nsa

The laughable innocence of Facebook and Google (and us)

I hear wailing.

I think it's coming from all those who believed, in some sweet corner of their minds, that they were changing the world. You know, for the better.

The generation that believed technology was heralding a new togetherness, a new openness, a new freedom, a new transparency is suddenly confronted by the idea that its idols might be something terrible -- yes, pragmatic.

Suddenly, they hear that Facebook, Google, Yahoo, and all the other immature brand names might have been offering information to the government when the government asked nicely -- which hardly seems something new, given … Read more

No evidence of NSA's 'direct access' to tech companies

Update, June 8 at 2:45 p.m. PT: In response to outcry over PRISM, the U.S. director of national intelligence has released some details. Among other things, he says the government "does not unilaterally obtain information from the servers of U.S. electronic communication service providers" and that PRISM-related activities are conducted "under court supervision." More here.

The National Security Agency has not obtained direct access to the systems of Apple, Google, Facebook, and other major Internet companies, CNET has learned.

Recent reports in The Washington Post and The Guardian claimed a classified program … Read more

Revealed: U.S. compiled secret cybertargets list

Senior U.S. national security officials have created a list of possible cyberattack targets on the orders of President Barack Obama, according to a secret document obtained by the Guardian dating back to last fall.

The report's authors say they obtained "Presidential Policy Directive 20," an 18-page top-secret paper written in October 2012 but never published. The Guardian says that the document details "Offensive Cyber Effects Operations" that can "advance U.S. national objectives" by striking potential targets with a range of effects "from the subtle to the severely damaging."

U.… Read more

Uproar over PRISM government surveillance

CNET Update is reading 1984:

This episode of Update, get a better understanding of the controversy around the National Security Agency's PRISM program. Thanks to broadly defined security laws, the government is gathering intelligence with data from Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, AOL, Facebook, Apple and other big tech companies. The U.K.'s government is also tapped into the PRISM program. President Obama has defended PRISM and NSA gathering phone records from Verizon, AT&T and Sprint.

And that's not the only controversial tech news. Microsoft's Xbox One console will make it complicated to loan a game to a friend, … Read more

What is the NSA's PRISM program? (FAQ)

Editors' note: Updated on June 12 to include new information.

You've been hearing about a top-secret government program reportedly giving the NSA access to digital consumer information held by large tech companies. But what is it, really, and how does it affect you? Reports are changing fast, so we created this FAQ to let you know what is known so far. We will continue to update it as the facts become clear.

What is PRISM? PRISM stands for "Planning Tool for Resource Integration, Synchronization, and Management," and is a "data tool" designed to collect and … Read more

Obama defends secret NSA spy program: Trust us!

President Obama offered a lawyerly defense of the National Security Agency this morning that can be summarized in two words: Trust us.

"The people involved in America's national security they take this work very seriously," he said. "The last thing they'd be doing is taking programs like this to listen to people's phone calls."

The president, whose administration has been buffeted by a series of disclosures in the last two days about warrantless NSA surveillance, was supposed to be speaking to reporters in the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, Calif., about health care. … Read more

Privacy group calls NSA Verizon surveillance illegal

The Electronic Privacy Information Center Friday asked Congress to begin a series of oversight hearings on whether the National Security Agency's telephone surveillance scheme was legal.

A letter (PDF) from the group says a secret court "went beyond its legal authority when it sanctioned a program of domestic surveillance unrelated to the collection of foreign intelligence."

The disclosure of the court order, which The Guardian newspaper did late Wednesday, has roiled Washington, D.C. officialdom -- but most of the debate has centered on the political fallout, not whether the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court order was legal … Read more

Welcome to the era of Total Information Awareness and ain't it grand?

So what did you expect?

It's been more than 24 hours since the enterprising Glenn Greenwald revealed that the National Security Agency has been gathering the phone records of millions of Verizon customers. The idea is to match calls against a larger database of numbers used by suspected jihadists. After turning up relevant calling patterns, the NSA could then uncover the identities of the callers. But the Verizon-NSA story was not a one-off.

The news was followed by another revelation about the NSA on Thursday -- this one disclosing that the agency has been accessing confidential user data held … Read more

NSA has backdoor access to Internet companies' databases

Update, June 7, 2013: The National Security Agency has not obtained direct access to the companies' systems, contrary to earlier claims, CNET is reporting.

A top-secret surveillance program gives the National Security Agency surreptitious access to customer information held by Microsoft, Yahoo, Apple, Google, Facebook, and other Internet companies, according to a pair of new reports.

The program, code-named PRISM, reportedly allows NSA analysts to peruse exabytes of confidential user data held by Silicon Valley firms by typing in search terms. PRISM reports have been used in 1,477 items in President Obama's daily briefing last year, according to … Read more

White House defends snooping of Verizon phone records

The White House is defending the decision to collect the telephone records of U.S. citizens by labeling it an anti-terrorist measure.

The move by the National Security Agency to gather the phone records of Verizon customers was revealed on Wednesday by U.K. newspaper The Guardian. A court's top-secret order forced Verizon to hand over information about domestic and overseas calls "on an ongoing daily basis."

The court order, which can be seen on The Guardian's Web site, forces Verizon to release all call details or "telephony metadata" created by the carrier for … Read more