Cuban youth build secret computer network despite Wi-Fi ban

ASSOCIATED PRESS
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Cut off from the Internet, young Cubans have quietly linked thousands of computers into a hidden network that stretches miles across Havana, letting them chat with friends, play games and download hit movies in a mini-replica of the online world that most can’t access. Home Internet connections are banned for all but a handful of Cubans, and the government charges nearly a quarter of a month’s salary for an hour online in government-run hotels and Internet centers. As a result, most people on the island live offline, complaining about their lack of access to information and contact with friends and family abroad. A small minority have covertly engineered a partial solution by pooling funds to create a private network of more than 9,000 computers with small, inexpensive but powerful hidden Wi-Fi antennas and Ethernet cables strung over streets and rooftops spanning the entire city.

Libreboot X200 laptop now FSF-certified to respect your freedom

BY THE FREE SOFTWARE FOUNDATION
FSF.ORG

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today awarded Respects Your Freedom (RYF) certification to the Libreboot X200 laptop. The RYF certification mark means that the product meets the FSF’s standards in regard to users’ freedom, control over the product, and privacy. This is the second Libreboot laptop from Gluglug (a project of Minifree, Ltd.) to achieve RYF certification, the first being the Libreboot X60 in December 2013. The Libreboot X200 offers many improvements over the Libreboot X60, including a faster CPU, faster graphics, 64-bit GNU/Linux support (on all models), support for more RAM, higher screen resolution, and more. The Libreboot X200 can be purchased from Gluglug at http://shop.gluglug.org.uk/product/libreboot-x200/.

The code that secures Bitcoin could also power an alternate Internet.

BY SCOTT ROSENBERG
MEDIUM.COM

There’s this hopelessly geeky new technology. It’s too hard to understand and use. How could it ever break the mass market? Yet developers are excited, venture capital is pouring in, and industry players are taking note. Something big might be happening.

Merkel bets on BlackBerry to beat cyberspies

BY DEUTSCHE WELLE

The German Economics Ministry said Friday it had approved of the takeover of German software firm Secusmart by Canadian mobile phone maker BlackBerry. In a statement the ministry said it had “thoroughly scrutinized” the transaction to see if it violated “essential security concerns.” The German government uses about 2,500 BlackBerry devices outfitted with Secusmart encryption software. The handsets incorporate a Secusmart microSD that acts as a separate hard drive for confidential information which can’t be accessed by hackers. According to German media reports, BlackBerry had accepted far-reaching control powers for the German government in exchange for the Secusmart takeover to go ahead.

Now Everyone Wants to Sell You a Magical Anonymity Router. Choose Wisely

BY ANDY GREENBERG
WIRED

Maintaining your privacy online, like investing in stocks or looking good naked, has become one of those nagging desires that leaves Americans with a surplus of stress and a deficit of facts. So it’s no surprise that a cottage industry of privacy marketers now wants to sell them the solution in a $50 piece of hardware promising internet “anonymity” or “invisibility.” And as with any panacea in a box, the quicker the fix, the more doubt it deserves. Last week saw the fast forward rise and fall of Anonabox, a tiny $45 router that promised to anonymize all of a user’s traffic by routing it over the anonymity network Tor. That promise of plug-and-play privacy spurred Anonabox to raise $615,000 on the fundraising platform Kickstarter in four days, 82 times its modest $7,500 goal. Then on Thursday, Kickstarter froze those pledges, citing the project’s misleading claims about its hardware sources.

Windows 10 has permission to watch your every move

BY VIJAY
TECHWORM

Microsoft launched its Windows 10 on Tuesday and is giving all members of its Windows Insider Programme a free look see at the new Windows 10.  Microsoft is giving the Windows 10 Technical Preview version as a gesture of openness and willingness to collaborate with developers and users and get their feedback on the ultimate Windows 10 that it may launch by the end of this year. Backdoor? As more and more users are jumping the queue to download the Windows 10 through the Windows Insider Program, almost all of them have forgotten to check the Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions users accept while downloading the Windows 10.  If you study the privacy policy you will be startled at the amount of freedom you are giving Microsoft to spy on you.

Ray Ozzie’s new app Talko hopes to give people their voices back

BY STEVEN LEVY
MEDIUM

It is a gorgeous late summer afternoon, and I am sitting with Ray Ozzie in his spacious home office in Manchester-by-the-Sea, 30 miles up the coast from Boston. The software visionary who created Lotus Notes and who later succeeded Bill Gates as Microsoft’s chief software architect, is explaining to me how the humble phone call is not dying, as many might believe, but is busy being reborn. It’s not an abstract subject for the 58-year entrepreneur. For the past few weeks I have been using the app his company is announcing today, called Talko. It’s a weird, almost magical, combination of phone calling, text messaging, virtual conferencing and Instagram-ish photo sharing.

Phone Firewall Identifies Rogue Cell Towers Trying to Intercept Your Calls

BY KIM ZETTER
WIRED

Rogue cell phone towers can track your phone and intercept your calls, and it’s only a matter of time before they’re as ubiquitous as GPS trackers. But at least now there’s a way to spot them. A firewall developed by the German firm GSMK for its secure CryptoPhone lets people know when a rogue cell tower is connecting to their phone. It’s the first system available that can do this, though it’s currently only available for enterprise customers using Android phones. GSMK’s CryptoPhone 500, a high-end phone that costs more than $3,000 and combines a Samsung Galaxy S3 handset with the CryptoPhone operating system, offers strong end-to-end encryption along with a specially hardened Android operating system that offers more security than other Android phones and thepatented baseband firewall that can alert customers when a rogue tower has connected to their phone or turned off the mobile network’s standard encryption.

Mobile Phone Unlocking Legislation Leads to Renewed Interest in DMCA 1201 Reform

By Bill Rosenblatt
Copyright and Technology
President Obama recently signed into law a bill that allows people to “jailbreak” or “root” their mobile phones in order to switch wireless carriers.  The Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act was that rarest of rarities these days: a bipartisan bill that passed both houses of Congress by unanimous consent. Copyleft advocates such as Public Knowledge see this as an important step towards weakening the part of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that outlaws hacks to DRM systems, known as DMCA 1201. For those of you who might be scratching your heads wondering what jailbreaking your iPhone or rooting your Android device has to do with DRM hacking, here is some background.  Last year, the U.S. Copyright Office declined to renew a temporary exception to DMCA 1201 that would make it legal to unlock mobile phones.

Want To Communicate Anonymously Without Being Monitored Or Tracked? ‘Blackphone’ Now On Sale

By Dave Altavilla
Forbes

Snowden, the NSA, getting “Scroogled”; do these various buzzwords making the rounds these days get your hackles up?  Frankly, I don’t blame you.  Personally, I don’t have enough “interesting” information to share.  And though I lead a rather “regular” existence, I do realize there are plenty of folks that have a few discussions they’re rather keep confidential and a few contacts they’re rather not out on the public Rolodex.  Hey, you never know who’s listening or what axe they might have to grind at your expense, right?