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from guardian:
The underground world of computer hackers has been so thoroughly infiltrated in the US by the FBI and secret service that it is now riddled with paranoia and mistrust, with an estimated one in four hackers secretly informing on their peers, a Guardian investigation has established. Cyber policing units have had such success in forcing online criminals to co-operate with their investigations through the threat of long prison sentences that they have managed to create an army of informants deep inside the hacking community.
In some cases, popular illegal forums used by cyber criminals as marketplaces for stolen identities and credit card numbers have been run by hacker turncoats acting as FBI moles. In others, undercover FBI agents posing as "carders" – hackers specialising in ID theft – have themselves taken over the management of crime forums, using the intelligence gathered to put dozens of people behind bars.
So ubiquitous has the FBI informant network become that Eric Corley, who publishes the hacker quarterly, 2600, has estimated that 25% of hackers in the US may have been recruited by the federal authorities to be their eyes and ears. "Owing to the harsh penalties involved and the relative inexperience with the law that many hackers have, they are rather susceptible to intimidation," Corley told the Guardian.
"It makes for very tense relationships," said John Young, who runs Cryptome, a website depository for secret documents along the lines of WikiLeaks. "There are dozens and dozens of hackers who have been shopped by people they thought they trusted."related defcon updates: hackers attack fbi partner website; atlanta infraguard exposed* pbs website hacked with fake news*
video: did hackers deface fox news building in nyc?*
after cyberattack targeted lockheed martin -
second defense contractor l-3 'actively targeted' with rsa securid hacks*
gmail hack targeted white house*
cyber attacks can count as act of war*
writer urges internet junkies to 'switch off' and think*
video: sony loses $3.2b after playstation network hacked*
hackers attack another sony network, post data*
'world of warcraft' blamed for divorce as men 'prefer them to their wives'*
un report declares internet access a human right*
oregon senator wyden freezes second internet censorship bill*
facebook quietly switches on facial recognition tech by default*
apple patent will cripple devices when in proximity of 'a concert or a classified facility'*
how could so many crooks have managed to scam the national security agency?*
computers that see you & keep watch over you
from nytimes:
Hundreds of correctional officers from prisons across America descended last spring on a shuttered penitentiary in West Virginia for annual training exercises. Some officers played the role of prisoners, acting like gang members and stirring up trouble, including a mock riot. The latest in prison gear got a workout — body armor, shields, riot helmets, smoke bombs, gas masks. And, at this year’s drill, computers that could see the action. Perched above the prison yard, five cameras tracked the play-acting prisoners, and artificial-intelligence software analyzed the images to recognize faces, gestures and patterns of group behavior... "It was just too sensitive, and we didn’t want to go there," said Eric E. Schmidt, the chief executive of Google. "You want to avoid enabling stalker behavior."
from fierce government:
The White House plans to reveal June 25 a strategy for verifying the online identity of Internet users, said cyber czar Howard Schmidt, speaking June 22 during a Washington, D.C. conference.
"I want to make sure that the computer on the other end knows that it's me that's interacting with it," he told audience members of the Symantec Government Symposium 2010.
To that end, the White House will unveil a strategy for public comment called the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace. The strategy will not limit itself to creating authenticated identities for federal employees.
Rather, it will propose a common identification standard for members of the public, who would utilize it while accessing electronic health records, conducting online banking, shopping online or even just sending an email, Schmidt said.
"Everyone in my office digitally signs email," Schmidt said.
The trusted identity strategy draws on federal efforts such as Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12, the 2004 presidential mandate that federal employees carry a standardized identity card, Schmidt said. The HSPD 12 implementation strategy ended up giving federal employees a smart card containing a chip holding simple biometric information.
"We need to figure out how we get those things to work at the national level," Schmidt said.
National identity authentication will be voluntary and must take into consideration privacy concerns, Schmidt also said.related: govt devotes more brains & money to cybersecurity
from afp:
In the quest for better targeted advertising, marketers are using high-tech tools that can pinpoint a person's location, demographics and habits, raising the hackles of privacy activists.
Online or in the shopping mall, these efforts are becoming more prevalent. Google, Yahoo and its advertising partners can track a user's browsing habits in an effort to deliver more relevant marketing messages.
Offline, new digital signs with hidden cameras can use facial recognition software to tailor messages similar to the scenario in the science fiction film "Minority Report." Some analysts say the new technology is positive, enabling firms to get the most for their advertising dollars.
"We're marketers. We present consumers with information that they can use to make informed buying decisions related to our brands," says Rob Graham, vice president at the consulting firm Laredo Group.
But a 2009 study by the University of California and the University of Pennsylvania showed that Americans are opposed to targeted advertising on the Web.
"Contrary to what many marketers claim, most adult Americans (66 percent) do not want marketers to tailor advertisements to their interests," the study concluded. "Moreover, when Americans are informed of three common ways that marketers gather data about people in order to tailor ads, even higher percentages... say they would not want such advertising."
Chris Hoofnagle, director of the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology's information privacy programs, said many Web users are aware their habits are tracked by firms such as Google or Amazon, but are unsettled by third-party advertisers and marketers tracking across websites without any permission.
"Individuals don't want to be tracked," he said. "It might not cause you harm, it might just be creepy."
The practices underscore concerns over online privacy at a time when social network giant Facebook is embroiled in its own controversy over sharing data with third-party websites.
New technology is also testing the limits of acceptable practices and privacy offline. In some shopping malls, a new generation of digital signs not only can change messages frequently but can measure customer traffic and determine who is walking by through facial recognition software.
To some, it raises the specter of the scene in "Minority Report" where Tom Cruise's character walks through a futuristic mall.
"John Anderton. You could use a Guinness right about now," a digital sign announces in the film.
"We're not quite there yet but we are at a point where we can adjust the ads according to who is in front of that screen," said Keith Kelsen, chairman and chief executive of Media Tile, a digital signage firm.
Kelsen said the signage industry has a set of guidelines to protect privacy, and dismissed most of the fears as overblown.
"There is really no reason for concern because we're not tracking individuals, we're tracking information that is collected on whether they are male or female, or quantities of people, how long do they look at the screen," he said.
But some privacy activists say the industry has not done enough to protect against abuses.
"The vast majority of people walking in stores, near elevators and in other public and private spaces have no idea that the innocent-looking flat screen TVs playing videos may be capturing their images and then dissecting and analyzing them for marketing purposes," said a January report by the World Privacy Forum.
Pam Dixon, executive director of the privacy group, said the digital signage industry "has all sorts of issues touching privacy, including children's privacy."
In a prominent blunder for the industry, lubricant maker Castrol set up digital billboards in London last year equipped with cameras that read the license plates of each passing motorist, accessed a database to find the automobile's model and year, and flashed the driver a message about what type of oil their vehicle should use.
The campaign was ended after a few days amid criticism.
Some makers of the technology, including firms like South Korea's Samsung and Japan's NEC, may be able to determine a viewer's race or nationality and can personalize Google and Yahoo! ads.
Companies are also using GPS technology in mobile phones to tailor ads to a user's location, such a specials for lattes as someone walks by a coffee shop.
Although this is still relatively new, the Center for Digital Democracy frets about a lack of guidelines.
"The emerging system for mobile advertising is clearly an extension of the current interactive targeting apparatus that has raised so many concerns over privacy and consumer protection," the group said in a petition to US regulators.
