Displaying items by tag: Congress

G-Glass

The Google Glass project has caused some concern in Washington. They seem to feel that a device that can capture still images and movies which you wear around all the time could be a problem. Already we have seen casinos ban them, which is not surprising as they could be used to cheat the house. Next to ban Google Glass were the strip clubs, again not a big surprise and you can imagine why. Google Glass could be a problem and we can see businesses, schools and other place banning their use in the very near future. Still we wonder about Congress getting involved. Is their concern really about privacy?

Published in News
despd

Although the war for a free and open internet has fallen out of the front page news there are still rumblings about it going on in the background as the MPAA, RIAA BSA and other organizations gear up for another round of attacks on the internet as we know it. We expect to see Chris Dodd come back to “the hill” and catch up with his old buddies that are still in active service with the US government. His goal this time will be to get bills like SOPA and PIPA reborn and pushed through in back room deals instead of trying to get things done openly and honestly. What we find interesting is that the MPAA, RIAA and BSA have been using the same old arguments and logic for almost 10 years to no avail, what arguments are they going to us this time, or will they simply make promises to get what they want…

Published in Editorials
bill-of-rights

The US Government has gone and done something that they have been trying to claim they would never do. They have put forward an Executive Order that outlines their ability to control communications in the event of an “emergency”. The new order has the interesting title of “Assignment of National Security and Emergency Preparedness Communications Functions”. You could say that the new Executive Order does assign functions to different offices in the government and also assigns duties to the rest of the country including “the private and nonprofit sectors, and the public”. If you read the new EO in its entirety (and we highly recommend you do) you will see that this is a precursor to the enablement of the US Government to require surveillance and control measures all across the internet. So it looks like the big content holders have managed to get their way all in the name of “National Security”.

Published in News

anonymousAs someone that has followed the online “hacking” community since its infancy (war dialing anyone) I can say with a fair amount of confidence that the guys what kicked it all off (Like Steve Wozniak) would be proud of where some of the movement has gone. In the early 80’s War Dialing was something of a fun sport, you dialed a range of numbers until a computer answered and then you tried to talk to it. A lot of the activity was aimed at “corrupt businesses and government agencies” right alongside the people looking to just do it because it was something new and exciting.

Published in Editorials

Anon-02A while ago we wrote a piece that talked (in simple terms) about how Anonymous could kill the internet through attacking the root DNS servers. The article was written with the intent to give a background on the system in place and how it works. We did not then, nor do we now believe that Anonymous would take down the internet. As with all of the threats to take down twitter, Facebook and other forms of communication it would be exceptionally counterproductive. If Anonymous were to take down the internet and prevent connecting to servers via DNS it would lose many of their followers and supporters for at least the length of the hack.

Published in Editorials

90Today is a busy day on the Internet (it usually is on a Monday morning). There are multiple articles and comments that are all related to the freedom of the Internet and how the world is evolving to embrace it while some in power are de-evolving to tray and restrict it. At this point there is no clear winner, but the sides are being firmly drawn in the sand and it is clear that things will get worse before they get better.

Published in Editorials

CashOne thing we have always prided ourselves on here at DecryptedTech is to look through the surface of issues at hand. Anything can be miss-read on the surface and taken the wrong way. We all are guilty of it, how many times have you gotten a question on a test wrong because you did not read it properly? I have done that more times that I care to count. However, it was this type of issue that has taught me to read between the lines and look beneath the PR and marketing that is shoved in the public’s faces every day.

Published in Editorials

broken-lockRecent events in Washington have caused quite a stir on the internet as a very oppressive bill is working its way through the legislative branch of the US government. We have talked about this bill and its dangerous consequences more than once but with the release of some new information and after a few questions that we were recently asked we are going to approach it again. First let’s give you a little background as we show you how the US will be if the SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) is passed.

Published in Editorials