The ghosts of our parents.

The ghosts of our parents. (Los fantasmas de nuestros padres.  Published on August 29th, 2014)

All this happened after 9/11, 2001; and it seems like it was planned years before. The clearest piece of evidence is The USA PATRIOT ACT ; Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001; a document that was written and approved in less than 40 days, around 363 pages that due to the events that followed it is safe to say that Jim Sensenbrenner did not even read them; but "somehow" are the guideline when it comes to National Security all over the world.

In the article, En la ausencia de la verdad… (In the absence of the truth…yet to be translated) we explained how the NSA was born, and showed some of its greatest achievements. Snowden or not, all this adventures had already been exposed in different forums around the Deep Web and in many other underground communities… that was 10 years ago, today  Mainstream Media talks about it and in between lines they say: “…in spite of everything that happened and will happen; You, The User, will keep feeding us that delicious information. Good night.”

“The Five Eyes”

Every great mystery story has a super villain or a Secret Society; in this case, politicians that were “elected by the people”. They came together to protect their interests, no matter what.

The Five Eyes (FVEY) is an alliance between Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom and the United States. These countries are united through a Multilateral Agreement, the UKUSA Agreement  of joint cooperation in topics such as “Signals Intelligence”. Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is a system of intelligence harvesting by intercepting signals. Communications Intelligence-COMINT originate from the conversations of regular people; Electronic Intelligence-ELINT or electronic signals, are not necessarily used in communications and a “combined” interception (they are obviously encrypted); they also make Traffic Analysis (which gives them very valuable information).
 
 
 
 
It is very important to mention that FVEY was born in 1941, became "something more stable" during the BRUSA Agreement in 1943; and became official March 5th, 1946. Back in those days, the only members were The UK and the United States; Canada, Australia and New Zealand joined later. 


The Five Eyes=GBR, the USA, DOG, AUS & NZL

Up to this point everything seems to be Kosher, “your boundaries” and a “Code of Honor” have been established; but there's also a “Certification”, in which the NSA is allowed to spy on 193 countries that are useful to successfully gather more information; as well as to spy on organizations such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and The International Atomic Energy Agency.

“Where's the Metadata, lovey?”

Even without having the complete conversation, metadata reveals a brutal amount of personal information. The One who owns your metadata has a full picture of your agenda, contacts or at least a complete list of people to whom you have called in the last few years. By having this information, they can figure out who is part of your immediate and closest circle, and who is not; and how often you talk to and text them. 
By doing so, they automatically have a “network analysis” with "different types of communities"; such as personal, professional and the one that they need to justify their reason to exist, criminal associations.
The phone records include fields such as location, time of the call & duration; who's the  snitch? Your nearest Cellphone Tower. Governments have always publicly denied to record and store this type of information, but Thomas Drake, “The original NSA whistleblower” says otherwise.
Just for you to know what your phone is capable of: Malte Spitz of the German Green Party, demanded Deutsche Telekom to surrender all the metadata generated by his phone in the last six months… He passed this information to ZEIT ONLINE and… http://www.zeit.de/datenschutz/malte-spitz-data-retention … “Back to you, Tom”. 



Numbers are not everything... we also have social networks, police reports, the information generated through purchases with credit/debit cards… all this is called “Intelligence Fusion”.
I know this will sound quite “ Sauron-esque”, but this is the best way to synthesize it:
“Put it together, Process it, Squeeze it, Make Alliances, Savor it & Know it all.”
Technology is not that developed so do not worry about killer droids knocking doors down, arresting and eliminating dissidents… (don’t forget about the drones, though!) at least that's what we know. Without being paranoid or falling into unfunded conspiracy theories, this is the list of things that we could compile about different Intelligence Groups around the world, and their true capabilities:

They can track telephone numbers (both parties) during a call, this means location, time, and call duration... kiss kiss?

They can break into phone calls and text messages... in China. 

They can open fake forums in the Internet (Internet Café).

They can hack the mobile phones of Presidents, Union & Political Leaders... and whomever they desire.

They can track communications of organizations such as Al Jazeera.

They can hack the video conference system of the UN.

They can track banking transactions.

They can track text messages (SMS).

They can hack into your email, chat (if you still use it) and browsing history.

They can map your social networks.

They can access the information contained in the apps on your phone.

They constantly try to attack "secret networks" such as Tor. The idea is to make users to communicate through less secure communication channels.
They can work undercover at Embassies to gain greater access to foreign networks.

They can install monitoring stations on building roofs to monitor conversations in the city.

They can break encryption codes on mobile phones.
They can hack computers that are not connected to the internet, by using radio waves (NSA can access computers not online using radio waves, they work together with small circuits that are already going in the machine or certain USB drives).

They can intercept telephone calls using “false towers”.

They can access computers through “pirate” Wi-Fi hot spots.

They can “install” a FALSE SIM card to control a mobile phone (is called GOPHERSET and literally, it is any hacker's wet dream.
They can break almost every encryption method… according to what Snowden said on January 2014: "they are still far away from that".

They can intercept packages (physically), open packages and make changes in certain devices… Old School, son!.

They can "connect" to Google and/or Yahoo to compile information, also monitor visits to Youtube and “likes” in Facebook... in real time.

They can monitor “behavior” in real time... as they did in Canadian Airports through free Wi-Fi. (More)

They can use information in real time to identify targets on drone attacks.

They collect the IP addresses of those who visit WikiLeaks.

Obviously, they can upload "misinformation" to harm the reputation of "adversaries"; create fake profiles and pages in every existing social network, etc.

They can intercept and store images taken with a webcam.

They can record phone calls and play them whenever they want; store images in emails, text messages, video conferences, etc. The goal is to feed their Facial Recognition Software.

What about the world, lovey?
 

 
When I wrote the original entry in Spanish, I limited the scope to Mexico… the current situation over here is of a raising Authoritarian State. The mass keeps blaming the Government, Political Parties and various institutions for this; but the mass knows how to use its selective memory quite well. Internet was not designed to be a form of entertainment, nor a toy; it was not designed to be an "outlet" to record the lives of frivolous, empty and insecure people; nor to be the epicenter of a dumbification catastrophe. 
 
Fifteen years ago the internet was a source of wisdom and the best tool to “unlearn” the indoctrination that schools promoted; there are people who invested more than 10 hours a day learning from different cultures and perspectives, creating new paths to follow; always expanding their horizons in search of something greater, gaining absolute command over "toys" such as Sub7 (Cheers, Mobman!). The main goal was “screw”, our friends (hiding .exe files in documents, then enjoying such exploits like turning off their screens or opening their CD trays).
 
 
 Time passed, things became easier and now Grandma (even Grandma!) has a Facebook account and keeps sharing all that crap. One day YOUR BELOVED GOVERNMENT, made a proposal that even though everyone recognized as draconian became Law; and it became Law because of fear. People forgot (or failed to understand since day 1) that the Internet is like the real world, it is a dangerous place if you are not careful. Unfortunately for the mass, the majority of those who learned to use the Internet in its early stages (and probably wrote the foundation) continued to be careful with what they shared and never dropped guard; no matter how "friendly" the internet got. This is why when those draconian laws (which we saw their glimpses 13 years ago) came into effect, they didn't panic; they just activated the "contingency measures” already considered. It is true that they don't like to share knowledge unless one proves itself worthy of it; in some other cases they do not share because they only know how to explain it on simple terms (language). People like Aaron Swartz were murdered; many others are just seeing how things unfold. 

 
A couple of years ago there was a phrase that served as a welcome to Deep Wiki: "The Internet can make you more intelligent or more stupid, it all depends on your questions. (making the right questions, that is!)"

   
Prevention and anonymity are not applications that you just download, they are survival instincts that can only developed once you open your eyes; the new Laws and ones that are probably on their way, are merely control exercises. This is why all those demonstrations and parades; Twitter-#hashtag-Wars, Facebook "educational photos", Youtube vlogs and any other form of discontent will not yield positive results; no collective action will echo because this is a personal problem; it is a matter of choice, responsibility, intelligence, sovereignty and overcoming challenges to improve the spirit… like we used to do while playing with Sub7.




“Extras”

There are people who are afraid of being rejected and because of that they automatically discard any idea that contradicts whatever the mass believes and protects; there is nothing wrong with dissent, in fact the best ideas have come out of minds that think without fear. It is true that you cannot learn everything in a single afternoon; but it has to start somewhere, it has to start sometime...


The Toys.
ICReach NSA's Google.
Buggedplanet is a website that indexes by country, the companies and services that have been tapped and that currently store metadata. (Make sure to download and learn how to use Tor)
 


 

The Conversation with Gene Hackman and Harrison Ford ... There are no computers (as we know them), but there are many surveillance and privacy violations...
1984... the 1956 version! Just… brilliant!
1984 with John Hurt, Richard Burton, Suzanna Hamilton, Cyril Cusack & Peter Frye.
WarGames When the game… is no longer a game.
Brazil… with Jonathan Pryce, Robert De Niro, Katherine Helmond, Ian Holm, Bob Hoskins, Michael Palin & Kim Greist.
Enemy Of The State with Gene Hackman & Will Smith… The Conversation's remake.
Swordfish with Halle Berry, John Travolta & Hugh Jackman.
Die Hard 4 with Bruce Willis.

The Internet's Own Boy for Aaron Swartz.
@feexitmx
www.feexit.mx
rp@feexit.mx