Archive for the 'Surveillance' Category
Unauthorized Drone Activity Over Paris
February 25th, 2015Via: BBC: Drones have appeared over landmarks in central Paris for the second night running and police are no closer to knowing who is operating them. There were five sightings between 23:00 on Tuesday and 02:00 (01:00 GMT) on Wednesday, French media report. Up to three drones were seen near the Invalides military museum, Place […]
Komodia’s Founder, “Was Once a Programmer in Israel’s IDF’s Intelligence Core”
February 24th, 2015It’s for the children. Via: Forbes: In a brief email conversation with Barak Weichselbaum, Komodia’s founder who was once a programmer in Israel’s IDF’s Intelligence Core, he said the company was not hiding behind DDoS claims and that the attack was real. … Why is Komodia now getting so much attention anyway? Because its hugely […]
Plea Deals Rather Than Talking About StingRay
February 23rd, 2015Via: Washington Post: McKenzie’s case is emblematic of the growing, but hidden, use by local law enforcement of a sophisticated surveillance technology borrowed from the national security world. It shows how a gag order imposed by the FBI — on grounds that discussing the device’s operation would compromise its effectiveness — has left judges, the […]
Why Does Apple Include Government Certificate Authorities on the Mac?
February 23rd, 2015Via: Zit Seng’s Blog: The Certificate Authorities are usually trustworthy. Usually. Except, when you look into the list Certificate Authorities trusted by the Mac. There are the usual big name Certificate Authorities like Verisign, GeoTrust, Symantec and Thawte. But how about these ones: Subject: C=US, O=U.S. Government, OU=FPKI, CN=Federal Common Policy CA Subject: C=US, O=U.S. […]
U.S. to Begin Widespread Sales of Killer Drones to Allies
February 22nd, 2015Via: Washington Post: The Obama administration will permit the widespread export of armed drones for the first time, a step toward providing allied nations with weapons that have become a cornerstone of U.S. counterterrorism strategy but whose remotely controlled power to kill is intensely controversial. The new policy, announced Tuesday after a long internal review, […]
The Great SIM Heist
February 19th, 2015Via: First Look: AMERICAN AND BRITISH spies hacked into the internal computer network of the largest manufacturer of SIM cards in the world, stealing encryption keys used to protect the privacy of cellphone communications across the globe, according to top-secret documents provided to The Intercept by National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden. The hack was […]
“The Equation Group”: NSA Has Been Able to Exploit Most Hard Drive Firmware for Years, Wiping Drives Does Nothing
February 17th, 2015Via: Kaspersky (.pdf): 10. What is the most sophisticated thing about the EQUATION group? Although the implementation of their malware systems is incredibly complex, surpassing even Regin in sophistication, there is one aspect of the EQUATION group’s attack technologies that exceeds anything we have ever seen before. This is the ability to infect the hard […]
FAA Commercial Drone Rules: Line of Sight Operation Will Be Allowed, Autonomous Flight Beyond Line of Sight, Deliveries Banned for Foreseeable Future
February 15th, 2015Via: Guardian: Commercial drone operators will be banned from letting unmanned aircraft out of their sight, under new US proposals that come as a major blow to companies like Amazon that were hoping to use the unmanned aircraft to make aerial home deliveries. Amazon said the proposed new Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) rules, which were […]
Judge Rules for NSA in Warrantless Search Case
February 11th, 2015Via: Reuters: A U.S. judge on Tuesday ruled in favor of the National Security Agency in a lawsuit challenging the interception of Internet communications without a warrant, according to a court filing. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White in Oakland, California wrote the plaintiffs failed to establish legal standing to pursue a claim that the government […]
U.S. to Establish New Cybersecurity Agency
February 10th, 2015Via: Reuters: The U.S. government is creating a new agency to monitor cybersecurity threats, pooling and analyzing information on a spectrum of risks, a senior Obama administration official said on Tuesday. The Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center (CTIIC) will be an “intelligence center that will ‘connect the dots’ between various cyber threats to the nation […]
