Dennis Fisher and Mike Mimoso Discuss Encryption, the Microsoft-Google Feud and More

Dennis Fisher and Mike Mimoso discuss the security news of the past week, including the proposed changes to the CFAA, David Cameron’s encryption comments, the NSA’s quasi-apology regarding Dual EC and the Microsoft-Google disclosure feud. Music by Chris Gonsalves Download: digitalunderground180.m...

Matthew Green on the NSA and Compromising Crypto Standards

Dennis Fisher talks with Matthew Green of Johns Hopkins University about the NSA’s “regret” for continuing to support Dual EC after it had been shown to be compromised, the effects of the agency’s influence on crypto standards and the hope for more secure standards in the future. Download:...

NSA Official: Support for Compromised Dual EC Algorithm Was 'Regrettable'

In a new article in an academic math journal, the NSA’s former director of research says that the agency’s decision not to withdraw its support of the Dual ECDRBG random number generator after security researchers found weaknesses in it and questioned its provenance was a “regrettable” choice...

Experts Question Legality of Use of Regin Malware by Intel Agencies

The disclosure of the Regin APT malware campaign this week has spurred much speculation about the source of the attack, with many experts pointing the finger at either the NSA or GCHQ, the British spy agency. Though security researchers involved in uncovering the attack have remained mum on the...

EFF, Privacy Groups Say NIST Crypto Standards Must be Free From Backdoors

The EFF and a long list of civil and privacy groups have sent a letter to NIST, emphasizing the need for the agency to create “a process for establishing secure and resilient encryption standards, free from back doors or other known vulnerabilities.” The letter comes at a time when the agency is ...

Detekt — Free Anti-Malware Tool To Detect Govt. Surveillance Malware

Human rights experts and Privacy International have launched a free tool allowing users to scan their computers for surveillance spyware, typically used by governments and other organizations to spy on human rights activists and journalists around the world. This free-of-charge anti-surveillance...

Encrypt Everything Cannot Be Swayed by FREEDOM Act Rejection

Barring another vote before the end of the calendar year and the current Congressional session, the USA FREEDOM Act is dead in the water until 2015—and maybe even beyond. The Senate last night came up two votes shy of passing the bill, which would have overhauled the NSA’s current dragnet...

WhatsApp Adds Encryption by Default to Android App

WhatsApp, a massively popular messaging app, recently added end-to-end encryption for some mobile clients, a move that brings a high level of security to millions of users. The change is the result of a partnership with Open Whisper Systems, the secure text and mobile OS company started by securi...

IAB Urges Designers to Make Encryption the Default

The Internet Architecture Board, the body in charge of overseeing the structure of many of the Internet’s key standards, has recommended that encryption be the default traffic option for protocols. The recommendation comes after more than 18 months of revelations about the pervasive surveillance...

Edward Snowden Effect on Privacy Attitudes

Serious concessions have been made about privacy post-Snowden, in particular about how personal information is processed and consumed online. Results from a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center of Washington, D.C., show that the Snowden leaks have raised consumers’ consciousness about not...

Lame Duck Senate to Vote on NSA Reforming USA FREEDOM Act

The United States Senate will move to vote on the USA FREEDOM Act before the current congressional session closes at the end of the year, a move that pleases digital rights groups. In its current form, the bill would ban the bulk collection of Americans’ private records while granting the...

New Mozilla Privacy Initiative to Include High-Capacity Tor Relays

Mozilla is starting a new initiative that the company says is designed to incorporate more privacy enhancing features into Firefox and the other Mozilla products. The project, known as Polaris, involves collaboration with The Tor Project and the Center for Democracy and Technology and will involv...

Popular secure chat APP TextSecure presence of“unknown key sharing attack”vulnerability-vulnerability warning-the black bar safety net

! TextSecure is Android platform a encrypted chat APP, this free APP is designed in order to guarantee communication privacy. This APP by Open WhisperSystems developed, the code completelyopen sourcesupport end-to-end SMS encryption. Looks very safe is not? Recently, however, from Germany's Ruhr...

NSA-Approved Samsung Knox Stores PIN in Cleartext

A security researcher has tossed a giant bucket of ice water on Samsung’s thumbs up from the NSA approving use of certain Galaxy devices within in the agency. The NSA’s blessing, given under the agency’s Commercial Solutions for Classified Program, meant that the Samsung Galaxy 4, 5 and Galaxy No...

Cybersecurity Legislation Forecast is Grim

MINNEAPOLIS – If you’re expecting federal cybersecurity legislation any time soon, forget it. Despite the number of prospective bills on the Hill right now, Congress is unlikely to move anything forward any time soon, according to Matthew Rhoades, director cyberspace and security program Truman...

Mobile Device Encryption Could Lead to a 'Very, Very Dark Place', FBI Director Says

FBI Director James Comey said Thursday that the recent movement toward default encryption of smartphones and other devices could “lead us to a very, very dark place.” Echoing comments made by law enforcement officials for the last several decades, Comey said that the advanced cryptosystems...

Moderate: Red Hat Security Advisory: qemu-kvm-rhev security update

Updated qemu-kvm-rhev packages that fix multiple security issues are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform 5.0 for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7. Red Hat Product Security has rated this update as having Moderate security impact. Common Vulnerability Scoring System CVSS base...

Next 'Android L' To Enable Full Disk Encryption By Default

The search engine giant Google will soon come up with its next version of Android operating system, dubbed as Android L, with full-disk encryption enabled by default, Google confirmed Thursday. This will be for the first time that Google’s Android OS will be encrypting your information, preventin...

Treasure Map — Five Eyes Surveillance Program to Map the Entire Internet

The National Security Agency and its British counterpart, GCHQ, gained secret access to the German telecom companies’ internal networks, including Deutsche Telekom and Netcologne, in an effort to “map the entire Internet — any device, anywhere, all the time.” As reported by German news publicatio...

ICREACH — NSA's Secret Google-Like Search Engine for Metadata Analysis

The United States National Security Agency NSA is using a massive information sharing platform that allows multiple law enforcement agencies to infiltrate more than 850 billion communications records detailing e-mails, phone calls, instant messages, and phone geolocation, according to the...