Cyberattack hit heart of Google system

BTC - This blog's hosting technology goes through Google. This lead came in from friend of the blog, JP of NCard who sends us stuff all the time. He's a long time, sure footed opponent of the National ID card.

"The hackers got access to the coding in the password system that controls millions of users' access to many Google services."

A vast amount of info in one place
c/o  StarTribune.com 

The new details seem likely to increase the debate about the security and privacy of vast computing systems such as Google's that now centralize the personal information of millions of individuals and businesses. Because vast amounts of digital information are stored in one place, a single breach can lead to disastrous losses.


The theft began with a single instant message sent to a Google employee in China who was using Microsoft's Messenger program, according to the person with knowledge of the internal inquiry, who spoke on the condition he not be identified. ::: MORE HERE:::

Legislative Commission’s Subcommittee To Discuss “Real ID” In Nevada

c/o  Nevada News Bureau

The Legislative Commission’s Subcommittee to Review Regulations will meet tomorrow afternoon to discuss the fate of the controversial “Real ID” in Nevada.

Citing concerns with both privacy and cost, numerous organizations have come out against the requirements of the REAL ID Act of 2005 including the ACLU, Americans for Tax Reform, Gun Owners of America, Gun Owners of Nevada, Campaign for Liberty, the Cato Institute, National Immigration Law Center and the National Network to End Domestic Violence.

Though Congress has said the act is primarily intended to prevent identity fraud and has denied it would signal the dawn of national identity cards that could compromise the privacy of citizens, critics remain unconvinced.

“There is no security plan for protecting this information,” said a spokesperson from the Nevada chapter of the ACLU. “Instead, the federal government presumes that the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators will operate the database. However, this private association has no accountability to Nevada, and it is not bound by either the Privacy Act, which applies to federal agencies, or the Drivers’ Privacy Protection Act, which applies to state DMVs.”

Under the Real ID Act, states will be required to scan documentary evidence into a shared database including proofs of birth dates, legal and residency status and social security numbers.

Real ID cards will feature a two-dimensional, non-encrypted bar code containing personal information such as the citizen’s home address. Because the cards will not be encrypted, there are concerns that businesses and other organizations could potentially scan and store a customer’s home address along with other pieces of personal information.

If Real ID is fully implemented, a Real ID-compliant identification card will be required not only to board commercial aircraft but also to enter federal buildings including courthouses. :::MORE HERE:::

LAST HOPE: Real ID & RFID; Legal and privacy implications

Real ID & RFID
c/o LAST HOPE



Real ID, RFID &  Privacy and Legal Implications Pts 1-5
Part A
Part B
Part C

Privacy & Security Implications at Berkley  c/o Jennifer King

ARIZONA SHOULD VETO SB 1070

Welcome to Arizona, Home of Papers Please!

BTC - One can gather from a quick read of SB 1070 that is isn't Real ID. However, it's a lot more direct and decentralized for federal policing during a terry stop. What people in Arizona are dreading are the  police stops where anyone can be arrested for not carrying proof of citizenship.

Russel Pearce forgot who challenges him on the databases.  As indicated in this video, a Libertarian candidate decided to run against him due to his short term memory.

If Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signs SB 1070, there is a life wrecking misdemeanor waiting for American citizens who are caught running around free without their citizenship papers. Police will be stopping to check for "legal" migration.  Sherriff Arpaio can impound your car if the person you are riding with doesn't have their citizenship papers and is suspected of being an illegal alien.  If your an Arizona taxpayer you should put conditions or limits to criminalizing your identity, or lack thereof, if it could be you.

Petition the Governor directly here: http://www.azgovernor.gov/contact.asp

I have no idea what this means if you are from out of state and you don't have your papers. Can you be imprisoned on a misdemeanor in Arizona for not being able to identify yourself as a passenger without a license?  If so, that is really going to put a squeeze on tourism dollars.  Sorry, a trip to Sedona is not worth it if this bill is signed by Governor Brewer.

c/o Change.org 

The Arizona state legislature just approved the toughest anti-immigration bill in the country, giving police the authority to determine people's immigration status based on "reasonable suspicion" or more bluntly put, the right to racially profile immigrants.

Written by State Sen. Russell Pearce, SB1070 also makes it a crime to be an undocumented immigrant and allows anyone to sue a local, county or state agency if they believe the agency is not enforcing immigration laws.

If signed by Governor Jan Brewer into law, get ready for rampant racial profiling and arrests of more United States citizens who cannot prove their right to live here. The law also promises to have a chilling affect on the economy, with unjustifiable raids on businesses and immigrants fleeing the state as a consequence of attrition through enforcement. One just needs to take a look at Prince Williams County to note the general devastation that occurs as a result of local law enforcement of immigration laws.

There is still time to prevent Arizona from turning into a complete police state. Governor Brewer is yet to sign the bill into law.

Tell Governor Jan Brewer to stand up to Senator Pearce and do what is right for Arizona.

BIG PICTURE: Placing anti-war in the right side of the light

BTC SOCIAL COMMENTARY - Anti-National ID advocates trip, and sometimes slip on the razors edge of frail terms of agreement between political scientists. We should pan out and look at the national dialogue about the Bush machinery institutionalized and perpetuated by the Obama administration. There is a whole lot of disallowance for the right-side of anti-war. This includes a great deal of Repubican veterans who undertstand what they hate because they lost a leg on Hamburger Hill. The established anti-war cliques on the left don't talk to them.

Well... Houston, tell the ranks. It looks like the anti-war Left is ready to talk.

What to Do With the Anti-War Faction of the Tea Party?

Naomi Wolf who wrote The End of America: Letters to a Young Patriot and Give Me Liberty when Bush was in power thinks the Tea Party is helping America fight fascism. I'm not quite sure that is true especially when considering the media and government structures that bear down upon the people of this nation but I do think this quote from a recent interview is valuable:

JS: Why do you think the sides don't understand each other?

NW: Frankly, liberals are out of the habit of communicating with anyone outside their own in cohort. We have a cultural problem with self-righteousness and elitism. Liberals roll their eyes about going on "Oprah" to reach a mass audience by using language that anyone can understand even if you majored in semiotics at Yale. We look down on people we don't agree with. It doesn't serve us well.

There is also a deliberate building up of two camps that benefits from whipping up home team spirit and demonizing the opposition. With the Internet there is even more fractioning since we are in echo chambers. With so much propaganda it is hard to calm down enough to listen.

Broad Coalition Urges President Obama And Congress To Oppose Biometric National ID

WASHINGTON – A broad coalition of group sent a letter Tuesday to the White House, the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee urging them to oppose a proposal by Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) that would include a biometric national ID card in comprehensive immigration reform legislation. Signatories are from across the political spectrum and include advocates for privacy, consumer rights, gun owners, limited government and religious liberty.

A biometric ID card, like the kind under consideration here, is a national system for identifying individuals that is used to determine if they are eligible for rights and benefits – a classic national ID. In order to create a biometric ID, every worker in America would have to present a birth certificate and other identification documents, then have his or her biometric, like a fingerprint, captured.

In its letter, the coalition stated, “A National ID would not only violate privacy by helping to consolidate data and facilitate tracking of individuals, it would bring government into the very center of our lives by serving as a government permission slip needed by everyone in order to work.”

Below is the full text of the letter and a full list of signatories.

Re: Oppose Schumer/Graham Biometric National ID Proposal within Comprehensive Immigration Reform

Waking Up Orwell: On the lamm with WIRED's Evan Ratliff

WHOIS Evan Ratliff?

THIS WEEK ON WAKING UP ORWELL 
On the lamm with WIRED's Evan Ratliff


AUDIO::: TAX RELIEF SPECIAL: The Story of evading a WIRED identity 


BTC - For Tax Day only, we are switching from our regular formatted programming to bring you a special talk with Evan Ratliff, a co-editor for WIRED Magazine who created an assignment to disappear with strategic aims to not be found. WIRED's sponsored contest had escalating tiers of money for the digital bounty hunter who could track down and catch Ratliff in his remote locations. 


Evan was in and out of disguises for the duration of his extended assignment. He toured with a band, became a semi-granola hippie and even adopted a disguise as balding stereotype in a suit to evade getting "caught" for prize money. He shares a very unique story of how he did his best to evade being actively identified by those who tracked him down with arcane and creative digital clues. Relax, as much as you can, in this moderately paranoid yet entertaining tale of public evasion. 


ABOUT EVAN RATLIFF

Ratliff is a freelance journalist whose writing appears in Wired magazine, The New Yorker, the New York Times Sunday Magazine, Outside, Discover, Men’s Journal, New York, and many other publications. A contributing editor for Wired, he is the co-author of Safe: The Race to Protect Ourselves in a Newly Dangerous World (HarperCollins, 2005), about innovation and counterterrorism. A former fellow at both the International Reporting Project and the Japan Foreign Press Center, he has reported from Russia, Cameroon, Bangladesh, Brazil, and elsewhere on science and technology, the environment, terrorism, politics, and transnational crime.

IN OTHER NEWS: 


Senators Raise Privacy Concerns About Body Scanner Technology 
c/o EPIC

Three United States Senators have written a letter to Secretary Napolitano of the Department of Homeland Security, urging the Department to reconsider the whole body scanners currently planned for U.S. airports. Senators Collins (R-ME), Kyl (R-AZ), and Chambliss (R-GA) encouraged Secretary Napolitano to consider "auto-detection" devices instead of human screeners to address privacy concerns. The Senators noted that the current technology allows airport officials to "view detailed images of passengers’ bodies" and also that other systems could "save the government and airports money on physical space for screening." 

Restrictive Immigration Policies Confound Security 
c/o Cato FLOGGER Jim Harper


Shuttering GITMO, not this week but "as quickly as we can" says AG Holder


Senator Leahy seems to be pushing for more Patriot Act oversights


TRACKING WINOS: Winemakers pitched on RFID to ward off "fraudulent wines"


Wikileaks Collateral Murder video - if you haevn't seen it yet.


A speed camera causes an accident


PARAMILITARY BACON ALERT ... according to microblogger Tracy Ward, the Kansas City Police Department is seeking to stock up parts of the city with ShotSpotter misery.

"KCPD and Councilwoman Cathy Jolly are seeking federal taxpayer money ($2 million) to turn Emanuel Cleaver's porkulus project "KC Green Impact Zone" into something that more closely resembles the Baghdad "Green Zone" with a new surveillance system from ShotSpotter."  Hearsay?  We'll be looking for the details in the days to come.