How Google is tightening encryption for Gmail

As encryption becomes a controversial subject between the FBI and Apple, Google is promising more of it. On Thursday, Google announced new tools to make Gmail – and email sent from Gmail accounts – more secure....
http://m.csmonitor.com/Technology/2016/0324/How-Google-is-tightening-encryption-for-Gmail

Here's how to lock your notes with a password or a fingerprint in iOS 9.3

As we decided to explore this new feature in depth and were left a bit flabbergasted by where to find and enable it, we felt that it's fair to give you heads up on how to lock noted in iOS 9.3 with your fingerprint or a password for that matter...
http://www.phonearena.com/news/Heres-how-to-lock-your-notes-with-a-password-or-a-fingerprint-in-iOS-9.3_id77635

Apple designing its own iCloud servers to avoid surveillance

The NSA is known to intercept tech in-transit through the postal system...
http://www.zdnet.com/article/apple-designing-its-own-icloud-servers-to-avoid-surveillance/

Apple, The FBI And Your Privacy (Tom Ashbrook, On Point)

One win for Apple yesterday, when a federal judge denied the U.S. government’s request for Apple to pull data from an iPhone in a New York drug case. But the big Apple-FBI confrontation is still on over the San Bernardino iPhone. The FBI wants in. It’s about encryption and privacy and law enforcement. We’ve got the former head of the N.S.A. and the CIA with us, with a position you might not expect. This hour On Point, Apple, the FBI, and the future of privacy. — Tom Ashbrook
Interview:
http://onpoint.wbur.org/2016/03/01/apple-fbi-san-bernardino-encryption

Michael Hayden: America Is Safer With End-To-End Encryption (Tom Ashbrook, On Point)

General Michael Hayden, the former director of the NSA and the CIA, told On Point host Tom Ashbrook that America is stronger and safer with unbreakable end-to-end smartphone encryption. Hayden joined On Point on the day that FBI and Apple testified in front of the House Judiciary Committee over an ongoing legal battle around the locked iPhone of one of the alleged shooters in the 2015 San Bernardino shooting.
Interview:
http://onpoint.wbur.org/2016/03/01/michael-hayden-nsa-encryption

Apple On FBI iPhone Request: 'The Founders Would Be Appalled'

Apple says the government "attempts to rewrite history" with its request for help unlocking an iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters by stretching the law far wider than the Constitution and the lawmakers have intended.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/03/15/470436785/apple-on-fbi-iphone-request-the-founders-would-be-appalled

Apple engineers would rather quit than develop an iPhone backdoor for the FBI

Apple employees are already discussing what they will do if ordered to help law enforcement authorities. Some say they may balk at the work, while others may even quit their high-paying jobs rather than undermine the security of the software they have already created, according to more than a half-dozen current and former Apple employees.
http://bgr.com/2016/03/18/iphone-hacking-apple-engineers-fbi/

Privacy advocates plan nationwide rallies to back Apple in iPhone case

Digital rights group Fight for the Future is organizing at least 30 rallies Tuesday at Apple Stores and the FBI headquarters to support Apple's refusal to aid the FBI in accessing an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters...
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Passcode/2016/0223/Privacy-advocates-plan-nationwide-rallies-to-back-Apple-in-iPhone-case

Former CIA Agent Says Edward Snowden Revelations Emboldened Apple to Push Back Against FBI

We speak with former CIA agent Barry Eisler about the role of Edward Snowden in raising public awareness about encryption and privacy ahead of the FBI’s push for Apple to break the encryption of the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters. "So much of Snowden’s revelations were about this very thing. And the fact that the public knows about corporate cooperation with the government now is in part, I think, what has emboldened Apple to push back," Eisler says. "If we didn’t know about these things, I would expect that Apple would be quietly cooperating. There would be no cost to their doing so." Eisner also discusses his new novel, "The God’s Eye View," which he says is "grounded in things that are actually happening in the world. … I realized I was not going nearly far enough in what I had imagined."
Interview:
https://youtu.be/hNI0n-s_nkA

Macworld: Apple is reportedly fighting 12 more iPhone data extraction orders

The company has more than just the San Bernardino court order to contend with.
http://www.macworld.com/article/3036745/security/apple-is-reportedly-fighting-12-more-iphone-data-extraction-orders.html#tk.rss_all

Ted Cruz's 2016 App Gives Campaign Access To Users' Contacts, Location

His "Cruz Crew" mobile app is designed to gather detailed information from its users' phones — tracking their physical movements and mining the names and contact information for friends who might want nothing to do with his campaign...
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/ted-cruz-app-data-mining

Cruz Blames 'Political Correctness' For The San Bernardino Attack. The FBI Says He's Wrong. | ThinkProgress

“It’s not a lack of competence that is preventing the Obama administration from stopping these attacks,” Cruz said on Wednesday. “It is political correctness. We didn’t monitor the Facebook posting of the female San Bernardino terrorist because the Obama DHS [Department of Homeland Security] thought it would be inappropriate. She made a public call to jihad, and they didn’t target it.”
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2015/12/16/3732921/ted-cruz-political-correctness/

Senate Republicans Already Blaming Anti-Surveillance Movement For Terrorist Attacks

“There could be some second thoughts among both Republicans and Democrats in the wake of Paris and San Bernardino about the appropriateness of watering down our national security tools,” McConnell told the AP in an interview. “It’s an area we’re going to take a look at. Because look, national security and these threats of terrorism are now right at the top of the list of concerns of the American people.”
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2015/12/17/3733436/senate-mass-surveillance/

How Fear Made Us Less Free • Snowden Speaks! • War on Whistleblowers • BRAVE NEW FILMS

Interview:
https://youtu.be/xbBQc57qN4Y

Koch Brothers Building Their Own CIA To Spy On Progressives

Politico has recently published a piece detailing a new project of the Koch brothers. The political network has funded a private spy group to track their political opposition. This will allow them to focus their resources strategically in political races throughout the country. Cenk Uygur, hosts of the The Young Turks, breaks it down. Tell us what you think in the comment section below.

"The political network helmed by Charles and David Koch has quietly built a secretive operation that conducts surveillance and intelligence gathering on its liberal opponents, viewing it as a key strategic tool in its efforts to reshape American public life.

The operation, which is little-known even within the Koch network, gathers what Koch insiders refer to as “competitive intelligence” that is used to try to thwart liberal groups and activists, and to identify potential threats to the expansive network.

The competitive intelligence team has a staff of 25, including one former CIA analyst, and operates from one of the non-descript Koch network offices clustered near the Courthouse metro stop in suburban Arlington, Va."
https://youtu.be/dms8FKSuV5I

Write your passwords down to improve safety | Macworld

A counter-intuitive notion leaves you less vulnerable to remote attack, not more.
http://www.macworld.com/article/3006939/security/write-your-passwords-down-to-improve-safety.html#jump

Rubio Trumps Trump: Shut Down Any Place Muslims Gather To Be 'Inspired' — Not Just Mosques | ThinkProgress

Here's what American freedom looks like under a Republican fear monger.
“It’s not about closing down mosques. It’s about closing down any place — whether it’s a cafe, a diner, an internet site — any place where radicals are being inspired,” Rubio said on Fox News’ The Kelly File on Thursday night when asked if he agreed with Trump. “The bigger problem we have is our inability to find out where these places are, because we’ve crippled our intelligence programs, both through unauthorized disclosures by a traitor, in Edward Snowden, or by some of the things this president has put in place with the support even of some from my own party to diminish our intelligence capabilities.”
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2015/11/20/3724509/rubio-trump-shut-down-mosques/

Glenn Greenwald: "Shameless" U.S. Officials Exploit Paris Attacks to Defend Spying & Attack Snowden

As France and Belgium move to expand state power in the aftermath of the Paris attacks, top U.S. officials have renewed a push to defend mass surveillance and dismiss those who challenge it. On Wednesday, FBI Director James Comey said intelligence and law enforcement officials need to have access to encrypted information on smartphones, despite no evidence that the Paris attackers used encryption. Meanwhile, others have used the Paris attacks to criticize NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. In recent days, CIA Director John Brennan has suggested revelations about mass spying have made it harder to find terrorists, while former CIA Director James Woolsey has said Snowden has blood on his hands. "We have not heard such blatant, shameless lying from intelligence and military officials since 2002 and 2003 when they propagandized the country into invading Iraq based on utterly false pretenses," says The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald, the Pulitzer-winning journalist who exposed NSA mass surveillance based on Snowden’s leaks. "It is actually shocking to listen to."
Interview:
https://youtu.be/0AydkwQi3Es

Yes, Terrorists Use Encryption But That Doesn't Mean It's A Bad Thing | ThinkProgress

To succeed, governments are going to need to resist the impulse to snatch encryption back from the masses when there’s a deadly event...
http://thinkprogress.org/world/2015/11/17/3722725/isis-encryption-paris-attacks/

Stop.Think.Connect. | Homeland Security

The Stop.Think.Connect. Campaign is a national public awareness campaign aimed at increasing the understanding of cyber threats and empowering the American public to be safer and more secure online. Cybersecurity is a shared responsibility. We each have to do our part to keep the Internet safe. When we all take simple steps to be safer online, it makes using the Internet a more secure experience for everyone.
http://www.dhs.gov/stopthinkconnect