Technology in the News

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IRS official Lois Lerner called conservatives 'crazies' and 'a**holes'

dailymail.co.uk

by David Martosko

August 3, 2014

Michigan Rep. Dave Camp, who chairs the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday to demand 'a serious investigation' -- something he said has been lacking.

Former senior IRS official Lois Lerner had deeply held political biases while she was in a position of authority, according to Republican lawmakers who unveiled emails on Wednesday showing her referring to conservatives as 'crazies' and 'a**holes.' Michigan Rep. Dave Camp, who chairs the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder to demand what he called 'a serious investigation' - something he said has been lacking. Camp wants Holder to appoint an outside special counsel to probe the culture of the IRS and explain why hundreds of conservative groups were subjected to intrusive questioning and years-long delays when they applied for nonprofit tax benefits - steps that were not taken against liberal organizations.

Microsoft ordered to hand over overseas email, throwing EU privacy rights in the fire

zdnet.com

by Zack Whittaker

August 2, 2014

US law can apply anywhere in the world, so long as a technology company has control over foreign data, a court rules.

A US judge has ordered Microsoft to hand over foreign data it stores back to the US, despite allegedly strong privacy protections in Europe to mitigate such processes. The logic of the court is that because the US-headquartered software giant controls the data it stores overseas, its foreign subsidiary companies are just as applicable to US law. US District Judge Loretta Preska in New York said the ruling will be stayed to allow Microsoft to appeal the decision to an appeals court. "It is a question of control, not a question of the location of that information," Preska said in the ruling.

Feds' Silk Road Investigation Broke Privacy Laws, Defendant Tells Court

Wired.com

by Andy Greenberg

August 2, 2014

The Department of Justice sees its takedown of the billion-dollar Silk Road black market as a massive, victorious drug bust.

Ross Ulbricht, the alleged creator of that anonymous contraband bazaar, now wants to cast the case in a different light: as a landmark example of the government trampling privacy rights in the digital world. In a pre-trial motion filed in the case late Friday night, Ulbricht's lawyers laid out a series of arguments to dismiss all charges in the case based on Ulbricht's fourth amendment protections against warrantless searches of his digital property. As early as the FBI's initial discovery of servers in Iceland hosting the site on the Tor anonymity network-seemingly without obtaining a search warrant from a judge-Ulbricht argues that law enforcement violated his constitutional right to privacy, tainting all further evidence against him dug up in the investigation that followed.

Please Do Not Call the Police Department When Facebook Is Down

yahoo.com

August 1, 2014

Let this serve as a reminder: If you cannot visit Facebook, do not call the police. Just go to Twitter.

Here's a List of 700 (Out of At Least 2,300) People Killed in U.S. Drone Strikes in Pakistan

reason.com

by Ed Krayewski

July 31, 2014

The Bureau of Investigative Justice (BIJ) has compiled a list of more than 700 names of people killed in U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan-representing less than a third of known casualties.

The BIJ says 323 of those names are of civilians and classifies each victim as a "reported civilian" or "alleged militant," based on interviews conducted in Pakistan and combing through media reports and Pakistani government documents. Of the 323 "reported civilians," 99 are children. The BIJ explains: Senior US officials have described drones as highly precise weapons that target and kill enemies of the US. John Brennan, who oversaw the development of the drone campaign and is now director of the CIA, has called drone technology an 'essential tool' for its 'surgical precision - the ability, with laser-like focus, to eliminate the cancerous tumour called an al Qaeda terrorist while limiting damage to the tissue around it.'

House approves lawsuit against Obama over alleged abuse of executive power

Fox News

July 30, 2014

The House on Wednesday approved a highly contentious lawsuit against President Obama over his alleged abuse of executive power, teeing up an election-year legal battle sure to spill onto the midterm campaign trail.

The House backed the lawsuit resolution on a vote of 225-201, with all Democrats opposed. Republicans say the lawsuit is necessary to keep the president in constitutional check, after he allegedly exceeded his authority with unilateral changes to the Affordable Care Act. Democrats branded the effort a political charade aimed at stirring up GOP voters for this fall's congressional elections. They also said it's an effort by top Republicans to mollify conservatives who want Obama to be impeached -- something House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said he has no plans to do.

"A**holes": Turns out Lois Lerner's not a fan of conservative talk radio or its listeners

Hot Air

by Allahpundit

July 30, 2014

I'm as surprised as you are. Who could have guessed that someone who "joked" about working for OFA might not like grassroots righties?

There's an important lesson to be learned here, my friends. When you're arranging for your hard drive to be "scratched," make sure it's scratched deeply enough that stuff like this can't be recovered. No wonder she wanted to take a closer look at tea-party nonprofits. They're run by terrorists 'n stuff.

Huge Scandal at FBI: Dubious Forensic Evidence Used in Convictions of Hundreds, Possibly Thousands of People

reason.com

by Jesse Walker

July 30, 2014

As regular Reason readers know, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been reviewing thousands of cases where it may have used dubious forensic evidence to get a conviction.

The issue is the use of hair found at a crime scene to prove a defendant had been present. According to the Post, "FBI policy has stated since at least the 1970s that a hair association cannot be used as positive identification, like fingerprints," yet "agents regularly testified to the near-certainty of matches" in the 1980s and '90s. A spokesman for the Justice Department told that paper that the bureau's claims regularly "exceeded the limits of science."

Attackers Compromise TOR Network to De-Anonymize Users of Hidden Services

thehackernews.com

by Mohit Kumar

July 30, 2014

A critical vulnerability in Tor was probably being used to de-anonymize the identity of Tor users, Tor project warned on Wednesday.

115 MALICIOUS ToR RELAYS WERE DE-ANONYMIZING USERS According to a security advisory, Tor Team has found a group of 115 malicious fast non-exit relays (6.4% of whole Tor network), those were actively monitoring the relays on both ends of a Tor circuit in an effort to de-anonymize users. "While we don't know when they started doing the attack, users who operated or accessed hidden services from early February through July 4 should assume they were affected," Tor said.

IJ Announces Big Push, New Site for Asset Forfeiture Reform - Hit & Run : Reason.com

reason.com

by Scott Shackford

July 30, 2014

The liberty-loving Institute for Justice (IJ) has put together a new one-stop shop for info explaining all the terrible problems with and government abuse of civil asset forfeiture laws for you to share with any friends or family who don't quite get it.

Check out the easy-to-remember endforfeiture.com. Scroll down the site and you'll hit every piece of information you need to illustrate the abuse problems and twisted incentives that come from the government's ability to seize assets from citizens through civil processes without ever having to prove they committed a crime. The site includes IJ's videos and report about "Policing for Profit," as well as details about a handful of specific cases, some of which will be familiar to regular Reason readers. And there will be more cases. "We're going to have a whole string of them coming out in the next year," says IJ Senior Attorney Scott Bullock. He is leading the institute's eight-member "forfeiture initiative team."

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