July 2018 - cypherpunks-legacy

[IP] (Disturbing) Security Issue Kills Domestic Spying Probe
by David Farber 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Begin forwarded message:

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Bush's DHS program continues under Obama
by Scott Bennett 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

After the demise of the constitutional republic, the North American Surveillance State continues to grow ever nastier, complete with an unconscionable slur on the good name of Albert Einstein. See the article at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR200907020… The need for tools like tor and PGP/GPG ought to become more and more apparent to Americans as time goes on. Meet the new boss: same as the old boss. Joe Stalin, eat your heart out. Scott Bennett, Comm. ASMELG, CFIAG ********************************************************************** * Internet: bennett at cs.niu.edu * *--------------------------------------------------------------------* * "A well regulated and disciplined militia, is at all times a good * * objection to the introduction of that bane of all free governments * * -- a standing army." * * -- Gov. John Hancock, New York Journal, 28 January 1790 * ********************************************************************** ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

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None
by Tib 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

> Hope I'm not being totally naive about the capability of computer hardware, but > I sure don't recall my PC (or any that I have ever had or can think of > seeing) having short range broadcasting capabilities. How would this be > theorheticly possible (despite the utter nonsense that the rumor must be) to > accomplish, if at all? Read the whole paper. Look in the archives (or on Google) for TEMPEST. Duh... Mark

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(Disturbing) Security Issue Kills Domestic Spying Probe
by EEkid＠aol.com 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Security Issue Kills Domestic Spying Probe By DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 22 minutes ago WASHINGTON - The government has abruptly ended an inquiry into the warrantless eavesdropping program because the National Security Agency refused to grant Justice Department lawyers the necessary security clearance to probe the matter. The Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility, or OPR, sent a fax to Rep. Maurice Hinchey (news, bio, voting record), D- N.Y., on Wednesday saying they were closing their inquiry because without clearance their lawyers cannot examine Justice lawyers' role in the program. "We have been unable to make any meaningful progress in our investigation because OPR has been denied security clearances for access to information about the NSA program," OPR counsel H. Marshall Jarrett wrote to Hinchey. Hinchey's office shared the letter with The Associated Press. Jarrett wrote that beginning in January, his office has made a series of requests for the necessary clearances. Those requests were denied Tuesday. "Without these clearances, we cannot investigate this matter and therefore have closed our investigation," wrote Jarrett. Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said the terrorist surveillance program "has been subject to extensive oversight both in the executive branch and in Congress from the time of its inception." Roehrkasse noted the OPR's mission is not to investigate possible wrongdoing in other agencies, but to determine if Justice Department lawyers violated any ethical rules. He declined to comment when asked if the end of the inquiry meant the agency believed its lawyers had handled the wiretapping matter ethically. Hinchey is one of many House Democrats who have been highly critical of the domestic eavesdropping program first revealed in December. He said lawmakers would push to find out who at the NSA denied the Justice Department lawyers security clearance. "This administration thinks they can just violate any law they want, and they've created a culture of fear to try to get away with that. It's up to us to stand up to them," said Hinchey. In February, the OPR announced it would examine the conduct of its own agency's lawyers in the program, though they were not authorized to investigate NSA activities. Bush's decision to authorize the largest U.S. spy agency to monitor people inside the United States, without warrants, generated a host of questions about the program's legal justification. The administration has vehemently defended the eavesdropping, saying the NSA's activities were narrowly targeted to intercept international calls and e-mails of Americans and others inside the U.S. with suspected ties to the al-Qaida terror network. Separately, the Justice Department sought last month to dismiss a federal lawsuit accusing the telephone company AT&T of colluding with the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program. The lawsuit, brought by an Internet privacy group, does not name the government as a defendant, but the Department of Justice has sought to quash the lawsuit, saying it threatens to expose government and military secrets. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060510/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/domestic_spying ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as eugen(a)leitl.org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/ ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE [demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/pgp-signature which had a name of signature.asc]

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[IP] (Disturbing) Security Issue Kills Domestic Spying Probe
by David Farber 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Begin forwarded message:

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[tt] (Business Insider) Companies Are Putting Sensors On Employees To Track Their Every Move
by Tomasz Rola 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

[ http://www.businessinsider.com/tracking-employees-with-productivity-sensors… ] (... links deleted ...) Companies Are Putting Sensors On Employees To Track Their Every Move [101]Vivian Giang | Mar. 14, 2013, 6:23 PM | 16,986 | [102]56 team work group [111]joelabell via Instagram The idea of having employees walk around with electronic sensors to track their every move is unsettling. There are privacy and legal issues, and who wants to feel like they are just a cog in a system? But [112]data companies say that the resulting reams of information will improve life for companies and employees. [113]Sociometric Solutions has created tracking devices for [114]Bank of America, Steelcase, and Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc., and is in talks with General Motors. It was started by a team of Ph.D students from MIT who decided to study the chemistry behind what makes certain workspaces like [115]Google great at building teams. They came up with sensors placed in employee identification badges that gather real-time information to help companies measure productivity. The sensors identify a person's tone of voice, movement and even their posture when communicating with others. "Google really cares about creating a community because the social conversations -- the ones at the water cooler, coffee maker -- those are the ones that have the biggest impact," says Ben Waber, president of Sociometrics and one of the company's founders. "In the U.S., there's this notion that your most productive time is when you're sitting at your desk staring at the computer," and that's not necessarily true. The sensors are intended to measure when and how employees are truly productive. While individual information is collected, it's anonymized to provide metadata and hedge against privacy concerns. The information is then used to suggest how employees, and the company as a whole, can work more efficiently. "The legality behind this," says Arena, "that's the biggest unanswered question. Privacy online is sort of open and privacy issues are going to be the stumbling block for a long time. And that's a big, big question." The tracking sensors Waber's team places electronic sensors in employees' badges, which includes a Bluetooth, a microphone (it doesn't record what people say, but rather the tone of their voice, speaking speed, and volume), a motion sensor to measure movement, and an infrared beam. tracking device sensor Sociometric Solutions A sociometric sensor device. The idea is that these analytic tools can help determine the nature of the conversations people are having. For example, the microphone can measure speaking tone, and the higher someone's tone or the faster they speak can indicate how excited or passionate they are at any given time. The infrared can also sense if another badge is in sight, which gives researchers an idea of how people stand when speaking to others. For example, people who usually have others facing them when speaking are more dominant personalities. On the other hand, when two people are engaged in an interesting conversation, they will likely mirror one another, which signals more equality. "We've been able to foretell, for example, which teams will win a business plan contest, solely on the basis of data collected from team members wearing badges at a cocktail reception," [116]Alex Pentland, a professor at MIT and also an advisor to Waber's group, wrote [117]for the Harvard Business Review. Since privacy is the biggest concern over the devices, after behavioral/productivity reports are sent to individuals, their identities are removed from the system so the names associated with individual sensors are never revealed to employers. The testing grounds Bank of America got on board with the sensors a few years ago when it wanted to study how group dynamics impacted performance. It tested them out on 90 call center employees. Arena says that the company discovered how important it was to allow employees to take breaks together. During that time, employees would often troubleshoot their workplace problems. While sensors didn't monitor conversation, they did report "a cohesiveness was shared between the coworkers," says Arena, and the company eventually experienced a 10 percent improvement in productivity by making some workplace culture changes after the study. Although Bank of America tested its call center employees, Arena said he thinks the data "has bigger ramifications in professional jobs than anywhere else," because you will inevitably be able to "understand how one person steps into the room and influences others." "It has greater ramifications in leadership than hourly workers, but it's in the early stages." Arena is now the head of global talent at General Motors, and told us the company is considering "doing very similar things." [118]Steelcase, which makes office furniture, works with Sociometric to develop sensory products for its own merchandise. For example, its [119]new chair, Gesture, is "[120]designed to [121]support our interactions with today's technologies" and was "inspired by the movement of the human body." The new chair can actually tell employers how it's being used by employees, which will give employers a better idea of what size tables and chairs to buy in order to promote better communication and, inevitably, a more productive team. "What we hoped to learn was how things influence interactions and how spaces affect those interactions," Dave Lathrop, director of workspace futures and strategy at the company, told us. Lathrop says most of us don't know how we interact with others. For example, if you have a dominating personality, you could be "forcing people to shut down" and make them distrust you without even knowing it. "[122]Yahoo and [123]Best Buy are asking people to come back to the office, which does suggest that there's a general belief that when people get physically together, it's valuable," he says. "We're at this magical moment where we can do things that we couldn't do before ... having the analytics that we do. ... As a researcher, I'm incredibly hopeful that this will give us good data on the quality of interactions between people." But at the end of the day, employees need to feel comfortable with the idea of being tracked, even if it's anonymously -- and that may take a while. SEE ALSO: [124]There's An Algorithm That Reveals How Long Workers Will Stay At A Job SEE ALSO: [125]A Revolution Is Happening In Offices Everywhere [SLIDE DECK] (... links deleted ...) References 111. http://instagram.com/p/SuW4kFzQ5X/ 112. http://www.businessinsider.com/big-data-more-distributive-nervous-system-20… 113. http://www.sociometricsolutions.com/method.html 114. http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/bank-of-america 115. http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/google 116. http://www.media.mit.edu/people/sandy 117. http://hbr.org/2012/04/the-new-science-of-building-great-teams/ar/1 118. http://www.steelcase.com/en/Pages/Homepage.aspx 119. http://www.steelcase.com/en/products/category/seating/task/gesture/pages/ov… 120. http://www.steelcase.com/en/products/category/seating/task/gesture/pages/ov… 121. http://www.steelcase.com/en/products/category/seating/task/gesture/pages/ov… 122. http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/yahoo 123. http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/best-buy 124. http://www.businessinsider.com/how-long-workers-will-stay-at-a-job-evolve-w… 125. http://www.businessinsider.com/the-future-of-the-workplace-slide-deck-2013-2 _______________________________________________ tt mailing list tt(a)postbiota.org http://postbiota.org/mailman/listinfo/tt ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

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Re: [liberationtech] skype
by Rich Kulawiec 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

On Thu, Mar 21, 2013 at 02:36:53PM -0700, Yosem Companys wrote: > Rich, that's because you're not thinking like the average non-technical > user, who usually does the following: [snip thorough and IMHO, on-point analysis] You make an excellent (series of) points. And I have to concede that you're right. So let me refocus my comments on the efforts made (here and elsewhere) to get Microsoft to cough up answers: can't everyone see that these responses have been carefully wordsmithed within an inch of their lives in what is an obvious and deliberate attempt to say as little as possible and omit as much as possible? Microsoft, like many corporations, employs professional spokesliars who are very, very good at crafting wording that can be defended (should it come to that) but which doesn't present the truth in a straightforward fashion. That's their JOB. After all: anyone there could tell the truth -- it's not hard. But it takes a trained and practiced professional to evade it, obscure it, conceal it, dance around it in convincing fashion -- and even use it in limited ways when it serves the purpose. "A man who tells lies, like me, merely hides the truth. But a man who tells half-lies has forgotten where he put it." --- Mr. Dryden, "Lawrence of Arabia" Microsoft is never, ever, ever going to provide full, honest, truthful answers to these questions. Why should they? What's in it for them? How would those answers make money for Microsoft? (And if you think for a moment that Microsoft has ANY corporate value other than "making money", then you live in a different universe than I do.) So what *is* the truth? I dunno. I think (and I emphasize "think", because I do not know) that Skype is probably spyware. I think it's got backdoors that have been designed into it. I think Microsoft has, is, and will hand over information on Skype users, usage, and content to governments, including the United States, but possibly including other ones. I think that Skype has probably also been cracked by other governments. I think that it also has security issues, some of which are known/partially-known, some of which might be intentional. I think that nobody should be using it for any purpose ever. That said, though, even if I'm right on all those points, that's not going to stop people from using it. And that's where *you're* right: I wish you weren't, but you are, and I don't know how to fix that situation. ---rsk -- Too many emails? Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at companys(a)stanford.edu or changing your settings at https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

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[liberationtech] Election Integrity: Past, Present and Future, October 1 @ MIT
by Steve Weis 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

There is an upcoming event on election integrity which I thought might be of interest to liberationtech: --------------------------- Election Integrity: Past, Present and Future Hosted by The Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project Saturday, October 1, 2011: 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. 32-123, Stata Center at MIT, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA Info: http://vote.caltech.edu/drupal/node/389 Registration: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2127905623 This conference will present an overview of the various and vital elements of election integrity. Speakers will look back at the 35-year period that led to the November 2000 presidential election, examine the progress made since then, and look at the decade ahead. Three panel presentations: PAST: Moderator, Peter Neumann, Principal Scientist at SRI International, moderator of the ACM Risks Forum - Eva Waskell and Kurt Hyde, Co-chairs of The First National Symposium on Security and Reliability of Computers in the Electoral Process held in Boston in 1986 - Roy G. Saltman, Researcher and author - Douglas Kellner, Co-chair of the New York State Board of Elections - William Gardner, New Hampshire Secretary of State PRESENT: Moderator, Pam Fessler, National Public Radio - Pamela Smith, President, Verified Voting - Dan Wallach, Associate Professor, Rice University, Department of Computer Science - Ian Piper, Dominion Voting Systems Corporation - Carolyn Crnich, Clerk/Recorder & Registrar of Voters, Humboldt County, Eureka, California FUTURE: Moderator, To Be Announced - Philip Stark, Professor of Statistics, University of California, Berkeley - Luther Weeks, Executive Director of CTVotersCount.org and Connecticut Citizen Election Audit Coalition - Ronald Rivest, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT - Dana DeBeauvoir, Travis County Clerk, Austin, Texas MIT Professor Ronald Rivest will moderate a wrap-up session. Admission is free, with pre-registration required. There will be a Q&A period following each panel. For questions, contact eippf2011(a)lists.csail.mit.edu _______________________________________________ liberationtech mailing list liberationtech(a)lists.stanford.edu Should you need to change your subscription options, please go to: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech If you would like to receive a daily digest, click "yes" (once you click above) next to "would you like to receive list mail batched in a daily digest?" You will need the user name and password you receive from the list moderator in monthly reminders. Should you need immediate assistance, please contact the list moderator. Please don't forget to follow us on http://twitter.com/#!/Liberationtech ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

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[liberationtech] Election Integrity: Past, Present and Future, October 1 @ MIT
by Steve Weis 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

There is an upcoming event on election integrity which I thought might be of interest to liberationtech: --------------------------- Election Integrity: Past, Present and Future Hosted by The Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project Saturday, October 1, 2011: 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. 32-123, Stata Center at MIT, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA Info: http://vote.caltech.edu/drupal/node/389 Registration: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2127905623 This conference will present an overview of the various and vital elements of election integrity. Speakers will look back at the 35-year period that led to the November 2000 presidential election, examine the progress made since then, and look at the decade ahead. Three panel presentations: PAST: Moderator, Peter Neumann, Principal Scientist at SRI International, moderator of the ACM Risks Forum - Eva Waskell and Kurt Hyde, Co-chairs of The First National Symposium on Security and Reliability of Computers in the Electoral Process held in Boston in 1986 - Roy G. Saltman, Researcher and author - Douglas Kellner, Co-chair of the New York State Board of Elections - William Gardner, New Hampshire Secretary of State PRESENT: Moderator, Pam Fessler, National Public Radio - Pamela Smith, President, Verified Voting - Dan Wallach, Associate Professor, Rice University, Department of Computer Science - Ian Piper, Dominion Voting Systems Corporation - Carolyn Crnich, Clerk/Recorder & Registrar of Voters, Humboldt County, Eureka, California FUTURE: Moderator, To Be Announced - Philip Stark, Professor of Statistics, University of California, Berkeley - Luther Weeks, Executive Director of CTVotersCount.org and Connecticut Citizen Election Audit Coalition - Ronald Rivest, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT - Dana DeBeauvoir, Travis County Clerk, Austin, Texas MIT Professor Ronald Rivest will moderate a wrap-up session. Admission is free, with pre-registration required. There will be a Q&A period following each panel. For questions, contact eippf2011(a)lists.csail.mit.edu _______________________________________________ liberationtech mailing list liberationtech(a)lists.stanford.edu Should you need to change your subscription options, please go to: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech If you would like to receive a daily digest, click "yes" (once you click above) next to "would you like to receive list mail batched in a daily digest?" You will need the user name and password you receive from the list moderator in monthly reminders. Should you need immediate assistance, please contact the list moderator. Please don't forget to follow us on http://twitter.com/#!/Liberationtech ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

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Re: Weekend Gedankenexperiment - The Kill Switch
by Valdis.Kletnieks＠vt.edu 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

On Mon, 07 Feb 2011 17:49:36 EST, Josh Smith said: > even if it was I suspect any service available via satellite might > suffer from similar problems if the methods used to disrupt > connectivity in Egypt were employed here. The real question isn't "If they shut you down, can you restart?". The real question is "If they shut you down, can you restart in a way that avoids them attempting a second shutdown with a bullet?" ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

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