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Open Technology Fund sues administration for $20M in missing funds
by coderman 17 Sep '20

17 Sep '20

https://www.axios.com/scoop-open-technology-fund-sues-administration-for-20… Scoop: Open Technology Fund sues administration for $20M in missing funds [Sara Fischer](https://www.axios.com/authors/sara), author of [Media Trends](https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-media-trends) The Open Technology Fund (OTF) is suing the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) over roughly $20 million in congressionally appropriated funds it says the government is refusing to provide, Axios has learned. Why it matters: There's [bipartisan uproar from Congress](https://www.axios.com/accusations-of-hobbling-internet-freedom-fu… over the funding that OTF says is being withheld. The USAGM, whose new CEO is seeking to replace OTF leaders with Trump loyalists, is required by law to provide the funding via federal grants, but it has given shifting rationales for why the money has been held up. The big picture: The OTF is a government-supported nonprofit focused on advancing internet freedom. Without funds, it can't support work by activist journalists in places like Hong Kong and Belarus, where authorities are increasingly cracking down on internet freedom. Details: The lawsuit, set to be filed Thursday in federal claims court, alleges the USAGM breached its contracts with the OTF in three ways: - It withheld about $9.4 million in funding that it owes under OTF’s 2020 grant agreement. - It withheld an additional $9.8 million in prior OTF program grants held by Radio Free Asia, OTF’s former parent organization. - A USAGM senior adviser "engaged in transparently pretextual efforts to force OTF into breaching its grant agreement." The lawsuit also says two chief financial officers at the USAGM flagged that it was illegal to withhold the funds, but the USAGM tried to move forward with the plan anyway. - The first CFO, Grant Turner, a longtime career civil servant, was ordered by a USAGM adviser last week to “cease and desist” transferring a portion of the promised OTF funding. Turner also protested the unlawful transfer of those OTF funds to another account. - Turner said, according to the lawsuit, that the USAGM's efforts are a “thin cover” for the “operational destruction” of the OTF. - The following day, Turner’s replacement, acting CFO John Barkhamer, also refused to comply with the order to transfer funds into another account, according to the lawsuit. He resigned in protest and reported USAGM leadership's conduct to the inspector general for the agency. Be smart: The issue of funding the OTF is particularly sensitive, given that the USAGM [announced](https://www.usagm.gov/2020/08/18/ceo-pack-revives-usagms-office-… on Tuesday that it plans to create and fund its own Office of Internet Freedom. Sources fear the agency is withholding the OTF's funds in order to shift them to its new agency, which is illegal if done without congressional approval.

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Linusgate: Debian banned Linus Torvalds
by Debian Community News Team 17 Sep '20

17 Sep '20

You can't make this up Techrights has the debian-private email thread, 253 messages about how to apply the knife to Torvalds' throat so he would only say what Debian wants him to say. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=techrights+linusgate&t=ffab&ia=web -- Debian Developer

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US Homeland Security Can Now Track Privacy Crypto Monero
by jim bell 17 Sep '20

17 Sep '20

https://decrypt.co/40284/us-homeland-security-can-now-track-privacy-crypto-… Jim Bell's comment: I don't know if this is true, but true or not, we need to learn the truth. Jim Bell | | Virus-free. www.avast.com |

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Starlink's speed tests may look impressive, but experts say SpaceX's satellite-internet project is unlikely to win any federal subsidies
by jim bell 17 Sep '20

17 Sep '20

"Starlink's speed tests may look impressive, but experts say SpaceX's satellite-internet project is unlikely to win any federal subsidies "https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starlink-beta-speedtest-results-band… Jim Bell's comment: Business Insider is a leftist rag. I doubt SpaceX NEEDS any Federal subsidies for Starlink. If it is a working system (and these reports seem to show that it works well) then it will provide competition to the incumbent wire- or fiber Internet services we have been locked into for too long. Jim Bell

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Quside launches its phase-diffusion quantum randomness module
by jim bell 17 Sep '20

17 Sep '20

https://www.swissquantumhub.com/quside-launches-its-phase-diffusion-quantum… Quside, a Barcelona-based quantum technology start-up, today announced the commercial release of their first quantum randomness module: the Quside™ FMC 400 which is targeted to high-performance computing and data security applications. The Quside™ FMC 400 has been designed specifically for high-performance FPGA-based systems. The technology is based on Quside’s proprietary phase-diffusion quantum random number generation technology. It provides 400 Mb/s of raw random numbers with state-of-the-art min-entropy bounds (above 90%). A standard FMC interface allows easy and versatile integration. Since 2017, after spinning off from ICFO – The Institute of Photonic Sciences – Quside has been working toward the commercialization of high-performance quantum random number generators. Quside is also making the Quside™ Randomness Metrology toolkit available to customers. It provides on-device capabilities to derive min-entropy bounds, giving product developers access to a novel tool to validate the proper functioning of the quantum process on-the-fly. The FMC 400 Randomness Module has already been tested by Quside’s partners over the last 18 months in the fields of enterprise security, telecom, banking, and supercomputing with remarkable performance.[end of partial quote]Jim Bell's comment:I remember in 1976, in my first semester at MIT, visiting the Engineering Library inside the Big Dome, searching the book stacks, and finding a book printed with about one million random numbers.

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Text spacing trick
by jim bell 17 Sep '20

17 Sep '20

Answer to What clever ways have been used to catch people out? by Malky McEwan https://www.quora.com/What-clever-ways-have-been-used-to-catch-people-out/a…

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Tor Stinks: Traffic Analysis Methods Get More Public Light via HackerFactor
by grarpamp 17 Sep '20

17 Sep '20

https://www.hackerfactor.com/blog/index.php?/archives/896-Tor-0day-Finding-… https://www.hackerfactor.com/blog/index.php?/archives/890-Tor-0day-Replying… https://www.hackerfactor.com/blog/index.php?/categories/19-Tor Hackerfactor... " I read off the address: "152 dot" and they repeated back "152 dot". "19 dot" "19 dot" and then they told me the rest of the network address. (I was stunned.) Tor is supposed to be anonymous. You're not supposed to know the IP address of a hidden service. But they knew. They had been watching the Tor-based DDoS. They had a list of the hidden service addresses that were being targeted by the attack. They just didn't know that this specific address was mine. As it turns out, this is an open secret among the internet service community: You are not anonymous on Tor. As mentioned earlier, the Tor Project claims to protect against "an adversary who can observe some fraction of network traffic." I've shown that they do not protect against someone with a God's eye view, or even someone who controls 10% of Tor guards along with some of the exit nodes. So how small does "some fraction" need to be for Tor to actually provide protection? What if the adversary only controls one (1) guard and nothing else? Just because the vendor says an exploit is out of scope, doesn't mean it isn't a problem. (The Tor Project explicitly says that Tor provides protection against "traffic analysis" and "prevents websites and other services from learning your location" from an adversary "who can operate onion routers of his own". So using traffic analysis from one hostile guard to identify the location of a hidden service doesn't seem to be out of scope.) These exploits represent a fundamental flaw in the current Tor architecture. People often think that Tor provides network anonymity for users and hidden services. However, Tor really only provides superficial anonymity. Tor does not protect against end-to-end correlation, and owning one guard is enough to provide that correlation for popular hidden services. " Tor Project ignores, kicks out, and censors people for informing its users and world of embarrassing facts... like this falseness still on the frontpage... " DEFEND AGAINST SURVEILLANCE Tor Browser prevents someone watching your connection from knowing what websites you visit. All anyone monitoring your browsing habits can see is that you're using Tor. " While Tor Project was partying... https://blog.torproject.org/welcome-new-tor-board-members It did not report that all its mailing lists, blogs, etc are arbitrarily censored... https://blog.torproject.org/anti-censorship-august-2020 https://blog.torproject.org/anti-censorship-challenges-priorities-progress Or tell its funders what tor can and cannot do... https://blog.torproject.org/tor-project-membership-program Many softwares and projects do some things quite well, other things not so well. Be informed on range of all those things.

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BLM rioter who firebombed cop cars arrested after Apple gave up his iCloud pics
by jim bell 17 Sep '20

17 Sep '20

https://mazainside.com/blm-rioter-firebombed-cop-cars-arrested-after-apple-… Black Lives Matter rioter accused of firebombing cop vehicles was tracked down after tech giant Apple handed over his iCloud pics. Forbes reported that the FBI reached out to Apple for Kelly Jackson’s iCloud information after learning of his identity. Jackson, 20, allegedly set fire to at least two cop cars during a Black Lives Matter protest on May 30 after the death of George Floyd Jackson allegedly set fire to at least two police carsApple helped the FBI in the arrest of a BLM demonstrator Floyd’s death prompted hundreds of protests across the country for several months. Portland, Oregon alone has seen over 100 days of continuous protests. Jackson was arrested last week and charged with unlawful possession of a destructive device and arson. Video images the FBI obtained from Apple’s iCloud account showed a white man’s opening a black bag with a green glass bottle with a gold cap filled with liquid, Forbes reported. otest was shortly after the death of George Floyd According to the FBI, a similar glass bottle was shown being thrown into the open door of a police car, setting it on fire. While Jackson’s face is not visible in the video, the individual in the video was reportedly wearing the same sweatshirt as a person photographed later that day on the same phone, with the face visible. - Manhunt underway for gunman in brazen ambush shooting of two Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies Also on Jackson’s iCloud account were screenshots promoting the protest he attended as well as a list of ingredients for a Molotov cocktail. Before reaching out to Apple, the FBI obtained records from Verizon, revealing his location during the protests along with proof that he was using an iPhone 7, a search warrant reported. According to Apple’s transparency report, in the second half of 2019, the company complied with and returned 3,645 out of 4,095 requests on user accounts from the government for user information.

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Re: Donation of one ticket to bitcoin conference this weekend
by kryptotrayder＠airmail.cc 17 Sep '20

17 Sep '20

Wow I put in my expired key. My main key is on a HSM in different location and did not get to it yet. This is why I made temporary key for this. Here is correct one. -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- mQINBF9gIUYBEACp6f2GnSJYE9uTNJuD7ebz5TUPRlgvfWNPEFlmIJnOM5ERF+0C HGL4gbGPNdcaXOUauszEnL6xaMnDIPnkiopRDBnCk/cwWcvkTePwHpUTHQYA4KoE q3p8sWU1jKFdb8p+KVERtK4jyXrM05GDNPjy68ngOJoiL3Er1B1vvJW/QoJ7ej6f qOgC8JebVI61Rpw9tCWzSC1EsWXRkEe6aafEfCASPjdhekgILecfbiYVHcVFghvy BYeSqT65xZAc82oktPM4v0aRttnSqdeJiP7xSQD+o7hai6AqYeFOZLbh3XSLdWYf 3mLhaIDMKHOtJdQq86O0LSnlc3Xemm0PO+rJoZtAQweMEoweD7LdXuqrpS4J0KqX qww/UkNsM40yvTXR69MKMNx7pDX86y1hsEfuECBUT4L2NcKlLw0NQNsbPVWuzF7x HITFIEq1cBxzLwkCTBREkZiHn4mue7cJSK5WzaeZPL+GYVhPBHa3go/yhFk1MX8K IWzwy62tc6WzIPTRESCo59RaxvG4xUqmdZgNbC8EXf/ha1EwssC4jmaLg2hJyyIN WRyh1BZOKf6hKiuF65JyWC0KBCymFQkzd/loks3wF2g2OkKNSpQBHKfX0/sftc2E rpX+9UgxNpWgvZxnkZqdXHEEkGfbHVRZc4Jw2TBiyABNpis43z07cKg/bwARAQAB tHNLcnlwdG8gVHJheWRlciAoVGVtcG9yYXJ5IGtleSBmb3IgMjAyMCBCZWFyIEFy bXMgYW5kIEJpdGNvaW4gY29uZmVyZW5jZSB0aWNrZXQgZG9uYXRpb24pIDxrcnlw dG90cmFpZGVyQGFpcm1haWwuY2M+iQJUBBMBCAA+FiEENuDBy6lfur+whyPsxuXV F4FS1vkFAl9gIUYCGwMFCQCNEIAFCwkIBwIGFQgJCgsCBBYCAwECHgECF4AACgkQ xuXVF4FS1vketQ/+OD9Bi2WqHsUP41oD0P4ypiBh1VtJx+TCK087srDx8Jqex8GH 5fNQmPqoAkhIYy+Ri1GFA5miv8N/3ICiLzK5gnRxVRYje+uw3pbwLdmue4UNajez by7hm3L6J1Gb6VzOGo1pAXjl3o1IOGcAY/e22NR46Wl+/IghhVpdqVylm7xgboYV Y5lmukLZALMXNq+EZ5CYWSvFbSdVEmlcjVV9Otqiim+nT4mWa7DjDDDX7E+7cbxO 4buaQkurKeEFIKdy5ynbt4wwE/r0HW9SrzmXrWDnwDVs9tVoOK8N8cOta4f+Pzjp z6Mec7yEVRkng+VU/DJQqs1iBGL47vMcIbnUcPZFr+dsvxcQsenFAUZ4JKudNjn8 iVNvEKajPoAk5k2N5HkPbPD1P1v5tkzQIA78SLvonx4I0bxFjYU8IomlcMJBmz9f VNuWvxSkFoTIUu0+jQKqZETrs5Bq/duapzvZJYC7tHiuKOL9KaCkxxyLS8cS1qgj pusUdUDwew4rLDtX92HWqBR051DU6pikp+LoPQ1/vA/RURK3yQtTMS6vHkfoDF8Z X32V/rmKDL6xke9fLqKlJmBhOKQGZul+rb6mh40URy6AIOnerp3ROC/yFlyqDKaV oTpODGLObfXuhAGGEUqQQmUr0mEFYD5vwJaWjyNy/JQd+QggNyYEsd6en18= =1J3E -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

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Cryptocurency: Coin Privacy (re: US Homeland Security Can Now Track Privacy Crypto Monero)
by grarpamp 16 Sep '20

16 Sep '20

On 9/9/20, Lee Clagett <forum(a)leeclagett.com> wrote: >> The problem with Monaro, is that though it avoids the direct linking >> of transactions that bitcoin suffers from, it leaks a whole lot of >> data about networks of people transacting with each other > The problem is no worse than Bitcoin - did you intend to promote Zcash > here? So why should the underlying ZKP / Homomorphic tech behind Zcash not be promoted? And or in comparison to that which underlies Monero. > There's some negatives to that project that can be found via Which technical negatives (beyond political, such as founder rewards)? Any in the underlying ZKP tech itself? No, properly executed "trusted setup" MPC is not really much appearing a weakness, but moreso a negative sounding misnomer seemingly bandied about by the competition without backing cause. > websearch, but the z-address transactions are (assuming no bugs or math > errors) not leaking the information you describe. As for "Bitcoin-like" coins, some privacy evolution beyond simple fuckme Bitcoin has occured in form of external and applicable CoinJoin/JoinMarket, CashShuffle, CashFusion. Taproot does not appear documented to lead to any real level of cryptographic, or even statistical, user privacy yet. But which coins, if any, are pursuing any of the above, or any other thought-to-be-at-least-reasonably-strong, privacy technologies... while at the same time eliminating the ridiculous legacy of first gen O(tx) based blockchain storing bloat forever mindset in favor of the much more storage and processing efficient O(utxo) model? >> I don't think anyone has broken it - I certainly could not - >> but I expect that the adversaries are making efficient use of >> what it does leak - that they can find interesting information in >> what is out of scope of its security model. Mind that always for any usage. >> I favor Wasabi wallet, which mingles your bitcoins with those of a >> large number of other people. Many wallets, for example in Bitcoin_Cash-BCH space are now integrating some of the above mix tech. Some of these mix tech can be apply to all sorts of coins, regardless of what other privacy tech the coin itself may or may not have. >> The Lightning network ... but you then have the ... problem[s of] Lightning is known to be quite problematic and a non-solution on many fronts.

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