Congress Moves to Grant Even More Power to the NSA

By Carey Wedler

Privacy advocates are urging the House of Representatives and Senate to vote against bills that further increase the government’s widespread surveillance of citizens. The bills, called the “Protecting Cyber Networks Act” (H.R. 1560) and the “Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act” (S. 754) are the latest move by lawmakers to bolster the strength of the domestic spying apparatus.

One of the main objectives of the new laws is to eliminate consequences for companies that share their users’ private information with the government. The bills refer to this as “liability protection.”

Letters written to members of the House and Senate from a coalition of privacy advocates caution lawmakers that the bills

…would significantly increase the National Security Agency’s (NSA) access to personal information, and authorize the federal government to use that information for a myriad of purposes unrelated to cyber security.

Unnamed Source Claims Unconfirmed Cyber Attacks are from Iran

"American officials have not offered any technical evidence to back up their assertions of Iranian authorship of the latest attacks." - The New York Times

Eric Blair

The New York Times ran a story Friday from an unnamed source about an unconfirmed story with unnamed victims. Why would the paper of record run such a story? Propaganda of course.

Any chance the officialdom can demonize Iran while simultaneously inflating the fear of cyber attacks, they'll take it, even if it's completely fabricated.

The NYT article New Computer Attacks Traced to Iran, Officials Say is pure propaganda. Take a look at some of the excerpts to determine what is supposed to be news.

American officials and corporate security experts examining a new wave ofpotentially destructive computer attacks striking American corporations, especially energy firms, say they have tracked the attacks back to Iran. 

The targets have included several American oil, gas and electricity companies, which government officials have refused to identify. The goal is not espionage, they say, but sabotage. Government officials describe the attacks as probes looking for ways to seize control of critical processing systems.

A Call For Boycott Against CISPA Supporters (Video)

The Internet recently fought against the incredibly unpopular and ridiculous “cyber safety” bill called the Stop Online Piracy Act. Online ‘blackouts’ and outspoken critics downright embarrassed and forced the United States Congress and the media lobbyists to back down from supporting it while also leading to thousands leaving GoDaddy’s web hosting care due to the company’s now retracted support of SOPA. 

However, Congress and the rest of the world’s governments did not learn. They and their shadowy counterparts thought they could sneak in bills within bills – a billception if you will. 

And they have succeeded. After all, there is no law in existence that requires Congressmen to actually READ the legislation they vote on to pass or strike down. After all, there is no law in existence that says you CAN’T sneak in stuff. 

ACTA and other rights violating bills soon followed which includes today’s bill of the month: CISPA, otherwise known as the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (H.R. 3523) which is basically like SOPA..except it has more supporters this time. 

Energy Grid Vulnerable to Hacker Groups, Says DHS and DoE

Susanne Posel, Contributor

The SuperBowl, hosted in New Orleans, Louisiana experienced a total blackout wherein the 26,000 LED lights surrounding the exterior of the Mercedes-Benz Superdome went dark. Although the LED lights allocated no more energy that the amount needed to light a small home, the system failed.

Mainstream media is decrying about “complex interlocking systems” that make up the networks that control our utilities infrastructure.

Mayor Mitch Landrieu said the blackout was “an unfortunate moment in what has been an otherwise shining Super Bowl week for the city of New Orleans.”

Entergy, the power corporation in Louisiana released a statement concerning the blackout. They said:

Shortly after the beginning of the second half of the Super Bowl in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, a piece of equipment that is designed to monitor electrical load sensed an abnormality in the system. Once the issue was detected, the sensing equipment operated as designed and opened a breaker, causing power to be partially cut to the Superdome in order to isolate the issue.

Two weeks ago, hackers breached the Department of Energy (DoE) computers to siphon personal information from employees. DoE officials reported the incident to the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) who stated that the hackers used “sophisticated” attacks to steal “personally identifiable information” digital data, yet could have more sinister plans in the future should access be gained again.

EU regulators: Google privacy policy has legal ‘irregularities’ and may not be ‘in compliance’ with law

Madison Ruppert, Contributor

The new Google privacy policy, which was updated earlier this year, is now coming under fire from regulators in the European Union.

U.S. Senator Charles Schumer previously called for an investigation into this privacy policy to be carried out by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) although any such investigation would be questionable at best.

Seeing as Google has such a tight relationship with the United States government and was cleared of wrongdoing by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) related to their spying on Americans, any investigation carried out by an American government entity would likely be laughable.

However, the European Union’s data protection and privacy regulators have stepped up to the plate, challenging the legality of the new integrated Google privacy policy.

Cyber Attack on US Banks is an Obvious False Flag

Eric Blair

Over a month ago we featured an article titled The NWO Agenda Would Move Forward with This One Simple Act, which stated the one event that could accomplish all of the agenda's goals in one shot would be "a false flag cyber attack on Western banking institutions that they can pin on Iran."

Please watch this exact scenario unfold in this short ABC news clip from a few days ago:

Simulated Cybersecurity Threats That Pave the Way for Internet Restrictions

Susanne Posel, Contributor

Janet Napolitano, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, spoke to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee meeting this week and confirmed that the Obama administration is circumventing Congress and drafting an “inter-agency process” which is “close to completion depending on a few issues that need to be resolved at the highest levels.”

John Brennan, assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism and chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation has planted the concept that a cybersecurity executive order will give the Obama administration power over the future of the internet in ways the passage of legislation would never be able to provide. In a letter to Senator Jay Rockefeller, Brennan said that Obama is “exploring issuing an executive order to direct federal agencies to secure the nation’s critical infrastructure by working with the private sector to develop security standards.”

Last week, a draft of an executive order was floated across the internet. This version gives the executive branch over-reaching power over the internet, regardless of Congressional approval. Federal agencies will be given new responsibilities concerning protecting infrastructure while the Department of Homeland Security will be empowered to investigate all cyber security issues; yet the language is extremely vague and open to interpretation for the purposes of application.

Pentagon Ramps-Up Cyberwar Plans

Hacker - Wiki Image

Tom Burghardt
Dissident Voice

As the Obama administration expands Bush-era surveillance programs over the nation’s electronic communications’ infrastructure, recent media reports provide tantalizing hints of Pentagon plans for waging cyberwar against imperialism’s geopolitical rivals.

On May 31, The Wall Street Journal disclosed that the Pentagon now asserts “that computer sabotage coming from another country can constitute an act of war, a finding that for the first time opens the door for the U.S. to respond using traditional military force.”

One sound bite savvy wag told journalist Siobhan Gorman, “if you shut down our power grid, maybe we will put a missile down one of your smokestacks.”

Also on May 31, The Washington Post reported that America’s shadow warriors have “developed a list of cyber-weapons and -tools, including viruses that can sabotage an adversary’s critical networks, to streamline how the United States engages in computer warfare.”

Cyber War, Civil Liberties and Internet Freedom in the US

“It is truly a shame that what is viewed abroad as heroic is considered as suspect at home.”

AFP File Image

Monica Davis
Before It's News

Ah, the Internet. So much attention is being paid to the glory of this military invention. We base revolutions on access to the Internet. We base civil rights progress on the ability of the Internet to foster communication across vast distances, enabling freedom fighters to connect, interact and tear down the walls of oppression. While we view any threat to the Internet as a threat to global freedom of speech and liberty, some mistakenly ignore repression at home. 

Florida's governor just signed a law that basically says if the cops shoot and kill someone, the records of that incident are exempt from Open Records Laws. In other words, police killiings are none of the public's business.

US, Britain urge cooperation on cyber threats

Cyber criminals are ramping up attacks
© AFP/File Joel Saget

AFP

SINGAPORE (AFP) - The United States and Britain called Saturday for international cooperation against threats to cyber security following a fresh spate of attacks on government and corporate targets.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates and British Defence Secretary Liam Fox underscored the urgency of the problem at an Asia-Pacific security forum in Singapore also attended by their Chinese counterpart Liang Guanglie.

China denies being the source of attacks on US security systems and the two western officials deliberately avoided singling out Beijing.

Liang is scheduled to address the Singapore conference on Sunday.

Gates said "we take the cyber threat very seriously and we see it from a variety of sources, not just one or another country."

Fox said London will host an international conference on the "war of the invisible enemy" later this year.

Back from the Dead: The Internet “Kill Switch”

The American author William Faulkner once wrote: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” 

Tom Burghardt  
Dissident Voice

And like a horde of flesh-eating zombies shuffling out of a parking garage to feast on what’s left of our freedoms, the Obama administration has promised to revive a proposal thought dead by most: the internet “kill switch.”

On May 12, the White House released a 52-page document outlining administration plans governing cybersecurity. The bill designates the Department of Homeland Security as the “lead agency” with authority to initiate “countermeasures” to protect critical infrastructure from malicious attacks.
But as with other aspects of U.S. policy, from waging aggressive wars to conducting covert actions overseas, elite policy planners at the Pentagon and at nominally civilian agencies like DHS hide offensive plans and operations beneath layers of defensive rhetoric meant to hoodwink the public.

The term “countermeasure” is described by the White House as “automated actions with defensive intent to modify or block data packets associated with electronic or wire communications, internet traffic, program code, or other system traffic transiting to or from or stored on an information system for the purpose of protecting the information system from cybersecurity threats, conducted on an information system or information systems owned or operated by or on behalf of the party to be protected or operated by a private entity acting as a provider of electronic communication services, remote computing services, or cybersecurity services to the party to be protected.” (Section 1. Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity Authority, May 12, 2011, p. 1)

In other words, the proposal would authorize DHS and presumably other federal partners like the National Security Agency, wide latitude to monitor, “modify or block” data packets (information and/or communications) deemed a threat to national security.

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DHS To Gain Autonomy Under Obama Cybersecurity Plan

The agency will be tasked with protecting federal civilian networks in the same way the DOD protects military and other critical U.S. infrastructure.

INL cybersecurity researcher
Wikimedia Image

Elizabeth Montalbano
Information Week 

The Obama administration's cybersecurity legislative proposal gives the Department of Homeland Security more power than ever to protect federal networks against cyberthreats and breaks down the department's communication barriers with the Department of Defense to do so, officials told a Senate panel this week.

White House officials testified Monday before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs about the comprehensive plan laid out by the administration nearly two weeks ago to create legislation to protect U.S. critical infrastructure and networks. A video of the hearing is available online.

One key aspect of the plan is to put the DHS's mission to protect U.S. federal civilian networks on par with the DOD's mission to protect U.S. military networks, giving the DHS more autonomy to act against cyberthreats on behalf of the government than before.

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US intelligence to set up cyber-focused office in Estonia

AFP File image

AFP

TALLINN (AFP) - US intelligence is to open an office in the Estonian capital Tallinn to help boost the fight against cyber-crime, the US embassy in the Baltic state announced Wednesday.

"Estonia was selected as the site for the new secret service office due to both the investigative nexus it provides in combating cyber and financial crimes, as well as the opportunity it provides the agency in the fulfillment of its protective duties within the region," embassy spokesman James Land told AFP.

The office, due to be opened Friday, will have a staff of four.

White House unveils global cyberspace strategy

Analyists work at the National Cybersecurity &
Communications Integration Center in Virginia
© AFP/File Jim Watson

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The White House unveiled a set of policy proposals Monday for international cooperation in ensuring an open and secure Internet.

"Together, we can work together to build a future for cyberspace that is open, interoperable, secure, and reliable," US President Barack Obama wrote in an introduction to the 25-page "International Strategy for Cyberspace."

Obama, who has made cybersecurity a top priority along with diplomatic engagement, wrote that the document "outlines not only a vision for the future of cyberspace but an agenda for realizing it.

Poll: 60% Reject Government ID for Online Security

Cape Fear Business

In an effort to enhance online security and privacy, the Obama administration has proposed Americans obtain a single ID for all Internet sales and banking activity. But a new Rasmussen Reports poll finds most Americans want nothing to do with such an ID if the government is the one to issue it and hold the information.

The Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that just 13% of American Adults favor the issuing of a secure government credential to replace all traditional password protection systems for online sales and banking activities. Sixty percent (60%) oppose such a credential. Twenty-seven percent (27%) are not sure.

Only eight percent (8%) of Americans would be willing to submit their personal financial and purchasing information to the government or a government contractor to receive a secure government credential for online transactions. Seventy-six percent (76%) would not be willing to submit this information for that purpose. Sixteen percent (16%) are undecided.

Aware of concerns that have been raised in the past about a national ID card, the administration appears to be downplaying the government role in the process but is clearly encouraging the development of a single personal credential to limit the security risks from multiple – and more easily hacked – passwords.  Unclear is the role that the Department of Homeland Security, a key mover behind the single credential, will play in the future.

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White House Authoring New Cybersecurity Bill Granting Expanded Powers to DHS

David Makarewicz, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

WFED is reporting that the Obama administration is preparing legislation that would codify the DHS' expanding authority to oversee cybersecurity.  An mp3 of the report can be downloaded here.

The proposed legislation would incorporate the Administration's July 6, 2010 OMB memo, which "clarified" DHS' cybersecurity role, with recent cybersecurity proposals by Sens. Joseph Lieberman, Susan Collins and Tom Carper.

White House unveils cyber ID proposal

A man surfing the web at an internet cafe
© AFP/File Amro Maraghi

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The White House unveiled a plan on Friday designed to boost confidence and business in cyberspace through the creation of a single, secure online credential.

"By making online transactions more trustworthy and better protecting privacy, we will prevent costly crime, we will give businesses and consumers new confidence, and we will foster growth and untold innovation," President Barack Obama said in a statement.

"That's why this initiative is so important for our economy," Obama said.

The National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC) proposes the creation of secure and reliable online credentials that would be available to consumers who want to use them.

FBI urges Congress to expand Internet wiretapping

AFP image

Eric W. Dolan
Raw Story

The FBI urged members of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security on Thursday to update the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) and make it easier for authorities to eavesdrop on Internet.

The act was passed in 1994 and requires telecommunication companies to design their equipment and services to ensure that law enforcement and national security officials can monitor telephone and other communications whenever necessary.

"Over the years, through interpretation of the statute by the Federal Communications Commission, the reach of CALEA has been expanded to include facilities-based broadband internet access and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services that are fully inter-connected with the public switched telephone network," FBI General Counsel Valeria Caproni told the subcommittee.

"Although that expansion of coverage has been extremely helpful, CALEA does not cover popular Internet-based communications modalities such as webmail, social networking sites or peer-to-peer services."

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RELATED ARTICLE:
DHS Seizes Websites for Merely Linking to Infringed Content


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Biometric Security Now Reality: Coming Soon to Android

Alicia Gomez
Android Headlines

Biometric security has long been desired on our phones to provide the most secure way to protect your phone from unwanted intrusion. BluePlanet Apps, maker of RoboPrint and dTor, has been developing this app for quite some and is nearly ready for a Beta release.

At the Apps World Conference, BluePlanet Apps CEO Jason Braverman presented BioLock to an audience including Samsung, who he says are interested in having it on their phones. BioLock is a truly futuristic concept brought to life by scanning either your iris, recognizing your face, or using a password to unlock your phone.

The app uses Army-grade algorithms for face modeling when doing facial recognition and even has blink detection and pupil dilation to prevent someone from merely using a photo of you.

Without you physically there to scan your face or iris, no one can have access to your phone. Perhaps you do not need to lock down your phone completely but just prohibit access to specific apps, for example, your text messages. Whenever entering the app, Biolock is activated before opening.

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