Wikipedia Sues NSA For Spying Program
"Cenk Uygur (http://www.twitter.com/cenkuygur) host of The Young Turks discusses Wikimedia #39;s move to sue the NSA. The National Security Agency is officially being sued by Wikimedia, the parent...
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NSA Sued For Mass Surveillance Of Internet
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Wikipedia's parent group, Wikimedia Foundation, is suing the US National Security Agency (NSA) for what it dubs the "suspicionless seizure and searching of internet traffic by the agency on US soil".
The legal action has been filed by Wikimedia and eight other groups against the NSA and the Department of Justice (DoJ), in a federal court in Maryland, where the spy agency is based.
Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, said that Wikimedia is filing the suit on behalf of Wikipedia's readers and editors everywhere.
"Surveillance erodes the original promise of the internet: an open space for collaboration and experimentation, and a place free from fear," he said.
In its official complaint, Wikimedia said that the NSA conducts its "upstream" surveillance by tapping directly into the internet backbone inside the US.
It described this backbone as "the network of high-capacity cables, switches, and routers that today carry vast numbers of Americans' communications with each other and with the rest of the world".
By intercepting traffic, the NSA is seizing Americans' communications en masse while they are in transit, said Wikimedia, and this surveillance "exceeds the scope of the authority that congress provided in the FISA Amendments Act (FAA) of 2008 and violates the First and Fourth Amendments".
In a blog post, the foundation's legal counsel said that the FAA authorises the collection of these communications if they fall into the broad category of "foreign intelligence information", which includes any data that could be construed as relating to national security or foreign affairs.
"The programme casts a vast net, and as a result, captures communications that are not connected to any target', or may be entirely domestic. This includes communications by our users and staff," the organisation added.
Lila Tretikov, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation, said that "by tapping the backbone of the internet, the NSA is straining the backbone of democracy".
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March 11, 2015
In America, the Internet browses you. (Credit: Flickr/Light Brigading)
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The Wikimedia Foundation, owners and operators of the popular crowd-edited reference website Wikipedia, has filed a lawsuit against the US National Security Agency (NSA) in response to the organizations surveillance program.
According to BBC News, the lawsuit also names the US Department of Justice and accuses the two groups of violating the Constitutions right to free speech, as well as laws protecting citizens of the United States from unreasonable search and seizure.
[STORY: Storing data offshore won't protect it from NSA]
In a blog entry posted Tuesday, Wikimedias Michelle Paulson and Geoff Brigham wrote that the lawsuit challenges the NSAs large-scale search and seizure of internet communications frequently referred to as upstream surveillance. Our aim in filing this suit is to end this mass surveillance program in order to protect the rights of our users around the world.
The Foundation has been joined by eight other organizations, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International USA, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, The Global Fund for Women, and The Rutherford Institute and the Washington Office on Latin America. Their case will be handled by attorneys at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
[STORY: Your smartphone may be an NSA surveillance tool]
Were filing suit today on behalf of our readers and editors everywhere, said Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia. Surveillance erodes the original promise of the internet: an open space for collaboration and experimentation, and a place free from fear.
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The nonprofit behind Wikipedia, the Wikimedia Foundation, is suing the National Security Agency and the Department of Justice over a government surveillance program. The suit challenges a program that collects databy tapping into the infrastructure, or backbone, the Web is built on.
"We are asking the court to order an end to the NSA's dragnet surveillance of Internet traffic," Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales wrote in a New York Times opinion piece about the suit.
The Justice Department spokesperson said the agency isreviewing the complaint. TheNSA did not immediately respond a request for comment about the suit.
The suit allegesthat the government has been tappinginto cables that are part of the Internet's infrastructure, a practice often called "Upstream" collection, which violates the First and Fourth Amendments, according to a blog post from Wikimedia.
Such programs have been targeted in other lawsuits,including the long-running Jewel v. NSA case, which was originallybased on documents from aAT&T technician in San Francisco.Some cases about government surveillance have either been thrown out or stalled after failing to prove they were specifically targetedby thegovernment surveillance programs.
But that may be less of an issue for Wikimedia, which has based its case largely on informationdisclosed byNSA contractor Edward Snowden. Some Snowden documentsappearedto showthat the government is tapping into cables that connect the United States to the rest of the online world. One government slide disclosed by Snowdensuggested that Wikipedia and its userswere targeted as part of government surveillance programs, the lawsuit alleges.
However, there may be other legal hurdles. Last month, Jewel v. NSA hit a significant roadblock when a federal judge sided with the government's state secret defense -- ruling that the plaintiffscould not win their challenge over NSA tapping of the Internet backbone without disclosing information that would harm national security.
The type and amount of data collected as part of these programs are unclear. But the data could reveal details about people's browsing history, scaring somefrom using the Internet freely, privacy advocates have argued.
By tapping the backbone of the internet, the NSA is straining the backbone of democracy, Wikimedia Foundation executive director Lila Tretikov said in a blog post about the suit. Wikipedia is founded on the freedoms of expression, inquiry, and information. By violating our users privacy, the NSA is threatening the intellectual freedom that is central to peoples ability to create and understand knowledge.
The American Civil Liberties Union is representing plaintiffs inWikimedia v. NSA, a group that includesHuman Rights Watch, Amnesty International USA, Global Fund for Women, and The Nation Magazine among others.
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A coalition of groups, led by Wikimedia, wants an end to the NSA's mass surveillance programs.
The Wikimedia Foundation today filed a lawsuit against the National Security Agency and Department of Justice, in an effort to end the NSA's mass surveillance programs.
Wikimedia and eight other organizations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, filed suit in Maryland district court on Tuesday "on behalf of our readers and editors everywhere," Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said in a statement. "Surveillance erodes the original promise of the Internet: an open space for collaboration and experimentation, and a place free from fear."
In a blog post written by Wikimedia legal counselors Michelle Paulson and Geoff Brigham, the foundation outlined the importance of privacy ("the bedrock of individual freedom") to the world and Wikipedia.
The NSA, according to Wikimedia, has misinterpreted the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 Amendments Act of 2008 (FAA) to provide free rein to define threats, identify targets, and monitor people, platforms, and infrastructure, "with little regard for probably cause or proportionality," Paulson and Brigham said.
It violates the Constitution's First and Fourth Amendments, and unfairly allows the government agency to cast a wide net, often capturing communication unconnected to a real targetincluding transmissions by Wikipedia users and staff, the Foundation said.
"By tapping the backbone of the Internet, the NSA is straining the backbone of democracy," added Lila Tretikov, executive director of Wikimedia.
That network of high-capacity cables, switches, and routers transferring Web traffic is facilitated by devices installed by Verizon, AT&T, and other organizations, the ACLU said.
In a separate blog post, the ACLU, which is representing Wikimedia, said the NSA intercepts and copies private communications in bulk, then searches the content using keywords associated with agency "targets." Those marks often include aliens believed to communicate "foreign intelligence information," or journalists, academic researchers, corporations, aid workers, business personnel, and other innocent people.
"Wikipedia is founded on the freedoms of expression, inquiry, and information," Tretikov said. "By violating our users' privacy, the NSA is threatening the intellectual freedom that is central to people's ability to create and understand knowledge."
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The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a lawsuit on behalf of Wikimedia and other organizations, ranging from the liberal Human Rights Watch to the conservative Rutherford Institute, against the National Security Agency (NSA) challenging the government's mass surveillance program.
The lawsuit centers on the NSA's controversial practice of "upstream surveillance," which is the capturing of broadly interpreted "foreign intelligence information" from non-U.S. citizens, as authorized by the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 (FAA). According to a Wikimedia blog post, the program casts a wide net and "as a result, captures communications that are not connected to any 'target,' or may be entirely domestic. This includes communications by our users and staff."
"Upstream surveillance" was first revealed by Edward Snowden, a former NSA analyst. The ACLU's lawsuit accuses the NSA and other government organizations of violating the First Amendment, which protects speech, and the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unlawful search and seizure. Below is the ACLU's description of "upstream":
The NSA intercepts and copies private communications in bulk while they are in transit, and then searches their contents using tens of thousands of keywords associated with NSA targets. These targets, chosen by intelligence analysts, are never approved by any court, and the limitations that do exist are weak and riddled with exceptions. Under the FAA, the NSA may target any foreigner outside the United States believed likely to communicate "foreign intelligence information" -- a pool of potential targets so broad that it encompasses journalists, academic researchers, corporations, aid workers, business persons, and others who are not suspected of any wrongdoing.
Wikimedia founder Jimmy Wales and executive director Lila Tretikov wrote in a New York Times opinion piece that they are standing up for the privacy rights of Wikipedia's 75,000-plus contributors -- many of whom wish to remain anonymous as they edit or write about topics that may be controversial where they live.
"These volunteers should be able to do their work without having to worry that the United States government is monitoring what they read and write," they said, later adding that "as a result [of upstream surveillance], whenever someone overseas views or edits a Wikipedia page, it's likely that the N.S.A. is tracking that activity -- including the content of what was read or typed, as well as other information that can be linked to the person's physical location and possible identity. These activities are sensitive and private: They can reveal everything from a person's political and religious beliefs to sexual orientation and medical conditions."
Wales and Tretikov added, "We are asking the court to order an end to the NSA's dragnet surveillance of internet traffic."
The U.S. Supreme Court denied the ACLU's 2013 challenge to the FAA because it said the lawsuit's parties (namely Amnesty International) lacked proof they had been spied on. The ACLU and Wikimedia believe this new case against the government will succeed because one of Snowden's leaked disclosures included a classified NSA slide that specifically referred to Wikipedia.
ACLU attorney Patrick Toomey told Politico that it was also relevant that "the plaintiffs in this case engage in hundreds of billions of international communications each year," and that it's "inconceivable that the NSA isn't copying and searching through."
Other defendants include NSA director Michael Rogers, National Intelligence director James Clapper and Attorney General Eric Holder. Wikimedia's partners in the lawsuit include The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International USA, Pen American Center, Global Fund for Women, The Nation Magazine, The Rutherford Institute, and Washington Office on Latin America.
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Wikimedia vs NSA: ACLU Files Lawsuit to End Spy Agency's 'Upstream Surveillance'
The U.S. National Security Agency was sued on Tuesday by Wikimedia and other groups challenging one of its mass surveillance programs that they said violates Americans' privacy and makes individuals worldwide less likely to share sensitive information.
The lawsuit filed in federal court in Maryland, where the spy agency is based, said the NSA is violating U.S. constitutional protections and the law by tapping into high-capacity cables, switches and routers that move Internet traffic through the United States.
The case is a new potential legal front for privacy advocates who have challenged U.S. spying programs several times since 2013, when documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed the long reach of government surveillance.
Other lawsuits have challenged the bulk collection of telephone metadata and are pending in U.S. appeals courts.
The litigation announced on Tuesday takes on what is often called "upstream" collection because it happens along the so-called backbone of the Internet and away from individual users.
Bulk collection there violates the constitution's First Amendment, which protects freedom of speech and association, and the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable search and seizure, the lawsuit said.
The plaintiffs include the Wikimedia Foundation, which runs the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, the conservative Rutherford Institute, Amnesty International USA and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, among other groups.
The groups said in the lawsuit that upstream surveillance "reduces the likelihood" that clients, journalists, foreign government officials, victims of human rights abuses and other individuals will share sensitive information with them.
Legal standing, which requires the organizations to show individual, particular harm, is the most significant obstacle for them, said Stephen Vladeck, a professor at American University Washington College of Law.
While it might stand to reason that the plaintiffs' communications are being intercepted, they can only use legally public information, which the government has acknowledged or declassified, to show harm, Vladeck said. It is "not beyond the pale" that the government could make more information public while the lawsuit is pending, he said. For now, the lawsuit is a "longshot" according to Vladeck.
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The Wikimedia Foundation argues that the NSA's full-scale seizure of Internet communications is a violation of its First and Fourth Amendment rights.
The NSA is in hot water yet again. Declan McCullagh/CNET
The Wikimedia Foundation, the organization that operates the wildly popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia, says user privacy has been violated and that it's going to court to try to fix it.
Wikimedia filed a lawsuit on Tuesday in the US District Court for the District of Maryland against the National Security Agency and the US Department of Justice for allegedly violating its constitutional rights on Wikipedia. The organization argues that an NSA program collecting information wholesale across the Internet, known as upstream surveillance, is a violation of its First Amendment right of free speech and a violation of the Fourth Amendment's ban on unreasonable search and seizure.
Wikimedia said it is joined by eight other organizations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, and represented by The American Civil Liberties Union. Wikimedia has been working on the lawsuit for "approximately one year," said its general counsel, Geoff Brigham.
"Privacy is the bedrock of individual freedom. It is a universal right that sustains the freedoms of expression and association," Wikimedia wrote Tuesday on its blog. "These principles enable inquiry, dialogue, and creation and are central to Wikimedia's vision of empowering everyone to share in the sum of all human knowledge. ... If people look over their shoulders before searching, pause before contributing to controversial articles, or refrain from sharing verifiable but unpopular information, Wikimedia and the world are poorer for it."
Wikipedia is the world's most comprehensive online encyclopedia. The service comprises editable wikis that allow users to correct misinformation and add details on individuals, events, organizations and ideas. More than 500 million people worldwide visit Wikipedia each month, and at least 75,000 people around the globe add or edit the content.
In 2013, one-time NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked information revealing Wikipedia was a target of government surveillance. According to Snowden, the US government taps the Internet's "backbone" (the core data routes between large, interconnected network centers) to capture communication with "non-U.S. persons." Part of that surveillance is authorized by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that Congress amended in 2008, which supports US spy agencies to collect Internet information at will. (A large component in the NSA's mission stems from a 1981 executive order that legalized surveillance of foreigners living outside the US.)
Since Snowden's leaks began, the US government has shied away from claims that it may be intercepting communications and information from Americans. FISA does not authorize spying on US citizens. The ACLU and Wikimedia believe surveillance agencies are violating that regulation.
"In the course of its surveillance, the NSA copies and combs through vast amounts of Internet traffic, which it intercepts inside the United States with the help of major telecommunications companies," the ACLU said in a statement on Tuesday. "It searches that traffic for keywords called 'selectors' that are associated with its targets. The surveillance involves the NSA's warrantless review of the emails and Internet activities of millions of ordinary Americans."
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Wikipedia parent sues to stop NSA's massive surveillance effort
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Published February 20, 2015
June 6, 2013: A sign stands outside the National Security Administration (NSA) campus in Fort Meade, Md.(AP)
Britains electronic spying agency, along with the NSA, reportedly hacked into the computer networks of a Dutch company to steal codes, which allowed both governments to spy on mobile phones worldwide.
The documents given to journalists by Edward Snowden did not offer details on how the agencies used the eavesdropping capabilities. However, it certainly shows how the NSA and Britains spy organization will push the limit of their surveillance prowess.
The company in question was the Netherlands-based SIM card giant Gemalto. Its SIM cards are used in mobile phones and credit cards. Its clients included AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint, The Intercept reported.
The Intercept did not reveal any evidence of eavesdropping against American customers. Company officials told the website they had no idea their networks were compromised.
Gemalto is also the leading maker of encryption systems for other business and industrial uses. The company makes smart key cards for businesses and government agencies to restrict access to sensitive material.
The British spies targeted Gemalto engineers around the world and stole encryption keys to allow them to decode the data that passes between cellphones and cell towers, The Intercept reported. The process allows them to acquired texts or emails out of the air.
At one point in June 2010, Britain's Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ, as its signals intelligence agency is known, intercepted nearly 300,000 keys for mobile phone users in Somalia, The Intercept reported. "Somali providers are not on GCHQ's list of interest," the document noted, according to the Intercept. "(H)owever, this was usefully shared with NSA."
Earlier in 2010, GCHQ successfully intercepted keys used by wireless network providers in Iran, Afghanistan, Yemen, India, Serbia, Iceland and Tajikistan, according to the documents provided to The Intercept. But the agency noted trouble breaking into Pakistan networks.
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NSA reportedly collaborated with Britain to steal cell phone codes
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden says he wishes he had come forward sooner with documents exposing the agency's surveillance program.
In a Reddit ask-me-anything interview Monday, Snowden said that's the one thing he would do differently in 2013 when he revealed NSA practices.
"I would have come forward sooner," he said.
"Had I come forward a little sooner, these programs would have been a little less entrenched, and those abusing them would have felt a little less familiar with and accustomed to the exercise of those powers. This is something we see in almost every sector of government, not just in the national security space, but it's very important: Once you grant the government some new power or authority, it becomes exponentially more difficult to roll it back," he said.
"Don't let it happen in your country."
Snowden participated in the question-and-answer session with Laura Poitras, a journalist and director of CITIZENFOUR -- Sunday's Oscar winner for best documentary -- and Glenn Greenwald, a journalist who co-founded The Intercept with Poitras and journalist Jeremy Scahill.
At Sunday night's Academy Awards ceremony host Neil Patrick Harris made a dig at Snowden, using the pun "for some treason."
Snowden said he wasn't bothered by Harris' comment.
"To be honest, I laughed at NPH," he said. "I don't think it was meant as a political statement, but even if it was, that's not so bad. My perspective is if you're not willing to be called a few names to help out your country, you don't care enough."
Snowden then quoted 18th century politician Patrick Henry: "If this be treason, then let us make the most of it."
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Edward Snowden says he wishes he had leaked NSA documents sooner
The NSA and GCHQ probably hacked SIM card maker Gemalto, but didn't nab any encryption keys, the firm said.
SIM card maker Gemalto today said it believes the NSA and GCHQ did indeed breach its systems, but the firm found that the agencies were unable to swipe any encryption keys.
The news comes after a recent report, based on documents leaked by Edward Snowden, said that the NSA and its U.K. counterpart hacked Gemalto in order to steal encryption keys and spy on wireless communications.
A multinational chipmaker based in The Netherlands, Gemalto supplies SIM cards used by all four of the top U.S. carriers and 450 wireless network providers around the world. Access by intelligence agencies, therefore, would allow the monitoring of mobile communications without approval, warrant, or wiretap.
Gemalto's subsequent investigation found that the agencies' "intrusions only affected the outer parts of our networksour office networks," Gemalto said. SIM encryption keys and customer data is stored on other networks.
The Dutch tech giant said its networks are frequently under attack, but that very few efforts actually succeed. Two sophisticated attacks in 2010 and 2011, however, caught Gemalto's eye and "could be related" to the reported NSA and GCHQ breaches.
One of those attacks focused on suspicious activity on one of its French sites, while another involved fake emails sent to mobile operator customers. At the same time, Gemalto detected numerous attempts to access the employees' PCs.
Though unable to identify the intruders at the time, the company now believes the NSA and GCHQ were behind the breaches. "An operation by NSA and GCHQ probably happened," it said.
"It is important to understand that our network architecture is designed like a cross between an onion and an orange," the report said. "It has multiple layers and segments which help to cluster and isolate data."
The breach was allegedly detailed in a "secret" 2010 GCHQ document, but was only just made public via the Snowden data dump.
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Gemalto: Spy Agencies 'Probably' Hacked Us, But Encryption Keys Secure
By Bill Gertz
Washington Free Beacon
FILE: An aerial view of the NSA's Utah Data Center in Bluffdale, Utah.(AP)
The National Security Agency, still reeling from massive leaks caused by Edward Snowden, is preparing to be hit with another major loss of secrets, according to U.S. intelligence officials.
The leaks are expected to be published in the near future by a news outlet that was not further identified by the officials familiar with details of the compromise, according to The Washington Free Beacon.
The NSA is aware of the news outlets forthcoming disclosures and is taking steps to try and minimize any damage they will cause.
According to the officials, the latest NSA disclosure of secrets is not the result of an insider stealing documents, as occurred in the case of fugitive NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
Instead, the leaks will reveal certain NSA technical cyber intelligence gathering capabilities. The officials did not provide details about the leaks.
Click for more from The Washington Beacon.
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