Posts Tagged ‘surveillance’
Sarah Harrison of Wikileaks
This is an eye-opening discussion re security/surveillance and the problematic tensions and self-censoring of media organizations over redactions. Sarah Harrison (in conversation with Alexa O’Brien) on Wikileaks’ evolving ‘archive’ and ‘history’ mission versus carefully filtered redacted documents — “media organizations working with governments is corrupting”. See what she says about US State Department trying to […]
On (your own) government spies reading your email
Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net Yeah, it ain’t right. You know? – P PS. The image file name is: imjustkiddingobamathisisonlyalittlejokedontputmeonanywatchlistswhosthatknockingonmydoor waitnonononohelloamericanothingtoseeherekeepconsumingkeepenjoyingthekardashians.png
Et tu, RTF? (WTF)
See this article by UK-based computer security specialist Graham Cluley Just previewing an Outlook email could infect your computer. Microsoft warns of zero-day flaw. Just previewing it? Gah! I remember when Microsoft Office macros were shown to be able to be exploited to infect computers. I ran my (since departed) MS Office suite with the […]
Edward Snowden TED Talk March 2014
via Robot … well worth watching: Pay attention to what he says about the risks of speaking out versus the risks of ‘exposure’ of the material (PRISM etc). Yet, without the courage to face those, where would we be? Remember, Daring — if there was no risk it wouldn’t take guts. “I did not do […]
Snowden’s statement to European Parliament Surveillance Inquiry (Read it for yourself)
In situations like this, I like reading the original statement. Available here as a PDF via the European Parliament. (Drop me a line at the email address here if this suffers from link rot. I have made an archive copy.) A good review (with an appropriate amount of modulated outrage) from Glyn Moody here: Snowden […]
What could be behind Apple’s unwillingness to pass the ‘Spy Lockout’ shareholder resolution?
See: Now, I hadn’t upgraded to OSX Mavericks, so the ‘GotoFail’ bug didn’t affect my desktop, but it appears that ‘error’ was a factor in my iPhone and iPad since iOS6 sometime. The awful coincidence of Apple appearing (according to Edward Snowden’s ground-shaking disclosures) to have joined the NSA’s PRISM ‘direct access to user data’ […]
Does anyone else think this spy agency ‘Discredit a target’ strategy might have been used against Julian Assange?
Wow, read this: Snowden Docs: British Spies Used Sex and ‘Dirty Tricks — NBC and ask yourself if Julian Assange might have been a ‘target’. British spies have developed “dirty tricks” for use against nations, hackers, terror groups, suspected criminals and arms dealers that include releasing computer viruses, spying on journalists and diplomats, jamming phones […]
State surveillance as a tool against dissent. Lack of ‘patriotism’ as the easiest smear.
Earlier I linked to a NY Times video/upcoming book promotion revealing the source of leaks about the FBI’s sometimes illegal COINTELPRO activities against individuals and groups exercising their democratic right to express dissent with government policy. Reading about the state-sponsored surveillance of such ‘dissidents’ and ‘left-leaners’ put me in mind of the way the NZ […]
Speaking of comparisons to Stasi surveillance …
There’s been a wee fracas as Silicon Valley venture capitalist Marc Andreessen (of Netscape Navigator fame) popped a foot in his mouth with what looks like a thoughtless or uninformed defence of the NSA’s illegal spying activities with a suggestion that former East Germans would fail to see similarities between the NSA’s mass surveillance and […]
‘Blackphone’ — Dystopian ‘loss of privacy’ memes are not new. But they seem fashionable now. And possibly commercially viable.
Watch this. It makes me want to try one out. (Except for that line about ‘the Android we’re all familiar with’— er, no not me.) Introduction to Blackphone from BLACKPHONE on Vimeo. But in the comments on that Blackphone promo — posted on Vimeo yesterday — there’s a link to this 4-year-old promo for Else […]
Lawyer says ‘My inaccurate client wasn’t lying’ (Oh gee, I think I will die laughing)
How lovely for James R Clapper to have someone willing to speak up for his honesty and integrity … Short version: He didn’t lie, he merely “… was surprised by the question and focused his mind on [something else] …”* Now waiting for my kids to try that one on me. – P * “In […]
Oh. The NSA ‘owns’ iPhones (but only if it can get its hands on them, for now)
It appears the FBI’s assessment (‘assume that [your communication] will be intercepted and retained’) was based on reality … including the remote control of your phone’s microphone & camera. According to leaked documents, the NSA claims a 100 percent success rate when it comes to implanting iOS devices with spyware. The documents suggest that the […]
Please read this NY Times column — ‘The Banality of Systematic Evil’
Goodness me, I just want to quote the whole thing! Gah! Please, if you care about these issues of whistle-blowing and state surveillance (as I do) go and read this article by Peter Ludlow, a professor of philosophy at Northwestern University writing in the NY Times: The Banality of Systemic Evil … In a June […]
Oh dear. Is the N.S.A. out of control? (Hint: Yes, I think so.)
In Der Spiegel … The United States’ National Security Agency intelligence-gathering operation is capable of accessing user data from smart phones from all leading manufacturers. Top secret NSA documents that SPIEGEL has seen explicitly note that the NSA can tap into such information on Apple iPhones, BlackBerry devices and Google’s Android mobile operating system. The […]
Unspeakably good satire about a serious matter
Ben Uffindell of The Civilian blog is seen as our latest Bright Young Thing of political satire — and rightly so. With his delightful mimicry of the ‘voice’ of news reporting (much like The Onion, although he’ll perhaps be tiring of that comparison) Ben manages to produce satire that is so soaked in verisimilitude that […]
