Oct 02
According to a report by the New York Times, the NSA tested a system to collect location data from American cellphones in bulk back in 2010 and 2011, before ultimately tabling any plans to roll it out. For now, anyway.
     |
Sep 28
The New York Times is reporting that the NSA is using all the data it’s collecting on US citizens to make giant "social networks" of everyone their targets know.
| |
Sep 23
When the extent of the U.S. government’s domestic spying program was revealed this past summer, many were surprised and outraged: how could a government which so prizes liberty of its citizens covertly collect data on its own people?
| |
Sep 20
When Belgian prosecutors suggested that Belgacom was the target of foreign espionage, many blamed the NSA — it has a history of snooping on other countries, after all. Those accusations may have been off the mark, however. Der Spiegel has revealed documents leaked by Edward Snowden which hint that the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) was responsible. The intelligence agency reportedly tricked key Belgacom staff into visiting a malware-loaded website that hijacked their PCs. GCHQ could then spy on smartphones, map the network and investigate secure VPN connections. Neither Belgacom nor Belgium has responded to this latest Snowden leak, but we wouldn’t be surprised if the apparent evidence speeds up their investigation.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Internet
Via: Ars Technica
Source: Der Spiegel (translated)
Sep 19
We’re a little late to this party, but it’s too fun not to share. Last week, a group of Brazilian hackers decided to get the NSA back for all its spying with a big huge cyberattack. And hack they did! The only problem is that they mixed up their acronyms, and hit NASA instead.
| |
Sep 16
Europeans are already jittery about possible foreign surveillance of their communications; today, those worries have reached a fever pitch. Belgian government investigators now suspect that a recently discovered virus in the internal systems of Belgacom, the country’s telecom giant, was planted as part of state-backed cyber espionage. The malware’s sophistication, scale and strategic focus suggest an attacker with “significant financial and logistic means,” according to prosecutors. Neither side has officially named a culprit. Local newspaper De Standaard isn’t quite so reticent, however — it alleges that the NSA has been spying on Belgacom’s voice traffic for at least two years, and that the discovery was prompted by Edward Snowden’s leaks. Whether or not the NSA is involved, the damage may be limited. Belgacom scrubbed its systems clean this weekend, and it doesn’t believe that the attack compromised customer data.
[Thanks, Joachim / image credit: Diluvienne, Flickr]
Dan Cooper contributed to this report.
Filed under: Cellphones, Internet
Via: Reuters
Source: De Standaard (translated), Belgacom
Sep 16
NSA documents show spying branch and databank for international transaction monitoring
Posted in: Today's ChiliA document of information obtained by Edward Snowden has been revealed by SPIEGEL, in which the media company says the NSA is shown to have engaged in widespread monitoring of credit card transactions, payments, and banking of an international nature. Furthermore, it is shown that the intelligence agency has a dedicated branch for this called […]
Sep 16
German newspaper Spiegel Online reports that the NSA has its own financial database to track money flows through a "tailored access operations" division.
| |
Sep 14
Since the whole PRISM thing blew up, and dozens of other Snowden revelations followed it, there’s been a lot of talk about government spying—foreign stuff and domestic survellience—and what these revelations mean. According to Google’s executive chairman Eric Schmidt, not much; this is just part of our society now.
| |
Sep 13
It’s come to light that the NSA has impersonated Google—and possibly other big websites—in order to intercept, store, and read supposedly secure online communications.
Mother Jones reports that the agency managed this by using "man-in-the-middle (MITM)" attacks, which are often used by high-class hackers. PowerPoint slides made public by a Brazilian news channel also suggest the technique is used by the UK-based GCHQ. Mother Jones describes how the hack works:
According to the document, NSA employees log into an internet router—most likely one used by an internet service provider or a backbone network. (It’s not clear whether this was done with the permission or knowledge of the router’s owner.) Once logged in, the NSA redirects the "target traffic" to an "MITM," a site that acts as a stealthy intermediary, harvesting communications before forwarding them to their intended destination.
| |
Who's in charge here?
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.