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Read at: China combs through online content that ‘bad-mouths’ its economy — RT Business News
Showing posts with label Internet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Internet. Show all posts
8/29/21
China combs through online content that ‘bad-mouths’ its economy
Beijing has launched a two-month campaign to probe commercial platforms and social media accounts that post economic information, in an attempt to cleanse the media of content that criticizes China’s economic policies.
The National Cyberspace Administration of China on Friday launched a “special rectification” action targeting illegal procurement and misinterpretation of financial information. The agency called on social media platforms to carry out checks to cleanse finance-related content that “violates China’s regulations.”
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Read at: China combs through online content that ‘bad-mouths’ its economy — RT Business News
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Read at: China combs through online content that ‘bad-mouths’ its economy — RT Business News
8/28/21
Suriname: E-Networks to extend fibre optic submarine cable to Suriname
E-Networks has been granted permission by the Guyana Government to connect its fibre optic submarine cable to Suriname to provide for redundancy here.
A notice on the Official Gazette of Guyana website states that Prime Minister Mark Phillips on behalf of the Government has amended the telecommunications licence issued on October 5th 2020, to E-Networks. The licence was amended to grant permission to E-Networks Inc. to land, install and operate a fibre optic submarine cable that will connect Guyana to Suriname for the provision of redundant connectivity here.
Read more at: E-Networks to extend fibre optic submarine cable to Suriname - Stabroek News
A notice on the Official Gazette of Guyana website states that Prime Minister Mark Phillips on behalf of the Government has amended the telecommunications licence issued on October 5th 2020, to E-Networks. The licence was amended to grant permission to E-Networks Inc. to land, install and operate a fibre optic submarine cable that will connect Guyana to Suriname for the provision of redundant connectivity here.
Read more at: E-Networks to extend fibre optic submarine cable to Suriname - Stabroek News
11/26/20
Malware: Random pop ups? 5 telltale signs your computer is infected with malware—and how to fix it- by Kristine Solomon
Remember when you could surf the web without being barraged by one pop-up ad after another? Between ”Congratulations! You’ve won $1 million” and “Alert! Virus detected,” constant, unwanted pop-up advertisements have become a frustrating reality of our online experience—and most (though not all) are simply spam in disguise.
Read more at: Random pop ups? 5 telltale signs your computer is infected with malware—and how to fix it
Read more at: Random pop ups? 5 telltale signs your computer is infected with malware—and how to fix it
10/9/20
Internet - and working from home: Berlin, Lagos, Budapest: How fast is your internet?
Working from home can be a challenge in itself: no office chair, no
canteen, no colleagues to chat with over coffee. But with the
coronavirus here to stay for the foreseeable future, millions of people
around the world have gotten used to sitting at the kitchen table just
like Merguet to work on spreadsheets or take conference calls. But
without a fast and reliable connection, slow downloads, choppy audio or
video calls that keep freezing up can make life difficult for
telecommuters.
Merguet isn't the only one who has had to wind down data-intensive tasks. Even in well-off countries like Germany, internet problems are common. DW used open-source data from M-Lab to compare the speed of internet connections around the globe. M-Lab collects data from many millions of speed tests that users perform every month.
For the complete report go to:
Berlin, Lagos, Budapest: How fast is your internet? | World| Breaking news and perspectives from around the globe | DW | 09.10.2020
Merguet isn't the only one who has had to wind down data-intensive tasks. Even in well-off countries like Germany, internet problems are common. DW used open-source data from M-Lab to compare the speed of internet connections around the globe. M-Lab collects data from many millions of speed tests that users perform every month.
For the complete report go to:
Berlin, Lagos, Budapest: How fast is your internet? | World| Breaking news and perspectives from around the globe | DW | 09.10.2020
7/25/20
On-line Privacy: 3 Ways to Take Back Your Online Privacy from Big Corporations
To us, the Internet is a place of entertainment, work, and wonder. To
companies and major corporations, the Internet represents more—it
represents ways to make money. Through data collection and advertising,
traces of corporations can be found anywhere on the Internet.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m not the biggest fan of corporations stealing my data and using it to profit. If you’re the same way, then continue reading, as I’ll be listing ways you can protect your data and keep corporations off your back. Well, as off your back that’s currently possible.
Read more at:
3 Ways to Take Back Your Online Privacy from Big Corporations
Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m not the biggest fan of corporations stealing my data and using it to profit. If you’re the same way, then continue reading, as I’ll be listing ways you can protect your data and keep corporations off your back. Well, as off your back that’s currently possible.
Read more at:
3 Ways to Take Back Your Online Privacy from Big Corporations
7/2/20
USA: Status of Online Censorship in the States
In a sweeping victory for free speech rights in cyberspace, the Supreme Court struck down the Communications Decency Act in Reno
v. ACLU in June 1997. The Court granted the highest level of First
Amendment protection to the Internet, and cyber-activists are still
dancing in the streets.
But is cyberspace really safe from the censors?
Despite the Supreme Court's ruling, states are busy crafting censorship laws at home. At least thirteen states have passed legislation since 1995. This year, New Mexico has already passed a draconian censorship law, and bills are pending in 10 other states.
Read more at;
Online Censorship in the States | American Civil Liberties Union
But is cyberspace really safe from the censors?
Despite the Supreme Court's ruling, states are busy crafting censorship laws at home. At least thirteen states have passed legislation since 1995. This year, New Mexico has already passed a draconian censorship law, and bills are pending in 10 other states.
Read more at;
Online Censorship in the States | American Civil Liberties Union
2/20/20
The Netherlands: More Dutch seniors active on social media
In 2019, 76 percent of the respondents in this age category said they had used social media, up from 40 percent five years previously.
An increase in social media use was also seen among people aged 75 and over. Exchanging text messages, via WhatsApp for example, is most popular among the elderly. This is according to recent figures taken from the survey on ICT usage by households and individuals in 2019, conducted by Statistics Netherlands (CBS).
In 2019, 87 percent of the Dutch population aged 12 years and over indicated they had used social media such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, discussion forums or weblogs in the previous three months. This was still 74 percent five years previously.
Virtually everyone in the age group 12 to 54 years use social media (95 percent or more). The shares were 89 percent among 55 to 64-year-olds and 76 percent among 65 to 74-year-olds last year. In 2014, these shares amounted to 64 and 40 percent respectively.
An increase in social media use is also seen among Dutch seniors over the age of 75: in 2014, 13 percent were active while five years this had risen to 40 percent.
Read more: More Dutch seniors active on social media
10/12/19
MODERN CULTURE: How we came to live in cursed times - by Jia Tolentino
On Twitter, people appear to identify objects and phenomena with “cursed energy” every hour of every day. It’s not just creepy images: the word has acquired new valences, has come to signify increasingly generalized feelings of anxiety and malaise. “The way I use ‘cursed’ has a connotation of being trapped, i.e. a sort of Greek Mythology Ironic Eternal Punishment vibe,” Alex Pareene, a writer for The New Republic, told me.
We must be cursed, one would think, to spend so much of our day walking around with our eyes glued to a device that provokes bad feelings. Ashley Feinberg, a writer at Slate, wrote, in an e-mail, “To me, cursed energy is about any number of bad or dystopian things finding each other and congealing into something that is somehow more stupid than the sum of its parts.” She included a link to an image of an Instagram meltdown queen appearing on a leftist reactionary podcast whose hosts are best known for denigrating #MeToo and valorizing anorexia. Sam Biddle, who writes about tech for the Intercept, told me, “I think so much of the Internet feels like hell now that it just makes sense to blame it on the devil.”
Read more at:
6/11/18
The Internet - Net Neutrality is dead for Americans: Net Neutrality Repeal Is Official. Here’s How That Could Affect You - by Keith Collins
It’s official. The Federal Communications Commission’s repeal of net neutrality rules, which had required internet service providers to offer equal access to all web content, took effect on Monday.
The rules, enacted by the administration of President Barack Obama in 2015 prohibited internet providers from charging more for certain content or from giving preferential treatment to certain websites.
After the commission voted to repeal the rules in December, it faced a public outcry, legal challenges from state attorneys general and public interest groups, and a push by Democratic lawmakers to overturn the decision.
The opponents argued that the repeal would open the door for service providers to censor content online or charge additional fees for better service — something that could hurt small companies — and several states have taken steps to impose the rules on a local level.
Still,the repeal was a big win for Ajit Pai, the F.C.C.’s chairman, who has long opposed the regulations, saying they impeded innovation. He once said they were based on “hypothetical harms and hysterical prophecies of doom.”
Read more: Net Neutrality Repeal Is Official. Here’s How That Could Affect You. - The New YorkTimes
4/12/18
Electronic communications: go European and benefit from stricter personal privacy laws
But here is the good news. It is called the European mode, and you don't have to be a European to benefit from the far stricter European personal privacy laws, and other regulations imposed on how companies make use of your personal data.
Here are two companies you might want to look intom if you want a secure European based e-mail account.
ECLIPSO
PROTON MAIL
In this context FREENET and TOR , are also recommended networks, specially if you live in, or visiting a country where there is censorship, interception of electronic communications, and control over what you are allowed to see or not over the Internet.
It certainly is worth to look into, and best of all, they come for free, if you don't require their "premium" services.
EU-Digest
3/24/18
Internet High Speed Communications: 5G: how EU is helping to turn it into an engine for growth
The European Commission has prepared an action plan to facilitate the deployment of 5G across the EU. MEPs voted in favour of supporting the plan
on 1 June, but stressed that coordination between EU countries would be
crucial to avoid delays that were experienced when 4G was introduced as
not enough spectrum was available.
Polish EPP member MichaÅ‚ Boni, the MEP responsible for steering the plan through Parliament, warned: "The member states have to understand that we have to avoid the fragmentation of decisions and solutions if we want to achieve the 5G objectives.”
He also stressed the importance of making it easier to invest in this: “Investments are the key for achieving 5G goals. The simplification of legal framework, flexible models for co-investments and long-term certainty and predictability are required.”
To watch the plenary debate in the EU Parliament click here: Video: watch the plenary debate on 5G
Read more: 5G: how EU is helping to turn it into an engine for growth | News | European Parliament
Polish EPP member MichaÅ‚ Boni, the MEP responsible for steering the plan through Parliament, warned: "The member states have to understand that we have to avoid the fragmentation of decisions and solutions if we want to achieve the 5G objectives.”
He also stressed the importance of making it easier to invest in this: “Investments are the key for achieving 5G goals. The simplification of legal framework, flexible models for co-investments and long-term certainty and predictability are required.”
To watch the plenary debate in the EU Parliament click here: Video: watch the plenary debate on 5G
Read more: 5G: how EU is helping to turn it into an engine for growth | News | European Parliament
10/29/17
Internet Mail Security Programs:6 Best Services for Secure Email 2017 - by Heinz Tschabitscher
A secure email service is the easiest way to keep your
emails private and untampered with. Not only are we talking about secure
and encrypted email, we're also looking at maintaining anonymity (much
more than you get with a regular free email account) and self-destructing emails.
Here are the 6 best secure email services you can use to send and receive encrypted email – right now.
Here are the 6 best secure email services you can use to send and receive encrypted email – right now.
4) Countermail
5) Hushnail
6) Sendinc
If you use a secure email service that offers end-to-end encryption, you have taken a huge step
towards making your email truly secure and private. Congratulations!
Your messages are the fruit that hang really high and are expensive to
get.
To make life difficult for even the most dedicated hackers, you can take a few precautions more:
To make life difficult for even the most dedicated hackers, you can take a few precautions more:
- Beware of keylogging software. Key-loggers capture what you type right from your keyboard – before any secure email encryption software can protect it.
- Do not leave your mobile devices and computers unguarded. Also, make sure your devices are themselves protected with strong passwords or biometrics and have no guest accounts or similarly unprotected access allowed.
- Be vigilant of social engineering. Phishing attempts often come by email, instant messages, VoIP or social networking messages and can be very cleverly designed (possibly tailored specifically to you) to trick you into handing out personal details, information or even passwords.
- Do not write down or share any passwords. Never make a note of the password that lets you decrypt secure emails you receive.
Note: Also guard passwords to other email accounts or social networking accounts with particular care. - Assume that, given enough resources, interest or time, it will be possible to hack into your every email account (even encrypted email).In fact, it may be even "easier" to force, trick or blackmail you so you reveal information directly or grant access to secure email accounts.
Read more: 6 Best Services for Secure Email 2017
10/11/17
Internet: Elite Hackers: Stealing NSA Secrets Is ‘Child’s Play’-by Joseph Cox
The National Security Agency’s hackers have a problem.
Last week, multiple outlets reported that its elite Tailored Access Operations unit—tasked with breaking into foreign networks—suffered another serious data breach. The theft of computer code and other material by an employee in 2015 allowed the Russian government to more easily detect U.S. cyber operations, according to The Washington Post. It’s potentially the fourth large-scale incident at the NSA to be revealed in the last five years.
Now, multiple sources with direct knowledge of TAO’s security procedures in the recent past tell The Daily Beast just how porous some of the defenses were to keep workers from stealing sensitive information—either digitally or by simply walking out of the front door with it.
One source described removing data from a TAO facility as “child’s play.” The Daily Beast granted the sources anonymity to talk candidly about the NSA’s security practices.
TAO is not your average band of hackers. Its operations have included digging into China’s networks, developing the tools British spies used to break into Belgium’s largest telecom, and hacking sections of the Mexican government.
While other parts of the NSA may focus on tapping undersea cables or prying data from Silicon Valley giants, TAO is the tip of the NSA’s offensive hacking spear, and could have access to much more sensitive information ripped from adversaries’ closed networks. The unit deploys and creates sophisticated exploits that rely on vulnerabilities in routers, operating systems, and computer hardware the general population uses—the sort of tools that could wreak havoc if they fell into the wrong hands.
That doesn’t mean those tools are locked down, though. “TAO specifically had a huge amount of latitude to move data between networks,” the first source, who worked at the unit after Edward Snowden’s mega-leak, said.
The former employee said TAO limited the number of USB drives—which could be used to steal data—after that 2013 breach, but he still had used several while working at TAO.
A recent report by the Defense Department’s inspector general completed in 2016 found that the NSA’s “Secure the Net” project—which aimed to restrict access to its most sensitive data after the Snowden breach—fell short of its stated aims. The NSA did introduce some improvements, but it didn’t effectively reduce the number of user accounts with “privileged” access, which provide more avenues into sensitive data than normal users, nor fully implement technology to oversee these accounts’ activities, the report reads. Physical security wasn’t much better, at least at one TAO operator’s facility.
He told The Daily Beast that there were “no bag checks or anything” as employees and contractors left work for the day—meaning, it was easy smuggle things home. Metal detectors were present, including before Snowden, but “nobody cared what came out,” the second source added. The third source, who visited TAO facilities, said bag checks were random and weak.
Read more from the Daily Beast
Last week, multiple outlets reported that its elite Tailored Access Operations unit—tasked with breaking into foreign networks—suffered another serious data breach. The theft of computer code and other material by an employee in 2015 allowed the Russian government to more easily detect U.S. cyber operations, according to The Washington Post. It’s potentially the fourth large-scale incident at the NSA to be revealed in the last five years.
Now, multiple sources with direct knowledge of TAO’s security procedures in the recent past tell The Daily Beast just how porous some of the defenses were to keep workers from stealing sensitive information—either digitally or by simply walking out of the front door with it.
One source described removing data from a TAO facility as “child’s play.” The Daily Beast granted the sources anonymity to talk candidly about the NSA’s security practices.
TAO is not your average band of hackers. Its operations have included digging into China’s networks, developing the tools British spies used to break into Belgium’s largest telecom, and hacking sections of the Mexican government.
While other parts of the NSA may focus on tapping undersea cables or prying data from Silicon Valley giants, TAO is the tip of the NSA’s offensive hacking spear, and could have access to much more sensitive information ripped from adversaries’ closed networks. The unit deploys and creates sophisticated exploits that rely on vulnerabilities in routers, operating systems, and computer hardware the general population uses—the sort of tools that could wreak havoc if they fell into the wrong hands.
That doesn’t mean those tools are locked down, though. “TAO specifically had a huge amount of latitude to move data between networks,” the first source, who worked at the unit after Edward Snowden’s mega-leak, said.
The former employee said TAO limited the number of USB drives—which could be used to steal data—after that 2013 breach, but he still had used several while working at TAO.
“Most
operators knew how they could get anything they wanted out of the
classified nets and onto the internet if they wanted to, even without
the USB drives,” the former TAO employeesai.
Read more: Elite Hackers: Stealing NSA Secrets Is ‘Child’s Play’A recent report by the Defense Department’s inspector general completed in 2016 found that the NSA’s “Secure the Net” project—which aimed to restrict access to its most sensitive data after the Snowden breach—fell short of its stated aims. The NSA did introduce some improvements, but it didn’t effectively reduce the number of user accounts with “privileged” access, which provide more avenues into sensitive data than normal users, nor fully implement technology to oversee these accounts’ activities, the report reads. Physical security wasn’t much better, at least at one TAO operator’s facility.
He told The Daily Beast that there were “no bag checks or anything” as employees and contractors left work for the day—meaning, it was easy smuggle things home. Metal detectors were present, including before Snowden, but “nobody cared what came out,” the second source added. The third source, who visited TAO facilities, said bag checks were random and weak.
Read more from the Daily Beast
5/5/17
French Pres.Elections: Macron launches legal suit after Le Pen repeats 'Bahamas bank account' rumours
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| Putin and Le Pen in Moscow |
Macron's team had earlier announced that the candidate had lodged an official complaint over "the spreading of false information" to try to influence the result of an election.
The complaint was filed the morning after a memorable live TV debate between the two presidential election candidates.
During one particularly heated exchange in a debate marked by insults and invective the pair argued about the legal issues they faced.
After Macron said it wasn’t him that was under investigation by police, referring to the fake jobs allegations facing Le Pen, the far right candidate replied: “I hope we don’t discover you have an offshore account in the Bahamas.”
Macron warned her that her suggestion was "defamation".
Judicial sources told AFP prosecutors in Paris had opened a probe following the complaint from Macron, which comes three days before Sunday's presidential run-off vote.
A source close to the case told AFP, the complaint targets "information that circulated Wednesday night on the internet" (probably from Russian sources) alleging tax evasion in the Bahamas.
Read more: Macron launches legal suit after Le Pen repeats 'Bahamas bank account' rumours - The Local
7/16/16
Turkey: How to circumvent Turkey’s social media block
Access to several social media sites
was blocked for over an hour in Turkey today during a reported military
coup. Although internet traffic appears to be flowing normally again,
Turkey’s government frequently responds to political events by blocking certain websites or throttling traffic.
“We saw the throttling of connections from Turkey to Twitter and Facebook just after the reports of the coup in Turkey,” Doug Madory, the director of internet analysis at Dyn Research, told TechCrunch. “We did not see any problems with YouTube, but I have also seen others report problems accessing that website.” Livestreaming services like Twitter’s Periscope and Facebook Live appeared unaffected by the block.
Overall, internet traffic in Turkey may have dropped by half, according to CloudFlare data. CloudFlare CEO Matthew Prince tweeted, “From CloudFlare data, appears there’s about a 50% drop in Internet traffic coming out of Turkey.”
Turkish censorship of social media has been relatively easy to circumvent in the past — users could use DNS services like Google Public DNS to evade the blocks. But Turkey has become more sophisticated in how it blocks its citizens from accessing social media, according to Madory.
“This time Turkey appears to be restricting bandwidth when accessing social media. This represents a more sophisticated censorship technique that is harder to detect,” Madory said. “Users should still be able to circumvent it using a VPN, but the average user in Turkey may still not have that technology readily available.”
Click on the link below for the completer report and techniques for getting around internet blocks during times of turmoil:
Read more: How to circumvent Turkey’s social media block | TechCrunch
“We saw the throttling of connections from Turkey to Twitter and Facebook just after the reports of the coup in Turkey,” Doug Madory, the director of internet analysis at Dyn Research, told TechCrunch. “We did not see any problems with YouTube, but I have also seen others report problems accessing that website.” Livestreaming services like Twitter’s Periscope and Facebook Live appeared unaffected by the block.
Overall, internet traffic in Turkey may have dropped by half, according to CloudFlare data. CloudFlare CEO Matthew Prince tweeted, “From CloudFlare data, appears there’s about a 50% drop in Internet traffic coming out of Turkey.”
Turkish censorship of social media has been relatively easy to circumvent in the past — users could use DNS services like Google Public DNS to evade the blocks. But Turkey has become more sophisticated in how it blocks its citizens from accessing social media, according to Madory.
“This time Turkey appears to be restricting bandwidth when accessing social media. This represents a more sophisticated censorship technique that is harder to detect,” Madory said. “Users should still be able to circumvent it using a VPN, but the average user in Turkey may still not have that technology readily available.”
Click on the link below for the completer report and techniques for getting around internet blocks during times of turmoil:
Read more: How to circumvent Turkey’s social media block | TechCrunch
4/7/16
The Netherlands: Ecommerce in the Netherlands to reach €18bn in 2016
B2C Ecommerce sales in the Netherlands are expected to reach 18
billion euros in 2016. The ecommerce industry was worth slightly more
than 16 billion euros last year, but according to the Ecommerce
Foundation the online retail industry is expected to increase by 12.1
percent and thus reach 18.014 billion euros.
These are some of the figures the Ecommerce Foundation shared in its latest report about B2C Ecommerce in the Netherlands. The report gives insight in the Dutch online retail industry and how it performed in 2015. According to Ginio Thuij from market research company GfK, the Dutch ecommerce sector has shown some remarkable growth last year. “Online spending increased by 16.1 percent last year, which is remarkable as it has been less than 10 percent in the preceding years.”
Cross-border sales increased by 30%: This growth was mainly due to the fact the online spending on products increased by 22 percent compared to 2014. But cross-border sales also increased significantly, by more than 30 percent. And 23 percent of the Dutch bought at least one item at a foreign website last year. In total, there were 3.2 million Dutch cross-border shoppers, spending a total of 513 million euros abroad.
For more info about the Dutch etail landscape, please visit our special page about ecommerce in the Netherlands.
Read more: Ecommerce in the Netherlands to reach €18bn in 2016
These are some of the figures the Ecommerce Foundation shared in its latest report about B2C Ecommerce in the Netherlands. The report gives insight in the Dutch online retail industry and how it performed in 2015. According to Ginio Thuij from market research company GfK, the Dutch ecommerce sector has shown some remarkable growth last year. “Online spending increased by 16.1 percent last year, which is remarkable as it has been less than 10 percent in the preceding years.”
Cross-border sales increased by 30%: This growth was mainly due to the fact the online spending on products increased by 22 percent compared to 2014. But cross-border sales also increased significantly, by more than 30 percent. And 23 percent of the Dutch bought at least one item at a foreign website last year. In total, there were 3.2 million Dutch cross-border shoppers, spending a total of 513 million euros abroad.
For more info about the Dutch etail landscape, please visit our special page about ecommerce in the Netherlands.
Read more: Ecommerce in the Netherlands to reach €18bn in 2016
7/6/15
Insurance Industry: How the Internet of Things is transforming the insurance industry - by John Greenough
The ability to bring internet connection to nearly every type of
consumer device will have huge implications for the insurance industry
over the next five years. Insurers looking to cut costs, improve
business practices, and better assess clients' risk levels, will
increasingly invest in the Internet of Things (IoT).
Some auto and health insurers are already offering a new type of insurance — usage-based insurance (UBI) that uses IoT devices to track clients' activity and offer discounts or rewards for healthy and safe behavior. We expect 17 million people will have tried UBI auto insurance by the end of this year.
In a new report from BI Intelligence, we examine the impact of the IoT on the insurance industry. From free fitness trackers to track individuals' exercise habits to drones to assess damages in unsafe post-disaster conditions, we analyze current US insurance markets — including the auto, health, life, and property insurance markets — and look at ways insurers are integrating IoT devices.
Read more: How the Internet of Things is transforming the insurance industry - Business Insider
Some auto and health insurers are already offering a new type of insurance — usage-based insurance (UBI) that uses IoT devices to track clients' activity and offer discounts or rewards for healthy and safe behavior. We expect 17 million people will have tried UBI auto insurance by the end of this year.
In a new report from BI Intelligence, we examine the impact of the IoT on the insurance industry. From free fitness trackers to track individuals' exercise habits to drones to assess damages in unsafe post-disaster conditions, we analyze current US insurance markets — including the auto, health, life, and property insurance markets — and look at ways insurers are integrating IoT devices.
Read more: How the Internet of Things is transforming the insurance industry - Business Insider
5/29/15
Internet: United Nations Deems Encryption Necessary For Freedom In Digital Age - by Jeff Stone
The United Nations' Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
has issued a new report saying encryption, or encoding messages so that
only the desired recipient can read them, is necessary to protect the
right to freedom of expression throughout the world. The report went on
to warn that countries around the world are increasingly engaged in
efforts to weaken private Internet security.
The 18-page report from special rapporteur David Kaye was published Thursday and is due to be presented to the U.N. Human Rights Council in June.
“Encryption and anonymity, and the security concepts behind them, provide the privacy and security necessary for the exercise of the right to freedom of expression in the digital age,” Kaye wrote. “Such security may be essential for the exercise of other rights, including economic rights, privacy, due process, freedom of peaceful assembly and association, and the right to bodily integrity.”
The U.N. approved of decryption as long as it's done on a “case-by-case basis.” This is only the latest update in an ongoing debate over the best way for countries to balance security and personal privacy. Almost every prominent member of the U.S. law enforcement and intelligence communities have claimed that their inability to access users' smartphones and electronic communication – including users suspected of no wrongdoing – creates a threat for all Americans.
Most notably, Apple and Google entered the conversation when, by making it impossible for themselves to decode users' smartphone passcodes, they turned on encryption for millions of phones across the world. FBI Director James Comey was furious, and suggested that lawmakers may introduce a law to force companies to install so-called surveillance backdoors to give the government a point of entry.
Apple, Google and others signed a letter to President Obama earlier this month asking him to forego any executive action that would make back doors mandatory.
Read more: United Nations Deems Encryption Necessary For Freedom In Digital Age
The 18-page report from special rapporteur David Kaye was published Thursday and is due to be presented to the U.N. Human Rights Council in June.
“Encryption and anonymity, and the security concepts behind them, provide the privacy and security necessary for the exercise of the right to freedom of expression in the digital age,” Kaye wrote. “Such security may be essential for the exercise of other rights, including economic rights, privacy, due process, freedom of peaceful assembly and association, and the right to bodily integrity.”
The U.N. approved of decryption as long as it's done on a “case-by-case basis.” This is only the latest update in an ongoing debate over the best way for countries to balance security and personal privacy. Almost every prominent member of the U.S. law enforcement and intelligence communities have claimed that their inability to access users' smartphones and electronic communication – including users suspected of no wrongdoing – creates a threat for all Americans.
Most notably, Apple and Google entered the conversation when, by making it impossible for themselves to decode users' smartphone passcodes, they turned on encryption for millions of phones across the world. FBI Director James Comey was furious, and suggested that lawmakers may introduce a law to force companies to install so-called surveillance backdoors to give the government a point of entry.
Apple, Google and others signed a letter to President Obama earlier this month asking him to forego any executive action that would make back doors mandatory.
Read more: United Nations Deems Encryption Necessary For Freedom In Digital Age
5/4/15
‘Internet: Capacity crunch’: Internet could collapse by 2023, researchers warn
The internet could face an imminent ‘capacity crunch’ as soon as in
eight years, should it fail to provide faster data, UK scientists say.
The cables and fiber optics that deliver the data to users will have
reached their limit by 2023.
Optical cables are transparent strands the thickness of a human hair: the data is transformed into light, and is sent down the fiber, and then turns back into information.
“We are starting to reach the point in the research lab where we can't get any more data into a single optical fiber. The deployment to market is about six to eight years behind the research lab - so within eight years that will be it, we can't get any more data in,” Professor Andrew Ellis, of Aston University in Birmingham, told the Daily Mail.
“Demand is increasingly catching up. It is growing again and again, and it is harder and harder to keep ahead. Unless we come forward with really radical ideas, we are going to see costs dramatically increase,” he added.
Read more: ‘Capacity crunch’: Internet could collapse by 2023, researchers warn — RT News
Optical cables are transparent strands the thickness of a human hair: the data is transformed into light, and is sent down the fiber, and then turns back into information.
“We are starting to reach the point in the research lab where we can't get any more data into a single optical fiber. The deployment to market is about six to eight years behind the research lab - so within eight years that will be it, we can't get any more data in,” Professor Andrew Ellis, of Aston University in Birmingham, told the Daily Mail.
“Demand is increasingly catching up. It is growing again and again, and it is harder and harder to keep ahead. Unless we come forward with really radical ideas, we are going to see costs dramatically increase,” he added.
Read more: ‘Capacity crunch’: Internet could collapse by 2023, researchers warn — RT News
4/24/15
The Internet: The Only Email System The NSA Can't Access - by Hollie Slade
When the NSA surveillance news broke last year it sent shockwaves
through CERN, the particle physics laboratory in Switzerland. Andy Yen, a
PhD student, took to the Young at CERN Facebook group with a simple message: “I am very concerned about the privacy issue, and I was wondering what I could do about it.”
There was a massive response, and of the 40 or so active in the discussion, six started meeting at CERN’s Restaurant Number 1, pooling their deep knowledge of computing and physics to found ProtonMail, a gmail-like email system which uses end-to-end encryption, making it impossible for outside parties to monitor.
Encrypted emails have actually been around since the 1980s, but they are extremely difficult to use. When Edward Snowden asked a reporter to use an end-to-end encrypted email to share details of the NSA surveillance program the reporter couldn’t get the system to work, says Yen.
“We encrypt the data on the browser before it comes to the server,” he explains. “By the time the data comes to the server it’s already encrypted, so if someone comes to us and says we’d like to read the emails of this person, all we can say is we have the encrypted data but we’re sorry we don’t have the encryption key and we can’t give you the encryption key.”
“We’ve basically separated the message that’s encrypted apart from the key – all the encryption takes place on your computer instead of our servers, so there’s no way for us to see the original message.”
This is different from all other systems, says Yen. While Gmail has implemented some encryption, they still have the encrypted message and the key to decrypt the message.
While half the team is now at MIT, some are still in Switzerland where the ProtonMail’s servers are housed for extra protection. “One of the key things we want to do is control our servers and make sure all the servers are in Switzerland which will increase privacy because Switzerland doesn’t do things like seize servers or tape conversations,” says Yen. This will help avoid a situation where the U.S government could forcibly shut them down, says Yen, similar to what happened to Lavabit last year.
Read more: The Only Email System The NSA Can't Access - Forbes
There was a massive response, and of the 40 or so active in the discussion, six started meeting at CERN’s Restaurant Number 1, pooling their deep knowledge of computing and physics to found ProtonMail, a gmail-like email system which uses end-to-end encryption, making it impossible for outside parties to monitor.
Encrypted emails have actually been around since the 1980s, but they are extremely difficult to use. When Edward Snowden asked a reporter to use an end-to-end encrypted email to share details of the NSA surveillance program the reporter couldn’t get the system to work, says Yen.
“We encrypt the data on the browser before it comes to the server,” he explains. “By the time the data comes to the server it’s already encrypted, so if someone comes to us and says we’d like to read the emails of this person, all we can say is we have the encrypted data but we’re sorry we don’t have the encryption key and we can’t give you the encryption key.”
“We’ve basically separated the message that’s encrypted apart from the key – all the encryption takes place on your computer instead of our servers, so there’s no way for us to see the original message.”
This is different from all other systems, says Yen. While Gmail has implemented some encryption, they still have the encrypted message and the key to decrypt the message.
While half the team is now at MIT, some are still in Switzerland where the ProtonMail’s servers are housed for extra protection. “One of the key things we want to do is control our servers and make sure all the servers are in Switzerland which will increase privacy because Switzerland doesn’t do things like seize servers or tape conversations,” says Yen. This will help avoid a situation where the U.S government could forcibly shut them down, says Yen, similar to what happened to Lavabit last year.
Read more: The Only Email System The NSA Can't Access - Forbes
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