Tech Firms Publish Redacted Info on Government Spying

From Ars Technica:

Today, several companies including Google, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Microsoft are revealing the first information about the amount of user data they're handing over to FISA requests. The disclosures are very broad data that just gives a range of how many users had information requested on them. But it's a small victory for the group of companies, which pushed to be allowed to publish more about the data collection when they petitioned the intelligence court back in August.

New Device Promises Electronic Nano-management of All Employee Activities

And here we thought micro-management was bad enough already.  From CNN:

Hitachi, the big electronics company based in Japan, is manufacturing and selling to corporations a device intended to increase efficiency in the workplace. It has a rather bland and generic-sounding name: the Hitachi Business Microscope.

But what it is capable of doing ... well, just imagine being followed around the office or the factory all day by the snoopiest boss in the world. Even into the restroom . . . It tracks everything.

What is Project Meshnet? A Short Introductory Guide to Setting up a Cjdns Node

Project Meshnet aims to build a global decentralized computer network based "on secure protocols for routing traffic over private mesh or public internetworks independent of a central supporting infrastructure."  The basis of the project is a piece of software called cjdns, an open source protocol that implements an encrypted IPv6 network.  By installing and running cjdns on a home computer, for example, that computer becomes a cjdns node that can be networked with any other machine that is also running the protocol.  You can find the cjdns white paper here.


Individuals and groups involved in Project Meshnet are currently in the process of developing Mesh Locals, groups of cjdns nodes connected directly to one another (usually wirelessly) to create a geographically distinct peer-to-peer network.  The Seattle Meshnet is, at present, the most well-developed of these local networks in the United States.

Individual nodes and Mesh Locals can connect to one another over standard internet connections, though the ultimate plan of Project Meshnet is to build enough intermediary mesh locals and nodes so that it is no longer necessary to route traffic over existing ISP-based internet infrastructure.  There is already at least one cjdns-based global mesh network known as Hyperboria.

Earlier this month, after a bit of research and with the help of some folks from my Mesh Local in NYC, I set up my first cjdns node and successfully connected to Hyperboria.  So, you may be wondering, what's on Hyperboria?  Good question.  The best way to answer this question for yourself is to set up your own cjdns node, and connect up with your nearest Mesh Local! 

Step 1: Install cjdns by following the Getting Started guide at Project Meshnet.  

Step 2: Make sure your node is configured correctly, which can be determined from the Trouble Shooting guide. 

Step 3: Locate your nearest Mesh Local, find a peer, and connect your node up with the network. 

Currently, cjdns can be installed on Linux and Mac operating systems.  I initially attempted to install on a Macbook, but ran into some configuration difficulties, and, it turns out, there is currently less functionality in the Mac implementation than in the standard Linux install.  So I decided instead to create a couple Linux virtual machines on the Macbook and a desktop pc and installed cjdns on them.

After installing cjdns on those two hosts, I followed the trouble shooting guide to make sure that each host could ping itself.  Then I updated their config files to create a peer-to-peer connection between those two hosts, and (eventually) got them to successfully ping one another over cjdns.  I had set up my own home cjdns mesh network!

Finally, someone from my Mesh Local offered to peer with my node, and after I updated the config files with the peer info I was connected to Hyperboria.  The whole process took about three days, from my first serious look into cjdns to my first connection to Hyperboria.  Folks hanging out in my mesh local's IRC were a great help along the way.  Unfortunately, since then, I have not had much time to play around with the meshnet technology, but I will certainly be returning to the project in the near future.   

Yahoo Mail Hacked

Uh oh!  From the CBC:

Usernames and passwords of some of Yahoo's email customers ha
ve been stolen and used to gather personal information about people those Yahoo mail users have recently corresponded with, the company said Thursday.

Yahoo didn't say how many accounts have been affected. Yahoo is the second-largest email service worldwide, after Google's Gmail, according to the research firm comScore. There are 273 million Yahoo mail accounts worldwide, including 81 million in the United States.

All the people who apparently do not care about widespread dragnet surveillance and backdoors installed in software and hardware at the behest of government spy agencies, apparently do not realize that these same "tools" can and will be used by anyone at all. 

FinCEN Issues Two Rulings on "Virtual Currency"

A press release from the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network:

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) today published two administrative rulings, providing additional information on whether a person’s conduct related to convertible virtual currency brings them within the Bank Secrecy Act’s (BSA) definition of a money transmitter. The first ruling states that, to the extent a user creates or “mines” a convertible virtual currency solely for a user’s own purposes, the user is not a money transmitter under the BSA. The second states that a company purchasing and selling convertible virtual currency as an investment exclusively for the company’s benefit is not a money transmitter. The rulings further interpret FinCEN’s March 18, 2013 Guidance to address these business models.

The two rulings will certainly help clear things up for miners and Bitcoin startups. 

Clueless Judge Thinks Government Can Be Trusted

Here's a funny little tidbit from the ongoing court case surrounding the former Lavabit secure email service. An appeals court judge believes that the government can be trusted not to abuse its powers.  From Ars Technica:

In the summer of 2013, Lavabit was ordered to provide real-time e-mail monitoring of one of its users, widely believed to be Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor-turned-leaker. When Lavabit told the feds that the only way it could hand over communications was through an internal process that would deliver results 60 days after any communication was sent, the authorities returned with a search warrant for Lavabit's SSL keys, which could decrypt the traffic of all of Lavabit's users. Ladar Levison, the CEO of Lavabit, handed over the SSL keys but then shut down his 10-year-old business rather than expose all of Lavabit's users.

The first report of the appeals argument from PC World suggests that while Levison may be a hero with privacy advocates, he's going to have a tougher time convincing the judges on the appeals court. The case was “blown out of proportion with all these contentions” of what the FBI would do with the SSL keys, said US Circuit Judge Paul Niemeyer. "There’s such a willingness to believe” that the keys will be misused and that "the government will spy on everyone,” he said.

Regulatory Hearings on Bitcoin Begin in NYC

From the NYT:

A hearing on the regulatory future of Bitcoin on Tuesday turned into a forum on the shortcomings of the traditional banking industry.  The hearing, called by New York State’s top financial regulator, Benjamin M. Lawsky, gave five Bitcoin advocates the chance to enumerate what they view as the advantages Bitcoin could provide over current systems of moving money around the world. 

“Solutions don’t really come from the current industry,” said Cameron Winklevoss, who, with his twin brother, Tyler, has invested in Bitcoin companies. They were early players in Facebook.  Even Mr. Lawsky got in some digs when he complained that it takes three days for his bank to transfer money to pay a credit card bill at the same bank.

When Mr. Lawsky asked about efforts by banks to create their own Bitcoin alternatives, Fred Wilson, a leading venture capitalist at Union Square Ventures, said “no one is going to build on top of JPMorgan Chase’s Bitcoin.”