On The Wire

Five Eyes

The Five Eyes (FVEY) is a signals intelligence (SIGINT) alliance comprised of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. During the Cold War the ECHELON surveillance system was developed by the Five Eyes nations to monitor the communications of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc ...
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Secret Law

On December 31, 2017, section 702 of the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendments Act (2008) will expire. It is the section that governs the domestic interception of foreigners' communications when targets are believed to be outside the United States but is being used by agencies to monitor and collect the communications ...
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Silk Road

It was a case that reads like a Mickey Spillane novel - big money, corrupt undercover agents, drug deaths and commissioned murders. On February 4, 2015, a Manhattan jury convicted Ross Ulbricht on seven counts including conspiracy to distribute narcotics, money laundering and a kingpin charge arising from his creation ...
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The Shadow Brokers

Who are those guys? On August 13, 2016, a date that remains murky, a hacker published stolen tools from the Equation Group which is widely believed to be the United States National Security Agency (NSA). The tools were reported to include exploits that targeted firewalls, anti-virus software and Microsoft products ...
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Digital Crumbs

A witch lives in a gingerbread house in the forest. The rural by-laws governing home construction in this forest are a little lax. You must take your cellphone if you go there so you can leave digital crumbs to find your way back. Because if you get lost, well, that ...
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Wiretapping Mr. Big

It was after hours at Our Place Pub in Calgary, Alberta, on November 27, 2010, and bartender Dexter Bain was hanging out with regular David Nowak and friends when masked intruders came through the back door. Bain was shot in the back by a .22 calibre firearm and died in ...
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Don’t Charge WikiLeaks

On April 20, 2017, CNN reported that US authorities "have prepared charges" to seek the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The Department of Justice investigation dates back to 2010 when WikiLeaks posted files stolen by former US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning and the belief in some quarters that ...
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In the Public Interest

On July 7, 2011, prominent businessman Richard Oland was found bludgeoned to death in his office at the investment firm Far End Corp. in uptown Saint John, New Brunswick. On November 12, 2013, over two years later, Dennis Oland, his son, was charged with second degree murder. On November 18, ...
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Three Roaches

On November 30, 2007, the RCMP in Langley, British Columbia, received a 911 call from a woman who was crying and apparently injured. Three officers went to Brendan Paterson's apartment and knocked on the door. When Paterson opened the door one of the officers smelled marihuana. After the police were satisfied ...
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Hunch or Intuition

On April 11, 2011, Steven Quilop attracted the curiosity of the Calgary police based on an anonymous tip that he was a cocaine trafficker. There was no evidence about the informant's credibility or reliability. Nor was there any evidence that corroborated the tip. But the police decided to send out ...
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