DIRNSA Fired

In "Secrets and Lies" 2000, I wrote: It is poor civic hygiene to install technologies that could someday facilitate a police state. It's something a bunch of us were saying at the time, in reference to the vast NSA's surveillance capabilities. I have been thinking of that quote a lot as I read ne...

Senate Leaders Plan to Prolong NSA Surveillance Using a Must-Pass Bill

Top senate officials are planning to save the Section 702 surveillance program by attaching it to a crucial piece of legislation. Critics worry a chance to pass privacy reforms will be missed...

Snowden Ten Years Later

In 2013 and 2014, I wrote extensively about new revelations regarding NSA surveillance based on the documents provided by Edward Snowden. But I had a more personal involvement as well. I wrote the essay below in September 2013. The New Yorker agreed to publish it, but the Guardian asked me not to...

New Bill Proposes NSA Surveillance Reforms

A newly-introduced bill is proposing sweeping privacy reforms to a controversial government surveillance program, which has been previously used by the National Security Agency NSA to vacuum up the call records of millions of Americans. The “Safeguarding Americans’ Private Records Act” was...

United States Sues Edward Snowden and You'd be Surprised to Know Why

The United States government today filed a lawsuit against Edward Snowden, a former contractor for the CIA and NSA government agencies who made headlines worldwide in 2013 when he fled the country and leaked top-secret information about NSA's global and domestic surveillance activities. And you...

September 4, 2018 – Morning Cyber Coffee Headlines – “September” Edition

Good morning! Sit with Carbon Black this morning over a cup of coffee or tea and browse a few industry headlines to get the day started. We’ve got just enough information below to get you through that first cup…enjoy! September 4, 2018 - Headlines Carbon Black in the News: Carbon Black builds out...

AT&T Facilitated NSA Surveillance Efforts

Telecommunication giant AT&T facilitated, to a larger degree than any other provider, the National Security Agency’s surveillance reach beyond domestic telephone data collection to email and Internet traffic, companion New York Times and ProPublica articles said on Saturday. It’s probably the...

Rights Groups Call for More Change Two Years After Snowden Revelations Began

It’s been two years now since the first stories about NSA surveillance capabilities began to appear, and the environment has shifted dramatically in that time. Awareness of and resistance to mass surveillance has increased greatly, but the changes to policy and laws that many observers had hoped...

Sunset of Section 215 Means All Eyes on USA FREEDOM Act

The sun may have set at midnight on Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act, putting a temporary halt to the NSA’s bulk collection of phone call metadata, but privacy champions and legal experts point to May 7 as the day the lights dimmed on that facet of the government’s surveillance efforts. On that...

Appeals Court Rules NSA Metadata Collection Not Authorized by Section 215

The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled Thursday that the Patriot Act does not authorize the bulk collection of phone records by the NSA. The ruling undermines the key foundation upon which the federal government’s phone metadata surveillance program is built, Section 215 ...

Encrypt Everything Cannot Be Swayed by FREEDOM Act Rejection

Barring another vote before the end of the calendar year and the current Congressional session, the USA FREEDOM Act is dead in the water until 2015—and maybe even beyond. The Senate last night came up two votes shy of passing the bill, which would have overhauled the NSA’s current dragnet...

WhatsApp Adds Encryption by Default to Android App

WhatsApp, a massively popular messaging app, recently added end-to-end encryption for some mobile clients, a move that brings a high level of security to millions of users. The change is the result of a partnership with Open Whisper Systems, the secure text and mobile OS company started by securi...

Beware of the NSA, If You Are Privacy Conscious and Security Enthusiast

We all are aware of the National Security Agency’s NSA mass surveillance program to track non-Americans. Thanks to former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who provided confidential documents about the widely spread surveillance programs conducted by the government intelligence agency such as NSA an...

House Amendment Limits Funding for NSA Surveillance

The House of Representatives last night overwhelmingly passed an amendment to the Department of Defense Appropriations Act that would cut funding for two programs that grant intelligence agencies access to the private data and communications of U.S. citizens. The amendment shows that Congress is...

Microsoft Calls for NSA Surveillance Reforms

On the anniversary of the first news reports on NSA surveillance, Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith seized the opportunity to draw a line in the sand with the U.S. government. Smith challenged the government curtail surveillance because it’s hurting business and impaling privacy and civil...

Join 'Reset The Net' Global Movement to Shut Off NSA Surveillance

Privacy of Internet users is dead somewhere as the Intelligence agencies can watch our every move, hear our every conversation and read our every email and find out anything related to our personal and private life. Last year, Edward Snowden revealed about the mass surveillance carried out by NSA...

Google Data Shows Encryption Trending In the Right Direction

The past year has seen a tremendous amount of change and turbulence in the security and privacy communities, much of it related to the NSA surveillance revelations. One of the things that has come out of all of the discussions and debates is a greater focus on the importance of encryption,...

As Snowden Anniversary Nears, EFF Urges Users to Ramp Up Privacy and Security

Time flies when you’re having fun. But it apparently also flies when there’s a new story every other day about NSA surveillance. It’s been nearly one year since the first story sourced from the documents Edward Snowden stole from the agency appeared, and with that in mind, the EFF is encouraging...

Al Qaeda Homegrown Encryption Likely Aids NSA Intelligence

Terrorist organization Al Qaeda has reportedly stepped up its development of homegrown encryption technology since the Edward Snowden leaks began last June. The question puzzling some security experts is: Why? “This is hard, and the odds they are doing it correctly are low,” said cryptographer an...

Judiciary Committee Approves Bill Limiting NSA Surveillance

The House Judiciary Committee met yesterday in a hearing to discuss, amend and approve the USA FREEDOM Act, which aims to rein in the National Security Agency’s surveillance powers and place new limits on authority granted under the USA PATRIOT Act and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act...