NSA Director Alexander Denies Spying on Europeans

Intelligence officials appearing before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on Tuesday denied collecting the phone records of citizens in France, Spain and Italy, as recently reported by media outlets in those countries. “The assertions made by Le Monde of France, El Mundo of Spa...

Obama Administration to Review NSA Capabilities

President Barack Obama has initiated a review of the procedures and methods that the NSA uses to collect intelligence at home and overseas to ensure that the agency isn’t overstepping its bounds in phone and Internet data collection. The review comes at a time when Congress is set to consider...

FISC Court renews the Permission to collect Telephony Metadata again

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has once again has renewed the permission to the U.S. government for a controversial program to collect the telephony metadata from American phone companies. The News that the NSA collects bulk phone call metadata including phone numbers, call times and...

FISC Court renews the Permission to collect Telephony Metadata again

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has once again has renewed the permission to the U.S. government for a controversial program to collect the telephony metadata from American phone companies. The News that the NSA collects bulk phone call metadata including phone numbers, call times and...

Law Enforcement Requests Report: No Skype Data Turned Over

Microsoft’s report on compliance with law enforcement requests for data demonstrates a status quo for the software giant from the last reporting period. While the number of requests from law enforcement dropped worldwide in the first six months of 2013, Microsoft complied with 79 percent of...

NSA Trying to Change the Surveillance Narrative

When things go badly in Washington, D.C., when a scandal breaks or damaging leaks begin to surface, there is an established and well-worn playbook that politicians and executives can turn to for solace. There’s a page for every conceivable situation, and it’s that playbook that the National...

Alexander: 'FISA is the Key to Connecting the Dots'

WASHINGTON–Faced with trying to accomplish its mission in an environment that suddenly has become quite hostile and inquisitive about its methods, the National Security Agency is becoming more and more public about the challenges that lie ahead and how the agency plans to address them. One of the...

LinkedIn Asks for Transparency on National Security Letters

LinkedIn on Tuesday joined the fray of Internet companies requesting permission from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to publish data on the number of National Security Letters it receives. Unlike Google, Microsoft and others that have petitioned the FISA court to lift its ban on the...

NSA Director Alexander Defends Surveillance at Black Hat

LAS VEGAS –NSA director Gen. Keith Alexander’s keynote today at Black Hat USA 2013 was a tense confessional, an hour-long emotional and sometimes angry ride that shed some new insight into the spy agency’s two notorious data collection programs, inspired moments of loud applause in support of the...

House Rejects Amendment to Sever NSA Data Collection Funding

By a narrow dozen votes, the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday failed to pass an amendment to the Department of Defense Appropriations Act of 2014 that would have severed funding for the NSA’s phone record surveillance program turned out by Edward Snowden. The amendment, put forth by Rep...

Appropriations Amendment Threatens to Cut Funding for NSA Collection Program

A small group of Congressmen is trying to cut off the funding for the NSA’s widespread collection of phone and Internet records under the “business records” collection provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The provision in FISA that enables law enforcement agencies to get access...

FISA Court renews NSA surveillance programs exposed by Snowden

The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court FISA gave the green light to the Obama administration by renewing the government's authority Friday to continue the collection of millions of Americans' telephone records. The order by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has been in place...

FISA Court renews NSA surveillance programs exposed by Snowden

The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court FISA gave the green light to the Obama administration by renewing the government's authority Friday to continue the collection of millions of Americans' telephone records. The order by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has been in place...

Google, Microsoft Seek Help in Lifting FISA Gag Order

Google and Microsoft have locked arms with a number of civil liberties advocates in filing a brief with the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court hoping to lift a gag order preventing the two tech giants from releasing information on their role in the NSA’s surveillance activities. To...

FAQ: The NSA Metadata and PRISM Programs

The details of extensive government surveillance of U.S. citizens through collection of cell phone metadata, and email and Internet activities through the PRISM program has raised a lot of questions and caused quite a bit of confusion about what’s actually happening. To help users sort through th...

Stellar Wind Surveillance program under Obama administration

According to secret documents obtained by the Guardian, Obama administration permitted the National Security Agency to surveillance the Emails and Internet metadata of all Americans. This secret warrant less surveillance program, collectively known by the NSA code name Stellar Wind, was launched ...

Stellar Wind Surveillance program under Obama administration

According to secret documents obtained by the Guardian, Obama administration permitted the National Security Agency to surveillance the Emails and Internet metadata of all Americans. This secret warrant less surveillance program, collectively known by the NSA code name Stellar Wind, was launched ...

Handling of Encryption, Tor Exposed in Leaked NSA Documents

New top-secret NSA documents released by the Guardian UK newspaper reveal that the United States’ top spy agency can retain encrypted communications for as long as it takes analysts to decrypt the secret messages—even if they’re collected by chance and without a warrant. In addition, the document...

Google Asks FISA Court to Allow it to Publish Data on Government Requests

Saying that inaccurate media reports about the PRISM program have damaged the company’s reputation, Google has asked the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for permission to publish the number of requests the company gets for user data under various parts of the Foreign Intelligence...

Officials Call NSA PRISM Leaks 'Egregious', Say Program Has Foiled Many Terror Plots

Speaking before the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, senior intelligence and law enforcement officials said that the FISA-authorized collection of telephone records and other data revealed by Edward Snowden’s leaks has prevented more than 50 terror attacks against the United States since...