Document Trove Exposes Surveillance Methods

[Remember Me]

Documents obtained by The Wall Street Journal open a rare window into a new global market for the off-the-shelf surveillance technology that has arisen in the decade since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The Surveillance Catalog


The techniques described in the trove of 200-plus marketing documents, spanning 36 companies, include hacking tools that enable governments to break into people's computers and cellphones, and "massive intercept" gear that can gather all Internet communications in a country. The papers were obtained from attendees of a secretive surveillance conference held near Washington, D.C., last month.

snip

Critics say the market represents a new sort of arms trade supplying Western governments and repressive nations alike. "The Arab Spring countries all had more sophisticated surveillance capabilities than I would have guessed," said Andrew McLaughlin, who recently left his post as deputy chief technology officer in the White House, referring to the Middle Eastern and African nations racked by violent crackdowns on dissent.

How the 'Off the Shelf' Surveillance Industry Has Grown

The Journal this year uncovered an Internet surveillance center installed by a French firm in Libya and reported that software made by Britain's Gamma International UK Ltd., had been used in Egypt to intercept dissidents' Skype conversations. In October, a U.S. company that makes Internet-filtering gear acknowledged to the Journal that its devices were being used in Syria.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203611404577044192607407780.html#ixzz1eJ0fURBx

[EFerrari]

1. My rec was eaten by an unrec in favor of surveillance.

LOL

[Wilms]

2. DLCIA psy-operatives.

:D

[EFerrari]

4. Or maybe a disgruntled boy friend of Peggy's.

They sound so much alike.

:)

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. Gotcha covered there, EFerrari.

[EFerrari]

6. Thanks.

[leveymg]

3. Follow the money. Who can buy this stuff? Governments and banks.

They want to keep their monopoly of power, even if they have to pay retail, or ten-times worse, "cost plus" DoD acquisitions.

[pennylane100]

7. It is a little weird that a Murdoch rag is reporting on this stuff.

That seems to be their area of expertise.

[nilram]

8. Holy-Moley! They put scans of the marketing materials on their site.

http://projects.wsj.com/surveillance-catalog/#/

Also some interesting videos in the article.

[WillyT]

9. K & R !!!

:kick:

[Remember Me]

10. K&R