01 Oct 15. Boeing, BAE Will Develop EW Suite For F-15. The US Air Force selected Boeing as the prime contractor on a new, all-digital electronic warfare suite for its fleet of F-15 fighters. BAE Systems will develop the new system. The Air Force’s Eagle Passive Active Warning Survivability System (EPAWSS) will counter threats and better protect F-15 air crews, according to an Oct. 1 Boeing statement. The system will be installed on more than 400 F-15Es and F-15Cs, replacing the legacy Tactical Electronic Warfare System, which has been in use since the 1980s. The EPAWSS program is valued at $4bn, according to the statement.
“Warfighters of today and tomorrow need the latest in jamming, targeting, infrared threat detection and enhanced decoy capabilities,” said Mike Gibbons, vice president, Global Strike Boeing F-15 programs, according to the statement. “EPAWSS will ensure the F-15 is relevant and dominant through 2040 and beyond.”
Boeing has chosen BAE Systems as the subcontractor to develop EPAWSS, which provides advanced EW capabilities and a “significant growth path” for the F-15, according to an Oct. 1 BAE Systems statement. The system will improve aircraft protection by adding advanced electronic countermeasures, radar warning and increased chaff and flare capability.
“By upgrading to an enhanced all-digital system, the Air Force, in conjunction with the platform prime, Boeing, will provide next-generation electronic warfare capability to F-15C and F-15E aircraft to help keep the platform capable and mission-ready against current and future threats, ” said Brian Walters, vice president and general manager of Electronic Combat Solutions at BAE Systems, according to the BAE statement. (Source: Defense News)
27 Sep 15. GCHQ Has Spied on Every Web User, Ever. New leaked documents revealing GCHQ’s mass-surveillance activities have detailed an operation codenamed Karma Police, which slurped up the details of “every visible user on the Internet”.
The operation was launched in 2009, without Parliamentary consultation or public scrutiny, to record the browsing habits of “every visible user on the Internet” without the agency obtaining legal permission to do so, according to documents published by The Intercept.
Karma Police was constructed between 2007 and 2008, and according to slides was developed with the explicit intention of correlating “every user visible to passive SIGINT with every website they visit, hence providing either (a) a web browsing profile for every visible user on the Internet, or (b) a user profile for every visible website on the Internet.”
Its 2009 run was particularly interested in those listening to online radio shows, although one slide also shows tracking of those who have visited spook-baiting Cryptome.org, and pornography site RedTube.
A summary document reveals that the operation affected “224,446 unique listener IP addresses over a three month period, covering approximately 108448 /24 subnets.”
Another programme, codenamed BLAZING SADDLES, was used to target listeners of “any one particular radio station … to understand any trends or behaviours.”
The summary report states how:
A wealth of data mining techniques could be applied on small closed groups of individuals, to look for potential covert communications channels for hostile intelligence agencies running agents in allied countries, terrorist cells, or serious crime targets.
One user was targeted, without any stated suspicion of being involved in terrorism or posing a threat to national security, and was found to have visited popular porn purveyor Redtube, as well as social media sites and several Arabic and Islamic sites, which appeared to be commercial enterprises. (Source: Cyber Security Intelligence/Register)
30 Sep 15. UN Calls On Social Media to Act Against ‘Misuse’ by Extremists. A UN panel that advises the Security Council has called for Internet and social media companies to respond to the exploitation of their servic