February 2016 - cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

Sci-Hub: 'Pirate Bay for scientists'
by Александр 16 Feb '16

16 Feb '16

Sci-Hub: Russian neuroscientist running 'Pirate Bay for scientists' - with 48 million free academic papers - ... to remove all barriers in the way of science By Mary-Ann Russon - February 15, 2016 A website illegally offering academic papers for download is fighting back against a copyright infringement lawsuit in the US and has no intention of giving up Sci-Hub *knowledge to all* *We fight inequality in knowledge access across the world. The scientific knowledge should be available for every person regardless of their income, social status, geographical location and etc.* *Our mission is to remove any barrier which impeding the widest possible distribution of knowledge in human society!* Sci-Hub, a website dubbed the "Pirate Bay for scientists" by offering peer-reviewed academic papers to download for free, is thumbing its nose at copyright holders following an infringement lawsuit battle in the US. Sci-Hub <http://sci-hub.io/> is the brainchild of Alexandra Elbakyan, a neuroscientist from Kazakhstan who is now based in Russia. When she was writing her thesis in 2009, Elbakyan found it difficult to access the research she needed to complete her work, as she needed to download many papers, and each paper retailed for up to $30 (£21) each. To get through her thesis, Elbakyan was forced to download pirated versions of the academic papers for free, and eventually, after being introduced to a website that enabled researchers to share and trade the academic papers they needed with people who had paid for them, she decided to take the idea further and create her own website around 2011 or 2012. Tricking journals with university proxies Today, the Sci-Hub website boasts 48 million academic papers and has now gone viral, because it features technology similar to anonymising proxy websites. Rather than just enabling users to search for and extract the papers they need, the Sci-Hub website is programmed to automatically search for papers on important topics and work out how to download them to its database without spending a penny. Since various universities in the world have paid subscriber access to different premium journal services, the website is able to automatically trawl through different university proxies to trick the relevant journal's website into believing that the user accessing the academic paper has the relevant credentials similar to a paying customer. Once the paper is unlocked, Sci-Hub then downloads the paper to its database and even looks for other missing papers on similar topics to download, so that all the researcher has to do is initiate a search, and the paper will come up, ready to be downloaded for nothing. Apart from using Sci-Hub, the only way for researchers to gain access to research papers without paying for them is to ask people they know, or post on Twitter using the hashtag #Icanhazpdf <http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/i-can-haz-pdf-academics-tweet-secret-code-word-get…> . *Sued for copyright infringement and blocked in the US* At its peak in 2015, the website received 80,000 visitors a day, according to Nature magazine <http://www.nature.com/news/pirate-research-paper-sites-play-hide-and-seek-w…>, and had become so popular that academic publisher Elsevier <https://www.elsevier.com/> brought a copyright lawsuit against the website, claiming that it had lost between $75,000 - $150,000 in revenue due to the piracy. On 28 October 2015, a New York district court found in favour of Elsevier and placed a temporary injunction against Sci-Hub, as well as suspending access to the website's Sci-Hub.org domain, which has caused visitor numbers to drop to 30,000 a day. But other than that, not much else can be done to physically stop Elbakyan as she has no US assets to forfeit nor is she a US citizen, so, just like Pirate Bay's multiple domain names <http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/pirate-bay-seized-by-swedish-prosecutors-like-hydr…>, she quickly moved the website to Sci-Hub.io, where it continues to be freely accessible. "There should be no obstacles to accessing knowledge, I believe," Elbakyan told RT <https://www.rt.com/news/332412-scihub-scientific-articles-pirate/>. "[According to Article 27 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights], everyone has the right to freely participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits." Moving to the Dark Web Not only that, but Elbakyan has also moved Sci-Hub's servers onto the Dark Web – a section of the internet not discoverable by conventional means, such as through Google or other search engines or by directly entering a website URL. This is where cybercriminals typically list illegal goods and services like drugs, firearms and hackers-for-hire and using the Tor anonymity network <http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/snoopers-charter-why-arent-vpns-tor-mentioned-inve…> as a cloak to protect their real identities. Even better, there are a huge number of scientists in the world actively supporting Sci-Hub and even posting YouTube tutorials on how to download papers for free from <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEDRMMZHjCo> the piracy portal, especially since revolting against Elsevier's high prices in 2012, with even Harvard University telling its staff that it could no longer afford the journal price hikes <https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/apr/24/harvard-university-journal-…> in the same year. "Even if legal access to [Sci-Hub] is blocked, the user can still get in through the TOR network and immediately gain access to all the articles," said Elbakyan. "However, we intend to fight for free access to all information. After all, using TOR still provides obstacles." Read more about illegal downloading: - I can haz PDF: Academics tweet secret code word to get expensive research papers for free <http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/i-can-haz-pdf-academics-tweet-secret-code-word-get…> - Dallas Buyers Club: Australian judge refuses to unmask 4,726 alleged movie pirates <http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/dallas-buyers-club-australian-judge-refuses-unmask…> - US federal judge: IP address not enough to prove someone downloaded pirated movies <http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/us-federal-judge-ip-address-not-enough-prove-someo…> - People accused of online piracy win $450,000 from Warner Bros and Rightscorp in class action lawsuit <http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/people-accused-online-piracy-win-450000-warner-bro…> - My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic: Hasbro being sued for allegedly pirating brony font Generation B <http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/my-little-pony-friendship-magic-hasbro-being-sued-…>

2 1

U.S. Hacked Into Iran’s Critical Civilian Infrastructure For Massive Cyberattack
by Michael Best 16 Feb '16

16 Feb '16

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jamesball/us-hacked-into-irans-critical-civilian-in… Intro excerpt: A new documentary on “Stuxnet”, the joint U.S.–Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear program, reveals it was just a small part of a much bigger cyber operation against the nation’s military and civilian infrastructure, under the code name “NITRO ZEUS”. The United States hacked into critical civilian and military infrastructure in Iran to allow its operatives to disable the country with a devastating series of cyberattacks at a moment’s notice, a documentary will claim this week. The targets of the U.S. hacking operations, covered by the code name “NITRO ZEUS”, include power plants, transport infrastructure, and air defenses, the film will state, with agents entering these protected systems nightly to make sure the attacks were still deployable. The film *Zero Days* by Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney, which is set to premiere at the Berlin film festival on Wednesday, will claim that the U.S.–Israel “Stuxnet” worm – which destroyed around 1 in 5 of the centrifuges used in Iran’s nuclear program – was just a small part of a much larger set of offensive capabilities developed against the nation.

1 0

The USA "leading" the world - state sovereignty under attack even on a superficial view
by Zenaan Harkness 16 Feb '16

16 Feb '16

http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/proof-ukraine-and-members-eu-have-giv… " Ukraine and Members of the EU Have Given up Their Sovereignty to the US The US has successfully infiltrated the governments of many European states with its own citizens Allen Baldanza The governors under US influence This is a 9 minute video, although you only have to watch till 7:40 to get the main argument. It seems state sovereignty in the EU has become a thing of the past. Not only does the EU seem to obey every foreign policy decision the US asks it to, but there are many US citizens, educated in the US, who have become important members of government in certain states. In the Baltic States, namely Estonia and Lithuania, even heads of government were US citizens. Under these heads of government, the Baltic states had joined both the EU and NATO. Of course, there is also Ukraine, which, after the coup in 2014, the new government appointed a US citizen to be finance minister. Even more striking is these members of government had retained US citizenship even while "leading" their nations. Why does this matter? It matters because when acquiring US citizenship, like all people obtaining US citizenship, they had to take an oath swearing allegiance to the United States and no other country. You can't help but ask yourself, are they really "leading" their nations, or obeying US orders? This is just a taste of US involvement in many European nations. The video gives even more details of US involvement in the region. One can't help but wonder, when will these nations stand up for their sovereignty? " http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRq_ocpmV7c ---- I prefer to watch such vids is on double speed, and pause with the space bar when subtitles go too quick. And BTW, for those who don't want to watch it, there's an easy solution. Towards the end, there's some detail re the bunch of countries that the USA runs its "National Security Initiative for Youth" run by the US dept of state. Quite the eye opener.

2 1

Re: [Cryptography] Cryptome’s searing critique of Snowden Inc.
by grarpamp 16 Feb '16

16 Feb '16

On 2/14/16, Henry Baker <hbaker1(a)pipeline.com> wrote: > Can someone please post a link to the .mp3 or .mp4 of this interview? youtube-dl https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/246093198 Interview with Cryptome (2016-02-06)-246093198.mp3 sha1: 2cf21291e0190dcc2b6c1fa2587994546311ea0f

3 3

home baked
by juan 16 Feb '16

16 Feb '16

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_znRopGtbE

1 0

50+ FBI files for former FBI employees
by Michael Best 15 Feb '16

15 Feb '16

Just uploaded a few dozen FBI files for their former employees, individual links at http://that1archive.neocities.org/

2 1

Turkish National Police leak via TheCthulhu
by Michael Best 15 Feb '16

15 Feb '16

https://turkey.thecthulhu.com

1 0

Cryptopolitik and the Darknet
by Steve Kinney 15 Feb '16

15 Feb '16

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Cryptopolitik and the Darknet "Encryption is too important to be left to true believers. The future design of crypto systems should be informed by hard-nosed political and technical considerations. A principled, yet realistic, assessment of encryption and technology more broadly is needed, informed by empirical facts, by actual user behaviour and by shrewd statecraft – not by cypherpunk cults, an ideology of technical purity and dreams of artificial utopias. Pragmatism in political decision-making has long been known as realpolitik.80 Too often, technology policy has been the exception. It is high time for cryptopolitik." Spoiler: Onion routing rules, hidden services suck. What's worse, the authors back this with empirical evidence. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00396338.2016.1142085#ab stract - or - https://tinyurl.com/cryptopolitik -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1 iQIcBAEBAgAGBQJWwdnBAAoJEDZ0Gg87KR0LTqAQAJjrSpHA59fYzYikhDu1whG5 OqEUYZHcy4mQF/Q3rcocBRjRih1dJ+3w1O43BvpBN0GvyfrcnwUskLW0u+biGGbm ju4YQCGILR7LPUN8oNJImdiQv2r4on+4khCMsc2NrBB6ppyPhVHa0ydBx4avL6Uy Ipu+6vX9JB+8IPkB+MYpBz34iypsU72+4V9U0OnEhs+91++Lm1GI2BxBv3h0yYXk JjviKGNPBT9dR+IcjtQNiWUz+aThKJHYlF9neKtpgP4W4+OGJFHGjy4PXX+KoQVQ aWimX8jP8zs6mS3eIy+xvLB0qM7Xj5yrpXF1pZZ80kdvS2T7nbl2/iQ3YeM1IyT8 s1yln5zl1s0MYSXrPWO5S/nr78OmkER8v9UfVCkhlKb05AM7JktulFhysMfUMnbZ 2VTM5BhjCf6rg0ipEgLgq24koRhKprmurmkF6qfrCZAKy3s3KGmQ4fZTOY9sySYs fNb4ow0FEQTZ1pVu7GO6z1epO1qBibFDbfklpEMN17Lchc0mVHfRyGvJ40GMmclp sqYttpd/+iVzk+wamYMDdxypjLjrv8Lf1PN3BNTRALCGbZAC8OOenzZWsNz4is7C lxZBgMy4x5CfPfTj2CRd4PJc+hI89AEW8BUc5trgiTVyqMFniXiJ3goaLqKcprKi jX5fk4Wh3Zd4U/J5DD3n =8+ez -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

1 0

Samsung Warns Customers: Watch Your Mouth
by grarpamp 15 Feb '16

15 Feb '16

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: "ECOTERRA Intl." <office(a)ecoterra-international.org> Date: Sun, 14 Feb 2016 11:13:25 +0300 Subject: [NATURAL_DEFENCE] Samsung Warns Customers To: MAILHUB <mailhub(a)ecoterra.net> * **Samsung Warns Customers To Think Twice About What They Say Near Smart TVs* By *Jake Anderson <http://theantimedia.org/team/jake/>**- February 12, 2016* *(**ANTIMEDIA* <http://theantimedia.org/>*)* /—/ In a troubling new development in the domestic consumer surveillance debate, an investigation into Samsung Smart TVs has revealed that user voice commands are recorded, stored, and transmitted to a third party. The company even warns customers not to discuss <http://theweek.com/speedreads/538379/samsung-warns-customers-not-discuss-pe…> personal or sensitive information within earshot of the device. This is in stark contrast to previous claims by tech manufacturers, like Playstation <http://www.polygon.com/2013/11/5/5054400/can-your-xbox-one-spy-on-you>, who vehemently deny their devices record personal information, despite evidence to the contrary, including news that hackers can gain access <http://www.geek.com/games/playstation-3-is-biggest-spy-ever-says-hacker-tra…> to unencrypted streams of credit card information. The new Samsung controversy stems from the discovery of a single haunting statement in the company’s “privacy policy,” which states: /“Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party.”/ This sparked a back and forth between the /Daily Beast/ <http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/02/05/your-samsung-smarttv-is-sp…> and Samsung regarding not only consumer privacy but also security concerns. If our conversations are “captured and transmitted,” eavesdropping hackers may be able to use our “personal or other sensitive information” for identity theft or any number of nefarious purposes. There is also the concern that such information could be turned over to law enforcement or government agencies. With the revelation of the PRISM <http://techreport.com/news/24923/nsa-prism-program-collecting-data-from-mic…> program /—/ by which the NSA collected data from Microsoft, Google, and Facebook /— /and other such NSA spying programs <https://www.eff.org/nsa-spying/timeline>, neither the government nor the private sector has the benefit of the doubt in claiming tech companies are not conscripted into divulging sensitive consumer info under the auspices of national security. Michael Price <http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/02/05/your-samsung-smarttv-is-sp…>, counsel in the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at the NYU School of Law, stated: /“I do not doubt that this data is important to providing customized content and convenience, but it is also incredibly personal, constitutionally protected information that should not be for sale to advertisers and should require a warrant for law enforcement to access.”/ Responding to the controversy, Samsung updated its privacy policy, named its third party partner, and issued the following statement: /“Voice recognition, which allows the user to control the TV using voice commands, is a Samsung Smart TV feature, which can be activated or deactivated by the user. The TV owner can also disconnect the TV from the Wi-Fi network.”/ Under still more pressure, Samsung named <http://www.newsweek.com/samsung-updates-smarttv-policy-names-third-party-co…> its third party affiliate, Nuance Communications. In a statement to /Anti-Media/, Nuance said: /“Samsung is a Nuance customer. The data that Nuance collects is speech data. Nuance respects the privacy of its users in its use of speech data. Our use of such data is for the development and improvement of our voice recognition and natural language understanding technologies. As outlined in our privacy policy, third parties work under contract with Nuance, pursuant to confidentiality agreements, to help Nuance tailor and deliver the speech recognition and natural language service, and to help Nuance develop, tune, enhance, and improve its products and services./ /“We do not sell that speech data for marketing or advertising. Nuance does not have a relationship with government agencies to turn over consumer data…..There is no intention to trace these samples to specific people or users.”/ Nuance’s Wikipedia page <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuance_Communications> mentions that the company maintains a small division for government and military system development, but that is not confirmed at this time. Despite protestations from these companies that our voice command data is not being traced to specific users or, worse, stored for use by government or law enforcement agencies, it seems that when it comes to constitutional civil liberties, the end zone keeps getting pushed further and further down the field. For years, technologists and smart device enthusiasts claimed webcam and voice recording devices did not store our information. While Samsung may be telling the truth about the use of that data, there are countless companies integrating smart technology who may not be using proper encryption methods and may have varying contractual obligations to government or law enforcement. Is it really safe for us to assume that the now exceedingly evident symbiotic relationship between multinational corporations and government agencies does not still include a revolving door for the sharing of sensitive consumer data? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ /This article (//Samsung Warns Customers To Think Twice About What They Say Near Smart TVs/ <http://theantimedia.org/samsung-warns-customers-to-think-twice-about-what-t…>/) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a //Creative Commons/ <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/>/license with attribution to //Jake Anderson <http://theantimedia.org/author/jake1/> //and //theAntiMedia.org/ <http://theantimedia.org/about>/. //Anti-Media Radio/ <http://theantimedia.org/radio/>/airs weeknights at 11pm Eastern/8pm Pacific. If you spot a typo, email //edits(a)theantimedia.org//. //======== * * *Pro-active work to protect nature and human rights requires YOU to work with us* *Even if you have no possibility to be at the front-lines with us, please know we need independent funding.** * *PLEASE consider to contribute to ECOTERRA's work and trust fund. * ------------------- *ECOTERRA Intl.* /***SURVIVAL & FREEDOM for PEOPLE & NATURE*/ ----------------- Our full footer, being an essential, legal part of this dissemination, can be found at http://www.ecoterra.net/footer.htm - please read it at least once a month to see important security updates. ---------------------- ***ECOTERRA Intl. nodes:* Canaries - Cairns - Cairo - Calgary - Cape Town - Cassel - Cebu - Cork - Curitiba - London - Los Angeles - Nairobi - Roma - Paris - Reykjavik - Stuttgart - Wien - Vanuatu ECOTERRA - FIRST PEOPLES & NATURE FIRST! http://www.ecoterra-international.org 24 h EMERGENCY RESPONSE PHONE LINE: +254-714-747-090 Marine Group:http://www.ecop.info/

4 3

Personal Location Logging Apps (with Notary options)
by grarpamp 14 Feb '16

14 Feb '16

http://www.spotmarksthetax.com/ In order of increasing power consumption, Spot takes three kinds of location fixes: a Venue Fix, a Tracking Fix, and a Fingerprint Fix. Venue fixes have an entry time and a duration. For example, say you were visiting a client’s office for an hour long meeting. Spot would take a fix about 5-15 minutes into the meeting and a second fix roughly 5-15 minutes after you’ve left the office to declare a venue fix of your location, time and duration, perhaps for 67 minutes and 13 seconds. A Venue fix exploits Apple’s location database of both cell towers and Wi-Fi access points. While these are not as precise as GPS measurements, in practice, they are quite good. We believe that these fixes alone are sufficient to handle most tax residency issues. Consuming a bit more power are the optional Tracking fixes. These fixes are calculated when the phone switches cell phone towers. While they typically have an accuracy radius of about a kilometer, they are also, in practice, quite accurate in showing the progress of your day. Finally, a Fingerprint fix, which is taken by running the app and pressing the fingerprint icon in the upper left corner, uses the GPS to record your position with the highest resolution possible. When you need to prove that you have crossed that state line before midnight, the Fingerprint fix is what you want to use. Since its accuracy radius can be as large as 65 meters, more than half a football field long, make sure you are significantly past the state line when you take the fix.

1 0