DEA says AT&T still provides access to billions of phone records

A program that allows drug agents to obtain a pool of billions of call records from AT&T is “still active,” according to a watchdog report. The report, published Thursday by the Justice Department inspector general, confirmed the program — named in the report only as Project C — continues to provide access to “billions” of […]

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Homeland Security hasn’t done enough to protect election infrastructure, says watchdog

Homeland Security could do more to protect election infrastructure ahead, according to a new report by the department’s watchdog. The report from the inspector general, out Wednesday, said progress had been made but Homeland Security, the department charged with protecting elections and the back-end voting machine infrastructure, still “does not have dedicated staff” focused on […]

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William Barr confirmed to lead the Justice Department

On Thursday, the Senate voted to confirm Trump nominee William Barr as the next head of the Justice Department. Barr was nominated to replace former Attorney General Jeff Sessions who fell out of favor with the Trump administration and resigned last year. Barr will step in for acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, who controversially stepped […]

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DOJ charges former US Air Force officer with spying for Iran

Prosecutors have brought charges against a former Air Force officer for allegedly spying for Iran, the Justice Department confirmed Wednesday. Monica Witt, a former Air Force counter-intelligence officer, is accused of defecting to Iran in 2013, after leaving the military in 2008 after more than a decade’s service and later working as a defense contractor. […]

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U.S. announces criminal charges against Huawei, seeks to extradite its CFO

In a joint press event today, the U.S. Department of Justice revealed that it is pursuing criminal charges against Chinese mobile giant Huawei. Following a story from The Wall Street Journal earlier this month, TechCrunch previously reported that the indictments were set to be unsealed soon. The indictments grew out of a civil suit dating all […]

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A simple data analysis disproves the argument for building a border wall

Ken Miller Contributor Ken Miller is an investor, writer and advisor to several technology companies and venture capital firms. Previously he was an executive at PayPal and Intuit, and early advisor to Square. More posts by this contributor As hyper-conservative media surged, Republicans’ trust in news cratered Data shows a downward demographic spiral for Republicans […]

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President Bolsonaro should boost Brazil’s entrepreneurial ecosystem

Romero Rodrigues Contributor Romero Rodrigues is a managing partner at Redpoint eVentures, the Brazilian-focused arm of the Silicon Valley venture firm Redpoint. More posts by this contributor Brazil’s fintech boom offers new vertical opportunities for investors Brazil’s tech-sector bright spots beckon as it begins to emerge from long economic crisis In late October following a significant […]

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Some US government websites won’t load after HTTPS certificates expire during shutdown

In a government shutdown, everything deemed non-essential stops. As we found out, renewing the certificates on its websites is considered non-essential. Several government sites are currently inaccessible or blocked by most browsers after their HTTPS certificate expired. With nobody available to renew them during the government shutdown, these sites are kicking back warning errors. According […]

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Twitter says governments are ramping up their demands for user data

Twitter says the number of government demands for data on its users has shot up in the past year. In its latest transparency report out Thursday, the social media giant said it received 10 percent more requests between January and June than on its previous reporting period — the largest percentage increase in three years. […]

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ACLU asks court to release a secret order forcing Facebook to wiretap Messenger

Earlier this year, the U.S. government tried to force Facebook to secretly recode its Messenger app to allow the feds to listen into an encrypted, real-time voice call on suspected members associated with the notorious MS-13 gang. It was only when reporters revealed that when Facebook declined, the feds pushed the court to hold the […]

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Department of Justice launches a new hate-crime resource portal

Following an alarming week of domestic terrorism, the U.S. Department of Justice has consolidated into a single online hub resources and reporting tools for hate crimes. According to a DOJ press release, the new portal is meant to “provide a centralized portal for the Department’s hate crimes resources for law enforcement, media, researchers, victims, advocacy groups, […]

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In its first cyberoperation against Russian trolls, U.S. takes a gentle approach

Russia has been blamed for shutting down power grids, hacking into critical systems, and more recently launching a massive misinformation campaign aimed at meddling with past and upcoming elections. Now, the U.S. is striking back ahead of the midterm elections in an unconventionally gentle way. U.S. Cyber Command, the military wing tasked with offensive cyberoperations, […]

View More In its first cyberoperation against Russian trolls, U.S. takes a gentle approach