Internet

The Washington Post published on Saturday a set of slides regarding PRISM, revealing more details about the National Security Agency's controversial surveillance program and how it operates.

The new slides, which come nearly a month after former NSA employee Edward Snowden leaked classified documents to the press about the program, appear to confirm that the NSA and FBI have the ability to perform real-time surveillance of e-mail and stored content.

The slides also seem to contradict denials from tech companies such as Google, Apple, Yahoo, and Microsoft about their level of participation in the program. The program "uses … Read more

Secret documents describing the National Security Agency's surveillance apparatus have highlighted vulnerabilities in outdated Web encryption used by Facebook and a handful of other U.S. companies.

Documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden confirm that the NSA taps into fiber optic cables "upstream" from Internet companies and vacuums up e-mail and other data that "flows past" -- a security vulnerability that "https" Web encryption is intended to guard against.

But Facebook and a few other companies still rely on an encryption technique viewed as many years out of date, which cryptographers … Read more

The U.S. Army has apparently opted to restrict Army personnel access to The Guardian's Web site after the newspaper broke stories about the National Security Agency's confidential surveillance activities.

The Army is filtering "some access to press coverage and online content about the NSA leaks," Gordon Van Vleet, a spokesman for the Army's Network Enterprise Technology Command, told the Monterey Herald. Netcom is charged with operating and defending the Army's computer networks.

Van Vleet told the Herald that the Department of Defense routinely takes preventative "network hygiene" measures to prevent unauthorized … Read more

Want to play a game of "guess who?"

A newly disclosed top secret document lauds the National Security Agency's "productive" and long-standing surveillance "partnership" with a pair of telecommunications providers -- that permitted tapping into their fiber links -- but without naming names.

This is where things get interesting for clue sleuths.

Even in the top-secret document published by the Guardian today, the firms are described only as "Company A" and "Company B." But the NSA's inspector general did disclose that, at the time the program was being … Read more

The most secretive court in the nation, which has been criticized for authorizing domestic surveillance by the National Security Agency, has taken a tiny step toward openness in lawsuits brought by Google and Microsoft.

CNET has learned that Reggie Walton, the presiding judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, told the Obama administration last week that -- barring any objections from the government -- he would take the unusual step of disclosing procedural information about the Internet companies' litigation.

The Department of Justice responded yesterday by saying it had no objections. Neither Google nor Microsoft's legal briefs "contain … Read more

Following Google's lead, Microsoft has asked a secretive U.S. surveillance court to lift a gag order prohibiting it from disclosing more information about government requests it receives for customer data.

The software giant cited the First Amendment in its nine-page filing last week with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, arguing that U.S. government restrictions on what it can disclose constitute a "content-based restriction on speech." The filing was made public Wednesday.

Google filed a similar motion with the court last week, arguing that it has "a right under the First Amendment to publish" … Read more

Revelations about the National Security Agency's surveillance abilities have highlighted shortcomings in many Internet companies' security practices that can expose users' confidential communications to government eavesdroppers.

Secret government files leaked by Edward Snowden outline a U.S. and U.K. surveillance apparatus that's able to vacuum up domestic and international data flows by the exabyte. One classified document describes "collection of communications on fiber cables and infrastructure as data flows past," and another refers to the NSA's network-based surveillance of Microsoft's Hotmail servers.

Most Internet companies, however, do not use an privacy-protective encryption technique … Read more

Microsoft said today that it will be offering developers early access to its Kinect for Windows program. For $399, developers will get access to tools and a pre-release sensor.

The program begins this November in order to ensure enough time to ready new applications before Kinect for Windows is shipped next year.

Those taking part in the program will get direct access to the Kinect for Windows engineering team, early access to ongoing builds of the software development kit, private access to all API and sample documentation, the pre-release sensor, and a production sensor at launch.

The news was announced … Read more

The so-called father of the World Wide Web wants to protect his child from governments and corporations.

Tim Berners-Lee was in the U.K. on Tuesday and was one of several people to receive the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering. At the event, the inventor of the Web was asked about the allegations made by Edward Snowden that governments are using the Web to tap into the communications of private citizens, The Guardian reported Wednesday.

In response, Berners-Lee said: "The original design of the Web of 24 years ago was for a universal space, we didn't have a … Read more