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"EDITOR'S NOTE: Since this story was published, The Guardian has reported that the UK intelligence gathering organisation GCHQ has had access to the PRISM syste

by winslow 13y ago

"EDITOR'S NOTE: Since this story was published, The Guardian has reported that the UK intelligence gathering organisation GCHQ has had access to the PRISM system since at least June 2010 and has generated 197 intelligence reports." So other governments have a backdoor to our government's backdoor... What stops China among others from being able to access this? On the other hand, what is the truth if Larry Page is saying that Google does not allow 'direct' access but the White House is saying that it does have access? This just looks like a giant finger pointing and blame game now.

cclogg 13y ago
Interesting, well I'm just glad this is all hitting the mainstream as it is... I think the community here had been well aware of the lack of privacy in most online services.
ihsw 13y ago
> So other governments have a backdoor to our government's backdoor And we have a backdoor to their backdoor. It's fairly easy to assume that they -- state-sponsored intelligence agencies -- collude with each-other by offering access to each-other's data stores. In a sense we are all foreign to each-other, and the USG may access American data through requests acting as foreign agencies.
- leoc 13y ago
  It's long been understood that this was the basis of the ECHELON system, right?
- brown9-2 13y ago
  The US, UK, Australia and NZ have had a bilateral intelligence sharing agreement since the 1940s: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK-US_Security_Agreement http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK-US_Security_Agreement
brymaster 13y ago
Sounds like everybody gets a hand in the cookie jar. Let's make a toast! https://secure.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/5455525432/in/photostream https://secure.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/5455525432/in/ph...
- winslow 13y ago
  Wow... that sure does explain a lot. Thank you for posting this!
lawnchair_larry 13y ago
> So other governments have a backdoor to our government's backdoor... What stops China among others from being able to access this? Nothing, and that's exactly what China was doing during Aurora and similar operations. It's worth noting that Google posted incorrect/misleading information on their blog at the time of that incident as well. They claimed that the intrusions were motivated by China wanting to target human rights and freedom of speech activists, positioning them as a villain.[1] It ended with the same crap about pushing for freedom and transparency. A few months ago it was leaked that the actual motivations behind Aurora were that China was using it to see which of China's spies were being monitored by the US government through the PRISM-like interface[2]: ""What we found was the attackers were actually looking for the accounts that we had lawful wiretap orders on," Aucsmith says. "So if you think about this, this is brilliant counter-intelligence. You have two choices: If you want to find out if your agents, if you will, have been discovered, you can try to break into the FBI to find out that way. Presumably that's difficult. Or you can break into the people that the courts have served paper on and see if you can find it that way." [3]: "As Google was responding to the breach, its technicians made another startling discovery: its database with years of information on surveillance orders had been hacked. ... The most sensitive orders, however, came from a federal court that approves surveillance of foreign targets such as spies, diplomats, suspected terrorists and agents of other governments. Those orders, issued under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, are classified. Google did not disclose that breach publicly, but soon after detecting it, the company alerted the FBI, former officials said." [1] http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-approach-to-china.html http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-approach-to-china... [2] www.cio.com/article/732122/_Aurora_Cyber_Attackers_Were_Really_Running_Counter_Intelligence [3] http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/chinese-hackers-who-breached-google-gained-access-to-sensitive-data-us-officials-say/2013/05/20/51330428-be34-11e2-89c9-3be8095fe767_story.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/chines...

by winslow 13y ago

cclogg 13y ago

Interesting, well I'm just glad this is all hitting the mainstream as it is... I think the community here had been well aware of the lack of privacy in most online services.

ihsw 13y ago

> So other governments have a backdoor to our government's backdoor And we have a backdoor to their backdoor. It's fairly easy to assume that they -- state-sponsored intelligence agencies -- collude with each-other by offering access to each-other's data stores. In a sense we are all foreign to each-other, and the USG may access American data through requests acting as foreign agencies.

leoc 13y ago
It's long been understood that this was the basis of the ECHELON system, right?
brown9-2 13y ago
The US, UK, Australia and NZ have had a bilateral intelligence sharing agreement since the 1940s: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK-US_Security_Agreement http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK-US_Security_Agreement

brymaster 13y ago

Sounds like everybody gets a hand in the cookie jar. Let's make a toast! https://secure.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/5455525432/in/photostream https://secure.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/5455525432/in/ph...

winslow 13y ago
Wow... that sure does explain a lot. Thank you for posting this!

lawnchair_larry 13y ago

> So other governments have a backdoor to our government's backdoor... What stops China among others from being able to access this? Nothing, and that's exactly what China was doing during Aurora and similar operations. It's worth noting that Google posted incorrect/misleading information on their blog at the time of that incident as well. They claimed that the intrusions were motivated by China wanting to target human rights and freedom of speech activists, positioning them as a villain.[1] It ended with the same crap about pushing for freedom and transparency. A few months ago it was leaked that the actual motivations behind Aurora were that China was using it to see which of China's spies were being monitored by the US government through the PRISM-like interface[2]: ""What we found was the attackers were actually looking for the accounts that we had lawful wiretap orders on," Aucsmith says. "So if you think about this, this is brilliant counter-intelligence. You have two choices: If you want to find out if your agents, if you will, have been discovered, you can try to break into the FBI to find out that way. Presumably that's difficult. Or you can break into the people that the courts have served paper on and see if you can find it that way." [3]: "As Google was responding to the breach, its technicians made another startling discovery: its database with years of information on surveillance orders had been hacked. ... The most sensitive orders, however, came from a federal court that approves surveillance of foreign targets such as spies, diplomats, suspected terrorists and agents of other governments. Those orders, issued under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, are classified. Google did not disclose that breach publicly, but soon after detecting it, the company alerted the FBI, former officials said." [1] http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-approach-to-china.html http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-approach-to-china... [2] www.cio.com/article/732122/_Aurora_Cyber_Attackers_Were_Really_Running_Counter_Intelligence [3] http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/chinese-hackers-who-breached-google-gained-access-to-sensitive-data-us-officials-say/2013/05/20/51330428-be34-11e2-89c9-3be8095fe767_story.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/chines...