AT&T engineer: NSA built secret rooms in our facilities. The EFF's case against AT&T has barely begun, yet it has already brought to light some fascinating details about the methods behind the NSA's alleged wiretapping abilities. Mark Klein, a retired AT&T engineer who is now participating in the case as a witness, has released a statement to the media in which he outlines many of the allegations that are currently under seal. Chief among them is his claim that AT&T installed powerful traffic monitoring equipment in a "secret room" in their San Francisco switching office at the behest of the NSA.
"In 2002, when I was working in an AT&T office in San Francisco, the site manager told me to expect a visit from a National Security Agency agent, who was to interview a management-level technician for a special job. The agent came, and by chance I met him and directed him to the appropriate people.In January 2003, I, along with others, toured the AT&T central office on Folsom Street in San Francisco—actually three floors of an SBC building. Google Maps Has Been Tracking Your Every Move, And There’s A Website To Prove It. For more stories like this, Like Junkee on Facebook. Remember that scene in Minority Report, where Tom Cruise is on the run from the law, but is unable to avoid detection because everywhere he goes there are constant retina scans feeding his location back to a central database? That’s tomorrow. Today, Google is tracking wherever your smartphone goes, and putting a neat red dot on a map to mark the occasion.
You can find that map here. All you need to do is log in with the same account you use on your phone, and the record of everywhere you’ve been for the last day to month will erupt across your screen like chicken pox. We all know that no matter what ‘privacy’ settings you may try and implement, our information is all being collected and stored somewhere. Looking at mine, I realised that a) I live my life in a very small radius, and b) there are places on my map that I don’t remember going. This never happened. Oh well. Get creeped out by logging in here. How to Turn Off GPS on a Cell Phone.
When you are traveling, having a phone that is GPS-capable can be useful. Applications for cell phones can give directions, find nearby restaurants or other businesses, and perform other location-based functions by using the built-in GPS. However, the GPS function on a cell phone can cause a phone's battery to drain faster. When traveling, you may not always have quick access to a power outlet and want to conserve battery power. Also, if you use social applications on your phone that update your friends on your location, while traveling you may not want to be tracked. Step 1 Turn the phone on and navigate to the settings menu on your cell phone.
Step 2 Locate "Security and Location" under the settings menu. Step 3 Scroll through until you locate "Turn GPS Off" or "Disable GPS Satellites. " Step 4 Confirm that the GPS is disabled. Warning Keep in mind that even with GPS turned off, your cell phone can still be tracked based on its proximity to cell phone towers. About the Author. New Algorithm Predicts Your Future Movements Within 65-Foot Accuracy.
How the Government Is Tracking Your Movements. Law enforcement is taking advantage of outdated privacy laws to track Americans like never before. New technologies can record your every movement, revealing detailed information about how you choose to live your life. Without the right protections in place, the government can gain access to this information – and to your private life – with disturbing ease. As long as it is turned on, your mobile phone registers its position with cell towers every few minutes, whether the phone is being used or not. Since mobile carriers are retaining location data on their customers, government officials can learn a tremendous amount of detailed personal information about you by accessing your location history from your cell phone company, ranging from which friends you're seeing to where you go to the doctor to how often you go to church.
The Justice Department and most local police forces can get months' worth of this information, without you ever knowing – and often without a warrant from a judge. Google Public DNS. Google Public DNS is a Domain Name System (DNS) service offered by Google. It functions as a recursive name server providing domain name resolution for any host on the Internet. The service was announced on 3 December 2009,[1] in an effort described as making the web faster and more secure.[2][3] According to Google, as of 2013[update], Google Public DNS is the largest public DNS service in the world, handling more than 130 billion requests per day.[4] Service[edit] Google Public DNS operates recursive name servers for public use at the following IP addresses:[5] 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 for IPv4 service, as well as 2001:4860:4860::8888 and 2001:4860:4860::8844, for IPv6 access.[6] The addresses are mapped to the nearest operational server by anycast routing:[7] The service does not use conventional DNS name server, such as BIND, instead relying on a custom-built implementation, with limited IPv6 support, conforming to the DNS standards set forth by the IETF.
Privacy[edit] History[edit] Another privacy threat: DNS logging and how to avoid it. As if you didn't already have enough privacy problems to worry about, a recent expose by Stacey Higginbotham at GigaOm explains how AT&T is dredging DNS records and selling the results to would-be advertisers -- unless AT&T customers pay for it to stop. DNS logging is widespread, even in places where you might not expect it. Even if you use a VPN, there's at least one weak point in the chain where VPN server DNS hits are logged, and could potentially be tracked back, rerouted, or blocked entirely.
A new service from Golden Frog offers zero DNS logging -- for a price. Most people get their DNS service -- the lookup table that converts domain names like InfoWorld.com into IP addresses like 70.42.185.121 -- from their Internet service provider. Some people override their ISP's DNS by using Google's DNS servers (8.8.8.8 and 4.4.4.4) or OpenDNS' servers (206.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220), both of which are free. The AT&T logging is linked to AT&T's new GigaPower fiber service in Austin. Alternative DNS - WikiLeaks. From WikiLeaks This site provides guidelines for using alternative DNS servers in countries implementing domain name based censoring systems.
A DNS server is like a phone book that helps your computer find the address of a website you are trying to visit. The censorship system implemented by major providers in Germany and other countries just does not give you a full phone book. Circumventing the censorship is as easy as using another phone book. Please follow the instructions below to configure your computer with an alternative DNS server address below and to enjoy unfiltered access to the internet. If you are running an unfiltered DNS server, please add it to the list. todo Adding more instructions, maybe with our own screenshots?
Howto for Windows Howto for Mac Instructions for routers OpenDNS instructions for most common routers. - OpenNIC Project. Replicant developers find and close Samsung Galaxy backdoor. This is a guest post by Replicant developer Paul Kocialkowski. The Free Software Foundation supports Replicant through its Working Together for Free Software fund. Your donations to Replicant support this important work. Today's phones come with two separate processors: one is a general-purpose applications processor that runs the main operating system, e.g. Android; the other, known as the modem, baseband, or radio, is in charge of communications with the mobile telephony network.
This processor always runs a proprietary operating system, and these systems are known to have backdoors that make it possible to remotely convert the modem into a remote spying device. The spying can involve activating the device's microphone, but it could also use the precise GPS location of the device and access the camera, as well as the user data stored on the phone. The FSF encourages all current Samsung Galaxy owners to appeal publicly to SamsungMobile for an explanation (they can also be emailed). Replicant (operating system)
An example of phone information in Replicant, including a brief hardware description The software that was in charge of handling the communication with the modem (which is called Radio Interface Layer – RIL) was then replaced by free code, thus making the telephony part usable. A library handling the GPS was then adapted from free code that was originally written for another phone and permitted the HTC Dream to have GPS working with Replicant.[13] Early versions of Replicant were based on the Android Open Source Project code, while versions 2.2 (April 2011) and later use CyanogenMod as their base, in order to make supporting more devices easier.[14][15] As development continued, many members of the original Replicant team retired from the project, making Denis "GNUtoo" Carikli the only remaining member from the original team still actively working on the project. Replicant is sponsored and supported by the Free Software Foundation.[2] The following table lists major releases of Replicant:
NSA Has Full "Back Door" Access To iPhone, BlackBerry And Android Smartphones, Documents Reveal. Two months ago, when we reported that the NSA has successfully inserted illegal access protocols into the Android OS, thus granting it back door access into nearly three quarters of all cell phones, the news was met with skepticism and resistance: how could an open-sourced architecture be so frail and open to penetration was the most common complaint.
We wonder if today's news, broken by Germany's Spiegel, according to which the NSA can spy not only on Android smartphones but tap user data on all iPhone and BlackBerry devices "including contact lists, SMS traffic, notes and location information about where a user has been", will be met with the same skepticism or if the realization that every form of privacy is now gone, has finally dawned on the population. Spiegel reports, citing"internal NSA documents that the NSA has the capability of tapping user data from the iPhone, devices using Android as well as BlackBerry, a system previously believed to be highly secure. From Spiegel: Nokia smartphone leaks information abroad. Details Parent Category: Finland Category: Domestic 24 Feb 2014 Two years ago, trust in the data security of Nokia smartphones was still strong.
On Monday, 5 March 2012, a meeting was organised at the Nokia headquarters in which Nokia advertised the data security of its smartphones to authorities deciding on government IT procurements. Soon after the event, large amounts of Nokia’s Lumia phones were bought for the Finnish government: ministers, MPs and authorities. Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen (National Coalition) also uses Lumia. At the same time, the data leak began. Contrary to what Nokia implied two years ago, Lumia phones do not ensure the user’s privacy – at least no better than the phones of other big manufacturers.
According to information received from two inside sources of Helsingin Sanomat independent of each other, Nokia’s top management has known since spring 2011 that Lumia’s operating system transmits a great deal of information about the phone’s user to Microsoft. Lenovo slapped with lawsuit over dangerous Superfish adware. Lenovo admitted to pre-loading the Superfish adware on some consumer PCs, and unhappy customers are now dragging the company to court on the matter. A proposed class-action suit was filed late last week against Lenovo and Superfish, which charges both companies with “fraudulent” business practices and of making Lenovo PCs vulnerable to malware and malicious attacks by pre-loading the adware.
Plaintiff Jessica Bennett said her laptop was damaged as a result of Superfish, which was called “spyware” in court documents. She also accused Lenovo and Superfish of invading her privacy and making money by studying her Internet browsing habits. The lawsuit was filed after Lenovo admitted to pre-loading Superfish on some consumer PCs. The laptops affected by Superfish include non-ThinkPad models such as G Series, U Series, Y Series, Z Series, S Series, Flex, Miix, Yoga and E Series. Lenovo has since issued fixes to remove Superfish applications and certificates from PCs. Installing and reinstalling Windows - Windows Help. Some notes on SuperFish. What's the big deal? Lenovo, a huge maker of laptops, bundles software on laptops for the consumer market (it doesn't for business laptops).
Much of this software is from vendors who pay Lenovo to be included. Such software is usually limited versions, hoping users will pay to upgrade. Other software is ad supported. Some software, such as the notorious "Ask.com Toolbar", hijacks the browser to display advertisements. Such software is usually bad, especially the ad-supported software, but the SuperFish software is particularly bad. Marc Rogers has a post where he points out that what the software does is hijack your connections, monitors them, collects personal information, injects advertising into legitimate pages, and causes popup advertisement. Who discovered this mess? People had noticed the malware before, but it's Chris Palmer (@fugueish) that noticed the implications. What's the technical detail? It does two things. But such interception still cannot decrypt SSL.
Lenovo's response. Retail version windows 7. Cisco's Backdoor For Hackers. Snowden: The NSA planted backdoors in Cisco products. If you worked in IT sales, can you image how difficult your life would be if your foreign customers assumed that the hardware you sold them had backdoors to let the U.S. government spy on them at will? That's not a hypothetical question. [ Learn how to protect your systems with Roger Grimes' Security Adviser blog and Security Central newsletter, both from InfoWorld. ] Incredible as it seems, routers built for export by Cisco (and probably other companies) are routinely intercepted without Cisco's knowledge by the National Security Agency and equipped with hidden surveillance tools.
We know this because it's one of the new details of the spy agency's vast data gathering programs revealed in "No Place to Hide," a just-published book by Glenn Greenwald. Greenwald, of course, is the journalist who broke the story of Edward Snowden, the one-time NSA employee who has leaked thousands of secret documents. What about a warrant? How the NSA bugged Cisco's routers. Sony BMG copy protection rootkit scandal. Sony BMG XCP audio CD player The Sony BMG CD copy protection rootkit scandal of 2005–2007 concerns deceptive, illegal, and potentially harmful copy protection measures implemented by Sony BMG on about 22 million CDs. When inserted into a computer, the CDs installed one of two pieces of software which provided a form of digital rights management (DRM) by modifying the operating system to interfere with CD copying. Neither program could easily be uninstalled, and they created vulnerabilities that were exploited by unrelated malware. Sony claims this was unintentional.
One of the programs installed even if the user refused its EULA, and it "phoned home" with reports on the user's private listening habits; the other was not mentioned in the EULA at all, contained code from several pieces of open-source software in an apparent infringement of copyright, and configured the operating system to hide the software's existence, leading to both programs being classified as rootkits. Background[edit] How to disable the Autorun functionality in Windows.
Expert Says NSA Have Backdoors Built Into Intel And AMD Processors. Samsung lied -- its smart TV is indeed spying on you and it is doing nothing to stop that. Xbox, Kinect NSA Spying Was Done Without Consent, Claims Microsoft. OkCupid unapologetic about mismatching users in dating experiment. OkCupid Lied To Users About Their Compatibility As An Experiment. Everything We Know About Facebook's Secret Mood Manipulation Experiment.