However, we have reconsidered this position. We’ve been thinking about this for some time, whether it was a good idea at all. Today, another secure email provider, Lavabit, shut down their system lest they “be complicit in crimes against the American people.” We see the writing the wall, and we have decided that it is best for us to shut down Silent Mail now. We have not received subpoenas, warrants, security letters, or anything else by any government, and this is why we are acting now.
Category Archives: Current Events
Court blocks the publication of a scientific paper
The English High Court (the highest civil court) has blocked the publication of a scientific paper that would have revealed the full details of a zero day vulnerability in Volkswagen’s immobiliser mechanisms – the temporary injunction against publication has been granted to stop the publication of “Dismantling Megamos Crypto: Wirelessly Lockpicking a Vehicle Immobilizer” – due to be presented at a Usenix security conference.
via Court blocks the publication of a scientific paper | cartesian product.
NSA Award for Best Scientific Cybersecurity Paper
In accepting the award I don’t condone the NSA’s surveillance. Simply put, I don’t think a free society is compatible with an organisation like the NSA in its current form. Yet I’m glad I got the rare opportunity to visit with the NSA and I’m grateful for my hosts’ genuine hospitality. A large group of engineers turned up to hear my presentation, asked sharp questions, understood and cared about the privacy implications of studying password data. It affirmed my feeling that America’s core problems are in Washington and not in Fort Meade. Our focus must remain on winning the public debate around surveillance and developing privacy-enhancing technology. But I hope that this award program, established to increase engagement with academic researchers, can be a small but positive step.
via Light Blue Touchpaper » Blog Archive » NSA Award for Best Scientific Cybersecurity Paper.
Chicago Blackhawks!!!!!!!!!!
NSA Data-Scooping: A Coming Backlash in Europe?
Most European nations have long had stronger privacy laws than those in the United States. As a result U.S. Internet companies doing business there–incluiding Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook, and AOL–have signed on to so-called “safe harbor” principles, promising a European level of privacy protection. Now, of course, it appears they’ve also been providing gobs of data about some overseas customers to the U.S. National Security Agency (see “NSA Surveillance Reflects a Broader Interpretation of the Patriot Act”).
Among other fallout, it’s reasonable now to expect E.U. regulators and customers to go nuclear–and U.S. companies to face tough sledding ahead.
via NSA Data-Scooping: A Coming Backlash in Europe? | MIT Technology Review.
The Pirate Bay Helps to Expose Copyright Troll Honeypot
The Pirate Bay logs not only link Prenda to the sharing of their own files on BitTorrent, but also tie them directly to the Sharkmp4 user and the uploads of the actual torrent files.
The IP-address 75.72.88.156 was previously used by someone with access to John Steele’s GoDaddy account and was also used by Sharkmp4 to upload various torrents. Several of the other IP-addresses in the log resolve to the Mullvad VPN and are associated with Prenda-related comments on the previously mentioned anti-copyright troll blogs.
via The Pirate Bay Helps to Expose Copyright Troll Honeypot | TorrentFreak.
U.S., British intelligence mining data from nine U.S. Internet companies in broad secret program
Congress obliged with the Protect America Act in 2007 and the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, which immunized private companies that cooperated voluntarily with U.S. intelligence collection. PRISM recruited its first partner, Microsoft, and began six years of rapidly growing data collection beneath the surface of a roiling national debate on surveillance and privacy. Late last year, when critics in Congress sought changes in the FISA Amendments Act, the only lawmakers who knew about PRISM were bound by oaths of office to hold their tongues.
That will teach people not to put so much trust into the cloud.
Microsoft, FBI takedown Citadel botnet
According to Microsoft pirated Windows XP product keys were used to spread the Citadel malware. Redmond isn’t claiming a full take down because of the sheer size of the botnet but, it is optimistic that the seized equipment will help it to strengthen defenses in the future.
via Microsoft, FBI takedown Citadel botnet – ParityNews.com: …Because Technology Matters.
Prior to take down of Citadel, Microsoft has been a key player in take down of other botnets like Bamital, Kehlios and Nitol botnet
Reporters use Google, find breach, get branded as “hackers”
Call it security through absurdity: a pair of telecom firms have branded reporters for Scripps News as “hackers” after they discovered the personal data of over 170,000 customers—including social security numbers and other identifying data that could be used for identity theft—sitting on a publicly accessible server. While the reporters claim to have discovered the data with a simple Google search, the firms’ lawyer claims they used “automated” means to gain access to the company’s confidential data and that in doing so the reporters violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act with their leet hacker skills.
via Reporters use Google, find breach, get branded as “hackers” | Ars Technica.
How the 2013 World Press Photo of the Year was faked with Photoshop
Basically, as far as we can surmise, Hansen took a series of photos — and then later, realizing that his most dramatically situated photo was too dark and shadowy, decided to splice a bunch of images together and apply a liberal amount of dodging (brightening) to the shadowy regions. For what it’s worth, Hansen claims that the light in the alley was natural — and to be fair, sometimes magical lighting does occur. I think most of you will agree, though, that the photo simply feels fake — there’s just something about the lighting that sets off a warning alarm in your brain. As for why World Press Photo didn’t forensically analyze the photo using freely available, advanced, accurate analysis tools such as FourMatch or FotoForensics… who knows.
via ExtremeTech » How the 2013 World Press Photo of the Year was faked with Photoshop.