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

Discussion in 'privacy general' started by Dermot7, Jun 6, 2013.

  1. noone_particular

    noone_particular Registered Member

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    With routers, modems, and firewalls being compromised en route or at the factory, I'm wondering if virtual routers and firewalls running on bare-bones linux or BSD units would be a more secure option. It would be a good way to re-purpose some of the XP units. Their hardware should be more than sufficient.
     
  2. hawki

    hawki Registered Member

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    Greenwald was on Colbert last night. He said that the most shocking part of the NSA story will be his next piece that is expected to be published in 4-8 weeks. He indicated that the story is about who the pattern of NSA targets for special surveillance. He indicated that this category goes far beyond terrorism and extends to domestic dissenters of US Govt policies, domestic political activists opposed to US Government policies, etc. He stated that of all the stories released so far, this will be the one of greatest historical importance and remembrance.

    It appears that a US citizens' exercise of his/her First Amendment Rights of free speech in opposition to the policies of our corporate-state makes you a target of special NSA surveillance. This is chillingly frightening and demeans whatever remains of the democratic republic of the USA. This is the most dangerous aspect of the NSA surveillance state because it can be used to prevent the American people from learning the truth about who controls America and how the interest of those who do are more often than not contrary to the interests of the American public

    ""No matter what you do, no matter how hard you try, you're screwed because it's all fixed and rigged. There is a club and you ain't in it."

    George Carlin
     
    Last edited: May 13, 2014
  3. noone_particular

    noone_particular Registered Member

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    Vindication for those of us who have been labeled as paranoid and tin foil hat material for the last 10 years.
     
  4. hawki

    hawki Registered Member

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    The NSA had a backdoor into your tin foil hat.
     
  5. Baserk

    Baserk Registered Member

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    Actually, for that, the NSA has made nano-holes mandatory in US tin foil.
     
  6. noone_particular

    noone_particular Registered Member

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    If tin foil hats did serve a real purpose, I wouldn't bother to wear one. I wouldn't want to deprive them of knowing exactly what I think of them and what they're doing. I've been telling everyone I can think of about the Frontline documentary tonite. I hope it reaches a wide enough population to put the majority of the country on their watchlists.

    It's probably just a coincidence, but the traffic volume for the last 24 hours on my Tor exit is the highest it's been since I started running it last summer.
     
  7. CloneRanger

    CloneRanger Registered Member

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    Well even though a few of us have been vindicated over a number of so called "conspiracy theories" in the last few years, it's still not good to know it's ALL been true. What a continual waste of tax payers $. Of course "They" don't care as it's not their $.

    Vive la Revolution !
     
  8. noone_particular

    noone_particular Registered Member

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    The first half of the Frontline documentary provided a good history of things but really didn't say anything that wasn't already known. I'll be very interested to see what is, and more importantly, what isn't covered in the next segment.
     
  9. act8192

    act8192 Registered Member

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    Unfortunately few people ever watch PBS.
    It was a good summary. They didn't tell when part 2 will be. I suspect next Tuesday.
     
  10. hawki

    hawki Registered Member

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    Apparently during wartime the Federal Courts are allowing the Executive Branch do whatever it wants, the Constitution notwithstanding. The recent refusal of the Supreme Court to hear an appeal of the Second Circuit's decision upholding the NDA provisions that allow the military to perform a police function on domestic soil, contrary to 150 years of precedent against it, is staggering. Particularly in view of the fact that the Second Circuit's Opinion relied on a previous case that relied on what is now known to be a totally bogus basis - that the plaintiffs could not challenge domestic wiretapping because they lacked standing because they could not prove that they were actually being wiretapped. The Snowden revelations totally blew that line of reasoning out of the water.

    Only the continued election to the Presidency of men/women who are not evil can prevent tyranny from overtaking the USA. All the tools for a totalitarian state are in place.
     
    Last edited: May 13, 2014
  11. noone_particular

    noone_particular Registered Member

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    It's a very convenient argument for them, especially when the "war" is declared on a concept, one that allows them to redefine the "enemy" whenever it's convenient. Enemies with no nationality, home country, or border. They've effectively declared war on anyone that doesn't directly support them, aka, most of humanity. In doing so, they've basically made themselves the enemies of humanity. It's just a matter of time until this all comes apart, and takes most of the planet with it.
     
  12. hawki

    hawki Registered Member

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    Leaked NSA document shows Microsoft co-operation over Prism

    "Beginning on 7 March 2013, Prism now collects Microsoft SkyDrive data as part of Prism's standard Store Communications collection package for a tasked FISA Amendments Act Section 702 (FAA702) selector," states the document...

    Crucially, the document implies that Microsoft co-operated fully with the NSA in building a working system enabling it to get easy access to data held in Microsoft's cloud.

    "This success is the result of the FBI working for many months with Microsoft to get this tasking and collection solution established," it said.

    The Microsoft cloud also hosted Microsoft Office applications, offering NSA agents direct access to corporate documents. ...

    Microsoft always claimed in response to earlier Snowden leaks that the NSA did not have direct access to Microsoft servers, but the latest leak indicates that the FBI arranged the compromise of Microsoft's cloud. "

    Full Story here: http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news...ument-shows-microsoft-co-operation-over-prism

    (Sorry for the bold -- can't remove it for some reason)
     
  13. noone_particular

    noone_particular Registered Member

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    Part 2 will be on the 20th.

    The FBIs role is quite revealing. In many ways, they were used to add plausible deniability. Their involvement allowed corporations to say "We didn't backdoor anything for the NSA." They didn't say they backdoored their wares for the FBI. We've been wanting answers to the wrong question.

    AFAIC, the post by Hawki regarding MS cloud and their pushing users to it should remove all doubts regarding what Windows is becoming, total spyware.
     
  14. SirDrexl

    SirDrexl Registered Member

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    Is the router intrusion a concern for those of us that flash the device with open-source firmware like Gargoyle, DD-WRT, OpenWRT, etc.?
     
  15. noone_particular

    noone_particular Registered Member

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    According to this Guardian article,
    The article doesn't say whether these "tools" are software/firmware or hardware. If the tools are hardware based, reflashing might not have any effect. I also don't know is reflashing replaces all of the firmware or just some of it. I don't use and haven't worked on routers. Smoothwall performs that function for me. I don't have a definitive answer for you. I'd suggest that you open it up and take a long hard look at the hardware for add-ons. Then ask those who release the Open Source firmware about the extent of what it reflashes and what it doesn't.

    The article mentions this being done on routers for export. Seems to me we've heard that line too many times already. Myself, I don't believe for one minute that they've limited this to exported hardware. Every time they've claimed something is used against foreign targets, we find out that it's used domestically as well. In this case, I'll bet compromising domestic equipment is just on a different document that we haven't seen yet.

    This whole thing is a very sickening game. There's no way to determine if anyone's hardware can really be trusted. It's like we're all just pawns on a global chessboard. Given the connections between the NSA and processor/chipset manufacturers like Intel, I question if we can even trust the components themselves. IMO, repurposed hardware is the least likely to be compromised. I seriously doubt that the dinosaur I'm using for Smoothwall is compromised on their behalf. It predates most of that activity. I suspect that most of the early XP units are less likely to be compromised at the hardware level as well. This hardware might be inadequate for current operating systems but would run a virtual firewall and router just fine. It's also likely that any backdooring on repurposed hardware would not have been intended for compromising firewalls and routers, which would limit its usefulness.
     
  16. CloneRanger

    CloneRanger Registered Member

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  17. Baserk

    Baserk Registered Member

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    The way the FBI has been used as the 'NSA never contacted us, we don't work with 'm'-route, has been published on before.
    Especially on the DITU/Data Intercept Technology Unit based on Quantico, Virginia.
    'Meet the spies Doing the NSA's Dirty Work' article from 'Foreign Policy' Nov. 2013 link
     
  18. CloneRanger

    CloneRanger Registered Member

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    More than a few words, but Pure GOLD !
     
  19. noone_particular

    noone_particular Registered Member

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    IMO, a lot of the first segment was devoted to "justification" of the project from the government point of view. Waiting to see how much the next segment covers that is not justifiable by any reasonable standard, like backdooring equipment, choices of targets, etc. It'll be interesting to see if they really put the cards on the table or if they play it safe. I'm betting on the latter.
     
  20. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    I doubt that's illegal under US law for the NSA to backdoor equipment shipped overseas.

    Why would it be?

    It's a "Spy vs Spy" thing ;)
     
  21. lotuseclat79

    lotuseclat79 Registered Member

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    The lie about Edward Snowden that just won't die.

    -- Tom
     
  22. lotuseclat79

    lotuseclat79 Registered Member

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  23. Dermot7

    Dermot7 Registered Member

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    https://firstlook.org/theintercept/...-nsa-recording-every-cell-phone-call-bahamas/
     
  24. siljaline

    siljaline Registered Member

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  25. BoerenkoolMetWorst

    BoerenkoolMetWorst Registered Member

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    Good piece on software, security, 0-days and mass surveillance:

    Everything is broken

    https://medium.com/message/81e5f33a24e1
     
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