Source: Federal News Network
https://federalnewsnetwork.com/federal-report/2025/07/how-a-hacker-for-el-chapo-illustrates-existential-counterintelligence-threats/
New reports and incidents are raising fresh questions about the FBI and the government’s approach to managing counterintelligence and security threats.
That stunning story was revealed publicly for the first time in an audit released by the Justice Department’s inspector general late last month. The highly redacted report evaluates the FBI’s efforts to address so-called “ubiquitous technical surveillance.”
That’s a jargon term for the world of smart phones, online data, interconnected technology and, increasingly, artificial intelligence. It can create a detailed and continuous portrait of anyone’s life.
And it’s something the FBI and the government writ large is struggling to address as a major counterintelligence and security challenge.
“How do you handle it when something is ubiquitous, when it’s everywhere and growing?” Eric O’Neill, a former FBI counterintelligence agent, said in an interview. “Part of that is being smart, but I just don’t see a really great solution to an issue that will just become broader and and more ubiquitous. If you want to say that, then that’s something that can ever be contained, not in our society. You go off grid. That’s basically the only way.
According to the DoJ audit, some within the FBI and partner agencies like the CIA have described the threat of ubiquitous technical surveillance as “existential.”
And it’s not just a threat to intelligence and law enforcement agents operating in foreign countries.
The 2024 National Counterintelligence Strategy highlighted the proliferation of commercial tools that can be used to conduct surveillance and collect vast amounts of data on individuals inside the United States.</
As one of the lead agencies for counterintelligence, the FBI plays a key role in thwarting adversarial surveillance.
Subject: Crowd-Sourced ICE Tracking Alerts Aim To Provide Local Communities With Early Warning Of Immigration Raids
Source: Techdirt
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/07/11/crowd-sourced-ice-tracking-alerts-aim-to-provide-local-communities-with-early-warning-of-immigration-raids/
Techdirt has just written about how people are using Ring doorbell cameras to warn others in the area about the presence of ICE agents and the risk of possible ICE raids. That’s a good example of using existing technology to monitor the increasingly widespread and brutal activities of ICE teams. But driven by a desire to counter the US government’s moves, people are also coming up with new systems to warn people about what is happening in their community.For example, the Stop ICE Raids Alert Network sends and receives warnings about nearby ICE activity using text messages. On its home page, it claims to have over 470,000 subscribers currently. That approach, while effective, might be a little basic for some people, and a number of smartphone apps have been created to meet the need for something more sophisticated. One of them is ICEBlock, which came to the notice of a wider public thanks to a CNN report on 30 June. Its developer, Joshua Aaron, told CNN that his free app was designed to be an early warning system for users when ICE is operating nearby. Its slogan is “See Something, Tap Something”:[…]
Filed Under: app store, facebook, ice, immigration, ios, karoline leavitt, privacy, quakers, raids, ring, streisand effect, telegram, text messages, threads, waze, whatsapp
Companies: amazon, apple, cnn, gofundme
Source: The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/news/705801/moonpay-crypto-execs-scam-doj-trump-administration
A DOJ complaint suggests MoonPay executives were tricked into donating $250,000 in crypto to a fake Trump inauguration fund.
Though the DOJ doesn’t explicitly identify the victims, the filing contains screenshots of emails that include their first names, Ivan and Mouna. These names line up with MoonPay CEO Ivan Soto-Wright and the company’s chief financial officer, Mouna Ammari Siala, NOTUS found. The complaint also includes an Etherscan link to the transaction between the victims and the alleged scammer, which shows a wallet address that has been identified as belonging to Soto-Wright in the past, NOTUS reports.
Source: Android Headlines
https://www.androidheadlines.com/2025/07/x-twitter-criminal-investigation-france.html
X is under criminal investigation in France over alleged organized interference and data extraction from automated systems, with the case potentially implicating Elon Musk and other executives. The situation is further complicated by political tensions, as it remains unclear whether President Trump—despite past defenses of U.S. tech firms—will support Musk following their recent fallout.
X faces criminal investigation in France. According to the French authorities, it is throwing two allegations at X in its criminal investigation against the company. One of them is alleged organized interference “with the functioning of an automated data processing system.” The other is the organized fraudulent extraction of “data from an automated data processing system.”
It has also been requested that X be investigated “as both a legal entity and through individual persons.” What does this mean? It means that an international arrest warrant could be issued against Elon Musk, who is X’s owner, and X’s company executives. This isn’t entirely unprecedented.
Source: Proton VPN Blog
https://www.bespacific.com/how-to-find-spyware-and-other-hidden-apps-on-your-iphone/
Proton VPN Blog: “In recent years, journalists have emerged as one of the top targets of surveillance by governments around the world. If you’re a reporter working on sensitive topics, no country is safe for privacy in the context of an international market for spyware apps that can secretly monitor all the data transmitted and stored on your iPhone. As these apps proliferate, it has become critical to understand how to find hidden apps on iPhone and remove them.
—
Copyright © 2025 beSpacific, All rights reserved.
Source: tech.co
https://tech.co/news/big-tech-researchers-warning-ai-thinks
In a joint report from researchers at Meta, Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic, experts warned about the need to monitor AI
Big tech firms are finally working together on something, with researchers collectively publishing a report about the importance of being able to monitor AI thinking.
The evolution of AI over the last few years has spurred a lot of business-world changes in 2025. While many claim productivity is on the rise, many other experts are warning that the potential risks far outweigh the rewards.
With this report from companies like Meta, Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic, there’s new evidence that the technology has even more risks than we realized.
“AI systems that ‘think’ in human language offer a unique opportunity for AI safety: we can monitor their chains of thought for the intent to misbehave.” -the report.
The Importance of AI Regulation
Given the track record of companies like Meta and Google when it comes to developing new technologies, it’s safe to say they aren’t going to properly regulate themselves. From antitrust suits to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the big tech firms have proven they need a regulatory push to do the right thing.
…
Source: AP via WHYY
https://whyy.org/articles/delaware-settlement-meta-mark-zuckerberg-investors-lawsuit/
A settlement was announced Thursday in court in a class action investors’ lawsuit against Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and current and former company leaders over claims stemming from the privacy scandal involving the Cambridge Analytica political consulting firm.
Investors had alleged in the lawsuit that Meta did not fully disclose the risks to Facebook users that their personal information would be misused by Cambridge Analytica, a firm that supported Donald Trump’s successful Republican presidential campaign in 2016. Shareholders say Facebook officials repeatedly violated a 2012 consent order with the Federal Trade Commission under which Facebook agreed to stop collecting and sharing personal data without users’ consent.
Subject: New software makes it easy for Chinese police to extract phone data
Source: UPI.com
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2025/07/16/world-chinese-software-collects-data-from-Android-phones/2501752691910/
The software is called Massistant, created by Chinese company Xiamen Meiya Pico, and it specializes in extracting different types of data, including private communications, multimedia files, geographical tracking records, voice recordings and contact databases. It can even extract messages on Signal.She found several posts on local Chinese forums in which people said they found the malware installed on their devices after interacting with the police.
She said that Massistant is just one of many spyware/malware created by Chinese surveillance tech companies, something she called “a big ecosystem.”
Source: Cord Cutters News
https://cordcuttersnews.com/amazon-issues-urgent-warning-to-200-million-customers-about-prime-membership-scam/
In a critical alert sent earlier this month, Amazon has warned its 200 million customers worldwide about a sophisticated scam involving fake emails impersonating the company. The emails, which falsely claim that customers’ Amazon Prime subscriptions are set to auto-renew at an unexpected price, are part of a growing wave of phishing attacks targeting the e-commerce giant’s massive user base. Amazon’s alert, sent to all registered customers, underscores the increasing audacity of scammers exploiting the trust associated with the Amazon brand.Malwarebytes, a cybersecurity firm that has identified and blocked phishing sites like amazons.digital, which mimic Amazon’s official platform. Amazon has reported a surge in scam attempts, including fake messages about Prime membership renewals, fraudulent refund offers, and phone calls claiming accounts have been compromised. These tactics prey on customers’ trust and urgency, aiming to extract sensitive information under the guise of resolving account issues
To help customers stay safe, Amazon and cybersecurity experts have outlined several protective measures. First, customers are urged never to click links in unsolicited emails. Instead, they should verify messages by checking the Message Center in their Amazon account, where legitimate communications from the company are logged. Amazon also encourages users to report suspicious emails, whether they’ve fallen for the scam or not, to help track and combat these threats. Enabling two-step verification (2SV) on Amazon accounts is another critical step, adding an extra layer of security to prevent unauthorized access, even if login credentials are compromised.
Subject: Google vs. AI: when to use which
Source: Digital Digging
https://www.bespacific.com/google-vs-ai-when-to-use-which/
The blurring lines: The choice between “search” and “AI” is becoming less clear-cut as Google injects AI summaries into traditional search and AI tools add web search capabilities. You might think you’re using Google for factual lookup, but actually get an AI-generated summary that’s wrong. This makes it crucial to understand what you’re actually using and how to verify information, regardless of which interface you’re on. Welcome to my guide.
The problem – Abstracted from beSpacific
Copyright © 2025 beSpacific, All rights reserved.