Tag Archives: Privacy

Schneier on the NSA Threat

Yesterday, I wrote about how there is little evidence that the NSA’s mass surveillance is effective. Bruce Schneier has an interesting article up that argues it’s worse than that. Schneier says that the NSA is a threat to our security. … Continue reading

Posted in General | Tagged | Leave a comment

The Usefulness of Mass Surveillance

Remember those 50 plus terrorist plots that the NSA mass surveillance was instrumental in stopping? You won’t be surprised to learn that that was yet another lie. Ars Technica is reporting on a New America Foundation study that examined 225 … Continue reading

Posted in General | Tagged | Leave a comment

Before There Was Snowden

The New York Times has an absolutely fascinating story about a 43 year old crime that was, until recently, unsolved. It’s a story that shows there is nothing new under the sun. It’s also a story intrinsically involved with the … Continue reading

Posted in General | Tagged | Leave a comment

No

Why not?

Posted in General | Tagged | Leave a comment

Tor Best Practices

Over at Digital Era there’s a nice post on Tor best practices. While the Tor protocol and software are reasonably secure, you can’t use them blindly. The most recent example of what happens when you do is demonstrated by Eldo … Continue reading

Posted in General | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Phone Tracking

Matt Blaze over at Exhaustive Search has an interesting post on how law enforcement agencies track phone calls. Blaze is discussing law enforcement targeting individuals in support of criminal investigations not the wholesale dragnet surveillance of the type that the … Continue reading

Posted in General | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Two Stories on the NSA

This week there were two stories that can’t make the NSA happy. In the first, Rick Falkvinge reports that Brazil, upset over NSA spying, ditched their plans to buy Boeing jets and went with Gripen instead. This despite the fact … Continue reading

Posted in General | Tagged | Leave a comment

NSA Phone Metadata Collection Ruled Illegal

In a bit of good news a federal judge has ruled that the NSA’s collection of phonecall metadata violates the fourth amendent. This is by no means the end of the story. The ruling is at the District Court level … Continue reading

Posted in General | Tagged | Leave a comment

Obama and the NSA

Over at The New Yorker, Ryan Lizza has a fascinating article on the history of the NSA’s latest extra-legal surveillance on Americans. These programs all started under the Bush administration as a reaction to 9-11 and, significantly, over the strenuous … Continue reading

Posted in General | Tagged | Leave a comment

SSL and the NSA

If you’re a crypto-nerd or even have a passing interest, you might enjoy Matthew Green‘s post speculating on how the NSA breaks SSL. We know, courtesy of Edward Snowden’s leaked documents, that they’ve had some sort of success with SSL … Continue reading

Posted in General | Tagged , | Leave a comment