Big Brother is Listening

I am becoming more convinced every day that we live in Orwell's 1984 and don't know it, or wouldn't believe it even when presented with evidence we are. What's frightening about this is that not only could it be used by government agencies, the FBI, CIA, NSA, etc., but by any pimply faced hacker who can download the software to do it. The following is from an article on news.com:

Nextel and Samsung handsets and the Motorola Razr are especially vulnerable to software downloads that activate their microphones, said James Atkinson, a counter-surveillance consultant who has worked closely with government agencies. "They can be remotely accessed and made to transmit room audio all the time," he said. "You can do that without having physical access to the phone."

Because modern handsets are miniature computers, downloaded software could modify the usual interface that always displays when a call is in progress. The spyware could then place a call to the FBI and activate the microphone--all without the owner knowing it happened. (The FBI declined to comment on Friday.)

"If a phone has in fact been modified to act as a bug, the only way to counteract that is to either have a bugsweeper follow you around 24-7, which is not practical, or to peel the battery off the phone," Atkinson said. Security-conscious corporate executives routinely remove the batteries from their cell phones, he added.

The article also talks about spying through the OnStar system in cars and through PC cams. Welcome to 1984. Hey Big Brother, can you hear me now?

Revolutionay Quote of the Day is Back

“Every generation needs a new revolution."
-Thomas Jefferson.

I've decided to revive something I did for awhile when I first started this blog a couple years or so ago. The Revolutionary Quote of the Day (RQOTD). For the first RQOTD in a while I'm reusing one I've used at least once before not only because it's a great and important quote, but because most people will be surprised by who said it, unless of course they already know the quote. If you said it and asked people who it was from, most people would probably say it was some 60's radical or communist revolutionary, but it was one of our founding fathers.

I also like the quote because it reminds us that liberty and freedom aren't static. It is not something we won over 200 years ago and unless some tyrant or outside force comes along and takes it from us, we will always have it. It is something that we have to fight for, and be vigilant regarding constantly. The challenges to our freedoms are constant and they come from not only from the outside, but from the very people we should expect to protect them. Those challenges come from people with the word freedom on their lips, who wrap themselves in the flag, and shout about patriotism.

Those challenges come from people who lecture others about not putting their hand over their heart during the Pledge of Allegiance, or for not wearing flag lapel pins, but don't seem to be bothered by NSA warrantless spying on every citizen in the country. People who aren't bothered by people being picked up and rendered to other countries or Gitmo to be tortured. People who aren't bothered by political prosecutions by the US Attorneys office right here in the US. But Jefferson said it in the strongest terms. Not that we should simply be ever vigilant. But that every generation needs it's own revolution. That how important he believed it was.

The Billboard Liberation Front Strikes AT&T and the NSA

This is great. Found it at BoingBoing.net. More from the BBL here. An excerpt from the BBL's statement:

The Billboard Liberation Front today announced a major new advertising improvement campaign executed on behalf of clients AT&T and the National Security Agency. Focusing on billboards in the San Francisco area, this improvement action is designed to promote and celebrate the innovative collaboration of these two global communications giants.

First comment, also hilarious:

Oh, someone's going to Gitmo for this one.

-Fight the powers.

Update:
There's also video: