Spying

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GCSB, privacy & Facebook messaging

Written By: - Date published: 2:42 pm, August 15th, 2014 - 7 comments

How private are communications on social media platforms such as Facebook?  It is claimed that the GCSB law’s definition of “privacy” leaves a loophole for warrantless surveillance of messaging by Kiwis on platforms like Facebook.

Polity: Dirty politics: My 2c

Written By: - Date published: 7:48 am, August 14th, 2014 - 104 comments

John Key - spy vs lie

The use of clandestine SIS files as a weapon of partisan politics is needs to be investigated. John Key or his office discovered classified SIS files that were embarrassing to Phil Goff, got them declassified, then immediately told a right-wing blogger to seek those same newly-declassified files under the OIA, all as a means of smearing a political opponent.

Bracing for the book

Written By: - Date published: 10:40 am, August 13th, 2014 - 104 comments

Nicky Hager has certainly got the attention of political circles in NZ, by announcing his (untitled) book launch today at 5.15pm. J[update: 3 news Livestream of book launch] Update: Title “Dirty Politics” – on attack politics – implicates John key & Slater]

Hager, fear & the surveillance state

Written By: - Date published: 12:55 pm, August 12th, 2014 - 82 comments

Nicky Hager’s latest book will be unveiled tomorrow. I look at his research interests, & his approach to investigative journalism; plus Hager’s speech on the GCSB Bill, & opposition party policies on state surveillance services.

Spread the word: enrol to vote

Written By: - Date published: 11:09 am, August 4th, 2014 - 15 comments

Live News is reporting that 40,000 people have been removed from the electoral roll because they have moved address. Their enrolment update packs were returned to sender with the message: “gone no address”.

Imperator Fish: Read the law

Written By: - Date published: 1:28 pm, July 18th, 2014 - 6 comments

Imperator Fish discovers that the official legal website for law in NZ has been hacked. The law that the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) used to look at complaints about the interception of communications for Kim DotCom, political parties, and anyone that the police deem as being suspicious was obviously incomplete. So the IPCA used some invisible law in their ruling. Who cares what the real law is anyway?

NRT: GCHQ’s bag of dirty tricks

Written By: - Date published: 11:48 am, July 16th, 2014 - 11 comments

John Key - spy vs lie

The UK intelligence agency GCHQ has developed sophisticated tools to manipulate online polls, spam targets with SMS messages, track people by impersonating spammers and monitor social media postings, according to newly-published documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

NRT: Dysfunctional

Written By: - Date published: 5:48 pm, July 2nd, 2014 - 6 comments

In short, a report on our intelligence services says that they don’t know what they’re doing, they don’t know why they’re doing it, and they’re not doing it well. NZSIS can’t do its core job – security vetting – in a timely fashion, GCSB can’t even count, and they hate each other. Plus they’ve got poor financial management practices and no idea of how much stuff they own to boot. And then they wonder at the level of public hostility?

NRT: Evidence: The NSA is funding the GCSB

Written By: - Date published: 3:02 pm, June 26th, 2014 - 12 comments

Last week, The Intercept published details on the NSA’s programs with partners to tap international communications cables. Most of the article focused on a program which seems to involve Denmark and Germany, with each helping the NSA to spy on the other. But buried in one of the background documents – the US “black budget” for Foreign Partner Access Project – was this titbit. It turns out that second parties in the five eyes program like the GCSB are funded from the USA. So, “our” spies take foreign money to work for a foreign power.

John Key: a tale of two ‘truths’

Written By: - Date published: 9:08 am, June 23rd, 2014 - 34 comments

John Key claimed he didn’t know about the big shift in the US-NZ surveillance relationship in 2009.  Now he claims he always likes to be fully briefed on intelligence matters. Robert David Steele points the way from  such anti-democratic governance & misinformation, to an open source everything revolution.

Spy law changes & telcos exposé

Written By: - Date published: 9:28 am, June 7th, 2014 - 13 comments

Vodafone has made public the extent of the use of spying via their systems, done by state agencies in several countries including NZ.  NZ state agencies have revealed the amount of warrants issued prior to the passing of the GCSB and TICS laws late last year.

Digital speed cameras & mass surveillance

Written By: - Date published: 12:49 pm, June 6th, 2014 - 30 comments

The main NZ news outlets are reporting on the new digital speed cameras about to be progressively installed around the country.  They fail to report on the potential of the cameras to be used for mass surveillance.

Spying on the left: 20th century “dirt files”

Written By: - Date published: 9:43 pm, June 1st, 2014 - 56 comments

Secret files have been released, that document the spying of Labour/left politicians in the early-to-mid 20th century: Savage, Fraser, Nash, Sutch, Sir Dove Meyer Robinson.  The NZ establishment has a long history of treating the left as a threat. [Update: “Dunne over” by spy review]

Key-Fletcher nexus: anti-democratic ‘Intelligence communities’

Written By: - Date published: 11:36 am, May 23rd, 2014 - 47 comments

Campbell Live pointed to a massive, integrated shift in NZ governance under John Key’s watch. This enhances the power of international trade and commerce, incorporating the GCSB the US, & 5 Eyes . At the centre of this shift, is the murky relationship between John Key & Ian Fletcher.

The smoke & mirrors of the surveillance-military-economic-complex

Written By: - Date published: 2:22 pm, May 21st, 2014 - 29 comments

There are a range of issues, which are part of a GCSB-intelligence-surveillance-military-complex. Some significant elements seem to be posing as diversions from other parts of the complex, and the way all parts hang together. What will he offer Obama to advance NZ’s position in the TPPA?

Campbell Live: Fletcher, Key, Clapper et al

Written By: - Date published: 7:23 pm, May 20th, 2014 - 208 comments

Campbell Live broadcast a special on the GCSB.  It is presented information never before made public. Campbell pointed to how a major shift in NZ and 5 Eyes’ approach to intelligence. Whose interest is the GCSB operating in?  Why has John Key mislead us, or at least, fudged the details? Updated.

Marama Davidson: candidate for Tāmaki Makaurau

Written By: - Date published: 10:11 am, May 17th, 2014 - 40 comments

Marama Davidson, is on the Green Party list & is a candidate for the Tāmaki Makaurau seat.  Davidson is a really promising up-coming politician.  She is committed to working for people, communities, the environment, democratic process, & strongly supports wahine, Māori & young people.

“Collect it all”, “exploit it all”: 5 Eyes economic surveillance

Written By: - Date published: 9:10 pm, May 15th, 2014 - 54 comments

Glenn Greenwald, interviewed on Democracy Now, outlines the extent of the NSA-led 5 Eyes surveillance systems. It is a leap from sci fi into our daily lives. Economic surveillance dominates.  John Key & Ian Fletcher have some questions to answer – have they misled us? [Update: documents link]

From slum-house to mega-man: Mana-TIP connections

Written By: - Date published: 1:17 pm, April 12th, 2014 - 405 comments

There’s a lot of media attention on the negotiations between Mana & The Internet Party (TIP).  Mana aims to link with some other parties. Some high profile people are scheduled to speak to Mana.  Is Dotcom’s focus on his poor childhood genuine or a PR strategy? [Update#2: Sunday, NZ Herald – green light for negotiations]

NRT: Blowback

Written By: - Date published: 6:56 pm, March 31st, 2014 - 6 comments

“The vast scale of online surveillance revealed by Edward Snowden is changing how businesses store commercially sensitive data…”  “A survey of 1,000 business leaders from around the world has found that many are questioning their reliance on “cloud computing” in favour of more secure forms of data storage as the whistleblower’s revelations continue to reverberate.”

NRT: A global cyberwar against everyone

Written By: - Date published: 11:31 am, March 14th, 2014 - 14 comments

The latest NSALeak: the NSA is deliberately spreading malware on a massive scale to spy on everyone. This isn’t the sort of targeted operation they aimed at Belgacom – its effectively a global cyberwar against everyone. They infected 100,000 computers already, and they plan to infect millions – well beyond any possible number needed strictly for “national security”. Why? So they can pwn you

Stand up for fairness in & for NZ – TPPA, March 29

Written By: - Date published: 11:02 am, March 13th, 2014 - 6 comments

International, cronyist, corporate capitalism skews democratic processes in NZ, making it harder for the majority of battling Kiwis to get a fair go – harder to ensure all New Zealanders live in a society that works for them. The TPPA is a power-play between the US and other powerful countries.  There’s nothing in it for NZ. National Day of action March 29th, 2014.

Five Eyes, One Network

Written By: - Date published: 12:32 pm, March 12th, 2014 - 60 comments

Edward Snowden revelations indicate that the US NSA pressured the NZ government to make last year’s hasty changes to the GCSB and TICS laws, to enable mass surveillance.  John Key sometimes denies he knows of visits to NZ by the NSA’s Gen Keith Alexander – but Key would have to approve the visits.

NRT: Did the NSA write John Key’s spy bill?

Written By: - Date published: 1:20 pm, March 11th, 2014 - 16 comments

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden gave evidence to the European Parliament last week about the NSA and mass-surveillance. The most interesting revelation? The NSA’s use of lawyers to subvert other countries limits on surveillance – including our own. So what did GCSB receive “legal guidance” on? What about the careful loopholes in the new Act

The surveillance state online

Written By: - Date published: 2:06 pm, February 25th, 2014 - 9 comments

The leaks by Edward Snowden show many ways state surveillance agencies can workaround the legal requirements placed on them.  Selwyn Manning explained about the “Two Hop” surveillance of online targets.  On Intercept Glenn Greenwald explains the information about the use of “online covert operations”. [Update Andrea Vance on NZ spy tactics]

NRT: So much for Parliamentary oversight

Written By: - Date published: 1:23 pm, February 24th, 2014 - 13 comments

When Parliament in its select committee oversight role asks the GCSB about whether it is obeying the Public Finance Act, or whether it has formal NSA moles in its organisation, then suddenly its an “operational matter” which they can’t answer. The natural conclusion: they do and there are – because if either allegation was false, they’d just deny it. Looks like John Key’s assurances about greater parliamentary oversight over the GCSB are a lie.

Plausible deniability: Smoke & mirrors

Written By: - Date published: 12:56 pm, February 17th, 2014 - 79 comments

It’s puzzling why John Key diverted attention from who spied on Winston Peters, by implicating Cameron Slater.  Following revelations about the 5 Eyes spying capabilities, & illegal surveillance of Kim Dotcom, there is much at stake for Key. Recapping some significant details in the surveillance saga.

Dotcom snoopers: The “dirty, disgusting, despicable game”

Written By: - Date published: 4:19 pm, February 14th, 2014 - 73 comments

So, the PM is hinting that his tips about Winston Peters visiting Kim Dotcom 3 times, came from Cameron Slater.  But then, who was Slater’s informant? Key admits to on-going contact with Slater. [Update: transcript of John Key stand up vid, Stuff – Update 2: transcript edited; 3 News]

5 Eyes’ cyberwarfare: Snowden

Written By: - Date published: 7:55 am, February 9th, 2014 - 60 comments

Leaked by Edward Snowden, a GCHQ slideshow for a secret spy conference.  It outlines methods of cyber warfare and propaganda circulation.   Mainly aimed at non-5 Eyes’ countries, the methods include infiltrating blogs, DOS attacks, propaganda via social media & manipulating journalists.

Nicky Hager on Surveillance and Privacy in the Snowden Era

Written By: - Date published: 10:18 am, January 30th, 2014 - 30 comments

If you are (a-hem) free today, then you might want to head down to Otago University campus for a presentation by Nicky Hager.

update – attendance  is free

NRT: The NSA spies on its own government

Written By: - Date published: 11:11 am, January 8th, 2014 - 51 comments

Since Edward Snowden leaked proof of widespread NSA spying on US citizens, people have been wondering who exactly they’re spying on. Are they spying on their own government? Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders wanted to know, so he asked them directly. The response was not reassuring.

Perhaps the same question should be put to the GCSB? After all its oversight seems even more incompetent and incestuous than that of the NSA.