The human race is on the brink of momentous and dire change. It is a change that potentially smashes our institutions and warps our society beyond recognition. It is also a change to which almost no one is paying attention. I’m talking about the coming obsolescence of the gun-wielding human infantryman as a weapon of…
Category: Cyber-Crime
Modern Crime: Is This A Vast Government Conspiracy or Just A Simple Story About Revenge?
This is a really good object lesson in adhering to the old adage by Edgar Allen Poe: “Believe only HALF of what you SEE and NOTHING that you HEAR.” -SF Who is this man who seems to die in every terrorist attack? If you’ve clicked on any articles about the victims of recent terror…
Deconstructing Terrorism: World-Check Terrorism Database Exposed
A financial crime database used by banks has been “leaked” on to the net. World-Check Risk Screening contains details about people and organisations suspected of being involved in terrorism, organised crime and money laundering, among other offences. Access is supposed to be restricted under European privacy laws. The database’s creator, Thomson Reuters, has confirmed an…
Espionage Files: Surveillance For Hire In Africa
In July 2012, one year after the Arab Spring shook Arab regimes around the world, an email appeared in the inbox of Mamfakinch, a Moroccan online publication critical of the government. Under the subject line “dénonciation” — French for “denunciation” — was a single sentence. “Please don’t use my name or anything else, I don’t want any trouble.” And…
Surveillance State: Biometrics Coming To A Bank Near You Very Soon
The banking password may be about to expire — forever. Some of the nation’s largest banks, acknowledging that traditional passwords are either too cumbersome or no longer secure, are increasingly using fingerprints, facial scans and other types of biometrics to safeguard accounts. Millions of customers at Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo routinely…
Cyber-War: The Big Hack of NYC
A scenario that could happen based on what already has. On December 4, 2017, at a little before nine in the morning, an executive at Goldman Sachs was swiping through the day’s market report in the backseat of a hired SUV heading south on the West Side Highway when his car suddenly swerved to the…
Surveillance State: The F.B.I.’s Growing Surveillance Gap
There are more homegrown jihadists than the feds can actually watch. And not everyone likes what the FBI is doing instead. A day after Omar Mateen killed 49 and wounded 53 in an Orlando nightclub, purportedly under the banner of the Islamic State or other terrorist groups, the FBI announced that it had repeatedly scrutinized…
Modern Crime: Will Cyber-Assassinations Soon Be A Reality?
As we hurtle forward into the digital, connected future, ever more objects are becoming targets for hackers and malicious software. Where once hacks only affected computers, they now bring down everything from cars to power grids and thermostats to secretive nuclear enrichment programs. So how long until a hack doesn’t just cause a nuisance or…
Modern Crime: Inside a Russian Hacker Ring
A man with intense eyes crouches over a laptop in a darkened room, his face and hands hidden by a black ski mask and gloves. The scene is lit only by the computer screen’s eerie glow. Exaggerated portraits of malicious hackers just like this keep popping up in movies and TV, despite the best efforts…
Surveillance State: Hackers Have Found a Pulsating New Way to Spy on You on Your Phone and FitBit
Hackers may be pickin’ up good vibrations from your phone. All the better to surveil you with, my dear. Researchers at the Electrical and Computer Engineering school of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign discovered that the vibration motor in your devices can operate like a microphone, according to the researchers’ paper. That means, if…