BOMBING YOUR HARD DRIVE - U.S. AIR FORCE WANTS TO ‘OWN’ YOUR COMPUTER AS THE WORLD’S BIGGEST FUTURE HACKER? - ‘Air Force Aims for 'Full Control' of 'Any and All' Computers’ – ‘U.S. Domestic Spying Far Outpaces Terrorism Prosecutions: As More Americans Are watched, Fewer Cases Are Made. The Trend Concerns Civil Liberties Groups As Well As Some Lawmakers And Legal Experts.’
Subject: BOMBING YOUR HARD DRIVE - U.S. AIR FORCE WANTS TO ‘OWN’ YOUR COMPUTER AS THE WORLD’S BIGGEST FUTURE HACKER? - ‘Air Force Aims for 'Full Control' of 'Any and All' Computers’ – ‘U.S. Domestic Spying Far Outpaces Terrorism Prosecutions: As More Americans Are watched, Fewer Cases Are Made. The Trend Concerns Civil Liberties Groups As Well As Some Lawmakers And Legal Experts.’
U.S. AIR FORCE WANTS TO ‘OWN’ YOUR COMPUTER AS THE WORLD’S BIGGEST FUTURE HACKER? - ‘Air Force Aims for 'Full Control' of 'Any and All' Computers’ – ‘U.S. Domestic Spying Far Outpaces Terrorism Prosecutions: As More Americans Are watched, Fewer Cases Are Made. The Trend Concerns Civil Liberties Groups As Well As Some Lawmakers And Legal Experts.’
- o O o -
Air Force Aims for 'Full Control' of 'Any and All' Computers
By Noah Shachtman Wired.Com, May 13, 2008.
The Air Force wants a suite of hacker tools, to give it "access" to -- and "full control" of -- any kind of computer there is. And once the info warriors are in, the Air Force wants them to keep tabs on their "adversaries' information infrastructure completely undetected."
The government is growing increasingly interested in waging war online. The Air Force recently put together a "Cyberspace Command," with a charter to rule networks the way its fighter jets rule the skies. The Department of Homeland Security, Darpa, and other agencies are teaming up for a five-year, $30 billion "national cybersecurity iniative." That includes an electronic test range, where federally- funded hackers can test out the latest electronic attacks. "You used to need an army to wage a war," a recent Air Force commercial notes. "Now, all you need is an Internet connection."
On Monday, the Air Force Research Laboratory introduced a two-year, $11 million effort to put together hardware and software tools for "Dominant Cyber Offensive Engagement." "Of interest are any and all techniques to enable user and/or root level access," a request for proposals notes, "to both fixed (PC) or mobile computing platforms... any and all operating systems, patch levels, applications and hardware." This isn't just some computer science study, mind you; "research efforts under this program are expected to result in complete functional capabilities."
Unlike an Air Force colonel's proposal, to knock down enemy websites with military botnets, the Research Lab is encouraging a sneaky, "low and slow" approach. The preferred attack consists of lying quiet, and then "stealthily exfiltrat[ing] information" from adversaries' networks.
But, in the end, the Air Force wants to see all kinds of "techniques and technologies" to "Deceive, Deny, Disrupt, Degrade, [or] Destroy" hostile systems. And "in addition to these main concepts," the Research Lab would like to see studies into "Proactive Botnet Defense Technology Development," the "reinvent[ion of] the network protocol stack" and new antennas, based on carbon nanotubes.
raditionally, the military has been extremely reluctant to talk much about offensive operations online. Instead, the focus has normally been on protecting against electronic attacks. But in the last year or so, the tone has changed -- and become more bellicose. “Cyber, as a warfighting domain . . . like air, favors the offense,” said Lani Kass, a special assistant to the Air Force Chief of Staff who previously headed up the service's Cyberspace Task Force. "If you’re defending in cyber, you’re already too late."
"We want to go in and knock them out in the first round," added Lt. Gen. Robert Elder, commander of the 8th Air Force, which focuses on network issues.
"An adversary needs to know that the U.S. possesses powerful hard and soft-kill (cyberwarfare) means for attacking adversary information and command and support systems at all levels," a recent Defense Department report notes. "Every potential adversary, from nation states to rogue individuals... should be compelled to consider... an attack on U.S. systems resulting in highly undesireable consequences to their own security."
Domestic Spying Far Outpaces Terrorism Prosecutions
As more Americans are watched, fewer cases are made. The trend concerns civil liberties groups as well as some lawmakers and legal experts.
By Richard B. Schmitt, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, May 12, 2008.
WASHINGTON — The number of Americans being secretly wiretapped or having their financial and other records reviewed by the government has continued to increase as officials aggressively use powers approved after the Sept. 11 attacks. But the number of terrorism prosecutions ending up in court -- one measure of the effectiveness of such sleuthing -- has continued to decline, in some cases precipitously.
The trends, visible in new government data and a private analysis of Justice Department records, are worrisome to civil liberties groups and some legal scholars. They say it is further evidence that the government has compromised the privacy rights of ordinary citizens without much to show for it.
The emphasis on spy programs also is starting to give pause to some members of Congress who fear the government is investing too much in anti-terrorism programs at the expense of traditional crime-fighting. Other lawmakers are raising questions about how well the FBI is performing its counter-terrorism mission.
The Senate Intelligence Committee last week concluded that the bureau was far behind in making internal changes to keep the nation safe from terrorist threats. Lawmakers urged that the FBI set specific benchmarks to measure its progress and make more regular reports to Congress.
These concerns come as the Bush administration has been seeking to expand its ability to gather intelligence without prior court approval. It has asked Congress for amendments to the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to make it clear that eavesdropping on foreign telecommunications signals routed through the U.S. does not require a warrant.
Law enforcement officials say the additional surveillance powers have been critically important in ways the public does not always see. Threats can be mitigated, they say, by deporting suspicious people or letting them know that authorities are watching them.
"The fact that the prosecutions are down doesn't mean that the utility of these investigations is down. It suggests that these investigations may be leading to other forms of prevention and protection," said Thomas Newcomb, a former Bush White House national security aide. He said there were half a dozen actions outside of the criminal courts that the government could take to snuff out potential threats, including using diplomatic or military channels.
Although legal experts say they would not necessarily expect the number of prosecutions to rise along with the stepped-up surveillance, there are few other good ways to measure how well the government is progressing in keeping the country safe.
"How does one measure the success? The short answer is we aren't in a great position to know," said Daniel Richman, a former federal prosecutor. With prosecutions declining, he said, the public is left with imperfect and possibly misleading ways to gauge progress in the Bush administration's war on terrorism -- such as the number of secret warrants the government issues or the number of agents it assigns to terrorism cases.
"These are the only tracks in the snow left by terrorism investigations, if there are no more counter-terrorism prosecutions," Richman said. "This is why, more than ever, there is a pressing need for congressional oversight, for accountability at the top of the [Justice] department, and for public confidence in the department."
Changing numbers
A recent study showed that the number of terrorism and national security cases initiated by the Justice Department in 2007 was more than 50% below 2002 levels. The nonprofit Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, which obtained the data under the Freedom of Information Act, found that the number of cases brought declined 19% in the last year alone, dropping to 505 in 2007 from 624 in 2006.
By contrast, the Justice Department reported last month that the nation's spy court had granted 2,370 warrant requests by the department to search or eavesdrop on suspected terrorists and spies in the U.S. last year -- 9% more than in 2006. The number of such warrants approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has more than doubled since the 2001 terrorist attacks.
The department also reported a sharp rise in the use of national security letters by the FBI -- from 9,254 in 2005 to 12,583 in 2006, the latest data available. The letters seek customer information from banks, Internet providers and phone companies. They have caused a stir because consumers do not have a right to know that their information is being disclosed and the letters are issued without court oversight.
The inspector general of the Justice Department has found numerous cases in which FBI agents failed to comply with rules and guidelines in issuing the letters, often gaining access to information they were not entitled to. The FBI has responded by taking a number of measures to tighten its internal procedures.
Civil liberties groups say the new data reveal a disturbing consequence of the government's post-Sept. 11 expanded surveillance capabilities.
"The number of Americans being investigated dwarfs any legitimate number of actual terrorism prosecutions, and that is extremely troubling -- for both the security and privacy of innocent Americans as well as for the squandering of resources on people who have not and never will be charged with any wrongdoing," said Lisa Graves, deputy director of the Center for National Security Studies, a Washington- based civil liberties group.
A mixed record
But Dean Boyd, a Justice Department spokesman, said statistics on court-approved FISA applications and statistics on criminal prosecution were "apples and oranges."
"There are a variety of factors that may account for the increase in court-approved
...
Do not feed the Muslim troll. The troll (Faris Jawad) emigrated from southern India to Hamilton, Canada, where he makes a living as a computer programmer. The troll uses many names including: Ramabriga, Cosmic programmer, uNmaiviLambi, visualseep...@yahoo.com, LeBlanc, Islamaphobia, Yaako Warrior, globalchec...@yahoo.ca, whileyousl...@live.ca, LuChuck, Matt, jamiil, Anti-Muslim Bigots, V- for-Vendicar, fruitella, Zionism equal Racism, The Chemical Oil Nazi, LORD RAMA RANTER, Muslim With Mission, Wayne, Ian Balchin, Qahir Al- Ashrar, Venkataraman the Biiiig Hindu, Liu Yan, ISLAMOPHOBIA, Möbius Pretzel, Buddy III, Mujahid, V i v a P a l e s t i n e!, Burhan, Farid Ahmed, Kope, Death to Israel..Israel has no Right to Exist, Franko Pizza, rick murphy, rich murphy, ISLAM - THE SOLUTION OF MODERN PROBLEMS, Faris Jawad, Sabastawi, The Founding Church, Ilan Ramon: Kike Lost in Space. Proudly serving Islam and al Quds, Katrina, Ahura Mazda, TROLLS HUNTER, Kayid Al-Kuffar, Firnando, R Geovani, Blondes Gaulloises, Zimbawi, Muslims Always Victorious, Islam Will Replace Collapsing Amerikan Empire, Muslims Are Good Folks, Katucha, katucha is the zionists worst nightmare, We are Muslims, and we are extremely proud of it, Born To Serve Islam, All praise is due to Allah Lord of the Worlds, the Owner of all of the creation, Ardalan Keykavoussi, Tommy Davis, LORD RAMA. (The 19 terrorists who attacked our nation on September 11, 2001 used a total of 364 aliases.)
Islam broke world records of genocide, slavery, religiously sanctioned rape, abuse of human rights, and prohibition of scientific inquiry. It forbids Muslim emigration to the lands of the infidels because a Muslim minority cannot enslave the infidel majority. Despite this prohibition Muslims emigrate to the West, not as migrants, but as conquerors. They live in sharia mini-states and expand these mini- states by terrorizing infidel neighbors and driving them out. Arabic proverb says "first comes Saturday, then Sunday." It means that Arabs are going to exterminate Jews before they exterminate Christians. It also means that Israel is the first line of defense against Islam.
“I have been made victorious with terror.” - Muhammad (according to Sahih Bukhari)
The average European couple now has fewer than 1.4 babies, compared to 3.6 babies born to the average Muslim immigrant couple in Europe. Across Western Europe 16 to 20 percent of babies are being born into Muslim families… By 2025, one-third of all European children will be born to Muslims… In Italy, 95% of all rapists are Muslims. Eighty-five percent of all murderers are Muslims… France will have a Muslim majority in less than 25 years! Another telling statistic is that although the Muslims are 12% of France's population, 70 percent of a total of 60,775 prisoners in France are Muslims! All of France's urban suburbs are being roamed by Muslim black African or Arabic gangs… A very high proportion of French Muslims are in the underclass, that segment of the population that relies not so much on education and work as on welfare and predatory activities. In fact, over one thousand Muslim neighborhoods are under monitoring throughout France. Seven hundred of those Muslim neighborhoods are listed as "violent" and nearly 400 hundred are listed as "very violent." Violence ranges from rape (95% of rapists are Muslim), murder (85% of murderers are Muslim), theft and looting of cars (58% committed by Muslims) and street fighting to assault on teachers and civil servants… source: http://www.masada2000.org/islam.html
"There does not exist an identifiable body of Muslims, substantive in number or an outright majority, who could be described as "moderate" by their repudiation of Muslim extremists. Violence has been an integral part of Muslim history, irrespective of whether it is sanctioned by Islam, and Muslims who unhesitatingly use violence to advance their political ambitions have created a climate within their faith culture that any Muslim who questions such practice is then deemed apostate and subject to harm. Consequently, what might pass for "moderate" Muslims, the large number of Muslims unaccounted for as to what they think, in practical terms constitute a forest within which extremists are incubated, nurtured, given ideological and material support, and to which they return for sanctuary." - Salim Mansur
Discussion subject changed to "BOMBING YOUR HARD DRIVE - U.S. AIR FORCE WANTS TO ‘OWN’ YOUR COMPUTER AS THE WORLD’S BIGGEST FUTURE HACKER? - ‘Air Force Aims for 'Full Control' of 'Any and All' Computers’ – ‘U.S. Domestic Spying Far Outpaces Terrorism Prosecutions: As More Americans Are watched, Fewer Cases Are Made. The Trend Concerns Civil Liberties Groups As Well As Some Lawmakers And Legal Experts.’" by ourfreedomandlibe...@lycos.com
Subject: BOMBING YOUR HARD DRIVE - U.S. AIR FORCE WANTS TO ‘OWN’ YOUR COMPUTER AS THE WORLD’S BIGGEST FUTURE HACKER? - ‘Air Force Aims for 'Full Control' of 'Any and All' Computers’ – ‘U.S. Domestic Spying Far Outpaces Terrorism Prosecutions: As More Americans Are watched, Fewer Cases Are Made. The Trend Concerns Civil Liberties Groups As Well As Some Lawmakers And Legal Experts.’
U.S. AIR FORCE WANTS TO ‘OWN’ YOUR COMPUTER AS THE WORLD’S BIGGEST FUTURE HACKER? - ‘Air Force Aims for 'Full Control' of 'Any and All' Computers’ – ‘U.S. Domestic Spying Far Outpaces Terrorism Prosecutions: As More Americans Are watched, Fewer Cases Are Made. The Trend Concerns Civil Liberties Groups As Well As Some Lawmakers And Legal Experts.’
- o O o -
Air Force Aims for 'Full Control' of 'Any and All' Computers
By Noah Shachtman Wired.Com, May 13, 2008.
The Air Force wants a suite of hacker tools, to give it "access" to -- and "full control" of -- any kind of computer there is. And once the info warriors are in, the Air Force wants them to keep tabs on their "adversaries' information infrastructure completely undetected."
The government is growing increasingly interested in waging war online. The Air Force recently put together a "Cyberspace Command," with a charter to rule networks the way its fighter jets rule the skies. The Department of Homeland Security, Darpa, and other agencies are teaming up for a five-year, $30 billion "national cybersecurity iniative." That includes an electronic test range, where federally- funded hackers can test out the latest electronic attacks. "You used to need an army to wage a war," a recent Air Force commercial notes. "Now, all you need is an Internet connection."
On Monday, the Air Force Research Laboratory introduced a two-year, $11 million effort to put together hardware and software tools for "Dominant Cyber Offensive Engagement." "Of interest are any and all techniques to enable user and/or root level access," a request for proposals notes, "to both fixed (PC) or mobile computing platforms... any and all operating systems, patch levels, applications and hardware." This isn't just some computer science study, mind you; "research efforts under this program are expected to result in complete functional capabilities."
Unlike an Air Force colonel's proposal, to knock down enemy websites with military botnets, the Research Lab is encouraging a sneaky, "low and slow" approach. The preferred attack consists of lying quiet, and then "stealthily exfiltrat[ing] information" from adversaries' networks.
But, in the end, the Air Force wants to see all kinds of "techniques and technologies" to "Deceive, Deny, Disrupt, Degrade, [or] Destroy" hostile systems. And "in addition to these main concepts," the Research Lab would like to see studies into "Proactive Botnet Defense Technology Development," the "reinvent[ion of] the network protocol stack" and new antennas, based on carbon nanotubes.
raditionally, the military has been extremely reluctant to talk much about offensive operations online. Instead, the focus has normally been on protecting against electronic attacks. But in the last year or so, the tone has changed -- and become more bellicose. “Cyber, as a warfighting domain . . . like air, favors the offense,” said Lani Kass, a special assistant to the Air Force Chief of Staff who previously headed up the service's Cyberspace Task Force. "If you’re defending in cyber, you’re already too late."
"We want to go in and knock them out in the first round," added Lt. Gen. Robert Elder, commander of the 8th Air Force, which focuses on network issues.
"An adversary needs to know that the U.S. possesses powerful hard and soft-kill (cyberwarfare) means for attacking adversary information and command and support systems at all levels," a recent Defense Department report notes. "Every potential adversary, from nation states to rogue individuals... should be compelled to consider... an attack on U.S. systems resulting in highly undesireable consequences to their own security."
Domestic Spying Far Outpaces Terrorism Prosecutions
As more Americans are watched, fewer cases are made. The trend concerns civil liberties groups as well as some lawmakers and legal experts.
By Richard B. Schmitt, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, May 12, 2008.
WASHINGTON — The number of Americans being secretly wiretapped or having their financial and other records reviewed by the government has continued to increase as officials aggressively use powers approved after the Sept. 11 attacks. But the number of terrorism prosecutions ending up in court -- one measure of the effectiveness of such sleuthing -- has continued to decline, in some cases precipitously.
The trends, visible in new government data and a private analysis of Justice Department records, are worrisome to civil liberties groups and some legal scholars. They say it is further evidence that the government has compromised the privacy rights of ordinary citizens without much to show for it.
The emphasis on spy programs also is starting to give pause to some members of Congress who fear the government is investing too much in anti-terrorism programs at the expense of traditional crime-fighting. Other lawmakers are raising questions about how well the FBI is performing its counter-terrorism mission.
The Senate Intelligence Committee last week concluded that the bureau was far behind in making internal changes to keep the nation safe from terrorist threats. Lawmakers urged that the FBI set specific benchmarks to measure its progress and make more regular reports to Congress.
These concerns come as the Bush administration has been seeking to expand its ability to gather intelligence without prior court approval. It has asked Congress for amendments to the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to make it clear that eavesdropping on foreign telecommunications signals routed through the U.S. does not require a warrant.
Law enforcement officials say the additional surveillance powers have been critically important in ways the public does not always see. Threats can be mitigated, they say, by deporting suspicious people or letting them know that authorities are watching them.
"The fact that the prosecutions are down doesn't mean that the utility of these investigations is down. It suggests that these investigations may be leading to other forms of prevention and protection," said Thomas Newcomb, a former Bush White House national security aide. He said there were half a dozen actions outside of the criminal courts that the government could take to snuff out potential threats, including using diplomatic or military channels.
Although legal experts say they would not necessarily expect the number of prosecutions to rise along with the stepped-up surveillance, there are few other good ways to measure how well the government is progressing in keeping the country safe.
"How does one measure the success? The short answer is we aren't in a great position to know," said Daniel Richman, a former federal prosecutor. With prosecutions declining, he said, the public is left with imperfect and possibly misleading ways to gauge progress in the Bush administration's war on terrorism -- such as the number of secret warrants the government issues or the number of agents it assigns to terrorism cases.
"These are the only tracks in the snow left by terrorism investigations, if there are no more counter-terrorism prosecutions," Richman said. "This is why, more than ever, there is a pressing need for congressional oversight, for accountability at the top of the [Justice] department, and for public confidence in the department."
Changing numbers
A recent study showed that the number of terrorism and national security cases initiated by the Justice Department in 2007 was more than 50% below 2002 levels. The nonprofit Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, which obtained the data under the Freedom of Information Act, found that the number of cases brought declined 19% in the last year alone, dropping to 505 in 2007 from 624 in 2006.
By contrast, the Justice Department reported last month that the nation's spy court had granted 2,370 warrant requests by the department to search or eavesdrop on suspected terrorists and spies in the U.S. last year -- 9% more than in 2006. The number of such warrants approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has more than doubled since the 2001 terrorist attacks.
The department also reported a sharp rise in the use of national security letters by the FBI -- from 9,254 in 2005 to 12,583 in 2006, the latest data available. The letters seek customer information from banks, Internet providers and phone companies. They have caused a stir because consumers do not have a right to know that their information is being disclosed and the letters are issued without court oversight.
The inspector general of the Justice Department has found numerous cases in which FBI agents failed to comply with rules and guidelines in issuing the letters, often gaining access to information they were not entitled to. The FBI has responded by taking a number of measures to tighten its internal procedures.
Civil liberties groups say the new data reveal a disturbing consequence of the government's post-Sept. 11 expanded surveillance capabilities.
"The number of Americans being investigated dwarfs any legitimate number of actual terrorism prosecutions, and that is extremely troubling -- for both the security and privacy of innocent Americans as well as for the squandering of resources on people who have not and never will be charged with any wrongdoing," said Lisa Graves, deputy director of the Center for National Security Studies, a Washington- based civil liberties group.
A mixed record
But Dean Boyd, a Justice Department spokesman, said statistics on court-approved FISA applications and statistics on criminal prosecution were "apples and oranges."
"There are a variety of factors that may account for the increase in court-approved
...
23-year old French Jew, Ilan Halimi was abducted by Muslim immigrants and tortured for three weeks in a basement of an apartment building in a southeastern suburb of Paris. Some Muslim neighbors came to the basement to watch the torture and to participate in the torture. About 30 Muslim immigrants living in the building heard the screams of the tortured Jew for three weeks, but none of them called the police. The Jew was later found tied to a tree near a railway track. Cigarettes were burned into his skin. He had multiple stab wounds. One ear and one toe was severed. 80% of his skin was burned. He died on his way to a hospital. While the Jew was held hostage, his torturers called his family on the phone many times. They made ransom demands and quoted Koran while tortured Jew's screaming was heard in the background. The French police refused to trace the phone calls claiming that they had technical problems. The police also claimed that there was "no anti- Semitism involved." The Jew's mother, Ruth Halimi was not happy with the way the police handled the case. She said: "We told the police that there had been at least three other attempted abductions of young Jews, but they persisted in considering the motives purely criminal because they are afraid of reviving a clash with the Muslims." The French interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, described the abduction, torture and killing of the Jew as an anti-Semitic crime.
Two years earlier another Jew named Sebastien Sellam was savagely killed in the eastern part of Paris by a Muslim. The Muslim cut off the Jew's head and took out his eyeballs with a fork. He came home a few minutes later saying to his family: "Now, I can go to paradise. I killed my Jew." The Muslim was sent to jail, then to an insane asylum, and declared cured two years later.
"I’ll tell you about the twelve young impure men I saw executed at Dacca at the end of the Bangladesh war. They executed them on the field of Dacca stadium, with bayonet blows to the torso or abdomen, in the presence of twenty thousand faithful who applauded in the name of God from the bleachers… After [killing] the twelve impure young men they killed a little boy who had thrown himself at the executioners to save his brother who had been condemned to death. They smashed his head with their combat boots… at the conclusion of the slaughter, the twenty thousand faithful (many of whom were women) left the bleachers and went down on the field. Not as a disorganized mob, no. In an orderly manner, with solemnity. They slowly formed a line and, again in the name of God, walked over the cadavers. All the while thundering Allah–akbar, Allah–akbar. They destroyed them like the Twin Towers of New York. They reduced them to a bleeding carpet of smashed bones." - Oriana Fallaci (The Rage and the Pride)
Islam has the world’s record of genocide. Its victims, over more than 1,350 years, number in the hundreds of millions, many more than the victims of the Holocaust and World Communism combined. Muslim genocide is still ongoing in the Sudan, Ivory Cost. Mauritania, Somalia, the Philippines, Indonesia, and, to a lesser extent in other Muslim countries. source: http://allaboutmuhammad.com/page15.html
"The massacres perpetuated by Muslims in India are unparalleled in history, bigger than the Holocaust of the Jews by the Nazis; or the massacre of the Armenians by the Turks; more extensive even than the slaughter of the South American native populations by the invading Spanish and Portuguese." - Francois Gautier
Discussion subject changed to "BOMBING YOUR HARD DRIVE - U.S. AIR FORCE WANTS TO ‘OWN’ YOUR COMPUTER AS THE WORLD’S BIGGEST FUTURE HACKER? - ‘Air Force Aims for 'Full Control' of 'Any and All' Computers’ – ‘U.S. Domestic Spying Far Outpaces Terrorism Prosecutions: As More Americans Are watched, Fewer Cases Are Made. The Trend Concerns Civil Liberties Groups As Well As Some Lawmakers And Legal Experts.’" by ourfreedomandlibe...@lycos.com
Subject: BOMBING YOUR HARD DRIVE - U.S. AIR FORCE WANTS TO ‘OWN’ YOUR COMPUTER AS THE WORLD’S BIGGEST FUTURE HACKER? - ‘Air Force Aims for 'Full Control' of 'Any and All' Computers’ – ‘U.S. Domestic Spying Far Outpaces Terrorism Prosecutions: As More Americans Are watched, Fewer Cases Are Made. The Trend Concerns Civil Liberties Groups As Well As Some Lawmakers And Legal Experts.’
U.S. AIR FORCE WANTS TO ‘OWN’ YOUR COMPUTER AS THE WORLD’S BIGGEST FUTURE HACKER? - ‘Air Force Aims for 'Full Control' of 'Any and All' Computers’ – ‘U.S. Domestic Spying Far Outpaces Terrorism Prosecutions: As More Americans Are watched, Fewer Cases Are Made. The Trend Concerns Civil Liberties Groups As Well As Some Lawmakers And Legal Experts.’
- o O o -
Air Force Aims for 'Full Control' of 'Any and All' Computers
By Noah Shachtman Wired.Com, May 13, 2008.
The Air Force wants a suite of hacker tools, to give it "access" to -- and "full control" of -- any kind of computer there is. And once the info warriors are in, the Air Force wants them to keep tabs on their "adversaries' information infrastructure completely undetected."
The government is growing increasingly interested in waging war online. The Air Force recently put together a "Cyberspace Command," with a charter to rule networks the way its fighter jets rule the skies. The Department of Homeland Security, Darpa, and other agencies are teaming up for a five-year, $30 billion "national cybersecurity iniative." That includes an electronic test range, where federally- funded hackers can test out the latest electronic attacks. "You used to need an army to wage a war," a recent Air Force commercial notes. "Now, all you need is an Internet connection."
On Monday, the Air Force Research Laboratory introduced a two-year, $11 million effort to put together hardware and software tools for "Dominant Cyber Offensive Engagement." "Of interest are any and all techniques to enable user and/or root level access," a request for proposals notes, "to both fixed (PC) or mobile computing platforms... any and all operating systems, patch levels, applications and hardware." This isn't just some computer science study, mind you; "research efforts under this program are expected to result in complete functional capabilities."
Unlike an Air Force colonel's proposal, to knock down enemy websites with military botnets, the Research Lab is encouraging a sneaky, "low and slow" approach. The preferred attack consists of lying quiet, and then "stealthily exfiltrat[ing] information" from adversaries' networks.
But, in the end, the Air Force wants to see all kinds of "techniques and technologies" to "Deceive, Deny, Disrupt, Degrade, [or] Destroy" hostile systems. And "in addition to these main concepts," the Research Lab would like to see studies into "Proactive Botnet Defense Technology Development," the "reinvent[ion of] the network protocol stack" and new antennas, based on carbon nanotubes.
raditionally, the military has been extremely reluctant to talk much about offensive operations online. Instead, the focus has normally been on protecting against electronic attacks. But in the last year or so, the tone has changed -- and become more bellicose. “Cyber, as a warfighting domain . . . like air, favors the offense,” said Lani Kass, a special assistant to the Air Force Chief of Staff who previously headed up the service's Cyberspace Task Force. "If you’re defending in cyber, you’re already too late."
"We want to go in and knock them out in the first round," added Lt. Gen. Robert Elder, commander of the 8th Air Force, which focuses on network issues.
"An adversary needs to know that the U.S. possesses powerful hard and soft-kill (cyberwarfare) means for attacking adversary information and command and support systems at all levels," a recent Defense Department report notes. "Every potential adversary, from nation states to rogue individuals... should be compelled to consider... an attack on U.S. systems resulting in highly undesireable consequences to their own security."
Domestic Spying Far Outpaces Terrorism Prosecutions
As more Americans are watched, fewer cases are made. The trend concerns civil liberties groups as well as some lawmakers and legal experts.
By Richard B. Schmitt, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, May 12, 2008.
WASHINGTON — The number of Americans being secretly wiretapped or having their financial and other records reviewed by the government has continued to increase as officials aggressively use powers approved after the Sept. 11 attacks. But the number of terrorism prosecutions ending up in court -- one measure of the effectiveness of such sleuthing -- has continued to decline, in some cases precipitously.
The trends, visible in new government data and a private analysis of Justice Department records, are worrisome to civil liberties groups and some legal scholars. They say it is further evidence that the government has compromised the privacy rights of ordinary citizens without much to show for it.
The emphasis on spy programs also is starting to give pause to some members of Congress who fear the government is investing too much in anti-terrorism programs at the expense of traditional crime-fighting. Other lawmakers are raising questions about how well the FBI is performing its counter-terrorism mission.
The Senate Intelligence Committee last week concluded that the bureau was far behind in making internal changes to keep the nation safe from terrorist threats. Lawmakers urged that the FBI set specific benchmarks to measure its progress and make more regular reports to Congress.
These concerns come as the Bush administration has been seeking to expand its ability to gather intelligence without prior court approval. It has asked Congress for amendments to the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to make it clear that eavesdropping on foreign telecommunications signals routed through the U.S. does not require a warrant.
Law enforcement officials say the additional surveillance powers have been critically important in ways the public does not always see. Threats can be mitigated, they say, by deporting suspicious people or letting them know that authorities are watching them.
"The fact that the prosecutions are down doesn't mean that the utility of these investigations is down. It suggests that these investigations may be leading to other forms of prevention and protection," said Thomas Newcomb, a former Bush White House national security aide. He said there were half a dozen actions outside of the criminal courts that the government could take to snuff out potential threats, including using diplomatic or military channels.
Although legal experts say they would not necessarily expect the number of prosecutions to rise along with the stepped-up surveillance, there are few other good ways to measure how well the government is progressing in keeping the country safe.
"How does one measure the success? The short answer is we aren't in a great position to know," said Daniel Richman, a former federal prosecutor. With prosecutions declining, he said, the public is left with imperfect and possibly misleading ways to gauge progress in the Bush administration's war on terrorism -- such as the number of secret warrants the government issues or the number of agents it assigns to terrorism cases.
"These are the only tracks in the snow left by terrorism investigations, if there are no more counter-terrorism prosecutions," Richman said. "This is why, more than ever, there is a pressing need for congressional oversight, for accountability at the top of the [Justice] department, and for public confidence in the department."
Changing numbers
A recent study showed that the number of terrorism and national security cases initiated by the Justice Department in 2007 was more than 50% below 2002 levels. The nonprofit Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, which obtained the data under the Freedom of Information Act, found that the number of cases brought declined 19% in the last year alone, dropping to 505 in 2007 from 624 in 2006.
By contrast, the Justice Department reported last month that the nation's spy court had granted 2,370 warrant requests by the department to search or eavesdrop on suspected terrorists and spies in the U.S. last year -- 9% more than in 2006. The number of such warrants approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has more than doubled since the 2001 terrorist attacks.
The department also reported a sharp rise in the use of national security letters by the FBI -- from 9,254 in 2005 to 12,583 in 2006, the latest data available. The letters seek customer information from banks, Internet providers and phone companies. They have caused a stir because consumers do not have a right to know that their information is being disclosed and the letters are issued without court oversight.
The inspector general of the Justice Department has found numerous cases in which FBI agents failed to comply with rules and guidelines in issuing the letters, often gaining access to information they were not entitled to. The FBI has responded by taking a number of measures to tighten its internal procedures.
Civil liberties groups say the new data reveal a disturbing consequence of the government's post-Sept. 11 expanded surveillance capabilities.
"The number of Americans being investigated dwarfs any legitimate number of actual terrorism prosecutions, and that is extremely troubling -- for both the security and privacy of innocent Americans as well as for the squandering of resources on people who have not and never will be charged with any wrongdoing," said Lisa Graves, deputy director of the Center for National Security Studies, a Washington- based civil liberties group.
A mixed record
But Dean Boyd, a Justice Department spokesman, said statistics on court-approved FISA applications and statistics on criminal prosecution were "apples and oranges."
"There are a variety of factors that may account for the increase in court-approved
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