7 ms·

That's a very good point actually. Though in this case they say the tip-off came from a law enforcement agency (I assume they mean an American one). It's possi

That's a very good point actually. Though in this case they say the tip-off came from a law enforcement agency (I assume they mean an American one). It's possible however that agency doesn't realise it's a clandestine operation by another US agency. Or they do, but now the operation is complete (this was three years ago) and they want a way of informing yahoo about the breach without admitting who was behind it in the first place.

normaljoe 10y ago
It's not US. It's another state actor. Can't say more.
- dmix 10y ago
  PRISM (Yahoo joined 2nd in 2008 after Microsoft in 2007) would basically defeat the purpose of doing this without permission... Did Yahoo Mail even use HTTPS? In that case a FISA warrant would just be an extra level of assurance that they got everything from that person's inbox (plus inboxes of 3 hops of everyone they ever emailed). Otherwise they were just an XKeyscore query, probably filtered by US geodata, away from getting whatever email they wanted (plus unlimited hops).
  - djsumdog 10y ago
    I feel like everyone has forgotten about PRISM. All the big companies denied they participated in PRISM. Is it real, and if so, why have Americans been so complacent about its existence?
    - jonnybgood 10y ago
      What do you think PRISM is?
    - hash-set 10y ago
      Americans have the attention span of a newt, that's why.
    - willstrafach 10y ago
      This is not a mystery. PRISM == use of secret court orders to collect information from companies regarding certain targets. Can you clarify what you think it is and how it is relevant here?
  - lern_too_spel 10y ago
    Your understanding of PRISM is entirely wrong. It processes emails these companies send to the FBI for specific accounts that the government has a court order for, not all the emails that these companies handle.
    - dmix 10y ago
      That's why I said FISA warrant... which includes 3 hops. Otherwise they would collect any email ever sent unencrypted via submarine fiber wiretaps. While feeds into XKeyscore.
      - lern_too_spel 10y ago
        FISA warrants do not include 3 hops. There is nothing in Snowden's leaks that suggests the NSA uses submarine wiretaps to collect your emails either. You seem to have ignored the leaked documents entirely and made up a scary all-seeing Boogeyman.
        dmix 10y ago
        Wrong. I don't even need to cite Snowden slides, congressional testimony will be sufficient: > Turns out the data collection is not so limited. In testimony yesterday before the House Judiciary Committee, National Security Agency Deputy Director Chris Inglis said that the NSA’s probing of data in search of terrorist activity extended “two to three hops” away from suspected terrorists. Previously, NSA leaders had said surveillance was limited to only two “hops” from a suspect. > Inglis said that the NSA looks at two to three hops from a suspect. To determine how many hops you are from Osama, for example, the NSA’s data analysis engine software constantly plows through information and builds a model of all the relationships between every phone number on record and every IP address. Other software robots query the graph to discover which “nodes”—phone numbers, IP addresses and email accounts—fall within three degrees of separation from an established suspect. > If you have a direct relationship with a suspected terrorist or target (you’ve called them, you’ve emailed them, you’ve visited their website) that’s a “one hop” relationship; there’s a solid line connecting you to that person in the NSA’s relationship graph. If you talk with, e-mail, or visit the Facebook page or website of someone who’s got a one-hop relationship, you’re two hops away. Add one more person in between in the graph, and you’re three hops away. > Under the NSA’s FISA requests, Google, Microsoft, and other Internet services companies can be compelled to hand over relevant data from their servers on any account that falls within the three-hop range and is flagged as belonging to a person of interest. If you’ve won this lottery, the NSA will get access to your e-mails on Gmail or Outlook.com as well as your chats and Web-stored contacts, your documents, your synced data from computers and mobile devices, your backups, and anything else that can be handed over—at least, so the documents Snowden leaked imply. > Your raw Internet traffic will get more attention as well. Your IP address will be watched more carefully by deep packet inspection hardware at the NSA’s 'Net taps, and what you do online will get extra scrutiny. https://www.google.ca/amp/arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/07/you-may-already-be-a-winner-in-nsas-three-degrees-surveillance-sweepstakes/ https://www.google.ca/amp/arstechnica.com/information-techno... I'm not sure if you're just a casual spectator, willfully spreading disinformation, or inclined to ignorance but the boogeyman dismissive posturing boat has long sailed. PRISM's only purpose is to fill in the gaps of passive collection by directly sourcing data, otherwise it comes in primarily from submarine wiretaps and the multitude of other various passive collection sources. Or associated five eyes programs. And yes FISA warrants include 3 hops and if you know anything about the Internet you know that is a hell of a lot of data for a single warrant. And public data shows the FISA court only deny around 0.1% of warrant requests. Even rubber stamps have to pretend they are doing their job.
  - ethbro 10y ago
    Aka MUSCULAR https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUSCULAR_(surveillance_program) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUSCULAR_(surveillance_progr...
- komali2 10y ago
  If you can't say more your words are useless. The only thing you need to comment on this website is an email address. Unverifiable comments like this are harmful.

normaljoe 10y ago

It's not US. It's another state actor. Can't say more.

dmix 10y ago
PRISM (Yahoo joined 2nd in 2008 after Microsoft in 2007) would basically defeat the purpose of doing this without permission... Did Yahoo Mail even use HTTPS? In that case a FISA warrant would just be an extra level of assurance that they got everything from that person's inbox (plus inboxes of 3 hops of everyone they ever emailed). Otherwise they were just an XKeyscore query, probably filtered by US geodata, away from getting whatever email they wanted (plus unlimited hops).
- djsumdog 10y ago
  I feel like everyone has forgotten about PRISM. All the big companies denied they participated in PRISM. Is it real, and if so, why have Americans been so complacent about its existence?
  - jonnybgood 10y ago
    What do you think PRISM is?
  - hash-set 10y ago
    Americans have the attention span of a newt, that's why.
  - willstrafach 10y ago
    This is not a mystery. PRISM == use of secret court orders to collect information from companies regarding certain targets. Can you clarify what you think it is and how it is relevant here?
- lern_too_spel 10y ago
  Your understanding of PRISM is entirely wrong. It processes emails these companies send to the FBI for specific accounts that the government has a court order for, not all the emails that these companies handle.
  - dmix 10y ago
    That's why I said FISA warrant... which includes 3 hops. Otherwise they would collect any email ever sent unencrypted via submarine fiber wiretaps. While feeds into XKeyscore.
    - lern_too_spel 10y ago
      FISA warrants do not include 3 hops. There is nothing in Snowden's leaks that suggests the NSA uses submarine wiretaps to collect your emails either. You seem to have ignored the leaked documents entirely and made up a scary all-seeing Boogeyman.
      - dmix 10y ago
        Wrong. I don't even need to cite Snowden slides, congressional testimony will be sufficient: > Turns out the data collection is not so limited. In testimony yesterday before the House Judiciary Committee, National Security Agency Deputy Director Chris Inglis said that the NSA’s probing of data in search of terrorist activity extended “two to three hops” away from suspected terrorists. Previously, NSA leaders had said surveillance was limited to only two “hops” from a suspect. > Inglis said that the NSA looks at two to three hops from a suspect. To determine how many hops you are from Osama, for example, the NSA’s data analysis engine software constantly plows through information and builds a model of all the relationships between every phone number on record and every IP address. Other software robots query the graph to discover which “nodes”—phone numbers, IP addresses and email accounts—fall within three degrees of separation from an established suspect. > If you have a direct relationship with a suspected terrorist or target (you’ve called them, you’ve emailed them, you’ve visited their website) that’s a “one hop” relationship; there’s a solid line connecting you to that person in the NSA’s relationship graph. If you talk with, e-mail, or visit the Facebook page or website of someone who’s got a one-hop relationship, you’re two hops away. Add one more person in between in the graph, and you’re three hops away. > Under the NSA’s FISA requests, Google, Microsoft, and other Internet services companies can be compelled to hand over relevant data from their servers on any account that falls within the three-hop range and is flagged as belonging to a person of interest. If you’ve won this lottery, the NSA will get access to your e-mails on Gmail or Outlook.com as well as your chats and Web-stored contacts, your documents, your synced data from computers and mobile devices, your backups, and anything else that can be handed over—at least, so the documents Snowden leaked imply. > Your raw Internet traffic will get more attention as well. Your IP address will be watched more carefully by deep packet inspection hardware at the NSA’s 'Net taps, and what you do online will get extra scrutiny. https://www.google.ca/amp/arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/07/you-may-already-be-a-winner-in-nsas-three-degrees-surveillance-sweepstakes/ https://www.google.ca/amp/arstechnica.com/information-techno... I'm not sure if you're just a casual spectator, willfully spreading disinformation, or inclined to ignorance but the boogeyman dismissive posturing boat has long sailed. PRISM's only purpose is to fill in the gaps of passive collection by directly sourcing data, otherwise it comes in primarily from submarine wiretaps and the multitude of other various passive collection sources. Or associated five eyes programs. And yes FISA warrants include 3 hops and if you know anything about the Internet you know that is a hell of a lot of data for a single warrant. And public data shows the FISA court only deny around 0.1% of warrant requests. Even rubber stamps have to pretend they are doing their job.
- ethbro 10y ago
  Aka MUSCULAR https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUSCULAR_(surveillance_program) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUSCULAR_(surveillance_progr...
komali2 10y ago
If you can't say more your words are useless. The only thing you need to comment on this website is an email address. Unverifiable comments like this are harmful.