…
- The Facebook outage has been traced to the “navigation system” of the internet, known as BGP
- A minor update to BGP navigation directions appears to have been misconfigured
- As a result, the company’s network fell off “the map of the internet”
…
Computer Security
This Week In Security: OpenOffice Vulnerable, IOS Vulnerable, Outlook… You Get The Idea | Hackaday
…The truth of the matter is that when the two projects forked, the programmers who really understood the codebase went to LibreOffice, and OpenOffice has had a severe programmer shortage ever since. I’ve said it before: Use LibreOffice, OpenOffice is known to be unsafe...
What Else Would You Expect From a Chinese President? | disturbeddeputy
Let me say it one more time: TRAITOR! And for you clowns that voted for him and then defended the theft of the election, may you burn in hell for your evil.
Ford violating privacy law by storing driver’s private conversations and releasing them to cops and private company | Aletho News
New Class Action Lawsuit Filed
By Anna Bradley-Smith | Top Class Actions | September 15, 2021
Ford Motor Company uses its infotainment system to secretly download and store drivers’ private text conversations, and then turns them over to law enforcement and the private company Berla, a new class action lawsuit alleges. The lawsuit was filed in Washington on Sept. 10 by lead plaintiffs Mark Jones and Michael McKee, who allege the company violated the Washington Privacy Act. The act, they say in the suit, forbids any entity in the state of Washington from intercepting or pre-recording any private communication without first obtaining consent of all the participants in the communication. But Ford, they allege, has been doing so illegally through software and hardware made by Berla Corporation. Berla then supplies those conversations to law enforcement, military, civil and regulatory agencies, and select private industry organizations, the lawsuit alleges. Berla does not give private citizens any means to access or delete their own conversations. “On information and belief, vehicle infotainment systems in Ford vehicles automatically download a copy of every text message stored on any phone connected to the system and store that copy in computer memory on the vehicle in such a manner that the vehicle owner cannot access it,” the lawsuit reads. Jones owns a 2021 Ford vehicle with an infotainment system he has used repeatedly. He says in the claim that he has never consented to Ford downloading and storing his text messages, and similarly did not consent to third parties such as Berla or law enforcement having access to copies of such text messages made by his Ford vehicle’s infotainment system. McKee sent messages to Jones and his messages have also been stored without his consent, the lawsuit states. Ford also Accused of Violating Privacy by Recording Conversations and Illegally Downloading Phone Data in Rental CarsThe same issue is true even with rental cars, the lawsuit says, with Ben LeMere, the CEO and founder of Berla, telling reporters the company has seen a number of messages stored in rental cars that were requesting drugs and sex. LeMere told the reporteres that as soon as a phone is plugged into a USB power port, the hardware and software will “start sucking all your data down into the car.” Jones argues Ford has violated their customer’s privacy and they are suing on behalf of all Washington Ford owners for violations of the Washington Privacy Act. He seeks certification of the Class, injunctive relief, declaratory relief, damages, legal fees and costs, and a jury trial.
Twitter Blocked Hunter Laptop Story After Intelligence Officials Shared Hack ‘Rumors’
https://www.nationandstate.com/2021/09/15/twitter-blocked-hunter-laptop-story-after-intelligence-officials-shared-hack-rumors/
Twitter blocked a story about Hunter Biden’s laptop after U.S. intelligence officials shared “rumors” that Biden would be the target of a hack, an executive with the social media company told the Federal Election Commission. Yoel Roth, the head of Twitter’s Site Integrity Team, cited the information from U.S. intelligence officials to justify Twitter’s decision…
Curtin University lobbies for retraction of unethical AI study on Uyghur facial recognition – ABC News
…
An internal review of research by Associate Professor
Wan-Quan Liu – who has since resigned and now works at a university in
China – found he breached several ethical codes including a failure to
obtain informed consent and approval.
The study, first reported by Four Corners in 2019,
was partly funded by the Chinese government and was criticised by human
rights campaigners who were worried it could be misused by authorities
to persecute Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
…
Apple Delays Controversial Child Abuse iPhone Spying Program After Backlash
https://www.nationandstate.com/2021/09/03/apple-delays-controversial-child-abuse-iphone-spying-program-after-backlash/
By Tyler Durden After major backlash at the possibility of big brother-esque monitoring of everything you do – ironically juxtaposed against an entire advertising strategy… Apple Delays… Go to Source Author: Activist Post… Read more
‘Like remote-controlling your arm against you’: Snowden says Apple WON’T DECIDE what it scans the phones for – governments will — RT World News
https://www.rt.com/news/533763-snowden-interview-apple-governments-scanning/
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has dissected Apple’s
phone-scanning plan, saying it not only blurs the line between what is
and isn’t private, but will eventually enable governments to meddle into
intimate details of one’s life.
phone-scanning plan, saying it not only blurs the line between what is
and isn’t private, but will eventually enable governments to meddle into
intimate details of one’s life.
Snowden has been among
vocal critics of Apple’s plan to scan content on all iPhones for
criminal evidence. The tech giant says it wants to identify child
pornography stored on devices, but skeptics see it as the latest
corporate move to encroach of people’s privacy under the guise of
protecting children. It goes one step further from what many companies
already do when they scan files that users store in cloud storage on the
providers’ servers.
vocal critics of Apple’s plan to scan content on all iPhones for
criminal evidence. The tech giant says it wants to identify child
pornography stored on devices, but skeptics see it as the latest
corporate move to encroach of people’s privacy under the guise of
protecting children. It goes one step further from what many companies
already do when they scan files that users store in cloud storage on the
providers’ servers.
“Fundamentally, the distinction here is
they are taking away that separation between what they own and what you
own. And now they are telling your device what to look for,” Snowden said on Thursday in an interview with Russian media.
Also on rt.com
Apple’s new ‘child-safety’ features face fresh challenge over censorship & privacy from over 90 rights groups
Critics of the plan say that if such an invasion of privacy is
accepted and implemented, it would further erode protections for
everyone, first and foremost from government snooping. In the end, Tim
Cook’s company would not be the one making decisions on which content
will be searched for, Snowden argued.
“Can Apple say ‘no’ to
the United States government? Can they say ‘no’ to the Russian
government? Can they say ‘no’ to the Chinese government?” he asked rhetorically. “Of course the answer is ‘no,’ not if they want to keep selling their products in these countries.”
“Once
Apple breaks down this barrier between their servers and your phone,
and they start on your phone, they can scan for anything. They can scan
for political criticism, financial records, really anything,” Snowden said, adding that it’s really irrelevant whether one trusts Apple’s professed commitment to privacy or not.
Once
Apple has established the precedent, once they’ve done it for the first
time, this type of scanning, they lose the ability to say what it will
and won’t be used for. Once it’s proven possible, it’s no longer a
question for Apple, it’s a question for the governments, it’s a question
for the lawmakers, and they can use it in any way they want.
What
data constitutes a red flag may vary dramatically depending on the
government. While in one jurisdiction it’s images of sexual abuse of
children, it could well be political cartoons in another. The company
doing the scanning would simply be fed “digital fingerprints” to look for by some agency, Snowden predicted.
Also on rt.com
‘It will never happen’: Snowden laughs off suggestion Julian Assange or himself would ever get Nobel Peace Prize
The invasion of privacy this practice would lead to can already
be witnessed in the burgeoning market for targeted phone hacking, in
which governments are the primary clients. The Israeli firm NSO received
a lot of bad press recently after allegations that its spy tool Pegasus
has been aimed in some countries at dissidents, investigative
journalists and other people, whose privacy in some cases is a literal
question of life and death.
Considering how big a role phones now
play in people’s lives, any vulnerability in the security of the device
is hard to underestimate, Snowden believes.
“Wherever you go,
your phone goes. It knows what you’ve bought, it knows who you talk to,
it knows what you’re interested in and has seen every photograph that
you’ve had. These are intensely personal, intensely private things,” he said.
Also on rt.com
Journos, ministers,
Khashoggi’s son & a ruler’s family on list of 50,000 possible
targets for Israeli spyware Pegasus – reports
Having a phone hacked is “like you’ve paid someone $10 million and they give you the ability to remote-control someone’s arm, and use it against” that person.
Snowden,
who became world-famous after exposing illegal mass surveillance by the
US and its allies during the Obama era, was speaking in an interview
filmed for the New Knowledge educational “marathon.” The online
event, this time marking the beginning of the academic year in Russia,
previously featured such celebrity speakers as Elon Musk.
Snowden
has been living in Russia since 2013, forced to stay in the country by
the US after his transit trip via Moscow was cut short by Washington’s
move to revoke his passport in the wake of explosive revelations. He was
eventually granted political asylum and resides somewhere in Moscow
with his wife and child.
Notorious ‘joker virus’ that subscribes you to paid services back on Android devices, Belgian police warn — RT World News
https://www.rt.com/news/532622-cyber-hack-joker-virus/
…
The following applications were noted as corrupted with the Joker virus:
- Auxiliary Message
- Element Scanner
- Fast Magic SMS
- Free CamScanner
- Go Messages
- Super Message
- Super SMS
- Travel Wallpapers
According
to cybersecurity company Quick Heal Security Lab, the malware can infiltrate your text messages, contacts, and other sensitive information
on your smartphone, and subscribe you to websites offering paid services.
“You risk a big surprise at the end of the month on your bank account or your credit card,” wrote the Belgian police.
…
US Software Firm Accuses Huawei Of Installing “Back Door” To Spy On Pakistan
https://www.nationandstate.com/2021/08/18/us-software-firm-accuses-huawei-of-installing-back-door-to-spy-on-pakistan/
Authored by Frank Fang via The Epoch Times, A U.S. software company is accusing Chinese tech giant Huawei of pressuring it to build a data “back door” into a government security project in Pakistan, according to a recent legal filing submitted at the Central…
