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Secret Service will test facial recognition around the White House
Like it or not, facial recognition is creeping into more public spaces. The US Secret Service has quietly started testing the technology in and around the White House grounds, including nearby parks and streets, to see if it can "biometrically confirm" the identities of volunteer Secret Service employees. The pilot program will only retain images if there's a match and won't share information with other agencies, but the ultimate goal is to spot known "subjects of interest" (read: potential threats) before there's a run-in with law enforcement.
Undercover dark web bust leads to more than 35 arrests
The US just broke new ground in its bid to shut down illegal markets on the dark web. A slew of agencies (the Department of Justice, Homeland Security Investigations, the Secret Service, the DEA and the Postal Inspection Service) have announced the first-ever national-level undercover bust of dark web outfits selling drugs, weapons and other contraband. HSI agents pretended to be money launderers on multiple sites in an operation that resulted in arrests for "more than" 35 vendors and seizures worth $23.6 million.
Senators ask for info on Trump's smartphone use
When he isn't addressing matters of national security amongst diners at his Mar-a-Lago resort, Donald Trump is reportedly using an unsecured Android phone for official communications. That's of great concern for more than a few reasons and two prominent Democrat lawmakers want the Department of Defense to address why it's happening.
Disgraced US agent may be responsible for multiple Bitcoin thefts
A US secret service agent already convicted of stealing over $800,000 in Bitcoin during the Silk Road investigation is also suspected of lifting even more of the cryptocurrency from two other cases. According to the affidavit, the former agent is suspected of stealing roughly $700,000 from the secret service's account months after the agency was urged to block his access. Shaun Bridges pleaded guilty last year and was sentenced to almost six year years for the original theft.
Crooked Silk Road investigator arrested a second time
You'd think that a former Secret Service agent caught stealing Bitcoins during the Silk Road case would know better than to try to elude authorities, but apparently that isn't the case. Ex-investigator Shaun Bridges was re-arrested January 29th after he was caught with bags containing a passport, records for offshore accounts, documents for his wife's non-US citizenship application and multiple bulletproof vests. Needless to say, that looks more than a little suspicious -- especially when Bridges was a day away from turning himself in to serve a nearly 6-year sentence for corruption charges. It's not exactly certain what he had in mind, but the odds are that he wanted to be out of the US on January 30th.
Another Silk Road spy pleaded guilty to laundering bitcoins
$820,000. That's how much former Secret Service agent Shaun Bridges pilfered in bitcoin during his time investigating the online black market, Silk Road. Bridges pleaded guilty to money laundering and obstruction of justice recently and the Department of Justice says that it was analyzing the "block chain and data" from Silk Road's servers that lead the breadcrumb trail of ill-gotten gains back to him. Bridges funneled his 20,000 bitcoins, at that time worth $350,000, through a series of "complex transactions" with a stop at Mt. Gox before transferring them into US dollars in early 2013. It isn't nearly as flagrant as his colleague Carl Force's transgressions (a movie deal? Seriously?), but the amount of money Bridges tried stealing was an awful lot higher.
Feds charge nine hackers for $30M insider trading scheme
The Wall Street Journal reports that federal prosecutors are set to unseal charges Tuesday against nine hackers and stock traders involved in an insider trading operation that netted more than $30 million on illicit deals. The group to be charged allegedly had been conducting sophisticated cyber-attacks against newswire services in order to steal upcoming merger and acquisition information that had been uploaded to the newswire's servers -- but not yet published -- and position their investments accordingly. The group was discovered after a multi-agency investigation involving the DHS, FBI, SEC and the Secret Service.
The Secret Service will start testing drones near the White House
The Secret Service has just announced that it'll conduct a series of drone tests in typically flight restricted areas in DC. Why? Well, the announcement was pretty vague, but it did come a month after an intelligence officer drunk-crashed a DJI Phantom drone on White House grounds in the middle of the night. If you recall, DJI even issued an update that prevented its products from flying near the White House after that scandal. It was, however, forced to roll that update back after it started causing some unanticipated flight behaviors.
A drunk intelligence worker crashed that drone near the White House
When you heard that someone crash-landed a drone on the White House's grounds at 3AM on a Monday morning, did you suspect that the pilot was hammered? Well, you're right. Officials have revealed that the operator was a drunk National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency worker who decided that the middle of a cold night was a great time to fly his friend's drone (a DJI Phantom, shown above) near the President's home turf. He didn't realize what he'd done until his pals told him that his escapades were all over the news. Give credit to this unnamed man for doing the right thing afterwards, though -- he notified both his employer and the Secret Service to set their minds at ease.
Drone landing drags White House security into the modern era (update: details)
The US government just got a real-world lesson about the security risks posed by easily accessible drones. Officials report that they recovered a quadcopter on the White House's grounds in the early morning on January 26th, with no clear indication as to who flew it or why. A spokesperson notes that the drone was never a threat to President Barack Obama (who was visiting India) or his family, but that's not the point. The greater concern is that the Secret Service was apparently unaware of the drone until it was already on their turf. A more sinister pilot could have been using it to conduct espionage, deliver explosives or just to annoy the daylights out of White House staff.
Data thieves want to track what you type at hotel business centers
You may not want to use your hotel's business center to check email on your next big trip. The Secret Service has warned the hospitality business that thieves are installing keyloggers on hotel PCs to steal guests' data. In a recent Dallas area bust, authorities caught multiple people swiping account logins, banking info and other personal details from travelers typing away at compromised business center systems. The culprits didn't even have to exploit security holes to get in -- the key-tracking software required "little technical skill."
The Secret Service's proposed Twitter sarcasm detector is totally going to work
Governments are often eager to watch out for online threats, but it's sometimes tough to spot the real dangers when the internet is rife with sarcasm; just witness the confusion when someone jokingly threatens to blow up an airport. For the US Secret Service, spotting humor is important enough that it has posted a request for automated Twitter monitoring software that, among other things, detects "sarcasm and false positives." In theory, officials wouldn't have to read every poor attempt at comedy just to find the few tweets from those who mean real harm.
Brickhouse Security's two-way micro headset may never leave your ear canal
Unlike Brickhouse Security, we won't go so far as to call this thing "invisible," but when placed in the ear, all but the most eagle-eyed among us are likely to overlook it. The elaborately named Secret Service Invisible 2-Way Micro Headset comes with an easily hidden wireless transmitter that plugs into any mobile with a 2.5-millimeter audio output. Once rigged up, the wearer can have someone listen in on conversation in a room while also receiving input from said listener. Unfortunately, this likely Jack Bauer-approved gizmo demands a practically ludicrous $649.95, so it looks like we'll be sticking to brute force and walkie talkies here. Check out a demo video after the jump -- but be sure and kill the speakers first, alright?[Thanks, Tony M.]
