Land Of The Flea

NSA Taps Directly Into Undersea Fiber-optic Data Cables

"Of course, by tapping directly into the beams of light transferring this data around the globe — apparently with the cooperation of the world’s chief technology companies — the federal government bypasses all legal and constitutional restraints on its already immense power. Remarkably, there does not seem to be a corresponding flight by Americans from the devices or services being monitored by the federal government. As one brick after another is stacked on the ever-growing walls of the 21st-century Panopticon, it appears that nothing will dissuade Americans from growing increasingly reliant on the very tools being used in the construction." Continue reading →

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House protects surveillance program before passing military spending bill

"After fierce debate over the limits of domestic spying, the House on Wednesday voted to protect the federal government's ability to collect phone records and other data related to U.S. citizens who aren't suspected of terrorism. The Obama administration lobbied against Amash's amendment, and members of congressional intelligence committees defended the NSA's actions. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., said it was 'a false narrative that the federal government is taking in the content of American phone calls and emails.' She said there was more information about U.S. citizens in a phone book than in the NSA database." Continue reading →

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2013 Bitcoin Mid-Year Review and Outlook

"The past six months may one day prove to be among the most important in bitcoin’s history. As global events sparked increasing need for frictionless wealth transfers, bitcoin’s popularity ballooned and ignited a conversation that will likely continue to flourish in the years to come. Growth in bitcoin’s value was outpaced only by the incredible interest from entrepreneurs, investors and the press. In this 27-page report we cover the major events from the first half of 2013 and what to look out for in the months ahead." Continue reading →

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The Government’s Perilous Bitcoin Chase

"Nothing can strip the shine off a cool trend as quickly as national security officials sharing how it is poised to become a cutting-edge tool in terrorists’ ongoing death-to-America project. As such, I want to thank David Cohen, the Treasury’s Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, and John Carlin, acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security—distinguished and otherwise delightful members of a panel I moderated at the Aspen Institute’s National Security Forum this past weekend—for casting a sinister shadow over what I had previously assumed to be the harmless if quirky Bitcoin craze." Continue reading →

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Whitfield Diffie (Wikipedia)

"Bailey Whitfield 'Whit' Diffie is an American cryptographer and one of the pioneers of public-key cryptography. In 1975-76, Diffie and Martin Hellman criticized the NBS proposed Data Encryption Standard, largely because its 56-bit key length was too short to prevent Brute-force attack. Subsequent history has shown not only that NSA actively intervened with IBM and NBS to shorten the key size, but also that the short key size enabled exactly the kind of massively parallel key crackers that Hellman and Diffie sketched out. When these were ultimately built outside the classified world, they made it clear that DES was insecure and obsolete." Continue reading →

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Data Encryption Standard – NSA’s involvement in the design (Wikipedia)

"In 1973 NBS solicited private industry for a data encryption standard (DES). The first offerings were disappointing, so NSA began working on its own algorithm. Then Howard Rosenblum, deputy director for research and engineering, discovered that Walter Tuchman of IBM was working on a modification to Lucifer for general use. NSA gave Tuchman a clearance and brought him in ...] NSA worked closely with IBM to strengthen the algorithm against all except brute force attacks and to strengthen S-boxes. Conversely, NSA tried to convince IBM to reduce the length of the key from 64 to 48 bits. Ultimately they compromised on a 56-bit key." Continue reading →

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Data, meet spies: The unfinished state of Web crypto

"Most Internet companies do not use an privacy-protective encryption technique that has existed for over 20 years -- it's called forward secrecy -- that cleverly encodes Web browsing and Web e-mail in a way that frustrates fiber taps by national governments. Lack of adoption by Apple, Twitter, Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL and others is probably due to 'performance concerns and not valuing forward secrecy enough,' says Ivan Ristic, director of engineering at the cloud security firm Qualys. Google, by contrast, adopted it two years ago." Continue reading →

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Feds put heat on Web firms for master encryption keys

"These demands for master encryption keys, which have not been disclosed previously, represent a technological escalation in the clandestine methods that the FBI and the National Security Agency employ when conducting electronic surveillance against Internet users. If the government obtains a company's master encryption key, agents could decrypt the contents of communications intercepted through a wiretap or by invoking the potent surveillance authorities of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Web encryption -- which often appears in a browser with a HTTPS lock icon when enabled -- uses a technique called SSL, or Secure Sockets Layer." Continue reading →

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TSA: Give Us Fingerprints, Web History and You Can Keep Your Shoes On

"In order to participate in the ‘PreCheck’ TSA program, you will need to allow them to reach down into the proverbial pants of your personal life as well. Under PreCheck, you are required to not only present your fingerprints to the TSA in person and pay a fee of $85, but the agency is also looking to gather all forms of your data as well — which reports state includes your web history and online data. With the help of a third party organization, the TSA seeks to ‘pre-screen’ (think pre-crime) individuals based on their activity in order to determine if they are worthy of bypassing the most minimal of security checkpoints." Continue reading →

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Plan To Defund NSA Phone Collection Program Defeated

"A controversial proposal to restrict how the National Security Agency collects telephone records failed to advance by a narrow margin Wednesday, a victory for the Obama administration, which has spent weeks defending the program since media leaks sparked international outrage about the agency’s reach. Lawmakers voted 217 to 205 to defeat the proposal. Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), who as head of the House rarely votes on legislation, voted against the amendment." Continue reading →

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