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

Pinga · Jan 31, 2014

In nominating Vice Adm. Michael S. Rogers as the new director of the National Security Agency on Thursday, President Obama chose a recognized expert in the new art of designing cyberweapons, but someone with no public track record in addressing the kinds of privacy concerns that have put the agency under a harsh spotlight.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/31/world/vice-admiral-to-be-named-nsa-director.html

mattdocs12345 · Jan 31, 2014

No wonder my VPN wasn't working at the "Free" WiFi spot in Milan.

siljaline · Feb 1, 2014

Canadian Wifi spying: Harper's secretary spins, lies, and slanders in Parliament
http://boingboing.net/2014/02/01/canadian-wifi-spying-harper.html

Baserk · Feb 1, 2014

Lawyers for Lavabit founder: judges may dismiss civil liberties concerns link

Civil rights lawyers expressed concern this week that judges reviewing the contempt of court case brought against Lavabit, an email service that was used by the National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, were dismissing privacy concerns raised by the case as a “red herring” that had been “blown out of proportion”.
“We believe encryption is the heart of this case,” Hauss said.
“The judges pointed out that the first order asked for data and didn’t demand SSL keys. But the only way Levison could have provided them with that data as they wanted it was to hand over those keys.”
...
In court, Judge Niemeyer said: "The encryption key comes in only after your client is refusing to give them the unencrypted data.
They don't want the key as an object, they want this data with respect to a target that they are investigating.
And it seems to me that that's all this case is about and it’s been blown out of proportion by all these contentions that the government is seeking keys to access other people's data and so forth.
They are seeking unencrypted data with respect to a target."

Judge Gregory argued the encryption key had become a “red herring”.
"There is such a willingness and a desire to argue about secret keys being provided and the government's going to take full advantage of that and spy on everybody,” said Niemeyer.
What was ordered here was with respect to a particular target to provide unencrypted data pursuant to that order."
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Reading the judges' comments it seems settled already.
I wonder how long it will take for companies like Silent Circle to just move out of the USA.
Their country isn't a viable option anymore to establish such services, it seems.

lotuseclat79 · Feb 3, 2014

German federal prosecutor considers formal NSA investigation.

The country's Federal Prosecutor General has received several complaints over Germany's involvement in the NSA's spying program
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-- Tom

Pinga · Feb 4, 2014

Nullify NSA!
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http://offnow.org/plan/

mirimir · Feb 4, 2014

Pinga said:

http://offnow.org/plan/
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Wow, that's outrageous

lotuseclat79 · Feb 5, 2014

Patriot Act author: Absent reform, we’ll halt bulk metadata program renewal.

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner has said vast data dragnet is "unbounded in its scope."
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-- Tom

Dermot7 · Feb 5, 2014

NBC News has published new documents from the National Security Agency trove provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The latest revelation is that British intelligence agency GCHQ conducted a covert campaign against Anonymous in September of 2011, crippling one operation by the hacktivist group and unmasking several of its members.
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http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...anons-in-irc-attacked-communication-channels/

siljaline · Feb 5, 2014

Snowden aftermath: Defense contractors revamp policies, practices

Both the volume and the sensitivity of the information leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden has compelled US defense contractors to drastically overhaul their hiring practices and reevaluate employees' data access privileges.

The new study conducted by Opinion Matters on behalf of security software provider ThreatTrack Security found that 75 percent of IT and security managers employed by defense contractors have changed their cybersecurity processes in a variety of ways.
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http://www.zdnet.com/snowden-aftermath-defense-contractors-revamp-policies-practices-7000026004/

lotuseclat79 · Feb 6, 2014

Snowden leaks: The man who watches over the NSA.

-- Tom

lotuseclat79 · Feb 6, 2014

SWAP: NSA Exploit of the Day by Bruce Schneier.

-- Tom

siljaline · Feb 7, 2014

Tech’s biggest players hire first NSA lobbyist

siljaline · Feb 7, 2014

Report: NSA bulk metadata program doesn’t cover cellphones

Last summer, the United States was rocked by the first revelation to come from whistleblower Edward Snowden: Verizon (and likely other companies) routinely hand over millions of records on Americans' telephony metadata to the National Security Agency. Some in Congress have subsequently slammed the program, which is widely believed to collect such metadata on all Americans.
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http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/02/report-nsa-bulk-metadata-program-doesnt-cover-cellphones/

siljaline · Feb 7, 2014

Secret court approves Obama's limits on NSA phone record collection

The secret FISA court has approved two of President Barack Obama's proposed changes to how the NSA can use its collection of American phone records. While many of Obama's suggestions will take months to implement, if they go into effect at all, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper wrote yesterday that the court had agreed to two immediate limits. Except in cases of "true emergency," every use of the database — which includes metadata like calling history for virtually all American phone numbers — will now have to be approved beforehand by the FISA court on the basis of a reasonable, articulable suspicion that the search criteria is tied to a known terrorist organization. While agents could previously search within three connections of "hops" of a number, they're now limited to two hops.
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http://www.theverge.com/2014/2/7/53...-obamas-limits-on-nsa-phone-record-collection

MrBrian · Feb 8, 2014

How does the NSA break SSL?

MrBrian · Feb 8, 2014

FLYING PIG: The NSA Is Running Man In The Middle Attacks Imitating Google's Servers (Sept. 2013)

(apologies if posted already)

PaulyDefran · Feb 8, 2014

siljaline said:

Report: NSA bulk metadata program doesn’t cover cellphones
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/02/report-nsa-bulk-metadata-program-doesnt-cover-cellphones/
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Not believing it for a second.

MrBrian · Feb 8, 2014

GCHQ Has Entire Program For 'Dirty Tricks' Including Honeypots, Using Journalists, Deleting Online Accounts

MrBrian · Feb 8, 2014

Catalog of the Snowden Revelations

MrBrian · Feb 8, 2014

Snowden Used Low-Cost Tool to Best N.S.A.

lotuseclat79 · Feb 9, 2014

Snowden nicked NSA docs with common tool, raising more concern about agency -- report.

Edward Snowden used a common Web crawler program to scrape the NSA's systems and grab secret documents, unnamed officials tell The New York Times.
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-- Tom

Pinga · Feb 10, 2014

The National Security Agency is using complex analysis of electronic surveillance, rather than human intelligence, as the primary method to locate targets for lethal drone strikes – an unreliable tactic that results in the deaths of innocent or unidentified people.

According to a former drone operator for the military’s Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) who also worked with the NSA, the agency often identifies targets based on controversial metadata analysis and cell-phone tracking technologies.
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https://firstlook.org/theintercept/article/2014/02/10/the-nsas-secret-role/

Pinga · Feb 10, 2014

Welcome to The Intercept

Our short-term mission is limited but critically important: to provide a platform and an editorial structure in which to aggressively report on the disclosures provided to us by our source, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. We decided to launch now because we believe we have a vital and urgent obligation to this story, to these documents, and to the public.
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https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/02/10/welcome-intercept/

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/staff/

https://twitter.com/the_intercept

Pinga · Feb 11, 2014

Today, February 11th, 2014 is The Day We Fight Back against mass surveillance
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https://thedaywefightback.org/

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