Every Click You Make

(MotherJones) – Last week the Wall Street Journal ran a terrific series of stories called “What They Know.” The general subject was personal privacy—or the lack of it—in the digital world, and the first article in the series explained how websites routinely track your movements on the web and collect a genuinely astonishing amount of personal information about you in the process. The Journal examined 50 sites using a test computer and discovered that these sites collectively installed a total of 3,180 tracking files—an average of 63 tracking files per site:

The state of the art is growing increasingly intrusive, the Journal found. Some tracking files can record a person’s keystrokes online and then transmit the text to a data-gathering company that analyzes it for content, tone and clues to a person’s social connections. Other tracking files can re-spawn trackers that a person may have deleted.

….Some of the tracking files identified by the Journal were so detailed that they verged on being anonymous in name only. They enabled data-gathering companies to build personal profiles that could include age, gender, race, zip code, income, marital status and health concerns, along with recent purchases and favorite TV shows and movies.

A full list of the sites they examined is here. The most intrusive were dictionary.com and msn.com, which installed over 200 tracking files each. The least intrusive were craigslist.org and wikipedia.org.

Video: Pentagon workers tied to child porn

(BostonGlobe) – Federal investigators have identified several dozen Pentagon officials and contractors with high-level security clearances who allegedly purchased and downloaded child pornography, including an undisclosed number who used their government computers to obtain the illegal material, according to investigative reports. Video Link Here

Conficker, Cyber Emergency, and the Internet Kill Switch

(Cryptome) – Conficker is a computer worm which has been infecting PC’s on the Internet since November 2008. Worryingly, nothing is publicly known of its mission, because it has yet to do anything of great note. Conficker is building and maintaining a powerful network of enslaved computers, and machines infected with the worm can be made obey the whims of Conficker’s unknown commanders. Its advanced peer-to-peer networking design makes the program’s control network difficult for Internet providers to shut down. Today this strange worm constitutes a powerful overlay of control across an unknown vastness of Internet-connected computers. With the exception of distributing some small-time malware, however, it has been essentially dormant. Conficker is like an army, recruiting and training for two and a half years, with no history save for robbing the corner store.

Video: TSA To Block Websites With “Controversial Opinions”

(PaulWatson) – The Transportation Security Administration will block all websites that contain “controversial opinion” from its federal computers in the latest example of how Internet censorship is expanding in both the private and public sector as the federal government prepares to push through a power grab that will empower President Obama to shut down the world wide web with an emergency decree.

“The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is blocking certain websites from the federal agency’s computers, including halting access by staffers to any Internet pages that contain a “controversial opinion,” according to an internal email obtained by CBS News.”

The new rules came into force on July 1, and prevent TSA employees from accessing such content, though what is deemed “controversial opinion” is not explained. Undoubtedly, the ban list will include websites which specialize in criticism of the government and federal agencies.

Video: Personal Computers Could Be Open to Government Access Under New Obama Copyright Plan

(RussiaToday) – The personal computer may soon be not-so-private, with the U.S. and some European nations working on laws allowing them access to search the content held on a person’s hard drive…

MSM: Military asserts right to return cyber attacks

(AP) – The U.S. should counter computer-based attacks swiftly and strongly and act to thwart or disable a threat even when the attacker’s identity is unknown, the director of the National Security Agency told Congress.

Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander, who is the Obama administration’s nominee to take on additional duties as head of the new Cyber Command, also said the U.S. should not be deterred from taking action against countries such as Iran and North Korea just because they might launch cyber attacks.

Intel Wants Brain Implants in Its Customers’ Heads by 2020

(PopSci) – If the idea of turning consumers into true cyborgs sounds creepy, don’t tell Intel researchers. Intel’s Pittsburgh lab aims to develop brain implants that can control all sorts of gadgets directly via brain waves by 2020.

Merging Man and Machine: We are the Internet

“Computers have reached the point in which continuous, verbatim recording of an individual’s life experiences is technologically feasible. The challenge now is turning vast repositories of such recordings into a useful resource while respecting the social, legal, and ethical ramifications of ubiquitous recording. We have built a “memory prosthesis” that can be used to amass such data for the purpose of helping people with common, everyday memory problems.” –Sunil Vemuri
The internet initially began as a researching tool and a networking test bed. The internet has evolved over the years and with the click of a button you can find information on nearly any subject that strikes your fancy. The internet of today is a networking tool more than anything else. The rise of social networking websites allows netizens to use these networks like a virtual diary and discuss every sordid detail of their lives with ease.  The internet of tomorrow is being constructed today and I believe you should be informed as you have invested much time and energy into it. Read More Here

Alex Jones Websites Under Massive And Sustained Attack

(PaulWatson) – Zombie computers worldwide launch denial of service assault on flagship Internet freedom websites

MSM: Apple admits child labour was used to build iPods and iPhones in Chinese factories

(DailyMail) – Technology giant Apple has admitted that child labour has been employed at some of the factories that build its iPods, computers and mobile phones.

“Emergency Control” of the Internet

You have to hand it to congressional Democrats. Mendacious grifters whose national security agenda is virtually indistinguishable from Bushist Republicans, when it comes to rearranging proverbial deck chairs on the Titanic, the party of “change” is second to none in the “all terrorism all the time” department.

DHS: Expect your computer to be seized without suspicion

In what was presented to the public this week as a clarification of its privacy policy, the US Dept. of Homeland Security published a paper referring to new guidelines for its immigration and customs agents regarding how they may conduct border searches of travelers’ computers and electronic media.

Bill would give president emergency control of Internet

(CNET) – Internet companies and civil liberties groups were alarmed this spring when a U.S. Senate bill proposed handing the White House the power to disconnect private-sector computers from the Internet.

Web Warfare Team Unveiled

The passionate support for Israel expressed on talkback sections of websites, internet chat forums, blogs, Twitter and Facebook may not be all that it seems.

MSM: U.S., South Korean cyber attacks no more harmful than spam, experts say

(CBC-Canada) – Consumers around the globe have been caught up in cyber attacks targeting U.S. and South Korean websites, some coming from unknowingly infected computers that have jammed sites for legitimate users.

MSM: Cyber attacks enter new phase

(Telegraph) – Cyber attacks will enter a new phase and targeting personal computers and wiping out hard drives in the coming days, a South Korean government agency has warned.

“The Mind Has No Firewall” Army article on psychotronic weapons

The following article is from the US military publication Parameters, subtitled “US Army War College Quarterly.” It describes itself as “The United States Army’s Senior Professional Journal.” [Click here to read a crucial excerpt.]

MSM: China moves to censor home computers

(Telegraph) – The Chinese government wants all computers sold in China after July to come with software that automatically censors the internet.