omnibus PRISM/NSA/free Edward Snowden/encryption tutorial thread

that + the password scene in Citizenfour suggests that Oliver Stone should've cast Steve Carell as GG.

Was thinking Jeremy Piven for GG myself.

"Why is your agency above the law, sir?…Why can you lie to the Senate about mass surveillance presuming the entire globe to be subject to pervasive collection, twisting the meaning of the terms in violations of the statutes in the Constitution restraining your agency?

Why are you above the law for perjury and why is the NSA above the law for mass surveillance, even violating the contours that the authors of the Patriot Act intended to authorize in 2001?…[A]nd Senators, why won’t you do your job? You’re charged with oversight of these officials."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN2973g0QUw#t=19

http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2015/02/26/after-hearing-capitol-police-arrest-lawyer-for-shouting-question-at-clapper-about-nsa-surveillance/

buttar fuckin rules

whoa

Researchers working with the Central Intelligence Agency have conducted a multi-year, sustained effort to break the security of Apple’s iPhones and iPads, according to top-secret documents obtained by The Intercept.

The security researchers presented their latest tactics and achievements at a secret annual gathering, called the “Jamboree,” where attendees discussed strategies for exploiting security flaws in household and commercial electronics. The conferences have spanned nearly a decade, with the first CIA-sponsored meeting taking place a year before the first iPhone was released.

By targeting essential security keys used to encrypt data stored on Apple’s devices, the researchers have sought to thwart the company’s attempts to provide mobile security to hundreds of millions of Apple customers across the globe. Studying both “physical” and “non-invasive” techniques, U.S. government-sponsored research has been aimed at discovering ways to decrypt and ultimately penetrate Apple’s encrypted firmware. This could enable spies to plant malicious code on Apple devices and seek out potential vulnerabilities in other parts of the iPhone and iPad currently masked by encryption.

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/03/10/ispy-cia-campaign-steal-apples-secrets/

Wikimedia files suit against NSA

http://time.com/3738697/wikimedia-nsa-upstream-surveillance/

The Obama administration set a record again for censoring government files or outright denying access to them last year under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, according to a new analysis of federal data by The Associated Press.

The government took longer to turn over files when it provided any, said more regularly that it couldn't find documents and refused a record number of times to turn over files quickly that might be especially newsworthy.

It also acknowledged in nearly 1 in 3 cases that its initial decisions to withhold or censor records were improper under the law — but only when it was challenged.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ab029d7c625149348143a51ff61175c6/us-sets-new-record-denying-censoring-government-files

as usual, "most transparent"

what the ████ is this ████████

█ █ █ █ █ █ █

our corporate and spook overlords: Working Together

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/04/01/nsa-corporate-america-push-broad-cyber-surveillance-legislation/

... except for any actual software / internet companies. Silicon Valley spends a fair bit on lobbying now, will be interesting/terrifying to see who wins.

fun in Fort Greene Park

http://mashable.com/2015/04/07/edward-snowden-hologram-statue-brooklyn/

oh, Clapper!

http://thehill.com/policy/technology/241508-spy-head-had-absolutely-forgotten-about-nsa-program

i guess for a few hours at least, the government isn't collecting our metadata

let's plot something

oh, naivete; the Zombie Patriot Act goes on.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/05/31/zombie-patriot-act-will-keep-u-s-spying-even-if-the-original-dies.html

I'm still irked that people don't remember that USA PATRIOT Act is an acronym.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acronym#Contrived_acronyms

Pierce:

Let me say for the record that, because I am not five-years-old, I do not believe for a moment that the NSA has stopped collecting that data while Mitch McConnell tries to tease a vote out of his unruly caucus, nor do I believe for a moment that it will cease to do so if and when the compromise passes. The NSA's messianic delusions about its role in the world, which is something it has in common with the rest of the heroes of our intelligence community, will sustain it through these minor eruptions of actual democracy.

The one ray of hope to come out of the windbaggery yesterday is the fact that, for the first time since the attacks of 9/11, the national legislature came out from under the bed and confronted, however meekly, the idea that in the freedom-vs.-security debate, the sides ought to be at equal strength. For this, we have to thank Senator Aqua Buddha, who forced the issue. His performance was choppy and, occasionally, incoherent. The blog's Five Minute Rule was in effect throughout his presentation. For example, he found himself consistently incapable of pronouncing "Tsarnaev," and he botched (for his own rhetorical purposes) James Madison's famous quote from Federalist 51...

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a35380/rand-paul-patriot-act/

As Washington weighs new cybersecurity steps amid a public backlash over mass surveillance, U.S. tech companies warned President Barack Obama not to weaken increasingly sophisticated encryption systems designed to protect consumers' privacy.

In a strongly worded letter to Obama on Monday, two industry associations for major software and hardware companies said, "We are opposed to any policy actions or measures that would undermine encryption as an available and effective tool."

The Information Technology Industry Council and the Software and Information Industry Association, representing tech giants, including Apple Inc, Google Inc, Facebook Inc, IBM and Microsoft Corp, fired the latest salvo in what is shaping up to be a long fight over government access into smart phones and other digital devices.

Obama administration officials, led by the FBI, have pushed the companies to find ways to let law enforcement bypass encryption to investigate illegal activities, including terrorism threats, but not weaken it so that criminals and computer hackers could penetrate the defenses.

So far, however, the White House has not spelled out specific regulatory or legislative steps it might seek.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/09/us-cybersecurity-usa-encryption-idUSKBN0OP09R20150609

find ways to let law enforcement bypass encryption to investigate illegal activities, including terrorism threats, but not weaken it so that criminals and computer hackers could penetrate the defenses

as anyone with any knowledge of information security will tell you, this is literally impossible

A digital network that would only allow the pure of heart to access its records, employing safeguards to restrict potential security breaches by Hacktivists and Vagabonds.

Obama has built quite a base by promising the literally impossible and doing what he wants

Meanwhile: British spies removed from operations after Russia and China crack codes to leaked Snowden files

(whether or not that story is even valid is entirely up to you)

seems it isn't, on evidence beyond "Murdoch-owned"

http://blog.erratasec.com/2015/06/how-we-really-know-sunday-times-story.html#.VX4WqtVVhBc

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/06/14/sunday-times-report-snowden-files-journalism-worst-also-filled-falsehoods/

Summary of XKEYSCORE so far: https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/07/01/nsas-google-worlds-private-communications/

Not only does the document-leaker in Fort Leavenworth prison face limits on what she can read, but the banned books are often literary classics.

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/08/21/chelsea-mannings-banned-book-list-shockingly-long-dimanno.html

hey Brits

The mass surveillance operation — code-named KARMA POLICE — was launched by British spies about seven years ago without any public debate or scrutiny. It was just one part of a giant global Internet spying apparatus built by the United Kingdom’s electronic eavesdropping agency, Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ.

The revelations about the scope of the British agency’s surveillance are contained in documents obtained by The Intercept from National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden. Previous reports based on the leaked files have exposed how GCHQ taps into Internet cables to monitor communications on a vast scale, but many details about what happens to the data after it has been vacuumed up have remained unclear.

Amid a renewed push from the U.K. government for more surveillance powers, more than two dozen documents being disclosed today by The Intercept reveal for the first time several major strands of GCHQ’s existing electronic eavesdropping capabilities.

One system builds profiles showing people’s web browsing histories. Another analyzes instant messenger communications, emails, Skype calls, text messages, cell phone locations, and social media interactions. Separate programs were built to keep tabs on “suspicious” Google searches and usage of Google Maps.

https://theintercept.com/2015/09/25/gchq-radio-porn-spies-track-web-users-online-identities/

"According to Snowden's lawyer, Ben Wizner of the ACLU, @Snowden himself will be controlling the account."

https://theintercept.com/2015/09/29/edward-snowden-twitter-snowden/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3r51QI4Ctw

this is the best thing which has ever occurred

All morning I've been singing "and there won't be Snowden in Africa this Christmas ..."

So i rewatched Citizenfour, and i think it's Greenwald in either the David Carr interview or the outtakes on the DVD who points out that we now prefer to say PRIVACY for what we invariably used to refer to as LIBERTY.

So if we no longer "should have any expectation of privacy/liberty," as DJP has often suggested, what is the putative organizing principle of the country? I know we've been lying to ourselves about all kinds of shit for 239 years, but one needs a good cover story for a national credo. What is the Latin for "Retweeting Taylor Swift"?

"pecuniam tuam semper habe"

What's another word for pirate treasure ?

revenueoftheClintonFoundation

A constitution of "With privacy and justice for all" sure would make things different.

Also, turns out Snowden likes Harvey Danger.

"Paranoia, paranoia / Everybody's coming to get me"

i'm going underground with the moles digging holes

wow I'm glad I wasn't around for this thread.

I don't think we no longer "should have any expectation of privacy/liberty," FWIW my colleagues and I spend a LOT of time on privacy (liberty) protections and we serve as a counterweight in a lot of policy discussions about what cops/spies want vs. what citizens are entitled to. I think that after 9/11 when Cheney told DIRNSA and DNI "whatever it takes" we swung the pendulum back out towards Alien and Sedition Act territory, on bogus and shortsighted executive statutory flim flam, and now we're swinging back.

I think that the administration backed down from the "golden key" stuff that DHS and FBI and NSA leadership were publicly asking for from silicon valley types is a pretty good indicator that we're moving in a direction to restore a lot of what was lost in the fire.

(And maybe then some. And maybe even past the point where it's a good idea and where it really does make some legitimate (...to taste) law enforcement and intelligence activities impossible)

Tombot, you kinda gotta speak to what it is you and your colleagues do; it's been a while.

www.us-cert.gov

the "about us" page needs an update

I am pretty sensitive to having my ramblings here tied back to my professional self. but everything is going to bite all of us in the pants one day, so

one concrete example - I get CC'd on email notices every time one of our network signatures for catching malware, etc. unintentionally captures personal data, and the analysts have to go clean it up. I can also say that having spent time inside multiple "3 letter agencies" that this place has more required training on handling sensitive information than anywhere else, and that's not the classified stuff - everybody gets trained on handling that - it's about protected private citizen and company information, which we are, as above, incredibly concerned with. the whole business is about trust.

it's Metadon't Day

https://theintercept.com/2015/11/28/snowden-effect-in-action-nsa-authority-to-collect-bulk-phone-metadata-expires/

Some Senate Republicans, led by Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and 2016 presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, tried to delay the program’s official end this month in the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks. But despite support from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the effort got no traction in Congress.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2015/11/nsa-bulk-phone-snooping-program-shuts-down-216228#ixzz3t0Ek8s14

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.

“We’re going to have to have more support from our friends in the technology world to deny online space. Just as we have to destroy [ISIS’s] would-be caliphate, we have to deny them online space,” she said.

“And this is complicated. You’re going to hear all of the usual complaints, you know, freedom of speech, et cetera. But if we truly are in a war against terrorism and we are truly looking for ways to shut off their funding, shut off the flow of foreign fighters, then we’ve got to shut off their means of communicating. It’s more complicated with some of what they do on encrypted apps, and I’m well aware of that, and that requires even more thinking about how to do it.”

A “senior administration official” told Reuters that the White House intends to talk to tech companies in the coming days about developing a “clearer understanding of when we believe social media is being used actively and operationally to promote terrorism.” Major social media sites are already deeply engaged in combating online propaganda and recruitment by Islamic militants.

https://theintercept.com/2015/12/07/obama-hints-at-renewed-pressure-on-encryption-clinton-waves-off-first-amendment/