The Federal Bureau of Investigation has acknowledged it was behind the malware that infiltrated the servers for Freedom Hosting, one of the largest providers of anonymity online, and identified the service’s users. Internet security experts have long suspected the FBI was behind the cyber-attack, which appeared to target and monitor internet users on Freedom Hosting, which provided hosting for even more anonymous, so-called “hidden services” on the Tor anonymity network. While some users signed up with Freedom Hosting to encrypt their email and everyday Internet use
Author: mediahitman
The United States’ secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has ordered the government to move forward with declassifying documents pertaining to its practice of collecting the phone records of millions of Americans in bulk. Citing the vast public interest generated by leaks attributed to former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, FISC Judge F. Dennis Saylor said in a ruling early Friday that the government must review the currently classified legal opinions that the US has used for years to justify its policy of compelling American telecommunication companies for the metadata of millions of Americans’ phone calls on a daily basis.
The NSA used ‘man in the middle’ hack attacks to impersonate Google and fool web users, leaks have revealed. The technique circumvents encryption by redirecting users to a copycat site which relays all the data entered to NSA data banks. Brazilian television network Globo News released a report based on classified data divulged by former CIA worker Edward Snowden on Sunday. The report itself blew the whistle on US government spying on Brazilian oil giant Petrobras, but hidden in amongst the data was information the NSA had impersonated Google to get its hands on user data.
Amid growing allegations that the NSA might have a listening post at a villa in Vienna, Austrian opposition parties have demanded a meeting of the National Security Council to discuss what exactly has been going on in the heavily guarded building. The spacious villa in Vienna’s western suburbs has been in the center of a spy scandal following media reports that the building serves as an American secret spying spot. The Format magazine claimed earlier that the “listening post” is capable to tap up to 70 percent of telecommunications in the Austrian capital.
Newtown property records suggest that on December 25, 2009 a total of 35 properties located on and around Yogananda Street in Sandy Hook were transferred at zero value to new owners. The transactions include the house belonging to mysterious figure Chris Manfredonia, who was apprehended by police on Sandy Hook School grounds on the morning of December 14, 2012.
The leader of Al-Qaeda marked the twelfth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks with a message advising Muslims to organize large or small terrorist attacks inside the United States, anything they can do to “bleed” the American economy. Ayman al-Zawahri, the successor to Osama bin Laden, denied that America is a “mythic power” in an audio message released two days after the anniversary. He went on to say that Islamic holy warriors are able to defeat the US with attacks “on its own soil.” Al-Qaeda did not confirm the authenticity of the tape but the message was posted on…
A senior TEPCO official contradicted Prime Minister Shinzo Abe by saying the radioactive water leakage at the crippled Fukushima plant is not under control. The official, Kazuhiko Yamashita, was asked his opinion of comments by Abe regarding the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Plant to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Buenos Aries last Saturday.
A Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agent was arrested Friday for conspiring to smuggle illegal aliens into the country. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers arrested David Alexander Díaz-Torres in Orlando, Fla., according to the Justice Department. Díaz-Torres and five others were charged in a 13-count indictment for bringing, transporting, harboring, and shielding illegal aliens within the United States.
By Andrew Tarantola There was once a time when man looked to the skies and expected to see giant balloons rather than airplanes drifting above. The Hindenburg Disaster promptly put an end to those dreams. But nearly a century later, one company may have finally figured out how to build a dirigible suitable for the 21st century. Just don’t call it a blimp.
By Bill Snyder Think of all the things that tick you off about cable TV. Along with brainless programming and crummy customer service, the very worst aspect of it is forced bundling. You can’t pay just for the couple of dozen channels you actually watch. Instead, you have to pay for a couple of hundred channels, because the good stuff is scattered among a number of overstuffed packages. Now, imagine that the Internet worked that way. You’d hate it, of course. But that’s the direction that Verizon, with the support of many wired and wireless carriers, would like to push…
It’s not the danger to privacy that worries Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of internet leviathan Google, about the National Security Agency’s vast data collection programs, but the fracturing of the global web that may result, he said on Friday. Speaking in New York at an event hosted by the New America Foundation, Schmidt said a “balkanization” of the internet is his real concern, not violations of privacy from surveillance, something that’s long been occurring and that he won’t “pass judgement on.”
Four people have been confirmed dead and over 500 reported missing following devastating floods in Colorado. Authorities fear the death toll will rise as thousands are rescued from the flood zone. Since the region’s worst flooding in decades began Wednesday four people have already been confirmed dead and police expects to find more bodies as the scope of damage becomes clear. “Given the destruction, there is a high probability” of more fatalities, Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said at a media briefing.
The founder and owner of encrypted e-mail site Lavabit, Ladar Levison, has appealed the US government order that shut down the service last month. However, the details of the order and the closure remain subject to a legal gagging order. The Texas-based Lavabit mail service, initially planned as an alternative for Gmail aimed at protecting users’ data, was shut down August 8. The closure happened about a month after reports that Lavabit had been used by Edward Snowden to communicate from Russia.
A budget provision protecting genetically-modified seeds from litigation in the face of health risks was extended for three months in an approved US House of Representatives’ spending bill on Tuesday evening. Called “The Monsanto Protection Act” by opponents, the budget rider shields biotech behemoths like Monsanto, Cargill and others from the threat of lawsuits and bars federal courts from intervening to force an end to the sale of a GMO (genetically-modified organism) even if the genetically-engineered product causes damaging health effects.
An Ohio man who hacked police department websites as a member of the loose-knit Anonymous movement was sentenced by a federal judge on Thursday to serve three years in prison. John Anthony Borell III of Toledo, OH has until December 6 to turn himself in to authorities and start serving time for compromising the computer networks belonging to a handful of law enforcement agencies across the United States in early 2012.
A new review panel created by President Barack Obama to analyze possible reforms for US government surveillance spoke mainly of tech companies concerns, not National Security Agency spying overreach, during its first meeting. Attendees of the meeting early this week told the Guardian newspaper discussions were mostly based around the apprehensions and interests of major technology firms. Little about public privacy or real changes to the mass global phone and internet data collection programs was involved.
The New York City Police Department was right to operate a program that put undercover officers in mosques to spy on Muslims, an attorney for the city argued in federal court this week. In an attempt to have a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union tossed out of court, city attorney Peter Farrell said Thursday that the NYPD had valid reason to conduct surveillance specifically targeting Islamic men and women, their businesses and places of worship.