Posted by Alexander Higgins - June 24, 2011 at 7:17 pm
Government data leaked by hackers reveal US government domestic spy program has grown far beyond our wildest nightmare, with Government operatives spying on our every move, in every imaginable aspect of our lives, both online and offline.
Information leaked from government hacked websites reveal that the US domestic spy program has infiltrated every facet of our society both online and offline. The information revealed in the data leaks reveal that companies that we use on a daily basis and have come to rely on in our modern society, companies that we would never suspect, are in spying on us for the FBI. In fact a wide range of companies have been revealed to be spying on us from our healthcare providers, medical insurance companies and hardware stores to companies that provide payroll services, accounting services, financial services, credit card companies, banks, data centers, human resource companies and web hosting companies and every kind of company in between. In fact the FBI has domestic spies in 350 Fortune 500 companies and even operates in real estate companies, job search websites, employment staffing services, public schools and colleges, music sharing websites and even sites that report on the location of underground parties and raves.
Less shocking is that the Spy Program has been designed in a way to allow the Feds operate outside the laws of the US Constitution, entirely side stepping the 4th amendment which protects individuals against illegal search and seizure by requiring the government to obtain a warrant.
Background information on the hacks
However while members of the online community rebuke the group for giving the Government cause to enact these laws, the data being released by the group from their hacks reveal that the Government spy program has already grown orders of magnitudes beyond what our politicians are publicly trying to legalize.
Guardian: HBGary Emails reveal massive disturbing public-private partnership to spy on web users
For starters, the Guardian news paper just wrote a piece about an investigation into emails released by Anonymous revealing a massive online spy program between the Government and with a wide array of corporations from Google and Apple to a wide array of technology companies.
Hacked emails from security contractor HBGary reveal a disturbing public-private partnership to spy on web users
After having spent several months studying those emails and otherwise investigating the industry depicted therein, I have revealed my summary of aclassified US intelligence programme known as Romas/COIN, as well as its upcoming replacement, known as Odyssey. The programme appears to allow for the large-scale monitoring of social networks by way of such things as natural language processing, semantic analysis, latent semantic indexing and IT intrusion. At the same time, it also entails the dissemination of some unknown degree of information to a given population through a variety of means – without any hint that the actual source is US intelligence. Scattered discussions of Arab translation services may indicate that the programme targets the Middle East. Despite the details I have provided in the document – which is also now in the possession of several major news outlets and which may be published in whole or in part by any party that cares to do so – there remains a great deal that is unclear about Romas/COIN and the capabilities it comprises. The information with which I’ve worked consists almost entirely of email correspondence between executives of several firms that together sought to win the contract to provide the programme’s technical requirements, and because many of the discussions occurred in meetings and phone conversations, the information remaining deals largely with prospective partners, the utility of one capability over another, and other clues spread out over hundreds of email exchanges between a large number of participants. The significance of this programme to the public is not limited to its potential for abuse by facets of the US intelligence community, which has long been proverbial for misusing other of its capabilities. Perhaps the most astonishing aspect is the fact that the partnership of contracting firms and other corporate entities that worked to obtain the contract was put into motion in large part by Aaron Barr, the disgraced former CEO of HBGary Federal who was at the centre of Team Themis’s conspiracy to put high-end intelligence capabilities at the disposal of private institutions. As I explain further in the linked report, this fact alone should prompt increased investigation into the manner in which this industry operates and the threats it represents to democratic institutions.
The Guardian report points to a wiki set up detailing the contents of 60,000 leaked emails and the security implication involved.
For at least two years, the U.S. has been conducting a secretive and immensely sophisticated campaign of mass surveillance and data mining against the Arab world, allowing the intelligence community to monitor the habits, conversations, and activity of millions of individuals at once. And with an upgrade scheduled for later this year, the top contender to win the federal contract and thus take over the program is a team of about a dozen companies which were brought together in large part by Aaron Barr – the same disgraced CEO who resigned from his own firm earlier this year after he was discovered to have planned afull-scale information war against political activists at the behest of corporate clients. The new revelation provides for a disturbing picture, particularly when viewed in a wider context. Unprecedented surveillance capabilities are being produced by an industry that works in secret on applications that are nonetheless funded by the American public – and which in some cases are used against that very same public. Their products are developed on demand for an intelligence community that is not subject to Congressional oversight and which has been repeatedly shown to have misused its existing powers in ways that violate U.S. law as well as American ideals. And with expanded intelligence capabilities by which to monitor Arab populations in ways that would have previously been impossible, those same intelligence agencies now have improved means by which to provide information on dissidents to those regional dictators viewed by the U.S. as strategic allies. The nature and extent of the operation, which was known as Romas/COIN and which is scheduled for replacement sometime this year by a similar program known as Odyssey, may be determined in part by a close reading of hundreds of e-mails among the 70,000 that were stolen in February from the contracting firm HBGary Federal and its parent company HBGary. Other details may be gleaned by an examination of the various other firms and individuals that are discussed as being potential partners. Of course, there are many in the U.S. that would prefer that such details not be revealed at all; such people tend to cite the amorphous and much-abused concept of “national security” as sufficient reason for the citizenry to stand idly by as an ever-expanding coalition of government agencies and semi-private corporations gain greater influence over U.S. foreign policy. That the last decade of foreign policy as practiced by such individuals has been an absolute disaster even by the admission of many of those who put it into place will not phase those who nonetheless believe that the citizenry should be prevented from knowing what is being done in its name and with its tax dollars.
To the extent that the actions of a government are divorced from the informed consent of those who pay for such actions, such a government is illegitimate. To the extent that power is concentrated in the hands of small groups of men who wield such power behind the scenes, there is no assurance that such power will be used in a manner that is compatible with the actual interests of that citizenry, or populations elsewhere. The known history of the U.S. intelligence community is comprised in large part of murder, assassinations, disinformation, the topping of democratic governments, the abuse of the rights of U.S. citizens, and a great number of other things that cannot even be defended on “national security” grounds insomuch as that many such actions have quite correctly turned entire populations against the U.S. government. This is not only my opinion, but also the opinion of countless individuals who once served in the intelligence community and have since come to criticize it and even unveil many of its secrets in an effort to alert the citizenry to what has been unleashed against the world in the name of “security.”
Likewise, I will here provide as much information as I can on Romas/COIN and its upcoming replacement.
Although the relatively well-known military contractor Northrop Grumman had long held the contract for Romas/COIN, such contracts are subject to regular recompetes by which other companies, or several working in tandem, can apply to take over. In early February, HBGary Federal CEO Aaron Barr wrote the following e-mail to Al Pisani, an executive at the much larger federal contractorTASC, a company which until recently had been owned by Northrop and which was now looking to compete with it for lucrative contracts: [...]
More helpful is a later e-mail from Lovegrove to Barr and some of his colleagues at TASC in which he announces the following:
Our team consists of: – TASC (PMO, creative services) – HB Gary (Strategy, planning, PMO) – Akamai (infrastructure) – Archimedes Global (Specialized linguistics, strategy, planning) – Acclaim Technical Services (specialized linguistics) – Mission Essential Personnel (linguistic services) – Cipher (strategy, planning operations) – PointAbout (rapid mobile application development, list of strategic partners) – Google (strategy, mobile application and platform development – long list of strategic partners) – Apple (mobile and desktop platform, application assistance -long list of strategic partners) We are trying to schedule an interview with ATT plus some other small app developers.
From these and dozens of other clues and references, the following may be determined about the nature of Romas/COIN:
1. Mobile phone software and applications constitute a major component of the program.
2. There’s discussion of bringing in a “gaming developer,” apparently at the behest of Barr, who mentions that the team could make good use of “a social gaming company maybe like zynga, gameloft, etc.” Lovegrove elsewhere notes: “I know a couple of small gaming companies at MIT that might fit the bill.”
3. Apple and Google were active team partners, and AT&T may have been as well. The latter is known to have provided the NSA free reign over customer communications (and was in turn protected by a bill granting them retroactive immunity from lawsuits). Google itself is the only company to have received a “Hostile to Privacy” rating from Privacy International. Apple is currently being investigated by Congress after the iPhone was revealed to compile user location data in a way that differs from other mobile phones; the company has claimed this to have been a “bug.”
4. The program makes use of several providers of “linguistic services.” At one point, the team discusses hiring a military-trained Arabic linguist. Elsewhere, Barr writes: “I feel confident I can get you a ringer for Farsi if they are still interested in Farsi (we need to find that out). These linguists are not only going to be developing new content but also meeting with folks, so they have to have native or near native proficiency and have to have the cultural relevance as well.”
5. Alterion and SocialEyez are listed as “businesses to contact.” The former specializes in “social media monitoring tools.” The latter uses “sophisticated natural language processing methodology” in order to “process tens of millions of multi-lingual conversations daily” while also employing “researchers and media analysts on the ground;” its website also notes that “Millions of people around the globe are now networked as never before – exchanging information and ideas, forming opinions, and speaking their minds about everything from politics to products.”
6. At one point, TASC exec Chris Clair asks Aaron and others, “Can we name COIN Saif? Saif is the sword an Arab executioner uses when they decapitate criminals. I can think of a few cool brands for this.”
7. A diagram attached to one of Barr’s e-mails to the group (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/7/pmo.png/) depicts Magpii as interacting in some unspecified manner with “Foreign Mobile” and “Foreign Web.” Magpii is a project of Barr’s own creation which stands for “Magnify Personal Identifying Information,” involves social networking, and is designed for the purpose of storing personal information on users. Although details are difficult to determine from references in Barr’s e-mails, he discusses the project almost exclusively with members of military intelligence to which he was pitching the idea. 8. There are sporadic references such things as “semantic analysis,” “Latent Semantic Indexing,” “specialized linguistics,” and OPS, a programming language designed for solving problems using expert systems.
9. Barr asks the team’s partner at Apple, Andy Kemp (whose signature lists him as being from the company’s Homeland Defense/National Programs division), to provide him “a contact at Pixar/Disney.”
Altogether, then, a successful bid for the relevant contract was seen to require the combined capabilities of perhaps a dozen firms – capabilities whereby millions of conversations can be monitored and automatically analyzed, whereby a wide range of personal data can be obtained and stored in secret, and whereby some unknown degree of information can be released to a given population through a variety of means and without any hint that the actual source is U.S. military intelligence. All this is merely in addition to whichever additional capabilities are not evident from the limited description available, with the program as a whole presumably being operated in conjunction with other surveillance and propaganda assets controlled by the U.S. and its partners.
Whatever the exact nature and scope of COIN, the firms that had been assembled for the purpose by Barr and TASC never got a chance to bid on the program’s recompete. In late September, Lovegrove noted to Barr and others that he’d spoken to the “CO [contracting officer] for COIN.” “The current procurement approach is cancelled [sic], she cited changed requirements,” he reported. “They will be coming out with some documents in a month or two, most likely an updated RFI [request for information]. There will be a procurement following soon after. We are on the list to receive all information.” On January 18th of next year, Lovegrove provided an update: “I just spoke to the group chief on the contracts side (Doug K). COIN has been replaced by a procurement called Odyssey. He says that it is in the formative stages and that something should be released this year. The contracting officer is Kim R. He believes that Jason is the COTR [contracting officer's technical representative].” Another clue is provided in the ensuing discussion when a TASC executive asks, “Does Odyssey combine the Technology and Content pieces of the work?”
AntiSec Hacks Leaks Membership Information Of FBI InfraGard Spy Program In Atlanta
While those emails reveal a level of corporate fascism and spying being conducted online, it made me think “maybe these hacker groups are leaking emails and passwords reasons beyond just kicks.”
Indeed LulzSec and Anonymous just posted a leak of email addresses and passwords from the FBI InfaGuard website.
What is The FBI InfraGard Spy Program?
If you are like me, you probably have never even heard of Infaguard, so if nothing else the hacker release raises awareness for bringing attention to the massive FBI domestic spy program that works with local businesses, academic institutions, and law enforcement officials to spy on US citizens under the justification of “preventing hostile attacks” against the US. However, as revealed later the connection between many of the companies spying on their customers and the goal of preventing hostile attacks is a far-fetched at minimum. Wikipedia writes:
InfraGard
InfraGard is a private non-profit organization serving as a public-private partnership between U.S. businesses and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The organization describes itself as an information sharing and analysis effort serving the interests and combining the knowledge base of a wide range of members.[1] InfraGard states they are an association of businesses, academic institutions, state and local law enforcement agencies, and other participants dedicated to sharing information and intelligence to prevent hostile acts against the United States.[2] Concerned about human rights, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) warned that there “is evidence that InfraGard may be closer to a corporate TIPS program, turning private-sector corporations — some of which may be in a position to observe the activities of millions of individual customers — into surrogate eyes and ears for the FBI”.[3] As of September, 2010, the organization reported membership at over 40,000 (including FBI).[4]
ACLU warns the FBI InfraGard Domestic Spy Program Has Turned The US Into A Nazi Style Police State
The ACLU warned that there “is evidence that InfraGard may be closer to a corporate TIPS program, turning private-sector corporations — some of which may be in a position to observe the activities of millions of individual customers — into surrogate eyes and ears for the FBI”.
The ACLU compiled a paper on the dangers of the program warning that FBI domestic spy program would turn America into a real 1984 police state.
How the American Government is Enlisting Private Parties in the Construction of a Surveillance Society
Foreword
From the doctor’s office to the supermarket, any record of where we had gone or what we had done could only be tracked by looking at paper and ink.
Today, however, the most intimate details of our personal habits and behaviors are now computerized. On millions of hard drives and microchips, more and more of what we do every day is recorded – not only by the government, but also by corporations. And as this report shows, when it comes to preserving our privacy, that is increasingly a distinction without a difference.
This special ACLU report, the 12th in our series on civil liberties since 9/11, paints a sobering picture of just how little control we have over our information today.
It shows how information-age technology, anemic privacy laws and soaring profits have all combined to endanger our privacy rights to a point never before seen in our history
After you read this report, you will see that reform is clearly needed.
Americans from across the political spectrum understand that “the right to be left alone” is central to our constitutional democracy – that a secure sense of personal privacy is vital to pre-serving the openness of American life, and to protecting the boundless creativity, innovation and prosperity for which we are known around the world.
If we allow the fear of terrorism to create a new industrial base for surveillance technology, unfettered by reasonable and effective privacy constraints, these special characteristics of the American way of life will wither on the vine.
This report is packed with fascinating and frightening details about how the relationship between government and big business is changing before our eyes – or, all too often, behind our backs.
Brought together, these details add up to a trend that would be almost hard to believe if it were not so well documented.
We at the ACLU are not sitting passively as the growth of a “surveillance-industrial complex” continues.
I hope that you will read this report, and then join us to help stop it.
[....]
But there is a third crucial obstacle that the American security establishment is seeking to
overcome in its drive to access ever more information about ever more people. That obstacle is the practical limits on the resources, personnel and organization needed to extend the government’s surveillance power to cover hundreds of millions of people. There will always be limits to the number of personnel that the U.S. security state can directly hire, and to the “ratio of watchers to watched.”
This is the obstacle that the U.S. security establishment seeks to overcome by enlisting individuals and corporations as auxiliary members of its surveillance networks.
[...]
A massive effort is underway to turn regular Americans into untrained government monitors.
[...]
The recruitment of informants for particular investigations has long been a key tool of law enforcement, but only under the most oppressive governments have informants ever become a widespread, central feature of life. The East German Stasi, for example, not only employed 91,000 full-time workers, but also recruited from among the citizenry more than 170,000 non-professional informants, or as many as one in every 50 citizens, to spy and report on their fellow citizens. Stasi agents even used blackmail and other pressure tactics to get people to spy on their own family members. The result was to create a pervasive sense of mistrust that prevented citizens from sharing their complaints with each other, gaining strength from connecting with others of like mind and challenging those who were in power.
A massive effort is underway to turn regular Americans into untrained government monitors who, pressed by constant urgings for vigilance and suspicion and lacking the training or accountability of professional law enforcement officers, are asked to report to the authorities anything they think is “unusual or suspicious.”
Many “suspicious behaviors” cited by the authorities have no rational or proven relationship to terrorism.
List of Companies Participating in the FBI Domestic Spy Program In The Atlanta Georgia Area Alone Reveal Domestic Spy Program Has Grown Beyond Our Wildest Nightmares
While the average person is not going to want to have anything to do with user name and password information released by the hacker group, the by looking at the domain names of the email accounts leaked, the list shockingly reveals is just how deeply the domestic spy program has penetrated local communities.
Keep in mind that list shows the websites of businesses only in the Atlanta area, that have registered for online access to the Atlanta InfraGard site and there are many more chapters and locations of this program all over the United States.
The list of companies participating in the FBI spy program to share their customers data with the Feds is just a startling revelation into how far out of control the domestic spying in the United States has grown. It infiltrates so many aspects of our every day life that we most likely would not even think twice about.
From payroll services, to accounting, to web hosts, IT technology providers, credit card companies, banks, local hardware stores, the list of companies spying on their customers for the FBI goes on and one.
Here is a unique list of domains of the companies and people involved in the program, extracted from the hacker leak, many that we would never suspect.
About Accenture
Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 215,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$21.6 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2010.
alkizz.net Music sharing site.
alston.com Alston + Bird – Business firm with offices in North Carolina, New York, Georgia, Washington D.C., Texas and California. Services
Alston & Bird provides an extensive array of services covering legal and industry specialties. The list below provides a quick glance at those services. If the area you want to explore is not listed below, please use the Services Search tool to locate information in this section of the Web site.
Services
* Corporate & Finance
* Intellectual Property
* Litigation
* Tax
* Legislative & Public Policy
* Environment & Land Development
* Life Sciences
* Industries
* Detailed Listing
aol.com
atlantaga.gov
atlantagothic.net – A site reporting on the latest undeground raves and parties in the Atlanta area.
audits.ga.gov
bellsouth.net
borderhawk.com – The BorderHawk Team has substantial experience assessing, analyzing, and designing information protection programs —especially for Critical Infrastructure– related disciplines as Communications Security, Computer Security, Information Technology Security, Network Security, and Information Security to name a few. Offers services protecting against the “risk of social media and other technologies”.
careerbuilder.com – Online employment classifieds site.
cc.gatech.edu – Georgia tech College Of Computing.
Georgia Tech - Under Cover CEO
ccboe.net Columbia County Elementary School
ceridian.com Global Human Resources, Payroll, Benefits & Payment Solutions charter.net
cherokee.k12.ga.us Cherokee County Public Schools
choicepoint.com – Lexis Nexis – Risk management financial services, health care and insurance to retail and government.
cityofno.com
clear.net Internet Service Provider – Wireless Internet — Mobile 4G Wireless Internet Access from CLEAR
co.dekalb.ga.us
comcast.net
commscope.com Designs and produces cables for enterprise, HFC broadband, and carrier applications
computerjobs.com IT Employment Service.
cox.com
cox.net
cr3.us Drug Testing Firm?
danielcorp.com full-service real estate organization engaged in development, investment and management of office, multifamily, master-planned residential, retail, urban mixed-use, hospitality, medical and senior living properties.
danielpappadakis.com Financial Advisors offering Accounting services, Estate Management, Payroll Services, Etc.
definition6.com – Marketing Agency
deloitte.com – Major international accounting and consulting firm. Business Analytics, Mobile Apps, M&A Survery, Audit, Consulting, Financial Advisory, Risk Management …
demiurgeconsulting.com -
dfaco.com Business And Technology Convergence Services
digitel.net – Internet Service Provider Offering VOIP and Data Storage Solutions
earthlink.net
earthwayelectric.com – Electrical Services Company
epa.gov
equifax.com – Consumer Credit Bureau
faa.gov
fhlbatl.com – Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta
fsis.usda.gov
gatech.edu
gbi.state.ga.us
ge.com – General Electric
gema.ga.gov
genpt.com – Genuine Parts company
getfunctional.com
gladtech.net – Network and Information Security Solutions, Managed Security
gmail.com
Gmail.com
GMAIL.COM
graydonmckee.com – Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Ascension Risk Management, a national risk management consulting firm
gsu.edu – Georgia State University
gta.ga.gov
haradas.com
hdqtrz.com
hksystems.us
homedepot.com
hotmail.com
ic.fbi.gov
ieee.org – IEEE Standards Association – Sets standards for technologies – non-profit professional association dedicated to advancing technological innovation related to electricity. It has more than 400,000 members in more than 160 countries, 45% outside the United States.
inficorp.com – InfiCorp Holdings, Inc. has merged with First National of Nebraska, Inc., the largest privately owned banking company in the country
InfraGard.org
InfraGard.org
interquestga.com
kennesaw.edu -Kennesaw State University
kia-rus.info
lmco.com Lockheed Martin – Technology and Defense Contractor.
luciddataservices.comLucid Data Services – Information Security Consulting
mac.com Apple Computer Corporation
mail.gatech.edu
mettlerics.com
mindspring.com
mishmash.com
monarchresiliency.comMonarch Business Resiliency – MBR, an independent consulting company based in Atlanta, is 100% focused on IT Disaster Recovery, Business Continuity Planning, and Business Resiliency, uniquely able to assist you with all aspects of your company’s Business Continuity/Resiliency program.
noblesouth.com – Blog – “The Noble view is Our place to express our views”
norcrossgroup.com – Norcross Digital Discovery Services – Norcross Group is a Licensed Private Detective Agency
nrc.gov – United States Nuclear Regulatory Committee
oca.state.ga.us
peer1.com Peer 1 – Web hosting data center and Content Delivery Network (CDN) Provider
prodigy.net (Redirects to AT&T – My Yahoo)
rediffmail.com India News Portal
regallager.com Regal Lager is a distributor of high quality baby and children’s products located in the surburbs of Atlanta, Georgia.
rim.com Research In Motion Limited, Manufacturer of the Blackberry phone
romega.us Rome, Georgia township website
s1.com Software solutions provider for Leading banks, credit unions, retailers, and processors. S1′s customers include
sandyspringsga.org
scrconsulting.com – SCR Consulting Services – Security, Compliance And Risk Services.
securetechnologysystems.com Secure Technology Systems – Payment processing , Privacy laws, Disaster and Business Continuation Planning , IT Assessment, Strategic Planning, and Realignment, Internal Audit Augmentation.
secureworks.com Dell computer owned IT company that provides world-class information security services to help organizations of all sizes protect their IT assets.
security-forces.com Private Security Force Provider. (Like Blackwater, XE Services)
siemens.com Technology conglomerate
silvertonbank.com
smla.com IT Technology provider to fortune 500 companies.
southernco.com Southern Company – A leading U.S. producer of electricity, Southern Company owns electric utilities in four states and a growing competitive generation company, as well as fiber optics and wireless communications.
spearnetworks.com Blog Providing IT Scrips and Systems Engineer and Administration services.
srs.gov
stonesoft.com Stone Soft – Network Security Software Company
symantec.com Symantec – Anti-Virus and Network Security Software Company
tiburon-ent.com
trustnetinc.com – Trust Net – Newtork Security, Corporate Compliance and IT Solutions provider
turner.com – Time Warner Media Company
twistedtechnologies.com Twisted Technologies – IT support, web hosting, and data center.
us.army.mil US Army
us.ibm.com IBM computer and technology conglomerate
USG.EDU University System Of Georgia
verizon.net
verizonbusiness.com Verizon Business
vivid.net
wellstar.org Wellstar – World-class healthcare for over 600,000 people
yahoo.com
