whistleblowers: wikileaks, snowden i...

[Zaz_pi]

Former NSA and CIA chief Gen. Michael Hayden

speculated

on Tuesday that hackers and transparency groups would turn to cyberterror attacks if the United States captured NSA leaker Edward Snowden.

He went on to dismiss Snowden supporters as “nihilists, anarchists, activists, Lulzsec, Anonymous, twenty-somethings who haven’t talked to the opposite sex in five or six years.”

That probably wasn’t the smartest thing to say because the government desperately needs hackers. And usually, when you desperately need someone, implying that they’re sex-starved, basement-dwelling, would-be terrorists isn’t a good idea.

Kakve predrasude

[Prospero]

nejebica ugrožava bezbednost amerike.neveruem na šta su spali

[Lord Protector]

nobel za glupost:

Obama: Do Putina - sve bilo u reduVašington -- Američki predsednik Barak Obama je izjavio da preispituje odnose SAD i Rusije zbog rastućeg broja pitanja o kojima se te dve zemlje ne slažu.Predsednik SAD je pozvao predsednika Rusije Vladimira Putina da "misli na ono što predstoji, a ne na ono što je bilo" u zaoštrenim odnosima dve zemlje. ^_^ Obama je izrazio žaljenje zbog "delimičnog uspeha" svojih nastojanja da predsednika Putina uveri da odustane od "hladnoratovskog mentaliteta".Obama je u petak u Beloj kući na konferenciji za štampu rekao da zna da su odnosi između dve supersile nekada bili teški.On je rekao da je bilo napretka sve dok Putin nije ponovo postao predsednik. Sada, rekao je Obama, "pojavio se niz novih razlika", uključujući i u stavovima o ratu u Siriji i o ljudskim pravima.Putinov povratak u Kremlj prošle godine je doneo "više ruske retorike koja je antiamerička, igra se na neke stare stereotipe o hladnoratovskom nadmetanju Sjedinjenih država i Rusije".Predsednik Obama je izjavio da je sada pravo vreme da se ponovo procene stajališta te dve zemlje nakon što je Rusija preduzela niz poteza koji su u suprotnosti sa američkim interesima."Iskreno, postoji čitav niz pitanja oko kojih smatramo da možemo da postignemo napredak, a kod kojih se Rusija nije niti pomerila", rekao je Obama na konferenciji za štampu u Beloj kući, a preneo je Rojters.Predsednik SAD je dodao da "nema loš lični odnos" sa ruskim predsednikom Vladimirom Putinom.Bela kuća je ove nedelje otkazala sastanak Obame i Putina planiran u Moskvi idućeg meseca. To je delimično zato što Rusija odbija da Sjedinjenim državama izruči bivšeg službenika američke Agencije za državnu bezbednost Edvarda Snoudena koji je provalio državne tajne o nadzoru telekomunikacija.Obama je govorio i o slučaju bivšeg agenta NSA Edvardu Snoudenu, koji je nedavno dobio azil u Rusiji, i istakao da Snouden "nije patriota"."Smatram da je poslednja epizoda (sa Snoudenom) samo još jedna među razlikama koje su se pojavile poslednjih meseci... i verovatno treba da mi zastanemo, da preispitamo kuda to ide Rusija, šta su naši ključni intresi, da odnose podesimo tako da mi radimo ono što je dobro za Sjedinjene države, a nadajmo se, i da je dobro za Rusiju", rekao je Obama. "Procenićemo u kojima oblastima odnosi mogu pogodovati napretku interesa SAD i povećati mir i stabilnost, kao i napredak širom sveta", rekao je predsednik."Gde je to moguće, nastavićemo da sarađujemo s njima (Rusijom), a gde ima razlika, to ćemo im jasno reći. Nadam se da će vremenom Putin i Rusija priznati da, umesto nadmetanja za nulti ishod (niko ne dobija-niko ne gubi), ako dve zemlje sarađuju, verovatno mogu doneti boljitak za oba naroda".Govoreći o nizu tema tokom jednočasovne konferencije za štampu, Obama je rekao da ne bi trebalo bojkotovati predstojeće Zimske olimpijske igre uSočiju, uprkos postojanju ruskog zakona koji diskriminiše homoseksulace i lezbijke. :mellow:Obama je jasno ukazao da ne namerava da spreči svakodnevno prikupljanje podataka o telefonskim razgovorima miliona Amerikanaca, a obećao je da će njegova vlada bolje nadzirati kako se to radi."Snouden nije patriota"Obama je rekao da će sarađivati s Kongresom SAD (parlamentom) da bi promenio način nadzora nad nekim kontroverznim programima Agencije za državnu bezbednost, i da će postaviti novo telo nedržavnih stručnjaka radi revizije tehnologije koja se za koristi za nadgledanje.Obama je rekao da želi da sarađuje s Kongresom pre donošenja odluka o tome koga sve država nadzire. Sada se razmatraju samo zahtevi Sekretarijata za pravosuđe za odobravanje nadzora.Tajni sud koji o tome odlučuje i drugi programi nadzora su pod lupom od juna, kada je odbegli bivši službenik službe državne bezbednbosti Edvard Snouden otkrio postojanje velikog sistema za nadzor svih vrsta telekomunikacija. Vlada se branila da je to neophodno za sprečavanje terorističkih napada.Obama je novinarima kazao da država može i mora da bude transparentnija u obavljanju poslova nadzora.Edvard Snouden nije postao patriota time što je otkrio rasprostranjen državni sistem nadzora telekomunikacija, rekao je Obama.Obama je izneo da je on zatražio preispitivanje tajnog nadzora pre no što je Snouden juna novinarima obelodanio tajne. Snoudenovo obelodanjivanje izazvalo je brži i oštriji odgovor nego da je on sam, Obama, imenovao odbor da preispita politiku u toj oblasti, rekao je predsednik.Obama je rekao novinarima i da želi više uvida u programe obaveštajnih agencija da bi se uspostavila ravnoteža između zaštite Amerikanaca i njihove privatnosti.

Edited August 9, 2013 by slow

[Lord Protector]

The power of Edward SnowdenPhilip Weiss on August 9, 2013 Consider the power of Edward Snowden.Six weeks after Obama declared, "I'm not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker," he's canceled a summit because of him. Obama won't be meeting with Vladimir Putin because Putin extended temporary asylum to Edward Snowden. Some news accounts say it's a new Cold War.White House press secretary Jay Carney sought to deny that Snowden was the only factor yesterday, but he wasn't entirely convincing:Now, when it comes to the decision to cancel the summit, as I think has been well reported, there were a variety of challenges that led to the assessment that this was not the right time to have a summit. Obviously, Mr. Snowden was a factor, but he was far from the only factor...Carney was also on the defensive about the government spying program that Snowden revealed, and some of what he said sounded like Big Brother explaining himself:the metadata collection represented by [program] 215 is not content, it is telephone numbers and call times.... we have made clear that under FAA 702, the NSA may not intentionally target a U.S. person['s emails].Carney was only too happy to talk about Russia's human rights record. He said the president condemns a Russian law that bars LGBT people from "propaganda."The President was very clear about his views on the issues of gay rights, LGBT rights, and concerns that have been raised internationally about laws in Russia,Again: consider the power of Edward Snowden. A summit between superpowers has been cancelled and the human rights records of both countries are being scrutinized, thanks to a 30-year-old former government data analyst.I'm sure there's a price for the cancellation of a meeting of Putin and Obama-- maybe even progress on the Iranian nuclear issue. But the benefits are already clear. The Russians and Americans are quarreling openly over human rights and Americans are discussing government actions we have a right to know about, a right that was nullified and that Snowden gave up his job, his comfort and some large portion of his liberty to revive.Carney's defensiveness yesterday extended to fundamental character questions about the goodness of the American executive branch and of Edward Snowden's idealism. Notice how he puts him down:He’s not a dissident. He’s not a whistleblower. He is wanted on charges for the unauthorized public release of classified information.Carney does so because Edward Snowden is speaking to Obama's own base-- liberals who believed in change-- and he is more believable than a president who seems like an extension of George W. Bush.Carney knows how inspiring Edward Snowden has been to millions of us. He has stood up for a principle, government's accountability to its citizens. And he reminds us of the most basic ideal in democracy, that government is by the people. That an ordinary citizen, acting in conscience, can exercise power over a president.

[kim_philby]

The recent revelations by the whistleblower Edward Snowden were fascinating. But they - and all the reactions to them - had one enormous assumption at their heart.That the spies know what they are doing.adam curtis

[Čutura]

Ako ne otkriju izvor novinari su izdajnici?http://www.dw.de/ako-ne-otkriju-izvor-novinari-su-izdajnici/a-17012005

Barem u SAD, od novinara se već odavno traži ili zahteva da dostave informacije koje imaju o temama važnim za bezbednost", kaže Frederik Šauer, stručnjak za ustavno pravo na Univerzitetu Virdžinija. "Oni to najčešće ne čine. Ponekad su na to primorani."Ipak tokom Obamine vlade bilo je dvostruko više procesa za špijunažu nego tokom vlade svih njegovih prethodnika zajedno od usvajanja zakona za špijunažu 1917.

[Prospero]

6 za obamina vakta (mada je msm 1 nasleđen od busha), a 3 pre toga za 90 godina.

[bigvlada]

The NSA is turning the internet into a total surveillance systemNow we know all Americans' international email is searched and saved, we can see how far the 'collect it all' mission has goneAlexander Abdo and Patrick Toomeytheguardian.com, Sunday 11 August 2013 14.00 BSTThe NSA is searching the content of virtually every email that comes into or goes out of the US without a warrant. Photograph: Roger Tooth for the GuardianAnother burst of sunlight permeated the National Security Agency's black box of domestic surveillance last week.According to the New York Times, the NSA is searching the content of virtually every email that comes into or goes out of the United States without a warrant. To accomplish this astonishing invasion of Americans' privacy, the NSA reportedly is making a copy of nearly every international email. It then searches that cloned data, keeping all of the emails containing certain keywords and deleting the rest – all in a matter of seconds.If you emailed a friend, family member or colleague overseas today (or if, from abroad, you emailed someone in the US), chances are that the NSA made a copy of that email and searched it for suspicious information.http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/11/nsa-internet-surveillance-email

[Prospero]

Zatvaraju se alternativni e-mail servisi (u USA), ukljucujuci i 1 za koga se smatra da ga je Snowden koristio.

edit. grafit iz finske

kim dotcom strikes again:

Mega to run ‘cutting-edge’ encrypted email after Lavabit’s ‘privacy seppuku’Published time: August 11, 2013 16:56 Get short URLScreenshot from mega.co.nzKim Dotcom’s Mega.co.nz is working on a highly-secure email service to run on a non-US-based server. It comes as the US squeezes email providers that offer encryption and Mega’s CEO calls Lavabit’s shutdown an “honorable act of Privacy Seppuku.”Mega’s Chief Executive Vikram Kumar, who is heading the development of the company’s own end-to-end encryption technology to protect the privacy of the future email’s users, has reacted to the Lavabit founder’s decision to suspend his service’s operations – an act, which was shortly followed by voluntary closing down of another secure email service, Silent Circle. Mega CEO Vikram Kumar (Photo from Vikram Kumar's LinkedIn profile)“These are acts of ‘Privacy Seppuku’ – honorably and publicly shutting down (“suicide”) rather than being forced to comply with laws and courts intent on violating people’s privacy,” Kumar said in his blog post.The concept he was referring to was developed by secure service providers such as Cryptocloud, which made a ‘corporate seppuku’ pledge to oppose the mass surveillance and shield the privacy of their users’ data. The name for the move apparently derives from a Japanese ritual suicide, which was originally practiced by samurai to preserve honor.According to Cryptocloud team’s board post cited by Kumar, “corporate seppuku” is “shutting down a company rather than agreeing to become an extension of the massive, ever-expanding, secretive global surveillance network organized by the US National Security Agency.”This way, if the company receives a secret order from the NSA “to become a real-time participant in ongoing, blanket, secret surveillance of its customers,” it will not be forced into doing it. The pledge it made to its users will make it terminate itself instead, thus making the data mining impossible.Such a policy manifests that “there is always a choice” for any company approached by the agents, while at the same time placing the users’ security in the highest priority.Owner and operator of Lavabit.com Ladar Levison on Thursday wrote that his nine-year-old encrypted email service was shutting down in order to avoid becoming “complicit in crimes against the American people.”“We see the writing the wall, and we have decided that it is best for us to shut down Silent Mail now,” Silent Circle founder Jon Callas then wrote in a blog post.But as Cryptocloud urged all the companies to make an ultimate privacy-protecting pledge, NSA leaker Edward Snowden said in an email to The Guardian that the internet giants are unlikely to join such action – although it could yield much greater results. He called for Google and Facebook to question their current stance, calling Lavabit’s owner decision “inspiring.”“Employees and leaders at Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo, Apple, and the rest of our internet titans must ask themselves why they aren’t fighting for our interests the same way small businesses are. The defense they have offered to this point is that they were compelled by laws they do not agree with, but one day of downtime for the coalition of their services could achieve what a hundred Lavabits could not,” Snowden said. Mega doing ‘true crypto work for masses’Meanwhile, Kumar has been involved in an email service project with what he says is exceptional level of encryption.Mega has been doing an “exciting” but “very hard” and time-consuming job of developing both highly-secure and functional email service, Kumar told ZDNet.“The biggest tech hurdle is providing email functionality that people expect, such as searching emails, that are trivial to provide if emails are stored in plain text (or available in plain text) on the server side. If all the server can see is encrypted text, as is the case with true end-to-end encryption, then all the functionality has to be built client side,” he explained, adding that even Silent Circle did not try to achieve such a feat.“On this and other fronts, Mega is doing some hugely cutting-edge stuff. There is probably no one in the world who takes the Mega approach of making true crypto work for the masses, our core proposition,” Kumar said.According to the company’s founder Dotcom, Mega doesn’t hold decryption keys to customer accounts and “never will”, thus making it impossible for it to read the emails. This also means that Mega by design cannot be forced to rat on its users by intelligence agencies.However, Dotcom earlier told TorrentFreak that a new spy legislation being pushed by the US and its Five Eyes alliance partners – UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – may force Mega to relocate its servers to some country exempt from such jurisdictions, such as Iceland.The New Zealand government is already “aggressively” eyeing legislation that will compel all internet service providers in the country to design a “secret decryption access” for the intelligence agencies, he said.

[luba]

kako je sve poceloi odlican zizek.

We need more Mannings and Snowdens—in China, in Russia, everywhere. There are states much more oppressive than the United States—just imagine what would have happened to someone like Manning in a Russian or Chinese court (in all probability there would be no public trial!) However, one should not exaggerate the softness of the United States.

[Indy]

zanimljiv tekst (ovaj prvi, za zizeka mi je suvise rano ujutro). kad ljudi olako odbacuju 'libertarianism' kao beznacajan, treba da se sete snowndena.

[Roger Sanchez]

Malo se gubimo tu između opće opasnosti i opće besvjesti. Ono što mene čudi je to koliko je potuljena reakcija iz političkih i ekonomskih krugova, koji jedini realno imaju neke tajne vrijedne truda oko iskopavanja i nalaženja. Industrijska i socijalna špijunaža vjerojatno je dosegla vrhunce vrhunaca o kojima skoro ništa i ne znamo, osim kad se Ameri rasplaču da im Kinezi izvlače nešto iz džepa.Novinarstvu, onom vrijednom naziva, je ugrožena egzistencija i sam smisao posla. Ja sam recimo siguran da je jedna od naših moderatorica predmet povremene, ako ne i stalne obrade. Uvijek je moguće da se na nešto nabasa.Treće su politički aktivni ljudi koji nisu profesionalni političari ali ugrožavaju moneyed and vested interests, mjerljivo u dolarima. Zanimljivi za diskreditaciju, kontrašpijunažu™ (tj. otkud im informacije)..Mi ostali imamo pravo na strah od špijuniranja kao i na nadu za naših 15 minuta slave - može nam se dogoditi, en passant, ali teško.. Ako već do sad nismo enkriptirali disk i e-mail, bogme nam i ne treba.

[Ariel]

The NSA is going to cut 90% of its 1,000 sysadmins in a bid to reduce the risk of leaks. NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden was a network administrator, charged with keeping the machines running on the network of vast data-centers used by the NSA to harvest, store and analyze unimaginably large quantities of data.So, after this change, the NSA -- which now has nearly every compromising communication about every human alive -- will no longer have to worry about its sysadmins leaking its secrets. But it will have downsized its operational staff (and thus its capability to repel hackers and attackers) by 90 percent. I feel better already.This is like a plutonium storehouse reducing the risk of guards selling fissiles on the black market by firing all of them and leaving a couple of dudes at the door with walkie-talkies.

[Prospero]

da se zna gde ko stoji i šta je ordinary course of business:

Google: Gmail users ‘have no legitimate expectation of privacy’As tensions worsen among privacy-focused email users amid the escalating scandal surrounding government surveillance, a brief filed by attorneys for Google has surfaced showing that Gmail users should never expect their communications to be kept secret.Consumer Watchdog has unearthed a July 13, 2013 motion filed by Google’s attorneys with regards to ongoing litigation challenging how the Silicon Valley giant operates its highly popular free email service.The motion, penned in hopes of having the United States District Court for the Northern District of California dismiss a class action complaint against the company, says Gmail users should assume that any electronic correspondence that's passed through Google’s servers can be accessed and used for an array of options, such as selling ads to customers."Just as a sender of a letter to a business colleague cannot be surprised that the recipient's assistant opens the letter, people who use Web-based email today cannot be surprised if their emails are processed by the recipient's in the course of delivery,” the motion reads in part. “Indeed, 'a person has no legitimate expectation of privacy in information he voluntarily turns over to third parties.’" Elsewhere, Google’s legal counsel says the plaintiffs are attempting “to criminalize ordinary business practices” that the company has implemented for nearly a decade, specifically the automated scanning of emails.According to Google, federal wiretap laws provide third-party email providers with liability from litigation if their practices are done “in their ordinary course of business.” An Electronic Communication Service (ECS) such as Gmail must scan emails sent to and from their systems, says Google, as part of providing the services they offer.“While plaintiffs go to great lengths to portray Google in a sinister light, the complaint actually confirms that the automated processes at issue are Google’s ordinary business practices implemented as part of providing the free Gmail service to the public. This is fatal to plaintiffs’ claims,” the attorneys write.Plaintiffs claim that an illegal interception is committed each time an email sent to or from a Gmail account is scanned, but the company counters that claim by saying the automated scanning is not only outlined in the Terms of Service agreement, but necessary for the product to function in the way it does.Gmail customers, the company claims, “are contractually bound to Google’s terms. Indeed, they devote much of the Complaint to attacking the disclosures in the TOS and Privacy Policy in an effort to avoid this express contractual consent.”“In short, there is no illegal ‘interception’ here because Plaintiffs’ own allegations confirm that the alleged practices at issue are part of Google’s ordinary course of business,” attorneys write.“In practice, plaintiffs’ theory would prevent ECS providers from providing a host of normal services that Congress could not possibly have intended to criminalize as an illegal interception,’” they continue. “For example, an ECS provider could not allow users to sort their emails using automated filters because any such system would require scanning the contents of the emails being delivered to the user, thus running afoul of plaintiffs’ theory. Nor could an ECS provider provide even basic features like allowing users to search their own emails for particular key terms because doing so would, again, involve the scanning of email content”Google is now asking for the court to reject the plaintiffs’ claims because their interpretation of what constitutes an illegal interception would make it “virtually impossible” for any email company to provide normal services. By saying customers lack no right to privacy, however, Consumer Watchdog is up in arms."Google has finally admitted they don't respect privacy," John M. Simpson, Consumer Watchdog's Privacy Project director, said in a statement "People should take them at their word; if you care about your email correspondents' privacy don't use Gmail.""Google's brief uses a wrong-headed analogy; sending an email is like giving a letter to the Post Office," added Simpson. "I expect the Post Office to deliver the letter based on the address written on the envelope. I don't expect the mail carrier to open my letter and read it. Similarly when I send an email, I expect it to be delivered to the intended recipient with a Gmail account based on the email address; why would I expect its content will be intercepted by Google and read?"News of Google’s motion to dismiss the complaint comes just days after two pay-for-use providers of highly encrypted and seemingly secure email services announced they’d be calling it quits. Vaguely citing a federal investigation, Texas-based Lavabit said on Thursday last week that they’re shutting down its email service, reportedly used by National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden. Hours later, competitor Silent Circle said they’d be doing the same.“I feel like there is a rising tide of surveillance out there, and we need to push back against it,” Silent Circle COO Vic Hyder told RT this week.this week.

DEFENDANT GOOGLE INC.’S MOTION TO DISMISS PLAINTIFFS’ CONSOLIDATED INDIVIDUAL AND CLASS ACTION COMPLAINT

[Dark Wader]

malo bajato, dodusehttp://www.dw.de/sla...pora/a-17011021

Slamanje otporaSuočeni smo s „novim stepenom“ nadzora, a to je direktna infiltracija privatnih računara - napadom američkih vlasti na mrežu za sakrivanje identiteta računara zvanu Tor.Novi stupanj nadzoraMeđutim, sada je i Tor-mreža napadnuta a mestimično i iskidana. NSA je – verovatno po nalogu američke federalne policije FBI – korisnicima Fajerfoksa instalirala u pregledač mali špijunski program. Cilj programa je bio da razbije uslužnu mrežu Frihosting koja je svoje servere stavljala na raspolaganje mnogim anonimnim korisnicima. Među njima su i serveri namenjeni čuvanju poverljivih podataka novinara, naučnika ili takozvanih „zviždača“, a FBI tvrdi da je želela da razbije Frihosting zbog klijenata koji krše zakon – kao što su vlasnici internet prezentacija sa dečjom pornografijom. To je prvi poznat slučaj državnog nadzora potpomognutog tajnim instaliranjem špijunskog programa u opremu građana. Špijuniranje korisnika interneta se našlo na novom stupnj