Month: May 2016

Kleine Notebooks mit allen Anschlüssen: Die gibt es, wenn auch zu einem hohen Preis. Wir haben uns die Business-Zwerge von Panasonic (Toughbook CF-MX4), Fujitsu (Lifebook T935), HP (Elitebook 820 G3) und Dell (Latitude 12 5270) angesehen. (Business-Notebooks, Notebook)

Das neue Diginetz-Gesetz soll den Breitbandausbau beschleunigen. Während sich die Koalition im Bundestag für bisherige Fortschritte lobt, prangert die Opposition Versäumnisse an und sieht falsche Prioritäten. (Glasfaser, Breko)

When Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom launched his new Mega cloud-storage company in January 2013, the company was focused on one key issue – privacy.

Mega encrypts all files uploaded by users, meaning that no one other than the uploader can see what is in those files unless he or she shares their private key with a third party. But while Mega is secure in many respects, users can not expect complete anonymity.

From the start Mega made it clear it would carry communication logs, the IP addresses used by subscribers to access the service, and other personal information.

Nevertheless, although Dotcom is no longer part of the company (his current stance is actually one of hostility), Mega’s commitment to privacy has been maintained by its current operators. Just recently, however, their stance of keeping user information private has been challenged in court.

The case involves a hack on a Kazakhstan government computer system which is said to have taken place in August 2014 but was not unearthed until 2015.

According to the Kazakh authorities the hackers made off with a trove of information including thousands of sensitive documents and emails between the government and advisors in the United States. These were then uploaded and stored on Mega by either the hackers or individuals closely linked to them.

In order to begin tracking the hackers down, in May last year Kazakhstan filed a lawsuit in the United States against 100 unnamed “John Does” seeking an injunction and damages. The EFF became involved in the case after the Kazakhstan government tried to stop Respublika, a site which reports critically on Kazakhstan’s ruling regime, from publishing the leaks.

Subsequently the Southern District of New York sought assistance from authorities in New Zealand in an effort to gain access to the hackers’ personal details. The request was processed by the New Zealand High Court which was asked to order Mega to hand over the information it holds on the supposed hacker(s).

The application was opposed by Mega, who told the Court that handing over the information would undermine the privacy of its users and was not guaranteed to assist in the U.S. hacking case.

However, in a ruling handed down today Mega’s attempt at protecting user privacy was dismissed by the High Court.

“[This] information is neither particularly revealing nor particularly sensitive; it does not, for instance, carry the same degree of confidentiality as an individual’s email or phone records,” wrote Justice Simon Moore.

“Therefore, I am satisfied that the privacy interests in this case should not carry significant weight. I am also satisfied that any potential harm could be mitigated by the imposition of properly worded protection orders”

As a result, Mega will now have to reveal the IP addresses, email addresses, contact and payment details of the users in question. When it does, that information will have to be sent to the New York district court, although Mega will be compensated for its trouble.

Speaking with TorrentFreak, Mega chairman Stephen Hall says that he has concerns about the Kazakhstan Government and the process it has undertaken.

“The Kazakhstan Government has a poor record as documented by international groups (1,2). Mega holds concerns that this is not a mere civil case about seeking damages from a hacker as the only damages that have been mentioned are the costs of the investigation,” Hall says.

“By construing it as a civil case [the Kazakhstan Government] has bypassed the usual discretion that needs to be exercised by a Minister of the NZ Government under the Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act 1992 process.

Furthermore, Hall says that Mega is not convinced that the party who uploaded the content to Mega is the original hacker as no evidence to that end has been provided. Additionally, it appears there has been little effort to take the content down.

“Mega has only received one request to take down any of the material. This request which related to the contents of a Gmail account of an official in the Finance Ministry was implemented immediately,” he explains.

“However, takedown requests were not received for the remaining material, suggesting that finding the hacker was more important than preserving secrecy of the material.”

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Es ist ein bizarres Hin und Her: Signal-Entwickler Moxy Marlinspike soll den Gründern von Wire GPL-Urheberrechtsverletzungen vorgeworfen haben, diese beschuldigten ihn vor Gericht der Erpressung. Der Streit landete vor einem US-Gericht - und ist jetzt angeblich beendet. (Open Source, Skype)

Eine günstige Konsole für den chinesischen Markt soll Tomahawk F1 von Fuze sein. Das Gerät arbeitet mit einem Prozessor von Nvidia, westliche Firmen wie Ubisoft, Deep Silver und Codemasters wollen offenbar Spiele zuliefern. (Games, Nvidia)

Ein Tesla Model S hat einen Unfall verursacht, während der Fahrer abwesend war. Hersteller Tesla Motors sagt, der Fahrer habe das Elektroauto in einen autonomen Fahrmodus versetzt, es dabei aber nicht beaufsichtigt. (Autonomes Fahren, Elektroauto)

Asus hat einen WLAN-Adapter auf den Markt gebracht, mit dem die von vielen Routerherstellern beworbenen Datentransferraten tatsächlich möglich sein sollten. Aber nur dank einer 4x4-Antennenkonfiguration und einer nicht standardkonformen Modulationsdichte. (WLAN, 802.11n)

Offenbar sind Samsungs Ingenieure experimentierfreudig: Mit dem Galaxy Surfboard hat der südkoreanische Hersteller ein Surfbrett vorgestellt, das dank eingeschobenem Smartphone und einer LED-Anzeige mit dem Surfer kommunizieren kann. Dem Surfer soll das bei seinem Training helfen. (Samsung, IoT)

Coolpad hat sich mit dem Verkaufsstart des Torino S verschätzt. Eigentlich sollte das Smartphone mit Fingerabdrucksensor schon seit über einem Viertel Jahr verfügbar sein, kommt aber erst jetzt in den Handel - erste Händler unterbieten den Listenpreis bereits. (Smartphone, Handy)

HBO has started removing torrents and notifying downloaders, as the premium cable network ramps up efforts to curb piracy of its hugely popular 'Game of Thrones' TV show.

Piracy of the hit TV show hit another peak as the new season premiered in late April.

HBO's official attitude towards piracy has always been a bit more relaxed compared to other rights-holders, but it appears that behind the talk of not caring about piracy, the cable network is actually trying hard to stop the rapid flow of pirated downloads.

The company has started sending out warning notices to ISPs to ask them to take action against downloaders. HBO is also asking ISPs to inform users of the legal ways in which they can watch HBO programming.

"As the owner of the IP address, HBO requests that [ISP] immediately contact the subscriber who was assigned the IP address at the date and time below with the details of this notice, and take the proper steps to prevent further downloading or sharing of unauthorized content and additional infringement notices," reads the notice.

ISPs are not obligated to take any action, although most choose to at least forward the warning notice to users.

HBO's more direct actions may be having more of an effect. The company has started sending DMCA notices to torrent download sites like KickassTorrents and Torrentz to remove torrent links. HBO's anti-piracy partners have been working overtime to remove torrent links to hit shows, sometimes minutes after they appear online. The most popular torrents for the latest episodes of Game of Thrones have already been removed from sites like KickassTorrents and Torrentz. 

But The Pirate Bay has an official policy of ignoring takedown requests, as do other sites, which means these popular torrents are still widely available online.