Category Archives: Surveillance state

Heartbleed Bug a Catastrophic Hole in Web Security; Webusers Told to Change Passwords

I remember the days when people were worried about using the Internet for purchases because they weren’t convinced their credit card information would be transmitted securely. It now turns out that a version of Open SSL that has been in production for two years, and on which https and other services like instant messaging, e-mail, and other web applications use has a gaping security hole called the Heartbleed bug.

Wolf Richter: I Just Got PayPal’s New Absolutely-No-Privacy-Ever Policy

PayPal’s new “privacy” policies show how deeply the private surveillance apparatus digs into your life.

Invasion of the Data Snatchers, Big Data and the Internet of Things Means the Surveillance of Everything

Estimates vary, but by 2020 there could be over 30 billion devices connected to the Internet. Once dumb, they will have smartened up thanks to sensors and other technologies embedded in them and, thanks to your machines, your life will quite literally have gone online.

Your Humble Blogger is the Probable Target of Penny-Ante Cyber Predation

I was hacked yesterday.

On the scale of hacks, it was simultaneously trivial but meant to intimidate. Or else hugely inept.

Businesses Going Into “All Surveillance All the Time” Mode in Pursuit of More Productivity

The Financial Times tell us gives us another sighting in the all-too-familiar general story of “the Brave New World is here, and then some.”

Obama Lame Duck Watch: House Democrats Stymieing Trade Deal “Fast Track;” Silicon Valley Surveillance Payoff Language Published

As we discussed earlier, even though there’s abundant evidence that the Administration’s plans to push through its trade deals, the Trans Pacific Partnership and the Transstlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, are in trouble, the official messaging has been to keep pretending that the pacts are still moving forward smartly.

“When You Bareback With the Internet, You Ride With the NSA”

You must watch this talk, even if some parts are a bit technical for mere mortals. No matter how bad you think the NSA’s information surveillance and capture is, I can just about guarante that this will show you that it’s an order of magnitude worse than you imagined.

Wolf Richter: NSA Spying Crushes US Tech Companies in Emerging Markets (“An Industry Phenomenon,” Says Cisco’s Chambers)

Cisco CEO John Chambers had a euphemism for it during the first quarter earnings call: the “challenging political dynamics in that country,” that country being China. But then there was India and others, including Russia where NSA leaker Edward Snowden is holed up, and where sales outright collapsed.

Tom Engelhardt: Mistaking Omniscience for Omnipotence

Given how similar they sound and how easy it is to imagine one leading to the other, confusing omniscience (having total knowledge) with omnipotence (having total power) is easy enough. But at the moment, Washington seems to be operating in a world in which the more you know about the secret lives of others, the less powerful you turn out to be.

Is Google Assisting the NSA in Developing Psychological Profiles of Web Users?

Google sure looks like it wants to profile you psychologically.

Wolf Richter: Nobel Peace Prize, Asylum For Snowden – Germans Turn Up Heat

Yves here. The last two Snowden revelations have kicked up the public and even official unhappiness over pervasive NSA spying a notch further. I’d love to be a fly on the wall at the NSA and hear all the consternation.

Wolf Richter: NSA’s “MUSCULAR” Secretly Breaks Into The Cloud Of US Tech Companies, Siphons Off Data, Fouls Up Revenues Overseas

Yves here. Even though the NSA is now attempting to say that Google and Yahoo were told to comply with the latest data-hoovering exercise exposed by Edward Snowden, Google angrily claims otherwise.

Data Shows Democrats Bought and Paid for by Surveillance Industry

Obama started looking more stressed than usual around the time of the Snowden revelations. This Real News Network interview with political scientist Tom Ferguson helps explain why. The surveillance industry, broadly defined, gave proportionately much more to Obama than other industries in the 2012 election.