How your digital trails wind up in the hands of the police

Japan developing wooden satellites to cut space junk BBC. Brilliant!

20 striking findings from 2020 Pew Research Center

52 things I learned in 2020 Flux[x], Medium

Scottish MP Margaret Ferrier arrested and charged for making 400-mile train journey AFTER testing positive for Covid-19 RT 

 

In too deep: when Gladys’ and John’s rorts go wrong

Gladys Berejiklian's defence of pork barrelling will hardly enthuse ratepayers in Batemans Bay, or taxpayers for that matter. The local government debacle over a Leisure Centre, which got the tick from Deputy Premier John Barilaro in dubious circumstances is the quintessential object lesson in why governments should do their homework before they start throwing money around for political reasons. ​Elizabeth Minter reports.
 
Read »

Ars Technica – Phone calls. Web searches. Location tracks. Smart speaker requests. “…Data collected for one purpose can always be used for another. Search history data, for example, is collected to refine recommendation algorithms or build online profiles, not to catch criminals. Usually. Smart devices like speakers, TVs, and wearables keep such precise details of our lives that they’ve been used both as incriminating and exonerating evidence in murder cases. Speakers don’t have to overhear crimes or confessions to be useful to investigators. They keep time-stamped logs of all requests, alongside details of their location and identity. Investigators can access these logs and use them to verify a suspect’s whereabouts or even catch them in a lie. It isn’t just speakers or wearables. In a year where some in Big Tech pledged support for the activists demanding police reform, they still sold devices and furnished apps that allow government access to far more intimate data from far more people than traditional warrants and police methods would allow…”

The Most Dangerous People on the Internet in 2020

Wired: “For many of us, 2020 has been a very dangerous year. Alongside the usual headline grabbers like wars, violent crime, and terrorism, we also faced more insidious, creeping threats: a pandemic that has claimed more than 300,000 American lives, and the lives of 1.5 million people worldwide, thanks in part to waves of viral lies dismissing Covid-19’s deathly serious effects. Hackers who have spied on, attacked, and extorted countless companies and government institutions—including even hospitals—during a global health crisis. And a US president who has sought to fundamentally undermine both the response to the Covid-19 pandemic and democracy itself with nakedly self-serving, corrosive misinformation. In a locked-down and socially distanced year that for many of us was spent more online than off, the presence of those dangers on the internet has never felt more real. Digital threats and information warfare were, in 2020, some of the most harmful forces in our society. Every year, WIRED assembles a list of the most dangerous people on the internet. In some respects, the actions of this year’s candidates resemble those of years past, from destructive hacking to sowing disinformation. But in a year where human society seemed more fragile than ever, the consequences of those actions have never been more grave…”

 Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, December 27, 2020 – Privacy and security issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and security, often without our situational awareness. 

Four highlights from this week: DOJ Accuses Zoom Exec of Acting on Behalf of Chinese Government; CISA Releases CISA Insights and Creates Webpage on Ongoing APT Cyber Activity; ACLU Sues For Info On FBI’s Encryption Breaking Capabilities; New tools to fight gift card scams; Officials shut down fake Moderna, Regeneron websites that allegedly stole users’ info for cyberattacks.

She didn’t know her kidnapper. But he was using Google Maps — and that cracked the case. NBC (furzy) A reason to love your information overlords.

 

ICIJ: We rang in 2021 with news of some rare, bipartisan cooperation in Washington. Landmark anti-money laundering reforms hitched a ride in a massive defense spending bill that lawmakers enacted by overriding President Donald Trump’s veto.

For the first time, companies will be required to report their true owners to the government, largely ending anonymous shell companies in a country that’s long served as one of the world’s top tax havens for criminals and wrongdoers.

ICIJ has repeatedly homed in on the role of shell companies in tax evasion, global inequality and illicit enterprises such as human trafficking, drug rings, arms dealing, and terrorism through investigations like FinCEN Files, Panama Papers, Luanda Leaks and more.

See our story on what brought about the historic legislation, as we’ll be closely watching its implementation and the future of the global fight against corruption and financial secrecy.

NETFLIX VICTORY
A U.S. judge made a First Amendment ruling in favor of Netflix and “The Laundromat,” a film inspired by the Panama Papers. It’s the latest legal stumble for the founders of Mossack Fonseca, the law firm at the heart of the investigation.

TRICKS OF THE TRADE
ICIJ’s award-winning data team shares the tools, tips, and inspiration they rely on to navigate intensive investigations like the FinCEN Files in this Q&A

A ‘REAL LIFE CRIME NOVEL’
We talk to ICIJ member Eva Jung about how she uncovered Denmark’s biggest money laundering scandal and more in the latest installment of Meet The Investigators.