Government


US Supreme Court Ends Warrantless GPS Tracking

In a decision that was closeley watched by civil liberties group and the technology industry, the Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that GPS tracking devices constitute a “search” and that authorities must obtain a warrant before placing one on a suspect’s vehicle.


Miami, Florida – A no-holds barred presentation at the S4 Conference laid bare the woeful state of security for many industrial control systems that power the world’s critical infrastructure. Organizers have also cooperated with security scanning firms Rapid7 and Tenable to release modules for the Metasploit and Nessus products that can test for the discovered security holes.

A day after the Internet was abuzz with protests of the proposed SOPA and PIPA anti-piracy bills, the Department of Justice took a major action against many of the top executives of Megaupload, a popular file-sharing site that the government says was the basis for an “international organized criminal enterprise allegedly responsible for massive worldwide online piracy of numerous types of copyrighted works”. Prosecutors revealed indictments against seven people, all of whom are foreign nationals, as part of the case. As a result of the indictments and shutdown of Megaupload, Anonymous retaliated with a series of DDoS attacks against sites owned by Justice, Universal Music and the Motion Picture Association of America.

The ongoing controversy surrounding the SOPA and PIPA anti-piracy bills in Congress has produced a lot of things: misunderstanding of what the bills would do; silly rhetoric from trade groups supposedly defending content creators; confusion on Capitol Hill; and a clear demonstration of how insulated and uninformed many citizens are. But perhaps the worst thing to come out of all of this is the almost comical picture it paints of Congress and its complete lack of understanding of the Internet and its role in society, business and freedom.

VIEW SLIDESHOW Ten Tips For Protecting Your Devices From Seizure By U.S. CustomsFourth amendment be damned. With U.S. Customs agents increasingly interested in the contents of digital devices like iPhones, iPads and laptops, The Electronic Frontier Foundation has issued guidance for getting your mobile device across the border safely and protecting the data on it should it get seized.