One Program to Watch Them All: DARPA’s INSIGHT
October 4th, 2010Yet again, it’s the Information Awareness Office by another name.
Via: Wired:
No surprise that Darpa, the military’s blue-sky research arm, is the agency behind the lofty five-year program, called Insight. The agency’s goal is to replace “largely manual exploitation and…chat-based operator interactions” with a system that mines different inputs, including drone footage and on-the-ground intel, and quickly stitches together the data to identify potential threats.
What Darpa’s calling “a next generation ISR [intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance] exploitation and resource management system” would be faster than human analysts, but it’d still rely on their input. Darpa wants an interface that’s adaptable, letting users provide context and pick the best surveillance combo for a given situation.
The Pentagon’s been investing in super-powered surveillance for years now, and Darpa wants Insight to capitalize on the rapid growth in the recon field. The program will incorporate brand new spy cams, like ARGUS-IS, a 1.8 Gigapixel camera that tracks over 100 square miles in real time. And ongoing Darpa projects might be rolled into the Insight system too. The agency’s solicitation cites a handful, including the recently-launched PerSEAS, a program to design complex algorithms that can somehow spot threats based on little more than “weak evidence.”
“Me and my friend went to the mechanic today and we found this on his car.”
October 4th, 2010Update: FBI Demands Return of the Device
Via: Wired:
A California student got a visit from the FBI this week after he found a secret GPS tracking device on his car, and a friend posted photos of it online. The post prompted wide speculation about whether the device was real, whether the young Arab-American was being targeted in a terrorism investigation and what the authorities would do.
It took just 48 hours to find out: The device was real, the student was being secretly tracked and the FBI wanted their expensive device back, the student told Wired.com in an interview Wednesday.
The answer came when half-a-dozen FBI agents and police officers appeared at Yasir Afifi’s apartment complex in Santa Clara, California, on Tuesday demanding he return the device.
—End Update—
They found a government of law enforcement GPS tracking unit.
Via: Reddit:
Me and my friend went to the mechanic today and we found this on his car. http://imgur.com/OM6nE.jpg i am pretty confident it is a tracking device by the FBI but my friend’s roommates think it is a bomb..any thoughts?
Edit 1:I should also clarify that the FBI had interest in my friend since his father passed away, as he was a religious leader and they’ve made attempts at contacting my friend to spew racist questions.
…
My plan was to just put the device on another car or in a lake…
Edit 3: MORE PICTURES!! http://imgur.com/sspLU.jpg http://imgur.com/f4V2T.jpg http://imgur.com/srhrK.jpg
…
It’s a Guardian ST820. It’s a GPS tracking unit made by the company Cobham, the product line is called Orion. The redditor who said that the battery and magnetic unit is hand made is wrong, you’ve got the standard kit, it is sold like that by Cobham. Sales is restricted to army and law enforcement. TL;DR : yes, FBI or Police is after you.
Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI): New Computers Will Boot in Seconds
October 4th, 2010I wonder what surveillance hell lurks inside this…
Via: Daily Tech:
Microsoft reportedly plans to unleash a new PC firmware interface called Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) in 2011.
Microsoft is rumored to be coming out with the successor to Windows 7 next year, dubbed “Windows.NEXT”. That successor may support the new interface.
While UEFI is primarily the work of Intel, the world’s biggest CPU maker, it is Microsoft which largely controls when UEFI mass deployment will become a reality. Motherboard makers will also play a key role, by deploying motherboards with flashed support for the new tech.
In a recent interview with BBC News, Mark Doran the head of the UEFI forum, the organization tasked with developing and deploying the new firmware technology, comments, “At the moment it can be 25-30 seconds of boot time before you see the first bit of OS sign-on. With UEFI we’re getting it under a handful of seconds. In terms of boot speed, we’re not at instant-on yet but it is already a lot better than conventional Bios can manage, and we’re getting closer to that every day.”
Two-Year Treasury Yield Falls to Record Low
October 4th, 2010Via: Bloomberg:
Treasury two-year yields fell to a record before a government report that economists said will show orders to U.S. factories declined, adding to speculation the Federal Reserve will increase asset purchases.
Three-year note yields touched the lowest since 1962 before an employment report on Oct. 8 is forecast to show no change in overall payrolls last month. The Fed is scheduled to buy Treasuries tomorrow and the next day as part of its plan to keep borrowing costs low. New York Fed President William Dudley said on Oct. 1 the central bank will probably need to take action to spur the economic recovery.
…
The two-year yield dropped to a record 0.3987 percent before trading at 0.41 percent, according to Bloomberg generic data. The three-year yield touched 0.5892 percent.
Ten-year yields declined 1 basis point, or 0.01 percentage point, to 2.50 percent at 9:17 a.m. in New York, according to BGCantor Market Data. The 2.625 percent security due in August 2020 rose 2/32, or 63 cents per $1,000 face amount, to 101 2/32.
Speculation the Fed will purchase additional bonds as a way to pump money into the economy, a strategy known as quantitative easing, has been rising since Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said Aug. 10 it would reinvest proceeds from maturing mortgage holdings into government debt.
Houston Ship Channel Closed to Traffic by Downed Power Line
October 4th, 2010But “The Terrorists” have already selected their targets, etc… *roll eyes*
Via: Bloomberg:
The Houston Ship Channel is closed to all inbound and outbound traffic as the U.S. Coast Guard responds to a downed power line that may keep the waterway shut for days.
The Coast Guard was notified at about 6 a.m. local time today that a barge had hit a tower that supports power lines, according to a statement on its website. A safety zone has been set up from mile marker 105 to mile marker 124, and the Coast Guard said power to the line, which is owned by CenterPoint Energy Inc., has been secured and doesn’t pose a public danger.
The affected portion of the channel is expected to be closed until at least the evening of Oct. 5, said Coast Guard Chief Warrant Officer Lionel Bryant. As of this afternoon, eight inbound ships and five outbound ships were on hold because of the closure, said Richard Brahm, a petty officer with the Coast Guard.
A tanker carrying crude for Exxon Mobil Corp.’s Baytown, Texas, facility was allowed through, said Neely Nelson, a company spokeswoman. Nelson said there’s no impact to production at the Baytown refinery from the ship channel incident at this point. Brahm said the tanker delivering to Exxon was going to the edge of the safety zone, which is why that shipment was allowed.
The ship Safety Quest was pushing three barges carrying scrap metal when it hit a highline electrical tower in the Baytown area, the Coast Guard said in its statement. The tower was then being held up by a barge.
The Coast Guard said the Safety Quest’s crew was evacuated to another vessel. The cause of the event is under investigation, the Coast Guard said, and drug and alcohol tests will be given.
Satire: New Google Phone Service Whispers Targeted Ads Directly Into Users’ Ears
October 4th, 2010Via: The Onion:
Research Credit: JH
Meredith Whitney: States Will Need Federal Bailout Within a Year
October 4th, 2010Via: Bloomberg:
The U.S. government will face pressure to bail out struggling states in the next 12 months, said Meredith Whitney, the banking analyst who correctly predicted Citigroup Inc.’s dividend cut in 2008.
While saying a bailout might not be politically viable, Whitney joined investor Warren Buffett in raising alarm bells about the potential for widespread defaults in the $2.8 trillion municipal bond market. She said state and local issuers have taken on too much debt and that the gap between public spending and revenue is unsustainable.
“People will think the federal government will bail these states out,” Whitney, 40, the founder of Meredith Whitney Advisory Group Inc., said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “In the Loop.” “It’s going to be an incredibly divisive issue.”
Whitney’s comments coincide with her release of a report rating the financial health of the 15 largest U.S. states measured by gross domestic product, according to Fortune magazine. The report, which Whitney said took two years to complete and hasn’t been released publicly, ranks California’s finances the worst, with New Jersey, Illinois and Ohio tied for second-worst.
Army Embeds Active-Duty PSYOPS Soldiers at Local TV Stations
October 4th, 2010Via: The Upshot:
The U.S. Army has used local television stations in the U.S. as training posts for some of its psychological-operations personnel, The Upshot has learned. Since at least 2001, both WRAL, a CBS affiliate in Raleigh, N.C., and WTOC, a CBS affiliate in Savannah, Ga., have regularly hosted active-duty soldiers from the Army’s 4th Psychological Operations group as part of the Army’s Training With Industry program. Training With Industry is designed to offer career soldiers a chance to pick up skills through internships and fellowships with private businesses. The PSYOPS soldiers used WRAL and WTOC to learn broadcasting and communications expertise that they could apply in their mission, as the Army describes it, of “influenc[ing] the emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of foreign audiences.”
WRAL and WTOC were on a list of participants in the Army’s Training With Industry program provided to The Upshot in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, and a spokeswoman with the Army’s Human Resources Command confirmed that PSYOPS soldiers worked at the stations.
“Both of those stations are very supportive of the military, and think very highly of the program,” said Lt. Col. Stacy Bathrick. “Our officers are there to learn best practices in terms of programming and production side that they can use when they deploy. To be able to get hands-on interaction with a news station — there’s nothing like that.” Bathrick said the soldiers were never involved in newsgathering.
The relationship between PSYOPS, Training With Industry, and television news operations has stirred controversy in the past. In 2000, after a Dutch newspaper reported that PSYOPS troops had been placed in CNN’s newsroom under the program, CNN discontinued the internships and admitted that they had been a mistake. “It was inappropriate for PSYOPS personnel to be at CNN, they are not here now, and they never again will be at CNN,” a spokesperson said at the time.
Ireland Cancels All Remaining 2010 Bond Auctions Due to Market “Turbulence”
October 4th, 2010Via: ZeroHedge:
Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen said that his government decided to cancel bond auctions for the rest of the year because of “turbulence” in bond markets, and the state is already funded into next year. He made the comments in an interview with national broadcaster RTE.
“We are funded until next May,” Cowen said. “There has been such turbulence in the markets, since we don’t require those funds immediately why would we be going to get funds at rates such as 6.8 or 6.9 percent.”
Related: Heard on Finance Minister’s Citi Conference Call: Chimp Sounds, “Dive Dive”
If you find audio of this… Don’t hesitate to contact me!
Iran Arrests ‘Nuclear Spies,’ Intelligence Chief Says
October 4th, 2010Via: CNN:
Iran arrested a number of “nuclear spies,” its intelligence minister said, in the wake of widespread reports of a sophisticated new computer virus that may have been aimed at Iran.
Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi made the announcement Saturday, without giving any details, Iran’s semiofficial Mehr news agency reported.
Iran is widely thought to have been the most likely target of the Stuxnet virus, which a top computer security expert told CNN was “the most complex piece of malware in the history of computing.”
Tehran has insisted its controversial nuclear program had not been compromised by the virus.
Moslehi, the intelligence chief, did not mention Stuxnet in his statement, but said his ministry has “absolute control over the virtual networks and will foil all acts of sabotage.”
Ralph Langner, who was among the first to identify and study Stuxnet, told CNN last week that it would have required insider information to deliver.
“In order to do the attack as Stuxnet did, you also need to have very detailed and specific knowledge about the targeted application and process,” he said. “So you also need insider knowledge from a process control system person.”
The virus, which he called “a cyberwar weapon,” is designed to attack industrial control systems.
It is so sophisticated, he said, that it is designed to attack a specific machine only when it fulfils specific conditions, such as reaching a particular temperature or pressure, he said.
He said it had to be the work of a government, rather than a hacker group, because of the resources required to build and test it.
He did not speculate in an interview with CNN about who might be behind it, but asked mischievously last month on his website if there would be Israelis at the conference where he was presenting his Stuxnet findings.
Israel and the United States are both deeply concerned about Iran’s nuclear program. They believe Iran aims to build a nuclear bomb. Iran denies it.
