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'Project Vigilant' Recruits At Defcon To Track You
angry tapir writes "A secretive volunteer group that tries to track terrorists and criminals on the Internet went to the Defcon hacker conference in hopes of recruiting information security experts, but it will first have to overcome some skepticism. That's because most information security professionals have never heard of the group, called Project Vigilant."
It would be no less obvious.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
So, I got curious and clicked the link to the article. Then I clicked the link to the project's website, which beyond a splash screen with an INGSOC-esque logo with a half-assed latin slogan, you find a cheap-ass Drupal site which requires an OpenID account to log into. The list of logged-in users includes such gems as a guy named "poopcracker."
If this is cointelpro, its either extremely terrible, or extremely brilliant for looking so shoddy. Chances are, its just misguided vigilantism by people who read "gray hat python" and now think they can 'hack the Gibson'. I'm not sure which would disturb me more.
EU already has a simular technology in place.
You can get the analysis at wikileaks: EU social network spy system brief, INDECT Work Package 4
I think we can keep recursing like this until someone returns 1
Smart money says this is a sting operation to bag hackers who are a bit too keen to use their tech savvy to spy on their neighbours!
Two links with some more reading on Project Vigilant.
:)
"that it monitors the traffic of 12 regional Internet service providers, hands much of that information to federal agencies, and encouraged one of its "volunteers," researcher Adrian Lamo, to inform the federal government about the alleged source of a controversial video of civilian deaths in Iraq leaked to whistle-blower site Wikileaks in April."..
but said that because the companies included a provision allowing them to share users' Internet activities with third parties in their end user license agreements (EULAs), Vigilant was able to legally gather data from those Internet carriers and use it to craft reports for federal agencies.
from:
Stealthy Government Contractor Monitors U.S. Internet Providers, Worked With Wikileaks Informant
http://blogs.forbes.com/firewall/2010/08/01/stealthy-government-contractor-monitors-u-s-internet-providers-says-it-employed-wikileaks-informant
"Elite US cyber team courts hackers to fight terror"
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hKoXQdL-L1HFYObz0_UUHMactSWg
Top tip, stop chatting to strangers, try a sneaker net gap and again stop chatting
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
You would probably get better results telling the Church of Scientology that this company is out to get Scientology. They would be swarmed with private detectives, character assassins, corrupt cops, and seedy lawsuits within days.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
He must have the world's most awesome popped collar!
"He's lost in a 'floyd hole"
So when does the US get some of this help to circumvent government^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H protective spying and allow the free transmission of information. Oh, wait. I see now.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely. indymedia
This is one case where it is definitely a good idea to take the blue pill!
I don't see how will taking Viagra do any good here.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Kept MS code going for many years :)
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
You know, as crazy as this may sound to some of you, working in the US intelligence field or the peripheral fields is not akin to being evil.
You must be old here.
"akin to being evil" really depends on the decade? the Church report, Iran contra, Operation Ajax, Room 641A, Sibel Edmond, COINTELPRO ...
Do you really want unaccountable, hidden, profit driven - mercs, private corporations, individuals and cyber vigilante types doing what the FBI should?
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Was it specifically bad to turn in Manning? No, things are no black and white. From where I sit, though, Wikileaks is doing a good thing by exposing government lies -- we cannot trust the government to be honest about classified documents, which is why we need Wikileaks. If these guys are fighting against Wikileaks, that means they are pitted against those of us who want a more open government.
What worries me is that these guys are not required to abide by the constitution; they voluntarily collect information, and then turn it over to the government, which allows the government to obtain evidence that it would not otherwise be able to collect. These "fourth party" arrangements have been discussed in the past, and just because they are not hot news items anymore does not mean they are less worrysome.
Palm trees and 8
"Seedy company hires hackers to commit felonies" -- Yawn.
"A person or entity providing an electronic communication service to the public shall not intentionally divulge the contents of any communication while in transmission on that service to any person or entity other than an addressee or intended recipient of such communication or an agent of such addressee or intended recipient."
Given the abuse and buzz power that that word has seen in the last couple of years, I tend to treat anything that comes with 'terroris.+' in the subject with a grain of salt. Well, actually more than a grain: I start giving credit starting at the absolute bottom of the scale when that regex matches, and it usually doesn't get very far. There is just too many people out there trying to make a living, if not easy money, out of scaring people and leveraging the politicians with that fear. Take a look at "The power of nightmares", a BBC documentary readily available on YouTube, about the latter.
You mean the CIA and NSA. The FBI is for domestic intelligence gathering and enforcement only. This is, in fact, why the FBI and CIA/NSA were purposely intended to never have open channels with each other. What everyone called broken following 9/11 was actually by design and for very, very, very good reasons. The reason is simply, its ripe for domestic abuse and violation of the Constitution.
The FBI was basically considered to be federal police. The CIA/NSA is considered quasi-military, which is exactly why they are frequently ex-military and work extremely closely with the military. They are a major source of intelligence for the military. As such, its actually illegal for them to be used domestically. That all changed with the creation of the homeland security, who's sole job is to view everyone as a criminal, treat them accordingly, while violating the Constitution as much as possible, without getting the public in an uproar.
Basically the creation of homeland security was a spit in the eye of all our forefathers, violation of pre-existing laws which were in place specifically to prevent this cluster fuck.
From the whois info for projectvigilant.us:
From the whois info on bbhc-global.com
The address "4828 North Kings Highway" is "Indrio Crossing Pack N Ship", a mail drop.
The address "5817 Sunberry Circle" is a 2,800 sq/ft 5br/3ba residence, purchased in 2004 for $205,000.
There are two businesses registered at this address:
There is a drivers license record for Chet Lee Uber (47yo male, other ethnicity) at the Sunberry Circle address. He is a registered voter, affiliated to the Democratic party.
There is a Barbara Uber (66yo white female) with a listed phone number at the same address.
hahahahahaha! Either this guy is living up the cougar lifestyle, or he's living with his mom. :)
I couldn't find a drivers license record for Mr. Steven E Ruhe. There is a Steven R Ruhe (58yo white male) in Merrit Island, FL, but probably isn't him.
Jimita Johnson-Jones (32yo black female) has a drivers license record in Orlando, FL.
Let the jokes about living in his mothers basement commence! ... and all information gathered for this post was available through public resources. No electronic trespass was committed in the gathering of this data.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
Follow the trail.
projectvigilant.us is registered to Steven Ruhe steven.ruhe@bbhc-global.com of BBHC Global LLC in Fort Pierce, Florida
bbhc-global.com is registered to Ruhe, Steven chet.uber@mac.com in Fort Pierce, Florida. Specifically 5817 Sunberry Circle Fort Pierce, Florida 34951
The article specifically cites Chet Uber in Fort Pierce, FL.
The Florida DMV database shows no Steven Rhue in the area. It does show a Chet Lee Uber at the address the domain is registered to.
It doesn't take a lot of brain power to put that together. Everything matches the information provided. The "Steven Ruhe" is an alias. Well, a decoy if you will. If people are looking around for a Steven Ruhe, they are less likely to identify him as Chet Uber, even though there is significant crossover between the two identities.
It's possible you could find more people named "Steven Ruhe" or "Chet Uber" around the country, which may be what you found. I know if I search for either my real name or alias, I find lots of people all around the world with my name, some matching my general physical description.
I'd give the DMV database priority over anything from sources like Linkedin or Plaxo. Those places don't require any proof of who you are, where the DMV is a bit pissy about proving who you are. I just renewed my Florida drivers license, and needed my old drivers license, birth certificate, social security card, and two other proofs of your home address. I guess more importantly, he has two Chet Uber's listed as connections on Plaxo, each in different areas. Either he has two friends with the same name, or there's clearly no real validation of a persons identity.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
Wait, so a dozen large ISPs are handing private user data to Project Vigilant which in turn hands it to parts of the US gov't, and this is "legal" because the ISPs have EULAs which allow sharing with unspecified third parties???
Way to bury the lede, slashdot. Some mainstream journo needs to find out which ISPs are participating.