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'Trapwire' an Orwellian social nightmare
by jax Friday, Aug 24 2012, 1:19am international /
prose /
post
What is of major concern here is the perverse IDEOLOGY behind such projects!
Stolen emails from 'security' company Stratfor (published on WikiLeaks) reveal a very disturbing direction certain secretive groups/companies are taking with society in general. The recent revelation seems to reinforce the view that extremely frightened minority ruling elites view the masses as the enemy; the government supported development of comprehensive surveillance packages like 'Trapwire' does not help allay fears of totalitarian forces working behind the scenes with government and regulatory agencies against DEMOCRATIC principles and the best interests of the people.
Abraxas, mythological Gnostic God that embodies light and dark
Wikileaks uncovers TrapWire surveillance: FAQ
by Zack Whittaker
Wikileaks' latest trove of leaked Stratfor emails details the breadth and potential impact of the TrapWire surveillance system. What is it, and are you affected?
Wikileaks has released as part of its The Global Intelligence Filesseries another vast cache of leaked emails from private intelligence firm Stratfor. Brought to the public eye is a system called TrapWire. This previously little known technology may have the ability to impact our everyday lives in the U.S. and abroad.
This serves as an FAQ to what we know so far.
It's worth noting -- as described below -- Wikileaks has been under a sustained denial-of-service attack, which has left the site unable to load for days, so some links below may not be available at the time of publication.
Here's what you need to know.
What is TrapWire?
In short, TrapWire is surveillance software used by both private industry and the U.S. government and its allies oversees, allowing both public and private sector users to help in counter-terrorism and anti-crime efforts. The software uses algorithms and data from a variety of surveillance sources -- including CCTV and human-input from spotted 'suspicious' behavior -- to, in essence, 'predict' potentially criminal activity.
There are a variety of new tools, such as TrapWire, a software system designed to work with camera systems to help detect patterns of pre-operational surveillance, that can be focused on critical areas to help cut through the fog of noise and activity and draw attention to potential threats.
While ordinary CCTV cameras are often 'passive' and monitored by humans, TrapWire-connected cameras, such as 'pan-tilt-zoom' cameras, are able to track people, along with license plate readers, called Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) from place to place.
A U.S. Patents and Trademark Office filing says the system is "centralized" and information flows in and out of its global office to 'regional' distribution centers. Despite being owned by a private company, the information collected by the system "can also be shared with law enforcement agencies."
As with any data mining software, the more data that is plugged into the system the greater its effectiveness.
Why such a recent controversy?
Wikileaks' latest release on August 10 of emails from private intelligence group Stratfor suggests the system is global, rather than limited to just the United States.
Simply put: it became increasingly clear how wide and far the extensive use of this software is. If one person is deemed to be acting suspiciously in one TrapWire covered area of the U.S., for example, the software may pick them up elsewhere by a different TrapWire network.
It also means that the surveillance once thought to be relatively passive is instead pre-emptive and sophisticated in its methods. It uses a "10-characteristic description of individuals," human activity, or "8-characteristic description" of vehicle information -- such as license plates and other identifiable marks -- which is then correlated with other information collected elsewhere.
The 'TrapWire Threat Meter' means threats can be passed on through the network while vulnerabilities are not, though nevertheless remains a far more extensive breach of citizen privacy than first considered or understood.
The system appears to be 'for hire' in that it can be bought and used by private industry. For example, in a 2005 interview with former CIA employee (since removed from his corporate profile) and Abraxas founder and chief executive Richard Helms, he says:
...the nuclear industry has 104 civilian owned and operated nuclear power plants, and yet they don’t collect or share pre-attack information. TrapWire can help do that without infringing anyone’s civil liberties.
Who owns TrapWire, and how does it connect with governments?
The TrapWire software is now owned by TrapWire Inc., a Reston, VA company. But it wasn't always.
(Comment was sought from TrapWire Inc. regarding this story, but no reply had been received at the time of writing.)
Abraxas Corp. created TrapWire under its subsidiary firm Abraxas Applications Inc., according to Public Intelligence, a respected research site. Abraxas Corp. trademarked the TrapWire software in a filing with the U.S. PTO in 2006.
According to one report, Cubic acquired Abraxas Corp., TrapWire's former parent company, after TrapWire was spun out as a separate entity. One of the terms of the acquisition was to "cause the corporate name of Abraxas Applications, Inc. to be changed to a name that does not include 'Abraxas' or any variation thereof."
Abraxas, in a statement released on Monday, said: "Abraxas Corporation then and now has no affiliation with Abraxas Applications now known as TrapWire, Inc."
Abraxas is based in Northern Virginia, according to the trademark filing. Many of its employees -- there are around 60 listed on LinkedIn, but thought to be in the low hundreds -- come from the U.S. military or other public sector organizations, including the U.S. intelligence community.
The U.S. government has given both TrapWire and Abraxas more than $1.6 million in the past 12 months from the Dept. of Homeland Security, Dept. of Defense, and the General Services Administration.
In one leaked email, former Stratfor chief executive and current vice president Fred Burton claims:
Do you know how much a Lockheed Martin [defense contractor] would pay to have their logo/feed into the USSS CP? MI5? RCMP? LAPD CT? NYPD CT?
This suggests that the NYPD and LAPD counter-terrorism divisions, the U.S. Secret Service, Canada's Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the U.K.'s domestic intelligence agency MI5 are all clientele of the TrapWire service.
TrapWire is also implemented in London, U.K., and cities in Canada.
Downing Street, the home and office of the British Prime Minister, would neither confirm nor deny the use of TrapWire despite a leaked email claiming otherwise. However, Scotland Yard, home of London's Metropolitan Police, said it had "no knowledge of any contract or discussion."
London Stock Exchange (LSX) is said to be protected by "heavy surveillance coverages [sic] (TrapWire)" and other "predictive software" according to one leaked email.
The LSX did not respond for comment at the time of publication. The White House, also understood to be a TrapWire customer, also did not respond to comment more than a day later.
In one leaked email, although the New York subway is mentioned, it suggests a surveillance officer could acquire human intelligence from the subway -- not from technological means, as the system is not used, according to the NYPD -- which can be transformed into structured data in TrapWire to assist in other subway systems, for example, where the system is implemented.
...a suspect conducting surveillance of the NYC subway can also be spotted by TrapWire conducting similar activity at the DC subway, connecting the infamous dots. An additional benefit of TrapWire is that the system can also be used to help "walk back the cat" after an attack to identify terrorist suspects and modus operandi.
However, The New York Timespoured cold water on the suggestions. Speaking to Paul J. Browne, the NYPD chief's spokesperson: "We don't use TrapWire."
TrapWire was tried out on 15 surveillance cameras in Washington and Seattle by the Homeland Security Department, but officials said it ended the trial last year because it did not seem promising.
The report suggests the leaked emails 'boasted' about capabilities and claims some of the links connected by the media are "false."
Do reports collected by TrapWire go to the government?
Yes. Suspicious reports that may indicate a crime or act of terrorism could be committed are passed to 'the government.'
In one example, reports are passed to the FBI but it is not clear outside of the United States whether these are handed to domestic police and intelligence services, or directly back to the U.S. authorities as per Safe Harbor agreements (see below) for distribution through back-channel intelligence networks.
In another leaked email, TrapWire "suspicious activity reports" (SAR) are fed "directly" and "automatically" to the National SAR Initiative, dubbed NSI. They are also passed to the FBI's eGuardian system when a threat to commit crime is identified.
For example, it may be that if a person is identified in two high-target places in a certain time period, this may indicate a terrorist could be planning reconnaissance, but equally a tourist visiting the attractive city sights.
What sort of data can be collected from TrapWire?
The exact details of the data collected by TrapWire are not clear. Video and facial recognition, and human-sourced intelligence, along with automatic license plate reading and other 'points' are collected, but it's safe to assume that vehicle color and a person's ethnicity may be recorded.
[Surveillance] footage can be walked back and track the suspects from the get go with facial recognition software (or TrapWire) technology.
Some news publications suggest there is "no evidence" to suggest facial recognition technology is in use. The email suggests "or TrapWire technology" indicating the possibility -- though not confirmation -- that the software can recognize faces.
Back to The New York Times' article, it says a "a privacy statement on the TrapWire Web site says the software does not capture 'personal information'."
"Sensitive Personal Information" means personal information that confirms race, ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union memberships, or that concerns health or sex life."
It also says:
Once a suspicious activity in entered into the system it is analyzed and compared with data entered from other areas within a network for the purpose of identifying patterns of behavior that are indicative of pre-attack planning. Generally, no Personal Information or Sensitive Personal Information is recorded by the TrapWire system, and no such information is used by the system to perform its various functions.
"Generally" does not mean "always," however. This often-broad scope definition allows for a wide range of sensitive personal information to be collected, but does not guarantee that it will be. While a person's ethnicity may be collected, a person's sexuality or nationality -- for example -- might be difficult to determine, even by humans.
Does TrapWire scour social networks, such as Twitter or Facebook?
No evidence suggests TrapWire is able to access social media services. There does not appear to be any evidence to suggest TrapWire collects credit or debit card information, cell phone, or Internet-related data.
Who in the technology world enables or powers TrapWire?
Despite the recent news that Microsoft and New York City were partners in a new system that on the face of it appears similar to TrapWire, the two systems are not connected or related.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced this month the Domain Awareness System, a system developed with Microsoft, which performs " data aggregation and analysis," according to sister-site CNET.
CNET's Elinor Mills wrote:
"We're finding new ways to leverage already existing cameras, crime data, and other tools to support the work of our investigators, making it easier for them to determine whether a crime is part of an ongoing pattern," Bloomberg said. For example, the system can alert analysts to the presence of suspicious packages and cars while police search for suspects using smart cameras and license plate readers.
Another leaked email suggested Salesforce may have been interested in TrapWire, and Google had some "relationship" with the firm.
Salesforce Hqs in San Fran is interested in TrapWire after I briefed them on their wonderful capabilities
Salesforce said it does not comment on "rumors".
Regarding Google's connection to TrapWire, claims were made that Google had some connection with the company following the search giant's pulling out of China in 2010 over the government's alleged hacking.
I think the timing is right to revisit our relationship w/GOOGLE and sense growing frustration (and chaos) on their part in light of the Chinese penetrations and intellectual property theft. I've been playing constant phone tag w/their security director, who I believe is traveling.
Google did not comment on the claims.
PC maker chief executive Michael Dell is also mentioned in a number of emails, but the connection is not clear from the context.
If TrapWire is 'centralized,' does it breach EU data protection laws?
The Safe Harbor framework allows for U.S. companies to comply with strict European Union data protection laws. Companies must be certified by the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Because TrapWire Inc. is a U.S.-based company, to operate within the EU, it must comply with the EU's laws. While a Safe Harbor agreement does not prove that TrapWire is used within the 27 member states of Europe, but it does strongly suggest that it is.
This Policy outlines our general policy and practices regarding personal information entered into our United States based systems by European Economic Area (“EEA”) subscribing customers, and personal information entered into our EEA based systems which may be accessed from the United States.
Having said that, under the Patriot Act, it is technically possible for the U.S. government or judiciary to force a wholly owned EU subsidiary of a U.S. parent company to hand over data across the Atlantic, Safe Harbor notwithstanding, without the data subject from being informed, such as the person whose data is collected.
The certification page says that the United Kingdom comprises the only named "relevant countries from which personal information is received." This suggests a U.K. headquarters or a primary client in the U.K., such as Downing Street, as previously mentioned.
ZDNet's Michael Lee reports that on Wednesday, Sen. Scott Ludlam will ask the Australian Senate to force the Australian government to confirm or deny whether or not it uses TrapWire, and what it knows about the surveillance system.
If TrapWire networks are decentralized, can they communicate with each other?
In one leaked email from Abraxas employee, R. Daniel Botsch explains that:
If a network has 25 sites, those 25 sites match against each other's reports. They can also send reports to any other site on the network and they can post reports to a network-wide bulletin board.
He notes: "Sites cannot share information across networks." However, there was suggestion back in 2010 that some networks, such as the Las Vegas and the LAPD networks, could eventually merge:
However, we do cross-network matching here at the office. If we see cross-network matches, we will contact each affected site, explain that the individual(s) or vehicle they reported has been seen on another network, and then offer to put the affected sites into direct contact. We have not yet had a cross-network match. I think over time the different networks will begin to unite."
How did Wikileaks end up with this information?
In late 2011, it was revealed that 'hacktivist' collective Anonymous had stolen a vast cache of emails from Stratfor. These were handed to Wikileaks for analysis and ultimately distribution. Anonymous claimed to have accessed more than 200 gigabytes of data.
In February 2012, Wikileaks said it would begin publishing the 5 million emails. Stratfor founder and chief executive George Friedman described the release as 'deplorable," but warned, "some of the emails may be forged or altered to include inaccuracies."
It's possible, and highly likely. Sister-site CBS Newsreported that Wikileaks said it had suffered a denial-of-service attack that saw the whistleblower's website swamped with visitors that pushed the servers over capacity. The attacks "intensified" earlier this month and expanded to include sites affiliated with Wikileaks. /tabid/78/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/32/Cubic-Agrees-to-Buy-Abraxas-Corporation.aspx">bought the firm in November 2010 for $124 million in cash.
According to one report, Cubic acquired Abraxas Corp., TrapWire's former parent company, after TrapWire was spun out as a separate entity. One of the terms of the acquisition was to "cause the corporate name of Abraxas Applications, Inc. to be changed to a name that does not include 'Abraxas' or any variation thereof."
Abraxas, in a statement released on Monday, said: "Abraxas Corporation then and now has no affiliation with Abraxas Applications now known as TrapWire, Inc."
Abraxas is based in Northern Virginia, according to the trademark filing. Many of its employees -- there are around 60 listed on LinkedIn, but thought to be in the low hundreds -- come from the U.S. military or other public sector organizations, including the U.S. intelligence community.
The U.S. government has given both TrapWire and Abraxas more than one leaked email, former Stratfor chief executive and current vice president Fred Burton claims:
Do you know how much a Lockheed Martin [defense contractor] would pay to have their logo/feed into the USSS CP? MI5? RCMP? LAPD CT? NYPD CT?
This suggests that the NYPD and LAPD counter-terrorism divisions, the U.S. Secret Service, Canada's Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the U.K.'s domestic intelligence agency MI5 are all clientele of the TrapWire service.
TrapWir UPDATE
Oz mass media scrubbed clean of all articles on 'Trapwire,' no explanation given -- two main outlets below and many regional outlets also scrubbed, hmmm!
UPDATE I, Copy Located
Scrubbed story below, assess it for yourselves:
Revealed: TrapWire spy cams' ticket to Australia
Asher Moses and Dylan Welch
A shadowy private security company with deep links to the CIA - and a parent company awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in Australian government transport contracts - is operating a pervasive global surveillance and facial recognition network on behalf of law enforcement.
Over the past few days the internet has been abuzz with revelations regarding TrapWire, an analytical system that integrates with surveillance cameras to capture photographs or video evidence of "suspicious activity".
TrapWire is owned by the multinational conglomerate, Cubic Corporation, which in 2010 signed a $370 million contract with the NSW Government to provide Sydney's electronic ticketing system for public transport, based on the London Oyster card system.
In April this year it was awarded a $65 million contract to provide services to CityRail and also runs the Brisbane "go card" system.
Fairfax is seeking comment from the government about whether there has been any consideration of bringing the TrapWire system here.
The TrapWire story began late last week, when emails from a private intelligence company, Stratfor - originally released as part of WikiLeaks's Global Intelligence Files in February - appeared online.
The emails and other documentation revealed TrapWire is installed in some of the western world's most sensitive locations - including the White House, 10 Downing Street, New Scotland Yard, the London Stock Exchange and five hundred locations in the New York subway system. Trapwire is also installed in many Las Vegas casinos.
An Australian single mother who online is an anti-surveillance state activist known as Asher Wolf is leading a campaign to expose the clandestine operation, which was created in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks and has been operating without public scrutiny for years.
Australia is leading the way in development of facial recognition technology and Australian government agencies have reacted enthusiastically to it.
The founder of TrapWire is 30-year Central Intelligence Agency veteran Richard Hollis Helms. Several of TrapWire's top managers are also former CIA officers. It is part of security company Abraxas Corporation, which reportedly holds sensitive and lucrative contracts involving activities such as creating fake identities for CIA officers.
In December 2010 Cubic Corporation bought Abraxas for $US124 million.
The aim of TrapWire is to prevent terrorist attacks by recognising suspicious patterns in activity. It forwards its reports to police departments across the US and law enforcement organisations such as FBI and US Department of Homeland Security.
Helms said in a 2005 interview that TrapWire "can collect information about people and vehicles that is more accurate than facial recognition, draw patterns, and do threat assessments of areas that may be under observation from terrorists."
In 2007 the company said that it analyses each aspect of a security incident and "compares it to all previously-collected reporting across the entire TrapWire network. Any patterns detected - links among individuals, vehicles, or activities - will be reported back to each affected facility."
In addition to analysing surveillance footage TrapWire also operates "see something say something" citizen reporting campaigns in Las Vegas, New York, Washington DC and Los Angeles and all reports received are collated in the TrapWire database, analysed by the company and forwarded to law enforcement.
While it appears that TrapWire does not operate in Australia, its parent company Cubic holds several large Commonwealth, NSW and Queensland government contracts. It operates in Australia as Cubic Transportation with offices in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth. In 2008 it also opened a defence subsidiary based in Queensland, Cubic Defence Australia, run by Mark Horn.
Cubic Defence Australia has won about $32 million in contracts with the Australian defence force, mainly providing combat simulation and training systems.
Comment is being sought from Cubic about the links between their work in Australia and TrapWire.
Ms Wolf, 32, whose father survived a Siberian gulag during World War II and grandmother at 15 had her thumb cut off by Soviet Union secret police, said she had personal motivations behind her campaigning for civil liberties.
"All Australians should be concerned about the outsourcing of Australian government (or military operations) to foreign-owned, private contractors with links to spy agencies," she said.
She said there were inherent conflicts of interest with profit-driven private contractors working in national security. Ms Wolf is also concerned about Australian law enforcement demands for telco data retention and a lack of adequate time for public consultations during the inquiry into national security legislation reforms.
"They're drowning in data and I don't believe it's helping national security, I believe it's making us more insecure because we don't know where to look at real threats," she said.
Ms Wolf, who has a three-year-old son, said "it was definitely more interesting to be scrolling through tweets on info-warfare than watching 3am infomercials while breastfeeding".
The online hacking collective Anonymous has also bought into the issue. They are trying to organise an event called "smash a cam Saturday", where they provide the internet addresses of US security cameras attached to the TrapWire network, and then provide instructions to supporters about how to hack them.
According to Cubic's 2011 annual report, its revenues in Australia have ballooned to $115 million in 2011, up from $39.9 million in 2009.
"The primary reasons for the increase in gross margins from services in 2011 were the improvement in margin and increase in service revenue related to our transportation business in the U.K and Australia as well as the gross margin from 2011 Abraxas sales since the acquisition in December 2010," the annual report reads.
A search on Cubic's websites reveals no information about Abraxas or TrapWire. The page on TrapWire's website outlining its executives and their links to the CIA has recently been removed.
On its website TrapWire says it was founded in 2004 to build and deploy counter-terrorism technologies "in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks". It seeks to prevent such attacks from occurring in the future and boasts on its website that its technology can "detect patterns of behavior indicative of pre-operational planning".
US authorities were criticised after the al Qaeda attacks of 2001 over failings in information sharing, and part of TrapWire's appeals appears to be that it is designed to make it easier to share information across a global surveillance network. Despite the pervasiveness of its monitoring, it states one of its advantages is that it does not share "sensitive of personally identifiable information".
The internal TrapWire emails were obtained by hackers when they broke into Stratfor Global Intelligence, which had a partnership deal with TrapWire which saw Stratfor earning an eight per cent finder's fee for any clients it referred to the Cubic company.
Separately, a Microsoft-powered police surveillance system is being installed in New York City that connects thousands of New York Police Department and private security cameras in the city, recording and archiving up to 30 days worth of footage at a time. Police can backtrack through the footage when investigating crimes. Microsoft plans to offer it up to other cities around the world.
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