AT&T to Join Rivals with ‘Transparency Report’
Posted on December 21, 2013 by Kara Dunlap in Security
WASHINGTON – AT&T said Friday it would join rivals in the tech and telecom sector in publishing a “transparency report” about demands for information from law enforcement agencies.
The announcement came a day after a similar announcement from sector rival Verizon, which follow releases from big technology firms including Google, Apple and Microsoft, and intense scrutiny of these firms in light of revelations of wide-ranging US government surveillance programs.
AT&T said in a statement it would release a semiannual report starting in early 2014 with information “to the extent permitted by laws and regulations.”
The report will include the total number of law enforcement agency requests in criminal cases, subpoenas, court orders and warrants.
AT&T said it believes that “any disclosures regarding classified information should come from the government, which is in the best position to determine what can be lawfully disclosed and would or would not harm national security.”
The telecom giant said that “protecting our customers’ information and privacy is paramount,” and that it complies with legal requests in the countries where it operates.
“We work hard to make sure that the requests or orders are valid and that our response to them is lawful,” the AT&T statement said.
“We’ve challenged court orders, subpoenas and other requests from local, state and federal governmental entities — and will continue to do so, if we believe they are unlawful. We do not allow any government agency to connect directly to our network to gather, review or retrieve our customers’ information.”
The announcements from AT&T and Verizon come after a period when the telecom firms were notably absent from a debate on disclosures about the scope of US surveillance programs from fugitive former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.
But the telecom and tech firms are still barred from releasing data on national security requests from the FBI and US intelligence services.
A push by the tech sector to get authorization to release the sensitive data requests got a boost this week from an independent review board appointed by President Barack Obama, which recommended that this data be published.
Tech firms have said the sales overseas are being hurt by a perception that the US government can easily gain access to their networks.
© AFP 2013
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Obama to Release Review Panel Report Into NSA Spy Sweeps
Posted on December 18, 2013 by Kara Dunlap in Security
WASHINGTON – The White House will release a review Wednesday calling for reforms in National Security Agency spying sweeps, exposed by Edward Snowden, which have angered US allies and raised legal and privacy concerns.
President Barack Obama’s spokesman Jay Carney said the report by a review panel was being released earlier than a planned date in January due to incomplete and inaccurate media reporting about its contents.
Obama met members of the review panel earlier on Wednesday to work through the 46 recommendations in the report.
“While we had intended to release the review group’s full report in January … given the inaccurate and incomplete reports in the press about the report’s content, we felt it was important to allow people to see the full report to draw their own conclusions,” Carney said.
“For that reason, we will be doing that this afternoon — releasing the full report.”
Obama commissioned the review panel report earlier this year in the wake of explosive revelations by fugitive intelligence contractor Snowden on the stunning scope of the NSA’s operations.
He has said he wants to strike a balance between keeping Americans safe from terrorist threats and safeguarding privacy rights guaranteed by the US Constitution.
The review board comprises former White House counter-terrorism advisor Richard Clarke; Michael Morell, the ex-deputy director of the CIA; Peter Swire, an official specializing in privacy and technology issues; constitutional law professor Geoffrey Stone; and Cass Sunstein, a former regulatory official in the Obama administration.
The president has said he would try to get the shady spy agency to restrain its Internet and phone data collection operations but is expected to allow them to continue in some form.
Obama is due to consider which of the recommendations he will accept and will then make a speech to the American people in January.
The release of the report comes with intense pressure building on the administration over the programs, from political opponents, the Internet industry and even the courts.
A federal judge in Washington this week ruled that NSA programs, which have scooped up millions of details on telephone calls and Internet traffic on Americans and foreigners, were probably unconstitutional.
The ruling opened a long legal battle which is likely to end up in the Supreme Court.
© AFP 2013
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US, Britain Spying on Global Online Gaming World: Report
Posted on December 9, 2013 by Kara Dunlap in Security
US, Britain ‘Spying on Virtual World’: Report
WASHINGTON – US and British intelligence have been spying on the global online gaming world because they fear terrorists could use the hugely popular platform to plot attacks, a report said Monday.
Spies have created characters in the fantasy worlds of Second Life and World of Warcraft to carry out surveillance, recruit informers and collect data, The New York Times said, citing newly disclosed classified documents from fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden.
The report came as eight leading US-based technology companies called on Washington to overhaul its surveillance laws following months of revelations of online eavesdropping from the former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor.
“Fearing that terrorist or criminal networks could use the games to communicate secretly, move money or plot attacks, the documents show, intelligence operatives have entered terrain populated by digital avatars that include elves, gnomes and supermodels,” the Times said.
“The spies have created make-believe characters to snoop and to try to recruit informers, while also collecting data and contents of communications between players,” the report said.
It added: “Because militants often rely on features common to video games — fake identities, voice and text chats, a way to conduct financial transactions — American and British intelligence agencies worried that they might be operating there, according to the papers.”
The report cited a 2008 NSA paper that warned that the virtual games — played by millions of people the world over — allowed intelligence suspects “a way to hide in plain sight.”
The documents do not give any examples of success from the initiative, the report said, adding that experts and former intelligence officials said “that they knew of little evidence that terrorist groups viewed the games as havens to communicate and plot operations.”
The surveillance, which also included Microsoft’s Xbox Live, could raise privacy concerns, noted the newspaper.
Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Yahoo, AOL and LinkedIn meanwhile wrote an open letter to President Barack Obama and the US Congress calling on Washington to lead the way in a worldwide reform of state-sponsored spying.
“We understand that governments have a duty to protect their citizens. But this summer’s revelations highlighted the urgent need to reform government surveillance practices worldwide,” the letter said.
© AFP 2013
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