• Oct 21, 2022
  • Glyn Moody
  • Encryption, General Privacy News, Governments, Online Privacy, Social Media, Surveillance,

The EU Is Tackling a Serious Problem with the Wrong Approach: Real-Time Mass Surveillance

One of the most serious new threats to online privacy is currently working its way through the European Union’s legislative system. No decent person can be against a regulation “laying down rules to prevent and combat child sexual abuse” in principle, but the way the proposed legislation aims to do this is problematic. The risk … Continue reading “The EU Is Tackling a Serious Problem with the Wrong Approach: Real-Time Mass Surveillance”

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  • Jul 22, 2021
  • Glyn Moody
  • Censorship, Encryption, General Privacy News, Governments, Social Media, Surveillance,

What the Pegasus Spyware Leak Means for Surveillance, Smartphones & Encryption Backdoors

A few months ago, we wrote about dual-use surveillance systems – that is, technology that can be used for both peaceful and military purposes. The post discussed some limited efforts by the EU to prevent such technologies from being abused. A major new leak of alleged targets of one of the leading spyware companies, the … Continue reading “What the Pegasus Spyware Leak Means for Surveillance, Smartphones & Encryption Backdoors”

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  • Jun 11, 2021
  • Glyn Moody
  • Cybersecurity, Encryption, General Privacy News, Governments, Surveillance,

What does the recent Trojan Shield sting tell us about privacy, trust and surveillance?

Police forces across the world have revealed details of Trojan Shield, what is probably the most successful digital sting operation yet: A series of large-scale law enforcement actions were executed over the past days across 16 countries resulting in more than 700 house searches, more than 800 arrests and the seizure of over 8 tons … Continue reading “What does the recent Trojan Shield sting tell us about privacy, trust and surveillance?”

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  • Dec 24, 2020
  • Glyn Moody
  • Cybersecurity, Encryption, General Privacy News, Governments, Social Media, Surveillance,

The widening SolarWinds debacle shows why the reckless idea of backdooring encryption must be dropped forever

The SolarWinds hack is the most serious breach of governmental and corporate security in years, perhaps the most serious breach ever – at least among those that we know about. The first news of the attack appeared on the FireEye blog at the beginning of this month. From the start, it was clear that this … Continue reading “The widening SolarWinds debacle shows why the reckless idea of backdooring encryption must be dropped forever”

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  • Sep 2, 2020
  • Glyn Moody
  • Censorship, Encryption, General Privacy News, Governments, Surveillance,

The privacy perils of using a mesh network – and why we urgently need one that is robust and open source

One of the reasons why protecting privacy is so hard is that our data is vulnerable in so many ways as it flows across the Internet. Threats can come from the companies that run online services, ISPs, telecom companies and governments. That’s bad enough for everyday situations, but in extreme ones, those weaknesses can have … Continue reading “The privacy perils of using a mesh network – and why we urgently need one that is robust and open source”

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  • Feb 23, 2019
  • Glyn Moody
  • Cybersecurity, Encryption, General Privacy News, Governments,

The latest twist on adding backdoors to encryption is spooky – and dangerous

Authorities around the world have been calling for backdoors to be added to strong encryption for years – part of an even older battle. The view among all top security experts is that this is a very bad idea, since it is likely to add extra vulnerabilities to systems, which weakens the security for everyone. … Continue reading “The latest twist on adding backdoors to encryption is spooky – and dangerous”

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  • Aug 25, 2018
  • Glyn Moody
  • General Privacy News, Governments, Surveillance,

Beyond the GDPR: here comes the EU’s ePrivacy regulation – but not yet

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the most important – and controversial – privacy law passed in recent years. Despite its origin in the EU, its reach is truly global, since it affects anyone storing the personal data of EU citizens, no matter where the organization is located. In part because of a flurry … Continue reading “Beyond the GDPR: here comes the EU’s ePrivacy regulation – but not yet”

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  • May 9, 2018
  • Glyn Moody
  • Cybersecurity, General Privacy News, Governments,

Crypto backdoors are in the news again, and as bad for privacy as ever

VPNs are an indispensable part of online life, and they protect many aspects of privacy. But there’s a class of threats that VPNs can’t defend against: crypto backdoors, which allow even the strongest encryption to be bypassed. That’s why it’s important for everyone who cares about their privacy and security to be aware of any … Continue reading “Crypto backdoors are in the news again, and as bad for privacy as ever”

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  • Oct 20, 2017
  • Glyn Moody
  • Cybersecurity, General Privacy News, Governments,

Good news on the privacy front: no more EU demands for crypto backdoors

Governments all around the world hate encryption. Unless they are being incredibly cunning by pretending they can’t break strong encryption when they can, this seems to be because crypto really does keep messages and data safe from prying governmental eyes. Banning strong encryption is clearly a non-starter – even the most clueless politician knows by … Continue reading “Good news on the privacy front: no more EU demands for crypto backdoors”

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  • Jul 14, 2017
  • Glyn Moody
  • Cybersecurity, General Privacy News, Governments,

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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