Topic: POLICE REPORT - on September 6, 2013 at 1:48:00 PM CEST
Dutch police using sniffer rats to solve crimes
Ten brown rats have been recruited by Dutch police to help forensic firearms experts sniff out gunshot residue.
The rats have a highly developed sense of smell, and are easier and cheaper to train than dogs, said force spokesman Ed Kraszewski on Thursday.
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Topic: SECURITY - on September 6, 2013 at 1:46:00 PM CEST
Sudden spike of Tor users likely caused by one “massive” botnet
Researchers have found a new theory to explain the sudden spike in computers using the Tor anonymity network: a massive botnet that was recently updated to use Tor to communicate with its mothership.
Mevade.A, a network of infected computers dating back to at least 2009, has mainly used standard Web-based protocols to send and receive data to command and control (C&C) servers, according to researchers at security firm Fox-IT. Around the same time that Tor Project leaders began observing an unexplained doubling in Tor clients, Mevade overhauled its communication mechanism to use anonymized Tor addresses ending in .onion. In the week that has passed since Tor reported the uptick, the number of users has continued to mushroom.
arstechnica.com Cyber-thieves blamed for leap in Tor dark net use
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Topic: SECURITY - on September 6, 2013 at 1:45:00 PM CEST
Government To Release Hundreds of Documents On NSA Spying
In response to a lawsuit by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Department of Justice is preparing to release a trove of documents related to the government's secret interpretation of Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act. The declassified documents will include previously secret opinions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
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Topic: SECURITY - on September 6, 2013 at 1:44:00 PM CEST
How to remain secure against NSA surveillance
Now that we have enough details about how the NSA eavesdrops on the internet, including today's disclosures of the NSA's deliberate weakening of cryptographic systems, we can finally start to figure out how to protect ourselves.
For the past two weeks, I have been working with the Guardian on NSA stories, and have read hundreds of top-secret NSA documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden. I wasn't part of today's story – it was in process well before I showed up – but everything I read confirms what the Guardian is reporting.
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Topic: SECURITY - on September 6, 2013 at 1:40:00 PM CEST
N.S.A. Able to Foil Basic Safeguards of Privacy on Web
The National Security Agency is winning its long-running secret war on encryption, using supercomputers, technical trickery, court orders and behind-the-scenes persuasion to undermine the major tools protecting the privacy of everyday communications in the Internet age, according to newly disclosed documents.
The agency has circumvented or cracked much of the encryption, or digital scrambling, that guards global commerce and banking systems, protects sensitive data like trade secrets and medical records, and automatically secures the e-mails, Web searches, Internet chats and phone calls of Americans and others around the world, the documents show.
nytimes.com Revealed: How US and UK spy agencies defeat internet privacy and security Revealed: The NSA’s Secret Campaign to Crack, Undermine Internet Security Snowden leaks: US and UK 'crack online encryption'
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