NSA's 'TURBINE' The NSA has seen the future of mass surveillance, and it appears they believe that the future lies in malware. Earlier this week, The Intercept reported on a series of slides and memos leaked by Edward Snowden describing the NSA's "more aggressive" approach to signals intelligence, which circumvents encryption such as web browsing via HTTPS and email using PGP, by installing spyware directly onto targets' computers. The NSA's Tailored Access Operations Unit, which develops and deploys malware tools, has been described in a Der Spiegel report as "a squad of plumbers that can be called in when normal access to a target is blocked", implying that they are a last resort for use when other methods of surveillance fail, but new slides reveal the explosive growth of TAO's data collection via malware "implants" and plans to scale the number of infected computers from the tens of thousands potentially into the millions using a system called TURBINE.
U.S. Surveillance Is Not Aimed at Terrorists The debate over the U.S. government’s monitoring of digital communications suggests that Americans are willing to allow it as long as it is genuinely targeted at terrorists. What they fail to realize is that the surveillance systems are best suited for gathering information on law-abiding citizens. People concerned with online privacy tend to calm down when told that the government can record their calls or read their e-mail only under special circumstances and with proper court orders. The assumption is that they have nothing to worry about unless they are terrorists or correspond with the wrong people. The infrastructure set up by the National Security Agency, however, may only be good for gathering information on the stupidest, lowest-ranking of terrorists. The Prism surveillance program focuses on access to the servers of America’s largest Internet companies, which support such popular services as Skype, Gmail and iCloud. No Data Communication on the core forums is often encrypted.
federal government departments monitor social media lives of millions of australians ''They have no right to be spying on members of the public.'': Vanessa Powell. Federal government departments are using increasingly powerful cyber-snooping equipment to monitor the social media lives of millions of Australians. A dramatic public confrontation between the Immigration Department and a Sydney-based political activist over her Facebook page has resulted in accusations that mass surveillance is being used to keep tabs on political dissent. Other large government departments including Centrelink, Defence and Social Services have all conducted mass monitoring of social media activity. Centrelink's parent agency, the Department of Human Services, even has its own software, which was developed by the CSIRO. Advertisement The Department of Immigration and Border Protection hires private sector contractors who can monitor more than half-a-billion ''pieces'' of social media each day on sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest and Flickr.
Push for Australians' web browsing histories to be stored Intelligence agency ASIO is using the Snowden leaks to bolster its case for laws forcing Australian telecommunications companies to store certain types of customers' internet and telephone data for a period of what some law enforcement agencies would like to be two years. The federal spying agency is supported by the Northern Territory Police, Victoria Police, Australian Federal Police, Australian Crime Commission and Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity, who all say they are in support of a data-retention regime. [Web history] as important to capture as telephone records. Northern Territory Police What type of data should be stored by internet and phone providers is another question. Although storing "content" data has been ruled out under a retention scheme, at least two agencies – the Northern Territory Police and Victoria Police – want web-browsing histories stored. Advertisement Storing URLs is the same as storing a customer's web-browsing history.
Google codifies its right to crawl through your emails Google says the change in its policy allowing the company to trawl through emails will give "people even greater clarity". Photo: AP It’s no secret that Google keeps an eye on what users of its services are into. "Our automated systems analyse your content (including emails) to provide you personally relevant product features, such as customised search results, tailored advertising, and spam and malware detection. A Google spokesman told The New York Times that the changes “will give people even greater clarity and are based on feedback we’ve received over the last few months.” By feedback, Google might mean a federal judge’s swift denial of the company’s attempt to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Gmail users and non-users who’ve sent emails to Gmail accounts. Advertisement In its motion to dismiss, Google argued that Gmail and non-Gmail users had given express or implied consent to have their e-mails scanned. The Washington Post
Secret Service to Track Twitter Users in Real Time Federal agency will use tool to “send notifications to users” Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet.com June 4, 2014 The United States Secret Service is set to purchase software that can track Twitter users in real time, prompting concerns that individuals could face greater harassment over tweets deemed to be threatening or anti-government. According to a solicitation posted this week, the federal agency announced its intention to use the tool to undertake “sentiment analysis,” “influencer identification,” “access to historical Twitter data,” “ability to detect sarcasm,” and “heat maps” that will show user trends. The software will also have the capability to “send notifications to users,” suggesting that the Secret Service intends to directly address Twitter users who are deemed to have tweeted something unsavory. The Secret Service admitted that they couldn’t identify a single post by Francois that could be deemed threatening to the President. Print this page. Bilderberg 2014 Blown Wide Open
Vodafone reveals existence of secret wires that allow state surveillance | Business Vodafone, one of the world's largest mobile phone groups, has revealed the existence of secret wires that allow government agencies to listen to all conversations on its networks, saying they are widely used in some of the 29 countries in which it operates in Europe and beyond. The company has broken its silence on government surveillance in order to push back against the increasingly widespread use of phone and broadband networks to spy on citizens, and will publish its first Law Enforcement Disclosure Report on Friday. At 40,000 words, it is the most comprehensive survey yet of how governments monitor the conversations and whereabouts of their people. The company said wires had been connected directly to its network and those of other telecoms groups, allowing agencies to listen to or record live conversations and, in certain cases, track the whereabouts of a customer. "I never thought the telcos [telecommunications companies] would be so complicit.
FBI Can Turn On Your Webcam Without You Knowing It The FBI apparently has the ability to take over your computer’s webcam and your smartphone’s camera and use them to spy on you, according to recent reports. To make matters worse, you probably wouldn’t realize that you are under surveillance via your own devices, because the agency also can watch without your webcam light even turning on. The FBI has had the ability to take over webcams, microphones and camera phones for several years, The Washington Post discovered. The Post’s reporters stumbled upon the bureau’s capabilities when they were working on a story about the bureau’s search for a man in Iran who was making threats against Americans. The story uncovered some frightening FBI capabilities euphemistically called “network investigative techniques.” The techniques utilize software that enables the bureau to turn computers and smartphones into surveillance devices. What the FBI’s network investigative techniques can do Discover The Only Way Back To True Freedom And Liberty In America…
Your Interest in Privacy Will Ensure You're Targeted By The NSA Have you ever wondered if you’re on an NSA observation list? Turns out that if you’ve even thought about it (or online privacy in general), you’re probably more likely to be on one. A few concerning news updates regarding mass surveillance by the NSA within the past week, including revelations from an analysis of the XKeyscore data collection system, have given us an idea of who might be among the NSA’s “targeted” individuals. Are You on the List? In previous documents, interviews, and other now-public materials, the NSA has stated that, while they can collect data from nearly anyone, they only target a small number of people who could be engaged in suspicious activity. Turns out that a lot of things can get you on the list, including visiting a number of privacy-related websites, or even running searching for privacy-related tools. Unsurprisingly, searches for Tor also land people on the targeted surveillance list. How Do We Know About XKeyscore? What Does This Mean For You?