The FBI Paid $1 MILLLLLION to Unmask Tor Users

The non-profit Tor Project has accused the FBI of paying the security researchers of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) at least $1 Million to disclose the technique they had discovered that could help them…

Unmask Tor users as well as Reveal their IP addresses as part of a criminal investigation.

As evidence, the Tor Project points to the cyber attack that it discovered last year in July.

The team discovered more than hundred new Tor relays that modified Tor protocol headers to track people who were looking for Hidden Services – web servers hosted on Tor that offers more privacy.

The Evidence

The unknown attackers used a combination of nodes and exit relays, along with some vulnerabilities in the Tor network protocol that let them uncovered users' real IP addresses.

The attack reportedly began in February 2014 and ran until July 2014, when the Tor Project discovered the vulnerability. Within few days, the team updated its software and rolled out new versions of code to block similar attacks in the future.

But who was behind this serious ethical breach was a mystery until the talk from Carnegie Mellon University's Michael McCord and Alexander Volynkin on de-anonymizing Tor users was cancelled at last year’s Black Hat hacking conference with no explanation.

UnMasking Tor Using Just $3,000 of Hardware

The Carnegie Mellon talk detailed a new way to "de-anonymize hundreds of thousands of Tor [users] and thousands of Hidden Services [underground sites] within a couple of months" using just $3,000 of hardware.

The researchers were going to prove their technique with examples of their own workaround identifying "suspected child pornographers and drug dealers."

However, after the ongoing attack on Tor network was discovered in July last year, the talk was abruptly canceled and suspicions were aroused that their techniques were used in the attacks discovered by the Tor Project.

The Tor Project also says the researchers stopped answering their emails, which made them more convinced of who was behind the attack – Carnegie Mellon's Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT).

Source : hackernews.com

You can now try Firefox OS 2.5 on your Android smartphone

Mozilla launched Firefox OS 2.5 Developer Preview earlier today, and is now offering the operating system as an app on Android. The experimental app replaces several elements of the Android homescreen with Firefox's web-based offering, and even comes with a set of system apps for phone calls, messages, emails, and even an app store. Think of it as a launcher with a set of bundled apps.

Here's the breakdown of what's new in Firefox OS 2.5:

Add-ons: Just like the add-ons we've come to love in desktop browsers, Firefox OS add-ons can extend just one app, several, or all of them, including the system app itself.

Private Browsing with Tracking Protection: A new Firefox privacy feature, Tracking Protection allows users to control how their browsing activity is tracked across many sites.

Pin the Web: Pin the Web removes the artificial distinction between web apps and web sites and lets you pin any web site or web page to your home screen for later usage.

Mozilla mentions that it employed workarounds to provide a consistent user experience to those on Android, and as such you'll find that the Android navigation buttons are overlaid atop the UI. However, you can't use the back button for navigation, as Firefox OS employs a single home button.

Given the nature of the app, it is available as a directly downloadable APK from the link below. Should you like what you see, you can also flash the OS on your handset.

Source : androidcentral.com

Sens. Grassley, Durbin launch new H-1B fight

Two of the Senate's leading H-1B reformers, Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), say abuse of the H-1B visa "is real" and the need for reform urgent. On Tuesday they introduced a new reform bill they say will protect U.S. workers.

"The H-1B visa program was never meant to replace qualified American workers, but it was instead intended as a means to fill gaps in highly specialized areas of employment that cannot be filled by Americans," said Grassley, in a statement.

Grassley said the "abuse of the system is real, and media reports are validating what we have argued against for years, including the fact that Americans are training their replacements," he said.

"There's a sense of urgency here for Americans who are losing their jobs to lesser skilled workers who are coming in at lower wages on a visa program that has gotten away from its original intent. Reform of the H-1B visa program must be a priority," said Grassley.

As with a previous bill, this latest effort, "The H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act," will require all employers who seek to hire an H-1B worker "to first make a good faith effort to recruit American workers."

This bill "explicitly prohibits the replacement of American workers by H-1B or L-1 visa holders," said the senators, in a joint statement.

A new provision will prioritize the annual allocation of H-1B visas. The large IT services companies that offshore jobs have been receiving more than half of the annual visa allotment, hurting the chances of employers trying to hire smaller numbers of workers.

This bill will give U.S. graduates preference in the visa distribution. "The preference system also gives a leg up to advanced degree holders, those being paid a high wage, and those with valuable skills," they wrote.

The 58-page bill was just released and it remains to be seen how effective or controversial these proposals will be.

The bill also includes limits on large IT outsourcers, which would be prohibited from hiring H-1B workers if more than 50% of their employees are on H-1B or L-1 visas.

The Department of Labor would also get more authority to investigate and audit employers, and users will be required to provide "extensive statistical data" about the H-1B program. There has never been government data released, for instance, on the gender of H-1B workers. The program is believed to be predominately male.

Grassley, who heads the Senate Judiciary Committee, can ensure that this legislation gets a hearing, but he faces strong headwinds from the tech industry and U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the number two person in the Senate. Hatch, citing concerns by the tech industry, fought Grassley over H-1B reforms two years ago during the debate on Senate's comprehensive immigration bill.

Hatch is sponsoring the I-Squared bill, which would raise the base H-1B cap from 65,000 to 195,000. Sen. Blumenthal is a co-sponsor of the I-Square, but his support of the new Grassley/Durbin bill may be a sign that his views about I-Squared are changing.

There's also potential for additional competing bills. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) says he is working on an H-1B reform bill.

Source : computerworld.com

Logitech's iPad Pro keyboard case is relatively affordable

Apple's iPad Pro is pricey even before you add in the $169 official keyboard case, but Logitech may have a way to make the whole package a little more palatable. It's now shipping its promised Create Keyboard Case for the gigantic tablet, and the add-on will sell for a slightly more frugal $150. It only works at two angles, but you'll get perks like backlit keys, automatic pairing (thanks to the Smart Connector) and a raft of iOS shortcuts. And if you don't want to turn your iPad into a makeshift laptop, there's an $80 Create Protective case that ditches the keyboard in return for a more flexible stand. Either shell is available in black, blue or red, so you're not stuck with somber colors on your giant slate.

Source : engadget.com

DreamLab app to help speed up cancer research

Vodafone Foundation and The Garvan Institute of Medical Research have launched an app called DreamLab, which helps speed up cancer research. Designed by B2Cloud, the app is free to download, and is initially available on Android, but will be launched on iOS soon. Vodafone claims that the app has been built to convert any smartphone into a supercomputer.

When a smartphone is plugged in and is completely charged, the DreamLab app will automatically download a small part of genetic sequencing profiles. These profiles are stored by the Garvan Institute on Amazon Web Services’ locally hosted cloud. This information is processed by the smartphone, and results are then sent back to the institute, which can be used for research. Users can also choose which cancer research they wish to support, namely, breast, ovarian, prostate, and pancreatic. They can also select how much mobile data they wish to use each month. Vodafone has waived the data fees for its users in Australia.

Vodafone Australia CEO, Inaki Berroeta told ZDNet, “When we heard about the challenges that the Garvan Institute were having when it came to buying computing power to do all this data-intensive research, that's when we thought about what if we connected millions of smartphones that are idle at night, and we create this supercomputer. We could have [used computers] but given the millions of smartphones that are connected to our network, there is much more computing power than any computer. Also, you can see nowadays a smartphone has a computing power that is almost equivalent to a PC.” The CEO of the Garvan Institute explained that the initial goal will be to see 100,000 smartphone users download and use the DreamLab app. It is expected that this will help crunch data 3,000 times faster than the current rate.

Source : digit.in

Google Considers Building Its Own Android Phone

Starting from its operating system, then its processor to device design, Google now wants to handle everything on its own. In an attempt to make Android more competitive with Apple, which has complete control over its software and hardware for iOS devices, the internet giant is again debating the idea of building an Android phone, unlike the Nexus models, which are co-developed by its manufacturing partners.

According to the Information company's executives are currently discussing the idea of building a phone. Apart from this, there is not much known about the hardware or the release. Google's new strategy surfaces more than a year after the company sold Motorola to Lenovo for $2.91 billion (£1.91bn), while retaining the majority of Motorola's patent to use it for its Android ecosystem.

Starting from the first Nexus handset − Nexus One − released in 2010, to the latest models and even the tablets, all are manufactured by the original equipment manufacturers, such as HTC, Samsung, LG, Motorola and Huawei. Building its own phone would mean Google would have more liberty to implement its own design and control over its devices.

Google seems to be quite serious about its own designed products to challenge Apple, which is its major market rival. Recently, Google has been reported to be in talks with microchip manufacturers for co-development of chips to power its Android phones. The chips would enable new features with Android software. While there are not many details on when exactly we can see these changes, Google is believed to be planning to implement new features within Android software sometime in 2016.

Source : techgignews.com

US spy agency to end bulk call data collection by end Nov.

WASHINGTON: The U.S. National Security Agency is ready to end later this month collecting Americans' domestic call records in bulk and move to a more targeted system, meeting a legislative deadline imposed earlier this year, according to a government memo seen by Reuters.

The memo, sent on Monday from the NSA to relevant committees in the U.S. Congress, stated that the spy agency "has successfully developed a technical architecture to support the new program" in time for it to become operational as scheduled on Nov. 29.

In stating the program's progress and the NSA's intent to use the new system, the memo appeared to rebut claims by Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, a Republican security hawk, who told Reuters last week that he anticipated the new program would never be used because it was overly cumbersome and slow.

Congress passed legislation earlier this year that brought an end to the NSA’s indiscriminate gathering of U.S. phone metadata, a practice exposed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden more than two years ago.

The legislation, known as the USA Freedom Act, called for a six-month transition period after which the NSA could only access targeted data from telephone providers with judicial approval.

"While our work is not yet complete, testing of internal systems functionality at both NSA and the telecommunications providers has begun, and exchanges of test files with the providers are under way," the NSA’s memo read.

It added that it would be ready to begin the new system on Nov. 29 and that the NSA plans to provide further updates in early 2016 about the program's implementation in addition to "a comparison between operations under new program and those under the soon-to-expire bulk collection program."

Earlier on Monday, a U.S. federal judge ordered the NSA to stop collecting the call records of a lawyer and his firm, a narrow and largely symbolic victory for privacy advocates that does not affect the scheduled shut down of the full program later this month.

Source : channelnewsasia.com