4, March 2016 The NSA & Encryption
The NSA has an
insatiable appetite to invade our privacy. Der Spiegel reported details of a
secretive unit inside the NSA, called the Office of Tailored Access Operations,
or TAO. TAO has developed new ways to penetrate our privacy, courtesy of
Microsoft, by gaining access to WINDOWS users who report technical problems. In
addition, new computer orders are intercepted in transit and special malware is
implanted to monitor all activity of unsuspecting users.
William Binny,
creator of some of the NSA surveillance code, expressed concern that the agency
is drowning in mountains of useless data which has rendered it to be totally
dysfunctional. He also warned that the
potential for abuse and misuse of the information is extremely troubling.
It is instructive that the NSA couldn’t cite a single instance in which its
mammoth sized haystack of data circumvented an imminent attack – including the
Bernardino shooters. In the last fifteen years the NSA had access to potential
terrorist attacks but failed to act on the significance of the data.
It is
ironic that the NSA paid millions in fees to Apple and other high tech
companies to weaken their encryption standards by supplying a back door access.
The same companies are now feigning outrage over government demands to allow
them access to their devices thereby weakening their encryption standards for
all their customers.
As Dan Kaminsky, a security expert commented,
“when your products have been intentionally flawed in the support of
intelligence missions, don’t expect people to buy them”.
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