-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
Happy New Year! Looking Back...Looking Ahead
,----[ Quote ]
| 2009 was a year of intense renovation. Many
| of the projects we began in 2009 will
| launch in the first half of 2010. Our goal
| with these projects is to make the Second
| Life user experience more intuitive, more
| accessible, more reliable and more
| connected to the social web. We must reduce
| dramatically the âTime to Delightâ (i.e.,
| the time it takes to get to that wonderful
| âAH HA!!â moment in Second Life) from
| several hours to several minutes. This will
| benefit both user acquisition and
| retention. Weâve also been working on
| improving the support we give to the
| ecosystem of content creators, merchants,
| landowners and solution providers since
| they/you are the lifeblood of Second Life.
| Finally, weâve been working on platform
| projects to improve stability, reliability
| and quality of the Second Life experience
| which is top-of-mind for all Residents.
`----
https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/features/blog/2010/01/03/happy-new-year-looking-backlooking-ahead
Protecting âCloudâ Secrets with Grendel
,----[ Quote ]
| The idea of Grendel is to provide an
| internal (behind-the-firewall) REST-based
| web service to keep a userâs data encrypted
| and ensure its integrity when the user
| isnât using it. Grendel uses OpenPGP to
| store data, with the userâs password
| encrypting an OpenPGP keyset. That model
| makes it easy for a web site to store data
| safely and only decrypt it when the user is
| logged into the site. Since only the user
| has their password, once they log out,
| their data is safe, even if the web siteâs
| database is compromised or stolen. Of
| course this isnât an infallible protection
| â there is no such thing â and in
| particular it doesnât protect against web
| site developers acting in bad faith. It
| does, though, protect against an attacker
| getting access to all the secrets stored by
| users in one step.
`----
http://blog.wesabe.com/2010/01/04/protecting-cloud-secrets-with-grendel/
Recent:
Feds to give cops Internet-snooping powers
,----[ Quote ]
| Police and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service already have the power
| to wiretap private communications, provided they have judicial authorization,
| but the law does not require ISPs to grant them access.
|
| Tom Copeland, chairman of the Canadian Association of Internet Providers,
| said it will be a hardship for some of the country's smaller providers to
| upgrade their systems to facilitate interception.
`----
http://www.calgaryherald.com/Technology/Feds+give+cops+Internet+snooping+powers/1706191/story.html
E-Mail Surveillance Renews Concerns in Congress
,----[ Quote ]
| The National Security Agency is facing renewed scrutiny over the extent of
| its domestic surveillance program, with critics in Congress saying its recent
| intercepts of the private telephone calls and e-mail messages of Americans
| are broader than previously acknowledged, current and former officials said.
`----
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/us/17nsa.html?_r=2
EFF brief accuses DOJ of "backdoor wiretapping"
,----[ Quote ]
| In a new brief, the EFF alleges that in order to get around
| wiretapping's "probable cause" requirements, the DOJ ordered a suspect's ISP
| to start accumulating his emails so that they could later come in and use the
| Stored Communications Act to subpoena the archive.
`----
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/06/eff-brief-accuses-doj-of-backdoor-wiretapping.ars
Campaigners monitored by civil servants
,----[ Quote ]
| Government officials have been monitoring environmental campaign groups and
| then passing intelligence on to the police, according to documents seen by
| the Guardian.
|
| An internal risk report from the Department for Transport reveals that a unit
| referred to as the comms directorate Â"continuously monitor[ed]" peaceful
| protest groups opposed to the expansion of Heathrow airport and then briefed
| detectives about their findings.
`----
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/may/01/liberty-climate-protesters-campaigners
Police want new remote hard drive search powers
,----[ Quote ]
| At present, the proposed legislative changes don't appear to be related to EU
| moves to step up hacking of PCs in homes and offices by police.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/29/remote_hard_drive_forensics/
FBI used spyware to catch cable-cutting extortionist
,----[ Quote ]
| CIPAV spyware helped nab unemployed engineer angry over outsourcing
`----
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9131778&source=NLT_AM
Congress Ponders Cybersecurity Power Grab
,----[ Quote ]
| There was a lot of attention paid last week to a new "cybersecurity" bill
| that would drastically expand the government's power over the Internet. The
| two provisions that have probably attracted the most attention are the parts
| that would allow the president to "declare a cybersecurity emergency" and
| then seize control of "any compromised Federal government or United States
| critical infrastructure information system or network." Perhaps even more
| troubling, the EFF notes a section that states that the government "shall
| have access to all relevant data concerning (critical infrastructure)
| networks without regard to any provision of law, regulation, rule, or policy
| restricting such access."
`----
http://techdirt.com/articles/20090403/1346154383.shtml
Related:
Cryptome: NSA has access to Windows Mobile smartphones
,----[ Quote ]
| First time in history Cryptome.org has released information about the
| characteristics of NSAâs network surveillance.
`----
http://blogs.securiteam.com/index.php/archives/1028
Dual_EC_DRBG Added to Windows Vista
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft has added the random-number generator Dual_EC-DRBG to Windows
| Vista, as part of SP1. Yes, this is the same RNG that could have an NSA
| backdoor.
|
| It's not enabled by default, and my advice is to never enable it. Ever.
`----
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/12/dual_ec_drbg_ad.html
Microsoft Cofee brews 'back door' fears
,----[ Quote ]
| The assurances came after reports claiming that Cofee could provide a 'back
| door' into Microsoft operating systems and applications.
`----
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/75780,microsoft-cofee-brews-back-door-fears.aspx
Bots rule in cyberspace
,----[ Quote ]
| USA TODAY REPORTS that on an average day, 40 per cent of the 800 million
| computers connected to the Internet are bots used to send out spam, viruses
| and to mine for sensitive personal data.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/03/17/bots-rule-cyberspace
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux)
iEYEARECAAYFAktHecoACgkQU4xAY3RXLo7tkACfXLMBZBjRma4sinhbvq2UXF3d
QPAAniGcqFPw8YwKvUvfPvMd74U8X2ts
=LhPx
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
|
|
