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

NSA chief Keith Alexander and top deputy will abdicate in coming months.

-- Tom

 

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/17/eu-rules-data-us-edward-snowden

 

The top 5 things we’ve learned about the NSA thanks to Edward Snowden.

-- Tom

 

Snowden breaks silence to insist he didn’t help foreign agents.

-- Tom

 

No NSA Poster Child: The Real Story of 9/11 Hijacker Khalid al-Mihdhar.

-- Tom

 

Snowden’s NSA post in Hawaii failed to install “anti-leak” software.

-- Tom

 

Snowden's CIA career taught him that going through channels achieved nothing.

-- Tom

 

A psychological history of the NSA.

-- Tom

 

Wow, "two kids and a mortgage"

Edit: There's a good reason why geeks hate suits

 

Experts Doubt Snowden Could Keep His Leaked Documents Safe From Spies.

It is purely speculative fantasy that leads anyone subscribing to the the tenants of this article to believe that outside agencies were able to poke around inside the NSA and use the same channels Snowden used to get the same documents. Balderdash, Poppy c**k, and Piffle fluff!!!

The main theme of the article is an obvious attempt to discredit Snowden and the pursuit of the truth - and gives more credit than is due to the spycraft of our adversaries IMHO. Another way of saying this is that the NSA (and its friends) are in denial that they were owned by Snowden.

-- Tom

 

Right. But, not to denigrate Snowden's skills, he was able to own them because he was foolishly (or ignorantly) granted priviledged administrative access. It's very unlikely that outside agencies have such access. Even if someone had explained how to do it, I can't imagine anyone gaining access without credentials locked to hosts, IP addresses, etc.

 

Right, because a fully encrypted 64G MicroSD Card can't be hidden from Hong Kong entry controls without you knowing they got it...and then there is still triple cascaded TC (or whatever) to deal with. And you can't securely wipe (not that you would need to, if it was all external) after handing off to the reporters and heading to Russia.

Or you can't go in virgin, and then download a TC container from somewhere, that uses a keyfile in addition to a pass-phrase...maybe part of which you don't even know (you get *it* from elsewhere as well). Heck, maybe a TC container, inside a BestCrypt container, inside a GPG file, that's 7zipped with AES.

Ad infinitum, many ways. I agree, those "experts" are showing their fanboyism. Nothing so far, indicates Snowdon was dumb with INFOSEC.

PD

 

Some recent links:

For those who can read Dutch:

NSA tapte 1,8 miljoen Nederlandse nummers af
http://www.nu.nl/prism/3607456/nsa-tapte-18-miljoen-nederlandse-nummers-af.html

NSA onderschepte in maand metadata 1,8 miljoen telefoontjes in Nederland
http://tweakers.net/nieuws/92067/ns...omma-8-miljoen-telefoontjes-in-nederland.html

Wat ziet de vlieg op de muur allemaal? Dit weten we nu over de NSA-spionage
http://www.volkskrant.nl/vk/nl/1352...al-Dit-weten-we-nu-over-de-NSA-spionage.dhtml


For those who can read French:

Espionnage de la NSA : Washington temporise
http://www.lemonde.fr/technologies/...-demande-des-explications_3499880_651865.html


For those who can read German:

EU-Kommissarin: Neelie Kroes nennt Snowden-Enthüllungen "hilfreich"
http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/netz...t-edward-snowdens-enthuellungen-a-928834.html

 

Reuters​

[B]France summons U.S. ambassador over spying report[/B]​

(Reuters) - France summoned the U.S. ambassador on Monday after a report in Le Monde newspaper underlined the scale and breadth of alleged spying on French citizens by the U.S. National Security Agency.

Le Monde said the agency recorded 70.3 million items of French telephone data between December 10, 2012 and January 8, 2013 and had collected tens of thousands of French phone records.

Its targets appeared to be individuals suspected of links to terrorism, but also people tied to French business or politics, the paper said.

 

Europe should create Web 3.0, writes Le Monde:

http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/4263471-europe-should-create-web-30

 

http://www.spiegel.de/international...ions-us-tapped-her-mobile-phone-a-929642.html

 

This is all vastly amusing

 

Hopefully Mrs Merkel does communicate sensitive subjects in an encrypted way that should not be easy to break.
By the way, I read somewhere that the "hot line" between Moscow and Washington DC is OTP encrypted to avoid any possible risk of being broken.

 

NSA Disinformation: There's No Evidence That Massive Data Collection Thwarts Terror Attacks.

-- Tom

 

Ron Wyden: The Lonely Hero of the Battle Against the Surveillance State.

-- Tom

 

Actually it would be better for all of us here if it was a worst-case scenario. When all of this NSA stuff was revealed, the govt. said it was all OK, don't worry about it. When it was just the ordinary citizens who were affected they didn't give a damn. Now that Angie herself is one of the targets they are suddenly outraged. Westerwelle had the ambassador come to his office and made a big speech on TV today describing how unacceptable this is. We needed this kind of situation to get our politicians back to reality, namely that they are supposed to act in our interests. As it stands now, the only value we have is to vote for them so they can stay in power.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/24/nsa-surveillance-world-leaders-calls/print

 

The Real 'Danger' Of Snowden And Manning: The US Can't Get Away With Its Powerful Hypocrisy Anymore.

-- Tom

 

Well, isn't this part of their mission?

"Gentlemen [sic] do not read read each other's mail." is very old-school these days

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/2...way-with-its-powerful-hypocrisy-anymore.shtml

 

This is a gem, with very general implications, far broader than the current government-surveillance context:

The End of Hypocrisy