For his new exhibit opening September 27th on Alcatraz Island, embattled artist and activist Ai Weiwei has assembled 176 portraits of political prisoners and people in exile for their political beliefs — in LEGOs. Ai spent six months compiling a list of people he wanted to feature, including Edward Snowden, Reeyot Alemu and Chelsea Manning. After the list was finalized, ten designers broke […]
Even before intelligence contractor Edward Snowden revealed the extent of monitoring being undertaken by the NSA in surveilling everyday citizens, cryptographers and computer scientists have been trying to achieve the ultimate in security: a system that can not be hacked. Now, a few companies are working on a promising solution. Quantum key distribution is a […]
A new survey from Pew Research Center and Rutger’s University shows that social media use makes people less likely to voice opinions they think are different than those held by their friends. This uneasiness even extends to the offline world, where participants who used social media consistently were less likely to voice dissenting views, if […]
In theme with Russia’s war on anonymity and “extremism” on the internet, the country’s interior ministry is recruiting hackers to decrypt identities of Tor users. The ministry is offering 3.9 million rubles (about $110,000) to anyone who can crack the encryption service, BBC reports, which is a lot better than their previous contest where you get a free refrigerator for giving birth on June […]
A piece of code used by the NSA to label online “extremists” has been uncovered for the first time. The German public television network ARD reported that the popular encryption service Tor, which is based in Germany, was one of the entities that had become a target for the NSA’s labeling as part of their […]
While we in the United States are accustomed to choosing between Democratic, Republican, and maybe an unlikely handful of Libertarian or Green candidates for political office, Australian voters faced a list that was more like a fast-food menu for their recent September 7 election. Beyond the Labor, Liberal, and Green party politicians that make up […]
Is the government cracking down on internet anonymity? Thanks, in part, to Edward Snowden, we all know we’re being watched when we surf the internet. A recent incident shows that the web isn’t safe, even for those who take extra precautions. Researchers suspect that the FBI is behind software that is attacking users of Tor, the […]
Tomorrow, the House of Representatives is expected to vote on an amendment to the 2014 Defense Appropriations bill, which will determine the Pentagon’s spending next year. The amendment, sponsored by Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI), would divert taxpayer money away from NSA surveillance of and collection of data from American citizens who aren’t under investigation, a […]
On June 5, the Guardian published a report based on a leak from former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, detailing how the NSA surveils U.S. phone calls, collecting and analyzing cell phone metadata from Verizon. The following day, the Washington Post revealed PRSIM, a program that allowed the NSA to monitor electronic communications like […]
Each week in Sample Wars, we’ll pit two songs which sample the same source material head-to-head against each other, to determine which one rocked the sample better. Kanye West is on everyone’s mind these days–the Post gave Kimye top billing over Edward Snowden on its cover yesterday, and Jon Caramanica’s Kanye profile blew up the internet–so in anticipation […]
