Palantir’s Surveillance Service for Law Enforcement

Posted on By infossl
datacollection, foia, lawenforcement, nsa, police, privacy, Security technology, surveillance

Motherboard got its hands on Palantir’s Gotham user’s manual, which is used by the police to get information on people: The Palantir user guide shows that police can start with almost no information about a person of interest and instantly know extremely intimate details about their lives. The capabilities are staggering, according to the guide: … Read More “Palantir’s Surveillance Service for Law Enforcement” »

Friday Squid Blogging: When the Octopus and Squid Lost Their Shells

Posted on By infossl
Security technology, squid

Cephalopod ancestors once had shells. When did they lose them? With the molecular clock technique, which allowed him to use DNA to map out the evolutionary history of the cephalopods, he found that today’s cuttlefish, squids and octopuses began to appear 160 to 100 million years ago, during the so-called Mesozoic Marine Revolution. During the … Read More “Friday Squid Blogging: When the Octopus and Squid Lost Their Shells” »

Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang Has Quantum Encryption Policy

Posted on By infossl
blockchain, cryptography, encryption, nationalsecuritypolicy, quantumcomputing, Security technology

At least one presidential candidate has a policy about quantum computing and encryption. It has two basic planks. One: fund quantum-resistant encryption standards. (Note: NIST is already doing this.) Two, fund quantum computing. (Unlike many far more pressing computer security problems, the market seems to be doing this on its own quite nicely.) Okay, so … Read More “Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang Has Quantum Encryption Policy” »

Details of the Cloud Hopper Attacks

Posted on By infossl
advancedpersistentthreats, china, fraud, hacking, ibm, intelligence, malware, Security technology, theft

Reuters has a long article on the Chinese government APT attack called Cloud Hopper. It was much bigger than originally reported. The hacking campaign, known as “Cloud Hopper,” was the subject of a U.S. indictment in December that accused two Chinese nationals of identity theft and fraud. Prosecutors described an elaborate operation that victimized multiple … Read More “Details of the Cloud Hopper Attacks” »

Cell Networks Hacked by (Probable) Nation-State Attackers

Posted on By infossl
attribution, cellphones, datacollection, espionage, hacking, metadata, Security technology, vulnerabilities

A sophisticated attacker has successfuly infiltrated cell providers to collect information on specific users: The hackers have systematically broken in to more than 10 cell networks around the world to date over the past seven years to obtain massive amounts of call records — including times and dates of calls, and their cell-based locations — … Read More “Cell Networks Hacked by (Probable) Nation-State Attackers” »

Cardiac Biometric

Posted on By infossl
biometrics, facerecognition, falsenegatives, falsepositives, identification, medicine, Security technology

MIT Technology Review is reporting about an infrared laser device that can identify people by their unique cardiac signature at a distance: A new device, developed for the Pentagon after US Special Forces requested it, can identify people without seeing their face: instead it detects their unique cardiac signature with an infrared laser. While it … Read More “Cardiac Biometric” »