Lawyers suck at infosec

Lawyers suck at infosec. Expensive lawyers also suck at infosec. They’re just more expensive. The Surveillance Working Group of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) apparently want lawyers to suck less (at infosec) hence has issued a Guidance (.pdf - EN)1 on improving the IT security of lawyers against unlawful surveillance in May 2016. The requirement for lawyers to keep confidential their communications with their clients is an essential component of the rule of law in a free and democratic society....

January 13, 2017 · 2 min · Olivier Falcoz

Facebook is censoring posts in Thailand

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is driven by a vision of “connecting the world” and, though he has said a compromise is necessary in the case of countries like China where free speech is restricted, it is hard to see how that vision fits with kowtowing to a law that has gotten Thai people jailed for Facebook comments, or even merely receiving a message on the social network. Facebook is blocking content from a number of users following an apparent request from the government....

January 12, 2017 · 1 min · Olivier Falcoz

Europe's new era of mass surveillance

“If an intelligence law is not well-conceived and rational, it could easily become a formidable weapon of repression. An intelligence law should not only protect citizens against terrorism, but also against the State. We in France are doing neither. There is a total absence of control in this law.” – Marc Trévidic, former chief terrorism investigator for the French judicial system In recent months, and in the wake of a series of terrorist attacks across Europe, Germany, France and the United Kingdom — Europe’s biggest superpowers — have passed laws granting their surveillance agencies virtually unfettered power to conduct bulk interception of communications across Europe and beyond, with limited to no effective oversight or procedural safeguards from abuse....

January 11, 2017 · 1 min · Olivier Falcoz

A lawyer rewrote Instagram’s terms of use ‘in plain English’

tl;dr: delete Your Instagram account… A lawyer rewrote Instagram’s terms of use ‘in plain English’ so kids would know their privacy rights – Amy B. Wang // Abstract // Instagram’s terms of use in total run at least seven printed pages, with more than 5,000 words, mostly written in legalese. Jenny Afia, a privacy lawyer and partner at Schillings law firm in London was tasked with rewriting the company’s terms and conditions “in plain English....

January 9, 2017 · 2 min · Olivier Falcoz

Get your loved ones off Facebook

Get your loved ones off Facebook – Salim Virani Salim Virani has been checking Facebook upcoming privacy policy due to change on Jan. 30th, 20151. Unless you leave Facebook before this date, you won’t have to accept the new ToS since you agree by staying2. Abstract: Facebook doesn’t keep any of your data safe or anonymous, no matter how much you lock down your privacy settings. There are very serious privacy breaches, like selling your product endorsement to advertisers and politicians, tracking everything you read on the internet, or using data from your friends to learn private things about you:...

January 7, 2017 · 2 min · Olivier Falcoz

How to disappear in a fog of data (and why)

Our data will be shared, bought, sold, analyzed and applied, all of which will have consequences for our lives. – Finn Brunton and Helen Nissenbaum in Obfuscation: A User’s Guide for Privacy and Protest That’s at least one reason we need to start scrambling our tracks. Source: Motherboard

November 18, 2016 · 1 min · Olivier Falcoz

Why I won’t recommend Signal anymore (damn'it)

I don’t like WhatsApp - I don’t mean the app by itself, it’s a great app - but its owner, Facebook. And I don’t like Facebook owner, Mark. Mark Zuckerberg bought WhatsApp for a whooping USD 19 Billion in 2014. Why would you do that? When you invest such a mahoosive amount of money in an instant messenger, you probably expect a mahoosive return on investment, right? Unless it’s about philanthropy....

November 6, 2016 · 2 min · Olivier Falcoz

Principes de cryptologie et chiffrement - cnil.fr

Comprendre les grands principes de la cryptologie et du chiffrement – cnil.fr La cryptologie ne se limite plus aujourd’hui à assurer la confidentialité des secrets. Elle s’est élargie au fait d’assurer mathématiquement d’autres notions : assurer l’authenticité d’un message ou encore assurer son intégrité. Pour assurer ces usages, la cryptologie regroupe quatre principales fonctions : le hachage avec ou sans clé, la signature numérique et le chiffrement. Les usages de la cryptographie...

October 29, 2016 · 1 min · Olivier Falcoz

Breaking: tiger cub spotted in Bukit Kiara

The tiger cub spotted in BukitKiara: the kind that eats hikers only. MTBer be safe.

October 14, 2016 · 1 min · Olivier Falcoz

Privacy for Hillary — but none for the rest of America

The Irony of Clinton Embracing ‘Snowden-Approved’ Security App In 2014, Hillary Clinton claimed National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden’s leaks revealing a mass surveillance program of U.S. citizens helped terrorists and weakened national security. Meanwhile, she denied—and continues to deny—similar allegations directed at her “extremely careless” use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state. In 2015, during the first Democratic Party debate, Clinton said Snowden should “not be brought home without facing the music....

October 13, 2016 · 1 min · Olivier Falcoz