Hacker News with Generative AI: Government Surveillance

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 10 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 25 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 34 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 38 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 38 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 40 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 47 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 55 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 59 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 60 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 92 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 98 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 101 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 102 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 102 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 102 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 103 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 103 days ago | 0 comments

Government Wiretaps in U.S. Internet Providers Infiltrated by Chinese Hackers (vulnu.com)

Cybersecurity, Government Surveillance, China, Hacking

11 points by pr337h4m 104 days ago | 0 comments

Federal civil rights watchdog sounds alarm over Feds use of facial recognition (therecord.media)
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (UCCR) on Thursday released a report which asserts that three federal agencies’ use of facial recognition technology (FRT) is deeply concerning, not sufficiently standardized and not transparent enough.

Civil Rights, Facial Recognition, Government Surveillance, Technology

182 points by leotravis10 120 days ago | 145 comments

Exclusive – Telegram Founder Pavel Durov Was Wooed and Targeted by Governments (wsj.com)

Telegram, Government Surveillance, Social Media, Russia

12 points by zhengiszen 141 days ago | 1 comments

Telegram Founder Was Wooed and Targeted by Governments (wsj.com)

Telegram, Government Surveillance, Technology, Russia

16 points by marban 143 days ago | 2 comments

Undisclosed WhatsApp Vulnerability Lets Governments See Who You Message (theintercept.com)

Security, Privacy, WhatsApp, Government Surveillance

35 points by jbegley 240 days ago | 10 comments

Leaked FBI Email Reportedly Shows Desperation to Justify Warrantless Wiretaps (gizmodo.com)