Last Thursday, Israeli phone-hacking firm Cellebrite said in a blog post that it can now break into Signal, an encrypted app considered safe from external snooping. Haaretz reports: Cellebrite’s flagship product is the UFED (Universal Forensic Extraction Device), a system that allows authorities to unlock and access the data of any phone in their possession. Another product it offers is the…
Tag: Authorities
FDA Approves Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 Vaccine For Emergency Use in America
Friday night America’s Food and Drug Administration finally authorized Pfizer and BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine for emergency use in the United States, reports CNN. The Verge calls it “a landmark moment in the fight to suppress a virus that has killed nearly 300,000 people in the United States and sickened tens of millions around the world.” The vaccine is authorized in the…
Florida Governor Defends Police Raid On COVID Data Whistleblower
Earlier this week, Florida state police raided the home of Rebekah Jones, the data scientist who ran the state’s coronavirus dashboard until she was fired in June. “Jones has alleged in a whistleblower lawsuit that her firing was in retaliation for her refusal to manipulate data to make the state’s COVID-19 outbreak last spring appear less severe,” reports Yahoo News. Florida…
Google Set To Win EU Approval For Fitbit Takeover Next Week
According to Bloomberg, Google is set to win conditional European Union approval for its $2.1 billion takeover of Fitbit this month. From the report: The deal could be approved as soon as next week after national competition authorities give their opinion, said the people who asked not to be named because the procedure isn’t public. The EU usually consults the so-called…
ACLU Sues DHS Over Purchase of Cellphone Location Data Used To Track Immigrants
The American Civil Liberties Union is suing federal authorities over their alleged use of cellphone location data — particularly in immigration enforcement. From a report: The nonprofit organization today filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to force the agencies to release records about purchasing cellphone location data…
A Second, Mysterious Monolith Appears In Romania
Joe2020 shares a report with the caption, “Yeah, this happened.” NPR reports: Less than two weeks after authorities stumbled across a mysterious metal object standing freely in the Utah desert — and just days after it disappeared — a similar monolith has been reported nearly halfway around the world. Residents in the Romanian city of Piatra Neamt say they have found…
From Thailand To Indonesia, Taxes Tighten for Digital Businesses
Governments across the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are moving to impose more taxes on digital companies, stirring unease among multinational internet businesses that have boomed amid the coronavirus pandemic. From a report: From Thailand to Indonesia, new levies have kicked in or are being introduced. They threaten to chip away at the earnings of technology companies that are reaping benefits…
How Lion Air’s Boeing 737 Max Experienced a Near-Crash The Day Before 2018’s Fatal Crash
ABC News tells the story of Indonesia-based budget airline Lion Air, which had ordered over 200 Boeing 737 MAX 8s at a cost of $22 billion — and what happened on a flight the day before a fatal crash on October 29th, 2018: [A]fter its first flight in May 2017, the 737 MAX 8 went 17 months without incident. Then, on…
Tired of Mockery, Austrian Village Changes Name
Residents of an Austrian village will ring in the new year under a new name — Fugging — after ridicule of their signposts, especially on social media, became too much to bear. From a report:
They finally grew weary of Fucking, its current name, which some experts say dates back to the 11th century. Minutes from a municipal council meeting published on…
Russia Wants To Ban Social Media Sites Discriminating Against Russian News Outlets
The Russian government is working on a new law to block foreign social media sites inside Russia’s territory as repercussions for “discriminating” against Russian news outlets operating abroad. From a report: Sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are specifically mentioned in “explanatory notes” (Word document) accompanying the new draft bill, submitted last week for debate in the Russian Duma (state parliament)….