How Police Secretly Took Over a Global Phone Network for Organized Crime

Police monitored a hundred million encrypted messages sent through Encrochat, a network used by career criminals to discuss drug deals, murders, and extortion plots.

Something wasn't right. Starting earlier this year, police kept arresting associates of Mark, a UK-based alleged drug dealer. Mark took the security of his operation seriously, with the gang using code names to discuss business on custom, encrypted phones made by a company called Encrochat. For legal reasons, Motherboard is referring to Mark using a pseudonym.

Because the messages were encrypted on the devices themselves, police couldn't tap the group's phones or intercept messages as authorities normally would.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/3aza95/how-police-took-over-encrochat-hacked

Did a Chinese Hack Kill Canada’s Greatest Tech Company?

Nortel was once a world leader in wireless technology. Then came a hack and the rise of Huawei.

The documents began arriving in China at 8:48 a.m. on a Saturday in April 2004. There were close to 800 of them: PowerPoint presentations from customer meetings, an analysis of a recent sales loss, design details for an American communications network. Others were technical, including source code that represented some of the most sensitive information owned by Nortel Networks Corp., then one of the world’s largest companies.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-07-01/did-china-steal-canada-s-edge-in-5g-from-nortel

https://www.assemblymag.com/blogs/14-assembly-blog/post/90631-did-outsourcing-and-corporate-espionage-kill-nortel

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/former-nortel-exec-warns-against-working-with-huawei-1.1137006

#huawei #nortel #canada #china #industrial #espionage #telecom

Enhancing digital privacy by hiding images from AI

Researchers develop a new technique that will keep your online photos safe from facial recognition algorithms. The research, which has been ongoing for more than six months, is targeted at countering the facial-recognition algorithms of big tech firms such as Facebook and Google. Professor Kankanhalli and her team from NUS Computer Science has developed a technique that safeguards sensitive information in photos by making subtle visual distortion in the images that are almost imperceptible to humans but render selected features undetectable by known algorithms.

https://news.nus.edu.sg/research/enhancing-digital-privacy-hiding-images-ai

#AI #facialRecognition

How our data is used and misused online

In 2020 advertising and data mining is everywhere. Everyday our interactions with the web be it shopping or browsing social media, our data is being collected and analysed for the sole purpose of financial gain and controlling our behavior. If we look at data as a currency you can see the value of it to companies, the more data companies have on us the more our habits can be tracked and therefore we can be targeted more accurately.

To understand how our data is used we first must look at how companies collect our data and sell to us. One of the most common ways companies collect our data is when we hand it over willingly. We may not realise we do this but when we download apps or sign up to websites we accept terms and conditions and in turn allow our data to be collected. This is often true of ‘free services’ which aren’t always free.

https://medium.com/@ronanosint/how-our-data-is-used-and-misused-online-650f513ce623

#privacy

https://www.nitter.net/topjohnwu/status/1278849731305672705

#safetynet #root #bootloader #magisk

https://www.nitter.net/topjohnwu/status/1278850785430786049

#safetynet #root #bootloader #magisk

App Manager v2.5.6

- [Feature] Batch operations in the main window: clear app data, disable run in background, disable/kill/uninstall apps (click on the app icon to select)
- [Feature] Full support of Blocker's exported files which was broken due to a bug on Blocker app
- [Feature] Reimplementation of blocking activities, receivers, services and providers
- [Fix] Remove ConstraintLayout dependency therefore a potential decrease in app size
- [Fix] Fix duplicate app usage warning in the App Info window
- [Fix] Fix crash when an app icon is not found in App Details window

Note for root users: In order to ensure that the previous blocking rules are preserved with the new blocking implementation, this update reads from the previous rules consequently increasing the loading time in the main window. This feature will be removed in the next release but can still be simulated by applying global rules in settings.

SHA-256 checksum: 4bc306bc6f9b7d8c9d59e7f15bee1595d2d0eab07f75e2cef2def57ae2a86158

#Changelog: v1.0.3

1. Optimized memory requirements
2. Reduced APK size by 45%
3. Added app sorting & filter
4. Added single click de-nuke option
5. Added option to exclude system app from nuke it.
6. Added in-app updater
7. Fixed cache residual issue
8. UI improvements & minor bugs

@AuroraOSS

Netmarketshare: Chrome now officially has more than 70% of the desktop browser market.

Netmarketshare has released its market share report for June 2020.

In this month’s report, Windows 10’s share is 58.93%, up from last month’s 57.83%. Windows 7 share continues to decline from 24.28% to 23.35%. Windows overall maintained its share at 86.69%.

macOS share dropped from 9.68% share to 9.22%, while Linux share continued its mysterious increase from 3.17% to 3.61%. ChromeOS only has 0.41% share.

https://mspoweruser.com/netmarketshare-chrome-now-officially-has-more-than-70-of-the-desktop-browser-market/

#google #chrome

Infosec community disagrees with changing 'black hat' term due to racial stereotyping

A Google security researcher withdrew from the Black Hat security conference and asked the community to stop using the 'black hat' term.

The information security (infosec) community has angrily reacted today to calls to abandon the use of the 'black hat' and 'white hat' terms, citing that the two, and especially 'black hat,' have nothing to do with racial stereotyping.

Discussions about the topic started late last night after David Kleidermacher, VP of Engineering at Google, and in charge of Android Security and the Google Play Store, withdrew from a scheduled talk he was set to give in August at the Black Hat USA 2020 security conference.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/infosec-community-disagrees-with-changing-black-hat-term-due-to-racial-stereotyping/

#google #infosec #blackhat

Police Used Smart Streetlight Footage to Investigate Protesters

After a series of protests calling for police reform, the San Diego Police Department accessed the city’s network of streetlight cameras at least 35 times in search of evidence for criminal cases against protesters who police believed vandalized property or threw objects.

In late May and early June, San Diego experienced a series of protests over the unequal and unjust treatment of Black Americans that were at times tense and violent and that led to arrests. Over a five-day period, investigators accessed the city’s network of streetlight cameras at least 35 times in search of evidence for criminal cases.

https://www.voiceofsandiego.org/topics/government/police-used-smart-streetlight-footage-to-investigate-protesters/

#us #protest #surveillance

Kyrgyzstan internet law raises fears for free speech in COVID fog

Critics say bill, ostensibly aimed at false virus info, would enable corruption

ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Ignoring official warnings, hundreds of protestors marched through Kyrgyzstan's capital Bishkek earlier this week in a last-ditch attempt to stop legislation that would significantly restrict free speech online.

Some say the law could do much more than that -- potentially becoming a tool to block allegations of a murky web of corruption.

The proposed legislation, which was passed by Kyrgyzstan's parliament on June 25 and now awaits President Sooronbai Jeenbekov's signature, would allow the government to censor online information it deems "false" or "inaccurate" by cutting off access to websites and closing social media accounts without a court ruling. It would also require internet service providers to collect verified information on users and store it for six months.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Kyrgyzstan-internet-law-raises-fears-for-free-speech-in-COVID-fog

#asia #kyrgyzstan #protest #censorship #freespeech #privacy

Microsoft’s Free Rein Over EU Staff Data Sparks Privacy Warning

Microsoft Corp.’s licensing agreements with European Union authorities gave the U.S. tech giant free rein to oversee data processing activities for more than 45,000 EU officials, the institution’s own privacy watchdog warned.

The EU’s in-house data protection regulator said in its findings of a probe that institutions’ lack of control “over which sub-processors Microsoft used and lack of meaningful audit rights also presented significant issues.”

EU institutions should “carefully consider any purchases of Microsoft products and services or new uses of existing products and services until after they have analyzed and implemented the recommendations” of the European Data Protection Supervisor, the watchdog said.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-02/microsoft-s-free-rein-over-eu-staff-data-sparks-privacy-warning

#eu #microsoft #privacy

Amazon, Google Face Tough Rules in India’s E-Commerce Draft

India’s latest e-commerce policy draft includes steps that could help local startups and impose government oversight on how companies handle data.

The government has been working on the policy for at least two years amid calls to reduce the dominance of global tech giants like Amazon.com Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Facebook Inc.

Under rules laid out in a 15-page draft seen by Bloomberg, the government would appoint an e-commerce regulator to ensure the industry is competitive with broad access to information resources. The policy draft was prepared by the Ministry of Commerce’s Department for Promotion of Industry & Internal Trade.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-04/amazon-google-face-tough-rules-in-india-s-e-commerce-draft

#asia #india #ecommerce #amazon #google

Exclusive: Telegram to temporarily refuse data requests from Hong Kong courts amid security law ‘terrorism’ fears

Messaging app Telegram has told HKFP that it will temporarily refuse data requests from the Hong Kong authorities until an international consensus emerges over recent political changes. It comes as Hongkongers abandon certain messaging and social media platforms following the enactment of the controversial national security law last month.

“We understand the importance of protecting the right to privacy of our Hong Kong users under these circumstances,” Mike Ravdonikas of Telegram told HKFP on Sunday. “Accordingly, Telegram does not intend to process any data requests related to its Hong Kong users until an international consensus is reached in relation to the ongoing political changes in the city.”

https://hongkongfp.com/2020/07/05/exclusive-telegram-to-temporarily-refuse-data-requests-from-hong-kong-courts-amid-security-law-terrorism-row/

#asia #china #hongkong #privacy #surveillance

How fake accounts constantly manipulate what you see on social media – and what you can do about it

Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram started out as a way to connect with friends, family and people of interest. But anyone on social media these days knows it’s increasingly a divisive landscape.

Undoubtedly you’ve heard reports that hackers and even foreign governments are using social media to manipulate and attack you. You may wonder how that is possible. As a professor of computer science who researches social media and security, I can explain – and offer some ideas for what you can do about it.

https://theconversation.com/how-fake-accounts-constantly-manipulate-what-you-see-on-social-media-and-what-you-can-do-about-it-139610

#socmed

Geofence warrants to be tested in Virginia bank robbery case

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — It was a terrifying bank robbery: Demanding cash in a handwritten note, a man waved a gun, threatened to kill a teller’s family, ordered employees and customers onto the floor and escaped with $195,000.

Surveillance video gave authorities a lead, showing a man holding a cellphone outside the Call Federal Credit Union in Midlothian, Virginia, on May 20, 2019. So like a growing number of law enforcement agencies, they got a court-approved “geofence” search warrant, seeking the location history of any devices in the area at the time.

Google is served with the vast majority of these warrants because it stores information from millions of devices in a massive database known as Sensorvault. If your Android phone or iPhone has Location History enabled, this is where your data is tracked and stored.

https://apnews.com/ae0dbee812feefe4f54d3539885f9f54

#google #privacy #geofence

Google Maps releases new features to help [and spy] people navigate coronavirus hot spots

Google Maps has launched new features to help users safely get around during the coronavirus pandemic.
More than 11 million people worldwide have contracted the virus, according to Johns Hopkins University, and 500,000 have died.
Countries and regions have implemented varying restrictions, depending on the severity of their outbreaks, and that has complicated travel.

"COVID-19 has certainly impacted the way that we move around in the world," Google Maps product management director Ramesh Nagarajan said in a news release in June.
"As cities and countries across the globe adapt, we're committed to bringing the most pertinent information right to your fingertips. So when you're ready and able to, you can safely venture out," Nagarajan said.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/04/us/google-maps-coronavirus-warning-trnd/index.html

#google #gmaps

What Does 1GB of Mobile Data Cost in Every Country?

Billions of people around the world rely on their mobile phones every day.

Even in a saturated market, mobile networks have continued to expand their reach. In the last five years alone, almost one billion additional people have gained access to mobile data services.

Despite the growing prevalence of these networks worldwide, the cost of gaining access can vary greatly from country to country—particularly when it comes to the price of mobile data.

Today’s chart uses figures from Cable.co.uk to showcase the average cost of one gigabyte (GB) of mobile data in 155 different countries and jurisdictions. Despite the vast global reach of the mobile economy, it’s clear it still has a long way to go to reach true accessibility.

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cost-of-mobile-data-worldwide/

#internet #mobile #datacap #datacaps

Facebook, Twitter, Google Face Free-Speech Test in Hong Kong

New national-security law means authorities can ask companies to delete users or their content

HONG KONG—U.S. technology titans face a looming test of their free-speech credentials in Hong Kong as China’s new national-security law for the city demands local authorities take measures to supervise and regulate its uncensored internet.

Facebook Inc. and its Instagram service, Twitter Inc. and YouTube, a unit of Alphabet Inc.’s Google, operate freely in the city even as they have been shut out or opted out of the mainland’s tightly controlled internet, which uses the “Great Firewall” to censor information.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-twitter-google-face-free-speech-test-in-hong-kong-11593790205

#asia #china #hongkong #freespeech #censorship

UN-Tencent partnership raises questions of censorship and surveillance

Chinese tech sector has poor human rights reputation

At the start of April, the U.N. and Chinese technology business Tencent Holdings announced a partnership to host thousands of online conversations using Tencent's videoconferencing software, in part to ask what the world should look like in 25 years.

This sounds modern and optimistic, but the deal risks involving the U.N. in the controversial Chinese tech sector, where government intrusion through electronic surveillance is rife and censorship reigns.

These U.N. conversations are bound to touch on explosive topics -- freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the benefits and downsides of different forms of government. But on Tencent's social media app WeChat, rather than the VooV platform used for the U.N., these discussions might not be possible.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Opinion/UN-Tencent-partnership-raises-questions-of-censorship-and-surveillance

#un #censorship #surveillance #tencent #wechat