Tag: NSA

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Partnership between NSA and telecoms pose both security and privacy risk, experts say

Partnership between NSA and telecoms pose both security and privacy risk, experts say:

Speculation remains as to whether the programs still exist, but as Cohn said: “The story that [these documents] tell is [the NSA is] just grabbing more, and more, and more, and more. Nothing in this six-year span is of them getting anything less. [So our] best guess is that trajectory continued.”

Christopher Parsons, postdoctoral fellow, Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs, seconded Cohn’s thoughts and expressed surprise that no documents have indicated any change in programs.

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Even if Americans aren’t exactly concerned about their data, per se, Parsons reminded that beyond losing its citizens’ trust, the U.S. government loses diplomatic credibility through these leaked documents. The government can’t argue for a free and open internet if it monitors foreigners and its own citizens, he said.

“If you use the internet, and the data goes through the U.S., the government is spying on it,” he said.

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New Mass Surveillance Laws Come to Canada, France, and the United Kingdom, as the NSA May Have Its Wings Clipped | VICE News

New Mass Surveillance Laws Come to Canada, France, and the United Kingdom, as the NSA May Have Its Wings Clipped:

Canada’s Anti-Terrorism Act is just one step away from becoming law, with its controversial information-sharing and secret police powers still intact. France’s cyber-snooping bill is facing broad political support. And the United Kingdom’s nanny state law has been in effect for months, despite protestations of a coalition of anti-spying activists.

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Christopher Parsons, postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, said that while neutering the Patriot Act might impede how Americans’ data gets scooped up, nobody should expect these changes will do much to kneecap the NSA’s mass spying regime.

“I think they can do it anyway,” Parsons told VICE News, pointing to Executive Order 12333 — the directive issued by Ronald Reagan that first permitted the NSA to spy on foreign soil.

“In an era of cloud computing, there is a strong argument to be made that even after that section of the Patriot Act goes away, where and when Americans’ data flows across international boundaries, it can be collected anyway,” he said.

And while the NSA’s ability to collect data within the United States might be “slightly diminished,” other American agencies with mandates to surveil domestic threats could simply take over.

Parsons says the emerging relationship between Washington and its Five Eyes partners – Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand — is evolving into something much more advanced.

“All the various signals intelligence agencies have become increasingly sophisticated in, not just their ability to collect data, but also their ability to share data with one another,” Parsons said.

 

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La NSA espionnerait les communications de Rogers et RBC

L’Agence nationale de sécurité américaine (NSA) tente de tracer la carte du trafic des communications de plusieurs entreprises mondiales, dont le géant des télécommunications canadien Rogers et la Banque Royale du Canada (RBC), selon un document secret, a rapporté le Globe and Mail mardi.

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«C’est une préparation du champ de bataille, afin de pouvoir l’investir plus tard, croit Christopher Parsons, un chercheur de l’université de Toronto interrogé par le quotidien. Il s’agit d’observer l’entrée et la sortie des communications d’un réseau et de dire “Okay, voici les endroits où nous devons entrer.”»

Rogers et RBC disent n’avoir aucune raison de croire que leurs systèmes informatiques ou données de clients ont été compromises. «Si une telle surveillance a réellement lieu, nous trouverions cela très troublant», a néamoins affirmé Patricia Trott, porte-parole pour Rogers.

La NSA espionnerait les communications de Rogers et RBC
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NSA trying to map Rogers, RBC communications traffic, leak shows

NSA trying to map Rogers, RBC communications traffic, leak shows :

The U.S. National Security Agency has been trying to map the communications traffic of corporations around the world, and a classified document reveals that at least two of Canada’s largest companies are included.

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Christopher Parsons, a researcher at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, who reviewed the leaked document with The Globe, said the activity described could help determine useful access points in the future: “This is preparing the battlefield so it could later be used.

“This is … watching communications come in and out of a network and saying, ‘Okay, these are the places we need to go in.’”

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2015.1.3

So…did GCHQ et al intercept and decrypt BBM messages, or were they just handed over?

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From The Unsealed ‘Jewel v. NSA’ Transcript: The DOJ Has Nothing But Contempt For American Citizens

From The Unsealed ‘Jewel v. NSA’ Transcript: The DOJ Has Nothing But Contempt For American Citizens:

Hey, I’m sorry the leaks have made it harder for these agencies to do whatever the hell they want, but they are all part of a government that’s supposed to be accountable to the citizens picking up the check. But when faced with unhappy citizens and their diminished rights, all the DOJ’s lawyers can say is that the public doesn’t know shit and has no right to question the government’s activities.

The government has somehow managed to come to a conclusion others reached weeks ago – there’s more than one leaker out there. GOOD. Burn it down. In the DOJ’s hands, the government isn’t by or for the people. It’sdespite the people. The DOJ can’t be trusted to protect the balance between privacy and security. As it sees it, what the public doesn’t know will likely hurt it, and it’s damned if it’s going to allow citizens to seek redress for their grievances.

While I don’t agree with the whole ‘burn-the-DOJ-down’ mentality, that this is an increasingly mainstream opinion regarding key US government institutions is deeply problematic. Such attitudes are indicative of a population no longer seeing itself reflected in its government which is, in turn, a recipe for social conflicts.

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The NSA’s Utah data centre

The NSA’s Utah data centre, as taken by the EFF.

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They Knew Our Secrets. One Year Later, We Know Theirs.

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A brilliant interview between John Oliver and General Keith Alexander

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Canada Bought $50 Million Worth of ‘Secure’ Phone Systems from the NSA

Canada Bought $50 Million Worth of ‘Secure’ Phone Systems from the NSA:

Technically, the Canadian Prime Minister shouldn’t have to worry about being snooped on. Declassified information on the so-called Five Eyes partnership—an intelligence-sharing agreement between America, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand—supposedly forbids the five friendly governments from snooping on each other. But we don’t know what caveats exist in that agreement, because it’s kept top secret. We do know, however, that the NSA was operating in Toronto during the G8 and G20—and that CSE knew about it. That sort of cooperation, Parsons says, is to be expected by the Five Eyes partners.

“There is of course a concern that in the Five Eyes agreement there is an proviso that members of the Five Eyes network can engage in surveillance on other partners if it’s in their sovereign interest,” Parsons said.

It’s certainly interesting (and newsworthy) that Canada is buying cryptographically-secure systems from the NSA, though not necessarily surprising: the NSA is recognized as a leader in this technical space and has economies of scale that could reduce the cost of the equipment. These isn’t, however, any indication whether CSEC examines or tests the devices for backdoors. Presuming that the math hasn’t been compromised, and the phones and faxes aren’t being compromised by our close ally, then there are presumably (relatively) few worries with the Canadian procurement strategy and lots of benefits.