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Companies Make it Too Easy for Thieves to Impersonate Police and Steal Our Data
For years, people have been impersonating police online in order to get companies to hand over incredibly sensitive personal information. Reporting by 404 Media recently revealed that Verizon handed over the address and phone logs of an individual to a stalker pretending to be a police officer who had a PDF of a fake warrant. Worse, the imposter wasn’t particularly convincing. His request was missing a form that is required for search warrants from his state. He used the name of a police officer that did not exist in the department he claimed to be from. And he used a Proton Mail account, which any person online can use, rather than an official government email address.
Likewise, bad actors have used breached law enforcement email accounts or domain names to send fake warrants, subpoenas, or “Emergency Data Requests” (which police can send without judicial oversight to get data quickly in supposedly life or death situations). Impersonating police to get sensitive information from companies isn’t just the realm of stalkers and domestic abusers; according to Motherboard, bounty hunters and debt collectors have also used the tactic.
We have two very big entwined problems. The first is the “collect it all” business model of too many companies, which creates vast reservoirs of personal information stored in corporate data servers, ripe for police to seize and thieves to steal. The second is that too many companies fail to prevent thieves from stealing data by pretending to be police.
Companies have to make it harder for fake “officers” to get access to our sensitive data. For starters, they must do better at scrutinizing warrants, subpoenas, and emergency data requests when they come in. These requirements should be spelled out clearly in a public-facing privacy policy, and all employees who deal with data requests from law enforcement should receive training in how to adhere to these requirements and spot fraudulent requests. Fake emergency data requests raise special concerns, because real ones depend on the discretion of both companies and police—two parties with less than stellar reputations for valuing privacy.
Humboldtin-Fund in oberfränkischem Archiv
“Nie zuvor haben Fachleute so viel Humboldtin auf einen Schlag entdeckt wie nun in einem Archiv in Oberfranken.” Das Archiv ist die Gesteinssammlung des landesamts für Umwelt im bayerischen Hof.
Microsoft: universiteitspersoneel doelwit van aanval met .pdf.lnk-bestand
In Memoriam: Don Ihde (1934-2024)
EFF’s 2024 In/Out List
Since EFF was formed in 1990, we’ve been working hard to protect digital rights for all. And as each year passes, we’ve come to understand the challenges and opportunities a little better, as well as what we’re not willing to accept.
Accordingly, here’s what we’d like to see a lot more of, and a lot less of, in 2024.
in-out-2024.png
IN
1. Affordable and future-proof internet access for all
EFF has long advocated for affordable, accessible, and future-proof internet access for all. We cannot accept a future where the quality of our internet access is determined by geographic, socioeconomic, or otherwise divided lines. As the online aspects of our work, health, education, entertainment, and social lives increase, EFF will continue to fight for a future where the speed of your internet connection doesn’t stand in the way of these crucial parts of life.
2. A privacy first agenda to prevent mass collection of our personal information
Many of the ills of today’s internet have a single thing in common: they are built on a system of corporate surveillance. Vast numbers of companies collect data about who we are, where we go, what we do, what we read, who we communicate with, and so on. They use our data in thousands of ways and often sell it to anyone who wants it—including law enforcement. So whatever online harms we want to alleviate, we can do it better, with a broader impact, if we do privacy first.
3. Decentralized social media platforms to ensure full user control over what we see online
While the internet began as a loose affiliation of universities and government bodies, the digital commons has been privatized and consolidated into a handful of walled gardens. But in the past few years, there's been an accelerating swing back toward decentralization as users are fed up with the concentration of power, and the prevalence of privacy and free expression violations. So, many people are fleeing to smaller, independently operated projects. We will continue walking users through decentralized services in 2024.
4. End-to-end encrypted messaging services, turned on by default and available always
Private communication is a fundamental human right. In the online world, the best tool we have to defend this right is end-to-end encryption. But governments across the world are trying to erode this by scanning for all content all the time. As we’ve said many times, there is no middle ground to content scanning, and no “safe backdoor” if the internet is to remain free and private. Mass scanning of peoples’ messages is wrong, and at odds with human rights.
5. The right to free expression online with minimal barriers and without borders
New technologies and widespread internet access have radically enhanced our ability to express ourselves, criticize those in power, gather and report the news, and make, adapt, and share creative works. Vulnerable communities have also found space to safely meet, grow, and make themselves heard without being drowned out by the powerful. No government or corporation should have the power to decide who gets to speak and who doesn’t.
OUT
1. Use of artificial intelligence and automated systems for policing and surveillance
Predictive policing algorithms perpetuate historic inequalities, hurt neighborhoods already subject to intense amounts of surveillance and policing, and quite simply don’t work. EFF has long called for a ban on predictive policing and we’ll continue to monitor the rapid rise of law enforcement utilizing machine learning. This includes harvesting the data other “autonomous” devices collect and by automating important decision-making processes that guide policing and dictate people’s futures in the criminal justice system.
2. Ad surveillance based on the tracking of our online behaviors
Our phones and other devices process vast amounts of highly sensitive personal information that corporations collect and sell for astonishing profits. This incentivizes online actors to collect as much of our behavioral information as possible. In some circumstances, every mouse click and screen swipe is tracked and then sold to ad tech companies and the data brokers that service them. This often impacts marginalized communities the most. Data surveillance is a civil rights problem, and legislation to protect data privacy can help protect civil rights.
3. Speech and privacy restrictions under the guise of "protecting the children"
For years, government officials have raised concerns that online services don’t do enough to tackle illegal content, particularly child sexual abuse material. Their solution? Bills that ostensibly seek to make the internet safer, but instead achieve the exact opposite by requiring websites and apps to proactively prevent harmful content from appearing on messaging services. This leads to the universal scanning of all user content, all the time, and functions as a 21st-century form of prior restraint—violating the very essence of free speech.
4. Unchecked cross-border data sharing disguised as cybercrime protections
Personal data must be safeguarded against exploitation by any government to prevent abuse of power and transnational repression. Yet, the broad scope of the proposed UN Cybercrime Treaty could be exploited for covert surveillance of human rights defenders, journalists, and security researchers. As the Treaty negotiations approach their conclusion, we are advocating against granting broad cross-border surveillance powers for investigating any alleged crime, ensuring it doesn't empower regimes to surveil individuals in countries where criticizing the government or other speech-related activities are wrongfully deemed criminal.
5. Internet access being used as a bargaining chip in conflicts and geopolitical battles
Given the proliferation of the internet and its use in pivotal social and political moments, governments are very aware of their power in cutting off that access. The internet enables the flow of information to remain active and alert to new realities. In wartime, being able to communicate may ultimately mean the difference between life and death. Shutting down access aids state violence and deprives free speech. Access to the internet shouldn't be used as a bargaining chip in geopolitical battles.
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Koning op werkbezoek bij jubilerende gerechtsdeurwaarders (150 jaar oud)
De Koninklijke Beroepsorganisatie van Gerechtsdeurwaarders (KBvG) bestaat 150 jaar en vierde dit in december met een symposium en feest voor genodigden in Scheveningen. Dit jubileum was ook aanleiding om de koning uit te nodigen. Hij kwam 17 januari op werkbezoek bij Jongejan Wisseborn Gerechtsdeurwaarders in Harderwijk.
Predicaat ‘koninklijk’KBvG-voorzitter Chris Bakhuis was zeer verheugd met dit bijzondere bezoek: “Het predicaat ‘koninklijk’ brengt verplichtingen met zich mee en zo voelt de beroepsgroep dat ook. De gerechtsdeurwaarder brengt immers in naam van de koning een vonnis bij een schuldenaar aan de deur. Dat koninklijke weegt soms zwaar voor de ontvanger. Het is een hele eer om in gesprek te mogen gaan met de koning over ons bijzondere ambt.”
OndernemerschapBij Jongejan Wisseborn werd de koning bijgepraat over de ontwikkelingen binnen de beroepsgroep en de initiatieven die de KBvG hiervoor neemt, en over digitale ontwikkelingen op nationaal en Europees niveau. Hij ging in gesprek over de opleiding tot gerechtsdeurwaarder, de werkverhoudingen, beroepsontwikkeling en het ondernemerschap. Ook keek de koning mee op de werkvloer, waar hij onder meer een demonstratie kreeg van de werking van het Digitaal Beslagregister. Ook kreeg de Koning een inkijk in Schuldenwijzer, de website waarop mensen hun schulden kunnen inzien. Hij was, volgens de KBvG, “onder de indruk van de zorgvuldigheid waarmee de gerechtsdeurwaarders omgaan met de vertrouwelijke informatie”.
SchuldenDe Koning sprak ook met vertegenwoordigers van organisaties waarmee gerechtsdeurwaarders samenwerken om mensen met problematische schulden te helpen, zoals een maatschappelijk werker en een bewindvoerder. Daarbij werd ook duidelijk gemaakt welke rol de gerechtsdeurwaarder in dit proces inneemt. Ook ‘autonomen’ of ‘soevereinen’ kwamen aan bod.
LustrumboekHet werkbezoek werd afgesloten met de overhandiging van het lustrumboek van de KBvG. Dit boek is in eigen beheer gemaakt ter gelegenheid van het 150-jarig bestaan en beschrijft de ontwikkeling die de beroepsgroep heeft doorgemaakt aan de hand van verschillende interviews met oud-bestuurders en gerechtsdeurwaarders. Het eerste exemplaar werd overigens een maand geleden aangeboden aan minister Weerwind (Rechtsbescherming). Voorzitter Bakhuis over het koninklijk bezoek: “We hebben een mooi beeld van de moderne gerechtsdeurwaarder kunnen neerzetten.”
Het bericht Koning op werkbezoek bij jubilerende gerechtsdeurwaarders (150 jaar oud) verscheen eerst op Mr. Online.
Duitse onderzoeker veroordeeld voor gebruik van hardcoded wachtwoord
Duitse onderzoeker veroordeeld na rapporteren van hardcoded wachtwoord
Tweeduizend Ivanti Connect Secure VPN-appliances via zeroday besmet
How Loneliness Is Killing Us: A Primer from Harvard Psychiatrist & Zen Priest Robert Waldinger
In 1966, Paul McCartney famously sang of “all the lonely people,” wondering aloud where they come from. Nearly six decades later, their numbers seem only to have increased; as for their origin, psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and Zen priest Robert Waldinger has made it a longtime professional concern. “Starting in the nineteen fifties, and going all the way through to today, we know that people have been less and less invested in other people,” he says in the Big Think video above. “In some studies, as many as 60 percent of people will say that they feel lonely much of the time,” a feeling “pervasive across the world, across all age groups, all income groups, all demographics.”
“Having an extensive network of friends is no guarantee against loneliness,” writes the late sociologist Ray Oldenburg in The Great Good Place. “Nor does membership in voluntary associations, the ‘instant communities’ of our mobile society, ensure against social isolation and attendant feelings of boredom and alienation. The network of friends has no unity and no home base.” He names as a key factor the disappearance, especially in American life since World War II, of “convenient and open-ended socializing — places where individuals can go without aim or arrangement and be greeted by people who know them and know how to enjoy a little time off.”
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); . -->Oldenburg’s elegy for and defense of “cafés, coffee shops, community centers, general stores, bars,” and other engines of community life, was published in 1989, well before the rise of social media — which Waldinger frames as the latest stage in a process that began with television. As more American homes acquired sets of their own, “there was a decline in investing in our communities. People went out less, they joined clubs less often. They went to houses of worship less often. They invited people over less often.” Then, “the digital revolution gave us more and more screens to look at, and software that was designed specifically to grab our attention, hold our attention, and therefore keep it away from the people we care about.”
We also know, he continues, that “people with strong social bonds are much less likely to die in any given year than people without strong social bonds.” This is a credible claim, given that he happens to direct the now 85-year-long Harvard Study of Adult Development. In 2016, we featured Waldinger’s TED Talk on some of its findings here on Open Culture. Before that, we posted a PBS BrainCraft video that considers the Harvard Study of Adult Development along with other research on the contributing factors to happiness, a body of work that, taken together, points to the importance of love — which, even if it isn’t all you need, is certainly something you need. And thus one more Beatles lyric continues to resonate.
Related content:
New Animation Explains Sherry Turkle’s Theories on Why Social Media Makes Us Lonely
What Are the Keys to Happiness? Lessons from a 75-Year-Long Harvard Study
All You Need is Love: The Keys to Happiness Revealed by a 75-Year Harvard Study
A Guide to Happiness: Alain de Botton Shows How Six Great Philosophers Can Change Your Life
Based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities, language, and culture. His projects include the Substack newsletter Books on Cities, the book The Stateless City: a Walk through 21st-Century Los Angeles and the video series The City in Cinema. Follow him on Twitter at @colinmarshall or on Facebook.