Posted on 08/17/2013 1:23:25 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
New Revelations Are Breaking Every Day
Revelations about the breathtaking scope of government spying are coming so fast that it’s time for an updated roundup:
◾Just weeks after NSA boss Alexander said that a review of NSA spying found not even one violation, the Washington Post published an internal NSA audit showing that the agency has broken its own rules thousands of times each year
◾2 Senators on the intelligence committee said the violations revealed in the Post article were just the “tip of the iceberg”
◾Glenn Greenwald notes: “One key to the WashPost story: the reports are internal, NSA audits, which means high likelihood of both under-counting & white-washing”.(Even so, the White House tried to do damage control by retroactively changing on-the-record quotes)
◾The government is spying on essentially everything we do. It is not just “metadata” … although that is enough to destroy your privacy
◾The government has adopted a secret interpretation of the Patriot Act which allows it to pretend that “everything” is relevant … so it spies on everyone
◾NSA whistleblowers say that the NSA collects all of our conversations word-for-word
◾It’s not just the NSA … Many other agencies, like the FBI and IRS – concerned only with domestic issues – spy on Americans as well
◾The information gained through spying is shared with federal, state and local agencies, and they are using that information to prosecute petty crimes such as drugs and taxes. The agencies are instructed to intentionally “launder” the information gained through spying, i.e. to pretend that they got the information in a more legitimate way … and to hide that from defense attorneys and judges
◾Top counter-terror experts say that the government’s mass spying doesn’t keep us safe
◾Indeed, they say that mass spying actually hurts U.S. counter-terror efforts.
◾They say we can, instead, keep everyone safe without violating the Constitution … more cheaply and efficiently than the current system
◾There is no real oversight by Congress, the courts, or the executive branch of government. And see this and this.
◾Indeed, most Congress members have no idea what the NSA is doing. Even staunch defenders of the NSA now say they’ve been kept in the dark
◾A Federal judge who was on the secret spying court for 3 years says that it’s a kangaroo court
◾Even the current judges on the secret spying court now admit that they’re out of the loop and powerless to exercise real oversight
◾A former U.S. president says that the spying program shows that we no longer have a functioning democracy
◾The chairs of the 9/11 Commission say that NSA spying has gone way too far
◾Top constitutional experts say that Obama and Bush are worse than Nixon … and the Stasi East Germans
◾ While the government initially claimed that mass surveillance on Americans prevented more than 50 terror attacks, the NSA’s deputy director John Inglis walked that position back all the way to saying that – at the most – one (1) plot might have been disrupted by the bulk phone records collection alone. In other words, the NSA can’t prove that stopped any terror attacks. The government greatly exaggerated an alleged recent terror plot for political purposes (and promoted the fearmongering of serial liars). The argument that recent terror warnings show that NSA spying is necessary is so weak that American counter-terrorism experts have slammed it as “crazy pants”
◾Even President Obama admits that you’re much less likely to be killed by terrorists than a car accident. So the government has resorted to lamer and lamer excuses to try to justify mass surveillance
◾Experts say that the spying program is illegal, and is exactly the kind of thing which King George imposed on the American colonists … which led to the Revolutionary War
◾The top counter-terrorism Czar under Clinton and Bush says that revealing NSA spying programs does not harm national security
◾The feds are considering prosecuting the owner of a private email company – who shut down his business rather than turning over records to the NSA – for refusing to fork over the information and keep quiet. This is a little like trying to throw someone in jail because he’s died and is no longer paying taxes
◾Whistleblowers on illegal spying have no “legal” way to get the information out
◾There are indications that the government isn’t just passively gathering the information … but is actively using it for mischievous purposes
◾Spying started before 9/11 … and various excuses have been used to spy on Americans over the years
◾Governments and big corporations are doing everything they can to destroy anonymity
◾Mass spying creates an easy mark for hackers. Indeed, the Pentagon now sees the collection of “big data” as a “national security threat” … but the NSA is the biggest data collector on the planet, and thus provides a tempting mother lode of information for foreign hackers
◾Mass surveillance by the NSA directly harms internet companies, Silicon Valley, California … and the entire U.S. economy. And see these reports from Boingboing and the Guardian
◾IT and security professionals are quite concerned about government spying
◾Some people make a lot of money off of mass spying. But the government isn’t using the spying program to stop the worst types of lawlessness
◾Polls show that the public doesn’t believe the NSA … and thinks that the government has gone way too far in the name of terrorism
◾While leaker Edward Snowden is treated as a traitor by the fatcats and elites, he is considered a hero by the American public
◾Congress members are getting an earful from their constituents about mass surveillance
◾The heads of the intelligence services have repeatedly been caught lying about spying. And even liberal publications are starting to say that Obama has been intentionally lying about spying
◾Only 11% of Americans trust Obama to actually do anything to rein in spying
◾A huge majority of Americans wants the director of intelligence – Clapper – prosecuted for perjury
◾While the Obama administration is spying on everyone in the country – it is at the same time the most secretive administration ever (background). That’s despite Obama saying he’s running the most transparent administration ever
◾A Congressman noted that – even if a mass surveillance program is started for good purposes – it will inevitably turn into a witch hunt
◾Surveillance can be used to frame you if someone in government happens to take a dislike to you
◾Government spying has always focused on crushing dissent … not on keeping us safe
◾An NSA whistleblower says that the NSA is spying on – and blackmailing – top government officials and military officers (and see this)
◾High-level US government officials have warned for 40 years that mass surveillance would lead to tyranny in America
◾A top NSA whistleblower says that the only way to fix things is to fire all of the corrupt government officials who let it happen. As the polls above show, the American public is starting to wake up to that fact
I doubt it’s really a problem as I frequently check out postings there (and millions of others do as well) but am not on a Windows platform anyway.
I don’t follow what you’re saying about Lerner and the IRS or Snowden. Could you explain?
They’re essentially a ghost in your machine that catches every keystroke you make on your keyboard. Including but not limited to passwords and those little notepad notes you make to yourself on your home pc.
If you type a word document they catch that too. Even if you’re not on the internet they likely set it up to download that info when you do connect.
It means your pc is a spy.
(3rd amendment anyone?)
Me, too. I have no qualms about going to zero hedge. Which is why I was surprised. Could not it have been compromised by a third party?
Thanks for the details. Explains it perfectly.
(waving to the orcs!)
As I understand it that may be a symptom of keystroke logging,,and As there’s been no Trojan discovered On my computer I would have to guess that the logging was being done remotely.
This stopped at about the time I added This Message Not Approved By The NSA to my messages,,,
Amazing. Who here is shocked by this?
And yet there are still some at FR who believe Snowden is a "traitor" because HE "jeopardized OUR 'security.'"
Does your AV software provide any more specifics?
Yes, it says, “Rogue:JS/FakeAlert
Alert level Severe
This program is dangerous and executes commands from an attacker. Remove this software immediately.
I think we ARE saying, "UH-OH"...but also, hoping Whistleblowers put nation and honor before selling their soul and ALL of us out.
I’m now doing a full scan.
Damn. I just lost my 64 bit Dell to a malfunction, and all I have left is this 32 bit Toshiba. I miss my Dell.
Snowden’s DONE a heroic act..regardless of how its treated or what its called.
he jeopreadized TYRANNY!
Recording every keystroke and word of 300 million Americans — half of whom are considered “domestic terrorists” for reasons of intimidation and blackmail by a neo-Totalitarian Regime — *IS* something “new.” It’s also out in the open, unprecedented, and yawned at by Congress and the media.
I thought that was just from my computer being really slow - even when less than 10% of my CPU was in use. It was really bad when I was typing up an affidavit. In it I C&P’ed an email notification from Wordpress about an incriminating comment somebody tried to make on my blog and when I looked at that part about a week later, the C&P’ed email included a new line of text, saying that the person who had tried to comment had deleted his online identity.
Somebody else mentioned the cursor sort of wobbling when you try moving it. I thought that was just my mouse acting up.
The cursor rambling all over the page while I’m not touching my mouse is a bit of a mystery though...
The emails that didn’t reach Mike Zullo from me were suspicious too - especially since I was able to send it to somebody else and they were able to get it to him. It wasn’t that they were blocking him from receiving or me from sending, they just wouldn’t let ME send to HIM. And I’ve had emails that people said they sent to me but I got them days later or never, and the same with them from me...
The computer shutting itself off and starting itself again at seemingly-random times (usually when I’m in the middle of typing something important) was a surprise the first time it happened, but that’s only happened a few times.
This is all in addition to the trojans and viruses that always seem to affect only the computers I’m working on...
Me too. Things are suddenly better now that I have a faster internet connection, almost as if the faster connection allows quicker logging or sumtin’...
yes the TRANSPARENCY of this bunch of tyrants is far too apparent.
Im betting that it could be a two way street...ins SOME neighborhoods
Or, rather Snowden exposed the current Modus Operandi of this goobermint, this regime (Not that it matters to the "leaders" of the GOP or Dem-Commie Party, OR Stepford Wife Media.) That WE-the-People are THE Enemy.
Boehner, McConnell, McStain, and the GOP "leadership" keep wagging the dog's tail on Amnesty, 0dingaCare, and on the "War on Terror." (W Bush's favorite Dawgie Tail). In any case ALL are part and parcel to the epicenter of the New Dictatorship and New World Order.
Seems like they make something obvious when they want to intimidate somebody into silence, like they did with Sharyl Attkisson - having her computers turn off and on in the middle of the night.
I remember for a while people were saying, “Yeah, right...” when I commented on the computer issues I was having. As if I was just imagining things or making conspiracies where there were none. With the truth starting to come out now, people should be less afraid of being called crazy if they say what they’ve experienced. And there is some safety in numbers. Eventually there will be too many people saying stuff that threatens the regime in some way, and their problem will be that they can’t sort out the serious potential threats to them from the merely annoying ones.
IRS targeting of political opposition.
NSA targeting of political opposition.
They know who we are and are salivating at the chance to go full tilt goose step on us ”for the greater good” of course.
Cell phone text messages received hours later or never.
Keylogging can be done in the following ways.
* With hardware or software installed on the target machine (either directly or through trojans, malware, etc.).
* By acoustic analysis from a physical location very near the target machine.
* By visual analysis with cameras or a line of sight to the target machine.
* By way of getting login information for the target machine and logging in to that machine from a remote machine or otherwise cracking the machine.
* Electromagnetic emissions (requires receiver to be near machine).
* Various methods of sniffing or grabbing packets (example: getting the information en route to web forms).
There’s no magic way to detect keystrokes from afar. If the signals are not leaving the machine and no nearby surveillance methods are used, it’s not happening. Software for monitoring outgoing signals is one of many ways to detect keyloggers. The best preventions are good local physical security, hardware security and operating system security. Avoid popular closed-source operating systems and software.
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