Cloud Digital Forensic Readiness: an Open Source Approach to Law Enforcement Request Management

Cloud Forensics presents a multi-jurisdictional challenge that may undermines the success of digital forensic investigations DFIs. The growing volumes of domiciled and foreign law enforcement LE requests, the latency and complexity of formal channels for crossborder data access are challenging...

Telegram Agrees to Share User Data With Authorities for Criminal Investigations

In a major policy reversal, the popular messaging app Telegram has announced it will give users' IP addresses and phone numbers to authorities in response to valid legal requests in an attempt to rein in criminal activity on the platform. "We've made it clear that the IP addresses and phone numbe...

Are the Police Using Smart-Home IoT Devices to Spy on People?

IoT devices are surveillance devices, and manufacturers generally use them to collect data on their customers. Surveillance is still the business model of the Internet, and this data is used against the customers' interests: either by the device manufacturer or by some third party the manufacture...

Warrant Canary Database Shuts Down

Warrant canaries aren’t definitive markers that a company has been served with a National Security Letter or some other type of court order mandating that customer information be turned over to a government agency or law enforcement. But oftentimes, they are a strong indicator that something has...

Major Carriers AT&T, Comcast Continue to Lag in EFF Privacy Report

While many companies have made strides when it comes to how they handle transparency and government requests post-Snowden, major telecoms such as AT&T and Verizon continue to lag behind. Despite publishing transparency reports within the last year, the two companies scored the lowest on the...

Government Surveillance Could Targeted Automated Updates

SAN FRANCISCO – As more Web-based services are encrypted, privacy advocates are concerned the next wave of aggressive surveillance activity could target automated update services that essentially provide Internet companies root access to machines. Chris Soghoian, principal technologist with the...

Tech Giants Update Transparency Reports with FISA Requests

Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo and LinkedIn wasted little time in disclosing what they could about requests for customer data made under the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. One week after the Justice Department eased a gag order on reporting of FISA requests, the five tech giant...

AT&T, Verizon Announce Transparency Reports in 2014

One by one, the telecommunications giants at the heart of the NSA surveillance scandal are relenting to shareholder pressure and public demands for them to publish reports on government requests for user data. On Friday Verizon and AT&T announced their intent to begin producing transparency repor...

Google, Microsoft Seek Help in Lifting FISA Gag Order

Google and Microsoft have locked arms with a number of civil liberties advocates in filing a brief with the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court hoping to lift a gag order preventing the two tech giants from releasing information on their role in the NSA’s surveillance activities. To...

Google Asks FISA Court to Allow it to Publish Data on Government Requests

Saying that inaccurate media reports about the PRISM program have damaged the company’s reputation, Google has asked the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for permission to publish the number of requests the company gets for user data under various parts of the Foreign Intelligence...

Transparency Reports Should Be Standard Practice

With less than three full months gone in 2013, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft all have admitted publicly to serious security breaches, something that would have seemed like an elaborate practical joke just a couple of years ago. But the times and the climate have changed, and if you needed more...