The Threat of Government

The longer a government views people in general and its citizens in particular as a threat, the more people will come to understand that government is a threat to them.  From ZDNET:

While Microsoft's recent move to encrypt user data made the most headlines, the reasoning underlying its new data protection strategies classify the US government in the same category as a cyber-criminal group.

Brad Smith, Microsoft's EVP of Legal and Corporate Affairs, labeled the American government as an "advanced persistent threat" in a December 4 post on The Official Microsoft Blog.

The term advanced persistent threat (APT) refers to an attacker, usually an organized group of malicious attackers, that should be considered harmful and dangerous — and an overall method of attack that plays a "long game."

Two Major Internet Data Breaches

Someone's been rerouting traffic from the internet information fire hose.  From Wired:

In 2008, two security researchers at the DefCon hacker conference demonstrated a massive security vulnerability in the worldwide internet traffic-routing system — a vulnerability so severe that it could allow intelligence agencies, corporate spies or criminals to intercept massive amounts of data, or even tamper with it on the fly.

The traffic hijack, they showed, could be done in such a way that no one would notice because the attackers could simply re-route the traffic to a router they controlled, then forward it to its intended destination once they were done with it, leaving no one the wiser about what had occurred.

Now, five years later, this is exactly what has occurred. Earlier this year, researchers say, someone mysteriously hijacked internet traffic headed to government agencies, corporate offices and other recipients in the U.S. and elsewhere and redirected it to Belarus and Iceland, before sending it on its way to its legitimate destinations. They did so repeatedly over several months. But luckily someone did notice.

What the surveillance state security hysterics fail to understand is that any breach of informational security in the name of security makes everyone less secure on the internet. In related news, 2 million passwords have been compromised from some of the biggest names in the tech industry:

Hackers have stolen usernames and passwords for nearly two million accounts at Facebook, Google, Twitter, Yahoo and others, according to a report released this week.

The massive data breach was a result of keylogging software maliciously installed on an untold number of computers around the world, researchers at cybersecurity firm Trustwave said. The virus was capturing log-in credentials for key websites over the past month and sending those usernames and passwords to a server controlled by the hackers.

FCC Chair Open to Class-Based Internet Access

From Public Knowledge:

Yesterday, new FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler delivered his first formal public address.  After a prepared speech that explained his regulatory approach, he moved to a Q&A session.  In that session, he appeared to endorse the opposite of net neutrality: allowing ISPs to charge websites and services in order to reach that ISP’s subscribers.   In other words, giving ISPs the power to pick winners and losers online.

French Government Seeks Powers for Live Dragnet Internet Surveillance

From CIO:

A wide variety of government officials could gain access to live data concerning users of ISPs and online services including content-hosting sites, without the approval of a judge, under a draft law approved by members of the French National Assembly on Friday.

The measure, a rider on the 2014-2019 defense appropriation bill, would require ISPs and content hosting companies to provide government officials with access to details of their users' activity without judicial oversight. Law enforcement officials can already ask a judge for an order to access such data.
If the bill becomes law, it will no longer be necessary to go via the courts to obtain such access, and the number of government officials who could access the data would be much broader, potentially including those responsible for collecting taxes.

Tech Firms Work to Counter Appearance of Impropriety in Dragnet Surveillance

From USA Today:

Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Twitter are engaged in a costly tech arms race, with their businesses and cultures at stake. Not against one another, mind you, but a common foe: the National Security Agency.

The tech juggernauts are investing in security technology, lobbying efforts and good old-fashioned PR to thwart U.S. government snooping of their data systems, often without their cooperation or knowledge.

For months, the narrative has focused on data breaches and spying as tech's biggest players quietly stewed over a sense of government betrayal, while assessing threats to their brands because of consumer outrage over invasion of their privacy.

Thefts Rise with Price of Bitcoin

How secure are your bitcoins?  From Information Week:

That rise in value has driven hackers to attack online wallet services that store bitcoins. "Each of these companies had been operating officially for only a few months, yet already had entrusted to them millions of dollars that are now in the hands of cybercrooks," Paul Ducklin, head of technology for Sophos in the Asia Pacific region, said Tuesday in a blog post.

Malware writers have also taken a keen interest in bitcoins, with some -- especially Russian gangs -- modifying their crimeware tools to identify and steal any bitcoins found on infected PCs. "There are numerous malware families today that either perform Bitcoin mining or directly steal the contents of victims' Bitcoin wallets, or both," according to a blog post from Robert Lipovsky, a researcher at security firm ESET.

The World's Most Honest Apple Picker

From the UK Metro:

A pickpocket surprised his victim when he posted him a handwritten note of the 1,000 contacts on his stolen iPhone.  Zou Bin received the 11-page letter after sending a series of threatening texts demanding his Apple handset to be returned.

He was allegedly robbed after sharing a taxi with a man in the central province of Hunan in China, the Xinhua state news agency reported. ‘I know you are the man who sat beside me. I can assure you that I will find you,’ he wrote in the text message. ‘Look through the contact numbers in my mobile and you will know what trade I am in.  ‘Send me back the phone to the address below if you are sensible.’  Zou said he was ‘astonished’ when he received a package containing the note days later, although the thief did not return the stolen iPhone.