Puppet MastersS


Eye 1

Firms are sending out fake iTunes updates to install spyware on behalf of your government - and it's all completely legal!

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Homepage of the Cyberwarfare Europe conference where borgs gathered in September to discuss how better to drain the creative juices from humanity
A surveillance firm claims it can distribute its spyware via faked iTunes updates. Apple appears to have moved to eliminate the security gap, but the debate over trojans used by governments, both democratic and otherwise, continues to boil.

It was as if a far-flung secret society had gathered in Berlin at the end of September. Military officials and representatives of security authorities from around the world met in a luxury hotel to discuss threats in the digital world: cyber attacks, electronic espionage and online organized crime. But the most pressing issue on the agenda was technology that can be used to combat these perils.

The event was called "Cyberwarfare Europe," but many participants had traveled to the German capital from even further afield. The roster of participants in the event listed government employees and industry representatives from the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia and Indonesia. Each attendee had paid as much as €2,700 for the privilege of listening to lectures from IT experts and military officials -- including one given by a legal expert for current operations at the United States Cyber Command.

Pirates

Surveillance Company Gamma International Says It Sent Fake iTunes, Flash Updates

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Gamma International UK Ltd. touts its ability to send a "fake iTunes update" that can infect computers with surveillance software, according to one of the company's marketing videos.

The Wall Street Journal unveiled on Saturday the "Surveillance Catalog" - an online database containing highlights from surveillance industry marketing documents. The documents show dozens of companies making and selling everything from "massive intercept" gear that can gather all Internet communications in a country to "hacking" tools that allow governments to break into people's computers.

Gamma was one of three companies marketing their skill at the kind of techniques usually used in "black hat hacking," the type of intrusion used by criminals trying to steal people's financial details.

All of the hacking companies say they sell their tools to law enforcement and governments to help them track down criminals. People in this new industry say their tools are necessary because terrorists and criminals are communicating online and hiding behind encryption and other techniques.

Comment: The only question the author should have been asked was: is it MORAL?

NO!

Mikko Hypponen: It's Not a Question of Privacy vs Security, It's a Question of freedom vs control


Stormtrooper

Flashback British firm Gamma International offered spying software to Egyptian regime - documents

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Gamma International's Finfisher program would have enabled government spies to monitor activists and censor websites

A British company offered to sell a program to the Egyptian security services that experts say could infect computers, hack into web-based email and communications tools such as Skype and even take control of other groups' systems remotely, according to documents seen by the Guardian.

Two Egyptian human rights activists found the documents amid hundreds of batons and torture equipment when they broke into the headquarters of the regime's State Security Investigations service (SSI) last month.

One of the papers, in English and headed Finfisher Proposal: Commercial Offer, contained an offer dated 29 June 2010 to provide "FinSpy" software, hardware, installation and training to the SSI for €287,000 (£255,000). The name on the invoice, dated Tuesday 29 June 2010, was Gamma International UK Limited.

Other documents, written in Arabic and marked "ultimately confidential", state that after being offered a "free trial version" of Gamma's Finfisher software to test its ability to hack into email accounts, the SSI concluded it was "a high-level security system" that could get into email accounts of Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo, as well as allowing "full control" of the computers of "targeted elements". It went on to describe the software's "success in breaking through personal accounts on Skype network, which is considered the most secure method of communication used by members of the elements of the harmful activity because it is encrypted".

Comment: Gamma International (uk) Ltd's address:

14 Basepoint Business &
Innovation Centre - Caxton Close
East Portway Ind. Est.
Andover
Hamsphire
SP10 3FG
United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0)1264 326 559
Fax: +44 (0)1264 326 562


USA

US firm's teargas used against Tahrir Square protesters

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© Asmaa Waguih/ReutersA protester throws a teargas canister back at riot police during clashes near Tahrir Square on Monday. Obama the hypocrite tells other dictators to respect protestors while selling them the weapons they need to suppress them.
Egypt's military junta fired CS gas cartridges made by Combined Systems Inc of Pennsylvania, say demonstrators

The teargas used by interior ministry troops in Cairo's Tahrir Square is supplied by a US company. Demonstrators say cartridges retrieved from the scene are branded with the name and address of Combined Systems Inc (CSI).

The firm is located in Jamestown, Pennsylvania. It specialises in supplying what it calls "crowd control devices" to armies and "homeland security agencies" around the world. It also manufactures lethal military equipment.

Protesters say the CS gas seems more powerful than that used by Egyptian police during the country's last popular uprising in February. "It's stronger, it burns your face, it makes you feel like your whole body is seizing up," one witness said. He added: "It doesn't seem to be combated by Coke or vinegar."

Experts told the Guardian the gas was likely to be standard CS gas, but the effects could be exacerbated by physical exertion.

As well as the effects of the teargas, protesters have suffered grave injuries to their heads and faces from rubber bullets. There are also reports of live ammunition being used. Dozens of people have been taken to makeshift hospitals after inhaling the choking gas fired by the Central Security Forces.

Comment: Make no mistake, this 'teargas' does far more than make you 'teary' - it completely disables most people and often leads to permanent damage, sometimes even death. It is another weapon sold to fellow dictatorships in the elites' war against the people.

Here is the Combined Systems Inc website

Its address: 388 Kinsman Rd., Jamestown, PA 16134

Its phone numbers:

Tel: (724) 932-2177
Toll Free: (888) 989-7800
Fax: (724) 932-2166

And its CEO: Don Smith


MIB

Iran and Lebanon uncover CIA terror networks

In a significant failure for the United States in the Mideast, more than a dozen spies working for the CIA in Iran and Lebanon have been caught and the U.S. government fears they will be or have been executed, according to four current and former U.S. officials with connections to the intelligence community.


Wolf

Senators Demand the Military Lock Up American Citizens in a "Battlefield" They Define as Being Right Outside Your Window

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While nearly all Americans head to family and friends to celebrate Thanksgiving, the Senate is gearing up for a vote on Monday or Tuesday that goes to the very heart of who we are as Americans. The Senate will be voting on a bill that will direct American military resources not at an enemy shooting at our military in a war zone, but at American citizens and other civilians far from any battlefield - even people in the United States itself.

Senators need to hear from you, on whether you think your front yard is part of a "battlefield" and if any president can send the military anywhere in the world to imprison civilians without charge or trial.

The Senate is going to vote on whether Congress will give this president - and every future president - the power to order the military to pick up and imprison without charge or trial civilians anywhere in the world. Even Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) raised his concerns about the NDAA detention provisions during last night's Republican debate. The power is so broad that even U.S. citizens could be swept up by the military and the military could be used far from any battlefield, even within the United States itself.

Gear

Surreal WW3 "Modern Warfare" Programming by Chrysler (Video)

You're going to find this almost hard to believe. I turned on some raw TV today after three delightful months without it while on the road.

Besides the incredible shopping screech idiocy with gurgling mad housewives drooling for the start of the well named "Black Friday", this Jeep Wrangler commercial came on that left me with my mouth hanging open.


Comment: Anything for a few more sales!!


Vader

Mossad vs Assad? 'CIA death squads behind Syria bloodbath'

Moscow has accused the west of stirring up tensions in the Arab world by calling for the overthrow of the Syrian regime. Russia says calls from certain states for the Syrian opposition to avoid dialogue with the government, are only provoking further violence. Author and journalist Webster Tarpley, who's in Damascus, says, it's very simple, western powers are behind the violence in Syria.


Star of David

Mark Glenn: The tyrants are not going to go quietly

As Egypt approaches its election set for November 28, protests sparked by constitutional changes giving the military junta more power, continue to spread to other cities across the country.


Phoenix

North Korea Threatens South with "Sea of Fire"

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© The Associated PressSouth Korea Marines run during a military exercise on Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea, Nov. 23, 2011.
North Korea threatened Thursday to turn Seoul's presidential palace office into a "sea of fire," stepping up its rhetoric one day after South Korea conducted large-scale military drills near a front-line island attacked by North Korea last year.

On Wednesday, South Korea mobilized aircraft, rocket launchers, artillery guns and naval boats for the first anniversary of the artillery attack on a military garrison and fishing community on Yeonpyeong Island in the Yellow Sea. Two marines and two construction workers were killed in the attack, the first on a civilian area since the 1950-53 Korean War.

A similar "sea of fire" threatens to engulf Seoul's presidential Blue House if South Korean forces fire a single shot into North Korean territory, the North's People's Army warned in a statement from Pyongyang.

Pyongyang accuses Seoul of provoking last year's attack, saying it struck after warning the South not to hold live-fire drills in the disputed waters. South Korea has said it fired shells southward, not toward the North, as part of routine exercises last year.