Security researchers have successfully broken one of the most secure encryption algorithms, 4096-bit RSA, by listening – yes, with a microphone — to a computer as it decrypts some encrypted data.
The attack is fairly simple and can be carried out with rudimentary hardware. The repercussions for the average computer user are minimal, but if you’re a secret agent, power user, or some other kind of encryption-using miscreant, you may want to reach for the Rammstein when decrypting your data. This acoustic cryptanalysis, carried out by Daniel Genkin, Adi Shamir (who co-invented RSA), and Eran Tromer, uses what’s known as a side channel attack. A side channel is an attack vector that is non-direct and unconventional, and thus hasn’t been properly secured.
Read moreFormer National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden stole vastly more information than previously speculated, and is holding it at ransom for his own protection.
“What’s floating is so dangerous, we’d be behind for twenty years in terms of access (if it were to be leaked),” a ranking Department of Defense official told the Daily Caller. “He stole everything — literally everything,” the official said. Last month British and U.S. intelligence officials speculated Snowden had in his possession a “doomsday cache” of intelligence information, including the names of undercover intelligence personnel stationed around the world.
Read moreNational Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden wrote in a lengthy "open letter to the people of Brazil" that he's been inspired by the global debate ignited by his release of thousands of National Security Agency documents, and that the NSA's culture of indiscriminate global espionage "is collapsing."
In the letter, released widely online, Snowden commended the Brazilian government for its strong stand against U.S. spying. He said he'd be willing to help the South American nation investigate NSA spying on its soil, but could not fully participate in doing so without being granted political asylum, because the U.S. "government will continue to interfere with my ability to speak."
Read moreIn an e-mail sent to BSD project leader Theo de Raadt, former NETSEC CTO Gregory Perry has claimed that NETSEC developers helped the FBI plant "a number of backdoors" in the OpenBSD cryptographic framework approximately a decade ago.
Perry says that his nondisclosure agreement with the FBI has expired, allowing him to finally bring the issue to the attention of OpenBSD developers. Perry also suggests that knowledge of the FBI's backdoors played a role in DARPA's decision to withdraw millions of dollars of grant funding from OpenBSD in 2003. "This is also probably the reason why you lost your DARPA funding, they more than likely caught wind of the fact that those backdoors were present and didn't want to create any derivative products based upon the same."
Read moreTwitter has an eye on your location — and is testing ways to share it with other nearby users. The short-messaging service appears to be testing a new timeline for its mobile app, called “Nearby.” It shows recent nearby tweets, whether you follow the tweeter or not.
The “Nearby” timeline has appeared occasionally in recent days on the phones of users who allow Twitter to see and use their location.
The apparent test could be part of an effort to prompt more users to share their location. That would make the network more locally relevant, in the manner of Foursquare. It also would allow Twitter to offer advertisers more precise targeting capabilities.
Read moreFacebook wants to become your new best friend by knowing everything about you - and it's going to happen whether you like it not.
From the bottles of beer you drink, to the places you visit on vacation, the social networking site will compile everything there is to know about you (and the billion other people online) - and then make sense of it with the hope of selling better, targeted advertising in your news feed. The social networking giant has teamed up with New York University to set up a research lab designed to learn about artificial intelligence. The California-based social network giant is hiring professor Yann LeCun of NYU's Center for Data Science to head up a new artificial intelligence lab, aiming to use cutting-edge science to make Facebook more interesting and relevant.
Read moreNational Security Agency (NSA), the U.S. easily bypasses encryption technology is widely used in mobile phones. This means that the security service can monitor and listen to the billions of telephone calls daily newspaper The Washington Post.
Experts have long said that the employees of military and law enforcement agencies are able to listen to U.S. phones suspected of any crime. However, according to documents that were made public by former U.S. intelligence agent Edward Snowden, NSA opportunities are much wider.
Read moreSenior US officials, fighting to forestall a push to end the bulk collection of Americans' phone data, told a Senate panel they would be "failing" the country if the controversial surveillance practice ceased, and suggested that a congressional move to stop it would not be the final word on the matter.
National Security Agency director Keith Alexander, in an indication of the political crisis roiling his agency, compared the bulk collection on Wednesday to "holding a hornet's nest," but said he did not know how to detect future domestic terrorist attacks without swooping up the phone records of every American. "There is no other way we know of to connect the dots," Alexander told a nearly empty Senate judiciary committee hearing that was at turns heated, probing and humorous.
Read moreFrance, the cradle of democracy, legitimized surveillance of its citizens without trial.
According to a new law, security services and the government will authorize to monitor Internet users and subscribers of mobile operators.
The law allows authorities, including the police, anti-terrorism agencies and some ministries to organize direct surveillance of any user of the Internet.
Read moreNew revelation made possible by whistleblower reveals extremely close surveillance collaboration between the two nations.
At the behest of the U.S. National Security Agency, Canada engaged in global spying operations, including setting up spy posts. The collaborative efforts of the two nations' spy agencies covered surveillance in "approximately 20 high-priority countries." The NSA's Canadian counterpart, the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC), "offers resources for advanced collection, processing and analysis, and has opened covert sites at the request of NSA," CBC reports the NSA document as stating.
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