Here’s What We Know About Russia and the DNC Hack

av Mikael Winterkvist | jul 28, 2016 | Notiser

Here’s What We Know About Russia and the DNC Hack

 

AS THE DEMOCRATIC National Convention continues its week-long stay in Philadelphia, accusations of Russian hacking continue to cloud the proceedings. At this point, it seems likely that Russia is responsible. What’s less clear is what that will mean going forward.

It’s been a bad stretch for the Democratic National Committee. Hackers broke into its servers months ago, stealing private emails, opposition research, and campaign correspondence. Last Friday, Wikileaks made nearly 20,000 of those private emails public, revealing embarrassing details of the political machine’s inner workings. DNC official allege that the Russian government is behind the breach. The New York Times reports that US intelligence agencies increasingly share that opinion. According to a number of top cybersecurity researchers, they’re probably right.

 

Källa: Here’s What We Know About Russia and the DNC Hack | WIRED

WikiLeaks Has Officially Lost the Moral High Ground

av Mikael Winterkvist | jul 27, 2016 | Notiser

WikiLeaks Has Officially Lost the Moral High Ground

 

WHAT THE HECK is going on at WikiLeaks?

In the last two weeks, the font of digital secrets has doxed millions of Turkish women, leaked Democratic National Committee emails that made Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign look bad but also suggested the site was colluding with the Russian government, and fired off some seriously anti-Semitic tweets.

It’s…weird.

WikiLeaks is always going to be releasing information some people don’t like. That is the point of them. But lately the timing of and tone surrounding their leaks have felt a little off, and in cases like the DNC leak, more than a little biased. At times, they haven’t looked so much like a group speaking truth to power as an alt-right subreddit, right down to their defense of Milo Yiannopoulos, a (let’s be honest, kind of trollish) writer at Breitbart. But the way WikiLeaks behaves on the Internet means a lot more than some basement-dwelling MRA activist. “WikiLeaks’ initial self-presentation was as merely a conduit, simply neutral, like any technology,” says Mark Fenster, a lawyer at the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law. “As a conduit, it made a lot of sense, and had a lot of influence, immediately. The problem is, WikiLeaks is not just a technology. It’s humans too.”

Källa: WikiLeaks Has Officially Lost the Moral High Ground | WIRED

Apple Is Still Making Billions—Just Not As Many

av Mikael Winterkvist | jul 27, 2016 | Notiser

Apple Is Still Making Billions—Just Not As Many

 

THE APPLE PARADOX continues.

The company dropped its fiscal third quarter earnings today, and the news was not good—at least in the weird world of Apple’s astronomical numbers. The company saw sales and quarterly revenue drop, the second consecutive decline in both metrics. “Consecutive decline” is never a phrase investors want to hear. But if it’s Apple, still the most valuable company in the world, any talk of decline seems grim compared to the past glory of record profits.

The iPhone remains Apple’s primary money-maker, accounting for about two-thirds of its revenue. But Apple is grappling with slowing global demand for smartphones, as well as a cooling desire for iPhone in China. Apple hasn’t released a significantly different phone since introducing the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus nearly two years ago. The two handsets saw truly saw massive sales, but more and more US customers appear content with keeping handsets longer. Yes, some fairly good demand for the iPhone SE helped to pad sales this quarter. But while Apple waits to see if its presumed iPhone refresh in September spurs fresh new interest—and new sales—the company is contending with a sobering reality, at least for a company still awash in billions.

Källa: Apple Is Still Making Billions—Just Not As Many | WIRED

After mass shooting, German police focus on dark net crime

av Mikael Winterkvist | jul 27, 2016 | Notiser

 

After mass shooting, German police focus on dark net crime

 

German police will do more to fight crime committed on the ”dark net”, they said on Wednesday, days after a gunman killed nine people with a weapon bought on that hidden part of the internet.”We see that the dark net is a growing trading place and therefore we need to prioritize our investigations here,” Holger Muench, head of Germany’s Federal Police (BKA), told journalists as he presented the latest annual report on cyber crime.The dark net, whoch is only accessible via special web browsers, is increasingly used to procure drugs, weapons and counterfeit money, allowing users to trade anonymously and pay with digital currencies such as Bitcoin, the BKA said.The man who killed nine people at a shopping mall in Munoch on Friday was a local 18-year-old obsessed with mass killings who had bought his reactivated 9mm Glock 17 pistol on the dark web, Bavarian officials said.

Källa: After mass shooting, German police focus on dark net crime | Reuters