Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross appears with Maria Bartiromo to discuss the security concerns around Chinese company Huawei and technology products designed to extract intelligence and data. Secretary Ross explains the Commerce Department decision to add 46 new Huawei subsidiaries to the restricted entity list requiring U.S. companies to apply for temporary licenses for Huawei purchases. […]
Surveillance & Technology
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Trump Administration Asks Congress to Reauthorize N.S.A.’s Deactivated Call Program…
The White House is seeking reauthorization of a law that lets the N.S.A. gain access to logs of Americans’ phone and text records — while acknowledging that the program has been indefinitely halted. Breaking a long silence about a high-profile National Security Agency program that sifts records of Americans’ telephone calls and text messages in […]
The Weird, Repeating Signals from Deep Space Just Tripled…
Scientists suddenly have a whole lot more data on one of the strangest and most recent mysteries in the cosmos, so-called fast radio bursts (FRBs). First discovered in 2007, these fleeting blasts of radio waves originate thousands, millions or even billions of light years from Earth. FRBs have influenced the design of new radio telescopes […]
Three Years of Misery Inside Google, the Happiest Company in Tech…
On a bright Monday in January 2017, at 2:30 in the afternoon, about a thousand Google employees—horrified, alarmed, and a little giddy—began pouring out of the company’s offices in Mountain View, California. They packed themselves into a cheerful courtyard outside the main campus café, a parklike area dotted with picnic tables and a shade structure […]
‘The Code’ Busts Silicon Valley’s Favorite Myths About Itself…
The swath of the South Bay once so prized for its orchards and all-round Edenic charm that it was dubbed “the Valley of Heart’s Delight” has spawned myriad imitators. Reflecting local topography, there’s Silicon Glen, Silicon Fen, Silicon Roundabout, Silicon Steppe and, most egregiously, Philicon Valley (take a bow Philadelphia), among other wannabes. But there’s […]
Facial Recognition Software Mistook 1 in 5 California Lawmakers for Criminals…
California Assemblyman Phil Ting has never been arrested, but he was recently mistaken for a criminal. He’s not surprised. Ting (D-San Francisco), who authored a bill to ban facial recognition software from being used on police body cameras, was one of 26 California legislators who was incorrectly matched with a mug shot in a recent […]
Study Blames Disturbing Rise in Teens Who Need Glasses on Excessive Screen Time…
So many people, especially young people and teenagers, spend a significant period of time each day staring at a screen of some kind, whether that be a computer, smartphone, tablet, or the regular old TV. Now, a new study is warning parents that all that screen time may be behind a stunning rise in children […]
Ring Told People to Snitch on Their Neighbors in Exchange for Free Stuff…
Ring, Amazon’s home security company, has encouraged people to form their own “Digital Neighborhood Watch” groups that report crime in exchange for free or discounted Ring products, according to an internal company slide presentation obtained by Motherboard. The slide presentation—which is titled “Digital Neighborhood Watch” and was created in 2017, according to Ring—tells people that […]
Navy Ditches Touchscreens for Knobs and Dials After Fatal Crash…
A collision at sea that claimed the lives of 10 sailors has led to the Navy deciding to replace an unpopular touchscreen interface in some ships with more traditional mechanical controls. “Just because you can doesn’t mean you should,” a Navy official said of the outgoing technology. The crash in question involved the U.S.S. John […]
Facebook Has Been Secretly Transcribing Your Conversations…
Facebook has been clandestinely accumulating written transcriptions of its users’ conversations, which the social media giant recorded through their phone microphones. That’s according to third-party contractors who spoke to Bloomberg about the practice. The contractors said that they were paid to listen in on countless, occasional vulgar conversations among Facebook Messenger users, though the company […]
GOOGLE WHISTLEBLOWER GOES PUBLIC: “I FELT THAT OUR ENTIRE ELECTION SYSTEM WAS GOING TO BE COMPROMISED”…HUNDREDS OF INTERNAL DOCUMENTS LEAKED…
A Google insider who anonymously leaked internal documents to Project Veritas made the decision to go public in an on-the-record video interview. The insider, Zachary Vorhies, decided to go public after receiving a letter from Google, and after he says Google allegedly called the police to perform a “wellness check” on him. Along with the […]
Police Used Streetlamps to Spy on the Public More Than 140 Times…
Gone are the days when cities used streetlamps to simply illuminate sidewalks and streets. Today’s streetlamps are being used to form an inter-connected web of surveillance devices. A recent San Diego Union-Tribune article revealed how San Diego police officers have used streetlamp video surveillance in at least 140 cases and sometimes as frequently as 20 […]
Apple Confirms $1M Reward for Anyone Who Can Hack an iPhone…
Apple has massively increased the amount it’s offering hackers for finding vulnerabilities in iPhones and Macs, up to $1 million. It’s by far the highest bug bounty on offer from any major tech company. That’s up from $200,000, and in the fall the program will be open to all researchers. Previously only those on the […]
Easily Securing America’s E-Voting Systems Tomorrow. Use Paper by Bruce Schneier…
Black Hat While various high-tech solutions to secure electronic voting systems are being touted this week to election officials across the United States, according to infosec guru Bruce Schneier there is only one tried-and-tested approach that should be considered: pen and paper. It’s the only way to be sure hackers and spies haven’t delved in […]
BOMBSHELL INTERVIEW With NSA Whistleblower Bill Binney: They Can Use Your Data Against You Anytime (VIDEO)…
A bombshell interview with William Binney, an NSA Whistleblower, has just been released! Binney says that President Donald Trump is being framed and that we the people are subjected to the constant surveillance and tracking authoritarian regimes are known for. We are all subjected to the state’s mass surveillance scheme and many have given up […]
Microsoft Contractors Are Listening to Your Every Word on Select Skype Calls…
Contractors working for Microsoft are listening to personal conversations of Skype users conducted through the app’s translation service, according to a cache of internal documents, screenshots, and audio recordings obtained by Motherboard. Although Skype’s website says that the company may analyze audio of phone calls that a user wants to translate in order to improve […]
Twitter Fesses Up to More AdTech Personal Data Leaks…
Twitter has disclosed more bugs related to how it uses personal data for ad targeting that means it may have shared users data with advertising partners even when a user had expressly told it not to. Back in May the social network disclosed a bug that in certain conditions resulted in an account’s location data […]
I Tried Hiding from Silicon Valley in a Pile of Privacy Gadgets by Joel Stein…
As the spy gear piles up on my desk, my 10-year-old son asks me what my mission is. “I’m hiding,” I whisper, pointing in the direction I think is north, which is something I should probably know as a spy. “From Silicon Valley.” It isn’t going to be easy. I use Google, Facebook, Amazon, Lyft, […]
8chan: Another Mass Shooting, Another Internet Purge…
Last year, after the shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue, the new social-media platform Gab was attacked in the press and bullied off the internet. Earlier this year, following the Christ Church mosque attack, New Zealand briefly totally blocked access to several websites. Yesterday, two men allegedly killed 30 people at a store in Dayton Ohio, […]
Texas Man Convicted of Stealing US Marine Tech to Benefit Beijing Regime…
A federal jury in Washington has convicted a Texas man of conspiracy to commit theft of trade secrets in order to transfer dual-use marine technology to the Chinese regime and its state-owned companies. Shi Shan, 54, a naturalized U.S. citizen living in Texas, was convicted following a nine-day trial, according to a July 29 press […]