Government snooping, backdoors and #necessaryhashtags

[ewmayer]

Jimmy Carter sticks to 'snail mail' in missives to world leaders: Saying his emails are likely monitored by intelligence agencies, former President Jimmy Carter is using an old-fashioned method of communication with world leaders these days - the post office.

Of course the USPS photographs and stores the cover (literal version of the 'envelope information') of all letters and packages, too - whether there are any NSA-orchestrated programs to physically open selected mail is a topic of blogosphere debate. There is credible evidence of NSA tampering with in-shipment electronic gear headed to "persons of interest", in order to preinstall applicable products from their wide range of firmware-based spyware. Would not be surprised if snail mail to/from current and former political leaders is similarly targeted for 'deep capture'. That's life in the Land of the Free for ya. Our freedoms are so precious and hard-won that we have to sacrifice them in order to save them, or something.

[LaurV]

What? No scratch pads?

[ewmayer]

White House unveils plan to end NSA's bulk collection of phone data

I'll believe that when they stop work on the huge data center they're building in Utah and raze the site back to the ground whence it sprang.

Also, an in-depth commentary on Naked Capitalism about where this is headed, namely a not-too-distant future of total surveillance, 24/7, in public, at work and "in private", the latter concept being the ultimate casualty. And the biggest driver of this is relentless, mindless consumerism - in other words, we are for the most part doing it to ourselves:

Invasion of the Data Snatchers, Big Data and the Internet of Things Means the Surveillance of Everything

[Batalov]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

I'll believe that when they stop work on the huge data center they're building in Utah and raze the site back to the ground whence it sprang.

What's to stop them? -- that's what they (almost) did to the supercollider, didn't they?
...well, actually they did sell it eventually, and resold it again in 2012

[ewmayer]

From the "we're not making this up" files:

Obama's NSA overhaul may require phone carriers to store more data

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's plan for overhauling the National Security Agency's phone surveillance program could force carriers to collect and store customer data that they are not now legally obliged to keep, according to U.S. officials.

[kladner]

http://readersupportednews.org/opini...paganda-bucket

-by Glenn Greenwald-

This week, the Associated Press exposed a secret program run by the U.S. Agency for International Development to create “a Twitter-like Cuban communications network” run through “secret shell companies” in order to create the false appearance of being a privately owned operation. Unbeknownst to the service’s Cuban users was the fact that “American contractors were gathering their private data in the hope that it might be used for political purposes”–specifically, to manipulate those users in order to foment dissent in Cuba and subvert its government. According to top-secret documents published today by The Intercept, this sort of operation is frequently discussed at western intelligence agencies, which have plotted ways to covertly use social media for ”propaganda,” “deception,” “mass messaging,” and “pushing stories.”

[Nick]

The European Court of Justice today ruled that the EU legislation on mass surveillance contravenes European law.

http://edri.org/european-court-overt...veillance-law/

[kladner]

Originally Posted by Nick

The European Court of Justice today ruled that the EU legislation on mass surveillance contravenes European law.

http://edri.org/european-court-overt...veillance-law/

That is comforting on the surface. Unfortunately, it calls to mind a remark attributed to President Andrew Jackson: "John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it!" (Like many such turns of phrase, it is likely apocryphal.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worcester_v._Georgia

I fear that rulings on what spooks MAY do are quite a distance from the reality of their actions. In any case, how can we know what the secret crews are up to?

[retina]

Originally Posted by kladner

In any case, how can we know what the secret crews are up to?

If we knew that it wouldn't be secret anymore.

[xilman]

Originally Posted by retina

If we knew that it wouldn't be secret anymore.

The crews could well remain secret even if we knew what they were doing. There are many historical examples.

[ewmayer]

Most of you have likely already heard about the Heartbleed OpenSSL vulnerability, but here's a link to Bruce Schneier's piece on it anyway:

Bruce shneier: Heartbleed is a catastrophic bug in OpenSSL

The first question that popped into my head on first hearing the news was "might this bug have something to do with the NSA's long-term efforts to backdoor all web cryptography?" BS says thusly:

At this point, the probability is close to one that every target has had its private keys extracted by multiple intelligence agencies. The real question is whether or not someone deliberately inserted this bug into OpenSSL, and has had two years of unfettered access to everything. My guess is accident, but I have no proof.

I've heard mixed advice on whether one should immediately change passwords to every online site one has ever logged into in the past 13-or-so billion years: Some say yes, others say it might actually be best to stay out-of-site [pardon zee pun] wherever feasible until the dust settles.

Comments from the cryptic and spooky folks appreciated.