CNN's Propaganda Push to Demonize All Anonymous and Free Speech on the Web

Anthony Freda Art

Melissa Melton

Soon our governments will make sure that nothing we do online is ever private again (if any of it even is now).

First, watch just the first minute or so of the short clip below from CNN called “The Danger of Digital Terrorism” featuring Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish human rights organization.

A few snippets that stood out right away:

“…grappling with the issue in terms of hate speech…” 

“…there’s an issue when people can say things anonymously…” 

“The real crisis right now… when you have some of the other companies that allow for encrypted conversations between individuals uh, without, uh, the opportunity for law enforcement or intelligence to know how a communication goes…”

Cybersecurity Bill is a Surveillance Bill by Another Name

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)
credit: Talk Radio News Service/Flickr

By Ron Wyden

U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore. issued the following statement after voting against the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act during a Senate Intelligence Committee markup today:

“Cyber-attacks and hacking against U.S. companies and networks are a serious problem for the American economy and for our national security. It makes sense to encourage private firms to share information about cybersecurity threats. But this information sharing is only acceptable if there are strong protections for the privacy rights of law-abiding American citizens.

If information-sharing legislation does not include adequate privacy protections then that’s not a cybersecurity bill – it’s a surveillance bill by another name.

“The most effective way to protect cybersecurity is by ensuring network owners take responsibility for security. Strong cybersecurity legislation should make clear that government agencies cannot order U.S. hardware and software companies to build weaker products, as senior FBI officials have proposed.

“I am concerned that the bill the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence reported today lacks adequate protections for the privacy rights of American consumers, and that it will have a limited impact on U.S. cybersecurity.”

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Obama Won’t Wait for CISPA, Signs Own Orwellian Cybersecurity Executive Order

Cassius Methyl

The president signed an executive order Saturday after a speech at a ‘Cyber Security Summit’ at Stanford University, while many were distracted with Valentine’s Day. The ever-hated CISPA legislation has stalled in Congress thanks to public outcry, but Obama has decided to act on his own.

“Executive Order — Promoting Private Sector Cybersecurity Information Sharing” was apparently intended to coerce organizations and corporations to share more info with the government, while promoting the creation of organizations to process data collected for an unspecified end.

House Quietly Passes Three Cybersecurity Bills

Activist Post

On July 28, 2014, the House of Representatives passed three bills aimed at enhancing the cybersecurity efforts of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in certain critical infrastructure sectors, including the energy sector: 

• H.R. 3696 – the National Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Protection Act(NCCIPA), the primary bill of the three, which passed by voice vote;
• H.R. 2952 – the Critical Infrastructure Research and Development Act (CIRDA), a bill promoting cybersecurity research and development, which passed by voice vote and
• H.R. 3107 – the Homeland Security Cybersecurity Boots-on-the-Ground Act, a bill seeking to bolster the cybersecurity workforce, which passed by a 395-8 vote.

NCCIPA directs the Secretary of Homeland Security to coordinate with federal, state and local government entities and, most notably, private entities and critical infrastructure owners and operators to perform numerous cybersecurity improvement tasks. Those tasks include facilitating information sharing, developing resiliency strategies and providing cyber incident response.

President Foreshadows New Internet Surveillance Proposal During National Security Speech

image source

Trevor Timm
EFF

President Obama gave an influential speech on counter terrorism and national security policy last week, and while much of the media coverage discussed the President remarks on Guantanamo prison and drone strikes, buried in the speech was a line just as critical to civil liberties online.

Halfway through the speech, Obama said he wanted to “review the authorities of law enforcement, so we can intercept new types of communication, and build in privacy protections to prevent abuse.”

We certainly agree with the president we need new privacy protections for our digital communications, and it’s encouraging to hear him suggest support for such proposals. After all, we know the vast surveillance authorities given to law enforcement over the last decade’—like the Patriot Act, FISA Amendments Act, and National Security Letters—have been serially abused. Unfortunately, President Obama has actively defended these laws and policies in Congress and the courts, despite promising to reform them as a candidate.

Smartworld - Identity Ecosystem

Tsze-lu said, "The ruler of Wei has been waiting for you, in order with you to administer the government. What will you consider the first thing to be done?” The Master replied, “What is necessary is to rectify names.”  (Confucius, Analects XIII, 3, tr. Legge)

Julie Beal, Contributor

Part One: IDENTITY CRISIS

Cybersecurity has become the dominant concern for geeks and elites around the world, as governments and corporations attempt to exert control over the Internet to protect their interests. News is hot with updates on the TPP and the like, but there is little coverage of the push to control identity.

For many years, the anonymity afforded by the Internet has prompted discussions about the problem of not knowing who exactly you’re interacting with online, i.e. how can you tell it’s a real person, and not a dog? More to the point, how do you know who to trust? 

Most of the technical aspects to resolving this issue have been successfully tried and tested for many years now, as those with the most to lose have implemented Identity and Access Management (IAM) systems which offer secure solutions for digital transactions. This has created a powerful industry, especially for military applications; in fact, the market for IAM is expected to grow to $12.3 billion by 2014, from just $2.6 billion in 2006. 

This industry is now eager to expand into the civilian market, to provide each one of us with a unique global identification number, together with databases of all the personal information that makes us what we are. This is the age of e-governance, where just about everything is going online: relationships, government and business services, banking, and even law – increasingly these transactions can be done with a mobile device, bringing a whole new set of factors into play when it comes to identification. 

'Top Cyber Cop' Says Internet Way Overdue For Attack

Activist Post

Shawn Henry, 24-year veteran of the FBI's cyber security division, stated that he is surprised a massive cyber attack hasn't happened yet, and feels it is "very very likely" that one is due to happen in the near term.

In the CBS interview, Henry claims state-sponsored actors like China and Russia are already infiltrating and causing damage to networks, yet he provides no proof of this.  To date, all suspected attacks have been proven to be false alarms despite the media hype. Furthermore, it is the U.S. and Israel who are among the leaders in the rapid evolution of the offensive cyberwar arms race.

This coincides with the ramp-up of cybersecurity legislation. Coincidentally, it is Lieberman who is interviewed for the video below. Lieberman has been at the forefront of proposed cyber tyranny, and alludes to a potential cyber 9/11 when he says that would-be cyber terrorists can "do as much or more damage than the terrorists did on 9/11 by knocking out our power grid for weeks, by incapacitating all of our banks."

Gun Control Amendment Restricting Magazne Size Slipped Into Cyber Security Bill (Video)

Youtube

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Cybersecurity 'Compromise' Distracts From Destruction of Internet Freedoms

Susanne Posel, Contributor
Activist Post

Last week, “compromise legislation” was brought before the US Senate that will enable federal agencies to assess cyber threats while giving them “permission” to exchange information with corporations “under certain conditions” under the justification of better protecting corporations from cyber-attacks.

Although the threat has not manifested as of yet, President Obama stated that:

. . . foreign governments, criminal syndicates and lone individuals are probing our financial, energy and public safety systems every day. It would be the height of irresponsibility to leave a digital backdoor wide open to our cyber adversaries.

Obama cited an infection where a Texas water plant had to disconnect their control from the Internet in order to save themselves from hackers. Backing up Obama is a report from The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that states they have received 198 “reports” of suspected cyber incidents.

The development of a multi-agency Cybersecurity Council is recommended to mitigate risks to corporations.

New Cybersecurity Proposal Patches Serious Privacy Vulnerabilities

Click HERE

Rainey Reitman and Lee Tien
EFF

For months, we’ve been raising the alarm about the serious civil liberties implications of the cybersecurity bills making their way through the Senate. Hours ago, we received some good news.

A new bill called the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 (S 3414) is replacing the prior Lieberman-Collins Cybersecurity Act (S 2150). This new bill drastically improves upon the previous bill by addressing the most glaring privacy concerns. This is huge, and it’s thanks to the outcry of Internet users like you worried about their online privacy. Check out the new bill (PDF).

Make no mistake – we remain unpersuaded that any of the proposed cybersecurity measures are necessary and we still have concerns about certain sections of the bill, especially the sections on monitoring and countermeasures. But this was a big step in the direction of protecting online rights, and we wouldn’t be here without the support of Internet users contacting Congress in droves.

Computer Virus named after Islamic Messiah found in Iranian and Israeli systems

Madison Ruppert, Contributor
Activist Post

Yet another virus primarily targeting countries in the Middle East has been discovered, this time calledMahdi, after the Islamic Messiah who will, according to Islam, rule the earth before the Day of Judgment.

Much like the astoundingly complex virus known as Flame, this virus can be modified remotely by the attacker in order to record keystrokes, remove documents, monitor email communications and even record audio.

However, according to Costin Raiu, senior security researcher at Kaspersky Lab, this piece of malware is not sophisticated, unlike Flame.

The malware was discovered “several months ago” and has targeted over 800 systems, with the vast majority in Iran, and Israel coming in a distant second, according to Israeli Seculert and Russian Kaspersky Lab.

Interestingly, on Seculert’s July 17 blog they revealed, “The variant we examined communicated with a server located in Canada. We were able to track variants of the same malware back to December 2011. Back then, the malware communicated with the same domain name, but the server was located in Tehran, Iran.”

When It Comes to Cybersecurity, Scare Tactics Aren't Convincing Americans to Sacrifice Privacy

Dees Illustration

Rainey Reitman
EFF

This week, comments from Democratic Senators, a panel of witnessses, and the director of the National Security Agency (NSA) called on the Senate to enact cybersecurity legislation. But a new poll shows that Americans don't want to sacrifice civil liberties by allowing unfettered data exchanges between corporations and the government. Discussions this week were part of an effort to break the partisan stalemate over the Cybersecurity Act, a bill that would allow Internet companies to monitor the sensitive communications of users and pass that data to the government without any judicial oversight. The Cybersecurity Act would also give companies the right to "modify or block data packets" if they do it with "defensive intent," while offering little in the way of liability for companies that overstep their authority.

In response to ongoing delays in passing the bill, backers of the Cybersecurity Act have been attempting to drum up fears about catastrophic cyberattacks. Yesterday, Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Richard Blumenthal called on the Senate to enact cybersecurity legislation despite the ongoing civil liberties concerns with the proposed legislation. Speaking to the Senate, Senator Blumenthal warned of doomsday scenarios, saying: "The consequences of a debilitating attack will be catastrophic for our nation."

DNSChanger is False Flag Excuse for FBI to Shut Out Internet Users

Susanne Posel, Contributor
Activist Post

Today The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) will pull the plug on the Domain Name System (DNS) because of DNS Changer malware that has been used as a safety net for servers infected by a virus that redirects users to a bogus DNS server.

On July 9th, Internet users will be able to access the Internet if your computer is not infected.

The FBI wants everyone to check their computer by going to the website for the DNSChanger Working Group. When you visit this site, if your computer is “ok”, you will see a “green square”.

When you go to this website to have your computer checked for DNSChanger, you are essentially giving the FBI the ok to allow your ISP and computer to be surveilled.

Anonymous continues the work of LulzSec, proving they actually didn't disband

M. Ruppert, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

Regardless of what you think about the illegal immigration laws in Arizona, you must take notice of the fact that the group known as Lulz Security or LulzSec has targeted the state more heavily than any previous target.  You might also notice that even though LulzSec allegedly disbanded several days ago, their attacks on government cyber-infrastructure has continued unabated.

Sure, now they are operating under the banner of Anonymous (the same group that they emerged out of), but their activities have not changed a bit. They have continued their "Operation Anti-Sec" unabated, despite the clear warnings that these attacks will be used to justify a draconian crackdown on the Internet freedoms we have all grown to enjoy.

Worldwide Freedom is Being Hacked

Dees Illustration

Will the "cyber threat" be the next bin Laden? 

John Galt
Activist Post

Osama bin Laden and the shadowy network of terrorists he supposedly spawned has been the perfect template for controlling physical reality.  The fear created by 9/11, and the even worse fear of having it happen again, has bludgeoned common sense from the average person.  The Constitution itself has been overthrown, unleashing roving bands of state-sponsored goons to interrogate, molest, and kill with impunity.

And this is only what is happening in America.  The engineered financial collapse of the planet has led to a near-worldwide insurrection, whether it is directed specifically toward banksters, or merely in response to soaring food prices in areas already on the verge of starvation.  Globalists are attempting to head off Arab unrest by staging controlled opposition to bring the masses back in line, and to an extent it has worked, albeit in predictably messy fashion.  However, formerly isolated collapse/revolts such as Iceland, Ireland, and Greece are beginning to spread across Europe in a seemingly unstoppable wave of largely non-violent protest.  The response by government to this threat has been to restrict peaceful assembly and bash heads in lieu of proposing sound solutions and redressing legitimate grievances.

The acceleration of the violent police state response has not been without consequence for the controllers.  An increasing number of people are beginning to see what living under hot tyranny can really be like.  More importantly, it is evident from videos in France, particularly, that people the world over are beginning to awaken to the true culprits who are bringing about their debt slavery and loss of freedom.  This is due in large part to the one place where freedom still rings: the Internet.

Gmail targeted in China-based campaign: Google

© AFP/File Frederic J. Brown

AFP

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Google said Wednesday that a cyber spying campaign originating in China had targeted Gmail accounts of senior US officials, military personnel, journalists and Chinese political activists.

"We recently uncovered a campaign to collect user passwords, likely through phishing," Google security team engineering director Eric Grosse said in a blog post.

"The goal of this effort seems to have been to monitor the contents of these users' emails, with the perpetrators apparently using stolen passwords to change peoples' forwarding and delegation settings," he said.

The campaign appeared to originate in Jinan, China, Grosse said, and targeted the personal Gmail accounts of hundreds of users of Google's free Web-based email service.

US 'to view major cyber attacks as acts of war'

A major cyber attack on the US military in
2008 prompted major changes in how the
Pentagon handles digital threats
© AFP/File Atta Kenare

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The Pentagon has adopted a new strategy that will classify major cyber attacks as acts of war, paving the way for possible military retaliation, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

The newspaper said the Pentagon plans to unveil its first-ever strategy regarding cyber warfare next month, in part as a warning to foes that may try to sabotage the country's electricity grid, subways or pipelines.

"If you shut down our power grid, maybe we will put a missile down one of your smokestacks," it quoted a military official as saying.

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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DHS Merges with Pentagon and NSA Under Obama’s Cyber Threat Plan

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars

Obama has proposed legislation that will give the Department of Homeland Security more “autonomy” in its effort to protect civilian computer networks from ostensible cyber attack, according to Information Week.

White House officials testified Monday before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs about the comprehensive plan presented by the administration two weeks ago to create legislation to protect critical infrastructure and networks. It will merge operations with the Pentagon.



“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,” writes Elizabeth Montalbano for the technology publication.

DHS has also sought to merge the effort with the NSA and various civilian operations.

Homeland Security's Top Cybersecurity Official Resigns

Cybersecurity Matrix / Wiki Commons

Marc Ambinder
The Atlantic 

Phil Reitinger, the Department of Homeland Security's top cyber and computer crimes official, is resigning just days after the administration launched its most ambitious cybersecurity initiative.

"I have decided that the time has come for me to move on from the Department," Reitinger wrote in an e-mail to DHS employees this afternoon. Reitinger, who, as deputy undersecretary in DHS's National Protection and Programs Directorate, was the department's senior interagency policymaker, said in an interview withNational Journal that the timing of his announcement was not meant to signal any disapproval with the White House.

"I am fully supportive of the direction the administration is going. Because there has been a recent spate of announcements, because I think we've made a lot of progress, because I think we've built a good team, now is the time for me to leave some of the execution and further development to the team," he said.

Reitinger said he wants to spend the summer with his family - he has young children and he's been working in cyber security "since they were born."

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