John McAfee Going Underground

An article in Global Coin Report (May 17, 2018) stated: Known for his well-timed predictions (and their explosive results) within the cryptocurrency community, John McAfee is in the headlines again, going underground as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) attempts to silence his voice. A vocal critic of the SEC, McAfee has taken to Twitter to update his followers on current developments as the SEC has allegedly infiltrated his property, disturbing McAffee’s peace and forcing the hand of a man most famously known for his wild Bitcoin predictions.

Perhaps the most vocal and angry critic of the SEC, McAfee has spoken out numerous times concerning the commission’s actions to destroy value in the market. Now, with an increase in suspicious activity happening around his home in Tennessee, his twitter feed has lit up with the dramatic unfolding of this newest dilemma.

Mr. McAfee is now located in a tiny American hamlet whose residents have a long history of abuse by Federal authorities. The local police are practiced in the art of sending invaders back to Washington. (Loggiaonfire)

"Mr. McAfee has on occasion been labeled as crazy by people who have never had entire governments out to collect them. He has been called paranoid by people who have never had their lives threatened. And he has been accused of grandiose delusion by people who themselves lack the nerve to speak out against corrupt and tyrannical government agencies."

Bomb Scare that Nearly Shut Down Seattle Library Was "Realistic" Army Exercise

On Saturday, April 14, staffers at a downtown Seattle library discovered two alarming objects on its third-floor shelves: Two books had been hollowed out and filled with what appeared to library staffers to be two primitive homemade bombs, according to an internal library email about the incident.

Each of the books contained batteries, wires, and computer chips. According to the police report, obtained through a public disclosure request, staffers considered the objects to be "potential explosive device[s]."

The staffers on duty that Saturday morning, according to multiple accounts of the incident, then called 911, stationed security guards on several floors, and prepared to evacuate the entire 363,000-square-foot building and its approximately 3,500 occupants in response to the apparent potential bomb.   (CIS, May 18, 2018)
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Off-post training for certain types of military units improves realism and when working with civilian law enforcement and emergency services can provide a benefit to the civilian community as well. But these exercises must be properly coordinated by the participating installation.

Government Should ‘Stop Pretending’ Your Social Security Number is Secret

Government and industry rely on Social Security numbers as a fail-safe way to ensure people are who they claim to be, but massive data breaches have led cyber-security experts to argue the nine-digit identifier is past its prime.

High-profile data breaches have dumped hundreds of millions of Social Security numbers into the on-line wilderness recently, fueling a rise in identity theft and financial fraud. In 2015, experts estimated between 60 and 80 percent of Social Security numbers have at some point been stolen by hackers, and that was before the massive breach at Equifax exposed information on 143 million Americans last year.

“Social Security numbers are so deeply compromised and so widely available to the public...that they can no longer be used as an authenticator,” said Paul Rosenzweig, a cyber-security expert at the R Street Institute, before the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security. While he and other witnesses largely agreed the number can still work as a unique government ID, the days of using it to prove someone is who they say are long over.

“Using my Social Security number as an authenticator is as stupid as using the last four letters as my last name as authenticator, or the last four digits of my phone number,” said Rosenzweig. (NextGov, May 17, 2018)
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You should never provide your SSN unless specifically required to do so by law. Request that businesses and organizations that use your SSN for identification purposes adopt and use an alternate method.  As explained in the Next Gov article, using an SSN for identification is just not safe.

As we saw in my blog post in January 2018, even the Social Security Administration states that: Organizations should avoid using Social Security numbers (SSNs) as identifiers for any type of transaction.

Researchers Say a Breathalyzer Used in Multiple States Produces Incorrect Results

Two researchers say a police breathalyzer, used across the US, can produce incorrect breath test results, but their work came to a halt after legal pressure from the manufacturer.

This most recent skirmish began a decade ago when Washington state police sought to replace its aging fleet of breathalyzers. When the Washington State police opened solicitations, the only bidder, Draeger, a German medical technology maker, won the contract to sell its flagship device, the Alcotest 9510, across the state.

But defense attorneys have long believed the breathalyzer is faulty.

Jason Lantz, a Washington-based defense lawyer, enlisted a software engineer and a security researcher to examine its source code. The two experts wrote in a preliminary report that they found flaws capable of producing incorrect breath test results. The defense hailed the results as a breakthrough, believing the findings could cast doubt on countless drunk-driving prosecutions.

The company that makes the breathalyzer sued the researchers to prevent release of their data.  ZDNet (May 10, 2018)
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Most any attorney will tell you that You Should Never Take a Field Sobriety Test (SFST). These tests are voluntary, are subjective, and generally are not accurate. However the breathalyzer is "mandatory" under implied consent laws.

Every driver in the State of Washington (and other states) impliedly consents to providing a breath or blood sample after being arrested for DUI. Failure to provide such a sample after a lawful request is known as a “refusal”.

For a Washington Court or the Washington Department of Licensing (DOL) to find that you have refused to provide a properly requested breath or blood test, a number of things must be proven. First you have to have been read or been allowed to read what are know as your implied consent warnings.

It is important to note that behavior apart from saying, “I refuse” can constitute a refusal. An officer may construe a refusal in cases where a person delays too long in making a decision or pretends to blow into the breath tube. This is known as a constructive refusal and while it may be harder to prove than an actual refusal, Washington DUI law does recognize it as a refusal nonetheless.

So, while you are required to submit to the breathalyzer under implied consent laws, and the result of the test can be used against you in court - it seems that the breathalyzer can produce incorrect results, casting doubt on countless convictions.

Department of Justice “Put a Spy” in the Trump Campaign in 2016

For the second time in two days, President Donald Trump shared a claim on social media Friday that the Department of Justice “put a spy” in his campaign in 2016.

The previous morning, Trump quoted “Fox & Friends” guest and former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy, saying the “Obama FBI ‘SPIED ON THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN WITH AN EMBEDDED INFORMANT.’”

“If so,” Trump added, “this is bigger than Watergate!”

Trump allies in Congress have been seeking information on a longtime intelligence source who reportedly provided information to the FBI early in its investigation of possible ties between Trump’s campaign and the Russian government. The FBI and DOJ have warned that revealing the source could endanger lives and operations.  (KOMO 4 News, May 18, 2018)

Using 'Delay Delivery' to Send "Please Check on Me" Messages

In October 2017 I wrote about an app, Kitestring, that lets you schedule a notification to be sent to friends, family, or some other emergency contact if you go missing or fail to respond to a check-in message. 

 

You can use the 'Delay Delivery' option in Outlook to accomplish the same type of notification.

To set up delayed delivery of an e-mail from Outlook:

• In the message, click Options.
• In the More Options group, click Delay Delivery.
• Delay Delivery command on the ribbon
• Under Delivery options, select the Do not deliver before check box, and then click the delivery date and time that you want.
• After you click Send, the message remains in the Outbox folder until the delivery time.

 

Using the 'Delay Delivery' option you can prepare an e-mail to be sent at a certain time. Maybe you want somebody to check on you if you don't return from a sole hike or weekend camping trip. Are you going on a blind-date or meeting a stranger to purchase something that you saw on Craigslist?

For whatever reason you might want to send a message to someone at a specific time, 'Delay Delivery' gives you that option. Of course, you should always test this system and arrange with friends and family in advance of using 'Delay Delivery' to ask them to check on you. The delayed message is just an automated reminder - it shouldn't come as a surprise to the person receiving it.

For the 'Delay Delivery' option to work, Outlook must be running with a connection to an e-mail server (you must be on-line) at the time the message is scheduled to be sent. A power failure, computer crash, or automatic re-start could cancel your delayed messages, but generally speaking the 'Delay Delivery' option works as described.
 
In addition to just sending an e-mail, you can use the e-mail to text (SMS) to help ensure that your message is seen as soon as possible after it is sent. You may only check your e-mail when you are sitting in front of your computer, but your cell-phone is probably in your pocket allowing you to receive a text message at any time.

Use the following formats to send a text message from e-mail:

• Alltel   10-digit-number@message.alltel.com 
• AT&T   10-digit-number@txt.att.net 
• Boost Mobile  10-digit-number@myboostmobile.com 
• Cricket Wireless 10-digit-number@mms.cricketwireless.net
• Project Fi  10-digit-number@msg.fi.google.com
• Sprint   10-digit-number@messaging.sprintpcs.com 
• T-Mobile  10-digit-number@tmomail.net 
• U.S. Cellular  10-digit-number@email.uscc.net 
• Verizon [insert  10-digit-number@vtext.com 
• Virgin Mobile  10-digit-number@vmobl.com 
• Republic Wireless 10-digit-number@text.republicwireless.com 
• US Cellular:   10-digit-number@mms.uscc.net

Remember to keep e-mail sent as a text message short (less than 160 characters). You can always send short notifications as text messages, and follow-up with e-mail containing additional details.

If after setting up a 'Delay Delivery' message you find that you don't need to send it (which should be most of the time for "Please Check on Me" type messages), just delete it from your Outbox folder prior to its scheduled delivery time.

Please Check on Me messages, scheduled with 'Delay Delivery' are a way to add a little bit of extra personal security to your life.  

Support TOR in Public Libraries

Libraries are trusted community spaces and education centers -- quite often as the only such resource in their communities. Libraries serve people from all walks of life, including immigrants, poor and working people, and others who are under greater threats of surveillance. Finally, libraries have a deep historical and ideological commitment to protecting privacy; for example, librarians in the United States were some of the earliest opponents of overbroad government surveillance programs like the USA PATRIOT Act.

The use of TOR is not, in and of itself, illegal. There are legitimate purposes for its use. Originally designed, implemented and deployed by the United States Naval Research Laboratory, TOR affords users a way to share information over public networks without compromising their privacy.

When we consider the threats we face from government agencies Spying on Democracy - the disturbing increase in surveillance of ordinary citizens and the danger it poses to our privacy, and to our civil liberties - it only makes good sense to take steps to safeguard our personal privacy and civil liberties, and what better place to do that than in our public libraries?

Contact your local library and encourage them to run a TOR Relay. By running a Tor relay they can help make the Tor network:

• faster (and therefore more usable)
• more robust against attacks
• more stable in case of outages
• safer for its users (spying on more relays is harder than on a few)

This article on the TOR WIKI explains how to set up a TOR Relay.

Librarians may also be interested in the Library Freedom Institute.

The Library Freedom Institute (LFI) is a privacy-focused six-month program for librarians to teach them the skills necessary to thrive as Privacy Advocates, from installing privacy software to influencing public policy.