Daily Archives: October 11, 2014

Prepare for cyber false flag -- JPMorgan links arms with NSA
The Real JPMorgan Data Breach Danger Is Still on Its Way http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adam-levin/the-real-jpmorgan-data-br_b_5956104.html We Need Cyber Legislation: Ex-NSA Chief Alexander.

By: Dave Acton Reporting

Go here to see the original:
Prepare for cyber false flag -- JPMorgan links arms with NSA - Video

Beyond Borders - Spies, Whistle Blowers and the NSA - BBIF 2014

By: Beyond Borders Scotland

View post:
Beyond Borders - Spies, Whistle Blowers and the NSA - BBIF 2014 - Video

GCSB and The NSA, Dr Katherine Albrecht with Vinny Eastwood 29July2013 1of6

By: Vinny Eastwood

Link:
GCSB and The NSA, Dr Katherine Albrecht with Vinny Eastwood 29July2013 1of6 - Video

As a much-anticipated documentary about NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden premiers in New York this evening, new revelations are being published simultaneously that expose more information about the NSAs work to compromise computer networks and devices.

Newly-brought-to-light documents leaked by Snowden discuss operations by the NSA working inside China, Germany and South Korea to help physically subvert and compromise foreign networks and equipment, according to a report published by The Intercept. They also suggest the NSA may have undercover agents planted inside companies to provide assistance in gaining access to systems in the global communications industry. And they bolster previous reports that the NSA works with U.S. and foreign companies to weaken their encryption systems.

The new report is written by Peter Maass and Laura Poitras. Poitras is the celebrated documentary filmmaker who Snowden contacted in 2013 to provide her with a trove of NSA documents and who has interviewed him in Hong Kong and Moscow for her film CitizenFour.

Among the new documents, which are seen in the film, is a 13-page brief dating from 2004 about Sentry Eagle, a term the NSA used to describe a collection of closely held programs whose details were so tightly controlled that, according to the document, they could be disclosed only to a limited number of people approved by senior intelligence officials.

Unauthorized disclosure . . .will cause exceptionally grave damage to U.S. national security, the document states. The loss of this information could critically compromise highly sensitive cryptologic U.S. and foreign relationships, multi-year past and future NSA investments, and the ability to exploit foreign adversary cyberspace while protecting U.S. cyberspace.

The brief reveals new details about six categories of NSA operations that fall under the Sentry Eagle rubric. These are also known as the NSAs core secrets and are identified as:

Sentry Hawkwhich involves computer network exploitation (aka CNE), the governments term for digital espionage. (For example, programs like Flame would fall into this category.)

Sentry Falconwhich involves computer network defense.

Sentry Ospreywhich appears to involve overseeing NSA clandestine operations conducted in conjunction with the CIA, FBI, the Defense Intelligence Agency and Army intelligence. These operations involve human intelligence assets, or HUMINT assets (Target ExploitationTAREX) to support signals intelligence (SIGINT) operations.

This is one of the biggest reveals of the report. Apparently, under Sentry Osprey, people responsible for target exploitation operations are embedded in operations conducted by the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency, and FBI to provide technical expertise these agencies lack. This would include covert or clandestine field activities as well as interception, or interdiction of devices in the supply chain to modify equipment or implant bugs or beacons in hardware. The TAREX group specializes in physical subversionthat is, subversion through physical access to a device or facility, rather than by implanting spyware remotely over the internet. The report doesnt indicate if the kinds of modifications made to equipment involve sabotage, but its possible the alterations made could include planting logic bombs in software to destroy data or equipment, as the Stuxnet worm did in Iran.

View original post here:
NSA May Have Undercover Operatives in Foreign Companies

Army General Keith Alexander.

DOD/NSA

New financial disclosure documents released this month by the National Security Agency (NSA) show that Keith Alexander, who served as its director from August 2005 until March 2014, had thousands of dollars of investments during his tenure in a handful of technology firms.

Each year disclosed has a checked box next to this statement: "Reported financial interests or affiliations are unrelated to assigned or prospective duties, and no conflicts appear to exist."

Alexander repeatedly made the public case that the American public is at "greater risk" from a terrorist attack in the wake of the Snowden disclosures. Statements such as those could have a positive impact on the companies he was invested in, which could have eventually helped his personal bottom line.

The NSA did not immediately respond to Ars requests for further comment.

The documents were obtained and published Fridayby ViceNews as the result of a Freedom of Information Act request and subsequent lawsuit against the NSA brought by Vice Newsreporter Jason Leopold.

The 60 released pages, which cover a period from 2008 through 2013, document that as of 2008, Alexander had as much as $50,000 invested in Synchronoss, a cloud storage firm. Synchronoss provides services to major mobile phone providers, including AT&T, Verizon and others.

He also had as much as $15,000 invested in Datascension, a "data gathering and research company." Public trades in the firm were suspended by the Securities and Exchange Commission in August 2014 due to "a lack of current and accurate information" about it.

Pericom, a semiconductor company that also has made hardware for "DVR solutions for the CCTV security and surveillance markets," also appears in his portfolio, with investments up to $15,000 appearing as of 2008.

Read more here:
Former NSA director had thousands personally invested in obscure tech firms

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.

Before you choose to head back to the Classic look of the site, we'd appreciate it if you share your thoughts on the Beta; your feedback is what drives our ongoing development.

Beta is different and we value you taking the time to try it out. Please take a look at the changes we've made in Beta and learn more about it.Thanks for reading, and for making the site better!

MojoKid writes One of the downsides to the news cycle is that no matter how big or hot a story is, something else inevitably comes along. The advent of ISIS and Ebola, combined with the passing of time, have pushed national security concerns out of the limelight until, that is, someone at the NSA helps out by reminding us that yes, the agency still exists and yes, it still has some insane policies and restrictions. Earlier this year, the Federation of American Scientists filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the NSA. The group was seeking information it thought would be relatively low-key what authorized information had been leaked to the media over the past 12 months? The NSA's response reads as follows: "The document responsive to your request has been reviewed by this Agency as required by the FOIA and has been found to be currently and properly classified in accordance with Executive Order 13526. The document is classified because its disclosure could reasonably be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security." The NSA is insisting that it has the right to keep its lawful compliance and public disclosures secret not because the NSA is made of evil people but because the NSA has a knee-jerk preference and demand for secrecy. In a spy organization, that's understandable and admirable but it's precisely the opposite of what's needed to rebuild American's faith in the institution and its judgment.

Go here to read the rest:
NSA To Scientists: We Won't Tell You What We've Told You; That's Classified