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Submission + - IBM Releases New Compilers for Linux on Power Systems (ibm.com)

Submitted by Dwayne_M
Dwayne_M writes: December 12 IBM has made available new compiler products that generate highly optimized code that leverages the POWER8 processors in Power Systems running Ubuntu 14.04 for IBM POWER8, Ubuntu 14.10 for IBM POWER8, or SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 (SLES 12) for Power.

Submission + - Telephony Metadata Collection Program

Submitted by Presto Vivace
Presto Vivace writes: Solicitation Number: ODNI-RFI-14-01

Agency: Office of the Director of National Intelligence Office: ADNI Acquisition Technology & Facilities Location: AT&F Buying Office ... ... Synopsis: Added: Feb 05, 2014 4:31 pm The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) is investigating whether existing commercially available capabilities can provide for a new approach to the government's telephony metadata collection program under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act, without the government holding the metadata. Responses to this RFI will be reviewed and may help to shape the framework for the future telephony metadata program to include the potential for non-government maintenance of that data.

Submission + - Attorney General Won't Force New York Times Reporter to Reveal Source (nbcnews.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Attorney General Eric Holder has decided against forcing a reporter for the New York Times to reveal the identity of a confidential source, according to a senior Justice Department official. The reporter, James Risen, has been battling for years to stop prosecutors from forcing him to name his source for a book that revealed a CIA effort to sabotage Iran's nuclear weapons program.

The government wanted Risen's testimony in the trial of a former CIA official, Jeffrey Sterling, accused of leaking classified information.

Submission + - Comcast Sued For Turning Home Wi-Fi Routers Into Public Hotspots

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: Benny Evangelista reports at the San Francisco Chronicle that a class-action suit has been filed in District Court in San Francisco on behalf of Toyer Grear and daughter Joycelyn Harris claiming that Comcast is “exploiting them for profit” by using their home router as part of a nationwide network of public hotspots. Comcast is trying to compete with major cell phone carriers by creating a public Xfinity WiFi Hotspot network in 19 of the country’s largest cities by activating a second high-speed Internet channel broadcast from newer-model wireless gateway modems that residential customers lease from the company. Although Comcast has said its subscribers have the right to disable the secondary signal, the suit claims the company turns the service on without permission and places “the costs of its national Wi-Fi network onto its customers" and quotes a test conducted by Philadelphia networking technology company Speedify that concluded the secondary Internet channel will eventually push “tens of millions of dollars per month of the electricity bills needed to run their nationwide public Wi-Fi network onto consumers.” The suit also says “the data and information on a Comcast customer’s network is at greater risk” because the hotspot network “allows strangers to connect to the Internet through the same wireless router used by Comcast customers.”

Submission + - Doxxing defense

Submitted by Presto Vivace
Presto Vivace writes: Remove your personal info from data brokers

Unfortunately, doxxers don't have to work very hard to find a victim's personal info. A number of free and paid services known as data brokers create profiles of vast numbers of individuals based on aggregated data from business directories, social media and other public records. With a specific target in mind, all a doxxer has to do is search one or more of these services to find the details he or she wants.

More bad news: There are hundreds of data brokers, not all of which offer opt-out processes. (Exceptions are made for state-mandated protected groups, such as sexual assault survivors in California.) Removing yourself from all those that do can be a Sisyphean task, but managing your data with just the following 11 can be accomplished in an hour or two.

Submission + - Why does Google Maps need to track who I'm calling on my cell phone? 5

Submitted by cyanman
cyanman writes: I see the latest update to Google maps for Android wants permission to monitor phone numbers I talk to on my phone?

Specifically the new permissions for v9.1.2 (Dec 5 2014) require:
Maps also needs access to:
"Allows the app to determine the phone number and Device ID's, whether a call is active, and the remote number connected by a call."

As I see this, you give Google carte blanche to monitor and record who you talk to on your phone. Maybe this is while you are connected to Google Maps, but it is not restricted by the terms I read here. WTF? The least invasive thing I can think of here is that Google wants to start leveraging the numbers you call for marketing purposes. As if the fact that I spoke to someone on my hone means they want Google tracking them too.

Looking at from Google Play the update (or maybe just Maps) has been downloaded over a billion times. I'm sure that 99.99% of the folks never read a thing and just click the "gimme free update please" button, but surely I'm not the only person foolish enough to ask how much arm twisting the NSA had to do to get Google to monitor who I call on my phone within Google Maps.

Submission + - Angela Merkel calls for end to net neutrality 1

Submitted by Presto Vivace
Presto Vivace writes: Cory Doctorow of BoingBoing reports:

The German Chancellor — whose party is closely aligned with the telcoms sector — says she wants a two-tier Internet; on the "fast" Internet, carriers will be allowed to slow down access to services that haven't paid bribes for "premium" carriage; on the "regular" Internet, ISPs will just give you the data you ask for.

Submission + - At the intersection of cyber crime and financial crime.

Submitted by Presto Vivace
Presto Vivace writes: Computer hackers taking aim at insider information at health care companies

A surgically precise e-mail hacking effort is targeting health care companies in an effort to steal corporate secrets for insider stock trading.

In a world where everyone with a billion dollars acts as if the laws do not apply to them, there is very little possibility of cyber security.

Submission + - White House wants you to help write an opengov playbook for agencies

Submitted by Presto Vivace
Presto Vivace writes: White House crowdsources open-government playbook

The Obama administration is "walking the walk" on government transparency by asking the public to help write a guide for agencies on ways to engage the public.

"This resource reflects the commitment of the government and civic partners to measurably improve participation programs, and is designed using the same inclusive principles that it champions," wrote Corinna Zarek, White House senior adviser for open government, and Justin Herman, SocialGov lead for the General Services Administration, in a blog post announcing the Public Participation Playbook.

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