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brain scanning may be used in security checks
by Eugen Leitl 12 May '09

12 May '09

(these people all need to die. painfully) http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/may/10/biometric-scanning-brain-s… Brain scanning may be used in security checks * Owen Bowcott * guardian.co.uk, Sunday 10 May 2009 23.12 BST Distinctive brain patterns could become the latest subject of biometric scanning after EU researchers successfully tested technology to verify -identities for security checks. The experiments, which also examined the potential of heart rhythms to authenticate individuals, were conducted under an EU-funded inquiry into biometric systems that could be deployed at airports, borders and in sensitive locations to screen out terrorist suspects. Another series of tests fitted a "sensing seat" to a truck to record each driver's characteristic seated posture in an attempt to spot whether commercial vehicles had been hijacked. Details of the Humabio (Human Monitoring and Authentication using Biodynamic Indicators and Behaviourial Analysis) pilot projects have been published amid further evidence of biometric technologies penetrating everyday lives. The Foreign Office plans to spend up to #15m on fixed and mobile security devices that use methods including "Facial recognition (two and/or three dimensional), fingerprint recognition, iris recognition and vein imaging palm recognition". The biometric sensors and systems, it appears, will primarily be deployed to protect UK embassies around the world. The contract, about which the FCO declined to elaborate further, also mentions "surveillance" and "data collection" services. The Home Office, meanwhile, has confirmed rapid expansion plans of automated facial recognition gates: 10 will be operating at major UK airports by August. Passengers holding the latest generation of passports travelling through Manchester and Stansted are already being checked by facial-recognition cameras. Biometric identity checks are also becoming more common in the world of commercial gadgets. New versions of computer laptops and mobile phones are entering the market with built-in fingerprint scanners to prevent other people running up large bills and misusing pilfered hi-tech equipment. Among security experts there is a preference for developing biometric security devices that do not rely on measuring solely one physiological trait: offering choice makes scanning appear less intrusive and allows for double-checking. The holy grail of the biometrics industry is a scanning mechanism that is socially acceptable in an era of mass transit and 100 per cent accurate. Researchers are eager to produce 'non-contact' biometric systems that can check any individual's identity at a distance. The US government's secretive IARPA (Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity) is seeking development proposals to enhance such technologies. Insisting that it is not interested in 'contact-type' biometrics, it asks for ideas that will "significantly advance the intelligence community's ability to achieve high-confidence match performance ... [for] high fidelity biometric signatures". The Humabio project, based in Greece, is involved more in blue-sky scientific thinking than in intelligence work. Its research, highlighted in the latest issue of Biometric Technology Today, is at a "pre-commercial, proof-of-concept stage".

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China blocks U.S. from cyber warfare
by Eugen Leitl 12 May '09

12 May '09

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/may/12/china-bolsters-for-cyber-ar… Tuesday, May 12, 2009 China blocks U.S. from cyber warfare Bill Gertz (Contact) China has developed more secure operating software for its tens of millions of computers and is already installing it on government and military systems, hoping to make Beijing's networks impenetrable to U.S. military and intelligence agencies. The secure operating system, known as Kylin, was disclosed to Congress during recent hearings that provided new details on how China's government is preparing to wage cyberwarfare with the United States. "We are in the early stages of a cyber arms race and need to respond accordingly," said Kevin G. Coleman, a private security specialist who advises the government on cybersecurity. He discussed Kylin during a hearing of the U.S. China Economic and Security Review Commission on April 30. The deployment of Kylin is significant, Mr. Coleman said, because the system has "hardened" key Chinese servers. U.S. offensive cyberwar capabilities have been focused on getting into Chinese government and military computers outfitted with less secure operating systems like those made by Microsoft Corp. "This action also made our offensive cybercapabilities ineffective against them, given the cyberweapons were designed to be used against Linux, UNIX and Windows," he said. The secure operating system was disclosed as computer hackers in China - some of them sponsored by the communist government and military - are engaged in aggressive attacks against the United States, said officials and experts who disclosed new details of what was described as a growing war in cyberspace. These experts say Beijing's military is recruiting computer hackers for its forces, including one specialist identified in congressional testimony who set up a company that was traced to attacks that penetrated Pentagon computers. Chinese Embassy spokesman Wang Baodong declined immediate comment. But Jiang Yu, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, said April 23 that the reports of Chinese hacking into Pentagon computers were false. "Relevant authorities of the Chinese government attach great importance to cracking down on cybercrimes," Ms. Jiang said. "We believe it is extremely irresponsible to accuse China of being the source of attacks prior to any serious investigation." Mr. Coleman, a computer security specialist at Technolytics and a consultant to the director of national intelligence and U.S. Strategic Command, said Chinese state or state-affiliated entities are on a wartime footing in seeking electronic information from the U.S. government, contractors and industrial computer networks. Mr. Coleman said in an interview that China's Kylin system was under development since 2001 and the first computers to use it are government and military servers that were converted beginning in 2007. Additionally, Mr. Coleman said, the Chinese have developed a secure microprocessor that, unlike U.S.-made chips, is known to be hardened against external access by a hacker or automated malicious software. "If you add a hardened microchip and a hardened operating system, that makes a really good solid platform for defending infrastructure [from external attack]," Mr. Coleman said. U.S. operating system software, including Microsoft, used open-source and offshore code that makes it less secure and vulnerable to software "trap doors" that could allow access in wartime, he explained. "What's so interesting from a strategic standpoint is that in the cyberarena, China is playing chess while we're playing checkers," he said. Asked whether the United States would win a cyberwar with China, Mr. Coleman said it would be a draw because China, the United States and Russia are matched equally in the new type of warfare. Rafal A. Rohozinski, a Canadian computer security specialist who also testified at the commission hearing, explained how he took part in a two-year investigation that uncovered a sophisticated worldwide computer attack network that appeared to be a Chinese-government-sponsored program called GhostNet, whose electronic strikes were traced to e-mails from Hainan island in the South China Sea. GhostNet was able to completely take over targeted computers and then download documents and information. Some of the data stolen were sensitive financial and visa information on foreign government networks at overseas embassies, Mr. Rohozinski said. The China-based computer network used sophisticated break-in techniques that are generally beyond the capabilities of nongovernment hackers, Mr. Rohozinski said. Using surveillance techniques, the investigators observed GhostNet hackers stealing sensitive computer documents from embassy computers and nongovernmental organizations. "It was a do-it-yourself signals intelligence operation," Mr. Rohozinski said of the network, which took over about 1,200 computers in 103 nations, targeted specifically at overseas Tibetans linked to the exiled Dalai Lama. Mr. Rohozinski, chief executive officer of the SecDev Group and an advisory board member at the Citizen Lab at the Munk Center for International Studies at the University of Toronto in Ontario, said the GhostNet operation was likely part of a much bigger cyberintelligence effort by China to silence or thwart its perceived opponents. A third computer specialist, Alan Paller, told the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on April 29 that China's military in 2005 recruited Tan Dailin, a graduate student at Sichuan University, after he showed off his hacker skills at an annual contest. Mr. Paller, a computer security specialist with the SANS Institute, said the Chinese military put the hacker through a 30-day, 16-hour-a-day workshop "where he learned to develop really high-end attacks and honed his skills." A hacker team headed by Mr. Tan then won other computer warfare contests against Chinese military units in Chengdu, in Sichuan province. Mr. Paller said that a short time later, Mr. Tan "set up a little company. No one's exactly sure where all the money came from, but it was in September 2005 when he won it. By December, he was found inside [Defense Department] computers, well inside DoD computers," Mr. Paller said. A Pentagon official said at the time that Chinese military hackers were detected breaking into the unclassified e-mail on a network near the office of Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates in June 2007. Additional details of Chinese cyberattacks were disclosed recently by Joel F. Brenner, the national counterintelligence executive, the nation's most senior counterintelligence coordinator. Mr. Brenner stated in a speech in Texas last month that cyberactivities by China and Russia are widespread and "we know how to deal with these," including widely reported "Chinese penetrations of unclassified DoD networks." "Those are more sophisticated, though hardly state of the art," he said. "Frankly, I worry more about attacks we can't even see, which the Russians are good at. The Chinese are relentless and don't seem to care about getting caught. And we have seen Chinese network operations inside certain of our electricity grids." Mr. Brenner said there are minimal concerns about a Chinese cyberattack to shut down U.S. banking networks because "they have too much money invested here. "Our electricity grid? No, not now. But if there were a dust-up over Taiwan, these answers might be different," he said. Aggressive Chinese computer hacking has been known for years, but the U.S. government in the past was reluctant to detail the activities. The CIA, for example, sponsored research in the late 1990s that sought to minimize Chinese cyberwarfare capabilities, under the idea that highlighting such activities would hype the threat. Researcher James Mulvenon, for instance, stated during a 1998 conference that China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) "does not currently have a coherent [information warfare] doctrine, certainly nothing compared to U.S. doctrinal writings on the subject." Mr. Mulvenon stated in one report that "while PLA [information warfare] capabilities are growing, they do not match even the primitive sophistication of their underlying strategies." Mr. Mulvenon has since changed his views and has identified Chinese computer-based warfare as a major threat to the Pentagon. Mr. Coleman said China's military is equal to U.S. and Russian military cyberwarfare. "This is a three-horse race, and it is a dead heat," Mr. Coleman said. The National University of China is the strategic adviser to the Chinese military on cyberwarfare and the Ministry of Science and Technology, he said. Several computer security specialists recently sounded public alarm about the growing number of cyberattacks from China and Russia. China, based on state-approved writings, thinks the United States is "already is carrying out offensive cyberespionage and exploitation against China," Mr. Coleman said. In response, China is taking steps to protect its own computer and information networks so that it can "go on the offensive," he said. Mr. Coleman said one indication of the problem was identified by Solutionary, a computer security company that in March detected 128 "acts of cyberagression" tied to Internet addresses in China. "These acts should serve as a warning that clearly indicates just how far along China's cyberintelligence collection capabilities are," Mr. Coleman said. A Pentagon spokesman, Air Force Lt. Col. Eric Butterbaugh, would not comment on Chinese cyberattacks directly but said "cyberspace is a war-fighting domain, critical to military operations: We must protect it." The Pentagon's Global Information Grid is hit with "millions of scans" - not intrusion attempts - every day, Lt. Butterbaugh said. "The nature of the threat is large and diverse, and includes recreational hackers, self-styled cybervigilantes, various groups with nationalistic or ideological agendas, transnational actors, and nation-states," he said. "We have seen attempts by a variety of state and nonstate sponsored organizations to gain unauthorized access to, or otherwise degrade, DoD information systems." Air Force Gen. Kevin Chilton, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, said May 7 that a joint cybercommand is needed under the Pentagon to better integrate military and civilian cybercapabilities and defenses. Gen. Chilton said he favors creating the joint command at Fort Meade, Md., where the National Security Agency is located. The command should be a subunit of Strategic Command, located at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb. Mr. Gates said last month that the National Security Council is heading up a strategic review of U.S. cybercapabilties and is considering creating a subunified command within Strategic Command. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Mr. Gates has not decided on the subunified command to handle cyberwarfare issues and is waiting for the completion of the White House review of cyberwarfare and security issues, which is past due from the 60-day deadline imposed by Congress. Mr. Gates "thought it would be prudent to wait for their work before looking at potential organization structures," Mr. Whitman said in an interview.

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cryptohippie: the electronic police state ranking 2008
by Eugen Leitl 12 May '09

12 May '09

https://secure.cryptohippie.com/pubs/EPS-2008.pdf The Electronic Police State 2008 National Rankings Most of us are aware that our governments monitor nearly every form of electronic communication. We are also aware of private companies doing the same. This strikes most of us as slightly troubling, but very few of us say or do much about it. There are two primary reasons for this: 1. We really donbt see how it is going to hurt us. Mass surveillance is certainly a new, odd, and perhaps an ominous thing, but we just donbt see a complete picture or a smoking gun. 2. We are constantly surrounded with messages that say, b Only crazy people complain about the government.b However, the biggest obstacle to our understanding is this: The usual image of a b police stateb includes secret police dragging people out of their homes at night, with scenes out of Nazi Germany or Stalinbs USSR. The problem with these images is that they are horribly outdated. Thatbs how things worked during your grandfatherbs war b that is not how things work now. An electronic police state is quiet, even unseen. All of its legal actions are supported by abundant evidence. It looks pristine. An electronic police state is characterized by this: State use of electronic technologies to record, organize, search and distribute forensic evidence against its citizens. The two crucial facts about the information gathered under an electronic police state are these: 1. It is criminal evidence, ready for use in a trial. 2. It is gathered universally and silently, and only later organized for use in prosecutions. In an Electronic Police State, every surveillance camera recording, every email you send, every Internet site you surf, every post you make, every check you write, every credit card swipe, every cell phone ping... are all criminal evidence, and they are held in searchable databases, for a long, long time. Whoever holds this evidence can make you look very, very bad whenever they care enough to do so. You can be prosecuted whenever they feel like it b the evidence is already in their database. Perhaps you trust that your ruler will only use his evidence archives to hurt bad people. Will you also trust his successor? Do you also trust all of his subordinates, every government worker and every policeman? And, if some leader behaves badly, will you really stand up to oppose him or her? Would you still do it if he had all the emails you sent when you were depressed? Or if she has records of every porn site youbve ever surfed? Or if he knows every phone call youbve ever made? Or if she knows everyone youbve ever sent money to? Such a person would have all of this and more b in the form of court-ready evidence b sitting in a database, waiting to be organized at the touch of a button. This system hasnbt yet reached its full shape, but all of the basics are in place and it is not far from complete in some places. It is too late to prevent this b it is here. Our purpose in producing this report is to let people know that their liberty is in jeopardy and to help them understand how it is being undermined. OUR RANKINGS Firstly, we are not measuring government censorship of Internet traffic or police abuses, as legitimate as these issues may be. And, we are not including evidence gathering by traditional, honest police work in any of the categories below. (That is, searches pursuant to honestly obtained warrants b issued by an independent judge, and only after the careful examination of evidence.) The seventeen factors we included in these rankings are: Daily Documents Requirement of state-issued identity documents and registration. Border Issues Inspections at borders, searching computers, demanding decryption of data. Financial Tracking Statebs ability to search and record all financial transactions: Checks, credit card use, wires, etc. Gag Orders Criminal penalties if you tell someone the state is searching their records. Anti-Crypto Laws Outlawing or restricting cryptography. Constitutional Protection A lack of constitutional protections for the individual, or the overriding of such protections. Data Storage Ability The ability of the state to store the data they gather. Data Search Ability The ability to search the data they gather. ISP Data Retention States forcing Internet Service Providers to save detailed records of all their customersb Internet usage. Telephone Data Retention States forcing telephone companies to record and save records of all their customersb telephone usage. Cell Phone Records States forcing cellular telephone companies to record and save records of all their customersb usage. Medical records States demanding records from all medical service providers and retaining the same. Enforcement Ability The statebs ability to use overwhelming force (exemplified by SWAT Teams) to seize anyone they want, whenever they want. Habeus Corpus Lack of habeus corpus b the right not to be held in jail without prompt due process. Or, the overriding of such protections. Police-Intel Barrier The lack of a barrier between police organizations and intelligence organizations. Or, the overriding of such barriers. Covert Hacking State operatives removing b or adding! b digital evidence to/from private computers covertly. Covert hacking can make anyone appear as any kind of criminal desired. Loose Warrants Warrants issued without careful examination of police statements and other justifications by a truly independent judge. For each of these, we assigned a value of between 1 and 5. A value of 1 indicates minimal development of electronic police state abilities in that area. 5 indicates a full operation. THIS YEARbS RESULTS Our rankings for the year of 2008 show China and North Korea occupying the top spots as the most complete Electronic Police States in the world, followed by Belarus and Russia. Next, however, we leave communist and recently-communist states, with the UK (England/Wales), the United States and Singapore following closely on their heels. We ranked 52 major states. The map below displays their rankings: Nations depicted in Red are the most advanced electronic police states, with an average rank of 3.0 or greater. Nations depicted in Orange are strongly developing electronic police states, with an average rank of 2.5 or greater. Nations depicted in Yellow are lagging (but still developing) electronic police states, with an average rank of 2.0 or greater. Nations depicted in green are states that seem to be going toward the electronic police state model, but not as quickly. Our raw data may be downloaded here. Here are the 52 states and their rankings: 1. China 2. North Korea 3. Belarus 4. Russia 5. United Kingdom: England & Wales 6. United States of America 7. Singapore 8. Israel 9. France 10.Germany 11.Malaysia 12.Ireland 13.United Kingdom: Scotland 14.Netherlands 15.South Korea 16.Ukraine 17.Belgium 18.Australia 19.Japan 20.New Zealand 21.Austria 22.Norway 23.India 24.Italy 25.Taiwan 26.Denmark 27.Hungary 28.Greece 29.Canada 30.Switzerland 31.Slovenia 32.Poland 33.Finland 34.Sweden 35.Latvia 36.Lithuania 37.Cyprus 38.Malta 39.Estonia 40.Czech Republic 41.Iceland 42.South Africa 43.Spain 44.Portugal 45.Luxembourg 46.Argentina 47.Romania 48.Thailand 49.Bulgaria 50.Brazil 51.Mexico 52.Philippines THE 2009 REPORT We will issue next yearbs report toward the end of Q1. We welcome input from any and all reliable sources. (The information required to prepare such a report is not easy to obtain, and webll take whatever help we can get.) We may be reached at: info(a)cryptohippie.com www.cryptohippie.com

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Your man▓s energy will come back to you like a boomerang.
by Carter Delaney 12 May '09

12 May '09

About this mailing: You are receiving this e-mail because you subscribed to MSN Featured Offers Microsoft respects your privacy. If you do not wish to receive this MSN Featured Offers e-mail, please click the "Unsubscribe" link below. This will not unsubscribe you from e-mail communications from third-party advertisers that may appear in MSN Feature Offers. This shall not constitute an offer by MSN. MSN shall not be responsible or liable for the advertisers' content nor any of the goods or service advertised. Prices and item availability subject to change without notice. 2009 Microsoft | Unsubscribe | More Newsletters | Privacy Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052 This message was sent from iContact to cypherpunks(a)jfet.org. It was sent from: iContact AutoResponder, 2635 Meridian Pkwy Suite 200, Durham, NC 27713. You can modify/update your subscription via the link below. View this message in the iContact Community: View message Comment on this message Receive as RSS

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Regenerate your virility for yourself,for her and for your love.
by Letitia Hahn 12 May '09

12 May '09

About this mailing: You are receiving this e-mail because you subscribed to MSN Featured Offers Microsoft respects your privacy. If you do not wish to receive this MSN Featured Offers e-mail, please click the "Unsubscribe" link below. This will not unsubscribe you from e-mail communications from third-party advertisers that may appear in MSN Feature Offers. This shall not constitute an offer by MSN. MSN shall not be responsible or liable for the advertisers' content nor any of the goods or service advertised. Prices and item availability subject to change without notice. 2009 Microsoft | Unsubscribe | More Newsletters | Privacy Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052 This message was sent from iContact to cypherpunks(a)jfet.org. It was sent from: iContact AutoResponder, 2635 Meridian Pkwy Suite 200, Durham, NC 27713. You can modify/update your subscription via the link below. View this message in the iContact Community: View message Comment on this message Receive as RSS

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Size matters more than anything else √ ask any lady.
by Elena Chu 12 May '09

12 May '09

About this mailing: You are receiving this e-mail because you subscribed to MSN Featured Offers Microsoft respects your privacy. If you do not wish to receive this MSN Featured Offers e-mail, please click the "Unsubscribe" link below. This will not unsubscribe you from e-mail communications from third-party advertisers that may appear in MSN Feature Offers. This shall not constitute an offer by MSN. MSN shall not be responsible or liable for the advertisers' content nor any of the goods or service advertised. Prices and item availability subject to change without notice. 2009 Microsoft | Unsubscribe | More Newsletters | Privacy Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052 This message was sent from iContact to cypherpunks(a)jfet.org. It was sent from: iContact AutoResponder, 2635 Meridian Pkwy Suite 200, Durham, NC 27713. You can modify/update your subscription via the link below. View this message in the iContact Community: View message Comment on this message Receive as RSS

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at the same time you areskimming this millions clients are buying
by Cornelia Simpson 12 May '09

12 May '09

About this mailing: You are receiving this e-mail because you subscribed to MSN Featured Offers Microsoft respects your privacy. If you do not wish to receive this MSN Featured Offers e-mail, please click the "Unsubscribe" link below. This will not unsubscribe you from e-mail communications from third-party advertisers that may appear in MSN Feature Offers. This shall not constitute an offer by MSN. MSN shall not be responsible or liable for the advertisers' content nor any of the goods or service advertised. Prices and item availability subject to change without notice. 2009 Microsoft | Unsubscribe | More Newsletters | Privacy Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052 This message was sent from iContact to cypherpunks(a)jfet.org. It was sent from: iContact AutoResponder, 2635 Meridian Pkwy Suite 200, Durham, NC 27713. You can modify/update your subscription via the link below. View this message in the iContact Community: View message Comment on this message Receive as RSS

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Size matters more than all √ ask any lady.
by Lewis Hendrickson 12 May '09

12 May '09

About this mailing: You are receiving this e-mail because you subscribed to MSN Featured Offers Microsoft respects your privacy. If you do not wish to receive this MSN Featured Offers e-mail, please click the "Unsubscribe" link below. This will not unsubscribe you from e-mail communications from third-party advertisers that may appear in MSN Feature Offers. This shall not constitute an offer by MSN. MSN shall not be responsible or liable for the advertisers' content nor any of the goods or service advertised. Prices and item availability subject to change without notice. �2009 Microsoft | Unsubscribe | More Newsletters | Privacy Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052 This message was sent from iContact to cypherpunks(a)jfet.org. It was sent from: iContact AutoResponder, 2635 Meridian Pkwy Suite 200, Durham, NC 27713. You can modify/update your subscription via the link below. View this message in the iContact Community: View message Comment on this message Receive as RSS

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by Calvin Bowling 12 May '09

12 May '09

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You would be on top in bedroom again √ just ask us for advice.
by Leslie Drummond 12 May '09

12 May '09

About this mailing: You are receiving this e-mail because you subscribed to MSN Featured Offers Microsoft respects your privacy. If you do not wish to receive this MSN Featured Offers e-mail, please click the "Unsubscribe" link below. This will not unsubscribe you from e-mail communications from third-party advertisers that may appear in MSN Feature Offers. This shall not constitute an offer by MSN. MSN shall not be responsible or liable for the advertisers' content nor any of the goods or service advertised. Prices and item availability subject to change without notice. 2009 Microsoft | Unsubscribe | More Newsletters | Privacy Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052 This message was sent from iContact to cypherpunks(a)jfet.org. It was sent from: iContact AutoResponder, 2635 Meridian Pkwy Suite 200, Durham, NC 27713. You can modify/update your subscription via the link below. View this message in the iContact Community: View message Comment on this message Receive as RSS

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