Gen. Keith Alexander is joining Amazon’s board of directors, the company revealed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing today. The Verge reports: A former director of the National Security Agency and the first commander of the US Cyber Command, Alexander served as the public face of US data collection during the Edward Snowden leaks, but he retired from public service…
Tag: National Security Agency
What’s Missing From Oracle’s List of the 25 Greatest Java Apps Ever Written?
On the 25th anniversary of Java, Oracle’s director of developer content released a list of the 25 greatest Java apps ever written. This week they shared the responses it got. “The U.S. National Security Agency was secretly pleased we noticed its Ghidra binary decompilation tool…” The tenor of conversation was both positive and polite. That speaks volumes about the excellent character…
Court Rules NSA Phone Snooping Illegal — After Seven-Year Delay
The National Security Agency program that swept up details on billions of Americans’ phone calls was illegal and possibly unconstitutional, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. From a report: However, the unanimous three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said the role the so-called telephone metadata program played in a criminal terror-fundraising case against four Somali immigrants was so…
The NSA’s Guidelines for Protecting Location Data
American’s National Security Agency (NSA) “has shared new guidance with U.S. military and intelligence personnel, suggesting they take additional precautions to safeguard their location data,” reports Engadget. “The agency argues the information devices and apps collect can pose a national security threat.” Ars Technica reports:
The National Security Agency is recommending that some government workers and people generally concerned about privacy turn…
Should the U.S. Pardon Edward Snowden?
Long-time Slashdot readers 93 Escort Wagon and schwit1 both shared the news that U.S. President Trump is “considering” a pardon for Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor who “leaked a trove of secret files in 2013 to news organizations that revealed vast domestic and international surveillance operations” carried out by the agency, according to Reuters: U.S. authorities for years…
Frances E. Allen, the First Woman To Win the Turing Award, Dies At 88
Frances “Fran” Allen, a pioneer in the world of computing, the first female IBM Fellow and the first woman to win the Turing Award, died on August 4, 2020, the day of her 88th birthday. IBM writes in a blog post remembering Allen: As a pioneer in compiler organization and optimization algorithms, Fran made seminal contributions to the world of computing….
Tech Firms Like Facebook Must Restrict Data Sent From EU To US, Court Rules
The European Court of Justice has ruled that the “Privacy Shield” data transfer agreement, which had allowed tech companies to transfer EU user data to the US, failed to adequately protect Europeans’ data from US surveillance and security laws and was therefore invalid. What this means is companies like Facebook “could be prevented from sending data back to the US,” reports…
Oracle Celebrates ‘The 25 Greatest Java Apps Ever Written’
Oracle’s Java magazine is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the programming language with a list of the 25 greatest Java apps ever written:
From space exploration to genomics, from reverse compilers to robotic controllers, Java is at the heart of today’s world. Here are a few of the countless Java apps that stand out from the crowd. The story of Java began…
NSA Warns of Ongoing Russian Hacking Campaign Against US Systems
The U.S. National Security Agency on Thursday warned government partners and private companies about a Russian hacking operation that uses a special intrusion technique to target operating systems often used by industrial firms to manage computer infrastructure. Reuters reports: “This is a vulnerability that is being actively exploited, that’s why we’re bringing this notification out,” said Doug Cress, chief of the…
Snowden Warns Governments Are Using Coronavirus To Build ‘The Architecture of Oppression’
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Vice: Snowden is the first guest in the new ‘Shelter in Place’ series debuting on VICE TV on Thursday at 10 p.m. EST, which looks at the global response to COVID-19 and its lasting impact around the world. VICE co-founder Shane Smith will discuss these themes, as well as how to survive quarantine, with…