Apps that secretly give people access to their partners’ smartphones are growing in prominence, but is the threat being taken seriously? Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24432572-600-stalkerware-the-secret-apps-people-use-to-spy-on-their-partners/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Tag: spy
At future Mars landing spot, scientists spy mineral that could preserve signs of past life
Next year, NASA plans to launch a new Mars rover to search for signs of ancient life on the Red Planet. A new study shows that the rover’s Jezero crater landing site is home to deposits of hydrated silica, a mineral that just happens to be particularly good at preserving biosignatures. Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-11-future-mars-scientists-spy-mineral.html…
UK Set To Allow Huawei in ‘Non-Contentious’ Parts of 5G Networks
“This could antagonize the U.S.,” reports Engadget:
After months of talk, the UK is reportedly close to letting Huawei into its 5G networks. Sunday Times sources claim Prime Minister Boris Johnson is close to allowing the Chinese tech giant into “non-contentious” parts of 5G service in the country. While there wasn’t much elaboration on what that meant, past reports suggested these would…
Google Accused of Creating Spy Tool To Squelch Worker Dissent
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Google employees are accusing the company’s leadership of developing an internal surveillance tool that they believe will be used to monitor workers’ attempts to organize protests and discuss labor rights. Earlier this month, employees said they discovered that a team within the company was creating the new tool for the custom Google Chrome…
China Has Gained the Ability To Spy On More Than 100 Million Citizens Via a Heavily Promoted Official App, Report Suggests
Security researchers believe the Chinese Communist Party’s official “Study the Great Nation” app has a backdoor that could help monitor use and copy data from those who have it installed on their devices. The BBC reports: Released in February, Study the Great Nation has become the most downloaded free program in China, thanks to persuasive demands by Chinese authorities that citizens…
Invisible Hardware Hacks Allowing Full Remote Access Cost Pennies
Long-time Slashdot reader Artem S. Tashkinov quotes Wired: More than a year has passed since Bloomberg Businessweek grabbed the lapels of the cybersecurity world with a bombshell claim: that Supermicro motherboards in servers used by major tech firms, including Apple and Amazon, had been stealthily implanted with a chip the size of a rice grain that allowed Chinese hackers to spy…
FBI’s Use of Surveillance Database Violated Americans’ Privacy Rights: Court
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Wall Street Journal: Some of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s electronic surveillance activities violated the constitutional privacy rights of Americans swept up in a controversial foreign intelligence program (Warning: source paywalled; alternative source), a secretive surveillance court has ruled. The ruling deals a rare rebuke to U.S. spying activities that have generally withstood…
Aliens May Have Bugged Co-Orbital Space Rocks To Spy On Earth, Scientist Says
dryriver shared this article from NBC News’ science blog Mach: Picture this: A hundred million years ago, an advanced civilization detects strange signatures of life on a blue-green planet not so far away from their home in the Milky Way. They try sending signals, but whatever’s marching around on that unknown world isn’t responding. So, the curious galactic explorers try something…
Astronomers spy cosmic bubbles and bow shocks
Professional astronomers and citizen scientists have been combing through a region of our galaxy where cosmic bubbles are being inflated by wind and radiation from young, massive stars. Hundreds to thousands of stars may emerge from each bubble, in time. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/spitzer-zooniverse-bubbles-bow-shocks…
SpaceX Has Starry-Eyed Ambitions for Its Starship
Elon Musk has laid out an ambitious future for his spaceship project, the effort to deliver people to the moon and Mars. Marina Koren, writing for The Atlantic: The whole thing felt like an Apple event. The weeks of anticipation and breathless guesses from fans and critics. Onstage, the greatest-hits reel highlighting the company’s beloved products over the years. A grand…