Archive for the 'Dictatorship' Category
NSA Seeks to Build Quantum Computer That Could Crack Most Types of Encryption
January 2nd, 2014I’ve leaned toward believing that NSA already had this capability, but maybe not. Via: Washington Post: In room-size metal boxes, secure against electromagnetic leaks, the National Security Agency is racing to build a computer that could break nearly every kind of encryption used to protect banking, medical, business and government records around the world. According […]
Feds May Require Cars to Talk to Each Other to Avoid Crashes
January 2nd, 2014Via: ABC: Federal officials will decided in the “coming weeks” whether to require new cars to include smart technology that would alert drivers of a coming crash, even in vehicles that are two or three cars away. The vehicle-to-vehicle — or V2V — technology has undergone testing in recent years and has already been installed […]
Maniac Fascism: Court Rules No Suspicion Needed for Laptop Searches at Border
January 1st, 2014Via: ACLU: A federal court today dismissed a lawsuit arguing that the government should not be able to search and copy people’s laptops, cell phones, and other devices at border checkpoints without reasonable suspicion. An appeal is being considered. Government documents show that thousands of innocent American citizens are searched when they return from trips […]
U.S. Customs at JFK Destroys Eleven Instruments Owned by Flute Virtuoso
December 31st, 2013Via: Arts Journal: A few minutes ago, we reached the flute virtuoso Boujemaa Razgui by phone to discuss the assault on his instruments by US Customs at JFK airport. A Canadian citizen, based in New York and with a green card employment permit, Bouzemaa was flying home from Marrakech, Morocco, when his baggage was opened […]
Shopping for Spy Gear: Catalog Advertises NSA Toolbox
December 30th, 2013Via: Spiegel: A document viewed by SPIEGEL resembling a product catalog reveals that an NSA division called ANT has burrowed its way into nearly all the security architecture made by the major players in the industry — including American global market leader Cisco and its Chinese competitor Huawei, but also producers of mass-market goods, such […]
DROPOUTJEEP: How NSA Owns iPhones
December 30th, 2013It looks like they implemented Back Orifice for iOS. Anyway, *yawn*. So now we know the name of the tool. The first reference that I can find on Cryptogon for a U.S. government agency having this capability is: FBI Uses Mobile Phones for Audio Surveillance – Even When Phones Are Off. That’s from 2006. Via: […]
One-Third of Americans Reject the Idea of Evolution
December 30th, 2013I tell people in New Zealand about the Creation Museum and they don’t believe that the place exists. They think I’m making it up. Via: Reuters: One-third of Americans reject the idea of evolution and Republicans have grown more skeptical about it, according to a poll released on Monday. Sixty percent of Americans say that […]
State Department Whistleblower Has Email Hacked, Deleted
December 30th, 2013Gmail? Really? Via: New York Post: The personal e-mail account of a State Department whistleblower was hacked, and four years worth of messages — some detailing alleged wrongdoing at the agency — were deleted, The Post has learned. The computer attack targeted the Gmail account of Diplomatic Security Service criminal investigator Richard Higbie, his lawyer, […]
Russia: Second Bombing in Two Days ; 32 Dead in the Two Attacks
December 30th, 2013Via: Washington Post: The southern Russian city of Volgograd was hit with the second deadly suicide bombing in two days on Monday, rattling security officials as the country prepares for next month’s Winter Olympics in Sochi, about 400 miles to the southwest. The bombers targeted a crowded trolley bus on Monday and a railroad station […]
NSA: Office of Tailored Access Operations
December 29th, 2013I always thought that this was called Special Collection Service. Maybe this TAO thing is Double Plus Special. Via: Spiegel: The NSA’s TAO hacking unit is considered to be the intelligence agency’s top secret weapon. It maintains its own covert network, infiltrates computers around the world and even intercepts shipping deliveries to plant back doors […]
