Megauproar: ‘ACTA targets & harms legal users’ [video]
Russia Today
February 23, 2012
The EU has suspended the ratification of a controversial anti computer piracy agreement, questioning its legality. It will now be investigated to see if the document is compatible with human rights and freedoms.
Known as ACTA, the bill has been heavily criticised by web freedom activists, sparking multiple protests across Europe. If passed, the legislation will allow customs officers at airports to examine all devices that may contain pirated data. The authorities will also gain unlimited access to private digital information.
So far, 22 EU countries have signed up to the deal which was negotiated in secret.
Bob Beschizza, from the online magazine and blog Boing Boing believes the law punishes those who use sources legally, while failing to battle online piracy.
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Canada unveils new cyber monitoring rules
AFP
February 14, 2012
Canada’s government Tuesday introduced a bill to give law enforcement authorities sweeping powers to probe online communications, but the move sparked criticism about threats to privacy.
“New technologies provide new ways of committing crimes, making them more difficult to investigate,” Justice Minister Rob Nicholson told a press conference in unveiling the measure.
“This legislation will enable authorities to keep pace with rapidly changing technology.”
Opposition parties and civil liberties groups, however, said new police powers contained in the bill could result in unreasonable searches and seizures.
FBI, DHS, Pentagon, & Federal Reserve using social media for spying, propaganda [video]
James Corbett
February 18, 2012
globalresearch.ca
RELATED ARTICLE
FEMA Solicits Firms to Monitor Media Coverage of Their Activities
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[hat tip: Activist Post]
FBI May Shut Down Your Internet Access March 8th
- Dees Illustration
Activist Post
February 14, 2012
This March 8th, the FBI is planning to unplug DNS servers it set up to help eliminate malware from over half of Fortune 500 companies and government agencies still infected in early 2012.
The change could potentially leave a great number of Internet users without access to the Web.
…the feds replaced the criminals’ servers with clean ones that would push along traffic to its intended destination. Without the surrogate servers in place, infected PCs would have continued trying to send requests to aim at the now-unplugged rogue servers, resulting in DNS errors.
The malware, called DNSChanger Trojan, is said to illegally redirect traffic and prevent users from accessing the updates necessary to remove it. Without access to these critical patches, these large companies, government agencies, and home users are said to be more susceptible to hackers.
This prompted InfoWorld to wonder:
This fact does raise the question of why so many Fortune 500 companies and government agencies have failed to notice they have a problem, as they presumably have IT security professionals on staff who should be monitoring such incidents.
Those computers still infected with the Trojan will not be able to access the Internet after the FBI shuts down their temporary servers.
The feds received a court order in November, 2011 to replace the “rogue” servers with surrogate servers to operate “just long enough for companies and home users to remove DNSChanger malware from their machines.”
Rod Rasmussen, president of Internet security company Internet ID, told Krebs on Security that there are still millions of PCs infected with DNSChanger. “At this rate, a lot of users are going to see their Internet break on March 8.”
A working group advising the FBI is said to be considering requesting an extension of the court order to give more time to users of infected machines to remove the malware.
Although this may indeed be a very real problem that Internet users must be vigilant to protect themselves from, depending on the government to provide servers when their own agencies are infected doesn’t seem like a trustworthy solution. Additionally, a previous private-government working group put together in 2009 to combat the Conficker Worm has accomplished very little as 3 million computers are still said to be infected.
These viruses are called Trojans because they are disguised as something friendly, enter computers, and then install malicious software. Someone with a healthy distrust of the government may see the FBI’s warning that millions will be cut off from the Internet as a Trojan Horse itself so that they may retain control over the new servers.
After all, if the FBI is controlling the “legitimate” servers, wouldn’t they have access to all the traffic information of individual users and large corporations?
To ensure your computer is not infected please follow the instructions here. And follow Krebs on Security for news updates pertaining to this story.
To read other articles by Activist Post click here.
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The Past, Present and Future of Internet Censorship [video]
Corbett Report
January 28, 2012
TRANSCRIPT AND SOURCES: http://www.corbettreport.com/?p=3827
In recent weeks the general public has mobilized to face US legislative threats to Internet freedoms. Far from a conclusive victory, however, the death of SOPA and PIPA only highlight the latest in a series of measures that are seeking to create a legal framework for government-administered Internet censorship.
Find out more about this contentious topic in this week’s GRTV Backgrounder on Global Research TV.
Legislating Big Brother under the guise of fighting child pornography
By Madison Ruppert
Editor of End the Lie
January 21, 2012
Deception has become the hallmark of how our government operates in the post-9/11 world, leveraging emotionally charged language in order to trick the public into supporting dangerous legislation.
This is the exact tactic that allowed the PATRIOT Act to be accepted by the public (although it wouldn’t matter much even if the public didn’t support it).
Then President George W. Bush famously stated something to the effect of, “Either you’re with us or you’re with the terrorists,” and that is exactly what our so-called representatives are doing now, except this time it is with child pornography.
Child pornography and the exploitation of children in general is a thoroughly disgusting practice which I think should be punished as harshly as possible, but that does not mean that everyone on the internet should be tracked like never before.
This is exactly what H.R. 1981, or “The Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act of 2011″ intends to do.
This legislation, which has been dormant since December 16, intends to amend pre-existing legal code in order to create a more comprehensive database of users’ internet activity.
You might be surprised that much of what people are finding most objectionable about the legislation is already law here in the United States.
In an article published in The Atlantic, the author and some of the commenters seem to be most offended by the sheer amount of information that internet service providers (ISPs) are required to store on their users.
However, H.R. 1981 (which should be much more appropriately called H.R. 1984) only adds that service providers must record the IP addresses of users as well.
In order to understand this new legislation, which is actually more of an amendment than wholly new legislation, we must look back to what it is actually amending.
This is Title 18 of the U.S. Code, Part 1, Chapter 121, § 2703: Required Disclosure of Customer Communications or Records, which can be read here.
Under Subsection (c), Records Concerning Electronic Communication Service or Remote Computing Service, we read:
(2) A provider of electronic communication service or remote computing service shall disclose to a government entity the
(A) name;
(B) address;
(C) local and long distance telephone connection records;
(D) length of service (including start date) and types of service utilized;
(E) telephone or instrument number or other subscriber number or identity, including any temprorarily assigned network addresses; and
(F) means and source of payment for such service (including any credit card or bank account number),
of a subscriber to or a customer of such service when the government entity uses an administrative subpoena authorized by a Federal or State statute or a Federal or State grand jury or trial subpoena or any means available under paragraph (1).
(3) A government entity receiving records or information under this subsection is not required to provide notice to a subscriber or customer.
When we examine the actual text of H.R. 1981, we find that in addition to the above information, providers must “retain for a period of at least one year a log of the temporarily assigned network addresses the provider assigns to a subscriber or to a customer of such service that enables the identification of the corresponding customer or subscriber information under subsection (c)(2) of this section.”
I find the sheer amount of information being collected by these service providers to be stored for an extended period of time for the government’s perusal to be somewhat troubling.
Of course, the name of the legislation was carefully chosen in order to make anyone who questions the legitimacy of such tactics as either a child pornographer or someone who sympathizes with such despicable people and practices.
I am neither and I think that many people who are not child pornographers and who in fact have nothing to hide when it comes to their internet activity would find such extensive records troubling.
The classic tactic used by proponents of legislation like this is to ask, “If you have nothing to hide, then why are you concerned?”
That is because in today’s America you don’t have to do anything wrong to get you marked by the government.
For instance, under the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, commonly referred to as the NDAA, the government could effectively criminalize certain internet searches or activities which could be labeled “belligerent acts” or terrorist-related activity and thus get you thrown in indefinite military detention.
Furthermore, as the author of the above linked piece from The Atlantic points out, it can also be used for blackmail purposes.
It is far too easy for internet searches to be taken out of context and for someone like me who spends most of their days researching material from across the world on a plethora of subjects, there are bound to be a few searches which could be taken out of context and used to criminalize us.
This legislation is just part of the massive multifaceted approach to eroding all of our most essential civil liberties and the American peoples’ basic sense of freedom and privacy as a whole.
While SOPA and PIPA have garnered widespread opposition, leading to Representative Lamar Smith pulling the legislation for now, the NDAA did not and it seems that H.R. 1981 is getting similarly ignored for the most part.
So long as most of the American people are having their opinions fed to them by the establishment media and various less-than-trustworthy news sources, our so-called representatives will be able to slip legislation like this into law, mostly under the radar with little organized opposition.
Help combat this trend by sharing this article and the many others that cover these important issues that affect us all in ways we can only begin to imagine.
If you have information or a tip on legislation I have yet to cover please email me at admin@endthelie.com with the details.
Related posts:
- Scientists question safety of TSA child pornography devices AKA naked body scanners
- The Next Step in Fighting False Terror-The Thought Police
- Victory (for now): Lamar Smith kills SOPA
- White House to unveil new Big Brother cybsecurity strategies
- The US Air Force wants to monitor, track and analyze everything done on the internet around the globe
Short URL: http://EndtheLie.com/?p=35178
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