News Homeland Security Watching What You Read

[dduardo]

This is pretty scary. I can't believe the government has the right to deny which books we can read. 1984 here we come.

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/12-05/12-17-05/a09lo650.htm

 

[Hurkyl]

I can't believe the government has the right to deny which books we can read.

I couldn't find anything in the article that said that.

 

[dduardo]

"[The Agents] brought the book with them, but did not leave it with the student, the professors said. "

If everything was fine why didn't they just give him the book?

 

[russ_watters]

Because the FBI isn't a library...?

 

[dduardo]

I see your point. The DoHS would have given the book to the school's library and then it would be the library that gives the book to the student.

But still, what's with all the fuss. A university requested the book, why should the government care?

 

[Math Is Hard]

I wonder what other books are on that "watch list" that was mentioned.

 

[Evo]

I do know that if you subscribe to 2600 you will be automatically placed on the FBI watch list. It was something the security advisor I previously mentioned advised us not to do.

 

[Bystander]

"2600?" I give up --- what is "2600?"

 

[dduardo]

2600 is an awsome magazine. Whenever I go to B&N that's the first thing I look through. For those that don't know what 2600 is, it a hacking magazine. You'll find exploit code and ways to reverse engineering things.

http://www.2600.com/

Here is a list of the topics in the current issue:

Questions
Data Destruction, Covering Your Tracks, and MBSA
Stupid Webstat Tricks
A Randomizing WiFi MAC Address AP Hopper
Fun with the PRO-83
Getting More out of SSH
Using Tor and SSH Tunneling
Reverse Remote Access
Securing a Drive
Javascript Injection
Climbing the SonicWall
Verizon Fios - Fiber to the Home
Improving Stealth With Autoruns
SQL Exploits
Hexing the Registry
Not Working at a Call Center
Securing Your Wireless Network
The Continuing War on Spyware
Hacking Image Shack
I Am Not a Hacker
Security Pitfalls for Inexperienced Web Designers
A Peek Inside a Simple ATM Machine
How to Get Responses Through Deception
The Ancient Art of Tunneling, Rediscovered
Forging an Identity

 

[edward]

Getting back to the little red book. Mao was probably the ultimate terrorist of the 20th century. Checking out books on bomb building doesn't go untoiced by Homeland Security either. There is also an aspect of demographics that indicates that a person who reads book X will also read books Y and Z.

Maoism: The application of Marxism-Leninism to China by Mao Tse Tung. There is no specific addition to Communist theory that classifies it as Maoism. The term was introduced to raise the status of Mao to that of other great communist thinkers. It was often used pejoratively by other (Soviet) communists after the Sino-Soviet split. Mao’s chief contribution to class struggle was a theory on insurgent warfare. In On Guerrilla Warfare, he emphasized the importance of winning the support of the population and slowly growing an insurgency until it is powerful enough to take on the government’s forces. There have been several terrorist groups throughout history that have employed Maoist theories both in their ideology and in the justification of violent action.

http://www.tkb.org/Glossary.jsp#M

 

[cronxeh]

I do know that if you subscribe to 2600 you will be automatically placed on the FBI watch list. It was something the security advisor I previously mentioned advised us not to do.

I had a subscription for 2 years. There is practically never anything new in that mag, and the code is usually old anyway. I think that whole "FBI watchlist" gag was made up by them to boost publicity.

And as far as that red book is concerned - there are better, easier, cheaper, etc ways to make bombs if one chose to do so. It is a fact that DEA watches certain chemicals which are used to make drugs or explosives, through several intermediates. All MDs in US have a DEA number and dispense drugs which are scheduled 2-6+ (schedule 1 being mdma, psilocybin, cocaine, lsd, etc). Its interesting to see how the government controls biological entities - from plants to chemicals, and recently the heated debates about stem cells might place them under the congressional hearing process, and long and behold: we have the politicians who know next to nothing about biology controlling it.

 

[cronxeh]

2600 is an awsome magazine. Whenever I go to B&N that's the first thing I look through. For those that don't know what 2600 is, it a hacking magazine. You'll find exploit code and ways to reverse engineering things.

http://www.2600.com/

Here is a list of the topics in the current issue:

Questions
Data Destruction, Covering Your Tracks, and MBSA
Stupid Webstat Tricks
A Randomizing WiFi MAC Address AP Hopper
Fun with the PRO-83
Getting More out of SSH
Using Tor and SSH Tunneling
Reverse Remote Access
Securing a Drive
Javascript Injection
Climbing the SonicWall
Verizon Fios - Fiber to the Home
Improving Stealth With Autoruns
SQL Exploits
Hexing the Registry
Not Working at a Call Center
Securing Your Wireless Network
The Continuing War on Spyware
Hacking Image Shack
I Am Not a Hacker
Security Pitfalls for Inexperienced Web Designers
A Peek Inside a Simple ATM Machine
How to Get Responses Through Deception
The Ancient Art of Tunneling, Rediscovered
Forging an Identity

Its funny you mentioned this, because as I read every entry I already know what it is about and then some. But I don't see this as anything 'new' - what gives?

 

[Evo]

2600 is an awsome magazine. Whenever I go to B&N that's the first thing I look through. For those that don't know what 2600 is, it a hacking magazine. You'll find exploit code and ways to reverse engineering things.

http://www.2600.com/

Here is a list of the topics in the current issue:

Questions
Data Destruction, Covering Your Tracks, and MBSA
Stupid Webstat Tricks
A Randomizing WiFi MAC Address AP Hopper
Fun with the PRO-83
Getting More out of SSH
Using Tor and SSH Tunneling
Reverse Remote Access
Securing a Drive
Javascript Injection
Climbing the SonicWall
Verizon Fios - Fiber to the Home
Improving Stealth With Autoruns
SQL Exploits
Hexing the Registry
Not Working at a Call Center
Securing Your Wireless Network
The Continuing War on Spyware
Hacking Image Shack
I Am Not a Hacker
Security Pitfalls for Inexperienced Web Designers
A Peek Inside a Simple ATM Machine
How to Get Responses Through Deception
The Ancient Art of Tunneling, Rediscovered
Forging an Identity

Yep, Dduardo is on the FBI's most wanted list.

Its funny you mentioned this, because as I read every entry I already know what it is about and then some. But I don't see this as anything 'new' - what gives?

It may be old hat to you, but not to someone just starting out. Subscribing really does get you noticed. Being a hacker used to be a "good" thing, it's gotten a bad name because some people use the knowledge for evil.

 

[cronxeh]

Yep, Dduardo is on the FBI's most wanted list.
It may be old hat to you, but not to someone just starting out. Subscribing really does get you noticed. Being a hacker used to be a "good" thing, it's gotten a bad name because some people use the knowledge for evil.

The pyramid of power is built and based upon the executioners on the very bottom - the cops, the FBI, DEA, etc. When people do the right thing, the very top doesn't matter because they don't have any real power.

 

[The_Professional]

I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but there is definitely something to this. A couple of months ago, I've checked out four books in the library and they were about the evolution of hacking in general, the people behind them, cryptography and codes. (Not anything remotely related to a how-to-hacking book). Since I never finish reading them I looked it up again to see if it's available and all four of them disappeared. This is the second time it's happened. I thought that was rather odd. That or the Government thought my book selection was odd so it set off some early homeland security alarm.

 

[rachmaninoff]

I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but there is definitely something to this. A couple of months ago, I've checked out four books in the library and they were about the evolution of hacking in general, the people behind them, cryptography and codes. (Not anything remotely related to a how-to-hacking book). Since I never finish reading them I looked it up again to see if it's available and all four of them disappeared. This is the second time it's happened. I thought that was rather odd. That or the Government thought my book selection was odd so it set off some early homeland security alarm.

Complain to the Librarian! They might figure something out. Perhaps they were backlogged in reshelving, and that's why they apparently vanished? It's the simplest, least extravagant explanation, that's where I'd start. I'd definitely inquire.

 

[The_Professional]

No, they can have those books.

 

[Evo]

I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but there is definitely something to this. A couple of months ago, I've checked out four books in the library and they were about the evolution of hacking in general, the people behind them, cryptography and codes. (Not anything remotely related to a how-to-hacking book). Since I never finish reading them I looked it up again to see if it's available and all four of them disappeared. This is the second time it's happened. I thought that was rather odd. That or the Government thought my book selection was odd so it set off some early homeland security alarm.

The FBI came, seized the books and now have your dna from a hair of yours they found between the pages. They also have your fingerprints.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

Complain to the Librarian! They might figure something out. Perhaps they were backlogged in reshelving, and that's why they apparently vanished? It's the simplest, least extravagant explanation, that's where I'd start. I'd definitely inquire.

No, they can have those books.

I believe he is saying that the books may not have been put back on the shelves yet or gotten lost in a back log of books that need returning to the shelves.
Also I'd suggest the idea that some aspiring hacker kid may have stolen them. Another idea is that they may have received something requiring them to notify the FBI or some thing of that sort when the books are checked out resulting them deciding it better not to carry the books, someone being against the idea of reporting such information but not wanting to ignore such an order, or maybe they just don't have the proper resources to do for them what they want and got rid of them.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

On wiki there's a list of books that have been banned in various places and at various times but does anyone know if there are certain books which are currently banned in the US if there are any books that are actually banned?

 

[The_Professional]

http://laura.mitblogs.com/archives/2005/12/yay_a_hack.html

 

[Burnsys]

Librarians! Citizens! Be advised that terrorists are easily identified by their chosen reading material. Please study the list of terrorist-preferred volumes below - and promptly report any persons you may encounter reading them to the FBI Terror Literature specialists who will soon be visiting your community!

http://www.whitehouse.org/homeland/reading.asp

 

[russ_watters]

The FBI came, seized the books and now have your dna from a hair of yours they found between the pages. They also have your fingerprints.

How is that helpful?

 

[russ_watters]

On wiki there's a list of books that have been banned in various places and at various times but does anyone know if there are certain books which are currently banned in the US if there are any books that are actually banned?

Nationwide? No. That'd be unConstitutional.

 

[Evo]

How is that helpful?

I was trying to make a joke about the conspiracy theory he mentioned. Apparently I failed.

 

[russ_watters]

Librarians! Citizens! Be advised that terrorists are easily identified by their chosen reading material. Please study the list of terrorist-preferred volumes below - and promptly report any persons you may encounter reading them to the FBI Terror Literature specialists who will soon be visiting your community!
http://www.whitehouse.org/homeland/reading.asp

That should be illegal. Regardless, I wonder if the creator of that site sees the irony in putting a book about lies near the top of a site that misrepresents itself?

 

[russ_watters]

I was trying to make a joke about the conspiracy theory he mentioned. Apparently I failed.

I know it was a joke. You need to start watching Scrubs.

 

[Cyrus]

That link is hilarious! It has all the liberal books in it! They have the Quran, ahahhahaa. As mr T once said, that's absoludaris! Look at the cover of bushwacked and grand theft 2000. Horrible!

 

[Evo]

Librarians! Citizens! Be advised that terrorists are easily identified by their chosen reading material. Please study the list of terrorist-preferred volumes below - and promptly report any persons you may encounter reading them to the FBI Terror Literature specialists who will soon be visiting your community!
http://www.whitehouse.org/homeland/reading.asp

Just incase anyone doesn't realize it, this is a JOKE website. It's not real.

 

[Burnsys]

Just incase anyone doesn't realize it, this is a JOKE website. It's not real.

That's why i put the
It's really funny

 

[edward]

Just incase anyone doesn't realize it, this is a JOKE website. It's not real.

A JOKE WEB SITE! OH no. I just e-mailed that link to Senator John McCain

 

[Anttech]

I do know that if you subscribe to 2600 you will be automatically placed on the FBI watch list. It was something the security advisor I previously mentioned advised us not to do..

hmmm wonder if u are on the list if you download the compressed RFC library :-)

If you want to be secure a network, you need to know the exploits... I don't see any problem with reading 2006, or any other "security" webzine

 

[edward]

Homeland security is going to have a full plate domestically. Especially if the are going to pursue garbage like the link below.

Why did dozens of government agents in hazmat suits descend upon the home of prominent artist Steve Kurtz the day after his wife died? Why did they confiscate his books, papers, art materials, his car, his cat and even his wife’s body? Because among the art materials confiscated were a DNA amplifier and bacteria samples.

After the county examiner determined that Hope Kurtz had died of a heart attack and though the health department had stated, in agreement with a number of highly respected scientists, that the bacteria in question were harmless, you might then ask, how artist and professor Steve Kurtz could possibly be facing a twenty year prison sentence?

It all started when Steve Kurtz called 911. On the morning of May 11, 2004, Steve Kurtz woke up to find that his wife of 20 years, Hope Kurtz, was no longer breathing.

While in the Kurtz home, paramedic responders noted the laboratory equipment and Petri dishes in his studio and they reported Kurtz to the police. A warrant was obtained and Kurtz’s home was searched.

Kurtz, art professor at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo, is a founding member of the Critical Arts Ensemble (CAE), a group which travels the world making science-based performance art. CAE exhibits, which explore topics such as DNA and bacteria, challenge, among other things, the veracity of the biotechnology industry.

http://fnewsmagazine.com/2004-sept/current/2004-sept/pages/2.shtml



Does this make anyone with lab equipment in their home a suspected terrorist? Hide the petri dish the ambualnce is coming!