Linux Privacy - Page 26

We have thousands of posts on a wide variety of open source and security topics, conveniently organized for searching or just browsing.

Discover Privacy News

Attacking and Defending the Tor Network

data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%20100%20100%22%3E%3C/svg%3E

The Tor Project has become a vital mechanism for privacy advocates, human rights activists, journalists and others in sensitive positions to evade online censorship and persecution. And while the governments interested in limiting user access to the Internet and controlling content have had some recent success in preventing the use of the anonymity network, Tor members have been working on new methods for circumventing those restrictions.

WikiLeaks' founder takes on Indian Prime Minister

data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%20100%20100%22%3E%3C/svg%3E

WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange told an Indian TV channel that the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was engaged in a deliberate attempt to mislead the public by suggesting that the veracity of cables between the U.S. government and its embassy and consulates in India cannot be established.

Chief Spy Says U.S. Too Secret About Cyber Threats

data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%20100%20100%22%3E%3C/svg%3E

A former CIA Director says the U.S. Government is being too secretive about cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Retired four-star General and former CIA Director, Michael Hayden writes in a recent article that Uncle Sam is too quick to classify intelligence about software security holes, preventing the government and public sector from learning about them.

SSDs Prove Tough To Erase

data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%20100%20100%22%3E%3C/svg%3E

Solid state drives (SSDs) have a small security problem: they're tough to erase. That warning comes from researchers at the University of California at San Diego. "Sanitization is well-understood for traditional magnetic storage, such as hard drives and tapes," said the researchers' in their study summary.

Eben Moglen promotes Freedom in a box

data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%20100%20100%22%3E%3C/svg%3E

In a recent interview with The H, Eben Moglen professor of law and legal history at Columbia University, and the founder, Director-Counsel and Chairman of the Software Freedom Law Center, spoke about his ideas for using simple hardware to free individuals from the tyranny of the client/server model imposed by current web services.

Did Sony add a rootkit to PS3 firmware update?

data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%20100%20100%22%3E%3C/svg%3E

Gamers on a forum accuse Sony of adding a rootkit to its latest version of PlayStation 3 firmware. Rootkits, in general, have a bad reputation. Security watchers often associate them with malware. In this case specifically, though, the alleged rootkit would allow Sony to peer into users' system files without their knowledge.

PirateBox: an "artistic provocation" in lunchbox form

data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%20100%20100%22%3E%3C/svg%3E

When NYU art professor David Darts shows people his lunchbox, "a smile just starts creeping up on their face." Painted black with a white skull-and-crossbones, the metal box doesn't hold a pastrami on rye; instead, it's stuffed with networking equipment and batteries, and it hosts a Debian Linux install running a barebones Python-powered Web server.

Tor project releases update to close critical hole

data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%20100%20100%22%3E%3C/svg%3E

The developers of the Tor (The Onion Routing project) anonymisation solution has released version 0.2.1.29 to close a hole that can be remotely exploited. According to the developers, the problem is caused by a heap overflow. Version 0.2.1.28, which was released in late December, had already fixed another heap overflow in Tor. This flaw could be exploited to remotely crash Tor and the developers didn't rule out that it could also have been exploited to inject and execute arbitrary code.

Adobe working on privacy boost for Flash

data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%20100%20100%22%3E%3C/svg%3E

Adobe has finally made moves to improve 'cookie' management and privacy in its much maligned Flash Player. The area of focus is the local storage feature in Flash Player, which stores what are often mistakenly referred to as 'Flash cookies', said Emmy Huang, group product manager for Flash at Adobe, in a blog post.