Recent Reports of DHS-Themed Ransomware (UPDATE)

US-CERT has received reports of increased activity concerning an apparently DHS-themed ransomware malware infection occurring in the wild. Users who are being targeted by the ransomware receive a message claiming that use of their computer has been suspended and that the user must pay a fine to...

Russia has never extradited anyone and will not extradite Snowden to US

A spokesman for President Vladimir Putin says, "Russia has never extradited anyone, and will not extradite,". Moscow security agency FSB is in talks with the FBI over Snowden, but the whistleblower will not be extradited to the US. The Russian immigration ministry granted Snowden a document this...

House Rejects Amendment to Sever NSA Data Collection Funding

By a narrow dozen votes, the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday failed to pass an amendment to the Department of Defense Appropriations Act of 2014 that would have severed funding for the NSA’s phone record surveillance program turned out by Edward Snowden. The amendment, put forth by Rep...

EFF: Forced Decryption Violates Fifth Amendment

If the government would like to force Jeffrey Feldman to decrypt the contents of the hard-drives and Dell computer found in his apartment, then they must offer him immunity and cannot use any of the information found on the devices as part of their case against him. That is what the Electronic...

Appropriations Amendment Threatens to Cut Funding for NSA Collection Program

A small group of Congressmen is trying to cut off the funding for the NSA’s widespread collection of phone and Internet records under the “business records” collection provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The provision in FISA that enables law enforcement agencies to get access...

Fake FBI Ransomware Targeting OS X Users

The Federal Bureau of Investigation issued an alert yesterday warning users about a strain of ransomware purporting to come from the FBI that is targeting Mac OS X machines. This time, the ransomware isn’t malware at all, but a website that uses JavaScript to load numerous iframes. The webpage...

Congress Warns Section 215 May Not Be Renewed

Incensed at the way that the Department of Justice and the intelligence community have used the controversial section 215 of the PATRIOT Act, members of the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday angrily questioned Justice and NSA officials about their surveillance of U.S. citizens and said that...

College Student Gets Year in Prison for Wire Fraud in Tampering With Student Election

A former Cal State San Marcos student was sentenced to a year in prison this week for wire fraud and other charges related to election tampering by using keystroke loggers to grab student credentials and then vote for himself. Matthew Weaver, 22, of Huntington Beach, Calif., stole almost 750...

FBI themed Mac OS X Ransomware Malware demands $300 Fine

Ransomware is a type of malware that attempts to extort money from a computer user by infecting and taking control of the victim's machine, or the files or documents stored on it. This kind of malware has typically been the domain of Windows users, but has made its way to OS X. A new piece of FBI...

EFF, Eclectic Group of Organizations Sue NSA Over Data Collection

If politics makes strange bedfellows, as the saying goes, wholesale government surveillance takes that to an entirely new level. The clearest evidence yet of the broad and diverse set of groups opposed to the NSA’s domestic spying programs came Tuesday when the EFF said that is representing a...

FBI themed Mac OS X Ransomware Malware demands $300 Fine

Ransomware is a type of malware that attempts to extort money from a computer user by infecting and taking control of the victim's machine, or the files or documents stored on it. This kind of malware has typically been the domain of Windows users, but has made its way to OS X. A new piece of FBI...

Australia's Telstra Wiretapping undersea cables from past 12 years for FBI

According to a secret agreement it signed in 2001 with the FBI and US Department of Justice - Telstra, Australia's largest phone company is storing huge volumes of electronic communications it carried between Asia and the US for potential surveillance by US intelligence agencies. The contract was...

Australia’s Telstra Wiretapping undersea cables from past 12 years for FBI

According to a secret agreement it signed in 2001 with the FBI and US Department of Justice - Telstra, Australia’s largest phone company is storing huge volumes of electronic communications it carried between Asia and the US for potential surveillance by US intelligence agencies. The contract was...

Microsoft handed over encrypted messages key and Skype calls access to NSA

New top secret documents provided by Edward Snowden exposed that Microsoft worked hand-in-hand with the United States government and handed the NSA access to encrypted messages and built a series of backdoors into Outlook.com, Skype, and SkyDrive to ease difficulties in accessing online...

Threat Outbreak Alert: Fake Monetary Award Email Messages on July 9, 2013

Medium Alert ID: 30019 First Published: 2013 July 10 14:59 GMT Version: 1 Summary Cisco Security has detected significant activity related to spam email messages that claim to contain a monetary award for the recipient. The text in the email message attempts to convince the recipient to open the...

Edward Snowden applies for political asylum in Russia

A Russian immigration source informed that the US intelligence agency whistleblower Edward Snowden has applied for political asylum in Russia. Few days back, Russian president Vladimir Putin has said Russia would never hand over Mr Snowden over to the United States but that if Snowden wants to st...

Edward Snowden applies for political asylum in Russia

A Russian immigration source informed that the US intelligence agency whistleblower Edward Snowden has applied for political asylum in Russia. Few days back, Russian president Vladimir Putin has said Russia would never hand over Mr Snowden over to the United States but that if Snowden wants to st...

Digital privacy, Internet Surveillance and The PRISM - Enemies of the Internet

If you have followed the startling revelations about the scope of the US government's surveillance efforts, you may have thought you were reading about the end of privacy, and about the Enemies of the Internet. "My computer was arrested before I was." a perceptive comment by an internet activist...

FBI raided Anonymous Hacker house, who exposed Steubenville Rapists

Another member of the hacker collective Anonymous has been unmasked this week. FBI raided the home of Deric Lostutter in April. Two laptops, flash drives, CD's, an external hard-drive, cell phones and an Xbox were reportedly seized during the raid. Deric Lostutter, a 26-year-old from Winchester, ...

FBI raided Anonymous Hacker house, who exposed Steubenville Rapists

Another member of the hacker collective Anonymous has been unmasked this week. FBI raided the home of Deric Lostutter in April. Two laptops, flash drives, CD's, an external hard-drive, cell phones and an Xbox were reportedly seized during the raid. Deric Lostutter, a 26-year-old from Winchester, ...