Items tagged with Government
The House has just passed two cybersecurity bills that should cause some major concern for those who believe the US government's spying efforts have already gone way too far. The House Permanent Select Committee passed the 'Protecting Cyber Networks Act', while the House Homeland Security Committee passed the...
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Here we go again. This past November, the US' Department of Justice latched onto public heartstrings by saying that encryption on mobile phones could lead to the death of children, and in January, president Obama followed-up to plainly say that encryption should under no circumstance hinder police and spy...
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On Sunday Facebook attempted once again to lend clarity to its Community Standards and policies as they apply to government requests. Specifically, Head of Global Policy Management Monika Bickert and Deputy General Counsel Chris Sonderby set out to provide "more detail and clarity on what is and is not allowed" on the...
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An accountability board overseen by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) cleared the spy agency of any wrongdoing after investigating the search of Senate computers that were used to review the agency's alleged use of torture tactics during Bush's presidency period. That might be fine and dandy under different...
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A couple of official social media accounts of the United States' Central Command have been breached today, with the Islamic State militant group ISIS claiming responsibility.
Both the Twitter and YouTube accounts of the Central Command were accessed to change both the banner and profile picture, as well as add a couple of messages. On the
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Governments around the world are increasingly interested in what their citizens are doing on Facebook. According to the social network's third Government Requests Report, which provides information about the number of government data and content removal requests received during the first half of 2014, combined...
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The Edward Snowden revelations have faded a bit from public view in light of other, more recent political activities, but a new report regarding the NSA and Yahoo has people talking about it once more. Reportedly, the United States government threatened to fine Yahoo a quarter of a million dollars <i>per...
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The U.S. government might not negotiate with terrorists, but it is willing to use social media as a tool to engage in conversation with jihadists and their sympathizers online. Why bother? The U.S. government hopes that it can convince potential terrorists to go in another direction. It's an ugly world the...
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Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt has never been one to hold back from uttering his true feelings, which is led to him making news with a recent comment regarding the ongoing NSA fallout. As the agency comes under continued fire for seemingly unchecked spying across all sorts of digital properties, Google has...
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Following an eight-year stint as the man in charge of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), Army General Keith Alexander has decided to step down effective next March or April. So will his civilian deputy, John "Chris" Inglis, who is planning to retire by the end of the year. The NSA came under heavy media and public scrutiny after former...
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The average Internet user probably has no idea what "Tor" is. If you're one of those users, you've probably had no good reason to even investigate what it is, what it does, or how it hides. But if you're the NSA, you're acutely aware of Tor, and a new report suggests that both the NSA and GCHQ have had their sights on Tor. In simple terms,...
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Look out, Internet -- the government's moving in on your wild, wild west territory. The Federal Trade Commission has just announced new guidelines for online advertisers, hoping to ensure that search results and ads are distinguished from each other. The entity has found that in recent years, paid search results have...
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Just as Apple and Samsung are pushing to get their phones cleared for high-security use within the U.S. government, a staple is announcing the expected. BlackBerry just announced that the U.S. Department of Defense has cleared BlackBerry 10 phones (and the PlayBook tablet as well, strangely) for use on DoD networks...
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Julius Genachowski announced today that he will be stepping down from his post as Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission in the "coming weeks." Thus will end a nearly four-year run for the lawyer and businessman, who was nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the Senate at the end of June in 2009...
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Don't worry folks, the White House hasn't lost its marbles (well, not based on this, anyway) by encouraging citizens across the nation to start hacking. The U.S. government doesn't want you to break into banking systems, and after Matthew Broderick almost started World War III in the 1980s, we're pretty sure it...
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The federal government has released a slew of mobile apps for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry, in an effort to close the customer service gap between the public and private sectors. Getting the most attention is the Product Recalls app, which is available only on Android, and collates recall and safety information from the Consumer Product...
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Net neutrality. Censorship. Freedom of speech. Global search. All of these items are becoming more and more visible in an interconnected world, and we suspect that these issues will become even more important as the Internet spreads. Recently, Google brought some of these matters into the mainstream light by taking on...
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As if you really needed one more reason to take the car, ferry or bicycle to your next destination, the Department of Homeland Security has just issued another update to its long list of search rules that'll most certainly spark up some debate. Thankfully for those with United States passports, this one probably won't...
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No wonder the Pentagon is bracing for all manners of cyber warfare. Late last week, officials reported that the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service saw some of their computers "shut down" after a virus attack overwhelmed them. Reportedly, the virus stemmed from an invasion at the Marshals Service, with an FBI spokesperson noting that it was...
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As it turns out, Swine Flu just might be the least of our worries on a national scale; according to a top official within the US government, cyber espionage and attacks from terror groups are the biggest threats to the country's military computer networks. We've seen time and time again that attacks on our network infrastructure can bring...
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This whole digital TV transition has turned into an abject disaster (to put it nicely), but for those of you still holding out for a government voucher before buying a converter box, there's good news to share. After the National Telecommunications and Information Administration ran out of its $1.34 billion late last year and began putting...
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In an effort to catch criminals and kidnappers, Mexico plans to start a national register of all mobile phone users. Under a new law published today, mobile phone companies will have a year to build up a database of their customers, complete with fingerprints. The law is due to be in force in April. Sadly, hundreds of people are kidnapped...
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