Rehashing the "end of Linux" aspirations of systemd is probably not necessary, but another piece of the puzzle falls in place, with ESR's eminently quotable: Continue reading
Monthly Archives: February 2015
Jeb Bush Document Dump Identity Theft Risk
Former Florida Governor Jed Bush published unredacted names addresses, and phone numbers in his latest "transparency" related document dump as he considers running for the United States Presidency. The information includes names, addresses, and social security numbers sent in correspondence to the former Governor. Due to personal information substituting for signatures in the American legal system as discussed while considering the TurboTax fraud issue this information places the affected parties at risk for identity theft. The personal information is contained in six Microsoft Outlook files released in their entirety alongside an ebook of redacted correspondence from Bush's time as the governor of Florida.
DC Court of Appeal Upholds Redaction of Protocol to Shutdown Wireless Networks
Today in a case between the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the United States Department of Homeland Security the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia protected the Department's desire to prevent full disclosure of "Standard Operating Procedure 303" from the public record. SOP 303 is a protocol maintained by the Department of Homeland Security which is alleged to concern a plan for shutting down wireless networks during "critical emergencies." Continue reading
Hong Kong Monetary Authority Uses MyCoin.hk Debacle To Troll Consumers
Amid the confusion over whether MyCoin.hk ever held any bitcoin and in what amount or if it was as it appears to be an elaborate ponzi scheme dressed up in non-existent bitcoins, flash cars and cash prizes, Reuters reports that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority has seized upon the uncertainty to warn consumers of the dangers of Bitcoin. Continue reading
New All Time High In Bitcoin Mining Difficulty
Despite January 27th's drop in the mining difficulty by -6.14%, today's adjustment increased by 7.71%, taking the difficulty to a new all time high of 44,455,415,962. The hash rate at the time of today's increase was 318,224,263 GH/s, up from 295,442,739 GH/s on January 27th. Continue reading
Germany & Austria's Project BITCRIME
A joint study between Austria and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research will look at the use of virtual currencies and how supposed illicit transactions and alleged criminals can be prevented, detected, tracked and prosecuted. The program, which has funding totalling €1.5m and will run through to the end of 2016, will also look at the need for supervision and regulation in the cryptocurrency space. Continue reading
btcXchange.ro To Shutdown
An ongoing dispute between btcXchange.ro's management and a developer appears to have taken a new twist as the exchange today gave its clients notification that the service will go offline for an unknown period of time beginning February 11th 2015. The notice reads: Continue reading
TurboTax Stops Filing State Tax Returns Due To Massive Fraud
United States tax preparation company TurboTax, a subsidiary of "financial software" developer Intuit, has discontinued its e-filing service for state tax returns due to concerns over massive fraud. Reportedly Utah was the first state to raise concerns to the company identifying 28 returns as fraudulent with a further 8,000 suspected fraudulent returns. Minnesota followed by refusing to accept state returns filed through Turbo Tax after users reported logging in and seeing TurboTax show their taxes already had already been filed for them. Alabama similarly flagged 16,000 returns as likely fraudulent and insists that their computer and network security practices are in no way connected to the existence of fraudulent returns. Continue reading
Tour Of A Chinese Bitcoin Mine
Vice's Motherboard has released a ten minute video depicting the life and times of a Chinese Bitcoin mine and its staff. The video, shot back in October of 2014, tours one of a handful of Chinese mining facilities owned by four shareholders, one of whom claimed the mine represented 3% of the Bitcoin network at the time of shooting. Continue reading
Indefinite Yahoo Gag Struck Down by Judge
Reuters reports that yesterday U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal ruled against a gag order issued against Yahoo, that would have potentially prevented them from ever revealing they had been subjected to a particular grand jury subpoena. The order in question rather than seeking to compel Yahoo's silence on the matter of the subpoena for a set period of time, subject to potential renewal, sought instead to compel Yahoo's silence until ordered otherwise by the court. Continue reading