[LINK] WikiLeaks: The Spy Files

Sat Dec 3 09:04:31 AEDT 2011

WikiLeaks: The Spy Files  (Dec 1st 2011)

http://wikileaks.org/the-spyfiles.html

Mass interception of entire populations is not only a reality, it is a
secret new industry spanning 25 countries

It sounds like something out of Hollywood, but as of today, mass
interception systems, built by Western intelligence contractors,
including for ípolitical opponentsí are a reality.

Today WikiLeaks began releasing a database of hundreds of documents from
as many as 160 intelligence contractors in the mass surveillance
industry.

Working with Bugged Planet and Privacy International, as well as media
organizations form six countries ñ ARD in Germany, The Bureau of
Investigative Journalism in the UK, The Hindu in India, LíEspresso in
Italy, OWNI in France and the Washington Post in the U.S. Wikileaks is
shining a light on this secret industry that has boomed since September
11, 2001 and is worth billions of dollars per year.

WikiLeaks has released 287 documents today, but the Spy Files project is
ongoing and further information will be released this week and into next
year.

International surveillance companies are based in the more
technologically sophisticated countries, and they sell their technology
on to every country of the world.

This industry is, in practice, unregulated.

Intelligence agencies, military forces and police authorities are able to
silently, and on mass, and secretly intercept calls and take over
computers without the help or knowledge of the telecommunication
providers.

Usersí physical location can be tracked if they are carrying a mobile
phone, even if it is only on stand by.

But the WikiLeaks Spy Files are more than just about ígood Western
countriesí exporting to íbad developing world countriesí. Western
companies are also selling a vast range of mass surveillance equipment to
Western intelligence agencies.

In traditional spy stories, intelligence agencies like MI5 bug the phone
of one or two people of interest. In the last ten years systems for
indiscriminate, mass surveillance have become the norm. Intelligence
companies such as VASTech secretly sell equipment to permanently record
the phone calls of entire nations. Others record the location of every
mobile phone in a city, down to 50 meters. Systems to infect every
Facebook user, or smart-phone owner of an entire population group are on
the intelligence market.

Selling Surveillance to Dictators

When citizens overthrew the dictatorships in Egypt and Libya this year,
they uncovered listening rooms where devices from Gamma corporation of
the UK, Amesys of France, VASTech of South Africa and ZTE Corp of China
monitored their every move online and on the phone.

Surveillance companies like SS8 in the U.S., Hacking Team in Italy and
Vupen in France manufacture viruses (Trojans) that hijack individual
computers and phones (including iPhones, Blackberries and Androids), take
over the device, record its every use, movement, and even the sights and
sounds of the room it is in. Other companies like Phoenexia in the Czech
Republic collaborate with the military to create speech analysis tools.
They identify individuals by gender, age and stress levels and track them
based on ëvoiceprintsí. Blue Coat in the U.S. and Ipoque in Germany sell
tools to governments in countries like China and Iran to prevent
dissidents from organizing online.

Trovicor, previously a subsidiary of Nokia Siemens Networks, supplied the
Bahraini government with interception technologies that tracked human
rights activist Abdul Ghani Al Khanjar. He was shown details of personal
mobile phone conversations from before he was interrogated and beaten in
the winter of 2010-2011.

How Mass Surveillance Contractors Share Your Data with the State

In January 2011, the National Security Agency broke ground on a $1.5
billion facility in the Utah desert that is designed to store terabytes
of domestic and foreign intelligence data forever and process it for
years to come.

Telecommunication companies are forthcoming when it comes to disclosing
client information to the authorities - no matter the country. Headlines
during Augustís unrest in the UK exposed how Research in Motion (RIM),
makers of the Blackberry, offered to help the government identify their
clients. RIM has been in similar negotiations to share BlackBerry
Messenger data with the governments of India, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and
the United Arab Emirates.

Weaponizing Data Kills Innocent People

There are commercial firms that now sell special software that analyze
this data and turn it into powerful tools that can be used by military
and intelligence agencies.

For example, in military bases across the U.S., Air Force pilots use a
video link and joystick to fly Predator drones to conduct surveillance
over the Middle East and Central Asia. This data is available to Central
Intelligence Agency officials who use it to fire Hellfire missiles on
targets.

The CIA officials have bought software that allows them to match phone
signals and voice prints instantly and pinpoint the specific identity and
location of individuals. Intelligence Integration Systems, Inc., based in
Massachusetts - sells a ìlocation-based analyticsî software called
Geospatial Toolkit for this purpose. Another Massachusetts company named
Netezza, which bought a copy of the software, allegedly reverse
engineered the code and sold a hacked version to the Central Intelligence
Agency for use in remotely piloted drone aircraft.

IISI, which says that the software could be wrong by a distance of up to
40 feet, sued Netezza to prevent the use of this software. Company
founder Rich Zimmerman stated in court that his ìreaction was one of
stun, amazement that they (CIA) want to kill people with my software that
doesnít work."

Orwellís World

Across the world, mass surveillance contractors are helping intelligence
agencies spy on individuals and ëcommunities of interestí on an
industrial scale.

The Wikileaks Spy Files reveal the details of which companies are making
billions selling sophisticated tracking tools to government buyers,
flouting export rules, and turning a blind eye to dictatorial regimes
that abuse human rights.

How to use the Spy Files

To search inside those files, click one of the link on the left pane of
this page, to get the list of documents by type, company date or tag.

To search all these companies on a world map use the following tool from
Owni ..
--

(and..)

<http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57335240-281/wikileaks-files-expose-
surveillance-industrial-complex/>

WikiLeaks files expose surveillance-industrial complex

by Declan McCullagh |December 1, 2011 4:15 PM PS

A set of nearly 300 documents that the document-leaking Web site
published today reveals how extensive and privacy-invasive the secretive
multi-billion dollar industry devoted to surveillance technology has
become.

  "We are in a world now where not only is it theoretically possible to
record nearly all telecommunications traffic out of a country, all
telephone calls, but where there is an international industry selling the
devices now to do it," Assange said in a video interview today.

What WikiLeaks has dubbed the "Spy Files" is a collection of marketing
and technical documents, including previously unreleased presentations
from companies that showed up at government-only conferences like ISS
World Europe, billed as a gathering in 2008 for "telecom operators, law
enforcement," and employees of spy agencies....  (snip)
-- 

Stephen

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