Virus Information News

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Report Finds NSA Surveillance Harming Journalism and Law

aclu.org

July 28, 2014

Because freedom can't protect itself Government Spying Undermines Media Freedom and Right to Counsel, ACLU- Human Rights Watch Shows

Large-scale U.S. surveillance is seriously hampering U.S.-based journalists and lawyers in their work, the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch said in a joint report released today. Surveillance is undermining media freedom and the right to counsel, and ultimately obstructing the American people's ability to hold their government to account, the groups said. The 120-page report, "With Liberty to Monitor All: How Large-Scale U.S. Surveillance is Harming Journalism, Law, and American Democracy," is based on extensive interviews with dozens of journalists, lawyers, and senior U.S. government officials. It documents how national security journalists and lawyers are adopting elaborate steps or otherwise modifying their practices to keep communications, sources, and other confidential information secure in light of revelations of unprecedented U.S. government surveillance of electronic communications and transactions. The report finds that government surveillance and secrecy are undermining press freedom, the public's right to information, and the right to counsel, all human rights essential to a healthy democracy.

Need a US visa, passport? Prepare for misery: Database crash strands thousands

theregister.co.uk

by Neil McAllister

July 25, 2014

An unspecified glitch in a global database used by the US government to issue passports and travel visas has left countless people around the world unable to travel for the last few days, according to State Department officials.

"The Bureau of Consular Affairs has been experiencing technical problems with our passport and visa system," Marie Harf, deputy spokesperson for the State Department, said in a press briefing on Thursday. "The issue is worldwide, not specific to any particular country." The database in question, known as the Consular Consolidated Database (CCD), is said to be one of the largest Oracle-based data warehouses in the world. It holds over 100 million records of visa cases and 75 million photographs, and it currently processes around 35,000 new visa cases every day. The system reportedly crashed following scheduled maintenance earlier this week and was out of operation for as much as a few days. Service has since been restored but only in a "limited capacity," and the downtime has resulted in a backlog of visa and passport processing that will take some time to work through.

New Surveillance Whistleblower: The NSA Violates the Constitution

theatlantic.com

by Conor Friedersdorf

July 21, 2014

A former Obama administration official calls attention to unaccountable mass surveillance conducted under a 1981 executive order.

John Napier Tye is speaking out to warn Americans about illegal spying. The former State Department official, who served in the Obama administration from 2011 to 2014, declared Friday that ongoing NSA surveillance abuses are taking place under the auspices of Executive Order 12333, which came into being in 1981, before the era of digital communications, but is being used to collect them promiscuously. Nye alleges that the Obama administration has been violating the Constitution with scant oversight from Congress or the judiciary. "The order as used today threatens our democracy," he wrote in The Washington Post. "I am coming forward because I think Americans deserve an honest answer to the simple question: What kind of data is the NSA collecting on millions, or hundreds of millions, of Americans?"

Hacked WSJ page 'downs' US president's plane in Russia

RT

July 20, 2014

Hackers broke into the Wall Street Journal's Facebook page to claim that Air Force One possibly crashed over the Russian airspace rattling users' nerves.

While the world is still recovering from the shock of the Malaysia Airlines plane crash, a message on WSJ's Facebook page posted on Sunday morning came as yet even a worse stress for a few readers. The fake "breaking news" report suggested that the American president's plane went down in Russia.

Police Play NSA: Warrantless Data Collection the New Normal? Don't Cops Have Better Things to Do?!

youtube.com

by Rt America

July 18, 2014

Sacramento sheriff's deputies have been playing NSA. They tool around town with suitcase-sized StingRay surveillance devices in their squad cars, scooping up cellphone data from whomever happens to be within a one-mile radius.

The deputies have reportedly been doing their shady business without warrants, and dozens of law enforcement agencies nationwide may be doing likewise. But hey, what's the big deal? After all, the feds say it's OK. Not only that, but federal agents have even been telling local officers to keep their StingRay shenanigans hush hush. If a judge asks, the feds advise locals to say they obtained evidence, not from a StingRay, but from a "confidential source."

The NSA Is Totally Passing Around Your Sexy Selfies

reason.com

July 18, 2014

In an extensive new interview with The Guardian, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden emphasized the need for "lawyers, journalists, doctors, accountants, priests," and others with a duty to protect confidentiality to ditch unencrypted communication.

He also confirmed what many people have joked about since the NSA's surveillance was first revealed: Yes, agents are totally looking at and passing around your "sexually compromising" photos. According to Snowden, looking at O.P.P. is a "routine" part of NSA life, and one that's considered "a fringe benefit of a surveillance position."

Dangerous Malware steals credit card information from Android devices | Hack Read

hackread.com

July 17, 2014

New Android Malware in Android devices steals credit card information by taking over admin panel. The security of Android devices is in danger.

Security experts at Dr. Web have warned Android users to be careful from a new Trojan that is stealing credit card details while making a transaction on Google Play store. It is currently targeting Russian users but a little bit of modification can let the criminals target people around the world. The Trojan comes in the shape of a fake Adobe Flash Player, once installed and run, it asks for administrator privileges on the Android device after every 0.1 seconds. It does it by continuously irritating user to grant it the admin privileges through a non-stop popup message. It will keep on asking until the user finally lets the Trojan take over the admin panel.

Paid government trolls rove internet in search of resisters who oppose police state tyranny

naturalnews.com

July 15, 2014

One of the biggest threats to government authoritarianism in today's world is the internet, which still allows for the relatively free flow of information between members of society apart from state-sanctioned media and other forms of societal control.

But even the web is now being used as a covert tool of manipulation and brainwashing, with paid government trolls actively intervening in online conversations and targeting individuals who resist police state tyranny, sometimes falsely branding them as mentally ill. These insidious trolls typically pose as regular folks, pretending to have honest opinions on matters of real substance such as food freedom and gun rights. But secretly, their agenda is to sway readers toward the state agenda, which in both of these examples involves promoting heavy restrictions and government control. Paid government agents are also now using the fraud of psychiatry to brand dissenters as having mental illness, an egregious tactic of tyranny that has been around since the days of Hitler and Stalin.

Google Is Hiring A Team Of All-Star Hackers To Fix The Internet

businessinsider.com

July 15, 2014

Google is hiring a team of security experts called Project Zero to scour the web in detail for hidden bugs and vulnerabilities.

Earlier this year, a massive internet vulnerability known as Heartbleed claimed to be the biggest bug the internet has seen in years. Now, Google is taking another measure to make sure hidden internet vulnerabilities don't get out of hand with an effort known as Project Zero.

Taxpayer-Funded Propaganda: House.gov IP Address is Traced to Alternative Media Smear Campaign

dcclothesline.com

by Paul Joseph Watson

July 15, 2014

Entry from IP traced to U.S. House of Representatives describes Alex Jones as 'Kremlin disinformation agent'

Edits to the Wikipedia profiles of Alex Jones and Abby Martin which malign the two alternative media personalities as Kremlin propagandists are linked to an IP address associated with the House of Representatives, prompting suggestions that the U.S. government is involved in an online smear campaign.

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