1 sept 2019
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This satellite image from a classified US press briefing document purports to show what Trump insisted was a failed space launch by Iran
US President Donald Trump, known for his erratic tweeting, has seemingly given away important details about American’s military satellite after posting an image of what he said was a failed Iranian space rocket launch. The American head of state posted a satellite image on Friday that allegedly showed a launching pad in Iran’s Semnan province littered with debris from what was said to be Iran’s Safir (Ambassador) space launch vehicle. |
“The United States of America was not involved in the catastrophic accident during final launch preparations for the Safir SLV Launch at Semnan Launch Site One in Iran,” Trump said. “I wish Iran best wishes and good luck in determining what happened at Site One.”
Iran reacted refuted the claim by arranging a tour of the Nahid 1 satellite, which is due to be launched into orbit on board the Safir soon.
On Saturday, however, American experts warned that the Republican head of state might have caused a huge security risk by publishing the photo and revealing exciting details about America’s fleet of spy satellites currently orbiting the Earth.
Washington had until now kept notoriously secretive about its spy satellites but Trump’s image, which he seems to have shot with his smartphone from a classified print copy presented at a security briefing, gave experts enough material to shed light on their operations.
Astronomer Marco Langbroek used the angle of the image to identify exactly which satellite took the image. He concluded that, given the possible time of the photo on 9.44 am UTC on August 29, and the angle it was taken, the satellite in question is optical reconnaissance satellite USA 224.
“It is a very good match so there is no doubt in my mind that it is an image taken by USA 224,” Langbroek said in a tweet.
Cees Bassa, another astronomer, said the satellite was some 382 kilometers from the launch pad when it took the photo.
Bassa noted that USA 224 is makes use of a 2.4-meter mirror, which rival the Hubble space telescope and can produce “the sharpest images of the Earth’s surface.”
Meanwhile, Brian Weeden, from the space advocacy organization Secure World Foundation, was able to work out the exact resolution of the image.
He noted that while private satellites are only allowed by law to release images with a resolution of up to 25 centimeters, the photo shows that USA 224 has a resolution of at least 10 centimeters, if not better.
“This will have global repercussions,” Joshua Pollack, a nuclear proliferation expert, told CNBC. “The utter carelessness of it all. So reckless.”
Trump remained defiant against the criticism, saying he had an “absolute right” to release the photo.
Iran reacted refuted the claim by arranging a tour of the Nahid 1 satellite, which is due to be launched into orbit on board the Safir soon.
On Saturday, however, American experts warned that the Republican head of state might have caused a huge security risk by publishing the photo and revealing exciting details about America’s fleet of spy satellites currently orbiting the Earth.
Washington had until now kept notoriously secretive about its spy satellites but Trump’s image, which he seems to have shot with his smartphone from a classified print copy presented at a security briefing, gave experts enough material to shed light on their operations.
Astronomer Marco Langbroek used the angle of the image to identify exactly which satellite took the image. He concluded that, given the possible time of the photo on 9.44 am UTC on August 29, and the angle it was taken, the satellite in question is optical reconnaissance satellite USA 224.
“It is a very good match so there is no doubt in my mind that it is an image taken by USA 224,” Langbroek said in a tweet.
Cees Bassa, another astronomer, said the satellite was some 382 kilometers from the launch pad when it took the photo.
Bassa noted that USA 224 is makes use of a 2.4-meter mirror, which rival the Hubble space telescope and can produce “the sharpest images of the Earth’s surface.”
Meanwhile, Brian Weeden, from the space advocacy organization Secure World Foundation, was able to work out the exact resolution of the image.
He noted that while private satellites are only allowed by law to release images with a resolution of up to 25 centimeters, the photo shows that USA 224 has a resolution of at least 10 centimeters, if not better.
“This will have global repercussions,” Joshua Pollack, a nuclear proliferation expert, told CNBC. “The utter carelessness of it all. So reckless.”
Trump remained defiant against the criticism, saying he had an “absolute right” to release the photo.
23 aug 2019
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has accused Israeli surveillance companies of paving the way for attacks on media freedom around the world by easing rules governing the export of offensive cyber weapons, despite grave concerns by human rights and privacy groups that the technologies are used by some governments to spy on political foes and crush dissent.
The New York-based group, which seeks to promote press freedom and defends the rights of journalists, stated that Israeli officials had confirmed that, under a rule change by the ministry of military affairs a year ago, Israeli surveillance companies “are able to obtain exemptions on marketing license for the sale of some products to certain countries.”
The CPJ stated that Israeli-exported technology undermined press freedom globally by allowing authorities to track reporters and potentially identify their sources.
The group then highlighted that the Mexican government had deployed super-stealth Pegasus spyware, developed by Israeli cyberarms firm NSO Group, in order to infiltrate the mobile phones “of at least nine journalists.”
Back in early November 2018, former US National Security Agency contractor and whistle-blower Edward Snowden said Saudi Arabia might have used Pegasus to track prominent dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed after visiting the kingdom’s consulate in Turkey’s largest city of Istanbul the previous month.
“Over and over again, we see Israeli technology facilitating press freedom abuses around the world, by lending a hand to governments that want to track and monitor reporters,” CPJ Advocacy Director, Courtney Radsch, said in Washington, D.C.
She added, “An unregulated surveillance industry is bad for press freedom. The Israeli government should heed the UN Special Rapporteur’s call to respect human rights in its export policies.”
The Israeli English-language Haaretz daily newspaper reported on November 26, 2018 that NSO representatives had offered Pegasus 3 technology to high-profile Saudi officials a year earlier.
The report, citing a complaint filed with the Israeli police by an unnamed European businessman, noted that Saudi officials included former intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal and Nasser al-Qahtani, who presented himself as the deputy of the current intelligence chief.
The businessman insists that the Pegasus 3 affair began when he was contacted by an Israeli man dealing in cyber-defense technologies and identified only as W., who asked him to use his connections in the Persian Gulf states to help do business in the region.
During a series of meetings, Saudi officials presented a list of software they sought to obtain to hack into the phones of pro-democracy campaigners, Muslim preachers and intellectuals in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere.
In the summer of 2017, W. negotiated a deal to sell NSO's Pegasus 3 system to the Saudis for $55 million.
Despite an oral agreement with W., the European businessman says that the latter started ignoring his phone calls, when he asked for his 5-percent commission ($2.75 million). The businessman filed the complaint in April this year and has since been interrogated by the Israeli police's fraud department and contacted by income tax authorities.
Separately, WhatsApp, a unit of Facebook, admitted on May 14 that hackers had managed to use the security breach on its messaging app to target human rights activists.
Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity at San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, said WhatsApp had informed human rights groups that the spyware was likely developed by Israel's NSO. This was also confirmed by another person familiar with the matter.
Amnesty International later said the Israeli firm behind the security breach that targeted human rights activists using the WhatsApp messenger app must be held into account for its close ties with repressive regimes.
Amnesty urged the Israeli regime in a statement to revoke export licenses of the NSO, which designed the spyware linked to the WhatsApp breach.
The London-based rights group told Reuters that the company's deeds "resulted in human rights abuses."
The New York-based group, which seeks to promote press freedom and defends the rights of journalists, stated that Israeli officials had confirmed that, under a rule change by the ministry of military affairs a year ago, Israeli surveillance companies “are able to obtain exemptions on marketing license for the sale of some products to certain countries.”
The CPJ stated that Israeli-exported technology undermined press freedom globally by allowing authorities to track reporters and potentially identify their sources.
The group then highlighted that the Mexican government had deployed super-stealth Pegasus spyware, developed by Israeli cyberarms firm NSO Group, in order to infiltrate the mobile phones “of at least nine journalists.”
Back in early November 2018, former US National Security Agency contractor and whistle-blower Edward Snowden said Saudi Arabia might have used Pegasus to track prominent dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed after visiting the kingdom’s consulate in Turkey’s largest city of Istanbul the previous month.
“Over and over again, we see Israeli technology facilitating press freedom abuses around the world, by lending a hand to governments that want to track and monitor reporters,” CPJ Advocacy Director, Courtney Radsch, said in Washington, D.C.
She added, “An unregulated surveillance industry is bad for press freedom. The Israeli government should heed the UN Special Rapporteur’s call to respect human rights in its export policies.”
The Israeli English-language Haaretz daily newspaper reported on November 26, 2018 that NSO representatives had offered Pegasus 3 technology to high-profile Saudi officials a year earlier.
The report, citing a complaint filed with the Israeli police by an unnamed European businessman, noted that Saudi officials included former intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal and Nasser al-Qahtani, who presented himself as the deputy of the current intelligence chief.
The businessman insists that the Pegasus 3 affair began when he was contacted by an Israeli man dealing in cyber-defense technologies and identified only as W., who asked him to use his connections in the Persian Gulf states to help do business in the region.
During a series of meetings, Saudi officials presented a list of software they sought to obtain to hack into the phones of pro-democracy campaigners, Muslim preachers and intellectuals in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere.
In the summer of 2017, W. negotiated a deal to sell NSO's Pegasus 3 system to the Saudis for $55 million.
Despite an oral agreement with W., the European businessman says that the latter started ignoring his phone calls, when he asked for his 5-percent commission ($2.75 million). The businessman filed the complaint in April this year and has since been interrogated by the Israeli police's fraud department and contacted by income tax authorities.
Separately, WhatsApp, a unit of Facebook, admitted on May 14 that hackers had managed to use the security breach on its messaging app to target human rights activists.
Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity at San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, said WhatsApp had informed human rights groups that the spyware was likely developed by Israel's NSO. This was also confirmed by another person familiar with the matter.
Amnesty International later said the Israeli firm behind the security breach that targeted human rights activists using the WhatsApp messenger app must be held into account for its close ties with repressive regimes.
Amnesty urged the Israeli regime in a statement to revoke export licenses of the NSO, which designed the spyware linked to the WhatsApp breach.
The London-based rights group told Reuters that the company's deeds "resulted in human rights abuses."
14 aug 2019
Facebook has paid hundreds of contractors to listen to and transcribe snippets of users' conversations, US media reported on Tuesday, amid heightened scrutiny of the social network's data collection practices.
Facebook acknowledged the transcriptions, which were first reported by Bloomberg, telling the news agency in a statement that they were made with users' permission, but that the practice has nonetheless been stopped.
"Much like Apple and Google, we paused human review of audio more than a week ago," the company said. Facebook did not respond to a request for comment from AFP.
The contractors were testing the ability of the social network's artificial intelligence to interpret messages, and the only users affected were those on Facebook Messenger app who had opted to have their voice chats transcribed.
Bloomberg said the contractors working on the project were "rattled" by listening to private audio whose origin wasn't disclosed and which sometimes contained vulgar content.
The contractors also weren't told the reason why they were doing the transcribing, the news agency reported.
Amazon, Apple, and Google — all companies offering voice assistants — have previously acknowledged collecting conversations for the purpose of improving their products.
Apple and Google have in recent weeks said they've halted the practice, while Amazon gives users the option of blocking the collection of their voice by Alexa, the artificial intelligence driving their Echo voice assistant.
Facebook, which just settled a record $5-billion fine with the US Federal Trade Commission for misusing users' private data, has given differing responses to reports that it uses audio recordings to better target ads or make its pages more attractive.
"You're talking about this conspiracy theory that gets passed around that we listen to what's going on, on your microphone and use that for ads," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in US Senate testimony last year.
"We don't do that," he said.
But the company later told lawmakers in writing that it does actually collect conversations if users have specifically allowed it to do so and are using certain audio features.
The company didn't specify what it did with the audio afterwards.
Facebook acknowledged the transcriptions, which were first reported by Bloomberg, telling the news agency in a statement that they were made with users' permission, but that the practice has nonetheless been stopped.
"Much like Apple and Google, we paused human review of audio more than a week ago," the company said. Facebook did not respond to a request for comment from AFP.
The contractors were testing the ability of the social network's artificial intelligence to interpret messages, and the only users affected were those on Facebook Messenger app who had opted to have their voice chats transcribed.
Bloomberg said the contractors working on the project were "rattled" by listening to private audio whose origin wasn't disclosed and which sometimes contained vulgar content.
The contractors also weren't told the reason why they were doing the transcribing, the news agency reported.
Amazon, Apple, and Google — all companies offering voice assistants — have previously acknowledged collecting conversations for the purpose of improving their products.
Apple and Google have in recent weeks said they've halted the practice, while Amazon gives users the option of blocking the collection of their voice by Alexa, the artificial intelligence driving their Echo voice assistant.
Facebook, which just settled a record $5-billion fine with the US Federal Trade Commission for misusing users' private data, has given differing responses to reports that it uses audio recordings to better target ads or make its pages more attractive.
"You're talking about this conspiracy theory that gets passed around that we listen to what's going on, on your microphone and use that for ads," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in US Senate testimony last year.
"We don't do that," he said.
But the company later told lawmakers in writing that it does actually collect conversations if users have specifically allowed it to do so and are using certain audio features.
The company didn't specify what it did with the audio afterwards.
12 aug 2019
Telegrass co-founder and CEO Amos Silver
New channel on Telegram messaging app pops up after Israel's serious crimes unit cracks down on predecessor Telegrass; one of founders vows never to stop selling cannabis via the internet 'until it is fully legalized'
A massive police crackdown earlier this year won't stop the online sale of marijuana in Israel, one of the operators of the new GetWeed channel on the instant messaging app Telegram told Ynet on Monday.
Police officers from the Lahav 433 serious crimes unit in March raided the homes of 42 suspects alleged to have a connection with the online drug-dealing network Telegrass, which operated as a channel on Telegram.
Potential buyers could contact individual sellers through a private chat faciliated by the channel and arrange their own drug purchases.
The head of the Telegrass network, Amos Dov Silver, was arrested at the same time in Ukraine and is currently under house arrest there.
One month later, the Cyber Unit at the State Prosecutor's Office indicted 27 people in the case.
The indictment accuses suspects of brokering the trafficking of dangerous drugs, trafficking dangerous drugs, drug offenses involving the corruption of minors, money laundering and more.
Despite the police crackdown, Telegrass is still going strong on Telegram and one of the alternative platforms - GetWeed - is also thriving. The name appears to be a riff on the popular cab-ordering app formerly known as GetTaxi.
A senior source from the platform told Ynet that GetWeed operates similarly to Telegrass, and will continue to run clandestinely until "there is full legalization of cannabis in Israel."
"We are almost the same as Telegrass in terms of idea and structure," he said. "We use very creative technologies in order to protect our staff and dealers' information."
New channel on Telegram messaging app pops up after Israel's serious crimes unit cracks down on predecessor Telegrass; one of founders vows never to stop selling cannabis via the internet 'until it is fully legalized'
A massive police crackdown earlier this year won't stop the online sale of marijuana in Israel, one of the operators of the new GetWeed channel on the instant messaging app Telegram told Ynet on Monday.
Police officers from the Lahav 433 serious crimes unit in March raided the homes of 42 suspects alleged to have a connection with the online drug-dealing network Telegrass, which operated as a channel on Telegram.
Potential buyers could contact individual sellers through a private chat faciliated by the channel and arrange their own drug purchases.
The head of the Telegrass network, Amos Dov Silver, was arrested at the same time in Ukraine and is currently under house arrest there.
One month later, the Cyber Unit at the State Prosecutor's Office indicted 27 people in the case.
The indictment accuses suspects of brokering the trafficking of dangerous drugs, trafficking dangerous drugs, drug offenses involving the corruption of minors, money laundering and more.
Despite the police crackdown, Telegrass is still going strong on Telegram and one of the alternative platforms - GetWeed - is also thriving. The name appears to be a riff on the popular cab-ordering app formerly known as GetTaxi.
A senior source from the platform told Ynet that GetWeed operates similarly to Telegrass, and will continue to run clandestinely until "there is full legalization of cannabis in Israel."
"We are almost the same as Telegrass in terms of idea and structure," he said. "We use very creative technologies in order to protect our staff and dealers' information."
A suspected member of Telegrass in court
"It is a kind of technology that is yet to be seen even on the world's biggest darknet websites," he said. "Let's say that if we went out with it (the technology) overtly and legally, we would have been raising tens of millions (of shekels)."
The source even provided details on the way in which the network operates.
"The dealers go through rigorous verification with their personal details and also have a convenient and easy-to-use review bot," he said.
"We currently have over 3,200 reviews on 140 verified dealers all across Israel and around 1,000 dealers are still waiting to be verified. Of course, this number grows daily."
Israel Police said in a statement that there was it would continue to target drug dealers in whatever format they operated.
"Israel Police sees the drug phenomenon as a dangerous and unacceptable social phenomenon, which could lead to criminal behavior, including severe cases of violence," the statement said.
"This is why the police vigorously enforces drug trafficking and distribution offenses through a variety of overt and covert actions in order to expose the perpetrators and bring them to justice.
"This is proactive enforcement focused on exposing drug offenses, whether committed on a street corner, at a border crossing or online."
"It is a kind of technology that is yet to be seen even on the world's biggest darknet websites," he said. "Let's say that if we went out with it (the technology) overtly and legally, we would have been raising tens of millions (of shekels)."
The source even provided details on the way in which the network operates.
"The dealers go through rigorous verification with their personal details and also have a convenient and easy-to-use review bot," he said.
"We currently have over 3,200 reviews on 140 verified dealers all across Israel and around 1,000 dealers are still waiting to be verified. Of course, this number grows daily."
Israel Police said in a statement that there was it would continue to target drug dealers in whatever format they operated.
"Israel Police sees the drug phenomenon as a dangerous and unacceptable social phenomenon, which could lead to criminal behavior, including severe cases of violence," the statement said.
"This is why the police vigorously enforces drug trafficking and distribution offenses through a variety of overt and covert actions in order to expose the perpetrators and bring them to justice.
"This is proactive enforcement focused on exposing drug offenses, whether committed on a street corner, at a border crossing or online."
