Items tagged with Encryption
We can’t say that we didn’t see this one coming — an encryption showdown between Apple and the federal government. Apple has been adamant about batting down court orders to decrypt data on iPhones in order to assist criminal investigations, in an effort to generally protect user privacy. In turn, the FBI and other...
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It's easier than ever to protect data online and elsewhere. Encryption is ubiquitous and while it's impossible to insure that your data well-secured from the likes of the government, there's no excuse for not taking important steps to increase your own personal protection as much as possible.
That latter is...
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If you thought that United States intelligence and law enforcement agencies around the country were incredibly adamant about spying on its citizens (going to extreme lengths to do so), you haven’t seen anything yet. Across the pond, the Campaigners Privacy International filed a formal complaint against the UK’s GCHQ...
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The U.S. Government isn’t too happy about efforts by Silicon Valley to enable device encryption, which keeps user data protected and out of the reach of law enforcement agencies. FBI Director James Comey abhors smartphone encryption, and has come out against it on numerous occasions.
“The notion that people have...
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A little over a week ago, officials from the Obama administration met with some of the biggest names in tech, including senior executives from Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter and Yahoo. Administration officials in attendance included Attorney General Loretta Lynch, FBI Director James Comey, National...
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Legislatures in New York have drafted a bill that, if passed, would require Apple and other smartphone makers to provide backdoors to encrypted handsets for law enforcement officials or otherwise eliminate encryption altogether. Failure to do so would result in a $2,500 fine per device, a sum that would quickly add...
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Apple is fighting hard to have shoot down a proposed UK law that would require tech firms to work hand-in-hand with government agencies to break encryption and provide easy access to customer data under court order. “We believe it would be wrong to weaken security for hundreds of millions of law-abiding customers so...
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The debate over smartphone encryption is a contentious on these days in tech circles. On one side, you have companies like Apple and Google which employ full device encryption to secure user data and keep it out of prying eyes — even if those eyes belong to law enforcement. On the other side, you have politicians in...
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The tensions between device makers like Apple and Google against law enforcement shows no signs of slowing down. As you may recall, the U.S. government is hell-bent on forcing Apple to unlock encrypted iPhone that are involved in criminal cases. Apple contends that the encryption that it provides on iPhones via the...
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It looks as though tech firms have gotten a reprieve on forcefully decrypting data at the behest of law enforcement officials; at least for now. FBI Director James Comey, who has been an outspoken voice against tech companies that have implemented system wide encryption for their mobile operating systems, delivered...
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Mere days after it was revealed that crowdfunding website Patreon had been breached, the entire collection of stolen digital goods has been posted online. Making this leak even more severe than typical ones is that not only is user account information included, but so too is some site source code (or potentially all...
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It’s no secret that Obama Administration doesn’t think too highly of smartphone encryption. Officials for the Department of Justice and the FBI have railed against encryption, likening it to obstruction of justice.
“The notion that we would market devices that would allow someone to place themselves beyond the law...
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Since he brought to light the enormous spying efforts of the US government two years ago, Edward Snowden has opened our eyes to a slew of related and (sometimes, not so related) topics. Some are not quite expected, though, such as one he revealed during a chat with Neil deGrasse Tyson on his StarTalk podcast...
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Whether you use Snapchat to send goofy faces to friends and family, or fling more sultry looking photos to a lover, you probably don't want those snapshots falling into the wrong hands. Unfortunately for users in the United Kingdom, new legislation could force messaging applications to be less secure so the government...
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"Xara" might sound like a cool name for an exploit, but according to researchers at three different US universities, it's one that should cause some alarm. At its root, if Xara is properly exploited, attackers would be able to procure passwords stored in OS X's Keychain, which could be used for most or all of...
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Microsoft this week announced that web searches made using the company's Bing search engine will soon be encrypted by default. In actuality, users have been able to encrypt searches made via Bing for around a year and a half now, though sometime before summer comes to an end, it will be a standard option for all users. The move will level
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At this point, the resetting of a mobile phone to a from-the-factory state is something we have all done, perhaps simply to get a fresh start with a device that has become sluggish and over-burdened with years of downloaded flotsam. But more likely, we do it for the purpose of selling the phone or passing it along to...
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Where’s Jackie Treehorn when you need him? There’s a new browser exploit that’s making the rounds across the internet, and it’s capable of some pretty nasty stuff. Closely related to the FREAK exploit that we detailed a few months back, Logjam works its magic by using a main-in-the middle attack on the Diffie-Hellman...
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Apple and Google are part of a coalition consisting of more than 140 tech firms, cryptologists, and civil society groups who have come together to urge President Barack Obama to shut down any government proposals that would require smartphones and other communications to have so-called backdoors for law enforcement to...
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Thanks to the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, we know that the United States government has in place a sophisticated and all-encompassing spying program, and as time goes on, additional details leak out that underscore how little privacy we truly have. Whether it's intercepting Skype communications or tampering...
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U.S. President Barack Obama is getting a little hot under the collar, and we’re not talking about the speech that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave this morning. Instead, President Obama is troubled over new regulations that are being proposed by the Chinese government, which would affect American tech...
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Encryption has been a feature of Android since 2011, though it's never been turned on by default. That was supposed to change with Android 5.0 Lollipop, as Google said in no uncertain terms back in September 2014 that users wouldn't have to give the feature a second thought. Unfortunately, it appears as though Google has backed down from its
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