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Dec 14 15 10:32 AM
And why is that because they were collecting all the time just before it and never stopped the terrorists.
The competing goals of protecting Americans’ emails and other private electronic messages and helping the U.S. intelligence community decode them to foil terror plots are on a “collision” course, the Obama administration acknowledges. "We understand that encryption is a very important part of being secure on the Internet," FBI Director James Comey told the Senate earlier this week. "We also all care about public safety. We also all see a collision between those things right now.” Comey’s remarks Wednesday before the chamber’s Judiciary Committee follow the deadly San Bernardino terror attacks, the Paris suicide bombings last month and several others recent strikes in which the attackers and planners apparently communicated through encrypted messages.
The competing goals of protecting Americans’ emails and other private electronic messages and helping the U.S. intelligence community decode them to foil terror plots are on a “collision” course, the Obama administration acknowledges.
"We understand that encryption is a very important part of being secure on the Internet," FBI Director James Comey told the Senate earlier this week. "We also all care about public safety. We also all see a collision between those things right now.”
Comey’s remarks Wednesday before the chamber’s Judiciary Committee follow the deadly San Bernardino terror attacks, the Paris suicide bombings last month and several others recent strikes in which the attackers and planners apparently communicated through encrypted messages.
Read more @ http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/12/13/feds-silicon-valley-headed-for-collision-over-encryption-issue-post-san-bernardino-wave-terror-attacks.html
Read more @ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/san-bernardino-shooting-nsa-surveillance_5664affae4b079b2818f068d
Privacy advocates are pushing back against arguments from the intelligence community that more surveillance powers would have prevented the deadly Paris terrorist attacks. They’re offended at what they see as naked opportunism from supporters of tough surveillance powers and argue the rhetoric — including suggestions that National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden has blood on his hands — has gone too far.
Privacy advocates are pushing back against arguments from the intelligence community that more surveillance powers would have prevented the deadly Paris terrorist attacks.
They’re offended at what they see as naked opportunism from supporters of tough surveillance powers and argue the rhetoric — including suggestions that National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden has blood on his hands — has gone too far.
Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul argued against excessive surveillance and the bulk collection of electronic communication data, saying the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., show it isn’t successful. "The Paris tragedy ... happened while we were still doing bulk collection," Paul said on the Dec. 6, 2015, edition of NBC’s Meet the Press. "All bulk collection. Also in France, they have a program a thousandfold more invasive collecting all of the data of all the French. Yet they still weren't able to see this coming." We wanted to gauge whether the French system is far more invasive than the one in the United States. Mass surveillance 101 The key U.S. surveillance laws include the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, passed in 1978, and the USA Patriot Act, which was passed in 2002 following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Portions of these laws have been variously reauthorized and revised, but the most relevant parts for analyzing Paul’s claim have to do with two broad topics: the process for eavesdropping on specific targets, and the collection of "bulk" metadata, which is information about the timing and frequency of electronic communications but not the content. France had already been engaged in bulk data collection on a scale similar to or even more expansive than the United States, according a 2013 report by leading French newspaper Le Monde.
Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul argued against excessive surveillance and the bulk collection of electronic communication data, saying the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., show it isn’t successful.
"The Paris tragedy ... happened while we were still doing bulk collection," Paul said on the Dec. 6, 2015, edition of NBC’s Meet the Press. "All bulk collection. Also in France, they have a program a thousandfold more invasive collecting all of the data of all the French. Yet they still weren't able to see this coming."
We wanted to gauge whether the French system is far more invasive than the one in the United States.
Mass surveillance 101
The key U.S. surveillance laws include the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, passed in 1978, and the USA Patriot Act, which was passed in 2002 following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Portions of these laws have been variously reauthorized and revised, but the most relevant parts for analyzing Paul’s claim have to do with two broad topics: the process for eavesdropping on specific targets, and the collection of "bulk" metadata, which is information about the timing and frequency of electronic communications but not the content.
France had already been engaged in bulk data collection on a scale similar to or even more expansive than the United States, according a 2013 report by leading French newspaper Le Monde.
Perhaps predictably, the battle against ISIS is blurring into a battle against encryption -the encoding and scrambling of digital messages so that they can only be read by those who have the right keys. A showdown is on in the US, with security agencies demonising these privacy-protecting technologies and demanding a "backdoor" to them, while tech companies resist this logic. UK Prime Minister David Cameron has argued that there should be "no form of communication...that we cannot read".
Among the items not on President Obama’s exceedingly thin to-do list in the war on terror was any effort to restore the collection of metadata by the National Security Agency — data that might have been useful in determining whether the San Bernardino killers had any help from overseas. That section of the Patriot Act was eliminated by legislation passed last June. For that first and foremost we have Edward Snowden to thank — and we do hope he’s having a swell time in exile in Russia. But we also have U.S. Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) who were falling all over each other to capture GOP isolationist/privacy freak voters back then. Way to go, guys, that must have seemed a good idea at the time — the time before jihadists started shooting up a county service center in California. In fact the data collection program officially came to an end just four days before the shooting, when the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court issued a ruling saying, “After November 28, 2015, no access to the BR (business record) metadata (phone records) will be permitted for intelligence analysis purposes.”
Among the items not on President Obama’s exceedingly thin to-do list in the war on terror was any effort to restore the collection of metadata by the National Security Agency — data that might have been useful in determining whether the San Bernardino killers had any help from overseas.
That section of the Patriot Act was eliminated by legislation passed last June. For that first and foremost we have Edward Snowden to thank — and we do hope he’s having a swell time in exile in Russia.
But we also have U.S. Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) who were falling all over each other to capture GOP isolationist/privacy freak voters back then. Way to go, guys, that must have seemed a good idea at the time — the time before jihadists started shooting up a county service center in California.
In fact the data collection program officially came to an end just four days before the shooting, when the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court issued a ruling saying, “After November 28, 2015, no access to the BR (business record) metadata (phone records) will be permitted for intelligence analysis purposes.”
Revisions called into question following terror attacks. In the aftermath of the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris and California, a number of Republicans want to revive a controversial program that allowed U.S. intelligence officials to collect millions of phone records in an effort to determine if Americans were in contact with likely Islamic terrorists. The program, dramatically revised this summer by Congress and President Barack Obama, had until the end of last month not only allowed the National Security Agency to store those records for five years, but to check a phone number, discover the numbers it called and how long each call lasted.
In the aftermath of the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris and California, a number of Republicans want to revive a controversial program that allowed U.S. intelligence officials to collect millions of phone records in an effort to determine if Americans were in contact with likely Islamic terrorists.
The program, dramatically revised this summer by Congress and President Barack Obama, had until the end of last month not only allowed the National Security Agency to store those records for five years, but to check a phone number, discover the numbers it called and how long each call lasted.
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum expressed dismay that two of his GOP opponents have refused to call leaker Edward Snowden a traitor. Santorum, speaking Thursday at the Republican Jewish Coalition Forum in Washington, touted his national security and anti-terrorism record. He then defended the National Security Agency’s data-gathering program, which was reformed and weakened. “We now have lost that ability, in large part because of two Republicans running for president,” said Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator. “We have both of them refusing to call Edward Snowden a traitor.
When Edward Snowden in early June 2013 began to reveal classified data showing criminal collect-it-all surveillance programs operated by the U.S. government’s National Security Agency, former NSA professionals became freer to spell out the liberties taken with the Bill of Rights, as well as the feckless, counterproductive nature of bulk electronic data collection. On Jan. 7, 2014, four senior retired specialists with a cumulative total of 144 years of work with NSA – William Binney, Thomas Drake, Edward Loomis, and Kirk Wiebe – prepared a Memorandum for the President providing a comprehensive account of the problems at NSA, together with suggestions as to how they might be best addressed. The purpose was to inform President Obama as fully as possible, as he prepared to take action in light of Snowden’s revelations.
When Edward Snowden in early June 2013 began to reveal classified data showing criminal collect-it-all surveillance programs operated by the U.S. government’s National Security Agency, former NSA professionals became freer to spell out the liberties taken with the Bill of Rights, as well as the feckless, counterproductive nature of bulk electronic data collection.
On Jan. 7, 2014, four senior retired specialists with a cumulative total of 144 years of work with NSA – William Binney, Thomas Drake, Edward Loomis, and Kirk Wiebe – prepared a Memorandum for the President providing a comprehensive account of the problems at NSA, together with suggestions as to how they might be best addressed.
The purpose was to inform President Obama as fully as possible, as he prepared to take action in light of Snowden’s revelations.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio amped his criticism Friday of the Obama administration’s support for restrictions to a major National Security Agency surveillance program, and joined with fellow Republicans to call for increasing the agency’s powers in the wake of recent deadly shootings in Paris and California inspired by the Islamic State. “Earlier this year, President Obama unfortunately pushed for and Congress passed the ‘U.S.A. Freedom Act,’ which greatly curtailed the ability of our intelligence professionals to identify and track terrorist communications,” the 2016 GOP hopeful wrote in an op-ed penned alongside Republican Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Joni Ernst of Iowa. “Edward Snowden, mistakenly lauded by some as a hero, not only betrayed this country by releasing highly classified information and defecting to Russia, but spread dangerous misinformation about programs that helped keep Americans safe — namely, the telephony metadata program.”
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio amped his criticism Friday of the Obama administration’s support for restrictions to a major National Security Agency surveillance program, and joined with fellow Republicans to call for increasing the agency’s powers in the wake of recent deadly shootings in Paris and California inspired by the Islamic State.
“Earlier this year, President Obama unfortunately pushed for and Congress passed the ‘U.S.A. Freedom Act,’ which greatly curtailed the ability of our intelligence professionals to identify and track terrorist communications,” the 2016 GOP hopeful wrote in an op-ed penned alongside Republican Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Joni Ernst of Iowa.
“Edward Snowden, mistakenly lauded by some as a hero, not only betrayed this country by releasing highly classified information and defecting to Russia, but spread dangerous misinformation about programs that helped keep Americans safe — namely, the telephony metadata program.”
LITTLE ROCK — U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said Wednesday he is introducing a bill to stop metadata collected from Americans’ phone calls from being deleted. On Dec. 1, the USA Freedom Act took effect, imposing limits on the bulk collection of Americans’ phone data. Cotton was the only member of Arkansas’ congressional delegation to vote against the bill, which was introduced after classified memos leaked by Edward Snowden exposed the National Security Agency’s extensive data collection program. Last month, Cotton introduced the Liberty Through Strength Act, a bill that would have delayed the USA Freedom Act from taking effect until 2017, but was unable to get a vote on it before the Freedom Act took effect. He said Wednesday he is introducing a second bill on the topic, the Liberty Through Strength Act II. “On Sunday our constitutional, legal, and proven NSA collection architecture shifted to an untested, less effective system in the dead of the night,” Cotton said in a statement. “This shift came at a time when our enemies are emboldened and we face an elevated national security threat. Worse, President Obama has decided that he will press delete on the metadata records we currently have, making it impossible to identify terrorist connections among these data that would reveal ISIS and Al Qaeda sleeper cells.”
LITTLE ROCK — U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said Wednesday he is introducing a bill to stop metadata collected from Americans’ phone calls from being deleted.
On Dec. 1, the USA Freedom Act took effect, imposing limits on the bulk collection of Americans’ phone data. Cotton was the only member of Arkansas’ congressional delegation to vote against the bill, which was introduced after classified memos leaked by Edward Snowden exposed the National Security Agency’s extensive data collection program.
Last month, Cotton introduced the Liberty Through Strength Act, a bill that would have delayed the USA Freedom Act from taking effect until 2017, but was unable to get a vote on it before the Freedom Act took effect. He said Wednesday he is introducing a second bill on the topic, the Liberty Through Strength Act II.
“On Sunday our constitutional, legal, and proven NSA collection architecture shifted to an untested, less effective system in the dead of the night,” Cotton said in a statement. “This shift came at a time when our enemies are emboldened and we face an elevated national security threat. Worse, President Obama has decided that he will press delete on the metadata records we currently have, making it impossible to identify terrorist connections among these data that would reveal ISIS and Al Qaeda sleeper cells.”
At 11:59 p.m. on November 29, 2015, the National Security Agency officially ended its much-criticized 14-year dragnet of American phone-call metadata. Established under Section 215 of the post-September 11 Patriot Act, the program collected information on the numbers involved in phone calls and the calls’ durations (although not their content), for almost every mobile device in the country. Though it was ostensibly anonymous data, privacy activists have pointed out that with the right network analysis and cross-referencing of phone number directories, this metadata could be pinned to individuals, building a world of detailed information about them. Combined with the fact that the program was the first and best-known story to emerge from Edward Snowden’s 2013 NSA leaks, the agency’s metadata vacuum became the embodiment of the intelligence sector’s misguided overreach, failing to balance security and liberty, and with very little to show for it. So for many the program’s death was cause for celebration. The victory seems even sweeter because it represents rising awareness about and support for robust privacy guarantees, thoughtfully balanced with restrained security policies. Mandated this June with the passage of the USA Freedom Act, a legislative response to Snowden-era revelations on phone metadata collection, the program’s closure signals that politicians now feel secure and justified in combating excessive intelligence programs. The fact that the curtain drop went off without a hitch soon after the terrorist attacks in Paris, which led to knee-jerk calls to extend the program for two more years (just in case), speaks to the resilience of this critical sentiment. Noting that recent legislation has opened the door to other surveillance reforms and greater intelligence-world transparency, many hope that this gain is a sign of more to come.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has taken his first lead in a poll of a key nominating state. A new Monmouth University poll published Monday had Cruz surging ahead of Donald Trump in Iowa, the first nominating state that can play a key role in launching insurgent presidential campaigns. Among likely Republican voters in the state, Cruz garnered 24% support to Trump’s 19% support. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) had 17% support in the poll, while retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who briefly surged ahead of Trump in the fall, is now down to 13%. “This marks the first time Ted Cruz has held a lead in any of the crucial early states. As Ben Carson’s stock has fallen, Cruz has been able to corral most of those voters,” Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, wrote in a press release.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has taken his first lead in a poll of a key nominating state.
A new Monmouth University poll published Monday had Cruz surging ahead of Donald Trump in Iowa, the first nominating state that can play a key role in launching insurgent presidential campaigns.
Among likely Republican voters in the state, Cruz garnered 24% support to Trump’s 19% support. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) had 17% support in the poll, while retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who briefly surged ahead of Trump in the fall, is now down to 13%.
“This marks the first time Ted Cruz has held a lead in any of the crucial early states. As Ben Carson’s stock has fallen, Cruz has been able to corral most of those voters,” Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, wrote in a press release.
The use of encryption by tech companies has come under criticism from U.S. law enforcement agencies U.S. President Barack Obama is seeking the help of tech companies to combat terror threats, which he described as entering a new phase. Obama's remarks could put into sharp focus again the demand by law enforcement agencies for tech companies to provide ways for the government to be able to access encrypted communications. In an address late Sunday from the Oval Office, Obama said he "would urge hi-tech and law enforcement leaders to make it harder for terrorists to use technology to escape from justice." The address comes after two attackers, Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 people and injured another 21 in a gun attack in a social service center in San Bernardino, California. The government has come around to the view that it was a fundamentalist attack after Malik reportedly put up a post on Facebook claiming allegiance to the Islamic State. As the Internet erases the distance between countries, "we see growing efforts by terrorists to poison the minds of people," Obama said.
The use of encryption by tech companies has come under criticism from U.S. law enforcement agencies
U.S. President Barack Obama is seeking the help of tech companies to combat terror threats, which he described as entering a new phase.
Obama's remarks could put into sharp focus again the demand by law enforcement agencies for tech companies to provide ways for the government to be able to access encrypted communications.
In an address late Sunday from the Oval Office, Obama said he "would urge hi-tech and law enforcement leaders to make it harder for terrorists to use technology to escape from justice."
The address comes after two attackers, Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 people and injured another 21 in a gun attack in a social service center in San Bernardino, California.
The government has come around to the view that it was a fundamentalist attack after Malik reportedly put up a post on Facebook claiming allegiance to the Islamic State. As the Internet erases the distance between countries, "we see growing efforts by terrorists to poison the minds of people," Obama said.
It's official. The terrorists are winning. They have achieved the one and only goal of terrorism itself: to achieve a political outcome based on the "terror" caused by highly publicized attacks on civilians. Just days after Dagen McDowell of Fox Business blamed the San Bernardino shooting on Edward Snowden and the USA Freedom Act, Joe Scarborough called for "post-Edward Snowden legislation that stops this person-to-person encrypted messaging" on Morning Joe. He also said, "We're going to have to give the CIA powers to interrogate these terrorists to see where the next attack's going to come from." As the CIA has always had the power to interrogate anyone it wishes to, this can only be code for "torture." Lest this be written off as the ravings of MSNBC's token Republican, his Democratic guest agreed wholeheartedly. Scarborough had either the audacity or the cluelessness (it's always hard to tell) to end the segment by riffing on a Bush/Cheney mantra, saying: "The world changed after Paris." Anything both Fox and MSNBC are trumpeting in unison can reasonably be assumed to be completely wrong. McDowell's unhinged statement proceeds from the assumption that Snowden's exposure of indiscriminate NSA spying and the subsequent USA Freedom Act crippled the intelligence community's ability to identify potential threats like Syed Farook and his wife. As New Hampshire liberty activist Chris Lawless quipped, "So, ending the data collection means that 30 hours later there is a shooting. Ok." Lawless was referring to the timeline built into the Act. It's prohibition on bulk collection didn't go into effect until midnight on Dec. 1. That means the government was free to do what it had always done under the Patriot Act until the day before the shooting. The intelligence community's failure to identify Farook, even before its powers were curtailed, wasn't an isolated incident. The government has never prevented a terrorist attack outside of those it invented itself and entrapped hapless would-be jihadists into going along with. Like mass shootings, private citizens have stopped the only terrorist attacks that have been foiled, before, during and after the Patriot Act gave the government vast new powers. The government failed to prevent 9/11, despite an FBI agent's emphatic warning about flight school students learning to fly, but not how to land. They even caught a former terrorist who was trained to carry out the same kind of attack a year before 9/11 and failed to "connect the dots." After the Patriot Act was passed, the government failed to prevent the shoe bomber's attempt to detonate C4. Private citizens overpowered him and thwarted the attack. The intelligence community even failed to keep the underwear bomber off the plane he tried to blow up, despite the terrorist's own father warning the CIA he was missing and likely seeking to perpetrate an attack. As for Paris, the story is substantively the same. France's intelligence community has even more surveillance power than their pre-USA Freedom Act American counterparts. They failed to prevent the recent attacks. In each case, it wasn't that the government couldn't obtain the information it needed to prevent a terrorist attack. They had it. But the information was a needle lost in the haystack of far too much information collected on mostly innocent people.
It's official. The terrorists are winning. They have achieved the one and only goal of terrorism itself: to achieve a political outcome based on the "terror" caused by highly publicized attacks on civilians.
Just days after Dagen McDowell of Fox Business blamed the San Bernardino shooting on Edward Snowden and the USA Freedom Act, Joe Scarborough called for "post-Edward Snowden legislation that stops this person-to-person encrypted messaging" on Morning Joe. He also said, "We're going to have to give the CIA powers to interrogate these terrorists to see where the next attack's going to come from."
As the CIA has always had the power to interrogate anyone it wishes to, this can only be code for "torture." Lest this be written off as the ravings of MSNBC's token Republican, his Democratic guest agreed wholeheartedly. Scarborough had either the audacity or the cluelessness (it's always hard to tell) to end the segment by riffing on a Bush/Cheney mantra, saying: "The world changed after Paris."
Anything both Fox and MSNBC are trumpeting in unison can reasonably be assumed to be completely wrong.
McDowell's unhinged statement proceeds from the assumption that Snowden's exposure of indiscriminate NSA spying and the subsequent USA Freedom Act crippled the intelligence community's ability to identify potential threats like Syed Farook and his wife.
As New Hampshire liberty activist Chris Lawless quipped, "So, ending the data collection means that 30 hours later there is a shooting. Ok."
Lawless was referring to the timeline built into the Act. It's prohibition on bulk collection didn't go into effect until midnight on Dec. 1. That means the government was free to do what it had always done under the Patriot Act until the day before the shooting.
The intelligence community's failure to identify Farook, even before its powers were curtailed, wasn't an isolated incident. The government has never prevented a terrorist attack outside of those it invented itself and entrapped hapless would-be jihadists into going along with. Like mass shootings, private citizens have stopped the only terrorist attacks that have been foiled, before, during and after the Patriot Act gave the government vast new powers.
The government failed to prevent 9/11, despite an FBI agent's emphatic warning about flight school students learning to fly, but not how to land. They even caught a former terrorist who was trained to carry out the same kind of attack a year before 9/11 and failed to "connect the dots."
After the Patriot Act was passed, the government failed to prevent the shoe bomber's attempt to detonate C4. Private citizens overpowered him and thwarted the attack. The intelligence community even failed to keep the underwear bomber off the plane he tried to blow up, despite the terrorist's own father warning the CIA he was missing and likely seeking to perpetrate an attack.
As for Paris, the story is substantively the same. France's intelligence community has even more surveillance power than their pre-USA Freedom Act American counterparts. They failed to prevent the recent attacks.
In each case, it wasn't that the government couldn't obtain the information it needed to prevent a terrorist attack. They had it. But the information was a needle lost in the haystack of far too much information collected on mostly innocent people.
BOULDER - The CU Boulder Distinguished Speakers Board announced that former National Security Agency system administrator Edward Snowden will take part in a video chat at the University of Colorado in Boulder early next year. Ron Suskind, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist will moderate the February 16 event from the Macky Auditorium. Attendees will be able to ask Snowden questions, but details about that process have not been released.
Edward Snowden may be one of America's most wanted, and a name that polarises opinion on both sides of the Atlantic ever since he left US soil in 2013, but he still has to eat - right? Now, it transpires he's used his time in seclusion well, perfecting his recipe for 'Hot Leaks' - fittingly - and his favourite dish is set to be included in a special cookbook being produced by the people behind his Oscar-winning film 'CITIZENFOUR'.
Edward Snowden may be one of America's most wanted, and a name that polarises opinion on both sides of the Atlantic ever since he left US soil in 2013, but he still has to eat - right?
Now, it transpires he's used his time in seclusion well, perfecting his recipe for 'Hot Leaks' - fittingly - and his favourite dish is set to be included in a special cookbook being produced by the people behind his Oscar-winning film 'CITIZENFOUR'.
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~
Interact
Dec 18 15 12:05 PM
The man who made Edward Snowden inevitable IT WAS a shocking disclosure that made headlines around the world. An American intelligence professional revealed the existence of a secret American bureau, which obtained, decoded and read the private messages of nearly 20 foreign governments. He disclosed methods of surveillance and subterfuge, describing a clandestine world of pilfered telegrams, forged wax seals and invisible inks. Laws had been broken and the privacy of many intruded upon. Telecommunications companies had co-operated secretly with the government. America’s past and future enemies learned how their encrypted messages had been read. When in 1931 Herbert Yardley spilled the secrets of America’s eavesdropping programme, he may well have endangered national security. But, unlike Edward Snowden, he was no mid-level whistleblower shocked at the excesses of a lawless surveillance state. Yardley was the proud father of that surveillance state, creating the forerunner of the National Security Agency. He published a blockbuster book after the government decided that reading private messages was not in keeping with American values and shut his clandestine operation. Mr Snowden, with his leaks, tapped into a fundamental libertarian fear that too much knowledge in too few hands could destroy Americans’ freedom. Yardley sold the opposite view: that more secret knowledge could protect them from evildoers. Each claimed to be a patriot defending his country’s values. But whereas Mr Snowden endures exile in Russia, charged with espionage, Yardley lies buried in Arlington National Cemetery, with a place in the NSA’s Hall of Honour. A hard-drinking poker player, born in 1889, in the last days of the old West, Yardley long ago faded into history. But, thanks to him, our metadata will live for ever. Born to be a spook American snooping has a history older than the republic. With the help of a code-breaker, George Washington deciphered British messages during the critical siege of Yorktown. At least three times he planted false war plans and military documents on agents in successful bids to deceive the British. Abraham Lincoln was a regular presence in the War Department’s telegraph room, as he sought to keep track of his army and learn of Confederate plans. But information collection was still spotty and primitive. By Yardley’s lifetime the world was much more interconnected thanks to the telegraph, a technology he was born to master. His father was a railroad telegrapher in Worthington, Indiana, and taught the craft, including Morse code, to his son. A precocious student, Yardley learned poker in the saloons of Worthington, where he probably also developed his lifelong affinity for tall tales. (He said he saw one player bet his farm and then die of a heart attack at the table while clutching the winning hand, four aces.) He learned how to detect a bluff and how to fool others out of a pot. And he learned never to show his cards when he tricked opponents into folding theirs, lest he expose his stratagems.
IT WAS a shocking disclosure that made headlines around the world. An American intelligence professional revealed the existence of a secret American bureau, which obtained, decoded and read the private messages of nearly 20 foreign governments. He disclosed methods of surveillance and subterfuge, describing a clandestine world of pilfered telegrams, forged wax seals and invisible inks. Laws had been broken and the privacy of many intruded upon. Telecommunications companies had co-operated secretly with the government. America’s past and future enemies learned how their encrypted messages had been read.
When in 1931 Herbert Yardley spilled the secrets of America’s eavesdropping programme, he may well have endangered national security. But, unlike Edward Snowden, he was no mid-level whistleblower shocked at the excesses of a lawless surveillance state. Yardley was the proud father of that surveillance state, creating the forerunner of the National Security Agency. He published a blockbuster book after the government decided that reading private messages was not in keeping with American values and shut his clandestine operation.
Mr Snowden, with his leaks, tapped into a fundamental libertarian fear that too much knowledge in too few hands could destroy Americans’ freedom. Yardley sold the opposite view: that more secret knowledge could protect them from evildoers. Each claimed to be a patriot defending his country’s values. But whereas Mr Snowden endures exile in Russia, charged with espionage, Yardley lies buried in Arlington National Cemetery, with a place in the NSA’s Hall of Honour. A hard-drinking poker player, born in 1889, in the last days of the old West, Yardley long ago faded into history. But, thanks to him, our metadata will live for ever.
Born to be a spook
American snooping has a history older than the republic. With the help of a code-breaker, George Washington deciphered British messages during the critical siege of Yorktown. At least three times he planted false war plans and military documents on agents in successful bids to deceive the British. Abraham Lincoln was a regular presence in the War Department’s telegraph room, as he sought to keep track of his army and learn of Confederate plans. But information collection was still spotty and primitive.
By Yardley’s lifetime the world was much more interconnected thanks to the telegraph, a technology he was born to master. His father was a railroad telegrapher in Worthington, Indiana, and taught the craft, including Morse code, to his son. A precocious student, Yardley learned poker in the saloons of Worthington, where he probably also developed his lifelong affinity for tall tales. (He said he saw one player bet his farm and then die of a heart attack at the table while clutching the winning hand, four aces.) He learned how to detect a bluff and how to fool others out of a pot. And he learned never to show his cards when he tricked opponents into folding theirs, lest he expose his stratagems.
Read more @ http://www.economist.com/news/christmas-specials/21683975-man-who-made-edward-snowden-inevitable-black-chamber
In 2035, Edward Snowden will be president
At least that's what Russia's RT TV station thinks - or hopes - in a clip celebrating its 10-year anniversary. In 2035, Edward Snowden will be President of the United States of America, and Obama and Kerry will be reduced to muttering about their failures over beer - at least, that's the future according to Russia's RT state TV station. In a tongue-in-cheek - and at times a little cringeworthy - clip celebrating the vehemently anti-American station's 10th anniversary, the two most powerful men in America are portrayed as washed-up, forgotten old men, who lament that "no one is afraid of us anymore," while the much-reviled CIA whistleblower is occupying the White House.
At least that's what Russia's RT TV station thinks - or hopes - in a clip celebrating its 10-year anniversary.
In 2035, Edward Snowden will be President of the United States of America, and Obama and Kerry will be reduced to muttering about their failures over beer - at least, that's the future according to Russia's RT state TV station.
In a tongue-in-cheek - and at times a little cringeworthy - clip celebrating the vehemently anti-American station's 10th anniversary, the two most powerful men in America are portrayed as washed-up, forgotten old men, who lament that "no one is afraid of us anymore," while the much-reviled CIA whistleblower is occupying the White House.
Read more @ http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/205011
I think Snowden would make an excellent President of the US…… he is intelligent, honest and patriotic and stands by the US constitution….. Not a man that can be bought and sold to the highest bidder.
Read more @ https://www.rt.com/news/325739-ortiz-obama-snowden-2035/
Marco Rubio called for an end to new protections against bulk phone data collection, and most of his fellow presidential candidates were on his side Although Edward Snowden had his passport revoked, he is still a US citizen and eligible to vote in the presidential election, even from exile in Russia. But judging from the Republican debate last night, his choices are severely limited. Snowden and privacy campaigners can find satisfaction that surveillance was one of the dominant issues of the night. When he leaked tens of thousands of NSA documents in 2013, he said he did so to provoke debate about mass surveillance. Las Vegas demonstrated the extent to which he has achieved that. But privacy campaigners will be alarmed at Republican attempts to push back against even the modest legislative changes which resulted from the Snowden disclosures. The charge was led by Marco Rubio, who said the Freedom Act, passed in the summer to end bulk collection of phone data, had given away a valuable tool of the security agencies in the fight against terrorism. The Florida senator said: “I promise you, the next time there is an attack on this country, the first thing people are going to want to know is why didn’t we know about it and why didn’t we stop it.
Marco Rubio called for an end to new protections against bulk phone data collection, and most of his fellow presidential candidates were on his side
Although Edward Snowden had his passport revoked, he is still a US citizen and eligible to vote in the presidential election, even from exile in Russia. But judging from the Republican debate last night, his choices are severely limited.
Snowden and privacy campaigners can find satisfaction that surveillance was one of the dominant issues of the night. When he leaked tens of thousands of NSA documents in 2013, he said he did so to provoke debate about mass surveillance. Las Vegas demonstrated the extent to which he has achieved that.
But privacy campaigners will be alarmed at Republican attempts to push back against even the modest legislative changes which resulted from the Snowden disclosures.
The charge was led by Marco Rubio, who said the Freedom Act, passed in the summer to end bulk collection of phone data, had given away a valuable tool of the security agencies in the fight against terrorism. The Florida senator said: “I promise you, the next time there is an attack on this country, the first thing people are going to want to know is why didn’t we know about it and why didn’t we stop it.
Read more @ http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/16/edward-snowden-vote-republican-debate-2016-election
Is someone paying them?
Mass surveillance programs initiated under former prime minister Tony Blair have been gathering private data in bulk for over a decade, according to leaks by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden reported by the Register. First exposed on Thursday, the surveillance program allegedly has a specialist internet and phone tapping center at MI5’s London HQ under the codename PRESTON. The program “works alongside and links to massive databases holding telephone call records, internet use records, travel, financial, and other personal records held by the National Technical Assistance Centre (NTAC),” claims the Register. NTAC, a shadowy intelligence cell, was set up by Tony Blair’s Labour government in 1999 to counter encryption and act as the UK’s codebreaking specialist. Soon after it was founded, parliament’s powerful Intelligence and Security Committee was told NTAC would be funded to provide 24 hour support for “all the law enforcement, security and intelligence agencies” by gathering intelligence from “lawfully intercepted computer-to-computer communications and from lawfully seized computer data.” The Register’s investigation found that banks and airlines are included as authorized targets. Moreover personal financial details can be intercepted, stored, decrypted, and copied. Some airlines, including British Airways (BA), voluntarily hand over their passengers’ information, while other companies are subject to tapping warrants, the Register claims. Campaigning MP David Davis told the Register that the new revelations mean the debate on surveillance powers over the last fifteen years appears to have been nothing but “a charade about data that the government very likely already held.”
Mass surveillance programs initiated under former prime minister Tony Blair have been gathering private data in bulk for over a decade, according to leaks by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden reported by the Register.
First exposed on Thursday, the surveillance program allegedly has a specialist internet and phone tapping center at MI5’s London HQ under the codename PRESTON.
The program “works alongside and links to massive databases holding telephone call records, internet use records, travel, financial, and other personal records held by the National Technical Assistance Centre (NTAC),” claims the Register.
NTAC, a shadowy intelligence cell, was set up by Tony Blair’s Labour government in 1999 to counter encryption and act as the UK’s codebreaking specialist.
Soon after it was founded, parliament’s powerful Intelligence and Security Committee was told NTAC would be funded to provide 24 hour support for “all the law enforcement, security and intelligence agencies” by gathering intelligence from “lawfully intercepted computer-to-computer communications and from lawfully seized computer data.”
The Register’s investigation found that banks and airlines are included as authorized targets. Moreover personal financial details can be intercepted, stored, decrypted, and copied.
Some airlines, including British Airways (BA), voluntarily hand over their passengers’ information, while other companies are subject to tapping warrants, the Register claims.
Campaigning MP David Davis told the Register that the new revelations mean the debate on surveillance powers over the last fifteen years appears to have been nothing but “a charade about data that the government very likely already held.”
Read more @ https://www.rt.com/uk/326332-preston-surveillance-powers-blair/
Just a few moments ago, the development team behind the Tails amnesic incognito live Linux kernel-based operating system, which was used by the famous whistleblower Edward Snowden to stay hidden online, announced the release of Tails 1.8. According to the release notes, Tails 1.8 is a small update for the popular, Debian-based anonymous Live CD, improving a few applications and core components, and fixing various issues reported by users since the previous release. Among the new features implemented in Tails 1.8, we can mention the addition of the Icedove open-source software as the default email client, replacing Claws Mail. For those who are not in the loop, Icedove is a rebranded version of Mozilla Thunderbird. The fact of the matter is that Icedove was already available on Tails, but it wasn't installed as the default email client. The Tails devs also managed to update the Icedove packages from version 31.8 to 38.4. "Claws Mail will be removed from Tails in version 2.0 (2016-01-26). If you have been using Claws Mail and activated its persistence feature, follow our instructions to migrate your data to Icedove," said the Tails devs in today's announcement. Tails 1.8 also updates the Tor Browser to version 5.0.5, Tor to version 0.2.7.6, I2P to version 0.9.23, Enigmail to version 1.8.2, and Electrum to version 2.5.4, which should not work as expected in Tails.
Just a few moments ago, the development team behind the Tails amnesic incognito live Linux kernel-based operating system, which was used by the famous whistleblower Edward Snowden to stay hidden online, announced the release of Tails 1.8.
According to the release notes, Tails 1.8 is a small update for the popular, Debian-based anonymous Live CD, improving a few applications and core components, and fixing various issues reported by users since the previous release.
Among the new features implemented in Tails 1.8, we can mention the addition of the Icedove open-source software as the default email client, replacing Claws Mail. For those who are not in the loop, Icedove is a rebranded version of Mozilla Thunderbird.
The fact of the matter is that Icedove was already available on Tails, but it wasn't installed as the default email client. The Tails devs also managed to update the Icedove packages from version 31.8 to 38.4.
"Claws Mail will be removed from Tails in version 2.0 (2016-01-26). If you have been using Claws Mail and activated its persistence feature, follow our instructions to migrate your data to Icedove," said the Tails devs in today's announcement.
Tails 1.8 also updates the Tor Browser to version 5.0.5, Tor to version 0.2.7.6, I2P to version 0.9.23, Enigmail to version 1.8.2, and Electrum to version 2.5.4, which should not work as expected in Tails.
Read more 2 http://linux.softpedia.com/blog/tails-1-8-linux-os-adopts-icedove-edward-snowden-s-favorite-anonymous-live-cd-497691.shtml
Read more @ http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/11/west-point-cybersecurity-nsa-privacy-edward-snowden
Now this isn’t the truth, do you remember?…….. they said they thwarted 50 terrorists attacks on US soil with all the spying, but when the truth came out there wasn’t any….. and the one that was thwarted was done by good ole leg work. We turned on our TV the other day to come in at the tail end of a documentary on the spying. A professor I think it was could not understand how a people who have always stood for freedom, could give up their freedom to allow their government to spy on them…. Namely people in the US. Wish I had known the program was on as I would have liked to watch it. In the end he said the Magna Carta would have to be brought out and dusted or something along those lines.
Read more @ http://observer.com/2015/12/the-intelligence-lessons-of-san-bernardino/
Dec 18 15 10:50 PM
A Secret Catalogue of Government Gear for Spying on Your Cellphone
THE INTERCEPT HAS OBTAINED a secret, internal U.S. government catalogue of dozens of cellphone surveillance devices used by the military and by intelligence agencies. The document, thick with previously undisclosed information, also offers rare insight into the spying capabilities of federal law enforcement and local police inside the United States. The catalogue includes details on the Stingray, a well-known brand of surveillance gear, as well as Boeing “dirt boxes” and dozens of more obscure devices that can be mounted on vehicles, drones, and piloted aircraft. Some are designed to be used at static locations, while others can be discreetly carried by an individual. They have names like Cyberhawk, Yellowstone, Blackfin, Maximus, Cyclone, and Spartacus. Within the catalogue, the NSA is listed as the vendor of one device, while another was developed for use by the CIA, and another was developed for a special forces requirement. Nearly a third of the entries focus on equipment that seems to have never been described in public before.
THE INTERCEPT HAS OBTAINED a secret, internal U.S. government catalogue of dozens of cellphone surveillance devices used by the military and by intelligence agencies. The document, thick with previously undisclosed information, also offers rare insight into the spying capabilities of federal law enforcement and local police inside the United States.
The catalogue includes details on the Stingray, a well-known brand of surveillance gear, as well as Boeing “dirt boxes” and dozens of more obscure devices that can be mounted on vehicles, drones, and piloted aircraft. Some are designed to be used at static locations, while others can be discreetly carried by an individual. They have names like Cyberhawk, Yellowstone, Blackfin, Maximus, Cyclone, and Spartacus. Within the catalogue, the NSA is listed as the vendor of one device, while another was developed for use by the CIA, and another was developed for a special forces requirement. Nearly a third of the entries focus on equipment that seems to have never been described in public before.
Read more @ https://theintercept.com/2015/12/17/a-secret-catalogue-of-government-gear-for-spying-on-your-cellphone/
In the wake of a series of humiliating cyberattacks, the imperative in Congress and the White House to do something – anything — in the name of improving cybersecurity was powerful. But only the most cynical observers thought the results would be this bad. The legislation the House will be voting on Friday is a thinly-disguised surveillance bill that would give companies pathways they don’t need to share user data related to cyber threats with the government — while allowing the government to use that information for any purpose, with almost no privacy protections. And because Speaker of the House Paul Ryan slipped the provision into the massive government omnibus spending bill that has to pass — or else the entire government will shut down — it seems doomed to become law. The text of the bill — now knowns as the Cybersecurity Act of 2015, formerly known as CISA — wasn’t released until shortly after midnight Wednesday morning, giving members of Congress essentially no time to do anything about it.
In the wake of a series of humiliating cyberattacks, the imperative in Congress and the White House to do something – anything — in the name of improving cybersecurity was powerful.
But only the most cynical observers thought the results would be this bad.
The legislation the House will be voting on Friday is a thinly-disguised surveillance bill that would give companies pathways they don’t need to share user data related to cyber threats with the government — while allowing the government to use that information for any purpose, with almost no privacy protections.
And because Speaker of the House Paul Ryan slipped the provision into the massive government omnibus spending bill that has to pass — or else the entire government will shut down — it seems doomed to become law.
The text of the bill — now knowns as the Cybersecurity Act of 2015, formerly known as CISA — wasn’t released until shortly after midnight Wednesday morning, giving members of Congress essentially no time to do anything about it.
Read more @ https://theintercept.com/2015/12/18/last-minute-budget-bill-allows-new-privacy-invading-surveillance-in-the-name-of-cybersecurity/
FBI Director James Comey on Wednesday called for tech companies currently offering end-to-end encryption to reconsider their business model, and instead adopt encryption techniques that allow them to intercept and turn over communications to law enforcement when necessary. End-to-end encryption, which is the state of the art in providing secure communications on the internet, has become increasingly common and desirable in the wake of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden’s revelations about mass surveillance by the government. Comey had previously argued that tech companies could somehow come up with a “solution” that allowed for government access but didn’t weaken security. Tech experts called this a “magic pony” and mocked him for his naivete. Now, Comey said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday morning, extensive conversations with tech companies have persuaded him that “it’s not a technical issue.”
FBI Director James Comey on Wednesday called for tech companies currently offering end-to-end encryption to reconsider their business model, and instead adopt encryption techniques that allow them to intercept and turn over communications to law enforcement when necessary.
End-to-end encryption, which is the state of the art in providing secure communications on the internet, has become increasingly common and desirable in the wake of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden’s revelations about mass surveillance by the government.
Comey had previously argued that tech companies could somehow come up with a “solution” that allowed for government access but didn’t weaken security. Tech experts called this a “magic pony” and mocked him for his naivete.
Now, Comey said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday morning, extensive conversations with tech companies have persuaded him that “it’s not a technical issue.”
Read more @ https://theintercept.com/2015/12/09/comey-calls-on-tech-companies-offering-end-to-end-encryption-to-reconsider-their-business-model/
President Obama and Hillary Clinton made statements on Sunday indicating that the post-San Bernardino focus on rooting out radicalized individuals is going to lead to heightened pressure on social media sites and tech companies that provide unbreakable end-to-end encryption. In his Oval Office speech on Sunday night about the fight against ISIS, President Obama devoted one line in his speech to the topic. “I will urge high-tech and law enforcement leaders to make it harder for terrorists to use technology to escape from justice,” he said. Meanwhile, Clinton, the Democratic presidential frontrunner, gave a talk at the Brookings Institution where she urged tech companies to deny ISIS “online space,” and waved away concerns about First Amendment issues.
President Obama and Hillary Clinton made statements on Sunday indicating that the post-San Bernardino focus on rooting out radicalized individuals is going to lead to heightened pressure on social media sites and tech companies that provide unbreakable end-to-end encryption.
In his Oval Office speech on Sunday night about the fight against ISIS, President Obama devoted one line in his speech to the topic. “I will urge high-tech and law enforcement leaders to make it harder for terrorists to use technology to escape from justice,” he said.
Meanwhile, Clinton, the Democratic presidential frontrunner, gave a talk at the Brookings Institution where she urged tech companies to deny ISIS “online space,” and waved away concerns about First Amendment issues.
Read more @ https://theintercept.com/2015/12/07/obama-hints-at-renewed-pressure-on-encryption-clinton-waves-off-first-amendment/
Dec 20 15 9:59 AM
Spoiler alert: Obama won't veto this one. Earlier today, the US House of Representatives passed a 2,000-page omnibus budget bill that contains the entirety of the controversial Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act. Just moments ago, the Senate passed it too. Now the bill is on its way to President Barack Obama's desk, where he has the option to veto it... except he almost certainly won't. The gargantuan document lays out a $1.15 trillion spending plan that has received solid (if not unanimous) support from both sides of the aisle and should prevent a government shutdown like the one we saw in 2013. But at what cost? Update: As expected, President Obama has just signed the bill, enacting both the $1.1 trillion budget and CISA.In a nutshell, CISA was meant to allow companies to share information on cyber attacks — including data from private citizens — with other companies and the Department of Homeland Security. Once DHS had all the pertinent details, they could be passed along to the FBI and NSA for further investigation and, potentially, legal action. The thing is, critics saw the bill as way for government agencies to more easily keep tabs on Americans without their knowledge. CISA was derided by privacy advocates and tech titans alike, with companies like Amazon, Apple, Dropbox, Google, Facebook and Symantec (to name just a few) issued statements against an earlier version of the bill.
Earlier today, the US House of Representatives passed a 2,000-page omnibus budget bill that contains the entirety of the controversial Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act. Just moments ago, the Senate passed it too. Now the bill is on its way to President Barack Obama's desk, where he has the option to veto it... except he almost certainly won't. The gargantuan document lays out a $1.15 trillion spending plan that has received solid (if not unanimous) support from both sides of the aisle and should prevent a government shutdown like the one we saw in 2013. But at what cost?
Update: As expected, President Obama has just signed the bill, enacting both the $1.1 trillion budget and CISA.
In a nutshell, CISA was meant to allow companies to share information on cyber attacks — including data from private citizens — with other companies and the Department of Homeland Security. Once DHS had all the pertinent details, they could be passed along to the FBI and NSA for further investigation and, potentially, legal action. The thing is, critics saw the bill as way for government agencies to more easily keep tabs on Americans without their knowledge. CISA was derided by privacy advocates and tech titans alike, with companies like Amazon, Apple, Dropbox, Google, Facebook and Symantec (to name just a few) issued statements against an earlier version of the bill.
Read more @ http://www.engadget.com/2015/12/18/house-senate-pass-budget-with-cisa/?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link
Dec 26 15 3:49 PM
Whistleblower Edward Snowden took to Twitter to condemn Clinton's hawkishness in the last 2015 Democratic debate “Aaaaaaaaand Hillary just terrified everyone with an internet connection,” whistleblower Edward Snowden tweeted Saturday night, during the third Democratic presidential debate. Aaaaaaaaand Hillary just terrified everyone with an internet connection. #DemDebate — Edward Snowden (@Snowden) December 20, 2015 Snowden, who worked for a private contractor with the National Security Agency (NSA), leaked documents in 2013 showing how the U.S. government was spying not just on all of its citizens’ private phone calls and messages, but also even on the private phone calls of allied heads of state in Germany, France, and more. Journalist Glenn Greenwald, the Washington Post, and leading British newspaper the Guardian were awarded the prestigious Pulitzer Prize, journalism’s highest honor, for their work with Snowden. Snowden was referring to Clinton’s hawkish foreign policy positions, which she defended in the New Hampshire debate. When Clinton proudly stood by her role building a coalition and leading the 2011 NATO war in Libya, which destroyed the government and plunged the country into chaos, Snowden sarcastically tweeted “That Libya coalition worked out great.”
“Aaaaaaaaand Hillary just terrified everyone with an internet connection,” whistleblower Edward Snowden tweeted Saturday night, during the third Democratic presidential debate.
Aaaaaaaaand Hillary just terrified everyone with an internet connection. #DemDebate
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) December 20, 2015
Snowden, who worked for a private contractor with the National Security Agency (NSA), leaked documents in 2013 showing how the U.S. government was spying not just on all of its citizens’ private phone calls and messages, but also even on the private phone calls of allied heads of state in Germany, France, and more. Journalist Glenn Greenwald, the Washington Post, and leading British newspaper the Guardian were awarded the prestigious Pulitzer Prize, journalism’s highest honor, for their work with Snowden.
Snowden was referring to Clinton’s hawkish foreign policy positions, which she defended in the New Hampshire debate.
When Clinton proudly stood by her role building a coalition and leading the 2011 NATO war in Libya, which destroyed the government and plunged the country into chaos, Snowden sarcastically tweeted “That Libya coalition worked out great.”
Read more @ http://www.salon.com/2015/12/20/hillary_just_terrified_everyone_edward_snowden_slams_clintons_hawkish_foreign_policy_in_third_debate/
Apple has rejected the UK’s new draft surveillance bill. This new bill will force a handful of companies currently operating there to either tone down encryption or get rid of it completely. DRIPA Bill Puts UK Government Against Encryption The draft Investigatory Powers Bill was first released last month. It has been rewritten to clarify laws that would allow the UK government to monitor surveillance over phone hacking and malware installment on target devices. They’ve been doing this for the past decade, and the bill would justify and extend this policy. This Bill Puts the UK Government as the Supreme Authority No Matter What The bill also forces technological companies to take out any encryption upon the request of any authority. This week, Apple released a letter in response to the bill. The letter details that this bill could cause some damage to lawful users to find a couple of bad eggs ruining technology for everyone else. As such, they will not abide by the rules of this bill.
Apple has rejected the UK’s new draft surveillance bill. This new bill will force a handful of companies currently operating there to either tone down encryption or get rid of it completely.
The draft Investigatory Powers Bill was first released last month. It has been rewritten to clarify laws that would allow the UK government to monitor surveillance over phone hacking and malware installment on target devices. They’ve been doing this for the past decade, and the bill would justify and extend this policy.
The bill also forces technological companies to take out any encryption upon the request of any authority. This week, Apple released a letter in response to the bill. The letter details that this bill could cause some damage to lawful users to find a couple of bad eggs ruining technology for everyone else. As such, they will not abide by the rules of this bill.
Read more @ http://clapway.com/2015/12/23/apple-yahoo-google-and-edward-snowden-fight-uk-government-123/
Apple has launched a counteroffensive against the UK’s proposed new surveillance law saying the measures risk paralysing vast reaches of the technology sector across the globe and even sparking “serious international conflicts”. The intervention from the world’s most valuable company comes amid growing anxiety from big US tech groups that the British proposals will set a dangerous precedent, as other countries seek to upgrade spying regimes for the digital age.
Apple has launched a counteroffensive against the UK’s proposed new surveillance law saying the measures risk paralysing vast reaches of the technology sector across the globe and even sparking “serious international conflicts”.
The intervention from the world’s most valuable company comes amid growing anxiety from big US tech groups that the British proposals will set a dangerous precedent, as other countries seek to upgrade spying regimes for the digital age.
Read more @ http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1ec9cdfc-a7ff-11e5-955c-1e1d6de94879.html
Apple Inc. outlined its opposition to a proposed U.K. surveillance law, saying threats to national security don’t justify weakening privacy and putting the data of hundreds of millions of users at risk. The world’s most valuable company is leading a Silicon Valley challenge to the Investigatory Powers Bill, which attempts to strengthen the capabilities of law-enforcement agencies to investigate potential crimes or terrorist attacks. The bill would, among other things, give the government the ability to see the Internet browsing history of U.K. citizens.
Apple Inc. outlined its opposition to a proposed U.K. surveillance law, saying threats to national security don’t justify weakening privacy and putting the data of hundreds of millions of users at risk.
The world’s most valuable company is leading a Silicon Valley challenge to the Investigatory Powers Bill, which attempts to strengthen the capabilities of law-enforcement agencies to investigate potential crimes or terrorist attacks. The bill would, among other things, give the government the ability to see the Internet browsing history of U.K. citizens.
Read more @ http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-21/apple-says-u-k-surveillance-law-would-endanger-all-customers
Read more @ http://www.afr.com/technology/apple-speaks-out-against-proposed-uk-surveillance-laws-20151222-glt4rc
Did someone or persons line their pockets to do that?
A group run by supporters of Senator Marco Rubio sent a mailing to Iowa Republicans this week criticizing Senator Ted Cruz for not condemning Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked a trove of classified documents. Linking Mr. Cruz to Senators Rand Paul and Bernie Sanders, the group, the Conservative Solutions Project, placed pictures of the three presidential candidates side by side. “These senators have defended Snowden’s actions,” the mailer reads, citing quotations from each of the three about Mr. Snowden. The mailing was shared by an Iowa Republican, who requested anonymity because he does not want to appear to be taking sides in the campaign. Mr. Cruz in the past has offered some conditional words of praise for Mr. Snowden for exposing government surveillance. But he has also said, “If Mr. Snowden has violated the laws of this country, there are consequences to violating laws and that is something he has publicly stated he understands and I think the law needs to be enforced.”
A group run by supporters of Senator Marco Rubio sent a mailing to Iowa Republicans this week criticizing Senator Ted Cruz for not condemning Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked a trove of classified documents.
Linking Mr. Cruz to Senators Rand Paul and Bernie Sanders, the group, the Conservative Solutions Project, placed pictures of the three presidential candidates side by side.
“These senators have defended Snowden’s actions,” the mailer reads, citing quotations from each of the three about Mr. Snowden. The mailing was shared by an Iowa Republican, who requested anonymity because he does not want to appear to be taking sides in the campaign.
Mr. Cruz in the past has offered some conditional words of praise for Mr. Snowden for exposing government surveillance. But he has also said, “If Mr. Snowden has violated the laws of this country, there are consequences to violating laws and that is something he has publicly stated he understands and I think the law needs to be enforced.”
Read more @ http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/12/18/backers-of-marco-rubio-target-ted-cruz-for-stance-on-edward-snowden/
British spies enlisted the help of the US National Security Agency (NSA) to learn how to hack firewalls made by top internet security provider Juniper, according to leaked documents. Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), which is the UK’s foremost electronic intelligence and surveillance agency, looked to its counterpart across the Atlantic to access the firm’s firewalls. The revelations come as the Intercept website released a six-page document dating back to 2011 titled “Assessment of Intelligence Opportunity – Juniper.” The document was written by an NSA employee working with GCHQ and shows the urgency with which spies sought ways to penetrate Juniper’s security products.
British spies enlisted the help of the US National Security Agency (NSA) to learn how to hack firewalls made by top internet security provider Juniper, according to leaked documents.
Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), which is the UK’s foremost electronic intelligence and surveillance agency, looked to its counterpart across the Atlantic to access the firm’s firewalls.
The revelations come as the Intercept website released a six-page document dating back to 2011 titled “Assessment of Intelligence Opportunity – Juniper.”
The document was written by an NSA employee working with GCHQ and shows the urgency with which spies sought ways to penetrate Juniper’s security products.
Read more @ https://www.rt.com/uk/327011-nsa-gchq-juniper-hacking/
The federal government has reportedly joined the investigation of the hack—which experts say could be the work of spies here or abroad. As researchers uncover more about two vulnerabilities recently patched in some Juniper Networks firewalls, the security community continues to speculate about who inserted what Juniper called "unauthorized code" into the company’s firewall operating system ScreenOS. Security experts suggested that one of the security holes in particular, which Juniper warns could allow eavesdroppers to decrypt VPN traffic to some of its NetScreen firewalls, could be the work of the National Security Agency or another spy agency overseas. "There is no way to detect that this vulnerability was exploited," Juniper cautioned. The company indicated it has no evidence that either that weakness, or a second vulnerability introducing a secret password that allows anyone to remotely take control of the firewalls, has actually been used. U.S. law enforcement agencies have reportedly joined Juniper in investigating how the code came to be in the firewalls, which are used by big companies and government agencies to secure their networks, Reuters reported Tuesday.
The federal government has reportedly joined the investigation of the hack—which experts say could be the work of spies here or abroad.
As researchers uncover more about two vulnerabilities recently patched in some Juniper Networks firewalls, the security community continues to speculate about who inserted what Juniper called "unauthorized code" into the company’s firewall operating system ScreenOS.
Security experts suggested that one of the security holes in particular, which Juniper warns could allow eavesdroppers to decrypt VPN traffic to some of its NetScreen firewalls, could be the work of the National Security Agency or another spy agency overseas.
"There is no way to detect that this vulnerability was exploited," Juniper cautioned.
The company indicated it has no evidence that either that weakness, or a second vulnerability introducing a secret password that allows anyone to remotely take control of the firewalls, has actually been used. U.S. law enforcement agencies have reportedly joined Juniper in investigating how the code came to be in the firewalls, which are used by big companies and government agencies to secure their networks, Reuters reported Tuesday.
Read more @ http://www.fastcompany.com/3054945/elasticity/researchers-say-the-juniper-hack-could-be-the-work-of-government-but-which-one
Opinion: If ever there's been a shining example of why government backdoors are a bad idea, the motherlode just got served up hot on a platter. Aaron Sorkin may not be a household name, but you've probably heard of his work. From "The West Wing" to "The Social Network," and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," and "The Newsroom," Sorkin has dedicated the name of one episode in each of his productions to asking the same question: "What kind of day has it been?" Let me tell you that almost every day of the year, it's been a complete and unmitigated disaster for security. Encryption is used by banks to keep your money safe, it's used by government to keep its secrets safe, and it's used by companies to protect your data. But despite being the very fabric of keeping society and the internet safe and secure, encryption has been threatened by far too many narrow-minded bureaucrats with little knowledge or foresight to the consequences of its unraveling, who are paid by businesses to act as proxy spokespeople on their behalf for the trade-off of staying in power.
Opinion: If ever there's been a shining example of why government backdoors are a bad idea, the motherlode just got served up hot on a platter.
Aaron Sorkin may not be a household name, but you've probably heard of his work. From "The West Wing" to "The Social Network," and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," and "The Newsroom," Sorkin has dedicated the name of one episode in each of his productions to asking the same question:
"What kind of day has it been?"
Let me tell you that almost every day of the year, it's been a complete and unmitigated disaster for security. Encryption is used by banks to keep your money safe, it's used by government to keep its secrets safe, and it's used by companies to protect your data. But despite being the very fabric of keeping society and the internet safe and secure, encryption has been threatened by far too many narrow-minded bureaucrats with little knowledge or foresight to the consequences of its unraveling, who are paid by businesses to act as proxy spokespeople on their behalf for the trade-off of staying in power.
Read more @ http://www.zdnet.com/article/juniper-flaw-is-a-major-backfire-for-governments-backdoor-plans/
Putting backdoors in encryption isn't looking like such a great idea, after Juniper, a major provider of security networking equipment, falls victim to a suspected nation-state attack. Security researchers suspect the US may have contributed in some way for the planting of "unauthorized" backdoor code in Juniper firewall technology. Researchers believe that even if the National Security Agency wasn't directly to blame for inserting the backdoor code, it was at least helped along by creating a weakness in a cryptographic algorithm used in part by Juniper that allowed the attackers to strike. CNN said on Saturday, citing unnamed US officials, that it didn't believe the NSA was behind it, pointing to "the work of a foreign government." The FBI is currently investigating the attack.
Putting backdoors in encryption isn't looking like such a great idea, after Juniper, a major provider of security networking equipment, falls victim to a suspected nation-state attack.
Security researchers suspect the US may have contributed in some way for the planting of "unauthorized" backdoor code in Juniper firewall technology.
Researchers believe that even if the National Security Agency wasn't directly to blame for inserting the backdoor code, it was at least helped along by creating a weakness in a cryptographic algorithm used in part by Juniper that allowed the attackers to strike. CNN said on Saturday, citing unnamed US officials, that it didn't believe the NSA was behind it, pointing to "the work of a foreign government." The FBI is currently investigating the attack.
Read more @ http://www.zdnet.com/article/nsa-suspected-in-juniper-firewall-backdoor-mystery-but-questions-remain/
A 'honeypot' mimicking a Juniper firewall is seeing login attempts An experiment by a cybersecurity research center shows attackers are trying to find Juniper firewalls that haven't been patched to remove unauthorized spying code. The SANS Internet Storm Center set up a honeypot -- a term for a computer designed to lure attackers in order to study their techniques -- that mimicked a vulnerable Juniper firewall. The honeypot was configured so that it appeared to run ScreenOS, the operating system of the affected Juniper firewalls, wrote Johannes Ullrich, CTO of the Internet Storm Center, on Monday in a blog post. Juniper said last Thursday that it found during an internal audit two instances of unauthorized code in some versions of ScreenOS, which runs its NetScreen model of enterprise firewalls. One problem was a hard-coded password, which could allow an attacker to log into a firewall using SSH or telnet in combination with a valid username. The password was published on Sunday by the security firm Rapid7, which had been analyzing ScreenOS. Juniper released patches for the password issue and another problem, which could allow VPN traffic to be monitored and decrypted.
An experiment by a cybersecurity research center shows attackers are trying to find Juniper firewalls that haven't been patched to remove unauthorized spying code.
The SANS Internet Storm Center set up a honeypot -- a term for a computer designed to lure attackers in order to study their techniques -- that mimicked a vulnerable Juniper firewall.
The honeypot was configured so that it appeared to run ScreenOS, the operating system of the affected Juniper firewalls, wrote Johannes Ullrich, CTO of the Internet Storm Center, on Monday in a blog post.
Juniper said last Thursday that it found during an internal audit two instances of unauthorized code in some versions of ScreenOS, which runs its NetScreen model of enterprise firewalls.
One problem was a hard-coded password, which could allow an attacker to log into a firewall using SSH or telnet in combination with a valid username.
The password was published on Sunday by the security firm Rapid7, which had been analyzing ScreenOS.
Juniper released patches for the password issue and another problem, which could allow VPN traffic to be monitored and decrypted.
Read more @ http://www.pcworld.com/article/3017738/security/attackers-are-hunting-for-tampered-juniper-firewalls.html
As evidence mounts that an intelligence agency had the capability to wiretap Juniper network hardware, technology experts resist political pressure to to make encryption breakable. The mystery surrounding two backdoors in Juniper's virtual private networking (VPN) products—and whether one of them may have originated with a U.S. intelligence agency—has added fuel to the debate surrounding government access to communications and data. On Dec. 17, Juniper announced that an internal code review had revealed that two backdoors had been added to its ScreenOS operating system. One intentionally introduced flaw allows attackers to use a hard-coded password to gain administrative rights to vulnerable systems while the other allows the decryption of communications captured by an attacker who knows a unique key. Juniper's Security Incident Response Team "is not aware of any malicious exploitation of these vulnerabilities; however, the password needed for the administrative access has been revealed publicly," the company stated in an advisory. The hard-coded password was apparently introduced in ScreenOS 6.2.0r15, released by Juniper in September 2012, while an attacker inserted the decryption bypass vulnerability into ScreenOS 6.2.0r17, released in May, according to Juniper. Versions of the operating system released as far back as August 2012 have, however, been patched for the issue.
As evidence mounts that an intelligence agency had the capability to wiretap Juniper network hardware, technology experts resist political pressure to to make encryption breakable.
The mystery surrounding two backdoors in Juniper's virtual private networking (VPN) products—and whether one of them may have originated with a U.S. intelligence agency—has added fuel to the debate surrounding government access to communications and data.
On Dec. 17, Juniper announced that an internal code review had revealed that two backdoors had been added to its ScreenOS operating system. One intentionally introduced flaw allows attackers to use a hard-coded password to gain administrative rights to vulnerable systems while the other allows the decryption of communications captured by an attacker who knows a unique key.
Juniper's Security Incident Response Team "is not aware of any malicious exploitation of these vulnerabilities; however, the password needed for the administrative access has been revealed publicly," the company stated in an advisory.
The hard-coded password was apparently introduced in ScreenOS 6.2.0r15, released by Juniper in September 2012, while an attacker inserted the decryption bypass vulnerability into ScreenOS 6.2.0r17, released in May, according to Juniper. Versions of the operating system released as far back as August 2012 have, however, been patched for the issue.
Read more @ http://www.eweek.com/security/encryption-backdoor-debate-heats-up-with-juniper-breach-discovery.html
BRITS have been snooped on by MI5 for years under a special Operation known as "Preston", according to leaks from whistleblower Edward Snowden. The secret surveillance programme has a specialist internet and phone-tapping centre at MI5's headquarters in Vauxhall, central London, according to IT website, The Register, and its veteran espionage journalist Duncan Campbell. Mr Campbell wrote on The Register: "The 'Big Brother' comprehensive national database system feared by many MPs has been built behind their backs over the last decade." The report comes two months after Snowden told the BBC's Panorama programme how GCHQ – the massive spying centre near Cheltenham – had the power to hack into smartphones without the owner's knowledge. Mr Snowden said GCHQ could gain access to a handset by planting malware and then sending it an encrypted text message which would take pictures and listen in on its owner without them even being aware.
BRITS have been snooped on by MI5 for years under a special Operation known as "Preston", according to leaks from whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The secret surveillance programme has a specialist internet and phone-tapping centre at MI5's headquarters in Vauxhall, central London, according to IT website, The Register, and its veteran espionage journalist Duncan Campbell.
Mr Campbell wrote on The Register: "The 'Big Brother' comprehensive national database system feared by many MPs has been built behind their backs over the last decade."
The report comes two months after Snowden told the BBC's Panorama programme how GCHQ – the massive spying centre near Cheltenham – had the power to hack into smartphones without the owner's knowledge.
Mr Snowden said GCHQ could gain access to a handset by planting malware and then sending it an encrypted text message which would take pictures and listen in on its owner without them even being aware.
Read more @ http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/482162/MI5-phone-tapping-Preston
They are giving governments so much power that sooner or later they will regret it…. No one should have such power….. NO ONE! Humans will be humans no matter whether they are in government or not…. Look at the track record of humans in history….. Fear is a mind killer and it may end up being far more than that in the future if people keep giving up their freedoms.
Fears of terrorism are once again trumping talk of civil liberties. Political debates, particularly among Republicans, are filled with fearful talk about threats to the country. The FBI director is pushing for "backdoors" into encryption software that would allow it to read scrambled communications. And perhaps worst of all, instead of constraining surveillance, Congress on Friday opened a big new door for domestic spying in the guise of the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015. It's beginning to look like the Snowden moment -- the reform movement sparked by revelations by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden of pervasive, illegal and largely uncontrolled government spying -- may be passing.
Fears of terrorism are once again trumping talk of civil liberties.
Political debates, particularly among Republicans, are filled with fearful talk about threats to the country. The FBI director is pushing for "backdoors" into encryption software that would allow it to read scrambled communications. And perhaps worst of all, instead of constraining surveillance, Congress on Friday opened a big new door for domestic spying in the guise of the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015.
It's beginning to look like the Snowden moment -- the reform movement sparked by revelations by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden of pervasive, illegal and largely uncontrolled government spying -- may be passing.
Read more @ http://www.mercurynews.com/politics-government/ci_29275334/wolverton-snowden-moment-may-be-passing-new-fears
Despite saying that he “respects” Telegram’s founder, Russian Pavel Durov, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden said the messenger lacks security at its default settings. “I respect @durov, but Ptacek is right: @telegram's defaults are dangerous. Without a major update, it's unsafe,” former CIA employee tweeted on Saturday. To be clear, what matters is that the plaintext of messages is *accessible* to the server (or service provider), not whether it's "stored." — Edward Snowden (@Snowden) December 19, 2015 Snowden was referring to Thomas Ptacek, founder of Matasano Security and a specialist in cryptographic and embedded software security, who tweeted that Telegram’s plaintext is stored on the server. Pointing towards the vulnerability of such a setup, Snowden hinted that the plaintext of the messages should not be accessible to a service provider at all for a connection to be truly secure.
Despite saying that he “respects” Telegram’s founder, Russian Pavel Durov, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden said the messenger lacks security at its default settings.
“I respect @durov, but Ptacek is right: @telegram's defaults are dangerous. Without a major update, it's unsafe,” former CIA employee tweeted on Saturday.
To be clear, what matters is that the plaintext of messages is *accessible* to the server (or service provider), not whether it's "stored."
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) December 19, 2015
Snowden was referring to Thomas Ptacek, founder of Matasano Security and a specialist in cryptographic and embedded software security, who tweeted that Telegram’s plaintext is stored on the server. Pointing towards the vulnerability of such a setup, Snowden hinted that the plaintext of the messages should not be accessible to a service provider at all for a connection to be truly secure.
Read more @ https://www.rt.com/news/326565-snowden-durov-security-telegram/
Edward Snowden To Appear At New Hampshire Convention: NSA Whistleblower To Be Keynote Speaker Via Video Link
Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower who exposed the government’s bulk phone data collection and other surveillance practices, will be the keynote speaker at a New Hampshire convention of libertarians, The Valley News reports. Snowden will speak to the New Hampshire Liberty Forum via a video conference from Russia, where he’s been granted political asylum while he faces federal charges here in the United States. The New Hampshire Liberty Forum is an annual conference held in Manchester, New Hampshire (population: 109,000). The 2016 Liberty Forum will take place February 18-21.
Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower who exposed the government’s bulk phone data collection and other surveillance practices, will be the keynote speaker at a New Hampshire convention of libertarians, The Valley News reports.
Snowden will speak to the New Hampshire Liberty Forum via a video conference from Russia, where he’s been granted political asylum while he faces federal charges here in the United States. The New Hampshire Liberty Forum is an annual conference held in Manchester, New Hampshire (population: 109,000). The 2016 Liberty Forum will take place February 18-21.
Read more @ http://www.inquisitr.com/2649633/edward-snowden-to-appear-at-new-hampshire-convention-nsa-whistleblower-to-be-keynote-speaker-via-video-link/
Read more @ http://www.argus-press.com/news/state_news/article_9294759a-e034-5d9b-9c9e-469731ec6f8e.html
POLITICO's live coverage of the 2016 presidential debate. Edward Snowden either stayed up late or got up early in Moscow to watch the third Democratic debate, tweeting his takes on foreign policy and surveillance — and he seems favorably inclined toward Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. The former NSA contractor who leaked information about the agency's surveillance programs in 2013 apparently didn't like Hillary Clinton's call to increase vetting and screening through government intelligence agencies:
POLITICO's live coverage of the 2016 presidential debate.
Edward Snowden either stayed up late or got up early in Moscow to watch the third Democratic debate, tweeting his takes on foreign policy and surveillance — and he seems favorably inclined toward Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
The former NSA contractor who leaked information about the agency's surveillance programs in 2013 apparently didn't like Hillary Clinton's call to increase vetting and screening through government intelligence agencies:
Read more @ http://www.politico.com/blogs/live-from-st-anselm-college/2015/12/snowden-livetweets-the-debate-216992
Dec 29 15 6:33 PM
How will Big Data transform defense intelligence analysis and its functions? Paul Symon and Arzan Trapore believe it will make it increasingly possible to automate labor-intensive tasks while also mastering new forms of analysis and presentation. However, Big Data’s utility will also have its limits. By Paul B. Symon and Arzan Tarapore for National Defense University Press This article was originally published in NDU's Joint Force Quarterly, on 1 October 2015. Over the past decade, the U.S. and Australian intelligence communities have evolved rapidly to perform new missions. They have developed new capabilities and adapted their business processes, especially in support of joint and complex military operations. But in the coming decade, their greatest challenge will be to develop new capabilities to manage and exploit big data.[1] We use the term big data to mean the exponentially increasing amount of digital information being created by new information technologies (IT)—such as mobile Internet, cloud storage, social networking, and the “Internet of things”—and the advanced analytics used to process that data. Big data yields not simply a quantitative increase in information, but a qualitative change in how we create new knowledge and understand the world. These data-related information technologies have already begun to revolutionize commerce and science, transforming the economy and acting as enablers for other game-changing technology trends, from next-generation genomics to energy exploration.[2] In defense intelligence communities, some of these technologies have been adopted for tasks, including technical collection and operational intelligence fusion—but big data’s impact on all-source intelligence analysis has scarcely been examined. This article offers a view on how these disruptive information technologies could transform defense intelligence analysis and the functions of the all-source enterprise. It is not a comprehensive study on trends in technology or in the intelligence profession, nor is it a deterministic scenario of a high-tech future. Rather, here we seek to identify some opportunities and risks of the disruptive technologies at hand. First, we sketch a background of the most important IT trends that are shaping today’s economy and society. Second, we outline how big data could transform intelligence analysis; it has the potential to unlock enormous productivity gains and effectiveness by automating some currently labor-intensive tasks, enabling new forms of analysis and creating new forms of presentation. Third, we argue big data cannot do it all; its utility in making sense of complex systems and addressing knowledge gaps is limited. Finally, we outline how big data could transform the wider assessment agency enterprise. We argue that the explosion in data supply and demand will incentivize assessment agencies to reposition their roles more toward service-delivery functions and to rebalance their workforces. None of this is inevitable. In both analytic operations and enterprise management, much of how the scenario actually unfolds will be determined by the vision and agility of our leadership, our partners, and our adversaries. Defense and intelligence community (IC) leaders must play an active but balanced role, exploiting big data’s potential, but understanding its limitations.
How will Big Data transform defense intelligence analysis and its functions? Paul Symon and Arzan Trapore believe it will make it increasingly possible to automate labor-intensive tasks while also mastering new forms of analysis and presentation. However, Big Data’s utility will also have its limits.
By Paul B. Symon and Arzan Tarapore for National Defense University Press
This article was originally published in NDU's Joint Force Quarterly, on 1 October 2015.
Over the past decade, the U.S. and Australian intelligence communities have evolved rapidly to perform new missions. They have developed new capabilities and adapted their business processes, especially in support of joint and complex military operations. But in the coming decade, their greatest challenge will be to develop new capabilities to manage and exploit big data.[1] We use the term big data to mean the exponentially increasing amount of digital information being created by new information technologies (IT)—such as mobile Internet, cloud storage, social networking, and the “Internet of things”—and the advanced analytics used to process that data. Big data yields not simply a quantitative increase in information, but a qualitative change in how we create new knowledge and understand the world. These data-related information technologies have already begun to revolutionize commerce and science, transforming the economy and acting as enablers for other game-changing technology trends, from next-generation genomics to energy exploration.[2] In defense intelligence communities, some of these technologies have been adopted for tasks, including technical collection and operational intelligence fusion—but big data’s impact on all-source intelligence analysis has scarcely been examined.
This article offers a view on how these disruptive information technologies could transform defense intelligence analysis and the functions of the all-source enterprise. It is not a comprehensive study on trends in technology or in the intelligence profession, nor is it a deterministic scenario of a high-tech future. Rather, here we seek to identify some opportunities and risks of the disruptive technologies at hand. First, we sketch a background of the most important IT trends that are shaping today’s economy and society. Second, we outline how big data could transform intelligence analysis; it has the potential to unlock enormous productivity gains and effectiveness by automating some currently labor-intensive tasks, enabling new forms of analysis and creating new forms of presentation. Third, we argue big data cannot do it all; its utility in making sense of complex systems and addressing knowledge gaps is limited. Finally, we outline how big data could transform the wider assessment agency enterprise. We argue that the explosion in data supply and demand will incentivize assessment agencies to reposition their roles more toward service-delivery functions and to rebalance their workforces.
None of this is inevitable. In both analytic operations and enterprise management, much of how the scenario actually unfolds will be determined by the vision and agility of our leadership, our partners, and our adversaries. Defense and intelligence community (IC) leaders must play an active but balanced role, exploiting big data’s potential, but understanding its limitations.
Read more @ http://www.isn.ethz.ch/Digital-Library/Articles/Detail/?lng=en&id=195263
Jan 2 16 9:51 PM
Challenge to State’s data retention law returns to court
Digital Rights Ireland action questions law requiring records be kept for two years A landmark legal challenge to the State’s legislation requiring the retention of the phone and internet records of all individuals for up to two years returns to the High Court on Monday. The action being taken by the Digital Rights Ireland (DRI) privacy lobby group follows its success in April 2014 in having the entire European regime for the retention of such personal data about more than 500 million citizens overturned by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg. DRI launched a court action against the State in 2006 questioning the legality of Irish data retention laws requiring phone companies and internet service providers to keep data about customers’ locations, calls, texts and emails, and store that information for up to two years.
A landmark legal challenge to the State’s legislation requiring the retention of the phone and internet records of all individuals for up to two years returns to the High Court on Monday.
The action being taken by the Digital Rights Ireland (DRI) privacy lobby group follows its success in April 2014 in having the entire European regime for the retention of such personal data about more than 500 million citizens overturned by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg.
DRI launched a court action against the State in 2006 questioning the legality of Irish data retention laws requiring phone companies and internet service providers to keep data about customers’ locations, calls, texts and emails, and store that information for up to two years.
Read more @ http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/challenge-to-state-s-data-retention-law-returns-to-court-1.2472892
Recent court decisions, and legislation, will most likely affect everyone handling data In the first week of January this year, I began the new year with a prediction. “Privacy will be a big issue in 2015. In Ireland as well as internationally, three big ‘Ps’ are aligning around the topic, building on developments in 2014: politics, policy and populism.” As we say farewell to 2015, I would add a fourth P: plus ça change. Privacy has been a looming issue for years now, if less publicly noticeable in the past, and isn’t about to go away. We are all digital pioneers, grappling with what it means to have our personal information accessible, transferable, analysable and storable in unprecedented ways, following several decades of silicon-driven technological developments, and especially, the growth of the internet. And yes, digital privacy became a truly dominant international concern this year, whether you wanted it better protected, wanted less regulation and greater access to data, or faced angry customers.
In the first week of January this year, I began the new year with a prediction.
“Privacy will be a big issue in 2015. In Ireland as well as internationally, three big ‘Ps’ are aligning around the topic, building on developments in 2014: politics, policy and populism.”
As we say farewell to 2015, I would add a fourth P: plus ça change.
Privacy has been a looming issue for years now, if less publicly noticeable in the past, and isn’t about to go away. We are all digital pioneers, grappling with what it means to have our personal information accessible, transferable, analysable and storable in unprecedented ways, following several decades of silicon-driven technological developments, and especially, the growth of the internet.
And yes, digital privacy became a truly dominant international concern this year, whether you wanted it better protected, wanted less regulation and greater access to data, or faced angry customers.
Read more @ http://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/privacy-can-no-longer-be-a-low-level-box-checking-exercise-1.2480700
Secret mass surveillance continued to spark global controversy this year, yet the National Security Agency’s dragnet programs unconstitutionally monitoring Americans are stretching into their second decade. Ignited by news reports in 2005, eight years before Edward Snowden’s revelations blew the lid off illegal and unconstitutional domestic spying in 2013, mounting concerns around the world about the threat to free expression made 2015 a watershed year in the battle to restore privacy. Federal courts issued a series of competing decisions this year. Some acknowledged severe, ongoing abuses of millions of Americans and our fundamental rights. Others effectively turned a blind eye to government misconduct, agreeing with government arguments that the serious constitutional questions about these programs simply cannot be considered by the judiciary, even if they impact millions of innocent Americans. Meanwhile, Congress finally took action to address some intelligence abuses, passing the USA FREEDOM Act this spring. While reforms in the USA FREEDOM Act remained less than needed to restore the rights and democratic principles undermined by mass surveillance, this summer was only the second time in US history that Congress cut back the powers of the intelligence agencies. Repudiating longstanding congressional deference to secrect mass surveillance, the USA FREEDOM Act reflects a growing transpartisan recognition of the need for oversight, transparency, and privacy-protecting reforms. Beyond the courts and Congress, popular concerns surrounding mass surveillance continue to resound around the world, and all across America. With so little having been done to assuage those concerns, rest assured that EFF—along with the global civil society harmed by mass surveillance—will be back in 2016.
Secret mass surveillance continued to spark global controversy this year, yet the National Security Agency’s dragnet programs unconstitutionally monitoring Americans are stretching into their second decade. Ignited by news reports in 2005, eight years before Edward Snowden’s revelations blew the lid off illegal and unconstitutional domestic spying in 2013, mounting concerns around the world about the threat to free expression made 2015 a watershed year in the battle to restore privacy.
Federal courts issued a series of competing decisions this year. Some acknowledged severe, ongoing abuses of millions of Americans and our fundamental rights. Others effectively turned a blind eye to government misconduct, agreeing with government arguments that the serious constitutional questions about these programs simply cannot be considered by the judiciary, even if they impact millions of innocent Americans.
Meanwhile, Congress finally took action to address some intelligence abuses, passing the USA FREEDOM Act this spring. While reforms in the USA FREEDOM Act remained less than needed to restore the rights and democratic principles undermined by mass surveillance, this summer was only the second time in US history that Congress cut back the powers of the intelligence agencies. Repudiating longstanding congressional deference to secrect mass surveillance, the USA FREEDOM Act reflects a growing transpartisan recognition of the need for oversight, transparency, and privacy-protecting reforms.
Beyond the courts and Congress, popular concerns surrounding mass surveillance continue to resound around the world, and all across America. With so little having been done to assuage those concerns, rest assured that EFF—along with the global civil society harmed by mass surveillance—will be back in 2016.
Read more @ https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/12/dragnet-nsa-spying-survives-2015-review
In October, the Senate passed a controversial new bill called the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA). This bill is strikingly similar in language and intent to the Protecting Cyber Networks Act passed by the House in April as they both focus on information sharing among private entities and between them and the federal government. With the two bills now reconciled by House and Senate negotiators and included in the omnibus budget spending bill, the combined bills join the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), which modernized roles, responsibilities, and requirements for management of information security and the National Cybersecurity Protection Act, which codified the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC), as significant pieces of legislation to address the growing cybersecurity threat facing the United States. As the words “Information Sharing” embedded in the act’s name would suggest, the core concept behind CISA is to incentivize information sharing between the private sector and U.S. government departments and agencies. The legislation provides needed clarity for private and public entities to share information, and in so doing, takes steps to develop trust with private companies. Despite significant differences of opinion among partisans on both sides of the aisle, a consensus that “something had to be done” was achieved to prevent, and in some cases possibly retaliate against, the rampages of hacktivism by criminals, terrorists and nation states. As Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) put it post-passage–“we need to enable a cooperative effort to share critical information about cyber threats between private sector companies and the government.” A dangerous degree of private immunity
In October, the Senate passed a controversial new bill called the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA). This bill is strikingly similar in language and intent to the Protecting Cyber Networks Act passed by the House in April as they both focus on information sharing among private entities and between them and the federal government. With the two bills now reconciled by House and Senate negotiators and included in the omnibus budget spending bill, the combined bills join the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), which modernized roles, responsibilities, and requirements for management of information security and the National Cybersecurity Protection Act, which codified the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC), as significant pieces of legislation to address the growing cybersecurity threat facing the United States.
As the words “Information Sharing” embedded in the act’s name would suggest, the core concept behind CISA is to incentivize information sharing between the private sector and U.S. government departments and agencies. The legislation provides needed clarity for private and public entities to share information, and in so doing, takes steps to develop trust with private companies. Despite significant differences of opinion among partisans on both sides of the aisle, a consensus that “something had to be done” was achieved to prevent, and in some cases possibly retaliate against, the rampages of hacktivism by criminals, terrorists and nation states. As Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) put it post-passage–“we need to enable a cooperative effort to share critical information about cyber threats between private sector companies and the government.”
A dangerous degree of private immunity
Read more @ http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2015/12/22/a-practical-path-to-cybersecurity/
Max Schrems delivers a body blow in data privacy war, and cheating website hacked Safe Harbour no more The battle between Austrian privacy campaigner Max Schrems and the Irish Data Protection Commissioner over its treatment of his complaint against Facebook continued in 2015. Schrems had claimed that Facebook’s retention of his data in the US violated his right to privacy, given the revelations from Edward Snowden about mass surveillance and access to the data of large US companies. Schrems struck a body blow in the European Court of Justice when the court ruled the 15-year-old Safe Harbour agreement – governing the safe transfer of EU citizens’ data to the US – to be invalid. A subsequent trip to the High Court in October means the DPC will now investigate Schrems’ complaint against Facebook, three years after he started his campaign.
The battle between Austrian privacy campaigner Max Schrems and the Irish Data Protection Commissioner over its treatment of his complaint against Facebook continued in 2015.
Schrems had claimed that Facebook’s retention of his data in the US violated his right to privacy, given the revelations from Edward Snowden about mass surveillance and access to the data of large US companies.
Schrems struck a body blow in the European Court of Justice when the court ruled the 15-year-old Safe Harbour agreement – governing the safe transfer of EU citizens’ data to the US – to be invalid.
A subsequent trip to the High Court in October means the DPC will now investigate Schrems’ complaint against Facebook, three years after he started his campaign.
Read more @ http://www.irishtimes.com/business/top-5-tech-stories-of-2015-1.2477864
It may have a reputation as a do-nothing body, but the US Congress managed to pass more than 100 bills into law – including the landmark USA Freedom Act In 2015, Congress passed more than 100 laws that were then signed by President Barack Obama. Some, like the omnibus budget deal agreed in December, accomplished the most basic task of funding the federal government. There were also 14 different bills to rename individual post offices, including one sponsored by Representative Steve Chabot to name the post office in Springboro, Ohio after longtime local mail man Richard “Dick” Chenault. But besides keeping the lights on and renaming post offices, the federal government actually did a few consequential things in 2015. These are seven of the more interesting new laws of the year. USA Freedom Act In June, Congress passed the first significant rollback of government surveillance in decades. The USA Freedom Act, which was passed with bipartisan support, ended bulk collection of phone records by the United States government after Edward Snowden revealed the National Security Agency program. Instead, phone companies would hold those records. The bill also ended a brief lapse in many government surveillance powers after key provisions of the Patriot Act had expired just two days before it was signed into law. But it’s considered a modest reform by many privacy advocates. While the NSA will have to go through court to get phone records, it won’t face the same obstacle to obtain bulk communications on the internet and social media records.
It may have a reputation as a do-nothing body, but the US Congress managed to pass more than 100 bills into law – including the landmark USA Freedom Act
In 2015, Congress passed more than 100 laws that were then signed by President Barack Obama. Some, like the omnibus budget deal agreed in December, accomplished the most basic task of funding the federal government. There were also 14 different bills to rename individual post offices, including one sponsored by Representative Steve Chabot to name the post office in Springboro, Ohio after longtime local mail man Richard “Dick” Chenault. But besides keeping the lights on and renaming post offices, the federal government actually did a few consequential things in 2015. These are seven of the more interesting new laws of the year.
In June, Congress passed the first significant rollback of government surveillance in decades. The USA Freedom Act, which was passed with bipartisan support, ended bulk collection of phone records by the United States government after Edward Snowden revealed the National Security Agency program. Instead, phone companies would hold those records. The bill also ended a brief lapse in many government surveillance powers after key provisions of the Patriot Act had expired just two days before it was signed into law. But it’s considered a modest reform by many privacy advocates. While the NSA will have to go through court to get phone records, it won’t face the same obstacle to obtain bulk communications on the internet and social media records.
Read more @ http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/01/congress-bills-2015-usa-freedom-act-every-student-success-act
NSA’s targeting of Israeli leaders swept up the content of private conversations with U.S. lawmakers President Barack Obama announced two years ago he would curtail eavesdropping on friendly heads of state after the world learned the reach of long-secret U.S. surveillance programs. But behind the scenes, the White House decided to keep certain allies under close watch, current and former U.S. officials said. Topping the list was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The U.S., pursuing a nuclear arms agreement with Iran at the time, captured communications between Mr. Netanyahu and his aides that inflamed mistrust between the two countries and planted a political minefield at home when Mr. Netanyahu later took his campaign against the deal to Capitol Hill. The National Security Agency’s targeting of Israeli leaders and officials also swept up the contents of some of their private conversations with U.S. lawmakers and American-Jewish groups. That raised fears—an “Oh-s— moment,” one senior U.S. official said—that the executive branch would be accused of spying on Congress.
President Barack Obama announced two years ago he would curtail eavesdropping on friendly heads of state after the world learned the reach of long-secret U.S. surveillance programs.
But behind the scenes, the White House decided to keep certain allies under close watch, current and former U.S. officials said. Topping the list was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The U.S., pursuing a nuclear arms agreement with Iran at the time, captured communications between Mr. Netanyahu and his aides that inflamed mistrust between the two countries and planted a political minefield at home when Mr. Netanyahu later took his campaign against the deal to Capitol Hill.
The National Security Agency’s targeting of Israeli leaders and officials also swept up the contents of some of their private conversations with U.S. lawmakers and American-Jewish groups. That raised fears—an “Oh-s— moment,” one senior U.S. official said—that the executive branch would be accused of spying on Congress.
Read more @ http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-spy-net-on-israel-snares-congress-1451425210
Read more @ http://www.jewishaz.com/us_worldnews/nation/report-us-spied-on-netanyahu-during-talks-on-iran-deal/article_074137d6-af27-11e5-948c-5f939d0fec4d.html
The NSA kept spying on Israel's Netanyahu even after Edward Snowden leaks, WSJ details
Read more @ http://theweek.com/speedreads/596653/nsa-kept-spying-israels-netanyahu-even-after-edward-snowden-leaks-wsj-details
Ever more complex tracking programmes are being used to analyse consumers’ internet habits. And the information gathered is not to your benefit. YOU’RE sitting at home watching TV. Your smartphone is lying on the couch beside you. An ad comes on the box. You watch for a few seconds, then pick up the remote and change channel. That little act — deciding not to watch a particular ad — is one of the many fragments of consumer activity that make up our lives. Each day is filled with them. Buying a particular brand of teabag, browsing a particular website, clicking off a pop-up ad, ordering a book on Amazon. The difference however, between these four actions and zapping away a TV ad is that where the former can be monitored, the latter cannot. Or at least, that used to be the case. They’re called audio beacons. An ad comes on the TV and as it plays, it also emits an audio beacon set at a frequency which the human ear can’t pick up. However, if your smartphone has an app on which the relevant software is embedded, it can hear the beacon. And when it does, the marketing company responsible for this innovation gets access to a cluster of previously unrecordable data points. It knows what ad you watched, how long before you turned off and what kind of smart device you’re using. This is just one example of a rapidly growing marketing phenomenon called cross- device tracking. It’s all about solving a major problem that the latest phase of the technology revolution has caused marketing companies. Ten years ago, we had a golden age in marketing. Internet use snowballed, and as it did data mining became child’s play. As we logged on here and logged off there, browsed, emailed, and clicked, we left an indelible trail for marketers to follow, allowing them to build a heretofore unimaginably accurate profile of each consumer’s likes and dislikes. If I browse Amazon’s French guidebooks, then subscribe to a literary magazine, then email someone about which wine should go with asparagus, I am creating a series of data points which taken together amount to an exceptionally detailed picture of how I interact with the world.
Ever more complex tracking programmes are being used to analyse consumers’ internet habits. And the information gathered is not to your benefit.
YOU’RE sitting at home watching TV. Your smartphone is lying on the couch beside you. An ad comes on the box. You watch for a few seconds, then pick up the remote and change channel.
That little act — deciding not to watch a particular ad — is one of the many fragments of consumer activity that make up our lives. Each day is filled with them.
Buying a particular brand of teabag, browsing a particular website, clicking off a pop-up ad, ordering a book on Amazon. The difference however, between these four actions and zapping away a TV ad is that where the former can be monitored, the latter cannot. Or at least, that used to be the case.
They’re called audio beacons. An ad comes on the TV and as it plays, it also emits an audio beacon set at a frequency which the human ear can’t pick up. However, if your smartphone has an app on which the relevant software is embedded, it can hear the beacon. And when it does, the marketing company responsible for this innovation gets access to a cluster of previously unrecordable data points. It knows what ad you watched, how long before you turned off and what kind of smart device you’re using.
This is just one example of a rapidly growing marketing phenomenon called cross- device tracking. It’s all about solving a major problem that the latest phase of the technology revolution has caused marketing companies.
Ten years ago, we had a golden age in marketing. Internet use snowballed, and as it did data mining became child’s play. As we logged on here and logged off there, browsed, emailed, and clicked, we left an indelible trail for marketers to follow, allowing them to build a heretofore unimaginably accurate profile of each consumer’s likes and dislikes.
If I browse Amazon’s French guidebooks, then subscribe to a literary magazine, then email someone about which wine should go with asparagus, I am creating a series of data points which taken together amount to an exceptionally detailed picture of how I interact with the world.
Read more @ http://www.irishexaminer.com/viewpoints/analysis/future-of-mobile-advertisers-and-the-quest-for-your-data-374074.html
Canadian researchers find that a large amount of Canadians’ internet traffic is routed through the United States, making it vulnerable to interception.OTTAWA–Done any online shopping this holiday season? Paid any bills online? Maybe sent an email to your local MP about road salt? If you answered yes to any of the above, there’s a good chance your data made its way through the United States. And that puts your personal information at risk of interception, new research by two Canadian academics shows. Researchers Andrew Clement and Jonathan A. Obar call it the “boomerang effect.” Because most of the Internet’s infrastructure runs through the United States, even communications beginning and ending in Canada are often routed through America. “When (data) passes through the United States . . . Canadians have no legal rights at all. We lose our constitutional rights, and under U.S. law Canadians are foreigners, so there’s no protection for our communications,” Clement said in an interview.
OTTAWA–Done any online shopping this holiday season? Paid any bills online? Maybe sent an email to your local MP about road salt?
If you answered yes to any of the above, there’s a good chance your data made its way through the United States. And that puts your personal information at risk of interception, new research by two Canadian academics shows.
Researchers Andrew Clement and Jonathan A. Obar call it the “boomerang effect.” Because most of the Internet’s infrastructure runs through the United States, even communications beginning and ending in Canada are often routed through America.
“When (data) passes through the United States . . . Canadians have no legal rights at all. We lose our constitutional rights, and under U.S. law Canadians are foreigners, so there’s no protection for our communications,” Clement said in an interview.
Read more @ http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/12/30/canadians-internet-traffic-at-risk.html
MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Edward Snowden will appear via video link as a featured speaker at a New Hampshire convention of libertarian activists. The Valley News reports that the former National Security Agency contractor will participate in a 30-minute discussion and Q&A at the New Hampshire Free State Project’s convention in Manchester in February. The Free State Project describes itself as an effort to recruit “liberty-loving people” to move to New Hampshire. The group says it is trying to recruit 20,000 people who agree that a government should act to protect people’s rights.
MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Edward Snowden will appear via video link as a featured speaker at a New Hampshire convention of libertarian activists.
The Valley News reports that the former National Security Agency contractor will participate in a 30-minute discussion and Q&A at the New Hampshire Free State Project’s convention in Manchester in February.
The Free State Project describes itself as an effort to recruit “liberty-loving people” to move to New Hampshire. The group says it is trying to recruit 20,000 people who agree that a government should act to protect people’s rights.
Read more @ http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/12/20/edward-snowden-to-appear-via-video-link-at-libertarian-convention/
Jan 11 16 3:22 PM
New versions shipped in early 2016. Juniper has confirmed it will stop using a piece of security code that analysts believe was developed by the National Security Agency in order to eavesdrop through technology products. The Silicon Valley maker of networking gear said it would ship new versions of security software in the first half of this year to replace those that rely on numbers generated by Dual Elliptic Curve technology. The statement on a blog post came a day after the presentation at a Stanford University conference of research by a team of cryptographers who found that Juniper's code had been changed in multiple ways during 2008 to enable eavesdropping on virtual private network sessions by customers. Last month, Sunnyvale-based Juniper said it had found and replaced two unauthorised pieces of code that allowed "back door" access, which the researchers said had appeared in 2012 and 2014.
Juniper has confirmed it will stop using a piece of security code that analysts believe was developed by the National Security Agency in order to eavesdrop through technology products.
The Silicon Valley maker of networking gear said it would ship new versions of security software in the first half of this year to replace those that rely on numbers generated by Dual Elliptic Curve technology.
The statement on a blog post came a day after the presentation at a Stanford University conference of research by a team of cryptographers who found that Juniper's code had been changed in multiple ways during 2008 to enable eavesdropping on virtual private network sessions by customers.
Last month, Sunnyvale-based Juniper said it had found and replaced two unauthorised pieces of code that allowed "back door" access, which the researchers said had appeared in 2012 and 2014.
Read more @ http://tech.firstpost.com/news-analysis/juniper-networks-to-stop-using-code-tied-to-national-security-agency-294422.html
Read more @ http://www.ibtimes.com/juniper-networks-nsa-hack-tech-company-stops-use-suspected-eavesdropping-code-2258024
When President Obama's national security team signaled after his 2008 election that they wanted the NSA to keep giving the White House intelligence on foreign "leadership intentions," that included the fruits of electronic surveillance of Israeli leaders along with the heads of other U.S. allies. When Obama curtailed the use of eavesdropping on friendly leaders in 2013 after NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed this closely guarded program, Obama decided to keep on closely monitoring the communications of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing "interviews with more than two dozen current and former U.S. intelligence and administration officials." With the assent of Republican and Democratic leaders of Congress' intelligence committees, Obama had ramped up eavesdropping on Netanyahu in 2011 and 2012, when Netanyahu drew up plans to bomb Iran and Obama launched secret nuclear talks with Tehran, The Journal says. In 2014, NSA intercepts convinced the White House that Israel was spying on the Iran deal negotiators, and when Netanyahu's office started actively lobbying U.S. lawmakers to oppose the deal in 2015 — reportedly using questions like "How can we get your vote? What's it going to take?" — the White House had what one official called an "oh-s—t moment" when they realized the NSA would be scooping up communications involving U.S. lawmakers.
When President Obama's national security team signaled after his 2008 election that they wanted the NSA to keep giving the White House intelligence on foreign "leadership intentions," that included the fruits of electronic surveillance of Israeli leaders along with the heads of other U.S. allies. When Obama curtailed the use of eavesdropping on friendly leaders in 2013 after NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed this closely guarded program, Obama decided to keep on closely monitoring the communications of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing "interviews with more than two dozen current and former U.S. intelligence and administration officials."
With the assent of Republican and Democratic leaders of Congress' intelligence committees, Obama had ramped up eavesdropping on Netanyahu in 2011 and 2012, when Netanyahu drew up plans to bomb Iran and Obama launched secret nuclear talks with Tehran, The Journal says. In 2014, NSA intercepts convinced the White House that Israel was spying on the Iran deal negotiators, and when Netanyahu's office started actively lobbying U.S. lawmakers to oppose the deal in 2015 — reportedly using questions like "How can we get your vote? What's it going to take?" — the White House had what one official called an "oh-s—t moment" when they realized the NSA would be scooping up communications involving U.S. lawmakers.
Ben Wizner, a national ACLU attorney and head lawyer for NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, will co-teach a seminar at the University of Hawaii Richardson School of Law this month. Wizner, director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy & Technology Project, will teach the week-long "Liberty and Security in the Age of Terrorism" seminar along with retired four-star Army Gen. David Bramlett.
Ben Wizner, a national ACLU attorney and head lawyer for NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, will co-teach a seminar at the University of Hawaii Richardson School of Law this month.
Wizner, director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy & Technology Project, will teach the week-long "Liberty and Security in the Age of Terrorism" seminar along with retired four-star Army Gen. David Bramlett.
Read more @ http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/news/2016/01/04/attorney-for-edward-snowden-to-lead-university-of.html
http://www.hawaii.edu/news/2016/01/08/legal-scholars-including-snowdens-aclu-attorney-offer-public-talks/
The game that puts you in search of history's most notorious whistleblower. Was Edward Snowden morally justified in leaking secret documents that revealed, with the help of phone and internet companies, the British and US governments had spied on its citizens without their knowledge or consent? It is a question yet to be legally resolved. Snowden remains holed up in an undisclosed location in Russia, the country to which he fled in 2013. He refuses to return to the US where he is wanted on three charges (two counts of espionage, and one of theft of government property). While thumb-twiddles under assumed names in bleak hotels, the world continues to reel in the aftershocks of his revelations. Was Snowden justified in his actions? Come to think of it: would you have helped him? It's a question with which James Long, a British graduate in theoretical physics, thinks everybody should be reckoning. His forthcoming game, Top Secret, casts you as an employee of the NSA at the precise moment at which Snowden began to leak government documents. You are tasked with following the intelligence all the way to the source, finding out who knows what and, most pressingly, deciding whether to help or hinder the whistleblower. The game blurs the line between fiction and documentary. While some of your surveillance targets are made-up, many are living journalists such as Glenn Greenwald, Barton Gellman and Laura Poitras, all of who were involved in the scandal. Like 2015's sudden hit, Her Story, a game that asks its player to piece together the narrative from a thousand scattered fragments, Top Secret is a disjointed, non-linear journey that is unique to each individual. Unlike Her Story, which simulated an anachronistic PC desktop to frame the game, Top Secret is played out entirely in your actual email programme. To begin playing, you simply send an email to another member of your NSA team, perhaps listing the name, email address and phone number of a suspect whose files you wish to check. When the reply arrives in your inbox, you analyse the intelligence and, from the clues therein, choose your next target.
The game that puts you in search of history's most notorious whistleblower.
Was Edward Snowden morally justified in leaking secret documents that revealed, with the help of phone and internet companies, the British and US governments had spied on its citizens without their knowledge or consent? It is a question yet to be legally resolved. Snowden remains holed up in an undisclosed location in Russia, the country to which he fled in 2013. He refuses to return to the US where he is wanted on three charges (two counts of espionage, and one of theft of government property). While thumb-twiddles under assumed names in bleak hotels, the world continues to reel in the aftershocks of his revelations. Was Snowden justified in his actions? Come to think of it: would you have helped him?
It's a question with which James Long, a British graduate in theoretical physics, thinks everybody should be reckoning. His forthcoming game, Top Secret, casts you as an employee of the NSA at the precise moment at which Snowden began to leak government documents. You are tasked with following the intelligence all the way to the source, finding out who knows what and, most pressingly, deciding whether to help or hinder the whistleblower. The game blurs the line between fiction and documentary. While some of your surveillance targets are made-up, many are living journalists such as Glenn Greenwald, Barton Gellman and Laura Poitras, all of who were involved in the scandal.
Like 2015's sudden hit, Her Story, a game that asks its player to piece together the narrative from a thousand scattered fragments, Top Secret is a disjointed, non-linear journey that is unique to each individual. Unlike Her Story, which simulated an anachronistic PC desktop to frame the game, Top Secret is played out entirely in your actual email programme. To begin playing, you simply send an email to another member of your NSA team, perhaps listing the name, email address and phone number of a suspect whose files you wish to check. When the reply arrives in your inbox, you analyse the intelligence and, from the clues therein, choose your next target.
Read more @ http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-01-10-where-in-the-world-is-edward-snowden
The world is eagerly watching the electronic gadgets announced at CES 2016 being held at Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. And found among top celebrities who were vying for attention was serial whistle blower and ex-NSA contractor, Edward Snowden. The former National Security Agency contractor, famous for leaking top secret documents pertaining to NSA’s snooping and surveillance programs, made a virtual appearance at the Suitable Technologies booth here. Snowden was in Las Vegas virtually through Suitable’s Beam, a roaming screen on wheels used for remote commuting and virtual meetings. Snowden was in high praise for the virtual screen and said that Beam can be used to subvert government snooping and surveillance. “This is the power of Beam, or more broadly the power of technology,” he said in an onstage interview with Peter Diamandis, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur. “The FBI can’t arrest a robot.” Snowden’s lawyer, Ben Wizner with the American Civil Liberties Union, said in an email that his client wasn’t compensated for the event, which Suitable confirmed. “But he has benefited from the technology,” Wizner said. Snowden seemed to be happy with the gadgets showcased at CES this year. He stated that he was happy to see companies take privacy and security into account while making gadgets. “They don’t really think of the security of these things very much,” he said.
The world is eagerly watching the electronic gadgets announced at CES 2016 being held at Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. And found among top celebrities who were vying for attention was serial whistle blower and ex-NSA contractor, Edward Snowden.
The former National Security Agency contractor, famous for leaking top secret documents pertaining to NSA’s snooping and surveillance programs, made a virtual appearance at the Suitable Technologies booth here.
Snowden was in Las Vegas virtually through Suitable’s Beam, a roaming screen on wheels used for remote commuting and virtual meetings.
Snowden was in high praise for the virtual screen and said that Beam can be used to subvert government snooping and surveillance.
“This is the power of Beam, or more broadly the power of technology,” he said in an onstage interview with Peter Diamandis, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur. “The FBI can’t arrest a robot.”
Snowden’s lawyer, Ben Wizner with the American Civil Liberties Union, said in an email that his client wasn’t compensated for the event, which Suitable confirmed. “But he has benefited from the technology,” Wizner said.
Snowden seemed to be happy with the gadgets showcased at CES this year. He stated that he was happy to see companies take privacy and security into account while making gadgets. “They don’t really think of the security of these things very much,” he said.
Read more @ http://www.techworm.net/2016/01/snowden-wows-ces-2016-crowd-disguised-robot.html
Read more @ http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/07/slug-edward-snowden-ces-future-robot-suitable-technology-beam
Facebook, Mircrosoft and Google….. oh comeon…. Pull the other leg. They are in league with the spies.
Silicon Valley’s biggest technology firms have criticised a new surveillance law that the UK government is currently considering. The Investigatory Powers Bill (IP Bill) — introduced by Home Secretary Theresa May last November — has several major issues, according to Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, and Yahoo. The group presented their views to the Investigatory Powers Bill Joint Committee on December 21, arguing for significant modifications. The five tech firms want to protect their users’ privacy and are therefore reluctant to sign up to a number of proposals in the 299-page bill, including bulk surveillance, weaker encryption, and measures that could force them to hack their own customers. The UK government argues that the proposals are necessary to ensure the nation’s security agencies can effectively track and identify terrorists, paedophiles and other serious criminals. Last year, May said the bill will “provide some of the strongest protections and safeguards anywhere in the democratic world and an approach that sets new standards for openness, transparency and oversight.” “Far reaching implications” But the Silicon Valley group said it is concerned that any surveillance laws introduced in the UK would undermine the trust between themselves and their customers. “The actions the UK Government takes here could have far reaching implications — for our customers, for your own citizens, and for the future of the global technology industry,” the group wrote in what can be described as a rare sign of allegiance. Apple, the world’s largest technology company, released its own thoughts on the bill last month, accusing those behind it of undermining consumer trust and risking “serious international conflicts”.
Silicon Valley’s biggest technology firms have criticised a new surveillance law that the UK government is currently considering.
The Investigatory Powers Bill (IP Bill) — introduced by Home Secretary Theresa May last November — has several major issues, according to Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, and Yahoo.
The group presented their views to the Investigatory Powers Bill Joint Committee on December 21, arguing for significant modifications.
The five tech firms want to protect their users’ privacy and are therefore reluctant to sign up to a number of proposals in the 299-page bill, including bulk surveillance, weaker encryption, and measures that could force them to hack their own customers.
The UK government argues that the proposals are necessary to ensure the nation’s security agencies can effectively track and identify terrorists, paedophiles and other serious criminals. Last year, May said the bill will “provide some of the strongest protections and safeguards anywhere in the democratic world and an approach that sets new standards for openness, transparency and oversight.”
But the Silicon Valley group said it is concerned that any surveillance laws introduced in the UK would undermine the trust between themselves and their customers.
“The actions the UK Government takes here could have far reaching implications — for our customers, for your own citizens, and for the future of the global technology industry,” the group wrote in what can be described as a rare sign of allegiance.
Apple, the world’s largest technology company, released its own thoughts on the bill last month, accusing those behind it of undermining consumer trust and risking “serious international conflicts”.
Read more @ http://www.businessinsider.com.au/facebook-google-and-microsoft-criticise-ip-bill-2016-1
‘The intention behind the proposed reform is to allow law enforcement agencies to continue investigating crime in light of new technologies… ‘The loss of this capability would be a major blow to our law enforcement agencies and to Australia’s national security.’ Nicola Roxton, Former member of The House of Representatives (2012) This was the foundation for Australia’s metadata retention laws. An idea that the Gillard government created and that the Turnbull government has passed to become law. This means it is now 100% legal for the Australian government to have access to your metadata. This is information your service provider must keep for at least two years. And it includes; Any subscriber details for services including names, addresses, contact details and payment informationThe source and destination of communicationsThe date, time and duration of a communicationThe type of communication or service used — SMS, voice, email, chat, ADSL, WiFi, VoIP, etc.The location of equipment used in connection with a communicationMy point today isn’t to about whether or not this is right. Clearly I think the data retention scheme is wrong. It’s a gross invasion of privacy. And if anything else it’s the government saying, ‘guilty until proven innocent’. The issue at stake here is how useful is this metadata? The government will have you believe one thing. But thanks to a US whistleblower perhaps metadata isn’t useful at all. In fact it might even lead to wrongful death.
‘The intention behind the proposed reform is to allow law enforcement agencies to continue investigating crime in light of new technologies…
‘The loss of this capability would be a major blow to our law enforcement agencies and to Australia’s national security.’
Nicola Roxton, Former member of The House of Representatives (2012)
This was the foundation for Australia’s metadata retention laws. An idea that the Gillard government created and that the Turnbull government has passed to become law.
This means it is now 100% legal for the Australian government to have access to your metadata. This is information your service provider must keep for at least two years. And it includes;
My point today isn’t to about whether or not this is right. Clearly I think the data retention scheme is wrong. It’s a gross invasion of privacy. And if anything else it’s the government saying, ‘guilty until proven innocent’.
The issue at stake here is how useful is this metadata?
The government will have you believe one thing. But thanks to a US whistleblower perhaps metadata isn’t useful at all. In fact it might even lead to wrongful death.
Read more @ http://www.dailyreckoning.com.au/could-your-metadata-get-you-killed-it-has-for-some/2016/01/02/
Austrian student Max Schrems walked out of the courtroom in Luxembourg with a large smile on his face. In his first appearance before Europe’s top judges in late March, the privacy campaigner had scored another victory. Judges backed his argument that a 15-year-old data sharing and transfer pact with the United States had been compromised. It was the first big crack in the so-called Safe Harbour agreement and a major blow to the social network giant Facebook. A few months later in October, the same judges delivered a stunning verdict and invalidated the agreement for violating fundamental privacy rights. Big companies like Apple and Google, along with some 4,000 other US firms, had relied on Safe Harbour to transfer and process the personal data of EU nationals. Now they had to look elsewhere. “This is not bashing the US case, this is a mass surveillance issue", Schrems told EUobserver after the final verdict.
Austrian student Max Schrems walked out of the courtroom in Luxembourg with a large smile on his face.
In his first appearance before Europe’s top judges in late March, the privacy campaigner had scored another victory.
Judges backed his argument that a 15-year-old data sharing and transfer pact with the United States had been compromised. It was the first big crack in the so-called Safe Harbour agreement and a major blow to the social network giant Facebook.
A few months later in October, the same judges delivered a stunning verdict and invalidated the agreement for violating fundamental privacy rights.
Big companies like Apple and Google, along with some 4,000 other US firms, had relied on Safe Harbour to transfer and process the personal data of EU nationals. Now they had to look elsewhere.
“This is not bashing the US case, this is a mass surveillance issue", Schrems told EUobserver after the final verdict.
Read more @ https://euobserver.com/review-2015/131163
Recent court decisions, and legislation, will most likely affect everyone handling data In the first week of January this year, I began the new year with a prediction. “Privacy will be a big issue in 2015. In Ireland as well as internationally, three big ‘Ps’ are aligning around the topic, building on developments in 2014: politics, policy and populism.” As we say farewell to 2015, I would add a fourth P: plus ça change. Privacy has been a looming issue for years now, if less publicly noticeable in the past, and isn’t about to go away. We are all digital pioneers, grappling with what it means to have our personal information accessible, transferable, analysable and storable in unprecedented ways, following several decades of silicon-driven technological developments, and especially, the growth of the internet. And yes, digital privacy became a truly dominant international concern this year, whether you wanted it better protected, wanted less regulation and greater access to data, or faced angry customers. That was thanks to another year of high-profile data breaches (as with the Ashley Madison website), major international court decisions (such as the Schrems case in the European Court of Justice), legislative moves (with the final draft release and start of voting on the long-awaited EU Data Protection Regulation), policy debates (for example, the UK and US mulling over whether to hobble business and public use of strong encryption), and the manipulation of fear (especially following the end-of-year terrorist attacks in Paris and other cities).
That was thanks to another year of high-profile data breaches (as with the Ashley Madison website), major international court decisions (such as the Schrems case in the European Court of Justice), legislative moves (with the final draft release and start of voting on the long-awaited EU Data Protection Regulation), policy debates (for example, the UK and US mulling over whether to hobble business and public use of strong encryption), and the manipulation of fear (especially following the end-of-year terrorist attacks in Paris and other cities).
NEW DELHI: As the new year approaches, there will be some extraordinary shifts in how people watch their favorite TV programs, how they surf the Internet and how our daily gadgets will become more interconnected. While our lives are becoming easier, the new technology shift requires an increasing sensitivity towards online security. NordVPN, a VPN service provider, predicts some of the major shifts and trends in digital and online security world in 2016: Streaming over downloading. There will be more streaming options in 2016 and better access to content compared to downloading options that are becoming less popular. Streaming is becoming border-free as well, as there are new ways to overcome geographical restrictions. SmartPlay, for example, is NordVPN¹s new secure technology that helps overcome geo-based restrictions used by certain streaming websites, such as Netflix, Pandora, BBC iPlayer and others. SmartPlay simply re-routes user¹s requests through a server located at a place where access to such blocked websites is allowed. This makes the restricted websites think that the user is physically located in such place, thereby granting access to its content. Rise of VPNs (Virtual Private Networks). In 2016, more Internet consumers than ever will be demanding online privacy as ISPs, Telcos and ad companies are inventing more sophisticated ways to track user behavior online, and governments of various countries have passed mass surveillance laws (CISA in the U.S., Data Retention law in Australia or government surveillance in Germany). After Australian Data Retention law passed in May of 2015, the use of VPNs grew by up to 500%. Similar numbers are expected for the U.S. in 2016 after CISA was signed into law in December of 2015 by the U.S. President. NordVPN (www.nordvpn.com) is one of the world¹s most advanced VPN service providers that does not keep customer logs. The rise of private online networks. Tor is currently the most popular alternative to Google, Yahoo and other major search engines that keeps browsing information private and confidential, making it preferred tool for those looking to stay private online (journalists, dissidents, everyday Internet users). Swiss and British researchers are developing HORNET, a new generation private high-speed network that could be deployed on routers as part of the Internet. MIT is also working on a Tor alternative.
NEW DELHI: As the new year approaches, there will be some extraordinary shifts in how people watch their favorite TV programs, how they surf the Internet and how our daily gadgets will become more interconnected. While our lives are becoming easier, the new technology shift requires an increasing sensitivity towards online security.
NordVPN, a VPN service provider, predicts some of the major shifts and trends in digital and online security world in 2016:
Streaming over downloading. There will be more streaming options in 2016 and better access to content compared to downloading options that are becoming less popular. Streaming is becoming border-free as well, as there are new ways to overcome geographical restrictions. SmartPlay, for example, is NordVPN¹s new secure technology that helps overcome geo-based restrictions used by certain streaming websites, such as Netflix, Pandora, BBC iPlayer and others. SmartPlay simply re-routes user¹s requests through a server located at a place where access to such blocked websites is allowed. This makes the restricted websites think that the user is physically located in such place, thereby granting access to its content.
Rise of VPNs (Virtual Private Networks). In 2016, more Internet consumers than ever will be demanding online privacy as ISPs, Telcos and ad companies are inventing more sophisticated ways to track user behavior online, and governments of various countries have passed mass surveillance laws (CISA in the U.S., Data Retention law in Australia or government surveillance in Germany). After Australian Data Retention law passed in May of 2015, the use of VPNs grew by up to 500%. Similar numbers are expected for the U.S. in 2016 after CISA was signed into law in December of 2015 by the U.S. President. NordVPN (www.nordvpn.com) is one of the world¹s most advanced VPN service providers that does not keep customer logs.
The rise of private online networks. Tor is currently the most popular alternative to Google, Yahoo and other major search engines that keeps browsing information private and confidential, making it preferred tool for those looking to stay private online (journalists, dissidents, everyday Internet users). Swiss and British researchers are developing HORNET, a new generation private high-speed network that could be deployed on routers as part of the Internet. MIT is also working on a Tor alternative.
Read more @ http://www.voicendata.com/rising-number-of-private-messenger-users-nordvpn/
Jan 13 16 8:24 PM
Top spy James Clapper apparently latest official to become hacking victimCalls allegedly set to be forwarded to Free Palestine MovementThe top US spy had his phone account hacked, his office confirmed Tuesday. James Clapper, the director of national intelligence (DNI), appears to have become the latest government official who had a personal account accessed by a hacker. In October, CIA director John Brennan said he was “outraged” after a still-anonymous hacker or hackers broke into his AOL email account and posted files online. “We are aware of the matter and have notified the appropriate authorities,” DNI spokesman Brian Hale said in a written statement. A group of self-described teenagers claimed credit for the Brennan incident. Motherboard, a tech site run by Vice Media, published Tuesday an account of the Clapper hack based on a source claiming to be linked to the Brennan hack.
The top US spy had his phone account hacked, his office confirmed Tuesday.
James Clapper, the director of national intelligence (DNI), appears to have become the latest government official who had a personal account accessed by a hacker. In October, CIA director John Brennan said he was “outraged” after a still-anonymous hacker or hackers broke into his AOL email account and posted files online.
“We are aware of the matter and have notified the appropriate authorities,” DNI spokesman Brian Hale said in a written statement. A group of self-described teenagers claimed credit for the Brennan incident. Motherboard, a tech site run by Vice Media, published Tuesday an account of the Clapper hack based on a source claiming to be linked to the Brennan hack.
Read more @ http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/12/james-clapper-director-national-intelligence-phone-hacking?CMP=edit_2221&utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link
Jan 19 16 12:03 PM
What an infamous abuse of power teaches us about the modern spy era. The FBI has a lead. A prominent religious leader and community advocate is in contact with a suspected sleeper agent of foreign radicals. The attorney general is briefed and personally approves wiretaps of his home and offices. The man was born in the United States, the son of a popular cleric. Even though he’s an American citizen, he’s placed on a watchlist to be summarily detained in the event of a national emergency. Of all similar suspects, the head of FBI domestic intelligence thinks he’s “the most dangerous,” at least “from the standpoint of … national security.” Is this a lone wolf in league with foreign sponsors of terrorism? No: This was the life of Martin Luther King Jr. That FBI assessment was dated Aug. 30, 1963—two days after King told our country that he had a dream. We now find ourselves in a new surveillance debate—and the lessons of the King scandal should weigh heavy on our minds. A few months after the first Edward Snowden revelation, the National Security Agency disclosed that it had itself wiretapped King in the late 1960s. Yet what happened to King is almost entirely absent from our current conversation. In NSA reform debates in the House of Representatives, King was mentioned only a handful of times, usually in passing. And notwithstanding a few brave speeches by senators such as Patrick Leahy and Rand Paul outside of the Senate, the available Senate record suggests that in two years of actual hearings and floor debates, no one ever spoke his name. There is a myth in this country that in a world where everyone is watched, everyone is watched equally. It’s as if an old and racist J. Edgar Hoover has been replaced by the race-blind magic of computers, mathematicians, and Big Data. The truth is more uncomfortable. Across our history and to this day, people of color have been the disproportionate victims of unjust surveillance; Hoover was no aberration. And while racism has played its ugly part, the justification for this monitoring was the same we hear today: national security. The FBI’s violations against King were undeniably tinged by what historian David Garrow has called “an organizational culture of like-minded white men.” But as Garrow and others have shown, the FBI’s initial wiretap requests—and then–Attorney General Robert Kennedy’s approval of them—were driven by a suspected tie between King and the Communist Party. It wasn’t just King; Cesar Chavez, the labor and civil rights leader, was tracked for years as a result of vague, confidential tips about “a communist background,” as were many others.
The FBI has a lead. A prominent religious leader and community advocate is in contact with a suspected sleeper agent of foreign radicals. The attorney general is briefed and personally approves wiretaps of his home and offices. The man was born in the United States, the son of a popular cleric. Even though he’s an American citizen, he’s placed on a watchlist to be summarily detained in the event of a national emergency. Of all similar suspects, the head of FBI domestic intelligence thinks he’s “the most dangerous,” at least “from the standpoint of … national security.”
Is this a lone wolf in league with foreign sponsors of terrorism? No: This was the life of Martin Luther King Jr. That FBI assessment was dated Aug. 30, 1963—two days after King told our country that he had a dream.
We now find ourselves in a new surveillance debate—and the lessons of the King scandal should weigh heavy on our minds. A few months after the first Edward Snowden revelation, the National Security Agency disclosed that it had itself wiretapped King in the late 1960s. Yet what happened to King is almost entirely absent from our current conversation. In NSA reform debates in the House of Representatives, King was mentioned only a handful of times, usually in passing. And notwithstanding a few brave speeches by senators such as Patrick Leahy and Rand Paul outside of the Senate, the available Senate record suggests that in two years of actual hearings and floor debates, no one ever spoke his name.
There is a myth in this country that in a world where everyone is watched, everyone is watched equally. It’s as if an old and racist J. Edgar Hoover has been replaced by the race-blind magic of computers, mathematicians, and Big Data. The truth is more uncomfortable. Across our history and to this day, people of color have been the disproportionate victims of unjust surveillance; Hoover was no aberration. And while racism has played its ugly part, the justification for this monitoring was the same we hear today: national security.
The FBI’s violations against King were undeniably tinged by what historian David Garrow has called “an organizational culture of like-minded white men.” But as Garrow and others have shown, the FBI’s initial wiretap requests—and then–Attorney General Robert Kennedy’s approval of them—were driven by a suspected tie between King and the Communist Party. It wasn’t just King; Cesar Chavez, the labor and civil rights leader, was tracked for years as a result of vague, confidential tips about “a communist background,” as were many others.
Read more @ http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2016/01/what_the_fbi_s_surveillance_of_martin_luther_king_says_about_modern_spying.html
America’s hangover from hope: A look back at the historical state of the Obama presidency
Excerpt:
One cannot help but think of the optimism that Obama’s election brought seven years ago, and the many letdowns that have come since. As Obama discussed last week the various problems that also have helped Senator Sanders become a major force in the Democratic primaries, it was hard not to feel disappointed that, after seven years, economic inequality has steadily risen, the big banks have grown only bigger, hardly any villains of the financial crisis have been prosecuted, political spending has gotten more out of control, mass surveillance has become even more omnipresent, and the Obama administration has virtually waged a war on whistleblowers like Edward Snowden. As Sasha Abramsky writes in The Nation: “Obama was elected in the wake of a catastrophic housing market and broader financial collapse. He spoke of big and bold reforms, and voters presented him with a once-in-a-generation opportunity to enact systemic change. He could, and should, have broken up the big banks. At a time when there was double-digit unemployment, he could, and should, have used his podium to push a Democrat-controlled Congress to enact public-works programs on a scale far larger than that envisioned by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. He could, and should, have used the moment for healthcare reform to argue the case for a single-payer system.” After almost two terms, there are many things that Obama could and should have done, but did not. Contrary to what many right-wingers still (incredibly) believe, Obama was never a leftist or socialist or even democratic socialist, and since entering office in 2009, he has governed like a centrist, preserving the status quo and keeping special interests relatively happy. (Many forget that some of Obama’s biggest contributors were Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, JP Morgan & Chase and Citigroup.) True, following two years of having majority control of both the Senate and House at the beginning of his term, Republicans have made governing increasingly difficult, and Obama would have no doubt accomplished more had he had support from Congress. But there is little reason to think that his administration would have been overwhelmingly progressive.
One cannot help but think of the optimism that Obama’s election brought seven years ago, and the many letdowns that have come since. As Obama discussed last week the various problems that also have helped Senator Sanders become a major force in the Democratic primaries, it was hard not to feel disappointed that, after seven years, economic inequality has steadily risen, the big banks have grown only bigger, hardly any villains of the financial crisis have been prosecuted, political spending has gotten more out of control, mass surveillance has become even more omnipresent, and the Obama administration has virtually waged a war on whistleblowers like Edward Snowden. As Sasha Abramsky writes in The Nation:
“Obama was elected in the wake of a catastrophic housing market and broader financial collapse. He spoke of big and bold reforms, and voters presented him with a once-in-a-generation opportunity to enact systemic change. He could, and should, have broken up the big banks. At a time when there was double-digit unemployment, he could, and should, have used his podium to push a Democrat-controlled Congress to enact public-works programs on a scale far larger than that envisioned by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. He could, and should, have used the moment for healthcare reform to argue the case for a single-payer system.”
After almost two terms, there are many things that Obama could and should have done, but did not. Contrary to what many right-wingers still (incredibly) believe, Obama was never a leftist or socialist or even democratic socialist, and since entering office in 2009, he has governed like a centrist, preserving the status quo and keeping special interests relatively happy. (Many forget that some of Obama’s biggest contributors were Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, JP Morgan & Chase and Citigroup.) True, following two years of having majority control of both the Senate and House at the beginning of his term, Republicans have made governing increasingly difficult, and Obama would have no doubt accomplished more had he had support from Congress. But there is little reason to think that his administration would have been overwhelmingly progressive.
Read more @ http://www.salon.com/2016/01/18/americas_hangover_from_hope_a_look_back_at_the_historical_state_of_the_obama_presidency/
Has Cruz been got at?
Texas senator Ted Cruz now says Edward Snowden is a "traitor" who should be "tried for treason." Cruz told the New York Times in a statement his current view on the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked the details of a classified surveillance program. " It is now clear that Snowden is a traitor, and he should be tried for treason," he said, according to the Times. That's a shift from Cruz's position in 2013 after Snowden went public about the NSA's program. Asked in June 2013 if Snowden was a traitor or a patriot, Cruz declined to answer: "I don't know if what Mr. Snowden has said is true or false," Cruz said during an event hosted by TheBlaze in Washington. "We need to determine that. We need to determine what his motives were, whether he was telling the truth." He continued, "If it is the case that the federal government is seizing millions of personal records about law-abiding citizens, and if it is the case that there are minimal restrictions on accessing or reviewing those records, then I think Mr. Snowden has done a considerable public service by bringing it to light."... "If Mr. Snowden has violated the laws of this country, there are consequences to violating laws and that is something he has publicly stated he understands and I think the law needs to be enforced," Cruz said. Cruz also urged caution and against a "rush to judgment" on Snowden and the NSA program while speaking on Fox News in 2013.
Texas senator Ted Cruz now says Edward Snowden is a "traitor" who should be "tried for treason." Cruz told the New York Times in a statement his current view on the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked the details of a classified surveillance program.
" It is now clear that Snowden is a traitor, and he should be tried for treason," he said, according to the Times.
That's a shift from Cruz's position in 2013 after Snowden went public about the NSA's program. Asked in June 2013 if Snowden was a traitor or a patriot, Cruz declined to answer:
"I don't know if what Mr. Snowden has said is true or false," Cruz said during an event hosted by TheBlaze in Washington. "We need to determine that. We need to determine what his motives were, whether he was telling the truth." He continued, "If it is the case that the federal government is seizing millions of personal records about law-abiding citizens, and if it is the case that there are minimal restrictions on accessing or reviewing those records, then I think Mr. Snowden has done a considerable public service by bringing it to light."... "If Mr. Snowden has violated the laws of this country, there are consequences to violating laws and that is something he has publicly stated he understands and I think the law needs to be enforced," Cruz said.
Cruz also urged caution and against a "rush to judgment" on Snowden and the NSA program while speaking on Fox News in 2013.
Read more @ http://www.weeklystandard.com/cruz-shifts-on-snowden-now-clear-hes-a-traitor/article/2000568
The audit is one of a series ordered in a classified annex to the 2016 Intelligence Authorization Act. The Pentagon inspector general will audit a series of network and personnel security measures put into place by the National Security Agency following the mega-leak of top-secret documents by contractor Edward Snowden, according to an announcement Monday. “Our objective is to determine whether initiatives implemented by the National Security Agency are effective to improve security over its systems, data, and personnel activities,” the inspector general’s office says in a memo. The audit will zero in on measures put in place to prevent the kind of abuse of system administrator privileges that allowed Snowden in 2013 to scrape hundreds of thousands of the NSA’s most secret documents from its servers and smuggle them out of the Hawaii facility where he worked on a thumb drive. “Specifically,” the memo continues, “we will determine whether National Security Agency processes and technical controls are effective to limit privileged access to National Security Agency systems and data and to monitor privileged user actions for unauthorized or inappropriate activity.” The memo states that the classified annex accompanying the 2016 Intelligence Authorization Act “contained a Department of Defense Inspector General classified reporting requirement,” and adds that “[t]his audit is the first in a series.”
The audit is one of a series ordered in a classified annex to the 2016 Intelligence Authorization Act.
The Pentagon inspector general will audit a series of network and personnel security measures put into place by the National Security Agency following the mega-leak of top-secret documents by contractor Edward Snowden, according to an announcement Monday.
“Our objective is to determine whether initiatives implemented by the National Security Agency are effective to improve security over its systems, data, and personnel activities,” the inspector general’s office says in a memo.
The audit will zero in on measures put in place to prevent the kind of abuse of system administrator privileges that allowed Snowden in 2013 to scrape hundreds of thousands of the NSA’s most secret documents from its servers and smuggle them out of the Hawaii facility where he worked on a thumb drive.
“Specifically,” the memo continues, “we will determine whether National Security Agency processes and technical controls are effective to limit privileged access to National Security Agency systems and data and to monitor privileged user actions for unauthorized or inappropriate activity.”
The memo states that the classified annex accompanying the 2016 Intelligence Authorization Act “contained a Department of Defense Inspector General classified reporting requirement,” and adds that “[t]his audit is the first in a series.”
Read more @ http://fedscoop.com/defense-ig-to-audit-nsas-post-snowden-security-measures-1
President Vladimir Putin said giving refuge to Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad would be much easier than it was for Russia to grant asylum to former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, though he dismissed the idea as “premature” in an interview with German newspaper Bild. If presidential elections in Syria are held democratically under a United Nations-sponsored peace plan, “then Assad will probably not need to leave the country at all,” Putin told Bild, according to a transcript of the interview provided by the Kremlin. “And it is not important whether he stays as president or not.”
President Vladimir Putin said giving refuge to Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad would be much easier than it was for Russia to grant asylum to former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, though he dismissed the idea as “premature” in an interview with German newspaper Bild.
If presidential elections in Syria are held democratically under a United Nations-sponsored peace plan, “then Assad will probably not need to leave the country at all,” Putin told Bild, according to a transcript of the interview provided by the Kremlin. “And it is not important whether he stays as president or not.”
Read more @ http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-12/putin-says-sheltering-assad-would-be-easier-than-snowden-asylum
Finally, someone asked about the central question of immigration policy: How many? Here's what Maria Bartiromo asked of Rubio in Thursday night's Republican presidential debate in South Carolina: Under current law, the U.S. is on track to issue more new permanent immigrants on green cards over the next five years than the entire population of South Carolina. The CBO says your 2013 immigration bill would have increased green cardholders by another 10 million over 10 years. Why are you so interested in opening up borders to foreigners when American workers have a hard enough time finding work? Unfortunately, Rubio dodged and weaved and brought up every other issue he could think of rather than answer. And he got away with it. First, he suggested terrorist penetration of our immigration system wasn't a problem in 2013, when he served as the public face of Chuck Schumer's amnesty/immigration-surge bill: The issue is a dramatically different issue than it was 24 months ago. Twenty-four months ago, 36 months ago, you did not have a group of radical crazies named ISIS who were burning people in cages and recruiting people to enter our country legally. They have a sophisticated understanding of our legal immigration system and we now have an obligation to ensure that they are not able to use that system against us. Okay, but 24 months ago we had a group of radical crazies named al Qaeda who had a sophisticated understanding of our legal immigration system. My CIS colleague Steve Camarota published a report 164 months ago detailing "How Militant Islamic Terrorists Entered and Remained in the United States, 1993-2001". Spoiler alert: Most of them used our legal immigration system. And freelance immigrant terrorists existed way back in 2013 too. In fact, Rubio and Schumer introduced their bill just two days after the Boston Marathon bombing; regarding immigration and terrorism, Rubio said at the time, "We should really be very cautious about using language that links these two things in any way." He also tweeted: #BostonBombing not excuse 4 inaction on #immigrationreform.But disagree with Sen.Leahy,if it exposed flaws in system we need to know & fix. — Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) April 22, 2013 In the debate, Rubio followed this bogus diversion by making the legitimate point that Cruz had also backed increases in immigration (a position Cruz has renounced more recently). That should have led to a discussion of numbers but instead, Rubio proceeded to, as Cruz put it, dump his opposition research folder on the debate stage, talking about Cruz's views on crop insurance and Edward Snowden. There's a reason he launched this attack then, and not during their earlier discussions over, say, tax policy – Rubio knows he’s extraordinarily vulnerable on the immigration issue, especially on his continuing desire to double legal immigration (and triple H-1B visas), and he'll do or say anything to avoid discussing it.
Finally, someone asked about the central question of immigration policy: How many? Here's what Maria Bartiromo asked of Rubio in Thursday night's Republican presidential debate in South Carolina:
Under current law, the U.S. is on track to issue more new permanent immigrants on green cards over the next five years than the entire population of South Carolina. The CBO says your 2013 immigration bill would have increased green cardholders by another 10 million over 10 years.
Why are you so interested in opening up borders to foreigners when American workers have a hard enough time finding work?
Unfortunately, Rubio dodged and weaved and brought up every other issue he could think of rather than answer. And he got away with it.
First, he suggested terrorist penetration of our immigration system wasn't a problem in 2013, when he served as the public face of Chuck Schumer's amnesty/immigration-surge bill:
The issue is a dramatically different issue than it was 24 months ago. Twenty-four months ago, 36 months ago, you did not have a group of radical crazies named ISIS who were burning people in cages and recruiting people to enter our country legally. They have a sophisticated understanding of our legal immigration system and we now have an obligation to ensure that they are not able to use that system against us.
Okay, but 24 months ago we had a group of radical crazies named al Qaeda who had a sophisticated understanding of our legal immigration system. My CIS colleague Steve Camarota published a report 164 months ago detailing "How Militant Islamic Terrorists Entered and Remained in the United States, 1993-2001". Spoiler alert: Most of them used our legal immigration system.
And freelance immigrant terrorists existed way back in 2013 too. In fact, Rubio and Schumer introduced their bill just two days after the Boston Marathon bombing; regarding immigration and terrorism, Rubio said at the time, "We should really be very cautious about using language that links these two things in any way." He also tweeted:
#BostonBombing not excuse 4 inaction on #immigrationreform.But disagree with Sen.Leahy,if it exposed flaws in system we need to know & fix.
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) April 22, 2013
In the debate, Rubio followed this bogus diversion by making the legitimate point that Cruz had also backed increases in immigration (a position Cruz has renounced more recently). That should have led to a discussion of numbers but instead, Rubio proceeded to, as Cruz put it, dump his opposition research folder on the debate stage, talking about Cruz's views on crop insurance and Edward Snowden. There's a reason he launched this attack then, and not during their earlier discussions over, say, tax policy – Rubio knows he’s extraordinarily vulnerable on the immigration issue, especially on his continuing desire to double legal immigration (and triple H-1B visas), and he'll do or say anything to avoid discussing it.
Read more @ http://www.cis.org/krikorian/moderator-why-increase-immigration-rubio-look-edward-snowden-crop-insurance
Bush declared during GOP debate that Obama administration ‘failed us completely’ on security as Rubio and Cruz traded barbs on Edward Snowden Cruz says Trump would be disqualified under citizenship logicCruz says next government ‘could confiscate your guns’Jeb Bush has openly declared his support for putting the National Security Agency (NSA) in charge of civilian data, corporate cybersecurity and the internet, in what would amount to a major expansion of the national intelligence apparatus. In the Republican presidential debate hosted by Fox Business Network in North Charleston, South Carolina, on Thursday, the candidates debated surveillance as part of a wider focus on national security. After declaring that the Obama administration “failed us completely” in regards to cybersecurity, Bush said: “We need to put the NSA in charge of the civilian side of this, and we need more cooperation. You have to keep asking to decrypt messages.” On a subject that raised passions among the seven men on stage and the audience watching, Marco Rubio of Florida attacked another serving senator, Ted Cruz. Rubio said: “I never believed Edward Snowden was a good public servant the way that Ted Cruz once said that he had done a public service for America.” Attacking the Texan for voting for the USA Freedom Act to rein in government surveillance, Rubio charged Cruz with praising Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who in 2013 leaked documents on NSA surveillance to media outlets, including the Guardian.
Bush declared during GOP debate that Obama administration ‘failed us completely’ on security as Rubio and Cruz traded barbs on Edward Snowden
Jeb Bush has openly declared his support for putting the National Security Agency (NSA) in charge of civilian data, corporate cybersecurity and the internet, in what would amount to a major expansion of the national intelligence apparatus.
In the Republican presidential debate hosted by Fox Business Network in North Charleston, South Carolina, on Thursday, the candidates debated surveillance as part of a wider focus on national security.
After declaring that the Obama administration “failed us completely” in regards to cybersecurity, Bush said: “We need to put the NSA in charge of the civilian side of this, and we need more cooperation. You have to keep asking to decrypt messages.”
On a subject that raised passions among the seven men on stage and the audience watching, Marco Rubio of Florida attacked another serving senator, Ted Cruz.
Rubio said: “I never believed Edward Snowden was a good public servant the way that Ted Cruz once said that he had done a public service for America.”
Attacking the Texan for voting for the USA Freedom Act to rein in government surveillance, Rubio charged Cruz with praising Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who in 2013 leaked documents on NSA surveillance to media outlets, including the Guardian.
Read more @ http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/14/republican-debate-jeb-bush-nsa-cybersecurity-edward-snowden
Ted Cruz 2013: “…I think Mr. Snowden has done a considerable public service…” 2016: “…Snowden is a traitor…” https://t.co/4lZyL8bZSs — The Weekly Standard (@weeklystandard) January 14, 2016 At first glance, the above quotes appear to be a clear case of Ted Cruz vs. Ted Cruz on Snowden. It’s likely that Marco Rubio will bring up his flip flop at the GOP debate tonight. And I have little doubt Cruz, like all candidates running for the presidency, are capable and willing to shift positions for expediency. It’s plausible that Cruz was offering conservative voters what he believed they wanted to hear in each of these cases. You’ll recall that in 2013 there was still a lot of talk about a Republican shift towards libertarianism. But, technically speaking, one can believe both of those statements are true simultaneously. Cruz tells the New York Times that “it is now clear that Snowden is a traitor, and he should be tried for treason.” By adding “now,” Cruz gives himself the space needed to contend that evidence has changed his perspective on Snowden. In The Blaze interview from 2013, Cruz also left open the possibility with, “We need to determine…”
Ted Cruz 2013: “…I think Mr. Snowden has done a considerable public service…” 2016: “…Snowden is a traitor…” https://t.co/4lZyL8bZSs
— The Weekly Standard (@weeklystandard) January 14, 2016
At first glance, the above quotes appear to be a clear case of Ted Cruz vs. Ted Cruz on Snowden. It’s likely that Marco Rubio will bring up his flip flop at the GOP debate tonight. And I have little doubt Cruz, like all candidates running for the presidency, are capable and willing to shift positions for expediency.
It’s plausible that Cruz was offering conservative voters what he believed they wanted to hear in each of these cases. You’ll recall that in 2013 there was still a lot of talk about a Republican shift towards libertarianism.
But, technically speaking, one can believe both of those statements are true simultaneously.
Cruz tells the New York Times that “it is now clear that Snowden is a traitor, and he should be tried for treason.” By adding “now,” Cruz gives himself the space needed to contend that evidence has changed his perspective on Snowden. In The Blaze interview from 2013, Cruz also left open the possibility with, “We need to determine…”
Read more @ http://thefederalist.com/2016/01/14/why-ted-cruz-is-accidentally-right-about-edward-snowden/
You may recall the kerfuffle last year when a portrait bust of Edward Snowden was surreptitiously planted on a pedestal making up part of the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene Park. The stunt turned out to be the handiwork of a pair of artists, Jeff Greenspan and Andrew Tider, who had commissioned the bust from West Coast sculptor Doyle Trankina. Within hours of its installation, park workers covered the tribute to the NSA whistleblower with a blue tarp, and the NYPD confiscated it shortly thereafter. Greenspan and Tider were fined $50 dollars for the stunt, a nice price for a million dollars worth of free publicity.
Read more @ http://www.timeout.com/newyork/blog/infamous-edward-snowden-bust-heading-to-a-show-at-the-brooklyn-museum-011216
On the morning of April 6, 2015, visitors to Brooklyn’s Fort Greene Park spotted an unexpected update to a monument erected in 1908. Atop one of the pillars of the long-neglected memorial to Revolutionary War patriots appeared a monumental bust of Edward Snowden. The four-foot-tall sculpture was expertly wrought in a material that resembled antique bronze, but it didn’t last long. Shortly after dawn, police covered the bust with a tarp and took it to the local precinct, where it remained in custody until it was reclaimed by a couple local artists. (The NYPD fined them fifty dollars for being in the park after hours.) Jeff Greenspan (American, born 1970) and Andrew Tider (American, born 1979). Prison Ship Martyrs Monument 2.0, 2015. Galvanized steel, Hydrocal FGR 95, latex, enamel, oil paint, powdered gold, 48 x 24 x 34 in. base circumference 24 in. Fabricated by Doyle Trankina. Collection of the artists, New York. (Photo: Aymann Ismail) Next month the bust returns to Brooklyn under less furtive circumstances. The sculpture of Snowden – which was conceived by Jeff Greenspan and Andrew Tider and fabricated by Doyle Trankina – will be included in the second installment of a three-part exhibition of political art at the Brooklyn Art Museum. The show includes both historical and contemporary examples of what the curators describe as “art projects devoted to social change”. Works range from early-Soviet agitprop by Alexander Rodchenko to Tina Modotti’s ’30s photographs of laborers in Mexico to recent initiatives by Futurefarmers and the Yes Men. Within this broad range can be seen the diversity of political art, and also the challenge of grouping it as such: Political art has become so nebulous as a genre that preserving the category is becoming counterproductive.
On the morning of April 6, 2015, visitors to Brooklyn’s Fort Greene Park spotted an unexpected update to a monument erected in 1908. Atop one of the pillars of the long-neglected memorial to Revolutionary War patriots appeared a monumental bust of Edward Snowden.
The four-foot-tall sculpture was expertly wrought in a material that resembled antique bronze, but it didn’t last long. Shortly after dawn, police covered the bust with a tarp and took it to the local precinct, where it remained in custody until it was reclaimed by a couple local artists. (The NYPD fined them fifty dollars for being in the park after hours.)
Jeff Greenspan (American, born 1970) and Andrew Tider (American, born 1979). Prison Ship Martyrs Monument 2.0, 2015. Galvanized steel, Hydrocal FGR 95, latex, enamel, oil paint, powdered gold, 48 x 24 x 34 in. base circumference 24 in. Fabricated by Doyle Trankina. Collection of the artists, New York. (Photo: Aymann Ismail)
Next month the bust returns to Brooklyn under less furtive circumstances. The sculpture of Snowden – which was conceived by Jeff Greenspan and Andrew Tider and fabricated by Doyle Trankina – will be included in the second installment of a three-part exhibition of political art at the Brooklyn Art Museum.
The show includes both historical and contemporary examples of what the curators describe as “art projects devoted to social change”. Works range from early-Soviet agitprop by Alexander Rodchenko to Tina Modotti’s ’30s photographs of laborers in Mexico to recent initiatives by Futurefarmers and the Yes Men. Within this broad range can be seen the diversity of political art, and also the challenge of grouping it as such: Political art has become so nebulous as a genre that preserving the category is becoming counterproductive.
Read more @ http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathonkeats/2016/01/14/this-brooklyn-museum-exhibit-shows-ed-snowdens-artistic-side-and-the-perils-of-political-art/#4a5e1d3f51dcb1a0b1e51dcd
The whistleblower made a virtual appearance at Las Vegas tech convention through Suitable’s Beam, a screen-on-wheels robot with subversive potential There are lots of people pitching fancy gadgets at the Consumer Electronics Show this week here. Add to that list: Edward Snowden. The former National Security Agency contractor, famous for handing over western government secrets to the Guardian and other publications, made a virtual appearance at the Suitable Technologies booth here. This was possible because Snowden was speaking from Suitable’s Beam, a sort of roaming screen on wheels used for remote commuting and virtual meetings. But Beam isn’t just another piece of office technology, Snowden said. Rather, it can be used to subvert governments. “This is the power of Beam, or more broadly the power of technology,” he said in an onstage interview with Peter Diamandis, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur. “The FBI can’t arrest a robot.”
The whistleblower made a virtual appearance at Las Vegas tech convention through Suitable’s Beam, a screen-on-wheels robot with subversive potential
There are lots of people pitching fancy gadgets at the Consumer Electronics Show this week here. Add to that list: Edward Snowden.
The former National Security Agency contractor, famous for handing over western government secrets to the Guardian and other publications, made a virtual appearance at the Suitable Technologies booth here. This was possible because Snowden was speaking from Suitable’s Beam, a sort of roaming screen on wheels used for remote commuting and virtual meetings.
But Beam isn’t just another piece of office technology, Snowden said. Rather, it can be used to subvert governments.
Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden can’t come to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week because he would probably be arrested by the United States government for leaking thousands of classified documents to the press about the NSA’s various spying programs, but he did manage to make an appearance of sorts without actually being there. Snowden talked at the event this week via telepresence. Snowden appeared at the booth of Suitable Technologies Inc., maker of the Beam telepresence device, where he was interviewed by Peter Diamandis. Snowden spent a fair amount of time discussing technology and government spying, noting at one point in the interview that “Technology is both a tool for oppression and a tool for liberation.” Snowden also talked about the leaps in technology like virtual reality and other emerging technology that can help people do new and exciting things, but he spent a fair amount of time talking about how governments of the world continue to collect data on their citizens and how this can make people afraid to engage in free speech. He is concerned that innocent citizens will curb their public speech for fear that the government would someday use their words against them. “It can create a chilling effect,” Snowden said.
Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden can’t come to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week because he would probably be arrested by the United States government for leaking thousands of classified documents to the press about the NSA’s various spying programs, but he did manage to make an appearance of sorts without actually being there. Snowden talked at the event this week via telepresence. Snowden appeared at the booth of Suitable Technologies Inc., maker of the Beam telepresence device, where he was interviewed by Peter Diamandis.
Snowden spent a fair amount of time discussing technology and government spying, noting at one point in the interview that “Technology is both a tool for oppression and a tool for liberation.”
Snowden also talked about the leaps in technology like virtual reality and other emerging technology that can help people do new and exciting things, but he spent a fair amount of time talking about how governments of the world continue to collect data on their citizens and how this can make people afraid to engage in free speech.
He is concerned that innocent citizens will curb their public speech for fear that the government would someday use their words against them.
“It can create a chilling effect,” Snowden said.
Read more @ http://gamepolitics.com/2016/01/11/edward-snowden-makes-an-appearance-at-ces/
Nearly 200 experts, companies and civil society groups from more than 40 countries — including Electronic Frontiers Australia, the Australian Privacy Foundation and Australian Lawyers for Human Rights — are asking governments around the world to support strong encryption and reject proposals that would undermine the digital security it provides. "The internet belongs to the world's people, not its governments. We refuse to let this precious resource become nationalised and broken by any nation," Brett Solomon, executive director of Access Now, the online advocacy group that organised the open letter, said in a news release. The letter, released online in 10 languages at SecureTheInternet.org, marks an escalation of a debate over encryption — a process that scrambles data so that only those authorised can decode it. The fight has been brewing for more than a year, prominent in Australia and the United States but also spreading everywhere from the United Kingdom to China. Encryption is widely relied upon to keep e-commerce and many of the websites people use every day safe from the prying eyes of cybercriminals. But the spread of the strongest forms of encryption, those which companies themselves cannot unlock, into products from major tech companies has drawn criticism from some law enforcement officials who argue that it may allow criminals and terrorists to "go dark." Tech companies, the officials have argued, should make sure that they are able to provide access to encrypted content for law enforcement when faced with a court order. However, technical experts say building ways for that access into products — commonly called a "backdoor" — would undermine digital security as a whole by giving hackers a new target. And civil liberties experts worry that there's nothing to stop repressive governments from pushing for the same access.
Nearly 200 experts, companies and civil society groups from more than 40 countries — including Electronic Frontiers Australia, the Australian Privacy Foundation and Australian Lawyers for Human Rights — are asking governments around the world to support strong encryption and reject proposals that would undermine the digital security it provides.
"The internet belongs to the world's people, not its governments. We refuse to let this precious resource become nationalised and broken by any nation," Brett Solomon, executive director of Access Now, the online advocacy group that organised the open letter, said in a news release.
The letter, released online in 10 languages at SecureTheInternet.org, marks an escalation of a debate over encryption — a process that scrambles data so that only those authorised can decode it. The fight has been brewing for more than a year, prominent in Australia and the United States but also spreading everywhere from the United Kingdom to China.
Encryption is widely relied upon to keep e-commerce and many of the websites people use every day safe from the prying eyes of cybercriminals. But the spread of the strongest forms of encryption, those which companies themselves cannot unlock, into products from major tech companies has drawn criticism from some law enforcement officials who argue that it may allow criminals and terrorists to "go dark."
Tech companies, the officials have argued, should make sure that they are able to provide access to encrypted content for law enforcement when faced with a court order. However, technical experts say building ways for that access into products — commonly called a "backdoor" — would undermine digital security as a whole by giving hackers a new target. And civil liberties experts worry that there's nothing to stop repressive governments from pushing for the same access.
Read more @ http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/consumer-security/australians-join-international-protest-against-government-backdoors-in-encryption-20160111-gm3rsa.html
Australian organisations join effort to defend access to encryption tools More than 130 NGOs and advocacy organisations from around the world have signed an open letter calling on governments to reject policies that undermine the use and effectiveness of encryption. “Encryption tools, technologies, and services are essential to protect against harm and to shield our digital infrastructure and personal communications from unauthorized access,” states the letter published online at Securetheinternet.org. A number of Australian organisations have signed the letter, including the Australian Privacy Foundation, Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA), Future Wise, Australian Lawyers for Human Rights and Blueprint for Free Speech. Other signatories include Amnesty International, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Human Rights Watch and the Tor Project. “We encourage you to support the safety and security of users by strengthening the integrity of communications and systems,” the letter states.
Australian organisations join effort to defend access to encryption tools
More than 130 NGOs and advocacy organisations from around the world have signed an open letter calling on governments to reject policies that undermine the use and effectiveness of encryption.
“Encryption tools, technologies, and services are essential to protect against harm and to shield our digital infrastructure and personal communications from unauthorized access,” states the letter published online at Securetheinternet.org.
A number of Australian organisations have signed the letter, including the Australian Privacy Foundation, Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA), Future Wise, Australian Lawyers for Human Rights and Blueprint for Free Speech.
Other signatories include Amnesty International, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Human Rights Watch and the Tor Project.
“We encourage you to support the safety and security of users by strengthening the integrity of communications and systems,” the letter states.
Read more @ http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/591985/open-letter-rejects-government-crackdown-encryption/
Nearly 200 experts, companies and civil society groups from more than 40 countries are asking governments around the world to support strong encryption — and reject proposals that would undermine the digital security it provides.“The internet belongs to the world’s people, not its governments. We refuse to let this precious resource become nationalized and broken by any nation," Brett Solomon, executive director of Access Now, the online advocacy group that organized the open letter, said in a news release. The letter, released online in 10 languages Monday at SecureTheInternet.org, marks an escalation of a debate over encryption — a process that scrambles data so that only those authorized can decode it. The fight has been brewing in the United States for more than a year, but has also spread everywhere from the United Kingdom to China.
“The internet belongs to the world’s people, not its governments. We refuse to let this precious resource become nationalized and broken by any nation," Brett Solomon, executive director of Access Now, the online advocacy group that organized the open letter, said in a news release.
The letter, released online in 10 languages Monday at SecureTheInternet.org, marks an escalation of a debate over encryption — a process that scrambles data so that only those authorized can decode it. The fight has been brewing in the United States for more than a year, but has also spread everywhere from the United Kingdom to China.
Nearly 200 experts, companies and advocacy groups urge governments to end efforts to ‘mandate insecure encryption’ amid surveillance concerns Amid a sustained push by world governments to undermine secure digital communications, campaigners from more than 42 countries are making a concerted push to defend encryption. An open letter issued on Monday, three days after senior Obama administration officials huddled with Silicon Valley titans to revive a relationship damaged by revelations of mass surveillance, demanded an end to global government efforts to compel the insertion or use of software flaws in encryption protocols called “backdoors”. “Users should have the option to use – and companies the option to provide – the strongest encryption available, including end-to-end encryption, without fear that governments will compel access to the content, metadata, or encryption keys without due process and respect for human rights,” reads the open letter, signed by 195 experts, companies and civil-society organizations. The letter, an initiative of the digital-rights group Access Now and posted to SecureTheInternet.org, urges governments not to “ban or otherwise limit user access to encryption in any form or otherwise prohibit the implementation or use of encryption by grade or type”. It rejects government efforts to “mandate insecure encryption algorithms, standards, tools or technologies”.
Nearly 200 experts, companies and advocacy groups urge governments to end efforts to ‘mandate insecure encryption’ amid surveillance concerns
Amid a sustained push by world governments to undermine secure digital communications, campaigners from more than 42 countries are making a concerted push to defend encryption.
An open letter issued on Monday, three days after senior Obama administration officials huddled with Silicon Valley titans to revive a relationship damaged by revelations of mass surveillance, demanded an end to global government efforts to compel the insertion or use of software flaws in encryption protocols called “backdoors”.
“Users should have the option to use – and companies the option to provide – the strongest encryption available, including end-to-end encryption, without fear that governments will compel access to the content, metadata, or encryption keys without due process and respect for human rights,” reads the open letter, signed by 195 experts, companies and civil-society organizations.
The letter, an initiative of the digital-rights group Access Now and posted to SecureTheInternet.org, urges governments not to “ban or otherwise limit user access to encryption in any form or otherwise prohibit the implementation or use of encryption by grade or type”.
It rejects government efforts to “mandate insecure encryption algorithms, standards, tools or technologies”.
Read more @ http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/11/cyber-security-open-letter-software-encryption-backdoors
Read more @ http://www.businessinsider.com.au/facebook-google-and-microsoft-criticise-ip-bill-2016-1?r=UK&IR=T
Tech giants have condemned the government’s Investigatory Powers Bill, which will allow security services to hack anyone’s device and access their web history, branding the legislation “very dangerous.” Google, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft and Yahoo have joined forces to oppose the Bill, known to its detractors as the ‘snoopers’ charter’. It was proposed by Home Secretary Theresa May in November. The bill requires telecommunications agencies to hand over data to security services and gives police, GCHQ, MI5 and MI6 unfettered access to the records of Britons’ web use. Domestic communication providers would also be required to help police to hack into suspects’ computers and phones. The bill has attracted criticism from Internet Service Providers (ISPs), civil liberties groups and the UN’s privacy chief.
Tech giants have condemned the government’s Investigatory Powers Bill, which will allow security services to hack anyone’s device and access their web history, branding the legislation “very dangerous.”
Google, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft and Yahoo have joined forces to oppose the Bill, known to its detractors as the ‘snoopers’ charter’. It was proposed by Home Secretary Theresa May in November.
The bill requires telecommunications agencies to hand over data to security services and gives police, GCHQ, MI5 and MI6 unfettered access to the records of Britons’ web use.
Domestic communication providers would also be required to help police to hack into suspects’ computers and phones.
The bill has attracted criticism from Internet Service Providers (ISPs), civil liberties groups and the UN’s privacy chief.
Read more @ https://www.rt.com/uk/328295-surveillance-bill-internet-dangerous/
Safety, privacy, human rights, and national security all depend on encryption, according to an open letter signed by Electronic Frontiers Australia as well as dozens of organisations worldwide. Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) has come out in support of encryption as being necessary to ensure national security and human rights, rejecting any legislation that could ban or undermine encryption by requiring a backdoor to access unencrypted communications. EFA joined organisations, companies, and individuals from more than 35 countries in signing an open letter to governments worldwide, urging them to abandon any plans to legislate on the issue. "Calls to undermine encryption in the name of 'national security' are fundamentally misguided and dangerous," EFA executive officer Jon Lawrence said.
Safety, privacy, human rights, and national security all depend on encryption, according to an open letter signed by Electronic Frontiers Australia as well as dozens of organisations worldwide.
Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) has come out in support of encryption as being necessary to ensure national security and human rights, rejecting any legislation that could ban or undermine encryption by requiring a backdoor to access unencrypted communications.
EFA joined organisations, companies, and individuals from more than 35 countries in signing an open letter to governments worldwide, urging them to abandon any plans to legislate on the issue.
"Calls to undermine encryption in the name of 'national security' are fundamentally misguided and dangerous," EFA executive officer Jon Lawrence said.
Read more @ http://www.zdnet.com/article/efa-signs-open-letter-demanding-governments-enshrine-encryption/
Jan 25 16 10:25 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration asked the Pentagon on Friday to help overhaul the federal security clearance system, aiming to turn the page on a devastating data breach that exposed a major vulnerability for U.S. national security. A new government office, called the National Background Investigations Bureau, will take over the job of running background checks on all federal employees, contractors and others. But the Defense Department will design, build and operate the computer system that houses and processes people’s personal information, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and other officials said. The White House’s handover of the sensitive cybersecurity role to the military was a significant demerit against the Office of Personnel Management, the agency at the center of last year’s scandal over one of the worst government data breaches known to the public. Tellingly, the White House said that while the new bureau would be part of OPM, the president would be appointing its director. The overhaul comes in response to a data breach last year that U.S. officials have warned could help give China a major advantage in recruiting informants inside the U.S. government or identify American spies abroad. U.S. officials believe a Chinese espionage operation infiltrated OPM’s records accessing information on 21.5 million current and former employment or job applicants. Fingerprint images belonging to some 5.6 million people were stolen.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration asked the Pentagon on Friday to help overhaul the federal security clearance system, aiming to turn the page on a devastating data breach that exposed a major vulnerability for U.S. national security.
A new government office, called the National Background Investigations Bureau, will take over the job of running background checks on all federal employees, contractors and others. But the Defense Department will design, build and operate the computer system that houses and processes people’s personal information, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and other officials said.
The White House’s handover of the sensitive cybersecurity role to the military was a significant demerit against the Office of Personnel Management, the agency at the center of last year’s scandal over one of the worst government data breaches known to the public. Tellingly, the White House said that while the new bureau would be part of OPM, the president would be appointing its director.
The overhaul comes in response to a data breach last year that U.S. officials have warned could help give China a major advantage in recruiting informants inside the U.S. government or identify American spies abroad. U.S. officials believe a Chinese espionage operation infiltrated OPM’s records accessing information on 21.5 million current and former employment or job applicants. Fingerprint images belonging to some 5.6 million people were stolen.
Read more @ http://wtop.com/politics/2016/01/obama-enlists-pentagon-to-overhaul-security-clearance-system/?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link
Jan 27 16 7:59 PM
Prime Minister David Cameron has stated that the U.K. government will look at “switching off” some forms of encryption in order to make society safer from terror attacks. This might make a grand statement but it is impossible to implement and extremely technologically naive. Encryption is a core part of the Internet; it’s use is increasing every day—Google’s services, including search and email, use encrypted streams, as do Facebook and Twitter and many other widely used sites. Encryption makes it almost impossible for eavesdroppers to read the contents of the traffic. It is the foundation upon which all e-commerce is based.
Prime Minister David Cameron has stated that the U.K. government will look at “switching off” some forms of encryption in order to make society safer from terror attacks. This might make a grand statement but it is impossible to implement and extremely technologically naive.
Encryption is a core part of the Internet; it’s use is increasing every day—Google’s services, including search and email, use encrypted streams, as do Facebook and Twitter and many other widely used sites. Encryption makes it almost impossible for eavesdroppers to read the contents of the traffic. It is the foundation upon which all e-commerce is based.
Read more @ http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/1949802-if-you-seek-to-switch-off-encryption-you-may-as-well-switch-off-the-whole-internet/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
The world has never been safe..... look at history. So if they want to use the fear factor to spy on everyone they are being very naive. The world will still not be safe.
Since so much of life has moved online, a clash has emerged between the opposing values of Internet freedom and Internet control. Should the Internet be a public arena free of all interference and influence from the authorities? Or does too much freedom result in anarchy, turning the Internet into a safe haven for criminals and terrorists? The tension between these two opposing extremes, the “crypto wars,” is a battle that has been raging for 30 years—an approach that would reconcile these two attitudes would offer a way forward. Long-term privacy advocate and cryptographer David Chaum recently put forward one such idea that involves building a special “backdoor” that could only be accessed on agreement by multiple parties across different countries and cultures—an idea that combines the protections of encryption while meeting the need for transparency that law enforcement wants. But will it work? Freedom vs Control The Internet is built as an open system, with unique IP addresses that identify computers online and logs of connections from one to another. So for supporters of a free Internet the big challenge is maintaining anonymity, so that the web can be used and sites visited without leaving behind a digital trace that could identify users. Anonymizing software such as Tor has been developed in response, and hides the link between a browser and the website it visits. But while Tor makes it harder to determine who has been visiting websites, it is not infallible. The fact remains that guaranteeing absolute anonymity on the Internet is very difficult.
Since so much of life has moved online, a clash has emerged between the opposing values of Internet freedom and Internet control. Should the Internet be a public arena free of all interference and influence from the authorities? Or does too much freedom result in anarchy, turning the Internet into a safe haven for criminals and terrorists?
The tension between these two opposing extremes, the “crypto wars,” is a battle that has been raging for 30 years—an approach that would reconcile these two attitudes would offer a way forward. Long-term privacy advocate and cryptographer David Chaum recently put forward one such idea that involves building a special “backdoor” that could only be accessed on agreement by multiple parties across different countries and cultures—an idea that combines the protections of encryption while meeting the need for transparency that law enforcement wants. But will it work?
The Internet is built as an open system, with unique IP addresses that identify computers online and logs of connections from one to another. So for supporters of a free Internet the big challenge is maintaining anonymity, so that the web can be used and sites visited without leaving behind a digital trace that could identify users.
Anonymizing software such as Tor has been developed in response, and hides the link between a browser and the website it visits. But while Tor makes it harder to determine who has been visiting websites, it is not infallible. The fact remains that guaranteeing absolute anonymity on the Internet is very difficult.
Read more @ http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/1950574-could-encryption-backdoors-safeguard-privacy-and-fight-terror-online/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
I think governments the world over are afraid of losing their power over the people..... so they want to spy more and more out of fear.
Jan 28 16 12:06 AM
For example: 2004 mission logo depicts a sword-wielding, big-breasted redhead with wings.When the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) launched an Atlas V ferrying a GEMSat classified payload in December 2013, the mission's logo set off a public firestorm of sorts. The mission logo, or patch, from the launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California is of a giant, orange-ish-colored octopus sitting atop Earth. "Nothing Is Beyond Our Reach," read the logo for the NROL-39 mission. The office of the Director of National Intelligence published a picture of the logo-patch on Twitter hours before launch, tweeting that the "Atlas 5 will blast off just past 11PM, PST carrying an classified NRO payload (also cubesats)." The launch came as the Guardian was publishing one leak after the other from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. The leaks detailed that the US National Security Agency was, among other things, exercising digital domination across the world's fiber optic lines. So a spy agency's cartoon depicting total world domination was an untimely public relations failure given the focus Snowden was bringing to the US surveillance state. As it turns out, other NRO launch logos (often painted directly on the space craft) typically depict a scene of scary world domination too. But that's not to say all of the patches present the US as the Evil Empire. There's the "Great Bear" patch of the NROL-10 launch in 2000—essentially a cute, cuddly teddy bear that an elementary school student came up with. And let's not forget the NROL-33 patch from 2004, which depicts a big-breasted redhead with giant wings and sword.These mission patches have been around for decades, long a military tradition. NASA has them for its space missions, but those are more of the vanilla type. The mission logos of the NRO—established (PDF) in 1960 to oversee US reconnaissance efforts—depict devils, fire, dragons, raging bulls and, among other things, strange animals like an eagle on a lion's body with wings.
When the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) launched an Atlas V ferrying a GEMSat classified payload in December 2013, the mission's logo set off a public firestorm of sorts.
The mission logo, or patch, from the launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California is of a giant, orange-ish-colored octopus sitting atop Earth. "Nothing Is Beyond Our Reach," read the logo for the NROL-39 mission. The office of the Director of National Intelligence published a picture of the logo-patch on Twitter hours before launch, tweeting that the "Atlas 5 will blast off just past 11PM, PST carrying an classified NRO payload (also cubesats)."
The launch came as the Guardian was publishing one leak after the other from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. The leaks detailed that the US National Security Agency was, among other things, exercising digital domination across the world's fiber optic lines. So a spy agency's cartoon depicting total world domination was an untimely public relations failure given the focus Snowden was bringing to the US surveillance state.
As it turns out, other NRO launch logos (often painted directly on the space craft) typically depict a scene of scary world domination too. But that's not to say all of the patches present the US as the Evil Empire. There's the "Great Bear" patch of the NROL-10 launch in 2000—essentially a cute, cuddly teddy bear that an elementary school student came up with. And let's not forget the NROL-33 patch from 2004, which depicts a big-breasted redhead with giant wings and sword.
These mission patches have been around for decades, long a military tradition. NASA has them for its space missions, but those are more of the vanilla type. The mission logos of the NRO—established (PDF) in 1960 to oversee US reconnaissance efforts—depict devils, fire, dragons, raging bulls and, among other things, strange animals like an eagle on a lion's body with wings.
Read more @ http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/01/cute-to-a-little-sinister-the-beauty-of-us-spy-satellite-rocket-launch-logos/?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link
While AI focuses on creating intelligent machines that perform human tasks, a human-based algorithm, harnessing the power of the crowd to make predictions, shows remarkable accuracy. Since the 1950's, when researchers began searching for ways to create artificial intelligence, much focus has been on developing artificial neural networks—building intelligence from scratch. Turning this concept on its head, an approach dubbed "artificial swarm intelligence" uses the power of nature in a different way: by harnessing groups of human minds to come up with predictions for real world events. Dr. Louis Rosenberg, CEO of Unanimous AI, is building a software platform, UNU, that assembles groups to make collective decisions. "What's different about this is that it fundamentally keeps people in there," he said. "We're focused on using software to amplify human intelligence." It's not technically AI—"if a program can't be intelligent without people, it is not artificially intelligent," said Roman Yampolskiy, director of the Cybersecurity Lab at the University of Louisville." And the "wisdom of the crowd" concept, derived from human-based computation models, goes back at least a dozen years. Yampolskiy himself developed a similar algorithm, dubbed "Wisdom of Artificial Crowds," using a group of "simulated intelligent agents" to make predictions.
While AI focuses on creating intelligent machines that perform human tasks, a human-based algorithm, harnessing the power of the crowd to make predictions, shows remarkable accuracy.
Since the 1950's, when researchers began searching for ways to create artificial intelligence, much focus has been on developing artificial neural networks—building intelligence from scratch. Turning this concept on its head, an approach dubbed "artificial swarm intelligence" uses the power of nature in a different way: by harnessing groups of human minds to come up with predictions for real world events.
Dr. Louis Rosenberg, CEO of Unanimous AI, is building a software platform, UNU, that assembles groups to make collective decisions. "What's different about this is that it fundamentally keeps people in there," he said. "We're focused on using software to amplify human intelligence."
It's not technically AI—"if a program can't be intelligent without people, it is not artificially intelligent," said Roman Yampolskiy, director of the Cybersecurity Lab at the University of Louisville." And the "wisdom of the crowd" concept, derived from human-based computation models, goes back at least a dozen years. Yampolskiy himself developed a similar algorithm, dubbed "Wisdom of Artificial Crowds," using a group of "simulated intelligent agents" to make predictions.
Read more @ http://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-artificial-swarm-intelligence-uses-people-to-make-better-predictions-than-experts/
Jan 30 16 5:56 PM
A White House tech expert with links to Edward Snowden just lost his security clearance
The White House has denied a security clearance to a member of its technology team who previously helped report on documents leaked by Edward Snowden. Ashkan Soltani, a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist and recent staffer at the Federal Trade Commission, recently began working with the White House on privacy, data ethics and technical outreach. The partnership raised eyebrows when it was announced in December because of Soltani’s previous work with the Washington Post, where he helped analyze and protect a cache of National Security Agency documents leaked by Snowden. His departure raises questions about the US government’s ability to partner with the broader tech community, where people come from a more diverse background than traditional government staffers.
The White House has denied a security clearance to a member of its technology team who previously helped report on documents leaked by Edward Snowden.
Ashkan Soltani, a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist and recent staffer at the Federal Trade Commission, recently began working with the White House on privacy, data ethics and technical outreach.
The partnership raised eyebrows when it was announced in December because of Soltani’s previous work with the Washington Post, where he helped analyze and protect a cache of National Security Agency documents leaked by Snowden.
His departure raises questions about the US government’s ability to partner with the broader tech community, where people come from a more diverse background than traditional government staffers.
Read more @ http://www.businessinsider.com/white-house-tech-staffer-with-links-to-edward-snowden-lost-his-security-clearance-2016-1?IR=T
JERUSALEM: The United States and Britain have monitored secret sorties and communications by Israel's air force in a hacking operation dating back to 1998, according to documents attributed to leaks by former US spy agency contractor Edward Snowden. Israel voiced disappointment at the disclosures, which were published on Friday in three media outlets and might further strain relations with Washington after years of feuding over strategies on Iran and the Palestinians. Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth daily said the US National Security Agency, which specializes in electronic surveillance, and its British counterpart GCHQ spied on Israeli air force missions against the Palestinian enclave Gaza, Syria and Iran. The spy operation, codenamed "Anarchist", was run out of a Cyprus base and targeted other Middle East states too, it said. Its findings were mirrored by stories in Germany's Der Spiegel newsmagazine and the online publication Intercept, which lists Snowden confidant Glenn Greenwald among its associates. "This access is indispensable for maintaining an understanding of Israeli military training and operations and thus an insight to possible future developments in the region," The Intercept quoted a classified GCHQ report as saying in 2008. That year, Israel went to war against Hamas guerrillas in Gaza and began issuing increasingly vocal threats to attack Iranian nuclear facilities if it deemed international diplomacy insufficient to deny its arch-foe the means of making a bomb. Asked for comment, the United States and Britain said through spokespeople for their embassies in Israel that they do not publicly discuss intelligence matters. Israeli energy minister Yuval Steinitz, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet, sought to play down the potential damage but said lessons would be learned.
JERUSALEM: The United States and Britain have monitored secret sorties and communications by Israel's air force in a hacking operation dating back to 1998, according to documents attributed to leaks by former US spy agency contractor Edward Snowden. Israel voiced disappointment at the disclosures, which were published on Friday in three media outlets and might further strain relations with Washington after years of feuding over strategies on Iran and the Palestinians. Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth daily said the US National Security Agency, which specializes in electronic surveillance, and its British counterpart GCHQ spied on Israeli air force missions against the Palestinian enclave Gaza, Syria and Iran. The spy operation, codenamed "Anarchist", was run out of a Cyprus base and targeted other Middle East states too, it said. Its findings were mirrored by stories in Germany's Der Spiegel newsmagazine and the online publication Intercept, which lists Snowden confidant Glenn Greenwald among its associates. "This access is indispensable for maintaining an understanding of Israeli military training and operations and thus an insight to possible future developments in the region," The Intercept quoted a classified GCHQ report as saying in 2008.
That year, Israel went to war against Hamas guerrillas in Gaza and began issuing increasingly vocal threats to attack Iranian nuclear facilities if it deemed international diplomacy insufficient to deny its arch-foe the means of making a bomb. Asked for comment, the United States and Britain said through spokespeople for their embassies in Israel that they do not publicly discuss intelligence matters. Israeli energy minister Yuval Steinitz, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet, sought to play down the potential damage but said lessons would be learned.
Read more @ http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/US-British-spies-hacked-Israeli-air-force-reports-citing-Edward-Snowden-say/articleshow/50776321.cms
AMERICAN AND BRITISH INTELLIGENCE secretly tapped into live video feeds from Israeli drones and fighter jets, monitoring military operations in Gaza, watching for a potential strike against Iran, and keeping tabs on the drone technology Israel exports around the world. Under a classified program code-named “Anarchist,” the U.K.’s Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ, working with the National Security Agency, systematically targeted Israeli drones from a mountaintop on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. GCHQ files provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden include a series of “Anarchist snapshots” — thumbnail images from videos recorded by drone cameras. The files also show location data mapping the flight paths of the aircraft. In essence, U.S. and British agencies stole a bird’s-eye view from the drones.
AMERICAN AND BRITISH INTELLIGENCE secretly tapped into live video feeds from Israeli drones and fighter jets, monitoring military operations in Gaza, watching for a potential strike against Iran, and keeping tabs on the drone technology Israel exports around the world.
Under a classified program code-named “Anarchist,” the U.K.’s Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ, working with the National Security Agency, systematically targeted Israeli drones from a mountaintop on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. GCHQ files provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden include a series of “Anarchist snapshots” — thumbnail images from videos recorded by drone cameras. The files also show location data mapping the flight paths of the aircraft. In essence, U.S. and British agencies stole a bird’s-eye view from the drones.
Read more @ https://theintercept.com/2016/01/28/israeli-drone-feeds-hacked-by-british-and-american-intelligence/
Hebrew language news service Yediot Aharonot revealed on Friday morning that British and US intelligence services hacked Israeli drones (UAV) and fighter jets sent to monitor military operations in Gaza. This startling revelation came from documents leaked by famed whistle-blower, Edward Snowden. The British and American services were monitoring for potential pre-emptive Israeli strikes against Iran and also to stay current on Israeli technology. The joint program, code-named “Anarchist”, was run by British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and the US National Security Agency (NSA).It monitored transmissions for 18 years from a Royal Air Force installation in the Troodos Mountains, near Mount Olympus, the highest point on Cyprus. The leaked files showed snapshot images, including photos of the drones which indicate, though not conclusively, that some of the drones are carrying missiles, something which the Israeli government refuses to either confirm or deny.
Hebrew language news service Yediot Aharonot revealed on Friday morning that British and US intelligence services hacked Israeli drones (UAV) and fighter jets sent to monitor military operations in Gaza. This startling revelation came from documents leaked by famed whistle-blower, Edward Snowden. The British and American services were monitoring for potential pre-emptive Israeli strikes against Iran and also to stay current on Israeli technology.
The joint program, code-named “Anarchist”, was run by British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and the US National Security Agency (NSA).It monitored transmissions for 18 years from a Royal Air Force installation in the Troodos Mountains, near Mount Olympus, the highest point on Cyprus. The leaked files showed snapshot images, including photos of the drones which indicate, though not conclusively, that some of the drones are carrying missiles, something which the Israeli government refuses to either confirm or deny.
Read more @ http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/60127/new-snowden-document-revealed-britainn-and-us-spied-on-israeli-drones-middle-east/
A Danish news website has published documents backing up the allegations that in June 2013 a US plane with a connection to CIA black site programs was on call in Copenhagen ready to snatch NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden as he was stranded in Moscow. The story of the private aircraft, a Gulfstream V with registration number N977GA, was first reported by The Register in June 2014. The plane previously used by the American intelligence to secretly transport terror subjects to clandestine detention facilities in Europe, flew from Washington, DC over Scotland to Copenhagen, the report said. Docs confirm #Scotland and #Denmark used for US failed Edward @Snowden rendition flight mission https://t.co/9ETqypjO2Q#SNP@theSNP — WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) 26 января 2016 In August 2015, the Danish news website Denfri.dk filed a number of Freedom of Information requests to the government in Copenhagen, seeking the disclosure of documents concerning the alleged involvement of Denmark in a plot to arrest and extradite Snowden. On Sunday, it reported that after lengthy deliberation, it had acquired new evidence that substantiated the claim.
A Danish news website has published documents backing up the allegations that in June 2013 a US plane with a connection to CIA black site programs was on call in Copenhagen ready to snatch NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden as he was stranded in Moscow.
The story of the private aircraft, a Gulfstream V with registration number N977GA, was first reported by The Register in June 2014. The plane previously used by the American intelligence to secretly transport terror subjects to clandestine detention facilities in Europe, flew from Washington, DC over Scotland to Copenhagen, the report said.
Docs confirm #Scotland and #Denmark used for US failed Edward @Snowden rendition flight mission https://t.co/9ETqypjO2Q#SNP@theSNP
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) 26 января 2016
In August 2015, the Danish news website Denfri.dk filed a number of Freedom of Information requests to the government in Copenhagen, seeking the disclosure of documents concerning the alleged involvement of Denmark in a plot to arrest and extradite Snowden. On Sunday, it reported that after lengthy deliberation, it had acquired new evidence that substantiated the claim.
Read more @ https://www.rt.com/news/330486-snowden-snatch-plane-denmark/
The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) prepared to kidnap Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who exposed illegal and unconstitutional mass spying by the National Security Agency (NSA), documents obtained by the Danish media outlet Denfri show. US intelligence maintained an aircraft and paramilitary team on standby in Copenhagen, awaiting orders to seize Snowden in the event that he crossed into a number of European countries, the documents show. They were obtained by Denfri through a Freedom of Information Act suit in August 2015. The existence of the CIA plane was first reported in 2014 by The Register, which identified the aircraft as a Gulfstream V, registered under the number N977GA. The plane had previously been used to transport CIA captives to the agency’s “black site” torture centers across Europe, which were built up as part of an expanding global network of secret CIA prisons since 9/11. The latest documents appear to have decisively corroborated this account, showing that Danish police and government officers approved the positioning of the CIA plane in Copenhagen for unspecified “state purposes.” In one of the leaked government letters, US Federal Bureau of Investigation representatives also sought cooperation from the Norwegian government, demanding that they immediately notify US agencies in the event that Snowden travelled to Norway, Finland, Sweden or Denmark. The Danish decision to host the plane was part of broader cooperation by Copenhagen with Washington’s extra-legal kidnapping and rendition network. The Danish state has sought to preserve total secrecy in relation to the stationing of the CIA plane on its soil. “Denmark’s relationship with the USA would be damaged if the information [content redacted from the documents] becomes public knowledge,” Denmark’s interior ministry told Denfri. The confirmation that Washington planned for a direct raid to seize Snowden and forcibly return him to US custody does not come as a surprise. Snowden has become a public enemy of the first order in the eyes of the US ruling class since he began releasing troves of data on spy programs run by the NSA and other US government agencies in the summer of 2013. According to May 2014 comments from then-NSA Director Keith Alexander, Snowden downloaded more than 1 million secret US government documents. For the “crime” of exposing the vast and criminal surveillance enterprises run the by US government, Snowden has been subjected to innumerable death threats and slanders by the American media and political establishment.
The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) prepared to kidnap Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who exposed illegal and unconstitutional mass spying by the National Security Agency (NSA), documents obtained by the Danish media outlet Denfri show.
US intelligence maintained an aircraft and paramilitary team on standby in Copenhagen, awaiting orders to seize Snowden in the event that he crossed into a number of European countries, the documents show. They were obtained by Denfri through a Freedom of Information Act suit in August 2015.
The existence of the CIA plane was first reported in 2014 by The Register, which identified the aircraft as a Gulfstream V, registered under the number N977GA. The plane had previously been used to transport CIA captives to the agency’s “black site” torture centers across Europe, which were built up as part of an expanding global network of secret CIA prisons since 9/11.
The latest documents appear to have decisively corroborated this account, showing that Danish police and government officers approved the positioning of the CIA plane in Copenhagen for unspecified “state purposes.” In one of the leaked government letters, US Federal Bureau of Investigation representatives also sought cooperation from the Norwegian government, demanding that they immediately notify US agencies in the event that Snowden travelled to Norway, Finland, Sweden or Denmark.
The Danish decision to host the plane was part of broader cooperation by Copenhagen with Washington’s extra-legal kidnapping and rendition network. The Danish state has sought to preserve total secrecy in relation to the stationing of the CIA plane on its soil.
“Denmark’s relationship with the USA would be damaged if the information [content redacted from the documents] becomes public knowledge,” Denmark’s interior ministry told Denfri.
The confirmation that Washington planned for a direct raid to seize Snowden and forcibly return him to US custody does not come as a surprise.
Snowden has become a public enemy of the first order in the eyes of the US ruling class since he began releasing troves of data on spy programs run by the NSA and other US government agencies in the summer of 2013. According to May 2014 comments from then-NSA Director Keith Alexander, Snowden downloaded more than 1 million secret US government documents.
For the “crime” of exposing the vast and criminal surveillance enterprises run the by US government, Snowden has been subjected to innumerable death threats and slanders by the American media and political establishment.
Read more @ https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/01/30/snow-j30.html
Whistleblower Edward Snowden brands 'encrypted' Isis email as a fake
Snowden suggested that Isis could see a benefit in scaring Western nations into clamping down on encryption Whistleblower Edward Snowden has claimed that a supposed 'encrypted email' featured in a recent Isis propaganda video is fake. The latest video, in which extremists make threats against the UK and urge Muslims to fight against non-believers, ends with a scrolling message, which claims to be coded using the PGP encryption program. Governments and intelligence agencies around the world have long been concerned that Isis could be communicating using encrypted messaging tools like PGP, which would make it almost impossible for spies to listen in on what they are saying.
Snowden suggested that Isis could see a benefit in scaring Western nations into clamping down on encryption
Whistleblower Edward Snowden has claimed that a supposed 'encrypted email' featured in a recent Isis propaganda video is fake.
The latest video, in which extremists make threats against the UK and urge Muslims to fight against non-believers, ends with a scrolling message, which claims to be coded using the PGP encryption program.
Governments and intelligence agencies around the world have long been concerned that Isis could be communicating using encrypted messaging tools like PGP, which would make it almost impossible for spies to listen in on what they are saying.
Read more @ http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/edward-snowden-isis-encrypted-encryption-email-a6832661.html
Judges say Parliament should review U.K. terror laws Court rules in case over detention of man holding Snowden data A panel of judges asked the U.K. to review its terror laws after finding that they breach human rights statutes in a case brought by a man detained at Heathrow Airport with material leaked by former U.S. security contractor Edward Snowden. While the judges rejected an appeal by David Miranda, who is married to journalist Glenn Greenwald, over his treatment, they said the laws did not offer sufficient protection to journalists. "It will be a matter for Parliament to decide how best to provide such a safeguard," the appeals court said in a written summary of its decision. Miranda was stopped and questioned at Heathrow in August 2013 by police using powers under the Terrorism Act. Officers also seized encrypted information about the U.S. National Security Agency provided by Snowden. Miranda’s lawsuit challenged invasive powers granted to help prevent terrorism, and said those powers infringed on individual rights. “The government is constantly working to ensure our counter-terrorism powers are both effective and fair,” the Home Office said in a statement. “That is why in 2015 we changed the Code of Practice for examining officers to instruct them not to examine journalistic material at all.” ‘Blunt’ Laws The laws “are so blunt that they inevitably damage the interests of democratic societies based on free speech and the journalists that are their champions," said John Halford, a lawyer for Miranda.
Judges say Parliament should review U.K. terror laws
Court rules in case over detention of man holding Snowden data
A panel of judges asked the U.K. to review its terror laws after finding that they breach human rights statutes in a case brought by a man detained at Heathrow Airport with material leaked by former U.S. security contractor Edward Snowden.
While the judges rejected an appeal by David Miranda, who is married to journalist Glenn Greenwald, over his treatment, they said the laws did not offer sufficient protection to journalists. "It will be a matter for Parliament to decide how best to provide such a safeguard," the appeals court said in a written summary of its decision.
Miranda was stopped and questioned at Heathrow in August 2013 by police using powers under the Terrorism Act. Officers also seized encrypted information about the U.S. National Security Agency provided by Snowden. Miranda’s lawsuit challenged invasive powers granted to help prevent terrorism, and said those powers infringed on individual rights.
“The government is constantly working to ensure our counter-terrorism powers are both effective and fair,” the Home Office said in a statement. “That is why in 2015 we changed the Code of Practice for examining officers to instruct them not to examine journalistic material at all.”
The laws “are so blunt that they inevitably damage the interests of democratic societies based on free speech and the journalists that are their champions," said John Halford, a lawyer for Miranda.
Read more @ http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-19/court-says-terror-laws-breached-reporter-rights-in-snowden-case
And from the Daily Fail….
Tickets to see Edward Snowden speak via video at the University of Colorado next month go on sale Monday morning. Tickets are $2 for students, $10 for CU employees and $20 for members of the public. Students and employees with a CU ID can get tickets at the University Memorial Center starting at 10:30 a.m. on Monday. Community members can purchase tickets at 11:30 a.m. on Monday at macky.colorado.edu. Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor, is best known for leaking classified documents about the government's surveillance programs. He lives in Russia and is facing several federal charges in the U.S., including theft of government property and unauthorized communication of national defense information. The Feb, 16 event will be moderated live by Ron Suskind, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and former Wall Street Journal reporter. Audience members will be able to ask Snowden questions. The event will run from 7 to 8:30 p.m. inside Macky Auditorium on the Boulder campus, which seats 2,000 people. For more information visit cudsb.com or email dsbchair@gmail.com.
Tickets to see Edward Snowden speak via video at the University of Colorado next month go on sale Monday morning.
Tickets are $2 for students, $10 for CU employees and $20 for members of the public. Students and employees with a CU ID can get tickets at the University Memorial Center starting at 10:30 a.m. on Monday. Community members can purchase tickets at 11:30 a.m. on Monday at macky.colorado.edu.
Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor, is best known for leaking classified documents about the government's surveillance programs. He lives in Russia and is facing several federal charges in the U.S., including theft of government property and unauthorized communication of national defense information.
The Feb, 16 event will be moderated live by Ron Suskind, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and former Wall Street Journal reporter. Audience members will be able to ask Snowden questions.
The event will run from 7 to 8:30 p.m. inside Macky Auditorium on the Boulder campus, which seats 2,000 people.
For more information visit cudsb.com or email dsbchair@gmail.com.
While technologies such as smartphones, the internet, and social networks offer opportunities for more direct social action than ever before—they also amplify the power and impact of governmental institutions, political organizations and even terrorist operations. Progress nowadays may be as double-edged a sword as ever. Standing on the edge of ethics and law is one of the most controversial privacy activists in the world today: Edward Snowden. His rise on the geopolitical stage represents a shift in power occurring globally that is changing the relationship between private citizens and governments. While arguing geographical borders may increasingly be becoming irrelevant, Snowden, a political exile from the US, demonstrated his point by visiting CES 2016 in Las Vegas via a Beam telepresence robot to perform a live interview with Peter Diamandis. “What we are doing—project[ing] presence across geographical space without actually leaving any record of travel—[allows] truly private experiences, private conversation,” Snowden said. And more to the point, perhaps, as he later noted, “The FBI can’t arrest a robot.”
While technologies such as smartphones, the internet, and social networks offer opportunities for more direct social action than ever before—they also amplify the power and impact of governmental institutions, political organizations and even terrorist operations.
Progress nowadays may be as double-edged a sword as ever.
Standing on the edge of ethics and law is one of the most controversial privacy activists in the world today: Edward Snowden. His rise on the geopolitical stage represents a shift in power occurring globally that is changing the relationship between private citizens and governments.
While arguing geographical borders may increasingly be becoming irrelevant, Snowden, a political exile from the US, demonstrated his point by visiting CES 2016 in Las Vegas via a Beam telepresence robot to perform a live interview with Peter Diamandis.
“What we are doing—project[ing] presence across geographical space without actually leaving any record of travel—[allows] truly private experiences, private conversation,” Snowden said.
And more to the point, perhaps, as he later noted, “The FBI can’t arrest a robot.”
Earlier this month LARB co-sponsored a forum at UC Irvine: What Cannot Be Said: Freedom of Expression in a Changing World. Timed to coincide with the first anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris, the conference featured panels, interviews, and performances on the topic of freedom of expression and its relationship to media and satire, to the digital era, to campus politics, to repressive conditions around the world, and to a number of other topics in the realm of law and freedom. Edward Snowden was one of many important public figures who joined the conversation.
Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor accused of leaking classified government documents, and Barton Gellman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist spoke during an interview that was broadcast live Saturday morning by the Gould School of Law. The interview was conducted in partnership with UC Irvine for a two-day symposium, “What Cannot Be Said, Freedom of Expression in a Changing World.” The two-day event was timed to coincide with the first anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris and features an in-depth examination of freedom of expression through various activities, including stand-up comedy and musical artistry. Snowden began the interview by describing his military upbringing and his lost faith in the government. “I grew up in the shadow of government. I was not radical. I was not skeptical. I signed up to join the army after we declared war in Iraq because I believed the government’s assertion that we were going to free the press. It was a just cause,” Snowden said. “My father worked in the military for 30 years. My grandfather was an admiral. My mother worked in the court systems.” Snowden described his experience working for the NSA as unnerving. As he gained greater access within NSA ranks, he said that these national security programs were not what they claimed to be. “In many cases, the primary uses of the tools that had been publicly justified as anti-terrorism tools were actually being used for something completely different,” Snowden said. These programs were largely being used for foreign intelligence. Gellman brought the focus to college students and whether students and members of the younger generations should be concerned about government surveillance. “Suppose they’re thinking, ‘Are there places I shouldn’t browse? Are there people I shouldn’t allow to friend me? Or jokes I shouldn’t tell? Or places I shouldn’t visit?’” Gellman said. “Would you advise them to be concerned about that?” Snowden answered by explaining what information the federal government is storing. “What the government describes as ‘bulk collection’ and everyone else on the planet describes as ‘mass surveillance’ means that every communication that can be intercepted and stored is being intercepted and stored,” Snowden said.
Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor accused of leaking classified government documents, and Barton Gellman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist spoke during an interview that was broadcast live Saturday morning by the Gould School of Law. The interview was conducted in partnership with UC Irvine for a two-day symposium, “What Cannot Be Said, Freedom of Expression in a Changing World.”
The two-day event was timed to coincide with the first anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris and features an in-depth examination of freedom of expression through various activities, including stand-up comedy and musical artistry.
Snowden began the interview by describing his military upbringing and his lost faith in the government.
“I grew up in the shadow of government. I was not radical. I was not skeptical. I signed up to join the army after we declared war in Iraq because I believed the government’s assertion that we were going to free the press. It was a just cause,” Snowden said. “My father worked in the military for 30 years. My grandfather was an admiral. My mother worked in the court systems.”
Snowden described his experience working for the NSA as unnerving. As he gained greater access within NSA ranks, he said that these national security programs were not what they claimed to be.
“In many cases, the primary uses of the tools that had been publicly justified as anti-terrorism tools were actually being used for something completely different,” Snowden said.
These programs were largely being used for foreign intelligence. Gellman brought the focus to college students and whether students and members of the younger generations should be concerned about government surveillance.
“Suppose they’re thinking, ‘Are there places I shouldn’t browse? Are there people I shouldn’t allow to friend me? Or jokes I shouldn’t tell? Or places I shouldn’t visit?’” Gellman said. “Would you advise them to be concerned about that?”
Snowden answered by explaining what information the federal government is storing.
“What the government describes as ‘bulk collection’ and everyone else on the planet describes as ‘mass surveillance’ means that every communication that can be intercepted and stored is being intercepted and stored,” Snowden said.
The Tor-equipped Tails 2.0 has numerous security fixes and a new UI. If you still assume you don't forfeit the right to privacy by going online, there are very few truly secure OS options. The best one might be the Linux flavor called Tails, recommended by none other than Edward Snowden. Its encrypted apps include email and messaging clients, a web browser, and of course, the anonymizing Tor network.The folks behind the open-source program have just launched version 2.0, with a new UI and numerous security fixes. The update uses a new, more modern Gnome shell that gives it a more "modern, simple, and actively developed desktop environment," according to the developers. At the same time, Tails 2.0 keeps the applications, places menu, and windows list front and center. In addition to fixing the security bugs and updating to the latest version of the Tor browser (5.5), the team also made services harder to exploit by "sandboxing" them, improved the shutdown memory wipe, sanitized the code by replacing custom scripts and replaced the email system with Icedove, a Mozilla Thunderbird offshoot.
If you still assume you don't forfeit the right to privacy by going online, there are very few truly secure OS options. The best one might be the Linux flavor called Tails, recommended by none other than Edward Snowden. Its encrypted apps include email and messaging clients, a web browser, and of course, the anonymizing Tor network.The folks behind the open-source program have just launched version 2.0, with a new UI and numerous security fixes.
The update uses a new, more modern Gnome shell that gives it a more "modern, simple, and actively developed desktop environment," according to the developers. At the same time, Tails 2.0 keeps the applications, places menu, and windows list front and center. In addition to fixing the security bugs and updating to the latest version of the Tor browser (5.5), the team also made services harder to exploit by "sandboxing" them, improved the shutdown memory wipe, sanitized the code by replacing custom scripts and replaced the email system with Icedove, a Mozilla Thunderbird offshoot.
Here’s a clip from John Oliver’s appearance on last night’s Tonight Show, where he and Jimmy Fallon talk about some of the most popular Last Week Tonight segments from last year including the tax-exempt church he created that received donations like $70K in singles and a four-foot wooden penis. Oliver also looked back on his trip to Russia to interview Edward Snowden, which he admits he and his crew did without asking HBO for permission first: “It felt like we were in trouble all the time,” he said. “All I was thinking was ‘Once the wheels of the plane take off, I think I’m safe,’ which is an infantile understanding of international diplomacy.” Watch another clip from the interview below:
One film at the Sundance Film Festival has drawn the attention of political whistleblower Edward Snowden. The film’s reps tell us that after they reached out to Snowden’s lawyers about “Jacqueline Argentine,” a mockumentary about a French woman who claims to leak government secrets and goes into political exile, a link was requested to send to Snowden. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who plays the former CIA employee in Oliver Stone’s upcoming biopic “Snowden,” was spotted seeing the flick at the festival on Tuesday.
One film at the Sundance Film Festival has drawn the attention of political whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The film’s reps tell us that after they reached out to Snowden’s lawyers about “Jacqueline Argentine,” a mockumentary about a French woman who claims to leak government secrets and goes into political exile, a link was requested to send to Snowden.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who plays the former CIA employee in Oliver Stone’s upcoming biopic “Snowden,” was spotted seeing the flick at the festival on Tuesday.
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden spends a lot of time on Twitter. His feed is usually full of very worthwhile musings and factoids on government surveillance and civil liberties. Lately, though, Snowden has taken things to the next level. How, you ask? First, Snowden’s been sharing some of the stranger direct messages he gets on the service and retweeting at least one fanatical fan.
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden spends a lot of time on Twitter. His feed is usually full of very worthwhile musings and factoids on government surveillance and civil liberties. Lately, though, Snowden has taken things to the next level.
How, you ask? First, Snowden’s been sharing some of the stranger direct messages he gets on the service and retweeting at least one fanatical fan.
National security whistleblower/villain/hero Edward Snowden may not be legally allowed to roam the streets of Washington, D.C., but a snowy visage of the former CIA employee and NSA contractor has appeared on the White House lawn today: .@Snowden the #snowman at the #whitehouse #cnnweather @cnnpolitics https://t.co/G65MtNgAkq pic.twitter.com/5wfXAcKGdT — Alex Rosen (@AlexRosenCNN) January 24, 2016 There’s no telling how long the snowman will stick around, but it’s not the first time an image of the man who exposed global surveillance programs conducted by the United States has been honored stateside. (Snowden currently has temporary asylum in Russia.)
National security whistleblower/villain/hero Edward Snowden may not be legally allowed to roam the streets of Washington, D.C., but a snowy visage of the former CIA employee and NSA contractor has appeared on the White House lawn today:
.@Snowden the #snowman at the #whitehouse #cnnweather @cnnpolitics https://t.co/G65MtNgAkq pic.twitter.com/5wfXAcKGdT
— Alex Rosen (@AlexRosenCNN) January 24, 2016
There’s no telling how long the snowman will stick around, but it’s not the first time an image of the man who exposed global surveillance programs conducted by the United States has been honored stateside. (Snowden currently has temporary asylum in Russia.)
Leaking classified government information isn’t exactly a laughing matter, but filmmaker Bernardo Britto found the humor in it! He discussed his Sundance film, ‘Jacqueline Argentine,’ and how Edward Snowden inspired the mockumentary. Watch the interview here! Amidst all of the serious themes that Sundance Film Festival pieces can cover, Bernardo Britto decided to take an intense topic and make it funny. Jacqueline Argentine, Bernardo’s contribution to this year’s Sundance, alludes to the crazy situation that Edward Snowden created when he leaked confidential government info in 2013, but takes a totally different approach using humor — and a girl! See Bernardo and the film’s star, Camille Rutherford, talk about it here! Jacqueline, played by Camille, is a young French woman who runs away to Argentina after she claims to leak government secrets, similar to what Edward did. But while Jacqueline is hiding out, she brings along a filmmaker to document her experience as authorities hunt for her. Sure, Edward’s situation made major headlines, but how does one think it could be made into a comedy?!
Amidst all of the serious themes that Sundance Film Festival pieces can cover, Bernardo Britto decided to take an intense topic and make it funny. Jacqueline Argentine, Bernardo’s contribution to this year’s Sundance, alludes to the crazy situation that Edward Snowden created when he leaked confidential government info in 2013, but takes a totally different approach using humor — and a girl! See Bernardo and the film’s star, Camille Rutherford, talk about it here!
Jacqueline, played by Camille, is a young French woman who runs away to Argentina after she claims to leak government secrets, similar to what Edward did. But while Jacqueline is hiding out, she brings along a filmmaker to document her experience as authorities hunt for her. Sure, Edward’s situation made major headlines, but how does one think it could be made into a comedy?!
In one perfect, humblebraggy tweet
Look, we've all been there. One minute, you're sitting, watching the news and you see a story about an exiled former CIA employee who blew the whistle on a terrifying and far-reaching, secret government surveillance program. The next minute, you're on Wikipedia, re-reading information about his case. The next minute, moved, you turn to Twitter to see what this American patriot (I know some people think he's a villain, whatever...) is up to. And you realize that you have to reach out to him. If just to say something. To say thank you. To let him know he has your support...
Read more @ http://www.gq.com/story/edward-snowden-humblebrag-tweet-nudes
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/edward-snowden-stop-sliding-into-my-dms-with-nude-pics
Jan 31 16 10:55 AM
Feb 2 16 2:48 PM
Senior CIA officials have for years intentionally deceived parts of the agency workforce by transmitting internal memos that contain false information about operations and sources overseas, according to current and former U.S. officials who said the practice is known by the term “eyewash.” Agency veterans described the tactic as an infrequent but important security measure, a means of protecting vital secrets by inserting fake communications into routine cable traffic while using separate channels to convey accurate information to cleared recipients. But others cited a significant potential for abuse. Beyond the internal distrust implied by the practice, officials said there is no clear mechanism for labeling eyewash cables or distinguishing them from legitimate records being examined by the CIA’s inspector general, turned over to Congress or declassified for historians.
Senior CIA officials have for years intentionally deceived parts of the agency workforce by transmitting internal memos that contain false information about operations and sources overseas, according to current and former U.S. officials who said the practice is known by the term “eyewash.”
Agency veterans described the tactic as an infrequent but important security measure, a means of protecting vital secrets by inserting fake communications into routine cable traffic while using separate channels to convey accurate information to cleared recipients.
But others cited a significant potential for abuse. Beyond the internal distrust implied by the practice, officials said there is no clear mechanism for labeling eyewash cables or distinguishing them from legitimate records being examined by the CIA’s inspector general, turned over to Congress or declassified for historians.
Read more @ https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/eyewash-how-the-cia-deceives-its-own-workforce-about-operations/2016/01/31/c00f5a78-c53d-11e5-9693-933a4d31bcc8_story.html
Feb 2 16 10:02 PM
HUNDREDS of thousands of people have tried to crack this brain- teasing puzzle from an intelligence and security agency, but no one has done it yet.The puzzle was put out with the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters’ (GCHQ) traditional Christmas card to staff.GCHQ is a security and intelligence organisation tasked by the Government to protect the UK from threats and works closely with MI5, and the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). They also have relationships with many other government departments and agencies.The first stage of the puzzle has been online for anyone to solve since December last year, and contains a grid-shading puzzle with instructions on how to complete it.By solving this first puzzle, players will create an image that leads to a series of increasingly complex challenges.Once all stages have been unlocked and completed successfully, players were encouraged to submit their answer via a given GCHQ email address by January 31, 2016.
HUNDREDS of thousands of people have tried to crack this brain- teasing puzzle from an intelligence and security agency, but no one has done it yet.
The puzzle was put out with the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters’ (GCHQ) traditional Christmas card to staff.
GCHQ is a security and intelligence organisation tasked by the Government to protect the UK from threats and works closely with MI5, and the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). They also have relationships with many other government departments and agencies.
The first stage of the puzzle has been online for anyone to solve since December last year, and contains a grid-shading puzzle with instructions on how to complete it.
By solving this first puzzle, players will create an image that leads to a series of increasingly complex challenges.
Once all stages have been unlocked and completed successfully, players were encouraged to submit their answer via a given GCHQ email address by January 31, 2016.
Read more @ http://www.news.com.au/technology/online/british-intelligence-and-security-agencys-brain-teasing-puzzle-stumps-readers/news-story/739308fffd357bd15d633c9afb908785
Feb 3 16 8:31 PM
WASHINGTON — For more than two years the F.B.I. and intelligence agencies have warned that encrypted communications are creating a “going dark” crisis that will keep them from tracking terrorists and kidnappers.Now, a study in which current and former intelligence officials participated concludes that the warning is wildly overblown, and that a raft of new technologies — like television sets with microphones and web-connected cars — are creating ample opportunities for the government to track suspects, many of them worrying.“ ‘Going dark’ does not aptly describe the long-term landscape for government surveillance,” concludes the study, to be published Monday by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard.
WASHINGTON — For more than two years the F.B.I. and intelligence agencies have warned that encrypted communications are creating a “going dark” crisis that will keep them from tracking terrorists and kidnappers.
Now, a study in which current and former intelligence officials participated concludes that the warning is wildly overblown, and that a raft of new technologies — like television sets with microphones and web-connected cars — are creating ample opportunities for the government to track suspects, many of them worrying.
“ ‘Going dark’ does not aptly describe the long-term landscape for government surveillance,” concludes the study, to be published Monday by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard.
Read more @ http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/01/us/politics/new-technologies-give-government-ample-means-to-track-suspects-study-finds.html?referer=&_r=4&utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link
Feb 5 16 1:53 PM
Highly critical report says proposed legislation must be reviewed to ensure obligations on tech industry are clear The government’s investigatory powers bill lacks clarity and is sowing confusion among tech firms about the extent to which “internet connection records” will be collected, a parliamentary select committee has warned. The highly critical report by the House of Commons science and technology committee says there are widespread doubts about key definitions in the legislation, “not to mention the definability, of a number of the terms”. The admission that many MPs and technology experts are baffled will reinforce political concerns that such a complex bill is being pushed through parliament at speed. Other select committees are meanwhile preparing assessments of different aspects of the bill.
Highly critical report says proposed legislation must be reviewed to ensure obligations on tech industry are clear
The government’s investigatory powers bill lacks clarity and is sowing confusion among tech firms about the extent to which “internet connection records” will be collected, a parliamentary select committee has warned.
The highly critical report by the House of Commons science and technology committee says there are widespread doubts about key definitions in the legislation, “not to mention the definability, of a number of the terms”.
The admission that many MPs and technology experts are baffled will reinforce political concerns that such a complex bill is being pushed through parliament at speed. Other select committees are meanwhile preparing assessments of different aspects of the bill.
Read more @ http://www.theguardian.com/law/2016/feb/01/investigatory-powers-bill-snoopers-charter-lacks-clarity-mps-warn
The home secretary's plan to force internet service providers to store everyone's internet activity is vague and confusing, says a committee of MPs. Police and security services will be able to see names of sites visited in the past year without a warrant, under the draft Investigatory Powers Bill. The science and technology Committee says its requirements are confusing, and firms fear a rise in hacking. The Home Office said it would study the report's findings. When she announced the draft bill last year, Theresa May stressed that the authorities would not be able to see individual web pages visited, just basic data, such as domain names like bbc.co.uk or facebook.com. 'Security goals' But tech firms have told MPs it may not be possible to separate out data in that way and the plans were not clear about was meant by "internet connection records". Committee chairman Nicola Blackwood said: "There remain questions about the feasibility of collecting and storing internet connection records (ICRs), including concerns about ensuring security for the records from hackers.
The home secretary's plan to force internet service providers to store everyone's internet activity is vague and confusing, says a committee of MPs.
Police and security services will be able to see names of sites visited in the past year without a warrant, under the draft Investigatory Powers Bill.
The science and technology Committee says its requirements are confusing, and firms fear a rise in hacking.
The Home Office said it would study the report's findings.
When she announced the draft bill last year, Theresa May stressed that the authorities would not be able to see individual web pages visited, just basic data, such as domain names like bbc.co.uk or facebook.com.
But tech firms have told MPs it may not be possible to separate out data in that way and the plans were not clear about was meant by "internet connection records".
Committee chairman Nicola Blackwood said: "There remain questions about the feasibility of collecting and storing internet connection records (ICRs), including concerns about ensuring security for the records from hackers.
Read more @ http://www.bbc.com/news/35455343
A group of MPs has criticized plans put forward in the Draft Investigatoy Powers Bill after consulting with several top technology firms, including the likes of Apple, Facebook and Google. The Science and Technology committee has slammed the bill as being vague and confusing, issuing a 43-page report outlining its views on key issues such as encryption and data collection. The committee’s chairwoman, Nicola Blackwood MP, said: "The current lack of clarity in the Draft Investigatory Powers Bill is causing concern among businesses. There are widespread doubts over the definition, not to mention the definability, of a number of the terms used in the draft bill. The government must urgently review the legislation so that the obligations on the industry are clear and proportionate". One of the most contentious aspects of the bill is encryption, with some firms worried that they will have to adopt weaker encryption standards and build backdoors into their products so that data can be accessed. This is especially relevant for companies that use end-to-end encryption, with Apple’s iMessage communication being a prime example. On this area, the report says: "There is some confusion about how the draft bill would affect end-to-end encrypted communications, where decryption might not be possible by a communications provider that had not added the original encryption. The government should clarify and state clearly in the Codes of Practice that it will not seek unencrypted content in such cases, in line with the way existing legislation is currently applied".
A group of MPs has criticized plans put forward in the Draft Investigatoy Powers Bill after consulting with several top technology firms, including the likes of Apple, Facebook and Google.
The Science and Technology committee has slammed the bill as being vague and confusing, issuing a 43-page report outlining its views on key issues such as encryption and data collection.
The committee’s chairwoman, Nicola Blackwood MP, said: "The current lack of clarity in the Draft Investigatory Powers Bill is causing concern among businesses. There are widespread doubts over the definition, not to mention the definability, of a number of the terms used in the draft bill. The government must urgently review the legislation so that the obligations on the industry are clear and proportionate".
One of the most contentious aspects of the bill is encryption, with some firms worried that they will have to adopt weaker encryption standards and build backdoors into their products so that data can be accessed. This is especially relevant for companies that use end-to-end encryption, with Apple’s iMessage communication being a prime example.
On this area, the report says: "There is some confusion about how the draft bill would affect end-to-end encrypted communications, where decryption might not be possible by a communications provider that had not added the original encryption. The government should clarify and state clearly in the Codes of Practice that it will not seek unencrypted content in such cases, in line with the way existing legislation is currently applied".
Read more @ http://betanews.com/2016/02/02/snoopers-charter-is-vague-and-confusing/
Read more @ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/article-3425793/MPs-call-refinement-Governments-bill-snooping.html
Read more @ http://rinf.com/alt-news/latest-news/snoopers-charter-expensive-confusing-say-mps/
NSA’s Top Hacker Downplays Significance Of Zero-Day Exploits
In an appearance earlier this week at the Usenix Enigma security conference in San Francisco, the National Security Agency’s top hacker, Rob Joyce, downplayed the significance of zero-day exploits while noting that there are “many more vectors” that are not only easier to exploit, but “less risky” and “often more productive” than the zero-days the NSA has caught considerable attention for employing in recent years. I think a lot of people think the nation states are running on this engine of zero-days. You go out with your skeleton key and unlock the door and you’re in. It’s not that […] I will tell you that persistence and focus will get you in, will achieve that exploitation without the zero-days […] There’s so many more vectors that are easier, less risky and quite often more productive than going down that route. Joyce, who heads the NSA’s top hacking outfit, which is known as Tailored Access Operations (TAO), suggested at the conference that it is more so the NSA’s abundance of resources and patience than it is their arsenal of zero-days that allows them to compromise the security of networks and systems targeted by their missions.
In October the European Union’s highest court invalidated the data protection agreement known as Safe Harbor, which had allowed 4,332 American companies to transfer the personal data of the European Union’s 500 million citizens back and forth across the Atlantic. This article is part of the March / April 2016 Business Report, Cyber Survival. View the full report The decision was a result of the 2013 revelations by NSA contractor Edward Snowden, which exposed the U.S. government’s access to personal data on the servers of companies like Google and Microsoft. Now, U.S. companies are facing pressure to keep the data of European users in Europe. And in some cases Europeans may be left in the hands of lesser-known companies whose main selling point is that they’re not holding data in the U.S. There is little evidence that either trend will benefit cybersecurity, says Herbert Lin, a senior researcher at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation. “I would argue that in general the American IT industry is significantly ahead of the rest of the world, and if you want the best technical talent applied, you go American,” he says. He points out that intelligence agencies in the United Kingdom, Germany, and elsewhere in Europe were just as deeply implicated in the Snowden documents as their counterparts in the U.S. “Just because the data is hosted over there doesn’t change the security dimensions of it very much,” he adds.
In October the European Union’s highest court invalidated the data protection agreement known as Safe Harbor, which had allowed 4,332 American companies to transfer the personal data of the European Union’s 500 million citizens back and forth across the Atlantic.
The decision was a result of the 2013 revelations by NSA contractor Edward Snowden, which exposed the U.S. government’s access to personal data on the servers of companies like Google and Microsoft. Now, U.S. companies are facing pressure to keep the data of European users in Europe. And in some cases Europeans may be left in the hands of lesser-known companies whose main selling point is that they’re not holding data in the U.S.
There is little evidence that either trend will benefit cybersecurity, says Herbert Lin, a senior researcher at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation. “I would argue that in general the American IT industry is significantly ahead of the rest of the world, and if you want the best technical talent applied, you go American,” he says. He points out that intelligence agencies in the United Kingdom, Germany, and elsewhere in Europe were just as deeply implicated in the Snowden documents as their counterparts in the U.S. “Just because the data is hosted over there doesn’t change the security dimensions of it very much,” he adds.
Read more @ https://www.technologyreview.com/s/545671/europe-raises-barriers-to-american-data-transfers/
When the NSA subcontractor Edward Snowden released classified documents in June 2013 baring the U.S. intelligence community’s global surveillance programs, it revealed the lax attention to privacy and data security at major Internet companies like Apple, Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. Warrantless surveillance was possible because data was unencrypted as it flowed between internal company data centers and service providers.
Read more @ https://www.technologyreview.com/s/545636/half-measures-on-encryption-since-snowden/
Venture Capitalists Chase Rising Cybersecurity Spending
Read more @ https://www.technologyreview.com/s/545626/venture-capitalists-chase-rising-cybersecurity-spending/
Why We’re So Vulnerable
An expert in U.S. national cybersecurity research and policy says the next generation of technology must have security built in from the very start. In an age of continuing electronic breaches and rising geopolitical tensions over cyber-espionage, the White House is working on a national cybersecurity strategy that’s expected in early 2016. Helping to draft that strategy is Greg Shannon. He was until recently chief scientist at Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute and is now on leave to serve as assistant director for cybersecurity strategy at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. In an interview with MIT Technology Review senior writer David Talbot, Shannon explained that dealing with today’s frequent breaches and espionage threats—which have affected federal agencies as well as businesses and individuals—requires fundamentally new approaches to creating all kinds of software. Fixing the infrastructure for good may take two decades.
An expert in U.S. national cybersecurity research and policy says the next generation of technology must have security built in from the very start.
In an age of continuing electronic breaches and rising geopolitical tensions over cyber-espionage, the White House is working on a national cybersecurity strategy that’s expected in early 2016. Helping to draft that strategy is Greg Shannon. He was until recently chief scientist at Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute and is now on leave to serve as assistant director for cybersecurity strategy at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Read more @ https://www.technologyreview.com/s/545621/why-were-so-vulnerable/
Read more @ https://www.technologyreview.com/s/545616/cybersecurity-the-age-of-the-megabreach/
The majority of people believe that being online makes it impossible to avoid data snatchers. However, researchers say that there are ways to cover your digital tracks in both the online and offline world. A new toolkit of privacy protecting techniques aims to teach users how to be invisible online.
The majority of people believe that being online makes it impossible to avoid data snatchers.
However, researchers say that there are ways to cover your digital tracks in both the online and offline world.
A new toolkit of privacy protecting techniques aims to teach users how to be invisible online.
Read more @ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3421876/How-make-digitally-invisible-Researchers-reveal-best-way-stop-snoopers-tracking-offline-world.html
A US congressional probe into the impact of a hack of Juniper Networks software will examine the possibility it was initially altered at the behest of the National Security Agency (NSA), a lawmaker said in an interview yesterday. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform this month sent letters asking two-dozen agencies to provide documents showing whether they used Juniper devices running ScreenOS software. The company said in December ScreenOS had been compromised by hackers using a so-called back door in the software. Rep Will Hurd, a Texas Republican who heads the committee's technology subcommittee and formerly worked for the Central Intelligence Agency, said his initial goal in pursuing the probe was to determine whether government agencies, many of which use Juniper gear, had been compromised by the hackers.
A US congressional probe into the impact of a hack of Juniper Networks software will examine the possibility it was initially altered at the behest of the National Security Agency (NSA), a lawmaker said in an interview yesterday.
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform this month sent letters asking two-dozen agencies to provide documents showing whether they used Juniper devices running ScreenOS software. The company said in December ScreenOS had been compromised by hackers using a so-called back door in the software.
Rep Will Hurd, a Texas Republican who heads the committee's technology subcommittee and formerly worked for the Central Intelligence Agency, said his initial goal in pursuing the probe was to determine whether government agencies, many of which use Juniper gear, had been compromised by the hackers.
Read more @ http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=149373
Edward Snowden tipped for 2016 Nobel Peace Prize
Former US spy agency contractor Edward Snowden, peace negotiators in Colombia and Greek islanders helping Syrian refugees are among those favoured for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize, with the deadline for nominations looming. Nobel watchers on Monday also speculated that negotiators of an accord over Iran's nuclear program could be in the running after a surprise award last year to a coalition of Tunisian democracy campaigners, the National Dialogue Quartet. "2016 may finally be Edward Snowden's year ... His leaks are now having a positive effect," Kristian Berg Harpviken, head of the Peace Research Institute, Oslo, told Reuters on Monday, putting him top of his list of candidates. Harpviken said many nations were now reforming laws to restrict intelligence gathering, helping human rights, in the wake of Snowden's leaks in 2013 of details of the US government's surveillance programs.
Former US spy agency contractor Edward Snowden, peace negotiators in Colombia and Greek islanders helping Syrian refugees are among those favoured for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize, with the deadline for nominations looming.
Nobel watchers on Monday also speculated that negotiators of an accord over Iran's nuclear program could be in the running after a surprise award last year to a coalition of Tunisian democracy campaigners, the National Dialogue Quartet.
"2016 may finally be Edward Snowden's year ... His leaks are now having a positive effect," Kristian Berg Harpviken, head of the Peace Research Institute, Oslo, told Reuters on Monday, putting him top of his list of candidates.
Harpviken said many nations were now reforming laws to restrict intelligence gathering, helping human rights, in the wake of Snowden's leaks in 2013 of details of the US government's surveillance programs.
Read more @ http://www.9news.com.au/world/2016/02/02/03/10/snowden-tipped-for-nobel-peace-prize
Canada’s two major spy agencies, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), have been illegally obtaining personal information about the population and sharing data with their partners in the US National Security Agency-led “Five Eyes” alliance without the required authorization. These long-suppressed revelations emerge from reports of the intelligence services’ oversight committees that were presented to parliament last week. The report from the Security and Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC), which is responsible for overseeing CSIS, revealed that the domestic intelligence agency illegally obtained information on individuals from the Canada Revenue Agency, the country’s tax authority. The information was accessed without a court warrant on numerous occasions, and even after CSIS assured the federal courts and government ministers that the information had been removed from its system, CSIS retained it on one of its databases.
Canada’s two major spy agencies, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), have been illegally obtaining personal information about the population and sharing data with their partners in the US National Security Agency-led “Five Eyes” alliance without the required authorization. These long-suppressed revelations emerge from reports of the intelligence services’ oversight committees that were presented to parliament last week.
The report from the Security and Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC), which is responsible for overseeing CSIS, revealed that the domestic intelligence agency illegally obtained information on individuals from the Canada Revenue Agency, the country’s tax authority. The information was accessed without a court warrant on numerous occasions, and even after CSIS assured the federal courts and government ministers that the information had been removed from its system, CSIS retained it on one of its databases.
Read more @ https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/02/03/cana-f03.html
Read more @ http://www.vox.com/2016/2/3/10906064/john-oliver-edward-snowden-interview-hbo
Laura Poitras has a talent for disappearing. In her early documentaries like My Country, My Country and The Oath, her camera seems to float invisibly in rooms where subjects carry on intimate conversations as if they’re not being observed. Even in Citizenfour, the Oscar-winning film that tracks her personal journey from first contact with Edward Snowden to releasing his top secret NSA leaks to the world, she rarely offers a word of narration. She appears in that film exactly once, caught as if by accident in the mirror of Snowden’s Hong Kong hotel room. Now, with the opening of her multi-media solo exhibit, Astro Noise, at New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art this week, Snowden’s chronicler has finally turned her lens onto herself. And she’s given us a glimpse into one of the darkest stretches of her life, when she wasn’t yet the revelator of modern American surveillance but instead its target. The exhibit is vast and unsettling, ranging from films to documents that can be viewed only through wooden slits to a video expanse of Yemeni sky which visitors are invited to lie beneath. But the most personal parts of the show are documents that lay bare how excruciating life was for Poitras as a target of government surveillance—and how her subsequent paranoia made her the ideal collaborator in Snowden’s mission to expose America’s surveillance state. First, she’s installed a wall of papers that she received in response to an ongoing Freedom of Information lawsuit the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed on her behalf against the FBI. The documents definitively show why Poitras was tracked and repeatedly searched at the US border for years, and even that she was the subject of a grand jury investigation. And second, a book she’s publishing to accompany the exhibit includes her journal from the height of that surveillance, recording her first-person experience of becoming a spying subject, along with her inner monologue as she first corresponded with the secret NSA leaker she then knew only as “Citizenfour.”
Laura Poitras has a talent for disappearing. In her early documentaries like My Country, My Country and The Oath, her camera seems to float invisibly in rooms where subjects carry on intimate conversations as if they’re not being observed. Even in Citizenfour, the Oscar-winning film that tracks her personal journey from first contact with Edward Snowden to releasing his top secret NSA leaks to the world, she rarely offers a word of narration. She appears in that film exactly once, caught as if by accident in the mirror of Snowden’s Hong Kong hotel room.
Now, with the opening of her multi-media solo exhibit, Astro Noise, at New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art this week, Snowden’s chronicler has finally turned her lens onto herself. And she’s given us a glimpse into one of the darkest stretches of her life, when she wasn’t yet the revelator of modern American surveillance but instead its target.
The exhibit is vast and unsettling, ranging from films to documents that can be viewed only through wooden slits to a video expanse of Yemeni sky which visitors are invited to lie beneath. But the most personal parts of the show are documents that lay bare how excruciating life was for Poitras as a target of government surveillance—and how her subsequent paranoia made her the ideal collaborator in Snowden’s mission to expose America’s surveillance state. First, she’s installed a wall of papers that she received in response to an ongoing Freedom of Information lawsuit the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed on her behalf against the FBI. The documents definitively show why Poitras was tracked and repeatedly searched at the US border for years, and even that she was the subject of a grand jury investigation. And second, a book she’s publishing to accompany the exhibit includes her journal from the height of that surveillance, recording her first-person experience of becoming a spying subject, along with her inner monologue as she first corresponded with the secret NSA leaker she then knew only as “Citizenfour.”
Read more @ http://www.wired.com/2016/02/snowdens-chronicler-reveals-her-own-life-under-surveillance/
Read more @ http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/feb/04/laura-poitras-astro-noise-whitney-the-art-of-surveillance
Bed Down Location is military jargon for the sleeping quarters of people targeted for assassination. It’s also the title of a new work by Laura Poitras, the filmmaker who worked with Edward Snowden to expose the secret activities of the NSA. Poitras is best known for her Academy Award-winning documentary about the Snowden affair, Citizenfour. With Bed Down Location, she’s adapted documentary filmmaking to installation art, a strikingly powerful transformation that is certain to provoke strong emotion when her first museum show opens at the Whitney tomorrow.
Read more @ http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathonkeats/2016/02/04/citizenfour-director-laura-poitrass-whitney-exhibit-exposes-nsa-surveillance-from-a-new-perspective/#79b9f7363a40
Read more @ https://boingboing.net/2016/02/04/laura-poitrass-astro-noise.html
Student-run Foreign Affairs Symposium features six events in 2016 National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, the author of a bestselling book about life in a women's prison, and the founder of Vox.com are among those who will speak at Johns Hopkins University during the spring semester as part of the 2016 Foreign Affairs Symposium. The annual speaker series, founded in 1998, is run by Johns Hopkins students and sponsored by the university's Office of Student Development and Programming. All events are free and open to the public; reserved seats can be purchased in advance through jhutickets.com.
National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, the author of a bestselling book about life in a women's prison, and the founder of Vox.com are among those who will speak at Johns Hopkins University during the spring semester as part of the 2016 Foreign Affairs Symposium.
The annual speaker series, founded in 1998, is run by Johns Hopkins students and sponsored by the university's Office of Student Development and Programming. All events are free and open to the public; reserved seats can be purchased in advance through jhutickets.com.
Read more @ http://hub.jhu.edu/2016/02/01/foreign-affairs-symposium-lineup
Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor famous for sharing classified information with the public, is scheduled to speak at the University of Colorado on Tuesday, Feb. 16 at 7 p.m. in Macky Auditorium. Snowden will be speaking live via video chat from Russia, where he is seeking safety from prosecution by the United States for theft of government property and unauthorized communication of national defense information. Tickets went on sale Monday morning. Since then, 1,239 tickets have been sold of the 2,000 available. Tickets are $2 for students, $10 for CU Boulder faculty and staff, and $20 for the general public. They are available in the University Memorial Center dining area across from the Alferd Packer Grill. The production of this event began back in October 2015 when the American Program Bureau contacted CU’s Distinguished Speakers Board. The APB served as a medium for the DSB to get in contact with Snowden, providing the opportunity to host the event
Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor famous for sharing classified information with the public, is scheduled to speak at the University of Colorado on Tuesday, Feb. 16 at 7 p.m. in Macky Auditorium. Snowden will be speaking live via video chat from Russia, where he is seeking safety from prosecution by the United States for theft of government property and unauthorized communication of national defense information.
Tickets went on sale Monday morning. Since then, 1,239 tickets have been sold of the 2,000 available. Tickets are $2 for students, $10 for CU Boulder faculty and staff, and $20 for the general public. They are available in the University Memorial Center dining area across from the Alferd Packer Grill.
The production of this event began back in October 2015 when the American Program Bureau contacted CU’s Distinguished Speakers Board. The APB served as a medium for the DSB to get in contact with Snowden, providing the opportunity to host the event
Read more @ http://cuindependent.com/2016/02/03/snowden-tickets-selling-fast/
Read more @ http://truthinmedia.com/documents-cia-flew-rendition-flight-in-attempt-capture-snowden/
British and US intelligence have hacked Israeli drones' video feeds, allowing them to watch in real time as Israel bombed Gaza and spied on Syria, according to documents leaked by Edward Snowden. GCHQ and its US counterpart, the NSA, also monitored the drone footage in the hope of getting an early warning if Israel was attacking Iran's nuclear facilities. The disclosures were the latest in a series of examples of how the US and Israel professed friendship in public but also spied intensively on each other. They could heighten tensions between the two countries, which were already at odds over the Iranian nuclear deal and Israel's settlement policy in the occupied West Bank. The hacking programme, code-named Anarchist, also appeared to confirm a badly kept secret: that Israeli drones carry missiles and are used for lethal strikes. Israel has never publicly confirmed it has armed drones but the footage appeared to show a Heron drone, one of the world's largest unmanned aircraft, carrying missiles.
British and US intelligence have hacked Israeli drones' video feeds, allowing them to watch in real time as Israel bombed Gaza and spied on Syria, according to documents leaked by Edward Snowden.
GCHQ and its US counterpart, the NSA, also monitored the drone footage in the hope of getting an early warning if Israel was attacking Iran's nuclear facilities.
The disclosures were the latest in a series of examples of how the US and Israel professed friendship in public but also spied intensively on each other.
They could heighten tensions between the two countries, which were already at odds over the Iranian nuclear deal and Israel's settlement policy in the occupied West Bank.
The hacking programme, code-named Anarchist, also appeared to confirm a badly kept secret: that Israeli drones carry missiles and are used for lethal strikes. Israel has never publicly confirmed it has armed drones but the footage appeared to show a Heron drone, one of the world's largest unmanned aircraft, carrying missiles.
Read more @ http://www.afr.com/news/world/middle-east/edward-snowden-leaks-us-and-uk-watched-israeli-aircraft-bomb-gaza-in-real-time-20160130-gmhv3h
Top secret documents have revealed an alleged espionage operation codenamed Anarchist, dating back to 1998An official has called revelations that the UK and US have been monitoring Israel's drones and fighter jets the “worst leak in the history of Israeli intelligence”. Material leaked by Edward Snowden appears to show spies hacking cameras and video feeds almost two decades. Images obtained by The Intercept, German magazine Der Spiegel and Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth showed drones flying missions over Gaza and the West Bank, including some appearing to snow the aircraft armed with missiles.
Top secret documents have revealed an alleged espionage operation codenamed Anarchist, dating back to 1998An official has called revelations that the UK and US have been monitoring Israel's drones and fighter jets the “worst leak in the history of Israeli intelligence”.
Material leaked by Edward Snowden appears to show spies hacking cameras and video feeds almost two decades.
Images obtained by The Intercept, German magazine Der Spiegel and Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth showed drones flying missions over Gaza and the West Bank, including some appearing to snow the aircraft armed with missiles.
Read more @ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/edward-snowden-leaks-showing-uk-and-us-spying-on-drones-is-worst-breach-in-israeli-intelligence-a6843241.html
The United States and Great Britain combined to hack into Israeli drone and fighter jet surveillance feeds as part of secret program that in part watched for a potential Israeli military strike against Iran, according to a new report published along with corresponding photos. The Intercept reported that the secret program was called “Anarchist.” It was carried out by Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ, and the National Security Agency from a mountaintop Royal Air Force base in Cyprus, according to the report. “GCHQ files provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden include a series of ‘Anarchist snapshots’ — thumbnail images from videos recorded by drone cameras,” The Intercept reported. “The files also show location data mapping the flight paths of the aircraft. In essence, U.S. and British agencies stole a bird’s-eye view from the drones.”
The United States and Great Britain combined to hack into Israeli drone and fighter jet surveillance feeds as part of secret program that in part watched for a potential Israeli military strike against Iran, according to a new report published along with corresponding photos.
The Intercept reported that the secret program was called “Anarchist.” It was carried out by Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ, and the National Security Agency from a mountaintop Royal Air Force base in Cyprus, according to the report.
“GCHQ files provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden include a series of ‘Anarchist snapshots’ — thumbnail images from videos recorded by drone cameras,” The Intercept reported. “The files also show location data mapping the flight paths of the aircraft. In essence, U.S. and British agencies stole a bird’s-eye view from the drones.”
Read more @ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/01/29/u-s-and-britain-hacked-into-feeds-from-israeli-drones-and-fighter-jets-according-to-report/
One of the tactless features of the Obama administration has been its misuse of the National Security Agency. Characterized in the mid-2000s by its tendency to spy on American citizens sans warrant, the nature of the agency created a chilling and Orwell-esque atmosphere for many citizens. Now the Israeli military feels the same infringement of their privacy. According to documents leaked by former-National Security Agency employee Edward Snowden, a spy operation also based in England, ironically code-named “Anarchist” has been spying on Israeli air force missions against Syria, Iran and finally Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since – wait for it – 1998. The operation was seated from a base in the Troodos Mountains (near Mount Olympus) the highest known point on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. Why would America spy on Israel? Distrust and paranoia, mainly, related to feelings that there is mutual espionage being conducted between the two countries. But these sentiments are gravely misjudged. Israel insists that there has been no kind of below-the-radar espionage since the case of Jonathan Pollard in the 1980s, who had in any case acted independently. “We know that the Americans spy on the whole world, and also on us, also on their friends,” said Israeli energy minister, Yuval Steinitz, in a quote to Israel Army Radio, recorded by Reuters. “But still, it is disappointing, inter alia because, going back decades already, we have not spied nor collected intelligence nor hacked encryptions in the United States.”
One of the tactless features of the Obama administration has been its misuse of the National Security Agency. Characterized in the mid-2000s by its tendency to spy on American citizens sans warrant, the nature of the agency created a chilling and Orwell-esque atmosphere for many citizens. Now the Israeli military feels the same infringement of their privacy.
According to documents leaked by former-National Security Agency employee Edward Snowden, a spy operation also based in England, ironically code-named “Anarchist” has been spying on Israeli air force missions against Syria, Iran and finally Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since – wait for it – 1998. The operation was seated from a base in the Troodos Mountains (near Mount Olympus) the highest known point on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.
Why would America spy on Israel? Distrust and paranoia, mainly, related to feelings that there is mutual espionage being conducted between the two countries. But these sentiments are gravely misjudged. Israel insists that there has been no kind of below-the-radar espionage since the case of Jonathan Pollard in the 1980s, who had in any case acted independently.
“We know that the Americans spy on the whole world, and also on us, also on their friends,” said Israeli energy minister, Yuval Steinitz, in a quote to Israel Army Radio, recorded by Reuters. “But still, it is disappointing, inter alia because, going back decades already, we have not spied nor collected intelligence nor hacked encryptions in the United States.”
Read more @ http://dailycaller.com/2016/02/01/american-citizens-and-the-israeli-military-together-as-victims-of-the-nsa/
U.K.-U.S. Spy Operations Also Reportedly Targeted Israeli Missile Project
Following reports over the weekend of surveillance of Israel's drone operations, it is now being reported that part of Israel's Arrow missile interception program has also been compromised.
Read more @ http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/1.700506
Read more @ http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/No-surprise-but-changes-needed-443320
Read more @ http://jewishexponent.com/headlines/2016/02/us-and-uk-have-spied-on-israeli-army-for-18-years
Watch the video @ http://www.federaltimes.com/videos/government/cybersecurity/2016/02/02/79708362/
White House denies security clearance to Pulitzer-prize winning journalist with links to Edward Snowden
The White House has denied a security clearance to a member of its technology team who previously helped report on documents leaked by Edward Snowden. Ashkan Soltani, a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist and recent staffer at the Federal Trade Commission, recently began working with the White House on privacy, data ethics and technical outreach. The partnership raised eyebrows when it was announced in December because of Soltani’s previous work with the Washington Post, where he helped analyze and protect a cache of National Security Agency documents leaked by Snowden.
Read more @ http://www.businessinsider.com/white-house-denies-security-clearance-to-journalist-with-links-to-edward-snowden-2016-2?IR=T
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