Author: Cyrus Farivar

(credit: Patreon)

Patreon, the website that allows people to maintain regular donations to a website, an artist, or project, announced late Wednesday that it had sustained a security breach.

The site said some registered names, e-mail addresses, and mailing addresses were accessed after someone managed to access a “debug version of our website” that at the time was accessible to the public.

Jack Conte, the co-founder and CEO, wrote in a statement:

The Latvian man accused of helping create the Gozi virus, which United States prosecutors dubbed “one of the most financially destructive computer viruses in history,” has pleaded guilty.

As the original indictment stated: “The Gozi Virus has caused, at a minimum, millions of dollars in losses.”

According to Reuters, Deniss Calovskis made the admission in federal court in Manhattan on Friday.

A former Tesla mechanical engineer is facing two counts of felony computer intrusion, according to a Thursday press release from the FBI.

Nima Kalbasi, a 28-year-old Canadian citizen, is accused of illegally accessing his former boss’ e-mail account nearly 300 times during a period of about 30 days in late 2014 and early 2015.

The 28-year-old Canadian citizen appeared before a federal judge in San Jose, California late last month. He was arrested days earlier while crossing the border from Canada into Vermont.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced sweeping new rules Thursday concerning the use of cell-site simulators, often called stingrays, mandating that federal agents must now obtain a warrant in most circumstances.

The policy, which takes effect immediately, applies to its agencies, including the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the United States Marshals Service, among others.

“Cell-site simulator technology has been instrumental in aiding law enforcement in a broad array of investigations, including kidnappings, fugitive investigations and complicated narcotics cases,” Deputy Attorney General Sally Quillian Yates said in a statement. “This new policy ensures our protocols for this technology are consistent, well-managed and respectful of individuals’ privacy and civil liberties.”

Later this month, a North Carolina high school student will appear in a state court and face five child pornography-related charges for engaging in consensual sexting with his girlfriend.

What’s strange is that of the five charges he faces, four of them are for taking and possessing nude photos of himself on his own phone—the final charge is for possessing one nude photo his girlfriend took for him. There is no evidence of coercion or further distribution of the images anywhere beyond the two teenagers’ phones.

Similarly, the young woman was originally charged with two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor—but was listed on her warrant for arrest as both perpetrator and victim. The case illustrates a bizarre legal quandry that has resulted in state law being far behind technology and unable to distinguish between predatory child pornography and innocent (if ill-advised) behavior of teenagers.

Carlos Garza, a former employee of a now-collapsed Bitcoin mining company, must respond to a subpoena as part of an ongoing fraud investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, a federal judge in Massachusetts ruled on Tuesday.

The implosion of GAW Miners marks yet another example of incompetence and possible criminal behavior associated with a number of firms selling hardware to mine new bitcoins. Previously, CoinTerra, Butterfly Labs, and HashFast have also faced similar legal battles.

The SEC alleges millions of dollars in possible fraudulent sales by GAW Miners—the case could also expand to criminal charges.

Evens, 26, was charged in San Francisco Superior Court on 11 counts of “unauthorized access to computer” on June 10.

These charges are on top of Evens’ pending federal criminal charges: 15 counts of conspiracy, unauthorized access to a protected computer, and seven counts of aggravated identity theft. His federal trial is set to begin in Los Angeles on July 14.

Last September, reddit allowed HTTPS connections for users that turned the feature on or used something like HTTPS Everywhere.

reddit is merely the latest site in a long list of large outlets making the switch. For instance, Wikipedia announced it would be doing the same thing less than a week ago. In April 2015, Netflix announced it would make the switch for its video streams. And the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) did too after issuing the HTTPS-Only Standard directive, which requires all publicly accessible federal websites and Web services to use only HTTPS.

Who are you and what is your position?

My name is Libby Schaaf. I am the mayor of my hometown, Oakland, California. I just took office this January. I am very passionate about my city. I’m passionate about civil rights, civil liberties and technology. I’m passionate about all these things, and I really want to use technology responsibly, for good, and I can use everyone’s help in figuring out the way to do that.