Is the Government Spying On You Through Your Own Computer’s Webcam Or Microphone? Washington’s Blog June 25, 2013
We documented earlier today that - if you are near your smart phone – the NSA or private parties could remotely activate your microphone and camera and spy on you. This post shows that the same is true for our computer. Initially, the NSA built backdoors into the world’s most popular software program – Microsoft Windows – by 1999. And a government expert told the Washington Post that the government “quite literally can watch your ideas form as you type” (confirmed). Even that is just “the tip of the iceberg”, according to a congress member briefed on the NSA’s spying program. The New York Times reported in 2011 that German police were using spyware to turn on the webcam and microphone on peoples’ computers: A group that calls itself the Chaos Computer Club prompted a public outcry here recently when it discovered that German state investigators were using spying softwarecapable of turning a computer’s webcam and microphone into a sophisticated surveillance device. The club …announced last Saturday it had analyzed the hard drives of people who had been investigated and discovered that they were infected with a Trojan horse program that gave the
police the ability to log keystrokes, capture screenshots and activate cameras and microphones. Reuters documented last year that the U.S. and Israeli governments can remotely turn on a computer’s microphone: Evidence suggest that the virus, dubbed Flame, may have been built on behalf of the same nation or nations that commissioned the Stuxnet worm that attacked Iran’s nuclear program in 2010 [i.e. the U.S. and Israel], according to Kaspersky Lab, the Russian cyber security software maker that took credit for discovering the infections. Kaspersky researchers said they have yet to determine whether Flame had a specific mission like Stuxnet, and declined to say who they think built it. Cyber security experts said the discovery publicly demonstrates what experts privy to classified information have long known: that nations have been using pieces of malicious computer code as weapons to promote their security interests for several years. *** The virus contains about 20 times as much code as Stuxnet, which caused centrifuges to fail at the Iranian enrichment facility it attacked. It has about 100 times as much code as a typical virus designed to steal financial information, said Kaspersky Lab senior researcher Roel Schouwenberg. Flame can gather data files, remotely change settings on computers, turn on PC microphones to record conversations, take screen shots and log instant messaging chats. Kaspersky Lab said Flame and Stuxnet appear to infect machines by exploiting the same flaw in the Windows operating system and that both vi ruses employ a similar way of spreading.
“The scary thing for me is: if this is what they were capable of five years ago, I can only think what they are developing now,” Mohan Koo, managing director of British-based Dtex Systems cyber security company. PC Magazine tech columnist John Dvorak writes: From what we know the NSA has back door access into Apple, Microsoft [background], and Google. What kind of access we don’t know, but let us assume it is similar to what they did about 7 years ago to AT&T. They had a secret room at Fulsom St. in San Francisco and the AT&T engineers had no control and no access to a room full of NSA equipment that had direct access to everything AT&T could do. Microsoft is the source of the operating system for Windows and Windows cell phones. Apple controls the OS for Macs, iPhones, and iPads. Google controls the Chrome OS, Chrome Browser, and Android cell phones. The companies regularly push operating system upgrades and security updates to users on a regular basis. Imagine however that the NSA has access to these updates at the source and has the ability to alter these update in order to install some sort of spyware on your phone, tablet, or computer. The software could turn on your camera or microphone remotely, read all your private data, or erase everything and brick your phone or computer. Moreover – as documented by Microsoft, Ars Technica, cnet, the Register, Sydney Morning Herald, and many other sources – private parties can turn on your computer’s microphone and camera as well. Cracked noted in 2010: All sorts of programs are available to let you remotely commandeer a webcam, and many of them are free. Simple versions will just take photos or videos when they detect movement, but more complex software will send you an e-mail when the computer you’ve installed the program on is in use, so you can immediately login and control the webcam without the hassle of having to stare at an empty room until the person you’re stalking shows up. The bottom line is that – as with your phone, OnStar type system or other car microphone, Xbox, and other digital recording devices – you shouldn’t say or do anything near your computer that you don’t want shared with the world. Postscript: You could obviously try to cover your webcam and microphone when you don’t want to use them. But if you really want privacy, take a lesson from spy movies: Go swimming with the person you want to speak with … since electronics can’t operate in water.
Congress Insisted They Be Kept in the Dark on NSA Spying Paul Joseph Watson Infowars.com June 25, 2013
Lawmakers refused to provide oversight of controversial program nine years ago Congress insisted it be kept in the dark on the NSA surveillance programs recently revealed by Edward Snowden, according to Dick Cheney, who approached lawmakers with an invitation for them to provide more oversight back in 2004 but was told, “absolutely not”. Speaking at a Washington think tank on U.S.-Korean affairs, the former Vice-President bragged about his involvement in setting up NSA programs shortly after 9/11 that snooped on email and phone records. Cheney also revealed that when he approached Congressional leaders about whether they wished to provide oversight for the program three years after it began, they were “unanimous” that it should continue. “I said, ‘Do you think we ought to come back to the Congress in order to get more formal authorization?’ and they said, ‘Absolutely not.’ Everybody, Republican and Democrat, said, ‘Don’t come back up here, it will leak’,” Cheney said. Cheney’s claim that Snowden’s revelations have caused significant damage to US national security has been rejected by other top security experts, who assert that terrorists already assume their communications are under surveillance and are therefore unaffected by the information released by the whistleblower.
“The argument that this sweeping search must be kept secret from the terrorists is laughable. Terrorists already assume this sort of thing is being done. Only law-abiding American citizens were blissfully ignorant of what their government was doing,” said top counter-terrorism czar under Presidents Clinton and Bush – Richard Clarke. The former head of the NSA’s global digital data gathering program, William Binney, also highlighted how mass NSA surveillance did nothing to prevent terrorism. In addition, the claim that the program prevented terror attacks on targets such as Wall Street and the New York subway has also been debunked. Cheney’s revelation that Congress was completely uninterested in learning about the PRISM program and other NSA snooping initiatives nine years before they caused a global scandal underscores how lawmakers are continually willing to give the federal government a blank check to abuse Constitutional rights. Given the fact that Congress is not only failing to perform its duty of acting as a check and balance in providing oversight of federal government activity, but actually demanding its role be the opposite – a green light for unrestrained spying – is it any wonder that the Congressional job approval has been on a continual slide since 9/11? A recent Rasmussen Reports survey found that just one percent of Americans think Congress is doing an excellent job and 5 percent think it’s doing a good job, figures that are well deserved given that lawmakers, besides a notable few, have completely abrogated their responsibility to keep the executive branch under scrutiny.
‘Mad invader, eavesdropper’: China slams US after Snowden accusations RT June 24, 2013
The US has gone from ‘model of human rights’ to manipulator of internet rights, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party wrote. China has struck back at the US over its allegations that Beijing allowed NSA leaker Edward Snowden to leave Hong Kong. The damning article in the overseas edition of the People’s Daily, the party’s official newspaper, came in response to Washington’s accusations of the “deliberate choice by the government to release a fugitive despite a valid arrest warrant.” Addressing Washington’s allegations, the People’s Daily wrote that China could not accept “this kind of dissatisfaction and opposition.” “Not only did the US authorities not give us an explanation and apology, it instead expressed dissatisfaction at the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region for handling things in accordance with the law,” wrote Wang Xinjun, a researcher at the Academy of Military Science in the People’s Daily commentary. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying also denounced the US accusations as “groundless and unacceptable.” “It is unreasonable for the US to question Hong Kong’s handling of affairs in accordance with law, and the accusation against the Chinese central government is groundless,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying. The Hong Kong government released an official statement on Sunday, saying that US fugitive Edward
Snowden had left the Chinese territory for Moscow legally and voluntarily. The statement also mentioned that the extradition documents submitted by the US on charges of espionage were not sufficient to warrant Snowden’s arrest under Chinese law. The column praises the former CIA contractor for “his fearlessness that tore off Washington’s sanctimonious mask.”Snowden has been branded by the US as ‘traitor’ by US politicians for the leaking of classified documents to The Guardian newspaper that revealed the existence of the spy program PRISM. “In a sense, the United States has gone from a model of human rights to an eavesdropper on personal privacy, the manipulator of the centralized power over the international internet, and the mad invader of other countries’ networks,” the People’s Daily said. The case of Edward Snowden has captivated world media since he fled from the US in May. Although the fugitive’s whereabouts are unknown, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange confirmed to RT that Snowden was en route to Ecuador via Moscow accompanied by WikiLeaks legal representative Sarah Harrison.
Russian journalists wait for the arrival of former US spy Edward Snowden at the Moscow Sheremetevo airport on June 23, 2013. (AFP Photo) Snowden was checked in for a flight from Moscow to Havana, Cuba, yesterday, but there was no sign of him on the plane, according to RT’s correspondent Egor Piskunov. As a consequence, it is now thought that he is still in the transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport. The whistleblower has applied for asylum in Ecuador and the country’s government confirmed that it is processing the application. Amnesty urges US: ‘Refrain from manhunt’ The US has called on all countries in the northern hemisphere to surrender Snowden to US jurisdiction and has resolved to seek cooperation from his destination country. However human rights organization Amnesty International has launched an appeal, urging the US not to prosecute anyone who discloses data on US government human right violations. “No one should be charged under any law for disclosing information of human rights violations by the US government. Such disclosures are protected under the rights to information and freedom of expression,” said Widney Brown, Senior Director of International Law and Policy at Amnesty International. In addition, the organization also stressed that an individual who has an asylum bid underway cannot legally be extradited.
IS THIS THE FUTURE WE WANT FOR OUR KIDS
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