Iran's Web Spying Aided By Western Technology


The Iranian regime has developed, with the assistance of European telecommunications companies, one of the world's most sophisticated mechanisms for controlling and censoring the Internet, allowing it to examine the content of individual online communications on a massive scale.

wsj.com

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The not-so-secret life of Chinese hackers


Most of the time when you read stories about the much reviled Chinese hacker it's in the context of some cyberattack perpetrated on some website that has stupidly dared to hurt the feelings of the Chinese people. But really, what are Chinese hackers doing most of the time: well, duh, same thing everybody else is: trying to make some moolah.

The not-so-secret life of Chinese hackers

shanghaiist.com

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Israeli GSM Interceptor with Decipher


We knew on-the-air theoretically existed for a long time, but off-the-air passive monitoring like this? That's well above and beyond what was presumed possible!

iai.co.il [pdf]

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Zumwinkel und Ricke frühzeitig über Spitzeleien informiert


Neue Details zum Spitzelskandal bei der Telekom: Der ehemalige Aufsichtsratsvorsitzende Klaus Zumwinkel und Ex-Chef Kai-Uwe Ricke sind nach SPIEGEL-Informationen offenbar tiefer in die Affäre verstrickt als bisher bekannt. Das ergibt sich aus der Ermittlungsakte der Staatsanwaltschaft Bonn.

spiegel.de

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Überwachung im Betrieb: Nicht einzelne Skandale, sondern allgemeines Muster


Analyse & Kritik hat in der aktuellen Ausgabe einen Beitrag zur Überwachung im Betrieb . Auch wenn das die frei flottierenden digitalen Bohemiens nicht mehr interessiert oder sie sogar Wert darauf legen, dass der potenzielle nächste Auftraggeber sie erstmal googelt - für Millionen Menschen ist das immer noch ein riesiges Problem.

akweb.de via

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Documents: FBI Spyware Has Been Snaring Extortionists, Hackers for Years


A sophisticated FBI-produced spyware program has played a crucial behind-the-scenes role in federal investigations into extortion plots, terrorist threats and hacker attacks in cases stretching back at least seven years, newly declassified documents show.

As first reported by Wired.com, the software, called a "computer and internet protocol address verifier," or CIPAV, is designed to infiltrate a target's computer and gather a wide range of information, which it secretly sends to an FBI server in eastern Virginia. The FBI's use of the spyware surfaced in 2007 when the bureau used it to track e-mailed bomb threats against a Washington state high school to a 15-year-old student.

wired.com More FBI Hacking: Feds Crack Wi-Fi to Gather Evidence

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Is Chancellor Angela Merkel A Former Communist Spy?


Whenever a sovereign nation is conquered by another, its inhabitants, whether they be from its elite or dregs, ultimately have a hard time adjusting to foreign occupation because they don't know how long it will last, and what it may be replaced by. The process is made more difficult if it seems that there is no alternative to the conquerers, especially if they appear to represent some wave of the future. But then, there are always surprises in history, and some seemingly sure things turn out to be nothing more than delayed dead ends. Of course, the alternative to such a course is to continue to fight the occupiers tooth and nail as there seems to be no choice about the matter, but the costs of such a course are usually devastating.

cryptome.info

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German spy chief threatens Wikileaks


The head of the BND (Bundesnachrichtendienst), Germany's equivalent to the CIA, has threatened Wikileaks with "immediate criminal prosecution" if it does not remove all "files or reports related to the BND".

The spy chief claims to have already engaged the BND's legal machinery.

wikileaks.org

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FBI taps cell phone mic as eavesdropping tool


The FBI appears to have begun using a novel form of electronic surveillance in criminal investigations: remotely activating a mobile phone's microphone and using it to eavesdrop on nearby conversations.

The technique is called a "roving bug," and was approved by top U.S. Department of Justice officials for use against members of a New York organized crime family who were wary of conventional surveillance techniques such as tailing a suspect or wiretapping him.

cnet.com

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Iran arrests pigeons for spying


In what could see a major escalation of tension between Iran and the West, Iranian security forces have announced that they have arrested two pigeons for spying.

The two pigeons were detained in Natanz, near Iran's uranium enrichment facility – one of the major sources of the diplomatic chill between Tehran and Western governments.

metro.co.uk afp.google.com telegraph.co.uk warandgame.blogspot.com thecourier.co.uk

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FBI darf Überwachung massiv ausweiten


Ermittler in den USA können die Bevölkerung künftig noch intensiver kontrollieren als bisher. Dank neuer Richtlinien dürfen Beamte des FBI künftig ohne konkreten Verdacht und ohne Erlaubnis des Vorgesetzten Menschen überwachen und befragen. Kritiker befürchten "politische Hexenjagden".

spiegel.de

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Austria’s Little-known Intelligence Community since 1945


There exist several persevering clichés about the small Alpine Republic of Austria; one of them, and not the least beguiling, pertains to the fact that since its creation in 1918/19 as a result of the disintegration of the old Habsburg Empire it has assumed the distinction of being an eldorado for spies, peddlars of misinformation and dozens of meddling intelligence services. If this is true – and we know that most clichés are valid to a great extent – then we are confronted with a strange phenomenon as to this day relatively little reliable information exists about this aspect of life in Austria, neither about the dealings of foreign intelligence elements within Austria nor about the Austrian institutions created and sustained to foil these alleged intelligence intrusions.

This article focusses on the intelligence situation of and in Austria since the end of World War II when the people of Austria, perhaps surprisingly for most of them, were given a second chance at nation-building, albeit under totally different conditions from those in 1918/19. By early May 1945 it was occupied by the four major victorious Allies of World War II who, at least initially, were determined to direct and control every facet of public life in Austria until, by their estimation, stable and secure democratic conditions were established. This control, total at first but progressively loosened over the ten long years of military, diplomatic and civilian dependence under occupation, was soon coloured by the emerging differences and controversies among the Allies themselves as their attention, already by mid-1946, started to switch from epuration of Austria and of Austrians from Nazism and fascism to mutual observation between the Western Powers on the one hand and the Soviet Union on the other; this was done in pursuit of larger ideological aims and military interests in Central Europe. Thus Austria rather quickly became an intelligence battleground of the Great Powers against each other and particularly of the two Super-Powers, „defending“ their territory of influence at the geopolitically crucial but increasingly more ideologically determined dividing line running through the country from Upper Austria in the north to Burgenland in the south-east.

acipss.org

got to know the last chief of the heeresnachrichtenamt, a Mr. deutsch, back in the 60s in vienna - he had to step down now due to bribery allegations regarding a deal with eads of the austrian army under the conservative/extreme right coalition from 1999-2006.

his father worked under my father in the gestapo in the early 40s.

just cleared some boards recently from old correspondence after 1945 of my father, will give all politically relevant letters to the Dokumentationsarchiv des österreichischen Widerstandes (= documentary archive of the austrian resistance)

doew.at via

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