Telegram Ordered to Hand Over Encryption Keys to Russian Authorities

Russia’s top court ruled Tuesday that the Telegram messaging service, with 9.5 million active Russian users, must hand over encryption keys to authorities. The Britain-based messaging app company, with 100 million global users, now has 15 days to provide communications regulators in Russia with t...

Mozilla Joins U.S. Attorneys General In Bid to Restore Net Neutrality

Mozilla has joined a coalition of U.S. state attorneys general in battling the Federal Communications Commission’s controversial recent ruling that overturned net neutrality laws. “The internet is a global, public resource,” Mozilla wrote in a blog post. “It relies on the core principle of net...

On SAS 2017, the Microsoft IIS Zero Day, and Mirai

Mike Mimoso and Chris Brook preview this year’s Security Analyst Summit and discuss the news of the week, including a Microsoft IIS zero day, a new Mirai variant, and the broadband privacy ruling. Download: ThreatpostNewsWrapMarch312017.mp3 Music by Chris Gonsalves...

British Court rules Hacktivist 'Lauri Love' can be extradited to USA

British citizen and alleged hacker Lauri Love will be extradited to the United States to face allegations of hacking into United States government computer systems, a UK judge ruled on Friday. Love, 31, is currently facing up to 99 years in prison for allegedly hacking into the FBI, the US Army,...

Microsoft Wins! Govt Can't Force Tech Companies to Hand Over Data Stored Overseas

Especially after the Snowden revelations of global mass surveillance by US intelligence agencies at home and abroad, various countries demanded tech companies including Google, Apple, and Microsoft to set-up and maintain their servers in respective countries in order to keep their citizen data...

British Hacker Wins Legal Battle Over Encryption Keys

In Brief Britain's top crime fighting force has failed in a legal attempt to force alleged hacker Lauri Love to hand over his hard disk's encryption keys. In a landmark case, District Judge Nina Tempia said the investigative agency should have used the normal police powers rather than a civil...

Delicate Hardware Hacks Could Unlock Shooter's iPhone

A researcher at IOActive believes the U.S. intelligence community has the capability to carry out a delicate hardware hack that could unlock the iPhone 5c at the center of the current FBiOS debate. The attack requires considerable financial resources and acumen with an intrusive attack against th...

NSA to Destroy Bulk Collection of Surveillance Data

The National Security Agency will restrict access to, and ultimately destroy, millions of US phone records previously collected by the spy agency, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence ODNI announced Monday. The federal law was passed in June ending the NSA’s bulk collection of U.S...

US House Votes to End NSA Phone Records Collection

The U.S. House of Representatives’ resounding vote on Wednesday to end the National Security Agency’s collection of phone metadata and business records shifts the Senate focus squarely onto the shoulders of Kentucky Republican Senator, Mitch McConnell. McConnell is a staunch defender of the...

Massachusetts Supreme Court Rules Defendant Must Decrypt Data

Encryption software has been enjoying a prolonged day in the sun for about the last year. Thanks to the revelations of Edward Snowden about the NSA’s seemingly limitless capabilities, security experts have been pounding the drum about the importance of encrypting not just data in transit, but...

Verizon Updates 2013 Transparency Report With FISA Data

Verizon updated its transparency report yesterday, breaking down National Security Letter and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act FISA orders for the first and second halves of 2013. The telecommunications giant released its first transparency report in late January, responding to pressure from...

NSA Bulk Telephony Metadata Collection Program Legal

A federal court today shot down a challenge by the American Civil Liberties Union ACLU to the National Security Agency’s bulk phone metadata collection program, determining that the spy agency’s actions are legal. The ruling by U.S. District Court judge William Pauley contradicts a Dec. 16 D.C...

Two Texas Bills Could Shape Mobile Privacy

Two bills introduced in Texas this week could refine mobile privacy in the state and tweak how law enforcement can request sensitive information from cell phones going forward. A press release from the Texas Electronic Privacy Coalition TxEPC credits Bryan Hughes, a Republican from the town of...

Appeals Court Calls Bank's Security "Commercially Unreasonable"

The United States Court of Appeals on Tuesday reversed a lower court’s decision, ruling that the IT security system used by a domestic bank was not “commercially reasonable” to protect its customers. The ruling PDF, in the case of People’s United Bank formerly Ocean Bank of Maine versus Patco...

Indian ISPs get court relief, Torrent Sites Unblocked

Indian ISPs get court relief, Torrent Sites Unblocked After weeks of confusion and frustration with blocked websites, the mess finally looks to be clearing. Indians are all heaving a sigh of relief because their ISPs have unblocked the access to the file-sharing, video-streaming BitTorrent sites...

Senator Seeks More Info On DOJ Location Tracking Practices

Senator Al Franken D-MN is demanding answers to questions about the U.S. Department of Justice DOJ practice of gathering data from wireless providers in order to monitor individuals’ movements using mobile phone location data. Franken released a copy of a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder on...

Stealing Corporate Data Doesn't Violate Federal Computer Fraud Law

In a ruling that could be felt throughout the business world, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in California ruled that a man did not violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act CFAA after pilfering contacts from the client database of his former employer to help jumpstart his competi...

Court Ruling: Forced Decryption Violates the Fifth, Sometimes

The Eleventh Circuit of the US Court of Appeals recently handed down a landmark ruling, establishing a precedent under which the contents of an encrypted hard-drive are protected by the Fifth Amendment’s ban on self-incrimination. Briefly, the facts of the case are these: John Doe is suspected of...

Ruling in Assange Extradition Case Expected Feb. 24,2011 !

Final arguments in the extradition hearing of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange were presented in a London court on Friday. The judge is expected to rule on February 24, but the case is likely to continue long afterward if either side files an appeal. Assange is being sought for questioning in...