Connect with us

News

North Korea Is Buying Chinese Surveillance Cameras In A Push To Tighten Control, Report Says

Published

7 months ago

on

north korea

SEOUL, South Korea —According to a report released Tuesday, North Korea is installing surveillance cameras in schools and workplaces and collecting fingerprints, pictures, and other biometric information from its inhabitants as part of a technology-driven effort to further monitor its populace.

According to the researchers, the state’s increasing use of digital surveillance tools, which combine equipment imported from China with domestically developed software, threatens to erase many of the small spaces left for North Koreans to engage in private business activities, access foreign media, and secretly criticize their government.

north korea

North Korea Is Buying Chinese Surveillance Cameras In A Push To Tighten Control, Report Says

However, more electricity and better network access are necessary to advance the remote nation’s digital goals. According to the research released by the North Korea-focused website 38 North, these limitations, as well as a history of relying on human techniques to spy on its inhabitants, mean that digital surveillance is less widespread than in China.

The study’s findings are consistent with commonly held beliefs that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is increasing attempts to tighten state control over its populace and foster loyalty to his rule.

The COVID-19 pandemic bolstered these efforts, as the North implemented severe border controls that were maintained for three years before a cautious reopening in 2023.

Walls and electronic monitoring tools put up along the border with China during the outbreak are most likely helping the government crack down on foreign influence and imported media. New legislation and recent reports of harsher punishments indicate this.

“After seeing that it is possible to close the border so tightly, I believe they are now eager to keep it that way,” said Martyn Williams, an analyst who co-authored the report with Natalia Slavney.

The pandemic might have contributed to increased surveillance across the nation, but Williams believes that the rapidly falling cost of surveillance technology has played a much larger role.

The analysis evaluated North Korean surveillance technologies using information from local and foreign media coverage and publicly disclosed research at North Korean universities and governmental institutions. The researchers also stated that they interviewed 40 North Korean escapees about the surveillance they faced while living in the country and, through unspecified partners, surveyed 100 current North Korean residents in 2023 via phone, text messages, and other encrypted communication methods to ensure their safety.

north korea

North Korea Is Buying Chinese Surveillance Cameras In A Push To Tighten Control, Report Says

According to state media sources, video surveillance is increasingly ubiquitous in schools, businesses, and airports. The cameras are primarily purchased from Chinese manufacturers, ranging from simple video feeds to more complex versions with features such as facial recognition.

Experts have cautioned that China is selling the technology behind its AI-powered spying to other countries.

According to North Korean state media, cameras are now installed in most schools in the capital, Pyongyang, and other major cities. These cameras allow school staff to remotely monitor classroom activities by panning and zooming in on individual pupils or teachers.

Cameras are also widely utilized in factories, government buildings, and other workplaces to boost security and prevent theft, and facial recognition systems have been used to record visitors to Pyongyang’s Sunan airport since 2019.

According to the report, North Korea has also been expanding its traffic camera network beyond Pyongyang since 2021, deploying them on main routes leading into and out of the city, most likely to automatically record license plates.

The government may still need to fully utilize the data it collects, and it currently lacks an extensive network of security cameras in streets and residential areas, possibly due to power outages and many security agents already monitoring public life in Pyongyang and elsewhere.

However, North Korea appears to anticipate a future of more widespread video surveillance. According to the article, North Korean colleges and research institutions have spent years developing technologies for movement detection, facial recognition, and license plate identification.

Meanwhile, the state is creating complete biometric profiles for its inhabitants. The most recent edition of North Korean national identity cards is in a smartcard format and requires residents to supply fingerprints, facial pictures, and, according to one account, a blood test.

“For North Koreans, the development of CCTV means increased surveillance of their lives, especially if the cameras have automatic detecting systems. Citizens participating in illegal activities would be particularly vulnerable if such cameras become more widely deployed, as facial recognition could monitor their movements around cities,” Williams and Slavney stated.

north korea

North Korea Is Buying Chinese Surveillance Cameras In A Push To Tighten Control, Report Says

“At present, North Koreans who get caught in activities such as smuggling or distributing illegally imported goods and foreign content can bribe local security services, but, unlike humans, security cameras cannot be bribed,” the officials stated.

According to Williams, the government will try to expand its monitoring network beyond large cities as infrastructure improves. He said exploiting massive volumes of video data would still be difficult, but North Korea may learn from the neighboring surveillance state.

The most significant challenge is the computational infrastructure required to process all this data in real time. Doing so on a national or even provincial scale is difficult if the network is to be truly widespread and include many cameras,” Williams added. The country would have to construct a tiny data center and ensure a steady electricity supply. Itina can influence it, as it has a much more Orwellian digital monitoring network despite being a rather free society in general.

SOURCE – (AP)

Related Topics:
Continue Reading

News

Trudeau Called the Greatest Threat to NATO

Published

6 hours ago

on

2024-11-23

By

Trudeau, NATO

The deputy chairman of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly’s Defense and Security Committee has chastised Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for his “arrogance” about NATO defense spending. His policies jeopardize the alliance’s existence.

Trudeau’s policies are the freeloading policies of a failing NATO. “If everyone followed Trudeau’s policies, there would be no NATO,” he remarked.

This year, Canada is set to spend 1.37 percent of its GDP on defense, significantly lower than the two percent objective agreed upon by heads of government in 2014.

Members have decided that 2% should be the minimum as concerns rise about Russia’s ongoing assault on Ukraine.

Trudeau reiterated last week that his government is on a “concrete” track to meet the minimum aim by 2032.

“The world is getting more dangerous, more unstable, which is why we’ve committed to reaching the 2 percent, why we’ve almost doubled our investments in defense over the past years, and will continue to over the coming years,” Mr. Trump stated.

He stated that Canada intends to purchase submarines, increase its funding in NORAD, and improve partnerships with NATO.

Many Americans, particularly those who support President-elect Donald Trump, believe it is still too slow. Turner stated that if countries such as Canada do not step up, there will be consequences for those “who cheat.”

The Republican senator penned an op-ed in Newsweek describing Canada’s prime minister as NATO’s greatest threat.

In the op-ed, he stated that Trudeau’s leadership has been so arrogant that it believes it is beyond the need to recognize that authoritarianism is one of the most serious challenges to democracy.

The only way to preserve democracy is to have a robust defense. Trudeau’s policies have outsourced it.

They’ve freeloaded on American taxpayers. The alliance’s call, which Canada also agreed to, is for everyone to pay their fair share and get above 2%, which Justin Trudeau has failed to meet.

Related:

Trudeau GST Tax Holiday to Cost Taxpayers $6.3 Billion

Trudeau GST Tax Holiday to Cost Taxpayers $6.3 Billion

Continue Reading

News

Facebook Securities Fraud Case Dropped By US Supreme Court

Published

14 hours ago

on

2024-11-22

By

Facebook
REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

(VOR News) – On Friday, the United States Supreme Court refrained from issuing a rule on Facebook’s permissibility of shareholders advancing a securities fraud claim.

The litigation alleges that Facebook, a subsidiary of Meta, misled investors about the improper utilization of user data from the social media site.

At their hearing on November 6, the justices denied Facebook’s appeal against a lower court’s ruling that allowed a class action lawsuit initiated by Amalgamated Bank in 2018 to proceed.

On November 6, the Supreme Court stated that the issue should not have been addressed and, therefore, opted not to resolve the fundamental legal question at hand. The intervention ensures that the lower court’s verdict remains in force.

The court issued a one-line order for dismissal without providing a rationale. This month, the Supreme Court addressed two cases concerning the ability of private litigants to hold companies accountable for purported securities fraud. One such instance was the dispute involving Facebook.

The alternative case for chip manufacturer NVIDIA, renowned for its specialization in artificial intelligence, was discussed on November 13th. The Supreme Court rendered a verdict in the NVIDIA case on November 13th.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Facebook claimed that the company had inappropriately withheld information from investors concerning a 2015 data breach involving the British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica.

The incident impacted over 30 million Facebook users.

Facebook faced allegations of misleading investors, constituting a violation of the Securities Exchange Act, a federal statute established in 1934 that requires publicly traded companies to disclose the risks they encounter.

In 2018, media claims indicated that Cambridge Analytica had improperly utilized Facebook user data during Donald Trump’s successful 2016 presidential campaign, resulting in a fall in Facebook’s stock market price.

The investors have submitted a claim for unspecified monetary damages to partially offset the value of the stock they previously possessed.

The inquiry at hand was whether the company had contravened the law by declining to disclose details regarding the prior data breach in later business-risk disclosures while characterizing such scenarios as merely hypothetical.

Andy Stone, a representative, expressed his discontent with the Supreme Court’s decision to refrain from clarifying this specific legislative provision.

Stone asserted, “The plaintiff’s allegations are unfounded, and we will persist in our defense as the district court reviews this case.”

Facebook asserted that it was not obligated to disclose that the risk it had previously cautioned about had already materialized, as “a reasonable investor” would interpret risk disclosures as forward-looking statements.

President Joe Biden’s administration expressed its support for shareholders in this instance.

Initially dismissed by United States District Judge Edward Davila, the 9th United States Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco reinstated the action.

The decision compelled Facebook to appeal to the Supreme Court.

As Alan Morrison, a law professor at George Washington University, states, the plaintiffs are anticipated to pursue discovery, a process entailing the sharing of information between the litigating parties, following the Supreme Court’s dismissal of the appeal.

Morrison also indicated that Facebook “may refile their motion to dismiss under a slightly altered standard, partially to achieve delay.”

After the Cambridge Analytica data breach, the United States government commenced inquiries into privacy protocols, alongside other lawsuits and a congressional inquiry. In 2019, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) initiated enforcement action against Facebook.

The company ultimately resolved the complaint for $100 million. Consequently, Facebook was obligated to remit a distinct penalty of $5 billion to the Federal Trade Commission of the United States.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, the federal agency overseeing fraudulent activities in the securities sector, has had its authority curtailed by prior Supreme Court rulings.

SEE ALSO:

Pam Bondi has been appointed as US Attorney General following Gaetz’s resignation.

PayPal’s Technical Challenges Are Affecting Thousands Of Customers Globally.

Continue Reading

News

Pam Bondi to Be Appointed US Attorney General

Published

1 day ago

on

2024-11-22

By

Pam Bondi
Photo via Reuters

(VOR News) – President-elect Donald Trump selected Pam Bondi, a former Florida Attorney General and ally, to succeed Matt Gaetz on Thursday after the latter withdrew from consideration.

Gaetz’s drug use and sexual intercourse with a 17-year-old girl were the subject of an investigation by the House Ethics Committee. He denies any wrongdoing.

During Trump’s first administration, Pam Bondi, 59, served on the Opioids and Drug Abuse Commission. He served as police chief of the third-most populous state from 2011 to 2019.

She was also a member of Trump’s defense team at his first impeachment hearing, where he was charged with using military assistance to get Ukraine to look into the wrongdoing of his opponent, now President Joe Biden. The Senate cleared Trump on all charges.

The right-wing America First Policy Institute, which has collaborated with Trump’s campaign to create government concepts, most recently had Pam Bondi as its legal branch leader.

Unlike Pam Bondi, Gaetz lacks the experience necessary to serve as attorney general and will likely encounter resistance from Senate Democrats and some Republicans.

According to Jones Walker defense attorney David Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor in Florida, “She is unequivocally qualified for the position on paper.” Throughout her life, she battled in court. Her resume stood out from the previous nominee.

In a tweet announcing his intention to nominate Bondi, Trump praised her skills as a prosecutor and her firm stance against crime as Florida’s first female attorney general. Trump said that even though Bondi was elected on November 5th, while numerous state and federal criminal investigations were underway, he pledged to keep federal prosecutions from being politicized.

According to Trump, “The biased Department of Justice has been weaponized against me and other Republicans for an excessive duration.” That is not true anymore.

Discussion about Pam Bondi

In 2013, the Trump Foundation may have broken federal law by giving $25,000 to a political action committee that supported Pam Bondi. Bondi thought about looking into the for-profit Trump University.

Pam Bondi disputed that her decision to end her legal actions against Trump University following the 2016 disclosure of Trump’s $25,000 gift had anything to do with her decision to withdraw from those actions. According to her, all pertinent material was made public by her office.

The Trump team attributed the erroneous money disclosure to a “series of unfortunate coincidences and errors.” New York state fraud investigations resulted in the dissolution of both Trump University and the Trump Foundation.

After misleading Trump University students, he settled for $25 million and was fined $2 million for misusing charitable funds.

Following Special Counsel Jack Smith’s acquisition of two indictments against him for his interference in the 2020 election and his possession of secret materials after leaving office, Trump has voiced his displeasure with the present leadership of the Justice Department and pledged retaliation.

Bondi remains loyal

She and several other lawyers claimed that Smith’s appointment was illegal in an amicus brief they prepared in support of Trump in the secret information litigation. The Justice Department filed an appeal after U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump nominee, rejected the case.

According to a long-standing rule against charging a sitting president, Smith and other top Justice Department officials are examining how both Trump criminal cases were resolved.

Trump was incensed with the obstructionism of the Justice Department during his first administration. Bill Barr specifically refuted Trump’s baseless claims that he lost the 2020 election due to fraud, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions permitted an investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Trump’s objectives for the Justice Department have been delineated through his public remarks and interviews with former department lawyers and Mark Paoletta, a conservative lawyer who develops the department’s policy.

Federal prosecutors may give illegal immigration cases priority.

Cities might have to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement to obtain a portion of the department’s $291 million justice assistance award.

The Civil Rights Division will probably refocus its attention from legal challenges to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in the public and commercial sectors to police accountability to religious freedom.

SEE ALSO:

PayPal’s Technical Challenges Are Affecting Thousands Of Customers Globally.

Matt Gaetz Withdraws as Trump’s Pick for Attorney General

 

Continue Reading

Trending