NATO Secretary General – North Atlantic Council, Foreign Ministers Meeting, 2 DEC 2014 – Video

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NATO Secretary General - North Atlantic Council, Foreign Ministers Meeting, 2 DEC 2014
Opening remarks by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the meeting of the North Atlantic Council in Foreign Ministers session, 2 December 2014.

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NATO Secretary General - North Atlantic Council, Foreign Ministers Meeting, 2 DEC 2014 - Video

NATO Secretary General – Press Conference, Foreign Ministers Meeting, 2 DEC 2014 – Part 1/2 – Video

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NATO Secretary General - Press Conference, Foreign Ministers Meeting, 2 DEC 2014 - Part 1/2
Press conference by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg following the meeting of the North Atlantic Council in Foreign Ministers session, 2 December 2014.

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NATO Secretary General - Press Conference, Foreign Ministers Meeting, 2 DEC 2014 - Part 1/2 - Video

NATO Secretary General & President of Afghanistan – Foreign Ministers Meeting, 2 DEC 2014 – 1/2 – Video

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NATO Secretary General President of Afghanistan - Foreign Ministers Meeting, 2 DEC 2014 - 1/2
Joint press conference by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Aghan President Ghani following the meeting of the North Atlantic Council with Resolute Support Potential Operational Partner.

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NATO Secretary General & President of Afghanistan - Foreign Ministers Meeting, 2 DEC 2014 - 1/2 - Video

NATO AND RUSSIA GOING HEAD TO HEAD OIL WARS THE ROAD TO WORLD WAR 3 & AN ECONOMIC COLLAPSE – Video

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NATO AND RUSSIA GOING HEAD TO HEAD OIL WARS THE ROAD TO WORLD WAR 3 AN ECONOMIC COLLAPSE
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NATO AND RUSSIA GOING HEAD TO HEAD OIL WARS THE ROAD TO WORLD WAR 3 & AN ECONOMIC COLLAPSE - Video

NATO Envoy, Georgian Officials Discuss Implementation of Substantial Package

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NATO Envoy, Georgian Officials Discuss Implementation of Substantial Package

NATO Secretary Generals Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, James Appathurai, said implementation of a substantial package, endorsed by the Alliance at the Wales summit for Georgia, is going well.

Appathurai met in Tbilisi on December 4 PM Irakli Garibashvili; Defense Minister Mindia Janelidze; State Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Davit Bakradze, as well as parliament speaker Davit Usupashvili and representatives from opposition UNM party.

Speaking at a news conference after meeting the state minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration, Appathurai said that the focus of his discussions with the Georgian officials was implementation of package of enhanced cooperation to help the country prepare for NATO membership.

I can tell you it [implementation of the package] is going well on the Georgian side and on the NATO side, he said.

The elements of this package include assisting defense capacity building in Georgia through embedded trainers, joint exercises and setting up of a joint NATO-Georgia training center in Georgia.

There will be a lot more Georgia in NATO and lot of NATO in Georgia, Appathurai said.

We welcome very much the speed with which Georgia has been working to define this new joint training center, Appathurai said, adding that NATO defense planning experts are already in Georgia, working closely with the Georgian colleagues on this issue.

He said that what now has to be defined is in essence what kind of training will be provided, what kind of military units and what size of units will be getting training in this center and how it will be integrated into Georgias own requirements and its other partnership activities.

Answers to these questions, Appathurai said, will also help Georgia to decide the best location for this center. I know there are only few options, he added.

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NATO Envoy, Georgian Officials Discuss Implementation of Substantial Package

NATO steps up actions to deal with Ukraine crisis

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NATO HQ, Brussels: Moscow has continued to deny any involvement in the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, but NATO is stepping up its actions - putting together an interim force to deal with what it sees as a direct threat to it's eastern borders.

In Brussels, the 28 foreign ministers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) - announced an intermediate force to work as a deterrent for Russia while a plan for 4000 troops was set to be implemented in 2016.

Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General, said two concrete outcomes emerged from the meeting on Wednesday (Dec 3): "One is the announcement of the establishment of an interim spearhead force which is increasing the readiness of our forces. And the other is that we agreed to maintain the continuous NATO presence in eastern part of our alliance. The readiness action plan is an important part of our response as an alliance to the threats we have seen developing both in the East and to the South.

One aspect that was not discussed however, was the government in Kiev's ambitions to one day become a member of NATO - a move that would infuriate Russia. But defence experts said it was not an important factor on the radar yet.

Marc Pierini of Carnegie Europe said: "They're not talking about Ukraine joining NATO. They're talking about the defence of Europe. You have to remember that in April last year, the last US tanks from the post-war, world war two period, were withdrawn, and this year, the first 50 came back."

Also on the agenda was NATO's withdrawal of it's mission in Afghanistan in a matter of weeks and the threat of the Islamic State.

Many of the foreign ministers including John Kerry will be remaining in Brussels - where they will be joined by a number of other foreign ministers from around the world - making up around 60 countries taking part in the US lead coalition against the Islamic State. The coalition will meet at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday (Dec 3).

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NATO steps up actions to deal with Ukraine crisis

NSAs Auroragold program spies on carriers to break into cell networks

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Yet another top-secret National Security Agency (NSA) program has been unearthed by Glenn Greenwalds publication the Intercept. The report details a program called Auroragold, which according to the official documents leaked by Edward Snowden, specialized in spying on the email correspondence between carriers security experts to break into cellular networks and expose vulnerabilities. The unit would then exploit the flaws in the security system to listen in on the conversations and text messages carried by those cellular networks.

The program is described as the NSAs method of staying one step ahead of carriers encryption, so as to ensure that the agency has access to communications held over most cellular networks. If vulnerabilities did not already exist in the security systems, the NSA would create them, the report states. The Auroragold program has been active since 2012 and regularly monitors 1,200 email accounts that are associated with major cellular networks and carriers around the world.

The Intercept revealed that the NSA has already obtained the technical security information of 70 percent of the worlds networks.

Related: Brazil lays its own fiber optic cables to avoid the NSA

The NSA devoted special attention to monitoring communications among members of the U.K.-based GSM Association, which includes high-profile tech companies and carriers, such as AT&T, Cisco, Microsoft, Samsung, Vodafone, Facebook,Verizon, Sprint, Intel, Oracle, Sony, Nokia, and Ericsson. It is unclear how many of these high-profile companies security structures the NSA infiltrated.

The Intercept revealed that the NSA has already obtained the technical security information of 70 percent of the worlds networks. Although penetration into the U.S. carriers networks is surprisingly low, the NSA has access to nearly all the communications in North Africa, the Middle East, and China.

Claire Cranton, a spokeswoman for the GSM Association, said that the organization cannot respond to any of the details revealed by the Intercepts report until its lawyers have seen the documents. If there is something there that is illegal then they will take it up with the police, Cranton told the publication.

Related:NSA report shows innocent users caught in its web

The National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), a U.S. government agency that recommends cybersecurity measures, stated that it is unaware of any NSA surveillance of the GSM Association. However, NIST previously warned users of NSA interference with encryption standards.

In April, White House officials stated that Obama ordered the NSA alert the federal government of any security gaps it finds in cellular networks and other technology companies security systems. There is, however, a major loophole in the order, which allows the NSA to keep vulnerabilities to itself if it plans to use them for a clear national security or law enforcement purpose.

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NSAs Auroragold program spies on carriers to break into cell networks

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NSA accused of intercepting emails sent by mobile phone firm employees

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The allegations by the Intercept website are based on documents contained in material provided by Edward Snowden, above. Photograph: Pontus Lundahl/AFP/Getty Images

The National Security Agency has reportedly intercepted emails sent by employees of mobile operators in an attempt to find security weaknesses in their networks that it could exploit for surveillance purposes.

The US government body has spied on hundreds of companies and organisations, including those in allies such as Britain and Australia, as well as in nations America regards as hostile. It plans to insert flaws into communications systems so that they can be accessed by their operatives.

The allegations, reported by the Intercept, are based on documents provided to the website and contained in material provided to them by Edward Snowden, the whistleblower and former NSA subcontractor who is now living in Russia.

A covert operation called AURORAGOLD that started in 2010, if not earlier, has monitored the content of messages to and from 1,200 email accounts associated with mobile operators to intercept relevant documents, the article states.

By May 2012, the NSA had collected technical data on about 700 of the almost 1,000 mobile networks worldwide.

According to the article, the information collected has been shared with other US intelligence agencies as well as those in Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Very few companies that have been targeted have been identified in the documents, but a map found in one indicated that the NSA had some degree of network coverage in countries on every continent, including Germany and France.

Another of the operations targets has been the GSM Association, the London-based trade body that sets standards for mobile networks around the world.

Its members represent the interests of 800 major mobile, software and internet companies from more than 200 countries and include the likes of Verizon, AT&T, Facebook, Intel, Samsung and Vodafone.

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NSA accused of intercepting emails sent by mobile phone firm employees

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Lawmakers to Reintroduce Bill to Limit NSA Spying

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House lawmakers are attempting to revive a popular bill that would limit the National Security Agency's ability to spy on Americans' communications data, a day after the measure was left out from ongoing government funding negotiations.

The measure, dubbed the Secure Data Act and spearheaded by Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren, would block the NSA and other intelligence agencies from compelling tech companies to create so-called backdoor vulnerabilities into their devices or software. Sen. Ron Wyden, also a Democrat, introduced a similar version of the bill earlier Thursday.

A Lofgren aide said the bill is expected to be introduced later Thursday with Republican cosponsors.

A broader form of the legislation overwhelmingly passed the House in June with bipartisan support on a 293-123 vote, in the form of an amendment tacked on to a defense appropriations bill. That previous bill additionally would have prevented intelligence agencies from engaging in content surveillance of Americans' communications data without a warrant.

But the language was left out of ongoing negotiations between both chambers over a spending package that would fund most government agencies into next year. The House has additionally barred amendments to that omnibus measure, a common practice.

On Thursday, 30 civil-liberties groups of both liberal and conservative leanings wrote to House leadership to urge it to retain the proposal as part of its funding package.

"Failing to include this amendment in the forthcoming FY15 omnibus will send a clear message to Americans that Congress does not care if the NSA searches their stored communications or if the government pressures American technology companies to build vulnerabilities into their products that assist in NSA surveillance," read the letter, whose signatories include the Electronic Frontier Foundation and TechFreedom.

Despite the sudden push and the margin with which the bill passed this summer, it remains unlikely the bill will move forward in lame-duck session, given the closed amendment process on the funding proposals. Aides to both Lofgren and Wyden conceded the reintroduction was largely to set goalposts for negotiations next year.

Broader NSA reform efforts crumbled in the Senate last month, as the USA Freedom Act came up two votes short of advancing. The lack of NSA reform this year has many privacy advocates worried that their cause faces an uphill battle in 2015, as Republicans retake the Senate.

Key portions of the post-9/11 Patriot Act are due to expire in June of next year, however, including Section 215, which grants the government much of its bulk spying authority. Congress will have to reauthorize the provisions in some fashion or risk losing even greater surveillance authority.

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Lawmakers to Reintroduce Bill to Limit NSA Spying

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Operation Auroragold: How The NSA Poked Holes In Cellular Networks To Spy On Countries, Organizations, People

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While many upcoming technologies promise to grant privacy and keep sensitive information safe in a world that is becoming increasingly more connected, the National Security Agency (NSA) has ways of bypassing even the most protected systems in order to have constant access to the inner workings of countries, organizations and even peoples lives.

Dubbed Operation Auroragold, the NSA has developed methods of accessing phone records, emails and texts by hacking into cellphone networks the Intercept learned exclusively from whistleblower Edward Snowden. The operation may have been established as early as 2010, but there are no indications that it has slowed down. Documents provided by Snowden show that through Operation Auroragold the NSA intended to poke holes into cellular communication systems so they can be hacked at will to access information.

The organization has already spied on hundreds of companies and organizations around the world in order to learn about any security vulnerabilities within their communication systems that can be used to collect intelligence. The NSA has reportedly acquired correspondence from over 1,200 email accounts through Operation Auroragold, while countries targeted through the program include Libya and organizations include the GSM Association.

The NSA supposedly gained internal access to 4G data connections in 2010, years before the technology would become global standard of communication. The NSA has stated that it does not target ordinary people, but observers have said the program could create problems for everyday citizens. Channels opened by the NSA could be accessed by hackers.

If there are vulnerabilities on those systems known to the NSA that are not being patched on purpose, its quite likely they are being misused by completely other kinds of attackers, Mikko Hypponen, a security expert at Finland-based firm F-Secure told the Intercept. When they start to introduce new vulnerabilities, it affects everybody who uses that technology; it makes all of us less secure.

Many security bugs were discovered in 2014, including the Heartbleed security flaw, which was discovered in April, and affected a considerable amount of business and commercial accounts. The NSA may have known about Heartbleed for at least two years before it was discovered, Bloomberg has previously reported, and may have used the vulnerability to collect intelligence from 66 percent of websites globally.

Though the White House denied the NSAs involvement in Heartbleed, President Obama also announced in April that the agency would have to report to the government any security flaws that it discovers. In December 2013, an NSA review, which included the president, determined that the NSA didnt have the right to create vulnerabilities in commercial technologies for the purpose of collecting surveillance.

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Operation Auroragold: How The NSA Poked Holes In Cellular Networks To Spy On Countries, Organizations, People

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