The NSA and the likes do use radio waves to get inside someone's computer, through the use of "spy hardware"

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Fernando_Negro
Desconectado/a
se unió: 06/17/2012

Confirming that the United States' spy agencies do use hardware that establishes radio links to someone's computer, without their knowledge, in order to gain access to it, "The New York Times" published yesterday an article denouncing some of this capabilities.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/15/us/nsa-effort-pries-open-computers-not-connected-to-internet.html

Which adds to the suspicion, raised by an article linked to in this forum, before, that some of the new hardware being sold to the general public might indeed already include this type of "spy hardware" by default: https://trisquel.info/en/forum/secret-3g-intel-chip-gives-snoops-backdoor-pc-access

Concerning the general market, my original source for this, I've just learned, was already talking about this a decade ago(!): http://rss.infowars.com/20140115_Wed_Alex.mp3

(Which is not surprising, given the fact that the use of this technology, in specific intelligence operations, has already been denounced, by another source of mine, in the year 2000: http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/pandora/052401_promis.html)

Again... Freeing your computer in terms of software, is not enough.

And we should pay /very close/ attention also to the *hardware* that we use.

Anon
Desconectado/a
se unió: 10/11/2013

If you don’t use the Tin foil hat.
You are not paranoid enough.

This somehow reminds me that I heard that it is possible to read the radioactivity from electronic devices and figure out the information being used.

Wrap tin foil around you’re devices. :)

GNUser
Desconectado/a
se unió: 07/17/2013

I agree with Fernando that there are many many attacks that can be performed against a computer (or any electrical device for that matter).
I also agree with Anon in the sense that if we start focusing on that, we better starting wearing tin foil hats and pants and shirts. We end up losing our minds, go crazy thinking about that. That is also not a good thing to happen.
If I might say something... and it's nothing more than my own opinion... First, thanks Fernando for disclosing that info for us, it really helps to know these things and you give us sources to investigate and decide by ourselves if it makes sense or if is something out of context with no connection to our own lives. And what you say in the end "freeing computer in terms of software is not enough", is also a good good good quote, and it sums up many problems in today's world. However, we should consider "how probable is it that I will get to be a target, and how much am I willing to sacrifice of my day to day usual life in order to prevent that from happening?". I can say that I don't live in the USA so I don't have to deal with the NSA thing as closely as you guys. Of course not being an american means I can get shoot by a drone at any time :P though luck. Truth is, I know WHY I decided to protect my communications and privacy (both online and offline). I remember the event that lead to me changing my way of looking at life in terms of privacy vs exposition. And because of that I can say that I know what I am trying to achieve and what I am willing to sacrifice in order to achieve it. If we were to start going crazy about the NSA capabilities, we would move to East and one day China would be doing the same and we would move to the North Pole and then the penguins would start spying on us and we would simply realize that we should seek mental treatment :P
What I mean is, we can make spying/privacy-invasion harder for the agencies that want to do it. And we should. And we should continue to improve stuff like Tor and I2P and decentralized services and networks and free software that respects the user, etc etc, BUT we should put living our lives as free men above the fight to one day achieve total freedom. Because we might end up losing our lives fighting for somehting that we might not even like when we get there.
Having said that, I think what is a good thing to keep from your Post Fernando, is that "freeing computer from software is not enough, we should pay attention to hardware as well". For me that means Open Source Hardware should be as important to the world as free software is, and we should maybe focus a little bit more on that.

Sorry for the long post, but it was just some thoughts and feelings I had at looking at your posts guys. Thanks :)

Fernando_Negro
Desconectado/a
se unió: 06/17/2012

Concerning my post,

I'm just denouncing what I know, in order for anyone to take any kind of precautions they want...

And, I'm leaving here this information for, as you say, everyone to worry as much about this as they want.

Most of all, I want to call everyone's attention to the fact that, what people might think is a "secure" computer, in terms of privacy, that they have, just because they installed a completely free distro, like Trisquel, in it, might not be that "secure", after all, if you're using some of the more recent hardware.

(And, yes... I took the opportunity to call again everyone's attention to the need that, I consider very important and that, I already expressed here - https://trisquel.info/en/forum/million-dollar-question-concerning-hardware-we-use - and that even Richard Stallman, itself, expressed, in one of his more recent lectures - https://trisquel.info/en/forum/million-dollar-question-concerning-hardware-we-use#comment-43286 - that we should, seriously, worry about "freeing" our hardware, also...)

Concerning the rest, that you said,

Even if you're a US citizen, you can still get killed by a drone. (http://prisonplanet.com/lawsuit-filed-against-government-over-assassination-of-us-citizens.html)

And, you don't have to be a US citizen, in order to have to worry about the NSA, and the likes...

All the Western intelligence agencies work together, when it comes to spying on their own citizens. (http://statewatch.org/eu-usa-data-surveillance.htm)

And, I can tell that the people in Portugal who surveil activists, read their Gmail, Yahoo, and similar US-based services', correspondence.

In my case, I've even been repeatedly censored (have had comments of mine mysteriously "disappear") in the Google-owned "Blogger" network (http://blackfernando.blogspot.pt/2012/09/fernando-negro-spam.html) by someone who can, clearly, read Portuguese. And, have had also comments of mine, in English, deleted on YouTube. (http://blackfernando.blogspot.pt/2013/03/como-o-youtube-censura-os-meus.html)

More than that, the well-informed part of the population, here, knows that the US intelligence agencies also operate in Portuguese territory. And, that it was even the CIA, itself, who killed one of our former Prime-Ministers, for not "playing ball" with US international dirty deals. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqH8hKuty_4)

So, in a "globalized world", and one in which the US government stretches its tentacles all over the globe, it's not just the American population that is affected by the NSA's, and the likes', dirty activity - and that has to worry about it.

antiesnob
Desconectado/a
se unió: 08/22/2013

Cover the walls, floor, roof, windows and doors with lead.

Fernando_Negro
Desconectado/a
se unió: 06/17/2012

No...

Abolish the NSA and the likes, and create a Free Hardware movement.

That's the way to solve the problem.

antiesnob
Desconectado/a
se unió: 08/22/2013

Meanwhile, this is the only option.

Fernando_Negro
Desconectado/a
se unió: 06/17/2012

Everyone notice how the company suspected of selling chips with spy technology (that is also the leading one, in terms of information technology) is called "Intel"...

(http://www.prisonplanet.com/secret-3g-intel-chip-gives-snoops-backdoor-pc-access.html)

In day-to-day English language usage, "intel" is a short term for intelligence. And is usually used to mean both "intelligence agencies" and "information of interest to these kind of institutions".

If the new Intel ix chips do have the type of spy technology they're suspected of having...

Then we have "Intel" being used to get "intel" for the "intel" agencies...

Or, the "intel" agencies using "Intel" to get "intel"...

(Are these two institutions - or, have they become, with this - the same?!)

Knowing that, according to official history, "Intel" stands for "Integrated Electronics", it still is a most interesting coincidence.

Specially, since Google is known to be a NSA/CIA front company (http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/17-06-2013/124841-google_cia_nsa-0/ + http://www.prisonplanet.com/group-calls-for-hearings-into-google%E2%80%99s-ties-to-cia-and-nsa.html)

And, even more interesting, when this last company's name comes from the term "googol" - chose to mean something like "infinity", "omniscience", or "unlimited access to knowledge or information".

antiesnob
Desconectado/a
se unió: 08/22/2013

No. Googlo is not infinity, it is an unimaginable large number "examplified". Moreover, it is used to teach the difference between infinity and a number which is so large you can't imagine or write it; that's not infinity.

Fernando_Negro
Desconectado/a
se unió: 06/17/2012

Yes.

I was talking about the reason for choosing such a term for the company's name - and, not the exact meaning of the term. Which I said it wasn't that, exactly - but, that it was chosen to mean "something like" that.

("Infinity", "omniscience" and "no limits" are obvious unreachable impossibilities. But, that doesn't mean that they can't be used as metaphorical descriptions and as the goal in sight(?) (pardon my English) - like the case of "perfection".)

I guess that, instead of "chosen to mean something like", I should have written "chosen to mean towards/approaching", instead, to better explain myself, using more exact mathematical terms, then... (http://www.mathsisfun.com/calculus/limits-infinity.html)

Thank you for your explanation. I never got to that type of mathematics in University, and it's an interesting lesson.

antiesnob
Desconectado/a
se unió: 08/22/2013

The clue is the G. ... GNU, Google, and a lot of enterprises, comunities, foundations, etc. were/are(will be) created by members of secret societies (or almost that). The clue is the G, they are obssesed with that (as some are with Justin Biever or Maddona (is that the spelling of those names?) and use them T-Shits or hair style) so they put it on everything. I mean, it doesn't mean it was created by a secret society, just a guy who likes that because he is into it.
On the other hand, G is a "representation" of God for those secret societies and that's why google used that name from the word googol, as you said, metaphorically for meaning the omniscience.

Sim
Sim
Desconectado/a
se unió: 09/29/2013

I think it's important to be sceptical about the capabilities of Intel vPro that are described in the article of prisonplanet. A 3G antenna inside thousands of chips constantly connected to a local 3G mast without someone noticing? Really? I have my doubts that this is true.
I have read other articles of Jim Stone and in my opinion he isn't a reliable source.

antiesnob
Desconectado/a
se unió: 08/22/2013

I totally agree with you except in two things:
1- It's not important to be sceptical but to be doubtful and try to check everything by empiric facts instead of what someone writes.
2- If someone is not a reliable source doesn't mean that something he/she states is not true. So, to the point #1 again, check it.

Prisonplanet is obvious a "source" that tries to get 'x' kind of people (as others tries to get 'y' kind of people) to get money from them (in differents ways) and it could be that prisonplanet actually could be a intelligence agency that enprisoned people minds who are "paranoid" (not in fact) to guide them the place they (big brother) want(s) to.

Microprocessors and microcontrollers works in frecuencies, so it could be very bad to have another radio source aside with it. This is the real reason to be sceptical...

antiesnob
Desconectado/a
se unió: 08/22/2013

I've just remembered that I had to change my USB mouse some time ago as it interfere with my screen for a PS/2 one.
Also, most home theaters has inside the manual an inscription saying that the equipment has something (not remember I think it's a lead) in order not to interfere with screens.