At a recent debate concerning the National Security Agency’s bulk surveillance programs, former CIA and NSA director Michael Hayden admitted that metadata is used as the basis for killing people.
The comments were made during a debate at Johns Hopkins University, after Georgetown University Law Center professor David Cole detailed the kind of information the government can obtain simply by collecting metadata – who you call, when you call them, how long the call lasts, and how often calls between the two parties are made. Although NSA supporters often claim such metadata collection is permissible considering the content of the call is not collected.
Read moreFBI can legally hack into suspects' computers for criminal evidence according to changes in the law on criminal liability in the United States.
The USA Justice Department (DOJ) is seeking a transition in the criminal rules that would make the authorities to have more leeway to secretly hack into the suspected criminals’ computer during criminal investigations at any times. According to the proposed change in the rules would make FBI to easily obtain warrants to secretly access suspects’ computers for the evidence when the physical location of the computer is not known to them.
Read moreGoogle Inc. and more than 100 other software, social-media and technology companies said they oppose a U.S. proposal to let Internet-service providers charge them extra for faster routes to Web users.
The rules may let telephone-service and cable providers “discriminate both technically and financially” and would be “a grave threat to the Internet,” the companies said yesterday in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission. Other signers included Facebook Inc. (FB), Netflix Inc. and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT). FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has asked the agency to vote May 15 on whether to begin writing rules to let Internet-service providers such as AT&T Inc. and Comcast Corp. negotiate deals with content makers like Google for quicker and more reliable delivery of video and other fare.
Read moreApple has the technical ability to disclose a wide range of information about a user upon the request of the authorities – from the person’s name and contact information to their photos and e-mail content.
This refers to the new company policy of cooperation with the law enforcement agencies. If there is a valid search warrant and the serial number of the iPhone, iPod touch or iPad the Cupertino-based company may extract some types of data, even if the device has a password.
In particular, this refers to the user files created with proprietary applications. These include SMS-messages, photos, videos, contacts, and call history records. In case if the iOS-device is password-protected, the Apple cannot disclose the contents of the e-mail, calendar plans or the data of the third party applications.
Read moreResearchers have uncovered Android-based malware that disables infected handsets until end users pay a hefty cash payment to settle trumped-up criminal charges involving the viewing of illegal pornography.
To stoke maximum fear, Android-Trojan.Koler.A uses geolocation functions to tailor the warnings to whatever country a victim happens to reside in. The screenshot to the right invoking the FBI, for instance, is the notice that's displayed on infected phones connecting from a US-based IP address. People in Romania and other countries will see slightly different warnings. The malware prevents users from accessing the home screen of their phones, making it impossible to use most other apps installed on the phone.
Read moreApple's Mail app in iOS 7 is failing to encrypt email attachments, leaving user data vulnerable to hackers, a security researcher claims. Andreas Kurtz posted his findings online, saying Apple's email app in the latest version of its iPhone and iPad software is not securing files that are attached to emails.
This makes the files readily available to anyone with the proper software. The researcher said he confirmed this by trying out a method on email stored in an iPhone 4 running the latest version of iOS 7. He said he was able to find the device's email attachments unprotected, and he said he later confirmed the process on an iPhone 5s and an iPad 2. Advertisement "I found all attachments accessible without any encryption/restriction," Kurtz wrote.
Read moreAn application should always encrypt users' sensitive data, either it is local or stored on company servers, but still many popular services failed to provide fully secured solutions to their users.
Cristicin Dinu (DrOptix) and Dragos Gaftoneanu, Romanian programmers at Hackyard Security Group, a private community dedicated to IT security research approaches 'The Hacker News' editorial and claimed that the Microsoft owned most popular free voice calling service Skype leaves its local database unencrypted, that puts users' sensitive information at risk. All Skype-to-Skype voice, video, file transfers and instant messages are encrypted.
Read moreRussian lawmakers are planning to make content filtering in Runet, and to forbid DNS-servers domains. RU and .RF placing abroad and transfer Coordination Centre domains functions to the authorized federal executive authority.
"Kommersant" reports about the government's plans to increase control over the Russian Internet space citing data from federal official and Internet company managers that wished to remain anonymous. They reported that the authorities discuss the issue of Runet federalization, that is, "the ban on joining regional and local data networks to foreign Internet networks" that can be done only through federal access.
Read moreThe Supreme Court on Tuesday will take up a hot-button issue of privacy in the digital age: Can police, without a warrant, rummage through the cell phones of people they arrest? It's an important case, given that more than 90 percent of American adults now own a cell phone and 58 percent have a smart phone.
And more than 12 million people are arrested in the U.S. each year, most of them for minor offenses, such as drunk driving or getting in fights. Police also have authority to make arrests for fine-only infractions like driving without a seat belt, littering, or jaywalking. So, allowing police to search the text, photo, and video files on all of those smart phones would severely compromise personal privacy, says Jeffrey Fisher of Stanford Law School.
Read moreViber, a mobile messenger app that allows users to make phone calls and send text messages and images for free, also gives up plenty of free user data to anyone who wants to listen.
According to researchers from the University of New Haven (UNH) in Connecticut, US, Viber's app sends user messages in unencrypted form - including photos, videos, doodles, and location images.
All of that rich data from users is also stored unencrypted on Viber's servers, rather than being deleted immediately, and is accessible without credentials, just a link, the UNH researchers said.
Read moreAxarhöfði 14,
110 Reykjavik, Iceland