Archive for politics

“America has a simple ideology”: how one of Russia’s top US experts tries to explain America

The United States comes up constantly when you talk to Russians about their country’s place in the world. But the conversations tend to go a lot differently than many Americans might expect.

NATO to hold major cyber defense drill in Estonia

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — About 400 computer experts will participate in a major cybersecurity drill in Estonia this week as part of NATO’s efforts to upgrade its capability to counter potentially debilitating hacker attacks.

Silicon Valley’s privacy efforts must be working, because our governments are freaking out

If you’ve ever wondered what a government has left in its last breath of an argument it’s already lost, it’s almost certainly going to have something to do with “national security.

The Attack on Sony

North Korea’s cyberattack on Sony Pictures exposed a new reality: you don’t have to be a superpower to inflict damage on U.S. corporations The following script is from “The Attack on Sony” which aired on April 12, 2015. Steve Kroft is the correspondent. Graham Messick, producer.

The NSA may not be listening to your private phone calls, but it has been watching your private parts

In light of the latest global surveillance leaks on Thursday by former U.S. government contractor Edward Snowden, scanners at U.S. airports that catalog you in full birthday-suit glory seem somewhat tame.

US declares cybercrime a ‘national emergency’, threatens sanctions against hackers, online espionage

The White House has set out plans to use economic sanctions against cyber attackers and companies that benefit from the online theft of secrets.

French Government Starts Blocking Websites With Views The Gov’t Doesn’t Like

We had been noting, in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in France, how the country that then held a giant “free speech” rally appeared to be, instead, focusing on cracking down on free speech at every opportunity. And target number one: the internet.

Cybercriminals ​boost sales through ‘data laundering’

New and subtle business models are emerging for cybercriminals, boosting their sales of stolen data and offering new ways to inflict damage on target organisations. Hackers are commercialising stolen data by selling it back to legitimate businesses, one security expert has warned.

Gemalto: NSA and GCHQ probably did hack us, but there was no massive leak of encryption keys

SIM card maker Gemalto has confirmed that its network was hacked – probably by the NSA and GCHQ – but said the breach could not have resulted in a massive theft of encryption keys.

Crime, Punishment, and Russia’s Original Social Network

Pavel Durov, founder of the Russian social network VKontakte, was home alone in his apartment in St. Petersburg on a weekend when a contingent of men in camouflage uniforms knocked violently on his door.