To celebrate Sunshine Week and government transparency, would you be interested in creating some "white noise" in Homeland Security monitored social media? Theory has it that if enough people use these hot NOC keywords that it might cause a few problems for the unblinking eye of Homeland Security surveillance. It remains to be seen if enough "chatter" would cause the people behind the spying eyes migraines . . . not that We the People would buck the system when the government is snooping to find voices of dissent. But as a comment on Schneier on Security stated, "the signal to noise ratio must be epic." All the three letter agencies are getting into the game to monitor and data-mine social networking sites like YouTube, Flickr, Twitter and Facebook to name but a few, so that you never know what might come back to bite you.
When DHS testified on social networking and media monitoring, it listed "categories of individuals may be collected when it lends credibility to the report or facilitates coordination with federal, state, local, tribal, territorial, and foreign governments, or international law enforcement partners." One such category included "Names of anchors, newscasters, or on-scene reporters who are known or identified as reporters in their posts or articles, or who use traditional and/or social media in real time to provide their audience situational awareness and information." Although DHS called it a "narrow category of individuals" from whom "DHS may only collect the full name, affiliation, position or title, and publicly-available user ID," we live in a networked world where countless millions of people use social media and/or blog. You can see the video or read the transcript on Public Intelligence.
In its Sunshine Week FOIA gallery, EPIC, which has sued DHS over the monitoring of social media, stated that right after DHS testimony before Congress, "EPIC obtained new documents that contradicted the agency officials' testimony. Though DHS testified that it does not monitor for public reaction to government proposals, the documents obtained by EPIC indicate that the DHS analysts are specifically instructed to look for criticism of the agency and then to redirect reports that would otherwise be circulated to other agencies. The documents also indicate that, contrary to agency testimony, DHS continues to monitor public reaction to government policy proposals."
When comparing the current list of keywords and search terms used by NOC for monitoring social media to the last list, there doesn't seem to be any changes and noting some keywords under cybersecurity like "Cain and Abel" and the lack of Anonymous or AntiSec makes it suspicious if this is the current list being watched by the National Operations Center (NOC) in cooperation with the DHS (or its contractor General Dynamics). According to the Department of Homeland Security National Operations Center Media Monitoring Capability Desktop Reference Binder 2011 [PDF page 20], the unblinking eye of Homeland Security will be scouring social media for the following list of "hot" keywords and search terms:
DHS & Other Agencies
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Coast Guard (USCG) Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Border Patrol Secret Service (USSS) National Operations Center (NOC) Homeland Defense | Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agent Task Force Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Fusion Center Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) Secure Border Initiative (SBI) Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) | U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS) Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Air Marshal Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) National Guard Red Cross United Nations (UN) |
Cyber Security
Cyber security Botnet DDOS (dedicated denial of service) Denial of service Malware Virus Trojan Keylogger Cyber Command | 2600 Spammer Phishing Rootkit Phreaking Cain and abel Brute forcing Mysql injection Cyber attack Cyber terror | Hacker China Conficker Worm Scammers Social media |
Domestic Security
Assassination Attack Domestic security Drill Exercise Cops Law enforcement Authorities Disaster assistance Disaster management DNDO (Domestic Nuclear Detection Office) National preparedness Mitigation Prevention Response Recovery Dirty bomb Domestic nuclear detection | Emergency management Emergency response First responder Homeland security Maritime domain awareness (MDA) National preparedness initiative Militia Shooting Shots fired Evacuation Deaths Hostage Explosion (explosive) Police Disaster medical assistance team (DMAT) Organized crime | Gangs National security State of emergency Security Breach Threat Standoff SWAT Screening Lockdown Bomb (squad or threat) Crash Looting Riot Emergency Landing Pipe bomb Incident Facility |
Infrastructure Security
Infrastructure security Airport CIKR (Critical Infrastructure & Key Resources) AMTRAK Collapse Computer infrastructure Communications infrastructure Telecommunications Critical infrastructure National infrastructure Metro WMATA | Airplane (and derivatives) Chemical fire Subway BART MARTA Port Authority NBIC (National Biosurveillance Integration Center) Transportation security Grid Power Smart Body scanner | Electric Failure or outage Black out Brown out Port Dock Bridge Cancelled Delays Service disruption Power lines |
Southwest Border Violence
Drug cartel Violence Gang Drug Narcotics Cocaine Marijuana Heroin Border Mexico Cartel Southwest Juarez Sinaloa Tijuana Torreon Yuma Tucson Decapitated U.S. Consulate Consular El Paso | Fort Hancock San Diego Ciudad Juarez Nogales Sonora Colombia Mara salvatrucha MS13 or MS-13 Drug war Mexican army Methamphetamine Cartel de Golfo Gulf Cartel La Familia Reynosa Nuevo Leon Narcos Narco banners (Spanish equivalents) Los Zetas Shootout Execution | Gunfight Trafficking Kidnap Calderon Reyosa Bust Tamaulipas Meth Lab Drug trade Illegal immigrants Smuggling (smugglers) Matamoros Michoacana Guzman Arellano-Felix Beltran-Leyva Barrio Azteca Artistic Assassins Mexicles New Federation |
Weather/Disaster/Emergency
Emergency Hurricane Tornado Twister Tsunami Earthquake Tremor Flood Storm Crest Temblor Extreme weather Forest fire Brush fire | Ice Stranded/Stuck Help Hail Wildfire Tsunami Warning Center Magnitude Avalanche Typhoon Shelter-in-place Disaster Snow Blizzard Sleet | Mud slide or Mudslide Erosion Power outage Brown out Warning Watch Lightening Aid Relief Closure Interstate Burst Emergency Broadcast System |
Terrorism
Terrorism Al Qaeda (all spellings) Terror Attack Iraq Afghanistan Iran Pakistan Agro Environmental terrorist Eco terrorism Conventional weapon Target Weapons grade Dirty bomb Enriched Nuclear Chemical weapon Biological weapon Ammonium nitrate Improvised explosive device | IED (Improvised Explosive Device) Abu Sayyaf Hamas FARC (Armed Revolutionary Forces Colombia) IRA (Irish Republican Army) ETA (Euskadi ta Askatasuna) Basque Separatists Hezbollah Tamil Tigers PLF (Palestine Liberation Front) PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization Car bomb Jihad Taliban Weapons cache Suicide bomber Suicide attack | Suspicious substance AQAP (AL Qaeda Arabian Peninsula) AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) TTP (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan) Yemen Pirates Extremism Somalia Nigeria Radicals Al-Shabaab Home grown Plot Nationalist Recruitment Fundamentalism Islamist |
HAZMAT & Nuclear
Hazmat Nuclear Chemical spill Suspicious package/device Toxic National laboratory Nuclear facility Nuclear threat Cloud Plume Radiation Radioactive | Leak Biological infection (or event) Chemical Chemical burn Biological Epidemic Hazardous Hazardous material incident Industrial spill Infection Powder (white) | Gas Spillover Anthrax Blister agent Chemical agent Exposure Burn Nerve agent Ricin Sarin North Korea |
Health Concern + H1N1
Outbreak Contamination Exposure Virus Evacuation Bacteria Recall Ebola Food Poisoning Foot and Mouth (FMD) H5N1 Avian Flu Strain Quarantine H1N1 Vaccine | Salmonella Small Pox Plague Human to human Human to Animal Influenza Center for Disease Control (CDC) Drug Administration (FDA) Public Health Toxic Agro Terror Tuberculosis (TB) Tamiflu Norvo Virus Epidemic | Agriculture Listeria Symptoms Mutation Resistant Antiviral Wave Pandemic Infection Water/air borne Sick Swine Pork World Health Organization (WHO) (and components) Viral Hemorrhagic Fever E. Coli |
To celebrate Sunshine Week, and because readers have requested it, I posted this government surveillance list in a copy and paste format as opposed to words in image tables. There are some people, voices of dissent precisely like DHS is monitoring social media for, who have suggested people use as many keywords as possible on Twitter and other social networking sites to "help increase the white noise for the DHS. Start tweeting with these keywords." It was also suggested, "Let's make random poetry from these words & screw their #surveillance." But personally, I'm not suggesting anyone do that . . . since, according to the government, you no right to anonymous speech on Twitter. Would it work? Who knows, the devil is always in the details when it comes to government surveillance.
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