Archive for the 'Surveillance' Category
NSA Devises Radio Pathway Into Computers
January 14th, 2014Via: New York Times: The National Security Agency has implanted software in nearly 100,000 computers around the world that allows the United States to conduct surveillance on those machines and can also create a digital highway for launching cyberattacks. While most of the software is inserted by gaining access to computer networks, the N.S.A. has […]
U.S. Military on Path to Become Google’s Single Largest Customer
January 10th, 2014Via: DailyCaller: Google CEO Larry Page has rapidly positioned Google to become an indispensable U.S. military contractor. Google recently purchased Boston Dynamics, a robotics pioneer that produces amazing humanoid robots for the U.S. Defense Department. This development invites attention to Google’s broader military contracting ambitions — especially since Boston Dynamics is the eighth robotics company […]
What It’s Like When The FBI Asks You To Backdoor Your Software
January 10th, 2014Via: PC Mag: At a recent RSA Security Conference, Nico Sell was on stage announcing that her company—Wickr—was making drastic changes to ensure its users’ security. She said that the company would switch from RSA encryption to elliptic curve encryption, and that the service wouldn’t have a backdoor for anyone. As she left the stage, […]
‘We were pressured to weaken the mobile security in the 80’s’
January 10th, 2014Via: Aften Posten: Audestad says that the British were not very interested in having a strong encryption. And after a few years, they protested against the high security level that was proposed. They wanted a key length of 48 bit. We were very surprised. The West Germans protested because they wanted a stronger encryption to […]
France-UAE Satellite Deal Shaky After U.S. Spy Tech Discovered Onboard
January 8th, 2014Via: Space War: The sale of two intelligence satellites to the UAE by France for nearly a billion dollars could go south after they were found to contain American technology designed to intercept data transmitted to the ground station. The equipment, costing 3.4 billion dirhams ($930 million), constitutes two high-resolution Pleiades-type Falcon Eye military intelligence […]
Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton
January 7th, 2014Via: Wired: A new drone with the mammoth wingspan of a Boeing 757 is set to give the U.S. Navy some serious surveillance power. Northrop Grumman and the Navy say they’ve just completed the ninth flight trial of the Triton unmanned aircraft system (UAS), an improvement upon its predecessor in the Air Force, the Global […]
FBI Drops Law Enforcement as ‘Primary’ Mission
January 7th, 2014Via: Foreign Policy: The FBI’s creeping advance into the world of counterterrorism is nothing new. But quietly and without notice, the agency has finally decided to make it official in one of its organizational fact sheets. Instead of declaring “law enforcement” as its “primary function,” as it has for years, the FBI fact sheet now […]
Disneyland: MyMagic+ “Vacation Management System”
January 3rd, 2014Via: Time: Families planning trips to one of Disney’s theme parks can now get waterproof rubber wristbands embedded with computer chips in lieu of paper tickets. When scanned, the bands can act as a park entry ticket, a FastPass, a hotel room key and a credit card. The “Magic Bands” — which are currently optional […]
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 […]
