ForgotPassword?
Sign Up
Search this Topic:
Posts: 27156
Mar 2 16 10:16 PM
The number of nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize has surged to a new record for 2016, with contenders ranging from peace negotiators in Colombia to US presidential candidate Donald Trump. "It came as a pleasant surprise," Olav Njoelstad, director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, told Reuters of the leap in the number of nominees to 376 from a previous high of 278 in 2014. Thousands of people, from members of every parliament worldwide to all former winners, are eligible to make nominations. Nomination does not imply Nobel endorsement. Norwegian Nobel experts who track publicly announced nominations reckon those with a chance include former US spy agency contractor Edward Snowden and Colombia's government and FARC rebel group - if they succeed in peace talks to end five decades of war.
The number of nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize has surged to a new record for 2016, with contenders ranging from peace negotiators in Colombia to US presidential candidate Donald Trump.
"It came as a pleasant surprise," Olav Njoelstad, director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, told Reuters of the leap in the number of nominees to 376 from a previous high of 278 in 2014.
Thousands of people, from members of every parliament worldwide to all former winners, are eligible to make nominations. Nomination does not imply Nobel endorsement.
Norwegian Nobel experts who track publicly announced nominations reckon those with a chance include former US spy agency contractor Edward Snowden and Colombia's government and FARC rebel group - if they succeed in peace talks to end five decades of war.
Read more @ http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2016/03/02/nobel-peace-prize-shatters-nominees-record
Only China and Russia violate their citizens' privacy as much the Snoopers' Charter allows
The Investigatory Powers Bill is a dangerous affront on Parliament. It's unnecessary and it will make ordinary citizens less safe As the old saying goes, in heaven the food is Italian, the beer is German and the police are British. The rule of law in this country is upheld on the principle that the police are not our masters but our servants. We don’t have military police and you rarely see armed officers on our streets. Maybe crime would be lower if we had tougher law enforcement, but that’s besides the point - it’s just not how we do things here. Yet Theresa May, the Home Secretary, wants to give police powers that even that most autocratic and unfree countries do not have. She is turning local bobbies into snoopers, inspectors into hackers, and in doing so she is eroding what little privacy we have from the prying eyes of an increasingly powerful government.
The Investigatory Powers Bill is a dangerous affront on Parliament. It's unnecessary and it will make ordinary citizens less safe
As the old saying goes, in heaven the food is Italian, the beer is German and the police are British. The rule of law in this country is upheld on the principle that the police are not our masters but our servants. We don’t have military police and you rarely see armed officers on our streets. Maybe crime would be lower if we had tougher law enforcement, but that’s besides the point - it’s just not how we do things here.
Yet Theresa May, the Home Secretary, wants to give police powers that even that most autocratic and unfree countries do not have. She is turning local bobbies into snoopers, inspectors into hackers, and in doing so she is eroding what little privacy we have from the prying eyes of an increasingly powerful government.
Read more @ http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/only-china-and-russia-violate-their-citizens-privacy-as-much-the-snoopers-charter-a6907136.html
Microsoft president defends need to keep governments from weakening technologies Opening speakers at the world’s largest technology security event have strongly defended the need to keep national governments from weakening technologies and laws that they argue are critical to safeguarding privacy and security. “Some proposals, such as weakening encryption, are so misguided as to boggle the mind. How can you possibly justify a policy that would catastrophically weaken our defence infrastructures?” asked opening speaker Amit Yoran, president of security company RSA, hosting the annual RSA Security Conference in San Francisco. Encryption — the encoding of data to make it unreadable by anyone except intended recipients — is widely used in internet and communications technologies. Its use increased after whistleblower Edward Snowden disclosed the extent of surreptitious government spying on internet and communications data traffic.
Opening speakers at the world’s largest technology security event have strongly defended the need to keep national governments from weakening technologies and laws that they argue are critical to safeguarding privacy and security.
“Some proposals, such as weakening encryption, are so misguided as to boggle the mind. How can you possibly justify a policy that would catastrophically weaken our defence infrastructures?” asked opening speaker Amit Yoran, president of security company RSA, hosting the annual RSA Security Conference in San Francisco.
Encryption — the encoding of data to make it unreadable by anyone except intended recipients — is widely used in internet and communications technologies. Its use increased after whistleblower Edward Snowden disclosed the extent of surreptitious government spying on internet and communications data traffic.
Read more @ http://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/there-is-no-technology-more-important-than-encryption-1.2556561
Home Secretary Theresa May insists that the new Investigatory Powers Bill allowing cops to hack phones and computers has enabled fresh protections for the public HOOVERING up vast amounts of data around the world has saved dozens of lives from bombers, spy bosses revealed for the first time. GCHQ, MI5 and MI6 made public previously top secret details yesterday to show why so-called “bulk data” collection is vital. Spy chiefs answered a direct request from MPs to make an “operational case” for the technique as a landmark new law to boost eavesdropping powers was introduced to Parliament.
HOOVERING up vast amounts of data around the world has saved dozens of lives from bombers, spy bosses revealed for the first time.
GCHQ, MI5 and MI6 made public previously top secret details yesterday to show why so-called “bulk data” collection is vital.
Spy chiefs answered a direct request from MPs to make an “operational case” for the technique as a landmark new law to boost eavesdropping powers was introduced to Parliament.
Read more @ http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/politics/6970215/Spy-hackers-foiled-seven-UK-attack-plots.html
The Investigatory Powers Bill is officially on the road now. The British government has presented the final draft of legislation that critics call a “snooper’s charter”—it would create records of all the websites that people visit, legitimize the hacking of people’s computing devices, force organizations to hand over bulk data sets about the people they serve, and compel tech firms to remove encryption when asked to do so. Some of the changes since the first draft of the Investigatory Powers Bill include attempts to satisfy calls for better safeguards. Urgent surveillance warrants will now need to be reviewed by a senior judge more quickly than before. There is also now a requirement for the home secretary to authorize any request from British intelligence agencies to their overseas partners to spy on British people.
The Investigatory Powers Bill is officially on the road now.
The British government has presented the final draft of legislation that critics call a “snooper’s charter”—it would create records of all the websites that people visit, legitimize the hacking of people’s computing devices, force organizations to hand over bulk data sets about the people they serve, and compel tech firms to remove encryption when asked to do so.
Some of the changes since the first draft of the Investigatory Powers Bill include attempts to satisfy calls for better safeguards. Urgent surveillance warrants will now need to be reviewed by a senior judge more quickly than before. There is also now a requirement for the home secretary to authorize any request from British intelligence agencies to their overseas partners to spy on British people.
Read more @ http://fortune.com/2016/03/01/uk-investigatory-powers/
Just using scare tactics….
RSA Conference keynote reveals concerns over critical U.S. infrastructure, data integrity Michael Rogers, director of the National Security Agency, Tuesday told a packed RSA keynote audience that over the next three years his main concerns are cyber attacks on critical U.S. infrastructure, destruction of data integrity, and disruption of the status quo. Rogers appeared on the second day of the annual RSA Conference in San Francisco and struck a tone of partnership with the private sector, with an emphasis on Silicon Valley. The presentation was predictable and light on details until Rogers began his concluding remarks. He said there are three main issues that concern him over the next three years, the first one being "when, not if, [we] are going to see a nation state or actor take destructive action against critical U.S infrastructure."
RSA Conference keynote reveals concerns over critical U.S. infrastructure, data integrity
Michael Rogers, director of the National Security Agency, Tuesday told a packed RSA keynote audience that over the next three years his main concerns are cyber attacks on critical U.S. infrastructure, destruction of data integrity, and disruption of the status quo.
Rogers appeared on the second day of the annual RSA Conference in San Francisco and struck a tone of partnership with the private sector, with an emphasis on Silicon Valley. The presentation was predictable and light on details until Rogers began his concluding remarks.
He said there are three main issues that concern him over the next three years, the first one being "when, not if, [we] are going to see a nation state or actor take destructive action against critical U.S infrastructure."
Read more @ http://www.zdnet.com/article/attacks-disruption-destruction-top-concerns-for-nsa-chief/
Huh!?! That is a turnabout! What they do for the countries safety while passing around pictures of nude women they collect off peoples private conversations via phone or email…..? hmmmm
The secret cellphone metadata collection program Stellarwind became household knowledge in 2009, after files obtained by CIA whistleblower Edward Snowden were published in the Guardian newspaper. The man at the helm of the Central Intelligence Agency at the time is Michael Hayden, author of the new book, “Playing to the Edge.” Hayden has the distinction to be the only person to have led both the CIA and the NSA, and uses the book to give Americans a chance to look at the inner workings of both agencies, and what the intelligence community does for the country’s safety.
The secret cellphone metadata collection program Stellarwind became household knowledge in 2009, after files obtained by CIA whistleblower Edward Snowden were published in the Guardian newspaper.
The man at the helm of the Central Intelligence Agency at the time is Michael Hayden, author of the new book, “Playing to the Edge.” Hayden has the distinction to be the only person to have led both the CIA and the NSA, and uses the book to give Americans a chance to look at the inner workings of both agencies, and what the intelligence community does for the country’s safety.
Read more @ http://www.scpr.org/programs/airtalk/2016/03/01/46808/ex-cia--nsa-head-michael-hayden-on-the-tug-of-war/
SAN FRANCISCO — In 1970, a Stanford artificial intelligence researcher named John McCarthy returned from a conference in Bordeaux, France, where he had presented a paper on the possibility of a “Home Information Terminal.” He predicted the terminal would be connected via the telephone network to a shared computer, which in turn would store files that would contain all books, magazines, newspapers, catalogs, airline schedules, public information and personal files. Whitfield Diffie, then a young programmer at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, read Mr. McCarthy’s paper and began to think about the question of what would take the place of an individual signature in a paperless world. Mr. Diffie would spend the next several years pursuing that challenge and in 1976, with Martin E. Hellman, an electrical engineer at Stanford, invented “public-key cryptography,” a technique that would two decades later make possible the commercial World Wide Web.
SAN FRANCISCO — In 1970, a Stanford artificial intelligence researcher named John McCarthy returned from a conference in Bordeaux, France, where he had presented a paper on the possibility of a “Home Information Terminal.”
He predicted the terminal would be connected via the telephone network to a shared computer, which in turn would store files that would contain all books, magazines, newspapers, catalogs, airline schedules, public information and personal files.
Whitfield Diffie, then a young programmer at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, read Mr. McCarthy’s paper and began to think about the question of what would take the place of an individual signature in a paperless world. Mr. Diffie would spend the next several years pursuing that challenge and in 1976, with Martin E. Hellman, an electrical engineer at Stanford, invented “public-key cryptography,” a technique that would two decades later make possible the commercial World Wide Web.
Read more @ http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/02/technology/cryptography-pioneers-to-win-turing-award.html
In a filing Thursday, US tech giant Apple laid out its case against a court order to bypass the security features of a phone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters. The company claims that its First Amendment rights are being violated and accuses the government of attempting to “conscript” the company into spying on the population, a move it called “unprecedented.” While government officials have claimed that the court order is narrowly focused only on Syed Farook’s phone, in reality the case has been seized upon by the federal government to renew its offensive against encryption technology, which it views as an intolerable restraint on its spying powers. Even the San Bernardino police chief has admitted to the press that Farook’s iPhone, a work phone issued to him by the county, probably contains “nothing of any value.” “This is not a case about one isolated iPhone.” the court document filed by Apple reads. “Rather, this case is about the Department of Justice and the FBI seeking through the courts a dangerous power that Congress and the American people have withheld: the ability to force companies like Apple to undermine the basic security and privacy interests of hundreds of millions of individuals around the globe.”
In a filing Thursday, US tech giant Apple laid out its case against a court order to bypass the security features of a phone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters. The company claims that its First Amendment rights are being violated and accuses the government of attempting to “conscript” the company into spying on the population, a move it called “unprecedented.”
While government officials have claimed that the court order is narrowly focused only on Syed Farook’s phone, in reality the case has been seized upon by the federal government to renew its offensive against encryption technology, which it views as an intolerable restraint on its spying powers. Even the San Bernardino police chief has admitted to the press that Farook’s iPhone, a work phone issued to him by the county, probably contains “nothing of any value.”
“This is not a case about one isolated iPhone.” the court document filed by Apple reads. “Rather, this case is about the Department of Justice and the FBI seeking through the courts a dangerous power that Congress and the American people have withheld: the ability to force companies like Apple to undermine the basic security and privacy interests of hundreds of millions of individuals around the globe.”
Read more @ https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/02/27/appl-f27.html
In many ways, the current battle between Apple and the F.B.I. really began in June 2013, when the former defense contractor Edward J. Snowden revealed the scale of government spying on domestic Internet traffic. Usually, tech companies faced with often-secret court orders cooperated with this snooping. But the industry has since come to believe, thanks to the Snowden documents, that despite their cooperation, national security agents were also hacking into their networks. Given that history, it should surprise no one that Apple is digging in its heels on a court order requiring it to create software that would help law enforcement gain access to a password-protected iPhone that belonged to one of the gunmen in the December mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif. But Apple engineers, as The New York Times reported Wednesday, are working on technology that would make even that impossible. If Apple should succeed, it will present an even tougher barrier to government snoops. And law enforcement, in turn, would have to find a way around that.
In many ways, the current battle between Apple and the F.B.I. really began in June 2013, when the former defense contractor Edward J. Snowden revealed the scale of government spying on domestic Internet traffic.
Usually, tech companies faced with often-secret court orders cooperated with this snooping. But the industry has since come to believe, thanks to the Snowden documents, that despite their cooperation, national security agents were also hacking into their networks.
Given that history, it should surprise no one that Apple is digging in its heels on a court order requiring it to create software that would help law enforcement gain access to a password-protected iPhone that belonged to one of the gunmen in the December mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif.
But Apple engineers, as The New York Times reported Wednesday, are working on technology that would make even that impossible. If Apple should succeed, it will present an even tougher barrier to government snoops. And law enforcement, in turn, would have to find a way around that.
Read more @ http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/26/technology/when-the-apple-and-fbi-fight-really-began.html
The U.S. government just released the May 2002 letter that justified intercepting phone and email records—and eventually NSA surveillance. Nearly 14 years after it was written, the public can finally read the 22-page letter to a federal judge that justified intercepting phone and email records of millions of Americans—the extent of which eventually prompted Edward Snowden to leak details about the National Security Agency (NSA) data collection program. The document, written by a deputy in the Department of Justice, is a circuitous journey of logical leaps that seems to argue for exempting the president from following certain laws, exempting the military from the Fourth Amendment prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures, and for implying that terrorists operating in the U.S. are a foreign occupying army. It even compares electronic spying to drunk driver sobriety checks. The 9/11 attacks are mentioned throughout as justification. Whether you're for or against antiterrorism surveillance in the U.S., the letter by former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John C. Yoo is a challenging read. It starts out seeming to explain why the president can't do mass surveillance without a warrant. The NSA doesn't conduct surveillance in the U.S. or involving U.S. citizens, he says; and the FBI, which does operate in the States, is required to get a warrant under a 1978 law called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
The U.S. government just released the May 2002 letter that justified intercepting phone and email records—and eventually NSA surveillance.
Nearly 14 years after it was written, the public can finally read the 22-page letter to a federal judge that justified intercepting phone and email records of millions of Americans—the extent of which eventually prompted Edward Snowden to leak details about the National Security Agency (NSA) data collection program.
The document, written by a deputy in the Department of Justice, is a circuitous journey of logical leaps that seems to argue for exempting the president from following certain laws, exempting the military from the Fourth Amendment prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures, and for implying that terrorists operating in the U.S. are a foreign occupying army. It even compares electronic spying to drunk driver sobriety checks. The 9/11 attacks are mentioned throughout as justification.
Whether you're for or against antiterrorism surveillance in the U.S., the letter by former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John C. Yoo is a challenging read. It starts out seeming to explain why the president can't do mass surveillance without a warrant. The NSA doesn't conduct surveillance in the U.S. or involving U.S. citizens, he says; and the FBI, which does operate in the States, is required to get a warrant under a 1978 law called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
Read more @ http://www.fastcompany.com/3057298/revealed-how-the-bush-administration-argued-legal-loopholes-for-nsa-snooping
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~
Interact