Toronto Electricians and Electrical Contractors

Detecting Ghosts By Reverse Engineering: Who Ya Gonna Call? This article was first published on Lawfare . The most recent purportedly serious   proposal   by a Western government to force technology companies to provide access to the content of encrypted communications comes from Ian Levy and Crispin Robinson of the Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ, the U.K.’s equivalent of the National Security Agency. Cryptography luminaries such as   Susan Landau ,   Matt Green , and   Bruce Schneier   have published detailed critiques of this proposal. Indeed, others from EFF have   written about the proposal —known colloquially as the “ghost”—and explained why, contrary to GCHQ’s claim, the   proposal really is an encryption backdoor   with all the attendant security risks. But even putting aside the persuasive arguments that the ghost presents a security risk to average users, in this post, we detail some previously undiscussed reas...

Victory: Federal Court in Seattle Will Begin Disclosing Surveillance Records The public will learn how often federal investigators in Seattle obtain private details about your communications, such as who you called and when, as a result of a petition to unseal those records brought by EFF client The Stranger . Federal prosecutors and the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington clerk’s office have agreed to begin tracking and docketing various forms of warrantless surveillance requests and next year will issue reports every six months detailing the cases. The new docketing procedures will apply whenever law enforcement officials seek various information under federal laws that authorize the collection of information from various communications and online service providers. This includes the ability for law enforcement to obtain metadata and other information from the likes of Google, Facebook, and phone companies. The new reporting requirement is a big step f...

Could Platform Safe Harbors Save the NAFTA Talks? As the sixth round of talks over a modernized North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) kicks off in Montreal, Canada, this week, EFF has joined with 15 other organizations and 38 academic experts to send the negotiators an  open letter  [PDF] about the importance of platform safe harbor rules, a topic that has been proposed for the deal’s Digital Trade chapter . The proposed rules, which are based on  S47 U.S.C. section 230, a provision of the Communications Decency Act (“CDA 230”) , would require that Internet intermediaries—whether giants like Facebook, or just your neighbour with an open Wi-Fi hotspot— can’t be held liable for most speech of their users. Usually our arguments for such strong platform safe harbor protections  (which the letter refers to as intermediary immunity) center around how these support users’ freedom of expression, by preventing would-be censors and critics from shutt...

Cryptocurrencies:  a reminder to the data center industry to remain vigilant on efficiency Cryptocurrencies, particularly Bitcoin, have been in the news a lot recently due to their extreme volatility and their ability to make overnight millionaires.  While some people are touting these digital currencies with no government or financial institution backing as the way of the future, others warn this is all just empty speculation… a giant soap bubble ready to pop. As most of us watch and wait, there have also been stories saying Bitcoin transactions are terribly unsustainable from an energy use standpoint. How could that be so? Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies rely on decentralization and distributed IT resources to maintain the integrity of the block chain. In one study,  Digiconomist , created a  Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index  to highlight the energy being used in these block chain transactions.  They’re claiming a SINGLE transaction consumes 306 kWh ...