SOURCE Boy Genius Report
Is Xbox One the ‘future of PRISM’?
First Lawsuit Over NSA Phone Scandal Targets Obama, Verizon
The first of what likely will be many lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the NSA’s dragnet phone surveillance program was lodged Sunday, calling the newly disclosed operation an “outrageous breach of privacy.”
SOURCE Wired: Threat Level
NSA Surveillance Heat Map: NSA Lied To Congress
anagama writes “NSA officials have repeatedly denied under oath to Congress that even producing an estimate of the number of Americans caught up in its surveillance is impossible. Leaked screenshots of an NSA application that does exactly that, prove that the NSA flat out lied (surprise). Glenn Greenwald continues his relentless attacks with another bombshell this time exposing Boundless Informant. Interestingly, the NSA spies more on America than China according to the heat map. Representative Wyden had sought amendments to FISA reauthorization bill that would have required the NSA to provide information like this (hence the NSA’s lies), but Obama and Feinstein demanded a pure reauthorization of FISA, which they got at the end of 2012.” And if you don’t mind that you might have your name on yet another special list, you might enjoy this Twitter-based take on the ongoing news.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
SOURCE Slashdot
Leaked court documents reveal NSA is collecting bulk call logs from Verizon
A court document published today by The Guardian reveals the NSA is currently collecting call records in bulk from Verizon. The request, granted by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on April 25th, extends until July 19th and mandates Verizon produce all call detail records on a daily basis to the NSA. The data collected includes the numbers of both parties to a call, how long it lasted, location data, IMEI / IMSI numbers, but not the content of the call or identifying information about the customer. As the report indicates, security officials had revealed bulk collection of call records previously, but until now there has been no indication of it happening under the Obama administration. In 2006 Verizon Wireless was one of the few to state it had not turned over call records to the NSA, but that appears to have changed. Among the many things that are still unknown however, is whether this order is a one time event or one in a series of such requests collecting vast amounts of data on unsuspecting citizens, and whether other communications providers have received orders to do the same.
[Image credit: Frédéric Bisson, Flickr]
Filed under: Wireless, Mobile, Verizon
Source: The Guardian, Court Ruling
SOURCE Engadget RSS Feed
American Targeted By Digital Spy Tool Sold To Foreign Governments
An anonymous reader points out a report in Wired of an American woman at a “renowned academic institution” who received targeted malware from what was most likely a foreign government. “… analysis of [the downloader] showed that it was the same downloader that has been used in the past to install Remote Control System (RCS), a spy tool made by the Italian company Hacking Team and sold to governments.” What’s significant about this malware is that it is made by an Italian firm who claims they sell it only to government and law enforcement bodies, and it isn’t of much use to your standard botnet operator. “The RCS tool, also known as DaVinci, records text and audio conversations from Skype, Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk and MSN Messenger, among other communication applications. It also steals Web browsing history and can turn on a computer’s microphone and webcam to record conversations in a room and take photos. The tool relies on an extensive infrastructure to operate and therefore is not easily copied and passed to non-government actors outside that infrastructure to use for their own personal spy purposes, according to a Hacking Team spokesman.” There’s no solid proof indicating who is responsible, but the malware email contained a link to a website in Turkey. “Turkey is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization alliance. If authorities there were behind the hack attack, it would mean that a NATO ally had attempted to spy on a U.S. citizen on U.S. soil, presumably without the knowledge or approval of U.S. authorities, and for reasons that don’t appear to be related to a criminal or counter-terrorism investigation.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
SOURCE Slashdot
UK Police Launch Campaign To Shut Down Torrent Sites
An anonymous reader writes “City of London Police inform TorrentFreak that they have begun targeting sites that provide access to unauthorized content for ‘criminal gain.’ The initiative is part of a collaboration with Hollywood studios represented by FACT and the major recording labels of the BPI. In letters being sent out now, police accuse site operators of committing offenses under the Serious Crime Act. The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau further warns that the crimes carry a jail sentence of 10 years.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
SOURCE Slashdot
Verizon Store Still Won’t Sell Me A Smartphone Without A Contract
(dooley)
Greg recently fought a new battle in his ongoing war with Verizon. His war is in defense of a noble goal: over and over, he just wants to buy a phone for the full retail price without signing a new two-year contract. If this seems like it should be pretty straightforward, you don’t work at a Verizon corporate store.
He wrote to us:
Verizon has elected to force people to do just what I had decided to do anyhow.
My wife now needs a new phone and we are both still on unlimited data. After some research, she decided on the phone she wanted and we went the the same corporate store from my previous tip to purchase it. Surely, with Verizon’s directive that unlimited data customers will have to pay full retail in order to keep their unlimited data, this shouldn’t be an issue.
Well, it was – and don’t call me Surely.
Right when we walked into the store, we were approached by C, his name badge identified him as the manager. He asked if we needed help and I stated that I was “ready to purchase a phone.” He asked if I was a new customer or if I was getting a new contract. I stated that I would like to just purchase the phone outright. His response was that they were “no longer allowed to sell phones that were not associated with a contract”. This was puzzling to me as their price cards on each phone lists both a two-year contract price and a full retail price. He reiterated that they would not be able to help me. I would need to place my order at the Verizon Wireless website.
I thanked him and excused myself. I stepped outside the store and called 611 Verizon Customer service from my cell. I was able to quickly get a CSR on the line and I asked if it were true that a Verizon corporate store would NOT be able to sell me a phone at full retail. The CSR stated that this was untrue and I can purchase a phone at any Verizon store or authorized retailer whether it is tied to a contract or not. She asked if she could speak with the employee that told me this. I handed the phone to C. He tried to walk away while speaking with her but I followed. Wasn’t sure what that was about. Essentially, what I could hear was him telling her what he told me albeit over and over again. They cannot sell a phone without it being tied to a contract.
He handed the phone back to me and the CSR stated that she was going to call the next closest corporate store to see if this was the case there as well. After a brief hold, she came back on and stated that the next store (about 6 miles away) gave her the same story and some reasoning about “inventory”. Since my wife’s phone has been incredibly spotty, I decided to just place the order with the CSR right then and there. Because of the “inconvenience” she gave me free overnight shipping. Upon revewing my account during the ordering process, she asked if I was buying the phone full retail in order to keep my unlimited data plan. I confirmed this and she stated just glancing at our data history, this is the good financial choice.
SOURCE Consumerist
Verizon Galaxy S3 Struggling With LTE After Latest Update, Other Issues Too?
Verizon’s variant of the Samsung Galaxy S3 received a pretty major update earlier in the week, but according to multiple comments from readers who have taken the new build, the phone may be experiencing some major issues. We’re seeing everything from complaints of poor 4G LTE connectivity to phones auto-subscribing to the newest bloatware add-on from the update called Caller Name ID.
After updating, users are having issues even connecting to LTE, and are finding their phones either stuck on 3G or without a signal altogether. For some, the device can connect to 4G LTE, but should it drop back to 3G, it will get stuck their indefinitely until the phone is either rebooted or Airplane mode is toggled on and off. Some have had some success by changing the network settings to LTE/CDMA instead of Global (Settings>More settings>Mobile networks>Network mode), but this seems to only help with getting a 3G connection back, not necessarily stabilizing 4G LTE. It’s a mess for many. Factory resets do not appear to fixing the problems either.
Others are also reporting incredibly slow data speeds and poor battery life, all after updating. One reader even mentioned that he has two Galaxy S3s, one with the update and another without, and the one without the update is running as good as ever while the updated phone is struggling with everything we just mentioned.
Last, the update included a new bloatware app called Caller Name ID. It’s an app that can be used for free as a trial, but should you opt-in, will then automatically charge you $2.99 per month through Verizon after the trial ends. We’ve had at least two readers claim that the update automatically subscribed them to this new service. To make sure you aren’t subscribed, login to your Verizon Wireless account online, and cruise into the “Change features” section. If you scroll to the very bottom, you’ll see the option for “Caller Name ID for Mobile Devices.” Make sure it hasn’t been added to your account. If it has, click the “Remove” button.
Also, feel free to head into Settings>Application manager>All and find the app in the list. Tap on it and then disable it, so you don’t have to deal with it going forward.
This update was supposed to be feature packed, with new toys like Multi Window, but the stability of the update is clearly questionable.
How is your device holding up after the update?
Cheers Michael!
Verizon Galaxy S3 Struggling With LTE After Latest Update, Other Issues Too? is a post from: Droid Life
SOURCE Droid Life
Pentagon report: Chinese hackers accessed F-35B and other advanced US weapons systems
Many of the Pentagon’s most advanced weapon systems — including the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and PAC-3 Patriot missile system — were compromised by Chinese hackers, according to a classified document obtained by the Washington Post. The list of weapons was part of an earlier DoD report condemning Chinese cyber-espionage activities, but had been confidential until now. Other systems hacked are said to include the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), the Navy’s Aegis ballistic-missile defense system, the F/A-18 fighter, V-22 Osprey and the Littoral Combat Ship used for shore patrol. Many of these form the foundation of defense systems from Europe to the Persian Gulf — and their breach goes a long way toward explaining Washington’s unprecedented dressing-down of China.
Filed under: Misc
Via: The Verge
Source: Washington Post
SOURCE Engadget RSS Feed
RIAA website caught sharing copyrighted content
The folks over at Torrent Freak have made a habit of monitoring certain known digital pirate havens using ScanEye, a BitTorrent tracking platform. While we assume that is mostly an uneventful task, yesterday they came across something very interesting: a dozen or so instances of adult content videos being seeded by an IP address originating from the RIAA, which is known for rabidly pursuing those who share content via torrent networks.
The first round spotted showed 16 adult content videos, all of them copyrighted, being distributed by torrents via the IP address “76.74.24.200,” which ScanEye showed as belonging to the Recording Industry Association of American, better known as the RIAA. Most of the videos were shown as being made available in April, with a couple being posted just a couple weeks ago.
A closer look was a bit more interesting, revealing that the IP address was specifically pointing at the RIAA website. As Torrent Freak points out, this could indicate the IP address is originating from a webseed added to the torrent files so that even if the files aren’t hosted on the website, they still point to it, making it appear the RIAA is sharing copyrighted videos.
Such an action can be accomplished by anyone, and the most logical explanation is that it would be done in an effort to get the RIAA in trouble or to make some kind of point. This theory makes more sense when it is noted that, according to the EyeScan platform, none of the 16 video files were ever downloaded, indicating they weren’t hosted where they were alleged to be.
Whatever the reason the videos have surfaced, this underscores a solid point – that via the so-called webseed method, any individual can spoof an IP address of someone else, making it appear to watchful eyes that an individual is sharing copyrighted content who isn’t actually doing so. Unless someone performed due diligence and checked out the matter thoroughly, an innocent individual could possibly be pegged for copyright infringement.
SOURCE: Torrent Freak
RIAA website caught sharing copyrighted content is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
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SOURCE SlashGear
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