});

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Ex-Official Says FBI Can Secretly Activate an Individual’s Webcam Without the Indicator Light Turning On

The FBI can secretly activate a computer’s webcam to spy on an individual without turning on the indicator light, a former official revealed to the Washington Post in an article published Friday.
According to the Washington Post’s account of what Marcus Thomas — former assistant director of the FBI’s Operational Technology Division in Quantico — said, “The FBI has been able to covertly activate a computer’s camera — without triggering the light that lets users know it is recording — for several years, and has used that technique mainly in terrorism cases or the most serious criminal investigations.”
 
 
“Because of encryption and because targets are increasingly using mobile devices, law enforcement is realizing that more and more they’re going to have to be on the device — or in the cloud,” Thomas added, in reference to remote storage services. “There’s the realization out there that they’re going to have to use these types of tools more and more.”
TheBlaze has previously reported on hackers using remote access tools to activate an individual’s webcam and spy on them.
This post has been updated to reflect that Thomas is an ex-FBI official.
(H/T: Gizmodo)
 
Source:

Colonel Who Vowed To Disarm Americans Works With Homeland Security

Oath-violating Bateman also made veiled death threats against blogger

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
December 6, 2013



Image: Col. Robert Bateman (CapitalLinkWorld.com). Lt. Col. Robert Bateman, the second amendment-hating Army Officer who caused controversy after vowing to “pry your gun from your cold, dead, fingers,” works closely with the Department of Homeland Security. Earlier this week, Bateman, an active military commander, penned a piece for Esquire magazine in which he promised to push for a total ban on all firearms besides muskets, shotguns and rifles, and shut down all gun manufacturers except for those who produced weapons for the federal government and the armed forces (you will be disarmed, the state will have a monopoly on firepower). Bateman is president and founder of Alliance Defense Marketing Associates LLC, a “global premier risk management” firm that does work for the DHS. According to the company’s website, part of the services offered by the firm include, “Homeland Security operational initiatives.” According to Bateman’s official LinkedIn page, he also personally specializes in “Defense/Homeland Security/Law Enforcement operational initiatives.” That’s ironic given that while Bateman is lecturing the American people about their gun rights, the DHS is simultaneously buying assault riflesand acquiring billions of rounds of ammunition. Critics contend that Bateman’s revulsion for the second amendment (which he woefully misinterprets) “proves he knows nothing about the Constitution he swore an oath to defend.” Bateman’s promise to “pry your gun from your cold, dead, fingers” was an inflammatory reference to his advocacy for making it illegal for guns on his imaginary blacklist to be inherited. “I am willing to wait until you die, hopefully of natural causes,” wrote Bateman. Later in the article, Bateman says disarming the American people is all about encouraging “less violence and death,” although such sentiments weren’t evident when he became embroiled in an argument with a blogger which ended up with the Colonel making a thinly veiled death threat. The argument concerned a former senior female Human Terrain Team (HTT) member who was allegedly subjected to a death threat by an active duty lieutenant at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan. After Bateman engaged in “ad hominem attacks” against Maximilian Forte, the blogger who posted the story, and was subsequently banned, he resorted to a veiled death threat of his own. “And I apologize for the future. Not really my fault. But I am sorry nonetheless,” wrote Bateman. “You apologize for the future. It was worth approving your message just so that others can see the veiled threat,” responded Forte. Bateman repeated the threat in a subsequent post when he remarked, “And again, Max, truly, I am sorry for your future.” Bateman’s thinly veiled death threats reveal him to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing, someone who claims to be all about reducing violence yet resorts to barely disguised rhetorical threats of violence against his ideological adversaries. It seems abundantly clear that it is Bateman who has a problem with violence and is most likely a danger to himself and those around him. It is therefore Bateman, and not the American people, who should be disarmed. Feel free to politely email Col. Bateman and let him know what you think about his views on the second amendment.

Source