MI5
Latest
European Court rules UK surveillance program violated human rights
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is the latest to deem the UK government's mass surveillance program unlawful. Judges ruled the "bulk interception regime" violated the right to privacy and freedom of expression. It said there was "insufficient oversight" over what communications UK agencies were collecting and also noted that there were "inadequate" safeguards for the protection of confidential journalistic sources.
What we're watching: 'Star Wars Rebels' and Marvel's 'Runaways'
Welcome back to IRL, our series dedicated to the things that Engadget writers have been playing, using, watching and listening to. This week is all about what we're watching and includes an explanation of why you need to give Star Wars Rebels another look and check out Marvel's new Runaways series. Finally, we'll take a look back at one of our editors' first Netflix binge-watching experiences to see if it still holds up.
UK spies violated privacy laws with bulk data collection
Ever since Edward Snowden's leaks came to light, UK spy agencies have responded to accusations of surveillance overreach with a common boilerplate statement: that their activities are lawful, necessary and proportionate. However, they can't always use that justification any more. The Investigatory Powers Tribunal has ruled that key GCHQ, MI5 and MI6 bulk data collection programs violated privacy protections in the European Convention on Human Rights. Both a Bulk Communications Data effort (which covers data such as visited websites, email metadata and GPS locations) and a Bulk Personal Datasets initiative (covering biographical details like your communications and financial activities) didn't have proper oversight until 2015, when some safeguards came into place. That's particularly damning when BCD was had been in place since 1998, and BPD since 2006.
UK spies may have risked lives by collecting too much data
One of the common arguments against mass surveillance is that it could backfire: you might collect so much data that finding crucial info becomes difficult. As it turns out, that's a well-founded theory. A 2010 UK report leaked by Edward Snowden warned that MI5 spies were collecting so much data that there was a real risk of an "intelligence failure" where it would miss info that could save lives. Without enough staff and tools, it simply couldn't handle the sheer glut of raw surveillance content.
Xiaomi bundles Microsoft Office and Skype with its devices
It's no secret that Xiaomi plans to go global, and its execs are hoping that the company's expanding partnership with Microsoft could help them reach that goal. The Chinese manufacturer has announced that starting in September, its Android devices will come pre-installed with Skype and Microsoft Office apps (Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Outlook). Further, it has revealed that it agreed to purchase 1,500 patents from Microsoft, including ones on cloud computing and voice communication. Xiaomi Senior VP Wang Xiang told Reuters that acquiring those patents is "an important step forward to support [the company's] expansion internationally."
ICYMI: Brightest X-ray laser, 3D printing cartilage and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-741239{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-741239, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-741239{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-741239").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Stanford's National Accelerator Laboratory is upgrading a laser beam to make it the brightest X-ray laser in the world, enabling all sorts of as-yet unseen science. Popular Chinese phone maker Xiaomi makes a ceramic-backed phone that appears to be near indestructible. And medical researchers are using patient-derived, stem-cell cartilage to repair joints by 3D-drawing them when doing surgery, rather than harvest existing cartilage from elsewhere on the body. We'd also like to share this video of the cutest little BB-8 cosplay artist. As always, please share any great tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
MWC Revisited: The best phones in Barcelona this year
The booths have been dismantled, the bigwigs have boarded their planes and the doors have been closed. That's a wrap for Mobile World Congress 2016. Now that our team has had a chance to kick back and reflect on the mobile maelstrom we've just waded through, meet the four smartphones (in no particular order) that stole our hearts and stole the show.
Up close and personal with Xiaomi's gorgeous Mi 5
After a few minutes playing with Xiaomi's Mi 5, a thought runs through my head: "I really shouldn't be surprised." The company has found enormous success in its native China, to the point that new allotments of phones sell out in minutes. Since Xiaomi phones have virtually no presence in the United States (or the Western Hemisphere, for that matter), my previous experience with them was limited to fits of fondling in Hong Kong phone shops. Xiaomi just held its first European press conference here at Mobile World Congress and brought new Mi 5s to share, and now — finally — I get the appeal.
Xiaomi's 'most beautiful' flagship rocks a Snapdragon 820
As promised, Xiaomi has unwrapped its new flagship phone for us here at Mobile World Congress. The Mi 5 is the long-awaited successor to the Mi 4 from 2014, which took a backseat to the Mi Note and Mi Note Pro last year. The new handset runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, a beefy processor that only breached the market in January. Every Mi 5 sports a 5.15-inch 1080p display, but you can choose between the regular model with 3GB of RAM -- coupled with either 32GB or 64GB of onboard storage -- and the Pro version, which comes with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of space. Display aside, the latter is an absolute beast of a phone, at least on paper.
UK brings spies, police, business together for cyber threat center launch
Since spies tend to be equal opportunity hackers, the UK is forging an anti-cyber threat center that'll let spook agencies like GCHQ and MI5 share intelligence with police and businesses. It started last year as a pilot program called "Project Auburn," and will now be formally known as CISP (the Cyber Security Information Sharing Partnership). So far, 160 firms have joined the center, which hopes to share technical information, attack vectors and prevention methods. The UK government said it was necessary to bring industry into the picture since they're "by far the biggest victims in terms of espionage and intellectual property theft, with losses to the UK economy running into the billions of pounds annually." Some likely needn't check the mail too closely for an RSVP, however.
Brits, your government needs you to solve this puzzle
Spare a thought for the British intelligence services. Every time they come up with a clever recruitment drive, their efforts are hampered by yet another off-putting death scene in a certain long-running spy drama. But relax, this particular ciphered job advert is entirely safe. It's been put out by the UK's monitoring service, GCHQ, which is altogether more 9 to 5 than MI5. You simply need to figure out the keyword buried in that daunting grid of characters, submit it via the 'canyoucrackit' link below, and a happy career in headphones and Herman Miller could be yours. On the other hand, people who claim to have beaten the puzzle seem underwhelmed by the response: all it got them, they say, was a shot at a £25k per year position that was already being openly advertised on the web. But, who knows, maybe those guys only think they cracked it?
