Snowdon is a dummy

http://boingboing.net/2013/09/11/how-the-feds-asked-microsoft-t.html

As the astonishing news that the NSA spent $250M/year on a sabotage program directed against commercial security systems spreads, more details keep emerging. A long and interesting story on Mashable includes an interview with Peter Biddle, an ex-Microsoft security engineer who worked extensively on BitLocker, a full-disk encryption tool with a good reputation that was called into question by the latest leaks. Biddle (disclosure: a friend of mine) describes how he was approached to add a backdoor to BitLocker, and how he rebuffed various government agencies.

In the case of Microsoft, according to the engineers, the requests came in the course of multiple meetings with the FBI. These kinds of meetings were standard at Microsoft, according to both Biddle and another former Microsoft engineer who worked on the BitLocker team, who wanted to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the matter.

"I had more meetings with more agencies that I can remember or count," said Biddle.

Biddle said these meetings were so frequent, and with so many different agencies, he doesn't specifically remember if it was the FBI that asked for a backdoor. But the anonymous Microsoft engineer we spoke with confirmed that it was, in fact, the FBI.

During a meeting, an agent complained about BitLocker and expressed his frustration.

"****, you guys are giving us the shaft," the agent said, according to Biddle and the Microsoft engineer, who were both present at the meeting. (Though Biddle insisted he didn't remember which agency he spoke with, he said he remembered this particular exchange.)

Biddle wasn't intimidated. "No, we're not giving you the shaft, we're merely commoditizing the shaft," he responded.

Did the FBI Lean On Microsoft for Access to Its Encryption Software? [Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai/Mashable]

(Thanks, Peter!)

(Image: BitLocker Drive Encryption, a Creative Com

Sorry but no one with a brain cell working is going to trust american commerce security software or hardware for anything of important.

Hell, I picked a non US firm to purchase a VPN service from and would never never consider a US commerce close source security program as you must assume that all such have back doors build in them.

Most people are going to realize that if they are not hiding government secrets or hatching terrorist plots, the NSA has no interest in them.

American verses non-American though, no relevance to security whatsoever.

they disregard our laws.

Most people are going to realize that if they are not hiding government secrets or hatching terrorist plots, the NSA has no interest in them.

By Michael Isikoff
NBC News National Investigative Correspondent
National Security Agency employees improperly eavesdropped on the phone calls of girlfriends, boyfriends, husbands, wives and spouses and engaged in other "intentional" abuses of their authority on 12 occasions since 2003, according to a newly released letter by the agency's inspector general.


The agency also has two open investigations into alleged misuse of its eavesdropping authorities and is reviewing a third one for possible investigation, according to a letter by NSA inspector general Dr. George Ellard.
Ellard's letter – in response to an inquiry by GOP Sen. Charles Grassley – was prompted by media reports that NSA employees at times have been caught in what is informally known as "loveint" – collecting intelligence on love interests. But until now, the specific examples and the frequency of such cases have never been disclosed by the NSA.
In one case revealed by Ellard, an NSA employee for five years snooped on the phone calls of nine female foreign nationals "without a valid foreign intelligence purposes." In another, 2011 instance, an NSA employee admitted it was "her practice" to eavesdrop on foreign phone numbers "she obtained in social settings" in order to ensure she was not talking to “shady characters.'' Both employees resigned before any disciplinary action could be taken.
"What's clear about the instances of abuse is that these have nothing to do with terrorism," said Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. "This is about individuals prying into the private lives of the people closest to them. It's an abuse of government data that should not be in the government's hands."
Among other examples cited in Ellard's letter:
In 2011, an NSA employee acknowledged that "out of curiosity" he had tried to listen in on the phone calls of his girlfriend, a foreign national. The agency's system blocked him from doing so, but the employee did retrieve "metadata"-- records of time, date and duration of the girlfriend's phone calls. The subject's actions were referred to the Justice Department, which declined prosecution.
In 2005, the NSA discovered that another NSA employee eavesdropped for a month "without an authorized purpose" on the phone calls of his foreign national girlfriend. The employee was trying to determine if she was "involved" with any foreign officials or engaged in other activities that "might get him in trouble." The employee retired before the investigation into his activities was finished.
In 2004, a NSA employee retrieved data on a foreign telephone number she had discovered on her husband's cell phone. The case was referred to the Justice Department for prosecution, but the employee resigned before any NSA discipline could be imposed. The letter does not address whether there was a prosecution effort.

Most people are going to realize that if they are not hiding government secrets or hatching terrorist plots, the NSA has no interest in them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Edgar_Hoover

He used the FBI to harass political dissenters and activists, to amass secret files on political leaders,[2] and to collect evidence using illegal methods.[3] Hoover consequently amassed a great deal of power and was in a position to intimidate and threaten sitting Presidents.[4]

According to President Harry S. Truman, Hoover transformed the FBI into his private secret police force; Truman stated that "we want no Gestapo or secret police. FBI is tending in that direction. They are dabbling in sex-life scandals and plain blackmail. J. Edgar Hoover would give his right eye to take over, and all congressmen and senators are afraid of him".[5]

Right I should trust every government employee to have all my private information at their whim

after all not all NSA employees thirty thousands of them and many hundreds of thousands contractors are going to be as honorable as Snowdon!!!!!!!!!

oralloy wrote:

American verses non-American though, no relevance to security whatsoever.

Nonsense most governments do not have a NSA type outfit

with a hundred billions dollars a year budget

and who is known to spend many hundreds of millions to get black doors in place in american firms software/hardware.

oralloy wrote:

Most people are going to realize that if they are not hiding government secrets or hatching terrorist plots, the NSA has no interest in them.

That's a flat out lie.

They are vacuuming up all the info they can in direct violation of the us constitution.

I seem to remember that Germany ignored some of our laws they disagreed with.

I wonder how many of them have ties to terror groups that blow up men, women and children just for the hell of it.[quote

Quote:

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The NSA is always going to have the ability to hack into your computers if they want to, and there is nothing that you will ever be able to do to stop them.

Yes they do, at least if they are the sort of country that has a tech industry.

The NSA is always going to have the ability to hack into your computers if they want to, and there is nothing that you will ever be able to do to stop them.

The National Security Agency on Saturday released a statement in answer to questions from a senator about whether it “has spied, or is … currently spying, on members of Congress or other American elected officials”, in which it did not deny collecting communications from legislators of the US Congress to whom it says it is accountable. ...

In its statement, which comes as the NSA gears up for a make-or-break legislative battle over the scope of its surveillance powers, the agency pointed to “privacy protections” which it says it keeps on all Americans' phone records.

The statement read: “NSA’s authorities to collect signals intelligence data include procedures that protect the privacy of US persons. Such protections are built into and cut across the entire process. Members of Congress have the same privacy protections as all US persons. NSA is fully committed to transparency with Congress. Our interaction with Congress has been extensive both before and since the media disclosures began last June.

“We are reviewing Senator Sanders’s letter now, and we will continue to work to ensure that all members of Congress, including Senator Sanders, have information about NSA’s mission, authorities, and programs to fully inform the discharge of their duties.”

Soon after Sanders' letter was published, the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, announced that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (Fisa) Court, the body which exists to provide government oversight of NSA surveillance activities, had renewed the domestic phone records collection order for another 90 days.

On Saturday, the New York Times published a letter from Robert Litt, in which the general counsel for the Office of National Intelligence denied allegations that Clapper lied to Congress in March, when questioned about NSA domestic surveillance.

Last month, two federal judges issued contradictory verdicts on whether such NSA surveillance was constitutional. Judge Richard Leon said it was not constitutional; Judge William Pauley said that it was.

The National Security Agency on Saturday released a statement in answer to questions from a senator about whether it “has spied, or is … currently spying, on members of Congress or other American elected officials”, in which it did not deny collecting communications from legislators of the US Congress to whom it says it is accountable. ...

They may end up taking over our government

The National Security Agency on Saturday released a statement in answer to questions from a senator about whether it “has spied, or is … currently spying, on members of Congress or other American elected officials”, in which it did not deny collecting communications from legislators of the US Congress to whom it says it is accountable. ...

Looks like all the signs of a police state. If it looks and smells like....