Yearly Archives: 2017

John Whitehead: The Anatomy of a National Nervous Breakdown

"This breakdown—triggered by polarizing circus politics, media-fed mass hysteria, militarization and militainment (the selling of war and violence as entertainment), a sense of hopelessness and powerlessness in the face of growing corruption, the government’s alienation from its populace, and an economy that has much of the population struggling to get by—is manifesting itself in madness, mayhem and an utter disregard for the very principles and liberties that have kept us out of the clutches of totalitarianism for so long."

Continue ReadingJohn Whitehead: The Anatomy of a National Nervous Breakdown

Napolitano: What if Government Steals Liberty and Fails to Deliver Safety?

"What if this bulk surveillance is about power and control and not about safety? What if the use of intelligence data for political purposes and not for safety is a profound danger to democracy? What if government can't keep us safe? What if we falsely think that it does keep us safe? What if that delusion makes us less safe? What if government's bulk acquisition of private data makes us less free? What if government works not for us but for itself? What do we do about it?"

Continue ReadingNapolitano: What if Government Steals Liberty and Fails to Deliver Safety?

‘Stingray on steroids’: Texas National Guard has spy devices on planes

"Devices capable of accessing calls, photos and text messages on cell phones were installed on two Texas National Guard surveillance aircraft. The project was funded by over $300,000 from drug-related asset forfeitures. The cell site simulators, known as 'dirt boxes' (after the company’s acronym, DRT), are designed to mimic cell phone towers and trick every smartphone within one-third of a mile into connecting with it. This enables operators to intercept sensitive information including the user’s location, phone numbers dialed, text messages and photos. The devices can also be used to record or listen to phone calls ‒ all of it without users or service providers knowing about it."

Continue Reading‘Stingray on steroids’: Texas National Guard has spy devices on planes

Almost any Intel Skylake or later system can be owned via USB attack

"The likes of the EFF have long argued that having a “black box” that can control networking and hardware, even when the computer is switched off, represents a major security and privacy risk. Turns out they were right. Security firm Positive Technologies reports being able to execute unsigned code on computers running the IME through USB. The fully fleshed-out details of the attack are yet to be known, but from what we know, it’s bad."

Continue ReadingAlmost any Intel Skylake or later system can be owned via USB attack

Eavesdropper: The Mobile Vulnerability Exposing Millions of Conversations

"Appthority has discovered a significant data exposure vulnerability we’ve named Eavesdropper that affects almost 700 apps in enterprise environments. The vulnerability is caused by including hard coded credentials in mobile applications that are using the Twilio Rest API or SDK. By hard coding their credentials, the developers have effectively given global access to all metadata stored in their Twilio accounts, including text/SMS messages, call metadata, and voice recordings."

Continue ReadingEavesdropper: The Mobile Vulnerability Exposing Millions of Conversations

WikiLeaks: CIA wrote code ‘to impersonate’ Kaspersky Lab anti-virus

"The CIA multi-platform hacking suite ‘Hive’ was able to impersonate existing entities to conceal suspicious traffic from the user being spied on, the source code of the malicious program indicates, WikiLeaks said on Thursday. The extraction of information would therefore be misattributed to an impersonated company, and at least three examples in the code show that Hive is able to impersonate Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab, WikiLeaks stated."

Continue ReadingWikiLeaks: CIA wrote code ‘to impersonate’ Kaspersky Lab anti-virus

Prosecutors aren’t obligated to believe the evidence they present at trial

"I was surprised to learn that most state bars have no requirement that prosecutors believe that the evidence they present is truthful. Courts have ruled that even if prosecutors knowingly break the law — such as detaining defense witnesses in order to prevent them from testifying at trial — those who were harmed by the prosecutors’ behavior have no recourse."

Continue ReadingProsecutors aren’t obligated to believe the evidence they present at trial

Jacob Hornberger: The JFK Autopsy Cover-Up

"It’s important to keep in mind that all of this was kept secret from the American people from 1963 to the 1990s. Military personnel who participated in the autopsy were required by superior officers to sign written secrecy oaths, in which they promised never to reveal what they had seen during the autopsy. If it hadn’t been for Oliver Stone’s movie JFK, everything surrounding the autopsy would have remained secret, most likely forever."

Continue ReadingJacob Hornberger: The JFK Autopsy Cover-Up

Martin Luther King and Lee Harvey Oswald

"The records that the National Archives just released included a secret FBI analysis on civil-rights leader Martin Luther King. The thrust of the analysis is that King was a communist, and an immoral communist at that. Does the FBI analysis on King have any bearing on the Kennedy assassination? Actually, yes. That’s where critical thinking, circumstantial evidence, inferential thinking, and common sense come into play."

Continue ReadingMartin Luther King and Lee Harvey Oswald