Chesbro on Security: 2018-10-14

Saturday, October 20, 2018

Handcuffed Suspect Killed After Shooting Trooper During Traffic Stop in Georgia

A felon who had been on the run for about eight months was shot and killed by Georgia State Patrol troopers on I-75 South in Bartow County on Thursday, authorities said.

One of the troopers, who was shot in his vest by Kenneth Martin Anderson, 27, has been released from the hospital, the GBI said in a news release. His injuries consisted of blunt force trauma. The other troopers were not injured.

A traffic stop on the car with a West Virginia temporary tag led to the shooting.

Troopers put the male passenger, Kenneth Martin Anderson, 27, in handcuffs after finding drugs, guns and cash in the car, GSP Capt. Mark Perry said. He was wanted for a parole violation.

“He’s handcuffed behind his back. Apparently he had a weapon behind his back,” Perry said. “As he comes out, the trooper was standing a couple of feet from him. He turns with his hands behind him and shoots the trooper in the abdomen. In the vest.”

Anderson fired three times before two Troopers returned fire, hitting him multiple times, the GBI said. He later died at the Cartersville Hospital. (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, October 19, 2018)
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Although the GSP Troopers placed Anderson in handcuffs, they failed to search him, or failed to find the gun he had concealed behind his back. Firing a pistol with your hands cuffed behind your back is not going to be very accurate, but at a distance of only a couple of feet it can still get hits on a man-size target. -- Stay Alert, Stay Safe, Search All Suspects for Weapons.

Operating in Hostile and Non-Permissive Environments:
A Survival and Resource Guide for Those Who Go in Harm’s Way

Military personnel deployed to a combat area, their supporting contractors overseas, government civilian employees overseas, non-government organizations (NGOs), journalists working on international stories, businesses attempting to establish a foothold in developing countries, and individual travelers to remote areas of the world can all find themselves in hostile and non-permissive environments. This guide covers a broad range of subjects that are intended to aid individuals, living and working in dangerous areas, in being safer in their daily lives and in being better able to protect themselves and survive in case of an emergency, disaster, or hostile action.

States That Legalized Recreational Marijuana See Increase in Car Accidents

According to CNN (October 18, 2018) The National Transportation Safety Board has said that there has been an increase in the number of drug-impaired drivers across the country and that something must be done about it. That call to action seems to match up with a report released Thursday from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's Highway Loss Data Institute.

Though a 2017 study found that the legalization of recreational weed has not increased the number of accidents involving fatalities, states that have legalized recreational use are seeing more car crashes overall, according to the report, which includes two studies presented Thursday at the Combating Alcohol- and Drug-Impaired Driving summit at the insurance institute's Vehicle Research Center.

The first study found that crashes are up as much as 6% in Washington, Oregon and Colorado, compared with neighboring states that haven't legalized recreational use of weed. Researchers estimated the frequency of collision claims per insured vehicle year, controlling for differences in other factors that could contribute to an accident, including age, location, job status and weather, and still saw an increase.

The second study looked at the number of police-reported accidents before and after the legalization of recreational use of weed. The findings were similar: a 5.2% increase in crash rates after legalization than before weed was legal in those states.

Other research has found that in a small sample of drivers who used weed before driving, they had slower thinking and perceptual skills. Drivers under the influence of weed tended to weave more when tested in simulators, studies show, although scientists say more research needs to be done to better understand the correlation between blood or oral fluid concentrations and psychoactive effects of tetrahydrocannabinol or THC, the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis.
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Operating in Hostile and Non-Permissive Environments:
A Survival and Resource Guide for Those Who Go in Harm’s Way

Illegal Immigrant Population Likely Double, Possibly Triple Previous Estimates, Says Yale Study

Professors at Yale University have roiled the immigration debate with a new study calculating there are between 16 million and 30 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. — as much as three times more than most demographers figure.

The professors’ model looked at estimates of how many people came illegally, and how many people likely left, and concluded there are a lot more people who arrived than the 11 million suggested by traditional estimates. The model says the most likely figure is double that, at about 22 million.

If true, the numbers would mean U.S. officials have done a poorer job of catching illegal immigrants than imagined, and that one out of every nine people living in the U.S. is here illegally.

“Policy debates about the amount of resources to devote to this issue, and the merits of alternative policies, including deportation, amnesty, and border control, depend critically on estimates of the number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S., which sets the scale of the issue,” said the academics, Professors Jonathan S. Feinstein and Edward H. Kaplan and postdoctoral associate Mohammad Fazel-Zarandi, all at the Yale School of Management.

They published their findings in PLOS ONE, an open access scholarly journal, and sparked fierce pushback from the demographers who study the issue and say the professors’ numbers are impossible. (Washington Times, September 24, 2018)
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Friday, October 19, 2018

Bunker Hill Security Armored Cable Lock Cut EASILY

Lock Picking Lawyer demonstrates another lock quickly and easily defeated with cable cutters.

Bunker Hill Security Armored Cable Lock Cut EASILY

Most locks today provide very little security against an attacker with the right tools to defeat them. Cable cutters cut cables, bolt cutters cut shackles, and hasps can be twisted from their mountings with a large wrench.

In place of cable I recommend using 1/2" (12mm) Peweg Chain. This chain cannot be easily cut using even large / heavy duty bolt cutters.

Operating in Hostile and Non-Permissive Environments:
A Survival and Resource Guide for Those Who Go in Harm’s Way

California Killed Unfair Cash Bail System

The California Legislature through Senate Bill 10 achieved a major victory by eliminating a cash bail system that regularly jailed people who could not afford to buy their freedom.

As a judge and former prosecutor in California, we have seen how pretrial detention can determine the outcome of an entire case and alter someone’s life forever. Even a short stint in jail can mean the loss of housing and employment, and can devastate families and communities. People desperate to go home are more likely to plead guilty even when they are innocent and tend to receive longer sentences if convicted.

Under the cash bail system, outcomes often turned on money. Right now, thousands of poor defendants who pose no risk sit in California jails, wasting scarce public resources and disproportionately affecting people of color.

Judges are entrusted to provide equal justice and protect the rights of all people. In criminal prosecutions, where the stakes are highest, that includes upholding due process and giving full meaning to the presumption of innocence. (Sacramento Bee, September 25, 2018)
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The purpose of bail is to ensure that a person has a clear stake in showing up to court.

The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution states: “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” But, isn't any bail which a person cannot possibly pay excessive?

Bail allows for the release of an innocent person before trial. If we hold that a person is innocent until proven guilty, then we must hold that bail is intended for the innocent - once you are convicted bail is really not an option.

While there are exceptions to everything, the general rule should be that bail should never be required if a person has ties to the community (i.e. has a home, property, job, etc.). Only when there are no ties to the community and there is a strong likelihood that a person will flee the jurisdiction should bail be a consideration.

Thursday, October 18, 2018

Federal Judge Rules Against Dallas County Bail Practices

A U.S. district judge said Dallas could not impose pre-set bail amounts on poor defendants without individual consideration.

Taking a cue from the rulings on Harris County’s bail-setting practices, a U.S. district judge in Dallas issued a temporary order Thursday evening saying the county’s post-arrest procedures routinely violate inmates’ constitutional rights. The judge gave the county 30 days to change its ways.

U.S. District Judge David Godbey in Dallas said that the county has to stop the practice of imposing pre-set bail bond amounts, which often keep poor defendants locked up for days or weeks while letting wealthier ones go free, without individual consideration if arrestees claim they can't afford it. He sided with the plaintiffs’ allegation that the county uses “wealth-based detention.”

“Wealthy arrestees — regardless of the crime they are accused of — who are offered secured bail can pay the requested amount and leave,” Godbey wrote. “Indigent arrestees in the same position cannot.”

Bail is a legal mechanism to ensure defendants show up to court hearings. Most jurisdictions in Texas and the country, including Dallas, rely primarily on a money bail system, where defendants can pay a bond amount set by a fixed schedule for their release. If they can't pay, they're often stuck in jail. (Texas Tribune, September 20, 2018)
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On April 28, 2018 we asked the question: What If We Ended the Injustice of Bail? And, on September 15, 2018 we discussed how: Oregon's Suspension of Driver's Licenses for Traffic Fines 'Punishes the Poor'.

Whether we want to believe it or not, the rich and the poor are treated differently under the law. The rich can afford lawyers to defend their interests, while the poor are left with what ever public defender is available. (Public defenders may be very competent and professional, but they are often overburdened by their case load, lack resources, and are unable to invest the same amount of time in a case that a highly paid private law firm could.) The rich can post bail and go home, the poor cannot always do so, and if they go to a bail bond company they lose 10% of the bail to the bail bond company, regardless of the outcome of the case. The rich may be able to pay a few hundred or even a few thousand dollars in fines and not notice it, the same fine for the poor may be something that they could never pay.

Of course, this doesn't mean that if you are poor that there should be no consequences if you commit a crime. But until a person is convicted of that crime we hold that he or she is innocent. High bail amounts, suspensions, and punitive administrative actions, are all a concern - all an injustice that we should correct.

Trump Threatens to 'Call Up U.S. Military' to Close Southern Border

President Donald Trump has threatened to "call up" the United States Military to close the country's southern border to stop the flow of criminals into America.

In a series of tweets Thursday morning, Trump criticized Democrats for wanting open borders and "existing weak laws" regarding immigration. The President claims that "many criminals" are among the large amounts of people from countries like Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador who are entering the U.S. through Mexico.

"In addition to stopping all payments to these countries, which seem to have almost no control over their population, I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught - and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!" Trump said in a tweet. (Komo 4 News, October 18, 2018)
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In a report from the Obama Whitehouse (November 17, 2015) we read: Mexican transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) remain the greatest criminal drug threat to the United States. These Mexican poly-drug organizations traffic heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, and marijuana throughout the United States using established transportation routes and distribution networks. They control drug trafficking across the Southwest border and are seeking to expand their share of U.S. illicit drug markets, particularly for heroin. U.S. national-level gangs and neighborhood gangs continue to form relationships with Mexican TCOs to increase gang profits through drug distribution and transportation, for the enforcement of drug payments, and for protection of drug transportation corridors from use by rival gangs. Many gangs rely on Mexican TCOs as their primary drug supplier, and Mexican TCOs depend on street-level gangs that have a pre-existing customer base for drug distribution.

The 2011 National Drug Threat Assessment stated: The primary gateway for illicit drug smuggling to the United States is the Southwest Border. Smugglers under the direction of Mexican traffickers move most of the cocaine, heroin, foreign-produced marijuana, and foreign-produced methamphetamine available in this country through, between, and around land border crossings in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas. Traffickers use every other avenue imaginable - air, sea, and the U.S. - Canada border - to smuggle drugs into the United States, but the volume moved across the U.S.–Mexico border significantly exceeds that moved through all other routes combined.

And just this month October 2018, Uttam Dhillon, the acting director of the Drug Enforcement Administration, warns that Mexican drug cartels pose the “biggest” threat to the national security and health of U.S. citizens. The DEA official said Mexican cartels are responsible for distributing a vast majority of deadly synthetic drugs like methamphetamines and fentanyl that are coming across the southern U.S. border.

So, should the U.S. military be stationed on the southern border? Should armed troops interdict those entering the United States illegally?

Operating in Hostile and Non-Permissive Environments:

A Survival and Resource Guide for Those Who Go in Harm’s Way

Exoneration Shows Need to Repeal Oregon's Nonunanimous Jury Law

In 48 other states, Joshua Horner would have never been convicted of sexually abusing a minor. His four-day trial in 2017 ended with only 11 of 12 jurors believing that the Redmond man committed the sex-abuse crimes that prosecutors alleged. Almost anywhere else in the country, that lone juror's doubt would have been enough to hold off a verdict and force prosecutors to bring a stronger case to prove his guilt.

But because Horner was tried in Oregon, one of only two states in the country [the other state is Louisiana] where a defendant can be found guilty by a nonunanimous jury, the holdout's vote didn't matter. Horner was convicted and sentenced to 50 years in prison.

That could have been the end of the story. But luckily for Horner, both the Oregon Court of Appeals and the Oregon Innocence Project took a closer look at his case, as Oregon Public Broadcasting's Emily Cureton reported. After the appeals court ordered a new trial and the Innocence Project discredited key testimony from the victim, the Deschutes County district attorney dismissed the charges against Horner and apologized for using "untrue evidence" against him. Horner, who spent 18 months in prison, is now a free man. (Oregon Live, September 23, 2018)
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In two cases heard together in 1972, Apodaca v Oregon and Johnson v Louisiana, the Court considered the constitutionality of state laws that permitted criminal defendants to be convicted by less-than-unanimous votes. (Oregon allowed convictions on 10 to 2 votes, while Louisiana went further and allowed convictions on votes of 9 to 3). The Court, voting 5 to 4, upheld both state laws even though five justices clearly stated their beliefs that unanimity was required by the Sixth Amendment. The odd result occurred because Justice Powell, concurring in both cases, concludes that the Sixth Amendment imposes greater requirements on the federal government than the Fourteenth Amendment, incorporating the basic Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial, imposes on the states.

The Court's conclusion in Apodaca and Johnson adopted reasoning similar to that used in Williams v Florida: the right to a unanimous jury verdict might have been the common expectation at the time the Bill of Rights was adopted, but the First Congress rejected language that would have made the unanimity requirement specific. A concurring opinion by Justice Blackmun suggests that he would have a constitutional problem with 8 to 4 or 7 to 5 verdicts. The four dissenting justices argued that the requirement of proof beyond a reasonable doubt was unconstitutionally weakened by the states' laws allowing non-unanimous jury verdicts in criminal cases.

Operating in Hostile and Non-Permissive Environments:
A Survival and Resource Guide for Those Who Go in Harm’s Way

Wednesday, October 17, 2018

I-940: Police Use of Force Laws Must Evolve. Comments by The Olympian Editorial Board.

Too many cities have had controversial shootings, and I-940 (and the compromise version) would rebuild some trust by beefing up training requirements for police. It would increase training already given to many in how to deal with mentally ill offenders and to “de-escalate” dangerous situations without using lethal force.

With the rising numbers of conflicts on our streets involving mentally ill persons, this should be an easy choice. We’re not convinced police get enough training — except in cities like Olympia or Seattle where city leaders have either demanded or paid for it.

Still, I-940 needs fine-tuning if voters pass it. One section in I-940’s says an officer has a duty to render first aid. That language has been interpreted by police groups as potentially putting them in conflict with a need to secure a scene, apprehend suspects, protect others and stay alive themselves.

That potential flaw in I-940 is why we — and also Jon Tunheim, Thurston County prosecuting attorney — are giving support to I-940 on condition that the flaws are fixed. (The Olympian, October 14, 2018)
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I-940 is an initiative that nobody really likes. The idea that we need to pass it so that we can fix it seems to be... well, just plain wrong. Do police use of force laws in Washington State need to evolve? Maybe, maybe not. But, if we are going to update the use of force laws in this state, lets put an initiative on the ballot that will do that, not something that we have to pass so that we can fix it!

Operating in Hostile and Non-Permissive Environments:
A Survival and Resource Guide for Those Who Go in Harm’s Way

Nevada Man Stole Multiple Identities, Millions of Dollars

Kenneth Gibson used the computers in this office to run a script that would automatically set up fraudulent accounts in the names of multiple victims whose identities he stole from his former employer.

A few years prior, the thief he was working as an information technology professional for a large employer in Nevada. His job gave him access to the personal information of thousands of people, including employees and customers. He methodically copied that information and took it home.

When police searched a suspected identity thief’s office last year in Reno, Nevada, they hit the investigative equivalent of pay dirt—the crime in progress, right before their eyes.

There was no one working in the office, but eight computers were running an automatic script to open up online accounts using the names and identifying information the thief had stolen from his employer years earlier.

“He had a computer script that was doing this automatically, and the computers were opening credit products and moving money in real time, 24 hours a day,” said FBI Special Agent Glen Lovedahl, who worked the case out of the FBI’s Las Vegas Division.

Gibson then opened about 8,000 fraudulent and unauthorized accounts with PayPal, an online payment company, in the employees’ names. Once the accounts were established, he would apply for linked credit accounts using the stolen identities. Gibson then engaged in a complex web of transactions to avoid detection, taking cash advances against the established credit and then moving the cash to the linked online account. And finally, he’d use a debit card to access the cash.

“He was moving small dollar amounts, and that doesn’t necessarily pop up on a company’s radar screen,” Lovedahl said. “It was also a very sophisticated scheme; it took us several weeks to put all of the pieces together to figure out how he was getting the money and moving it around.”

Identity theft victims are generally not held responsible for fraudulent charges, but Gibson’s scheme did add up to $3.5 million in losses. Worse for the victims was the hassle of having false information damage their personal credit. Many only realized their identities had been stolen when they applied for a loan or credit card themselves or were contacted by a collections agency.

While there’s no foolproof way to protect against identity thieves, Lovedahl suggests some basic vigilance steps that can help reduce your risk. “Check your free credit report, watch your mail and statements, and keep an eye on your accounts. If you’re a victim, always file a police report to document it,” he said. (FBI, September 18, 2018)
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Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Black Parent Has Police Called on Him While Watching His Son's Soccer Game

Circa, October 16, 2018 — A parent in St. John's County, Florida was cheering on his son's soccer game when police were called to the scene by a field marshal - a person who makes sure everyone is being a good sport at a youth soccer event.

Facebook user Ginger Galore Williams says when the parent noticed his child pouting about a call by the referee - the parent yelled back towards his son saying "the ref is right." The field marshal who called police was referred to as "Golfcart Gail" in the post and reportedly went up to the parent yelling to say that harassment wouldn't be tolerated.

The parent told "Golfcart Gail" that he was talking to his son but according to Williams, "Golfcart Gail just would not let this go. She continued to harass and beleaguer this parent. The gentleman offered to leave in order to avoid a situation." As the parent was leaving, "Golfcart Gail" called police because she "no longer felt safe with his threatening behavior," according to Williams' account.

"This man was peacefully leaving his own son's soccer game to avoid exactly this situation," Williams said. "Shame on you Golfcart Gail for what you did to this man and to the children who had to see this. Can you imagine how afraid his child must have been to see this happening?! Do you know how quickly in America a situation can go wrong?"

Gary Easom, president of the Ponte Vedra Athletic Association, tells First Coast News the social media post by Williams mischaracterizes the situation. Two other parents were kicked out of the game for rude behavior before this incident. He also says parents are not allowed to approach their children during the game.

Police did not detain the father involved in the incident. Williams believes this is a case of "SOCCER WHILE BLACK."
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This is the problem with our 'See Something - Say Something', Nothing Is Too Trivial to Report society. 911 / Calling the police should be reserved for actual crimes, not for petty disagreements between adults.

Your neighbor has his music too loud - call the police. Someone sends you an insulting e-mail, or talks bad about you on Facebook - call the police. A father yells to his son during a soccer game - call the police. Or, just maybe stop acting like a delicate little violet and deal with these things like a couple of adults?

And while the police did not detain the father at the soccer game, the fact that they had to respond at all is concerning. Maybe the police should start writing citations for wasting their time and making false, whiny, meaningless false allegations. - Yes, Virginia, there are many things that are just too trivial to report!

Operating in Hostile and Non-Permissive Environments:
A Survival and Resource Guide for Those Who Go in Harm’s Way

Facebook Warns Police No More Fake Accounts in Violation of ToS

Facebook has a problem: an infestation of undercover cops. Despite the social platform’s explicit rules that the use of fake profiles by anyone—police included—is a violation of terms of service, the issue proliferates. While the scope is difficult to measure, EFF has identified scores of agencies who maintain policies that explicitly flaunt these rules.

This summer, the criminal justice news outlet The Appeal reported on an alarming detail revealed in a civil rights lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Tennessee against the Memphis Police Department. The lawsuit uncovered evidence that the police used what they referred to as a “Bob Smith” account to befriend and gather intelligence on activists. Following the report, EFF contacted Facebook, which deactivated that account. Facebook has since identified and deactivated six other fake accounts managed by Memphis police that were previously unknown.

In a letter to Memphis Police Director Michael Rallings dated Sept. 19, Facebook’s legal staff demands that the agency “cease all activities on Facebook that involve the use of fake accounts or impersonation of others.” (EFF, September 24, 2018)
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The Social Media and Tactical Considerations for Law Enforcement discusses how police agencies may use social media for intelligence collection and investigations.

Police agencies aren't the only ones to use fake social media profiles. For example, the Army has admitted to anonymously spying on e-mail listservs of political activists in order to assess their perceived threat to Army operations. And the new Army JARVISS system uses advanced analytic algorithms and commercial analysts to provide users with threat information originating from over 80,000 open sources including social media.

HOW TO IDENTIFY A FAKE USER ACCOUNT ON FACEBOOK.

* Account was made recently 2017, 2018.

* Account has no history published for earlier years, but Facebook says they have been a member since 2009, etc.

* Most fake accounts have 1 image or no real profile photo of the person. Some may only have a select few photos over a long span of time. A well seasoned user would have more photos posted over a long period of time. A fake account may have 7-10 photos posted on the same day.

* User has very few friends in common and or friends in general. There is little to no interaction on their page with friends, no comments, likes or responses over their long time line.

* Profile picture seems to good to be true, that hot model added you today! They even messaged you and are interested in you!

* When in doubt use reverse image search. Take their image and see if it is a real person or not.

Operating in Hostile and Non-Permissive Environments:
A Survival and Resource Guide for Those Who Go in Harm’s Way

Operating in Hostile and Non-Permissive Environments: A Survival and Resource Guide for Those Who Go in Harm’s Way

National Insider Threat Task Force - Insider Threat On-line Course

The National Insider Threat Task Force (NITTF) is a US government body that is part of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

In a five-module online training program, the NITTF describes the differences between leaks, spills, sabotage and espionage. It also informs workers how to deal with the nosy media. Course-takers are also treated to a dramatized video of a group of workers dealing with a colleague who has gone rogue. The course is available here.
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Monday, October 15, 2018

Emergency Rules To Keep Protesters From Beating People In the Streets

According to the Willamette Week, October 15, 2018, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler proposed an emergency ordinance Monday afternoon that will allow Portland police to separate dueling protest groups that have turned the streets of downtown Portland into battlegrounds.

The new rules will allow officers to require protesters with a history of violence to gather in designated areas, where police will have an easier time keeping adversaries separated.

"I will not allow continued, planned street violence between rival factions to take place in Portland, Oregon," Wheeler said at a press conference this afternoon. "I have also asked my staff to evaluate options to hold accountable those who recklessly drain our public safety resources by using our city as a venue for planned street violence."

The change comes on the heels of a melee outside Kelly's Olympian bar on Oct. 13, where the right-wing groups Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys brawled with antifascists. Police faced renewed scrutiny for failing to keep the two groups apart—and making no arrests during the mayhem.

Today, Wheeler said that prior to an Aug. 4 rally, the Portland Police Bureau discovered right-wing protesters who had positioned themselves on the roof of a building with a cache of firearms.

What began in the spring of 2017 as improvised confrontations in downtown parks—usually marked by insults and culminating in a punch or two—has grown into chaotic rolling brawls that rage the length of a city block. Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys have made Portland their primary destination for antagonizing masked antifascists.

Antifa has often taken the bait, throwing punches and deploying bear spray on helmeted right-wingers who use flag poles as weapons. The fights, which often pit one unlucky person against half a dozen adversaries, are bloody beatings, drawing national scorn.

Portland city officials say they cannot stop right-wing groups like Patriot Prayer from demonstrating, even though their rallies often devolve into violence. They point to First Amendment protections established by federal courts that do not allow prior violence to be the basis of banning a protest.

Instead, police will use the city's new ordinance to keep warring protesters far enough apart that people cannot exchange blows.
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Even though Mayor Wheeler has insisted that “motorists should feel completely safe coming into downtown Portland.” This does not seem to be the case. The streets of downtown Portland are all too often overrun with violent mobs who focus their attacks on anyone who get in their way.

Operating in Hostile and Non-Permissive Environments

A Survival and Resource Guide for Those Who Go in Harm’s Way

Seattle Police Getting Device That Can Crack iPhones

According to Patch (October 14, 2018) the Seattle police will be getting the iPhone-cracking device GrayKey, but this device will not be subject to review under Seattle's surveillance ordinance.

A powerful tool that can unlock a range of iPhone, iPod, and iPad models in minutes may soon be available to Seattle police. The department is in the process of acquiring GrayKey, a device that appeared on the market in February and is being used by federal and local police departments nationwide to quickly break through the iPhone's security features.

Unlike many other high-tech tools Seattle police use, GrayKey will not go through a review under the city's surveillance ordinance. Instead, GrayKey will undergo a "privacy review" by the city's chief technology officer. That type of review does not allow for public comment, according to Seattle IT spokeswoman Megan Erb, although City Council could still review the device.

A public comment process is precisely what civil liberties experts say is needed with such powerful and relatively unknown new technology.

"For a tool like this, the best practice would be to put it out for public comment and see what the concerns are," said Shankar Narayan director of the technology and liberty project at the ACLU of Washington.

Seattle police have been interested in getting GrayKey since at least March, according to documents obtained by Patch. The King County Sheriff's Office is also interested in the device, documents show.

GrayKey marketing materials obtained by Patch show the device can crack a range of iPhone models, from the 5 to the iPhone X, which was released in November 2017. The tool costs $15,000 for 300 uses, or $30,000 for an upgraded version with unlimited uses. It appears Seattle is aiming to get the $15,000 version.

The tool itself is just a small, gray box with two lighting cables sticking out of the front. To use it, you simply plug an iOS device into one of the lightning cables, and then wait. GrayKey guesses passwords until it gets the right one, at the same time circumventing security features that usually disable iOS devices after too many wrong password attempts.

Seattle's Tricky History With Surveillance

GrayKey will not be reviewed under the city's surveillance ordinance because, the IT spokeswoman said, it doesn't meet the definition of "surveillance" as outlined in the law.

That definition: "Observe or analyze the movements behavior, or actions of identifiable individuals in a manner that is reasonably likely to raise concerns about civil liberties, freedom of speech or association, racial equity or social justice."

Instead, GrayKey will get a "full privacy review." "The full privacy review is through the CTO office and the Chief Privacy Officer as well. It is the same questions for both the privacy and surveillance. What it doesn't include is the financial aspect and the public comment if it's not designated as a surveillance tool. We submit this report in the CTO quarterly report and the Council can decide if more review is needed," Erb told Patch via email.

The City Council first adopted a surveillance ordinance in 2013, a year that included controversies involving police surveillance capabilities. First, the police department ended its controversial unmanned drone program. Later that year, The Stranger revealed that SPD had installed a wireless mesh network in the downtown area, which had the capability to track the movements of cellphones and other wireless devices. The mesh network was never used, according to Seattle police, and is in the process of being dismantled.

The ordinance was updated in 2017 after another surveillance controversy. SPD acquired the service Geofeedia, which mapped social media posts in real-time. That prompted Councilwoman Lorena Gonzalez to revisit the surveillance ordinance. The 2013 version was replaced with the one signed by former Mayor Ed Murray in August 2017.

Outside Seattle, Tacoma has been sued over using the tool stingray, which acts like a cellphone tower, allowing police to capture call data from criminal targets and anyone else who happens to be in the vicinity.

Best To Have 'Daylight'

By skipping the surveillance ordinance process, the public will have little say in Seattle's acquisition of GrayKey. The ordinance would allow City Council to vote on the acquisition, and require the department to release detailed reports on how the tool is used, such as with license plate readers.

The department's acquisition of GrayKey, therefore, could become another public relations blunder, the ACLU's Shankar Narayan said.

"It would be very smart for SPD to bring some transparency around the tool. Then you avoid public blow up like you had with the drones, for example," he said.
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GrayKey is surveillance technology. If SPD needs it for legitimate investigative purposes, submit the request for review and public comment under the city's surveillance ordinance. Most people don't object to the police having whatever technology they need to fight crime - that is what the community asks them to do - but acquiring surveillance technology without public review or comment raises concerns.

I discussed the GrayKey device here in the blog in March 2018: GrayKey iPhone Unlocker Poses Serious Security Concern.

The Wolf - True Alpha - Part 3 in The Wolf Series of Secrurity Awareness Videos

Christian Slater, Jonathan Banks and Betty Adewole star in this epic, global hunt about the dangers of cyber threats.

This is the third in a series of security awareness videos from HP. Available on YouTube.

Previous parts of the series can be found at:

The Wolf (Part 1)

The Wolf: The Hunt Continues (Part 2)

Sunday, October 14, 2018

Portland Mayor Stands by Decision to Allow Antifa to Block Traffic, Threaten and Attack Motorists

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler came under fire over a viral video showing Antifa protesters blocking traffic and harassing drivers, but he says he supports the decision by police to watch from a distance without getting involved.

“I was appalled by what I saw in the video, but I support the Portland Police Bureau’s decision not to intervene,” he said at a press conference. “This whole incident will be investigated.”

The video posted by journalist Andy C. Ngo showed protesters, including members of Antifa and Black Lives Matter, blocking an intersection and attempting to direct traffic at while officers on motorcycle watched from a block away.

At one point, the activists chased down 74-year-old Kent Houser after he made a right turn against their wishes, pounding on his silver Lexus and breaking a window. The car sustained thousands of dollars in damage, he told the Oregonian.

Even so, Mr. Wheeler insisted that “motorists should feel completely safe coming into downtown Portland.” (Washington Times, October 14, 2018)
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I posted the video 'Portland Antifa Violence Against Senior Citizens (Video)' to the blog on October 9, 2018. If you haven't seen the video I encourage you to watch it and see how groups like Antifa are interacting with the community at large.

Police have an extraordinarily difficult job in these cases, balancing the rights of groups and individuals to protest and exercise their 1st Amendment rights in a public forum against the rights of the public in general to travel freely on the public streets and be free of threats and harassment from protest groups like Antifa and Black Lives Matter.

Mayor Wheeler says that you should feel completely safe coming to downtown Portland...
No, Mr. Wheeler, I don't think that this is the case! Downtown Portland is not a safe place to visit. These extremist groups pose a very real threat to anyone in the downtown area. In fact some label Antifa as a domestic terrorist group.

Easy DNA Identifications With Genealogy Databases Raise Privacy Concerns

Police in California made headlines this spring when they charged a former police officer with being the Golden State Killer, a man who allegedly committed a series of notorious rapes and murders in the 1970s and '80s.

Authorities revealed they used DNA from a publicly available genealogy website to crack the case.

Since then, police around the country have started doing the same sort of thing to solve other cold cases.

In a paper published Thursday in the journal Science, the researchers projected that they could identify third cousins and more closely related relatives in more than 60 percent of people of European descent. (They chose this group because most people in their database have that ancestry.)

"It's kind of like each person in this database is a beacon that illuminates hundreds of distant relatives. So it's enough to have your third cousin or your second cousin once-removed in these databases to actually identify you."

And when the researchers combined their strategy with other information, such a specific geographic area or the approximate age of a person, they could quickly reduce a list of possibilities to just a few people. (NPR, October 11, 2018)
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Sick of Robocalls? They're About to Get Even Worse!

If it feels like you are getting more robocalls these days, it's because you are. Last year, some 30 billion spam calls were made in the U.S. This year, that number is expected to climb by more than 10 billion.

Alex Quilici runs the robocall blocking company YouMail.com, and said the most alarming part is the number of spam calls that are actually scams. Of the 4 billion robocalls made in August, nearly 1.8 billion of them were fraudulent. Next year, analysis by First Orion predicts half of all mobile calls will be scams.

Quilici's company makes an app that tells robocallers your number is out of order, tricking them into leaving you alone. But he said technology also enables robocallers to be ever more efficient.

"It's so easy to go make an enormous number of robocalls to people," he said. "If I'm a scammer, I can go annoy Seattle for 500 bucks."

If you send out enough lines, someone will bite.

"You get a call where it says, 'It's the IRS, you gotta pay us today or we're going to go to your work tomorrow or arrest you in front of your kids,'" Quilici said. "If you think you might owe money, it's a really compelling scam."

The number one way to deal with robocalls is never answer the phone with a number you don't recognize. But that's getting tougher to do, since scammers now use programs that make calls with familiar numbers, or even with your own number. (CBS News, September 20, 2018)
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Services like Nomorobo and YouMail can help block robocalls to your phone, but they are not 100% effective and some calls may still get through.

The best rule to remember is "If It's A Robocall - It's A Scam!" According to the Federal Trade Commission most robocalls are illegal, and in addition to the phone calls being illegal, their pitch most likely is a scam.

ICE is Opening New Offices in Lakewood

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) soon will open offices in a new building in Lakewood.

The agency says the new location will be used by its investigative division, the Homeland Security Investigations section.

The building at 12811 Pacific Highway SW is being remodeled. It will have specialized labs and what the agency calls “communication rooms.”

Citing security concerns, ICE declined to elaborate on what the rooms will be used for, but stated that it will not be a detention facility.

ICE plans to move its investigation division from its current space at 949 Market St. in Tacoma to the Lakewood office in February, 2019. (Tacoma News Tribune, October 12, 2018)
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Local groups opposed to ICE have described this new facility as a "secret interrogation center". ICE citing security concerns and declining to explain how the "communication rooms" will be used further supports the (paranoid?) claims of some in the community.

The new facility will likely generate protests and demonstrations in Lakewood.

NWDC Resistance has a Facebook page, demanding an ICE Free Zone here.