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Facebook, Google, US government, etc lobbying EU to accept horrible Privacy Shield deal
by Rachael 13 Jul '17

13 Jul '17

Link to article http://piratetimes.net/privacy-shield-the-american-lobbying-invasion/ PRIVACY SHIELD: THE AMERICAN LOBBYING INVASION July 12, 2017 · by Rachael Tackett · in Pirate Topic It is difficult to know the true extent to which American corporate interests and the US government continue to lobby the European Union and its member states on the US-EU Privacy Shield agreement. In March of this year, public records requests about Privacy Shield were sent to data protection authorities across the European Union. To date, the vast majority of EU data protection authorities have failed to release public records on Privacy Shield. *_ _*Lobbying by American Corporate Interests American corporations, such as Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, and Twitter, use the Privacy Shield framework as the legal basis to transfer personal data from the European Union to the United States. Civil society groups [1, 2, 3, 4] have criticized the Privacy Shield’s many flaws and lack of basic protection for personal data. Even the EU’s own parliament has been critical of the agreement. The Article 29 Working Party, the group of EU data protection authorities, has also expressed serious concern and doubt about Privacy Shield. Perhaps the most glaring inadequacy of the Privacy Shield agreement is that it allows for NSA mass surveillance, in violation of EU law. The European Union has a voluntary lobbying register. Google, Microsoft, BusinessEurope, and DigitalEurope are four of the top eight lobbying organizations by number of meetings with EU officials, according to Integrity Watch. The transparency register lists Google and Microsoft as being members of BusinessEurope and DigitalEurope. The transparency register also lists Google and Microsoft estimating their annual spending on EU lobbying as between €4 and €5 million Euros each. BusinessEurope lists its estimated annual spending on the low side of €4 million Euros, while DigitalEurope is spending approximately €1.9 million Euros a year. There has been a massive lobbying campaign by American corporate interests on Privacy Shield in the EU. In addition to spending on lobbying, the transparency register also lists meetings between EU officials and lobbyists. In January of 2016, a couple months after the EU Court of Justice struck down Safe Harbor (the framework before Privacy Shield), Microsoft met separately with EU Commission Vice President Andrus Ansip and Commissioner Vera Jourova on the issue. American technology companies such as Adobe, Apple, Amazon. AT&T, Cisco, Facebook (subsidiary in Ireland), General Electric, Google, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Symantec, and Yahoo! have lobbied EU officials on the EU’s data protection standards. Several American financial services companies, including Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, and Mastercard, have also lobbied EU officials on data protection standards. Trade industry groups representing American corporate interests have also partaken in this lobbying effort. The American Chamber of Commerce, the Business Software Alliance, BusinessEurope, and DigitalEurope are also listed as meeting with and lobbying EU officials on Privacy Shield. Since the EU’s transparency registry is completely voluntary and there are few sanctions for violations, some meetings with EU officials and additional spending on lobbying may have never been registered. The American lobbying invasion may actually be much larger than the records on the EU’s transparency register suggest. US Embassy Gets Involved The US government is also engaged in lobbying EU member states to accept the Privacy Shield agreement. In January of 2016, the US embassy sent the Danish data protection authority (Datatilsynet) an email warning that legal uncertainty about personal data transfers from the EU to the US could harm business. The US embassy goes on to state that the EU should not solve the problem by hosting servers and storing data in the EU. The email also rather comically insinuates a denial of some aspects of NSA spying by stating, “The allegations underlying the Schrems case about U.S. privacy law and intelligence practices were based on mistaken assumptions and outdated information.” The Datatilsynet confirms that there was a meeting in May 2016 between their office, the Danish Ministry of Justice, the US embassy, and the US Department of Commerce about the Privacy Shield agreement. In January of last year, the US embassy sent an email thanking the Slovenian data protection authority (IPRS) for meeting the week earlier. Several days later, the US embassy sent IPRS and the Slovenian Ministry of Justice a rather ominous email. The email warns, “It is imperative to conclude a revised U.S.-EU Safe Harbor agreement now, or risk harm to economic growth and job creation on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as damage to the broader transatlantic relationship.” The email also pressures Slovenia to direct EU Commissioner Vera Jourova to approve a new agreement to replace Safe Harbor. The US embassy also sent documents to the IPRS, which the IPRS is refusing to release. The data protection authority of Italy confirms receiving communication from the US embassy about Privacy Shield. The data protection authorities in Finland, Germany, Latvia, Romania, and Sweden deny receiving emails from the US embassy about Privacy Shield. The data protection authority of Austria refuses to confirm or deny if it ever received emails. In response to questions about the possible existence of emails, the data protection authority of Luxembourg (CNPD) had a rather bizarre reply. The CNPD stated that Luxembourg does not have a freedom of information law. In addition, the CNPD refused to answer questions about the US embassy by citing Luxembourg data protection laws. For now, the true extent of American lobbying remains behind closed doors. The text of this article is released into the public domain. You are free to translate and republish the text of this article. Featured picture is obtained from the US Department of Commerce.

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psychoanalysing Americans and Russians - who trolls harder? [RUS]
by Zenaan Harkness 13 Jul '17

13 Jul '17

This starts slow and is titled rather glibly, but its author Dmitry Orlov delivers reasonably well, as he has in the past. Enjoy :) Trump Trolls America http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/trump-trolls-america/ri20345

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The world seems to be an unfortunate situation in terms of cybersecurity
by Ryan Carboni 12 Jul '17

12 Jul '17

Grsec has been removed from many projects because of trademark dilution or something. Maybe grsec should revoke the license for using outdated grsec when compiled in future operating systems. More open source projects would be more likely receive money if right after the EULA page in the installer, it listed the amount paid to each open source project (to paraphrase The Simpsons, zero is an amount). (although the EULA text for many installers include a portion that people are supposed to remove) Despite that, projects backed by large groups aren't that secure. According to Zerodium price chart, the manpower cost to create a remote jailbreak exploit for Android and Windows is less than one manyear, which should be severely humiliating. Or at least there should be humiliating memes circulating. Google makes billions. Apple makes billions. Microsoft makes billions. Black Lives Matter receives a hundred million. There might be a psychological factor in paying someone to work for you who you can't actually boss around. This has impaired the global economy. Those billions go without saying, come from somewhere. Celebrities promoted Tor, but there hasn't been much done to improve internet security, particularly since they are popular victims (actually many were wiretapped by Anthony Pellicano). Sure, there was the Trustworthy Computing Initiative, and the Core Infrastructure Initiative, but somehow the Open Handset Alliance didn't produce a secure operating system. There exists the concept of consumer cooperatives, but most nonprofits are nearly as democratically run, and somehow we ended up with the great reform of moving metadata collection to the telephone companies in a democracy. Many non profits could stand to explain their large allowances for travel. Subgraph OS exists, but it doesn't aim to be amnesiac or allow for non-Tor use. Very few other operating systems seem to achieve that degree of hardening. Let's consider the math for this. You can include strong security features, but it would cost 50% more time or something. According to the pareto principle, 80% of time is spent on 20% of problems, although I wouldn't know the applicability to software. Some time ago, Cloudflare didn't realize an html parser was crashing, and when they improved the performance of it, it resulted in Cloudbleed. Just in time compilation on browsers have shown to have problems. Personally I think a hybrid kernel based on KVM would be best, but I don't know anything. At least it would allow the user to set certain applications as amnesiac. Obviously any application that can make arbitrary connections is untrustworthy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open-source_hardware_projects

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Re: Welcome To Anarchast!
by Cecilia Tanaka 12 Jul '17

12 Jul '17

LOn Jul 12, 2017 1:16 AM, "Kurt Buff" <kurt.buff(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > This is as opposed to anarcho-syndicalism or various other flavors of anarchism, which are grounded in the belief that money and trade are evil and that love and unicorn farts are sufficient to sustain life. Bah, surviving with love and unicorn farts is great! Admit, you never tried it hard enough, hihi... ;)

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Kaspersky Lab Has Been Working With The Rooshins. Feds Upset.
by Razer 12 Jul '17

12 Jul '17

> A recent AP story notes that senior U.S. intelligence officials do not > recommend Kaspersky's anti-virus products. Attempting to rebut the > concern, Eugene Kaspersky has offered to allow the inspection of the > source code of his anti-virus products. For reasons that Herb Lin > ably outlines, that offer is inadequate to establish the lack of > Russian government influence. But extrinsic evidence of that > influence is scarce on the ground -- leaving Kaspersky with a > signficiant degree of plausible deniability. > > All of which makes this news report from Bloomberg especially > interesting. Here is the the nut graf: > >> While the U.S. government hasn’t disclosed any evidence of the ties, >> internal company emails obtained by Bloomberg Businessweek show that >> Kaspersky Lab has maintained a much closer working relationship with >> Russia’s main intelligence agency, the FSB, than it has publicly >> admitted. It has developed security technology at the spy agency’s >> behest and worked on joint projects the CEO knew would be >> embarrassing if made public > . > > On a day when email evidence seems to be all the rage, this story > should not get lost in the shuffle. > > [UPDATE: Kaspersky has now published a response. Here is the link.] LawFare, with links: https://lawfareblog.com/kaspersky-lab-has-been-working-russian-intelligence

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Bloomberg article on ethereum trader
by John Newman 12 Jul '17

12 Jul '17

Apparently, "0x00A651D43B6e209F5Ada45A35F92EFC0De3A5184 couldn't be reached for further comment." Heh :P https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-10/secret-millions-for-0x00… Secret New Billionaires Cash in With Cryptocurrencies An unknown cryptocurrency trader turned $55 million of paper wealth into $283 million in just over a month. The only clue about this person or persons, beyond a virtual wallet with the identification code 0x00A651D43B6e209F5Ada45A35F92EFC0De3A5184, surfaced on a June 11 Instagram posting, in Bahasa, in which he or she (or they) (or somebody posing as them) boasted about the 413 percent profit accumulated earlier this year from ether, the digital money of the Ethereum blockchain. [IMG] Read more: Inside the Bold Attempt to Reverse a $55 Million Digital Heist "I get many private messages asking how much ether I have," the post read, alongside photos that purported to be the hardware powering a mining operation but looked lifted from another website. "One of the cool things about Ethereum is that all wallets around the world are transparent and open for everyone to see. And this is my wallet's savings." Hidden identities are a popular feature of the twilight world of virtual money. Now that the total value of cryptocurrency, such as bitcoin and ether, soared June 6 to more than $100 billion, approaching the market value of McDonald's Corp., concerned regulators say it might be time to link wallet IDs with actual humans. Nom de Guerre Secrecy persists from the days, earlier this decade, when Ross Ulbricht, going by the nom de guerre Dread Pirate Roberts, used bitcoin to launder money and traffic in narcotics, activities for which he started serving a life term at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York. That's not to say that 0x00A651D43B6e209F5Ada45A35F92EFC0De3A5184 or any other entities are doing anything illegal. But opacity may be worsening jagged price movements. The value of ether, for example, rose from about $8 a unit at the start of the year to crest at $400 in June before settling around $250 today. A lack of transparency could also be stifling the mainstreaming of online money, according to draft legislation issued by the European Parliament in March. "The credibility of virtual currencies will not rise if they are used for criminal purposes," the draft said. "In this context, anonymity will become more a hindrance than an asset for virtual currencies" and their potential future popularity. Pseudonymity has always been a big part of the market's allure. Upending traditional ways of doing business was the lodestar for Ethereum's inventor, 23-year-old Vitalik Buterin. He released his software in 2015, not long after dropping out of Canada's University of Waterloo. Financial Privacy "One of its more important features is that you don't have identities tied to this," said Spencer Bogart, head of research at venture firm Blockchain Capital. "This financial privacy is an important characteristic." Exclusive insights on technology around the world. Get Fully Charged, from Bloomberg Technology. _____________________ Sign Up Ether, the second-most-popular cryptocurrency after bitcoin, is used to pay for applications or programs that run on the Ethereum blockchain, a secured list of transactions that can be shared. That allows for the use of "smart contracts," or pieces of computer code that make the terms of such agreements operate automatically. The blockchain has the potential to reshape business and finance by enabling immediate settlements of activities such as bank transfers and securities trades. JPMorgan Chase & Co., BP Plc, Microsoft Corp. and ING Groep NV are among those experimenting with it. The current value of all the ether held, $23 billion, means dozens of electronic wallets have accrued nine-figure positions. Many of them could be held by individuals, according to a Bloomberg analysis. Individuals can hold multiple wallets. Crypto-Billionaire Likely candidates to be crypto-billionaires include hedge fund manager Michael Novogratz, Joseph Lubin, founder of ConsenSys, a blockchain production studio that works on Ethereum, and Ethereum creator Buterin. Novogratz, a former executive at Fortress Investment Group and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., has a long way to go, but he's been a consistent booster. He said last month that he has 10 percent of his net worth invested in virtual money. That's a stake worth at least $90 million, given a net worth calculated at $925 million, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Novogratz declined to comment. Cryptocurrencies could become a $5 trillion industry, but they need to develop sound business principles to satisfy regulators and lend legitimacy, Novogratz said June 27 at a fintech conference in New York. Lubin, the former chief operating officer for Ethereum Switzerland GmbH, which developed the software, could hold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of ether, several investors said. The Canadian entrepreneur didn't respond to requests for comment on his holdings. "The long-range vision is moving the fundamental transactional elements of our society from analog, friction-filled systems to natively digital frictionless systems," Lubin told Bloomberg Radio June 21. Buterin said in a Reddit post last month his ether holdings equal what would amount to about $117 million today, according to calculations by Bloomberg. Like bitcoin, ether is struggling to overcome a reputation sullied by cyberattacks and technology bottlenecks. A flash crash last month saw the price of the cryptocurrency tumble to just 10 cents before rebounding to about $300. "A lot of lessons will be learned," said Peter Denious, head of global venture capital at Aberdeen Asset Management in Stamford, Connecticut. "A lot of money will be lost before a lot of money can be made." 0x00A651D43B6e209F5Ada45A35F92EFC0De3A5184 couldn't be reached for further comment.

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Re: Russia's "eye-watering" military toys
by Steven Schear 11 Jul '17

11 Jul '17

With advancing commercial tech, open hardware and software, the practicality of effective, open, smart weapon and dual-use becomes eminently more likely. Warrant Canary creator On Jul 7, 2017 7:40 PM, "Steve Kinney" <admin(a)pilobilus.net> wrote: On 07/07/2017 09:52 PM, juan wrote: >>> On a related note, I see that the japanese are 'partners' or >>> forcibibly buy that kind of stuff. I assume that any weapon >>> that americunts sell is fully backdoored so I kinda wonder >>> what kind of retard can buy stuff from them...Well, the japanese and >>> many other seem to be just that kind of retard. >> <I know, I know, stating the obvious dept.> > Are you? One obvious thing here is that what the russians > produce is also backdoored. Another obvious thing is that you > can trust the russians as much as you can trust americunts. I would not be so sure. In the case of weapons earmarked for U.S. use, I would bet heavily that there are no (deliberately installed) back doors in their C&C systems: Our military leaders may be passionately ignorant and profoundly neurotic, that they are not actually stupid. Lockout functions that take significant time and effort to defeat (when enabled) I take for granted, even though for decades the unlock code for all U.S. nuclear warhead firing circuits was a string of zeros. In the case of weapons eligible for export, I would only be a /little/ less confident that back doors are not included: One wants one's allies' weapons to work as advertised, and the blowback from discovered back doors would be very costly. As is done with proprietary trade secret operating systems etc., these back doors would be called "bugs" or "design flaws" when discovered, and this hard to disprove canard would be widely accepted as fact. But when (not if) back doors weapons systems are discovered, that would be Bad For Business: Quality really counts when defending the interests of one's own billionaires from the servants of hostile overseas billionaires. The consequences of back doors discovered /and/ exploited could include personal reprisals against parties considered responsible and major realignments of global power dynamics.

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Russia's "eye-watering" military toys
by Zenaan Harkness 11 Jul '17

11 Jul '17

http://journal-neo.org/2015/11/16/do-we-really-want-a-new-world-war-with-ru… Enjoyable read. Reminds me of that immortal line in the Putin documentary where the Russian navy chief points at a radar screen saying something like 'look at that, I've never seen [a destroyer class battleship] do this figure-8 move before' as the USS Donald Cook first enters then hightails out of Crimean waters. International military sparring at its best :) Z

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[RUS] TFW the winning finally stops - Putin discoveres he can't make a deal with Trump
by Zenaan Harkness 11 Jul '17

11 Jul '17

So sad ... http://theduran.com/video-shows-difference-putins-reactions-obama-vs-trump/

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The "energy grid hack" is back
by Razer 10 Jul '17

10 Jul '17

RollCall: > Congress Unnerved by Energy Grid Hack > > For months, Sen. Maria Cantwell has been warning in letters to the > Trump administration and colleagues that Congress needs to do more to > keep the nation's energy supply safe from cyberattacks. Now it appears > she has a widespread attack to bolster her admonitions. > > Reports from Bloomberg and The New York Times last week indicated that > Russian-backed hacking groups may be responsible for recent targeted > cyberattacks to nuclear power plants and grid operation system > manufacturers, threatening the electric grid and the economy it supports. > > While the FBI and Department of Homeland Security say... (blah blah) > > http://www.rollcall.com/news/policy/energy-grid-hack-gets-focuses-congress > Which Energy Grid hack? The one in Burlington Vt that never happened at all on a laptop that wasn't even capable of being connected to the grid, containing malware that was 'in the wild' for years? These people are spoon feeding everyone bullshit, and everyone's eating it. Because the typical US-ejumicated idiot simply can't admit to themselves they got the absolute perfect representation of an American citizen for president. Donald Trump. So like every other world problem... PUTIN! RUSSIA! COMMIES! Note that Russia hasn't been a communist nation for decades now, and their only real threat to the US is competition for the extractive resources that make America's Five-Planet Lifestyle possible. Therein lies the 'problem' with "Russia". My nightmare is the US and Russia will call off their bullshit-in-the-best-year "Cold War", a global game of good cop/bad cop played on the 3rd world countries, and collude to rape the Earth's resources with China as the slave shop nation manufacturing products with those looted resources for the select few who can still afford it. Watch Syria. It's future partition is the testing ground for US/Russian expeditionary collaboration. Rr

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