TrapWire - surveillance system used in UK
Hypnotised | 14.08.2012 21:54 | Policing | Technology | Terror War
The most recent release of Strafor emails from wikileaks has included hitherto unknown information regarding a global surveillance system created in the USA and used at London-based sites such as 10 Downing Street and the Stock Exchange. The system seems to employ algorithms which take into account facial recognition software, social networking behaviour, voiceprints and more traditional profiling. Exact details on how it works are sparse but it's known to be used by numerous police forces across the USA as well as Scotland yard.
Wikileaks is down due to an unprecedented DDoS attack which began shortly after the release of the emails mentioning TrapWire. Mirrors of the emails can be seen at
http://www.cryptocomb.org/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=88:stratfor-emails-discussing-qtrapwireq&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=50
"Abraxas has done work already pro-bono as good will. TrapWire may be the most
successful invention on the GWOT since 9-11. I knew these hacks when
they were GS-12's at the CIA. God Bless America. Now they have EVERY
major HVT in CONUS, the UK, Canada, Vegas, Los Angeles, NYC as clients." - Fred Burton.
TrapWire's parent company Cubic (now frantically trying to distance themselves from the scandal) have fingers in many other pies - see http://wiki.echelon2.org/wiki/Cubic_Corporation and http://darkernet.wordpress.com/2012/08/14/trapwire-the-barclays-connection-uk-aussie-army-training-questions-asked-of-uk-pm-aussie-senate/ for their involvement in everything from 'persona management' (= online sock puppetry) through to Oyster cards.
Any UK citizens who think their rights under the Data Protection Act regarding sensitive information may have been breached by TrapWire, and I am particularly thinking of anyone who may have arrested at any London-based political protest over the last five or six years, may complain to TrapWire by following the guidelines at http://www.trapwire.com/SafeHarbor.pdf
TrapWire Inc.
1875 Campus Commons Drive – Suite 301
Reston, VA 20191
Attn: Legal Department/Safe Harbor
See https://twitter.com/#!/search/realtime/%23trapwire for news at it breaks about this story, links to articles etc. (now cue the spam floods if this piece even makes it through...)
Wikileaks is down due to an unprecedented DDoS attack which began shortly after the release of the emails mentioning TrapWire. Mirrors of the emails can be seen at
http://www.cryptocomb.org/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=88:stratfor-emails-discussing-qtrapwireq&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=50 "Abraxas has done work already pro-bono as good will. TrapWire may be the most
successful invention on the GWOT since 9-11. I knew these hacks when
they were GS-12's at the CIA. God Bless America. Now they have EVERY
major HVT in CONUS, the UK, Canada, Vegas, Los Angeles, NYC as clients." - Fred Burton.
TrapWire's parent company Cubic (now frantically trying to distance themselves from the scandal) have fingers in many other pies - see
http://wiki.echelon2.org/wiki/Cubic_Corporation and http://darkernet.wordpress.com/2012/08/14/trapwire-the-barclays-connection-uk-aussie-army-training-questions-asked-of-uk-pm-aussie-senate/ for their involvement in everything from 'persona management' (= online sock puppetry) through to Oyster cards. Any UK citizens who think their rights under the Data Protection Act regarding sensitive information may have been breached by TrapWire, and I am particularly thinking of anyone who may have arrested at any London-based political protest over the last five or six years, may complain to TrapWire by following the guidelines at
http://www.trapwire.com/SafeHarbor.pdf TrapWire Inc.
1875 Campus Commons Drive – Suite 301
Reston, VA 20191
Attn: Legal Department/Safe Harbor
See
https://twitter.com/#!/search/realtime/%23trapwire for news at it breaks about this story, links to articles etc. (now cue the spam floods if this piece even makes it through...)
Hypnotised
Comments
Hide the following 8 comments
Why complain?
14.08.2012 22:22
What do you think might be achieved by complaining to Trapwire? And how do you think "anyone who may have arrested at any London-based political protest over the last five or six years" could be linked to Trapwire?
One article describes it thus:
Do you think this is an accurate summary of Trapwire? If not, what do you think it is, and where can we find the information that backs up your idea of what it is?
ftp
...
14.08.2012 22:53
I don't think Ryan Gallagher's slate article is particularly accurate and it underplays the software, although I wouldn't be so paranoid as to suggest it is deliberate misinformation. From the twitter account of @not_me (Justin Ferguson, who has done a lot of work to figure out TrapWire) in response to the piece:
"it apparently has either facial recognition capabilities or similar; its not 100% clear-- you can give it a couple photos and... track backwards; #trapwire owns #aerodyne who does 'optical signature recognition' research, so my guess is that its best termed as 'facial recognition+'"
The emails were only released a few days ago and researchers have been trying to glean nuggets of information, while having to contend with the attack on wikileaks and track down mirrors. "And how do you think "anyone who may have arrested at any London-based political protest over the last five or six years" could be linked to Trapwire?" - because we know that Scotland Yard use it and it is in place at many high-profile London locations.
If it was even efficient in predicting attacks the vile invasion of privacy and waste of public money wouldn't be so galling. Fred Burton blamed the FBI for dropping the ball on that neo-Nazi twat who shot up a Sikh temple in a tweet: if his much-vaunted system worked it wouldn't have happened, end of story. Guys like Burton are more of an enemy of the USA and capitalism than Bin Laden could ever be: their insane greed has set the stage for revolution and civil war.
Hypnotised
Big brother, his partners, and their virtual spawn are herding you.
15.08.2012 07:11
The idea that people with nothing to hide have nothing to fear needs to be debunked. Also, folks should know when they become targets of corporate power plays. Just as 'lethal force' organisations manipulate mass human perceptions, so too corporations reduce humans to data objects, and render us to bouyancy fodder.
Worth reminding people that corporate 'agents' are possibly worse than self righteous law enforcers... under certain conditions.
number 6
Yawn
15.08.2012 07:24
Also, just to add, any "intelligence" will be an expert system. There is no scary artificial intelligence or heuristic system which will identify criminals. They are folklore. The technology isn't there yet and won't be for 30-40 years.
Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ are far more worrying pieces of technology as the user builds their own security profile publically and provides several orders of magnitude more information than any surveillance will collect.
anox
@ anox
15.08.2012 10:03
You're not wrong about the human factor errors, although in TrapWire operatives' case it seems due to ingrained prejudice rather than low pay - see the unwittingly hilarious failure in racial profiling heuristics revealed at
Hypnotised
Wake up, don't sleep.
15.08.2012 10:06
Anybody that understands how computers work and how the systems are built will agree with this analysis.
However, this hints at why the system is even more worthy of attention and concern. It isn't a question of the systems effectiveness, its a question of the faith put into it by those that use it. TrapWire is a system, a system that builds history using data that it collects. That history will certainly lead to presumption of guilt and will certainly lead to misidentification of innocent people all within the confines of something that by its existance, will associate guilt. Your presense on this system, in and of itself, can load guilt onto you.
Imagine it. Some poor sod goes before the court and is charged with some spurious offence backed up by images and text gathered by this system. The judge says to the defendent "what have you got to say for yourself?". The defendent says "I aint done nuffink geezer". At this point the prosecution start to waffle on in computer speak about complexity of alogorithms, complex software design and how this software is the result of years of expert design by counter terrorism experts working in the field of counter terrorism. This system is safe your honour, because there is no way for it to be subjective.
Injustice 1 - justice 0.
Now imagine how this can be presented to the press after the guy is trotted off to prison? Imagine all the opportunities for those working in the computer industries and all the economic deals that can be done as a result.
This system can pay its way.
The guy in prison can't! Which is the whole point.
TrapWire is "of concern".
It is an unworthy and unwelcome appendage to our freedoms.
Hal
CyberWar in nigh !
15.08.2012 19:52
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k.
@ k
16.08.2012 00:40
Hypnotised