The following text is taken from Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones/Prison Planet.com

Each time a new flash application requests permission to run on newer computers, you will notice that a privacy setting box pops up asking if the particular website you are surfing can access your microphone and webcam. Though the webcam is external, the microphone is internal and is a standard feature of all new models.

Now Google have announced that they will use in-built microphones to listen in on user’s background noise, be it television, music or radio - and then direct advertising at them based on their preferences.

“The idea is to use the existing PC microphone to listen to whatever is heard in the background, be it music, your phone going off or the TV turned down. The PC then identifies it, using fingerprinting, and then shows you relevant content, whether that’s adverts or search results, or a chat room on the subject,” reports the Register.

Google’s ceaseless drive to dominate Microsoft and reap untold profits has come at the expense of privacy as the company jettison’s its “don’t be evil” mandate and merges itself into a proxy NSA outfit, creating all the tools necessary for the state to suffocate its subjects under an inescapable high-tech panopticon control grid.

Sony Ericsson, in partnership with Fossil watches, have recently announced a new range of personal time pieces that, using embedded bluetooth, display the caller ID on the watch face, as well as giving you an option to forward the call to voicemail. Thus eliminating the need to forceably scramble around in your pocket again.

When an incoming call is received, the watch will vibrate and show you whose calling on a small display in the center of the watch, giving you a serious of options. Whilst bluetooth is renowned for using a fair whack of power, this type of device pairing is likely what Nokia is aiming for with the release of its new Wibree short range, low power data transfer technology.

A new anti-theft system has been designed that aims to significantly reduce the current rise in mobile phone theft.

Remote XT is a system whereby, upon discovering the theft of a phone, the user can ring a call center who will then send out a signal to the robbed phone. This signal destroys all the data on the phone, before emitting a high pitched annoying screetch, rendering the device completely unusable.

“We also then set a small bomb off, if you like, that completely wipes the data…if it has genuinely been stolen then it renders the phone useless to the thief,” says Mark Whiteman, MD of Remote XT.

The noise can be stopped by simply removing the battery, however, upon re-insertion the noise continues. This may provide a temporary measure that can be employed whilst work on reverse engineering the phone takes place. Whilst it hasnt been confirmed, the noise is probably active with any power source, whether battery or mains.

Strangely enough, I’m told that Hyper, from Hackers Voice Radio, came up with this idea a while ago, as mention at the end of the HVTV2 hacker video.

The following content is taken from oranchak.com …

When I was a dumb teenager, I spent a lot of time dabbling in the phreaker culture of the late 80s / early 90s. During that time, I made audio recordings of compromised voice mail box systems that were commandeered by phone hackers. The hackers would replace the original box greetings with more interesting content such as calling card / credit card numbers, underground BBS numbers, hacking tips, and other goodies.

These recordings languished on crappy, hissy old analog tapes until a few years ago when I decided to digitize them for posterity onto my home computer. There they languished still, until the other day when I decided to contact Jason Scott (of textfiles.com and bbsdocumentary.com fame) for his advice on how to get the files out for posterity. He very generously offered his support of hosting and cataloging the audio files here: Link.

I’ve released the files in the interest of preserving a little bit of hacker culture history. I was motivated to do this because I have not yet had any luck finding any similar audio files out there.

He has begun adding interesting descriptions for the files in this directory: Link.

Attorney Allonn Levy writes 27 September 2006:

Microsoft has reportedly sued numerous Doe defendants for producing and distributing FairUse4WM a software program that counters Microsoft Digital Rights Management System used to safeguard content downloaded through Microsoft s Windows Media programs. This follows at least one software patch that was released to counter FairUse4WM. The patch worked briefly, but now an updated FairUse4WM is available that technologically counters Microsoft’s patch.

To its credit, Microsoft seems to understand one thing that some of its predecessors have struggled with: An anti-DRM tool that is being freely circulated on the Internet is not going to be stopped through a simple lawsuit. At the end of the day, Microsoft will need to continually monitor and update its DRM technology understanding that each successive patch will eventually be countered by a newly updated tool.

The real problem that Microsoft faces is that the recording and movie industries are demanding strict DRM protections before agreeing to release their movies and songs on the Internet. Hollywood demands these technological protections so that they can maintain an artificially high price for reproductions of their content.

The problem that consumers face is that DRM technologies are simply computer programs. They cannot differentiate between lawful copying and unlawful copying. So, all DRM technologies, to some extent, will hamper the fair use rights of consumers. Until that issue is addressed, anti-DRM technologies will always have widespread appeal.

Put another way, few people support piracy, but many support lawful fair use rights. Producers of Anti-DRM technologies say that their tools are intended to support fair use rights they argue that any misuse by content pirates is just an unintended consequence. The argument is not far from that of DRM producers: That the DRM products are intended to secure the legitimate rights of copyrightholders they argue that the effective removal of consumers fair use rights is simply an unintended consequence.

Until these unintended consequences are addressed, DRM producers and their stealth counterparts will perpetually face off in a modern-day game of cat and mouse.

Today saw the Nokia announce its new N Series mobile phone. The N91 Music Edition, now fitted with a huge 8GB hard drive, is aiming to secure Nokia’s position in the mobile media market. The phone is said to sync with Windows Media Player and, thusly, supports the WMA music format. Surprisingly, the new N91 also supports a variety of other formats, including, MP3, AAC, AAC+ and eAAC+. Nokia has said that it will be bundling an updated version of its PC Suite data synchronisation software with Music Manager rip and transfer code.

The lower spec N70 and N73 are said to incorporate 1GB and 2GB of memory respectively, whilst Nokia haven’t announced whether this will be as removable SD media or built in memory, its more than the current versions offer.

The N70 and N73 go on sale this November, with the 8GB N91 shipping by the end of the year. Potential buyers will be looking at a price of £234-£369, dependant on model.

Online retailer, amazon.co.uk, are offering the current standard 4GB N91 from £235

On the 13th of September the United States Government Accountability Office submitted a document to the House Committee stating that the Department of Homeland Security had not been fullfilling their 13 key responsiblities including the National Infrastructure
Protection Plan and its responsibility to develop an integrated public/private plan for Internet recovery.

The GAO have outlined around 25 key recommedations to the DHS over the last few years, these recommendations tend to incorporate the following 5 points…

• Conduct threat and vulnerability assessments
• Develop a strategic analysis and warning capability for identifying potential cyber attacks
• Protect infrastructure control systems
• Enhance public/private information sharing
• Facilitate recovery planning,including recovery of the Internet in case of a major disruption.

Not only have the DHS not been fullfulling these 5 points but also a whole load of cyber security officials have abandoned their jobs with the DHS.

Either the DHS is run by a bunch of incompetant fools or the government intentionally keeps the DHS in a state of limbo so to ease the passage of futher laws which breach our privacy and liberties. Take your pick.

You can find the full report here.

Next month see’s the European launch of the much anticipated, Netgear SPH101 VoIP wireless phone. The Register reports that the handset is available via pre order to North American customers via Amazon.com with an expected availability date of 15th October 2006. However, Amazon.co.uk is currently listing the device as available and ready for shipping.

At £160, the SPH101 competes well with the current offerings, but given Netgears solid grounding and well known name, it is expected to grab a large proportion of the, rather limited, wireless VoIP handset market.

The SPH101 will connect straight to the Skype network using any 802.11b or 802.11g wireless network. The unit also provides all of the features that the common Skype software does. Whilst open networks are said to be hassle-free, secure wireless hotspots that require web based authentification might cause problems with the Netgear device.

At the end of 2005, the New York Times revealed the government’s warrantless wiretapping program.
The  National Security Agency (NSA) is tapping American’s phones without first getting a judge to pass judgment on the need to invade a citizen’s privacy.

Jerry Nelson, Ph.D. states that…
You can tap only one phone line, but on the Internet you can only tap everything because there are no lines. Extending phone surveillance to VoIP on the Internet requires surveillance of everything we do on line. The nation’s transition in telecommunications infrastructure will be as tumultuous for civic society and constitutional law as it already has been for the financial community and the boom-to-bust industry itself.

This article contains some excellent information on how the NSA warrantless wiretap system works.

1950’s STROWGER UAX13

Over the bank holiday week, I took a trip down to the Forest of Dean, with my family, to see the Thomas The Tank Engine event that was being held by Dean Forest Railway. Now, obviously, this has nothing to do with hack, tech or phreaking. However, before we left I noticed a small museum crammed into the back of the gift shop, I slowly walked around the miniatures and plaquards before coming to what was easily the best part of the day - telephones, lots of telephones. Surrounding the phones was alot of old machinery, not just any old machinery, no, old school GPO telephone exchanges and manual switchboards, dating as far back as the 1930’s. Behind a glass wall was something even more impressive - a fully functional STROWGER Unit Automatic Exchange #13 (UAX13) from the 1950’s.

Click to read more and see photos of old telephone exchanges and the UAX13