This evening Vancouver residents found out what was inside that Kaiju-sized Xbox One: a marketing stunt. Meant to promote the console and launch title Dead Rising 3, Kotaku has posted a picture of the demo stations within, as well as a Vine of the "zombies" outside. NeoGAF poster Jotamide reported a tent offering zombie makeup for free, and demonstrations of DR3 (developed by Capcom Vancouver), Killer Instinct, Ryse and Forza 5.
There is "no way" the NSA's newly revealed surveillance activities could have been legal, asserted Fred Cate, director of the Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research at Indiana University. "There is obviously a big security issue here," Cate explained. "It puts us in an almost surreal position, especially as there is no way that the NSA could truly differentiate between U.S. citizens and non-U.S. citizens."
The National Security Agency has tapped fiber-optic cables that connect Google's and Yahoo's overseas servers and accessed vast amounts of data including email and other personal information, according to a Wednesday report in The Washington Post.
Included in the data culled by the NSA is information on hundreds of millions of users, many of whom are American, the Post reported, citing documents obtained by NSA contractor Edward Snowden along with interviews with other officials.
The NSA's acquisition directorate reportedly sent millions of records daily from internal Yahoo and Google networks to a data warehouse at the agency's Fort Meade, Md., headquarters.
The NSA balked at the idea that it was looking into the personal information of American citizens.
"NSA has multiple authorities that it uses to accomplish its mission, which is centered on defending the nation," NSA spokesperson Vanee Vines told TechNewsWorld. "The Washington Post's assertion that we use Executive Order 12333 collection to get around the limitations imposed by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and FAA 702 is not true.
"The assertion that we collect vast quantities of U.S. persons' data from this type of collection is also not true," Vines added. "NSA applies Attorney General-approved processes to protect the privacy of U.S. persons, minimizing the likelihood of their information in our targeting, collection, processing, exploitation, retention and dissemination."
NSA is "a foreign intelligence agency," Vines concluded, "and we're focused on discovering and developing intelligence about valid foreign intelligence targets only."
Both Google and Yahoo stressed that they did not participate in the NSA's data collection.
"We have long been concerned about the possibility of this kind of snooping, which is why we have continued to extend encryption across more and more Google services and links," said David Drummond, Google's chief legal officer. "We do not provide any government, including the U.S. government, with access to our systems.
"We are outraged at the lengths to which the government seems to have gone to intercept data from our private fiber networks," Drummond added. "It underscores the need for urgent reform."
Similarly, "we have strict controls in place to protect the security of our data centers," Yahoo spokesperson Lauren Armstrong told TechNewsWorld. "We have not given access to our data centers to the NSA or to any other government agency."
It's unclear exactly how the NSA achieved this tap, but the Post report suggests that "anything flowing between Google's data servers would be vulnerable, which means both metadata and content of millions of emails, among other things," Trevor Timm, an activist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, pointed out.
Was the surveillance legal?
"The U.S. government thinks it is," Timm told TechNewsWorld. "We think it's a gross violation of the privacy rights of Americans and those abroad.
"Congress will act to make sure this will never happen again, and tech companies will implement changes to make sure the NSA can't do it again even if they tried," he added.
"There is no way it could have been legal," Fred Cate, director of the Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research at Indiana University, told TechNewsWorld.
"There is obviously a big security issue here," Cate explained. "It puts us in an almost surreal position, especially as there is no way that the NSA could truly differentiate between U.S. citizens and non-U.S. citizens, as they claim."
Of course, these revelations are just the latest in what's becoming a long stream of leaks about government surveillance.
"The truth is, even with all the public leaks and media reporting to date, presumably there's still much we neither know nor have the ability to accurately/fairly understand in full context," Jeffrey Silva, senior policy director for telecommunications, media and technology at Medley Global Advisors, told TechNewsWorld.
"Questions about the legality and appropriateness of certain government surveillance -- especially in the post-9/11 world -- are apt to persist on an ongoing basis with every new revelation," Silva added.
"The government may need to make a stronger case, and repeat it often, that expanded surveillance is a price that must be paid in the post-9/11era if U.S. citizens want to be safe," he concluded. "At the same, there's the question of whether current level of government surveillance, that even if legal, amounts to overkill and an unnecessary intrusion on American privacy."
In the bigger picture, the revelations are "like layers of an onion," suggested Tim Erlin, director of IT risk and security strategy at Tripwire. "This period of information security history will do more to spur a renewed interest in verifiable security, including end-to-end encryption and distributed systems for validation, than anything we've seen in a long time."
The fact is, however, "we've tacitly agreed to allow our personal data be aggregated in large organizations like Google, Yahoo and Facebook," Erlin told TechNewsWorld. "These companies have so much intelligence that they have become too attractive as intelligence targets."
Indeed, "the companies involved should be the ones with most concerns," said Cate. "This is not good for their business."
Moreover, "when you look at it with the tapestry of all the programs that we've seen come to light," he added, "that is when the cold chill goes down your spine."
Google didn't have much to say about Google Voice integration in its Hangouts app when it announced the latest version earlier this week, but the company's Nikhyl Singhal has filled in a few more details on his Google+ page today. Singhal notes that while the update (and its SMS support) only works ...
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/UkwKl7JegVI/AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A federal appeals court on Thursday ruled that most of Texas' tough new abortion restrictions can take effect immediately — a decision that means a third of the state's clinics that perform the procedure won't be able to do so starting as soon as Friday.
A panel of judges at the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans said the law requiring doctors to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital can take effect while a lawsuit challenging the restrictions moves forward. The panel issued the ruling three days after District Judge Lee Yeakel said the provision serves no medical purpose.
In its 20-page ruling, the appeals court panel acknowledged that the provision "may increase the cost of accessing an abortion provider and decrease the number of physicians available to perform abortions." However, the panel said that the U.S. Supreme Court has held that having "the incidental effect of making it more difficult or more expensive to procure an abortion cannot be enough to invalidate" a law that serves a valid purpose, "one not designed to strike at the right itself."
The panel left in place a portion of Yeakel's order that prevents the state from enforcing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration protocol for abortion-inducing drugs in cases where the woman is between 50 and 63 days into her pregnancy. Doctors testifying before the court had said such women would be harmed if the protocol were enforced.
After Yeakel halted the restrictions, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott had made an emergency appeal to the conservative 5th Circuit, arguing that the law requiring doctors to have admitting privileges is a constitutional use of the Legislature's authority.
"This unanimous decision is a vindication of the careful deliberation by the Texas Legislature to craft a law to protect the health and safety of Texas women," Abbott, a Republican who is running for governor, said in a written statement.
Lawyers for Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers had argued that the regulations do not protect women and would shut down a third of the 32 abortion clinics in Texas.
Twelve of Texas' abortion clinics won't be able to perform the procedure starting as soon as Friday.
In a statement Thursday, Planned Parenthood said the appeals court decision means "abortion will no longer be available in vast stretches of Texas."
"This fight is far from over," Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards said in the statement. "This restriction clearly violates Texas women's constitutional rights by drastically reducing access to safe and legal abortion statewide."
The court's order is temporary until it can hold a complete hearing, likely in January.
The restrictions are among the toughest in the nation and gained notoriety when Democratic state Sen. Wendy Davis launched a nearly 13-hour filibuster against them in June. Davis has since launched her own gubernatorial campaign and could face Abbott in the November 2014 election. Republican Gov. Rick Perry has said he will not seek another term.
The law that the Legislature passed this summer also bans abortions at 20 weeks of pregnancy and beginning in October 2014 requires doctors to perform all abortions in surgical facilities.
Officials for one chain of abortion clinics testified in the trial that Yeakel oversaw that they've tried to obtain admitting privileges for their doctors at 32 hospitals, but so far only 15 accepted applications and none have announced a decision. Many hospitals with religious affiliations will not allow abortion doctors to work there, while others fear protests if they provide privileges. Many have requirements that doctors live within a certain radius of the facility, or perform a minimum number of surgeries a year that must be performed in a hospital.
TOKYO (AP) — A zombie swarm in Tokyo? Why not, it's Halloween.
Led by a former sumo grand champion, about 1,000 beauty schools students and Halloween fun-seekers descended on Tokyo Tower — the Japanese capital's most iconic landmark — on Thursday in a "zombie attack" organized by Fox International Channels, Japan, to mark the beginning in the country of Season 4 of the popular TV show "The Walking Dead."
Replete with black eyes, blood-soaked clothes and enough open wounds to fill several emergency rooms, the "zombies" covered the grounds of the tower in central Tokyo after making their way across town on buses and trains — much to the surprise of unsuspecting onlookers.
Halloween is popular in Japan, and Tokyo's subways are often crowded with partygoers in full costume on Halloween night.
"Our only concern is that somebody might see all these zombies and have a heart attack," said Dan Smith, a Fox producer who thought up the stunt.
Leading the zombie charge was Chad Rowan, who is famous in Japan under his sumo name, Akebono. Rowan, who is now a pro wrestler, is the first foreigner to reach sumo's highest rank and stands 203 centimeters tall (6-foot-8).
"It's great to be doing this in Tokyo," said Rowan, who was dressed in black and had his face made up to look like he had two large gashes on his forehead. "It's so unusual to be able to do something like this here."
If you're wondering where heaven on Earth is, it's in China. Surprising, I know. But it's undeniable after you see this ginormous pink and green ball pit found at the Kerry Hotel in Shanghai. It's the world's largest ball pit and stretches over 80 feet long and 40 feet wide. The pit is filled with the amazingness of one million plastic balls.
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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/w00GiU4WOYw/@caseychan
Apple's incredibly popular handset, the iPhone, has earned it multiple awards from J.D. Power, but the tablet market may not be playing out the same for the iPad maker. According to a recent study conducted by J.D. Power, which took place between the months of March and August, Samsung tablets are ...
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/iwr5cX92MJ4/
