Editor’s Note : This story first appeared a year ago but we missed it . However , in light of recent revelations regarding what seems to be normal procedure for various agencies of the federal government we thought it would be of interest to our readers .
Dept. of Homeland Security Forced To Release List Of Keywords Used To Monitor Social Networking Sites
” In a story appearing earlier today on the U.K’s Daily Mail website, it was reported that the DHS has been forced to release a list of keywords and phrases it uses to monitor various social networking sites. The list provides a glimpse into what DHS describes as “signs of terrorist or other threats against the U.S.”
The list was posted by the Electronic Privacy Information Center who filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act, before suing to obtain the release of the documents. The documents were part of the department’s 2011 ’Analyst’s Desktop Binder‘ used by workers at their National Operations Center which instructs workers to identify ‘media reports that reflect adversely on DHS and response activities’.”
” (Update 1: Reading through the Desktop Binder, I discovered the DHS Twitter account is @dhsnocmmc1 and DHS appears to be using tweetdeck to monitor the various keywords. See Page 38 – Also interesting to note they seem to be using a Mac Mini as a server, and no password vaults. All Passwords appear to be shared in a plain text word document.)
(Update 2: On page 37, DHS instructs analysts to accept invalid SSL certificates forever without verification. Although invalid SSL warnings often appear in benign situations, they can also signal a man-in-the-middle attack.Not a good practice for the security conscience. Thanks to @obra on twitter for the tip.)”
Here are some of the keywords DHS is monitoring . Go here to see the whole list and read the DHS Desktop Binder.
Read up on how your government is reading your stuff
You can read the original article at the DailyMail.co.uk
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