Tag Archive for: reform

No to pension reform and war, bring down Macron!


This statement was distributed by members of the Parti de l’égalité socialiste (PES-Socialist Equality Party) at demonstrations in Paris, Marseille and Amiens on June 6 on the 14th day of action against French President Macron’s pension cut.

Today, workers and young people across France will march against Emmanuel Macron’s illegitimate pension reform. The desperate attempt by the union bureaucracies to move on from the struggle against Macron and against the capitalist state, by suspending the mobilizations between May 1 and June 6, has not succeeded. Despite this delay of several weeks between the days of action, the fight against Macron continues.

Protesters march during a rally in Bayonne, southwestern France, Tuesday, June 6, 2023. [AP Photo/Bob Edme]

A wave of strikes is shaking not only France but all of Europe. Workers in Italy are demonstrating against Meloni’s far-right government and its austerity and war policies, and strikes are rocking the UK, Portugal, Belgium and Germany. In France, the workers of Vertbaudet, Disney, transport, at the Post Office carried out strikes against the social cuts and for better wages.

However, after a truce with Macron imposed by the union bureaucracies, the questions of political perspective and organization are urgently facing the workers. To lead the fight against Macron, the banks and their policy of wage austerity, workers must organize independently of the bureaucracies which demobilize the movement, and fight to bring down Macron through a general strike.

As a Ukrainian offensive causes thousands of deaths and injuries in a fratricidal war between Russians and Ukrainians armed by NATO, the French National Assembly has voted the Military Programming Law (MPL). It increases the military budget by 40 percent, from 297 to €413 billion between 2024 and 2030. It spends billions on cyber warfare, nuclear weapons and ammunition stockpiles in order to build the “economy of European war” wanted by Macron.

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Ethical hackers urged to respond to Computer Misuse Act reform proposals


Ethical hackers, security researchers and consultants, and the community at large are being urged to step up and make their voices heard as the government explores a series of proposed changes to the Computer Misuse Act (CMA) of 1990.

The long-awaited consultation, which has been running since February, is seeking views on a number of legislative changes, including giving new powers to law enforcement agencies and closing existing loopholes that make it easier for malicious actors to get away with misusing purloined data.

However, when the consultation was launched, campaigners who want to see the law reformed to better protect cyber security professionals from prosecution under outdated sections of the 33-year-old CMA were left disappointed because rather than lay out concrete proposals for the community to consider, the government merely said more work was needed on this point.

Among other things, Westminster wants to consider questions such as how to safeguard the UK’s ability to act against cyber criminals if legal defences for hacking are implemented; how to ensure any defences do not provide cover for offensive actions; and what levels of training, standards and certifications need to be in place for security professionals.

Nevertheless, Casey Ellis, founder and CEO of crowdsourced security platform Bugcrowd, is calling on the community to have its say on the basis that interested parties need to contribute to ensure the government is as well-informed as possible.

“It’s still important that as many as possible individuals and organisations have their say on this,” he said. “The UK needs a revised act that not only better defines the difference between the activities of malicious attackers who have no intent to obey the law in the first place, and those who hack in good faith, discovering and disclosing vulnerabilities so they can be addressed before they are exploited.

Bugcrowd, which is contributing to the consultation through the Cybersecurity Policy Working Group (CPWG) and the Hacker Policy Coalition, said that the most significant way in which community members could help would be to comment on the potential of a statutory legal defence for hacking if…

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JZZ Technologies, Inc. Jumps into the Billion Dollar Prison Reform Industry by Training Ex-Offenders in IT & Cyber Security for Under $500


JZZ Technologies, Inc. and NationalCyberSecurityTrainingAcademy.com launches a Second Chance Program called GetASecondChance.org.

Calverton, New York–(Newsfile Corp. – March 29, 2021) – JZZ Technologies, Inc. (OTC Pink: JZZI) has partnered with NationalCyberSecurityTrainingAcademy.com to launch a new program to help train Returning Citizens (ex-felons) in the IT Network Security and Cyber Security industries.

According to the United Nation’s office on Drugs and Crime, imprisonment disproportionately affects individuals and families living in poverty. When an income generating member of the family is imprisoned, the rest of the family must adjust to the loss of the income exacerbated by the new expenses that must be met, such as legal costs and transport to prison for visits, etc.

When released, often with no prospects for employments, former prisoners are generally subject to socio-economic exclusion and are vulnerable to an endless cycle of poverty, marginalization, criminality and imprisonment. Thus, imprisonment contributes directly to the impoverishment of the prisoner, of his family (with a significant cross-generational effect) and of society by creating future victims and reducing future potential economic performance (United Nation’s Office on Drugs and Crime, 2020).

“As an ex-hacker with over 35 years’ experience in computer securities as well as training state and federal law enforcement, I have always believed that a reformed ex-offender who is trained in network security will be stronger in protecting networks from being hacked than someone that has no understanding of both the legal and illegal side of network security. That’s because the bad guy knows how to think like a hacker,” says Gregory Evans.

“A major reason that big corporations and governments get hacked every day is because they hire IT teams based on individuals’ certification, not necessarily their experience. A person in network securities who has never had a parking ticket, let alone hacked into a network before, is less likely to understand the complexities of network securities from the perspective of someone who is practiced in finding ways around those security measures. A person who does not…

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The deal with DMCA 1201 reform


There are two fights in Congress now against the DMCA, the “Digital Millennium Copyright Act”. One is over Section 512 covering “takedowns” on the web. The other is over Section 1201 covering “reverse engineering”, which weakens cybersecurity.

Even before digital computers, since the 1880s, an important principle of cybersecurity has been openness and transparency (“Kerckhoff’s Principle”). Only through making details public can security flaws be found, discussed, and fixed. This includes reverse-engineering to search for flaws.

Cybersecurity experts have long struggled against the ignorant who hold the naive belief we should instead coverup information, so that evildoers cannot find and exploit flaws. Surely, they believe, given just anybody access to critical details of our security weakens it. The ignorant have little faith in technology, that it can be made secure. They have more faith in government’s ability to control information.

Technologists believe this information coverup hinders well-meaning people and protects the incompetent from embarrassment. When you hide information about how something works, you prevent people on your own side from discovering and fixing flaws. It also means that you can’t hold those accountable for their security, since it’s impossible to notice security flaws until after they’ve been exploited. At the same time, the information coverup does not do much to stop evildoers. Technology can work, it can be perfected, but only if we can search for flaws.

It seems counterintuitive the revealing your encryption algorithms to your enemy is the best way to secure them, but history has proven time and again that this is indeed true. Encryption algorithms your enemy cannot see are insecure. The same is true of the rest of cybersecurity.

Today, I’m composing and posting this blogpost securely from a public WiFi hotspot because the technology is secure. It’s secure because of two decades of security researchers finding flaws in WiFi, publishing them, and getting them fixed.

Yet in the year 1998, ignorance prevailed with the “Digital Millennium Copyright Act”. Section 1201 makes reverse-engineering illegal. It attempts to…

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