Monthly Archives: July 2017

What is cryptocurrency? – Telegraph.co.uk

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Units of cryptocurrency are created through a process called mining, which involves using computer power to solve complicated maths problems that generate coins. Users can also buy the currencies from brokers, then store and spend themusing cryptographic wallets.

Cryptocurrencies and applications of blockchain technology are still nascent in financial terms and more uses should be expected. Transactions including bonds,stocks and other financial assetscould eventually be traded using the technology.

Cryptocurrencies are known for being secure and providing a level of anonymity. Transactions in them cannot be faked or reversed and there tend to be low fees, making it more reliable than conventional currency. Their decentralised nature means they are available to everyone, where banks can be exclusive in who they will let open accounts.

As a new form of cash, the cryptocurrency markets have been known to take off meaning a small investment can become a large sum over night.

But the same works the other way. People look to invest in cryptocurrencies should be aware of the volatility of the market and the risks they take when buying.

Because of the level of anonymity they offer, cryptocurrencies are often associated with illegal actvity, particularly on the dark web. Users should be careful about the connotations when choosing to buy the currencies.

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What is cryptocurrency? - Telegraph.co.uk

Bitcoin teller machines in Boulder let customers jump into the cryptocurrency market – The Denver Post

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Walk into the Amante coffee shop at 2850 Baseline Road in Boulder on any given morning and youll see what looks like an automated teller machine sitting along one wall.

Throughout the day, a handful of people use it. One is a techie, another is a well-dressed, middle-aged couple. But this is not your grandmothers ATM. Its a Bitcoin teller machine, a portal into the brave new world of cryptocurrency.

Some call this new kind of money the grandest experiment of our time. Others fear its rising power and the rest of us have no idea what the heck it is.

Boulders Eric Weissmann was fascinated early on with the potential of digital currency. And when the opportunity arose to own and operate Bitcoin teller machines, or BTMs, he jumped in and founded Modern Tender. Weissmann thought the architecture of the code, the blockchain, had the potential to transform currency markets.

I was interested in Bitcoin and thought the blockchain technology was revolutionary, so I wanted a foothold in the space. We reached out to Amante because we wanted a location that was upscale, easily accessible, and attractive to early adopters and the tech demographic, Weissmann said.

BTMs are still rare. There are 13 statewide, including two in Boulder Weissmanns at Amante Coffee and a second machine in the Spark Boulder tech accelerator at 1310 College Ave.

The two BTMs in Boulder were installed in February of 2015. The Spark machine is owned by Aurora-based XBTeller. Officials there could not be reached for comment.

Operating outside the traditional banking system with no regulatory oversight, BTMs have experienced a surge in use as more people turn to cryptocurrencies as a haven from political instability and distrust of government-backed currencies.

To read more of this story go to dailycamera.com

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Bitcoin teller machines in Boulder let customers jump into the cryptocurrency market - The Denver Post

Wikileaks Says Robert Mueller Gave Russia Nuclear Material – But That’s Not The Whole Story – HuffPost UK

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Wikileaks has released a classified US State Department from 2009 that appears to prove Special Counsel Robert Mueller, head of the Trump/Russia probe, once supplied the Russians with nuclear material.

The claim, if true, would be a hugely damaging revelation that would throw the whole investigation into chaos and incri

Only it isnt and Wikileaks knows it.

The text and tweet released by Wikileaks more than suggests Mueller is guilty of a serious crime, passing on nuclear material to the USAs superpower rival.

6. (S/Rel Russia) Action request: Embassy Moscow is requested to alert at the highest appropriate level the Russian Federation that FBI Director Mueller plans to deliver the HEU sample once he arrives to Moscow on September 21. Post is requested to convey information in paragraph 5 with regard to chain of custody, and to request details on Russian Federations plan for picking up the material. Embassy is also requested to reconfirm the April 16 understanding from the FSB verbally that we will have no problem with the Russian Ministry of Aviation concerning Muellers September 21 flight clearance.

But the section it omitted from the tweet changes the entire context of Muellers actions.

Joshua Roberts / Reuters

2. (S/NF) Background: Over two years ago Russia requested a ten-gram sample of highly enriched uranium (HEU) seized in early 2006 in Georgia during a nuclear smuggling sting operation involving one Russian national and several Georgian accomplices. The seized HEU was transferred to U.S. custody and is being held at a secure DOE facility. In response to the Russian request, the Georgian Government authorised the United States to share a sample of the material with the Russians for forensic analysis.

This text is included in the document linked to in the tweet but its clear many people did took it at face value.

Wikileaks used to be a force for good in the world, playing a major role in revealing the inner workings ofGuantanamo Bayand exposing events like the killing of journalists by US forces in Iraq.

But more recently the group and its founder, Julian Assange, have been accused of pandering to a pro-Russian agenda.

Assange has been eager to assist the Trumps in the ongoing probe into possible collusion between the Presidents associates and Russia during the 2016 US election.

When Donald Trump Jr released an email showing he attended a meeting with the knowledge he was to receive damaging information on Hillary Clinton via the Russian government, Assange tweeted:

He added: I argued that his enemies have it so why not the public? His enemies will just milk isolated phrases for weeks or months ... with their own context, spin and according to their own strategic timetable.

Better to be transparent and have the full context ... but would have been safer for us to publish it anonymously sourced.

By publishing it himself it is easier to submit as evidence.

Assange has been living in the Ecuadoran embassy in London since 2012 trying to avoid extradition by the Swedish authorities over a rape case which was dropped in May.

He has long fought the charges, saying he feared it would ultimately mean extradition to the US for prosecution over what Wikileaks has published.

Swedens decision to discontinue its case ends that threat.

But appearing on the balcony of the embassy in May, Assange said a legal conflict with the United States and the UK continued and the road is far from over.

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Wikileaks Says Robert Mueller Gave Russia Nuclear Material - But That's Not The Whole Story - HuffPost UK

Tomi Lahren criticized for opposing Obamacare despite having health insurance through parents – AOL

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Conservative commentator Tomi Lahren is being called out for opposing Obamacare despite revealing she has health coverage because of it.

She and comedian Chelsea Handler were discussing the issue during Politicon Saturday when Handler asked Lahren if she has health care.

Lahren said, "Well, luckily, I'm 24, so I am still on my parents' [plan]."

As a Department of Labor document on Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act, states, "The Affordable Care Act allows young adults to stay on their parents' health care plan until age 26."

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My dog might be a chihuahua but don't get it twisted, she's American AF. #TeamTomi #merica #chihuahuasofinstagram #Kota

Amidst all the craziness and BS going on right now, remember it's Police Week and we owe our LEOs a whole helluva lot. Here's to you! #TeamTomi #policeweek #leos #bluelivesmatter

Ya know just laying here on my President Trump blanket being American AF... new Final Thoughts on traitor Chelsea Bradley Manning posted now on my official FB page. #TeamTomi #MAGA #merica #Trump

"When you live without fear, it don't get much better." #TeamTomi #Fearless #godblessamerica

Sick of winning yet? Me either. #MAGA #TeamTomi #Trump

Hey Dallas, who's ready to go Off The Rails this weekend?! I'll be there and I have a helluva lot to celebrate! (Settled the lawsuit). Who's joining me at @offtherailsdfw this weekend?! Here's to freedom, friends, and country music! #TeamTomi #otr2017 #Dallas

Oh San Diego why did I ever leave you? But your taxes are oh so high and your regulations are bullshit...but this scenery is hard to beat. #TeamTomi #sandiego #beach #pacificbeach

Good Vibes Only! Even in the courtroom. #TeamTomi #goodvibesonly #smile #onwardandupward

Rescued is my favorite breed. My childhood dog Baxter went to heaven yesterday but thankfully I've still got Kota. If you're thinking about adding a dog to the family, consider a rescue. It'll change your life too. #TeamTomi #rescuedog #rescuedogsofinstagram

Oh hey I have some Final Thoughts posted NOW on my official and only Facebook page. All message, no fluff. See y'all on good ole Facebook! #TeamTomi #imback #finalthoughts #MAGA

I'll be crashing safe spaces tonight at ECU. Just remember, free speech isn't just saying what you want to say, it's hearing what you don't want to hear. Trigger warning in advance. #TeamTomi #TomiatECU #freespeech #ECU #TPUSA

Here's to big bombs, big tents, big plans and Making America Great Again! Here's to a new breed of conservative, a fresh outlook on politics and no BS. Here's to the end of the appeasement, apology and inaction tour. Here's to 45-on time and under budget. #TeamTomi #MAGA #united4trump #PresidentTrump #moab

Excited to announce @bulletsandbombshells will be setting up Team Tomi Central at this year's @turningpointusa Young Women's Leadership Summit in Dallas! Come out and get some Tomi gear while you listen to conservative ladies dominate the stage! See y'all in June! It's gonna be YUGE! #TeamTomi #YWLS #turningpoint #Dallas #conservativewomen

Fate whispers to the warrior, "you cannot withstand the storm" and the warrior whispers back, "I am the storm." #TeamTomi #igotthis #texassky

Making Spring Great Again! New pastel MAGA caps! Get em here: http://bit.ly/tomi-hat #united4trump #TeamTomi #MAGA #USA #springfashion

Goodbye for now NYC! It's been quite the adventure. Back to Dallas! #TeamTomi #NYC #adventurethatislife

#ThankYouMaddow that was a big league jackass moment in your career! New Final Thoughts posted now. #TeamTomi #MAGA #trumptaxes #liberaltears

Did you miss the debut of The Snowflake Awards? Don't worry because they are streaming on my official FB page NOW! This extended edition includes our bloopers because unlike Snowflakes, we can laugh at ourselves! The Snowflake Awards was established to honor notable hypersensitive citizens, those who, when subjected to the slightest pressures of life, begin to melt! For too long the entertaining societal contributions of these delicate celebrities were overlooked! Sadly, we were content to take them seriously instead of recognizing their greatest gift; a never-ending goldmine of mock-able material that helps us realize how wonderful our lives are! No more. @docthompsonshow and I take on pop culture elitism and hypocrisy like youve never seen before! Visit https://dnc-trophy.myshopify.com/collections/all to get your commemorative Snowflake Awards tshirt! #TeamTomi #TheFlakies #snowflakes #SnowflakeAwards

After last night's speech it's safe to say OUR President Trump is indeed Making America Great Again. The radical notion Americans come first in our own damn country (established November 8th, 2016). I'll be on with @seanhannity tonight to discuss the speech! P.S. The hat is from @drunkamerica and it's my new favorite! #TeamTomi #godblessamerica #drunkAmerica

Will be signing this bad boy for auction after tonight's @allenamericans @rapidcityrush game! Proceeds to benefit Folds of America-the mission: provide educational scholarships to the spouses and children of America's fallen and disabled service-members. #TeamTomi #AllenAmericans #foldsofAmerica #honorthem #godblessamerica #hockey

That crazy and radical notion Americans and American safety take priority over feelings. #TeamTomi #AmericaFirst #AboutTime #mark19apparel

Life goes on and while it does, our brave men and women are overseas making a sacrifice so we don't have to. Remember Everyone Deployed. These kickass leggings are made by veteran owned and operated @mark19apparel #TeamTomi #RED #supportthetroops #Mark19 #leggingsarepants

We lost some fantastic and admirable celebrities in 2016 but what about our LEOs, first responders and service members? They sacrificed for us, for our country, our safety and our freedom. Here's to them. Home of the free because of the brave. #TeamTomi #backtheblue #godblessamerica #brookeandarrow #hartsandpearls #MAGA #USA #Merica

They call me "savage" but you can call me whatever you like. Just know I'm fearless, fiercely patriotic, and I don't back down. New Final Thoughts posted. #TeamTomi #fearless #bulletsandbombshells #tacticalshit

Don't forget to catch me with @trevornoah on @comedycentral @thedailyshow at 11pmET tonight!! #TeamTomi #DailyShow #trevornoah #NYC #latenightthoughts #comedycentral

It was "Bring your Favorite Sign to Work Day" here @theblazetv and I thought maybe considering last night, this one would do. My Victory Final Thoughts are posted now! "We said 'screw your way, we're gonna do it our way.'" #TeamTomi #MAGA #PresidentTrump #AmericaFirst #election2016 #finalthoughts

I stand by Don because he doesn't back down. I respect that. Wouldn't it be nice if America stopped backing down and started doubling down like DJT? Sorry, I'm not the type of woman to sit in the corner and cry over spilled milk and the "p" word. Final thoughts on #trumptapes posted now. #TeamTomi #MAGA #standup #election2016 #neverhillary

Rocking that @hartsandpearls red, white, and blue headband! Some extra love for Old Glory today just to remind Hillary that the deplorables have left her basket and we ready to take November! #TeamTomi #hartsandpearls #camo #redwhiteandblue #maga

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It also explains, "Before the president signed this landmark act into law, many health plans and issuers could and did in fact remove young adults from their parents' policies because of their age, leaving many college graduates and others with no insurance."

After the crowd laughed at her answerwhich Handler told them to stop doingLahren defended her position by saying, "Most Republicans, most conservatives, most Trump supporters don't believe that every single tenet of Obamacare is bad. I do believe that a lot of people stay on their parents' health insurance until they're 26. I think that is a worthwhile discussion and conversation to have."

She added, "Now for me, if that were taken away from me, I'm okay. I don't need it. If it's for the betterment of a free market system, and health care is going to be better for it, I'm okay with that. But there are tenets of Obamacare that are positive."

According to a CNN report from March, "the Department of Health and Human Services said last year that final 2016 marketplace enrollment numbers showed more than 6 million people ages 19 to 25 gained insurance through the health law, including 2.3 million who went onto their family health plan between September 2010 and when online marketplaces began operating in 2014."

However, the piece also pointed out that it may be hurting the overall marketplace by diverting a block of young, healthy people from the overall "risk pool."

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Tomi Lahren criticized for opposing Obamacare despite having health insurance through parents - AOL

Transitioning to sanity – Sunbury Daily Item

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Even before the advent of the 21st century, Congress approval percentages have competed with that of skim milk and for good reasons. In one of their more ludicrous rulings, the House saw 24Republicans cross the aisle and join Democrats and vote down an amendment that would have prohibited taxpayers from subsidizing transgender surgeries for the confused throughout our military.

If some of those rogue Republicans had joined their majority by opposing gender experimentation as outlined in their partys platform, the vote would have been a victory for sanity.

Rather, the amendment flamed out, 214-209.

By enlistment age, ones gender wouldnt be an issue, but that was so last century. Theres no changing ones biology no matter how many surgeries one endures, regardless of societys sentiments. Its ones DNA, their physiology, and not some psychology manual that speak the unfettered truth.

Gender identity is the ultimate rejection of absolute truth, and when truth is abandoned, everything is relative.

God created the world with words, and transgender wasnt one of them.

The first chapter of Genesis informs us that Divine Providence considers His human creation so special He made us in His own image male and female He created them. Imagine, a Supreme Being so politically incorrect. He thinks there are only two genders. At last count, Mark Zuckerberg and his Facebook creation tell us there are 71.

The last thing the military budget needs are costly sex-change surgeries as our forces continue to be stretched razor thin by 16 years of warfare, the longest tenure in American history.

Missing in that calculus was the enforcement of the no-fly zone in Iraq after Desert Storm a quarter of a century ago. That has resulted in the now infamous scavenging of aircraft parts from whatever aircraft is available to keep the fleet flying, not to mention pilot and maintenance shortages. Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson says the present fleet is too small for what the nation expects of it. The recent crash of a Marine Corps KC-130 tanker killing all 16 on-board in a soybean field in Mississippi begs the same.

Naturally, House Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi claimed not voting down this disgusting amendment is unprecedented, unacceptable and undermines our national security.

Who knew that the number of transgendered individuals, which is .2 percent of the overall population, is that significant in the armed forces that it would undermine national security? Moreover, how did the militarys transgender policy make our military more capable of accomplishing its mission?

One who did emasculate national security was Bradley Manning, now known as Chelsea, who was found guilty of violating the Espionage and Computer Fraud Abuse Acts, among others. In one of his final acts in office, Obama commuted Mannings 35-year sentence to time served as the taxpayer picked up the tab for his transition to Chelsea.

Rep. Vicky Hartzler of Missouri filed the amendment saying, Military service is a privilege, not a right. It is predicated on winning wars and defeating the enemy. All decisions on personnel and funding should be made with this in mind.

Enter President Trump last week who, after eight years of Obamas social engineering, agreed, saying that after consulting with my generals and military experts, the U.S. government willnot accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. military.

Still unconvinced?

Walt Heyer, a former transsexual, has written extensively about the many pathologies associated with transgender individuals. He said, Why subject the military to this group of people, which will do nothing but sap the morale of our fighting men and women?

War is about victory and not about being politically correct.

When, if ever, will the Democrats in Congress figure this out?

Greg Maresca is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran. He lives in Elysburg.

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Transitioning to sanity - Sunbury Daily Item

The transgender military ban perpetuates discrimination – Washington Post

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July 28

Regarding the July 27 front-page article Transgender ban in military revived:

Transgender people already suffer from the stress of widespread prejudice and abuse, beginning in childhood with bullying and physical assault. Major depression is sufficiently common as to produce a staggering rate of suicide attempts and suicides. The lifetime suicide attempt rate for transgender people ranges from 32 to 50 percent; that rate is 4.6 percent in the population at large.

Yet there is ample evidence that gender affirmation, i.e., the acceptance of ones gender identity, can markedly improve mental health. The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity, is an institutional model worth emulating. Unfortunately, such evidence is unlikely to convince President Trump that gender affirmation is worth supporting. We need a president who is more knowledgeable and compassionate.

Edward N. Squire Jr., Fredericksburg

As a service-disabled war veteran, I support transgender soldiers. Transgender soldiers match the honor and courage of all service members, and their bravery pioneers another frontier of integration. The experiences of gay, lesbian, women and black soldiers before them prove that change can come at high personal cost. And the social boundaries the transgender community face are often marked by violent normalization and marginalization.

I saw this firsthand at Fort Meade, as my company formed for physical fitness training across from the courthouse where then-Pfc. Bradley Manning (now Chelsea Manning) was being tried. Ultimately, her experience in Army imprisonment demonstrated how dangerous the treatment of transgenderism in the military can be. This cannot stand.

The transgender community is strong, and patriotism and selflessness will compel these soldiers into service undeterred. History will behold them with the gratitude and pride reserved for heroes of the two finest pillars of America, civil rights and national service.

Joel Usher, Washington

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The transgender military ban perpetuates discrimination - Washington Post

When Snowden mattered – TechCrunch

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Four years ago, the deep state was the enemy. Edward Snowden had just revealed its machinations. The head of the NSA was angrily catcalled during his Black Hat keynote. Wehackers, individualists, and/or everyone in tech who hopes were building a better futurereadied for a battle against surveillance capitalism and the surveillance state. How hopelessly wrong we were.

Four years later, the deep state seems much more like the enemy of our enemy. The cultural and political battle which has actually arisen is one against bizarrely, surreally 19th-century style ethno-nationalism; against people who want to forcibly deport millions from their homes, people who want to oppress minorities of all kinds, and, not least, outright white nationalists. It seems that angry, scared, insecure men and women worldwide have responded to ever-increasing complexity and interconnectedness by resorting to the old-fashioned simplicities of racism, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia, and other forms of hate.

And, uh, Im sorry to say this, but while I know that in our heart of hearts we all imagine ourselves as the true iconoclastic rebel heroes boldy and bravely standing up to The Man, courtesy of years of Hollywood in this battle, the other side thinks of themselves in exactly the same way. There is no shortage of hackers / iconoclasts / individualists among the white supremacists. Consider Weev, once quasi-respected for his trolling skills, once a semi-hero/martyr in the hacker world for his (admittedly bullshit) conviction for the crime of incrementing a URL, now an outright neo-Nazi. Consider Curtis Yarvin. Consider former tech journalist Milo Yiannopolous.

We, or at least too many of us, are still operating with the same, wrong, mindset. That old battle against The (Surveillance) Man wont help much if we lose this new battle first. Strong crypto is not an especially good defense against street police brutality, immigration bans, bans on military service, and ethnic cleansing in the form of mass deportations. This isnt so much a battle against Authority as it is a battle of ideas. (So lets keep in mind that it looks really really bad, in the arena of ideas, when we appear to be opposed to free speech even when the speech in question is despicable.)

This new confrontation is still a very technical one. You only need to scan the headlines from the last year to realize that this is in large part a battle of hacks and leaks, ranging across the spectrum from personal to nation-state, and a battle of information operations. Check out this remarkable slide from this years Black Hat keynote, courtesy of Facebook CSO Alex Stamos:

So maybe we need to stop trying to adopt the Snowden-era mindset, that of cyberpunks sticking it to evil governments and corporations, to this age of Trump and Brexit. His battle is not todays battle. Maybe we need to think a little less about crypto, 0-days, and surveillance, and a little more about epistemology, information ops, and winning hearts & minds. Most controversially of all, maybe we need to stop being so reflexively anti-government / anti-megacorp, and take a more nuanced view of massive organizations and their many tentacles and subdivisions. They might become tomorrows enemies of freedom, as ever more power accrues to them; but todays enemies are an entirely different, and far more dangerous, popular movement.

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When Snowden mattered - TechCrunch

Episode 269: Former DIA specialist Danielle Bizier talks China and personally working with Edward Snowden – SOFREP (press release) (subscription)

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Guest Name(s): Danielle Bizier

Danielle Bizier is a former intelligence specialist and instructor whos worked in the Defense Intelligence Agency, and she joins us in studio as Jack Murphy hosts this informative, entertaining, and at times laugh-out-loud hilarious episode of SOFREP Radio. Danielle personally worked in intelligence with Edward Snowden, which she wrote an article for us at SOFREP.com on. She even made a recommendation for him long before any of us heard that name. Find out what her experience was working with Snowden, and her immediate reaction to learning that her former colleague had leaked massive amounts of classified NSA documents.

With Snowdens working with the Chinese of course, we then get into the subject of China, which Danielle has vast knowledge and stories on. Danielle currently works as a consultant on the private side for Black Site International, and we hope to have her back on. You can check out some behind the scenes pictures from this episode in studio on our Instagram @SOFREPRadio.

If you liked this article, tell someone about it

Ian Scotto is an award winning radio producer who has had on-air and behind the scenes radio experience since 2006. He holds a degree in Radio from Hofstra University. He got his start at WRHU, the flagship station of The New York Islanders, where he hosted and did imaging for various shows on the platform, and for the station at large. He later worked for Sirius XM on various radio programming including Fangoria Radio with legendary rock icon Dee Snider, The Wilkow Majority with Andrew Wilkow, and produced Senator Bill Bradley's American Voices. He is now the producer and co-host for the leading Special Operations military podcast, SOFREP Radio, with best selling authors Brandon Webb (former Navy SEAL sniper instructor) and Jack Murphy (former Army Ranger and Green Beret.) Ian can also be found on Appetite for Distortion talking Guns N' Roses and doing voiceover work for various clients. Outside of radio, he is a fitness enthusiast with a focus on weight training and running.

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Episode 269: Former DIA specialist Danielle Bizier talks China and personally working with Edward Snowden - SOFREP (press release) (subscription)

Commissioners need to rethink encryption – LancasterOnline

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Note: The following letter was sentFriday to Lancaster County Commissioners Dennis Stuckey, Craig Lehman and Josh Parsons.

I strongly urge you to reconsider the decision to encrypt police department radio transmissions before this change takes place in November.

First, the health and safety of both our Lancaster County community and the law enforcement officials who protect it are paramount.

Second, essential to the well-being of our county must be a government system that values public accessibility, transparency and accountability.

These two truths must find a way to co-exist.

Certainly, a healthy democracy and an informed citizenry here do not depend solely on public and news media access to Lancaster County police radio broadcasts. Both are, however, seriously diminished when the publics right to know is further eroded something that is becoming alarmingly common in our commonwealth and across this country.

Our newspaper has long relied on police communication to provide the public with emergency information. I consider a scanner as essential to my job as a wrench to a plumber, a longtime television journalist in Oklahoma wrote to me last Sunday. He reached out in support of LNPs July 5 editorial opposing encryption.

Think snowstorms. Vehicular accidents. Road closings. Gas leaks. Homicides. Violent protests.

Radio access enables news outlets to work hand-in-hand with first responders to keep the public away from dangerous situations, Melissa Melewsky, media law counsel for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, noted in a recent LNP article. Total encryption addresses a problem that doesnt exist where the media is concerned.

West Hempfield Township Police Chief Mark Pugliese I, who chairs the county chiefs Police Advisory Board to Lancaster County-Wide Communications and represents the county Chiefs of Police Association on this issue, appears to agree.

Referring to events worldwide and expressing concern for police safety, he told you its not unusual for officers today to be ambushed. But he also acknowledged that were not getting that so much in Lancaster County.

Additionally, the chief spoke about incidents here where the public or the media interfered with investigations, in some cases by getting to crime scenes more quickly than police.

When pressed by an LNP reporter, Chief Pugliese could not cite a single situation in Lancaster County where the media interfered at a crime scene.

The chief says he is not anti-media.

Nor am I anti-law enforcement.

When the earth rumbles or a gun fires, citizens rely on police and other first responders to courageously address the emergency. They expect us in the news media to tell them what is happening. Shutting off access to information feeds distrust and anxiety; it fuels the spread of misinformation by social media commenters unbound by the journalistic standards of citing sources and confirming details.

Chief Pugliese said that the removal of public and media access to police broadcasts will make it incumbent on police to improve the lines of communication.

Experience suggests to me that will not happen; I dont see that as law enforcements primary role, and I dont see how it does either. Access to timely and accurate information that serves the public interest will suffer as a result.

Like law enforcement, we in the news media must be allowed to do the work we are trained to do. It is incumbent upon us to get it right and to be held accountable if we dont.

While all three of you are and must be concerned about police safety, Commissioner Lehman has said that blocking police communication might give officers a false sense of security and further isolate them from the community. Hes suggested a compromise of encrypting public transmissions, but allowing access to the news media.

It is certainly a better option.

I was at home July 2 and only yards away from the horrific Manor Township gas explosion that killed one man and injured others as it leveled a house, severely damaged neighboring homes and, in seconds, rattled the psyche of an entire community.

Frightened neighbors ran outside their homes, erroneously speculating about the cause of the blast. I called the newsroom and was accurately informed that it was a gas explosion. Then I walked to the scene to join my newspaper colleagues in probing more deeply as we talked with witnesses, questioned officials and provided real-time information that a county wanted and needed in that moment.

Fire and ambulance dispatches, the ones that guided us that day, are not part of the planned encryption here. At least not yet. As Chief Pugliese noted, the scrambling of police communication, and that of fire and ambulance, is becoming the national norm.

I dont think thats the way to go. I do believe a compromise can be struck, one that will allow law enforcement to do its work, and enable those of us in the news media to do ours.

We both exist, after all, to serve our Lancaster County community to the very best of our abilities.

Barbara Hough Roda is executive editor of LNP and LancasterOnline. Email: broda@LNPnews.com; phone, 717-481-7335; Twitter, @BarbRodaLNP.

Originally posted here:
Commissioners need to rethink encryption - LancasterOnline

Ditching WhatsApp encryption will help terrorists: Facebook COO – Economic Times

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SAN FRANCISCO: Responding to a call that Facebook should do away with the encryption that prevents police from accessing WhatsApp data, the company's top executive has said such a move would make it difficult to track terrorists if government gets such access.

The call for ditching the WhatsApp encryption emerged after five people were killed in an attack on March 22 when Khalid Masood ploughed his car into crowds on the bridge and tried to storm the Parliament. Masood is said to have used WhatsApp minutes before carrying out the attack.

"The goal for governments is to get as much information as possible, and so when there are message services like WhatsApp that are encrypted the message itself is encrypted but the metadata is not. Meaning that when you send me a message we don't know what that message says but we know that you contacted me," Express.co.uk quoted Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer Facebook, as saying on Saturday.

"If people move off those encrypted services and go to encrypted services in countries that won't share the metadata the government actually has less information, not more. And so as technology evolves these are complicated conversations. We are in close conversations working through the issues all around the world," she added.

With the growing terror attacks in London and Europe, social media has come under severe criticism for not doing enough to curb online terrorism. Facebook hired an online army of more than 7,000 people which is assigned to crack down on terrorists using the site.

Facebook also has 4,500 people who work to stop any attempt from extremists to hijack the site and the company plans to hire 3,000 more later this year.

"Our Facebook policies are very clear. There is absolutely no place for terrorism, hate or calls for violence of any kind. Our goal is to not just pull it off Facebook but to use artificial intelligence technology to get it before it is even uploaded," Sandberg said.

"We are working in collaboration with other tech companies now so if a video is uploaded to any of our platforms we are able to fingerprint it for all the others so they can't move from platform to platform," she added.

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Ditching WhatsApp encryption will help terrorists: Facebook COO - Economic Times