- PRISM Oct.16, 2014
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/the-nsa-files
Prism is a top-secret $20 million a year NSA surveillance program, offering the agency access to information on its targets from the servers of some of the USA’s biggest technology companies: Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, AOL, PalTalk and Yahoo. NSA and GCHQ a UK spy agency have been undertaking a systematic effort to undermine encryption, technology which underpins the safety and security of the internet, including email accounts, commerce, banking and official records these actions leave all internet users more vulnerable. Prism can access information “directly from the servers” of US companies a claim that the NSA denies. Other sources claim that the NSA has paid “prism providers” and even that Microsoft helped with the process. GCHQ’s stated goal is to “Master the Internet”, using a clause of a law passed in 2000 for individual warranted surveillance, known as RIPA.
- FBI DIRECTOR ON PRIVACY ELECTRONIC SURVEILLANCE Oct. 12,2014
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fbi-director-james-comey-on-privacy-and-surveillance/
James Comey director of the FBI says, “The Internet is the most dangerous parking lot imaginable.” Which means that, online one could get mugged in ways that you never saw coming. One example to that helps explain what James Comey is referring to is when JPMorgan Chase, the nation’s largest bank, admitted that its system was looted for weeks by computer criminals who stole personal information from 83 million customers. This interview started out with what the FBI director thought of terrorism, but the conversation led to a surprising responses. All in all for the top cop of the nation it seems he does question the methods of privacy and surveillance. But check out the video the get the full details.
- South Korea Tries To Ease Cyber Surveillance Fears Oct. 17,2014
http://news.yahoo.com/south-korea-tries-ease-cyber-surveillance-fears-120154122–finance.html
Prosecutors last month began a cyber investigation team after President Park Geun-hye spoke out against online rumors. The investigation set South Korea in confusion and fear of their government snooping among users and providers of online services. South Korea began to worry even more after a domestic chat app lost customers to a foreign rival because of the fear that prosecutors in one the world’s most wired countries might get access to online conversations. In order to ease the country Prime Minister Chung Hong-won reassured the public about online privacy, saying “the government would only seek monitoring rights in special circumstances, such an investigation of murder, human trafficking or insurrection.”
- Finding a Video Poker Bug Made These Guys Rich—Then Vegas Made Them Pay Oct.7,2014
http://www.wired.com/2014/10/cheating-video-poker/
So this one is kind of a cheat, but it made me remember about the movie 21, where In order to be accepted into Harvard School of Medicine, Ben Campbell will have to save $300,000 for the course. Problem is Ben can’t get this amount of money. But impressing Prof. Micky Rosa with his skills in his math he’s invited to become a member of a small group who are planning to walk out of Vegas with millions, thanks to Ben’s card counting. Ben found a glitch witch is the kind of thing gamblers dream of, casinos dread, and Nevada regulators have an entire auditing regime to prevent. In this article John Kane was hitting the jackpot due to the fact that he’d found a bug in the slot, but his luck changes when the casino’s surveillance security catches his secret.
- Surveillance-Proof Oct 17,2014
http://www.city-journal.org/2014/eon1017jm.html
With new phones coming out and the latest apps to install, we still question who and what can access our privacy such as our emails, phone calls, banking info, etc. But according to Judith Miller “Technology companies take heat for making phones the government can’t tap.” So maybe buying a new phone now isn’t such a bad idea. New York and Washington law enforcement officials ranted and complained about the upgrades Google and Apple created by selling cell phones and other devices that cannot be accessed by the government and warned these major companies that such technology could jeopardize public safety.