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Submission + - NSA possibly using loophole for additional unconstitutional surveillance

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: By routing American traffic out of the country using either BGP or DNS attacks, a new research paper posits that the NSA could be using an Executive Order permitting unfiltered foreign data collection to justify thwarting its duty to protect the constitutional rights of American citizens. From a new article:

the lesser-known Executive Order (EO) 12333, which remains solely the domain of the Executive Branch — along with United States Signals Intelligence Directive (USSID) 18, designed to regulate the collection of American's data from surveillance conducted on foreign soil — can be used as a legal basis for vast and near-unrestricted domestic surveillance on Americans.

The legal provisions offered under EO 12333, which the researchers say "explicitly allows for intentional targeting of U.S. persons" for surveillance purposes when FISA protections do not apply, was the basis of the authority that reportedly allowed the NSA to tap into the fiber cables that connected Google and Yahoo's overseas to U.S. data centers.

Submission + - IEEE launches anti-malware services to improve security

Submitted by Aryeh Goretsky
Aryeh Goretsky writes: The IEEE Standards Assocation has launched an Anti-Malware Support Service (AMSS) to help the computer security industry respond more quickly to malware.

The first two services available are a Clean file Metadata Exchange [PDF], to help prevent false positives in anti-malware software, and a Taggant System [PDF] to help prevent software packers from being abused.

Official announcement is here.

Submission + - Biohackers are engineering yeast to make real vegan cheese. No cows needed!

Submitted by backslashdot
backslashdot writes: A collective of biohackers from the San Francisco Bay Area have joined forces to produce the world's first real vegan cheese in baker’s yeast. The aim of the project is to produce a renewable and sustainable, closed-loop food source that will provide the same nutritional value as non-vegan cheese and taste just as great! No cows, cruelty, or animal products needed. Additionally, the project will provide a real cheese for vegans, the lactose intolerant, and those that have food allergies to certain animal-derived milk proteins. A crowdfunding campaign launched on July 1st (today) has already raised nearly 25% towards the funding goal.

Submission + - Austria dumps provider protection, TOR exit nodes illegal (network23.org) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Austria: The operation of TOR exit nodes was declared a criminal offense by a regional criminal court. The ruling of the court affects not only TOR Exit nodes but all servers which could be used for fraud.

Submission + - More lack of accountability from Congress (nationaljournal.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Who says they’re conservatives? The House Ethics committee, run by Republicans, has quietly eliminated the requirement that elected officials list any privately sponsored travel they receive in their annual financial-disclosure forms.

The move, made behind closed doors and without a public announcement by the House Ethics Committee, reverses more than three decades of precedent. Gifts of free travel to lawmakers have appeared on the yearly financial form dating back its creation in the late 1970s, after the Watergate scandal. National Journal uncovered the deleted disclosure requirement when analyzing the most recent batch of yearly filings. “This is such an obvious effort to avoid accountability,” said Melanie Sloan, executive director of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “There’s no legitimate reason. There’s no good reason for it.”

Once again more evidence that we the voters must replace as many of these crooks, from both parties, as we can.

Submission + - Germany's glut of electricity causing prices to plummet

Submitted by AmiMoJo
AmiMoJo writes: Germany is headed for its biggest electricity glut since 2011 as new coal-fired plants start and generation of wind and solar energy increases, weighing on power prices that have already dropped for three years. From December capacity will be at 117% of peak demand. The benchmark German electricity contract has slumped 36% since the end of 2010.

“The new plants will run at current prices, but they won’t cover their costs” said Ricardo Klimaschka, a power trader at Energieunion GmbH. Lower prices “leave a trail of blood in our balance sheet” according to Bernhard Guenther, CFO at RWE, Germany’s biggest power producer. Wind and solar’s share of installed German power capacity will rise to 42% by next year from 30% in 2010. The share of hard coal and lignite plant capacity will drop to 28% from 32%.

Submission + - Microsoft Suspending "Patch Tuesday" emails?

Submitted by outofluck70
outofluck70 writes: Got an email today from Microsoft, text is below. They are no longer going to send out emails regarding patches, you have to use RSS or keep visiting their security sites. They blame "governmental policies" as the reason. What could the real reason be? Anybody in the know?

From the email:

********************************************************************
Title: Microsoft Security Notifications
Issued: June 27, 2014
********************************************************************

Notice to IT professionals:

As of July 1, 2014, due to changing governmental policies concerning the issuance of automated electronic messaging, Microsoft is suspending the use of email notifications that announce the
following:

* Security bulletin advance notifications
* Security bulletin summaries
* New security advisories and bulletins
* Major and minor revisions to security advisories and bulletins

In lieu of email notifications, you can subscribe to one or more of the RSS feeds described on the Security TechCenter website.

For more information, or to sign up for an RSS feed, visit the Microsoft Technical Security Notifications webpage at http://technet.microsoft.com/s....

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Gee, Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.

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