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Cyber Command, Olympic surveillance, and smart dildo hacks: ICYMI

Important news you may have missed on Monday, Aug. 8, 2016.

 

Dell Cameron

Tech

Posted on Aug 8, 2016   Updated on May 26, 2021, 7:32 am CDT

Here’s some news you may have missed:

A former CIA counterterrorism agent will launch a presidential bid to challenge Republican nominee Donald Trump. Like his potential rival, Evan McMullin has never held elected office.

The Pentagon is working on a proposal to elevate its cyberwarfare division, presently overseen as a component of U.S. Strategic Command. The change further emphasizes the military’s emerging outlook on cyberwarfare as critical to overall defense.

Iran has officially banned Pokémon Go. The nation’s High Council of Virtual Spaces, which is behind many of the world’s strictest internet-censorship policies, cited security concerns over the popular game.

Hackers and “smart” sex toys: You should already know where this is going.

The feds are selling $1.6 million worth of bitcoins, partially taken from the bust of Silk Road.

ICYMI this weekend:

Obama administration guidelines on drones and use of lethal force against terrorism suspects are now public thanks to an ACLU lawsuit.

Surveillance technologies developed for military applications are being turned on visitors to the Olympic Games in Rio.

Security around the Games has people talking about the Brazilian government’s unilateral authority to jam its citizens’ internet communications.

Carefully choosing its words, WikiLeaks clarifies it is not working on “hacking” Trump’s tax returns (records the Republican candidate has thus far refused to show the public.) “We are ‘working on’ encouraging whistleblowers,” says the publisher of countless anonymously-sourced government documents.

An artistic interpretation of what we imagine hacking at the Pentagon probably looks like.

A Russian “organized cybercrime group” reportedly breached software giant Oracle, including a support portal for the company’s point-of-sale credit card payment systems. —via Krebs on Security

The chairman of the American Nazi Party thinks a Trump victory in November would be “a real opportunity” for white nationalists. —via the Washington Post

Roughly 14 percent of recent churchgoers say they’ve heard clergy speak directly in support of (or against) a specific presidential candidate, despite a federal prohibition on tax-exempt organizations making such endorsements. —via Pew Research Center

There are new details about Facebook’s law enforcement portal, which activists accuse police of using to delete content exposing incidents of brutality. via the Intercept

American documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney (We Steal Secrets, Going Clear) penned an op-ed aimed at casting suspicion on the motives of Julian Assange. —via the New York Times

German researchers have demonstrated a method for identifying individuals even when most of their photos are untagged or obscured, dubbed “faceless recognition.” —via Motherboard

The need for organs has never been greater. Is our dependence on altruistic donors really the best approach? —via the Boston Globe

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*First Published: Aug 8, 2016, 6:02 pm CDT