"How a Canadian Was Charged with Money Laundering in Sale of Bitcoins"
February 12, 2014 | Tu Thanh Ha, The Globe and Mail
Press
On a hot Florida morning a week ago, a young Quebecker named Pascal Reid showed up at a boutique hotel in Miami’s Art Deco district, carrying a laptop and an electronic wallet that held $316,000 in digital currency.
"Florida Targets High-Dollar Bitcoin Exchangers"
February 7, 2014 | Brian Krebs, Krebs on Security
State authorities in Florida on Thursday announced criminal charges targeting three men who allegedly ran illegal businesses moving large amounts of cash in and out of the Bitcoin virtual currency. Experts say this is likely the first case in which Bitcoin vendors have been prosecuted under state anti-money laundering laws, and that prosecutions like these could shut down one of the last remaining avenues for purchasing Bitcoins anonymously.
"New Snowden Docs Show Canadian Spies Tracked Thousands of Travelers"
January 31, 2014 | Cyrus Farivar, Ars Technica
According to newly published documents, Canadian spies tracked thousands of travelers online for days after they left an unnamed Canadian airport. This revelation, gleaned from 2012 slides provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden, shows that the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) conducted a real-world test that began with a “single seed Wi-Fi IP address” from an “international airport” and assembled a “set of user IDs seen on network address over two weeks.”
"Relatively Speaking: Do Our Words Influence How We Think?"
January 29, 2014 | Josephine Livingstong, The Guardian
Shortly after New Year's Eve, I sat in a Berlin airport, clutching my head. Around me a few other English EasyJetters waited, too, listening vaguely to the German voice coming over the loudspeaker. One of my bleary countrymen turned to another and said: "They sound like they're angry all the time, don't they? Speaking that language all day must do something to your brain."
"China Accuses Hackers for Internet Disruption; Experts Suspect Censors"
January 22, 2014 | Steven Mufson and Jia Lynn Yang, The Washington Post
A mysterious glitch in China led to one of the biggest-ever Internet blackouts on Tuesday, forcing massive volumes of Chinese Web traffic to U.S. servers belonging to a firm with a long history of protesting the government in Beijing and evading its censors.
"Social Media Lockdown: 4 Privacy Features You Won't Find in Your Settings"
January 22, 2014 | Caitlin McGarry, TechHive
You use a social network—at least one, maybe a few. Everyone does. You probably know all about your preferred network’s privacy settings, enough to make sure that the whole world doesn’t know your business. But if you’re paranoid—aren’t we all?—you can find ways to lock down your privacy that go above and beyond even two-factor authentication.
"Eagle Scout. Idealist. Drug Trafficker?"
January 18, 2014 | David Segal, The New York Times
Ross Ulbricht’s last moments as a free man were noisy enough to draw a crowd. Employees at the Glen Park branch of the San Francisco library heard a crashing sound and rushed to the science fiction section, expecting to find a patron had hit the floor. Instead, they found a handful of federal agents surrounding a slender 29-year-old man with light brown hair and wearing a T-shirt and jeans.
"Is the Digital Currency Bitcoin Going Mainstream?"
December 4, 2013 | Warren Olney, KCRW
Bitcoins are now worth a total of $1 billion, not bad for a virtual currency that's four years old and not backed by a central bank. Bitcoins are a way to make payments on the Internet — without any fees. They're also a way to lose money fast. We hear more about digital technology and the future of money.
"Editor Describes Pressure After Leaks by Snowden"
December 3, 2013 | Ravi Somaiya, New York Times
The top editor of the British newspaper The Guardian told Parliament on Tuesday that since it obtained documents on government surveillance from a former National Security Agency contractor, Edward J. Snowden, it has met with government agencies in Britain and the United States more than 100 times and has been subjected to measures “designed to intimidate.”
"Nicholas Weaver's Favorite Techdirt Posts of the Week"
November 16, 2013 | Nicholas Weaver, Techdirt
OK, so who is this crazy paranoid ivory tower dweller who said "Yo" when asked if he'd do the "Favorite Posts of the Week," and who is prefacing this with the standard academic disclaimer of "all opinions are my own, not those of my employers or funders"?