CyberSecurity

Category: Patiot Act

  • Feds want Google search records

    ….a federal judge to order Google Inc. to turn over a broad range of material from its closely guarded databases…Nicole Wong, an associate general counsel for Google, said the company will fight the government's effort “vigorously.''

    I am glad that Google is working to protect the privacy of its customers.  I have a feeling that this won't be the last time that government agencies try and get those records.  With the power of the Patriot Act, I'd be surprised if those records have not already been compromised.  Google may have to move to another country to be free from a newly paranoid U.S. government.  It really would be really unfortunately.

    On the flip side Google does allow Orwellian, big brother control in places like China.  Google's only way in China was to OBEY.  Although it is a bit twisted, I feel they did the right thing.  When you go to someone elses country it is only fitting that you comply with their laws no matter how backward they might be, else stay the hell out of their country.

     

    More on Googles Fight for Privacy:

    Google Versus the Total Information Awareness Program.

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  • Patriot Act set to renew without changes to protect liberties

    Here is a sydicated article from CNET and posted on Inforwars, site from the extremily paranoid Alex Jones, on the Patriot Acts renewal.

    The GOP reached a compromise to offer a 4 year renewal instead of the 7 year Bush wants. The problem is most of the Patriot Act becomes permanent upon being renewed this time and none of the changes requested by citizens were put in. This is bad legislation which goes against the Constitution.

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  • Alex Jones: Government is controling your brain

    Is Alex Jones of infowar.com a crazy conspiracy theory junky or a revolutionary ahead of his time and on the FBI's black list… you be the judge.  What ever the case, its entertaining!!

    While I don't believe 911 was staged Alex does say something I thought was interesting about how a government gains control.  It sounds like this:

    “Naturally, the common people don't want war, but
    after all, it is the leader of a country who
    determine the policy, and it is always a simple
    matter to drag people along whether it is democracy,
    or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a
    communist dictatorship.  Voice or no voice, the people
    can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders.
    This is easy.  All you have to do is to tell them they
    are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack
    of patriotism and exposing the country to danger.  It
    works the same in every country.”

    –Hermann Goeing. Hitler's Reich-Marshall at the
    Nuremberg Trials after WWII

    I would agree with this.  Most people in any regime, no matter what political controling mechanism they are under, do not want war.  Most people just want to live their lives and be happy.  People have to be coaxed and driven into war with fear.  It seems to work every time.

  • Declaration of Independence vs. the Patriot Act

    I got the following Oppinison to Editor (Minneapolis Post) from Schneier's
    blog.  It is about the Patriot Act.  A conservative rants
    agaist the arguement that the Patriot Act is an “erosion of freedom”.

    THE PATRIOT ACT

    Where are the abuses?

    The Nov. 22 commentary “The erosion of freedom” is yet another
    example of how liberal hysteria is conspicuously light on details.

    While the Patriot Act may allow for potential abuses of power, flaws
    undoubtedly to be fine-tuned over time, the “erosion of freedom” it may
    foster absolutely pales in comparison to the freedom it is designed to
    protect in the new age of global terrorism.

    I have yet to read of one incident of infringement of any private
    citizen's rights as a direct result of the Patriot Act — nor does this
    commentary point out any, either.

    While I'm a firm believer in the Fourth Amendment, I also want our
    law enforcement to have the legal tools necessary, unfettered by
    restrictions to counter liberals' paranoid fixation on “fascism,” in
    order to combat the threat that terrorism has on all our freedoms.

    I have enough trust in our free democratic society and the coequal
    branches of government that we won't evolve into a sinister “police
    state,” as ominously predicted by this commentary.

    CHRIS GARDNER, MINNEAPOLIS

    Now read what the brilliant Mr. Bruce Schneir has to say about this peice

    “A simple Googling
    of “patriot act abuses” comes up with almost 3 million hits, many of
    them pretty extensive descriptions of Patriot Act abuses.”

    Some partisan citizens in the U.S. always talk about smaller
    government, yet most of these very same citizens totally support the
    power that the Patriot Act gives to the U.S. government.  I'm not
    saying there is no need for some of the provisions in the Patriot Act
    (like allowing domestic and international agenies to talk) but as
    Americans we should be very leary about an Act that give so much power
    to the government.

    While I don't believe things have spun out of control with a pandemic
    of widespread abuse of the Patriot Act, I do believe we should be very
    suspicious and scrutinizing of this Act and any other seeking to usurp
    our liberty that was won (and continually won) by the blood of true
    patriots throughout the course of America's relatively short
    history.  We can't allow one Act to abolish our inalienable rights.

    Have we forgotten the Declaration of Independence:

    We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are
    created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
    unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit
    of Happiness.

    That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed.

    That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of
    these Ends, it is in the Right of the People to alter or abolish it,
    and to institute a new Government…

    We must scrutinize any laws
    and/or ACTS that would allow the government to abolish or corrupt our
    rights.  If not, how can we call our selves Americans.  It
    seems that ego and partisan ties have obscured reason to the point of
    political stupidity. 

  • Computers Hacking People ver 1.0

    I honestly think you ought to calm down; take a stress pill and think things over. – Hal, 2001 Space Odyssey
     
    Information Systems will eventually have the infrastructure and ability to “socially engineer” its creators.  This is far fetched science fiction blooming before our very eyes being created by our own hands.
    It will happen when three criteria are in place: 1) The creation of laws that can completely disregard the privacy and sovereignty of human beings.  2) The advancement of Information Awareness System and 3) Smart Artificial Intelligence
     
     
    LAWS
    Lets discuss the situations that will give governments the pretext to implement laws to track their citizens.  This is happening now.  Laws and systems are being created for unchecked monitoring of individuals under the guise of security, safety and prosperity.  Systems such as national ID cards. 
    They were implemented after the Sept 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and in the U.K. after the 7 July attacks in London. 

    It was 19th Century philosopher Samuel T. Coleridge who said, “In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly.” 

    Imagine it: The PATRIOT ACT IV is passed as a result of recent Critical Infrastructure cyber-terrorism attacks.  International terrorists implement a globally synchronized Distributed Denial of Service Attack against the worlds Root nameservers and successfully cripple the Internet for three days.  The impact is devastating as corporations lose billions. 

    Domestic Cyber Terrorists infiltrate hospitals by becoming apart of the staff only to socially engineer and infecting HIPPA protected networks with virus’ that wipe out databases and actually scramble prescriptions causing an array of death by misdiagnosis.

    Local police and security personnel repeatedly thwart numerous attempts by religious fundamentalists to detonate suit case sized tactical nuclear weapons inside major United State cities but security professionals predict that it is only a matter of time before at least one slips through the cracks.  All the enemy needs is one.
    Patriot Act IV is the patron saint of lawmakers who have been screamed at by constituents to “DO SOMETHING NOW!”  The new Patriot Act is eventually internationally accepted and allows for unrestricted Data Mine into commercial and state owned databases worldwide (US-EU).  It of course has deferent names and variations world wide but its application is the same.  In the United Kingdom it is called the Civil Contingencies Bill.  The data mining would tap into the “transaction space” by accessing hospital, financial transaction and legal databases world wide to be shared by all law enforcement agencies (county, federal, city local and international).  The system works like a global Amber Alert system that can track criminals anywhere in the world and notify the respective local agency immediately.  The system works very, very well.
     
     
    Information Awareness Systems

    The system, developed under the direction of John Poindexter, then-director of DARPA’s     Information Awareness Office, was envisioned to give law enforcement access to private data without suspicion of wrongdoing or a warrant. — Electronic Privacy Information Center.
     
    Government funded unrestricted Data Mining and Information Awareness programs develop and run revolutionary Information Awareness Systems.  Despite public opinion, these National Security systems continue to work to protect the nation against enemies foreign and domestic.  The system extracts data from its transactional databases and recognizes patterns of behavior that would fit that of a terrorist.  The system is so exhaustive that is works with 70% accuracy and seamlessly in conjunction with systems such as Next Generation Facial Recognition systems and Activity, Recognition Monitoring for enhanced surveillance. 
     
               
    Artificial Intelligence
    Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended. – Vernon Vinge, 1993, What is the Singularity?
     
    Artificial Intelligence has been in use for many years.  It is greatly relied upon for businesses, hospitals, military units and even in forms of entertainment such as video games.  However Strong Artificial Intelligence, the development of cognitive systems simulating the human brain, have been developing quietly in research labs around the world under programs dedicated to the “scientific understanding of the mechanisms underlying thought and intelligent behavior and their embodiment in machines. (AAAI)” 
     
    Smart Information Awareness is Strong Artificial Intelligence merged with Information Awareness Systems.  Smart Information Awareness seems to go beyond merely recognizing patterns of behavior as it predicts the future actions of a given psychological profile with over 75% accuracy allowing Law Enforcement to be like an all seeing eye with incredible new methods of forensics and counterterrorism.  Crime as a whole will be greatly reduced.  System that recognize criminal patterns have been around for some time, Smart Information Awareness systems are a new trend.
     
     
    The Smart Information Awareness system is so accurate in determining human behavior trends that it is used to track and manipulate consumer buying habits for corporations.  With its accuracy, the system will be able to determine what marketing tools can be used to influence the behavior of buyers. 
     
    With unfettered access to consumer’s personal transactions, buying habits, methods of payment, and credit history a system would be able to pin point buyers who demonstrate interests in certain products and offer “special deals” a specific group of highly interested buyers.
     
      
    Inevitably the very system (laws, practices and technologies) that successfully protects humanity from itself is used to manipulate and exploit humanity.
     
    Perhaps you believe that there is nothing wring with this level of target marketing.  If so, I submit to you these questions:  What will separate humanity from cattle if every man, woman and child is seen as nothing but a number and a consumer to the system that we rely on to survive?  Since we are already regarded as merely numbers and consumers by the corporate beast, how much control and information will we allow them to have?
     
     
    Perhaps this is a bit much.  Perhaps I exaggerate the technology and extent of fear that will breed it.
     
     
     
     
     
    http://www.p2pnet.net/issue03/page1.html
     
    http://www.epic.org/
     
    http://www.jbholston.com/weblog_discussion.php?post_id=74
    Statewatch.com – Secret EU-US agreement being negotiated. http://www.statewatch.org/news/2002/jul/11Auseu.htm
    http://www.eff.org/Privacy/TIA/20030523_tia_report_review.php
     
    http://www.aaai.org/