military industrial complex

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 →

Continue ReadingThe Government’s Perilous Bitcoin Chase

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 →

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

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 →

Continue ReadingData, meet spies: The unfinished state of Web crypto

Google strengthens Android security with NSA’s SELinux; TPM also coming

"Originally developed by programmers from the National Security Agency, SELinux enforces a much finer-grained series of mandatory access control policies. the other big security enhancement introduced in Android 4.3 is a more robust way to store cryptographic credentials used to access sensitive information and resources. 'With the keychain enhancements, the system-wide keys are bound to a hardware-based root of trust process devices that support this,' said Pau Oliva Fora, senior mobile security engineer at viaForensics. 'The phone needs to have a secure element such as a Trusted Platform Module so that private keys can't be stolen.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGoogle strengthens Android security with NSA’s SELinux; TPM also coming

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 →

Continue ReadingPlan To Defund NSA Phone Collection Program Defeated

Bradley Manning Trial: ‘Aiding the Enemy’ Charge is a Travesty of Justice

"The government’s charge that Manning 'aided and abetted the enemy,' which carries a possible life-sentence in prison, is based on the argument that the information Manning leaked was of interest to Osama bin Laden and other terrorist organizations. But as Glenn Greenwald points out in a recent Guardian column, the prosecution’s theory poses a serious threat to the freedom of the press and turns virtually all leaks and whisteblowing into a form of treason. Since bin Laden claimed to have read and recommended Bob Woodward’s journalism, should Woodward also be locked in solitary confinement and stripped of his clothing?" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBradley Manning Trial: ‘Aiding the Enemy’ Charge is a Travesty of Justice

U.S. General: US military intervention in Syria would create ‘unintended consequences’

"The top US military officer warned senators on Monday that taking military action to stop the bloodshed in Syria was likely to escalate quickly and result in 'unintended consequences', representing the most explicit uniformed opposition to deeper involvement in another war in the Middle East. Dempsey's letter came after McCain announced he would block the general's reappointment to chair the joint chiefs of staff, the most senior position in the US military, until Dempsey provided the Senate with his assessment of the merits of US military action in Syria." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingU.S. General: US military intervention in Syria would create ‘unintended consequences’

Yemeni journalist who reported U.S. drone strike released from jail

"A Yemeni journalist who was kept in prison for years at the apparent request of the Obama administration has been released in the Yemeni capital of Sana’a, according to local reports. Abdulelah Haider Shaye was imprisoned in 2010, after reporting that an attack on a suspected al-Qaida training camp in southern Yemen for which the Yemeni government claimed responsibility had actually been carried out by the United States. Shaye had visited the site and discovered pieces of cruise missiles and cluster bombs not found in Yemen’s arsenal, according to a Jeremy Scahill dispatch in the Nation." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingYemeni journalist who reported U.S. drone strike released from jail

Feinstein, Chambliss object to proposal to defund NSA mass phone surveillance

"The heads of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday voiced their opposition to a proposal that would defund some of the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance programs. 'The FISA business records program has contributed to disrupting numerous terrorist attacks against our nation. It has been reviewed and authorized by all three branches of government and is subject to strict controls,' Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Vice Chairman Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) said in a joint statement." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFeinstein, Chambliss object to proposal to defund NSA mass phone surveillance