Displaying items by tag: Spying

The director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a lobby group for big tech and foreign agencies, claims that China's alleged targeting of the agency "should be of concern to all Australians".

A former CIA engineer has been convicted of espionage for leaking documents to WikiLeaks that exposed the agency as engaging in mass surveillance.

Software from surveillance firm Circles, that can be used to exploit weaknesses in the global mobile system and snoop on calls, texts and locations, is likely being used by Australia among a number of other countries, The Citizen Lab, a digital rights watchdog at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, claims.

Swedish telecommunications equipment vendor Ericsson claims that its products meet relevant requirements set by the Australian Government. The company was responding to a query as to why its partner in China, Panda Electronics, has been placed on a list drawn up by the US Department of Defence and said to contain firms that are either owned or controlled by the Chinese military.

Cities around the world are increasing surveillance of their residents, with the number of cameras that look down on the public growing by leaps and bounds, a survey has found. Sydney is the 15th most surveilled city globally, with 60,000 cameras for 4.85 million people, meaning that there are 12.35 cameras for every 1000 people, the British website Comparitech claims.

Gmail users are finding that details of all their purchases are being stored within their Google account, even though they do not use Google Pay, a post on Reddit claims.

The hardware company at the heart of a Bloomberg story, that claimed its supply chain had been compromised by agents in China in a bid to spy on some customers, is reportedly asking its suppliers to move manufacturing out of Beijing.

WikiLeaks officials claim Ecuador has spied on its publisher Julian Assange — who is taking refuge in the country's London embassy — and the information it obtained was used by an unspecified group in Spain to try and extort as much as €3 million from the group.

The company that is under the US gun, Huawei Technologies, has bitten back, saying it is ironical that while the US keeps flinging evidence-free charges of spying at the Chinese firm, Washington passed a law last year that makes it possible for it to access data in any branch of an American company located overseas.

Much in the tradition of man bites dog, on Tuesday we had a genuine news story when one Western country, Germany, asked a question which is rarely asked: where is the evidence that the Chinese telecommunications equipment maker Huawei is using its products to spy on behalf of Beijing?

Germany's tech watchdog says it has seen no evidence to back up claims being flung around that Chinese telecommunications equipment firm Huawei Technologies could use its products to spy for China.

Russian security firm Kaspersky Lab has had its appeal against a US public sector software ban thrown out by the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit Court.

Apple chief security officer George Stathakopoulos has informed the US Congress in a letter that the company has found no evidence claims made in a Bloomberg report last week about chips being implanted on server motherboards sold by US firm Supermicro Computer and being used to spy on some companies.

A former Apple official has cast further doubt on a Bloomberg story about alleged Chinese spying through the implant of chips on server motherboards made by US company Supermicro Computer. Ex-general counsel Bruce Sewell said the FBI had told him it had no knowledge of any probe into such an incident, as claimed by Bloomberg.

Apple and Amazon have issued detailed denials about an investigation by the news agency Bloomberg which claims that chips implanted in servers made in China for US server manufacturer Supermicro Computer — and which were also supplied to a company named Elemental which Amazon acquired — were used to spy on the companies, and also a number of government agencies.

The company behind the Vivaldi browser says its emphasis on privacy comes from the fact that its slogan is "we are building a browser for our friends".

Google has refused to patch a vulnerability in older versions of Android that allows malicious attackers to track and locate smartphones, unless users upgrade to the latest version, or Android Pie.

Chinese state-sponsored attackers appear to be carrying out network reconnaissance of several organisations in Alaska, Nairobi, Kenya and Germany, using the assets of an elite university, the security firm Recorded Future claims.

Google does not respect its own settings as far as location is concerned, and continues to record movements even after the Location History setting is turned off for its services, a report says.

Russian security firm Kaspersky Lab's bid to challenge the ban on use of its software in the US public service has failed, with a judge dismissing both suits brought by the company which has now pledged to appeal the judgment.