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
Author Archives: Aaron 'BingoBoingo' Rogier
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
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
Amazon Exits Crimea
TASS reports that American retailer Amazon.com is requesting Crimean residents delete their Amazon.com accounts by February 13th, or Amazon will deactivate their accounts by force. This move follows similar abandonment of Crimea by Google and PayPal.
MuckRock: DEA Documents Show Parallel Construction Widely Used
Yesterday MuckRock released a number of United States Drug Enforcement Agency documents acquired through a Freedom of Information Act request. The documents reveal that methods of parallel case construction are widely utilized and trained institutionally within the Drug Enforcement Agency and collaborating agencies, with strong institutional controls in place to prevent knowledge of parallel construction involved in cases from reaching any court officers, including the prosecutors assigned the cases. Continue reading
Ulbricht Show Trial Ends
After being precluded from presenting much of a defense at all a jury has found Ross Ulbricht guilty of running the Silk Road deliberating for around three hours. This falls in line with the money on Bitcoin prediction markets which leaned towards deliberations lasting under six hours. Mainstream press outlets have even begun questioning the competence and intentions behind the way defense lawyer Josh Dratel handled the case over its entire duration.
No Such lAbs Teases Future Developments
In their monthly statement today No Such lAbs teased at a potential future product, a piece of hardware capable of running a Bitcoin node. The venture's aim is to produce user auditable hardware to provide persons with an alternative to opaque open in name only computing solutions. Continue reading
BitMarket.pl Account Closed over HYIP Links
Silicon Angle reports that a likely catalyst for the suspension of bank accounts used by BitMarket.pl is a recurring connection between that exchange and High Yield Investment scams. The accounts were closed by BPH, a bank owned by bezzle economy giant General Electric. Silicon Angle also notes that BitMarket.pl was injured in the EgoPay drama.
Foundation Releases Report and Bitcoin 0.5.3.1
The Bitcoin Foundation released their January 2015 report on their development efforts today. Among other accomplishments was iterating the version number of their reference implementation of the Bitcoin protocol to version 0.5.3.1 and subjecting it to further rigor. Continue reading
Preet Bharara and Dratel Battle Over Defense Witness (Plain Text of Filings)
As the Silk Road show trial continues with Preet Bharara's team and Judge Forrest doing everything they can to suppress evidence that might allow for reasonable doubt, while permitting accusatory evidence without regard for its origin the battle has moved on to challenging the defense's witnesses. Continue reading