PRISM

[tw]

Once upon a time, workers only hated Post Office Management. Going Postal. Apparently there were not enough of them. With so many assault rifles, hunters must now search for new game.

Bagging trophies in malls and theaters is too easy.

Government will require all guns be connected to the internet. Then Echelon, Prism, or whatever it is now called can actually find and avert crimes.

[Lamplighter]

The Washington Post ran a survey form about on-line privacy for several days,
and the first thing it asked for was your NAME !

This article almost makes it sound as if all of 81 people went past that and responded...

Washington Post
Timothy B. Lee
November 7, 2013

Here’s how people are changing their Internet habits to avoid NSA snooping

<snip>The irony of asking for full names and e-mail addresses in a survey
about online privacy was not lost on Switch readers.

"The questionnaire can't be for real. I thought I inadvertently connected to 'the Onion,'" one reader
wrote in the comment section. Other commenters described the survey as "bizarre" and "creepy."

Some survey respondents indicated that they had cut back on using the Internet
to send sensitive personal information. But a much larger group told us that
they hadn't changed their Internet habits at all.

"If the NSA wants to know I spend too much time researching fantasy football,
hotels in Las Vegas, and the best way to roast pumpkin seeds, so be it," one wrote.
"You only have something to fear if you are looking up things that the NSA would consider dangerous to US citizens."

Other respondents haven't changed their habits because they believe doing so is hopeless.
"There is simply no defense against the NSA if they are targeting you," one reader claimed.
"I accept that I am a minnow swimming in a pool full of sharks," wrote another.

Added a third respondent: "I always add the following to my emails 'Hey NSA, go f--k yourselves.'"

[Lamplighter]

NY Times
By ALISON SMALE and DAVID E. SANGER
11/12/13

Spying Scandal Alters U.S. Ties With Allies and Raises Talk of Policy Shift

BERLIN — Just as European and American negotiators resumed work
on a groundbreaking trade accord meant to tie their two continents closer together,
René Obermann, the chief executive of Deutsche Telekom, the German telecommunications giant,
told a cybersecurity conference in Germany on Monday that his company was
working to keep electronic message traffic from “unnecessarily” crossing the Atlantic,
where it could fall into the hands of the National Security Agency.

Other German executives, and some politicians, are beginning to talk of segmenting the Internet,
so that they are not reliant on large American firms that by contract or court order allow
United States intelligence agencies to delve into their data about phone and Internet usage.

Europeans are demanding that any new trade accord include data-privacy protections
that the United States is eager to avoid. Almost never before has a spying scandal
— in this case the revelation of the monitoring of the cellphone of Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany —
resulted in such a concrete, commercial backlash.

Now it is also driving a debate inside the American government about whether the United States,
which has long spied on allies even while nurturing them as partners, may have to change its approach.

<snip>

[Lamplighter]

The NSA has finally learned that they can't know everything...

NY Times
MARK MAZZETTI and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
12/14/13

Officials Say U.S. May Never Know Extent of Snowden's Leaks

Investigators remain in the dark partly because the facility where
the former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden worked
was not equipped with software to monitor employees.
<snip>
Six months since the investigation began, officials said Mr. Snowden had
further covered his tracks by logging into classified systems using the passwords
of other security agency employees, as well as by hacking firewalls
installed to limit access to certain parts of the system.
<snip>
In recent days, a senior N.S.A. official has told reporters that he believed Mr. Snowden
still had access to documents not yet disclosed. The official, Rick Ledgett, who is heading
the security agency’s task force examining Mr. Snowden’s leak, said he would consider
recommending amnesty for Mr. Snowden in exchange for those documents.
<snip>

... but that won't stop them from trying.

[Griff]

It's sort of hilarious watching our government descend into the old soviet ways. I remember sitting in a Roman History class in college when the Professor said something like, "Anything familiar in this?"

[busterb]

This shit is NOT amazing to me Anyone who has contact with the bunch of assholes who work for the Gubberment knows this. From the VA, IRS and all are full of the affitive action assholes. Hey. I got my job. Ya can't fire me.

[glatt]

I know a bunch of people who work for the government and most are not assholes. But one definitely is, and another is a great guy, but the people who have to deal with him think he is an asshole because he's enforcing laws they are breaking.

[Lamplighter]

WOW !

Breaking news (tv talking heads) report that a federal appeals court judge has ruled the "entire law"
under which the NSA digital surveilance programs operate is unconstitutional.

This judge has also delayed his own ruling while it is being appealed.
But he is saying that the NSA should get ready for it to be supported.

[tw]

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

Breaking news (tv talking heads) report that a federal appeals court judge has ruled the "entire law"
under which the NSA digital surveilance programs operate is unconstitutional.

Justices have danced around this concept in public discussion. For example, Scalia has said the Constitution does not provide a right to privacy. It is possible that Justices reverse previous rulings that defined what is privacy and what is now to become information accessible to police without a court order.

I doubt any decision would be that earth shaking. But a discussion is to (will be) finally occur.

At this point, Snowden is looking more like a hero for exposing rampant disregard in the NSA for laws or for the principles that define those laws. We know this from what has happened after 11 September. NSA and other intelligence agencies no longer can be trusted to make their own rules. With new technologies and virtually unlimited budgets, these organizations need serious and increased oversight.

[Adak]

And the judge singled out the oft-cited precedent case, always used to justify intrusive measures by the gov't, and said it was obsolete (which it should be, it was written 30 years ago, when our technology was much different than now).

Well done, Federal Judge Richard Leon!!

[Lamplighter]

Snowden is singing a special song:
"Please pass the salt... I've got a lot of rubbing to do"

National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden wrote an open letter
to the people of Brazil published in a Brazilian newspaper on Tuesday.

In the letter, he said he would be willing to help the country
investigate NSA spying on its soil in exchange for political asylum.

Brazil, including President Dilma Rousseff, has been a major target of NSA spying
and has complained vehemently in the international community. Snowden has temporary asylum...

Snowden wants to help Brazil fight NSA surveillance

[Griff]

NSA program stopped no terror attacks, says White House panel member

A member of the White House review panel on NSA surveillance said he was “absolutely” surprised when he discovered the agency’s lack of evidence that the bulk collection of telephone call records had thwarted any terrorist attacks.

Color me less surprised.

[Lamplighter]

Good catch, Griff

[Lamplighter]

It’s already in Wikipedia (here), and was reported as an "exclusive" by Reuters on 12/20/13,
but here is a shorter version:

Mother Jones
Kevin Drum
Dec. 21, 2013

NSA Paid Security Company to Adopt Weakened Encryption Standards

Undisclosed until now was that RSA received $10 million in a deal that set
the NSA formula as the preferred, or default, method for number generation
in [ RSA Security LLC's ] BSafe software, according to two sources familiar with the contract.

Although that sum might seem paltry, it represented more than a third of the revenue
that the relevant division at RSA had taken in during the entire previous year, securities filings show.

....Most of the dozen current and former RSA employees interviewed said that
the company erred in agreeing to such a contract, and many cited RSA's corporate evolution
away from pure cryptography products as one of the reasons it occurred.

But several said that RSA also was misled by government officials,
who portrayed the formula as a secure technological advance.
"They did not show their true hand," one person briefed on the deal said of the NSA,
asserting that government officials did not let on that they knew how to break the encryption.

However, the Wiki version speaks more along the lines that the "random number generator"
that was preferred by NSA was already well known among cryptologists as being one that could be broken
... and so leaves the impression that the RSA cryptologists knew, or should have known,
what was involved for the $10 million contract.

.

[Lamplighter]

So, who do you believe...

Cruxialcio
Antone Gonsalves
December 23, 2013

RSA Denies Hobbling Encryption Software For NSA

RSA has strongly denied a report that it was paid to embed in encryption software-
flawed technology that would have enabled the U.S. National Security Agency to break into computer products.
Reuters reported Dec. 20 that the NSA paid the influential security vendor $10 million
to provide its customers with the agency-developed encryption formula
that would create a backdoor in products.

RSA, a unit of EMC, reportedly used the technology in BSAFE,
which is software embedded in commercial applications to secure data.
On Dec. 22, RSA posted a statement that said,
"We categorically deny this allegation."

While acknowledging it worked with the NSA, RSA said it never
kept the relationship secret and often publicized it.
"Our explicit goal has always been to strengthen commercial and government security," RSA said.

RSA said its decision in 2004 to use Dual EC DRBG in BSAFE was in the context of
an industry-wide effort to build stronger methods of encryption into products.
At the time, the NSA had a trusted role in the security industry.

The flawed algorithm was one of multiple choices customers had in BSAFE toolkits, RSA said.
Approval of the standard made it a valuable tool in meeting
government requirements for information technology products.
RSA continued to offer Dual EC DRBG in its product until NIST recommended in September of this year
that the algorithm no longer be used, because it had been compromised.