Cybersecurity Bill is a Surveillance Bill by Another Name

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)
credit: Talk Radio News Service/Flickr

By Ron Wyden

U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore. issued the following statement after voting against the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act during a Senate Intelligence Committee markup today:

“Cyber-attacks and hacking against U.S. companies and networks are a serious problem for the American economy and for our national security. It makes sense to encourage private firms to share information about cybersecurity threats. But this information sharing is only acceptable if there are strong protections for the privacy rights of law-abiding American citizens.

If information-sharing legislation does not include adequate privacy protections then that’s not a cybersecurity bill – it’s a surveillance bill by another name.

“The most effective way to protect cybersecurity is by ensuring network owners take responsibility for security. Strong cybersecurity legislation should make clear that government agencies cannot order U.S. hardware and software companies to build weaker products, as senior FBI officials have proposed.

“I am concerned that the bill the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence reported today lacks adequate protections for the privacy rights of American consumers, and that it will have a limited impact on U.S. cybersecurity.”

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New Social Media Surveillance Program Violates Privacy to Keep You Safe

Joe Wright  

The latest press release from Virginia Tech University, posted in full below, uses a familiar sales pitch which asserts that the only way to keep the public safe is through pervasive surveillance.

Even amid the public outrage and pushback in the wake of the Snowden revelations, the establishment continues to push forward with justifications about why it is in our best interest to be under their constant watch.

Now, as Ebola has taken center stage as the latest threat to humanity, "ChatterGrabber" is being rolled out - a "machine-learning algorithm" that will theoretically help detect public health risks based on harvested communications. However, it goes far beyond the most extreme cases, and researchers are not hiding its wider applications. The press release is a must-read for its rare honesty, but here is the crux of the program:

ChatterGrabber has also been used to monitor tickborne diseases, such as Lyme disease, public sentiment involving vaccines, and gun violence and terrorism, serving as an early warning system for public health officials through suspicious tweets or conversations. (emphasis added)

Read on, it only gets worse:

Calling All Hackers: Help Us Build an Open Wireless Router

Peter Echersley, Jacob Hoffman-Andrews, and Ranga Krishnan
EFF

EFF is releasing an experimental hacker alpha release of wireless router software specifically designed to support secure, shareable Open Wireless networks. We will be officially launching the Open Wireless Router today at the HOPE X (Hackers on Planet Earth) conference in New York City, aiming to bring aboard members of the hacker community. This release is a work in progress and is intended only for developers and people willing to deal with the bleeding edge.

The software aims to do several things that existing routers don't do well—or don't do at all. We are beginning a journey that we hope will attract supporters and fellow travelers to help reach the following goals:1

• Allow small business and home users to easily enable an open network, so guests and passersby can get an Internet connection if they need one, while keeping a password-locked WPA2 network for themselves and their friends or coworkers.
• Let you share a bounded portion of your bandwidth on the open network, so guest users cannot slow down your Internet connection or use a large portion of your monthly quota.2

Governments Using Spyware to Track and Control Citizens

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A huge new revelation from Wikileaks this hour has exposed a sweeping surveillance industry, which has been developing spyware for governments to track and control their citizens.


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Obama Killed Hope For Young People

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Barrett Brown: 100 Years in Prison for Posting a Link?

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Former NSA Director Refers to Privacy Activists as Al Qaeda Terrorists

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US Gov't Forces Snowden's Encrypted Email Service to Shut Down

Activist Post

NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden famously used an encrypted email account to communicate privately with Glenn Greenwald and other reporters.

Shortly after it was revealed that Snowden used Lavabit, the U.S. government pressured them to close down after ten years of service.

Lavabit's owner, Ladar Levison, received a court order to turn over all users' private email data. He refused, and said he would not "become complicit in crimes against the American people." 

Levison claims he was given two choices: cooperate with authorities or be shut down. He bravely said goodbye to his business and livelihood in protest of the digital police state.

Here is the full letter to users regarding the shutdown:

NSA Head Gen. Keith Alexander Heckled by Hackers

In the background, a secret war is underway, apparently purging a circle of hackers, whistleblowers and investigative reporters connected to investigating NSA surveillance programs.

Aaron Dykes and Melissa Melton

On the heels of ‘an easy hearing’ in Congressional testimony to explain away NSA surveillance activities in the wake of Edward Snowden’s PRISM leaks, Gen. Keith Alexander, head of both the NSA and US CYBERCOM, attended the Black Hat hacker conference where he was heckled by privacy advocates in the crowd who stated their distrust for the secretive spy chief.



At the same time, infamous hacker Barnaby Jack, turned up dead just days before he was scheduled to speak at the Black Hat confab alongside Gen. Alexander.

FBI employs hackers, has software that can remotely activate cell phone, laptop microphones and more

image credit:
powtac/Flickr

Madison Ruppert

A new report reveals that the FBI directly employs multiple hackers who create custom surveillance software for the bureau, some of which is capable of remotely activating the microphones on cell phones and laptops, among other features.

The FBI is known for using technology shrouded in secrecy, some of which is based on legal grounds which have been questioned by critics with some maintaining that the FBI deceived judges in deploying it.

Malicious software, or malware, aimed at enabling government surveillance has also been heavily marketed directly to the US government.

It’s also important to note that the US government is now the world’s largest buyer of malware.

Yet the government doesn’t just buy software from the private sector, anonymous former US officials told the Wall Street Journal that the FBI also “employs a number of hackers who write custom surveillance software.”

How to Buy Weed Online in 3 Easy Steps

Eric Blair

The risk of being thrown in a cage for possessing a relatively benign plant forces responsible pot smokers to rely on shady drug dealers to get weed.  Not anymore.

With two states, Colorado and Washington, legalizing cannabis for recreational use, more civilized ways to get weed are finally emerging.  However, the federal government proved this week that they will continue to fight a war against weed by raiding legal marijuana dispensaries in Washington.

The government is good at fighting wars, but they've proven to be completely inept at stopping Internet sales of illegal drugs.  Virtual black markets have now been thwarting the government for more than two years despite efforts to shut them down.

Screenshot of Silk Road Cannabis Items

The Silk Road marketplace has been referred to as the eBay for illegal drugs. It is living proof that the government cannot snoop or stop all online activity.

Lawlessness Is Official US Policy

Stephen Lendman

Sweeping mass surveillance continues. It won't stop. It's intensifying. It reflects rogue state governance. It has nothing to do with national security. Claiming it's a red herring.

It's about control. It's to advance America's imperium. It's political and corporate espionage. It's monitoring truth-tellers. It's targeting constitutional rights.

It's eliminating freedom altogether. It's institutionalizing tyranny. It made America a police state. It's coup d'etat authority. Too few Americans understand. Two few who do challenge it responsibly.

Washington "lacks constitutional and legal legitimacy," said Paul Craig Roberts. "Americans are ruled by usurpers."

Solutions: Boycotts and Buycotts

James Corbett

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Americans Paying for Their Own Digital Enslavement

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Establishment Hero Bill Gates Sold You Out to the NSA, But That's Not All...

Jackson Reed

Bill Gates gets heaped with praise from the establishment for his business prowess and his so-called philanthropy. In turn, society seems to elevate him to near godlike status for his generosity and "humanitarian work".  He's been the poster child for the "see, not all big corporations are evil" argument. Well, not anymore.

Recent revelations that his company Microsoft has, for decades, built backdoors for government spying may put a few chinks in Gates' shining public armor. 

And if one dares look any closer at Gates' other endeavors, they may discover that their intentions are not nearly as benevolent as general public perception leads us to believe.

First, let me try to outline just how completely Microsoft sold you out to spy agencies. After NSA whistleblower Snowden outed Microsoft as complicit in the PRISM information sharing program, it has come to light that NSA has a backdoor to Microsoft-owned Skype, Windows operating system updates contain bypasses for the NSA, the encryption for the Outlook is unlocked for the NSA prior to launches, and Internet Explorer is likely even most compromised. 

Facebook Privacy Blunder Highlights Online Security Gaps

image source

Activist Post

Facebook and the corporate media are trying to downplay a glitch that exposed the personal information of 6 million users. The problem occurred with their Download Your Information tool when it was revealed that additional email addresses and telephone numbers of user contacts were automatically shared. Facebook asserts that this gap has so far been proved benign, since it occurred only between previously authorized contacts.

Nevertheless, it highlights the fact that even the leader of social media can be caught off-guard by a security lapse that can affect a huge number of people. And it isn't the first time.

As mentioned in the video below, the last Facebook security issue was slightly less than benign when the FTC investigated them for exposing users' personal details without legal consent. It's possible that this new breach could bring another investigation and possible lawsuits.

7 Powerful Ways to Maintain Your Privacy and Integrity Online

Eliot Estep

The recent NSA leaks from whistleblower Ed Snowden have publicly confirmed that digital privacy does not exist. The federal government and intelligence agencies have direct server access to the world’s most popular sites and services including Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Apple, and more. This means that all of your data when using these services including Skype, YouTube, etc has been compromised and can be used against you whenever strategically necessary.

Always remember, you are being recorded and monitored regardless of whether you have done anything wrong or not. This includes your emails, Internet activity, searches, banking activity, passwords, etc. Basically everything to build a complete profile about who you are, how you think, how you live, etc. This is very powerful data gathering and the goal of the intelligence agencies is nothing less than Total Information Awareness to be used to control and manage populations.

For these reasons, I have compiled some helpful tips to help you maintain your privacy and integrity when using the Internet. These are by no means comprehensive, but they can be quite useful and give you some semblance of peace when browsing.

CISPA Will Legalize PRISM Spy Program

Eric Blair

Give them an inch and they will take a mile. That is how power-hungry tyrants interpret any law.

The PATRIOT Act and the FISA court led to the blanket wiretapping of every American citizen and a PRISM lens into all Internet activity for the NSA.

Now we are supposed to trust this Peeping Tom government by giving them more authority for "cybersecurity" with the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA)?

As George W. Bush once eloquently said with his patented deer-in-the-headlights conviction "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me, you can't get fooled again, see."

Oh, I bet the American people will get fooled again. But it's not their fault. When authority figures tell bald-faced lies to the public, most people instinctively want to believe them because the majority of people are honest and perceive others to be honest.

Obama won the presidency promising to overturn Bush's draconian destruction of civil liberties in the name of fighting terror. The majority of Americans took Obama at his word and gave him the benefit of the doubt. Until now.

Reuters reports today that the NSA spying scandal may "complicate" Obama's agenda for cybersecurity:

Renewed concerns about the spy agency's domestic surveillance programs could also hamper efforts to give it a broader role in defending the country's infrastructure, and put pressure on lawmakers to update laws protecting online privacy, say congressional aides and defense and security experts. 

"They're going to make it harder to do the work that is now going on," said former chief Pentagon weapons buyer Mike Wynne, who also served as Air Force secretary from 2005 to 2008. 

Wynne said growing unease about domestic surveillance could have a chilling effect on proposed cyber legislation that calls for greater information-sharing between government and industry.

But this is laughable. The U.S. government already has been illegally using the authority in CISPA prior to it being codified into law. At least everything Hitler did was "legal" before he did it.

PRISM reportedly forces Internet companies to hand over information to the NSA and FBI. Some even allow a backdoor to their servers. This program has been in place for several years according to reports.

The only difference between the secretive PRISM project and CISPA is that under CISPA personal data will be given to the civilian Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon by communications companies instead of the NSA. Like that matters.

But even this is just window dressing for public consumption because Obama already has authorized these moves with the secret Presidential Policy Directive 20 and an Executive Order.

Presidential Directive 20 shows that the government is drawing up a target list for offensive cyber strikes overseas, and the Executive Order outlines the flow of illegally obtained data of online activity to the DHS, NSA, and other agencies.
Yes, the Pentagon already assumed the role of engaging in cyber war as part of their "operational domain" for "offensive operations", again prior to any legal authority. In July 2011, the Pentagon announced "The United States reserves the right, under the laws of armed conflict, to respond to serious cyber attacks with a proportional and justified military response at the time and place of our choosing."

Their "authority" was later affirmed in the infamous 2012 NDAA which gave the U.S. military the right to launch a global offensive cyber war against perceived threats.

Section 954 of the NDAA titled Military Activities in Cyberspacereceived no debate in Congress as well as in the media. The section states clearly:

Congress affirms that the Department of Defense has the capability, and upon direction by the President may conduct offensive operations in cyberspace to defend our Nation, Allies and interests.

And thanks to whistleblowers we know that telecom companies have been cooperating with government spooks for years.

Significantly, all of this occurred without any public debate, probably because lawmakers understand that it's a gross violation of the 4th Amendment which guarantees privacy to American citizens.

Indeed, the NSA issued a secret memo urging lawmakers to "rethink" the 4th Amendment. This recently declassified memo from 2001 reads:

The Fourth Amendment is as applicable to eSIGINT as it is to the SIGINT of yesterday and today. The Information Age will however cause us to rethink and reapply the procedures, policies and authorities born in an earlier electronic surveillance environment.

Is it any wonder why Americans no longer trust their government? 

As President Obama said in his press conference defending the secret spying program: "If Americans don't trust government, we're going to have some problems."

Yes, as Reuters reports, the Administration may have problems legalizing their illegal activity. And if the people are paying attention, this Administration may have even bigger problems than that.

Read other articles by Eric Blair Here
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