surveillance

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NSA Xmas Gift: Decade's Worth of Declassified Docs

Reports show numerous instances of 'unintentional technical or human error'

(Newser) - While many people were wrapping presents and prepping for holiday dinners, the NSA did its own holiday sharing on Christmas Eve: The agency released 10 years' worth of declassified documents, Mashable reports. The materials, which covered a period from the middle of 2001 through early 2013, are the heavily redacted...

'Almost Peerless' New Malware in Use Since 2008

Source of Regin is unclear, says Symantec

(Newser) - The same Symantec researchers who tracked down the Stuxnet worm four years ago have discovered another potent piece of malware, Re/code reports. The Trojan program is called Regin, and it offers "a powerful framework for mass surveillance," Symantec says in a blog post that calls out "a...

Secret US Spy Program Tracks Cellphone Users

Planes carrying 'dirtboxes' trick phones into sending identifying data and location

(Newser) - The extent to which the US government spies on US soil continues to unfold. The latest revelation: Using Cessna aircraft over at least five metropolitan-area airports, the Justice Department oversees (albeit to an unknown extent) a program that indiscriminately accesses large amounts of cellphone data, including identifying information and people'...

Feds Also Track Our Snail Mail

Postal Service audit cites limited oversight for 'mail covers' program

(Newser) - Domestic surveillance needn't be electronic. Last year alone, the US Postal Service OK'd almost 50,000 official requests to snoop on people's mail for investigative purposes, the New York Times reports. The numbers come from an audit conducted by the USPS inspector general, who pointed to a...

Twitter Suit: Gov't Won't Let Us Talk About Data Requests

Tech giant's complaint says restrictions violate its First Amendment rights

(Newser) - First rule about government requests for information: Don't talk about government requests for information. That's one rule Twitter doesn't want to play by, leading to a lawsuit filed today that claims the US government is violating the company's First Amendment rights by forcing it to keep...

Secret Service Mulls White House Checkpoints Blocks Away

After major security breach, Secret Service considering various options

(Newser) - The Secret Service, sporting a new black eye after Omar Gonzalez hopped a White House fence and walked right through the front door , is considering a range of measures to increase security at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Although the agency's director immediately added surveillance and officers around the White House,...

Thanks to Spying, No One Talks to Reporters Anymore
Thanks to Spying, No One Talks to Reporters Anymore
NEW REPORT
Jul 28, 2014 12:57 PM CDT

Thanks to Spying, No One Talks to Reporters Anymore

Human rights agencies say sources fear being prosecuted

(Newser) - Journalists often face danger , compete with robots , and now may find their sources strangely mum: A joint report disseminated by two human-rights agencies today says that the US government’s relentless surveillance is scaring sources into silence and hampering lawyers’ efforts to protect their clients, reports the AP . The NSA’...

Snowden Leak: NSA Spied on Muslim-American Leaders

Including a former Homeland Security official

(Newser) - The NSA and FBI targeted a number of prominent and seemingly upstanding Muslim-Americans for surveillance, including lawyers, professors, civil rights activists, and even a former Bush administration official, according to the latest revelation from Edward Snowden's document trove. A spreadsheet recapping the thousands of email addresses the NSA monitored...

Cell Carrier: Governments Worldwide Hear Your Calls

Vodaphone said 6 countries grab content without even a warrant

(Newser) - The world's second-biggest telecom company released a report today saying that countries from Hungary to Fiji are accessing customer calls and texts with legal warrants, or just tapping in whenever they feel like it, the New York Times reports. Vodaphone—which left the US this year and is based...

The Bahamas: Where Every Cell Phone Call Is Recorded

The NSA is storing entire conversations, according to new Snowden documents

(Newser) - Been to the Bahamas lately? Then your cell phone calls were apparently recorded by the NSA and stored for up to a month. According to Edward Snowden-leaked documents obtained by The Intercept , the NSA has been recording all of the Bahamas' cell calls—without the Bahamanian government knowing it—with...

Snowden Asks Putin About Russian Surveillance, on TV

Putin assures him Russia doesn't mimic US policies

(Newser) - Vladimir Putin got an intriguing caller on his TV call-in show today: Edward Snowden. In a pre-recorded video, the fugitive leaker asked the president about Russia's own surveillance policies. "Does Russia intercept, store, or analyze, in any way, the communications of millions of individuals?" he demanded. "And...

NYPD Ends Program to Spy on Local Muslims

'Demographics Unit' remains focus of 2 lawsuits

(Newser) - The NYPD is dropping a controversial undercover operation set up in the wake of 9/11 to spy on Muslims in the city, reports the New York Post . Under the Demographics Unit, later renamed the Zone Assessment Unit, plainclothes officers would infiltrate Muslim gathering places to learn what they could. The...

NSA 'Time Machine' Can Record All Calls in a Nation

It can also replay the voices at any time within 30 days

(Newser) - The Washington Post has a new NSA scoop courtesy of Edward Snowden that is only going to heighten the Big Brother fears. It seems the agency has a program called MYSTIC that can record every phone call in a foreign country—and this isn't metadata, it's actual voice...

CIA Hits Back as Feinstein Says It Spied on Senate

John Brennan denies illegal searches of Intelligence Committee computers

(Newser) - CIA Director John Brennan is hitting back after Sen. Dianne Feinstein confirmed reports that the CIA illegally searched Senate Intelligence Committee computers. "We weren't trying to block anything," Brennan tells NBC . "The CIA was in no way spying on [the committee] or the Senate." Feinstein...

Tricked-Out Cessna Stalks You From 2 Miles Up

Persistent Surveillance Systems can track crimes as they develop

(Newser) - You'll never look at a Cessna the same way: The Washington Post delves into a new surveillance technology that can track any person or vehicle across a small city for hours via 12 192-megapixel cameras mounted on an aircraft. Though people appear as dark specks on a gray background...

Here&#39;s How Obama Will Change NSA Phone Program
Obama: I Don't Want the
NSA Holding Phone Data
UPDATED
Jan 17, 2014 11:29 AM CST

Obama: I Don't Want the NSA Holding Phone Data

This morning's speech calls for private entity to hold metadata

(Newser) - President Obama today introduced a host of reforms to the NSA's surveillance programs, including ending the NSA's telephone metadata collection program "as it currently exists." In a speech today, Obama argued that the government shouldn't hold onto that phone data; he's asking Eric Holder,...

Computer Offline? NSA Can Spy on It Anyway

Secret technology only deployed overseas

(Newser) - Anybody who thinks disconnecting their computer from the Internet will keep them safe from the prying eyes of the National Security Agency needs to think again, according to the New York Times . The agency has inserted software into around 100,000 computers worldwide that allows it to spy on those...

NSA Surveillance Hasn't Prevented Attacks: Study

All the foiled attacks relied on traditional methods

(Newser) - The NSA's controversial trove of phone metadata "has had no discernible impact on preventing acts of terrorism," a new analysis of 225 terrorism cases from the nonprofit New America Foundation has concluded. Most of the cases it looked at were cracked using old-fashioned investigative tools, like tip-offs...

Judge in NSA Case Is Wrong About 9/11 Report
Judge in NSA Case Is
Wrong About 9/11 Report
analysis
Dec 28, 2013 2:23 PM CST

Judge in NSA Case Is Wrong About 9/11 Report

ProPublica says his account of hijacker isn't in there

(Newser) - ProPublica thinks the judge who sided with the NSA yesterday about its surveillance program has his facts wrong about a key point he makes. In making the case that the NSA's phone-tracking program is an essential tool against terrorism, Judge William Pauley cited the example of 9/11 hijacker...

Judge Says NSA Surveillance Is Legal

Federal judge says its phone-tracking system doesn't violate Constitution

(Newser) - Score one for the NSA's legal team: A federal judge has ruled that the enormous phone-tracking system unveiled by Edward Snowden is legal, reports Reuters . US District Judge William Pauley in Manhattan today dismissed a lawsuit brought by the ACLU seeking to stop the program. Yes, the program "...

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