Category: fisa

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The US Is Spying on the UN Secretary General

Posted on By infossl
espionage, fisa, leaks, nsa, Security technology, Uncategorized

The Washington Post is reporting that the US is spying on the UN Secretary General. The reports on Guterres appear to contain the secretary general’s personal conversations with aides regarding diplomatic encounters. They indicate that the United States relied on spying powers granted under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to gather the intercepts. Lots … Read More “The US Is Spying on the UN Secretary General” »

Chinese Supply-Chain Attack on Computer Systems

Posted on By infossl
backdoors, china, cybersecurity, fbi, fisa, intelligence, Internet of Things, national security policy, reports, Security technology, supply chain, Uncategorized

Bloomberg News has a major story about the Chinese hacking computer motherboards made by Supermicro, Levono, and others. It’s been going on since at least 2008. The US government has known about it for almost as long, and has tried to keep the attack secret: China’s exploitation of products made by Supermicro, as the U.S. … Read More “Chinese Supply-Chain Attack on Computer Systems” »

Evaluating the NSA’s Telephony Metadata Program

Posted on By infossl
academicpapers, fisa, metadata, nationalsecuritypolicy, nsa, phones, Security technology, terrorism

Interesting analysis: “Examining the Anomalies, Explaining the Value: Should the USA FREEDOM Act’s Metadata Program be Extended?” by Susan Landau and Asaf Lubin. Abstract: The telephony metadata program which was authorized under Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act, remains one of the most controversial programs launched by the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) in the wake … Read More “Evaluating the NSA’s Telephony Metadata Program” »

Visiting the NSA

Posted on By infossl
china, cybersecurity, fisa, infrastructure, machinelearning, nationalsecuritypolicy, nsa, privacy, russia, Security technology

Yesterday, I visited the NSA. It was Cyber Command’s birthday, but that’s not why I was there. I visited as part of the Berklett Cybersecurity Project, run out of the Berkman Klein Center and funded by the Hewlett Foundation. (BERKman hewLETT — get it? We have a web page, but it’s badly out of date.) … Read More “Visiting the NSA” »

NSA Abandons “About” Searches

Posted on By infossl
fisa, nationalsecuritypolicy, nsa, patriotact, privacy, searches, Security technology, surveillance

Earlier this month, the NSA said that it would no longer conduct “about” searches of bulk communications data. This was the practice of collecting the communications of Americans based on keywords and phrases in the contents of the messages, not based on who they were from or to. The NSA’s own words: After considerable evaluation … Read More “NSA Abandons “About” Searches” »

Intelligence Oversight and How It Can Fail

Posted on By infossl
fisa, intelligence, nationalsecuritypolicy, nsa, secrecy, Security technology

Former NSA attorneys John DeLong and Susan Hennessay have written a fascinating article describing a particular incident of oversight failure inside the NSA. Technically, the story hinges on a definitional difference between the NSA and the FISA court meaning of the word “archived.” (For the record, I would have defaulted to the NSA’s interpretation, which … Read More “Intelligence Oversight and How It Can Fail” »

Yahoo Scanned Everyone's E-mails for the NSA

Posted on By infossl
datacollection, email, filtering, fisa, nsa, privacy, Security technology, spam, surveillance, yahoo

News here and here. Other companies have been quick to deny that they did the same thing, but I generally don’t believe those carefully worded statements about what they have and haven’t done. We do know that the NSA uses bribery, coercion, threat, legal compulsion, and outright theft to get what they want. We just … Read More “Yahoo Scanned Everyone's E-mails for the NSA” »