The Present and Future of TV Surveillance
Schneier on Security
AUGUST 27, 2024
Ars Technica has a good article on what’s happening in the world of television surveillance. More than even I realized.
Long Article on GM Spying on Its Cars’ Drivers
Schneier on Security
APRIL 26, 2024
Kashmir Hill has a really good article on how GM tricked its drivers into letting it spy on them—and then sold that data to insurance companies.
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Surveillance of the Internet Backbone
Schneier on Security
AUGUST 25, 2021
Vice has an article about how data brokers sell access to the Internet backbone. This is netflow data. It’s useful for cybersecurity forensics, but can also be used for things like tracing VPN activity. At a high level, netflow data creates a picture of traffic flow and volume across a network.
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Public Surveillance of Bars
Schneier on Security
JULY 2, 2024
This article about an app that lets people remotely view bars to see if they’re crowded or not is filled with commentary—on both sides—about privacy and openness.
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China Surveillance Company Hacked
Schneier on Security
FEBRUARY 27, 2024
Lots of details in the news articles. Last week, someone posted something like 570 files, images and chat logs from a Chinese company called I-Soon. I-Soon sells hacking and espionage services to Chinese national and local government. These aren’t details about the tools or techniques, more the inner workings of the company.
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Palantir's Surveillance Service for Law Enforcement
Schneier on Security
JULY 15, 2019
All of this information is aggregated and synthesized in a way that gives law enforcement nearly omniscient knowledge over any suspect they decide to surveil. Read the whole article -- it has a lot of details. This seems like a commercial version of the NSA's XKEYSCORE. Boing Boing [link].
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NSA Buying Bulk Surveillance Data on Americans without a Warrant
Schneier on Security
JANUARY 30, 2024
Some news articles. It finally admitted to buying bulk data on Americans from data brokers, in response to a query by Senator Weyden. This is almost certainly illegal, although the NSA maintains that it is legal until it’s told otherwise.
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Mexican Drug Cartels with High-Tech Spyware
Schneier on Security
DECEMBER 17, 2020
Lots of details in the article. The cyberweapons arms business is immoral in many ways. This is just one of them.
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On the Zero-Day Market
Schneier on Security
MAY 24, 2024
New paper: “ Zero Progress on Zero Days: How the Last Ten Years Created the Modern Spyware Market “: Abstract: Spyware makes surveillance simple. Second, this Article applies lessons from these failures to guide regulatory efforts going forward.
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Fooling Automated Surveillance Cameras with Patchwork Color Printout
Schneier on Security
APRIL 25, 2019
The image from this news article is most of what you need to know, but here's the research paper. Nice bit of adversarial machine learning.
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Police Surveillance Tools from Special Services Group
Schneier on Security
JANUARY 10, 2020
Special Services Group, a company that sells surveillance tools to the FBI, DEA, ICE, and other US government agencies, has had its secret sales brochure published. The Tombstone Cam is our newest video concealment offering the ability to conduct remote surveillance operations from cemeteries," one section of the Black Book reads.
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James Bamford on Section 702 Extension
Schneier on Security
JUNE 28, 2024
Longtime NSA-watcher James Bamford has a long article on the reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
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Credit Card Privacy
Schneier on Security
SEPTEMBER 4, 2019
Good article in the Washington Post on all the surveillance associated with credit card use.
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The US Is Spying on the UN Secretary General
Schneier on Security
JUNE 30, 2023
They indicate that the United States relied on spying powers granted under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to gather the intercepts. Lots of details about different conversations in the article, which are based on classified documents leaked on Discord by Jack Teixeira.
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How Technology and Politics Are Changing Spycraft
Schneier on Security
MAY 21, 2019
Interesting article about how traditional nation-based spycraft is changing. Basically, the Internet makes it increasingly possible to generate a good cover story; cell phone and other electronic surveillance techniques make tracking people easier; and machine learning will make all of this automatic.
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German authorities raid the offices of the FinFisher surveillance firm
Security Affairs
OCTOBER 14, 2020
Earlier this month, German authorities have raided the offices of FinFisher, the German surveillance software firm, accused of providing its software to oppressive regimes. The company denied accusations and sued the German blog and requested the removal of the article on the case. Pierluigi Paganini.
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New NSA Information from (and About) Snowden
Schneier on Security
OCTOBER 26, 2023
Interesting article about the Snowden documents, including comments from former Guardian editor Ewen MacAskill MacAskill, who shared the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service with Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras for their journalistic work on the Snowden files, retired from The Guardian in 2018.
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327 On Chinese "Spy Trains"
Schneier on Security
SEPTEMBER 26, 2019
News articles talk about " spy trains ," and the possibility that the train cars might surreptitiously monitor their passengers' faces, movements, conversations or phone calls. Even so, these examples illustrate an important point: there's no escaping the technology of inevitable surveillance. This is a complicated topic.
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China’s Olympics App Is Horribly Insecure
Schneier on Security
JANUARY 21, 2022
News article : It’s not clear whether the security flaws were intentional or not, but the report speculated that proper encryption might interfere with some of China’s ubiquitous online surveillance tools, especially systems that allow local authorities to snoop on phones using public wireless networks or internet cafes.
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360 Facebook and Cambridge Analytica
Schneier on Security
MARCH 29, 2018
In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, news articles and commentators have focused on what Facebook knows about us. But for every article about Facebook's creepy stalker behavior, thousands of other companies are breathing a collective sigh of relief that it's Facebook and not them in the spotlight. A lot, it turns out.
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Google Receives Geofence Warrants
Schneier on Security
JANUARY 28, 2020
Sometimes it's hard to tell the corporate surveillance operations from the government ones: Google reportedly has a database called Sensorvault in which it stores location data for millions of devices going back almost a decade.
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Apple dismisses lawsuit against surveillance firm NSO Group due to risk of threat intelligence exposure
Security Affairs
SEPTEMBER 16, 2024
The IT giant fears that the disclosures of its threat intelligence related to commercial spyware operations could aid NSO and other surveillance firms. ” reads The court filing referenced an article published by The Guardian article reporting that Israeli officials seized files from NSO Group’s headquarters.
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Detecting Shoplifting Behavior
Schneier on Security
MARCH 7, 2019
The article has no detail or analysis, so we don't know how well it works. But this kind of thing is surely the future of video surveillance.
France’s government is giving the police more surveillance power
Security Affairs
JULY 9, 2023
The Assemblée Nationale has approved the measure, which forms one of the articles encompassing multiple provisions. ”” reads the article published by Le Monde. ”” reads the article published by Le Monde. “People’s lives will be saved” by the law, he added.”
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EU privacy non-profit group filed complaints against TikTok, SHEIN, AliExpress, and other Chinese companies
Security Affairs
JANUARY 17, 2025
Given that China is an authoritarian surveillance state, it is crystal clear that China doesnt offer the same level of data protection as the EU. ” reads the announcement published by noyb. .” ” reads the announcement published by noyb. said Kleanthi Sardeli, data protection lawyer atnoyb.
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Anomaly Six, a US surveillance firm that tracks roughly 3 billion devices in real-time
Security Affairs
APRIL 26, 2022
An interesting article published by The Intercept reveals the secretive business of a US surveillance firm named Anomaly Six. While Russia was invading Ukraine in February, two unknown surveillance startups, Anomaly Six and Zignal Labs joined forces to provide powerful surveillance services.
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Facebook Helped Develop a Tails Exploit
Schneier on Security
JUNE 12, 2020
This is a weird story : Hernandez was able to evade capture for so long because he used Tails, a version of Linux designed for users at high risk of surveillance and which routes all inbound and outbound connections through the open-source Tor network to anonymize it. Another article.
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Parents and teachers believe digital surveillance of kids outweighs risks
Malwarebytes
SEPTEMBER 24, 2021
Schools in the US have been using surveillance software to keep an eye on their students, and such software has grown significantly in popularity since the COVD-19 pandemic closed campuses nationwide. In fact, they worry that such surveillance could backfire. Source: The CDT).
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101 Israel surveillance firm NSO group can mine data from major social media
Security Affairs
JULY 19, 2019
The Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group informed its clients that it is able to scoop user data by mining from major social media. The Financial Times reported that the Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group informed its clients that it is able to mine user data from major social media. SecurityAffairs – NSO Group, surveillance).
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Israeli surveillance firm QuaDream emerges from the dark
Security Affairs
FEBRUARY 6, 2022
One of the Apple iOS zero-day flaws exploited by the NSO group was also used by another surveillance firm named QuaDream. One of the vulnerabilities in Apple iOS that was previously exploited by the spyware developed by the Israeli company NSO Group was also separately used by another surveillance firm named QuaDream.
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The NSA is Refusing to Disclose its Policy on Backdooring Commercial Products
Schneier on Security
OCTOBER 28, 2020
The article goes on to talk about Juniper Networks equipment, which had the NSA-created DUAL_EC PRNG backdoor in its products. And if it’s still putting surveillance ahead of security. That backdoor was taken advantage of by an unnamed foreign adversary.
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How the FBI Gets Location Information
Schneier on Security
OCTOBER 27, 2021
Vice has a detailed article about how the FBI gets data from cell phone providers like AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon, based on a leaked (I think) 2019 139-page presentation.
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ScarCruft surveilling North Korean defectors and human rights activists
SecureList
NOVEMBER 29, 2021
The victim was infected by PowerShell malware and we discovered evidence that the actor had already stolen data from the victim and had been surveilling this victim for several months. To surveil the victim, the list includes target folders as well as /Camera, /Recordings, /KakaoTalk (a renowned Korean messenger), /??(documents),
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Latest on the SVR’s SolarWinds Hack
Schneier on Security
JANUARY 5, 2021
The New York Times has an in-depth article on the latest information about the SolarWinds hack (not a great name, since it’s much more far-reaching than that). Interviews with key players investigating what intelligence agencies believe to be an operation by Russia’s S.V.R.
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CSO Magazine
MAY 2, 2023
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) would soon be releasing a public request for information (RFI) to learn more about the automated tools employers use to surveil, monitor, evaluate, and manage workers, OSTP announced on Monday. To read this article in full, please click here
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Targeted spyware and why it’s a concern to us
Malwarebytes
MARCH 20, 2025
Paragon Solutions is an Israeli company which sells high-end surveillance technology primarily to government clients, positioning its products as essential for combating crime and national security. The work done by CitizenLab has led to greater understanding of the global digital surveillance landscape and its implications for human rights.
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FTC begins sweeping commercial surveillance and lax data security rulemaking process
CSO Magazine
AUGUST 11, 2022
To read this article in full, please click here Concerns over the use of the growing stockpile of sensitive personal data have reached a fevered pitch in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which raises the specter of law enforcement weaponization of widely available digitized content against American citizens.
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Japan's Directorate for Signals Intelligence
Schneier on Security
MAY 21, 2018
The Intercept has a long article on Japan's equivalent of the NSA: the Directorate for Signals Intelligence. The article includes some new documents from the Snowden archive. Interesting, but nothing really surprising. The directorate has a history that dates back to the 1950s; its role is to eavesdrop on communications.
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Could Universities’ Use of Surveillance Software Be Putting Students at Risk?
The State of Security
DECEMBER 17, 2020
The post Could Universities’ Use of Surveillance Software Be Putting Students at Risk? This has, perhaps understandably, led to concerns about how well students are engaging with this way of studying. […]… Read More. appeared first on The State of Security.
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“Ethnicity recognition” tool listed on surveillance camera app store built by fridge-maker’s video analytics startup
Malwarebytes
FEBRUARY 22, 2022
Bosch, known more for its line of refrigerators, ovens, and dishwashers, also develops and sells an entire suite of surveillance cameras. The Intercept also reported that the operating system used on modern Bosch surveillance cameras could potentially be out of date. It shouldn’t. This is not innovation.
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Oracle sued over ‘worldwide surveillance machine’ by privacy rights activists
CSO Magazine
AUGUST 22, 2022
A class action lawsuit filed last week in the Northern District of California accused Oracle of running a “worldwide surveillance machine” and violating the fundamental privacy rights of hundreds of millions of people. To read this article in full, please click here
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How long-term hybrid work is changing security strategies
CSO Magazine
JULY 19, 2021
She wants to know exactly where they are, too, because such surveillance is one of the strategies Nigro has to keep her company safe. To read this article in full, please click here (Insider Story) Pam Nigro wants to know if workers at her company are working odd hours.
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Quiet Skies, TSA surveillance program targets Ordinary U.S. Citizens
Security Affairs
AUGUST 11, 2018
Journalists revealed a new surveillance program that targets US citizens, the program was previously-undisclosed and code named ‘Quiet Skies’ According to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), that has admitted the Quiet Skies , the program has monitored about 5,000 U.S. Securi ty Affairs – TSA, surveillance).
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Chinese Supply-Chain Attack on Computer Systems
Schneier on Security
FEBRUARY 13, 2021
That included an FBI counterintelligence investigation that began around 2012, when agents started monitoring the communications of a small group of Supermicro workers, using warrants obtained under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act , or FISA, according to five of the officials.
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