National Security Agency (NSA)

See the following -

Hacker Conference To Feds: Stay Home

Aliya Sternstein | Nextgov | July 11, 2013

An annual hacker conclave in Las Vegas known as DEF CON in recent years had let the likes of the National Security Administration director mingle with attendees to recruit U.S. cyber warriors -- but not this year. Read More »

Hackers May Leak Microsoft Spying Docs, Grant Bill Gates's Wish For 'Intense Debates'

Ms. Smith | NetworkWorld | March 17, 2014

It seemed surprising that no one asked Bill Gates about NSA surveillance when he last did a Reddit Ask Me Anything session last month; but Rolling Stone didn't pass up the opportunity when interviewing Bill Gates.

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Here's Everything Microsoft Is Letting the Government See

Philip Bump and Rebecca Greenfield | The Atlantic Wire | July 11, 2013

For the first time, The Guardian is detailing how a tech company works with the National Security Agency to share user information under the NSA's PRISM program. Unfortunately, that tech company happens to be Microsoft, the one that makes the operating system used on 92 percent of computers in the world. Read More »

Holder's Disappointing Tech Legacy

Tim Wu | The New Yorker | September 26, 2014

As he leaves office, Attorney General Eric Holder is being celebrated for many accomplishments, particularly in areas like civil rights and racial justice, which he saw as his legacy...But, when it came to another frontier of civil rights—the digital world, in which most of us now spend much of our time—Holder fell far short...

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House Subcommittee Questions Cybersecurity at Power Networks

Josh Smith | Nextgov | February 28, 2012

While new computer technology has made power grids more effective, systems designed to secure those networks from cyberattacks continue to lag, Government Accountability Office officials told a House subcommittee on Tuesday. Read More »

How Accumulo Safeguards Your Civil Liberties

Jeffrey Kelly | Silicon Angle | June 7, 2013

It’s been widely reported that the NSA is in the midst of collecting huge volumes of call metadata from Verizon associated with all domestic and international calls made by the company’s customers for three months [...]. Less attention has been paid to what exactly the government does with all that data or the technology supporting it. Read More »

How Microsoft Handed The NSA Access To Encrypted Messages

Glenn Greenwald, Ewen MacAskill, Laura Poitras, et. al. | The Guardian | July 11, 2013

Microsoft has collaborated closely with US intelligence services to allow users' communications to be intercepted, including helping the National Security Agency to circumvent the company's own encryption, according to top-secret documents [...]. Read More »

How Snowden's Email Provider Plans To Build An NSA-Proof Communications Tool

Conor Friedersdorf | The Atlantic | November 5, 2013

Ladar Levison intends to offer a product with world-class cryptography and a user interface simple enough for a grandmother to master. Read More »

How The NSA Undermines Cybersecurity

Brendan Sasso | Nextgov.com | April 30, 2014

...Officials have warned for years that a sophisticated cyberattack could cripple critical infrastructure or allow thieves to make off with the financial information of millions of Americans. President Obama pushed Congress to enact cybersecurity legislation, and when it didn’t, he issued his own executive order in 2013...

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How The US Government Uses Information From Spying On Foreign Companies

Josh Meyer | Nextgov | July 18, 2013

There’s no longer doubt that the US government spies on foreign multinational corporations as well as governments, thanks to the disclosures by former National Security Agency contractor turned international fugitive Edward Snowden. [...] Read More »

How To Break Out Of PRISM

Simon Phipps | InfoWorld | June 14, 2013

NSA scandal has exploded fears of being watched on the Internet, but a new website lists ways to escape the Panopticon Read More »

I Challenged Hackers To Investigate Me And What They Found Out Is Chilling

Alan L. Penenberg | PandoDaily | October 26, 2013

It’s my first class of the semester at New York University. I’m discussing the evils of plagiarism and falsifying sources with 11 graduate journalism students when, without warning, my computer freezes. I fruitlessly tap on the keyboard as my laptop takes on a life of its own and reboots. [...] I’m being hacked — and only have myself to blame. Read More »

If PRISM Is Good Policy, Why Stop With Terrorism?

Derek Khanna | The Atlantic | July 4, 2013

Defenders of the program say its effectiveness excuses it -- but they ignore the Fourth Amendment. Read More »

IG: Government Has No Digital Cyber Warning System

Aliya Sternstein | Nextgov | November 5, 2013

The departments of Homeland Security and Defense, including the National Security Agency, have no way of sharing current alerts about computer breaches with each other or industry, an inspector general memorandum reveals. Read More »

In A Close Vote, Congress Shamefully Defeats Amendment That Sought To Curtail NSA Surveillance

Mark M. Jaycox | Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) | July 24, 2013

The US House of Representatives came within a few votes of passing a novel amendment that attempted to strike out funding for the highly contentious NSA calling records surveillance program... Read More »