government
USA Freedom Act is just the beginning of the fight for privacy
The US Senate voted for the passing of the USA Freedom Act on Tuesday, and President Obama signed it into law later the same day. So, how will this impact the surveillance …
Section 215 of the Patriot Act expired last night
A small, perhaps temporary, but important victory has been won by privacy advocates today, as the US Senate has allowed three sections of the USA PATRIOT Act to expire.Among …
If we want strong encryption, we’ll have to fight for it
As digital rights lawyer and special counsel to the Electronic Frontier Foundation Marcia Hofmann correctly noted in her keynote at Hack in the Box Amsterdam 2015 on Thursday, …
Reactions to the IRS hack that impacted 100,000 people
Cybercriminals were able to successfully steal tax forms full of personal information of more than 100,000 taxpayers through IRS’ Get Transcript application. This data …
New UK law says GCHQ agents cannot be prosecuted for hacking
In a job posting published last week, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) – the UK version of US’ National Security Agency – openly announced …
US House of Representatives votes to stop NSA’s bulk data collection
The highly debated USA FREEDOM Act, a bill whose purpose is “to rein in the dragnet collection of data by the NSA and other government agencies, increase transparency of …
US Passport Agency contractor stole applicants’ data to steal their identities
Three women from Houston, Texas, stand accused of engaging in an identity theft scheme in which one of them, a contract employee of the Department of State Passport Agency, …
Cyber extortionists are hitting hedge funds
Hedge funds are increasingly targeted by cyber extortionists, John Carlin, US Assistant Attorney General for National Security, has warned the audience at the SALT hedge fund …
Man charged with attempted spear-phishing attack on U.S. Department of Energy
An indictment is charging a former employee of the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) with a total of four felony offenses in …
Data privacy endangered by international trade agreements
You might or might not know that some countries – especially some European ones – have (or are working on) strong data protection laws.What most people don’t …
Court declares NSA’s domestic phone metadata collection program illegal
It took nearly two years, but three judges of a federal appeals court in New York have unanimously ruled that the bulk collection of telephone metadata associated with phone …
Researchers create searchable database of intelligence operators
The researchers behind Transparency Toolkit, a venture whose goal is to develop source software to collect and analyze publicly available data on surveillance and human rights …