Wikileaks Document Dump Reveals Secret CIA Raccoon Spy Program

Wikileaks has released a trove of documents containing details of CIA hacking tools and surveillance initiatives, among them, a top secret domestic spy program code named RocketEars, that enlists raccoons as listeners.

Security experts and journalists have been poring over the cache of leaked documents, collectively known as “Vault 7,” since Tuesday. Many explain security exploits used in consumer electronics like iPhones and Samsung TVs, which can be used to spy on targets. But the raccoon program is particularly strange.

“No one would ever suspect the raccoon rummaging through your backyard trash is working for the CIA,” says Dennis O’Conner, a security analyst and former consultant to the U.S. intelligence services. “It’s a perfect secret program. But what we don’t understand yet is how the raccoons communicate their surveillance back to base. They’re not the most reliable reporters.”

The Fluffington Post will update this story as it develops.

via Marslettuce

T-Mobile ‘Hercules’ with some muscle has a dual-core Qualcomm proc?

4.5-inch Super AMOLED plus display at 480x800

Android 2.3

NFC

T-Mobile’s new 42Mbps HSPA + data speed

TMo’s 1700MHz band for 3G, plus AT&T’s 850MHz and 1900MHz bands, in case the merger goes through

A 1.2GHz Qualcomm APQ8060 processor Faaaaaast

8MP rear camera

MHL adapter for HDMI out.

I WANT.

Android Boner…

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techscales-blog

7 years ago

PSA For Those Wanting a Cheap Way to Film From a Real Tripod.

$5 selfie stick from Wal-Mart

With a nifty secret

That screw the bracket goes on is a standard-size tripod mounting screw which means if you have a smart phone… (I’m using the first old one I could pull out of my phone drawer so I can take pictures with my actual phone)

Considering smart phones are often better for low light (due to built in LED lights that trigger when filming in darker conditions) and often better quality than cheap camcorders this is a mighty fine way to make an instant video camera for something like a webshow.

Helps me because I don’t have any lighting solutions to use my real cameras like my digital handy-cams or Rebel T3 right now.

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techscales-blog

7 years ago

Want to download the highest quality version of an Instagram photo? View the page source on desktop and find the line titled "og:image"

Instagram tries to make it difficult to save photos outside of the app, but there’s a pretty easy workaround.

Let’s say you want to save this image to your desktop: https://www.instagram.com/p/BTO_dCkhxdQ/

Load it in it’s own browser tab (I’m using Google Chrome), right click and select “View Page Source” (Ctrl+U): http://imgur.com/a/T45dd

Then in the page source search for “og:image”. That URL links to the raw file. Copy and paste that image URL into a new tab and do with it as you wish! http://imgur.com/a/LWWQl

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techscales-blog

7 years ago

Visit us @ tech-scales.com for the latest and best in electronics.

Sure, our smartphones know a lot about who we are.

If you have an Android smartphone, you may not know that Google saves all of the voice commands you give it. They’re archived online in your Google account.

Google says it keeps the audio search information to improve its voice recognition. Android users can opt out, which keeps your recordings anonymous. (Apple also stores voice commands collected by Siri users, though they’re not so obviously associated to users.)

You can find your audio commands — as well as other histories, like all of the YouTube videos you’ve searched for and watched — by visiting your Google history page. You can disable this storage feature by managing your activity.

Otherwise, you can look through and listen to your Google voice searches — all those times you said “OK Google” and asked for directions, set alarms, dictated texts and searched for answers to the many questions that pop in your head throughout the day.

OK Google: Where Do You Store Recordings Of My Commands?

Photo: Ariel Zambelich/NPR

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techscales-blog

7 years ago