Displaying items by tag: FBI

animal farm-pigs

There is a rumor going around (from “sources wishing to remain anonymous”) that claims that US Law Enforcement and the NSA have been asking internet companies for user passwords. The article originally posted by cNet has made the rounds this morning across a few sites; all of them pointing back at the single cNet source. Now on top of everything else that is going on many people are ready to jump on board with this and further denounce the NSA, the FBI, DHS, IRS, and anyone else in the US government with initials. But outside of the claims from a single blogger at cNet are there any other indications that this is a common practice?

Published in Editorials
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Microsoft is taking great exception to the reports of their cooperation with the NSA. It seems they do not feel the reports that they have given encryption keys, created backdoors or unrestricted access to their servers is fair. Instead they are releasing some information in the hopes that they can prove they did not do anything wrong. Sadly, as is always the case, what they leave out of their statements is as important as what is in them and there is some fairly eye opening information in their actual statement.

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Remember the news we brought you about the FBI and other law enforcement agencies wanting more power to dig into your electronic communication? Well we have been forwarded an interesting follow on article today that looks like an opening shot in the campaign to get laws passed to extend these powers. The article was published on cnet and raises concerns about what our government is willing to do to get their way and require ISPs to put in real-time monitoring hardware and systems. These systems could potentially allow for broad harvesting of electronic communication without the need for a warrant (if CISPA and other bills are passed as well).

Published in Editorials
Wednesday, 27 March 2013 16:23

You got a warrant for that?

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When I was a little kid I used to watch the cop and spy shows on TV. They were always full of exciting exploits where the good guys always triumphed over the bad buys without ever impugning on their morals. As I grew older the shows started turning more and more dark. The good guy still won, but they were more in the mold of anti-heroes than the white hats I watched a few years ago. The idea of doing morally questionable things in the name of good became more and more popular. Even in books this theme was growing, two one of my favorite fictional characters were very much unethical (yet in some ways moral), one was a criminal, The Stainless Steel Rat, and the other was Elric of Melnibone’ who helped sack his own kingdom to get his Fiancé (there is more to the stories if you want to read them).  Now TV and movies are full of this type of “hero” we see them in real life, people who break the law in the name of good. One of the biggest examples of this is the collective known as Anonymous.

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Fingerprints have been used as a form of identification for a long time now.  In more modern applications, we have recently seen print scanners come into the mainstream in everything from PCs to USB flash drives to mice and other peripherals.  As amazing and useful as those security devices are, a team at Disney Research in Pittsburgh PA is trying to take the method one step further and identify you not by your fingerprint, but by your touch itself.

Published in News
Joker

Someone is claiming that the one million UDIDs posted by Anonymous actually were taken from them and not the FBI or Apple. The company Blue Toad from Orlando FL says that they checked the pastebin file and it was a 98% match for their database. This is an interesting twist in the events that have seen Apple, the FBI and even AT&T linked to surveillance of Apple phones through the use of the UDID (Unique Device IDentifier). Apple has already stated that the UDID will no longer be supported in the next version of their iOS software that is expected to be released to the world tomorrow.

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The FBI is getting on the biometric bandwagon as they are moving forward with a program to help them catch bad guys. The problem with the program, as always, is that these same systems that are intended to keep us safe can be abused. The new program dubbed The Next Generation Identification program is a $1 Billion “upgrade” to the national finger print database. The new system adds in a few items that could be very helpful in tracking down and catching the “bad guys”. The new data includes pictures, voice prints, iris scans, DNA and potentially more.

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Anon-02

Yesterday the Internet was caught up in the fact that for some reason an FBI Special Agent had 12 Million Apple UDIDs (Unique Device IDentifiers) along with connected personal information on his laptop. At the time the reports appeared to indicate that this was an FBI-Issued laptop and not a personal one. This small detail was overshadowed by many due to how the information was uncovered. A group known as AntiSec, who is part of the larger Anonymous collective, claimed that they found it after hacking into the agent’s laptop using a fairly common tool.

Published in News
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The system of Copyright, Patents and Trademarks has a long history in the US and around the world. Originally the system was developed to protect the individual inventor or artists. It allows them to benefit from their work or inventions for a limited period of time as a form of compensation for bringing a new technology or art to the world. This system worked very well when it was individuals who were seeking the protection. Patent laws at the time also required that the inventor be able to demonstrate their inventions before the patents were granted.

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73With the news that the warrants used to justify the storming of the home of MegaUpload founder Kim Dotcom many are looking for reasons why this is important, unimportant and a few other things in the process. We have heard from news sites that say this is the death blow for the US case and others that claim just the opposite. But what few have mentioned is why the US tried to pull of this in the first place and why they hoped it would not be noticed by the authorities.

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