How The Copyright Industry Made Your Computer Less Safe

I've already written one piece about Cory Doctorow's incredible column at the Guardian concerning digital rights management and anti-circumvention, in which I focused on how the combination of DRM and anti-circumvention laws allows companies to make up their own copyright laws in a way that removes the rights of the public. Those rights are fairly important, and the reason we have them encoded within our copyright laws is to make sure that copyright isn't abused to stifle speech. But, anti-circumvention laws combined with DRM allow the industry to route around that entirely.

I challenged hackers to investigate me and what they found out is chilling

A decade and a half later, and given the recent Edward Snowden-fueled brouhaha over the National Security Agency’s snooping on Americans, I wondered how much had changed. Today, about 250 million Americans are on the Internet, and spend an average of 23 hours a week online and texting, with 27 percent of that engaged in social media. Like most people, I’m on the Internet, in some fashion, most of my waking hours, if not through a computer then via a tablet or smart phone.

Good Leaks and Bad Leaks

The fall of the United States in Reporters Without Borders' World Press Freedom Index seems attributable mostly to the war on whistleblowers. "The whistleblower is the enemy," the report states, singling out the harsh treatment of Barrett Brown, Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden.

Leaked NSA Memo: Fueling the Perception Snowden Did Not Work Alone & Is No Whistleblower

A number of media organizations have published stories based on a leaked National Security Agency memo that suggests NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden “swiped” the password of a co-worker, a civilian NSA employee, who has been forced to resign for sharing his password. The forced resignation by the civilian NSA employee is being reported as part of disciplining people for allowing breaches of security to happen, not as a part of the NSA’s effort to find people to take the fall for something the agency did not prevent from happening.

A piracy tool rehabilitated by the NSA spying scandal

BitTorrent has no more control over how others use the code its founder developed than Google has over what people search for, but it has spent the past few years struggling to shake off the stigma of its technology being used by pirates.

Huawei may be one of the few winners of the NSA revelations

I am used to very polite answers from Huawei executives about how they want to be more open, transparent and gain the trust of the wider community outside of its home market, and Dr Li didn't disappoint. However, as he continued, it dawned on me there had been at least one winner following the revelations of Edward Snowden in 2013...

How Mobile Advertisers Help the NSA Gather User Data

"Let us be very clear: Millennial Media has not and does not work with, nor pass information to, the NSA, GCHQ, or any other such agencies," stated a Millennial spokesperson who said the company did not want to be interviewed for this story.

Former NSA chief Hayden praises Obama for “doubling down” on Bush-era spying

Michael Hayden, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and National Security Agency (NSA), used a lecture at Oxford University Monday to candidly praise the Obama administration for constructing and exponentially strengthening the NSA’s illegal spying apparatus.

NSA official says proposed reforms ‘not putting us out of business'

Is drone war losing its fire in shadow of NSA scandals?

After an ambitious year marked by an explosion of privacy and accountability legislation nationwide, the drone war marches on in 2014.

But has another, more urgent privacy battle — the global snooping assault by the U.S. National Security Agency — taken some of the fire out of the anti-drone movement?

NSA 'probably developing Mask-type malware'

As reported previously, Mask was discovered recently by Kaspersky Lab as hitting targets in more than 30 countries and infecting at least 380 separate organisations. The malware uses several techniques to compromise PCs and servers, reportedly tapping various undocumented vulnerabilities in software to ensure success.

Why the WH says NSA surveillance 'is lawful'

Obama asked Holder and Clapper to develop additional possible reforms by the time the NSA’s phone records programs needs to be reauthorized in March.

The NSA isn’t concerned with dorms; there’s no privacy to invade

The key is finding a way to reap the benefits of self-reflection and letting your guard down outside the walls of the dorm. In other words, replicating the effects of “privacy” without literal privacy. It could be in a library, coffee shop, Chipotle, Bascom (when it isn’t an arctic precipice), a friend’s apartment, the handicap stall or during a long walk or run.

The Dangerous Seduction of Drones

Senior Obama administration officials say our government is sharply scaling back its drone strikes in Pakistan. That’s a step in the right direction. It would be even better if the entire U.S. program of targeted killings in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia were scrapped.

NSA-based drone strikes: A deep philosophical problem

A target that emerges from electronic surveillance cannot be assumed to align with a body on the ground to kill

Podcast: Due process, lethal drones and American citizens

World churches condemn use of drones

The World Council of Churches (WCC) today issued a statement condemning the use of drones which indiscriminately target civilian populations, injuring and killing innocent civilians in complete violation of international human right law

Too Secret for Congress

The Los Angeles Times had a great story today that helps explain why few Americans — including the ones who make the country’s laws — know much about the drone program that is the vanguard of the endless war against terror. The basic reason, of course, is that the Obama administration wants to keep everyone in the dark, but the lengths to which officials will go can sometimes be surprising.

How Nazi Scientists Taught The CIA To Use LSD Against Soviet Spies

U.S. hired Nazis to test LSD and CIA interrogation techniques, book says

CIA 'Hired Top Nazi Doctors to Test LSD on Russian Spies'