“Wikileaks has a web page called the Spy Files that shows off a number of Internet surveillance products meant for government agencies,” Electronista reports. “The confidential brochures and slide presentations are made for law enforcement and authoritarian regimes and can be used to spy on the public and track political dissidents.”
“The surveillance industry is unregulated, allowing governments, authorities and military to quietly track and intercept calls and e-mails and take over computers, Wikileaks believes,” Electronista reports. “One such example includes DigiTask’s remote forensic software that works on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X computers, and some smartphones and is made to circumvent SSL encryption by intercepting the keys on the local system. It can then intercept IMs, e-mails, key logs, remote file access, screenshot capture and Internet activity.”
Electronista reports, “DigiTask also makes a standalone wireless portable system called WifiCatcher that can intercept data fron public Wi-Fi hotspots.”
Read more in the full article here.
Leander Kahney reports for Cult of Mac, “The industry is selling software to government agencies — some of it delivered by Trojans — that can take over your iPhone. It can track its every use, follow your movements (even in standby), recognize your voice, record conversations, and even capture video and audio from the room it is in.”
“It’s not just limited to iPhones, of course. There are various spyware packages that run on PCs, Android and Blackberry,” Kahney reports. “The uses are mind-boggling. The CIA, for example, is using phone-tracking software to target drone strikes in the Middle East and Central Asia.”
Kahney reports, “Wikileaks has promised to release hundreds of documents about 160 intelligence contractors in the mass surveillance industry through the rest of this month and next year. It released 278 documents on Thursday. Wikileaks is working with several privacy and media organizations.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Edward Weber” for the heads up.]
Julian Assange sells more tin foil hats than anyone else….
Julian Assange:
” rel=”nofollow”>“I think I’m TWICE as important as the editors at The New York Times, maaaan. But… like… they wouldn’t give me any respect, man.”
But, in front of the cameras, he is
” rel=”nofollow”>International Man of Mystery®™© who could spill others’ secrets, (but then he’d have to kill you).
App Store: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/money-scan-pro/id398958662?mt=8
Wikileaks, yawn.
I thought Wikileaks was killed by his brother Lemmiwinks…
A common misperception. HIs brother’s name was actually “Wikilinks.”
Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean that they aren’t out to get you.
Classic, and true.
This never fails to remind me of the cautionary movie “They Might Be Giants”. Read about the defining quote at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Might_Be_Giants_(film)
I like the gravatar of the pretty woman much more.
(I’m sorry, did I type that out loud…?)
So, now I’m chopped liver? : /
Uh, well….liver is very healthy!
(unless it is in C. Hitchens…)
“The visual does not alter the aural, other than to stimulate it…”
😉
World’s governments perform covert surveillance. Film at 11.
You get on the wrong side of the government, they will find a way to snoop on you. Before this it was wiretaps. As long as a proper warrant is being obtained, I don’t see what the problem is. (Sadly, that’s become a big “if” in recent years.)
And it’s not like they can push a “SPY ON JOE SCHMOE” button on some console somewhere. Agents will have to gain physical access to Mr. Schmoe’s computer or use spearphishing techniques to trick him into downloading a trojan.
In other words, more hype from Assange. What is this, “Julian Assange Tinfoil Hat Week”?
——RM
Who needs surveillance when they can just cart you away? The Senate just passed Levin’s (D-MI) Defense Authorization bill that allows
detain[ing] … anyone without trial in the name of counterterrorism
Wake the fcuk up!!!! These tools are real. The Bill of Rights is burning and nobody gives a shit.
I am pretty sure they can also open the mic on your On star as well.
Nobody wants to wake up. People are scared shitless to believe that they live in a world where your own gov’t robs you blind and watches their every move, so they pretend that they don’t. Unfortunately, what they believe changes nothing.
…does what YOU believe change anything?
Just painting a dab of black texta over my camera now.
What puzzles me is when Americans talk about Wikileaks and Asange they speak as if J.A. actually writes all this material. The fact is that it is written by the US government, its allies and other organizations, and they are either embarrassed by it or it discloses policy, practice, or opinion that is either contrary to public statement or illegal. Stop shooting the messenger, rather read and comment on the material itself. You may find it enlightening. The Dr
+the number that represents total previous comments posted on this so far.
Fair notion; when there are documents, Assange and Co serve the society well.
+1
Just imagine a world without covert electronic surveillance . Any terrorist group or criminal organisation could operate without fear. Bombs on ships, planes and trains, kidnaps galore, drug warlords everywhere. How long would civilisation last before we descended to or below Mexican or Afhgan status. Not too long I think.
Yes, Mexico is as bad as Afghanistan…
CourtJester , perhaps you should review the Bill of RIghts, especially the 5th and 6th amendments. Unrestricted covert electronic surveillance is the problem.
Bullshit! The only terrorists there are right now are mainstream media and bank controlled governments! Every terrorist act in the middle east and other countries is rooting from the CIA (a PRIVATE company I might add) because they want to put fear in people’s minds so we give more of our rights to them but let me tell ya I’d rather take the risk and be free and unsafe than to be a safe government SLAVE. Oh one more piece of information, only 0,5-1.0% of the population die from “terrorist” attacks every year whereas smoking kills roughly 15% or more. Cancer from all the shit they feed us and give us to drink (GMO foods, coca cola etc.) is killing more than 10% of the world population. The list goes on and on… I can safely state that “terrorism” should be our last concern on this planet right now…
Second that!!!
The hatred for america has nothing to do with our way of life as the lame stream media and our government would have us believe, and everything to do with our government repeatedly poking them in the eye. Sadly, our government fails to comprehend the fact that if you poke someone in the eye long enough, they’re eventually going to punch you in the face. America creates its own enemies. The hatred people have for america is our own fault.
+1
Amen brother.
The hatred for America has more to do with guilt laden people who can’t imagine what their world would be like if they hadn’t been handed so much in life.
I disagree, our government knows full well what it is doing, whatever is good for the business of their cronies that fund them.
Most of the populace is too busy with lady gaga and tmz to pay attention. That just eat up the nationalistic propaganda, beat their chest and go back to the couch and TV.
It’s not a good sign when the government has convinced us to give up our privacy out of fear. That’s Big Brother for you.
Benjamin Franklin said:
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
“Naturally the common people don’t want war. But after all, it is the
leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it’s always a
simple matter to drag people along whether it is a democracy or a
fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship.
Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of
the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are
being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and
for exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every
country.”
— Hermann Goering, Hitler’s Reich Marshall, at the Nuremberg
Trials after World War II.
Exactly how does this get onto an iPhone?
More than likely an exploit.
From what I’m gathering most of this stuff is loaded via exploits or as a trojan.
Answered my own question (amazing what following the link will provide you)
It’s delivered thru a fake iTunes update. So, break into the Mac/PC and set up a fake update.
Wonder how it works in iOS 5 – guess they need a court order to force Apple to load the stuff into iCloud
If anyone is surprised that governments or corporations would be interested in or actively using such apps/trojans/etc., you’re deaf, dumb and blind.
Of course intelligence agencies are going to find ways to access your mobile phone for tracking, gathering data, etc. What we have to do as the public is push for protections for law-abiding citizens, so that these agencies require warrants, probable cause, etc. before they can use such technology. That won’t stop all abuses, and I’m sure the CIA and other similar spy agencies will either have exceptions or will disregard some rules, but at least we could have some protections in place. Unlike the Patriot Act, which lets many of these electronic surveillance techniques be used without a court order.
Big Money bribes and extorts our leaders, and they are all above the law. If that’s not completely true now, eventually it will be. Big Money is gathering more power by data-collecting and by benefitting as the Federal Reserve puts the US people in trillions of $$ in debt. No one represents you in government, nor protects your rights.
I remain hopeful – the Western Spring is coming. It is later than it should be, thus the effect will be more dramatic and the excesses more extreme in the meantime. Occupy Wall Street is just the beginning; things always get fixed eventually
One simple change will fix nearly all of it – no bribes – only individuals can donate services, goods, cash directly or indirectly, and only to the extent of $500 per year. Absolutely no organizations, corporations, unions, straw donors. And rich people, including the candidates are capped at 500
Yes, we’re looking at amending the First Amendment to implement this after Citizen’s United
And eliminating Electoral Fraud – electoral district gerrymandering, voter disenfranchisement while we’re at it.
And, finally, make election promises binding contracts – stop the lying
That sounds good, except of course the amending of the First Amendment. What do you think needs changing?
I’m guessing that you mean that capping donations to $500 is tied somehow to the First Amendment. I can dig that, if nothing else in the First Amendment changes.
Bribing politicians is widely recognized as a bad thing, yet widely practiced in the US. 100 years of slowly tightening restrictions on 3rd parties participating in elections (i.e. non individuals in large amounts) was thrown out by the US Supreme Court under the Citizen’s United case – free speech was ruled to include the right for 3rd parties to participate in elections – run ads (a political attack documentary in the actual case), make unlimited contributions especially by paying for ads. In other words a huge avenue for bribery. The financial industry is the biggest contributor to elections, btw – is anybody surprised?
Canada has a similar free speech right to the US with the addition of “except where such restriction can be shown to be reasonable in a free and democratic society”. This was explicitly cited in upholding Canada’s anti-bribery law. The extreme literalism of the current US court went the other way; adding something similar to this clause to the First Amendment would fix this and would seem to be needed to overturn this precedent. Then, anti-bribery legislation wouldn’t be overturned on First Amendment grounds
Some fool a while back yelled fire in a crowded theater, caused a stampede, people died. Defense was free speech but was rejected by the US Supreme Court of the time. I wonder what the current US Supreme Court would rule? Bribery is ok; why not yelling fire?
And Free Speech should not include the right to knowingly lie either.
Your only hope seems to be Ron Paul!
The only candidate who seems to have any integrity and wants to follow your constitution. He is also against government harassment of their own citizens and intermingling in the affairs of other countries.
Peter
Canada