Happy Reading
Guardian launches SecureDrop system for whistleblowers to share files
SecureDrop platform allows sources to submit documents and data while avoiding most common forms of online tracking
Access the Guardian’s SecureDrop system here
Details of Britain’s covert surveillance programme – including the location of a clandestine British base tapping undersea cables in the Middle East
The secret British spy base is part of a programme codenamed “CIRCUIT” and also referred to as Overseas Processing Centre 1 (OPC-1). It is located at Seeb, on the northern coast of Oman, where it taps in to various undersea cables passing through the Strait of Hormuz into the Persian/Arabian Gulf. Seeb is one of a three site GCHQ network in Oman, at locations codenamed “TIMPANI”, “GUITAR” and “CLARINET”. TIMPANI, near the Strait of Hormuz, can monitor Iraqi communications. CLARINET, in the south of Oman, is strategically close to Yemen.  British national telco BT, referred to within GCHQ and the American NSA under the ultra-classified codename “REMEDY”, and Vodafone Cable (which owns the former Cable & Wireless company, aka “GERONTIC”) are the two top earners of secret GCHQ payments running into tens of millions of pounds annually.
Chester Nez, last of the World War II Navajo ‘code talkers, ‘ passes away quietly at 93
A Day at the Miami Beach Cyberarms Fair
Still reeling from Heartbleed, OpenSSL suffers from crypto bypass flaw
There’s a Security Gap at the Capitol. And It’s as Troublesome as the One at Navy Yard.
Fun fact of the week on the  State of the World
South Africa ranks number 1 out of 148 countries in strength of auditing and reporting standards, according to the Global Competitiveness Report 2013/2014. Our banks rank 3rd behind Canada and New Zealand, the Swiss banks rank 28th.
“JOHANNESBURG – South Africa is at risk of a credit ratings downgrade in the  immediate future, as poor economic data provides little hope for improvement  in its dual current account and fiscal deficits, Standard Bank warned on  Thursday.”
Sleep’s memory role discovered
US Secret Service seeks Twitter sarcasm detector
Google’s Larry Page slates ‘risk averse’ education system
An open letter from the Google letter slates the iterative approach of the tech industry and says education should encourage risk takers and ‘big thinkers’
How activity trackers remove our rights to our most intimate data
Are we happy to allow companies to gather details of every heartbeat and minute of sleep, then deny us access to that data?
Internet users cannot be sued for browsing the web, ECJ rules
After a five-year case, the European court of justice has ruled that copies of web pages made in the course of browsing the internet do not infringe copyright law
Flaw Lets Hackers Control Electronic Highway Billboards
CCSW 2014: The ACM Cloud Computing Security Workshop
November 7, 2014, The Scottsdale Plaza Resort, Scottsdale, Arizona, USA.
BT and Vodafone among telecoms companies passing details to GCHQ
Fears of customer backlash over breach of privacy as firms give GCHQ unlimited access to their undersea cables
Vodafone reveals existence of secret wires that allow state surveillance
Wires allow agencies to listen to or record live conversations, in what privacy campaigners are calling a ‘nightmare scenario’
Vodafone feels Edward Snowden effect with surveillance revelations Documents released by Vodafone show the level of collaboration between telecom companies and the surveillance agencies.
Transparency on the part of Vodafone only goes so far. It has not yet clarified or even confirmed its participation in Tempora, GCHQ’s tapping of the network of cables which carry the world’s phone calls and internet traffic.
Without Snowden, it is hard to believe that one of the world’s biggest telecom companies would be publishing details about warrant requests, calling for increased transparency and urging legislative reform to bring surveillance into line with the internet age.
NSA reform bill finds few allies before Senate intelligence committee
Reform advocates, tech leaders and NSA defenders criticise bill as neither adequately defending privacy rights nor national security
2nd Circ. Backs Softer FTAIA Limits In Foxconn Win
Complete Corruption!
Appeals court tells judge to stop weighing in on Citigroup mortgage case
An appeals court overruled a judge who questioned a settlement, giving the regulators and banks power to cooperate
– Dogged journalism from The American Lawyer recently confirmed that the SEC was indeed working closely with banks to limit their securities fraud exposure – sweeping dozens of deals into settlements that looked like they were covering only one or two. That usually meant the banks could pay less in fines.   Rakoff, the district court judge assigned to approve the SEC-Citi consent decree, apparently smelled a rat.   He denied the Citigroup settlement, arguing that the fine was “pocket change” for a bank of Citi’s size and saying that he had not been provided with the relevant facts to “exercise even a modest degree of independent judgment”.
Using a standard that enables judges to reject consent decrees if they are not “fair, reasonable, adequate and in the public interest”, Rakoff rebelled against rubber-stamping the deal. He refused to, in his words, “become a mere handmaiden to a settlement privately negotiated on the basis of unknown facts”.
The Justice Department risks losing big fish of financial crime by chasing whales
The SEC and FBI lack the resources to pursue every insider trading case, and should pick their battles before pursuing a giant
Los Angeles sues big banks for predatory mortgages but unlikely to win
Minority communities have long been targets for predatory lenders. Los Angeles is suing JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Bank of America, but the city isn’t trying to help homeowners
U.S. Marshals Seize Local Cops’ Cell Phone Tracking Files in Extraordinary Attempt to Keep Information From Public
U.S. Marshals Seize Cops’ Spying Records to Keep Them From the ACLU
A routine request in Florida for public records regarding the use of a surveillance tool known as stingray took an extraordinary turn recently when federal authorities seized the documents before police could release them.  The surprise move by the U.S. Marshals Service stunned the American Civil Liberties Union, which earlier this year filed the public records request with the Sarasota, Florida, police department for information detailing its use of the controversial surveillance tool.
Why Are the US Marshals at the Center of All These Pen Registers?
Then, the ACLU revealed that, just before an appointment to view Sarasota, Florida’s requests under the Pen Register authority to use Stingray IMSI catchers to identify cell locations, the US Marshals declared control over the records, claiming they had deputized the local cop who had made the requests.
Here’s The Simple Reason Congress Hasn’t Fixed The VA
Veterans didn’t have the cash to pay lobbyists so they don’t get lawmakers’ attention!!!!!!
Money molds not just the agenda but the shape of Congress itself. Think of it as a host-parasite relationship in which the host, Congress, adjusts to interact most effectively with the parasite, money.
Pelosi Confronted By Teen Reporter On NSA
Finally, a reporter asks House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) some tough questions. Unfortunately, this reporter is a teenager from the YouTube “TeenTake” and not someone from the Capitol Hill press corps.
When Andrew Demeter asked Pelosi, “Why do you support the NSA’s illegal and ubiquitous data collection?” she had a bit of a “deer in the headlights” look on her face.   “Well I, I do not, I have questions about the metadata collection that they were, uh, collecting,”
Pelosi stammered in response.  Demeter, unlike his professional counterparts in the mainstream media, actually challenged Pelosi with a follow-up: “You did vote for a bill to continue funding for the NSA, though.”
Pelosi responded, “Yeah, of course.” Demeter pressed the issue calling NSA data gathering a “clear violation of the Fourth Amendment.”
Sprint, T-Mobile Said Near Accord on Price, Termination Fee
Catholic Nun Killers and flesh traffickers caught
Of course the church is against abortion cause that cuts into the baby selling business profits.
Mass septic tank grave ‘containing the skeletons of 800 babies’ at site of Irish home for unmarried mothers. A source close to the investigation said: ‘No one knows the total number of babies in the grave.  There are 796 death records but they are only the ones we know of. The existence of the grave was uncovered by local woman Catherine Corless, who compiled the records of 796 babies who died at the home. She has established a group called the Children’s Home Graveyard Committee to erect a memorial.
 
“And the sign said, The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls & tenement halls, and echoed in the Sounds of Silence”.
END The Digital Divide:
Hiring via social networks: work for the wealthy, connected and savvy
As recruiting shifts to closed networks online, many Americans without easy access or social media skills are at a disadvantage
55 percent of Philadelphia households lack access to Internet: new early data shows rate higher than previously thought.