Politics and Law

NSA said to have broader Net reach than previously thought

The National Security Agency's surveillance network reaches further into the U.S. Internet backbone than previously reported, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Although the agency has limited authority to conduct surveillance of U.S. citizens, it has built a system that can reach 75 percent of all U.S. Internet traffic, sources tell The Journal. Built in conjunction with telecommunications companies, the system can retain the written contents of e-mails sent between citizens in the U.S., the report said.

Documents released by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden have described programs with a narrower reach, such as acquiring … Read more

Surveillance concerns bring an end to crusading site Groklaw

Citing concerns about privacy and government surveillance, Pamela Jones is shutting down her site Groklaw, which for years took on what she and vocal fans saw as wrongheaded legal action in the tech domain.

"There is now no shield from forced exposure," Jones said in final blog post Tuesday. Groklaw depended on collaboration over e-mail, "and there is now no private way, evidently, to collaborate."

Jones, a paralegal, started her site a decade ago taking on the SCO Group's legal attack on IBM and others involving Linux and Unix intellectual property. She rebutted the company'… Read more

Computer destroyed to squelch NSA stories, Guardian says

In a blog post describing "one of the more bizarre moments in the Guardian's long history," editor Alan Rusbridger recounted how British government agents destroyed a computer containing information provided by National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.

About two months ago, Rusbridger wrote, the British government began pressuring him to return or destroy the documents Snowden had provided that were serving as the basis for a series of articles about controversial U.S. government surveillance activities. A month later, the mood darkened, with a government official reportedly phoning the editor with the message: "You've had … Read more

NSA violated privacy rules thousands of times, audit finds

The National Security Agency exceeded its legal authority and broke agency rules thousands of times since it was granted broader powers in 2008, according to an internal agency audit obtained by The Washington Post.

Most violations involved unauthorized surveillance of Americans or foreign intelligence targets in the U.S., according to the documents, which were supplied to the newspaper by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. The documents show infractions ranging from serious legal violations to typographical errors that resulted in unintended data collection, The Post reported.

The agency was not always forthcoming with the details of its transgressions, the Post found. … Read more

Snowden reportedly began secret downloads at Dell in 2012

NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden began downloading documents about secret U.S. government surveillance programs while employed by Dell in April 2012, according to a Reuters report.

The former intelligence contractor began working at Dell in 2009 as a contractor at a National Security Agency facility in Japan. While employed at Dell, Snowden left an electronic trail that indicates he downloaded documents regarding electronic surveillance programs run by the NSA and Britain's Government Communications Headquarters, officials and sources close to the matter told Reuters.

Some of the documents Snowden reportedly accessed related to NSA data collection of Internet traffic and … Read more

NSA claims it 'touches' only 1.6 percent of Internet traffic

Just hours after President Obama defended the National Security Agency's activities, the foreign surveillance agency released a document in which it claims to review only a small faction of Internet traffic on a daily basis.

In a seven-page paper released late Friday titled "The National Security Agency: Missions, Authorities, Oversight and Partnerships"(PDF), the agency asserts that the amount of data it collects from the global communications apparatus on a daily basis is comparable in size to a dime placed on a basketball court.

According to figures published by a major tech provider, the Internet carries 1,… Read more

President Obama outlines four NSA reform initiatives

President Barack Obama defended the government's intelligence gathering policies, but outlined four initiatives to assuage concerns among Americans and foreigners regarding the legality of U.S. surveillance activities.

"The programs are operating in a way that prevents abuse...the question is how do I make the American people more comfortable," the president said, responding to questions during a press conference at the White House Friday. "If the American people examine exactly what is taking place and what the safeguards were...they would see that the folks are following the law."

He added that revelations in … Read more

FCC puts cap on prison phone rates

The Federal Communications Commission voted Friday to regulate phone rates for prisoners calling from jails and prisons.

The 2-1 vote to support the new regulation will significantly lower calling rates, which can total as much as $17 for a 15-minute phone call, or 10 times what an average per-minute calling rate is for regular consumers.

As part of the new rules, the agency will cap per-minute charges to 25 cents per minute, which means a 15-minute call would cost no more than $3.75. The FCC also banned extra fees associated with making collect calls or using calling cards.

Families … Read more

NSA 'secret backdoor' paved way to U.S. phone, e-mail snooping

The National Security Agency created a "secret backdoor" so its massive databases could be searched for the contents of U.S. citizens' confidential phone calls and e-mail messages without a warrant, according to the latest classified documents leaked by Edward Snowden.

A report in the Guardian on Friday quoted Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat who serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee, as saying the secret rule offers a loophole allowing "warrantless searches for the phone calls or emails of law-abiding Americans."

That appears to confirm what Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat, said in … Read more

Silent Circle follows Lavabit in shuttering encrypted e-mail

Silent Circle shuttered its encrypted e-mail service on Thursday, the second such closure in just a few hours in an apparent attempt to avoid government scrutiny that may threaten its customers' privacy.

Silent Circle, which makes software that encrypts phone calls and other communications, announced in a company blog post that it could "see the writing on the wall" and decided it best to shut down its Silent Mail feature. The company said it was inspired by the closure earlier Thursday of Lavabit, another encrypted e-mail service provider that alluded to a possible national security investigation.

"We … Read more