Archive for the 'Surveillance' Category
The Nonsense About iMessage Supposedly Frustrating DEA
April 8th, 2013I think I’m making progress. Readers who submitted this DEA / iMessage nonsense knew it was bullshit. Congratulations. You guys get it. Via: TechDirt: In reading over this, however, a number of people quickly called bullshit. While Apple boasts of “end-to-end encryption” it’s pretty clear that Apple itself holds the key — because if you […]
Detecting TOR Communication in Network Traffic
April 7th, 2013That’s a pretty good one. I wonder what it can tell about what’s running over VPN links… Via: Netresec: Notice how the flows to TCP ports 80, 9101 and 443 are classified as Tor? The statistical method for protocol detection in CapLoader is so effective that CapLoader actually ignores port numbers altogether when identifying the […]
ATF Wants Database to Find Out Who Your Friends Are
April 7th, 2013Via: Wired: The ATF doesn’t just want a huge database to reveal everything about you with a few keywords. It wants one that can find out who you know. And it won’t even try to friend you on Facebook first. According to a recent solicitation from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the […]
Fusion Center Director: We Don’t Spy on Americans, Just Anti-Government Americans
March 31st, 2013Via: Russia Today: Law enforcement intelligence-processing fusion centers have long come under attack for spying on Americans. The Arkansas director wanted to clarify the truth: centers only spies on some Americans – those who appear to be a threat to the government. In trying to clear up the ‘misconceptions’ about the conduct of fusion centers, […]
Obama’s Crackdown on Whistleblowers and the NSA-SAIC-Trailblazer Fraud
March 29th, 2013Via: The Nation: In the annals of national security, the Obama administration will long be remembered for its unprecedented crackdown on whistleblowers. Since 2009, it has employed the World War I–era Espionage Act a record six times to prosecute government officials suspected of leaking classified information. The latest example is John Kiriakou, a former CIA […]
Location Data Can Uniquely Identify Cellphone Users
March 28th, 2013Via: Popular Science: Just a few data points from a location-tracking cellphone are enough to identify most people, a new study found. It doesn’t matter if those data are “anonymized” so they aren’t linked to any identifiers such as address or phone number. Just four random points are enough to put names to 95 percent […]
Appeasing The Dictator, 140 Characters At A Time: Twitter Censors Content Within Russia
March 28th, 2013Via: PJ Media: If you have been following the Internet crackdown underway in Russia, you will not be surprised to learn that Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin has recruited many websites — which are either terrified of his wrath or interested in currying his favor — to help crush and eradicate criticism of his government online. However, […]
FBI Wants Real-Time Gmail, Dropbox Spying Power
March 28th, 2013Via: Slate: Despite the pervasiveness of law enforcement surveillance of digital communication, the FBI still has a difficult time monitoring Gmail, Google Voice, and Dropbox in real time. But that may change soon, because the bureau says it has made gaining more powers to wiretap all forms of Internet conversation and cloud storage a “top […]
Homeland Security Will Scan More Private Web Traffic and Email
March 22nd, 2013Via: Reuters: The U.S. government is expanding a cybersecurity program that scans Internet traffic headed into and out of defense contractors to include far more of the country’s private, civilian-run infrastructure. As a result, more private sector employees than ever before, including those at big banks, utilities and key transportation companies, will have their emails […]
CIA CTO: ‘We Fundamentally Try To Collect Everything And Hang On To It Forever’
March 21st, 2013Via: Huffington Post: The CIA’s chief technology officer outlined the agency’s endless appetite for data in a far-ranging speech on Wednesday. Speaking before a crowd of tech geeks at GigaOM’s Structure:Data conference in New York City, CTO Ira “Gus” Hunt said that the world is increasingly awash in information from text messages, tweets, and videos […]
