Topic: DRUGS - on August 30, 2013 at 1:29:00 PM CEST
Obama administration will not block state marijuana laws, if distribution is regulated
The Obama administration said Thursday that it would not challenge laws legalizing marijuana in Colorado and Washington state as long as those states maintain strict rules involving the sale and distribution of the drug.
In a memo to U.S. attorneys in all 50 states, Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole said the Justice Department is “committed to using its limited investigative and prosecutorial resources to address the most significant threats in the most effective, consistent and rational way.” He stressed that marijuana remains illegal under federal law.
washingtonpost.com Obama's New Pot Rules Are a Bigger Deal Than You Think
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Topic: SECURITY - on August 30, 2013 at 1:27:00 PM CEST
Snowden Spoofed Top Officials' Identity To Mine NSA Secrets
As government investigators continue to try to figure out just how much data whistleblower Edward Snowden had access to, MSNBC is reporting that Snowden used his sysadmin privileges to assume the user profiles of top NSA officials in order to gain access to the most sensitive files. His sysadmin privileges also enabled him to do something other NSA users can't — download classified files from NSAnet onto a thumb drive. 'Every day, they are learning how brilliant [Snowden] was,' said a former U.S. official with knowledge of the case. 'This is why you don't hire brilliant people for jobs like this. You hire smart people. Brilliant people get you in trouble.
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Topic: SECURITY - on August 30, 2013 at 1:25:00 PM CEST
Das Budget der US-Ausspäher
Neue Enthüllungen des NSA-Informanten Edward Snowden offenbaren die finanzielle Ausstattung der US-Geheimdienste. Die "Washington Post" zeigt, welche Gelder NSA, CIA und Co. zur Verfügung stehen - und wo die Späher selbst ihre Schwachstellen sehen.
Washington - Die meisten Informationen über die Finanzen ihrer Geheimdienste sind der US-Öffentlichkeit unbekannt. Doch jetzt bietet Material des Informanten Edward Snowden einen bislang ungekannten Einblick in die Ausstattung der Ausspäher. Demnach stellt die US-Regierung ihren Diensten in diesem Jahr voraussichtlich 52,6 Milliarden Dollar zur Verfügung, umgerechnet 39,7 Milliarden Euro.
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Topic: SECURITY - on August 30, 2013 at 1:24:00 PM CEST
U.S. spy network’s successes, failures and objectives detailed in ‘black budget’ summary
U.S. spy agencies have built an intelligence-gathering colossus since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, but remain unable to provide critical information to the president on a range of national security threats, according to the government’s top-secret budget.
The $52.6 billion “black budget” for fiscal 2013, obtained by The Washington Post from former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, maps a bureaucratic and operational landscape that has never been subject to public scrutiny. Although the government has annually released its overall level of intelligence spending since 2007, it has not divulged how it uses the money or how it performs against the goals set by the president and Congress.
washingtonpost.com US Spy Budget FY2013 Vol 1 [pdf] US Spy Budget FY2013 Vol 4 [pdf] US Spy Budget FY2013 Vol 12 [pdf]
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Topic: SECURITY - on August 29, 2013 at 4:28:00 PM CEST
Anonymes Surfen: Nutzung des Tor-Netzwerks verdoppelt sich
Das Anonymisierungsnetzwerk Tor konnte in den letzten Wochen eine sprunghafte Zunahme seiner Nutzerzahlen vermelden. Wie statistische Auswertungen zeigen, bewegte sich die Zahl der Internet-Surfer, die weltweit täglich auf das Netzwerk zugriffen, dieses Jahr bisher bei 500.000. Im August kam es zu einer deutlichen Steigerung: Mit den über 1,2 Millionen täglichen Zugriffen am Mittwoch hat sich die Nutzerzahl mehr als verdoppelt. Der aktuelle Wert markiert ein Allzeithoch, das auch die bisherigen Spitzenwerte um den Jahreswechsel 2011/2012 übertrifft.
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Topic: SECURITY - on August 29, 2013 at 4:18:00 PM CEST
Tor Usage More Than Doubles In August
The privacy-enhancing network is known for providing an anonymous browsing experience through the use of a series of encrypted relays, and has had as many as 500k users throughout this year so far. But if we check the latest statistics available through Tor Metrics Portal there has been a whopping 100 percent increase in the number of Tor clients and as many as 1,200,000 users are connecting to the network. The previous peak for the network was in January 2012, when it saw as many as 950,000 users.
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Topic: DRUGS - on August 29, 2013 at 4:15:00 PM CEST
Study: Marijuana most widely used illegal drug but most deaths caused by painkiller addictions
Marijuana is the most popular illegal drug used worldwide, but addictions to popular painkillers like Vicodin, Oxycontin and codeine kill the most people, according to the first-ever global survey of illicit drug abuse.
In addition to cannabis and opioid painkillers, scientists analyzed abuse of cocaine and amphetamines in 2010, largely based on previous studies. Ecstasy and hallucinogens weren’t included, because there weren’t enough data. The researchers found that for all the drugs studied, men in their 20s had the highest rates of abuse. The worst-hit countries were Australia, Britain, Russia and the U.S. The study was published online Thursday in the journal, Lancet.
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Topic: SECURITY - on August 29, 2013 at 2:20:00 PM CEST
CryptoParty
The CryptoParty Handbook tries to provide a comprehensive guide to the various topics that might come up while investigating the realms of computer and internet security and is designed to be a practical guide during Cryptoparties. Read the Handbook online.
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Topic: SECURITY - on August 29, 2013 at 2:08:00 PM CEST
Bitcoin Perfectly Anonymous — Until You Spend It
One of the great attractions of Bitcoin as a currency is that it's completely secure and anonymous. But according to researchers (PDF) from UC San Diego and George Mason University, that anonymity starts to vanish the minute you exchange bitcoin for real-world items or conventional currencies. The researchers tracked transactions across the Bitcoin ecosystem and found points where it would be easy for a government with subpeona power to find the identity of a Bitcoin user. They also concluded that the currency wasn't especially attractive for money-laundering purposes
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Topic: SECURITY - on August 29, 2013 at 2:07:00 PM CEST
Sealands Data-Haven is back
Erinnert Ihr Euch an HavenCo, die einen sprichwörtlich sicheren Hafen für Daten eröffneten, auf HM Fort Roughs, einer dieser Maunsell Sea Forts, diesen Festungen in der Nordsee aus dem zweiten Weltkrieg? Bilder von den Dingern geistern immer mal wieder durchs Netz. Das HM Fort Roughs heisst auch Sealand und hat eine bewegte Geschichte voller Piratenradio, wurde als eigener (nictht anerkannter) Staat ausgerufen und eine eigene Verfassung, regiert wird Sealand von der Familie Bates und da hatten die dann sowas wie einen Vorläufer eines Hochsicherheits-Cloud-Service angeboten, der 2008 unter mysteriösen Umständen abgeschaltet wurde.
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Topic: DRUGS - on August 29, 2013 at 2:06:00 PM CEST
'Legal high' deaths soar to highest number on record
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said deaths linked with the psychoactive substances jumped from 29 in 2011 to 52 last year, an 80 per cent rise.
Even as recently as 2007 the annual number of deaths from the new synthetic drugs was in single figures.
The ONS drug poisoning data also showed deaths from the painkiller tramadol have more than doubled since 2008 to 175 in last year.
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Topic: DRUGS - on August 29, 2013 at 2:05:00 PM CEST
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smoked 'a lot' of marijuana
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has said he has smoked "a lot" of marijuana, as a national debate on legalisation of the drug builds.
Mr Ford, who leads Canada's largest city, became the fourth Canadian politician in a week to acknowledge using the drug.
Separately, he has denied rumours he was caught on video smoking crack cocaine and that he was addicted to it.
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