Category: Security

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  • Jul 23, 2017 |
  • Caleb Chen |
  • Governments, News, Privacy, Security,

In Xinjiang, China, police have set up checkpoints to ensure that the government-mandated “Jingwang” spyware is installed




In Xinjiang, China, citizens are being forced to install a targeted surveillance mobile app called Jingwang. Additionally, the government has set up random checkpoints on the streets to check whether the spyware is properly installed on your smartphone. On July 10th, mobile phone users in the region received a notification letting them know that they … Continue reading “In Xinjiang, China, police have set up checkpoints to ensure that the government-mandated “Jingwang” spyware is installed”

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  • Jul 20, 2017 |
  • Glyn Moody |
  • Governments, Privacy, Security,

Putting together the pieces of the Chinese VPN jigsaw puzzle




VPNs are indispensable tools for today’s Internet users, and nowhere more so than in China. The famous “Great Firewall of China” – the name given to the set of technologies used to enforce censorship of foreign sites – can be circumvented by VPNs, but not in a consistent way. Sometimes VPNs are blocked, sometimes they … Continue reading “Putting together the pieces of the Chinese VPN jigsaw puzzle”

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  • Jul 14, 2017 |
  • Caleb Chen |
  • Governments, News, Security,

New Dutch law allows law enforcement to digitally wiretap your friends and family to get to you




This past Wednesday, the Netherlands Senate passed a new surveillance and data mining law that will go into effect on January 1st, 2018. The new law (available in Dutch) expands the government’s targeted and mass surveillance powers and were first introduced in 2015. The Dutch government will soon have expanded surveillance powers, allowing authorities to force … Continue reading “New Dutch law allows law enforcement to digitally wiretap your friends and family to get to you”

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  • Jul 14, 2017 |
  • Glyn Moody |
  • Governments, News, Privacy, Security,

Which would you prefer: backdoored crypto, government malware – or the third way?




As regular readers of this blog will have noticed, one of the hottest topics in the world of online privacy is government access to communications. Essentially, the authorities want to be able to read encrypted information, but at the same time, they insist that they do not want to weaken the online security of law-abiding … Continue reading “Which would you prefer: backdoored crypto, government malware – or the third way?”

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  • Jul 9, 2017 |
  • Glyn Moody |
  • Copyright, News, Programming, Security,

Encrypted Media Extensions: Copyright, DRM and the end of the open Web




The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which sets standards for the Web, has released what it calls a “disposition of comments“, designed to address objections to the controversial Encrypted Media Extensions (EME). EME is officially “a common API that may be used to discover, select and interact with content encryption systems”. In practice, for the … Continue reading “Encrypted Media Extensions: Copyright, DRM and the end of the open Web”

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  • Jun 21, 2017 |
  • Glyn Moody |
  • Governments, News, Privacy, Security,

Police use of trojans to hack into mobile phones will become routine under new German law




A new law allowing the German police to hack into mobile phones for even minor crimes, is expected to be passed by the German parliament this week [update: the law has now been passed]. Currently, the use of a “Staatstrojaner” – government trojan – is only permitted in order to prevent future terrorist attacks. Under … Continue reading “Police use of trojans to hack into mobile phones will become routine under new German law”

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  • Jun 19, 2017 |
  • Glyn Moody |
  • Governments, News, Privacy, Security,

Leading European politicians call for “state-of-the-art” end-to-end encryption – and no backdoors




Encryption is under attack around the world, and not just by hackers trying to break into systems. Governments continue to call for access to encrypted communications, despite universal warnings from experts that every way of doing so would significantly weaken security and privacy for billions of users. As well as moves by individual countries like … Continue reading “Leading European politicians call for “state-of-the-art” end-to-end encryption – and no backdoors”

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  • Jun 9, 2017 |
  • Glyn Moody |
  • Governments, News, Privacy, Security,

UK police arrest man picked out from the crowd in real time by automatic facial recognition system




An automatic facial scanning system has been used in Wales to spot a man wanted by the UK police, who was then arrested. Believed to be the first of its kind in the country, the arrest follows an earlier announcement by the South Wales police force that that it would be introducing NEC’s NeoFace Watch … Continue reading “UK police arrest man picked out from the crowd in real time by automatic facial recognition system”

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  • May 30, 2017 |
  • Glyn Moody |
  • Governments, News, Privacy, Security,

UK government confirms plans to destroy the British software industry




Last week, the UK government confirmed plans to force Internet companies to undermine security by weakening or backdooring encryption. As Privacy News Online reported back in March, the UK’s Home Secretary (Interior Minister) Amber Rudd refused to rule out this move when she called for the “necessary hashtags” to be used. But what was just … Continue reading “UK government confirms plans to destroy the British software industry”

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Is it prudent to ask if Britain’s nuke subs, which also run Windows XP, have also been hit by ransomware?




Britain’s hospitals have been brought to a standstill because of ransomware infecting obsolete and unpatched Windows XP systems. The same obsolete operating system is powering Britain’s nuclear weapons arsenal. Is it prudent to ask if the British nuclear weapons submarines have been patched against this ransomware, or even hit by it? As reported in January … Continue reading “Is it prudent to ask if Britain’s nuke subs, which also run Windows XP, have also been hit by ransomware?”

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