Bought a Samsung computer recently? Might want to run a malware check on it as it appears they may be intentionally installing a keylogger on it without telling you. Security consultant Mohamed Hassan has written an article for Network World that explains how he discovered the software . . . → Read More: [UPDATED] Samsung appears to be installing keyloggers on new computers they sell.
The U.S. Government has been pushing what they consider a better passport since August 2007. It contains a contactless smart card in the back cover that contains the same data about you as what is printed in the passport itself. The idea is that this is supposed to make passport forgery impossible for the evil-doers . . . → Read More: The security chip in that fancy new U.S. Passport? It’s made in Thailand.
A Brownsville high school teacher has been suspended for 30 days without pay after she appeared in a picture someone else posted on Facebook that included a male stripper at a bridal shower.
One of the features of the newer iPhone’s and Google Android based cellphones allow the phone, and any applications you’re running on it, to determine where you are to varying degrees of precision. Using a combination of cell towers (500 meters), Wi-Fi (30 meters), and GPS (10 meters) and various software packages that make use . . . → Read More: Wired’s Mathew Honan experiments with Location-Aware software.
The U.K. has a shitload of closed circuit television cameras (CCTV) almost everywhere you go. One local artist who realized that he was monitored almost constantly by the police decided to see how long it would take them to notice an 8 foot tall alien wandering on an empty street so he got some friends . . . → Read More: This is what a surveillance society looks like.
The new FISA “compromise” bill that the Senate is about to pass makes me angry just to think about, but deep down I’ve long suspected that our government pretty much spies on us with impunity already. This Baltimore Sun news article pretty much confirms that suspicion:
This article from ArsTechnica about an interview the Director of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell, gave to The New Yorker will send a few shivers down your spine:
US intel chief wants carte blanche to peep all ‘Net traffic – ArsTechnica.com
Do you post on blogs? Send jokes to colleagues? Say anything at all that might be construed by anyone as objectionable?
Well, from now on you had better do it under your own name and not a pseudonym or there could be fines and/or jailtime in your future (read the Cnet . . . → Read More: Being “annoying” online - now against the law.
I have been opposed to the Patriot Act ever since its inception. Here is just another news item to support that view. Proponents of the Patriot Act would have you believe that it is only used for “safety” purposes and only targets suspicious behavior. First of all, who gets to define what constitutes “suspicious” . . . → Read More: Patriot Act Shenanigans
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