Authorities Don’t Need To Break Phone Encryption in Most Cases, Because Modern Phone Encryption Sort of Sucks.

Matthew Green, a cryptographer and professor at Johns Hopkins University, shares in a series of tweets: My students Max and Tushar Jois spent most of the summer going through every piece of public documentation, forensics report, and legal document we could find to figure out how police were “breaking phone encryption.” This was prompted by a claim from someone knowledgeable, who…

Justice Department Sues Walmart, Saying it Fueled the Nation’s Opioid Crisis

The Justice Department sued Walmart on Tuesday for what it said was the company’s role in fueling the nation’s opioid crisis by allowing its network of pharmacies to fill millions of prescriptions for opioids, thousands of which authorities said were suspicious. From a report: The 160-page civil complaint alleges that the retail giant knew that its system for detecting illegitimate prescriptions…

Fired COVID-19 Data Manager Rebekah Jones Sues FDLE Over Raid On Her Home

Former Department of Health data manager Rebekah Jones has filed a lawsuit (PDF) against the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, saying the Dec. 7 morning raid on her house was a “sham” to retaliate against her for not altering COVID-19 data. Tallahassee.com reports: Jones was fired in May for failing to change COVID-19 data, and soon launched her own online data…

U.S. Charges China-based Zoom Executive With Disrupting Tiananmen Crackdown Commemorations

U.S. prosecutors on Friday charged a China-based executive at Zoom Video Communications with disrupting video meetings commemorating the 31st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown at the request of the Chinese government. From a report: Xinjiang Jin, 39, faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted of conspiring since January 2019 to use his company’s systems to censor speech, the…