New Class of Privacy Invasion on Horizon – Terahertz Scanner

Terahertz radiation fits into the electromagnetic spectrum between infrared waves and microwaves and can be used for all manner of extraordinary things. One application is medical imaging–terahertz waves can penetrate a short distance beneath the skin and so spot tumors. Another use is surveillance–terahertz waves pass through most types of clothing, allowing “intimate” body searches at a distance. Terahertz radiation also shows promise for real-time spectroscopy–molecules can be identified by the way they reflect short pulses of terahertz waves.

So how best to create and detect terahertz waves? We’ll leave the creation aside and talk in this post about detecting terahertz waves for real-time video images.

That’s been a tough nut to crack until recently. The current state of the art is to use an array of microbolometer pixels, consisting of tiny slabs of vanadium oxide that change their resistance when hit by infrared photons and heat up. Although designed for infrared up to wavelengths of 14 micrometers, these devices have a residual sensitivity at terahertz frequencies, and in the last couple of years, they’ve been used to make terahertz videos.

But a new kid on the block is set to take the microbolometer’s crown. In the early 1990s, Michel Dyakonov at the University of Montpellier in France and a pal calculated that a sufficiently small field-effect transistor ought to be able to produce and detect terahertz radiation.

The idea is that if a transistor is small enough, the electrons in the channel between its source and drain can be thought of as a 2-D plasma. And if the properties of this channel are tuned just right, the plasma can resonate when hit by terahertz waves. This, in turn, influences the current passing through the channel and allows the terahertz waves to be detected.

Of course, the size of these transistors is measured in nanometers, which is why it’s taken so long to actually build them.

However, Dyakonov is now part of a group that has not only built transistors that detect terahertz waves, but also created the first images with them (see above).

That’s impressive for several reasons. First, these transistors detect terahertz waves at room temperature (although nobody is quite sure how–something that will have to be worked out before scientists will want to use them). Second, the read-out rate is good enough for video. And finally, the transistors can be built into arrays using standard silicon CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) technology, which means they have the potential to be as cheap as conventional video cameras.

Dyakonov and his colleagues say “the experimental and theoretical results clearly indicate that nanometer transistors are promising candidates for a new class of efficient terahertz detector.”

Fingerprinting of Children

As voters express concern about surveillance technology, is it becoming second nature to the Facebook generation – used to publishing intimate details of their private lives on the worldwide web – who, in later life, may be less vociferous in their opposition to such schemes?

An increasing number of today’s schoolchildren are forgoing the humiliating daily name call of registration, and are instead having to “fingerswipe” in and out of class, or to give it its proper name: biometric registration. According to campaign group LeaveThemKidsAlone, schools have fingerprinted more than two million children this way, sometimes even without their parents’ consent. A statement on its website claims: “It’s part of an enormous softening-up exercise, targeting society’s most impressionable, so they’ll accept cradle-to-grave state snooping and control.”

Hard-pressed schools and local councils with tight budgets are being enticed by a new generation of software that promises to cut administration costs and time. In the last 18 months, several readers have written expressing concern at this new technology being trialled on their children. Everything from “cashless catering schemes” to “kiddyprints” instead of library cards is being introduced by stealth into the nation’s schools, it is claimed.

The software companies that are jostling for a stake in this lucrative market, such as VeriCool and CRB solutions, boast several testimonials on their websites, arguing that this technology not only minimises lunchtime queues and paperwork, but also tackles more serious problems such as truancy and bullying (a cashless system negates the need to be biffed for your lunch money). They even claim that their systems promote healthy eating, as pupils accrue points for eschewing sugary snacks.

Furthermore, CRB solutions is quick to reassure pupils and staff that “this wasn’t the same sort of fingerprinting that the police did … in fact, parts of the ‘fingerprint’ are converted (using a mathematical algorithm) into digital data which can then be used for future recognition.”

However, the police and security services do use coded algorithms when taking the fingerprints of a suspect, as well as taking inky fingerprints that are kept on paper file. And it is this data that they use to match fingerprints at the scene of a major crime. The implications are vast – the nation’s schools aren’t exactly the safest place for the storage of this sensitive data – and anyone with access to the system and a mobile SIM card can download the information from a computer, increasing the chances of identity theft. Unless the computer system is professionally purged, before this data has a chance to be leaked, it can remain in cyberspace for eternity to be retained for all sorts of dubious purposes.

It’s odd that this drive towards fingerprinting children coincides with the government’s keenness to expand the national DNA database – we already have one of the largest in the world – with more than four million people on file, including nearly 1.1 million children.

Odd too that VeriCool is reported to be part of Anteon, an American company that is responsible for the training of interrogators at Guantánamo and Abu Gharib.

It seems that in the blink of an eyelid (or iris scan), our children are losing the civil liberties and freedoms we are fighting so hard to preserve.

DHS Planning To Chip Your License

Privacy advocates are issuing warnings about a new radio chip plan that ultimately could provide electronic identification for every adult in the U.S. and allow agents to compile attendance lists at anti-government rallies simply by walking through the assembly.

The proposal, which has earned the support of Janet Napolitano, the newly chosen chief of the Department of Homeland Security, would embed radio chips in driver’s licenses, or “enhanced driver’s licenses.”

Take a look here to see what Europe is doing with RFID

“Enhanced driver’s licenses give confidence that the person holding the card is the person who is supposed to be holding the card, and it’s less elaborate than REAL ID,” Napolitano said in a Washington Times report.

REAL ID is a plan for a federal identification system standardized across the nation that so alarmed governors many states have adopted formal plans to oppose it. However, a privacy advocate today told WND that the EDLs are many times worse.

Radio talk show host and identity chip expert Katherine Albrecht said REAL ID earned the opposition of Christians because of its resemblance to the biblical “mark of the beast,” civil libertarians opposed it for its “big brother” connotations and others worried about identity theft issues with the proposed databases.

“We got rid of the REAL ID program, but [this one] is way more insidious,” she said.

Enhanced driver’s licenses have built-in radio chips providing an identifying number or information that can be accessed by a remote reading unit while the license is inside a wallet or purse.

The technology already had been implemented in Washington state, where it is promoted as an alternative to a passport for traveling to Canada. So far, the program is optional.

But there are other agreements already approved with Michigan, Vermont, New York and Arizona, and plans are under way in other states, including Texas, she said.

Napolitano, as Arizona’s governor, was against the REAL ID, Albrecht said. Now, as chief of Homeland Security, she is suggesting the more aggressive electronic ID of Americans.

“She’s coming out and saying, ‘OK, OK, OK, you win. We won’t do REAL ID. But what we probably ought to do is nationwide enhanced driver’s licenses,’” Albrecht told WND.

“They’re actually talking about issuing every person a spychip driver’s license,” she said. “That is the potential problem.”

Imagine, she said, going to a First Amendment-protected event, a church or a mosque, or even a gun show or a peace rally.

“What happens to all those people when a government operator carrying a reading device makes a circuit of the event?” she asked. “They could download all those unique ID numbers and link them.”

Participants could find themselves on “watch” lists or their attendance at protests or rallies added to their government “dossier.”

She said even if such license programs are run by states, there’s virtually no way that the databases would not be linked and accessible to the federal government.

Albrecht said a hint of what is on the agenda was provided recently by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The state’s legislature approved a plan banning the government from using any radio chips in any ID documentation.

Schwarzenegger’s veto noted he did not want to interfere with any coming or future federal programs for identifying people.

Albrecht’s recent guest on her radio program was Michigan State Rep. Paul Opsommer, who said the government appears to be using a national anti-terrorism plan requiring people to document their identities as they enter the United States to promote the technology.

“The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative was … just about proving you were a citizen, not that you had to do it by any specific kind of technology,” Opsommer said.

But he said, “We are close to the point now that if you don’t want RFID in any of your documents that you can’t leave the country or get back into it.”

Opsommer said his own state sought an exception to the growing federal move toward driver’s licenses with an electronic ID chip, and he was told that was “unlikely.”

He was told, “They were trying to harmonize these standards with Canada and Mexico [so] it had to apply to everybody. I was absolutely dumbfounded.”

WND previously has reported on such chips when hospitals used them to identify newborns, a company desired to embed immigrants with the electronic devices, a government health event showcased them and when Wal-Mart used microchips to track customers.

Albrecht, who has worked on issues involving radio chip implants, REAL-ID, “Spychips” and other devices, provided a platform for Opsommer to talk about drivers licenses that include radio transmitters that provide identity information about the carrier. She is active with the AntiChips.com and SpyChips.com websites.

Opsommer said he’s been trying for several years to gain permission for his state to develop its own secure license without a radio chip.

“They have flat out refused, and their reasoning is all about the need for what they call ‘facilitative technology,’ which they then determined was RFID,” he said during the recent interview.

According to the U.S. State Department, which regulates international travel requirements, U.S. citizens now “must show proof of identity and proof of U.S. citizenship when entering the United States from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the countries of the Caribbean by land or seas.”

Documentation could be a U.S. passport or other paperwork such as birth certificates or drivers’ licenses. But as of this summer, one of the options for returning residents will be an “Enhanced Driver’s License.”

The rules are being promulgated under the outline of the WHTI, a result of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, which requires travelers
to present a passport or other identity documents on entry into the U.S.

While the government has expressed confidence that no personal or critical information will be revealed through the system, it also says drivers will need special information on how to use, carry and protect the radio-embedded licenses as well as “a shielded container that will prevent anyone from reading your license.”

But Albrecht, the author or co-author of six books and videos, including the award-winning “Spychips: How major corporations and government plan to track your every move with RFID,” warns it goes much further.

“This must be nipped in the bud. Enhanced DL’s make REAL ID look like a walk in the park,” Albrecht said.

“Look, I am all in favor of only giving drivers licenses to U.S. citizens or people that are otherwise here in this country legally,” Opsommer said, “But we are already doing that in Michigan. We accomplished that without an EDL, as has virtually every other state via their own state laws.

“But just because we choose to only issue our license to U.S. citizens does not mean that our licenses should somehow then fall under federal control. It’s still a state document, we are just controlling who we issue them to. But under the EDL program, the Department of Homeland Security is saying that making sure illegals don’t get these is not enough. Now you need the chip to prove your citizenship,” he continued.

Opsommer further warned the electronic chips embedded in licenses to confirm identity are just the first step.

“Canadians are also more connected to what is going on in Britain with the expansion of the national ID program there, and have seen the mission creep that occurs with things like gun control first hand … Whatever the reason, as an example, just last week the Canadian government repatriated a database
from the U.S. that contained the driver’s license data of their citizens,” he said.

“Someone finally woke up and realized it would not be a good idea for that to be on American soil … I think it is only logical that we as state legislators really understand how the governments of Mexico and Canada will have access to our own citizen’s data. Right now it is very ambiguous and even difficult for me to get answers on as a state representative.”

But Opsommer said Big Brother concerns certainly have some foundation.
“So if EDLs are the new direction for secure licenses in all states, it just reinforces what many have been telling me that DHS wants to expand this program and turn it into a wireless national ID with a different name,” he said. “We’ll wake up one day and without a vote in Congress DHS will just pass a rule and say something like ’starting next month you will need an EDL to fly on a plane, or to buy a gun, or whatever.’”

U.S. Largest Source of Malware

American websites host more malware and computers relay more spam than any other country, the latest security report showed.

As evidence of this, when an American Internet company, accused of collaborating with spammers and hackers, was disconnected from the net in November, the level of spam staggered down 75 percent.

The ‘Security Threat Report 2009′ was just published by Sophos, the U.K.-based IT security and control firm, which examined the threat landscape over the last twelve months, and predicted the emerging cybercrime trends for 2009.

Too many compromised computers

“Not only is the U.S. relaying the most spam because too many of its computers have been compromised and are under the control of hackers, but it’s also carrying the most malicious Web pages,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. “We would like to see the States making less of an impact on the charts in the coming year. American computers, whether knowingly or not, are making a disturbingly large contribution to the problems of viruses and spam affecting all of us today.”

Sophos’s research reveals that in 2008, organized criminal gangs tripled their attacks against innocent websites, injecting malicious code to infect visiting home users and businesses.

In addition, 2008 has seen concerted campaigns by hackers to pose as legitimate anti-virus vendors, creating new professional-looking websites and applications every day with the intention of scaring users into believing that their computers have been compromised.

On average, five new scareware websites were identified each day by Sophos, with the figure peaking at more than 20 per day on occasion.

Trusted networks targeted

The report also documented the major Internet attacks of 2008, and showed a rise in hackers spamming out malicious attachments, designed to compromise PCs in order to steal identities, money and resources. By the end of 2008, Sophos was tracking five times more malicious attacks arriving through files attached to e-mails than at the start of the year.

Spammers and malware authors have shown interests in websites such as Facebook – hacking into innocent users’ accounts to take advantage of trusted social networks and send spam and malware.

“The last year proved beyond doubt that Internet hacking gangs are organised like never before, often working across borders to steal money and data from unsuspecting users. The volume of attacks has increased, with hackers using automated systems to break into vulnerable websites or generate new variants of their malware,” said Cluley.

“People need to wake up to the reality that the completely legitimate Web site they are visiting could be harbouring a dangerous malware infection planted by hackers. As we enter 2009, we are not expecting to see these assaults diminish. As economies begin to enter recession it will be more important than ever for individuals and businesses to ensure that they on guard against Internet attack,” he said.

Internet attacks are overwhelmingly orchestrated via networks of innocent home computers that have–unknown to their owners–been commandeered by hackers. Sophos urges home users and businesses to properly defend their personal computers with up-to-date anti-virus software, security patches and firewalls.

Statistics and findings

• Biggest malware threats – SQL injection attacks against websites and the rising tide of scareware.

• New Web infections – one new infected Web page discovered by Sophos every four and a half seconds (Three times faster than in 2007).

• Malicious e-mail attachments – five times more at end of 2008 than at the beginning.

• U.S. hosts the most malware on the Web (37 percent), usurping China’s position in 2007.

• U.S. computers relay the most spam (17.5 percent).

• Increasing allegations of state-sponsored cybercrime, as China, North Korea, Russia and Georgia amongst those accused of espionage and assaults via the Internet.

Top malware-hosting countries

In 2007, China was responsible for hosting more than 50 percent of all Web-based malware. This position was taken over by the U.S. in 2008.

The top ten malware-hosting countries in 2008 are:

1. U.S. 37.0 percent

2. China (including HK) 27.7 percent

3. Russia 9.1 percent

4. Germany 2.3 percent

5. South Korea 2.1 percent

6. Ukraine 1.8 percent

7. United Kingdom 1.7 percent

8. Turkey 1.5 percent

9. Czech Republic 1.3 percent

10. Thailand 1.2 percent

Other malware-hosting countries in Asia are Malaysia (0.1 percent), Japan (0.1 percent), Singapore (less than 0.1 percent). The spam-relaying countries are Philippines (0.9 percent), Japan (0.6 percent), Australia (0.6 percent), and Singapore (0.3 percent).

Keystone Cops Protect Tony Blair

A female bodyguard of Tony Blair has been suspended after leaving a loaded gun in a starbucks bathroom while on duty.

The officer visited the rest room at a Starbucks in Central London and removed her holster, which held a Glock 17 semi-automatic.

After finishing in the toilet, she bought a coffee and left. The pistol lay on the floor for 20 minutes before a horrified member of staff saw it and called 999.

The Starbucks on Edgware Road where the bodyguard left her Glock pistol

Armed police raced to the premises in Edgware Road – near one of Mr Blair’s homes – to recover the gun.

The officer, who a source said was ‘among the top in her class during training’, realised her mistake and retraced her steps, frantically searching for the gun. It was linked to her by checking the serial number.

The woman, who is in her thirties and plain-clothed, was immediately removed from operational duties with the elite SO1 Specialist Protection Command, the U.S. equivalent of the secret service.

Mistake: Tony Blair’s female bodyguard left a gun like the one above in the coffee shop toilet

The protection unit is responsible for the personal safety of senior politicians and VIPs including former prime ministers Mr Blair, now Middle East envoy, and Baroness Thatcher.

A source said: ‘If a child or criminal had picked it up there could have been terrible consequences.

‘This has come as a shock. The officer is inconsolable and seriously regrets her mistake.’

The source added: ‘Everyone is fond of her. She was among the top in her class during training, but her firearms career could be over.’

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: ‘A police-issue firearm was left unattended in a central London café on August 29 and was found by a member of the public.

‘The weapon belongs to a Metropolitan Police authorised firearms officer who was on duty at the time.’

The Met’s Directorate of Professional Standards is investigating.