The Department of Knowing All About You; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 11, 2017

James Bamford, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; The Department of Knowing All About You

"For decades, from the first World Trade Center bombing to 9/​11 to the recent Syrian poison gas attack, U.S. intelligence agencies have consistently been caught off guard, despite hundreds of billions of dollars spent on spies, eavesdroppers and satellites. IARPA’s answer is “anticipatory intelligence,” predicting the crime or event before it happens.

Like a scene from “Minority Report,” the 2002 film in which criminals are caught and punished by “precrime” police before they can commit their deeds, IARPA hopes to find terrorists, hackers and even protesters before they act. The group is devising robotic machines that can find virtually everything about everyone and issue automatic “precrime” alerts.

That’s the idea behind the agency’s Open Source Indicators (OSI) program: Build powerful automated computers, armed with artificial intelligence, specialized algorithms and machine learning, capable of cataloging the lives of everyone everywhere, 24/​7. Tapping real-time into tens of thousands of different data streams — every Facebook post, tweet and YouTube video; every tollbooth tag number; every GPS download, web search and news feed; every street camera video; every restaurant reservation on Open Table — largely eliminates surprise from the intelligence equation. To IARPA, the bigger the data, the fewer and smaller the surprises."

Attorney General Says Young People Don't Care As Much About Privacy As Previous Generations; BuzzFeedNews, June 10, 2017

Mark Di Stefano, BuzzFeedNews; Attorney General Says Young People Don't Care As Much About Privacy As Previous Generations

"In the wake of last week's recent terror attacks in London and Melbourne, the federal government has called for online companies to give security agencies freer access to platforms like WhatsApp and iMessage.

On Sunday, [Australia's] attorney-general George Brandis acknowledged on Sky News that civil libertarians had expressed serious concern about the government's recent moves to access encrypted messages.

But he said the public's attitudes towards privacy were changing, pointing to the so-called "Facebook generation".

"I think also community attitudes, particularly among younger people towards the concept of privacy are changing," Brandis said.

"In the Facebook generation when people put more and more of their own personal data out there, I think there is an entirely different attitude to privacy among young people then there was than perhaps a generation or two ago."

He suggested the the majority of people in Australia didn't prioritise privacy over giving security agencies more "tools" to fight terrorism.

"Let the civil liberties point of view be heard, let legitimate privacy concerns always be had regard to, but I think where the community is at at the moment is to prioritise their concern about giving law enforcement and intelligence agencies the tools they need to thwart terrorism.""

Intelligence officials’ outrageous contempt of Congress; Washington Post, June 7, 2017

Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post; Intelligence officials’ outrageous contempt of Congress

"All of these witnesses, national security adviser H.R. McMaster and other White House officials act as if they work for the president, not the American people. This is unacceptable in a functional democracy and would, if perpetuated, do serious damage to our democratic system. They need to tell the truth, the whole truth. Transparency and honesty cannot be optional for members of the executive branch. We will see if Republicans in Congress exhibit the same level of outrage as do Democrats. If not, they will be revealing their own willingness to defend the president and refusal to wholeheartedly perform their duties as required by their oaths."

America’s dangerous Internet delusion; Washington Post, May 21, 2017

Robert J. Samuelson, Washington Post; America’s dangerous Internet delusion

"We are addicted to the Internet and refuse to recognize how our addiction subtracts from our security. The more we connect our devices and instruments to the Internet, the more we create paths for others to use against us, either by shutting down websites or by controlling what they do. Put differently, we are — incredibly — inviting trouble. Our commercial interests and our national security diverge.

The latest example of this tension is the “Internet of things” or the “smart home.” It involves connecting various devices and gadgets (thermostats, lights, cameras, locks, ovens) to the Internet so they can be operated or monitored remotely."

'Risk' Is A Messy, Ambitious Portrait Of WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange; NPR, May 5, 2017

John Powers, NPR; 

'Risk' Is A Messy, Ambitious Portrait Of WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange

"Assange clearly believes that the world's power elite maintains control by doing things the public never gets to see. By leaking documents, he thinks, WikiLeaks is revealing how the world actually works — for instance, how Democratic National Committee big shots actually were conspiring to help Hillary Clinton beat Bernie Sanders.

Yet here's the problem. Just as most of us don't want our government secretly hoarding people's private information, we also don't want the release of sensitive documents to be controlled by a handful of leakers who answer to no one.

In last year's election, WikiLeaks didn't just leak things to damage Clinton — whom Assange considered a personal threat. The leaks failed to redact personal info about Clinton donors, like credit-card numbers, a violation of privacy called out by Snowden himself, though ignored by Poitras.

I don't trust Assange or any other unvetted source — and there will be more — to decide which documents from Russian hackers or NSA leakers get put on the web."

Ex-CIA operative Valerie Plame talks nuclear, cyber threats at CMU; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 22, 2017

Courtney Linder, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Ex-CIA operative Valerie Plame talks nuclear, cyber threats at CMU

"Ms. Plame, who worked to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons, referred to the Science and Security Board’s “Doomsday Clock” in her keynote speech at Carnegie Mellon University on Friday, prefacing a panel on inclusivity in STEM — or science, technology, engineering and math — for students and faculty.

In her hour-long discussion of nuclear threats and cybersecurity, Ms. Plame kept the conversation solutions-oriented, rather than dwelling on the high-profile “Plamegate” scandal that ended her espionage career."

WikiLeaks’ latest release of CIA cyber-tools could blow the cover on agency hacking operations; Washington Post, March 31, 2017

Ellen Nakashima, Washington Posr; WikiLeaks’ latest release of CIA cyber-tools could blow the cover on agency hacking operations

"WikiLeaks’ latest disclosure of CIA cyber-tools reveals a technique used by the agency to hide its digital tracks, potentially blowing the cover on current and past hacking operations aimed at gathering intelligence on terrorists and other foreign targets.

The release Friday of the CIA’s “Marble Framework” comes less than a month after the WikiLeaks dumped onto the Internet a trove of files — dubbed “Vault 7” — that described the type of malware and methods the CIA uses to gain access to targets’ phones, computers and other electronic devices...

WikiLeaks, founded by Julian Assange, has sought to position itself as a champion of transparency and defender of privacy rights. It described the Marble Framework as “the digital equivalent of a specialized CIA tool to place covers over the English language text on U.S. produced weapons systems before giving them to insurgents secretly backed by the CIA.”"

Ivanka Trump’s West Wing job isn’t just unethical. It’s also dangerous.; Washington Post, March 23, 2017

Helen Klein Murillo and Susan Hennessey, Washington Post; Ivanka Trump’s West Wing job isn’t just unethical. It’s also dangerous.

"The president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, is set to join his administration in an unspecified, but reportedly influential policy role. She claims she will not be a government employee despite having an office in the White House, holding a high-level security clearance and performing government work.

In a statement, Ivanka Trump concedes that there is “no modern precedent for an adult child of the president” but pledges to “voluntarily” comply with ethics rules. What the first daughter fails to acknowledge is that the very nature of her proposed role breaches ethical standards to which previous administrations have adhered for generations. That ethical breach does more than “shake up Washington” by breaking with norms and decorum — it threatens our national security."

With WikiLeaks Claims of C.I.A. Hacking, How Vulnerable Is Your Smartphone?; New York Times, March 7, 2017

Steve Lohr and Katie Benner, New York Times; 

With WikiLeaks Claims of C.I.A. Hacking, How Vulnerable Is Your Smartphone?

"If the documents are accurate, did the C.I.A. violate commitments made by President Barack Obama?

In 2010, the Obama administration promised to disclose newly discovered vulnerabilities to companies like Apple, Google and Microsoft. But the WikiLeaks documents indicate that the agency found security flaws, kept them secret and then used them for surveillance and intelligence gathering.

Why is it so hard to keep these cyberweapons under wraps?

Unlike nuclear weapons, which can be guarded and protected, cyberweapons are “just computer programs which can be pirated like any other,” WikiLeaks notes. “Since they are entirely comprised of information they can be copied quickly with no marginal cost.”

There is a growing black market dedicated to trading these weapons, and government agencies from around the world will pay well for their discovery."

WikiLeaks Releases What It Calls CIA Trove Of Cyber-Espionage Documents; NPR, March 7, 2017

Camila Domonoske, NPR; 

WikiLeaks Releases What It Calls CIA Trove Of Cyber-Espionage Documents

"WikiLeaks has released thousands of files that it identifies as CIA documents related to the agency's cyber-espionage tools and programs.

The documents published on Tuesday include instruction manuals, support documents, notes and conversations about, among other things, efforts to exploit vulnerabilities in smartphones and turn smart TVs into listening devices. The tools appear to be designed for use against individual targets, as part of the CIA's mandate to gather foreign intelligence."

How to rethink what’s ‘top secret’ for the Internet age; Washington Post, 12/16/16

Dianne Feinstein, Washington Post; How to rethink what’s ‘top secret’ for the Internet age:

"Rooted in a paper-based era, the existing classification system has become so complex and distorted that it no longer serves its fundamental goals: sharing secrets with our allies and partners while safeguarding this information from adversaries who would do us harm...

We may never fully eliminate the tendency of reviewers to overclassify information. But by working to implement these solutions, we can begin to change the dynamic. At the heart of this issue are dedicated government employees who truly want to do the right thing, and there’s an obvious natural instinct to protect secrets. But classification should shield secrets, not bury them."

Surveillance in the Post-Obama Era; New York Times, 10/8/16

Editorial Board, New York Times; Surveillance in the Post-Obama Era:

"One big issue is what to do when a key provision of the law that gives the N.S.A. the authority to collect the electronic communications of foreigners — which inevitably sucks in their correspondence with Americans — expires at the end of 2017. Before reauthorizing that part of the law, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the next president and Congress should craft a more narrow authority that ensures that the data of Americans cannot be searched without a warrant.

How best to respond to encryption technology, which is evolving rapidly, will be another major challenge...

The next president needs to take the initiative early on to outline a responsible philosophy and approach toward surveillance and privacy issues. Even if that happens, Congress still needs to be more assertive than in the past in setting clear parameters to ensure that intelligence gathering programs are legally sound and effective. It would be a shame if it took a new whistle-blower to force what should be a continuing, vigorous debate."

Report: 'Failure of OPM's leadership' led to historic data breaches; FedScoop, 9/7/16

Chris Bing, FedScoop; Report: 'Failure of OPM's leadership' led to historic data breaches:

"A 2014 data breach at the Office of Personnel Management was the result of failed leadership and consistent cybersecurity ignorance, according to an investigative report released Wednesday by members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

“The long-standing failure of OPM’s leadership to implement basic cyber hygiene, such as maintaining current authorities to operate and employing strong multi-factor authentication, despite years of warnings from the inspector general, represents a failure of culture and leadership, not technology,” states the report.

By disregarding warnings shared by the inspector general as far back as 2005, former Chief Information Officer Donna Seymour and Director Katherine Archuleta put the personal information of more than 20 million citizens at risk, Oversight chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said during a Wednesday appearance at D.C.-based think tank, the American Enterprise Institute...

"The government of the United States of America has never before been more vulnerable to cyberattacks,” the 241-page report reads."

Your privacy doesn’t matter at the U.S. border; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 8/29/16

Noah Feldman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Your privacy doesn’t matter at the U.S. border:

"The lesson from all this isn’t just that you approach a border at your own risk. It’s that major exceptions to our basic liberties should be interpreted narrowly, not broadly. Searching a reporter’s phone or anyone’s data isn’t within the government’s plausible set of purposes.

There are two ways to fix the problem. One is for Congress to pass a law that prohibits such border searches, as was proposed unsuccessfully in 2008 and 2009.

If Congress won’t act, though, it’s up to the Supreme Court to repair the damage it did in 1886 and 1977. It doesn’t need to overturn its precedent, just narrow it to cover the circumstances that Congress actually had in mind in 1789, namely border searches for goods being shipped illegally or without duty. That doesn’t include data. It would be a big improvement in constitutional doctrine — and civil liberties."

By November, Russian hackers could target voting machines; Washington Post, 7/27/16

Bruce Shneier, Washington Post; By November, Russian hackers could target voting machines:

"Russia was behind the hacks into the Democratic National Committee’s computer network that led to the release of thousands of internal emails just before the party’s convention began, U.S. intelligence agencies have reportedly concluded.

The FBI is investigating. WikiLeaks promises there is more data to come. The political nature of this cyberattack means that Democrats and Republicans are trying to spin this as much as possible. Even so, we have to accept that someone is attacking our nation’s computer systems in an apparent attempt to influence a presidential election. This kind of cyberattack targets the very core of our democratic process. And it points to the possibility of an even worse problem in November — that our election systems and our voting machines could be vulnerable to a similar attack."

How Putin Weaponized Wikileaks to Influence the Election of an American President; Defense One, 7/24/16

Patrick Tucker, Defense One; How Putin Weaponized Wikileaks to Influence the Election of an American President:

"The use of Wikileaks as the publishing platform served to legitimize the information dump, which also contains a large amount of personal information related to democratic donors such as social security and credit card numbers. This suggests that Wikileaks didn’t perform a thorough analysis of the documents before they released them, or simply didn’t care.

It’s the latest installment in a trend that information security researcher Bruce Schneier calls organizational doxing and that Lawfare’s Nicholas Weaver calls the weaponization of Wikileaks."

Donald Trump Calls on Russia to Find Hillary Clinton’s Missing Emails; New York Times, 7/27/16

Ashley Parker, New York Times; Donald Trump Calls on Russia to Find Hillary Clinton’s Missing Emails:

"Donald J. Trump said Wednesday that he hoped Russia had hacked Hillary Clinton’s email, essentially encouraging an adversarial foreign power’s cyberspying on a secretary of state’s correspondence.

“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Mr. Trump said, staring directly into the cameras. “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”

Mr. Trump’s call was an extraordinary moment at a time when Russia is being accused of meddling in the U.S. presidential election. His comments came amid questions about the hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s computer servers, which researchers have concluded was likely the work of two Russian intelligence agencies.

Later in the news conference, when asked if he was really urging a foreign nation to hack into the private email server of Mrs. Clinton, or at least meddle in the nation’s elections, he dismissed the question. “That’s up to the president,” Mr. Trump said, before finally telling the female questioner to “be quiet — let the president talk to them.”"

How the U.S. Could Respond to the DNC Breach; Slate, 7/26/16

Laura K. Bate, Slate; How the U.S. Could Respond to the DNC Breach:

"After a possible Russian attempt to influence U.S. elections by hacking the Democratic National Committee, the FBI has announced that it will investigate the origins of the hack. International interference in the democratic process has a long and storied past, but inhibiting self-determination is generally considered unacceptable and warrants a response.

But what should that response be? Below are six different paths the United States could take to answer the data breach. The choice will depend on many factors—the evidence supporting Russian involvement, the state of U.S.–Russian relations, the challenge of avoiding the appearance of using the tools of government to assist the Democratic candidate. Whatever the United States does or does not do will set an important precedent worldwide."

Assange, Avowed Foe of Clinton, Timed Email Release for Democratic Convention; New York Times, 7/26/16

Charlie Savage, New York Times; Assange, Avowed Foe of Clinton, Timed Email Release for Democratic Convention:

"Six weeks before the anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks published an archive of hacked Democratic National Committee emails ahead of the Democratic convention, the organization’s founder, Julian Assange, foreshadowed the release — and made it clear that he hoped to harm Hillary Clinton’s chances of winning the presidency...

At one point, Mr. Peston said: “Plainly, what you are saying, what you are publishing, hurts Hillary Clinton. Would you prefer Trump to be president?”

Mr. Assange replied that what Mr. Trump would do as president was “completely unpredictable.” By contrast, he thought it was predictable that Mrs. Clinton would wield power in two ways he found problematic.

First, citing his “personal perspective,” Mr. Assange accused Mrs. Clinton of having been among those pushing to indict him after WikiLeaks disseminated a quarter of a million diplomatic cables during her tenure as secretary of state.

“We do see her as a bit of a problem for freedom of the press more generally,” Mr. Assange said."

Bigger than Watergate: The Russian-orchestrated DNC email hack places our national sovereignty at stake; Salon, 7/27/16

Bob Cesca, Salon; Bigger than Watergate: The Russian-orchestrated DNC email hack places our national sovereignty at stake:

"As of this writing, further details along with the chain-of-evidence is still being established by journalists, security experts and the FBI. (By the way, before anyone kneejerks to the “crazy conspiracy theory” conclusion, it’s worth noting that everyone from the former U.S. ambassador to Russia, to A-list reporter Richard Engel, along with The Daily Beast, ABC News, NBC News, Yahoo! News, Slate, TPM, Vice and The Washington Post have been uncovering new and frightening aspects of this story going back to June and culminating with the past 48 hours.) According to investigative journalists at Vice’s “Motherboard,” in particular, a security firm hired by the DNC discovered the existence of “two sophisticated adversaries” that had infiltrated the Democratic Party’s internal email network. Known as “APT 28″ and “APT 29,” the handles are used by both the Russian intelligence service, the FSB (formerly the KGB) and the Russian military intelligence agency, the GRU. Later, using a front handle known as the aforementioned “Guccifer 2.0,” the agencies announced back in June that it had given Wikileaks “thousands of files and mails.”

Regarding the content of some of the emails, bear this in mind: according to conservative author and former NSA analyst, John Schindler, who, by the way, is no fan of Hillary Clinton, part of the FSB’s tradecraft is to fabricate intelligence and toss it into a cocktail of legitimate documents. In other words, it’s fair to speculate, based on Russia’s modus operandi, that the questionable emails were doctored, if not manufactured for impact, while exculpatory emails might’ve been scrubbed from the tranche. We have to question everything here, given the tenacity of Putin’s propaganda efforts...

One last thing: if you’re only looking at this story as an internal DNC scandal, you’re missing the despotic forest for the trees. We can’t emphasize enough: this story is bigger than Bernie or Hillary. It’s bigger than Trump. It speaks directly to the sovereignty of our electoral process. The sooner it’s treated this way, the better off we’ll be."