Today’s tales from the dark side features a whole panoply of spookiness from hither and yon, starting out with some harsh judgements.
From Spiegel, it’s gettin’ crazy:
Paradise Lost: Paranoia Has Undermined US Democracy
How to lose friends and alienate people, from Deutsche Welle:
Spying Fallout: German Trust in United States Plummets
Germans’ approval of President Barack Obama has dropped from 75 to 43 percent over the past year.
The NSA spying scandals have taken a toll on Germans’ opinion of their longtime ally, according to a new survey. Mistrust in the United States has skyrocketed, and more Germans are viewing whistleblower Edward Snowden as a hero.
A similar take from Europe Online:
Ischinger: NSA spat tougher on US-German ties than Iraq war was
Wolfgang Ischinger, Germany’s ambassador to Washington at the time of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, said Friday that the NSA espionage scandal is more damaging to bilateral relations than the country’s dispute over the Iraq war was.
From RT, the latest move:
‘Privacy essential to democracy’: Germany, Brazil introduce anti-spying UN resolution
Brazil and Germany have introduced to the UN General Assembly their draft resolution calling for internationally recognized rights to privacy in the wake of the ongoing NSA scandal in which the leaders of the two states were spied on.
Deutsche Welle focuses on partners in the dark arts:
How telcos ‘collude’ with the NSA and GCHQ
Google and Yahoo were quick to condemn the NSA for spying on their customers, but telecom firms remained conspicuously silent – and for good reason. Privacy International has filed a complaint against them with the OECD.
Peter Brookes, editorial cartoonist for the London Times [Rupert Murdoch’s “respectable” British print flagship], takes a skeptical look at yesterday’s parliamentary dog-and-pony show. Vis Presseurop:
Three men in a flub
From Reuters, a tale of social engineering:
Exclusive: Snowden persuaded other NSA workers to give up passwords – sources
Former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden used login credentials and passwords provided unwittingly by colleagues at a spy base in Hawaii to access some of the classified material he leaked to the media, sources said.
And the Moscow News covers labor:
Snowden starts new job in Russia – lawyer
Former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden has started his new job at a major Russian company, his lawyer said Friday.
From RT, Wales wails:
US snooping a threat to Internet freedoms, cloud computing – Wikipedia founder
“It’s going to have a big impact on the cloud computing industry as people are afraid to put data in the US, but it’s also devastating for the kind of work I do,” Jimmy Wales told reporters after an IT event in Norway, cites Reuters.
Deutsche Welle covers a harsh judgement:
Ex-CIA chief: ‘Snowden is a traitor’
Former head of central intelligence James Woolsey tells DW the US would never sign a binding no-spy pact. He also doesn’t recall, but can’t exclude, that phones of Chancellor Kohl were monitored during his tenure.
From Techdirt, a question that has to be asked:
Rep. Alan Grayson Asks Eric Holder If US Citizen Glenn Greenwald Will Actually Be Allowed Back Into The US Without Arrest
from the shameful-that-this-question-is-asked dept
And Atlantic Wire muses:
The Surveillance State Puts U.S. Elections at Risk of Manipulation
Imagine what Edward Snowden could have accomplished if he had a different agenda.
From The Guardian, a placebo:
Ex-MI5 and MI6 legal chief says UK should adopt French oversight model
David Bickford rejected wholesale law changes but says judges better placed than ministers to authorise intelligence operations
The Moscow Times covers estrangement ended:
British and Russian Intelligence Services Resume Collaboration
Britain has started sharing intelligence information with Russia for the first time since the fallout over the death of former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko in an effort to assist security preparations for the Sochi Winter Olympics, a top MI6 official said.
And the Verge ponders a breakup:
Will the global NSA backlash break the internet?
Brazil and Germany make moves to protect online privacy, but experts see a troubling trend toward Balkanization
Techdirt notes the apparent:
Major Media Bias Towards NSA Defenders
from the and-they-attack-others? dept
And Want China Times covers a blowhard:
Kim Jong-un boasts of ‘magic weapon’ hacker unit
North Korea has developed a 1,700-man hacker team to strengthen the country’s cyberwar capabilities, according to South Korea’s National Intelligence Service.
Wired covers misbehavior:
New York Police Detective Pleads Guilty to Hacking Charges
A New York City police detective has pleaded guilty to hiring hacking services to steal the passwords of dozens of email accounts belonging to fellow officers in the police department and others.
And BBC News covers corporate snooping:
Brazil wants answers about Google Street View programme
Brazil has demanded an explanation from internet giant Google about private wi-fi data allegedly collected while photographing for its Street View maps.
And Digiday covers more Goggle ogling:
Google Takes Its Tracking Into The Real World
Google is beta-testing a program that uses smartphone location data to determine when consumers visit stores, according to agency executives briefed on the program by Google employees.
The Toronto Globe and Mail covers consumer victims:
Millions of user passwords stolen from Adobe found on hacker site
A computer security firm has uncovered data it says belongs to some 152 million Adobe Systems Inc. user accounts, suggesting that a breach reported a month ago is far bigger than Adobe has so far disclosed and is one of the largest on record.
While RT reports hacktivists blowing back:
Anonymous hacks Singapore PM to protest media crackdown
The web site belonging to the Prime Minister of Singapore appeared to have been hacked by members of the Anonymous hacking collective just a day after he said state authorities would hunt down anyone posing a threat to Singapore’s cyber-security.
From The Verge, a spooky blast from the past:
Isaac Asimov was investigated by the FBI for potential Communist ties
Science fiction icon Isaac Asimov was suspected by the FBI of being a potential Communist informant. A freedom of information request made by MuckRock shows that the author of I, Robot was the subject of tip-offs and investigations in the 1960s, and at one point was a potential candidate for a known Soviet agent working in the United States.
From the Washington Post, a unadmirable admirals?:
Two admirals sanctioned in bribery scheme
The Navy has suspended two admirals’ access to classified material in connection with a bribery scheme in Asia involving prostitutes and luxury travel.
From Wired, a stunner:
Power Plants and Other Vital Systems Are Totally Exposed on the Internet
What do the controls for two hydroelectric plants in New York, a generator at a Los Angeles foundry, and an automated feed system at a Pennsylvania pig farm all have in common? What about a Los Angeles pharmacy’s prescription system and the surveillance cameras at a casino in the Czech Republic?
They’re all exposed on the internet, without so much as a password to block intruders from accessing them.
And the Register notes a gate in Gates’ software:
Spies and crooks BOTH ravaging Microsoft’s unpatched 0-day hole
It’s Operation Hangover. Word
From the Moscow News, secrecy by censorship:
Over 83,000 websites illegally blocked in Russia – study
About 85,000 websites ended up on the Russian Internet blacklist over the past year, 98 percent of them blocked without a valid reason, a new study said.
And the Mainichi covers challenges to a Japanese move to become more like the U.S.:
Legislators in ruling party coalition criticize state secrets bill
Legislators in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and New Komeito coalition have joined those from opposition parties in raising criticism against the special state secrets bill that went under Diet debate on Nov. 7.
And for our last headline, a companion piece from the Mainichi:
Protesters stage rally against state secrets bill in front of PM’s office
A large group gathered outside the Prime Minister’s Office on the evening of Nov. 7 to protest the special secrets protection bill now under Diet debate, calling the proposed law a threat to Japanese democratic freedoms.
