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Data Snooping Mission Creep
,----[ Quote ]
| Oh, look, what a surprise: it's not just for anti-terrorism:
|
| Local councils, health authorities and hundreds of other public bodies
| are to be given the power to access details of everyone's personal text,
| emails and internet use under Home Office proposals published yesterday.
|
| And, look, they still haven't learned about the dangers of centralised
| databases:
|
| The government has already indicated that it intends to go one step
| further this autumn by introducing a draft communications bill which
| would require all the telecommunications companies to hand over this data
| to one central "super" database so that the police and other public
| authorities will be able to access it directly without having to make a
| request each time to the individual company holding the records.
|
| Well, at least that will make it easier to steal....
`----
http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2008/08/data-snooping-mission-creep.html
Man whose US immigration notice was sent to the wrong address is detained with
untreated spinal cancer until he dies, denied access to his wife and children
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/08/13/man-whose-us-immigra.html
Ill and in Pain, Detainee Dies in U.S. Hands
,----[ Quote ]
| He was 17 when he came to New York from Hong Kong in 1992 with his parents
| and younger sister, eyeing the skyline like any newcomer. Fifteen years
| later, Hiu Lui Ng was a New Yorker: a computer engineer with a job in the
| Empire State Building, a house in Queens, a wife who is a United States
| citizen and two American-born sons.
|
| But when Mr. Ng, who had overstayed a visa years earlier, went to immigration
| headquarters in Manhattan last summer for his final interview for a green
| card, he was swept into immigration detention and shuttled through jails and
| detention centers in three New England states.
|
| In April, Mr. Ng began complaining of excruciating back pain. By mid-July, he
| could no longer walk or stand. And last Wednesday, two days after his 34th
| birthday, he died in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a
| Rhode Island hospital, his spine fractured and his body riddled with cancer
| that had gone undiagnosed and untreated for months.
`----
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/13/nyregion/13detain.html?_r=2&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
Paranoid governments kill people, not save them
Recent:
Wider Spying Fuels Aid Plan for Telecom Industry
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| For months, the Bush administration has waged a high-profile campaign,
| including personal lobbying by President Bush and closed-door briefings by
| top officials, to persuade Congress to pass legislation protecting companies
| from lawsuits for aiding the National Security Agency’s warrantless
| eavesdropping program.
`----
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/16/washington/16nsa.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5088&en=e6aa872194ef69e8&ex=1355461200&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Related:
Judge: Man can't be forced to divulge encryption passphrase
,----[ Quote ]
| In this case, Judge Niedermeier took the second approach. He said that
| encryption keys can be "testimonial," and even the prosecution's alternative
| of asking the defendant to type in the passphrase when nobody was looking
| would be insufficient.
`----
http://www.news.com/8301-13578_3-9834495-38.html?tag=nefd.blgs
Animal Rights Activists Forced to Hand Over Encryption Keys
,----[ Quote ]
| If you remember, this was sold to the public as essential for fighting
| terrorism. It's already being misused.
`----
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/11/animal_rights_a.html
Did NSA Put a Secret Backdoor in New Encryption Standard?
,----[ Quote ]
| Which is why you should worry about a new random-number standard that
| includes an algorithm that is slow, badly designed and just might contain a
| backdoor for the National Security Agency.
`----
http://www.wired.com/politics/security/commentary/securitymatters/2007/11/securitymatters_1115
,----[ Quote ]
| "Is this a good idea or not? For the first time, the giant software maker
| is acknowledging the help of the secretive agency, better known for
| eavesdropping on foreign officials and, more recently, U.S. citizens as
| part of the Bush..."
`----
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/01/nsa_helps_micro_1.html
Microsoft could be teaching police to hack Vista
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft may begin training the police in ways to break the
| encryption built into its forthcoming Vista operating system.
`----
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2150555/microsoft-teaching-police-hack
UK holds Microsoft security talks
,----[ Quote ]
| "UK officials are talking to Microsoft over fears the new version of
| Windows could make it harder for police to read suspects' computer files."
`----
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4713018.stm
For Windows Vista Security, Microsoft Called in Pros
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| The NSA also declined to be specific but said it used two groups — a “red
| team” and a “blue team” — to test Vista’s security. The red team, for
| instance, posed as “the determined, technically competent adversary” to
| disrupt, corrupt or steal information. “They pretend to be bad guys,” Sager
| said. The blue team helped Defense Department system administrators with
| Vista’s configuration .
|
| Microsoft said this is not the first time it has sought help from the NSA.
| For about four years, Microsoft has tapped the spy agency for security
| expertise in reviewing its operating systems, including the Windows XP
| consumer version and the Windows Server 2003 for corporate customers.
`----
http://www.manpreet.co.in/tech-stuff/microsoft-vista-developed-with-help-from-us-national-security-agency/
Microsoft patents the mother of all adware systems
,----[ Quote ]
| The adware framework would leave almost no data untouched in its quest to
| sell you stuff. It would inspect "user document files, user e-mail files,
| user music files, downloaded podcasts, computer settings, computer status
| messages (e.g., a low memory status or low printer ink)," and more. How could
| we have been so blind as to not see the marketing value in computer status
| messages?
`----
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070717-microsoft-patents-the-mother-of-all-adware-systems.html
Spy Master Admits Error
,----[ Quote ]
| Intel czar Mike McConnell told Congress a new law helped bring down a terror
| plot. The facts say otherwise.
`----
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20749773/site/newsweek/
FBI ducks questions about its remotely installed spyware
,----[ Quote ]
| There are plenty of unanswered questions about the FBI spyware that, as we
| reported earlier this week, can be delivered over the Internet and implanted
| in a suspect's computer remotely.
`----
http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9747666-7.html
United States Government Online Watchdogs? Part of the war on terror?
,----[ Quote
| Is there anyone in the abandonia community with a US based connection who is
| experiencing this watchdog behavior? Are any foreign Vista users experiencing
| similar attacks from their own countries ministries and governing agencies?"
`----
http://www.whitedust.net/news/3984/United_States_Government_Online_Watchdogs?_Part_of_the_war_on_terror?.../
No email privacy rights under Constitution, US gov claims
,----[ Quote ]
| This appears to be more than a mere argument in support of the
| constitutionality of a Congressional email privacy and access scheme. It
| represents what may be the fundamental governmental position on
| Constitutional email and electronic privacy - that there isn't any. What is
| important in this case is not the ultimate resolution of that narrow issue,
| but the position that the United States government is taking on the entire
| issue of electronic privacy. That position, if accepted, may mean that the
| government can read anybody's email at any time without a warrant.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/04/4th-amendment_email_privacy/
How NSA access was built into Windows
,----[ Quote ]
| A careless mistake by Microsoft programmers has revealed that
| special access codes prepared by the US National Security Agency
| have been secretly built into Windows.
|
| [...]
|
| The first discovery of the new NSA access system was made two years
| ago by British researcher Dr Nicko van Someren. But it was only a
| few weeks ago when a second researcher rediscovered the access
| system. With it, he found the evidence linking it to NSA.
`----
http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/5/5263/1.html
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