[PUG] Privacy, Security, National Intelligence & Security (from Snowden's NSA leaks)

@Eventhorizon @sprinkles @muir :

here's a recent TED talk (Tues of this week, I believe) with Edward Snowden making his case and explaining what he thinks the current landscape is for information security & privacy, and how it needs to change.

[video=youtube;yVwAodrjZMY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVwAodrjZMY[/video]

I'll be honest - I don't, assuming the allegations are true, at all condone the NSA's actions, but i'm not entirely anti-NSA like i would imagine @muir might be (unless i misread you) or many people you might find on reddit discussing the topic. I thought there was a bit too much pathos in Snowden's speech for my liking, but i guess he was appealing to/making his case in front of a crowd.

I do however think intentionally weakening our information security infrastructure (read that as weakening encryption standards, posing as CAs, warranting key releases, among other things) is neither smart nor acceptable. I have other opinions on the topic, some of which aren't fully formed, so i'd rather not comment further on that. I'll let you judge for yourselves.
 
here is also NSA deputy's response, which came the next day presented to TED. i have not yet gotten around to watching it, but will shortly.

Please don't turn this into a bashing thread - level-headed, intellectual discussion and news is encouraged.

[video=youtube;zLNXIXingyU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLNXIXingyU[/video]
 
[MENTION=2240]rawr[/MENTION]

I'm still pissed that I lost my email address because of this. Lavabit shut down rather than give up users privacy.
 
Im not sure what to make of Snowden at this point. One thing is sure, the government is way way way over stepping its bounds regarding privacy. Its only going to get worse as time goes on.
 
rawr said:
@Eventhorizon @sprinkles @muir :

here's a recent TED talk (Tues of this week, I believe) with Edward Snowden making his case and explaining what he thinks the current landscape is for information security & privacy, and how it needs to change.

[video=youtube;yVwAodrjZMY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVwAodrjZMY[/video]

I'll be honest - I don't, assuming the allegations are true, at all condone the NSA's actions, but i'm not entirely anti-NSA like i would imagine @muir might be (unless i misread you) or many people you might find on reddit discussing the topic. I thought there was a bit too much pathos in Snowden's speech for my liking, but i guess he was appealing to/making his case in front of a crowd.

I do however think intentionally weakening our information security infrastructure (read that as weakening encryption standards, posing as CAs, warranting key releases, among other things) is neither smart nor acceptable. I have other opinions on the topic, some of which aren't fully formed, so i'd rather not comment further on that. I'll let you judge for yourselves.
Click to expand...

Great interview!

Snowden appears eloquent, clear thinking and straightforward

There have been many whsitleblowers telling the public about government spying before snowden but for some reason this one went viral

As Snowden says the NSA broke rules and the government oversight committee say they had no idea what the NSA was doing

Poeple should be very concerned about that because it shows that this particular alphabet agency is operating outside the purvue of the US government

The question then becomes if they don't answer to the US government who do they answer to?

I have some things to say about that but leaving that aside for now i would say that Snowden's revelations are absolutely necessary to wake people upto the extent to which the powers that be are eroding their freedoms and breaking laws whilst they do it

Do we want to live in a world where all the balance of power lies in the hands of the people behind the 'alphabet agencies' such as the NSA, CIA, FEMA, FBI and so on or do we (the people) want to retain some rights and a say in the democratic process because that is what is going on here

The powers that be are trying to quietly rob us of all our power and rights and it will only stop when people demand that it stop; many people have become too complacent believeing that they live ina 'free' 'democracy' when in fact they live in an emerging fascist, totalitarian state

Citizens in a democracy are not supposed to hand over all power to others...they are supposed to exercise their democratic rights in order to ensure that the will of the people prevails; hopefully the revelations will restore some perspective to the wider public
 
Usually, really bad people that negatively effect millions of people, in some way or another, get paid for it. Think before you answer. PMs accepted.
 
just me said:
Usually, really bad people that negatively effect millions of people, in some way or another, get paid for it. Think before you answer. PMs accepted.
Click to expand...

Snowden hasn't badly affected millions of people he has informed you that your government is spying on you

Your constitution was created to protect you against dictatorial governments

Your country was created in reaction to a dictatorial government

Snowden has also revealed how the NSA is waging a propaganda war against the american people; it is going onto social media and smearing people and spreading dissinfo

Any freedom loving person would be disgusted at that

[h=1]Had Enough Yet? Navy Spying on Traffic Offenders[/h]

http://www.zengardner.com/enough-yet-navy-spying-traffic-offenders/

by Zen Gardner
As we’ve been seeing more and more, even mainstreamers are starting to wake up and smell this noxious Big Brother reality. While it’s great people are waking up, the vast majority still only notice peripherally as it creeps in, still swallowing the swill-pill that it’s for their safety and security.
It’s all about control.


A parking ticket, traffic citation or involvement in a minor fender-bender are enough to get a person’s name and other personal information logged into a massive, obscure federal database run by the U.S. military.
The Law Enforcement Information Exchange, or LinX, has already amassed 506.3 million law enforcement records ranging from criminal histories and arrest reports to field information cards filled out by cops on the beat even when no crime has occurred.

LinX is a national information-sharing hub for federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. It is run by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, raising concerns among some military law experts that putting such detailed data about ordinary citizens in the hands of military officials crosses the line that generally prohibits the armed forces from conducting civilian law enforcement operations.
Those fears are heightened by recent disclosures of the National Security Agency spying on Americans, and the CIA allegedly spying on Congress, they say.
Eugene Fidell, who teaches military law at Yale Law School, called LinX “domestic spying.”
“It gives me the willies,” said Fidell, a member of the Defense Department’s Legal Policy Board and a board member of the International Society for Military Law and the Law of War.
Fidell reviewed the Navy’s LinX website at the request of the Washington Examiner to assess the propriety of putting such a powerful database under the control of a military police entity. MORE>
​
[h=3]
rfid.jpg
[/h] [h=3]Creeping Paralysis[/h] Little complaints here and there won’t make a bit of difference. Either the source of the disease gets stopped, or we need to get ourselves completely free of its influence. If we just shuffle around moaning about the intrusions on our freedoms and the closing in on our range of movement and expression, it’s only a matter of time until the electric collar is installed and all freedoms are eliminated.
At that point it’s too late.
Don’t wait until you’re handcuffed, shackled and finally chipped. That’s their stated plan.
Take appropriate action now.
Love, Zen
“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out… without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.” ~ H. L. Mencken

​
 
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Why did you think I was speaking about Snowden? Think before you answer.
 
just me said:
Why did you think I was speaking about Snowden? Think before you answer.
Click to expand...

You're being a little bit cryptic...can you spell it out?
 
I wonder whether Snowden's leaks made the Russians decisions to annex Ukraine more or less likely?

Also who is to say that Snowden is a refugee in Russia at all and not a prisoner?
 
Lark said:
I wonder whether Snowden's leaks made the Russians decisions to annex Ukraine more or less likely?

Also who is to say that Snowden is a refugee in Russia at all and not a prisoner?
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Snowdens leaks about operation prism wouldn't have made any difference to the ukraine situation

That's a real leap there! Can you explain your reasoning behind that one?

The international bankers wanted to grab the ukraine because they always want to open up new markets. they see lots of potential for exploitation within the ukraine for example in the agri-business

They are already getting their claws into ukraine with various loans. They helped foment the troubles and they funded the right wing extremists who provided a lot of the muscle for the coup in kiev

This forced putins hand because he has a military base in the crimea, there are many pro-russian people in the crimea and also there are valuable resources off the coast of the crimea, so Putin had to step in

The banker backed coup was what forced putins hand not snowden

Snowden is not a prisoner in russia and is trying to make arrangements to leave but needs to feel safe before he can move because he knows that Bradley Manning was sent to prison for many years for blowing the whistle and also some members of military intelligence in the US have publically called for snowden to be assassinated. What would you do if you were snowden?
 
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http://www.infowars.com/heartbleed-moving-toward-government-control-of-the-internet/

[h=1]Heartbleed: Moving Toward Government Control of the Internet[/h]

Company that found bug has connections to Google, Obama, DHS, and FBI
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
April 9, 2013
Dire warnings about Heartbleed, a serious internet security risk affecting millions of websites, is echoing across the internet today. Described as a flaw in OpenSSL, the open source encryption technology used by the vast majority of web servers, Heartbleed is said to put HTTPS e-commerce websites at risk.

[video=youtube;oAJNnowrxSA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAJNnowrxSA#t=151[/video]

Heartbleed explained.
The bug “can give hackers access to personal data like credit card numbers, usernames, passwords, and, perhaps most importantly, cryptographic keys—which can allow hackers to impersonate or monitor a server,” writes Lily Hay Newman.
The risk was discovered by a Google researcher at Codenomicon, a Finnish company specializing in the development of “fuzzing tools” to ensure computer network security. The Codenomicon client base includes government and the defense industry and, as noted below, has suspicious connections to Obama, DHS, and the FBI.
The current buzz about Heartbleed plays into an ongoing government propaganda campaign to forge a public-private cybersecurity infrastructure.
The latest warning came from the Communications Director for Willis Global Energy Practice during a seminar held in London. He said the “energy industry is sitting on an unexploded bomb from uninsured cyber attacks” due, in large part, to web-based control systems which are routinely insecure.
In 2010, the effort to portray the internet as vulnerable and in need of government protection took the shape of a simulated cyber attack. The war game was organized by the Bipartisan Policy Center, an insider think tank, and sponsored by “companies with financial stakes in the future of cyber defense — General Dynamics is one — but also companies whose transactions are the lifeblood to the American economy, and who want to foster a greater sense of urgency among the public and policymakers,” according to Marc Ambinder of The Atlantic.
Cyber attacks often seem timed to underscore government cybersecurity talking points and proposed legislation. For instance, in February, an unprecedented denial of service attack occurred several days after the National Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Protection Act found its way to the House floor. The legislation, supported by Republicans and Democrats, codifies “an equal partnership between private industry and DHS.”
The government considers this merging of government and corporate operations – basically corporatism, as Mussolini defined it – so essential Senator Jay Rockefeller tried to get the Cybersecurity Act of 2013 added as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act.
 
http://www.infowars.com/heartbleed-internet-bug-pretext-for-web-lockdown/

[h=1]Heartbleed Internet Bug: Pretext For Web Lockdown?[/h]

U.S. government was responsible for creating previous viruses
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
April 9, 2014
The Heartbleed bug is being described as the most critical security flaw to hit the web since its inception, a crisis that could lay the groundwork for massive government regulation and censorship of the Internet.

[video=youtube;bzmCGceWXtw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzmCGceWXtw[/video]

“Millions of websites may have been leaking critically sensitive data for the past two years, thanks to a devastating flaw in the OpenSSL software many sites use to encrypt and transmit data,” reports Yahoo Tech, as experts warned web users to change all their passwords immediately in a bid to protect themselves from a vulnerability that could have allowed hackers to infiltrate millions of email accounts, sensitive tax records and a myriad of other private data.​
“Catastrophic is the right word. On the scale of one to 10, this is an 11,” said security expert Bruce Schneier.​
However, virtually no one has mentioned the elephant in the living room – the possibility that Heartbleed could have been the dirty work of the NSA and the US government, launched as both a massive snooping tool and as a pretext to implement draconian web regulation and censorship.​
Debunkers would scoff at such a notion as an outlandish conspiracy theory – just as they did when Infowars asserted that the Stuxnet virus was the work of the U.S. and Israel back in 2010.​
After Alex Jones pointed the finger at Washington and Tel Aviv for being behind Stuxnet during a September 27, 2010 broadcast, the likes of CNN, the Economist and others followed up by ridiculing the claim as a baseless conspiracy theory.​
Months later in January 2011, the New York Times reported, “US and Israeli intelligence services collaborated to develop a destructive computer worm to sabotage Iran’s efforts to make a nuclear bomb,” acknowledging the “conspiracy theory” to be true.​
The threat posed by Stuxnet to nuclear power plants continues to reverberate, spreading to other countries and causing chaos. The deadly nature of the bug was encapsulated by computer expert Ralph Langner, who warned that, “the Stuxnet code was designed to trick human operators by showing them recorded readings indicating machinery is running normally while behind the scenes they are heading for destruction.”​
However, Stuxnet was not the only virus that led directly back to the U.S. and Israel. In 2012, researchers working for both Kaspersky and Symantec discovered that the United States was almost certainly responsible for three new viruses used in Lebanon and Iran to conduct espionage.​
As the Washington Post reported, the United States and Israel were also responsible for jointly developing the Flame virus, a huge malware assault that monitored Iran’s computer networks.​
Since the US and Israel were caught as the culprits behind all these viruses, the finger of blame for Heartbleed must surely point in the same direction.​
Shortly after Stuxnet emerged, Washington argued that the threat posed by such viruses necessitated draconian cybersecurity legislation that would have handed the U.S. government similar powers to regulate and censor the web that have been exercised by China and other dictatorships for years.​
Stuxnet’s appearance was dovetailed by an aggressive PR campaign during which Joe Lieberman and others called for the government to be allowed to, “disconnect parts of its Internet in case of war,” just as China did. What Lieberman failed to mention is the fact that China’s Internet censorship program was and continues to be based around crushing dissent against the state and has nothing to do with cybersecurity.​
Will those who wish to exploit contrived cybersecurity threats in order to impose government kill switches and web censorship see the Heartbleed bug as another opportunity?​
Expect the likes of DARPA and other tentacles of the U.S. military-industrial complex to be very active over the next few days and weeks extolling the necessity to mandate tighter cybersecurity controls on the Internet as a result of Heartbleed, while conveniently ignoring the fact that the U.S. government itself has been responsible for some of the biggest cybersecurity threats to emerge over the last four years.​
 
yeah, so if The Guardian is to be believed, NSA exploited the Heartbleed vulnerability for the two years it existed unknown to the general public.

I wouldn't be surprised, but i've yet to see "concrete" proof.
 
[video=youtube;k-xSP_T0VqU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-xSP_T0VqU#t=74[/video]
 
[video=youtube;HEO0faMuZoY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEO0faMuZoY[/video]

http://redicecreations.com/article.php?id=30768

Shining a Spotlight on TPP Censorship
2014 06 27
By Meghan Sali | RINF

These Famous Hollywood Names Are Shining a Spotlight on TPP Censorship

Unexpected new allies are surfacing in the fight against the anti-democratic Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a secretive and extreme deal that experts say would make the Internet more censored, expensive, and policed.

30767tpp_2.jpg
With the next round of negotiations imminent – taking place in Ottawa from July 3-12 - Hollywood bigwigs including Jay Leno and Ellen Degeneres have implored the community to boycott an iconic Beverly Hills hotel owned by the Sultan of Brunei, one of the original signatories to the TPP in 2005, and the location of a recent round of TPP negotiations that took place last August.

[...]

The lobbyists and bureaucrats supporting the TPP claim that the deal is a way for “like-minded countries” to work together in an increasingly globalized world where there is immense pressure to build new economic ties.


Read the full article at: rinf.com


Mexico and Canada Invited to Join the Secret TPP Negotiations

[2012] - [...]Americans for Limited Government (ALG), is taking the lead in warning the people of the United States about the confluence of corporate and governmental interests and their goal of destroying the independence of our country.

ALG’s President Bill Wilson perceives real harm in the USTR’s grant of such a powerful corporate prerogative.

“We are elevating private businesses up to the level of sovereign governments,” Wilson told The New American. “Under NAFTA we gave companies the power to sue governments and the TPP does this as well. In this trade pact, we agree that our government can be sued by these foreign corporations who will be treated as sovereign nations. This is submerging the idea of sovereignty into a sea of regulatory bodies and international agencies and our freedom is drowning it it.”

“It is self-evident that the erosion of the right of citizens to control their own lives is progressing at a rate that we are little more than wage slaves to an oppressive government and its cadre of corporate backers that consider our lives and our liberties of little or no consequence,” Wilson warned.​
 
Eventhorizon said:
Im not sure what to make of Snowden at this point. One thing is sure, the government is way way way over stepping its bounds regarding privacy. Its only going to get worse as time goes on.
Click to expand...

I agree with that but I would say that if a government is at it they are not the only ones, hackers, companies, other government, every one less savoury and more insidious than the last, are at it too.
 
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