Category Archives: NSA

The Investigatory Powers Tribunal ruled today that the UK intelligence services acted unlawfully in their sharing of intelligence with the NSA prior to December 2014.

The case was brought to the Tribunal, which rules on intelligence matters, by the organisations Privacy International, Bytes for All, Liberty and Amnesty International.

The basis of the ruling is that the way in which intelligence sharing between GCHQ and the US intelligence services was kept secret prior to that date contravenes human rights. That includes the Tempora programme, by which the UK intercepts data passing through the transatlantic fibre-optic cables that carry much of the world's internet traffic, and warrantless access to data harvested by the NSA's Prism and Upstream programmes.

However, those same activities are now deemed to be legal. Following a limited disclosure by UK intelligence about its methodology with respect to information sharing with the US, on December 5th the IPT ruled that the cooperation between GCHQ and the NSA could continue.

Privacy International welcomed today's ruling, but said it does not go far enough since the activities are continuing as before.

"For far too long, intelligence agencies like GCHQ and NSA have acted like they are above the law. Today's decision confirms to the public what many have said all along - over the past decade, GCHQ and the NSA have been engaged in an illegal mass surveillance sharing program that has affected millions of people around the world," said deputy director Eric King in a statement.

"We must not allow agencies to continue justifying mass surveillance programmes using secret interpretations of secret laws. The world owes Edward Snowden a great debt for blowing the whistle, and today's decision is a vindication of his actions," he said, adding that more now needs to be done to put pressure on the authorities.

"The only reason why the NSA-GCHQ sharing relationship is still legal today is because of a last-minute clean-up effort by Government to release previously secret 'arrangements'. That is plainly not enough to fix what remains a massive loophole in the law, and we hope that the European Court decides to rule in favour of privacy rather than unchecked state power."

James Welch, legal director for Liberty, said his organisation will continue the battle through the European courts.

"We now know that, by keeping the public in the dark about their secret dealings with the National Security Agency, GCHQ acted unlawfully and violated our rights. That their activities are now deemed lawful is thanks only to the degree of disclosure Liberty and the other claimants were able to force from our secrecy-obsessed Government." Welch said.

Excerpt from:
NSA-GCHQ data sharing was illegal - but they are free to carry on doing it

A secret UK court has ruled that the UK's intelligence agency GCHQ acted unlawfully by intercepting information gathered by the NSA. Investigatory Powers Tribunal said that because the rules surrounding the UKs access to the NSA's PRISM and UPSTREAM program data were secret, data sharing between the US and UK was illegal. A case has been brought against GCHQ by Privacy International, Bytes for All, Liberty, and Amnesty International.

But while the IPT said that accessing this information breached human rights laws this is no longer the case. Why? The illegality of sharing data collected through these surveillance programs centered on the very fact that they were secret. In blowing the whistle about what the NSA was doing, Edward Snowden unwittingly made this data sharing legal. Whoops.

The IPT's ruling states that GCHQ's access to NSA data was illegal before December 2014, but after this time the documents revealed by Snowden has brought the sharing of gathered intelligence to the public attention -- it is now legal. The activities of the NSA are now something we are all too aware of. This is largely thanks to the revelations made by Snowden which led to a massive surge in public interest about government monitoring of web usage.

Few would have suspected, however, that the documents leaked by Snowden would end up making the activities legal. The new ruling says that

...prior to the disclosures made and referred to in the Tribunal's Judgment of 5 December 2014 and this judgment the Prism and/or Upstream arrangements contravened Articles 8 or 10 ECHR, but now comply.

So when we didnt know about what was going on, it was illegal. Now that we do know about it, it's legal. The ethical and legal rights and wrongs of the surveillance have been questioned by many, and today's ruling will do little to silence those opposed to what is going on. Deputy director of Privacy International, Eric King, said:

The only reason why the NSA-GCHQ sharing relationship is still legal today is because of a last-minute clean-up effort by Government to release previously secret 'arrangements'. That is plainly not enough to fix what remains a massive loophole in the law, and we hope that the European Court decides to rule in favor of privacy rather than unchecked State power.

Privacy International and Bytes for All are now calling for the deletion of all data collected before December 2014. The two groups will also continue to fight against GCHQ access to NSA-gathered information, and the ruling is seen as being very bittersweet. James Welch, Legal Director for Liberty, said:

We now know that, by keeping the public in the dark about their secret dealings with the National Security Agency, GCHQ acted unlawfully and violated our rights. That their activities are now deemed lawful is thanks only to the degree of disclosure Liberty and the other claimants were able to force from our secrecy-obsessed Government [...] The Tribunal believes the limited safeguards revealed during last year's legal proceedings are an adequate protection of our privacy. We disagree, and will be taking our fight to the European Court of Human Rights.

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Thanks to Snowden, NSA-GCHQ surveillance data sharing is now legal

Should I Join Toastmasters, National Speaker Association (NSA), etc...
Should I Join Toastmasters, National Speaker Association (NSA), etc...? Well it depends! Joining these organization will certainly help you but only you can ...

By: Victor Antonio

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Should I Join Toastmasters, National Speaker Association (NSA), etc... - Video

Pakistani Minister Diplomat NSA Media on Payroll of CIA | Chutia Lucman
Pakistani Media revealed that How Pakistani Minister Diplomat NSA and Media Person on Payroll of US.

By: Chutia Lucman

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Pakistani Minister Diplomat NSA Media on Payroll of CIA | Chutia Lucman - Video

The NSA has published its first "report" on signals intelligence "reform" in the US. If you were hoping for sweeping changes in the wake of Ed Snowden's whistleblowing, you're in for disappointment.

The factsheet, covering the year to date, was written up after some prodding and tutting by President Obama in January 2014.

It shows some minor tweaks in how Uncle Sam's agencies collect and processes information on people's everyday lives. We're told mass surveillance is still allowed:

Information obtained en masse from emails, phone calls, internet snooping, and so on, by spies using Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) will now be more closely scrutinized rather than slung into a bottomless bit well: any material deemed to not be of national importance will be deleted as soon as it is found, it's claimed.

Data which could be useful will be kept for five years before deletion, unless it's stuff the NSA really wants to keep for national security purposes in which case, it's indefinite.

The rules on whistleblowing have also been amended to allow staff to report illegal activity by their peers without fear of professional sanction. If, like Edward Snowden, you're a contractor, there are still no legal protections for whistleblowing, and you can expect to be prosecuted if you speak out.

The use of secret National Security Letters by the FBI and others has been changed, the NSA notes. These letters allow investigators to trawl through corporate databases but deny the businesses concerned the right to tell anyone about it. These gagging orders will now expire after three years.

The NSA report states:

In his January 17, 2014 remarks, the President directed the Attorney General to amend how we use National Security Letters so that [their] secrecy will not be indefinite, and will terminate within a fixed time unless the government demonstrates a real need for further secrecy.

In response to the Presidents new direction, the FBI will now presumptively terminate National Security Letter nondisclosure orders at the earlier of three years after the opening of a fully predicated investigation or the investigations close.

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NSA lays out its reforms post-Snowden (they can fit on back of a stamp)

The NSA and its allies have raided the pockets of independent and nation-state hackers and monitored some of the security industry's foremost researchers in its bid to hoover information on targets and find better ways to break systems, Snowden documents reveal.

Spooks would monitor the work of 'freelance' and rival state hackers, notably those plundering email accounts owned by targets of interest to the NSA and friends, and pilfer the stolen contents, according to a report by The Intercept.

That stolen data, referred to as 'take', was then pinched from hacker targets such as journalists, activists and military sources including the Indian Navy. Those hacks were likely the handiwork of other nation-state hackers given the sophistication of the breaches.

The documents revealed the hackers' email-plundering infrastructure was referred to under the moniker INTOLERANT and that Canada and the UK had hands in hacker pockets.

Here's a choice bit from one of the alleged NSA documents:

The NSA would tip-off allies such as the UK and Australia when it found data in hackers' take.

Snowden's trickle-feed cache also revealed the NSA had run an open source intelligence gathering service known as Lovely Horse which monitored the Twitter feeds of security bods including Mark Dowd, Tavis Ormandy and HD Moore. The Intercept listed 36 other Twitter sources who could be flattered by the agency's interest.

The agency also scraped security blogs for data in its bid to keep abreast of emerging exploits and vulnerabilities.

It need not have go to the length to build in-house systems however. Plenty of RSS feed platforms and page-monitoring browser extensions exist, while Aussie hacker Matt Jones (@volvent) had in 2012 created the TalkBack portal to analyse Twitter chatter and pry out new vulnerability information using known good security sources.

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NSA raided hackers' troves of stolen data: report

Throw sum mo nicki minaj ft rae sremmurd ,Bbe ,nsa
Bbe challenge ,nsa challenge, twerk.

By: Kim E

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Postponement of Poll: APC faults NSA
The All Progressives Congress has rejected the call by the National Security Adviser for the postponement of next month #39;s general elections. The party warns ...

By: Silverbird Television

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Postponement of Poll: APC faults NSA - Video

Hi to Annunaki and NSA
Saying Hi to the Annunaki regime here as well as their NSA.

By: Jay Arae Essex

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Hi to Annunaki and NSA - Video

NSA Orlando/NAWCTSD Leadership Update Week of February 2, 2015
Exercise Solid Curtain/Citadel Shield, IITSEC papers, industry partners.

By: NSA Orlando

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NSA Orlando/NAWCTSD Leadership Update Week of February 2, 2015 - Video