Show "Who's Side You Are On" T-Shirt

The Electronic Frontier Foundation brought back their popular NSA Spying shirts for the first time since 2013, with an updated EFF logo and design. more

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading nonprofit organization defending civil liberties in the digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF champions user privacy, free expression, and innovation through impact litigation, policy analysis, grassroots activism, and technology development. EFF's mission is to ensure that technology supports freedom, justice, and innovation for all people of the world.

Cell Phone Problems Predicted in 1919

Click to enlarge.

W. K. Haselden’s 

The Pocket Telephone: When Will it Ring?

Published in The Daily Mirror Mar. 5, 1919

Spying Claim New Headache for SeaWorld

Accusations of spying have put a new twist on the battle between SeaWorld Entertainment and animal-welfare activists, which experts say could cause more trouble for the theme-park company.

Orlando-based SeaWorld has opened an investigation and placed an employee on paid leave after People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals accused the employee of attending protests posing as an activist...

It's not unheard of for both corporations and nonprofits to gather intelligence on critics or competitors, said Kirk O. Hanson, executive director of Santa Clara University's Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.

"To me, the line is crossed when one presents oneself deceptively and certainly is crossed when one tries to incite violent action," Hanson said.

Typically companies that snoop on critics hire outside firms to put some distance between them and the surveillance, said Gary Ruskin, who authored a 2013 report on corporate espionage for a nonprofit citizen-activism organization, Essential Information.

If management encouraged its own employee to spy, Ruskin said, "it's espionage incompetence on the part of SeaWorld." more

NSA Quits Spying on Americans Out of Disgust

Citing an endless river of filth, vacuous conversations, idiotic Tweets and endless cat videos, the NSA announced it is “freaking done” with spying on Americans.

The NSA decision came only hours after thousands of analysts, following similar threats at CIA, said they planned to quit and apply for jobs as Apple Geniuses and Best Buy Geek Squad Support workers. 

Speaking on background, one disgruntled NSA employee said “Go ahead, throw me in jail for an Espionage Act violation, that would be better than doing this job." (more)

The NSA Speaks (humor)

The NSA addresses allegations that the U.S. has been spying on Germany. (video)

Banksy Confesses: He Made the Eavesdropping Mural

In a rare exchange with the public, the elusive graffiti artist Banksy has acknowledged painting a mural depicting secret agents eavesdropping on a telephone booth, which appeared in April in the city of Cheltenham, where one of Britain’s intelligence agencies has its headquarters.

The mural had not been claimed by the artist until Tuesday, when he posted the admission on his official website. In a question and answer session he was asked: “Did you paint the spies in Cheltenham?” “Yes,” he replied. He is known to communicate with the public only via email. (more)

Banksy on Government Spying

UK - It looks as though mysterious street artist Banksy may have been in Cheltenham, after a mural pocking fun at government surveillance resembling the Bristol artist’s style have appeared on the side of a house on the corner of Fairview Road and Hewlett Road overnight.

They depict 1950s-style spies, clad in trench coat and trilby hats, carrying listening devices.

They provide a perfect foil to Cheltenham’s role as the home for listening post, GCHQ.

The painted figures, on a wall surrounding a BT telephone box appeared overnight on Sunday morning. (more)

'That thing they said they're not doing? They're totally doing" - Jon Stewart

Last week The National Reconnaissance Office launched a new satellite called NROL-39 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, and a lot of people noticed a picture of a massive octopus straddling the earth.

"The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" has some fun with the spy logo, the choice of which drew ridicule in light of the many leaks about mass government surveillance from ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden. 

After playing a game of 'That Thing They Said They're Not Doing? They're Totally Doing" — which involves showing clips of the U.S. government denying spying allegations only to confirm them later — Stewart went after the logo that boasts: "Nothing Is Beyond Our Reach." (more)


In 1955 an octopus taking over Earth was just science fiction. 
Perhaps the logo artist remembered this.

Last Week on Halloween

Surveillance Humor

Eavesdropping... scanning... watching... 
Friday July 5, 2013 5:52 PM By Walt Handelsman

(Newsday) 

A UAV Alternate POV

Cute animated video from The New York Times... (more)

Surveillance Camera Disobedience

I only hope there is a happy face drawn on it.

William Lamson - NYC Artist

"Dude, Scientology has an Office of Special Affairs?!?! I didn't know scientists even had affairs!"

The Village Voice is reporting that the Church of Scientology attempted to investigate Parker and Stone after a controversial 2005 episode of “South Park” titled “Trapped in a Closet.” The Emmy-nominated episode, airing on Comedy Central, satirized such figures as Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology member Tom Cruise. 

According to the Voice, former Scientology executive Marty Rathbun “revealed at his blog that in 2006, Scientology's Office of Special Affairs — the church's intelligence and covert operations wing — was actively investigating” Parker and Stone.

The Voice reports Monday: “We have more leaked OSA documents which give some idea of the extent of the spying operation on the ‘South Park’ offices and the people who worked there.” (more)

NSA Wiretap Reveals Subject May Be Paying Too Much For Long-Distance

FORT MEADE, MD—The director of the National Security Agency announced at a press conference Tuesday that the ongoing phone surveillance of Cincinnati resident Greg Wyckham has yielded "overwhelming and incontrovertible" evidence that the 37-year-old high-school teacher and married father of three is wasting money on a long-distance plan that does not suit his calling needs. (more)

Keeping the nation safe ...ish.

Canada’s National Intelligence Security Agency (NISA) has a team of competently incompetent agents trying to keep the country safe and (accidentally) succeeding. Fortunately, this is all a fictional premise for the new action-comedy series, InSecurity, bowing tonight on CBC.

InSecurity is mix of 24 without Jack Bauer; CSI minus the science; and James Bond — if James Bond were Mr. Bean.

It’s a comedy relevant to our post-9/11 world of high alerts, terrorist plots and attacks, controversial airport-security measures and overall anxiety. (more) (video about their spy gadgets)

FutureWatch - Somewhere in the United States another TV comedy is in gestation. Terminal Security Service Airpatrol (TSSA). Oh, oh. Red flag. When the grounds of public opinion shift, the results first materialize as satire. Time to review the mission plans? 

Just A Modest Proposal to Dr. Strangelove. ~Kevin

Snuggly the Security Bear

A few posts ago, it was noted that the FBI is echoing the desires of several countries around the world about having backdoor keys to all communications encryption schemes. BlackBerry, Skype, etc. are seeing the beginning of the end of their privacy advantage. 

Some countries threatened to outright ban encryption they can't crack, but how can this concept be sold to the U.S. Congress? 

Political cartoonist Mark Fiore thinks he knows how it should be done. Pop over to his site for a few words (and an evil giggle) from his Snuggly the Security Bear.

"Give thy thoughts no tongue."

Whatever you do, whatever you see this season, do not miss Oregon Shakespeare Festival's production of "Hamlet."

 

Director Bill Rauch and Dan Donohue have dragged Shakespeare's venerated classic into the world of 2010 and given us an edgy, topical and intimate examination of those dastardly doings in Denmark...

It is Rauch's vision to put Hamlet into current time and place. ... Rauch's Denmark is a full-blown security state. Even the ancient castle walls come equipped with security cameras, guards with assault rifles. Claudius and Polonius don't have to eavesdrop on Hamlet and Ophelia — she wears a wire. In this milieu, Hamlet's irrational acts and speech throw everyone off balance, making them that much more vulnerable. (more)

Facebook, Twitter Revolutionizing How Parents Stalk Their College-Aged Kids

For those of you in the US...
Enjoy the holiday weekend and the last few days of summer.

Here to play off the Security Scrapbook - Summer Edition
is The Onion's news team.
Spoof or brilliant idea?
You decide.
(Alternate play off ending.)

Understanding the Economic Crisis - Simplified

The recession came to South Park this week. The show's metaphor for our real-world mortgage crisis was a "Margaritaville" machine, an over-priced, pointless gadget that makes the green-colored alcoholic beverages. Stan's dad Randy owned one, Stan tried to sell it so the newly-poor family would have more to eat than "sliced hot dogs and tomato slices," but no store or bank would take the gizmo in exchange for actual money. "Defaulting on your Margaritaville," was one weasel-businessman's phrase. (more with video)

Meanwhile, Spybusters' own research has turned up a hugh price reduction on Margaritaville machines. Hold on to your frozen assets!

Airport Security / Airport Insecurity - Games

Airport Security offers a satirical critique of airport security practices circa early fall 2006, when security agencies in the US and abroad changed their policies to prohibit common items like toothpaste and hair gel.

Do knee-jerk reactions that limit our freedom of expression and travel make us safer? In Airport Security you inspect each passenger and his luggage and remove the forbidden items before allowing the passenger to go through -- but the list of forbidden items changes on a moment-to-moment basis. Prohibited items may include pants, mouthwash, and hummus. (more) (play it now)

Airport Insecurity - a game about inconvenience and the trade-offs between security and rights in American airports. While the government wants you to believe that increased protection and reduced rights are necessary to protect you from terrorism, the effectiveness of airport security practices is uncertain.

Airport Insecurity allows you to explore these issues in context: the game's rules are based on government reports about airport security practices since 2002. To consider the game's implications fully, players are encouraged to play the game while waiting in line at airport security. (more)