Tag Archives: Edward Snowden

Yahoo Data Centre Traffic Now Encrypted

April 4, 2014 Damien Garvey

Yahoo has confirmed that they have implemented the steps which ensure that all traffic to its data centres will be in an encrypted state.

Yahoo has also confirmed that they are planning on increasing the security of other services, with Yahoo Messenger being included.

Yahoo stated that all information that is transmitted between its data centres is now encrypted and therefore making it much harder for outsiders to access and read data. Yahoo has also stated that search requests made on their homepage are also encrypted.

Yahoo has undertaken these unprecedented steps after whistle-blower Edward Snowden leaked documents regarding the National Security Agency (NSA) methods to gather data on US citizens. Such methods included the NSA regularly asking firms such as Yahoo for user information and tap fibre-optic cables that carry global information networks.

Alex Stamos who is the chief security information officer at Yahoo stated that their goal is to ensure that their entire platform is encrypted and that they�ll continue to do their best to ensure user data remains protected.

Stamos Stated, �The goal is all traffic to and from Yahoo users is going to be encrypted all the time by default, and invisibly. This is not going to be something you have to think about all the time. Preventing surveillance of millions of people at a time is totally within our abilities.

Stamos added, �What we are hoping to do by this is to get a big chunk of the internet and advertising infrastructure gets separated and then it gets easier for people to fall behind and follow. Anything we can do to protect users against widespread, no-targeted surveillance is our duty.�

Yahoo are one of the companies who was involved in the setting up of the alliance called Reform Government Surveillance group in December 2013 and are campaigning to have the permission to publish details of data requests made by the NSA.

NSA use tool to record “100%” of a country’s phone calls

March 21, 2014 Sam Richardson

The Washington Post is today reporting that the NSA used blanket tactics to monitor phone calls from an entire country.

Millions of voice “cuts” are extracted for long time storage as part of a system called MYSTIC that’s been running since 2009, according to the latest tranche of leaked documents from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

�Analysts have been able to use a search tool called RETRO (retrospective retrieval) to query data on the vast system and replay the content of calls.

The�Washington Post�is acting on a request from US officials to withhold anything that might identify the country where the system is being employed � or the other six countries where its use is planned.

MYSTIC is rare, if not unique, in focusing on the content of voice communications. Most of the agency’s previously disclosed operations have focused on either call metadata or the data mining of electronic communications through programmes such as PRISM.

Handling and transmitting bulky voice files acted as a major snag in putting together MYSTIC, at least in its early days. Around a year after MYSTIC went live, a programme officer wrote that the project “has long since reached the point where it was collecting and sending home far more than the bandwidth could handle,” theWashington Post�reports.

Similar capacity ceilings have cropped up across a range of NSA collection programs, a factor that explains the spy agency’s move to cloud-based collection systems and the construction of a massive �mission data repository� at a new facility in Utah, the�Washington Post�adds.

An indiscriminate bulk content collection programme, even one that operates in a limited number of foreign countries, sits uncomfortably with a January reassurance by President Obama that the “United States is not spying on ordinary people who don�t threaten our national security�.

Christopher Soghoian, principal technologist for the American Civil Liberties Union, said that history suggests the MYSTIC program is only to “expand to more countries, retain data longer and expand the secondary uses� over the next couple of years or so.

NSA & GCHQ Target Mobile Apps to Gain Personal Data

January 31, 2014

It has been reported that personal data has been obtained by the British spy agency, Government Communications HQ (GCHQ) and the US spy agency, National Security Agency (NSA) from smartphone apps which leak personal data.

The documents were leaked by Edward Snowden who is currently living in asylum in Russia and faces espionage charges in the USA after revealing the NSA’s telephone and surveillance programmes last year.

It is reported that the leaked documents show that mapping, gaming and social networking apps are providing the GCHQ and NSA with location information and other details such as their political association and sexual orientation.

One app that has been heavily exploited is Angry Birds. It is one of the leading apps with a download count of over 1.7 billion worldwide.

Rovio, the company that made the app Angry Birds claimed that they have no knowledge of the GCHQ or NSA trying to collect data from their app.

Saara Bergström, who is Rovio’s VP of marketing and communications stated, “Rovio doesn’t have any previous knowledge of this matter, and have not been aware of such activity in 3rd party advertising networks. Nor do we have any involvement with the organizations you mentioned (NSA and GCHQ).”

Angry Birds wasn’t the only app to be detailed in which personal data was obtained. In one of the leaked documents, there was a list which detailed other mobile apps which could be exploited. Such apps that were listed included the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Flixster and Flickr.

Reports in the New York Times and the Guardian suggested that the joint spying programme “effectively means that anyone using Google Maps on a smartphone is working in support of a GCHQ system.”

The NSA has released a statement claiming that these allegations are not true. In the statement, they claimed that, “Any implication that NSA’s foreign intelligence collection is focused on the smartphone or social media communications of everyday Americans is not true. We collect only those communications that we are authorised by law to collect for valid foreign intelligence and counterintelligence purposes – regardless of the technical means used by the targets.”

The GCHQ refused to comment but claimed that all of its activities were “authorised, necessary and proportionate.”

With social media apps and gaming apps becoming more and more popular, it is important that you are happy with just how much personal data is potentially being disclosed as it is unknown just who may be able to access it.

Technology Firms Demand Change in Surveillance Reform

December 10, 2013

Some of the leading technology firms in the USA have come together and formed an alliance called Reform Government Surveillance group.

The group consists of eight companies, Google, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, AOL, Microsoft, LinkedIn and Yahoo with their main aim to persuade the US government to drastically change its surveillance programmes.

The group has been formed after Edward Snowden who is an ex US intelligence contractor revealed the extent of the surveillance that is carried out by the US government. Such surveillance methods involved tapping fibre-optic cables, collecting phone records and hacking networks.

In an open letter to Washington which can be found on their website, the group stated, �We understand that governments have a duty to protect their citizens. But this summer�s revelations highlighted the urgent need to reform government surveillance practices worldwide. The balance in many countries has tipped too far in favor of the state and away from the rights of the individual � rights that are enshrined in our Constitution. This undermines the freedoms we all cherish. It�s time for a change.�

Members of the group believe that the level of surveillance that is going on has got out of hand and needs to be controlled.

Mark Zuckerberg who is the chief executive of Facebook stated, �Reports about government surveillance have shown there is a real need for greater disclosure and new limits on how governments collect information. The US government should take this opportunity to lead this reform effort and make things right.�

Since Snowden revealed the extent of the surveillance methods, the Reform Government Surveillance group is campaigning to have the permission to publish details of data requests. At the moment, some companies such as Apple and Google have revealed that they have had requests from the US authorities to hand data over but they are unable to detail just how much user data has been handed over to the authorities.

The Reform Government Surveillance group stated, �Transparency is essential to a debate over governments’ surveillance powers and the scope of programs that are administered under those powers. Governments should allow companies to publish the number and nature of government demands for user information. In addition, governments should also promptly disclose this data publicly,�

Are you concerned about how much data has had to be shared with the authorities?