February 09, 2011

If I Go Off Air

Don't worry.

Some strange shit is happening. Among other things, for the last 36 hours I have been unable to access my "Captain Ranty" accounts. (This has NEVER happened before). My email is fucked, and I cannot read the emails you guys have been sending. All other email addresses I set up using the same root details are fine. So far. This looks like a targeted attack. It may be paranoia but, whatever anybody else tells you, paranoia is just fine. Perfect paranoia is perfect awareness. Something is wrong.

I think the "Cat Leaves Bag" piece drew too much attention.

They may be close to shutting me down (I wonder why?), but if I do disappear, worry ye not. I will resurface and I will let you know that it is me.

Enough of you who know who I am know how to reach me if you are concerned. For those of you that do know my real identity, please reach out at regular intervals and I will confirm that all is okay.

Failing that, the usual request applies: avenge my death. I am not suicidal. I have a wonderful family, I have no money/sexual/legal issues and I have every reason to go on living. If I...go quiet, be suspicious.

Sorry to sound dramatic, but you never fucking know.

Be well,

CR.

35 comments:

Smoking Hot said...

Controlled paranoia is ok. Stay well.

Anonymous said...

CR,

I've had a few issues with mail etc lately too, I reckon I'm more paranoid than most and worried for a millisecond.

Then thought if it is something untoward then I must be doing something right.

Stay safe anyway :-)

Olly

Mongo said...

Mongo on full alert!

Anonymous said...

Hope you can get things sorted CR, I know what you're going through. If you need any help/advice then you know how to get in touch.

Meanwhile ... be safe ;-)


wv: lord

Captain Ranty said...

Thanks lads.

It's probably nothing. The timing is a bit weird though.

Let's see how it pans out.

CR.

F***W*T TW****R said...

To be callous for a tick, make sure your blog is mirrored somewhere. Or tell us where we can mirror it. Perfect example is Wikileaks. Once it spreads you become more dangerous to the state, you also become more protected. It does take courage. But It's best. Honest gov.

Woodsy42 said...

36 hours is rather too long for a technical breakdown.
A backup blog on a different system is not a bad idea as Mr F of the asterisk family suggests. At least it helps if they are out to cut your digital lines. If they are after you personally it won't help much though.
Good luck.

F***W*T TW****R said...

Forgot. Good luck. Not a clue who you are. Welsh?

nominedeus said...

Firstly captain if you ever want to get word out then youre welcome to give me a shout over at mine...good luck with it m8!

Second how do you set up a mirror please anyone????

Tapestry said...

They haven't hit your credit card or cash card yet so don't worry. It's usually phone goes dead, email goes next day, bank account goes next.

Standard op to harrass.

It's not that easy to close a blog. We are all bogging to the converted. What bothers them is leakage of the truth to the masses who are fed stodge by the BBC and other media.

Britain's soldiers are required to feed the OWG War Machine. They have us where they want us and few would believe what is really going on anyway.

NewsboyCap said...

Captain,

If 'shit happens' you have my address just say the word.

F***W*T TW****R said...

I used an incorrect term for what is needed. Mirroring is much more to do with Bit Torrent Tech. However, have a second blog which is private and never published and always private until your primary comes under Attack. You need to have a separate email address that you never use for anything else. The way this simple and easy system works is you do what you want on your publishing address then, before you publish you copy to your private bl@o.gg. Of course this is not failsafe it is however pretty quick and simple. For real mirror imaging for real quality non loss of information, then google mirror imaging and also bit Torrent and public key encryption.

Barking Spider said...

In light of what's been going on with blogs recently, I've backed mine up to Wordpress, CR, I was able to import the whole bloody lot from Blogger in one fell swoop and from that point I've been backing up new posts as I go along - it feels a hell of a lot safer, mate, and it doesn't matter if my Blogger account is shut down by TPTB, I've got absolutely everything I need on my Wordpress blog.

Stay safe, mate.

TTC said...

Not intending to spread paranoia, but...

I do know someone who gave controversial evidence concerning the death of a global icon. You know my blog.

After that evidence (and before, thinking about it), I know the strange things that happened to them. And through them, to me. For my part, it was all clicks and echoes on phone lines and being followed from their house once.

Nothing that you could ever prove. But enough that, if you were to discuss it, people might question whether you were right or whether you were paranoid.

I don't think you're an irritant enough to be taken into the woods with a butter knife and half a dozen Ibuprofen... nor irritant enough to be driven through a Parisian tunnel at alleged high speed by an allegedly drunk, confirmed spook asset.

You possibly are irritant enough to be on the end of barely disguised mindgames. But only in my totally uneducated guesswork.

Just chat to them when they listen in on your phone calls. We used to. They generally announce their presence with the deliberately audible clicks and whistles and echoes. Not that I can prove it was spooky people listening in, and that is the entire point of the game.

Anyway, we used to chat to them - mostly offering recipe tips and asking if any of them were as cute as the cast of 'Spooks'.

And once or twice, we did suggest that it was: "...time to turn the tapes over, boys."

TTC

Anonymous said...

"A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people"...J.F.K.
If it is them, just flexing their little dicks.
Blogs, E mails, twitter all being scrutinised...
Be well...Morgan.

richard said...

Look at it like this - if it is "them" then you must be doing something right so fair play to you.

Sue said...

Take the advice and backup the blog. If you need ANYTHING, my email address is on my blog.

Power to the People!

subrosa said...

Ranty, you worry me so you do. I can't leave you alone for a day.

I'm off to email Sue. I need a lesson in backing up.

You take care. Paranoia is really handy at times. :)

defender said...

Ranty,
I have just had to completly format my hard drive and do a complete manual reinstall this week.
My admin was compromised,.
There are hackers about.

Captain Ranty said...

Thanks all.

It's good to know you are all out there keeping an eye on me!

CR.

Jack Cade said...

Stay out of the Woods CR!

EG said...

CR,

Stay safe mate. I think they know that there is a storm coming....

EG

Anonymous said...

CR,
There's odd stuff happening to a lot of e-mail accounts here in the UK. I recently "lost" all of my saved mail, a company to which I'd submitted a job application rang me and said that their e-mail system simply was not working, two friends have complained that they cannot access their web-based e-mail programs (one was gmail, the other hotmail). Someone, somewhere is screwing with various e-mail systems.
The State, perhaps?

Captain Ranty said...

Well, I just checked my account and I still cannot access my emails. I have tried IE and Firefox.

My emails appear to be off limits to me.

I will send a note to BT. See what happens.

CR.

Anonymous said...

I would hate to be a Spook these days.

They are just as vulnerable to being thrown under the bus as you and I are.

I wouldn't be surprised if factions within the security services spy on each other more than they spy on us!

Who knows what dirty little secret is going to come out next?

James Bond must be on Valium these days!

microdave said...

Have you tried accessing your emails via your providers Web Mail, or are you just using your normal Email client?

Captain Ranty said...

Providers web mail.

Andy Baxter said...

apols for length CR but I think its important to share this and sozz to add to the paranoia but has anyone had the experience I've had last month:

~I wont bore you guys with too much of the background but I am quite politically vociferous and practice lawful rebellion too and have never been touched yet, despite what I deem police harrassment from time to time.

I also store considerable info on my PC re lawful rebellion and research into common and legal Law and other politicasl issues including the EU and anti EU dissent for research projects I'm doing

anyway last month I was sitting using the laptop and my tower pc which was off suddenly just started up on its own (I'd been on holiday but came back early from abroad due to an incident) being quite intrigued as to why this happened I got up and switched the monitor on to see what was happening....the pc booted up went straight to my desktop (skipping the password log on) and was on for exactly 12 minutes...I timed it...then it shut down all by itself! we didnt see any mouse moving...nothing but the desktop, and the obvious noises the drive makes when its 'thinking' or processing then the shutdown process...

bizarre

my 18 year old son witnessed this too and he was shocked...(he's doing IT at college) and his first thought was my pc had been remote accessed...

I'm convinced it was now...based on more research Im doing and I'll share some of the info below

so my advice CR or anyone else and I've done this now is to encrypt your hard drive, its not cheap and you'll have to get a faster processor as it slows stuff down but I feel a little more secure now...

also anyone who follows the EU mission creep on powers knows that there are various so called law enforcement agencies supposedly set up to protect the citizen, all funded by our tax pounds and euros now:

here are just a few to watch out for that have already been set up and being funded to hell knows what limits:

ADABTS, AMASS, BeSeCu, CAST, COCAE, COPE, CPSI, CREATIF, CRESCENDO, CrisComScore, DEMASST, DETECTER, EFFISEC, ESCoRTS, EULER, EU-SEC II, EUSECON, FESTOS, FORESEC, FRESP, GLOBE, iDetecT 4ALL, IMSK, INDECT, INEX, INFRA, LOTUS, NMFRDisaster, Odyssey, OPERAMAR, OPTIX, SAFE-COMMS, SAMURAI, SECRICOM, SECTRONIC, SecurEau, SECURENV, SEREN, SGL for USaR, SICMA, STRAW, SUBITO, TALOS, UNCOSS, WIMA2S

hmmmmm.........

some useful links for anyone interested too

http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/security/home_en.html


http://www.indect-project.eu/

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2010:115:0001:0038:EN:PDF

http://www.statewatch.org/future-group.htm

we are being watched and were not paranoid its happening guys and I truly think the dissenters amongst us are being tagged and will eventually be bagged when Corpus Juris comes into force here and it will...and we will lose jury trials and our common law...

well I might be wrong and hope i am but somehow I don' think so

Barking Spider said...

If I were you and witnessed that happening, Andy, I'd have yanked the bloody mains cable out, mate, and kept it unplugged whenever I was away from the computer.

Woman on a Raft said...

On the other hand, the embarrassing John Hirst is still pretty healthy and yet there's a candidate for a walk in the woods as he's been an expensive nuisance to both governments for over five years. I doubt if the police approve of him.

As he's at no. 1 position on the "Surely won't be missed" list, very few people would be surprised if he had an unfortunate accident after locking himself in a sports bag. Who is going to ask questions? Even I can't be bothered to put my tin foil hat on.

And yet, there he is, blogging away, unimpeded. So...either things are not as bad as we thought or he's a black-hat operation of breath-taking audacity, designed to weld common opinion of the country together.

Captain Ranty said...

Thanks for the links Andy.

And for letting us know about that scary event. I am convinced that someone is sniffing around but I have no proof. And I think that by the time I have that proof it will be when I'm sat in front of a couple of officers interviewing me.

Good advice about encryption too.

Thanks for that.

CR.

Captain Ranty said...

WoaR,

Maybe his profile is more exposed than mine? At some point you become less of a threat because the MSM (and the bloggers) will destroy your credibility enough so that instead of a threat you just become a gobshite.

I am still using my "cloaking device". Anonymity helps me, but if they have been helping themselves to my email, and as an added bonus, my address book, it is those I have communicated with in the past that now fall under their microscope. I am more worried about that than anything else. I take responsibility for what I am doing, but others I have written to shouldn't be roped in.

I now have full access again. I can read and write emails from that address but I am not sure I want to now. I have seven email addresses on my BT account and only one was interfered with. I use the word "interfere" because nothing else quite explains it.

Nosey bastards! Here's me campaigning to be left alone and what do they do? They just strengthen my case...

CR.

Anonymous said...

What Andy Baxter describes is not technically possible without anyone getting physical access and installing hardware into the PC.

The only way to switch on a PC remotely is by using something called "wake on LAN". This requires knowledge of the MAC address of the PC. The wake packet is broadcast and does not work from behind a router, since broadcasted packets are dropped and not routed out of the subnet.

You cannot bypass the Windows logon screen with a standard boot, nor would there be any need to. NTFS partitions can be accessed and Windows passwords can be removed trivially.

If you really need to hide something so it's beyond the reach of law enforcement, there are ways. Essentially, you need full-disk encryption and to proxy everything.

If you're interested, just reply here and I'll post some instructions.

Andy Baxter said...

Anonymous: you have just perhaps answered a mystery for me and thank you, I'm not as technically minded as some techy guys but I'm reasonably au fait with PC's etc hence my move to encrypt my hard drive...

18 months ago I was visited one Friday afternoon at 4pm by 5 Police officers with a warrant to enter based on what later turned out to be as the police put it a "malicious" (but suprisingly suspiciously anonymous) allegation regarding "financial irregularities" (I run a business based on financial services and market dealing)

they took my PC's and associated hardware, accounts and paper records etc, no voluntary interview to clarify the nature of the allegation, no arrest, no follow up with me other than after 10 days a phone call after repeated attempts by me to speak to someone "in authority" to say I could collect all my property which was returned to me with a cursory "sign here" to confirm receipt of such.

that was it, other than the explanation it was "malicious" except there was no apology, no satisfactory explanation, no response to my desire to press charges for wasting police time on the alleger, nothing, not even an answer to who made the allegation, motive, nor a satisfactory explanation as to how only after just 10 days they'd managed to examine 4years of financial records to reach a conclusion that was the end of it.

Anonymous said...

Something very similar actually happened to me, except it was something much nastier than "financial irregularities" and actually went as far as planting evidence. Luckily I was able to prove that it was planted.

It happened shortly after writing a letter to a government department run by one of our particular favourites. That I was under 18 at the time probably didn't hurt either.

What was odd was I was raided weeks after I was made aware of the allegation, so if I was actually hiding something, I'd have had plenty of chance to get rid of it. Took six months to get all my crap back and even then it involved lawyers.

No arrest, no interview beyond a brief chat. Not a fun experience.

What is odd about your story is that you say it booted into Windows and bypassed the password screen. Neither are necessary to remotely examine a filesystem. The latter is especially bizarre as trying to do it that way would actually be significantly more difficult.

In fact, the difficulty involved in doing it as you described is so high - we're talking "this is impossible and I'd need to see it happen to be convinced otherwise" - that, honestly, you're either mistaken, didn't describe it accurately or, if I were you, I would not touch any software with a Microsoft tag ever again. Use Linux instead. At least you can audit it if you need to.

What you really should've done there is put the system into hibernation whilst it was happening. That way a system snapshot could've been examined forensically and concrete evidence collected.

Did your son at least run netstat, a packet sniffer or even take down a list of running processes?