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...

Apple has released a patch for its iOS mobile operating system, which runs on iPhones and iPads, after security researchers uncovered a major vulnerability that could allow hackers to intercept encrypted emails and other communications. The flaw, which was first identified by security firm Crowdstrike, meant that critical checks on the validity of a website’s security (SSL) certificate were overlooked when users tried to establish a secure connection. This meant that a hacker could potentially masquerade as a trusted site, such as Gmail or Facebook, and intercept encrypted traffic or modify the data in transit, in addition to breaching financial data or finding other sensitive information. "It's as bad as you could imagine, that's all I can say," Johns Hopkins University cryptography professor Matthew Green told Reuters. In a statement on its support website, Apple admitted that the software "failed to validate the authenticity of the connection". The ...

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...

Facebook has been actively researching the feasibility, effectiveness, and profitability of tracking users’ cursors and screen positions, reports the Wall Street Journal. The data would give the social media giant the ability to analyze the ways in which users interact with Facebook content and advertising. This would in turn let it change the site and its advertising methods according to where users hover their mice and scroll their device displays. The new data collection method would be added to its other methods, such as gathering information users enter into their profiles or tracking friendships and likes. It is part of an ongoing investigation by Facebook analytics chief Ken Rudin, who joined the company in April 2012. Before that, he was the vice president of analytics and platform technologies at Zynga, Inc. That company made billions of dollars in revenue on such Facebook-reliant games as Farmville. (Maybe you’ve heard of it.) The screen behavior technology being studied ...

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

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...