US spy chief Clapper defends Prism and phone surveillance

[Peter Lemkin]

Google Says It's Getting Far More User-Data Requests From Government

by


November 14, 2013 2:11 PM

Google says the number of requests it gets from the U.S. government for user information is rising fast.
The company released new Thursday showing such requests have more than doubled since 2010. From January to June of this year, Google received 10,918 government orders in criminal cases, compared with 4,287 three years ago. The numbers are part of Google's semiannual , which tracks requests to remove content and see users' data in countries where it operates.
The latest report shows the U.S. was far and away the biggest seeker of data by users, followed by India, Germany and France. The vast majority of U.S. requests came in the form of subpoenas, not court-ordered warrants, which is significant because they have a lower legal threshold.
In its report, Google complains that the government will not let it disclose precise numbers of national security requests, which come with a gag order, and notes that it has asked the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for permission to do so. That means the totals do not include requests by the National Security Agency for surveillance data.
Google and other companies also cannot disclose the exact number of "National Security Letters" they receive these are essentially government-issued orders for information related to national security. Government officials say that disclosing these details would help terrorists figure out which Internet companies they should avoid when communicating.
The industry has been fighting back against the perception that it is a willing participant in the NSA surveillance activities exposed by leaker Edward Snowden.
Google has joined other Internet companies in supporting legislation that would allow more transparency, such as the Surveillance Transparency Act of 2013. It would require more government reporting on surveillance, and allow Silicon Valley to do the same. But as the Two-Way , the government has come down in opposition to such efforts.

[David Guyatt]

Threat from NSA leaks may have been overstated by UK, says Lord Falconer

Ex-lord chancellor defends Guardian reporting of Snowden files and says he's sceptical of warnings from spy agency chiefs

• Nicholas Watt, chief political correspondent
  
• theguardian.com, Sunday 17 November 2013 17.44 GMT
  

Former lord chancellor Lord Falconer said he was sceptical that the Edward Snowden leaks had done as much damage as intelligence chiefs claimed. Photograph: David Levene

Britain's intelligence chiefs may have exaggerated the threat posed to national security by the leaking of the NSA files, according to a former lord chancellor who has questioned whether the legal oversight of MI6, MI5 and GCHQ is "fit for purpose".
Lord Falconer of Thoroton said he was sceptical of the claim by the heads of GCHQ, MI6 and MI5 that the leaks represent the most serious blow to their work in a generation, and warned that the NSA files highlighted "bulk surveillance" by the state.
Falconer, who also said he deprecated attempts to portray the Guardian as an "enemy of the state", pointed out that 850,000 people had access to the files leaked by the US whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Falconer, a close ally of Tony Blair who served as lord chancellor from 2003-07, told the Guardian: "I am aware that the three heads of the agencies said what has been published has set back the fight against terrorism for years. Sir John Sawers [the chief of MI6] said al-Qaida would be rubbing their hands with glee. This is in the context of maybe 850,000 people literally having access to this material."
Falconer, who is in charge of Ed Miliband's preparations for government, added: "It seems to me to be inconceivable that the intelligence agencies in the US and the UK were not aware that it would not be possible to keep secret these sorts of broad issues for any length of time. If the position was that the USA and the UK were intending to keep the general points I have been talking about secret then that seemed to me to be a very unrealistic position.
"Although I take very seriously what they say [about the importance of secrecy] I am sceptical that the revelations about the broad picture have necessarily done the damage that is being asserted."
In his Guardian interview Falconer, who described himself as a strong supporter of the intelligence agencies from his time working with them during his decade in government:
Warned of "very, very serious questions" about whether the law has kept up with the rapid pace of technological change which has permitted what he describes as "bulk surveillance".
Hit out at the former Tory defence secretary Liam Fox, who has written to the new director of public prosecutions, Alison Saunders, to ask her to assess whether the Guardian has breached counter-terrorism laws by publishing details from the leaked files.
Falconer said: "I think it is thoroughly wrong that, in the light of the disclosures that have been made, the Guardian is being treated in a similar way to an enemy of the state. Far from being an enemy of the state an organ like the Guardian, or indeed the New York Times, is part of the functioning of our democracy that makes the state as strong as it is."
Praised the Guardian and the New York Times, which have formed a partnership to report on the leaked files, for working in a responsible way by alerting the agencies before publication. "From all that I can see the Guardian and the New York Times have taken immense trouble to avoid any individual operative or operation being endangered." The Guardian has spoken to the NSA and GCHQ before publishing details from the leaked files.
Falconer is one of the most senior figures to question the account given by the intelligence chiefs this month to parliament's intelligence and security committee (ISC). Sawers told the committee that the Snowden leaks had put operations at risk, adding that Britain's adversaries were "rubbing their hands with glee".
The Sunday Times quoted a Tory MP describing the joint appearance by Sawers, the GCHQ director, Sir Iain Lobban, and the MI5 director general, Andrew Parker, as a "total pantomime" after it emerged that they were told of questions in advance as part of a secret deal with the committee.
Lobban told the committee that his agents collect, though do not intercept, "innocent communications from innocent people" when they gather what he called the "haystack" of metadata.
Falconer said: "The material which has been revealed through the Snowden revelations about the NSA raises very, very serious questions about whether or not the United Kingdom's legal framework for oversight of the intelligence services' work in relation to the interception of communications and the obtaining of communications data from mobile telephone and other providers is fit for purpose."
Falconer, who spoke out in August against the detention of David Miranda, the partner of the then Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, under anti-terror laws, said he was struck by the intervention during the ISC hearing by the former cabinet secretary Lord Butler of Brockwell. Butler asked whether the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa) of 2000 is still "fit for purpose" given that technology has moved on so rapidly in the last 13 years.
Falconer said: "If you look at the codes of practice and the Ripa 2000 act, they both proceed on the basis that the warrant issued by the secretary of state for interception ie listening in or looking at emails, their content will be based upon individual cases. The agencies' right to get metadataabout communications is also, I think, to be done on an individual basis even though no warrant is required.
"What the NSA data reveals is in effect bulk and I use this word advisedly surveillance. What the agency chiefs were saying to the ISC appeared to be in relation to that communications data: it is the way that we create the haystack within which we look for the needle.
"It may well be that the way that that is policed is adequate. But the current arrangements involve there being no decider other than the agencies as to what communications data shall be sought from servers and mobile telephone providers. In particular there is no warrant required from a secretary of state and there is no judicial permission given, albeit that the judge responsible for looking at the intelligence services generally will look at it on an annual basis."
Falconer said that three changes should be considered:
The publication of goals from the agencies to allow applications for communications data or interception warrants to be judged against the goals.
A new body a judge or a minister to give "consent to massive communications data exchange". Falconer said Britain should consider replicating the foreign intelligence court (Fisa) which oversees surveillance in the US.
Handing powers to approve interception as opposed to communications data to the interception commissioner. This would strip the home secretary and foreign secretary of these powers.
Falconer said he was alarmed by attempts to portray the Guardian as an enemy of the state after Miranda's detention and by calls for prosecutions and attacks on the Guardian for endangering operations. He said: "I completely understand why the agency chiefs are keen that there should be appropriate confidentiality. I completely support them in relation to that. But I really deprecate the way the Guardian is being treated as the enemy of the state. That is not the right way to look at it.
"A reputable media outlet like the Guardian should be regarded as part of the landscape within which the agencies operate.
"And to abuse it publicly and to use the powers to be used against terrorists against it I think weakens the ability of our state to deal with change."
Asked about Fox's call for the CPS to investigate the Guardian, Falconer said: "We need to trust the media more. If the response of the state is immediately to go into criminal investigation mode then you chill badly investigations like this.
"I don't want to encourage people to break their obligation to the state ie those who are employed by the state. But I think you have got to recognise that where there is an issue such as this where there has been a fundamental change in technology leading to the question of whether or not the balance is right between the ability to intrude and the need to protect the state that is plainly a legitimate area for journalistic endeavour."
Falconer stressed that he strongly supports the work of the intelligence agencies. "I am a supporter of the intelligence services. I understand their importance and centrality to fighting terrorism.
"When I dealt with them as a minister I was always impressed by them." He said politicians and the media should support them in two senses accept their importance in fighting terrorism and properly protect their operations.

.

[David Guyatt]

More UKUSA fun and games

Indonesia recalls Canberra ambassador over Yudhoyono phone tapping attempt

Foreign minister demands explanation after documents reveal Australian agencies targeted phones of president and his wife

• Oliver Laughland in Jakarta
  
• theguardian.com, Monday 18 November 2013 10.45 GMT
  
• Jump to comments (7)
  

Marty Natalegawa, said tapping of politicians' personal phones 'violates every single decent and legal instrument I can think of'. Photograph: BAY ISMOYO/AFP/Getty Images

Indonesia has recalled its ambassador to Australia following Guardian Australia's revelations that Australian spy agencies attempted to listen to the private phone calls of the Indonesian president and targeted the phones of other senior figures in Jakarta, including his wife.
The Indonesian foreign minister, Marty Natalegawa, confirmed on Monday that he and the president had contacted the ambassador in Canberra and told him to return to Jakarta for "consultations". He added that Indonesia was reviewing all information-sharing agreements between the two nations, a damning move given the new Australian government's pledge to combat people-smuggling in the region.
Natalegawa said any tapping of Indonesian politicians' personal phones "violates every single decent and legal instrument I can think of national in Indonesia, national in Australia, international as well".
He added: "It is nothing less than an unfriendly act which is already having a very serious impact on bilateral relations."
Natalegawa said summoning the ambassador was "not considered a light step" but was the "minimum" that could be done to "consolidate the situation".
"The ball is very much in Australia's court," he said, calling for an official, public explanation from Canberra.
He expressed frustration at the response he had received from the Australian capital, adding he would be speaking with the Australian foreign minister, Julie Bishop, later on Monday. Natalegawa dismissed any suggestion that phone surveillance was "common practice between countries", saying: "I have news for you: we don't do it, we certainly should not be doing it among friends."
Natalegawa said he would be examining whether the phone tapping revelations were in violation of the Lombok treaty signed by the two nations in 2006, which aimed to enhance bilateral security co-operation.
The foreign minister, known for his reserved demeanour, spoke in an unusually forthright manner. He said he would be "quite flabbergasted" if tapping the private phone calls of the president had relevance to Australia's security interests.
"I need quite desperately an explanation how a private conversation involving the president of the Republic of Indonesia, involving the first lady of the Republic of Indonesia, how they can even have a hint, even a hint of relevance impacting on the security of Australia," he said.
Earlier on Monday, the deputy Australian ambassador to Indonesia, David Engel, was called to the foreign ministry for talks. After a 20-minute meeting, he described talks as "very good".

.

[David Guyatt]

Norway denies NSA collaboration but admits to snooping on phone calls

Military intelligence chief responds to claims that 33 million Norwegian phone calls had been monitored by the NSA

• Associated Press in Oslo
  
• theguardian.com, Tuesday 19 November 2013 22.55 GMT
  

The NSA logo. Photograph: Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters

Norway carries out surveillance on millions of phone calls in conflict areas around the world and shares that data with allies, including the United States, the coutnry's military chief has admitted
Lt Gen Kjell Grandhagen made the statement in response to a story in the tabloid Dagbladet, which reported that 33 million Norwegian phone calls had been monitored by the US National Security Agency. Grandhagen vigorously denied the story.
"We had to correct that picture because we know that this in fact is not about surveillance in Norway or against Norway, but it is about the Norwegian intelligence effort abroad," he said.
He stressed that his agency's actions were legal under Norwegian law since the surveillance was based on suspicions of terrorism-related activity and that potential targets could include Norwegian citizens abroad.
Grandhagen said his intelligence agency had absolutely no indication that the NSA was spying on Norwegians.
In a tweet, Glenn Greenwald, the former Guardian journalist who originally revealed the NSA surveillance programme based on leaks from Edward Snowden, said that another document related to Norwegian spying would be published on Wednesday. Greenwald had worked with Dagbladet on the story that appeared Tuesday.

.

[Magda Hassan]

More UKUSA fun and games

Indonesia recalls Canberra ambassador over Yudhoyono phone tapping attempt

.

Matters have now deteriorated further because a top level Liberal Party advisor (Lynton Crosby's partner Mark Textor if you're interested) sent a tweet likening the Indonesian foreign minister to a 1970's Filipino porn star. Which naturally begs the question how does Mark Textor know so much about 1970's Filipino porn. Oh, and the quality and veracity of the 'advice' the party in government is getting.

Current betting odds are : Tabcorp: Abbott apologizes to SBY $12.45. Abbott fucks up & starts a war with Indonesia $1.20

[David Guyatt]

Nothing new then.

US and UK struck secret deal to allow NSA to 'unmask' Britons' personal data

2007 deal allows NSA to store previously restricted material
UK citizens not suspected of wrongdoing caught up in dragnet
Separate draft memo proposes US spying on 'Five-Eyes' allies

• James Ball
  
• The Guardian, Wednesday 20 November 2013 19.00 GMT
  
• Jump to comments (1619)
  

The memo explains that the US and UK 'worked together to come up with a new policy that expands the use of incidentally collected unminimized UK data.'

The phone, internet and email records of UK citizens not suspected of any wrongdoing have been analysed and stored by America's National Security Agency under a secret deal that was approved by British intelligence officials, according to documents from the whistleblower Edward Snowden.
In the first explicit confirmation that UK citizens have been caught up in US mass surveillance programs, an NSA memo describes how in 2007 an agreement was reached that allowed the agency to "unmask" and hold on to personal data about Britons that had previously been off limits.
The memo, published in a joint investigation by the Guardian and Britain's Channel 4 News, says the material is being put in databases where it can be made available to other members of the US intelligence and military community.
Britain and the US are the main two partners in the 'Five-Eyes' intelligence-sharing alliance, which also includes Australia, New Zealandand Canada. Until now, it had been generally understood that the citizens of each country were protected from surveillance by any of the others.
But the Snowden material reveals that:
In 2007, the rules were changed to allow the NSA to analyse and retain any British citizens' mobile phone and fax numbers, emails and IP addresses swept up by its dragnet. Previously, this data had been stripped out of NSA databases "minimized", in intelligence agency parlance under rules agreed between the two countries.
These communications were "incidentally collected" by the NSA, meaning the individuals were not the initial targets of surveillance operations and therefore were not suspected of wrongdoing.
The NSA has been using the UK data to conduct so-called "pattern of life" or "contact-chaining" analyses, under which the agency can look up to three "hops" away from a target of interest examining the communications of a friend of a friend of a friend. Guardian analysis suggests three hops for a typical Facebook user could pull the data of more than 5 million people into the dragnet.
A separate draft memo, marked top-secret and dated from 2005, reveals a proposed NSA procedure for spying on the citizens of the UK and other Five-Eyes nations, even where the partner government has explicitly denied the US permission to do so. The memo makes clear that partner countries must not be informed about this surveillance, or even the procedure itself.
The 2007 briefing was sent out to all analysts in the NSA's Signals Intelligence Directorate (SID), which is responsible for collecting, processing, and sharing information gleaned from US surveillance programs.
Up to this point, the Americans had only been allowed to retain the details of British landline phone numbers that had been collected incidentally in any of their trawls.
But the memo explains there was a fundamental change in policy that allowed the US to look at and store vast amounts of personal data that would previously have been discarded.
It states: "Sigint [signals intelligence] policy … and the UK Liaison Office here at NSAW [NSA Washington] worked together to come up with a new policy that expands the use of incidentally collected unminimized UK data in Sigint analysis.
"The new policy expands the previous memo issued in 2004 that only allowed the unminimizing of incidentally collected UK phone numbers for use in analysis.
"Now SID analysts can unminimize all incidentally collected UK contact identifiers, including IP and email addresses, fax and cell phone numbers, for use in analysis."
The memo also set out in more detail what the NSA could and could not do.
The agency was, for example, still barred from making any UK citizen a target of surveillance programs that would look at the content of their communications without getting a warrant. However, they now:
"Are authorized to unmask UK contact identifiers resulting from incidental collection."
"May utilize the UK contact identifiers in Sigint development contact chaining analysis."
"May retain unminimized UK contact identifiers incidentally collected under this authority within content and metadata stores and provided to follow-on USSS (US Sigint System) applications."
The document does not say whether the UK Liaison Office, which is operated by GCHQ, discussed this rule change with government ministers in London before granting approval, nor who within the intelligence agencies would have been responsible for the decision.
The Guardian contacted GCHQ and the Cabinet Office on Thursday November 7 to ask for clarification, but despite repeated requests since then, neither has been prepared to comment.
Since the signing in 1946 of the UKUSA Signals Intelligence Agreement, which first established the Five-Eyes partnership, it has been a convention that the allied intelligence agencies do not monitor one another's citizens without permission an agreement often referred to publicly by officials across the Five-Eyes nations.
However, a draft 2005 directive in the name of the NSA's director of signals intelligence reveals the NSA prepared policies enabling its staff to spy on Five-Eyes citizens, even where the partner country has refused permission to do so.

The document, titled 'Collection, Processing and Dissemination of Allied Communications', has separate classifications from paragraph to paragraph. Some are cleared to be shared with America's allies, while others marked "NF", for No Foreign are to be kept strictly within the agency. The NSA refers to its Five-Eyes partners as "second party" countries.
The memo states that the Five-Eyes agreement "has evolved to include a common understanding that both governments will not target each other's citizens/persons".
But the next sentence classified as not to be shared with foreign partners states that governments "reserved the right" to conduct intelligence operations against each other's citizens "when it is in the best interests of each nation".
"Therefore," the draft memo continues, "under certain circumstances, it may be advisable and allowable to target second party persons and second party communications systems unilaterally, when it is in the best interests of the US and necessary for US national security."
The draft directive states who can approve the surveillance, and stresses the need for secrecy.

"When sharing the planned targeting information with a second party would be contrary to US interests, or when the second party declines a collaboration proposal, the proposed targeting must be presented to the signals intelligence director for approval with justification for the criticality of the proposed collection.
"If approved, any collection, processing and dissemination of the second party information must be maintained in NoForn channels."
The document does not reveal whether such operations had been authorized in the past, nor whether the NSA believes its Five-Eyes partners conduct operations against US citizens.
The other sections of the document, cleared for sharing with the UK and other partners, strike a different tone, emphasising that spying on each other's citizens is a collaborative affair that is most commonly achieved "when the proposed target is associated with a global problem such as weapons proliferation, terrorism, drug trafficking or organised crime activities."
It states, for example: "There are circumstances when targeting of second party persons and communications systems, with the full knowledge and co-operation of one or more second parties, is allowed when it is in the best interests of both nations."

The memo says the circumstances might include "targeting a UK citizen located in London using a British telephone system"; "targeting a UK person located in London using an internet service provider (ISP) in France; or "targeting a Pakistani person located in the UK using a UK ISP."
A spokeswoman for the NSA declined to answer questions from the Guardian on whether the draft directive had been implemented and, if so, when. The NSA and the White House also refused to comment on the agency's 2007 agreement with the UK to store and analyze data on British citizens.
The British foreign secretary in 2005 was Jack Straw, and in 2007 it was Margaret Beckett. The Guardian approached both of them to ask if they knew about or sanctioned a change in policy. Both declined to comment.
The Five-Eyes nations have, so far, steered clear of the diplomatic upheavals, which have emerged as a result of revelations of the NSAspying on its allies.
France, Germany and Spain have all recently summoned their respective US ambassadors to discuss surveillance within their borders, while earlier this month the UK ambassador to Germany was invited to discuss alleged eavesdropping from the UK embassy in Berlin.

[Magda Hassan]

Apple repealed: German politicians to use encrypted phones to block NSA spying

Published time: November 22, 2013 09:23Get short URL



Reuters/Kai Pfaffenbach








Germany's two main political parties - the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) have agreed on new guidelines to ensure ministers are protected from having their communications intercepted by spy agencies. As part of the new regulations, politicians and high-ranking officials will be required to make calls on encrypted phones. Members of the German government will use encrypted phones as part of urgent' guidelines to protect against NSA snooping. The encryption software is not compatible with Apple, so Germany will phase out the use of iPhones at government level.

Software approved by Germany's Bonn Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) will be used to protect phones from outside meddling. The program itself is incompatible with Apple technology, so German ministers will be forbidden from using iPhones for official communications, reports newspaper The Local.

"Our conversations and communication structure have to be safer," the government report said in the wake of the spy scandal that revealed Chancellor Angela Merkel's communications had been monitored by the NSA.

The German Chancellor addressed the reports of NSA spying on Germany, leaked to the press by former CIA employee Edward Snowden, on Monday at a parliamentary hearing. She slammed the allegations of mass espionage as "grave" and said they had put transatlantic relations "to the test."

Merkel called on the US spy organization to clarify the future of their activities in the European country to encourage "the creation of a new transatlantic confidence."

German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich also attacked Washington's handling of the NSA scandal.

"The Americans need to clear up the allegations, they cannot become caught up in contradictions,"Friedrich said.

Snowden's security leaks revealed Washington's extensive spy program in Europe that recorded millions of phone calls and intercepted electronic correspondence on a massive scale. Furthermore, a report in October said that the NSA could have been monitoring the communications of Chancellor Merkel since 2002.

It was also revealed the US had used the embassy in Berlin as a base for spy operations.

German newspaper Der Spiegel reported that Merkel's phone had been listed by the NSA's Special Collection Service (SCS) since 2002 - marked as "GE Chancellor Merkel." Moreover, the Chancellor was still on the list just weeks before President Barack Obama was due for an official visit to Berlin in June.

In response to the spy scandal Germany is pressing for a no-spying agreement to be included in a transatlantic free-trade deal.

"The negotiations for a free trade agreement are presently, without doubt, being put to the test," said Merkel on Monday.

Talks will be held with EU representatives in Washington in December to finalize the agreement.

There have also been calls in Germany for the government to grant whistleblower Edward Snowden asylum. Monday saw protesters gather outside the Bundestag in support of the whistleblower who is currently residing in Moscow where he has been granted temporary political asylum.

Following the spy scandal, the German people's trust in the US as an ally has plummeted. A recent poll showed 35 percent still see Washington as a reliable partner a drop of 14 percent since July.
http://rt.com/news/german-politicians-en...hones-132/

[David Guyatt]

I can see other states following suit.

Which might be a warning g sign to Apple to modify it's software if it wants to retain it's pre eminency.

[Magda Hassan]

I can see other states following suit.

Which might be a warning g sign to Apple to modify it's software if it wants to retain it's pre eminency.

I'd be interested to know the software that the Germans are going to use.

Mozilla have brought out a cheap phone with their own operating system which is open source and big on privacy. Hard to put in back doors in open source because everyone can see it. Apple is closed proprietary software so who really knows what they have inside there.

[Peter Presland]

I can see other states following suit.

Which might be a warning g sign to Apple to modify it's software if it wants to retain it's pre eminency.

It's not just the software though David. Much of the spooks ability to crack encryption has been surreptitiously engineered into the hardware itself for well over a decade now - especially the CPU's and related chips produced by the major manufacturers. The big chip manufacturers - and we are talking seriously big corporations - would never have become seriously big chip manufacturers without providing the ability to remotely access and change critical registers. That ability - to help iron-out bugs in existing hardware naturally - has been part and parcel of of the main OS CPU's since the late nineties at least - God knows what levels of sophistication it has evolved too since.

But I agree, the days of States who wish to have their comms remain at least opaque to NSA/GCHQ spying, continuing to rely on devices containing either hardware or software supplied by US controlled corporations are numbered.

All of that has been laid bare by the Snowden affair. The Spooks do not like it one bit and neither do their pet corporations which, without a shadow of doubt, include both Apple and Microsoft + Intel and AMD.