Julian Assange via @CronopioX on Twitter

We’re halfway to the weekend, kittens, and you can practically smell the sea breeze and pollen, can’t you? There are still a couple of days before you can bugger off to the beach or hole up in your dingy and snowbound converted garage “studio” and pretend to all your friends on Facebook that you’re at the beach (Photoshop is like riding a bicycle, don’t worry), so we’ve got a round up to help you kill the idle moments. Hours. Possibly days, if you’re running a computer as slow as mine.

Julian Assange (virtually) heads to Swedish Supreme Court over extradition request (Guardian)

SpyCables: ‘Ex-Israeli agents’ threatened cyber attack on S Africa (AlJazeera)

Why aren’t more news organizations protecting their e-mail with STARTTLS encryption? (FreedomOfThePress)

How Hackers Abused Tor To Rob Blockchain, Steal Bitcoin, Target Private Email And Get Away With It (Forbes)

How Dirty Money Gets Into Banks (TheAtlantic)

Secret Police Facility “Black Site” Discovered Inside America, Detaining & Torturing Americans (FreeThoughtProject)

Hackers HATE Michigan (BattleCreekEnquirer)

HSBC Bank Scandal Widens As Collusion With U.K. Government and Media Is Exposed (Occupy)

LinkedIn to pay premium users a measly $1 for leaking their passwords (TheNextWeb)

Read() or alive, you’re coming with me: Feds offer $3m reward for ‘CryptoLocker baron’ (TheRegister)

How Mice Turned Their Private Paradise Into A Terrifying Dystopia (io9)

State Department Director of Counterterrorism arrested for soliciting sex with a minor (Gawker)

F.C.C. Net Neutrality Rules Clear Hurdle as Republicans Concede to Obama (NYT)

WordPress Slimstat plugin leaves 1.3 million sites at risk (TheHackerNews)

Categories: Banks, Bitcoin, Crime, Cryptocurrency, Hackers, Money, Net Neutrality, News, Politics, Security, Spies, Surveillance