Posts Tagged ‘electronic countermeasures’

« Older entries
Newer entries »

Wikileaks Spy Files Target Forensic Companies

By Dawn in Debugging - Electronic Countermeasures, eavesdropping, Hacking, invasion of privacy, MSI Detective Services, Surveillance Services, Technology, Terrorism at January 4th, 2012 | No comments

 

 

 

 

 

In December, Wikileaks revealed what it has dubbed “the Spy Files,” a collection of 287 documents that include information about companies that provide different types of surveillance methods including cell phone forensics, spyware, and Wifi interceptions.

“Over a year or longer, SSL certificates have been penetrated by various organized crime groups and intelligence agencies. The entire SSL system, which is the mechanism that guarantees security and anonymity online, has been compromised. SSL is beyond repair,” says Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

The ACLU also has listed a very detailed account of what they consider illegal domestic spying in America. “The FBI, federal intelligence agencies, the military, state and local police, private companies, and even firemen and emergency medical technicians are gathering incredible amounts of personal information about ordinary Americans that can be used to construct vast dossiers that can be widely shared with a simple mouse-click through new institutions like Joint Terrorism Task Forces, fusion centers, and public-private partnerships. The fear of terrorism has led to a new era of overzealous police intelligence activity directed, as in the past, against political activists, racial and religious minorities, and immigrants.”

Read story@ dfinews

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Free Anti-Tracking Services Catch On With Privacy-Minded Consumers

By Dawn in Debugging - Electronic Countermeasures, invasion of privacy, MSI Detective Services, Privacy, Technology at January 3rd, 2012 | No comments

 

 

 

 

 

Here comes yet another software program consumers are having to use to protect their privacy. For those companies that continue to collect our personal data, it is possible they will continue to create more programs to do so; hence, the need for new software to block their new software…You get the picture. It’s like a vicious circle.

Upon reading recent news stories about how Facebook tracks almost everywhere he goes on the Internet, Jim Kress grew outraged. I can sympathize with him.

The business process consultant from Northville, Mich., subsequently learned Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Adobe and many other companies also exhaustively track his online activities. “I was very unnerved to discover the extent of all the other tracking that was done by nearly every site on the Web,” he says.

Kress, 61, decided to fight back and did some homework about a powerful class of online tools and services — most of them free — designed to block online behavioral tracking. He began using a new free service called Do Not Track Plus from Internet privacy start-up Abine.

Kress is part of a grass-roots movement that began to grow late in the year and is expected to continue growing in 2012 – where consumers are taking online privacy into their own hands. I am glad to hear this – I will be looking to join this movement and downloading this software. I have tracking software on my computer and have the capability of blocking sites, etc., but I would be curious to see if this software is more extensive and less difficult to use.

Suppliers of the best-known anti-tracking tools — Ghostery, Adblock Plus and TrackerBlock — all reported big jumps in usage in the second half of 2011. Ghostery, for instance, is being downloaded by 140,000 new users each month, with total downloads doubling to 4.5 million in the past 12 months, says Scott Meyer, CEO of parent company Evidon.

Adblock Plus has been downloaded more than 140 million times and is currently in daily use by more than 17 million Internet users worldwide, managing director Till Faida says. Read the full article »

Tags: , , ,

Under Pressure – Sprint Says It Is Disabling Controversial Carrier IQ Software

By Dawn in Debugging - Electronic Countermeasures, invasion of privacy, MSI Detective Services, Privacy, taps, Technology at December 30th, 2011 | No comments

 

 

 

 

 

On December 1st, I wrote a story titled, “Your Smartphone Is Spying on You.” In that story I discussed a controversial software discovered to be in millions of smartphones. The software is called “Carrier IQ Software” and has the ability to track your phone activity, including text messages.

After coming under fire, Sprint recently announced it is disabling this software from their phones, along with AT&T and T-Mobile, who were using Carrier IQ’s controversial key-logging software. Sprint now says it is “disabling the use” of software from customer’s phones.

In a statement by Sprint spokeswoman Stephanie Vinge, she said, “We have weighed customer concerns and we have disabled use of the tool so that diagnostic information and data is no longer being collected.” “We are further evaluating options regarding this diagnostic software as well as Sprint’s diagnostic needs.”

Carrier IQ has also come under fire over the past several weeks after an independent researcher discovered the software can track the activities of phone users, including text messages. Carrier IQ says its software is used only to help with network diagnostics.

Personally, I am grateful to this researcher for discovering this software and making the public aware of it as well as to those in Congress who are investigating this suspicious software and pressuring cell phone providers for answers.

Sprint, whose software is on 141 million cellphones around the country, claims this software does not track user activity. The company said that its software “does not record, store or transmit the contents of SMS (text) messages, email, photographs, audio or video. For example, we understand whether an SMS was sent accurately, but do not record or transmit the content of the SMS. We know which applications are draining your battery, but do not capture the screen.”

The use of the software has already resulted in some lawsuits over alleged violation of federal wiretap laws and government attention on privacy violations. On Dec. 2, Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Carrier IQ for violating the privacy rights of millions of mobile phone users and expressed concern that the practices of Carrier IQ are possibly unfair or deceptive. “I have serious concerns about the Carrier IQ software and whether it is secretly collecting user’s personal information, such as the content of text messages,” said Markey, co-chairman of the Bi-Partisan Congressional Privacy Caucus. “Consumers and families need to understand who is siphoning off and storing their personal information every time they use their smartphone.” Read the full article »

Tags: , , , ,

GSM Phones Vulnerable to Hijack Scams – Researcher Says

By Dawn in Electronic Fraud, Electronic Theft, Hacking, MSI Detective Services, Security, taps, Technology at December 28th, 2011 | No comments

 

 

 

 

 

Mobile security is a hot issue as smartphone sales have outpaced PC sales. Smartphone malware is popping up at an unprecedented rate as people put more and more valuable information on their devices, using them to hold corporate secrets, conduct banking and function as digital wallets.

Hackers have taken notice and continue to find ways to breach the security of these devices.

Karsten Nohl, head of Berlin-based Security Research Labs, will be speaking at the Berlin hacking convention this week about the security vulnerabilities of GSM phones.

Nohl discovered flaws in a widely used wireless technology that could allow hackers to gain remote control of phones and instruct them to send text messages or make calls. Nohl is a well-regarded expert on mobile security who identified a bug last year in GSM technology that makes calls vulnerable to tapping. He says he is calling attention to these flaws to pressure the industry into beefing up the security of their products.

They could use the vulnerability in the GSM technology — which is used by most telecom operators globally and by billions of people — to make calls or send texts to expensive, premium phone and messaging services in scams.

Security experts have previously identified a small number of viruses designed to infect smartphones, allowing hackers to take control of the devices and force them to make calls or send text messages. But Nohl said he has discovered a way to leverage previously disclosed vulnerabilities in GSM technology that could potentially threaten hundreds of thousands of phones.

GSM became the dominant mobile technology globally in the late 1990s. Although new and faster mobile networks have been rolled out across the world, operators have stuck to their GSM networks to support older phones and to offer service when new networks fail. Read the full article »

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

« Older entries
Newer entries »