How VoiceGrid works (SpeechPro-USA)

In case Orwellian surveillance systems like TrapWire weren't creepy enough, we learn today that SpeechPro, a Russian-owned company, has helpfully invented a voice identification tool for law enforcement use called VoiceGrid Nation. American authorities are looking into using the software at 911 call centers and in police precincts. As Slate reports, it's already in place and working out pretty well in some other countries:

The technology has already been deployed across Mexico, where it is being used by law enforcement to collect, store, and search hundreds of thousands of voice-prints. Alexey Khitrov, SpeechPro’s president, told me the company is working with a number of agencies in the United States at a state and federal level. He declined to reveal any names because of nondisclosure and confidentiality agreements. But Khitrov did divulge that various versions of the company’s biometric technology are used in more than 70 countries and that the Americas, Europe, and Asia are its key markets. Not all of its customers are law enforcement agencies, either. SpeechPro also designs voice recognition technology that can be used in call centers to verify the identities of customers. Depending on the size and specifics of the installation, it can cost from tens of thousands up to millions of dollars.

Slate notes that this software is different from the FBI's own efforts at putting wholesale biometric programs in place, though no less scary.

Mr. Khitrov told Slate that SpeechPro is being used for "noble causes." His example of one such noble cause was when the technology helped Mexican authorities track down kidnappers via recorded ransom calls.

A look at SpeechPro’s site reveals a product description or two that privacy activists might find pretty creepy. The blurb for VoiceGrid ID has a particularly dystopic echo, offering a "voice data management solution with unlimited database size" in addition to system architecture that scale all the way up to "national system deployments."

We look forward to a future when products like these have turned the frivolous distractions of texting and iMessaging into acts of civil disobedience.

In a post published a few days ago, the  Australian edition of SC Magazine elaborated:

Information security experts and privacy advocates of all political stripes have organised the causal gatherings to teach users how to use cryptography and anonymity tools including Tor, PGP and Cryptocat.

The magazine reports the concept of CryptoParties was born during a Twitter discussion in August between security experts and "privacy activist" Asher Wolf.

SC Magazine claimed cryptoparties are going viral. That may not yet be true, but on Friday Asher Wolf tweeted the following regarding the wiki at CryptoParty.org:

Two weeks after the term #Cryptoparty was coined & a website set up - the frontpage of cryptoparty.org has received over 20k views.

— Asher Wolf (@Asher_Wolf) September 7, 2012

On its landing page, CryptoParty.org lists pages for "global meetups," including a tentative September 22 cryptoparty in Philadelphia. The author of the Philadelphia meetup page addresses the connection between cryptoparties and surveillance concerns but states a CryptoParty is "not a 'hacking course' or a 'hackathon,'" even though participants might, you know, "expect to learn the basic operation of some information security tools."

The most interesting cryptoparties so far are going on in Cookeville, Tennessee. SC Magazine reports the first party held in Cookeville "had more than 100 people turn up to its afterparty, an event complete with music, beer and fire-twirling."

Anyone attending the next party, set for September 13 in the Volpe Library on the campus of Tennessee Tech, can expect to learn about bitcoin, Tor, IRC and hard disk encryption.

That's all fascinating hacker-friendly arcana, but we kind of hope the fire-twirling guy gives some lessons as well.

Tartan Metrics (Screen grab)

Russian news outlet RT.com has been excitedly suggesting that the TrapWire surveillance system marks the advent of an American police state. Now RT is suggesting a fairly direct connection between the shady ex-CIA types behind TrapWire and something called Tartan Metrics.

Tartan certainly uses dense doublespeak to describe itself, stating on its site landing page that it "quantifies key influencers and hidden connections in social networks using mathematical algorithms" for "un-biased output." RT doesn't note that Tartan is so secretive those interested in its services can try them for free over the web, but maybe they have more important information to impart--Tartan expressly mentions using its software and services to analyze Occupy Wall Street and related movements:

Tartan is advertised on their site as a must-have application for the national security sector, politicians and federal law enforcement, and makes a case by claiming that “an amorphous network of anarchist and protest groups,” made up of Occupy Oakland, PBS, Citizen Radio, Crimethinc and others, relies on “influential leaders,” “modern technology” and “illegal tactics” to spread a message of anarchy across America.

“The organizers of Occupy Wall Street and Occupy DC have built Occupy networks through online communication with anarchists actively participating in the movements’ founding,” the executive summary reads. On the chart that accompanies their claim, the group lists several political activism groups and broadcast networks within a ring of alleged anarchy, which also includes an unnamed FBI informant.

RT also reports a Margaret A. Lee registered TrapWire Inc. with the Virginia Commonwealth's State Corporation Commission in March of 2009. Margaret A. Lee appears to also be on the board of Ntrepid Corporation, which produces Tartan.

Simply stated: Ntrepid links TrapWire and Tartan, and the latter may be actively investigating the Occupy movement.

While there are clear documented links between these shadowy outfits, it's hard to separate fact from frenzied theorizing and assumptions made from tenuous links.

So for now just know basically that someone may always watching and analyzing whatever you do online and in public. That's creepy enough.

No, seriously, you should expect this.

Hacktivist collective Anonymous has teamed with a group called The Peoples Liberation Front (PLF) to begin a unified assault against a new nemesis: all-seeing Orwell-approved surveillance system TrapWire. In a press release published today, they explain why TrapWire should make everyone nervous:

"The more we learn about TrapWire and similar systems, it becomes absolutely clear that we must at all costs shut this system down and render it useless. A giant AI electronic brain able to monitor us through a combination of access to all the CCTV cameras as well as all the online social media feeds is monstrous and Orwellian in it's implications and possibilities. The Peoples Liberation Front and Anonymous will now put forth a call to arms, and initiate the doom of this evil and misbegotten program."

The PLF and Anonymous say they plan to spread as much information as possible "about TrapWire and it's (sic) related technologies and programs." They've also issued an "ACTION ALERT" (capslock theirs) for "Smash A Cam Saturday," which sounds like a great lead-in to "Call Mom to Bail You Out Sunday."

Linking to a map of known/possible TrapWire-affiliated cameras across the U.S., the groups suggest protesters "sabotage at least one CCTV per week." They also provide a link to an online guide that purports to give instruction in best methods for CCTV camera destruction.

The operation also seeks to disable "fake personas on social media" allegedly associated with TrapWire's vast network by "creating thousands of phony accounts and use them to produce a deluge of false triggers for the TrapWire program." Which might make Twitter and Facebook even more interesting than usual in the coming days.

TrapWire burst breathlessly into public consciousness nearly a week ago after mentions of it in hacked Stratfor emails were promoted as evidence of a creepily far-reaching effort to create the ultimate surveillance state. While some treated the revelation as a new and world-changing leak, the truth is TrapWire has been a known quantity to some degree for years. In his 2008 Spies for Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing, Tim Shorrock discussed TrapWire's creator, Abraxas Corporation, and described the software clearly as a system of "algorithms that allow digital surveillance systems to detect patterns of suspicious behavior." Shorrock also reported TrapWire was "being tested by police departments in New York and Los Angeles" at the time.

It may have taken interested parties like the PLF and Anonymous four years to notice TrapWire and that may discount some of the hype, but it doesn't change the fact they're sinking their teeth in now and probably won't stop till they think they've struck bone.