Anonops #9: Get Los(t) Zetas

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Hacker ontdekt lek bij publieke omroep: ’2,3 miljoen gegevens op straat’

De hacker ‘Bitbuster’ heeft een lek in een beheersysteem van publieke omroepen en radiostations ontdekt waardoor 2,3 miljoen persoonsgegevens op straat zijn komen te liggen. Dat meldt Webwereld.

Een woordvoerder van Angry Bites, de webdeveloper verantwoordelijk voor het beheersysteem van de websites, zegt in een reactie tegen De Pers dat de hacker via een verouderde versie van de site bij de gegevens kon. Eén gelekt wachtwoord zou toegang hebben gegeven tot 160 websites van NPO en daarbuiten. Onder andere Slam FM, KRO, Omroep.nl, BNN, diverse publieke radiozenders en RTV Noord-Holland zouden getroffen zijn. Vooral 3FM, QMusic en de website van Klokhuis zijn het zwaarst getroffen.

Erik Kroeze, woordvoerder van NPO, wil tegenover nrc.nl graag benadrukken dat NPO slachtoffer is geworden van een beveiligingsprobleem bij de webdeveloper:

“Ik kan op dit moment niet zeggen welke gegevens precies zijn gelekt. Het lijkt er nu in de berichtgeving op dat NPO de gegevens heeft gelekt, terwijl dat niet zo is. Er zijn namelijk ook problemen met websites buiten de NPO. We hebben contact gehad met Angry Bites en de garantie gekregen dat het probleem zo snel mogelijk verholpen wordt. Wanneer weet ik nog niet. Alles dat dichtgezet kon worden, is dichtgezet.”

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Failure is not an option.

Enemies of Anonymous are permanent.

Enemies are to be eliminated swiftly and without incident.

Anonymous must work as one. No single Anonymous knows everything.

Anonymous does not tolerate action against Anonymous.

Any action against Anonymous will be dealt with swiftly and thoroughly.

Nothing can harm Anonymous.

Anonymous is the will to power.

Anonymous is always in control.

Anonymous has no identity.

Anonymous worships nothing.

Anonymous has no leader, and is led by no-one.

Human weakness is the virus; Anonymous is the cure.

Anonymous is anonymous.

Anonymous stays together through common ideas.

We are Anonymous.

We are Legion.

We do not forgive.

We do not forget.

Expect us.

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ANONYMOUS attacks www.pricoahuila.com asking where the $3 billion dollars stolen from Coahuila are located



REPORTING FROM MEXICO: At 3:00 p.m. Mexican central standard time, twitter trend #OpTranzas skyrocked. At first I did not understand what exactly that trend was but it did not take me much time to understand that it was another ANONYMOUS operation. Their target was www.pricoahuila.com the official website of the Coahuila state ruling party: Institutional Revolutionary Party or PRI in Spanish.

It was incredible to read the outright hacking of the site live on twitter. The objective was to send a message to the PRI Party for the outright embezzlement of $3 billion dollars or $32 billion pesos. The fingers point at the past governor but only members of his cabinet were arrested.

$3 billion dollars for any state government to be embezzled is simply outrageous and ANONYMOUS simply will not let go of this line of investigation.

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Criminals and cyber bullies to be banned from the web

Criminals who commit offences online and cyber bullies will be banned from the internet as part of the Government’s new cyber security strategy, announced today.

It calls for police and courts to make more use of existing “cyber sanctions” to restrict access to the social networks and instant messaging services in cases of hacking, fraud and online bullying. Sex offenders and those convicted of harrassment or anti-social behaviour also face more internet restrictions under the new strategy.

Similar orders have been imposed on those charged with involvement in a series of cyber attacks by the Anonymous and LulzSec groups earlier this year, while they await trial.

Cyber sanctions were also used following the riots this summer. Two teenagers in Dundee were banned from the web for inciting riots via Facebook.

Officials are now looking into whether "cyber tag" technology could be used to monitor offenders and report to authorities if break their bail or sentence conditions by using the internet.

"The Ministry of Justice and the Home Office will consider and scope the development of a new way of enforcing these orders, using ‘cyber-tags’ which are triggered by the offender breaching the conditions that have been put on their internet use, and which will automatically inform the police or probation service," cyber security strategy said.

It added that if the regime is a success restrictions on internet use could be imposed on "a wider group of offenders".

Police forces across the country will also follow the example of the Met’s Police Central e-Crime Unit by recruiting “cyber specials”; internet experts will be encouraged to volunteer as special constables to help investigate online crime.

The four-year strategy is also designed to address cyber espionage and attacks from states such as China and Russia and "patriotic" hackers.

GCHQ, Britain’s eavesdropping agency, is to receive around £385m of the total £650m budget to develop its ability to detect, defend and fight back online. The problem of discovering the true source of a cyber attack will be among the top priorities for the Cheltenham-based agency's experts, as well as developing "tactics and techniques” for online conflict in collaboration with the Ministry of Defence's new cyber unit.

GCHQ will also declassify and commercialise some of its cyber technology to help the private sector improve its security online, as part of a broader effort to increase cooperation between government and industry. Other measures with include a new "hub" for information sharing to allow the security services to share information on cyber threats with major infrastructure firms such as BT, Barclays and utilities companies.

“This strategy not only deals with the threat from terrorists to our national security, but also with the criminals who threaten our prosperity as well as blight the lives of many ordinary people through cyber crime,” said David Cameron.

Terrorists are not believed to yet have the ability to launch damaging cyber attacks against critical infrastructure such as water and power stations, but they are thought to have discussed such operations.

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Surveillance Company Says It Sent Fake iTunes, Flash Updates

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.

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Hacker zet tekenfilmpjes op website RTV Utrecht

De website van RTV Utrecht was vanmorgen gehackt. Wie een bepaald nieuwsbericht aanklikte, kreeg 'Badger badger badger', een tekenfilmpje met dansende dassen, te zien.

Het probleem is inmiddels verholpen, aldus een woordvoerster van de regionale zender.

'We zitten er bovenop. Voor zover we kunnen nagaan zijn geen andere bestanden gehackt. De schade valt mee. Maar we vinden het ontzettend vervelend en proberen de bron te achterhalen', aldus de woordvoerster.

De laatste tijd zijn websites van omroepen vaker doelwit van hackers.

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European high court rejects Internet traffic filtering as violation of fundamental rights

While Thanksgiving is an American holiday, internet service providers and users in Europe had reason to give thanks yesterday. The highest court in the European Union overturned a ruling that would have forced a Belgian ISP to preemptively filter Internet traffic to prevent the unauthorized sharing of music files.

The European Court of Justice overturned a ruling by a Belgian court in a suit brought by the Belgian Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers (SABAM). SABAM filed it against Scarlet Extended over alleged illegal peer-to-peer filesharing by Scarlet's customers. That 2007 ruling required Scarlet to filter traffic on its network, so that it could identify and block illegal peer to peer filesharing traffic. It was based on an interpretation of Belgian copyright laws that put the burden of enforcement on ISPs.

Scarlet had appealed, focusing on European data privacy laws, saying that the ruling would in effect force the company to monitor all Internet traffic passing through its network—which would, aside from being technically unfeasible, violate the privacy of its customers. The case has been closely watched by Internet companies in Europe, which were concerned that they could be faced with similar requirements.

In its ruling, The Court of Justice upheld the right of copyright holders to file injunctions against intermediaries over illegal file sharing. But it struck down the provisions of the Belgian court ruling that required filtering, finding that the filtering provisions violated European Union e-commerce laws, and infringed on the rights of Scarlet and its customers. The broad monitoring required to filter file-sharing would "infringe the fundamental rights of [Scarlet's] customers, namely their right to protection of their personal data and their right to receive or impart information, which are rights safeguarded by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU," the court panel wrote.

Anonymous Party Hard

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The spies behind your screen

It’s both possible and legal to take control of a computer without its owner ever knowing. And it could prove deadlier than any missile.

David Vincenzetti isn’t your typical arms dealer. He’s never sold a machine gun, a grenade or a surface-to-air missile. But, make no mistake, he has access to a weapon so powerful it could bring a country to its knees. It’s called RCS – Remote Control System – and it’s a piece of computer software. Developed by Vincenzetti and a team of former computer hackers, RCS is able to “invade” a digital device undetected, bypass the most sophisticated electronic defences so far devised and, if the user so desired, disrupt the running of anything from a railway signalling system to a nuclear power station.

RCS can be installed on smartphones and computers without their owners' knowledge, and gives its user almost complete access to the "infected" device. The user can listen in on phone calls, read encrypted communications and even send apparently genuine email or text messages, all without the owner suspecting a thing. It can take screenshots of the computer, and photographs of the user. It can even activate the phone microphone, effectively turning a Blackberry left on the table during a meeting into a powerful bugging device. The software operates in the background, undetected by anti-spyware, anti-malware or anti-virus software, hiding its transmissions inside the user's usual email or internet traffic. It makes hacking into mobile phone voicemail look like the ham-fisted bungling of amateurs.

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It sounds amazing, but if you take a look at their shoddy marketing video and their literature, it soon becomes clear that behind all the technobabble and amazing claims is nothing more than a glorified keylogger which still has to be actually installed on a target system, whether by trickery or more directly. It doesn't install itself by some form of incomprehensible cybermagic as the article above seems to imply.

This is the sort of cunning marketing-driven technobabble (or should that be "cybertechnobabble"?) that makes otherwise intelligent people in the military and elsewhere who aren't au fait with the world of information technology believe that a "hacking" attack can actually be carried out on command.

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Basic error puts anonymous bloggers at risk

In a recent experiment writer Andy Baio was able to uncover the identities of seven anonymous bloggers from a random sample of 50 in under 30 minutes; all thanks to a simple mistake they'd made in setting up their websites.

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jeanassy twitterde op dinsdag 29-11-2011 om 09:13:58 If you know someone working for the UN, you can surprise him by giving him his email's password http://t.co/hbKczogV #Anonymous #AntiSec reageer retweet

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Facebook reaches deal with FTC over 'unfair and deceptive' privacy claims

Facebook forced to obtain consent before making privacy changes as Mark Zuckerberg admits 'high-profile mistakes'

Facebook "deceived consumers by telling them they could keep their information on Facebook private, and then repeatedly allowing it to be shared and made public," US regulators said as they announced a settlement over privacy issues with the social networking giant.

Facebook has been repeatedly criticised for changing its policies in ways that disclose more of its 800 million users' personal information without giving them adequate notice. Last year, critics organised a Quit Facebook Day in response to the firm's alleged privacy breaches.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said Facebook had made claims about its privacy policies that were "unfair and deceptive, and violated federal law."

The FTC said it had reached a proposed settlement with Facebook that would force it to obtain consent before making changes to privacy settings. The firm will also have to undergo an independent audit of its consumer privacy policy every two years for the next 20 years, to make sure it complies with the FTC ruling.

"Facebook is obligated to keep the promises about privacy that it makes to its hundreds of millions of users," said Jon Leibowitz, the FTC chairman. "Facebook's innovation does not have to come at the expense of consumer privacy. The FTC action will ensure it will not."

In a blogpost, Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said the company made a "small number of high-profile mistakes."

"I founded Facebook on the idea that people want to share and connect with people in their lives, but to do this everyone needs complete control over who they share with at all times," said Zuckerberg.

"Overall, I think we have a good history of providing transparency and control over who can see your information," he wrote. "I also understand that many people are just naturally sceptical of what it means for hundreds of millions of people to share so much personal information online, especially using any one service," he said.

Zuckerberg said the deal was part of a broader push by the government to ensure consumer privacy regulations from other companies, including Google and Twitter. "For Facebook, this means we're making a clear and formal long-term commitment to do the things we've always tried to do and planned to keep doing – giving you tools to control who can see your information and then making sure only those people you intend can see it," he said.

Facebook is currently lining up a $100bn floatation that could come as early as next April. The initial public offering (IPO) values Zuckerberg's stake in the firm at $24bn.

The FTC said Facebook made eight specific promises that it did not keep.

In December 2009, Facebook changed its website so certain information that users may have designated as private – such as their friends list – was made public. They did so without warning or approval in advance.

Facebook said that company's apps would have access only to the information that they needed to operate. In fact, the apps could access nearly all of users' personal data – data the apps didn't need, said the FTC.

Facebook told users they could restrict sharing of data to limited audiences – for example with Friends Only. In fact, selecting Friends Only did not prevent their information from being shared with third-party applications their friends used.

Facebook had a Verified Apps programme, and claimed it certified the security of participating apps. It didn't.

Facebook promised users that it would not share their personal information with advertisers. It did.

Facebook claimed that when users deactivated or deleted their accounts, their photos and videos would be inaccessible. But Facebook allowed access to the content, even after users had deactivated or deleted their accounts.

Facebook claimed that it complied with the US–EU Safe Harbour Framework that governs data transfer between the US and the European Union. It didn't.

In future, the firm will be required to obtain consent from its users ahead of making changes that change their privacy settings, and it will be required to prevent anyone from accessing a Facebook user's account 30 days after they have deleted it.

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Op dinsdag 29 november 2011 09:21 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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jeanassy twitterde op dinsdag 29-11-2011 om 09:13:58 If you know someone working for the UN, you can surprise him by giving him his email's password http://t.co/hbKczogV #Anonymous #AntiSec reageer retweet

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Hackers post UN staffer user names, passwords

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A hackers group calling itself "Team Poison" has posted what it says are the user names and passwords of more than 100 United Nations staffers' email accounts it pulled from a U.N. computer server.

Many of the accounts posted on pastebin.com website appear to belong to U.N. Development Program staffers.

A telephone call seeking comment from a UNDP spokeswoman in New York was not immediately returned Wednesday evening.

Team Poison is among several politically motivated cyber activists or activist groups whose stunts are prompting increased police attention.

Generally known as "hacktivists," they've targeted a series of government, military and intelligence-related websites across the globe.

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Mobiele provider kan elke toetsaanslag zien

Mobiele providers weten meer van je dan je denkt. Dat zou blijken uit een nieuw privacy-lek dat smartphonegebruikers treft. CarrierIQ, een verborgen programma dat standaard op veel telefoons geïnstalleerd staat om netwerkactiviteiten te monitoren, stuurt ongevraagd persoonlijke gegevens naar Amerikaanse providers door. Waaronder de inhoud van sms’jes en webverkeer dat eigenlijk beveiligd zou moeten zijn. Nederlandse bellers lijken echter buiten schot te blijven.

Carrier IQ Part #2

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Op dinsdag 29 november 2011 09:25 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

Operation Robin Hood Message

Operation Robin Hood! The MIDGET RAGES! TeaM p0isAnon!

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Anonymous launches new operation targeting big banks

Hacktivist collective Anonymous and hacking group Teamp0ison have announced that they will be joining their forces once again and starting another operation against banks.

They call it OpRobinHood, and apparently it will consist of stealing credit card details from big banks in order to use it to make donations to charities and others.

"In regards to the recent demonstrations and protests across the globe, we are going to turn the tables on the banks," they state. "Operation Robin Hood is going to return the money to those who have been cheated by our system and most importantly to those hurt by our banks. Operation Robin Hood will take credit cards and donate to the 99% as well as various charities around the globe. The banks will be forced to reimburse the people there money back."

The operation is meant to damage the banks' financial standing as well as their reputation, and as such it should continue the work initiated by the Operation Cash Back, with which bank users were urged to close their accounts and transfer the money to accounts opened with credit unions.

"Operation Robin Hood urges YOU, to now move your accounts into secure credit unions, before it’s too late while we hit them from the inside," they say, but don't reveal whether the stolen information will be used by them or made public for the "99%" to use.

Allegedly, Chase, Bank of America, and CitiBank have already been hit with big breaches, and credit cards issued by them have been used to make donations.

While is true that in most cases the bank is required to refund the money taken through fraudulent transactions if the credit card owner can prove it happened, I can't imagine the recipients of that money - even if they are charities - being allowed to keep it. So, I'm very interested in seeing how successful this operation proves to be, and how the groups intend to pull it off.

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De Kamer is tegen, maar Teeven wil tóch een downloadverbod

Ondanks grote weerstand bij de Tweede Kamerfracties wil staatssecretaris Fred Teeven (VVD) nog niet van de kabinetsplannen voor invoering van het downloadverbod afzien. 'Ik kan niet stil blijven staan, want er is druk vanuit de Europese Commissie. Maar ik kan wel knopen tellen, en ik zie dat ik een probleem heb', zei hij vandaag tijdens het debat over de hervorming van auteursrechten. 'Maar ik hoop u nog wel van het een en ander te kunnen overtuigen.'

Tijdens het debat bleek vanmorgen dat alle partijen, met uitzondering van Teevens eigen VVD, tegen diens voorstel zijn om de thuiskopieheffing te vervangen door het downloadverbod. Bij de nu geldende thuiskopieheffing betaalt de consument een extra heffing op lege cd's en dvd's. Maar volgens Teeven is dat te ouderwets, en werkt een downloadverbod veel beter.

Teeven belooft de Kamer met 'heel grote waarborgen' te komen om de privacy van de consument en de vrijheid van het internet goed in het oog te houden. Van mensen die slechts beperkt downloaden zullen naam en adres niet bekend worden, en alleen sites die heel actief illegaal materiaal aanbieden, zullen met het downloadverbod te maken krijgen. Met die toezeggingen hoopt hij de Kamer alsnog over de streep te kunnen trekken.

Het is volgens Teeven nog niet duidelijk of de Europese Commissie het Nederlandse kabinetsbeleid rond de thuiskopieheffing omarmt. 'We ontvangen daarover tegenstrijdige berichten. Maar we moeten wel haast maken, want veel tijd wordt ons niet gegund.'

Nova Zembla
Volgens Teeven is het belangrijk dat er goede regelgeving komt die het illegaal downloaden tegen gaat. 'Het is mijn taak te voorkomen dat films als Nova Zembla vijf dagen na het verschijnen in de bioscoop al massaal gedownload worden. Dat het downloaden van zo'n film dan geen zuivere koffie is, kan iedereen begrijpen.'

Volgens Teeven is inmiddels bewezen dat het vergroten van het legale aanbod aan muziek, films en games niet werkt. 'Waarom zou je betalen voor legaal aanbod als het ook gratis illegaal kan?' De staatssecretaris benadrukt dat het hem niet te doen is om 'mensen die af en toe een liedje downloaden', maar wel om 'fanatici die illegaal materiaal het net op slingeren.'

D66
Vanmorgen lieten de verschillende partijen weten hoe zij staan tegenover het voorstel van Teeven. Volgens D66 moet het probleem van illegaal downloaden worden aangepakt door het aanbod uit te breiden, bijvoorbeeld met meer diensten als Spotify. Ook is er extra toezicht nodig op de naleving van de Europese regels op dit gebied. De thuiskopieregeling moet worden uitgebreid, vinden de democraten. De partij pleit ook voor een nieuw licentiemodel dat vergelijkbaar is met dat van de horeca en de radio.

Over één kam
De PVV vind het standpunt van D66 onbegrijpelijk. 'Dus D66 is tégen het gratis downloaden, maar steunt een downloadverbod toch niet', aldus Kamerlid Louis Bontes. De PVV vindt de uitspraken van Verhoeven bovendien 'stevig'. 'Je moet niet alle internetters over één kam scheren.' De PVV is tegen het downloadverbod, én tegen de thuiskopieheffing. 'Internet is een grondrecht, daar blijf je vanaf.'

Ook de PvdA keert zich tegen het downloadverbod. 'Het is niet altijd duidelijk wat illegaal is. Soms moet je namelijk ook voor illegaal verspreid materiaal betalen', aldus Kamerlid Pauline Smeets. 'De PvdA is voor een vrij en open internet. Dat staat ook in het coalitieakkoord. We moeten de consument niet allerlei rechtszaken boven het hoofd laten hangen. Laten we de uren van de ambtenaar anders besteden.'

VVD
Alleen de VVD zelf schaart zich achter de staatssecretaris. 'Het auteursrecht valt onder het privaatrecht. Een downloadverbod kan dus gewoon worden ingevoerd,' aldus VVD-Kamerlid Joost Taverne. Bang voor vervolging van consumenten is hij niet. 'Dat hoort bij het privaatrecht.' Wel is de privacy voor de VVD-fractie een punt van zorg.

Maar voor de andere partijen is een downloadverbod geen optie. Volgens Sharon Gesthuizen van de SP is dat niet te handhaven. Haar partij ziet meer heil in een modernisering van de thuiskopieheffing. Dat moet de kosten voor artiesten en producenten kunnen compenseren.

Kwetsbaar
Ook het CDA is het niet met Taverne eens. Een downloadverbod maakt de consument wel degelijk kwetsbaar, meent de partij. Maar als een downloadverbod via het strafrecht geregeld kan worden, valt er voor de christendemocraten wel over te praten. Volgens Teeven kan dat grote problemen geven, omdat dat kan leiden tot grote rechtszaken.

Ondanks alle kritiek is Teeven dus niet bereid om het idee van een downloadverbod te laten varen. Met aanpassingen aan zijn voorstel hoopt hij toch nog voldoende partijen over de streep te kunnen trekken.

Een definitief besluit laat voorlopig nog op zich wachten. Half mei wil de Kamer opnieuw 'stevig' debatteren over deze kwestie. Een meerderheid van de Kamerfracties wil echter op kortere termijn nog eens met Teeven om tafel. Volgens hen is een tweede termijn wenselijk, omdat de discussie nog niet is afgerond.

Wordt vervolgd, dus.

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WikiLeaks: The Spy Files

Mass interception of entire populations is not only a reality, it is a secret new industry spanning 25 countries

It sounds like something out of Hollywood, but as of today, mass interception systems, built by Western intelligence contractors, including for ’political opponents’ are a reality. Today WikiLeaks began releasing a database of hundreds of documents from as many as 160 intelligence contractors in the mass surveillance industry. Working with Bugged Planet and Privacy International, as well as media organizations form six countries – ARD in Germany, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism in the UK, The Hindu in India, L’Espresso in Italy, OWNI in France and the Washington Post in the U.S. Wikileaks is shining a light on this secret industry that has boomed since September 11, 2001 and is worth billions of dollars per year. WikiLeaks has released 287 documents today, but the Spy Files project is ongoing and further information will be released this week and into next year.

International surveillance companies are based in the more technologically sophisticated countries, and they sell their technology on to every country of the world. This industry is, in practice, unregulated. Intelligence agencies, military forces and police authorities are able to silently, and on mass, and secretly intercept calls and take over computers without the help or knowledge of the telecommunication providers. Users’ physical location can be tracked if they are carrying a mobile phone, even if it is only on stand by.

But the WikiLeaks Spy Files are more than just about ’good Western countries’ exporting to ’bad developing world countries’. Western companies are also selling a vast range of mass surveillance equipment to Western intelligence agencies. In traditional spy stories, intelligence agencies like MI5 bug the phone of one or two people of interest. In the last ten years systems for indiscriminate, mass surveillance have become the norm. Intelligence companies such as VASTech secretly sell equipment to permanently record the phone calls of entire nations. Others record the location of every mobile phone in a city, down to 50 meters. Systems to infect every Facebook user, or smart-phone owner of an entire population group are on the intelligence market.

Selling Surveillance to Dictators

When citizens overthrew the dictatorships in Egypt and Libya this year, they uncovered listening rooms where devices from Gamma corporation of the UK, Amesys of France, VASTech of South Africa and ZTE Corp of China monitored their every move online and on the phone.

Surveillance companies like SS8 in the U.S., Hacking Team in Italy and Vupen in France manufacture viruses (Trojans) that hijack individual computers and phones (including iPhones, Blackberries and Androids), take over the device, record its every use, movement, and even the sights and sounds of the room it is in. Other companies like Phoenexia in the Czech Republic collaborate with the military to create speech analysis tools. They identify individuals by gender, age and stress levels and track them based on ‘voiceprints’. Blue Coat in the U.S. and Ipoque in Germany sell tools to governments in countries like China and Iran to prevent dissidents from organizing online.

Trovicor, a subsidiary of Nokia Siemens Networks, supplied the Bahraini government with interception technologies that tracked human rights activist Abdul Ghani Al Khanjar. He was shown details of personal mobile phone conversations from before he was interrogated and beaten in the winter of 2010-2011.

How Mass Surveillance Contractors Share Your Data with the State

In January 2011, the National Security Agency broke ground on a $1.5 billion facility in the Utah desert that is designed to store terabytes of domestic and foreign intelligence data forever and process it for years to come.

Telecommunication companies are forthcoming when it comes to disclosing client information to the authorities - no matter the country. Headlines during August’s unrest in the UK exposed how Research in Motion (RIM), makers of the Blackberry, offered to help the government identify their clients. RIM has been in similar negotiations to share BlackBerry Messenger data with the governments of India, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

Weaponizing Data Kills Innocent People

There are commercial firms that now sell special software that analyze this data and turn it into powerful tools that can be used by military and intelligence agencies.

For example, in military bases across the U.S., Air Force pilots use a video link and joystick to fly Predator drones to conduct surveillance over the Middle East and Central Asia. This data is available to Central Intelligence Agency officials who use it to fire Hellfire missiles on targets.

The CIA officials have bought software that allows them to match phone signals and voice prints instantly and pinpoint the specific identity and location of individuals. Intelligence Integration Systems, Inc., based in Massachusetts - sells a “location-based analytics” software called Geospatial Toolkit for this purpose. Another Massachusetts company named Netezza, which bought a copy of the software, allegedly reverse engineered the code and sold a hacked version to the Central Intelligence Agency for use in remotely piloted drone aircraft.

IISI, which says that the software could be wrong by a distance of up to 40 feet, sued Netezza to prevent the use of this software. Company founder Rich Zimmerman stated in court that his “reaction was one of stun, amazement that they (CIA) want to kill people with my software that doesn’t work.”

Orwell’s World

Across the world, mass surveillance contractors are helping intelligence agencies spy on individuals and ‘communities of interest’ on an industrial scale.

The Wikileaks Spy Files reveal the details of which companies are making billions selling sophisticated tracking tools to government buyers, flouting export rules, and turning a blind eye to dictatorial regimes that abuse human rights.

How to use the Spy Files

To search inside those files, click one of the link on the left pane of this page, to get the list of documents by type, company date or tag.

To search all these companies on a world map use the following tool from Owni