The keys U.K. spy agency's mass surveillance broke the law, a top European court ruled.  Snowden disclosed details about the GCHQ spying program. (Armando Franca/AP) | GCHQ's bulk surveillance program violated citizens' freedom of expression and didn't have sufficient protections for confidential materials used by journalists, the European Court of Human Rights' final appeals court ruled, the Guardian's Haroon Siddique reports. The decision to operate a bulk surveillance program in itself was not a violation of Europe's human rights convention, the court said. The ruling "vindicates" former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, whose release of sensitive surveillance documents prompted the legal challenge, according to Big Brother Watch, one of the plaintiffs in the case. Snowden revealed that GCHQ scooped up massive amounts of information through fiber-optic cables. The program Snowden exposed was largely replaced by a new U.K. surveillance law in 2016. The European ruling will allow a separate case challenging U.K. surveillance to proceed in British courts. "We welcome the judgment that the UK's surveillance regime was unlawful, but the missed opportunity for the Court to prescribe clearer limitations and safeguards mean that risk is current and real," Silkie Carlo, the group's director, said in a statement. A partisan election audit in Maricopa County is switching a major contractor partway through.  The company opted not to continue to run the audit after its contract ended. (Matt York.AP) | Wake TSI, a subcontractor to cybersecurity firm Cyber Ninjas, was in charge of running the hand recount in Maricopa County, the Arizona Republic's Jen Fifield and Andrew Oxford report. The company opted not to stick around after its original contract ended May 14. The unusual midstream switch comes amid intense criticism of the GOP-led audit, which critics say has ignored cybersecurity and auditing best practices and is a partisan exercise aimed at raising doubts about Joe Biden's election victory. "They were done," audit spokesman and former state GOP chairman Randy Pullen said. "They didn't want to come back." StratTech Solutions, an Arizona-based company, has taken over for Wake TSI. Pullen said the company, which focuses on cybersecurity and IT technology, has been involved in the recount since the beginning, including by setting up the technology used for hand- counting ballots. It is not clear whether the firm has election or auditing experience. Michigan's top election official is warning against Maricopa-style audits.  Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said the audits would violate Michigan law. (Paul Sancya/AP) | Such audits, which activists are pushing for across the country, would violate Michigan law, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) said, Amy Gardner reports. They would also void the warranties of Dominion voting machines, according to a Dominion letter to Michigan counties. Recertifying voting machines would be expensive and that cost would fall on local governments, the company warned. "Remember, your voting system is deemed critical infrastructure by the U.S. government and should be utilized, maintained and protected as such," the letter, which was sent in early May, says. Former president Donald Trump and his allies baselessly claimed that Dominion machines flipped votes from Trump to President Biden. Calls for outside audits in Michigan have grown loudest in Antrim and Cheboygan counties. Benson said in separate letters that those counties' boards have "no authority" to order audits. She told election clerks to deny access to unaccredited outside examiners of the machines. | 
Email 
No comments:
Post a Comment