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Law and Order

Cop hacker gets three years jail

posted onSeptember 16, 2013
by l33tdawg

A 22-year-old US man said to be linked to hacker collective Anonymous was sentenced to three years in federal prison on Thursday for hacking police and other websites and releasing sensitive information.

John Borell III denied involvement in the attacks in April 2012 but the hacktivist pleaded guilty to computer fraud charges one year later and agreed to pay $227,000 for systems that were damaged and in need of improved security, the Associated Press reported.

Yahoo CEO Says It Would Be Treason To Decline To Cooperate With the NSA

posted onSeptember 13, 2013
by l33tdawg

Marissa Mayer was on stage on Wednesday at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference when Michael Arrington asked her about NSA snooping.

He wanted to know what would happen if Yahoo just didn't cooperate. He wanted to know what would happen if she were to simply talk about what was happening, even though the government had forbidden it.

"Releasing classified information is treason. It generally lands you incarcerated," she said, clearly uncomfortable with the turn of the conversation.

Apple's Fingerprint ID May Mean You Can't 'Take the Fifth'

posted onSeptember 12, 2013
by l33tdawg

There’s a lot of talk around biometric authentication since Apple introduced its newest iPhone, which will let users unlock their device with a fingerprint. Given Apple’s industry-leading position, it’s probably not a far stretch to expect this kind of authentication to take off. Some even argue that Apple’s move is a death knell for authenticators based on what a user knows (like passwords and PIN numbers).

Police Arrest Alleged Movie Pirate Again, Along With His Brother & Sister

posted onSeptember 10, 2013
by l33tdawg

Back in May, police acting on behalf of the Federation Against Copyright Theft sent several police cars to arrest a single alleged movie cammer. But despite allocating significant resources, police have now dropped the charges. However, matters have actually taken a turn for the worse, with the police re-arresting the alleged cammer plus his brother and sister while investigating the online leak of another movie.

Earlier this year we reported on the unusually heavy-handed approach taken by the police who were acting on a tipoff from FACT, the Federation Against Copyright Theft.

Court Says Cisco Has No Right To Sue To Invalidate A Patent That Is Being Used Against Its Customers

posted onSeptember 4, 2013
by l33tdawg

Yet another unfortunate patent decision has come out of the appeals court for the federal circuit. This involves a case where certain customers of Cisco products were being sued for patent infringement by TR Labs, and part of its argument was that certain Cisco equipment resulted in the infringement by those customers. In response, Cisco filed a lawsuit in federal court, asking for a declaratory judgment that TR Labs' patents were invalid. TR Labs hit back that it had not sued Cisco, had no intention of suing Cisco, and thus Cisco could not sue for declaratory judgment.

Microsoft and Google sue US government over NSA gag order

posted onSeptember 2, 2013
by l33tdawg

Microsoft and Google may sue US government to allow them to publish user data request from the government after talks with the Justice Department stalled.

The tech giants filed suits in a US federal court in June, arguing a right to make public more information about user data requests made under the auspices of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The technology giants agreed six times to extend the deadline for the government to respond to the lawsuits, the Microsoft's general counsel, Brad Smith, wrote in a blog post.

Spy law passed in New Zealand

posted onAugust 23, 2013
by l33tdawg

New spy laws legalising domestic communications interception were narrowly passed in New Zealand yesterday by a vote of 61 to 59 in Parliament.

The Government argued the laws are necessary to clarify the powers of the Government Communications Services Bureau (GCSB), New Zealand's cyber security agency, when it is asked to assist law enforcement agencies such as Police and the Security Intelligence Service.

Patent troll backs down, agrees to stop suing public transit agencies

posted onAugust 22, 2013
by l33tdawg

ArrivalStar is one of the most active patent trolls, having filed hundreds of lawsuits in recent years. Most of its suits were filed against medium- and large-sized companies, but this particular troll stood out from the rest because it also chose to sue public transit agencies. The company got an $80,000 settlement from Seattle (King County) and won similar payments from Chicago's Metra system, Boston, and other locales.

Bradley Manning gets 35 years

posted onAugust 21, 2013
by l33tdawg

Bradley Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison on Wednesday for leaking "hundreds of thousands" of confidential documents to anti-secrecy website Wikileaks.

In 2010 Manning handed over videos exposing the murder of two Iraqi journalists by a US Army helicopter crew and the abuse of detainees by Iraqi officers under the control of American forces, as well as more than 700,000 files of classified US State Department cables.