FBI Can Spy Through Your Webcam - And Much More

The FBI has developed advanced surveillance techniques that give it the power to covertly activate Web cams to spy on unsuspecting computer owners.

Tech savvy G-men can remotely turn on cameras that transmit real-time images to investigators — without triggering the light that shows the camera is in use, according to The Washington Post.

The FBI can also burrow into a suspect’s computer and download files, photographs and stored e-mails.

The new snooping capabilities came to light during an investigation of a mysterious man named “Mo’’ – who threatened to blow up a building filled with innocent people unless authorities free Colorado movie-theater shooting suspect James Holmes.

He also threatened to bomb a jail, a hotel, three colleges and two airports.

No bombs were found at the targets he mentioned.

He first contacted federal authorities in July 2012. It’s not clear how long Mo and the FBI were in touch.

The paper said he sometimes used an untraceable e-mail, other times an encrypted phone.

Mo even sent the FBI pictures of himself fashionably decked out in an Iranian military uniform.

The FBI, frustrated in its attempts to track him down, used special software that would install itself in Mo’s computer when he opened his e-mail.

It was designed specifically to help agents track his location and his movements.

But the software never worked as designed, the paper said, and Mo remains at large.

The feds had gotten permission to install the software from a Denver judge.

The agency tried to use it on at least one other probe, but a Houston judge described the method as “extremely intrusive’’ and probably unconstitutional — and shot it down.

The FBI has had the capability to sneak into computers’ Web cams for several years, a former employee of the agency told the Washington Post.

It was not clear how many times it tried to do it, but the paper’s source said the FBI has used its tool mainly in terrorism and the “most serious’’ investigations.

The technology is highly controversial.

“We have transitioned into a world where law enforcement is hacking into people’s computers and we have never had public debate,” Christopher Soghoian of the American Civil Liberties Union complained to the paper.

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Attention: The NSA is Tracking Online Porn Viewers to Discredit

Sitting on the wire, the NSA has the ability to track and make a record of every website you visit.  Today, the Huffington Post revealed that the NSA is using this incredible power to track who visits online porn websites, and to use this information to discredit those it deems dangerous. Their porn habits would then be "exploited to undermine a target's credibility, reputation and authority."   

The story was illustrated with six individuals, none of whom are designated terrorists themselves. Instead, they are deemed "radicalizers," people—two of which the NSA itself characterized as a "well-known media celebrity" and a "respected academic"—whose speeches and postings allegedly incite hatred or promote offensive jihad. 

The report raises the specter of abusing online viewing records to discredit other political opponents of the US government. The NSA document was reviewed not just by the NSA and counter-terrorism officials, but by entities like the Department of Commerce and the US Trade Representative. The USTR negotiates treaties (like the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership), and one could certainly imagine that the leverage from this program could be useful in pushing for the US position. In fact, EFF and three dozen civil society groups have already asked the NSA to explain if they are spying on those advocating for the public interest in US trade policy.

Ed Snowden's latest revelation may leave SEC officials quaking as the NSA "has been gathering records of online sexual activity and evidence of visits to pornographic websites as part of a proposed plan to harm the reputations of those whom the agency believes are radicalizing others through incendiary speeches." Of course, as we have seen, this 'information' would never be used by the government for non-radical-terrorist suppressing reasons, as the ACLU notes, is is "an unwelcome reminder of what it means to give an intelligence agency unfettered access to individuals' most sensitive information using tactics associated with the secret police services of authoritarian governments."

Via Snowden...

The National Security Agency has been gathering records of online sexual activity and evidence of visits to pornographic websites as part of a proposed plan to harm the reputations of those whom the agency believes are radicalizing others through incendiary speeches, according to a top-secret NSA document.

The document, provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, identifies six targets, all Muslims, as “exemplars” of how “personal vulnerabilities” can be learned through electronic surveillance, and then exploited to undermine a target’s credibility, reputation and authority.

The NSA document, dated Oct. 3, 2012, repeatedly refers to the power of charges of hypocrisy to undermine such a messenger.”

Full ACLU Statement:

The NSA considered discrediting six people by revealing surveillance evidence of their online sexual activity, visits to pornography websites, and other personal information, according to a report today in The Huffington Post. The article cited documents leaked by former NSA contactor Edward Snowden. The targets of the NSA’s plan were all Muslims whom the NSA characterized as “radicals” but who were not believed to be involved in terrorism. The documents say one of the targets was a “U.S. person,” a term describing American citizens and legal permanent residents, but all of the targets were reportedly outside the United States.

American Civil Liberties Union Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer had this reaction:

“This report is an unwelcome reminder of what it means to give an intelligence agency unfettered access to individuals' most sensitive information. One ordinarily associates these kinds of tactics with the secret police services of authoritarian governments. That these tactics have been adopted by the world’s leading democracy – and the world’s most powerful intelligence agency – is truly chilling.”

The administration keeps on attempting to justify the NSA spying by claiming there is oversight from the other branches of government. But, as Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg noted in the Why Care About NSA Spying video, spying makes a mockery of that separation. How can that oversight be meaningful if the NSA's huge storehouse of information contains the private viewing habits of every senator, representative, and judge? When the only protection against abuse is internal policies, there is no serious oversight. Congress needs to take action now to rein in the spying.

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2 million Facebook, Google, Twitter passwords stolen

Times of India |1 day ago |Posted By: landmarkvacanc ymanagemen

Security experts have uncovered a trove of some 2 million stolen passwords   to websites including Facebook, Google, Twitter and Yahoo from internet users across the globe. 

Researchers with Trustwave's SpiderLabs said they discovered the credentials while investigating a server in the Netherlands that cybercriminals use to control a massive network of compromised computers known as the "Pony botnet." 

The company said that it has reported its findings to the largest of more than 90,000 websites and internet service providers whose customers' credentials it had found on the server. 

The data includes more than 3,26,000 Facebook accounts, some 60,000 Google accounts, more than 59,000 Yahoo accounts and nearly 22,000 Twitter accounts, according to SpiderLabs. Victims' were from the United States, Germany, Singapore and Thailand, among other countries. 

Representatives for Facebook and Twitter said the companies have reset the passwords of affected users. A Google spokeswoman declined comment. Yahoo representatives could not be reached. 

SpiderLabs said it has contacted authorities in the Netherlands and asked them to take down thePony botnet server. 

An analysis posted on the SpiderLabs blog showed that the most-common password in the set was "123456," which was used in nearly 16,000 accounts. Other commonly used credentials included "password," "admin," "123" and "1." 

Graham Cluley, an independent security expert, said it is extremely common for people to use such simple passwords and also re-use them on multiple accounts, even though they are extremely easy to crack. 

"People are using very dumb passwords. They are totally useless," he said.

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Top 5 Beautiful Female Hackers in the World

Hacking has traditionally been a man’s world, but women are quietly breaking into the hacker subculture. Take a look at top 5 female hackers in the world.

1. Kristina Vladimirovna Svechinskaya

Kristina Svechinskaya, a New York University student is one of the most common names in the hacker’s world. She is Russian money mule maker who was arrested on November 2010 and accused of breaking into millions of dollars from several banks in Britain and America and for usage of multiple fake passports. Svechinskaya was dubbed "the world's sexiest computer hacker" for her raunchy, but casual appearance.

Svechinskaya used Zeus trojan horse to attack thousands of bank accounts along with nine others and opened at least five accounts in Bank of America and Wachovia to disburse the theft money. For all her hacking activities and for using the passports fraudulently it is said that she may have to pay huge penalty of 40 years of imprisonment. It is estimated that with nine other people Svechinskaya had skimmed $3 million in total.

2.Joanna Rutkowska

Joanna Rutkowska is a Polish woman who is interested in the world of hacking security. Her name first became known as the Black Hat Briefings conference in Las Vegas, August 2006. Rutkowska presented during which the attack she had done to the security system windows vista. Not only that, Rutkowska also been attacked Trusted Execution Technology and Intel's System Management Mode. 

Early 2007 she formed Invisible Things Lab in Warsaw, Poland. A company that focuses on OS security research and consulting services as well VMM internet security. The year 2010 also Rutkowska with Rafal Wojtczuk form Qubes, an Operating System that is very full protect security. Rutkowska also open to advise Vice President of mikocok Security Technology Unit to further tighten the security system in windows vista. Waw, Rutkowska is a hacker who is very welcome to work with.

3. Ying Cracker

Cracker ying, a teacher from Shanghai China. SHe taught about the basic process of hacking guide, how to change the IP address or manipulate office password, wow!
She is also an expert in making software hackers.

In a forum titled Chinese Hackers Hottie, his name is much discussed and it makes its popularity gaining altitude. In the forum she's also got a lot of fans members. It was the beginning credibility soar.

4. Raven Alder

Raven graduated from high school at the age of 14 and college at 18. She was the first woman to give a presentation at the DefCon hacker’s conference. Adler an half ISP engineer, half security geek, is a contributing author to several technical books, magazines and a frequent speaker at conferences She designs, tests and audits intrusion detection systems for large federal agencies. She has worked as a Senior Backbone Architect and Senior Security Consultant in IT security. Her interest in securing networks end-to-end has led her to examine and pioneer standards in the security of network infrastructure.

5. Xiao Tian 

Xiao Tian, just out of her teenage became famous after forming China Girl Security Team, a group of hackers especially for woman which is China's largest today, the group has over 2,200 members. Tian created the now-infamous hacking team because she felt that there was no other outlet for teenage girls like herself in the male-dominated world of hacking. Its time to Move over male Asian nerdy computer geeks, female Asian nerdy computer geeks are here to stay.

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10 Ways To Secure Your FACEBOOK Account

If you are like millions out there, Facebook has become your no. 1 website on the Web. As you login to it every single day from many devices, be it from your mobile phone, computer, laptop and office workstation, there is a chance that you may leave your Facebook account on without logging out. If your account gets accessed by strangers, it’s going to open up a large can of worms, so you should seriously try to prevent unwanted access to your account.

There are many ways to prevent access to your account by the next person to use the device, the easiest of which is to log out. However if your smartphone or device gets stolen, it’s a whole different matter. In this article, we will go through some important options you can take to prevent others from accessing your personal Facebook account.

1. Create Strong Password

Chances are, you already have your password created for Facebook however it is advisable for you to make sure your Facebook password is one of a kind and different from your other online accounts e.g. email, blog, hosting etc. To change your password, go to Account Settings > General > Password.

The best passwords would have the combination of small and capital letters, numbers and symbols.

2. Confirm Your Mobile Number

Confirming your mobile number is one of many ways to enhance your account security on Facebook. This way, even when you lose or forget your password, Facebook will be able to send you a new one via SMS.

To add your mobile number, go to Account Settings > Mobile and click on Add a Phone.

3. Activate Secure Browsing Now

Among other things, to make sure your browsing activity within Facebook is safe, you can turn on the Secure browsing option. By doing this, you automatically limit all external applications that are integrated with Facebook from doing any harm or taking your personal information without your knowledge or approval.

To start securing your account, click on the drop down menu from the top right corner of your Facebook account and go to Account Settings.

4. Activate Login Approvals 

Login approvals is an extended security feature offered by Facebook, and it will require you to enter a security code each time you try to access your Facebook account from unrecognized devices. To activate Login Approvals, go to Account Settings > Security, look for Login Approvals and click on the Edit button.

5. Disconnect Previous Session

The good thing about Facebook is that it lets you know about your previous active sessions, where you login from, and what devices you used to access your Facebook account. Now to make sure your account is safe, from the Account Settings > Security page, look for ‘Active Sessions‘ and click on Edit.

Now all previous sessions will be listed, together with the current active session at the top of the list. 

Click on the link ‘End Activity‘ to kill the activities from other devices.

6. Activate Secure Browsing

Another way to prevent another person from accessing your account is by activating the ‘Private Browsing’ option from your browsers. All browsers have this private browsing option, and by activating this option, your activity will not be logged into the browsing history.

Safari If you are using the Safari Browser on Mac, activate Private Browsing from the menu with Safari > Private Browing.

Firefox For Firefox, go to Tools > Start Private Browsing.

Chrome If you are using Chrome, there’s an option to browse using the Incognito window, it’s a version of Chrome window where all browsing activity will not be logged in. To open this window, go to File > New Incognito Window.

7. Don't 'Keep Me Logged In'

The moment you want to login to your Facebook account, at the Log In page, there’s a small checkbox that says Keep me logged in. Make sure this box is unchecked. Then, log in as usual. With this on, you will be asked for your email and password every time you launch Facebook.

8. Avoid Spam Links

Facebook is serious about spam and is always enhancing its features to make sure you are safe from being a victim to scams. The types of attacks include money scams through direct or indirect requests via Facebook messages, chat etc, phishing links that will redirect you to fake websites,malicious links that could retrieve your personal information or even harm your computer. There are also chances you may receive emails from ‘Facebook’ but it is actually from a phishing website, this modus operandi is part of a scam.

9. Tailor Your Tags

An easily missed entry in the Privacy Settings is one innocuously labeled How Tags Work. However, it is essential to tweak the settings found here if you want to take control of your profile's privacy, as some tagging actions can be pretty invasive.

The first two settings (Timeline Review and Tag Review) are particularly useful. When you enable them, you can review posts and photos that friends tag you in, as well as the tags friends add to your own posts -- all before this information goes public. That's especially valuable if you have well-meaning friends who think tagging you in those Vegas party photos is a good idea.

10. Sign Out After Use

Lastly which is the most important of all (and definitely worth repeating), never forget to log out from your Facebook account.

credit http://www.hongkiat.com

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World's Top 10 Intelligence Agency

An Intelligence Agency is an effective instrument of a national power. Aggressive intelligence is its primary weapon to destabilize the target. Indeed, no one knows what the intelligence agencies actually do so figuring out who the best intelligence service is can be difficult. The very nature of intelligence often means that the successes will not be public knowledge for years, whereas failures or controversial operations will be taken to the press. It’s a thankless situation. Still, from what little has emerged, one can have an idea of some of the better intelligence services out there, with the understanding that this is based on incomplete data.

1) Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India

image credit:- www.zeenews.com

Formed                                    21 September 1968

Headquarters                          New Delhi

IndiaAgency executive           K. C. Verma

Secretary (R)Parent agency   Prime Minister’s Office, GoI

Founded in 1968, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), initially, focused its activities in India’s immediate neighbour hood but with the changing profile of New Delhi’s geo-political interests, it has spread its wings to other regions across the world. The agency is headquartered in New Delhi. Its chief directly reports to the Prime Minister and its operations do not come under the purview of Parliament. Often termed as an effective instrument of India’s national power, the RAW is believed to employ more than eight thousand field agents spread across the world.

2) Inter Service Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan

Formed	1948
Jurisdiction	Government of Pakistan
Headquarters	Islamabad, Pakistan
Agency executive	Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, PA Director General

The Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) is said to be the top most organization with most advanced sources of information and secret agents working around the world today. Although said to be receiving the least funding as compared to other agencies stated here, but still boasts of ten thousand agents operating across the world. Although the supposedly failure in handling the Osama Bin Laden case did reduce its credit, but for a very less time until it proved its worthiness sooner with other issues prevailing in the present day - It is above All laws in its host country Pakistan ‘A State, with in a State’. Its policies are made ‘outside’ of all other institutions with the exception of The Army. Its personnel have never been caught on camera. Its is believed to have the highest number of agents worldwide, close to 10,000. The most striking thing is that its one of the least funded Intelligence agency out of the top 10.

3) Military Intelligence Section 6 (MI6), United Kingdom

Formed	1909 as the Secret Service Bureau
Jurisdiction	Government of the United Kingdom
Headquarters	Vauxhall Cross, London
Minister responsible	The Rt Hon. William Hague MP, Foreign Secretary
Agency executive	Sir John Sawers KCMG, Director General
Parent agency	Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The British have had a long public perception of an effective intelligence agency (due to the success of the unrealistic, yet entertaining, James Bond movies). This perception matches reality. MI6, the British equivalent to the CIA, has had two big advantages in staying effective: The British Official Secrets Act and D notices can often prevent leaks (which have been the bane of the CIA’s existence). Some stories have emerged. In the Cold War, MI6 recruited Oleg Penkovsky, who played a key part in the favorable resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Oleg Gordievski, who operated for a decade before MI6 extracted him via Finland. The British were even aware of Norwood’s activities, but made the decision not to tip their hand. MI6 also is rumored to have sabotaged the Tu-144 supersonic airliner program by altering documents and making sure they fell into the hands of the KGB.

4) Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), USA

               

Formed	September 18, 1947
Employees	20,000
Agency executive	Leon Panetta, Director
Parent agency	Central Intelligence Group

CIA is the largest of the intelligence agencies and is responsible for gathering data from other countries that could impact U.S. policy. It is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government responsible for providing national security intelligence to senior United States policymakers. The CIA also engages in covert activities at the request of the President of the United States of America. The CIA’s primary function is to collect information about foreign governments, corporations, and individuals, and to advise public policymakers. The agency conducts covert operations and paramilitary actions, and exerts foreign political influence through its Special Activities Division. It has failed to control terrorism activities including 9/11, Not even a single top level Al-Queda leader captured own its own in the past 9 years – ‘they missed 1 Million’ Soviet troops marching into Afghanistan’. Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction, Have the found them yet? -Number of defectors/ double agents numbers close to a thousand. On 50th anniversary of CIA, President Clinton said ”By necessity, the American people will never know the full story of your courage. Indeed, no one knows that what CIA really does”. Highly funded and technologically most advanced Intelligence set-up in the world.

5) Ministry of State Security (MSS), China

Jurisdiction	People’s Republic of China
Headquarters	Beijing
Agency executive	Geng Huichang, Minister of State Security
Parent agency	State Council

 Known to be the most active and the largest agency operating under the Government of the People’s Republic of China the agency plays an active role in handling domestic issues as well. It is also said that the Ministry of State Security Agency works closely with other international intelligence Agencies such as ISI from Pakistan.Article 4 of the Criminal Procedure Law gives the MSS the same authority to arrest or detain people as regular police for crimes involving state security with identical supervision by the procuratorates and the courts. It is headquartered near the Ministry of Public Security of the People’s Republic of China in Beijing. According to Liu Fuzhi, Secretary-General of the Commission for Politics and Law under the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Minister of Public Security, the mission of the MSS is to ensure “the security of the state through effective measures against enemy agents, spies, and counter-revolutionary activities designed to sabotage or overthrow China’s socialist system.”  

6) The Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations (Mossad), Israel

Formed	December 13, 1949 as the Central Institute for Coordination
Employees	1,200 (est)
Agency executive	Meir Dagan, Director
Parent agency	Office of the Prime Minister

The Mossad is responsible for intelligence collection and covert operations including paramilitary activities. It is one of the main entities in the Israeli Intelligence Community, along with Aman (military intelligence) and Shin Bet (internal security), but its director reports directly to the Prime Minister. The list of its successes is long. this agency has other success to its name, including the acquisition of a MiG-21 prior to the Six-Day war of 1967 and the theft of the plans for the Mirage 5 after the deal with France went sour. Mossad also assisted the United States in supporting Solidarity in Poland during the 1980s.

7) Direction Generale De La Securite Exterieure (DGSE), France

Formed	April 2, 1982
Preceding agency	External Documentation and Counter-Espionage Service

Minister responsible	Hervé Morin, Minister of Defence
Agency executive	Erard Corbin de Mangoux, Director

The Agency specializes in gathering and disseminating information related to external intelligence. The Agency operates under the directions and supervision of Ministry of Defence. The Agency also operates parallel with the Central Directorate of Interior Intelligence, whilst focusing on internal and external intelligence concerning national security.

8) Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) – Germany

Formed	1 April 1956
Employees	6,050
Agency executive	Gehlen Organization
Parent agency	Central Intelligence Group

The Bundesnachrichtendienst is the foreign intelligence agency of the German government, under the control of the Chancellor’s Office. The BND acts as an early warning system to alert the German government to threats to German interests from abroad. It depends heavily on wiretapping and electronic surveillance of international communications. It collects and evaluates information on a variety of areas such as international terrorism, WMD proliferation and illegal transfer of technology, organized crime, weapons and drug trafficking, money laundering, illegal migration and information warfare. As Germany’s only overseas intelligence service, the BND gathers both military and civil intelligence.

9) Federal Security Services (FSB), Russia

Formed	3 April, 1995
Employees	350,000
Headquarters	Lubyanka Square
Preceding agency	KGB

Federal Security Services is the top most domestic security organization of the Russian Federation and is also known to be the successor agency of the KGB. The Agency is among the best in countering terrorism, cross border security and surveillance. Headquartered in Lubyanka Square, downtown Moscow, the agency is also believed to work with RAW (India) and other ex-soviet agencies in russia.

10) Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS), Australia

Formed13 May 1952HeadquartersCanberra, Australian Capital Territory, AustraliaAnnual budget$162.5m AUD (2007)Minister responsibleThe Hon. Stephen Smith MP, Minister for Foreign AffairsAgency executiveNick Warner, Director-General

Australian Secret Intelligence Service is the Australian government intelligence agency responsible for collecting foreign intelligence, undertaking counter-intelligence activities and cooperation with other intelligence agencies overseas. For more than twenty years, the existence of the agency was a secret even from its own government. Its primary responsibility is gathering intelligence from mainly Asian and Pacific interests using agents stationed in a wide variety of areas. Its main purpose, as with most agencies, is to protect the country’s political and economic interests while ensuring safety for the people of Australia against national threats.

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10 Best Countries Have Fastest Internet Connection

The United States is home to some of the world’s most successful and innovative high-tech companies. Despite its techie pedigree, the U.S. doesn’t have the fastest Internet speed in the world. It doesn’t even crack the top 10.

image credit:-  onlycomputing.com

Hong Kong has the fastest average peak speed at 63.6 megabits per second, more than three times the global average of 18.4 Mbps, according to the latest quarterly report from Akamai Technologies. Japan holds the No. 2 spot with an average peak speed of 50 Mbps, followed by Romania with 47.9 Mbps, South Korea with 44.8 Mbps and Latvia with 44.2 Mbps.

The quarterly report, which is based on information from January through March, ranks countries based on average peak connection speeds as well as stats on mobile connectivity and attack traffic.

The U.S. comes in at No. 11 with 36.6 Mbps, double the global average, according to the report. The average peak speed in the U.S. has steadily improved, increasing 11 percent from the previous quarter.

The average peak connection speed also grew over the previous quarter, increasing 9.2 percent to 18.4 Mbps. Globally, 130 regions and countries saw higher average peak connection speeds with increases ranging from 0.9 percent in Nicaragua to 13.3 Mbps to 55 percent in Ghana to 21.3 Mbps, the report says.

Long term trends are heartening as well with the global average peak connection speed up 36 percent from the same period last year. Countries that saw yearly declines include a 3.8 percent decline in Guatemala to 15.6 Mbps and 28 percent drop in Sudan to 6.1 Mbps, the report says.

The lowest average peak connection speed in the first quarter was recorded in Iran at 3.2 Mbps, a 7.1 percent drop from the same quarter last year.

The U.S. fared better in terms of high broadband adoption rates with one quarter of the country’s connections above 10 megabits per second. South Korea took the top spot in that category with half of its connections at speeds above 10 Mbps. The global high broadband adoption rate grew to 13 percent above 10 Mbps, the report says..

above information by:- www.smartplanet.com

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