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Feb 7 16 2:11 PM
Boing Boing is proud to publish two original documents disclosed by Edward Snowden, in connection with "Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Extraordinary Rendition," a short story written for Laura Poitras's Astro Noise exhibition, which runs at NYC's Whitney Museum of American Art from Feb 5 to May 1, 2016. “I’d tell you, but I’d have to kill you.” This is what I shout at the TV (or the Youtube window) whenever I see a surveillance boss explain why none of his methods, or his mission, can be subjected to scrutiny. I write about surveillance, counter surveillance, and civil liberties, and have spent a fair bit of time in company with both the grunts and the generals of the surveillance industry, and I can always tell when one of these moments is coming up, the flinty-eyed look of someone about to play Jason Bourne. The stories we tell ourselves are the secret pivots on which our lives turn. So when Laura Poitras approached me to write a piece for the Astro Noise book -- to accompany her show at the Whitney -- and offered me access to the Snowden archive for the purpose, I jumped at the opportunity. Fortuitously, the Astro Noise offer coincided perfectly with another offer, from Laurie King and Leslie Klinger. Laurie is a bestselling Holmes writer; Les is the lawyer who won the lawsuit that put Sherlock Holmes in the public domain, firmly and unequivocally. Since their legal victory, they've been putting together unauthorized Sherlock anthologies, and did I want to write one for "Echoes of Holmes," the next one in line?
Boing Boing is proud to publish two original documents disclosed by Edward Snowden, in connection with "Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Extraordinary Rendition," a short story written for Laura Poitras's Astro Noise exhibition, which runs at NYC's Whitney Museum of American Art from Feb 5 to May 1, 2016.
“I’d tell you, but I’d have to kill you.” This is what I shout at the TV (or the Youtube window) whenever I see a surveillance boss explain why none of his methods, or his mission, can be subjected to scrutiny. I write about surveillance, counter surveillance, and civil liberties, and have spent a fair bit of time in company with both the grunts and the generals of the surveillance industry, and I can always tell when one of these moments is coming up, the flinty-eyed look of someone about to play Jason Bourne.
The stories we tell ourselves are the secret pivots on which our lives turn. So when Laura Poitras approached me to write a piece for the Astro Noise book -- to accompany her show at the Whitney -- and offered me access to the Snowden archive for the purpose, I jumped at the opportunity.
Fortuitously, the Astro Noise offer coincided perfectly with another offer, from Laurie King and Leslie Klinger. Laurie is a bestselling Holmes writer; Les is the lawyer who won the lawsuit that put Sherlock Holmes in the public domain, firmly and unequivocally. Since their legal victory, they've been putting together unauthorized Sherlock anthologies, and did I want to write one for "Echoes of Holmes," the next one in line?
Currently wanted by the US government for revealing the extent of the NSA domestic and global spying apparatus, whistleblower Edward Snowden’s latest leak reveals that Britain’s GCHQ also collected enormous amounts of metadata. The leak includes a 96-page e-book written in 2011 by the Heilbronn Institute for Mathematical Research in Bristol, as well as a shorter document entitled "What’s the Worst That Can Happen?" Leaked by Edward Snowden and published online by Internet culture website Boing Boing, the documents serve as "a kind of checklist for spies who are seeking permission to infect their adversaries’ computers or networks with malicious software."
The leak includes a 96-page e-book written in 2011 by the Heilbronn Institute for Mathematical Research in Bristol, as well as a shorter document entitled "What’s the Worst That Can Happen?" Leaked by Edward Snowden and published online by Internet culture website Boing Boing, the documents serve as "a kind of checklist for spies who are seeking permission to infect their adversaries’ computers or networks with malicious software."
A new document leak by former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden sheds light on how Britain's main signals intelligence agency captures as much data flowing across the communications links and the internet as possible for processing. Dated September 20, 2011 and first published by Boing Boing, the redacted 96 page Heilbronn Institute for Mathematical Data Mining Research Problem Book is marked as top secret and only to be shared with the UK's Five Eyes partners. As at 2011, the UK Government Communications Headquarters' (GCHQ) Special Source Collection wiretapping technology could keep up with 10 gigabit per second internet circuits. The spy agency had connected probes to around 200 of the links since 2008, with the intercepted data being processed at GCHQ Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, Bude in Cornwall and "LECKWITH", sited in Oman. According to the documents, the GCHQ has "access to many more bearers than we can have cover on at any one time, and the set we have on cover is changed to meet operational needs". The amount of data collected from the links is massive: a single 10Gbps link produces so much information it is "far too much to store, or even to process in any complicated way", the GHCQ said.
A new document leak by former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden sheds light on how Britain's main signals intelligence agency captures as much data flowing across the communications links and the internet as possible for processing.
Dated September 20, 2011 and first published by Boing Boing, the redacted 96 page Heilbronn Institute for Mathematical Data Mining Research Problem Book is marked as top secret and only to be shared with the UK's Five Eyes partners.
As at 2011, the UK Government Communications Headquarters' (GCHQ) Special Source Collection wiretapping technology could keep up with 10 gigabit per second internet circuits.
The spy agency had connected probes to around 200 of the links since 2008, with the intercepted data being processed at GCHQ Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, Bude in Cornwall and "LECKWITH", sited in Oman.
According to the documents, the GCHQ has "access to many more bearers than we can have cover on at any one time, and the set we have on cover is changed to meet operational needs".
The amount of data collected from the links is massive: a single 10Gbps link produces so much information it is "far too much to store, or even to process in any complicated way", the GHCQ said.
Read more @ http://www.itnews.com.au/news/snowden-leak-reveals-uk-spies-big-data-surveillance-414691
As far as metadata is concerned, handbook admits: "we pull everything we see." A "Data Mining Research Problem Book" marked "top secret strap 1" has been leaked that details some of the key techniques used by GCHQ to sift through the huge volumes of data it pulls continuously from the Internet. Originally obtained by Edward Snowden, the 96-page e-book has been published by Boing Boing, along with a second short document entitled "What's the worst that can happen?". Boing Boing describes this as "a kind of checklist for spies who are seeking permission to infect their adversaries' computers or networks with malicious software." The data mining handbook was written by researchers from the Heilbronn Institute for Mathematical Research in Bristol, a partnership between GCHQ and the University of Bristol. According to Boing Boing, "Staff spend half their time working on public research, the other half is given over to secret projects for the government." The handbook provides valuable insights into some of the details of GCHQ's data mining work, at least as it was in September 2011, when the document was written. At that time, some of the "bearers"—Internet links—were producing 10 gigabits per second. As the handbook notes: "A 10G bearer produces a phenomenal amount of data: far too much to store, or even to process in any complicated way." As a result, "To make things manageable, the first step is to discard the vast majority of the packets we see."
A "Data Mining Research Problem Book" marked "top secret strap 1" has been leaked that details some of the key techniques used by GCHQ to sift through the huge volumes of data it pulls continuously from the Internet.
Originally obtained by Edward Snowden, the 96-page e-book has been published by Boing Boing, along with a second short document entitled "What's the worst that can happen?". Boing Boing describes this as "a kind of checklist for spies who are seeking permission to infect their adversaries' computers or networks with malicious software."
The data mining handbook was written by researchers from the Heilbronn Institute for Mathematical Research in Bristol, a partnership between GCHQ and the University of Bristol. According to Boing Boing, "Staff spend half their time working on public research, the other half is given over to secret projects for the government."
The handbook provides valuable insights into some of the details of GCHQ's data mining work, at least as it was in September 2011, when the document was written. At that time, some of the "bearers"—Internet links—were producing 10 gigabits per second. As the handbook notes: "A 10G bearer produces a phenomenal amount of data: far too much to store, or even to process in any complicated way." As a result, "To make things manageable, the first step is to discard the vast majority of the packets we see."
Read more @ http://arstechnica.co.uk/tech-policy/2016/02/gchqs-data-mining-techniques-revealed-in-new-snowden-leak/
Canada’s CBC network reported Thursday that the country is slamming on the brakes when it comes to sharing some communications intelligence with key allies — including the U.S. — out of fear that Canadian personal information is not properly protected. “Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan says the sharing won’t resume until he is satisfied that the proper protections are in place,” CBC reported. Earlier on Thursday, the watchdog tasked with keeping tabs on the Ottawa-based Communications Security Establishment (CSE), Jean-Pierre Plouffe, called out the electronic spying agency for risking Canadian privacy in his annual report. Plouffe wrote that the surveillance agency broke privacy laws when it shared Canadian data with its allies without properly protecting it first. Consequently, he concluded, it should precisely explain how Canadian citizens’ metadata — information about who a communication is to and from, the subject line of an email, and so on — can and can’t be used. “Minimization is the process by which Canadian identity information contained in metadata is rendered unidentifiable prior to being shared,” Plouffe wrote in his report. “The fact that CSE did not properly minimize Canadian identity information contained in certain metadata prior to being shared was contrary to the ministerial directive, and to CSE’s operational policy.” Defense Minister Sajjan said in a statement that the data sharing in question was the result of “unintentional” errors and didn’t allow for specific Canadian individuals to be identified.
Canada’s CBC network reported Thursday that the country is slamming on the brakes when it comes to sharing some communications intelligence with key allies — including the U.S. — out of fear that Canadian personal information is not properly protected.
“Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan says the sharing won’t resume until he is satisfied that the proper protections are in place,” CBC reported.
Earlier on Thursday, the watchdog tasked with keeping tabs on the Ottawa-based Communications Security Establishment (CSE), Jean-Pierre Plouffe, called out the electronic spying agency for risking Canadian privacy in his annual report.
Plouffe wrote that the surveillance agency broke privacy laws when it shared Canadian data with its allies without properly protecting it first. Consequently, he concluded, it should precisely explain how Canadian citizens’ metadata — information about who a communication is to and from, the subject line of an email, and so on — can and can’t be used.
“Minimization is the process by which Canadian identity information contained in metadata is rendered unidentifiable prior to being shared,” Plouffe wrote in his report. “The fact that CSE did not properly minimize Canadian identity information contained in certain metadata prior to being shared was contrary to the ministerial directive, and to CSE’s operational policy.”
Defense Minister Sajjan said in a statement that the data sharing in question was the result of “unintentional” errors and didn’t allow for specific Canadian individuals to be identified.
Read more @ https://theintercept.com/2016/01/28/canada-cuts-off-some-intelligence-sharing-with-u-s-out-of-fear-for-canadians-privacy/
Read more @ http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/295933/canada-stops-sharing-five-eyes-data
OTTAWA — Canada's electronic spy agency broke privacy laws by sharing information about Canadians with foreign partners, says a federal watchdog. The Communications Security Establishment passed along the information — known as metadata — to counterparts in the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand, said Jean-Pierre Plouffe, who keeps an eye on the highly secretive agency. Metadata is information associated with a communication — such as a telephone number or email address — but not the message itself.
OTTAWA — Canada's electronic spy agency broke privacy laws by sharing information about Canadians with foreign partners, says a federal watchdog.
The Communications Security Establishment passed along the information — known as metadata — to counterparts in the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand, said Jean-Pierre Plouffe, who keeps an eye on the highly secretive agency.
Metadata is information associated with a communication — such as a telephone number or email address — but not the message itself.
Read more @ http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/01/28/canada-csec-spying-privacy-law_n_9099830.html
The report tabled Thursday said CSIS must do more to ensure insiders don’t pilfer secret material. It also urged CSIS to inform the Federal Court how it uses metadata collected from cyberspace. OTTAWA—The Canadian Security Intelligence Service repeatedly obtained taxpayer information from the Canada Revenue Agency without presenting a court-approved warrant for the data. That revelation was among several concerns raised in the latest annual report of the Security Intelligence Review Committee, which monitors CSIS compliance with law and policy. The report tabled Thursday said the spy service must do more to ensure insiders don’t pilfer secret material. It also urged CSIS to inform the Federal Court how it uses metadata — the telltale digital trails that accompany messages and phone calls — collected from cyberspace. The findings came the same day the watchdog over the Communications Security Establishment, Canada’s electronic spy agency, found the CSE had improperly shared metadata about Canadians with key foreign allies.
OTTAWA—The Canadian Security Intelligence Service repeatedly obtained taxpayer information from the Canada Revenue Agency without presenting a court-approved warrant for the data.
That revelation was among several concerns raised in the latest annual report of the Security Intelligence Review Committee, which monitors CSIS compliance with law and policy.
The report tabled Thursday said the spy service must do more to ensure insiders don’t pilfer secret material. It also urged CSIS to inform the Federal Court how it uses metadata — the telltale digital trails that accompany messages and phone calls — collected from cyberspace.
The findings came the same day the watchdog over the Communications Security Establishment, Canada’s electronic spy agency, found the CSE had improperly shared metadata about Canadians with key foreign allies.
Read more @ http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2016/01/28/csis-got-personal-taxpayer-data-from-canada-revenue-agency-without-warrant.html
Read more @ http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadian-politics/csis-repeatedly-got-taxpayer-info-from-the-canada-revenue-agency-without-a-warrant
OTTAWA -- The watchdog that monitors the Canadian Security Intelligence Service says CSIS must do more to ensure insiders don't lose, steal or leak secret material. The Security Intelligence Review Committee says it found shortcomings in the spy service's training, investigation and record-keeping practices intended to manage so-called insider threats. In its annual report tabled today, the review committee says concern about such threats has grown due to recent breaches by intelligence employees in the United States and Canada.
OTTAWA -- The watchdog that monitors the Canadian Security Intelligence Service says CSIS must do more to ensure insiders don't lose, steal or leak secret material.
The Security Intelligence Review Committee says it found shortcomings in the spy service's training, investigation and record-keeping practices intended to manage so-called insider threats.
In its annual report tabled today, the review committee says concern about such threats has grown due to recent breaches by intelligence employees in the United States and Canada.
Read more @ http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/csis-must-to-do-more-to-prevent-theft-by-insiders-watchdog-1.2756025
Read more @ http://www.nationalobserver.com/2016/01/28/news/government-vows-tackle-breaches-spy-agencies
Last week, Canadians learned that their foreign signals intelligence agency, the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), had improperly shared information with their American, Australian, British, and New Zealand counterparts (collectively referred to as the “Five Eyes”). The exposure was unintentional: Techniques that CSE had developed to de-identify metadata with Canadians’ personal information failed to keep Canadians anonymous when juxtaposed with allies’ re-identification capabilities. Canadians recognize the hazards of such exposures given that lax information-sharing protocols with US agencies which previously contributed to the mistaken rendition and subsequent torture of a Canadian citizen in 2002. As with many of its partner foreign agencies, CSE is granted almost limitless legal latitude when gathering intelligence on non-nationals, but is legally constrained from directing its activities at Canadians. The agency relies on de-identification techniques to facilitate its intelligence gathering, analysis, and sharing of data it knows contains significant amounts of Canadian data. However, it is generally known that de-identification is an inherently tenuous activity. Given this, it is fair to ask both how the data it was sharing might have been re-identified by its partner intelligence agencies, as well as the broader lessons of CSE’s failure to stay within its legislative mandate. And, even more importantly, this incident raises questions regarding the ongoing viability of the agency’s old-fashioned mandates that bifurcate Canadian and non-Canadian persons’ data in light of the integrated nature of contemporary communications systems and data exchanges with foreign partners.
Last week, Canadians learned that their foreign signals intelligence agency, the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), had improperly shared information with their American, Australian, British, and New Zealand counterparts (collectively referred to as the “Five Eyes”). The exposure was unintentional: Techniques that CSE had developed to de-identify metadata with Canadians’ personal information failed to keep Canadians anonymous when juxtaposed with allies’ re-identification capabilities. Canadians recognize the hazards of such exposures given that lax information-sharing protocols with US agencies which previously contributed to the mistaken rendition and subsequent torture of a Canadian citizen in 2002.
As with many of its partner foreign agencies, CSE is granted almost limitless legal latitude when gathering intelligence on non-nationals, but is legally constrained from directing its activities at Canadians. The agency relies on de-identification techniques to facilitate its intelligence gathering, analysis, and sharing of data it knows contains significant amounts of Canadian data. However, it is generally known that de-identification is an inherently tenuous activity. Given this, it is fair to ask both how the data it was sharing might have been re-identified by its partner intelligence agencies, as well as the broader lessons of CSE’s failure to stay within its legislative mandate. And, even more importantly, this incident raises questions regarding the ongoing viability of the agency’s old-fashioned mandates that bifurcate Canadian and non-Canadian persons’ data in light of the integrated nature of contemporary communications systems and data exchanges with foreign partners.
Read more @ https://www.justsecurity.org/29138/reevaluate-share-intelligence-data-allies/
While American and European negotiators reached a deal to replace the invalidated Safe Harbor data transfer agreement, the agreement may not be strong enough to satisfy European privacy advocates concerns about US spy agency snooping. European Union and US officials this week reached a tensely anticipated agreement that staved off disrupting transatlantic data traffic between European and American firms. But the hard part now is figuring out how to sustain the pact without additional reforms of US surveillance practices in Washington. After the European Court of Justice ruled last fall to invalidate an EU-US data transfer deal known as Safe Harbor over concerns about US spy agency surveillance, policymakers, tech companies, and data regulators on both sides of the Atlantic scrambled to reach an agreement that would satisfy European data protection agencies.
European Union and US officials this week reached a tensely anticipated agreement that staved off disrupting transatlantic data traffic between European and American firms. But the hard part now is figuring out how to sustain the pact without additional reforms of US surveillance practices in Washington.
After the European Court of Justice ruled last fall to invalidate an EU-US data transfer deal known as Safe Harbor over concerns about US spy agency surveillance, policymakers, tech companies, and data regulators on both sides of the Atlantic scrambled to reach an agreement that would satisfy European data protection agencies.
Read more @ http://news.yahoo.com/eu-us-data-pact-survive-without-surveillance-reform-160049279.html
Australia’s national security monitor says legislation should be amended to protect journalists – but he proposes no such safeguards for intelligence officers New laws that could criminalise reporting on intelligence activities by journalists may breach the constitution and should be amended, Australia’s national security monitor has found. The acting national security legislation monitor, Roger Gyles QC, was commissioned by the former prime minister Tony Abbott to investigate the impact of a section inserted into the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Act that would prohibit disclosure of any information about “special intelligence operations”. Gyles said in his report the laws should be amended to protect journalists more effectively. He said the laws could violate the implied freedom of political communication that has been recognised by the high court in the Australian constitution. But intelligence officers who spoke out about certain types of intelligence operations, similar to the US National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, would not be afforded the same protections under the changes proposed by Gyles. In a 177-page report, he found that the impact of section 35P would create a “chilling effect” on reporting because of the uncertainty around their breadth.
Australia’s national security monitor says legislation should be amended to protect journalists – but he proposes no such safeguards for intelligence officers
New laws that could criminalise reporting on intelligence activities by journalists may breach the constitution and should be amended, Australia’s national security monitor has found.
The acting national security legislation monitor, Roger Gyles QC, was commissioned by the former prime minister Tony Abbott to investigate the impact of a section inserted into the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Act that would prohibit disclosure of any information about “special intelligence operations”.
Gyles said in his report the laws should be amended to protect journalists more effectively. He said the laws could violate the implied freedom of political communication that has been recognised by the high court in the Australian constitution.
But intelligence officers who spoke out about certain types of intelligence operations, similar to the US National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, would not be afforded the same protections under the changes proposed by Gyles.
In a 177-page report, he found that the impact of section 35P would create a “chilling effect” on reporting because of the uncertainty around their breadth.
Read more @ http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/feb/02/laws-that-could-jail-journalists-for-reporting-on-spying-could-breach-constitution
Of all the NSA surveillance documents Edward Snowden leaked, some of the most important exposed the spy agency’s so-called XKEYSCORE program, a massive system for vacuuming up and sifting through emails, chats, images, online search activity, usernames and passwords, and other private digital data from core fiber optics cables around the world. XKEYSCORE, which the NSA calls its “widest reaching” surveillance program, was established around 2008 and consists of more than 700 servers that store data sucked from the internet’s backbone and mine this data for patterns and connections. Only a well-resourced party like the NSA could deploy such a grandiose surveillance program. But if your spy needs are more modest, there are a number of existing tools available that offer similar surveillance capabilities, albeit at a smaller scale, says Nicholas Weaver.
Of all the NSA surveillance documents Edward Snowden leaked, some of the most important exposed the spy agency’s so-called XKEYSCORE program, a massive system for vacuuming up and sifting through emails, chats, images, online search activity, usernames and passwords, and other private digital data from core fiber optics cables around the world.
XKEYSCORE, which the NSA calls its “widest reaching” surveillance program, was established around 2008 and consists of more than 700 servers that store data sucked from the internet’s backbone and mine this data for patterns and connections.
Only a well-resourced party like the NSA could deploy such a grandiose surveillance program. But if your spy needs are more modest, there are a number of existing tools available that offer similar surveillance capabilities, albeit at a smaller scale, says Nicholas Weaver.
Read more @ http://www.wired.com/2016/01/how-to-make-your-own-nsa-bulk-surveillance-system/
Coinciding with the one-year anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris, the “Freedom of Expression in a Changing World” conference was held by the Forum for the Academy and the Public at the UCI Law School and the UCI Student Center this past weekend to discuss recent intrusions on free speech. Keynote speaker Edward Snowden, the ex-CIA employee who leaked National Security Agency documents to the press in 2013, joined the conference through a live Google hangout broadcast, along with Barton Gellman, the journalist who led the Washington Post’s coverage of the NSA document leak. The weekend-long event drew hundreds of attendees, especially during the live broadcast with Snowden. He and Gellman were invited to the conference by Amy Wilentz, one of the conference’s organizers and professor of literary journalism at UCI.
Coinciding with the one-year anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris, the “Freedom of Expression in a Changing World” conference was held by the Forum for the Academy and the Public at the UCI Law School and the UCI Student Center this past weekend to discuss recent intrusions on free speech.
Keynote speaker Edward Snowden, the ex-CIA employee who leaked National Security Agency documents to the press in 2013, joined the conference through a live Google hangout broadcast, along with Barton Gellman, the journalist who led the Washington Post’s coverage of the NSA document leak.
The weekend-long event drew hundreds of attendees, especially during the live broadcast with Snowden. He and Gellman were invited to the conference by Amy Wilentz, one of the conference’s organizers and professor of literary journalism at UCI.
Read more @ http://www.newuniversity.org/2016/01/news/43601/
Who wants his opinion anyway….. the fact is that Hayden will be long dead and some of the other hardliners on Snowden as well, by the time Edward Snowden passes….. Snowden is young, healthy, doesn’t drink or smoke and watches his diet…..and liked by hundreds of thousands of people. Hayden said Snowden would die an alcoholic in Russia, and he must have known beforehand that Snowden doesn’t drink alcohol because they worked together. So is this a case of sour grapes on Hayden’s part…. ? Maybe so.
“If you’re asking me my opinion, he’s going to die in Moscow. He’s not coming home.” —Michael Hayden, former NSA executive
“If you’re asking me my opinion, he’s going to die in Moscow. He’s not coming home.”
—Michael Hayden, former NSA executive
Edward Snowden is feeling bored in Russia. He’s busying himself on Twitter debunking US government statements on national security. The latest of which is footage of an encrypted email message included in an ISIS follow-up video regarding the November 2015 Paris attacks. He’s also got a lot of time to kill so now he can make internet memes as well. He wants to go home but jail time is far from his mind. A few months ago, there was a clamor to bring him home without facing charges. The government’s response is that they’ll think about it. So whatever happened to the US bringing Edward Snowden back home? The idea is still in the back burner and seems to be going further out back as the US elections draws closer. The hot topic now is the gradual removal of encryption from cellphones and other gadgets in the United States so the government won’t have to work hard on eavesdropping and that future data collected would actually mean something to those who collect them. Terabytes worth of previously collected data are encrypted and would take considerable time to crack before they could be useful. As the NSA wasn’t too discerning of its collection, majority of collected encrypted data may actually be worth nothing at all. And government argues that some of that data may actually contain useful information that could prevent terrorist attacks had they been able to read them sooner. So that sums up the government’s beef with encryption and encrypted gadgets. What Snowden just did is imply that the encrypted email video was fake and that the government is setting up the citizenry to think that encryption is in the way of keeping everyone safe from ISIS and other terrorist attacks. By denying everyone encrypted devices, they’d be denying these to terrorists as well.
Edward Snowden is feeling bored in Russia. He’s busying himself on Twitter debunking US government statements on national security. The latest of which is footage of an encrypted email message included in an ISIS follow-up video regarding the November 2015 Paris attacks. He’s also got a lot of time to kill so now he can make internet memes as well. He wants to go home but jail time is far from his mind. A few months ago, there was a clamor to bring him home without facing charges. The government’s response is that they’ll think about it. So whatever happened to the US bringing Edward Snowden back home?
The idea is still in the back burner and seems to be going further out back as the US elections draws closer. The hot topic now is the gradual removal of encryption from cellphones and other gadgets in the United States so the government won’t have to work hard on eavesdropping and that future data collected would actually mean something to those who collect them. Terabytes worth of previously collected data are encrypted and would take considerable time to crack before they could be useful. As the NSA wasn’t too discerning of its collection, majority of collected encrypted data may actually be worth nothing at all. And government argues that some of that data may actually contain useful information that could prevent terrorist attacks had they been able to read them sooner. So that sums up the government’s beef with encryption and encrypted gadgets. What Snowden just did is imply that the encrypted email video was fake and that the government is setting up the citizenry to think that encryption is in the way of keeping everyone safe from ISIS and other terrorist attacks. By denying everyone encrypted devices, they’d be denying these to terrorists as well.
Read more @ https://movietvtechgeeks.com/edward-snowden-far-from-coming-home/?page_y=0
Denmark has publicly acknowledged for the first time that in June 2013 a US plane was waiting in a Copenhagen airport to extradite NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden to the US. At the time he was stranded in a Moscow airport. The allegations of Denmark’s complicity in the plan resurfaced last week after the news that website Denfri had published documents disclosed under a freedom of information request pointing to such a connection. Danish officials initially denied the report, but on Friday Justice Minister Søren Pind confirmed it to parliament. “The purpose of the plane’s presence at Copenhagen Airport was apparently to have the ability to transport Edward Snowden to the USA in case he was delivered from Russia or another country,” the minister said in a written statement. On Friday, Pind retracted statements he had made earlier in the week on Wednesday, when he had claimed he was not aware of the purpose of the plane’s presence in Denmark. After the Denfri revelations, Snowden suggested that Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen had rejected calls from left wing MPs to provide him political asylum because of the PM’s involvement with the US rendition plan.
Denmark has publicly acknowledged for the first time that in June 2013 a US plane was waiting in a Copenhagen airport to extradite NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden to the US. At the time he was stranded in a Moscow airport.
The allegations of Denmark’s complicity in the plan resurfaced last week after the news that website Denfri had published documents disclosed under a freedom of information request pointing to such a connection.
Danish officials initially denied the report, but on Friday Justice Minister Søren Pind confirmed it to parliament.
“The purpose of the plane’s presence at Copenhagen Airport was apparently to have the ability to transport Edward Snowden to the USA in case he was delivered from Russia or another country,” the minister said in a written statement.
On Friday, Pind retracted statements he had made earlier in the week on Wednesday, when he had claimed he was not aware of the purpose of the plane’s presence in Denmark.
After the Denfri revelations, Snowden suggested that Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen had rejected calls from left wing MPs to provide him political asylum because of the PM’s involvement with the US rendition plan.
Read more @ https://www.rt.com/news/331409-denmark-confirms-plane-snowden/
Denmark admits the US sent a rendition plane to capture Edward Snowden
Danish officials denied the reports as recently as Wednesday Denmark’s Justice Minister has admitted that the US sent a rendition flight to Copenhagen Airport to capture whistleblower Edward Snowden. Justice Minister Søren Pind told the Danish parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee the US was granted permission to use Danish airspace and land a plane at Copenhagen Airport to transport Edward Snowden to America. “The purpose of the plane’s presence at Copenhagen Airport was apparently to have the ability to transport Edward Snowden to the USA in case he was delivered from Russia or another country,” Mr Pind said in a written statement seen by the Local.
Danish officials denied the reports as recently as Wednesday
Denmark’s Justice Minister has admitted that the US sent a rendition flight to Copenhagen Airport to capture whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Justice Minister Søren Pind told the Danish parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee the US was granted permission to use Danish airspace and land a plane at Copenhagen Airport to transport Edward Snowden to America.
“The purpose of the plane’s presence at Copenhagen Airport was apparently to have the ability to transport Edward Snowden to the USA in case he was delivered from Russia or another country,” Mr Pind said in a written statement seen by the Local.
Read more @ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/denmark-admits-us-sent-rendition-plane-capture-edward-snowden-a6857516.html
Read more @ http://www.thelocal.dk/20160205/denmark-confirms-us-sent-rendition-flight-for-snowden
The National Security Agency campus in Fort Meade, Md., seen in June 2013. Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., wants to restore the NSA’s access to bulk metadata it collected under the Patriot Act. Congress ended the program in November. Patrick Semansky AP WASHINGTON A Kansas lawmaker wants the nation’s spies to get back their access to mass surveillance data that allowed the federal government to track communications of potential terrorists. And that’s not all: U.S. Rep. Mike Pompeo, a Republican from Wichita, says that eventually he wants the National Security Agency to be able to restart its bulk collection of metadata and combine those records with even more information: financial and “lifestyle” details that would be accessible in a huge, searchable database. It’s a controversial stance that divides the all-GOP Kansas congressional delegation and exposes a larger rift in the Republican Party between national security hawks and libertarian-leaning conservatives determined to rein in government surveillance powers. “It takes two issues important to Republicans (national security and civil liberties) and pits them against each other,” said Chapman Rackaway, a political science professor at Fort Hays State University in Kansas.
The National Security Agency campus in Fort Meade, Md., seen in June 2013. Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., wants to restore the NSA’s access to bulk metadata it collected under the Patriot Act. Congress ended the program in November. Patrick Semansky AP
WASHINGTON
A Kansas lawmaker wants the nation’s spies to get back their access to mass surveillance data that allowed the federal government to track communications of potential terrorists.
And that’s not all: U.S. Rep. Mike Pompeo, a Republican from Wichita, says that eventually he wants the National Security Agency to be able to restart its bulk collection of metadata and combine those records with even more information: financial and “lifestyle” details that would be accessible in a huge, searchable database.
It’s a controversial stance that divides the all-GOP Kansas congressional delegation and exposes a larger rift in the Republican Party between national security hawks and libertarian-leaning conservatives determined to rein in government surveillance powers.
“It takes two issues important to Republicans (national security and civil liberties) and pits them against each other,” said Chapman Rackaway, a political science professor at Fort Hays State University in Kansas.
Read more @ http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/nation-world/national/article56869963.html
Big Bang Data makes the cloud tangible for better or worse
A chance to see our brave new world anew WE DON'T cover exhibitions all that often at The INQUIRER. In fact, in the great scheme of things, it's about as likely as us reviewing a Belinda Carlisle concert. But this is something truly special. Halfway round we realised that it wasn't just an exhibition, it was the story of the past 14 years of The INQUIRER as art. The inescapable world of data in which we now live makes it sometimes difficult adequately to understand exactly what terms like internet, cloud and data actually mean. They're intangible constructs that, however loud you shout about the cause and effect of the breadcrumbs of metadata you leave behind, the concepts simply get lost. Some 90 percent of the data created in human history appeared in the past 24 months, and it's about time we took a moment to become more familiar with the concept of big data. Big Bang Data is part art exhibition and part science museum, and audaciously attempts to quantify these vague ideas through sensory means. It tries to give some sense of understanding as to why Edward Snowden is so important, why everyone in the world is trackable and exactly what this mass of stuff we call 'data' actually is. The exhibition begins with a video installation showing a giant server with overgrown data pipes in the same way that we might see an electricity sub-station. You get a sense that data is a 'flow', just like electricity, and it reminds us that it is a utility. Composer Ryoji Ikeda has been touring with his audio-visual installations for a number of years, and we were treated to a giant video wall version of data.tron, his 2007 work that has appeared around the world displaying matrices of numbers, coordinates and atomic patterns, set to precise electronic tones, designed to bridge the gap between meaningless binary and beauty. From then on, we learn about the key buildings, the key events and the key problems surrounding data. The repeated use of infographics form works of art, but are also bite-sized, understandable ways to learn the statistics of the world around us, from the number of selfies on Instagram with smiles, to the size of companies if they were sovereign nations.
A chance to see our brave new world anew
WE DON'T cover exhibitions all that often at The INQUIRER. In fact, in the great scheme of things, it's about as likely as us reviewing a Belinda Carlisle concert. But this is something truly special. Halfway round we realised that it wasn't just an exhibition, it was the story of the past 14 years of The INQUIRER as art.
The inescapable world of data in which we now live makes it sometimes difficult adequately to understand exactly what terms like internet, cloud and data actually mean. They're intangible constructs that, however loud you shout about the cause and effect of the breadcrumbs of metadata you leave behind, the concepts simply get lost.
Some 90 percent of the data created in human history appeared in the past 24 months, and it's about time we took a moment to become more familiar with the concept of big data.
Big Bang Data is part art exhibition and part science museum, and audaciously attempts to quantify these vague ideas through sensory means. It tries to give some sense of understanding as to why Edward Snowden is so important, why everyone in the world is trackable and exactly what this mass of stuff we call 'data' actually is.
The exhibition begins with a video installation showing a giant server with overgrown data pipes in the same way that we might see an electricity sub-station. You get a sense that data is a 'flow', just like electricity, and it reminds us that it is a utility.
Composer Ryoji Ikeda has been touring with his audio-visual installations for a number of years, and we were treated to a giant video wall version of data.tron, his 2007 work that has appeared around the world displaying matrices of numbers, coordinates and atomic patterns, set to precise electronic tones, designed to bridge the gap between meaningless binary and beauty.
From then on, we learn about the key buildings, the key events and the key problems surrounding data. The repeated use of infographics form works of art, but are also bite-sized, understandable ways to learn the statistics of the world around us, from the number of selfies on Instagram with smiles, to the size of companies if they were sovereign nations.
Read more @ http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2444438/big-bang-data-makes-the-cloud-tangible-for-better-or-worse
Since technology companies such as Google and Apple turned on end-to-end encryption by default and tied encryption keys to device passwords, the government’s inability to compel providers via warrants to turn over data has caused considerable angst. Going Dark is the government’s catch-all phrase for the current state of affairs, and high-ranking officials such as FBI Director James Comey have tried to make compassionate pleas for access to data in the name of law enforcement and national security investigations. Early on in the Going Dark rhetoric, there were even calls for intentional backdoors, key escrow or shared keys as possible solutions. Short of a legislative fix, which the White House said late last year would not happen, Comey and others have volleyed the problem back at Silicon Valley, telling the country’s tech giants to figure it out. A team of privacy and security experts convened by luminaries Bruce Schneier, Jonathan Zittrain and Matt Olson, and supported by Harvard’s Berkman Center for the Internet & Society published a paper that explains—again—the importance of encryption to privacy and the security of commerce, and paints a clear picture of the options still available to the government without the need for so-called “exceptional access.”
Since technology companies such as Google and Apple turned on end-to-end encryption by default and tied encryption keys to device passwords, the government’s inability to compel providers via warrants to turn over data has caused considerable angst. Going Dark is the government’s catch-all phrase for the current state of affairs, and high-ranking officials such as FBI Director James Comey have tried to make compassionate pleas for access to data in the name of law enforcement and national security investigations. Early on in the Going Dark rhetoric, there were even calls for intentional backdoors, key escrow or shared keys as possible solutions. Short of a legislative fix, which the White House said late last year would not happen, Comey and others have volleyed the problem back at Silicon Valley, telling the country’s tech giants to figure it out.
A team of privacy and security experts convened by luminaries Bruce Schneier, Jonathan Zittrain and Matt Olson, and supported by Harvard’s Berkman Center for the Internet & Society published a paper that explains—again—the importance of encryption to privacy and the security of commerce, and paints a clear picture of the options still available to the government without the need for so-called “exceptional access.”
Read more @ https://threatpost.com/harvard-paper-rebuts-going-dark/116095/
Andrew “Bunnie” Huang is a hacker who can’t get enough of hardware. So he is publishing a book, dubbed The Essential Guide to Electronics, that will help hardware creators and hobbyists, or makers, navigate the massive supply chain in Shenzhen, China. The book will make it easier to expand the do-it-yourself hardware movement, known as “maker,” that is gaining increasing traction around the world among tech savvy innovators. Huang, who hacked the original Xbox and created a cool open-source (NSA-proof) laptop last year, put up a post on his blog about his new crowdfunding campaign to publish the book. In just a day, he was able to raise $18,000, far above his goal of $10,000. That may be thanks in part to a very nice endorsement. Edward Snowden, the man who leaked the U.S. government’s secrets to the world, is an electronics geek.
Andrew “Bunnie” Huang is a hacker who can’t get enough of hardware. So he is publishing a book, dubbed The Essential Guide to Electronics, that will help hardware creators and hobbyists, or makers, navigate the massive supply chain in Shenzhen, China. The book will make it easier to expand the do-it-yourself hardware movement, known as “maker,” that is gaining increasing traction around the world among tech savvy innovators.
Huang, who hacked the original Xbox and created a cool open-source (NSA-proof) laptop last year, put up a post on his blog about his new crowdfunding campaign to publish the book. In just a day, he was able to raise $18,000, far above his goal of $10,000. That may be thanks in part to a very nice endorsement.
Edward Snowden, the man who leaked the U.S. government’s secrets to the world, is an electronics geek.
Read more @ http://venturebeat.com/2016/02/06/guide-to-chinas-supply-chain-gets-endorsement-from-snowden/
Edward Snowden to be part of the JHU speaker series by John Hopkins University
Read more @ https://hubbiz.com/blog/edward-snowden-be-part-jhu-speaker-series-7802172478750471891
"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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