Latest news with #surveillance
CBS News
10 hours ago
- CBS News
Two suspects sought in attempted break-ins in Van Buren Township neighborhood
Police in Van Buren Township need your help in locating two individuals caught on camera attempting to break into a car and a home on Tuesday morning. "Right now, we do not have any leads on who they are," said Van Buren Township Detective Lt. Ken Floro. Police say around 3:30 a.m. On Tuesday in the Homestead subdivision off Ecorse Road, two homes were the target of attempted break-ins by a duo that police believe were working together. "We have some video where one of the males appears to be talking to somebody, he's not in the frame of the video; however, both these homes are in pretty close proximity to each other," Floro said. In the surveillance video, a suspect described as a white male with a beard, wearing a baseball cap and a T-shirt with a cross on the back, is seen prowling around a property and attempting to open the door of a parked car. Meanwhile, at a different home nearby, a second suspect police describe as a white male with shaggy brown hair and a tattoo of what appears to be two English D's on the side of his neck, is seen trying to get inside from the back patio. "This is the video of this gentleman. He tries the sliding glass door, and then he moves off the deck and around the side of the house," Floro said. Fortunately, detectives say the suspects struck out. Both the home and the vehicle were locked. It's a good reminder for folks, as police say these types of crimes occur more often in the summer. "You know what's suspicious in your neighborhood, you know which cars belong, which people belong, and if you see something that doesn't seem right, seems out of line, maybe a little suspicious, trust your instinct and call us and let us check it out," said Floro. Investigators are trying to track these two people down. If you have any information that could help with this case, call the Van Buren Township Police Department at 734-699-8943 or email Det. Scott Griggs at sgriggs@
The Guardian
a day ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Trump's tax bill funds $6bn expansion of US-Mexico border surveillance, report finds
Donald Trump's sweeping tax bill will finance a vast expansion of surveillance along the US-Mexico border, according to a new report. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBA) will give the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – where US immigration agencies are housed – an unprecedented injection of $165bn in additional funding over the next four years. It's welcome news for the surveillance and defense tech industries that have been racing to cash in on the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. Signed into law on the Fourth of July, the OBBA earmarks more than $6bn of that spending for border technology, including surveillance, according to a new report by the immigration legal defense organization Just Futures Law. Among those standing to benefit are private prison corporations the GEO Group and Core Civic as well as surveillance firms such as Palantir and Anduril. US immigration agencies are seeking more funding for biometric data collection, license plate readers and phone hacking, the Just Futures Law report indicates. 'The spending is not about safety, it's about growing Trump's power through an agency like DHS,' said Laura Rivera, author of the report and senior staff attorney at Just Futures Law. 'I'm questioning why policing at the border should require this level of spending when the Trump administration is saying border crossing is at an all-time low.' Though many of these firms have already seen an increased investment from the federal government and the expansion of existing contracts since the start of the second Trump term, some executives have been banking on the additional funding swelling the budgets of immigration agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice). During a recent earnings call, for instance, executives at the Geo Group, which operates detention centers and sells surveillance products, repeatedly assured investors that they expected to see more 'momentum' for their businesses in the second half of the year once the Ice budget was finalized. Here's what the agencies are asking for, what the OBBA is giving them and who stands to profit the most: The biggest name among the firms that will see a windfall from the big funding boost to the DHS is Palantir. The data management company was previously awarded $30m in a new contract to build a platform called ImmigrationOS that makes deportations more efficient. As part of the contract, Palantir is reportedly enabling the government to bring together sensitive data on all Americans from the Internal Revenue Service, the Social Security Administration and the DHS. It's an unprecedented centralization of personal information by the federal government that civil liberties experts argue is a violation of privacy. The OBBA has allocated $673m to be spent on biometric systems – which collect and identify people based on physical attributes like their face or fingerprints – for ports of entry and exit. In April, for instance, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) put out a request for bids from firms that would help the agency perform real-time facial recognition on people inside vehicles crossing the borders. CBP previously signed a $16m contract with data broker LexisNexis for various services, including facial recognition. Since the start of 2024, CBP has awarded the little-known facial recognition firm Sentrillion nine contracts totaling $36.7m. According to its website, the company enables CBP officers to use 'voice and facial recognition from audio and video surveillance systems, as well as biometric fingerprint readers, to verify the identity of citizens'. Sign up to TechScape A weekly dive in to how technology is shaping our lives after newsletter promotion CBP also has contracts with Clearview AI, which has been deployed at the US-Canada border, according to the Just Futures Law report. The DHS is also planning to ramp up its use of surveillance towers along the border. Supplied by firms like Peter Thiel-backed Anduril and the Israeli defense firm Elbit Systems, these automated surveillance structures are used to record and track who is crossing the border. CBP has asked for $140m for the upcoming fiscal year to construct more than 200 new towers along the border. The agency expects to have more than 900 towers up by September 2026, according to the report. Ice is looking to ramp up its social media surveillance capabilities with OBBA funding. In a request for information published in June, the agency sought an analytics firm to scour various sources of data including social media, geolocation and license plate reader information, financial information, international travel and crime data. The intention would be for the firm to analyze all of that information together to attempt to predict 'potentially criminal and fraudulent behavior before crime and fraud can materialize', according to the proposal. It's unclear how much funding is set aside for Ice's specific program, but the DHS has already implemented expanded screening procedures for visa applicants, including requiring their social media accounts be set to public. CBP has awarded a $1.2m contract for software developed by a company called Fivecast Onyx to scrape and analyze open source data, including social media.
Fox News
a day ago
- Politics
- Fox News
How Was Thomas Crooks Able To Escape The Surveillance State? (ft. Wade Stotts)
Story #1: How was attempted Trump assassin Thomas Crooks able to escape the surveillance state that has information on everyone? Will revisits his conversations with Mike Benz and Jason Chaffetz on yesterday's 'The Will Cain Show' and realizes there's a question that few are asking. Story #2: The Host of 'The Wade Show with Wade,' Wade Stotts joins Will to discuss the rise of the new Minneapolis Mamdani, Omar Fateh, the remittance problem in America, and picking apart Vice President J.D. Vance's 'dad run' and Gov. Gavin Newsom's (D-CA) odd hand movements on the 'Shawn Ryan Show.' Story #3: Despite no changes to the 'Jim Crow 2.0' election laws that saw Major League Baseball take away the All-Star Game from Atlanta, Will asks why no one is holding people accountable for their faux outrage four years ago? Plus, Two-A-Dayz give his review of one of Will's sports movie favorites, 'Days Of Thunder.' Subscribe to 'Will Cain Country' on YouTube here: Watch Will Cain Country! Follow Will on X: @WillCain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit
Forbes
a day ago
- Business
- Forbes
The Wiretap: Trump's $1 Billion Offensive Cyber Budget
The Wiretap is your weekly digest of cybersecurity, internet privacy and surveillance news. To get it in your inbox, subscribe here . (Photo by) Getty Images The U.S. president is keen to up the country's game when it comes to hacking other nations. In Trump's Big Beautiful Bill, which he signed on July 4, there's a $1 billion provision for unspecified 'offensive cyber operations.' That's alongside $250 million 'for the expansion of Cyber Command artificial intelligence lines of effort.' That will have defense contractors, whether they're legacy players like Booz Allen Hamilton and Raytheon or startups hoping to disrupt the market, salivating. AI companies may also be getting excited, given the recent announcement that a slew of major providers are now working with the defense department, including Anthropic, OpenAI and Elon Musk's xAI, each getting contracts worth up to $200 million. Even when targeting America's enemies, not all are supportive of clandestine cyberattacks. As TechCrunch reports on Tuesday, Senator Ron Wyden has concerns. 'Vastly expanding U.S. government hacking is going to invite retaliation — not just against federal agencies, but also rural hospitals, local governments and private companies who don't stand a chance against nation-state hackers,' Wyden told the news site. He also noted concerns about cyber defense, with cuts hitting the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Since Trump took office, at least 130 employees in the division have been fired. The layoffs have led to concerns the U.S. is less well protected against cyber threats from the likes of China, Russia and Iran. Got a tip on surveillance or cybercrime? Get me on Signal at +1 929-512-7964 . getty U.K. law enforcement arrested four individuals in its investigation into cyberattacks hitting some of the country's biggest retailers, including M&S and Harrods. It's believed the attacks were carried out by a group known as Scattered Spider, which had been targeting countries across the world, most recently hitting airlines and insurance companies. A 17-year-old, two 19-year-olds and a 20-year-old, alleged members of the group, were arrested in the West Midlands and London, on suspicion of Computer Misuse Act offenses, blackmail, money laundering and participating in the activities of an organized crime group. Stories You Have To Read Today The U.S. announced it had arrested a 33-year-old Chinese national accused of hacking systems on behalf of Beijing to steal COVID-19 research, among other cyberattacks, between February 2020 and June 2021. He was apprehended in Milan, Italy, as he exited a plane from China. A British official has accidentally leaked data on thousands of Afghans who were secretly given the right to live in the U.K. The leak and relocation scheme were kept secret for more than three years thanks to a government-obtained superinjunction, the BBC reports. Winner of the Week There were zero security updates for Android in July, according to reporter Catalin Cimpanu, who noted it's the first month without any in six years. That's either a reason to celebrate–or an indication many vulnerabilities didn't get fixed. Loser of the Week Medical billing giant Episource has told as many as 5.4 million Americans that their health information was stolen in a cyberattack. It's one of the biggest breaches of the year to date, TechCrunch reports. More On Forbes Forbes Why Ramaco Says It Can Beat Its Government-Backed Rival For Rare Earth Supremacy By Christopher Helman Forbes This AI Founder Became A Billionaire By Building ChatGPT For Doctors By Amy Feldman Forbes Questions About The New Tax Bill? Taxgirl Has Answers By Kelly Phillips Erb
WIRED
2 days ago
- Politics
- WIRED
The FBI's Jeffrey Epstein Prison Video Had Nearly 3 Minutes Cut Out
Jul 15, 2025 3:40 PM Metadata from the 'raw' Epstein prison video shows approximately 2 minutes and 53 seconds were removed from one of two stitched-together clips. The cut starts right at the 'missing minute.' Photograph:Newly uncovered metadata reveals that nearly three minutes of footage were cut from what the US Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation described as 'full raw' surveillance video from the only functioning camera near Jeffrey Epstein's prison cell the night before he was found dead. The video was released last week as part of the Trump administration's commitment to fully investigate Epstein's 2019 death but instead has raised new questions about how the footage was edited and assembled. WIRED previously reported that the video had been stitched together in Adobe Premiere Pro from two video files, contradicting the Justice Department's claim that it was 'raw' footage. Now, further analysis shows that one of the source clips was approximately 2 minutes and 53 seconds longer than the segment included in the final video, indicating that footage appears to have been trimmed before release. It's unclear what, if anything, the minutes cut from the first clip showed. The nearly three-minute discrepancy may be related to the widely reported one-minute gap—between 11:58:58 pm and 12:00:00 am—that attorney general Pam Bondi has attributed to a nightly system reset. The metadata confirms that the first video file, which showed footage from August 9, 2019, continued for several minutes beyond what appears in the final version of the video and was trimmed to the 11:58:58 pm mark, right before the jump to midnight. The cut to the first clip doesn't necessarily mean that there is additional time unaccounted for—the second clip picks up at midnight, which suggests the two would overlap—nor does it prove that the missing minute was cut from the video. The footage was released at a moment of political tension. Trump allies had spent months speculating about the disclosure of explosive new evidence about Epstein's death. But last week, the DOJ and FBI issued a memo stating that no 'incriminating 'client list'' exists and reaffirmed the government's long-standing conclusion that Epstein—whom the US government accused of committing conspiracy to sex traffic minors and sex trafficking minors—died by suicide. That announcement triggered immediate backlash from pro-Trump influencers and media figures, who essentially accused the administration of a cover-up. In response to detailed questions about how the video was assembled, WIRED sent a request for comment to the Department of Justice at 7:40 am on Tuesday morning. Just two minutes later, Natalie Baldassarre, a public affairs officer for the DOJ, replied tersely: 'Refer you to the FBI.' The FBI declined WIRED's request for comment. On Friday, WIRED published an analysis of metadata embedded in the video, confirmed by independent video forensics experts, which indicates that the file was assembled from at least two source clips, saved multiple times, exported, and then uploaded to the DOJ's website, where it was presented as 'raw' footage. WIRED's initial analysis found that those saves took place over a 23-minute span; however, further analysis of additional metadata shows the file was actually edited and saved several times over a period of more than three and a half hours on May 23, 2025. Specifically, the file was created at 4:48 pm and last modified at 8:16 pm ET that day. The metadata also references 'MJCOLE~1,' which is likely a shortened version of a longer username. While it likely begins with 'MJCOLE,' the full name cannot be determined from the metadata alone. Both analyses found that the two clips, labeled '2025-05-22 and '2025-05-22 were stitched together. The first clip is 4 hours, 19 minutes, and 16 seconds long, but only the first 4 hours, 16 minutes, and 23.368 seconds appears in the published version, meaning nearly 2 minutes and 53 seconds were cut from the end. According to the metadata, the cut occurs just at 11:58:58 pm. The cut is milliseconds before the one-minute recording gap that Bondi said was caused by a quirk of the surveillance system. The second clip, '2025-05-22 picks up immediately afterward, continuing the footage from 12:00:00 am until 6:40:00 am. WIRED reviewed its findings with two independent video forensics experts, each with over 15 years of experience in Premiere and video production, who confirmed that the edit occurred just before the missing minute mark and that approximately three minutes of footage were cut from the original clip. The FBI released both 'raw' and enhanced versions of the video. Both versions include internal comment markers, annotations typically used in editing software to flag moments of interest. The enhanced version, which the FBI referred to as Video 2, contains 15 such markers that apparently correspond to visible movement near '46 door' at New York's Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC). This door is near the cell block where Epstein was being held while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. These markers appear to have been left by analysts during their review, but they do not include the original comment text. According to a 2023 report by the DOJ's Office of the Inspector General (OIG), only two cameras in the vicinity of the Special Housing Unit (SHU), the area of the MCC where Epstein was held, were filming and recording at the time of his death. According to the report, the camera that recorded the footage the DOJ released July 7 captured video of a large portion of the SHU common area and parts of the stairways leading to various 'tiers,' one of which housed Epstein's cell. The OIG report notes that the MCC's surveillance system was outdated at the time of Epstein's death, 'had not been properly maintained,' and that the DVR hard drives that stored the video files 'frequently malfunctioned and needed to be replaced.' Both the 2023 OIG report and the DOJ-FBI memo published last week state that anyone entering or attempting to access the tier containing Epstein's cell from the SHU common area on August 9 or 10, 2019, would have been visible on that camera. However, Epstein's cell door itself was not within the camera's field of view. The stairway leading to the tier where he was held was also partially obstructed and difficult to see clearly on the video. (A second camera, which covered the 'ninth-floor fire exit and two of the floor's four elevators,' was also filming at the time, according to the OIG report.) Amid backlash from supporters and critics alike, President Donald Trump defended Bondi on Saturday, saying she was doing a 'fantastic job.' 'What's going on with my 'boys' and, in some cases, 'gals?' They're all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB!' Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. 'We're on one Team, MAGA, and I don't like what's happening. We have a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and 'selfish people' are trying to hurt it, all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein.'
