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http://www.mirror.co.uk/tech/end-pirate-bay-virgin-media-9765951 This will lead to a clusterf**k i think. Lets face it VPNs and someone will come up with a bypass somewhere i think.

US government suspects that Kaspersky Lab is having ties to the Russian government cnet Looks like reality, because when you have 2 ways: or you working with government or you working against it, usually it's only one right choice here I was using Kaspersky, but now only Windows Defender. Looks like it may be banned in the US soon.

#illshowyoumineifyoushowmeyours This one I got from my COMPTIA SmartBrief news letter... With all of the current controversy between the US government and Kaspersky, I guess it's only normal for the behavior of American companies to be hidden from mainstream media. Both McAfee and HPE shared source code with Russia with hopes of entering the Russian Market. There is frar this could leave the US vulnerable to cyber security risks. As far as I'm aware, many government agencies and educational establishments have contracts with McAfee. I find it very untrustworthy for the sudden move to hide the source code for an antivirus software at this level. I would imagine these organizations would want to see this code to make sure they knew what was being out on their system. And if I remember correctly, didn't Kaspersky offer to open up their source code to US officials? I wasn't aware of this. Not sure why Intel would want McAfee. Is the decision not to reveal source code an initiative to safe guard Intel vulnerabilities, proprietary information, or other architectures? US officials are very worried that sharing this information with Russia couldake US assets more vulnerable. The previous sharing of source code with Russia was to be able to gain access to the Russian Market.... However, HP wanted to join in as well. Although McAfees sharing seems to have a more legitimate base, the HPE actions seem very questionable. We are constantly talking about internet security, and we seem to out a lot of blame on the US government for it's faults and leaks... However, maybe the issue isn't the government. Maybe it relies on companies that make poor decisions in hope for economic gain? Does no one think before acting? I cannot find anything specific, but what is the financial incentive in the Russian Market? I'm sure Russian government wouldn't use US companies for cyber security. http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/357333-mcafee-stops-allowing-foreign-source-code-reviews

I find it quite troubling to hear that a government agency traded with criminals for the data of one million people. The fact that the data of one billion users ended up in the hands of criminals and were sold, is even more troubling. I find that a huge company like Yahoo should take security a lot more serious. I hope this will give governments more incentive to make laws on cyber security more strict. Source: BloombergTechnology

Source: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/173199?reveal_response=yes So, within days of the Investigatory Powers Act being introduced, the public was not happy about it. The UK has a feature similar to the US, where if an official petition reaches a certain target, it will have to be given a formal response. Well, such a petition was formed and has gathered over 144,000 signatures - and is still growing. Way more that what is needed for an official response - Which was given today. Essentially, the Government is sticking to their guns, as it were - and are claiming that this law is needed for security issues and does not violate privacy and adheres to the UK's commitment that this act does not violate human rights - even though this Act is so draconian that it is even being compared to that of China and Russia. Personally, I am against this act. I want my privacy and i don't want the government searching me because I look at weapons online for research (I play AirSoft, so some of the search terms I use - could possibly get attention, which I don't want) - and that's just one example. The fact the Public didn't really get a say on the matter for this is stupid. While it has changed since its draft bill that was produced last year - I don't want the government to have access to everything I do. And before anyone uses the statement - "Got nothing to hide, got nothing to panic about", you are part of the problem. Privacy is essential to everyone's life, and is a right, not a privilege that other people can interfere with. Your Thoughts? Please leave them down below.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/canada-software-encryption-backdoors-feedback,33131.html In the wake of both the U.S and the U.K expanding their surveillance powers, Canada is asking feedback from their citizens on expanding their surveillance powers to include mandatory decryption, software backdoors, and access to basic subscriber information without a warrant. I feel that personally, as an American, that mandatory decryption is going too far, as well as instituting backdoors. However, I do like the fact that the Canadian goverment has allowed its citizens to comment on these important issues.

http://www.ibtimes.com/fbi-nsa-rule-41-changes-federal-rules-expand-governments-hacking-capabilities-2453034 Similar to the newly enacted UK legislation, Investigatory Powers Act, Rule 41 seeks to further expand the surveillance powers of intelligence agencies. The rule would further erode Fourth Amendment protections as warrants can be applied to large swaths of devices rather than a targeted device. This would also allow the NSA and FBI to deploy large botnets. What could possibly go wrong? As more of these draconian laws are enacted, the prospect of freedom and democracy seems to be a paper tiger.

It's recently come to the attention in Swedish media that the Swedish central bank "Riksbanken" is looking to try and launch their own digital currency. This would be an addition to the current SEK - Swedish Krona (English: Swedish Crown), most likely the name would be the E-Krona (English: E-Crown). Their hope is that this currency could be launched within 2 years from now. Sweden has (as probably most other countries) seen a big decrease in the use of regular physical currency. This move is particularly interesting as Sweden is currently in a state of changing its current currency, to new notes and coins. This change is currently ongoing since 2015 and will be in place until mid 2017. You can see pictures of the "new" notes and coins in Sweden below. To give my opinion on this, not really sure what to think. As much as I'm for a new currency, it also worries me. Since it's all electronic and computer made, there would be a possibility of malfunction in the beginning before it really gets going. This could potentially be harmful to early adopters. The other thing that puzzles me is how it will be used. Will you be able to use it with a credit card as you do now, just that you can't withdraw them as notes in any possible way as you normally can with an ATM, or will it be some sort of currency that lives within your computer and smartphone only? If so, will it require internet access to be used to pay with? How will online stores implement it and will you be able to use it outside of Sweden? A lot of things needs to be cleared up, but generally this is exciting. Let me know your worries, toughts and questions below Sources Thedigital.se - Sweden could soon have its own digital currency Newsbtc.com - The Central Bank of Sweden has announced plans to introduce its own digital currency in the next two years. Read more... IN SWEDISH: Sweclockers.com - Sverige kan bli första landet i världen med egen digital valuta

Ah, the UK Government's war on pornography continues. Not too long ago, I posted a topic looking at how the UK Government plans on introducing strict age verification on all "adult" websites, blocking any sites that do not comply with their terms. Now, that legislation is scary because of how vague the terminology is. It simply refers to "adult" content, rather than pornography. Still, it is being pushed forward under the guise of "protecting the children" from that nasty, evil pornography. Now, it has emerged that the government is planning something much more terrifying. They have plans to add another change (in addition to age verification) to the Digital Economy Bill that will essentially block all websites that host pornography that is considered "non-conventional". As with the age verification legislation, the wording of this new part of the bill is extremely vague. It merely describes the blocked content as being "non-conventional", with no real indication of what that actually is. More than likely, it will include the types of pornography that were made illegal to film in the UK, such as female ejaculation, face sitting and fisting. Of course, these actions are still legal to perform with a consensual partner(s) in your own home, you just can't watch it or film it.... For some reason. This ISP level block wouldn't be exclusive to UK sites like the ban on filming certain acts. This is a blanket ban that will block all sites hosting the non-conventional pornography, regardless of the country it is hosted in. A big concern for this legislation is what the Government is going to consider "non-conventional", as it's extremely vague and subjective. To one person, homosexual pornography may be considered non-conventional, so could that be blocked? Even if it's not homosexual pornography that is blocked, if something like sodomy is blocked because the UK Government doesn't like it, it could essentially block a lot of homosexual male pornography, essentially meaning that the UK Government doesn't approve of homosexual males having sex. Kitguru raises a good point here. Technically, sites like Tumblr, Twitter and a ton of image hosting websites often host pornography that can be considered non-conventional, so are they going to be blocked as well? How are the sites that host the blocked content going to be identified? Perhaps there will be an influx in jobs for watching porn to decide which sites to block. Get your CVs ready. Much like the age verification systems (which seem to be planning to use credit card checks to determine age, and exactly who you are), these blocks are unlikely to be very effective at preventing access to such sites, as VPN and proxy servers are available so readily. However, considering the amount of censorship laws the UK plans on passing, I wouldn't be surprised to see a future ban on VPNs and similar services. Well, the UK Government is starting to go down a very dangerous and scary path. In the past, they have voiced their support for China's stance on internet control and censorship. This does not bode well for UK citizens, especially once we leave the EU and the UK Government gains more control over the laws they can pass and we lose the protection that EU laws, such as the Net Neutrality rules, offer us. Honestly, it's not the content that is being blocked that is worrying me, it is the fact that the Government is planning on blocking content, purely because they don't like it. The age verification legislation, while still a scary precedent, can be argued to have some useful purpose. This, however, is just censorship based on some personal views of our government which can easily lead to the blocking of other things the government doesn't like. If this extends to blocking certain views because the UK doesn't like it, that is very, very scary and akin to North Korea's stance on the internet. While I've joked about leaving the UK because of Brexit, if the UK continues down this road, I wouldn't be opposed to taking a job in another country, just the get away from a Government that is pushing its own views so forcefully on the population. Source: Kitguru UK "adult" age verification rulings:

Some real bad juju here. Someone is going to be loosing their job and ODS is going to be in a world of hurt. From some other news articles on this. It also looks like this leak basically allowed anyone to download government files. Source ZDNet Original article from Upguard

Came across an article this morning on Engadget and found it interesting, and a little bemusing as well. The US Military, specifically the Air Force, have been using the same computer since the 1970s that, with the use of 8-inch floppy disks, "could receive an order from the president to launch nuclear missiles from silos across the United States." According to C4ISRNET.com, Lt. Jason Rossi has announced that the old floppy disk method was replaced in June 2019 by a "highly secure solid state digital storage solution". Interestingly, Lt. Rossi defends the use of the ancient SACCS system, "used by US nuclear forces to send emergency action messages from command centres to field forces" by explaining that it is virtually un-hackable. "You can't hack something that doesn't have an IP address. It's a very unique system -- it is old and it is very good," Rossi said. "In 2016, the Government Accountability Office wrote that SACCS runs on an IBM Series/1 computer dating from the 1970s and that the Defense Department planned “to update its data storage solutions, port expansion processors, portable terminals, and desktop terminals by the end of fiscal year 2017,” but it’s unclear whether those upgrades have occurred." Personally, I find it fascinating that the military uses such a system to this day - although you wonder how much use it actually gets! Sources: C4ISRNET.com Engadget Techspot @LinusTech @Slick

So, I've come into a bit of money through a home sale and I want to keep some relative worth of my gains. I was thinking of buying $10,000 to $20,000 worth of crytocurrency. I was curious as to the legal wranglings of doing this within the US. I understand that the government looks upon it as any other investment and currencies as "stocks", for a simplistic definition. I'm just wondering what moving such quantities of cryptocurrencies will cause given the Patriot Act. Has anyone purchased such large quantities and can anyone enlighten me about the perils and pitfalls of such a venture. Thanks

Lets talk about hardware & software based data encryption, Since it's been a while since there has been a heavy debate over it, & we're kinda afar from the initial hype to see things a bit clearly , what do you feel about it at this point ? Topics to discuss ( pick one & put your view on the comment or just put up a general comment ) Access to any user encrypted data through the means of backdoor by the governing body upon request under nature of suspicion, is it Good or Bad in your opinion? Encrypted user data should be encrypted from all forms prying eyes government /hackers/3rdparty etc Data Encryption should be illegal as it can & will be used for bad things Data Encryption should be allowed to deter 3rd party access , but government should have a backdoor in place Allow encryption , But metadata should be allowed for view for government to deter threats Should be encrypted & Only allow data access with user consent along with court approval regardless of time taken & shouldn't be accessed otherwise if there's a break in that chain User shouldn't have right to conceal data since it could be threatening to the community/state/ethical standards/Espionage/Trade secrets Only Government registered employees should have the right to concrete level of hard encryption without any backdoor & shouldn't be made available to private use Government should have the right to backdoor regardless of the ethical reasons because bigger picture is more important & safety should be a priority Other Discussion points: Ethics of Government having a backdoor on hardware which can be used to access data depending on the nature of an event ( access after specific event has happened / a confirmed suspect data access) General Backdoor Access to authority to preemptive investigation in-order to deter threats or general (anytime open access to covertly scan & determine threats before it becomes harmful to a community/state/country) Should encryption & refusal to share confidential data to anyone be a 'right' for the wrong reasons? individual privacy vs government safety assurance You know how not to act, please discuss in a professional manner if possible, PS:New channel superfun video is up on ytb check it out

According to France's National Data Protection Commission (CNIL), Microsoft does not comply with the French Data Protection Act and has been given 3 months to make the necessary chances to comply. French authorities has done several investigations and found that Microsoft is failing on a number of different privacy-related aspects. In the investigation, Windows 10 was found to collect irrelevant or excessive data, lacking security, users were included in the data collection without their consent, lack of information and no option to block cookies and also transferring personal data back to the US on a "safe harbour" basis (an agreement which is not valid since October 2015). Source: CNIL Full statement: Microsoft has responded that they will work with the CNIL to solve these issues. As noted by BetaNews, Microsoft does not actually deny any of the accusations. Here is Microsoft's full statement: Source: BetaNews I am very pleased to hear this. Back when it was first discovered that Windows 10 collected a big amount of information about the user a lot of people said things along the lines of: As it turns out, we didn't hear about it back then because the investigation was still work in progress. It is now done and the French government is not happy about how Microsoft is acting. Hopefully this will lead to a positive change for users. A chance which gives users more information and control over how and what personal information Microsoft collects.

Put on your tinfoil hats boys and girls. And here's the GAO summary of the program. Why be concerned you ask? If you live in one of the following states, and have a drivers license, you are in their database: With a large number of other states currently "under negotiation for memorandum of understanding with the FBI (for access to drivers license photos)", whatever that means. Source: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/06/smile-youre-in-the-fbi-face-recognition-database/ Personally, I find this to be quite concerning. Particularly because most of the images collected were not collected for criminal or national security purposes. We really need to start fighting back against this government attitude of "because we want it". Just for fun

Read More Here So Microsoft has filed a law suit against the US Government for constant "gag-orders" for user information, etc. It's clear Microsoft is on our side and is pushing for complete transparency so people will know when the government wants to see their information / data. This request for data refers to Microsoft's cloud which is easier for the government to access as it's not on a users local network however Microsoft still believes it's the user / owner of the contents private property. Microsoft will begin to lobby for laws to protect users rights for digital privacy be it on their own computer, or in the cloud. They're aiming for- Transparency- people have the right to know when the government wants to see their info / data. Digital Neutrality- customers should benefit from the same type of privacy online as they do offline. Necessity- secrecy orders should only be for investigations, if there is a good reason for secrecy. It seems Microsoft is fighting the good fight, and although people dislike them collecting our personal information for targeted advertising, etc. at least we know they don't want to so easily give up our information to a government body.

http://www.androidauthority.com/apple-fbi-appeal-all-writs-act-encryption-687204/

So. Well there's really no nice way to say it, the FBI no longer needs a warrant to investigate people. Why? Because the NSA doesn't have to get a warrant to spy on people, and the FBI can look at anything the NSA uncovers. Without a warrant. So basically, they only need to have "national security reasons" for the initial collection of your data, after that, they can look through it for any reason, without a warrant. Source: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/04/secret-court-takes-another-bite-out-fourth-amendment

https://www.politicalcompass.org/test I'll start Looks like a lot of us are still dirty civil or left libertarians, with a few conservative libertarian stragglers. Prepare the tinfoil.

Well now, grab your tinfoil hats, or make some if you don't have one. Source: http://www.zdnet.com/article/us-spy-court-didnt-reject-a-single-secret-government-demand-for-data/ So, tell me again, you have nothing to hide? What does it matter when you don't know, and don't have any form of legal representation WHAT-SO-EVER? Discuss.

^^ Edit... The new format makes the questions look like 1 big sentence with the way they are arranged on the left side of the % bar.

So that didn't take long! We had DLD that was up and running 2006 (collecting data on citizens), now we get censorship! :unsure: What do you guys think, should be be censored for everything? Will the world give in to the internet and block almost everything? These pages are blocked • Pirate Bay • ExtraTorrent • Viooz • Prime Wire • Swefilmer • DreamfilmHD • Movie4k Article Source: http://www.dagbladet.no/2015/09/02/kultur/sensur/pirate_bay/fildeling/tekno/40927364/ Related: http://www.dagbladet.no/2015/09/02/kultur/internett/film/pirate_bay/fildeling/40924617/ Article Image with Google Translate: http://i.imgur.com/RqfkSpi.jpg

The Chinese government enacted a plan to rate each and every citizen living in the country, last year. However, there was little reaction to this in China or abroad. Until Rogier Creemers, China-specialist law scholar at Oxford university published a complete translation of the planning outline. (similar to bills, in democratic countries) With loans and employment potentially being affected by your rating, the plan is intended to change peoples' behaviour and reward those who are seen to tow the line, both offline and online. This is some terrifying stuff. I suggest everyone read the whole article, and maybe skim the translated document if you're interested. I went to extra effort to find it because this sounded too crazy to believe Sources; (article) http://www.volkskrant.nl/buitenland/china-rates-its-own-citizens-including-online-behaviour~a3979668/ (translated document) https://chinacopyrightandmedia.wordpress.com/2014/06/14/planning-outline-for-the-construction-of-a-social-credit-system-2014-2020/ (official document) http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/content/2014-06/27/content_8913.htm PS: I guess I just lost five internet points

So this seems like neat news on the pure tech side of things. The Canadian government wants to leverage white space to provide rural communities with internet access, something that I think is a great way to make use of that unused space without really affecting other existing infrastructures. http://news.gc.ca/web/article-en.do?nid=928659

So I found this whilst browsing around this morning. Source: http://gizmodo.com/google-handed-stacks-of-wikileaks-email-straight-to-the-1681758103 More Details: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jan/25/wikileaks-google-staff-emails-us-government All of this coming from the administration that originally claimed that it would be the "most transparent administration ever". While some people might have a problem with Wikileaks, remember that this administration has secured more jail time for whistleblowers than the all of the past presidents in US history combined, source: http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/01/obama-imprisoned-whistleblowers-times-longer-presidents-combined.html So. What do we think?