hardware

Motherboard & VICE Are Building a Community Internet Network

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BY JASON KOEBLER
MOTHERBOARD

The net neutrality battle has been exhausting; it has come at enormous cost in time, energy, attention, and money.

Fundamentally, the net neutrality fight is one where the best possible outcome is preserving the status quo: an internet landscape and connection infrastructure that is dominated by big telecom monopolies. Simply put, the internet is too important to rely on politicians and massive corporations to protect it.

In order to preserve net neutrality and the free and open internet, we must end our reliance on monopolistic corporations and build something fundamentally different: internet infrastructure that is locally owned and operated and is dedicated to serving the people who connect to it.

hardware

Edward Snowden’s App Turns a Smartphone into Security Equipment

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BY SHELBY ROGERS
INTERESTING ENGINEERING

In today’s world, digital security can be just as important as physical security to those who find themselves constantly online. And in other parts of the world, “rogue” internet users like political activists, journalists, or even members of the average public risk their security each time they log onto the internet. However, one of the world’s most notorious informants Edward Snowden developed an app to improve security for the average person.

hardware

BlackBerry teams with Samsung for ‘spy-proof’ tablet for Germany

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REUTERS
THE GLOBE AND MAIL
BlackBerry Ltd said on Friday that its encryption technology is being used to toughen a “spy-proof” Samsung tablet that is being used by German government agencies dealing with classified information. The device, a Samsung Galaxy Tab S2, includes a security card and encryption and certification software developed by BlackBerry’s Secusmart, which locks down data stored on and transferred from the SecuTABLET, the Canadian company said in a statement. Knox, a Samsung security product, is also included. Canada’s BlackBerry, a smartphone pioneer, has sought to build up its focus on security and productivity software and the management of more popular handsets as it trims its own money-losing phones. BlackBerry did not disclose the value of the deal with the German agencies.

hardware

Blackphone 2, BlackBerry Priv Go On Sale

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BY NATASHA LOMAS TECHCRUNCH
You wait ages for the next gen of pro-privacy smartphones to come along and then a couple of contenders start making noise at once…
Today, Silent Circle’s Blackphone 2 has gone on sale — with an RRP of $799 (excluding taxes). The company started taking pre-orders for the device last month, having first announced the phone back in March at the Mobile World Congress trade show. Meanwhile, on Friday, BlackBerry CEO John Chen finally confirmed the various leaks pointing to a forthcoming Android-powered BlackBerry, due to go on sale by the end of this year in “major markets.” The BlackBerry Priv — as it’s called — runs “Google,” as Chen put it, while demoing the Qwerty slider to BNN. There’s no word on the Priv’s price tag at this point. Silent Circle’s Blackphone targets the enterprise segment where BlackBerry used to dominate, before it fell behind the Android and iOS curve. Blackphone 2 runs the company’s security-hardened flavor of Android, now called Silent OS.

hardware

BlackBerry launches private chats in BBM, letting you hide identities in conversations

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BY PAUL SAWERS VENTURE BEAT
BlackBerry has introduced a new Private Chat feature to its BBM messaging app for Android, BlackBerry 10, and iOS. The feature has been around in beta builds for a number of weeks already, but today sees it officially land in the full public version. With Private Chat mode, you can now instigate a one-on-one conversation but hide the participants’ names from view, meaning any screenshots that are taken won’t reveal the identities. Furthermore, a Private Chat is deleted from both users’ phones whenever the conversation is closed or lies inactive. So, here’s what a normal conversation looks like in BBM:

And here’s a Private Chat — you’ll note there’s no profile pictures and no names.

hardware

Pakistan bans BlackBerry in privacy crackdown

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BY SAMUEL GIBBS THE GUARDIAN
Pakistan has banned BlackBerry’s enterprise server and its internet and messaging services “for security reasons” in a crackdown on privacy. Mobile phone operators were told by the Pakistan telecommunication authority on Friday that the BlackBerry services must be shut down by the start of December. BlackBerry uses strong encryption – part of its appeal to businesses and users – which prevents law enforcement and intelligence agencies from intercepting messages and snooping on user activity. “PTA has issued directions to local mobile phone operators to close BlackBerry Enterprise Services from Nov. 30 on security reasons,” said a PTA spokesperson.

hardware

Afilias Supports the CrypTech Project – The Most Ambitious Hardware Encryption Effort Ever to Protect User Privacy

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DUBLIN AFILIAS.INFO
Global domain registry operator and Internet technology innovator Afilias has pledged funding support to the CrypTech Project. CrypTech is an industry effort to address the increasingly challenging Internet security environment, especially as it affects cryptographic algorithms in hardware. The CrypTech team of experts is working to develop an open hardware cryptographic engine design that will enable the highest levels of Internet security while being useable by the broad Internet community. Afilias, a recognized leader in Internet security services including DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC), fully supports the Project’s mission. Ram Mohan, Afilias’ Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, a member of the CrypTech Project’s steering committee, said:
“The CrypTech project is among the most ambitious and collaborative efforts to date in improving hardware cryptography and broadening its application, impacting the entire Internet community.

hardware

ISO 27018: Protecting privacy and national security too

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BY BRYAN CUNNINGHAM FEDERAL TIMES 
In the late 1970s, Leonard Nimoy (RIP Mr. Spock) hosted a weekly television “documentary” called “In Search Of…,” in which he quested after Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster and other mythical creatures or phenomena. Nimoy’s mysterious quarry almost always eluded him. Many, myself included, generally expect the same outcome for international privacy and IT security standards that enhance the national security of countries implementing them: they are myths. But ISO (the Geneva-based multinational International Organization for Standardization) may have managed just such a mythical feat with its first-of-its-kind standard 27018, formally entitled “Information technology — Security techniques – Code of practice for protection of personally identifiable information (PII) in public clouds acting as PII processors” (ISO 27018). Broad adoption of international standards around the globe, by governments and other public institutions and, critically, by cloud providers and other private companies, can have multiple benefits.

hardware

Secrets on Digital Forensics

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BY WARITH AL MAAWALI DIGI77.COM
On this article I will cover the hot topic of Digital Forensics. The interest is not limited to digital investigators or digital crime, it can be used in the private sector during internal corporate investigations. Digital Forensics can be categorized as computer forensics, mobile forensics, network forensics, forensic data analysis and database forensics. Digital Forensic consist of three main parts acquisition or (cloning -imaging) of exhibits, analysis, and reporting. Each part has its own tool or dedicated device depending on who is going to make use of the results and the evidence they are looking for.

hardware

Network breaking and entering: Ars tests the Pwn Plug R3

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BY SEAN GALLAGHER
ARS TECHNICA

Imagine for a moment the following scenario: you’re the manager for a busy bank branch in a major city. You come back from lunch and are told by one of your employees that someone from corporate IT dropped by to check on a reported problem with a branch PC. You don’t remember putting in a trouble ticket with IT, but apparently the guy left after looking under a desk and re-plugging a network cable or something. It took less than five minutes. You think nothing of it and go back to approving loans.