Dangerous Government Computer Applications Part X

It’s not just governments that are using cellphone location data to spy on citizens – banks are now getting in on the act too – with Barclays announcing changes to its customer agreement that will open the door to individuals being tracked in the name of preventing fraud.

Barclays’ new customer agreement terms (PDF) – set to come into force from October 9, 2013, will also permit the bank to collect social networking data as well as using private transaction information to bombard customers with unsolicited “services and products”.

“The information we use will include location data derived from any mobile device details you have given us. This helps us protect you from fraud,” states the document.

This suggests that phone companies in Britain must have given Barclays some kind of back door access to people’s private cellphones in order to track their precise location, whether in real time or after potential fraud has been reported.

All modern cellphones can be tracked down a location which is accurate within 50 meters. Police, governments and corporations already use such data to spy on individuals for both surveillance and data harvesting.

The changes also state that Barclays will track the behavior of its customers via social media. The bank will also retain “images of you or recordings of your voice” in addition to monitoring “transactions on your account, to increase our understanding of services and products that you may wish to use so we can send you information about them.”

Obama’s policies will allow for a future government takeover of the Internet, involving multiple agencies including the Department of Homeland Security, under the guise of “national security needs” and “crisis management.”

In July 2012, Obama quietly released an executive order entitled Assignment of National Security and Emergency Preparedness Communications Functions.

The order created the National Security and Emergency Preparedness (NS/EP) Executive Committee consisting of federal agencies such as:

- Department of Defense
- Department of Homeland Security
- Department of State
- Department of Justice
- Department of Commerce
- General Services Administration
- Federal Communications Commission
- Office of the Director of National Intelligence

It should be noted that the Director of National Intelligence is James Clapper, notorious for lying to Congress in March on the extent of the NSA’s domestic surveillance.

Here are some highlights of the executive order, which is available in full.

Sec. 5.2. (Responsibilities of the DHS) (e) satisfy priority communications requirements through the use of commercial, Government, and privately owned communications resources, when appropriate; (f) maintain a joint industry-Government center that is capable of assisting in the initiation, coordination, restoration, and reconstitution of NS/EP communications services or facilities under all conditions of emerging threats, crisis, or emergency;

This allows the DHS, working jointly and directly with private Internet Service Providers, to easily take over the Internet by claiming priority over private communication lines in the name of “national security.”

In the future, the DHS and other federal agencies can respond to whistleblower leaks, such asEdward’s Snowden’s revelation that the NSA has direct access to major Internet servers, by claiming they are “emerging threats” and “violations of National Security communications.”

Unconstitutional abuses leaked to media outlets can be suppressed by the government with this framework created through Obama’s executive orders.

Internet censorship will be brought to you by “national security needs” and “crisis management.”

Earlier this year, Obama released another executive order entitled Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity.

This order created “essential” public-private partnerships with Internet infrastructure owners and operators “to improve cybersecurity information sharing.”

Amusingly, the executive order has provisions to ensure privacy and civil liberties. Edward Snowden exposed this complete lie several months later with the PRISM slides.

This is a great example of the doublespeak within these executive orders.

Under innocent-sounding guise, Obama dictates policies that are intended for more sinister purposes.

The further involvement of DHS into Internet “security” could very well highlight this point.

The next 9/11 could easily be a cyber attack, such as a massive financial collapse blamed on “foreign hackers.”

This is a very real possibility considering that the majority of the money supply is digital in our fractional reserve, fiat economy (explained starting at the 7:54 mark of this G. Edward Griffin interview).

Could the DHS take advantage of a claimed cyber warfare attack by imposing a virtual TSA on the American people, requiring them to be identified and screened before using sections of cyberspace?

We’ve already seen a New York bill trying to outlaw the on-line use of anonymous screen names.

Google and Yahoo are also now asking for telephone numbers upon registration of new user accounts.

Between the NSA soaking up all the digital communications by the public and the DHS’s increased involvement in cyber security, the freedom of anonymous expression is in great peril.

Over a decade ago, it was discovered that the NSA embedded backdoor access into Windows 95, and likely into virtually all other subsequent internet connected, desktop-based operating systems. However, with the passage of time, more and more people went “mobile”, and as a result the NSA had to adapt. And adapt they have: The NSA is quietly writing code for Google’s Android OS. Is it ironic that the same “don’t be evil” Google which went to such great lengths in the aftermath of the Snowden scandal to wash its hands of snooping on its customers and even filed a request with the secretive FISA court asking permission to disclose more information about the government’s data requests, is embedding NSA code into its mobile operating system, which according to IDC runs on three-quarters of all smartphones shipped in the first quarter? Yes, yes it is.

Google spokeswoman Gina Scigliano confirms that the company has already inserted some of the NSA’s programming in Android OS. “All Android code and contributors are publicly available for review at source.android.com.” Scigliano says, declining to comment further.

From Bloomberg: Through its open-source Android project, Google has agreed to incorporate code, first developed by the agency in 2011, into future versions of its mobile operating system, which according to market researcher IDC runs on three-quarters of the smartphones shipped globally in the first quarter. NSA officials say their code, known as Security Enhancements for Android, isolates apps to prevent hackers and marketers from gaining access to personal or corporate data stored on a device. Eventually all new phones, tablets, televisions, cars, and other devices that rely on Android will include NSA code, agency spokeswoman Vanee’ Vines said in an e-mailed statement. NSA researcher Stephen Smalley, who works on the program, says, “Our goal is to raise the bar in the security of commodity mobile devices.”

See, there’s no need to worry: the reason the NSA is generously providing the source code for every Google-based smartphone is for your own security. Oh but it’s open-sourced, so someone else will intercept any and all attempts at malice. We forgot. The story continues:

In a 2011 presentation obtained by Bloomberg Businessweek, Smalley listed among the benefits of the program that it’s “normally invisible to users.” The program’s top goal, according to that presentation: “Improve our understanding of Android security.”

Well one wouldn’t want their bug to be visible to users now, would one…

Vines wouldn’t say whether the agency’s work on Android and other software is part of or helps with Prism. “The source code is publicly available for anyone to use, and that includes the ability to review the code line by line,” she said in her statement. Most of the NSA’s suggested additions to the operating system can already be found buried in Google’s latest release—on newer devices including Sony’s Xperia Z, HTC’s One, and Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy S4. Although the features are not turned on by default, according to agency documentation, future versions will be. In May the Pentagon approved the use of smartphones and tablets that run Samsung’s mobile enterprise software, Knox, which also includes NSA programming, the company wrote in a June white paper. Sony, HTC, and Samsung declined to comment.

Apple appears to be immune from this unprecedented breach of customer loyalty, if only for now, although open-sourced Linux may not be as lucky:

“Apple (AAPL) does not accept source code from any government agencies for any of our operating systems or other products,” says Kristin Huguet, a spokeswoman for the company. It’s not known if any other proprietary operating systems are using NSA code.SE for Android is an offshoot of a long-running NSA project called Security-Enhanced Linux. That code was integrated a decade ago into the main version of the open-source operating system, the server platform of choice for Internet leaders including Google, Facebook (FB), and Yahoo! (YHOO). Jeff Zemlin, the executive director of the Linux Foundation, says the NSA didn’t add any obvious means of eavesdropping. “This code was peer-reviewed by a lot of people,” he says.

But that’s not all: The NSA developed a separate Android project because Google’s mobile OS required markedly different programming, according to Smalley’s 2011 presentation. Brian Honan, an information technology consultant in Dublin, says his clients in European governments and multinational corporations are worried about how vulnerable their data are when dealing with U.S. companies. The information security world had been preoccupied with Chinese hacking until recently, Honan says. “With Prism, the same accusations can be laid against the U.S. government.”

In short: the (big brother supervised) fun never stops in Stasi 2.0 world. Just buy your 100 P/E stocks, eat your burgers, watch your Dancing With The Stars, pay your taxes, and engage in as much internet contact with other internet-addicted organisms as possible and all shall be well.

Making the world better by spying on YOU!

Glenn Greenwald, Ewan MacAskill, Laura Poitras,
Spencer Ackerman and Dominic Rushe wrote the following article for the Guardian.co.uk on July 11, 2013

Microsoft has collaborated closely with US intelligence services to allow users’ communications to be intercepted, including helping the National Security Agency (NSA) to circumvent the company’s own encryption, according to top-secret documents obtained by the Guardian.

The files provided by Edward Snowden illustrate the scale of co-operation between Silicon Valley and the intelligence agencies over the last three years. They also shed new light on the workings of the top-secret Prism program, which was disclosed by the Guardian and the Washington Post last month.

The documents show that:

• Microsoft helped the NSA to circumvent its encryption to address concerns that the agency would be unable to intercept web chats on the new Outlook.com portal;

• The agency already had pre-encryption stage access to email on Outlook.com, including Hotmail;

• The company worked with the FBI this year to allow the NSA easier access via Prism to its cloud storage service SkyDrive, which now has more than 250 million users worldwide;

• Microsoft also worked with the FBI’s Data Intercept Unit to “understand” potential issues with a feature in Outlook.com that allows users to create email aliases;

• Skype, which was bought by Microsoft in October 2011, worked with intelligence agencies last year to allow Prism to collect video of conversations as well as audio;

• Material collected through Prism is routinely shared with the FBI and CIA, with one NSA document describing the program as a “team sport”.

Read full article

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As explained on the Alex Jones Show, the FBI publishes bulletins intended to create a compliant public which spies on their neighbors at will for the witch hunt state.

Each of these Communities Against Terrorism: Potential Indicators of Terrorist Activities bulletins are written specifically for a particular type of business such as tattoo shops, hotels, storage sheds, military surplus stores, etc. to highlight behavior by customers that the FBI says should be considered suspicious and a potential terrorist activity.

Yet the activities listed are so over-reaching that no doubt all Americans at one point in their lives have done more than one of these activities at the same time.

Let’s take a look at some of the items listed as suspicious on the bulletin sent to Internet cafes:

Activities on computer indicate evidence of a residential based internet provider (signs on to Comcast, AOL, etc.)

Perhaps you need to get some work done on the computer, but don’t want to be cooped up in your home.

Maybe you’d like a cup of organic java and the presence of people around you as you work, or you’d just like some background noise that an Internet cafe could provide.

According to the FBI, that’s suspicious and part of potential terrorist activity!

Activities on computer indicate encryption or use of software to hide encrypted data in digital photos, etc.

Edward Snowden’s revelations on the massive, invasive extent of the NSA show more than ever the importance of using software encryption.

As Infowars reported via the Atlantic Wire, the anti-virus company McAfee “regularly cooperates” with the U.S. government and intelligence agencies are using Microsoft software bug vulnerabilities for cyber spying.

We recently reported how the NSA can exploit such zero-day vulnerabilities to wage cyber warfare.

Also, in a Heise online article, a researcher found that the NSA has a backdoor built into every version of Microsoft Windows going back as far as Windows 95.

All of these articles showcase how critical it is for Americans to take the initiative in securing their digital data.

Software encryption is a great tool towards this goal, but the FBI believes it’s suspicious if you encrypt your files.

The agency feels that your belief in the Fourth Amendment is a sign of a potential terrorist.

People who are overly concerned about privacy, attempts to shield the screen from view of others

Who hasn’t been discrete with their computer in public?

What if you’re filling out an on-line form with personal information?

That’s a good reason why you would shield the screen from potential onlookers, but the instinct to protect your privacy is listed by the FBI as being suspicious.

People who always pay cash

So if you believe the government doesn’t need to track every single place you go (via credit or debit card records) in your day-to-day activities which harm no one, that is definitely an indicator of potential terrorist activity.

Of course no where in this bulletin does it state that cafe owners should notify law enforcement when they see a FBI agent personally driving a would-be terrorist to an intended blast site.

Amusingly, the footnote on the bottom of these bulletins states:

Each indicator listed above, is by itself, lawful conduct or behavior and may also constitute the exercise of rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. In addition, there may be a wholly innocent explanation for conduct or behavior that appears suspicious in nature. For this reason, no single indicator should be the sole basis for law enforcement action.

So if you engage in activities that combined are still lawful and still an exercise of inalienable rights, the FBI suggests that the cafe owner should “be part of the solution” by gathering information on you discretely.

Write down your name, what you’re driving and your license plate.

All of this profiling is in the name of making “a positive contribution in the fight against terrorism.”

Doesn’t that sound a little creepy? Yet the FBI believes it’s all for your safety.

Safety that can only be provided if every American is locked in a prison cell.

Even before the government called for its legion of federal workers to assist in ferreting out potential “insider threats” by having them observe the mannerisms of their fellow employees, the FBI had called for various businesses and vendors – including shopping mall workers – to assist in ferreting out potential “terrorist activity” by having them spy on their customers, in effect enlisting mall employees to be citizen spies for the state.

In 2007, the FBI, in conjunction with the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Assistance, began its Communities Against Terrorism campaign in which they distributed flyers to different public locations outlining what types of behaviors might constitute “Potential Indicators of Terrorist Activities.”

Included in those documents were suggestions as to what nuances mall vendors may witness shoppers exhibit if said mall goers were to be planning or executing a terrorist plot.

A few of its more insane terrorist identifiers include being on the lookout for: anyone who “significantly alters appearance from visit to visit (shaving beard, changing hair color, style of dress, etc.),” people who are missing hands or fingers, or have “chemical burns, strange odors or bright colored stains on clothing,” or people seen discreetly using cameras, video recorders or “note taking… over an extended period.”

That’s right, if you’re guilty of any of these things, it’s possible you may have unknowingly been flagged as a potential terrorist by a Great American Cookie Company, Orange Julius or JC Penny employee.

Truth be told, the real goal behind the Communities Against Terrorism initiative is not to thwart terrorism. If so, FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. might be the first place one may want to start looking according to the New York Times, who last year wrote that the FBI hatches most of its own terror plots.

As PrisonPlanet.com editor Paul Joseph Watson wrote in his book “Order Out of Chaos,” governments routinely have citizens spy on one another in order to take advantage of the fear inspired by a terror threat, as this is a tried and true method of manipulating a population into waiving its rights for the sake of security.

“The constant (government) threat of terror has turned people into willing informants,” Watson wrote in his 2003 book. “The new definition of patriotism is helping the state in any way you can to stop the terrorists, even if it fundamentally violates the rights of the individual. Even a high-tech dictatorship cannot keep track of all its slaves short of putting them in camps and so the citizens need to be encouraged to spy on each other.”

The fact that shopping malls have, as of late, been so frequently designated as potential terrorist targets has led some to suspect that an American mall may be the staging ground for the next big government false flag attack.

Last year, we reported on how the DHS had partnered up with a few Simon-owned malls to begin promoting its See Something, Say Something snitch campaign.

And just yesterday, we featured a video sent in by a San Antonio mall-goer who said he was disturbed when he saw a TSA agent handling a canine inside of the Ingram Park Mall.

Given that the FBI has expended significant effort in attempting to enlist citizen spies at malls,Internet cafes, hotels and motels, rental properties, storage facilities and various other public locations, it’s not surprising to see the federal government begin telling its own workers to report suspicious actions and be on the lookout for “high-risk persons or behaviors.”

The program’s overall effectiveness in identifying actual terror threats is also minimal at best. According to McClatchy Newspapers, a 2008 National Research Council report on detecting terrorists concluded, “There is no consensus in the relevant scientific community nor on the committee regarding whether any behavioral surveillance or physiological monitoring techniques are ready for use at all.”

In addition to intimidating those who wish to speak out against inter-governmental corruptness and breeding suspicion, distrust, fear and contempt among the general population, Obama’s federal worker spy grid program, along with the FBI’s enlisting of citizen spies, are all part of an immense terrorism indoctrination campaign effort meant to indefinitely prop up the war on terror.