Harvard accused of anti-Asian admissions policy

The U.S. Justice Department accused Harvard University Thursday of discriminating against Asian applicants, ramping up the Trump administration's opposition to widespread policies seeking to manage racial balance among students.

The department filed a statement with the Boston federal court endorsing a lawsuit by an Asian students group that charged the prestigious university with preferring whites, blacks and Hispanics at the expense of more academically deserving Asians.

The move came two months after the Trump government announced it was cancelling the previous Obama administration's support for so-called "affirmative action" programs, by which universities seek to boost the numbers of under-represented minorities, particularly Hispanics and African-Americans.

The 2014 lawsuit by Students for Fair Admissions said Harvard's affirmative action violated civil rights laws by discriminating against people of Asian origin. 

Harvard recently moved in court to have the judge rule without a jury trial, arguing that its admission of Asian-Americans has risen 29 percent over the last decade.

Harvard also said that in the class of students entering the university this year, 22.7 percent were Asian-American, 15.5 percent African-American, and 12.2 percent Hispanic.

The Justice Department opposes a summary ruling, saying Harvard has not proven its lack of racial bias.

"Harvard acknowledges that it voluntarily uses race as a factor in deciding whether to offer certain young adults admission to, and the substantial educational benefits of, its elite institution," the Justice Department said in its filing Thursday.

"The record evidence demonstrates that Harvard's race-based admissions process significantly disadvantages Asian-American applicants compared to applicants of other racial group," it said.

"No American should be denied admission to school because of their race," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in the statement.

The Supreme Court has ruled repeatedly in favor of the concept of affirmative action in the past, essentially accepting that the record of discrimination against black Americans justifies giving them an extra advantage in admissions.

The court has rejected specific quotas but as recently as 2016 endorsed a race-conscious admissions policy.

But two conservative Supreme Court judges nominated by President Donald Trump -- one approved last year and one waiting to be approved by the Senate -- could swing the high court against the concept if a new challenge comes to it.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

U.S. investigating Cambridge Analytica: New York Times

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Justice Department and the FBI are investigating Cambridge Analytica, a now-defunct political data firm embroiled in a scandal over its handling of Facebook Inc user information, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.

Prosecutors have sought to question former Cambridge Analytica employees and banks that handled its business, the newspaper said, citing an American official and others familiar with the inquiry,

Cambridge Analytica said earlier this month it was shutting down after losing clients and facing mounting legal fees resulting from reports the company harvested personal data about millions of Facebook users beginning in 2014.

Allegations of the improper use of data for 87 million Facebook users by Cambridge Analytica, which was hired by President Donald Trump's 2016 U.S. election campaign, have prompted multiple investigations in the United States and Europe.

The investigation by the Justice Department and FBI appears to focus on the company's financial dealings and how it acquired and used personal data pulled from Facebook and other sources, the Times said.

Investigators have contacted Facebook, according to the newspaper.

The FBI, the Justice Department and Facebook declined to comment to Reuters. Former officials with Cambridge Analytica was not immediately available to comment.

Cambridge Analytica was created around 2013, initially with a focus on U.S. elections, with $15 million in backing from billionaire Republican donor Robert Mercer and a name chosen by future Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon, the New York Times has reported. Bannon left the White House on August 2017.

(Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Peter Cooney)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Russian hackers feel the heat as Trump seeks warmer Moscow ties

* President Trump is seeking better ties with Moscow

* Russia denies meddling in election won by Trump

* Number of Russians arrested by U.S. has surged

* Arrests have shaken Russian hacker community

MOSCOW/SAN FRANCISCO - When Alexander Vinnik was arrested on money-laundering charges at a Greek hotel in late July, the status of his Jabber secure online messaging account was set to "away".

"He often takes some time to reply, so at first I didn't think anything of it," said one person who knew the Russian as an administrator of a digital currency exchange which U.S. prosecutors say was used to launder criminal funds.

"Then when I saw his picture on the news, I knew he would be 'away' for a long time," said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The U.S. Justice Department says Vinnik facilitated crimes including computer hacking, fraud and drug trafficking by laundering at least $4 billion through BTC-e -- an exchange used to trade bitcoin and other digital currencies -- since 2011.

The 37-year-old faces up to 55 years in prison if extradited to the United States. He denies the allegations against him, according to Greek media reports, and BTC-e has said he never worked for the exchange. Reuters was unable to reach BTC-e or a lawyer representing Vinnik for comment.

Vinnik is now one of seven Russians arrested or indicted on U.S. cyber crime charges this year. On average, just two Russian cyber criminals were extradited to the United States each year between 2010 and the start of this year, according to a Reuters review of U.S. Justice Department filings, Russian government statements and sources briefed on the matter.


The increase to a record level shows that although President Donald Trump is trying to improve relations with Moscow, the United States has not shied away from pursuing Russians suspected of cyber crime.

The prosecutions coincide with intensified scrutiny of Russian hackers since U.S. intelligence officials determined that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election using cyber warfare methods to help Trump.

Russia tried to hack US voting systems for months: report
http://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/06/06/17/russia-tried-to-hack-us-voting-systems-for-months-report

The Kremlin has denied accusations it interfered in elections in the United States or elsewhere.

But U.S. opposition lawmakers have questioned whether Trump is willing to respond forcefully to Moscow over its actions in cyberspace, and the White House has avoided publicly accusing Russia over recent politically-motivated hacking attacks. .

Alarmed by Trump's proposal to create a joint U.S.-Russia cyber security unit, U.S. lawmakers have also drawn up a draft bill that would require him to notify lawmakers before he does so.

Four U.S. federal law enforcement officials, who discussed the recent arrests with Reuters on condition of anonymity, said there had been no centralized effort to step up action against Russian cyber criminals under Trump.

The increase in the number of arrests stemmed from breakthroughs made in investigations before last year's election, two of them said.

The FBI referred all questions to the U.S. Justice Department. The Justice Department said it did not track arrests or indictments by nationality and declined further comment.

RUSSIAN HACKERS RATTLED

Some U.S. officials, however, acknowledged that individual agents may now be more motivated to move against Russian cyber criminals following the election hacking scandal.

Russian hackers are active at all levels of cyber crime, from small-time thefts of online banking details, to taking down the computer networks of multi-national companies and government departments.

John Carlin, who until last October ran the national security division of the U.S. Justice Department as assistant attorney general, said resources had already been moving towards pursuing Russian nationals before the 2016 election.

But he added: "Their outrageous activity to undermine the integrity of our election, like they did in western Europe before and have done since, can only have added fuel to the fire."

According to interviews with five people who knew the men arrested this year -- all of whom declined to be named for fear of prosecution -- the arrests have shaken the Russian cyber crime community.

"Now they are arresting even those who had a super indirect, not even direct connection to what they call influencing their election," said one who knew Vinnik by his online moniker WME.

Used to operating across borders with relative impunity, Russian cyber criminals are now worried the prosecutions will lead to further arrests or harm their operations.

They are cutting back on trips abroad that were once seen as a calculated risk because of the risk of arrest and extradition, but are now viewed as increasingly foolhardy.

"We have monitored criminals discussing the aftermath (of the arrests) ... and it is clear they are concerned about two things," said Ilya Sachkov, head of cyber security firm Group-IB, whose Threat Intelligence unit specialises in monitoring and tracking the Russian-speaking cyber crime community.

"First, what the arrested members potentially know about them, but second and more importantly, a disruption in their ability to make money."

One of those arrested this year was Peter Levashov, charged by U.S. prosecutors with operating one of the world's largest botnets, or networks, of infected computers used by cyber criminals. He denies the charges.

Levashov allegedly used the botnet to pump out spam emails for a multitude of criminal schemes, such as stock fraud, online credential phishing attempts and the distribution of malware, including ransomware.

A person who knew Levashov by his online identity Severa said his arrest in particular had rattled underground cyber criminal circles because he was so well known.

"People read the news of course and see guys they know getting busted," the person said. "Once is bad, this many times is scary."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Microsoft gets support in gag order lawsuit from U.S. companies

WASHINGTON -- Technology, media, pharmaceutical and other companies, along with major corporate lobbying groups, filed legal briefs on Friday in support of a Microsoft Corp lawsuit that aims to strike down a law preventing companies from telling customers the government is seeking their data.

Friday was the deadline for filing of friend-of-the-court briefs by nonparticipants in the case. The filings show broad support for Microsoft and the technology industry in its latest high-profile clash with the U.S. Justice Department over digital privacy and surveillance.

Microsoft's backers included the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, Delta Air Lines Inc , Eli Lilly and Co, BP America, the Washington Post, Fox News, the National Newspaper Association, Apple Inc, Alphabet Inc's Google, Amazon.com Inc, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and many others.

Microsoft filed its lawsuit in Seattle federal court in April, arguing that a law allowing the government to seize computer data located on third-party computers and often barring companies from telling their customers that they are targets is unconstitutional.

The Justice Department argues that Microsoft has no standing to bring the case and the public has a "compelling interest in keeping criminal investigations confidential." Procedural safeguards also protect constitutional rights, it contends. A Justice Department spokesman declined comment on Friday's filings.

Microsoft says the government is violating the Fourth Amendment, which establishes the right for people and businesses to know if the government searches or seizes their property, in addition to Microsoft's First Amendment right to free speech.

In the suit, which focuses on the storage of data on remote servers that are often referred to as "cloud" computers, Microsoft said it had been subjected to 2,600 federal court orders within the past 18 months prohibiting the company from informing customers their data was given to authorities pursuing criminal investigations.

Under the authority of the 30-year-old Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), the government is increasingly directing investigations at parties that store data in the cloud, Microsoft argued in its suit.

Five former law enforcement officials who worked for the FBI or Justice Department in Washington state also submitted a brief supporting Microsoft.

In July, a federal appeals court sided 3-0 with Microsoft in a separate case against the Justice Department, ruling the government could not force the tech company to hand over customer emails stored on servers outside the United States.

The Justice Department has not decided whether to appeal that decision, a spokesman said.

The case is Microsoft Corp v United States Department of Justice et al in the United States District Court, Western District of Washington, No. 2:16-cv-00537.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com