Category: privacy

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On the Equifax Data Breach

Posted on By infossl
breaches, datacollection, fraud, identitytheft, nationalsecuritypolicy, privacy, Security technology, surveillance

Last Thursday, Equifax reported a data breach that affects 143 million US customers, about 44% of the population. It’s an extremely serious breach; hackers got access to full names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, driver’s license numbers — exactly the sort of information criminals can use to impersonate victims to banks, credit card companies, … Read More “On the Equifax Data Breach” »

A Hardware Privacy Monitor for iPhones

Posted on By infossl
cellphones, hardware, iphone, phones, privacy, Security technology, surveillance

Andrew “bunnie” Huang and Edward Snowden have designed a hardware device that attaches to an iPhone and monitors it for malicious surveillance activities, even in instances where the phone’s operating system has been compromised. They call it an Introspection Engine, and their use model is a journalist who is concerned about government surveillance: Our introspection … Read More “A Hardware Privacy Monitor for iPhones” »

Journalists Generally Do Not Use Secure Communication

Posted on By infossl
email, encryption, pgp, privacy, Security technology, signal, whistleblowers

This should come as no surprise: Alas, our findings suggest that secure communications haven’t yet attracted mass adoption among journalists. We looked at 2,515 Washington journalists with permanent credentials to cover Congress, and we found only 2.5 percent of them solicit end-to-end encrypted communication via their Twitter bios. That’s just 62 out of all the … Read More “Journalists Generally Do Not Use Secure Communication” »

Me on Restaurant Surveillance Technology

Posted on By infossl
datacollection, privacy, restaurants, Security technology, surveillance

I attended the National Restaurant Association exposition in Chicago earlier this year, and looked at all the ways modern restaurant IT is spying on people. But there’s also a fundamentally creepy aspect to much of this. One of the prime ways to increase value for your brand is to use the Internet to practice surveillance … Read More “Me on Restaurant Surveillance Technology” »

Alternatives to Government-Mandated Encryption Backdoors

Posted on By infossl
backdoors, encryption, essays, lawenforcement, nationalsecuritypolicy, privacy, Security technology, surveillance

Policy essay: “Encryption Substitutes,” by Andrew Keane Woods: In this short essay, I make a few simple assumptions that bear mentioning at the outset. First, I assume that governments have good and legitimate reasons for getting access to personal data. These include things like controlling crime, fighting terrorism, and regulating territorial borders. Second, I assume … Read More “Alternatives to Government-Mandated Encryption Backdoors” »

More on the NSA’s Use of Traffic Shaping

Posted on By infossl
academicpapers, authentication, eavesdropping, nsa, privacy, Security technology, surveillance, trafficanalysis

“Traffic shaping” — the practice of tricking data to flow through a particular route on the Internet so it can be more easily surveiled — is an NSA technique that has gotten much less attention than it deserves. It’s a powerful technique that allows an eavesdropper to get access to communications channels it would otherwise … Read More “More on the NSA’s Use of Traffic Shaping” »

DNI Wants Research into Secure Multiparty Computation

Posted on By infossl
cryptography, databases, privacy, secretsharing, Security technology, surveillance

The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) is soliciting proposals for research projects in secure multiparty computation: Specifically of interest is computing on data belonging to different — potentially mutually distrusting — parties, which are unwilling or unable (e.g., due to laws and regulations) to share this data with each other or with the underlying … Read More “DNI Wants Research into Secure Multiparty Computation” »