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

I haven't found a video of Clarke's address, but it sounds like that comment about US and other intelligence agencies being able to access information even when it isn't stored in the US was but one point in a larger commentary against the efforts in some non-US countries to establish data localization requirements. I agree with him that some countries and their industries are promoting such things for NON-security related reasons. They are capitalizing on the Snowden revelations and anti-foreign-XYZ sentiment to push pro-local-economy agendas forward. Those simply promoting a shift away from "US cloud services" to "local cloud services" probably fall into this category.

However, I get the impression that there are also some cases where the proposals are legitimate and privacy/security oriented. Involving not only eminently prudent proposals to localize data but *also* to place some restrictions on the type/nature of cloud services used for different things. Without the full content of his speech I can't be sure, but what I've read gives me this feeling there was a "I'm at a conference for large established cloud players who want to expand their businesses without opposition, attacking those who might stand in the way of that will go over well" element to it.

 

hi

La Quadrature du Net is a French non profit organization devoted to privacy and internet liberty protection.
An overview of the N S A programs with nsa-observer

https://nsa-observer.laquadrature.net/

More general about USA plans

http://www.laquadrature.net/wiki/Usa_surveillance_tools

Rgds

 

How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate, Deceive, and Destroy Reputations by Glenn Greenwald.

-- Tom

 

Yes, I posted last evening: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=2344445&postcount=1350

...and it's also posted here: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=360597

 

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/0...rveillance_and_code_backdoors_says_microsoft/

 

~ RSA’s Coviello Calls for Global Surveillance Reforms, Enhanced Privacy Protection ~

http://threatpost.com/rsas-coviello...ce-reforms-enhanced-privacy-protection/104468

 

The article closes with an interesting quote from Coviello:

The Internet is by no means a "trusted environment". That's why we have firewalls etc, and encryption for links and data.

What we need are trusted tools for working securely in untrusted environments.

And that's where RSA failed by trusting the NSA

 

Coviello is attempting spin control. "We had no idea!"... yeah right. RSA didn't know that a ton of security researchers said Dual EC DRBG was junk as far back as '07? It took until 2013 to say don't use it? Hahaha. Hope their stock bottoms.

 

Q&A: Schneier on trust, NSA spying and the end of US internet hegemony

 

Yahoo webcam images from millions of users intercepted by GCHQ

 

Any "terror suspects or criminals" who are dumb enough to show their faces to webcams while "making use of multiple, anonymous user IDs" deserve to be found

Seriously

 

Yahoo will probably not have expected another fist up there. That already battered company is going through the wringer.
Funny btw that for the NSA, US citizen rights, depend on a UK-based signature.
How old school, I'd say.

The main question still remains though, who won the Five Eyes Booty contest?

 

Right. They're not going to catch any serious terrorists or criminals that way.

But I bet that there's considerable blackmail potential in that data

 

This story wasn't even mentioned in a major network's evening newscast here *sigh*.

 

Of course it wasn't, did you really expect it to be ? They have total control.
Everyone with the intelligence to do so should right now be researching and learning about encryption algorithms and techniques and finding ways to improve them. We can make internet communications "go dark" we have the responsibilty to future generations to do so. Our generation will forever carry the shame of allowing them to take away our rights and freedoms in the real world while we waved our flags and sang the land of the free. Lets not allow the same thing to happen to OUR internet.

 

I don't see this as some sort of conspiracy; the news website for this same major network does cover the story. The story isn't in their "most popular" section, so I guess that tells us something about readers' interest in it.

 

Will Webcam Images be used to Smear and Blackmail Targets?

 

https://www.bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/home/2014/02/gchq-taken-photo-webcam.html
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/27/gchq-interception-storage-webcam-images-condemned

 

So it's OK to access them routinely when there is "suspicion of any wrongdoing"?

How much suspicion is enough?

I wouldn't count on "law" to protect us

 

I will make my own law in my own house.

1. No cameras in my house allowed unless covered by a black tape.
2. Smart devices are required to get lobotomy.
3. No device other than a laptop or smartphone shall be connected to the internet.

And yes I don't trust any politicians. I wont ever believe in any laws they make. The only sure way to make sure something is not happening is to prevent it yourself on your own end.

 

Senators to investigate NSA role in GCHQ 'Optic Nerve' webcam spying

 

NSA head floats idea: What if we only gathered terrorist communications?.

-- Tom

 

I can imagine that it must be awkward to look at some random minor showing nudity on a webcam.
Usually that's called 'possesing/watching child pornography' in legal terms.

Amusing to think of NSA boss Keith Alexander' keynote at Defcon 2013' link

He likes to avoid his grandchildren reading any offensive language he might have used but having his US/UK subordinates watching others grandchildren nude images, is OK.
Remember the NSA statement on this particular episode (see my post above);

 

This lecture is the one primer you need on NSA surveillance technology.

Related:
Liberty and Security in a Changing World (925.4 KB)

Trustycon: how to redesign NSA surveillance to catch more criminals and spy on a lot fewer people.

-- Tom

 

From Heidi Boghosian on Mass Surveillance:

From the essay: