http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2011/11/21/al-qaida-sympathizer-accused-nyc-bomb-plots/

 

Please be careful about what you post online.

 

New York police had him under surveillance for at least a year and were working with a confidential informant; no injury to anyone or damage to property is alleged, Kelly said. In addition, authorities have no evidence that Pimentel was working with anyone else, the mayor said.

 

<snip>

 

Pimentel also posted on his website trueislam1.com and on blogs his support of al-Qaida and belief in jihad, and promoted an online magazine article that described in detail how to make a bomb, Kelly said.

 

Among his Internet postings, the commissioner said, was an article that states: "People have to understand that America and its allies are all legitimate targets in warfare."

 

So - you might think you've just entered:

But facts are facts and they were watching this guy on the interwebs and Rep. Peter King ® NY mentioned the same thing this morning on the radio that the NYPD conducts surveillance on the internet...

I assume that every e-mail I write and every online post I enter are being seen by more than the intended audience.

 

TIA - Total Information Awareness

 

Not sci fi. Real and happening. Scary shitt.

Add the Echelon program to the list as well.

Having been a part of that community though, it's not surprising. Cyber capabilities are indeed the future, and though the concept is not new at all, the era of cyber combat/warfare has been ushered in only recently.

 

What's more scary than knowing the capabilities of our own government is the thought of what people who actually do want to overtly hurt us will do once they catch up with the times. This incident happened just recently, and, this is my speculation, it seems like a probe to maybe something larger down the road.

While the US government isn't legally allowed to spy on us, anything posted openly is fair game, so assume it's being read.

 

Also, we spy on foreigners for their governments, foreign governments spy on us for our government. If anything specific comes up, they alert intelligence agencies who then get warrants and go from there. It's an end run around the 4th amendment, but it is what it is.

 

Unless you PGP encrypt something with a 4096 bit key assume it will be read and used against you.

Unless you PGP encrypt something with a 4096 bit key assume it will be read and used against you.

 

Even so. Quantum computing will soon make short work of the strongest ciphers in use today. And you have to consider the security of the endpoints. The message itself might not be the weakest link.

 

Also consider this element: http://xkcd.com/538/

 

Also, we spy on foreigners for their governments, foreign governments spy on us for our government. If anything specific comes up, they alert intelligence agencies who then get warrants and go from there. It's an end run around the 4th amendment, but it is what it is.

 

Not really as the portion of SIGINT related to COMINT that has to do with this type of stuff is known as UKUSA, which is a classification that covers a broad spectrum... however, without divulging anything, it involves foreign allies, hence preventing them from collecting on each other without consent. Does it mean that countries absolutely do not? Who knows as the stuff of "forbidden fruit" rarely is green-lit publicly.

 

I can attest to the fact that the US intelligence community defines what a US citizen is far better than any other branch or agency within the government. We abide by specific orders that were created for specifics types of intelligence gathering, and every measure has been taken (in regards to the law and in regards to training the operators on their execution) to prevent mishaps. I have seen someone, by accident, not follow strict protocol, and the consequences they faced were very severe-- even though the breach was at the operator level, and did not extend to any type of reporting.

 

While I can't speak for others in the community, when something did involve US citizens, as defined by our laws, we took every measure, to include receiving warrants. And no, no one I ever knew would just listen in on conversations of Joe Schmo. Never happened.

I should add though that there are programs out there that are more autonomous, they do not necessarily abide by certain parameters set forth.

Further, my comments referred to the national level as they are conducted by agencies and the military. What police do is beyond my knowledge, and their capabilities coincide with their investigations.

With that said, the importance of the message is that people should be careful about what they put out their in the public realm. It's something I say every time someone says something out of character, and it rings true because anything and everything can be taken out of context.

There are a few things out there that can provide internet anonimity if you should desire it. The tor network for example. I would only use something like that if I needed to handle some very sensitive data. Otherwise, I have no tin foil hat on. I browse the regular every day internet just like every other Joe on here.

While the US government isn't legally allowed to spy on us...

 

That used to be true. It has probably been changed, but you aren't allowed to know the cases or laws that changed it.