NSA-proof iPhone 6?

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By John Johnson

Newser

A customer holds his new iPhone 6 at an Apple Store in Augusta, Ga.(AP Photo/The Augusta Chronicle, Michael Holahan)

Apple says its latest iPhone has an encryption system that will keep users' emails and photos safe from the prying eyes of the NSA or any law-enforcement agency, reports the New York Times.

The company says its algorithm is so complex that if it ever had to turn over data from an iPhone 6, it would take the NSA about five years to decode it.

Even if Apple is underestimating the NSA's abilities, the principle isn't sitting well with FBI chief James Comey. What concerns me about this is companies marketing something expressly to allow people to hold themselves beyond the law, he says.

Comey cited the example of a kidnapping in which parents come to him "with tears in their eyes" and say, "'What do you mean you can't?'" The Times report also quotes security officials who predict terrorists will quickly embrace such technology, along with a tech expert who says law-enforcement concerns are being exaggerated.

In an earlier piece on the encryption by Matthew Green at Slate, Green says Apple isn't picking a fight with the government. "Apple is not designing systems to prevent law enforcement from executing legitimate warrants," he writes.

"Its building systems that prevent everyone who might want your dataincluding hackers, malicious insiders, and even hostile foreign governmentsfrom accessing your phone." What's more, "Apple is setting a precedent that users, and not companies, should hold the keys to their own devices." Google has similar protection available for Android phones, though the encryption is not currently a default option.

That will change with new Androids out in October. (In other iPhone 6 news, Apple said last week it's received only nine complaints about phones bending.)

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NSA-proof iPhone 6?

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NSA relies on 1981 executive order signed by Reagan

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WASHINGTON Documents released by the government show it views an executive order issued in 1981 as the basis of most of the National Security Agency's surveillance activities, the American Civil Liberties Union said Monday.

The NSA relied on Executive Order 12333 more than it did on two other laws that have been the focus of public debate since former agency contractor Edward Snowden leaked files exposing surveillance programs, according to the papers released by the ACLU.

The ACLU obtained the documents only after filing a lawsuit last year seeking information in connection with the order, which it said the NSA was using to collect vast amounts of data worldwide, inevitably including communications of U.S. citizens.

The order, signed in 1981 by President Ronald Reagan, was intended to give the government broad authority over surveillance of international targets.

One of the documents obtained was a 2007 NSA manual citing the executive order as the primary source of NSA's foreign intelligence-gathering authority.

A legal fact sheet on the memo produced in June 2013, two weeks after Snowden's disclosures, said the NSA relied on the executive order for the majority of its activities involving intelligence gathered through signals interception.

Alex Abdo, an ACLU staff attorney, said in a blog post published on Monday that the documents confirm that the order, although not the focus of the public debate, actually governs most of the NSA's spying.

Congress's reform efforts have not addressed the executive order, and the bulk of the government's disclosures in response to the Snowden revelations have conspicuously ignored the NSA's extensive mandate under EO 12333, Abdo wrote.

Neither the NSA nor Justice Department, which is defending the lawsuit, responded to requests for comment Monday.

The ACLU's lawsuit, filed in December 2013 in New York, cited news reports indicating that, under the order, the NSA is collecting data on cell phone locations and email contact lists, as well as information from Google and Yahoo user accounts.

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Dr. Rima and Counsel Ralph Discuss the FDA/FTC Warning Letter – Video

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Dr. Rima and Counsel Ralph Discuss the FDA/FTC Warning Letter
On August 23, 2014 Natural Solutions Foundation received a Warning Letter from FDA/FTC involving our First Amendment Protected Expressive Association communications regarding Ebola, Nano Silver...

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Dr. Rima and Counsel Ralph Discuss the FDA/FTC Warning Letter - Video

1st Amendment groups call for probe of Huntsville school social media policy

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HUNTSVILLE, AL (WAFF) -

Two national First Amendment rights groups are calling for a Congressional investigation into possible National Security Agency involvement in Huntsville City Schools.

Last week, the district alerted the public about the SAFE program, or Students Against Fear. They launched SAFE at the beginning of the calendar year. District leaders said they've punished nearly two dozen students since the program's inception. That includes one student Superintendent Dr. Casey Wardynski said the government contacted them about.

An NSA spokesperson told us they are not the government agency that called the district.

Both the Electronic Frontier Foundation out of San Francisco, and the Student Press Law Center out of Washington, D.C. are following this developing story.

The involvement of the NSA, or the reported involvement of the NSA, is what makes this a national story, said Frank LoMonte, executive director of the SPLC.

Both groups said they want Congress to help get to the bottom of who contacted Huntsville City Schools. LoMonte said if any part of this story is true, it's a big deal because it brings in possible government domestic spying questions.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is calling for a congressional committee to step in. They want something similar to the Church Commission that looked into government intelligence gathering in the 1970's. In a statement, the group said:

Whether the NSA is behind the school district's program or not, this episode illustrates how far the public's perception has come regarding privacy and mass surveillance. We've longed called for a new "Church Commission" to investigate all aspects of domestic surveillance by the NSA and other intelligence agencies. Such an investigation could get to the bottom of the Huntsville controversy. Opacity fuels distrust.

Congressman Mo Brooks is downplaying Congress getting involved.

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1st Amendment groups call for probe of Huntsville school social media policy

Dreaming of a Tor Button for Firefox

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It's no secret that everybody's thinking about privacy and cyber security more since the world was pummeled with the unsettling, spy-novel truths of the Snowden revelations. Now, companies are starting to seize onto the zeitgeist by building more secure tools for the internet. And it sounds like Tor will be at the front of that line.

The Tor anonymity network is in talks with "several major tech companies" about integrating its technology into their software, according to the Daily Dot. One of those companies, the Daily Dot's Patrick Howell O'Neill, is Firefox, and that integration might come in the form of a Tor button that would enable anonymous browsing for hundreds of millions of people. Again, it's unclear if this major tech company is indeed Firefox, but Tor executive director Andrew Lewman offered some hints.

"They very much like Tor Browser and would like to ship it to their customer base," said Lewman. "Their product is 10-20 percent of the global market, this is of roughly 2.8 billion global Internet users." Lewman added, "[The tech companies are] willing to entertain offering their resources to help us solve the scalability challenges of handling hundreds of millions of users and relays on Tor."

This sounds like a great idea! Indeed, Firefox does have between 10 and 20 percent of the global browser market, and Mozilla, the nonprofit that builds the open source browser, is certainly interested in issues like privacy and security. Last year, Mozilla launched Lightbeam as an add-on that helps users visualize who's collecting data from them. A similar add-on that offers increased privacy or even total anonymity makes perfect sense. The Daily Dot calls it an "easy Tor button." We call it genius.

But even if it's not Firefox, it would be a smart move for any browser to take advantage of Tor's anonymity network. Easy integration into a popular browser would not only offer better privacy for millions; it would also encourage more people to think about cyber security. We already saw this earlier this year, when Apple announced that it would integrate DuckDuckGo, the anonymous search engine, into Safari for iOS 8. This is in addition to new, improved encryption in iOS 8.

If anything, turning Tor into a mainstream resource means that everybody enjoys better security. The Tor network works like a daisy chain that puts distance between the user and their destination, so that hackers or spies can't trace who's doing what on the internet. The longer that daisy chain gets, the harder it is to identify the person on the other end. Although as we learned a few months ago, it's not impossible to identify Tor users. Still, it's much harder.

So regardless of who's doing it, you should be excited by the idea of more Tor integration. It's a boon for your privacy and good for cyber security. And hopefully, it's just around the corner. [Daily Dot]

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Dreaming of a Tor Button for Firefox

Tor Executive Director Hints At Firefox Integration

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Welcome to the Slashdot Beta site -- learn more here. Use the link in the footer or click here to return to the Classic version of Slashdot.

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blottsie writes: Several major tech firms are in talks with Tor to include the software in products that can potentially reach over 500 million Internet users around the world. One particular firm wants to include Tor as a "private browsing mode" in a mainstream Web browser, allowing users to easily toggle connectivity to the Tor anonymity network on and off. "They very much like Tor Browser and would like to ship it to their customer base," Tor executive director Andrew Lewman wrote, explaining the discussions but declining to name the specific company. "Their product is 10-20 percent of the global market, this is of roughly 2.8 billion global Internet users." The product that best fits Lewman's description, by our estimation, is Mozilla Firefox, the third-most popular Web browser online today and home to, you guessed it, 10 to 20 percent of global Internet users.

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Tor Executive Director Hints At Firefox Integration

US Military thinks Bitcoin is Dangerous — Circle Opens Up — Philippines and Sweden Bitcoin – Video

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US Military thinks Bitcoin is Dangerous -- Circle Opens Up -- Philippines and Sweden Bitcoin
Donate: https://blockchain.info/address/1LAYuQq6f11HccBgbe6bx8DiwKwzuYkPR3 Subscribe: http://patreon.com/madbitcoins Sponsor: http://MadBitcoins.com September 29th, 2014 -- Venice, Italy...

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US Military thinks Bitcoin is Dangerous -- Circle Opens Up -- Philippines and Sweden Bitcoin - Video