The Present and Future of TV Surveillance
Schneier on Security
AUGUST 27, 2024
Ars Technica has a good article on what’s happening in the world of television surveillance. More than even I realized.
Self-Driving Cars Are Surveillance Cameras on Wheels
Schneier on Security
JULY 3, 2023
. “We’ve known for a long time that they are essentially surveillance cameras on wheels,” said Chris Gilliard, a fellow at the Social Science Research Council.
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The FBI Identified a Tor User
Schneier on Security
JANUARY 17, 2023
Without the FBI deploying some form of surveillance technique, or Al-Azhari using another method to visit the site which exposed their IP address, this should not have been possible. Someone at the NSA gave a presentation on this ten years ago. (I There are lots of ways to de-anonymize Tor users.
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U.S. Court rules against NSO Group in WhatsApp spyware Lawsuit
Security Affairs
DECEMBER 23, 2024
Court documents state that on October 29, 2019, plaintiffs filed this lawsuit, alleging that the defendants used WhatsApp to target approximately 1,400 mobile phones and devices to infect them with the surveillance software. ” reads the court document. ” The U.S. This ruling is a huge win for privacy.
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Greek intelligence service used surveillance malware to spy on a journalist, Reuters reports
Security Affairs
AUGUST 6, 2022
Greek intelligence admitted it had spied on a journalist, while citizens ask the government to reveal the use of surveillance malware. The head of the Greek intelligence told a parliamentary committee that they had spied on a journalist with surveillance malware , Reuters reported citing two sources present. Pierluigi Paganini.
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A New Map Shows the Inescapable Creep of Surveillance
WIRED Threat Level
JULY 15, 2020
The Atlas of Surveillance shows which tech law enforcement agencies across the country have acquired. It's a sobering look at the present-day panopticon.
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Troy Hunt
DECEMBER 11, 2021
(it now looks like this will become a repeatable Xmas present for friends) I didn't hit 200k Twitter followers by this video. but I did a day and a half later!) After more than 11 years, it was finally time for a new profile photo (I really like this one 😊) You know what's not weird at all?
China’s Olympics App Is Horribly Insecure
Schneier on Security
JANUARY 21, 2022
The app also includes a censorship keyword list, which, while presently inactive, targets a variety of political topics including domestic issues such as Xinjiang and Tibet as well as references to Chinese government agencies. MY2022 includes features that allow users to report “politically sensitive” content.
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Critical Vulnerabilities in GPS Trackers
Schneier on Security
JULY 21, 2022
The researchers who performed the assessment believe the same critical vulnerabilities are present in other Micodus tracker models. CISA writes : These vulnerabilities could impact access to a vehicle fuel supply, vehicle control, or allow locational surveillance of vehicles in which the device is installed.
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Apple Adds a Backdoor to iMesssage and iCloud Storage
Schneier on Security
AUGUST 10, 2021
It opens the door for all sorts of other surveillance, since now that the system is build it can be used for all sorts of other messages. If the feature is enabled for the child account, the device will evaluate images in Messages and present an intervention if the image is determined to be sexually explicit.
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Identifying People Using Cell Phone Location Data
Schneier on Security
JANUARY 9, 2023
The example in the presentation is a kidnapper. There’s a whole lot of surveillance you can do if you can follow everyone, everywhere, all the time. He is based in a rural area, so he can’t risk making his ransom calls from that area. Instead, he drives to an urban area to make those calls.
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Expert found Russia’s SORM surveillance equipment leaking user data
Security Affairs
AUGUST 30, 2019
A Russian security researcher has found that hardware wiretapping equipment composing Russia’s SORM surveillance system had been leaking user data. SORM is a mass surveillance system that allows the Government of Moscow to track online activities of single individuals thanks to the support of the Russian ISPs. Pierluigi Paganini.
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Apple dismisses lawsuit against surveillance firm NSO Group due to risk of threat intelligence exposure
Security Affairs
SEPTEMBER 16, 2024
The IT giant fears that the disclosures of its threat intelligence related to commercial spyware operations could aid NSO and other surveillance firms. federal court for illegally targeting its customers with the surveillance spyware Pegasus. ” reads the court filing. ” continues the court filing.
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Privacy Roundup: Week 3 of Year 2025
Security Boulevard
JANUARY 20, 2025
Items presented here are typically curated with the end user and small groups (such as families and small/micro businesses) in mind. Inside the Black Box of Predictive Travel Surveillance Wired Covers the use of powerful surveillance technology in predicting who might be a "threat."
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Wanted: Cybersecurity Imagery
Schneier on Security
JULY 29, 2019
Each of these images fails to convey anything about either the importance or the complexity of the topic -- or the huge stakes for governments, industry and ordinary people alike inherent in topics like encryption, surveillance and cyber conflict. I don't use PowerPoint (or anything similar) when I give presentations.
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How the FBI Gets Location Information
Schneier on Security
OCTOBER 27, 2021
Vice has a detailed article about how the FBI gets data from cell phone providers like AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon, based on a leaked (I think) 2019 139-page presentation.
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Modern TVs have “unprecedented capabilities for surveillance and manipulation,” group reveals
Malwarebytes
OCTOBER 11, 2024
In a report titled “ How TV Watches Us: Commercial Surveillance in the Streaming Era ,” the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) spotlighted a massive data-driven surveillance apparatus that ensnares the public through modern television sets. Your television is debuting the latest, most captivating program: You.
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Experts spotted the iOS version of the Exodus surveillance app
Security Affairs
APRIL 9, 2019
In the last weeks, a new Android surveillance malware dubbed Exodus made the headlines, now expert found the iOS version of the government spyware. Security experts at LookOut have discovered an iOS version of the dreaded surveillance Android app Exodus that was initially found on the official Google Play Store. to eSurv S.R.L.
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WhatsApp fixed a spoofing flaw that could enable Remote Code Execution
Security Affairs
APRIL 8, 2025
” Due to its popularity, WhatsApp presents an appealing opportunity for threat actors, both financially and politically motivated. The Meta-owned company linked the hacking campaign to Paragon , an Israeli commercial surveillance vendor acquired by AE Industrial Partners for $900 million in December 2024.
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Anomaly Six, a US surveillance firm that tracks roughly 3 billion devices in real-time
Security Affairs
APRIL 26, 2022
An interesting article published by The Intercept reveals the secretive business of a US surveillance firm named Anomaly Six. While Russia was invading Ukraine in February, two unknown surveillance startups, Anomaly Six and Zignal Labs joined forces to provide powerful surveillance services.
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ScarCruft surveilling North Korean defectors and human rights activists
SecureList
NOVEMBER 29, 2021
The victim was infected by PowerShell malware and we discovered evidence that the actor had already stolen data from the victim and had been surveilling this victim for several months. To surveil the victim, the list includes target folders as well as /Camera, /Recordings, /KakaoTalk (a renowned Korean messenger), /??(documents),
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DEEP TECH NEWS: How ‘attribute-based encryption’ preserves privacy at a fined-grained level
The Last Watchdog
OCTOBER 18, 2023
The ubiquity of smart surveillance systems has contributed greatly to public safety. We discussed how ABE is ready to help resolve some rather sticky privacy issues stemming from widespread digital surveillance – and also do much more. Here are my takeaways.
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French court indicted Nexa Technologies for complicity in acts of torture
Security Affairs
NOVEMBER 28, 2021
Nexa Technologies was indicted for complicity in acts of torture, the French firm is accused of having sold surveillance equipment to the Egypt. Nexa Technologies offers a range of solutions for homeland security, including surveillance solutions. A cryptic nod to the triangular shape of the pyramids …” reported Télérama.
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Ferocious Kitten: 6 years of covert surveillance in Iran
SecureList
JUNE 16, 2021
When run, the executables display decoy content to the victims, with some presenting images of protests against the Iranian regime and its institutions, or videos from resistance camps. Decoy image found within one of the malicious executables showing a protest against the central bank of Iran.
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Group-IB presents its annual report on global threats to stability in cyberspace
Security Affairs
NOVEMBER 29, 2019
Group-IB’s annual report was presented at CyberCrimeCon 2019 international Threat Hunting and Intelligence conference in Singapore. If they manage to compromise a telecommunications company, they can then also compromise its customers for surveillance or sabotage purposes. Pierluigi Paganini.
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GUEST ESSAY: Why there’s no such thing as anonymity it this digital age
The Last Watchdog
MARCH 21, 2019
Despite warnings from cybersecurity academics, whistleblowers or former NSA and CIA agents, the general public shows no animosity toward metadata surveillance. They presented LPAuditor, a tool to conduct “a comprehensive evaluation of the privacy loss caused by publicly available location metadata.”
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Wearing Many Hats
Adam Shostack
JANUARY 2, 2025
Having been present for much of this, I think they've done a great job at capturing the history. In fact, the early cypherpunks were very focused on surveillance and possible targeting of activists by government in the mid-nineties, and there was substantial overlap between the hacker and cypherpunk communities.
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AI Risks
Schneier on Security
OCTOBER 9, 2023
Brock calls these fears “wishful worries”—that is, “problems that it would be nice to have, in contrast to the actual agonies of the present.” They want to wrestle the attention of regulators and advocates back toward present-day harms that are exacerbated by AI misinformation, surveillance, and inequity.
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Surveillance camera insecurities argument comes to one inevitable conclusion: Always update
Malwarebytes
JUNE 27, 2023
Chinese-made surveillance cameras find themselves in a spot of controversy, after a BBC investigation uncovered flaws in devices during several brand tests. Surveillance and webcam vulnerabilities are common, and we’ve covered them many times on our blog.
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NSO Group spyware used to compromise iPhones of 9 US State Dept officials
Security Affairs
DECEMBER 3, 2021
The US officials targeted by the surveillance software were either based in Uganda or focused on matters concerning the African country, revealed Reuters which was not able to determine which was NSO client that orchestrated the attacks. federal court for illegally targeting its customers with the surveillance spyware Pegasus.
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DEF CON 32 – The Edges Of Surveillance System And Its Supply Chain
Security Boulevard
NOVEMBER 4, 2024
Authors/Presenters: Chanin Kim, Myounghun Pak Our sincere appreciation to DEF CON , and the Presenters/Authors for publishing their erudite DEF CON 32 content. Permalink The post DEF CON 32 – The Edges Of Surveillance System And Its Supply Chain appeared first on Security Boulevard.
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ProtonMail denies that it spies on users for government agencies
Security Affairs
JUNE 2, 2019
The popular privacy-focused email service ProtonMail has been accused of offering voluntarily real-time surveillance assistance to law enforcement. The popular privacy-focused email service ProtonMail made the headlines because it has been accused of supporting real-time surveillance carried out by law enforcement.
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Transacting in Person with Strangers from the Internet
Krebs on Security
SEPTEMBER 9, 2022
The one I encountered was at a Virginia county sheriff’s office, and it has two parking spots reserved with a sign that reads, “Internet Purchase & Exchange Location: This Area is Under 24 Hour Video Surveillance” [image above]. And it appears most states now have them in at least some major cities.
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Detecting Adblocker Blockers
Schneier on Security
JANUARY 5, 2018
Interesting research on the prevalence of adblock blockers: " Measuring and Disrupting Anti-Adblockers Using Differential Execution Analysis ": Abstract : Millions of people use adblockers to remove intrusive and malicious ads as well as protect themselves against tracking and pervasive surveillance.
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Russia’s FSB used spyware against a Russian programmer
Security Affairs
DECEMBER 7, 2024
These extended capabilities suggest that the malware aims for comprehensive surveillance of the target device. ” continues the report. “Most of the malicious functionality of the application is hidden in an encrypted second stage of the spyware.
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Judging Facebook's Privacy Shift
Schneier on Security
MARCH 13, 2019
And if you read his 3,000-word post carefully, Zuckerberg says nothing about changing Facebook's surveillance capitalism business model. This data is combined with other surveillance data the company buys, including health and financial data. Better use of Facebook data to prevent violence.
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Threat Model Thursday: Technology Consumers
Adam Shostack
JANUARY 2, 2025
There's an interesting paper by Becky Kazansky, "It depends on your threat model": the anticipatory dimensions of resistance to data-driven surveillance. The author critiques 'anticipatory data practices', a collection of techniques that include my own work, as presented to civil society activists.
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Predator spyware vendor banned in US
Malwarebytes
MARCH 7, 2024
Predator can turn infected smartphones into surveillance devices. Nelson said: “Today’s actions represent a tangible step forward in discouraging the misuse of commercial surveillance tools, which increasingly present a security risk to the United States and our citizens.”
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CVE-2019-2234 flaws in Android Camera Apps exposed millions of users surveillance
Security Affairs
NOVEMBER 19, 2019
” The vulnerabilities allowed a malicious application installed on the victim’s phone to take control of the camera app present on Google and Samsung devices and spy on users without any special permission. Copyright (C) 2014 Media.net Advertising FZ-LLC All Rights Reserved -->. Pierluigi Paganini.
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USENIX Security ’23 – ‘Sneaky Spy Devices And Defective Detectors: The Ecosystem Of Intimate Partner Surveillance With Covert Devices’
Security Boulevard
DECEMBER 24, 2023
Full Presenters List: Rose Ceccio, Sophie Stephenson, Varun Chadha, Danny Yuxing Huang, Rahul Chatterjee Many thanks to USENIX for publishing their outstanding USENIX Security ’23 Presenter’s content, and the organizations strong commitment to Open Access.
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Privacy Roundup: Week 12 of Year 2025
Security Boulevard
MARCH 24, 2025
Items presented here are typically curated with the end user and small groups (such as families and small/micro businesses) in mind. Surveillance Tech in the News This section covers surveillance technology and methods in the news.
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CVE-2023-47565 Flaw in QNAP NVR Devices Exploited in the Wild
Penetration Testing
DECEMBER 27, 2023
In a digital landscape increasingly dotted with sophisticated surveillance solutions, the discovery of a critical vulnerability in QNAP’s VioStor Network Video Recorder (NVR) devices serves as a stark reminder of the ever-present cybersecurity risks....
Israel Defense Forces were searching systems to spy on private social media messages
Security Affairs
OCTOBER 22, 2018
“The Israel Defense Forces asked cybersecurity companies in 2016 to present proposals for creating a system that would monitor social media users’ personal correspondence.” Security Affairs – social media, surveillance). ” states the Haaretz. Pierluigi Paganini.
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Cybersecurity Governance: The Road Ahead in an Era of Constant Evolution
SecureWorld News
FEBRUARY 17, 2025
From its early days, where security was an afterthought to business operations, to the present, where it has become a board-level discussion, governance has had to adapt to an ever-evolving digital landscape. Privacy and ethics: Balancing employee monitoring with privacy rights in an era of increasing workplace surveillance.
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