ANGRY BIRDS WEBSITE HACKED - AFTER BEING ACCUSED OF GATHERING DATA ABOUT USERS

The web site of Angry Birds app maker Rovio has been hacked two days after reports that the personal data of its customers might have been accessed by U.S. and British spy agencies. 

 

Rovio spokeswoman says the hacking lasted a few minutes early Wednesday and that end-user data 'was in no risk at any point.'  The hacking came after documents leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden suggested that the NSA and Britain's GCHQ had been able to extract information through a host of smartphone apps across the globe, including the Angry Birds game franchise.  Rovio has denied the claims, saying it does not "share data, collaborate or collude" with any spy agencies and that it would re-evaluate third-party advertising networks.

 

Read more

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2548134/Angry-Birds-come-crashing-Maker-Rovios-site-hacked-NSA-spy-scandal-revealed-leaky-app-used-gather-data-users.html

 

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POCKET-SIZE DRONE LETS YOU SPY ON OTHER PEOPLE

$450 tricopter will fold up to become handbag sized

Has a high definition camera that can send back live pictures

Controlled via a phone or tablet app - and can even be programmed to follow someone

Read more and see pictures -  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2540814/The-drone-lets-SPY-Pocket-sized-aircraft-lets-people-film-air.html


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YOU ARE NOT BEING PARANOID - THEY ARE INDEED TRACKING YOUR CAR'S MOVEMENTS

Automakers track and store your location as you drive.

(NaturalNews) It's bad enough that traffic cameras, satellites and the National Security Agency tracks and records virtually everything you do and everywhere you go.   Now the nation's major automobile makers are doing the same thing.

According to a report in The Detroit News, the tracking isn't something that buyers were aware of (I'm assuming that's because "tracking" wasn't offered as an option but instead was, obviously, standard equipment):

A government report finds that major automakers are keeping information about where drivers have been - collected from onboard navigation systems - for varying lengths of time. Owners of those cars can't demand that the information be destroyed. And, says the U.S. senator requesting the investigation, that raises questions about driver privacy.  The Government Accountability Office in a report released Monday found major automakers have differing policies about how much data they collect and how long they keep it.

Read more - http://www.naturalnews.com/043478_location_tracking_automakers_data_privacy.html

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INSIDE THE NSA 'TAO' HACKING UNIT

 

DER SPIEGEL Special Report on the NSA Office of Tailored Access Operations, or TAO

 

The NSA's TAO hacking unit is considered to be the intelligence agency's top secret weapon. It maintains its own covert network, infiltrates computers around the world and even intercepts shipping deliveries to plant back doors in electronics ordered by those it is targeting.

 

TAO is the NSA's top operative unit -- something like a squad of plumbers that can be called in when normal access to a target is blocked.

 

According to internal NSA documents viewed by SPIEGEL, these on-call digital plumbers are involved in many sensitive operations conducted by American intelligence agencies. TAO's area of operations ranges from counterterrorism to cyber attacks to traditional espionage. The documents reveal just how diversified the tools at TAO's disposal have become -- and also how it exploits the technical weaknesses of the IT industry, from Microsoft to Cisco and Huawei, to carry out its discreet and efficient attacks.

 

 TAO specialists have directly accessed the protected networks of democratically elected leaders of countries. They infiltrated networks of European telecommunications companies and gained access to and read mails sent over Blackberry's BES email servers, which until then were believed to be securely encrypted. Achieving this last goal required a "sustained TAO operation," one document states.

 

It is from hacker circles that the NSA recruits new hires for its Tailored Access Operations unit. In recent years, NSA Director Keith Alexander has made several appearances at major hacker conferences in the United States. Sometimes, Alexander wears his military uniform, but at others, he even dons jeans and a t-shirt in his effort to court trust and a new generation of employees.

 

There are now TAO units in Wahiawa, Hawaii; Fort Gordon, Georgia; at the NSA's outpost at Buckley Air Force Base, near Denver, Colorado; at its headquarters in Fort Meade; and, of course, in San Antonio.

 

One trail also leads to Germany. According to a document dating from 2010 that lists the "Lead TAO Liaisons" domestically and abroad as well as names, email addresses and the number for their "Secure Phone," a liaison office is located near Frankfurt -- the European Security Operations Center (ESOC) at the so-called "Dagger Complex" at a US military compound in the Griesheim suburb of Darmstadt.

 

Don't miss page three of this report:

 

At the same time, it is in no way true to say that the NSA has its sights set exclusively on select individuals. Of even greater interest are entire networks and network providers, such as the fiber optic cables that direct a large share of global Internet traffic along the world's ocean floors.

 

Sometimes it appears that the world's most modern spies are just as reliant on conventional methods of reconnaissance as their predecessors.

 

Take, for example, when they intercept shipping deliveries. If a target person, agency or company orders a new computer or related accessories, for example, TAO can divert the shipping delivery to its own secret workshops.

 

The NSA calls this method interdiction. At these so-called "load stations," agents carefully open the package in order to load malware onto the electronics, or even install hardware components that can provide backdoor access for the intelligence agencies. All subsequent steps can then be conducted from the comfort of a remote computer.

 

These minor disruptions in the parcel shipping business rank among the "most productive operations" conducted by the NSA hackers, one top secret document relates in enthusiastic terms. This method, the presentation continues, allows TAO to obtain access to networks "around the world."

Read more about the above and about the methods employed to infiltrate German Chancellor Angela Merkel's computers here - http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/nsa-secret-toolbox-ant-unit-offers-spy-gadgets-for-every-need-a-941006.html

More on the NSA spying:

NSA paid computer security firm to weaken encryption
http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/12/nsa-paid-computer-security-firm-to.html

How the NSA infects computers with malicious software
http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/11/how-nsa-infects-computers-with.html

The NSA scandal - Connecting the Dots - The powers of General Alexander
http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/06/technology-news-nsa-scandal-connecting.html

How intelligence companies pay Congressmen overseeing surveillance
http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/12/intelligence-companies-money-flows-to.html

Satire - How the NSA intercepted children's letters to Santa Claus
http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/12/satire-how-nsa-intercepted-childrens.html

Satire - Video - You better watch out, you better not Skype
http://rt.com/usa/aclu-nsa-santa-claus-328/

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This blog's archive on SURVEILLANCE by government and private companies
http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/search/label/Surveillance


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SATIRE - HOW THE NSA INTERCEPTED CHILDREN'S LETTERS TO SANTA CLAUS

 

SATIRE - By G-Had

 

FORT MEADE, MD – The National Security Agency routinely intercepts children’s letters to Santa, internal agency documents have revealed.

 

The documents describe an operation known as MILK COOKIES, based out of Fort Meade and run in conjunction with the U.S. Postal Service. COOKIES is the interception of the letters while MILK feeds them through a complex series of algorithms to spot any hidden messages.

 

Agency director Gen. Keith Alexander had previously testified to Congress in 2011 that the NSA would occasionally collect letters addressed to Santa, but insisted that it was totally accidental and that no one was actually reading or storing them.

 

The NSA is prohibited from directly monitoring American citizens under both Executive Order 12333 and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. However, because the letters are addressed to the North Pole, which falls outside of U.S. territory, they are considered potential foreign intelligence signals which the NSA is authorized to intercept.

 

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a former senior administration official defended the program: ”We’re only looking for any unusual presents, like children who ask Santa for pressure cookers, large amounts of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, hyzadrine rocket fuel, things like that. I mean a six-year old with a hammer is bad enough; just try to imagine that same six-year old with a truck bomb.”

 

The leaked reports show that the NSA also routinely hacked Santa’s Naughty and Nice List for any information on world leaders, and at one point tried to smuggle surveillance devices disguised as lumps of coal into Santa’s sack. They also reveal the existence of a massive NSA data storage center at the North Pole, known as ELFCHELON, which dwarfs even the planned one at Utah, and is capable of storing letters dating back to 1952.

 

The documents were part of the massive data haul taken by fugitive whistleblower and Playgirl centerfold Edward Snowden, whom the former official referred to as “a very naughty boy.”

U.S. intelligence has closely monitored the Letters to Santa program ever since the U.S. Post Office first created it in 1912. Initially, children’s letters were reviewed by both Army and Navy Intelligence under the aegis of Project SHAMROCK until that program’s termination in 1975.

 

Four years later the NSA began MILK COOKIES in response to the Secret Santa program, which the agency initially thought was a Soviet operation after a flier for the program mistakenly replaced the picture of Santa with Karl Marx.

 

Following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the NSA began an almost-relentless campaign to insert itself both legally and covertly into the Christmas spirit.

 

First the NSA managed to get language inserted into the PATRIOT Act which required Santa to file a flight plan with NORAD and submit to random TSA inspections at select chimneys. Then came the 2002 judgment in United States v. Kringle, when the NSA and the Justice Department ordered him to deliver multiple GPS devices to the location of Usama bin Laden and other high-ranking Al Qaeda leaders.

 

When Santa refused and was put on a no-fly list he briefly had to outsource all his American operations to Canada, which handles diplomatic issues for the North Pole.

 

In response to the scandal, the task force appointed by President Obama to review NSA activity has issued a further critique of the agency. Calling Santa a “close and traditional U.S. ally,” panel member Richard Clarke urged tough new restrictions on NSA collection against holiday figures.

 

He added, “We’re not in any way recommending the disarming of the intelligence community. The NSA can still spy on the Easter Bunny.”

 

Top NSA officials were skeptical. “What else would you expect from someone who asked Santa for a Barbie doll when he was nine?” Gen. Alexander was overheard remarking.

 

Some privacy advocate groups believe that the panel’s recommendations don’t go far enough. They are telling parents not to let their children use the U.S. Post Office to contact Santa this year, and risk having their children’s information indefinitely stored for whatever the government wants to use it for. 

Source - http://www.duffelblog.com/2013/12/nsa-letters-to-santa/

More satire by G-Had here - http://www.duffelblog.com/author/ghad/


RELATED

Video satire of NSA Santa Claus army spying on you
You better watch out, you better not Skype.

http://rt.com/usa/aclu-nsa-santa-claus-328/

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DRONE SPOTTING - SURVIVAL GUIDE TO AERIAL PREDATORS

 

A Drone Survival Guide with hints and tips on how to thwart the “robotic birds” - including drone identification chart - has been published on the internet.

 

With over 30,000 drones expected to be flying over the US by 2030, the Guide urges readers to familiarize themselves with the craft.

 

In light of the growing number of drones, the Guide advises a number of techniques to evade and scramble drones. The document is available online and has been translated into 17 different languages.

Dutch designer Ruben Pater penned the Drone Survival Guide, which shows the different shapes and sizes of flying robots used at war

The chart distinguishes between attack and surveillance drones as well as noting which countries use the different models

IDENTIFY THE SPY DRONES
WITH A CHART INCLUDING SILHOUETTES OF ALL KINDS OF DRONES, HERE:

- http://rt.com/news/drone-survival-guide-published-774/

- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2528902/21st-century-bird-watching-Drone-guide-lets-sky-gazers-spot-flying-military-robots-silhouettes.html

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NSA PAID COMPUTER SECURITY FIRM TO WEAKEN ENCRYPTION

 

The National Security Agency arranged a clandestine US$10 million contract with computer security power RSA that allowed the spy agency to embed encryption software it could use to infiltrate the company’s widely used products, Reuters reported.

 

Revelations provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and first reported in September showed that the NSA created and perpetuated a corruptible formula that was ultimately a “back door” into encryption products.

 

Reuters later reported RSA became the lead distributor of the formula, installing it into a software tool known as BSAFE that is widely used to boost security in personal computers and other products.

 

Unknown then was the $10 million deal that set the NSA’s formula as the default method for the security measure - in which random numbers are generated on a key for access to a product - in BSAFE, according to Reuters’ sources.  Though the sum of money for the deal seems low, it represented over a third of revenue the relevant division at RSA had made the previous year, according to security filings.

 

RSA was previously known for its crusading fights to protect computer security and privacy in the face of government interests, as it played a major role in blocking an effort by the NSA in the 1990s to require a special chip that would have enabled surveillance on many computer and communication products.

 

Following the September disclosure, RSA, now a subsidiary of computer storage company EMC Corp, privately warned thousands of its customers to immediately discontinue using all versions of company's BSAFE toolkit and Data Protection Manager (DPM), both using Dual_EC_DRNG (Dual Elliptic Curve Deterministic Random Bit Generator) encryption algorithm to protect sensitive data.

Source - http://rt.com/usa/rsa-nsa-deal-weaken-encryption-581/

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YOUR COMPUTER COULD BE CRACKED BY A SMARTPHONE AS IT LISTENS TO IT RUNNING ENCRYPTION SOFTWARE

The hum made by your computer's microprocessor could be used by an eavesdropper to track your digital encryption keys, new research claims.

 

Researchers at Tel Aviv University in Israel have shown that merely listening to the quiet vibrations made by a computer can reveal what operations it is running.

 

Those sounds can be analysed so precisely, they claim, they can even reveal the details of encryption keys used for secure web browsing, credit card transactions and encrypted email.

 

Moreover, they say, the keys can be cracked within an hour using little more than a smartphone placed next to the targeted machine.

 

And the same technique, the study claims, can also analyse the fluctuations in electrical current flowing through the machine and measured by merely touching it for the same result.

 

The Tel Aviv team just yesterday published a paper outlining how the hack could be accomplished through a technique they have dubbed 'low-bandwidth acoustic cryptanalysis'.

 

Read more technical details on how it's done here - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2526666/How-computers-secrets-cracked-smartphone-just-LISTENING-runs-encryption-software.html

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NSA CHRISTMAS - YOU BETTER WATCH OUT, YOU BETTER NOT SKYPE

 

'You better watch out, You better not Skype': ACLU launches hilarious anti-NSA campaign

 

The American Civil Liberties Union is imploring people to stand up for their digital privacy this holiday season, and is doing so with a humorous YouTube video that has Santa Claus poking fun at the National Security Agency. 

 

“The NSA is Coming to Town” is the name of the two-minute long ACLU clip, and in it the organization parodies the classic Christmas tune in order to call attention to the United States spy agency’s unchecked surveillance programs — the likes of which have garnered international attention since former contractor Edward Snowden began leaking top-secret government documents earlier this year.

 

Notwithstanding that opposition, however, efforts by Congress and advocacy groups alike to reign in the NSA have proven to be futile in the six-months since the first Snowden leaks appeared. The ACLU is now circulating a seasonal spoof aimed at the intelligence agency, and is hoping it will help drew viewers to a website where they can petition Congress to abolish the NSA’s surveillance programs.

 

Read more and watch video here - http://rt.com/usa/aclu-nsa-santa-claus-328/

 

 

RELATED

 

Every member who sits on the committees that oversee government intelligence operations has received campaign contributions from the top twenty largest intelligence companies in the United States, according to a new report.

 

http://capitolcityproject.com/watchdog-lawmakers-oversee-government-surveillance-programs-receive-millions-intelligence-companies/

 

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INTELLIGENCE COMPANIES MONEY FLOWS TO CONGRESSMEN OVERSEEING SURVEILLANCE

December 13, 2013 |   By  Joe Schoffstall
 

Every member who sits on the committees that oversee government intelligence operations has received campaign contributions from the top twenty largest intelligence companies in the United States, according to a new report.

 

Amid the NSA scandal, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence — the committees in charge of oversight — denied stricter reform attempts to the NSA programs and instead propelled legislation aimed at restoring their trust. The committees are intended to keep waste, fraud, and abuse in check given most of these programs are hidden from the general public.

 

Every single member on the committees received campaign contributions from the largest intelligence companies in the U.S. performing services for the government.

 

A report from Maplight, a nonpartisan research organization that reveals money in politics, highlights the donations from political action committees (PACs) and individuals from the intelligence services companies to these members. The report shows donations amount to over $3.7 million from 2005-2013.

 

Read more, including the list of top 20 intelligence companies handing out donations to congressmen.
http://capitolcityproject.com/watchdog-lawmakers-oversee-government-surveillance-programs-receive-millions-intelligence-companies/

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32 PRIVACY-DESTROYING TECHNOLOGIES TRANSFORMING YOUR LIFE

By Michael Snyder, Activist Post

The list of surveillance technology is growing longer every year.

Sample:

-  Spying on us through our television.

-  Face and voice recognition

-  Pre-crime surveillance cameras

-  Device that captures your fingerprints 20 feet away.

-  Molecular scanners that can see your naked body from 164 feet away

-  RFID microchips,  and iris and palm-scanning in schools

-   Smart phone eye scanners

-  Cell towers stingrays - to track you and identify you.

-  Police extraction devices to remotely obtain cellphone data

-  Police mobile backscatter vans that X-ray anything they choose (similar to devices used at airports, but on the road).

And much more. 

Read further - http://www.activistpost.com/2013/11/32-privacy-destroying-technologies-that.html

What is even more shocking is how easily we have all acquiesced to the use of these invasive technologies. 

 

The public's quiet submission foreshadows an even tighter government control of the population in the future.   

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HOW THE NSA INFECTS COMPUTERS WITH MALICIOUS SOFTWARE

 

The American intelligence service NSA infected more than 50,000 computer networks worldwide with malicious software designed to steal sensitive information.  A special department of the NSA employs more than a thousand hackers.

 

Documents provided by former NSA-employee Edward Snowden and seen by this newspaper, prove this.

A management presentation dating from 2012 explains how the NSA collects information worldwide.

 

In addition, the presentation shows that the intelligence service uses ‘Computer Network Exploitation’ (CNE) in more than 50,000 locations. CNE is the secret infiltration of computer systems achieved by installing malware, malicious software.

 

The NSA computer attacks are performed by a special department called TAO (Tailored Access Operations). Public sources show that this department employs more than a thousand hackers.

 

The malware can be controlled remotely and be turned on and off at will. The ‘implants’ act as digital ‘sleeper cells’ that can be activated with a single push of a button.

 

According to the Washington Post, the NSA has been carrying out this type of cyber operation since 1998.

Read more - http://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2013/11/23/nsa-infected-50000-computer-networks-with-malicious-software/


RELATED


MAP SHOWS THE NSA MASSIVE WORLDWIDE MALWARE OPERATIONS
http://www.businessinsider.com/map-shows-the-nsas-massive-worldwide-malware-operations-2013-11


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PENTAGON AND CIA TRYING TO STOP STATE DEPT APPROVAL OF RUSSIAN MONITORING STATIONS ON US SOIL

 

In recent months, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon have been quietly waging a campaign to stop the State Department from allowing Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, to build about half a dozen seemingly innocuous dome-topped antennae perched atop electronics-packed buildings somewhere in the United States.  The structures are known as monitor stations.

 

They fear that these structures could help Russia spy on the United States and improve the precision of Russian weaponry, the officials said.

These monitor stations, the Russians contend, would significantly improve the accuracy and reliability of Moscow’s version of the Global Positioning System, the American satellite network that steers guided missiles to their targets and thirsty smartphone users to the nearest Starbucks.

 

“They don’t want to be reliant on the American system and believe that their systems, like GPS, will spawn other industries and applications,” said a former senior official in the State Department’s Office of Space and Advanced Technology. “They feel as though they are losing a technological edge to us in an important market. Look at everything GPS has done on things like your phone and the movement of planes and ships.”

 

The Russian effort is part of a larger global race by several countries — including China and European Union nations — to perfect their own global positioning systems and challenge the dominance of the American GPS.

Read more - http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/17/world/europe/a-russian-gps-using-us-soil-stirs-spy-fears.html?ref=centralintelligenceagency&_r=0


IN OTHER NEWS
 
680 Communist Chinese troops training on US soil - http://intellihub.com/2013/11/12/chinese-troops-landed-on-u-s-soil-drills-ensue/

http://www.thedailysheeple.com/chinese-soldiers-arrive-in-usa-for-disaster-relief-exercises-during-grid-ex-ll_112013
 
White House purges over 200 US military officers - http://www.wnd.com/2013/11/obama-building-compliant-officer-class/ 
 

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NEW XBOX CAN SEE THROUGH YOUR CLOTHES, RECOGNIZE YOUR FACE, READ YOUR HEARTBEAT AND FINGERPRINTS

 

HARD TO BELIEVE THAT PEOPLE ACTUALLY VOLUNTEER FOR SUCH MASSIVE PRIVACY INVASION IN THEIR OWN HOMES.
FIRST THEY GET YOU HOOKED....

Xbox Kinect sensor goes X-rated: Device is revealed to detect every part of the anatomy - even parts you might want to keep covered.

The sensor highlights a man's package when it is in topographical mode

It was spotted by Mark Wilson of Fastco Design when testing the sensor

The new sensor is also able to see faces, track eye movements and detect expressions.

It is additionally said to be better at recognising features and body movements in the dark and dimly lit rooms because it uses what's called active infrared (IR).

 

Read more - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2503474/XBox-One-Kinect-camera-clothes-detect-anatomy.html
 

 

 

DIGITAL TRENDS:  MORE ON THE NEW XBOX

 

The new Xbox can even register individual digits on your hand, although probably not well enough to utilize this in gameplay.

 

It can get a fairly accurate reading of your heartbeat based on things like how flush you are, how the muscles in your face move under stress, and other indicators that would be unnoticeable to the naked eye.

 

The Kinect can pick up those cues and show your pulse on the screen. Imagine if a survival horror game judged that you weren’t scared enough based on your pulse rate and then changed tactics because of that? 

 

The real revelation of the facial software is that it recognizes you when you turn it on and loads your personal profile.

 

If you and your significant other both have personalized profiles, the new Kinect will recognize which one of you is ready to play.

 

Read more - http://www.digitaltrends.com/video-game-system-reviews/microsoft-xbox-one-review/

 

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CHINA SPYING ON YOU THROUGH APPLIANCES THAT SCAN WI FI DEVICES?

Spying on you through your kettle?

 

Russian investigators claim to have found household appliances imported from China which contain hidden microchips that pump spam data and malware into wi-fi networks.

 

Authorities in St Petersburg allegedly discovered 20 to 30 kettles and irons with 'spy microchips that send some data to the foreign server', according to Russian media.

 

This has led to speculation that the chips allegedly found in the home appliances may also have the ability to steal data and send it back to Chinese servers.

 

According to The Register, which translated the article, it would be possible to build a malicious microchip - sometimes referred to as a spambot or spybot - small enough to hide in a kettle.

 

The revelation comes just as the EU launches an investigation into claims that Russia itself bugged gifts to delegates at last month's G20 summit in an attempt to retrieve data from computers and telephones.

 

It emerged yesterday that the European Union is investigating gifts that visiting delegations received at last month's summit in St Petersburg of leaders from the world's 20 top economies after newspaper reports alleged Russia was trying to install spyware on computers to snoop on participants.

 

Read more - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2480900/China-spying-KETTLE-Bugs-scan-wi-fi-devices-imported-kitchen-gadgets.html

 

 

RELATED

 

 

RUSSIANS BEARING GIFTS -

FREE DEVICES THEY GAVE TO G20 SUMMIT DELEGATES WERE ALLEGEDLY BUGGED

 

Mobile phone chargers and USB drives given to foreign delegates at the G20 summit in Russia were ‘Trojan horses’ capable of sending data back to the Kremlin.

 

http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/10/russian-bearing-gifts-free-devices-for.html

 

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FIREFOX PLUG-IN REVEALS WHO IS TRACKING YOUR SURFING

 

 

Do you know who's tracking your movements online? A plug-in for the Firefox web browser called Lightbeam creates an at-a-glance visualisation showing which third parties want to grab your data.

 

Every time you access a website, numerous companies – website analytics firms, online advertisers or social media buttons – upload cookies to your computer to log which sites you visit and what you do once you are there.

 

Lightbeam is designed to show users exactly what is going on behind the scenes. When you log on to a site, it records every website that your computer is connecting with – often more than just the one you intended to visit.

 

It then creates visualisations, ranging from a list to a clock-like design, displaying the information.

 

"Many people don't understand all of the ways the web works – or all of the pieces of the web or interactions that aren't immediately visible," says Alex Fowler, global privacy and public policy leader at Mozilla, the firm that makes Firefox. "Lightbeam helps us educate users, by shining a light on what we couldn't otherwise see."

Read more - http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24477-firefox-plugin-reveals-who-is-tracking-your-surfing.html#.UnKiWKFraM9

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WHAT SNOWDEN REVEALED ABOUT UK MIDDLE EAST SECRET SURVEILLANCE

Exclusive by The Independent:

 

Britain runs a secret internet-monitoring station in the Middle East to intercept and process vast quantities of emails, telephone calls and web traffic on behalf of Western intelligence agencies.

 

The station is able to tap into and extract data from the underwater fibre-optic cables passing through the region.

 

The information is then processed for intelligence and passed to GCHQ in Cheltenham and shared with the National Security Agency (NSA) in the United States. The Government claims the station is a key element in the West’s “war on terror” and provides a vital “early warning” system for potential attacks around the world.

 

The Independent is not revealing the precise location of the station but information on its activities was contained in the leaked documents obtained from the NSA by Edward Snowden.

 

The Guardian newspaper’s reporting on these documents in recent months has sparked a dispute with the Government, with GCHQ security experts overseeing the destruction of hard drives containing the data.

 

Read more - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/exclusive-uks-secret-mideast-internet-surveillance-base-is-revealed-in-edward-snowden-leaks-8781082.html

 

 

RELATED

 

UK government ordered The Guardian to destroy hard drives with Snowden information http://rt.com/news/guardian-hard-drives-destroyed-697/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2397827/The-Guardian-allowed-GCHQ-spies-offices-oversee-destruction-leaked-NSA-data.html


Russia Today - The UK secret surveillance of the Middle East
http://rt.com/news/uk-middle-east-surveillance-873/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

Something to think about:

 

If the UK - and probably other Western countries as well - have such a sophisticated Middle East surveillance web, how did they get the Arab Spring so very wrong?

 

 

Link to this post - http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/08/what-snowden-revealed-about-uk-middle.html

 

 

 

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STUDENT DEFEATS SCHOOL MICROCHIPPING POLICY

Perseverance pays - helped by a school's fear of bad publicity -

 

Student aware of her rights wins against school policy of forcing students to wear microchipped locator badges.

 

A student who was expelled from her magnet school program when she refused the district’s plan to microchip students is being reinstated after the district dropped the student-tracking strategy.

 

Andrea Hernandez was defended by the Rutherford Institute against the Northside Independent School District in San Antonio, Texas.

 

Constitutional attorney and institute president John W. Whitehead said Hernandez is returning this fall to the John Jay High School’s Science and Engineering Academy. Her first day back will be Aug. 26.

 

Hernandez was expelled from the program after raising religious freedom and privacy objections to the district’s “Student Locator Project,” which used RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Tags) badges to enable officials to track students’ every move on campus.  After a long court fight, district officials announced they would stop using the RFID tracking badges. They cited low participation rates and negative publicity.

Read more - http://www.wnd.com/2013/08/student-defeats-school-district-over-microchipping/?cat_orig=education

~~~~~~~~~~

RELATED

RFID BADGES NOT SAFE FROM HACKING

Radio-frequency identification tags are widely deployed around the world and commonly used for building security system cards. As it turns out, those RFID security cards might not be all that secure. That is the conclusion of Francis Brown, managing partner at security firm Bishop Fox, who detailed his research on RFID hacking on July 31 at the Black Hat security conference here. In an interview with eWEEK, Brown said he started out doing his RFID research focused on a specific requirement: He needed to break in to a building.

 

Read details of RFID hacking here -

http://www.eweek.com/security/hacking-rfid-tags-is-easier-than-you-think-black-hat/

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More on the hackers' Black Hat Conference - http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/08/hackers-black-hat-conference-their_8.html


Link to this post - http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/08/student-defeats-school-microchipping.html


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INNOCENT LOOKING TRASHCANS HAVE WI-FI AND COLLECT YOUR IPHONE DATA

A new line of ‘spy trashcans’ has been rolled out that furthers the international agenda to track and collect your personal data at every turn.

 

In the past we’ve seen politicians revealing that various electronics like your television and computer can spy on you at any time using special built-in hardware, but now even the most basic items are being turned into tools of the surveillance state. In fact, they don’t even have to be electronic in the first place.

 

And such is the case with the new ‘spy trashcans’, rolling out just recently into the streets of London for beta testing.  Utilizing Wi-Fi technology within the infrastructure of the now tech-equipped trashcans, new ‘Renew Pods’ spy trashcans have been placed throughout the financial district of London. The trash cans actually go ahead and utilize their internet connectivity to collect information from your smartphones without your permission (or any form of warning).

Read more - http://www.storyleak.com/wi-fi-trashcans-tracking-your-smartphone-data/


 
UPDATE

 

UK PULLS PLUG ON SPY TRASH CANS

The City of London has demanded that an advertising firm cease its ‘spy bin’ program which uses high-tech trash cans to track people walking through the city's financial district. The bins follow Wi-Fi signals and capture smartphone serial numbers.

Read more - http://rt.com/news/trash-bin-surveillance-wifi-402/

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OK, so they got caught.  But governments have a much better chance of placing stealth data-stealing devices anywhere they want.  The misuse and abuse of this technology has only just begun.


Link to this post - http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/08/innocent-looking-trashcans-have-wi-fi.html


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DAILY MAIL'S ROLE IN CREATION OF SPY AGENCY MI5

Scathing report of MI5 history of bungling and treachery.  And it all started with a 1910 Daily Mail fictional series that whipped up public hysteria.

 

According to a BBC report the MI5 owes its origins to a German spy-scare the Mail whipped up 1910 by publishing a serialized novel about a fictional German invasion of England (the route of the invasion was tailored to pass through towns with large populations of Mail subscribers). This led to thousands of impressionable Mail readers writing in, saying they'd seen German spies out and about, and they demanded that Parliament Do Something. And so, MI5 was born.

 

Adam Curtis's latest piece for the BBC starts out as a strange history of the role that the Daily Mail had in the formation of the British MI5 spy-agency, but then veers into an amazing history of MI5 brutal, awful, terrible record of incompetence, foolishness, self-sabotage, and waste.

 

Following on from its weird origin, MI5 spent generations cocking up, framing people, missing double-agents in their ranks, and generally wasting tons of money on paranoid losers who never caught a spy. Curtis is brutal in documenting the depth of MI5's failures, from its storied roundup of a "German spy ring" in 1914 (decades later, it emerged that none of the 21 "spies" were actually spies) to its failure to spot the incipient demise of the Soviet Union, to its hilariously evil false espionage accusations against 33 Iraqi students in 1991, none of whom were spies.

 

Curtis builds up a picture of spooks as neither evil masterminds nor brave sleuths, but as banal incompetents. As John Le Carre said of his own service in the spy-world: "the reality was the mediocrity. Ex-colonial policemen mingling with failed academics, failed lawyers, failed missionaries and failed debutantes gave our canteen the amorphous quality of an Old School outing on the Orient express. Everyone seemed to smell of failure."  

Read more - http://boingboing.net/2013/08/10/how-the-daily-mail-invented-br.html

BBC extensive report by Adam Curtis - http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/posts/BUGGER 

Link to this post - http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/08/daily-mails-role-in-creation-of-spy.html

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