United States

British spy agency said to tap world's phone calls, e-mails

Accusations of broad government surveillance have traveled across the pond. Britain's intelligence agency has reportedly been collecting and storing vast amounts of data from the world's telephone calls and Internet traffic -- and sharing that information with the National Security Agency.

Britain's Government Communications Headquarters secretly gained access to fiber-optic cables that carry the world's communications, reports the Guardian. The GCHQ taps into huge amounts of data from these cables and stores it for up to 30 days to be looked over by analysts from GCHQ and the NSA.

The Guardian reported Friday that documents shown … Read more

How Web mail providers leave door open for NSA surveillance

Billions of supposedly private e-mail messages a day flow through unsecured links, where they can be snared in digital dragnets operated by the National Security Agency and other intelligence services.

Recent revelations about NSA surveillance -- including a top-secret document discussing "collection of communications on fiber cables and infrastructure as data flows past" -- have highlighted the ease with which government eavesdroppers can exploit the Internet's infrastructure. Another classified document, which the Guardian published Thursday, mentions network-based surveillance of Hotmail servers.

Over the last decade or so, Web mail providers began to turn on encryption to armor the connections … Read more

North Korea calls U.S 'kingpin of human rights abuses' following NSA leaks

North Korea has pounced on the recent revelations of NSA snooping to take a few digs at the United States.

Minju Joson, the country's state-run newspaper, lashed out at the U.S. in the wake of leaks from National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden that the NSA has been collecting data on U.S. citizens under a secret program known as PRISM. Snowden also said last week that the U.S. has been hacking into computers in China and Hong Kong for the past several years.

A commentary in Minju Joson called the U.S. "a kingpin of human rights abuses … Read more

Don't graduate if you don't have the latest tech skills

Looking at recent economic data, there are reasons to be concerned and also optimistic. The overall unemployment rate has been down, and then it's been up. The Dow Jones hit a record 15,000 points and nonfarm payroll employment expanded to 165,000 jobs in April alone. But a record number of people continue to drop out of the job market altogether.

While some of the recent announcements beat economists' forecasts, most of us can still feel the stagnation of the economy. The overall unemployment rate is moving at a snail's pace -- and not always in the … Read more

NSA leaker's purported online activity, interests come to light

Scrutiny is coming to the motives and methods of Edward Snowden with the discovery of many years of online postings apparently from the man who said he leaked information on the NSA's electronic surveillance activities.

The 29-year-old former government contractor appears to have published comments and questions hundreds of times on the technology site Ars Technica under the username TheTrueHOOHA, according to reports from Reuters, Ars Technica, and Anthony de Rosa, who's about to join mobile news site Circa. Buzzfeed compiled some highlights, and Reuters also spotlighted some profile information on another site, since removed, called Ryuhana Press. … Read more

NSA surveillance retrospective: AT&T, Verizon never denied it

When Internet companies were recently accused of allowing the National Security Agency direct access to their servers, they strenuously denied it. But when AT&T was accused of allowing the NSA direct access to its network, it did the opposite.

Mark Klein, who worked as an AT&T technician for over 22 years, disclosed in 2006 (PDF) that he met with NSA officials and witnessed domestic Internet traffic being "diverted" through a "splitter cabinet" to secure room 641A in one of the company's San Francisco facilities. Only NSA-cleared technicians were allowed to work … Read more

Mozilla, EFF, ACLU rally public against electronic surveillance

Incensed at revelations of U.S. government surveillance programs, Mozilla, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union, Reddit, and others have launched an effort called StopWatching.Us to marshal opposition to the secret programs.

"The revelations about the National Security Agency's surveillance apparatus, if true, represent a stunning abuse of our basic rights," the site says. "We demand the U.S. Congress reveal the full extent of the NSA's spying programs."

The site includes a petition that people can sign and send electronically. Other participants in the initiative include the American Library … Read more

U.S. releases details on PRISM

In response to the furor over reports of a classified surveillance program called PRISM, the U.S. director of National Intelligence has released a statement saying PRISM-related activities are "lawful" and "fully debated and authorized by Congress" and has issued a fact sheet on PRISM that says the government doesn't simply scoop information from company servers.

"PRISM is not an undisclosed collection or data mining program," reads the fact sheet, which bears the letterhead of Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper. "It is an internal government computer system used to facilitate … Read more

No evidence of NSA's 'direct access' to tech companies

Update, June 8 at 2:45 p.m. PT: In response to outcry over PRISM, the U.S. director of national intelligence has released some details. Among other things, he says the government "does not unilaterally obtain information from the servers of U.S. electronic communication service providers" and that PRISM-related activities are conducted "under court supervision." More here.

The National Security Agency has not obtained direct access to the systems of Apple, Google, Facebook, and other major Internet companies, CNET has learned.

Recent reports in The Washington Post and The Guardian claimed a classified program … Read more