Blackhacker

Unpaid bills lead phone companies to hang up on FBI wiretaps
A report issued by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) reveals extreme deficiencies in FBI budget and expense management procedures for surveillance. According to the OIG, phone companies have terminated FBI wiretaps and FBI surveillance phone lines as a result of unpaid bills.

Wow the FBI isn’t doing any better than some days.

First …

Fresh Security Breaches at Los Alamos - Newsweek National News - MSNBC.com
In late May, a Los Alamos staffer took his lab laptop with him on vacation to Ireland. A senior nuclear official familiar with the inner workings of Los Alamos—who would not be named talking about internal matters—says the laptop’s hard drive contained “government documents of a sensitive nature.” The laptop was also fitted with an encryption card advanced enough that its export is government-controlled. In Ireland, the laptop was stolen from the vacationer’s hotel room. It has not been recovered.

And then…

Then, 10 days ago, a Los Alamos scientist fired off an e-mail to colleagues at the Nevada nuclear test site. The scientist works in Los Alamos’s P Division, which does experimental physics related to weapons design, a lab source says. The material he e-mailed was “highly classified,” the same source says. But he sent his e-mail over the open Internet, rather than through the secure defense network.

How can one of the most important and sensitive military research facilities have no clue about data security? Reporting about Los Alamos security breaches, is almost not news anymore. I mean did we become the most powerful nation on Earth by accident? Are we really THIS stupid?

SIMPLE things could have stopped these breaches. Policies that once implemented would have required no thought by the participants.

1. ALL EMAIL SHOULD BE ENCRYPTED
   Why this has not been adopted at east as a defense industry standard is beyond me. There must be several COTS solutions that could be used if they don;t want to use OSS, which is also available. This is important because even if sensitive email, is sent over the internet, it can not be read except by the intended recipients.
2. DON’T TAKE WORK DATA HOME
   15 or maybe even 10 you might have had to have that data physically on you PC if it was large, and if you r deadline was tight enough that might require you to take it home for you take it home. (AFAIK there are laws , and rules about where you can store classified information. Even if the laptop was cleared for such use, his home and car must also be cleared for such use if he is going to leave it unattended for any length of time) But that is no longer necessary. High speed networks and encryption technology has made working from home easy and secure, without actually having the data on your local machine.

Pentagon and CIA snooping Americans’ financial records
In the wake of 9/11, the FBI was given the power to issue demands, in the form of “national security letters,” for records from financial institutions like banks and credit card companies. Compliance with these demands is compulsory.

The NYT story reveals that the Pentagon and the CIA have been issuing their own, “non-compulsory” versions of the letters that the banks can choose to contest in court. Apparently, banks and other financial institutions are choosing to cough up the documents, and both agencies have used them to obtain information on hundreds of American citizens.

This Ars Technica article goes on to point out that normally the Military is prohibited from enforcing domestic law and thew CIA is prohibited from spying in the US.

Pentagon officials said they used the letters to follow up on a variety of intelligence tips or leads. While they would not provide details about specific cases, military intelligence officials with knowledge of them said the military had issued the letters to collect financial records regarding a government contractor with unexplained wealth, for example …
(link)

That is of course stupid because They could have (should have) done a background check on the contractor before award the contract. No letter would be needed. I wish the government was this diligent when it come to control wait fraud and abuse by contractors in Iraq.

In case you didn’t know:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Next thing you know your new roommate shows up say he has been assigned to “quarter” in your house. For the legally impaired that is in violation of Amendment III.

A wise man once said :

One might note that easiest way to “prevent tampering, counterfeiting, or duplication of the document for fraudulent purposes” is to NOT PUT IT ON THE CARD.

This was in reference to the Federal Government’s decision to use RFID, as part of the Government Issue IDs that comply with the REAL ID act.

I hate to say I told you so but …

BBC NEWS | Programmes | Click | ePassports ‘at risk’ from cloning
It will, we are promised, keep the unwanted and dangerous outside our borders, while streamlining entry for those welcome to come and visit.

But as the implementation of the scheme gets underway it is becoming clear that there could be serious problems with it.

Dap: Wiki News

BetaNews
“Based on its reporting after the May 11 article, USA Today has now concluded that while the NSA has built a massive domestic calls record database involving the domestic call records of telecommunications companies, the newspaper cannot confirm that BellSouth or Verizon contracted with the NSA to provide bulk calling records to that database,” the paper said in a second page note to its readers.

The paper does stand by the assertion that the NSA Program exists and the AT&T and possible MCI participated. I’m gonna sound a little Red State here but MSM has been VERY sloppy lately. When those charged with bringing you the news become the story we are in a world or trouble. When you have a story as HUGE as this, anything that smells funny will be highlighted and exposed to the world. (I guess we are over due for a Conservative blog swarm.)

In case you hadn’t heard yet.

USATODAY.com - NSA has massive database of Americans’ phone calls
The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.

The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans — most of whom aren’t suspected of any crime. This program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations. But the spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity, sources said in separate interviews.

I understand that this kind of data mining (and that is what it is, in spite of what the President says. He either doesn’t really understand what data mining is or is lying) is necessary to uncover and apprehend loosely couple decentralized organization like Al Qaeda, but there was NO OVERSITE. Where was the check? Where was the balance? The President says, “I can do This cause that is how I interpret the constitution. I Don’t have to do that ’cause that’s how I interpret the constitution. ”

Well Mr. Bush, IT AINT YOUR JOB TO INTERPRET THE CONSTIUTION. THAT IS THE JOB OF THE COURTS.

Kudos to QUEST for telling the government NO. Thanks for having a spine.

Spy Court Judge Quits In Protest
Jurist Concerned Bush Order Tainted Work of Secret Panel

By Carol D. Leonnig and Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, December 21, 2005; Page A01

A federal judge has resigned from the court that oversees government surveillance in intelligence cases in protest of President Bush’s secret authorization of a domestic spying program, according to two sources.

If they don’t need you … might as well go home.

Radley Balko at the Agitator has transcripts of the court proceedings of the Corey Maye Case. There is a LOT to read but I have started looking. Especially if you have knowledge of criminal law. Me, I learned everything I know from Sipowicz & Brisko but I’m gonna give it go.

The 4th Amendment states:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

yet …

Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts - New York Times
WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 - Months after the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist activity without the court-approved warrants ordinarily required for domestic spying, according to government officials.

Authorizing the the NSA to violate the rights and civil liberties of Americans in my book is impeachable. The only thing is if that happens and he is removed, Cheny becomes President. 6 of one 1/2 a dozen of the other.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon will quit his ruling Likud ahead of snap elections and form a new centrist party, to completely reshape Israeli politics and peacemaking, a source in his office said on Sunday.
link

I hope some doesn’t ventalate his head behind this.