BlackRock alert: New malware can steal passwords and card info from over 300 different Android apps

Analysts have uncovered a new strain of malware that hides itself from Android users and poses as Google updates, in yet another example of increased hacking activity during the pandemic.

Discovered by mobile security firm ThreatFabric in May, the new malware, dubbed ‘BlackRock’, shares a common ancestry with previous banking trojan malware LokiBot.

LokiBot, considered a dead malware for some time now, infiltrates systems and harvests their information.

In the same vein, BlackRock, which shares a common source code ancestry with LokiBot and affects Android devices, invades victims’ devices once downloaded onto a system.

One of the key differentiating factors is that, instead of only targeting banking apps like previous trojans, BlackRock targets a variety of social networking, communication and dating applications.

https://www.rt.com/news/495069-blackrock-new-malware-app-android/

No to ‘scanning our intimate thoughts’: Top German court curbs sweeping police powers to access private user data

Police access to private internet or phone data is too intrusive and must be curbed, Germany’s highest court has ruled. The news comes a day after the top EU court invalidated a major data sharing pact with the US.

The Federal Constitutional Court ruled on Friday that several German laws allowing investigators access to the so-called “inventory data” – which includes names and birth dates of online users – run contrary to the Basic Law and heavily infringe on privacy rights.

Existing legislation, most notably Germany’s Telecommunications Act, enables law enforcers to access email passwords and mobile phone PIN numbers without getting judicial orders in certain cases.

German police and security services are also able to query such data from telecoms companies, internet providers, hotels, and hospitals as part of criminal investigations.

Law enforcement will still uphold the right to access private data, but they will also have to balance the urgency of retrieving it – ahead of an imminent terrorist attack, for instance – with data protection concerns.

The Friday verdict – filed back in 2013 on behalf of over 6,000 plaintiffs that felt their privacy rights were breached – spells a major victory for the current European Pirate Party politician Patrick Breyer and former party member Katharina Nocun.

They argued the current German laws on the matter risked the emergence of “new secret police of the internet that can ransack and scan our most intimate thoughts,”according to Reuters.

https://www.rt.com/news/495045-germany-police-private-data-limit/

Dad of Ghislaine Maxwell’s Possible Secret Husband ‘Afraid to Say Anything

In a surprise development, it emerged this week that Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s long-time consort and suspected associate, is secretly married but would not reveal the identity of her husband.

Chris Borgerson, the father of Ghislaine Maxwell’s alleged partner Scott Borgerson, has told reporters he is “afraid to say anything or make any comment” about a possible secret wedding between the two.

Chris, who is estranged from his son, told The Daily Mail that Scott, a tech CEO and ocean conservation activist, is a “very private” man. He said that he has no idea whether his son is married to the embattled British socialite.

“I don’t know anything and if I did I wouldn’t tell you,” he was quoted as saying, refusing to believe that his son would have left him in the dark about the wedding.

https://sputniknews.com/us/202007171079914893-dad-of-ghislaine-maxwells-possible-secret-husband-afraid-to-say-anything/

US Navy Flexes Military Muscle With Renewed Dual Carrier Strike Group Drills in South China Sea

The United States deployed a quarter of its carrier fleet to the Pacific a month ago amid soaring tensions with China over Hong Kong, coronavirus, trade and Beijing’s entrenchment in the South China Sea. Chinese media have warned that the country could deploy “countermeasures” against the US warships, including carrier-killing ballistic missiles.

The USS Ronald Reagan and USS Nimitz aircraft carrier strike groups have begun naval drills in the waters of the South China Sea for the second time in two weeks.

The strike groups, manned by over 12,000 US personnel, and equipped with over 120 aircraft between the two carriers, plus half-a-dozen guided missile cruiser and guided-missile destroyer escorts, are carrying out the drills “to maintain warfighting readiness and proficiency,” according to the US Pacific Fleet.

https://sputniknews.com/military/202007171079913953-us-navy-flexes-military-muscle-with-renewed-dual-carrier-strike-group-drills-in-south-china-sea/

Paul McCartney - Good Day Sunshine -Live Hi Quality-Best Performance

Palantir IPO Is A Multibillion-Dollar Deal, Wrapped In An Enigma

After its creation 17 years ago with several billion dollars in venture capital investment, the initial public offering of Palantir Technologies is finally coming to the fore. Now, the Palantir IPO could be the largest since Uber (UBER) — but it comes with controversy.

How much controversy? Well, an early investor in the company was the Central Intelligence Agency. Palantir's technology reportedly helped locate Osama bin Laden, while zeroing in on terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq. The company acknowledges that its technology is used to kill people.

Further, its use by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency helps locate illegal immigrants. But critics say its use by ICE divides families and violates civil rights. Government and law enforcement agencies, as well as the military, are customers.

Conversely, Palantir also is helping the Department of Health and Human Services understand how coronavirus is spreading. It also has a number of corporate clients, including jet maker Airbus (EADSY), drug firm Merck (MRK) and oil giant BP (BP).

https://www.investors.com/news/technology/palantir-ipo-multi-billion-dollar-deal-wrapped-in-an-enigma/

They're Skeerd…..Trump is making em all Cry…kekek

Biden vows to repair alliances damaged by Trump but the world has changed too much

More US allies have their own versions of Trump in office, from Poland to the Philippines, while others have absorbed parts of his nationalist agenda

Above all, China has become increasingly willing to confront Washington, creating a radically altered geopolitical landscape

At last year’s Munich Security Conference, an annual gathering of military chiefs and political leaders, former US vice-president Joe Biden made a promise to America’s allies: “This too shall pass,” he assured them. “We will be back.”

There was little doubt what “this” referred to – Donald Trump’s America – or who would be coming back. Biden, now running for president and ahead in opinion polls for November’s vote, might just have the opportunity to make good his pledge.

Yet returning the US and its alliances to a time before Trump is probably unachievable, and only in part because he has changed the US since his January 2017 inauguration in ways that may be irreversible. Just as important, the rest of the world changed too.

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3093561/biden-vows-fix-alliances-damaged-trump-world-has