Mediaboss Marketing

For the past few years, there has been much discussion regarding the separation of these two agencies as CYBERCOM was co-located with NSA at its standing up to help get the organization on its feet. As their capabilities and capacities mature, there has arisen a heated argument between some in the executive branch and in Congress to split the two, something that was always envisioned with no clear timeline indicated.

According to officials, DoD does not have an official position on the advantages and disadvantages of the dual-hat leadership arrangement of NSA/CSS and CYBERCOM, GAOs report said. As of March 2017, DoD officials informed us that DoD had not determined whether it would end the dual-hat leadership arrangement and was reviewing the steps and funding necessary to meet the requirements established in the law.

Advantages include more in-depth coordination and collaboration, faster decision-making and more efficient use of resources.

Disadvantages, meanwhile, citing comments from officials canvased, include:

Congress has stipulated a series of measures the government must meet prior to severing the dual-hat, one of which is the cyber mission force must reach full operational capability, something that is not slated to occur until September 2018.

The GAO report also outlined, based on conversations with DoD officials, efforts to mitigate risks associated with ending the dual-hat. They include:

View original post here:
What do DoD officials think of splitting NSA/CYBERCOM dual hat? - Federal Times

Kim Dotcom has been of interest to the US government and law enforcement agencies for some time, and it was ruled that the Mega and Megaupload founder could be extracted to the US. But now it seems that the NSA was spying on the internet entrepreneur after surveillance was supposed to have stopped.

New Zealand's Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) had been working with the NSA on a joint surveillance operation called Operation Debut. While surveillance was supposed to have stopped in January 2012, it has emerged that the NSA continued to use GCSB's technology without its knowledge.

According to a report in the New Zealand Herald, GCSB "lost control of its surveillance technology" and later discovered that it had been used to continue to spy on Dotcom for at least an additional two months. The information has come to light in new documents released by the GCSB to the High Court.

The admission is being used as evidence that the NSA was illegally spying on Dotcom while he was resident in New Zealand, using GCSB equipment. It is not clear how this surveillance operation could have been continued by the NSA without GCSB's knowledge, but Dotcom has issued a warning:

New Zealanders must know how much power a foreign state holds over their private information. The NSA has unrestricted access to GCSB surveillance systems. In fact, most of the technology the GCSB uses was supplied by the NSA. If the GCSB was aiding and abetting the NSA to spy directly on New Zealanders then the seriousness of the situation has changed dramatically and a truly independent inquiry and a new criminal investigation will be unavoidable.

The documents show that GCSB systems were also used to illegally spy on an additional 88 people.

Photo credit: Kim Dotcom

Read the original:
NSA illegally spied on Kim Dotcom in New Zealand - BetaNews

NSA awards $174000 grant to CSU to help develop cybersecurity tool Columbus Ledger-Enquirer Further cementing its ambitions as a national powerhouse in cybersecurity education, Columbus State University announced Tuesday that it received a $174,000 grant from the National Security Agency to develop a new tool for rapid cybersecurity training ...

View original post here:
NSA awards $174000 grant to CSU to help develop cybersecurity tool - Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden argues that Russia's decision to outlaw VPNs is a "tragedy of policy".

Edward Snowden has laid into the Russian government for banning the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) and other tools that people can use to circumvent censorship and surveillance.

Russian president Vladimir Putin signed the law on Sunday, prompting a Twitter tirade from Snowden, the US National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower who has been sheltering in Moscow since 2013.

Snowden called the decision a "tragedy of policy" that would make Russia "both less safe and less free". He also linked the government's move to China's crackdown on VPN technology, which led Apple to pull dozens of VPN apps from its Chinese App Store over the weekend.

"Whether enacted by China, Russia, or anyone else, we must be clear this is not a reasonable 'regulation,' but a violation of human rights," Snowden wrote, arguing that: "If the next generation is to enjoy the online liberties ours did, innocuous traffic must become truly indistinguishable from the sensitive."

He also appeared to urge tech industry workers to push back against the anti-VPN trend.

Linking Russia's move to China's crackdown on VPN technology, Snowden urged tech workers to be vigilant.

Snowden is these days the president of the Freedom of the Press Foundation. In line with his 2013 decision to expose the NSA's mass-surveillance activities, he has long been an advocate of individuals being able to protect their communications and online activities.

However, he has previously warned against people relying too much on VPNs, because their operators may be vulnerable to hacks or subpoenas that could expose users.

The former NSA contractor originally fled from the US to Hong Kong, where he famously started working with newspapers to expose the agency's activities.

Then, while apparently trying to fly to Latin America, Snowden found himself stranded at a Moscow airport because the US had cancelled his passport. The Russians granted him asylum, which was extended for "a couple more years" in January this year.

During his stay there, Snowden has occasionally voiced strong criticism of Russia's surveillance policies.

In mid-2016, when the Russian government introduced a data-retention law and forced communications providers to help decrypt people's messages, the American said the legislation was "an unworkable, unjustifiable violation of rights that should never have been signed".

In 2014, he also denounced the so-called Blogger's Law, which imposed restrictions on what bloggers can write.

The latest law, banning VPNs, will come into effect in November this year. It is mainly intended to stop Russians viewing websites that are on the official state blacklist.

Continued here:
NSA whistleblower Snowden: VPN ban makes Russia 'less safe and less free' - ZDNet

Data privacyregulationin the U.S. hasbeen a thorny issuewith provisions such as the National Security Letters (NSLs) allowing unfettered access to law enforcement agencies into citizens communications.

The power endowed on the government by laws such as the Stored Communications Act has madeaccessing citizens email and other communications fairly easy in the post-2001 period for agencies such as the CIA and the FBI.

Read: Was My Samsung TV Hacked?: How To Tell If Your Smart TV Was Compromised By CIA Weeping Angel Hack

However, it might not remain so thanks to the efforts of tech companies and senators.

While tech companies such as Microsoft are wooing Congress to pass stricter privacy regulations, many senators have introduced bills such as the Email Privacy Act, amendment to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and the International Communications Privacy Act, with the common goal of imposing strict regulations on access to privatecommunications.

Apple had also taken a stand by refusing to provide the government a master key to iPhones following the San Bernardino shootings in 2015.

The battle between privacy and security has been waged for long, and citizens privacy rights have been sacrificed at the altar of national security. Agencies such as NSA and CIA have even peered into communications illegally, using tools such as the Weeping Angel hack to listen to people using smart TVs.

The root of all privacy battles is the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act, an outdated statute that bypassed warrants for lookinginto citizens communications.

The amended Electronic Communications Privacy Act would require law enforcement officials to obtain warrants for accessing remotely stored emails and communications which are more than 180 days old.

The bill would also require the authorities to obtain warrants for accessing location data. More importantly it would impose restrictions on gag orders, which prohibit companies from making the governments requests for access to users data public.

Americans dont believe the federal government should have warrantless access to their emails just because they are 180 days old. They dont believe the government should be able to always know where you are just because you are carrying a cell phone. It is long past time that Congress updated our federal laws to better protect Americans privacy, Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) stated in an open letter published on his website Thursday.

Read: Are Smart Home Devices Safe? Indoor Mapping Data Collection Poses Privacy Risk

The endeavor has been praised by privacy activists such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

National security concerns which were raised post 9/11 have highly endangered user privacy. With changing technology and improved means of communication, the ambit of government surveillance has also expanded.

While Europe has already begun a clampdown on privacy violations, the U.S. is yet to do so. Butif tech companies and the Senate sustain their efforts to guard user privacy, chances are we might be able to achieve the delicate balance between privacy and security in the near future.

See the original post:
Privacy Regulations May Improve As Senators, Companies Try To Curtail NSA-Style Snooping - International Business Times