In a just-released court opinion, a federal court judge overseeing government surveillance programs said he was “extremely concerned” about a series of incidents in which the Federal Bureau of Investigation and National Security Agency deviated from court-approved limits on their snooping activities. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court Judge Thomas Hogan sharply criticized the two agencies over…
Category: Computer Related
Armed Civilian Corner: A Quick Reminder about OPSEC
When talking about OPSEC as it pertains to the Armed Civilian, here is what I mean: Operations Security, or OPSEC,is the process by which we protect unclassified information that can be used against us. OPSEC should be used to protect information, and thereby deny the adversary the ability to act. Nearly 90% of the information collected…
The Surveillance State: The CIA is Investing in Firms that “Mine” Your Twitter and Instagram Data
SOFT ROBOTS THAT can grasp delicate objects, computer algorithms designed to spot an “insider threat,” and artificial intelligence that will sift through large data sets — these are just a few of the technologies being pursued by companies with investment from In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital firm, according to a document obtained by The Intercept….
The Surveillance State: NSA Wants to Share Citizen Data Mines with other Fed’s
Civil liberties and government transparency groups are rallying to oppose a new plan that would allow the National Security Agency (NSA) to share more of the information that it collects about people’s communications and activity on the Internet with other federal agencies. On Thursday, 33 advocacy groups signed on to a letter insisting the changes…
Cyber-Crime: Why Hospitals Are The Perfect Targets For Ransomware
RANSOMWARE HAS BEEN an Internet scourge for more than a decade, but only recently has it made mainstream media headlines. That’s primarily due to a new trend in ransomware attacks: the targeting of hospitals and other healthcare facilities. The malware works by locking your computer to prevent you from accessing data until you pay a…
Cyber-Warfare: Policing The Dark Web and How it Can Effect National Sovereignty
Cops hack into foreign computers to find cyber criminals As crime continues to proliferate on the so-called dark web, law enforcement agencies are sometimes having to work outside of their jurisdiction. When a suspected criminal acts on the dark web, authorities are unlikely to know where in the world he or she is physically located….
In the FBI’s Crypto War, Apps May Be The Next Target
IF THERE’S ANYTHING the world has learned from the standoff over the encrypted iPhone of San Bernardino killer Syed Rizwan Farook, it’s that the FBI doesn’t take no for an answer. And now it’s becoming clear that the government’s determination to access encrypted data doesn’t end with a single iPhone, or with Apple, or even…
How the Reagan-Era CIA Predicted Our Drone Dystopia
It is mind numbing how an agency with the resources and manpower like the CIA has can predict things like this but yet miss earth shaking Geo-Political events like the Soviets Invading Afghanistan in 1979 or the Soviet Union Collapse in 1991 or my favorite: being blindsided on 9/11. As a person who understands the…
“Predictive Policing”: The Cyber Version of “Stop and Frisk”
Thanks America! How China’s Newest Software Could Track, Predict, and Crush Dissent Armed with data from spying on its citizens, Beijing could turn ‘predictive policing’ into an AI tool of repression. What if the Communist Party could have predicted Tiananmen Square? The Chinese government is deploying a new tool to keep the population from uprising. Beijing is building…
Fingerprint Spoofing: Yeah there’s An App for That
So That Thumbprint Thing on Your Phone Is Useless Now Researchers found a cheap, easy way to copy your fingerprints a few months after millions of Americans had theirs stolen by hackers. Last year, when the Office of Personnel Management notified 22 million people that their personal information was compromised in a massive data breach, one…