dre Posted October 25, 2013 Report Posted October 25, 2013 (edited) You have any links to show this? Read up on WIlliam Binney When the head of the NSA’s global digital communications program – William Binney – disclosed the fact that the U.S. was spying on everyone in the U.S. and storing the data forever, the Feds tried to scare himinto shutting up: [Numerous] FBI officers held a gun to Binney’s head as he stepped naked from the shower. He watched with his wife and youngest son as the FBI ransacked their home. Later Binney was separated from the rest of his family, and FBI officials pressured him to implicate one of the other complainants in criminal activity. During the raid, Binney attempted to report to FBI officials the crimes he had witnessed at NSA, in particular the NSA’s violation of the constitutional rights of all Americans. However, the FBI wasn’t interested in these disclosures. Instead, FBI officials seized Binney’s private computer, which to this day has not been returned despite the fact that he has not been charged with a crime. And NSA Whiste Blower Thomas Drake...who tried to blow the whistle on fraud and corruption within the NSA – based upon the NSA spying on all Americans instead of targeting only suspected criminals – he was prosecuted under the Espionage Act. Drake notes: I differed as a whistleblower to Snowden only in this respect: in accordance with the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act, I took my concerns up within the chain of command, to the very highest levels at the NSA, and then to Congress and the Department of Defense. I understand why Snowden has taken his course of action, because he’s been following this for years: he’s seen what’s happened to other whistleblowers like me. By following protocol, you get flagged – just for raising issues. You’re identified as someone they don’t like, someone not to be trusted. I was exposed early on because I was a material witness for two 9/11 congressional investigations. In closed testimony, I told them everything I knew – about Stellar Wind, billions of dollars in fraud, waste and abuse, and the critical intelligence, which the NSA had but did not disclose to other agencies, preventing vital action against known threats. If that intelligence had been shared, it may very well have prevented 9/11. But as I found out later, none of the material evidence I disclosed went into the official record. It became a state secret even to give information of this kind to the 9/11 investigation. Or Russel Tice When NSA whistleblower Russel Tice (later a key source in the 2005 New York Times report that blew the lid off the Bush administration’s use of warrantless wiretapping) questioned spying on innocent Americans, NSA tried to have him labeled “crazy”, and fired him. Or J. Kirk Wiebe Heres what some of these people say about Snowden... When asked about Snowden, here is what these NSA veterans told USA Today: [uSA Today]: Did Edward Snowden do the right thing in going public? William Binney: We tried to stay for the better part of seven years inside the government trying to get the government to recognize the unconstitutional, illegal activity that they were doing and openly admit that and devise certain ways that would be constitutionally and legally acceptable to achieve the ends they were really after. And that just failed totally because no one in Congress or — we couldn’t get anybody in the courts, and certainly the Department of Justice and inspector general’s office didn’t pay any attention to it. And all of the efforts we made just produced no change whatsoever. All it did was continue to get worse and expand. [uSA Today]: So Snowden did the right thing? Binney: Yes, I think he did. [uSA Today]: You three wouldn’t criticize him for going public from the start? J. Kirk Wiebe: Correct. Binney: In fact, I think he saw and read about what our experience was, and that was part of his decision-making. Wiebe: We failed, yes. [Attorney for the NSA whistleblowers, who is herself a Department of Justice whistleblower] Jesselyn Radack: Not only did they go through multiple and all the proper internal channels and they failed, but more than that, it was turned against them. … The inspector general was the one who gave their names to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution under the Espionage Act. And they were all targets of a federal criminal investigation, and Tom ended up being prosecuted — and it was for blowing the whistle. *** Wiebe: Well, I don’t want anyone to think that he had an alternative. No one should (think that). There is no path for intelligence-community whistle-blowers who know wrong is being done. There is none. We reached out to Binney for follow-up comments, and he told us: I heard a few interviews of Snowden and read some of the comments that he has made. And, it appears to me that he saw what had happened to US and what they tried to do to us plus what happened to Manning, and all that told him that proper channels don’t work [snowden has said that he is familiar with Binney, Drake, Manning and other whistleblowers]. So, I think he made his decision on that basis. That is, our government will attack the whistleblowers rather than address the problems they expose. The Government Accountability Project notes: By communicating with the press, Snowden used the safest channel available to him to inform the public of wrongdoing. Nonetheless, government officials have been critical of him for not using internal agency channels – the same channels that have repeatedly failed to protect whistleblowers from reprisal in the past. In many cases, the critics are the exact officials who acted to exclude national security employees and contractors from the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2012. There quite simply IS no "proper channels" for intelligence whistleblowers in the US. Edited October 25, 2013 by dre Quote I question things because I am human. And call no one my father who's no closer than a stranger
eyeball Posted October 25, 2013 Report Posted October 25, 2013 The US government has truly become a monster. Frankenstate. Quote A government without public oversight is like a nuclear plant without lead shielding.
GostHacked Posted October 30, 2013 Report Posted October 30, 2013 (edited) http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/10/30/nsa-secretly-tapped-google-yahoo-data-centers-worldwide-new-report-claims/ Massive cloud networks from companies like Google and Yahoo cache and serve up much of the data on the Internet -- and the NSA has secretly tapped into the unencrypted links behind those company’s enormous servers, according to a new report from the Washington Post. By tapping into that link, the NSA can collect data at will from hundreds of millions of user accounts, the Post reported -- including not just foreign citizens and “metadata” but emails, videos and audio from American citizens. Not just unencrypted transmissions. They can and do intercept encrypted transmissions. An opinion piece.... http://www.techi.com/2013/10/why-the-nsa-tapping-of-google-and-yahoo-clouds-is-more-dangerous-than-prism/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+techirss+(Techi) Could we be getting “NSA fatigue”? No, I’m not talking about the obvious weariness that we have about the National Security Agency’s actions. I’m talking about the news. Has there simply been so much that has come out about their activities over the past few months that blockbuster news doesn’t even grab our attention anymore? The latest and most nefarious activity is actually one that most would see as a repeat of the news. Google and Yahoo data centers and the lines that connect them have been tapped by the NSA. It sounds like everything else that we’ve heard so far, but this is far worse than the previous mentions of Google, Yahoo, and everything else that they’ve done. In the hand-drawn diagram above, you can see how the NSA simplified the Google hacking process, smiley faces and all. This isn’t PRISM. That is court-ordered “front door” access to the data, but it’s limited in most cases to metadata which is annoying but not really exposing of the bulk of data (such as email messages themselves) that could do full-blown harm to our privacy. MUSCULAR, a joint project between the NSA and the UK’s GCHQ, is much more dangerous. It does not need the legal protection that PRISM needed because it deals with connections between data centers on foreign soil. In other words, communications with anyone outside of the United States falls under a completely different category and does not need to be authorized under Section 702 of FISA. They didn’t go to Google or Yahoo and compel them to open their data. They didn’t have to. They hacked their way in. Unlike with PRISM, Google and Yahoo claim that they were unaware of the activity of MUSCULAR and they’re probably telling the truth. The NSA and GCHQ would not have wanted to let them know that their encrypted internal lines were being tapped. Just metadata right? Edited October 30, 2013 by GostHacked Quote
Argus Posted October 31, 2013 Report Posted October 31, 2013 See, more proof Snowden should have just mosied on down to the local newspaper and told his story to them, with all the proof of course. Nothing would have happened to him as some here had said. You know,traitor and all that. Probably would have gotten a fine or some such. Uhm, no, he'd be in prison now. And rightly so. Quote "A liberal is someone who claims to be open to all points of view — and then is surprised and offended to find there are other points of view.” William F Buckley
Argus Posted October 31, 2013 Report Posted October 31, 2013 Just metadata right? I had to laugh that Google was indignant at the NSA perhaps hacking its system. As if GOOGLE, of all entities, gives a damn about the privacy of its customers! You shouldn't be worried about what the NSA knows about you. You should be worried about what Google knows about you, as well as other private insitutions. Heck, Bell announced last week they're going to start collecting data on what web sites their clients use, on what they accesson those web sites, on what search terms they put into search engines, and everything else they can find out about them -- for advertising purposes. And what data is Facebook keeping on people in order to enhance its growing advertising stream? Quote "A liberal is someone who claims to be open to all points of view — and then is surprised and offended to find there are other points of view.” William F Buckley
Argus Posted October 31, 2013 Report Posted October 31, 2013 The US government has truly become a monster. Frankenstate. Do you honestly think the Russians and Chinese and French and English do less? Honestly? Hell, Google and Bell have a larger file on you, and invade your privacy worse than the NSA. Quote "A liberal is someone who claims to be open to all points of view — and then is surprised and offended to find there are other points of view.” William F Buckley
Argus Posted October 31, 2013 Report Posted October 31, 2013 There quite simply IS no "proper channels" for intelligence whistleblowers in the US. Good thing he's now in Russia, the land of freedom, where no one needs to worry about the state spying on them... Quote "A liberal is someone who claims to be open to all points of view — and then is surprised and offended to find there are other points of view.” William F Buckley
eyeball Posted October 31, 2013 Report Posted October 31, 2013 Do you honestly think the Russians and Chinese and French and English do less? Honestly? Hell, Google and Bell have a larger file on you, and invade your privacy worse than the NSA. There should be a pox on everyone for sure. I think the chill will spread and the Googles and Bells of the world will be used less and less as people seek out ethical alternatives. Quote A government without public oversight is like a nuclear plant without lead shielding.
Argus Posted October 31, 2013 Report Posted October 31, 2013 There should be a pox on everyone for sure. I think the chill will spread and the Googles and Bells of the world will be used less and less as people seek out ethical alternatives. An ordinary, run-of-the-mill hacker can break your password in thirty seconds and suck your computer dry. There is no such thing as electronic privacy if you are hooked up to anything. Quote "A liberal is someone who claims to be open to all points of view — and then is surprised and offended to find there are other points of view.” William F Buckley
eyeball Posted October 31, 2013 Report Posted October 31, 2013 Yes and as that becomes more apparent more people will probably shy away from using them. Maybe the impact to the bottom lines of companies trying to sell computers and software etc will cause changes. With any luck the hackers will focus their efforts on governments and corporations. I imagine rooting around in ordinary peoples stuff must get a little boring after awhile. Quote A government without public oversight is like a nuclear plant without lead shielding.
guyser Posted October 31, 2013 Report Posted October 31, 2013 Uhm, no, he'd be in prison now. And rightly so. Sarcasm.....you didnt get that? Quote
GostHacked Posted October 31, 2013 Report Posted October 31, 2013 Do you honestly think the Russians and Chinese and French and English do less? Honestly? Hell, Google and Bell have a larger file on you, and invade your privacy worse than the NSA. In my view you can consider Google part of the NSA. Screw it, throw Apple, Microsoft in that batch as well. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24751821 Google has expressed outrage following a report that the US National Security Agency (NSA) has hacked its data links. An executive at Google said it was not aware of the alleged activity, adding there was an "urgent need for reform". Google knows of the activity anyways. Legally, Google cannot even tell you that they know about the activity. They can't tell you how many times the NSA made info requests. And they can't tell you why they were made. That seems quite totalitarian and dangerous. Quote
dre Posted November 1, 2013 Report Posted November 1, 2013 An ordinary, run-of-the-mill hacker can break your password in thirty seconds and suck your computer dry. Only in a purely academic setting. Hackers CAN brute force hack passwords fairly quickly from a raw computational perspective, but thats only if they have hashes to test against. In a real scenario brute force doesnt work very well because it either takes too long for the millions or billions of attempts, or the system simply wont let you try them all. While brute force hacking IS possible against many services that authenticate passwords is relatively easy to make one that protects agains this technique. You can also encrypt all your data, and use protocols like TLS and IPSEC. Anyhow even if your own network is relatively secure chances are most of the services you use are not. Theres a real question now about SSL and TLS certificates that you buy from public services like Verizon, Thaute, etc. In theory its almost impossible for a MITM to break the encryption, but the worry now is that government dirt-bags are forcing all of these companies to give up their encryption keys. Luckily... theres a demand for privacy, and thanks to Mr Snowden theres a lot of smart people out there now working on coming up with ways for people to protect themselves from putrid slime like the NSA. For now though we have to assume that pretty much all online services are compromised and act accordingly. Quote I question things because I am human. And call no one my father who's no closer than a stranger
eyeball Posted November 1, 2013 Report Posted November 1, 2013 Maybe after they've met the demand to protect individual privacy they can meet the demand for cracking official secrecy. Quote A government without public oversight is like a nuclear plant without lead shielding.
Argus Posted November 1, 2013 Report Posted November 1, 2013 Luckily... theres a demand for privacy, and thanks to Mr Snowden theres a lot of smart people out there now working on coming up with ways for people to protect themselves from putrid slime like the NSA. For now though we have to assume that pretty much all online services are compromised and act accordingly. I just don't think that any private enterprise outfit is going to be able to put together a security setup that will defeat the NSA (ot the Russian, Chinese, French etc equivilents), not unless they have a ton of money and charge you a ton of money. And I'm not gonna pay anything for that. The government (or others) can tap my phone too, any time they want. There's nothing I can do about that either. And since I'm not doing anything the government would be interested in it would be kind of foolish of me to go to extremes over it. I'm more worried about the spying the private sector is doing. Quote "A liberal is someone who claims to be open to all points of view — and then is surprised and offended to find there are other points of view.” William F Buckley
cybercoma Posted November 1, 2013 Report Posted November 1, 2013 I just don't think that any private enterprise outfit is going to be able to put together a security setup that will defeat the NSA...I'm more worried about the spying the private sector is doing.Since private enterprise has bought and paid for the US government, you can bet your backside they'll silently share information. Quote
GostHacked Posted November 13, 2013 Report Posted November 13, 2013 http://gigaom.com/2013/11/13/in-fight-over-gag-orders-us-tech-industry-files-complaint-over-fbi-legal-tactics/ Lawyers for Google, Microsoft and other tech firms that are squaring off with the FBI before America’s spy court say they’re stuck in an unfair fight: the government, which is opposing a petition to disclose surveillance numbers, won’t even show them some of the legal arguments it is using to uphold current gag orders. In response, the tech companies are asking the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to strike the blacked-out portions of the government’s filing. The request, filed this week, notes that the “heavily redacted” submissions mean the court could decide the First Amendment case on the basis of arguments the tech companies will not even get a chance to see. The submissions in question were filed on September 30, and represent the government’s response to claims by Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo and LinkedIn that the companies have a free speech right to disclose the number of requests they receive under the Patriot Act. Here is a screenshot that shows how pages of the government’s legal filing appear: And for those who think there is still an option of going through proper channels. As a result, the only people who can see the filings are the judges of the spy court, whose operations are likewise confidential. The situation appears to validate an explosive claim by the New York Times in July that the court ”has quietly become almost a parallel Supreme Court.” Two different sets of courts. That undermines the legal and moral stance the USA loves to portray. Quote
GostHacked Posted November 15, 2013 Report Posted November 15, 2013 (edited) For all those not too concerned about meta data.http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/seattle-police-have-wireless-network-can-track-you/nbmHW/ SEATTLE —In February, the Seattle Police Department announced it bought what's called a "mesh network," that will be used as a dedicated wireless network for emergency responders. What SPD did not say is that the network is capable of tracking anyone with a device that has a Wi-Fi connection."They now own a piece of equipment that has tracking capabilities so we think that they should be going to City Council and presenting a protocol for the whole network that says they won't be using it for surveillance purposes," said Jamela Debelak of the American Civil Liberties Union.A spokesperson for Seattle Police said the network is not being used right now. A draft policy is being reviewed by the city attorney's office and will eventually go before the City Council.The network includes 160 wireless access points that are mounted on poles across Seattle. Every time a device looks for a Wi-Fi signal and the access point recognizes it, it can store that data. The manufacturer of the network points out in a manual that the mesh network can store IP addresses, device types, applications used by the devices, current location, and historical location. They are lying if they are not using them at this moment. Check the video out. This is Big Brother. Edited November 15, 2013 by GostHacked Quote
Shady Posted November 15, 2013 Report Posted November 15, 2013 For all those not too concerned about meta data.http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/seattle-police-have-wireless-network-can-track-you/nbmHW/ They are lying if they are not using them at this moment. Check the video out. This is Big Brother. Nobody cares. In fact, polling suggests the public supports it. Quote
bush_cheney2004 Posted November 15, 2013 Report Posted November 15, 2013 Nobody cares. In fact, polling suggests the public supports it. Pretty much....."Big Brother" is spying....SO WHAT !? People are voluntarily dumping 'private data', photos, and videos on social media sites without a thought. In Toronto, even a private crack smoking break isn't private. Quote Economics trumps Virtue.
GostHacked Posted November 15, 2013 Report Posted November 15, 2013 Nobody cares. In fact, polling suggests the public supports it. That is the real sad part that most don't care. What else are they siphoning off your phone? Quote
Guest Posted November 15, 2013 Report Posted November 15, 2013 They know when supper's ready... Quote
GostHacked Posted November 25, 2013 Report Posted November 25, 2013 Here is another nice nugget. Want to know why you need malware and anti-virus removal programs? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25087627 The US National Security Agency (NSA) infected 50,000 networks with malware, Dutch newspaper NRC has reported. The Tailored Access Operations department used it to steal sensitive information, according to a censored slide leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. NRC said 20,000 networks had been hit in 2008, with the program recently expanded to include others in Rome, Berlin, Pristina, Kinshasa, Rangoon. The NSA declined to comment. The malware could be put in a "sleeper" mode and activated with a click of a button, the paper said. Quote
Topaz Posted November 26, 2013 Report Posted November 26, 2013 Here's a more in depth of what the Agency is doing and I wondering if it was the US and not someone else last year when the Canadians government computers were hacked?? http://www.globalresearch.ca/nsa-infects-50000-computer-systems-worldwide/5359470 Quote
neobendez Posted November 28, 2013 Report Posted November 28, 2013 This is real funny but somewhat creepy! Quote how do you get us netflix in Canada
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