We noted in 2012 that Americans are the most spied upon people in world history.

Top NSA officials previously said that weve got a police state like J. Edgar Hoover or the Stasi on super steroids.

Spying by the NSA is also worse than in Nazi German:

The tyrants in Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia and Stasi Eastern Europe would have liked to easedrop on every communication and every transaction of every citizen. But in the world before the internet, smart phones, electronic medical records and digital credit card transactions, much of what happened behind closed doors remained private.

Indeed, a former lieutenant colonel for the East German Stasi said the NSAs spy capabilities would have been a dream come true for the Stasi.

NSA contractor Edward Snowden said in 2013 that NSA spying was worse than in Orwells book 1984. (See update below).

We noted at the time that the NSA is spying on us through our computers, phones, cars, buses, streetlights, at airports and on the street, via mobile scanners and drones, through our smart meters, and in many other ways.

And we learned that same year that the NSA is laughing at all of us for carrying powerful spying devices around in our pockets. And see this.

A security expert said the same year:

We have to assume that the NSA has EVERYONE who uses electronic communications under CONSTANT surveillance.

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Worst Spying In World History – Worse Than Any Dystopian Novel – Is Occurring RIGHT NOW

MARKET UPDATETodays AM fix was 1,221.75 USD, 1,072.56 EUR and 793.86 GBP per ounce. Yesterdays AM fix was USD 1,233.50, EUR 1,81.12 and GBP 801.91 per ounce.

The U.S. market was closed yesterday for a national holiday.

New NSA spying scandal emerges, highlighting the scale of cyber wars

- Agency can access hard-drives made by major U.S. producers

- Computers in over 30 countries, including NATO allies, were hacked

- Iran and Russia were main targets

- Revelations may impact technology sector in the U.S. as institutions around the world seek alternatives

Kaspersky Lab, the Moscow-based cyber security firm whose report into international hacking was previewed by the New York Times Yesterday, has exposed that the NSA has had the capacity to snoop on most U.S.-made computers since 2001.

The report claims that the NSA attained access to firmware code from all the major Western computer manufacturers which runs every time a computer is switched on and figured out how to lodge malicious software in the code.

The terminology may be foreign to you but imagine if you will what your world would be like if the digital records of your wealth and property titles simply vanished or became corrupted. Imagine the screen just going dark. It sounds alarmist but that is exactly the sum total of the high stakes games now being played out by the worlds superpowers you and I are the pawns.

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NSA Trojan Firmware Widespread, U.S. International Tech Reputation May Suffer. Tech Privacy has Been a Myth.

Revelations that the National Security Agency implanted spyware into hard drives sold by top American tech manufacturers stand to further damage the international sales of those vendors and further degrade the U.S. government's diplomatic relations with countries, many already stinging from previous NSA spying programs, abroad.

This is yet another instance that has led to building this viewpoint that the U.S. government and U.S. companies cannot be trusted, and whether that is correct or not, its harder and harder to combat that idea, said Jake Laperruque, the Center for Democracy & Technologys fellow on Privacy, Surveillance and Security. Thats going to cause problems for U.S. businesses.

The spyware, which has been dubbed Equation, was discovered by Kaspersky Lab, a Russian security software maker that over the past few years has built a reputation for uncovering American cyberespionage operations. Kaspersky Lab revealed the operation late Monday evening.

It is strongly believed that the NSA isbehind Equation and has been building spyware directly into the firmware of hard drives sold by companies like Western Digital, Seagate Technology, Micron Technology and many others since 2001. That spyware was then used to monitor the computer activities of top foreign targets in countries like Iran, Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and others, according to Reuters.

Short of something major like Congressional action, its going to be hard to break that narrative that we cant be trusted, said Laperruque. The trust has been withered away so significantly.

Since the revelation of PRISM in 2013, countless cyberespionage operations have been tied to the NSA, damaging the U.S. governments relationships around the globe. Equation is the latest example of that and the "icing on Snowden's cake," saidIgor Baikalov, chief scientist at Securonix, asecurity analytics and intelligence firm.

"While Kaspersky stopped short of attributing 'Equation Group' activities to any specific entity, the list of clues discovered and especially the list of targets leaves little doubt that eventually it will be tied to NSA," Baikalov said. "The question is: does the U.S. government care anymore?"

Since whistleblower Edward Snowden came out two years ago with revelations of widespread cyberespionage by the NSA, American businesses have been negatively impacted as countries around the globe lose their trust U.S.-made tech. Qualcomm, IBM, Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard have been among companies whove reporteddiminished sales in Chinaas a result. In Brazil, Boeing missed out on a$4.5 billion jet contractdue to the NSAs activities. The total damage to American tech businesses could amount to as much as $180 billion, according to an estimate byForrester Research's James Staten.

This will most certainly have a long-term impact on the brands of the companies involved -- Seagate, Toshiba, and Western Digital -- at the very least tainting their products as suspicious, said Jim Gregory, chairman ofTenet, a brand innovation and marketing firm. Their corporate brand will be impacted and the damage will last from three to five years depending on how actively they manage the crisis.

As for companies that are concerned with what Equation could mean for their own computer systems, there really isnt much that can be done other than having an expert go through their computer system code and manually ensure there is no spyware installed. "One cannot simply install any antivirus product off the shelf and expect to be fully protected, even if you have Kaspersky," said Brett Fernicola, chief information security officer for STEALTHbits Technologies, a provider of data security solutions.

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NSA ‘Equation’ Fallout: Experts Say Damage To US Tech Firms Could Top $180B

Fighting Back! New Bill Takes On NSA Code-Breaking Facility
http://www.undergroundworldnews.com On Wednesday, Tennessee legislators filed legislation to directly take on NSA spying by withholding vital state resources...

By: Dahboo777

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Fighting Back! New Bill Takes On NSA Code-Breaking Facility - Video

Digital Warfare: NSA STUXNET behind attacks on US, allies computers
The notorious NSA spying agency is increasingly worried that U.S. cyberattacks have actually taught Iran how to hack. That #39;s according to the latest document leaked by Edward Snowden. RT #39;s....

By: Alittlepart Ofme

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Digital Warfare: NSA STUXNET behind attacks on US, allies’ computers - Video

Obama wants #39;benefit of the doubt #39; from Germans on NSA spying
President Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel held a joint press conference Monday at the White House.

By: The Washington Examiner

Excerpt from:
Obama wants 'benefit of the doubt' from Germans on NSA spying - Video

A federal judge in the Northern District of California just ruled that he can't rule in a case accusing the NSA of spying on Americans. This lack of a ruling means the NSA may continue with its activities. But the really disappointing and weird part is how the judge justified his stance.

The judge said the case couldn't continue because it might lead to the possible disclosure of state secrets. In other words, you can't stop the NSA from running its secret program even if that program violates the Fourth Amendment because the program is secret. It's the most vicious of cycles.

The case in question is Jewel vs. NSA. It's civil liberties organization Electronic Frontier Foundation's longest standing challenge to the NSA's practice of intercepting internet communications, and understandably, EFF was not happy with the ruling. The organization's Kurt Opsahl wrote in a blog post:

EFF will keep fighting the unlawful, unconstitutional surveillance of ordinary Americans by the U.S. government. Today's ruling in Jewel v. NSA was not a declaration that NSA spying is legal. The judge decided instead that "state secrets" prevented him from ruling whether the program is constitutional.

It would be a travesty of justice if our clients are denied their day in court over the "secrecy" of a program that has been front-page news for nearly a decade. Judge White's ruling does not end our case.

Just to recap, a federal court can't decide whether a government spy agency's actions are constitutional because they're too secret. Isn't this sort of thing what the Bill of Rights is supposed to prevent from happening? Either way, it doesn't look like President Obama is going to reform this twisted situation. [Reuters, EFF]

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Judge Lets NSA Continue Spying on US Citizens

A US JUDGE HAS ruled in favour of the National Security Agency (NSA) in a personal privacy case, despite the protests of rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

Jewel vs the NSA was ruled on by judge Jeffrey White in Oakland, California, who told plaintiffs that they had failed to prove that the government violated a long established hope that a man's home is his castle', or rather the Fourth Amendment.

The EFF expressed its disappointment at the latest stage in a case in which it has been involved for some time.

"EFF will keep fighting the unlawful, unconstitutional surveillance of ordinary Americans by the US government," the group said in a statement.

"Today's ruling was not a declaration that NSA spying is legal. The judge decided instead that 'state secrets' prevented him from ruling whether the programme is constitutional.

"It would be a travesty of justice if our clients are denied their day in court over the secrecy' of a programme that has been front page news for nearly a decade.

"Judge White's ruling does not end our case. The judge's ruling only concerned upstream internet surveillance, not the telephone records collection nor other mass surveillance processes that are also at issue."

The EFF has looked to crack open the government during the case and get it to talk more openly about surveillance sweeps.

"The American people know that their communications are being swept up by the government under various NSA programmes," it said.

"The government's attempt to block true judicial review of its mass, untargeted collection of content and metadata by pretending that the basic facts about how the spying affects the American people are still secret is outrageous and disappointing."

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US judge backs NSA in people vs privacy case

In a press conference, German ChancellorAngela Merkel and President Obama both spoke favorably of American intelligence work.

In 2013, news that the United States National Security Agency (NSA)had tapped Merkels phone caused a sensation. The United States promised to knock it off. Merkel, at the time, was less than pleased: Friends dont spy on each other, she said.

Now, things appear calmer between the two nations. Heres Merkel earlier today discussing the need for collaboration with the United States:

There are still different assessments on individual issues there, but if we look at the sheer dimension of the terrorist threats, we are more than aware of the fact that we need to work together very closely.

And here is Merkel praising the effectiveness of the United States intelligence apparatus:

The institutions of the United States of American have provided us and still continue to provide us with a lot of very important, very significant information that are also important to our security.

President Obama, also had comments on the work of the NSA and his other intelligence organs:

What I would ask would be that the German people recognize that the United States has always been on the forefront of trying to promote civil liberties, that we have traditions of due process that we respect, that we have been a consistent partner of yours in the course of the last 70 years and certainly the last 25 years in reinforcing the values we share.So, occasionally, I would like the Germans to give us the benefit of the doubt, given our history, as opposed to assuming the worst.

A call for civility! 2015 surely is a new year.

I think this all indicates that the larger cooling of interest, and anger concerning the large-scale spying efforts of the NSA extends past the borders of the United States, reaching other nations.

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President Obama Asks That Germans Give US “The Benefit Of The Doubt” On NSA Spying

Further Reading President Barack Obama asked Germans to give the United States the benefit of the doubt when it comes to snooping by the National Security Agency.

In a Monday joint press conference with Chancellor Angela Merkel held at the White House on Monday, Obama said he recognizes the sensitivities around this issue.

In October 2013, German media reported that Merkel had strong suspicions that her personal cellphone was being monitored by American authorities.

White House spokesman Jay Carney unequivocally told reporters at the time that such surveillance was not continuing, but he did not directly deny the allegations of past conduct. The next year, Germany decided not to renew its government contract with Verizon, citing concerns over spying by the National Security Agency.

Last week, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence made minor changes to its spying protocols, which many legal experts decried as mere window dressing.

On Monday, Obama added:

What I would ask would be that the German people recognize that the United States has always been on the forefront of trying to promote civil liberties, that we have traditions of due process that we respect, that we have been a consistent partner of yours in the course of the last 70 years, and certainly the last 25 years, in reinforcing the values that we share. And so occasionally I would like the German people to give us the benefit of the doubt, given our history, as opposed to assuming the worstassuming that we have been consistently your strong partners and that we share a common set of values.

And if we have that fundamental, underlying trust, there are going to be times where there are disagreements, and both sides may make mistakes, and there are going to be irritants like there are between friends, but the underlying foundation for the relationship remains sound.

I think there are still different assessments on individual issues there, but if we look at the sheer dimension of the terrorist threat, we are more than aware of the fact that we need to work together very closely, she said, according to a White House transcript.

And I, as German Chancellor, want to state here very clearly that the institutions of the United States of America have provided us and still continue to provide us with a lot of very significant, very important information that also ensure our security. And we dont want to do without this. There are other possibilities, through the cyber dialogue, for example, to continue to talk about the sort of protection of privacy versus data protection and so on, and security. But this was basicallycombating terrorism was basically in the forefront today.

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Obama asks Germany “to give us the benefit of the doubt” on NSA spying