Posts Tagged ‘nsa’

The Intercept has published leaked NSA report on Russian hacking of US election

Written By: - Date published: 10:10 am, June 6th, 2017 - 28 comments

From The Intercept: “Russian military intelligence executed a cyberattack on at least one U.S. voting software supplier and sent spear-phishing emails to more than 100 local election officials just days before last November’s presidential election, according to a highly classified intelligence report obtained by The Intercept.”

Hacking Schmacking

Written By: - Date published: 12:59 pm, January 7th, 2017 - 155 comments

In all seriousness. Apparently.

To protect whistleblowers…

Written By: - Date published: 2:14 pm, December 17th, 2016 - 16 comments

One of the claims made by Edward Snowden was that there were no effective channels in the NSA to whistle blow to. This claim appears to have been spectacularly validated thursday with a POGO report that the NSA’s Inspector General, its final whistleblower protector, has been suspended for retaliating against another whistleblower.

NSA bulk collection ruled illegal

Written By: - Date published: 6:32 am, May 8th, 2015 - 15 comments

In the US a federal appeals court has just ruled the NSA’s bulk collection of phone records is illegal.

Key’s credibility and the Snowden leaks

Written By: - Date published: 9:03 am, March 8th, 2015 - 71 comments

The Sunday Star Times has reported on the set up and reach of the Waihopai Spy Base.  Key’s statement that the GCSB does not have the physical capability to conduct mass surveillance appears to be not true.

NRT: The NSA pwns Vodafone

Written By: - Date published: 2:20 pm, December 5th, 2014 - 16 comments

Overnight, The Intercept spilled the beans on AURORAGOLD, the NSA’s programme to hack the world’s cellphone providers. The article included a classified map, which showed their degree of penetration. The interesting bit? New Zealand was on it and at just the right level to indicate Vodafone was the penetrated cell network.

NRT: The GCSB has been using our embassies as spybases

Written By: - Date published: 12:26 pm, October 13th, 2014 - 25 comments

I/S at No Right Turn summarises a post from The Intercept on NSA keywords, and what they illustrate about the involvement of our GCSB.

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: 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.

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

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

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.

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.

Discourage the pantie sniffers

Written By: - Date published: 9:01 pm, October 13th, 2013 - 30 comments

It isn’t that hard to get around the prurient arsehole peekers that populate the NSA and the kiwi puppets – John Key being a prime example. Encrypt, falsify your “metadata”, and send lots of crap purely so they have no idea what to look at. Hell – even the NZ Herald gets it these days as in an anonymously published article in the weekend rag…

Whistleblowers and services to journalism

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, June 10th, 2013 - 57 comments

Two leakers (one a true whistleblower), are in the news right now, both focused on the US-led surveillance society, operating in the interests of corporate power.  And today, in relation to this, 2 journalists show the importance of the fourth estate to democracy. Kim Hill & Glenn Greenwald take a bow.