Researchers from the University of Toronto's amazing Citizen Lab (previously) have published a new report detailing the latest tactics from the autocratic government of Ethiopia, "the world's first turnkey surveillance… Read the rest of the article: Israeli firm Cyberbit illegally spied on behalf of Ethiopia's despots, then stored all their stolen data on an unencrypted, world-readable website
If you buy one of those intrinsically insecure, always-on "smart speakers" from Google, Amazon, Apple or other players, you're installing a constantly listening presence in your home that by design… Read the rest of the article: (Virtually) No one should ever own an Echo or any other "voice assistant" product
The EU's new blacklist of 17 money-laundering financial secrecy states includes South Korea, Mongolia, Namibia, Panama, Trinidad & Tobago, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, and also includes a long-list… Read the rest of the article: Treasure Islands: EU publishes a blacklist of 17 tax-havens and a long-list of runner-up tax avoidance jurisdictions
This week, German authorities will introduce a law that will allow law enforcement agencies to order companies to insert back doors into their products to assist in law enforcement queries;… Read the rest of the article: Germany's proposed anti-cryptography bill: backdoors and hack-backs
Canada has a grotesquely concentrated telcoms sector and a grotesquely concentrated media sector, and thanks to a series of extremely anticompetitive mergers, the two sectors are one in the same.
Multiple White House sources have told reporters that the Trump administration has been negotiating with Erik Prince (founder of the war-crimes plagued mercenary firm Blackwater; brother to pyramid-scheme billionaire/Education Secretary… Read the rest of the article: Sources in Trump's White House report meetings to assemble a network of deniable wetwork/black ops spooks to target Trump's political enemies in the US and elsewhere
The Belfer Center at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government has published a nonpartisan Cybersecurity Campaign Playbook, as part of its Defending Digital Democracy project (previously, "designed to give you… Read the rest of the article: A cybersecurity playbook for political campaigns
Munktiki's $20 Octopus mug comes in red or purple, and nicely complements their Bell-Buoy mug (sold out, but we can hope for a resupply!). (via Super Punch)
Game designer Chad Walker is crowdfunding his latest game: SIGMATA: This Signal Kills Fascists, shooting for USD10,000 in pre-orders to produce "a cyberpunk tabletop role-playing game about ethical insurgency against… Read the rest of the article: Kickstarting an antifascist cyberpunk RPG
Tim O'Reilly has his finger on the pulse of technology and the people who make it in a way that is unmatched by anyone in the world; the publisher of the world's best-loved computer books, the host of technology's best-loved conferences, the convenor of the most important conversations about tech and its people, O'Reilly is literally uniquely situated to understand the arc, trajectory, and possible destinations of technology and its impact on real people, which is what separates his breakout business book, WTF?: What's the Future and Why It's Up to Us, from rest of the field.
Into the blue again after the money's gone.
Pharmadouchebro/Larval Trump Martin Shkreli was convicted of securities fraud in August and then sent to jail in September for putting a bounty on a lock of Hillary Clinton's hair.
Goldstone Books, an online used-book seller in Wales, spruced up their offices with this gorgeous reception desk skinned with books. (via Blog on the Bookshelf)
The Data Security and Breach Notification Act (S2179) was introduced by three Senate Commerce Committee Democrats, Bill Nelson [D-FL], Richard Blumenthal [D-CT] and Tammy Baldwin [D-WI] in the wake of… Read the rest of the article: Democratic Senators propose federal breach disclosure law with 5-year prison sentences for covering up data-loss
Tom Colella worked for 20 years as an Instrument Electrical Tradesperson for Aroona Alliance in Western Australia, until he was fired in on Sept 20, 2016 for sneaking off to… Read the rest of the article: Australian government upholds dismissal of sneaky golfer who shielded his employer-issued tracking device in a chip-bag
Last month, James "New Aesthetic" Bridle published an influential essay exploring the prolific and disturbing video-spam that had come to dominate Youtube Kids, in which seemingly algorithmically generated videos endlessly… Read the rest of the article: #Elsagate: a subreddit that's sleuthing out the weird videos of Youtube Kids
This week, global finance criminals Morgan Stanley published a report warning investors that a victory for Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party would be worse for its fortunes than even… Read the rest of the article: Jeremy Corbyn to Morgan Stanley: you're goddamned right we're a threat to you
This year's Cards Against Humanity secret Xmas surprise has begun, and on day one, they've delighted buyers (I'm one!) by sending us a share certificate for an infinitesimal fraction of… Read the rest of the article: Cards Against Humanity purchases border territory to stop Trump's wall, gets legal advice and builds trebuchet, to make it stick
Matthew Combs, a Fordham University Louis Calder Center Biological Field Station grad student worked with colleagues from Fordham and the Providence College Department of Biology to sequence the genomes of… Read the rest of the article: New York's rat population has genetically diverged into "uptown" and "downtown" subpopulation
Christmas is under attack! The Satanic Temple was one of the many faith organizations who applied to put a tree at the record-breaking Christmas in the Park event in San… Read the rest of the article: Christmas is under attack: vandals steal Satanic Temple's tree-topper from San Jose's Christmas in the Park event
