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May 5 15 4:57 PM
Statues of whistleblowers Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, and Bradley Manning were unveiled in central Berlin on Friday by activists and members of Germany’s Green party. The statues of the three men are all standing in line on top of chairs in Berlin's Alexanderplatz, beside one extra empty chair. The sculptor, Italian artist Davide Dormino, has encouraged people to stand atop the fourth chair to share their own messages to the public in part of a project called "Anything to Say?" Hundreds of people were gathered at the square on Friday, a day that saw celebrations nationwide for May Day. Dormino told German paper Deutsche Welle that people were already taking the chance to share their views from the chair.
Statues of whistleblowers Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, and Bradley Manning were unveiled in central Berlin on Friday by activists and members of Germany’s Green party.
The statues of the three men are all standing in line on top of chairs in Berlin's Alexanderplatz, beside one extra empty chair.
The sculptor, Italian artist Davide Dormino, has encouraged people to stand atop the fourth chair to share their own messages to the public in part of a project called "Anything to Say?"
Hundreds of people were gathered at the square on Friday, a day that saw celebrations nationwide for May Day.
Dormino told German paper Deutsche Welle that people were already taking the chance to share their views from the chair.
Read more @ http://www.thelocal.de/20150502/snowden-among-statues-unveiled-in-berlin
Read more and watch the video @ http://www.tweaktown.com/news/44927/statues-assange-snowden-manning-unveiled-berlin/index.html
Statues of Snowden, Manning and Assange Unveiled in Germany Read more @ http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Statues-of-Snowden-Manning-and-Assange-Unveiled-in-Germany-20150502-0004.html
The film Citizen Four, which tells the tale of NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden from his initial contact with journalist Glenn Greenwald up to his exile in Russia, won an Oscar last month and according to the CEO of F-Secure Christian Frederikson, when he saw it he said he was “not surprised” as he “thought it was mind blowing”. Speaking on a panel this week in London in conjunction with the 44CON Cyber Security conference, Frederikson commented on how very calm Snowden appeared, that he was “very Finnish or British in his behaviour”. He said: “Whatever your view is of him, you have got to admit that what he did was extremely brave. Could you do the same? It is an extremely brave thing that he did and he believes strongly in what he does.” In a Q&A panel, Frederikson was asked if he felt that privacy was dead, and he admitted that in a way it was, as privacy is dead as we know it, but he felt strongly about it. He acknowledged that it is “dead in a way”, but F-Secure and others can do all that they can and use all resources we have to fight back. He said: “Who are we to say we are better than anyone else to fight for digital freedom? I would claim a few things: we are from Finland and we are proud of our privacy, we are also a low corrupt country which matters as matters stay unpolitical, and it gives us an advantage as nobody else can claim that in our industry and I believe it brings trust. “It is in the Finnish DNA not to talk and it is easy to trust us as we are strong and care and we do the law to protect our customers.”
The film Citizen Four, which tells the tale of NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden from his initial contact with journalist Glenn Greenwald up to his exile in Russia, won an Oscar last month and according to the CEO of F-Secure Christian Frederikson, when he saw it he said he was “not surprised” as he “thought it was mind blowing”.
Speaking on a panel this week in London in conjunction with the 44CON Cyber Security conference, Frederikson commented on how very calm Snowden appeared, that he was “very Finnish or British in his behaviour”.
He said: “Whatever your view is of him, you have got to admit that what he did was extremely brave. Could you do the same? It is an extremely brave thing that he did and he believes strongly in what he does.”
In a Q&A panel, Frederikson was asked if he felt that privacy was dead, and he admitted that in a way it was, as privacy is dead as we know it, but he felt strongly about it. He acknowledged that it is “dead in a way”, but F-Secure and others can do all that they can and use all resources we have to fight back.
He said: “Who are we to say we are better than anyone else to fight for digital freedom? I would claim a few things: we are from Finland and we are proud of our privacy, we are also a low corrupt country which matters as matters stay unpolitical, and it gives us an advantage as nobody else can claim that in our industry and I believe it brings trust.
“It is in the Finnish DNA not to talk and it is easy to trust us as we are strong and care and we do the law to protect our customers.”
Read more @ http://www.itproportal.com/2015/04/30/could-edward-snowden-find-a-home-in-finaland/
PRINCETON: Edward Snowden defends his decision to leak classified information
Unapologetic in appearance at university via video from Moscow Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden told a Princeton University audience Saturday that mass surveillance by the government is wrong and defended his decision to leak classified information about those programs to the media. In his remarks, he was unapologetic for divulging troves of government secrets that led the Justice Department to charge him with espionage, have the government revoke his passport and see him live under asylum in Russia since 2013. He argued against mass surveillance and criticized government officials for authorizing it. “Because whether you agree with me, whether you agree with the NSA, there’s really no question that these programs are controversial,” he said appearing by video from Moscow. “There’s really no question that these programs never should have been instituted in the first place. Or we wouldn’t have the Congress right now, both Republicans and Democrats coming together to say, ‘Look, we need to stop mass surveillance.’ ” For roughly 90 minutes, Mr. Snowden took questions from Washington Post journalist Barton Gellman, one of the reporters that he leaked government secrets to, and later the audience of 250 people sitting in a lecture hall inside the Friend Center. The large number of people coming to hear him led event organizers to open up two overflow rooms for a program that also was streamed over the Internet.
Unapologetic in appearance at university via video from Moscow
Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden told a Princeton University audience Saturday that mass surveillance by the government is wrong and defended his decision to leak classified information about those programs to the media.
In his remarks, he was unapologetic for divulging troves of government secrets that led the Justice Department to charge him with espionage, have the government revoke his passport and see him live under asylum in Russia since 2013. He argued against mass surveillance and criticized government officials for authorizing it.
“Because whether you agree with me, whether you agree with the NSA, there’s really no question that these programs are controversial,” he said appearing by video from Moscow. “There’s really no question that these programs never should have been instituted in the first place. Or we wouldn’t have the Congress right now, both Republicans and Democrats coming together to say, ‘Look, we need to stop mass surveillance.’ ”
For roughly 90 minutes, Mr. Snowden took questions from Washington Post journalist Barton Gellman, one of the reporters that he leaked government secrets to, and later the audience of 250 people sitting in a lecture hall inside the Friend Center. The large number of people coming to hear him led event organizers to open up two overflow rooms for a program that also was streamed over the Internet.
Read more @ http://www.centraljersey.com/articles/2015/05/04/the_princeton_packet/featured/doc55458e119e668355205239.txt
Apologists for the National Security Agency (NSA) point to the arrest of David Coleman Headley as an example of how warrantless mass surveillance is necessary to catch terrorists. Headley played a major role in the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack that killed 166 people. While few would argue that bringing someone like Headley to justice is not a good thing, Headley’s case in no way justifies mass surveillance. For one thing, there is no “terrorist” exception in the Fourth Amendment. Saying a good end (capturing terrorists) justifies a bad means (mass surveillance) gives the government a blank check to violate our liberties. Even if the Headley case somehow justified overturning the Fourth Amendment, it still would not justify mass surveillance and bulk data collection. This is because, according to an investigation by ProPublica, NSA surveillance played an insignificant role in catching Headley. One former counter-terrorism official said when he heard that NSA surveillance was responsible for Headley’s capture he “was trying to figure out how NSA played a role.” The Headley case is not the only evidence that the PATRIOT Act and other post-9/11 sacrifices of our liberty have not increased our security. For example, the NSA’s claim that its surveillance programs thwarted 54 terrorist attacks has been widely discredited. Even the president’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies found that mass surveillance and bulk data collection was “not essential to preventing attacks.” According to the congressional Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Activities before and after the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001 and the 9/11 Commission, the powers granted the NSA by the PATRIOT Act would not have prevented the 9/11 attacks. Many intelligence experts have pointed out that, by increasing the size of the haystack government agencies must look through, mass surveillance makes it harder to find the needle of legitimate threats.
Apologists for the National Security Agency (NSA) point to the arrest of David Coleman Headley as an example of how warrantless mass surveillance is necessary to catch terrorists. Headley played a major role in the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack that killed 166 people.
While few would argue that bringing someone like Headley to justice is not a good thing, Headley’s case in no way justifies mass surveillance. For one thing, there is no “terrorist” exception in the Fourth Amendment. Saying a good end (capturing terrorists) justifies a bad means (mass surveillance) gives the government a blank check to violate our liberties.
Even if the Headley case somehow justified overturning the Fourth Amendment, it still would not justify mass surveillance and bulk data collection. This is because, according to an investigation by ProPublica, NSA surveillance played an insignificant role in catching Headley. One former counter-terrorism official said when he heard that NSA surveillance was responsible for Headley’s capture he “was trying to figure out how NSA played a role.”
The Headley case is not the only evidence that the PATRIOT Act and other post-9/11 sacrifices of our liberty have not increased our security. For example, the NSA’s claim that its surveillance programs thwarted 54 terrorist attacks has been widely discredited. Even the president’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies found that mass surveillance and bulk data collection was “not essential to preventing attacks.”
According to the congressional Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Activities before and after the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001 and the 9/11 Commission, the powers granted the NSA by the PATRIOT Act would not have prevented the 9/11 attacks. Many intelligence experts have pointed out that, by increasing the size of the haystack government agencies must look through, mass surveillance makes it harder to find the needle of legitimate threats.
Read more @ http://www.eurasiareview.com/03052015-ron-paul-usa-freedom-act-just-another-word-for-lost-liberty-oped/
A new standoff is building over the Patriot Act. Congress is in the opening rounds of a month-long battle over American spying, in what is likely to be the last best chance for civil libertarians to rein in the National Security Agency (NSA) since Edward Snowden’s leaks two years ago. With a critical deadline to renew the act looming at the end of May, lawmakers have already begun to stake out their positions in the most heated fight over intelligence powers in years. Here are five things you need to know about the coming fight: 1.) When's the deadline? On June 1, three portions of the Patriot Act — the national security law passed in the days after Sept. 11, 2001 — are set to expire. But Congress is out of session because of Memorial Day for the last week of the month, so the effective deadline is May 22. Among the expiring provisions is Section 215, the controversial measure that allows the government to collect “any tangible thing” that is “relevant” to an investigation into suspected terrorists or foreign spies. Edward Snowden’s leaks in the summer of 2013 showed how the National Security Agency has used that language to collect “metadata” about millions of Americans phone calls without warrants. Since then, civil libertarians have targeted Section 215 for reform. The phone records include information about the two numbers involved in a call, when the call took place and how long it lasted — but not the actual details of the conversation. The other expiring sections expand the ability of the government to track potential “lone wolf” attackers and also allow intelligence agencies to obtain surveillance orders that cover multiple unidentified devices, which officials say is crucial to track suspects who switch from one phone to another, for instance. 2.) What happens if Congress fails? According to the White House, the NSA’s phone records program will end completely. “If Section 215 sunsets, we will not continue the bulk telephony metadata program,” National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said in a statement in March. For some critics of the NSA, that would be welcome news. But the Obama administration and most lawmakers say it would handicap U.S. officials trying to stop terrorists.
A new standoff is building over the Patriot Act.
Congress is in the opening rounds of a month-long battle over American spying, in what is likely to be the last best chance for civil libertarians to rein in the National Security Agency (NSA) since Edward Snowden’s leaks two years ago.
With a critical deadline to renew the act looming at the end of May, lawmakers have already begun to stake out their positions in the most heated fight over intelligence powers in years.
Here are five things you need to know about the coming fight:
1.) When's the deadline?
On June 1, three portions of the Patriot Act — the national security law passed in the days after Sept. 11, 2001 — are set to expire. But Congress is out of session because of Memorial Day for the last week of the month, so the effective deadline is May 22.
Among the expiring provisions is Section 215, the controversial measure that allows the government to collect “any tangible thing” that is “relevant” to an investigation into suspected terrorists or foreign spies.
Edward Snowden’s leaks in the summer of 2013 showed how the National Security Agency has used that language to collect “metadata” about millions of Americans phone calls without warrants. Since then, civil libertarians have targeted Section 215 for reform.
The phone records include information about the two numbers involved in a call, when the call took place and how long it lasted — but not the actual details of the conversation.
The other expiring sections expand the ability of the government to track potential “lone wolf” attackers and also allow intelligence agencies to obtain surveillance orders that cover multiple unidentified devices, which officials say is crucial to track suspects who switch from one phone to another, for instance.
2.) What happens if Congress fails?
According to the White House, the NSA’s phone records program will end completely.
“If Section 215 sunsets, we will not continue the bulk telephony metadata program,” National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said in a statement in March.
For some critics of the NSA, that would be welcome news. But the Obama administration and most lawmakers say it would handicap U.S. officials trying to stop terrorists.
Read more @ http://thehill.com/policy/technology/240810-patriot-act-fight-5-things-to-know
Two years ago filmmaker Laura Poitras knew that international authorities wanted to snoop on her. At the time she was filming her Oscar winning documentary, “Citizenfour,” which documented NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden as he fled to Hong Kong in 2013. Given the sensitivity of the subject, it quickly became apparent that global authorities were looking for any and all information relating to Snowden and his whereabouts. To protect Snowden, Poitras followed heightened communication protocols to ensure any snoopers wouldn’t know where she or Snowden were nor what they were saying to each other. In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, the filmmaker explained the extensive measures she took to maintain her digital anonymity.
Two years ago filmmaker Laura Poitras knew that international authorities wanted to snoop on her.
At the time she was filming her Oscar winning documentary, “Citizenfour,” which documented NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden as he fled to Hong Kong in 2013. Given the sensitivity of the subject, it quickly became apparent that global authorities were looking for any and all information relating to Snowden and his whereabouts.
To protect Snowden, Poitras followed heightened communication protocols to ensure any snoopers wouldn’t know where she or Snowden were nor what they were saying to each other. In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, the filmmaker explained the extensive measures she took to maintain her digital anonymity.
Read more @ http://www.businessinsider.com.au/how-laura-poitras-avoided-being-tracked-by-government-during-citizenfour-2015-4
Film review: Citizenfour - Edward Snowden in Hong Kong
Read more @ http://www.scmp.com/magazines/48hrs/article/1783444/film-review-citizenfour-edward-snowden-hong-kong
By giving Charlie Hebdo an award, PEN seems to be suggesting that mass murder makes racism acceptable. PEN shouldn’t be handing a Freedom of Expression Courage Award to Charlie Hebdo on May 5. I say this while agreeing that the editors of the satirical magazine did express themselves freely, and had remarkable courage. And then they died hideously. As I look at photos of the blood smears and red-stained papers scattered on the floor of the room where the writers and editors were shot to death, I wonder if I’m wrong. But hard cases make bad law, and mass murder doesn’t make racism acceptable. Hebdo critics are accused of misunderstanding French satire. But Hebdo being misunderstood doesn’t mean it was a work of genius or even a force for good. And I’m not saying Charlie Hebdo was specifically racist. They wrote offensively about everyone (mostly Muslims and Jews). But that doesn’t change the fact that racial and religious minorities, or minorities of any sort, are a lousy target. We don’t ridicule Jews, or kids with autism, or the fat ... oh wait, we do. I hate that. The PEN protesters — novelists Michael Ondaatje, Teju Cole, Peter Carey, Rachel Kushner, Taiye Selasi and Francine Prose — have withdrawn from a gala at the American Museum of Natural History in New York at which Hebdo’s representatives are to receive the award. Some of these are hallowed names in literature. PEN President Andrew Solomon is a brilliant writer and a kind man. Everyone in this story is well-intentioned, which is what makes the civilized disagreement interesting.
PEN shouldn’t be handing a Freedom of Expression Courage Award to Charlie Hebdo on May 5. I say this while agreeing that the editors of the satirical magazine did express themselves freely, and had remarkable courage.
And then they died hideously. As I look at photos of the blood smears and red-stained papers scattered on the floor of the room where the writers and editors were shot to death, I wonder if I’m wrong. But hard cases make bad law, and mass murder doesn’t make racism acceptable.
Hebdo critics are accused of misunderstanding French satire. But Hebdo being misunderstood doesn’t mean it was a work of genius or even a force for good.
And I’m not saying Charlie Hebdo was specifically racist. They wrote offensively about everyone (mostly Muslims and Jews). But that doesn’t change the fact that racial and religious minorities, or minorities of any sort, are a lousy target. We don’t ridicule Jews, or kids with autism, or the fat ... oh wait, we do. I hate that.
The PEN protesters — novelists Michael Ondaatje, Teju Cole, Peter Carey, Rachel Kushner, Taiye Selasi and Francine Prose — have withdrawn from a gala at the American Museum of Natural History in New York at which Hebdo’s representatives are to receive the award. Some of these are hallowed names in literature. PEN President Andrew Solomon is a brilliant writer and a kind man. Everyone in this story is well-intentioned, which is what makes the civilized disagreement interesting.
Read more @ http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2015/04/28/why-did-pen-choose-hebdo-over-edward-snowden-mallick.html
The future as told by Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 is a world in which many of our current society's fears have come true. Climate change and lack of resources have forced Earth's nations into conflict, and battlefields are overrun by autonomous drones and lethal, humanoid robots. Super-soldiers fight with heightened senses and strength, gaining advantages while losing their humanity. It's a dystopian sci-fi vision we've become oddly accustomed to seeing, but in the new Call of Duty game some elements are uncomfortably familiar, like the Edward Snowden analog who seems to be central to the game's conflict.
The future as told by Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 is a world in which many of our current society's fears have come true. Climate change and lack of resources have forced Earth's nations into conflict, and battlefields are overrun by autonomous drones and lethal, humanoid robots. Super-soldiers fight with heightened senses and strength, gaining advantages while losing their humanity.
It's a dystopian sci-fi vision we've become oddly accustomed to seeing, but in the new Call of Duty game some elements are uncomfortably familiar, like the Edward Snowden analog who seems to be central to the game's conflict.
Read more @ http://mashable.com/2015/04/26/call-of-duty-edward-snowden/
Legendary NSA whistleblower William Binney provided Business Insider with an explanation for why he said that in June 2013, Edward Snowden was "transitioning from whistleblower to a traitor." The explanation is noteworthy on several levels. Binney provided Business Insider with a convoluted statement that included both denials and confirmations of what he said about the former NSA contractor's motives while committing largest leak of classified documents in US intelligence history. Binney, a 32-year veteran of the US intelligence community and one of the best code breakers in NSA history, is one of the primary supporters of Snowden and a central character in the documentary "Citizenfour." The mathematician told "Citizenfour" director Laura Poitras how he built a program called "Stellarwind," which served as a pervasive domestic spying apparatus after 9/11. Binney's story as a whistleblower sets the stage for footage showing Snowden's collaboration with Poitras in Hong Kong. Snowden allegedly stole up to 1.77 million NSA document while working at two consecutive jobs for US government contractors in Hawaii from March 2012 to May 2013. The 31-year-old gave an estimated 200,000 documents to American journalists Glenn Greenwald and Poitras in early June 2013. (The whereabouts of the rest of these documents are unknown.)
Legendary NSA whistleblower William Binney provided Business Insider with an explanation for why he said that in June 2013, Edward Snowden was "transitioning from whistleblower to a traitor."
The explanation is noteworthy on several levels. Binney provided Business Insider with a convoluted statement that included both denials and confirmations of what he said about the former NSA contractor's motives while committing largest leak of classified documents in US intelligence history.
Binney, a 32-year veteran of the US intelligence community and one of the best code breakers in NSA history, is one of the primary supporters of Snowden and a central character in the documentary "Citizenfour."
The mathematician told "Citizenfour" director Laura Poitras how he built a program called "Stellarwind," which served as a pervasive domestic spying apparatus after 9/11. Binney's story as a whistleblower sets the stage for footage showing Snowden's collaboration with Poitras in Hong Kong.
Snowden allegedly stole up to 1.77 million NSA document while working at two consecutive jobs for US government contractors in Hawaii from March 2012 to May 2013. The 31-year-old gave an estimated 200,000 documents to American journalists Glenn Greenwald and Poitras in early June 2013. (The whereabouts of the rest of these documents are unknown.)
Read more @ http://www.businessinsider.in/Legendary-NSA-whistleblower-explains-why-he-said-Snowden-was-becoming-a-traitor/articleshow/47116358.cms
Julian Assange has launched a bitter attack on the Guardian and claimed that the newspaper is guilty of 'institutional narcissism'. In a scathing editorial for Newsweek, the WikiLeaks founder accused the newspaper of being hypocrites and leaving Edward Snowden in the lurch after getting what they wanted from him. Mr Assange also claimed that The Guardian was far more interested in cashing in after being paid £460,000 for rights to a forthcoming film about the affair, which will be directed by Oliver Stone.
Julian Assange has launched a bitter attack on the Guardian and claimed that the newspaper is guilty of 'institutional narcissism'.
In a scathing editorial for Newsweek, the WikiLeaks founder accused the newspaper of being hypocrites and leaving Edward Snowden in the lurch after getting what they wanted from him.
Mr Assange also claimed that The Guardian was far more interested in cashing in after being paid £460,000 for rights to a forthcoming film about the affair, which will be directed by Oliver Stone.
Read more @ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3049176/Julian-Assange-attacks-Guardian-handling-Edward-Snowden-Newsweek-editorial.html
The whistleblower is viewed negatively by 64 percent of Americans familiar with him, results say. A poll of Americans and people living in nine other Western countries has found exiled whistleblower Edward Snowden is far more popular abroad than he is at home. Snowden, a contractor who worked with the National Security Agency, ignited an intense, ongoing global policy debate about mass surveillance in June 2013 by exposing the collection of vast amounts of phone and Internet records and communications by the NSA and allied intelligence agencies. For his efforts, about 64 percent of Americans familiar with Snowden hold a negative opinion of him, according to KRC Research poll results shared with U.S. News. Thirty-six percent hold a positive opinion, with just 8 percent holding a very positive opinion. The survey was commissioned by the American Civil Liberties Union, which provides legal representation to Snowden, who received asylum in Russia after the U.S. canceled his passport.
A poll of Americans and people living in nine other Western countries has found exiled whistleblower Edward Snowden is far more popular abroad than he is at home.
Snowden, a contractor who worked with the National Security Agency, ignited an intense, ongoing global policy debate about mass surveillance in June 2013 by exposing the collection of vast amounts of phone and Internet records and communications by the NSA and allied intelligence agencies.
For his efforts, about 64 percent of Americans familiar with Snowden hold a negative opinion of him, according to KRC Research poll results shared with U.S. News. Thirty-six percent hold a positive opinion, with just 8 percent holding a very positive opinion.
The survey was commissioned by the American Civil Liberties Union, which provides legal representation to Snowden, who received asylum in Russia after the U.S. canceled his passport.
Read more @ http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/04/21/edward-snowden-unpopular-at-home-a-hero-abroad-poll-finds
Edward Snowden continues to have an outsized role in the global discussion around surveillance and Internet rights. CryptoRave, perhaps the largest conference on cryptology and Internet privacy in Latin America, kicked off Friday in São Paulo, Brazil. Several thousand people, including young programmers, activists, hackers and self-described “cyberpunks” of all types are expected to attend the 24-hour marathon of workshops, trainings, lectures, roundtables and, yes, some parties, all dedicated to cryptology, or the practice of using encoded digital communication to stop unwanted snooping. But much has changed since the crypto movement took off in Brazil and Latin America two years ago. Activists are still concerned with the kind of US surveillance Snowden’s leaks revealed, but increasingly, they’re also asking questions about issues closer to home. “I think it started thanks to Edward Snowden uncovering what the US is doing. And now everyone is turning to understand, ‘Oh, what is my government doing about my data in my country, where they actually have jurisdiction over me?” says Katitza Rodriguez, international rights director for the digital rights advocacy group the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and one of the keynote speakers at CryptoRave. “It’s not that they don’t care about NSA spying — they care — but actually all the discussion and the debate in the US have kind of informed the activists of the traditional human rights community to dig more into the surveillance infrastructure in their own countries.” The movement around Internet privacy and security in Brazil grew dramatically in 2013 in the wake of Snowden’s leaks involving NSA spying on Brazilian oil giant Petrobras and government officials, including Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff. The story and its repercussions reverberated in Brazilian media for months. Gustavo Gus, a 28-year-old organizer of the CryptoRave festival, credits the Snowden leaks with laying the foundation for the cryptology movement in Brazil.
Edward Snowden continues to have an outsized role in the global discussion around surveillance and Internet rights.
CryptoRave, perhaps the largest conference on cryptology and Internet privacy in Latin America, kicked off Friday in São Paulo, Brazil. Several thousand people, including young programmers, activists, hackers and self-described “cyberpunks” of all types are expected to attend the 24-hour marathon of workshops, trainings, lectures, roundtables and, yes, some parties, all dedicated to cryptology, or the practice of using encoded digital communication to stop unwanted snooping.
But much has changed since the crypto movement took off in Brazil and Latin America two years ago. Activists are still concerned with the kind of US surveillance Snowden’s leaks revealed, but increasingly, they’re also asking questions about issues closer to home.
“I think it started thanks to Edward Snowden uncovering what the US is doing. And now everyone is turning to understand, ‘Oh, what is my government doing about my data in my country, where they actually have jurisdiction over me?” says Katitza Rodriguez, international rights director for the digital rights advocacy group the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and one of the keynote speakers at CryptoRave. “It’s not that they don’t care about NSA spying — they care — but actually all the discussion and the debate in the US have kind of informed the activists of the traditional human rights community to dig more into the surveillance infrastructure in their own countries.”
The movement around Internet privacy and security in Brazil grew dramatically in 2013 in the wake of Snowden’s leaks involving NSA spying on Brazilian oil giant Petrobras and government officials, including Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff. The story and its repercussions reverberated in Brazilian media for months. Gustavo Gus, a 28-year-old organizer of the CryptoRave festival, credits the Snowden leaks with laying the foundation for the cryptology movement in Brazil.
Read more @ http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-04-25/edward-snowden-s-south-american-legacy-grows-brazil-s-crypto-movement-marches
Members of Congress appear ready to use a rare moment of leverage over the NSA to place modest limits on only one of the many mass surveillance programs exposed by Edward Snowden. The USA Freedom Act of 2015, a long-awaited compromise bill negotiated by House and Senate Judiciary Committee members, was unveiled Tuesday. The bill calls for the bulk collection of Americans’ phone records by the National Security Agency to be replaced with a more selective approach in which the agency would collect from communications companies only records that match certain terms. The bill also requires more disclosure — and a public advocate — for the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. But nearly two years after Snowden gave the public a rare and extensive view into the U.S. surveillance state, Congress is doing nothing to limit NSA programs ostensibly targeted at foreigners that nonetheless collect vast amounts of American communications, nor to limit the agency’s mass surveillance of non-American communications. The limited reforms in the new bill affect only the one program explicitly aimed at Americans. Congress had leverage for once because three provisions of the PATRIOT Act are set to expire on June 1. They include, most significantly, Section 215 of the act, which was intended to allow the government to obtain specific business records relevant to particular counterterror investigations, subject to review by a FISA court judge. Instead, the NSA used it to justify the wholesale seizure of American telephone records.
Members of Congress appear ready to use a rare moment of leverage over the NSA to place modest limits on only one of the many mass surveillance programs exposed by Edward Snowden.
The USA Freedom Act of 2015, a long-awaited compromise bill negotiated by House and Senate Judiciary Committee members, was unveiled Tuesday. The bill calls for the bulk collection of Americans’ phone records by the National Security Agency to be replaced with a more selective approach in which the agency would collect from communications companies only records that match certain terms. The bill also requires more disclosure — and a public advocate — for the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
But nearly two years after Snowden gave the public a rare and extensive view into the U.S. surveillance state, Congress is doing nothing to limit NSA programs ostensibly targeted at foreigners that nonetheless collect vast amounts of American communications, nor to limit the agency’s mass surveillance of non-American communications. The limited reforms in the new bill affect only the one program explicitly aimed at Americans.
Congress had leverage for once because three provisions of the PATRIOT Act are set to expire on June 1. They include, most significantly, Section 215 of the act, which was intended to allow the government to obtain specific business records relevant to particular counterterror investigations, subject to review by a FISA court judge. Instead, the NSA used it to justify the wholesale seizure of American telephone records.
Read more @ https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/04/28/nearly-two-years-snowden-congress-poised-something-just-much/
A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers has reintroduced legislation aimed at ending the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of telephone records across the country. Four senior members of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee planned to reintroduce the USA Freedom Act late Tuesday. The House passed a watered-down version of similar legislation in last May, but the Senate failed to act on it before November’s elections. The new bill would end all bulk collection of telephone and other business records under the Patriot Act, the antiterrorism legislation passed in the days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S. The House Judiciary Committee has scheduled a hearing to amend and vote on the new bill this Thursday.
A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers has reintroduced legislation aimed at ending the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of telephone records across the country.
Four senior members of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee planned to reintroduce the USA Freedom Act late Tuesday. The House passed a watered-down version of similar legislation in last May, but the Senate failed to act on it before November’s elections.
Read more @ http://www.itworld.com/article/2916155/bill-to-rein-in-nsa-phone-data-collection-reintroduced.html
One of the first fights of the Republican presidential primary season will be over U.S. spying. Congress’s upcoming debate over reforming government surveillance and extending portions of the Patriot Act will ensnare Republicans with their eyes on the White House — drawing a clear divide between the hawkish and libertarian-leaning contenders. Ahead of a critical June 1 deadline, GOP candidates have already begun to weigh in. “Sadly, one GOP candidate thinks the NSA’s [National Security Agency] violation of your rights is ‘very important,’ ” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) tweeted over the weekend. “On day one in the Oval Office, I will END the NSA’s illegal assault on your rights.” The comment was a swipe at former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R), who has jumped at the opportunity to defend the NSA’s collection of data about millions of people in the U.S. Not only is the program in the best interests of the nation, he has said, but it’s also “the best part of the Obama administration.” The combative rhetoric, from Paul especially, is sure to heat up in coming weeks, as lawmakers begin debating proposals to reauthorize an expiring provision in the Patriot Act that gives the NSA authority to collect phone records without a warrant. The program collects metadata from people’s phone calls, such as the numbers involved in a call and when it occurred but not the conversations. Unless Congress acts by June 1, that provision, known as Section 215, and two others would expire.
One of the first fights of the Republican presidential primary season will be over U.S. spying.
Congress’s upcoming debate over reforming government surveillance and extending portions of the Patriot Act will ensnare Republicans with their eyes on the White House — drawing a clear divide between the hawkish and libertarian-leaning contenders.
Ahead of a critical June 1 deadline, GOP candidates have already begun to weigh in.
“Sadly, one GOP candidate thinks the NSA’s [National Security Agency] violation of your rights is ‘very important,’ ” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) tweeted over the weekend. “On day one in the Oval Office, I will END the NSA’s illegal assault on your rights.”
The comment was a swipe at former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R), who has jumped at the opportunity to defend the NSA’s collection of data about millions of people in the U.S. Not only is the program in the best interests of the nation, he has said, but it’s also “the best part of the Obama administration.”
The combative rhetoric, from Paul especially, is sure to heat up in coming weeks, as lawmakers begin debating proposals to reauthorize an expiring provision in the Patriot Act that gives the NSA authority to collect phone records without a warrant.
The program collects metadata from people’s phone calls, such as the numbers involved in a call and when it occurred but not the conversations.
Unless Congress acts by June 1, that provision, known as Section 215, and two others would expire.
Read more @ http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/240249-patriot-act-showdown-looms-for-gops-presidential-field
A few weeks ago, Last Week Tonight’s John Oliver travelled all the way to Russia to interview Edward Snowden. Snowden, of course is responsible for numerous leaks that revealed the advanced surveillance operations intelligence agencies are capable of nowadays. The interview was particularly enjoyable thanks ti the fact that Oliver’s team was able to present serious matters in very entertaining ways. One of the gems in that episode is related to password security, PopularMechanics points out, with Snowden revealing one key tip that you absolutely should consider when setting up online passwords. You of course need to configure hard-to-remember passwords that include symbols, numbers and capital letters, not to mention enough number of characters; a computer can crack eight-character passwords in less than 1 second. But Snowden takes things a step further with a simple but effective idea. You should set up pass-phrases that aren’t in password dictionaries, and which are so personal that only you could remember. These phrases would be long enough so that computers can’t brute-force their way through them as easily, and also contain the kind of characters mentioned above. 1LoveRead1ngBGREveryDay! might be one example.
A few weeks ago, Last Week Tonight’s John Oliver travelled all the way to Russia to interview Edward Snowden. Snowden, of course is responsible for numerous leaks that revealed the advanced surveillance operations intelligence agencies are capable of nowadays. The interview was particularly enjoyable thanks ti the fact that Oliver’s team was able to present serious matters in very entertaining ways. One of the gems in that episode is related to password security, PopularMechanics points out, with Snowden revealing one key tip that you absolutely should consider when setting up online passwords.
You of course need to configure hard-to-remember passwords that include symbols, numbers and capital letters, not to mention enough number of characters; a computer can crack eight-character passwords in less than 1 second. But Snowden takes things a step further with a simple but effective idea.
You should set up pass-phrases that aren’t in password dictionaries, and which are so personal that only you could remember. These phrases would be long enough so that computers can’t brute-force their way through them as easily, and also contain the kind of characters mentioned above. 1LoveRead1ngBGREveryDay! might be one example.
Read more @ http://bgr.com/2015/04/21/snowden-password-tips-pass-phrases/
Nearly two years after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed that the agency had penetrated the internal systems of Facebook, Google and other companies, tech executives still harbor hard feelings. That’s led to a strained relationship with the Pentagon. “The Snowden issue clouds things,” United States Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter acknowledged during a visit to WIRED’s New York offices Monday. Nevertheless, with cyberterrorism on the rise, the Pentagon has never needed tech’s know-how more. To be fair, Snowden’s explosive revelations are not the only reason Silicon Valley and the Pentagon don’t always get along. For one thing, the institutions that reside within each world operate very differently. The military moves slowly, while startups move quickly. Military personnel adhere to an immutable job hierarchy, respecting traditional career paths, while techies often skip college, change jobs frequently, and start their own companies.
Nearly two years after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed that the agency had penetrated the internal systems of Facebook, Google and other companies, tech executives still harbor hard feelings. That’s led to a strained relationship with the Pentagon. “The Snowden issue clouds things,” United States Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter acknowledged during a visit to WIRED’s New York offices Monday.
Nevertheless, with cyberterrorism on the rise, the Pentagon has never needed tech’s know-how more.
To be fair, Snowden’s explosive revelations are not the only reason Silicon Valley and the Pentagon don’t always get along. For one thing, the institutions that reside within each world operate very differently. The military moves slowly, while startups move quickly. Military personnel adhere to an immutable job hierarchy, respecting traditional career paths, while techies often skip college, change jobs frequently, and start their own companies.
Read more @ http://www.wired.com/2015/04/us-defense-secretary-snowden-caused-tensions-techies/
Whistleblowers are hardly a new phenomenon -- Wikipedia lists dozens of the more famous ones, going back to the 18th century. There have also been important government whistleblowers before -- people like Daniel Ellsberg, William Binney, Thomas Drake and John Kiriakou. Chelsea Manning's leak was on a huge scale, and garnered enormous media attention. And yet there is no doubt that it is Edward Snowden who has really changed the whistleblowing world most dramatically. Because of what he leaked, and the way he leaked it -- the fact that he has evaded arrest, and is still free, even if living a somewhat circumscribed existence in Russia -- Snowden has ignited debates at multiple levels. As well as the obvious ones about surveillance, privacy, power and democracy, there's another one around whistleblowing itself, which has already had important knock-on effects. Evidence of that comes in an interesting post by Bruce Schneier, where he tots up the likely number of leakers that have recently started to provide information about the US intelligence community. Alongside Manning and Snowden, he thinks there are probably five more:
Whistleblowers are hardly a new phenomenon -- Wikipedia lists dozens of the more famous ones, going back to the 18th century. There have also been important government whistleblowers before -- people like Daniel Ellsberg, William Binney, Thomas Drake and John Kiriakou. Chelsea Manning's leak was on a huge scale, and garnered enormous media attention. And yet there is no doubt that it is Edward Snowden who has really changed the whistleblowing world most dramatically.
Because of what he leaked, and the way he leaked it -- the fact that he has evaded arrest, and is still free, even if living a somewhat circumscribed existence in Russia -- Snowden has ignited debates at multiple levels. As well as the obvious ones about surveillance, privacy, power and democracy, there's another one around whistleblowing itself, which has already had important knock-on effects. Evidence of that comes in an interesting post by Bruce Schneier, where he tots up the likely number of leakers that have recently started to provide information about the US intelligence community. Alongside Manning and Snowden, he thinks there are probably five more:
Read more @ https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150421/09333930739/welcome-to-new-league-leakers-courtesy-edward-snowden.shtml
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~
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