John Ribeiro
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John Ribeiro
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Mesosphere open sources DC/OS data center management platform
Cloud computing startup Mesosphere has decided to open source its platform for managing data center resources, with the backing of over 60 tech companies, including Microsoft, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Cisco Systems.Derived from its Datacenter Operating System, a service that Mesosphere set out to build as an operating system for all servers in a data center as if they were a single pool of resources, the open source DC/OS offers capabilities for container operations at scale and single-click, app-store-like installation of over 20 complex distributed systems, including HDFS, Apache Spark, Apache Kafka and Apache Cassandra, the company said in a statement Tuesday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Microsoft cites new EU personal data rules in support of email dispute
Microsoft has cited new European data protection rules in support of its claim that the U.S. government should use inter-governmental agreements rather than a warrant to force the technology company to provide emails stored in Ireland that are required for an investigation.The General Data Protection Regulation was adopted last week by the European Parliament with an aim to provide an unified data protection regime across member states. It was earlier adopted by the Council of the EU, and is to come into effect in a little over two years after its publication in the EU Official Journal. The legislation will replace the EU Data Protection Directive, which dates back to 1995.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Microsoft cites new EU personal data rules in support of email dispute
Microsoft has cited new European data protection rules in support of its claim that the U.S. government should use inter-governmental agreements rather than a warrant to force the technology company to provide emails stored in Ireland that are required for an investigation.The General Data Protection Regulation was adopted last week by the European Parliament with an aim to provide an unified data protection regime across member states. It was earlier adopted by the Council of the EU, and is to come into effect in a little over two years after its publication in the EU Official Journal. The legislation will replace the EU Data Protection Directive, which dates back to 1995.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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British Airways plane possibly hit by drone near Heathrow
A British Airways aircraft was possibly hit by a drone Sunday near Heathrow airport as it was coming to land, which is likely to increase demands for greater checks on the flights of the devices. The Airbus A320 flight from Geneva, carrying 132 passengers and five crew members, appears to have not been significantly impacted and was cleared for its next flight, according to news reports. The U.K. Civil Aviation Authority said it was aware of “a possible incident” with a drone at Heathrow on Sunday, which is subject to investigation by the Metropolitan Police. It reminded drone users of the country’s "dronecode," which prohibits drones from flying above 400 feet (about 122 meters) and requires them to stay away from aircraft, helicopters, airports and airfields.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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British Airways plane possibly hit by drone near Heathrow
A British Airways aircraft was possibly hit by a drone Sunday near Heathrow airport as it was coming to land, which is likely to increase demands for greater checks on the flights of the devices. The Airbus A320 flight from Geneva, carrying 132 passengers and five crew members, appears to have not been significantly impacted and was cleared for its next flight, according to news reports. The U.K. Civil Aviation Authority said it was aware of “a possible incident” with a drone at Heathrow on Sunday, which is subject to investigation by the Metropolitan Police. It reminded drone users of the country’s "dronecode," which prohibits drones from flying above 400 feet (about 122 meters) and requires them to stay away from aircraft, helicopters, airports and airfields.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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EU investigating Google’s contracts with phone makers, operators
The European Commission is still investigating whether Google’s Android operating system and Amazon’s contracts with e-book publishers have broken antitrust rules, its Competition Commissioner said Monday in Amsterdam.Margrethe Vestager’s remarks come amid reports that the European Commission could formally press charges in the form of a "statement of objections "against Google as early as this week. Her speech suggests that formal charges into both Google’s Android operating system and Amazon could still take some time.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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FBI says hack tool only works on iPhone 5c
Only the iPhone 5c running iOS 9 can be unlocked by the tool the FBI bought to crack the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino killers.The tool does not work on the iPhone 5s or 6, so it only addresses a "narrow slice" of iPhones, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey said late Wednesday at Kenyon College.The government is considering whether it should disclose to Apple the flaw that aided the hack: "We just haven't decided yet," he said at the Ohio college's Center for the Study of American Democracy.A court in California ordered Apple to help the FBI to hack by brute force the passcode of the iPhone 5c. The government was concerned that, if an auto-erase feature was activated on the phone, the data that the FBI was looking for would be automatically erased after 10 unsuccessful attempts, so it wanted a workaround from Apple.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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FBI says hack tool only works on iPhone 5c
Only the iPhone 5c running iOS 9 can be unlocked by the tool the FBI bought to crack the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino killers.The tool does not work on the iPhone 5s or 6, so it only addresses a "narrow slice" of iPhones, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey said late Wednesday at Kenyon College.The government is considering whether it should disclose to Apple the flaw that aided the hack: "We just haven't decided yet," he said at the Ohio college's Center for the Study of American Democracy.A court in California ordered Apple to help the FBI to hack by brute force the passcode of the iPhone 5c. The government was concerned that, if an auto-erase feature was activated on the phone, the data that the FBI was looking for would be automatically erased after 10 unsuccessful attempts, so it wanted a workaround from Apple.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Galaxy S7 and mid-range phones boost Samsung’s profit
Samsung Electronics’ flagship Galaxy S7 smartphones and sales of its mid-range devices in emerging markets have likely helped the company boost its operating profit in the first quarter.The South Korean company forecast Thursday that its operating profit for the quarter was likely to be 6.6 trillion won (US$5.7 billion), an over 10 percent increase from close to 6 trillion won in the same quarter last year.Revenue likely increased 4 percent in the quarter to 49 trillion won, according to the company’s guidance.Samsung has been in the past sandwiched between Apple’s iPhone at the high end and products from Chinese vendors at the mid-range and low end. But its flagship Galaxy S7 and the curved-screen version, the Galaxy S7 edge, launched commercially in March, appear to have made deep inroads into the high-end market.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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FBI will help US agencies with tools to unlock encrypted devices
The FBI has promised to help local law enforcement authorities crack encrypted devices, in a letter that refers to the federal agency’s success in accessing the data on an iPhone 5c running iOS 9 that was used by one of the San Bernardino terrorists.The agency did not, however, explicitly promise investigators that it would deploy the same tool, said to have been developed by an outside organization, on other iPhones.The FBI had earlier demanded in court that Apple should assist it in its attempts to crack by brute force the passcode of the iPhone used by the terrorist, without triggering an auto-erase feature that could be activated after 10 unsuccessful tries.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Reddit’s removal of ‘warrant canary’ could hint at US demand for its user data
Reddit has removed a notice, known as a warrant canary, from its transparency report for 2015, suggesting that it may have received a secret national security order for user data.The removal of the warrant canary is a reminder to users that their online communications could be the target of investigators.The most controversial of the orders is the National Security Letter, which gives the government the authority to compel the production of customer records held by telephone companies, Internet service providers and other electronic communications service providers.Companies, who have been asked for user data by the government, are usually served the requests under a “gag order” that prohibits them from disclosing the request for data.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Court vacates iPhone hack order against Apple, focus shifts to New York
A judge in California vacated on Tuesday an earlier order asking Apple to assist the FBI in cracking the passcode of an iPhone 5c running iOS 9 that was used by one of the San Bernardino terrorists.The focus of the dispute between Apple and the government over whether it can be compelled to help agencies access data on iPhones now shifts to a court in Brooklyn, New York, where Apple is contesting an order to extract data from the passcode-locked iPhone 5s of an alleged drug dealer.The FBI had requested the California court on Monday to vacate the order as the government had successfully accessed the data stored on the iPhone used by Syed Rizwan Farook and no longer required Apple’s assistance.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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A scheme in India to help the poor raises privacy concerns
India’s legislators are on Wednesday debating a law that would allow the government to collect biometric and demographic information from people in return for distributing to them government benefits and subsidies.A number of legislators and civil rights activists are concerned about the absence of strong privacy safeguards in the legislation and a provision in the law that allows the government to access the data collected for national security reasons. There is also concern that such a large centralized database of personal information could be hacked and critical information leaked.Activists are also wary that the program could be extended by the government to make it a mandatory digital ID card for people in the country. Already some telecommunications services and financial services companies use the biometric identity as an optional way for verifying customers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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ICANN stewardship transition plan sent to US government
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has submitted Thursday a plan for ending U.S. oversight of key technical Internet functions in favor of a global multi-stakeholder governance model.The complex new proposals aim to create an oversight body called the "empowered community" for enforcing community powers and include tighter rules for changes to certain bylaws of the organization. The Governmental Advisory Committee, consisting of representatives of governments, will continue to have an advisory role, though it will be better placed if it works in consensus, according to a document circulated by ICANN.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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DOJ appeals New York court order in favor of Apple
The U.S. Department of Justice has appealed an order by a court in New York that turned down its request that Apple should be compelled to extract data from the iPhone 5s of an alleged drug dealer.The case in New York is seen as having a bearing on another high-profile case in California where Apple is contesting an order that would require the company to assist the FBI, including by providing new software, in its attempts at cracking by brute force the passcode of an iPhone 5c running iOS 9. The phone was used by one of the two terrorists in the San Bernardino killings on Dec. 2 and the FBI wants Apple to disable the auto-erase feature on the phone, which would erase all data after 10 unsuccessful tries of the passcode, if the feature was activated by the terrorist.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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UN human rights chief warns of worldwide privacy implications of Apple-FBI case
A ruling ordering Apple to help the FBI access the iPhone of San Bernardino mass shooter Syed Rizwan Farook could make it impossible for the company or any other major international IT vendor to safeguard users' privacy anywhere in the world, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said Friday.A decision against Apple would be "potentially a gift to authoritarian regimes, as well as to criminal hackers,” Zeid said. Authorities in other countries have already made efforts to force IT and communications companies such as Google and BlackBerry to expose their customers to mass surveillance, he added.Zeid's statement is a shot in the arm for Apple's appeal in the case. A magistrate judge in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Eastern Division, has ordered Apple to provide technical assistance, including possibly signed software, to help the FBI use brute force to crack the passcode of the iPhone 5c used by Farook in the San Bernardino, California, attack on Dec. 2, without triggering an auto-erase feature.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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San Bernardino prosecutor raises concerns about ‘cyber pathogen’ in terrorist’s iPhone
The district attorney of San Bernardino County, Michael Ramos, has raised concerns about the possibility of a 'dormant cyber pathogen’ in the iPhone 5c used by a terrorist in attacks in the county on Dec. 2.Security experts are questioning whether such a thing as a cyber pathogen at all exists.The submission was made in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Eastern Division, which recently ordered Apple to help the FBI unlock by brute force the iPhone used by terrorist Syed Rizwan Farook. Apple has refused to help the FBI and raised privacy and security issues.The iPhone, owned by the San Bernardino county, may have connected to the county computer network, and “may contain evidence that can only be found on the seized phone that it was used as a weapon to introduce a lying dormant cyber pathogen that endangers San Bernardino County’s infrastructure," according to the court filing.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Turkish citizen charged with masterminding $55M ATM fraud pleads guilty
A Turkish citizen who led an operation that hacked into the systems of credit and debit card processing companies between 2011 and 2013 has pleaded guilty in a court in New York, according to officials.Ercan Findikoglu, 34, also known by his online nicknames Segate, Predator, and Oreon, pleaded guilty to computer intrusion conspiracy, access device fraud conspiracy, and effecting transactions with unauthorized access devices before District Court Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.Findikoglu was arrested in Germany in 2013 and was extradited to the U.S. in 2015. He could face up to over 57 years of imprisonment on sentencing, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York. The operations of his group inflicted more than US$55 million in losses on the global financial system, it added.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Facebook, Google, Microsoft to join tech industry in supporting Apple in court
The tech industry is rallying behind Apple in its appeal against a court order asking it to help the FBI unlock an iPhone 5c, with Facebook, Google and Microsoft planning submissions in court in support of the iPhone maker. “The industry is aligned on this issue and Facebook is participating in a joint submission with other technology companies," a spokeswoman for the company wrote in an email Thursday. Other companies expected to join in making the submission are Twitter and Amazon.com, but there might be others. Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California ordered Apple last week to provide assistance, if necessary by providing signed software that would help the FBI try different passcodes by brute force on the locked iPhone 5c, without triggering an auto-erase feature in the phone. The device was used by one of the terrorists in the San Bernardino, California, attack on Dec. 2.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Arizona county attorney to ditch iPhones over Apple dispute with FBI
Apple’s refusal to help the FBI unlock an iPhone 5c used by one of the terrorists in the San Bernardino, California attack on Dec. 2 has prompted the Maricopa County attorney’s office in Arizona to ban providing new iPhones to its staff. “Apple’s refusal to cooperate with a legitimate law enforcement investigation to unlock a phone used by terrorists puts Apple on the side of terrorists instead of on the side of public safety,” Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery said in a statement on Wednesday. Montgomery described as a corporate public relations stunt Apple’s positioning of its refusal to cooperate on privacy grounds. The evidence obtained through searches using warrants to unlock encrypted smartphones, including iPhones, have proven critical to the investigation and prosecution of defendants charged with drug trafficking, sexual exploitation, murder and other serious offenses, he added.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here