Old news articles that are still interesting today. (USA Today - 22 Feb 2016)

(image source: http://www.usatoday.com/)

EX-CIA CHIEF: APPLE IS RIGHT

• Michael Hayden, 4 star general and former CIA Director
• Hayden as director was head of the program implemented by the NSA to (without warrant) spy on its own citizens & collected telephone metadata.
• Hayden is now saying that he opposes proposals to FORCE Apple and other tech firms to install "back doors" so as the to make it easier to bypass security settings and possibly your private encryption keep, if you have your phone encrypted, you should!
• "In a court battle over the access to information on the iPhone owned by one of the San Bernardino attackers, Hayden says 'the burden of proof is on Apple" to show that limited cooperation with investigators would open the door to broader privacy invasions." (No shit)
• Apple isn't just asked to decrypt the iPhone but to to OVERRIDE the OS so investigators can crack any passwords by brute force
• The FBI "would like a back door available to American Law Enforcement (LE) IN ALL DEVICES GLOBALLY. And frankly, I think on balance that actually HARMS American safety and security even though it might make (The FBI's) job a bit easier in certain circumstances. (Emphasis added)
• My belief is that Hayden is saying it could cause more harm than good the the US Population is because if this is in place and becomes standard it isn't just the government that will have access to the these vulnerabilities. Criminals, the government(s) and by rare occurrence one could just "stumble" into someone's information with just a little bit of tech know-how.
• Hayden is the only person to to head both the super-secret NSA & CIA... (the shit he must know...wow)
• A Federal District Court Judge in California (of course) ordered Apple to bypass security measures on the iPhone5c used by Syed Rizawn Farook.
  **- IN A DEFIANT PUBLIC LETTER APPLE CEO Tim Cook SAID THE COMPANY WOULDN'T COMPLY. **
  This case is about much more than a single phone or a single investigation, so when we received the government’s order we knew we had to speak out,” Cook wrote in the email. “At stake is the data security of hundreds of millions of law-abiding people, and setting a dangerous precedent that threatens everyone’s civil liberties.”!
• Hayden: "Look, I used to run the NSA, OK? Please, please, Lord, put back back doors in, because ... that back door will make it easier for me to do what to do. ... But when you step back and look and look at the whole question of American security and safety writ large, we are a safer, more secure nation without back doors. [With them] a lot of other people would take advantage of it." (Did I not call that earlier?)

Congress looks to boost email privacy, increase scrutiny of social media

• Congress is moving towards citizen's email privacy while monitoring social media more.
• In March is set to update a 30yr old electronic privacy law (yes 3 decade old law has not been updated to keep up with current technology and Moore's Law) that allows government agents to read Americans' emails without warrant as long as they are 6 months old (What? 6 months new would make more sense... ex post facto)
  REASONING: The 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act considers old emails to be "abandoned" and allows government investigators to peruse them at will.
• Bi-partisan Email Privacy Act, which would update the law to require gov't agents to get a warrant before searching anyone's emails, regardless of when the email was sent or whether it was ever opened. More than 300 of the 435 Huse members have signed-on as co-sponsors.
• "If someone uses ISIS in a tweet are they a terrorist?" (They could just really like the FX cartoon Archer, where the spy agency's name is ISIS and predates the emergence of the terrorist group.)
  

Other articles related and not:

- Tech Industry slowly rallies behind Apple
-- "Forcing companies to enable hacking could compromise user's privacy" - Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google

- Split Opinion On Apple-FBI Standoff
-- Who do you side with in this issue: (margin of error: 4%) 41% are with Apple, 51% side with the FBI.
-- Those 51%, are retarded, and are mistaking transparency for for safety & security but in the end it will expose everyone more than wanted.
-- "Data is the new oil. Companies do not want to freak out people about the security of their data," - Crawford Del Prete, chief research at market researcher IDC

- Big-business audits hit 10-yr low
-- Audit revenue collection: $7.23B lowest since 2002
-- Large corp audit rate: 11.15% lowest in 10 years
-- Tax-exempt org. audit rate: 0.81% lowest in 10 years
-- Toll-free assistence level (calling into the IRS for help) 38% lowest in 10 years