• Oct 12, 2021
  • Glyn Moody
  • Cybersecurity, Governments, Social Media,

Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) is Great for Catching Bad Actors; But It Can Also Be Used Against the Good Ones – You and Me

Most people have heard of open source these days – after all, it has conquered every aspect of computing, with the possible exception of the desktop. But Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) may be less familiar. It was brought to prominence by the Bellingcat group, which describes itself as “an independent international collective of researchers, investigators … Continue reading “Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) is Great for Catching Bad Actors; But It Can Also Be Used Against the Good Ones – You and Me”

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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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  • Apr 27, 2021
  • Glyn Moody
  • Censorship, Encryption, General Privacy News, Governments, Surveillance,

As the battle to set 6G standards begins, UK spy agency warns China seeks to “control the global operating system”

Two years ago, this blog noted that the latest generation of mobile communications, 5G, brought with it undoubted benefits, but also real risks to privacy. Even today, the threat of ubiquitous surveillance from devices linked wirelessly using 5G is little discussed. Instead, governments fret about the slow pace of 5G roll-out. The fear of being … Continue reading “As the battle to set 6G standards begins, UK spy agency warns China seeks to “control the global operating system””

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  • May 6, 2020
  • Glyn Moody
  • Cybersecurity, General Privacy News, Governments, Surveillance,

Growing storm over UK’s coronavirus tracing app shows how not to do it

As this blog noted a couple of weeks ago, many governments around the world are looking to introduce coronavirus tracing apps to help take their countries out of lockdown. The hope is that such apps can be used by millions of people to pinpoint potential new cases of Covid-19 so that medical interventions can be … Continue reading “Growing storm over UK’s coronavirus tracing app shows how not to do it”

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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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  • Sep 22, 2018
  • Glyn Moody
  • General Privacy News, Governments,

Top court rules UK mass interception of fiber-optic cable traffic violates the right to privacy: a victory, but how big?

Five years have passed since Edward Snowden’s revelations about the scale of surveillance by the US and UK shocked the world. Things have gone rather quiet on that front now, partly because there have been few new releases of documents from the Snowden hoard. But in the background, many privacy groups have been quietly working … Continue reading “Top court rules UK mass interception of fiber-optic cable traffic violates the right to privacy: a victory, but how big?”

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  • Jun 22, 2018
  • Glyn Moody
  • Cybersecurity, General Privacy News, Governments, Social Media,

Maybe “smart” devices are too clever: they know all about your Facebook friends, and can spy on you and your family

The Cambridge Analytica scandal revealed the power of psychological profiling and hyper-targeted advertising based on personal data collected and stored by Facebook. As it became aware of these privacy violations, Facebook tightened up the rules governing what data the apps running on its platform could access. However, in a further blow to Facebook’s reputation as … Continue reading “Maybe “smart” devices are too clever: they know all about your Facebook friends, and can spy on you and your family”

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  • Oct 17, 2017
  • David Meyer
  • General Privacy News, Governments, Social Media,

British spies are collecting and sharing datasets of people’s social media activities

The British intelligence services have for years quietly claimed the right to collect so-called bulk personal datasets (BPDs) about people, most of whom may be innocent of any crime. The practice was only officially acknowledged in 2015, and last year’s Investigatory Powers Act was – for all its draconian elements – supposed to at least … Continue reading “British spies are collecting and sharing datasets of people’s social media activities”

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  • Oct 9, 2017
  • Glyn Moody
  • General Privacy News, Governments, Surveillance,

Key transatlantic data flows under threat as US surveillance laws clash once more with EU privacy protections

We wrote recently about clouds gathering over the Privacy Shield framework that governs transatlantic data flows for thousands of US companies. As that post explained, even if the Privacy Shield is struck down by the EU courts, as some believe it will be, there are alternative mechanisms that can ensure the legality of data transfers … Continue reading “Key transatlantic data flows under threat as US surveillance laws clash once more with EU privacy protections”

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  • Sep 25, 2017
  • Glyn Moody
  • Cybersecurity, General Privacy News, Governments,

The race to save online privacy: what happens when quantum computers can break all our crypto?

Although many people are well aware of the many threats to their privacy, there is an underlying assumption that the use of strong encryption will always be available to mitigate those problems. Governments will doubtless continue to push for backdoors in encrypted Internet services like WhatsApp. But even if they do get their way by … Continue reading “The race to save online privacy: what happens when quantum computers can break all our crypto?”

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