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Australia leading new »Five Eyes« attack on encryption

By on June 26, 2017 in Big Brother, Cryptography, IT security, Privacy, surveillance

Ars Technica: Australia advocates weakening strong crypto at upcoming “Five Eyes” meeting »

Two top Australian government officials said Sunday that they will push for “thwarting the encryption of terrorist messaging” during an upcoming meeting next week of the so-called “Five Eyes” group of English-speaking nations that routinely share intelligence.

Techcrunch: Australia wants Five Eyes to squeeze tech firms on encryption »

“I will raise the need to address ongoing challenges posed by terrorists and criminals using encryption,” Australian Attorney General Senator Brandis is quoted as saying, ahead of the meeting of the group next week.

“These discussions will focus on the need to cooperate with service providers to ensure reasonable assistance is provided to law enforcement and security agencies.”

The Five Eyes countries are: the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Techdirt: Australia To Push For Encryption Backdoors At Next ‘Five Eyes’ Meeting »

So far, there’s very little real evidence criminals and terrorists are using encrypted services at a higher rate than non-criminals/terrorists. There have been several statements made to that effect and backed by public displays of devices law enforcement officials claim can’t be unlocked, but most post-attack investigations show terrorists are still mostly using unencrypted communications platforms. Available evidence also shows investigations of normal criminal activity is rarely thwarted by device encryption. At this point, backdoors are a “solution” in need of a problem.

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Why you should trust no politician on Bigbrotherism

By on June 26, 2017 in Big Brother, Civil rights, Deep State, Human rights, surveillance

Within living memory, our loved ones were persecuted, hounded to suicide, imprisoned for activities that we recognize today as normal and right: being gay, smoking pot, demanding that settler governments honor their treaties with First Nations. The legitimization of these activities only took place because we had a private sphere in which to agitate for them.

Doctorow on Trudeau and Obama: What happens after the ‘good’ politicians give away our rights? Cory Doctorow shares a cautionary tale. »

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»All your data are belong to US«

By on June 26, 2017 in Big Brother, Big Data, Data Protection, Internet, Law enforcement, Rule of law, US

The Justice Department on Friday petitioned the US Supreme Court to step into an international legal thicket, one that asks whether US search warrants extend to data stored on foreign servers. The US government says it has the legal right, with a valid court warrant, to reach into the world’s servers with the assistance of the tech sector, no matter where the data is stored.

Ars Technica: Does US have right to data on overseas servers? We’re about to find out »

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For you to be anonymous, we must know who you are…

By on June 26, 2017 in Anonymity, Big Brother, Free Information, Internet, IT security, Privacy, UK

The British Internet provider O2 disputed the previous story that they don’t permit people to access tools that give them anonymity protection, like this VPN service. “You only need to show photo ID in one of our stores”, they said, via a link provided. So in order to be an anonymous and protected press source, you need to show a photo ID. You couldn’t make it up if you tried.

Falkvinge @ PNO » British ISP: Of course you can be a protected anonymous press source, you just need to show us photo ID first »

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The German »Staatstrojaner« mission creep

By on June 22, 2017 in Big Brother, Germany, IT security, Law enforcement, Police state, Privacy, surveillance

A new law allowing the German police to hack into mobile phones for even minor crimes, is expected to be passed by the German parliament this week [update: the law has now been passed]. Currently, the use of a “Staatstrojaner” – government trojan – is only permitted in order to prevent future terrorist attacks. Under the new law, the authorities will be allowed to implant surveillance malware to help secure convictions for over 70 types of crime. These include serious ones such as genocide, treason and murder, but also less serious crimes such as money counterfeiting, vehicle theft, computer fraud, rigged sports betting and tax evasion. Two kinds of trojans will be available. The first allows the authorities to eavesdrop on calls made with the mobile phone, whether using standard telephony or VoIP, while the second gives access to all information held on the device.

Glyn Moody on PNI: Police use of trojans to hack into mobile phones will become routine under new German law »

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US: Republican Party voter data base found on a publicly accessible server

By on June 20, 2017 in Big Data, Data Protection, IT security, Privacy, US

Sensitive personal details relating to almost 200 million US citizens have been accidentally exposed by a marketing firm contracted by the Republican National Committee.

The 1.1 terabytes of data includes birthdates, home addresses, telephone numbers and political views of nearly 62% of the entire US population.

The data was available on a publicly accessible Amazon cloud server.

BBC: Personal details of nearly 200 million US citizens exposed »

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Vault7: How the CIA could hack your router

By on June 20, 2017 in Big Brother, IT security

On Thursday, WikiLeaks published a detailed a set of descriptions and documentation for the CIA’s router-hacking toolkit. It’s the latest drip in the months-long trickle of secret CIA files it’s called Vault7, and it hints at how the agency leverages vulnerabilities in common routers sold by companies including D-Link and Linksys. The techniques range from hacking network passwords to rewriting device firmware to remotely monitor the traffic that flows across a target’s network. After reading up on them, you may find yourself itching to update your own long-neglected access point.

Wired: Wikileaks reveals how the CIA could hack your router »

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Are Millennials losing faith in democracy?

By on June 19, 2017 in Civil liberties, Civil rights, Democracy, Freedom of Speech

This spring surveys suggested that young people are ambivalent towards freedom of speech. Especially so when it comes to statements that might be offensive towards religions and minorities. (Link»)

Now, similar signals are reaching us when it comes to democracy as such.

World Economic Forum:

In a paper published by Roberto Stefan Foa of the University of Melbourne and Yascha Mounk of Harvard shows that the proportion of people who support “having a strong leader who does not have to bother with parliament or elections” has risen across the world over the past 25 years, in many cases considerably.

And there seems to be a clear trend among young people:

Foa and Mounk’s research shows that millennials have become less attached to the importance of voting. In 1995, only 16% of 16 to 24-year-old Americans believed that democracy was a bad way to run the country. By 2011, that share had increased to 24%.

Figures for Europe are approximately  7% in 1995 and 13% in 2011-12.

Another chart, based on the same research, shows a systematic decline in the percentage of people who think that it is essential to live in a democracy, depending on what decade they were born in.

It shows that those born in the 1930s believe in democracy much more than those born in the 1980s. Some 72% of those born in the 1930s in America think democracy is absolutely essential. So do 55% of the same cohort in the Netherlands.

But the millennial generation (those born since 1980) has grown much more indifferent. For example, only one in three Dutch millennials says the same; in the United States, that number is slightly lower, around 30%.

Young people also seem to be less interested in politics than older generations.

So, is there something »wrong« with young people? Or is it politics and democracy that is failing?

See all the charts here » World Economic Forum: Millennials are rapidly losing interest in democracy »

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