Is Yahoo Collaborating With US Intelligence Agencies

It was revealed yesterday that Yahoo has been scanning people’s email for the federal government. Yahoo Inc last year secretly built a custom software program to search all of its customers’ incoming emails for specific information provided by U.S. intelligence officials, according to people familiar with the matter. The company complied with a classified U.S. …

NSA, GCHQ reportedly reverse engineered anti-virus security companies since 2008

Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor and whistleblower, has leaked documents that claim the US National Security Agency (NSA) and UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) have actively reverse engineered security and anti-virus software to obtain intelligence, according to a report by The Intercept. The documents obtained reportedly highlight the Russian software security firm, Kaspersky Lab, …

Appeals Court Rules that NSA Collection Of Phone Data Is Illegal

A federal appeals court ruled on Thursday that the National Security Agency’s routine mass collection of Americans’ phone records and metadata is unlawful. The three judges ruled that the NSA’s use of phone records “exceeds the scope of what Congress has authorized” under the Patriot Act. The Patriot Act was initially intended as a counterterrorism …

The Digital Arms Race: NSA Preps America for Future Battle

By Jacob Appelbaum, Aaron Gibson, Claudio Guarnieri, Andy Müller-Maguhn, Laura Poitras, Marcel Rosenbach, Leif Ryge, Hilmar Schmundt and Michael Sontheimer Normally, internship applicants need to have polished resumes, with volunteer work on social projects considered a plus. But at Politerain, the job posting calls for candidates with significantly different skill sets. We are, the ad …

CISCO to Obama, Stop NSA from hacking my equipment

(Reuters) – Cisco Systems Inc’s chief executive officer has written a letter to President Barack Obama urging him to curtail government surveillance after evidence circulated showing the National Security Agency had intercepted Cisco equipment, a company spokesman said on Sunday. In a letter dated May 15, John Chambers, chief executive officer and chairman of the …

Judge Richard J. Leon rules NSA phone call records likely violates the Constitution

WASHINGTON — A federal district judge ruled on Monday that the National Security Agency program that is systematically keeping records of all Americans’ phone calls most likely violates the Constitution, describing its technology as “almost Orwellian” and suggesting that James Madison would be “aghast” to learn that the government was encroaching on liberty in such …

The NSA and the End of the U.S. Empire

In this column, Johan Galtung, director of the TRANSCEND Peace University and author of 50 Years – 100 Peace and Conflict Perspectives (www.transcend.org/tup), writes about the U.S. empire’s spying, and other debacles. WASHINGTON, Nov 14 2013 (Columnist Service) – The linchpin of an empire is the link between two elites, one in the imperial centre, …

Surveillance a major concern at conclusion of UN-backed Bali IGF forum

While reaffirming the need to strengthen the multi-stakeholder approach to Internet governance, the United Nations-backed forum on the issue, known as the IGF, concluded today in Bali, Indonesia with an acknowledgement that surveillance is the major emerging issue of the year. Over four days, the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), set up to support Secretary-General Ban …