 131-B2. When one of these mixers was being tested in a Bell laboratory, a researcher noticed, quite by accident, that each time the machine stepped, a spike appeared on an oscilloscope in a distant part of the lab. After he examined these spikes more carefully, he found that he could read the plain text of the message being enciphered by the machine.

17.01.2019 - 22:31 [ /notesdeseguretat.blog.gencat.cat ]

Artificial security and defence intelligence of the European Union

(16.1.2019) According to the study published by the European Union Institute for Security Studies, in the coming years artificial intelligence (AI) will be present in almost all areas of daily life: communication, healthcare and even security and defence.

20.10.2018 - 11:34 [ Techdirt ]

Billionaire Backer Of Palantir & Facebook Insists He’s Bankrupting Journalists To Protect Your Privacy

(16.8.2016) We’ve already made it quite clear where we stand on Peter Thiel financing a number of lawsuits against Gawker Media as some sort of retaliation for some articles he didn’t like. Lots of people who really hate Gawker don’t seem to care how problematic Thiel’s actions are, but you should be concerned, even if you dislike Gawker — in part, because many of the lawsuits Thiel appears to be backing are clearly bogus and just designed to bankrupt the company, which happened a couple months ago.

This week is the auction to see who ends up with Gawker, and Thiel is taking a weird victory lap with a silly and misleading oped in the NY Times where he argues that this was really all about making a stand for privacy and has nothing to do with shitting on the First Amendment. There’s a lot in the article that’s bullshit, and it deserves a thorough debunking, so here we go.

20.10.2018 - 11:24 [ Wall Street Journal ]

Secretive Data Company Palantir Weighs Giant Public Offering

(18.10.2018) Palantir is discussing with investment banks Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley plans to go public as soon as the second half of 2019, the people said. Some bankers have told the firm it could go public with a valuation of as much as $41 billion—depending in part on the timing—or twice what it was most recently…