Archive for the 'Covert Operations' Category
Ars Tests Internet Surveillance—By Spying on an NPR Reporter
June 11th, 2014If you are a non technical computer user, this article does a good job of explaining how much of your online life is like an open book for any man-in-the-middle observer. This observer could be your ISP, an intelligence organization, the police, anyone who has access to the network infrastructure between you and the Internet. […]
How FBI Informant Sabu Helped Anonymous Hack Brazil
June 9th, 2014Via: Vice: In early 2012, members of the hacking collective Anonymous carried out a series of cyber attacks on government and corporate websites in Brazil. They did so under the direction of a hacker who, unbeknownst to them, was wearing another hat: helping the Federal Bureau of Investigation carry out one of its biggest cybercrime […]
Vodafone Reveals Direct Access by Governments to Customer Data
June 6th, 2014Via: New York Times: A number of countries have direct access to the communication network run by the British telecom company Vodafone. The revelation comes in a privacy report released on Friday by Vodafone, the world’s second-largest carrier behind China Mobile, that included information about how governments regularly requested data about the company’s users. Vodafone […]
Overseas Processing Centre 1 (OPC-1)
June 5th, 2014Via: Register: Above-top-secret details of Britain’s covert surveillance programme – including the location of a clandestine British base tapping undersea cables in the Middle East – have so far remained secret, despite being leaked by fugitive NSA sysadmin Edward Snowden. Government pressure has meant that some media organisations, despite being in possession of these facts, […]
German Foreign Intelligence Agency Wants to Access Social Media Sites in Real Time
May 31st, 2014Via: Deutsche Welle: German media has reported that the country’s foreign intelligence agency wants to access social media in real time. The agency reportedly wants to expand digital operations out of fear of falling behind other countries.
NSA Collecting Millions of Faces From Web Images
May 31st, 2014Via: New York Times: The National Security Agency is harvesting huge numbers of images of people from communications that it intercepts through its global surveillance operations for use in sophisticated facial recognition programs, according to top-secret documents. The spy agency’s reliance on facial recognition technology has grown significantly over the last four years as the […]
Obama Announces Plan to Keep 9,800 U.S. Troops in Afghanistan After 2014
May 28th, 2014Are there not enough mercs to protect all of those opium poppies? Via: Guardian: President Obama announced Tuesday that he will leave 9,800 US troops in Afghanistan through much of next year and backed away from ending America’s longest war until at least his final year in office. Related: CIA Ghost Money
White House Mistakenly Identifies CIA Chief in Afghanistan
May 26th, 2014Via: Washington Post: The CIA’s top officer in Kabul was exposed Saturday by the White House when his name was inadvertently included on a list provided to news organizations of senior U.S. officials participating in President Obama’s surprise visit with U.S. troops. The White House recognized the mistake and quickly issued a revised list that […]
“Why I Was Forced to Shut Down Lavabit”
May 20th, 2014Via: Guardian: If my experience serves any purpose, it is to illustrate what most already know: courts must not be allowed to consider matters of great importance under the shroud of secrecy, lest we find ourselves summarily deprived of meaningful due process. If we allow our government to continue operating in secret, it is only […]
China Bans Use of Microsoft’s Windows 8 on Government Computers
May 20th, 2014To save energy. *wink* Via: Reuters: China has banned government use of Windows 8, Microsoft Corp’s latest operating system (OS), in a blow to the U.S. technology company which has long been plagued by sales woes in the country. The Central Government Procurement Center issued the ban on installing Windows 8 on government computers as […]
