Friday, February 10, 2017

Bad Trip: Debunking the TSA's 'Behavior Detection' Program | American Civil Liberties Union

https://www.aclu.org/report/bad-trip-debunking-tsas-behavior-detection-program?redirect=bad-trip

Bad Trip: Debunking the TSA's 'Behavior Detection' Program

Under the government's "behavior detection" program, thousands of TSA officers at airports around the country watch passengers for behaviors that the TSA claims are associated with stress, fear, or deception. The officers then flag certain people for additional inspection and questioning.

The program has long been criticized as unscientific, ineffective, and wasteful, and it has been blamed by passengers and TSA officers themselves for racial and religious profiling – but still it continues.

This report, based on documents the ACLU obtained in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, reveals that materials in TSA's own files discredit this junk-science program.

The report's key findings include:

The TSA expanded the scope of the behavior detection program and its use of surveillance techniques.
Academic research and other documents in the TSA's own files reinforce that behavior detection is unscientific and unreliable.
The TSA repeatedly overstated the scientific validity of behavior detection in communications with members of Congress and the Government Accountability Office.
Materials in the TSA's files raise further questions about anti-Muslim bias and the origins and focus of the TSA's behavior detection program.
The TSA's documents reveal details of specific instances of racial or religious profiling that the TSA concealed from the public.

The report recommends that Congress discontinue funding the TSA's behavior detection program and that the TSA implement a rigorous anti-discrimination training program for its workforce.

About the case

TSA Behavior Detection FOIA Database

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2011 CyberAttacks Timeline | HACKMAGEDDON

http://www.hackmageddon.com/2011/06/22/2011-cyberattacks-timeline/

2011 CyberAttacks Timeline

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Update June 29: 2011 Cyber Attacks (and Cyber Costs) Timeline (Updated)

I found this interesting graph from an original Thomson Reuters post, showing the timeline of the major 2011 CyberAttacks.

The graph shows all the main Cyber Events of this tremendous 2011 up to June, the 16th. Actually to be perfect it should include also the infamous Epsilon Data Breach, happened on March, the 30th. Probably it had a major impact on the U.S. rather than in Europe, but it is clear that the aftermaths of this breach will last for years in terms of spear-phishing attacks tarteting the affected users.

Moreover, to be "ultra perfect", it shpould also include the other attacks discovered against U.S. Defense Contractors (L-3 on April, the 6th, and Northrop Grumman on May, the 26th) should be considered as well.

Even if some attacks are missing, the graph is useful (and meaningful) to show the easiness with which our data are at risk.

Of course after June, the 16th, another cyber-attack leading to a breach was perpetrated against Sega (to be added to the list of Game Publisher), affecting 1.3 million users.

Following the Sega Breach, in these last two days, after the #Antisec Manifesto and the consequent teaming between LulzSec and Anonymous, several government sites have been hit by massive DDoS attacks, including SOCA in UK, some sites affiliated to PM Silvio Berlusconi in Italy, and some Government Sites in Brazil.

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How the surveillance state could grow under Trump - Axios

How the surveillance state could grow under Trump

Privacy advocates are worried that President Trump and his appointees could expand the government surveillance apparatus.

Why it's on the radar: Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt that he tends to "err on the side of security" when it comes to debates over NSA surveillance. New Attorney General Jeff Sessions and CIA Director Mike Pompeo both opposed surveillance reforms while they were serving in Congress.

There are several ways backers of expanded surveillance at the White House and in Congress could enhance the government's powers.

Expand surveillance authorized by the White House:

The administration could unilaterally expand programs that exist under a Reagan-era executive order, which Bijan Madhani, policy counsel at the Computer & Communications Industry Association, called a "generalized justification for international intelligence gathering."
Expanding these surveillance tactics could happen largely without public knowledge, since there's no disclosure requirement
Privacy advocates have pushed for more oversight of surveillance conducted under that executive order, also known as 12333. "The first step is start seeing that the committees of jurisdiction in Congress actually conduct oversight of how the executive branch is using this authority," said Robyn Greene, policy counsel at the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute. "And I think the more oversight they do of 12333 surveillance, the more concerned they'll become."

Turn to Congress:

Congress has to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act — the law used to justify surveillance of foreign nationals located outside of the United States. It expires at the end of the year and could be made permanent by supporters of more aggressive surveillance.
Congress could also look at the efforts to require law enforcement to get a warrant to access digital communications older than 180 days. Some senators tried to insert language into an email privacy bill last Congress that privacy groups say would expand surveillance powers.
Members of Congress could also look anew at the reforms that the recent USA Freedom Act brought to surveillance law, though privacy advocates said that doesn't appear likely.

Pick a fight with Silicon Valley on encryption:

Federal authorities could once again push technology companies to help them gain access to encrypted data, as the FBI did with Apple last year. The agency's director, James Comey, has called for an "adult conversation" about encryption in 2017 — and he's in a position to bring the issue to the fore again.

Let law enforcement take advantage of expanded hacking powers:

A recent change in criminal law gives the government broader hacking powers. While the change is only a few months old, privacy advocates are concerned it might allow the government to gather more information on citizens under a less-strict legal regime.

What to watch: How Trump and his appointees, as well as allies of law enforcement and the intelligence community in Congress, talk about surveillance over the next year will culminate in the reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act later this year.

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