Topic: SECURITY - on August 30, 2013 at 1:25:00 PM CEST
Das Budget der US-Ausspäher
Neue Enthüllungen des NSA-Informanten Edward Snowden offenbaren die finanzielle Ausstattung der US-Geheimdienste. Die "Washington Post" zeigt, welche Gelder NSA, CIA und Co. zur Verfügung stehen - und wo die Späher selbst ihre Schwachstellen sehen.
Washington - Die meisten Informationen über die Finanzen ihrer Geheimdienste sind der US-Öffentlichkeit unbekannt. Doch jetzt bietet Material des Informanten Edward Snowden einen bislang ungekannten Einblick in die Ausstattung der Ausspäher. Demnach stellt die US-Regierung ihren Diensten in diesem Jahr voraussichtlich 52,6 Milliarden Dollar zur Verfügung, umgerechnet 39,7 Milliarden Euro.
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Topic: SECURITY - on August 30, 2013 at 1:24:00 PM CEST
U.S. spy network’s successes, failures and objectives detailed in ‘black budget’ summary
U.S. spy agencies have built an intelligence-gathering colossus since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, but remain unable to provide critical information to the president on a range of national security threats, according to the government’s top-secret budget.
The $52.6 billion “black budget” for fiscal 2013, obtained by The Washington Post from former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, maps a bureaucratic and operational landscape that has never been subject to public scrutiny. Although the government has annually released its overall level of intelligence spending since 2007, it has not divulged how it uses the money or how it performs against the goals set by the president and Congress.
washingtonpost.com US Spy Budget FY2013 Vol 1 [pdf] US Spy Budget FY2013 Vol 4 [pdf] US Spy Budget FY2013 Vol 12 [pdf]
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Topic: SECURITY - on August 29, 2013 at 4:28:00 PM CEST
Anonymes Surfen: Nutzung des Tor-Netzwerks verdoppelt sich
Das Anonymisierungsnetzwerk Tor konnte in den letzten Wochen eine sprunghafte Zunahme seiner Nutzerzahlen vermelden. Wie statistische Auswertungen zeigen, bewegte sich die Zahl der Internet-Surfer, die weltweit täglich auf das Netzwerk zugriffen, dieses Jahr bisher bei 500.000. Im August kam es zu einer deutlichen Steigerung: Mit den über 1,2 Millionen täglichen Zugriffen am Mittwoch hat sich die Nutzerzahl mehr als verdoppelt. Der aktuelle Wert markiert ein Allzeithoch, das auch die bisherigen Spitzenwerte um den Jahreswechsel 2011/2012 übertrifft.
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Topic: SECURITY - on August 29, 2013 at 4:18:00 PM CEST
Tor Usage More Than Doubles In August
The privacy-enhancing network is known for providing an anonymous browsing experience through the use of a series of encrypted relays, and has had as many as 500k users throughout this year so far. But if we check the latest statistics available through Tor Metrics Portal there has been a whopping 100 percent increase in the number of Tor clients and as many as 1,200,000 users are connecting to the network. The previous peak for the network was in January 2012, when it saw as many as 950,000 users.
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Topic: SECURITY - on August 29, 2013 at 2:20:00 PM CEST
CryptoParty
The CryptoParty Handbook tries to provide a comprehensive guide to the various topics that might come up while investigating the realms of computer and internet security and is designed to be a practical guide during Cryptoparties. Read the Handbook online.
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Topic: SECURITY - on August 29, 2013 at 2:08:00 PM CEST
Bitcoin Perfectly Anonymous — Until You Spend It
One of the great attractions of Bitcoin as a currency is that it's completely secure and anonymous. But according to researchers (PDF) from UC San Diego and George Mason University, that anonymity starts to vanish the minute you exchange bitcoin for real-world items or conventional currencies. The researchers tracked transactions across the Bitcoin ecosystem and found points where it would be easy for a government with subpeona power to find the identity of a Bitcoin user. They also concluded that the currency wasn't especially attractive for money-laundering purposes
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Topic: SECURITY - on August 29, 2013 at 2:07:00 PM CEST
Sealands Data-Haven is back
Erinnert Ihr Euch an HavenCo, die einen sprichwörtlich sicheren Hafen für Daten eröffneten, auf HM Fort Roughs, einer dieser Maunsell Sea Forts, diesen Festungen in der Nordsee aus dem zweiten Weltkrieg? Bilder von den Dingern geistern immer mal wieder durchs Netz. Das HM Fort Roughs heisst auch Sealand und hat eine bewegte Geschichte voller Piratenradio, wurde als eigener (nictht anerkannter) Staat ausgerufen und eine eigene Verfassung, regiert wird Sealand von der Familie Bates und da hatten die dann sowas wie einen Vorläufer eines Hochsicherheits-Cloud-Service angeboten, der 2008 unter mysteriösen Umständen abgeschaltet wurde.
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Topic: SECURITY - on August 28, 2013 at 4:05:00 PM CEST
Tempora: Neue Snowden-Dokumente nennen weitere von Großbritannien angezapften Glasfaser-Kabel, auch Deutsche
Mindestens vier der vom britischen Geheimdienst angezapften Glasfaser-Kabel geben ihnen Zugriff auf weite Teile des deutschen Internet-Verkehrs. Das berichten NDR und Süddeutsche unter Berufung auf Dokumente von Edward Snowden. Die Deutsche Telekom als Mitbetreiber gibt sich unwissend, hält sich aber immer an die geltenden Landesgesetze.
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Topic: SECURITY - on August 28, 2013 at 3:54:00 PM CEST
The Deeper Meaning Of Miranda's Detention And The Destruction Of The Guardian's Hard Drives
As many have already observed, the detention of David Miranda comes across as an act of blatant intimidation, as does the farcical destruction of the Guardian's hard drives. But something doesn't ring true about these episodes: spooks may be cynical and ruthless, but they are not generally clueless idiots.
They would have guessed that Miranda would not possess the keys for any encrypted files that he was carrying, so seizing his equipment simply left them with a bunch of ones and zeroes that they were unable to read (unless strong encryption has been broken and we don't yet know about it).
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Topic: SECURITY - on August 28, 2013 at 3:52:00 PM CEST
Amazon alters strategy to win landmark CIA contract
Winning a huge CIA deal was a coming-of-age moment for Amazon Web Services, the kind of contract that serves as a proof point it can provide mission-critical computing. Now it’s fighting to keep that business.
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Topic: SECURITY - on August 27, 2013 at 5:18:00 PM CEST
Open Secret About Google’s Surveillance Case No Longer Secret
The Justice Department recently won a court battle to keep an Internet company from talking about federal demands for user data, arguing that even disclosing the company’s name would damage national security.
But then, after months of arguments, the department appears to have been foiled by its own redaction process, which left the name “Google” on one page that was posted Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
The case and GoogleGOOG -1.18%’s role in it underscore a tension between some Silicon Valley companies and the government over national security surveillance and the secrecy surrounding it.
Google has been pushing back against data-gathering tools called national security letters in two federal courts since this spring.
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Topic: SECURITY - on August 27, 2013 at 3:51:00 PM CEST
Former Wikileaks ISP Nominates Edward Snowden for Nobel Peace Prize
The Swedish internet service provider that once hosted the machines behind Wikileaks is nominating NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Bahnhof, a builder of futuristic-looking data centers based in Stockholm, will make the purely symbolic nomination in its latest quarterly financial report, set to be released when European financial markets open on Tuesday.
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