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Find out more from the New York Times.

The whole purpose of getting inside is to…?

Well, hackers have figured that out: use their hacking skills to grab hold of corporate press releases before they become public and optimize the information for insider trading. Why didn’t anyone think of that earlier?

Find out more about this case from the following New York Times article.

(Above) Photo credit: HuffingtonPost.co.uk

(Above) Photo credit: WikiLeaks

See WikiLeaks for more details on Target Tokyo.

And for Snowden? Hmmm…

Here’s an earlier post on postmen and spies.

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The following video has CIA Director John Brennan defending the agency in wake of torture report at CIA headquarters (full speech here).

A brilliant idea for Christmas gifts (and peace of mind)?

Problem is, what if the kids suddenly decided to go barefoot?

Photo (Above) Credit: CNBC

Now is that a better chance of winning than Russian roulette?

Here’s one topic I have long wanted to post and I found this one below serves a nice reminder: Just be careful with any USB thumb drives lying around. In fact, you should ignore them altogether because chances are good that they were there for a reason.

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I saw this Sky News clip earlier this week and thought I should share it. The 2 opposing views illustrate how these arguments could go on forever. But which side are you on?

Above from Sky News: The Campaign Director of the Don’t Spy On Us campaign, Mike Harris and the Director of the Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies at the University of Buckingham, Professor Anthony Glees discuss whether the UK needs more anti-terror laws.

Interesting to know one of my favorite TV series “The West Wing” had privacy issues of today figured back in 1999.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said he will appeal, according to The Sydney Morning Herald, after a Swedish appeals court upheld last Thursday an arrest warrant issued 4 years ago – for accusations of sexual assault and rape allegations that Assange said are false and politically motivated.

Meanwhile, Ecuador has voiced its continued support and guaranteed him political asylum for “as long as necessary”. So it looks like poor Assange will continue to live in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London where he has stayed for more than 2 years to avoid extradition to Sweden, which he feared would then hand him over to the United States where a death penalty possibly awaits if he is convicted of uploading troves of US government secrets through WikiLeaks.

A video chip that purportedly supports the theories Putin has recently boosted Russian espionage activities given the rapidly deteriorating relations with the West (given his incursion into Ukraine) and fear of being surrounded by enemies.

It’s a fitting scene from the classic movie Gone with the Wind with the famous closing quote “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn”.

The US Senate vote on the USA Freedom Act Tuesday night to rein in the NSA spying power came shy of just 2 votes of the 60 needed to take up the legislation, which would have otherwise stopped the controversial phone record metadata collection by the NSA

Any hope will now hinge on June next year as the legal grounds for the NSA phone snooping, as revealed by the Snowden revelations, under the Patriot Act will then expire – which means the NSA would require then new legislation to justify their access to these mass data.

A new software called Phantom Terrains, developed by London-based science writer Frank Swain, can now help the deaf listen to the sounds of wi-fi signals.

The software would utilize the wi-fi sensors of an iPhone to pick up, analyze and transform the invisible data around us – in the form of wi-fi networks and radio waves – into audible sound which are then sent wirelessly to a customized Bluetooth-enabled hearing aid – see video below.

But it turned out that we can also see wi-fi signals – see pictures above and below.

In a project called “A creative exploration of wireless spectres”, artist Luis Hernan used a “Kirilian device” to capture the images of invisible wireless networks that levitate around us at all times every day – the resulting eerie and ghost-like images are no surprise because Kirilian photography is often associated with paranormal activity.

Did you say you love conspiracy theories?

You’re in luck. Here’s one on Snowden from AMTV – Alternative Media Television.

Are you concerned that someone might be spying on you using drones, Google Glass or hidden cameras and microphones – and streaming the recording online? Fancy owning a gadget that can detect and disconnect these intrusive surveillance devices?

A new German product called Cyborg Unplug, now available for online order (at 52 Euros), is designed to block wireless surveillance where you are most vulnerable – in public spaces where the devices can be easily prying, and streaming online, without your knowledge.

“It sniffs the air for wireless signatures from devices you don’t want around, sending an alert to your phone when detected. Should the target device connect to a network you’ve chosen to defend, Cyborg Unplug will immediately disconnect them, stopping them from streaming video, audio and data to the Internet.”

But do note that whilst this Cyborg Unplug can disconnect the spying devices, it cannot prevent them from saving the video and audio recording locally. It’s only half the problem solved…

And equipments like the Cyborg Unplug are considered illegal in some countries, including the US.

Are you in trouble – still without any Christmas holiday plan? If that’s the case, maybe it’s a blessing in disguise.

Have you ever (even secretly) fancy a holiday with absolute peace, ie. where no one can reach or find you AT ALL? Or is that even remotely possible? Seriously, in this post-Snowden era?

Now, there’s actually a place where you’ll find no modern conveniences at all – no cell phones, no wi-fi and not even digital cameras? And it’s in the US: Pocahontas County in West Virginia.

Now where are my tents and books…??

Glenn Greenwald appeared recently on CNN’s Reliable Sources to discuss his role in the new Snowden documentary “CitizenFour” and his second source at the NSA.

Previously on Shhh-cretly, we reported how the FBI could legally impersonate someone’s identity to create a phony Facebook account in that person’s name without that person’s knowledge in order to reach out to suspected criminals – and separately the NSA also disguised itself as Facebook servers in order to gain access to the computers of intelligence targets.

Well the buck doesn’t stop there. It turned out that the FBI, in the spirits of catching suspects, was also involved in planting fake news stories: The editor of The Seattle Times found out only last week that the FBI made a mock-up of the publication’s website in 2007 in order to spread spyware onto the computer of a suspect.

The FBI is reportedly defending its right to rely on such tactics to prevent “possible act of violence” – and let’s not forget FBI director James Comey is not impressed with Apple and Google phones being “too secure” and he’s been busy making his rounds pressurizing the Congress to force Apple and Google to do away with their new default smartphone encryption so that the bureau can access those devices, in the namesake of law enforcement of course.

Or do you think the bureau has gone well overboard and beyond its restraints?

Udo Ulfkotte, a former editor of German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, told Russia Today (RT) that he had worked for the CIA and he’s not alone – most so-called journalists in America and Europe are on “non-official cover” to run stories aimed to manipulate readers and create propaganda against Russia.

“The German and American media tries to bring war to the people in Europe, to bring war to Russia,” he said.

The FBI director James Comey has been busy making his rounds pressurizing the Congress to force Apple and Google to do away with their new default smartphone encryption.

“Perhaps it’s time to suggest that the post-Snowden pendulum has swung too far in one direction — in a direction of fear and mistrust,” Comey reportedly told the Brookings Institution in a speech last week, where he hinted that the administration might consider new laws and regulations to force companies to offer the government some ways to unlock personal data stored on the phones, such as photos, videos, emails, messages and contacts list “so that those of us in law enforcement, national security and public safety can continue to do the job you have entrusted us to do, in the way you would want us to.”

Here are some video clips to amplify his views on the subject:

Countdown to the official release of CitizenFour on 24th October (Note: Actual Q&A starts at 6:10 of the clip).

“I think this is bigger than Ebola right now because 500 million people are infected and they don’t know it. But it’s not them, it’s their smartphone,” said Gary Miliefsky, CEO of SnoopWall, a counterveillance software company focused on helping consumers and enterprises protect their privacy on all of their computing devices including smartphones, tablets and laptops.

“The top 10 flashlight apps today that you can download from the Google Play Store are all malware. They’re malicious, they’re spying, they’re snooping and they’re stealing.”

The personal data stolen from our smartphones – including contacts, emails, messages, bank account details, photos, video, etc – are then sold to cybercriminals in 3 countries: China, India and Russia, according to Miliefsky, a founding member of the US Department of Homeland Security who has advised two White House Administrations on cybersecurity matters.

More information below from SnoopWall press release:

Dropbox reportedly “appears” to have been hacked after anonymous hackers claimed to have compromised some 7 million accounts with several hundreds of usernames and passwords leaked in plain text so far, and with full leak promised if they received donations to their bitcoin address.

Dropbox, however, has denied claims of any data breach:

“Dropbox has not been hacked. These usernames and passwords were unfortunately stolen from other services and used in attempts to log in to Dropbox accounts. We’d previously detected these attacks and the vast majority of the passwords posted have been expired for some time now. All other remaining passwords have been expired as well.”

Advice: Change your password immediately. And just like the recent iCloud hack, think hard before you post anything personal and confidential online.

In his first UK public appearance via satellite link from Moscow at the Observer Ideas festival on Sunday, Edward Snowden warned that British spy agencies are using digital technology to conduct mass population surveillance without any checks and balances at all and thus overreaching and encroaching on privacy rights in a way that he characterized as even worse than the US NSA had managed.

The National Security Agency has been disguising itself as Facebook servers in order to gain access to the computers of intelligence targets, according to a new report by The Intercept:

“In one man-on-the-side technique, codenamed QUANTUMHAND, the agency disguises itself as a fake Facebook server. When a target attempts to log in to the social media site, the NSA transmits malicious data packets that trick the target’s computer into thinking they are being sent from the real Facebook. By concealing its malware within what looks like an ordinary Facebook page, the NSA is able to hack into the targeted computer and covertly siphon out data from its hard drive.”

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Mark your calendar. The 24th of October has been set for the official release of “Citizenfour”, a long anticipated ground-breaking documentary by Laura Poitras, premiered at the New York Film Festival on Friday night, which reveals a behind-the-scene and intimate portrait of Edward Snowden and his leak of NSA documents as it unfolded at the Mira hotel in Hong Kong last year.

Poitras and former Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald flew from New York to Hong Kong early June 2013 to meet Snowden for the first time. This documentary captures minute by minute their tense initial encounters and the many days of questioning, cross-examining and waiting for the Guardian greenlight to their explosive exposé that changed the world to this day.

Photo credit: The Guardian

A short educational video on the impacts of mass surveillance on the average John Doe.

This is the instructional video tutorial Edward Snowden created for Glenn Greenwald on how to protect online communications using PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) encryption prior to his leaking thousands of classified documents to Greenwald in early 2013.

The renowned Israeli intelligence agency Mossad has launched a new James Bond-style video in its attempt to lure a new generation of recruits. Spy wannabes can visit the Mossad homepage to file an application. Mind you, the application form spans over many many pages…

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange equated Google with the US National Security Agency and its British counterparts GCHQ, saying in an interview with BBC and Sky News last week the tech giant has become “a privatized version of the NSA”.

See another related video below.

How do NSA staffer feel about being filmed, even it’s just only in the public? Strangely, irate and very uncomfortable as 2 students found out Wednesday at the University of New Mexico’s Engineering and Science Career Fair where the NSA has set up a booth to recruit computer geeks (yes, hackers).

Source: The Intercept

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key appeared before the press in Dunedin Tuesday and said he would not rule out the possibility that the American intelligence agency NSA is conducting mass surveillance on New Zealanders but rejected claims that Kiwi spies have access to such information.

Key also shot down claims made by both Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald Monday that the NSA had sites operating in the country but he declined to answer questions about the data collection programme X-Keyscore, citing national security concerns.

Above: Edward Snowden discussed online surveillance on Kim Dotcom’s Moment of Truth event in Auckland, New Zealand on September 15. Both Julian Assange and Glenn Greenwald were also present.

The event follows up on the acknowledgement by Prime Minister John Key that the Kiwi intelligence agency Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) had tapped into the cable but only for the purposes of a cybersecurity programme – following his earlier denial of any allegation that the GCSB had spied on New Zealanders.

New Zealanders are now waiting for Key to explain the revelations that the GCSB operates X-Keyscore in New Zealand and conducting mass surveillance on the citizens on behalf of the NSA without their knowledge.

Watch the entire event here below:

Credit: Chokepoint from The Intercept (http://vimeo.com/106026217 )

Despite all the excitement with the much anticipated iPhone 6 launch today, let’s not forget…

Spot on?