Slashdot Mirror
FBI Pressures Internet Providers To Install Surveillance Software
An anonymous reader sends this quote from an article at CNet: "The U.S. government is quietly pressuring telecommunications providers to install eavesdropping technology deep inside companies' internal networks to facilitate surveillance efforts. FBI officials have been sparring with carriers, a process that has on occasion included threats of contempt of court, in a bid to deploy government-provided software capable of intercepting and analyzing entire communications streams. The FBI's legal position during these discussions is that the software's real-time interception of metadata is authorized under the Patriot Act. Attempts by the FBI to install what it internally refers to as 'port reader' software, which have not been previously disclosed, were described to CNET in interviews over the last few weeks. One former government official said the software used to be known internally as the 'harvesting program.'"
Since I have nothing to hide, YOU have no reason to look!
How about we pull a reversal and be permitted to monitor the FBI, NSA and CIA own internal network? All in the name of the constitution to ensure they are not overstepping their mandates and/or boundaries.
I wonder how well that would go over with them?
I wonder when this whole top heavy mess in washington will come crashing down.. They don't need to worry about 'terrorists', foreign or 'home grown'. Their own self destructive behavior will do them all in first...and drag the rest of us citizens down with them.
This has been A LONG time coming. Decades of mission creep, no one complains. But now that it's come back to bite us in the Gluteus maximus, we're all surprised? Personally, I love the idea that it's happening. Sure, I'll probably be one of the ones tortured and jailed for no other reason than "suspicious activity". And I'm not looking forward to that bit at all. But people have been screaming at us that this was going to happen. And no one listened. You reap what you sew, etc. As it was stated in the past, When they start coming for you, it's too late to change things.
Restore the madness of youth's lechery
Interesting if it is after https goes back to plain text at the server or search engine or search engine proxy service on any .com (US) provider?
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
The "harvesting program" brought in a bumper crop of civil liberties this year.
All this capability and warnings from Russia, and they still could not stop the Boston bombings. They also could not stop the Detroit shoe bomber.
Let me know who's declining to install warantless taps and I'll put them on my list of businesses to engage for projects.
For those wondering, Democracy Now carried the Senate hearing a day or two ago with Senator Lahey grilling the Deputy Director of the NSA, who revealed that of all the S.215 intercepts that have happened since 9/11, he could point to only one terrorist plot that maybe (just maybe) would have happened 'but for' the NSA spying. This is the purported benefit of sacrificing the privacy of three hundred million people.
I haven't seen this make the mainstream news yet, at least from the links on the aggregators I read. Oh, but since the spying justification is falling apart, there's going to be a terrorist attack on Sunday. :P
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Well... since it's not explicitly a soldier, a federal representation of military enforcement, I GUESS it's okay.
With latest revelations going mainstream, we're transitioning from stealth surveillance and oppresive state to overtly oppresive corporate fascist state. How long will it take for government opressions to become mainstream ? US police and security apparatus is already quite oppresive and corrupt (propably the worst in the developed world with the biggest prisoner population in the whole world), yet people tend to ignore this. Opressions from corporate fascist state will become part of everyday life sooner than people expect.
to either blow up the patriot act to bits or loose their jobs. Are they for or against the people ? That should be the only matter on the next election agenda. .. i don't know what's less frustrating. Is it knowing you're screwed like in Russia or living with one's pants down pretending we're not getting screwed ?
looks to me like they're against the people they are " supposed " to serve. If that's not true , how is this a democracy ? Or is it just tyranny under the disguise of democracy ? I mean
Because they hate our freedooms.
Everybody NOT in the administration ( or familly, friends inkl. freemason lodge bongholes ) must wear a prison tag around the angle (GPS enabled).
All public areas must have surveillance cameras. ( Allready checked )
Cafes, bars and restaurants must be equipped with microphones as well.
The comrades from the administration must be entitled to rape one random citizen every month by choice.
http://wac.450f.edgecastcdn.net/80450F/screencrush.com/files/2012/10/Agent-Smith1.jpg
White collar criminals perpetrate their crimes that's evidenced by their phone calls, emails, spreadsheets, financial transactions, etc. IOW, data. With access to so much data, why isn't law enforcement doing more to investigate white collar crime?
It's a bogus name given to bogus laws that flies right in the face of everything patriotic. Whenever that damn name is invoked (Patriot Act) it means we are having something taken from us be it rights or privacy.
They told me if I voted for John McCain we would see this kind of escalating government abuse. And they were right!
One can only hope that they will find what they are looking for. ;-)
A Springtime Harvest is always welcome.
I am John Hurt.
That works for governments as
well as it does for superiors in the work place. i
I could move to another planet. I don't like this one anymore. It's too polluted with asshole politicians.
let the good times roll...
Bow down before me you twerps!
Love,
Lester
People often look back at datelines where fascists thrived (Germany, Cambodia, Spain, etc.) and think, "Wow! How couldthey just sit back and let that happen!"
Well, ladies and gentlemen, this is how.
I wonder how long hacks and other enthusiasts get tired of being monitored up the ass before an alternative Internet gets created. Piggy backed on the Internet, but offering true end to end encryption and complete anonymity. I'm not talking TOR with it's limited exit nodes, I'm talking where every person on the 'network' is an exit node. Visiting a website with say a page of 10 images results in a server log of 11 different IP addresses.
We all are the enablers, either by us creating cool programs because we saw a use, but could also be miss-used. Or by our votes or by the cash we paid gladly to build the internet.
We paid for the internet they are riding on the backs of, our intentions were good until the complete commercialization of the internet happened which probably started around the AOL time.
I see the only possibility of the implosion of the internet infrastructure by a mass exodus to be the only way that will happen, but don't count on that.
Get rid of your cell, get rid of your computers. Does not mean that they cant monitor you. Start meeting people in public places and enjoy life untethered. If you feel you must code software instead of creating tools that can be misused create educational software that does not need a connection to a server. The internet of thing is bull**** it was envisioned to be a military tool for the government, and it has truly became that.
no need to comment on these win-win situation for the bad guys trying to
induce a feeling of fear. only people susceptible are reading this "news" anyways.
the obvious fact is that there exists a "dumb" elite that is interested more in
creating physical buttons they can press to liberate more "feel good" neurotransmitter for themselves,
FRAME people who stand in their way or might even get some money for their publicly
approved work. furthermore mobiles are traceable (how else does one phone know where
to send the signal too) and you cannot spy on the whole internet, else it would require a
second slightly bigger spy internet (that manages the first internet).
if you do any money business on the internet, then all your anonymity is gone anyway.
this is all an escalation. the digital crimes are just gonna get a whole lot more REAL, unless
you're on the right side, whence you will be classified as a "digital soldier" not a "murderer" or killer".
it took a government to come up with the idea to use computers to do actual damage in the physical (unstable atom) world,
not some "criminal" programmer who just sent love letters or re-programmed a few SQL servers.
i hope they will give away some computers to crystal meth addicts, because THAT is prolly the biggest problem in
country with strips and stars as a flag right NOW and the three letter agency that starts with F could do alot
of good spying in the right place then? then again meth addicts don't give a F about computers : )
When the target of snooping were foreing citizens all was OK, no reason to complain. Then they started watching "suspicious people", but it was for national security, just a few, is justified. Now is on everyone, specially US citizens, your time to complain has passed already.
Now wait for the same sequence with drones. Just try to avoid the wrong neighbourhoods
As far as I understand it the European position has always been pro-policing anti-warfare. They aren't being hypocrites they wanted the USA to have a deeper surveillance system and said so openly for many years.
I have to 'backpeddle' on the NSA @ least in 1 respect I got wind of:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4046997&cid=44465451
(The republicans BLOCKING the cybersecurity bill - stupid, Stupid, STUPID! Even from a businessman's "pov" especially for reasons I noted there for reason of BUSINESS OWN BOTTOM-LINE 'raison d'etre': Profitability: Cyber insurance be damned, especially if the insurer finds out YOU as the business making the claim did NOT fully cover yourself vs. threats completely, opening the doors to liability suits, rightfully so, from customers affected potentially...).
Still against PRISM though - that much I feel is wrong & that its actual efficacy + "ROI" is questionable vs. potential for abuse/misuse.
I.E.-> Yes, I don't like the idea of "Big Brother" anymore than the next guy is why, & the fact some of what they said is "not 100% straight up" (from Clapper/Alexander, but then again, they have their hands tied too on things probably on WHAT can be said). Still - the "roi" on PRISM? Not good enough to 'spy' on US citizens (didn't stop boston bomber for example), & yes, the fact there exists a potential for misuse/abuse by "mortal men" via "absolute power corrupting absolutely",
* So YES - I still am, however, HIGHLY AGAINST the potential for misuse of both PRISM (not so much xKeyScorew anymore though - that's pretty much just a query tool & parser of data IF we've been told the straight up on that much though, per this -> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/01/xkeyscore_leak_challenged/ )
The cybersecurity bill being blocked though? HEY, not only does it leave the windows open, even when the front doors are triple locked, but it also cuts out jobs for geeks/nerds like us here too (yes, that's right, looking @ ALL sides).
APK
P.S.=> You really, Really, REALLY have to "sift thru" this material, from any/all possible sources in the news (especially since, let's face it, "biased journalism sells more magazines" & those that own said organizations skew/twist things for their OWN agendas @ times too, sometimes QUITE bogusly) to make better determinations of "what's-what" & on what specific grounds/accounts (What I posted above made me do a 180 on that much @ least, & yes, in FAVOR of the NSA/General Alexander, for once, in fact, on the CyberSecurity bill going through @ least)... apk
How long before we end up with someone at the front door in a cheap suit that forces end users to install their malware?
They are NOT in existence to serve the people.
They exist to make sure the corrupt and dishonest
government stays in power.
If you think the FBI is your friend, do some research on
COINTELPRO.
Like I said : FUCK the FBI.
And if you read this, mister feeb, fuck YOU.
In all honesty, what would you rather have?
A: A 100% surveillance society?
OR
B: A 100% anonymous society?
Really think hard before you answer. Tinfoil hatters, I already know your answer, that alone should make you paranoid, you best burn your temp apartment and flee the cops that are coming for you right now. Also sing Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You while you are doing it.
Personally I'd go for the former. A just works better. It is more useful too.
Oversight of oversight of oversight. No lies. No abuses. No hiding reality from people.
You'd find that you probably aren't actually some weird person and that there are actually others like you. To be a special unique snowflake requires serious effort.
Of course, everyone knows your deep dark secrets now. Have you been lying to your friends and family?
But doubly of course, you also know the secrets of everyone else too. There would be no reason to fear unless you had done something absolutely atrocious by societies standards that you were hunted and killed like the witchhunts of old.
B is a horrible idea. But also a very intriguing one too. To wonder how a society like that would work is interesting indeed. Sort of like that film Keanu Reeves mained in, the film about people wearing some suit that "randomized" their features so they could go to secret meetings about elephants or some shit, I don't remember, barely paid attention the 2 times I watched it.
No relationships could form of any value. And if it was a society that was virtual, considerably harder to form even a relationship in general.
There would be no such thing as a fact, as anyone could make up anything. Imagine what a world would be like if it had the stability of the bitcoin. A single twitter post could devalue millions of their worth in mere minutes. It would be anarchy.
The secret answer C was the mess of a society we had previous to modern society. "The Wild West" would be a more appropriate timeline for you.
And the secret answer D won't happen because you won't move in to a forest and cut your ties with society which has been spying on you your entire life because it is more effort than it is worth. Even given the chance to fight for your freedom, you wouldn't because deep down you are just a coward born in to a suppressive society. Welcome to the now.
I find it amusing and disturbing that the normal ideals of "what goes around, comes around" strictly does not apply here. If Bradley Manning leaks information, if Edward Snowden tells of systems used for spying (not even the details, just that the programs exist), or if Julian Assange stands behind the information being revealed, then the US government goes all ballistic on them, they are criminals, and enemies, and must be stopped, tortured, killed, sent to a kangaroo court with a secret trial, secret evidence, and millions of years in prison. I thought about Snowden, and what the shadows he has to hide in, and it reminded me of Leon Trotsky (killed by the Russian government in Mexico in 1940). The Patriot Act grants absolute power, and is wide open to absolute corruption, and they cleave to it like a rat pup to its mothers teat. What Orwellian hell has this country created for itself? Clearly the citizens are in no way able to control the out-of-control nature. The poor cannot affect change so their ranks swell. They desperately vote for the political left, yet see little relief. The right are desperate to keep getting richer, and also to stem the power of government, and while they keep getting richer, the government keeps going out of control. The political machine in the US is broken, and as a result, the US is a country out of control. I see 1) The middle class to all become poor, 2) the rich to become ultra rich 3) the government spy agencies to swell to 10x their size, 4) US foreign debt to swell 5) More cities in the US to go bankrupt 6) Increased salaries for executives 7) continued abuses by banks ...since we did not learn from the last disaster, we are prone to another, bigger one 8) The US government using drones to kill thousands/millions of its own people. The poor will lose their citizenship. The US government may even try to deport them to other countries.
Gambling is legal in Vegas. Yet I need to hide my hole card.
So, I have something to hide, yet I have done nothing wrong.
Our government has become the biggest threat to freedom, liberty, and our way of life, far and away bigger than the Islamic terrorists could have ever hoped to have been.
The soap box certainly didn't work. The ballot box certainly hasn't worked. And, the ammo box is empty because government is buying all the ammo to keep us from getting it.
We're pretty fucked.
I used to feel that way, until I saw the government reaction to the spying leaks. That's malice.
it's fear, really.
of course not fear of terrorist attacks, but fear of loosing power. control, that is.
"malice" is just a moral tag, as such useless confetti in any rational discussion. what you see as malice is just an animal reaction to fear.
you are correct they cannot effectively monitor all communication. Yet, they attempted to do just that rather than expending the resources monitoring threats they had been warned about repeatedly.
Pretend you are responsible for reducing terrorism. You're giving a hundred million dollar budget, a list of 50 people who appear to be threats, and the phone numbers of major internet providers. Do you:
a) use that money to closely monitor the 50 suspects
Or
b) make logs of every email and phone call of every law abiding citizen, so you have more data than you can possibly look at.
Choosing B is stupid.
There's only one way to get our privacy back (and it's a long shot). Use what Constitutional power we have to change the law. Proposed 28th Amendment: No person, group, or agency, public or private, foreign or domestic, may collect, record, transmit, or disclose any private information beyond that defined in the United States Census about any individual without express written permission of the individual or court order specific to an active criminal investigation. Private information includes, but is not limited to, location, financial transactions, medical records, school records, arrest records, associates, and associations. Candidates for elected positions must submit seven years past income tax records at least ninety (90) days before elections.
Now that I said that, I fell better.
...want to spy on so many people?
Seems they have some psychological handicap as an organization. But since corporation can be considered persons, where is the Psychological institute to provide therapy to such a "person" named the FBI so they may recover from their illness.
But actually what is going on is a government controlled feedback loop and the spying is only a part of the loop. The other part is the controlled medai. So we have the media conditioning the masses and the spying to determine direction of the conditioning. Its not about Terrorism at all, its about ---> http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/07/30/govt-knows-best-white-house-creates-nudge-squad-to-shape-behavior/
The government has been in bed with the telecom industry since the end of the 1960's.
Just because a few people "knew" 15 years ago, it doesn't mean it's old news for the vast majority of people.
What do you mean a "few"? It, carnivore, was on the news back then for chrissakes.. People heard it and read it then just went "meh" then continued on in their malaise as if it wasn't real. It didn't "become real" for them until now when it's been repeated over and over enough by enough sources.
That's the definition of sheeple. You can tell them something important, even show them, and it will just bounce right off of them until enough other sheeple around them start to bleet. They can't think for themselves, it takes groupthink to make them react at all. This is something the predators, people in power, have always known and taken advantage of.
Don't count on your neighbors, or anyone else in this country, to do the smart thing and keep you and all of us safe. Fear them, fear their willful ignorance and stupidity..
I think they are using PRISM and what they have, to monitor those 50... who actually count more like 100.000 or so. They just don't want to disclose who they are monitoring, so they ask to have their filters applied directly to the data at the ISP.
There is no substitute for common sense. Especially, no body of rules will do.
We know this trend will never end, so might as well start planning for it now.
If we all encrypt, they can record as much as they want. It wont get them anywhere.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Zieg Hiel, Mein Fuhrer!
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
That's why you need to install spyware from a reputable provider. I suggest that ISPs should get their spyware from Albert Gonzalez Productions. He's well known as being top of the line.
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
I wonder on what hardware this software runs. TFA tells about it just like if it was obvious to run a common spyware on all ISP heterogeneous setups.
By extra-Constitution Al... you must mean Al Franken. I mean, he's been a member of Congress since this whole thing began, and we hear less about him in the press than we do about Clarence Thomas. His silence is deafening! Could it be that if you just find a way to get rid of extra-Constitution Al, all our troubles will be over?!
I don't think so.
(BTW When did 'Legal' and 'extra-Constitutional' first evaluate as congruent?)
Previous court cases were thrown out because no one could prove they were being spied on. PERFECT ! Either: A) FBI can install equipment using by citing authorizations which gives ISPs and customers grounds to sue ...or...
A) FBI cannot install equipment because they have cited no authorization to do so.
SO which is it FBI?
Are you, or are you not installing equipment?
** Fuck sports. GO TEAM EFF !!!! **
(BTW When did 'Legal' and 'extra-Constitutional' first evaluate as congruent?)
When it became useful to do so in justifying violating Constitutional limits on government power and the civil rights of American citizens.
Would be rather obvious, I would think.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
It was said one time big brother is watching over us.That was asais in jest. But now that has come to be the truth, the whole truth and the whole truth.The land of the freee is not so free anymore.So we all better watch over our back. In fact we all need eyes in the back of our heads. Willll we ever achieve world peace?
The big guy with a killer smile
"I have nothing to hide. They've already taken my wealth and my soul." Quote from a Democrat.
I take it the FEDS want the ability to conquer firewalls and remotely control peripherals, like cameras and microphones. They need DATA to fill the billions of terabyte space they now have. I believe the mental disorder is known as hoarding.
"The FBI's legal position during these discussions is that the software's real-time interception of metadata is authorized under the Patriot Act."
Any part or portion of the Patriot Act forbidden by the constitution is of no force or effect, and it is the duty of the executive branch to NOT enforce it. That includes the Supreme authority in any county -- the Sheriff. The federal government has no supremacy in this regard, because they not only have not been granted that power under the constitution - but they have been expressly forbidden from enacting their stated goals.
They have no jurisdiction over the state, county, or individual in such a matter.