Data Security Center In Utah Targets Cyberspace

~~ As long as the USA stays a free Democracy , with a free press & etc., this plan does not alarm me. But maybe I am just getting old and jaded , and getting [too?] used to a growing Big Brother in the name of National Security ~`

"Data Security Center In Utah Targets Cyberspace"

By James Nelson

CAMP WILLIAMS, Utah Thu Jan 6, 2011 8:17pm EST

(Reuters) - A $1.5 billion dollar National Security Agency data center under construction in Utah will be an important step in dealing with rising volumes of information in cyberspace, officials said on Thursday. "It's a very important step in protecting the interests of our country. Banking, financial interests, Internet and national security. This is an important step forward in all of those," U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch told Reuters at a groundbreaking ceremony for the Data Center.

~` So Mr. Smith , you would like to work here?

First fill , out this application.

After we do a background check, drug test , and credit search,

you can go to room "A" for your polygraph ,

and then to room "B" for your Brain Scan.

Let the moral and legal debate begin.

---------------------------

---

Brain Scan Can Read Your Thoughts

New insights into brain activity could explain how memories are formed and how they change over time.

Thu Mar 11, 2010 02:30 PM ET | content provided by AFP

THE GIST:

• Brain scans could reveal what a person is thinking.
• Using fMRI scans, scientists can distinguish memories of a past event a person is recalling.
• The brain scans could provide fresh insight into how memories are stored and how they may change through time.

---

A scan of brain activity can effectively read a person's mind, researchers said Thursday.

British scientists from University College London found they could differentiate brain activity linked to different memories and thereby identifythought patterns by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

The evidence suggests researchers can tell which memory of a past event a person is recalling from the pattern of their brain activity alone.

http://news.discovery.com/tech/brain-scan-mind-reading.html?print=true

TechnoPolitics and Elections in the Middle East.

~~ The NYT's Thomas Friedman today puts forth that there is a real TechnoPolitical change going on in the Middle Eastern Body Politic. Internet and Cell Texting are fueling the pro-western the reform movements there.~~ posted from blackberry by technopolitical~~




http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=376648&f=76


By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

Published: June 14, 2009

mobile.nytimes.com

"Twenty years ago, I wrote a book about the Middle East, and recently I was thinking of updating it with a new introduction. It was going to be very simple - just one page, indeed just one line: "Nothing has changed."
".....something is going on in the Middle East today that is very new. Pull up a chair; this is going to be interesting."

" What we saw in the Lebanese elections,........., and what we saw in the provincial elections in Iraq, .........is the product of four historical forces that have come together to crack open this ossified region".

**"First is the diffusion of technology. The Internet, blogs, YouTube and text messaging via cellphones, particularly among the young - 70 percent of Iranians are under 30 - is giving Middle Easterners cheap tools to communicate horizontally, to mobilize politically and to criticize their leaders acerbically, outside of state control. It is also enabling them to monitor vote-rigging by posting observers with cellphone cameras. I knew something had changed when I sat down for coffee on Hamra Street in Beirut last week with my 80-year-old friend and mentor, Kemal Salibi, one of Lebanon's greatest historians, and he told me about his Facebook group!"***

"CYBERWAR Privacy May Be a Victim in Cyberdefense Plan"

~ We are at war.

A Government run Cyber Defense is needed.

The internet is a public forum that I choose to enter.

Am I willing to surrender some my cyber rights to enter cyberspace -- to surrender my internet privacy in the name of American national self defense?

I know for me I already personally-- but not politically-- censor myself online. Unlike others who really do completely open their life to the internet, I post almost nothing about my private life , or at least nothing shocking.

Nor do I visit any websites that I would want to later deny doing so.

For me there would be very little if any real impact on my personal internet use, in light of the proposed American Government measures of Cyber Defense.

I already guard my privacy online and do not visit sites of illicit or illegal activity.

Ido also do google myself often to find out what others could learn about me with a quick internet search. (With a little work one can mostly control their online presence.)

Now, I am still very much a civil libertarian when it comes to both private and mutually consenting personal interactions. I fully believe that the government has no right to regulate or monitor our private lives.

But again , I CHOOSE to go onto the Internet, with the understanding that it may be monitored and my online actions and interactions might be recorded by some government snoop, a snoop whose job it is to look for threats of violence against man or machine. But it is not his charge to monitor normal free speech, association, and/or political organizing. Those activities are fully protected rights in the USA.

My life online is not that exciting. And again purposely so. Privacy must be guarded by ones self, as only you can protect your own privacy. So I am careful what I post and write about myself on my various blogs.

When you drive the roads in your car there are traffic cops. On the internet too there does need to be a cyberpolice and I am willing to accept Government monitoring of the Internert in the name of Cyber National Security, as I for one do not see how it would change my techno cyber political behaviors in any way.

The First amendment of the US Constitution fully protects all my cyber activities. I have full free speech and free press rights here at TechnoPolitical. I post what I think and believe very freely and without constraint.

If I want or need Privacy I can turn the Computer Off.

We are at war. There are lunatics of all stripes out there who use the internet as a tool to further violence and terrorism. There has to be Government Cyber Security in the USA. The stakes are just too high.

Now below this post, there is another recent post about China's cyber crackdown attempt.

This is a different situation than the USA's, as China is working to suppress nonviolent speech and civil dissent. For there is no right to free speech and free association in China and the Chinese Government is quite totalitarian in its Electronic-Governance of Cyber Space.

The USA however is not looking suppress nonviolent speech and association, but to protect its citizens from Terrorism both domestic and foreign. Big difference.
~~
Posted from blackberry by technopolitical via AT&T.~~





"CYBERWAR Privacy May Be a Victim in Cyberdefense Plan"


By THOM SHANKER and DAVID E. SANGER



Published: June 13, 2009

mobile.nytimes.com



"WASHINGTON - A plan to create a new Pentagon cybercommand is raising significant privacy and diplomatic concerns, as the Obama administration moves ahead on efforts to protect the nation from cyberattack and to prepare for possible offensive operations against adversaries' computer networks.





President Obama has said that the new cyberdefense strategy he unveiled last month will provide protections for personal privacy and civil liberties.




But senior Pentagon and military officials say that Mr. Obama's assurances may be challenging to guarantee in practice, particularly in trying to monitor the thousands of daily attacks on security systems in the United States that have set off a race to develop better cyberweapons."

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=376300&f=21

"China Requires Censorship Software on New PCs"

~~ China here using their powers of E-Governance to censor the Internet and spy on all cyber activities.

Don't ever think "It Can't Happen Here" in the USA.
Not as long Dick Cheney types are around~~ Posted by technopolitical via BlackBerry by AT&T~~




"China Requires Censorship Software on New PCs"



By ANDREW JACOBS


http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=374205&f=24

Published: June 09, 2009 BEIJING -


China has issued a sweeping directive requiring all personal computers sold in the country to include sophisticated software that can filter out pornography and other "unhealthy information" from the Internet. The software, which manufacturers must install on all new PCs starting July 1, would allow the government to regularly update computers with an ever-changing list of banned Web sites.

The rules, issued last month, ratchet up Internet restrictions that are already among the most stringent in the world. China regularly blocks Web sites that discuss the Dalai Lama, the 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen Square protesters, and the Falun Gong, the banned spiritual movement.


But free-speech advocates say they fear the new software could make it even more difficult for China's 300 million Internet users to obtain uncensored news and information.



"This is a very bad thing," said Charles Mok, chairman of the Hong Kong chapter of the Internet Society, an international advisory group on Internet standards.


"It's like downloading spyware onto your computer, but the government is the spy."

http://mobile.nytimes.com/

First attempt to describe the 'electronic police state'

~~ Electronic -Governance of our lifes is now here .  Moreso outside the USA.  Non-Democracies know that a FREE and OPEN cyber-space  theatens them.  But i have faith that in the end Cyber-space will make the world a freer place. Maybe. ~~

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/12/0012255&from=rss

The Electronic Police State

Posted by kdawson on Monday May 11, @11:54PM
from the watching-you dept.

gerddie writes"Cryptohippie has published what may be called a first attempt to describe the 'electronic police state' (PDF). Based on information available from different organizations such as Electronic Privacy Information Center, Reporters Without Borders, and Freedom House, countries were rated on 17 criteria with regard to how close they are already to an electronic police state. The rankings are for 2008. Not too surprisingly, one finds China, North Korea, Belarus, and Russia at the top of the list. But the next slots are occupied by the UK (England and Wales), the US, Singapore, Israel, France, and Germany."This is a good start, but it would be good to see details of their methodology. They do provide theraw data (in XLS format), but no indication of the weightings they apply to the elements of "electronic police state" behavior they are scoring.

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/12/0012255&from=rss

IP Enforcement Treaty Still Being Kept Secret

~~ Did anybody in the general public know this was being kept secret?

Even though it is now not
a secret that it is a secret,
as it is
posted all
over the Internet.

Just try making small talk in the elevator 

on this--- actually quite important , but boring --- topic.

---- z n o o z e ~~ y a w n ~~
==========================

09/05/06/2148217 story

 FROM: http://politics.slashdot.org

"IP Enforcement Treaty Still Being Kept Secret"

http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/06/2148217&from=rss

Posted by timothy on Wednesday May 06, @06:00PM
from the in-the-spirit-of-openness- dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "More than a thousand pages of material about Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), are still being withheld, despite the Obama administration's promises to run a more open government.

The EFF and Public Knowledge filed suit in September of 2008, demanding that background documents on ACTA be disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). "We are very disappointed with the USTR's decision to continue to withhold these documents The president promised an open and transparent administration," said EFF Senior Counsel David Sobel.

Publicly available information about the treaty shows it could establish far-reaching customs regulations over Internet traffic in the guise of anti-counterfeiting measures. Additionally, multi-national IP industry companies have publicly requested that ISPs be required to engage in filtering of their customers' Internet communications for potentially copyright-infringing material, force mandatory disclosure of personal information about alleged copyright infringers, and adopt 'Three Strikes' policies requiring ISPs to automatically terminate customers' Internet access upon a repeat allegation of copyright infringement.

'What we've seen tends to confirm that the substance of ACTA remains a grave concern,' said Public Knowledge Staff Attorney Sherwin Siy. '

The agreement increasingly looks like an attempt by Hollywood and the content industries to perform an end-run around national legislatures and public international forums to advance an aggressive, radical change in the way that copyright and trademark laws are enforced.'"

http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/06/2148217&from=rss

"All trademarks and copyrights on this 

page/post [from Slash-Dot] are owned by their respective owners. 

Comments are owned by the Poster. "

--------------------------------------

 However :The INTERNET IS OWNED 

BY TECHNOPOLITCAL !!!!

=====================================

The Rest © 1997-2009 SourceForge, Inc."   
===============================================

How does the data get stolen from my computer?

~~ TWO Nice articles over at CNET today.
One for those of you
who want to understand how online rip-offs happen.
( Beside the crazy over-charges from our ISPs
for hi-speed bandwidth we never really get.)

And another for those of you who still use P2P file share programs.
Which I really do not any more. Simply too many virus bugs in cyberspace, and too much data on my computer that I value.

http://m.news.com/2166-12_3-10233216-83.html

FAQ: Demystifying ID fraud

http://m.news.com/2166-12_3-10233216-83.html
How does the data get stolen from my computer?
There are many ways sensitive data can be pried out of computer users. In a typical social-engineering phishing attack, a consumer opens an e-mail that looks like it was sent by the consumer's bank, Amazon, PayPal, or some other trusted source. With a bogus excuse, such as suggesting there was a security incident and the user needs to verify his or her account details, the e-mail will prompt the recipient to provide username and password via a link to a Web site that looks legitimate but isn't. The consumer enters the information and continues on, not knowing that the data is now being sent to criminals.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

http://m.news.com/2166-12_3-10233419-38.html

P2P bill could regulate Web browsers, FTP clients

http://m.news.com/2166-12_3-10233419-38.html

May 5, 2009 4:30 AM PDT

Posted by Declan McCullagh

news analysis The U.S. House of Representatives has scheduled a hearing Tuesday to examine a bill that would force peer-to-peer applications to provide specific notice to consumers that their files might be shared.

Economic Blogger Who Angered Seoul Is Acquitted

~~ Korea is not the USA. Not all "democracies" have true Free Speech.
Most do not compared to the Good ol' U.S.A.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=356879&f=20
Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

Economic Blogger Who Angered Seoul Is Acquitted

Associated Press

By CHOE SANG-HUN

Published: April 21, 2009

SEOUL - An economic commentator on the Internet who criticized and angered the South Korean government but commanded a huge following was freed from jail Monday after a court acquitted him of charges of using the Web to maliciously spread false information.

The arrest of Park Dae-sung in January and his trial on charges of spreading false data in public with a harmful intent - a crime punishable by as much as five years in prison - prompted debate about how much freedom of expression should be tolerated in cyberspace in this extensively wired country.

Mr. Park, an unemployed 31-year-old, gained an almost prophet-like status among many South Koreans after he correctly predicted the collapse of the U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers, the crash of the South Korean currency - the won - and the effects on South Korea of the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=356879&f=20
Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

~~ This is almost Surreal !!!

But it is the Technopolitical Age we
live in . Cyber-Spying among nations ,
even Cyber Warfare , and also Big Time Corprate Cyber-Biz Spying where billions of billions of $$ are at stake.

Man it is a

 rough place,
this
Cyber 

Space.
---------------

---------

---------

(Please use the post labels 

to view more on these topics )~~~

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30280436/

U.S. seeks hackers to protect cyber networks: 

Homeland Security wants someone who can 'think like the bad guy'.

updated 12:06 p.m. ET, Sat., April 18, 2009

WASHINGTON - Wanted: Computer hackers.

Buffeted by millions of digital scans and attacks each day, federal authorities are looking for hackers — not to prosecute them, but to pay them to secure the nation's networks.

General Dynamics Information Technology put out an ad last month on behalf of the Homeland Security Department seeking someone who could "think like the bad guy." Applicants, it said, must understand hackers' tools and tactics and be able to analyze Internet traffic and identify vulnerabilities in the federal systems.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30280436/
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
All rights reserved.

This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. 

~~~  Please Be Real !! 

 Anyway  MSNBC / AP,  you guys  are 

free to post my stuff on your site ! 

Thats fair , right? ~~~

Judge: Not unreasonable for city workers to surf Web -- Newsday.com

~~~ Bravo !! I hope the higher courts see this the same way. ~~~ TP
-----------------------------------

Judge: Not unreasonable for city workers to surf Web -- Newsday.com: "
In his decision, Spooner wrote: 'It should be observed that the Internet has become the modern equivalent of a telephone or a daily newspaper, providing a combination of communication and information that most employees use as frequently in their personal lives as for their work. He added: "For this reason, city agencies permit workers to use a telephone for personal calls, so long as this does not interfere with their overall work performance.'"

AT&T Sued Over NSA Eavesdropping

~~ A new twist in the NSA wiretap mess.

Did Ma Bell do it with Big Brother ?!?!

~~~TP

------------------------------

AT&T Sued Over NSA Eavesdropping
Wired News::
By Ryan Singel
04:03 AM Jan, 31, 2006

The Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a class-action lawsuit against AT&T Tuesday, accusing the telecom company of violating federal laws by collaborating with the government's secret, warrantless wiretapping of American citizens' phone and internet usage.

The suit, (.pdf) filed by the civil liberties group in federal court in San Francisco, alleges AT&T secretly gave the NSA access to two massive databases that included both the contents of its subscribers' communications and detailed transaction records, such as numbers dialed and internet addresses visited.

'Our goal is to go after the people who are making the government's illegal surveillance possible,' says EFF attorney Kevin Bankston. 'They could not do what they are doing without the help of companies like AT&T. We want to make it clear to AT&T that it is not in their legal or economic interests to violate the law whenever the president asks them to.'"

"Could Your VoIP Phone Be Tapped?"

~~ America has to decide just exactly how "Big" we want our "Big Brother " to be. As reported in New York Times , polls show a 50 -50 split , or so on Americans support of the Bush Wiretaps. ~~ TP
--------------------------------------------------


PCWorld.com - Could Your VoIP Phone Be Tapped?: "

Dennis O'Reilly, PC World

Friday, January 27, 2006

BURLINGAME, CALIFORNIA -- "Several privacy and civil-liberties organizations are mounting a legal challenge to prevent VoIP and other Internet-based communications from being subject to taps from law-enforcement agencies."

Google : Communist sympathizer !!

Google is willing to bow to China on search censorship . but yet Google fights the American Government on releasing search data.
Seems clear to me . Google 's motto of " Do no evil", is easy to abide by when you have your own definitions of right and wrong. ~~ TP
-------------
--------

Google faces China challenges

By Jane Wakefield Technology reporter, BBC News website

Google has acknowledged that its decision to launch in China will be seen as inconsistent with its mission to make information universally accessible but believes it has little choice.

"We don't want to risk becoming irrelevant or useless due to the way that our content is blocked or filtered currently," Google's senior policy adviser Andrew McLaughlin told the BBC Radio Four's Today programme.

"We feel it is a step forward. Not a big step forward but a step forward. We understand that many people will find the decision either puzzling or objectionable," he said.

NSA Web Site Places 'Cookies' On Computers |

~ I personally now will delete my cookies after visiting any Government website. ~` `TP

---------------

InformationWeek | Privacy | NSA Web Site Places 'Cookies' On Computers | December 29, 2005: " By Anick Jesdanun , NEW YORK (AP)--The National Security Agency's Internet site has been placing files on visitors' computers that can track their Web surfing activity despite strict federal rules banning most of them. These files, known as 'cookies,' disappeared after a privacy activist complained and The Associated Press made inquiries this week, and agency officials acknowledged Wednesday they had made a mistake. Nonetheless, the issue raises questions about privacy at a spy agency already on the defensive amid reports of a secretive eavesdropping program in the United States. 'Considering the surveillance power the NSA has, cookies are not exactly a major concern,' said Ari Schwartz, associate director at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a privacy advocacy group in Washington, D.C. 'But it does show a general lack of understanding about privacy rules when they are not even following the government's very basic rules for Web privacy.'"

F.B.I. Watched Activist Groups, New Files Show - New York Times

~~~ Not that this is really surprising. When i worked for GreenPeace in during the Reagan years, we knew that we were being monitiored. Strange thing is we had nothing to hide,, I mean we were publicity-hound-political-activists, who telegraphed to the media most everything we did or said. Why non-violent groups need to be "monitiored" is still really beyond me.

Either way the Bush Team is in trouble. If these domestic spying games the Administration is playing are found to be more than just unethical, but also to be illegal, some heads are going to have to roll. Being Scooter Libby already got indicted, maybe Dick Cheney is next, as he is the main powerplayer. { Don't tell me you really think Bush is in charge of this complicated stuff ! } ~~ ` TP
----------------------------

F.B.I. Watched Activist Groups, New Files Show - New York Times: "the documents, coming after the Bush administration's confirmation that President Bush had authorized some spying without warrants in fighting terrorism, prompted charges from civil rights advocates that the government had improperly blurred the line between terrorism and acts of civil disobedience and lawful protest.

One F.B.I. document indicates that agents in Indianapolis planned to conduct surveillance as part of a 'Vegan Community Project.' Another document talks of the Catholic Workers group's 'semi-communistic ideology.' A third indicates the bureau's interest in determining the location of a protest over llama fur planned by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
The documents, provided to The New York Times over the past week, came as part of a series of Freedom of Information Act lawsuits brought by the American Civil Liberties Union. For more than a year, the A.C.L.U. has been seeking access to information in F.B.I. files on about 150 protest and social groups that it says may have been improperly monitored."

ABC News: Was Bush Authorized to Spy on American Citizens?

ABC News: Was Bush Authorized to Spy on American Citizens?: "Speed Necessary?

The president said he needed the power to eavesdrop without a court order to streamline the process of wiretapping suspected terrorists.

'We've got to be fast on our feet, quick to detect and prevent,' Bush said.

But the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act allows investigators to wiretap before getting a warrant, as long as they request permission from a special intelligence court within 72 hours.

'Doesn't hold water,' said Saltzburg. 'As long as you can act in emergencies before you get a court order, then speed is irrelevant here.'

The secret court has overwhelmingly done the bidding of recent administrations. Since 1979, the Justice Department has gone before the secret court 18,742 times and has only been turned down in four instances.

But for the Bush administration, court approval, at times, was not fast enough.

ABC News' Pierre Thomas filed this report for 'World News Tonight.'"

Just Three More Years !!!

~~ So Bush admits, with his anti-terror flag wrapped tightly around him,
Congress is ticked off. Hearings will come with the new year.
Well at least it will not be a boring three more years. ~~ TP

===================

Lawmakers Call for Domestic Spying Probe - Yahoo! News

"Lawmakers Call for Domestic Spying Probe"
============================

http://news.bbc.co.uk

Bush admits he authorised spying

President George W Bush has admitted he authorised secret monitoring of communications within the United States in the wake of the 2001 terror attacks.

Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts - New York Times

~~~ The NY Times has an extensive article today on the Bush team again forgetting that a Democracy is a place where the Government does not spy on its citizens with out first getting a Court order. This is major news , but unless Congress raises a stink and starts hearings , it will pass under the radar of most voters.

I have to keep saying to myself -

-- "Just three more years,, Just three more years".

Anybody will be better than the Bushies in 2008. 

{ Assuming that Team Bush does not find 

some way to cancel the 2008 American elections.] ~~~ TP
-----------------------------------------

Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts
By JAMES RISEN and ERIC LICHTBLAU

"WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 - Months after the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist activity without the court-approved warrants ordinarily required for domestic spying, according to government officials"

"China Reportedly Shuts Down Blog" -Thu Nov 3, 8:17 AM ET

To ban the Internet completely is impractical for dictatorships if they want their oppressed citizenship to be able to compete in the globalized world economy. So for dictatorships the only authoritarian option is to attempt control and stifle political cyber-dialogues the best they can without curtailing economic activity.

Or in other words to use their powers of E-Governance in order to constrain the citizen use of Cyber-Activism.

~~So, REMEMBER CHINA ,, I'M WATCHING YOU!!

Be careful how you treat those nice and

well meaning bloggers .

Don't make me come over there !!

-----------------------------

China Reportedly Shuts Down Blog

Thu Nov 3, 8:17 AM ET

"BEIJING - Chinese authorities have blocked a pro-democracy Web log after it was nominated for a freedom of expression award by a German radio station, a press freedom group said Thursday.

The blog, titled Wang Yi's Microphone, dealt with 'sensitive subjects' and was maintained by a teacher from Sichuan province, Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said in a statement"China Reportedly Shuts Down Blog - Yahoo! News:

----------------------------