Imagine if someone like Lisbeth Salander, the computer hacker in the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, decided to poison New York’s water supply or tried to turn off Washington’s power grid. Would America be able to defend itself? The Obama administration isn’t sure, so it’s moving to beef up cybersecurity measures and …
Various cybersecurity acts threaten constitutional freedoms. On March 27, HR 4263: SECURE IT Act of 2012 was introduced. Now in committee, no further action was taken. On April 26, the House passed HR 3523: Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) of 2011. On June 27, …
President Obama promised “change”. But did he deliver? The war on Internet freedom was declared on his watch. Megaupload’s Kim Dotcom — the man behind one of the most well-known file sharing sites — has a message for US President Barack Obama: where is your promise to keep the Internet …
Proof that when citizens band together, meaningful change is still possible: Today at 12:56 CET, the European Parliament decided whether ACTA would be ultimately rejected or whether it would drag on into uncertainty. In a 478 to 39 vote, the Parliament decided to reject ACTA once and for all. This …
Keep the Web Open is compiling an intriguing, crowdsourced “Digital Bill of Rights.” The Digital Bill of Rights:1) The right to a free and uncensored Internet.2) The right to an open, unobstructed Internet.3) The right to equality on the Internet.4) The right to gather and participate in online activities.5) The …
A secret nanoscale “backdoor” etched into the silicon of a supposedly secure programmable chip could give cyberattackers access to classified US weapons systems, including guidance, flight control, networking, and communications systems, according to a new report by cybersecurity researchers in Britain. The Cambridge University study is apparently the first public documentation that such …
As Congress boosts spending on cybersecurity and mulls over new data safety requirements on private industry, some companies stand to get rich. Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman and other defense and tech companies have been lobbying Capitol Hill about the growing cyberthreats to national security and corporate America, but they …
It came as a surprise to some folks at a recent SXSW talk that Apple’s Siri “personal assistant” isn’t just working for us, it’s working full-time for Apple too by sending lots of our personal voice and user info to Apple to stockpile in its databases. Take a peek at Siri’s privacy policy (which, …
For our British listeners: 38 Degrees is trying to garner 175,000 signatures for their petition to David Cameron, urging him to stop plans to expand government snooping. The government has set out its new plans for the year ahead in the Queen’s Speech. It’s just what we feared: they want …
Twitter has asked a New York state judge to throw out a court order requiring it to turn over three months worth of messages posted by an Occupy Wall Street protester being prosecuted for disorderly conduct. In a motion (PDF) filed on Monday in New York City Criminal Court, Twitter …
The Federal Bureau of Investigation wants to make Facebook and other social networks easier to use for spying on suspected criminals — and it wants access ASAP. High-ranking FBI officials and other government representatives have been meeting with Internet industry leaders to ask them not to oppose a proposed law …
Last night, after nearly seven hours of debate, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 248-168. CISPA is intended to protect websites and the government from hackers by giving internet companies the authority to reveal users’ confidential records without facing legal action. The bill also allows the …
Protesters at Zuccotti Park have enough resources to satisfy a small village: hot food, live entertainment, even a library. But perhaps their most effective resource comes from a nine-foot-high pole known as the “Freedom Tower”, usually stationed at the southwest corner of the park and currently being redesigned to run …
The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to pass a reprehensible cyber-security bill this week that seeks to protect online companies—giant social media firms to data-sharing networks controlling utilities—from cyber attack. It is reprehensible because, as Democratic San Jose Rep. Zoe Lofgren said this week, it gives the federal government too much access to the private lives of every Internet user. Or as Libertarian …
This week the House of Representatives is debating CISPA, the dangerous ‘cybersecurity’ bill that threatens to decimate Internet users’ privacy in the name of security. This law gives companies the power to read users’ emails, tweets, Facebook pages, and Google searches and hand them to the government without any judicial oversight whatsoever—essentially a …