Items tagged with Government
For the last eight years, internet service providers (ISPs) in the US have enjoyed a very liberal definition of "broadband." The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is poised to rain on their parade. The commission may update the definition of what constitutes broadband, raising the minimum speed requirement by a...
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Opinions on the internet can be misleading. You may have heard a near-universal cheer for the forthcoming federal ban of video-sharing app TikTok. Well, put away the champagne and poppers. The so-called "ban TikTok bill" is a lot more insidious than one may realize.
TikTok is an insanely-popular video sharing site...
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TikTok from Chinese megafirm ByteDance has turned short-form video into a social media phenomenon, making Twitter look pretty dumb for canning Vine a few years back. The skyrocketing popularity of TikTok has some security experts and political leaders concerned. As a Chinese company, the Chinese government has access...
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Rep. Mike Gallagher has proposed an amendment that would give immunity to anyone who comes forward with information concerning unidentified aerial phenomenon (UAP). The amendment is aimed at increasing the number of reports by providing whistleblower-like protections for those doing so.
Over the years, many have...
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We recently wrote about TikTok’s extensive user data collection and an FCC commissioner's letter asking Apple and Google to ban the app from their app stores for violating their privacy policies. While TikTok goes to great lengths to collect user data, there is some small solace in the fact that users can avoid the...
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We’ve recently covered a number of sophisticated phishing scam techniques, including fake animated windows designed to steal passwords and automated call bots that trick victims into giving away multi-factor authentication codes. While ransomware attacks are currently on track to surpass phishing attacks as the number...
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Earlier this week, we covered leaked details regarding a government contractor that demonstrated its ability to track billions of phones all over the world by spying on CIA and NSA agents’ activity. Government contractors are able to provide surveillance services by purchasing user data from third parties. However, US...
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There are a number of underground online marketplaces where stolen user data is illegally bought and sold by cybercriminals. Government authorities recently seized and shutdown RaidForums, one of the most notable hubs for such illicit transactions. Meanwhile, there is an entire aboveground industry that specializes in...
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End-to-end Encryption for most people this is something invisible they never even think about, but for just about everyone who uses messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Signal and many others, this is an absolute necessity for privacy.
In a recent report by Rolling Stone it was revealed that the UK...
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When St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Josh Renaud reported a serious security problem with a State of Missouri website, he thought he was doing the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) a favor. Missouri Governor Mike Parson didn’t see it that way, and now wants to prosecute the journalist. In spite...
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Remember that 2700-page, $1 trillion dollar infrastructure bill that the US government passed back in August? Well, have you read it? Of course we're joking -- we know you haven't read it. Most of the legislators who voted on it probably haven't either. Some folks have, though, and they're finding some pretty alarming...
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The United States government has quietly handed over management of around 175 million traditional internet addresses (IPV4) to Global Resource Systems LLC, a small company in Florida, as part of a "pilot effort" to look for security issues. In case you are wondering, that works out to around 6 percent of all available...
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Washington has been in talks with two of the largest semiconductor manufacturers in the world, Intel and TSMC, on bringing new chip manufacturing to the United States. The federal government has long had concerns with processors being built in China and other countries, where officials fear the electronics could be...
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The National Security Agency (NSA) has a program in place called Upstream that taps directly into the Internet backbone to search traffic. The agency has claimed in the past that the warrantless searches of email are allowed under Section 702 enacted as part of the FISA Amendments Act. The agency made changes in 2017...
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Facial recognition offers a wealth of uses, from allowing us to unlock our phones quicker to smartly cataloging our photos. With most cool tech, though, there's a lot of room for ill use, and that's a reality not lost on Microsoft. In its latest corporate blog post, the company starts off with a humorous analogy: "All...
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Could Huawei, a Chinese telecommunications company, be a threat to American national security? The United States Congress recently urged Google to reconsider their partnership with Huawei. The lawmakers believe that Huawei is capable of phone-tapping and cyber-espionage.
Senators Marco Rubio and Tom Cotton and...
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Late last year a hack was perpetrated on what is called a "partner organization" that worked with the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD). The unnamed organization notified the ASD that it was hacked in November of 2016, and that outside parties gained access to its network. The small organization has only 50...
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WhatsApp is one of the most popular chat apps on the planet, for a handful of reasons. For one, WhatsApp makes it extremely easy to keep communications with friends and family open and ongoing even if your mobile data package is paltry (thanks to Wi-Fi), in addition, it's also been deemed one of the most secure chat...
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It's been proven that some tech companies have been willing to cater to the government's every need, but others -- namely Google -- remain adamant about transparency regarding shady practices.
Earlier this year, we reported on Google's new feature that informs users if they've become the target of state-sponsored...
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This past summer, we learned that even though the US government is adamant about fighting piracy, it found itself in a "Do as I say, not as I do" situation. So far, it's managed to - but given hard evidence, we can't imagine that it's likely to last for long.
Starting back in 2011, the Department of Defense's US...
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As tension continues to build between Russia and the US over alleged cyber attacks, the US has begun contemplating issuing its own set of cyber attacks against the Kremlin. As we covered last weekend, the US government has formally accused Russia of being responsible for breaking into official servers and walking away...
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As if relations between US and Russia governments weren't sensitive enough, both the Department of Homeland Security and Office of the Director of National Intelligence have officially accused Russia of being responsible for breaking into official government servers and stealing more than 19,000 emails relating to the...
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