Julian Assange has agreed to a plea deal with the U.S. Justice Department, which will allow him to be released from prison in the U.K. and return to Australia.[2][3][4] Under the deal, Assange will plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to obtain and disclose classified U.S. national defense documents.[2][3][4] This will result in Assange … Read more
Judge rules emoji are proof of intent The Next Web by Rachel Kaser A landlord in Israel has successfully sued a couple who mislead him with emoji, with the judge ruling that the tiny pictures constituted a statement of intent. The landlord, Yaniv Dahan, posted an ad on a classified site for his home, and received a response from a couple. … Read more
Encrypted technologies and terrorism Hacker Noon – Medium by Andreas Sandre An armed police officer stands guard opposite the Houses of Parliament after the March 22, 2017 London attack. (Photo credits: AFP) The Wikipedia for Spies—And Where It Goes From Here Wired Top Stories by Emily Dreyfuss Yes, the intelligence community crowdsources, too What the Public Knows About Cybersecurity … Read more
Don’t Let WikiLeaks Scare You Off of Signal and Other Encrypted Chat Apps Wired Top Stories by Brian Barrett Despite some initial confusion, the CIA hasn’t undermined Signal and other important end-to-end encrypted apps. The CIA Didn’t Break Signal or WhatsApp, Despite What You’ve Heard The Intercept by Sam Biddle There’s been one particularly misleading claim repeated … Read more
Cybersecurity Experts Uncover Dormant Botnet of 350,000 Twitter Accounts MIT Technology Review A massive botnet secretly infiltrated the Twitterverse in 2013 but has lain mysteriously dormant since then, say researchers. Twitter and TV Superfans (Study) All Facebook by David Cohen How do “superfans” of television show behave on Twitter, and what should marketers do … Read more
Your selfies might be leaving you vulnerable to hackers Mashable! by Brett Williams If flashing a peace sign is your go-to selfie move, you might want to think about coming up with a new signature look. Turns out, your light-hearted display of goodwill to the world could be putting your personal data at risk — … Read more
Wikileaks considers exposing verified Twitter users’ data The Social Software Weblog WikiLeaks once claimed to stand for the people against the shadowy, truth-occluding governments of the world (primarily, the United States). But the last couple years saw the organization swerve into questionable territory as an Associated Press repo… Using real names online doesn’t improve behavior Boing … Read more
Donald Trump backs Julian Assange over Russia hacking claim BBC News | Europe | World Edition President-elect Donald Trump backs Wikileaks founder over alleged Russian meddling in the US election. The Future Of Encryption Digital Tonto by Greg Satell The new era of quantum encryption is coming sooner than you think. If you want to … Read more
The Political Environment on Social Media Pew Internet Rss Feed: Reports by Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech In a political environment defined by widespread polarization and partisan animosity, even simple conversations can go awry when the subject turns to politics. In their in-person interactions, Americans can (and often do) attempt to steer clear of … Read more
Digital Defenders: a free open-licensed booklet for kids about privacy and crypto Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow European Digital Rights has created a free, CC-licensed kids’ booklet about privacy called Digital Defenders. How Israel Became a Hub for Surveillance Technology The Intercept by Sharon Weinberger In 1948, the year Israel was founded, the Mer Group was established … Read more
TWITTER TRANSPARENCY REPORT: Turkey Submits Highest Volume of Removal Requests to Twitter Bianet :: English Turkey has been listed as the country with the greatest number of removal requests in Twitter’s first biannual Transparency Report of 2016. The Growing Problem of Bots That Fight Online MIT Technology Review The way software agents interact on the Web is … Read more
A Worldwide Survey of Encryption Products Berkman Center Newsfeed Teaser In this paper, which is modeled on a similar effort in 1999 by researchers from George Washington University, Berkman Fellow Bruce Schneier and collaborator Kathleen Seidel together with Harvard College student Saranya Vijayakuma identify and survey 865 encryption products from 55 different countries, 546 of them … Read more
Julian Assange’s 3.5 Year Detainment in Embassy Ruled Unlawful Wired Top Stories by Kim Zetter A UN body has determined that UK and Swedish authorities have unlawfully detained the WikiLeaks founder in the Ecuadorean embassy, where he has been living in asylum since 2012 to avoid arrest. Julian Assange ‘arbitrarily held’ BBC News | Europe | World … Read more
Tech industry association bashes German privacy watchdogs EurActiv.com The European tech industry is firing back against German data privacy chiefs, who announced this week that they would suspend data transfers to the United States and suggested businesses operating in Europe store data only in EU member states. Migrants grieve and wait on Greek island BBC News | … Read more
Playboy goes PG: It’s media Disneyification in the Facebook era The Next Web by Gabe Fenigsohn It sounds like an Onion headline but it’s actually the New York Times: “Playboy to Drop Nudity as Internet Fills Demand.” The fact that this news is reality and not satire speaks volumes about the extent to which brands must … Read more