An official statement has been issued by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper regarding the “surveillance activities” performed by the NSA and the United States government. He reiterates that these activities “are lawful and conducted under authorities widely known and discussed, and fully debated and authorized by Congress. Their purpose is to obtain foreign intelligence information, including information necessary to thwart terrorist and cyber attacks against the United States and its allies.”

He says that the reason why the particulars have been kept secret is that they don’t want to “give our enemies a ‘playbook’ on how to avoid detection.” As such, “not all the inaccuracies can be corrected without further revealing classified information.” Even so, some more information was released today (PDF link) about the nature of PRISM.

PRISM is not an undisclosed collection or data mining program. It is an internal government computer system used to facilitate the government’s statutorily authorized collection of foreign intelligence information from electronic communication service providers under court supervision, as authorized by Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) (50 U.S.C. § 1881a). This authority was created by the Congress and has been widely known and publicly discussed since its inception in 2008.

Under Section 702 of FISA, the United States Government does not unilaterally obtain information from the servers of U.S. electronic communication service providers. All such information is obtained with FISA Court approval and with the knowledge of the provider based upon a written directive from the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence.

And they’re apparently not going around monitoring everyone per se, because the “Government cannot target anyone under the court-approved procedures for Section 702 collection unless there is an appropriate, and documented, foreign intelligence purpose for the acquisition. In addition, Section 702 cannot be used to intentionally target any U.S. citizen, or any other U.S. person, or to intentionally target any person known to be in the United States.”

Even though all sorts of telecommunications and online communications channels have opened up their data for the NSA’s perusal, Twitter is still holding back. Interestingly, several other companies say they have no knowledge of PRISM and the data mining either, including Apple and AOL, whereas others — like Facebook — say that when they are asked for specific information, they “carefully scrutinise any such request for compliance with all applicable laws, and provide information only to the extent required by law.”

What do you think of PRISM and everything we’ve learned about it recently? Should we be truly worried, or not? Share your thoughts below.

[Source]

The post Director of National Intelligence Defends PRISM and NSA appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

[ Source ]

The post Boeing’s Phantom Eye Hydrogen UAV Will Stay Airborne for Ten Days appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

The robot has wheels that are larger than its chassis and it has a gyroscopic stabilization system that keeps it steady while in the air. This helps it recover from the inevitable impact after jumping and tumbling onto the new surface. The jump itself is achieved by way of a carbon dioxide-powered piston and the jump is accurate enough to get the Sand Flea through a second story window.

The application here is primarily for the military, especially since the Sand Flea is capable of sending video back to its operator up to 650 yards away. This is fantastic for getting over walls and into buildings, offering the military much safer recon work. I imagine the military would replace the white wheels for black ones for better camouflage, but this 11-pound design looks seriously solid and versatile.

[Source]

The post Robot Jumps 30 Feet (Video) appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Hitachi Kokuasai Electric’s new system is as pretty close to Eagle Eye as we’re going to get. The new system can take a photograph or video feed image of a suspect, or cute asian girl, and find them quickly with the ability to go through the data of 36 million faces in just a second, that’s capable of scanning the entire population of earth in just over 3 minutes. It can pick thumbnails out from security feeds, match and gather data at lightening fast speeds, all the while putting current security tracking systems to shame. I am curious how well such a system would do with finding images from video footage in a huge crowd, though.

One thing to consider is that this kind of high-tech efficiency doesn’t come cheap and so such surveillance systems won’t be practical for many businesses. Of course for police stations, government buildings, airports, and major businesses it could certainly be worth the investment.

As far as the Big Brother potential? If you had enough of these cameras everywhere, there would be nowhere you could hide. The right people could take a picture of you and find you anywhere that the camera systems were running. Luckily, this system sounds way to impractical and expensive for such a massive roll out, so conspiracy theorists can sit back and relax – at least for now.

[ source ]

The post 36 Million Faces In Just One Second, Enough Said appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Remember Johnny 5? iRobot’s latest military/police robot reminds us of the classic 1986 film Short Circuit.  Johnny 5 is alive!

The heavy weight 710 warrior is just like its predecessors, just more versatile.  It’s more capable of performing a wide range of missions including EOD (explosive ordnance disposal), reconnaissance and surveillance.

The 347 lb. (157 kg) iRobot Warrior 710 is a fast, heavy weightlifter, literally. Capable of lifting 220 lbs (100 kg) and rolling along at 8 mph, it can also haul a payload of more than 150 pounds (68 kg) over the roughest of terrain.  Of course, you can outfit it with APOBS (Anti-Personnel Obstacle Breaching System) and various weapons.  Its manipulator arm, that can extend 75-in (192 cm), is dexterous enough to open a car door (see video on page).

The robot can be controlled using an Operator Control Unit powered by iRobot’s Aware 2 intelligence software, which can be integrated with optional obstacle sensors, compass and GPS. The operator can see the proceedings through multiple cameras on the 710 in real time at a distance of up to 800 meters.

It was field tested by iRobot in the most hostile of terrains when two prototypes were used to explore the radiation contaminated site at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. They were used to make radiation-contaminated rooms safe for humans with a vacuum cleaner taped to the robot’s arm to suck up radioactive dust, according to Tim Trainer, iRobot’s vice president of operations for government and industrial robots.

Although you’ll never be able to own the iRobot 710 Warrior unless you are government or military, you can look forward to the next Short Circuit movie coming soon.

The post iRobot’s 710 Warrior To Save The World Johnny 5 Style appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

It makes sense that the military wants to have eyes in the sky for surveillance, but when you’re that far away from your target, it can be pretty tough to really see what you want to see. You need more pixels, gigapixels perhaps, and in the case of the US Army, they’ve opted for 1.8 of them.

The A160 Hummingbird was recently unveiled with a new imaging system. Remember that 1.8 gigapixels is 100x more detail than what you’d get with your 18MP digital camera, and it’s usually only with multiple shots that we regular folk can stitch together a gigapixel photo. The kicker is that this hovering aircraft can send back real-time video streams at 10 frames a second too.

When hovering at an altitude of 20,000 feet, the camera has a field of view of almost 65 square miles. The army can then simultaneously track up to 65 targets within this field of view without having to decide which target is the priority. “If you have a bunch of people leaving a place at the same time, they no longer have to say, ‘Do I follow vehicle one, two, three or four,’” said program manager Brian Leninger. “They can say: ‘I will follow all of them, simultaneously and automatically.’”

The drones use the Autonomous Real-time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance Imaging System (ARGUS-IS) first deployed last year. The first generation drones were manufactured by Boeing, but the military is holding a “full and open” competition for the second generation contract.

The post ARGUS-IS Military Drone Tracks 64 Targets Simultaneously, Snaps 1.8 Gigapixel Photos @10FPS appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

On Thursday, December 1st, 2011 WikiLeaks began publishing The Spy Files, thousands of pages and other materials exposing the global mass surveillance industry. Sure it’s a stale news, the whole Wikileaks story is slowly getting under radar of media these days. Then again, it’s Christmas time, who needs more gory revelations about Internet (or SkyNet) watching you? Instead of recent cozy and Christmasy assurances that majority of Carrier IQ privacy invaders stopped their nefarious practice voluntarily? Which they might not even consider seriously as a threat.

Wikileaks have released another installment of the Spy Files, allegedly showing how a person can be stripped of any vestiges of his or her privacy with the click of a mouse. Or just without. For those who do not believe they live in a Big Brother land, here’s the sources:

List of documents > by Release Date

Links above give access to documetation for techniques in IT intrusion and spying. Some of these links tagged as “Video”  in Document Type column give simple demonstrations in the form of 3D animations for the  content and functioning of the intrusion kit. Together with a presentation of personnel traing in spying methods, use of WiFi in the hotel lobbies, of USB or Firewire dongles with the intrusion software suite on unattended target computer, etc.

FINSPY MOBILE is a tool used by sending a false update to a Blackberry user which then gives full access of the “target” to the sender of the update.  Similarly, an iTunes update did the same on a Mac OS desktop target.

In principle, the techniques themselves are nothing new, and they are widely used by security specialists to check robustness of information systems when security measures are deployed for an organization, or business. What might be new is the presumed spread of such spying techniques beyond natural and legal customers, such as recognized and certified security firms and agencies. Now, it doesn’t really matter, do you believe this new installment of Spy Files in Wikileaks, or not. The possibility of somebody else than your correspondent on Skype  is watching you is here. Recent Carrier IQ debacle was just a tip of an iceberg.

Orwell was a genius with many present day followers. But if you’re not a terrorist, or a conspirology adept, it’s perfectly nothing to be scared about. Have a nice Christmas! And yes, Santa Claus is watching you.

The post Wikileaks Spy Files: WiFi Snooping, Skype Monitoring All In A Days Work appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Rotundus Groundbot, a dual-camera security bot which provides a 3D video feed is a new easy to manipulate automated surveillance tool presently being tested by government. Its interface is kept free from clutter to make the operation less complicated and this bot will roll around the ground spying on everything around it.

Boasting its spherical design and clever name, the Rotundus Groundbot maintains simplicity without compromising on performance. Because of its huge circumference, the Groundbot can surpass any terrain with ease. It can move through sand, snow and mud without getting stuck because of its light weight of just 25 kilograms and its ability to roll on any surface. Testers say that this device appears friendly and unthreatening but at the same time, carries out functions very well.

There’s no mounted turret or any type of offensive weaponry on the Groundbut, but it is loaded with sensors and cameras which feed data back wirelessly to the operator. In terms of size, the Groundbot is 24-inches and can even float because it has low density and center of gravity.

Presently the Groundbot is being tested by Sweden’s Defense Force who seem to get to have all the fun.

[via BLDGBLOG]

The post Groundbot 3D Surveillance Robot Rolls Along Sand, Water And Mud appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

By now, you’ve surely seen the AR Drone from Parrot. It’s that remote-controlled quadricopter that comes with a built-in camera. Well, for people who want something a little more serious, the Datron Scout might be a better fit.

This Air Reconnaissance System features a weatherproof design, which probably makes it a little more suitable for those missions in the middle of the wilderness or in the midst of a desert storm. In fact, it’s able to keep shooting its “high quality video” via its 5MP daylight camera in dust, hot, and cold conditions, including winds of up to 50km/h. That sounds pretty good for the military, actually, though they may want something a little more tough and tumble.

The other problem? It only has twenty minutes of flight, so it’s not like you can send it on a scouting mission that is particularly far away. The good news is that it’s small, lightweight (1.3kg), and can be packed away and reassembled without tools. So, send the one human scout to get close-ish and let the Datron Scout do the rest. During those 20 minutes, it can fly at up to 35km/h.

Control is done through a touchscreen interface and the video can be streamed in real time over a wireless modem or Wi-Fi up to 3km away through an iPhone, iPad, laptop, or other network-connected device. Just don’t let Skynet get a hold of these.

The post Upgrade from Parrot AR Drone to Datron Scout Quadricopter appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

When I hear the name iRobot, the first thing that comes to mind is that silly Roomba. Yeah, it’s pretty clever how they can get a vacuum to roam around a room on its own, but the iRobot 110 FirstLook looks like it could be infinitely more useful.

A flattened remote control car with tank treads would be an accurate description, but this little robot can provide “hasty situational awareness” and perform “persistent observation.” It’s got a wireless camera on there (including IR for night vision) and, better still, it’s tough enough to survive fifteen foot drops onto concrete. That’s why they say it’s a “throwable” bot.

Those little treads sometimes aren’t enough, which is why they’ve included a couple of crutch-like legs that can reach out and push the iRobot over obstacles as high as 8 inches. That’s not a lot, but it’ll get over train tracks, up flights of stairs, and on top of other robots. Pretty neat.

In the wake of the Sendai earthquake (and the ensuing tsunami) in Japan, I can totally see how robots like these can be incredibly useful in search and rescue missions. That, or in Hollywood movies where they’re afraid of a bomb threat and need to sneak their way in to get a look. A first look, as it were.

[iRobot]

The post iRobot 110 FirstLook Throwable Sentry Bot appeared first on Mobile Magazine.