August 2019 - cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

US Gov Launches Mass Surveillance Balloons in Fear of Rebellion
by grarpamp 06 Aug '19

06 Aug '19

https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/1157397713312501761 "They always tell us the tools of mass surveillance are intended for use only against the faraway Other; the foreign enemy, the terrorist, the criminal. And then, just a few years later, we realize precisely the same system secretly surrounds us at home." https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/02/pentagon-balloons-surveilla… https://www.sncorp.com/press-releases/snc-gorgon-stare/ https://www.darpa.mil/program/adaptable-lighter-than-air https://apps.fcc.gov/els/GetAtt.html?id=233815&x=. " Pentagon testing mass surveillance balloons across the US Exclusive: the high-altitude balloons promise a cheap monitoring platform that could follow multiple cars and boats for extended periods The new balloons could follow multiple cars and boats for extended periods. The US military is conducting wide-area surveillance tests across six midwest states using experimental high-altitude balloons, documents filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reveal. Up to 25 unmanned solar-powered balloons are being launched from rural South Dakota and drifting 250 miles through an area spanning portions of Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Missouri, before concluding in central Illinois. Travelling in the stratosphere at altitudes of up to 65,000ft, the balloons are intended to “provide a persistent surveillance system to locate and deter narcotic trafficking and homeland security threats”, according to a filing made on behalf of the Sierra Nevada Corporation, an aerospace and defence company. The balloons are carrying hi-tech radars designed to simultaneously track many individual vehicles day or night, through any kind of weather. The tests, which have not previously been reported, received an FCC license to operate from mid-July until September, following similar flights licensed last year. Google’s Earth: how the tech giant is helping the state spy on us Read more Arthur Holland Michel, the co-director of the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College in New York, said, “What this new technology proposes is to watch everything at once. Sometimes it’s referred to as ‘combat TiVo’ because when an event happens somewhere in the surveilled area, you can potentially rewind the tape to see exactly what occurred, and rewind even further to see who was involved and where they came from.” The tests have been commissioned by the US Southern Command (Southcom), which is responsible for disaster response, intelligence operations and security cooperation in the Caribbean and Central and South America. Southcom is a joint effort by the US army, navy, air force and other forces, and one of its key roles is identifying and intercepting drug shipments headed for the United States. An aerial photograph of a residential development in Des Moines, Iowa. The US military is launching unmanned surveillance balloons over portions of the midwest. “We do not think that American cities should be subject to wide-area surveillance in which every vehicle could be tracked wherever they go,” said Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union. “Even in tests, they’re still collecting a lot of data on Americans: who’s driving to the union house, the church, the mosque, the Alzheimer’s clinic,” he said. “We should not go down the road of allowing this to be used in the United States and it’s disturbing to hear that these tests are being carried out, by the military no less.” For many years, Sierra Nevada has supplied Southcom with light aircraft packed with millions of dollars’ worth of sensors, which then flew over Mexico, Colombia, Panama and the Caribbean sea. But planes require expensive crews and can only fly for a few hours at a time. In a report to the Senate armed services committee this February, Southcom’s commander, Admiral Craig Faller, wrote: “While improving efficiency, we still only successfully interdicted about six percent of known drug movements [in 2018].” The new balloons promise a cheap surveillance platform that could follow multiple cars and boats for extended periods. And because winds often travel in different directions at different altitudes, the balloons can usually hover over a given area simply by ascending or descending. Neither Sierra Nevada nor US Southcom responded to requests for comment on this story. However, the rival balloon operator World View recently announced that it had carried out multi-week test missions in which its own stratospheric balloons were able to hover over a five-mile-diameter area for six and a half hours, and larger areas for days at a time. “The very nature of [these balloons] is that they can operate for weeks and months,” said Ryan Hartman, the CEO of World View. “The challenge is how to harness the stratospheric winds to be able to create a persistent station-keeping capability for customers.” Raven Aerostar, the company that is supplying the balloons for Southcom’s tests and launching them from its facility in South Dakota, told the Guardian that it has had balloons remain aloft for nearly a month. Raven also makes balloons for the Alphabet subsidiary Loon, which uses them to help deliver internet and cellphone service from the stratosphere. The FCC documents show that Southcom’s balloons are carrying small, satellite-like vehicles housing sophisticated sensors and communication gear. One of those sensors is a synthetic aperture radar intended to detect every car or boat in motion on a 25-mile swath beneath the balloon. The balloons also have advanced mesh networking technologies that allow them to communicate with one another, share data and pass it to receivers on the ground below. The Ravenstar facility launchpad in South Dakota. The FCC filing notes that this networking includes video information. That suggests that the balloons might also carry a Sierra Nevada video capture system called Gorgon Stare. This wide-area surveillance system comprises nine cameras capable of recording panoramic images across an entire city simultaneously. While Gorgon Stare is usually deployed on drones, Michel said that the US army has used tethered spy blimps in Afghanistan, and that US Customs and Border Protection has experimented with low-altitude balloons along the Mexico border. But surveillance from stratospheric balloons is relatively new, said Michel, author of Eyes in the Sky, a recent book on wide area surveillance: “The higher the altitude of the system, the wider the area that you can cover. The trade-off is that depending on the area and the system, you may get lower-resolution images.” Balloons are also subject to fewer restrictions and regulations than drones. It is unclear from the FCC documents whether Southcom’s tests within the US are linked to any active narcotic or counter-terrorism investigations. Also, none of the parties involved would say whether the midwest vehicle data would be deleted, stored or passed on to other federal or local agencies. “[We would like to know] what they are they doing with that data, how they are storing it, and whether they are contemplating deploying this in the US,” said the ACLU’s Stanley. “Because if they decide that it’s usable domestically, there’s going to be enormous pressure to deploy it.” The Southcom surveillance tests are probably just the tip of the iceberg. Scott Wickersham, the vice-president of Raven Aerostar, told the Guardian that it has also been working with Sierra Nevada and the Pentagon’s research arm Darpa on a “highly sophisticated and challenging development around the stratosphere”. This refers to the agency’s Adaptable Lighter-Than-Air (Alta) program, an ongoing effort to perfect stratospheric balloon navigation which has included multiple launches across the country, Wickersham said. Ryan Hartman said that World View had also completed a dozen surveillance test missions for a customer it would not name, capturing data he would not specify. “Obviously, there are laws to protect people’s privacy and we are respectful of all those laws,” Hartman said. “We also understand the importance of operating in an ethical way as it relates to further protecting people’s privacy.” Meanwhile, World View is currently preparing for its next surveillance flight, and Sierra Nevada’s tests in the midwest continue. "

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Litecoin Just Halved Its Crypto Rewards for Miners
by jim bell 05 Aug '19

05 Aug '19

>From Discover on Google https://www.coindesk.com/litecoin-just-halved-its-crypto-rewards-for-miners Jim Bell's comment:Why do these mining rewards change discontinuously, by a factor of 2 in this case, rather than by some continuous factor?

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Quartz: Pentagon testing mass-surveillance balloons over Midwest
by jim bell 05 Aug '19

05 Aug '19

Quartz: Pentagon testing mass-surveillance balloons over Midwest. https://qz.com/1680964/pentagon-testing-mass-surveillance-balloons-over-mid…

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Cloudfare: Banning 8chan Would Make Spying for Law Enforcement Harder
by John Young 05 Aug '19

05 Aug '19

In a phone conversation in the early afternoon, Mr. Prince sounded torn: On one hand, 8chan was clearly reprehensible, and depriving it of the protection Cloudflare provides would rid him of a troublesome customer and a huge headache. On the other hand, banning 8chan could set a bad precedent, and it could make it harder for law enforcement authorities to monitor violent extremists. Cloudflare, like other tech companies with a window onto dark internet activity, can share information about crimes with investigators. Banning 8chan "would make our lives a lot easier," Mr. Prince said, "but it would make the job of law enforcement and controlling hate groups online harder." https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/05/technology/8chan-cloudflare-el-paso.html… Hark and Heed: The Internet's fundamental purpose is to spy on users.

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Re: [tor-onions] Presentation on Onion Networking at the BCS
by grarpamp 05 Aug '19

05 Aug '19

On 7/22/19, Alec Muffett <alec.muffett(a)gmail.com> wrote: > "Why & How you should start using Onion Networking" > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pebRZyg_bh8 A fine introduction. Yet how do people, including those involved with or using other projects in the space, compare contrast and evaluate this with "Why and how start using" and writing for... Onion, I2P, CJDNS, MaidSafe, IPFS and all the other overlay networks out there and forthcoming, all in their respective "non-exit" modes? Whether it be for protocol layer capabilities HTTPS/TCP/UDP/IPv6, or to achieve application layer... messaging, storage, web-ish, etc. And how does each's lack or presence of whatever API interfaces, UDP, broadcast, name layers, or other potential transport and programming models, lend themselves to app development and widespread eventual adoption and use? And how, without offering IPv6 or the ultimately better all encompassingly wide and modular, even cryptographic, AF_OVERLAY interface that all networks could plug into, does anyone expect to get everything interoperable and working together? [Note that comparing "traction" re all other nets accessing facebook is false since those nets simply do not offer a simple exit mode to do so as tor does. What would be fair is if facebook had CJDNS, I2P, Onion, etc interfaces, and then comparing those access stats, scaled relative to each respective project estimates of number of users, project advertising funding impact, project *Browser availability, etc.]

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global American dick swinging - evil glows its horns - The New "Cold" War - [PEACE]
by Zenaan Harkness 05 Aug '19

05 Aug '19

American military/MIC wonks, pushing the "elite"ist (((moneyed))) agendas for war - bipartisan by the way as both Dems and Reps want to kill as many brown children as possible and are proud to point this out to the rest of us whilst labelling those who disagree as Nazis - quite the irony… https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-08-03/citadels-americas-elites-fracture… The Citadels Of America's Elites: Fractured And At Odds With Each Other … quick to demonstrate his, at Aspen (after others had unveiled their masculinity on China and Iran), was the US envoy for Syria (and deputy US National Security Adviser), James Jeffrey: A US policy boiled down to one overriding component: ‘hammering Russia’. “Hammering Russia” (he insisted repeatedly), will continue until President Putin understands there is no military solution in Syria (he said with heightened verbal emphasis). Russia falsely assumes that Assad has ‘won’ war: “He hasn’t”, Jeffrey said. And the US is committed to demonstrating this fundamental ‘truth’. Therefore, the US plans to ‘up the pressure’; will escalate the cost to Russia, until a political transition is in place, with a new Syria emerging as a “normal nation”. The US will ‘leverage’ the costs on Russia across the board: Through military pressure – ensuring a lack of military progress in Idlib; through Israelis operating freely across Syria’s airspace; through ‘US partners’ (i.e. the Kurds) consolidating in NE Syria; through economic costs (“our success” in stopping reconstruction aid to Syria); through extensive US sanctions on Syria (integrated with those on Iran) – “these sanctions are succeeding”; and thirdly, by diplomatic pressure: i.e. “hammering Russia” in the UN. Well, the US shift on Syria also takes one’s breath away. Recall how little time ago, the talk was of partnership, of the US working with Russia to find a solution in Syria. Now the talk of the US Envoy is the talk of Cold War with Russia as much as were his Aspen colleagues – albeit in respect to China. Such ‘machismo’ is evidenced too coming from the US President: “I could – if I wanted – end the US war in Afghanistan in a week”, (but it would entail the deaths of 10 million Afghans), Trump excalimed. And, in the same mode, Trump now suggests that for Iran, he is easy: war or not – either path is fine, for him. All this braggadocio is reminiscent of late 2003 when the war in Iraq was just entering its insurgent stage: It was said then that mere “boys go to Baghdad; but real men chose to go to Tehran”. It gained wide circulation in Washington at the time. This type of talk gave rise, as I well recall, to something approaching an hysteric elation. Officials seemed to be walking six inches above the ground, in anticipation of all the dominos expected to fall in succession. The point here is that the tacit coupling of Russia – now termed a major ‘foe’ of America by US Defence officials – and China, inevitably is being refracted back at the US, in terms of a growing strategic Russo-Chinese partnership, ready to challenge the US and its allies. ...

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Smartphone Same as Black Helo
by John Young 05 Aug '19

05 Aug '19

The Military-Style Surveillance Technology Being Tested in American Cities https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/08/military-style-surve… "Under law, there's no difference between a photo taken by a smartphone through an airplane window and one taken by an ultrapowerful camera in a helo hovering over your backyard."

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Antifa Linux humor
by Razer 05 Aug '19

05 Aug '19

From @miro and @monsieur @todon.nl (Mastodon) I just wanna take all of the nazis on the internet and just rm -rf all of them (and while I'm at it, if I can...) find . -name nazi -exec convert {} anarchist \; https://todon.nl/@miro/102559694952453051 Rr (Har har!) Sent from my Androgyne dee-vice with K-9 Mail

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[PRECRIME] - Macron's France: "preventive" arrests of non-favoured protesters now routine, passed into "law" - [MINISTRY] [PEACE]
by Zenaan Harkness 05 Aug '19

05 Aug '19

Another day, another litany of empire insanity as France "preventively" arrests those 'of interest' who are suspected of going, or intending to go, to a government designated "you're not allowed to go to this" protest. This new pre-crime law was passed, by France, in February 2019. "no authorization from a judge is necessary and no appeal possible" This is not only pre-crime in legislation folks, this is a star chamber execution of your punishment for your pre-crime. Take THAT, libber-muffalugguh-tardians!‼¡! And as French president Macron tours in his armoured bullet proof vehicular transport device from the Arc de Triumphe, the crowd cheers in wild support. Ha! Acshually no, the crowd, of thousands, boo-ed, hurled insults and shouted "Macron resign". Just as well he's got his police arresting folks for pre-crimes, preventively ... THAT'll settle down the crowds. Or something. No more sniggering now folks, just because the empire is crumbling does NOT mean we are entitled to snigger at one of the world's most arrogant leaders making a public tour and being unanimously derided and decried. Now buckle up and just make sure you tweet out yer disagreements with the state so the pre-crime Fruckerberg machine can have you, like the others, arrested before you do any harm. It's for your own good you see... OUR own good. We really ought be arresting ourselves, jah? France Is Slowly Sinking Into Chaos https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-08-03/france-slowly-sinking-chaos … The French police appear ferocious when dealing with peaceful protesters, but barely able to prevent groups such as "Antifa" from causing violence. Therefore, now at the end of each demonstration, "Antifa" show up. The French police seem particularly cautious when having to deal with young Arabs and illegal migrants. The police have been given orders. They know that young Arabs and illegal migrants could create large-scale riots. Three months ago, in Grenoble, the police were pursuing some young Arabs on a stolen motorcycle, who were accused of theft. While fleeing, they had an accident. Five days of mayhem began. President Macron looks like an authoritarian leader when he faces the disgruntled poor. He never says he is sorry for those who have lost an eye or a hand or suffered irreversible brain damage from extreme police brutality. Instead, he asked the French parliament to pass a law that almost completely abolishes the right to protest, the presumption of innocence and that allows the arrest of anyone, anywhere, even without cause. The law was passed. In June, the French parliament passed another law, severely punishing anyone who says or writes something that might contain "hate speech". The law is so vague that an American legal scholar, Jonathan Turley, felt compelled to react. "France has now become one of the biggest international threats to freedom of speech", he wrote. Macron does not appear authoritarian, however, with violent anarchists. When facing young Arabs and illegal migrants, he looks positively weak. He knows what the former interior minister, Gérard Collomb, said in November 2018, while resigning from government: "Communities in France are engaging in conflict with one another more and more and it is becoming very violent... today we live side by side, I fear that tomorrow it will be face to face". Macron also knows what former President François Hollande said after serving his term as president: "France is on the verge of partition". Macron knows that the partition of France already exists. Most Arabs and Africans live in no-go zones, apart from the rest of the population, where they accept the presence of non-Arabs and non-Africans less and less. They do not definethemselves as French, except when they say that France will belong to them. Reports show that most seem filled with a deep rejection of France and Western civilization. An increasing number seem to place their religion above their citizenship; many seem radicalized and ready to fight. Macron seems not to want to fight. Instead, he has chosen to appease them. He is single-mindedly pursuing his plans to institutionalize Islam in France. … One wonders why, eh? Perhaps Islam is seen as a religious "out" for those in power who live their sexual lives in the shadows and wish for the subjugation of women, in extremis. Good luck world,

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BBC News: Saeed Malekpour: Web designer escapes life sentence in Iran
by jim bell 04 Aug '19

04 Aug '19

Saeed Malekpour: Web designer escapes life sentence in Iran - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-49224279 Jim Bell's comment: Being arrested and convicted for writing a program that is used by others to upload pornography may be grotesque, but we have no hope that such events are limited to Iran. Look at the case of Silk Road 1, for instance.

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