Energy Theater #6: Chapter 6 - Humorous Response to NSA spying
Cecilia Bennett has her say about being spied upon by the NSA. A funny look at someone being spied upon and a humorous way to respond to it. This show, "Scou...

By: energytheater

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Energy Theater #6: Chapter 6 - Humorous Response to NSA spying - Video

The National Security Agency has some of the brightest minds working on its sophisticated surveillance programs, including its metadata collection efforts. But a new chat program designed by a middle-school dropoutin his spare time may turn out to be one of the best solutions to thwart those efforts.

Prompted by Edward Snowden's revelations about the government's intrusive surveillance activities, loosely knit citizen militias of technologists and security professionals have cropped up around the world to develop systems to protect us from government agencies out to identify us online and grab our communications.

John Brooks is now among them.

Brooks, who is just 22 and a self-taught coder who dropped out of school at 13, was always concerned about privacy and civil liberties. Four years ago he began work on a program for encrypted instant messaging that uses Tor hidden services for the protected transmission of communications. The program, which he dubbed Ricochet, began as a hobby. But by the time he finished, he had a full-fledged desktop client that was easy to use, offered anonymity and encryption, and even resolved the issue of metadata -- the "to" and "from" headers and IP addresses spy agencies use to identify and track communications -- long before the public was aware that the NSA was routinely collecting metadata in bulk for its spy programs. The only problem Brooks had with the program was that few people were interested in using it. Although he'd made Ricochet's code open source, Brooks never had it formally audited for security and did nothing to promote it, so few people even knew about it.

Then the Snowden leaks happened and metadata made headlines. Brooks realised he already had a solution that resolved a problem everyone else was suddenly scrambling to fix. Though ordinary encrypted email and instant messaging protect the contents of communications, metadata allows authorities to map relationships between communicants and subpoena service providers for subscriber information that can help unmask whistleblowers, journalists's sources and others. It's not just these kind of people whose privacy is harmed by metadata, however; in 2012 it was telltale email metadata that helped unmask former CIA director and war commander General David Petraeusand unravel his affair with Paula Broadwall.

With metadata suddenly in the spotlight, Brooks decided earlier this year to dust off his Ricochet program and tweak it to make it more elegant -- he knew he'd still have a problem, however, getting anyone to adopt it. He wasn't a known name in the security world and there was no reason anyone should trust him or his program.

EnterInvisible.im, a group formed by Australian security journalist Patrick Gray. Last July, Gray announced that he was working with HD Moore, developer of the Metasploit Framework tool used by security researchers to pen-test systems, and with another respected security professional who goes by his hacker handle The Grugq, to craft a secure, open-source encrypted chat program cobbled together from parts of existing anonymity and messaging systems -- such as Prosody, Pidgin and Tor. They wanted a system that was highly secure, user friendly and metadata-free. Gray says his primary motivation was to protect the anonymity of sources who contact journalists.

"At the moment, when sources contact a journalist, they're going to leave a metadata trail, whether it's a phone call record or instant message or email record [regardless of whether or not thecontentof their communication is encrypted]," he says. "And that data is currently accessible to authorities without a warrant."

When Brooks wrote to say he'd already designed a chat program that eliminated metadata, Gray and his group took a look at the code and quickly dropped their plan to develop their own tool, in favor of working with Brooks to develop his.

"He writes incredible code," Gray says, "and really thinks like a hacker, even though he doesn't have a security background."

See original here:
School dropout codes chat program that foils NSA spying

The National Security Agency has some of the brightest minds working on its sophisticated surveillance programs, including its metadata collection efforts. But a new chat program designed by a middle-school dropoutin his spare time may turn out to be one of the best solutions to thwart those efforts.

Prompted by Edward Snowdens revelations about the governments intrusive surveillance activities, loosely knit citizen militias of technologists and security professionals have cropped up around the world to develop systems to protect us from government agencies out to identify us online and grab our communications.

John Brooks is now among them.

Brooks, who is just 22 and a self-taught coder who dropped out of school at 13, was always concerned about privacy and civil liberties. Four years ago he began work on a program for encrypted instant messaging that uses Tor hidden services for the protected transmission of communications. The program, which he dubbed Ricochet, began as a hobby. But by the time he finished, he had a full-fledged desktop client that was easy to use, offered anonymity and encryption, and even resolved the issue of metadatathe to and from headers and IP addresses spy agencies use to identify and track communicationslong before the public was aware that the NSA was routinely collecting metadata in bulk for its spy programs. The only problem Brooks had with the program was that few people were interested in using it. Although hed made Ricochets code open source, Brooks never had it formally audited for security and did nothing to promote it, so few people even knew about it.

Ricochet is idiot-proof and anonymous.

Then the Snowden leaks happened and metadata made headlines. Brooks realized he already had a solution that resolved a problem everyone else was suddenly scrambling to fix. Though ordinary encrypted email and instant messaging protect the contents of communications, metadata allows authorities to map relationships between communicants and subpoena service providers for subscriber information that can help unmask whistleblowers, journalistss sources and others. Its not just these kind of people whose privacy is harmed by metadata, however; in 2012 it was telltale email metadata that helped unmask former CIA director and war commander General David Petraeus and unravel his affair with Paula Broadwall.

With metadata suddenly in the spotlight, Brooks decided earlier this year to dust off his Ricochet program and tweak it to make it more eleganthe knew hed still have a problem, however, getting anyone to adopt it. He wasnt a known name in the security world and there was no reason anyone should trust him or his program.

Enter Invisible.im, a group formed by Australian security journalist Patrick Gray. Last July, Gray announced that he was working with HD Moore, developer of the Metasploit Framework tool used by security researchers to pen-test systems, and with another respected security professional who goes by his hacker handle The Grugq, to craft a secure, open-source encrypted chat program cobbled together from parts of existing anonymity and messaging systemssuch as Prosody, Pidgin and Tor. They wanted a system that was highly secure, user friendly and metadata-free. Gray says his primary motivation was to protect the anonymity of sources who contact journalists.

At the moment, when sources contact a journalist, theyre going to leave a metadata trail, whether its a phone call record or instant message or email record [regardless of whether or not the content of their communication is encrypted], he says. And that data is currently accessible to authorities without a warrant.

When Brooks wrote to say hed already designed a chat program that eliminated metadata, Gray and his group took a look at the code and quickly dropped their plan to develop their own tool, in favor of working with Brooks to develop his.

View post:
Middle-School Dropout Codes Clever Chat Program That Foils NSA Spying

Stuff.co.nz

John Key says journalist Glenn Greenwald got it wrong over mass surveillance taking place in New Zealand.

Prime Minister John Key cannot rule out that the United States National Security Agency is undertaking mass surveillance of New Zealanders' data but has rejected claims New Zealand spies would have access to such information.

"What I can say is the GCSB [Government Communications Security Bureau] does not have access to any information through XKeyscore or any other database, unless they basically comply with the New Zealand law, and the New Zealand law forbids that unless there is a warrant to do so," he said.

Asked whether that was an admission GCSB spies on occasion used the controversial XKeyscore programme, Key declined to elaborate.

"I don't talk about whatever programmes they have," he said.

* Beehive Live

* NZ spied on allies: Greenwald

*Opinion: We deserve answers on spying

* Opinion: Spy scandal impact on election far from certain

Original post:
NSA spying can't be ruled out: PM

There is no evidence that Edward Snowdens revelations about NSA spying inspired Islamic terror groups to hide their electronic communications behind more sophisticated encryption software, according to a new analysis that challenges other recent research and assertions by U.S. officials about the impact of the leaks.

The analysis by Flashpoint Global Partners, a private security firm, examined the frequency of releases and updates of encryption software by jihadi groups and mentions of encryption in jihadi social media forums to assess the impact of Snowdens information. It found no correlation in either measure to Snowdens leaks about the NSAs surveillance techniques, which became public beginning June 5, 2013.

Click Here to Read the Full Report

Evan Kohlmann, a Flashpoint partner who also is a NBC News terrorism consultant, acknowledged that there has been a flurry of releases of encryption software by al Qaeda and other Islamic terror groups, including ISIS, since Snowden went public, but said most have simply extended the existing scheme to new devices or technologies, such as cell phones, chat software and SMS messaging (texting).

Nothing has changed about the encryption methodologies that they use, he said. Its difficult to reconcile with the claim that they have dramatically improved their encryption technology since Snowden.

Follow NBC News Investigations on Twitter and Facebook.

Al Qaeda and its affiliates have developed and used different types of encryption software since at least 2007, beginning with a product known as Asrar al-Mujihideen (Secrets of the Mujahideen) that was released by administrators of a now-defunct al Qaeda web forum known as al-Ekhlaas, according to the Flashpoint analysis.

The software was quickly endorsed by al Qaeda affiliates like al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and al-Shabab in Somalia. When al-Ekhlaas collapsed, a prominent online jihadi media unit called the Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF) took over its development and began strengthening its capabilities. It also introduced new products, including Asrar al-Dardashan (Secrets of Chatting) in February 2013, four months before the Guardian newspaper broke the first Snowden story.

The report appears certain to add fuel to the debate over what U.S. officials say was significant damage to national security caused by Snowdens disclosure of classified spying programs by the NSA.

U.S. government officials have consistently invoked the terrorist groups to dramatize the damage allegedly caused by the leaks.

Read more:
Snowden Leaks Didn't Make Al Qaeda Change Tactics: Report

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wabrandsma) writes with the latest accusations about NSA spying activity in Germany. According to top-secret documents from the NSA and the British agency GCHQ, the intelligence agencies are seeking to map the entire Internet Furthermore, every single end device that is connected to the Internet somewhere in the world every smartphone, tablet and computer is to be made visible. Such a map doesn't just reveal one treasure. There are millions of them. The breathtaking mission is described in a Treasure Map presentation from the documents of the former intelligence service employee Edward Snowden which SPIEGEL has seen. It instructs analysts to "map the entire Internet Any device, anywhere, all the time." Treasure Map allows for the creation of an "interactive map of the global Internet" in "near real-time," the document notes. Employees of the so-called "FiveEyes" intelligence agencies from Great Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, which cooperate closely with the American agency NSA, can install and use the program on their own computers. One can imagine it as a kind of Google Earth for global data traffic, a bird's eye view of the planet's digital arteries.

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Treasure Map: NSA, GCHQ Work On Real-Time "Google Earth" Internet Observation

MOSCOW, September 1 (RIA Novosti) - Turkeys foreign ministry summoned one of the most senior US diplomats in Turkey in order to explain reports on Washingtons spying activities in the country, Turkeys Deputy Prime Minister, Bulent Arinc, said Monday.

"For reasons that the United States' name was mentioned, and such claims were made ... the charge d'affaires [the head of the diplomatic mission] has been called to the foreign ministry and information has been received from him, Arinc told the press.

On Sunday, Der Spiegel released an article, based on classified US documents, leaked by former NSA contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden, disclosing US National Security Agency (NSA) activities in Turkey.

According to the newspaper, in 2006 the NSA launched an operation aimed at hacking the computers of Turkeys top officials. Turkish diplomats, operating in Washington and in the UN headquarters in New York were also tapped. Some of the intelligence gathered was shared with the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, as part of the so-called Five Eyes program.

Turkish Energy Minister Mehmet Simsek has also been subject to surveillance by the UK's GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters) intelligence agency, despite the fact that he had dual Turkish-British citizenship, Der Spiegel reported with reference to the secret documents released by Snowden.

However, according to the leaked documents, Turkey was not only the subject of extensive Western surveillance activities; it also enjoyed plenty of intelligence sharing. The papers, examined by Der Spiegel, point to large amounts of eavesdropping data concerning the separatist Kurdistan Worker Party (PKK) leaders handed over to Ankara by the NSA.

Geolocations data and voice recordings from Kurdistan Worker Party (PKK) communications which were passed to Turkey by the NSA yielded actionable intelligence that led to the demise or capture of dozens of PKK members in the past year, one of the documents reads.

Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor, fled the United States in 2013, after leaking data concerning the NSA surveillance programs around the world. Washington accused Snowden of theft and the unauthorized communication of classified data. During 2013, Snowden lived in Moscows Sheremetyevo airport international zone for over a month, and then received one-year's temporary asylum in Russia, which was prolonged for another 3 years this August.

Excerpt from:
Head of US Diplomatic Mission Summoned in Ankara Over Snowden-Leaked NSA Spying Documents

By John P. Mello Jr. 09/08/14 3:49 PM PT

Worried about the NSA spying on your smartphone? How about online hackers? Truth be told, the greatest threat to your confidential information is a lot closer to you -- namely, your partner.

That's what a recent survey of more than 13,000 people in the United States revealed.

Avast last week reported its findings. Among them: The majority of women snoop on their men's phones just because they're curious, but a third of married women peek at their hubby's mobile to see if he's faithful.

Paranoia? Maybe not. Seven of 10 women who snooped on their partner's phone found evidence he was deceiving them. More than half the peeping men found such evidence about their women.

Once they had the goods, women were 20 percent more likely to confront their significant other with the incriminating evidence, Avast researchers discovered.

"It surprised us that people you trust would be checking your phone," said Jude McColgan, Avast president of mobile.

Much is made of elaborate schemes to break into someone's phone, but that's typically not a problem for a partner. Almost half the women surveyed (41 percent) and a third of the men (33 percent) said their partner's phone wasn't protected by a pass code.

"It's remarkable that people don't use their pass codes," McColgan told TechNewsWorld. "That's scary if you lose your phone, because you're essentially carrying a PC in your pocket, and all your information is wildly at risk."

In Fourth Amendment circles, advocates often refer to a "reasonable expectation of privacy."

Read more here:
Couples Can't Keep Their Hands Off Each Other's Phones

Secure remote control for conventional and virtual desktops

Master spook blabbermouth Edward Snowden should be granted safe passage to and from Switzerland if he testifies about surveillance, the country's attorney general has reportedly said.

Last year, the one-time NSA sysadmin leaked files revealing some of the secret spying tactics of UK and US spooks.

Snowden currently has temporary residency in Russia, where he has been living for more than a year now.

According to two separate reports in Swiss newspapers Sonntags Zeitung and Le Matin published on Sunday, Snowden would not be extradited to the US if he stands as a "witness in criminal proceedings, or [appears] as part of a parliamentary inquiry" in Switzerland.

That's apparently the opinion of the country's attorney general, who expressed that view in November last year to help work out legalities relating to any potential visit from whistleblower Snowden.

The two newspapers reported the Swiss government law advisor's opinion, after viewing a confidential document.

The top Swiss lawyer added that any US efforts to extradite Snowden if he were to testify in Switzerland would be considered "political" and thereby rejected by authorities in the country.

Only "higher state obligations" could overrule that position, the AG reportedly added.

Snowden, meanwhile, has indicated that he is willing to testify in Switzerland. His Zurich lawyer Marcel Bosonnet was said to be pleased with the AG's comments. He was quoted by Sonntags Zeitung as saying "the legal requirements for [Snowden's] safe conduct are met."

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Snowden shouldn't be extradited to US if he testifies about NSA spying, says Swiss gov