Topic: SPY - on January 19, 2017 at 5:44:00 PM CET
CIA reveals new guidelines for collecting data on Americans
The rules may help spies keep pace with the internet era.
There's no question that the US government's approach to handling sensitive data could stand an update to acknowledge the online age, and the CIA is taking a stab at it. The agency has published new procedures that govern how it collects, keeps and shares information on Americans under Executive Order 12333. The guidelines acknowledge that it's much, much easier to collect large volumes of data than when the Order surfaced in the 1980s, and that the nature of the internet requires restrictions that hadn't even been considered before.
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Topic: SPY - on January 11, 2017 at 5:23:00 PM CET
Barbie™ Typewriter
Alphabet substitution cipher The Barbie Typewriter E-118, is a low-cost electronic typewriter, developed as a childeren's toy by Mehano in Slovenia (formerly: Yugoslavia) and sold worldwide by Mattel (US) 1 . The E-118 is the latest model in the product line that started with the E-115. The electronic typewriter was the successor to the earlier purely mechanical Barbie typewriter models. It is little known that all electronic variants have a hidden built-in cryptographic capability that allows secret writing.
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Topic: SPY - on July 8, 2013 at 2:11:00 PM CEST
Deutschland und der Überwachungsskandal: Wir Untertanen
Die Deutschen wollen im Überwachungsskandal endlich klare Worte von Angela Merkel. Aber die Kanzlerin schweigt. Wenn wir uns das gefallen lassen, haben wir aus zwei Diktaturen nichts gelernt. Auch Feigheit vor dem Freund ist Feigheit.
Wann ist Kontrolle totale Kontrolle? Wenn man sich ihr freiwillig unterwirft - und sie dann nicht einmal mehr spürt. In Deutschland sind die USA diesem Ziel schon sehr nahe gekommen. Das zeigt der Umgang weiter Teile der deutschen Öffentlichkeit mit dem Überwachungsskandal. Und das zeigt auch die Reaktion der deutschen Regierung. Herunterspielen und verharmlosen: Unsere verantwortlichen Politiker zucken mit den Achseln und geben dabei mit ihrer eigenen Souveränität unsere Rechte ab. Ihre medialen Büchsenspanner applaudieren. Wenn die Deutschen sich das gefallen lassen, haben sie aus zwei Diktaturen nichts gelernt.
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Topic: SPY - on July 7, 2013 at 7:44:00 PM CEST
Hacking Fiber Optics
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Topic: SPY - on July 7, 2013 at 7:32:00 PM CEST
US Spies Have "Security Agreements" With Foreign Telecoms - Team Telecom
The U.S. government had a problem: Spying in the digital age required access to the fiber-optic cables traversing the world’s oceans, carrying torrents of data at the speed of light. And one of the biggest operators of those cables was being sold to an Asian firm, potentially complicating American surveillance efforts.
In months of private talks, the team of lawyers from the FBI and the departments of Defense, Justice and Homeland Security demanded that the company maintain what amounted to an internal corporate cell of American citizens with government clearances. Among their jobs, documents show, was ensuring that surveillance requests got fulfilled quickly and confidentially.
This “Network Security Agreement,” signed in September 2003 by Global Crossing, became a model for other deals over the past decade as foreign investors increasingly acquired pieces of the world’s telecommunications infrastructure.
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Topic: SPY - on July 7, 2013 at 7:24:00 PM CEST
Was die Deutschen über die Spionage der USA wussten
Der US-Geheimdienst NSA belauscht auf der Jagd nach Terroristen und Spionen die ganze Welt. Deutschland profitiert davon seit Jahrzehnten – beim BND heißt es: "Man fragt nicht nach Methoden."
Amerikas Comedians haben ein neues Lieblingsthema: NSA-Verräter Edward Snowden und die weltweite Schnüffelei der amerikanischen Geheimdienste. Wer dieser Tage die Late-Night-Shows einschaltet, hört Sätze wie: "Wir wollten doch alle einen Präsidenten, der allen Leuten zuhört. Jetzt haben wir einen" oder "Ich habe wirklich aufregende neue Nachrichten für euch. Stellt euch mal vor: Unsere Spionage-Dienste spionieren!"
Es klingt so simpel und flach. Aber tatsächlich ist es in der Welt der Geheimdienste keine bahnbrechende Neuigkeit: Die National Security Agency (NSA) überwacht den globalen Datenverkehr. E-Mails, SMS, Chats, Telefonate – der US-Geheimdienst hört mit, liest mit, archiviert und protokolliert. Alles und jeden, so behauptet Whistleblower Edward Snowden, überall, zu jeder Zeit. "Wer nach dem 11.September 2001 noch daran gezweifelt hat, dass die NSA über diese Möglichkeiten verfügt", sagte jüngst ein ranghoher deutscher Nachrichtendienstler, "der hat entweder geschlafen. Oder war naiv."
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Topic: SPY - on July 4, 2013 at 6:21:00 PM CEST
European firms 'could quit US internet providers over NSA scandal'
European businesses are likely to abandon the services of American internet providers because of the National Security Agency surveillance scandal, the European commission has warned.
Neelie Kroes, the commission vice-president who speaks on digital affairs, predicted that providers of cloud services, which allow users to store and access data on remote servers, could suffer significant loss of business if clients fear the security of their material is under threat.
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Topic: SPY - on July 4, 2013 at 5:41:00 PM CEST
Eavesdropping a fax machine
I was intrigued this morning to see on the front page of the Guardian newspaper a new revelation by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden: a US eavesdropping technique “DROPMIRE implanted on the Cryptofax at the EU embassy [Washington] D.C.”. I was even more intrigued by an image that accompanied the report.
Having done many experiments to eavesdrop on office equipment myself, the noisy image at the bottom third of the picture above looked instantly familiar: it is what you might get from listening with a radio receiver on the compromising emanations of a video signal of a page of text.
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Topic: SPY - on July 4, 2013 at 5:28:00 PM CEST
Ecuador embassy bug unlikely to be work of security services, say experts
Expert in covert techniques says off-the-shelf plug socket device is unlikely to have been planted by state agency
Surveillance experts have described the bugging device that Ecuador says was hidden behind a plug socket in its London embassy as rudimentary and unlikely to have been the work of the British police or security services.
guardian.co.uk Alleged Ecuadorian Embassy Bug Is A Decoy (where are other 3?)
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Topic: SPY - on July 4, 2013 at 1:59:00 PM CEST
Anti-Spionage-Resolution: EU-Parlament verlangt Stopp aller US-Spähprogramme
Das EU-Parlament hat die Spähaktionen des US-Geheimdienstes mit großer Mehrheit scharf verurteilt. Eine Arbeitsgruppe soll die Schnüffelattacken nun überprüfen. Einen Untersuchungsausschuss wird es aber nicht geben.
Straßburg - Das EU-Parlament hat die mutmaßlichen Spionageaktionen des US-Geheimdienstes NSA gegen EU-Vertretungen scharf verurteilt. Die Abgeordneten verlangen einen Stopp sämtlicher Überwachungsprogramme. Die USA sollten den Europäern alle Informationen über das Überwachungsprogramm Prism ohne Umschweife zur Verfügung stellen, heißt es in einer Resolution. Diese wurde am Donnerstag in Straßburg mit großer Mehrheit angenommen.
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Topic: SPY - on July 3, 2013 at 5:18:00 PM CEST
EU Oversight of Security and Spy Agencies
Abstract
This study evaluates the oversight of national security and intelligence agencies by parliaments and specialised non-parliame ntary oversight bodies, with a view to identifying good practices that can inform the European Parliament’s approach to strengthening the oversight of Europol, Eurojust, Frontex and, to a lesser extent, Sitcen. The study puts forward a series of detailed recommendations (including in the field of access to classified information) that are formulated on the basis of in-depth assessments of: (1) the current functions and powers of these four bodies; (2) existing arrangements for the oversight of these bodies by the European Parliament, the Joint Supervisory Bodies and national parliaments; and (3) the legal and institutional frameworks for parliamentary and specialised oversight of security and intelligence agencies in EU Member States and other major democracies.
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Topic: SPY - on July 3, 2013 at 3:20:00 PM CEST
Hidden microphone found at Ecuador's embassy in UK, says foreign minister
Ecuador has found a hidden microphone inside its London embassy where the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is living, and will disclose on Wednesday who controls the device, its foreign minister said.
Ricardo Patino said the microphone was found inside the office of the Ecuadorean ambassador to the UK, Ana Alban, at the time of a visit to the embassy by Patino to meet Assange on 16 June. Assange lives and works in a different room within the embassy.
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