Jackboot George is at it again

You receive an email from a friend of a friend asking if they can cadge a lift to your second cousin's wedding and, someone in the friend’s family is a person of interest to Australia’s intelligence agencies (just like writers of letters to the editor in 1945,  those supporting Moratorium marches in the 1970s, or former High Court Justice Michael Kirby as a young child ) and surreptitiously your computer is hacked and your privacy violated or worse.

Welcome to the world according to Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Attorney-General George Brandis…………….

The Sydney Morning Herald 12 July 2014:

Attorney-General George Brandis is preparing to introduce legislation next week that will expand the surveillance powers of ASIO and other intelligence agencies.

Among other things, it would enable them to hack into a third party's computer to access a target computer, and infiltrate entire computer networks on a single warrant.

Hopefully Prime Minister Abbott will handle this Snowden revelation better than the last

The Age  24 November 2013:

Singapore and South Korea are playing key roles helping the United States and Australia tap undersea telecommunications links across Asia, according to top secret documents leaked by former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden. New details have also been revealed about the involvement of Australia and New Zealand in the interception of global satellite communications.

A top secret United States National Security Agency map shows that the US and its “Five Eyes” intelligence partners tap high speed fibre optic cables at 20 locations worldwide. The interception operation involves cooperation with local governments and telecommunications companies or else through “covert, clandestine” operations.

The undersea cable interception operations are part of a global web that in the words of another leaked NSA planning document enables the “Five Eyes” partners – the US, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand - to trace “anyone, anywhere, anytime” in what is described as “the golden age” signals intelligence.

The NSA map, published by Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad overnight, shows that the United States maintains a stranglehold on trans-Pacific communications channels with interception facilities on the West coast of the United States and at Hawaii and Guam, tapping all cable traffic across the Pacific Ocean as well as links between Australia and Japan.

The map confirms that Singapore, one of the world's most significant telecommunications hubs, is a key “third party” working with the “Five Eyes” intelligence partners.....

http://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2013/11/23/nsa-infected-50000-computer-networks-with-malicious-software/

The Guardian 27 November 2013:

Indonesia's president has said that his country will restore normal diplomatic relations with Australia if prime minister Tony Abbott signs up to a new bilateral code of ethics on intelligence-shariing.
But Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono also said that his government would summon Singaporean and South Korean diplomats in Jakarta over reports they had assisted Australian and US spying in the region.

Roxon, Super Spy

Granny Herald 21st July 2012

Australian Attorney General Nicola Roxon, not content with creating a national database for all Australians when she was Federal Health Minster which collates everything personal and intimate a government agency has ever known about each and every one of us in the riskiest way possible, now wants to keep copies of all our online browsing and phone conversations for a two-year period. And it looks as though we will all be personally paying for this gratuitous government spying.

Her obsession with digital data is becoming pathological. Will someone call her GP – urgently.

Watching the watchers watching NSW North Coast concerned citizen groups

It would appear that the Australian Federal Attorney-General Nicola Roxon (like her predecessor) is rather interested in protests which may be occurring around Australia.

Of course that also means that from time to time she is interested in concerned citizens living on the NSW North Coast.

Particularly those who organize and/or attend community meetings, rallies, protest events concerning water and food security - eg. keeping the Clarence River system undiverted and unpolluted, stopping hazardous mining in the upper reaches of the Nymboida River, protecting agricultural land from the negative impacts of coal seam gas mining, saving remnant rainforest and koala habitat from being destoyed by urban or industrial development.

Her department has employed a private surveillance company National Open Source Intelligence G  aka Global Edge Group Pty Ltd or National Open Source Intelligence Centre since 2007 and its current contract (worth est. $16,500 annually) is in effect until 20 June 2012.

This Victorian-based group, allegedly jointly owned by Jody and Amanda Lambden, specializes in the provision of protective security intelligence and actively monitors the Internet, television, radio and print media for its clients. In the case of the Attorney-General’s Department it will supply protest alerts.

Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson, who requested the additional surveillance, has been prompted by energy company lobbying to urge stronger criminal penalties against protests that disrupt critical energy

On its Australian website it states:

NOSIC seeks to identify and provide both information and intelligence on upcoming events in Australia and abroad that require consideration of a visual police presence or implementation of protective security measures.

NOSIC also provide tactical intelligence support in response to spontaneous events and incidents where knowledge of issues can be of use to decision makers to neutralise or minimise disruption.

In 2006-2008 the company had a rather more expensive contract with the Australian Federal Police to monitor the internet communications and websites of anti-war campaigners, environmentalists, animal rights activists and other protest groups.

According to The Age on 7 December 2012:

NOSIC also provides services relating to specific events. These include a $15,400 contract with the AFP for "information services" between October 24 and November 17 last year ....

When monitoring cyberspace it appears to use Queensland-based servers in IP ranges 202.125.32.0 - 202.125.47.255 and 202.148.128.0 - 202.148.159.255.

The group's headquarters is said to be in this residential block in Hewish Street, Croydon, Vic:

* Images from Google Images and The Age

From the Truth Is Stranger Than file: GMO Death-Tech meets Hit Squad

"A death-tech firm weds a hit squad.”
Blogger Rady Ananda

It appears that bio-tech giant Monsanto & Co. has graduated from in-house open source intelligence gathering and moved on to involve itself in the murky world of Blackwater ops.

From The Sovereign Independent, 1 November 2010:

Monsanto hired mercenary Blackwater to infiltrate anti-GMO groups

A spokesperson for Monsanto, reached by Scahill, first denied the relationship with Blackwater, but then admitted that Monsanto had paid Total Intelligence for intelligence reoprts

“… about the activities of groups or individuals that could pose a risk to company personnel or operations around the world which were developed by monitoring local media reports and other publicly available information. The subject matter ranged from information regarding terrorist incidents in Asia or kidnappings in Central America to scanning the content of activist blogs and websites.”………

The documents obtained by Scahill show that Monsanto paid Blackwater’s subsidiary, Total Intelligence a total of $232,000 for intelligence services provided in 2008 and 2009. Aside from the brief statement provided to Scahill, Monsanto is keeping quiet on the matter, as is Blackwater and the other organizations cited in Scahill’s article. Scahill said the Canadian Military paid Blackwater over $1.6 million for training, which was provided through Blackwater’s subsidiary, the Terrorism Research Center. Blackwater violated some US export control laws, reported Yahoo News this past August, violations which included the provision of training to the Canadian Military. While the list of violations the US Department of State found Blackwater guilty of is extensive, the company was only fined $42 million. The company name ‘Blackwater’ was changed to Xe (pronounced ‘zee’) in 2009, which Source Watch called a ‘rebranding effort.’ The company is now up for sale. AFP reported Blackwater operatives were accused of killing 17 Iraqis, wounding a further 22 in what was said to be an unprovoked attack in 2007. The company was later cleared of all wrongdoing. Blackwater was ordered out of Iraq earlier this year because of that violent incident said CBS News.

GMO FOOD PRODUCTS AND PRODUCTION AIDS APPROVED FOR SALE/USE IN AUSTRALIA

* This post is part of North Coast Voices' effort to keep Monsanto's blog monitor (affectionately known as Mr. Monsanto) in long-term employment.

Watching the watchers

The week began with Kevin Rudd being reported as lobbying for an Australian sainthood (such a mind numbingly stupid misstep that it deserves no further comment) and a media beat-up on the new head of Britain's MI5 being outed by his wife on Facebook (conveniently ignoring the fact that Sir John Sawers image opposite is all over the world wide web due to his previous high profile government positions).

Which had me musing on what other smiling spooks might be found out there in hyperspace. A quick search revealed the following.

Leon E. Panetta, CIA Director 2009 [Google Images]

David Irvine, Director-General of ASIO 2009 [Google Images]

In the private sphere watchers such as the Global Edge Group Pty Ltd / National Open Source Intelligence Centre, which was outed by The Age sometime back as one of the contractors used by various Australian government departments and agencies to gather information on activist groups, websites and blogs, are a little more circumspect.

No hard information on the current doings of the Global Edge Group is out there apart from the fact that some NOSIC staff spent time attending an SMX Presentation held by Synergy Limited in Sydney and, participated in strategic discussions with regards to penetration of high-security markets in Australia and overseas.

Australian state government hires spies

Last Friday The Sydney Morning Herald reported on an Australian company which contracts to supply open intelligence to business and government:

David Vaile, executive director of UNSW's Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre, believes SR7 may be acting unethically and said he suspected companies were using dirt gathered from social networking sites as an excuse to fire people due to the challenging economic climate.

He said the practice could backfire when the economy turns around as people would refuse to work for or trust companies that spied on staff.

He said the issue raised questions over where the boundary is between public and private comments.

Here's what the company says about itself:

We provide protection and strategy for brands and reputations.

While one of its published case studies is quite frankly fascinating:

SR7 undertook a comprehensive audit for a leading State Government department to identify on-line risks to the organization and its business units with exposure to social media.
The assessment unearthed a series of online activities by employees and stakeholders, acting as an early warning system for key decision makers.
SR7 provided counsel and advice on mitigation strategies for implementation by the relevant agencies.

So which public servants were being spied on and in what state and which government department was silly enough to contract out this strange work to a company that brags like this?

Who knew Helen Liu? The Mata Hari furphy

Who knew Helen Liu?
Everyone it seems.
Who really cares?
Only Tony Abbott and Co.

Abbott was in full spate on Meet the Press last Sunday:
"I think there's absolutely no doubt that John Howard in his first term would have sacked a minister who had been as inept as this. Absolutely no doubt but look, I think there are also questions for Kevin Rudd. What's the extent of his relationship with Helen Liu? And if he does have the kind of extensive relationship with Ms Liu that it seems he might, given the reports in today's paper, perhaps he should be fronting up to this Commission of Inquiry which is currently looking in to the whole question of Joel Fitzgibbon and these disclosures."

Now if Tones the Terrible really wants to worry about something coming out of China he can try this widespread 'spying' on for size.
If what appears to be a group of teens high on big brother's alcopops could hack an Aussie government website last week, it's odds on that Australia was caught by this particular covert international digital information gathering operation which entered over a thousand computers in 103 countries and close to 30% of these were considered "high-value diplomatic, political, economic and military targets".

An interesting snippet on the AFP Big Brother

Yesterday Richard Baker and Nick McKenzie wrote in The Age:

THE internet communications and websites of anti-war campaigners, environmentalists, animal rights activists and other protest groups are being secretly monitored by state and federal agencies.

A Melbourne private intelligence firm specialising in "open-source intelligence" has been engaged by Victoria Police, the Australian Federal Police and the federal Attorney-General's Department to monitor and report on the protest movements' use of the internet.

Which is somewhat interesting as it was only at the beginning of this year that the Australian Federal Police granted contract number CN60721 to a Melbourne firm Global Edge Group Pty Ltd [trading as National Open Source Intelligence Centre (Australia)] for just such work worth $184,800.00.

http://www.geg.com.au/ / http://www.nosic.com.au/

So if your political or social commentary blog has a few visits from IP addresses in the range of 202.125.35.165 or 203.147.239.149, then you have possibly been visited on behalf of the powers that be in Australia.

Or perhaps you should consider yourself to be of interest if you have ever visited No Bases which was obviously on past peek list: 017 http://www.nosic.com.au/cgi-bin/iB/ikonboard.cgi 97 22 119 30-Jun-2004 21:04

Ah! The dubious joys of modern blogging - if Conroy doesn't get you then McClellan or Keelty will :-)

Graphic found at Spy Lab

ASIO tales continued...

Robert Merkel over at Larvatus Prodeo last week took umbrage at Victoria's Security Intelligence Group and its domestic spying, after reading Baker and McKenzie's article on the same subject in The Age.

Richard Baker and Nick McKenzie nicknamed the undercover police intelligence operative "Andrew", as they went on to describe his dive into a pit of chicken excrement in pursuit of his spying goals.

Now I find that ASIO may also utilise the services of an "Andrew" and is so proud of him that he features in one of their digital recruitment adverts.

"Those who have made it through our recruitment process have a variety of life and work experience. From teachers, managers and lawyers through to psychologists, engineers and social workers, there's no set mould or magic formula – it's about you as a person.
Hear first hand from our IOs:

Andrew - 'Everyone finds working here rewarding'------

After I'd graduated I applied for a job with ASIO because I liked the diversity that the Intelligence Officer position offered.

The job seemed to demand both analytical and interpersonal skills, so I could get a good balance in my day-to-day work."

No mention of battery hens, but this "Andrew" did say that he's required to undertake a new posting every three years so (remembering his Victorian doppelganger) let's hope that the poor boy stays as far away from livestock as he can get.

Perhaps an assignment shadowing the Quilters Guild of NSW would be just the shot.

ASIO obligingly supplies an advertising agency audio of "Andrew" which hints that he may have hailed from the Indian sub-continent.

Oh goodness gracious me!! Boom Boody-Boom Boody-Boom Boody-Boom Boody-Boom Boody-Boom Boody-Boom-Boom-Boom.

Recruitment pic from ASIO

ASIO laugh of the week via Crikey

Crikey on Monday:

"ASIO is advertising for intelligence officers, but to apply, you have to email a recruitment company for an application form (intelligence@tmpworldwide.com.au.) You can see this on the following page. But how good can ASIO's security be if a private company (and a foreign one at that) will have the name of every applicant? TMP may not necessarily know who is successful with their application to become an intelligence officer, but they will have a complete list of applicants and so if anybody later on ever wants to find if someone is a ASIO intelligence officer or works for ASIO they can just see if their name is on the applicant list. Seeing as TMP is a foreign company, how safe can it be giving them a list of all ASIO job applicants? You'd think ASIO would be handling that in-house. Their own website says:

Please note: All applications for employment with ASIO are handled in the strictest confidence. It is essential that you DO NOT discuss your application with others as doing so may adversely affect your application.

But they still outsource the recruiting of Australia's spy agency to a foreign company --- that doesn't seem very good security to me."

Just gotta laugh!

Cartoon came from Dvice.com