PRISM

[guinness]

BTW: starting from this post I have a 4-digit post count.

You said it's quality not quantity. Welcome to the elite.

[webfork]

BTW: starting from this post I have a 4-digit post count.

You said it's quality not quantity. Welcome to the elite.

Heh ... I've also found writing an essay in every post isn't always ideal. So amount certainly means something.

Congrats.

[Midas]

Software recommendations for all common platforms: https://pack.resetthenet.org/#protect-yourself...

[joby_toss]

Fun stuff
http://anonhq.com/smart-tv-quietly-watching/
https://twitter.com/xor/status/56435675 ... 96/photo/1

SAM.SUNG already introduced smart TV to the technology world which is so smart now that it is able to listen your side talks. We can say third person is listening your talks with the help of Samsung smart TV. Just imagine you are with your family or with your friends watching television and without your knowledge your smart TV is listening your personal talks and sends them to the third parties.

I don't have a smart tv, but I might just get one ... for my bathroom.

[billon]

All SMART TVs have Linux based soft

[joby_toss]

Hope it's not Mint!

[SYSTEM]

http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/02 ... d-at-last/

[Midas]

Yep, spooky stuff.

For once, this went straight to mainstream media -- I saw it at Reuters ("Russian researchers expose breakthrough U.S. spying program": http://reut.rs/1DyNHyP) and the Financial Times ("Kaspersky links US to spread of PC spyware across 30 countries": http://on.ft.com/1A1EGwR)...

[joby_toss]

Costin Raiu, director of Kaspersky Lab's global research and analysis team, is Romanian. The rest of the article doesn't even matter for me now.

P.S. http://rt.com/news/232795-kaspersky-hac ... -security/

[Midas]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but such issues need to be spread far and wide...

• The future of technology and entertainment is frightening
  http://www.ghacks.net/2015/02/21/the-fu ... ightening/

• How data privacy is turning into an Orwellian maze
  http://betanews.com/2015/02/16/how-data ... lian-maze/

[joby_toss]

http://news.softpedia.com/news/microsof ... 2967.shtml

Microsoft has just filed a lawsuit against the United States Justice Department, claiming that accessing user data stored in the cloud without letting customers know about it is “unconstitutional.”
Specifically, the lawsuit filed in US District Court of Seattle, claims that by accessing email and other cloud data belonging to users is not constitutional unless the customer who is being investigated is informed first, according to a report by GeekWire.
Microsoft says Section 2705(b) of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act “violates both the Fourth and the Fifth Amendment,” explaining that “people do not give up their rights when they move their private information from physical storage to the cloud. Microsoft therefore asks the Court to declare that Section 2705(b) is unconstitutional on its face.”

[Midas]

On a side note I don't know why the whistle blower (Edward Snowden) who informed the press about PRISM decided to come out.

• This is kind of old news, but I just watched Citizenfour (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4044364/) last night for the first time and was left with the impression it is a really good almost real-time document(ary) of the Snowden affair, making it recommended viewing for anyone interested in the topic. Watching Snowden articulate his reasons on camera amidst the unfolding of events really boosted my already big admiration of the guy.
  
  On a marginally related note, I just read yet another unsettling piece of tech news on Slashdot:
  
  • Bitdefender Finds 'Hypervisor Wiretap' For Reading TLS-Encrypted Communications
    https://it.slashdot.org/story/16/06/11/ ... unications

[joby_toss]

Here is a nice comment:

Yes, it is a big deal. But the key thing here is that the summary implies that this only works from the hypervisor to unwind encryption on a virtual machine which it is hosting. What this means is that the "cloud" is inherently insecure and that it cannot be secured. Something I have suspected since the "cloud" first became a thing.

[Midas]

This is funny... and scary at the same time:

• Mark Zuckerberg tapes over his webcam. Should you?
  http://gu.com/p/4mdn2/

[webfork]

Mark Zuckerberg tapes over his webcam. Should you?

When you're a billionare (or whatever he is) it makes sense to be a little more paranoid than other people. However, as I've read articles about laptop cameras getting hacked, I also cover my laptop camera.