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Whistleblower Snowden, Pope Francis tipped for 2014 Nobel prizes

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STOCKHOLM - Nobel prize season starts Monday with speculation rife that the peace prize could go to US whistleblower Edward Snowden, Pakistani girls' education campaigner Malala Yousafzai, or perhaps Pope Francis.

Last year, the physics prize awarded to Peter Higgs and Francois Englert for the Higgs particle was widely predicted, but Nobel pundits and bookmakers tend to focus more on who will get the prestigious peace and literature awards.

This year saw a record 278 peace prize nominations and, while the list is secret, some names have been revealed by their sponsors, including US whistleblower Edward Snowden, who was nominated by two Norwegian members of parliament.

Kristian Berg Harpviken, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) is one of few experts to publish an annual shortlist of likely winners, even if he has yet to predict one accurately.

This year he ranked Snowden second place -- behind Pope Francis -- for exposing the extent of US electronic surveillance. However, he acknowledged that the former intelligence analyst would be a controversial choice as "many continue to see him as a traitor and a criminal."

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Whistleblower Snowden, Pope Francis tipped for 2014 Nobel prizes

SurfEasy Plug In USB Privacy Web Browser w/ Encryption with Dan Hughes – Video

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SurfEasy Plug In USB Privacy Web Browser w/ Encryption with Dan Hughes - Video

Apple’s Encryption Will Slow, Not Stop, Cops And Spies

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Oct. 2 (Bloomberg) -- While the newest Apple and Google smartphones will automatically encrypt data stored on them, that wont keep U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies from obtaining evidence linked to the devices. Bloombergs Jordan Robertson reports on Bloomberg West. (Source: Bloomberg)

While the newest Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Google Inc. (GOOGL) smartphones will automatically encrypt data stored on them, that wont keep U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies from obtaining evidence linked to the devices.

Marketing by the two companies in which they pledge to shield photos, documents, contact lists and other data from the prying eyes of government or hackers won plaudits from privacy advocates. It also drew condemnation from U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, FBI Director James Comey and local police officials who say it will make it harder to investigate crimes ranging from child abuse to drug trafficking and terrorism.

Those assertions are wildly exaggerated because police can still obtain evidence through traditional court warrants while revelations about government spying show the National Security Agency can break or bypass encryption for terrorism investigations, said Jonathan Turley, a constitutional-law professor at The George Washington University Law School.

Citizens should not assume that these encryption devices will necessarily prevent government from intercepting communications, Turley said in a phone interview. If history is any guide, the government will find a way to penetrate these devices.

The issue has renewed tension between law enforcement and intelligence agencies and technology companies trying to stand up for the privacy rights of their users. Apple, Google and other companies have been trying to restore their reputations after revelations by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden that they cooperated with government spying programs in the past.

The companies announced in recent weeks that their new phones will automatically scramble data so that a digital key kept by the owner is needed to unlock it, making it harder for detectives to examine the content of suspects phones without their knowledge or cooperation. Previously, such encryption was an option that required users to endure a time-consuming process to activate.

This is going to have a very big impact on law enforcement, said Stewart Baker, a former general counsel for the NSA and now a partner at the law firm Steptoe & Johnson LLP in Washington. There will be crimes that people get away with because this information is not available.

However, many traditional investigative methods will still work, he said.

Wiretaps would still work. You can also get call-details records, he said. Thats available from the phone companies and its not affected by this decision.

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Apple’s Encryption Will Slow, Not Stop, Cops And Spies

MegaCryption PC/IX v2.0 Offers Enhanced Cryptographic Options and Simplified End User Experience

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Naples, FL (PRWEB) October 02, 2014

Advanced Software Products Group, Inc. (ASPG) has released version 2.0 of MegaCryption-PC and MegaCryption-IX, the fastest growing encryption tool for file cryptography on Windows, Unix, and Linux computers. MegaCryption-PC, for Windows, and MegaCryption-IX, for Unix and Linux, may be freely distributed for use on Windows, Unix, or Linux systems and are compatible with both OpenPGP and S/MIME cryptography standards. MegaCryption-PC and MegaCryption-IX include an intuitive graphical user interface, and also a command-line interface for power-users.

The new release of MegaCryption-PC/IX v2.0 offers broader compatibility with popular cryptographic systems used on many operating platforms. Designed for compatibility with GnuPG v2.0 and MegaCryption-z/OS, the MegaCryption-PC/IX v2.0 supports more symmetric algorithms, larger asymmetric key sizes, X.509 keys, as well as S/MIME and CMS cryptography. Users of MegaCryption-PC may now operate file encryption and decryption seamlessly by using the familiar Windows Explorer File Manager dialog. MegaCryption-PC/IX v2.0 includes an updated GUI interface as well.

While MegaCryption-PC/IX previously featured comprehensive key management, MegaCryption-PC/IX v2.0 introduces a configuration manager to facilitate site security policies and user preferences. MegaCryption-PC/IX v2.0 intuitively selects the appropriate format for encryption based on the type of public key selected by the user. These features are ideal for new users of cryptography or expert cryptographers who prefer strong cryptography that is simple to use.

Another security enhancement within MegaCryption-PC/IX v2.0 is the pin-entry secure passphrase tool. The pin-entry tool improves security for using passwords and passphrases with the file cryptography and key management programs in MegaCryption-PC/IX. Users must have the authority to access secret files and also authenticate their access to a secure key before operating decryption or digital-signature features. Without the appropriate access permission and key-authentication, end users will be unable to operate secure file operations using MegaCryption-PC/IX.

As a file-level cryptography tool, MegaCryption-PC/IX provides a comprehensive approach to compressing and encrypting virtually any file in your Windows, Unix, or Linux environment while complementing any communication level encryption process you may already have in place. MegaCryption-PC/IX can be used as a stand-alone product or interoperate with MegaCryption-z/OS on the mainframe to protect sensitive data throughout the enterprise.

Interested parties may read more about the MegaCryption-PC/IX for Windows, Unix, and Linux, or MegaCryption for z/OS software on the ASPG web site. Free trials of the software are also available.

About Advanced Software Products Group For nearly 30 years, ASPG, an IBM and Microsoft partner, has produced award-winning software for data centers worldwide, specializing in data security, storage administration, and systems productivity. ASPG is pleased to provide solutions for a majority of the GLOBAL 1000 data centers.

For more information about ASPG, please contact our Sales Team by phone at 800-662-6090 (Toll-Free) or 239-649-1548 (US/International), 239-649-6391 (fax) or email at aspgsales@aspg.com. You can also visit the ASPG website at http://www.aspg.com.

Press Contact: David Vertin, Director of Marketing Advanced Software Products Group, Inc. 3185 Horseshoe Drive South, Naples, FL 34104 Phone: 239.649.1548 Fax: 239.649.6391 Email: david.vertin(at)aspg(dot)com

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MegaCryption PC/IX v2.0 Offers Enhanced Cryptographic Options and Simplified End User Experience

Reddit’s Cryptocurrency Could Have Many Uses

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Reddit is considering creating a cryptocurrency backed by shares of the company. These shares would then be redistributed back to the community in recognition of the role it has played in the sites success.

Or that at least is the plan for some of the $50 million the company raised in funding from a group of investors that include Sam Altman, president of Y Combinator, Alfred Lin of Sequoia Capital and Marc Andreessen of Andreessen Horowitz.

Other investors participating in the round, according to CEO Yishan Wongs blog post on the subject, include Peter Thiel, Ron Conway, Paul Buchheit, Jared Leto, Jessica Livingston, Kevin and Julia Hartz, Mariam Naficy, Josh Kushner, Snoop Dogg, and Yishan Wong.

The capital will be applied to a number of projects, Wong wrotethe company plans to hire more staff for product development, expand the community management team, build better moderation and community tools, work more closely with third party developers to expand its mobile offerings, improve the self-serve ad product, build out Redditgifts marketplace and invest in the infrastructure.

The investors also pledged to give back 10 percent of their shares to the community. In the comments section, Wong went into more detail about how that could occur.

We are thinking about creating a cryptocurrency and making it exchangeable (backed) by those shares of reddit, and then distributing the currency to the community. The investors have explicitly agreed to this in their investment terms.

Nothing like this has ever been done before. Basically we have to nail down how to do each step correctly (it is technically, legally, and financially complex), though in our brief consultation with an ex-SEC lawyer, he stated he could find nothing illegal about this plan. Nevertheless, there are something like 30 different things we have to pull off to make this work, so were going to try.

Wong freely acknowledges the plan could fail and if it does, its back to the drawing board for a plan to reward the community.

But it is unlikely Reddit would junk the entire project without salvaging something from it.

Last month Daily Dot noted that Reddit was seeking a cryptocurrency engineersomeone with a background in math or computer science to explore new technology applications and infrastructure involving the blockchain and cryptocurrency.

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Reddit's Cryptocurrency Could Have Many Uses


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