How global corporations can hack anyone's computers for $2.5 million

[Cliff Arnebeck]

Last edited Sat Jun 29, 2013, 12:50 PM - Edit history (1)

Yesterday, FreePress.org published a virtual treatise on how the USA became the base for computer hacking around the world--with the blessings, financial help, and even subscription of some elements of the U.S. Government. The principal author of the treatise, Jill Simpson, has been described by former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman as a modern Joan of Arc, for having successfully taken on Karl Rove at the pinnacle of his power in 2007.

It would seem from Ms. Simpson's article that hacking by government and global corporations is OK, but hacking by individuals, not among the elite 1% who can afford the $2.5 million access fee to "Endgame," is not. However, when the general public--the 99%--finds out about this situation with the help of the road map and pictures Ms. Simpson and her colleague have provided @ http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/20/2013/5044, the judgment of history on this matter may be at hand.

Update June 29, 2013: I just posted a diary at Daily Kos focusing upon Jill Simpson's call for President Obama to appoint a special prosecutor and for the U.S. Senate to launch an investigation of "Endgame." http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/06/29/1219917/-Public-Integrity-Champion-Jill-Simpson-calls-for-Investigation-of-Endgame
This was from the conclusion of her article cited here.

[cantbeserious]

1. Link Blocked

eom

[Junkdrawer]

2. Works for me n/t

[cantbeserious]

3. Flagged As Pornography On My Tablet

eom

[lpbk2713]

4. I got through.

Interesting pdf at the link too.

[Cliff Arnebeck]

9. Possible interference with the story getting out

Last edited Fri Jun 28, 2013, 10:20 AM - Edit history (1)

When Jim March was confronted by three or four Endgame security personnel outside the door of their Atlanta headquarters, he identified himself as a stringer for the Free Press that was doing a story on Endgame. It is quite possible there will be efforts to suppress this story, and Endgame has had several days to prepare such efforts. Endgame is on record as believing that they would be dead if the general public knew about them.

If this story goes viral, it would prove the the incredible power of the Internet!

[muriel_volestrangler]

24. I tried looking up 'freepress.org' on Google

I get an expected 'top result' for the site, which looks normal:

The Free Press -- Independent News Media
www.freepress.org/?
Offers investigative news stories, commentary on social and political issues, an activist calendar, and links to more in-depth information.

But some of the subheadings under it look strange:

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In 2010, David Petraeus's four stars were ascendant. On his ...

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The Columbus Free Press is a progressive newspaper and ...

which might mean they've got problems keeping their site secure, and spammers have infiltrated it.

[starroute]

20. Here's a direct link to March's video

I watched it last night by way of a link at reddit, but I didn't know the background story. This is fascinating -- and it's particularly interesting that Jill Simpson is surfacing again.

[Cliff Arnebeck]

23. Thanks for posting this & see more of Simpson's work @ ElectionProtectionAction.org

Thanks for posting this. There is a lot of information in this video taken from outside the entryway to this secretive organization.

Jill Simpson is the top public integrity researcher in the world, in my opinion. You can see some of her other work at the ElectionProtectionAction.org WebSite.

[Junkdrawer]

5. Hi Cliff. Related Question: The amended FISA Act contains penalties for using NSA data....

without a warrant, but, it seems, only "under color of law".

Is it then true that private entities may violate the law by accessing the data, but there are no penalties for doing so?

[Cliff Arnebeck]

7. White hats and black hats

Endgame provides information about a target's computers and its points of vulnerability to hacking. The hacking, which is illegal unless done by the government pursuant to a warrant or extraordinary powers granted by the Patriot Act, is done by the subscriber to Endgame's services. It's illegal and punishable as a crime.

I think the "illegality" of a private person using NSA data relates to the the violation of that person's employment agreement or the subsequent use of that data with knowledge that it was illegally obtained.

When government is acting illegally, is it a crime for a government employee to disclose it and for a news organization to report it to the public? If done for the purpose of exposing criminality, then it would seem to be in the nature of civil disobedience for the sake of the public interest and investigative journalism under the protection of the First Amendment's guarantee of Freedom of the Press.

[Junkdrawer]

10. Thanks. I believe that answers my question. Just to be sure...

An entity such as Booz Allen Hamilton may not be subject to the 'color of law' aspect of the Act, but would be criminally liable if they disclosed the information with knowledge that it was illegally obtained.

Remedies for violations

Both the subchapters covering physical searches and electronic surveillance provide for criminal and civil liability for violations of FISA.

Criminal sanctions follows violations of electronic surveillance by intentionally engaging in electronic surveillance under the color of law or through disclosing information known to have been obtained through unauthorized surveillance. The penalties for either act are fines up to US$10,000, up to five years in jail, or both.

In addition, the statute creates a cause of action for private individuals whose communications were unlawfully monitored. The statute permits actual damages of not less than $1,000 or $100 per day. In addition, that statute authorizes punitive damages and an award of attorney's fees.[18] Similar liability is found under the subchapter pertaining to physical searches. In both cases, the statute creates an affirmative defense for a law enforcement agent acting within their official duties and pursuant to a valid court order. Presumably, such a defense is not available to those operating exclusively under presidential authorization.

...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Intelligence_Surveillance_Act

I guess the only wiggle room would be if the data were 'legally obtained'.

[PoliticAverse]

6. Direct link to the .pdf here

http://freepress.org/images/departments/5042.pdf

[Recursion]

8. No, they really can't

And you can download the software they use for free.

http://www.metasploit.org
http://www.nmap.org

Two weeks ago I was hoping for rational discussion on DU about the limits of surveillance; at this point I'll be happy with basic fact-based acceptance of what is and isn't actually physically possible.

[Cliff Arnebeck]

11. Endgame's President, as a youth, hacked into the Pentagon's computers

Endgame is run by the guy who initially came to the attention of the Pentagon by hacking into their computers.

I suggest you read the article before asserting that he cannot now advise how to hack other governments and people around the world.

[Recursion]

12. That was back when wardialers still connected directly to servers

Even then, he couldn't "hack anyone's computer". All the less so today.

You asserted Endgame can "hack anyone's computer".

That is not just false, but laughably stupid. Maybe an edit to the title, so we can all be in the fact-based world again?

This sounds like a shady company that makes a lot of money by attacking computers. Why not let the actual bad be the story, rather than making up stuff that makes the entire thread ridiculous?

[Cliff Arnebeck]

15. Endgame advises and the market pays handsomely for their advice

No, Endgame advises others, for a fee, how it can be done.

They are quite prosperous, so the market would suggest they give competent technical advice.

[Recursion]

16. Arthur Anderson was quite prosperous because of their advice too

The 1% aren't exactly known for making smart decisions with their money.

[Cliff Arnebeck]

17. Agreement

On that, we agree!

[Recursion]

18. More seriously, as a computer security guy, I can think of a dozen companies like this

They promise really big, and can from time to time compromise a given computer in a given network (but then again so can I, so can you with the software I mentioned upthread and a few weeks' prep time, and so can a few thousand fifteen year olds in their basements), but it's rarely wise to rely on what a business says about itself.

[Romulus Quirinus]

19. I could totally envision some goobers with defense money to burn

paying 2.5 million for a reskinned/GUI-fied copy of metasploit. lol

[bemildred]

13. You cannot hack a computer with no open ports, if it is not listening, or connected.

Or if the software that opens a port has no useable flaws. That is possible (unless it's Windows).

[Cliff Arnebeck]

30. Back doors built in to digital devices to permit surveillance and manipulation

Please see Ms. Simpson's discussion of back doors created in the operating systems of digital devices to facilitate surveillance activity unbeknownst to users.

[bemildred]

32. Back doors REQUIRE open ports. nt

[Octafish]

14. Thank you, Cliff Arnebeck!

Thank you, FreePress.org!

[Cliff Arnebeck]

27. Thanks to you, Octafish!

Last edited Sat Jun 29, 2013, 05:02 AM - Edit history (1)

Thank you, Octafish, for your continued support.

I have passed this thread on to Bob Fitrakis and I can assure you we both appreciate your support, now and in the past.

Cliff

[starroute]

21. There seem to be some strange and powerful connections there

Last edited Fri Jun 28, 2013, 12:44 PM - Edit history (1)

I'm reading through the pdf and got up to where it says of Endgame, "This company is a private spin-off from the major intelligence source X-Force that was founded originally by Chris Klaus whose career dates to at least 1994 when he founded Internet Security Systems, a private “white hat” counter-hacker group."

So i looked into Klaus a bit and found Wikipedia saying, "In recent years Klaus has become one of Georgia Tech's most visible contributors, giving a $15M naming gift to build the College of Computing's new home, the Klaus Advanced Computing Building. Klaus's wife, Crissy, is also a prominent figure through fifteen years of work in local marketing and real estate, as well as extensive work with non-profit organizations."

That really struck me because I'd just posted at another thread here -- one about Occupy trying to build a database of the real power relationships in the US -- to say that the people with the most actual power often stay out of politics and avoid publicity but you can sometimes identify them because they appear as local philanthropists who "are always endowing concert halls or getting college buildings named after them."

Klaus seems like an example of precisely that -- and it makes me wonder whether Georgia Tech and its College of Computing are playing a role in any of this.

[Cliff Arnebeck]

22. Yes, it's the intellectual Mecca for computer and election hacking

Yes, Georgia Tech is the academic center for the study of election and computer hacking, as well the education of election professionals by Doug Lewis under the sponsorship of the electronic voting machine industry. SMARTech is based there, for which SmarTech of Chattanooga, TN is named. The later group is the computer and communications center for all of the Republican campaigns that rise to the level of being of interest to Karl Rove.

[starroute]

25. Is the election fraud stuff converging with the surveillance stuff?

You're a long-time election integrity guy. Jill Simpson's name is most familiar from her allegations of election theft -- and SmarTech is part of that pattern as well. But this Endgame stuff seems more related to surveillance, the NSA, and the CIA. Do you see it as having implications for elections, as well, or are the connections on a deeper level?

The further I read in this pdf about Endgame, the more thoroughly spooked-up it seems. In-Q-Tel has been described as funding "startup companies whose technologies the CIA might someday want to buy." Or as it says on an old (and no longer available) In-Q-Tel "About" page, "Chartered in 1999 as a private, independent, nonprofit corporation, In-Q-Tel is an evolving blend of corporate strategic venture capital, business, nonprofit and government R&D models. To achieve its mission of identifying and delivering new technologies to the CIA and Intelligence Community (IC), In-Q-Tel borrows key elements from each model that enable it to link the IC to innovation in the commercial market, and back again."

Or this, from a 2005 Washington Post article (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/14/AR2005081401108.html): "In the five years since it began active operations as the "venture capital arm" of the CIA, In-Q-Tel's reach and activities have become vast for so small an operation. It has invested in more than 75 companies and delivered more than 100 technologies to the CIA, most of which otherwise would never have been considered by the intelligence agency. Virtually any U.S. entrepreneur, inventor or research scientist working on ways to analyze data has probably received a phone call from In-Q-Tel or at least been Googled by its staff of technology-watchers."

And Ken Minihan, who's on the Endgame board, succeeded Mike McConnell as NSA director in the middle 90's, at exactly the point when the NSA was first getting into domestic telecom and internet surveillance. He later became partners with former CIA director James Woolsey in Paladin Capital Group -- a private equity investment firm which formed the Paladin Capital Homeland Security Fund.three months after 9/11 to invest in homeland security firms.

So Endgame may or may not be exactly what it claims to be -- but it's certainly no fly-by-night boondoggle. It sounds dead serious. Is the real "endgame" to know everything about everybody and have complete access to it at all times?

[Cliff Arnebeck]

26. They are dead serious and want total information awareness as a means of achieving total control

These are my views. I would carefully consider Jill Simpson's take on these matters to whatever extent her research, experience and judgment would differ from mine.

After the 1988 Iowa Republican primary in which GHW Bush came in third behind Bob Dole and Pat Robertson, Rove brought technology and Evangelicals to his candidate's side as no mainstream major party candidate had ever done before. The hacking of election technology--including electronic voting machines, began in earnest in the U.S. in 1988. Some of this technology had been developed and used covertly overseas before that time.

After the 2000 New Hampshire Republican primary in which GW Bush came in way behind John McCain, Rove brought big business to his candidate's side as no mainstream major party had done since Mark Hanna got McKinley elected President. Surveillance/total awareness technology is an instrument of control and the enabling of business to get everything they want, which was the commitment Karl Rove made to Tom Donohue, then President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Much of this work, when done on behalf of the government, is contracted out as another set of profit centers for the practitioners. That also makes such work available to private corporations to be used to exploit customers and competitors alike.

I think their "end game" is total control by a corporate elite. Covert election manipulation, surveillance and the fusion of information from all sources, and covert strategic political and business assassinations as well as broad scale population control through war, insurrection, poverty, toxic food and water would be the methods of achieving control. At some point, their end game would envision the replacement of the pretense of democracy with appointment of all political leaders by their corporate superiors and the world being run like a corporation. “JFK and the Unspeakable,” by James Douglass and “The New Jim Crow,” by Michelle Alexander provide excellent documentation and argument in support of this characterization of those who did not then, and do not now, share the vision of ending war and poverty that was shared by JFK, MLK, and RFK, for which they were unceremoniously assassinated.

[OnyxCollie]

31. I believe the US Attorney scandal was about election manipulation.

In spite of the long-accepted, constitutionally sound, independence-preserving method of appointing interim U.S. Attorneys, the appointment process was radically changed with the reauthorization of the USA PATRIOT Act in 2006. Removed was the interbranch appointment from the district court; the Attorney General could now make interim U.S. Attorney appointments. Also eliminated was the 120 day period that interim U.S. Attorneys could stay in office before a district court could appoint an interim U.S. Attorney to fill the vacancy. Interim U.S. Attorneys could now remain in office indefinitely, or until the President appointed a U.S. Attorney to the district. Interim U.S. Attorney appointments bypassed Senate confirmation, leaving the determination of qualification to the Justice Department.

When there was a close election, feds would launch an investigation against the (Democratic) challenger. The study conducted by Shields and Cragan in 2007 found that Democrats were prosecuted over Republicans, 86% to 12%.

Couple this with the GSA violating the Hatch Act (and Scott Bloch destroying the evidence.)

[elleng]

28. Thanks, Cliff.

[Cliff Arnebeck]

29. I have posted a diary @ Daily Kos of Jill's call for appointment by POTUS of Special Prosecutor

Update June 29, 2013: I just posted a diary at Daily Kos focusing upon Jill Simpson's call for President Obama to appoint a special prosecutor and for the U.S. Senate to launch an investigation of "Endgame." http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/06/29/1219917/-Public-Integrity-Champion-Jill-Simpson-calls-for-Investigation-of-Endgame
This was from the conclusion of her article cited here.