I tried to think up some catchy title for this, but I guess the facts are catchy enough on their own. I read an article in Technology News that began with this...
"There are crooks and then there are lots of normal and innocent people who deal with Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies [sic]. The digital bloodhounds at the NSA took it as a challenge to hunt them all down and track their activity. This required new tools and techniques. You may think that your crypto-wallet is safe and private, but that perception will crumble once you know that the NSA is on your heels. ⁃ TN Editor"
It goes on to say that "it looks like all of the conspiracy theorists and other internet paranoiacs were right." Since 2013, according to Edward Snowden, the NSA has been tracking all BTC transactions employing a myriad of different techniques. This is a list of some of these programs...
PRISM
FAIRVIEW
BLARNEY
STORMBREW
OAKSTAR
XKEYSCORE
MARINA
TRAFFICTHIEF
PINWALE
BOUNDLESSINFORMANT
PRISM is perhaps the best known, it's the program that mines data stored by most of the social media platforms such as Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Apple, Skype, Microsoft, Youtube and AOL among others. By the way, if you use Windows and haven't turned off automatic updates, you should immediately. (and read this article my computer security guy sent me) https://www.computerworld.com/article/3247676/microsoft-windows/microsofts-mystifying-meltdownspectre-patches-for-amd-processors.html I would also encourage everyone to open an encrypted email service. I have protonmail.com- it's free (and even I can use it). Some of what PRISM collects is...
However, it seems that PRISM is the least of our worries- it only deals with generalities. There are several more sophisticated software applications being used to gather data on BTC. What began as a program designed to track crypto-funds being used by drug dealers and terrorists in their attempts to launder money using BTC has grown into a sophisticated web that tracks all transactions... and it's no longer limited to BTC. In an article in CyberScoop Mark Satter wrote: "Documents show that although the NSA was also interested in surveilling the users of other cryptocurrencies, bitcoin was their first priority." (see link at end)
The "umbrella program" used by the security agencies (and we have to believe that with FVEY all five nations involved have the data) is called FAIRVIEW which, if I understand correctly, focuses on phone messages. The Daily Dot explains: "Details on FAIRVIEW’s operations are scant, but it appears that the program works (at least in part) as follows: The NSA partners with U.S. telecommunications companies that then make agreements with international companies for their Internet data. There are likely many different means through which the NSA intercepts these companies’ information. Based on conversations with Drake, the FAIRVIEW program also appears to encompass direct link-ups with offshore submarine cables. It is likely that the former operation fall under the purview of the BLARNEY program."
Using the computer surveillance system XKEYSCORE, data from sources such as Google and even TOR tracks internet searches, emails, documents, usernames, passwords, etc... basically everything someone does online. The tracking of BTC users is done through a program known as OAKSTAR, "a program that consisted of a 'collection of covert corporate partnerships enabling the agency to monitor communications, including by harvesting internet data as it traveled along fiber optic cables that undergird the internet.'" This is likely how the government receives information from complicit companies such as Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, et.al.. This graphic shows roughly how XKEYSCORE is set up...
Perhaps the two most important (and dangerous) aspects of this for crypto users are OAKSTAR, because it specifically targets crypto users and a sub-program of OAKSTAR called MONKEYROCKET, an entrapment device offered to crypto users as an anonymity enhancement tool. Cointelegraph did an article on this and I'll include their take on OAKSTAR and MONKEYROCKET as well as a link to the article... "
Though the agency was interested in monitoring some competing cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin (“a decentralized digital currency system, wherein the units are known as Bitcoin or BTC”) was its primary target.
Tracking was performed by means of a secret internet surveillance program under the code name OAKSTAR, which represents a range of covert corporate partnerships that enabled the agency to monitor communications and pull data directly from the fiber optic connections that form the internet undergird.
A VPN-like service called MONKEYROCKET, a subprogram of OAKSTAR, played a crucial role in identifying Bitcoin users. Instead of hiding user data, MONKEYROCKET tapped network equipment to obtain data from Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and South America."
I'm the first to admit that when it comes to computers that I still live in the Dark Ages and don't understand as much as my 6 year old granddaughter. What I do understand is that we live in a surveillance society and that out right to privacy has been grossly violated. I'm going to include some other links about this issue in hopes that someone much smarter than I will read them and explain them to me.
https://www.technocracy.news/index.php/2018/03/21/bitcoin/
https://www.cyberscoop.com/nsa-bitcoin-oakstar-monkey-rocket/
https://www.dailydot.com/layer8/nsa-spy-prgrams-prism-fairview-blarney/
https://cointelegraph.com/news/us-national-security-agency-develops-system-to-identify-bitcoin-users-say-leaked-docs
https://nsa.gov1.info/dni/xkeyscore.html
https://nsa.gov1.info/dni/black-budget.html
I can not imagine that there is any real protection available. They most likely have backdoors. All this encryption software would be illegal and not available if it was really effective.Just look who makes all this stuff. Who really is behind it. It's just an illusion, maybe even a trap to make people speak more freely in their imagined "privacy". They are way ahead of us.
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It is worth noting that they like people thinking that way. A little paranoia is worth having when dealing with these things as it doesn't hurt to be cautious. Yet, I can also tell you they don't stop people making statements about their capabilities, and sometimes they'll spread them too.
They don't for example have the ability to capture ALL phone calls, and ALL emails. Yet people commonly say they do. They don't. It is safe to assume they have the ability to capture MOST of them, but I assure you they cannot capture all of them. There are physics, and other barriers that get in the way of that.
Yet it is to their advantage if people think they can get ALL of them.
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You are probably right. But they don't even need everything. If you take a look at https://illuminus.io/en/ you can find out what they already know about you based on just a few old facebook clicks. Wrote a post about it. https://steemit.com/conspiracy/@herrleeb/they-know-more-about-you-than-you-do-yourself
A few encrypted emails are not going to save my ass :)
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Yep. I'm not trying to hide at the moment.
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I guess the only secure thing is to unplug all your electronics and keep your money in the mattress like grandpa (except paper money will be worthless soon!)
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Im afraid we will have only a few more years of relative "freedom". They already start to harass off-grid people.
Once 5G is out and Agenda 2030 in full swing, there is nowhere you can go and nothing you can do.
Meanwhile we get sprayed like bugs...
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I started researching 5G as part of some posts on Technocracy I've been doing and the rabbit hole I've discovered makes science fiction and horror stories look tame! By the way, you seem like a kindred spirit have you checked out #informationwar here and on Discord?
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Yes, I've been following you guys for a while :) I am on discord once in a while but I have to keep it limited, I am already overwhelmed by all this shit going on. It's too much to digest it all. I am only venting my toothless rage on steemit to keep the tiny little rest of my sanity. Enjoy reading your post though...
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Well if you decide to vent in print feel free to use the tag... as long as it's something counter to the MSM narrative
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LOL. Thanks! I have to be careful to not post too much negativity. The problem is that I have given up hope for a change to the better. But I do not want to discourage anyone who still has hope since this is not helpful and I don't know the truth. So, my negativity is pointless and positivity would be dishonest.
All I have left is some sarcasm...
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Curated for #informationwar (by @openparadigm)
Relevance: Surveillance
Our Purpose
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Ive heard some rumors that goverment will close the cryptocurrency here in my country.Question is it really possible that goverments from different parts of the world can stop the market of cryptocurrency?
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A few countries have shut down exchanges but there are exchanges that operate internationally. Let me look into your country and see what I can find out... I'll let you know what I find.
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Thanks for the report. I've read rumors that some anonymization services were honeypots; now, they're confirmed.
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I kind of did too. The way I look at it- I say and do what I please... if they want to come after me, I won't go out alone!
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Yeah! It's like doxxing, in that a fellow can only be pushed around so far before he gets angry and starts daring SJWs to dox him.
Sam old cycle of bullying: the bullies get their way until they become so aggravating, they're dealt with.
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I never had a problem with bullies... I was always that little guy that everybody always said "don't fuck with him- he's crazy, he'll kill ya!"
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The main thing is if you have facebook ever on your computer,... you know when you visit other websites they seem to offer ads that know about you? That is all connected in with the facebook cookies.
So, if you use your computer for facebook, and then use it for a bitcoin transaction, they know who owns that account.
And if you buy from amazon then they know your account and address.
The thing is that the NSA is less than 1% of the population. They do not have the manpower to look into everyone. So, all the people that they do hit, are just basically unlucky. But, that is even better for sewing fear into the population.
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I don't do Fakebook and I won't order from Amazon. I did once a long time ago and they sent my book to someone else- that was years ago.
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Question:
Is there anything the NSA and their unlawful deep state cronies are not tracking?
Does the NSA and their handlers, those antiquated traitors of freedom and liberty don't understand that their criminal days are counted?
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I only listed the parts of the surveillance that pertained to BTC tracking- the tip of the iceberg!
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I like all of your stuff because your content type is very educational
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@richq11 this is a topic I cover in my cyber weekly posts. Encourage you to join along and ask any questions. Anything and everything in the cyber infrastructure is tracked and monitored, and the NSA is simply the data collection branch of the CIA.
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You’re not paranoid if they’re really watching you.
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Agreed, they try to watch us more than we care to know.....
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I've been using Ubuntu instead of Apple and Microsoft since 2007 and what can we do to stop the NSA and others from violating our freedoms of privacy, of speech, property, etc? Should we move to other cryptocurrencies that can maybe hide our connections and transactions with cryptocurrencies that can maybe make us and it all more anonymous maybe?
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Now that's a new one on me... I will check it out!
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You can see Ubuntu at http://Ubuntu.org
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I got it thanks!
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Excellent post on a topic I have never been exposed to or thought about. It's incredible for all that I know, just how much I really don't know:)
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really its true??how is it possible.i dont know.good post provider you are.thanks
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IT does not surprise me. When bitcoin went on thee futures market, I knew it would be tracked and manipulated. What does surprise me is that they are not doing this with all crypto currencies. Sad. How is Bruno? Thanks @richq11
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Bruno is great... we went for a walk around the block for the first time since his problems started and he made it with flying colors. I wanted to try earlier but my back is messed up.
It looks like they're doing it with many cryptos, the focus of course is BTC because it's the biggest. This started back in 2013 way before BTC hit the futures market.
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