Tagg: overvaking 121

https://www.zdnet.com/article/bmw-and-hyundai-hacked-by-vietnamese-hackers-report-claims/

Many experts have speculated that the Vietnamese government has taken a page out of China’s book and is using hacking groups to carry out economic espionage on foreign companies, stealing intellectual property, and then using it for its state-funded corporations.

China used this strategy to prop its airplane manufacturing sector, and now experts believe Vietnam is doing the same for its fledgling automotive startup VinFast, which started rolling out its first cars out factory lines this year.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/12/24/colleges-are-turning-students-phones-into-surveillance-machines-tracking-locations-hundreds-thousands/

Short-range phone sensors and campuswide WiFi networks are empowering colleges across the United States to track hundreds of thousands of students more precisely than ever before. Dozens of schools now use such technology to monitor students’ academic performance, analyze their conduct or assess their mental health.

But some professors and education advocates argue that the systems represent a new low in intrusive technology, breaching students’ privacy on a massive scale. The tracking systems, they worry, will infantilize students in the very place where they’re expected to grow into adults, further training them to see surveillance as a normal part of living, whether they like it or not.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/22/us/politics/totok-app-uae.html

ToTok, an Emirati messaging app that has been downloaded to millions of phones, is the latest escalation of a digital arms race.

ToTok is a cleverly designed tool for mass surveillance, according to the technical analysis and interviews, in that it functions much like the myriad other Apple and Android apps that track users’ location and contacts.

On the surface, ToTok tracks users’ location by offering an accurate weather forecast. It hunts for new contacts any time a user opens the app, under the pretense that it is helping connect with their friends, much like how Instagram flags Facebook friends. It has access to users’ microphones, cameras, calendar and other phone data. Even its name is an apparent play on the popular Chinese app TikTok.

https://ipvm.com/reports/ethnicity-analytics

This exposes that Uyghur persecution and discrimination goes far beyond Xinjiang and is being built on video surveillance technologies

https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/federal-court-rules-suspicionless-searches-travelers-phones-and-laptops

GOVERNMENT MUST HAVE REASONABLE SUSPICION OF DIGITAL CONTRABAND BEFORE SEARCHING ELECTRONIC DEVICES AT THE U.S. BORDER

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/22/technology/china-hackers-ethnic-minorities.html

showing a new determination by Beijing to push its surveillance state beyond its borders.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-australia-china-cyber-exclusive/exclusive-australia-concluded-china-was-behind-hack-on-parliament-political-parties-sources-idUSKBN1W00VF

The report, which also included input from the Department of Foreign Affairs, recommended keeping the findings secret in order to avoid disrupting trade relations with Beijing

https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/31/china-google-iphone-uyghur/

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/02/pentagon-balloons-surveillance-midwest

the high-altitude balloons promise a cheap monitoring platform that could follow multiple cars and boats for extended periods

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/07/31/cisco-pay-million-fine-selling-government-hackable-surveillance-technology/

The settlement marks the first time a company has been forced to pay out under a federal whistleblower law for failing to have adequate cybersecurity protections.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/kazakhstan-government-is-now-intercepting-all-https-traffic/

https://www.zdnet.com/article/bluetooth-vulnerability-can-be-exploited-to-track-and-id-iphone-smartwatch-microsoft-tablet-users/

A flaw in the Bluetooth communication protocol may expose modern device users to tracking and could leak their ID

can be used to spy on users despite native OS protections that are in place

https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-office-365-banned-in-german-schools-over-privacy-fears/

“if data is sent to Microsoft in the US, it is subject to US mass-surveillance laws. This is illegal under EU law.”

https://theintercept.com/2019/07/11/china-surveillance-google-ibm-semptian/

Chinese state security agencies are likely using the technology to target human rights activists, pro-democracy advocates, and critics of President Xi Jinping’s regime

https://www.zdnet.com/article/nasa-hacked-because-of-unauthorized-raspberry-pi-connected-to-its-network/

NASA described the hackers as an “advanced persistent threat,” a term generally used for nation-state hacking groups.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-china-blog-48552907

https://idlewords.com/2019/06/the_new_wilderness.htm

https://thebaffler.com/downstream/big-mood-machine-pelly

Spotify’s enormous access to mood-based data is a pillar of its value to brands and advertisers, allowing them to target ads on Spotify by moods and emotions.

https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/13/whatsapp-exploit-let-attackers-install-government-grade-spyware-on-phones/

The spyware in question that was detected as having been installed was Israel-based NSO Group’s Pegasus

https://www.ft.com/content/4da1117e-756c-11e9-be7d-6d846537acab

attackers were able to install surveillance software on to both iPhones and Android phones by ringing up targets using the app’s phone call function.