Tag Archives: Spying

South Korea’s new wedding crashers are graft-busters

Moon Seoung-ok, president of the Headquarters of Reporting for Public Good, poses for photographs as he demonstrates a glasses shaped spycam during a class in Seoul, South Korea,

By Ju-min Park

SEOUL (Reuters) – A pair of aspiring paparazzi staked out two weddings in Seoul’s high-end Gangnam district recently, but they weren’t looking for celebrities. Their target: officials receiving gifts that might violate South Korea’s tough new anti-corruption law.

About 4 million people are estimated to be directly covered by the law – civil servants, employees at state-owned enterprises, teachers, journalists – which limits the value of meals and gifts that can be accepted.

With rewards worth up to 200 million won ($181,691), it is also fuelling a cottage industry of camera-wielding, receipt-scavenging vigilantes targeting expensive restaurants and fancy weddings in a country with a deep tradition of entertaining and gift-giving.

Some of them come for training in the art of espionage at a school that calls itself the Headquarters of Reporting for Public Good, including the two that went to the weddings.

“You can get rich and become a patriot at the same time,” school president Moon Seoung-ok told students participating in a recent class that included tips on using hidden cameras.

“You can pick up credit card receipts from garbage at restaurants,” Moon told his students at his classroom housed in an office near a Seoul courthouse, where he hands out booklets about the anti-graft law. “You need to obtain evidence.”

THE 3-5-10 RULE

South Korea ranked 27th among 34 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries in the 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index compiled by Transparency International.

Since the law took effect on Sept. 28, golf course reservations have plunged and fewer guests are attending weddings, while hospitals have posted warnings against thank-you gifts, media have reported. Some groups of diners are splitting bills – a practice once almost-unheard of in the country.

Consumer and entertainment companies could lose up to 11.6 trillion won ($10.43 billion) under the law, the Korea Economic Research Institute said in June.

The law limits the value of meals that can be accepted by public servants and others to 30,000 won. Gifts are capped at 50,000 won in value, while cash gifts that are traditionally handed over in envelopes at weddings and funerals are limited to 100,000 won, under prohibitions now known as the “3-5-10” rule.

Violators can expect fines, but would face criminal prosecution for more serious infringements, such as receiving a gift of more than 1 million won, or for receiving a total of over 3 million won worth of gifts in a year.

Businesses are scrambling to adjust. The lobby group for the Korean conglomerates known as chaebol, the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), held a seminar on Sept. 8 attended by about 400 people on how corporate officials should comply with the law.

CHECK THE OBITUARIES

In South Korea, the term “paparazzi” applies not only to photographers chasing celebrities but to individuals who can win cash in other “report and reward” schemes that cover offenses such as running traffic lights or dropping cigarette butts on the street.

The Kim Young-ran anti-bribery law, named after the former Supreme Court justice who proposed it, has spawned the term “ran-parazzi”.

Moon tells his students to find their way into weddings and funerals.

“You have to look into who you are targeting,” Moon said in an interview. “Check obituaries in newspapers to find out who’s holding a funeral among the upper class.”

While Moon’s school does not charge tuition for the “ran-parazzi” in training, it offers to sell students gadgets, including pens and spectacles with hidden cameras. A recent classroom session was attended by 10 students.

One of them, Otgoutugs Ochir, a 46-year-old housewife originally from Mongolia, said she hopes to earn enough money to buy an apartment. But she also professes patriotism as a motive.

“If the number of those who make money illegally declines, my kids can live in a better environment,” she said.

FLORAL DISPLAYS

An official with the government’s Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Committee said citizens reporting violations should provide detailed evidence.

“Anyone reporting should submit a paper document with his or her name on it. A single photo is difficult to build a case with,” said the official, who declined to be named because he is not authorized to speak to media.

The weddings the two students staked out did not feature the congratulatory floral displays that are standard at such occasions. One of the students, Song Byung-soo, 60, saw that as a pre-emptive measure.

“Things have already changed lot,” said Song, who is looking to supplement the income he earns working for a company that sells auto parts but does not expect to hit the jackpot.

“I was hesitant because I have to hurt someone by doing this, but after the training, I think it is alright. If ran-parazzi can make our society clean without special favors or corruption, I think it is a good thing after all,” Song said.

($1 = 1,100.7700 won)

(Reporting by Ju-min Park; Editing by Tony Munroe and Bill Tarrant.)

Swiss voters likely to back new law on surveillance: survey

Camera looking over Swiss resort

By John Miller

ZURICH (Reuters) – Voters in Switzerland on Sunday are likely to back a law extending the spy service’s authority to monitor internet traffic, deploy drones and hack foreign computer systems to combat militant attacks, a survey shows.

Switzerland’s system of direct democracy gives citizens final say on the law passed in September 2015 which will give new powers to the Federal Intelligence Service, along with rules on when the agency can use them.

In a survey last week by polling group gfs.bern on behalf of Swiss state television, 53 percent were in favor of the law, with 35 percent opposed. Twelve percent were undecided, gfs.bern said.

Though neutral Switzerland has not been targeted by the sort of militant Islamist attacks seen elsewhere in Europe, the Swiss government contends previous intelligence laws are outdated and ill-equipped to tackle threats that have intensified as militants deploy new technology in a tight-knit global network.

“The Federal Intelligence Service will get modern information-gathering tools, including for surveillance of telephone calls or internet activities,” the government said. “These can only be deployed under strict conditions.”

For instance, the agency must get the government’s go-ahead before deploying software to penetrate foreign computer networks. When gathering information, its agents must “employ methods least likely to intrude on the targeted person’s civil rights”, according to the law.

Across Europe, countries including France have expanded spy agency powers, following Islamist attacks that have shifted some governments’ priorities from privacy to security.

Switzerland has prosecuted several people it contends aided Islamic State and sought to strip citizenship from a man suspected of traveling to Syria to fight with the group.

(Reporting by John Miller; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

U.S. defends warrantless spying in Christmas tree bomber case

The logo of the U.S. National Security Agency

By Dustin Volz

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. government lawyers on Wednesday defended the legality of a warrantless surveillance program challenged as unconstitutional in an Oregon court by a Somali-born American citizen convicted of attempting to detonate a bomb at a Christmas tree-lighting ceremony.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Portland heard arguments in the case brought by Mohamed Mohamud, convicted in 2013 of plotting to use a weapon of mass destruction in the 2010 incident and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

The case is the first of its kind to consider whether a criminal defendant’s constitutional rights are violated under a National Security Agency program that allows spying on Americans’ international phone calls and internet communications.

Mohamud contends the program violates the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures.

Kelly Zusman, a lawyer with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Portland, told the court that because surveillance data on foreigners is legally collected under the program, no warrant is required when searching that information even if it is conducted to find communications involving an American.

Stephen Sady, a federal public defender representing Mohamud, said the government’s argument represented an “incredible diminution of the privacy rights of all Americans.”

“That is a step that should never be taken,” Sady added.

Mohamud, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was 19 when he was arrested, attempted to remotely detonate what he thought was a car bomb near a square in downtown Portland crowded with thousands of people attending a Christmas tree-lighting ceremony the day after the Thanksgiving holiday.

The bomb was actually a fake. Mohamud’s lawyers said he was entrapped by U.S. law enforcement officers posing as al Qaeda militants.

Mohamud is challenging the admissibility of evidence used against him at trial that was obtained under a foreign intelligence statute. His lawyers argue that the law does not allow the government to retain and access content of communications belonging to Americans and that the statute is unconstitutional.

The law, enacted in 2008 by Congress as an amendment to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and known as Section 702, involves internet surveillance programs known as Prism and Upstream that were first disclosed publicly in a series of leaks three years ago by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

Prism gathers messaging data from Alphabet Inc’s Google, Facebook Inc, Microsoft Corp, Apple Inc and other major tech companies that is sent to and from a foreign target under surveillance. Upstream allows the NSA to copy web traffic flowing along the internet backbone located inside the United States and search that data for certain terms associated with a target.

U.S. officials have conceded that data about Americans is sometimes “incidentally” collected under these programs and later used for domestic criminal investigations. Critics see this as unlawful back-door surveillance of Americans without a warrant.

During the arguments, Judge Carlos Bea, an appointee of former Republican President George W. Bush, challenged claims by Mohamud’s lawyers that data on U.S. citizens and lawful residents caught up in a legal foreign surveillance program was off limits.

“Tell me why, once it is legally procured, it becomes illegal to look at it?” Bea asked.

Zusman acknowledged some of the criticisms of Section 702 may be valid but that changes to its implementation should be decided by policymakers, not the courts.

The government has not disclosed which program was used with Mohamud, and it alerted him and his lawyers about how evidence against him was collected only after his conviction.

The case may have political implications, as Congress must reauthorize Section 702 by Dec. 31, 2017, or let it expire.

(Reporting by Dustin Volz; Editing by Will Dunham)

Senate votes down proposal to expand FBI surveillance powers

FBI at the Pulse

By Dustin Volz

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate on Wednesday voted down a Republican-backed proposal to expand the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s secretive surveillance powers after the mass shooting at an Orlando gay nightclub last week.

The measure followed the Senate’s rejection on Monday of four measures that would have restricted gun sales.

During Wednesday’s vote, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell switched his vote to ‘no,’ giving himself the opportunity to bring the measure up for consideration again as soon as later this week.

The legislation would broaden the type of telephone and internet records the FBI could request from companies such as the Google unit of Alphabet Inc and Verizon Communications Inc without a warrant. Opponents, including some major technology companies, have said it would threaten civil liberties and do little to improve national security.

The legislation before the Senate on Wednesday, filed as an amendment to a criminal justice funding bill, would widen the FBI’s authority to use so-called National Security Letters, which do not require a warrant and whose very existence is usually a secret.

Such letters can compel a company to hand over a user’s phone billing records. Under the Senate’s change, the FBI would be able to demand electronic communications transaction records such as time stamps of emails and the emails’ senders and recipients, in addition to some information about websites a person visits and social media log-in data.

It would not enable the FBI to use national security letters to obtain the actual content of electronic communications.

The legislation would also make permanent a provision of the USA Patriot Act that lets the intelligence community conduct surveillance on “lone wolf” suspects who do not have confirmed ties to a foreign terrorist group. That provision, which the Justice Department said last year had never been used, expires in December 2019.

The bill had been expected to narrowly pass but it fell two votes short of the required 60.

The future of the Senate proposal in the House of Representatives was also uncertain, given its alliance between libertarian-leaning Republicans and tech-friendly Democrats that has blocked past efforts to expand surveillance.

Privacy groups and civil liberties advocates accused Republicans this week of exploiting the Orlando shooting to build support for unrelated legislation.

Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, criticized Senate Republicans for “pushing fake, knee-jerk solutions that will do nothing to prevent mass shootings or terrorist attacks.”

Though Republicans invoked the Orlando shooting in support of the bill, FBI Director James Comey has said Omar Mateen’s transactional records were fully reviewed by authorities who investigated him twice for possible extremist ties.

Comey said there was “no indication” Mateen belonged to any extremist group and that it was unlikely authorities could have done anything differently to prevent the attack.

(Reporting by Dustin Volz; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Bernard Orr)

Senate likely to pass FBI spying bill after Orlando shooting

Man paying respect to the dead at Pulse memorial

By Dustin Volz

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate on Wednesday is likely to pass a Republican-backed proposal to expand the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s secretive surveillance powers after the mass shooting at an Orlando gay nightclub last week.

The spying bill is the Republican response to the massacre after a push for gun-control measures sponsored by both major U.S. parties failed earlier this week.

The legislation would broaden the type of telephone and internet records the FBI could request from companies like Alphabet Inc and Verizon without a warrant. The proposal met opposition from critics who said it threatened civil liberties and did little to improve national security.

The bill, which the Obama administration has sought for years, “will allow the FBI to collect the dots so they can connect the dots, and that’s been the biggest problem that they’ve had in identifying these homegrown, radicalized terrorists,’” Senator John Cornyn, the chamber’s No. 2 Republican, said Tuesday.

The vote also represents a bi-partisan drift away from policy positions that favored digital privacy, which had taken hold in the three years since former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden revealed the breadth of government surveillance programs.

The post-Snowden moves included the most substantial reforms to the U.S. intelligence community since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and a refusal to heed the FBI’s call for laws that would undermine encryption.

It is unclear if the House would pass the Senate proposal, given its alliance between libertarian-leaning Republicans and tech-friendly Democrats that has blocked past efforts to expand surveillance.

The legislation before the Senate Wednesday, filed as an amendment to a criminal justice funding bill, would widen the FBI’s authority to use so-called National Security Letters, which do not require a warrant and whose very existence is usually a secret.

Such letters can currently compel a company to hand over a user’s phone billing records. Under the Senate’s change they could demand electronic communications transaction records such as time stamps of emails and the emails’ senders and recipients, in addition to some information about websites a person visits.

The legislation would also make permanent a provision of the USA Patriot Act that allows the intelligence community to conduct surveillance on “lone wolf” suspects who do not have confirmed ties to a foreign terrorist group. That provision, which the Justice Department said last year had never been used, is currently set to expire in December 2019.

‘KNEE-JERK SOLUTIONS’

Privacy groups and civil liberties advocates accused Republicans this week of exploiting the Orlando shooting to build support for unrelated legislation.

Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, criticized Senate Republicans for “pushing fake, knee-jerk solutions that will do nothing to prevent mass shootings or terrorist attacks.”

Though Republicans invoked the Orlando shooting in support of the bill, FBI Director James Comey has said Mateen’s transactional records were fully reviewed by authorities who investigated him twice for possible extremist ties.

Comey said there was “no indication” Mateen belonged to any extremist group and that it was unlikely authorities could have done anything differently to prevent the attack.

(Reporting by Dustin Volz; Editing by Jonathan Weber and Andrew Hay)

Edward Snowden Claims Smartphones can Easily be Hacked

Whistleblower Edward Snowden rocked the world when he called out the actions of the NSA, but he now has new revolutionary information: UK spy agency GCHQ has the ability to hack into smartphones with encrypted text messages, and the owner would never know.

In an interview with the BBC’s Panorama program, he stated that the GCHQ “invested heavily” into technology that allows them to hack smartphones belonging to the public. The agency could gain access to the phones to take pictures and listen in to conversations.

“They want to own your phone instead of you,” he explained.

Snowden went on to explain that the GCHQ had a collection of secret intercept capabilities called a “Smurf Suite,” named after the cartoon series. Each “Smurf” controls a different aspect of the phone.

“Dreamy Smurf is the power management tool which means turning your phone on and off with you knowing,” he said.

“Nosey Smurf is the ‘hot mic’ tool. For example if it’s in your pocket, [GCHQ] can turn the microphone on and listen to everything that’s going on around you – even if your phone is switched off because they’ve got the other tools for turning it on.

“Tracker Smurf is a geo-location tool which allows [GCHQ] to follow you with a greater precision than you would get from the typical triangulation of cellphone towers.”

In order to hack the smartphone, the GCHQ sends a simple text message that is hidden from the owner. That text contains an exploit that allows the agency to control the software of the smartphone.

“You paid for [the phone] but whoever controls the software owns the phone,” Snowden added.

NSA Spied On French Presidents

The National Security Agency has been exposed for spying on the last three French presidents.

The website Wikileaks revealed classified documents that reveal the NSA targeted the communications of Presidents Hollande, Sarkozy and Chirac.  In addition, the spy agency targeted cabinet ministers and the French ambassador to the U.S.

The news of the Wikileaks release was published in the French daily newspaper Liberation.

“The French people have a right to know that their elected government is subject to hostile surveillance from a supposed ally,” WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said in the statement, adding that more “important revelations” would soon follow.

President Obama has told French President Hollande that the NA is “not targeting and will not target” his communications.

A spokesman for the White House’s National Security Council reiterated the President’s position.

“Indeed, as we have said previously, we do not conduct any foreign intelligence surveillance activities unless there is a specific and validated national security purpose. This applies to ordinary citizens and world leaders alike,” NSC’s Ned Price said.

“We work closely with France on all matters of international concern, and the French are indispensable partners.”

The WikiLeaks documents show the NSA spied on items about “the global financial crisis, the Greek debt crisis, the leadership and future of the European Union, the relationship between the Hollande administration and the German government of Angela Merkel, French efforts to determine the make-up of the executive staff of the United Nations, French involvement in the conflict in Palestine and a dispute between the French and US governments over US spying on France.”

FBI Found Using Mysterious Surveillance Aircraft

The FBI has been operating their own air force of low-flying surveillance planes hidden behind fake front companies.

According to a review by the Associated Press, the FBI flew over 30 cities in 11 states during the last 30 days.

The FBI claims the flights are done with the permission of a judge and are connected to specific investigative operations.  The planes carry video cameras and also the ability to intercept and record any cell phone call within the range of the plane.

The discovery by the AP forced the government to acknowledge the program publicly for the first time.  The most basic parts of the program have been classified from the public until now.  The AP traced 13 companies that turned out to be fake.  FVX Research, KQM Aviation, NBR Aviation and PXW Services were among the companies exposed as government fronts.

“The FBI’s aviation program is not secret,” spokesman Christopher Allen said in a statement to the AP. “Specific aircraft and their capabilities are protected for operational security purposes.” Allen added that the FBI’s planes “are not equipped, designed or used for bulk collection activities or mass surveillance.”

The FBI asked the AP to not reveal the names of the companies being used because it would “increase costs” to taxpayers when the FBI created new fake companies. The FBI would not confirm employees of the companies were actually employees of the federal government.

NSA Phone Spy Programs Stop When Senate Fails To Act

Due to the actions of Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, the National Security Agency is no longer allowed to spy on American’s phone calls and are no longer allowed to collect bulk phone data.

The action is considered temporary as eventually Senator Paul will not be able to stop passage of legislation that would allow certain spy programs to continue. The current Patriot Act had a Sunday night deadline to be renewed or all the spy programs approved by the law had to immediately end.

Several Republican senators were upset with their colleague stopping the law.

“We cannot go back to a pre-9/11 mentality,” New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte told Fox News.

 

“The Senate took an important–if late–step forward tonight,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in a statement after the Senate moved forward with debate on the Act. “We call on the Senate to ensure this irresponsible lapse in authorities is as short-lived as possible.”

Officials with the NSA told CNN they officially shut down the program at 7:44 p.m. Sunday night ahead of the Senate’s inaction on the bill.

The Senate is waiting to vote on the USA Freedom Act, which makes big changes to the NSA’s ability to collect phone data but keeps other parts of the Patriot Act’s spying authorization attacks.

Canada Moves To Expand Spy Power

On the heels of France approving dramatic expansion of their spy powers which would allow the government to collect the metadata of all citizens without a warrant, now Canada is moving toward expanding their spy powers.

The Anti-Terror Act was spurred by last year’s attack on the Parliament.  The bill flew through House of Commons and Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been a strong supporter of the bill.  The Senate is expected to approve the act before June.

The act gives the spy agency permission to work overseas along with making preventative arrests of terrorism suspects.  The police would also be allowed to make arrests and detain individuals without a charge.  Promotion of terrorism by any means including the internet would become a crime.

“There is a high probability of jihadist attacks from within,” Canadian Defence Minister Jason Kenney said. “The threat of terrorism has never been greater.”

Critics say the bill is too sweeping.  The opposition includes four former Prime Ministers and five justices of the Canadian Supreme Court.

“This bill will almost certainly lead to a chill on freedom of speech,” said Allan Weiss, professor of humanities at York University. “It is filled with vague wording that would make it possible for the government to label virtually anything it disagreed with as harmful to Canada’s national interests.”