Archive
We’re Watching You: Surveillance Expansion In the Land of the Free is Unprecedented In Human History
Have you ever heard of a Yottabyte? To put this number into perspective consider the size of a terabyte, which is about the size of a typical modern hard drive. It can hold roughly 100 high definition DVD’s.
A yottabyte is 1,099,511,627,776 terabytes – or over 1 trillion terabytes of information.
This is important because according to a recent report from Politico, the National Security Agency (NSA), which is the security apparatus responsible for monitoring electronic communications across the globe, is building a new data warehousing center in Utah at the cost of $2 billion dollars. It will be housed in a one million square foot complex and be capable of storing at least one yottabyte of data.
We pointed out the various ways that the U.S. government is monitoring Read more…
FBI wants businesses watching for customers paying with cash
Just days after the White House announced a community-based approach to combating terrorism in the United States, the FBI and other agencies are asking managers of surplus stores to spy on their customers, watching whether they pay in cash, make “extreme” religious statements or purchase products such as waterproof matches.
And the request from the government also is going to gun shops, fertilizer suppliers, motels and hotels, authorities say.
Earlier this month, the Obama administration announced a new plan titled “Empowering local partners to prevent violent extremism in the United States.” In it, Obama wrote, “Communities – especially Muslim American communities whose children, families and neighbors are being targeted for recruitment by al-Qaida – are often best positioned to take the lead because they know their communities best.”
The report warns that while the Constitution recognizes freedom of expression, “even for individuals who espouse unpopular or even hateful views,” it also is the responsibility of government to Read more…
FBI approves Neurotechnology’s latest biometric algorithms
Last week Neurotechnology, a developer of sophisticated biometric identification solutions, announced that two of its newest fingerprint compression algorithms received WSQ Certification; the certification means that the FBI has verified that these two algorithms meet the accuracy requirements in its latest standard for exchange of fingerprint images within the biometrics and law enforcement community
Last week Neurotechnology, a developer of sophisticated biometric identification solutions, announced that two of its newest fingerprint compression algorithms received WSQ Certification.
The certification means that the FBI has verified that these two algorithms meet the accuracy requirements in the Wavelet Scalar Quantization (WSQ) Gray-Scale Fingerprint Image Compression Specification, Version 3.1, the latest standard for exchange of fingerprint images within the biometrics and law enforcement community.
Neurotechnology’s VeriFinger SDK fingerprint compression algorithms are Read more…
FBI seizes servers in brute force raid
The FBI seized a number of web servers during a recent data center raid in Reston, Virginia – a facility used by the Swiss-based hosting company Digital One.
The operation knocked several web sites offline, including those run by New York publisher Curbed Network.
“This problem is caused by the FBI, not our company. In the night FBI [took] 3 enclosures with equipment plugged into them, possibly including your server — we cannot check it,” DigitalOne CEO Sergej Ostroumow confirmed in an official email to clients.
“After [the] FBI’s unprofessional ‘work’ we can not restart our own servers, that’s why our Web site is offline and support doesn’t work.”
Unsurprisingly, the raid has been tentatively linked to an ongoing investigation of Lulz Security.
Indeed, an unnamed government official told the New York Times the FBI was “actively investigating” LulzSec along with suspected “affiliated” hackers.
While most Americans probably don’t really care about a few downed sites, the brute force raid executed by the Feds surely doesn’t bode well for the future.
One can’t help but wonder what comes next: mass Gmail seizures, Amazon cloud server confiscations, or perhaps entire data centers carted off in FBI trucks?
Clearly, U.S. law enforcement officials must learn how to minimize “collateral damage” to neutral civilian infrastructure during cyber-related raids. If they don’t, such operations could potentially be as disruptive as those executed by hostile digital infiltrators.
Rather ironic, don’t you think?
Rules eased on snooping by the FBI
WASHINGTON — The FBI is giving significant new powers to its roughly 14,000 agents, allowing them more leeway to search databases, go through household trash, or use surveillance teams to scrutinize the lives of people who have attracted their attention.The FBI soon plans to issue a new edition of its manual, called the Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide, according to an official who has worked on the draft document and several others who have been briefed on its contents.
The new rules add to several measures taken over the past decade to give agents more latitude as they search for signs of criminal or terrorist activity.
The FBI recently briefed several privacy advocates about the coming changes. Among them, Michael German, a former FBI agent who is now a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, argued it was unwise to further ease restrictions on agents’ power to use potentially intrusive techniques, especially if they Read more…
Sony suffers second data breach with theft of 25m more user details
Sony has suffered a second enormous data breach with nearly 25m customers’ details from its SOE network stolen. Photograph: Nick Rowe/Getty Images
The crisis at Sony deepened on Tuesday as it admitted that an extra 25 million customers who played games on its Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) PC games network have had their personal details stolen – and that they were taken before the theft of 77 million peoples’ details on the PlayStation Network (PSN).
The electronics giant said the names, addresses, emails, birth dates, phone numbers and other information from PC games customers were stolen from its servers as well as an “outdated database” from 2007 which contained details of around 23,400 people outside the US. That includes 10,700 direct debit records for customers in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain, Sony said.
The dataset was stolen on 16 and 17 April, before the PSN break-in, which occurred from 17 to 19 April. Sony said that it had not previously thought that the data was copied by the hackers who broke into its systems.
A Sony spokeswoman in Tokyo admitted that the company was unable to predict where or how or when the next attack would come. “They are hackers. We don’t know where they’re going to attack next,” Read more…
Feds to Supreme Court: Allow Warrantless GPS Monitoring
The Obama administration is urging the Supreme Court to allow the government, without a court warrant, to affix GPS devices on suspects’ vehicles to track their every move.
The Justice Department, saying “a person has no reasonable expectation of privacy in his movements (.pdf) from one place to another,” is demanding the justices undo a lower court decision that reversed the conviction and life sentence of a cocaine dealer whose vehicle was tracked via GPS for a month without a court warrant.
The petition, if accepted by the justices, arguably would make it the biggest Fourth Amendment case in a decade — one weighing the collision of Read more…
9/11 Responders To Be Warned They Will Be Screened By FBI’s Terrorism Watch List
WASHINGTON — A provision in the new 9/11 health bill may be adding insult to injury for people who fell sick after their service in the aftermath of the 2001 Al Qaeda attacks, The Huffington Post has learned.
The tens of thousands of cops, firefighters, construction workers and others who survived the worst terrorist assault in U.S. history and risked their lives in its wake will soon be informed that their names must be run through the FBI’s terrorism watch list, according to a letter obtained by HuffPost.
Any of the responders who are not compared to the database of suspected terrorists would be barred from getting treatment for the numerous, worsening ailments that the James Zadroga 9/11 Health And Compensation Law was passed to address.
It’s a requirement that was tacked onto the law during the bitter debates over it last year.
The letter from Dr. John Howard, director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, informs Read more…
FBI Launches 1 Billion $ Biometrics Project With Lockheed Martin To Track Everyone’s Every Move
The FBI launched this week a massive program aimed to record all citizen’s biometrics data. This will eventually enable instant surveillance and recognition of any individual walking on the street or entering a building. The 1 Billion $ deal was awarded to Lockheed Martin – the world’s largest defence company, which is part of elite groups such as the CFR (Council of Foreign Relations) and the Trilateral Commission. In short, Lockheed Martin is the official defence company of the world’s shadow government.
Lockheed Martin Logo
Lockheed Martin is active in many aspects of government contracting. It Read more…
Cell Phone Surveillance: Some Cell Phones Record Your Location Hundreds Of Times A Day
Do you own a cell phone? Do you think that it is private and secure? You might want to think again. The truth is that there is virtually no privacy when it comes to cell phones. In fact, the amount of cell phone surveillance that goes on is absolutely staggering. For example, one German politician named Malte Spitz recently went to court to force Deutsche Telekom to reveal how often his cell phone was being tracked. What he found out was absolutely amazing. It turns out that in just one 6 month period, Deutsche Telekom recorded the longitude and latitude coordinates of his cell phone 35,000 times. Not only that, in the United States cell phone companies are actually required by law to be able to pinpoint the locations of their customers to within 100 meters. Most cell phone carriers are able to track their customers far more accurately than that. The truth is that your location will never again be truly “private” as long as you are carrying a cell phone.
And your conversations will not be private either. A whole host of people could be listening in on your cell phone calls. In fact, your cell phone can be used to spy on you even when you don’t have it on. For example, as one CNET News article noted, if law enforcement authorities are investigating you they can remotely activate the microphone on your cell phone and listen in on your conversations…. Read more…
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](https://i0.wp.com/www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/gold/t24_au_en_usoz_2.gif)
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](https://i0.wp.com/www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/silver/t24_ag_en_usoz_2.gif)
crisisboom
CRISISBOOM 
You must be logged in to post a comment.