A little surfing on the net shows us exhilarant spying techniques

It all started with Echelon, the secretive network capable of capturing tons of security, economic, political and personal information from radio waves, satellite communications, phone calls and emails. Echelon is administered by United States, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand, only one of these countries has total access on stolen data and has full executive powers, and certainly it is New Zealand :)

Several sites on the web discuss Echelon, especially in matter of legality and privacy; one is the Echelon Watch, whenever Privacy International Organization offers a detailed report on privacy threads.

Along with Echelon we have Carnivore and Magic Lantern, nice names for two logging tools of the FBI, the first is used to archive all the emails you receive or send, and the second is a keystroke logging tool, this means that every information you type on your keyboard is recorded by FBI. howstuffwork.com has a detailed article on how Carnivore worked… we say 'worked' because Carnivore officially has been shut down. (To be more precise, FBI has now a more potent tool for collecting email messages it's called DCS1000 or data collection system).

US Government spies on others, but it has been spied on too… 140 Israelis have been arrested until now in a secretive and sprawling investigation into suspected espionage. informationclearinghouse has an investigation conducted by C.Cameron on Israelis that have gathered intelligence information on 9/11 attacks in advance, it's worth a visit.

Canada is also spying on Americans, the 007 way… A recent AP article started this way: Money talks, but can it also follow your movements?

In a U.S. government warning high on the creepiness scale, the Defense Department cautioned its American contractors over what it described as a new espionage threat: Canadian coins with tiny radio frequency transmitters hidden inside. The government said the mysterious coins were found planted on U.S. contractors with classified security clearances [Source].

This happened months after British diplomats in Moscow were accused of spying using electronic equipment hidden inside a fake rock in a park. If you want to know how a rock can 'spy' read this BBC article.

Labels: Technology, What's on the web