TechEye |  |
- Pirates may be jailed in Blighty
- Verizon loses German contracts to Deutsche-Telcom
- General Alexander accused of selling secrets
- Supremes force you to decrypt
- HP breaks from the Hurd
| Pirates may be jailed in Blighty Posted: 27 Jun 2014 01:45 AM PDT UK Prime Minister David Cameron's plan to turn the UK back to the time when he and his toffy chums ruled is gathering pace. Now it seems that his advisors are not happy with forcing UK ISPs to send their customers warning letters when they pirate movies, music and TV shows. The Prime Minister's IP advisor, Mike Weatherley says it is time to realise that the scheme might fail and it is time to do something more enforceable, including disconnections, fines, jail sentences and transportation to the colonies. We made the last one up. The Digital Economy Act 2010 has been running for four years on and is widely seen as pointless. The idea behind the law was to educate the casual file-sharer about legal alternatives in the hope he or she would change her or his ways. However it did not work because serious file sharers could ignore the rules by going through foreign proxy sites which were untraceable.Casual users were receiving four warnings and then nothing was happening. Prime Minister David Cameron's IP advisor believes that the carrot needs to be backed up by a stick. In a report published yesterday largely detailing the "Follow the Money" approach to dealing with pirate sites, Mike Weatherley the government needed to start thinking now what to do if these notices are ignored by infringers. Weatherley says that while the IP enforcement "stick" is a "last resort option", being able to show "teeth" is important. "Warnings and fines are obvious first steps, with internet access blocking and custodial sentencing for persistent and damaging infringers not to be ruled out in my opinion," he wrote. He is not saying that jail will be immediately on the cards for pirates. Weatherley says that education has to come first, with an emphasis placed on informing consumers that "piracy and similar illegal activities are not in their best long-term interests and are not socially acceptable". The second phase will see the onus placed on industry "to get their product right and attractive" to consumers. However once the government had won the 'hearts and minds' of consumers and provided suitable content, keeps the option of enforcement of copyright law on the table when all else has been exhausted. Prime Minister David Cameron says he will "closely consider" Weatherley's report. Our deep throat tells us that he is currently looking at a bill which will force young unemployed youths to clean chimneys. |
| Verizon loses German contracts to Deutsche-Telcom Posted: 27 Jun 2014 01:43 AM PDT US Telco Verizon, which has spent a fortune lobbying US politicians, must be thoroughly miffed that it has been let down by them. The Germans have told Verizon to sling its hook and it will not get any more lucrative government contracts in that country because of its close connection to the US government. Reports based on disclosures by former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden alleged Washington had conducted mass surveillance in Germany and had even eavesdropped on Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone. Berlin insisted on a "no-spy" deal, but these collapsed after the United States said that since it ruled the world now everyone had to do what they say. Germany launched an overhaul of its internal communications and secure government networks. Booting out US companies as a security risk seems to have been the result. Germany's Interior Ministry said the pressures on networks as well as the risks from highly developed viruses or Trojans are rising. "Furthermore, the ties revealed between foreign intelligence agencies and firms in the wake of the US National Security Agency (NSA) affair show that the German government needs a very high level of security for its critical networks." Verizon has been providing network infrastructure for the German government's Berlin-Bonn network, used for communication between ministries, since 2010, the statement said. The contract is set to expire in 2015. Instead Deutsche Telekom would replace services provided by Verizon. Deutsche Telekom is already responsible for the most sensitive communications between ministries or between the government and German intelligence agencies. Verizon is the second-biggest US telephone company, but the outfit moaned that Verizon Germany was a German company and we comply with German law. It said that Verizon did not receive any demands from Washington in 2013 for data stored in other countries and the US government cannot compel us to produce our customers' data stored in data centres outside the country. If it did, Verizon Germany would challenge that attempt in a court. Earliers this month the Guardian revealed that the FBI and NSA are collecting all call information from Verizon users in the US. It was forcing Verizon to comply using the Patriot Act. |
| General Alexander accused of selling secrets Posted: 27 Jun 2014 01:41 AM PDT There is concern over the pond that former top spook General Keith Alexander might be making a fortune selling state secrets to private companies. If the allegations are true, then it throws into question why it is appropriate for an American to sell state secrets to private enterprise, but lock up those who reveal them as a whistleblower. Alexander was the number one enemy of Edward Snowden who blew the whistle on his organisations spying efforts. After he quit as the head of the NSA and U.S. Cyber Command, Alexander has launched the consulting firm IronNet Cybersecurity. He is apparently offering his security expertise to the banking industry for the fire sale price of $600,000 per month after first asking for $1 million. Democrat Alan Grayson fears that the only think that Alexander has anything useful to offer at that price are national security secrets. Putting it bluntly Alexander can tell the banks which router his spooks stuck the listening devises in. Grayson penned a stiffly worked letter to Alexander and those who might retain him that selling classified information is illegal. "I question how Mr. Alexander can provide any of the services he is offering unless he discloses or misuses classified information, including extremely sensitive sources and methods," Grayson wrote. "Without the classified information he acquired in his former position, he literally would have nothing to offer to you." The story broke in Wired which suggested that the reason that so many big wigs are wanting Snowden jailed is that he is preventing them from making a killing selling state secrets when they retire. |
| Posted: 27 Jun 2014 01:40 AM PDT The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has decided that if a court orders you to decrypt a file you must do so, even if you will end up incriminating yourself. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial ruled that a criminal defendant could be compelled to decrypt the contents of his laptops. The case centres on a lawyer who was arrested in 2009 for allegedly participating in a mortgage fraud scheme. Leon Gelfgatt admitted to Massachusetts state police that he had done work with a company called Baylor Holdings and that he encrypted his communications and the hard drives of all of his computers.He refused to decrypt the drives. The court considered the question of whether the act of entering the password to decrypt the contents of a computer was an act of self-incrimination, thereby violating Gelfgatt's Fifth Amendment rights. However the court decided that simply knowing the password did not imply that Gelfgatt created the documents on the encrypted machines. Nor did it imply that Gelfgatt had sole control of them at all times. The MJSC's ruling is a blow for privacy advocates and others who have asserted the right to refuse to decrypt digital devices. |
| Posted: 27 Jun 2014 01:39 AM PDT The maker of expensive printer ink, HP can finally put the embarrassing antics of its former CEO Mark Hurd firmly in the past. Hurd was dismissed for being creative with his expenses claims while trying to impress a former soft porn star, Jodie Fisher, who later complained he had sexually harassed her. Hurd later went on to be a top manager for Oracle working for his chum Larry Ellison. Some shareholders were miffed and a few took court action over the case. The last one left was a lawsuit accusing the computer maker of securities fraud for misleading shareholders about its commitment to ethics while its chief executive was allegedly sexually harassing a soft porn star. In August 2013, US District Judge Jon Tigar in San Francisco had thrown out an earlier version of the lawsuit, and has now dismissed a revised version that he said failed to address his concerns. The dismissal was with prejudice, meaning the lawsuit cannot be brought again and HP is free. An internal HP probe cleared Hurd of harassment but found that he filed inaccurate expense reports and the board decided he should go. Plaintiffs led by the Retail Wholesale & Department Store Union Local 338 Retirement Fund of Mineola, New York claimed that HP's share price was inflated during the period of Hurd's alleged misconduct. |
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