Monthly Archives: September 2014

NSA York U 2014/2015 E-Board
Meet the executive board of the 2014/ 2015 year and learn a little bit about the club. Join us this year for an amazing year! We look forward to working with you.

By: nsa yorku

See the original post:
NSA York U 2014/2015 E-Board - Video

Sept. 27 (UPI) -- The new iPhone has encryption technology that will make it very difficult for government agencies to access its information. Emails, your address book, your images and more will be encrypted to the point that the NSA and other law enforcement agencies will have a very hard time accessing that information, according to the New York Times. The new iPhone 6 uses an algorithm that makes it so even if Apple turned your information over to authorities, the information they received would essentially be nonsense until they spent significant time trying to decrypt it. Apple claims it will not retain the unique algorithm that can help break the code for each specific phone.

The director of the FBI, James Comey, said in a press conference that this kind of technology will let people "hold themselves beyond the law." He claims that having such elevated privacy protections could hinder investigations related to kidnappings and more. Besides the new iPhone, any smart phone user can download apps to protect their information from being seen. Many users across the globe use virtual private network apps that make it so their internet use cannot be monitored. The NSA, FBI and other agencies worry that these kinds of protections will become very popular soon and make it difficult for them to do their jobs.

2014 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Link:
Law enforcement and the NSA are worried about iPhone security

TIME Tech privacy The FBI and NSA Hate Apples Plan to Keep Your iPhone Data Secret A man shows his new iPhone outside Puerta del Sol Apple Store as Apple launches iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus on September 26, 2014 in Madrid, Spain. Pablo Blazquez DominguezGetty Images Apple made the iPhone 6 pretty difficult to crack. Law enforcement isn't happy about that

Apple released the iPhone 6 with a new, powerful encryption setting that should make it much harder for law enforcement and surveillance groups like the FBI and the NSA from accessing users emails, photos and contacts. After the Edward Snowden revelations last year, privacy-minded users may be happy about the new feature, but the law enforcement community is decidedly not.

Speaking at a news conference Thursday, FBI Director James Comey criticized Apples encryption, which scrambles information on the new iPhone 6 using a code that could take more than five-and-a-half years to try all combinations of a six-character alphanumeric passcode with lowercase letters and numbers, as Comey said.

Comey accused Apple of creating a means for criminals to evade the law, the New York Times reports. What concerns me about this is companies marketing something expressly to allow people to hold themselves beyond the law, he said.

In kidnapping cases, when seizing content on a phone could lead to finding a victim, Comey said there would be times when victims parents would come to him with tears in their eyes, look at me and say, What do you mean you cant' decode the contents of a phone, the Times reports.

A senior official told the Times that terrorists could use the iPhone 6 to store their data and evade law enforcement. Terrorists will figure this out, along with savvy criminals and paranoid dictators, one senior official predicted. Another said, Its like taking out an ad that says, Heres how to avoid surveillance even legal surveillance.'

However, major U.S. tech companies like Apple and Google argue that they cant do business if customers believe their data isnt secure, particularly in foreign markets like China and Europe, where consumers fear American tech products might come pre-loaded with ways for American surveillance agencies to access their data. On top of that, a security expert told the Times that law enforcement complaints about Apples encrypted were likely exaggerated, as access to call logs, email logs, iCloud, Gmail logs, as well as geolocation information from phone carriers like AT&T and Verizon Wireless and other data is relatively unfettered, particularly if police get a warrant.

[NYT]

Originally posted here:
The FBI and NSA Hate Apples Plan to Keep Your iPhone Data Secret

The move raises a critical issue, the intelligence officials say: Who decides what kind of data the government can access? Until now, those decisions have largely been a matter for Congress, which passed the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act in 1994, requiring telecommunications companies to build into their systems an ability to carry out a wiretap order if presented with one. But despite intense debate about whether the law should be expanded to cover email and other content, it has not been updated, and it does not cover content contained in a smartphone.

At Apple and Google, company executives say the United States government brought these changes on itself. The revelations by the former N.S.A. contractor Edward J. Snowden not only killed recent efforts to expand the law, but also made nations around the world suspicious that every piece of American hardware and software from phones to servers made by Cisco Systems have "back doors" for American intelligence and law enforcement.

Surviving in the global marketplace especially in places like China, Brazil and Germany depends on convincing consumers that their data is secure.

Read MoreThe best insurance for your iPhone 6

Timothy D. Cook, Apple's chief executive, has emphasized that Apple's core business is to sell devices to people. That distinguishes Apple from companies that make a profit from collecting and selling users' personal data to advertisers, he has said.

This month, just before releasing the iPhone 6 and iOS 8, Apple took steps to underscore its commitment to customer privacy, publishing a revised privacy policy on its website.

The policy described the encryption method used in iOS 8 as so deep that Apple could no longer comply with government warrants asking for customer information to be extracted from devices. "Unlike our competitors, Apple cannot bypass your passcode, and therefore cannot access this data," the company said.

Under the new encryption method, only entering the passcode can decrypt the device. (Hypothetically, Apple could create a tool to hack into the device, but legally the company is not required to do that.)

Read the original here:
Sorry, NSA: iPhone 6 locks out US spies