It’s unclear exactly why, but the Department of Homeland has been operating a ”Social Networking/Media Capability” program to monitor the top blogs, forums and social networks online for at least the past 18 months. Based on a privacy compliance review from last November recently obtained by Reuters, the purpose of the project is to “collect information used in providing situational awareness and establishing a common operating picture.” Whatever that means. Either way, the list of sites reported by Reuters reveals in a Wednesday afternoon exclusive is pretty intriguing:

Social Networks

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Myspace

Blogs

• The Drudge Report
• The Huffington Post
• The New York Times‘s Lede blog
• Wired’s Threat Level
• Wired’s Danger Room
• ABC News’ investigative blog The Blotter
• “blogs that cover bird flu … news and activity along U.S. borders … drug trafficking and cybercrime”

Multimedia

• Hulu
• YouTube
• Flickr

In conclusion, the Department of Homeland Security is just like you. We’ve seen no reports of The Atlantic Wire being on the list. But if we are, hello Department of Homeland Security employees — thanks for reading!

Source: The Atlantic Wire.

*Taken from Wired.

Officials at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada knew for two weeks about a virus infecting the drone “cockpits” there. But they kept the information about the infection to themselves — leaving the unit that’s supposed to serve as the Air Force’s cybersecurity specialists in the dark. The network defenders at the 24th Air Force learned of the virus by reading about it in Danger Room.

The virus, which records the keystrokes of remote pilots as their drones fly over places like Afghanistan, is now receiving attention at the highest levels; the four-star general who oversees the Air Force’s networks was briefed on the infection this morning. But for weeks, it stayed (you will pardon the expression) below the radar: a local problem that local network administrators were determined to fix on their own.

“It was not highlighted to us,” says a source involved with Air Force network operations. “When your article came out, it was like, ‘What is this?’”

CONTINUED..

*Taken from CNBC.

About 47 percent of total flat-panel televisions shipped in four years will have Internet connectivity, as manufacturers bet on the expansion of Netflix and direct-to-consumer offerings from content producers like Time Warner’s[TWX  36.88    -0.04  (-0.11%)   ] HBO.

This figure, about 138 million units, is up from 25 percent of flat panels with WiFi capability shipped this year, according to a quarterly report by DisplaySearch, a unit of research firm NPD group. By the end of 2015, more than 500 million connected TVs will be shipped, according to DisplaySearch.

It may be no coincidence then that Netflix[NFLX  289.63    21.64  (+8.07%)   ] jumped to an all-time high on Tuesday, the same day as the release of this report. Investors also seemed to cheer the announcement from the leader in Internet streaming that it would be expanding into Latin America. The company had previous success with its first international move into Canada.

“The adoption of connected TV is not just taking place in developed regions,” said Paul Gray, DisplaySearch director of TV electronics research, in the report. “Emerging markets often have good broadband services, and there is a thirst from consumers to get the best content available.”

CONTINUED..

*Taken from the Raw Story.

Federal law enforcement routinely tracks individuals through their credit cards, cell phones, car rentals and even store customer loyalty programs without obtaining a warrant, an online privacy activist has discovered.

According to a document (PDF) obtained from the Department of Justice by online privacy activist Christopher Soghoian, federal agents working on a criminal investigation can draw up their own paperwork requesting that credit companies and retailers give the agents real-time access to purchases made by a particular person.

No court reviews these orders, and the only role courts play in the process is to issue a non-disclosure order to the retailer or credit card company involved, meaning the person being tracked will never be notified of the surveillance.

The process is known as a “hotwatch,” and it can be used to spy on cell phones, credit card use, purchases at stores when a customer loyalty card is used, car rentals, and flight ticket purchases. The process “sidestep[s] any Fourth Amendment protections,” Soghoian writes.

Ryan Singel at Wired notes the document doesn’t set out standards for when an agent can obtain a “hotwatch” order. “The Justice Department told Soghoian the document is the only one it could find relating to ‘hotwatches’ — which means there is either no policy or the department is withholding relevant documents.”

Reporting on his blog, Soghoian, a grad student at the University of Indiana and noted online privacy activist, suggests the government has been working to keep “hotwatches” secret. He said he first came across a mention of “hotwatches” while researching a 2005 court case that tested the limits of the government’s ability to collect data from cell phone companies.

“A search of Google, Lexisnexis and Westlaw revealed nothing related to ‘hotwatch’ orders, and so I filed a FOIA request to find out more,” Soghoian writes. “If the government ‘routinely’ applies for and obtains hotwatch orders, why wasn’t there more information about these?”

Soghoian says it took him a year-and-a-half to get his answer from the Justice Department. The department initially blocked the release of the document outlining “hotwatches,” but Soghoian successfully appealed the decision.

Singel reports that, while federal law enforcement agencies are obligated to report on the number of wiretaps they issue, including national security letters, they are evidently not required to report on the use of “hotwatches.”