I've been turning the light out on them lately, if you get my meaning.
"Privacy software, criminal use; Unintended consequence of Walpole firm’s technology" March 08, 2012|By Jenifer B. McKim, Globe Staff
A Walpole nonprofit company, largely funded by the federal government, is inadvertently providing child pornographers, drug dealers, and other criminals around the world with software that allows them to remain anonymous on the Internet.
Inadvertently, huh?
The little-known organization, Tor Project Inc., says its free program is designed to help people protect themselves from Internet surveillance. Users include those speaking out against oppressive political regimes in other countries, corporate whistle-blowers, law enforcement officials, and domestic abuse victims.
Unless it is government surveillance via the turnover of corporate telecoms records, right?
But the software, which can easily be downloaded from the Tor Project website, also is attracting a growing number of people who trade illegal pornographic material and buy and sell drugs on a part of the Web known as the “darknet,’’ according to federal authorities, advocates for children, and Internet specialists.
Its use for illicit purposes creates new challenges for law enforcement officials hunting increasingly technologically savvy criminals, and highlights the sometimes unwanted consequences of protecting free speech online.
Aaaaaaaah, NOW WE COME to the AGENDA!
The darknet is “a secret Internet,’’ said Chester Wisniewski, senior adviser at Burlington computer security company Sophos Inc. “It’s free speech to the extreme. It’s really tragic there are some sickos using this same technology for their purposes.’’
*************************
Tor stands for “the onion routing’’ project, initiated by the US Naval Research Laboratory in the 1990s to camouflage government communications by sending messages through a system of computers. The project was expanded in 2001 by two Massachusetts Institute of Technology students who made the technology more accessible to civilians. An added feature called “hidden services,’’ launched in 2004, allows people to publish and visit websites without being identified.
In 2005, federal agencies started funding the project with the goal of making the technology easier for the public to use, Andrew Lewman, the organization’s executive director, said. The next year, it was established as a nonprofit.
Government officials say they support the project because it provides potentially life-saving online security and privacy in places - such as Iran and Syria - where political dissidents often are dealt with harshly. The State Department and two federal agencies - the Broadcasting Board of Governors and the National Science Foundation - are major contributors.
Oh, ONCE AGAIN we see it is ONLY A TOOL to ADVANCE the EMPIRE'S AGENDA!
Drug dealers and porn perverts are only worth defending when they are from the pharmaceutical or marketing industries.
The Tor Project currently has a $1.3 million annual budget, with about 15 full-time and contract employees. It also relies on 3,000 volunteers around the world who provide access to their computers. That allows the company to bounce data from one server to another, making it difficult to track.
Your tax dollars at work, Americans.
“Tor is a publicly available tool. It is used by activists and bloggers, by average US citizens protecting against identity theft, and by military and law enforcement officers conducting investigations and intelligence gathering,’’ a State Department spokesman said.
Lisa-Joy Zgorski, a National Science Foundation spokeswoman, also cited the value of the software. “Any technology can be used for ill,’’ she said. “It is not a reason not to fund the science.’’
Then why aren't you helping Iran build its nuclear power plants like the NPT says?
The popularity of the Tor Project technology among pedophiles gained media attention last fall when a group of computer hackers associated with the online collective known as Anonymous took aim at child porn websites hidden on the darknet.
Well, finally, the intelligence operation is doing some actual good.
The so-called hactivists claimed to have disabled several child porn sites as part of an effort dubbed “Operation Darknet’’ or “To catch a predator.’’ As part of its campaign, Anonymous posted a video on YouTube pledging to fight sexual abuse....
Well, you guys are losing that one because the web is still loaded with that crap.
--more--"
Related: One in four US hackers 'is an FBI informer'
Don't fall into the trap, readers.
"In hacker trial, issues of theft and free access" March 01, 2012|By Milton J. Valencia
There is little doubt about what Ryan Harris did: He not only learned to hack computer cable modems to access free Internet service, he showed others how to do the same. He even wrote a book about it, called “Hacking the Cable Modem: What Cable Companies Don’t Want You to Know.’’
But prosecutors and the defense lawyer for Harris, 28, disagree on whether Harris should be held responsible not just for his own actions, but for others who used his information to steal Internet service and on whether it constitutes a federal crime.
Harris is charged with eight counts of wire fraud; prosecutors allege he used the Internet to carry out his scheme.
The case, playing out in federal court in Boston before Chief Judge Mark L. Wolf, highlights the clash between law enforcement and a movement that champions the free flow of information online. With jurors set to deliberate the case today, the trial is the latest example of prosecutors levying federal charges against a defendant for helping others get access to information on the Internet or to the Internet itself.
A guilty finding and a harsh sentence would be a high-profile warning for others not to follow suit, but an acquittal could support those who push for free access to the Internet.
Prosecutors see the crime in stark terms. “That man, Ryan Harris, built a $1 million business helping people steal,’’ Assistant US Attorney Mona Sedky told jurors last week, at the start of Harris’s trial in US District Court. “And they stole, and they stole, and they stole.’’
Didn't seem to matter much to you guys -- and still doesn't -- when it was/is Wall Street banks and war-profiteering "defense" companies.
During closing arguments yesterday, she said, “Ryan Harris engaged in a scheme to defraud the cable companies.’’
I don't think Mr. Harris was working for the government.
Harris’s lawyer, Charles P. McGinty, told jurors that Harris did indeed tamper with modems to learn how Internet service providers were regulating them. But, McGinty argued, his client should not be held responsible in a criminal court for what others did with the information.
“We’re here because of something that is or is not a crime,’’ McGinty said. “The government does not like the product Mr. Harris made, but indignation is not a criminal charge.’’
To access Internet service, Harris, who went by the moniker DerEngel, would modify, or uncap, a modem to remove the filters set up by the Internet service provider, allowing the modem to have a quicker Internet connection without the Internet service provider being able to throttle it. Harris would also clone other people’s modem addresses, or identification codes that Internet providers use to confirm that a user is a paid subscriber.
By some accounts, Harris’s modem-tampering had its roots in trying to upgrade Internet performance for his own use. Craig Phillips, a former business partner of Harris, testified last week that he first met Harris through the video gaming community and that they discussed ways to better Internet speed. At one party in Phoenix close to a decade ago, about 20 people tried to coordinate a video game together, but they did not have enough Internet speed. Harris showed him the manipulated modem.
“He felt the Internet should be free, and no one should have to pay for it,’’ Phillips said.
Similar cases have historically been settled in civil courts, with companies suing a hacker for copyright infringement, among other complaints, said legal analysts.
But, according to the analysts, the cases are increasingly making their way into criminal courts as the US Department of Justice and the companies - ranging from Internet service providers to online journal archives - seek stronger ways to deter the unlawful access to information the companies put on the Internet.
I bought this f***ing paper. That's the only reason I read this s***!
The US attorney’s office in Boston first created its cyber-crimes division in 2005.
“There’s an alleged theft of property from people who are losing their revenue and resources,’’ said Jerry Cohen, an attorney with Burns & Levinson of Boston who specializes in copyright, licensing, and publication law. “There’s a lot of investment in the infrastructure.’’
Like NEWSPAPERS that RAISED THEIR PRICE FOUR BITS this MONTH!??
In another case, prosecutors indicted a Cambridge web entrepreneur and political activist last July on charges of hacking into a subscription-based archive system at MIT and stealing more than 4 million articles, including scientific and academic journals.
I'm not for theft or hacking of any kind; however, if you want to spread my blog posts around....
Aaron Swartz, then 24, lobbied for the free flow of information on the Internet and said the articles should be made available to anyone. He faces charges of wire fraud, computer fraud, and unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer.
Sounds like fair use to me.
Cohen argued that in many cases the companies are asking the Department of Justice to bring criminal charges. But prosecutors, who have used the broad language of fraud laws to bring such cases, must not overreach.
Yes, America, YOUR GOVERNMENT does the BIDDING of CORPORATIONS!
“There’s a lot of room to act, and free speech does not cover everything,’’ he said. “There are certain [actions] that are criminal. But our countries should refrain from using criminal remedies until civil remedies prove to be inadequate.’’
Bill Pollock, founder of No Starch Press, the publisher of Harris’s book, questioned whether Harris ever committed a crime. Pollock said he did not regret publishing Harris’s book after seeing how it exposed ways Internet companies regulate the flow of Internet service and thus what people pay for it, through cable modem technology.
“What did he do that was illegal?’’ Pollock said....
--more--"
Related: Hacker convicted of stealing Internet access
