one in four US hackers 'is an fbi informer'

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?*

assange: internet greatest spying machine

Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange warned Cambridge students, who waited hours to hear him speak, internet is "greatest spying machine the world has ever seen," in article at guardian.co.uk. Assange continued, "It [the web] is not a technology that favours freedom of speech. It is not a technology that favours human rights. It is not a technology that favours civil life. Rather it is a technology that can be used to set up a totalitarian spying regime, the likes of which we have never seen. Or, on the other hand, taken by us, taken by activists, and taken by all those who want a different trajectory for the technological world, it can be something we all hope for." Has Assange been directed to convince Anglo-American elite the internet represents a threat? The present writer views Assange as an agent for the global elite and enjoys a relationship with Israel as related in a previous post here.

Assange also responded to an inquiry about Bradley Manning, "we have no idea whether he is one of our sources. All our technology is geared up to make sure we have no idea...there is no allegation that he was arrested as the result of anything to do with us. The allegation is that he was arrested as a result of him speaking to Wired magazine in the United States."

Is Assange's message shutdown the internet to stop "totalitarian spying regime"? Is there a war on technology? It seems, both, the web and nuclear power are under attack. The global elite do not fancy technology as it represents a challenge to their control and domination!

related defcon updates:
nasa to use lasers to shoot space junk around earth*
nytimes again seeks to charge for web news*
'homefront': new video game features nkorean invasion of US*

when computers keep watch

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."

12/2 defcon: fingerprints, arsenic & oxygen

feds warrantlessly tracking credit cards in real time*
google admits street view trespassing, hit with crippling $1 fine*
race is on to 'fingerprint' phones & pc's*
xbox-modding case dismissed mid-trial*
who'll win the battle for control of web?*
most popular yahoo search in 2010 was 'bp oil spill'; first time for a news story*
nasa created buzz with 'e.t.' tease*
nasa finds new arsenic-fed life form*
oxygen detected on saturn's moon rhea*
ufo's welcome in hooper, colorado*

11/18 defcon: extra staff & virtual property

fbi brass ask google, facebook to expand wiretaps*
google vp issues stark internet warning*
youtube hiring extra staff to tackle al-qaeda videos*
state-led cyberterror set to rise: report*
gates: huge threat of cyber attack*
cyber experts have proof china hijacked US-based internet traffic*
searching for news is riskier than searching for porn, study says*
man made 1/2-a-mil on virtual property*
x-37b secret US space plane may be too mysterious*

9/16 defcon: tracking devices & small worlds

have cell phones become personal tracking devices?
what your phone could be telling the govt*
fired google engineer stalked teens, spied on chats*
mom obsessed with video game 'small worlds' neglects children, dogs starve to death*
chase's online bank service still facing problems*