“EPIC has filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Department of the Army for documents about JLENS, a sophisticated surveillance system that will be deployed over Washington, DC during the next three years. JLENS is comprised of two 250′ blimps. One blimp conducts aerial and ground surveillance over a 340-mile range, while the other has… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Patriot Act
Annual FISA Report Shows Decrease in Surveillance Orders, Questions About Scope Remain
EPIC: “The Department of Justice has published the 2013 FISA Report. The brief report provides summary information about the government’s use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. In 2012 the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court granted 1,789 FISA orders and 212 “Section 215” orders. In 2013, there were 1,588 requests to conduct FISA surveillance, with 34 modifications.… Continue Reading
NIST Revises Guide to Use of Transport Layer Security (TLS) in Networks
“The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released an update to a document that helps computer administrators maintain the security of information traveling across their networks. The document, NIST Special Publication 800-52 Revision 1: Guidelines for the Selection, Configuration, and Use of Transport Layer Security (TLS) Implementations, updates the original SP 800-52, released in 2005. Sensitive data—from… Continue Reading
WaPo – Surveillance court rejected Verizon challenge to NSA calls program
Ellen Nakashima’s article [snipped] – Verizon in January filed a legal challenge to the constitutionality of the National Security Agency’s program that collects billions of Americans’ call-detail records, but a surveillance court rejected it, according to newly declassified documents and individuals with knowledge of the matter. In denying the phone company’s petition in March, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court… Continue Reading
EFF Outlines Key Issues With Mass Surveillance to Government Oversight Board
“EFF recently filed comments with the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) concerning Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendments Act (FAA), one of the key statutes under which the government claims it can conduct mass surveillance of innocent people’s communications and records from inside the US. EFF maintains that the government’s activities under Section 702 that we know… Continue Reading
FBI Plans to Have 52 Million Photos in NGI Face Recognition Database by Next Year
EFF – “New documents released by the FBI show that the Bureau is well on its way toward its goal of a fully operational face recognition database by this summer. EFF received these records in response to our Freedom of Information Act lawsuit for information on Next Generation Identification (NGI)—the FBI’s massive biometric database that may hold records on… Continue Reading
Investigative Report Highlights Google as Washington Lobbying Powerhouse
Tom Hamburger, Matea Gold, Washington Post: “…Google — once a lobbying weakling — has come to master a new method of operating in modern-day Washington, where spending on traditional lobbying is rivaled by other, less visible forms of influence. That system includes financing sympathetic research at universities and think tanks, investing in nonprofit advocacy groups across the political… Continue Reading
Guardian – CIA and White House under pressure after Senate torture report leaks
The Guardian – A leak of the major findings of a landmark Senate inquiry into the CIA’s post-9/11 torture of terrorism detainees led, on Friday, to intensified pressure on the White House and the CIA to release the inquiry speedily and with a minimum of redactions. The classified study, prepared by the Senate select committee on intelligence, concluded that the… Continue Reading
Introducing the ACLU’s NSA Documents Database
By Emily Weinrebe, ACLU National Security Project: “The public debate over our government’s surveillance programs has reached remarkable heights since the first set of NSA disclosures in June 2013 based on documents leaked by Edward Snowden. Since then, additional disclosures by both the press and government have illuminated our government’s vast and invasive surveillance apparatus. These… Continue Reading
Overview of Constitutional Challenges to NSA Collection Activities and Recent Developments
CRS – Overview of Constitutional Challenges to NSA Collection Activities and Recent Developments. Edward C. Liu , Legislative Attorney; Andrew Nolan, Legislative Attorney; Richard M. Thompson II; Legislative Attorney, April 1, 2014 “Beginning in the summer of 2013, media reports of foreign intelligence activities conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA) have been published and are apparently based on unauthorized disclosures of… Continue Reading
Status Update: Encryption at Yahoo
By Alex Stamos, Chief Information Security Officer: “When I joined Yahoo four weeks ago, we were in the middle of a massive project to protect our users and their data through the deployment of encryption technologies as we discussed in our November 2013 Tumblr. So today, we’re updating you on our progress: Traffic moving between Yahoo data… Continue Reading
Obama’s intel czar confirms targeting U.S. communications
National Journal – How the NSA Used a ‘Loophole’ to Spy on Americans: “Technology Correspondent Brendan Sasso reports that Obama’s intel czar confirmed that they’re targeting U.S. communications: Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act gives the NSA broad power to listen in on phone calls and access emails. But the law covers only non-Americans located outside of… Continue Reading
