"Why is my computer talking to a field in the UK?" Part II (Plus: PANDO!)

First (and completely unrelated to our main topic): A couple of people have asked why I've not written about the downed Malaysian airliner. I've not written because I have nothing to say that you don't already know. Obviously, if our media blames the Iranians (who, of course, would have zero motive to do such a thing), you should presume neo-con skullduggery.

Now on to our main topic.

On November 21, 2011, this blog published a piece about a strange find I made while examining my system's resources: It was sending out a series of bloops and bleeps to the following addresses:

cpc10-mfld14-2-0-cust425.13-1.cable.virginmedia.com

and

94.245.121.253

Both are in the U.K., though in differing locations. According to this site (among others), 94.245.121.253 is owned by Microsoft. The server seems to be physically located in a deserted field, or a gully, not too far from from Skipton, a quaint town in North Yorkshire.

Other computers seem to be talking to this gully as well. When asked about this alarmingly inquisitive piece of rural real estate, Microsoft mumbled something about their Customer Experience Something-or-other Program. Which is, of course, not running on this system. I would never have anything to do with something like that.

I didn't take the matter too seriously at the time. Nevertheless, the mystery nagged at me. Why are computers talking to those addresses, and why did my attempts to geolocate those addresses lead nowhere?

Even though older posts rarely attract comments, this interesting claim popped into my mailbox this morning...

it is part of the nsa data mining meta data sent to the Microsoft server located in http://www.ip-adress.com/whois/94.245.121.253 London see link for details
and as it is located in the uk will not be part of the domestic operation in the states

The person making this claim is, of course, anonymous. If you go to that website, you'll see nothing about the NSA. All I could find were the contact details for a Microsoft server in London. The technical administrator of that server is the illustrious Edet Nkposong, no doubt of the Fairfield County Nkposongs.

My anonymous contributor probably pulled that "NSA" remark out of the orifice that Aleister Crowley once called "the eye of Horus." And yet...

And yet, we do have this new story based on the latest Snowden revelations...

The classified files – provided previously by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden – contain new details about groundbreaking surveillance technology the agency has developed to infect potentially millions of computers worldwide with malware “implants.” The clandestine initiative enables the NSA to break into targeted computers and to siphon out data from foreign Internet and phone networks.

The covert infrastructure that supports the hacking efforts operates from the agency’s headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland, and from eavesdropping bases in the United Kingdom and Japan. GCHQ, the British intelligence agency, appears to have played an integral role in helping to develop the implants tactic.

In some cases the NSA has masqueraded as a fake Facebook server, using the social media site as a launching pad to infect a target’s computer and exfiltrate files from a hard drive. In others, it has sent out spam emails laced with the malware, which can be tailored to covertly record audio from a computer’s microphone and take snapshots with its webcam. The hacking systems have also enabled the NSA to launch cyberattacks by corrupting and disrupting file downloads or denying access to websites.

The implants being deployed were once reserved for a few hundred hard-to-reach targets, whose communications could not be monitored through traditional wiretaps. But the documents analyzed by The Intercept show how the NSA has aggressively accelerated its hacking initiatives in the past decade by computerizing some processes previously handled by humans. The automated system – codenamed TURBINE – is designed to “allow the current implant network to scale to large size (millions of implants) by creating a system that does automated control implants by groups instead of individually.”

Incidentally, the lads at Pando are using this latest Snowden revelation as an excuse to attack Snowden. They want you to think that Snowden is a bad 'un and he's out to getcha.

Not long ago, they also launched an attack on Marcy Wheeler, which she parried superbly: See here and here and here. Pando, you will recall, is the libertarian-funded journal which has slammed Glenn Greenwald on the grounds that he is -- get this! -- funded by a libertarian.

What. Fucking. Hypocrites.

I'm nearly convinced that Pando is a covert op of the sort discussed here. If I'm right, then you can expect any of the anti-Snowden Pando writers to exhibit the telltale signs of the paid propagandist at work: Arrogance, an awe-inspiring persistence, and a chronic inability to admit fault on even the smallest point. Incapable of self-deprecatory humor, the propagandist's idea of a joke (if ever he tries to tell one) rarely rises above the level of a crude insult. Writers who are true only to themselves will, on occasion, show signs of confusion and contrition -- of humanity. Writers who are secretly being paid to push propaganda become machines. They're keyboard Terminators: Remorseless, relentless, inhuman.

That's the "tell."