[ ]   [ ]   [ ]                        [ ]      [ ]   [ ]

Europe - R_P - Jul 12, 2025 - 6:30pm
 
Trump - R_P - Jul 12, 2025 - 6:10pm
 
July 2025 Photo Theme - Stone - KurtfromLaQuinta - Jul 12, 2025 - 5:14pm
 
The Marie Antoinette Moment... - KurtfromLaQuinta - Jul 12, 2025 - 4:40pm
 
Are they married yet? YES THEY ARE! - triskele - Jul 12, 2025 - 3:50pm
 
Why atheists swallow, - R_P - Jul 12, 2025 - 2:37pm
 
Israel - R_P - Jul 12, 2025 - 1:50pm
 
Democratic Party - R_P - Jul 12, 2025 - 1:37pm
 
Bug Reports & Feature Requests - machar - Jul 12, 2025 - 12:34pm
 
Beyond mix - Steely_D - Jul 12, 2025 - 11:29am
 
NY Times Strands - ptooey - Jul 12, 2025 - 9:01am
 
NYTimes Connections - islander - Jul 12, 2025 - 8:37am
 
Wordle - daily game - GeneP59 - Jul 12, 2025 - 8:26am
 
Radio Paradise Comments - GeneP59 - Jul 12, 2025 - 8:20am
 
A motivational quote - steeler - Jul 11, 2025 - 6:58pm
 
Beyond... - GeneP59 - Jul 11, 2025 - 6:35pm
 
M.A.G.A. - R_P - Jul 11, 2025 - 4:36pm
 
Protest Songs - R_P - Jul 11, 2025 - 12:38pm
 
True Confessions - oldviolin - Jul 11, 2025 - 11:56am
 
USA! USA! USA! - R_P - Jul 11, 2025 - 11:40am
 
Jess Roden - legendary UK vocalist - and "Seven Windows" ... - J_C - Jul 11, 2025 - 11:22am
 
• • • The Once-a-Day • • •  - oldviolin - Jul 11, 2025 - 10:47am
 
What the hell OV? - oldviolin - Jul 11, 2025 - 10:34am
 
Great Old Songs You Rarely Hear Anymore - chieromancer1 - Jul 11, 2025 - 10:34am
 
Live Music - oldviolin - Jul 11, 2025 - 10:13am
 
Today in History - Red_Dragon - Jul 11, 2025 - 8:04am
 
It seemed like a good idea at the time - ptooey - Jul 11, 2025 - 6:10am
 
Country Up The Bumpkin - KurtfromLaQuinta - Jul 10, 2025 - 9:13pm
 
TV shows you watch - R_P - Jul 10, 2025 - 5:31pm
 
Wasted Money - GeneP59 - Jul 10, 2025 - 5:22pm
 
Baseball, anyone? - kcar - Jul 10, 2025 - 5:06pm
 
Rock mix / repitition - walk2k - Jul 10, 2025 - 4:31pm
 
Name My Band - GeneP59 - Jul 10, 2025 - 3:24pm
 
How's the weather? - GeneP59 - Jul 10, 2025 - 3:21pm
 
Climate Change - R_P - Jul 10, 2025 - 12:52pm
 
Random Solutions - Random Advice - oldviolin - Jul 10, 2025 - 10:11am
 
Spambags on RP - KurtfromLaQuinta - Jul 10, 2025 - 9:02am
 
misheard lyrics - GeneP59 - Jul 10, 2025 - 6:30am
 
New Song Submissions system - Teja - Jul 10, 2025 - 3:36am
 
TEXAS - Red_Dragon - Jul 9, 2025 - 5:57pm
 
DQ (as in 'Daily Quote') - black321 - Jul 9, 2025 - 11:33am
 
Fascism In America - ColdMiser - Jul 9, 2025 - 10:23am
 
Republican Party - Red_Dragon - Jul 9, 2025 - 7:50am
 
Economix - oldviolin - Jul 9, 2025 - 7:45am
 
Outstanding Covers - oldviolin - Jul 8, 2025 - 9:29pm
 
Trump Lies™ - R_P - Jul 8, 2025 - 7:14pm
 
Musky Mythology - R_P - Jul 8, 2025 - 5:43pm
 
Photography Forum - Your Own Photos - Alchemist - Jul 8, 2025 - 11:45am
 
What is the meaning of this? - islander - Jul 8, 2025 - 10:11am
 
Love & Hate - oldviolin - Jul 8, 2025 - 8:15am
 
Artificial Intelligence - Red_Dragon - Jul 8, 2025 - 6:45am
 
Anti-War - R_P - Jul 7, 2025 - 6:45pm
 
Environment - R_P - Jul 7, 2025 - 5:38pm
 
(Big) Media Watch - R_P - Jul 7, 2025 - 12:04pm
 
The Grateful Dead - black321 - Jul 7, 2025 - 11:17am
 
Music Videos - black321 - Jul 7, 2025 - 9:00am
 
Mixtape Culture Club - KurtfromLaQuinta - Jul 7, 2025 - 8:59am
 
Immigration - black321 - Jul 7, 2025 - 8:02am
 
Russia - Red_Dragon - Jul 7, 2025 - 7:39am
 
Triskele and The Grateful Dead - geoff_morphini - Jul 6, 2025 - 10:33pm
 
Hey Baby, It's The 4th O' July - GeneP59 - Jul 6, 2025 - 9:42pm
 
Customize a shirt with my favorite album - 2644364236 - Jul 6, 2025 - 7:20pm
 
Those Lovable Policemen - R_P - Jul 6, 2025 - 10:56am
 
Beer - SeriousLee - Jul 6, 2025 - 6:54am
 
Iran - R_P - Jul 5, 2025 - 9:01pm
 
What are you doing RIGHT NOW? - Coaxial - Jul 5, 2025 - 6:48pm
 
New vs Old RP App (Android) - mhamann123 - Jul 5, 2025 - 5:41am
 
Britain - R_P - Jul 4, 2025 - 1:41pm
 
Ukraine - R_P - Jul 4, 2025 - 11:10am
 
Best Song Comments. - 2644364236 - Jul 3, 2025 - 11:32pm
 
The Obituary Page - ScottFromWyoming - Jul 3, 2025 - 11:27am
 
Documentaries - Proclivities - Jul 3, 2025 - 9:31am
 
Annoying stuff. not things that piss you off, just annoyi... - Steely_D - Jul 3, 2025 - 8:36am
 
Copyright and theft - black321 - Jul 3, 2025 - 6:48am
 
Fox Spews - islander - Jul 2, 2025 - 10:39am
 
Index » Regional/Local » USA/Canada » Those lovable acronym guys & gals Page: Previous  1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ... 26, 27, 28  Next
Post to this Topic
miamizsun

miamizsun Avatar

Location: (3283.1 Miles SE of RP)
Gender: Male


Posted: Apr 8, 2015 - 8:19am

Turns Out Feds Actually Tracked Most International Calls For Nearly A Decade Before 9/11 — Didn't Stop The Attack

 

One of the big arguments trotted out repeatedly by surveillance state defenders concerning the NSA's Section 215 program to collect records on all phone calls is that such a thing "would have prevented 9/11" if it had been in place at the time. Here's former FBI boss Robert Mueller making just that argument right after the initial Snowden leaks. Here's Dianne Feinstein making the argument that if we had that phone tracking program before September 11th, we could have stopped the attacks. And here's former NSA top lawyer and still top NSA supporter Stewart Baker arguing that the program is necessary because the lack of such a program failed to stop 9/11.

Except, it turns out, the feds did have just such a program prior to 9/11 — run by the DEA. As you may recall, back in January it was revealed that the DEA had its own database of phone call metadata of nearly all calls from inside the US to foreign countries. Brad Heath at USA Today came out with a report yesterday that goes into much more detail on the program, showing that it dates back to at least 1992 — meaning that the feds almost certainly had the calls that Feinstein and Mueller pretended the government didn't have prior to 9/11.


R_P

R_P Avatar

Gender: Male


Posted: Apr 6, 2015 - 1:35pm


R_P

R_P Avatar

Gender: Male


Posted: Apr 6, 2015 - 11:58am


via
R_P

R_P Avatar

Gender: Male


Posted: Mar 27, 2015 - 6:53pm

TSA’s Secret Behavior Checklist to Spot Terrorists - The Intercept

A TSA spokesperson declined to comment on the criteria obtained by The Intercept. “Behavior detection, which is just one element of the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) efforts to mitigate threats against the traveling public, is vital to TSA’s layered approach to deter, detect and disrupt individuals who pose a threat to aviation,” a spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

Since its introduction in 2007, the SPOT program has attracted controversy for the lack of science supporting it. In 2013, the Government Accountability Office found that there was no evidence to back up the idea that “behavioral indicators … can be used to identify persons who may pose a risk to aviation security.” After analyzing hundreds of scientific studies, the GAO concluded that “the human ability to accurately identify deceptive behavior based on behavioral indicators is the same as or slightly better than chance.”

The inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security found in 2013 that TSA had failed to evaluate SPOT, and “cannot ensure that passengers at United States airports are screened objectively, show that the program is cost-effective, or reasonably justify the program’s expansion.”

Despite those concerns, TSA has trained and deployed thousands of Behavior Detection Officers, and the program has cost more than $900 million since it began in 2007, according to the GAO.


R_P

R_P Avatar

Gender: Male


Posted: Mar 25, 2015 - 10:49am

UK Police Deem Snowden Leak Investigation a State Secret - The Intercept
British police claim a criminal investigation they launched into journalists who have reported on leaked documents from Edward Snowden has to be kept a secret due to a “possibility of increased threat of terrorist activity.” (...)

Validation. You're doing it...
R_P

R_P Avatar

Gender: Male


Posted: Mar 23, 2015 - 7:52am

Communication Security Establishment's cyberwarfare toolbox revealed
Mexico, North Africa, Middle East among targets of cyber-spy hacking

Top-secret documents obtained by the CBC show Canada's electronic spy agency has developed a vast arsenal of cyberwarfare tools alongside its U.S. and British counterparts to hack into computers and phones in many parts of the world, including in friendly trade countries like Mexico and hotspots like the Middle East.

The little known Communications Security Establishment wanted to become more aggressive by 2015, the documents also said.

Revelations about the agency's prowess should serve as a "major wakeup call for all Canadians," particularly in the context of the current parliamentary debate over whether to give intelligence officials the power to disrupt national security threats, says Ronald Deibert, director of the Citizen Lab, the respected internet research group at University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs.

"These are awesome powers that should only be granted to the government with enormous trepidation and only with a correspondingly massive investment in equally powerful systems of oversight, review and public accountability," says Deibert.

Details of the CSE’s capabilities are revealed in several top-secret documents analyzed by CBC News in collaboration with The Intercept, a U.S. news website co-founded by Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who obtained the documents from U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden. (...)


R_P

R_P Avatar

Gender: Male


Posted: Feb 26, 2015 - 11:44am

Why Does the FBI Have to Manufacture its Own Plots if Terrorism and ISIS Are Such Grave Threats? - The Intercept

(...) Once again, we should all pause for a moment to thank the brave men and women of the FBI for saving us from their own terror plots.

One can, if one really wishes, debate whether the FBI should be engaging in such behavior. For reasons I and many others have repeatedly argued, these cases are unjust in the extreme: a form of pre-emptory prosecution where vulnerable individuals are targeted and manipulated not for any criminal acts they have committed but rather for the bad political views they have expressed. They end up sending young people to prison for decades for “crimes” which even their sentencing judges acknowledge they never would have seriously considered, let alone committed, in the absence of FBI trickery. It’s hard to imagine anyone thinking this is a justifiable tactic, but I’m certain there are people who believe that. Let’s leave that question to the side for the moment in favor of a different issue.


Leaked cables show spies spend more time tracking non-terrorists - The Globe and Mail
"Despite popular belief that they are chasing terrorists and master criminals, the world’s spy agencies spend much of their time pursuing environmentalists, opposition leaders, dissidents and even airline staff, leaked documents show.

The intelligence agencies, including Canadian spies, are interested in civilian targets that go far beyond terrorism, according to the latest batch of South African intelligence agency reports, leaked to Al Jazeera. Many spy agencies are more preoccupied with political activists than with terrorism, the reports show."
Big gov
R_P

R_P Avatar

Gender: Male


Posted: Feb 23, 2015 - 12:00pm


R_P

R_P Avatar

Gender: Male


Posted: Feb 23, 2015 - 9:07am

Edward Snowden documentary Citizenfour wins Oscar
Soon on Channel 4 and HBO...
R_P

R_P Avatar

Gender: Male


Posted: Feb 19, 2015 - 2:55pm

The Great SIM Heist: How Spies Stole the Keys to the Encryption Castle
AMERICAN AND BRITISH spies hacked into the internal computer network of the largest manufacturer of SIM cards in the world, stealing encryption keys used to protect the privacy of cellphone communications across the globe, according to top-secret documents provided to The Intercept by National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden. (...)

R_P

R_P Avatar

Gender: Male


Posted: Feb 18, 2015 - 12:56am

NSA hid spying software in hard drive firmware, report says
Government, military in Iran, Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan targeted

R_P

R_P Avatar

Gender: Male


Posted: Feb 16, 2015 - 11:32am

How “omnipotent” hackers tied to NSA hid for 14 years—and were found at last | Ars Technica

(...) In an exhaustive report published Monday at the Kaspersky Security Analyst Summit here, researchers stopped short of saying Equation Group was the handiwork of the NSA—but they provided detailed evidence that strongly implicates the US spy agency.

First is the group's known aptitude for conducting interdictions, such as installing covert implant firmware in a Cisco Systems router as it moved through the mail.

Second, a highly advanced keylogger in the Equation Group library refers to itself as "Grok" in its source code. The reference seems eerily similar to a line published last March in an Intercept article headlined "How the NSA Plans to Infect 'Millions' of Computers with Malware." The article, which was based on Snowden-leaked documents, discussed an NSA-developed keylogger called Grok.

Third, other Equation Group source code makes reference to "STRAITACID" and "STRAITSHOOTER." The code words bear a striking resemblance to "STRAITBIZARRE," one of the most advanced malware platforms used by the NSA's Tailored Access Operations unit. Besides sharing the unconventional spelling "strait," Snowden-leaked documents note that STRAITBIZARRE could be turned into a disposable "shooter." In addition, the codename FOXACID belonged to the same NSA malware framework as the Grok keylogger. (...)

The money and time required to develop the Equation Group malware, the technological breakthroughs the operation accomplished, and the interdictions performed against targets leave little doubt that the operation was sponsored by a nation-state with nearly unlimited resources to dedicate to the project. The countries that were and weren't targeted, the ties to Stuxnet and Flame, and the Grok artifact found inside the Equation Group keylogger strongly support the theory the NSA or a related US agency is the responsible party, but so far Kaspersky has declined to name a culrit. NSA officials didn't respond to an e-mail seeking comment for this story.

What is safe to say is that the unearthing of the Equation Group is a seminal finding in the fields of computer and national security, as important, or possibly more so, than the revelations about Stuxnet.

"The discovery of the Equation Group is significant because this omnipotent cyber espionage entity managed to stay under the radar for almost 15 years, if not more," Raiu said. "Their incredible skills and high tech abilities, such as infecting hard drive firmware on a dozen different brands, are unique across all the actors we have seen and second to none. As we discover more and more advanced threat actors, we understand just how little we know. It also makes us reflect about how many other things remains hidden or unknown."


sirdroseph

sirdroseph Avatar

Location: Not here, I tell you wat
Gender: Male


Posted: Feb 13, 2015 - 8:32am


sirdroseph

sirdroseph Avatar

Location: Not here, I tell you wat
Gender: Male


Posted: Feb 13, 2015 - 7:54am


R_P

R_P Avatar

Gender: Male


Posted: Feb 12, 2015 - 11:24pm


via
R_P

R_P Avatar

Gender: Male


Posted: Feb 11, 2015 - 5:24pm

Western Spy Agencies Secretly Rely on Hackers for Intel and Expertise - The Intercept

The U.S., U.K. and Canadian governments characterize hackers as a criminal menace, warn of the threats they allegedly pose to critical infrastructure, and aggressively prosecute them, but they are also secretly exploiting their information and expertise, according to top secret documents.

In some cases, the surveillance agencies are obtaining the content of emails by monitoring hackers as they breach email accounts, often without notifying the hacking victims of these breaches. “Hackers are stealing the emails of some of our targets… by collecting the hackers’ ‘take,’ we . . .  get access to the emails themselves,” reads one top secret 2010 National Security Agency document. (...)


islander

islander Avatar

Location: West coast somewhere
Gender: Male


Posted: Jan 28, 2015 - 7:27am

 miamizsun wrote:

it's not even the war on drugs anymore

it's just the war and we're the enema

 
Irony, sarcasm or auto-correct? Don't know or care, just like. 
sirdroseph

sirdroseph Avatar

Location: Not here, I tell you wat
Gender: Male


Posted: Jan 28, 2015 - 4:38am

 miamizsun wrote:

it's not even the war on drugs anymore

it's just the war and we're the enema

 

One might even call it a "war on you".{#Wink}
miamizsun

miamizsun Avatar

Location: (3283.1 Miles SE of RP)
Gender: Male


Posted: Jan 28, 2015 - 4:34am

 RichardPrins wrote:
The DEA Is Spying on Millions of Cars All Over the U.S. - The Atlantic

Once again, Americans face a tradeoff between liberty and security. On one hand, the Drug Enforcement Administration has been building "a database to track in real time the movement of vehicles around the U.S., a secret domestic intelligence-gathering program that scans and stores hundreds of millions of records." If you drive in populated areas your movements have very likely been tracked.

On the other hand, the result is that illegal drugs are no longer sold on U.S. streets, the price of getting high is too high for most to pay, and international drug cartels are all but gone, as are overdose deaths and street gangs that profit from narcotics.

I kid, of course—not about the huge imposition on the privacy of innocents that the federal government is perpetrating with a license plate tracking program run by the DEA, which is real, so much as the notion that the DEA will achieve success with it.

The DEA will obviously continue to lose the War on Drugs. (...)



 
it's not even the war on drugs anymore

it's just the war and we're the enema
R_P

R_P Avatar

Gender: Male


Posted: Jan 27, 2015 - 3:24pm

The DEA Is Spying on Millions of Cars All Over the U.S. - The Atlantic

Once again, Americans face a tradeoff between liberty and security. On one hand, the Drug Enforcement Administration has been building "a database to track in real time the movement of vehicles around the U.S., a secret domestic intelligence-gathering program that scans and stores hundreds of millions of records." If you drive in populated areas your movements have very likely been tracked.

On the other hand, the result is that illegal drugs are no longer sold on U.S. streets, the price of getting high is too high for most to pay, and international drug cartels are all but gone, as are overdose deaths and street gangs that profit from narcotics.

I kid, of course—not about the huge imposition on the privacy of innocents that the federal government is perpetrating with a license plate tracking program run by the DEA, which is real, so much as the notion that the DEA will achieve success with it.

The DEA will obviously continue to lose the War on Drugs. (...)


Page: Previous  1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ... 26, 27, 28  Next