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Guess what Michael Moore's 'Trumpileaks' site is about
Michael Moore just created a new website called "Trumpileaks," for, you guessed it, collecting leaked information about Trump administration activities. In a letter posted on the site, Moore implored, "I need one of you to help me. It might get dangerous. It may get us in trouble. But we're running out of time."
US is now asking for visa applicants’ social media names
Last month, the Trump administration formally proposed tougher vetting for visa applicants that would require more social media scrutiny. Today, the State Department formally enacted the expanded questionnaire, which will force applicants to disclose their social media handles from the last five years and biographical information going back 15 years.
James Comey will testify before a Senate committee on June 8th
James Comey continues to be a lightning rod for controversy at the national level. After a long year of Clinton email server investigations and the FBI's conclusion that the Russians allegedly hacked the 2016 election, James Comey is finally getting to tell his own story. According to Bloomberg, the recently fired FBI Director will testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on June 8th in both an open and a subsequent closed session. The investigation will cover both the possible election tampering as well as Comey's own dismissal by President Trump.
Theresa May wants to force tech giants to curb extremist content (updated)
British Prime Minister Theresa May called on global leaders at the G7 conference in Sicily to force internet and social media companies stop the spread of terrorist content available online. "Make no mistake: the fight is moving from the battlefield to the internet," she said in a statement. May called on companies to develop tools to automatically identify and remove extremist materials, block the users who post it and report such activity to the authorities. The Prime Minister also announced the creation of an international forum to encourage industry leaders to share information and technologies to curb the spread of terrorist content. In addition, May proposed that regional governments cooperate by returning and prosecuting foreign fighters via improved "intelligence-sharing, evidence gathering and bolstering countries' police and legal processes. The Guardian's Anushka Asthana reported on Twitter that May's initiatives have the backing of President Trump, as well.
Draft bill gives the government power to control your drone
Drones have been the focus of many security initiatives, like the "sky fence" in the Channel Islands that jams pilot signals to stop drones from bringing contraband into the prison. Remotely piloted aircraft can also be a force for good, like in Africa where drones are being used to stop poaching. In the US, you may not have to register your personal drones with the FAA anymore, but you might not want to fly them where they're not allowed. New draft legislation from the Trump administration would authorize the government to track, take control of, and destroy drones that the government thinks pose a threat to specially designated areas. In addition, courts would be unable to hear lawsuits arising from such activity.
Recommended Reading: Inside Apple's new spaceship campus
One More Thing Steven Levy, Wired Apple's so-called spaceship campus, or Apple Park, has been in the works for a while now, but this week Wired gave us a big update on the progress. The obsessive attention to detail, tunnel entry, modular "pod" sections for employees and more are all detailed here. Like any other Apple product, the company is using a keen eye when designing it's biggest project thus far.
Trump’s cybersecurity order delivers nothing but more surveillance
Remember that cybersecurity executive order we anticipated from the Trump administration, which seemed to quietly disappear in January? The already-delayed deadline for Trump's EO on "the cyber" and his promise to create a cyber-review team passed last month. Many were wondering if it would fade off into oblivion like a tyrant's hairline -- or show up suddenly to drop cyber-bombs on someone's vacant cyber-tarmac.
US may not ban laptops on European flights after all
European and American officials met over a laptop ban proposed by the Trump administration, and sources have told the Associate Press that it's "off the table" for now. While the ban has been voted down for now, officials are reportedly considering other measures, including wide intelligence sharing, and plan to meet again next week.
Trump signs executive order for sweeping review of US cybersecurity
Today, Trump finally signed an executive order for an extensive review of the US government's cybersecurity, which has been some months coming. He was originally set to sign an earlier version back in January, but postponed it for unknown reasons. A draft of the revised EO surfaced in late April, which was an improvement over earlier versions, cyber experts told Politico -- but today's order essentially maintains the cybersecurity path set by the last two administrations. What it concretely does is order reviews of the government's digital security and report back.
EPA pulls climate science web pages to reflect White House views
President Trump and Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt aren't exactly fans of climate science, and they're scaling back the EPA's website to reflect their views. The EPA has started implementing a site revision that will "reflect the approach of new leadership." As you might surmise, that means that mentions of climate change, regulation and Obama-era policies are on the chopping block -- the language endorsing the Clean Power Plan is "out of date," the EPA claims. And unfortunately, that means axing information that has been around for multiple administrations.
Trump administration is killing its open data portal
Reversing yet another Obama-era practice, the Trump administration announced on Friday that it will not only be keeping its visitor logs secret for five years after Trump leaves office, but will be shuttering the Open.gov portal. This is where the previous administration posted visitor logs, financial disclosures and data on White House staff.
White House hires Lyft manager for a key transportation role
It's tempting to oversimplify the ridesharing industry into an ideological battle: Lyft is the kinder, more generous outfit that donates to the ACLU, while Uber is a champion of hyper-capitalism that makes political compromises in the name of its bottom line. However, the truth is that both of these companies are complex beasts that reflect a wide range of views. Case in point: President Trump's administration has unveiled plans to nominate Lyft's General Manager for Southern California, Derek Kan, as the Under Secretary of Transportation for Policy. And it's not as if he's suddenly revealing his political stance, as this is really a logical next step given his career.
Twitter sues feds over attempt to identify anti-Trump account
Twitter is suing the government to resist giving up the identity behind @Alt_uscis, an account tweeting out anti-Trump messages. The account is allegedly run by rogue members of US immigration agencies. The social media titan has brought suit against the feds in order to stop the summons.
The White House is saving all of Trump's deleted tweets
Five days after Trump's inauguration, news leaked that his staff was continuing to use email linked to a private server. While that's not illegal (though hypocritical, given Hillary's election pillorying), it requires those using non-government emails to disclose them. If that doesn't happen -- if those messages aren't forwarded to an official account and stored for posterity -- the offender violates the Presidential Records Act. It seems the same could apply to Trump's tweets: The White House has agreed to the US National Archives' request that they save every one, including those he deletes.
New York Post's mobile news alerts fall victim to a hack
If you're a hacker looking to grab attention by attacking a news outlet, what do you do? Deface their website? Take control of their social media accounts? Those are old hat -- apparently, you compromise the company's mobile app. An unknown party hijacked the New York Post app's push notification system on the night of April 1st, sending a flurry of alerts that were clearly meant as a protest against President Trump. The perpetrator left precious few clues as to their identity, but they're cultured -- they signed off with the ancient word "selah" (used in the Bible to encourage pause and reflection), and even borrowed lyrics from Nirvana's song "Come As You Are."
Trump trades 'unsecure' Android device for shiny new iPhone
After a wealth of hacking concerns, the President has finally swapped his unsecured Android handset for a new iPhone. The White House director of social media -- Dan Scavino Jr. -- tweeted yesterday that Trump has now been using his new Apple device for the past couple of weeks. After recent tweets from the POTUS account marked as sent from an iPhone raised questions, this new information now confirms their authenticity.
Shia LaBeouf's anti-Trump livestream moves to the UK for 'safety' (update)
Since its launch in January, Shia LaBeouf's anti-Trump art piece has been mired in controversy. In its short life, "He Will Not Divide Us" has been shut down by New York's Museum of the Moving Image (its original home), played a part in LaBeouf's arrest following a scuffle and relocated to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Fears over public safety have made it hard for LaBeouf and his two co-artists, Luke Turner and Nastja Säde Rönkkö, to find a permanent home for their project in America, so they decided to remove it from the US completely. It's now been adopted by the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology (FACT) in Liverpool, England, where where a flag bearing the name of the project will be streamed live 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the remainder of the Trump presidency.
After Math: Keep pace in the space race
It's been a productive week for those of us trying to get the hell off this crazy planet. NASA showed off a radiation-proof flight vest for interplanetary astronauts while Blue Origin debuted its latest rocket engine and previewed its upcoming New Glenn spacecraft. We also take a look at a solar farm visible from the ISS and examine just how badly the Trump regime is gutting NASA's Earth Science programs. Numbers, because how else will we know when it's time to blast off?
WikiLeaks CIA cache: Fool me once
This week's poorly conceived distraction from Trump and Putin sittin' in a tree was brought to us by WikiLeaks, which dumped 8,761 documents of the CIA's hacking arsenal online for all to see. The leak factory didn't even bother trying to play coy -- it actually made the "Vault 7" password an anti-CIA JFK quote about destroying the agency. Hilarity ensued. Well, if you think it's funny when the press parrots WikiLeaks' misleading claims wrapped in PR spin.
US hopes cyberattacks will stall North Korea's missile program
The US might not have had much success with cyberattacks against North Korea's nuclear program, but that apparently hasn't stopped officials from further efforts... not that they're having much success. The New York Times has learned that then-President Obama ordered escalated cyberwarfare against North Korea in 2014 a bid to thwart its plans for intercontinental ballistic missiles. However, it's not clear that this strategy has worked -- and there may be problems if it does.
