US spy chief Clapper defends Prism and phone surveillance

[Magda Hassan]

Snowden seeks help | NSA revelations turn into deluge

Posted on July 12, 2013 by [URL="http://darkernet.in/author/admin/"]admin
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The US Government is piling on the pressure i.e. making threats, as befits the greatest bully on the planet to ensure no country offers NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden asylum. Consequently Mr. Snowden has invited representatives of human rights organisations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, to meet with him today at 5pm, Moscow time, in the main Transit Lounge at Sheremetyevo Airport, so that he can discuss how to move on.
In the invitation, in the form of a letter, Mr. Snowden stated, "The scale of threatening behaviour is without precedent: never before in history have states conspired to force to the ground a sovereign president's plane to effect a search for a political refugee. This dangerous escalation represents a threat not just to the dignity of Latin America or my own personal security, but to the basic right shared by every living person to live free from persecution."
For more on this, click here . A copy of Mr. Snowden's letter is given below. We will provide updates once more is know..
Meanwhile, revelations about the surveillance systems organised by the NSA and its partners (governments and commercial internet businesses and communications firms) and which are targeting not just US citizens but people everywhere are turning into a deluge. Already there are legal challenges taking place in the USA, Britain, France and Germany (and elsewhere) and coders are frantically working on new ways for non-geeks to encrypt their internet communications. Below, are just some of the many stories that have been published over the last 48 hours on the criminal activities of the NSA and its collaborators…
Or as Wikileaks tweeted…
P.S. To give all your data to the NSA, just click here .
Microsoft collaboration with NSA
In a Guardian article, Revealed: how Microsoft handed the NSA access to encrypted messages , it was shown that Microsoft has been actively collaborating with the NSA for some years to allow the NSA to capture data. The key points are the article are… Microsoft helped the NSA to circumvent its encryption to address concerns that the agency would be unable to intercept web chats on the new Outlook.com portal; The agency already had pre-encryption stage access to email on Outlook.com, including Hotmail; The company worked with the FBI this year to allow the NSA easier access via Prism to its cloud storage service SkyDrive, which now has more than 250 million users worldwide; Microsoft also worked with the FBI's Data Intercept Unit to "understand" potential issues with a feature in Outlook.com that allows users to create email aliases; In July last year, nine months after Microsoft bought Skype, the NSA boasted that a new capability had tripled the amount of Skype video calls being collected through Prism.
Lawsuits against NSA-managed surveillance
1. France
In another Guardian article, NSA surveillance: French human rights groups seek judicial investigation , it was reported that the "France-based International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the Human Rights League based the complaint on disclosures by the NSA leaker Edward Snowden which indicated that the US government amassed phone and internet usage data on people around the world for security reasons. Lawyers for the two groups said that such surveillance, if confirmed, would violate up to five French privacy laws, including illicit collection of personal data and the infringement of the right to a private life." The article added, "The legal complaint against persons unknown aims to prompt a judicial investigation that would also look at the alleged role of tech companies including Facebook, Apple, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Skype in data-gathering by the NSA".
2. Britain
In a Guardian article NSA and GCHQ spy programmes face legal challenge' , it is reported that papers filed on last Monday "call for an immediate suspension of Britain's use of material from the Prism programme, which is run by America's National Security Agency. They also demand a temporary injunction to the Tempora programme, which allows Britain's spy centre GCHQ to harvest millions of emails, phone calls and Skype conversations from the undersea cables that carry internet traffic in and out of the country. Lawyers acting for the UK charity Privacy International say the programme is not necessary or proportionate. They say the laws being used to justify mass data trawling are being abused by intelligence officials and ministers, and need to be urgently reviewed. Privacy International has submitted a claim to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), which is supposed to review all complaints about the conduct of Britain's spy agencies. The organisation hopes for a public hearing and early rulings because of the seriousness of the situation.
NSA logging Google maps activities
Slate reports on an article in the Brazilian paper, O Globo, that reveals how a handful of new top-secret NSA PowerPoint slides, one of which revealed the existence of an NSA program called "XKEYSCORE," which involves the mass storage of international Internet metadataincluding information about emails, phone calls, log-ins, and other user activitythat can later be mined, or "queried," by an NSA analyst from a computer. One of the slides suggests that the NSA can monitor a person's Google Maps activityand use this as a basis to follow up any activity deemed suspicious with further investigation. The slide notes: "My target uses Google maps to scope target locationscan I use this information to determine his email address? What about the Web searchesdo any look suspicious?" It adds: "XKEYSCORE extracts and databases these events, including all web-based searches, which can be retrospectively queried." To see how how IXMaps works, click here.
Profits made from snooping
In an article, Verizon, AT&T get most bucks from feds for wiretaps' , CBS News reports on how much companies charge the NSA for each set of wiretaps and other surveillance measures. "AT&T, for example, imposes a $325 "activation fee" for each wiretap and $10 a day to maintain it. Smaller carriers Cricket and U.S. Cellular charge only about $250 per wiretap. But snoop on a Verizon customer? That costs the government $775 for the first month and $500 each month after that, according to industry disclosures made last year to Congressman Edward Markey. Meanwhile, email records like those amassed by the National Security Agency through a program revealed by former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden probably were collected for free or very cheaply. Facebook says it doesn't charge the government for access. And while Microsoft, Yahoo and Google won't say how much they charge, the American Civil Liberties Union found that email records can be turned over for as little as $25."
Smart phones/tablets incorporate NSA monitoring code
Zero Hedge reports that Google smart phones as well as Sony's Xperia Z, HTC's One, and Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S4 have NSA code embedded to monitor activity and that eventually "all new phones, tablets, televisions, cars, and other devices that rely on Android will include NSA code".
NSA behind industrial espionage in South America
USA Today in an article, U.S. spying eyes energy info in Latin America', reports on O Globo revelations "indicating the U.S. effort is gathering information on energy in Mexico and oil in Venezuela. There was no information released about what information was obtained, nor any companies that were targeted. The report also said that Colombia, the strongest U.S. military ally in South America, along with Mexico and Brazil, were the countries where the U.S. program intercepted the biggest chunks of information on emails and telephone calls during the last five years. Similar activities took place in Argentina and Ecuador, among others…" Also, that "O Globo also reported that the documents it's seen indicate the U.S. had data collection centers in 2002 for material intercepted from satellites in Bogota, Caracas, Mexico City and Panama City, along with Brasilia. There was no information published about the existence of these centers after 2002."
Australia's role in NSA data gathering
ZDNet, in an article, Snowden leak reaffirms Australia's four spy installations' , commented on O Globo revelations about Australia's pivotal role, as one of the '5 Eyes' in the Echelon network, in gathering data for the NSA. "The Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald revealed that a number of slides allegedly leaked by Edward Snowden to Brazilian newspaper O Globo show Australia's connection with US signals intelligence operations. The slides themselves indicate four signals intelligence collection points in Australia, and although they aren't named, Fairfax has made the claim that these facilities are the Pine Gap, Northern Territory, US/Australian Joint Defence Facility; the Shoal Bay, NT, Receiving Station; the Geraldton, Western Australia, Australian Defence Satellite Communications Facility; and the Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, naval communications station HMAS Harman. These facilities have long been suspected of being used for signals interception and intelligence purposes, but the new document further builds confirmation of existing surveillance networks that have existed for years." See alsofurther analysis on this by Jaraparilla. The Sydney Morning Herald also ran an article on how the main Australian Telco, Telstra, has been cooperating, together with telecos from other countries in the region, in the capture of data for the USA for more than a decade.
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