Hacker News with Generative AI: Government Surveillance

Apple pulls data protection tool after UK government security row (bbc.com)
Apple is taking the unprecedented step of removing its highest level data security tool from customers in the UK, after the government demanded access to user data.
Privacy, Government Surveillance, Apple, UK, Security
361 points by helsinkiandrew 3 hours ago | 344 comments
ICE wants to know if you're posting negative things about it online (theintercept.com)
Amid anger and protest over the Trump administration’s plan to deport millions of immigrants, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to monitor and locate “negative” social media discussion about the agency and its top officials, according to contract documents reviewed by The Intercept.
Immigration, Government Surveillance, Social Media, Law Enforcement
234 points by belter 7 days ago | 130 comments
MI5 lied to courts to protect violent neo-Nazi spy (bbc.com)
MI5 lied to three courts while defending its handling of a misogynistic neo-Nazi state agent who attacked his girlfriend with a machete, the BBC can reveal.
Government Surveillance, Law Enforcement, Politics, Extremism, Domestic Terrorism
10 points by croes 9 days ago | 2 comments
Apple's Best Option: Decentralize iCloud (mnot.net)
As has been widely reported, the government of the United Kingdom has secretly ordered Apple to build a back door into iCloud to allow ‘blanket capability to view fully encrypted material.’
Privacy, Apple, iCloud, Government Surveillance
109 points by ingve 11 days ago | 127 comments
The UK's Demands for Apple to Break Encryption Is an Emergency for Us All (eff.org)
The Washington Post reported that the United Kingdom is demanding that Apple create an encryption backdoor to give the government access to end-to-end encrypted data in iCloud.
Privacy, Encryption, Government Surveillance, Apple, United Kingdom
22 points by mdp2021 13 days ago | 3 comments
U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users' encrypted accounts (msn.com)
Privacy, Government Surveillance, Apple, Encryption, United Kingdom
10 points by pseudolus 14 days ago | 1 comments
UK government reportedly demands Apple backdoor to encrypted cloud data (techcrunch.com)
Government officials in the United Kingdom have reportedly secretly ordered Apple to build a backdoor that would give its authorities access to users’ encrypted iCloud data.
Government Surveillance, Data Privacy, Apple, Encryption
13 points by LorenDB 14 days ago | 1 comments
Spyware maker Paragon confirms U.S. government is a customer (techcrunch.com)
Israeli spyware maker Paragon Solutions confirmed to TechCrunch that it sells its products to the U.S. government and other unspecified allied countries.
Government Surveillance, Cybersecurity, Israel, Software
20 points by pulisse 17 days ago | 1 comments
Cointelpro (wikipedia.org)
COINTELPRO (a syllabic abbreviation derived from Counter Intelligence Program) was a series of covert and illegal[1][2] projects conducted between 1956 and 1971 by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) aimed at surveilling, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting American political organizations that the FBI perceived as subversive.[3][4][5][6]
Government Surveillance, FBI, History, US Politics
91 points by georgecmu 22 days ago | 22 comments
Big brother becomes little brother (kenklippenstein.com)
Envious of the power and wealth of corporate America, the head of U.S. intelligence has issued a new directive calling on the spy agencies to “routinize”  and “expand” their partnerships with private companies.
Government Surveillance, Corporations, Privacy, Technology
40 points by anigbrowl 25 days ago | 15 comments
Court Says Feds Must Obtain Warrant to Search FISA Spy Databases (gizmodo.com)
One of the government’s most controversial warrantless spying practices does, in fact, require a warrant, according to a new federal court ruling.
Government Surveillance, Privacy, Legal, Warrants
6 points by rntn 29 days ago | 1 comments
Government Monitoring Those with "Negative" Views of Health Insurance Companies (kenklippenstein.com)
If you expressed “negative sentiment” toward insurance companies on social media following the murder of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO last month, the government was watching.
Government Surveillance, Health Insurance, Social Media, UnitedHealthcare
18 points by pessimizer 33 days ago | 6 comments
Hackers Claim Breach of Location Data Giant, Threaten to Leak Data (404media.co)
Hackers claim to have compromised Gravy Analytics, the parent company of Venntel which has sold masses of smartphone location data to the U.S. government.  The hackers said they have stolen a massive amount of data, including customer lists, information on the broader industry, and even location data harvested from smartphones which show peoples’ precise movements, and they are threatening to publish the data publicly.
Data Breaches, Privacy, Government Surveillance, Cybersecurity
43 points by anarbadalov 45 days ago | 21 comments
Return to NSA's Menwith Hill with 60 Minutes (2000) (cryptome.org)
The trip to Menwith Hill was on the spur of the moment. I mentioned to 60 Minutes producer Peter Klein: have passport will travel, I just do not have the funds. Next thing I knew Trisha Sorrels from 60 Minutes was e-mailing me asking if I would go and that they would pay for the trip, wow.
Government Surveillance, Journalism, United Kingdom, Military
6 points by robtherobber 59 days ago | 0 comments
Was the US Telecom Breach Inevitable, Proving Backdoors Can't Be Secure? (theintercept.com)
Hackers have gained sweeping access to U.S. text messages and phone calls — and in response, the FBI is falling back on the same warmed-over, bad advice about encryption that it has trotted out for years.
Cybersecurity, Government Surveillance, Privacy, Technology, Encryption
20 points by m463 69 days ago | 0 comments
FBI Official Reluctantly Touts Encryption Due to Chinese Hack of US Telecoms (techdirt.com)
Thanks to government-mandated backdoors in US telecom/broadband services, the FBI — at least in the form of an official who refused to identify themself — has had to recommend (albeit extremely half-heartedly) that encrypted communications are perhaps the only thing keeping phone owners from being actively surveilled by Chinese hackers.
Cybersecurity, Encryption, Government Surveillance, China
12 points by hn_acker 72 days ago | 2 comments
Trump DOJ obtained phone, text logs of 43 staff, 2 members of Congress (nbcnews.com)
Seeking to investigate leaks of classified information, the Trump Justice Department in 2017 and 2018 secretly obtained phone and text message logs of 43 congressional staffers and two members of Congress in a far broader probe than previously known, according to a new report by the department’s internal watchdog.
Politics, Government Surveillance, Law Enforcement, Journalism, Congress
6 points by ceejayoz 73 days ago | 0 comments
Chinese insiders steal data scooped by President Xi's national surveillance sys (theregister.com)
Feature Chinese tech company employees and government workers are siphoning off user data and selling it online - and even high-ranking Chinese Communist Party officials and FBI-wanted hackers' sensitive information is being peddled by the Middle Kingdom's thriving illegal data ecosystem.
Cybersecurity, China, Data Privacy, Government Surveillance
6 points by rntn 75 days ago | 1 comments
The CIA, NSA, and Pokémon Go (locals.com)
With Pokémon Go currently enjoying, what I would call, a wee-bit-o-success, now seems like a good time to talk about a few things people may not know about the world's favorite new smartphone game.
Government Surveillance, Mobile Gaming, Pokémon Go
6 points by cristaloleg 81 days ago | 0 comments
Senators say TSA's facial recognition program is out of control (gizmodo.com)
A bipartisan group of 12 senators has urged the Transportation Security Administration’s inspector general to investigate the agency’s use of facial recognition, saying it poses a significant threat to privacy and civil liberties.
Privacy, Civil Liberties, Facial Recognition, Government Surveillance, Transportation Security
205 points by pseudolus 89 days ago | 226 comments
Australia increasingly hostile toward secure messaging apps (theguardian.com)
The founder of an encrypted messaging app who left Australia for Switzerland after police unexpectedly visited an employee’s home says he had left because of Australia’s “hostile” stance against developers building privacy-focused apps.
Australia, Privacy, Encryption, Government Surveillance
11 points by dankotanko1599 94 days ago | 1 comments
Online Age Verification as Trojan Horse for the Mass Rollout of Digital IDs? (nakedcapitalism.com)
Online age verification threatens to trap everyone, not just minors, in its web, as the Australian government recently admitted.
Privacy, Digital ID, Government Surveillance, Australia
57 points by hackandthink 94 days ago | 48 comments
Salt Typhoon Shows There's No Security Backdoor That's Only for the "Good Guys" (eff.org)
At EFF we’ve long noted that you cannot build a backdoor that only lets in good guys and not bad guys. Over the weekend, we saw another example of this: The Wall Street Journal reported on a major breach of U.S. telecom systems attributed to a sophisticated Chinese-government backed hacking group dubbed Salt Typhoon.
Cybersecurity, Government Surveillance, China, Hacking, Telecom
86 points by Sami_Lehtinen 127 days ago | 8 comments
India shuts down the internet far more than any other country (restofworld.org)
India has been a leader in internet shutdowns, by a huge margin, for nearly a decade, according to data shared by digital rights watchdog Access Now.
India, Internet Shutdowns, Censorship, Digital Rights, Government Surveillance
8 points by Brajeshwar 132 days ago | 0 comments
Chinese hack shows why Apple is right about backdoors for law enforcement (9to5mac.com)
It was revealed this weekend that Chinese hackers managed to access systems run by three of the largest internet service providers (ISPs) in the US.
Cybersecurity, Apple, Government Surveillance, China
13 points by bentocorp 136 days ago | 4 comments
Reports: China hacked Verizon and AT&T, may have accessed US wiretap systems (arstechnica.com)
Chinese government hackers penetrated the networks of several large US-based Internet service providers and may have gained access to systems used for court-authorized wiretaps of communications networks, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.
Cybersecurity, Government Surveillance, China, Hacking, Telecommunications
6 points by thunderbong 136 days ago | 0 comments
Salt Typhoon hacked US broadband providers and breached wiretap systems (securityaffairs.com)
Cybersecurity, Data Breaches, Telecom, Hacking, Government Surveillance
18 points by janandonly 137 days ago | 2 comments
Reports: China hacked Verizon and AT&T, may have accessed US wiretap systems (arstechnica.com)
Chinese government hackers penetrated the networks of several large US-based Internet service providers and may have gained access to systems used for court-authorized wiretaps of communications networks, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.
Cybersecurity, Hacking, Telecommunications, Government Surveillance
6 points by pseudolus 137 days ago | 0 comments
China hacked Verizon, AT&T and Lumen using the FBI's backdoor (pluralistic.net)
State-affiliated Chinese hackers penetrated AT&T, Verizon, Lumen and others; they entered their networks and spent months intercepting US traffic – from individuals, firms, government officials, etc – and they did it all without having to exploit any code vulnerabilities. Instead, they used the back door that the FBI requires every carrier to furnish:
Cybersecurity, Government Surveillance, Telecommunications, Hacking, China
33 points by ColinWright 137 days ago | 4 comments
Government Wiretaps in U.S. Internet Providers Infiltrated by Chinese Hackers (vulnu.com)
U.S. spying on it's citizens and China taking advantage of that backdoor for months before anyone realizing.
Cybersecurity, Government Surveillance, China, Hacking
7 points by asasidh 138 days ago | 0 comments