Encrypted Email Service 'Lavabit' abruptly shut down under U.S. Government Pressure

Texas-based Encrypted Email Service 'Lavabit' abruptly shut down for reasons linked to National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden. The Feds want to Lavabit demanding access to Ed Snowden's email. Lavabit refused! Snowden was using the Lavabit service while holed-up in the Moscow airpor...

Announcing the 2013 MSRC Progress Report featuring MAPP expansions

Over the years, our customers have come to expect a certain regularity and transparency in both our security updates and the guidance that goes with them. One regular piece of communication about our work is a yearly progress report, which provides a look into the program updates and bulletin...

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 Adds Phishing, Malware Info to Transparency Report

Google divulged new statistics today about its Safe Browsing program, a service it uses to flag websites it suspects of peddling malware and phishing. According to the numbers, most of the “unsafe website” warnings it pushes to users on Google Search and in browsers, stem from malware and not...

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...

New Bill Would Declassify FISC Opinions

A group of eight senators from both parties have introduced a new bill that would require the attorney general to declassify as many of the rulings of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court as possible as a way of bringing into the sunlight much of the law and opinion that guides the...

Google Requests More Transparency to Dispel PRISM

Google’s chief legal officer addressed a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI Director Robert Mueller contesting recent media reports regarding the breadth of the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs and requesting that his company be allowed to publish more national securit...

Reputation.com Notifies Customers of Network Attack

A company known for burying bad information to improve its customers’ online images let everyone know this week its network was hacked. Reputation.com sent e-mails to thousands of customers in more than 100 countries to let them know of the attack. In a message sent earlier this week, the company...

EFF Evaluates Internet Companies on Privacy, Transparency

Internet companies are making it a standard practice to publish transparency reports and advocate for users’ privacy concerns with law enforcement and legislators. And while some do it well, there’s plenty of room for improvement among ISPs such as AT&T and Verizon, and large companies such as...

Google Transparency Report Requests Up to Remove Information

Google has released a new Transparency Report, this time pointing out sharp increases in the number of government requests from Brazil and Russia it received to remove content from Google-branded websites. This is the seventh time the Mountain View-based company has released the report that...

California Considers Pushing Data Disclosure Envelope Again

California, which set the standard for data breach notifications nationwide, is again seeking to set a precedent by becoming the first state in the nation to require companies upon request disclose to California consumers the data they’ve collected and to whom it was shared during the past year...

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...

Microsoft Transparency Report Shows Company Supplied User Content in 2.2% of Cases

Microsoft received more than 11,000 requests for user information or content data from law enforcement agencies in the United States last year and supplied some user content in more than 1,500 of those cases. Overall, the company received more than 70,000 requests from law enforcement agencies...

Google For First Time Reports FBI Non-Warrant Requests for User Data

Google today revealed – if in vague terms – it last year received less than 1,000 “national Security letters” from federal authorities seeking financial and communications data on up to almost 2,000 individuals. The disclosure of such government requests marks a first for a major Internet service...

Twitter Complied with 69% of US Government Requests for Account Data

Government requests for user account information made to Twitter pale in comparison to the number made to Google, but nonetheless, the number is on the rise according to Twitter’s Transparency Report, released today. Twitter’s report said government requests are generally made in conjunction with...

Google Complied With 88 Percent of U.S. User Data Requests

Google received more than 8,000 requests for user data from the U.S. government in the second half of 2012, and nearly all of them were the result of a subpoena or search warrant. The number of those requests that the company complied with by producing some or all of the data in question is still...

Philippine court suspends Anti Cybercrime law

The Philippine Supreme Court on Tuesday suspended implementation of Republic Act 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act for 120 days, while it decides whether certain provisions violate civil liberties. The law, signed last month, aims to combat Internet crimes such as hacking, identity theft,...

Julian Assange - The most Fuckable Man on the Planet

Julian Assange made a speech today from the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and I felt a primal urge brought on by the fact that this man, in all his manly glory, has stuck his proverbial neck out for the essence of life. Truth and Justice. He is a handsome and articulate man, fightin...

Q&A: Adrian Stone of the BlackBerry Security Team

LAS VEGAS–Here’s something that you might not know about RIM: it has a rather large security response and research team. The maker of the BlackBerry phones–once the must-have fashion accessory for executives and Barack Obama–historically has been almost silent on the way that it handles product...

Anonymous Hackers shut down website of Colombia Justice Ministry

Anonymous Hackers shut down website of Colombia Justice Ministry Anonymous hackers shut down the websites of Colombia's Justice Ministry website on Friday evening. The website was back online Saturday morning. Also, The website of Cambio Radical, the political party of Interior Minister German...