Month: March 2014 | Hamilton.jerry

March 31, 2014

More NSA Treachery Discovered By Academics

NSA Worse Than Previously Thought

Just when many believe the US National Security Agency (NSA) could not reach any lower in world judgment about NSA ethics, another report came out today shedding new light on NSA treachery and double dealing. https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/01/30-1

Most in the cyber security field have heard already about how RSA, a well-respected pioneer of cyber security through development of encryption tech, had developed a now-useless cryptology for NSA that became the default software used by most commercial computer programs. That cryptology used software into which NSA software engineers placed a backdoor, enabling NSA to hack the majority of computer programs and related communications worldwide just a few years ago. http://www.newsweek.com/exclusive-nsa-infiltrated-rsa-security-more-deeply-thought-study-238906

Now the picture looks worse. Several professors from different universities, including from John Hopkins, Wisconsin, and Illinois, discovered additional NSA tools in the RSA program that accelerated the hacking efficiency by a factor of more than 10,000. That means NSA had no real challenge getting around all RSA security measures very rapidly to decipher all Internet traffic of those using that predominant RSA program. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/31/us-usa-security-nsa-rsa-idUSBREA2U0TY20140331

Based on HFS surveys and analysis, many today find the behavior of Edward Snowden, who disclosed and continues disclosing to the world data he illegally took from the NSA while working there as a contractor, committed unforgivable treason against his nation. At the same time, those surveyed hold the NSA equally at fault for NSA’s deceptive, abusive, illegal spying domestically and abroad. Combining the bad behavior of both Snowden and NSA, the US has lost credibility in the hearts and minds of its allies, leaving open the door to its competitors for control of the Internet.

What do you think?

March 30, 2014

Apple Litigation: Add Class Action to Conviction on Anti-trust Price Fixing Case

From early reports, no one believed Apple and its gang of merry publishers would lose a law suit over ebook price fixing. http://articles.latimes.com/2012/apr/14/business/la-fi-apple-antitrust-20120414 An early cadre of experts confidently predicted Apple victory. http://venturebeat.com/2012/04/12/apple-price-fixing/ With righteous indignation, Apple demanded its day in court. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/19/apple-trial-ebook_n_1435662.html

Most expected some relatively minor back room settlements, at the worst. http://www.wired.com/business/2012/03/justice-dept-threatens-apple-publishers-with-price-fixing-lawsuits-report/

That was, until publishers fell away paying rather hefty settlements. http://www.techradar.com/us/news/computing/apple/apple-left-alone-to-fight-ebook-price-fixing-suit-as-macmillan-settles-1130485

Then Apple and every publisher remaining in the case were found guilty of Sherman antitrust violations. Apple paid a $166 M fine. And Wiki padded its archives with rich details about Apple’s ongoing litigation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc._litigation and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Apple_Inc.

Today Apple settled parallel price fixing charges in Europe. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/electronics/9217264/Apple-offers-to-settle-ebook-price-fixing-row-in-Europe-but-will-fight-case-in-the-US.html

But there’s still more to come in this story. The US District Court decision to place a monitor to oversee Apple’s pricing and management of publishers (read more at http://hamiltonfinanceservices.com/?p=1042) received approval from the US Court of Appeals. Now that monitor stands fully in place and at the ready to keep (untrustworthy) Apple away from more ebook price-fixing.

The result of the “radical monitoring decision” (as Apple called it, in its legal brief to appeal the monitoring decision) suggests bad news for Apple as the class action lawsuit for price fixing of its ebooks passes another legal hurdle. Instead of just the federal and numerous state attorney generals hounding Apple Inc., hundreds of angry customers have been certified to proceed with a class action case this coming July or so. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/29/us-apple-ebooks-idUSBREA2R1Y120140329

The now-certified class for the big suit makes Apple’s earlier $166 M settlement for price fixing look trivial, say HFS analysts. These analysts expect Apple to fight tooth and nail over every legal inch, and no one today can predict where that combat might lead, although early indications suggest that US District Judge Denise Cote, who now sits on the class action case, has already demonstrated both her grasp of the legal complexities and her disdain for Apple’s lack of contrition. HFS will continue reporting on this ‘made for bloggers’ legal pageantry as the parade progresses.

As far as you can tell, who will prevail in the end? Customers, Apple, US and European governments? What do you think?

March 28, 2014

Journalists Targets of Government-Sponsored Cyber Attacks

Journalists, Unite! Government-Sponsored Hackers Are Out to Get You

Google security engineers presented a paper on cyber attack priorities worldwide at a Black Hat conference of hackers in Singapore late last week, and the content of that paper has recently been elaborated upon through interviews with two of those engineers. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/28/us-media-cybercrime-idUSBREA2R0EU20140328

If you’re a regular blogger or you work in a journalist organization, take note! You have become the number 1 target of government-sponsored hackers from Syria, Russia, China, and dozens of similar sources. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL7RH_GA9FA

Many hack attacks go unreported, but according to the Google gurus, already reports from the most prominent news centers have hit, including reports from Forbes, the Financial Times, and the New York Times. http://www.dnaindia.com/world/report-journalists-media-under-attack-from-hackers-google-researchers-1972976

Reasons for non-reporting go beyond protection of reputation to include simply lacking sophistication to recognize the attack. http://www.zdnet.com/unreported-cyberattacks-not-just-due-to-reputation-concerns-2062304140/

Reasons for targeting journalists of all ilks take no great leaps of logic to discern. The New York Times, for example, spent journalistic capital reporting on Anonymous over the past two years. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/a/anonymous_internet_group/ And the Times also took time to cover extensively the discovery of long-term Chinese hacking. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/31/technology/chinese-hackers-infiltrate-new-york-times-computers.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Journalists obviously stand among other targets already known in security circles, such as Yahoo, which suffered a massive attack against a wide array of email accounts recently. http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/01/mass-hack-attack-on-yahoo-mail-accounts-prompts-password-reset/ Or NSA system administrators. http://www.matthewaid.com/post/80250413134/nsas-computer-hackers-have-designated-system

HFS analysts note that Google’s engineers, well respected in cyber security circles, spend their careers learning about the latest cyber threats, so bloggers, including HFS itself, must learn quickly to incorporate security habits in daily journalistic routines. All cyber citizens will face new threats to security as the infant Internet learns to walk.

What do you think?

March 27, 2014

YouTube Next Internet Shutdown in Turkey

Turkey’s Telecom Authority Blocks YouTube

After Turkey’s telecommunications authority TIB blocked Twitter last week, many Turkey watchers have wondered when the next TIB block might hit. Today YouTube in Turkey reports that its users there cannot access the service. TIB confirms that it took “an administrative measure” against YouTube. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/27/us-turkey-youtube-idUSBREA2Q1A420140327

Google, the owner of YouTube, began yesterday to investigate user complaints of no access to YouTube and today the company confirmed that YouTube is down in Turkey. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/27/us-turkey-youtube-google-idUSBREA2Q1GF20140327

Google has assured all of its users in Turkey that from the company’s perspective, they have done all that they can do to provide user access and the problem has nothing to do with their technology. However, late last week Google refused to cooperate with Turkish authorities requesting that it voluntarily take down YouTube videos critical of Turkish government corruption. So Google likely expected the TIB action. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304756104579453701510620372

Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan claimed yesterday that micro-blogging constitutes “the worst menace to society.” In particular, he chastises the “robot army” for launching cyber attacks against him for political reasons. https://www.vocativ.com/world/turkey-world/turkeys-leader-nearly-banned-twitter-bot-army/

HFS analysts opine that more Internet offenders will likely face future government sanctions, not only in Turkey, but in other political enclaves where free expression faces government controls and censorship. Turkey demonstrates the Internet’s dependency on political connections.

To further illustrate HFS’s point, its analysts note the rapidly disintegrating Ukraine outsourcing business based around computer program developers and project managers. Political unrest tied to Russian military actions has destroyed the economic boom just last year identified as the fourth largest outsourcing operation on the planet. http://www.vocativ.com/world/ukraine-world/ukraines-booming-sector-jeopardy-amid-political-instability-war/

HFS analysts argue that without true economic, political, cultural, and technical independence from all governments, the Internet must evolve into a planet-wide patchwork ultimately controlled by political factions.

What do you think?

March 26, 2014

Can ICANN keep control?

ICANN Foundation Foments Future Flux

NSA cyber spying fallout that pushed China and Russia proposals to take over Internet foundations now performed through the US Department of Commerce’s contract with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has fomented further discussion. Public Broadcasting Services (PBS) news anchor Judy Woodward interviewed present and former ICANN leaders to discuss coming changes. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/who-should-oversee-the-web/

HFS initiated this conversation in a recent article, and now attention to the subject has reached higher levels. From the New York Times discussion to the Washington Post arguments, across the US pundits have raised an alarm. This week Woodward started with a quote from former US president, Bill Clinton, who opines predictably that other governments want to gag the Internet, and quickly moved to more substantive discussions from the current and the former leaders of ICANN, Fadi Chehade and Vint Cerf, along with Randolph May, founder of a free-market-oriented think tank called the Free State Foundation. In essence, they repeated the HFS report from last week, that China, Russia, and Iran want to take control of the Internet through a UN committee, and the US resists that plan, but from a weakened position as the NSA spy scandal has unfolded and continues to unfold. ICANN itself has kept the conversation alive through its website at this link: http://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-11jan14-en.htm

Numerous other sites have offered additional opinions, but the central point remains that no one knows the future of the Internet except that the US shot itself in the foot with its NSA scandal, which will probably cause the Internet to change…somehow. No one has any clear thoughts about just how to make the Internet better for everyone else.

What do you think?

March 25, 2014

Sleeping Computers Support Science

Virtual Super Computing Cracks Protein Model for Cancer

Using 239,000 private computers located in homes across the world, scientists have formed an accurate model of how Src Kinase folds, the protein associated with growing cancerous tumors. The private computer network, a virtual super computer known in computer science as a distributed computational platform, operated under the Stanford University program called Folding@Home generated over 33 petaflops of computing power to produce the first ever model of the target cancer protein. http://txchnologist.com/post/80690503190/200-000-computers-tapped-to-crack-cancer-protein

The model of Src Kinase protein had never been made before due to the complexity of computations that required hundreds of hours of expensive computer access. Volunteers provided online access to their private computers during times of non-use, as an alternative to unavailable or unaffordable computer resources. https://folding.stanford.edu

Analysts at HFS say that future science breakthroughs will likely depend more heavily on private resources, as has been discussed by HFS analysts in other articles. Nonetheless, use of private but sleeping systems appears to offer a novel way to fund expensive computer time through private donation. These analysts wonder aloud whether such donations might be tax deductible for some people.

What do you think?

March 25, 2014

SolarCoin Pays Homeowners Digital Coins For Sending Extra Solar Electric Energy to the Grid

Turning Solar Energy into SolarCoins for the Environment

You’ve heard of solar electric energy, and you’ve heard of cryptocoins such as Bitcoin. But have you heard of generating digital money by generating solar electric energy back to the grid? That’s the pitch of SolarCoin, a form of digital currency paid when registered members send extra energy from their solar cells back to the grid. http://txchnologist.com/post/80589093058/digital-currency-looks-to-charge-up-solar-electricity

Sounds counter intuitive for someone to pay for you to generate solar electricity and send it, not to them but to the grid, which already pays standard money for that energy in most places as a matter of law. http://solarcoin.org

The promise of the organizers of SolarCoin is that for the next 40 years, any residential home owner signed up, large or small generator, will be paid one SolarCoin per megawatt of power they can document that has been returned to the grid, regardless of whether someone else, such as an energy company, pays for surplus returned to the grid. http://solarcoin.org/faq-frequently-asked-questions/

Analysts at HFS say the deal gives incentive to only those already interested in investing in solar electric equipment but who need a small push to take the next step. No guarantees can be offered for the future of any digital currency, including SolarCoin, but if the coins help produce more electricity at homes, the SolarCoin Foundation wants to help. That sounds like a good cause, to us.

What do you think?

March 25, 2014

Alaska Petition To Secede and Join Russia Sounds Incredible

Alaska Up for Russian Repatriation?

Crimea moves daily towards its status as part of Russia, not Ukraine, despite European and US protests and punitive actions. Russia’s justification remains today: We must protect our Russian family wherever they may be.

So if Alaskans petition for repatriation back to Russia because a few thousand signatures appear on a White House website, will Russia be tempted to move against the US? http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2014/03/24/Alaska-petition-seeking-secession-back-to-Russia-gets-10000-signatures-in-three-days/4791395684800/

Sounds crazy, right? Despite Alaska’s very small Russian ethnic population, about 1 percent, over 17,000 signatures on http://WhiteHouse.gov have registered so far on a petition to give Alaska back to Russia. http://www.vocativ.com/culture/society/just-crimea-alaskans-want-join-russia/

When Czar Alexander II, desperate for funds in 1867, agreed to sell Alaska to the US for $7.2 M, no one then seemed to complain. Yet, today, whether because ethnic Russians in Alaska truly want repatriation to the largest country on the planet or because more mysterious forces have started pushing, something weird in Alaska has been uncovered as the ice thaws with the coming Spring. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska

Perhaps one source of the repatriation push arises from disillusioned Christians in Alaska, if Godlike Productions prophecies can be believed. http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message602788/pg1

Others accuse Palin or her sympathizers. http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/2014/03/petition-to-have-alaska-secede-back-to.html

Analysts at HFS say that the originator of the petition for Alaska to secede from the US to join the Russian Federation, “unnamed Anchorage resident,” sparks many imaginations. The HFS favorite is rabid bots unleashed by megalomaniac Putin activists. However, from a rational standpoint, HFS suggests that reaching the required number of signatures, 100,000, by 20 April 2014 seems a long way away, and that date gives anti-secession activists time to find out who is really behind the big push.

What do you think?

March 24, 2014

Religious Freedom verses Right to Birth Control Put to Test Tomorrow in US Supreme Court

Tomorrow for 90 minutes, the US Supreme Court will hear cases that question whether business owners may, based on their religious beliefs, opt out of Obama-care provisions that require employers to provide health insurance that includes birth control such as the day after pill and sterilization services. To some, it will be one of this year’s biggest legal events in the US. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/24/us-usa-court-contraception-idUSBREA2N1HZ20140324

All seats in the small marble venue have been reserved for lawyers that represent dozens of businesses in support of the two small businesses at the heart of the case. One of the businesses is a family owned conglomerate consisting of Christian bookstores plus several franchises of Hobby Lobby Inc. an arts and crafts retailer. The family owners all claim evangelical Christian beliefs. The other case combined with the first was brought to court by a Pennsylvania family made up of a couple and their three sons, all of whom profess to be Mennonites, and who own Conestoga Wood Specialties, a wood crafts shop and supplier. http://vitaminw.co/news/supreme-court-hears-cases-on-mandatory-birth-control-coverage

The business owners argue that providing the legally mandated morning after pill is tantamount to abortion and that sterilization also violates their religious faiths. Other cases related to this issue also have been placed on hold pending the outcome of tomorrow’s case, which will likely produce a decision by June this year. http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2014/01/02/315899.htm

HFS analysts note that impact on business owners may not be as significant as the impact on Obama-care, as more cases arise to chip away at the comprehensive health care law. For example, on the same day arguments will be heard about the birth control case, another potentially more far-reaching case about federal subsidies will also be heard. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/03/24/the-contraception-case-is-big-but-another-challenge-could-really-hurt-obamacare/

With so many important US Supreme Court decisions pending with impact on Obama-care, uncertainty over the health care law increases, with myriad economic impacts. What do you think?