Fertile period

The NSA is not the only government agency asking tech companies for help in cracking technology to access user data. Sources say the FBI has a history of requesting digital backdoors, which are generally understood as a hidden vulnerability in a program that would, in theory, let the agency peek into suspects' computers and communications. In 2005, when Microsoft was about to launch BitLocker , its Windows software to encrypt and lock hard drives, the company approached the NSA, its British counterpart the GCHQ and the FBI, among other government and law-enforcement agencies. Microsoft's goal was twofold: get feedback from the agencies, and sell BitLocker to them. See also: Is It the Dawn of the Encryption App? But the FBI, concerned about its ability to fight crime — specifically, child pornography — apparently repeatedly asked Microsoft to put a backdoor in the software. A backdoor — or trapdoor — is a secret vulnerability that can be exploited to break or … [Read more...] about Did the FBI Lean On Microsoft for Access to Its Encryption Software?

When Lavabit — an email service that National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden used — suspended service last week amid hints that it had received a government demand for information, a competing service called Silent Circle made a draconian decision: to obliterate all of its customers' stored email. The episode pointed out two fundamental weaknesses in email. First, even if an email service encrypts messages for secrecy, as Lavabit and Silent Circle did, the email headers and routing protocols reveal who the senders and receivers are, and that information can be valuable in its own right. And second, the passcodes used as keys to decrypt messages can be requested by the government (if held by the email company) or simply stolen by sophisticated malware. When email was created 40 years ago, security or anonymity wasn't part of the design. The routing and labeling protocols plainly state what computer sent it or forwarded it, what computer received it, and what time all this … [Read more...] about Why Email Can’t Be Completely Private

Communications Minister Paul Fletcher last week put forward Australia's new Online Safety Bill, which the government touted would further empower the eSafety Commissioner to request the removal of harmful material from websites and social media platforms, as well as introduce minimum standards for service providers to comply with. Free PDF Australia’s encryption laws: An insider’s guide Australia now has world-first encryption laws. This guide explains what the laws can do, what they cannot do, and how Australia ended up here. Read More The Online Safety Bill 2021 entered Parliament on Wednesday , eight business days after consultation on the draft legislation closed. Submissions made to the draft consultation are yet to be released, but Fletcher said it has received 370 submissions. The Bill is before the House of Representatives and was referred to the Senate Standing Committees on Environment and Communications last Thursday. Submissions to the … [Read more...] about Google joins call for clarification on much of Australia’s ‘rushed’ Online Safety Bill

Two ancient stone coffins that may have once held the remains of a husband and wife have been rediscovered in a wildlife park near the Israeli city of Tel Aviv. They are thought to be about 1,800 years old, dating from the period when the Roman Empire ruled the region. The stone coffins, or sarcophagi, were found mid-February, hidden near enclosures for giraffes, elephants and a bird nursery. Some of the park's older staff recalled that the coffins had first been discovered about 25 years ago during the construction of a new parking lot. But they were dug up, moved elsewhere at the site, and then forgotten again, until they were rediscovered during work on a new extension for the park's animal hospital. "They are two matching coffins … decorated identically with garlands and discs," Uzi Rothstein of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), said in a statement. The similarities of the coffins is what led Rothstein and his colleagues to speculate they belonged to a couple." … [Read more...] about 2 ancient stone coffins for husband and wife unearthed at Israeli wildlife park

Logan and Jake Paul moved to Los Angeles in 2014 , at the height of Vine’s heyday, and not long after found themselves crammed into an apartment at 1600 Vine Road with other young creators hoping to make it big in America’s entertainment epicenter. Over the next few years, they became world-renowned celebrities (often for the wrong reasons), moved into gigantic mansions, and threw the types of obnoxious parties high school kids worshipped and neighbors dreaded. Now, years after they both moved into their own mansions in the wealthiest part of the city, the brothers have independently decided to leave the place they’ve called home. “I think I got the bug that’s bit everyone leaving LA,” Logan Paul said on his podcast, Impaulsive , in February. “It’s the closing of one chapter and the beginning of a new one. There’s a lot of senior vibes around the house lately.” They’re not the only ones, either. YouTube is full of videos posted over the last several months of creators … [Read more...] about Los Angeles’ creator community is starting to move out