- cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

Decade Of Pirates On The Run: Still Blinded To Real Potential Of Overlay Networks
by grarpamp 20 Nov '16

20 Nov '16

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/16/11/17/2135251/music-torrent-site-whatcd-h… http://www.theverge.com/2016/11/17/13669832/what-cd-music-torrent-website-s… http://www.zataz.com/operation-what-cd-12-serveurs-saisis-chez-ovh-free/ What.cd, an invite-only music torrent website first launched in 2007, has been shut down after a raid by French authorities. The private tracker offered free (and often illegal) access to a massive, deeply thorough collection of music and was popular among audiophiles for its strict rules around quality and file formats. The site was created after the shutdown of another well-known torrent website, Oink, which operated between 2004 and 2007. Though its primary focus was music sharing, What.cd also permitted torrents of computer software, ebooks, and other content. Zataz Magazine is reporting 12 servers that powered What.cd's infrastructure were seized by French cybercrime authorities. What.cd hasn't been taken offline completely, but torrents are unavailable and the homepage now displays a message confirming its demise: "Due to some recent events, What.CD is shutting down. We are not likely to return any time soon in our current form. All site and user data has been destroyed. So long, and thanks for all the fish." https://yro.slashdot.org/story/16/11/18/2258232/major-cyberlocker-exua-to-s… https://yro.slashdot.org/story/16/11/16/2134207/police-raid-pirate-site-sei… https://torrentfreak.com/major-cyberlocker-ex-ua-to-shut-down-amid-police-c… https://torrentfreak.com/ukraine-copyright-amendments-aim-to-please-united-… Earlier this week, news broke that following a complaint from the MPAA, local piracy giant FS.to was raided by police, with more than 60 servers seized and 19 people arrested. That investigation is still ongoing but now an even bigger target has folded in its wake. Founded in 2009, EX.UA is Ukraine's largest cyberlocker and one of the largest sites in the country, period. With millions of visitors each day the site is a much-loved resource but very shortly the platform will close its doors for good. In an announcement to users, EX.UA's owners said that it was time to throw in the towel after 12 months of trouble for the site and potential legal trouble ahead. "Over the past year EX.UA has had a chance to feel the direct threats, blackmail (including at the international level), and DDOS attacks. These actions jeopardize the personal information and personal files stored by users on the service," the site announced. EX.UA's operators say they have always tried to operate with respect for the laws of Ukraine, including dealing with takedowns quickly. However, the site does not approve of the system of distribution and rights management in place in the country and says it was one of the site's goals to raise this issue in Ukrainian society. Just recently, Ukraine passed a law which will allow copyright holders to block allegedly infringing sites without obtaining a court order. This, EX.UA says, is a sign of "uncivilized lobbying" and will only result in less respect for copyright. Faced with a change in the law and a desire to respect it, EX.UA's operators say that they will shut down the site. Users have just under two weeks to save their files.

1 1

Governments Criminalizing Militarizing Civilian Identity and Control Structures
by grarpamp 20 Nov '16

20 Nov '16

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/16/11/19/0521222/privacy-group-sues-the-fbi-… https://www.onthewire.io/epic-sues-fbi-over-biometric-database-records/ A major privacy group has filed a lawsuit against the FBI to force the bureau to release all relevant documents about its plan to share a huge amount of biometric information with the Department of Defense. The lawsuit filed by EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center) concerns the FBI's Next Generation Identification (NGI) system, which comprises fingerprint, iris scan, and facial recognition data, and the bureau has been using it for several years... EPIC's lawsuit asks that the FBI be forced to release records about the plan to share NGI data with the Department of Defense under the Freedom of Information Act. EPIC filed a FOIA request about the plan last year and though the FBI said it has located 35 pages of records that are responsive to the request, it hasn't released any of those records.

1 0

Drone Hating: Natural Response For More Than Just The Human Species
by grarpamp 20 Nov '16

20 Nov '16

https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/11/19/2258252/commercial-mining-drones-k… The world's seventh-biggest gold producer has lost more than nine drones because of eagle attacks. "People couldn't believe I was able to get such a good photo of an eagle airborne," complained surveyor Rick Steven at a conference sponsored by the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. "But I didn't... Another eagle took that photo... I was getting attacked by two eagles simultaneously." The specially-constructed drones carry a $10,000 camera for high-resolution photos and equipment that produces high-detail contour maps of potential mining areas, and so far the company estimates they've lost more than $100,000 worth of technology to eagle attacks. They've tried camouflage -- including disguising the drones as another eagle -- but unfortunately, according to Stevens, the eagle is the "natural enemy" of the drone. One drone's video is interrupted by the sudden appearance of an eagle, followed almost immediately by footage from the ground by a sideways drone camera. That video -- included in the article -- ends with a reminder that "Eagle attacks on drones have been documented across the world, to the point where some European police forces are now training them to take down unauthorized aircraft." http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-17/wedge-tailed-eagles-bring-down-drones… https://yro.slashdot.org/story/16/02/01/1919257/dutch-police-train-bald-eag…

1 0

Donald Trump
by grarpamp 20 Nov '16

20 Nov '16

1 0

Silicon Valley wants to work with Donald Trump. (The Hill)
by Razer 20 Nov '16

20 Nov '16

All the Silicon Valley "Libertarians" are lining up for the Fascist/Racist-in-Chief. Not unexpected here. They all lined up for another fascist/racist a while back. Ron Paul. http://thehill.com/policy/technology/306846-silicon-valley-makes-nice-with-…

1 0

Fwd: [tor-dev] Browsers, VMs and Targeted Hardware Bit-Flips
by grarpamp 20 Nov '16

20 Nov '16

https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Advanced_Attacks https://www.whonix.org/wiki/KVM#Unsafe_Features ---------- Forwarded message ---------- There have been a series of recent attacks that take advantage of "rowhammer" (a RAM hardware bit-flipping vulnerability) to flip bits in security-critical data structures. VMs sharing the same physical RAM are vulnerable, and browsers and mobile apps are remote vectors with proof-of-concept implementations. Rowhammer summary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Row_hammer An attack that flips targeted bits in another virtual machine on the same physical RAM, targeting OpenSSH public keys, GPG public keys, and Debian package sources: https://www.vusec.net/projects/flip-feng-shui/ A similar proof-of-concept Android app: https://www.vusec.net/projects/drammer/ A JavaScript-based in-browser remote proof-of-concept: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1507.06955v1.pdf It seems like a short step from these existing attacks to targeting Tor Browser users remotely. I wonder whether it might be possible to target relays (or clients) using OR cells or directory documents with specific content, but this seems much less likely. I have been thinking about how we could make Tor (and browsers, and other processes, and OSs) less vulnerable to these kinds of attacks. In general, some of the process-level defences against one or more of the above attacks are: * sign or checksum all security-critical data structures, * implement and check cross-certification, * don't rely on cached checks (or checks performed at load time) continuing to be accurate, * minimise time between checking validity and using the data, (this includes signatures, checksums, data structure consistency) * make the content of memory pages (including loaded files) less predictable, * make sure the hamming distance between trusted, valid inputs and untrusted, valid inputs is large, in particular: * register domains that are one bit-flip away from trusted domains, (or, alternately, mandate SSL, and pin certificates, and fix broken CA roots) Some of the OS-level defences are: * turn off memory deduplication, * write and verify checksums on each page, Some of the firmware/hardware defences are: * increase the RAM refresh rate, * improve RAM design, * use ECC RAM. Tim Wilson-Brown (teor) teor2345 at gmail dot com PGP C855 6CED 5D90 A0C5 29F6 4D43 450C BA7F 968F 094B ricochet:ekmygaiu4rzgsk6n xmpp: teor at torproject dot org

1 0

FBI Injecting You Thanksgiving Turkeys With Liquid Fear
by grarpamp 20 Nov '16

20 Nov '16

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fbi-concerned-about-terrorist-activity-on-thank… The FBI is alerting law enforcement officials across the country that there is concern about a potential terrorist attack around Thanksgiving or the Inauguration, CBS News’ Jeff Pegues reports. The alert specifically warned of homegrown terrorists and cited shopping malls, special events and other crowded venues as possible targets. Specific locations in Washington, D.C. and northern Virginia are described as “target-rich” zones. Potential tactics that could be used include guns, IEDs or drones equipped with IEDs. The FBI warned about potential indicators of lone-wolf activity, including isolation from friends and family, lifestyle changes, increased use of encrypted forms of communication and more. The warning comes from activity in al Qaeda’s “Inspire Magazine.” The NYPD warned earlier this week that the magazine of ISIS had called the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade an “excellent target.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Inspire_(magazine) https://pietervanostaeyen.files.wordpress.com/2016/11/inspireissue16-high.p… http://jihadology.net/category/inspire-magazine/

1 0

an Aussie perspective on Trump’s “Conservative Revolution”
by Zenaan Harkness 20 Nov '16

20 Nov '16

Trump’s “Conservative Revolution” (A view from Oz) (4 pages) http://thesaker.is/trumps-conservative-revolution-a-view-from-oz/

3 2

This month in serious ridesharing allegations
by Razer 20 Nov '16

20 Nov '16

AKA The "Sharing Economy" Is A Racist Sexist Feudal Economy - Uber/Lyft edition Pando... Locked, provides the blurb: > This month in serious ridesharing allegations > > Nathaniel Mott > > October was defined by a study published by the National Bureau of > Economic Research which revealed that many Uber and Lyft drivers are > sexist. The landmark study found that drivers in Seattle made African > American passengers wait longer to be picked up, that Boston drivers > often took female passengers along more expensive routes, and that > drivers in both cities cancelled trips much more often if the > prospective passenger had an African American-sounding name. > > These findings are particularly damning because ride-hailing services > are supposed to help people avoid these types of problems. Can’t hail > a cab? Book an Uber. Don’t trust a taxi driver to get you home safe? > Use Lyft. That’s the idea, anyway, but anyone who’s read these monthly > wrap-ups knows that neither of these services are as safe as they seem... Here's the dox: > > Nber Working Paper Series > Racial And Gender Discrimination In Transportation Network Companies > > Yanbo Ge > Christopher R. Knittel > Don MacKenzie > Stephen Zoepf > > Working Paper 22776 > > Abstract: Passengers have faced a history of discrimination in > transportation systems. Peer transportation companies such as Uber and > Lyft present the opportunity to rectify long-standing discrimination > or worsen it. We sent passengers in Seattle, WA and Boston, MA to hail > nearly 1,500 rides on controlled routes and recorded key performance > metrics. Results indicated a pattern of discrimination, which we > observed in Seattle through longer waiting times for African American > passengers—as much as a 35 percent increase. In Boston, we observed > discrimination by Uber drivers via more frequent cancellations against > passengers when they used African American-sounding names. Across all > trips, the cancellation rate for African American sounding names was > more than twice as frequent compared to white sounding names. Male > passengers requesting a ride in low-density areas were more than three > times as likely to have their trip canceled when they used a African > American-sounding name than when they used a white-sounding name. We > also find evidence that drivers took female passengers for longer, > more expensive, rides in Boston. We observe that removing names from > trip booking may alleviate the immediate problem but could introduce > other pathways for unequal treatment of passengers. Ps. I wrote up Lyft a few years ago. Nasty Nasty. > All one has to do is read the whiny headlines and listen to people > discuss the BART strike, even so-called anarchists, to know the only > people the Bay Area’s hipster elite care about are themselves… Do note > that Uber rideshare’s financial backers include Goldman Sachs. The > article includes more information about the kind of financial scum > “Hip Startups” are willing to collaborate with. Sharing Rides, Hoarding Profits: How the SF Bay area's technology elite are destroying poor & people of color's incomes by 'Disruptive Innovation' (link) http://auntieimperial.tumblr.com/post/64490895571 Bonus Track: TaskRabbit... > In summer 2012, Thiel’s (Peter Thiel, PayPal founder) venture-capital > group Founders Fund became a key investor in the new ideological > startup Taskrabbit. While it nominally exists to turn a profit, > Taskrabbit is an ingenious vehicle for social engineering which aims > to lessen the control of government not over money, but work. By > exploiting high unemployment as an opportunity to diminish workers’ > rights, Taskrabbit aims to create an alternate, privatized set of > norms based on the labor paradigm of the 1920s: “liberty of contract.” > > The Ten Ninety Nihilists By Empire-Logistics, Libcom. Click through my tumblr: http://auntieimperial.tumblr.com/post/66582151603 Rr Ps Suck my nutz Techie Hipster Libertards

2 4

guide to uncover and report the Nazis near you
by Zenaan Harkness 19 Nov '16

19 Nov '16

The Liberal Guide to spotting a Nazi Vladimir Golstein The Nazi virus is spreading like a wildfire, and it's extremely contagious. Follow this guide to uncover and report the Nazis near you. We live in a highly volatile, even dangerous times, when those inflicted with a Nazi-bacteria move freely among us, subjecting themselves and those around them to tremendous dangers. It is the duty of all concerned citizens to detect these infiltrators and report them immediately to the proper authorities at the Clinton Foundation. The future of the republic is at stake, so to help you remain vigilant, here is a simple ten-point test of detecting a Nazi. This guide will prove to be particularly beneficial when used along with The Malleus Maleficarum also known as Hammer of Witches. 1. Try to find out how this person voted in recent election. If the vote was not for HRC, this specimen is a Nazi. 2. Have you seen this person breaking up in tears at least once since the last presidential election? If the answer is “no” – a Nazi. 3. Has this deplorable cracked up a politically incorrect joke at least once? – A Nazi. 4. Does this person burst into cursing after hearing the name, Steve Bannon? If not – a Nazi for sure. 5. Has this person ever expressed his doubts about the political wisdom of President Obama, or such luminaries as Ashton Carter or John Kerry? – a Nazi. 6. Has this person paused for more than ten seconds before spewing “dictator” after hearing the word “Putin” pronounced? – A certified Nazi. 7. Has this individual ever expressed doubts about unhealthy intellectual, moral, and political dependence of European leaders, such as Merkel, Cameron, or Hollande on their Washington handlers? Has this person smiled when you mention the names of Karl Bildt, Radek Sikorski, or Anders Fogh Rassmussen? – Smiles and doubts at the expense of your sacred cows are sure signs of a Nazi. 8. Have you ever observed this lady reading any alternative news sights? Has she ever referred to any fact without referring to the authority of New York Times? You surely have a Nazi on your hands. 9. Has this person ever expressed his irritation with Hollywood stars and their ridiculous interference in the political process? Has this guy ever said, “I don’t need a BJ from Madonna, I am still voting for Trump.” That’s a seriously committed Nazi, a person who is beyond repair for sure. If Madonna can’t help him, nobody will. 10. Has this individual ever mention to you that endless military adventures abroad have very little to do with human rights, but a lot with the propping up of the collapsing Empire? – That’s an ultimate Nazi, who obviously recognizes only one Empire: The Third Reich. http://theduran.com/liberal-guide-spotting-nazi/

1 0