The Guardian and the The New York Times jointly released additional documents today detailing how US and UK spy agencies defeat privacy and security on the internet. Through covert partnerships with tech companies, the spy agencies have inserted secret vulnerabilities into encryption software. Hundreds of millions of people believed their personal data, online transactions and emails were protected. They were wrong. The highlights: • A 10-year NSA program against encryption technologies made a breakthrough in 2010 which made "vast amounts" of data collected through internet cable taps newly "exploitable". • The NSA spends $250m a year on a program which, among other goals, works with technology companies to "covertly influence" their product designs. • The secrecy of their capabilities against encryption is closely guarded, with analysts warned: "Do not ask about or speculate on sources or methods." • The NSA describes strong decryption programs as the "price of admission for the US to maintain unrestricted access to and use of cyberspace". • A GCHQ team has been working to develop ways into encrypted traffic on the "big four" service providers, named as Hotmail, Google, Yahoo and Facebook. Of course, the agencies insist that the ability to defeat encryption is vital to their core missions of counter-terrorism and foreign intelligence gathering. Because security. - Tiffany Madison
Posted on: Thu, 05 Sep 2013 23:29:54 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015