Will CyanogenMod Get the Business Blues?

Last week, I wrote an article pointing out that the NSA's assault on cryptography, bad as it was, had a silver lining for open source, which was less vulnerable to being subverted than closed-source applications produced by companies. However, that raises the question: what about the mobile world? 

On Open Enterprise blog.

Twenty-Year-Old Requirement For 'Real-time, Full-time' Eavesdropping On Canadian Mobiles Revealed

Even if it now seems likely that Linus Torvalds wasn't approached to add a backdoor to Linux, there are plenty of others that were asked and acquiesced, as this story from The Globe and Mail in Canada makes clear: 

On Techdirt.

Linus Torvalds Admits He Was Approached By US Government To Insert Backdoor Into Linux -- Or Does He?

At the LinuxCon meeting in New Orleans, Linus Torvalds was asked if he had ever been approached by the US government to insert a backdoor into the Linux kernel. Here's his characteristic answer: 

On Techdirt.

Lavabit's Levison Now Avoids Email Altogether, Has Turned Into A 'Political Activist' Thanks To The NSA

A couple of weeks ago, Mike reported on the extraordinary turn of events involving Edward Snowden's email supplier, Lavabit. The company's owner, Ladar Levison, preferred to shut down the service rather than hand over to the US government something that it wanted really badly -- exactly what, we don't know because of a gag order. We then learned that the mere act of shutting Lavabit down threatened to land Levison in big trouble anyway. 

On Techdirt.

More NSA Spying Fallout: Brazilian President Snubs Obama Invitation, May Trigger Internet Balkanization

A couple of weeks ago, Techdirt noted that the Brazilian President, Dilma Rousseff, was angry that the NSA had been reading her private emails and text messages, and that as a result she was contemplating cancelling an imminent high-profile state visit to the US. That was before the recent revelations that the NSA had also engaged in industrial espionage at the biggest Brazilian company, Petrobras, which seems to have been the final straw: Rousseff has now formally "postponed" her trip to the US, according to the Brazilian news site O Globo (original in Portuguese.) 

On Techdirt.

Ex-MI6 Deputy Chief: 'Serious Actors' Already Knew About NSA's Techniques Before Snowden

One of the key issues in the debate surrounding Snowden's leaks is whether they might be threatening our security by letting the bad people know what the NSA and GCHQ are up to. Nigel Inkster, former deputy chief of the UK's foreign intelligence agency, MI6, doesn't think so: 

On Techdirt.

Latest Casualty Of NSA Spying Revelations: Web Advertising Based On Tracking Users

As we've noted before, Edward Snowden's revelations about the globe-spanning spying being conducted by the NSA are have all sorts of interesting knock-on consequences. Here's another: people are starting to worry about being tracked by online advertisers, and taking action to avoid it, as this story in Adweek explains: 

On Techdirt.

Why The NSA Must Be Reined In -- For Democracy's Sake

In the wake of the continuing leaks about the NSA's activities, most commentators are understandably still trying to get to grips with the enormity of what has been happening. But John Naughton, professor of the public understanding of technology at the UK's Open University, tackles a very different question on his blog: what is likely to happen in the future, if things carry on as they are?  

On Techdirt.

John Gilmore On How The NSA Sabotaged A Key Security Standard

In Bruce Schneier's uplifting call to fix the Internet in the wake of key technologies being subverted by the US government, one of the things he asks engineers to do is to come forward with detailed information about how the NSA did that: 

On Techdirt.

Latest Leak Shows NSA Engaging In Economic Espionage -- Not Fighting Terrorism

As more and more information about the NSA's global surveillance capabilities emerges through leaks of material obtained by Edward Snowden, the US authorities have been playing the terrorist card heavily. That is, they concede that they have been spying on pretty much everyone, but claim that it was only to fight terrorism, and thus to save lives. In particular, the NSA insists it is not spying on anyone for the purposes of industrial espionage -- here's what it wrote in an email to the Washington Post on the subject just a couple of weeks ago: 

On Techdirt.

Would You Trust Any Organization That Doesn't Trust 4,000 Of Its Employees? What If It's The NSA?

It's becoming increasingly clear that one of the reasons Edward Snowden was able to access so much secret information -- and walk out of the door with it -- is that the NSA is an organizational mess. A fascinating post by David Ignatius in the Washington Post underlines another way in which the NSA is deeply dysfunctional by any normal standard: 

On Techdirt.

NSA's Crypto Betrayal: Good News for Open Source?

Revelations from documents obtained by whistleblower Edward Snowden that GCHQ essentially downloads the entire Internet as it enters and leaves the UK, and stores big chunks of it, was bad enough. But last week we learned that the NSA has intentionally weakened just about every aspect of online encryption:

On Open Enterprise blog.

The Canary in the Coal Mine: Groklaw Shuts Down

If you follow me on Twitter or elsewhere, you'll have noticed that I've been tweeting rather extensively about the NSA's spying, the most recent attacks on Glenn Greenwald and now the Guardian. If you were still wondering what any of this has to do with open source, this latest news might clarify things a little:

On Open Enterprise blog.

When Transparency Is A Matter Of Life And Death

Against a background of the leaks about NSA spying, transparency -- or lack of it -- is a hot topic at the moment. But there are situations where it can be even more important than just a matter of enhancing confidence in government actions and acting as a check on them, as this Wired story about Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) makes clear: 

On Techdirt.

Who Will Take The Privacy Seppuku Pledge?

When Techdirt wrote recently about yet another secure email provider opting to close down its service rather than acquiesce in some future US government demand to spy on its users, we noted that Cryptocloud has promised something similar for a while -- what it terms "corporate seppuku": 

On Techdirt.

How To Solve Overclassification: Give Government Departments A Limited Annual 'Secrecy Budget'

Recently we noted that "overclassification" of sensitive material actually leads to more secrets being revealed. The New York Times has published an interesting article that picks up on this theme, and gives the following concrete example of how overclassification has been harmful to the US: 

On Techdirt.

US Government War On Hackers Backfires: Now Top Hackers Won't Work With US Government

Techdirt has noted the increasing demonization of hackers (not to be confused with crackers that break into systems for criminal purposes), for example by trying to add an extra layer of punishment on other crimes if they were done "on a computer." High-profile victims of this approach include Bradley Manning, Aaron Swartz, Jeremy Hammond, Barrett Brown and of course Edward Snowden. 

On Techdirt.

Yet More Security Reasons to Give Microsoft a Miss

In the wake of Microsoft's dire financial results, it might seem a little unsporting to draw attention to more of the company's problems. But its continuing stranglehold on companies and governments around the world means that such measures are justified, not least because people are suffering as result - millions of them.

On Open Enterprise blog.

Can You Trust Microsoft With Your Company Secrets?

About a month ago, I wrote about the extraordinary fact that Microsoft routinely hands over zero-day exploits in its applications to the US government for the latter to use in the short window before they are announced and plugged. On thing that allows is for "foreign" governments and companies to be targetted and various levels of access to be gained in a way that is hard to protect against.

On Open Enterprise blog.

Urgent: Please Contact MEPs Now for Spying/TAFTA Vote

As you will have noticed, European politicians have suddenly become rather interested in the revelations about NSA spying now that it seems that they, too, have been targeted. This led to a three-hour long debate in the European Parliament yesterday, which was striking for the number of speakers calling for the imminents TAFTA/TTIP trade negotiations to be postponed until after the US has responded to the allegations - and promised to behave better in the future.

On Open Enterprise blog.