MasHD Blog

An NSA project to install spying malware on "millions" of computers around the world, dubbed TURBINE, could allow the clandestine US agency unprecedented access to "industrial-scale exploitation" in the battle for internet dominance. The spyware, which is said to have already been installed on as many as 100,000 systems after first being deployed in mid-2010, is described as both smart and aggressive, automating much of what would have previously needed a trained operative. That, The Intercept's insiders say, makes it the perfect tool for broadly infecting a huge number of machines and casting a wide net for data collection. Rather than limit such actions to human operatives, TURBINE is an "intelligent command and control capability" that can run its own deployment and make its own decisions on which gathered data is important. What makes TURBINE particularly interesting for the NSA is how little staff would have to know technically about infecte...

President Obama has defended the NSA's spying actions, arguing that the continuing pace of technological advancement means surveillance is essential, though revealing a "series of concrete and substantial reforms" he believes will address public concerns. The proposals, already being picked apart by privacy advocates, include changing the controversial section 215 metadata program, and what Obama described as the "unprecedented" extending of rights around monitoring to non-US citizens outside of America. Obama contrasted the NSA's data collection with how corporations like Google mine metadata for information around which advertising campaigns can be built. However, "the standards for government surveillance should be higher" the President conceded, admitting that "history has too many examples of when trust has been breached." Obama refused "to dwell" on NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, saying only that "our nation...

Three days before President Barack Obama will allegedly announce major changes to the NSA's surveillance programs, The New York Times has a story addressing one particularly controversial practice: intercepting laptops purchased online to insert bugs that can phone home — or even give remote access — to the US government. According to the Times, not only does that practice take place, but the bugs are now installed in nearly 100,000 computers around the world as part of a program code-named Quantum. However, the publication's government sources say they aren't being used inside the United States, but rather to spy on allleged Chinese and Russian military hacker groups, Mexican drug cartels, European "trade institutions," and alleged terrorists. Since the devices have their own radios, they can allegedly tap into computers that aren't connected to the internet. While officials reportedly told the Times that the devices are mainly intended for defense, their...

In yet another disclosure from Edward Snowden's pile of leaked NSA documents, The Washington Post has revealed that the US surveillance agency may be using Google's advertising cookies to track and "pinpoint" targets for government hacking and location-tracking. According to Snowden's leaked presentation slides, both the NSA and the British equivalent, the GCHQ, are using a Google-specific ad cookie (know as "PREF") as a way of honing in on specific surveillance targets. While Google's cookie doesn't contain personal information like a name or email address, it does contain numeric codes that uniquely identify a user's browser. That identifier reportedly helps the NSA and the GCHQ single out a specific machine and send out its software to hack Into the user's computer. Google's PREF cookie reportedly gets loaded onto a computer when they use Google's products, like Search or Maps — it can also be loaded through sites that host...

The National Security Agency, in conjunction with England’s NSA counterpart Government Communications Headquarters, has been secretly intercepting Google and Yahoo data transmissions around the world, according to a new analysis of the Snowden documents. The documents show how the two spy agencies can cooperate to send copies of customer records en masse to the NSA’s data centers at Fort Meade. Intercepted records include email addresses, personal identities, and even the contents of private messages flowing between and among Americans and all other nationalities. The interceptions are within the bounds of current US law because they occur at points outside US soil. The analysis was conducted by the Washington Post in consultation with Google and Yahoo employees. It lays out four plausible scenarios by which the agencies capture the private data of millions of customers. In the case of Google, the most likely scenario is that the agencies have tapped into fibers and cables connecti...

Hot on the heels on the rumors from the past week, another bit of information emerged, potentially shedding light on the specs of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S5. Reportedly, the next generation of the popular smartphone will come with and eye-scanning sensor. The abovementioned feature will give users the opportunity to unlock their smartphone with their eyes. Samsung is allegedly already hard at work on the high-security bit of tech, though there’s no word on how it is going to work. Should the rumor pan out to be true, the Samsung Galaxy S5 will feature significantly higher-level security than the current crop of fingerprint sensor equipped device such as the iPhone 5s and the HTC One max. We do however, recommend that you take the news with a large grain of salt at this point in time. GSMArena

One of the more ambitious and interesting hardware projects on a crowdfunding platform recently has to be the Quasar IV, a smartphone designed entirely around security, encryption and identity protection. QSAlpha’s Quasar IV uses authentication tech called Quatrix, and a hybrid Android/Linux and Quatrix mobile OS called QuaOS to make sure communications in and out of the phone are protected. The Quasar IV is going to be made, despite the fact that there are only nine days remaining in its Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign, and only $48,796 raised out of $3.2 million sought on a fixed funding goal (meaning they don’t get anything if they haven’t got the whole amount committed). While the Quasar IV won’t raise that much money in the next 9 days, it apparently will get made regardless thanks to help from outside investors. On the Quasar IV Indiegogo page, an update posted a few hours ago says that production with “one of the world’s largest consumer electronics OEMS manufacturers” has...

According to a set of secretive documents reportedly authored by the NSA and delivered to the public by Der Spiegel, the security agency is or has been able to access vital data on three of the world’s most popular operating systems with relative ease. These documents suggest that Apple iPhones, Google Android devices, and BlackBerry devices are all able to be tapped by the NSA. These documents suggest that NSA taps of these devices are able to reveal “most sensitive data” including SMS traffic, location information, notes, and contact lists. It’s important to note that Der Spiegel suggests that their data does not point to widespread hacking of smartphones by the NSA. They say that these documents suggest targeted, “individually tailored” cases of smartphone tapping, generally “without the knowledge of smart phone companies.” This would indicate that BlackBerry, Google, and Apple had nothing to do with it, so to speak. This program spoken of by the NSA suggests that the iPhone i...

People sending email to any of Google's 425 million Gmail users have no "reasonable expectation" that their communications are confidential, the internet giant has said in a court filing. Consumer Watchdog, the advocacy group that uncovered the filing, called the revelation a "stunning admission." It comes as Google and its peers are under pressure to explain their role in the National Security Agency's (NSA) mass surveillance of US citizens and foreign nationals. "Google has finally admitted they don't respect privacy," said John Simpson, Consumer Watchdog's privacy project director. "People should take them at their word; if you care about your email correspondents' privacy, don't use Gmail." Google set out its case last month in an attempt to dismiss a class action lawsuit that accuses the tech giant of breaking wire tap laws when it scans emails sent from non-Google accounts in order to target ads to Gmail user...

If you recall, earlier this month the encrypted email service Lavabit abruptly shutdown, killing the service for over 400,000 users in one swoop. Following that, another encrypted email service run by Silent Circle was preemptively shutdown. Although Ladar Levison, the creator of Lavabit, is under a gag order that prevents him from talking about the particulars of the situation, he isn’t keeping silent on the matter. Lavabit, an encrypted email service that has been around for many years, shutdown on August 8 with a note on the home page from its founder stating that he’d been entangled in a legal issue for weeks before the decision, and that he was not authorized to discuss what it concerned. He did say, however, that he made the decision to shut down the service to avoid being “complicit in crimes against the American people.” He wrapped it up with a rather ominous warning that users should avoid trusting their private data to US corporations. Although he still has not given any ...

Following Edward Snowden’s NSA-related leaks, government intrusion into one’s data via the technology that permeates our lives has been a hot-topic issue (you can read more by clicking the PRISM tag below, spurring other leaks and anonymous statements of arguably less grand proportions. One such example is a rep ort by The Wall Street Journal this evening, which spoke to former U.S. officials and sources familiar with technology they say the FBI uses to spy on suspects. The information comes from different sources said to be familiar with methods the FBI uses to gather data from the cyber sphere, as well as court documents that reveal some of these investigative tools. According to these sources, the use of spyware and other similar software via court order is increasing, perhaps not surprising considering the increasing rate of technology adoption. The means of spying covers a wide range of methods, among them being the use of spyware for both desktop and mobile devices that is ...

The heavily-anticipated Moto X phone has posed for the cameras once again, this time in a sleek promotional video for Canadian mobile carrier Rogers. The demonstration video details many of the new features that'll debut on the device, including the always-listening voice command software that does not require users to touch the device. The so-called Open Mic feature will allow users to ask questions, bring up Google Now data, set alarms, or get directions just by talking to the device. Starting at 0:23 – “ Your Moto X is ready to listen and respond. Talk to it, and it learns your voice. With the power of Google Now, it tells you what you need to know, even when you’re not touching the screen.” Back when Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich was first introduced, there was a feature – and there continues to be a feature – tagged as “open microphone”. This is an experience that currently works with Android devices allowing voice dictation and streaming voice recognition – at the m...

Last week, Facebook faced one of those difficult security problems that companies usually have to face once in a while . The social network reported that a security bug left approximately six million users’ information exposed, namely email addresses and phone numbers. However, it seems the problem goes much deeper than that. Security research firm Packet Storm Security first discovered the bug, and they say that their data and Facebook’s data that they reported to users don’t quite match up. The researchers say that what Facebook told its users was much less than what the researchers found. They also said that the social network is hoarding non-user contact information. This means that even if you don’t have a Facebook account, you most likely have friends that do, and if they have you in their contacts, this could mean that Facebook still has information on you, and it’s being exposed. Obviously, users are furious that their not-for-sharing phone numbers and email addresses are ...

Facing charges of espionage, former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden has left Hong Kong, WikiLeaks claims, and is headed to Russia. Snowden’s final destination is unclear, but Cuba is a strong possibility. Wherever he ends up, the move is bound to infuriate White House authorities eager to bring Snowden back to the United States for a hearing. The New York Times reported this morning that Snowden traveled on an Aeroflot flight. An unnamed reservations agent said he booked a one-way ticket. Russia’s Interfax news service, citing a “person familiar with the situation,” claims that Mr. Snowden will remain in transit at Moscow airport for several hours, and would not formally cross the Russian border. Snowden has been formally charged with theft of U.S. government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information and wilful communication of classified communications intelligence to an unauthorized person. As we reported earlier today , the White...

After much of the world was shocked by allegations that the NSA was actively spying on citizens through the PRISM program , Anonymous, a group of internet activists, released a series of documents that they claim can prove the existence of the intelligence sharing network. Despite the U.S government confirming the existence of the seven-year initiative, some of the companies that were allegedly on board quickly denied their involvement. Major tech corporations that include Microsoft, Apple, AOL, Yahoo, Facebook and Skype were supposedly providing exclusive government access to their servers and all of the customer information contained within. Although many would argue that it is the NSA’s moral obligation to thwart potential attacks using any means necessary, the big concern is what could happen if this information were to fall into the wrong hands. After all,  if Anonymous retrieved documents from an intelligence agency that should have unbeatable network security, what’s sto...

By now , most of us are very much awake to the fact that we are losing personal liberties and privacy to some form of global governance that wants to control each and every part of our lives in the guise of national security . Although we usually avoid politics and bilderberg  related articles , we cant help but post this because it has some relevance to technology which we use in the form of cell phones and most importantly - the internet . As you already know , the internet is not as safe as you might think it is . with bot-ware and different tracking systems , you are constantly being monitored by companies and different groups to know what you are into these days , although this seems to be  harmless at first , the purpose behind this might be much sinister  than what you think ,anyway , we are really not going to dig further into that because you all came here to read about the so called PRISM  program , so what is PRISM ?  , The name  PRISM,comes ...