Being Watched

Is it true that governments across the world monitor sites like this one.
I have read that if you continually post "threats" you will be visited by some government agency. Anyone have any evidence of this? Sorry if this has been discussed before, but am new to the site.

It's more than likely that certain agencies monitor sites like this. You shouldn't say things like "I would like to kill President Bush" or you might get into trouble!

Here is a link to a story about a girl who was visited by the secret service after posting on her blog. CLICK HERE

When you hear the newscaster say that the government has raised the terror alert level because of electronic "chatter", this means cell phone calls, e'mails and discussion boards like this one.

The NSA has hundreds of people working 24/7 with cutting edge technology to listen for key words in cyberspace like "bomb", "President", "terminate" and hundreds of other words. They have the technology to track an e-mail to its source when they feel a threat is credible. This sounds crazy, but I have witnessed it.

The one thing that we, as a free group of people just shooting the breeze, have in our favor is the overwhelming size of the internet and cell phone networks. Simple math dictates that there is no way that a few hundred geeks at their computers could monitor all electronic transmissions, but they do catch someone every so often. And they will convict you if they feel that your threats are serious.

Another thing that is pretty amazing is this: They can seize your computer (with a warrant of course) and retrieve a record of every key stroke that was ever made on the keyboard, even e-mails that you wrote but never sent. I have seen this method used to convict on-line child predators. In my own police department, we helped solve a kidnaping and rape of a young girl. The girl met this dude in a chat room and got friendly with him. He broke into her house when she was alone, kidnaped her, stole the hard drive to her computer and took off. They tracked him over five states and caught him by using cell phone traces, credit card traces and the info off the hard drive when they found it in the dumpster. Basically, everything you do these days can be tracked by someone who really wants to get you.

Originally posted by blueknight
Another thing that is pretty amazing is this: They can seize your computer (with a warrant of course) and retrieve a record of every key stroke that was ever made on the keyboard,

no offense, but thats science fiction now

even e-mails that you wrote but never sent.

you are always welcome to encrypt everything (hard drive/data) or at least use pgp for e mails (LOL I use 4kb key lol) and encrypt instant messagning (as ICQ/MSN), well that is if you have a reason for it

I don't doubt your expertise in the matter and I am somewhat of an ameteur when it comes to IT. Maybe these "men in black" from the government were playing some sort of trick on us local city cops, but they gave us a class on it and demonstrated it. If we've been had, Then I alologize for insulting anyone's intelligence and I guess I have egg on my face. But they sure made it convincing. Sorry if I'm wrong.............

Originally posted by blueknight
I don't doubt your expertise in the matter and I am somewhat of an ameteur when it comes to IT. Maybe these "men in black" from the government were playing some sort of trick on us local city cops, but they gave us a class on it and demonstrated it. If we've been had, Then I alologize for insulting anyone's intelligence and I guess I have egg on my face. But they sure made it convincing. Sorry if I'm wrong.............

You are not wrong. All I wanted to say is that there are techniques to protect your data so noone can 'crack' them.

I read that, if you have one of those web-cams and you don't shut the computer down before going to bed, a hacker can continue to watch what the camera sees....is that true?

I also heard that you need to keep your electronic key card after leaving a hotel because your credit card information and your address is on it....true or not MiTo?????????????

The bit about webcams is true. Do a search for a program called Sub 7, it’s old hat now but it does the job.
It has the ability to take control of a remote webcam once you've compromised some ones system.

As for the electronic key cards i doubt very much that they keep your credit card number on it or your address. If they did keep any personal info i suspect it would be your name and a corresponding ID to information about you in there system. I'm not saying that it cant be done I’m just saying it's an awful lot of trouble to go to just to keep information about some one, information that would already be stored on there computer system anyway.

Hope that helps

Burg

Originally posted by blueknight
I read that, if you have one of those web-cams and you don't shut the computer down before going to bed, a hacker can continue to watch what the camera sees....is that true?

true

I also heard that you need to keep your electronic key card after leaving a hotel because your credit card information and your address is on it....true or not MiTo?????????????

I don't know, but doubt it. No reason for that.

My swedish father was researching a cult called :"The Finders" for a book he was writing about cults. He did all his work on the computer and often emailed his findings to a colleague. One morning he received an email from a certain Government Organsiation telling him to cease all research. He couldn't find anything illegal he was doing so he continued. A week later they showed up at our house and had a word with him.

I have asked him about it many times but he has never told me why he stopped writing about them and what they said to him.

For more information about "The Finders" click these links:
www.voxfux.com...
www.the7thfire.com...

What about wireless internet service i.e., e-mail on a cell phone or and I-pod? I own a radio scanner that can pick up cell phone and cordless phone conversations. If these signals can be snatched out of the air with such ease, then why can't your e-mails and anything else be snatched out of the air?

Furthermore, don't you think that the government employs super smart people who can counter your encryption? I do. I think the government has technology that would scare the bejesus out of even the most accomplished IT guy/gal. I think they are busy using it in the war on terror right now, but their attention will eventually turn back to the domestic side of things and they will eventually try to regulate the internet like China has tried to do.

Hope I'm wrong................

Originally posted by blueknight
They have the technology to track an e-mail to its source when they feel a threat is credible. This sounds crazy, but I have witnessed it.

Technically so does everyone here. In any e-mail message you send out there is a (normally) unseen section called the "headers." This section records information such as Sender, Recipients, and records the different servers the message passed through on the way to you. All of this information is in plain text, and if you know how to read it, it's pretty simple stuff. I used to work at an ISP, and we'd routinely use this to find out who was sending out spam or viruses, or similar things.

You can complicate things by inserting false headers, but if someone knows what they're doing it's usually easy to eliminate most of those. Now, getting an offshore ISP to listen to a spam complaint...that's hard

The one thing that we, as a free group of people just shooting the breeze, have in our favor is the overwhelming size of the internet and cell phone networks. Simple math dictates that there is no way that a few hundred geeks at their computers could monitor all electronic transmissions, but they do catch someone every so often. And they will convict you if they feel that your threats are serious.

Automation, though, can make this easier. At the most basic, you could modify a packet sniffer on your network to scan for plaintext within the datagrams being sent over the network, and then to make a copy of datagrams that include keywords specified by you. These should include the originating and destination IP addresses.

Another thing that is pretty amazing is this: They can seize your computer (with a warrant of course) and retrieve a record of every key stroke that was ever made on the keyboard, even e-mails that you wrote but never sent.

This is kind of true. What they usually do is, before seizing the computer, set up a special type of program called a keylogger. This program (not your computer itself) records all the keys hit. These aren't particularly high-tech, or insidious, programs in and of themselves. I've seen some that are designed for corporate computers, to verify employees don't misuse company computers, and for home use (ostensibly to allow parents to monitor their childrens' IM conversations.) The danger is in how they're used: whether by spyware/malware companies to track what websites (and the usernames/passwords for those sites) you're visiting, or by government officials fishing for evidence of wrongdoing without just cause.

The computer you saw in that demonstration probably had had the keylogging program installed previously, and the agent had not mentioned it for the sake of brevity.

Take what I've said here with a grain of salt, too. I've oversimplified some things a bit just to make them presentable in the limited forum we have here. It's not really practical to go into a lecture on computer/software engineering and internetworking protocols before addressing the salient points

Yes, you are being watched. It's mostly keywords on the internet that gets your name thrown up on the lists, but hell man, even your car watches you these days...
www.usatoday.com...

Originally posted by jehova620
I have read that if you continually post "threats" you will be visited by some government agency.

I wrote about stringing Tony Blair up by his genitals from Tower Bridge and lo and behold I was visited by a couple of Grey Aliens, a MIB and had a black helicopter follow me from my home to the local McDonalds.

Probably just a coincidence

Actually, I daresay that the spooks do visit ATS every now and then. You need to join RATS for more info about a certain thing that happened when a member discovered a rather sensitive phone number.

Mods: Please remove if deemed inappropriate.


[edit on 9-2-2005 by Pisky]

Whiskey Jack, all I can say is WOW! You are one smart dude and I'm glad you don't work for the government or I really WOULD be scared. (You don't work for the government, do you? Jack? JACK!? Talk to me JACK!!!!!)

Originally posted by blueknight
Whiskey Jack, all I can say is WOW! You are one smart dude and I'm glad you don't work for the government or I really WOULD be scared. (You don't work for the government, do you? Jack? JACK!? Talk to me JACK!!!!!)

Actually he's Jack, Samurai Jack LOL

Originally posted by blueknight
Whiskey Jack, all I can say is WOW! You are one smart dude and I'm glad you don't work for the government or I really WOULD be scared. (You don't work for the government, do you? Jack? JACK!? Talk to me JACK!!!!!)

[computer]
Are you happy citizen?
[/computer]



[edit on 2/10/2005 by Whiskey Jack]

Yes, it's true that "they" look at sites like these, and probably post on them to create confusion and spread disinfo to keep people from discovering the truth about things. (but we know better, don't we?)

HELLO CIA!!! Are you having a good day?

Who posts threats? Not me. What i post are my opinions and things that are unjust and wrong. Frankly, i dont see how a government agency couldnt agree with me sometimes..

Originally posted by coney
Yes, it's true that "they" look at sites like these, and probably post on them to create confusion and spread disinfo to keep people from discovering the truth about things. (but we know better, don't we?)

HELLO CIA!!! Are you having a good day?

No not really.Can you imagine how boring reading this site is day in day out.

As for new communications technology who do you think is developing it.Echoleon (mist spelt to deseive u) never worked off key words.Terrorist,criminals anti govt types don`t tend to use words such as kill,bomb,president blah blah.System were and are developed to allow ground hogs to feed info on types of communications used and possible everyday lingo used to cover the true id or content of conversation.
Next time you take a pic with your phone the person who u send it too isn`t the first one to see it.
Next time you speak on your phone ask yourself who owns the satillite and processing software.Systems arn`t developed to infiltrate and spy afterwards but before gadgets get into the market place