Commonwealth Bank of Australia is claiming a world-first today, announcing it has issued the first-ever government bond using blockchain. The bank announced its capital markets blockchain platform was used to arrange what it calls “a virtual cryptobond” for Queensland Treasury Corporation. “Queensland Treasury Corporation successfully used the blockchain to generate a bond tender, view investor bids in real time, finalise investment allocation and settle instantly with investors,” announced CBA. QTC was both the issuer and investor in producing the working prototype bond that is not tradable or carrying any debt. George Confos, CBA’s business & corporate finance executive general manager, said the technology will redefine how capital markets operate. “Our proof-of-concept demonstrates blockchain is capable of delivering efficiency to issuers, investors and other market participants,” he said. The use of blockchain technology, which is a … [Read more...] about The Commonwealth Bank just created the first government bond using blockchain
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An FOI request has revealed ‘anonymous’ browser Tor is funded by US government agencies
Tor users browse the web assuming no one can trace their movements Wikileaks, Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald have all used the ‘onion router’ system FOI reveals strong funding, development links to US government agencies “Anonymous” web browser Tor might not be anonymous at all, after a journalist was granted a 2500-page Freedom of Information request that claims it receives funding from the US government. Russian-born US investigative journalist Yasha Levine, a former reporter for Pando Daily and author of a new book, “Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet”, has been on a mission to expose Tor’s claims of anonymity since late 2015. Developed by The Tor Project and launched in 2002, Tor champions the system of “onion routing” – basically bouncing your internet connection request through many other users’ computers before finally hooking up through an “exit node”. It … [Read more...] about An FOI request has revealed ‘anonymous’ browser Tor is funded by US government agencies
The US is charging 9 Iranians with hacking major American universities on behalf of the Iranian government
The Department of Justice on Friday announced charges against nine Iranians in connection with an elaborate hacking scheme that targeted more than 140 US universities. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced the charges in a press conference. The US charged nine Iranians with orchestrating cyberattacks against more than 350 entities around the world, mostly universities, on behalf of the Iranian government, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced Friday. Those charged include Gholamreza Rafatnejad, 38; Ehsan Mohammadi, 37; Abdollah Karima, also known as Vahid Karima, 39; Mostafa Sadeghi, 28; Seyed Ali Mirkarimi, 34; Mohammed Reza Sabahi, 26; Roozbeh Sabahi, 24; Abuzar Gohari Moqadam, 37; and Sajjad Tahmasebi, 30. They are all citizens and residents of Iran. The defendants were all connected to the Mabna Institute, an Iranian company that has conducted cyberattacks on more than 360 entities, including 144 universities in the US and 176 elsewhere, 47 domestic and … [Read more...] about The US is charging 9 Iranians with hacking major American universities on behalf of the Iranian government
Oil, gas, and coal industries get a shocking amount of funding from the US government, a new report shows
A new report shows that the US government provided about $US6 billion annually in financial support to the oil, gas, and coal industries between The report, released July 5, is the product of research conducted by Oil Change International, Friends of the Earth, the Sierra Club, and the World Wildlife Fund’s European Policy Office. Their goal was to parse out the amount of public financing — defined as grants, equity, loans, guarantees, and insurance from majority government-owned financial institutions — that various G20 countries have given to domestic and international energy production. Data came from Oil Change International’s “Shift the Subsidies Database,” which tracks public financial flow to fossil fuel industries from 2008 until the present. According to that database, the US provided $US832 million annually to coal and $US5 billion to oil and gas. (It was not possible to determine the split between coal, oil, and gas for the remaining … [Read more...] about Oil, gas, and coal industries get a shocking amount of funding from the US government, a new report shows
Regular people who went undercover in jail for 2 months discovered a strict social hierarchy that governs everything from where you sleep to whether you get to shower
caption On “60 Days In,” undercover inmates learned about the complex social dynamics in jail. source A&E “60 Days In” follows undercover inmates who navigate life in Fulton County Jail in Atlanta and Clark County Jail in southern Indiana. The undercover inmates learned about the complex social dynamics that take place in jail. Unwritten rules dictated how new inmates eat, sleep, socialize, and solve disputes. Life in jail is no cake walk – and it’s even harder when you don’t know the unwritten rules. Several law-abiding citizens learned those rules the hard way when they went undercover as inmates for the A&E show “60 Days In.” Now in its fourth season, the show followed the undercover participants as they navigated jail life at Clark County Jail in Jeffersonville, Indiana, and Fulton County Jail in Atlanta, for two months. The participants … [Read more...] about Regular people who went undercover in jail for 2 months discovered a strict social hierarchy that governs everything from where you sleep to whether you get to shower