Category: Surveillance

A Powerful Tool US Spies Misused to Stalk Women Faces Its Potential Demise

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A Powerful Tool US Spies Misused to Stalk Women Faces Its Potential Demise

 

source: wired.com  |  image: pixabay.com

 

Though often viewed as the “crown jewel” of the US intelligence community, fresh reports of abuse by NSA employees and chaos in the US Congress put the tool’s future in jeopardy.

The federal law authorizing a vast amount of the United States government’s foreign intelligence collection is set to expire in two months, a deadline that threatens to mothball a notoriously extensive surveillance program currently eavesdropping on the phone calls, text messages, and emails of no fewer than a quarter million people overseas.

The US National Security Agency (NSA) relies heavily on the program, known as Section 702, to compel the cooperation of communications giants that oversee huge swaths of the internet’s traffic. The total number of communications intercepted under the 702 program each year, while likely beyond tally, ostensibly reaches into the high hundreds of millions, according to scraps of reportage declassified by the intelligence community over the past decade, and the secret surveillance court whose macroscopic oversight—even when brought to full bear against the program—scarcely takes issue with any quotidian abuses of its power.

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Taliban weighs using US mass surveillance plan, met with China’s Huawei

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Taliban weighs using US mass surveillance plan, met with China’s Huawei

 

source: reuters.com  |  image: pixabay.com

 

KABUL, Sept 25 (Reuters) – The Taliban are creating a large-scale camera surveillance network for Afghan cities that could involve repurposing a plan crafted by the Americans before their 2021 pullout, an interior ministry spokesman told Reuters, as authorities seek to supplement thousands of cameras already across the capital, Kabul.

The Taliban administration — which has publicly said it is focused on restoring security and clamping down on Islamic State, which has claimed many major attacks in Afghan cities — has also consulted with Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei about potential cooperation, the spokesman said.

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FBI repeatedly misused surveillance tool…

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FBI repeatedly misused surveillance tool, unsealed FISA order reveals

source: thehill.com  |  image: fbi.gov

 

The FBI repeatedly misused a surveillance tool in searching for foreign intelligence to use in cases pertaining to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and 2020 racial justice protests, according to an April 2022 court order publicly released Friday. 

The order, which was released by the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, is significantly redacted but reveals thousands of violations of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows the federal government to collect communications between certain targeted foreign individuals outside the U.S. 

The court has legal oversight of the U.S. government’s espionage activities. 

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A Tiny Blog Took on Big Surveillance in China—and Won

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A Tiny Blog Took on Big Surveillance in China—and Won

 

source: wired.com  |  image: pexels.com

 

Digging through manuals for security cameras, a group of gearheads found sinister details and ignited a new battle in the US-China tech war.

 

AT A LOCATION he keeps secret, John Honovich was on his laptop, methodically scouring every link on a website for a conference half a world away. Hikvision, the world’s largest security camera manufacturer, was hosting the event—the 2018 AI Cloud World Summit—in its hometown of Hangzhou, a city of about 10 million people not far from Shanghai. Honovich, the founder of a small trade publication that covered video surveillance technology, wanted to find out what the latest Hikvision gear could do.

He zeroed in on one section of the conference agenda titled “Eco-Friendly, Peaceful, Relaxed” and found a description of an AI-powered system installed around Mount Tai, a historically sacred mountain in Shandong. A video showed Hikvision cameras pointed at tourists climbing the thousands of stone steps leading to the famous peak. Piano music played as a narrator explained, in Mandarin with English subtitles, that the cameras were there “to identify all visitors to ensure the safety of all.” The video cut to a shot of a computer screen, and Honovich hit pause. He saw a zoomed-in view of one visitor’s face. Below it was data that the camera’s AI had inferred. Honovich downloaded the video and took screenshots of the computer screen, for safekeeping. 

Later, with the help of a translator, he scrutinized every bit of text on that screen. One set of characters, the translator explained, suggested each visitor was automatically sorted into categories: age, sex, wearing glasses, smiling. When Honovich pointed at the fifth category and asked, “What’s this?” the translator replied, “minority.” Honovich pressed: “Are you sure?” The translator confirmed there was no other way to read it.

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The DEA is using Apple’s AirTags for surveillance

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The DEA is using Apple’s AirTags for surveillance

source: imore.com  |  image: pixabay.com

It’s the first time a federal agency has used the tracker for surveillance.

A new report says that the DEA used an AirTag for surveillance in anti-drug operations last year, in what is believed to be the first instance of a federal agency using the tracker in such a manner.

According to Forbes(opens in new tab), border agents intercepted two packages from Shanghai, China, in May of 2022, which were found to contain a pill press that is used to turn powders into tablets. “Believing that they were destined for an illegal narcotics manufacturer”, the DEA stepped in, and rather than swipe the goods, instead placed an AirTag inside the device so they could track its whereabouts. 

A warrant seen by the outlet reveals what “appears to be the first known case of a federal agency turning Apple’s location-tracking device into a surveillance technology.”

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Chinese surveillance from above may make stealth planes obsolete | Opinion

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Chinese surveillance from above may make stealth planes obsolete | Opinion

source: sun-sentinel.com  |  image: pixabay.com

 

When Pentagon brass rolled out the bat-shaped B-21 Raider late last year amid self-congratulatory speeches and glowing news reports, they touted it as the ideal deterrent against Beijing’s military ambitions. Projected to cost some $720 million apiece, the airplane was called the ultimate in radar-evading technology, able to carry out conventional and nuclear strikes virtually undetected in China and elsewhere.

As a journalist who covered previous stealth aircraft, the praise evoked disturbing echoes of glaring design flaws. Such missteps initially made the B-21′s predecessor, the Air Force’s B-2 Spirit, less stealthy and more difficult to operate than advertised. Northrop Grumman Corp. built both bombers.

Now, former senior officials involved in the classified B-21′s early development worry the Pentagon is repeating a version of those mistakes, this time by underestimating Beijing’s ability to closely track the latest bomber from space.

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China’s Top Airship Scientist Promoted Program to Watch the World From Above

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China’s Top Airship Scientist Promoted Program to Watch the World From Above

source: nytimes.com, contributed by FAN, Bill Amshey  |  image: pixabay.com

 

Corporate records and media reports reveal an airship scientist at the center of China’s high-altitude balloon program. Companies he has founded were among those targeted by Washington.

In 2019, years before a hulking high-altitude Chinese balloon floated across the United States and caused widespread alarm, one of China’s top aeronautics scientists made a proud announcement that received little attention back then: His team had launched an airship more than 60,000 feet into the air and sent it sailing around most of the globe, including across North America.

The scientist, Wu Zhe, told a state-run news outlet at the time that the “Cloud Chaser” airship was a milestone in his vision of populating the upper reaches of the earth’s atmosphere with steerable balloons that could be used to provide early warnings of natural disasters, monitor pollution or carry out airborne surveillance.

“Look, there’s America,” Professor Wu said in an accompanying video, pointing on a computer screen to a red line that appeared to trace the airship’s path across Asia, northern Africa, and near the southern edge of the United States. By the time of the report, it was over the Pacific Ocean.

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NSA leader pushes lawmakers to keep key surveillance power

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NSA leader pushes lawmakers to keep key surveillance power

source: axios.com (contributed by FAN, Bill Amshey)  |  image: nsa.gov

 

The head of the National Security Agency made his case Thursday for lawmakers to keep a key NSA surveillance power intact ahead of a tough reauthorization battle this year.

The big picture: Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is set to expire at the end of the year, jeopardizing a surveillance authority that allows intelligence agencies to collect warrantless online communications from foreign persons.

  • The fight over whether to keep Section 702 intact will take up much of Capitol Hill’s cybersecurity attention throughout the year.

Driving the news: Gen. Paul Nakasone, the head of the NSA and the U.S. Cyber Command, said during an event Thursday that the surveillance power has allowed the U.S. to stop active terrorist plots, foreign ransomware attacks and planned cyber espionage schemes.

  • “This authority provides the U.S. government irreplaceable insights, whether we’re reporting on cybersecurity threats, counterterrorism threats, or protecting U.S. and allied forces,” Nakasone said.
  • “We have saved lives because of 702,” he added.

Why it matters: Nakasone’s comments set the stage for the arguments that the intelligence community is likely to make as lawmakers debate the merits of the program throughout the year.

Yes, but: Civil liberties and privacy advocates have long argued that Section 702 sweeps up far too many Americans’ electronic communications, such as emails and text messages, when they talk with people in other countries.

  • Some Republican lawmakers are also likely to argue for either letting 702 expire or limiting its scope as their party grows more critical of the intelligence agencies.

Your Home Security Cameras Are in the Wrong Spots. Here’s Where to Put Them

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Your Home Security Cameras Are in the Wrong Spots. Here’s Where to Put Them

source: cnet.com  |  contributed by Steve Page  |  image: pixabay.com

If you have a home security camera (or are you thinking about finding a Black Friday deal on one), you may have wondered about the best places to put them to deter bad actors and give you the best view of your property — and where not to put them. 

Your home and yard layout, budget and home security priorities are different from your neighbor’s, so there is no one-size-fits-all rule for security camera placement. But this guide will help you consider all the aspects of your home security setup and identify which ones are absolute musts based on the vulnerabilities in your home.

For more home security tips, check out how to prevent your home security cameras from being hacked, and the best cheap home security systems you can buy.

Where you should consider installing a home security camera

1. Exterior: Front door

You might assume that intruders always sneak into side entrances, but statistics from the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors show that 34% of burglars use the front door. It’s also where package thieves are likely to strike. A camera at your main entrance keeps tabs on everybody going in and out of your home, from family members and babysitters to maintenance people, delivery people and more. (Pro tip: Video doorbells are great picks for the front door. You can use them as the primary camera or in conjunction with another outdoor camera aimed at the yard or garage.)

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Apple Tracks You More Than You Think

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Apple Tracks You More Than You Think

source: wired.com  |  image: pexels.com

CYBERSECURITY STARTUP CORELLIUM offered or sold its software to spyware and hacking-tool creators in multiple repressive countries, a WIRED investigation revealed this week. A previously unreported 507-page document, believed to have been prepared by Apple, details how Corellium offered a trial of its products to the controversial spyware firm NSO Group, to a cybersecurity company with ties to the UAE government, and to a firm in China that also has government links. In response, Corellium, which makes phone-virtualization software that can help find security bugs in iOS and Android, published a blog post detailing how it now vets potential customers.

As millions of people across the US celebrated Thanksgiving and attended parades, we looked at the US shortage of bomb-sniffing dogs. Experts say the pandemic has led to a drop in the supply of dogs in the country—85 to 90 percent of them come from overseas—and that the lack of trainer animals is fueling national security concerns.

Apple Tracks You More Than You Think

Apple’s privacy policy for analytics services on its devices, which gather data about how you use its products, claims the information collected isn’t used to identify you. However, a new analysis of the tools, reported by Gizmodo, claims a permanent ID number within the service is “tied to your full name, phone number, birth date, email address and more.” This ID number is sent to Apple alongside the analytics data about how you use your device, researchers from the software company Mysk told the publication. 

The findings appear to contradict the company’s privacy promises. Apple did not answer Gizmodo’s questions on the report. In recent years, Apple has pushed a pro-privacy stance, using it as an advantage over competitors, and it has run ads saying the data on people’s iPhones stays on their devices. However, experts have increasingly questioned some of Apple’s practices. (At the same time, Apple has been growing its advertising business.) In separate research published earlier in November, Mysk researchers claimed that Apple collects detailed information on people using its products through its own apps, even when they turn tracking off.