The National Security Agency is secretly piggybacking on the tools that enable Internet advertisers to track consumers, using "cookies" and location data to pinpoint targets for government hacking and to bolster surveillance.
The agency's internal presentation slides, provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, show that when companies follow consumers on the Internet to better serve them advertising, the technique opens the door for similar tracking by the government. The slides also suggest that the agency is using these tracking techniques to help identify targets for offensive hacking operations.
Read moreOstensibly concerned that terrorists would disguise themselves as gamers in order to secretly communicate, agents from the NSA, CIA, Pentagon and Britain's GCHQ have posed undercover in online realms like World of Warcraft, Second Life, and Xbox Live. In fact, the practice grew so popular with the spy agencies that a special "deconfliction" group was established to prevent the agents from inadvertently spying on or trying to recruit each other.
Our country's best and brightest began disguising themselves as digital trolls, elves, and supermodels in 2008, after a top-secret NSA documents—provided by Edward Snowden described the games as a "target-rich communication network" that lets terrorists and other criminals "hide in plain sight."
Read moreToday published an open letter signed by the heads of leading IT-companies in the U.S., addressed to President Barack Obama and members of Congress. In his message to industry leaders need to review legislation on surveillance to action intelligence services do not undermine people's confidence in the new technology.
"We understand that the obligation of governments - to protect citizens. But the revelations made by this summer, emphasized the urgent need to reform the surveillance programs conducted by states around the world, "- said in an open letter, which was signed by the heads of AOL, Apple, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Twitter, Yahoo. Executives fear that the surveillance program will undermine user confidence in information technology.
Read moreInternet experts say huge chunks of sensitive web traffic have been routinely hijacked by hackers and diverted to foreign computers, compromising the data of victims in at least 150 cities worldwide.
Researchers at New Hampshire-based global internet intelligence company Renesys say that they’ve witnessed a complex type of Man-in-the-Middle attack occur on computer networks no fewer than 60 days this year already, the likes of which they say should never have happened. The method of attack exploits a vulnerability in the Border Gateway Protocol, or BGP, and takes advantage of the fact that much of the information routed through the global system of networks.
Read moreSweden has been a key partner for the United States in spying on Russia, Swedish television reported on Thursday, citing leaked documents from the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA).
Swedish television said it had obtained the documents from Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who brought NSA contractor Edward Snowden's leaks about mass surveillance by the agency to world attention. Greenwald tweeted on Thursday that the close relationship between the United States and Sweden could not be "overstated" and that this was the first of many revelations to come. Earlier this year, Snowden leaked details of a global spying programme by the NSA, stirring international criticism. The U.S. has said much of the information was a result of cooperation with other intelligence services.
Read moreAccording to the Canadian non-governmental organization Centre for Research on Globalization, MI6 agent tasked to locate a former CIA granted temporary asylum in Russia. Earlier lawyer Snowden said that American lives and works in Moscow, but specific addresses are kept secret for security purposes.
In a statement, the organization said that the British authorities are seeking Snowden and forward it to the UK or the U.S.. In this Centre for Research on Globalization does not the source of his information. On the organization's website states that MI-6 agents in Moscow engaged in intelligence analysis of social networks, which they were granted U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) and the Center for Government Communications UK. This refers to the possible whereabouts Snowden.
Read moreThe NSA collects nearly 5 billion records a day on the locations of cell phones overseas to create a huge database that stores information from hundreds of millions of devices, including those belonging to some Americans abroad.
Documents provided to the Post by NSA leaker Edward Snowden detail how this database is able to track people worldwide and map out their relationships with others. The NSA inadvertently gathers U.S. location records, along with the billions of other records it collects by tapping into worldwide mobile network cables.The database and projects designed to analyze it have created a mass surveillance tool for the NSA, allowing it to monitor individuals in a way never seen before.
Read moreOver 2 million passwords for popular social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as Google and Yahoo accounts have been stolen and posted online, with Russian social networks VKontakte and Odnoklassniki also featuring on the hitlist.
Internet security firm Trustwave exposed the extensive data hoard, saying in its blog that the responsible botnet – dubbed Pony – had harvested information from thousands of vulnerable computers on a global scale.
The information included login credentials, email addresses and passwords. In total, 1,580,000 website login credentials were stolen, alongside 320,000 email and 41,000 FTP accounts.
Read moreThe Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger on Tuesday vigorously defended his decision to publish a series of articles based on the secret files leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.
Telling a parliamentary committee that the right to continue pursuing the story goes to the heart of press freedoms and democracy in Britain.
Rusbridger also told lawmakers that the Guardian had published only 1 percent of the 58,000 files it had received from Snowden.
Read moreIn 2008 Australian intelligence agencies offered to share the confidential information about Australians with the U.S. It was reported by the Australian edition of The Guardian newspaper, referring to the new documents submitted by Edward Snowden.
According to the newspaper, it is a previously unknown cooperation page of the five countries intelligence that makes up the so-called Group of Five Eyes (“Five Eyes”). Besides the U.S. and Australia, it includes Canada, United Kingdom and New Zealand. As it was previously reported, the purpose of the contract of Five Eyes is not only spying on terrorists, its main task is to collect political, diplomatic and economic information.
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