just the tip of the iceberg ????
NSA revelations of privacy breaches ‘the tip of the iceberg’ – Senate duo
August 17, 2013
Source: London Guardian
Two US senators on the intelligence committee said on Friday that thousands of annual violations by the National Security Agency on its own restrictions were “the tip of the iceberg.”
“The executive branch has now confirmed that the rules, regulations and court-imposed standards for protecting the privacy of Americans’ have been violated thousands of times each year,” said senators Ron Wyden and Mark Udall, two leading critics of bulk surveillance, who responded Friday to a Washington Post story based on documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden.
“We have previously said that the violations of these laws and rules were more serious than had been acknowledged, and we believe Americans should know that this confirmation is just the tip of a larger iceberg.”
On July 31, Wyden, backed by Udall, vaguely warned other senators in a floor speech that the NSA and the director of national intelligence were substantively misleading legislators by describing improperly collected data as a matter of innocent and anodyne human or technical errors.
Full story here.
Two US senators on the intelligence committee said on Friday that thousands of annual violations by the National Security Agency on its own restrictions were “the tip of the iceberg.”
“The executive branch has now confirmed that the rules, regulations and court-imposed standards for protecting the privacy of Americans’ have been violated thousands of times each year,” said senators Ron Wyden and Mark Udall, two leading critics of bulk surveillance, who responded Friday to a Washington Post story based on documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden.
“We have previously said that the violations of these laws and rules were more serious than had been acknowledged, and we believe Americans should know that this confirmation is just the tip of a larger iceberg.”
On July 31, Wyden, backed by Udall, vaguely warned other senators in a floor speech that the NSA and the director of national intelligence were substantively misleading legislators by describing improperly collected data as a matter of innocent and anodyne human or technical errors.
Full story here.
Justin Amash on latest NSA scandal: 'This is what happens when you have secret laws'
August 16, 2013
Source: Washington Examiner
Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., said the latest revelations in the NSA controversy came because "this...
Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., an ardent opponent of the National Security Agency's bulk private-data collection program, said the latest revelations in the controversy came because "this is what happens when you have secret laws."
Amash's comment appeared on his Facebook page and Twitter, condemning the NSA for, as reported by the Washington Post, violating privacy rules thousands of times and "accidentally" targeted Americans, something supporters of the program claim didn't happen.
"This is what happens when you have secret laws, no meaningful oversight, and people in charge who think the Constitution wasn't written for them," Amash wrote. "There are good people working in the intelligence community, but the culture is broken because of the failed leadership of Democrats and Republicans in Washington."
Read More...
Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., an ardent opponent of the National Security Agency's bulk private-data collection program, said the latest revelations in the controversy came because "this is what happens when you have secret laws."
Amash's comment appeared on his Facebook page and Twitter, condemning the NSA for, as reported by the Washington Post, violating privacy rules thousands of times and "accidentally" targeted Americans, something supporters of the program claim didn't happen.
"This is what happens when you have secret laws, no meaningful oversight, and people in charge who think the Constitution wasn't written for them," Amash wrote. "There are good people working in the intelligence community, but the culture is broken because of the failed leadership of Democrats and Republicans in Washington."
Read More...
By Susanne Posel
Occupy Corporatism
IBM has purchased Trusteer, an Israeli software developer corporation that focuses on cybersecurity and fraud prevention.
Headquarters will remain in Tel Aviv; along with research and development facilities where laboratories dedicated to cybersecurity issues that affect cellular phones, malware, fraud and financial criminals.
Brendan Hannigan, general manager of security systems for IBM stated : “Together with IBM’s capabilities in advanced threat detection, analysis and remediation, we will now be able to offer our clients several additional layers of defense against sophisticated hackers.”
Trusteer has become a trusted ally within the last few years as hacker and security attacks have grown.
IBM announced: “Seven of the ten top U.S. banks and nine of the top ten U.K. banks use Trusteer’s solutions to better secure customer accounts against financial fraud and cyber attacks.”
Trusteer is marketed to financial institutions that can pass the cost of the software onto their customers. In this, IBM will be “investing” in Trusteer to the tune of $10 million.
The cost of the takeover is closer to $1 billion.
Mickey Boodaei, co-founder and CEO of Trusteer said: “As attacks become more sophisticated, traditional approaches to securing enterprise and mobile data are no longer valid. Trusteer has helped hundreds of large banks and organizations around the world defeat thousands of sophisticated attacks using innovative solutions that combine intelligence, cloud, mobile, and desktop technologies.”
Coinciding with this acquisition, IBM has just won a contract for cloud-services with the US Department of the Interior (USDI).
For the next decade, IBM will provide the federal government with cloud computing technologies, services and hosting.
Like IBM, Lockheed Martin has also been contracted by the USDI to provide cloud computing. Eight other defense digital tech corporations have been employed by the US government.
Cloud computing connects numerous computers to network in real-time.
Resources are shared between digital stations quicker and more efficiently than can be found on traditional models.
Trusteer has been tasked with producing security solutions for defending digital infrastructure, mobile phones, mobile banking and tablet technologies.
Hannigan is proud that IBM and Trusteer have collaborated through “expertise and superior technology in enterprise endpoint defense and advanced malware prevention will help our clients across all industries address the constantly evolving threats they are facing.”
In 2012, Trusteer was involved in the exposure of a scheme to attack customer bank accounts.
Bank of America (BoA) uses Trusteer’s Rapport software to users and customers to secure online banking and loan applications.
Suntrust Bank also utilizes Rapport because of “increasingly sophisticated malware in the online environment, traditional controls such as antivirus software and firewalls alone may no longer be enough to protect your company from online attacks.”
Other banks that use Rapport include:
• Société Générale
• INGDirect
• HSBC
• NatWest
• RBS
• Standard bank of South Africa
• Ecobank
Trusteer collects and offers protection for confidential data against malware and phishing. The software is compatible with Microsoft Windows, Mozilla, Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple Safari and Mac OS X; as well as being available for free download online.
The post IBM Acquires Cybersecurity Software Corp to Share With US Gov appeared first on Susanne Posel.
Occupy Corporatism
IBM has purchased Trusteer, an Israeli software developer corporation that focuses on cybersecurity and fraud prevention.
Headquarters will remain in Tel Aviv; along with research and development facilities where laboratories dedicated to cybersecurity issues that affect cellular phones, malware, fraud and financial criminals.
Brendan Hannigan, general manager of security systems for IBM stated : “Together with IBM’s capabilities in advanced threat detection, analysis and remediation, we will now be able to offer our clients several additional layers of defense against sophisticated hackers.”
Trusteer has become a trusted ally within the last few years as hacker and security attacks have grown.
IBM announced: “Seven of the ten top U.S. banks and nine of the top ten U.K. banks use Trusteer’s solutions to better secure customer accounts against financial fraud and cyber attacks.”
Trusteer is marketed to financial institutions that can pass the cost of the software onto their customers. In this, IBM will be “investing” in Trusteer to the tune of $10 million.
The cost of the takeover is closer to $1 billion.
Mickey Boodaei, co-founder and CEO of Trusteer said: “As attacks become more sophisticated, traditional approaches to securing enterprise and mobile data are no longer valid. Trusteer has helped hundreds of large banks and organizations around the world defeat thousands of sophisticated attacks using innovative solutions that combine intelligence, cloud, mobile, and desktop technologies.”
Coinciding with this acquisition, IBM has just won a contract for cloud-services with the US Department of the Interior (USDI).
For the next decade, IBM will provide the federal government with cloud computing technologies, services and hosting.
Like IBM, Lockheed Martin has also been contracted by the USDI to provide cloud computing. Eight other defense digital tech corporations have been employed by the US government.
Cloud computing connects numerous computers to network in real-time.
Resources are shared between digital stations quicker and more efficiently than can be found on traditional models.
Trusteer has been tasked with producing security solutions for defending digital infrastructure, mobile phones, mobile banking and tablet technologies.
Hannigan is proud that IBM and Trusteer have collaborated through “expertise and superior technology in enterprise endpoint defense and advanced malware prevention will help our clients across all industries address the constantly evolving threats they are facing.”
In 2012, Trusteer was involved in the exposure of a scheme to attack customer bank accounts.
Bank of America (BoA) uses Trusteer’s Rapport software to users and customers to secure online banking and loan applications.
Suntrust Bank also utilizes Rapport because of “increasingly sophisticated malware in the online environment, traditional controls such as antivirus software and firewalls alone may no longer be enough to protect your company from online attacks.”
Other banks that use Rapport include:
• Société Générale
• INGDirect
• HSBC
• NatWest
• RBS
• Standard bank of South Africa
• Ecobank
Trusteer collects and offers protection for confidential data against malware and phishing. The software is compatible with Microsoft Windows, Mozilla, Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple Safari and Mac OS X; as well as being available for free download online.
The post IBM Acquires Cybersecurity Software Corp to Share With US Gov appeared first on Susanne Posel.
Source: Washington’s Blog
New Revelations Are Breaking Every Day
Revelations about the breathtaking scope of government spying are coming so fast that it’s time for an updated roundup:
- Just weeks after NSA boss Alexander said that a review of NSA spying found not even one violation, the Washington Post published an internal NSA audit showing that the agency has broken its own rules thousands of times each year
- 2 Senators on the intelligence committee said the violations revealed in the Post article were just the “tip of the iceberg”
- Glenn Greenwald notes: “One key to the WashPost story: the reports are internal, NSA audits, which means high likelihood of both under-counting & white-washing”.(Even so, the White House tried to do damage control by retroactively changing on-the-record quotes)
- The government is spying on essentially everything we do. It is not just “metadata” … although that is enough to destroy your privacy
- The government has adopted a secret interpretation of the Patriot Act which allows it to pretend that “everything” is relevant … so it spies on everyone
- NSA whistleblowers say that the NSA collects all of our conversations word-for-word
- It’s not just the NSA … Many other agencies, like the FBI and IRS – concerned only with domesticissues – spy on Americans as well
- The information gained through spying is shared with federal, state and local agencies, and they are using that information to prosecute petty crimes such as drugs and taxes. The agencies are instructed to intentionally “launder” the information gained through spying, i.e. to pretend that they got the information in a more legitimate way … and to hide that from defense attorneys and judges
- Top counter-terror experts say that the government’s mass spying doesn’t keep us safe
- Indeed, they say that mass spying actually hurts U.S. counter-terror efforts.
- They say we can, instead, keep everyone safe without violating the Constitution … more cheaply and efficiently than the current system
- There is no real oversight by Congress, the courts, or the executive branch of government. And seethis and this.
- Indeed, most Congress members have no idea what the NSA is doing. Even staunch defenders of the NSA now say they’ve been kept in the dark
- A Federal judge who was on the secret spying court for 3 years says that it’s a kangaroo court
- Even the current judges on the secret spying court now admit that they’re out of the loop and powerless to exercise real oversight
- A former U.S. president says that the spying program shows that we no longer have a functioning democracy
- The chairs of the 9/11 Commission say that NSA spying has gone way too far
New Revelations Are Breaking Every Day
Revelations about the breathtaking scope of government spying are coming so fast that it’s time for an updated roundup:
- Just weeks after NSA boss Alexander said that a review of NSA spying found not even one violation, the Washington Post published an internal NSA audit showing that the agency has broken its own rules thousands of times each year
- 2 Senators on the intelligence committee said the violations revealed in the Post article were just the “tip of the iceberg”
- Glenn Greenwald notes: “One key to the WashPost story: the reports are internal, NSA audits, which means high likelihood of both under-counting & white-washing”.(Even so, the White House tried to do damage control by retroactively changing on-the-record quotes)
- The government is spying on essentially everything we do. It is not just “metadata” … although that is enough to destroy your privacy
- The government has adopted a secret interpretation of the Patriot Act which allows it to pretend that “everything” is relevant … so it spies on everyone
- NSA whistleblowers say that the NSA collects all of our conversations word-for-word
- It’s not just the NSA … Many other agencies, like the FBI and IRS – concerned only with domesticissues – spy on Americans as well
- The information gained through spying is shared with federal, state and local agencies, and they are using that information to prosecute petty crimes such as drugs and taxes. The agencies are instructed to intentionally “launder” the information gained through spying, i.e. to pretend that they got the information in a more legitimate way … and to hide that from defense attorneys and judges
- Top counter-terror experts say that the government’s mass spying doesn’t keep us safe
- Indeed, they say that mass spying actually hurts U.S. counter-terror efforts.
- They say we can, instead, keep everyone safe without violating the Constitution … more cheaply and efficiently than the current system
- There is no real oversight by Congress, the courts, or the executive branch of government. And seethis and this.
- Indeed, most Congress members have no idea what the NSA is doing. Even staunch defenders of the NSA now say they’ve been kept in the dark
- A Federal judge who was on the secret spying court for 3 years says that it’s a kangaroo court
- Even the current judges on the secret spying court now admit that they’re out of the loop and powerless to exercise real oversight
- A former U.S. president says that the spying program shows that we no longer have a functioning democracy
- The chairs of the 9/11 Commission say that NSA spying has gone way too far
- Top constitutional experts say that Obama and Bush are worse than Nixon … and the Stasi East Germans
- While the government initially claimed that mass surveillance on Americans prevented more than 50 terror attacks, the NSA’s deputy director John Inglis walked that position back all the way to saying that – at the most – one (1) plot might have been disrupted by the bulk phone records collection alone. In other words, the NSA can’t prove that stopped any terror attacks. The government greatly exaggerated an alleged recent terror plot for political purposes (and promoted the fearmongering of serial liars). The argument that recent terror warnings show that NSA spying is necessary is so weak that American counter-terrorism experts have slammed it as “crazy pants”
- Even President Obama admits that you’re much less likely to be killed by terrorists than a car accident. So the government has resorted to lamer and lamer excuses to try to justify mass surveillance
- Experts say that the spying program is illegal, and is exactly the kind of thing which King George imposed on the American colonists … which led to the Revolutionary War
- The top counter-terrorism Czar under Clinton and Bush says that revealing NSA spying programs does not harm national security
- The feds are considering prosecuting the owner of a private email company – who shut down his business rather than turning over records to the NSA – for refusing to fork over the information and keep quiet. This is a little like trying to throw someone in jail because he’s died and is no longer paying taxes
- Whistleblowers on illegal spying have no “legal” way to get the information out
- There are indications that the government isn’t just passively gathering the information … but isactively using it for mischievous purposes
- Spying started before 9/11 … and various excuses have been used to spy on Americans over the years
- Governments and big corporations are doing everything they can to destroy anonymity
- Mass spying creates an easy mark for hackers. Indeed, the Pentagon now sees the collection of “big data” as a “national security threat” … but the NSA is the biggest data collector on the planet, and thus provides a tempting mother lode of information for foreign hackers
- Mass surveillance by the NSA directly harms internet companies, Silicon Valley, California … and theentire U.S. economy. And see these reports from Boingboing and the Guardian
- Some people make a lot of money off of mass spying. But the government isn’t using the spying program to stop the worst types of lawlessness
- Polls show that the public doesn’t believe the NSA … and thinks that the government has gone way too far in the name of terrorism
- While leaker Edward Snowden is treated as a traitor by the fatcats and elites, he is considered a hero by the American public
- Congress members are getting an earful from their constituents about mass surveillance
- The heads of the intelligence services have repeatedly been caught lying about spying. And even liberal publications are starting to say that Obama has been intentionally lying about spying
- Only 11% of Americans trust Obama to actually do anything to rein in spying
- A huge majority of Americans wants the director of intelligence – Clapper – prosecuted for perjury
- While the Obama administration is spying on everyone in the country – it is at the same time the most secretive administration ever (background). That’s despite Obama saying he’s running the most transparent administration ever
- A Congressman noted that – even if a mass surveillance program is started for good purposes – it will inevitably turn into a witch hunt
- Surveillance can be used to frame you if someone in government happens to take a dislike to you
- Government spying has always focused on crushing dissent … not on keeping us safe
- An NSA whistleblower says that the NSA is spying on – and blackmailing – top government officials and military officers (and see this)
- High-level US government officials have warned for 40 years that mass surveillance would lead to tyranny in America
- A top NSA whistleblower says that the only way to fix things is to fire all of the corrupt government officials who let it happen. As the polls above show, the American public is starting to wake up to that fact
No comments:
Post a Comment