NSA used PRISM to collect more than 200 million internet communications a year as of 2011

theverge.com ^ | 8/21/13 | T.C. Sottek

[Nachum]

According to a declassified order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, as of 2011, the US National Security Agency was "acquiring" more than 250 million "internet communications" each year under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act (FAA) — the statute that allows the NSA to collect the content of internet communications. The order states that the "vast majority" of these communications were obtained from internet service providers under PRISM, and that only nine percent of of the total internet communications acquired by the NSA were part of its "upstream" collection practices, which pull data directly from telecommunications cables.

The order is set to be declassified today following a FOIA request from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and was originally disseminated by The Washington Post.

[Black Agnes]

My husband does both. He’s not convinced VPN traffic is secure.

He’s got 20 years in network business and sets up comm networks for big customers for a living.

[familyop]

Waste our time reading through the author's wild generalizations, and we see

"Responding to Soltani, CDT senior staff technologist Joseph Lorenzo Hall expressed skepticism that the NSA can break all VPN encryption. But Soltani contends the NSA at least has the capability to crack weak cipher implementations on Windows machines common in the Middle East,..."
"NSA Surveillance Can Penetrate VPNs"
Thomas Claburn
InformationWeek


More accurate information can be found in discussions and archives for the development of secure, open-source systems.

For further reading of an example of use of the FUD tactic, read about the OpenBSD ipsec back door hoax. But while looking for information on that, avoid the publications of vague generalizations that most corporate/government office managers have preferred.

[Black Agnes]

I wasn’t discussing the article’s author.

I was discussing my hubby’s opinion.

As far as breaking encryption goes. I have to words for this. Proprietary hardware.

That neither you nor I will ever see.

[VanShuyten]

In the immortal words of Jimmy Cagney in White Heat”,

Come and get me, coppers!

[familyop]

"My husband does both. He’s not convinced VPN traffic is secure.

He’s got 20 years in network business and sets up comm networks for big customers for a living."

He's most likely great at securing systems himself, but there's not much that anyone can do to secure systems very well for that kind of client. Such clients tend to defeat good security.

Operating systems and user software in the offices of most big clients are full of holes--not often audited or patched, and not by many. With weak servers and workstations, employees download and install viruses. So-called techs. in some companies reinstall whole images as a terrible solution. I've seen it first hand, too. :-)

For the purpose of this discussion (privacy in communications), there are generally two kinds of VPNs. He'll know the difference. Secure operating systems, workstations/terminals and behaviors are even more important. Without those security measures closer to home, relatively secure firewalls and VPNs can't do it all.

No one has consistently cracked 256-bit AES, yet (only one example of several), and that's not going to happen for at least a little while (not even with exaFLOPS of throughput). Some mathematicians have found methods that might speed cracking strong encryption up a little (often over-hyped with implications of practical cracks), but no practical cracks, yet.

And the other weakest link to secure is the operating system and user software in front of us. A system like NetBSD is a good choice--or OpenBSD for dummies (secure by default if not messed up by the user). Some Linux systems are okay but a little weak in some ways (kernel implementation, not isolated enough, some code elements, etc.). Weaknesses in browsers must also be avoided (Flash, scripts, unwise browsing itself, etc.).

Contrary to recent, hyperbolic articles about national defense intelligence (mostly very clean cut), local public corruption here and there and other criminals are the main concerns of most Internet users.

[Black Agnes]

VPN information is probably safe from the ‘internet criminal’ type of marauder.

I wouldn’t assume the feds can’t read that in real time.

The encryption breaking you’re familiar with uses regular computers. I wouldn’t bet that the feds don’t have ‘other’ stuff available.

Now, you just need to hope that nobody on the fed side isn’t corrupt enough to give the criminal element access to data.

[familyop]

"As far as breaking encryption goes. I have to words for this. Proprietary hardware.

That neither you nor I will ever see."

There are only a few mathematical methods that can be used to speed a crack so far, whether used in hardware or otherwise. Nothing's nearly fast enough to decrypt strong encryption, yet, and that won't happen for a while (see stages of development in nanotech., light, etc.).

The real eggheads and their work tend to be rather well known and principled, and social engineering won't get much more than trouble.

[Bryan24]

Got news for you. If it is an electronic transmission, the odds of it being read are about 99.999999%

If you don’t want the government to read it, don’t send it electronically.

[Black Agnes]

I have a PhD in a STEM field. Towards the EM side of that. I’ve seen ethical misdoings that would curl your hair. IQ is no clear delineator of ethics. Unfortunately.

[familyop]

True about education and ethics. We’re seeing improprieties from the not-so-various sides in politics, business and academia.

One interesting related study might be that of Vaclav Havel and nonpolitical politics (Czechoslovakia), for those who can find the information without the common whitewash. And Poland. That, with the austerity ahead for many of us in mind (maybe with a dash of re-study of micro-situations during the Great Depression). Personal savings and technical studies (repairs, food, energy, etc.) would also be wise for the near future. Sooner or later, most of us are going to straighten up.

[BfloGuy]

Tomorrow belongs to me.

That scene from "Cabaret" has stuck with me since I first saw it on TV in the sixties.

[bamahead]

Libertarian ping! Click here to get added or here to be removed or post a message here!

[GOPJ]

Thanks

- - NSA - The only part of government that actually listens...Joe Kovacs

[familyop]

"I’ve seen ethical misdoings that would curl your hair. IQ is no clear delineator of ethics. Unfortunately."

I didn't intend for my previous reply to you to seem so laissez faire. Sorry. I do see what you mean (and where). It's a little surprising that some federal offices or contractors have turned to social pathologies. Similar things have been happening at the lower levels in education. Did do some sub'ing long ago at a school in an area of tourism in the mountains--disgusting experience at times with a few other teachers and administrators.

I try to offer solutions--what meager solutions occur--for individuals caught up in the paradigm of violations of privacy and hard economic times with a view toward possible future opportunities for remedies (austerity, ingenuity, technocracy of the truly technical kind). I do little home heating experiments among other things (extreme cold agriculture, other energy stuff) in the middle of cold nowhere (low cost, low pressure, low temperature, drain-back designs). It's about saving money and not so much about environmentalism. That's also why I bother with certain computer operating systems (embedded for watching transducers, etc.).

There's no money in such low cost, labor-intensive builds (a struggle to get by, actually--not even trying to sell the work), but there might be other rewards. Residents, local governments and contractors wanted expensive systems with less thought behind them (expensive closed loop, high pressure, high temperature packages regulated from labs in places like Florida). They are more concerned about social politics/environmentalism and avoiding variations (complications) than with keeping costs down.

[Black Agnes]

No problem. I didn’t think you were being trite at all.

Some people have this romantic notion of ‘eggheads’ and stuff that’s just not true.

Public schools have long been Lord of the Flies. Sadly, even the good private ones are turning into that.

There’s a lotta crazy out there.

[piasa]

Bump