Tag: NSA

4Jan By superadminNo Comments

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Congress Says It’s Okay To Spy On Us, Gets Mad When They’re Spied On

The U.S. Congress has launched an investigation to find out if the National Security Agency (NSA) spied on the legislature's members. The investigation follows media claims that the NSA illegally listened in on conversations between Congressmen and senior Israeli politicians. The claims say the spying occurred when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his advisors were discussing the Iran nuclear power program deal. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) says, "The House Intelligence Committee is looking into allegations in the Wall Street Journal regarding possible Intelligence Community (IC) collection of communications between Israeli government officials and Members of Congress. The Committee has requested additional information from...

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30Dec By superadminNo Comments

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Latest NSA Scandal Caught Obama In A Lie

As reported in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) Tuesday night, the United States National Security Agency (NSA) continued its surveillance of its allies - despite President Obama’s promise made two years ago to stop the practice. Obama’s pledge to the governments of his allies came after Edward Snowden illegally leaked information about the NSA’s surveillance practices to the rest of the world. However, in the latest claims of eavesdropping, the WSJ reports that the NSA continued surveillance of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders. Also, the surveillance may have captured the private conversations by members of Congress. According to the anonymous U.S. officials who talked with the WSJ, the reason that the NSA continued - and even increased - its surveillan...

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17Dec By superadminNo Comments

ART & ENTERTAINMENT

This Internet Data Map Tracks NSA Spying Vulnerabilities

A mapping tool that shows how internet data is transported has been developed by researchers at the University of Toronto. The map also shows that the National Security Agency uses just a small number of surveillance sites to obtain access online traffic from throughout the globe. The researchers developed IXmaps, a visual interactive database that shows the routes of web traffic. The map allows users to get a real sense of what happens when they send and receive information online. In some cases, even just transporting data to nearby locations can result in data packets moving across the globe. Such instances have been referred to as “boomerang routes” by researchers. The map also includes the locations of NSA listening stations. Usually, data packets try to take the shortest and...

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1Dec By superadminNo Comments

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Obama’s Bandaid Fix Won’t Stop The NSA From Collecting Our Data

Acting under the Patriot Act, the NSA has collected metadata about telephone calls made by and to Americans which could later be searched. The collected data did not include the contents of a telephone call, but rather details about the call, such as phone numbers and call length. In May, the court held that the Patriot Act did not allow for this type of bulk telephone metadata collection and ruled the practice illegal. As a result, Congress passed the Freedom Act, which President Obama then signed into law. The Freedom Act amends the Patriot Act to some degree and permits the government to collect call detail records only if the call meets certain “additional requirements” including a “reasonable articulable suspicion that such specific selection term is associated with a foreign power...

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23Nov By superadminNo Comments

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New Documents Reveal The NSA Is Literally Above The Law

Newly disclosed documents show the National Security Agency (NSA) has continued to spy on U.S. citizens by exploiting a legal loophole. Despite government's orders to cease, they are continuing to collect bulk records about Americans’ emails from U.S. telecommunications companies. The documents show the NSA found a way to continue analyzing social links revealed by Americans’ email patterns, but without collecting the data from American companies and with even less oversight by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The NSA system can still gain access to data to hunt for associates of terrorism suspects, but leaves the the bulk logs in the hands of phone companies The documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act says, “other authorities can satisfy certain foreign in...

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10Nov By superadminNo Comments

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DC Judge Just Secured Temporary Victory In NSA Privacy War

A U.S. federal judge has dealt a blow, at least a temporary one, to the National Security Associations bulk collection of domestic phone records program, ordering the agency to shut it down. The order comes just weeks before the NSA is to launch a new collection program. Judge Richard J. Leon of  the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia says the program is most likely unconstitutional. In his ruling, Judge Leon writes, “With the government’s authority to operate the bulk Telephony Metadata Program quickly coming to an end, this case is perhaps the last chapter in the judiciary’s evaluation of this particular program’s compatibility with the Constitution. It will not, however, be the last chapter in the ongoing struggle to balance privacy rights and national security inte...

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1Nov By superadminNo Comments

ART & ENTERTAINMENT

European Parliament Approves Anti-Surveillance System To Fight Illegal NSA Spying

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are decrying the strange lack of action by EU institutions in safeguarding citizens’ rights from the massive electronic surveillance dragnet of U.S. agencies. Data transfers between EU member states and the U.S. have long been riddled with allegations of unwarranted surveillance that blatantly disregards individual rights to privacy and MEPs are now calling for an immediate overhaul of data transfers until the rights of individuals are protected. In the EU parliament on Thursday, 342 MEPs voted for a renewed anti surveillance system against 274 MEPs who voted against it. Through the Thursday resolution, MEPs took stock of the inaction of the EU Commission, EU institutions and member countries to follow through on recommendations outlined in a 12...

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29Oct By superadminNo Comments

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NSA Plans To Gather As Much Data On Citizens As It Can Before Ban Goes Into Effect

Earlier today, the 2nd United States Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order refusing to immediately halt the federal government’s practice of collecting Americans’ phone records during a 180-day transition period. The underlying lawsuit challenged the data collection program conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA) as supposedly authorized by the Patriot Act. The NSA collects metadata about telephone calls made by and to Americans that can later be searched. The collected data does not include the contents of a telephone call but rather details about the call, such as phone numbers and call length. In May, the court held that the Patriot Act did not allow for this type of bulk telephone metadata collection and ruled the practice illegal. As a result of the court’s ruling ...

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26Oct By superadminNo Comments

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Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Against NSA Because Wikimedia Can’t Prove They Are Being Watched

Last Friday, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Wikimedia against the National Security Agency regarding policies of surveillance. In a 30 page ruling in favor of the NSA, United States District Judge T.S. Ellis III said that Wikimedia and its associated plaintiffs had no legal standing since there was no way to prove that they were being watched by the National Security Agency. The decision falls in line with a previous Supreme Court decision from 2013, in the case of Clapper v. Amnesty International. According to Judge Ellis III, there was no way to undoubtedly confirm that the National Security Agency was watching Wikimedia. Most people know Wikimedia for being the publisher of Wikipedia, which is one of the most popular websites on the internet. Wikipedia is a com...

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24Oct By superadminNo Comments

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Is The NSA Out Of Control? Even The CIA Is Worried About The Agency’s Rampant Domestic Spying

Sensitive documents hacked from current CIA director John Brennan’s personal email account have been posted by WikiLeaks, revealing his concerns over U.S. surveillance policy towards civilians and other matters. Email documents revealed that Brennan’s opinions on domestic intelligence included the desire for “firm criteria” governing such operations as well as stringent oversight by all branches of government. The opinion refers specifically to the mass surveillance conducted against law abiding Americans by the National Security Agency (NSA) which was exposed by whistleblower Edward Snowden. In a 2007 position paper he stated, “The FBI, Department of Homeland Security, National Security Agency, CIA, and Department of Defense are all engaged in intelligence activities on U.S. soil, and t...

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30Sep By superadminNo Comments

ART & ENTERTAINMENT

Snowden Comes Out From Hiding And Debuts On Twitter

Edward Snowden is finally coming out of the dark and joining Twitter. The whistleblower, famous for leaking documents concerning the National Security Agency’s (NSA) rampant U.S. mobile phone surveillance, will be taking his fight for privacy rights to social media. Snowden joined Twitter on Tuesday with the handle @Snowden. He debuted on Twitter with a tweet that read “Can you hear me now?” The tweet immediately went viral, amassing a comfortable 25,000 retweets in an hour. In less than one hour since joining, the whistleblower had already attracted a 171,000 strong following. Snowden’s profile reads “I used to work for the government. Now I work for the public." Peculiarly, he only follows one account, his former employer, the NSA. Snowden shot to fame in 2013 when he revealed d...

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29Sep By superadminNo Comments

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FBI Under New Investigation For Mobile Phone Spying Programs

The U.S Department of Justice is investigating the FBI for information obtained from mass surveillance by the National Security Agency’s (NSA) phone data collection methods. The NSA spying program secretly collected massive amounts of U.S. citizen data without consent, while actively sharing the information between federal agencies. Earlier this year, a U.S. judge described the NSA spy program as yielding “staggering” results when the court struck down the agency’s right to collect the data. The program was resumed in June and was given a set operational timeline to December this year. Judge Lynch described the information as “Such expansive development of government repositories of formerly private records would be an unprecedented contraction of the privacy expectations of all America...

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29Sep By superadminNo Comments

ART & ENTERTAINMENT

Snowden Backs Treaty Promoting Citizen Privacy Rights And Whistleblower Protection

Edward Snowden is backing a treaty providing for the inalienable right to have human mobile phone and private records kept secret. On the eve of the biggest gathering of world leaders at the UN Summit, former employee of the National Security Agency (NSA) and notorious whistleblower, Snowden, is appealing for public privacy. Snowden appeared before a New York Forum by live video conference from Russia appealing passionately against the “global” problem of privacy rights violation. Snowden said, “We have to have a discussion, we have to come forward with proposals to go 'how do we assert what our rights are, traditionally and digitally and ensure that we cannot just enjoy them, but we can protect them.” The former NSA advisor made reference to the UN Declaration of Human Rights Articl...

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11Sep By superadminNo Comments

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The Directors Of The CIA, NSA And FBI Just Put On A Masterful Display Of Public Relations And Absolutely Nobody Bought It

The directors of the FBI, CIA, and NSA put on an elaborate display of public relations on Thursday in a thinly veiled attempt to con the American public into giving up their basic rights so the country’s police industrial complex can do its job more easily. Attendees, increasingly spied upon and tracked, appeared less than won over by the charm offensive. At the intelligence and National Security Summit, officials from America’s security organizations took the stage in order to address a variety of issues, including what they claim is unfair public opinion against their organizations. They repeatedly claimed that the negative public opinion against their groups make it difficult to do their jobs. In a remarkable display of wordsmanship, CIA Director John Brennan called the negative publ...

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21Aug By superadminNo Comments

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Bush, Cheney And Former NSA Director Hayden Sued For Using Blanket Surveillance During 2002 Winter Olympics

Former Vice President Dick Cheney, Ex-US president George W Bush, and senior police officials have been sued in a class-action court case for approving blanket email, phone and text message surveillance of law abiding citizens of Utah during the 2002 Winter Olympics. In 2001 the NSA and FBI engaged in a deal with Qwest Communications for extensive surveillance reporting in Salt Lake City during the 2002 Olympics. Ross "Rocky" Anderson, Salt Lake City’s mayor at the time, has now taken control of the case and has made a formal application for a class action lawsuit. Anderson said, "This is the first time anyone knows of that a surveillance cone has been placed over a specific geographical area in the United States.” Explaining further, he said, "What was so alarming was that th...

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16Aug By superadminNo Comments

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‘Extreme Willingness’ Of AT&T Is The Primary Reason Why The NSA Can Spy On America

Telecommunications giant AT&T has provided extensive assistance to the U.S. National Security Agency, allowing the agency to conduct unlawful surveillance on huge volumes of Internet traffic passing through the United States. The revelations come after analysis of newly disclosed NSA documents. The documents were from 2003 to 2013 and are the latest revelation unearthed by whistleblowing NSA contractor Edward Snowden. Though it has been known that American telecommunications companies work closely with the spy agency, the new documents show that the government’s questionable relationship with AT&T has special status within the agency and is considered a prime intelligence asset. Its also lucrative for AT&T, who receives tens of millions of dollars every year for enabling the...

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15Aug By superadminNo Comments

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Government Acknowledges China Is Spying On Personal Emails Of Top Officials

U.S. government officials have for the first time confirmed Chinese spying on senior U.S. intelligence officials. Chinese government hackers intercepted email exchanges of Obama administration officials in attacks that date back to at least 2010. The intelligence officials clarified that it was not the government emails of administration personnel that were compromised, but the private emails. In addition, the address books of those officials were also acquired. The instance is one of many rumoured yet first to be officially confirmed as coming from the Chinese state. The revelations continue to illustrate the constant threat of cyber espionage to the American government. America’s own NSA is known to engage in similar spying on foreign governments as well as U.S. citizens in what is a ma...

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13Aug By superadminNo Comments

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NSA Grant To Secure Internet Of Things Raises Suspicious Eyebrows

The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) has received a $229,000 one year grant from the National Security Agency (NSA) to develop security for a "safer" Internet of Things (IoT). Although the official reason for the grant from the often controversial U.S. Intelligence agency is to create a lightweight and secure architecture for IoT systems such as smart meters and inter-enabled cars, security experts believe there may be a more sinister reason. They say given the NSA's history of intercepting the supply chain of routers to plant backdoor security bugs, one could suspect the grant to UAH may be more for wanting to learn how to breach IoT devices rather than secure them. Experts say that up to now little thought has been given to security of loT systems at the design phase, giving ...

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5Aug By superadminNo Comments

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The Real Reason The DHS Opposes CISA Snooping Bill Has Nothing To Do With Your Privacy

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has joined the fray in publicly opposing a bill that will sweep away privacy in America’s online communities. But why would an agency widely considered to be leading the pack in the breach of America’s privacy rights oppose a bill that actually fosters federal agency intrusion? The devil is in the details. In a seven page letter to the Senate through outspoken privacy Senator Al Franken, Homeland Security expressed its utter condemnation of the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) for its privacy violations. DHS said the bill would “sweep away important privacy protections." The stand by DHS has led to widespread surprise among many people who are questioning the agency’s legitimacy in questioning a bill that offers immunity to private co...

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29Jul By superadminNo Comments

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Despite Court Rulings Illegal NSA Surveillance Programs Continue Unchecked

The National Security Agency (NSA) will continue with its controversial collecting and holding of American telephone records despite the program being ruled illegal by the court back in May. The NSA is openly dismissing a ruling by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals that termed the U.S. government’s collection and hoarding of Americans’ phone conversations as “unprecedented and unwarranted,” signalling a blatant abuse of power. The ruling declared the NSA’s dragnet program was not authorized by the USA Patriot Act under Section 215, hence was unjustifiable in law and a breach to Americans’ privacy. However, the U.S. government, in seeking a prolonged allowance to spy on everyday Americans, declared on Monday that the ruling was trumped by Congress’ passing of the USA Freedom Act. The A...

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28Jul By superadminNo Comments

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How ‘Smart Cities’ Are Becoming To Ultimate Spying Tool On Innocent Americans

Widespread fear is mounting over new light bulbs being planned for installation across many cities in the U.S. The new LED light bulbs, which last longer and are more energy efficient than traditional models, come with hidden data collection ‘features’ that capture details of unaware citizens in their own homes. This data collection, while allowing for remote control of lights and optimization of energy usage, will also allow authorities and electrical companies to track unsuspecting Americans everywhere they go. The creepy sounding planned upgrades to existing LED models are said to even include listening devices. In a quest to make the home smarter manufacturers appear willing to trade convenience for privacy. The New York Times recently reported that a number of companies had expresse...

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1Jul By superadminNo Comments

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Despite Political Theater, NSA Domestic Spying Program Continues Full Steam Ahead

If you thought the USA Freedom Act and the elaborate show of politics last month around the expiry of key Patriot Act provisions that allowed the NSA to collect the phone records of every American citizen meant an end to the program, you were sorely wrong. As we pointed out on May 31st, the show of political theater will in reality change nothing and it turns out proof has emerged that this is exactly what has happened. Why? Because on Monday, the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) ruled that the NSA can continue to collect and store records until a 180-day transition period ends. The USA Freedom Act, which is theory will rein in the level of surveillance by forcing telecom companies to store the NSA's data and then make the agency apply for the information, doesn...

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24Jun By superadminNo Comments

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France Summons U.S. Ambassador After Wikileaks Reports Widespread Spying On French Prime Ministers

France has angrily summoned the U.S. ambassador for a meeting on Wednesday after reports emerged that the United States spied on French President François Hollande as well as his two immediate predecessors, despite the French being considered a close U.S. ally. Transparency group WikiLeaks published U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) reports about the interception of secret communications of the last three French presidents. France's Defense Council said in a statement Wednesday that it would not tolerate "any action jeopardizing its security and the protection of its interests," yet alluded to the fact it was already aware of the spying. "These unacceptable facts already resulted in clarifications between France and the United States" in 2013 and 2014, the Council stated. "Commitment...

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14Jun By superadminNo Comments

ART & ENTERTAINMENT

Russia And China Have Reportedly Cracked The Encryption On Edward Snowden’s Document Stash

Reports have emerged Sunday, from 'Five Eyes' collaborator Britain, that Russia and China have managed to crack the strong encryption used by Edward Snowden on his stash of top secret U.S. intelligence documents. In response to the alleged cracking Britain has pulled out agents from live operations in "hostile countries." Security service MI6, the British version of the CIA, has removed agents from certain countries, according to unnamed officials at the office of British Prime Minister David Cameron, the Home Office, and security services. Despite alerting the public to a vast illegal spying operation by U.S. secret police forces, the secrecy-loving Obama administration still wants Snowden to stand trial for disclosing the illegal programs and fleeing the country for Moscow in 2013 whe...

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2Jun By superadminNo Comments

ART & ENTERTAINMENT

Russia Joins The Spy On Your Citizens Party With Backdoored Russian Made Smartphone

In Russia at least they're honest that the government is spying on you. While our NSA performs legal acrobatics to convince the American public they're abiding by the law when in fact they are not, the Russians don't mince words. When state company Rostech Corp unveiled the YotaPhone this week, company CEO Sergey Chemezov made a surprising admission. “The FSB will have access [to users’ information]. We don’t have the right to sell phones on the market in any other way – otherwise, the devices could be used by terrorists, criminals,” said Chemezov. The FSB is the equivalent of our NSA. In Russia, however, at least they admit every phone they sell contains a backdoor. Here in America, it takes security researchers to discover what the NSA is up to, like its plan to backdoor the Google and...

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31May By superadminNo Comments

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Don’t Be Fooled, The NSA Will Keep Collecting Data With Or Without The Patriot Act

It will take far more than Washington theater and paper laws to stop the data collection juggernaut that is the NSA. Numerous media outlets keep reporting that with the expiry of the Patriot Act Sunday night, the NSA will magically stop collecting data on every single American citizen. Unfortunately, this is far from the case. The official line, according to several senior officials, is that the hours leading up to midnight will see a jump in activity as engineers take down servers, monitoring software and hardware from the main optic cables of telephone data traffic. "We're in uncharted waters. We have not had to confront addressing the terrorist threat without these authorities. And it's going to be fraught with unnecessary risk," said one official, as quoted by the LA Times. Simply...

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30May By superadminNo Comments

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U.S. Tried To Destroy North Korean Nuclear Reactor With Copy Of Virus Attack Used On Iran

Word leaked late Friday that the U.S. secret agencies, likely a group within the NSA's Tailored Access Operations group, tried to deploy a version of the Stuxnet computer virus to attack North Korea's nuclear weapons program but the attack was unsuccessful. The attack supposedly took place five years ago, and was originally part of the Stuxnet attack that was used to destroy Iran's nuclear program. The now-famous Stuxnet attack damaged over one thousand of Iran's centrifuges, the key tool used to enrich uranium. Intelligence sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, reported that Stuxnet's developers, who were a joint U.S. - Israeli team, produced a related virus that would become active when it detected Korean language on an infected machine. While the virus did penetrate Nort...

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12May By superadminNo Comments

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Former NSA Director Clapper Lied Under Oath, Faces No Consequences

If a regular American lies to a court they go to jail. If they lie under oath to the Senate or Congress they face an even longer jail term. But when the director of the NSA repeatedly lies to the Senate about the illegal activities of his agency, nothing happens. Zero. Instead, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper claims to have forgot the program even existed during a key hearing two years ago. The stance highlights the NSA's deep contempt for the rule of law and the concept of being accountable to the American people, their employer. Robert Litt, the DNI's general counsel, spoke of the alleged memory lapse during a panel hearing Friday hosted by the Advisory Committee on Transparency. He attempted to explain why, in a now-infamous exchange several months before the...

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10May By superadminNo Comments

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NSA Caught In More Industrial Espionage, Hacked EU Giant Siemens

A German newspaper reported Sunday that the NSA's campaign of industrial espionage against European companies could be more wide ranging than first reported. While initial reports only talked of stealing plans from Airbus and passing them to U.S rival Boeing, it has now emerged that the U.S intelligence agency asked its German partner service BND to spy on engineering and technology giant Siemens, . The latest report on the widening spying scandal is that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) suspected Siemens of supplying communications technology Russian secret service. The source of the latest leak is an unnamed U.S. intelligence service member, which could indicate the NSA is trying to front-run the news by preemptively offering a justification for its actions. Industrial...

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9May By superadminNo Comments

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Senators Want CIA Director To Admit He Lied In Hacking Scandal

While Congress and the Senate seem perfectly happy to have our secret police spy on law abiding Americans they apparently think they should be exempt from such measures. And they're particularly upset that the CIA, a distant second to the NSA is terms of spying power, intruded on their personal computers in search of a security leak. By the standards of the regular spying on U.S. citizens the invasion of privacy here looks downright small. The CIA was tracing a national security leak of top secret information - a little investigating of staffer computers was a reasonable course of action to track down the leak. And this is the CIA. It's one of our secret police organizations, sworn to a deep web of secrecy all in order to protect us. They are expected to lie for a living. We pay them to...

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