USA FREEDOM Act Revised to Limit NSA Surveillance

UPDATE: A prior version of this story incorrectly noted that the bill revisions included a clause that would require an earlier re-authorization to the PATRIOT Act, when in fact the revisions push that re-authorization date more than two years further into the future. The House Judiciary Committe...

NSA Surveillance Reform Demonstrate Need for Public Scrutiny

The Snowden leaks and the ensuing critical spotlight shone on the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs have nudged many technologists, privacy hounds and politicians away from their desks and onto the front lines calling for reforms. Two nights ago, the New York Times reported that...

White House Proposal Would End NSA Metadata Program

Privacy advocates are cautiously applauding the reports that the Obama administration will unveil a legislative proposal to end the National Security Agency’s collection of Americans’ bulk phone records, but are concerned what the fine print on that proposal might hold. “Given all the various way...

Researcher Eric Filiol Withdraws CanSecWest Presentation

A presenter at this week’s CanSecWest security conference has withdrawn his scheduled talk for fear the information could be used to attack critical infrastructure worldwide. Eric Filiol, scientific director of the Operational Cryptology and Virology lab. CTO/CSO of the ESIEA in France, pulled hi...

AT&T Cross Site Scripting

. / \ | |/ / / /\ | |\ \ / | \ |/ \ | // / / / Corporation 2014 c Published Report: 27/02/2014 Credits: Advanced Information Security Corporation, USA Severity: High/Critical OWASP TOP 10 Type: Web Application / Cross-Site Scripting . CVSS: 7.0 Author: Nicholas Lemonias. Information Security...

CREDO Mobile Publishes Industry's First Transparency Report

Credo Mobile, the small San Francisco mobile provider that is reportedly the unnamed plaintiff in a suit that challenged the legality of national security letters, yesterday published its first transparency report, the first such report published by a mobile provider. Credo, which has raised tens...

NSA Metadata Program Likely Not Cost-Effective, Researchers Say

While much of the coverage of the surveillance programs revealed by Edward Snowden have focused on the legality and constitutionality of the collection of metadata and Internet traffic in the name of counter-terrorism and national security, the question of whether these programs are actually cost...

Replacing Security Best Practices With Things That Work

NEW YORK–The term “best practices” is high on the list of overused and nearly meaningless phrases that get thrown around in the security field. It forms the basis for regulations such as HIPAA and PCI DSS and yet if you asked a random sample of 10 security people what the phrase meant, you’d like...

Apple Says It Has 'Never Received an Order Under Section 215'

In a new report detailing the number and kind of requests for user information it’s gotten from various governments, Apple said it has never received a request for information under Section 215 of the USA PATROT Act and would likely fight one if it ever came. The company also disclosed that it ha...

Tech Giants Plead for U.S. Surveillance Reforms

Giant technology companies have been vocal about the need for more transparency with regard to the national security requests for user data they receive. But until now, they’ve stayed out of the political fight to address government surveillance, in particular by the National Security Agency...

Obama Administration to Review NSA Capabilities

President Barack Obama has initiated a review of the procedures and methods that the NSA uses to collect intelligence at home and overseas to ensure that the agency isn’t overstepping its bounds in phone and Internet data collection. The review comes at a time when Congress is set to consider...

New Bill Would End Mass Surveillance

UPDATE: Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner R-Wisc. is introducing a bill that would counteract many of the elements of the U.S. PATRIOT Act that enables the mass collection of data belonging to U.S. citizens. Sensenbrenner’s bill is called the USA FREEDOM Act, a quasi-acronym for Uniting and Strengthening...

Crypto Party, Anti-Surveillance Rally in DC

WASHINGTON — Saturday marked the 12-year anniversary of the initial signing of the controversial USA PATRIOT Act, the anti-terrorism bill signed into law shortly after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, sections of which have allegedly given federal law enforcement the authority to...

FBI arrested 19-Year-old Hacker Who Hacked into Miss Teen USA's Webcam

A College 19-year-old college student and Hacker from Temecula, California has been arrested for hacking the webcams of Miss Teen USA 'Cassidy Wolf' and other women to extort nude photos and videos from them...

FBI arrested 19-Year-old Hacker for Sextortion; allegedly Hacked into Miss Teen USA's Webcam

A College 19-year-old college student and Hacker from Temecula, California has been arrested for hacking the webcams of Miss Teen USA 'Cassidy Wolf' and other women to extort nude photos and videos from them. Earlier this year Cassidy Wolf received an anonymous email in which the sender claimed t...

Major VBulletin based websites are vulnerable to Hackers; Pakistani forums defaced by Indian Hackers

vBulletin is a publishing suite that allows users to create and publish a variety of content, including: forums, blogs, and polls. If you currently use an older version of vBulletin on your website, you might be opening up your site to an attack as some serious security vulnerabilities, which...

Major VBulletin based websites are vulnerable to Hackers; Pakistani forums defaced by Indian Hackers

vBulletin is a publishing suite that allows users to create and publish a variety of content, including: forums, blogs, and polls. If you currently use an older version of vBulletin on your website, you might be opening up your site to an attack as some serious security vulnerabilities, which...

Web security hacks dominate Black Hat USA 2013

The security of the Web is looking a little like Al Bundy right about now look it up kids. Granted Black Hat is fresh on our minds and you always come away from that event less willing to use the Internet, but this year seemed especially bad in terms of new attacks—or new twists on old attacks—th...

Gen. Keith Alexander Black Hat Keynote

When Gen. Keith Alexander, the director of the National Security Agency and chief of U.S. Cyber Command, agreed to deliver the opening keynote at Black Hat USA 2013, he had no idea that by the time he took the stage many of the NSA’s most secret information-collection programs would be public...

Experts Urge ECC crytpo over RSA algorithm

LAS VEGAS – Cryptographic breakthroughs have accelerated in the past six months in areas such as discrete logarithm computations that lead experts to believe that breaking the stalwart RSA algorithm may be in the not-too-distant future. A team of crypto experts today at Black Hat USA 2013 present...