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NSA May Have Impersonated Google

From Cnet.com:

Earlier this week, Techdirt picked up on a passing mention in a Brazilian news story and a Slate article to point out that the US National Security Agency had apparently impersonated Google on at least one occasion to gather data on people. (Mother Jones subsequently pointed out Techdirt’s point-out.)

A technique commonly used by hackers, a MITM attack involves using a fake security certificate to pose as a legitimate Web service, bypass browser security settings, and then intercept data that an unsuspecting person is sending to that service. Hackers could, for example, pose as a banking Web site and steal passwords.

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The NSA and the Obama Administration

Just after the revelations about the NSA’s encryption-breaking abilities, there is now a story that the Obama administration let the leash off the NSA in 2011. In the encryption story published by The Guardian, New York Times and Pro Publica there was an interesting nugget of information. The programs run by the NSA are named after Civil War battles. Does that mean that the NSA sees the American public as its enemy? I have no problem with the NSA doing what they do and focusing that effort outward but as soon as that capability is turned inward on our own citizens that is when we have a problem. There is that pesky Fourth Amendment to the Constitution that specifically prohibits looking at our “effects”:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Bruce Schneier, a security technologist, is now calling on engineers who work in the government or for companies that contract with the government to start blowing the whistle on these type of programs. This administration has a history of citing the dangers that certain citizens pose while ignoring the explicit threats from outside. Targeting Americans with these programs is unacceptable.

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NSA Employing 35,000 to Break Encrypted Communications

From Wired.com:

The Post’s article doesn’t detail the “groundbreaking cryptanalytic capabilities” Clapper mentions, and there’s no elaboration in the portion of the document published by the paper. But the document shows that 21 percent of the intelligence budget — around $11 billion — is dedicated to the Consolidated Cryptologic Program that staffs 35,000 employees in the NSA and the armed forces.

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Silent Circle Can’t Guarantee Customers’ Privacy From NSA

From Tech Crunch:

“We knew USG would come after us”. That’s why Silent Circle CEO Michael Janke tells TechCrunch his company shut down its Silent Mail encrypted email service. It hadn’t been told to provide data to the government, but after Lavabit shut down today rather than be “complicit” with NSA spying, Silent Circle told customers it has killed off Silent Mail rather than risk their privacy.

Full press release from Silent Circle.

What Silent Circle does:

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NSA Targeted TOR Network With Malware

From BoingBoing.net:

Initial investigations traced the address to defense contractor SAIC, which provides a wide range of information technology and C4ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance) support to the Department of Defense. The geolocation of the IP address corresponds to an SAIC facility in Arlington, Virginia.

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Andriod Backup Services May Not Be Secure

If you use an Android device you may want to review how you store your settings and passwords.

From the Electronic Frontier Foundation:

If you have a recent Android phone or tablet, chances are you take advantage of a convenient feature to backup your application settings and wireless network passwords. This feature is enabled by default in Android 2.2 and later, and it can make switching to a new device or replacing a lost phone a quicker process. If you haven’t examined all the settings for your phone, you might not know if this setting is enabled.

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Concern Increasing Over Skype’s Security

From Electronic Freedom Foundation:

This security limitation has concerned us for a long time. Last year, Chris Soghoian argued that, for this reason, “Skype is in a position to give the government sufficient data to perform a man in the middle attack against Skype users.” Soghoian argued that Skype should change its design to eliminate this ability, or else disclose the risk more prominently. One way of limiting man-in-the-middle attacks would be for Skype to introduce a way for users to do their own encryption key verification, without relying on the Skype service. As Soghoian notes, that’s what many other encrypted communications tools do—but such a verification option is missing from Skype.

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E4-Bs To Get Upgraded

From Defense Industry Daily:

In December 2005, the U.S. Air Force awarded Boeing a contract as Product Support Integrator (PSI) for the USAF’s E-4 National Airborne Operations Center external link fleet. These four 747-200 derivatives were introduced in 1974, and serve as complete flying command posts for national and military authorities. As one might imagine, they are hardened to resist the side-effects of nuclear attack, such as electro-magnetic pulse effects.

The 2005 contract was a 5-year, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract vehicle, with one 5-year option and a $2 billion cost cap. It continues a long history of support from Boeing.

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Creating and Managing Passwords: How the Experts Do It

From Ars Technica:

I recently checked in with five security experts to learn about their approach to choosing and storing crack-resistant passwords. They include renowned cryptographer Bruce Schneier, who is a “security futurologist” at BT and recently joined the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s board of directors; Adriel T. Desautels, CEO of Netragard, a firm that gets paid to hack large companies and then tell them how it was done; Jeremiah Grossman, founder and CTO of WhiteHat Security; Jeffrey Goldberg, “defender against the dark arts” at AgileBits, a company that develops the popular 1Password password manager; and Jeremi Gosney, a password security expert at Stricture Consulting.

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Why ‘I Have Nothing to Hide’ Is the Wrong Way to Think About Surveillance

The problem is that “good” people almost never see how fascist government actions will ever effect them. They just don’t think that way. They believe as long as they are law abiding, the government will never do them harm. But ask someone who lived with the Stazi (Ministry for State Security) in East Germany or the KGB (Committee for State Security) in the Soviet Union, watching their every move. They can tell you why you should be afraid, and there are plenty of them still around to talk to. If we don’t stop this now we will probably never again have the chance.

From: Wired

If the federal government can’t even count how many laws there are, what chance does an individual have of being certain that they are not acting in violation of one of them?

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President Obama says he’s not Big Brother, NPR responds.

George Orwell

George Orwell

NPR is, in my opinion, the undisputed master of ultra-subtle propaganda. The publicly funded “News” organization is actually a chillingly effective tool of Collectivism and Big (Brother) Government.  Effective because most of my right-leaning moderate friends can see no manipulation at all. After reading this piece on what NPR calls “Our Surveillance Society” you most likely will consider it balanced and objective.  And yet I feel like a hound that can’t get the blaring tea kettle sound from two blocks away out of his head, while no one around him can hear it at all. Well at least they bothered to write something instead of ignoring it. That in and of itself, plus the exquisite subtlety of the propaganda, is an indication of just how onerous these unconstitutional actions are.

From: NPR

President Obama says he’s not Big Brother. The author who created the concept might disagree.

Addressing the controversy over widespread government surveillance of telephone records and Internet traffic Friday, Obama said, “In the abstract, you can complain about Big Brother and how this is a potential program run amok, but when you actually look at the details, then I think we’ve struck the right balance.”

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New Night Vision With Heads Up Display

ITT Exelis has developed a new night vision goggle. From KitUp:

“You can have a heads up display inside the goggle which can be maps, images or GPS coordinates. You can configure it for text messages. This is a multi-faceted device. It allows us to take night vision technology and connect it to a tactical network…”

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Chinese Hackers Breached Google’s Surveillance Database

From: Threat Level

Hackers Who Breached Google in 2010 Accessed Company’s Surveillance Database

…The database contained years’ worth of information on law enforcement surveillance surveillance orders issued by judges around the country. The hackers were hoping to discover if law enforcement agents were investigating undercover Chinese intelligence operatives who were working out of the U.S.

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Is It Illegal to Unlock Your Phone?

From: EFF

Is It Illegal To Unlock a Phone? The Situation is Better – and Worse – Than You Think

Legal protection for people who unlock their mobile phones to use them on other networks expired last weekend. According to the claims of major U.S. wireless carriers, unlocking a phone bought after January 26 without your carrier’s permission violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) whether the phone is under contract or not. In a way, this is not as bad as it sounds. In other ways, it’s even worse.

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Joe Biden Accidentally Helped Us All E-Mail in Private

From: Danger Room

In the late ’80s and early ’90s, Phil Zimmermann was a Colorado peacenik with a half-written program that he swore would one day let people exchange messages without Big Brother peering inside. The problem was, with a freelance job and two kids, Zimmermann could never quite find the time to finish the damn code — until Joe Biden came along.

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