Leaked Emails Allegedly Tell of Global "Trapwire" Spy Network 149
judgecorp writes "The British government and police are customers of a controversial surveillance network called TrapWire, according to emails published by Wikileaks. The messages suggest that Scotland Yard and Number Ten Downing Street are customers of Abraxas Corporation, whose TrapWire network combines CCTV, license plate capture systems and databases. The TrapWire network has caused concern amongst online activists and Abraxas' site is currently not available, possibly due to attacks by Anonymous." There seems to be no end to the Trapwire conspiracy stories today, there's even one going around that various large companies such as Salesforce and Google were offered the chance to be part of the spy club.
Ah, progress... (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, well. Isn't it so nice that after 'Total Information Awareness' was canned for being slightly too creepy even for congress, it has resurfaced as a free-swimming and not-at-all-sinister corporation heavily larded with CIA alumni. I assume that this is the American analog of our pal Putin's pithy "There is no such thing as a former KGB man"
Re:Ah, progress... (Score:5, Funny)
See, government spying is bad, because it's government, and whenever the government gets involved, it's inherently bad, because after all, it's the government.
But, this is not the government, this is business. And in this case, it's pretty much ok, because it's the free market doing it, and the market knows whats best for itself, because it's the market, and not the government.
Makes sense right?
Re:Ah, progress... (Score:5, Insightful)
If there weren't so many people who manage to say things like that with a straight face and nigh-religious levels of conviction there would be a lot more humor in the situation...
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The trivial rebuttal is the frequency with which these oh-so-private-sector entities end up glomming onto state contracts and becoming, de-facto, an arm of the state, just with juicier returns to shareholders. There is a veritable ecosystem of beltway obligate parasites that present all the outward indications of being 'private'; but are deeply embedded in state operations.
There are also the subtler considerations of what sorts of coercion and malfeasance one can achieve without the benefit of state power;
Here's a video released by Anon about surveillance (Score:5, Informative)
If you'd like to see the extent of surveillance in US, watch this video released by anon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKaG9pfEFSQ [youtube.com]
Scary to say the least. 1984 is already here.
Re:Here's a video released by Anon about surveilla (Score:5, Informative)
If 1984 were here, you'd be an unperson by now just for saying what you just said. People really need to read the book... surveillance was only one tiny facet of what makes the party horrible. It is the facet that enables the other, even worse parts, but it is not the be all and end all.
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I think in a post-9/11 world there will be new readings of what 1984 was actually about. I mean what is it REALLY about? It's about a disgruntled government employee who becomes a terrorist because he's having trouble getting laid. Can you dispute this is what happens? The proles in 1984 are perfectly happy but some rogue government clerk decides he wants to overthrow the government. Winston reminds me a little too much of Timothy McVeigh. Unfortunately geeks don't usually study literary theory so of course
Re:Here's a video released by Anon about surveilla (Score:5, Interesting)
Hmm, lets see... a reading where Winston is the bad guy huh? Does the government still unleash angry, starving rats to eat through his face because he had the temerity to have sex with someone and talking about political change? (do note: Winston never actually does anything to hurt anyone)
Sorry, not buying the "Winston was the real bad guy interpretation".
Re:Here's a video released by Anon about surveilla (Score:4, Interesting)
There was a Canadian show I watched one episode of called "Continuum", the "good" guy (well, girl) is a "Protector" in the "CPA" (I forget if it's "civilian" or "corporate" protection). In other words, she's a secret police officer. No uniform, license to kill. The "government" is the Corporate Congress. After bringing about additional market collapses they bought out the world governments and dissolved them. The CPA doesn't arrest people directly, they implant "trackers" which work not by actually being a GPS tracker, but by inducing more and more pain until the "perp" turns themselves in at the CPA station for sentencing and removal of the excruciator (hungry rats are sooooooooo 20th century). (The pilot has her smashing somebody's face in for vandalism then implanting the excruciator). Her suit/implants record everything she sees and hears and transmits it to HQ for filing. So, bringing it back to the second post in this thread, one of her buddies calls the government Big Brother, and she says the exact same thing "It can't be because otherwise you'd be dead". All while her implants are filming and recording, and transmitting back to HQ for processing and filing.
Anyway, the whole show is so heavily "1984 but the government is the good guy" I couldn't believe it. But they make sure the "bad guys" (pro-democracy rebels) are equally unsympathetic by having them kill as many innocent people as possible 24/7 for no reason. (PS the bad guys are a government trained death squad used to put down protests, but for some reason maybe explained in episodes I didn't watch, they rebelled.)
Re:Here's a video released by Anon about surveilla (Score:5, Informative)
Continue watching. The show got alot more interesting and nuanced after the first two episodes. Its getting harder and harder to tell who the "bad guys" are. (the show isnt the best scifi ever (they solve alot of problems with duce ex machina), but its interesting and being marketed heavily in canada which starts a good discussion over how far we would let the corporations run amok)
Re:Here's a video released by Anon about surveilla (Score:5, Funny)
I would respect the entertainment industry more if its writers didn't try to solve all plot problems with a Mussolini android.
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I would respect the entertainment industry more if its writers didn't try to solve all plot problems with a Mussolini android.
No, you wouldn't
None of that is relevant to 1984 (Score:3)
The original point was that the person calling current society "1984" had never read the book. They just were using it as a generic term for "big government that I don't like."
Big Brother in 1984 isn't a surveillance state, it is a mind-control state. Surveillance is just part their means to that end. People who spoke out against the government, or even just questioned too much or acted wrong just disappeared. Not just from society, but from history, records were altered so that all trace of them was gone,
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the problem with currently implemented 1984 is that it's just so fucking lousy at the mind control! MAKE ME A SHEEP DAMN IT!
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That's because you aren't the product of 'new education' where we teach kindergarteners that sharing is evil and that when strangers in uniform grab your crotch, it's 'good touch' no matter how scared and icky it makes you feel.
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Well, he was.
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I's not that he was an optimist, it's that his observation was expounded on later. What he said was "if there's a wrong way to do something, someone will do it that way." Pretty much self-evident, I'd say.
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If it does not happen literally by the book it does not mean it did not happen at all. Yes, you can still talk. Usually, unless someone is really interested in you being silent (try filming police, tell me how you liked it).
How long even that will last? Who knows.
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Part of what makes slashdot slashdot is that 90% of the posters utterly lack any sense of perspective.
Theres a story about how Facebook is selling your data to russian mafia? Clearly, that is just as bad as what Hitler did in WW2. Obama enacts a healthcare plan youre not a fan of? Communist china, and Obama is Mao. Romney takes a stance on abortion that you dont like? Clearly, this man is as repressive as Stalin.
It should come as no suprise that in any particular thread about surveilance, at least one
Your data on Facebook? (Score:2)
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Well...this one *is* close to true...and not just because of Obamacare....this guys is definitely on the socialist bent...
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I dont much like it, but youre out of your mind if you want to compare the two scenarios as you post from your comfortable, heated, internet connected house with a belly full of food.
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My nephew once suggested, "Ask yourself how important this problem is, viewed from 40,000 light years out."
Re:Here's a video released by Anon about surveilla (Score:4, Insightful)
Not only do people need to read 1984, but they also need to read Brave New World so they can start making more accurate literature comparisons.
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also..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_(novel) [wikipedia.org]
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Well, in this case they're both apt: Both regimes relied on extensive surveillance.
It makes perfect sense, really. If you're going to oppress people, you need to know what they're up to so you make sure you oppress the people who might be opposing you. Otherwise, a popular movement might get started that opposes you, and then you might be overthrown.
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In one of the recent articles on sci-fi books there was an interesting discussion on how 1984 was nowhere near as prescient as Brave New World.
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Re:Here's a video released by Anon about surveilla (Score:5, Informative)
If you'd like to see the extent of surveillance in US, watch this video released by anon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKaG9pfEFSQ [youtube.com]
Scary to say the least. 1984 is already here.
Isn't this convenient, the video has been deleted from YouTube. That is doubleplusungood.
Mirror please (Score:2, Informative)
Can anyone mirror the video? It's already gone.
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> If you'd like to see the extent of surveillance in US, watch this video released by anon:
Account closed, what was the video name ?
Privatized Big Brother? (Score:5, Interesting)
I think this may be something that really does qualify as a legitimate answer to the age olde question, "What could possibly go wrong?"
Re:Privatized Big Brother? (Score:5, Insightful)
it seems this thing is like credit data. companies give up the data in exchange for a credit score and risk profiling
same here. seems like private companies will be giving up their security cam and other data in exchange for security services
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Ok - I can maybe see companies interested in this that do loans and other activities where it is important to know who their users are. But - Salesforce? I just don't understand what their interest is in this. Everyone who deals with Salesforce is known to Salesforce, because you need a license to use it. So - what gives? Even Google is suspect - yes, they have a vested interest in knowing who their users are, but I suspect that they have more data than they could get from this initiative. So, again - WTF?
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we just found a monetization of the google cloud. sell the data of who is doing what to the spy networks including corporate espionage
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it seems this thing is like credit data. companies give up the data in exchange for a credit score and risk profiling
same here. seems like private companies will be giving up their security cam and other data in exchange for security services
I like the use of "conspiracy" and "alleged" in the top-level story. It gives this a real air of critical reporting. You know! Like the conspiracy story about your parent's families, in which your father is alleged to have impregnated your mother.
There's real room to reserve some skepticism around the entire business of these "stories".
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It's verged striaght through "too good
Just a matter of time (Score:5, Insightful)
To what degree cameras are coordinated isn't a conspiracy, it's an eventuality.
"Strange how paranoia can link up with reality now and then..." -- P.K.Dick
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"Strange how paranoia can link up with reality now and then..." -- P.K.Dick
Coming from him, that's actually even more terrifying than it should be.
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Yeeeah right.
Let's ask the key question here.
You are a Random Retailer. You have the camera systems. Let's say shady spook #1 comes to you and wants to rig your cameras into the Trapwire network.
(a) He can't force you, because you will fucking sue his balls off in every court in and out of the land for something like that.
(b) There's barely anything in it for you. Your customers might get creeped out. Your rival company might trumpet - Hey *we're* not signed up to Big Brother Net.
(c) And suppose you do agre
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A lot of these systems are decades old. They aren't going to be compatible
oh yeah, analog video is SO HARD to interface with.
its really hard to find yellow composite 75 ohm cable that is rca or bnc terminated.
YEAH, REAL INCOMPATIBLE!
(are you being stupid on purpose, poster?)
Re:Just a matter of time (Score:5, Insightful)
The US army can't deliver a single set of compatible radios to the army. The British government couldn't get the NHS to run on a single IT system. What the hell makes you think they can do something like this?
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England isn't Nazi Germany, don't be retarded.
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"England isn't Nazi Germany"
Correct.
England is a far more pure police state and also much more surreptitiously so.
Seeing as how the younger part of the population tends to behave, this is a necessity. You have to be hard and omnipresent if you want to deal with rioters and hooligans in an efficient manner.
Personally I love CCTV monitoring; I think it's perfectly okay that the police watch what people do and if they step out of line significantly enough, they'll step in and do their job. Without CCTV anarchy quickly rules the show as bad behavior is inversely proportional with the chance of getting caught.
Here in Denmar
Re:Just a matter of time (Score:5, Interesting)
abraxas says that if you upgrade your video cameras they will scan the feed in real time and alert you of suspicious activity like known or highly suspected shoplifters coming into the store or being in the area. or if someone applies for a job they will scan the applicant's face and look to see where else he worked and the shrink levels before and after
there is your ROI
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You could use these same arguments about the WiFi & GSM-based in-store tracking & MITM systems that are in use right now...those same factors didn't stop them.
Watch nobody care. (Score:3, Funny)
Because they have nothing to hide.
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I agree entirely. But how are we to convince the rest of the population who take pride in the fact that they have nothing to hide from the government?
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I agree entirely. But how are we to convince the rest of the population who take pride in the fact that they have nothing to hide from the government?
A family member of mine claimed she changed her stance after I gave her a copy of Bruce Schneier's essay, "The Eternal Value of Privacy." [schneier.com]
Schneier also recommends [schneier.com] Daniel Solove's essay, "'I've Got Nothing to Hide' and Other Misunderstandings of Privacy." [ssrn.com]
Someone else posted this very good article earlier today: "Debunking The Dangerous 'If You Have Nothing To Hide, You Have Nothing To Fear.'" [falkvinge.net]
As seen on TV: "The Last Enemy" (Score:3)
We stayed up and watched this, initially to see Benedict Cumberbatch: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/lastenemy/synopsis.html [pbs.org]
All we need now is an unexplained outbreak of an unknown disease in some conflict-ridden part of the world. (Maybe the recent Ebola outbreak in Uganda? http://allafrica.com/stories/201208120306.html [allafrica.com] )
Sales pitch? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Nice website, it tells you it's a conspiracy nut site immediately with its header image before you even scroll down to see the article.
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To flog my favorite international relations hobbyhorse yet again: yes, yes we can. And if you don't like it, you can fund a big enough military to tip the balance of power back toward equality.
Call it the uranium rule: he who has the nuclear aircraft carriers makes the rules.
SCORPION STARE? CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN is starting! (Score:2, Interesting)
I'll just leave this here: http://www.goldengryphon.com/Stross-Concrete.html [goldengryphon.com]
Wikileaks Tor onion link & trapwire pastes (Score:5, Informative)
As wikileaks.org sustains a continuos DDoS attack of 10GB/sec some work around suggestions have been offered:
Tor Wikileaks onion - use Tor.
http://isax7s5yooqgelbr.onion/
Paste Links
http://privatepaste.com/942ba3fa3d/asdasdwqe
http://privatepaste.com/f9dd332518/weqwewqesada
207 emails below
http://dazzlepod.com/gifiles/search/?q=TrapWire
http://dazzlepod.com/gifiles/search/?q=TrapWire
MORE....
http://www.robtex.com/dns/trapwire.net.html#records
Regularly updated GIFiles
http://dazzlepod.com/gifiles/
Wikileaks node
http://wlcentral.org/node/2761
GIFiles
http://wl.wikileaks-press.org/gifiles/index.html
thanks to Diver Dan from RI and the AnonymousSpoon and m_cetera
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As wikileaks.org sustains a continuos DDoS attack of 10GB/sec some work around suggestions have been offered:
Tor Wikileaks onion - use Tor. http://isax7s5yooqgelbr.onion/ [isax7s5yooqgelbr.onion]
+1
Great Info. Please upvote to weed this out from the noise!
It's a trap (Score:1)
really, it's a trap.
The Telcos lawsuit dismissed and now this.... (Score:2)
... wiretrap have little to do with catching terrorist but to spy on american attitudes and to do more against the american people.
With such information is is possible with a controlled media to then manipulate the people via the media. i.e. endless war drum banging for the invasion of Iraq.
Traffic cameras and their control centers are very capable of the likes of jamming up major city intersection (i.e. in Atlanta to bring all traffic can be brought to a standstill with nothing more than properly executed
Shocking news! (Score:2)
Oh, my! Business and government are colluding to invade our privacy and control our behavior? I'm shocked! Shocked, I say!
Come on, people, do the messy details of who is collecting what and selling it to whom really matter any more?
The general population has amply demonstrated its complacency in matters of collective privacy loss and stellar-scale coercion. Its not a question of enough people knowing, its a matter of not enough people caring or daring to put up any meaningful resistance. The flies can conqu
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While I agree with complacency, I'll point out that it's due to mostly ignorance. Just watch "TV News" and you get the point. People have been trained to believe that everything they hear on TV News is true and real. It is not, and has not been for at least 20 years. It's brainwashing and lies mostly, with tidbits of truth sprinkled in to appear real (and perhaps to keep the actors and actresses spewing lies from committing suicide).
The best thing anyone can do currently is to try waking people up. Tea
trapped (Score:1)
Full of Fail: Outting Surveilance the Wrong Way. (Score:2)
"According to a very good source responsible for domestic surveillance operations, an extremely serious al Qaeda terror plot has been uncovered targeting a financial institution, an entertainment centre and a government office building in Los Angeles. The same terrorist-surveillance team conducted pre-operational surveillance of all three sites. The group is currently under watch," he wrote.
Well then, now (a) I am supposed to believe an anonymous source -- which I won't -- so the "proof" of its effectiveness fails and (b) if the sour
Did anyone actually RTFA?!? (Score:2)
This is not news. This is Wikileaks publishing uncorroborated "evidence" that matches their expectations about "Big Brother".
Some things to remember:
We shall SPY them on the Beaches (Score:1)
"We shall SPY on to the end, we shall SPY in France,
we shall SPY on the seas and oceans,
we shall SPY with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall SPY our whatever the cost may be,
we shall SPY the beaches,
we shall SPY on the landing grounds,
we shall SPY in the fields and in the streets,
we shall SPY in the hills;"
-- paraphrasing, the GREAT Winston Churchill
Re:How's that "hope and change" doing? (Score:5, Insightful)
Romney Ryan 2012, TAKE BACK AMERICA!
Romney Ryan 2012, Ensure the continuous oscillation between Democrat and Republican to the exclusion of all else.
If the answer is ever Republican or Democrat you oversimplified the question.
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Andrew Ryan 2012, TAKE BACK RAPTURE!
"Should a man not be entitled to shoot flaming electric bees out of his face at the looters and the moochers? NO, says the Department of Mutant Sealife. NO, says the Humane Society. NO, says the American Psychological Association. But I rejected those answers. I chose the impossible. I chose SURPRISE GIANT DRILL ATTACK!"
"Ahem. Also I have a serious economic policy focusing on deregulation of private industry, an integrated energy/health/childcare system based on creepy orphan girls with syringes and FIRE GR
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Vote Romney... yeah that's a good one.
Unfortunately this shit is endemic to the system now. Unless somebody is elected on an explicit platform of reigning it in, I don't see any president from either party taking the risk of offending the security establishment. There is too much money in it, they can cause too many problems overtly and covertly, and if anything at all goes wrong everyone will be quick to blame the president who "let down our guard".
This would have been a serious scandal in the 1960s or 70s
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You Americans should have voted yesterday, if you know what I mean.
Re:How's that "hope and change" doing? (Score:5, Insightful)
American politics is hopelessly polarized between the two poles of democrat and republican, each pole ensuring the survival of the other. You need to change the system by voting for any credible third party.
Voting for any part of the democrat/republican alliance will not reduce the power of the democrat/republican alliance.
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The hard part is that the 'alliance' has so much power, they manipulate any third party out of credibility so that no change can occur.
Malcolm Reynolds for President!
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The thing is the problem isn't obvious to at least 50% of US voters, if it was it would not exist.
The only way to get any third party seriously considered is to let people know they do have a choice. If enough people believe they have that choice then sure enough the choice is real.
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You need to change the system by voting for any credible third party.
Here, allow me to point out what 3rd parties can get you. In Europe, they've allowed the rise of far-left national socialists who believe that that the second great purge of the 20th century needs to happen. In Greece the collapse of the centreist parties, has allowed this to happen as well. And the same in Italy and a few others.
Well, 3rd parties have their place. But saying voting for a credible 3rd party? The world doesn't always work that way. Sometimes, they're worse than a two party system.
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Sometimes, they're worse than a two party system.
Are you on drugs? Or just thick?
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Well, 3rd parties have their place. But saying voting for a credible 3rd party? The world doesn't always work that way. Sometimes, they're worse than a two party system.
And sometimes they are better. I'm not saying vote for any 3rd party, I'm saying vote for a 3rd party you believe in.
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I'm sorry that you really believe this red herring bullshit fallacy. The collapse of Greece was not due to a 3rd party, it was due to an established corrupt party where Greek voters had little to no choice, very much like what we see in the US.
If you don't see that you are playing in to propaganda with your statement, you are a fool and a tool. Established powers want you to believe there is no choice, or what you get is all there is. This is not how we were founded nor how we were intended to function.
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far-left national socialists
I think you have your hands confused. National Socialism, and the European neo-fascists that look back fondly to it, was a far-right movement.
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Hope and Change ... in England?
How do I fix this rediculos mess with Romney?
Re:Wikileaks it self is honey pot (Score:5, Insightful)
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Well at least the graphics are good.
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Maybe it's not a honeypot (Score:2)
Maybe it is. But I think that it reflects much more negatively on the public than wikileaks if so. I know cryptome [cryptome.org] is no honey-pot. What should alarm us more than honey-pots is our collective ineffectualness in processing the information from such sources. It's almost like all the data in the world, exquisitely tailored to our liking, would have no effect either. It seems to me like world-leaders are treating the world along with humanity as a game, and like intoxicated children we play.
I used to think the same thing but I don't think so anymore. Julian Assange is someone they probably attempted to recruit and it looks like he decided to flee instead. Any time the police want to talk to you prior to charging you it's because they want to offer you a offer you can't refuse.
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Of course, the most succinct and likely accurate statement on the entire subject of Wikileaks is moderated "off-topic". Way to go, mods.
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Kowalski? (Score:2)
Vanishing Point?
The question is not when he's gonna stop but who is gonna stop him.