New SWIFT Messaging System Linked to Online Bank Attack

Bangladesh's central bank became more vulnerable to hackers when technicians from SWIFT, the global financial network, connected a new bank transaction system to SWIFT messaging three months before a $81 million cyber heist, Bangladeshi police and a bank official alleged. The technicians introduced the vulnerabilities when they connected SWIFT to Bangladesh's first real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system, said Mohammad Shah Alam, the head of the criminal investigation department of the Bangladesh police who is leading the probe into one of the biggest cyber-heists in the world.

Twitter Stops Intelligence Agencies from Accessing Some Data

Twitter Inc. cut off U.S. intelligence agencies from access to a service that sifts through the entire output of its social-media postings, the latest example of tension between Silicon Valley and the federal government over terrorism and privacy. The move, which hasn’t been publicly announced, was confirmed by a senior U.S. intelligence official and other people familiar with the matter.

Hacker Claims He Accessed Clinton's Email Server

The infamous Romanian hacker known as “Guccifer,” speaking exclusively with Fox News, claimed he easily – and repeatedly – breached former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s personal email server in early 2013. Marcel Lehel Lazar, who goes by the moniker "Guccifer," claimed he was able to access the server – and provided extensive details about how he did it and what he found – over the course of a half-hour jailhouse interview and a series of recorded phone calls with Fox News.

L.A. Police Find Way to Unlock iPhone in Actor's Murder Case

Los Angeles police investigators obtained a method to open the locked iPhone belonging to the slain wife of "The Shield" actor Michael Jace, according to court papers reviewed by The Los Angeles Times. LAPD detectives found an alternative way to bypass the security features on the white iPhone 5S belonging to April Jace, whom the actor is accused of killing at their South L.A. home in 2014, according to a search warrant filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court

Commission in Brazil Proposes Bill to Protect WhatsApp

A Brazilian congressional commission recommended a bill that forbids authorities from blocking popular messaging applications, just two days after a judicial order left 100 million Brazilians without Facebook Inc's WhatsApp. A Brazilian judge overturned a 72-hour suspension of the application used by roughly half the population of the South American country, triggering popular outcry over its second judicial suspension in only five months.

273 Million Stolen Email Accounts Found in Russian Underworld

Hundreds of millions of hacked usernames and passwords for email accounts and other websites are being traded in Russia's criminal underworld, a security expert told Reuters. The discovery of 272.3 million stolen accounts included a majority of users of Mail.ru, Russia's most popular email service, and smaller fractions of Google, Yahoo and Microsoft email users, said Alex Holden, founder and chief information security officer of Hold Security.

Appeals Court in Brazil Overturns Order Against WhatsApp

Facebook's WhatsApp messaging service resumed in Brazil after an appeals court overturned a suspension and many of the application's 100 million users in the country voiced outrage. WhatsApp was cut off in Brazil at 2 p.m. on Monday after a judge in the remote northeastern state of Sergipe ordered Brazil's five main wireless operators to block access to the app for 72 hours.

European Counterterrorism Officials Fault U.S. Laws

European counterterrorism officials say American laws and corporate policies are hampering their efforts to prevent the next attack, because legal procedures for getting international evidence from U.S.-based social-media firms are dangerously outdated. European police officials who face a lengthy process to get communications data from companies such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and WhatsApp want to make American technology firms more responsive to overseas requests.

Cybertheft of $81M from Bangladesh Bank Highlights SWIFT

What unites a curious cast of characters and enabled one of the most brazen digital bank heists ever is a ubiquitous and highly trusted international bank messaging system called Swift. Swift — the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication — is billed as a supersecure system that banks use to authorize payments from one account to another.

Uber Settles Lawsuit with Blind Group Over Service Animals

Uber and advocates for the blind have reached a lawsuit settlement in which the ride-hailing company agrees to require that existing and new drivers confirm they understand their legal obligations to transport riders with guide dogs or other service animals, an advocacy group announced. The National Federation of the Blind said that Uber will also remove a driver from the platform after a single complaint if it determines the driver knowingly denied a person with a disability a ride because the person was traveling with a service animal.

  • Read the article: WCVB

FBI Gets Search Warrant Forcing Woman to Provide iPhone Fingerprint

As the world watched the FBI spar with Apple this winter in an attempt to hack into a San Bernardino shooter's iPhone, federal officials were quietly waging a different encryption battle in a Los Angeles courtroom. There, authorities obtained a search warrant compelling the girlfriend of an alleged Armenian gang member to press her finger against an iPhone that had been seized from a Glendale home.

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