Archive for the 'Surveillance' Category
Hacker Spoofs Cell Phone Tower to Intercept Calls
August 4th, 2010Via: Wired: A security researcher created a cell phone base station that tricks cell phones into routing their outbound calls through his device, allowing someone to intercept even encrypted calls in the clear. The device tricks the phones into disabling encryption and records call details and content before they’re routed on their proper way through […]
Web Attack Uses Google Geolocation Database to Identify Address of Routers
August 4th, 2010First of all, as usual with stories like this, I have to refer back to my old essay that deals with the Ugly Truth About Online Anonymity. Second, this hack isn’t new. See the Skyhook Wireless antics, circa 2008. Third, the article below doesn’t make it clear, but this will only reveal your exact location […]
Adrian Lamo Is a “Volunteer” for Project Vigilant, a Private Internet Surveillance Company Closely Linked to U.S. Intelligence
August 2nd, 2010Via: Forbes: A semi-secret government contractor that calls itself Project Vigilant surfaced at the Defcon security conference Sunday with a series of revelations: that it monitors the traffic of 12 regional Internet service providers, hands much of that information to federal agencies, and encouraged one of its “volunteers”, researcher Adrian Lamo, to inform the federal […]
Terrorism Case Baffles Remote Alaska Town
August 1st, 2010My guess is that the following line is the most useful piece of information in the article: …this has the air of a poorly written movie. You visited some site and then you were found with a piece of paper that contained some words. Ready to plea bargain? When it’s time for a law enforcement […]
One of the Fastest-Growing Businesses on the Internet: Spying on Internet Users
July 31st, 2010The piece provides an interactive graphic to explain what you can do to counter this advertiser surveillance stuff, but nowhere does the word AdBlockPlus appear. Woops. *chuckle* This will block most ads from loading in the first place. (Yes, AdBlockPlus blocks ads on Cryptogon.) I like Ghostery because it’s easy to use, but NoScript is […]
Brazil: Some Detergent Boxes Will Contain GPS Transmitters to Allow Company to Follow Consumers Home
July 31st, 2010Just wait until the detergent box costs more than the GPS transmitter. Via: AdAge: Unilever’s Omo detergent is adding an unusual ingredient to its two-pound detergent box in Brazil: a GPS device that allows its promotions agency Bullet to track shoppers and follow them to their front doors. Starting next week, consumers who buy one […]
White House Proposal Would Ease FBI Access to Records of Internet Activity
July 30th, 2010FBI can’t just ask NSA for it, or pull the information out of MAIN CORE because the domestic intercept programs don’t officially exist. An appearance needs to be maintained that the intelligence community doesn’t already have this data. What you’re about to read below is an example of how America does Kabuki theater. Via: Washington […]
“Extreme and Unlawful” Bush-Era Policies Becoming the “New Normal” Under Obama
July 30th, 2010Via: ACLU: Indeed, on a range of issues including accountability for torture, detention of terrorism suspects, and use of lethal force against civilians, there is a very real danger that the Obama administration will enshrine permanently within the law policies and practices that were widely considered extreme and unlawful during the Bush administration. There is […]
Details of 100 Million Facebook Users Compiled, Distributed Over Bit Torrent
July 29th, 2010Via: MSNBC: The personal details of 100 million Facebook users have been collected and published online in a downloadable file, meaning they will now be unable to make their publicly available information private. However, Facebook downplayed the issue, saying that no private data had been compromised. The information was posted by Ron Bowes, an online […]
CIA and Google Fund Same Web Surveillance Startup
July 29th, 2010Via: Wired: The investment arms of the CIA and Google are both backing a company that monitors the web in real time — and says it uses that information to predict the future. The company is called Recorded Future, and it scours tens of thousands of websites, blogs and Twitter accounts to find the relationships […]
