Edward Snowden in Russia

MOSCOW, July 31 ( RIA Novosti) - A year ago, former CIA employee Edward Snowden was granted temporary asylum in Russia.

In early June 2013, ex-CIA employee//NSA contractor Snowden leaked details of mass surveillance programs that the US secret services carry out around the world.

US officials charged Snowden with three crimes, each punishable by 10 years in prison. He is accused of unauthorized communication of national defense information, willful communication of classified intelligence to an unauthorized person and theft of government property.

Snowden flew from the US to Hong Kong and then arrived in Moscow on June 23, 2013. He could not leave the transit area of Moscows Sheremetyevo Airport as his US passport had been revoked.

On June 30, 2013, Wikileaks legal advisor Sarah Harrison handed over political asylum applications on behalf of Snowden to the consulate at Sheremetyevo Airport. The applications were addressed to 21 countries, including Austria, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Cuba, Finland, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Poland, Russia, Spain, Switzerland and Venezuela.

On July 1, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered a condition by which Edward Snowden could stay in Russia. Putin requested that Snowden stop causing harm to the US.

On July 5, it was reported that Edward Snowden applied for asylum with six more countries.

On July 7, Foreign Minister of Venezuela Elas Jaua announced that Venezuelan officials had offered the ex-CIA employee on the run guarantees of asylum and were expecting a response. Bolivian President Evo Morales also expressed his willingness to accept Snowden in his country if the latter were to submit an official request. Nicaragua was the third country to offer help.

On July 11, Edward Snowden sent an email to foreign human rights organizations in Russia, the UN mission in Moscow and some prominent Russian lawyers inviting them to a meeting on July 12 in the transit area of Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow. After the meeting it was announced that Snowden intended to apply for temporary political asylum in Russia.

On July 16, lawyer Anatoly Kucherena who consulted the former CIA employee announced that Snowden had submitted an official asylum request to a representative of the Russian Federal Migration Service. In his application, Snowden stated threats to his life as the reason for seeking asylum.

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Edward Snowden in Russia

Snowden Applies for Temporary Asylum in Russia

MOSCOW, July 31 (RIA Novosti) Fugitive NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has applied to have his temporary asylum in Russia extended for another year, his lawyer Anatoly Kucherena said Thursday.

Edward is still in Russia, we have recently prepared and submitted a package of documents to receive a temporary political asylum," LifeNews TV quoted the lawyer as saying.

Kucherena said Snowdens request should be resolved today or tomorrow." If this is issue not resolved, we will clear up the situation, the lawyer added.

As Edwards documents have been accepted, he must wait for a decision from the Federal Migration Service, his lawyer said.

Speaking on Snowdens life in Russia, Kucherena said this year has been very fruitful. This year, as he has been living in Russia, was useful for him as he learned about Russia and Russian culture. I think this year has been interesting and helpful for him, the lawyer said, adding that Snowden has started learning the Russian language. We already discuss some events in Russian, Kucherena said.

While his circumstances influence Snowdens everyday life due to security concerns, the lawyer said this does not mean that he cannot move freely. He can freely visit any Russian cities and show interest in culture and routine life, Kucherena said adding that Snowden has taken advantage of this.

REUTERS Courtesy of The Guardian/Glenn Greenwald/Laura Poitras

Factbox: Edward Snowden in Russia

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Snowden Applies for Temporary Asylum in Russia

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How to turn on Android encryption today (no waiting necessary)

On Thursday Google announced that the next version of Android will have encryption enabled by default, protecting user data from anyone who lacks password access. It's a feature lauded by privacy advocates, and matches Apple's new iPhone policy. But Google's new policy isn't very helpful if you own an Android phone that won't be updated to Android L for a while (if ever).

But let's not get too bent out of shape. We're here to share how you can encrypt your Android devices running the Jelly Bean and Kit Kat systems. That's right: Privacy features are already built in. You just need to turn them on.

Remember: Encryption isn't just about taking a philosophical stance in a post-Snowden legal landscape. Protecting your data against all manner of intrusion may beadvised if youre a doctor, lawyer or business person who has a legal and ethical responsibility to shield sensitive data.

Likewise, your device is full of personal and work information, like account numbers and passwords, that could be useful to racketeers and scammers.No matter who you are, you have a lot of personal and maybe professional data on your phone that you wouldnt want just anyone to access.

Your lock screen just keeps someone from using your phone. But its not too difficult to get at the data residing on your phone by plugging it into a computer via the USB port. Enter encryption, which provides a level of protection far beyond a simple lock screen code, scramblingall the data on your phone with a special cryptographic key. So even if someone pulls all the data off your phone, circumventing the lock screen, the data will be useless without your key.

Bear in mind that its hard to know when youve fully destroyed data on a phone. Forensic analysis of a defunct phone can conceivably expose info like text messages. But if the messages are encrypted to begin with, theres no way that they can be recovered.

Its not all a walk in the park. Be aware that performance on older devices can be slowed through encryption, and it can negatively impact battery life, too. If your Android phone or tablet was made in the last couple years, it likely has special hardware to speed up encryption, and the impact on speed and battery life will be negligible. Also, encryption isnt 100 percent foolproof (though it makes accessing your data so difficult and expensive, crooks probably won't take the time to break it).

Step 1: Plug in your devices power cable and allow the battery to charge. Keep the power cable connected.

Tip: The encryption process can take as long as 30 minutes or more. If your battery dies and the phone shuts off in the middle of the process, the process will fail, and youll lose data.

Step 2: Open the devices Settings and look for the Security menu item. Then select the Screen Lock menu item and choose a PIN or Password and follow the prompts to confirm it.

See the article here:
How to turn on Android encryption today (no waiting necessary)

Google to turn on encryption by default in next Android version

The pre-release window for Android L continues to be full of surprises. The new Android OS, due out before the end of the year, is set to encrypt device data by default, a first for the Android universebut it'll probably be a while before default encryption comes to every Android user.

Savvy Android users already know how to keep their phones and tablets safe with encryption. Beginning with Android Honeycomb in early 2011, Google has offered access to optional full-disk encryption via the Settings app. As Honeycomb was a tablet-only release, smartphones didn't get this feature until Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich was released, several months after Honeycomb.

Based on the original report from The Washington Post, it's not clear if the default encryption in Android L will just be the standard encryption Android offers now or if this will be something new. It's also unknown if people with older devices upgrading to Android L will also see encryption turned on by default.

Google was unavailable for comment at this writing, but we've asked the company for more information and will update this story should we get a response.

Defaulting to encryption is nothing but a good thing. It means bad actors (as well as overzealous law enforcement) will have a difficult time cracking into your phone without your authorization. Google won't be able to access (or hand over) your phone's data, eitheralthough law enforcement will still be able to retrieve some information from Google's servers with a proper warrant.

But even with encryption turned on by default in Android L, it will likely be a long time before the majority of Android users have devices that default to a more secure state.

Android suffers from a serious case of fragmentation. At this writing, the majority of Android users worldwide (around 54 percent) were using Android 4.1-4.3 (Jelly Bean), according to Google's own count. Only 24.5 percent meanwhile are running the most recent version of Android, version 4.4 KitKat.

The biggest problem for Android is that Google depends on phone manufacturers and carriers to roll out timely updates to older phones. That severely delays the roll out of new features to usersif devices get updated at all.

That's a decidedly different situation from iOS, where the vast majority of users are always on the latest version of iOS within a few weeks of its release. That level of adoption happens because Apple tends to roll out its latest version of iOS to as many old devices as it reasonably can. Apple also has the advantage of bypassing the carriers and supplying iOS updates directly to users. Apple devices as old as the iPhone 4S and the iPad 2 can upgrade to the just-released iOS 8.

Large scale adoption of the newest version of iOS also enables Apple to deliver important new features relatively quickly. In iOS 8, for example, Apple is beefing up device encryption so that Apple can't retrieve data protected behind a passcode. For pre-iOS 8 phones, the company could retrieve select data from iPhones and iPads.

See the rest here:
Google to turn on encryption by default in next Android version

Android L will turn on encryption by default

The pre-release window for Android L continues to be full of surprises. The new Android OS, due out before the end of the year, is set to encrypt device data by default, a first for the Android universebut it'll probably be a while before default encryption comes to every Android user.

Savvy Android users already know how to keep their phones and tablets safe with encryption. Beginning with Android Honeycomb in early 2011, Google has offered access to optional full-disk encryption via the Settings app. As Honeycomb was a tablet-only release, smartphones didn't get this feature until Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich was released, several months after Honeycomb.

Based on the original report from The Washington Post, it's not clear if the default encryption in Android L will just be the standard encryption Android offers now or if this will be something new. It's also unknown if people with older devices upgrading to Android L will also see encryption turned on by default.

Google was unavailable for comment at this writing, but we've asked the company for more information and will update this story should we get a response.

Defaulting to encryption is nothing but a good thing. It means bad actors (as well as overzealous law enforcement) will have a difficult time cracking into your phone without your authorization. Google won't be able to access (or hand over) your phone's data, eitheralthough law enforcement will still be able to retrieve some information from Google's servers with a proper warrant.

But even with encryption turned on by default in Android L, it will likely be a long time before the majority of Android users have devices that default to a more secure state.

Android suffers from a serious case of fragmentation. At this writing, the majority of Android users worldwide (around 54 percent) were using Android 4.1-4.3 (Jelly Bean), according to Google's own count. Only 24.5 percent meanwhile are running the most recent version of Android, version 4.4 KitKat.

The biggest problem for Android is that Google depends on phone manufacturers and carriers to roll out timely updates to older phones. That severely delays the roll out of new features to usersif devices get updated at all.

That's a decidedly different situation from iOS, where the vast majority of users are always on the latest version of iOS within a few weeks of its release. That level of adoption happens because Apple tends to roll out its latest version of iOS to as many old devices as it reasonably can. Apple also has the advantage of bypassing the carriers and supplying iOS updates directly to users. Apple devices as old as the iPhone 4S and the iPad 2 can upgrade to the just-released iOS 8.

Large scale adoption of the newest version of iOS also enables Apple to deliver important new features relatively quickly. In iOS 8, for example, Apple is beefing up device encryption so that Apple can't retrieve data protected behind a passcode. For pre-iOS 8 phones, the company could retrieve select data from iPhones and iPads.

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Android L will turn on encryption by default