The FBI Admits it Can Activate Your Webcam without the Light Turning On

The FBI can secretly activate a computer’s webcam to spy on an individual without turning on the indicator light, a former official revealed to the Washington Post in an article published Friday.

According to the Washington Post’s account of what Marcus Thomas — former assistant director of the FBI’s Operational Technology Division in Quantico — said, “The FBI has been able to covertly activate a computer’s camera — without triggering the light that lets users know it is recording — for several years, and has used that technique mainly in terrorism cases or the most serious criminal investigations.”

“Because of encryption and because targets are increasingly using mobile devices, law enforcement is realizing that more and more they’re going to have to be on the device — or in the cloud,” Thomas added, in reference to remote storage services. “There’s the realization out there that they’re going to have to use these types of tools more and more.”

Source: The Blaze

Freakishly realistic telemarketing robots are denying they're robots

This is how it starts, people. First we get our chatbots to sound and act realistic — and then we get them to convince everyone they're actually human. Listen to this crazy conversation between Time's Michael Scherer and a telemarketing robot who refuses to admit her true artificial nature.

Recently, Time Washington Bureau Chief Michael Scherer received a phone call from an apparently bright and engaging woman asking him if he wanted a deal on his health insurance. But he soon got the feeling something wasn't quite right.

After asking the telemarketer point blank if she was a real person or a computer-operated robot, she chuckled charmingly and insisted she was real. Looking to press the issue, Scherer asked her a series of questions, which she promptly failed. Such as, "What vegetable is found in tomato soup?" To which she responded by saying she didn't understand the question. When asked what day of the week it was yesterday, she complained of a bad connection (ah, the oldest trick in the book).

Here, listen for yourself:

Several Time reporters called her back.

If you want, you can call her too. Her number is (484) 589-5611. This number, if you Google it, is the subject of much discussion online as other recipients of Samantha West calls complain on chat boards about the mysteriously persistent lady who keeps calling them. "A friendly sounded woman on the other end claimed I requested health insurance information," writes one mark. "She doggedly refused to deviate from her script."

After answering her questions, one Time reporter was transferred to an actual human who did not promptly end the call, as others had when asked about Samantha. Asked for the company's website, the real human on the other end of the line said it was premierhealthagency.com, the website of a Ft. Lauderdale company. "We're here to help. . . because we care," is the company motto on its homepage. A Time reporter called the company directly, identified himself and said Time was doing a story about the robot who calls people on the company's behalf. "We don't use robot calls, sir," said the person who answered the phone, before promptly hanging up the phone.

Disturbing, no? This is a problem that's only set to get worse. And just wait until these things are smart enough to start scamming unsuspecting victims.

Source: io9.com

Google is Building an Army of Robots

In the same week that Amazon revealed plans for delivery-drone domination, it has emerged that Google is getting serious about revolutionizing the robotics industry.
Over the past six months, Google has acquired seven tech companies as it aims to develop the next generation of robots. Spearheading the effort is Andy Rubin, the engineer responsible for developing Google’s Android mobile phone software.

Google won’t divulge the specifics, but The New York Times reports the effort is geared toward creating robotics for the manufacturing sector, not the everyday consumer. Experts say the technology could be used to automate parts of existing supply chains such as electronics assembly or factory floor operations. Some speculate that the technology could eventually be deployed to automate part of its home delivery service. According to Rubin, there are abundant opportunities to further automate the manufacturing and logistics sectors.

Source: Business Insider

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2 million Facebook, Gmail and Twitter passwords stolen in massive hack

Hackers have stolen usernames and passwords for nearly two million accounts at Facebook, Google, Twitter, Yahoo and others, according to a report released this week.

The massive data breach was a result of keylogging software maliciously installed on an untold number of computers around the world, researchers at cybersecurity firmTrustwave said. The virus was capturing log-in credentials for key websites over the past month and sending those usernames and passwords to a server controlled by the hackers.

On Nov. 24, Trustwave researchers tracked that server, located in the Netherlands. They discovered compromised credentials for more than 93,000 websites, including:

• 318,000 Facebook (FB, Fortune 500) accounts
• 70,000 Gmail, Google+ and YouTube accounts
• 60,000 Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500) accounts
• 22,000 Twitter (TWTR) accounts
• 9,000 Odnoklassniki accounts (a Russian social network)
• 8,000 ADP (ADP, Fortune 500) accounts (ADP says it counted 2,400)
• 8,000 LinkedIn (LNKD)accounts

Trustwave notified these companies of the breach. They posted their findings publicly on Tuesday.

"We don't have evidence they logged into these accounts, but they probably did," said John Miller, a security research manager at Trustwave.

Source: CNN Money

The Internet Browser The NSA Doesn’t Want You To Use

There’s a free method of searching the Internet that’s so anonymous and secure the National Security Agency wants to destroy it. It’s called TOR or the Onion Router, and documents obtained by The Guardian indicate that both the NSA and its British partner GCHQ have been unable to crack TOR.

An NSA analyst described TOR as the “king of high-secure, low latency internet anonymity.”

So what is TOR and how can you use it? Basically, TOR is a network that bounces your searches and communications all over the Internet via several different computers making them hard to track. You access TOR using a special browser or an app.

The NSA has had such a hard time trying to crack TOR that it actually created a top secret presentation called TOR Stinks. TOR Stinks was among the documents leaked by Edward Snowden to the Guardian. Its author wrote: “We will never be able to de-anonymyze all TOR users all the time.” That means the NSA will never be able to identify all TOR users.

How TOR works

The most interesting thing about TOR is that it was developed by the US government, specifically the State Department and the Defense Department. The idea was to create a secret and secure means of communication for spies and dissidents.

John Eidsmoe rights the faulty historical record and brings us back to the roots that made America great . . .

TOR works by creating an encrypted packet of Internet traffic that is bounced through a number of nodes or servers. TOR users use a special Firefox web browser that sends all of the traffic through the TOR network. This is hard to track because it isn’t moving through normal channels.

A TOR user in Nebraska might have her Internet traffic routed through a node in Manitoba and another Node in Great Britain which would confuse a person trying to locate her. It isn’t perfect but it’s a pretty good way of covering your tracks online.

A good way to think of TOR is as another secret Internet inside the Internet. It’s currently used by spies, dissidents, journalists and special operations soldiers such as those in Delta Force. These are called Darknets and they’re often used by criminals as well as the government.

The NSA has made a number of efforts to crack TOR. It’s tried to insert malicious code into TOR’s browser bundle. The NSA had been using a hole in Firefox to infiltrate TOR but that’s recently been plugged.

How to use TOR

Using TOR is easy; just visit the TOR website. The site has several downloadable tools that can help protect your anonymity online. These include:

• A TOR Browser. There are different versions for Windows, Linux and Apple OSX.
• Orbot, a TOR app for Android devices
• Tails, an operating system preconfigured to use TOR
• Pluggable Transports so you can take TOR with you wherever you go
• A TOR cloud
• Tools for writing scripts and preconfiguring TOR

The TOR website is a great resource that provides connections to a wide variety of excellent tools for thwarting surveillance efforts. If you’re serious about anonymity online, it is the place to begin.

It appears there is an effective and low-cost method that enables the average person to avoid most surveillance. That method was created with our tax dollars, and another government agency is using our tax dollars in an attempt to destroy it. It is possible for average people to frustrate the NSA with TOR.

Source

10 Ways the NSA Spies on You

Careful what you search for, because somebody is always watching, find out more in 10 ways the NSA spies on you.

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