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Submission + - Google To Encrypt Cloud Storage Data By Default (itworld.com) 1

jfruh writes: Worries about snooping are now a permanent part of our computing landscape, but Google is attempting to ameliorate those fears by encrypting all data on its Google Cloud Storage service by default. Data is encrypted with 128-bit AES, and you can manage the keys yourself or have Google do it for you. A Google spokesperson said that the company "does not provide encryption keys to any government."

Submission + - NSA broke privacy rules thousands of times per year, audit finds" (washingtonpost.com)

NettiWelho writes: The Washington Post: The National Security Agency has broken privacy rules or overstepped its legal authority thousands of times each year since Congress granted the agency broad new powers in 2008, according to an internal audit and other top-secret documents.
Most of the infractions involve unauthorized surveillance of Americans or foreign intelligence targets in the United States, both of which are restricted by law and executive order. They range from significant violations of law to typographical errors that resulted in unintended interception of U.S. e-mails and telephone calls.

Submission + - British Porn-Censoring MP Has Website Defaced With Porn

twoheadedboy writes: Claire Perry MP, who has been the main driver of the UK government's plans for default blocking of pornography, has had her website plastered in porn by hackers. But the story only just begins there. Notable blogger Guido Fawkes, otherwise known as Paul Staines, posted on the matter, only to later be accused of sponsoring the hacking himself. During some back and forth over Twitter, it appeared Perry was "confused", as she said Fawkes had posted a link to the defaced page, when he had only shown a screenshot of the site. Given the backlash against the government's plans to censor porn and its technical fallacies, the event could be particularly embarrassing for Perry. She is not commenting on the matter, whilst Staines has threatened to sue unless Perry offers a retraction of her claim he had anything to do with the hack.

Submission + - China Hackers Chuck Zero-Day Malware At Spiritual Activists And Military Groups

twoheadedboy writes: A Chinese hacker group is the chief suspect of spear phishing attacks against the Falun Dafa spiritual group and military organisations in the Philippines. Data handed to TechWeek by AlienVault Labs showed how zero-day malware, designed to pilfer Outlook email account logins, was just one strand of the attacks, which are ongoing. Other malware sought to steal passwords for other accounts, dodging many commercial AV products, whilst remote access tools indicate this is a serious surveillance operation. Chinese authorities have neither confirmed nor denied the claims. But it marks another case of Internet-led surveillance with China's name attached to it, following numerous reports of mass Chinese hacking, which has already allegedly hit massive firms like Facebook and Google.

Submission + - Badgers Block British Broadband Rollout

twoheadedboy writes: When BT engineers set out to lay fibre broadband cables in remote areas in North Yorkshire, they didn't think they would have many issues. But they didn't see the badgers coming. They discovered badger setts along the planned route for a cable connecting 450 properties to the local exchange. As it is illegal to destroy or upset setts — badgers are considered an endangered species — BT has had to hold off putting down the fibre until it either gains permission from the National Trust or comes up with fresh plans.

Submission + - Nasdaq Fined $10m Over Facebook IPO Failures

twoheadedboy writes: Nasdaq has been fined $10 million by the US Securities and Exchange Commission over “poor systems and decision-making” during the Facebook initial public offering. When Facebook went public on 18 May 2012, it was hoping for a major success, but technical glitches and poor decision making at Nasdaq caused real problems. The SEC said “a design limitation” in the system to match IPO buy and sell orders was at the root of the disruption, thought to have cost investors $500 million. Orders failed to register properly, leaving banks like Citigroup and UBS in the lurch and making additional, unnecessary bids. They may still win money back from Nasdaq if legal challenges go their way.

Submission + - Aaron Swartz Prosecution Team Threatened And Harassed

twoheadedboy writes: Members of the legal team responsible for prosecution of Aaron Swartz have claimed they received threatening letters, emails and some had their social network accounts hacked following the suicide of the Internet freedom activist. Following Swartz's death, his family and friends widely lambasted the prosecution team, who were accused of being heavy-handed in their pursuit of the 26-year-old. He was facing trial for alleged copyright infringement, accused of downloading excessive amounts of material from the academic article resource JSTOR. US attorney for Massachusetts Carmen Ortiz, who headed up the prosecution, and another lead prosecutor Stephen Heymann have reportedly become the target of “harassing and threatening messages” and their personal information, including home address, personal telephone number, and the names of family members and friends, was posted online. Heymann also received a postcard with a picture of his father’s head in a guillotine.
Security

Submission + - UK Anonymous Hacktivists Get Jail Time (techweekeurope.co.uk)

twoheadedboy writes: "Two members of the Anonymous hacking collective have been handed a total of 25 months in prison. Christopher Weatherhead, a 22-year-old who went under the pseudonym Nerdo, received the most severe punishment — 18 months in prison. Another member, Ashley Rhodes, was handed seven months, whilst Peter Gibson was given a six-month suspended sentence. They were convicted for hitting a variety of websites, including those belonging to PayPal and MasterCard."
Security

Submission + - Kim Dotcom's Mega Fileshare Service Riddled With Security Holes (techweekeurope.co.uk)

twoheadedboy writes: "Kim Dotcom launched his new project Mega on Sunday, claiming it was to be "the privacy company". But it might not be so private after all, as security professionals have ripped it to shreds. There are numerous problems with how encryption is handled, an XSS flaw and users can't change their passwords, they say. But there are suspicions Mega is handing out encryption keys to users and touting strong security to cover its own back. After all, if Kim Dotcom and Co don't know what goes on the site, they might not be liable for copyright prosecutions, as they were for Megaupload, Mega's preprocessor."
Security

Submission + - WikiLeaks Under DDoS Again (techweekeurope.co.uk)

twoheadedboy writes: "After being hit by a "72-hour" DDoS in May, WikiLeaks is claiming to be under attack yet again. All its sites appear to be down and fingers have already been pointed at government entities. WikiLeaks, posting on Twitter, said it had its suspicions of why it was being targeted. It was either because of its ongoing releases related to Stratfor and Syria, or because of an upcoming release, Julian Assange's organisation speculated. The fact that everyone is currently engrossed in the Olympics may have given attackers good reason to target the websites right now, WikiLeaks said."
China

Submission + - Three Arrests In China Over Baidu Post-Deleting Services (techweekeurope.co.uk)

twoheadedboy writes: "Three employees of Baidu, China’s most popular search engine, have been arrested under suspicion of taking bribes. It is alleged that the employees accepted money in exchange for removing negative feedback left on Baidu’s forum service. The company had already fired four people for misconduct before three of them were arrested. This so-called "post-deleting" business is believed to be big in China, even though it is illegal."
United Kingdom

Submission + - Amazon Kindle Book Sales Surpass Print In UK (techweekeurope.co.uk)

twoheadedboy writes: "Book lovers are increasingly turning to e-books, and in the UK Amazon has announced it now sells more e-books than physical copies on Amazon.co.uk. Kindle books surpassed sales of hardbacks in the UK back in May 2011 at a rate of two to one and now they have leapfrogged the combined totals of both hardbacks and paperbacks. The same happened in the US not so long ago, largely thanks to the popularity of novels like EL James' Fifty Shades of Grey, which started out as an e-book before being released in paperback."
Security

Submission + - Iran Nuclear Agency Not 'Thunderstruck' By Virus (techweekeurope.co.uk)

twoheadedboy writes: "Iran may have been hit hard by Stuxnet, but officials have said that reports of a virus infecting its nuclear facilities and forcing computers to play the AC/DC classic 'Thunderstruck' were rubbish. Last month, F-Secure's chief research officer, Mikko Hypponen, was sent an email that appeared to be from a scientist working at the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), claiming nuclear systems had been targeted by cyber attackers. Whilst the chief of the AEOI has come out to deny those claims, the sender of that email still managed to get hold of an official aeoi.org.ir email address. That has left some onlookers baffled about what is going on."
Security

Submission + - Yahoo Sued For Password Breach (techweekeurope.co.uk)

twoheadedboy writes: "Yahoo is being sued by one of its users, who has claimed the US Internet company was guilty of negligence when 450,000 passwords of the members of the Yahoo Voices blogging community were posted online. Jeff Allan from New Hampshire has turned to a federal court in San Jose, California, after his eBay account, which used the same password as his Voices account, was compromised. The breach at Yahoo followed similar hits on LinkedIn and Nvidia, which together saw millions of passwords leaked."

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