DHS Funds Installation of White Boxes That Can Track Population of Entire City

[Mick West]

I'm still not quite sure why it your "dystopian" tracking system would be so bad. The NSA reportedly has the same thing. Though the story was first brought to media attention by lesser known civil liberty circles like infowars, so I highly doubt its credibility. Telecom companies have the same thing. Search engines have the same thing... Even internet marketing companies do the same thing. In fact, there is a way to get this website to track your IP address using simple programming scripts in user profiles. Though, I highly doubt Mick cares where you are! If the major governments and corporations are indeed tracking people, it's probably only in a very broad general sense. Like statistics, poll numbers, mac addresses. For Example, I work in a furniture company, and we "track" what our customers buy. We track where they buy stuff from, but that doesn't mean we are tracking the customer in their home! This is what infowars does. They take statistical data and claim that the government is tracking YOU!!!!! OMG!!!

Oh and back to the NSA story/Seattle Mesh Network. The government is NOT forcing you to use the internet. In fact, there are tons of choices out there to allow you to connect to the internet. If you think one method is too intrusive you can always choose a different service. This is free (i think) public wifi! When was the last time you personally used free city wifi? For me, it was when I went to the Tampa Airport two years ago! Yet, you still complain that it is encroaching upon your civil liberties. Well, you can always choose to NOT use the internet.

The problem really is to do with advances in technology that make it very easy to combine and filter data very quickly. In the past it might not matter so much that data was recorded about your location if it was very difficult for anyone to get at that information. But if people can access it immediately and frictionlessly then it opens the door to a new set of privacy violations.

Let's say someone visits a place they would prefer other people do not know about - like a cancer treatment center, or a sex club, or a rehab clinic, or divorce court, there are many possible examples. Now exactly how private should that information be? Do we not have a constitutional right to privacy? Who has the right to look at that data - to invade your privacy. How easy should it be.

Technology has made these things easy. The law still operates as if it is hard. The law needs updating.

 

[moderateGOP]

1. The problem really is to do with advances in technology that make it very easy to combine and filter data very quickly. In the past it might not matter so much that data was recorded about your location if it was very difficult for anyone to get at that information. But if people can access it immediately and frictionlessly then it opens the door to a new set of privacy violations.

2. Let's say someone visits a place they would prefer other people do not know about - like a cancer treatment center, or a sex club, or a rehab clinic, or divorce court, there are many possible examples. Now exactly how private should that information be? Do we not have a constitutional right to privacy? Who has the right to look at that data - to invade your privacy. How easy should it be.

3. Technology has made these things easy. The law still operates as if it is hard. The law needs updating.

1. I don't think it matters today either. It's still very difficult for sandwichmaker at subway Joe to find out if I've been to a sex club. Of course, if I personally shared that information using an app like foursquare when I was drunk, then I believe that is a personal responsibility issue. Not a privacy rights violation.

2. You are speaking in broad terms. What device are you using? Is there a network there? At a sex club? Cancer treatment centers usually don't announce if a random person or even well known figure has cancer on the six oclock news. They are usually very respectful of family or publicity situations. Now divorce court is nasty, and that information is usually released by one of the two parties involved, not some hacker or gov't institution. A lot of data is limited only to isolated intranet networks if they are on the computer at all. Sure I have access to my employee passwords, and our customers credit card information, but you trust the company that won't share it. Court Rooms are now just allowing limited photos and video to be taken in trials because they were so paranoid about privacy issues. Before we had drawings.

3. I agree, but I think we think about it in different terms. See above your last post.

 

[Mick West]

1. I don't think it matters today either. It's still very difficult for sandwichmaker at subway Joe to find out if I've been to a sex club. Of course, if I personally shared that information using an app like foursquare when I was drunk, then I believe that is a personal responsibility issue. Not a privacy rights violation.

But we are not talking about sandwich makers. We are talking about the operators of larger networks like the police, or Time Warner, or Verizon, just storing all the locations that they process, and then other people having trivially easy access to that data. So your historical location could be determined regardless of the place you are actually visiting.

 

[moderateGOP]

But we are not talking about sandwich makers. We are talking about the operators of larger networks like the police, or Time Warner, or Verizon, just storing all the locations that they process, and then other people having trivially easy access to that data. So your historical location could be determined regardless of the place you are actually visiting.

So what? I too have certain access to certain confidential information. It's the way the world works. Though the real concern should be what happens if an employee of one of those institutions goes rogue like snowden.

 

[qed]

The technology has reached the point were this is all very very easy to do.

For everyone.

Companies track you, hackers track you, and governments track you. Every app your child get from Play Store for free usually requires location tracking. If they didn't the competitor would. Etc.

As Mick suggests, we requires new laws for this brave new world.

By the same token, the same is true for drones. You feel comfortable now?

We are all making them.

 

[Mick West]

So what? I too have certain access to certain confidential information. It's the way the world works. Though the real concern should be what happens if an employee of one of those institutions goes rogue like snowden.

"So what" is we need safeguards and guidelines to ensure that the expectation of privacy is met. Somewhat like in Europe.

 

[AluminumTheory]

As I have said before. Anything that is capable of sending and receiving signals whether via hard connections (cable, fiber optic, etc.) or radio waves (wifi, cell signals, gps/satellite, etc.) has the potential to be tracked. The more sophisticated the devices, the more information there is to be transmitted and received, and hence more sophisticated firmware and software will be needed to run these networks. Software will often remember other devices that it has been associated with at some point to make future connections faster. Just like how your smartphone and laptop remembers all of the wifis that you have accessed. In larger networks, tighter security needs to be employed due to the relative security threats that are posed toward larger networks. Thus, software needs to track and monitor devices on the network to ensure that security is not being breached. It would be important to know the mac address of any device that has attempted to breach the system so it can be blacklisted. This is essentially the same as websites tracking and logging ip addresses. Unfortunately pretty much every network security measure could also have the ability to be used maliciously, and the laws in place aren't written in a way to ensure that it doesn't happen.

To one extent, I ask how much privacy should we expect when accessing a municipal public network, or on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. The internet in essentially a public domain, it is up to you to keep your devices secure. It is up to you to not willingly expose private data on Facebook. You might think that only letting your Facebook friends see your data and keeping your devices secure is good enough, but it really isn't. Think about how many friends you have on Facebook who can see your profile. And then think of the odds that one person is using a computer infected with malware. One thing that I've learned is that digital security is very fickle. Locks only keep honest people out. Software companies brag about some un-hackable encryption, and somebody has already exploited it. People have to wise up to the digital age and realise that what you post on the internet is not exactly private. If someone with the resources wants your online information bad enough, there is a good chance that they will get it. There is been a clear and undeniable escalation in surveillance methods being employed by the U.S. government. I'm sure some surveillance is needed to maintain security from outside threats, and we presume they have the best intentions. But where are the laws protecting innocent people from being spied on? The internet just as any other large scale network is very wild west, and I don't know what the exact answers are. But legislators, the media, and we the people need to have serious discussion and find out what those answers are.

 

[moderateGOP]

"So what" is we need safeguards and guidelines to ensure that the expectation of privacy is met. Somewhat like in Europe.

There are laws in place. Just because it's not a big public debate (which I wish it was) and political circus sideshow (which I'm glad its not) doesn't mean that things aren't happening behind the scenes. It's why any app maker, software provider, or internet service has the disclaimers (that no one reads btw), warranties, etc... It's why facebook warns you that you are sharing your location. It's why Google Maps has the check mark next to "share your location?" In fact if the gov't really wanted to track you, they'd just partner with foursquare... Easier that way.

What I've seen recently is (unfortunately) for the unsuspecting public. When you download certain software and click next really really fast. Because you don't feel like reading those disclaimers. Some software is bundled with adware right inside of it! They KNOW you aren't going to read all that stuff! So they essentially infect your computer with viruses. They partner with ad companies and get auto ads directly from your computer without having to go through google or facebook. So next time your download some software. Actually read the steps.

By what standards do you want to measure this vague privacy issue? Because the way I see it. Anything can "track" you. And "tracking you" can be a very vague description of what is happening here. The only way to remain completely out of the bounds of the tracking is to stay off the internet. And these days that means, cell phones, GPS, and maybe even your car. Never said it was easy, but then again never said life was fair.

 

[moderateGOP]

If someone with the resources wants your online information bad enough, there is a good chance that they will get it. There is been a clear and undeniable escalation in surveillance methods being employed by the U.S. government.

As many conservatives say that no new gun laws/crime laws are going to prevent bad people from killing and doing other bad things. Same goes for the hackers. Snowden could have went through proper channels to bring awareness to his issue, but he instead went to the media. Same thing with Chelsea (bradley) Manning and these other so called hackers... They didn't care about the laws that were already in place, probably because they didn't read them.

 

[AluminumTheory]

There are laws in place. Just because it's not a big public debate (which I wish it was) and political circus sideshow (which I'm glad its not) doesn't mean that things aren't happening behind the scenes. It's why any app maker, software provider, or internet service has the disclaimers (that no one reads btw), warranties, etc... It's why facebook warns you that you are sharing your location. It's why Google Maps has the check mark next to "share your location?" In fact if the gov't really wanted to track you, they'd just partner with foursquare... Easier that way.

What I've seen recently is (unfortunately) for the unsuspecting public. When you download certain software and click next really really fast. Because you don't feel like reading those disclaimers. Some software is bundled with adware right inside of it! They KNOW you aren't going to read all that stuff! So they essentially infect your computer with viruses. They partner with ad companies and get auto ads directly from your computer without having to go through google or facebook. So next time your download some software. Actually read the steps.

By what standards do you want to measure this vague privacy issue? Because the way I see it. Anything can "track" you. And "tracking you" can be a very vague description of what is happening here. The only way to remain completely out of the bounds of the tracking is to stay off the internet. And these days that means, cell phones, GPS, and maybe even your car. Never said it was easy, but then again never said life was fair.

Well the discussion should be IMO to place limits in regards to what extent they (gov't and corporations) can legally monitor and collect information just as the constitution places limits on how law enforcement does their job, and how legislators (should) regulate how companies conduct business.

 

[moderateGOP]

Well the discussion should be IMO to place limits in regards to what extent they (gov't and corporations) can legally monitor and collect information just as the constitution places limits on how law enforcement does their job, and how legislators (should) regulate how companies conduct business.

I honestly don't think the technology is there for corporations and gov't to monitor everything in real time. I mean the boston bomber is just one example and the fact that apple needs to be notified about buggy software. There was an estimate done that even the NSA could not do what Snowden was claiming it did. EG: record everything and everyone in real time and keep all the data forever!

It's currently technologically impossible but it is a discussion that future generations will have.

 

[AluminumTheory]

I honestly don't think the technology is there for corporations and gov't to monitor everything in real time. I mean the boston bomber is just one example and the fact that apple needs to be notified about buggy software. There was an estimate done that even the NSA could not do what Snowden was claiming it did. EG: record everything and everyone in real time and keep all the data forever!

It's currently technologically impossible but it is a discussion that future generations will have.

I wasn't talking about it to that extent, although we will probably be there very soon. Which is why it's important to have this discussion.

But human beings generally don't possess alot of foresight.

 

[Pete Tar]

What publicly available tracking options would I have access to if I wanted to track someone's location via their phone or car gps?
Parents track their kids via gps, how does that work?

 

[Mick West]

What publicly available tracking options would I have access to if I wanted to track someone's location via their phone or car gps?
Parents track their kids via gps, how does that work?

It only works if you have access to the phone, or the phone's account.

Parents own their kids phones, so they can track them. With iPhone, you can use the "Find My iPhone" feature to locate any phone you have the account password for. There are also apps for that that provide more detail.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/find-my-kids-footprints/id400119299?mt=8

If it's not a phone you have access to, you have no options other than surreptitiously installing an app on the phone, or planting a bug on their car. Those are generally just loggers, which you retrieve later. There's more expensive units that transmit continuous location:

http://spyoutlet.com/cms/store/gps-car-tracking-live/gps-car-tracking-live-4f3169c3e1c6c-detail

 

[Pete Tar]

So what happens when they find someone lost in the wilderness by tracking their phone? Do they have to get given access to the account before they can do that?

eta. Disturbing...

With Footprints, you can set up Geofences, like your kids school, and be notified when these fences are crossed. You can even activate movement sensors that will notify you each time your loved ones are on the move.

Features:

✔ Tracks movement throughout the day and logs waypoints without user intervention.

✔ Parental control feature allows for sharing locations at all times, without a disabling option.

✔ Lets you share waypoints by granting specific permissions. For instance, you can share your last 10 waypoints with a friend for two days.

✔ Geofence and movement notifications can alert you when someone moves or crosses a fenced area. Speeding notifications can alert parents when their teenagers go over the speed limit.

Content from External Source

 

[dunbar]

It is a fact that the system does provide such data. It is a fact that with sufficient analysis such information can be extrapolated from the data. It is a fact that DHS funded the system. It is a fact that SPD shares the data collected through the system with DHS. It is a fact that DHS maintains databases of American citizens. It is a fact that DHS profiles and makes threat assessments of American citizens.

It's incredibly speculative to jump for a network having the capability to record MAC addresses, to go all the way to Seattle transmitting them to the DHS to store in their massive databases and cross referencing them with threat assessments. You are connecting rather a lot of dots there.

The City of Seattle issued a network diagram that clearly shows that the DHS fusion center as well as Coast Guard(CG is part of DHS) have full unrestricted admin level access and control over the network.

So it's not really "speculative" at all -- it's established incontrovertible, indisputable, plain and simple FACT.

What is the function and purpose of 'fusion centers'?

A fusion center is an information sharing center
They are designed to promote information sharing at the federal level between agencies such as the (CIA), (FBI), U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. military, and state- and local-level government. The fusion process is an overarching method of managing the flow of information and intelligence across levels and sectors of government to integrate information for analysis. That is, the process relies on the active involvement of state, local, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies—and sometimes on non-law enforcement agencies (e.g., private sector)—to provide the input of raw information for intelligence analysis. As the array of diverse information sources increases, there will be more accurate and robust analysis that can be disseminated as intelligence.

a fusion center is defined as “a collaborative effort of two or more agencies that provide resources, expertise, and/or information to the center with the goal of maximizing the ability to detect, prevent, apprehend, and respond to criminal and terrorist activity. The intelligence component of a fusion center focuses on the intelligence process, where information is collected, integrated, evaluated, analyzed, and disseminated. Nontraditional collectors of intelligence, such as public safety entities and private sector organizations, possess important information that can be fused' with law enforcement data to provide meaningful information and intelligence about threats and criminal activity.”

Content from External Source

The MAC logging is just an incidental feature that's useful for network diagnostics.

Mick, you don't understand the technology and you don't know what you're talking about. The Aruba mesh network(hardware/software) is designed to track MAC addresses, it is not "just an incidental feature" -- Aruba is designed specifically for wifi positioning and tracking. I don't know why I have to keep repeating this. You are correct that any WIFI network can be configured to do this, but Aruba is designed to do this as part of its basic functionality. It is definitely not incidental, it is specifically designed for this purpose and the Aruba company has distributed numerous brochures advertising the advantages and benefits this positioning and tracking feature their software/hardware offers.

http://www.arubanetworks.com/pdf/partners/PSB_AeroScout.pdf

http://www.arubanetworks.com/pdf/technology/whitepapers/wp_AirWave-VisualRF.pdf

http://uct.com.do/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Aruba-Location-and-Asset-Tracking-Solution-RFID.pdf

AirWave is Aruba's network management platform. It includes three components to deliver the core capabilities for managing a network: operations management with AirWave Management Platform (AMP), visualization and location tracking with VisualRF, and rogue and intrusion detection with RAPIDS, AirWave's Rogue AP Detection Software.

Now it would make sense for law enforcement and emergency workers to utilize this function in order to better coordinate and organize their operations to be more effective in both their day-to-day activities and in emergencies. This is fine and I have no objection to it. The trouble is that the system can be put to other more ominous uses such as unwarranted, covert tracking and profiling of citizens. We need strict laws in place that carry stiff penalties to prevent authorities from misusing or abusing this technology.

The network should be set to filter out and delete the MAC addresses of citizens as soon as they are detected, no law enforcement agency should be allowed this kind of power. Unless of course we are interested in revisiting and reliving much darker and much more intensively repressive versions of McCarthyism and COINTELlPRO.

The popularity of Wi-Fi networks, in combination with the clear text transmission of identifiers for those networks, creates a ubiquitous infrastructure that may now be used for purposes far different from the original intent. 48 The MAC address and SSID were first developed to ensure the proper functioning of wireless network components; they can now act as geo-location points, enabling location-based services and mobile virtual communities thereby transforming the original intention of the architecture. 49 When designing a technical architecture, the potential for unintended uses should form part of a privacy threat/risk analysis. This is fundamental to the future of computing, where attempts to prevent user tracking are often not seriously pursued

Content from External Source

 

[dunbar]

so department stores use public WIFI and mac addresses to track customers?
Got Proof?

Attention, Shoppers: Store Is Tracking Your Cell

If a shopper’s phone is set to look for Wi-Fi networks, a store that offers Wi-Fi can pinpoint where the shopper is in the store, within a 10-foot radius, even if the shopper does not connect to the network, said Tim Callan, RetailNext’s chief marketing officer.
The store can also recognize returning shoppers, because mobile devices send unique identification codes when they search for networks. That means stores can now tell how repeat customers behave and the average time between visits.

RetailNext also uses data to map customers’ paths; perhaps the shopper is 70 percent likely to go right immediately, or 14 percent likely to linger at a display, Mr. Callan said.

Content from External Source

I said tracing a mac address bac to its owner would require extreme and difficult measures. [...] As I've said repeatedly. Its exceedi exceedingly to identify someone with a mac address. If your monitoring the patterns of people with security cameras and algorithms where does the Mac address come In to play? Hey there's a suspicious guy in that coffee shop. How does having his smartphone's mac address help in anyway?

You're still not grasping the concept. You are correct that it would be "exceedingly difficult" to ascertain a person's identity just from a MAC address, but if you were able to track and locate the physical real-world position of the device broadcasting the MAC, you could easily figure out where a person lives and where they work.

For instance, if a MAC returns to the same physical location every evening at 6pm and remains there until 6am every morning and then departs, you can be reasonably sure that you have located the device owner's place of residence. Then it is just a simple step of running the address and voila, you have the name, D.O.B., drivers license # etc etc of the person you're tracking.

It could work in reverse as well, you could have the identity of a 'person of interest' and track their movement across town via their MAC. You could watch to see which other MAC addresses come into close proximity of the poi and remain over time and from tracking location, time, duration, route, and destination you could determine not just if they are associates but you could also get a fairly good picture of the nature of the association. They may work at the same office and go to lunch together or may live in the same house and go movies together. They may attend the same church and sing in the choir or maybe they are meeting to organize a union or form a political activist group. Maybe it is people meeting for an extramarital affair and now you have blackmail leverage. Maybe it is a journalist meeting with a whistleblower.... Do you get the picture?

 

[AluminumTheory]

Attention, Shoppers: Store Is Tracking Your Cell

If a shopper’s phone is set to look for Wi-Fi networks, a store that offers Wi-Fi can pinpoint where the shopper is in the store, within a 10-foot radius, even if the shopper does not connect to the network, said Tim Callan, RetailNext’s chief marketing officer.
The store can also recognize returning shoppers, because mobile devices send unique identification codes when they search for networks. That means stores can now tell how repeat customers behave and the average time between visits.

RetailNext also uses data to map customers’ paths; perhaps the shopper is 70 percent likely to go right immediately, or 14 percent likely to linger at a display, Mr. Callan said.

Content from External Source

You're still not grasping the concept. You are correct that it would be "exceedingly difficult" to ascertain a person's identity just from a MAC address, but if you were able to track and locate the physical real-world position of the device broadcasting the MAC, you could easily figure out where a person lives and where they work.

And you're still assuming that because something is capable of spying that it's proof that it is spying.

I just showed you what a mac address search contains. If you have a group of 10 people in the same area, how do you find the one you're looking for? If a phone is in the pocket or in the case, how do you even know what brand of phone it is?

For instance, if a MAC returns to the same physical location every evening at 6pm and remains there until 6am every morning and then departs, you can be reasonably sure that you have located the device owner's place of residence. Then it is just a simple step of running the address and voila, you have the name, D.O.B., drivers license # etc etc of the person you're tracking.

But these wifi access points aren't even close enough to be able to pin point a specific location like that. What about the dozens of other mac addresses arriving and departing at around the same time? How do you get a mac address and pin it to a specific person?

It could work in reverse as well, you could have the identity of a 'person of interest' and track their movement across town via their MAC. You could watch to see which other MAC addresses come into close proximity of the poi and remain over time and from tracking location, time, duration, route, and destination you could determine not just if they are associates but you could also get a fairly good picture of the nature of the association. They may work at the same office and go to lunch together or may live in the same house and go movies together. They may attend the same church and sing in the choir or maybe they are attempting to organize a union or form a political activist group. Do you get the picture?

Having a 'person of interest' would be different. That would imply that this person is suspected to have been involved in a crime, and hence law enforcement would be monitoring his movements.

 

[dunbar]

And you're still assuming that because something is capable of spying that it's proof that it is spying.

It raises serious questions when federal and state law enforcement installs an undiscriminating wifi positioning/tracking system all over a city that does not filter and exclude citizen's MAC addresses from its positioning/tracking functions. Especially when the federal agency involved has been repeatedly cited for scandalous unconstitutional activities.

“Detective Moss also added that the mesh network would not be used for ‘surveillance purposes … without City Council’s approval and the appropriate court authorization.’ Note that he didn’t say the mesh network couldn’t be used for the surveillance functions we asked about, only that it wouldn’t—at least until certain people in power say it can. That’s the equivalent of a ‘trust us’ and a handshake”
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/201...-mesh-network-capable-of-tracking-cellphones/

Content from External Source

I just showed you what a mac address search contains. If a phone is in the pocket or in the case, how do you even know what brand of phone it is?

It doesn't matter what kind of phone it is. All that is needed is a 'unique identifier' that can be positioned and tracked over the network area which is what a MAC address provides.

But these wifi access points aren't even close enough to be able to pin point a specific location like that.

The Aruba network can give a location for any mobile device it detects within its network area to an accuracy of a few feet. Your smart phone will use wifi to navigate when it can't get a GPS signal.

What about the dozens of other mac addresses arriving and departing at around the same time? How do you get a mac address and pin it to a specific person? [...] If you have a group of 10 people in the same area, how do you find the one you're looking for?

Some computer programs can track and locate thousands of targets simultaneously. Some computer programs can even track, analyze, recognize patterns, and predict with amazing speed and accuracy.

Having a 'person of interest' would be different. That would imply that this person is suspected to have been involved in a crime, and hence law enforcement would be monitoring his movements.

It may just be that the poi is suspected of "unamerican activities" and has been determined by some algorithm to be a potential threat and now is subject to surreptitious automated monitoring.

 

[Mick West]

The City of Seattle issued a network diagram that clearly shows that the DHS fusion center as well as Coast Guard(CG is part of DHS) have full unrestricted admin level access and control over the network.

No, it shows that they have access to the video. Which is what the network is for. They are not going to let Harbor Patrol access the router firmware.

Mick, you don't understand the technology and you don't know what you're talking about. The Aruba mesh network(hardware/software) is designed to track MAC addresses, it is not "just an incidental feature" -- Aruba is designed specifically for wifi positioning and tracking. I don't know why I have to keep repeating this. You are correct that any WIFI network can be configured to do this, but Aruba is designed to do this as part of its basic functionality. It is definitely not incidental, it is specifically designed for this purpose and the Aruba company has distributed numerous brochures advertising the advantages and benefits this positioning and tracking feature their software/hardware offers.

I understand that fine. It's a robustness and security feature. It's not a "tracking feature". It is incidental to the purpose of the network (video). You'd have to write a lot of stuff on top of that to actually make it useful. That's where your speculation is.

 

[Mick West]

It could work in reverse as well, you could have the identity of a 'person of interest' and track their movement across town via their MAC. You could watch to see which other MAC addresses come into close proximity of the poi and remain over time and from tracking location, time, duration, route, and destination you could determine not just if they are associates but you could also get a fairly good picture of the nature of the association. They may work at the same office and go to lunch together or may live in the same house and go movies together. They may attend the same church and sing in the choir or maybe they are meeting to organize a union or form a political activist group. Maybe it is people meeting for an extramarital affair and now you have blackmail leverage. Maybe it is a journalist meeting with a whistleblower.... Do you get the picture?

Nobody has said that would not be a problem. Nobody has said that it's not possible. People are just disagreeing with your assertion that there's evidence that it is being done in Seattle with this (tiny) new network.

 

[AluminumTheory]

The City of Seattle issued a network diagram that clearly shows that the DHS fusion center as well as Coast Guard(CG is part of DHS) have full unrestricted admin level access and control over the network.

So it's not really "speculative" at all -- it's established incontrovertible, indisputable, plain and simple FACT.

Who has control of the network is not what we're discussing. It's whether or not this is being used or will be used for spying.

A fusion center is an information sharing center
They are designed to promote information sharing at the federal level between agencies such as the (CIA), (FBI), U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. military, and state- and local-level government. The fusion process is an overarching method of managing the flow of information and intelligence across levels and sectors of government to integrate information for analysis. That is, the process relies on the active involvement of state, local, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies—and sometimes on non-law enforcement agencies (e.g., private sector)—to provide the input of raw information for intelligence analysis. As the array of diverse information sources increases, there will be more accurate and robust analysis that can be disseminated as intelligence.

a fusion center is defined as “a collaborative effort of two or more agencies that provide resources, expertise, and/or information to the center with the goal of maximizing the ability to detect, prevent, apprehend, and respond to criminal and terrorist activity. The intelligence component of a fusion center focuses on the intelligence process, where information is collected, integrated, evaluated, analyzed, and disseminated. Nontraditional collectors of intelligence, such as public safety entities and private sector organizations, possess important information that can be fused' with law enforcement data to provide meaningful information and intelligence about threats and criminal activity.”

Content from External Source

And what are they going to do with a bunch of mac addresses? Can they look at the security camera footage and look at some dude walking around and say "yup that's F4:G6:01:A1:E0:E9 right there getting a cup of coffee"?
The MAC addresses are just a part of network security which I explained numerous posts ago. Large scale networks need large scale security. Rogue devices pose a large threat to that concept, so security to this level is necessary.
Here is a device that anybody can buy for $50-$100 that can breach secured wireless networks. As I have pointed out, MAC address tracking has been a possibility.

Mick, you don't understand the technology and you don't know what you're talking about. The Aruba mesh network(hardware/software) is designed to track MAC addresses, it is not "just an incidental feature" -- Aruba is designed specifically for wifi positioning and tracking. I don't know why I have to keep repeating this. You are correct that any WIFI network can be configured to do this, but Aruba is designed to do this as part of its basic functionality. It is definitely not incidental, it is specifically designed for this purpose and the Aruba company has distributed numerous brochures advertising the advantages and benefits this positioning and tracking feature of their software/hardware offers.

http://www.arubanetworks.com/pdf/partners/PSB_AeroScout.pdf

http://www.arubanetworks.com/pdf/technology/whitepapers/wp_AirWave-VisualRF.pdf

http://uct.com.do/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Aruba-Location-and-Asset-Tracking-Solution-RFID.pdf

It really is not that different, from other high end network systems.

There are numerous methods of tracking MAC addresses and getting a general location. AirWave VisualRF is just wifi visualization software which has been available for awhile.

Here's a wifi visualization tool called VisiWave

Visualize Your Wireless Network™
WiFi wireless networks are everywhere. They are a critical component of most business infrastructures. They need to be examined, explained, and held accountable. VisiWave Site Survey is the software tool that shows you what's going on inside your 802.11 network. VisiWave Site Survey provides advanced data collection and visualization capabilities that form a complete wireless LAN site survey solution that allows you to visualize the radio waves and demonstrate the effectiveness of your Wi-Fi coverage.


Analyze Every Detail of Your WiFi Coverage
VisiWave collects detailed data on your network and surrounding networks and then visualizes that data. Each view is designed to reveal critical details about your network in an intuitive and informative way. With VisiWave, you can: reveal coverage voids, map any signal leakage from your building, discover the existence and location of rogue access points, map channel usage, determine effects of neighboring access points, visualize overlapping access point coverage, and much more.

Content from External Source

And another product from Cisco known as Cisco Prime Network Control

Part of the Cisco Prime™ Infrastructure bundle, Cisco® Prime Network Control System (NCS) provides converged user, access, and identity management across wired and wireless networks to meet the challenges that Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is placing on IT organizations. Designed with users and their mobile devices in mind, Cisco Prime NCS speeds network troubleshooting by giving IT complete visibility into connectivity, regardless of device, network or location. Deep integration with the Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) further extends this visibility across security and policy-related problems, presenting a complete view of client issues with a clear path to solving them. Cisco Prime NCS (Figure 1) delivers full lifecycle management of Cisco wireless LAN infrastructure, with additional focus on the deployment and management of branch networks.
Figure 1. Cisco Prime Network Control System


The platform significantly reduces operational costs by eliminating the need for competing overlay management solutions for wired, wireless, and branch networks, as well as security policy. Built on the foundation of Cisco Wireless Control System (WCS), Cisco Prime NCS:
• Helps resolve access problems across wired and wireless networks to get users back online faster

• Facilitates visibility of user attributes, posture, and profile through integration with the Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)

• Introduces lifecycle management of Cisco Integrated Services Routers (ISRs), the Cisco Aggregation Services Router (ASR) 1000 Series, and Cisco Catalyst® switches

• Enables simplified deployment of branch offices requiring common, standardized configurations

• Allows full wireless lifecycle management, enabling IT staff to design and maintain optimal RF environments

• Offers an intuitive user experience to eliminate complexity, improve IT productivity, and minimize staffing requirements

• Provides a scalable platform for small, mid-sized, and large-scale wired and wireless networks, across both campus and distributed branch environments

• Delivers physical or virtual appliance deployment for flexibility without sacrificing functionality

​

Seamless Scalability

Cisco Prime NCS scales to manage thousands of routers and switches, hundreds of Cisco wireless controllers, which in turn can manage up to 15,000 Cisco Aironet® access points, including the next-generation, 802.11 Cisco Aironet 3600, 3500, 1040, 1260, 1250, and 1140 Series and OfficeExtend 600 Series. Cisco Prime NCS supports the Cisco Integrated Services Routers (ISRs), the Cisco Aggregation Services Router (ASR) 1000 Series, and Cisco Catalyst switches.
Cisco Prime NCS offers both physical appliance and virtual appliance deployment options, providing full product functionality, scalability, ease of installation, and setup tailored to your deployment preference.

​

WLAN Services Management

The platform provides complete WLAN services management, supporting:

• Cisco CleanAir™ technology, a systemwide capability of the Cisco Unified Wireless Network providing proactive, high-speed spectrum intelligence to combat performance problems due to RF interference

• Cisco ISE integration, which allows for visibility into user and endpoint attributes, their posture, and profiling information for both wired and wireless clients

• Integration with the Cisco Mobility Services Engine (MSE), which enables Cisco Context-Aware Software for real-time location tracking and local services discovery, along with Cisco Adaptive Wireless IPS (wIPS) Software for detection, containment, and location of security threats

These advanced mobility services provide additional information to the popular Client Troubleshooting tool, allowing quick problem resolution across any access medium.
Comprehensive Wireless LAN Lifecycle Management

Cisco Prime NCS cost-effectively supports all phases of the wireless LAN lifecycle from planning and deployment, to monitoring, troubleshooting, and customized reporting. Cisco Prime NCS allows wireless LAN operations to be more efficient and effective for all lifecycle phases (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Comprehensive Wireless LAN Lifecycle Management


Planning

Designing a wireless LAN that effectively supports business-critical data, voice, and video services is simplified with the Cisco Prime NCS suite of built-in planning and design tools (Figure 3).
Figure 3. Simplified Wireless LAN Planning and Design


The planning and design tools in Cisco Prime NCS simplify the process of defining access point placement and determining access point coverage areas for standard and irregularly shaped buildings. These tools give IT administrators clear visibility into the RF environment to anticipate future coverage needs, assess wireless LAN events, and mitigate or eliminate improper RF designs and coverage problems.
Specialized Cisco Prime NCS planning tools facilitate immediate assessment of the WLAN's readiness to provide voice-over-WLAN services supporting single and dual-mode Wi-Fi-enabled phones, and context-aware (location) services that use Cisco's patent-pending "RF fingerprinting" technology to locate, track, and manage Wi-Fi-enabled devices and their contextual information in conjunction with Cisco MSE.
Deployment

Getting the wireless LAN up and running quickly and cost-effectively to meet end-user needs is streamlined with the broad array of Cisco Prime NCS integrated configuration templates. Flexible, easy-to-use templates and deployment tools - such as the Controller Auto-Provisioning feature for zero-touch deployment of Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers - help IT managers provision and configure the wireless LAN to expressly deliver the services that their business requires (Figure 4). These templates and tools make it simple to apply common and best-practices configurations across multiple wireless LAN controllers regardless of their location, streamlining even the most complex controller configurations, updates, and scheduling. Provisioning access points is just as simple with easy-to-use templates for customized configuration of multiple access points.
Figure 4. Flexible Deployment Tools and Configuration Templates


Monitoring and Troubleshooting

Cisco Prime NCS is the ideal management platform for monitoring and troubleshooting the wired and wireless LAN to maintain robust performance and deliver an optimal access experience to fixed and mobile endpoints. The centralized interface of Cisco Prime NCS makes it easy to access information where it's needed, when it's needed, on-demand or as scheduled.
The easy-to-use graphical display serves as a starting point for maintenance, security, troubleshooting, and future capacity planning activities. Quick access to actionable data about healthy and unhealthy devices is available from a variety of entry points, making Cisco Prime NCS vital to ongoing network operations.
The ever-present alarm summary panel and alarm browser in Cisco Prime NCS simplify access to critical information, faults, and alarms based on their severity (Figure 5). The alarm summary panel facilitates faster assessment of outstanding notifications and supports quicker resolution of trouble tickets. Detecting, locating, and containing unauthorized (rogue) devices are fully supported when location services are enabled.
Figure 5. Ever-Present Alarm Summary and Alarm Browser Interaction


The integrated workflows and extensive array of troubleshooting tools in Cisco Prime NCS help IT administrators quickly identify, isolate, and resolve problems across all components of the Cisco access network. Cisco NCS supports rapid troubleshooting of LANs and WLANs of any size with minimal IT staffing. A set of tools works together to help IT administrators understand the operational nuances occurring on the LAN and WLAN and discover nonoptimal events occurring outside baseline parameters (for example, client connection or roaming problems):
• The ever-present search tool facilitates cross-network access to immediate and historic information about devices and assets located anywhere in the access network, including endpoint and session attributes, association history, endpoint location, RF performance, statistics, radio resource management (RRM), and air quality.

• Integrated workflows support seamless linkage between all tools, alarms, alerts, searches, and reports for all infrastructure components and client devices.

• A built-in Client Troubleshooting tool provides a step-by-step method to analyze problems for all wired and wireless client devices. This robust Client Troubleshooting tool helps reduce operating costs by speeding the resolution of trouble tickets for a variety of Wi-Fi client device types. The tool can also assist with client trending analysis (Figure 6).

• When Cisco Compatible Extensions clients, Cisco ISE, and Cisco CleanAir technology are used, specialized diagnostic tools are available to support enhanced analysis of connection problems.

Figure 6. Built-in Client Troubleshooting Tool to Support Step-by-Step Problem Analysis


Remediation

Cisco Prime NCS makes it easy to quickly assess service disruptions, receive notices about performance degradation, research resolutions, and take action to remedy nonoptimal situations.
• Cisco CleanAir technology supports finding, classifying, correlating, and mitigating interference from Wi-Fi and non-Wi-Fi sources such as rogue access points, microwave ovens, Bluetooth devices, and cordless phones. Cisco CleanAir technology improves air quality and creates a self-healing and self-optimizing wireless network that mitigates the impact of wireless interference sources.

• Built-in tools such as the Client Troubleshooting tool support help desk staff and level-two administrators resolve client access issues by providing guidance on where the actual problem may be.

• The security dashboard allows for a network-level assessment and provides a security index with suggestions on how to improve security across your deployment.

• The voice-service audit tool not only provides a way to audit the current network configuration for voice over wireless LAN (VoWLAN) deployments, but also provides a way to rectify the current configuration based on Cisco best practices for VoWLAN deployment.

Optimization

Cisco Prime NCS includes customizable reporting that assists IT teams to effectively manage, maintain, and evolve the wireless LAN to meet ongoing business and operations requirements. In addition to tools such as configuration compliance monitoring with comprehensive auditing functionality, flexible reports provide access to the right data, at the right time, in a format to meet any requirement (Figure 7).

Content from External Source

The popularity of Wi-Fi networks, in combination with the clear text transmission of identifiers for those networks, creates a ubiquitous infrastructure that may now be used for purposes far different from the original intent. 48 The MAC address and SSID were first developed to ensure the proper functioning of wireless network components; they can now act as geo-location points, enabling location-based services and mobile virtual communities thereby transforming the original intention of the architecture. 49 When designing a technical architecture, the potential for unintended uses should form part of a privacy threat/risk analysis. This is fundamental to the future of computing, where attempts to prevent user tracking are often not seriously pursued

Content from External Source

The only way you would trace mac addresses to a physical location is via the RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indication) which is the measurement of power in a received radio signal. RSSI has not been proven to be a reliable indicator of distance and location.

There is no standardized relationship of any particular physical parameter to the RSSI reading. The 802.11 standard does not define any relationship between RSSI value and power level in mW or dBm. Vendors and chipset makers provide their own accuracy, granularity, and range for the actual power (measured as mW or dBm) and their range of RSSI values (from 0 to RSSI_Max).[2] One subtlety of the 802.11 RSSI metric comes from how it is sampled—RSSI is acquired during only the preamble stage of receiving an 802.11 frame, not over the full frame. A study in 2009 showed that RSSI cannot necessarily be used to reliably gauge distances in a wireless sensor network.

Content from External Source

Granted, accuracy can improve based on the number of nodes (access points) that you have, and it might work ok inside department stores which are basically big warehouses. But using this outdoors can introduce numerous problems when uch as; interferences of building materials, stray signals, the signal quality of the wifi receiver, etc. There are alot of thing that can interfere with RSSI strength. And don't forget that buildings have floors. You might get a general location, but you have no idea whether your suspect is on the 1st floor or the 5th floor. You have a pretty good idea of what you're looking for, if you're looking for a rogue device. But finding a person based on their mac address is still not so easy.

Here is their coverage map.





Again, it doesn't seem like a very effective "spy grid"

 

[AluminumTheory]

Also for what it's worth, I just found the source of the 'leaked Snowden level documents'


Infowars claims they got these documents from an government insider source.....

Exclusive documents obtained by Infowars from an insider government source have revealed the true origin and nature of the highly secretive ‘mesh network’ spy grid that has garnered massive media attention due to the fact that the network’s strange downtown Seattle spy boxes can track the last 1,000 GPS locations of cellphone users. But as new documents reveal, the grid is far deeper than the media is telling you. The Seattle DHS spy system ultimately ties in with an enormous stealth database that acts as an intelligence hub for all of your personal data.

Content from External Source

Except that is not true.

Here is an article from The Examiner Published 2/4/2013

http://www.examiner.com/article/seattle-s-new-surveillence-cameras-may-have-hidden-agenda

Seattle's DHS-funded surveillance camera network expands
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February 4, 2013
Seattle Police Department expands citywide surveillance camera network, brings back memories of TrapWire

This year, the Seattle Police Department began installing 30 new surveillance cameras to add to its port security camera network that will stretch from Shoreline to Fauntleroy.

While these cameras are new, Seattle's robust network of surveillance cameras and wireless communication mesh is already well established in the city.

The project is being federally funded by the Department of Homeland Security to prevent and investigate instances of terrorism along Seattle's port areas according to the SPD.

However, the counter-terrorism monitoring has many Seattle citizens concerned about their privacy, which may be warranted given Seattle's propensity for secrecy on such matters in the past.

More on that later.

According to Assistant Police Chief Paul McDonagh, "on the homeland-security front, [the cameras will] monitor those people who are out for nefarious acts, monitor their behaviors," but claims they will not look into residents' houses.

However, as reported by the West Seattle Blog, some cameras were caught pointing inward, away from the coast line after first being put up. McDonagh insisted this was a mistake and that the cameras have been readjusted to face the waterfronts.

Little is known about the types of cameras being used and the software that goes along with them, and according to McDonagh, no public hearings are scheduled at this time.

A Freedom of Information Act request was made on Jan. 30 to find out details about the cameras, including purchase orders, maintenance contracts, owner's manuals, data access procedures, data retention policies, etc.

However, the city's proposal request and contract for the cameras and mesh wireless network were found available on the Seattle.gov website after a little digging.

The company contracted to do the work, Cascade Networks, Inc., is based out of Longview, Wash.

Its subsidiary Last Mile Gear will likely be providing the services, as it has a full listing of both video surveillance and mesh network equipment on its website.

It should be noted no facial recognition software is listed on the site, though it does provide license plate recognition software.

In his interview with the West Seattle Blog, McDonagh claimed the cameras are not capable of facial recognition or infrared.

Aside from face scanning, other technologies exist from companies like TrapWire that can combine license plate recognition with CCTV feed to provide detailed biometrics on individuals.

It is not a far leap to suspect such activities are occurring in Seattle, since they already have.

TrapWire operated a pilot program in Seattle and Washington D.C. starting in 2009 that was only revealed to the public in August of last year after WikiLeaks, with the aid of Anonymous, leaked emails from the private intelligence agency Stratfor.

According to The Guardian, "founded by former CIA agents, TrapWire uses data from a network of CCTV systems and numberplate readers to figure out the threat level in huge numbers of locations."

A Znet report explains how ordinary cameras can be combined with TrapWire software:

While ordinary CCTV cameras are often 'passive' and monitored by humans, TrapWire-connected cameras, such as 'pan-tilt-zoom' cameras, are able to track people, along with license plate readers, called Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) from place to place.

The surveillance once thought to be relatively passive is instead pre-emptive and sophisticated in its methods.

Indeed, TrapWire boasts on its website that its methodologies harness "a shift from damage mitigation to attack prevention."

Sounds like pre-crime creepiness.

Additionally, a recently-leaked diagram of the surveillance camera network shows that SPD officers can control the cameras from their squad cars. Will this lead to spying in the name of crime prevention? Who's watching the watchers?

Until the FOIA is met with the full release of its requested documents, it cannot be ruled out that TrapWire or similar software from Cascade Networks is still involved in Seattle's counter-terrorism surveillance network.

Content from External Source

Here you can search for the document yourself on Seattle's blanket contract search under seattle.gov

Just type in "Cascade Networks, INC" as shown in the vendor name search bar, and click "Find Contacts"




And this should come up.


Download the file



And click on "Comprehensive Contract" to view the pdf. (You may have to enable editing in MS Office as this document seems to open in "protected view"). You can also download it here.
And if you go to the bottom of the infowars article, you'll find that this pdf is exactly the pdf that they had claimed 'leaked' from government insiders.
Pages 55, 62, and 69 are the pages displayed in the article itself.

You can also download this document from muckrock.com https://www.muckrock.com/foi/seattl...i-beach-public-surveillance-camera-docs-2632/
Muckrock has had the pdf available since at least March of 2013.


So basically, Infowars leaked publicly available documents and called them "Snowden Level Documents".

 

[qed]

Free Jeremy Hammond

The acts of civil disobedience and direct action that I am being sentenced for today are in line with the principles of community and equality that have guided my life. I hacked into dozens of high profile corporations and government institutions, understanding very clearly that what I was doing was against the law, and that my actions could land me back in federal prison. But I felt that I had an obligation to use my skills to expose and confront injustice-and to bring the truth to light

Content from External Source

Respect.

 

[Pete Tar]

Well it makes the information that much more urgent seeming.
Very deceptive spin.

 

[AluminumTheory]

Well it makes the information that much more urgent seeming.
Very deceptive spin.

For which you can always count on Alex Jones and his lackeys to do to a story.

 

[dunbar]

Interview with SPD Assistant Chief Paul McDonagh

West Seattle Blog video from editor Tracy Record's interview with Seattle Police Department Special Operations Bureau commander Assistant Chief Paul McDonagh regarding the Homeland Security grant-funded camera/wireless-mesh system.

Seattle Police surveillance cameras: Golden Gardens meeting

West Seattle Blog video of the third and apparently final Seattle Police meeting regarding a system for 28 surveillance cameras and more than 150 "wireless mesh" communication relays. Held May 24, 2013, at Golden Gardens Bathhouse in Ballard.

 

[AluminumTheory]

http://www.nbc12.com/story/23526890/on-your-side-alert-warning-about-wi-fi-pineapple

RICHMOND, VA (WWBT) -
There is a warning for anyone who uses free Wi-Fi. With a little less than a hundred dollars and a quick Google search, cyber criminals can get hold of a device capable of stealing your information.

Those free hot spots are tempting but dangerous. Now there is even more reason not to use them. Computer expert, Kevin Boynton, with The Computer Doctor of Richmond says, it's called the Wi-Fi Pineapple. It's a device that gives criminals easy access to our online activity. "Depending on the way this hacker has it set up, they can have what's called a man in the middle attack. It will pass you through to the real internet but mean while, all the traffic that you are passing through this pineapple, they are sniffing it. They are capturing your information," Boynton explains.

He admits, it's intimidating. He says anyone can get one by just doing a simple search online. The technology allows criminals to pretend it's your favorite Wi-Fi spot. If you're fooled, you could be handing over your personal information. "The uses for this are very scary. Think about it, cyber stalking. A crazy ex-lover could set one of these up and go to a spot where they know you are going to be and they could sniff your email information and passwords," Boynton says.

While this all sounds really frightening, there are ways you can protect yourself. Your safest bet is not to use free Wi-Fi but if you have to, be careful about which sites you visit. "Never ever, ever, ever do any banking or any financial information on a Hotspot and you need to be cautious about if you should check your email, or if you should check your Facebook," Boynton warns.

Other tips, turn off Wi-Fi if you're not using it. If you connect with a free Hotspot, tell your device to forget the network when you're done. That way it will not connect automatically and ask you for permission to gain access.

While the threat focuses on free Wi-Fi spots, experts say don't let your guard down at home. "What this also highlights is the importance for us as consumers to make sure our home Hotspots and our work Hotspots are properly secured and password protected," Boynton says.

Always surf with caution and remember, crooks don't need the Pineapple to hack into your device, there are other tricky devices on the market.

Content from External Source

 

[dunbar]

DIY stalker boxes spy on Wi-Fi users cheaply and with maximum creep value
You may not know it, but the smartphone in your pocket is spilling some of your deepest secrets to anyone who takes the time to listen. It knows what time you left the bar last night, the number of times per day you take a cappuccino break, and even the dating website you use. And because the information is leaked in dribs and drabs, no one seems to notice. Until now.

Enter CreepyDOL, a low-cost, distributed network of Wi-Fi sensors that stalks people as they move about neighborhoods or even entire cities. At 4.5 inches by 3.5 inches by 1.25 inches, each node is small enough to be slipped into a wall socket at the nearby gym, cafe, or break room. And with the ability for each one to share the Internet traffic it collects with every other node, the system can assemble a detailed dossier of personal data, including the schedules, e-mail addresses, personal photos, and current or past whereabouts of the person or people it monitors.

Short for Creepy Distributed Object Locator, CreepyDOL is the brainchild of 27-year-old Brendan O'Connor, a law student at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and a researcher at a consultancy called
Malice Afterthought
. After a reading binge of science fiction novels, he began wondering how the growing ubiquity of mobile computing was affecting people's ability to remain anonymous, or at least untracked or unidentified, as they went about their work and social routines each day.

"It takes you five seconds to bring your VPN online," he said. "During that time, iMessage has already pinged for updates, Dropbox has already pinged for updates, your mail client has already pinged for updates. This is incredibly saddening to me. VPNs—the usual solution we all use—don't work because you need an operating-system level of support for saying: 'None shall pass until the VPN is online.' iOS is not set up this way." Other data CreepyDOL can mine includes the apple hardware identifier (model and version) and iOS version he uses. He believes other mobile operating systems, including Google's Android, do no better of a job, although he didn't test them.

And even when people use their mobile devices to connect only to password-protected Wi-Fi networks, there's still a fair amount of data CreepyDOL can collect. That's because the Wi-Fi protocol broadcasts MAC addresses, the names of recently connected networks, and other data whenever Wi-Fi is turned on. At a minimum, that's enough information to track the physical movement of specific devices through a neighborhood or entire city over an extended period of time. And depending on the names of the wireless networks a device has recently connected to, CreepyDOL may be able to know where its owner works, lives, or hangs out.



full article:
http://arstechnica.com/security/201...i-users-cheaply-and-with-maximum-creep-value/

Content from External Source

 

[qed]

That evil Indonesian government.

 

[dunbar]

CreepyDOL Demo Video

As seen in my Black Hat USA and DEF CON presentations, this is the short video demonstration of the CreepyDOL visualization system. No audio, but first you'll see panning around the area as the underlying map loads, then some zooming in and out, followed by clicking and dragging a box around some nodes of interest. Then you'll see the map reload in the area of interest, followed by which I hover over some nodes to show their location and MAC address, before clicking on one node to show all the known information: real name, email address, photo, self-reported location, hardware type, software version, etc. all harvested by CreepyDOL.


Defcon 21 - Stalking a City for Fun and Frivolity

Brendan O'Conno a researcher at a consultancy called Malice Afterthought
explains
1. Everything leaks too much data.
2. It is no longer possible to "blend in to the crowd."
3. The full-stack nature of the privacy leakage means that there aren't simple technical solutions to these problems.

 

[Mick West]

So basically you are just showing that this is a generic problem, and not really specific to the Seattle PD network.

 

[dunbar]

Department of Amplifications: Aruba Would Like to Clarify a Few Things About Its Wireless Mesh Network
This evening, roughly 24 hours after the Seattle Police Department announced it would deactivate its downtown wireless mesh network, one spokesperson and one engineer from Aruba, the company that designed and built the network, gave us a call.

The Stranger reported on this network last week:

After reviewing Aruba's technical literature, as well as talking to IT directors and systems administrators around the country who work with Aruba products, it's clear that their networks are adept at seeing all the devices that move through their coverage area and visually mapping the locations of those devices in real time for the system administrators' convenience. In fact, one of Aruba's major selling points is its ability to locate "rogue" or "unassociated" devices—that is, any device that hasn't been authorized by (and maybe hasn't even asked to be part of) the network.

Which is to say, your device. The cell phone in your pocket, for instance.

Aruba spokesperson Pavel Radda and engineer Chuck Lukaszewski, who said they also spoke to a Seattle Times reporter earlier today, claimed that the SPD's mesh network cannot geo-locate devices that don't already have an affiliation—that is to say, a username and a password—with the network.

"There are three product families" within the Aruba company, Lukaszewski said. Two of the families have geo-location capabilities, but "the outdoor mesh does not do outdoor location capabilities."

"I want to be crystal clear about the mesh product," he said, "and I did some follow-up with our software team—we can state unequivocally that the mesh product is not capable of reporting on unassociated devices." He added that the four radios in every wireless router can detect where a "rogue device" is, but that "we discard the information in the radio at a low level."

Could Aruba demonstrate that somehow—since the technical literature we reviewed, the Aruba clients we interviewed, and the engineers we spoke to indicated the opposite?

"I've talked about it with the software team," Lukaszewski said, "but it’s not in the documentation. For the moment, you’re going to have to go with the Aruba spokesman."

When we first approached the SPD and Aruba, they declined to answer questions about the network.

That leaves us with a he-said/she-said. Between the Aruba users, anonymous tech engineers, on-the-record technical directors, and Aruba's own literature, it appears that the Aruba mesh network has the potential—especially with future software upgrades in geo-location which, as we reported in our original story, is a hot part of Aruba's current business model—to track wireless devices.

If we're wrong, we're happy to correct the record. But we're not convinced yet.
http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/ar...-a-few-things-about-its-wireless-mesh-network

 

[dunbar]

Aruba spokesperson Pavel Radda and engineer Chuck Lukaszewski, who said they also spoke to a Seattle Times reporter earlier today, claimed that the SPD's mesh network cannot geo-locate devices that don't already have an affiliation—that is to say, a username and a password—with the network.
[...]
He added that the four radios in every wireless router can detect where a "rogue device" is, but that "we discard the information in the radio at a low level."

So the system can definitely locate and track devices affiliated with the system but is programmed to "discard the information" it receives from unaffiliated devices. From the above statement it seems that the system does geo-locate affiliated devices and it would not be very difficult to upgrade the firmware to provide location and tracking capability for unaffiliated devices.

So basically you are just showing that this is a generic problem, and not really specific to the Seattle PD network.

It is a generic problem but in this specific instance where federal and state law enforcement control a system with these capabilities it is a far more troubling and urgent aspect of the problem.

Once the tools are in place, they don't go away. Even if we assume that surveillance technologies are installed by entirely virtuous people for virtuous reasons—that's a gargantuan "if," with a lot of evidence to the contrary, but stay with me—there's no guarantee the people controlling that technology in the future be as virtuous.
That's why we need to have a serious public conversation and establish some very clear rules about how new surveillance technologies should and shouldn't be used—with very real penalties for people who break those rules.

The 24/7 surveillance state, while ostensibly promoted as a way to make us 'safer' is another tool by the oligarchs to maintain their control of society and society's wealth. The oligarchs are more concerned about Occupy Wall Street type movements, or civil right demonstrations, or union organizing, etc. than petty crime or any kind of terrorist attack. Intrusive, blanket surveillance allows law enforcement (be it at the federal, state or local level) to monitor and if need be, 'nip in the bud' any popular resistance to the status quo. It is very Orwellian.

Politics in this country are getting so bad that I fear when most people finally realize how much they've been getting screwed, it will be too late. The police/surveillance state will be too entrenched to 'reform' except by something truly cataclysmic and ugly.

Content from External Source

 

[Mick West]

So the system can definitely locate and track devices affiliated with the system but is programmed to "discard the information" it receives from unaffiliated devices. From the above statement it seems that the system does geo-locate affiliated devices and it would not be very difficult to upgrade the firmware to provide location and tracking capability for unaffiliated devices.[/ex]

It would not be difficult to do that for ANY network. Have you seen the Time Warner Cable WiFi network? It's about 1,000 times the coverage area and 10x the resolution of the Seattle PC network.

 

[dunbar]

The Questions The Stranger Asked SPD That They Declined to Answer
1. Aruba installations typically include the following software/OS and components. Which of these is the city of Seattle using (or planning to use) in the system?

AirWave Management Platform (AMP)

RAPIDS rogue identification

Visual RF mapping module

TotalWatch RF spectrum analyzer

ALE Analytics and Location Engine (API)

2. What are some of the current and potential uses of the mesh network, besides transmitting video from cameras? (I know you've answered this at public meetings, but I wonder if the department has a specific operational protocol.)

3. Does the department use, or plan to use, the capability of the mesh network to geo-locate wireless devices (cell phones, laptops, anything with a MAC address)?

4. Has the SPD performed any tests, either in the pilot projects (Mardi Gras, fireworks) or in conjunction with the newly installed system, of device location capabilities?

5. Has the city performed any searches for specific devices (either affiliated with the network or rogue) via MAC addresses or other device identifier? If so, what were the results of those tests?

6. What is the operational status of the mesh network? The WAPs can be seen actively broadcasting SSIDs downtown. That means AirWave is running now, correct?

7. Does the SPD consider the mesh network itself, apart from the camera components, subject to the city council's surveillance ordinance (124142)?

8. At a public forum, Assistant Chief McDonagh said that none of the components of this system would be connected to the Washington State Fusion Center. But the RFP and contracts all show that connection built into the system. What is the current status of that decision (to not connect to the fusion center), and is it codified anywhere in documentation?

9. Has the SPD provided protocols for the use of the mesh network to the city council, and is there any plan to include provisions about the use of the network to locate physical devices?

10. Has the SPD obtained any opinions from the city attorney (or other counsel) about the need to obtain warrants based on information obtained through the mesh network, in terms of tracking device metadata, device location, or other aspects of the mesh network functionality?

11.
Who manages the data in the network and the associated control software? Is that managed in-house by SPD, DoIT, or is there a third party or contractor who manages it?

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http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/...-they-declined-to-answer/Content?oid=18148493

 

[dunbar]

No, it shows that they have access to the video. Which is what the network is for. They are not going to let Harbor Patrol access the router firmware.

If you look carefully at the diagram you will see that the DHS fusion center and the DHS administrated Coast Guard both have full access to the router firmware.

I understand that fine. It's a robustness and security feature. It's not a "tracking feature". It is incidental to the purpose of the network (video).

No Mick, you're completely wrong. According to Assistant Chief Paul McDonagh the purpose of the network is communications and the video is "just one small part" of the mesh network.

You'd have to write a lot of stuff on top of that to actually make it useful.

I don't think so, I think it would be fairly simple and inexpensive to make it useful for geo-location and tracking. It already does it for affiliated devices.

It would not be difficult to do that for ANY network. Have you seen the Time Warner Cable WiFi network? It's about 1,000 times the coverage area and 10x the resolution of the Seattle PC network.

SPD has plans to expand the network for citywide coverage.

The fact that Time Warner is capable of this is a big problem in itself, but Time Warner is not a federal law enforcement agency endowed with broad discretionary powers under the patriot act.

Reason alerts us to an interview that the director of the Arkansas State Fusion Center did with some local TV stations in which he appears to completely contradict himself -- first arguing that the Fusion Centers don't spy on Americans... and then saying they spy on "anti-government" Americans. First, there was this:
"There's misconceptions on what fusion centers are," he says. "The misconceptions are that we are conducting spying operations on US citizens, which is of course not the fact. That is absolutely not what we do."

Okay then. We've established won't you don't do. So, tell us, what do you do?

Davis says Arkansas hasn't collected much information about international plots, but they do focus on groups closer to home.

"We focus a little more on that, domestic terrorism and certain groups that are anti-government," he says. "We want to kind of take a look at that and receive that information."

Okay, hold on a second here. It would seem that his first statement is completely proven untrue by that second statement. Unless he's arguing that if someone classifies you as "anti-government" then you're no longer a US citizen, which would be a rather unique (and wrong) interpretation of the Constitution.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20...mericans-just-anti-government-americans.shtml​

Content from External Source

ADVISE (Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight, and Semantic Enhancement) is a research and development program within the United States Department of Homeland Security Threat and Vulnerability Testing and Assessment (TVTA) portfolio. It is reported to be developing a massive data mining system, which would collect and analyze data on everyone in the United States and perform a "threat analysis" of them.[1] The data can be everything from financial records, phone records, emails, blog entries, website searches, and any other electronic information that can be put into a computer system.[2] The information is then analyzed, and used to monitor social threats such as community-forming, terrorism, political organizing, or crime.[3]
ADVISE will possess the ability to store one quadrillion data entities[3]

The exact scope and degree of completion of the program is unclear. ADVISE is in the 2004-2006 Federal DHS Budget as a component of the $47 million TVTA program.

The program was officially scrapped in September 2007 after the agency's internal Inspector General found that pilot testing of the system had been performed using data on real people without required privacy safeguards in place.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADVISE

Content from External Source

According to the "Data Sciences Technology for Homeland Security Information Management and Knowledge Discovery" Report of the DHS Workshop on Data Sciences conducted September 22-23, 2004, which was jointly released in January 2005 by Sandia National Laboratories and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory:

• ADVISE is "a system that is under 'spiral' development (meaning that it is being deployed simultaneously with development) and will provide a common platform that supports scalable knowledge management across multiple missions."
• The system "includes tools for ingesting and canonicalizing massive quantities of information from many different sources. ... Some of the data comes from other databases ... Other data comes from free-form text document sources that must be processed to discover the entities and their relationships. Automatic tools for event extraction are used for some reports but are not yet very good."
• "At ADVISE’s core, semantic graphs are used to organize the data entities and their relationships. ... A semantic graph organizes relational data by using nodes to represent entities and edges to connect related entities. Hidden relationships in the data are uncovered by examining the structure and properties of the semantic graph. Privacy and support policies are enforced by a security infrastructure. Several interfaces for browsing, querying, and viewing the results of queries are under development, including IN-SPIRE and Starlight, from the DHS National Visualization and Analytics Center (NVAC). The key to fusing disparate data from many sources in ADVISE is the exploitation of 'precomputed' relationship information by storing the data in a semantic graph. All nodes are related by the links between them on the graph."

• For example, "a simple semantic graph" links "people (black nodes), workplaces (red nodes), and towns (blue nodes). The different link (or edge) types indicate different relationship types. For example, the fact that Person 13 and Person 15 have a green link between them indicates that they are friends with one another, while the orange link from Workplace 19 to Town 22 indicates that Workplace 19 is located in Town 22. In this example, the links are all bidirectional, but directed links can also be used."
• "Confidences (or uncertainties) are attributes of both the nodes and edges. Studying such graphs can help in understanding the relationships between entities (e.g., what’s the shortest path between Persons 16 and 26?) and in making intelligent hypotheses (e.g., Persons 15 and 14 are linked by a common workplace and a common friend, so we may hypothesize that there is a good chance that they should also be connected by a 'Friends with' link)."

• "Several systems are built on top of the ADVISE architecture ... including the Threat Vulnerability Information System (TVIS) for the Information Analysis (IA) organization, the Regional Threat Analysis System (RTAS) for Border and Transportation Security (BTS), and the Biodefense Knowledge Center (BKC) for the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC)."

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=ADVISE#2007

Content from External Source

 

[Mick West]

No Mick, you're completely wrong. According to Assistant Chief Paul McDonagh the purpose of the network is communications and the video is "just one small part" of the mesh network.

It's a network. All networks' purposes are communication. However the primary reason it was install was for video streaming.

I really think you are flogging a dead horse here. It's just a WiFi network that, like any WiFi network could be used to geolocated MAC addresses. It's now under a lot of scrutiny, so is unlikely to be used for anything nefarious. Privacy advocates are well aware of the problem, so hopefully we'll have clearer regulation in the future.

 

[Mick West]

So basically, Infowars leaked publicly available documents and called them "Snowden Level Documents".

I believe in one of their videos on their topic they say something like: "Our source provided us with these documents - they are publically available, but our source found them".

 

[qed]

Here is the proof that the NSA monitors the cellphone towers (without court order) in order to locate individuals including those in the US.

This is an excerpt from a transcript of National Security Agency training videos that describe how to verify the location of a targeted
device. It explains how the NSA monitors different types of mobile signaling information known as HLR and VLR registrations in
order to locate individuals. It also makes clear that the agency is able to use locat ion tracking to ascertain whether a target is in the
United States.

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Of course the training documents warns users to make sure they are reasonably certain the target is a non-US citizen before using the software...

These tools are all there to help you - these organizations are thereto help you - but in the end, the responsibility remains with the analyst. Things get through filters;

Content from External Source