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Law and Order

Snowden granted asylum in Russia, leaves Moscow airport

posted onAugust 1, 2013
by l33tdawg

Edward Snowden, the fugitive former U.S. security contractor, left the transit zone at Moscow’s international airport Thursday after Russian authorities granted him temporary asylum.

Anatoly Kucherena, an attorney for Snowden, said documents were issued Thursday allowing Snowden to live and work in Russia for up to one year while his application for permanent political asylum is pending. Snowden, 30, had been stranded in Russia’s Sheremetyevo Airport for more than five weeks.

Microsoft to rebrand SkyDrive after losing trademark skirmish

posted onAugust 1, 2013
by l33tdawg

Microsoft is going to be rebranding SkyDrive, its cloud storage service, following its loss of a trademark battle with British Sky Broadcasting Group over the "Sky" name.

As reported on July 31 by The Verge's Tom Warren, Microsoft has decided not to appeal its recent loss and is going to rebrand SkyDrive instead of fight for the name. A joint press release by Microsoft and British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) explained the decision. From that release:

Bradley Manning found guilty of a lot of crimes, but being a traitor isn't one of them

posted onJuly 31, 2013
by l33tdawg

Let's get the details out of the way, first. Bradley Manning has been found guilty of 20 of 21 charges, but has not been found guilty of aiding the enemy. Although the sentencing is yet to occur, it's clear Manning will continue to spend time behind bars, but the military court has determined that he's officially not a traitor in the legal sense of the term.

Bitcoins banned in Thailand

posted onJuly 30, 2013
by l33tdawg

In a statement on its website, Bitcoin said it had given a presentation to the Bank of Thailand about how the currency works in a bid to operate in the country.

However, at the end of the meeting, "senior members of the Foreign Exchange Administration and Policy Department advised that due to lack of existing applicable laws, capital controls and the fact that Bitcoin straddles multiple financial facets... Bitcoin activities are illegal in Thailand".

Apple retail employees file class-action lawsuit over security

posted onJuly 29, 2013
by l33tdawg

A group of former retail employees of Apple Stores in Los Angeles and New York have filed a class-action suit against Apple, saying that the company demands employees submit to extensive anti-theft searches and other security measures, but doesn't pay them for the time involved. The security checks, which happen whenever an employee leaves the store, take 10 or 15 minutes according to the claim filed, adding up to millions of dollars in uncompensated employee time -- possibly as much as $1,400 per employee per year.

Huawei in charge of TalkTalk's net filtering

posted onJuly 29, 2013
by l33tdawg

The BBC has revealed that TalkTalk's net filtering system, which blocks millions of web addresses and has been praised by Prime Minister David Cameron, is being controlled by Chinese networking giant Huawei.

Huawei has come under scrutiny in recent months after being blocked from doing business with the US after allegations that it has links to the People's Liberation Army in China and that ultimately any Chinese company is subject to the Chinese government.

British boffin muzzled after cracking car codes

posted onJuly 29, 2013
by l33tdawg

Here is a tale of two security research presentations, both looking at motor vehicle security in a world in which even the humblest shopping trolley now has more brainpower than a moonshot.

Flavio Garcia, a University of Birmingham lecturer familiar with insecurity in car systems – here, for example, is a paper he co-authored with Roel Verdult and Josep Balasch for 2012 – has been blocked from presenting to Usenix 2013, thanks to a House of Lords injunction requested by Volkswagen.