US Border Patrol is operating a vast surveillance network that tracks millions of American drivers hundreds of miles from any border, using hidden license-plate readers to feed predictive algorithms that flag 'suspicious' travel patterns. The revelation, exposed through an Associated Press investigation, shows federal agents coordinating with local police to conduct traffic stops based on algorithmic assessments of citizens' movements, raising unprecedented Fourth Amendment concerns about domestic surveillance overreach.
The scope of the surveillance program is staggering. Border Patrol has deployed license-plate readers disguised as traffic cones, barrels, and roadside equipment across multiple states, with confirmed installations more than 120 miles from the Mexican border near Phoenix, in metropolitan Detroit, and along the Michigan-Indiana line capturing traffic bound for Chicago.
These readers feed a predictive intelligence system that flags drivers for 'suspicious' behavior like quick turnarounds, frequent border-region travel, or unusual route patterns. Local police then receive alerts to conduct traffic stops for minor violations - window tint, air fresheners, marginal speeding - giving officers pretense to question and search American citizens.
Internal communications obtained through public records requests reveal the program's troubling coordination mechanisms. Border Patrol agents and Texas deputies share real-time intelligence including hotel records, rental car information, home addresses, and social media profiles of US citizens. They coordinate what officers call 'whisper stops' specifically designed to obscure federal involvement in these dragnet operations.
The Associated Press reviewed police records showing drivers questioned, searched, and sometimes arrested despite no contraband being discovered. Legal experts are calling it an unconstitutional dragnet that tracks Americans' movements, associations, and daily routines without probable cause.
Meanwhile, Microsoft made headlines this week for successfully mitigating what the company claims was the largest DDoS attack ever recorded in a cloud environment. The 15.72 terabits-per-second assault on October 24 targeted a single Azure endpoint in Australia, originating from the Aisuru botnet - a network of over 500,000 compromised IoT devices including home routers, cameras, and consumer electronics.
The attack generated 3.64 billion packets per second but Microsoft's global Azure DDoS Protection network absorbed the traffic without service disruption. However, recently reported defending against an even larger 22.2 Tbps flood, creating some dispute over record-breaking claims.
