Documents Reveal That Microsoft Let Nsa Bypass Its Customers' Encryption

[earthdome]

Documents Reveal That Microsoft Let NSA Bypass Its Customers' Encryption

J.D. Tuccille|

Jul. 11, 2013 7:56 pm

MicrosoftNot that most of us have been inclined to trust Skype as a conduit for confidential information in recent years, but the latest treasure trove of revelations published byThe Guardian reveal that Microsoft has given the National Security Agency the means to bypass encryption in its products, including Skype and Outlook. We can probably assume that other American companies have similar arrangements with the NSA, raising the likelihood that American software products and online services will rapidly lose popularity around the world as a consequence of their cozy relationship with the snoops.

Reports Glenn Greenwald and fellow journalists at The Guardian:

Microsoft has collaborated closely with US intelligence services to allow users' communications to be intercepted, including helping the National Security Agency to circumvent the company's own encryption, according to top-secret documents obtained by the Guardian.

The files provided by Edward Snowden illustrate the scale of co-operation between Silicon Valley and the intelligence agencies over the last three years. They also shed new light on the workings of the top-secret Prism program, which was disclosed by the Guardian and the Washington Post last month.

The documents show that:

• Microsoft helped the NSA to circumvent its encryption to address concerns that the agency would be unable to intercept web chats on the new Outlook.com portal;

• The agency already had pre-encryption stage access to email on Outlook.com, including Hotmail;

• The company worked with the FBI this year to allow the NSA easier access via Prism to its cloud storage service SkyDrive, which now has more than 250 million users worldwide;

• Microsoft also worked with the FBI's Data Intercept Unit to "understand" potential issues with a feature in Outlook.com that allows users to create email aliases;

• In July last year, nine months after Microsoft bought Skype, the NSA boasted that a new capability had tripled the amount of Skype video calls being collected through Prism;

• Material collected through Prism is routinely shared with the FBI and CIA, with one NSA document describing the program as a "team sport".

Skype once had a reputation as a secure channel for communicating, but rumors have circulated ever since its acquisition by Microsoft that the company collaborated with the feds. The Guardian report would seem to confirm those rumors — and to suggest that to use a Microsft product is to share a party line with snoops employed by the United States goverment.

But other governments also spy, to a degree rivaling American efforts, and they probably lean on corporations based in their countries. Ultimately, commercial software with proprietary code might become anathema for anybody concerned about security. The greatest winner from these spying revelations may be open source products that can be scrutinized for backdoors and compromises by independent observers.

 

 

 

 

Another reason to use open source software and operating systems like Ubuntu.

 

Source: http://reason.com/blog/2013/07/11/documents-reveal-that-microsoft-let-nsa?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reason%2FHitandRun+%28Reason+Online+-+Hit+%26+Run+Blog%29

[Bruce]

Well I have two thoughts about your post and similar articles I have seen.

 

1. Reminds me of an old story in American politics back in the 1800's. Every so often a smart political candidate would send a telegram to the other candidates saying something such as " All has been discovered, I am leaving town immediately, suggest you do the same." Which would hopefully cause the candidates to assume that what, if anything illegal that they had been involved in, they would drop out of sight before the election.     

 

2. What the general public seems to be unaware of and Obama's media has not yet started writing much on the actual far reaching implications of this spying. If this spying is real as extensive as so far reported, then every drug deal using texts, every child kidnapping, every Mexican drug cartel deal that used email or twitter or texts, Skype or yahoo chat is in a database now.

 

If the FBI, who is connected to the spying on American fails to retrieve and then analyze the date related to the location of a child kidnapping and then the child is later found dead, there is going to be a huge public backlash. Connecting the vast amount of data is one thing, but failing to even look at or make available in major felony crimes is an insult to the victims.

 

It will be interesting to see how this shakes out over the next few years.

 

Further, as for the kiddie porn crown and their 'need' to share and swap using the internet, is then assumed to be already in the database and a majority of those people should be waiting for the KNOCK on the door at about 5am. But will it happen? Imagine the backlash for the government to talk out one side of their mouths against the evils of kiddie porn only for the public to find out later that the government already has the evidence in theor procession! But failed to act on it.      

[Tukaram (Tim)]

I find it interesting that the 2 best virus protection programs are Russian. (Ok, Eset is Slovakian)

 

 

Privacy is long dead. The 1st, 4th, and 10th Amendments dead and buried.

[earthdome]

Well I have two thoughts about your post and similar articles I have seen.

 

1. Reminds me of an old story in American politics back in the 1800's. Every so often a smart political candidate would send a telegram to the other candidates saying something such as " All has been discovered, I am leaving town immediately, suggest you do the same." Which would hopefully cause the candidates to assume that what, if anything illegal that they had been involved in, they would drop out of sight before the election.     

 

2. What the general public seems to be unaware of and Obama's media has not yet started writing much on the actual far reaching implications of this spying. If this spying is real as extensive as so far reported, then every drug deal using texts, every child kidnapping, every Mexican drug cartel deal that used email or twitter or texts, Skype or yahoo chat is in a database now.

 

If the FBI, who is connected to the spying on American fails to retrieve and then analyze the date related to the location of a child kidnapping and then the child is later found dead, there is going to be a huge public backlash. Connecting the vast amount of data is one thing, but failing to even look at or make available in major felony crimes is an insult to the victims.

 

It will be interesting to see how this shakes out over the next few years.

 

Further, as for the kiddie porn crown and their 'need' to share and swap using the internet, is then assumed to be already in the database and a majority of those people should be waiting for the KNOCK on the door at about 5am. But will it happen? Imagine the backlash for the government to talk out one side of their mouths against the evils of kiddie porn only for the public to find out later that the government already has the evidence in theor procession! But failed to act on it.      

 

 You can't give the government the power to do good without also giving it the power to do bad - in fact, to do anything it wants.  - Harry Browne

 

 

Gandalf: Don't... tempt me Frodo! I dare not take it. Not even to keep it safe. Understand, Frodo. I would use this ring from a desire to do good... But through me, it would wield a power too great and terrible to imagine.

 

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. - Benjamin Franklin

 

Yes, the vast amounts of data collected could be used to track down violent predatory criminals. It can also be used to oppress or blackmail political opponents

and those critical of government.

[Bruce]

Yes, the vast amounts of data collected could be used to track down violent predatory criminals. It can also be used to oppress or blackmail political opponents and those critical of government.

 

Obama is already doing this. The issue is now when the average citizens and average police want access to solve a crime, what will happen? Will there be civil suits against the government for failing to protect children from kiddie porn makers in the US if they had already left a trail (file sharing) and the government failed to notice or follow up.

[i am bob]

Data has been collected for a good many years already...  You just didn't know about it!  As for accessing your data?  You gotta be kidding, right?

 

And, by the way, did I and several others not warn you about MightySlob?   :mocking:   

 

Do yourself a favour and take a look at Linux...  The particular computer I am using has encryption comparable to what the military uses and nobody is collecting my data without my permission - and it's a simple free download to get this!  

[Bruce]

nobody is collecting my data without my permission

 

Or so he thought as the RCMP let Bob away in handcuffs for having downloaded Illegally a copy of a 1949 Bugs Bunny cartoon from a bootleg site. Man! Those Canadians really are tough on their enforcement of intellectual property rights. :hystery:  

[i am bob]

That's true.  But then Bugs Bunny truly is a Intellectual.

 

:mocking:

[Bruce]

Remember children... The Government is our friend.