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

UK citizen wins legal round against Facebook over Prism leaks

 

Now that's an interesting way to curb certain cross-atlantic 'brave new world' ambitions.
With EU (data)privacy laws in mind, filing suits, not necessarily criminal charges but perhaps sometimes easier civil law suits, against non-US/EU branches of Yahoo, Google, Facebook, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple, Microsoft, etc.
They are all in violation of EU data/privacy laws (given all the Snowden leaked info) and either have the option of breaking their non-disclosure agreements (like with Prism) with the US gov. by telling the truth during such a court case.
Other option is non-disclosure<->lying to EU courts and try to get away with it.
Let's see what EU judges make of that. Strike one...

 

Secret contract tied NSA and security industry pioneer:

 

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/20/nsa-internet-security-rsa-secret-10m-encryption

 

http://www.dw.de/snowden-ally-appelbaum-claims-his-berlin-apartment-was-invaded/a-17315069

 

Re: NSA and RSA backdoor.

Up to now, most discussion on these forums have been speculative about the government gaining "legitimate" secret backdoor access (vs access via hacking) to the protocols commonly used for digital security.

This appears to be concrete evidence. No longer the stuff for the tinfoil hat crowd.

Any entity within the US government's purview is automatically suspect.

 

It has been my experience in my relatively long life that the tinfoil crowd tends to be made up of very intelligent people who have to often wait decades to be proven right. It isn't even just interests of the U.S that are suspect, it is just about every government. Although many of them are admittedly influenced by U.S pressure.

 

Governments have always spied. It's generally considered part of their job. Back in the day, runners were captured and tortured. Pigeons were intercepted by trained hawks. And so on ...

None of the Snowden leaks are very surprising to those who have read Bamford's books.

 

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/06/the-nsas-chief-chronicler.html

 

True.
But those spied upon/spying resources used at, were generally considered to be adversaries, or possible adversaries at least.
I'd say, the current trend is to consider the entire world population, including your own domestic population as a possible adversary and just go from there.
That's new.
edit;
No government ever tried to catch all the pigeons all the time. Perhaps North-Korea did, I don't know.
In China, during the Cultural revolution, sparrows were frowned upon and thus ordered killed but not pigeons.

 

@Baserk

Everyone is a potential adversary

Even that guy two cubes over, who asks too many questions

But of course, my inspirations here are Bamford and Stephenson's Cryptonomicon.

That and Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: "We had [long list]. Not that we needed all that for the trip, but once you get locked into a serious [foo] collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can.” That's typical for geeks, I think, including intelligence geeks

 

RSA Response to Media Claims Regarding NSA Relationship

 

Interesting enough to be quoted in full, particularly the 2004 bit:

https://blogs.rsa.com/news-media-2/rsa-response/

 

NSA Fallout in Europe Boosts Alternatives to Google

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-19/nsa-fallout-in-europe-boosts-alternatives-to-google.html

 

Re: RSA Response -

What else is RSA going to say? LOL. Just like what else is can NSA say? LOL. Private companies and governments will never admit the truth - they can't, or they lose either profits, or power.

 

It may simply be that the people at RSA who wrote that statement are unaware of those arrangements with the NSA. Perhaps they were not with RSA at the time. As I recall from Bamford's Puzzle Palace, they turned only one engineer at Western Union.

 

RSA issues non-denying denial of NSA deal to favor flawed crypto code

More here: http://arstechnica.com/security/201...nial-of-nsa-deal-to-favor-flawed-crypto-code/

 

Re: RSA issues non-denying denial of NSA deal to favor flawed crypto code

And here is a reaction to news from Mikko Hypponen: http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00002651.html

 

Re: RSA issues non-denying denial of NSA deal to favor flawed crypto code

The fact is, we now know that it's NOT only americans that have been & are targeted by US Intel !

It's refreshing to see someone in Mikko Hypponen's position publically speaking out I hope it encourages more & more to do so from now on

 

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/12/24/fsecure_wont_speak_at_imperialist_lackey_rsas_conference/

http://allthingsd.com/20131223/talk-of-an-rsa-boycott-grows-after-reports-it-colluded-with-the-nsa/

 

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/24/edward-snowden-i-already-won

 

NSA Spying: Whom Do You Believe?

 

Re: NSA Fallout in Europe Boosts Alternatives to Google

Seems like a really good time to start a privacy email service. I was only reading an article about 2 weeks ago that Lavabit had 400,000 members before they closed down. Im guessing these VPN companies are also doing big business.

 

A Christmas message from Edward Snowden:

http://youtu.be/eWLFwif-BrY

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/24/edward-snowden-channel-4-christmas-day-message

 

From the interview....
"A child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all. They'll never know what it means to have a private moment to themselves an unrecorded, unanalysed thought."

When I think about this it really breaks my heart.