Softpedia reports that an interaction between Tor and HTTP Gzip compression can narrow down the location of a server hosting Tor hidden services by leaking the local time zone (archived). This allows investigators to substantially narrow down the geographic location of a Tor hidden service server.
Author Archives: Aaron 'BingoBoingo' Rogier
Khmer Rouge Leader Pleas Social Justice In Court
Rare surviving Khmer Rouge leader Khieu Samphan in appealing his life sentence for crimes against humanity plead to a United Nations supported court that his only fight was for "social justice" (archived). Of course the Khmer Rouge's atrocities were the natural end of the social justice agenda, an agenda which is returning to vogue in certain circles. The social justice agenda notably dismisses concerns over actual justice to instead elevate social equality as their first principle. In this way the Khmer Rouge was an exemplar! All are equal under the yoke, and the 750,000 to 3,000,000 who died1 in Khmer Rouge atrocities were the most equal of all!
The wide uncertain range persists because the Khmer Rouge was just that effective in suppressing the individual in the name of social equality/justice. ↩
Chainalysis Partners With Only Possible Customer
This past week it was announced that Bitcoin transaction tracking startup Chainalysis has partnered with Europol according to either multiple reports or numerous outlets parroting the same press release. Feeding the "law enforcement" quackery industrial complex is of course the only way for Chainalysis to meet its only natural customers. As there no serious phenomena known as Bitcoin taint, it can be assumed blockchain tracking is set to join handwriting analysis, psychics, lie detectors, and dowsing in the compendium of pseudoscience routinely entertained by "authorities" in the field of "law" enforcement.
Tampa Police Refuse To Work Plus Sized Star's Event After Insult
Police in Tampa, Florida are refusing to work a concert by American plus sized pop singer Beyonce after Beyonce produced a series of performances with anti-police themes (archived). Police aggression and killings have cultured a strong anti-police sentiment in the United States that crosses racial lines leaving "law enforcement" officers fumbling to present a positive public image as they are increasingly betrayed by members of own ranks.
John Deere Cuts Sales Expectation Amid Continued Corn Belt Pain
The already dismal outlook for United States agriculture got dimmer today as John Deere cut its sales forecast for the rest of the year (archived). Paired with the decline of the United States energy industry it is becoming clear that actual, productive economic activity the sectors of the United States economy most fundamental to sustaining civilized life is stalling.
FBI iPhone Circle Jerk Theater
Substantial noise has been generated over the past several days concerning the fate of a colored plastic iPhone. The debate concerns whether Apple should provide agents of United States which would allow them to more effectively defeat iOS encryption through brute force. Given Apple's history of collaboration with this sort of agent it is perfectly reasonable to assume the assistance requested by the FBI from Apple has already been rendered (archived). So, why the loud public debate? Continue reading
FTC Settles With Butterfly Labs, Suspended Penalties For Management
Today the United States Federal Trade Commission announced it reached a settlement against Butterfly Labs and the firm's principals Sonny Vleisides and Jody/Darla Drake. Out of a 38,615,161 United States dollar judgment against the firm and Sonny Vleisides the firm is to pay 15,000 and Sonny Vleisides is to pay 4,000. A separate judgment against Jody/Darla Drake for 135,878 United States dollars will similarly be suspended in exchange for Jody/Darla surrendering all of the Bitcoin she mined on company machines thus giving her a choice in how to pay her penalty. These "partial" suspensions were agreed to based on the defendants' inability to pay and are offered in exchange for various promises to not engage in the criminal behavior they built their "business" on for some finite period of time. The orders pertaining to Sonny Vleisides and Butterfly Labs as well as the order for Jody/Darla Drake are reproduced in plaintext below: Continue reading
UClibc Fixed getaddrinfo() Flaw Six Years Ago
This week brought news of a severe vulnerability in the Gnu C library's DNS handling functions. The UClibc maintainers received a ticket for this problem and corrected it in their C library six years ago (archived).
Auschwitz Releases Political Language Software
The Stack reports that Auschwitz, the death camp turned memorial and museum, has released a software application for politically reshaping the use of language (archived). The purported aim of the software is to remove associations between the Polish people and the genocide committed by German National Socialists in death camps erected on Polish lands. It supposedly works to this end by substituting politically approved terms for otherwise descriptive labels like "Polish extermination camp" in documents on machines running the software.
Western Constitutional Hero Denied 8th Amendment Right To Make Bail
Cliven Bundy, who lacks a prior criminal record, was denied his 8th amendment constitutional right to make bail for reasonable pretrial release by United States Court judge Janice Stewart. Hope for constitutional justice which has long been endangered in the United States might have finally died under uncertain circumstances with its last strong champion this past weekend.