Monday, 2. September 2013

EU plans to fit all cars with speed limiters


Under the proposals new cars would be fitted with cameras that could read road speed limit signs and automatically apply the brakes when this is exceeded.

Patrick McLoughlin, the Transport Secretary, is said to be opposed to the plans, which could also mean existing cars are sent to garages to be fitted with the speed limiters, preventing them from going over 70mph.

telegraph.co.uk

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'Anonymous' to Reg hack: We know SEA leaders' names


Following the Syrian Electronic Army's (SEA's) attack on a Melbourne IT reseller which resulted in the temporary compromise of domain name records for targets as diverse as The New York Times and Twitter, a group claiming association with Anonymous now says it has compromised SEA databases and servers.

As first reported here (in French with NSFW images) and here by Brian Krebs, the attackers say they have compromised SEA servers, obtained members' names along with user IDs and passwords, and have copied gigabytes of SEA data.

theregister.co.uk

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Stork detained in Egypt on suspicion of spying


The bird was put behind bars after a man fishing in the Nile in Qena, some 280 miles south-east of Cairo, spotted an electronic device attached to its feathers.

Thinking it was an undercover agent, he captured the stork and took it to a police station near his home, said Mohammed Kamal, head of security in the Qena region.

Puzzled officers examined the bird, fearing the gadget was a bomb or spying equipment, and then called in veterinary experts.

sky.com

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Snowden-Dokumente: Extremisten wollten US-Geheimdienste unterwandern


Wer sich bei der CIA bewirbt, wird durchleuchtet. Bei diesen Hintergrundchecks tauchen laut "Washington Post" immer wieder Verbindungen zu Terroristen und feindlichen Geheimdiensten auf. Wie Papiere des Whistleblowers Snowden belegen, hat jeder fünfte suspekte Bewerber solche Kontakte.

Washington - Nur zu gern wüssten Terrorgruppen und feindliche Geheimdienste, was in den US-Spionagezentralen vor sich geht. Dazu versuchen diese offenbar regelmäßig, eigene Leute bei CIA, NSA und Co. einzuschleusen. Die "Washington Post" liefert nun eine grobe Einschätzung der Dimension dieser Infiltrierungsversuche.

spiegel.de

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Britain named the European capital of drug addiction


This country is now the “addictions capital of Europe”, according to the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), the think tank established by Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary.

The abuse of drugs and alcohol costs the nation a total of £36 billion annually with an “epidemic of drink-related conditions” and an emerging problem from other substances which are currently technically legal.

Christian Guy, the director of the CSJ, said: “While our addiction problem damages the economy, it is the human consequences that present the real tragedy.

telegraph.co.uk

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Drug Agents Use Vast Phone Trove, Eclipsing N.S.A.’s


For at least six years, law enforcement officials working on a counternarcotics program have had routine access, using subpoenas, to an enormous AT&T database that contains the records of decades of Americans’ phone calls — parallel to but covering a far longer time than the National Security Agency’s hotly disputed collection of phone call logs.

nytimes.com Synopsis of the Hemisphere Project

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"Hemisphere Project": US-Drogenbehörde nutzt größere Telefondatenbank als NSA


Die US amerikanische Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) und das Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) haben 2007 Hemisphere ins Leben gerufen. In Zusammenarbeit mit dem US amerikanischen Provider AT&T erlaubt das Programm den Mitarbeitern der DEA und anderen Behörden auf alle Verbindungsdaten von Telefongesprächen zurückzugreifen, die über AT&T Switches liefen. So zeigen Präsentationsfolien, die der New York Times durch Friedensaktivisten Drew Hendricks zur Verfügung gestellt wurden, dass AT&T seit 1987 alle Verbindungsdaten aus den eigenen Netzen vorhält und täglich etwa 4 Milliarden Datensätze dazukommen.

netzpolitik.org spiegel.de

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We interviewed the guy who prank-called the NSA


The NSA is in dire need of customer service training — at least in the case of Bahram Sadeghi, a Dutch-Iranian filmmaker who decided to call the surveillance agency for “help” after one of his e-mails was accidentally deleted. In a three-minute exchange with NSA spokespeople, Sadeghi manages to confound one with his request (you can almost hear the relief in her voice when Sadeghi asks to speak to someone else) and gets a curt reply from another.

washingtonpost.com

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Sunday, 1. September 2013

Winners of the Red Bull Illume Photo Contest 2013


The winners have just been announced in the 3rd edition of the Red Bull Illume Image Quest photo competition. The overall winner, top 10 category winners and top 50 finalists were unveiled at a ceremony in Hong Kong earlier today. The contest invited photographers to submit images of the world of action and adventure sports in one of 10 categories, including Energy, Illumination, Sequence, and Experimental (where digital manipulation is allowed).

Scott Serfas

theatlantic.com redbullillume.com

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Fukushima radiation levels 18 times higher than previously thought


Radiation levels 18 times higher than previously reported have been found near a water storage tank at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant , prompting fresh concern over safety at the wrecked facility.

The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), said radiation near the bottom of the tank measured 1,800 millisieverts an hour – high enough to kill an exposed person in four hours.

Tepco said water levels inside the tank had not changed, indicating there had not been a leak. But the firm said it had yet to discover the cause of the radiation spike.

theguardian.com

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Hallo NSA, können Sie meine E-Mail wiederherstellen?


Sie haben eine wichtige E-Mail unwiederbringlich gelöscht? Da könnten doch US-Geheimdienste helfen. Ein niederländischer Journalist ruft einfach die NSA-Zentrale an, bittet um ein Backup - und bekommt Tipps von erstaunlich hilfsbereiten Menschen.

Die NSA ist leicht zu erreichen: Die Telefonnummer der Zentrale für Öffentlichkeitsarbeit steht im Netz. Als der niederländische Journalist Bahram Sadeghi anruft, dabei gefilmt von seiner Freundin, nimmt in der NSA-Zentrale in Fort Meade auch gleich jemand ab.

spiegel.de

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Saturday, 31. August 2013

David Miranda was carrying password for secret files on piece of paper


In a written statement handed to the High Court in London, a senior Cabinet Office security adviser said it showed “very poor judgment” by David Miranda and other people associated with him.

Senior judges agreed to issue a court order which allows Scotland Yard to continue to examine data from nine electronic devices seized from Mr Miranda on August 18.

telegraph.co.uk

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