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Aug 11 15 8:10 AM
New York (AFP) - A cement bust of America's most-wanted whistleblower Edward Snowden, once famously confiscated by police, returned to public display in New York on Friday to kick off a street art festival. The 100-pound (45-kilo) likeness stands proud on a plinth in Manhattan's tourist-clogged Little Italy neighborhood, to be guarded round the clock until the weekend Lo Man Art Festival closes. "If any shenanigans begin they (volunteers) find our security guards and we make sure we keep everyone safe," says comedy manager Wayne Rada, who founded the festival and Little Italy Street Art Project. Coming four months after it hit the headlines for being erected on a war memorial without permission, organizers hope it'll help put the small art festival on the map.
New York (AFP) - A cement bust of America's most-wanted whistleblower Edward Snowden, once famously confiscated by police, returned to public display in New York on Friday to kick off a street art festival.
The 100-pound (45-kilo) likeness stands proud on a plinth in Manhattan's tourist-clogged Little Italy neighborhood, to be guarded round the clock until the weekend Lo Man Art Festival closes.
"If any shenanigans begin they (volunteers) find our security guards and we make sure we keep everyone safe," says comedy manager Wayne Rada, who founded the festival and Little Italy Street Art Project.
Coming four months after it hit the headlines for being erected on a war memorial without permission, organizers hope it'll help put the small art festival on the map.
Read more @ http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-snowden-bust-kicks-off-new-york-art-festival-2015-8?IR=T
As the Obama administration campaign to stop the commercialization of strong encryption heats up, National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden is firing back on behalf of the companies like Apple and Google that are finding themselves under attack. “Technologists and companies working to protect ordinary citizens should be applauded, not sued or prosecuted,” Snowden wrote in an email through his lawyer. Snowden was asked by The Intercept to respond to the contentious suggestion — made Thursday on a blog that frequently promotes the interests of the national security establishment — that companies like Apple and Google might in certain cases be found legally liable for providing material aid to a terrorist organization because they provide encryption services to their users. In his email, Snowden explained how law enforcement officials who are demanding that U.S. companies build some sort of window into unbreakable end-to-end encryption — he calls that an “insecurity mandate” — haven’t thought things through. “The central problem with insecurity mandates has never been addressed by its proponents: if one government can demand access to private communications, all governments can,” Snowden wrote. “No matter how good the reason, if the U.S. sets the precedent that Apple has to compromise the security of a customer in response to a piece of government paper, what can they do when the government is China and the customer is the Dalai Lama?” Weakened encryption would only drive people away from the American technology industry, Snowden wrote. “Putting the most important driver of our economy in a position where they have to deal with the devil or lose access to international markets is public policy that makes us less competitive and less safe.”
As the Obama administration campaign to stop the commercialization of strong encryption heats up, National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden is firing back on behalf of the companies like Apple and Google that are finding themselves under attack.
“Technologists and companies working to protect ordinary citizens should be applauded, not sued or prosecuted,” Snowden wrote in an email through his lawyer.
Snowden was asked by The Intercept to respond to the contentious suggestion — made Thursday on a blog that frequently promotes the interests of the national security establishment — that companies like Apple and Google might in certain cases be found legally liable for providing material aid to a terrorist organization because they provide encryption services to their users.
In his email, Snowden explained how law enforcement officials who are demanding that U.S. companies build some sort of window into unbreakable end-to-end encryption — he calls that an “insecurity mandate” — haven’t thought things through.
“The central problem with insecurity mandates has never been addressed by its proponents: if one government can demand access to private communications, all governments can,” Snowden wrote.
“No matter how good the reason, if the U.S. sets the precedent that Apple has to compromise the security of a customer in response to a piece of government paper, what can they do when the government is China and the customer is the Dalai Lama?”
Weakened encryption would only drive people away from the American technology industry, Snowden wrote. “Putting the most important driver of our economy in a position where they have to deal with the devil or lose access to international markets is public policy that makes us less competitive and less safe.”
Read more @ https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/07/31/exclusive-edward-snowden-says-obama-administrations-war-encryption-just-doesnt-make-sense/
Carly Fiorina is not afraid to burn some bridges with her Silicon Valley tribe. The former Hewlett-Packard chief executive made waves during Thursday evening's so-called "happy hour" debate — the opening act for GOP presidential hopefuls that didn't make the primetime cut — when she vowed to "tear down cyberwalls" at big tech companies, in the interests of national security. In other words, she wants businesses like Apple, Google and Facebook to ease up on smartphone encryption and allow so-called "back doors" that would allow the federal government to access personal data — ostensibly to investigate potential terrorists. "I do not believe we need to wholesale destroy every American's privacy, but, yes, there is more collaboration required between private sector companies and the public sector," Fiorina said.
Carly Fiorina is not afraid to burn some bridges with her Silicon Valley tribe.
The former Hewlett-Packard chief executive made waves during Thursday evening's so-called "happy hour" debate — the opening act for GOP presidential hopefuls that didn't make the primetime cut — when she vowed to "tear down cyberwalls" at big tech companies, in the interests of national security.
In other words, she wants businesses like Apple, Google and Facebook to ease up on smartphone encryption and allow so-called "back doors" that would allow the federal government to access personal data — ostensibly to investigate potential terrorists.
"I do not believe we need to wholesale destroy every American's privacy, but, yes, there is more collaboration required between private sector companies and the public sector," Fiorina said.
Read more @ http://mashable.com/2015/08/07/carly-fiorina-cyberwall/
“The Rock,” is one of my favorite movies. Definitely has a high re-watch value, up there with “Con-Air,” “Face-Off” and “Die Hard” 1, 2 and 4. If I chance upon it on cable, the volume goes up and the remote goes down. Sean Connery’s character, John Mason reminds me very much of another old spy who‘s scheduled for parole later this year, Jonathan Pollard. Though Mr. Pollard probably couldn’t take on a bunch of specially trained soldiers, he had several things in common with John Mason. Their first name, that they were spies for friendly nations, that they were put away for a long time and that they’re old. Mr. Pollard also has something in common with another man who divulged classified government information—Mr. Edward Snowden. Pollard passed classified information to Israel. Even though it’s a friendly nation, espionage is espionage and any country would prefer to keep things up their sleeves, even from friends. Mr. Snowden, who’s in the same line of work as Mr. Pollard (another thing they have in common) divulged National Security Administration secrets to the press. What they don’t have in common is that Edward Snowden is still at large and unlike Mr. Pollard who served his time, Snowden is now in Russia, not exactly besties with the US.
“The Rock,” is one of my favorite movies. Definitely has a high re-watch value, up there with “Con-Air,” “Face-Off” and “Die Hard” 1, 2 and 4. If I chance upon it on cable, the volume goes up and the remote goes down. Sean Connery’s character, John Mason reminds me very much of another old spy who‘s scheduled for parole later this year, Jonathan Pollard. Though Mr. Pollard probably couldn’t take on a bunch of specially trained soldiers, he had several things in common with John Mason. Their first name, that they were spies for friendly nations, that they were put away for a long time and that they’re old.
Mr. Pollard also has something in common with another man who divulged classified government information—Mr. Edward Snowden. Pollard passed classified information to Israel. Even though it’s a friendly nation, espionage is espionage and any country would prefer to keep things up their sleeves, even from friends. Mr. Snowden, who’s in the same line of work as Mr. Pollard (another thing they have in common) divulged National Security Administration secrets to the press. What they don’t have in common is that Edward Snowden is still at large and unlike Mr. Pollard who served his time, Snowden is now in Russia, not exactly besties with the US.
Read more @ http://movietvtechgeeks.com/jonathan-pollard-edward-snowden-how-the-us-hates-tattletales/
Top former U.S. intelligence and security officials believe that the Obama administration declined to consult the U.S. intelligence community over the decision to release Jonathan Pollard, mindful of the negative response elicited by previous attempts to free him, a former U.S. Navy intelligence operative convicted for selling secrets to Israel. “The intelligence community wasn’t asked its opinion but just told that it would happen,” a retired high level intelligence officer who served for three decades in the U.S. intelligence services and who spoke on condition of anonymity because of his close ties with current leaders in the intelligence community. His view was shared by retired U.S. Army Col. Pat Lang, a highly respected former senior military intelligence officer who served on the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s damage assessment board at the time of the Pollard revelations. “It came as a surprise to the intel community,” Lang, who maintains regular contacts in the intelligence community, said of last week’s news that Pollard would be released after serving 30 years in prison, “and it came as a surprise to me.”
You've seen the film, read the book - now read the Edward Snowden comic. A comic book artist is to publish a graphic novel telling the story of the man behind the biggest intelligence leak in military history. 'Snowden' by Pulitzer-nominated Ted Rall claims that the former contractor for the National Security Agency stole 1.7 million classified documents because he was angry at President Obama. Snowden supposedly became frustrated that the President did not close Guantanamo and 'deepened and expanded several abusive programs'. Rall writes: 'Snowden soon saw that his faith had been misplaced. 'Disgusted, Snowden took matters into his own hands...he took his data and fled the United States'. Among the more colorful cartoons in the book where Rall has taken some artistic license is one of President Obama telling an aide: 'This Snowden situation is intolerable! Get this kid into custody' At one point former vice President Dick Cheney says: 'I think he's a traitor'. On another page a frustrated President Obama tells an aide: 'God damn it, I want that kid back here'.
You've seen the film, read the book - now read the Edward Snowden comic.
A comic book artist is to publish a graphic novel telling the story of the man behind the biggest intelligence leak in military history.
'Snowden' by Pulitzer-nominated Ted Rall claims that the former contractor for the National Security Agency stole 1.7 million classified documents because he was angry at President Obama.
Snowden supposedly became frustrated that the President did not close Guantanamo and 'deepened and expanded several abusive programs'.
Rall writes: 'Snowden soon saw that his faith had been misplaced.
'Disgusted, Snowden took matters into his own hands...he took his data and fled the United States'.
Among the more colorful cartoons in the book where Rall has taken some artistic license is one of President Obama telling an aide: 'This Snowden situation is intolerable! Get this kid into custody'
At one point former vice President Dick Cheney says: 'I think he's a traitor'.
On another page a frustrated President Obama tells an aide: 'God damn it, I want that kid back here'.
Read more @ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3181595/Now-s-Edward-Snowden-comic-book-man-stole-1-7-MILLION-classified-documents-revealed-NSA-s-monitoring-program-subject-graphic-novel.html
What do we know about the secret world of espionage and intelligence, and how do we know it? The story that connects James Bond and Edward Snowden, fiction and reality, thrilling romance and profound cynicism or disillusionment, has been told over many years and in many ways. I’ve been thinking about this since seeing the new Tom Cruise movie “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation,” but this really isn’t a movie review and I wouldn’t argue that this capably crafted thriller from writer and director Christopher McQuarrie (who also directed Cruise in “Jack Reacher”) breaks any new ground or represents the ultimate distillation of anything. It’s a diverting ride, played out against spectacular locations, that repackages a whole bunch of familiar elements and attitudes: A little latter-day Bond, a little Jason Bourne, a little John le Carré, a little 1950s Hitchcock. What strikes me on a larger scale is the way that the “Mission: Impossible” franchise and many other fictional properties have served as gradual ideological conditioning, acclimating us to the rise of the national or global security apparatus. I don’t exactly mean that the whole universe of espionage fiction is a sinister concoction designed to brainwash the public – although, in the case of the fictional Agent 007 and his semi-fictional creator, former British intelligence agent Ian Fleming, that unquestionably played a role. (Allen Dulles, who headed the CIA under Dwight Eisenhower, was a huge fan of Fleming’s books, and reportedly tried to get the agency’s technicians to produce real-world versions of the famous Bond gizmos. They never worked.) It would be more accurate to say that spy fiction reflects a genuine moral confusion about the role of secret agents in modern society, but has generally succeeded only in worsening that confusion. A film like “Rogue Nation” simultaneously congratulates us for our clear-eyed skepticism about government and our loss of faith in institutions while insisting on primal movie myths about the incorruptible individual and the noble band of brothers. We may no longer feel quite sure about America or democracy or capitalism or morality or any such grand abstractions, but somewhere out there amid all the lies and chaos, Tom Cruise and other unstoppable and immortal heroes are doing the right thing – even if we have no idea what that might be. Even the movie’s subtitle provides an epistemological clue to this puzzle, if only through its total vagueness and meaninglessness. OK, yes, spoiler alert: But the “rogue nation” in this movie is not Iran or Russia or any other recognized nation-state with borders and generals. (It certainly isn’t China, since this movie was partly made with Chinese production funding, the not-so-secret channel of money that is not-so-subtly transforming Hollywood.) In fact, I can’t quite tell you what the term means in McQuarrie’s fictional universe. Maybe it refers to a sinister shadow version of the recognized intelligence agencies that is working to destabilize the world, in the old-school vein of Hydra and SMERSH. But as we know both from fiction and the real world, the boundaries between those things are none too clear and it can become difficult for intelligence operatives to tell which side of the looking-glass they’re on.
What do we know about the secret world of espionage and intelligence, and how do we know it? The story that connects James Bond and Edward Snowden, fiction and reality, thrilling romance and profound cynicism or disillusionment, has been told over many years and in many ways. I’ve been thinking about this since seeing the new Tom Cruise movie “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation,” but this really isn’t a movie review and I wouldn’t argue that this capably crafted thriller from writer and director Christopher McQuarrie (who also directed Cruise in “Jack Reacher”) breaks any new ground or represents the ultimate distillation of anything. It’s a diverting ride, played out against spectacular locations, that repackages a whole bunch of familiar elements and attitudes: A little latter-day Bond, a little Jason Bourne, a little John le Carré, a little 1950s Hitchcock.
What strikes me on a larger scale is the way that the “Mission: Impossible” franchise and many other fictional properties have served as gradual ideological conditioning, acclimating us to the rise of the national or global security apparatus. I don’t exactly mean that the whole universe of espionage fiction is a sinister concoction designed to brainwash the public – although, in the case of the fictional Agent 007 and his semi-fictional creator, former British intelligence agent Ian Fleming, that unquestionably played a role. (Allen Dulles, who headed the CIA under Dwight Eisenhower, was a huge fan of Fleming’s books, and reportedly tried to get the agency’s technicians to produce real-world versions of the famous Bond gizmos. They never worked.) It would be more accurate to say that spy fiction reflects a genuine moral confusion about the role of secret agents in modern society, but has generally succeeded only in worsening that confusion.
A film like “Rogue Nation” simultaneously congratulates us for our clear-eyed skepticism about government and our loss of faith in institutions while insisting on primal movie myths about the incorruptible individual and the noble band of brothers. We may no longer feel quite sure about America or democracy or capitalism or morality or any such grand abstractions, but somewhere out there amid all the lies and chaos, Tom Cruise and other unstoppable and immortal heroes are doing the right thing – even if we have no idea what that might be.
Even the movie’s subtitle provides an epistemological clue to this puzzle, if only through its total vagueness and meaninglessness. OK, yes, spoiler alert: But the “rogue nation” in this movie is not Iran or Russia or any other recognized nation-state with borders and generals. (It certainly isn’t China, since this movie was partly made with Chinese production funding, the not-so-secret channel of money that is not-so-subtly transforming Hollywood.) In fact, I can’t quite tell you what the term means in McQuarrie’s fictional universe. Maybe it refers to a sinister shadow version of the recognized intelligence agencies that is working to destabilize the world, in the old-school vein of Hydra and SMERSH. But as we know both from fiction and the real world, the boundaries between those things are none too clear and it can become difficult for intelligence operatives to tell which side of the looking-glass they’re on.
Read more @ http://tinyurl.com/o76lj5v
Ever since legendary British investigative journalist Duncan Campbell told the world in a 1988 magazine article about ECHELON — a massive, automated surveillance dragnet that indiscriminately intercepted phone and Internet data from communications satellites — Western intelligence officials have refused to acknowledge that it existed. Despite sporadic continuing press reports, people who complained about the program — which, as Campbell disclosed, automatically searched text-based communications using a dictionary of keywords to flag suspicious content — were routinely dismissed as conspiracy theorists. The only real conspiracy, it turns out, was a conspiracy of silence among the governments that benefited from the program. As Campbell writes today, in a first-person article in The Intercept, the archive of top-secret documents provided to journalists by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden contains a stunning 2005 document that not only confirms ECHELON’s existence as “a system targeting communications satellites”– it shows how the program was kept an official secret for so long. It describes how in 2000, the European Parliament responded to increasingly authoritative reports that ECHELON was being used to indiscriminately survey non-military targets — including governments, organizations and businesses in virtually every corner of the world — by appointing a committee to investigate the program. Members of the committee vowed to get the truth from the NSA. What happened, according to an article in the NSA’s own in-house “Foreign Affairs Digest” was this: Corporate NSA (FAD, SID, OGC, PAO and Policy), ensured that our interests, and our SIGINT partners’ interests, were protected throughout the ordeal; and ironically, the final report of the EU Commission [link] reflected not only that NSA played by the rules, with congressional oversight, but that those characteristics were lacking when the Commission applied its investigatory criteria to other European nations. The initials there stand for NSA’s Foreign Affairs Directorate, Signals Intelligence, Office of the General Counsel, and Public Affairs Office. And then, in what is possibly one of the most memorable lines to come out of the Snowden archive, the author of the article, a “foreign affairs directorate special adviser,” concluded with this observation: In the final analysis, the “pig rule” applied when dealing with this tacky matter: “Don’t wrestle in the mud with the pigs. They like it, and you both get dirty.” ECHELON was the precursor to today’s worldwide dragnet, which thanks to Snowden, we now know is carried out by tapping the massive fiber-optic cables that encircle the globe, in addition to the satellites that orbit it. It was the collect-it-all of its time. As it happens, not every one of the ECHELON conspiracy theories turned out to be substantiated. On “Jam Echelon Day” in October 1999, people around the world sent a huge volume of communications over the Internet and over the phone using as many of the presumed Echelon keywords as possible. But the Snowden archive contains no evidence that the NSA routinely scanned voice communications for keywords back then. That’s something they’ve only gotten good at recently. The story of Campbell’s four decade long career exposing mass surveillance — including his introduction to the world of the organization known as GCHQ — is a great read. Make time for it.
Ever since legendary British investigative journalist Duncan Campbell told the world in a 1988 magazine article about ECHELON — a massive, automated surveillance dragnet that indiscriminately intercepted phone and Internet data from communications satellites — Western intelligence officials have refused to acknowledge that it existed.
Despite sporadic continuing press reports, people who complained about the program — which, as Campbell disclosed, automatically searched text-based communications using a dictionary of keywords to flag suspicious content — were routinely dismissed as conspiracy theorists.
The only real conspiracy, it turns out, was a conspiracy of silence among the governments that benefited from the program.
As Campbell writes today, in a first-person article in The Intercept, the archive of top-secret documents provided to journalists by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden contains a stunning 2005 document that not only confirms ECHELON’s existence as “a system targeting communications satellites”– it shows how the program was kept an official secret for so long.
It describes how in 2000, the European Parliament responded to increasingly authoritative reports that ECHELON was being used to indiscriminately survey non-military targets — including governments, organizations and businesses in virtually every corner of the world — by appointing a committee to investigate the program.
Members of the committee vowed to get the truth from the NSA. What happened, according to an article in the NSA’s own in-house “Foreign Affairs Digest” was this:
Corporate NSA (FAD, SID, OGC, PAO and Policy), ensured that our interests, and our SIGINT partners’ interests, were protected throughout the ordeal; and ironically, the final report of the EU Commission [link] reflected not only that NSA played by the rules, with congressional oversight, but that those characteristics were lacking when the Commission applied its investigatory criteria to other European nations.
The initials there stand for NSA’s Foreign Affairs Directorate, Signals Intelligence, Office of the General Counsel, and Public Affairs Office.
And then, in what is possibly one of the most memorable lines to come out of the Snowden archive, the author of the article, a “foreign affairs directorate special adviser,” concluded with this observation:
In the final analysis, the “pig rule” applied when dealing with this tacky matter: “Don’t wrestle in the mud with the pigs. They like it, and you both get dirty.”
ECHELON was the precursor to today’s worldwide dragnet, which thanks to Snowden, we now know is carried out by tapping the massive fiber-optic cables that encircle the globe, in addition to the satellites that orbit it. It was the collect-it-all of its time.
As it happens, not every one of the ECHELON conspiracy theories turned out to be substantiated. On “Jam Echelon Day” in October 1999, people around the world sent a huge volume of communications over the Internet and over the phone using as many of the presumed Echelon keywords as possible.
But the Snowden archive contains no evidence that the NSA routinely scanned voice communications for keywords back then. That’s something they’ve only gotten good at recently.
The story of Campbell’s four decade long career exposing mass surveillance — including his introduction to the world of the organization known as GCHQ — is a great read. Make time for it.
Read more @ https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/08/03/17-years-reporter-exposed-echelon-finds-vindication-snowden-archive/
Demands for certain kinds of openness have hurt government effectiveness, writes Francis Fukuyama It is hard to think of a political good that is more universally praised than government transparency. Whereas secrecy shelters corruption, abuse of power, undue influence and a host of other evils, transparency allows citizens to keep their rulers accountable. Or that is the theory. It is clear that there are vast areas in which modern governments should reveal more. Edward Snowden’s revelations of eavesdropping by the National Security Agency has encouraged belief that the US government has been not nearly transparent enough. But is it possible to have too much transparency? The answer is clearly yes: demands for certain kinds of transparency have hurt government effectiveness, particularly with regard to its ability to deliberate.
Demands for certain kinds of openness have hurt government effectiveness, writes Francis Fukuyama
It is hard to think of a political good that is more universally praised than government transparency. Whereas secrecy shelters corruption, abuse of power, undue influence and a host of other evils, transparency allows citizens to keep their rulers accountable. Or that is the theory.
It is clear that there are vast areas in which modern governments should reveal more. Edward Snowden’s revelations of eavesdropping by the National Security Agency has encouraged belief that the US government has been not nearly transparent enough. But is it possible to have too much transparency? The answer is clearly yes: demands for certain kinds of transparency have hurt government effectiveness, particularly with regard to its ability to deliberate.
Read more @ http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/1d78c194-2c8d-11e5-acfb-cbd2e1c81cca.html
An independent military contractor hired to work at a U.S. Air Force base in Honduras was informed on Friday by a federal judge that he will spend the next 10 years in federal prison for accessing and stealing classified intelligence from the Department of Defense computer network, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The 34-year-old contractor attempted to duplicate the actions taken by arguably the most damaging cyber spy in U.S. history: the fugitive former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.
Read more @ http://www.examiner.com/article/super-spy-edward-snowden-wannabe-sentenced-to-federal-prison
Without Chinese revelations about Chinese hacking and espionage, a cyber-détente is unlikely. Two issues have dominated the discussion of American-Chinese relations in recent months: the escalating war of words in the South China Sea and cybersecurity. Recently, clandestine hacking conflicts between the United States and China have increased in prominence. A bombshell report by internet security firm Mandiant in February 2013 claimed that a secretive Chinese military unit based out of Shanghai was responsible for a series of hacks on United States-based corporations. Another report a couple of months later showed that China was by far the largest source of international hacking attacks, with 41 percent of the world total (of course, the United States was number two on that list, but more on that in a bit); furthermore, the number of attacks originating in China was found to have drastically increased since the first quarter of that year. In the last few decades, it has been thought that China intentionally restricted its covert intelligence-gathering operations out of a desire to prevent diplomatic scandals from harming its burgeoning economic relationships; more recently, however, this consensus within the leadership appears to have dissolved, either as a result of a change in the balance of power among internal factions in the CCP leadership or because the leadership simply believes now that China is powerful enough to weather the diplomatic fallout from any such scandals. In any case, as evidenced by the devastating and brazen hack into Washington’s Office of Personnel Management this past June, if Beijing really is the culprit as is suspected, it clearly no longer cares about diplomatic fallout from flexing its cyber-muscles. Either way, actors within China have ramped up their cyber-attacks, both with new tactics like the so-called Great Cannon, an offensive cyberweapon that repurposes the traffic coming into Chinese companies’ servers for the use of DDoS attacks against foreign servers, and with good, old-fashioned hacking for the purpose of stealing information, as in the OPM incident.
Without Chinese revelations about Chinese hacking and espionage, a cyber-détente is unlikely.
Two issues have dominated the discussion of American-Chinese relations in recent months: the escalating war of words in the South China Sea and cybersecurity. Recently, clandestine hacking conflicts between the United States and China have increased in prominence. A bombshell report by internet security firm Mandiant in February 2013 claimed that a secretive Chinese military unit based out of Shanghai was responsible for a series of hacks on United States-based corporations. Another report a couple of months later showed that China was by far the largest source of international hacking attacks, with 41 percent of the world total (of course, the United States was number two on that list, but more on that in a bit); furthermore, the number of attacks originating in China was found to have drastically increased since the first quarter of that year.
In the last few decades, it has been thought that China intentionally restricted its covert intelligence-gathering operations out of a desire to prevent diplomatic scandals from harming its burgeoning economic relationships; more recently, however, this consensus within the leadership appears to have dissolved, either as a result of a change in the balance of power among internal factions in the CCP leadership or because the leadership simply believes now that China is powerful enough to weather the diplomatic fallout from any such scandals. In any case, as evidenced by the devastating and brazen hack into Washington’s Office of Personnel Management this past June, if Beijing really is the culprit as is suspected, it clearly no longer cares about diplomatic fallout from flexing its cyber-muscles. Either way, actors within China have ramped up their cyber-attacks, both with new tactics like the so-called Great Cannon, an offensive cyberweapon that repurposes the traffic coming into Chinese companies’ servers for the use of DDoS attacks against foreign servers, and with good, old-fashioned hacking for the purpose of stealing information, as in the OPM incident.
Read more @ http://thediplomat.com/2015/07/cybersecurity-we-need-a-chinese-snowden/
Yeah but the NSA is doing the same thing to China….. so what is the difference? Why is it OK for America to spy on the whole world and not China to spy on America….. ?
The Chinese government has successfully stolen data from the computer systems of more than 600 American targets during the course of the Obama administration, a classified intelligence document indicates, including private sector and military entities. A National Security Agency document marked as “secret” and obtained by NBC News suggests that the US intelligence community has attributed Beijing with hundreds of attacks against government and corporate targets dating back to 2009. The document, a map labeled “US Victims of Chinese Cyber Espionage,” shows strikes waged not just up and down the east and west coasts, but in seemingly all US states and against targets across all sectors.
The Chinese government has successfully stolen data from the computer systems of more than 600 American targets during the course of the Obama administration, a classified intelligence document indicates, including private sector and military entities.
A National Security Agency document marked as “secret” and obtained by NBC News suggests that the US intelligence community has attributed Beijing with hundreds of attacks against government and corporate targets dating back to 2009.
The document, a map labeled “US Victims of Chinese Cyber Espionage,” shows strikes waged not just up and down the east and west coasts, but in seemingly all US states and against targets across all sectors.
Read more @ http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jul/31/china-stole-data-from-600-american-cyber-targets-s/
Read more @ http://fortune.com/2015/07/31/china-cyber-attacks/
Local Police Take The Eye Of Big Brother And Spy On Americans
“What we often see is police departments or local law enforcement agencies grabbing technologies without any policies in place for it, not asking anybody’s permission, just sort of getting it, [and] starting to implement it,” a digital rights activist tells MintPress. WASHINGTON — Fast on the heels revelations of dragnet surveillance devices used by the likes of the National Security Agency and the CIA, another set of tools used by local police in communities across the United States is invading the privacy of the American public, tracking their movements. “If you were to put an automatic license plate reader next to a road that people have to use to get to a demonstration, you could have a list of every single person who attended that demonstration. That’s really concerning,” Nadia Kayyali, a digital rights activist and lawyer, told MintPress News. An automatic license plate reader (ALPR) is a high-speed camera that reads and captures an image of every license plate that comes into its view. Like biometric collection devices and “Stingrays,” ALPRs are just one of the devices used by local police to track, identify and monitor Americans.
“What we often see is police departments or local law enforcement agencies grabbing technologies without any policies in place for it, not asking anybody’s permission, just sort of getting it, [and] starting to implement it,” a digital rights activist tells MintPress.
WASHINGTON — Fast on the heels revelations of dragnet surveillance devices used by the likes of the National Security Agency and the CIA, another set of tools used by local police in communities across the United States is invading the privacy of the American public, tracking their movements.
“If you were to put an automatic license plate reader next to a road that people have to use to get to a demonstration, you could have a list of every single person who attended that demonstration. That’s really concerning,” Nadia Kayyali, a digital rights activist and lawyer, told MintPress News.
An automatic license plate reader (ALPR) is a high-speed camera that reads and captures an image of every license plate that comes into its view. Like biometric collection devices and “Stingrays,” ALPRs are just one of the devices used by local police to track, identify and monitor Americans.
Read more @ http://www.mintpressnews.com/police-use-of-surveillance-technology-raises-privacy-concerns/208478/
Most people in the United States have probably never heard of the popular German news site Netzpolitik.org until this month. But it has been in the news for a reason it wish it wasn’t: the German government is threatening two of its reporters with treason. Their supposed offense? Reporting on leaked information about Germany’s mass surveillance capabilities. These leaks did not come from Edward Snowden, but the content was eerily similar: they exposed the German government’s secret plans to step up internet surveillance. The public reaction was swift. The investigation made world headlines and thousands of people marched in the streets to protest the clear violation of press freedom. Dozens of journalists and free speech advocates signed a letter challenging the government’s aggressive tactics. By Tuesday, the German Justice Minister had fired the country’s top prosecutor who brought the case. (On Monday, after some question about whether the inquiry would continue, Germany formally dropped the investigation despite the fact that some powerful members of the government wanted it to proceed).
Most people in the United States have probably never heard of the popular German news site Netzpolitik.org until this month. But it has been in the news for a reason it wish it wasn’t: the German government is threatening two of its reporters with treason. Their supposed offense? Reporting on leaked information about Germany’s mass surveillance capabilities.
These leaks did not come from Edward Snowden, but the content was eerily similar: they exposed the German government’s secret plans to step up internet surveillance.
The public reaction was swift. The investigation made world headlines and thousands of people marched in the streets to protest the clear violation of press freedom. Dozens of journalists and free speech advocates signed a letter challenging the government’s aggressive tactics. By Tuesday, the German Justice Minister had fired the country’s top prosecutor who brought the case. (On Monday, after some question about whether the inquiry would continue, Germany formally dropped the investigation despite the fact that some powerful members of the government wanted it to proceed).
Read more @ http://www.cjr.org/analysis/germany_berlin_treason_netzpolitik.php
Read more @ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/08/10/treason_case_against_german_digi_journos_officially_dropped/
Read more @ http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/11/world/europe/germany-treason-reporters.html?_r=0
Read more @ http://www.ibtimes.com.au/us-spy-agency-nsa-stop-examining-phone-records-citizens-sets-time-destroying-procured-records
It's taken seven years of legal wrangling, but one group of pro-privacy activists are hoping an appeals court will finally declare a critical part of the National Security Agency's spying apparatus unconstitutional. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has been challenging the NSA's bulk data collection program in court since 2008, largely running on whisteblower testimony from Mark Klein, a former AT&T technician who alleges the NSA inserted technology into the internet company's infrastructure that allowed it to collect and analyze the data. Klein's allegations were later bolstered by Edward Snowden, who has published a raft of material detailing how the process — referred to as 'upstream collection' — works. The lawsuit, Jewel v. NSA, was filed by a collection of AT&T customers who say their communications were unlawfully collected and analyzed. The latest step in the case came Tuesday, when the EFF filed its brief to a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals judge in California. One of those NSA documents leaked to the media explains that the agency used the "collection of communications on fiber cables and infrastructure as data flows past." Tapping those cables means tapping into virtually every kilobyte of data sent from American computers. The cables are often referred to as the internet's "backbone." "The result is a digital dragnet," the lawsuit alleges. "A technological mass surveillance system that subjects millions of ordinary Americans to the seizure and searching of their online correspondence, conversations, searches, reading and other activities." That, they say, is a clear violation of Americans' Fourth Amendment rights.
It's taken seven years of legal wrangling, but one group of pro-privacy activists are hoping an appeals court will finally declare a critical part of the National Security Agency's spying apparatus unconstitutional.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has been challenging the NSA's bulk data collection program in court since 2008, largely running on whisteblower testimony from Mark Klein, a former AT&T technician who alleges the NSA inserted technology into the internet company's infrastructure that allowed it to collect and analyze the data.
Klein's allegations were later bolstered by Edward Snowden, who has published a raft of material detailing how the process — referred to as 'upstream collection' — works.
The lawsuit, Jewel v. NSA, was filed by a collection of AT&T customers who say their communications were unlawfully collected and analyzed. The latest step in the case came Tuesday, when the EFF filed its brief to a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals judge in California.
One of those NSA documents leaked to the media explains that the agency used the "collection of communications on fiber cables and infrastructure as data flows past."
Tapping those cables means tapping into virtually every kilobyte of data sent from American computers. The cables are often referred to as the internet's "backbone."
"The result is a digital dragnet," the lawsuit alleges. "A technological mass surveillance system that subjects millions of ordinary Americans to the seizure and searching of their online correspondence, conversations, searches, reading and other activities."
That, they say, is a clear violation of Americans' Fourth Amendment rights.
Read more @ https://news.vice.com/article/this-group-may-stop-the-nsa-from-tapping-the-internets-backbone
One of the most outrageous ways that the government has violated our Fourth Amendment rights against general seizures and searches has been through its system of tapping into the fiber optic cables of America’s telecommunications companies. The result is a digital dragnet—a technological mass surveillance system that subjects millions of ordinary Americans to the seizure and searching of their online correspondence, conversations, web searches, reading and other activities as they travel across the Internet. This tapping isn’t just about metadata—it includes full content searches of Americans’ communications, at the very least any international communications involving a website or a person who is abroad. Today, in our landmark case Jewel v. NSA we finally ask the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Court whether the core purpose of the Fourth Amendment—providing Americans with security against indiscriminate seizures and searches of their papers and effects—is violated when the government copies and searches in bulk the communications passing through the Internet’s key domestic junctions, without a warrant and without probable cause or any showing of individualized suspicion. We’ve created a graphic to help the court understand how this works.
One of the most outrageous ways that the government has violated our Fourth Amendment rights against general seizures and searches has been through its system of tapping into the fiber optic cables of America’s telecommunications companies. The result is a digital dragnet—a technological mass surveillance system that subjects millions of ordinary Americans to the seizure and searching of their online correspondence, conversations, web searches, reading and other activities as they travel across the Internet. This tapping isn’t just about metadata—it includes full content searches of Americans’ communications, at the very least any international communications involving a website or a person who is abroad.
Today, in our landmark case Jewel v. NSA we finally ask the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Court whether the core purpose of the Fourth Amendment—providing Americans with security against indiscriminate seizures and searches of their papers and effects—is violated when the government copies and searches in bulk the communications passing through the Internet’s key domestic junctions, without a warrant and without probable cause or any showing of individualized suspicion. We’ve created a graphic to help the court understand how this works.
Read more @ https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/08/new-milestone-appeals-court-consider-nsas-mass-seizures-and-searches-internet
In June, the NSA received the green light to temporarily reinstate its controversial bulk collection of telephone metadata while it switches over to its narrower surveillance program. The government agency’s adjustment of its practices follows a debate dating back to 2013 when Edward Snowden leaked classified information revealing government surveillance methods to the public. Later that year, CBS News’ 60 Minutes aired “Inside the NSA,” where former reporter John Miller interviewed National Security Agency director Keith Alexander, revealing just how important metadata is to the NSA’s efforts. The NSA uses metadata – and specifically, the collected digital information of phone numbers dialed plus the time, date and frequency of calls – to expose people in the U.S. who are in communication with high priority terrorist suspects. Metadata is so powerful that its role in the NSA’s surveillance programs has prevented at least 54 terrorist related activities. It’s also sparked ongoing debate regarding American privacy. Phone metadata is collected by the NSA and analyzed through a process called “call chaining.” It’s considered the “least intrusive” way to collect phone records, and is used to search foreign intelligence data. In a behind-the-scenes look, an NSA analyst demonstrated how he is able to enter the phone number of a “pirate,” or target, into the system and “chain out” that target to view its call history for a specified timeframe in the form of a web. With that information, analysts can pinpoint if two pirates are calling the same number, which can lead them to potential safe houses or other targets. According to the 60 Minutes episode, this collected metadata only includes the information detailed above; it does not allow analysts to listen in on the phone calls or see names of callers. For litigation, metadata is equally as powerful. Using similar software applications, DSi analyzes metadata of electronically stored information (ESI) – such as the user’s name, file name, and dates the file was created and modified. Certain metadata can help us identify “smoking guns” in our clients’ cases. This blog post unpacks how our forensic evidence team uncovered metadata to help a client win a case.
In June, the NSA received the green light to temporarily reinstate its controversial bulk collection of telephone metadata while it switches over to its narrower surveillance program. The government agency’s adjustment of its practices follows a debate dating back to 2013 when Edward Snowden leaked classified information revealing government surveillance methods to the public.
Later that year, CBS News’ 60 Minutes aired “Inside the NSA,” where former reporter John Miller interviewed National Security Agency director Keith Alexander, revealing just how important metadata is to the NSA’s efforts.
The NSA uses metadata – and specifically, the collected digital information of phone numbers dialed plus the time, date and frequency of calls – to expose people in the U.S. who are in communication with high priority terrorist suspects. Metadata is so powerful that its role in the NSA’s surveillance programs has prevented at least 54 terrorist related activities. It’s also sparked ongoing debate regarding American privacy.
Phone metadata is collected by the NSA and analyzed through a process called “call chaining.” It’s considered the “least intrusive” way to collect phone records, and is used to search foreign intelligence data. In a behind-the-scenes look, an NSA analyst demonstrated how he is able to enter the phone number of a “pirate,” or target, into the system and “chain out” that target to view its call history for a specified timeframe in the form of a web.
With that information, analysts can pinpoint if two pirates are calling the same number, which can lead them to potential safe houses or other targets. According to the 60 Minutes episode, this collected metadata only includes the information detailed above; it does not allow analysts to listen in on the phone calls or see names of callers.
For litigation, metadata is equally as powerful. Using similar software applications, DSi analyzes metadata of electronically stored information (ESI) – such as the user’s name, file name, and dates the file was created and modified. Certain metadata can help us identify “smoking guns” in our clients’ cases. This blog post unpacks how our forensic evidence team uncovered metadata to help a client win a case.
Read more @ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/power-metadata-tyler-haney
Secrets. Spies. Statutes. Secretaries. Sounds like free association triggered by some of the stories making the rounds on the 24/7 news networks. There was the announcement that Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard will be paroled after serving the 30 years mandated by his “life” sentence in 1985. This is the same Jonathan Pollard who caused George Tenet to threaten to resign as CIA director when the idea of a pardon or commutation was suggested during the Clinton administration. But that was then.
Secrets. Spies. Statutes. Secretaries.
Sounds like free association triggered by some of the stories making the rounds on the 24/7 news networks.
There was the announcement that Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard will be paroled after serving the 30 years mandated by his “life” sentence in 1985. This is the same Jonathan Pollard who caused George Tenet to threaten to resign as CIA director when the idea of a pardon or commutation was suggested during the Clinton administration.
But that was then.
Read more @ http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/aug/4/michael-hayden-hillary-clintons-classified-email-d/?page=all
Recently, German prosecutors said that they were closing their investigation of allegations that the U.S. National Security Agency had tapped Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile telephone. The chief prosecutor said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute. The investigation was triggered when the German magazine Der Spiegel published an article citing documents from NSA leaker Edward Snowden. At the time, Chancellor Merkel said, “Spying among friends – that is simply not done.” According to an unnamed German official, the event created the biggest strain in U.S.-German relations since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. When the Snowden leaks began in 2013, many leaders joined Chancellor Merkel in expressing their outrage over the NSA’s collection of metadata about telephone calls. These expressions of displeasure included arguments that privacy rights had been violated, and that the NSA’s activities were illegal under international law and the domestic law of their countries. French officials described the NSA’s actions as “unacceptable” and “shocking.” During a speech at the United Nations, immediately preceding President Obama’s speech, Dilma Rousseff, president of Brazil, said, “Tampering . . . in the affairs of other countries is a breach of international law and is an affront of the principles that must guide the relations among them . . . .”
Recently, German prosecutors said that they were closing their investigation of allegations that the U.S. National Security Agency had tapped Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile telephone. The chief prosecutor said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute. The investigation was triggered when the German magazine Der Spiegel published an article citing documents from NSA leaker Edward Snowden. At the time, Chancellor Merkel said, “Spying among friends – that is simply not done.” According to an unnamed German official, the event created the biggest strain in U.S.-German relations since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
When the Snowden leaks began in 2013, many leaders joined Chancellor Merkel in expressing their outrage over the NSA’s collection of metadata about telephone calls. These expressions of displeasure included arguments that privacy rights had been violated, and that the NSA’s activities were illegal under international law and the domestic law of their countries. French officials described the NSA’s actions as “unacceptable” and “shocking.” During a speech at the United Nations, immediately preceding President Obama’s speech, Dilma Rousseff, president of Brazil, said, “Tampering . . . in the affairs of other countries is a breach of international law and is an affront of the principles that must guide the relations among them . . . .”
Read more @ http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/249865-spying-the-law-and-hypocrisy
NSA whistleblower William Binney claims that the most prominent users of data collected by NSA are federal and international law enforcement agencies. WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The most prominent users of data collected by the US National Security Agency (NSA) are federal and international law enforcement agencies, NSA whistleblower William Binney said during the Whistleblowers Summit in Washington, DC on Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The most prominent users of data collected by the US National Security Agency (NSA) are federal and international law enforcement agencies, NSA whistleblower William Binney said during the Whistleblowers Summit in Washington, DC on Wednesday.
Read more @ http://sputniknews.com/us/20150729/1025193481.html
Avoiding high-tech spies
Ex-military officers provide insight into electronic surveillance and the protection of confidential sources Ex-military officers provide insight into electronic surveillance and the protection of whistleblowers A smiling woman I don’t know greets me by first name. The conference room has been swept for surveillance devices, she explains, and everyone who enters will get a brief pat-down. With three other journalists and a computer security expert, I am about to begin a two-day training in pre-electronic spycraft. Our instructors: two military police veterans. The goal: learn how to protect people who risk their jobs or freedom to share information with the public, also known as whistleblowers. After we all get settled in, class starts. “Once you realize that what’s possible in electronic surveillance today has basically reached the realm of science fiction, you have to take a different route,” says Larry Jones, a former intelligence analyst for the Marines and one of the workshop’s leaders. His partner, Daryl Baginski, guides us through pen-and-paper cryptosystems—ways to encrypt and decrypt short messages. When we’ve encrypted a note, we mail it or leave it for someone to pick up. These techniques date back thousands of years, but even simple ciphers can stump today’s best code-breaking computers for days. A cipher called the “one-time pad” can defeat computer analysis entirely and is still used by spies. However, to get around its limitations (it requires a long key of random letters), Baginski invented his own cipher and teaches it in class. The aim, he says, is “making it prohibitively laborious and expensive to keep a tab on you.” “Governments from all over the world are [acting] against journalists, human rights activists, human rights defenders and political dissidents,” explains Bruce Schneier, widely considered the foremost U.S. electronic-security expert (Congress called him in to explain the implications of the Edward Snowden leaks). “There’s an arms race here, and journalists are losing.”
Ex-military officers provide insight into electronic surveillance and the protection of confidential sources
Ex-military officers provide insight into electronic surveillance and the protection of whistleblowers
A smiling woman I don’t know greets me by first name.
The conference room has been swept for surveillance devices, she explains, and everyone who enters will get a brief pat-down.
With three other journalists and a computer security expert, I am about to begin a two-day training in pre-electronic spycraft. Our instructors: two military police veterans. The goal: learn how to protect people who risk their jobs or freedom to share information with the public, also known as whistleblowers.
After we all get settled in, class starts. “Once you realize that what’s possible in electronic surveillance today has basically reached the realm of science fiction, you have to take a different route,” says Larry Jones, a former intelligence analyst for the Marines and one of the workshop’s leaders.
His partner, Daryl Baginski, guides us through pen-and-paper cryptosystems—ways to encrypt and decrypt short messages. When we’ve encrypted a note, we mail it or leave it for someone to pick up. These techniques date back thousands of years, but even simple ciphers can stump today’s best code-breaking computers for days. A cipher called the “one-time pad” can defeat computer analysis entirely and is still used by spies. However, to get around its limitations (it requires a long key of random letters), Baginski invented his own cipher and teaches it in class. The aim, he says, is “making it prohibitively laborious and expensive to keep a tab on you.”
“Governments from all over the world are [acting] against journalists, human rights activists, human rights defenders and political dissidents,” explains Bruce Schneier, widely considered the foremost U.S. electronic-security expert (Congress called him in to explain the implications of the Edward Snowden leaks). “There’s an arms race here, and journalists are losing.”
Read more @ https://www.newsreview.com/chico/avoiding-high-tech-spies/content?oid=17833529
"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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