NSA has direct access to tech giants' systems for user data, secret files reveal

Re: German minister: Avoid U.S. Web services if you fear NSA spying

Love it...oh, wait..whatever advice should they give to Germans wanting to avoid BND? I got news for the interior minister, dropping every service isn't going to cut it. Does he not think that this stuff gets intercepted at ISP level too? He got told to say this to keep the spotlight off of their own intelligence services and a government guilty of pulling the same stunts ours is. About all you're going to avoid not using these services is the damned marketers who demand every little piece of data the CEOs of these companies will sell to them.

 

Slightly offtopic, but of course not unexpected...

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/07/us-postal-service-logs-all-snail-mail-for-law-enforcement/

 

I'm sure if paper hadn't been invented yet when the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution was passed, they would be opening up those pesky envelopes and recording what's inside too. They're probably working on some secret interpretation of the amendment that will allow them to do so as I write this.

 

Oh, don't worry about that. Actually, most of us here in Latin America got a kick out the plane incident. Only renegades and old left wing cold warriors who live in the past see it differently. And yes, we don't want Snowden here neither.

Bo

 

Student group files complaint against U.S. firms over NSA data snooping

Full Read Here: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57...int-against-u.s-firms-over-nsa-data-snooping/

 

Goodbye Google, goodbye Dropbox... whats a good replacement for DB?

 

TeamDrive, based in Germany and with good encryption.

https://www.teamdrive.com

 

And hosted on Amazon!

 

LOL I did not know...however unless AES256 is broken, I would not be worried.

Personally, I use Wuala. Yes, I know...it works with Java.

 

http://mondediplo.com/openpage/the-dictionary-of-the-global-war-on-you

 

Yea. and first n foremost.on the list of snoopsters, mighty Microsoft. Enjoy the windfall and keep up your good work MS. It pays much better then selling retail commercial O/S's and Xboxes.

Linux for live online duties and Windows strictly offline for anything else.

A weird thought. What's to prevent MS from bugging their own updates. After all, it's they're code, commercial security vendors wouldn't have a clue. Only specialized independent developers might have a way of uncovering their hidden agenda ware.

 

To each their own. If he never revealed himself, the main story would still be the same, and IMO, the reaction would be too. I just see anything "Snowden" as an attempt to distract from the main point. And I *do* realize that the world is involved, and am glad for it. But, to the people I deal with on a daily basis, arguing any collection that isn't US, doesn't get too far...they *can* do anything they want to anyone else (I don't agree with that, BTW, but the fact is, I can't legally do jack to anyone sitting in the Seychelles Islands, pulling my stuff off of a wire...or out of the air).

I also agree that the overstepping exists, but the Amendment process is valid as the framers intended...less than 14 times, every 100 years, isn't a worry, to me. And if it went too far, well, fittingly for today, the Declaration of Independence (as well as Jefferson) tells you what you can do...

PD

 

Patriot hacker 'The Jester' attacks nations offering Snowden help

full read here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/07/04/patriot_hacker_takes_aim_snowden_asylum_candidates/

 

Re: Patriot hacker 'The Jester' attacks nations offering Snowden help

Isn't Snowdon in Russia?

 

Edward Snowden asylum: countries approached and their responses
The NSA whistleblower has made 21 applications for asylum worldwide as he flees the US – with little success -

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/02/edward-snowden-nsa-asylum-application-list-countries

Snowden is a man without a country at this point.

 

Stop spying on us, European Parliament tells US

Full Read Here: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9240576/Stop_spying_on_us_European_Parliament_tells_US

 

Neelie Kroes:

http://euobserver.com/justice/120767

 

European politicians, European companies, etc will undoubtedly work to exploit this for purposes of promoting the European cloud industry. From Pinga's link:

However, I think it would be extremely unwise very dicey for individuals and companies of other countries... ANY other countries mind you... to jump out of one frying pan (US cloud services) into another (cloud services within their own country). We've already seen some evidence to confirm that some European governments are operating similar systems. If all were laid bare we'd surely learn that even more are doing so and/or otherwise pursuing things that raise similar issues. The regulatory environment might, currently at least, be more privacy friendly in Europe. However, I think it would be foolish to assume that European companies don't have a lust for information and a desire to datamine it for their own purposes. I think the same things would apply to governments and companies elsewhere... EVERYWHERE... in the world.

Cloud solutions aren't the answer to problems that cloud solutions create/enable. The focus should be on private computing solutions which minimize the information that is exposed to others and especially third parties (cloud providers). Much of the tech sector and most of the cloud computing sub-sector is actively working against private solutions... literally trying to drive (more) private solutions out of existence and make the devices we use increasingly dependent upon sharing and exposing information to them. That... they... be the real enemy here. Regardless of which country they are in.

 

Very accurate perspective TheWindBringeth.

It will prove interesting which remote cloud service providers actually break away from this chaotic mess and assume a stronger moee trusting position. It's all in bare metal transparency for the one's who have the integrity to rise above the rest

 

France 'runs vast electronic spying operation using NSA-style methods'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/04/france-electronic-spying-operation-nsa

France also scoops up phone, Internet metadata on its citizens.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...s-up-phone-internet-metadata-on-its-citizens/

H/T @ Facebook Friend for passing this along.

 

NSA recruitment drive goes horribly wrong - Staff from the National Security Agency got more than they bargained for when they attempted to recruit students to their organisation earlier this week …

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/shortcuts/2013/jul/05/national-security-agency-recruitment-drive

Note: audio transcript included that has had caching issues.

 

Recruiter 2 is being honest, I think, in saying "… for us, our business is apolitical, OK?". These people are essentially hackers.

 

These people will end up on watch lists, lol. If they take issue with lying and keeping secrets, then they honestly don't belong in any intelligence agency anyway. A good operative is a good liar, at least for field work. Do they think the guys in DEVGRU went home and told the wife and kids "Sorry honey, can't take you to dinner Tuesday, gotta go kill Bin Laden"? Leaving this current mess out of it, that's the life of an intelligence agent/special operations member. You don't talk, you deny any suspicions, etc. It's kind of funny to see them squirm, yes, because their own people got them in the hot seat. But in the end, they're just recruiters, they don't make the rules.

 

Agreed. Number 2 knew the score and was probably thinking "Damn, these people aren't fools". I don't think anyone working up there as a "normal agent" wanted this crap, it was a top level "need to know" thing and now even the people on the bottom of the totem pole are going to pay for it.

 

http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/3940371-why-europe-must-protect-edward-snowden