What Is a Keyword Search Warrant?
Law enforcement agencies in the United States have been obtaining keyword search warrants requiring Google, Microsoft and Yahoo to produce personally identifiable information about users who searched for a particular term or 'keyword' during a specific period of time. How often the courts have approved of keyword warrants is a ...
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The Epik Hack and the Return of Anonymous
Cyberespionage. Ransomware heists. Spyware. And hacking campaigns by government agencies to advance strategic interests. The frequency of cybersecurity breaches over the past year has only been eclipsed by their severity. Then there was the re-emergence of hacktivism - activist hackers looking to make a political score. Hacktivism returned to the ...
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Is Apple’s Siri an Illegal Wiretap?
Intelligent virtual assistants are computer programs that perform functions based on a command or question. They are often called software agents because they act for users in an agency relationship. Some virtual assistants interpret human speech and respond by way of synthesized voices. Others work in text or by uploading ...
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Netflix Fails Privacy Test
Streaming is the method of viewing video or listening to audio content on an internet-connected device without downloading the media file. It is the continuous transmission of a video or audio file from a server to a subscriber. Anyone with an internet connection can watch movies or make a video ...
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The Pegasus Spyware Scandal
Human rights experts at the United Nations issued a statement last week calling for a global moratorium on the sale and transfer of surveillance technology until regulations are in place that guarantee its use in compliance with international human rights standards. The call came against the backdrop of a sensational ...
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Chinese Prosecutor Indicted in Extralegal Operation Fox Hunt
Operation Fox Hunt is a global covert program administered by the People's Republic of China that uses threats and intimidation to target dissidents in the Chinese diaspora under the guise of a campaign to repatriate corrupt Communist Party members to face criminal charges. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service has said ...
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The Ethics of Voice Cloning
Digital cloning is a technology that uses deep learning algorithms to manipulate audio, photographs and videos making it difficult to distinguish what is fake from what is real. Although the technology has been used for beneficial educational purposes, such as synthesizing audio books without human readers, concerns continue to emerge ...
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Privacy and Genetic Genealogy Sites
Investigative genetic genealogy is a technique used by law enforcement to identify suspects in criminal investigations. It involves uploading a crime scene DNA profile to one or more genetic genealogy databases with the object of identifying a suspect's relatives and, eventually, locating the suspect in the family tree. The prospect ...
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Machine Learning and Mass Manipulation
What are the consequences when machine learning techniques are brought to bear on the individual? Not only is large scale manipulation possible, it can be achieved with relative ease. By manipulating what people are exposed to, content providers can achieve targeted influence on an individual's emotional state, political leanings and ...
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The Colonial Pipeline Cyberattack
On May 7, 2021, Colonial Pipeline Co. sustained a ransomware cyberattack disabling the computerized equipment that manages its pipeline. The pipeline carries gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from Texas to New York and services much of the eastern seaboard. It was the largest cyberattack on an oil infrastructure target in ...
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