This is funny.
Over on the “Thoughts of a Technocrat” blog there is a posting that I recommend you see for yourself. It’s one of the hundreds of sites that I read on a regular basis. It’s worth reading.
Now, I won’t ruin it for you.
Go check it out.
Tags: CIA Humour, Funny, Amusing
From USA Today:
For 40 years, U.S. presidents have begun each day with a top-secret, personal briefing on security threats and global affairs obtained largely from covert spy missions, clandestine satellite surveillance and other highly classified intelligence sources.
Now, however, the President’s Daily Brief and other crucial intelligence reports often rely less on secrets from risky espionage missions than on material that’s available to just about anyone.
Intelligence officers have gleaned insights on Iran’s nuclear capabilities from photos on the Internet. They’ve scooped up documents, including a terrorist training manual, at international conferences and public forums. They’ve found information in foreign university libraries and newscasts.
Such material is known as “open-source intelligence” or, in the acronym-laden parlance of the 16 federal agencies that make up the U.S. intelligence community, OSINT. The explosion of information available via the Internet and other public sources has pushed the collection and analysis of that material to the top of the official priority list in the spy world, intelligence officials say.
Open source intel. My personal favourite spymaster tool.
Tags: OSINT, Open Source Intelligence, Spy
Chinese hackers met with CNN to discuss their exploits and that they are often in the pay of the Chinese government. Well, that’s according to CNN at least.
From CNN:
They operate from a bare apartment on a Chinese island. They are intelligent 20-somethings who seem harmless. But they are hard-core hackers who claim to have gained access to the world’s most sensitive sites, including the Pentagon.
In fact, they say they are sometimes paid secretly by the Chinese government — a claim the Beijing government denies.
“No Web site is one hundred percent safe. There are Web sites with high-level security, but there is always a weakness,” says Xiao Chen, the leader of this group.
“Xiao Chen” is his online name. Along with his two colleagues, he does not want to reveal his true identity. The three belong to what some Western experts say is a civilian cyber militia in China, launching attacks on government and private Web sites around the world.
Tags: China, Chinese Hackers
From the Washington Post:
The Homeland Security Department spent more than $90 million to create a network for sharing sensitive anti-terrorism information with state and local governments that it has decided to replace, according to an internal department document.
The decision was made late last year but was not announced. It was outlined in an Oct. 27 memorandum that listed the network’s flaws and asserted that DHS’s counterterrorism, immigration enforcement and disaster management missions were hampered by the proliferation of more than 100 Web “portals” that provide poorly coordinated information.
“Most are duplicative in capabilities” and lack innovation, noted the memo by DHS Undersecretary for Management Paul A. Schneider. He said that as a result, the department “will replace” the current system, known as the Homeland Security Information Network.
The decision underscores recurring criticism about the department’s effectiveness at meeting the core need to better share information with government and private partners involved in counterterrorism efforts five years after it was formed, according to lawmakers and independent experts. The department also has repeatedly rushed crucial technology initiatives, leading to delays and millions of dollars in additional costs.
Tags: DHS, Anti-Terrorism, DHS Data Network, Terrorism
From ABC News:
In one high-tech thriller after another, the hero attaches a tiny tracking device on the villain and follows him as blinking dot on a computer screen.
In real life, this kind of technology would be great for tracking pets or kids, even packages or luggage — anything that tends to wander.
But it doesn’t really exist.
There are GPS devices, of course, but strap a half-pound GPS collar to a dog and you’ll realize it’s far from “Mission Impossible.” GPS-enabled cell phones are becoming more common, but they have problems, like accuracy indoors, and they aren’t cheap.
A Utah company, S5 Wireless, is looking to bring reality closer to the movies, with small, cheap chips that can be powered by a single battery for up two years and tracked indoors and outside, over long distances.
Tags: Tracking, Surveillance, Monitoring
Getting ready for the season of the subpoena?
From the Globe & Mail:
The CIA destroyed videotapes it made in 2002 of two top terror suspects because it was afraid that keeping them “posed a security risk,” director Michael Hayden has told agency employees.
Mr. Hayden’s revelation to the CIA employees became public Thursday and it caused a commotion on Capitol Hill where members of the Senate Intelligence Committee immediately vowed to conduct a thorough review. A leading human rights group voiced alarm about it.
In his message to agency workers, Mr. Hayden said that House and Senate intelligence committee leaders had been informed of the existence of the tapes and the CIA’s intention to destroy them to protect the identities of the questioners. He also said the CIA’s internal watchdog watched the tapes in 2003 and verified that the interrogation practices were legal. Hayden said the tapes were destroyed three years after the 2002 interrogations.
Rep. Jane Harman of California, then the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, was one of only four members of Congress in 2003 informed of the tapes’ existence and the CIA’s intention to ultimately destroy them.
“I told the CIA that destroying videotapes of interrogations was a bad idea and urged them in writing not to do it,” Ms. Harman said.
Tags: CIA Evidence, Destroyed Videos, CIA Interrogation Videos
Cue the evil laughter and wringing of hands. The Bush White House has been ordered to produce documents related to the domestic spy scandal. A judge in San Francisco has stipulated that they must produce these docs by this Friday (Nov 30).
From CNET:
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco gave the Office of the Director of National Intelligence until November 30 (Friday) to turn over documents relating to conversations it had with Congress and telecommunications carriers about how to rewrite wiretapping laws.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation had filed this case to seek faster processing of a Freedom of Information Act request it filed, which could help buttress its ongoing lawsuit against AT&T. There are approximately 250 pages of unclassified material and 65 pages of classified material, which would be redacted, that the administration has identified but said could not be turned over until December 31.
Note that Illston’s order doesn’t deal with the NSA’s wiretapping program itself (how it works, what companies are involved, whether there really is a secret room at AT&T’s 611 Folsom Street location). Instead the documents relate only to conversations and communications about retroactive immunity for companies like AT&T that are accused of violating the law.
It will be interesting to see if this information is actually produced. I have a dollar that says they have “trouble” locating the information. Much in the same vein of the missing emails.
Just a hunch.
Tags: Domestics Spying, Bush White House Disclosure, White House Spy Docs
The US government thinks that China’s predisposition for industrial espionage is their biggest threat.
BBC News:
China is pursuing new technology “aggressively”, it says, legitimately through research and business deals and illegally through industrial espionage.
China has also “embraced destructive warfare techniques”, the report says, enabling it to carry out cyber attacks on other countries’ infrastructure.
A foreign ministry spokesman in Beijing denied any spying activities by China.
“China and the US have a fundamental common interest in promoting sound and rapid development,” said Liu Jianchao, quoted by the Associated Press news agency.
As much as the Chinese government wants to deny it I would have to call bullsh!t on them. I have spoken with 12 security wonks at large commercial enterprises over the last two weeks and they have noticed a rise in probes from China. Namely they have noticed a marked rise in the number or SQL Injection probes.
Now, when I worked for the US DoD we went as far as to create ACLs to deep six the entire Chinese IP address space. I haven’t looked at that type of measure for a long time. I’m starting to wonder if this is a step that we should review? Seems a touch extreme but, it may be time.
Blackwater’s parent company continues to build out its mercenary army. Now, The Prince Group has announced a new operation.
From the Washington Post:
The operation, Total Intelligence Solutions, has assembled a roster of former spooks — high-ranking figures from agencies such as the CIA and defense intelligence — that mirrors the slate of former military officials who run Blackwater. Its chairman is Cofer Black, the former head of counterterrorism at CIA known for his leading role in many of the agency’s more controversial programs, including the rendition and interrogation of al-Qaeda suspects and the detention of some of them in secret prisons overseas.
Its chief executive is Robert Richer, a former CIA associate deputy director of operations who was heavily involved in running the agency’s role in the Iraq war.
Total Intelligence Solutions is one of a growing number of companies that offer intelligence services such as risk analysis to companies and governments. Because of its roster and its ties to owner Erik Prince, the multimillionaire former Navy SEAL, the company’s thrust into this world highlights the blurring of lines between government, industry and activities formerly reserved for agents operating in the shadows.
While I have little doubt these folks are imminently qualified I find pause in one thought. Who is holding the leash? When the US government needs to get a confession will they turn to this outfit in a bid to avoid being accused of torture? It might seem like a touch dramatic but, based on the current administration’s track record I would not discount anything at this point.
Tags: Blackwater, CIA, Mercenary, Total Intelligence Solutions
Well, at least someone has some stones in DC.
From Washington Post:
In a blow to the Bush administration, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat and Republican expressed reluctance yesterday to granting blanket immunity to telecommunications carriers sued for assisting the government’s warrantless surveillance program.
Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and the ranking Republican, Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), had said that before even considering such a proposal, they would need to see the legal documents underpinning the program, which began after Sept. 11, 2001, and were put under court oversight in January.
On Tuesday, the committee was given access to some of the documents. But Leahy said yesterday that he had a “grave concern” about blanket immunity, saying that “it seems to grant . . . amnesty for telecommunications carriers for warrantless surveillance activities.”
Slowly but surely the light is being switched to the “on” position.
Tags: Telecom Immunity, Telecom Surveillance, Warrantless Wiretaps
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