[governance] Meanwhile on the Cyberwar front

[michael gurstein]

How the U.S. Government Hacks the World

By Michael Riley on May 23, 2013

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-05-23/how-the-u-dot-s-dot-government-hacks-the-world

Obscured by trees and grassy berms, the campus of the National Security Agency sits 15 miles north of Washington’s traffic-clogged Beltway, its 6 million square feet of blast-resistant buildings punctuated by clusters of satellite dishes. Created in 1952 to intercept radio and other electronic transmissions—known as signals intelligence—the NSA now focuses much of its espionage resources on stealing what spies euphemistically call “electronic data at rest.” These are the secrets that lay inside the computer networks and hard drives of terrorists, rogue nations, and even nominally friendly governments. When President Obama receives his daily intelligence briefing, most of the information comes from government cyberspies, says Mike McConnell, director of national intelligence under President George W. Bush.
“It’s at least 75 percent, and going up,” he says.


Australian spies seek power to break into Tor 

By BERNARD KEANE MAY 30, 2013 

http://www.crikey.com.au/2013/05/30/revealed-australian-spies-seek-power-to-break-into-tor/

The Attorney-General’s Department has admitted data retention will be “trivially easy” to avoid and that intelligence services want to be able to break into encrypted internet systems like Tor.

In a major admission, the Attorney-General’s Department has revealed Australia’s intelligence and law enforcement agencies are seeking the legal power to break into internet routing encryption services such as Tor, after admitting the centerpiece of its proposed national security reforms, data retention, will be “trivially easy” to defeat.

The admission by officials to Senate Estimates last night will give rise to further concerns that the department, which has systematically and aggressively expanded the powers of intelligence and law enforcement agencies at the expense of civil liberties and privacy, wants far stronger powers to regulate the internet and break into encrypted systems in order to keep an eye on what Australians are doing online.


U.S., Australia reports allege new spying by China hackers

Blueprints of new Australian spy headquarters stolen, report says

By Reuters

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2013/05/28/australia-china-hacking.html

Chinese hackers have gained access to designs of more than two dozen major U.S. weapons systems, a U.S. report said on Monday, as Australian media said Chinese hackers had stolen the blueprints for Australia's new spy headquarters.


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