Daily Archives: 2. Februar 2014


02.02.2014 - 21:50 [ ACLU ]

Are CIA Cyber-Spooks Hacking Americans‘ Computers?

At Wednesday‘s Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, titled „Global Security Threats,“ Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Mark Udall (D-Colo.) hinted that CIA agents might be engaging in abusive cyber operations against Americans. And CIA Director John Brennan did little to dispel the notion.

At the hearing, Wyden asked Brennan point-blank whether CIA activities are covered by the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), which prohibits hacking people‘s computers. Brennan shrugged off the question, saying that he wasn‘t familiar enough with the law to answer. Udall followed up by demanding that Brennan assure the committee that the „CIA does not conduct domestic spying and searches in violation of Executive Order 12333,“ which „prohibits the CIA from engaging in domestic spying and searches of U.S. citizens within our borders.“

02.02.2014 - 18:24 [ Wiegold Zwo ]

Dealer mit Kleincomputern

August 1991. Eine Geschichte ĂĽber das damals noch junge Bundesamt fĂĽr Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (BSI), hervorgegangen aus der BND-Zentralstelle fĂĽr das Chiffrierwesen.

(Geht jetzt wie so vieles andere ins Altpapier.)

02.02.2014 - 18:21 [ Statewatch ]

New police cooperation plan includes surveillance, intelligence-gathering and remote vehicle stopping technology

(23.01.) European police forces have agreed a six year plan for cooperation on technology and for the next two years will focus on projects examining Automatic Number Plate Recognition, open source and signals intelligence, video surveillance and the remote stopping of vehicles.

The plans are contained in a work programme [1] drawn up by the European Network of Law Enforcement Technology Services (ENLETS), a sub-group of the Council‘s Law Enforcement Working Party. According to a presentation given by the Dutch official responsible for coordinating ENLETS, 26 Member States participate. [2]

The group was formed in 2008 and in 2012 declared that it had found a „mission“ – to „support front line policing and the fight against serious and organised crime by gathering user requirements, scanning and raising awareness of new technology and best practices, benchmarking and giving advice“.

02.02.2014 - 18:10 [ Golem ]

Regierung wusste offenbar schon vor Monaten von Datenklau

Wie das Nachrichtenmagazin Der Spiegel am Sonntag berichtete, hatte das Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) schon im August 2013 das Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (BSI) gewarnt, dass bei den Ermittlungen auch Bundestags- und Behördenadressen aufgetaucht seien. In der Datenbank mit rund 16 Millionen E-Mail-Adressen fanden sich demnach auch rund 600 E-Mail-Adressen aus der Bundesverwaltung, aus allen Bundesministerien sowie 17 Adressen des Bundestags.

02.02.2014 - 16:36 [ Neues Deutschland ]

Viele rechte Mordzellen neben dem NSU

VP 598 war V-Mann, eine sogenannte Vertrauensperson des Berliner Landeskriminalamtes (LKA). Richtiger Name: Nick Greger. 1977 wurde der beim fränkischen Wunsiedel geboren, früh machte er in der Neonazi-Szene als Militanter von sich reden. Er trieb sich in Sachsen wie in Südafrika herum, kam nach Berlin, baute eine Bombe, wurde verhaftet, verurteilt, ging abermals ins Ausland, trat als Söldner in verschiedenen Ländern vor allem Afrikas in Erscheinung und setzte sich dann werbewirksam als Aussteiger in Szene.
Doch er lieĂź offenkundig nur eine Etappe seines rechtsextremistischen Daseins hinter sich. Greger wechselte die Form des Rassismus, gerierte sich als eine Art Tempelritter wider den Islam.

02.02.2014 - 15:48 [ Bob Tisdale / Watts Up With That? ]

If 99 Doctors Said…

Imagine you’re running a persistent slight fever. You visit a new clinic. The nurse takes your vitals and enters them into a computer program. A short time after the computer model completes its simulations, the doctor arrives, advises you of the computer-diagnosed ailment, and prescribes controversial high-cost medications and treatment.

You’re not comfortable with the service, diagnosis, prescription or treatment, so you check out online the computer model used by the clinic. It is proclaimed to be wonderful by its programmers. But, the more you research, the more you discover the model’s defects. It can’t simulate circulation, respiration, digestion, and other basic bodily functions. There are numerous research papers exposing the flaws in the model, but they are hard to find because of all of the other papers written by the model programmers extolling its virtues.

Of course, you would not accept the computer-based medical diagnosis from a model that cannot simulate basic bodily functions and processes. But that’s the position we’re faced with climate science.

02.02.2014 - 15:47 [ Ria Novosti ]

Lawrow: Ukraine muss nicht zwischen Russland und Westen wählen

Russland wolle keine Ränkespiele, bei denen die „Entweder-Oder-Karte“ ausgespielt werde: „Wer nicht mit uns ist, ist gegen uns. Es handelt sich dabei um eine Denkweise der Vergangenheit, von der man Abstand nehmen muss.“

Allem Anschein nach wachse in BrĂĽssel immer mehr die Einsicht in die Notwendigkeit trilateraler Kontakte von Russland, der Ukraine und der EU, fĂĽgte Lawrow an.

02.02.2014 - 15:44 [ AuĂźenministerium der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika ]

Daily Press Briefing Washington, DC January 31, 2014

QUESTION: Thanks. Yeah. Can we move to Iran?

MS. HARF: Yeah.

QUESTION: The Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen sent a letter to Catherine Ashton saying that she’s “deeply troubled by recent reports that” – I’m just going to read it —

MS. HARF: Mm-hmm.

QUESTION: — “of EU member states sending or preparing to send extensive government and trade delegations to Iran.”

MS. HARF: Okay. Mm-hmm.

QUESTION: Is this something that’s of concern to you, that they’re sort of jumping the gun, considering you’ve said, obviously, that Iran is not open for business?

MS. HARF: Not open for business, yeah. Well, just – and thank you for the Iran question. Just to update folks if they didn’t see, and then I’ll get to your specific question, the next round of – the first round, I would say, of the comprehensive talks with the EU, the P5+1 in Iran, will take place on February 18th in Vienna, so we’re mixing it up a little bit.

02.02.2014 - 13:53 [ Trend ]

Iranian Foreign Ministry disproves information regarding details of Zarif-Kerry meeting

Iranian Foreign Ministry‘s Media Relations Office has published a statement disproving the information spread by some international media outlets regarding the meeting of Iranian Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif and the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Mehr news agency reported on Feb. 2.

Some international media outlets earlier reported that during the meeting within the Munich Security Conference, John Kerry told Mohammad Javad Zarif that the U.S. sanction imposed on Iran will remain, according to the report.

02.02.2014 - 13:45 [ Reuters ]

UPDATE 1-Israeli minister attacks Kerry over boycott warnings

„The things … Kerry said are hurtful, they are unfair and they are intolerable,“ Steinitz told reporters.

„Israel cannot be expected to negotiate with a gun to its head when we are discussing the matters which are most critical to our national interests.“

02.02.2014 - 13:40 [ Bloomberg ]

India vs. the U.S.: When Central Bankers Collide

Rajan elaborated on his argument today. “The U.S. should worry about the effects of its polices on the rest of the world,” he told a group of students in Mumbai in response to a question about how Indian policies affect other countries. “We would like to live in a world where countries take into account the effect of their policies on other countries and do what is right, broadly, rather than what is just right given the circumstances of that country.”

02.02.2014 - 13:31 [ Bloomberg ]

Zarif Says Iran Ready for New Nuclear Deal After Kerry Meeting

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met today during the Munich Security Conference. The nations began implementing a six-month agreement Jan. 20 that suspends some of the Persian Gulf nation’s nuclear work in exchange for limited lifting of sanctions.