Author: Cyrus Farivar

A former staffer at the United States Embassy in London pleaded guilty Wednesday to multiple counts of stalking, extortion, and computer fraud, among others.

Earlier this year, Michael C. Ford was formally charged in a federal court in Atlanta with running his elaborate sextortion scheme against hundreds of women—incredibly, primarily from his heavily monitored, government-owned work computer.

According to government prosecutors, Ford would write to women, saying he had obtained nude photographs of that victim. This was the case for one woman, dubbed "Jane Doe One," an 18-year-old woman in Kentucky. Ford wrote to Jane Doe One, demanding that she send videos of "sexy girls" undressing in changing rooms. He threatened to publish sexually explicit photos of her if she did not comply.

In a first, Kickstarter has hired a journalist to look into how its largest-funded European project ever suddenly imploded.

Last month, Kickstarter said it was baffled as to how British drone startup Torquing Group raised $3.4 million—only to totally fall apart in less than a year. Kickstarter's announcement of its bewilderment came weeks after the startup's cofounder and CEO Ivan Reedman abruptly left the company, citing “personal health issues and irreconcilable differences.”

Ars visited the company's headquarters in western Wales in April 2015, months before they were supposed to be shipped, but did not get to see a working prototype.

SAN FRANCISCO—Former Secret Service agent Shaun Bridges was sentenced Monday to 71 months in prison after he stole money from Silk Road dealers while investigating the site.

"This, to me, is an extremely serious crime consisting of the betrayal of public trust from a public official. From what I can see, it was motivated by greed," US District Judge Richard Seeborg told the court today. "No departure or variance is warranted in this case. I seldom find myself in the position of imposing a high-end sentence, but I find this is warranted in this case."

In addition to his sentence today, the judge ordered Bridges to forfeit the following property: $165,000 from Fidelity brokerage, $306,000 held in trust, and $4,000 from a PNC Bank account.

The man believed to be Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht’s closest adviser has finally been apprehended.

In a statement published Friday, the FBI said that Roger Thomas Clark, known online as “Variety Jones,” “VJ” and “Cimon,” was arrested in Thailand. The suspect is pending extradition to the United States.

“Clark may have thought residing in Thailand would keep him out of reach of U.S authorities, but our international partnerships have proven him wrong, FBI Assistant Director Diego Rodriguez said in a statement. “We thank our law enforcement partners who have worked with the FBI on this case.”

We now live in a world where if you have an IP-enabled security camera, you can download some free, open-source software from GitHub and boom—you have a fully functional automated license plate reader (ALPR, or LPR).

Welcome to the sousveillance state: the technology that was once was just the purview of government contractors a few years ago could now be on your own street soon.

For years now, specialized LPR cameras have been used mounted in fixed locations or on police cars. These devices scan passing license plates using optical character recognition technology, checking each plate against a "hot list" of stolen or wanted vehicles. The devices can read up to 60 plates per second and typically record the date, time, and GPS location of any plates—hot or not.

After losing in the appellate phase, Samsung has finally agreed that it will pay Apple a $548 million partial judgement as part of the two companies’ longstanding patent battle.

According to a Thursday court filing, Samsung will pay the amount once Apple has submitted an invoice, which is due Friday. The payment is expected to be completed by December 14, at which point Apple will withdraw its motion to enforce the court’s judgment.

That $548 million amount was cut from an initial 2012 verdict that awarded $930 million to Apple.

A federal judge in Minnesota has ordered one of the men behind the notorious Prenda Law group to liquidate his assets. Paul Hansmeier must now sell his condominium, among other assets, in order to pay back $2.5 million of debts more quickly rather than having the case drag out for years.

"Here, the debtor has a pattern and practice of dishonesty with the courts," US Bankruptcy Judge Kathleen Sanberg said during the Thursday hearing. She ordered Hansmeier to convert his Chapter 13 (wage earner's plan) bankruptcy filing to a Chapter 7 (liquidation). Under Chapter 13, Hansmeier could have paid his creditors much more slowly.

"This case was designed for one purpose only, to thwart the collection efforts of debtors," the judge added. "It was not because the debtor now wants to pay creditors in full."

An Oklahoma man has received the distinction of being the first "john" in the state to be criminally prosecuted and arrested after being caught in the act by a drone. Local police records show Douglas Blansett, 75, was arrested and released on Thursday. That's according to local anti-prostitution Oklahoma City-based activist and private investigator Brian Bates, who has run JohnTV.com for years, a collection of videos of suspected sex workers and their johns.

It was Bates' drone that earlier this year took video of what he believed was a man picking up a woman named Amanda Zolicoffer that he described as a "known prostitute." Both Blansett and Zolicoffer now face a misdemeanor charge of "engaging in an act of lewdness."

Footage of the bust, which took place in March 2015, was first posted in August 2015.

In a public post on Facebook, CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan announced Tuesday that they will donate 99 percent of their Facebook shares "during their lives"—an amount currently worth $45 billion—to their new charity, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

The organization, which seems to be modeled on the Gates Foundation, states its laudable albeit vague goal to “join people across the world to advance human potential and promote equality for all children in the next generation.”

The announcement came in the form of a public letter to their newly born daughter Max. It addresses important long-term goals that are often stymied in the public sector, things like “advancing human potential and promoting equality.”

Following revised policies from other federal law enforcement agencies, the Internal Revenue Service now says it will require the use of a warrant when deploying a stingray, also known as a cell-site simulator.

In a new letter to an Oregon senator, IRS Director John Koskinen wrote that the stingray has only been used as part of 11 grand jury investigations to track 37 phones. The IRS stingray has also been used to assist with four other non-IRS investigations both at the federal and the state level. According to the document, the IRS first obtained its stingray in October 2011, and it's attempting to procure a second.

Stingrays, also known as cell-site simulators, can be used to determine a phone’s location by spoofing a cell tower, and in some cases they can intercept calls and text messages. Once deployed, the devices intercept data from a target phone as well as information from other phones within the vicinity. In late October, Koskinen told a Senate committee that the IRS stingrays are "only used in criminal investigations."