Leo Kelion reports: The maker of a drone that fires pepper spray bullets says it has received its first order for the machine. South Africa-based Desert Wolf told the BBC it had secured the sale of 25 units to a mining company after showing off the tech at a trade show. It is marketing the device as…
Category: Misc
Congress Decides This Week Whether to Shut the NSA Backdoor: Here’s How You Can Help
Nadia Kayyali writes: The NSA may seem like an intimidating giant, but it has a serious Achilles’ heel— the enormous budget it claims from taxpayer dollars every year. While change to the actual words of the laws that govern NSA surveillance seems to be a difficult task, a group of representatives have decided to take the battle to…
The paranoid computer user’s guide to privacy, security and encryption
How could I resist posting an item the title, The paranoid computer user’s guide to privacy, security and encryption? I’m not presenting it as an endorsement of any content or recommendations, but for your consideration. The guide to safer computing was prepared by the staff of the Globe and Mail in Canada.
Encryption as protest
A really thought-provoking post by Arvind Narayan on Freedom to Tinker begins: As a computer scientist who studies Privacy-Enhancing Technologies, I remember my surprise when I first learned that some groups of people view and use them very differently than I’m used to. In computer science, PETs are used for protecting anonymity or confidentiality, often via…