If they are after bad guys great - I have no problem with that. Where there is a problem is at airports when gov’t and TSA think they have a right to search any ones computers without reason. So in that case cheers to the DECAF but better yet, use Linux and the many high level encryption programs out there to secure your data. Likewise Ironkey USB is another option.
Protect yourself from COFEE with some DECAF
Two developers have created “Detect and Eliminate Computer Assisted Forensics” (DECAF). The tool tries to stop Microsoft’s Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor (COFEE), which helps law enforcement officials grab data from password protected or encrypted sources.
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In response to Microsoft’s Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor (COFEE), which helps law enforcement officials grab data from password protected or encrypted sources, two developers have created “Detect and Eliminate Computer Assisted Forensics” (DECAF), a counter intelligence tool designed to thwart the Microsoft forensic toolkit. DECAF monitors the computer its running on for any signs that COFEE is operating on the machine and does everything it can to stop it. Read more at arstechnica.com |
Big brother really is watching. Sprint fed customer GPS data to cops over 8 million times |
Christopher Soghoian, a graduate student at Indiana University’s School of Informatics and Computing, has made public an audio recording of Sprint/Nextel’s Electronic Surveillance Manager describing how his company has provided GPS location data about its wireless customers to law enforcement over 8 million times. That’s potentially millions of Sprint/Nextel customers who not only were probably unaware that their wireless provider even had an Electronic Surveillance Department, but who certainly did not know that law enforcement offers could log into a special Sprint Web portal and, without ever having to demonstrate probable cause to a judge, gain access to geolocation logs detailing where they’ve been and where they are.
Read more at arstechnica.com |
She looks like a bad ass! Mafia ‘godmother’ jailed in China |
BEIJING — A court in China Tuesday sentenced the “godmother” of an organised crime gang to 18 years in jail after a sensational trial which gripped the nation with lurid tales of sex and corruption. |
The ruling by a municipal court in Chongqing was the latest in a series of trials stemming from a huge crackdown on the underworld in the southwestern city of more than 30 million. |
“Godmother” Xie Caiping, 46, allegedly ran 20 illegal gambling dens in hotels, nightclubs and tea houses, was involved in illegal drug activity, and bribed police to turn a blind eye to her crimes, earlier press reports said. |
Xie, who reportedly drove a Mercedes-Benz, owned several luxury villas and kept a stable of 16 young men to provide her with sexual services. Read more at www.google.com |
This opens a whole new can of worms, especially if one travels outside the US. I suppose if one is sued by these other countries they could just say screw off and never pay the $$, etc. But with certain extradition agreements between the US and other countries and should that person wish to ever set foot in those other countries, it looks like a battle would have to incur. Free Speech Under Foreign Assault – by Robert Spencer |
Does the United States Constitution protect the freedom of speech of American citizens, or does it not? In this era of globalization, the answer is becoming increasingly muddled. Thursday, an American citizen, Paul Williams, went on trial in Canada. He is charged with violating Canadian libel laws in charges he made in his book The Dunces of Doomsday about a jihad terror cell at McMaster University in Ontario. Likewise in Brazil, an American business writer, Joseph Sharkey, is on trial for what he wrote about Brazilian air-traffic controllers after he survived an airplane crash in Brazil. Read more at frontpagemag.com |
Sounds like things are falling apart in the UAE as well. The cost of bounced cheques |
| Dubai: The dream of making it rich in the UAE has turned into a nightmare of jail and police for hundreds of expats, locked up for bouncing cheques as booming businesses went bust. |
For one Briton, the nightmare of prison and a lengthy jail sentence is looming large, all for a series of bounced cheques issued when his construction sub-contracting business went belly up. |
| For three years, things were good for Mark. He’d come at the height of the building boom, knew a few buddies from the construction trade back in Birmingham who had come out before him, getting jobs as project managers and superintendents with multi-national corporations, laying the foundations for Dubai’s prosperity. |
| Like many expats from Western countries, Mark fell into the trap of living the lifestyle he’d dreamed off growing up rough and tumble in the Midlands - the 4X4, the Marina view and the flash clothes, even the trophy girlfriend. All are now gone, her back to the Ukraine.Read more at www.gulfnews.com |
I have a lot of friends who are very good doctors and would hate to see a lousy patient defame them.
But I have also been to many doctors that really lack patient bedside manner or just really shouldn’t be doctors.
So I am split on this. I do think people deserve to rate any profession as long as what they write is truthful and can be backed by fact. Company restricts online reviews with patient ‘gag orders’ |
“From the very first meeting, she gives a lot of time and does not rush. She is very up to date with your records. She’s very good about making referrals, and her staff is wonderful.” |
Do you think it’s valuable to hear diverse opinions such as these, taken from two reports on AngiesList.com about the same Boston-area doctor? Do you think patients have a right to speak about their experiences — good, bad or otherwise — to whomever they like? Or do you think doctors have a right to privacy that overrules patients’ rights to speak freely? Read more at magazine.angieslist.com |
Maybe there is a way we can process cases faster, have more accurate results, and eliminate the need for attorneys using Crowd-Sourcing, social media, and mobile. 
The speed at which information can now be processed, validated, and gain mass input has really leaped light years ahead of the legal system. Maybe besides Transparent Government we need Transparent Legal System, to allow the public to help decide cases. Probably not all cases, but things that affect the public, perhaps violent criminals or gang related, etc.
Since it is currently easy for the “bad guys” to get away via bribes or threatening the jury, etc. Hard for them to bribe large crowds that weigh in or take out hundred or thousands of people.
Additionally, technology could help reduce the work load of the courts and get certain areas processed much faster.
Jurors’ smartphones upset the scales of justice |
Last week, a juror in a big federal drug trial in Florida admitted to the judge that he had been doing research on the case on the Internet, directly violating the judge’s instructions and centuries of legal rules. But when the judge questioned the rest of the jury, he got an even bigger shock. |
Eight other jurors had been doing the same thing. The federal judge, William J. Zloch, had no choice but to declare a mistrial, wasting eight weeks of work by federal prosecutors and defense lawyers. |
“We were stunned,” said the defense lawyer, Peter Raben, who was told by the jury that he was on the verge of winning the case. “It’s the first time modern technology struck us in that fashion, and it hit us right over the head.” |
It might be called a Google mistrial. The use of BlackBerrys and iPhones by jurors gathering and sending out information about cases is wreaking havoc on trials around the United States, upending deliberations and infuriating judges. Read more at www.iht.com |
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Security: Protect yourself from COFEE with some DECAF
