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Glenn Greenwald in Munich: Edward Snowden, NSA, Activism, Democracy & Freedom – Video

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Glenn Greenwald in Munich: Edward Snowden, NSA, Activism, Democracy Freedom
On the 1st of December 2014, US journalist,Glenn Greenwald was awarded one of Germany #39;s most prestigious award known as the Geschwister-Scholl Prize. Sophie and Hans Scholl were both ...

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Glenn Greenwald in Munich: Edward Snowden, NSA, Activism, Democracy & Freedom - Video

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Schmidt: NSA revelations forced Google to lock down data

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Google has worked hard to lock down the personal data it collects since revelations in the last year and a half about mass surveillance programs at the U.S. National Security Agency, company Chairman Eric Schmidt said.

The news of surveillance by the NSA and intelligence agency counterparts at allied nations has damaged the U.S. tech industry on many levels, with many Europeans now distrusting U.S. tech companies to hold on to their personal data, Schmidt said Friday at a surveillance conference at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank.

Schmidt learned of efforts by U.K. intelligence agency GCHQ to intercept traffic between Google data centers through a newspaper article, he told the audience. I was shocked, Schmidt said.

Google had envisioned a complicated method to sniff traffic, but the fact that it had been done so directly ... was really a shock to the company, Schmidt said.

After reporters showed Google engineers a diagram of the intelligence agencys methods to tap links between Google data centers, the engineers responded with a fusillade of words that we could not print in our family newspaper, Washington Post reporter Craig Timberg said.

Google responded to the revelations by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden by spending a lot of money to lock down its systems, including 2,048-bit encryption on its traffic, Schmidt said. We massively encrypted our internal systems, he said. Its generally viewed that this level of encryption is unbreakable in our lifetime by any sets of human beings in any way. Well see if thats really true.

Schmidt told the audience that the safest place to keep important information is in Google services. Anywhere else is not the safest place to keep data, he said.

Schmidt touted the incognito browsing feature in Googles Chrome browser and Googles Dashboard feature, which allows its users to set their privacy preferences. He noted that some security experts have questioned his claim that Android is the safest mobile operating system. Both Google and Apple are working very, very hard on security features in their mobile OSes, he said.

Timberg, along with some audience members, questioned Googles own collection of personal data, however. Google itself collects huge amounts of user data, Timberg noted.

Google collects data to help deliver its services, and has, in some cases, killed projects that raised privacy concerns, Schmidt said. I hear this perception that were somehow not playing by the rules of modern society, he said. I think thats wrong. I think the evidence is that Google has been incredibly sensitive to privacy issues.

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Schmidt: NSA revelations forced Google to lock down data

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Ex-NSA Agents' Start-Up Locks in $8m in Funding

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More money keeps going into cybersecurity start-ups. The start-up Area 1 Security, which was founded by three ex-NSA employees, received an $8 million round of funding on Wednesday. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers led the Series A funding round for the company. The Menlo Park, California, based start-up, which was started last year, aims to stop cyberthreats caused by phishing campaigns. The firm's founders are Oren Falkowitz, Blake Darche and Phil Syme. As data breaches and cyberattacks continue to rise, there's been an uptick in money pouring into the space. During the past five years $5.2 billion has been invested in cybersecurity companies across 807 deals, according to data published in September from CB Insights, a firm that tracks venture and private equity investments. Corporate ventures have taken a particular interest and have increasingly invested in security start-ups. Funding for cybersecurity companies that included corporate participation has increased 29 percent this year over last year, according to CB Insights. Two of the biggest corporate ventures investing in the space are Intel and Google.

--- Cadie Thompson, CNBC

First published December 11 2014, 11:21 AM

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Ex-NSA Agents' Start-Up Locks in $8m in Funding

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NSA's Auroragold Mining Operation

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The United States National Security Agency, which is known for monitoring landline, Web and cellphone communications worldwide, also targets wireless carriers, The Intercept reported last week.

Documents released by whistle-blower Edward Snowden show the NSA has monitored more than 1,200 email accounts associated with major cellphone network operators worldwide since 2010, in a covert operation named "Auroragold," according to the report.

Those intercepted communications help the NSA hack into phone networks.

The agency also plans to secretly introduce backdoors into new communications systems.

The GSM Association, whose members are mobile operators and related companies, and which releases standards for GSM phones, is a particular target.

"The mission of the NSA is to gather data," said Jonathan Sander, strategy and research officer at Stealthbits Technologies.

"They will do so in whatever way they can, so long as there aren't explicit legal limits put on them," he told TechNewsWorld.

The NSA's Wireless Portfolio Management Office defines and carries out the agency's strategy for exploiting wireless communications, and its Target Technology Trends Center monitors the development of new communications technology to ensure the NSA remains on top of innovation, The Intercept said. The existence of both has not been publicly disclosed.

As of May 2012, the NSA apparently had collected information from about 70 percent of cellphone networks worldwide -- 702 out of about 985.

Data collected reportedly is sent to NSA "signals development" teams that infiltrate communications networks. The data is shared with other U.S. intelligence agencies and with NSA's counterparts in the so-called Five Eyes alliance.

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NSA's Auroragold Mining Operation

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Secret court extends NSA surveillance rules with no changes

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A U.S. secret court has extended the authorization of the National Security Agency to continue surveillance of phone records in its current form, after a reform bill ran into difficulties in the Senate.

Besides stopping the NSA from collecting bulk phone records of Americans from phone companies, the USA Freedom Act aimed to restrict access of the NSA to these records by requiring the use of targeted selection terms.

It also has a provision for the appointment of a special advocate tasked with promoting privacy interests in closed proceedings in the secret court.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has reauthorized the NSA program for another 90 days at a request from the government, according to a statement Monday by the offices of the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence. The order expires on Feb. 27 next year.

In the wake of revelations by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden that the government was collecting bulk phone metadata of Americans from Verizon, President Barack Obama announced reforms to the program earlier this year, including a plan to stop NSA from collecting and holding the data from operators in bulk.

Obama instructed that other than in an emergency, phone metadata could only be queried after a judicial finding that there was a reasonable, articulable suspicion that the selection term was linked to an approved international terrorist organization. He also directed that the query results must be limited to associated metadata within two hops, or connections, from the selection term instead of the earlier three. The two changes to the program have been made since February this year, according to officials.

For the plan that the phone records data should stay with telephone companies, Obama said the necessary legislation would be required. Last month, the USA Freedom Act ran into difficulties in the Senate, and could not be moved towards a final vote. The setback could delay any NSA reform until next year.

Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy, the sponsor of the bill and a Democrat from Vermont, last week said Obama could end the NSAs dragnet collection of phone records once and for all by not asking for reauthorization of the program by the FISC.

Doing so would not be a substitute for comprehensive surveillance reform legislationbut it would be an important first step, Leahy said in a statement.

Obama had in November urged the Senate to pass the USA Freedom Act and officials in the administration, including Attorney General Eric Holder and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, also backed it.

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Secret court extends NSA surveillance rules with no changes

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US court extends NSA surveillance rules in current form

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A U.S. secret court has extended the authorization of the National Security Agency to continue surveillance of phone records in its current form, after a reform bill ran into difficulties in the Senate.

Besides stopping the NSA from collecting bulk phone records of Americans from phone companies, the USA Freedom Act aimed to restrict access of the NSA to these records by requiring the use of targeted selection terms.

It also has a provision for the appointment of a special advocate tasked with promoting privacy interests in closed proceedings in the secret court.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has reauthorized the NSA program for another 90 days at a request from the government, according to a statement Monday by the offices of the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence. The order expires on Feb. 27 next year.

In the wake of revelations by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden that the government was collecting bulk phone metadata of Americans from Verizon, President Barack Obama announced reforms to the program earlier this year, including a plan to stop NSA from collecting and holding the data from operators in bulk.

Obama instructed that other than in an emergency, phone metadata could only be queried after a judicial finding that there was a reasonable, articulable suspicion that the selection term was linked to an approved international terrorist organization. He also directed that the query results must be limited to associated metadata within two hops, or connections, from the selection term instead of the earlier three. The two changes to the program have been made since February this year, according to officials.

For the plan that the phone records data should stay with telephone companies, Obama said the necessary legislation would be required. Last month, the USA Freedom Act ran into difficulties in the Senate, and could not be moved towards a final vote. The setback could delay any NSA reform until next year.

Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy, the sponsor of the bill and a Democrat from Vermont, last week said Obama could end the NSA's dragnet collection of phone records once and for all by not asking for reauthorization of the program by the FISC.

"Doing so would not be a substitute for comprehensive surveillance reform legislation -- but it would be an important first step," Leahy said in a statement.

Obama had in November urged the Senate to pass the USA Freedom Act and officials in the administration, including Attorney General Eric Holder and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, also backed it.

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US court extends NSA surveillance rules in current form

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NSA Accused Of Spying On Cellphone Carriers To Find Security Exploits

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December 8, 2014

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

US National Security Agency (NSA) employees spent years monitoring domestic and international companies to find security vulnerabilities that could be exploited for surveillance purposes, according to new reports originating from documents obtained by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

Ryan Gallagher of The Intercept, who first broke the story, said that the program was codenamed Auroragold and also detailed how the agency planned to secretly introduce new flaws into communication systems that it could tap into but which experts said would also have made the general public more susceptible to hackers in the process.

The covert operation has monitored the content of messages sent and received by more than 1,200 email accounts associated with major cellphone network operators, intercepting confidential company planning papers that help the NSA hack into phone networks, Gallagher said.

One high-profile surveillance target is the GSM Association (GSMA), an influential UK-headquartered trade group that works closely with large US-based firms including Microsoft, Facebook, AT&T, and Cisco, and is currently being funded by the U.S. government to develop privacy-enhancing technologies, he added.

CNET technology columnist Don Reisinger said the NSA targeted IR.21 documents, which highlight new technologies and encryption methods used by mobile carriers, and Chris Johnston of The Guardian said that the documents reveal that the agency targeted meetings held by the trade association.

Cryptographer and cellphone security expert Karsten Nohl told Gallagher that information contained in the Auroragold documents provide hints that the volume and broad scope of data collected as part of the operation suggests the intent was to make sure that the overwhelming majority of mobile networks worldwide were NSA accessible.

Collecting an inventory [like this] on world networks has big ramifications, Nohl said, because it allows the agency to monitor and work around improvements in encryption technology cell providers utilize to protect calls and text messages from eavesdropping.

He added that evidence suggesting the NSA was deliberately attempting to weaken mobile communication infrastructure was especially alarming, since those vulnerabilities could be exploited by anyone, not just the NSA. The files also reveal that the NSA basically had unfettered access to the infrastructure of roughly 700 global wireless carriers as of May 2012, Engadgets Chris Velazco added.

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NSA Accused Of Spying On Cellphone Carriers To Find Security Exploits

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Judges to Hear Arguments Over NSA Surveillance

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A panel of federal appeals judges in Seattle is considering an Idaho woman's challenge to the National Security Agency's bulk collection of cellphone information.

U.S. District Court Judge Lynn Winmill ruled in Boise, Idaho, last June that the NSA's collection of such data doesn't violate the Fourth Amendment prohibition on unreasonable searches. But the judge also said the issue does raise privacy concerns and that the case could wind up before the Supreme Court.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have joined nurse Anna Smith's case for the appeal. Arguments at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals were scheduled for Monday morning.

The NSA has said it collects the phone numbers of calls made and received and how long a call lasts, but the agency contends it does not monitor the contents of a call. Smith said her cellphone is her primary means of communication with family, friends, doctors and others, and that her phone calls are none of the government's business.

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Judges to Hear Arguments Over NSA Surveillance

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