Archive for the 'Covert Operations' Category
Leaked Report Profiles Military, Police Members of Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs
May 23rd, 2015Via: First Look: Nuclear power plant technicians, senior military officers, FBI contractors and an employee of “a highly-secretive Department of Defense agency” with a Top Secret clearance. Those are just a few of the more than 100 people with sensitive military and government connections that law enforcement is tracking because they are linked to “outlaw […]
Apple and Google Just Attended a Confidential Spy Summit in a Remote English Mansion
May 23rd, 2015Via: First Look: At an 18th-century mansion in England’s countryside last week, current and former spy chiefs from seven countries faced off with representatives from tech giants Apple and Google to discuss government surveillance in the aftermath of Edward Snowden’s leaks. The three-day conference, which took place behind closed doors and under strict rules about […]
BP Hires Former MI6 Boss John Sawers
May 18th, 2015Via: Guardian: BP has hired the former head of MI6 as it seeks to capitalise on his top-level diplomatic experience while dealing with some of the toughest political environments around the world. Sir John Sawers, who was head of the Secret Intelligence Service between 2009 and 2014, has joined the oil company’s board as a […]
UK Government Quietly Rewrites Hacking Laws to Give GCHQ Immunity
May 17th, 2015Via: ArsTechnica: The UK government has quietly passed new legislation that exempts GCHQ, police, and other intelligence officers from prosecution for hacking into computers and mobile phones. While major or controversial legislative changes usually go through normal parliamentary process (i.e. democratic debate) before being passed into law, in this case an amendment to the Computer […]
Many of the NSA’s Loudest Defenders Have Financial Ties to NSA Contractors
May 14th, 2015Via: FirstLook: The talking heads have been backstopping the NSA’s mass surveillance more or less continuously since it was revealed. They spoke out to support the agency when NSA contractor Edward Snowden released details of its programs in 2013, and they’ve kept up their advocacy ever since — on television news shows, newspaper op-ed pages, […]
U.S. NSA Domestic Phone Spying Program Illegal: Appeals Court
May 7th, 2015Via: Reuters: A U.S. spying program that collects data about millions of Americans’ phone calls is illegal, a federal appeals court ruled on Thursday, adding pressure on lawmakers to decide quickly whether to end or replace the program, which was intended to help fight terrorism. While stopping short of declaring the program unconstitutional, the 2nd […]
France: More Surveillance
May 6th, 2015Via: BBC: The French parliament has approved a controversial law strengthening the intelligence services, with the aim of preventing Islamist attacks. The law on intelligence-gathering, adopted by 438 votes to 86, was drafted after three days of attacks in Paris in January, in which 17 people died. The Socialist government says the law is needed […]
NSA Speech to Text Systems Makes Conversations Searchable
May 5th, 2015Via: FirstLook: Most people realize that emails and other digital communications they once considered private can now become part of their permanent record. But even as they increasingly use apps that understand what they say, most people don’t realize that the words they speak are not so private anymore, either. Top-secret documents from the archive […]
German Intelligence Helped NSA Spy on European Politicians and Defense Contractors
April 24th, 2015Via: Ars Technica: Germany’s intelligence service, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), has been helping the NSA spy on European politicians and companies for years, according to the German news magazine Der Spiegel. The NSA has been sending lists of “selectors”—identifying telephone numbers, e-mail and IP addresses—to the BND, which then provides related information that it holds in […]
And Now… “How Tor Is Building a New Dark Net with Help from the U.S. Military”
April 22nd, 2015You betcha. Via: TheDailyDot: To stay ahead in the security race, Tor is building the next-generation Dark Net in part with funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the U.S. military agency charged with inventing the cutting edge of new technology. The funding, which began in 2014, comes as part of DARPA’s Memex project, […]
