11.13.13

Google as Flag Bearer of GNU/Linux

Posted in GNU/Linux, Google at 7:25 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Photo by Derzsi Elekes Andor

Summary: In this age of Android smartphones, tablets, and even Chromebooks, Google’s role as a key player in the GNU/Linux world is debatable

Google is probably Microsoft’s #1 nightmare. It puts in jeopardy the future of both Windows and Office, Microsoft’s few cash cows and monopolies (the latter depends on the former, so when the first is dead, the latter too will die). Google has been receiving a lot of abuse from Microsoft; some examples will be given in the next post. But it is worth thinking what promoting Google would do to GNU/Linux as a free (freedom-respecting) operating system.

“It is very hard to leave anonymous comments on Google-run services and sites.”The other day there was an article titled “Google’s Motorola wants to tattoo a microphone on your neck” [1] and it was based on a patent. Polygraphs are ‘snake oil’, but this is pretty much how this thing gets advertised. It is very Big Brother-like. This is similar to a satirical new article [2] titled “Multiple Wyoming School Districts Implant RFID Chip Technology In Students Without Parental Consent” (untrue) and the true story [3] about Google’s efforts to require real ID on the Web (as demonstrated by Google Plus, in addition to a lot of tracking and a never-dying cookie). One serious problem with Google is its assault on anonymity, which should be considered a crucial tenet. It is very hard to leave anonymous comments on Google-run services and sites.

Richard Stallman, who is far from a Google sceptic, is not too happy with Google’s treatment of anonymity. He writes in his personal Web site: “I reject Facebook and Google+ on principle because they require people to give their “real names”. I am proud to identify myself when stating my views; I can afford to do that because I am in a fairly safe position. There are people who rationally fear reprisals (from employers, gangsters, bullies, or the state) if they state their views. For their sake, let’s reject any social networking site which insists on being told a user’s real name.

“Google+ offers to hide the user’s real name, but demands people prove an “established identity” or provide ID. I am suspicious of this requirement, since it can’t hide the user’s real name from the US government, which has a policy of prosecuting journalists as “spies”.”

“I am suspicious of this requirement, since it can’t hide the user’s real name from the US government, which has a policy of prosecuting journalists as “spies”.”
      –Richard StallmanGoogle has done too little to defend Wikileaks and other such efforts; in fact, based on Schmidt’s meeting with Assange, Google is in many ways part of the problem, denying us access to what those in power are trying to hide (e.g. Cablegate). Google says it wants to improve access to information, but Google limits the scope of this information (selectivity) and is increasingly engaging in censorship, too. This is not reassuring. It’s not just something which Google does in China, not anymore anyway.

There are of course other problems with Google, which does too little to oppose NSA snooping. Thankfully, Google hardly makes an effort to pull the files of GNU/Linux users [4], unless of course they use Android, in which case there’s promotion of a so-called ‘feature’ known as remote backup (sending all your personal data — including passwords — to Google’s NSA-accessible datacentres). The situation is similar when it comes to ChromeOS, which GNU/Linux bashers like David Gewirtz seem to have no problem with [5] and colleagues at ZDNet claim to be on the rise [6]. As some GNU/Linux users start to explore ChromeOS [7] as an option (locked down, more surveillance than a typical GNU/Linux distribution), there’s reason for concern and caution; it’s not that ChromeOS (or its “open” equivalent) is malicious, it’s just that it’s a step away from where we wish to be with freedom- and privacy-respecting GNU/Linux. █

Related/contextual items from the news:

1. Google’s Motorola wants to tattoo a microphone on your neck

   How to start on this one? Well, Google’s Motorola subsidiary has filed a slightly strange patent with the idea that you should have a smartphone microphone tattooed onto your throat. According to the patent, the tattoo would be placed onto a person’s neck to pick vibrations directly from their larynx.

2. [FUD/Satire] Multiple Wyoming School Districts Implant RFID Chip Technology In Students Without Parental Consent

   Overall public opinion of the RFID seems to be positive among Hanna’s townsfolk. I spoke with Earl Gentry, a retired miner, longtime resident of Hanna, Wyoming and one of the first recipients of the RFID Chip in his community. He told me the following:

   “Heck, I don’t know how I lived without one. I use the RFID Chip at the doctor’s office; I’m able to purchase food and clothing from all my favorite stores. I definitely believe our country would benefit from a federally mandated RFID law.”

3. Google+ Authentication [Rolled back!]

   When we created feedly a few years ago, we made the decision to use Google OAuth as our authentication service. The goal was to let users safely login with their existing Google identity instead of having to create and manage yet another identify.

   Google has been slowly transitioning from Google OAuth to Google+ as their unifying identity system. This transition opens the door to interesting opportunities like simpler login across devices – and a lot more.

   We are following on Google’s lead and transitioning feedly from Google OAuth to Google+ login.

4. Google Drive for Linux?

   For some reason, Google seems to dislike Google Drive users who prefer Linux. I find this particularly strange, since Google’s Chrome OS is based on Linux.

5. Why there are at least two great reasons to buy a Chromebook

6. Low-end laptops:The rise of the Chromebook

   Some people are still in denial about the rise of the Linux operating system with the Chrome Web browser interface, Chrome OS, and its hardware: the Chromebooks. The experts say, however, it’s the one segment of the PC market that’s growing while everything else shrinks.

7. Chromebooks and Chromium OS Experience

   I am a rather mobile person. Mobile in the sense of technology I can pick up and relocate at a whim. Even though my primary computer is a gaming desktop, a recent hardware failure helped me to realize that I can be just as productive on my trusty MacBook. My laptop can do just about everything my desktop can (other than running high-end games that is) and my iPad is great for browsing the web and interacting with social media on the go. Last year I took it with me when I went to Disney and it performed very well as a dedicated Reddit, Facebook, Twitter and Kindle client.

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Applications and Instructionals: November 2013

Posted in News Roundup at 6:22 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

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Canonical/Ubuntu News for November

Posted in News Roundup at 6:14 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

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11.12.13

Kaspersky: Russian Nuclear Plant Runs Windows, Gets Infected With Malware Developed by the NSA (Stuxnet)

Posted in GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Windows at 7:10 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Tsar Bomba mushroom cloud

Summary: New example of the high cost of Windows and a new example of FUD in the press, attributing an attack on SCADA to “Linux”

BY NOW, owing to leaks, people know where Stuxnet came from. Israel and the United States developed it and then used it to derail facilities in Iran. It is cyberwar, and it was started quite proactively. A lot of businesses around the world suffered from Stuxnet too, demonstrating quite clearly that the NSA’s criminal behaviour has a high price; others pay the toll, not just US taxpayers. Given the special relationship between Microsoft and the NSA, Stuxnet’s reliance on Windows is not surprising; it’s well known by now.

Putting aside the old news about Stuxnet, Kaspersky claims that Stuxnet infected a Russian nuclear plant. This is extremely dangerous because the US and Russia/USSR have been very close to nuclear war on numerous occasions in the past 30 years. A lot of people don’t know this because such material takes decades before it’s declassified.

“A lot of people don’t know this because such material takes decades before it’s declassified.”With clever phishing scams, not even strong passwords that computer scientists tend to choose can provide protection and it is no secret that Free software is penetrable due to incompetence during setup [1] or even delay in patching/maintenance (new examples in [2-8]). Underlying languages/frameworks can sometimes be the culprits [9,10], but that doesn’t mean that in practice it is easy to crack a GNU/Linux system. Evidence suggests that it is hard.

Having had Windows malware issues in space (USB sticks inside Windows), the International Space Station (ISS) recently moved to Debian GNU/Linux [1. 2]. But this weird article tells a dubious story. It says that ISS got a malware infection from Russian astronauts and then adds this sentence: “The reason is that the space station uses computer-controlled SCADA systems in order to manage various physical components of the satellite. As these systems are based on Linux, they are open to infection.”

“The problem is prevalent in proprietary software not just of Microsoft and the solution may be to simply ban the use of proprietary software.”Really?

Stuxnet malware has been targeting SCADA systems and they run Windows. We’ve sent almost a dozen E-mails back and forth to verify the facts and we are pretty sure the above is a lie. Sosumi says “the rhetoric is made as if linux is the problem [...] the whole thing is fishy [...] it’s like I said, the article is done as if linux was the problem” (it’s not).

iophk wrote: “I would think that the PR people for all the major distros would be all over that article correcting it and demanding a retraction.” He later said: “If you have any contact at Red Hat and Canonical, they might want to find some way of correcting this article [...] It makes it look like the previous Windows infections were Linux.”

Nice FUD they got there.

“Hackers”, in the mean time, are being demonised by Microsoft, which simply misuses the term [11]. The US government cannot seem to understand that relying on Windows in critical systems is a bad idea [12,13] because even fonts open a back door [14,15]. The problem is prevalent in proprietary software not just of Microsoft [16] and the solution may be to simply ban the use of proprietary software [17]. It is improperly reviewed. █

Related/contextual items from the news:

1. SSL Study Shows Most Sites Incorrectly Configured

   Black Hat research takes a deep look at SSL security and finds it lacking due to a number of common configuration issues.

2. Ubuntu: 2014-1: OpenSSH vulnerability

3. Gentoo: 201310-17 pmake: Insecure temporary file usage

4. Gentoo: 201310-16 TPTEST: Arbitrary code execution

5. Gentoo: 201310-18 GnuTLS: Multiple vulnerabilities

6. Gentoo: 201310-19 X2Go Server: Arbitrary code execution

7. Debian: 2786-1: icu: Multiple vulnerabilities

8. Debian: 2787-1: roundcube: design error

9. Is PHP Secure?

   In a classic watering hole attack, hackers compromised a well-known, respected high-traffic Website and planted malware in a bid to infect unsuspecting visitors. On Oct. 24, Google began to flag PHP.net as being a site hosting malware, i.e., potentially a watering hole.

10. PHP.net Compromised. Served Malicious JS

11. M$ Denigrates Hackers

12. DHS hammering out cybersecurity planning

13. Database hacking spree on US Army, NASA, and others costs gov’t millions

    Federal prosecutors have accused a UK man of hacking thousands of computer systems, many of them belonging to the US government, and stealing massive quantities of data that resulted in millions of dollars in damages to victims.

14. Microsoft in a TIFF over Windows, Office bug that runs code hidden in pics

15. Not Again! M$’s OS Executes Data In Images…

    It’s such a simple concept. Data should not be executed. Images are data. But, no, M$ does not get that and randomly executes code contained in some TIFF images. Out of the bowels of M$’s complexity comes yet another invitation to millions of bad guys to post TIFFs all over the web damaging the systems of millions of users.

16. 38 million Adobe users hacked, not 3 million

    Adobe has revealed the massive hack it suffered a month ago was far bigger than initially reported, with attackers obtaining data on more than 38 million customer accounts.

17. [Bruce Schneier:] Understanding the Threats in Cyberspace

    The primary difficulty of cyber security isn’t technology — it’s policy.

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If What We Have is Really Democracy, Then Corporations Are People

Posted in Finance at 6:37 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

The two latest candidates of the Business Party, which won the elections again

Summary: What TAFTA and Washington’s surrender to corporate power can teach us about the state of this widely-celebrated “democracy”

SEVERAL years ago, Wikileaks’ Cablegate helped show the degree of corruption that’s used to sign deals like NAFTA. It is all about corporate power and TAFTA is more of the same, only expanding to another continent (Europe) [1]. Over in the US people are protesting against corporate takeover of the government [2] and PR Watch keeps showing how corporations bribe politicians (recent examples in [3,4,5].) It is no surprise when Washington votes for GMO giants [6] and nations which reject GMO or US corporate power get demonised in corporate media. Someone who regularly reads this site supported this claim with evidence; we have been shown examples of spin on US-based television channels like Fox, trying to describe nations without McDonalds [7] as not fortunate or simply “anti-American”. Banks also play a considerable role in controlling politics, as Professor Wolff explains in his good new article about austerity [8]. In his personal blog he goes further and explains why the GOP/corporate-driven Tea Party is doing a massive disservice [9] to the nation where capitalism just became “rule of the corporations” [10] (hence undemocratic). Had there been a real democracy, presidents like Obama would have listened to actual people — not corporations — and called those pseudo ‘trade’ deals off, possibly taking legal actions against their conspirators. █

Related/contextual items from the news:

1. TAFTA: Down with Anti-Democratic US-EU Negotiations!

   While the second negotiation round of the US-EU Trade Agreement, TAFTA (also known as TTIP), has just started, La Quadrature du Net issues a solemn warning to all negotiators against the risk of elaborating policies that would impact hundreds of millions of citizens without any form of democratic legitimacy. La Quadrature du Net calls on citizens to participate to its effort to expose the TAFTA negotiators and their eventual conflicts of interests, while urging individuals with access to negotiation documents to leak them to the public without delay.

2. More on the #NHR March (in NH) (in January)

   Plans are coming together for the march against corruption in January across New Hampshire.

3. ALEC Posts Legislative Agendas while Hiding Its Very Special Interests

4. Kohler Heir and Walker Backer Plumbs Dark Money Depths

   Wisconsin industrialist Terry Kohler has deeper ties to the controversial United Sportsmen of Wisconsin Foundation — the beneficiary of a controversial $500,000 “sweetheart deal” cut by a Walker administration appointee — than previously reported. Kohler is one of the top GOP donors in the country, and his array of political spending raises new questions in light of a special investigation into potential campaign finance violations by third-party groups in Wisconsin.

5. The Kochs Win Some and Lose Some in 2013 Elections

   The Kochs had a hand in numerous local and state races in yesterday’s elections. Because the Kochs fund so many entities and because many types of spending are not required to be disclosed, a full accounting of their activities may not be possible. Below CMD runs down some of the known spending, races, and results influenced by the Koch brothers or Koch-funded entities such as David Koch’s Americans for Prosperity (AFP).

6. Washington votes against GMO labeling – preliminary results

7. FINALLY! A Whole Nation Rejects McDonalds

   McDonald’s happy image and its golden arches aren’t the gateway to bliss in Bolivia.

8. The great austerity shell game

   Here’s how the capitalist scam works: let government borrow for crisis bailouts, then insist cuts pay for them. Guess who loses

9. What GOP-Tea Party Risks With Block of New New Deal

   Ironically, if the New Deal actually saved capitalism from what might otherwise have happened – e.g., fascism as in Germany, Japan, or Italy – a haunting question arises. Does the right’s blockage of another New Deal now risk contributing to what was avoided in the 1930s?

10. Capitalism Works (or Not) for Me

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Environmental Ignorance and Global Warming Denial Kill Orders of Magnitude More People Than Terrorists Kill

Posted in Action at 7:56 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: How the fossil fuel and other dirty energy industries contribute to the deaths of probably millions in lesser-developed nations

If the NSA was truly serious about fighting terrorism, then it would not abuse privileges and expand to fighting drug peddling, tax evasion, etc. If the NSA was serious about saving people’s lives, then it would bother about none of these relatively small problems and start dealing with healthcare-centric cartels, fossil fuel advocacy that distorts and corrupts our press and literature, and perhaps even car accidents.

It is true that there is terrorism in this world (even state terrorism, as demonstrated by the CIA/NSA), but that doesn’t automatically make it the only subject which needs to worry us. Greenpeace, despite an aggressive approach at times [1], does seem to understand where activism matters. The extinction of our species is possible not just because of events outside of Earth (like meteor/asteroid risks that Nature recently covered [2]); it is possible when too many of us fight for food and water amid unprecedented climate which knocks us off equilibrium. In Hong Kong one can see how human greed and nastiness drive some of the planet’s biggest species into extinction [3] and Japan needed to learn from a nuclear disaster (and future cancer epidemic) before waking up. Solar energy is promoted by Japan following yet another nuclear disaster [4], but isn’t it too late? It’s never too late.

“The Philippines is taking much of the toll of global warning denial/ignorance in top polluting nations, which just couldn’t care less about what poor people in the other hemisphere or near the equator.”Noam Chomsky, in his usual nonchalant way, speaks about fracking [5] after indigenous people in Canada, who had immigrated from Asia thousands of years ago, were being crushed for protesting against this attack on their land (by European immigrants) [6].

All that pollution is not without victims. They may be far away, but they do exist. The Philippines is taking much of the toll [7] of global warning denial/ignorance in top polluting nations, which just couldn’t care less about what poor people in the other hemisphere or near the equator. A huge number of deaths gets reported [8] (record-breaking levels, due to unprecedented force of typhoons) and it’s not even the end of it [9] (yet another typhoon is coming). Sandy (the storm affecting eastern parts of the United States) was hardly a wakeup call because the United States continues to be a world leader in denying climate change. Europe is not much better and even if it can acknowledge the problem it is too slow to react to it. Financial considerations drive policy and the cost of some “poor people” dying in a distant nation is not high enough; their plea is hardly a factor to be weight by politicians, let alone billionaire oil tycoons and their billionaire investors (like Bill Gates).

As usual, among those who try to reduce dependence on oil (fossil fuel), there are open-source proponents [10]. This is really a matter that should be treated as a top priority; it’s too bad that Western politicians instead try to distract us with mundane and irrelevant problems. Perhaps the fact that they are lobbied and funded by fossil fuel giants plays a role in this. █

Related/contextual items from the news:

1. Seeing Red: Dutch King pelted with tomatoes during visit to Moscow

2. Risk of massive asteroid strike underestimated

   Meteor in Chelyabinsk impact was twice as heavy as initially thought.

3. Elephant Ivory Seized in Hong Kong

   In October 2013, Hong Kong officials seized large shipments of elephant tusks from West Africa. The city’s border control found 189 tusks, weighing over 1,600 pounds and with a black market value of more than one million dollars. The seizure came about two months after the last major haul of 1,000 elephant tusks from Nigeria, which also contained rhino horns and leopard skins worth more than $5 million.

4. Kyocera completes Japan’s largest offshore solar energy plant in Kagoshima

   As if to highlight the recent anti-nuclear sentiments – politicians who will no longer have anything to do with nuclear energy – Japanese tech giants Kyocera opened on Monday what is currently the biggest solar power facility in Japan. The Kagoshima Nanatsujima Mega Solar Plant is 1.27 million square meters of solar panels – 290,000 of them, to be exact – which will be able to generate 70 megawatts of power, able to supply electricity for about 22,000 local households, making it the biggest solar generation plant in Japan.

5. Chomsky Attacks Rush to “Destroy the Environment as Fast as Possible” with Fracking and Tar Sands

   But indigenous peoples in Canada blocking fossil fuel developments are taking the lead in combatting climate change, he said. Chomsky highlighted indigenous opposition to the Alberta tar sands, the oil deposit that is Canada’s fastest growing source of carbon emissions and is slated for massive expansion despite attracting international criticism and protest.

6. Anti-Fracking Activists Blockade the West Side Highway in NYC to Protest Spectra Pipeline

   The action commenced at Gansevoort Pier, where activists staged a lock-down against Spectra last year, and marched to the West Side Highway. The fracktivists then deployed a yellow and purple banner stating “Radioactive Gas Shut Down This Highway,” and blocked traffic

7. Typhoon Haiyan: at least 10,000 reported dead in Philippine province

   Estimated death toll soars as path of destruction leaves many parts of Philippines inaccessible to government and aid officials

8. Typhoon Haiyan: ‘Every single building. Every single house. Destroyed’ – Governments pledge millions, but the ruined city of Tacloban still waits

9. New storm to pass same route of Yolanda?

   A senior meteorologist based in the United States said another tropical disturbance is threatening the country, especially the areas already devastated by the havoc of super typhoon Yolanda.

   “A tropical disturbance spinning north of Papua New Guinea is expected to track through the Philippines in a very similar fashion to Haiyan (Yolanda) at midweek,” Accuweather.com’s Kristina Pydynowski said.

10. Hyperloop Project Revs Up

    Musk did not feel he had the time to develop his idea further, so he made his plans open source, inviting others to work on their execution.

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The War is Over: Sharers Won, the Copyright Cartel Resorts to DRM on the Web

Posted in DRM at 7:18 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: How the Internet, a platform of mass dissemination, cracked the copyright monopoly and how this monopoly is trying to get back in the old game

SHARING is not about breaking the law. It is about making information — however it’s stored — available for free, maximising dissemination without exploiting financial limitations (as typically done so divisively for profit). A society which maximises sharing and cooperation is better equipped to fight and perhaps end poverty. It can distribute generic drugs (developed with grants to the public sector, never to be privatised), maximise one’s access to material (video, audio, text, etc.), so rather than preach greed and competition we should aspire to incentivise sharing, punishing/penalising those who hoard and resort to protectionism (like trans-national/continental/oceanic deals).

“The goal is to educate people and help them realise that more sharing is more beneficial to more people.”Based on articles like [1], more people turn to the Web and take advantage of fair use or liberal licensing of videos in order to get “entertained” (to use a self-serving euphemism like “content” and “consumption”). Google, Microsoft, and Netflix (close partner of Microsoft) are trying to put DRM in Web standards and so far they have mostly succeeded [1, 2, 3]. This is very bad news. The Web has become a huge platform for commerce, communication, and so much more. Losing control of the Web (to corporations) would have devastating effects for decades to come.

According to news from [2], “European Parliament Members Explore Decriminalizing File-Sharing” and there is evidence that so-called “pirate” politicians are gaining public support [3]. The British Pirate Party (led by a man from Manchester) gains access to Parliament [4] and a French site advocating people’s rights [5] gets involved in the Committee of the European Parliament as well. Copyright destroys culture, sharing saves it. The Internet Archive building was damaged by fire last week [6], reminding us that just because a few people with a good cause choose to preserve information doesn’t guarantee preservation. We need to make sharing the norm (not too aggressively [7] as that just leads to blowback [8]). The goal is to educate people and help them realise that more sharing is more beneficial to more people. The gategeekers of the old world (far less than 1% of the population) are those who would lose from a culture that thrives in free sharing. As these people control our media and our politicians (and apparently the W3C too), it is too easy to overlook this simple fact. Their propaganda is taken for fact and absorbed by so many people out there. █

Related/contextual items from the news:

1. Netflix, YouTube gobble up half of Internet traffic

   Netflix and YouTube together make up half of peak Internet traffic in North America while their main rivals barely register, a study says. At the same time, file sharing is a sliver of its former self.

2. European Parliament Members Explore Decriminalizing File-Sharing

   Frustrated by the lack of copyright reform in Europe, several Members of European Parliament have started a coordinated platform to urge the European Commission to update its outdated policy. The MEPs are looking for a more flexible copyright system which benefits European citizens and businesses, including the decriminalization of file-sharing for personal use. The first steps towards these goals are to be made during an event in Brussels on Tuesday.

3. Vote Christian For The Pirate Party EU Ballot – Here’s Why

4. Pirates at the 8th Annual Parliament and Internet Conference

   This week two delegates (Governors Harley faggetter and Stephen Ogden) from the Pirate Party UK attended the Eighth Annual Parliament and Internet Conference on 31st October. The event, held by the Parliamentary Internet, Communications and Technology Forum (PICTFOR) which is the leading all-party group in the technology sector in the Houses of Parliament, was attended by parliamentarians, regulators, delegates from technology industries, public interest groups and many more.

5. The Castex Resolution on Private Copying Must Take Sharing Into Account!

   The “Legal Affairs” (JURI) Committee of the European Parliament will consider on Monday, November 4th, the draft resolution on Private copying levies of the Member of the EU Parliament Françoise Castex. The draft invites the EU Commission and Member States “to examine the possibility of legalising works sharing for non-commercial purposes so as to guarantee consumers access to a wide variety of content and real choice in terms of cultural diversity”, but has been the subject of numerous attacks to stall the debate on sharing once again. Ahead of the vote, citizens must mobilize and ask MEPs to maintain this reference, so as to force the Commission to consider all means for the recognition of sharing and to guarantee cultural rights in Europe.

6. Internet Archive building damaged by fire

   The non-profit organisation behind the Internet Archive has made a plea for donations following a fire at its building in San Francisco.

7. Too Much Cash Causes Pirate Admin to Quit, 43K Ebook Dump Imminent

   Faced with unmanageable euro revenues “in six digits” and a reluctance of publishers to legitimize the site, the administrator of a Tor-based download site developed to shake up the eBook market says he has been forced to leave the project. In other knock-on developments, TorrentFreak is informed that the site’s contents – around 43,000 eBooks – will today spill out onto the Internet, free of charge.

8. Piracy Release Group Has Been Spying on Downloaders For 9 Months

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New Evidence of Criminality in Spying Agencies, Going as Far as Exploiting FOSS Sites to Spread Malware

Posted in Action, Deception, Free/Libre Software at 6:53 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

An illustration of James Bond by artist John McLusky for the Daily Express newspaper.

Summary: The job of spooks in the US and the UK is anything but sexy and professional, new leaks continue to reveal

Bombshells regarding the NSA and its British offshoot GCHQ just can’t help coming. There is so much dirty laundry and Snowden et al. bring it out by the bucketload (to be attributed to Snowden). Techrights might have an exclusive story of its own pretty soon. We are still trying to ascertain/verify the facts in a case involving Arizona’s corrupt authorities (we asked for court documents to support the claims and to potentially publish). If the claims are true, then not only the NSA and FBI inject malware into people’s computers (e.g. CIPAV) but local authorities too are trying to do this, completely against the law. They spy without warrants, crack computers, and also pass new laws as means of revenge against people whom they are desperate to prosecute (but can’t). It sounds like a movie plot, but it sure seems to be real.

The big story in the news this week is that Slashdot got used by GCHQ to inject malware. This is criminal. When one is hijacking, infecting and distributing malware it is a serious crime — well, typically a crime when done by entities not connected to the government. The NSA-subsidised operations base known as GCHQ sure is damaging the British software industry [1] and the British “information commissioner” sure misses the point [2]; the real issue here is the illegal spying, not those who expose the illegal spying (whistleblowing/reporting). The British press which covers this the most is promoting Darkmail right now [3] and the ‘British Snowden’ explains to us how serious a problem we are dealing with [4]. Over 80% of US citizens are not satisfied with NSA oversight [5]. The NSA basically collects everything quite indiscriminately [6] and even phones that are switched off (powered off) are believed to be tracked by the NSA [7]. Services that require one’s real identity to use are getting more aggressive [8], the surveillance is being used for an expanding number of purposes (drug enforcement, taxes, etc.) [9], and even NIST turns out to be somewhat of a fraud with fake (moles-based) peer review [10].

Finally, for those who don’t know, Microsoft allegedly puts Windows back doors for the NSA [11]. What we know for sure is that Microsoft does tell the NSA how to remotely crack Windows PCs. Microsoft and the NSA are in bed together, so anyone who values his/her privacy should avoid everything from Microsoft and Microsoft-owned companies like Facebook. Now is a good time to move to Free/libre software. It’s never too late. █

Related/contextual items from the news:

1. GCHQ data snooping has “destroyed trust in British tech”

   GCHQ’s online surveillance has destroyed trust in British technology companies and irrevocably damaged the nation’s information security industry, according to a cryptography expert.

2. Information commissioner voices fears over scale of NSA surveillance

   Liberty’s director, Shami Chakrabarti, asked about the impact of the Snowden revelations on the security services’ attempts to tackle terrorism, said: “I’m sure it creates challenges and irritations [but] any challenges are probably overblown. The serious bad boys know all about the technological possibilities.”

   Chakrabarti said Snowden had revealed “not just blanket surveillance and intrusion of privacy [but] that we got taken for mugs.

   “There was a big debate in this country about a snooper’s charter. That bill was dropped and now we find out they were doing this stuff anyway. That is not just a breach of privacy it is a fundamental breach of the rule of law, contempt for people, parliament and contempt of the law.

3. Darkmail opens: New email encryption standard aims to keep government agencies out

   Silent Circle and Lavabit hope to respond to Snowden leaks with service stopping ‘state snoopers’ accessing email metadata

4. The spies are called to account

   As the Snowden-related dis­clos­ures con­tinue to flow, each new one refut­ing the last dis­sem­bling state­ments of the des­per­ate spies, dip­lo­mats around the world must be curs­ing the over­ween­ing ambi­tions of the NSA and it vassals.

   Amer­ican ambas­sad­ors are being summoned from their for­ti­fied embassies to account for US mal­feas­ance in coun­try after coun­try: Brazil, Spain, France and, of course, Germany.

   In this last coun­try there has been scan­dal after scan­dal: first the hoover­ing up of bil­lions of private com­mu­nic­a­tions; the rev­el­a­tion that the Ger­man intel­li­gence agency, the BND, had been an enthu­si­astic part­ner of the NSA in devel­op­ing the XKey­Score pro­gramme and more; then, des­pite this, humi­li­at­ingly to learn that Ger­many is only con­sidered a 3rd Party intel­li­gence part­ner by the Yanks — put­ting them on a par with coun­tries like Iran, China and Russia.

5. Less Than 20% Of Americans Believe That There’s Adequate Oversight Of The NSA

   One of the key responses from the NSA and its defenders to all of these Snowden leaks is that there is “rigorous oversight” of the NSA by the courts and Congress. Of course, that talking point has been debunked thoroughly, but NSA defenders keep trotting it out. It appears that the public is not buying it. At all. A recent poll from YouGov found that only 17% of people believe that Congress provides “adequate oversight” on the spying of Americans. A marginally better 20% (though, within the 4.6% margin of error, so meaningless difference really) felt that Congress provides adequate oversight of the NSA when it comes to collecting data on foreigners. Basically, that part of the NSA story just isn’t particularly believable in light of everything that’s come out. Oh, and people are paying attention to the news. A full 87% had heard something about the spying on foreign countries — with only 14% thinking that such a program has helped US interests abroad.

6. Dan Geer Explains the Government Surveillance Mentality

7. Samsung, Nokia say they don’t know how to track a powered-down phone

   Privacy International still awaits answers from Apple, BlackBerry, and others.

8. Your Face and Name Will Appear in Google Ads Starting Today

9. NSA’s Vast Surveillance Powers Extend Far Beyond Counterterrorism, Despite Misleading Government Claims

10. Post-NSA Revelations, NIST Opens Review of All Crypto Standards

11. Chrome Clamps Down, Bitcoin Vulnerability & More…

    Back when the Eric Snowden brouhaha first began, we said that this was going to have serious repercussions on the tech sector here in the United States, especially after it became evident that Microsoft was actively working with the spooks by allegedly designing back doors into their operating system and keeping federal intelligence agents informed about unpatched security holes that could be used against foreign governments and “terrorist,” which now days seems to be everyone who doesn’t work for the NSA, FBI or CIA.

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