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NSA

Chinese media demand sanctions against US tech companies

technologyEdward Kiledjian
Photo by Rene Mensen under Creative Commons License

Photo by Rene Mensen under Creative Commons License

3 things we know governments will always do are:

  1. Tax
  2. Spend
  3. Spy

The last point, fueled by the Ed Snowden leaks, seems to be keeping the media busy. Now the China-run state-owned media is calling on the Chinese government to sanction the major US technology companies who are "pawns of the US Government".

China Daily and People's Daily have called upon their leaders to "severely punish" the companies mentioned in the Edward Snowden leaks.

“U.S. companies including Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, etc. are all coordinating with the PRISM program to monitor China,”
— Peoples Daily Microblog site

Most companies have openly and vehemently denied working with the NSA. One such spokesperson is Google Chief Legal Officer David Drummond

“We cannot say this more clearly - the (U.S.) government does not have access to Google servers - not directly, or via a back door, or a so-called drop box”

I believe the next few month will be interesting. Let's see how (and if) China takes an official position. It is important to remember that Chinese telcom equipment manufacturers were disqualified from bidding on US government contracts because of concerns about spying. Now that the Snowden leaks show the US may be intercepting Cisco equipment to implant its own hidden tools, could other countries start boycotting US telecom equipment manufacturers?

Source : Reuters

Move your email service to Switzerland

InfoSecEdward Kiledjian
kolab_Swiss_Services_1.png

Since the PRISM revelations, we have seen a handful of "secure" email services shutter their doors or close their email services (Silent Circle, Lavabit, etc). Then came the shutdown of websites dependent on anonymity of sources (Groklaw).

With all the turmoil, you may be looking for an email service less likely to bend to the will of the NSA (or other national security agency). I can't think of a better country than Switzerland. The email service recommended by the founder of Groklaw is now offering a less expensive lite of its email service.

MyKolab's lite version offers a simple email service with no additional add-ons (calendar, tasks, etc) for $5.25US per month. The assumption is that a Swiss company can remain more independent and isn't subject to pressure from foreign intelligence agencies. 

This sounds great but remember that the US and UK are slurping up internet information at the carrier level so even if Kolab doesn't provide a backdoor, the agencies can still take-in the data as it makes its way through the internet. We also know that all encrypted emails are saved for later analysis and email leaves a trail of metadata (who you emailed, when and how many times).

I understand why people are upset but its important to remember that nothing revealed so far touches pre-crime and shouldn't cause a panic for the average user. I don't think using this type of service makes you more secure. If you want absolute security, nothing beats a secret face to face meeting.

 

A font that will protect your private information from spies

technologyEdward Kiledjian

By now everyone is aware that companies and the government are spying on your every online transaction. They read your emails, instant messages and pretty much anything else you do online. Most of this analysis is done using automatic programs that rely on Optical Character recognition (OCR). OCR will detect what you are transmitting and will attempt to infer meaning. Companies do this to target advertising while governments do this for other reasons (insert you own justification).

There is a typeface called ZXX that aims to make this a little more challenging for these organizations. 

Why ZXX?

It may look funny but this is the Library of Congress (USA) code for content that has no linguistic content. 

Who created ZXX?

The fonts were created by a design specialist called Sang Mun who specifically designed each letter to evade or confuse OCR and text recognition programs while allowing a human to read the content with relative ease.

How does the ZXX typeface work?

Does this work?

It may be able to confuse some basic systems but I am 100% big organizations like Google and the NSA already have systems to easily interpret these fonts (by now). 

If you want real protection then look more towards encryption. 

NSA is using Google, Facebook, Apple, Youtube, Dropbox to spy on users

technologyEdward Kiledjian
The Guardian broke one of the biggest most important stories ever. It reported that the NSA has been collecting huge amounts of user data from internet giants such as Google, Apple, Skype, Yahoo, AOL and Youtube. The Guardian alleges that plans are in place to add Dropbox to the list of data providers. To be clear, all this collection seems to be done without a court order and performed with direct access to the servers of these companies.
Based on a document authenticated by the Guardian, the NSA was secretly storing and analyzing search history, emails, file transfers, chats, stored documents, voice calls and more. In a shocking revelation, the Guardian says:
"The document claims "collection directly from the servers" of major US service providers."
Even though the document seems to insinuate that company executives were aware of the PRISM program, all of them have come out denying any involvement. At first glance, it seems like
project was targeting non US people or companies or Americans exchanging with these non-Americans
The law allows for the targeting of any customers of participating firms who live outside the US, or those Americans whose communications include people outside the US.