Category: Privacy,

House Extends Surveillance Law, Rejecting New Privacy Safeguards

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Privacy,Leave a comment

House Extends Surveillance Law, Rejecting New Privacy Safeguards – The New York Times

Because the new-orwellian American leadership does not give a shit about your rights or individual liberties. They want personal profit and privilege and ideals like life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are unwanted complications.

Buckle up kids, the Party of small government and personal liberty is buying and selling the right to control every aspect of your life. For personal profit.

Kaspersky’s role in NSA breach

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Privacy,Leave a comment

Russian hackers had used Kaspersky software to identify classified files on the NSA contractor’s home computer, which they then stole, it said.
It later emerged Kaspersky had also copied files off the PC itself.

…On 11 September 2014, the company said, one of its products deployed on a home computer with an internet protocol (IP) address in Baltimore, Maryland – close to where the NSA is based – had reported what appeared to be variants of the malware used by the Equation Group.

…Soon after, the user had disabled the Kaspersky Lab anti-virus tool and downloaded and installed pirated software infected with another, separate form of malware.

…Kaspersky denies creating “signatures” specifically designed to search for top secret or classified material.

…And during this period the command-and-control servers of this malware were registered to what appeared to be a Chinese entity.
“Given that system owner’s potential clearance level, the user could have been a prime target of nation states,” the Kaspersky spokesman said.
US federal agencies have now been told to remove all Kaspersky software from their computers.

Kaspersky defends its role in NSA breach – BBC News

hmmmm

Microsoft to NSA: WannaCry is your fault 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,, Privacy,Leave a comment

Microsoft’s top lawyer has blamed the government’s stockpiling of hacking tools as part of the reason for the WannaCry attack, the worldwide ransomware that has hit hundreds of thousands of systems in recent days.

Brad Smith, president and chief legal officer, pointed out that WannaCrypt is based on an exploit developed by the National Security Agency (NSA) and renewed his call for a new “Digital Geneva Convention,” which would require governments to report vulnerabilities to vendors rather than stockpile, sell, or exploit them.

…Smith said he hopes the recent WannaCry attack will change the minds of government agencies and stop developing hacking tools in secret and holding them for use against adversaries, especially since the technology for WannaCry was stolen from the NSA.

Microsoft to NSA: WannaCry is your fault | Network World

hmmmm

Trump vacancy raises consternation with Europe

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Privacy,Leave a comment

A key vacancy in the State Department is creating friction between the European Union and United States over a new agreement affecting thousands of U.S. companies that do business in Europe.

The agreement, known as the privacy shield, allows businesses to swiftly send personal data across the Atlantic, something that affects a huge swath of U.S. companies, from Facebook and Apple to Netflix and Google.

Without the shield, companies that operate in Europe would have to enter into special contracts to transfer personal data.

EU officials are worried that the Trump administration has yet to nominate an ombudsman at the State Department to oversee complaints from Europeans about the access U.S. national security agencies may have to their data.

Trump vacancy raises consternation with Europe | TheHill

hmmmm

President Donald J. Trump Signs H.J.Res. 69, H.J.Res. 83, H.R. 1228, S.J.Res. 34 into Law

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Environment,, Media and Culture,, Privacy,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

On Monday, April 3, 2017, [Trump] signed into law:

H.J.Res. 69, which nullifies the Department of the Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service’s final rule relating to non-subsistence takings of wildlife on National Wildlife Refuges in Alaska;

H.J.Res. 83, which nullifies the Department of Labor’s rule titled Clarification of Employer’s Continuing Obligation to Make and Maintain an Accurate Record of Each Recordable Injury and Illness;

…S.J.Res. 34 – which nullifies the Federal Communications Commission’s rule on privacy of customers of broadband and other telecommunications services.

President Donald J. Trump Signs H.J.Res. 69, H.J.Res. 83, H.R. 1228, S.J.Res. 34 into Law | whitehouse.gov

oy….

White House releases sensitive personal information of voters worried about their sensitive personal information 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,, Privacy,Leave a comment

The White House on Thursday made public a trove of emails it received from voters offering comment on its Election Integrity Commission. The commission drew widespread criticism when it emerged into public view by asking for personal information, including addresses, partial social security numbers and party affiliation, on every voter in the country.
It further outraged voters by planning to post that information publicly.

…Unfortunately for these voters and others who wrote in, the Trump administration did not redact any of their personal information from the emails before releasing them to the public. In some cases, the emails contain not only names, but email addresses, home addresses, phone numbers and places of employment of people worried about such information being made available to the public.

…The White House does not appear to have issued any such public guidelines or warnings before many of the emails were sent.

White House releases sensitive personal information of voters worried about their sensitive personal information – The Washington Post

Like so many things about this WH, if it wasn’t real it would be hilarious.

WikiLeaks’ latest release of CIA cyber tools could blow the cover on agency hacking operations – The Washington Post

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The material includes the secret source code of an “obfuscation” technique used by the CIA so its malware can evade detection by antivirus systems. The technique is used by all professional hackers, whether they work for the National Security Agency, Moscow’s FSB or the Chinese military. But because the code contains a specific algorithm, a digital fingerprint of sorts, it can now be used to identify CIA hacking operations that had previously been detected but not attributed.

“It’s one thing to say, ‘I got hacked.’ It’s another thing to say, ‘I got hacked by the CIA,’” said Jake Williams, founder of Rendition InfoSec, a cybersecurity firm. “I suspect this could cause some foreign policy issues down the road.”

If this source code is used in a majority of CIA hacking operations, Williams said, the release could be “devastating.”

WikiLeaks’ latest release of CIA cyber tools could blow the cover on agency hacking operations – The Washington Post

hmmm

FBI Director Comey: “There Is No Such Thing As Absolute Privacy In America” 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Media and Culture,, Privacy,Leave a comment

“There is no such thing as absolute privacy in America,” Comey said Wednesday. “That’s the bargain. And we made that bargain over two centuries ago to achieve two goals. To achieve the very, very important goal of privacy and to achieve the important goal of security. Widespread default encryption changes that bargain. In my view it shatters the bargain.”

FBI Director Comey: “There Is No Such Thing As Absolute Privacy In America” – BuzzFeed News

What a trash-heap full of double-speak nonsense.