More on Crypto AG

One follow-on to the story of Crypto AG being owned by the CIA: this interview with a Washington Post reporter. The whole thing is worth reading or listening to, but I was struck by these two quotes at the end: ...in South America, for instance, many of the governments that were using Crypto...

Carnegie Mellon Says It Was Subpoenaed-And Not Paid-For Research On Breaking Tor

Carnegie Mellon University today implied in a statement that it was served with a subpoena to hand over research related to unmasking the identity of users on the Tor network, and that it was not paid $1 million by the FBI for doing so, as alleged by the Tor Project. The statement, released short...

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 ...

Government Surveillance Could Targeted Automated Updates

SAN FRANCISCO – As more Web-based services are encrypted, privacy advocates are concerned the next wave of aggressive surveillance activity could target automated update services that essentially provide Internet companies root access to machines. Chris Soghoian, principal technologist with the...

The NSA is 'Not Made of Magic'

SAN FRANCISCO–Of the small pool of people who have seen the Snowden documents, few, if any, are as technically savvy and knowledgeable about security and surveillance as Bruce Schneier. And after reading through stacks and stacks of them, Schneier says that yes, the NSA is extremely capable and...

NIST Reviews Crypto Standards Development

The National Institute for Standards and Technology has taken an important step toward repairing what the National Security Agency has allegedly fractured by initiating a review of its cryptographic standards development processes. NIST-sponsored algorithms are at the heart of numerous crypto...

Latest Snowden Leak Explains NSA Subversion of Tor Users

The latest Snowden documents, made public today, suggest the National Security Agency is able to peel back the veil on a small fraction of Tor users at a time, but overall the integrity of the anonymity network remains intact. Tor promises its users a level of anonymity online for their Web...