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NSA and allies planned to hijack the Google Play Store to install spyware on smartphones

120 Comments
Posted by Rich Edmonds on 21 May 2015 8:20 am
Google Play Store
Top-secret documents reveal that spy agencies from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and United States planned to implant spyware on mobile phones by intercepting data sent between app stores.

NSA bulk phone data collection ruled illegal by U.S. Court of Appeals

50 Comments
Posted by Joseph Keller on 7 May 2015 11:28 am
NSA bulk phone data collection ruled illegal by U.S. Court of Appeals
A U.S. court has ruled that the National Security Agency's bulk phone data collection program was unauthorized. The new ruling on the program, which itself is part of long-running electronic surveillance efforts by the NSA, comes from the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. The court ruled that the NSA exceeded the authority given to it by Congress.

Gemalto denies 'massive theft' of SIM card encryption keys by NSA and GCHQ [updated]

28 Comments
Posted by Harish Jonnalagadda on 25 Feb 2015 4:39 am
Droid Turbo SIM card slot
Update: A new report in The Intercept claims that Gemalto is drastically downplaying the effects of this attack. In the report, several security researchers came to the conclusion that "the company made sweeping, overly-optimistic statements about the security and stability of Gemalto's networks, and dramatically underplayed the significance of the NSA-GCHQ targeting of the company and its...

The NSA and GCHQ gave themselves a direct line into your phone

137 Comments
Posted by Dan Thorp-Lancaster on 19 Feb 2015 4:07 pm
The NSA and GCHQ gave themselves a direct line into your phone
According to new documents leaked by Edward Snowden, the NSA and its UK counterpart, Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), hacked into the computers of Gemalto, a company that manufactures SIM cards for a large number of carriers around the world. In doing so, the intelligence agencies acquired encryption keys that would allow them to intercept communications from customers of all four...

NSA reform bill killed in U.S. Senate

58 Comments
Posted by Chuong H Nguyen on 18 Nov 2014 8:22 pm
NSA reform bill killed in U.S. Senate
A bill introduced by Senator Patrick Leahy and supported by a coalition of technology companies designed to curb NSA data collection had undergone a Senate vote and failed by two votes. The USA Freedom Act fell short of the 60 votes needed to pass, garnering 58 votes in favor and 42 against.

Tech giants rally together to curb NSA spying

66 Comments
Posted by Dan Thorp-Lancaster on 14 Nov 2014 7:04 pm
Tech giants rally together to curb NSA spying
A number of big-name tech companies are teaming up to lobby the Senate to pass legislation that would limit the reach of the NSA's spying activities, Bloomberg reported today. The coalition of tech giants includes the likes of Apple, Google, and Microsoft, among others.

U.S. government accused of spying on citizens with fake towers to collect phone data

122 Comments
Posted by Chuong H Nguyen on 13 Nov 2014 5:59 pm
U.S. government accused of spying on citizens with fake towers to collect phone data
A new report suggests that a U.S. Marshals Service spy program operating under the Justice Department is collecting thousands of cellphone identification numbers from Americans by employing fake communication towers. The program has been operational since 2007 and the towers are mounted on Cessna airplanes operating out of at least five metropolitan-area airports. These fake towers would trick...

Tech leaders unite on government data collection reform

17 Comments
Posted by Chuong H Nguyen on 5 Jun 2014 4:09 pm
Google and other tech leaders want the government to restrict data collection on the Internet
After uniting over issues with net neutrality, tech leaders are once again coming together to protect the consumers. In an open letter penned to the United States government, AOL, Apple, Dropbox, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Twitter, and Yahoo are pleading with elected officials to put an end to data collection on the Internet in the age of Edward Snowden and the NSA.

Brin and Schmidt worked with the NSA to help secure Google's products

33 Comments
Posted by Derek Kessler on 6 May 2014 1:43 pm
Brin and Schmidt worked with the NSA to help secure Google's products
The NSA has found itself in the news again, this time delving into how close their relationship has been with the heads of Google. That sounds frightening at first, until we dig deeper in to find that the NSA's high level communication with Google executives Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt was actually on the more beneficial side of security, with the NSA working with Google (as well as Microsoft...

NSA contributes to Android, but there is no secret backdoor

36 Comments
Posted by Jerry Hildenbrand on 10 Jul 2013 2:53 pm
OMG GUISE PRISM
All Android code is available for public review, and plenty of people are reviewing it It came to light today (though it was never a secret) that the NSA (the National Security Agency), a U.S. intelligence service that's been in the news as of late for things nobody likes, is contributing code to Google's Android project. Of course, the Internet's first reaction was predictably "OMG PRISM!...

Google on the NSA 'PRISM' to-do: 'What the ...?'

23 Comments
Posted by Phil Nickinson on 7 Jun 2013 4:02 pm
Larry Page
Larry Page, chief legal officer Drummond pen post in response to recent reports of government snooping Google's chief executive this afternoon weighed in on the reports from The Guardian and The Washington Post that have created a bit of a firestorm over personal liberty versus anti-terrorism efforts. Parsing Larry Page's post, which is co-authored with Google Chief Legal Officer David...

NSA builds Android phone for 'Top Secret' communication

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Posted by Jerry Hildenbrand on 2 Mar 2012 3:55 pm
Spies
The NSA (National Security Agency) has developed an Android phone that meets "Top Secret" criteria using off-the-shelf components. Dubbed the fishbowl phone, 100 units were built and deployed by IAD (Information Assurance Directorate) and division head Margaret Salter says that anyone can recreate the phones using the specs published at the NSA website. The plan was to buy commercial...