PRISM

AnCatDubh

Setun wrote: »

The latter is not as tinfoil hat as it might first appear, given that the Guardian were visited by a few men in suits, and stuck around until they saw the destruction of a set of hard drives.

I wonder did (from the article quoted above):

Intelligence officials asked the Guardian, New York Times and ProPublica not to publish this article, saying that it might prompt foreign targets to switch to new forms of encryption or communications that would be harder to collect or read.

happen before or after the hard disk destruction incident.

Diplomacy isn't really a trait they have at their disposal

jmcc

AnCatDubh wrote: »

One thing doesn't quite add up with recent events.

Why, with all the capability the NSA/GCHQ have at decrypting/brute force super computer code breaking, with back doors into facebook, google and so forth, did they force David Miranda under 'legitimate' UK legislation to give them the passwords to something as basic as his facebook account, his laptop, and external drives.

Sometimes it is just easier to ask for the passwords.

Regards...jmcc

Capt'n Midnight

jmcc wrote: »

Sometimes it is just easier to ask for the passwords.

Regards...jmcc

[-0-]

I think the choice of names like "bullrun" and "edgehill" is at least a tacit admission that these agencies know they're waging war against their own people.

Amirani

Yahoo file a lawsuit against the NSA: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/09/yahoo-lawsuit-nsa-surveillance-requests

They're looking to be able to publish the number of data requests it gets from the NSA each year. Google and Microsoft reportedly also making similar moves.

Deliverance XXV

NiallSparky wrote: »

Yahoo file a lawsuit against the NSA: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/09/yahoo-lawsuit-nsa-surveillance-requests

They're looking to be able to publish the number of data requests it gets from the NSA each year. Google and Microsoft reportedly also making similar moves.

No harm but I fear that these actions will not prevent anything, other than push it deeper underground.

These companies are part of the backbone of the Internet and computing and really have an unspoken responsibility to defend their customers against illegitimate requests. All data requests should have a paper trail detailing who/when/where/why that can be opened and revealed into the public or local domains at certain Court's requests. Someone has to police the police and all that.

900913

Spooks at the US National Security Agency (NSA) can't believe we're all paying for the equipment it's using to spy on us, describing Steve Jobs as Big Brother and iPhone buyers as "zombies".

That assertion comes from NSA documents leaked to Germany's Spiegel Online.

The self-promoting presentation, purportedly an internal NSA report from 2010 titled "Exploring Current Trends, Targets and Techniques", includes a number of slides presenting snapshots of grinning iPhone-brandishing customers as analogous to the "zombies" brainwashed by Big Brother – in a reference to George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.


http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/09/09/fanbois_the_nsa_thinks_youre_all_zombies/

Khannie

I lol'd hard:

Torqay

Dear NSA Family...

kippy

I'm more concerned about the amount of money/resources/human effort going towards allegedly trying to stop a few terrorists blowing up something......... and then not even having a clue how effective all this actually is, especially when deal with some of the types of terrorists already mention.
There are far cheaper and more effective methods of doing this, while at the same time there are many diseases that kill more than terrorists that could do with the money that goes towards PRISM to fund further research into cures.

Of course the "metadata" that is being collected can be used for other purposes, that is essentially the reason it is being collected.

Yeah I've nothing to hide and it's likely there aint much metadata on me there (until now perhaps) however my worry is - what happens if, within one of these third party companies that work for the US, or even what happens if a person employed directly by the US goes rogue, and instead of "blowing the whistle" - which was a good thing - starts selling of this data to various organisations that may not be so "easy" on those with "nothing to hide".

The revelations haven't effected my online habits in anyway, mainly because I have always believed that anything you do online can be tracked and traced if someone had the means and wherewithall to do it.

Capt'n Midnight

kippy wrote: »

I'm more concerned about the amount of money/resources/human effort going towards allegedly trying to stop a few terrorists blowing up something

Including interest but excluding third party costs the "war on terror" has cost $5.4 trillion so far. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_Terror#Costs - about $17,800 per US citizen. We could have wiped out measles, polio and lots of other diseases for a tiny fraction of this

Of course the "metadata" that is being collected can be used for other purposes, that is essentially the reason it is being collected.

Big data / data mining. During WWII one of the biggest assets the US had was the library of congress. Lots of production stats and target data and maps and biographies. They now have that sort of data about individuals rather than areas.

Yeah I've nothing to hide and it's likely there aint much metadata on me there (until now perhaps) however my worry is - what happens if, within one of these third party companies that work for the US, or even what happens if a person employed directly by the US goes rogue, and instead of "blowing the whistle" - which was a good thing - starts selling of this data to various organisations that may not be so "easy" on those with "nothing to hide".

there is lots of metadata on you, all the ISP's and phone companies and traffic cameras and credit card stuff

If they are spending thousands of dollars per person, then it's likely they're spending a few dollars per person on hard drive space ( storage costs halve every 14 months , there is no need to delete anything, ever. Shingle drives allows 25% more storage with the same technology - so that's another 4.5 months on the roadmap. nevermind that adding more platters is another way to increase storage without needing any new technology )

last time I visited the US ambassadors residence all they wanted was my name and date of birth :pac:

Capt'n Midnight

one of the my background apps



PRISM Profiles Server Module
(Not verified) Conexant Systems, Inc.
Version: 2.4.7.7

C:\Windows\SysWOW64\PRISMSVR.exe /LOGON /49208 /49209 /49210

Parent: userinit.exe(2780)

Khannie

Full prism disclosure timeline.

LoLth

http://www.dw.de/eu-lawmakers-urge-block-on-us-access-to-swift-bank-data/a-17179462

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/news-room/content/20131021IPR22725/html/MEPs-call-for-suspension-of-EU-US-bank-data-deal-in-response-to-NSA-snooping

NSA spying on SWIFT server data. Looks like EU policy makers have had enough. From what I can gather, there was an agreement in place to give the US government access but the NSA decided to ignore the policy and procedure provided and just hack their way in anyway.

and in ironic news:
http://www.dw.de/merkel-calls-obama-for-answers-over-reports-that-the-us-spied-on-her-phone/a-17179819

Chancellor from a country where their police force installed backdoors onto the systems of their own citizens gets annoyed at the thought of someone spying on her.....

Khannie

LoLth wrote: »

police force installed backdoors onto the systems of their own citizens

This rings bells from the recent enough past. Can you remind me though?

Torqay

Khannie wrote: »

Can you remind me though?

The infamous Federal Trojan.

Khannie

Ah yes. That's the one.

Torqay

The German foreign minister has summoned the US ambassador.

Capt'n Midnight

Khannie wrote: »

This rings bells from the recent enough past. Can you remind me though?

http://www.forbes.com/2010/02/03/hackers-networking-equipment-technology-security-cisco.html

In a presentation at the Black Hat security conference Wednesday, IBM Internet Security Systems researcher Tom Cross unveiled research on how easily the “lawful intercept” function in Cisco’s IOS operating system can be exploited by cybercriminals or cyberspies to pull data out of the routers belonging to an Internet service provider (ISP) and watch innocent victims’ online behavior.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/ios/12_2sb/feature/guide/ht_ssi.html

Lawful Intercept is the process by which law enforcement agencies (LEAs) conduct electronic surveillance as authorized by judicial or administrative order. Increasingly, legislation is being adopted and regulations are being enforced that require service providers (SPs) and Internet service providers (ISPs) to implement their networks to explicitly support authorized electronic surveillance. The types of SPs or ISPs that are subject to LI mandates vary greatly from country to country. LI compliance in the United States is specified by the CALEA.

Cisco supports two architectures for LI: PacketCable and Service Independent Intercept. The LI components by themselves do not ensure customer compliance with applicable regulations but rather provide tools that can be used by SPs and ISPs to construct an LI-compliant network.

clairefontaine

Am I missing something? Haven't we all been spying on each other for decades?

In one way this is shocking but in other, not at all shocking.

Capt'n Midnight

clairefontaine wrote: »

Am I missing something? Haven't we all been spying on each other for decades?

In one way this is shocking but in other, not at all shocking.

But this time it's different, the American public has evidence it's been spied on :eek:

In short the American public has woken up and drank the coffee and taken another step to acknowledging they are being treated like the rest of us.


I think people over here would have been more upset if there wasn't some sort of surveillance of the usual suspects during the troubles. Common knowledge said that that there was rudimentary voice recognition or mass recording on phone lines back in the 80's.

clairefontaine

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

But this time it's different, the American public has evidence it's been spied on :eek:

In short the American public has woken up and drank the coffee and taken another step to acknowledging they are being treated like the rest of us.


I think people over here would have been more upset if there wasn't some sort of surveillance of the usual suspects during the troubles. Common knowledge said that that there was rudimentary voice recognition or mass recording on phone lines back in the 80's.

This is what has amazed me truly. How could they not have known? Its been going on for decades.

Its just that these days people are publishing more and more personal stuff online so they feel it more.

I guess pigeons will come back into fashion eventually huh?

[-0-]

Thoughts on the NSA: http://semirandommusings.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-nsa-scandal-why-does-nobody-care.html

When discussing Big Brother, it’s next to impossible to avoid referencing Orwell’s 1984. If you haven’t read this book, please do. I recently read Diaries by Orwell, and was surprised to find he was a racist bigot; he hated Jews and the Irish. Don’t let that stop you from reading his prose, however. The man was a fine author.

“So long as they (the Proles) continued to work and breed, their other activities were without importance. Left to themselves, like cattle turned loose upon the plains of Argentina, they had reverted to a style of life that appeared to be natural to them, a sort of ancestral pattern...Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbors, films, football, beer and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult.”

The above quote speaks volumes about today’s society. Whether it is Ireland, England, the United States or elsewhere, it still holds true to this day. The majority of the present day populace behaves in this manner.

Let me bring you back to the Watergate incident from seventies for a brief moment, a scandal which saw the incarceration of 43 people, most of whom were Nixon’s top officials. It started with a break-in, and ended with the confession that every conversation in Nixon’s Oval Office was recorded. Since this scandal, the media love to stick the ‘gate’ suffix onto anything that remotely resembles a scandal. Not many stories since Watergate were worthy of it, until recently.

Perhaps the NSA eavesdropping scandal in 2006/2007 comes close. After September 11th 2001, the NSA began a classified foreign intelligence program on domestic soil, to intercept telephone and internet communications of persons and organisations without obtaining warrants and therefore outside the parameters of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978. UCLA along with several journalists and authors, attempted to sue The NSA, albeit unsuccessfully. The appeal was turned down as the plaintiffs failed to present evidence that they were targets of the program.

“We are, in essence, being asked to trust the state to know best. What reason do we have for such confidence? The agencies entrusted with our protection have repeatedly been shown, before and after the fall of 2001, to be conspicuous for their incompetence and venality. No serious reform of these institutions has been undertaken or even proposed."

Christopher Hitchens made the above statement when speaking on January 16th, 2006 about the incident. His words are extremely important and need not be forgotten when we consider the recent Snowden scandal. Snowden released classified documents which prove the existence of a complicated and well-funded spy campaign by the NSA on every one of its citizens in the United States. Every piece of electronic communication is stored in the NSA’s huge warehouse. Most phones are also tapped, and the tapping is not limited to people in the America. Recently it has emerged that Angela Merkel’s phone was also tapped. Obama is claiming (and I believe him) that he did not know about the tapping of Allied officials, which brings me to my next point.

I don’t believe the president of the United States has any power to stop the NSA. They are our present day Big Brother, always watching us. In essence, they control The White House. Sounds crazy, but I urge you to consider the following: the next president of the United States attempts to scale back or even stop the NSA spy program, something which the NSA do not want to happen. What is stopping the NSA from going through said president’s personal emails, texts, entire phone history, pictures, et al in an attempt to find dirt on him and thereby have him impeached? What can stop them from doing this on any government official or any citizen?

I find it exceptionally worrying that our streets are empty. I don’t see thousands of people up in arms over this, protesting and putting pressure on the NSA to stop treating everyone like terrorists. Why is this? Part of it is because a portion of the populace believes in the “I have nothing to hide” fallacy. This is the wrong way to think about surveillance. How can any individual be sure they are not violating a law when the federal government does not even know how many laws there are? Consider the following quote from James Duane, a professor at Regent Law School and former attorney:

“Estimates of the current size of the body of federal criminal law vary. It has been reported that the Congressional Research Service cannot even count the current number of federal crimes. These laws are scattered in over 50 titles of the United States Code, encompassing roughly 27,000 pages. Worse yet, the statutory code sections often incorporate, by reference, the provisions and sanctions of administrative regulations promulgated by various regulatory agencies under congressional authorization. Estimates of how many such regulations exist are even less well settled, but the ABA thinks there are ‘nearly 10,000’”

A wired.com article which quoted Mr. Duane goes on to discuss several ridiculous laws. An example given is being in the possession of a lobster under a certain size is against the law. It doesn’t matter if you bought it in a grocery store, if someone gave it to you, if it’s dead or alive. See here: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/16/3372

If the federal government has access to every email, text, phone call, picture message that you have ever taken part in then chances are they could find something on you which violates the 27,000 pages of federal statuses or the 10,000 administrative regulations. You could be behind the next door Big Brother kicks in.

Capt'n Midnight

clairefontaine wrote: »

I guess pigeons will come back into fashion eventually huh?

People who don't understand history are doomed to repeat it.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrier_pigeon

During the 19th-century Franco-Prussian War, besieged Parisians used carrier pigeons to transmit messages outside the city; in response, the besieging German Army employed hawks to hunt the pigeons

see also
http://www.blug.linux.no/rfc1149/
and
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11325452
But if you need bandwidth then the way to go is this
http://www.abenba.com/?p=10991

clairefontaine

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

People who don't understand history are doomed to repeat it.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrier_pigeon

see also
http://www.blug.linux.no/rfc1149/
and
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11325452
But if you need bandwidth then the way to go is this
http://www.abenba.com/?p=10991

Ive read some really amazing things about the MI5 pigeons during WW2. Seriously fantastic espionage.

bonzodog2

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

People who don't understand history are doomed to repeat it.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrier_pigeon

see also
http://www.blug.linux.no/rfc1149/
and
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11325452
But if you need bandwidth then the way to go is this
http://www.abenba.com/?p=10991

IMHO the snail solution is marred by the need to have a man with a red flag holding a bit of lettuce. At least the pigeons know where they're going.

riclad

GOOD article here ,going into detail,
as to the amount of surveillance going on.
HOW its done.

prism is the tip of the iceberg.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/03/world/no-morsel-too-minuscule-for-all-consuming-nsa.html?pagewanted=6&_r=0&ref=us

Theres alot of monitoring of foreign leaders, allies ,
which seems to there for reasons of economic ,business intelligence ,
eg nothing to do with counter terrorism information gathering.
Alot of this could only be done with full cooperation of foreign telecom
mobile phone companys or isps.
I presume they are either under secret court orders ,or else getting paid
to hold on to all this data .

This article is more detailed than any article i,ve seen in the gaurdian newspaper , as to the technical means used to get data .

OF course alot of data is got by simply tapping into fibre cables ,
as in the case of yahoo email ,or gmail data ,
where the links were not encrypted.

AnCatDubh

Todays TED Talk: Mikko Hypponen: How the NSA betrayed the world's trust -- time to act

An important rant, wrapped with a plea: to find alternative solutions to using American companies for the world's information needs.

Ctrl Alt Del

Could be off-topic...but just watching Die Hard 4 on tv and wondering since when "they" tried to tell "us" something and ... we are just not online !??

bd0101

AnCatDubh wrote: »

Todays TED Talk: Mikko Hypponen: How the NSA betrayed the world's trust -- time to act

I second that.

I was surprised to listen to several Americans excusing all these activities in the name of country. I would expect that from an NSA employee, but not an average American. Sadly it is either that US-media propaganda works, or that the average American (or X nationality) simply does not care enough.

Well, good news is, there are some people that care. Nothing is done though without action. Next time you will buy a service, a hardware, anything.. THINK-REACT-ACT: DO NOT BUY AMERICAN. Let them see a significant drop on their total sales, and send a message. If there is one language the leaders can speak, that is the one of power and .. money.

bd0101

On a further thought, the reason behind this happening is that nowadays there is not any international cybersecurity legistlation which would be relevant to our modern reality. This leads us to the situation where cyberspace is usurped by the US (even more, since many powers were already inherited by the early lifetime stages of the early Internet-versions).

Thinking of potential ways to resolve this problem, should not be restricted to EU frameworks; US will continue that illegal activity and unfortunately, the only measures will be the ones against potential leakers.

It is each and every one of us that should act. One step, one person at a time, one little victory.

AnCatDubh

Convinced by NSA reform announcements?

via Gizmodo: Rating Obama’s NSA Reform Plan: EFF Scorecard Explained

[-0-]

Reform? No reform at all heh. He basically said he's ok with it because it protects 'murica.

Dude111

AnCatDubh wrote:

Convinced by NSA reform announcements?

Yes Im convinced it will get worse!

stupid head

Good little read about Freedom Hosting/Tormail seizure

stupid head

Belgian professor in cryptography hacked

The article concerns the hacking of the computer of professor Jean-Jacques Quisquater, a renowned expert in cryptography. Suspicions arose that the hacking of Professor Quisquater was done by the U.S. National Security Agency or the British GCHQ. The case is under investigation by Belgian authorities.


Quisquater has earned his reputation: he has 17 patents in his name, he headed the 'Crypto group' at the UCL and was awarded the RSA Conference Award for Excellence in the Field of Mathematics.

New Snowden Interview

stupid head

[Updated] Apple Fixed A Bug In iOS 7. It’s A Doozy

On the Timing of iOS’s SSL Vulnerability and Apple’s ‘Addition’ to the NSA’s PRISM Program

Khannie

Had a look at the code. Something coding standards could have easily avoided. Ouch.

Ctrl Alt Del

And a fresh reminder why we love "cloud based" solutions:

Prez Obama cyber-guru: Think your data is safe in an EU cloud? The NSA will raid your servers

http://m.theregister.co.uk/2014/02/24/richard_clarke_csa_comments/

Khannie

Ctrl Alt Del wrote: »

And a fresh reminder why we love "cloud based" solutions:

Prez Obama cyber-guru: Think your data is safe in an EU cloud? The NSA will raid your servers

http://m.theregister.co.uk/2014/02/24/richard_clarke_csa_comments/

Interesting read. I must say I don't like this "Oh don't bother with security, fools. The NSA can do what they want."

Well maybe they can, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna make it easy.

stupid head

A Closer Look At Blackphone, The Android Smartphone That Simplifies Privacy

Ctrl Alt Del

Hi,
Today,we "discovered" and confirmed that photo snapshots of the Yahoo messaging were captured by them !

I guess the most important point that remain open and said by a truly security-aware techie is the fact that are issues that we know and issues that we are not allowed to know about them ! And even if we find out...who to believe now !??
What's next... !?

Copied / linked from here:

"While Charney is obviously sincere in his beliefs that Microsoft is on the side of the angels, others are less sure.
"The best Microsoft can say is that we are secure except for the vulnerabilities that we don't know about and the ones we are prohibited by law from telling you about," security expert and CTO of CO3 Bruce Schneier told The Register.
"This is the problem. Microsoft might be 100 per cent truthful about this, but they have no way of proving it. Because the NSA has poisoned the environment, we have no reason to believe them." ® "

Traitor

Nothing new to see here. I had gigs of my neighbor's wife's msn camsex videos from sniffing their wifi.

You people need to assume that everything you send across the net is going to be logged and seen by someone you don't want to see it. There is no privacy on the internet, and there never really was.

Khannie

Traitor wrote: »

Nothing new to see here. I had gigs of my neighbor's wife's msn camsex videos from sniffing their wifi.

You people need to assume that everything you send across the net is going to be logged and seen by someone you don't want to see it. There is no privacy on the internet, and there never really was.

Not with that attitude. :P

Ctrl Alt Del

Traitor wrote: »

You people need to assume that everything you send across the net is going to be logged and seen by someone you don't want to see it. There is no privacy on the internet, and there never really was.

Nothing personal here...but intercept and analyze this across the wire...

You felt that your wife is cheating on you,you had some feelings and doubts BUT you trusted her based on her words,smiles,attitude!
Then...you caught her in red,with her smile in other half's privacy zone !

That is the problem now...will you trust her anymore now that you have to live with her because ...dunno, your kids loves you as a family !??

Regards


PS
My Q is ...who is the wife,the neighbor,the other end ,the other(S):)

RainyDay

Traitor wrote: »

Nothing new to see here. I had gigs of my neighbor's wife's msn camsex videos from sniffing their wifi.

You think that's funny? I have gigs of you drooling over your neighbour's wife's MSN camsex videos.

stupid head

A Brief Rundown Of The Spying Questions Intel’s CEO Won't Answer

Traitor

stupid head wrote: »

A Brief Rundown Of The Spying Questions Intel’s CEO Won't Answer

2014.03.01 - Stephen Colbert rips NSA MtGox Snowden in RSA speech video

Agent Bubbles

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/wp/2014/03/10/edward-snowden-theyre-setting-fire-to-the-future-of-the-internet/

industrialhorse

Traitor wrote: »

Nothing new to see here. I had gigs of my neighbor's wife's msn camsex videos from sniffing their wifi.

You people need to assume that everything you send across the net is going to be logged and seen by someone you don't want to see it. There is no privacy on the internet, and there never really was.

"You people"? down with that sort of thing on this site:P