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Tech Giants Dump Data in Trust-Rebuilding Bid June 17, 2013 
In the wake of recent revelations that the government has been tapping their networks to monitor users, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft in recent days have all published more information about those monitoring requests. Facebook, for example, reported that for the six months ending December 31, 2012, the number of user-data requests it received from U.S. government entities was between 9,000 and 10,000.
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Tech-Hungry 'Crazy Ants'? Not So Fast June 17, 2013 
To read some reports in the tech press lately, one might think there's an electronics-hungry menace from South America on a march of conquest through the Southeastern United States and Texas, leaving a trail of destroyed smartphones and other precious devices in its wake. It's known as the "crazy ant," and recent reports of its arrival derive from an article published in April.
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Hackers Find WordPress Easy Pickings June 17, 2013 
Adobe Reader and Oracle Java aren't alone in having a bull's eye painted on their code. WordPress also is becoming a popular target for Internet outlaws. It's quite a large target, too. About 18 percent of the sites on the Web -- about 60 million of them -- use WordPress. One reason WordPress is attracting hacker attention is that it's so easy to write plug-ins for it.
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Up, Up and Away: Google Balloons to Beam Internet Access June 17, 2013 
Regardless of how this turns out, at least they nailed the name. Google is launching about 30 superpressure balloons that will beam Internet access back to the ground. With equal parts brevity and self-deprecation, the effort has been dubbed "Project Loon." Taking flight from New Zealand, the balloons will sail around the world on a controlled path.
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Pondering Life in a PRISM World June 17, 2013
Not a single week goes by here in the Linux blogosphere without some assortment of news and events to keep life interesting. It's not often, however, that something comes along with the magnitude of PRISM. Linux Girl was comfortably ensconced on her favorite barstool when the news broke down at the Punchy Penguin Saloon, and it's been chaos ever since.
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Ending the US' Cyberwar Against Its Citizens June 17, 2013 
I'm into fixing problems -- in fact, for much of my life I've been employed as someone who is brought in to fix a difficult problem. I don't see much point in just complaining -- either try to fix it, ignore it, or move someplace where it doesn't affect you. The current problem is that the U.S. appears to be conducting a cyberwar against its citizens.
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From the Inevitable Files: Lawmakers Scrutinize Snowden-China Connections June 14, 2013 
Well, this was bound to happen. U.S. lawmakers said Thursday that the House Intelligence Committee -- the same House Intelligence Committee that trashed Chinese telecommunications companies last year -- will conduct a "thorough scrub" of connections between China and Eric Snowden. Snowden -- a "traitor," according to Committee chairman Mike Rogers, R.-Mich. -- is now believed to be in Hong Kong.
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Google Outs Iran for Pre-Election Phishing Expedition June 13, 2013 
Google announced it has been tracking and disrupting "multiple email-based phishing campaigns" in Iran. The campaigns, which have been going on for nearly three weeks, are targeting the accounts of tens of thousands of Iranian users. Google posits that the phishing is related to the Iranian presidential elections, which will be held Friday.
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Tech Titans Speak Out for More PRISM Transparency June 12, 2013 
After initially denying involvement in the U.S. National Security Agency's highly controversial PRISM program revealed last week, Google and other tech giants that were named as participants now admit their involvement and are calling for greater transparency. Google, for instance, is requesting that it be allowed to publish more data about the NSA requests it receives.
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Iceland Won't Grant Snowden Asylum - Until He Gets There June 12, 2013 
As far as Iceland goes, Edward Snowden may be left out in the cold. Snowden, the whistleblower who made international headlines after leaking secrets about the U.S. National Security Agency's PRISM program, is believed to currently be in Hong Kong. Given Hong Kong's history of extraditing people to the United States, speculation has turned to where Snowden might go after Hong Kong.
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EC Mulls Potential US Threat to Europeans' Privacy June 11, 2013 
The European Commission is concerned that U.S. data collection practices such as PRISM may pose a threat to Europeans' privacy rights. Commission Vice President Viviane Reding, who is in charge of justice, plans to raise the issue at an EU-U.S. meeting later this week in Dublin. That announcement comes after last week's revelation of the headline-grabbing PRISM program.
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Google Now First in Line to Acquire Waze June 10, 2013 
Google appears to have supplanted Facebook -- which had supplanted Apple -- as the likely candidate to acquire Israeli start-up Waze. Google is reportedly prepared to pony up $1.3 billion for the company. Last month, reports surfaced that Facebook was working on a $1 billion deal for Waze. And that was only after Apple, in late 2012, offered $500 million for the company.
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Cybersecurity Tops the Agenda in U.S.-China Weekend Talks June 10, 2013 
Among the issues on the agenda for the talks over the weekend between China's President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Obama were cybersecurity and attacks on U.S. targets by hackers based in China. "The technical means to validate true reduction in cyberoffense are not very good since the advantage belongs overwhelmingly to the attacker in cyberspace," noted FireEye CTO Ashar Aziz.
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Latest Wrinkle in Data Security: Time Cloaking June 08, 2013 
If a message isn't read, does it exist? Bishop Berkeley would say no, and a temporal cloak that creates a gap in time during the transmission of a message might prove him right. Researchers at Purdue University have created such a cloak: It can hide about 46 percent of the time required to transmit data over a fiber optic cable, making half the transmission invisible.
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Tech Industry Could Pay Stiff Price for PRISM June 07, 2013 
Technology firms in the United States might be impacted adversely by the National Security Agency's controversial PRISM program. Classified documents about the program leaked to The Washington Post and The Guardian indicate that major U.S. high-tech companies provide it data. This data is the major source of raw intelligence for the NSA's analytical reports, according to the agency.
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Early Salvos Launched Ahead of Cybersecurity Talks June 07, 2013 
President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping will soon meet to talk cybersecurity, but plenty of people on either side are talking already. A day after China's claim that it has data proving U.S. hackers have been attacking the Middle Kingdom, U.S. officials say Chinese hackers orchestrated "a massive cyberespionage operation against the 2008 presidential campaigns" of Obama and McCain.
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Feds Seek Private-Sector Cybersecurity Help June 07, 2013 
Private companies that do business with the U.S. government have a big stake in how agencies regulate the cybersecurity elements of federal contracts. As cyberthreats increase, the government is attempting to keep pace by upgrading cyber-requirements. The government has now launched a program that gives the private sector an opportunity to shape the future design and scope of those requirements.
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Microsoft, FBI Flatten Monster Botnet June 07, 2013 
A coalition comprising Microsoft, the FBI, and financial-industry and tech firms has taken out more than 1,400 botnets that used the Citadel Trojan to steal victims' online banking information and information about their identities. Microsoft filed a civil suit last week against 82 alleged botnet operators and cut communications between the botnets and millions of infected PCs they controlled.
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China Jumps the Gun on Cybersecurity Talks June 06, 2013 
This coming weekend's cybersecurity talks may have already started. China's state-run newspaper ran an article claiming that the government has "mountains of data" proving it has been the victim cyberespionage at the hands of the United States. The report precedes the upcoming landmark meeting between Chinese president Xi Jinping and President Obama; cybersecurity is expected to be a key talking point.
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Government Prying Into Verizon Customer Records Exposed June 06, 2013 
The National Security Agency reportedly has been collecting the phone records of millions of Verizon users in the United States under a secret court order. Specifically, Verizon has been required to provide an ongoing account of all telephone calls on its systems, including those inside the U.S. and between the U.S. and other countries.
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