How Gov't Monitors Consumer Computers

[SilverInfinity]

How NSA access was built into Windows
Duncan Campbell   04.09.1999
Careless mistake reveals subversion of Windows by NSA.

A CARELESS mistake by Microsoft programmers has revealed that special access codes prepared by the US National Security Agency have been secretly built into Windows. The NSA access system is built into every version of the Windows operating system now in use, except early releases of Windows 95 (and its predecessors). The discovery comes close on the heels of the revelations earlier this year that another US software giant, Lotus, had built an NSA "help information" trapdoor [1] into its Notes system, and that security functions on other software systems had been deliberately crippled.

To continue reading: http://www.chuckherrin.com/MSandNSA.html

[SilverInfinity]

GOVERNMENT AND COMPUTER MANUFACTURERS CAUGHT INSTALLING HARD-WIRED KEYSTROKE LOGGERS INTO ALL NEW LAPTOP COMPUTERS!

Devices capture everything you ever type, then can send it via your ethernet card to the Dept. of Homeland Security without your knowledge, consent or a search warrant each time you log onto the internet!

Freedom Of Information Act Requests For Explanation From DHS, refused.

To continue reading:
www.halturnershow.com/KeystrokeLoggersInAllNewComputers.html
(includes computer parts photos)

[Richard]

I think you posted the wrong link in your second post. :)

[SilverInfinity]

Thanks for telling me. I fixed it now :paranoid:

[Richard]

To continue reading:
http://www.hyperspacecafe.com/view_topic.php?id=1606&forum_id=46 (includes computer parts photos)

Are you sure it’s fixed? Your link is for this thread.

[SilverInfinity]

That's strange. It should be fixed now.

[Hoystyler]

The idea appeared in Technology Review citing Peter Norvig, director of research at Google, who says these ideas will show up eventually in real Google products - sooner rather than later.
The idea is to use the existing PC microphone to listen to whatever is heard in the background, be it music, your phone going off or the TV turned down. The PC then identifies it, using fingerprinting, and then shows you relevant content, whether that's adverts or search results, or a chat room on the subject.

And, of course, we wouldn’t put it past Google to store that information away, along with the search terms it keeps that you've used, and the web pages you have visited, to help it create a personalised profile that feeds you just the right kind of adverts/content. And given that it is trying to develop alternative approaches to TV advertising, it could go the extra step and help send "content relevant" advertising to your TV as well.

We suspect that such a world would be rather eerie, with a constant feeling of déjà vu every time anyone watched TV.

Technology Review said Google talked about this software in Europe last June, and that it breaks sound into a five-second snippets to pick out audio from a TV, reducing the snippet to a digital "fingerprint", which it matches on an internet server.

Given the furore caused when AOL released searches on the internet, there might be more than a few civil liberties activists less than happy for Google to put this idea into practice. Also, given that Google provides the software link between its search software and the microphone, it's a small step to making the same link to any webcams attached to the PC.

Pretty soon the security industry is going to find a way to hijack the Google feed and use it for full on espionage.

Google says that its fingerprinting technology makes it impossible for the company (or anyone else) to eavesdrop on other sounds in the room, such as personal conversations, because the conversion to a fingerprint is made on the PC, and a fingerprint can't be reversed, as it's only an identity.

But we should think that "spyware" might take on an extra meaning if someone less scrupulous decided on a similar piece of software.

The Google program converts sound into graphs, weeds out background noise, and reduces the graphs to key features that can then be translated into just four bytes of information, so that the fingerprints for an entire year of television programming would add up to no more than a few gigabytes, the company said.

Meanwhile, in an unconnected announcement this week, Google said it has signed a multi-year agreement with online auction giant eBay, to provide text-based advertising outside the US.

The companies also plan to launch a "click-to-call" advertising function on eBay using Skype and Google Talk.

[Hoystyler]

GOVERNMENT AND COMPUTER MANUFACTURERS CAUGHT INSTALLING HARD-WIRED KEYSTROKE LOGGERS INTO ALL NEW LAPTOP COMPUTERS!      link to story

http://www.halturnershow.com/KeystrokeLo...uters.html