Topic: POLICE REPORT - on February 18, 2012 at 12:09:00 PM CET
Arrests made in Italy after discovery of $6 trillion in fake U.S. bonds
Italian authorities on Friday arrested eight people in possession of an estimated $6 trillion in counterfeit U.S. Treasury bonds, according to Italian paramilitary police and an Italian news agency.
The discovery of the fake bonds -- made to look as if they were printed by the U.S. Federal Reserve in 1934 -- came about as part of an investigation into a local mafia association.
cnn.com bbc.co.uk vancouversun.com [Photos] latimes.com blurbwire.com zerohedge.com CIVIL DOCKET FOR CASE #: 1:11-cv-08500-JFK [pdf]Chiasso financial smuggling case [wiki]
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Topic: POLICE REPORT - on February 18, 2012 at 12:07:00 PM CET
Gefälschte US-Anleihen im Wert von 6000 Milliarden Dollar entdeckt
Ermittler aus den USA und Italien haben in der Schweiz gefälschte US-Staatsanleihen im Wert von sechs Billionen Dollar (etwa 4,6 Billionen Euro) beschlagnahmt. Die italienische Justiz gab am Freitag zudem die Festnahme von acht Verdächtigen bekannt.
Die gefälschten Dokumente, deren Wert mehr als ein Drittel der gesamten Staatsanleihen der USA umfasst, waren in drei Metallkisten in Zürich versteckt, der 2007 aus Hongkong in die Schweiz geschafft worden war. Nach Angaben der US-Botschaft in Rom waren die gefälschten Wertpapiere Teil eines Plans, um Schweizer Banken zu betrügen.
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Topic: GOOGLE - on February 18, 2012 at 11:52:00 AM CET
Google and Facebook bypassing Safari security
Google, Facebook and other advertising networks have been caught using a workaround to circumvent security settings on Apple's Safari and Safari Mobile browsers.
The workaround enables them to deposit cookies on a user's computer, regardless of whether the browser is set to prevent it.
By default, Safari is set to only accept cookies from directly visited sites, blocking cookies from all others.
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Topic: Phone - on February 18, 2012 at 11:49:00 AM CET
Google Tracking iPhone Users? Data Mining at Its Finest
"Google's iPhone Tracking" blares the front page of today's Wall Street Journal. The article within outlines the secret creation and use of computer codes that were able to "trick Apple's Safari web-browsing software" into allowing Google to monitor what iPhone users were doing on the internet.
It only took one phone call from the Wall Street Journal and Google (GOOG) folded, removing the offending code from its ads. Talk about playing a weak hand of poker, but such is life when the issue at stake is privacy.
While it's easy to see why people are angry at these type of revelations, to be shocked or surprised to learn that companies are finding new ways to turn data into dollars, strikes Macke and I as a little naive.
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Topic: Phone - on February 18, 2012 at 11:48:00 AM CET
The Bug in Your Pocket: Remote Listening Applications for Mobile Phones
We've heard much recently about information that is being tracked by mobile phone companies (see our recent post) and app developers. However, there are more overt security threats that are potentially more dangerous.
One of these threats is referred to as either a “roving bug” or a “remote listening” application. It is essentially the same concept as a conventional audio bug, except that it requires no hardware other than a smartphone. Once installed, remote listening software enables a 3rd party to call a phone, activate its speakerphone capabilities, and secretly transmit any sounds picked by its microphone to another phone number, where it can be monitored and recorded.
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Topic: HOLLYWALD - on February 18, 2012 at 11:44:00 AM CET
Video: Was Charlie Chaplin really a Frenchman called Israel Thornstein?
MI5 investigated whether Charlie Chaplin was actually a Frenchman called Israel Thornstein, previously secret files on the Hollywood film star have revealed.
Intelligence officers could find no trace of the actor's birth in Britain despite Chaplin always claiming he was born in London in 1889.
The mystery surrounding his origins emerged when the US authorities asked MI5 to look into the comic actor's background after he left America in 1952 under a cloud of suspicion over his communist links.
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Topic: HOLLYWALD - on February 18, 2012 at 11:41:00 AM CET
Die Geheimdienstakte Charlie Chaplin
Freigegebene Dokumente der Londoner Spionageabwehr beweisen, wie die USA den Komiker als Kommunisten verunglimpfen wollten.
..... Im direkten Auftrag des FBI hatte das britische MI5 nicht nur versucht, den genauen Geburtsort des Schauspielers zu recherchieren, sondern auch Belege für seine angebliche Verbindung zu kommunistischen Kreisen zu finden. Die Agenten gingen auch dem amerikanischen Verdacht nach, Chaplin habe in Wahrheit Israel Thornstein geheißen und sei womöglich in Frankreich geboren worden. ..........
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Topic: War and Peace News - on February 18, 2012 at 11:41:00 AM CET
Computer spyware is newest weapon in Syrian conflict
In Syria's cyberwar, the regime's supporters have deployed a new weapon against opposition activists -- computer viruses that spy on them, according to an IT specialist from a Syrian opposition group and a former international aid worker whose computer was infected.
A U.S.-based antivirus software maker, which analyzed one of the viruses at CNN's request, said that it was recently written for a specific cyberespionage campaign and that it passes information it robs from computers to a server at a government-owned telecommunications company in Syria.
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Topic: Drone - on February 18, 2012 at 11:39:00 AM CET
U.S. drones reportedly monitoring Syria; China wants Syrian sovereignty respected
“A good number” of unmanned U.S. military drones are operating in the skies over Syria, monitoring the President Basir al-Assad’s military’s crackdown against the opposition, U.S. defense officials tell NBC News.
According to the unnamed officials, the drone surveillance is not in preparations for a future military operation in Syria. Rather, the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama is hoping to use the visual evidence and intercepts of Syrian government and military communications in an effort to “make the case for a widespread international response.”
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