A federal judge on Tuesday said the National Security Agency is not obligated to confirm nor deny it has someones specific phone records, shooting down a conservative think tanks effort to try to use the spy agency to reveal secrets that other federal agencies want kept hidden.

The case served as an early test of the limits for researchers who had hoped to use the National Security Agencys phone records collection program as a treasure trove for their efforts. But Judge James A. Boasberg, sitting in the federal district court in Washington, D.C., said the NSA is within its rights to refuse to say what kinds of records it has, and unless researchers can specifically prove the agency has them, the NSA doesnt have to comply with Freedom of Information Act requests.

Because of the potential consequences that additional disclosures could have on national security, the court will not require the agency to tip its hand any further, the judge wrote in a 24-page opinion.

The Competitive Enterprise Institute, which for years has been battling the EPA to try to get access to text messages sent by senior agency executives, had asked the court to force the NSA to turn over EPA phone records and email or text messages the spy agency might have scooped up in its snooping.

The CEI is trying to get a glimpse at messages it believes were sent by former Environmental Protection Agency chief Lisa Jackson and current boss Gina McCarthy. The EPA has turned over thousands of text messages but has declined to turn over others, saying it doesnt believe it has them and that it doesnt think it even has a duty to preserve text messages.

CEI lawyers are fighting the EPA in another case, but after the revelations about the National Security Agencys phone-snooping program they figured they would try to see if they could get the spy agency to release the records. The NSA said it could neither confirm nor deny that it had any such records, and that launched the court case.

The CEI argued that since the NSA admitted it had scooped up phone metadata records from Verizon customers, that must include Ms. McCarthys phone and Ms. Jacksons personal email account with Verizon.

Judge Boasberg countered that the CEI was going on a fishing expedition, saying the NSA has never admitted it had Ms. McCarthys or Ms. Jacksons records specifically, nor has it even admitted it scooped up text or email data.

The judge said he wouldnt force it to do so now.

In essence, were the agency required to confirm or deny the existence of records for specific individuals, it would begin to sketch the contours of the program, including, for example, which providers turn over data and whether the data for those providers is complete, the judge wrote.

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Court rules NSA doesn't have to divulge what records it has

NSA Brags About Spying Because Terrorism
Read More At: http://www.mediaite.com/tv/hayden-defends-nsa-metadata-after-paris-doesnt-look-all-that-scary-anymore/ Clip from the Thursday, January 8th 2015...

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FBI officials have been reviewing National Security Agency surveillance to ensure that messages collected as part of the PRISM email monitoring program did not belong to American citizens, according to a declassified report obtained by the New York Times. While exactly how the FBI has conducted this oversight remains unclear, the heavily redacted document appears to show that NSA surveillance is at least subject to review from outside the agency.

The report said the bureau in 2008 assumed the power to examine email accounts that the NSA wanted to track under PRISM, which collects the metadata from Yahoo and Google emails sent from outside the United States. In 2009, the FBI began to log its own copies of emails obtained without a warrant, before recommending more accounts and phone numbers for the NSA to track in 2012.

The Department of Justice report was finished in 2012 and made entirely classified at that time. The new information was included as part of a semi-redacted version issued to the Times in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. Its the latest glimpse into the surveillance programs and judicial rulings that authorized them since details were first leaked to the press by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden in June 2013.

Those disclosures were followed by a wave of criticism arising from the fear that, with so much data being collected, its inevitable that innocent Americans would be swept up in the dragnet. Not so, according to FBI Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who wrote in the report that the FBI was doing a good job in making sure that the email accounts targeted for warrantless collection belonged to non-citizens abroad.

The Times said it got hold of the report late Friday.

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Report: NSA's PRISM Surveillance Program Was Subject To FBI Oversight

DEF CON 22 - Panel - PropLANE: Kind of keeping the NSA from watching you pee
Slides Here: https://defcon.org/images/defcon-22/dc-22-presentations/Bathurst-Rogers-Carey-Clarke/DEFCON-22-Bathurst-Rogers-Carey-Clarke-PROPLANE.pdf PropLAN...

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DEF CON 22 - Pierce and Loki - NSA Playset : GSM Sniffing
Slides Here: https://defcon.org/images/defcon-22/dc-22-presentations/Pierce-Loki/DEFCON-22-Pierce-Loki-NSA-PLAYSET-GSM.pdf NSA Playset : GSM Sniffing Pierce ...

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Blackhat CLIP - Hacking NSA (2015) - Chris Hemsworth, Viola Davis Movie HD
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The latest revelations suggest that the US and UK singled out certain Web sites for surveillance, according to a report from The Intercept, which published classified documents.

The National Security Agency and the UK's Government Communications Headquarters targeted WikiLeaks and Pirate Bay -- and ultimately users of those sites as well, according to leaked files.

Examining a series of classified documents leaked by whistle-blower Edward Snowden, news site The Intercept reported on Tuesday that the NSA wanted to deem WikiLeaks a "malicious foreign actor." Such a designation would have subjected the site to extensive surveillance without the use of "defeats," an NSA action that aims to prevent US citizens from getting snared in the surveillance.

The UK's GCHQ went a step further by collecting the IP addresses of visitors to WikiLeaks along with the search terms they used to get to the site, according to a 2012 PowerPoint presentation. The presentation didn't reveal how extensive this monitoring was or if it's still active. But The Intercept referred to a surveillance tool X-Keyscore . Used by both the NSA and called GCHQ, X-Keyscore allows "an analyst to learn the IP addresses of every person who visits any Web site the analyst specifies."

The information documented in the leaked files also shows Pirate Bay and its users on the NSA's potential hit list. The agency considered using its surveillance to target the popular file-sharing site as a "malicious" foreign server, "even if there is a possibility that U.S. persons could be using it as well," The Intercept said.

Finally, one NSA exchange seemed to minimize the impact of snagging a US citizen in surveillance. A comment by the NSA's Office of General Counsel and the oversight and compliance office of its Threat Operations Center said that the discovery that an American has been selected for surveillance must be mentioned in a quarterly report, "but it's nothing to worry about."

In response to the leaked documents, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange released the following statement:

WikiLeaks strongly condemns the reckless and unlawful behavior of the National Security Agency. We call on the Obama administration to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate the extent of the NSA's criminal activity against the media including WikiLeaks and its extended network.

News that the NSA planned these operations at the level of its Office of the General Counsel is especially troubling. No less concerning are revelations that the US government deployed "elements of state power" to pressure European nations into abusing their own legal systems; and that the British spy agency GCHQ is engaged in extensive hostile monitoring of a popular publisher's website and its readers.

The NSA and its UK accomplices show no respect for the rule of law. But there is a cost to conducting illicit actions against a media organization. We have already filed criminal cases against the FBI and US military in multiple European jurisdictions. The FBI's paid informant, who attempted to sell information about me and my staff to the FBI, was imprisoned earlier this year.

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NSA targeted WikiLeaks, Pirate Bay, leaked documents show

The latest revelations suggest that the US and UK singled out certain Web sites for surveillance, according to a report from The Intercept, which published classified documents.

The National Security Agency and the UK's Government Communications Headquarters targeted WikiLeaks and Pirate Bay -- and ultimately users of those sites as well, according to leaked files.

Examining a series of classified documents leaked by whistle-blower Edward Snowden, news site The Intercept reported on Tuesday that the NSA wanted to deem WikiLeaks a "malicious foreign actor." Such a designation would have subjected the site to extensive surveillance without the use of "defeats," an NSA action that aims to prevent US citizens from getting snared in the surveillance.

The UK's GCHQ went a step further by collecting the IP addresses of visitors to WikiLeaks along with the search terms they used to get to the site, according to a 2012 PowerPoint presentation. The presentation didn't reveal how extensive this monitoring was or if it's still active. But The Intercept referred to a surveillance tool X-Keyscore . Used by both the NSA and called GCHQ, X-Keyscore allows "an analyst to learn the IP addresses of every person who visits any Web site the analyst specifies."

The information documented in the leaked files also shows Pirate Bay and its users on the NSA's potential hit list. The agency considered using its surveillance to target the popular file-sharing site as a "malicious" foreign server, "even if there is a possibility that U.S. persons could be using it as well," The Intercept said.

Finally, one NSA exchange seemed to minimize the impact of snagging a US citizen in surveillance. A comment by the NSA's Office of General Counsel and the oversight and compliance office of its Threat Operations Center said that the discovery that an American has been selected for surveillance must be mentioned in a quarterly report, "but it's nothing to worry about."

In response to the leaked documents, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange released the following statement:

WikiLeaks strongly condemns the reckless and unlawful behavior of the National Security Agency. We call on the Obama administration to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate the extent of the NSA's criminal activity against the media including WikiLeaks and its extended network.

News that the NSA planned these operations at the level of its Office of the General Counsel is especially troubling. No less concerning are revelations that the US government deployed "elements of state power" to pressure European nations into abusing their own legal systems; and that the British spy agency GCHQ is engaged in extensive hostile monitoring of a popular publisher's website and its readers.

The NSA and its UK accomplices show no respect for the rule of law. But there is a cost to conducting illicit actions against a media organization. We have already filed criminal cases against the FBI and US military in multiple European jurisdictions. The FBI's paid informant, who attempted to sell information about me and my staff to the FBI, was imprisoned earlier this year.

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NSA targeted WikiLeaks, Pirate Bay, say leaked documents

NSA OPTK 8

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NSA OPTK 20

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NSA OPTK 20 - Video

NSA spends more tax dollars on hacking than on defense: Snowden "
American whistleblower Edward Snowden has claimed... the NSA spends more taxpayer money on cyber-attacking other countries... than it does on defending the country. He made the statement in...

By: ARIRANG NEWS

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NSA spends more tax dollars on hacking than on defense: Snowden " - Video

Computer hackers and cyber criminals are carrying out attacks against businesses and nation states because they believe there's "little price to pay" for stealing sensitive data.

That's according to Admiral Mike Rogers, director of the National Security Agency (NSA) and head of United States Cyber Command, who was speaking at a cyber security conference at Fordham University in New York.

His comments come a month after a massive cyber attack against Sony, which the US believes was carried out by North Korea - although there are a number of security experts who disagree with that claim.

The current number of cyber attacks represents "one of the biggest transfers of intellectual knowledge that we have ever seen," said Rogers, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.

The NSA chief warned that a different cyber security strategy needs to be implemented if the trend of worsening cyber attacks is to be reversed.

"What we've seen in the last six to nine months in general... trends are going in the wrong direction," Rogers said. "Doing more of the same and expecting different results, my military experience tells me, is not a particularly effective strategy."

The US government wants organisations to work more closely with it by reporting incidents of cyber attacks more promptly. However, with Edward Snowden's NSA surveillance revelations still fresh in the memory, there's still corporate distrust of government security programmes.

Speaking in an interview with US broadcaster PBS, Snowden inferred that the US could have itself to blame for being the victim hacking attempts, arguing that attacks originated from US authorities - such as the Stuxnet programme against Iran in 2011 - have created a bitterness against the country and its infrastructure.

The whistleblower also suggested that the NSA should concentrate on defending the US against attacks, rather than hacking into the networks of other nations and their leaders.

"So the way the United States intelligence community operates is it doesn't limit itself to the protection of the homeland," said Snowden.

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NSA chief calls for improved cyber crime response, but Snowden argues US should focus on defence

The director of the National Security Agency thinks the recent cyberattack on Sony Pictures could set a precedent for future attacks aimed at the United States.

In an exclusive interview with FOXBusiness.coms Firewall, Admiral Michael Rogers -- who is also the head of U.S. Cyber Command -- voiced his concern over the possibility that aggressors could utilize cyber means to accomplish other goals.

What if next time its a nation-state, a group, an individual who doesnt like some other product, who doesnt like a policy, or who doesnt agree with an action that the United States or private entities within the United States take, Rogers told Firewall. This starts us down a very destabilizing road if were not careful.

Admiral Rogers echoed remarks by the White House and the FBI saying that the perpetrator in the Sony case was, indeed, North Korea.

The Sony Pictures attack was one of many cybersecurity-related issues discussed with Admiral Rogers, who sat down with Firewall before giving a keynote address at Fordham Universitys annual International Conference on Cyber Security in New York on Thursday.

The NSA chief also elaborated on testimony he gave before the House Intelligence Committee in November concerning the potential vulnerability of critical U.S. infrastructure to Chinese hackers and other nation-states.

I did that very publicly, in part, because I want to make sure everyone understands this is very real, this is nothing theoretical, Rogers said.

Admiral Rogers described the breadth of threats that the United States face in the cyber domain. He drove home the fact that significant hack attacks not only emanate from technically advanced nations but also from criminal organizations and rogue groups, calling the cyber problem "the great equalizer."

Following Wednesdays terror attack in Paris, France, Admiral Rogers also expressed concern over the growing threat of lone wolf terror making its way to the U.S. homeland. That certainly increases the challenge from an intelligence perspective, Rogers said.

You can watch Firewalls entire interview with Admiral Michael Rogers by clicking the video thumbnails at the top of the page.

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NSA Director: Must Be 'Price to Pay' for Cyber Attacks

The head of U.S. Cyber Command, Admiral Mike Rogers, speaking at the International Cyber Security Conference in New York City hosted by Fordham University, said the U.S., for the first time, was the victim of a "malicious act by a nation-state specifically designed to achieve a coercive effect" in the cyber-arena.

FBI director says Sony hackers 'got sloppy'

Rogers said in this case the act came in the form of an effort to "stop the release of a film with a particular viewpoint and the characterization of a leader," in reference to the recent hacking of Sony by North Korea.

He said the NSA's role in the investigation as "providing technical assistance," which included investigating the malware used in the hack, as well as the data generated from Sony to compare with other hacking activity.

The NSA is also taking a lead role in combating future large-scale hacks on private companies carried out by nation-states, such as developing counter-measures to major viruses, Rogers said.

"If it's a specific malware, for example, that we saw used in the Sony scenario, we partner with others using our technological expertise to write the programs that will counteract the malware," he said.

The other major challenge facing America in the cyber-world is balancing privacy with security in an environment where both good and bad actors are "using the same communication path, the same software and the same social media," according to Rogers.

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Official: NSA will lead fight against future hacks

TIME Politics National Security NSA Director on Sony Hack: The Entire World is Watching Adm. Michael Rogers, commander of the U.S. Cyber Command and director of the National Security Agency, testifies during a hearing before the House (Select) Intelligence Committee Nov. 20, 2014 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Alex WongGetty Images The hack against Sony last month was a "game changer" for cybersecurity, the NSA director said on Thursday

National Security Agency Director Admiral Michael Rogers expressed support Thursday for the United States economic sanctions against North Korea in response to the hack on Sony Pictures Entertainment, and called the attack against the movie studio a game changer for cybersecurity.

Sony is important to me because the entire world is watching how we as a nation are going to respond do this, Rogers said Thursday at the International Conference on Cyber Security in New York. If we dont name names here, it will only encourage others to decide, Well this must not be a red line for the United States.'

After naming North Korea responsible for the attack against Sony, the U.S. announced sanctions last week against 10 individuals and three organizations in North Korea, including the states main intelligence agency and its primary arms exporter. The sanctions effectively denied them access to U.S. financial systems.

In his address at the conference, Rogers endorsed the U.S. response to the Sony attack, implying the U.S. government should have a key role in responding to some cyberattacks on private companies. I dont think its realistic for private companies to deal with [cyberattacks] totally by themselves, he said.

Rogers that hacks against private companies may require economic sanctions. Merely because something happens to us in the cyber arena, doesnt mean that our response has to be focused in the cyber arena he said. I was very happy to see what we as a nation state decided to do, referring to the response to North Korea.

He also expressed skepticism about so-called hack backs in which private companies strike back against hackers, saying they risk fratricide by escalating cyber attacks between nation states and institutions.

The NSA was asked to examine malware used in the Sony hack and played a supporting role in determining its origins, Rogers said. The November hack brought down the studios networks and resulted in the leaks of terabytes of files including unreleased films and employee Social Security numbers. President Obama said last month the U.S. would launch a proportional response to the attack.

Rogers said North Korea was responsible for the hack against Sony Pictures Entertainment, reaffirming government claims despite doubts among some cybersecurity experts. I remain very confident: this was North Korea, Rogers said.

The remarks come a day after FBI Director James Comey said North Korea was sloppy in concealing the attack and said he had high confidence the hermit state was responsible.

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NSA Director on Sony Hack: The Entire World is Watching

Open Source NSA Cyber Spionage Tools
http://cyberwarzone.com.

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Open Source NSA Cyber Spionage Tools - Video

3 Cheers for the NSA
Words and music by Roland St.Germain. Copyright 2015, Roland St.Germain. All Rights Reserved.

By: Roland St Germain

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The NSA Listens, This Report Proves Their True Motives
This report from WXIA proves that we are being listened to on our cellphones and many other devices.

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The NSA Listens, This Report Proves Their True Motives - Video

Although NSA officials were not sure about what all documents Edward Snowden took with him, they've changed their tune a few times after some new leak proves their previous proclamations to be false...like when former NSA Chief Keith Alexander admitted to lying about phone surveillance stopping 54 terror plots. Despite a year of NSA officials claiming that Edward Snowden had access to reports about NSA surveillance, but no access to actual surveillance intercepts, that ends up being lie too.

Snowden gave the Washington Post a sampling of actual intercepted communications; after months of reviewing about 160,000 intercepted emails and instant messages and 7,900 documents taken from over 11,000 online accounts, the Post said nine out of 10 account holders in the large cache of intercepted communications were not even surveillance targets. In fact, the collateral damage is astounding. The Post reported:

Nearly half of the surveillance files, a strikingly high proportion, contained names, e-mail addresses or other details that the NSA marked as belonging to U.S. citizens or residents. NSA analysts masked, or "minimized," more than 65,000 such references to protect Americans' privacy, but The Post found nearly 900 additional e-mail addresses, unmasked in the files, that could be strongly linked to U.S. citizens or U.S. residents.

The intercepted communications were collected from 2009 to 2012, during President Obama's first term; under the President, formerly a "constitutional law professor," the Post noted that the NSA's domestic collection program underwent a "period of exponential growth." Interestingly, a research paper released last week explained how the government can exploit legal and technical loopholes in order to conduct warrantless surveillance on Americans. One way is through Executive Order 12333, which would allow Americans' communications to be sucked up when their network traffic is routed overseas or their data is stored abroad.

So what might put Americans in the NSA's collection crosshairs? People on the chat "buddy list" of a foreign national are considered foreigners as well as people who write emails in a foreign language. Then there's the use of a proxy, which might be an IP address from a different country.

If a target entered an online chat room, the NSA collected the words and identities of every person who posted there, regardless of subject, as well as every person who simply 'lurked,' reading passively what other people wrote.

One analyst reported wrote, "1 target, 38 others on there," but she collected data on them all. Others made notes that the surveillance was not relevant, yet the NSA sometimes designates as "its target the Internet protocol, or IP, address of a computer server used by hundreds of people."

The NSA treats all content intercepted incidentally from third parties as permissible to retain, store, search and distribute to its government customers.

Of these 160,000 intercepted messages, only 10% were official targets. The Post added:

Many other files, described as useless by the analysts but nonetheless retained, have a startlingly intimate, even voyeuristic quality. They tell stories of love and heartbreak, illicit sexual liaisons, mental-health crises, political and religious conversions, financial anxieties and disappointed hopes. The daily lives of more than 10,000 account holders who were not targeted are catalogued and recorded nevertheless.

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9 of 10 online accounts intercepted by NSA are not intended surveillance target

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert (R) signaled his opposition to a proposed bill that would cut off water to the NSAs facility southof Salt Lake City.

I know people have had some frustration with the NSA, Herbert said on a conference call with reporters Tuesday, but the states agreement with the agency was,something I think we need to continue to honor.

The facility, located in Bluffdale, uses between 2 to 4 million gallons of water a month, according to public records. Bluffdale issued $3.5 million in bonds to pay for the water lines and sells the agency water for less than the priceset by city ordinances.

Thebill,sponsoredby state Rep.Marc Roberts (R), would prohibit municipalities from providing any support for any federal data collection and surveillance agency.

Herbert has said previously he has had concerns with the NSA, but it was Congress responsibility to provide oversight and he didnt have a problem with the facility being in Utah.

If its not stored in Utah, itll be stored somewhere else, hesaid Tuesday.

Hunter Schwarz covers state and local politics and policy across the country for the Washington Post.

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GovBeat: Utah governor wont support proposal that would cut off the NSAs water supply