Next Tuesday is the day Australians must fill in—correctly—their census forms, or face a fine. However, many may be willing to take that risk as the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) will rather extraordinarily be storing names and addresses in addition to the usual census results.
Previous census forms have collected this information, but respondents were allowed to opt-in to having personally identifiable information retained. This time, the ABS wants to keep the information on record until 2020.
Source: Ars Technica
How Attackers Can Use Radio Signals and Mobile Phones to Steal Protected Data:
Computers housing the world’s most sensitive data are usually “air-gapped” or isolated from the internet. They’re also not connected to other systems that are internet-connected, and their Bluetooth feature is disabled, too. Sometimes, workers are not even allowed to bring mobile phones within range of the computers. All of this is done to keep important data out of the hands of remote hackers.
But these security measures may be futile in the face of a new technique researchers in Israel have developed for stealthily extracting sensitive data from isolated machines—using radio frequency signals and a mobile phone.
Source: Wired
Your deleted WhatsApp messages might not be as ‘deleted’ as you thought:
WhatsApp brought you the two-tick (so you can’t hide the fact that you’ve received a message) and then the blue ticks (so you can’t hide the fact that you’ve read a message).
In April - despite much controversy following the San Bernadino attack, in which the FBI had paid almost £1 million to unlock the iPhone used by one of the shooters - WhatsApp went ahead with end-to-end encryption.
This means that while you can’t hide your ghosting antics from the person in question, you can hide your messages from third parties.
But according to a new blog post by Jonathan Zdziarski, who specialises in Apple software, an iOS device might actually still store your “deleted” messages.
Source: indy100.independent.co.uk
Microsoft’s president explains the company’s quiet legal war for user privacy
Apple’s legal battle over encryption dominated headlines earlier this year, but another tech giant is fighting a quieter legal war over user privacy: Microsoft. It won a major victory last week, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit sided with the company, ruling that a U.S. warrant could not be used to force Microsoft to turn over email data stored in an Irish data center. The decision, which the Justice Department is considering appealing to the Supreme Court, could have major implications for tech companies who routinely move data around the world so it can be backed up or quickly accessed by users.
Big Privacy Ruling Says Feds Can’t Grab Data Abroad With a Warrant:
An appeals court just sent the American Justice Department a clear message about its ability to reach beyond US borders to collect data with a search warrant: Keep your hands to yourself.
Source: Wired
How to protect your identity playing Pokémon Go:
Let’s be honest: If you’re a secret agent, you’re probably staying far away from Pokémon Go because of its location-tracking gameplay.
But not everyone in the intelligence community may be able to escape the allure of catching ‘em all. Luckily for them, Mercyhurst University intelligence studies professor Kristan J. Wheaton recently posted a privacy tip list on his blog that he reports was shared with him by an intelligence source.
Regardless of its origin, the list includes some practical advice for players worried about their privacy — as well as some basic safety tips, such as staying aware of your surroundings, only getting the game from official app stores, and not playing while driving.
Source: Washington Post
Big Privacy Ruling Says Feds Can’t Grab Data Abroad With a Warrant:
An appeals court just sent the American Justice Department a clear message about its ability to reach beyond US borders to collect data with a search warrant: Keep your hands to yourself.
Source: Wired
UK Police Accessed Civilian Data for Fun and Profit, New Report Says:
More than 800 UK police staff inappropriately accessed personal information between June 2011 and December 2015, according to a report from activist group Big Brother Watch.
The report says some police staff used their access to a growing trove of police data, which includes personal information on civilians, for entertainment and personal and financial gain. […]
In several notable incidents, one Metropolitan Police officer found the name of a victim so funny that he attempted to take a photo of the driving license and send it to his friend over Snapchat. A Greater Manchester Police officer tipped someone off that they would be arrested, and one from North Yorkshire Police conducted a check on a vehicle on his phone whilst off-duty.
Source: Vice Magazine
How to protect your data in hotels, airports and other public spaces when traveling
Although it may be convenient to use, free, public, unsecured WiFi — such as those found in some hotels, airports and coffee shops — is the least secure. Criminals have been using them to easily steal your information, potentially hijacking your device and possibly your life through these unprotected networks.
And these criminals are employing hard-to-notice tactics, such as sniffers and official-looking network names, to accomplish all of this.
“Gone are the days where you would have to be a computer engineer to hack into people’s devices via WiFi,” says Ryan Wright, an associate professor of information systems at the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. “Now any semi-tech-savvy person can download an application and track any unencrypted traffic on the WiFi connection.”