Topic: SECURITY - on June 14, 2013 at 2:46:00 PM CEST
Leaked: NSA's Talking Points Defending NSA Surveillance
he government has been passing around some "talking points" to politicians and the press trying to spin the NSA surveillance story. We've got the talking points about scooping up business records (i.e., all data on all phone calls) and on the internet program known as PRISM. Both are embedded below. Let's dig in on a few of the points, starting with the business records/FISA issue:
The news articles have been discussing what purports to be a classified, lawfully-authorized order that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA Court) issued under an Act of Congress – the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Under this Act, the FISA Court authorized a collection of business records. There is no secret program involved here – it is strictly authorized by a U.S. statute. </p>
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Topic: SECURITY - on June 14, 2013 at 2:36:00 PM CEST
U.S. Agencies Said to Swap Data With Thousands of Firms
Thousands of technology, finance and manufacturing companies are working closely with U.S. national security agencies, providing sensitive information and in return receiving benefits that include access to classified intelligence, four people familiar with the process said.
These programs, whose participants are known as trusted partners, extend far beyond what was revealed by Edward Snowden, a computer technician who did work for the National Security Agency. The role of private companies has come under intense scrutiny since his disclosure this month that the NSA is collecting millions of U.S. residents’ telephone records and the computer communications of foreigners from Google Inc (GOOG). and other Internet companies under court order.
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Topic: DRUGS - on June 13, 2013 at 9:15:00 PM CEST
Medical marijuana dispensaries are now legal in Nevada
Nevada medical marijuana patients in need of cannabis will soon have legal storefronts to go to for safe access to their meds, though the tradeoff means the elimination of home growing.
Gov. Brian Sandoval signed Senate Bill 374 into law last night, creating a state-regulated system of growers, processers and dispensaries. The move also allows home growing only until 2016, when the dispensary program is expected to be fully functional.
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Topic: LEGO - on June 13, 2013 at 8:41:00 PM CEST
LEGO Maps of the London Underground
The London Underground is celebrating its 150th anniversary with the addition of five Lego maps that chart the evolution of the underground from 1927 to today, and then project what the Tube may look like in 2020.
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Topic: SECURITY - on June 13, 2013 at 7:30:00 PM CEST
Heimischer Geheimdienst in Kontakt mit NSA
Vor beinahe einer Woche wurde bekannt, dass der US-Geheimdienst NSA Internet- und Telefondaten von EU-Bürgern und damit auch Österreichern überwacht. In Österreich soll es zudem laut einem Insider eine Sicherheitsbehörde geben, die "in direktem Kontakt" mit der NSA steht.
Geheimdokumenten zufolge soll der US-Geheimdienst einen direkten Zugang zu den Computersystemen von neun führenden Internet-Konzerne wie Facebook, Google oder Microsoft haben und darüber auf private E-Mails, Fotos, Videos, Dokumente und Audio-Dateien zugreifen können. Mittlerweile wurde zudem bekannt, dass auch Belgien und die Niederlande auf PRISM zugreifen dürfen. Hier stellt sich die Frage, ob dies auch für Österreich gilt bzw. ob österreichische Behörden von PRISM profitieren.
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Topic: AUSTRIA - on June 13, 2013 at 5:49:00 PM CEST
Austrian central banker charged in bribe case
Vienna prosecutors charged nine people, including the deputy governor of the Austrian National Bank, on Thursday over suspected bribes in banknote contracts with Azerbaijan and Syria.
Wolfgang Duchatczek, 63, and the other suspects face charges of abetting breach of trust, bribery, money laundering and other crimes, prosecutors said in a statement.
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Topic: SECURITY - on June 13, 2013 at 5:46:00 PM CEST
NSA Infringed Adam Hart-Davis' Photograph For Its PRISM Logo
Perhaps the NSA has finally met its match: copyright infringement. You may have seen the logo that the NSA is using for the PRISM program
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Topic: Bastard pop - on June 13, 2013 at 5:35:00 PM CEST
The Beastles’ Ill Submarine is here!
The third and final Beastles album, Ill Submarine, is now out. 20 songs mashing the Fab Four with the B-Boys.
Some folks seem to be discovering this stuff for the first time, which is cool. I guess that makes sense- its been about 9 years since the first album came out- 2004! and 6 or 7 years since "Let It Beast." It seems like ages ago.
For those who are catching up, Silence Seven from BeastieRemixes.com is kindly hosting the first two albums of Beastle mixes
Dedicated to the memory of Adam Yauch. </p>
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Topic: SECURITY - on June 13, 2013 at 5:33:00 PM CEST
Google erklärt wie sie Daten an die NSA weitergeben
Die vom britischen Guardian veröffentlichten Folien zu PRISM legen nahe, dass die NSA direkten Zugriff auf die Server von verschiedenen großen amerikanischen Konzernen habe. So steht auf einer Folie wörtlich:
Collection directly from the servers of these U.S. Service Provider: Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple.
Genau das wird jetzt aber von einigen der Konzernen abgestritten. Insbesondere Microsoft, Yahoo, Google und Facebook geben an, bis zu den Veröffentlichungen des Guardian noch nie von PRISM gehört zu haben und keiner amerikanischen Behörde Zugriff zu ihren Servern ermöglicht zu haben. Besonders Google wehrt sich gegen diese Vorwürfe.
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Topic: SECURITY - on June 12, 2013 at 10:12:00 PM CEST
Inside the NSA's Ultra-Secret China Hacking Group
Deep within the National Security Agency, an elite, rarely discussed team of hackers and spies is targeting America's enemies abroad.
This weekend, U.S. President Barack Obama sat down for a series of meetings with China's newly appointed leader, Xi Jinping. We know that the two leaders spoke at length about the topic du jour -- cyber-espionage -- a subject that has long frustrated officials in Washington and is now front and center with the revelations of sweeping U.S. data mining. The media has focused at length on China's aggressive attempts to electronically steal U.S. military and commercial secrets, but Xi pushed back at the "shirt-sleeves" summit, noting that China, too, was the recipient of cyber-espionage. But what Obama probably neglected to mention is that he has his own hacker army, and it has burrowed its way deep, deep into China's networks.
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Topic: SECURITY - on June 12, 2013 at 4:25:00 PM CEST
Mehrere Staaten haben offenbar Zugriff auf Prism-Daten
Auch europäische Staaten können sich Medienberichten zufolge bei Daten aus der US-Netzüberwachung Prism bedienen. Dazu gehören etwa Belgien und die Niederlande. Russlands Präsident Putin kritisiert das Vorgehen der USA.
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Topic: SECURITY - on June 12, 2013 at 12:55:00 PM CEST
86 Companies And Groups Ask Congress To Put An End To Abusive NSA Spying
A group of nearly 100 civil liberties, public interest groups and internet companies have asked Congress to put an end to the abusive NSA surveillance that we've been writing about over the past week (full disclosure: our company, Floor64, is a part of the coalition, along with the EFF, ACLU, reddit, Mozilla, the American Library Assocation, the Internet Archive and many, many more). Along with this effort, a new website has been launched, called Stop Watching Us, which is collecting more signatures for the letter, while also asking for some specific reforms from Congress.
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