Major threat: Hacking Team warns its spying tools are now in the hands of terrorists

Following a massive security breach over the weekend, Hacking Team has issued a warning that its surveillance and remote access software could now be used by anyone -- including terrorists. The Italian security and surveillance firm fell victim to an attack that relieved it of 400GB of company data, including source code for its software.

Whoever was responsible for the security breach made this data available via torrent, meaning that anyone was able to get hold of it. Hacking Team's software is favoured by governments around the world for mounting NSA-style surveillance and monitoring programs and the company has now issued a stark warning: "Terrorists, extortionists and others can deploy this technology at will if they have the technical ability to do so".

Hacking Team says that "a major threat exists" as a result of the source code having been made available online. The security outfit launched an investigation in the wake of the breach and has since determined that "sufficient code was released to permit anyone to deploy the software against any target of their choice".

'Anyone' includes not only the likes of you and I, but also script-kiddies, criminally-minded hackers, and terrorists. The full repercussion of the leak is not yet known, but Hacking Team's technology was sold exclusively to governments and their agencies and this technology is now in the wrong hands. As a result of this, the company says the "ability to control who uses the technology has been lost".

Put bluntly, Hacking Team says:

We believe this is an extremely dangerous situation.

Work is underway to determine if anything can be done to limit any potential damage, but the prognosis is not good. These are tools that were designed to evade detection, to circumvent security measures, and to provide access to just about anything; they were not designed to be reined in. There has been talk recently about governments wanting backdoors to be built in security products, but this is not something that applied to Hacking Team's arsenal:

Read more @ http://betanews.com/2015/07/09/terrorists-have-hacking-team-spying-tools/ 

USA FREEDOM Act: Protector of Civil Liberties or Window Dressing?

For the first time since the USA PATRIOT Act was signed into law in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, Congress has scaled back the scope of its provisions. On June 2, 2015, Congress enacted and President Barack Obama signed the USA FREEDOM Act of 2015, which renewed several of the USA PATRIOT Act’s provisions but added restraints to government surveillance activities, particularly the controversial bulk collection of telephone metadata. In the month since Congress’ action, however, debate has continued about whether the USA FREEDOM Act actually curtailed government surveillance programs or whether it is mere window dressing.

The USA PATRIOT Act

The USA PATRIOT (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism) Act was a response to perceived weaknesses in the government’s ability to investigate and identify terrorists and terrorist activity following 9/11. It amended the pre-existing Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which regulated the gathering of foreign intelligence. The USA PATRIOT Act modified FISA by expanding the definition of terrorist activity and lowering the threshold for launching a terrorist-related investigation. It also expanded a section of the law covering “business records” to allow the government to seek an order requiring the production of “any tangible things (including books, records, papers, documents, and other items). …”

The government must obtain the court order to access these kinds of records through a secret court—created by FISA and continued by the USA PATRIOT Act—known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC). Unlike most other courts in the country, the FISC operates in near-complete secrecy. Proceedings before the court typically involve only the government’s representatives and the judge—the person or business whose information is being sought does not participate and often does not know that the order was obtained. After learning about the order, the person or business can challenge it, but is legally prevented from discussing it with anyone. Reportedly, 99% of surveillance orders requested by the government are approved.

The FISC approved one such order in April 2013 requiring Verizon to turn over telephone metadata about all calls made through its cellular and landline networks, both those calls made within the U.S. and those between the U.S. and abroad. The metadata includes the phone numbers making and receiving the call, the length of the call, and routing information that can be used to provide a general location of the caller and recipient. The National Security Agency (NSA) collected the information and maintained it in a massive database. When the NSA came to believe that a particular phone number merited investigation, the database was searched and the metadata was used to reveal all the phone numbers connected with the target number—the numbers that the target called and those that called the target—as well as the length of the conversations and where the conversations came from. All this was permitted because the metadata was considered a “tangible thing” under the USA PATRIOT Act.

It would have remained secret except for the wide-ranging and controversial disclosure of this order and other secret NSA information by Edward Snowden in summer 2013. The disclosure created a firestorm about the program, resulting in congressional hearings, government agency defenses and back-pedaling, and unprecedented media attention. The uproar continued through 2013 and 2014 and served as the framework for the debate over the 2015 USA FREEDOM Act.

The USA FREEDOM Act

The USA FREEDOM (Uniting and Strengthening America by Fulling Rights and Ensuring Effective Discipline Over Monitoring) Act again renewed the business records provision of FISA, but with several important restrictions that were included largely in response to the telephone metadata collection program disclosure. Key among the restrictions is that the NSA will no longer be collecting the data and maintaining the database; instead, the data will be maintained by the telephone companies. In order to initiate a search of those records, the government will need to articulate to the FISC that there is “reasonable suspicion” that a particular person, address, or phone number is relevant to an authorized terrorism investigation. The search is also limited to two “hops”: The first is the targeted number, and the second is connections to the targeted number. Under the NSA program, there was no limit on the number of connected “hops” that could be searched.

The act also somewhat reduces the level of secrecy associated with the FISC, in requiring that some opinions be declassified and others summarized when declassification isn’t possible. The FISC must designate “friends of the court” to advocate the public’s interest, and private companies are allowed to report on the number of FISC orders they receive. There are also increased requirements for the government to publicly report various statistics about FISC court orders for call detail records, although not specific information such as the targets of the searches or holders of the information.

Read more @ http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/NewsBreaks/USA-FREEDOM-Act-Protector-of-Civil-Liberties-or-Window-Dressing-105047.asp

 

Glenn Greenwald's Latest Has Us Wondering Who Watches the Watchers?

Few advocates of digital privacy, and condemning voices of the national security state, are as visible, heard, or uncompromising, as Glenn Greenwald. Known for years, writing in publications various and sundry, Greenwald’s entry into a higher realm of visibility, and scrutiny, came with the revelations brought to him by former NSA contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden about massive government overreach into private communications. For those thoroughly unplugged since the summer of 2013, the information about the NSA was both shocking and voluminous, encyclopedic in its amount of lawbreaking and amendment disregarding.

Of course, Snowden’s story is far from over. However, as Greenwald details in his latest work, No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State, this story isn’t meant to be about the leaker, it’s about the leak itself. Snowden is emphatic that the focus remain on the information he revealed to Greenwald and other journalists. And this has been somewhat successful, given the whistleblower’s evasion of interview or comment.

What Greenwald attempts to do is satisfy a need that has dogged the Snowden reveals since the start: who is this guy, what happened when you met, and how do you know he’s for real? In a way, it’s attempting to make a groundbreaking leak about abstract and distant digital forces personal, grounded, and real. Along the way, the author works to explain just what was revealed and why it’s so inimical to an open and free democracy. Finally, Greenwald turns his critical eye towards his own profession and how the vaunted Fourth Estate has fallen from its entrusted perch as truth-teller.

Conviction is key with Greenwald. No Place to Hide is filled with rousing statements such as: “From the time that it first began to be widely used, the Internet has been seen by many as possessing an extraordinary potential: the ability to liberate hundreds of millions of people by democratizing political discourse and leveling the playing field between the powerful and the powerless.”

Whether that was ever true is debatable. Technology, despite the occasional blip, usually magnifies and solidifies existing power and social relations, rather than destroying or reconfiguring them completely. Sure, the crossbow gave commoners a shot, literally, against heavily armored nobility on the battlefield, but commoners they remained. As Richard II declared, “rustics you were and rustics you are still.”

Regardless, what Greenwald writes gets at how the Internet is perceived, if not, necessarily, how it works. And who knows, maybe he’s right, in the end. Like Snowden, the Internet’s story is far from over.

Read more @ http://www.popmatters.com/review/194719-no-place-to-hide-edward-snowden-the-nsa-and-the-u.s.-surveillance-st/

 

Who will rid us of this turbulent priest?

To reclaim the lawful, liberal, decent society we once were, we must soon rid ourselves of the turbulent priest, along with those like him, those who support him, and those who appease his kind, urges Dr. Geoff Davies.

"Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?"

 — Henry II of England

IS THERE no-one with eyes that see how the best of Australia is being destroyed? Is there no-one with the will to name it, and the courage to call on our better angels?

The rule of law, the freedom to know and debate, privacy, freedom from arbitrary detention and punishment, education for everyone, hospitals for everyone, help for the disadvantaged, family time, community time, social cohesion, the economy, infrastructure and industries to sustain our children, our priceless natural heritage, sovereignty over our own affairs, all are being attacked, undermined or neglected while we writhe in a lather of fear and distraction, jumping at shadows while hiding our faces from the real challenges staring down on us.

In one of the most blessed lands on the planet, what happened to the laconic Aussie and the fair go? Until a few decades ago we were working smarter and less, becoming healthier, more creative, more independent, more tolerant, more worldly, and expecting to continue on that path. We have abundant resources and educated, talented people who speak most major languages of the world. Why are we now struggling?

US think tank labels Abbott “shockingly incompetent”, compares him with “unhinged” leaders like Kim Jong-un & Putin. http://t.co/PsuTB4Gz76

— ImpératriceSuzTaylor (@suzlette333) June 5, 2015

We could readily afford and manage the things that are supposed to be too hard. We could be calmly working together, preparing for the now-inevitable warmer climate, eliminating our contributions to global warming, producing abundant healthy food without degrading the land, welcoming immigrants no matter what their mode of arrival, avoiding needless provocation of those few who might harm us, making amends for the raw deals some have had, no matter how long it takes, seeing everyone has a fair crack at a decent life. We could do all this while enjoying our barbies, beers, beaches, brilliant sport and brilliant arts.

Instead, we are more and more divided against each other, pressed onto an ever-accelerating treadmill, or discarded as useless, and fed unhealthy food, consumer addiction and a saturation diet of alarm and fear.

A “law” that is infinitely malleable is no law at all. Every time a legal challenge to government abuses of innocent people looks like succeeding, the law is changed to get around it. This has been going on since John Howard made our borders comically elastic to deny asylum seekers their legal rights. 

A “law” administered by a politician is not a law, it’s a tyranny. Claiming decisions can be appealed is of little practical relevance to someone who can’t set foot in the country.

If a court decision goes against the Government, the court is roundly abused. If an independent monitor says something the Government doesn’t like, the person is accused in the crudest terms of partisan bias.

These people, these followers of the turbulent priest, have no respect for the law, and clearly have no understanding of what “the rule of law” means.

They preach freedom. Then they create Big Brother to watch all of our communications. It’s not just “metadata”, which would be bad enough, but we know from documents released by Edward Snowden that they can and do access any content they want. See the movie CitizenFour to learn about our governments massively breaching the law with impunity.

Read more @ https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/who-will-rid-us-of-this-turbulent-priest,7920

 

It turns out the NSA was collecting voice calls, photos, passwords, documents, and much more

NSA documents leaked to the Guardian in 2013 described a covert program called XKeyscore, which involved a searchable database for intelligence analysts to scan intercepted data.

Now, new documents show the breadth of this program and just what sort of data XKeyscore catalogues.

According to a new report from The Intercept, the amount of data XKeyscore scoops up as well as the sort of data it collects is much larger than originally thought.

Here are a few highlights from the new report:

  • The XKeyescore database is “fed a constant flow of Internet traffic from fibre optic cables that make up the back of the world’s communication network, among other sources, for processing,” the new report writes. Its servers collect all of this data for up to five days, and store the metadata of this traffic for up to 45 days.
  • Web traffic wasn’t XKeyscore’s only target. In fact, according to the documents posted by The Intercept, it was able to gather data like voice recordings. A list of the intercepted data included “pictures, documents, voice calls, webcam photos, web searches, advertising analytics traffic, social media traffic, botnet traffic, logged keystrokes, computer network exploitation (CNE) targeting, intercepted username and password pairs, file uploads to online services, Skype sessions and more.
  • How the search works is very advanced. The new documents detail ways that analysts can query the database for information on people based on location, nationality, and previous web traffic.
  • XKeyscore was also used to help hack into computer networks for both the US and its spying allies. One document dated in 2009 claims that the program could be used to gain access into unencrypted networks.
  • Using XKeyscore was reportedly insanely easy. “The amount of work an analyst has to perform to actually break into remote computers over the Internet seems ridiculously reduced — we are talking minutes, if not seconds,” security researcher Jonathan Brossard told The Intercept. “Simple. As easy as typing a few words in Google.”

While XKeyscore has been known as an intelligence tool for years now, these new documents highlight just how advanced and far-reaching the program’s surveillance is.

The NSA, in a statement to The Intercept, claims that all of its intelligence operations are “authorised by law.” It added, “NSA goes to great lengths to narrowly tailor and focus its signals intelligence operations on the collection of communications that are most likely to contain foreign intelligence or counterintelligence information.”

Read more @ http://www.businessinsider.com.au/nsa-xkeyscore-surveillance-program-details-revealed-in-new-snowden-documents-2015-7

 

Metadata Doesn't Always Mean Metadata: New Snowden Revelations Reveal Government Spying Went Much Deeper

Many were not surprised when NSA-contracted analyst Edward Snowden blew the whistle on the government organization, revealing massive, likely illegal domestic spying programs.

As the details came out, the government went into full damage control, and one keyword that surfaced was "metadata." It was just metadata they were collecting without a warrant, they said, not the kind of data that would reveal anything personal about its owner. The word left the mouth of every government official who spoke on the subject, and the common belief became that it was not wiretapping going on, just mass surveillance.

Until now, when further revelations have come out of the Snowden leak, which amounted to gigabytes of unsorted evidence turned over to journalist Glenn Greenwald and filmmaker Laura Poitras. Although it's been a subject of close inspection by journalists and investigators since the original leak, the depth of one secret program, in particular, XKeyscore, was not known until more recently. XKeyscore is essentially a database for spies to sort through data that has been brought in from the massive nets the government has on all domestic and international communications it can tap. Before now, it was not believed to be overly advanced in the types of information that analysts could derive from it.

Also read: 42 Years Before Edward Snowden Leak Finishes

But according to the Intercept, the program can monitor a lot more than just the traffic of all the world's major networks. The program can store data from any stream for up to five days after it is initially transmitted. For forty-five days after that, metadata is stored and retrievable by the NSA for later use in investigations. To retain any of the data as evidence, a warrant will have to be obtained.

At least according to the program's creators, XKeyscore can monitor such things as Skype calls and webcam feeds, in real time, as they're happening, and the program does this by intercepting literally everything transmitted by fiber optics networks. It has been revealed that in Britain, the main connections going into the country have been forked to GCHQ for years, and a similar fork existing in the United States would probably come as no surprise.

Read more @ https://hacked.com/metadata-doesnt-always-mean-metadata-new-snowden-revelations-reveal-government-spying-went-much-deeper/

 

Welkom in Nederland: Laid-back, chilled, and MONITORING everything

For sure, we’ll have the better oversight thing

The Dutch government is pushing changes to its national law to enable bulk data surveillance and compelled decryption.

The proposed update of the Intelligence & Security Act of 2002 would establish bulk interception powers for “any form of telecom or data transfer”.

As well as metadata, the revamp would allow the Dutch intelligence services to compel anyone to help decrypt data, either by providing encryption keys or turning over decrypted data.

Domestic interception is explicitly allowed within the proposals, which if enacted, would look to create the most permissive snooping regime in the Western World. With plans like this it’s little wonder that Edward Snowden described the Dutch as “the Surveillance Kings of Europe” earlier this year.

The Netherlands is a major exchange point for internet traffic. If the plans go through, the Dutch authorities would gain a wide-ranging ability to monitor global communications.

The Daily Beast suggests the resulting intelligence may allow the Dutch – already an affiliate nation in Western spookdom – to barter their way into the Five Eyes spying alliance.

One restriction is that bulk interception needs to be “purpose-orientated” and there’ll be improvements to oversight, primarily through the independent Dutch Review Committee on the Intelligence & Security Services.

Read more @ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/07/08/dutch_snooping_law_revamp/

 

Documentary film director Laura Poitras sues US govt

In her complaint, Poitras says her troubles with airport security started in 2006 while she was travelling to the Jerusalem Film Festival to screen My Country, My Country, and continued till 2012, said the Hollywood Reporter.

 Laura Poitras, the director of Oscar-winning Edward Snowden documentary Citizenfour, has sued the US government over her "Kafkaesque" airport screening and search at airports throughout the world.

Poitras filed the complaint in the District of Columbia under the Freedom of Information Act, demanding the release of records related to her detainment and questioning on various airports on more than 50 occasions.

The director is known for her work on politically sensitive topics, including her chronicling of America post 9/11 in her documentaries.

She made My Country, My Country, a documentary on the American military occupation in Iraq, The Oath, on the Guantanamo Bay prison and Citizenfour, on NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, which won an Academy Award for best documentary feature this year.

In her complaint, Poitras says her troubles with airport security started in 2006 while she was travelling to the Jerusalem Film Festival to screen My Country, My Country, and continued till 2012, said the Hollywood Reporter.

The director said she would get held up for hours at a time, would be told that she was on No Fly List, and had her electronic equipment held for 41 days. She was also threatened with handcuffs for taking notes while she was working on a film about Julian Assange and WikiLeaks.

Poitras first filed an FOIA request in January last year and though the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration Customs Enforcement and the Transportation Security Administration have acknowledged her requests, they have not been responsive with documents.

"I'm filing this lawsuit because the government uses the US border to bypass the rule of law. This simply should not be tolerated in a democracy.

"I am also filing this suit in support of the countless other less high-profile people who have also been subjected to years of Kafkaesque harassment at the borders. We have a right to know how this system works and why we are targeted," Poitras said.

Read more @ http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/film-director-laura-poitras-of-oscar-winning-edward-snowden-documentary-citizenfour-sues-us-govt-airport-screening/1/451291.html

 

'Citizenfour' Director Laura Poitras Sues Over "Kafkaesque" Airport Screening

She's demanding answers to why she was detained on more than 50 occasions in an FOIA suit against the U.S. government.

Laura Poitras, the award-winning documentary filmmaker behind Citizenfour, is suing the U.S. government to get records related to the instances she was searched and questioned at airports throughout the world.

The complaint, brought in the District of Columbia under the Freedom of Information Act, says she was subjected to secondary security screening and detention on more than 50 occasions.

Throughout her career, Poitras has worked on politically sensitive topics including the American military occupation in Iraq, the Guantanamo Bay prison and the whistleblower Edward Snowden. Her work on Citizenfour earned an Academy Award for best documentary feature this past year.

Poitras says in her complaint that her troubles with airport screening date back to 2006, while she was traveling to the Jerusalem Film Festival to screen My Country, My Country, and continued to 2012, when journalist Glenn Greenwald wrote an article about her experiences being detained at the border. Through that time, she reports being held up to hours at a time, being told she was on the No Fly List, having her electronic equipment held for 41 days and, around the time she was working on a film about Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, being threatened with handcuffs for taking notes.

Read more @ http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/citizenfour-director-laura-poitras-sues-808444

 

'Citizenfour' director Laura Poitras takes US government to court

Documentary filmmaker and journalist Laura Poitras has lodged a lawsuit against the US government over being repeatedly detained, searched and questioned at airports.

Citizenfour director Laura Poitras has filed a lawsuit against the United States government, alledging she was targeted for 'harassment' at US and international airports.

Poitras claims between 2006 and 2012, when she was travelling extensively for her documentary work, she was detained every time she returned to the US.

“I’m filing this lawsuit because the government uses the US border to bypass the rule of law,” said Poitras in a statement published on the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) website. EFF is representing Poitras in the case. 

The statement outlines she was subjected to lengthy detentions and was searched on more than 50 occasions.

“This simply should not be tolerated in a democracy. I am also filing this suit in support of the countless other less high-profile people who have also been subjected to years of Kafkaesque harassment at the borders. We have a right to know how this system works and why we are targeted.”

Last year, Poitras filed freedom of information requests seeking records which had been mentioned to her in order to justify the scrutiny at border checkpoints. For example, that she was named on the US 'No Fly List'. The records were not forthcoming, and this court case is an attempt to be awarded access to these documents.

According to the statement, the detentions stopped after journalist Glenn Greenwald, who is featured in Citizenfour, published an article detailing the treatment.

Poitras won an Academy Award this year for the Citizenfour documentary about NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Read more @ http://www.sbs.com.au/movies/article/2015/07/14/citizenfour-director-laura-poitras-takes-us-government-court


"What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us."  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~

Edited 1 time by PeacefulSwannie Jul 14 15 9:15 PM.