Archive - Sep 8, 2013 - Story

Two months ago, when we reported that the NSA has successfully inserted illegal access protocols into the Android OS, thus granting it back door access into nearly three quarters of all cell phones, the news was met with skepticism and resistance: how could an open-sourced architecture be so frail and open to penetration was the most common complaint. We wonder if today's news, broken by Germany's Spiegel, according to which the NSA can spy not only on Android smartphones but tap user data on all iPhone and BlackBerry devices "including contact lists, SMS traffic, notes and location information about where a user has been", will be met with the same skepticism or if the realization that every form of privacy is now gone, has finally dawned on the population. Spiegel reports, citing"internal NSA documents that the NSA has the capability of tapping user data from the iPhone, devices using Android as well as BlackBerry, a system previously believed to be highly secure. The documents also indicate that the NSA has set up specific working groups to deal with each operating system, with the goal of gaining secret access to the data held on the phones." While at this point it should come as no surprise that the NSA pervasively spies on Americans without a warrant or clearance, and has access to every device permitting electronic communication, the bigger question is: if everything is being spied on, what is left? Is carrierpigeons.com about to IPO?

Having recently acquired important stakes or out-right ownership of major Canadian energy firms, Chinese companies are now continuing their penetration of Canada's energy sector by targeting the juniors. In particular, the Saskatchewan-based producer Novus Energy announced this week its agreement to be acquired for $320 million by Yanchang Petroleum International Ltd. Novus is a junior oil and gas company that targets light oil resource plays in Western Canada. Its assets are concentrated in the Viking Formation, a lithological unit in central and eastern Alberta and adjacent west-central Saskatchewan, as well as in southeastern and east-central Saskatchewan. The Viking Formation is well delineated with low-risk reserves including large amounts of "original-oil-in-place". The company plans to employ improved horizontal drilling and multi-stage hydraulic fracturing in order to increase recovery and diminish development costs. The deal follows by five months the visit by Canadian Trade Minister Ed Fast to Beijing, where he officially confirmed that Ottawa would welcome further continued investment from Chinese energy companies, even after the US$15.1 billion acquisition of the oil-sands operator Nexen.