Schneier on Security

AUGUST 23, 2024

This site will let you take a selfie with a New York City traffic surveillance camera.

Surveillance 328

Surveillance 328

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.

Surveillance 318

Surveillance 318

Schneier on Security

DECEMBER 5, 2023

Spying and surveillance are different but related things. If I hired that same private detective to put you under surveillance, I would get a different report: where you went, whom you talked to, what you purchased, what you did. Before the internet, putting someone under surveillance was expensive and time-consuming.

Surveillance 362

Surveillance Internet Internet Government 362

Schneier on Security

NOVEMBER 27, 2023

There seems to be no end to warrantless surveillance : According to the letter, a surveillance program now known as Data Analytical Services (DAS) has for more than a decade allowed federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to mine the details of Americans’ calls, analyzing the phone records of countless people who are not suspected of any (..)

Surveillance 348

Surveillance 348

Schneier on Security

AUGUST 31, 2023

A used government surveillance van is for sale in Chicago: So how was this van turned into a mobile spying center? A videoscope and a borescope are very similar as they’re both cameras on the ends of optical fibers, so the same tech you’d use to inspect cylinder walls is also useful for surveillance. Kind of cool, right?

Surveillance 339

Surveillance Government Mobile Media 339

Schneier on Security

NOVEMBER 1, 2022

It’s Iran’s turn to have its digital surveillance tools leaked : According to these internal documents, SIAM is a computer system that works behind the scenes of Iranian cellular networks, providing its operators a broad menu of remote commands to alter, disrupt, and monitor how customers use their phones.

Surveillance 363

Surveillance Telecommunications Mobile Encryption 363

Schneier on Security

APRIL 4, 2024

The ProtonMail people are accusing Microsoft’s new Outlook for Windows app of conducting extensive surveillance on its users.

Surveillance 358

Surveillance Advertising Data collection 358

Schneier on Security

DECEMBER 13, 2023

This is not about mass surveillance of mail , this is about sorts of targeted surveillance the US Postal Inspection Service uses to catch mail thieves : To track down an alleged mail thief, a US postal inspector used license plate reader technology, GPS data collected by a rental car company, and, most damning of all, hid a camera inside one of the (..)

Surveillance 317

Surveillance Data collection Technology 317

Schneier on Security

JANUARY 24, 2023

Just another obscure warrantless surveillance program. US law enforcement can access details of money transfers without a warrant through an obscure surveillance program the Arizona attorney general’s office created in 2014.

Surveillance 307

Surveillance Government Accountability 307

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.

Surveillance 358

Surveillance Marketing Technology 358

Schneier on Security

MAY 12, 2022

San Francisco police are using autonomous vehicles as mobile surveillance cameras. Privacy advocates say the revelation that police are actively using AV footage is cause for alarm. This is very concerning,” Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) senior staff attorney Adam Schwartz told Motherboard.

Surveillance 308

Surveillance Mobile 308

Schneier on Security

JANUARY 13, 2022

on behalf of the FBI, Senator Ron Wyden told Motherboard in a statement “Multiple intelligence community officials have confirmed to me, in writing, that intelligence agencies cannot ask foreign partners to conduct surveillance that the U.S. When asked about the practice of Australian law enforcement monitoring devices inside the U.S.

Surveillance 355

Surveillance Encryption Government 355

Schneier on Security

FEBRUARY 17, 2022

Customer service or Chinese surveillance? It read: “Hey Phelim, to help us improve your Otter’s experience, what was the purpose of this particular recording with titled ‘Mustafa Aksu’ created at ‘2021-11-08 11:02:41’?”. Turns out it’s hard to tell.

Surveillance 347

Surveillance Government 347

Schneier on Security

OCTOBER 11, 2021

It’s not actually banned in the EU yet — the legislative process is much more complicated than that — but it’s a step: a total ban on biometric mass surveillance.

Surveillance 355

Surveillance 355

Schneier on Security

MAY 1, 2025

Two essays were just published on DOGE’s data collection and aggregation, and how it ends with a modern surveillance state. It’s good to see this finally being talked about.

Surveillance 252

Surveillance Data collection 252

Schneier on Security

FEBRUARY 17, 2025

The EFF has released its Atlas of Surveillance , which documents police surveillance technology across the US.

Surveillance 211

Surveillance Technology 211

Schneier on Security

MARCH 7, 2025

The EFF has created an open-source hardware tool to detect IMSI catchers: fake cell phone towers that are used for mass surveillance of an area. It runs on a $20 mobile hotspot.

Surveillance 241

Surveillance Mobile 241

Penetration Testing

MAY 24, 2025

Sekoia.ios Threat Detection & Research (TDR) team has unveiled a novel adversary, dubbed “ViciousTrap”, that hijacks compromised SOHO The post ViciousTrap: New Cyber-Espionage Group Hijacks Routers for Honeypot Surveillance appeared first on Daily CyberSecurity.

Surveillance 101

Surveillance Threat Detection Cybersecurity 101

Schneier on Security

AUGUST 25, 2021

Vice has an article about how data brokers sell access to the Internet backbone. This is netflow data. It’s useful for cybersecurity forensics, but can also be used for things like tracing VPN activity. At a high level, netflow data creates a picture of traffic flow and volume across a network.

Internet 363

Internet Internet Surveillance VPN 363

Schneier on Security

AUGUST 22, 2023

Neither is using them for bulk surveillance. Zayas’ lawyer Ben Gold contested the AI-gathered evidence against his client, decrying it as “dragnet surveillance.” License plate scanners aren’t new. ” And he had the data to back it up.

Surveillance 241

Surveillance Mobile Technology Artificial Intelligence 241

Schneier on Security

AUGUST 2, 2022

TheMarkup has an extensive analysis of connected vehicle data and the companies that are collecting it. The Markup has identified 37 companies that are part of the rapidly growing connected vehicle data industry that seeks to monetize such data in an environment with few regulations governing its sale or use.

Surveillance 342

Surveillance Government Data collection 342

Schneier on Security

JULY 2, 2024

This article about an app that lets people remotely view bars to see if they’re crowded or not is filled with commentary—on both sides—about privacy and openness.

Surveillance 294

Surveillance 294

Schneier on Security

NOVEMBER 20, 2023

Generative AI is going to be a powerful tool for data analysis and summarization. Here’s an example of it being used for sentiment analysis. My guess is that it isn’t very good yet, but that it will get better.

Surveillance 334

Surveillance Artificial Intelligence 334

Schneier on Security

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

Last week, someone posted something like 570 files, images and chat logs from a Chinese company called I-Soon. I-Soon sells hacking and espionage services to Chinese national and local government. Lots of details in the news articles. These aren’t details about the tools or techniques, more the inner workings of the company.

Surveillance 314

Surveillance Hacking Government 314

Security Affairs

DECEMBER 12, 2024

Chinese law enforcement uses the mobile surveillance tool EagleMsgSpy to gather data from Android devices, as detailed by Lookout. Researchers at the Lookout Threat Lab discovered a surveillance tool, dubbed EagleMsgSpy, used by Chinese law enforcement to spy on mobile devices. ” reads the report published by Lookout.

Surveillance 66

Surveillance Mobile Spyware Malware 66

Schneier on Security

DECEMBER 14, 2023

This seems like a bad idea. And there are ongoing lawsuits against Amazon for selling them.

Surveillance 328

Surveillance Marketing 328

WIRED Threat Level

JUNE 12, 2025

Law enforcement has more tools than ever to track your movements and access your communications. Here’s how to protect your privacy if you plan to protest.

Surveillance 143

Surveillance 143

Schneier on Security

AUGUST 5, 2024

Ford has a new patent application for a system where cars monitor each other’s speeds, and then report then to some central authority. Slashdot thread.

Surveillance 331

Surveillance 331

Security Affairs

MAY 28, 2025

It checks the environment to avoid honeypots or restricted systems and looks specifically for the term Pumatronix, a maker of surveillance and traffic cameras, hinting at IoT targeting or an attempt to bypass certain devices. ” states the report.

Surveillance 75

Surveillance IoT Malware Manufacturing 75

Schneier on Security

MARCH 25, 2025

Other Surveillance Tech Deployed Against The Same Italian Cluster. We also note 2024 warnings sent by Meta to several individuals in the same organizational cluster, including a Paragon victim, suggesting the need for further scrutiny into other surveillance technology deployed against these individuals.

Spyware 222

Spyware Surveillance Technology 222

Schneier on Security

JANUARY 30, 2024

It finally admitted to buying bulk data on Americans from data brokers, in response to a query by Senator Weyden. This is almost certainly illegal, although the NSA maintains that it is legal until it’s told otherwise. Some news articles.

Surveillance 333

Surveillance Data collection Data privacy 333

Schneier on Security

NOVEMBER 11, 2022

Here in 2022, we have a newly declassified 2016 Inspector General report—”Misuse of Sigint Systems”—about a 2013 NSA program that resulted in the unauthorized (that is, illegal) targeting of Americans. Given all we learned from Edward Snowden, this feels like a minor coda.

Surveillance 242

Surveillance 242

Schneier on Security

JANUARY 20, 2022

Last summer, the San Francisco police illegally used surveillance cameras at the George Floyd protests. The EFF is suing the police: This surveillance invaded the privacy of protesters, targeted people of color, and chills and deters participation and organizing for future protests. It’s feels like a pretty easy case.

Surveillance 360

Surveillance Technology 360

Tech Republic Security

SEPTEMBER 21, 2023

Australian retailers are rolling out mass surveillance solutions to combat shoplifting, but a poor regulatory environment could mean high risks associated with data security and privacy.

Surveillance 207

Surveillance Retail Risk Big data 207

Schneier on Security

APRIL 5, 2024

It seems that the FCC might be fixing the vulnerabilities in SS7 and the Diameter protocol: On March 27 the commission asked telecommunications providers to weigh in and detail what they are doing to prevent SS7 and Diameter vulnerabilities from being misused to track consumers’ locations.

Surveillance 331

Surveillance Telecommunications 331

Penetration Testing

JUNE 7, 2025

Learn how this sophisticated attack works and if your surveillance system is at risk. A new Mirai botnet variant is exploiting CVE-2024-3721 to infect vulnerable DVRs.

Surveillance 119

Surveillance Risk DDOS IoT 119

Schneier on Security

DECEMBER 17, 2020

Sophisticated spyware, sold by surveillance tech companies to Mexican government agencies, are ending up in the hands of drug cartels : As many as 25 private companies — including the Israeli company NSO Group and the Italian firm Hacking Team — have sold surveillance software to Mexican federal and state police forces, but there is little (..)

Spyware 359

Spyware Surveillance Government Hacking 359