You thought PRISM was something? Say hello to "Bonesaw." It may already have said hello to you.

This is a long article but worth reading for many reasons. The primary topic is a man named General Keith Alexander, who seems to sit at the top of the cyberwar pyramid.

But the article, "The Secret War," in Wired Magazine contains so much eye-poping information on what is being revealed about state of the multibillion-dollar cyberwar centers that I hardly know where to start. It descrbes the powerful software being used to by the US government to hack into any computer, anywhere in the world...and more.

Conducted by agencies who most of you have never heard of (the NSA is just the tip of the iceburg, kids) and making use of shadowy, publicity-shy contractors with names like "Endgame" ( “We’ve been very careful not to have a public face on our company,” former vice president John M. Farrell wrote to a business...“We don’t ever want to see our name in a press release,” added founder Christopher Rouland..."), the new ongoing cyberwar on "enemies domestic and foreign" is headed out beyond the frontiers our wildest dreams and nightmares. New programs not only spy, they can destroy equipment and can even be used to kill humans remotely. As just one of the many tidbits in the article, consider the program "Bonesaw:"

....According to Defense News’ C4ISR Journal and Bloomberg Businessweek, Endgame also offers its intelligence clients—agencies like Cyber Command, the NSA, the CIA, and British intelligence—a unique map showing them exactly where their targets are located. Dubbed Bonesaw, the map displays the geolocation and digital address of basically every device connected to the Internet around the world, providing what’s called network situational awareness. The client locates a region on the password-protected web-based map, then picks a country and city— say, Beijing, China. Next the client types in the name of the target organization, such as the Ministry of Public Security’s No. 3 Research Institute, which is responsible for computer security—or simply enters its address, 6 Zhengyi Road. The map will then display what software is running on the computers inside the facility, what types of malware some may contain, and a menu of custom-designed exploits that can be used to secretly gain entry. It can also pinpoint those devices infected with malware, such as the Conficker worm, as well as networks turned into botnets and zombies— the equivalent of a back door left open...

...Marketing documents say “the Bonesaw platform provides a complete environment for intelligence analysts and mission planners to take a holistic approach to target discovery, reducing the time to create actionable intelligence and operational plans from days to minutes..."

Source: Wired Magazine by way of our friends at Zero Hedge.

It's a brave new world, folks. The global cyberwar is not only well underway -- It has been for some time. So say "cheese" and open up wide -- whether you want to or not.

reply to post by silent thunder


This leaves me utterly speechless. I expected such incredible power, but I naively thought it was still a few years away--perhaps allowing us some time to fight back the other aspects of the police state a little.

I've been very circumspect about the breadth and depth of my online and public footprint--or so I believed. But recent revelations have made me realize it's all pointless. And it's not over yet. One would think that the radical next step of simply eschewing all forms of electronic devices would again render one invisible and allow even a small return to personal privacy. But then there are the satellites and the drones and the ubiquitous cameras and listening and geolocations devices, and the already long-established abilities to see and hear through walls...

It's starting to look like we can only pray that our slavemasters will have a little mercy and kindness in their hearts--while knowing full well that they won't....

During the Y2K craze I was told by someone whom would certainly know, that if I want an idea of how advanced the government and military technology is all I had to do was look at what top of the line tech was available to the public and multiply it by a factor of 3.

I am sure that factor has probably doubled or more in the 13 years since I had that conversation and I am sure that when it comes to surveillance the government has technology that is far beyond what the average person thinks they have.

"but thats nothing. the new xbox is going to spy on us".

us small sheep have a hard time thinking that far out of the box. its almost to much for me to think about. yet someone is way ahead of all of us ATSer. crazy stuff....... painfulhead

This makes me feel like we are all on a leash, some are on a longer leash, others shorter,... but they can be yanked at any time...I think I'm going to puke...

There is NO putting the Genie back in the bottle.
This will continue until the people the world over revolt and destroy the monetary system and learn to govern themselves

OR

We become helplessly, hopelessly, and totally enslaved by the technology.

reply to post by silent thunder


All I read is it knows how to place an IP address to a map, and do cursory port scans to determine what exploits may be there, IF any, and can tell you if someone is maybe running firefox or IE.

Pretty much any one with any scripting knowledge can do this.

But if the nsa is attributing it to some super secret 'endgame' bonesaw program, it must be terrible news, pukeworthy and really really freaky.

It's a sign that a little knowledge is dangerous...

I'd be more interested to know what software is installed - how it is installed, who installs it, and how it can kill humans remotely.

That would give me cause for concern.

Also, I was involved in resolving Y2K issues... I guess I should know?

whatever that means...

I guess the senior citizens of the world were right...they don't need a computer or cell phone. They've lived all these years without them just fine. My in-laws don't even have an ATM card...they actually go to the bank when they need money! Maybe we should have listened to our elders.

reply to post by winofiend


Critical failure to a dam, via cyber attack could cause massive flooding and potentially panic/death. was one of the proposed scenarios in the article

Originally posted by introV
reply to post by winofiend

 

Critical failure to a dam, via cyber attack could cause massive flooding and potentially panic/death. was one of the proposed scenarios in the article

edit on 23-6-2013 by introV because: (no reason given)

Which is just one valid and redeeming feature of these spying systems.

The same applies not just to sabotaging a dam, but potable / drinking water treatment plants, nuclear power stations and processing plants, electrical grid, air traffic control, shipping control and most scary of all would be control over WMD systems like nukes and probably more likely the ever-growing dependency on AI operated weapons systems like drones.

Obviously it doesn't need saying that these important infrastructure and weapons systems need protecting from cyber attack, and it's right that measures are taken to do so...but it should not be protected by a system designed to spy right across the board..it should be specialised and unique to the systems being protected.

Apart from the appalling rights and privacy issues, there's much more security in having many multiples of unique cyber protection systems in place, than a single blanket based option. Or another way to look at it would be 10,000 different, unique and very hard to crack security systems is a much harder target than one or two worldwide systems.

That sounds like ordinary telecommunication mapping. They track all the electronics that emanate a signal. I wouldn't expect anything less, but you know that can work against them. Yucky name. I wonder if it can track people at the calcium ion level, related to the bones. Maybe not yet. Those electronics, they upset the mineral balance, of magnesium, calcium, and selenium in the body. The perpetual exposure to the RF goes through everything.

reply to post by winofiend


Don't be a negative nancy. Even Vanityfair knows.

The IOActive researcher, a man named Barnaby Jack, was so worried about the implications of his work that he intentionally obscured many of the details in his presentation. As a further precaution, he asked the attendees not to take any pictures—a tough request in a crowd full of smartphones and laptops. Jack’s work concerned pacemakers and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (I.C.D.’s).

More than three million American heart patients carry around these small, computerized devices, which monitor their heartbeat and deliver jolts of electricity to stabilize it when needed. To check and adjust these devices, many doctors use wand-like wireless programmers that they wave a few inches above patients’ chests—a straightforward and seemingly safe procedure. But now, with a custom-built transmitter, Jack had discovered how to signal an I.C.D. from 30 feet away.

It reacted as if the signal were in fact coming from the manufacturer’s official I.C.D. programmer. Instructed by the counterfeit signal, the I.C.D. suddenly spat out 830 volts—an instantly lethal zap. Had the device been connected to an actual human heart, the fatal episode would likely have been blamed on a malfunction.

Let’s face it: Barnaby Jack is a man who is quite literally looking for trouble. This is a guy who had demonstrated the year before how he could wirelessly direct an implantable insulin pump to deliver a lethal dose. The year before that, he hacked an ATM to make it spray out bills like a slot machine.

But trouble-making is what he’s paid to do at IOActive, and in that role he has developed a particular respect for the looming power of smartphones. Terrorists have already used cell phones to kill people in the crudest possible way: detonating explosives in Iraq and Afghanistan. But smartphones bring a new elegance to the endeavor and will bring new possibilities for mayhem into the most mundane areas of life.

Death by kill-switch

As we've learned once more in the last weeks, we're dealing with people who have clearly demonstrated their willingness to exploit computer technology, every way they can. Because they can. That should be reason for concern.

Originally posted by silent thunder

Marketing documents say “the Bonesaw platform provides a complete environment for intelligence analysts and mission planners to take a holistic approach to target discovery, reducing the time to create actionable intelligence and operational plans from days to minutes..."

I think I'll have to make extra strong coffee this morning. And while it's being made, would someone be nice enough to tell me what the hell does 'a holistic approach to target discovery' mean?

I can't help but think that this is has very little, if any, purpose in actually ousting enemy plots. Any criminal mastermind with half of a brain knows to stay off of the internet, lol.

reply to post by silent thunder


Honestly, you have to be naive to think that this wasn't going on. This is exactly what the internet's purpose was when it was designed.

Personally I don't care. They can not track everyone, so unless you are doing illegal activities that are national security concerns, you really have nothing to worry about.

Of course you could always just shut off all your electronic devices and go "dark" so to speak.

One should really consider the positives of something like this. I have no doubt these policies have saved thousands of lives and foiled many plots. It's funny that people always criticize the government when these terrorst attacks happen. You will hear people say, "they should have known it was going to happen, the FBI is at fault, cause they didn't arrest this person who was on a watch list.

Just remember, you only hear about the bad, they do not release the details of all the attacks that they have prevented.

you heard the man, silent. how dare you think for yourself.
now shut up and do what you're told

reply to post by GeneralChaos

This will continue until the people the world over revolt and destroy the monetary system and learn to govern themselves

OR

We become helplessly, hopelessly, and totally enslaved by the technology.

Or we use technology to our advantage to create our own decentralized money systems such as Bitcoin and we beat them at their own game.

This is a great story OP, it further blows the lid off of what's happening, but some of it is not anything new. For example, we already knew about Stuxnet.

Some types of encryption are broken by starving a CPU carefully over time to cause a hardware fault. For each CPU clock, they can force the server to reveal parts of the private encryption key, and over time, crack the password. It's not easy to do, and you have to know how to do a few more things than just hack at it, but it can be done.

Good article, I'm glad to see more people getting interested in revealing just how deep the rabbit hole goes.

S&F

~Namaste

Originally posted by ChaoticOrder
reply to post by GeneralChaos

 

Or we use technology to our advantage to create our own decentralized money systems such as Bitcoin and we beat them at their own game.

Bitcoin is a great thing, I use Bitcoins occasionally for some online purchases but sadly the world government(s) are infiltrating Bitcoin as well and trying to figure out a way to regulate and get their greedy paws all over it too.

GOVERNMENT TO REGUALTE BITCOIN

LINK

State Governments Planning to Regulate Bitcoin Exchanges

It is really becoming harder to do anything without the cowardly tyrants in government having their noses in every aspect of your business. I use Tor Browser a lot for anonymous web searching but it appears that even it is not very secure anymore.

It will take full blown revolt to stop the practices of the governments now. Those in power have become stupefied by their desire to control every aspect of our lives, from what we eat to what we think within our own conscience minds.

Personally I think it's too late for anything to stop the perpetual direction we are headed down as a human race. We have reached the population point on this planet that we can not sustain ourselves, the resources aren't there, the food supply is dwindling, and the ideals of human thought are too varied for us to ever be unified and live in a state of peace. All we can do is hope for the best, prepare for the worst, and try to live our lives one day at a time and make the best of each day we have.

It's just too bad that those who seek dominion over us can't grasp that concept.

reply to post by winofiend


I read the article as well, when you get down to it what Silent Thunder is talking about is done by a private company who develops, basically, botnets. Some enterprising American took the existing black side of malware and botnet technology, threw in some "White" hat software guys who probably scavenge more than they created ( at least at first) then used these bots to exploit more machines. Now, they amass a nice network of machines, lots of exploits, and they become sub contractors for the US agencies that have to play by certain rules. They can install custom software, use the machine as a platform to do other interesting things.

Any of you non-techies have to understand that tools that look for exploitable machines are not new, nor that complex to operate. Botnet time can be purchased and they have graphical interfaces that let admin do all sorts of things.

So you have a new exploit you have developed or you are piggy backing on, you set up web sites and lure people to them, you maybe even already have exploited machines that have useful sites or services. You use those as a platform for ensnaring new machines. You could see how it would be more useful if you had a partner who, let's say, could give you target details like City, maybe some peoples's names, companies. Some smart people could then focus their exploits more precisely.

This type of thing has always gone on, and as technology grows more complicated and is used by people who have very little technological expertise, these types of issues will grow. Consumers need to take a more proactive approach to securing technology. Unfortunately, this usually only happens after being affected. Some people shouldn't own technology at all, they are too stupid to understand any of it. As the gap between those that understand technology and those that simply consumes services grows, the power that the Techno-savvy will escalate. And remember, the truly smart ones will not reveal themselves to the dumb masses unless they have too. You only burn a tool if the pay off outweighs the loss of the tool right?



V