An official statement has been issued by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper regarding the “surveillance activities” performed by the NSA and the United States government. He reiterates that these activities “are lawful and conducted under authorities widely known and discussed, and fully debated and authorized by Congress. Their purpose is to obtain foreign intelligence information, including information necessary to thwart terrorist and cyber attacks against the United States and its allies.”

He says that the reason why the particulars have been kept secret is that they don’t want to “give our enemies a ‘playbook’ on how to avoid detection.” As such, “not all the inaccuracies can be corrected without further revealing classified information.” Even so, some more information was released today (PDF link) about the nature of PRISM.

PRISM is not an undisclosed collection or data mining program. It is an internal government computer system used to facilitate the government’s statutorily authorized collection of foreign intelligence information from electronic communication service providers under court supervision, as authorized by Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) (50 U.S.C. § 1881a). This authority was created by the Congress and has been widely known and publicly discussed since its inception in 2008.

Under Section 702 of FISA, the United States Government does not unilaterally obtain information from the servers of U.S. electronic communication service providers. All such information is obtained with FISA Court approval and with the knowledge of the provider based upon a written directive from the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence.

And they’re apparently not going around monitoring everyone per se, because the “Government cannot target anyone under the court-approved procedures for Section 702 collection unless there is an appropriate, and documented, foreign intelligence purpose for the acquisition. In addition, Section 702 cannot be used to intentionally target any U.S. citizen, or any other U.S. person, or to intentionally target any person known to be in the United States.”

Even though all sorts of telecommunications and online communications channels have opened up their data for the NSA’s perusal, Twitter is still holding back. Interestingly, several other companies say they have no knowledge of PRISM and the data mining either, including Apple and AOL, whereas others — like Facebook — say that when they are asked for specific information, they “carefully scrutinise any such request for compliance with all applicable laws, and provide information only to the extent required by law.”

What do you think of PRISM and everything we’ve learned about it recently? Should we be truly worried, or not? Share your thoughts below.

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AP, Reuters and The Guardian are all reporting that the White House has no issues with the National Security Agency (NSA) snooping through your phone records “on an ongoing daily basis.” More specifically, it is said that the NSA recently demanded Verizon to hand over the phone records for its customers, revealing “telephony metadata” like the source and destination phone numbers, as well as the time and duration of the call. They don’t get the actual conversation and they don’t get the names of the parties involved, but it wouldn’t be hard for them to connect certain phone numbers with certain people.

So, why is the Obama administration okay with this kind of invasion of privacy? They say it’s a “critical tool in protecting the nation from terrorist threats” and that this metadata “allows counter terrorism personnel to discover whether known or suspected terrorists have been in contact with other persons who may be engaged in terrorist activities, particularly people located inside the United States.”

For now, we’re only hearing that this applies to Verizon, but there’s nothing really stopping the NSA from going after “telephony metadata” from AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint and whoever else too. What are your thoughts on this? Is it okay for the government to snoop on your phone conversations? Is the supposed security of the nation worth this breach of privacy?

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Developed by Yves Behar and Jason Johnson, August is a new smart lock which can be unlocked using an Android or iOS app on your smartphone via Bluetooth. The sleek looking device attaches to your deadbolt and it does not have a direct internet connection, so it’s less vulnerable to hacks.

There are virtual keys which you can send to your relatives or friends to allow them access to your house while you are away. The device also keeps track of the comings and goings of people. August runs on four standard AAs which will reportedly allow it to run for between six months and a year, and it’s also coming with a regular key just in case the battery dies.

The only problem is that not all devices are supported as it uses Bluetooth 4.0. You will need to own an iPhone 4S (or newer), or a third-gen iPad or the “latest model Android devices”. They haven’t announced which all Android models are supported. As you might know, this is not the only lock out there that interacts with a phone. There is also Kwikset’s Kevo, which can connect to an iPhone 4S or 5.

Although August can be used by anyone, it will most probably be more popular among vacation rentals. It will ship later this year for $199. Are you interested in getting one for yourself?

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The post August: Open Your Door With Your Smartphone (Video) appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Right now, we are at the verge of major innovations in mobile tech, robotic tech, nanotech and countless other breakthroughs. It is an exciting time, but potentially a scary time as well.

As robots and AI continue to advance, there will be some very real concerns regarding both privacy and ethics. Speaking at Google’s Big Tent conference in London this week, several knowledgeable experts in robotics came together to discuss the future of robots, particularly focusing on the moral side of things.

The group was made up of Jon Snow (moderator), Bertolt Meyer from the University of Zurich, Observer columnist Carole Cadwalladr and Noel Sharkey, part of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots and robotics and AI expert at University of Sheffield.

Some of the big questions asked were how will robotic tech further change society, and who will determine what we should and shouldn’t do.

According to Meyer:

“I visited a lab in southern California where they are creating a chip that will go in people’s brains to restore memory function in Alzheimer’s patients. Now when they put this chip in healthy rats, they got a super rat with excellent memory. I asked one of the scientists working on this for 30 years, should we be doing this with humans? He says, ‘I don’t know’. The ethical implications hadn’t occurred to him.”

While each side obviously had different opinions about the future of these advanced technologies, ultimately they all agreed that scientists are probably not the ones who should decide on the ethics of engineering autonomous robots. But then who should? A good question.

Meyer continues:

“Business people aren’t the best to answer these questions either — as soon as there’s money to be made, lots of questions you or I ask will be put aside. Now they are niche products, but if they become available to the mass market through augmenting human capabilities, it could become profitable”.

According to Sharkey, “science should be allowed to progress, but we shouldn’t be caught off-guard the way we were with the internet”.

Sharkey commented:

“It’s always humans making the decision to kill people, and it’s crucial for laws of warfare that we can separate competence and civilians. No one will be held accountable otherwise”.

Ultimately, it is about handling regulation on the governmental level. As well as just having everyday people understanding the ethics of what they should or shouldn’t do with the tech.

Robotic Tech Opens the Door to Both Good and Bad

But of course there are good and bad things about these tech advances. Meyer was talking about how he feels about his artificial hand, without wearing which he feels “super incapacitated”. With advancements in robotic limbs, devices that can help people see/hear and other enhancement tech – we have the potential to truly impact lives in a positive way.

Unfortunately, there are also negative implications here. “When it comes to enhancement, we have to worry about it ethically. Will we get a society where people are forced to [replace healthy limbs] otherwise they won’t get a job?” says Sharkely.
Then there is the idea that not everyone will be able to afford such tech, further dividing classes.

As Cadwalladr puts it:

“The tools by themselves are wonderful, but the way we use technology is not symmetrical. Those who have more money will become super mortals. When I saw Sergei Brin with his Google Glasses at a Ted conference, he went on this game with Emotiv technology that shows your mental focus. Sergei leapt to the top of the leader board. I did pretty average. Sergei is highly intelligent already, but if I put the glasses on and they won’t increase my abilities”.

Snow also seems to believe that inequality arises with the advancement of technology. Cadwalladr and Sharkey also talked about the good and bad sides of using robots as assistants in hospitals and care homes.

“They’re talking about using them as nursing assistants or elder care — but doesn’t that take away from our humanity? Isn’t it better for people to talk to people,” said Cadwalladr. Sharkey is worried about “human dignity; accountability”. There are certainly many questions about what robotics will mean for the future. There are tons of positives on the horizon, but there are real concerns as well. So how do we proceed? We need to start seriously talking and regulating now.

The future is coming, now we just need to be ready for it. What do you think about the future of robotics and AI? Who should be regulating these technologies and making the bigger ethical decisions relating to them?

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The post Killer Robots, Super AI: Who Controls the Ethics Behind Innovation? appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

A 2012 study done by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration suggests that an average of 38 small children die each year in the US alone, due to heatstroke after being left unattended inside a hot parked car. There are some systems to prevent this problem, but three engineering undergrads from Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins University have come out with a unique solution.

Anshul Mehra, Yejin Kim and Jeffrey Kamei (seen in the above image from left to right) have turned the Microsoft Kinect into a safety system. It will utilize the Kinect’s ability to detect even the smallest movements, like those of a sleeping baby.

After more development the final product could be built into a car and would become active once the car is parked. If the temperature inside the vehicle rises above a limit with an occupant in it, the system could make sounds or notify the police or a service such as OnStar. And since the window glass blocks infrared light, the system will not detect movements outside the vehicle.

But, of course, if the parents are a bit more careful, they won’t have to rely on technology to look after their children. Yet, since some people are fond of learning things the very hard way, incorporating such a system into future cars could be the only way to save a lot of lives.

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The post Microsoft Kinect Becomes A Life-Saving Device appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

BlackBerry devices have always been marketed as being very secure. It looks like the Department of Defense agrees. The DoD has officially approved the use of BlackBerry 10 devices, including the full lineup of the Z10, Q10 and the PlayBook, on its network.

This approval has come after earlier reports that the DoD was going to approve Apple iOS devices and some Samsung Galaxy handsets. While iOS 6 devices are expected to join BlackBerry 10 devices in being allowed in the next two weeks, devices running Samsung Knox, the South Korean company’s enterprise mobile solution, have already got the green light.

The Knox was earlier expected to be available with the S4, but later reports have pointed to the feature being available only by July. Samsung is certainly making a good effort, but BlackBerry is still the best when it comes to security.

Scott Totzke, SVP, BlackBerry Security at BlackBerry says: “BlackBerry 10 is ideal for our government customers because it offers a rich, highly responsive mobile computing experience, along with BlackBerry’s proven and validated security model – a combination that’s unmatched in the industry. This approval will enable DoD customers to connect their BlackBerry Z10 or BlackBerry Q10 smartphones to DoD networks and securely access assets from work, while enjoying the wealth of consumer-oriented functionality that BlackBerry 10 brings to market”.

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The Pwnium 3 competition was hosted as part of the CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver. Google offered up $3.14159 million (“Pi money”), but no one was able to emerge as the winning entry. The competition was with the newest version of Chrome OS running on a base Samsung Series 5 500 Chromebook. If they were able to achieve a browser or system level compromise delivered via a web page, they’d get $110,000. If they were able to get a compromise with device persistence, guest to guest with interim reboot, also delivered through a web page, the prize would be $150,000.

With that much money on the line, no one could do that. That’s got to be a pat on the back for Google. To be fair, they are currently “evaluating some work that may qualify as partial credit.” This is one of the smarter ways to go about things, because it helps to reveal potential vulnerabilities that Google can then address as quickly as possible.

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The post No One Can Hack Chrome OS at Pwnium 3 appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

In the past Google has taken a lot of flak over the amount of data they collect on their users.  This would be a goldmine in the wrong hands, which makes us curious how much info Google willing releases to law enforcement.  The answer? Apparently Google is pretty tight lipped about what they know about you, unless all the T’s are crossed and the I’s dotted.

According to Google’s legal team if an inquiry is received from the Feds or law enforcement in regards to getting access to your email account, they first make sure the request is a legal and lawful request.  Once that has been determined, they will analyze the scope of the request, making sure they are not asking for too much.  If they are, Google will reply asking them to narrow their scope of investigation or outright refuse the request.  They will do none of this without a valid, signed, search warrant.  And finally if an inquiry is received, Google will notify you of the inquiry so you may seek appropriate legal counsel.

All this is quite refreshing and I hope Google isn’t just fluffing our skirts, but it appears they are looking out for the little guy.  This should put those at ease that were worried about just how much Google really knows about you!

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The post How Google Handles Requests From the Feds appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

While the Instagram API uses both non-secure HTTP and secure HTTPs connections, the weird thing is that it uses the non-secure path for your account’s authentication. All it does is store a standard cookie on your device, sent without encryption. What this means is that if you’re using an unsecure connection, like public Wi-Fi at Starbucks, someone could potentially intercept that cookie and use it to authenticate themselves into your account.

The hacker can then utilize a variety of API calls to do all sorts of nasty things with your Instagram account, deleting your #foodporn pics with ease. The sad thing is that the person who discovered this security hole contacted Instagram about it, but hasn’t heard anything back. The solution is actually pretty simple on Instagram’s part: start using secure, encrypted cookies instead.

In the meantime, the actual threat level is pretty low, since it’s unlikely the guy at Starbucks is going to try and hack into your Instagram account, but you should be aware that the threat is there.

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The post Security Threat: Unencrypted Cookies in Instagram iOS App appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

In some ways, you could think of the human brain as a complex computer. And like any complex computer, with the right resources, it can be hacked. And now, researchers have apparently figured out a backdoor hack into the human brain, gaining access to your most private of information.

This comes by way of researchers from the Universities of Geneva, California (Berkeley) and Oxford. They connected a number of students with an off-the-shelf Emotive brain-computer interface (BCI). This device measures brain wave activity and through analysis of this data, scientists are able to glean some information for you. More specifically, they looked at the P300 brain signal.

When there is a target stimulus, the P300 signal spikes in recognition. For example, they might get the students to start thinking about the PIN code they have for their debit card and they start showing the different digits on a screen. Even on a subconscious level, the student’s P300 will spike when a familiar number (like the first digit in their PIN) is displayed. Researchers say that through this kind of methodology, they’re able to reduce the entropy (random data) by 10 to 40 percent, resulting in “marked improvements over random guessing.”

There’s more work to be done and the methodology is far from perfect, but it goes to show you that your brain can be “hacked” and your brain waves are already betraying your innermost secrets.

[Source]

Photo Credit: Mondolithic Studios

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