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NSA to Destroy Bulk Collection of Surveillance Data

NSA to Destroy Bulk Collection of Surveillance Data

Jul 28, 2015
The National Security Agency will restrict access to, and ultimately destroy, millions of US phone records previously collected by the spy agency, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) announced Monday. The federal law was passed in June ending the NSA's bulk collection of U.S. Citizen's Telephone records and destroying the data it collected under a controversial global spying program disclosed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. So far, the ODNI didn't specify when the agency would destroy these metadata records , but noted that the metadata must be retained until the lawsuits around the metadata collection program are ongoing. NSA's Bulk Metadata Collection is illegal Section 215 of the Patriot Act legally authorizes the law enforcement agencies to collect "any tangible things" that the government proves are connected or linked to an investigation into any suspected terrorist. However, the verdict in May ruled that the mas
Google Chrome Silently Listening to Your Private Conversations

Google Chrome Silently Listening to Your Private Conversations

Jun 25, 2015
Google was under fire of downloading and installing a Chrome extension surreptitiously and subsequently listened to the conversations of Chromium users without consent. After these accusations, a wave of criticism by privacy campaigners and open source developers has led Google to remove the extension from Chromium , the open-source version of the Chrome browser. The extension in question is " Chrome Hotword ," which was found to be responsible for offering the browser's famous " OK, Google " functionality. ' Ok, Google ' is certainly a useful feature that allows users to search for things via their voice when they use Google as their default search engine, but its something that also enables eavesdropping of every single conversation made by a user. Google Silently Listens to your Conversation This issue came to light by Pirate Party founder Rick Falkvinge , who says Google has silently installed black box code into the open-so
Making Sense of Operational Technology Attacks: The Past, Present, and Future

Making Sense of Operational Technology Attacks: The Past, Present, and Future

Mar 21, 2024Operational Technology / SCADA Security
When you read reports about cyber-attacks affecting operational technology (OT), it's easy to get caught up in the hype and assume every single one is sophisticated. But are OT environments all over the world really besieged by a constant barrage of complex cyber-attacks? Answering that would require breaking down the different types of OT cyber-attacks and then looking back on all the historical attacks to see how those types compare.  The Types of OT Cyber-Attacks Over the past few decades, there has been a growing awareness of the need for improved cybersecurity practices in IT's lesser-known counterpart, OT. In fact, the lines of what constitutes a cyber-attack on OT have never been well defined, and if anything, they have further blurred over time. Therefore, we'd like to begin this post with a discussion around the ways in which cyber-attacks can either target or just simply impact OT, and why it might be important for us to make the distinction going forward. Figure 1 The Pu
Astoria — Advanced Tor Client Designed to Avoid NSA Attacks

Astoria — Advanced Tor Client Designed to Avoid NSA Attacks

May 23, 2015
In response to the threat of intelligence agencies like NSA and GCHQ, Security researchers from American and Israeli academics have developed a new advanced Tor client called Astoria specially designed to make eavesdropping harder . Tor (The Onion Router) is the most popular anonymity network that is intended to allow a user to browse the Internet anonymously via a volunteer network of more than 6000 relays/nodes. The encrypted traffic of a user is being routed through multiple relays in the network. The user-relay connection is known as a circuit. Tor does not share your identifying information like your IP address and physical location with websites or service providers on the receiving end because they don't know who is visiting. Timing Attacks yet a major issue: However, Tor isn't as safe from the prying eyes of network level attackers as we once thought. Big spying agencies like the United States intelligence agency NSA and the British Governmen
cyber security

Automated remediation solutions are crucial for security

websiteWing SecurityShadow IT / SaaS Security
Especially when it comes to securing employees' SaaS usage, don't settle for a longer to-do list. Auto-remediation is key to achieving SaaS security.
US Court Rules NSA Phone surveillance Program is illegal

US Court Rules NSA Phone surveillance Program is illegal

May 07, 2015
US Court rules NSA Phone surveillance Program is illegal United States' National Security Agency (NSA) Spying program that systematically collects data about Millions of Americans' phone calls in bulk is illegal – Yes illegal. The NSA Phone surveillance program, first disclosed by the former NSA employee and whistleblower of global surveillance Edward Snowden , ruled illegal by a New York federal appeals court on Thursday, ordering lawmakers to either completely end or replace the program. Mass Collection of Metadata: Under this program, the U.S. agency has collected information about phone numbers called and how many times it has been called. However, no content of conversations has been recorded. The program also allegedly spied on European firms and among the individuals targeted was German Chancellor Angela Merkel . However, the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York issued a 97-page in-depth court ruling , in which all the three judges said
NSA & CIA Analysts Watching Porn, A Lot of Porn, More Than You Could Ever

NSA & CIA Analysts Watching Porn, A Lot of Porn, More Than You Could Ever

Apr 06, 2015
U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) is infamous for conducting Global Mass Surveillance to snoop secretly on users' online communications, phone calls, private instant messages, and personal emails, but there is something shocking about it. The Security Agency also asked its employees to watch Porn -- Yes! Porn and a lot of Porn. The Analysts and Terrorism experts employed by U.S. Intelligence Agencies including the NSA and the CIA ( Central Intelligence Agency ) are tasked to watch graphic videos all day long. According to the recent report by Daily Beast , the Graphic video contents containing ISIS prisoner beheading, attacks on U.S. military forces, and sometimes sexual abuse of children are gathered from the computers and smartphones of captured or killed terrorists, and from websites frequented visited by jihadists. WHY NSA IS WATCHING PORN? Islamic State (Isis) and Al-Qaeda terrorists are using Reddit, eBay and pornography to send coded messages to thei
CIA Has Been Hacking iPhone and iPad Encryption Security

CIA Has Been Hacking iPhone and iPad Encryption Security

Mar 10, 2015
Security researchers at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have worked for almost a decade to target security keys used to encrypt data stored on Apple devices in order to break the system. Citing the top-secret documents obtained from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, The Intercept blog reported that among an attempt to crack encryption keys implanted into Apple's mobile processor, the researchers working for CIA had created a dummy version of Xcode . CIA's WEAPON TO HACK APPLE DEVICES Xcode is an Apple's application development tool used by the company to create the vast majority of iOS apps. However using the compromised development software, CIA, NSA or other spies agencies were potentially allowed to inject surveillance backdoor into programs distributed on Apple's App Store. In addition, the custom version of Xcode could also be used to spy on users, steal passwords, account information, intercept communications, and disable core security features of
NSA Stole Millions Of SIM Card Encryption Keys To Gather Private Data

NSA Stole Millions Of SIM Card Encryption Keys To Gather Private Data

Feb 20, 2015
Edward Snowden is back with one of the biggest revelations about the government's widespread surveillance program. The US National Security Agency ( NSA ) and British counterpart Government Communications Headquarters ( GCHQ ) hacked into the networks of the world's biggest SIM card manufacturer, according to top-secret documents given to The Intercept by former NSA-contractor-turned-whistle blower, Edward Snowden . OPERATION DAPINO GAMMA The leaked documents suggests that in a joint operation, the NSA and the GCHQ formed the Mobile Handset Exploitation Team (MHET) in April 2010, and as the name suggests, the unit was built to target vulnerabilities in cellphone. Under an operation dubbed DAPINO GAMMA, the unit hacked into a Digital security company Gemalto , the largest SIM card manufacturer in the world, and stole SIM Card Encryption Keys that are used to protect the privacy of cellphone communications. Gemalto, a huge company that operates in 85 countr
Tor Network Is Under Attack through Directory Authority Servers Seizures

Tor Network Is Under Attack through Directory Authority Servers Seizures

Dec 23, 2014
Tor has been targeted once again, but this time at a much larger scale. A new attack on Tor network reportedly would either completely shut it down worldwide or turn it into evil network. This time Tor – an internet browser which allows people to maintain their anonymity online by protecting their location – is warning its users of a cyber attack that quietly seized some of its network specialized servers called Directory Authorities (DA) , the servers that help Tor clients to find Tor relays in the anonymous network service. Tor network architecture relies on ten Directory Authorities whose information is hardcoded into Tor clients. These directory authorities are located in the Europe and United States, and maintain the signed list of all the verified exit relays of the Tor network, and according to experts, attack on these backbone servers can "incapacitate" the overall architecture of Tor. " The Tor Project has learned that there may be an attempt to incapacit
Treasure Map — Five Eyes Surveillance Program to Map the Entire Internet

Treasure Map — Five Eyes Surveillance Program to Map the Entire Internet

Sep 15, 2014
The National Security Agency and its British counterpart, GCHQ , gained secret access to the German telecom companies' internal networks, including Deutsche Telekom and Netcologne, in an effort to " map the entire Internet — any device, anywhere, all the time. " As reported by German news publication Der Spiegel, citing the new set of leaked documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, the five major intelligence agencies including NSA and GCHQ have been collaborating to get near-real-time visualization of the global internet as a part of NSA's ' Treasure Map ' surveillance program , also dubbed as "the Google Earth of the Internet." TREASURE MAP TRACKS YOU 'ANYWHERE AND ALL THE TIME' The data collected by the intelligence agencies doesn't just include information from large traffic channels, such as telecommunications cables. Rather, it also include information from every single device that is connected to the internet somewhere in the w
Google Map Tracks Your Every Move. Check Your 'Location History' to Verify It

Google Map Tracks Your Every Move. Check Your 'Location History' to Verify It

Aug 20, 2014
Google has been involved in several controversies including among the companies that was claimed to cooperate with US surveillance agencies on their global data-mining programmes, and just yesterday the popular Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch labeled Google worse than the NSA , saying " NSA privacy invasion bad, but nothing compared to Google. " Now another, but already known controversy over the Internet giant has raised many concerns over privacy of users who carry their smartphones with them. We all have sensors in our pockets that track us everywhere we go i.e. Smartphones. GOOGLE TRACKS YOU EVERYWHERE YOU GO - LOCATION HISTORY Today, with the help of these sensors, Google is tracking our every foot steps and placing a red dot on its map to keep track of users' records, Junkee.com reports. " You can yourself check your every move from here. You just need to log in with the same account you use on your Smartphone, that's it. The map will display all the records of everyw
Ex-NSA Director Admits 'We Kill People Based On Metadata' with Drone Strike

Ex-NSA Director Admits 'We Kill People Based On Metadata' with Drone Strike

May 14, 2014
We All now know about the existence of the extensive metadata collection program by U.S National Security Agency ( NSA ), which creates an intimate repository of our lives -- whom we love, whom we're friends with, where we work, whom we call, when we you, how long we talk over the calls, and how often calls between the two parties are made and even the your interactions on social networking sites. Although U.S Government always argues that Metadata doesn't record the actual content ( of your call ) and it is used for NSA's automated analysis, but should we be worried? You are unique in the world and therefore your metadata too. So anyone with knowledge of the subject knows that analyzing terabytes of metadata can easily reveal far more details about a person's life than ever before. Worldwide debate on mass surveillance still was not finished yet, but today is a new alarming report revealed that US government murdering people around the world based solely on the
'Optic Nerve' - Dirty NSA hacked into Webcam of millions of Yahoo users for Private Images

'Optic Nerve' - Dirty NSA hacked into Webcam of millions of Yahoo users for Private Images

Feb 28, 2014
Once again, a new revelation showed the ugly side of the Government who are conducting Global Mass surveillance and previous documents leaked by the whistleblower Edward Snowden have defaced the US Intelligence Agency NSA , who were taking care of a number of projects like PRISM, XKeyscore, DROPOUTJEEP , and various others to carry out surveillance of millions of people. Now, it has been revealed that the US National Security Agency ( NSA ) helped its British counterpart, the Government Communications Headquarters ( GCHQ ), to allegedly capture and store nude images and others from webcam chats of millions of unsuspecting Yahoo users, The Guardian reported. Documents handed to the Guardian by the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden show that the GCHQ's worked with the US intelligence agency NSA on a joint project dubbed as ' Optic Nerve '. The project carried out a bulk surveillance program , under which they nabbed webcam images every five minutes from random Yahoo
Germany to step up Counter Espionage Program against United States

Germany to step up Counter Espionage Program against United States

Feb 17, 2014
Sooner or later it had to Happen! After whistle-blower Edward Snowden unfolded various spying operations that were controlled by the US Intelligence agency, it gave a reason to all other countries to start their own Counter-Surveillance programs. Last year in October, it was revealed that the National Security Agency ( NSA ) was eavesdropping the mobile communications of German Chancellor  Angela Merkel's  and  Gerhard Schroder's   from many years. Snowden documents detailed about a so-called  National Sigint Requirement List , a list of people and Institutions named as primary targets for the U.S. Intelligence Agency; whose telephone communications should be monitored. After Suffering from spying on them, Germany has finally decided to give a ' Roland for their Oliver ' and planning to resume active Counter Espionage Operations against both the US and several Western associate countries. " This step would be an about-face from the decades-long practic
CO-TRAVELER : NSA’s Cellphone Location Tracking Tool gathering 5 Billion records a day

CO-TRAVELER : NSA's Cellphone Location Tracking Tool gathering 5 Billion records a day

Dec 05, 2013
Believe it or not, but the National Security Agency (NSA) is gathering nearly 5 billion records a day on mobile phone locations around the world. Snowden released documents that show that the NSA is tracking cell phone locations the world over as well as map the relationships of the mobile phone user and of course the purpose of this program is to identify terrorists and their networks overseas.  " Sophisticated mathematical techniques enable NSA analysts to map cell phone owners' relationships by correlating their patterns of movement over time with thousands or millions of other phone users who cross their paths. " The Washington Post wrote. According to the WP, the NSA's tracking tool is known as CO-TRAVELER , that tracks the locations of cell phones abroad as well as domestic cell phones that place calls abroad and capable of tracking cell phones even when they're not being used. ' U.S. Officials said the programs that collect and analyze location data are
Can we Trust Google ? Company Speeding up Strong Encryption Program in response to NSA surveillance

Can we Trust Google ? Company Speeding up Strong Encryption Program in response to NSA surveillance

Sep 07, 2013
Trust is something that's earned, not given. We trusted tech companies with our data because they promised to keep it secure. That trust was called into question after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed that NSA is snooping on us with the help of same tech companies. Today Google announced that they have accelerated their efforts towards encrypting the information that has been flowing through its data centers across the world to thwart snooping by NSA and intelligence agencies, but do can you Trust Google and Other Internet Companies now ? " It's an arms race ," Eric Grosse, Google's vice president for security engineering, tells WP . " We see these government agencies as among the most skilled players in this game. " Google officials declined to provide details on the cost of its new encryption efforts, the numbers of data centers involved, or the exact technology used. According to the report, encrypted information would
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