Despite much hype about the recent "Brexit," top U.K. officials have made clear that the UK/USA "special relationship" in diplomatic and intelligence matters will remain strong as ever. Any lingering doubt about it can safely be disregarded following revelations from the Intercept this week regarding the massive yet shadowy surveillance base in the English countryside … Continue reading UK pursues aggressive drone policies, exposing govt. employees to legal risks
Tag: surveillance
A leading market research firm announced Monday that it expects the global drone market to pass $4 billion annually by 2025. It has been clear for some time that we are entering an era of increasingly pervasive unmanned aerial vehicles, but as the rise of insect-sized micro-drones looms, it appears little is being done to … Continue reading Micro-drones pose increasing privacy threat, but media coverage dissipates
An incident Thursday in which federal agents reportedly demanded access to a Wall Street Journal reporter's mobile phone as she entered the country highlights the broad and vague powers of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). But the government is actually using a little-discussed loophole in border security law to dubiously claim authority that goes … Continue reading Feds’ attempted search of reporter’s phone highlights egregious border rules
Artificial augmentation of living things is apparently all the rage, or at least a growing trend. But while media coverage largely focuses on the positives (as with much tech reporting) there is also plenty to be wary of as we move further towards melding with machines. Last week, the US Office of Naval Research reportedly … Continue reading Govt. coercion unnecessary as fashion-conscious biohackers RFID tag themselves
In the wake of the massacre in Orlando earlier this month, some, including journalists and a former deputy director of the FBI, have pointed to an alleged lack of resources as the cause for the bureau's failure to stop Omar Mateen. It is difficult to judge this claim, however, due to the lack of … Continue reading FBI Failures: A Question of Resources or Priorities?
Among the greatest internally-perceived dangers to the Department of Defense, and to sensitive areas of the government more broadly, is that posed by whistleblowers and leakers like Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden - the "insider threat." Yet in their eagerness to root out this threat and others, military policymakers may be making the problem worse. … Continue reading Pentagon Sees ‘Insider Threat,’ Opposes ‘Fairness’
A new report from the Pew Research Center released today shows that American political partisans increasingly not only dislike those who favor the other party, but about half are actually "afraid" of them. While alarming, the finding seems fitting amidst the current atmosphere of fear-mongering and crisis exploitation coming from both sides of the aisle. … Continue reading Politicians Pander, Capitalize on Tragedy
With a renewed focus on countering ISIS following the Orlando massacre, new tactics are being suggested for defeating the terror network and those it inspires. Among the suggestions are technologies to allegedly predict terrorist attacks and to automatically censor social media, although neither method is fully developed. The idea of predicting terrorist attacks using an … Continue reading Anti-Terror Algorithms Raise Ethics, Effectiveness Questions
Politico Magazine featured a story yesterday titled "The FBI's Growing Surveillance Gap," arguing that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is understaffed, which has led it to pursue controversial terrorism stings that some say amount to entrapment. But the Politico headline is ironic given some others this week. The author of the aforementioned article, Garrett M. … Continue reading Utility Pole Cameras: Big Brother Bureau is Watching
Although encrypted data has reportedly not yet posed a problem for investigators in the Orlando killing spree case, that didn't stop early media speculation that the investigation could reignite high-profile battles over data security. Earlier this year, Apple and the Federal Bureau of Investigation got into a fight over security features on a phone related to the … Continue reading Vulnerabilities Revealed Amidst Digital ‘Arms Race’
MirrorWilderness.com 