Tag Archives: NSA

TDH – 100th Show!

August 24, 2014 thedigitalhazard Leave a comment

This week on the show Erik joins me, and it is just like old times! We talk about T-Mobile’s latest consumer oriented policy, the possible implications of the launch of the HTC One (M8) running Windows Phone. Discussion of the launch of Windows 9 turns toward human computer interfaces as we move into new Beacon “Stickers”. A little bit of security talk this week as well, it seems the NSA might be helping to harden Tor, which is actually a good thing. We hope you enjoy!

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T-Mobile offering year of free data to converts

http://www.androidcentral.com/t-mobile-offering-year-free-data-sprint-att-and-verizon-converts

HTC One (M8) Windows launch

http://thenextweb.com/gadgets/2014/08/19/htc-one-m8-windows-officially-launched-verizon-exclusive-available-today-99-front/

Windows 9 coming on September 30th

http://www.theverge.com/2014/8/21/6052807/windows-9-preview-press-event-september

Estimote Beacon Stickers

http://thenextweb.com/gadgets/2014/08/21/estimotes-beacon-stickers-can-track-movement-temperature-communicate-youre-nearby/

iPhone 6 already gets redesign

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/22/us-apple-iphone-idUSKBN0GM0N620140822

Apple to ship reversible USB cables

http://www.macrumors.com/2014/08/15/new-lightning-cable-reversible-usb/

http://www.cnet.com/news/usb-type-c-one-cable-to-connect-them-all/

NSA might be tipping off Tor developers

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-28886462

Researchers hack traffic lights

http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/08/researchers-find-its-terrifyingly-easy-to-hack-traffic-lights/

Shows

TDH – Confusion and Sadness

July 6, 2014 thedigitalhazard Leave a comment

This week on the program, we start off by talking about technology that needlessly makes life ‘simpler’, Keurig’s new anti-copying K-Cup system and GE’s foray into Phillip’s smartphone controlled lighting market. Nielsen reports what we already suspected, that streaming is taking market control from downloads, at least in the US, and Google’s anti-webspan chief, Matt Cutts is taking leave for a few months. After talking about DARPA’s emergency response robot challenge, we go into examples of things that are threats to the open internet by 2025, misuse of the ECJ’s ‘right to be forgotten’, and revelations about how little you have to do for the NSA to follow up on your internet traffic. You also might want to steer clear of Facebook, especially if your mood is volatile. All this and more this week!
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Keurig’s DRM for Coffee

http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/30/5857030/keurig-digital-rights-management-coffee-pod-pirates

GE to get into the smart lights market

http://www.engadget.com/2014/07/01/ge-link/?ncid=rss_truncated

Music Streaming continues market hold

http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/03/streaming-is-killing-downloads/

What will kill the free internet by 2025

http://www.theverge.com/2014/7/3/5868359/free-internet-2025-pew-report

Google’s anti-spam chief to take some time off

http://www.zdnet.com/googles-embattled-webspam-chief-matt-cutts-is-taking-a-few-months-off-7000031242/

DARPA sets finals for robotics challenge

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9249481/Ready_the_robots_DARPA_sets_finals_for_robotics_challenge

BBC doesn’t want Merrill Lynch article to be ‘forgotten’

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-07-03/the-bbc-doesnt-want-to-be-forgotten-by-google

Goldman Sachs got Google to delete a ‘sensitive’ email

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/03/us-google-goldman-leak-idUSKBN0F729I20140703

Simple file encryption

http://www.wired.com/2014/07/minilock-simple-encryption/

NSA targeting any private conscious individuals

http://daserste.ndr.de/panorama/aktuell/nsa230_page-1.html

Facebook Frackups:

Privacy Group files over Facebook’s mood experiment

http://www.ibtimes.com/privacy-group-files-complaint-ftc-over-facebook-mood-experiment-1619126

Shows

TDH – The Digital Hazard for OSX

June 29, 2014 thedigitalhazard Leave a comment

This week on the show, I talk about some of the cool announcements out of Google’s I/O conference this past week, including the new form of phone unlock, and a refactoring of the runtimes in the OS. Also in Google news, they have begun compliance with the EU ‘right to be forgotten’ law. Meanwhile, Apple has discontinued Aperature, and plans to build a 4.7” iPhone. A potential win for the state of Missouri when it comes to personal security of digital communications. We talk about the NSA transparency report and Facebook’s attempt to recover bulk data that was turned over to New York state. All that and more!

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Google’s I/O conference this past week, Announces new unlock type

http://techcrunch.com/2014/06/25/google-makes-phone-logins-easier-with-personal-login-feature-for-android-l/

Android to move from Dalvik to ANT

http://phandroid.com/2014/06/25/android-l-migrates-to-art-runtime-abandons-dalvik/

Google Chromecast to jump air-gap, and talk to devices not on same network

http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/26/5846726/chromecast-will-use-ultrasonic-sounds-to-connect-nearby-devices

Google begins removing search results under EU law

http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/26/5844982/google-begins-removing-search-results-under-EU-right-to-be-forgotten

Apple discontinues Aperature

http://techcrunch.com/2014/06/27/apple-to-cease-development-of-aperture-and-transition-users-to-photos-for-os-x/?ncid=rss

Apple to begin production of 4.7” phone

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-24/apple-s-big-iphones-said-to-start-production-next-month.html

Simon & Schuster to make all ebooks available to libraries

https://gigaom.com/2014/06/26/simon-schuster-makes-all-its-ebooks-available-to-libraries-following-successful-trial/

NSA posts first full transparency report

http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/27/5849618/the-nsa-just-posted-its-first-ever-transparency-report

Missouri to amend state consitiution to require warrant for digital searches

http://techcrunch.com/2014/06/23/missouri-may-amend-its-constitution-to-require-warrant-for-digital-searches/

Linux continues to dominate supercomputer operating systems

http://www.zdnet.com/linux-dominates-supercomputers-as-never-before-7000030890/

Facebook Frackups:

Facebook tries to recover bulk data from New York law enforcement

http://www.networkworld.com/article/2401462/facebook-tries-to-recover-bulk-user-data-seized-by-new-york-law-enforcement.html

Shows

TDH – Is Elon Musk Ironman?

June 22, 2014 thedigitalhazard Leave a comment

This week on the show we talk about music in it’s latest incarnations, YouTube plans to block artist’s music videos if they don’t pay for the subscription service, but T-Mobile won’t be counting your music listening against your data usage on their plan. Google launches an initiative to get more young women interested in Computer Science, which I feel falls a little short of what it promises, but Google might be turning out the next generation of women coders for the drones that NASA is going to fly on Titan. We talk quite a bit about personal encryption and security, as we follow up with the TrueCrypt story and new revelations out of the UK regarding industrial strength data collection. A few FCC stories, regarding a bill in Congress to prohibit internet ‘fast lanes’ as well as the reason behind the largest fine the FCC has ever handed out. All that and a little more this week on the show.

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YouTube to block artists who don’t pay

http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/17/5817408/youtube-reportedly-block-videos-indie-artists

T-Mobile to exempt music streams from data caps

http://gigaom.com/2014/06/18/t-mobile-exempts-music-streaming-from-its-data-plans-partners-with-rhapsody/

Google launches ‘Made with Code’ for women in CS

http://thenextweb.com/google/2014/06/19/google-launches-made-code-initiative-encourage-girls-code-backed-50m-pledge/

TrueCrypt advises against forking codebase

http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/06/following-truecrypts-bombshell-advisory-developer-says-fork-is-impossible/

Update on US Marshal’s Bitcoin auction

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/06/us-marshal-hits-reply-all-reveals-those-interested-in-anonymous-bitcoin-auction/

Elon Musk plans solar factory in Buffalo, NY

http://blog.timesunion.com/business/tesla-founder-has-plans-to-make-solar-panels-in-ny/60493/

AT&T to be exclusive carrier for Amazon

http://techcrunch.com/2014/06/18/att-will-sell-amazons-fire-phone-for-199-on-a-2-year-contract/

Congress members propose bill to make FCC prohibit ‘fast-lanes’

http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/17/5817258/new-net-neutrality-bill-would-make-the-fcc-stop-internet-fast-lanes

FCC issues $34.9mil fine, largest ever

http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/19/5824344/fcc-issues-signal-jammer-seller-largest-fine-ever-34-9-million

UK Intelligence revealed policy of surveillance of social network use

https://www.privacyinternational.org/press-releases/uk-intelligence-forced-to-reveal-secret-policy-for-mass-surveillance-of-residents

Pentagon to make the internet more secure from NSA spying

http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/16/5814776/the-pentagon-is-building-ways-to-make-the-internet-more-anonymous

Science News

NASA to send drones to Titan

http://rt.com/usa/167124-nasa-send-quadcopter-drone-titan/

Shows

TDH – Take A NSA Break

March 23, 2014 thedigitalhazard Leave a comment

This week on the show, I talk about how Mt. Gox found some of the missing Bitcoins, which isn’t as unbelievable as it may seem, how the California DMV might have compromised your credit cards, and a 1,000 mph car. This among the academic exercise of Netflix as a P2P distribution model, and my attempt to wane reporting on the NSA and information spying.

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Mt.Gox Suddenly finds $115M in bitcoin

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/03/mt-gox-suddenly-finds-200000-of-missing-bitcoins-worth-over-115m/

Turkey institutes IP level ban on Twitter

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/03/22/turkey-strengthens-twitter-ban-institutes-ip-level-block/

NSA Spied on Chinese Government & Networking Firm

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/nsa-spied-on-chinese-government-and-networking-firm-huawei-a-960199.html

NSA speaks at a TED conference

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/03/the-nsa-invited-to-ted-takes-a-swipe-at-snowden/

Credit Card breach at California DMV

http://krebsonsecurity.com/2014/03/sources-credit-card-breach-at-california-dmv/

Netflix and a switch to P2P video service

http://gigaom.com/2014/03/21/what-if-netflix-switched-to-p2p-for-video-streaming/

Intel’s Latest Processor Announcements

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/03/intel-returns-to-its-roots-with-slew-of-overclocker-friendly-desktop-cpus/

Science News:

Dust kept CO2 down historically

http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/03/dust-in-the-wind-helped-bring-down-co2-in-the-past/

Bloodhound SSC building a 1000mph car

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/03/bloodhound-ssc/

Fern Fossils

http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/03/spectacular-fossil-fern-reveals-jurassic-era-chromosomes/

Shows

TDH – Governmental Cognitive Dissonance

March 16, 2014 thedigitalhazard Leave a comment

This week on the show I speak to more egregious violations of citizen’s privacy via NSA initiatives, either current or former, as well as some good will to be earned back by distributing the DNS root. I get frustrated with Neil Young’s desire to include ultra-sonics in your music, but you can have Brian Greene explain String Theory to you for free.

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Sprint owner vows price war if it buys T-Mobile

http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/03/sprint-owner-vows-massive-price-war-if-it-can-buy-t-mobile/.

NATO websites DDoS’d over Crimea

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/16/us-ukraine-nato-idUSBREA2E0T320140316

Stanford CS Students Meta-data Report

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/march/nsa-phone-surveillance-031214.html

NSA’s Facebook Malware Tool

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/03/15/nsa-facebook-malware-turbine-non-denial-denial/

CIA-Senate Spying Clash

http://www.npr.org/2014/03/15/290410093/senate-cia-clash-goes-behind-closed-doors

And the irony therein

https://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security-technology-and-liberty/sen-dianne-feinsteins-nsa-reforms-bad-privacy-bad

US to give up control of DNS root

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/03/in-sudden-announcement-us-to-give-up-control-of-dns-root-zone/

Neil Young’s Pono Player on Kickstarter

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/03/neil-young-endorsed-music-player-kickstarts-past-1-6-million/

And why it is worthless:

http://evolver.fm/2012/10/04/guest-opinion-why-24192-music-downloads-make-no-sense/

Science News:

Learn Physics from World Science University for Free

http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/03/world-science-university-wants-to-teach-you-physics-for-free/

Shows

TDH – NQS (Not Quite Speechless)

November 3, 2013 thedigitalhazard Leave a comment

This week on the show I am left, not quite speechless regarding a couple of things, some of which are rather scary when you extrapolate the precedent, like the loss of your 4th amendment rights if you auto-identify as a hacker, or the high frequency spread of BIOS level malware. We explore what it means for the Obama administration to partner with reliability engineers from Google, Oracle and Red Hat to fix the issues with healthcare.gov. Will we get to the bottom of the genes that express mathematical aptitude?

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healthcare.org calls on tech companies for fixes

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-31/google-oracle-workers-enlisted-for-obamacare-tech-surge-.html

Google Nexus 5 actually announced

http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/31/nexus-5-announced-specs/

Cisco to open H.264 for WebRTC penetration

http://gigaom.com/2013/10/30/mozilla-will-add-h-264-to-firefox-as-cisco-makes-eleventh-hour-push-for-webrtcs-future/?t=t

New FAA guidelines to allow more device use

http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/31/new-faa-guidelines-permit-more-device-use-all-the-way-from-take-off-to-landing/

If you believe in the 4th amendment, don’t say you are a Hacker

http://www.digitalbond.com/blog/2013/10/22/call-yourself-a-hacker-lose-your-4th-amendment-rights/

NSA may be tapping Google and Yahoo’s fiber

http://allthingsd.com/20131030/how-the-nsa-may-be-tapping-yahoos-and-googles-fiber-optic-cables/

badBIOS, an innovative form of malware spread

http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/10/meet-badbios-the-mysterious-mac-and-pc-malware-that-jumps-airgaps/

6-Bit Byte

DNA source of mathematical aptitude

http://www.nature.com/news/root-of-maths-genius-sought-1.14050

Google was bored at Nortel patent auction

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/02/dealtalk-nortel-google-idUSN1E7601QM20110702

Shows

TDH – Microsoft’s iPads

September 15, 2013 thedigitalhazard Leave a comment

This week on the show, it is really cold in the studio, so I talk rather quickly to keep myself warm. But what do I talk about? The Twitter IPO, AT&T’s purchase of spectrum from Verizon, Facebook’s atrocious idea for ads, as well as the very scary backdoor the NSA has in a cryptographic spec. Oh, and the new iPhones. Those silly things…

Download This Week’s Episode

Twitter goes public, privately

http://allthingsd.com/20130912/twitter-files-for-ipo/

Twitter to release Spotify app

http://evolver.fm/2013/09/12/twitter-releases-spotify-app/

iPhone 5c pre-orders

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/09/iphone-5c-pre-orders-available-from-apple-carriers-and-retailers/

Fingerprint authentication backlash

http://boingboing.net/2013/09/12/why-fingerprints-make-lousy-au.html

Motorola’s Moto X, made in the USA

http://www.techhive.com/article/2048551/made-in-the-usa-moto-x-manufacturing-facility-opens-its-doors-on-google-street-view.html

Intel ships Haswell

http://www.citeworld.com/tablets/22385/intel-ships-haswell

Microsoft to buy iPads

http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/13/4725944/microsoft-ipad-trade-in-deal-offer-surface

Michael Dell’s buyout

http://allthingsd.com/20130912/dell-shareholders-approve-25-billion-buyout-to-go-private/

Verizon’s Net Neutrality challenge

http://www.forbes.com/sites/larrydownes/2013/09/11/what-verizons-net-neutrality-challenge-is-really-about/

AT&T finalizes spectrum purchase from Verizon

http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/10/att-finalizes-700mhz-spectrum-purchase-from-verizon/

Hacker compromises 2 million Vodafone customer database

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-12/vodafone-germany-hacker-accesses-2-million-clients-banking-data.html

NSA backdoor in cryptography spec

http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/09/new-york-times-provides-new-details-about-nsa-backdoor-in-crypto-spec/

6-bit Byte:

Phoneblocks

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57602510-1/phonebloks-a-modular-phone-you-update-a-piece-at-a-time/

Facebook Frackups

Auto-play videos on Facebook Mobile

http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/09/12/us-facebook-video-idINBRE98B17020130912

Zuckerberg speaks out against NSA

http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/11/4719732/facebooks-mark-zuckerberg

Shows

TDH – Focus on Silly

May 5, 2013 thedigitalhazard Leave a comment

This week on the show, I focus on the silliness of many people, both bureaucratic, and general stupidity. Everything from the Indian thief who fell for a fake Facebook profile, later on the show, to the raiding of a Chinese ex-employee of a NASA contractor’s work laptop, filled with porn and pirated movies. Thankfully however, Tor Books’ decision to go DRM free hasn’t hurt their bottom line.

Download This Week’s Episode

The Case of Kiera Wilmont

http://www.ibtimes.com/kiera-wilmot-expelled-scientists-teachers-outraged-harsh-punishment-teens-experiment-accident

Tor Book

http://arstechnica.com/business/2013/05/tor-books-says-cutting-drm-out-of-its-e-books-hasnt-hurt-business/

Ebay and the Feds

http://www.businessinsider.com/ebay-the-fbi-shawn-hogan-and-brian-dunning-2013-4?op=1

Software Bug in Poker Game? That’s a Federal Crime

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/05/game-king/all/

IE Exploit Targets Nuclear Weapons Researchers

http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/05/internet-explorer-zero-day-exploit-targets-nuclear-weapons-researchers/

“Google Palestine” Receives Criticism