HOT: Google, Facebook, Microsoft Coalition Hires Lobby Firm to Fight NSA Surveillance

Tech companies are taking the battle against NSA surveillance a step further. A while back AOL, Apple, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Twitter and Yahoo teamed up to create the “Reform Government Surveillance” coalition and now they’re taking action. 
The new coalition hired Monument Policy Group to handle their lobbying efforts to put an end to mass surveillance, especially since all the media reports on the topic have done no favors to their businesses and credibility. 

The companies asked nicely for reform of the surveillance policies and while the US government agreed to take some action, ultimately, the changes were superficial. 

According to a statement made by Barack Obama recently, the metadata collection program will continue, but there would be two fundamental changes – the NSA would no longer keep the data and the agency would need court orders to access any of the records. 

As many have said ever since then, the reform doesn’t really actually change much, since the FISA court is the one who will issue the court orders. Considering the fact that the court hasn’t rejected a request from the NSA in years, it’s easy to understand why the reforms won’t really be effective in protecting users’ privacy. 

Also, most recently, the companies protested against the new policy change in regards to what data regarding government surveillance they can include in theis Transparency Reports. Although the tech companies are now allowed to share information about the number of FISA requests they receive, they can only do so in bands of 1,000, something that is unacceptable to them. 

Since asking nicely hasn’t really paid off, the companies are now taking a more aggressive stance and are resorting to heavy lobbying. None of the aforementioned companies is a stranger to lobbying in Washington and since there’s been some individual results, they hope that uniting their powers will pay off. 

(taken from Softpedia)

Kali Linux: Rebirth of BackTrack

Whats New in Kali Linux?

"Since BackTrack discontinued, the only distribution we can choose is Kali!"

Enter Kali Linux

“So, what’s the difference between BackTrack and Kali?” you might be asking. Unfortunately for us, that’s not a simple question to answer. It’s a mix between “everything” and “not much”, depending on how you used BackTrack.

From an end user perspective, the most obvious change would be the switch to Debian and an FHS-compliant system. What this means is that instead of having to navigate through the /pentest tree, you will be able to call any tool from anywhere on the system as every application is included in the system path. However, there’s much hidden magic in that last sentence. I’ll quickly list some of the new benefits of this move.

Streaming Security and Package Updates From Debian

Our new streamlined repositories synchronize with the Debian repositories 4 times a day, constantly providing you with the latest package updates and security fixes available.

Debian Compliant Packaging of Each Tool in Kali

This is where we’ve been spending most of our time and effort. Relentlessly packaging dozens of useful tools, painstakingly making sure our packages are Debian compliant.

Long Term Packaging and Maintenance of High Profile Tools

Many of the tools in our toolbox need to be “bleeding edge”. This means we have take on the task of packaging and maintaining upstream versions of many tools, so that our users are constantly kept up to date where it matters.

Streamlined Development Process

As our source packages are now also Debian compliant, you can quickly and easily get the required sources of each tool, then modify and rebuild them with a couple of commands.

Bootstrap Builds and ISO Customizations

One of the many benefits of our move to a Debian compliant system, is the ability to Bootstrap a Kali Installation/ISO directly from our repositories. This means that you can easily build your own customizations of Kali, as well as perform enterprise network installs from a local or remote repository.

Automating Kali Installations

Kali Linux installations can now be automated using pre-seed files. This allows for enterprise wide customization and deployment on multiple systems.

Real ARM Development

BackTrack 5 brought with it new support for ARM hardware. Our ARM build-bot was a modified Motorola Xoom tablet, which suffice to say, didn’t last for long. To help remedy this, Offensive Security has donated a Calxeda ARM cluster to our project, allowing reliable and long term development of Kali Linux ARM images.

Complete Desktop Environment Flexibility.

Our new build and repository environments allow for complete flexibility in generating your own updated Kali ISOs, with any desktop environment you like. Do you prefer KDE? LXDE? XFCE? Anything else? Then change your Kali desktop environment yourself.

Seamless Upgrades Between Future Major Versions

Another benefit derived from the move to a Debian compliant system is the ability to seamlessly upgrade future major version of Kali. No longer will you have to reinstall your penetration testing machine due a new version of Kali coming out.

With all these changes (and many more), you can see why we’re so excited about this release. Go ahead and give Kali a spin. Head on to the documentation area for some setup guides, and then over to our forums and join the new Kali community!

(taken from Kali Linux)

Tor Browser: Stay Anonymous

The Tor software protects you by bouncing your communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world: it prevents somebody watching your Internet connection from learning what sites you visit, it prevents the sites you visit from learning your physical location, and it lets you access sites which are blocked.

The Tor Browser Bundle lets you use Tor on Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux without needing to install any software. It can run off a USB flash drive, comes with a pre-configured web browser to protect your anonymity, and is self-contained.

Download it now to stay anonymous while you surfing or diving the web!

https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en

PirateBrowser: A Browser with Privacy Guardian

PirateBrowser - No more censorship!

PirateBrowser is a bundle package of the Tor client (Vidalia), FireFox Portable browser (with foxyproxy addon) and some custom configs that allows you to circumvent censorship that certain countries such as Iran, North Korea, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Denmark, Italy and Ireland impose onto their citizens.
This is how it looks like:

Use your right in privacy now!
Download: http://piratebrowser.com/

WARNING: GCHQ and NSA Turned "Angry Birds" and Other Apps Into Smartphone Spying Tools

All those cool apps you have installed on your smartphone are probably making it easy for intelligence agencies to spy on you. 

According to a new report coming from The Guardian in partnership with New York Times and ProPublica, the NSA and GCHQ regularly harvest sensitive personal data from phone apps that transmit user data across the web, including the extremely popular game “Angry Birds.” 

It doesn’t even matter what type of phone you have, since the agencies can crack open all operating systems, whether it’s iOS, Android, Windows Phone or Symbian, although they each present a different challenge. 

By using this method, the intelligence agencies get information such as details about the smartphone you’re using, along with data such as your age, gender and location, political affiliation, and sexual orientation. 

It looks like the NSA and the GCHQ “piggyback” their way into phones via third-party advertisements that get onto the device when an app is downloaded. Mixing the advertisements with the geolocation data embedded in images when someone uploads anything on social media aids the intelligence agencies to locate someone’s exact position. 

It also looks like the photos uploaded to social media via a mobile device are a “perfect scenario” for the NSA since it gives them access to so much information. What type of information? Well, The Guardian makes a list: home country, marital status, income, ethnicity, sexual orientation, education level and number of children. 

An even more sophisticated tool that the agencies have involves intercepting Google map queries from smartphones. A 2008 GCHQ file notes that this “effectively means that anyone using Google maps on a smartphone is working in support of a GCHQ system.”

The GCHQ’s targeted tools for smartphones are named after characters in The Smurfs. For instance, “Nosey Smurf” can turn your phone into a listening device for the agency, “Tracker Smurf” will get your exact location, while “Dreamy Smurf” will activate a phone that is apparently turned off. 

Given the wide reach of these tools handled by the intelligence agencies, it should be impossible for them to claim that they’re looking for terrorists and not commercial secrets or incredibly personal information for various purposes.

(taken from Softpedia)

Minecraft Sold over 14 Million Units on PC/Mac, Totaling More than 35 Million Overall

Minecraft creator Markus Persson announced over the weekend that the PC/Mac edition of his creation has topped the 14 million units sales mark.

The Twitter announcement comes as no surprise, as the PlayStation version of Minecraft has sold more than 1 million copies in just five weeks since its launch, and the Xbox 360 version managed to sell over 10 million units since its release, as did the Pocket Edition, making for an aggregate of around 35 million sales.

Minecraft, in short, is a game about breaking blocks in one area in order to place them in another, in a more orderly fashion. Initially designed as a sort of sandbox/survival game, it has quickly evolved into a cultural phenomenon that forever changed the gaming world and elucidated the mystery of who built the pyramids: its players.

Minecraft is currently available on PC, Mac, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and its Pocket Edition can be downloaded for iOS and Android.

(taken from Softpedia, http://news.softpedia.com/news/Minecraft-Sold-Over-14-Million-Units-on-PC-Mac-Totaling-More-than-35-Million-Overall-423093.shtml)

Minecraft is a survival game..