Archive for the 'Surveillance' Category
Obama Appoints Cass Sunstein to Review NSA Programs
August 26th, 2013Via: Guardian: The review of US surveillance programs which Barack Obama promised would be conducted by an “independent” and “outside” panel of experts looks set to consist of four Washington insiders with close ties to the security establishment. The president announced the creation of the group of experts two weeks ago, in an attempt to […]
A Lexicon for Understanding the Words U.S. Intelligence Officials Use to Mislead the Public
August 26th, 2013Via: Slate: When it comes to discussing government surveillance, U.S. intelligence officials have been using a vocabulary of misdirection—a language that allows them to say one thing while meaning quite another. The assignment of unconventional meanings to conventional words allows officials to imply that the NSA’s activities are narrow and closely supervised, though neither of […]
Documentary: Terms and Conditions May Apply
August 23rd, 2013Via: Terms and Conditions May Apply: Terms and Conditions May Apply (trailer) from ro*co films on Vimeo.
GCHQ Intercepts Data on Middle East Fiber Optic Cables
August 23rd, 2013“It’s a definite WTF moment.” —Problems with Five Undersea Fiber Optic Cables, 2008 See: 2008 submarine cable disruption: 2008 submarine cable disruption refers to three separate incidents of major damage to submarine optical cables. The first incident caused damage involving up to five high-speed Internet submarine communications cables in the Mediterranean Sea and Middle East […]
United States Military Interest in New Zealand Cable
August 22nd, 2013Via: Stuff: The United States Defence Department could help pay for a new cable linking New Zealand, Australia, the United States and several Pacific Islands, an Auckland source says. He said the department had an interest in spending about US$100 million (NZ$120m) to directly or indirectly acquire a pair of optical fibres between the US, […]
Government Issued Credentials For Use Online
August 21st, 2013Via: Forbes: The Federal Cloud Credential Exchange (FCXX) is designed to enable individuals to securely access online services —such as health benefits, student loan information, and retirement benefit information—at multiple federal agencies without the need to use a different password or other digital identification for each service. The first federal agency to use it will […]
The NSA: ‘The Abyss from Which There Is No Return’
August 21st, 2013Via: Rutherford Institute: “The National Security Agency’s capability at any time could be turned around on the American people, and no American would have any privacy left, such is the capability to monitor everything: telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn’t matter. There would be no place to hide. If a dictator ever took over, the N.S.A. […]
What NSA Transparency Looks Like: Redacted
August 21st, 2013Via: ProPublica: Last week, the Washington Post published an internal audit finding the NSA had violated privacy rules thousands of times in recent years. In response, the spy agency held a rare conference call for the press maintaining that the violations are “not willful” and “not malicious.” It’s difficult to fully evaluate the NSA’s track […]
New Zealand Extends Domestic Spying Powers
August 21st, 2013Via: BBC: New Zealand has passed legislation allowing its main intelligence agency to spy on residents and citizens. Parliament voted 61 to 59 on Wednesday to expand the powers of the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB).
The Department of Homeland Security Testing Crowd-Scanning Project Called the Biometric Optical Surveillance System
August 21st, 2013Via: New York Times: The federal government is making progress on developing a surveillance system that would pair computers with video cameras to scan crowds and automatically identify people by their faces, according to newly disclosed documents and interviews with researchers working on the project. The Department of Homeland Security tested a crowd-scanning project called […]
