Archive for the 'Surveillance' Category
NSA Links to St Petersburg Florida Drug Ring
November 17th, 2013Via: Mad Cow Morning News: Skyway Global LLC, the St. Petersburg, FL company that owned the DC-9 airline busted in Mexico carrying 5.5 tons of cocaine, made its headquarters in a 79,000 sq ft building owned by Verint Systems (NASDAQ: VRNT), a foreign tele-communications company with a contract to wiretap the U.S. for the NSA […]
TSA SPOT Program: Billion Dollar Magic 8 Ball
November 16th, 2013Via: GAO: Available evidence does not support whether behavioral indicators, which are used in the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques (SPOT) program, can be used to identify persons who may pose a risk to aviation security. GAO reviewed four meta-analyses (reviews that analyze other studies and synthesize their findings) that […]
The Weaponized Internet
November 16th, 2013Via: Wired: The internet backbone — the infrastructure of networks upon which internet traffic travels — went from being a passive infrastructure for communication to an active weapon for attacks. According to revelations about the QUANTUM program, the NSA can “shoot” (their words) an exploit at any target it desires as his or her traffic […]
CIA Collecting Data on International Money Transfers
November 14th, 2013Via: New York Times: The Central Intelligence Agency is secretly collecting bulk records of international money transfers handled by companies like Western Union — including transactions into and out of the United States — under the same law that the National Security Agency uses for its huge database of Americans’ phone records, according to current […]
Americans’ Personal Data Shared with CIA, IRS, Others in Security Probe
November 14th, 2013Via: McClatchy: U.S. agencies collected and shared the personal information of thousands of Americans in an attempt to root out untrustworthy federal workers that ended up scrutinizing people who had no direct ties to the U.S. government and simply had purchased certain books. Federal officials gathered the information from the customer records of two men […]
Government Spying Causing Self-Censorship, Privacy Fears Among U.S. Writers
November 13th, 2013Via: CBS: In the wake of revelations about intrusive government surveillance, many American authors are worrying about the freedom of the press and some simply are avoiding controversial topics. A new report from the PEN Center and the FDR Group entitled “Chilling Effects: NSA Surveillance Drives U.S. Writers to Self-Censor” finds that 85 percent of […]
The Second Operating System Hiding in Every Mobile Phone
November 12th, 2013The Find: Back in July 2013, The Washington Post reported that nearly a decade ago, the National Security Agency developed a new technique that allowed spooks to “find cellphones even when they were turned off. JSOC troops called this ‘The Find,’ and it gave them thousands of new targets, including members of a burgeoning al-Qaeda-sponsored […]
New DHS Funded WiFi Network and Probable Tracking System Installed Throughout Downtown Seattle
November 11th, 2013There are a variety of apps out there that use GPS as a proximity switch to turn your phone’s WiFi radio on and off. With the WiFi radio off, networks like the one described below can’t track your phone.* * Of course, the mobile operating system and cellular radio are giving you up about a […]
UK Spies Continue “Quantum Insert” Attack via LinkedIn, Slashdot Pages
November 11th, 2013Via: Ars Technica: Der Spiegel suggests that the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the British sister agency to the NSA, used spoofed versions of LinkedIn and Slashdot pages to serve malware to targets. This type of attack was also used to target “nine salaried employees” of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the global oil […]
CIA Pays AT&T $10 Million Per Year for Access to Call Data
November 8th, 2013Via: New York Times: The C.I.A. is paying AT&T more than $10 million a year to assist with overseas counterterrorism investigations by exploiting the company’s vast database of phone records, which includes Americans’ international calls, according to government officials. The cooperation is conducted under a voluntary contract, not under subpoenas or court orders compelling the […]
