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Cryptocurrency: PKI Making Comeback In Crypto Apps
by grarpamp 29 May '23

29 May '23

https://twitter.com/saylor/status/1662515315140337667

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Cryptocurrency: Ungovernable
by grarpamp 29 May '23

29 May '23

"The evil lies not in the tools but in the wielder of the tools. In fact, technology represents one of the most promising avenues for re-capturing our freedoms from those who have stolen them. -- Chuck Hammill" D.E.A.T.H. A.T.H.L.E.T.I.C. Coming soon...

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Fwd: Private Spies Hired by the FBI and Corporate Firms Infiltrate Discord, Reddit, WhatsApp
by Undescribed Horrific Abuse, One Victim & Survivor of Many 29 May '23

29 May '23

not familiar with leefang.com ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sun, 28 May 2023 22:03:51 -0400 https://www.leefang.com/p/private-spies-hired-by-the-fbi-and Private Spies Hired by the FBI and Corporate Firms Infiltrate Discord, Reddit, WhatsApp Leading “threat intelligence” firms are creating fake online personas to gain access to every corner of the web. Lee Fang May 10, 2023 That anonymous internet persona with an anime cartoon avatar in your Discord chat might actually be a contractor sent to spy on you. Enter the world of “threat intelligence.” It’s the term of art for a growing set of surveillance and security firms that create fake online personas to infiltrate and scrape data from private corners of the internet. The industry provides corporate and government clients with insight into conversations on private, invite-only Discord chats, WhatsApp groups, Reddit forums, and dark web message boards to help those powerful customers keep tabs on a variety of potential threats, from political hacktivists to the illegal markets that traffic in stolen passwords and intellectual property. I spoke to representatives of ZeroFox, DarkOwl, Searchlight Cyber, Recorded Future, CyberInt, Flashpoint, and other threat intelligence firms at RSA Conference 2023, an annual convention for cyber security professionals from across the world that is held in San Francisco. “We have personnel who already have established credentials in these environments so that we're able to go in and look for things,” said A.J. Nash, the vice president of intelligence at ZeroFox, a leader in the threat intelligence industry that is based in Baltimore, Maryland. Nash confirmed that the company is active in Discord, an audio and video group chat app popular among young video-game players. "We can do the same thing with Discord," Nash added. "It's hard to infiltrate a small group because everybody knows everybody. But some of the groups that are larger, yeah, we have the ability to get into some opportunities." An executive at DarkOwl, a Denver-based threat intelligence firm that provides clients with a special database of information from its snooping, explained that the company creates fake identities and usernames to gain admission to many of the private platforms and chatrooms that it uses to collect information. "What we do, we work with personas," said Magnus Svärd, a director at DarkOwl. “We've done this at scale since 2018 so there's some trust in the personas that we've built up, whether they're on Discord, on Telegram, or wherever.” Searchlight Cyber, a British firm that specializes in dark web message boards, similarly uses internet personas to gain access to private online forums and chat platforms. "We actually get invited to those. We have human actors and get invited. We obviously don't identify as Searchlight on them,” said Peter Ritter, a sales manager at the firm. “Then we see what's going on there." CyberInt, an Israeli threat intelligence firm, advertises how its team of analysts uses fake personas to thwart hackers, retail fraud, hacktivists, and other cyber security threats. In one video posted by CyberInt, an analyst for the firm discusses her approach to go into online communities and “detect threat actors when they are young or starting out at 14 or 15, that's when I start observing and documenting their malicious activities.” At that age, they are “more careless and open,” the analyst said. In another CyberInt marketing video, the firm walks a potential client through the process of using a fake online alias to contact a hacker over the messaging app Telegram and “get as much information as we can.” Danny Miller, a director of marketing at CyberInt, confirmed to me that his firm has analysts infiltrating Discord servers, among other platforms. Many of these firms maintain close ties to law enforcement and government agencies. Several are currently under contract with the Federal Bureau of Investigation or military intelligence. The role of ZeroFox’s collaboration with the FBI, in particular, came to light in documents unearthed by the special House committee investigating the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. In a Jan. 3, 2021, email exchange between FBI officials preparing for the right-wing protests slated to occur, one official noted that the FBI team charged with monitoring groups due to assemble at the Capitol had just signed on with ZeroFox days earlier. The official said that the agency was still learning how to use the software to monitor social media posts from political extremists headed for Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. "[O]ur social media abilities might be slightly degraded during this [sic] events as we are getting use [sic] to this new tool but we're gonna make it work," the FBI official wrote. Having already gained access to traditional social media platforms, the federal government now has its sights set on private online communities where terrorist groups, radical political activists, and hackers can operate with relative freedom. The recent disclosure of classified Pentagon documents, shared on an invitation-only chatroom on Discord, is fueling a new push for access to one of the last secretive corners of the internet. Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira allegedly posted the classified documents in his group chat for months before authorities became aware of the leaks. Following Teixeira’s arrest in mid-April, the federal government has begun calling for increased surveillance of Discord and similar platforms. The Biden administration is currently “looking at expanding how it monitors social media sites and chatrooms after U.S. intelligence agencies failed to spot classified Pentagon documents circulating online for weeks,” NBC News reported last month. A congressional aide told the news outlet that senior members of President Joe Biden’s team are looking at ways to “scrub platforms like Discord in search of relevant material to avoid a similar leak in the future.” Should the federal government proceed with its plans, the threat intelligence companies present at RSA Conference 2023 stand to play a lucrative role in supporting those efforts. A representative of Recorded Future initially agreed to an interview with me, but later backed away over concerns that any discussion of the leak of classified documents on Discord would be too sensitive for the company. Federal contracts show that over the last year, Recorded Future has performed work for a host of federal government clients, including the U.S. Secret Service, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, and U.S. Cyber Command. Flashpoint, which openly advertises that it monitors activist groups and continually mines data from platforms such as Reddit and Discord, signed a contract with the FBI last year. At the RSA Conference, a representative of Flashpoint said that his firm engages in a variety of tools, but generally does not “violate the terms of service” when accessing chatrooms and other forums. “There is this tension between platforms being a safe space, and also not being able to harbor things that are being put out, you know, that are intellectual property, that are national security threats,” said Matthew Howell, vice president of product at Flashpoint. Watchdog groups are raising concerns that the push for more surveillance of chatrooms, including gaming communities, will violate civil liberties. Government scans of private communications risks violating constitutional rights against unreasonable search and seizure. "There's a disturbing trend toward government agencies contracting out surveillance, paying the likes of data brokers to spy on people even when agents wouldn't be allowed to,” said Sean Vitka, senior policy counsel of Demand Progress. “It's becoming frighteningly apparent that a similar privatized spying cottage industry targeting private chat rooms also exists,” Vitka added. Nash, the vice president of ZeroFox, said that every action at his firm, which signed a contract with the U.S. Navy Criminal Investigative Service in January, is vetted by a legal team. "We're not violating people's civil rights or civil liberties. We're not working as a conduit to work around the Fourth Amendment,” said Nash. “We wouldn't do that.” DarkOwl President Russel Cohen provided a similar assurance. "We have algorithms about what information we find interesting. So if somebody is talking about guns, that would be something we find interesting,” Cohen said. “We're not looking for things that are not commercially interesting, such as pornography." Cohen said that on occasion, his firm has alerted government authorities when they come across material that suggests a threat to security. Determining whether something is a “threat” to national security is inherently subjective. And historically, the federal government has committed its worst infringements on personal freedom in the name of policing these vaguely defined threats. It is especially hard to assess the lawfulness of these new threat intelligence firms’ surveillance practices, because the industry is shrouded in secrecy. On the rare occasions when the public has gained greater insight into the activities of these companies, the revelations have not been reassuring. The veil was briefly lifted in 2011, when a set of threat intelligence firms plotted to disrupt the hacktivist network LulzSec and attempt to discredit journalist Glenn Greenwald. The contractors, led by the now defunct firm HBGary, devised a plan to infiltrate left-leaning organizations using fake online identities, in a bid to win lucrative deals defending corporations facing public scrutiny. The plan was eventually discovered and thwarted after hackers dumped emails from HBGary onto the web, embarrassing its partner firms, including Berico Technologies and Palantir. U.S. intelligence agencies also have a record of coming up empty after infiltrating private, online spaces, raising the possibility that the security justifications for the current incursions are weaker than the agencies are claiming. The documents leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden revealed that FBI and CIA spies had created fake personas to hunt for potential terror plots discussed in online games, such as World of Warcraft and Second Life, as well as on platforms like Xbox Live. Those initiatives fizzled after the intelligence agencies found little to no evidence of terror communications. But the federal government and its allies in academia and the media are pushing full-speed ahead for expanded surveillance of platforms like Discord that could mirror the now-defunct programs exposed by Snowden. Renée DiResta, a research manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory, who has worked alongside Department of Homeland Security efforts to police online speech, has seized upon the so-called Discord Leaks to call for more monitoring of chat rooms. DiResta recently co-authored an essay in Foreign Policy to suggest that online gamers and chat rooms have "eclipsed spies as an intelligence threat": Even where ideological commitments have motivated leakers, internet culture has often played a major role. U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning’s involvement with WikiLeaks began when she started monitoring—and then actively participating in—the forum’s chat channel. Her decision to leak diplomatic cables was initially motivated by debates about Icelandic politics on the WikiLeaks channel. When one looks at Manning’s conversations with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and others on the channel, they read very much like someone trying to connect with and impress her new internet friends; later, it was a similar desire to connect online that led to her arrest. Edward Snowden, too, attributed his decision to leak documents about National Security Agency surveillance programs to his concerns that they undermined the values he cherished as an avid denizen of early internet forums and chatrooms: anonymity, self-expression, and the right to reinvent oneself. The conclusion that online community forums are somehow a prerequisite to radicalization suggests a sweeping view of potential government threats that encompasses almost anyone born after 1980 with access to the internet. DiResta, an influential voice in cyber security circles, is far from alone. A variety of journalists have urged a crackdown on private messaging platforms. “The FBI and other law enforcement organizations are not spending enough time trolling the edges of the web like Discord and Telegram,” veteran reporter Lucian Truscott IV declared in Salon, a progressive news outlet. A news article in Time took the validity of national-security officials’ concerns about Discord as a given. “The leak has also put a spotlight on the lack of law-enforcement visibility into platforms like Discord,” wrote Vera Bergengruen and W.J. Hennigan. The growing number of calls for greater surveillance worries Vitka of Demand Progress. “If this follows the course of previous surveillance practices, it means we are headed toward a digital resurgence of neighbors spying on neighbors,” said Vitka. “Meanwhile, we have no way of knowing how many private chat rooms are already infiltrated or to whom those spies are selling information, which will ultimately lead to a severe erosion of trust online." -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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A First Look at the Headset That Could Be Apple’s Biggest Competition
by Gunnar Larson 28 May '23

28 May '23

A First Look at the Headset That Could Be Apple’s Biggest Competition https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2023-05-28/meta-quest-3-real-lif… This week, I go hands-on with Meta’s yet-to-be-announced Quest 3 and explain how it may be the biggest challenger to Apple’s new headset. Also: The first major iOS 17 details emerge, Apple extends its supply agreement with Broadcom, and a tap-to-pay executive departs. Last week in Power On: A look at the key Apple executives responsible for the company’s upcoming headset. The Starters Meta Quest 2, the current model, demonstrated at an event. Photographer: Bing Guan/Bloomberg The launch of Apple Inc.’s headset is undoubtedly going to be the biggest news in the mixed-reality realm this year. But Apple won’t have the market to itself. Meta Platforms Inc. is the current leader in XR, which blends augmented and virtual reality, and it continues to update its devices. That will set up a war between the companies over headsets, and it could play out in a similar way as Apple’s 15-year fight with Google’s Android in the smartphone industry. The iPhone rules the top of the market, with higher prices and a closed ecosystem. Android dominates the lower end with a more open platform. With headsets, Apple will immediately own the upscale market — headsets that cost more than $2,000 — but Meta will remain dominant in the cheaper segment. Meta may even benefit from Apple helping popularize XR, using that buzz to serve consumers who can’t afford a top-of-the-line model. This showdown will take shape in the next few months, with Apple set to unveil its headset on June 5 and Meta planning to announce its latest model in October. And though Apple’s device remains under wraps, I have gotten a chance to test out Meta’s upcoming model, the Quest 3. I went hands-on with a prototype version of the headset, trying to get a sense of how it may stack up against Apple’s device. I tried out the Quest 3’s interface, video pass-through mode, software features and gaming capability. The device, codenamed Eureka, feels far lighter and thinner than the existing Quest 2 from 2020. The strap to place it on your head seems a bit stronger, and it uses fabric on the sides instead of the Quest 2’s plastic. The front of the device is new. Instead of a bland-looking gray face, it has three vertical pill-shaped sensor areas across the front. The left and right pills each include one color video pass-through camera (the part that lets you see the world around you) as well as a standard camera. That means it has two color cameras versus only non-color cameras on the Quest 2. The middle pill includes a depth sensor, a first for a Quest. The front lower sides of the headset each include one tracking camera, while the bottom has a volume rocker and a wheel to adjust the headset’s IPD — the distance between your pupils. That’s a big improvement over the Quest 2, which requires you to take off the headset and manually move the VR displays inside of the device. The power button and USB-C port remain on the side of the headset. The actual clarity and VR displays within the Quest 3 feel similar to those in the Quest 2 — despite the resolution being rumored to be slightly higher. But there are two areas where I saw major improvements: video pass-through for mixed reality and the device’s speedier performance. Video pass-through is the heart of mixed reality. It relies on external cameras to let headset wearers see a live video feed of the real world, creating an augmented reality effect without the use of clear lenses. While I don’t believe the Quest 3’s video pass-through performance will come close to that of the Apple device (which will have about a dozen cameras), it is a night-and-day improvement over the Quest 2. Due to the dual RGB color cameras, video pass-through on the Quest 3 presented colors more accurately and offered an almost lifelike rendering of the real world. I was even able to use my phone while wearing the headset, something that often feels impossible on a Quest 2. The speed of navigating through the device’s interface, launching apps and playing games also felt much improved over the Quest 2. That’s because the headset includes a second-generation version of Qualcomm Inc.’s Snapdragon XR2 chip. Though Meta hasn’t yet found the “killer app” for its headsets, the company does have a several-year advantage over Apple in top-flight games built for VR. Apple will attempt to challenge that by offering access to hundreds of thousands of iPad apps and rolling out tools that can easily convert iOS and iPadOS software into xrOS titles. Like the current Quest, the upcoming model is controlled by left and right hand remotes and in-air hand tracking. Unlike the Apple device and the higher-end Quest Pro, the Quest 3 lacks face and eye tracking. That also means it doesn’t have so-called eye-tracked foveated rendering, which allows the system to more precisely focus its resources on where a user is looking. The Quest 3’s hand controllers are redesigned and look similar to the remotes included with the Quest Pro. These components — which are gray to match the color of the headset — lose the large rings on top of the Quest 2 versions. They also lack the cameras found on the Quest Pro controllers. That means the new remotes may have a difficult time determining where they are in space, which could hinder some games. Meta is looking to offset that with various other tracking improvements. The depth sensor on the headset powers what is known as environment meshing. That allows the device to automatically identify surrounding walls so, for example, you can play a game where you shoot objects off a wall or cover your environment in a digital skin. More importantly, you won’t have to manually establish where each wall is in your house — the approach used on the current Quest. Meta hasn’t yet settled on pricing for the device, but people involved in its development believe it may come in higher than the Quest 2’s $400. There is also a belief that the Quest 2 could stick around at a lower price. But there probably won’t be a second-generation Quest Pro anytime soon since the first version bombed. Overall, I came away impressed with the mixed-reality focus of the Quest 3, the much-improved video pass-through capabilities, the faster performance and the large content library. Assuming the device costs about $500, it would be about a fifth as much as the Apple headset — while being more than a fifth as compelling. With that in mind, I think the Quest 3 could make some noise this holiday season, especially as XR is top of mind for consumers. The Bench The iPhone 14 Pro. Photographer: Bloomberg A preview of what’s coming in iOS 17. The mixed-reality headset is expected to be the star of this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June, so it’s easy to forget that Apple is unveiling new software updates for its other platforms: iOS 17, iPadOS 17, macOS 14 and watchOS 10. This past week, I wrote about some of the major new features coming in iOS 17. Here’s a breakdown of what to expect: A new smart display-like mode for the iPhone when the device is locked and placed in landscape mode. This feature will include an interface for showing upcoming calendar appointments and other snippets of information, in addition to notifications. A journaling app to take notes and update your friends on activities such as a bike ride. The app will let people keep a log of their mood and emotions, and it should tap deeply into location services on the iPhone. The Wallet app will get an upgrade as the company pushes deeper into financial services. SharePlay will get enhancements related to the Apple headset. And AirPlay will make it easier to beam content to TVs and speakers you don’t own, such as in hotels. Updates in the Health app include options for logging moods and managing vision problems. The app will also come to the iPad for the first time. And, as usual, there will be performance enhancements and bug fixes across the board. Stay tuned for more news on iOS 17 and other Apple software in the coming days. But overall, hardware will get more attention than software at this year’s WWDC. One exception may be the Apple Watch platform. That software will get key enhancements, including a new focus on widgets, as well as major updates across many core apps. Broadcom’s headquarters. Photographer: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Apple extends Broadcom deal to ensure it gets enough supplies — for now. This past week, Apple announced a new multibillion-dollar agreement with Broadcom Inc. to get radio frequency components and other parts of the iPhone that help link it to 5G networks. The pact is actually an extension of one signed in 2020 that ran until 2023. So of course the two companies had to come back to the negotiating table as Apple has no replacement for Broadcom parts … yet. While Apple will use Broadcom for the foreseeable future, it is undoubtedly just holding out until it can make its own RF parts and other components. You will see this play out over the next few years with Qualcomm as well. They too reached a supply agreement, but Apple is building an in-house version of the chipmaker’s modem component. Apple has offices in the US and Europe working on next-generation wireless parts, including in Southern California near Broadcom and Qualcomm facilities. Eventually, the company hopes to make a combined Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and modem chip that could replace both suppliers in one fell swoop. Roster Changes The tap-to-pay feature on the iPhone. Source: Apple Apple executive overseeing tap-to-pay feature departs. Apple’s services group had another notable exit this past week, I’m told, as Eric Hoffman leaves the iPhone maker after eight years. He has been the company’s director of Apple Pay business development, overseeing partnerships with banks and other financial institutions for the Americas. He also led the business side of the tap-to-pay system, the Apple Wallet feature that allows consumers to purchase items from vendors by placing their card or phone near the business’s iPhone. The company also recently rolled out new savings accounts and “buy now, pay later” features. Though not as high-ranking, Hoffman joins services Vice President Peter Stern, video head Pete Distad and cloud services chief Mike Abbott in leaving the services division this year. The Schedule Apple’s WWDC event invite. Source: Bloomberg WWDC 2023: June 5 to June 9. The next Worldwide Developers Conference will kick off in-person at the Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California. The first day will be the big keynote address, followed by developer sessions online throughout the week. Apple is planning to debut its new headset at the event, alongside the accompanying xrOS software and fresh MacBooks. There also will be updates to iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS. Post Game Q&A Q: Why are there vastly different estimates on how many Apple headsets the company will sell? Q: Why is Apple increasing the size of the iPhone next year? Q: What are the new features coming in iOS 16.6?

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Aaron van Wirdum needs killing ( m 2K sats )
by pro2rat＠yahoo.com.au 28 May '23

28 May '23

Aaron van Wirdum needs killing ( my 2K sats ) Austro-libertarian moron go fuck your ugly mother up the arsehole you came out of!

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Ripple to demonstrate tokenization in HKMA e-HKD pilot program using new CBDC platform
by Gunnar Larson 27 May '23

27 May '23

I wonder if this is what DeSantis is talking about on CBDC? When it comes to Micron in New York and a BitLicensee partnering with a bank in Taiwan? ---- Ripple will partner with Taiwan’s Fubon Bank and others to demonstrate equity release with tokenized assets using a retail version of the e-HKD CBDC. https://cointelegraph.com/news/ripple-new-cbdc-platform-hkma-e-hkd-pilot-pr…

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Ron Desantis promises to protect Bitcoin and oppose a CBDC as president
by Gunnar Larson 27 May '23

27 May '23

https://cryptoslate.com/ron-desantis-promises-to-protect-bitcoin-and-oppose… Florida governor Ron Desantis came out in support of Bitcoin and in opposition to central bank digital currencies in his official announcement of his presidential candidacy. Desantis formally announced his presidential run on Twitter Spaces with Elon Musk and venture capitalist David Sack on May 24. DeSantis has become a frontrunner in the Republican Party since Donald Trump failed to secure reelection in 2020 and his candidacy has been widely anticipated. DeSantis spoke about his plans “to lead our great American comeback,” which involves tackling the big issues with unfettered immigration, spiraling crime, and restoring economic sanity, including supporting Bitcoin rights and reversing the digital dollar. DeSantis gives a pro-Bitcoin take During the hour-long Spaces, DeSantis spoke mostly about his concerns about what he calls “the left-wing agenda,” which he argues is authoritarian and overreaching. In his Twitter space, DeSantis extended his thinking to crypto. Touching upon what some in the crypto community have dubbed “Operation Choke Point 2.0,” DeSantis said people have a right to hold Bitcoin and transact with it, arguing that the government is waging war on crypto because it is outside the scope of its authority. He expressed concern that Bitcoin might not survive another four years of U.S. regulatory hostility. No to central bank digital currencies Ron DeSantis said, “We are not doing a central bank digital currency (CBDC)” if I become U.S. President in 2024. Last month, Florida passed legislation to prevent a CBDC from being recognized as money in the state. DeSantis said Florida was the first to make a legislative stand. Senate Bill 7054 aims to protect Floridians’ rights by prohibiting a CBDC from being treated as money under the Florida Uniform Commercial Code. The event suffered technical difficulties due to systems being unable to cope with 600,000 listeners tuning in simultaneously. It was noted that 2.4 million had heard the show – ranking it among the most popular Twitter Spaces this year.

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28 Higlights to Statement of ADRIENNE A. HARRIS SUPERINTENDENT NEW YORK STATE DEPARTMENT OF FINANCIAL SERVICES before the STANDING COMMITTEE ON CONSUMER AFFAIRS AND PROTECTION AND STANDING COMMITTEE ON BANKS NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MAY 25, 2023
by Gunnar Larson 27 May '23

27 May '23

Collating 28 highlights to Statement of ADRIENNE A. HARRIS SUPERINTENDENT NEW YORK STATE DEPARTMENT OF FINANCIAL SERVICES before the STANDING COMMITTEE ON CONSUMER AFFAIRS AND PROTECTION AND STANDING COMMITTEE ON BANKS NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MAY 25, 2023: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1U1Ohv220WyD5NsE-puhXQTj4YOlmPKpX/view?usp=…

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re last post
by pro2rat＠yahoo.com.au 27 May '23

27 May '23

That book is probably a dud unless you're some kind of Marxist moron.

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re FAU book from AK press
by pro2rat＠yahoo.com.au 27 May '23

27 May '23

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