RIP Michael Hastings, journalist (June 18)
 

[This could also go in the RIP thread in Lounge, but seems a better fit here.]

Here is [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Hastings_(journalist)]Wikipedia[/url], which explains the relevance to this particular thread:
[quote]Hastings became a vocal critic of the surveillance state during the investigation of reporters by the US Department of Justice in 2013, referring to the restrictions on the freedom of the press by the Obama administration as a "war" on journalism.[5] His last story, "Why Democrats Love To Spy On Americans", was published by BuzzFeed on June 7.[6] Hastings died in a fiery high-speed automobile crash on June 18, 2013 in Los Angeles, California.[7][/quote]
There are apparently "conspiracy theories gone wild" regarding his death, but based on the circumstances around his death it's possible Hastings' belief that he was being followed led to him to try to "drop his pursuers" (real or imagined). OTOH, in a piece about the proliferating conspiracy theories, [url=https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/conspiracy-theories-abound-michael-hastings-death-article-1.1377392]this NY Daily News piece[/url] notes that Hastings was quite used to getting death threats, and treated that as part of the job, He doesn't strike me as a fraidy-cat, otherwise his career would have been quite different.


And here is colleague [url=http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/michael-hastings-reporter-20130619]Matt Taibbi's obituary[/url] - MT mentions that he'd didn't know Hastings terribly well, but notes his chameleon-like quality - probably invaluable to an investigative journalist.

[QUOTE=LaurV;346710]If you conscience is clear, then you have nothing to fear about.[/QUOTE]

Concur.

[QUOTE=LaurV;346710]...
honestly I don't give a damn to who and what the "big brother" is listening. If you conscience is clear, then you have nothing to fear about.
...[/QUOTE]Everybody has things she or he does not want to be public. Your conscience may be clear by your standards, but others might object to those standards

The attitude "I have nothing to hide" makes it possible to spy on everyone. Once the spies abuse their given powers it is to late to complain.

Jacob

[QUOTE=S485122;346846]The attitude "I have nothing to hide" makes it possible to spy on everyone. Once the spies abuse their given powers it is to late to complain.[/QUOTE]

This clearly is a very complicated domain. Within which many "simple humans" are unarmed combatants.

Some of us understand the new battlefield. And act accordingly....

If the consciences of those who listen to you, and those to whom they report, and those who ever read the information recorded about you are all clear, then you may have nothing to fear until someone with a less-clear conscience has access to your records ...

... and that's only if their and your standards of conscience-clarity are compatible.

[QUOTE=cheesehead;347057]If the consciences of those who listen to you, and those to whom they report, and those who ever read the information recorded about you are all clear, then you may have nothing to fear until someone with a less-clear conscience has access to your records ...

... and that's only if their and your standards of conscience-clarity are compatible.[/QUOTE]

rAmen. It seems that sooner or later many could be royally screwed, and the rest properly cowed.

[QUOTE=kladner;347067]rAmen. It seems that sooner or later many could be royally screwed, and the rest properly cowed.[/QUOTE]

"It's a boy!"

That was meant to be funny....

[url=blogs.computerworld.com/cybercrime-and-hacking/22520/750-million-phones-vulnerable-spying-hack-sim-card-tainted-text-get-root]750 million phones vulnerable to spying: Hack SIM card via tainted text to get root[/url]
[quote]For the last several years, cryptographer Karsten Nohl and his team at Security Research Labs in Berlin have tested about 1,000 SIM cards for vulnerabilities. Give this German cryptographer two minutes on a PC and he can send a send a secret text message that contains a “virus” to a mobile phone’s SIM card, and then basically get “root” and take over the phone. That text can allow him to eavesdrop, make purchases via mobile payment systems and otherwise “trick mobile phones into granting access to the device's location, SMS functions and allow changes to a person's voicemail number.”

Nohl will present his research during “Rooting SIM cards” at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas. “We can remotely install software on a handset that operates completely independently from your phone,” Nohl told The New York Times. “We can spy on you. We know your encryption keys for calls. We can read your SMS’s. More than just spying, we can steal data from the SIM card, your mobile identity, and charge to your account.”[/quote]
One wonders whether Nohl & Co. are the first people to be aware of the exploit in question, or merely the first civilians.

[QUOTE=ewmayer;347143]One wonders whether Nohl & Co. are the first people to be aware of the exploit in question, or merely the first civilians.[/QUOTE]

Probably only the latter.

I incline for the former.
How many 'hacker' are employed by governement agency and work on this sort of stuff?
how many hacker in the world can work on this?
in my opininon, the later is the vast majority.

Once the exploit is revealed it may be possible to determine whether it has been, um, exploited, previously, and (if so) for what ends and what kind of scale.