Loss of Privacy

The Wall Street Journal has obtained over 200 documents that details how the US government obtains its surveillance tools.

The techniques described in the trove of 200-plus marketing documents, spanning 36 companies, include hacking tools that enable governments to break into people’s computers and cellphones, and “massive intercept” gear that can gather all Internet communications in a country. The papers were obtained from attendees of a secretive surveillance conference held near Washington, D.C., last month.

The catalog is absolutely incredible and searchable at the Wall Street Journal.

There’s more information in the world than ever — but who’s in control?

At the centre sits the Establishment: governments, corporations and powerful individuals who have more knowledge about us, and more power, than ever before. Circling them is a new generation of hackers, pro-democracy campaigners and internet activists who no longer accept that the Establishment should run the show.

In her gripping, revelatory new book, award-winning journalist and campaigner Heather Brooke takes us inside the Information War, from the hackerspaces of Boston and Berlin to the UK’s journalism hub and Iceland’s free speech revolution; from the headquarters of Google and Facebook to Collateral Murder, Cablegate and the murky word of Julian Assange and Wikileaks.

You can find out more about it here.

FOX’s guest runs a PR firm. He doesn’t know anything about hacking. He doesn’t even understand the definition. He knows spin. If you understand both, you’ll have a hard time watching this video.

The difference in this case is that the Pentagon, Citibank, and everyone else were the hackees. News of the World were the hackers. You can’t lump victim and perpetrator in the same category. This attempt at spin is so incredible that I’m near speechless.

It doesn’t matter if this happened a long time ago. It happened. It was and still is against the law. Until they were caught, New of the World continued these practices. It’s only a matter of time before more of their despicable practices comes to light.

Yeah, let’s move on to other, more important things, like Casey Anthony. Apparently, she is more important than anything News Corp. has going on.

If you want to understand more about this scandal, Ross Anderson’s blog post, Phone hacking, technology and policy, is a good place to start.

You can read the excellent article, Anonymous speaks: the inside story of the HBGary hack, over at Ars Technica.