id
stringlengths 4
8
| url
stringlengths 32
188
| title
stringlengths 2
122
| text
stringlengths 143
226k
|
|---|---|---|---|
39078285 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CompanionLink | CompanionLink | CompanionLink is a contact and calendar synchronization software that syncs data across smartphone and tablet devices, computers, and web-based applications. The software is developed by Portland, OR-based CompanionLink Software, Inc. CompanionLink Software, Inc. also develops DejaOffice—contact management mobile app for Android, iPhone, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone—and a secure cloud-based sync service called DejaCloud.
CompanionLink Software, Inc. is recognized for developing one of the first 3rd-party synchronization tools for PalmPilot, BlackBerry, iPhone, and Android devices. CompanionLink software is best known for the wide range of devices it is compatible with. Wayland Bruns is the founder and current CEO.
History
Wayland Bruns founded CompanionLink, Inc. in 1987. It was originally named JORF Company, becoming Tele-Support Software, Inc. in 1996, and then CompanionLink Software, Inc. in June 2000. As of 2011, the company employed 28 people and reported annual revenues exceeding $2 million.
CompanionLink was one of the first 3rd-party synchronization tools for PalmPilot, BlackBerry, iPhone, and Android devices. The company continues to evolve products for current platforms, operating systems, and software.
In August 2010, CompanionLink Software, Inc. released CompanionLink 4.0 with an updated user interface and faster sync support. One year later, in September 2011, CompanionLink 5 was announced after a public beta testing period. The company’s DejaOffice product was released in 2010, followed by DejaCloud in 2012.
Products
CompanionLink syncs contacts, calendars, tasks, and memos between multiple databases and devices through direct USB connection or wireless connection. It works with Microsoft Outlook, Palm Desktop, ACT!, Salesforce CRM, Zoho CRM, Lotus Notes, Google Contacts and Calendar, Google Apps, Outlook Business Contact Manager, Highrise, Groupwise, and Infusionsoft.
DejaOffice is a contact and customer relationship management mobile application designed for business users. It synchronizes contacts, calendars, tasks, and memo apps for Apple, Android, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone smartphones and tablets. DejaOffice comes with its own productivity apps and offers USB, Wi-Fi, and cloud sync options. DejaOffice makes use of the Getting Things Done GTD approach, this allows one to focus attention on taking action on tasks, instead of on recalling them.
Cloud syncing for CompanionLink software is available through DejaCloud. DejaCloud is a business cloud service that keeps multiple databases and devices synchronized using a secure AES-256 encryption.
External links
http://www.companionlink.com/
References
http://www.fwrd.com.au/
Data synchronization
Storage software |
39080703 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional%20encryption | Functional encryption | Functional encryption (FE) is a generalization of public-key encryption in which possessing a secret key allows one to learn a function of what the ciphertext is encrypting.
Formal definition
More precisely, a functional encryption scheme for a given functionality consists of the following four algorithms:
: creates a public key and a master secret key .
: uses the master secret key to generate a new secret key for the function .
: uses the public key to encrypt a message .
: uses secret key to calculate where is the value that encrypts.
The security of FE requires that any information an adversary learns from an encryption of is revealed by . Formally, this is defined by simulation.
Applications
Functional encryption generalizes several existing primitives including Identity-based encryption (IBE) and attribute-based encryption (ABE). In the IBE case, define to be equal to when corresponds to an identity that is allowed to decrypt, and otherwise. Similarly, in the ABE case, define when encodes attributes with permission to decrypt and otherwise.
History
Functional encryption was proposed by Amit Sahai and Brent Waters in 2005 and formalized by Dan Boneh, Amit Sahai and Brent Waters in 2010. Until recently, however, most instantiations of Functional Encryption supported only limited function classes such as boolean formulae. In 2012, several researchers developed Functional Encryption schemes that support arbitrary functions.
References
Cryptographic_primitives |
39108352 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masking%20%28Electronic%20Health%20Record%29 | Masking (Electronic Health Record) | In Electronic Health Records (EHR’s) data masking, or controlled access, is the process of concealing patient health data from certain healthcare providers. Patients have the right to request the masking of their personal information, making it inaccessible to any physician, or a particular physician, unless a specific reason is provided. Data masking is also performed by healthcare agencies to restrict the amount of information that can be accessed by external bodies such as researchers, health insurance agencies and unauthorised individuals. It is a method used to protect patients’ sensitive information so that privacy and confidentiality are less of a concern. Techniques used to alter information within a patient’s EHR include data encryption, obfuscation, hashing, exclusion and perturbation.
Confidentiality
The increased access that transpires from introducing EHR's is seen as a large concern to some patients. Masking information is a technique that contributes to establishing the confidentiality of EHR's, as a large amount of sensitive information is contained within these records. History of health outcomes such as drug/alcohol abuse, sexually transmitted infections or abortion during pregnancy are known to lead to social discrimination and cause social harm to the patient, hence the importance of protecting the content within EHR's. Masking limits the access that internal and external individuals can have to a particular record, increasing the protection of its contents. When patients apply for masking of their EHR, health services must meet their needs and alter the system accordingly so that unauthorised individuals can't gain access.
Patient Masking Requests
To increase security of their EHR's, patients can elect to mask their information by signing a form provided by the health service. It is necessary that health services with EHR software notify and educate their patients of data masking capabilities and the advantages and disadvantages of the process. In submitting a request, patients are given the control to specify the physicians and health service staff members that are provided with consent and the right to access their record. Health services must abide by patient masking requests under the Health Records Act and implement data masking techniques within the EHR technology, otherwise major consequences can result. In addition, audit trails can be implemented by health services to track and identify which individuals have accessed a patients EHR over a certain time period.
Unmasking
In patient care, authorised users have the ability to override masking and access restrictions under emergency circumstances. If a patient is in a critical health state and treatment is urgently required, physicians are provided with the right to access all required information within the EHR. This mechanism is known as "breaking the glass." Any unmasking of a patient's EHR is audited, and a sufficient reason for access is generally required.
EHR Data Masking Techniques
Masking refers to sets of alterations and changes made to protect information within the confines of Electronic health records. Not only is masking performed at a patients request, it is a common method used to assist in the conduction of clinical and epidemiological research. It reduces confidentiality and privacy concerns associated with supplying information to external bodies. In general, direct identifiers are removed from the dataset, replaced with random values, changed using the hashing function, or restored with a unique key. Mechanisms as such are expanded on under the following headings.
Encryption
Encryption is often the most complex form of data masking, although it is a relatively safe and secure method. It involves inserting a password or key to grant an individual access to view certain data. Only permitted users are provided with a password and therefore have the capacity to recover sensitive information included within an EHR. When the system requests data masking of an EHR, access is extremely difficult and time-consuming for hackers or unauthorized users, as they do not possess the unique code that will decrypt the data.
Data Obfuscation
Data obfuscation limits the sharing of highly sensitive health information within an Electronic health record by scrambling particular data elements to prevent unauthorized access. The technique doesn’t physically mark data; it alters data to avoid detection from external network systems. Data obfuscation is commonly used as it increases anonymity and preserves relationships within a dataset that would often be destroyed in more rigorous forms of masking. Use of methods as such is most evident in interrelated numeric data such as addresses or dates. For example, in research epidemiologists may be interested in accessing highly specific location data to correlate patterns of diseases within particular neighborhoods and cities. However, finding clusters of poor health outcomes don’t require knowledge of actual patient addresses, it simply requires relationships between patient addresses. As a result, data extraction for the study may translate addresses into another metric that preserves locations without revealing the actual physical location.
Data Perturbation
In data perturbation alterations are made to either input databases or the query results returned. Data perturbation involves preserving aggregate trends in the original data while removing and modifying the actual data. For example, clinical data can be swapped between EHR's, preserving the existing values in a field but eliminating the specific mapping between fields of a record. Random “noise” can also be added the data, maintaining the statistical properties of a field while randomly altering exact values within a particular EHR. Data perturbation has been hailed as one of the most effective data protection techniques, whilst being relatively simple to implement.
Data Exclusion
Data exclusion involves the removal of specific data elements to restrict them from being accessed. The process involves often removing an EHR entirely from the system (at patients request) or removing specific sections of a patients record. This method of masking provides the highest level of confidentiality; however, continuity of care can be significantly affected in some cases. In addition, data exclusion from EHR’s is most commonly applied for when external researchers are investigating the nature of patient health outcomes. To protect individual privacy, patient identifiers and demographics such as name, date of birth and address, are removed from the copied EHR's, whilst researchers evaluate clinical information such as diagnoses and performed procedures. The process ensures that patients’ sensitive information remains anonymous whilst gains in research can still be made.
Data Hashing
Data hashing involves blocking and de-identifying certain characters within strings of information so that personal information is no longer recognizable to its original form. This method ensures masked information is no longer visually identifiable to unauthorized users. The fact that data hashing alters the data itself means it is only appropriate when applied to data that is not required again in the future. For instance, if a study was conducted to investigate the prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes in Victoria, Australia, researchers would only require demographic information regarding to the state of residence. To protect patient privacy and confidentiality, more specific indicators such as house number, address, suburb and post code would be masked. For example:
No. XXX XXXXX Street, XX XXXX, Victoria, Australia, Post code 31XX.
Reference List
Information privacy
Electronic health records |
39128172 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F.%20Lynn%20McNulty | F. Lynn McNulty | Lt. Col. Frederick “F.” Lynn McNulty (1939–2012) was the first Director of Information Systems Security for the U.S. State Department, a pioneer in the field of cybersecurity, and has been characterized as the “father” of U.S. federal information security. His peers eulogized him as a tireless advocate for the security of the nation. He was an early and persistent champion of information security in government.
Cybersecurity
McNulty played a key role in influencing U.S. national security policy on everything from export controls on commercial encryption products to the deployment of key federal cybersecurity infrastructure. He was repeatedly called to testify on cybersecurity matters by U.S. House and Senate subcommittees. According to SCMagazine.com’s Robert Bigman, McNulty’s contributions to cybersecurity are “woven into the DNA of almost every government information security policy and program,” and his security initiatives became a model within the federal government and served as the basis for The Computer Security Act of 1987. In its June 15, 2012 edition, Federal Computer Weekly identified McNulty as one of the key thought leaders in the field of cybersecurity during the preceding quarter century.
A Fellow of the International Information Systems Security Consortium (ISC)², McNulty was the recipient of the Federal 100 Award and inducted into the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA) Hall of Fame. His publications include F. Lynn McNulty “Encryption's Importance to Economic and Infrastructure Security”, 9 Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law 427–450 (1999).
Background & Postscript
Born in Alameda, California, McNulty received his B.A. in international affairs from the University of California, Berkeley. He was awarded 2 master's degrees, an M.A. in international affairs from San Jose State and an M.P.A. from George Washington University. A United States Army Reserve officer from 1963 until 1999, Frederick Lynn McNulty was activated for four years during the Vietnam War. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, McNulty worked in information security at the Central Intelligence Agency. He retired from government in 1995. McNulty died of an aggressive lymphoma in 2012. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Honors
In late 2013, the (ISC)² created the McNulty Award, one of its U.S. Government Information Security Leadership Awards (GISLA), in F. Lynn McNulty's honor. The F. Lynn McNulty Tribute GISLA will recognize a member of the U.S. federal information security community who upholds McNulty’s legacy as a visionary and innovator through outstanding service and commitment. The organization shall bestow the first F. Lynn McNulty GISLA in October, 2013. In 2014, F. Lynn McNulty was, himself, posthumously awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 17th annual bestowing of awards for excellence in information security and public policy at the RSA global information security conference in San Francisco, California. His widow Peggy McNulty accepted the award.
References
Computer security procedures
Cyberwarfare
People of the Central Intelligence Agency
United States Army officers
University of California, Berkeley alumni
San Jose State University alumni
George Washington University alumni
People from Alameda, California
1939 births
2012 deaths
Burials at Arlington National Cemetery |
39156141 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symmetric%20cone | Symmetric cone | In mathematics, symmetric cones, sometimes called domains of positivity, are open convex self-dual cones in Euclidean space which have a transitive group of symmetries, i.e. invertible operators that take the cone onto itself. By the Koecher–Vinberg theorem these correspond to the cone of squares in finite-dimensional real Euclidean Jordan algebras, originally studied and classified by . The tube domain associated with a symmetric cone is a noncompact Hermitian symmetric space of tube type. All the algebraic and geometric structures associated with the symmetric space can be expressed naturally in terms of the Jordan algebra. The other irreducible Hermitian symmetric spaces of noncompact type correspond to Siegel domains of the second kind. These can be described in terms of more complicated structures called Jordan triple systems, which generalize Jordan algebras without identity.
Definitions
A convex cone C in a finite-dimensional real inner product space V is a convex set invariant under multiplication by positive scalars. It spans the subspace C – C and the largest subspace it contains is C ∩ (−C). It spans the whole space if and only if it contains a basis. Since the convex hull of the basis is a polytope with non-empty interior, this happens if and only if C has non-empty interior. The interior in this case is also a convex cone. Moreover, an open convex cone coincides with the interior of its closure, since any interior point in the closure must lie in the interior of some polytope in the original cone. A convex cone is said to be proper if its closure, also a cone, contains no subspaces.
Let C be an open convex cone. Its dual is defined as
It is also an open convex cone and C** = C. An open convex cone C is said to be self-dual if C* = C. It is necessarily proper, since
it does not contain 0, so cannot contain both X and −X.
The automorphism group of an open convex cone is defined by
Clearly g lies in Aut C if and only if g takes the closure of C onto itself. So Aut C is a closed subgroup of GL(V) and hence a Lie group. Moreover, Aut C* = (Aut C)*, where g* is the adjoint of g. C is said to be homogeneous if Aut C acts transitively on C.
The open convex cone C is called a symmetric cone if it is self-dual and homogeneous.
Group theoretic properties
If C is a symmetric cone, then Aut C is closed under taking adjoints.
The identity component Aut0 C acts transitively on C.
The stabilizers of points are maximal compact subgroups, all conjugate, and exhaust the maximal compact subgroups of Aut C.
In Aut0 C the stabilizers of points are maximal compact subgroups, all conjugate, and exhaust the maximal compact subgroups of Aut0 C.
The maximal compact subgroups of Aut0 C are connected.
The component group of Aut C is isomorphic to the component group of a maximal compact subgroup and therefore finite.
Aut C ∩ O(V) and Aut0 C ∩ O(V) are maximal compact subgroups in Aut C and Aut0 C.
C is naturally a Riemannian symmetric space isomorphic to G / K where G = Aut0 C. The Cartan involution is defined by σ(g)=(g*)−1, so that K = G ∩ O(V).
Spectral decomposition in a Euclidean Jordan algebra
In their classic paper, studied and completely classified a class of finite-dimensional Jordan algebras, that are now called either Euclidean Jordan algebras or formally real Jordan algebras.
Definition
Let E be a finite-dimensional real vector space with a symmetric bilinear product operation
with an identity element 1 such that a1 = a for a in A and a real inner product (a,b) for which the multiplication operators L(a) defined by L(a)b = ab on E are self-adjoint and satisfy the Jordan relation
As will turn out below, the condition on adjoints can be replaced by the equivalent condition that
the trace form Tr L(ab) defines an inner product. The trace form has the advantage of being manifestly invariant under automorphisms of the Jordan algebra, which is thus a closed subgroup of O(E) and thus a compact Lie group. In practical examples, however, it is often easier to produce an inner product for which the L(a) are self-adjoint than verify directly positive-definiteness of the trace form. (The equivalent original condition of Jordan, von Neumann and Wigner was that if a sum of squares of elements vanishes then each of those elements has to vanish.)
Power associativity
From the Jordan condition it follows that the Jordan algebra is power associative, i.e. the Jordan subalgebra generated by any single element a in E is actually an associative commutative algebra. Thus, defining an inductively by an = a (an−1), the following associativity relation holds:
so the subalgebra can be identified with R[a], polynomials in a. In fact polarizing of the Jordan relation—replacing a by a + tb and taking the coefficient of t—yields
This identity implies that L(am) is a polynomial in L(a) and L(a2) for all m. In fact, assuming the result for lower exponents than m,
Setting b = am – 1 in the polarized Jordan identity gives:
a recurrence relation showing inductively that L(am + 1) is a polynomial in L(a) and L(a2).
Consequently, if power-associativity holds when the first exponent is ≤ m, then it also holds for m+1 since
Idempotents and rank
An element e in E is called an idempotent if e2 = e. Two idempotents are said to be orthogonal if ef = 0. This is equivalent to orthogonality with respect to the inner product, since (ef,ef) = (e,f). In this case g = e + f is also an idempotent. An idempotent g is called primitive or minimal if it cannot be written as a sum of non-zero orthogonal idempotents. If e1, ..., em are pairwise orthogonal idempotents then their sum is also an idempotent and the algebra they generate consists of all linear combinations of the ei. It is an associative algebra. If e is an idempotent, then 1 − e is an orthogonal idempotent. An orthogonal set of idempotents with sum 1 is said to be a complete set or a partition of 1. If each idempotent in the set is minimal it is called a Jordan frame. Since the number of elements in any orthogonal set of idempotents is bounded by dim E, Jordan frames exist. The maximal number of elements in a Jordan frame is called the rank r of E.
Spectral decomposition
The spectral theorem states that any element a can be uniquely written as
where the idempotents ei's are a partition of 1 and the λi, the eigenvalues of a, are real and distinct. In fact let E0 = R[a] and let T be the restriction of L(a) to E0. T is self-adjoint and has 1 as a cyclic vector. So the commutant of T consists of polynomials in T (or a). By the spectral theorem for self-adjoint operators,
where the Pi are orthogonal projections on E0 with sum I and the λi's are the distinct real eigenvalues of T. Since the Pi's commute with T and are self-adjoint, they are given by multiplication elements ei of R[a] and thus form a partition of 1. Uniqueness follows because if fi is a partition of 1 and a = Σ μi fi, then with p(t)=Π (t - μj) and pi = p/(t − μi), fi = pi(a)/pi(μi). So the fi's are polynomials in a and uniqueness follows from uniqueness of the spectral decomposition of T.
The spectral theorem implies that the rank is independent of the Jordan frame. For a Jordan frame with k minimal idempotents can be used to construct an element a with k distinct eigenvalues. As above the minimal polynomial p of a has degree k and R[a] has dimension k. Its dimension is also the largest k such that Fk(a) ≠ 0 where Fk(a) is the determinant of a Gram matrix:
So the rank r is the largest integer k for which Fk is not identically zero on E. In this case, as a non-vanishing polynomial, Fr is non-zero on an open dense subset of E. the regular elements. Any other a is a limit of regular elements a(n). Since the operator norm of L(x) gives an equivalent norm on E, a standard compactness argument shows that, passing to a subsequence if necessary, the spectral idempotents of the a(n) and their corresponding eigenvalues are convergent. The limit of Jordan frames is a Jordan frame, since a limit of non-zero idempotents yields a non-zero idempotent by continuity of the operator norm. It follows that every Jordan frame is made up of r minimal idempotents.
If e and f are orthogonal idempotents, the spectral theorem shows that e and f are polynomials in a = e − f, so that L(e) and L(f) commute. This can be seen directly from the polarized Jordan identity which implies L(e)L(f) = 2 L(e)L(f)L(e). Commutativity follows by taking adjoints.
Spectral decomposition for an idempotent
If e is a non-zero idempotent then the eigenvalues of L(e) can only be 0, 1/2 and 1, since taking a = b = e in the polarized Jordan identity yields
In particular the operator norm of L(e) is 1 and its trace is strictly positive.
There is a corresponding orthogonal eigenspace decomposition of E
where, for a in E, Eλ(a) denotes the λ-eigenspace of L(a). In this decomposition E1(e) and E0(e) are Jordan algebras with identity elements e and 1 − e. Their sum E1(e) ⊕ E0(e) is a direct sum of Jordan algebras in that any product between them is zero. It is the centralizer subalgebra of e and consists of all a such that L(a) commutes with L(e). The subspace E1/2(e) is a module for the centralizer of e, the centralizer module, and the product of any two elements in it lies in the centralizer subalgebra. On the other hand, if
then U is self-adjoint equal to 1 on the centralizer algebra and −1 on the centralizer module. So U2 = I and the properties above show that
defines an involutive Jordan algebra automorphism σ of E.
In fact the Jordan algebra and module properties follow by replacing a and b in the polarized Jordan identity by e and a. If ea = 0, this gives L(e)L(a) = 2L(e)L(a)L(e). Taking adjoints it follows that L(a) commutes with L(e). Similarly if (1 − e)a = 0, L(a) commutes with I − L(e) and hence L(e). This implies the Jordan algebra and module properties. To check that a product of elements in the module lies in the algebra, it is enough to check this for squares: but if L(e)a = a, then ea = a, so L(a)2 + L(a2)L(e) = 2L(a)L(e)L(a) + L(a2e). Taking adjoints it follows that L(a2) commutes with L(e), which implies the property for squares.
Trace form
The trace form is defined by
It is an inner product since, for non-zero a = Σ λi ei,
The polarized Jordan identity can be polarized again by replacing a by a + tc and taking the coefficient of t. A further anyisymmetrization in a and c yields:
Applying the trace to both sides
so that L(b) is self-adjoint for the trace form.
Simple Euclidean Jordan algebras
The classification of simple Euclidean Jordan algebras was accomplished by , with details of the one exceptional algebra provided in the article immediately following theirs by . Using the Peirce decomposition, they reduced the problem to an algebraic problem involving multiplicative quadratic forms already solved by Hurwitz. The presentation here, following , using composition algebras or Euclidean Hurwitz algebras, is a shorter version of the original derivation.
Central decomposition
If E is a Euclidean Jordan algebra an ideal F in E is a linear subspace closed under multiplication by elements of E, i.e. F is invariant under the operators L(a) for a in E. If P is the orthogonal projection onto F it commutes with the operators L(a), In particular F⊥ = (I − P)E is also an ideal and E = F ⊕ F⊥. Furthermore, if e = P(1), then P = L(e). In fact for a in E
so that ea = a for a in F and 0 for a in F⊥. In particular e and 1 − e are orthogonal idempotents with L(e) = P and L(1 − e) = I − P. e and 1 − e are the identities in the Euclidean Jordan algebras F and F⊥. The idempotent e is central in E, where the center of E is defined to be the set of all z such that L(z) commutes with L(a) for all a. It forms a commutative associative subalgebra.
Continuing in this way E can be written as a direct sum of minimal ideals
If Pi is the projection onto Ei and ei = Pi(1) then Pi = L(ei). The ei's are orthogonal with sum 1 and are the identities in Ei. Minimality forces Ei to be simple, i.e. to have no non-trivial ideals. For since L(ei) commutes with all L(a)'s, any ideal F ⊂ Ei
would be invariant under E since F = eiF. Such a decomposition into a direct sum of simple Euclidean algebras is unique. If E = ⊕ Fj is another decomposition, then Fj=⊕ eiFj. By minimality only one of the terms here is non-zero so equals Fj. By minimality the corresponding Ei equals Fj, proving uniqueness.
In this way the classification of Euclidean Jordan algebras is reduced to that of simple ones. For a simple algebra E all inner products for which the operators L(a) are self adjoint are proportional. Indeed, any other product has the form (Ta, b) for some positive self-adjoint operator commuting with the L(a)'s. Any non-zero eigenspace of T is an ideal in A and therefore by simplicity T must act on the whole of E as a positive scalar.
List of all simple Euclidean Jordan algebras
Let Hn(R) be the space of real symmetric n by n matrices with inner product (a,b) = Tr ab and Jordan product a ∘ b = (ab + ba). Then Hn(R) is a simple Euclidean Jordan algebra of rank n for n ≥ 3.
Let Hn(C) be the space of complex self-adjoint n by n matrices with inner product (a,b) = Re Tr ab* and Jordan product a ∘ b = (ab + ba). Then Hn(C) is a simple Euclidean Jordan algebra of rank n for n ≥ 3.
Let Hn(H) be the space of self-adjoint n by n matrices with entries in the quaternions, inner product (a,b) = Re Tr ab* and Jordan product a ∘ b = (ab + ba). Then Hn(H) is a simple Euclidean Jordan algebra of rank n for n ≥ 3.
Let V be a finite dimensional real inner product space and set E = V ⊕ R with inner product (u⊕λ,v⊕μ) =(u,v) + λμ and product (u⊕λ)∘(v⊕μ)=( μu + λv) ⊕ [(u,v) + λμ]. This is a Euclidean Jordan algebra of rank 2, called a spin factor.
The above examples in fact give all the simple Euclidean Jordan algebras, except for one exceptional case H3(O), the self-adjoint matrices over the octonions or Cayley numbers, another rank 3 simple Euclidean Jordan algebra of dimension 27 (see below).
The Jordan algebras H2(R), H2(C), H2(H) and H2(O) are isomorphic to spin factors V ⊕ R where V has dimension 2, 3, 5 and 9, respectively: that is, one more than the dimension of the relevant division algebra.
Peirce decomposition
Let E be a simple Euclidean Jordan algebra with inner product given by the trace form τ(a)= Tr L(a). The proof that E has the above form rests on constructing an analogue of matrix units for a Jordan frame in E. The following properties of idempotents hold in E.
An idempotent e is minimal in E if and only if E1(e) has dimension one (so equals Re). Moreover E1/2(e) ≠ (0). In fact the spectral projections of any element of E1(e) lie in E so if non-zero must equal e. If the 1/2 eigenspace vanished then E1(e) = Re would be an ideal.
If e and f are non-orthogonal minimal idempotents, then there is a period 2 automorphism σ of E such that σe=f, so that e and f have the same trace.
If e and f are orthogonal minimal idempotents then E1/2(e) ∩ E1/2(f) ≠ (0). Moreover, there is a period 2 automorphism σ of E such that σe=f, so that e and f have the same trace, and for any a in this intersection, a2 = τ(e) |a|2 (e + f).
All minimal idempotents in E are in the same orbit of the automorphism group so have the same trace τ0.
If e, f, g are three minimal orthogonal idempotents, then for a in E1/2(e) ∩ E1/2(f) and b in E1/2(f) ∩ E1/2(g), L(a)2 b = τ0 |a|2 b and |ab|2 = τ0 |a|2|b|2. Moreover, E1/2(e) ∩ E1/2(f) ∩ E1/2(g) = (0).
If e1, ..., er and f1, ..., fr are Jordan frames in E, then there is an automorphism α such that αei = fi.
If (ei) is a Jordan frame and Eii = E1(ei) and Eij = E1/2(ei) ∩ E1/2(ej), then E is the orthogonal direct sum the Eii's and Eij's. Since E is simple, the Eii's are one-dimensional and the subspaces Eij are all non-zero for i ≠ j.
If a = Σ αi ei for some Jordan frame (ei), then L(a) acts as αi on Eii and (αi + αi)/2 on Eij.
Reduction to Euclidean Hurwitz algebras
Let E be a simple Euclidean Jordan algebra. From the properties of the Peirce decomposition it follows that:
If E has rank 2, then it has the form V ⊕ R for some inner product space V with Jordan product as described above.
If E has rank r > 2, then there is a non-associative unital algebra A, associative if r > 3, equipped with an inner product satisfying (ab,ab)= (a,a)(b,b) and such that E = Hr(A). (Conjugation in A is defined by a* = −a + 2(a,1)1.)
Such an algebra A is called a Euclidean Hurwitz algebra. In A if λ(a)b = ab and ρ(a)b = ba, then:
the involution is an antiautomorphism, i.e.
, , so that the involution on the algebra corresponds to taking adjoints
if
, , so that is an alternative algebra.
By Hurwitz's theorem A must be isomorphic to R, C, H or O. The first three are associative division algebras. The octonions do not form an associative algebra, so Hr(O) can only give a Jordan algebra for r = 3. Because A is associative when A = R, C or H, it is immediate that Hr(A) is a Jordan algebra for r ≥ 3. A separate argument, given originally by , is required to show that H3(O) with Jordan product a∘b = (ab + ba) satisfies the Jordan identity [L(a),L(a2)] = 0. There is a later more direct proof using the Freudenthal diagonalization theorem due to : he proved that given any matrix in the algebra Hr(A) there is an algebra automorphism carrying the matrix onto a diagonal matrix with real entries; it is then straightforward to check that [L(a),L(b)] = 0 for real diagonal matrices.
Exceptional and special Euclidean Jordan algebras
The exceptional Euclidean Jordan algebra E= H3(O) is called the Albert algebra. The Cohn–Shirshov theorem implies that it cannot be generated by two elements (and the identity). This can be seen directly. For by Freudenthal's diagonalization theorem one element X can be taken to be a diagonal matrix with real entries and the other Y to be orthogonal to the Jordan subalgebra generated by X. If all the diagonal entries of X are distinct, the Jordan subalgebra generated by X and Y is generated by the diagonal matrices and three elements
It is straightforward to verify that the real linear span of the diagonal matrices, these matrices and similar matrices with real entries form a unital Jordan subalgebra. If the diagonal entries of X are not distinct, X can be taken to be the primitive idempotent e1 with diagonal entries 1, 0 and 0. The analysis in then shows that the unital Jordan subalgebra generated by X and Y is proper. Indeed, if 1 − e1 is the sum of two primitive idempotents in the subalgebra, then, after applying an automorphism of E if necessary, the subalgebra will be generated by the diagonal matrices and a matrix orthogonal to the diagonal matrices. By the previous argument it will be proper. If 1 - e1 is a primitive idempotent, the subalgebra must be proper, by the properties of the rank in E.
A Euclidean algebra is said to be special if its central decomposition contains no copies of the Albert algebra. Since the Albert algebra cannot be generated by two elements, it follows that a Euclidean Jordan algebra generated by two elements is special. This is the Shirshov–Cohn theorem for Euclidean Jordan algebras.
The classification shows that each non-exceptional simple Euclidean Jordan algebra is a subalgebra of some Hn(R). The same is therefore true of any special algebra.
On the other hand, as showed, the Albert algebra H3(O) cannot be realized as a subalgebra of Hn(R) for any n.
Indeed, let π is a real-linear map of E = H3(O) into the self-adjoint operators on V = Rn with π(ab) = (π(a)π(b) + π(b)π(a)) and π(1) = I. If e1, e2, e3 are the diagonal minimal idempotents then Pi = π(ei are mutually orthogonal projections on V onto orthogonal subspaces Vi. If i ≠ j, the elements eij of E with 1 in the (i,j) and (j,i) entries and 0 elsewhere satisfy eij2 = ei + ej. Moreover, eijejk = eik if i, j and k are distinct. The operators Tij are zero on Vk (k ≠ i, j) and restrict to involutions on Vi ⊕ Vj interchanging Vi and Vj. Letting Pij = Pi Tij Pj and setting Pii = Pi, the (Pij) form a system of matrix units on V, i.e. Pij* = Pji, Σ Pii = I and PijPkm = δjk Pim. Let Ei and Eij be the subspaces of the Peirce decomposition of E. For x in O, set πij = Pij π(xeij), regarded as an operator on Vi. This does not depend on j and for x, y in O
Since every x in O has a right inverse y with xy = 1, the map πij is injective. On the other hand, it is an algebra homomorphism from the nonassociative algebra O into the associative algebra End Vi, a contradiction.
Positive cone in a Euclidean Jordan algebra
Definition
When (ei) is a partition of 1 in a Euclidean Jordan algebra E, the self-adjoint operators L(ei) commute and there is a decomposition into simultaneous eigenspaces. If a = Σ λi ei the eigenvalues of L(a) have the form Σ εi λi is 0, 1/2 or 1. The ei themselves give the eigenvalues λi. In particular an element a has non-negative spectrum if and only if L(a) has non-negative spectrum. Moreover, a has positive spectrum if and only if L(a) has positive spectrum. For if a has positive spectrum, a - ε1 has non-negative spectrum for some ε > 0.
The positive cone C in E is defined to be the set of elements a such that a has positive spectrum. This condition is equivalent to the operator L(a) being a positive self-adjoint operator on E.
C is a convex cone in E because positivity of a self-adjoint operator T— the property that its eigenvalues be strictly positive—is equivalent to (Tv,v) > 0 for all v ≠ 0.
C is an open because the positive matrices are open in the self-adjoint matrices and L is a continuous map: in fact, if the lowest eigenvalue of T is ε > 0, then T + S is positive whenever ||S|| < ε.
The closure of C consists of all a such that L(a) is non-negative or equivalently a has non-negative spectrum. From the elementary properties of convex cones, C is the interior of its closure and is a proper cone. The elements in the closure of C are precisely the square of elements in E.
C is self-dual. In fact the elements of the closure of C are just set of all squares x2 in E, the dual cone is given by all a such that (a,x2) > 0. On the other hand, (a,x2) = (L(a)x,x), so this is equivalent to the positivity of L(a).
Quadratic representation
To show that the positive cone C is homogeneous, i.e. has a transitive group of automorphisms, a generalization of the quadratic action of self-adjoint matrices on themselves given by X ↦ YXY has to be defined. If Y is invertible and self-adjoint, this map is invertible and carries positive operators onto positive operators.
For a in E, define an endomorphism of E, called the quadratic representation, by
Note that for self-adjoint matrices L(X)Y = (XY + YX), so that Q(X)Y = XYX.
An element a in E is called invertible if it is invertible in R[a]. If b denotes the inverse, then the spectral decomposition of a shows that L(a) and L(b) commute.
In fact a is invertible if and only if Q(a) is invertible. In that case
Indeed, if Q(a) is invertible it carries R[a] onto itself. On the other hand, Q(a)1 = a2, so
Taking b = a−1 in the polarized Jordan identity, yields
Replacing a by its inverse, the relation follows if L(a) and L(a−1) are invertible. If not it holds for a + ε1 with ε arbitrarily small and hence also in the limit.
These identities are easy to prove in a finite-dimensional (Euclidean) Jordan algebra (see below) or in a special Jordan algebra, i.e. the Jordan algebra defined by a unital associative algebra. They are valid in any Jordan algebra. This was conjectured by Jacobson and proved in : Macdonald showed that if a polynomial identity in three variables, linear in the third, is valid in any special Jordan algebra, then it holds in all Jordan algebras.
In fact for c in A and F(a) a function on A with values in End A, let
DcF(a) be the derivative at t = 0 of F(a + tc). Then
The expression in square brackets simplifies to c because L(a) commutes with L(a−1).
Thus
Applying Dc to L(a−1)Q(a) = L(a) and acting on b = c−1 yields
On the other hand, L(Q(a)b) is invertible on an open dense set where Q(a)b must also be invertible with
Taking the derivative Dc in the variable b in the expression above gives
This yields the fundamental identity for a dense set of invertible elements, so it follows in general by continuity. The fundamental identity implies that c = Q(a)b is invertible if a and b are invertible and gives a formula for the inverse of Q(c). Applying it to c gives the inverse identity in full generality.
Finally it can be verified immediately from the definitions that, if u = 1 − 2e for some idempotent e, then Q(u) is the period 2 automorphism constructed above for the centralizer algebra and module of e.
Homogeneity of positive cone
The proof of this relies on elementary continuity properties of eigenvalues of self-adjoint operators.
Let T(t) (α ≤ t ≤ β) be a continuous family of self-adjoint operators on E with T(α) positive and T(β) having a negative eigenvalue. Set S(t)= –T(t) + M with M > 0 chosen so large that S(t) is positive for all t. The operator norm ||S(t)|| is continuous. It is less than M for t = α and greater than M for t = β. So for some α < s < β, ||S(s)|| = M and there is a vector v ≠ 0 such that S(s)v = Mv. In particular T(s)v = 0, so that T(s) is not invertible.
Suppose that x = Q(a)b does not lie in C. Let b(t) = (1 − t) + tb with 0 ≤ t ≤ 1. By convexity b(t) lies in C. Let x(t) = Q(a)b(t) and X(t) = L(x(t)). If X(t) is invertible for all t with 0 ≤ t ≤ 1, the eigenvalue argument gives a contradiction since it is positive at t = 0 and has negative eigenvalues at t = 1. So X(s) has a zero eigenvalue for some s with 0 < s ≤ 1: X(s)w = 0 with w ≠ 0. By the properties of the quadratic representation, x(t) is invertible for all t. Let Y(t) = L(x(t)2). This is a positive operator since x(t)2 lies in C. Let T(t) = Q(x(t)), an invertible self-adjoint operator by the invertibility of x(t). On the other hand, T(t) = 2X(t)2 - Y(t). So (T(s)w,w) < 0 since Y(s) is positive and X(s)w = 0. In particular T(s) has some negative eigenvalues. On the other hand, the operator T(0) = Q(a2) = Q(a)2 is positive. By the eigenvalue argument, T(t) has eigenvalue 0 for some t with 0 < t < s, a contradiction.
It follows that the linear operators Q(a) with a invertible, and their inverses, take the cone C onto itself. Indeed, the inverse of Q(a) is just Q(a−1). Since Q(a)1 = a2, there is thus a transitive group of symmetries:
Euclidean Jordan algebra of a symmetric cone
Construction
Let C be a symmetric cone in the Euclidean space E. As above, Aut C denotes the closed subgroup of GL(E) taking C (or equivalently its closure) onto itself. Let G = Aut0 C be its identity component. K = G ∩ O(E). It is a maximal compact subgroup of G and the stabilizer of a point e in C. It is connected. The group G is invariant under taking adjoints. Let σg =(g*)−1, period 2 automorphism. Thus K is the fixed point subgroup of σ. Let be the Lie algebra of G. Thus σ induces an involution of and hence a ±1 eigenspace decomposition
where , the +1 eigenspace, is the Lie algebra of K and is the −1 eigenspace. Thus ⋅e is an affine subspace of dimension dim . Since C = G/K is an open subspace of E, it follows that dim E = dim and hence ⋅e = E. For a in E let L(a) be the unique element of such that L(a)e = a. Define
a ∘ b = L(a)b. Then E with its Euclidean structure and this bilinear product is a Euclidean Jordan algebra with identity 1 = e. The convex cone coincides C with the positive cone of E.
Since the elements of are self-adjoint, L(a)* = L(a). The product is commutative since
[, ] ⊆ annihilates e, so that ab = L(a)L(b)e = L(b)L(a)e = ba. It remains to check the Jordan identity [L(a),L(a2)] = 0.
The associator is given by [a,b,c] = [L(a),L(c)]b. Since [L(a),L(c)] lies in
it follows that [[L(a),L(c)],L(b)] = L([a,b,c]). Making both sides act on c yields
On the other hand,
and likewise
Combining these expressions gives
which implies the Jordan identity.
Finally the positive cone of E coincides with C. This depends on the fact that in any Euclidean Jordan algebra E
In fact Q(ea) is a positive operator,
Q(eta) is a one-parameter group of positive operators: this follows by continuity for rational t, where it is a consequence of the behaviour of powers So it has the form exp tX for some self-adjoint operator X. Taking the derivative at 0 gives X = 2L(a).
Hence the positive cone is given by all elements
with X in . Thus the positive cone of E lies inside C. Since both are self-dual,
they must coincide.
Automorphism groups and trace form
Let C be the positive cone in a simple Euclidean Jordan algebra E. Aut C is the closed subgroup of GL(E) taking C (or its closure) onto itself. Let G = Aut0 C be the identity component of Aut C and let K be the closed subgroup of G fixing 1. From the group theoretic properties of cones, K is a connected compact subgroup of G and equals the identity component of the compact Lie group Aut E. Let and be the Lie algebras of G and K. G is closed under taking adjoints and K is the fixed point subgroup of the period 2 automorphism σ(g) = (g*)−1. Thus K = G ∩ SO(E). Let be the −1 eigenspace of σ.
consists of derivations of E that are skew-adjoint for the inner product defined by the trace form.
[[L(a),L(c)],L(b)] = L([a,b,c]).
If a and b are in E, then D = [L(a),L(b)] is a derivation of E, so lies in . These derivations span .
If a is in C, then Q(a) lies in G.
C is the connected component of the open set of invertible elements of E containing 1. It consists of exponentials of elements of E and the exponential map gives a diffeomorphism of E onto C.
The map a ↦ L(a) gives an isomorphism of E onto and eL(a) = Q(ea/2). This space of such exponentials coincides with P the positive self-adjoint elements in G.
For g in G and a in E, Q(g(a)) = g Q(a) g*.
Cartan decomposition
G = P ⋅ K = K ⋅ P and the decomposition g = pk corresponds to the polar decomposition in GL(E).
If (ei) is a Jordan frame in E, then the subspace of spanned by L(ei) is maximal Abelian in . A = exp is the Abelian subgroup of operators Q(a) where a = Σ λi ei with λi > 0. A is closed in P and hence G. If b =Σ μi ei with μi > 0, then Q(ab)=Q(a)Q(b).
and P are the union of the K translates of and A.
Iwasawa decomposition for cone
If E has Peirce decomposition relative to the Jordan frame (ei)
then is diagonalized by this decomposition with L(a) acting as (αi + αj)/2 on Eij, where a = Σ αi ei.
Define the closed subgroup S of G by
where the ordering on pairs p ≤ q is lexicographic. S contains the group A, since it acts as scalars on Eij. If N is the closed subgroup of S such that nx = x modulo ⊕(p,q) > (i,j) Epq, then S = AN = NA, a semidirect product with A normalizing N. Moreover, G has the following Iwasawa decomposition:
For i ≠ j let
Then the Lie algebra of N is
Taking ordered orthonormal bases of the Eij gives a basis of E, using the lexicographic order on pairs (i,j). The group N is lower unitriangular and its Lie algebra lower triangular. In particular the exponential map is a polynomial mapping of onto N, with polynomial inverse given by the logarithm.
Complexification of a Euclidean Jordan algebra
Definition of complexification
Let E be a Euclidean Jordan algebra. The complexification EC = E ⊕ iE has a natural conjugation operation (a + ib)* = a − ib and a natural complex inner product and norm. The Jordan product on E extends bilinearly to EC, so that (a + ib)(c + id) = (ac − bd) + i(ad + bc). If multiplication is defined by L(a)b = ab then the Jordan axiom
still holds by analytic continuation. Indeed, the identity above holds when a is replaced by a + tb for t real; and since the left side is then a polynomial with values in End EC vanishing for real t, it vanishes also t complex. Analytic continuation also shows that all for the formulas involving power-associativity for a single element a in E, including recursion formulas for L(am), also hold in EC. Since for b in E, L(b) is still self-adjoint on EC, the adjoint relation L(a*) = L(a)* holds for a in EC. Similarly the symmetric bilinear form β(a,b) = (a,b*) satisfies β(ab,c) = β(b,ac). If the inner product comes from the trace form, then β(a,b) = Tr L(ab).
For a in EC, the quadratic representation is defined as before by Q(a)=2L(a)2 − L(a2). By analytic continuation the fundamental identity still holds:
An element a in E is called invertible if it is invertible in C[a]. Power associativity shows that L(a) and L(a−1) commute. Moreover, a−1 is invertible with inverse a.
As in E, a is invertible if and only if Q(a) is invertible. In that case
Indeed, as for E, if Q(a) is invertible it carries C[a] onto itself, while Q(a)1 = a2, so
so a is invertible. Conversely if a is invertible, taking b = a−2 in the fundamental identity shows that Q(a) is invertible. Replacing a by a−1 and b by a then shows that its inverse is Q(a−1). Finally if a and b are invertible then so is c = Q(a)b and it satisfies the inverse identity:
Invertibility of c follows from the fundamental formula which gives Q(c) = Q(a)Q(b)Q(a). Hence
The formula
also follows by analytic continuation.
Complexification of automorphism group
Aut EC is the complexification of the compact Lie group Aut E in GL(EC). This follows because the Lie algebras of Aut EC and Aut E consist of derivations of the complex and real Jordan algebras EC and E. Under the isomorphism identifying End EC with the complexification of End E, the complex derivations is identified with the complexification of the real derivations.
Structure groups
The Jordan operator L(a) are symmetric with respect to the trace form, so that L(a)t = L(a) for a in EC. The automorphism groups of E and EC consist of invertible real and complex linear operators g such that L(ga) = gL(a)g−1 and g1 = 1. Aut EC is the complexification of Aut E. Since an automorphism g preserves the trace form, g−1 = gt.
The structure groups of E and EC consist of invertible real and complex linear operators g such that
They form groups Γ(E) and Γ(EC) with Γ(E) ⊂ Γ(EC).
The structure group is closed under taking transposes g ↦ gt and adjoints g ↦ g*.
The structure group contains the automorphism group. The automorphism group can be identified with the stabilizer of 1 in the structure group.
If a is invertible, Q(a) lies in the structure group.
If g is in the structure group and a is invertible, ga is also invertible with (ga)−1 = (gt)−1a−1.
If E is simple, Γ(E) = Aut C × {±1}, Γ(E) ∩ O(E) = Aut E × {±1} and the identity component of Γ(E) acts transitively on C.
Γ(EC) is the complexification of Γ(E), which has Lie algebra .
The structure group Γ(EC) acts transitively on the set of invertible elements in EC.
Every g in Γ(EC) has the form g = h Q(a) with h an automorphism and a invertible.
The unitary structure group Γu(EC) is the subgroup of Γ(EC) consisting of unitary operators, so that Γu(EC) = Γ(EC) ∩ U(EC).
The stabilizer of 1 in Γu(EC) is Aut E.
Every g in Γu(EC) has the form g = h Q(u) with h in Aut E and u invertible in EC with u* = u−1.
Γ(EC) is the complexification of Γu(EC), which has Lie algebra .
The set S of invertible elements u such that u* = u−1 can be characterized equivalently either as those u for which L(u) is a normal operator with uu* = 1 or as those u of the form exp ia for some a in E. In particular S is connected.
The identity component of Γu(EC) acts transitively on S
g in GL(EC) is in the unitary structure group if and only if gS = S
Given a Jordan frame (ei) and v in EC, there is an operator u in the identity component of Γu(EC) such that uv = Σ αi ei with αi ≥ 0. If v is invertible, then αi > 0.
Given a frame in a Euclidean Jordan algebra E, the restricted Weyl group can be identified with the group of operators on arising from elements in the identity component of Γu(EC) that leave invariant.
Spectral norm
Let E be a Euclidean Jordan algebra with the inner product given by the trace form. Let (ei) be a fixed Jordan frame in E. For given a in EC choose u in Γu(EC) such that
ua = Σ αi ei with αi ≥ 0. Then the spectral norm ||a|| = max αi is independent of all choices. It is a norm on EC with
In addition ||a||2 is given by the operator norm of Q(a) on the inner product space EC. The fundamental identity for the quadratic representation implies that ||Q(a)b|| ≤ ||a||2||b||. The spectral norm of an element a is defined in terms of C[a] so depends only on a and not the particular Euclidean Jordan algebra in which it is calculated.
The compact set S is the set of extreme points of the closed unit ball ||x|| ≤ 1. Each u in S has norm one. Moreover, if u = eia and v = eib, then ||uv|| ≤ 1. Indeed, by the Cohn–Shirshov theorem the unital Jordan subalgebra of E generated by a and b is special. The inequality is easy to establish in non-exceptional simple Euclidean Jordan algebras, since each such Jordan algebra and its complexification can be realized as a subalgebra of some Hn(R) and its complexification Hn(C) ⊂ Mn(C). The spectral norm in Hn(C) is the usual operator norm. In that case, for unitary matrices U and V in Mn(C), clearly ||(UV + VU)|| ≤ 1. The inequality therefore follows in any special Euclidean Jordan algebra and hence in general.
On the other hand, by the Krein–Milman theorem, the closed unit ball is the (closed) convex span of S. It follows that ||L(u)|| = 1, in the operator norm corresponding to either the inner product norm or spectral norm. Hence ||L(a)|| ≤ ||a|| for all a, so that the spectral norm satisfies
It follows that EC is a Jordan C* algebra.
Complex simple Jordan algebras
The complexification of a simple Euclidean Jordan algebra is a simple complex Jordan algebra which is also separable, i.e. its trace form is non-degenerate. Conversely, using the existence of a real form of the Lie algebra of the structure group, it can be shown that every complex separable simple Jordan algebra is the complexification of a simple Euclidean Jordan algebra.
To verify that the complexification of a simple Euclidean Jordan algebra E has no ideals, note that if F is an ideal in EC then so too is F⊥, the orthogonal complement for the trace norm. As in the real case, J = F⊥ ∩ F must equal (0). For the associativity property of the trace form shows that F⊥ is an ideal and that ab = 0 if a and b lie in J. Hence J is an ideal. But if z is in J, L(z) takes EC into J and J into (0). Hence Tr L(z) = 0. Since J is an ideal and the trace form degenerate, this forces z = 0. It follows that EC = F ⊕ F⊥. If P is the corresponding projection onto F, it commutes with the operators L(a) and F⊥ = (I − P)EC. is also an ideal and E = F ⊕ F⊥. Furthermore, if e = P(1), then P = L(e). In fact for a in E
so that ea = a for a in F and 0 for a in F⊥. In particular e and 1 − e are orthogonal central idempotents with L(e) = P and L(1 − e) = I − P.
So simplicity follows from the fact that the center of EC is the complexification of the center of E.
Symmetry groups of bounded domain and tube domain
According to the "elementary approach" to bounded symmetric space of Koecher, Hermitian symmetric spaces of noncompact type can be realized in the complexification of a Euclidean Jordan algebra E as either the open unit ball for the spectral norm, a bounded domain, or as the open tube domain , where C is the positive open cone in E. In the simplest case where E = R, the complexification of E is just C, the bounded domain corresponds to the open unit disk and the tube domain to the upper half plane. Both these spaces have transitive groups of biholomorphisms given by Möbius transformations, corresponding to matrices in or . They both lie in the Riemann sphere }, the standard one-point compactification of C. Moreover, the symmetry groups are all particular cases of Möbius transformations corresponding to matrices in . This complex Lie group and its maximal compact subgroup act transitively on the Riemann sphere. The groups are also algebraic. They have distinguished generating subgroups and have an explicit description in terms of generators and relations. Moreover, the Cayley transform gives an explicit Möbius transformation from the open disk onto the upper half plane. All these features generalize to arbitrary Euclidean Jordan algebras. The compactification and complex Lie group are described in the next section and correspond to the dual Hermitian symmetric space of compact type. In this section only the symmetries of and between the bounded domain and tube domain are described.
Jordan frames provide one of the main Jordan algebraic techniques to describe the symmetry groups. Each Jordan frame gives rise to a product of copies of R and C. The symmetry groups of the corresponding open domains and the compactification—polydisks and polyspheres—can be deduced from the case of the unit disk, the upper halfplane and Riemann sphere. All these symmetries extend to the larger Jordan algebra and its compactification. The analysis can also be reduced to this case because all points in the complex algebra (or its compactification) lie in an image of the polydisk (or polysphere) under the unitary structure group.
Definitions
Let be a Euclidean Jordan algebra with complexification .
The unit ball or disk D in is just the convex bounded open set of elements
such the ||a|| < 1, i.e. the unit ball for the spectral norm.
The tube domain T in is the unbounded convex open set , where C is the open positive cone in .
Möbius transformations
The group SL(2,C) acts by Möbius transformations on the Riemann sphere C ∪ {∞}, the one-point compactification of C. If g in SL(2,C) is given by the matrix
then
Similarly the group SL(2,R) acts by Möbius transformations on the circle R ∪ {∞}, the one-point compactification of R.
Let k = R or C. Then SL(2,k) is generated by the three subgroups of lower and upper unitriangular matrices, L and U', and the diagonal matrices D. It is also generated by the lower (or upper) unitriangular matrices, the diagonal matrices and the matrix
The matrix J corresponds to the Möbius transformation and can be written
The Möbius transformations fixing ∞ are just the upper triangular matrices B = UD = DU. If g does not fix ∞, it sends ∞ to a finite point a. But then g can be composed with an upper unitriangular matrix to send a to 0 and then with J to send 0 to infinity. This argument gives the one of the simplest examples of the Bruhat decomposition:
the double coset decomposition of . In fact the union is disjoint and can be written more precisely as
where the product occurring in the second term is direct.
Now let
Then
It follows is generated by the group of operators and J subject to the following relations:
is an additive homomorphism
is a multiplicative homomorphism
The last relation follows from the definition of . The generator and relations above is fact gives a presentation of . Indeed, consider the free group Φ generated by J and with J of order 4 and its square central. This consists of all products
for . There is a natural homomorphism of Φ onto . Its kernel contain the normal subgroup Δ generated by the relations above. So there is a natural homomorphism of Φ/Δ onto . To show that it is injective it suffices to show that the Bruhat decomposition also holds in . It is enough to prove the first version, since the more precise version follows from the commutation relations between J and
. The set is invariant under inversion, contains operators and J, so it is enough to show it is invariant under multiplication. By construction it is invariant under multiplication by B. It is invariant under multiplication by J because of the defining equation for .
In particular the center of consists of the scalar matrices and it is the only non-trivial normal subgroup of , so that } is simple. In fact if is a normal subgroup, then the Bruhat decomposition implies that is a maximal subgroup, so that either is contained in or
. In the first case fixes one point and hence every point of }, so lies in the center. In the second case, the commutator subgroup of is the whole group, since it is the group generated by lower and upper unitriangular matrices and the fourth relation shows that all such matrices are commutators
since . Writing with in and in , it follows that . Since and generate the whole group, . But then . The right hand side here is Abelian while the left hand side is its own commutator subgroup. Hence this must be the trivial group and .
Given an element a in the complex Jordan algebra , the unital Jordan subalgebra is associative and commutative. Multiplication by a defines an operator on which has a spectrum, namely its set of complex eigenvalues. If is a complex polynomial, then is defined in . It is invertible in if and only if it is invertible in
, which happen precisely when does not vanish on the spectrum of . This permits rational functions of to be defined whenever the function is defined on the spectrum of . If and are rational functions with and defined on , then
is defined on and . This applies in particular to complex Möbius transformations which can be defined by
. They leave invariant and, when defined, the group composition law holds. (In the next section complex Möbius transformations will be defined on the compactification of .)
Given a primitive idempotent in with Peirce decomposition
the action of by Möbius transformations on can be extended to an action on A so that the action leaves invariant the components and in particular acts trivially on . If is the projection onto , the action is given be the formula
For a Jordan frame of primitive idempotents , the actions of associated with different commute, thus giving an action of . The diagonal copy of gives again the action by Möbius transformations on .
Cayley transform
The Möbius transformation defined by
is called the Cayley transform. Its inverse is given by
The inverse Cayley transform carries the real line onto the circle with the point 1 omitted. It carries the upper halfplane onto the unit disk and the lower halfplane onto the complement of the closed unit disk. In operator theory the mapping takes self-adjoint operators T onto unitary operators U not containing 1 in their spectrum. For matrices this follows because unitary and self-adjoint matrices can be diagonalized and their eigenvalues lie on the unit circle or real line. In this finite-dimensional setting the Cayley transform and its inverse establish a bijection between the matrices of operator norm less than one and operators with imaginary part a positive operator. This is the special case for of the Jordan algebraic result, explained below, which asserts that the Cayley transform and its inverse establish a bijection between the bounded domain and the tube domain .
In the case of matrices, the bijection follows from resolvant formulas. In fact if the imaginary part of is positive, then is invertible since
In particular, setting ,
Equivalently
is a positive operator, so that ||P(T)|| < 1. Conversely if ||U|| < 1 then is invertible and
Since the Cayley transform and its inverse commute with the transpose, they also establish a bijection for symmetric matrices. This corresponds to the Jordan algebra of symmetric complex matrices, the complexification of .
In the above resolvant identities take the following form:
and equivalently
where the Bergman operator is defined by with . The inverses here are well defined. In fact in one direction is invertible for ||u|| < 1: this follows either using the fact that the norm satisfies ||ab|| ≤ ||a|| ||b||; or using the resolvant identity and the invertibility of (see below). In the other direction if the imaginary part of is in then the imaginary part of is positive definite so that is invertible. This argument can be applied to , so it also invertible.
To establish the correspondence, it is enough to check it when is simple. In that case it follows from the connectivity of and and because:
The first criterion follows from the fact that the eigenvalues of are exactly if the eigenvalues of are . So the are either all positive or all negative. The second criterion follows from the fact that if
with and u in , then has eigenvalues . So the are either all less than one or all greater than one.
The resolvant identity is a consequence of the following identity for and invertible
In fact in this case the relations for a quadratic Jordan algebra imply
so that
The equality of the last two terms implies the identity, replacing by .
Now set and . The resolvant identity is a special case of the more following more general identity:
In fact
so the identity is equivalent to
Using the identity above together with , the left hand side equals . The right hand side equals . These are equal because of the formula .
Automorphism group of bounded domain
If lies in the bounded domain , then is invertible. Since is invariant under multiplication by scalars of modulus ≤ 1, it follows that
is invertible for |λ| ≥ 1. Hence for ||a|| ≤ 1, is invertible for |λ| > 1. It follows that the Möbius transformation is defined for ||a|| ≤ 1 and in . Where defined it is injective. It is holomorphic on . By the maximum modulus principle, to show that maps onto it suffices to show it maps onto itself. For in that case and its inverse preserve so must be surjective. If with in , then lies in . This is a commutative associative algebra and the spectral norm is the supremum norm. Since with |ςi| = 1, it follows that where |g(ςi)| = 1. So lies in .
This is a direct consequence of the definition of the spectral norm.
This is already known for the Möbius transformations, i.e. the diagonal in . It follows for diagonal matrices in a fixed component in because they correspond to transformations in the unitary structure group. Conjugating by a Möbius transformation is equivalent to conjugation by a matrix in that component. Since the only non-trivial normal subgroup of is its center, every matrix in a fixed component carries onto itself.
Given an element in an transformation in the identity component of the unitary structure group carries it in an element in with supremum norm less than 1. An transformation in the carries it onto zero. Thus there is a transitive group of biholomorphic transformations of . The symmetry is a biholomorphic Möbius transformation fixing only 0.
If is a biholomorphic self-mapping of with and derivative at 0, then must be the identity. If not, has Taylor series expansion with homogeneous of degree and . But then . Let be a functional in of norm one. Then for fixed in , the holomorphic functions of a complex variable given by must have modulus less than 1 for |w| < 1. By Cauchy's inequality, the coefficients of must be uniformly bounded independent of , which is not possible if .
If is a biholomorphic mapping of onto itself just fixing 0 then
if , the mapping fixes 0 and has derivative there. It is therefore the identity map. So for any α. This implies g is a linear mapping. Since it maps onto itself it maps the closure onto itself. In particular it must map the Shilov boundary onto itself. This forces to be in the unitary structure group.
The orbit of 0 under AD is the set of all points with . The orbit of these points under the unitary structure group is the whole of . The Cartan decomposition follows because is the stabilizer of 0 in .
In fact the only point fixed by (the identity component of) KD in D is 0. Uniqueness implies that the center of GD must fix 0. It follows that the center of GD lies in KD. The center of KD is isomorphic to the circle group: a rotation through θ corresponds to multiplication by eiθ on D so lies in }. Since this group has trivial center, the center of GD is trivial.
In fact any larger compact subgroup would intersect AD non-trivially and it has no non-trivial compact subgroups.
Note that GD is a Lie group (see below), so that the above three statements hold with GD and KD replaced by their identity components, i.e. the subgroups generated by their one-parameter cubgroups. Uniqueness of the maximal compact subgroup up to conjugacy follows from a general argument or can be deduced for classical domains directly using Sylvester's law of inertia following . For the example of Hermitian matrices over C, this reduces to proving that is up to conjugacy the unique maximal compact subgroup in . In fact if , then is the subgroup of preserving W. The restriction of the hermitian form given by the inner product on minus the inner product on .
On the other hand, if is a compact subgroup of , there is a -invariant inner product on obtained by averaging any inner product with respect to Haar measure on . The Hermitian form corresponds to an orthogonal decomposition into two subspaces of dimension both invariant under with the form positive definite on one and negative definite on the other. By Sylvester's law of inertia, given two subspaces of dimension on which the Hermitian form is positive definite, one is carried onto the other by an element of . Hence there is an element of such that the positive definite subspace is given by . So leaves invariant and .
A similar argument, with quaternions replacing the complex numbers, shows uniqueness for the symplectic group, which corresponds to Hermitian matrices over R. This can also be seen more directly by using complex structures. A complex structure is an invertible operator J with J2 = −I preserving the symplectic form B and such that −B(Jx,y) is a real inner product. The symplectic group acts transitively on complex structures by conjugation. Moreover, the subgroup commuting with J is naturally identified with the unitary group for the corresponding complex inner product space. Uniqueness follows by showing that any compact subgroup K commutes with some complex structure J. In fact, averaging over Haar measure, there is a K-invariant inner product on the underlying space. The symplectic form yields an invertible skew-adjoint operator T commuting with K. The operator S = −T2 is positive, so has a unique positive square root, which commutes with K. So J = S−1/2T, the phase of T, has square −I and commutes with K.
Automorphism group of tube domain
There is a Cartan decomposition for GT corresponding to the action on the tube T = E + iC:
KT is the stabilizer of i in iC ⊂ T, so a maximal compact subgroup of GT. Under the Cayley transform, KT corresponds to KD, the stabilizer of 0 in the bounded symmetric domain, where it acts linearly. Since GT is semisimple, every maximal compact subgroup is conjugate to KT.
The center of GT or GD is trivial. In fact the only point fixed by KD in D is 0. Uniqueness implies that the center of GD must fix 0. It follows that the center of GD lies in KD and hence that the center of GT lies in KT. The center of KD is isomorphic to the circle group: a rotation through θ corresponds to multiplication by eiθ on D. In Cayley transform it corresponds to the Möbius transformation z ↦ (cz + s)(−sz + c)−1 where c = cos θ/2 and s = sin θ/2. (In particular, when θ = π, this gives the symmetry j(z) = −z−1.) In fact all Möbius transformations z ↦ (αz + β)(−γz + δ)−1 with αδ − βγ = 1 lie in GT. Since PSL(2,R) has trivial center, the center of GT is trivial.
AT is given by the linear operators Q(a) with a = Σ αi ei with αi > 0.
In fact the Cartan decomposition for follows from the decomposition for . Given in , there is an element in , the identity component of , such that with . Since ||z|| < 1, it follows that . Taking the Cayley transform of z, it follows that every in can be written , with the Cayley transform and in . Since
with
, the point is of the form with in . Hence .
3-graded Lie algebras
Iwasawa decomposition
There is an Iwasawa decomposition for GT corresponding to the action on the tube T = E + iC:
KT is the stabilizer of i in iC ⊂ T.
AT is given by the linear operators Q(a) where a = Σ αi ei with αi > 0.
NT is a lower unitriangular group on EC. It is the semidirect product of the unipotent triangular group N appearing in the Iwasawa decomposition of G (the symmetry group of C) and N0 = E, group of translations x ↦ x + b.
The group S = AN acts on E linearly and conjugation on N0 reproduces this action. Since the group S acts simply transitively on C, it follows that ANT=S⋅N0 acts simply transitively on T = E + iC. Let HT be the group of biholomorphisms of the tube T. The Cayley transform shows that is isomorphic to the group HD of biholomorphisms of the bounded domain D. Since ANT acts simply transitively on the tube T while KT fixes ic, they have trivial intersection.
Given g in HT, take s in ANT such that g−1(i)=s−1(i). then gs−1 fixes i and therefore lies in KT. Hence HT = KT ⋅A⋅NT. So the product is a group.
Lie group structure
By a result of Henri Cartan, HD is a Lie group. Cartan's original proof is presented in . It can also be deduced from the fact the D is complete for the Bergman metric, for which the isometries form a Lie group; by Montel's theorem, the group of biholomorphisms is a closed subgroup.
That HT is a Lie group can be seen directly in this case. In fact there is a finite-dimensional 3-graded Lie algebra of vector fields with an involution σ. The Killing form is negative definite on the +1 eigenspace of σ and positive definite on the −1 eigenspace. As a group HT normalizes since the two subgroups KT and ANT do. The +1 eigenspace corresponds to the Lie algebra of KT. Similarly the Lie algebras of the linear group AN and the affine group N0 lie in . Since the group GT has trivial center, the map into GL() is injective. Since KT is compact, its image in GL() is compact. Since the Lie algebra is compatible with that of ANT, the image of ANT is closed. Hence the image of the product is closed, since the image of KT is compact. Since it is a closed subgroup, it follows that HT is a Lie group.
Generalizations
Euclidean Jordan algebras can be used to construct Hermitian symmetric spaces of tube type. The remaining Hermitian symmetric spaces are Siegel domains of the second kind. They can be constructed using Euclidean Jordan triple systems, a generalization of Euclidean Jordan algebras. In fact for a Euclidean Jordan algebra E let
Then L(a,b) gives a bilinear map into End E such that
and
Any such bilinear system is called a Euclidean Jordan triple system. By definition the operators L(a,b) form a Lie subalgebra of End E.
The Kantor–Koecher–Tits construction gives a one-one correspondence between Jordan triple systems and 3-graded Lie algebras
satisfying
and equipped with an involutive automorphism σ reversing the grading. In this case
defines a Jordan triple system on . In the case of Euclidean Jordan algebras or triple systems the Kantor–Koecher–Tits construction can be identified with the Lie algebra of the Lie group of all homomorphic automorphisms of the corresponding bounded symmetric domain.
The Lie algebra is constructed by taking to be the Lie subalgebra of End E generated by the L(a,b) and to be copies of E. The Lie bracket is given by
and the involution by
The Killing form is given by
where β(T1,T2) is the symmetric bilinear form defined by
These formulas, originally derived for Jordan algebras, work equally well for Jordan triple systems.
The account in develops the theory of bounded symmetric domains starting from the standpoint of 3-graded Lie algebras. For a given finite-dimensional vector space E, Koecher considers finite-dimensional Lie algebras of vector fields on E with polynomial coefficients of degree ≤ 2. consists of the constant vector fields ∂i and must contain the Euler operator H = Σ xi⋅∂i as a central element. Requiring the existence of an involution σ leads directly to a Jordan triple structure on V as above. As for all Jordan triple structures, fixing c in E,
the operators Lc(a) = L(a,c) give E a Jordan algebra structure, determined by e. The operators L(a,b) themselves come from a Jordan algebra structure as above if and only if there are additional operators E± in so that H, E± give a copy of . The corresponding Weyl group element implements the involution σ. This case corresponds to that of Euclidean Jordan algebras.
The remaining cases are constructed uniformly by Koecher using involutions of simple Euclidean Jordan algebras. Let E be a simple Euclidean Jordan algebra and τ a Jordan algebra automorphism of E of period 2. Thus E = E+1 ⊕ E−1 has an eigenspace decomposition for τ with E+1 a Jordan subalgebra and E−1 a module. Moreover, a product of two elements in E−1 lies in E+1. For a, b, c in E−1, set
and (a,b)= Tr L(ab). Then F = E−1 is a simple Euclidean Jordan triple system, obtained by restricting the triple system on E to F. Koecher exhibits explicit involutions of simple Euclidean Jordan algebras directly (see below). These Jordan triple systems correspond to irreducible Hermitian symmetric spaces given by Siegel domains of the second kind. In Cartan's listing, their compact duals are SU(p + q)/S(U(p) × U(q)) with p ≠ q (AIII), SO(2n)/U(n) with n odd (DIII) and E6/SO(10) × U(1) (EIII).
Examples
F is the space of p by q matrices over R with p ≠ q. In this case L(a,b)c= abtc + cbta with inner product (a,b) = Tr abt. This is Koecher's construction for the involution on E = Hp + q(R) given by conjugating by the diagonal matrix with p digonal entries equal to 1 and q to −1.
F is the space of real skew-symmetric m by m matrices. In this case L(a,b)c = abc + cba with inner product (a,b) = −Tr ab. After removing a factor of √(-1), this is Koecher's construction applied to complex conjugation on E = Hn(C).
F is the direct sum of two copies of the Cayley numbers, regarded as 1 by 2 matrices. This triple system is obtained by Koecher's construction for the canonical involution defined by any minimal idempotent in E = H3(O).
The classification of Euclidean Jordan triple systems has been achieved by generalizing the methods of Jordan, von Neumann and Wigner, but the proofs are more involved. Prior differential geometric methods of , invoking a 3-graded Lie algebra, and of , lead to a more rapid classification.
Notes
References
(reprint of 1951 article)
, originally lecture notes from a course given in the University of Göttingen in 1962
Convex geometry
Non-associative algebras
Lie algebras
Lie groups
Several complex variables |
39307191 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political%20positions%20of%20Marco%20Rubio | Political positions of Marco Rubio | Marco Rubio is a Republican politician in the United States. He is a United States Senator from Florida, and was a candidate for the Republican nomination for president of the United States in the 2016 election.
Rubio supports balancing the federal budget, while prioritizing defense spending. He believes climate change is real, and that humans are contributing to it, but questions the extent to which humans are responsible for it and claims that other nations such as China are primarily responsible (the scientific consensus is that climate change is real, dangerous, and primarily caused by humans). He wants to repeal Obamacare and replace it with tax credits and less regulation. He opposes net neutrality. On immigration, he supports "securing the country's borders," offering a path to citizenship to some undocumented immigrants, and increased vetting of refugees; Rubio opposes same-sex marriage and identifies as pro-life. On taxes, Rubio plans to set corporate taxes to 25 percent and cap economic regulations. Rubio opposes the Obama administration's normalization of relations with Cuba. Rubio supports increased sanctions on Iran, and opposed the Iran Nuclear Deal. He also favors aiding local Sunni forces in Iraq and Syria in their fight against ISIS.
Rubio is of the opinion that the United States cannot accept more Syrian refugees because background checks cannot be done under present circumstances; he supports working with allies to set up no-fly zones in Syria to protect civilians from Bashar al-Assad; he favors mass government surveillance of the American population; he has stated that gun control laws fail to achieve their purpose; he is supportive of the Trans Pacific Partnership because he believes the U.S. risks exclusion from global trade unless it is more open to trade; he is wary of China regarding national security and human rights, and wants to boost the U.S. military presence in that region, but hopes for greater economic growth as a result of trade with that country. On capital punishment, Rubio favors "streamlining the appeals process" so that executions can occur more easily.
Broad overview of political stance
As of early 2015, Rubio had a rating of 98.67 by the American Conservative Union, based on his lifetime voting record in the Senate. Two other senators were tied with Rubio, and only two were rated as having more conservative ratings. According to the National Journal, in 2013 Rubio had been the 17th most conservative senator. The Club for Growth gave Rubio ratings of 93 percent and 91 percent based on his voting record in 2014 and 2013 respectively, and he has a lifetime rating from the organization above 90 percent.
Rubio initially won his U.S. Senate seat with strong Tea Party support, but his 2013 support for comprehensive immigration reform legislation led to a decline in that support. Rubio's stance on military, foreign policy and national security issues—such as his support for arming the Syrian rebels and for the NSA—alienated some libertarian-oriented Tea Party activists.
Drug policy and criminal justice reform
Rubio supports continued criminal penalties for recreational cannabis use. In January 2014, he said: "I don't think legalizing marijuana or even decriminalizing it is the right decision for our country." In a May 2014 interview, Rubio said there is "no responsible way to recreationally use" marijuana and that legalization of the drug would be "bad for the country". Rubio said that he only supports the use of cannabis for medical purposes if it is the non-psychoactive type (such as "Charlotte's web") approved by the Florida legislature, and that a 2014 ballot measure to legalize medical use in Florida was a "ruse". Rubio has said that as president he would enforce federal law in states that have legalized cannabis.
Regarding the legalization of drugs in general, Rubio has stated, "I personally believe that legalizing drugs would be a great mistake and that any reductions in sentences for drug crimes should be made with great care." He also said that "too often" the conversation about criminal justice reform "starts and ends with drug policy". In 2018 he was one of 12 senators to vote against the First Step Act, a criminal justice reform bill signed into law by President Trump.
Education
K-12
In his role as a legislator, Rubio was active in pursuing K12 policy including introducing the Educational Opportunities Act in 2013. As a presidential candidate, Rubio has argued on behalf of closing the federal Department of Education, expanding public charter schools, and for teaching both creationism and evolution.
Additionally, Rubio has taken a strong stance against the Common Core State Standards, arguing that, while they "started out as well-intentioned effort to develop more rigorous curriculum standards", that they'll eventually be "used to force on states policies the federal government wants".
Post-secondary
Rubio has proposed a plan to reform the country's higher education system which includes enlarged vocational and apprenticeship programs, a proposed "Student Right to Know Before You Go Act" which would require colleges to inform students prior to taking out loans of the future income they could expect after obtaining a degree, a proposal to automatically base student loan payments on subsequent income, and enabling students to partner with investors who would receive a percentage of the students' income in return for funding their education. The plan also includes a commitment to create a new college accreditation program in the first 100 days of Rubio's administration.
Gun policy
As of 2016, Rubio had an A+ rating from the NRA. He has stated that the Second Amendment is a cornerstone of American democracy.
However, he voted for a gun ban in Florida Public Parks in 1999, and, as Florida Speaker of the House, Rubio failed to push law allowing guns at work. He believes that gun control laws generally fail to achieve their purpose.
In the wake of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, Rubio stated that he does not support arming teachers to address the frequency of school shootings in the United States, calling it "a terrible idea".
Rubio is opposed to banning assault weapons, stating that if he believed that such a ban "would have prevented this from happening, I would have supported it."
In contrast, Rubio does support legislation that would prevent those under the age of 18 from purchasing assault weapons.
Rubio also supports modifying the current system of background checks for purchasing guns, as well as legislation to ban bump stocks.
Rubio has announced his support for gun-violence restraining orders, and said that he is reconsidering his support of high-capacity magazines—though he stopped short of taking a firm stance.
At a town hall meeting in February 2018, Rubio stated, "I support lifting the age from 18 to 21 for buying a rifle."
In January 2019, Rubio was one of thirty-one Republican senators to cosponsor the Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, a bill introduced by John Cornyn and Ted Cruz that would grant individuals with concealed carry privileges in their home state the right to exercise this right in any other state with concealed carry laws while concurrently abiding by that state's laws.
Energy and environment
Rubio rejects the scientific consensus that human activity is the main cause of climate change, "there is no consensus on ... how much of the changes that are going on are due to human activity," and that proposals to address climate change would be ineffective and economically harmful. The website PolitiFact has said that Rubio "consistently either avoids the link between human activity and climate change, or outright denies it." Rubio believes that other nations like China are mainly responsible for climate change.
In response to the encyclical Laudato si' by Pope Francis in 2015 in which he warns of the dangers of climate change, Rubio, a Roman Catholic, replied: "I have no problem with what the pope did" and "He is a moral authority and as a moral authority is reminding us of our obligation to be good caretakers to the planet. I'm a political leader. And my job as a policymaker is to act in the common good. And I do believe it's in the common good to protect our environment, but I also believe it's in the common good to protect our economy."
During his 2016 presidential run, Rubio called for ending the crude oil export ban, block the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan for reducing carbon emissions, and expand the use of coal, natural gas and hydraulic fracturing. He avoided saying the words "climate change" in his environmental plan.
During Obama's presidency, Rubio said that Environmental Protection Agency rules were too burdensome, and called for reversing some of the administration's environmental policies.
As reported by The Hill in 2018, Jeanette Nuñez will introduce legislation in Florida "to standardize daylight saving time for the entire calendar year". To make the "Sunshine Protection Act" nationwide, Senator Marco Rubio would sponsor such a bill in the Senate given the bill could not take effect until the federal government makes the change. This is because the "provision would shift the state into a different time zone permanently", something which requires a federal regulatory action or an act of Congress.
In March 2019, Rubio was an original cosponsor of a bipartisan bill intended to mandate the Environmental Protection Agency declare per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances as hazardous substances that could be addressed with cleanup funds via the EPA Superfund law in addition to forming a requirement that polluters undertake or pay for remediation within a year of the bill being enacted.
The League of Conservation Voters gave Rubio a lifetime score of 9% for votes on environmental issues.
Government regulation and the internet
Rubio has stated that he would cap government regulation on businesses. He has praised 'on-demand' businesses, such as Uber and Airbnb, as drivers of innovation that should be protected from government interference, and has criticized efforts by New York City to limit those businesses.
In an op-ed for Politico, Rubio criticized net neutrality laws for expanding government control over the Internet and applying "a 1930s law to a 21st century issue". As alternatives to net neutrality laws that ban different prices for different types of content, Rubio has pointed to a resolution he proposed with Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) opposing international efforts to grant greater control over the Internet to the International Telecommunication Union, as well as proposed legislation to increase mobile broadband by "expanding unlicensed spectrum".
Rubio has praised encryption and criticized the idea of forcing Apple Inc. to create a backdoor to encryption to the iPhone in the wake of the 2015 San Bernardino attack, claiming that it would open the door to criminals accessing smartphones and would merely result in terrorists switching to foreign encrypted software to which there was no backdoor.
Healthcare
Rubio has stated that he would repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and replace it with tax credits and less regulation. In an opinion piece on the website Politico, Rubio proposed an up-front tax credit to be used for health insurance, along with federally-supported, state-based high-risk pools for those with pre-existing conditions to purchase health insurance and the expansion of health savings accounts (HSAs). The plan also calls for Medicaid to be funded through per-capita block grants to states, which would eliminate federal mandates, while Medicare would be transitioned into a premium support system, like Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D.
Rubio pushed for elimination of the "risk corridors" used by the federal government to compensate insurers for their losses as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The risk corridors were intended to be funded by profitable insurers participating in the PPACA. However, since insurer losses have significantly exceeded their profits in the program, the risk corridors have been depleted. His efforts contributed to the insertion of a provision in the 2014 federal budget which forbid Health and Human Services from using "any money other than what came from profitable insurers." One of the many insurers who suffered financially because of the elimination of the risk corridor program, Moda Health took the case to court and won a "$214-million judgment against the federal government" in Health Plan, Inc. v. The United States. On February 10, 2017, Justice Thomas C. Wheeler stated, "the Government "made a promise in the risk corridors program that it has yet to fulfill. Today, the court directs the Government to fulfill that promise. After all, 'to say to [Moda], 'The joke is on you. You shouldn't have trusted us,' is hardly worthy of our great government." On April 27, 2020, the US Supreme Court voted 8–1 to require the federal government to pay $12 billion to insurance companies.
Immigration
On immigration, Rubio supports securing the country's borders and then offering a legal status to people who came to the United States unlawfully, and he also believes there should be more vetting of refugees; he now opposes seeking a single comprehensive all-in-one immigration reform bill (which he calls delusional), and instead wants to secure the borders and only then discuss legal status. Regarding refugees of the Syrian Civil War, Rubio is against letting them come to the United States, because background checks cannot be done under present circumstances.
As part of the bipartisan "Gang of Eight" in the Senate, Rubio co-authored the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013 to give illegal immigrants a pathway to legal status. His proposal contrasted with the Republican party's long-held view that offering citizenship to undocumented immigrants is virtually the same as amnesty. In October 2013, four months after the Senate passed the bill he co-authored, Rubio publicly opposed its passage in the House of Representatives, proposing instead a series of individual bills.
Rubio now advocates stopping illegal immigration before addressing those illegal immigrants who are already in the country. In an interview in September 2015 he stated: "I don't think it's a decision you have to make on the front end. The first two things you have to do is stop illegal immigration, then second you have to modernize our legal immigration system, and then third you can have a debate about how to even legalize people to begin with. And then ultimately in 10 or 12 years you could have a broader debate about how has this worked out and should we allow some of them to apply for green cards and eventually citizenship."
In addressing his change of posture, at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in 2015, Rubio stated that his biggest lesson from the failure of enacting comprehensive immigration reform, was that Americans would not support it until the border is secure.
In March 2019, Rubio was one of twelve Republican senators to vote to block President Trump's national emergency declaration that would have granted him access to $3.6 billion in military construction funding to build border barriers.
Grandfather who fled Cuba in 1962
The New York Times reported in March 2016 that, "Marco Rubio's policies might shut the door to people like his grandfather." Rubio has acknowledged that some people might see a conflict between his immigration positions and the experience of his maternal grandfather, Pedro Victor Garcia.
Garcia initially immigrated legally to the U.S. in 1956, but returned to Cuba to find work in 1959. When he fled to the U.S. in 1962 without a visa, he was detained as an undocumented immigrant, and an immigration judge initially ordered him deported, but later the same day immigration officials had a "change of heart", resulting in status as a "parolee". The Times calls that status "a gray area of the law that meant he would not get a green card but could remain in the United States".
Rubio supports immigration rules that are different than the rules that were in place as of 1962, saying that there was not a "widespread effort on behalf of Fidel Castro to infiltrate into the United States killers who were going to detonate weapons and kill people." But, says Rubio, there should be exceptions for people who obviously pose no threat. Upon arriving in the U.S. in 1962, Pedro Victor Garcia was five feet 6 inches, 120 pounds, with a leg injury, polio, scoliosis and signs of emphysema; pity may have been the factor that swayed immigration officials to let him stay. A Rubio spokesman has said that refugees often arrive without all the necessary visas, but that the U.S. permitted Cubans to stay.
Rubio was born in 1971, long after Garcia's arrival in 1962, and Garcia lived until 1984; Rubio says, "I learned at his feet, relied on his counsel and craved his respect...." Rubio said in 2012 that he never had any knowledge that his grandfather was in the U.S. illegally. According to the Times, immigration officials told Garcia in 1962 that "he could stay for the time being," and he obtained permanent residency in 1967.
International relations and security
Rubio advocates for a more active presence of United States in the global affairs and "a robust American role in confronting" Iran, Russia and North Korea. Rubio has called Russian president Vladimir Putin a "gangster" and "an organized crime figure that runs a country". He has opposed efforts by the Obama administration to normalize political relations with Cuba. Rubio also opposes the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action deal with Iran's nuclear program which was partly brokered by the Obama administration, and has stated that he would continue to increase sanctions against Iran until it agreed to end its uranium enrichment program, and has pointed to the possibility of military action to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Rubio is also wary of human rights abuses in China and the broader Chinese impact upon American national security. He wants to boost the U.S. military presence in East Asia and hopes for greater economic growth as a result of increased trade with China.
Asia
China
Weeks after the 2014 Hong Kong class boycott campaign and Umbrella Movement broke out which demands genuine universal suffrage among other goals, Rubio among bipartisan colleagues joined U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown and Rep. Chris Smith's effort to introduce Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act which would update the United States–Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992 and U.S. commitment to Hong Kong's freedom and democracy. "China remains... suppressing dissent and preventing democracy in Hong Kong.... The U.S. should make clear that we stand on the side of the democratic aspirations of the people of Hong Kong and against attempts to suppress their voices.... help to ensure that Hong Kong remains truly autonomous from Beijing." Rubio said.
In November 2017, in response to efforts by the People's Republic of China (PRC) to purchase tech companies based in the US, Rubio was one of nine senators to cosponsor a bill that would broaden the federal government's ability to prevent foreign purchases of U.S. firms through increasing the strength of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). The scope of the CFIUS would be expanded to allow it to review along with possibly decline smaller investments and add additional national security factors for CFIUS to consider including if information about Americans would be exposed as part of transactions or whether the deal would facilitate fraud.
In November 2018, Rubio and a bipartisan group of senators sent a letter to the Trump administration, raising concerns about China’s undue influence over media outlets and academic institutions in the United States. They wrote: "In American news outlets, Beijing has used financial ties to suppress negative information about the CCP. In the past four years, multiple media outlets with direct or indirect financial ties to the PRC allegedly decided not to publish stories on wealth and corruption in the CCP...Beijing has also sought to use relationships with American academic institutions and student groups to shape public discourse."
Rubio in 2018 supported the Taiwan Travel Act passed by Congress to improve relations with the Republic of China (ROC, Taiwan), which drew ire to the PRC.
In January 2019, Rubio and Democrat Mark Warner introduced legislation creating the Office of Critical Technology and Security at the White House that would serve the purpose of organizing efforts to protect technology across the federal government. Rubio said in a statement, "China continues to conduct a coordinated assault on U.S. intellectual property, U.S. businesses, and our government networks and information with the full backing of the Chinese Communist Part." He furthered that the US needed "a more coordinated approach to directly counter this critical threat and ensure" better protection of American technology and that the bill would "help protect the United States by streamlining efforts across the government."
In February 2019, Rubio proposed legislation restricting and taxing Chinese investment in the United States as a means of countering Beijing's “Made in China 2025” (MIC2025) industrial modernisation program.
In October 2019, American video game company Activision Blizzard punished a Hong Kong-based professional gamer for supporting pro-democracy Hong Kong protests. Rubio accused Blizzard of censorship.
Iraq
In July 2014, Rubio supported Obama's initial response to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's invasion of Iraq.
Iran
In March 2017, Rubio was one of five senators to introduce legislation expanding sanctions targeting the ballistic missile development of Iran along with support for terrorism, any transfer of weapons, and human rights violations. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker said the sanctions would enable the United States "to regain the initiative on Iran and pushback forcefully against this threat to our security and that of our allies."
In July 2017, Rubio voted in favor of the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act that placed sanctions on Iran together with Russia and North Korea.
In September 2018, Rubio wrote a letter to the Justice Department requesting an investigation into whether former Secretary of State John Kerry had violated federal laws in meeting with Iranian diplomats after leaving office to discuss the Iran nuclear deal, citing that Americans "deserve to know that U.S. laws are enforced regardless of any individual’s past position."
Israel
Rubio has been a staunch supporter of Israel and like Ted Cruz and other Republican candidates in the 2016 United States presidential election, he promised that his first move in Office would be to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, Israel. In a senate speech in November 2015, Rubio said: "If America doesn't stand with Israel, who would we stand with? If Israel — a democracy, a strong American ally on the international stage — if they are not worthy of our unconditional support, then what ally of ours around the world can feel safe in their alliance with us?"
In 2016, in advance of a UN Security Council resolution 2334 condemning Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, Rubio signed an AIPAC-sponsored letter urging President Barack Obama to veto "one-sided" resolutions against Israel.
In September 2016, Rubio was one of seven Republican senators to introduce a 1.5 billion emergency spending bill that would provide aid to Israel with 750 million going toward missile defense and another 750 million set aide for direct assistance to Israel's military. Cosponsor Lindsey Graham stated that the bill was essential to America's intent to "make clear to the Iranian regime that we continue to stand with our close ally and are committed to Israel’s defense."
In December 2017, Rubio supported President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. He stated: "I commend President Trump for following U.S. law and recognizing Jerusalem as the eternal capital of the Jewish state of Israel."
Myanmar
Rubio condemned the genocide of the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar and called for a stronger response to the crisis.
North Korea
In May 2017, Rubio, Jeff Flake, and Cory Gardner signed a letter to the U.N. Security Council urging the council "to take immediate and additional actions to increase the pressure on the DPRK and bring Pyongyang into full compliance with its international obligations.” The senators specified their support for "new sanctions that prohibit the DPRK’s access to hard currency, prohibit the imports of minerals from the DPRK, cut off the oil supply to the DPRK, and take additional actions to address the DPRK’s malicious cyber behavior."
In March 2018, Rubio was one of six Republican senators to sign a letter to President Trump asserting the US must verify before trusting the North Korean regime and requesting Trump "respond to Congress in a timely manner regarding the administration’s strategy to engage the DPRK and your plan for a robust implementation of the maximum pressure campaign against this heinous regime." In May, Rubio stated his belief that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un would "try to get as much sanctions relief as possible without having to give up his weapons" and his opposition to the US striking North Korea militarily if there was fear North Korea could strike the US at some point, though admitted the option could realistically be employed eventually.
Saudi Arabia
In June 2017, Rubio voted against a resolution by Rand Paul and Chris Murphy that would block President Trump's 510 million sale of precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia that made up a portion of the 110 billion arms sale Trump announced during his visit to Saudi Arabia the previous year.
In March 2018, Rubio voted to table a resolution spearheaded by Bernie Sanders, Chris Murphy, and Mike Lee that would have required President Trump to withdraw American troops either in or influencing Yemen within the next 30 days unless they were combating Al-Qaeda.
In March 2019 during a confirmation hearing for retired General John Abizaid, President Trump's nominee for U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Rubio said that the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammad bin Salman had gone "full gangster", was "reckless", "ruthless" and like "something out of a James Bond movie".
Syria and Iraq
In September 2013, Rubio voted against a resolution authorizing President Obama to use military force against Syria in response to the Assad regime's use of chemical weapons stating that he was skeptical that the planned military strike would have the intended effect. In July 2014 Rubio called for arms to support moderate elements in the Syrian opposition and a bombing campaign to stop ISIL's advance, as well as aid to local Sunni forces in Iraq, and no-fly zones in Syria to protect civilians from Bashar al-Assad.
In December 2018, after President Trump announced the withdrawal of American troops in Syria, Rubio was one of six senators to sign a letter expressing concern for the move and their belief "that such action at this time is a premature and costly mistake that not only threatens the safety and security of the United States, but also emboldens ISIS, Bashar al Assad, Iran, and Russia."
Turkey
Rubio condemned Turkey's wide-ranging crackdown on dissent following a failed July 2016 coup. Rubio said: "When you have a regime that’s willing to arrest people or make up charges in order to create leverage, as they did with pastor Brunson, of course I’m concerned."
Europe
NATO
In 2015, Rubio said he would risk a war with Russia to defend America's NATO ally Turkey.
In January 2019, Rubio was one of eight senators to reintroduce legislation to prevent President Trump from withdrawing the United States from NATO by imposing a requirement of a two-thirds approval from the Senate for a president to suspend, terminate or withdraw American involvement with the international organization following a report that President Trump expressed interest in withdrawing from NATO several times during the previous year. Rubio stated that NATO was "more important than ever with Russia’s growing subversive activities in the region and beyond" and it was critical to American national security as well as that of its European allies "that the United States remain engaged and play an active role in NATO."
Russia
During the 2016 Republican Party presidential primaries, Rubio referred to Russian president Vladimir Putin as a "gangster" and "an organized crime figure who runs a country".
In August 2018, Rubio told reporters, "Every entity in America involved in politics at a high level at this point should expect that they are a target of an influence campaign by Russia, potentially by China", reasoning that this was "a very low-cost way to inflict damage on your opponent … they can all afford to have high-level electronic intrusions that allow them to disseminate false information, drive narratives and cause chaos among us."
In November 2018, Rubio, along with Roger Wicker, Jeanne Shaheen, and Chris Coons, released a statement opposing the candidacy of Russian Major General Alexander Prokopchuk to lead Interpol, writing that they had "no doubt that Mr. Prokopchuk will further institutionalize the abuse of Interpol red notices and block ongoing efforts at meaningful reform" if elected president. Russia responded to the statement comparing it to "a kind of election interference, the election held by this international organization."
In November 2018, Rubio was one of twenty-five Republican senators to sign a letter led by Jon Kyl to President Trump expressing the view that the New START nuclear treaty's value "depends on a sustained and vigorous U.S. nuclear weapons modernization program, strict compliance by Russia with its arms control obligations, and a true balance of nuclear capabilities between the parties to the Treaty" and charging Russia with being "in material breach of its arms control commitments" such as the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty through its deployment of ground-launched cruise missiles.
In January 2019, Rubio was one of eleven Republican senators to vote to advance legislation intended to block President Trump's intent to lift sanctions against three Russian companies.
North America
Patriot Act and Guantanamo Bay
In 2010, he stated that radical Islamist terrorists pose the greatest threat to the United States, and that these radicals intend to impose their beliefs on the world. He voted "yes" on extending the roving wiretaps provision of the Patriot Act, which governs surveillance of suspected terrorists. Rubio favors collection of bulk metadata for purposes of national security.
Rubio favors the detention of terrorists at Guantanamo Bay so that they can be interrogated for intelligence purposes, and has stated that if necessary he would re-open the military prison there.
South America
Venezuela
In March 2019, Rubio was one of four senators to sign a letter to President Trump requesting he grant temporary protected status (TPS) to Venezuelan citizens in the US "in light of the ongoing violence, deteriorating security situation, and humanitarian crisis in Venezuela caused by the illegitimate regime of Nicolás Maduro."
Social issues
Rubio joined twenty-two other Republican senators in voting against reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, stating that he largely supported it, but objected to certain new provisions added to the law by the reauthorization bill. His political opponents were pleased that Rubio cast a vote that could hurt him in 2016, though Rubio voiced support for the overall law.
Rubio identifies as pro-life, and opposes abortion, including in cases of rape and incest. Rubio has said: "I believe all human life, irrespective of the circumstance in which it came into being, is worthy of protection." Rubio strongly opposes the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark abortion rights decision in Roe v. Wade (1973), calling it a "historically, egregiously flawed decision" and "one of America's most blatant instances of judicial activism." On capital punishment, Rubio opposes protracted legal battles that delay justice for the victims, so he favors streamlining the appeals process.
On LGBT issues, Rubio believes states should govern the issue, not the national government. On March 14, 2013, he spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference and said "states should have the right to define marriage in the traditional way". Although he does not believe the issues should be legislated at a national level, according to PBS NewsHour, Rubio believes (as PBS puts it) that "marriage is between a man and a woman", and he disagrees with the Supreme Court decision in 2015 legalizing same-sex marriage in all fifty states.
Rubio opposed the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court based on "her case history and testimony regarding the Second Amendment at the state level, eminent domain takings and the so-called constitutional right to privacy that resulted in the Roe v. Wade decision."
In February 2019, Rubio introduced the Freedom to Compete Act, legislation amending a 1938 labor act preventing employers from using non-compete agreements in contracts for certain non-exempt employees. In a statement, Rubio said, "Depending on the state, people would be shocked at how many blue collar jobs where people are basically forced to sign this non-compete agreement and the minute they decide they're going to move to another job because it's closer to home, better benefits, or better pay they're told they can't or they'll get sued."
In February 2019, Rubio was one of eleven senators to sign a letter to Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen urging them "to work with all federal, state and local regulators, as well as the hundreds of independent power producers and electricity distributors nation-wide to ensure our systems are protected" and affirming that they were "ready and willing to provide any assistance you need to secure our critical electricity infrastructure."
In March 2019, Rubio was one of eight senators to introduce a 13.6 billion relief package to help those in states affected by natural disasters including an additional 600 million in nutrition assistance for Puerto Rico in response to the disaster declaration issued by President Trump.
In March 2019, Rubio spearheaded a resolution that would impose a constitutional amendment limiting the Supreme Court to nine justices. In a statement, Rubio opined that a proposal by Democrats to pack the court "represents the latest shortsighted effort to undermine America's confidence in our institutions and our democracy."
Taxes, spending, and trade
Rubio supports balancing the federal budget, while prioritizing defense spending. He supports a balanced budget amendment as well as statutory caps on federal spending, and opposed President Obama's stimulus package of 2009.
Rubio supports Social Security changes to prevent projected future deficits in the program. He believes the program should have a higher age for the start of benefits for workers who are more than ten years away from retirement to account for Americans living longer. He has stated his support of federal R&D funding, industrial policy, and space exploration funding to promote technological innovation, which he sees as critical to the development to the economy.
The National Taxpayers Union, a conservative taxpayers advocacy organization, gave Rubio grades of 'A' in 2011, and 'B+' in 2012 and 2013.
In 2014, Rubio proposed legislation to replace the earned income tax credit with a federal wage enhancement for qualifying low-wage jobs. The proposal would apply to singles as well as married couples and families with children. It would also arrive in sync with a monthly paycheck rather than a year-end lump-sum credit. Rubio asserted that this was a "better way to support low-income workers than simply raising the minimum wage." Rubio has also proposed a 25% tax credit for businesses that offer their employees at least four weeks of paid family leave. The tax break would be capped at 12 weeks, and at $4,000 per employee.
In March 2015, Rubio, along with Republican Senator Mike Lee, submitted a tax reform proposal which called for a simplified tax code with just two tax rates: 15% for individuals earning less than $75,000 annually and 35% for those earning more than that. It would eliminate capital gains taxes and add a new $2,500 per child tax credit for families. The corporate tax rate would be reduced to 25%, and businesses would be able to fully deduct the cost of investments in the year made. An analysis by the Tax Foundation found that Rubio's plan would result in a loss of government revenue of $2.4 trillion (using dynamic models which take into account the projected economic growth from tax cuts) to $6 trillion (using more traditional static models). The Tax Foundation says that under Rubio's plan, these revenue shortfalls would substantially increase the national debt, which would not return to its current level until 2040. Rubio's campaign has said that he will offset the lost revenue through spending reductions, such as by increasing the eligibility age for Social Security and by reducing Medicare spending. Using static assumptions and dynamic scoring, the proposed tax cuts would increase the after-tax income of the top 1% of earners by 12-28%, the top 10% by 6-20%, the middle 10% by 2-16%, and the bottom 10% by 44-56%. Rubio later updated his proposal to add a 25% tax bracket, so that the individual tax rate would be 15% for those earning less than $75,000 annually, 25% for those earning between $75,000 and $150,000 annually, and 35% for those earning more than that.
Jared Bernstein, senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, criticized Rubio's proposals, writing that Rubio's plan "takes the cake" in making the tax code more regressive and would "hemorrhage revenues while bequeathing a massive gift of wealth to the top 0.0003 percent." In contrast, David M. McIntosh of the Club for Growth praised Rubio's tax plan, calling it a "pro-growth tax cut and reform plan that would fundamentally reform the tax code and the entitlement state," as well as lauding Rubio's support for free trade, tort reform, and reduced regulations.
In February 2019, during ongoing disputes between the United States and China on trade, Rubio was one of ten senators to sign a bipartisan letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Energy Secretary Rick Perry asserting that the American government "should consider a ban on the use of Huawei inverters in the United States and work with state and local regulators to raise awareness and mitigate potential threats" and urged them "to work with all federal, state and local regulators, as well as the hundreds of independent power producers and electricity distributors nation-wide to ensure our systems are protected."
In March 2019, Rubio and Bob Menendez introduced a bill granting Puerto Rican taxpayers equal access to the child tax credit (CTC) used by parents in other parts of the United States through an amendment to the federal tax code.
In May 2019, Rubio was a cosponsor of the Transporting Livestock Across America Safely Act, a bipartisan bill introduced by Ben Sasse and Jon Tester intended to reform hours of service for livestock haulers through authorizing drivers to have the flexibility to rest at any point during their trip without it being counted against their hours of service and exempting loading and unloading times from the hours of service calculation of driving time.
In May 2019, Rubio was one of eight senators to cosponsor the Global Leadership in Advanced Manufacturing Act, a bill that would develop new institutes that supported American manufacturing in technology and grant more federal investment in the national network such as preexisting institutes being made to compete globally as well as continue American economic and national security.
Regarding trade, Rubio is supportive of the Trans Pacific Partnership, and say that the U.S. risks being excluded from global trade if it is not more open to it.
However, in June 2018, he called for a new nationalism as opposed to an "economic elitism that has replaced a commitment to the dignity of work with a blind faith in financial markets and that views America simply as an economy instead of a nation", and has since expressed support for President Donald Trump's trade war against China.
In June 2019, along with Bob Menendez, Tom Cotton, and Kirsten Gillibrand, Rubio introduced the EQUITABLE Act, a bill that would increase oversight of Chinese and other foreign companies that were listed on American exchanges along with delisting noncompliant firms for a duration of three years.
In July 2019, Rubio was one of eight senators to introduce the Agricultural Trucking Relief Act, a bill that would alter the definition of an agricultural commodity to include both horticultural and aquacultural products and promote a larger consistency in regulation through both federal and state agencies as part of an attempt to ease regulatory burdens on trucking and the agri-community.
In July 2019, Rubio was a cosponsor of the Defending America's 5G Future Act, a bill that would prevent Huawei from being removed from the "entity list" of the Commerce Department without an act of Congress and authorize Congress to block administration waivers for U.S. companies to do business with Huawei. The bill would also codify President Trump's executive order from the previous May that empowered his administration to block foreign tech companies deemed a national security threat from conducting business in the United States.
References
Political positions
Political positions of the 2016 United States presidential candidates
Political positions of United States senators |
39345911 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DataMotion | DataMotion | DataMotion, Inc. is a privately held company based in Florham Park, NJ. The company was founded in 1999 by Mahesh Muchhala and Bob Janáček as a spin-off of SafetyNet.
Originally called CertifiedMail.com and based in Springfield, NJ, the company changed its name to DataMotion in October 2008. Corporate offices were moved to Morristown in 2004. The company also maintains an office in Portland, Oregon.
DataMotion provides secure information transport services and products to businesses, including email encryption, secure file transfer and secure electronic form delivery. The company sells its services and products primarily to entities with 100 employees or more, in industries including healthcare, financial services and government.
History
In September 2009 DataMotion was placed in the visionary quadrant of the 2009 Gartner File Transfer Magic Quadrant. In April 2010 the company announced a reseller partnership with EasyLink Services. EasyLink resells DataMotion SecureMail and other document delivery solutions. In March 2011 an agreement with Jamcracker Services Delivery Network was announced, offering DataMotion SecureMail through Jamcracker's delivery network. In April 2012 the company announced the second generation DataMotion Platform, making it available to systems integrators and solutions providers as well as enterprise end users. This platform-as-a-service (PaaS) provides a secure data delivery hub that can be leveraged for unified data delivery. In October 2012 the company announced DataMotion Direct, a secure email service that enables healthcare industry organizations to integrate with the Direct Project. The Direct Project enables healthcare organizations and providers to comply with Meaningful Use Stage 2 data transfer requirements established by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). DataMotion also began operations as a health information service provider (HISP) in October 2012.
All products are available as on-premises, SaaS (Software-as-a-service) or hybrid solutions.
Patents
Mr. Janacek and Mr. Muchhala filed for a patent in May 2000 for developing a method for secure transmission of a message via a network where a recipient of the message need not be a party to the network or maintain an active address in the network, US patent # 6684348. The patent was granted in 2004. This patent was the basis for the company's first product, self-provisioning email encryption.
On May 21, 2013, DataMotion was issued a second patent, US patent No. 8447967 for its system for the secure transmission of messages that may be included with existing automated message handling software applications.
Products
The company first introduced SaaS-based email encryption in 1999. An updated version of this product is still offered today as SecureMail Desktop. Several products have been added since that time. Other products sold include:
SecureMail Gateway– an email encryption filter
SecureContact– inbound-initiated email encryption
Secure File Transfer– file delivery encryption
eForms– secure electronic form delivery
DataMotion Direct– Secure email and file delivery for healthcare through the Direct Project
References
External links
Official website
Top 10 Review
SC Magazine Review
Companies based in New Jersey |
39364697 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teradici | Teradici | Teradici Corporation was a privately held software company founded in 2004, which was acquired by HP Inc. in October 2021.
Teradici initially developed a protocol (PCoIP) for compressing and decompressing images and sound when remotely accessing blade servers, and implemented it in hardware. This technology was later expanded to thin clients/zero clients for general Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. Teradici's protocol or hardware is used by HP, Dell-Wyse, Amulet Hotkey, Samsung, Amazon Web Services, Fujitsu, and VMware.
On 27 July, 2021, HP Inc announced that it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire Teradici on undisclosed terms, with the deal set to close in calendar Q4, 2021.
History
Teradici was founded in 2004 by Dan Cordingley, Dave Hobbs, Ken Unger and Maher Fahmi. It operated in stealth mode until 2007 when they announced their first products, a blade server card and a small hockey puck shaped client, using a proprietary chip which implemented the PCoIP protocol.
In 2008, VMware announced it was licensing Teradici's PCoIP protocol. Teradici developed a software implementation of PCoIP, which VMware started shipping in VMware View 4.
The Teradici name originated from a previous company the founders were incubating. That company's product involved a 100-gigabit datacenter networking device. One-tenth of a tera is a deci, but "Teradeci" didn't roll off the tongue. "Teradici" was unique, sounded better and the domain name was available at the time.
PCoIP Protocol
PC-over-IP (PCoIP) is a proprietary remote display protocol developed by Teradici. The protocol is available in hardware and in software.
In 2008, VMware licensed Teradici's PCoIP protocol, and supports it in VMware Horizon View. In 2013 Amazon licensed the PCoIP protocol for use in AWS Amazon Workspaces.
PCoIP is a UDP-based protocol that is host rendered, multi-codec and dynamically adaptive. Images rendered on the server are captured as pixels, compressed and encoded and then sent to the client for decryption and decompression. Depending on the image, different codecs are used to encode the pixels sent since techniques to compress video images differ in effectiveness compared to those for text. The protocol also dynamically adapts its encoding based on the available bandwidth. In low-bandwidth environments it uses lossy compression where a highly compressed image is quickly delivered, followed by additional data to refine that image, a process termed "build to perceptually lossless". The default is to use lossless compression which is used when there is minimal network congestion or when explicitly configured, as might be required for scenarios where image fidelity is more important than conserving bandwidth, e.g. for medical imaging.
Comparing PCoIP vs RDP
Using PCoIP and RDP as a VPN: both PCoIP and RDP protocols can be used in place of a company’s Virtual Private Network, when a corporate firewall is not available or is deactivated.
High Security and Encryption Level in Connections: using a corporate DMZ, the users can make secure and encrypted connections to Access Points or servers via either PCoIP or RDP.
Security with AES: Both PCoIP and RDP support Advanced Encryption Standard 128-bit by default, adding an extra layer of security in connections. Although, you can change the encryption key cipher to AES-256 in PCoIP.
Bandwidth Reduction: This capability is available on PCoIP protocol in order to optimize the bandwidth usage on WAN and LAN to increase its speed. Bandwidth will be evaluated by Remote Desktop Commander to track the RDP number which depends on your setting (color, depth, etc.).
Products & Solutions
OEM products
PCoIP Zero Client SoC (System on a Chip): SoCs for OEMs to implement Zero clients either with the Teradici-developed Tera1 or Tera2 chip, which implement the PCoIP protocol.
PCoIP Workstation 1:1 host SoC (System on a Chip): An SoC allowing an OEM to implement a PCIe card which plugs into a workstation (typically a blade computer), allowing it to be remoted and controlled by a client device, either a PCoIP Zero Client or PCoIP Software Client. The connection is 1:1, meaning one host system to one remote user; it is not virtualized or shared and can capture the output from a GPU for full HD and 2K remoting along with redirecting audio and USB peripherals.
PCoIP software clients: Software implementation of the PCoIP protocol for flexible client device support. Select OEMs include this in their products for x86 and ARM-based thin clients. This is also the basis for the VMware and AWS Amazon Workspaces software clients for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android which use Teradici-developed core PCoIP protocol and decoding technology.
Direct Products
Teradici APEX 2800 server offload card: A PCIe coprocessor Hardware Accelerator board for VMWare Horizon offloading the compression and encryption of graphics and audio to Horizon Software Client or PCoIP Zero Client improving server consolidation in a VDI environment.
PCoIP management console: A web-based management tool for administrative control of PCoIP Zero Client devices from a central console.
Workstation Access Software: Enables remote access via PCoIP Software Client or PCoIP Zero Client to a physical Windows PC or Virtual Machine in the Cloud.
Host Card.
See also
Comparison of platform virtualization software
Desktop virtualization
x86 virtualization
Virtual machine
Virtual appliance
Thin client
Comparison of remote desktop software
References
Canadian companies established in 2004
Virtualization software
Remote desktop protocols
Software companies established in 2004
Companies based in Burnaby
Thin clients
Software companies of Canada
2004 establishments in British Columbia
2021 mergers and acquisitions
Hewlett-Packard acquisitions
Canadian subsidiaries of foreign companies |
39400840 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google%20Hangouts | Google Hangouts | Google Hangouts is a discontinued cross-platform instant messaging service developed by Google.
Originally a feature of Google+, Hangouts became a standalone product in 2013, when Google also began integrating features from Google+ Messenger and Google Talk into Hangouts. Google then began integrating features of Google Voice, its Internet telephony product, into Hangouts, stating that Hangouts was designed to be "the future" of Voice.
In 2017, Google began developing two separate enterprise communication products: Google Meet and Google Chat, as a part of its Google Workspace office suite. Google began transitioning Workspace users from Hangouts to Meet and Chat in June 2020. Subsequently, Gmail users transitioned from Hangouts to Meet and Chat during 2021 and the Hangouts service is to be discontinued.
History
Prior to the launch of Hangouts, Google had maintained several similar, but technologically separate messaging services and platforms across its suite of products. These have included the enterprise-oriented Google Talk (based on XMPP), Google+ Messenger, and the Hangouts feature of Google+, which provided chat, voice, videoconferencing features. However, its increasingly fragmented and non-unified suite of messaging offerings was also facing growing competition from services such as Facebook Messenger, iMessage, and WhatsApp. A decision was made to scrap the existing Google Talk system and code a new messaging product through a collaboration with multiple development teams.
Following reports that the new service would be known as "Babel", the service officially launched as Hangouts during the Google I/O conference on May 15, 2013.
On February 16, 2015, Google announced it would be discontinuing Google Talk and instructed users to migrate to the Hangouts app on the Chrome browser instead.
In January 2016, Google discouraged using Hangouts for SMS, recommending to instead use Google's "Messenger" SMS app.
In May 2016, at Google I/O 2016, Google announced two new apps: Google Allo, a messaging app with AI capabilities (AI-powered bots and selfie features) and Google Duo, a video calling app. Google's Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones released later that year were the first Google devices shipped with Duo and Allo preinstalled instead of Hangouts. Google has since confirmed that the new apps will not replace Hangouts; Hangouts will remain a separate product. In December 2018 Google announced Allo would be discontinued in March 2019 with some of its features migrated into Google Messages.
On August 15, 2016, Google announced that Hangouts on Air would be discontinued on September 12, 2016, and would be folded into YouTube Live, but later on September 11, 2016, Google said the Hangouts on Air shutdown date would be moved up from "September 12, 2016" to "August 1, 2019", to free all some livestreams on YouTube. Users will have to switch to other livestream programs.
On January 6, 2017, Google announced that the Google Hangouts API would shut down on April 25, 2017.
On March 9, 2017, Google announced that Hangouts would be targeted at business users with the Hangouts brand divided into two products: Hangouts Meet (now Google Meet) and Hangouts Chat (now Google Chat). Meet would focus on video conferences and Chat would be focused on instant messaging with additional features such as bot assistant and threaded messaging. The features would be targeted at business customers while consumer versions would use a freemium model. Google stated in December 2018 that "classic" Hangouts would be disabled by October 2019.
In November 2018, the desktop Chrome app version of Hangouts started displaying these banner messages at the top of its window: "The Hangouts Chrome app will be replaced by the Hangouts Chrome extension soon." This has generated many negative user reviews on the Chrome Web Store pages for both the Hangouts extension and the app.
In August 2019, Google announced that the G Suite version of Hangouts would be replaced by "Meet" and "Chat," and push the shut down to June 2020.
In April 2020, in response to COVID-19, Google Meet became free for all users,. Also in April 2020, Google announced Hangouts will remain a consumer-level product for people using standard Google accounts.
In October 2020 Google announced that Chat would also be made free to everyone and replace "classic" Hangouts by 2021.
In April 2021, Google Chat indeed became free as an "Early Access" service, for users who choose to use it instead of Hangouts.
Features
Hangouts allows conversations between two or more users. The service can be accessed online through the Gmail or Google+ websites, or through mobile apps available for Android and iOS (which were distributed as a successor to their existing Google Talk apps). However, because it uses a proprietary protocol instead of the XMPP open standard protocol used by Google Talk, most third-party applications which had access to Google Talk do not have access to Google+ Hangouts.
Chat histories are saved online, allowing them to be synced between devices. A "watermark" of a user's avatar is used as a marker to indicate how far they have read into the conversation. Photos can be shared during conversations, which are automatically uploaded into a private Google+ album. Users can also now use color emoji symbols in their messages.
As with the previous Google+ Hangouts, users can also perform a group video chat with up to 10 users at a time. In 2016 Google upgraded Hangouts to 25 concurrent users in HD video for Work/Education. The new Google Hangouts app on iOS integrates a Google Voice number to some extent, but on Android the SMS support in Hangouts doesn't fully integrate with Google Voice for calls or texts. Integration was first expected by 2014 but was deprecated in January 2016. The reason for the delay appears tied to Google switching away from the XMPP protocol it used, as mentioned above.
For Google Chrome, users do not need to install a plugin. However, for Internet Explorer 11, the user must install the "Google Talk Plugin" to be able to use the video features.
In Android 4.4, Hangouts is integrated with text messages sending and receiving functions, which is the default SMS app on the Nexus 5. For other Android phones, users can choose to open the SMS function when they download the new version of Hangouts via Google Play. SMS conversations are shown in a drawer on the left side. The update also adds GIF support and a new location-sharing button, which allows the user to send their GPS location to their contacts.
Hangouts includes the ability to make free voice calls to other Hangouts users, and charges users (via pre-registered credit) to call landline and mobile phones internationally except for calls to the United States and Canada which are free of charge. Currently, Android users must have both the Google Hangouts and Hangouts Dialer apps installed if they wish to call landline or mobile telephone numbers via the public switched telephone network. Users will have to use YouTube Live for live-streaming events.
Reception
As of May 2013, Google Hangouts faced criticism from the Electronic Frontier Foundation as they felt that Google was "moving in the wrong direction" by shrinking its support for the open standard protocol XMPP. The new protocol makes it much more difficult for multi-chat clients like Pidgin and Adium to support Google Hangouts. They must reverse engineer the protocol.
Additionally, the tight integration of Google Hangouts and Google+ can lead to the unwilling sharing of personal information with others.
On November 30, 2014, Make Use Of hailed Google Hangouts as the "best messaging app on Android by far".
, Google Hangouts has a score of 2 out of 7 points on the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Secure Messaging Scorecard. It has received points for having communications encrypted in transit and for having completed a recent independent security audit. It is missing points because communications are encrypted with keys that the provider has access to, users can't verify contacts' identities, past messages are not secure if the encryption keys are stolen, the code is not open to independent review, and the security design is not properly documented.
See also
Google Duo
Google Allo
Messages (Google)
Google Talk
List of video telecommunication services and product brands
Comparison of cross-platform instant messaging clients
Comparison of VoIP software
References
External links
Android (operating system) software
Google instant messaging software
Telecommunication services
Cross-platform software
Web conferencing
VoIP services
VoIP software
2013 software
Google Cloud
iOS software
Discontinued Google software |
39438071 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreedomPay | FreedomPay | FreedomPay is a company that provides payments platform as a service. It was founded in 2000 and is currently located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In early 2000, FreedomPay launched mobile payment "proof of concepts" with enterprises such as McDonald's, Bank of America and Visa. Later in 2004, FreedomPay delivered a closed loop payment system for stored value and voucher systems to the markets in the food service industry.
In 2007, FreedomPay developed a gateway for credit card processing (FreeWay) that captures detailed transaction data. That data can be mined for real time intelligence from disparate systems allowing merchants insight into their sales. Using that data FreedomPay launched a cloud-based platform as a service (PaaS) and a first generation incentives platform. This platform gives merchants the ability to launch targeted incentives based on buying habits and delivers the ability to track the progress of incentives against live sales.
With the launch of the FreedomPay Commerce Platform in 2009, its customers can now deliver those incentives in real time to consumers’ mobile phones and enable mobile payments. All of this technology, is based on an open architecture and is protected by high-level security.
In 2013, FreedomPay was selected by Microsoft as its commerce platform partner for the global banking and retail sectors.
In 2014, FreedomPay earned PCI validation for its point-to-point encryption solution (P2PE). FreedomPay was the first fully functional platform solution in North America to achieve PCI validation, including support for NFC and EMV payments.
Products
FreedomPay Commerce Platform
The FreedomPay platform is a commerce solution including mobile payment capabilities, high-level security, incentive technologies, and business intelligence that integrate with live POS systems.
Mobile payments and incentives
The mobile application connects consumers’ smartphones to the FreedomPay commerce platform at physical merchants. In addition to allowing mobile payments through the use of QR codes, the mobile app delivers targeted incentives, replaces loyalty cards, and provides access to electronic copies of receipts.
Merchants utilizing the FreedomPay Commerce Platform have the ability to create offers and loyalty programs. These offers can target users based on a number of criteria, including purchase history as well as user-input information. Users within the merchant-chosen distance can see active incentives within the mobile application, and apply them to their bill at checkout.
The FreedomPay platform allows users to automatically accrue loyalty points, and view the loyalty-point progress within the app. Unlike traditional punch-cards, the merchant has the ability to create a more flexible loyalty program, awarding points for more specific circumstances such as low-calorie foods, dollars spent, specific item purchased, payment method or per transaction. Loyalty rewards are also more flexible. For example, a user could redeem points for a discounted meal, or accrue more points and redeem for a vacation day. Points can also be awarded by financial institutions.
Business Intelligence
FreedomPay Business Intelligence is a piece of the Commerce Platform, and provides real-time analysis of business transactions for merchants utilizing the FreedomPay Commerce Platform. Merchants are able to view detailed business reports online and in real time, allowing perspective on their retail practices and effectiveness of individual incentives and programs.
Stored Value
FreedomPay Stored Value is a cashless payment solution, providing corporate clients such as universities, hospitals, and corporate cafeterias with an option for stored value spending. According to the US Treasury, a Stored Value proponent, the benefits of a program like this are the speed provided, flexibility in funding, POS integration, and data collection.
FreedomPay Stored Value cards allow contactless payments and mobile payments at payment terminals.
Funding options include automated funding through bank accounts, credit/debit cards, and payroll deduction, and manual funding using those as well as cash and check. Integration with most major POS systems keeps FreedomPay Stored Value system adoption costs at a minimum.
The online portal for Stored Value allows FreedomPay clients to use that information for a number of purposes, from distributing basic monetary-value vouchers to rewards based on eating habits.
Partnerships
FreedomPay maintains partnerships with enterprises including:
Microsoft
MICROS
Ingenico
PTC
ScanSource
Digital Dining
First Data
HID
Guckenheimer
Compass Group
Sodexo
Global Payments
NCR
Aramark
Compass Group
References
Payment service providers
Companies based in Philadelphia
American companies established in 2000
2000 establishments in Pennsylvania |
39477018 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tailored%20Access%20Operations | Tailored Access Operations | The Office of Tailored Access Operations (TAO), now Computer Network Operations, structured as S32 is a cyber-warfare intelligence-gathering unit of the National Security Agency (NSA). It has been active since at least 1998, possibly 1997, but was not named or structured as TAO until "the last days of 2000," according to General Michael Hayden.
TAO identifies, monitors, infiltrates, and gathers intelligence on computer systems being used by entities foreign to the United States.
History
TAO is reportedly "the largest and arguably the most important component of the NSA's huge Signals Intelligence Directorate (SID), consisting of more than 1,000 military and civilian computer hackers, intelligence analysts, targeting specialists, computer hardware and software designers, and electrical engineers".
Snowden leak
A document leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden describing the unit's work says TAO has software templates allowing it to break into commonly used hardware, including "routers, switches, and firewalls from multiple product vendor lines". TAO engineers prefer to tap networks rather than isolated computers, because there are typically many devices on a single network.
Organization
TAO's headquarters are termed the Remote Operations Center (ROC) and are based at the NSA headquarters at Fort Meade, Maryland. TAO also has expanded to NSA Hawaii (Wahiawa, Oahu), NSA Georgia (Fort Gordon, Georgia), NSA Texas (Joint Base San Antonio, Texas), and NSA Colorado (Buckley Space Force Base, Denver).
S321 – Remote Operations Center (ROC) In the Remote Operations Center, 600 employees gather information from around the world.
S323 – Data Network Technologies Branch (DNT) : develops automated spyware
S3231 – Access Division (ACD)
S3232 – Cyber Networks Technology Division (CNT)
S3233 –
S3234 – Computer Technology Division (CTD)
S3235 – Network Technology Division (NTD)
Telecommunications Network Technologies Branch (TNT) : improve network and computer hacking methods
Mission Infrastructure Technologies Branch: operates the software provided above
S328 – Access Technologies Operations Branch (ATO): Reportedly includes personnel seconded by the CIA and the FBI, who perform what are described as "off-net operations", which means they arrange for CIA agents to surreptitiously plant eavesdropping devices on computers and telecommunications systems overseas so that TAO's hackers may remotely access them from Fort Meade. Specially equipped submarines, currently the USS Jimmy Carter, are used to wiretap fibre optic cables around the globe.
S3283 – Expeditionary Access Operations (EAO)
S3285 – Persistence Division
Virtual locations
Details on a program titled QUANTUMSQUIRREL indicate NSA ability to masquerade as any routable IPv4 or IPv6 host. This enables an NSA computer to generate false geographical location and personal identification credentials when accessing the Internet utilizing QUANTUMSQUIRREL.
NSA ANT catalog
The NSA ANT catalog is a 50-page classified document listing technology available to the United States National Security Agency (NSA) Tailored Access Operations (TAO) by the Advanced Network Technology (ANT) Division to aid in cyber surveillance. Most devices are described as already operational and available to US nationals and members of the Five Eyes alliance. According to Der Spiegel, which released the catalog to the public on December 30, 2013, "The list reads like a mail-order catalog, one from which other NSA employees can order technologies from the ANT division for tapping their targets' data." The document was created in 2008.
Security researcher Jacob Appelbaum gave a speech at the Chaos Communications Congress in Hamburg, Germany, in which he detailed techniques that the simultaneously published Der Spiegel article he coauthored disclosed from the catalog.
QUANTUM attacks
The TAO has developed an attack suite they call QUANTUM. It relies on a compromised router that duplicates internet traffic, typically HTTP requests, so that they go both to the intended target and to an NSA site (indirectly). The NSA site runs FOXACID software which sends back exploits that load in the background in the target web browser before the intended destination has had a chance to respond (it's unclear if the compromised router facilitates this race on the return trip). Prior to the development of this technology, FOXACID software made spear-phishing attacks the NSA referred to as spam. If the browser is exploitable, further permanent "implants" (rootkits etc.) are deployed in the target computer, e.g. OLYMPUSFIRE for Windows, which give complete remote access to the infected machine. This type of attack is part of the man-in-the-middle attack family, though more specifically it is called man-on-the-side attack. It is difficult to pull off without controlling some of the Internet backbone.
There are numerous services that FOXACID can exploit this way. The names of some FOXACID modules are given below:
alibabaForumUser
doubleclickID
rocketmail
hi5
HotmailID
LinkedIn
mailruid
msnMailToken64
qq
Facebook
simbarid
Twitter
Yahoo
Gmail
YouTube
By collaboration with the British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) (MUSCULAR), Google services could be attacked too, including Gmail.
Finding machines that are exploitable and worth attacking is done using analytic databases such as XKeyscore. A specific method of finding vulnerable machines is interception of Windows Error Reporting traffic, which is logged into XKeyscore.
QUANTUM attacks launched from NSA sites can be too slow for some combinations of targets and services as they essentially try to exploit a race condition, i.e. the NSA server is trying to beat the legitimate server with its response. As of mid-2011, the NSA was prototyping a capability codenamed QFIRE, which involved embedding their exploit-dispensing servers in virtual machines (running on VMware ESX) hosted closer to the target, in the so-called Special Collection Sites (SCS) network worldwide. The goal of QFIRE was to lower the latency of the spoofed response, thus increasing the probability of success.
COMMENDEER is used to commandeer (i.e. compromise) untargeted computer systems. The software is used as a part of QUANTUMNATION, which also includes the software vulnerability scanner VALIDATOR. The tool was first described at the 2014 Chaos Communication Congress by Jacob Appelbaum, who characterized it as tyrannical.
QUANTUMCOOKIE is a more complex form of attack which can be used against Tor users.
Known targets and collaborations
Suspected and confirmed targets of the Tailored Access Operations unit include national and international entities like China, OPEC, and Mexico's Secretariat of Public Security.
The group has also targeted global communication networks via SEA-ME-WE 4 – an optical fibre submarine communications cable system that carries telecommunications between Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Egypt, Italy, Tunisia, Algeria and France. Additionally, Försvarets radioanstalt (FRA) in Sweden gives access to fiber optic links for QUANTUM cooperation.
TAO's QUANTUM INSERT technology was passed to UK services, particularly to GCHQ's MyNOC, which used it to target Belgacom and GPRS roaming exchange (GRX) providers like the Comfone, Syniverse, and Starhome. Belgacom, which provides services to the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Council discovered the attack.
In concert with the CIA and FBI, TAO is used to intercept laptops purchased online, divert them to secret warehouses where spyware and hardware is installed, and send them on to customers. TAO has also targeted internet browsers Tor and Firefox.
According to a 2013 article in Foreign Policy, TAO has become "increasingly accomplished at its mission, thanks in part to the high-level cooperation it secretly receives from the 'big three' American telecom companies (AT&T, Verizon and Sprint), most of the large US-based Internet service providers, and many of the top computer security software manufacturers and consulting companies." A 2012 TAO budget document claims that these companies, on TAO's behest, "insert vulnerabilities into commercial encryption systems, IT systems, networks and endpoint communications devices used by targets". A number of US companies, including Cisco and Dell, have subsequently made public statements denying that they insert such back doors into their products. Microsoft provides advance warning to the NSA of vulnerabilities it knows about, before fixes or information about these vulnerabilities is available to the public; this enables TAO to execute so-called zero-day attacks. A Microsoft official who declined to be identified in the press confirmed that this is indeed the case, but said that Microsoft cannot be held responsible for how the NSA uses this advance information.
Leadership
Since 2013, the head of TAO is Rob Joyce, a 25-plus year employee who previously worked in the NSA's Information Assurance Directorate (IAD). In January 2016, Joyce had a rare public appearance when he gave a presentation at the Usenix’s Enigma conference.
See also
Advanced persistent threat
Cyberwarfare in the United States
Equation Group
Magic Lantern (software)
MiniPanzer and MegaPanzer
PLA Unit 61398
Stuxnet
Syrian Electronic Army
WARRIOR PRIDE
References
External links
Inside TAO: Documents Reveal Top NSA Hacking Unit
NSA 'hacking unit' infiltrates computers around the world – report
NSA Tailored Access Operations
https://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/09/nsa-router-hacking/
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/15/us/nsa-effort-pries-open-computers-not-connected-to-internet.html
Getting the 'Ungettable' Intelligence: An Interview with TAO's Teresa Shea
Computer surveillance
Cyberwarfare in the United States
Hacker groups
Intelligence agency programmes revealed by Edward Snowden
National Security Agency
American advanced persistent threat groups |
39539194 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship%20by%20Apple | Censorship by Apple | Censorship by Apple refers to Apple Inc.'s removal, omission, or disruption of the spread of content or information from its services or subsidiaries, such as the iTunes Store and the App Store (iOS), in order to comply with Apple's company policies, legal demands, or various government censorship laws.
iTunes Books
The iBooks description for Moby-Dick censored sperm whale as of April 2010.
According to The Daily Telegraph, four erotic books, including Blonde and Wet, the Complete Story, were allegedly removed from the top 10 chart on July 26, 2010.
Northwest Press has had repeated conflicts with Apple's content limitations on sales through the iBooks store. In 2011, an adaptation by Tom Bouden of Oscar Wilde's play The Importance of Being Earnest was only approved after the addition of black bars to cover partial male nudity. The technology company initially permitted the individual issues of Jon Macy's Fearful Hunter, but rejected the collected edition, then removed the issues. The satirical Al-Qaeda's Super Secret Weapon was rejected outright. In 2016, Northwest published a self-censored version of Hard to Swallow by Justin Hall and Dave Davenport – covering the "objectionable" parts with images of apples – when the original version was rejected due to sexual content.
iTunes Music
Song censorship
There is a policy of censoring profanity in song titles on iTunes. This has resulted in a Scunthorpe glitch, by which inoffensive titles are censored due to a coincidental string of letters.
If the song has an explicit label, it will be marked "explicit" next to the song title. If a song is marked "explicit" it is unavailable for purchase if "restrict explicit content" is checked under the parental controls preference. Often there will be a "clean" mark next to the title of some songs, meaning the lyrics have been censored, and is available to purchase on all accounts. Generally, if a song is marked "clean" there is an explicit version available as well.
iTunes Podcasts
InfoWars
On August 6, 2018, Apple removed all but one of the podcasts created by InfoWars, a website owned by Alex Jones, a right-wing American conspiracy theorist radio-show host and content creator. Apple cited hate speech as the reason for the removal of the content. Apple's decision to remove this content sparked other major technology companies, including Facebook, YouTube, Spotify, and Google, into removing InfoWars content.
App Store
Newspaper and magazine content
In May 2009, Apple rejected the first version of "Newspapers", an iPhone app that let users read content from 50+ newspapers around the world, including The New York Times, France's Le Monde, and the United Kingdom tabloid The Sun. The app was rejected because the topless "Page 3" girls daily features were described as "obscene". A second version of the application was submitted, removing access to The Sun, and adding a price tag of £0.59. The app was made available in the summer, after the release of the iPhone 3.0 software. Another application, of similar nature to 'Newspapers', called 'Eucalyptus' allowed users to download e-books to their iPhone, though was rejected by Apple because one of the e-books that could have been downloaded was the Kama Sutra. The ban has since been lifted.
The App Store has Playboy and Sports Illustrated adult-rated apps that have yet to be removed, while some apps by others were removed citing adult content which has resulted in accusations of hypocrisy. Despite this, adult sites continue to market for iPhone and iPad users. In November 2009, the application of Stern (a mainstream German weekly magazine with a print circulation of about 900,000) was deleted for several weeks without warning. In January 2010, Europe's largest newspaper, German tabloid Bild, removed content from the iPhone version of its print edition at the request of Apple, and later it had to modify one of its applications - like in the Stern case because of nudity. The Association of German Magazine Publishers (VDZ) warned that with such interventions Apple might be moving towards censorship.
November 26, 2010, an informational magazine about Google's OS from the Danish publisher Mediaprovider wasn't allowed in the app store.
The Guardian described rejection of explicit content by Apple as analogous to that of the distributor WH Smith, a main distributor which for many years imposed content restrictions on British publishers. Workers at the fashion magazine Dazed & Confused have nicknamed their iPad edition the "Iran edition".
Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoons
In December 2009, Apple banned a cartoon app called NewsToons by cartoonist Mark Fiore, on the grounds that it "ridiculed public figures." In April 2010, Fiore won the Pulitzer Prize for his political satire cartoons, making history as the very first internet-only cartoonist to win the prestigious journalistic prize. Following public outcry after the story broke in the wake of the award, Apple asked Fiore to resubmit his app, and it was subsequently accepted. Fiore said, "Sure, mine might get approved, but what about someone who hasn't won a Pulitzer and who is maybe making a better political app than mine? Do you need some media frenzy to get an app approved that has political material?"
Baby Shaker
In April 2009, a game called Baby Shaker was approved for the App Store then later removed due to complaints. The game allowed the user to shake their phone until an image of a cartoon baby on the screen died.
Nine Inch Nails
In May 2009, Trent Reznor of the rock band Nine Inch Nails announced, via his Twitter account, that Apple had rejected an update to the Nine Inch Nails application due to "objectionable content". The developer posted a message on the Nine Inch Nails discussion boards explaining the situation further:
Apple later permitted the update.
iPhone eBook
In December 2009, Ted Lando's eBook app "Take Control of iPhone OS 3" was rejected by Apple. The app was not permitted back into the app store until all references to jailbreaking were removed.
Phone Story
In 2011, Apple banned a game called Phone Story that explored the ethical challenges of smartphone manufacturing, including conflict minerals, environmental waste, and troubled labor practices. The game was eventually published on the web by its creator Molleindustria.
Drone strike app
In August 2012, Josh Begley created an iPhone app that sent out a push notification whenever a U.S. military UAV struck a target. The app was rejected because of Apple finding the content "objectionable and crude."
Utilities
On March 11, 2013, HiddenApps was approved and appeared in the App Store. This App provided access to developer diagnostic menus, allowed for stock Apps to be hidden and enabled an opt-out feature for iAds, Apple's developer driven advertisement system.
Educational app
In July 2013, a tech education startup called Treehouse claimed that Apple had refused to let them release an iOS app that contained lessons about Android.
Papers, Please
The video game Papers, Please, centered around the operation of a border checkpoint, was brought to iPad in December 2014, but developer Lucas Pope was forced to remove some pixelated nudity from the game's full-body scanner to be allowed to release the game for Apple devices. After a few days, Pope was permitted to upload a full version of the game to the App Store including pixelated nudity in an apparent reversal by Apple. However, it is still rated 17+ on the App Store.
France Musique app removal
On May 4, 2015, Apple removed the France Musique application from its App store due to the airing of "inappropriate content" in a podcast. The application displayed a painting by Édouard Manet, Olympia, depicting mild nudity. The podcast application was submitted to the App Store again, with a 17+ rating.
Chaos Computer Club videos about security vulnerabilities
In October 2015, Apple rejected a custom streaming application for Apple TV that was created by some members of the Frankfurt branch of Chaos Computer Club, Europe's largest hacker association. The application was meant to show recordings of talks from Chaos Computer Club's conferences. According to a blog post that was written about the incident, Apple's reason was because "some of the videos show how to hack Apple devices". The recordings are publicly available and are hosted on YouTube as well. Using the YouTube app still allows playback of the content on Apple devices.
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
Apple banned the video game The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth from appearing in the iOS App Store due to its cartoon depictions of violence towards children. The game was subsequently accepted in the next year, with a 17+ rating.
Telegram and Telegram X
In February 2018, Apple removed Telegram and Telegram X, encrypted messaging applications made by Telegram Messenger LLP, from the App Store due to content deemed inappropriate. Apple specifically cited instances of child pornography that was made available to users, and subsequently banned the apps until the situation could be dealt with.
InfoWars
Apple removed Infowars app from the App Store in September 2018 citing content that violated their policy against indecent material. Apple's ban simply prevents users from downloading the app, but does not restrict access to those with the app installed.
Tumblr
In November 2018, Apple removed the Tumblr app from the App Store due to Tumblr's failure to filter child pornography. Tumblr uses a database of known child pornography to automatically detect and remove child pornography from their website, however they found evidence of images that were not in the database present on Tumblr. In response to the ban, Tumblr removed the instances of child pornography and has since moved to ban all pornographic material on their platform as of December 17, 2018.
Historical games
In December 2018, Apple removed the strategy game Afghanistan '11 due to the fact that it featured real-life combatants. Slitherine, the developers of the game, countered that the main objectives focused on supporting Afghan civilians rather than defeating the Taliban. This followed a temporary ban of the game Ultimate General: Gettysburg for featuring the Confederate flag in historical context.
HKmap
In October 2019, Apple removed the HKmap.live app from its App Store. HKMap is used to track the locations of protests and police in Hong Kong. Apple stated that the app "allowed users to evade law enforcement".
"Apple takes 30% of this purchase." in Facebook events
In 2020, Apple forced Facebook to remove a message informing users that Apple took a 30% cut of all fees for paid online events. Apple claimed that the notification was against the App Store policy on "irrelevant" information, a position Facebook disagreed with.
Navalny
In 2021, Apple and Google removed the Navalny app from the App Store and Google Play Store respectively. The app was pulled the day of Russia's parliamentary elections which cause the app's creator, Alex Navalny, and his supporters to claim that the two companies are taking part in political suppression. Apple sent a letter to Navalny's affiliates stating that the app had content that is illegal in Russia.
Censorship by country
The following are instances of censorship and information control imposed by Apple in App Stores other than the United States App Store. Many were imposed due to pressure from foreign governments and were put into effect to comply with laws.
China
As early as 2015, Apple shut off its News app inside China.
In 2017, Apple restricted the emoji of the flag of the Republic of China on devices used in mainland China.
Apple removes VPNs from the Chinese App Store in order to comply with the Chinese government and stay in the market. The CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, stated that if they censor now, the rules for censorship in China may relax.
In 2018, Apple's restrictions on sending the word "Taiwan" or sending an emoji representing the flag of Taiwan on iDevices using a Chinese country code or language settings caused the devices to crash.
In 2018, Apple removed apps from the Chinese App Store that allowed users to access content forbidden by the Chinese government. Many of these apps gave users access to virtual private networks that could allow them to circumvent the Great Firewall of China. Apple did not cite any Chinese laws, but claimed that the apps broke the laws of their local governments. Among the apps removed was VyprVPN, an app by Golden Frog, a company which had filed an amicus brief supporting Apple during the FBI–Apple encryption dispute. Apple is the first foreign global technology company to concede to the Chinese government's demands.
Artists who reference the Tiananmen Square protests have had some or all of their music removed from iTunes, including Jacky Cheung Hok-yau and Tat Ming Pair.
In 2021, Apple removed a Quran app and a Bible app from the Chinese App Store. Apple also removed a popular daily prayer app for Muslims from China.
Iran
In February 2017, Apple restricted payment services in Iranian apps to comply with U.S. sanctions that forbade Iranian currency from entering the United States. The Iranian apps responded by implementing an Iranian electronic payment service.
In August 2017, Apple removed many Iranian apps from the App Store citing U.S. sanctions placed on Iran. While Apple has neither stores in Iran nor specific versions of the App Store for the country, Iranian citizens are able to get access to Apple products and content from external sources. Apple removed many apps developed specifically for Iranians, including a ride-sharing service called Snapp, and a food delivery service called DelionFoods.
In April 2018, Apple blocked the Telegram app in Iran in response to concerns that access to the encrypted messaging service presented a threat to Iranian national security.
Russia
In May 2018, Apple played a role in the censorship of Telegram, an encrypted messaging app used globally. Interested in surveying the encrypted messages, the Russian government demanded Telegram provide decryption keys to their Federal Security Service. When Telegram refused, the Russian Government threatened Apple with legal repercussions if they did not block Telegram from the Russian App Store and eliminate the push notification feature. The founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, has publicly claimed Apple has restricted Telegram users across the world from updating their app; an action that could cause problems for Telegram's ability to meet regulations.
Taiwan
In August 2021, Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto found that Apple censors engravings in Taiwan related to the Chinese Communist Party, mainland Chinese state bodies, and Falun Gong.
See also
Censorship by Google Play
Censorship by Google
Censorship of YouTube
Censorship of Twitter
References
Apple
Apple Inc.
ITunes
IOS jailbreaking |
39601333 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM%20%28surveillance%20program%29 | PRISM (surveillance program) | PRISM is a code name for a program under which the United States National Security Agency (NSA) collects internet communications from various U.S. internet companies. The program is also known by the SIGAD . PRISM collects stored internet communications based on demands made to internet companies such as Google LLC under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 to turn over any data that match court-approved search terms. Among other things, the NSA can use these PRISM requests to target communications that were encrypted when they traveled across the internet backbone, to focus on stored data that telecommunication filtering systems discarded earlier, and to get data that is easier to handle.
PRISM began in 2007 in the wake of the passage of the Protect America Act under the Bush Administration. The program is operated under the supervision of the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA Court, or FISC) pursuant to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Its existence was leaked six years later by NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who warned that the extent of mass data collection was far greater than the public knew and included what he characterized as "dangerous" and "criminal" activities. The disclosures were published by The Guardian and The Washington Post on June 6, 2013. Subsequent documents have demonstrated a financial arrangement between the NSA's Special Source Operations (SSO) division and PRISM partners in the millions of dollars.
Documents indicate that PRISM is "the number one source of raw intelligence used for NSA analytic reports", and it accounts for 91% of the NSA's internet traffic acquired under FISA section 702 authority." The leaked information came after the revelation that the FISA Court had been ordering a subsidiary of telecommunications company Verizon Communications to turn over logs tracking all of its customers' telephone calls to the NSA.
U.S. government officials have disputed criticisms of PRISM in the Guardian and Washington Post articles and have defended the program, asserting that it cannot be used on domestic targets without a warrant. Additionally claiming the program has helped to prevent acts of terrorism, and that it receives independent oversight from the federal government's executive, judicial and legislative branches. On June 19, 2013, U.S. President Barack Obama, during a visit to Germany, stated that the NSA's data gathering practices constitute "a circumscribed, narrow system directed at us being able to protect our people."
Media disclosure of PRISM
PRISM was publicly revealed when classified documents about the program were leaked to journalists of The Washington Post and The Guardian by Edward Snowden at the time an NSA contractor during a visit to Hong Kong. The leaked documents included 41 PowerPoint slides, four of which were published in news articles.
The documents identified several technology companies as participants in the PRISM program, including Microsoft in 2007, Yahoo! in 2008, Google in 2009, Facebook in 2009, Paltalk in 2009, YouTube in 2010, AOL in 2011, Skype in 2011 and Apple in 2012. The speaker's notes in the briefing document reviewed by The Washington Post indicated that "98 percent of PRISM production is based on Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft".
The slide presentation stated that much of the world's electronic communications pass through the U.S., because electronic communications data tend to follow the least expensive route rather than the most physically direct route, and the bulk of the world's internet infrastructure is based in the United States. The presentation noted that these facts provide United States intelligence analysts with opportunities for intercepting the communications of foreign targets as their electronic data pass into or through the United States.
Snowden's subsequent disclosures included statements that government agencies such as the United Kingdom's GCHQ also undertook mass interception and tracking of internet and communications data described by Germany as "nightmarish" if true allegations that the NSA engaged in "dangerous" and "criminal" activity by "hacking" civilian infrastructure networks in other countries such as "universities, hospitals, and private businesses", and alleged that compliance offered only very limited restrictive effect on mass data collection practices (including of Americans) since restrictions "are policy-based, not technically based, and can change at any time", adding that "Additionally, audits are cursory, incomplete, and easily fooled by fake justifications", with numerous self-granted exceptions, and that NSA policies encourage staff to assume the benefit of the doubt in cases of uncertainty.
The slides
Below are a number of slides released by Edward Snowden showing the operation and processes behind the PRISM program. The "FAA" referred to is Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act ("FAA"), and not the Federal Aviation Administration, which is more widely known by the same FAA initialism.
The French newspaper Le Monde disclosed new PRISM slides (see pages 4, 7 and 8) coming from the "PRISM/US-984XN Overview" presentation on October 21, 2013. The British newspaper The Guardian disclosed new PRISM slides (see pages 3 and 6) in November 2013 which on the one hand compares PRISM with the Upstream program, and on the other hand deals with collaboration between the NSA's Threat Operations Center and the FBI.
The program
PRISM is a program from the Special Source Operations (SSO) division of the NSA, which in the tradition of NSA's intelligence alliances, cooperates with as many as 100 trusted U.S. companies since the 1970s. A prior program, the Terrorist Surveillance Program, was implemented in the wake of the September 11 attacks under the George W. Bush Administration but was widely criticized and challenged as illegal, because it did not include warrants obtained from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. PRISM was authorized by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
PRISM was enabled under President Bush by the Protect America Act of 2007 and by the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, which immunizes private companies from legal action when they cooperate with U.S. government agencies in intelligence collection. In 2012 the act was renewed by Congress under President Obama for an additional five years, through December 2017. According to The Register, the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 "specifically authorizes intelligence agencies to monitor the phone, email, and other communications of U.S. citizens for up to a week without obtaining a warrant" when one of the parties is outside the U.S.
The most detailed description of the PRISM program can be found in a report about NSA's collection efforts under Section 702 FAA, that was released by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) on July 2, 2014.
According to this report, PRISM is only used to collect internet communications, not telephone conversations. These internet communications are not collected in bulk, but in a targeted way: only communications that are to or from specific selectors, like e-mail addresses, can be gathered. Under PRISM, there's no collection based upon keywords or names.
The actual collection process is done by the Data Intercept Technology Unit (DITU) of the FBI, which on behalf of the NSA sends the selectors to the U.S. internet service providers, which were previously served with a Section 702 Directive. Under this directive, the provider is legally obliged to hand over (to DITU) all communications to or from the selectors provided by the government. DITU then sends these communications to NSA, where they are stored in various databases, depending on their type.
Data, both content and metadata, that already have been collected under the PRISM program, may be searched for both US and non-US person identifiers. These kinds of queries became known as "back-door searches" and are conducted by NSA, FBI and CIA. Each of these agencies has slightly different protocols and safeguards to protect searches with a US person identifier.
Extent of the program
Internal NSA presentation slides included in the various media disclosures show that the NSA could unilaterally access data and perform "extensive, in-depth surveillance on live communications and stored information" with examples including email, video and voice chat, videos, photos, voice-over-IP chats (such as Skype), file transfers, and social networking details. Snowden summarized that "in general, the reality is this: if an NSA, FBI, CIA, DIA, etc. analyst has access to query raw SIGINT [signals intelligence] databases, they can enter and get results for anything they want."
According to The Washington Post, the intelligence analysts search PRISM data using terms intended to identify suspicious communications of targets whom the analysts suspect with at least 51 percent confidence to not be U.S. citizens, but in the process, communication data of some U.S. citizens are also collected unintentionally. Training materials for analysts tell them that while they should periodically report such accidental collection of non-foreign U.S. data, "it's nothing to worry about."
According to The Guardian, NSA had access to chats and emails on Hotmail.com and Skype because Microsoft had "developed a surveillance capability to deal" with the interception of chats, and "for Prism collection against Microsoft email services will be unaffected because Prism collects this data prior to encryption."
Also according to The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald even low-level NSA analysts are allowed to search and listen to the communications of Americans and other people without court approval and supervision. Greenwald said low level Analysts can, via systems like PRISM, "listen to whatever emails they want, whatever telephone calls, browsing histories, Microsoft Word documents. And it's all done with no need to go to a court, with no need to even get supervisor approval on the part of the analyst."
He added that the NSA databank, with its years of collected communications, allows analysts to search that database and listen "to the calls or read the emails of everything that the NSA has stored, or look at the browsing histories or Google search terms that you've entered, and it also alerts them to any further activity that people connected to that email address or that IP address do in the future." Greenwald was referring in the context of the foregoing quotes to the NSA program X-Keyscore.
PRISM overview
Responses to disclosures
United States government
Executive branch
Shortly after publication of the reports by The Guardian and The Washington Post, the United States Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, on June 7, 2013, released a statement confirming that for nearly six years the government of the United States had been using large internet services companies such as Facebook to collect information on foreigners outside the United States as a defense against national security threats. The statement read in part, "The Guardian and The Washington Post articles refer to collection of communications pursuant to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. They contain numerous inaccuracies." He went on to say, "Section 702 is a provision of FISA that is designed to facilitate the acquisition of foreign intelligence information concerning non-U.S. persons located outside the United States. It cannot be used to intentionally target any U.S. citizen, any other U.S. person, or anyone located within the United States." Clapper concluded his statement by stating, "The unauthorized disclosure of information about this important and entirely legal program is reprehensible and risks important protections for the security of Americans." On March 12, 2013, Clapper had told the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that the NSA does "not wittingly" collect any type of data on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans. Clapper later admitted the statement he made on March 12, 2013, was a lie, or in his words "I responded in what I thought was the most truthful, or least untruthful manner by saying no."
On June 7, 2013, U.S. President Barack Obama, referring to the PRISM program and the NSA's telephone calls logging program, said, "What you've got is two programs that were originally authorized by Congress, have been repeatedly authorized by Congress. Bipartisan majorities have approved them. Congress is continually briefed on how these are conducted. There are a whole range of safeguards involved. And federal judges are overseeing the entire program throughout." He also said, "You can't have 100 percent security and then also have 100 percent privacy and zero inconvenience. You know, we're going to have to make some choices as a society." In separate statements, senior Obama administration officials (not mentioned by name in source) said that Congress had been briefed 13 times on the programs since 2009.
On June 8, 2013, Director of National Intelligence Clapper made an additional public statement about PRISM and released a fact sheet providing further information about the program, which he described as "an internal government computer system used to facilitate the government's statutorily authorized collection of foreign intelligence information from electronic communication service providers under court supervision, as authorized by Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) (50 U.S.C. § 1881a)." The fact sheet stated that "the surveillance activities published in The Guardian and the Washington Post are lawful and conducted under authorities widely known and discussed, and fully debated and authorized by Congress." The fact sheet also stated that "the United States Government does not unilaterally obtain information from the servers of U.S. electronic communication service providers. All such information is obtained with FISA Court approval and with the knowledge of the provider based upon a written directive from the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence." It said that the attorney general provides FISA Court rulings and semi-annual reports about PRISM activities to Congress, "provid[ing] an unprecedented degree of accountability and transparency." Democratic senators Udall and Wyden, who serve on the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, subsequently criticized the fact sheet as being inaccurate. NSA Director General Keith Alexander acknowledged the errors, stating that the fact sheet "could have more precisely described" the requirements governing the collection of e-mail and other internet content from US companies. The fact sheet was withdrawn from the NSA's website around June 26.
In a closed-doors Senate hearing around June 11, FBI Director Robert Mueller said that Snowden's leaks had caused "significant harm to our nation and to our safety." In the same Senate NSA Director Alexander defended the program. Alexander's defense was immediately criticized by Senators Udall and Wyden, who said they saw no evidence that the NSA programs had produced "uniquely valuable intelligence." In a joint statement, they wrote, "Gen Alexander's testimony yesterday suggested that the NSA's bulk phone records collection program helped thwart 'dozens' of terrorist attacks, but all of the plots that he mentioned appear to have been identified using other collection methods."
On June 18, NSA Director Alexander said in an open hearing before the House Intelligence Committee of Congress that communications surveillance had helped prevent more than 50 potential terrorist attacks worldwide (at least 10 of them involving terrorism suspects or targets in the United States) between 2001 and 2013, and that the PRISM web traffic surveillance program contributed in over 90 percent of those cases. According to court records, one example Alexander gave regarding a thwarted attack by al Qaeda on the New York Stock Exchange was not in fact foiled by surveillance. Several senators wrote Director of National Intelligence Clapper asking him to provide other examples.
U.S. intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told various news outlets that by June 24 they were already seeing what they said was evidence that suspected terrorists had begun changing their communication practices in order to evade detection by the surveillance tools disclosed by Snowden.
Legislative branch
In contrast to their swift and forceful reactions the previous day to allegations that the government had been conducting surveillance of United States citizens' telephone records, Congressional leaders initially had little to say about the PRISM program the day after leaked information about the program was published. Several lawmakers declined to discuss PRISM, citing its top-secret classification, and others said that they had not been aware of the program. After statements had been released by the president and the Director of National Intelligence, some lawmakers began to comment:
Senator John McCain (R-AZ)
June 9, 2013, "We passed the Patriot Act. We passed specific provisions of the act that allowed for this program to take place, to be enacted in operation."
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee
June 9 "These programs are within the law," "part of our obligation is keeping Americans safe," "Human intelligence isn't going to do it."
June 9 "Here's the rub: the instances where this has produced good—has disrupted plots, prevented terrorist attacks, is all classified, that's what's so hard about this."
June 11 "It went fine. ... We asked him (Keith Alexander) to declassify things because it would be helpful (for people and lawmakers to better understand the intelligence programs). ... I've just got to see if the information gets declassified. I'm sure people will find it very interesting."
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY)
June 9 "I'm going to be seeing if I can challenge this at the Supreme Court level. I'm going to be asking the internet providers and all of the phone companies: ask your customers to join me in a class-action lawsuit."
Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), member of Senate Intelligence Committee and past member of Homeland Security Committee
June 11 "I had, along with Joe Lieberman, a monthly threat briefing, but I did not have access to this highly compartmentalized information" and "How can you ask when you don't know the program exists?"
Representative Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI), principal sponsor of the Patriot Act
June 9, "This is well beyond what the Patriot Act allows." "President Obama's claim that 'this is the most transparent administration in history' has once again proven false. In fact, it appears that no administration has ever peered more closely or intimately into the lives of innocent Americans."
Representative Mike Rogers (R-MI), a chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
June 9 "One of the things that we're charged with is keeping America safe and keeping our civil liberties and privacy intact. I think we have done both in this particular case."
June 9 "Within the last few years this program was used to stop a program, excuse me, to stop a terrorist attack in the United States, we know that. It's, it's, it's important, it fills in a little seam that we have and it's used to make sure that there is not an international nexus to any terrorism event that they may believe is ongoing in the United States. So in that regard it is a very valuable thing."
Senator Mark Udall (D-CO)
June 9 "I don't think the American public knows the extent or knew the extent to which they were being surveilled and their data was being collected. ... I think we ought to reopen the Patriot Act and put some limits on the amount of data that the National Security (Agency) is collecting. ... It ought to remain sacred, and there's got to be a balance here. That is what I'm aiming for. Let's have the debate, let's be transparent, let's open this up."
Representative Todd Rokita (R-IN)
June 10 "We have no idea when they [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court] meet, we have no idea what their judgments are."
Representative Luis Gutierrez (D-IL)
June 9 "We will be receiving secret briefings and we will be asking, I know I'm going to be asking to get more information. I want to make sure that what they're doing is harvesting information that is necessary to keep us safe and not simply going into everybody's private telephone conversations and Facebook and communications. I mean one of the, you know, the terrorists win when you debilitate freedom of expression and privacy."
Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR)
July 11 "I have a feeling that the administration is getting concerned about the bulk phone records collection, and that they are thinking about whether to move administratively to stop it. I think we are making a comeback".
Following these statements some lawmakers from both parties warned national security officials during a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee that they must change their use of sweeping National Security Agency surveillance programs or face losing the provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that have allowed for the agency's mass collection of telephone metadata. "Section 215 expires at the end of 2015, and unless you realize you've got a problem, that is not going to be renewed," Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., author of the USA Patriot Act, threatened during the hearing. "It's got to be changed, and you've got to change how you operate section 215. Otherwise, in two and a half years, you're not going to have it anymore."
Judicial branch
Leaks of classified documents pointed to the role of a special court in enabling the government's secret surveillance programs, but members of the court maintained they were not collaborating with the executive branch. The New York Times, however, reported in July 2013 that in "more than a dozen classified rulings, the nation's surveillance court has created a secret body of law giving the National Security Agency the power to amass vast collections of data on Americans while pursuing not only terrorism suspects, but also people possibly involved in nuclear proliferation, espionage and cyberattacks." After Members of the U.S. Congress pressed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to release declassified versions of its secret ruling, the court dismissed those requests arguing that the decisions can't be declassified because they contain classified information. Reggie Walton, the current FISA presiding judge, said in a statement: "The perception that the court is a rubber stamp is absolutely false. There is a rigorous review process of applications submitted by the executive branch, spearheaded initially by five judicial branch lawyers who are national security experts, and then by the judges, to ensure that the court's authorizations comport with what the applicable statutes authorize." The accusation of being a "rubber stamp" was further rejected by Walton who wrote in a letter to Senator Patrick J. Leahy: "The annual statistics provided to Congress by the Attorney General ...—frequently cited to in press reports as a suggestion that the Court's approval rate of application is over 99%—reflect only the number of final applications submitted to and acted on by the Court. These statistics do not reflect the fact that many applications are altered to prior or final submission or even withheld from final submission entirely, often after an indication that a judge would not approve them."
The U.S. military
The U.S. military has acknowledged blocking access to parts of The Guardian website for thousands of defense personnel across the country, and blocking the entire Guardian website for personnel stationed throughout Afghanistan, the Middle East, and South Asia. A spokesman said the military was filtering out reports and content relating to government surveillance programs to preserve "network hygiene" and prevent any classified material from appearing on unclassified parts of its computer systems. Access to the Washington Post, which also published information on classified NSA surveillance programs disclosed by Edward Snowden, had not been blocked at the time the blocking of access to The Guardian was reported.
Responses and involvement of other countries
Austria
The former head of the Austrian Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counterterrorism, Gert-René Polli, stated he knew the PRISM program under a different name and stated that surveillance activities had occurred in Austria as well. Polli had publicly stated in 2009 that he had received requests from US intelligence agencies to do things that would be in violation of Austrian law, which Polli refused to allow.
Australia
The Australian government has said it will investigate the impact of the PRISM program and the use of the Pine Gap surveillance facility on the privacy of Australian citizens. Australia's former foreign minister Bob Carr said that Australians should not be concerned about PRISM but that cybersecurity is high on the government's list of concerns. The Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop stated that the acts of Edward Snowden were treachery and offered a staunch defence of her nation's intelligence co-operation with the United States.
Brazil
Brazil's president at the time, Dilma Rousseff, responded to Snowden's reports that the NSA spied on her phone calls and emails by cancelling a planned October 2013 state visit to the United States, demanding an official apology, which by October 20, 2013, hadn't come. Also, Rousseff classified the spying as unacceptable between more harsh words in a speech before the UN General Assembly on September 24, 2013. As a result, Boeing lost out on a US$4.5 billion contract for fighter jets to Sweden's Saab Group.
Canada
Canada's national cryptologic agency, the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), said that commenting on PRISM "would undermine CSE's ability to carry out its mandate." Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart lamented Canada's standards when it comes to protecting personal online privacy stating "We have fallen too far behind" in her report. "While other nations' data protection authorities have the legal power to make binding orders, levy hefty fines and take meaningful action in the event of serious data breaches, we are restricted to a 'soft' approach: persuasion, encouragement and, at the most, the potential to publish the names of transgressors in the public interest." And, "when push comes to shove," Stoddart wrote, "short of a costly and time-consuming court battle, we have no power to enforce our recommendations."
European Union
On 20 October 2013 a committee at the European Parliament backed a measure that, if it is enacted, would require American companies to seek clearance from European officials before complying with United States warrants seeking private data. The legislation has been under consideration for two years. The vote is part of efforts in Europe to shield citizens from online surveillance in the wake of revelations about a far-reaching spying program by the U.S. National Security Agency. Germany and France have also had ongoing mutual talks about how they can keep European email traffic from going across American servers.
France
On October 21, 2013, the French Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius, summoned the U.S. Ambassador, Charles Rivkin, to the Quai d'Orsay in Paris to protest large-scale spying on French citizens by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). Paris prosecutors had opened preliminary inquiries into the NSA program in July, but Fabius said, "... obviously we need to go further" and "we must quickly assure that these practices aren't repeated."
Germany
Germany did not receive any raw PRISM data, according to a Reuters report. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that "the internet is new to all of us" to explain the nature of the program; Matthew Schofield of McClatchy Washington Bureau said, "She was roundly mocked for that statement." Gert-René Polli, a former Austrian counter-terrorism official, said in 2013 that it is "absurd and unnatural" for the German authorities to pretend not to have known anything. The German Army was using PRISM to support its operations in Afghanistan as early as 2011.
In October 2013, it was reported that the NSA monitored Merkel's cell phone. The United States denied the report, but following the allegations, Merkel called President Obama and told him that spying on friends was "never acceptable, no matter in what situation."
Israel
Israeli newspaper Calcalist discussed the Business Insider article about the possible involvement of technologies from two secretive Israeli companies in the PRISM program—Verint Systems and Narus.
Mexico
After finding out about the PRISM program, the Mexican Government has started constructing its own spying program to spy on its own citizens. According to Jenaro Villamil, a writer from Proceso, CISEN, Mexico's intelligence agency has started to work with IBM and Hewlett Packard to develop its own data gathering software. "Facebook, Twitter, Emails and other social network sites are going to be priority."
New Zealand
In New Zealand, University of Otago information science Associate Professor Hank Wolfe said that "under what was unofficially known as the Five Eyes Alliance, New Zealand and other governments, including the United States, Australia, Canada, and Britain, dealt with internal spying by saying they didn't do it. But they have all the partners doing it for them and then they share all the information."
Edward Snowden, in a live streamed Google Hangout to Kim Dotcom and Julian Assange, alleged that he had received intelligence from New Zealand, and the NSA has listening posts in New Zealand.
Spain
At a meeting of European Union leaders held the week of 21 October 2013, Mariano Rajoy, Spain's prime minister, said that "spying activities aren't proper among partner countries and allies". On 28 October 2013 the Spanish government summoned the American ambassador, James Costos, to address allegations that the U.S. had collected data on 60 million telephone calls in Spain. Separately, Íñigo Méndez de Vigo, a Spanish secretary of state, referred to the need to maintain "a necessary balance" between security and privacy concerns, but said that the recent allegations of spying, "if proven to be true, are improper and unacceptable between partners and friendly countries".
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), which also has its own surveillance program, Tempora, had access to the PRISM program on or before June 2010 and wrote 197 reports with it in 2012 alone. The Intelligence and Security Committee of the UK Parliament reviewed the reports GCHQ produced on the basis of intelligence sought from the US. They found in each case a warrant for interception was in place in accordance with the legal safeguards contained in UK law.
In August 2013, The Guardian newspaper's offices were visited by agents from GCHQ, who ordered and supervised the destruction of the hard drives containing information acquired from Snowden.
Companies
The original Washington Post and Guardian articles reporting on PRISM noted that one of the leaked briefing documents said PRISM involves collection of data "directly from the servers" of several major internet services providers.
Initial public statements
Corporate executives of several companies identified in the leaked documents told The Guardian that they had no knowledge of the PRISM program in particular and also denied making information available to the government on the scale alleged by news reports. Statements of several of the companies named in the leaked documents were reported by TechCrunch and The Washington Post as follows:
Microsoft: "We provide customer data only when we receive a legally binding order or subpoena to do so, and never on a voluntary basis. In addition we only ever comply with orders for requests about specific accounts or identifiers. If the government has a broader voluntary national security program to gather customer data, we don't participate in it."
Yahoo!: "Yahoo! takes users’ privacy very seriously. We do not provide the government with direct access to our servers, systems, or network." "Of the hundreds of millions of users we serve, an infinitesimal percentage will ever be the subject of a government data collection directive."
Facebook: "We do not provide any government organization with direct access to Facebook servers. When Facebook is asked for data or information about specific individuals, we carefully scrutinize any such request for compliance with all applicable laws, and provide information only to the extent required by law."
Google: "Google cares deeply about the security of our users' data. We disclose user data to government in accordance with the law, and we review all such requests carefully. From time to time, people allege that we have created a government 'back door' into our systems, but Google does not have a backdoor for the government to access private user data." "[A]ny suggestion that Google is disclosing information about our users' internet activity on such a scale is completely false."
Apple: "We have never heard of PRISM" "We do not provide any government agency with direct access to our servers, and any government agency requesting customer data must get a court order."
Dropbox: "We’ve seen reports that Dropbox might be asked to participate in a government program called PRISM. We are not part of any such program and remain committed to protecting our users’ privacy."
In response to the technology companies' confirmation of the NSA being able to directly access the companies' servers, The New York Times reported that sources had stated the NSA was gathering the surveillance data from the companies using other technical means in response to court orders for specific sets of data. The Washington Post suggested, "It is possible that the conflict between the PRISM slides and the company spokesmen is the result of imprecision on the part of the NSA author. In another classified report obtained by The Post, the arrangement is described as allowing 'collection managers [to send] content tasking instructions directly to equipment installed at company-controlled locations,' rather than directly to company servers." "[I]n context, 'direct' is more likely to mean that the NSA is receiving data sent to them deliberately by the tech companies, as opposed to intercepting communications as they're transmitted to some other destination.
"If these companies received an order under the FISA amendments act, they are forbidden by law from disclosing having received the order and disclosing any information about the order at all," Mark Rumold, staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told ABC News.
On May 28, 2013, Google was ordered by United States District Court Judge Susan Illston to comply with a National Security Letter issued by the FBI to provide user data without a warrant. Kurt Opsahl, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, in an interview with VentureBeat said, "I certainly appreciate that Google put out a transparency report, but it appears that the transparency didn't include this. I wouldn't be surprised if they were subject to a gag order."
The New York Times reported on June 7, 2013, that "Twitter declined to make it easier for the government. But other companies were more compliant, according to people briefed on the negotiations." The other companies held discussions with national security personnel on how to make data available more efficiently and securely. In some cases, these companies made modifications to their systems in support of the intelligence collection effort. The dialogues have continued in recent months, as General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has met with executives including those at Facebook, Microsoft, Google and Intel. These details on the discussions provide insight into the disparity between initial descriptions of the government program including a training slide which states, "Collection directly from the servers" and the companies' denials.
While providing data in response to a legitimate FISA request approved by the FISA Court is a legal requirement, modifying systems to make it easier for the government to collect the data is not. This is why Twitter could legally decline to provide an enhanced mechanism for data transmission. Other than Twitter, the companies were effectively asked to construct a locked mailbox and provide the key to the government, people briefed on the negotiations said. Facebook, for instance, built such a system for requesting and sharing the information. Google does not provide a lockbox system, but instead transmits required data by hand delivery or ssh.
Post-PRISM transparency reports
In response to the publicity surrounding media reports of data-sharing, several companies requested permission to reveal more public information about the nature and scope of information provided in response to National Security requests.
On June 14, 2013, Facebook reported that the U.S. government had authorized the communication of "about these numbers in aggregate, and as a range." In a press release posted to its web site, the company reported, "For the six months ending December 31, 2012, the total number of user-data requests Facebook received from any and all government entities in the U.S. (including local, state, and federal, and including criminal and national security-related requests) – was between 9,000 and 10,000." The company further reported that the requests impacted "between 18,000 and 19,000" user accounts, a "tiny fraction of one percent" of more than 1.1 billion active user accounts.
That same day, Microsoft reported that for the same period, it received "between 6,000 and 7,000 criminal and national security warrants, subpoenas and orders affecting between 31,000 and 32,000 consumer accounts from U.S. governmental entities (including local, state and federal)" which impacted "a tiny fraction of Microsoft's global customer base."
Google issued a statement criticizing the requirement that data be reported in aggregated form, stating that lumping national security requests with criminal request data would be "a step backwards" from its previous, more detailed practices on its website's transparency report. The company said that it would continue to seek government permission to publish the number and extent of FISA requests.
Cisco Systems saw a huge drop in export sales because of fears that the National Security Agency could be using backdoors in its products.
On September 12, 2014, Yahoo! reported the U.S. Government threatened the imposition of $250,000 in fines per day if Yahoo didn't hand over user data as part of the NSA's PRISM program. It is not known if other companies were threatened or fined for not providing data in response to a legitimate FISA requests.
Public and media response
Domestic
The New York Times editorial board charged that the Obama administration "has now lost all credibility on this issue," and lamented that "for years, members of Congress ignored evidence that domestic intelligence-gathering had grown beyond their control, and, even now, few seem disturbed to learn that every detail about the public's calling and texting habits now reside in a N.S.A. database." It wrote with respect to the FISA-Court in context of PRISM that it is "a perversion of the American justice system" when "judicial secrecy is coupled with a one-sided presentation of the issues." According to the New York Times, "the result is a court whose reach is expanding far beyond its original mandate and without any substantive check."
James Robertson, a former federal district judge based in Washington who served on the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court for three years between 2002 and 2005 and who ruled against the Bush administration in the landmark Hamdan v. Rumsfeld case, said FISA court is independent but flawed because only the government's side is represented effectively in its deliberations. "Anyone who has been a judge will tell you a judge needs to hear both sides of a case," said James Robertson. Without this judges do not benefit from adversarial debate. He suggested creating an advocate with security clearance who would argue against government filings. Robertson questioned whether the secret FISA court should provide overall legal approval for the surveillance programs, saying the court "has turned into something like an administrative agency." Under the changes brought by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 Amendments Act of 2008, which expanded the US government's authority by forcing the court to approve entire surveillance systems and not just surveillance warrants as it previously handled, "the court is now approving programmatic surveillance. I don't think that is a judicial function." Robertson also said he was "frankly stunned" by the New York Times report that FISA court rulings had created a new body of law broadening the ability of the NSA to use its surveillance programs to target not only terrorists but suspects in cases involving espionage, cyberattacks and weapons of mass destruction.
Former CIA analyst Valerie Plame Wilson and former U.S. diplomat Joseph Wilson, writing in an op-ed article published in The Guardian, said that "Prism and other NSA data-mining programs might indeed be very effective in hunting and capturing actual terrorists, but we don't have enough information as a society to make that decision."
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), an international non-profit digital-rights group based in the U.S., is hosting a tool, by which an American resident can write to their government representatives regarding their opposition to mass spying.
The Obama administration's argument that NSA surveillance programs such as PRISM and Boundless Informant had been necessary to prevent acts of terrorism was challenged by several parties. Ed Pilkington and Nicholas Watt of The Guardian said of the case of Najibullah Zazi, who had planned to bomb the New York City Subway, that interviews with involved parties and U.S. and British court documents indicated that the investigation into the case had actually been initiated in response to "conventional" surveillance methods such as "old-fashioned tip-offs" of the British intelligence services, rather than to leads produced by NSA surveillance. Michael Daly of The Daily Beast stated that even though Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who conducted the Boston Marathon bombing with his brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, had visited the Al Qaeda-affiliated Inspire magazine website, and even though Russian intelligence officials had raised concerns with U.S. intelligence officials about Tamerlan Tsarnaev, PRISM did not prevent him from carrying out the Boston attacks. Daly observed that, "The problem is not just what the National Security Agency is gathering at the risk of our privacy but what it is apparently unable to monitor at the risk of our safety."
Ron Paul, a former Republican member of Congress and prominent libertarian, thanked Snowden and Greenwald and denounced the mass surveillance as unhelpful and damaging, urging instead more transparency in U.S. government actions. He called Congress "derelict in giving that much power to the government," and said that had he been elected president, he would have ordered searches only when there was probable cause of a crime having been committed, which he said was not how the PRISM program was being operated.
New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman defended limited government surveillance programs intended to protect the American people from terrorist acts:
Yes, I worry about potential government abuse of privacy from a program designed to prevent another 9/11—abuse that, so far, does not appear to have happened. But I worry even more about another 9/11. ... If there were another 9/11, I fear that 99 percent of Americans would tell their members of Congress: "Do whatever you need to do to, privacy be damned, just make sure this does not happen again." That is what I fear most.
That is why I'll reluctantly, very reluctantly, trade off the government using data mining to look for suspicious patterns in phone numbers called and e-mail addresses—and then have to go to a judge to get a warrant to actually look at the content under guidelines set by Congress—to prevent a day where, out of fear, we give government a license to look at anyone, any e-mail, any phone call, anywhere, anytime.
Political commentator David Brooks similarly cautioned that government data surveillance programs are a necessary evil: "if you don't have mass data sweeps, well, then these agencies are going to want to go back to the old-fashioned eavesdropping, which is a lot more intrusive."
Conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer worried less about the legality of PRISM and other NSA surveillance tools than about the potential for their abuse without more stringent oversight. "The problem here is not constitutionality. ... We need a toughening of both congressional oversight and judicial review, perhaps even some independent outside scrutiny. Plus periodic legislative revision—say, reauthorization every couple of years—in light of the efficacy of the safeguards and the nature of the external threat. The object is not to abolish these vital programs. It's to fix them."
In a blog post, David Simon, the creator of The Wire, compared the NSA's programs, including PRISM, to a 1980s effort by the City of Baltimore to add dialed number recorders to all pay phones to know which individuals were being called by the callers; the city believed that drug traffickers were using pay phones and pagers, and a municipal judge allowed the city to place the recorders. The placement of the dialers formed the basis of the show's first season. Simon argued that the media attention regarding the NSA programs is a "faux scandal." Simon had stated that many classes of people in American society had already faced constant government surveillance.
Political activist, and frequent critic of U.S. government policies, Noam Chomsky argued, "Governments should not have this capacity. But governments will use whatever technology is available to them to combat their primary enemy – which is their own population."
A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll conducted June 11 through 13 found that 66% of Americans generally supported the program. However, a Quinnipiac University poll conducted June 28 through July 8 found that 45% of registered voters think the surveillance programs have gone too far, with 40% saying they do not go far enough, compared to 25% saying they had gone too far and 63% saying not far enough in 2010. Other polls have shown similar shifts in public opinion as revelations about the programs were leaked.
In terms of economic impact, a study released in August by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation found that the disclosure of PRISM could cost the U.S. economy between $21.5 and $35 billion in lost cloud computing business over three years.
International
Sentiment around the world was that of general displeasure upon learning the extent of world communication data mining. Some national leaders spoke against the NSA and some spoke against their own national surveillance. One national minister had scathing comments on the National Security Agency's data-mining program, citing Benjamin Franklin: "The more a society monitors, controls, and observes its citizens, the less free it is." Some question if the costs of hunting terrorists now overshadows the loss of citizen privacy.
Nick Xenophon, an Australian independent senator, asked Bob Carr, the Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs, if e-mail addresses of Australian parliamentarians were exempt from PRISM, Mainway, Marina, and/or Nucleon. After Carr replied that there was a legal framework to protect Australians but that the government would not comment on intelligence matters, Xenophon argued that this was not a specific answer to his question.
Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid said, "We knew about their past efforts to trace our system. We have used our technical resources to foil their efforts and have been able to stop them from succeeding so far." However CNN has reported that terrorist groups have changed their "communications behaviors" in response to the leaks.
In 2013 the Cloud Security Alliance surveyed cloud computing stakeholders about their reactions to the US PRISM spying scandal. About 10% of non-US residents indicated that they had cancelled a project with a US-based cloud computing provider, in the wake of PRISM; 56% said that they would be less likely to use a US-based cloud computing service. The Alliance predicted that US cloud computing providers might lose as much as €26 billion and 20% of its share of cloud services in foreign markets because of the PRISM spying scandal.
China
Reactions of internet users in China were mixed between viewing a loss of freedom worldwide and seeing state surveillance coming out of secrecy. The story broke just before U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in California. When asked about NSA hacking China, the spokeswoman of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China said, "China strongly advocates cybersecurity." The party-owned newspaper Liberation Daily described this surveillance like Nineteen Eighty-Four-style. Hong Kong legislators Gary Fan and Claudia Mo wrote a letter to Obama stating, "the revelations of blanket surveillance of global communications by the world's leading democracy have damaged the image of the U.S. among freedom-loving peoples around the world." Ai Weiwei, a Chinese dissident, said, "Even though we know governments do all kinds of things I was shocked by the information about the US surveillance operation, Prism. To me, it's abusively using government powers to interfere in individuals' privacy. This is an important moment for international society to reconsider and protect individual rights."
Europe
Sophie in 't Veld, a Dutch Member of the European Parliament, called PRISM "a violation of EU laws."
The German Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, Peter Schaar, condemned the program as "monstrous." He further added that White House claims do "not reassure me at all" and that "given the large number of German users of Google, Facebook, Apple or Microsoft services, I expect the German government ... is committed to clarification and limitation of surveillance." Steffen Seibert, press secretary of the Chancellor's office, announced that Angela Merkel will put these issues on the agenda of the talks with Barack Obama during his pending visit in Berlin. Wolfgang Schmidt, a former lieutenant colonel with the Stasi, said that the Stasi would have seen such a program as a "dream come true" since the Stasi lacked the technology that made PRISM possible. Schmidt expressed opposition, saying, "It is the height of naivete to think that once collected this information won't be used. This is the nature of secret government organizations. The only way to protect the people's privacy is not to allow the government to collect their information in the first place." Many Germans organized protests, including one at Checkpoint Charlie, when Obama went to Berlin to speak. Matthew Schofield of the McClatchy Washington Bureau said, "Germans are dismayed at Obama's role in allowing the collection of so much information."
The Italian president of the Guarantor for the protection of personal data, Antonello Soro, said that the surveillance dragnet "would not be legal in Italy" and would be "contrary to the principles of our legislation and would represent a very serious violation."
CNIL (French data protection watchdog) ordered Google to change its privacy policies within three months or risk fines up to 150,000 euros. Spanish Agency of data protection (AEPD) planned to fine Google between 40,000 and 300,000 euros if it failed to clear stored data on the Spanish users.
William Hague, the foreign secretary of the United Kingdom, dismissed accusations that British security agencies had been circumventing British law by using information gathered on British citizens by PRISM saying, "Any data obtained by us from the United States involving UK nationals is subject to proper UK statutory controls and safeguards." David Cameron said Britain's spy agencies that received data collected from PRISM acted within the law: "I'm satisfied that we have intelligence agencies that do a fantastically important job for this country to keep us safe, and they operate within the law." Malcolm Rifkind, the chairman of parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee, said that if the British intelligence agencies were seeking to know the content of emails about people living in the UK, then they actually have to get lawful authority. The UK's Information Commissioner's Office was more cautious, saying it would investigate PRISM alongside other European data agencies: "There are real issues about the extent to which U.S. law agencies can access personal data of UK and other European citizens. Aspects of U.S. law under which companies can be compelled to provide information to U.S. agencies potentially conflict with European data protection law, including the UK's own Data Protection Act. The ICO has raised this with its European counterparts, and the issue is being considered by the European Commission, who are in discussions with the U.S. Government."
Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, accused western governments of practicing hypocrisy, as they conducted spying on the internet while they criticized other countries for spying on the internet. He stated that internet spying can make people feel reluctant to access intimate and private information that is important to them. In a statement given to Financial Times following the Snowden revelations, Berners-Lee stated "Unwarranted government surveillance is an intrusion on basic human rights that threatens the very foundations of a democratic society."
India
Minister of External Affairs Salman Khurshid defended the PRISM program saying, "This is not scrutiny and access to actual messages. It is only computer analysis of patterns of calls and emails that are being sent. It is not actually snooping specifically on content of anybody's message or conversation. Some of the information they got out of their scrutiny, they were able to use it to prevent serious terrorist attacks in several countries." His comments contradicted his Foreign Ministry's characterization of violations of privacy as "unacceptable." When the then Minister of Communications and Information Technology Kapil Sibal was asked about Khurshid's comments, he refused to comment on them directly, but said, "We do not know the nature of data or information sought [as part of PRISM]. Even the external ministry does not have any idea." The media felt that Khurshid's defence of PRISM was because the India government was rolling out the Central Monitoring System (CMS), which is similar to the PRISM program.
Khurshid's comments were criticized by the Indian media, as well as opposition party CPI(M) who stated, "The UPA government should have strongly protested against such surveillance and bugging. Instead, it is shocking that Khurshid has sought to justify it. This shameful remark has come at a time when even the close allies of the US like Germany and France have protested against the snooping on their countries."
Rajya Sabha MP P. Rajeev told The Times of India that "The act of the USA is a clear violation of Vienna convention on diplomatic relations. But Khurshid is trying to justify it. And the speed of the government of India to reject the asylum application of Edward Snowden is shameful."
Legal aspects
Applicable law and practice
On June 8, 2013, the Director of National Intelligence issued a fact sheet stating that PRISM "is not an undisclosed collection or data mining program," but rather "an internal government computer system" used to facilitate the collection of foreign intelligence information "under court supervision, as authorized by Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) (50 U.S.C. § 1881a)." Section 702 provides that "the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence may authorize jointly, for a period of up to 1 year from the effective date of the authorization, the targeting of persons reasonably believed to be located outside the United States to acquire foreign intelligence information." In order to authorize the targeting, the attorney general and Director of National Intelligence need to obtain an order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA Court) pursuant to Section 702 or certify that "intelligence important to the national security of the United States may be lost or not timely acquired and time does not permit the issuance of an order." When requesting an order, the attorney general and Director of National Intelligence must certify to the FISA Court that "a significant purpose of the acquisition is to obtain foreign intelligence information." They do not need to specify which facilities or property will be targeted.
After receiving a FISA Court order or determining that there are emergency circumstances, the attorney general and Director of National Intelligence can direct an electronic communication service provider to give them access to information or facilities to carry out the targeting and keep the targeting secret. The provider then has the option to: (1) comply with the directive; (2) reject it; or (3) challenge it with the FISA Court. If the provider complies with the directive, it is released from liability to its users for providing the information and is reimbursed for the cost of providing it, while if the provider rejects the directive, the attorney general may request an order from the FISA Court to enforce it. A provider that fails to comply with the FISA Court's order can be punished with contempt of court.
Finally, a provider can petition the FISA Court to reject the directive. In case the FISA Court denies the petition and orders the provider to comply with the directive, the provider risks contempt of court if it refuses to comply with the FISA Court's order. The provider can appeal the FISA Court's denial to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review and then appeal the Court of Review's decision to the Supreme Court by a writ of certiorari for review under seal.
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the FISA Courts had been put in place to oversee intelligence operations in the period after the death of J. Edgar Hoover. Beverly Gage of Slate said, "When they were created, these new mechanisms were supposed to stop the kinds of abuses that men like Hoover had engineered. Instead, it now looks as if they have come to function as rubber stamps for the expansive ambitions of the intelligence community. J. Edgar Hoover no longer rules Washington, but it turns out we didn't need him anyway."
Litigation
Analysis of legal issues
Laura Donohue, a law professor at the Georgetown University Law Center and its Center on National Security and the Law, has called PRISM and other NSA mass surveillance programs unconstitutional.
Woodrow Hartzog, an affiliate at Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society commented that "[The ACLU will] likely have to demonstrate legitimate First Amendment harms (such as chilling effects) or Fourth Amendment harms (perhaps a violation of a reasonable expectation of privacy) ... Is it a harm to merely know with certainty that you are being monitored by the government? There's certainly an argument that it is. People under surveillance act differently, experience a loss of autonomy, are less likely to engage in self exploration and reflection, and are less willing to engage in core expressive political activities such as dissenting speech and government criticism. Such interests are what First and Fourth Amendment seek to protect."
Legality of the FISA Amendments Act
The FISA Amendments Act (FAA) Section 702 is referenced in PRISM documents detailing the electronic interception, capture and analysis of metadata. Many reports and letters of concern written by members of Congress suggest that this section of FAA in particular is legally and constitutionally problematic, such as by targeting U.S. persons, insofar as "Collections occur in U.S." as published documents indicate.
The ACLU has asserted the following regarding the FAA: "Regardless of abuses, the problem with the FAA is more fundamental: the statute itself is unconstitutional."
Senator Rand Paul is introducing new legislation called the Fourth Amendment Restoration Act of 2013 to stop the NSA or other agencies of the United States government from violating the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution using technology and big data information systems like PRISM and Boundless Informant.
Programs sharing the name PRISM
Besides the information collection program started in 2007, there are two other programs sharing the name PRISM:
The Planning tool for Resource Integration, Synchronization and Management (PRISM), a web tool used by US military intelligence to send tasks and instructions to data collection platforms deployed to military operations.
The Portal for Real-time Information Sharing and Management (PRISM), whose existence was revealed by the NSA in July 2013. This is an internal NSA program for real-time sharing of information which is apparently located in the NSA's Information Assurance Directorate. The NSA's Information Assurance Directorate (IAD) is a very secretive division which is responsible for safeguarding U.S. government and military secrets by implementing sophisticated encryption techniques.
Related NSA programs
Parallel programs, known collectively as SIGADs gather data and metadata from other sources, each SIGAD has a set of defined sources, targets, types of data collected, legal authorities, and software associated with it. Some SIGADs have the same name as the umbrella under which they sit, BLARNEY's (the SIGAD) summary, set down in the slides alongside a cartoon insignia of a shamrock and a leprechaun hat, describes it as "an ongoing collection program that leverages IC [intelligence community] and commercial partnerships to gain access and exploit foreign intelligence obtained from global networks."
Some SIGADs, like PRISM, collect data at the ISP level, but others take it from the top-level infrastructure. This type of collection is known as "upstream". Upstream collection includes programs known by the blanket terms BLARNEY, FAIRVIEW, OAKSTAR and STORMBREW, under each of these are individual SIGADs. Data that is integrated into a SIGAD can be gathered in other ways besides upstream, and from the service providers, for instance it can be collected from passive sensors around embassies, or even stolen from an individual computer network in a hacking attack.
Not all SIGADs involve upstream collection, for instance, data could be taken directly from a service provider, either by agreement (as is the case with PRISM), by means of hacking, or other ways.
According to the Washington Post, the much less known MUSCULAR program, which directly taps the unencrypted data inside the Google and Yahoo private clouds, collects more than twice as many data points compared to PRISM. Because the Google and Yahoo clouds span the globe, and because the tap was done outside of the United States, unlike PRISM, the MUSCULAR program requires no (FISA or other type of) warrants.
See also
Central Monitoring System
Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), a U.S. wiretapping law passed in 1994
DRDO NETRA
ECHELON, a signals intelligence collection and analysis network operated on behalf of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States
Economic espionage
Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution
INDECT, European Union automatic threat detection research project
Information Awareness Office, a defunct DARPA project
Law Enforcement Information Exchange
Lawful interception
Mass surveillance
Muscular (surveillance program)
NSA call database, contains call detail information for hundreds of billions of telephone calls made through the largest U.S. telephone carriers
Signals intelligence
SORM, Russian telephone and internet surveillance project
Surveillance
Targeted surveillance
Tempora, the data-gathering project run by the British GCHQ
TURBINE (US government project)
Utah Data Center, a data storage facility supporting the U.S. Intelligence Community
Notes
References
External links
Annotated presentation how the NSA PRISM program works.
Timeline and details about the events.
Detailed how-to enabling average citizens to take steps to defend their privacy
Video explaining the recent history of domestic spying at NSA.
A detailed explanation of all known slides about the PRISM program and its inner workings.
Source of PRISM logo.
2013 scandals
Counter-terrorism in the United States
Law enforcement in the United States
Espionage
Human rights in the United States
Mass surveillance
National Security Agency
Obama administration controversies
Privacy in the United States
Privacy of telecommunications
Secret government programs
Surveillance scandals
United States national security policy
War on terror
Computer surveillance
American secret government programs
GCHQ operations
National Security Agency operations
Intelligence agency programmes revealed by Edward Snowden
George W. Bush administration controversies |
39603595 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PrivateCore | PrivateCore | PrivateCore is a venture-backed startup located in Palo Alto, California that develops software to secure server data through server attestation and memory encryption. The company's attestation and memory encryption technology fills a gap that exists between “data in motion” encryption (TLS, email encryption) and “data at rest” encryption (disk encryption, tape encryption) by protecting “data in use” (random access memory). PrivateCore memory encryption technology protects against threats to servers such as cold boot attacks, hardware advanced persistent threats, rootkits/bootkits, computer hardware supply chain attacks, and physical threats to servers from insiders. PrivateCore was acquired by Facebook (now Meta Platforms) on 7 August 2014.
History
PrivateCore was founded in 2011 by security veterans from VMware and Google with seed funding from Foundation Capital. PrivateCore “virtualizes” physical security and enables service providers and enterprises deploy servers processing sensitive data in outsourced environments while maintaining security around data in use.
The company's memory encryption technology has been spurred by a number of industry trends including the increasing sophistication of hackers, a larger number of servers in outsourced environments, larger amounts of sensitive data being placed in persistent memory, and x86 virtualization technology which can increase the environment attack surface.
PrivateCore was acquired by Facebook, a deal that was announced on 7 August 2014.
Technology
PrivateCore's focus is securing data-in-use on x86 servers. The company has taken advantage of recent microprocessor innovations including larger microprocessor caches and hardware cryptographic acceleration technology that enable more effective methods of encrypting memory while maintaining acceptable application performance. The technology approach goes beyond previous academic research efforts such as TRESOR.
PrivateCore assumes that the only element that need be trusted in a system is the Central Processing Unit (CPU). The firm uses Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chips and Intel Trusted Execution Technology (Intel TXT) to provide remote server attestation. PrivateCore also supports the cryptographic hardware acceleration provided by Intel AES-NI technology.
PrivateCore technology is positioned as being most applicable to outsourced or hosted environments where the enterprise cannot have trust in the compute infrastructure.
Products
The PrivateCore vCage product portfolio comprises vCage Manager and vCage Host. vCage Manager validates the integrity of x86 servers running Linux as well as the vCage Host. vCage Host installs on bare-metal servers and provides a hardened hypervisor based on KVM that can secure server random access memory (RAM) with AES encryption. vCage Host does this by loading a secure hypervisor into CPU cache and acting as a gateway to encrypt memory paging in and out between the CPU cache and RAM. vCage memory encryption leverages the KVM hypervisor but also has the potential to support other hypervisors. vCage Host supports existing KVM management tools.
vCage supports a number of use cases including creating OpenStack trusted computing pools as well as protecting x86 servers in co-location and bare-metal cloud environments.
vCage Manager and vCage Host became generally available on 11 February 2014.
References
External links
Physical Privilege Escalation and Mitigation in the x86 World, talk given by the founders at CanSecWest 2013
Computer security companies
Cryptography
Companies based in Palo Alto, California
Software companies established in 2011
2014 mergers and acquisitions
Software companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area
2011 establishments in California
Software companies of the United States |
39626432 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward%20Snowden | Edward Snowden | Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is an American former computer intelligence consultant who leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013, when he was an employee and subcontractor. His disclosures revealed numerous global surveillance programs, many run by the NSA and the Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance with the cooperation of telecommunication companies and European governments, and prompted a cultural discussion about national security and individual privacy.
In 2013, Snowden was hired by an NSA contractor, Booz Allen Hamilton, after previous employment with Dell and the CIA. Snowden says he gradually became disillusioned with the programs with which he was involved, and that he tried to raise his ethical concerns through internal channels but was ignored. On May 20, 2013, Snowden flew to Hong Kong after leaving his job at an NSA facility in Hawaii, and in early June he revealed thousands of classified NSA documents to journalists Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, Barton Gellman, and Ewen MacAskill. Snowden came to international attention after stories based on the material appeared in The Guardian, The Washington Post, and other publications.
On June 21, 2013, the United States Department of Justice unsealed charges against Snowden of two counts of violating the Espionage Act of 1917 and theft of government property, following which the Department of State revoked his passport. Two days later, he flew into Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport, where Russian authorities observed the canceled passport, and he was restricted to the airport terminal for over one month. Russia later granted Snowden the right of asylum with an initial visa for residence for one year, which was subsequently repeatedly extended. In October 2020, he was granted permanent residency in Russia.
A subject of controversy, Snowden has been variously called a traitor, a hero, a whistleblower, a dissident, a coward, and a patriot. U.S. officials condemned his actions as having done "grave damage" to the U.S. intelligence capabilities. Snowden has defended his leaks as an effort "to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them." His disclosures have fueled debates over mass surveillance, government secrecy, and the balance between national security and information privacy.
In early 2016, Snowden became the president of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization that aims to protect journalists from hacking and government surveillance. He also has a job at an unnamed Russian IT company. In 2017, he married Lindsay Mills. On September 17, 2019, his memoir Permanent Record was published. On September 2, 2020, a U.S. federal court ruled in United States v. Moalin that the U.S. intelligence's mass surveillance program exposed by Snowden was illegal and possibly unconstitutional.
Early life
Childhood, family, and education
Edward Joseph Snowden was born on June 21, 1983, in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. His maternal grandfather, Edward J. Barrett, a rear admiral in the U.S. Coast Guard, became a senior official with the FBI and was at the Pentagon in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. Snowden's father, Lonnie, was a warrant officer in the Coast Guard, and his mother, Elizabeth, is a clerk at the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. His older sister, Jessica, was a lawyer at the Federal Judicial Center in Washington, D.C. Edward Snowden said that he had expected to work for the federal government, as had the rest of his family. His parents divorced in 2001, and his father remarried. Snowden scored above 145 on two separate IQ tests.
In the early 1990s, while still in grade school, Snowden moved with his family to the area of Fort Meade, Maryland. Mononucleosis caused him to miss high school for almost nine months. Rather than returning to school, he passed the GED test and took classes at Anne Arundel Community College. Although Snowden had no undergraduate college degree, he worked online toward a master's degree at the University of Liverpool, England, in 2011. He was interested in Japanese popular culture, had studied the Japanese language, and worked for an anime company that had a resident office in the U.S. He also said he had a basic understanding of Mandarin Chinese and was deeply interested in martial arts. At age 20, he listed Buddhism as his religion on a military recruitment form, noting that the choice of agnostic was "strangely absent." In September 2019, as part of interviews relating to the release of his memoir Permanent Record, Snowden revealed to The Guardian that he married Lindsay Mills in a courthouse in Moscow. The couple have a son born in December 2020.
Political views
Snowden has said that, in the 2008 presidential election, he voted for a third-party candidate, though he "believed in Obama's promises." Following the election, he believed President Barack Obama was continuing policies espoused by George W. Bush.
In accounts published in June 2013, interviewers noted that Snowden's laptop displayed stickers supporting Internet freedom organizations including the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Tor Project. A week after publication of his leaks began, Ars Technica confirmed that Snowden had been an active participant at the site's online forum from 2001 through May 2012, discussing a variety of topics under the pseudonym "TheTrueHOOHA." In an online discussion about racism in 2009, Snowden said: ''I went to London just last year it's where all of your muslims live I didn't want to get out of the car. I thought I had gotten off of the plane in the wrong country... it was terrifying.'' In a January 2009 entry, TheTrueHOOHA exhibited strong support for the U.S. security state apparatus and said leakers of classified information "should be shot in the balls." However, Snowden disliked Obama's CIA director appointment of Leon Panetta, saying "Obama just named a fucking politician to run the CIA." Snowden was also offended by a possible ban on assault weapons, writing "Me and all my lunatic, gun-toting NRA compatriots would be on the steps of Congress before the C-Span feed finished." Snowden disliked Obama's economic policies, was against Social Security, and favored Ron Paul's call for a return to the gold standard. In 2014, Snowden supported a universal basic income.
Career
Feeling a duty to fight in the Iraq War to help free oppressed people, Snowden enlisted in the United States Army on May 7, 2004, and became a Special Forces candidate through its 18X enlistment option. He did not complete the training due to bilateral tibial stress fractures, and was discharged on September 28, 2004.
Snowden was then employed for less than a year in 2005 as a security guard at the University of Maryland's Center for Advanced Study of Language, a research center sponsored by the National Security Agency (NSA). According to the University, this is not a classified facility, though it is heavily guarded. In June 2014, Snowden told Wired that his job as a security guard required a high-level security clearance, for which he passed a polygraph exam and underwent a stringent background investigation.
Employment at CIA
After attending a 2006 job-fair focused on intelligence agencies, Snowden accepted an offer for a position at the CIA. The Agency assigned him to the global communications division at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
In May 2006, Snowden wrote in Ars Technica that he had no trouble getting work because he was a "computer wizard". After distinguishing himself as a junior employee on the top computer team, Snowden was sent to the CIA's secret school for technology specialists, where he lived in a hotel for six months while studying and training full-time.
In March 2007, the CIA stationed Snowden with diplomatic cover in Geneva, Switzerland, where he was responsible for maintaining computer-network security. Assigned to the U.S. Permanent Mission to the United Nations, a diplomatic mission representing U.S. interests before the UN and other international organizations, Snowden received a diplomatic passport and a four-bedroom apartment near Lake Geneva. According to Greenwald, while there Snowden was "considered the top technical and cybersecurity expert" in that country and "was hand-picked by the CIA to support the president at the 2008 NATO summit in Romania". Snowden described his CIA experience in Geneva as formative, stating that the CIA deliberately got a Swiss banker drunk and encouraged him to drive home. Snowden said that when the latter was arrested for drunk driving, a CIA operative offered to help in exchange for the banker becoming an informant. Ueli Maurer, President of the Swiss Confederation for the year 2013, publicly disputed Snowden's claims in June of that year. "This would mean that the CIA successfully bribed the Geneva police and judiciary. With all due respect, I just can't imagine it," said Maurer. In February 2009, Snowden resigned from the CIA.
NSA sub-contractee as an employee at Dell
In 2009, Snowden began work as a contractee for Dell, which manages computer systems for multiple government agencies. Assigned to an NSA facility at Yokota Air Base near Tokyo, Snowden instructed top officials and military officers on how to defend their networks from Chinese hackers. Snowden looked into mass surveillance in China which prompted him to investigate and then expose Washington's mass surveillance program after he was asked in 2009 to brief a conference in Tokyo. During his four years with Dell, he rose from supervising NSA computer system upgrades to working as what his résumé termed a "cyber strategist" and an "expert in cyber counterintelligence" at several U.S. locations. In 2010, he had a brief stint in New Delhi where he enrolled himself in a local IT institute to learn core Java programming and advanced ethical hacking. In 2011, he returned to Maryland, where he spent a year as lead technologist on Dell's CIA account. In that capacity, he was consulted by the chiefs of the CIA's technical branches, including the agency's chief information officer and its chief technology officer. U.S. officials and other sources familiar with the investigation said Snowden began downloading documents describing the government's electronic spying programs while working for Dell in April 2012. Investigators estimated that of the 50,000 to 200,000 documents Snowden gave to Greenwald and Poitras, most were copied by Snowden while working at Dell.
In March 2012, Dell reassigned Snowden to Hawaii as lead technologist for the NSA's information-sharing office.
NSA sub-contractee as an employee at Booz Allen Hamilton
On March 15, 2013three days after what he later called his "breaking point" of "seeing the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, directly lie under oath to Congress"Snowden quit his job at Dell. Although he has said his career high annual salary was $200,000, Snowden said he took a pay cut to work at consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, where he sought employment in order to gather data and then release details of the NSA's worldwide surveillance activity.
At the time of his departure from the U.S. in May 2013, he had been employed for 15 months inside the NSA's Hawaii regional operations center, which focuses on the electronic monitoring of China and North Korea, first for Dell and then for two months with Booz Allen Hamilton. While intelligence officials have described his position there as a system administrator, Snowden has said he was an infrastructure analyst, which meant that his job was to look for new ways to break into Internet and telephone traffic around the world. An anonymous source told Reuters that, while in Hawaii, Snowden may have persuaded 20–25 co-workers to give him their login credentials by telling them he needed them to do his job. The NSA sent a memo to Congress saying that Snowden had tricked a fellow employee into sharing his personal private key to gain greater access to the NSA's computer system. Snowden disputed the memo, saying in January 2014, "I never stole any passwords, nor did I trick an army of co-workers." Booz Allen terminated Snowden's employment on June 10, 2013, the day after he went public with his story, and 3 weeks after he had left Hawaii on a leave of absence.
A former NSA co-worker said that although the NSA was full of smart people, Snowden was a "genius among geniuses" who created a widely implemented backup system for the NSA and often pointed out security flaws to the agency. The former colleague said Snowden was given full administrator privileges with virtually unlimited access to NSA data. Snowden was offered a position on the NSA's elite team of hackers, Tailored Access Operations, but turned it down to join Booz Allen. An anonymous source later said that Booz Allen's hiring screeners found possible discrepancies in Snowden's resume but still decided to hire him. Snowden's résumé stated that he attended computer-related classes at Johns Hopkins University. A spokeswoman for Johns Hopkins said that the university did not find records to show that Snowden attended the university, and suggested that he may instead have attended Advanced Career Technologies, a private for-profit organization that operated as the Computer Career Institute at Johns Hopkins University. The University of Maryland University College acknowledged that Snowden had attended a summer session at a UM campus in Asia. Snowden's résumé stated that he estimated he would receive a University of Liverpool computer security master's degree in 2013. The university said that Snowden registered for an online master's degree program in computer security in 2011 but was inactive as a student and had not completed the program.
In his May 2014 interview with NBC News, Snowden accused the U.S. government of trying to use one position here or there in his career to distract from the totality of his experience, downplaying him as a "low-level analyst." In his words, he was "trained as a spy in the traditional sense of the word in that I lived and worked undercover overseas—pretending to work in a job that I'm not—and even being assigned a name that was not mine." He said he'd worked for the NSA undercover overseas, and for the DIA had developed sources and methods to keep information and people secure "in the most hostile and dangerous environments around the world. So when they say I'm a low-level systems administrator, that I don't know what I'm talking about, I'd say it's somewhat misleading." In a June interview with Globo TV, Snowden reiterated that he "was actually functioning at a very senior level." In a July interview with The Guardian, Snowden explained that, during his NSA career, "I began to move from merely overseeing these systems to actively directing their use. Many people don't understand that I was actually an analyst and I designated individuals and groups for targeting." Snowden subsequently told Wired that while at Dell in 2011, "I would sit down with the CIO of the CIA, the CTO of the CIA, the chiefs of all the technical branches. They would tell me their hardest technology problems, and it was my job to come up with a way to fix them."
During his time as an NSA analyst, directing the work of others, Snowden recalled a moment when he and his colleagues began to have severe ethical doubts. Snowden said 18 to 22-year-old analysts were suddenly"thrust into a position of extraordinary responsibility, where they now have access to all your private records. In the course of their daily work, they stumble across something that is completely unrelated in any sort of necessary sense—for example, an intimate nude photo of someone in a sexually compromising situation. But they're extremely attractive. So what do they do? They turn around in their chair and they show a co-worker ... and sooner or later this person's whole life has been seen by all of these other people." Snowden observed that this behavior happened routinely every two months but was never reported, being considered one of the "fringe benefits" of the work.
Whistleblower status
Snowden has described himself as a whistleblower, a description used by many sources, including CNBC, The New Yorker, Reuters, and The Guardian, among others. The term has both informal and legal meanings.
Snowden said that he had told multiple employees and two supervisors about his concerns, but the NSA disputes his claim. Snowden elaborated in January 2014, saying "[I] made tremendous efforts to report these programs to co-workers, supervisors, and anyone with the proper clearance who would listen. The reactions of those I told about the scale of the constitutional violations ranged from deeply concerned to appalled, but no one was willing to risk their jobs, families, and possibly even freedom to go to through what [Thomas Andrews] Drake did." In March 2014, during testimony to the European Parliament, Snowden wrote that before revealing classified information he had reported "clearly problematic programs" to ten officials, who he said did nothing in response. In a May 2014 interview, Snowden told NBC News that after bringing his concerns about the legality of the NSA spying programs to officials, he was told to stay silent on the matter. He said that the NSA had copies of emails he sent to their Office of General Counsel, oversight, and compliance personnel broaching "concerns about the NSA's interpretations of its legal authorities. I had raised these complaints not just officially in writing through email, but to my supervisors, to my colleagues, in more than one office."
In May 2014, U.S. officials released a single email that Snowden had written in April 2013 inquiring about legal authorities but said that they had found no other evidence that Snowden had expressed his concerns to someone in an oversight position. In June 2014, the NSA said it had not been able to find any records of Snowden raising internal complaints about the agency's operations. That same month, Snowden explained that he has not produced the communiqués in question because of the ongoing nature of the dispute, disclosing for the first time that "I am working with the NSA in regard to these records and we're going back and forth, so I don't want to reveal everything that will come out."
Self-description as a whistleblower and attribution as such in news reports does not determine whether he qualifies as a whistleblower within the meaning of the Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989 (5 USC 2303(b)(8)-(9); Pub. Law 101-12). However, Snowden's potential status as a Whistleblower under the 1989 Act is not directly addressed in the criminal complaint against him in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (see below) (Case No. 1:13 CR 265 (0MH)). These and similar and related issues are discussed in an essay by David Pozen, in a chapter of the book Whistleblowing Nation, published in March 2020, an adaptation of which also appeared on Lawfare Blog in March 2019.
The unclassified portion of a September 15, 2016, report by the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), initiated by the chairman and Ranking Member in August 2014, and posted on the website of the Federation of American Scientists, concluded that Snowden was not a whistleblower in the sense required by the Whistleblower Protection Act. The bulk of the report is classified.
Global surveillance disclosures
Size and scope of disclosures
The exact size of Snowden's disclosure is unknown, but Australian officials have estimated 15,000 or more Australian intelligence files and British officials estimate at least 58,000 British intelligence files were included. NSA Director Keith Alexander initially estimated that Snowden had copied anywhere from 50,000 to 200,000 NSA documents. Later estimates provided by U.S. officials were in the order of 1.7 million, a number that originally came from Department of Defense talking points. In July 2014, The Washington Post reported on a cache previously provided by Snowden from domestic NSA operations consisting of "roughly 160,000 intercepted e-mail and instant-message conversations, some of them hundreds of pages long, and 7,900 documents taken from more than 11,000 online accounts." A U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency report declassified in June 2015 said that Snowden took 900,000 Department of Defense files, more than he downloaded from the NSA.
Potential impact on U.S. national security
In March 2014, Army General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the House Armed Services Committee, "The vast majority of the documents that Snowden ... exfiltrated from our highest levels of security ... had nothing to do with exposing government oversight of domestic activities. The vast majority of those were related to our military capabilities, operations, tactics, techniques, and procedures." When asked in a May 2014 interview to quantify the number of documents Snowden stole, retired NSA director Keith Alexander said there was no accurate way of counting what he took, but Snowden may have downloaded more than a million documents.
The September 15, 2016, HPSCI report estimated the number of downloaded documents at 1.5 million.
In a 2013 Associated Press interview, Glenn Greenwald stated:"In order to take documents with him that proved that what he was saying was true he had to take ones that included very sensitive, detailed blueprints of how the NSA does what they do." Thus the Snowden documents allegedly contained sensitive NSA blueprints detailing how the NSA operates, and which would allow someone who read them to evade or even duplicate NSA surveillance. Further, a July 20, 2015 New York Times article reported that the terror group Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) had studied revelations from Snowden, about how the United States gathered information on militants, the main result is that the group's top leaders used couriers or encrypted channels to avoid being tracked or monitoring of their communications by Western analysts.
According to Snowden, he did not indiscriminately turn over documents to journalists, stating that "I carefully evaluated every single document I disclosed to ensure that each was legitimately in the public interest. There are all sorts of documents that would have made a big impact that I didn't turn over" and that "I have to screen everything before releasing it to journalists ... If I have time to go through this information, I would like to make it available to journalists in each country." Despite these measures, the improper redaction of a document by The New York Times resulted in the exposure of intelligence activity against al-Qaeda.
In June 2014, the NSA's recently installed director, U.S. Navy Admiral Michael S. Rogers, said that while some terrorist groups had altered their communications to avoid surveillance techniques revealed by Snowden, the damage done was not significant enough to conclude that "the sky is falling." Nevertheless, in February 2015, Rogers said that Snowden's disclosures had a material impact on the NSA's detection and evaluation of terrorist activities worldwide.
On June 14, 2015, the London Sunday Times reported that Russian and Chinese intelligence services had decrypted more than 1 million classified files in the Snowden cache, forcing the UK's MI6 intelligence agency to move agents out of live operations in hostile countries. Sir David Omand, a former director of the UK's GCHQ intelligence gathering agency, described it as a huge strategic setback that was harming Britain, America, and their NATO allies. The Sunday Times said it was not clear whether Russia and China stole Snowden's data or whether Snowden voluntarily handed it over to remain at liberty in Hong Kong and Moscow. In April 2015, the Henry Jackson Society, a British neoconservative think tank, published a report claiming that Snowden's intelligence leaks negatively impacted Britain's ability to fight terrorism and organized crime. Gus Hosein, executive director of Privacy International, criticized the report for, in his opinion, presuming that the public became concerned about privacy only after Snowden's disclosures.
Release of NSA documents
Snowden's decision to leak NSA documents developed gradually following his March 2007 posting as a technician to the Geneva CIA station. Snowden later made contact with Glenn Greenwald, a journalist working at The Guardian. He contacted Greenwald anonymously as "Cincinnatus" and said he had sensitive documents that he would like to share. Greenwald found the measures that the source asked him to take to secure their communications, such as encrypting email, too annoying to employ. Snowden then contacted documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras in January 2013. According to Poitras, Snowden chose to contact her after seeing her New York Times article about NSA whistleblower William Binney. What originally attracted Snowden to both Greenwald and Poitras was a Salon article written by Greenwald detailing how Poitras's controversial films had made her a target of the government.
Greenwald began working with Snowden in either February or April 2013, after Poitras asked Greenwald to meet her in New York City, at which point Snowden began providing documents to them. Barton Gellman, writing for The Washington Post, says his first direct contact was on May 16, 2013. According to Gellman, Snowden approached Greenwald after the Post declined to guarantee publication within 72 hours of all 41 PowerPoint slides that Snowden had leaked exposing the PRISM electronic data mining program, and to publish online an encrypted code allowing Snowden to later prove that he was the source.
Snowden communicated using encrypted email, and going by the codename "Verax". He asked not to be quoted at length for fear of identification by stylometry.
According to Gellman, before their first meeting in person, Snowden wrote, "I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions and that the return of this information to the public marks my end." Snowden also told Gellman that until the articles were published, the journalists working with him would also be at mortal risk from the United States Intelligence Community "if they think you are the single point of failure that could stop this disclosure and make them the sole owner of this information."
In May 2013, Snowden was permitted temporary leave from his position at the NSA in Hawaii, on the pretext of receiving treatment for his epilepsy. In mid-May, Snowden gave an electronic interview to Poitras and Jacob Appelbaum which was published weeks later by Der Spiegel.
After disclosing the copied documents, Snowden promised that nothing would stop subsequent disclosures. In June 2013, he said, "All I can say right now is the US government is not going to be able to cover this up by jailing or murdering me. Truth is coming, and it cannot be stopped."
Publication
On May 20, 2013, Snowden flew to Hong Kong, where he was staying when the initial articles based on the leaked documents were published, beginning with The Guardian on June 5. Greenwald later said Snowden disclosed 9,000 to 10,000 documents.
Within months, documents had been obtained and published by media outlets worldwide, most notably The Guardian (Britain), Der Spiegel (Germany), The Washington Post and The New York Times (U.S.), O Globo (Brazil), Le Monde (France), and similar outlets in Sweden, Canada, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and Australia. In 2014, NBC broke its first story based on the leaked documents. In February 2014, for reporting based on Snowden's leaks, journalists Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, Barton Gellman and The Guardian′s Ewen MacAskill were honored as co-recipients of the 2013 George Polk Award, which they dedicated to Snowden. The NSA reporting by these journalists also earned The Guardian and The Washington Post the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for exposing the "widespread surveillance" and for helping to spark a "huge public debate about the extent of the government's spying". The Guardians chief editor, Alan Rusbridger, credited Snowden for having performed a public service.
Revelations
The ongoing publication of leaked documents has revealed previously unknown details of a global surveillance apparatus run by the United States' NSA in close cooperation with three of its four Five Eyes partners: Australia's ASD, the UK's GCHQ, and Canada's CSEC.
On June 5, 2013, media reports documenting the existence and functions of classified surveillance programs and their scope began and continued throughout the entire year. The first program to be revealed was PRISM, which allows for court-approved direct access to Americans' Google and Yahoo accounts, reported from both The Washington Post and The Guardian published one hour apart. Barton Gellman of The Washington Post was the first journalist to report on Snowden's documents. He said the U.S. government urged him not to specify by name which companies were involved, but Gellman decided that to name them "would make it real to Americans." Reports also revealed details of Tempora, a British black-ops surveillance program run by the NSA's British partner, GCHQ. The initial reports included details about NSA call database, Boundless Informant, and of a secret court order requiring Verizon to hand the NSA millions of Americans' phone records daily, the surveillance of French citizens' phone and Internet records, and those of "high-profile individuals from the world of business or politics." XKeyscore, an analytical tool that allows for collection of "almost anything done on the internet," was described by The Guardian as a program that shed light on one of Snowden's most controversial statements: "I, sitting at my desk [could] wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge or even the president, if I had a personal email."
The NSA's top-secret black budget, obtained from Snowden by The Washington Post, exposed the successes and failures of the 16 spy agencies comprising the U.S. intelligence community, and revealed that the NSA was paying U.S. private tech companies for clandestine access to their communications networks. The agencies were allotted $52 billion for the 2013 fiscal year.
It was revealed that the NSA was harvesting millions of email and instant messaging contact lists, searching email content, tracking and mapping the location of cell phones, undermining attempts at encryption via Bullrun and that the agency was using cookies to piggyback on the same tools used by Internet advertisers "to pinpoint targets for government hacking and to bolster surveillance." The NSA was shown to be secretly accessing Yahoo and Google data centers to collect information from hundreds of millions of account holders worldwide by tapping undersea cables using the MUSCULAR surveillance program.
The NSA, the CIA and GCHQ spied on users of Second Life, Xbox Live and World of Warcraft, and attempted to recruit would-be informants from the sites, according to documents revealed in December 2013. Leaked documents showed NSA agents also spied on their own "love interests," a practice NSA employees termed LOVEINT. The NSA was shown to be tracking the online sexual activity of people they termed "radicalizers" in order to discredit them. Following the revelation of Black Pearl, a program targeting private networks, the NSA was accused of extending beyond its primary mission of national security. The agency's intelligence-gathering operations had targeted, among others, oil giant Petrobras, Brazil's largest company. The NSA and the GCHQ were also shown to be surveilling charities including UNICEF and Médecins du Monde, as well as allies such as European Commissioner Joaquín Almunia and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In October 2013, Glenn Greenwald said "the most shocking and significant stories are the ones we are still working on, and have yet to publish." In November, The Guardians editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger said that only one percent of the documents had been published. In December, Australia's Minister for Defence David Johnston said his government assumed the worst was yet to come.
By October 2013, Snowden's disclosures had created tensions between the U.S. and some of its close allies after they revealed that the U.S. had spied on Brazil, France, Mexico, Britain, China, Germany, and Spain, as well as 35 world leaders, most notably German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who said "spying among friends" was unacceptable and compared the NSA with the Stasi. Leaked documents published by Der Spiegel in 2014 appeared to show that the NSA had targeted 122 high-ranking leaders.
An NSA mission statement titled "SIGINT Strategy 2012-2016" affirmed that the NSA had plans for the continued expansion of surveillance activities. Their stated goal was to "dramatically increase mastery of the global network" and to acquire adversaries' data from "anyone, anytime, anywhere." Leaked slides revealed in Greenwald's book No Place to Hide, released in May 2014, showed that the NSA's stated objective was to "Collect it All," "Process it All," "Exploit it All," "Partner it All," "Sniff it All" and "Know it All."
Snowden said in a January 2014 interview with German television that the NSA does not limit its data collection to national security issues, accusing the agency of conducting industrial espionage. Using the example of German company Siemens, he said, "If there's information at Siemens that's beneficial to US national interests—even if it doesn't have anything to do with national security—then they'll take that information nevertheless." In the wake of Snowden's revelations and in response to an inquiry from the Left Party, Germany's domestic security agency Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV) investigated and found no concrete evidence that the U.S. conducted economic or industrial espionage in Germany.
In February 2014, during testimony to the European Union, Snowden said of the remaining undisclosed programs, "I will leave the public interest determinations as to which of these may be safely disclosed to responsible journalists in coordination with government stakeholders."
In March 2014, documents disclosed by Glenn Greenwald writing for The Intercept showed the NSA, in cooperation with the GCHQ, has plans to infect millions of computers with malware using a program called TURBINE. Revelations included information about QUANTUMHAND, a program through which the NSA set up a fake Facebook server to intercept connections.
According to a report in The Washington Post in July 2014, relying on information furnished by Snowden, 90% of those placed under surveillance in the U.S. are ordinary Americans and are not the intended targets. The newspaper said it had examined documents including emails, message texts, and online accounts, that support the claim.
In an August 2014 interview, Snowden for the first time disclosed a cyberwarfare program in the works, codenamed MonsterMind, that would automate the detection of a foreign cyberattack as it began and automatically fire back. "These attacks can be spoofed," said Snowden. "You could have someone sitting in China, for example, making it appear that one of these attacks is originating in Russia. And then we end up shooting back at a Russian hospital. What happens next?"
Motivations
Snowden first contemplated leaking confidential documents around 2008 but held back, partly because he believed the newly elected Barack Obama might introduce reforms. After the disclosures, his identity was made public by The Guardian at his request on June 9, 2013. "I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded," he said. "My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them."
Snowden said he wanted to "embolden others to step forward" by demonstrating that "they can win." He also said that the system for reporting problems did not work. "You have to report wrongdoing to those most responsible for it." He cited a lack of whistleblower protection for government contractors, the use of the Espionage Act of 1917 to prosecute leakers and the belief that had he used internal mechanisms to "sound the alarm," his revelations "would have been buried forever."
In December 2013, upon learning that a U.S. federal judge had ruled the collection of U.S. phone metadata conducted by the NSA as likely unconstitutional, Snowden said, "I acted on my belief that the NSA's mass surveillance programs would not withstand a constitutional challenge, and that the American public deserved a chance to see these issues determined by open courts ... today, a secret program authorized by a secret court was, when exposed to the light of day, found to violate Americans' rights."
In January 2014, Snowden said his "breaking point" was "seeing the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, directly lie under oath to Congress." This referred to testimony on March 12, 2013—three months after Snowden first sought to share thousands of NSA documents with Greenwald, and nine months after the NSA says Snowden made his first illegal downloads during the summer of 2012—in which Clapper denied to the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that the NSA wittingly collects data on millions of Americans. Snowden said, "There's no saving an intelligence community that believes it can lie to the public and the legislators who need to be able to trust it and regulate its actions. Seeing that really meant for me there was no going back. Beyond that, it was the creeping realization that no one else was going to do this. The public had a right to know about these programs." In March 2014, Snowden said he had reported policy or legal issues related to spying programs to more than ten officials, but as a contractor had no legal avenue to pursue further whistleblowing.
Flight from the United States
Hong Kong
In May 2013, Snowden quit his job, telling his supervisors he required epilepsy treatment, but instead fled the United States for Hong Kong on May 10. Snowden told Guardian reporters in June that he had been in his room at the Mira Hotel since his arrival in the city, rarely going out. On June 10, correspondent Ewen MacAskill said Snowden had left his hotel only briefly three times since May 20.
Snowden vowed to challenge any extradition attempt by the U.S. government, and engaged a Hong Kong-based Canadian human rights lawyer Robert Tibbo as a legal adviser. Snowden told the South China Morning Post that he planned to remain in Hong Kong for as long as its government would permit. Snowden also told the Post that "the United States government has committed a tremendous number of crimes against Hong Kong [and] the PRC as well," going on to identify Chinese Internet Protocol addresses that the NSA monitored and stating that the NSA collected text-message data for Hong Kong residents. Glenn Greenwald said Snowden was motivated by a need to "ingratiate himself to the people of Hong Kong and China."
After leaving the Mira Hotel, Snowden was housed for two weeks in several apartments by other refugees seeking asylum in Hong Kong, an arrangement set up by Tibbo to hide from the US authorities.
The Russian newspaper Kommersant nevertheless reported that Snowden was living at the Russian consulate shortly before his departure from Hong Kong to Moscow. Ben Wizner, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and legal adviser to Snowden, said in January 2014, "Every news organization in the world has been trying to confirm that story. They haven't been able to, because it's false." Likewise rejecting the Kommersant story was Anatoly Kucherena, who became Snowden's lawyer in July 2013 when Snowden asked him for help in seeking temporary asylum in Russia. Kucherena said Snowden did not communicate with Russian diplomats while he was in Hong Kong. In early September 2013, however, Russian president Vladimir Putin said that, a few days before boarding a plane to Moscow, Snowden met in Hong Kong with Russian diplomatic representatives.
On June 22, 18 days after the publication of Snowden's NSA documents began, officials revoked his U.S. passport. On June 23, Snowden boarded the commercial Aeroflot flight SU213 to Moscow, accompanied by Sarah Harrison of WikiLeaks. Hong Kong authorities said that Snowden had not been detained for the U.S. because the request had not fully complied with Hong Kong law, and there was no legal basis to prevent Snowden from leaving. On June 24, a U.S. State Department spokesman rejected the explanation of technical noncompliance, accusing the Hong Kong government of deliberately releasing a fugitive despite a valid arrest warrant and after having sufficient time to prohibit his travel. That same day, Julian Assange said that WikiLeaks had paid for Snowden's lodging in Hong Kong and his flight out. Julian Assange had asked Fidel Narváez, consul at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, to sign an emergency travel document for Snowden. Snowden said that having the document gave him "the confidence, the courage to get on that plane to begin the journey".
In October 2013, Snowden said that before flying to Moscow, he gave all the classified documents he had obtained to journalists he met in Hong Kong and kept no copies for himself. In January 2014, he told a German TV interviewer that he gave all of his information to American journalists reporting on American issues. During his first American TV interview, in May 2014, Snowden said he had protected himself from Russian leverage by destroying the material he had been holding before landing in Moscow.
In January 2019, Vanessa Rodel, one of the refugees who had housed Snowden in Hong Kong, and her 7-year-old daughter were granted asylum by Canada. In 2021, Supun Thilina Kellapatha, Nadeeka Dilrukshi Nonis and their children found refuge in Canada, leaving only one of Snowden's Hong Kong helpers waiting for asylum.
Russia
On June 23, 2013, Snowden landed at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport. WikiLeaks said he was on a circuitous but safe route to asylum in Ecuador. Snowden had a seat reserved to continue to Cuba but did not board that onward flight, saying in a January 2014 interview that he intended to transit through Russia but was stopped en route. He said "a planeload of reporters documented the seat I was supposed to be in" when he was ticketed for Havana, but the U.S. canceled his passport. He said the U.S. wanted him to stay in Moscow so "they could say, 'He's a Russian spy.'" Greenwald's account differed on the point of Snowden being already ticketed. According to Greenwald, Snowden's passport was valid when he departed Hong Kong but was revoked during the hours he was in transit to Moscow, preventing him from obtaining a ticket to leave Russia. Greenwald said Snowden was thus forced to stay in Moscow and seek asylum.
According to one Russian report, Snowden planned to fly from Moscow through Havana to Latin America; however, Cuba told Moscow it would not allow the Aeroflot plane carrying Snowden to land. The Russian newspaper Kommersant reported that Cuba had a change of heart after receiving pressure from U.S. officials, leaving him stuck in the transit zone because at the last minute Havana told officials in Moscow not to allow him on the flight. The Washington Post contrasted this version with what it called "widespread speculation" that Russia never intended to let Snowden proceed. Fidel Castro called claims that Cuba would have blocked Snowden's entry a "lie" and a "libel." Describing Snowden's arrival in Moscow as a surprise and likening it to "an unwanted Christmas gift," Russian president Putin said that Snowden remained in the transit area of Sheremetyevo Airport, had committed no crime in Russia, was free to leave and should do so.
Following Snowden's arrival in Moscow, the White House expressed disappointment in Hong Kong's decision to allow him to leave. An anonymous U.S. official not authorized to discuss the matter told the Associated Press Snowden's passport had been revoked before he left Hong Kong, but that a senior official in a country or airline could order subordinates to overlook the withdrawn passport. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that Snowden's passport was canceled "within two hours" of the charges against Snowden being made public which was Friday, June 21. In a July 1 statement, Snowden said, "Although I am convicted of nothing, [the U.S. government] has unilaterally revoked my passport, leaving me a stateless person. Without any judicial order, the administration now seeks to stop me exercising a basic right. A right that belongs to everybody. The right to seek asylum."
Four countries offered Snowden permanent asylum: Ecuador, Nicaragua, Bolivia, and Venezuela. No direct flights between Moscow and Venezuela, Bolivia, or Nicaragua existed, however, and the U.S. pressured countries along his route to hand him over. Snowden said in July 2013 that he decided to bid for asylum in Russia because he felt there was no safe way to reach Latin America. Snowden said he remained in Russia because "when we were talking about possibilities for asylum in Latin America, the United States forced down the Bolivian president's plane", citing the Morales plane incident. According to Snowden, "the CIA has a very powerful presence [in Latin America] and the governments and the security services there are relatively much less capable than, say, Russia.... they could have basically snatched me...." On the issue, he said "some governments in Western European and North American states have demonstrated a willingness to act outside the law, and this behavior persists today. This unlawful threat makes it impossible for me to travel to Latin America and enjoy the asylum granted there in accordance with our shared rights." Snowden said that he would travel from Russia if there was no interference from the U.S. government.
Four months after Snowden received asylum in Russia, Julian Assange commented: "While Venezuela and Ecuador could protect him in the short term, over the long term there could be a change in government. In Russia, he's safe, he's well-regarded, and that is not likely to change. That was my advice to Snowden, that he would be physically safest in Russia."
In an October 2014 interview with The Nation magazine, Snowden reiterated that he had originally intended to travel to Latin America: "A lot of people are still unaware that I never intended to end up in Russia." According to Snowden, the U.S. government "waited until I departed Hong Kong to cancel my passport in order to trap me in Russia." Snowden added, "If they really wanted to capture me, they would've allowed me to travel to Latin America because the CIA can operate with impunity down there. They did not want that; they chose to keep me in Russia."
Morales plane incident
On July 1, 2013, president Evo Morales of Bolivia, who had been attending a conference in Russia, suggested during an interview with RT (formerly Russia Today) that he would consider a request by Snowden for asylum. The following day, Morales's plane, en route to Bolivia, was rerouted to Austria and landed there, after France, Spain, and Italy denied access to their airspace. While the plane was parked in Vienna, the Spanish ambassador to Austria arrived with two embassy personnel and asked to search the plane but they were denied permission by Morales himself. U.S. officials had raised suspicions that Snowden may have been on board. Morales blamed the U.S. for putting pressure on European countries and said that the grounding of his plane was a violation of international law.
In April 2015, Bolivia's ambassador to Russia, María Luisa Ramos Urzagaste, accused Julian Assange of inadvertently putting Morales's life at risk by intentionally providing to the U.S. false rumors that Snowden was on Morales's plane. Assange responded that "we weren't expecting this outcome. The result was caused by the United States' intervention. We can only regret what happened."
Asylum applications
Snowden applied for political asylum to 21 countries. A statement attributed to him contended that the U.S. administration, and specifically then–Vice President Joe Biden, had pressured the governments to refuse his asylum petitions. Biden had telephoned President Rafael Correa days prior to Snowden's remarks, asking the Ecuadorian leader not to grant Snowden asylum. Ecuador had initially offered Snowden a temporary travel document but later withdrew it, and Correa later called the offer a mistake.
In a July 1, 2013 statement published by WikiLeaks, Snowden accused the U.S. government of "using citizenship as a weapon" and using what he described as "old, bad tools of political aggression." Citing Obama's promise to not allow "wheeling and dealing" over the case, Snowden commented, "This kind of deception from a world leader is not justice, and neither is the extralegal penalty of exile." Several days later, WikiLeaks announced that Snowden had applied for asylum in six additional countries, but declined to name them, alleging attempted U.S. interference.
After evaluating the law and Snowden's situation, the French interior ministry rejected his request for asylum. Poland refused to process his application because it did not conform to legal procedure. Brazil's Foreign Ministry said the government planned no response to Snowden's asylum request. Germany and India rejected Snowden's application outright, while Austria, Ecuador, Finland, Norway, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain said he must be on their territory to apply. In November 2014, Germany announced that Snowden had not renewed his previously denied request and was not being considered for asylum. Glenn Greenwald later reported that Sigmar Gabriel, Vice-Chancellor of Germany, told him the U.S. government had threatened to stop sharing intelligence if Germany offered Snowden asylum or arranged for his travel there.
Putin said on July 1, 2013, that if Snowden wanted to be granted asylum in Russia, he would be required to "stop his work aimed at harming our American partners." A spokesman for Putin subsequently said that Snowden had withdrawn his asylum application upon learning of the conditions.
In a July 12 meeting at Sheremetyevo Airport with representatives of human rights organizations and lawyers, organized in part by the Russian government, Snowden said he was accepting all offers of asylum that he had already received or would receive. He added that Venezuela's grant of asylum formalized his asylee status, removing any basis for state interference with his right to asylum. He also said he would request asylum in Russia until he resolved his travel problems. Slovenian correspondent Polonca Frelih, the only journalist, who presented at the July 12 meeting with Snowden, reported that he “looked like someone without daylight for long time but strong enough psychologically” while expressing worries about his medical condition. Russian Federal Migration Service officials confirmed on July 16 that Snowden had submitted an application for temporary asylum. On July 24, Kucherena said his client wanted to find work in Russia, travel and create a life for himself, and had already begun learning Russian.
Amid media reports in early July 2013 attributed to U.S. administration sources that Obama's one-on-one meeting with Putin, ahead of a G20 meeting in St Petersburg scheduled for September, was in doubt due to Snowden's protracted sojourn in Russia, top U.S. officials repeatedly made it clear to Moscow that Snowden should immediately be returned to the United States to face charges for the unauthorized leaking of classified information. His Russian lawyer said Snowden needed asylum because he faced persecution by the U.S. government and feared "that he could be subjected to torture and capital punishment."
Snowden married Lindsay Mills in 2017.
On April 16, 2020, CNN reported that Edward Snowden had requested a three-year extension of his Russian residency permit.
Eric Holder letter to Russian Justice Minister
In a letter to Russian Minister of Justice Aleksandr Konovalov dated July 23, 2013, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder repudiated Snowden's claim to refugee status and offered a limited validity passport good for direct return to the U.S. He stated that Snowden would not be subject to torture or the death penalty, and would receive a trial in a civilian court with proper legal counsel. The same day, the Russian president's spokesman reiterated that his government would not hand over Snowden, commenting that Putin was not personally involved in the matter and that it was being handled through talks between the FBI and Russia's FSB.
Criminal charges
On June 14, 2013, United States federal prosecutors filed a criminal complaint against Snowden, charging him with three felonies: theft of government property and two counts of violating the Espionage Act of 1917 (18 U. S. C. Sect. 792 et. seq.; Publ. L. 65-24) through unauthorized communication of national defense information and willful communication of classified communications intelligence information to an unauthorized person.
Specifically, the charges filed in the Criminal Complaint were:
18 U.S.C. 641 Theft of Government Property
18 U.S.C. 793(d) Unauthorized Communication of National Defense Information
18 U.S.C. 798(a)(3) Willful Communication of Classified Intelligence Information to an Unauthorized Person
Each of the three charges carries a maximum possible prison term of ten years. The criminal complaint was initially secret but was unsealed a week later.
Analysis of Criminal Complaint
Stephen P. Mulligan and Jennifer K. Elsea, Legislative attorneys for the Congressional Research Service, provide a 2017 analysis of the uses of the Espionage Act to prosecute unauthorized disclosures of classified information, based on what was disclosed, to whom, and how; the burden of proof requirements e.g. degrees of Mens Rea (guilty mind), and the relationship of such considerations to the First Amendment framework of protections of free speech are also analyzed. The analysis includes the charges against Snowden, among several other cases. The discussion also covers gaps in the legal framework used to prosecute such cases.
Snowden response to Criminal Complaint
Snowden was asked in a January 2014 interview about returning to the U.S. to face the charges in court, as Obama had suggested a few days prior. Snowden explained why he rejected the request: What he doesn't say are that the crimes that he's charged me with are crimes that don't allow me to make my case. They don't allow me to defend myself in an open court to the public and convince a jury that what I did was to their benefit. ... So it's, I would say, illustrative that the president would choose to say someone should face the music when he knows the music is a show trial. Snowden's legal representative, Jesselyn Radack, wrote that "the Espionage Act effectively hinders a person from defending himself before a jury in an open court." She said that the "arcane World War I law" was never meant to prosecute whistleblowers, but rather spies who betrayed their trust by selling secrets to enemies for profit. Non-profit betrayals were not considered.
Civil lawsuit
On September 17, 2019, the United States filed a lawsuit, Civil Action No. 1:19-cv-1197-LO-TCB, against Snowden for alleged violations of non-disclosure agreements with the CIA and NSA.
The two-count civil complaint alleged that Snowden had violated prepublication obligations related to the publication of his memoir Permanent Record. The complaint listed the publishers Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC d.b.a. Henry Holt and Company and Holtzbrink, as relief-defendants.
The Hon. Liam O'Grady, a judge in the Alexandria Division of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia found for the United States (Plaintiff) by summary judgement, on both counts of the action. The judgment also found that Snowden had been paid speaker honorariums totaling $1.03 million for a series of 56 speeches delivered by video link.
Asylum in Russia
On June 23, 2013, Snowden landed at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport aboard a commercial Aeroflot flight from Hong Kong. After 39 days in the transit section, he left the airport on August 1 and was granted temporary asylum in Russia for one year by the Federal Migration Service.
Snowden had the choice to apply for renewal of his temporary refugee status for 12 months or requesting a permit for temporary stay for three years. A year later, his temporary refugee status having expired, Snowden received a three-year temporary residency permit allowing him to travel freely within Russia and to go abroad for up to three months. He was not granted permanent political asylum. In 2017, his temporary residency permit was extended for another three years.
In December 2013, Snowden told journalist Barton Gellman that supporters in Silicon Valley had donated enough bitcoins for him to live on "until the fucking sun dies." (A single bitcoin was then worth about $1,000.) In 2017, Snowden secretly married Lindsay Mills. By 2019, he no longer felt the need to be disguised in public and lived what was described by The Guardian as a "more or less normal life." He was able to travel around Russia and make a living from speaking arrangements, locally and over the internet.
His memoir Permanent Record was released internationally on September 17, 2019, and while U.S. royalties were expected to be seized, he was able to receive an advance of $4.2 million. The memoir reached the top position on Amazon's bestseller list that day. Snowden said his work for the NSA and CIA showed him that the United States Intelligence Community (IC) had "hacked the Constitution", and that he had concluded there was no option for him but to expose his revelations via the press. In the memoir he wrote, "I realized that I was crazy to have imagined that the Supreme Court, or Congress, or President Obama, seeking to distance his administration from President George W. Bush's, would ever hold the IC legally responsible – for anything". Of Russia he said, "One of the things that is lost in all the problematic politics of the Russian government is the fact this is one of the most beautiful countries in the world" with "friendly" and "warm" people.
On November 1, 2019, new amendments took effect introducing a permanent residence permit for the first time and removing the requirement to renew the pre-2019 so-called "permanent" residence permit every five years. The new permanent residence permit must be replaced three times in a lifetime like an ordinary internal passport for Russian citizens. In accordance with that law, Snowden was in October 2020 granted permanent residence in Russia instead of another extension.
In April 2020, an amendment to Russian nationality law allowing foreigners to obtain Russian citizenship without renouncing a foreign citizenship came into force. In November 2020, Snowden announced that he and his wife, Lindsay, who was expecting their son in late December, were applying for dual U.S.-Russian citizenship in order not to be separated from him "in this era of pandemics and closed borders."
Reaction
United States
Barack Obama
In response to outrage by European leaders, President Barack Obama said in early July 2013 that all nations collect intelligence, including those expressing outrage. His remarks came in response to an article in the German magazine Der Spiegel.
In 2014, Obama stated, "our nation's defense depends in part on the fidelity of those entrusted with our nation's secrets. If any individual who objects to government policy can take it into their own hands to publicly disclose classified information, then we will not be able to keep our people safe, or conduct foreign policy." He objected to the "sensational" way the leaks were reported, saying the reporting often "shed more heat than light." He said that the disclosures had revealed "methods to our adversaries that could impact our operations."
During a November 2016 interview with the German broadcaster ARD and the German paper Der Spiegel, then-outgoing President Obama said he "can't" pardon Edward Snowden unless he is physically submitted to US authorities on US soil.
Donald Trump
In 2013, Donald Trump made a series of tweets in which he referred to Snowden as a "traitor", saying he gave "serious information to China and Russia" and "should be executed". Later that year he added a caveat, tweeting "if it and he could reveal Obama's [birth] records, I might become a major fan".
In August 2020, Trump said during a press conference that he would "take a look" at pardoning Snowden, and added that he was "not that aware of the Snowden situation". He stated, "There are many, many people – it seems to be a split decision that many people think that he should be somehow treated differently, and other people think he did very bad things, and I'm going to take a very good look at it."
Forbes described Trump's willingness to consider a pardon as "leagues away" from his 2013 views. Snowden responded to the announcement saying, "the last time we heard a White House considering a pardon was 2016, when the very same Attorney General who once charged me conceded that, on balance, my work in exposing the NSA's unconstitutional system of mass surveillance had been 'a public service'." Top members of the House Armed Services Committee immediately voiced strong opposition to a pardon, saying Snowden's actions resulted in "tremendous harm" to national security, and that he needed to stand trial. Liz Cheney called the idea of a pardon "unconscionable". A week prior to the announcement, Trump also said he had been thinking of letting Snowden return to the U.S. without facing any time in jail.
Days later, Attorney General William Barr told the AP he was "vehemently opposed" to the idea of a pardon, saying "[Snowden] was a traitor and the information he provided our adversaries greatly hurt the safety of the American people, he was peddling it around like a commercial merchant. We can't tolerate that."
Public figures
Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg called Snowden's release of NSA material the most significant leak in U.S. history. Shortly before the September 2016 release of his biographical thriller film Snowden, a semi-fictionalized drama based on the life of Edward Snowden with a short appearance by Snowden himself, Oliver Stone said that Snowden should be pardoned, calling him a "patriot above all" and suggesting that he should run the NSA himself.
In a December 18, 2013, CNN editorial, former NSA whistleblower J. Kirk Wiebe, known for his involvement in the NSA's Trailblazer Project, noted that a federal judge for the District of Columbia, the Hon. Richard J. Leon had ruled in a contemporaneous case before him that the NSA warrantless surveillance program was likely unconstitutional; Wiebe then proposed that Snowden should be granted amnesty and allowed to return to the United States.
Government officials
Numerous high-ranking current or former U.S. government officials reacted publicly to Snowden's disclosures.
2013
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper condemned the leaks as doing "huge, grave damage" to U.S. intelligence capabilities. Ex-CIA director James Woolsey said that if Snowden were convicted of treason, he should be hanged.
FBI director Robert Mueller said that the U.S. government is "taking all necessary steps to hold Edward Snowden responsible for these disclosures."
2014
House Intelligence Committee chairman Mike Rogers and ranking member Dutch Ruppersberger said a classified Pentagon report written by military intelligence officials contended that Snowden's leaks had put U.S. troops at risk and prompted terrorists to change their tactics and that most files copied were related to current U.S. military operations.
Former congressman Ron Paul began a petition urging the Obama Administration to grant Snowden clemency. Paul released a video on his website saying, "Edward Snowden sacrificed his livelihood, citizenship, and freedom by exposing the disturbing scope of the NSA's worldwide spying program. Thanks to one man's courageous actions, Americans know about the truly egregious ways their government is spying on them."
Mike McConnell—former NSA director and current vice chairman at Booz Allen Hamilton—said that Snowden was motivated by revenge when the NSA did not offer him the job he wanted. "At this point," said McConnell, "he being narcissistic and having failed at most everything he did, he decides now I'm going to turn on them."
Former President Jimmy Carter said that if he were still president today he would "certainly consider" giving Snowden a pardon were he to be found guilty and imprisoned for his leaks.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, "[W]e have all these protections for whistleblowers. If [Snowden] were concerned and wanted to be part of the American debate...it struck me as...sort of odd that he would flee to China because Hong Kong is controlled by China, and that he would then go to Russia—two countries with which we have very difficult cyberrelationships." As Clinton saw it, "turning over a lot of that material—intentionally or unintentionally—drained, gave all kinds of information, not only to big countries but to networks and terrorist groups and the like. So I have a hard time thinking that somebody who is a champion of privacy and liberty has taken refuge in Russia, under Putin's authority." Clinton later said that if Snowden wished to return to the U.S., "knowing he would be held accountable," he would have the right "to launch both a legal defense and a public defense, which can, of course, affect the legal defense."
Secretary of State John Kerry said Snowden had "damaged his country very significantly" and "hurt operational security" by telling terrorists how to evade detection. "The bottom line," Kerry added, "is this man has betrayed his country, sitting in Russia where he has taken refuge. You know, he should man up and come back to the United States."
Former Vice President Al Gore said Snowden "clearly violated the law so you can't say OK, what he did is all right. It's not. But what he revealed in the course of violating important laws included violations of the U.S. Constitution that were way more serious than the crimes he committed. In the course of violating important law, he also provided an important service. ... Because we did need to know how far this has gone."
In December, President Obama nominated former deputy defense secretary Ashton Carter to succeed outgoing Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel. Seven months before, Carter had said, "We had a cyber Pearl Harbor. His name was Edward Snowden." Carter charged that U.S. security officials "screwed up spectacularly in the case of Snowden. And this knucklehead had access to destructive power that was much more than any individual person should have access to."
Debate
In the U.S., Snowden's actions precipitated an intense debate on privacy and warrantless domestic surveillance. President Obama was initially dismissive of Snowden, saying "I'm not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker." In August 2013, Obama rejected the suggestion that Snowden was a patriot, and in November said that "the benefit of the debate he generated was not worth the damage done, because there was another way of doing it."
In June 2013, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont shared a "must-read" news story on his blog by Ron Fournier, stating "Love him or hate him, we all owe Snowden our thanks for forcing upon the nation an important debate. But the debate shouldn't be about him. It should be about the gnawing questions his actions raised from the shadows." In 2015, Sanders stated that "Snowden played a very important role in educating the American public" and that although Snowden should not go unpunished for breaking the law, "that education should be taken into consideration before the sentencing."
Snowden said in December 2013 that he was "inspired by the global debate" ignited by the leaks and that NSA's "culture of indiscriminate global espionage ... is collapsing."
At the end of 2013, The Washington Post said that the public debate and its offshoots had produced no meaningful change in policy, with the status quo continuing.
In 2016, on The Axe Files podcast, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said that Snowden "performed a public service by raising the debate that we engaged in and by the changes that we made." Holder nevertheless said that Snowden's actions were inappropriate and illegal.
In September 2016, the bipartisan U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence completed a review of the Snowden disclosures and said that the federal government would have to spend millions of dollars responding to the fallout from Snowden's disclosures. The report also said that "the public narrative popularized by Snowden and his allies is rife with falsehoods, exaggerations, and crucial omissions." The report was denounced by Washington Post reporter Barton Gellman, who, in an opinion piece for The Century Foundation, called it "aggressively dishonest" and "contemptuous of fact."
Presidential panel
In August 2013, President Obama said that he had called for a review of U.S. surveillance activities before Snowden had begun revealing details of the NSA's operations, and announced that he was directing DNI James Clapper "to establish a review group on intelligence and communications technologies." In December, the task force issued 46 recommendations that, if adopted, would subject the NSA to additional scrutiny by the courts, Congress, and the president, and would strip the NSA of the authority to infiltrate American computer systems using backdoors in hardware or software. Panel member Geoffrey R. Stone said there was no evidence that the bulk collection of phone data had stopped any terror attacks.
Court rulings (United States)
On June 6, 2013, in the wake of Snowden's leaks, conservative public interest lawyer and Judicial Watch founder Larry Klayman filed a lawsuit claiming that the federal government had unlawfully collected metadata for his telephone calls and was harassing him. In Klayman v. Obama, Judge Richard J. Leon referred to the NSA's "almost-Orwellian technology" and ruled the bulk telephone metadata program to be likely unconstitutional.
Leon's ruling was stayed pending an appeal by the government.
Snowden later described Judge Leon's decision as vindication.
On June 11, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, alleging that the NSA's phone records program was unconstitutional. In December 2013, ten days after Judge Leon's ruling, Judge William H. Pauley III came to the opposite conclusion. In ACLU v. Clapper, although acknowledging that privacy concerns are not trivial, Pauley found that the potential benefits of surveillance outweigh these considerations and ruled that the NSA's collection of phone data is legal.
Gary Schmitt, former staff director of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, wrote that "The two decisions have generated public confusion over the constitutionality of the NSA's data collection program—a kind of judicial 'he-said, she-said' standoff."
On May 7, 2015, in the case of ACLU v. Clapper, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said that Section 215 of the Patriot Act did not authorize the NSA to collect Americans' calling records in bulk, as exposed by Snowden in 2013. The decision voided U.S. District Judge William Pauley's December 2013 finding that the NSA program was lawful, and remanded the case to him for further review. The appeals court did not rule on the constitutionality of the bulk surveillance and declined to enjoin the program, noting the pending expiration of relevant parts of the Patriot Act. Circuit Judge Gerard E. Lynch wrote that, given the national security interests at stake, it was prudent to give Congress an opportunity to debate and decide the matter.
On September 2, 2020, a US federal court ruled that the US intelligence's mass surveillance program, exposed by Edward Snowden, was illegal and possibly unconstitutional. They also cited that the US intelligence leaders, who publicly defended it, were not telling the truth.
USA Freedom Act
On June 2, 2015, the U.S. Senate passed, and President Obama signed, the USA Freedom Act which restored in modified form several provisions of the Patriot Act that had expired the day before, while for the first time imposing some limits on the bulk collection of telecommunication data on U.S. citizens by American intelligence agencies. The new restrictions were widely seen as stemming from Snowden's revelations.
Europe
In an official report published in October 2015, the United Nations special rapporteur for the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of speech, Professor David Kaye, criticized the U.S. government's harsh treatment of, and bringing criminal charges against, whistleblowers, including Edward Snowden. The report found that Snowden's revelations were important for people everywhere and made "a deep and lasting impact on law, policy, and politics." The European Parliament invited Snowden to make a pre-recorded video appearance to aid their NSA investigation. Snowden gave written testimony in which he said that he was seeking asylum in the EU, but that he was told by European Parliamentarians that the U.S. would not allow EU partners to make such an offer. He told the Parliament that the NSA was working with the security agencies of EU states to "get access to as much data of EU citizens as possible." He said that the NSA's Foreign Affairs Division lobbies the EU and other countries to change their laws, allowing for "everyone in the country" to be spied on legally.
By mid-2013, Snowden had applied for asylum in 21 countries, including Europe and South America, obtaining negative responses in most cases.
Austria, Italy and Switzerland
Snowden applied for asylum in Austria, Italy and Switzerland.
Snowden, speaking to a Geneva, Switzerland audience via video link from Moscow, said he would love to return to Geneva, where he had previously worked undercover for the CIA. Swiss media said that the Swiss Attorney General had determined that Switzerland would not extradite Snowden if the US request were considered "politically motivated". Switzerland would grant Snowden asylum if he revealed the extent of espionage activities by the United States government. According to the paper Sonntags Zeitung, Snowden would be granted safe entry and residency in Switzerland, in return for his knowledge of American intelligence activities. Swiss paper Le Matin reported that Snowden's activity could be part of criminal proceedings or part of a parliamentary inquiry. Extradition would also be rejected if Snowden faced the death penalty, for which the United States has already provided assurances. The three felony charges which Snowden faces each carry a maximum of 10 years imprisonment. As reported in Der Bund, the upper-level Swiss government could create an obstacle.
France
On September 16, 2019, it was reported that Snowden had said he "would love" to get political asylum in France.
Snowden first applied unsuccessfully for asylum in France in 2013, under then French President François Hollande. His second request under President Emmanuel Macron, was favorably received by Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet. However, no other members of the French government were known to express support for Snowden's asylum request, possibly due to the potential adverse diplomatic consequences.
Germany
Hans-Georg Maaßen, head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany's domestic security agency, speculated that Snowden could have been working for the Russian government. Snowden rejected this insinuation, speculating on Twitter in German that "it cannot be proven if Maaßen is an agent of the SVR or FSB."
On October 31, 2013, Snowden met with German Green Party lawmaker Hans-Christian Ströbele in Moscow, to discuss the possibility of Snowden giving testimony in Germany.
At the meeting, Snowden gave Ströbele a letter to the German government, parliament, and federal Attorney-General, the details of which were to later be made public.
Germany later blocked Snowden from testifying in person in an NSA inquiry, citing a potential grave strain on US-German relations.
Nordic Countries
The FBI demanded that Nordic countries arrest Snowden, should he visit their countries. Snowden made asylum requests to Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark. All requests were ultimately denied, with varying degrees of severity in the response.
According to Finnish foreign ministry spokeswoman Tytti Pylkkö, Snowden made an asylum request to Finland by sending an application to the Finnish embassy in Moscow, while he was confined to the transit area of the Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow but was told that Finnish law required him to be on Finnish soil.
According to SVT News, Snowden met with three Swedish MP's; Matthias Sundin (L), Jakop Dalunde (MP) and Cecilia Magnusson (M), in Moscow, to discuss his views on mass surveillance.
The meeting was organized by the Right Livelihood Award Foundation, which awarded Snowden the Right Livelihood Honorary Award, often called Sweden's "Alternative Nobel Prize." According to the foundation, the prize was for Snowden's work on press freedom. Sweden ultimately rejected Snowden's asylum, however, so the award was accepted by his father, Lon Snowden, on his behalf.
Snowden was granted a freedom of speech award by the Oslo branch of the writer's group PEN International. He applied for asylum in Norway but Norwegian Justice Secretary insisted that the application be made on Norwegian soil and further expressed doubt that Snowden met the criteria for gaining asylum - being "important for foreign political reasons". Snowden then filed a lawsuit for free passage through Norway in order to receive his freedom of speech award, through Oslo's District Court, followed by an appeals court, and finally Norway's Supreme Court. The lawsuit was ultimately rejected by the Norwegian Supreme Court.
Snowden also applied for asylum in Denmark, but this was rejected by the center-right Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen who said he could see no reason to grant Snowden asylum, calling him a "criminal".
Apparently, under an agreement with the Danish government, a US government jet lay in wait on standby in Copenhagen, to transfer Snowden back to the United States from any Scandinavian country.
Latin and South America
Support for Snowden came from Latin and South American leaders including the Argentinian President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, Bolivian President Evo Morales, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.
International community
Crediting the Snowden leaks, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted Resolution 68/167 in December 2013. The non-binding resolution denounced unwarranted digital surveillance and included a symbolic declaration of the right of all individuals to online privacy.
In July 2014, Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, told a news conference in Geneva that the U.S. should abandon its efforts to prosecute Snowden, since his leaks were in the public interest.
Public opinion polls
Surveys conducted by news outlets and professional polling organizations found that American public opinion was divided on Snowden's disclosures and that those polled in Canada and Europe were more supportive of Snowden than respondents in the U.S. although more Americans have grown more supportive of Snowden's disclosure. In Germany, Italy, France, the Netherlands, and Spain more than 80% of people familiar with Snowden view him positively.
Recognition
For his global surveillance disclosures, Snowden has been honored by publications and organizations based in Europe and the United States. He was voted as The Guardians person of the year 2013, garnering four times the number of votes as any other candidate.
Teleconference speaking engagements
In March 2014, Snowden spoke at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive technology conference in Austin, Texas, in front of 3,500 attendees. He participated by teleconference carried over multiple routers running the Google Hangouts platform. On-stage moderators were Christopher Soghoian and Snowden's legal counsel Wizner, both from the ACLU. Snowden said that the NSA was "setting fire to the future of the internet," and that the SXSW audience was "the firefighters." Attendees could use Twitter to send questions to Snowden, who answered one by saying that information gathered by corporations was much less dangerous than that gathered by a government agency, because "governments have the power to deprive you of your rights." Then-Representative Mike Pompeo (R-KS) of the House Intelligence Committee, later director of the CIA and secretary of state, had tried unsuccessfully to get the SXSW management to cancel Snowden's appearance; instead, SXSW director Hugh Forrest said that the NSA was welcome to respond to Snowden at the 2015 conference.
Later that month, Snowden appeared by teleconference at the TED conference in Vancouver, British Columbia. Represented on stage by a robot with a video screen, video camera, microphones, and speakers, Snowden conversed with TED curator Chris Anderson and told the attendees that online businesses should act quickly to encrypt their websites. He described the NSA's PRISM program as the U.S. government using businesses to collect data for them, and that the NSA "intentionally misleads corporate partners" using, as an example, the Bullrun decryption program to create backdoor access. Snowden said he would gladly return to the U.S. if given immunity from prosecution, but that he was more concerned about alerting the public about abuses of government authority. Anderson invited Internet pioneer Tim Berners-Lee on stage to converse with Snowden, who said that he would support Berners-Lee's concept of an "internet Magna Carta" to "encode our values in the structure of the internet."
On September 15, 2014, Snowden appeared via remote video link, along with Julian Assange, on Kim Dotcom's Moment of Truth town hall meeting held in Auckland. He made a similar video link appearance on February 2, 2015, along with Greenwald, as the keynote speaker at the World Affairs Conference at Upper Canada College in Toronto.
In March 2015, while speaking at the FIFDH (international human rights film festival) he made a public appeal for Switzerland to grant him asylum, saying he would like to return to live in Geneva, where he once worked undercover for the Central Intelligence Agency.
In April 2015, John Oliver, the host of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, flew to Moscow to interview Edward Snowden.
On November 10, 2015, Snowden appeared at the Newseum, via remote video link, for PEN American Center's "Secret Sources: Whistleblowers, National Security and Free Expression," event.
In 2015, Snowden earned over $200,000 from digital speaking engagements in the U.S.
On March 19, 2016, Snowden delivered the opening keynote address of the LibrePlanet conference, a meeting of international free software activists and developers presented by the Free Software Foundation. The conference was held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was the first such time Snowden spoke via teleconference using a full free software stack, end-to-end.
On July 21, 2016, Snowden and hardware hacker Bunnie Huang, in a talk at MIT Media Lab's Forbidden Research event, published research for a smartphone case, the so-called Introspection Engine, that would monitor signals received and sent by that phone to provide an alert to the user if his or her phone is transmitting or receiving information when it shouldn't be (for example when it's turned off or in airplane mode), a feature described by Snowden to be useful for journalists or activists operating under hostile governments that would otherwise track their activities through their phones.
In August 2020, a court filing by the Department of Justice indicated that Snowden had collected a total of over $1.2 million in speaking fees in addition to advances on books since 2013. In September 2021, Yahoo! Finance reported that for 67 speaking appearances by video link from September 2015–May 2020, Snowden had earned more than $1.2 million. In March 2021, Iowa State University paid him $35,000 for one such speech, his first at a public U.S. college since February 2017, when the University of Pittsburgh paid him $15,000.
In April 2021, Snowden appeared at a Canadian investment conference sponsored by Sunil Tulsiani, a former policeman who had been barred from trading for life after dishonest behavior. Snowden took the opportunity to affirm his role as a whistleblower, inform viewers of Tulsiani's background, and encourage investors to conduct proper research before spending any money.
The "Snowden effect"
In July 2013, media critic Jay Rosen defined the "Snowden effect" as "Direct and indirect gains in public knowledge from the cascade of events and further reporting that followed Edward Snowden's leaks of classified information about the surveillance state in the U.S." In December 2013, The Nation wrote that Snowden had sparked an overdue debate about national security and individual privacy. In Forbes, the effect was seen to have nearly united the U.S. Congress in opposition to the massive post-9/11 domestic intelligence gathering system. In its Spring 2014 Global Attitudes Survey, the Pew Research Center found that Snowden's disclosures had tarnished the image of the United States, especially in Europe and Latin America.
Jewel v. NSA
On November 2, 2018, Snowden provided a court declaration in Jewel v. National Security Agency.
Bibliography
Permanent Record (2019)
In popular culture
Snowden's impact as a public figure has been felt in cinema, television, advertising, video games, literature, music, statuary, and social media.
Snowden gave Channel 4's Alternative Christmas Message in December 2013.
The film Snowden, based on Snowden's leaking of classified US government material, directed by
Oliver Stone and written by Stone and Kieran Fitzgerald, was released in 2016. The documentary Citizenfour directed by Laura Poitras won Best Documentary Feature at the 87th Academy Awards.
See also
Aftermath of the global surveillance disclosures
Global surveillance and journalism
List of whistleblowers
Philip Agee
Julian Assange
Thomas A. Drake
Daniel Ellsberg
Chelsea Manning
Sophie Zhang
Carnivore (software)
COINTELPRO
ECHELON
John Crane
German Parliamentary Committee investigating the NSA spying scandal
List of people who have lived at airports
Mass surveillance in the United States
NSA warrantless surveillance (2001–2007)
Perry Fellwock
Mark Klein
Thomas Tamm
Diane Roark
Russ Tice
Operation Socialist (code name)
Panetta Review
Russian influence operations in the United States
Stellar Wind (code name)
Terrorist Surveillance Program
Haven (software) – free and open-source Android app co-developed by Snowden and The Guardian Project
GPG for Journalists
Notes
References
Further reading
Lanchester, John. October 3, 2013.
Margulies, Joseph. "The Promise of May, the Betrayal of June, and the Larger Lesson of Manning and Snowden." Verdict. Justia. July 17, 2013.
External links
Edward Snowden on Substack
November 1, 2013
(Index of articles)
(Index of articles)
"Global Surveillance" An annotated and categorized "overview of the revelations following the leaks by the whistleblower Edward Snowden. There are also some links to comments and followups." By Oslo University Library
"The NSA Archive" American Civil Liberties Union searchable database of NSA documents disclosed by Edward Snowden, as published between June 5, 2013, and May 6, 2014
Book documents 107 additional pages from the Snowden archive released on May 13, 2014, in conjunction with the publication of Glenn Greenwald's No Place to Hide
Snowden documents at Internet Archive
1983 births
Activists from North Carolina
American computer specialists
American dissidents
American exiles
American memoirists
American refugees
American whistleblowers
Articles containing video clips
Booz Allen Hamilton people
Dell people
Fugitives wanted by the United States
Fugitives wanted under the Espionage Act of 1917
Living people
National Security Agency people
People from Elizabeth City, North Carolina
People of the Central Intelligence Agency
People of the Defense Intelligence Agency
People with epilepsy
Privacy activists
Refugees in Russia
United States Army soldiers
American emigrants to Russia |
39634660 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISIGN%20Media | ISIGN Media | iSIGN Media (iSIGN) is a proximity marketing company headquartered in Richmond Hill, Ontario, with R&D and customer support operations in Vancouver, British Columbia and Tampa, Florida. The company uses Bluetooth, mobile, WiFi and location-aware technologies to deliver rich-media, permission-based messages at designated locations or at events, such as Super Bowl XLVII. The company installs smart antenna technology to enable customers to deliver commercial offers while protecting consumer privacy.
History
iSIGN was founded in 2006 by Alex Romanov, who has served as president, chief executive officer and director for the company. iSIGN began as a digital signage company offering location-based proximity marketing from signs to handheld mobile devices. It went public in 2009 on the TSX Venture Exchange, then began trading on OTCQX under the symbol "ISDSF" in June 2012. Following an agreement with Mac’s Convenience Stores, iSIGN reportedly became the world's largest interactive digital signage network with 6,000 digital signs in over 1,400 locations. ISIGN reports identifying 1.5 million mobile devices per day.
Corporate governance
As of 2013, the company's chief executive officer was Alex Romanov.
Technology
iSIGN’s Interactive Media Solutions (IMS) mobile messaging product consists of a proprietary IMS 2.0 platform as well as an IMS 3.1 version featuring dual porting for Linux or Windows, multi-lingual capabilities and 128-bit encryption software for security.
The Smart Antenna, rolled out in 2012, uses the same Bluetooth technology as the IMS but also has WiFi capabilities to connect with iPhone users, broadening mobile messaging capabilities. Smart Antennas have a 300-foot (100m) Bluetooth message broadcasting and WiFi accessible content transmission radius. iSIGN’s patent-pending platform collects and organizes metrics and delivers customizable analytics to merchants while protecting consumer privacy.
iSIGN launched a Smart Player in August 2013, the first product of its kind that combines digital signage with mobile messaging capabilities via wireless connectivity. The Smart Player is designed to distribute marketing messages to mobile and stationary devices within range of its location.
Customers and Partners
Canada
iSIGN Media customers include Mac's Convenience Stores & Rabba and Couche-Tard outlets (from 2012), and the BC Sports Hall of Fame in Vancouver, British Columbia.
United States
Smart Antennas have been installed in several Florida cities, including Safety Harbor, Dunedin, Orlando and Clearwater. In 2012, Smart Antennas were installed in the New Orleans tourist attraction Mardi Gras World.
Partnerships and Licensees
Partners include: AOpen America Inc., TELUS, Keyser, and IBM, with solution distribution by BlueStar Inc. iSIGN holds licensing and distribution agreements with GraphicMedia.
References
Companies based in Richmond Hill, Ontario
Marketing companies of Canada |
39644561 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yehuda%20Lindell | Yehuda Lindell | Yehuda Lindell (born 24 February 1971) is a professor in the Department of Computer Science at Bar-Ilan University where he conducts research on cryptography with a focus on the theory of secure computation and its application in practice.
Education and academic positions
Lindell received a BSc and Msc degree in computer science from Bar-Ilan University. He then obtained a PhD in computer science from the Weizmann Institute of Science in 2002. Lindell received a Raviv Fellowship and spent two years at IBM's cryptography research group at the T.J. Watson Research Center. In 2004, he returned to Israel to take up an academic position at Bar-Ilan University. Lindell's work on secure computation was recognized by the award of an ERC starting grant in 2009 and an ERC consolidators grant in 2014. Lindell was appointed as an IACR Fellow in 2021.
Industry experience
Lindell worked from 2004 to 2014 as a permanent cryptographic consultant to Safenet, formally Aladdin. He co-founded the company Unbound Security, and served as its Chief Scientist from 2014 to 2018. In early 2019, he took over the role of CEO of Unbound Security. In January 2022, Unbound Security was acquired by Coinbase.
Research
Lindell's main contributions are in the field of secure multiparty computation. Lindell's research initially focused on theoretical feasibility, and in particular in the area of protocol composition. Lindell has carried out extensive research on efficient two-party secure computation via the Yao garbled circuit construction, and on efficient multiparty computation for the multiparty honest-majority setting based on Secret sharing. His most cited work is a joint paper with Benny Pinkas on
privacy preserving data mining in which the use of secure computation was proposed for performing data mining algorithms; in particular the ID3 algorithm. Lindell provided the first proof of security for the basic Yao protocol, and the first proof of security for the BGW protocol. Lindell has also worked on the design of two-party protocols which are secure against active adversaries, the introduction of the concept of covert adversarial models, and much more. Lindell won the IBM Pat Goldberg Memorial Best Paper Award in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering and Math in 2006 for his work on the composition of Authenticated Byzantine Agreement, and the best paper award at ACM CCS 2016 for work on high-throughput MPC protocols. In 2021, Lindell published a review article on secure multiparty computation in the Communications of the ACM.
Lindell is also the co-inventor of the AES-GCM-SIV mode of operation for symmetric encryption, standardized by the IETF Crypto Forum Research Group in RFC 8452. He received the best paper award at ACM CCS 2017 for the research paper behind AES-GCM-SIV.
Lindell is also the author of a textbook with Jonathan Katz on modern cryptography. This textbook is utilized in many universities around the world as a standard reference work.
Books
References
External links
Home page
DBLP Publication list
Google scholar profile
Orcid ID profile
Modern cryptographers
Living people
1971 births |
39646365 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List%20of%20government%20mass%20surveillance%20projects | List of government mass surveillance projects | This is a list of government surveillance projects and related databases throughout the world.
International
ECHELON: A signals intelligence (SIGINT) collection and analysis network operated on behalf of the five signatory states to the UKUSA Security Agreement.
European Union
Data Retention Directive: A directive requiring EU member states to store citizens' telecommunications data for six to 24 months and allowing police and security agencies to request access from a court to details such as IP address and time of use of every email, phone call, and text message sent or received.
INDECT: Research project funded by the European Union to develop surveillance methods (e.g. processing of CCTV camera data streams) for the monitoring of abnormal behaviours in an urban environment.
Schengen Information System: A database kept for national security and law enforcement purposes.
National
Australia
In August 2014 it was reported that law-enforcement agencies had been accessing Australians' web browsing histories via internet providers such as Telstra without a warrant.
It was reported that Australia had issued 75% more wiretap warrants in 2003 than the US did and this was 26 times greater than the US on a per capita basis.
China
Golden Shield Project: Also known as the "Great Firewall of China", it is a censorship and surveillance project operated by the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) division of the government of the People's Republic of China. The project was initiated in 1998 and began operations in November 2003.
The Integrated Joint Operations Platform (IJOP, 一体化联合作战平台) is used by the government to monitor the population, particularly Uyghurs. The platform gathers biometrics, including DNA samples, to track individuals in Xinjiang.
Monitoring Bureau
Public Information Network Security
Social Credit System
France
Frenchelon: A data collection and analysis network operated by the French Directorate-General for External Security.
Germany
Nachrichtendienstliches Informationssystem: a searchable database operated by the German security agency Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV).
Project 6: a global surveillance project jointly operated by the German intelligence agencies Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) and Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV) in close cooperation with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
India
Central Monitoring System (CMS): A data collection system similar to the NSA's PRISM program. It enables the Government of India to listen to phone conversations, intercept e-mails and text messages, monitor posts on social networking service and track searches on Google.
DRDO NETRA: Network that is capable of tracking online communications on a real time basis by harvesting data from various voice-over-IP services, including Skype and Google Talk. It is operated by the Research and Analysis Wing.
NATGRID: An intelligence grid that links the databases of several departments and ministries of the Government of India.
Russia
SORM: A technical system used by the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation to monitor internet and telephone communication.
СAMERTON: Is a global vehicle tracking system, control and tracking, identification of probable routes and places of the most frequent appearance of a particular vehicle, integrated with a distributed network of radar complexes of photo-video fixation and road surveillance camera. Developed and implemented by the "Advanced Scientific - Research Projects" enterprise St. Petersburg. Within the framework of the practical use of the system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, it has made it possible to identify and solve grave and especially grave crimes, the system is also operated by other state services and departments;
Yarovaya Law is a piece of anti-terrorist legislation that includes a requirement to store all phone call and text messaging data, as well as providing cryptographic backdoors for security services.
Sweden
Titan traffic database: A database established by the Swedish National Defence Radio Establishment (Swedish: Försvarets radioanstalt, FRA) where call detail records (CDRs) of telephony and internet traffic and transaction data (IPDRs) concerning international telecommunications are stored.
X-Keyscore: A system used by the United States National Security Agency for searching and analysing internet data about foreign nationals. FRA has been granted access to the program.
Switzerland
Onyx: A data gathering system maintained by several Swiss intelligence agencies to monitor military and civilian communications, such as e-mails, telefax and telephone calls. In 2001, Onyx received its second nomination for the ironically named "Big Brother Award".
United Kingdom
Impact Nominal Index: The Impact Nominal Index or INI is a computer system that enables the UK police force to establish whether other relevant authorities are holding information regarding a person of interest.
Interception Modernisation Programme: An initiative to extend the UK government's capability to lawfully intercept and store communications data in a central database.
Mastering the Internet (MTI): A clandestine mass surveillance program led by the British intelligence agency GCHQ. Data gathered by the GCHQ include the contents of email messages, entries on the social networking platform Facebook and the web browsing history of internet users.
UK National DNA Database (NDNAD): It is also the oldest national DNA database in the world. Since its establishment in 1995, the database has grown to include DNA samples from 2.7 million individuals, or 5.2% of the UK's population, many of whom have neither been charged with, or convicted of, any offence.
Tempora: Launched in the autumn of 2011, this initiative allows the GCHQ to set up a large-scale buffer that is capable of storing internet content for 3 days and metadata for 30 days.
Royal Concierge: prototyped in 2010, sends daily alerts to GCHQ whenever a booking is made from a ".gov." second-level domain at select hotels worldwide.
Collection of Internet Connection Records, being trialled in the UK as of March 2021.
United States
Boundless Informant: A system deployed by the National Security Agency to analyze global electronic information. In March 2013, Boundless Informant gathered 14 billion data reports from Iran, 6.3 billion from India, and 2.8 billion from the United States.
BULLRUN: a highly classified U.S. National Security Agency program to preserve its ability to eavesdrop on encrypted communications by influencing and weakening encryption standards, by obtaining master encryption keys, and by gaining access to data before or after it is encrypted either by agreement, by force of law, or by computer network exploitation (hacking).
Carnivore: A system implemented by the Federal Bureau of Investigation that was designed to monitor email and electronic communications. Apparently replaced by commercial software such as NarusInsight.
Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative
DCSNet: The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)'s point-and-click surveillance system that can perform instant wiretaps on any telecommunications device located in the United States.
Fairview: A mass surveillance program directed at foreign mobile phone users.
Financial Crimes Enforcement Network: A bureau of the Department of the Treasury that collects and analyzes financial transactions in order to combat financial crimes.
ICREACH: Surveillance frontend GUI that is shared with 23 government agencies, including the CIA, DEA, and FBI, to search illegally collected personal records.
Magic Lantern: A keystroke logging software deployed by the FBI in the form of an e-mail attachment. When activated, it acts as a trojan horse and allows the FBI to decrypt user communications.
Main Core: A personal and financial database storing information of millions of U.S. citizens believed to be threats to national security. The data mostly comes from the NSA, FBI, CIA, as well as other government sources.
MAINWAY: NSA database containing metadata for hundreds of billions of telephone calls made through the four largest telephone carriers in the United States.
Media monitoring services, A proposed DHS database for monitoring all global news sources and media influencers.
MUSCULAR: Overseas wiretapping of Google's and Yahoo's unencrypted internal networks by the NSA.
MYSTIC is a voice interception program used by the National Security Agency.
Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative: Under this government initiative, a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) may be filed by law enforcers, public safety personnel, owners of critical infrastructure or the general public.
NSA ANT catalog: a 50-page document listing technology available to the United States National Security Agency (NSA) ANT division to aid in cyber-surveillance.
PRISM: A clandestine national security electronic surveillance program operated by the United States National Security Agency (NSA) which can target customers of participating corporations outside or inside the United States.
Room 641A: A telecommunication interception facility operated by AT&T for the U.S. National Security Agency.
Sentry Eagle: efforts to monitor and attack an adversary's cyberspace through capabilities include SIGINT, Computer Network Exploitation (CNE), Information Assurance, Computer Network Defense (CND), Network Warfare, and Computer Network Attack (CNA). The efforts included weakening US commercial encryption systems.
Special Collection Service (SCS): A black budget program that is responsible for "close surveillance, burglary, wiretapping, breaking and entering." It employs covert listening device technologies to bug foreign embassies, communications centers, computer facilities, fiber-optic networks, and government installations.
Stellar Wind (code name): The open secret code name for four surveillance programs.
Tailored Access Operations: Intelligence-gathering unit of the NSA that is capable of harvesting approximately 2 petabytes of data per hour.
Terrorist Finance Tracking Program: A joint initiative run by the CIA and the Department of the Treasury to access the SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) transaction database as part of the Bush administration's "Global War on Terrorism". According to the U.S. government, its efforts to counter terrorist activities were compromised after the existence of the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program was leaked to the media.
Turbulence (NSA): Turbulence is a United States National Security Agency (NSA) information-technology project started circa 2005. It was developed in small, inexpensive "test" pieces rather than one grand plan like its failed predecessor, the Trailblazer Project. It also includes offensive cyberwarfare capabilities, like injecting malware into remote computers. The U.S. Congress criticized the project in 2007 for having similar bureaucratic problems as the Trailblazer Project.
US Intelligence Community (IC): A cooperative federation of 16 government agencies working together, but also separately, to gather intelligence and conduct espionage.
Utah Data Center: The Intelligence Community's US$1.5 billion data storage center that is designed to store extremely large amounts of data, on the scale of yottabytes.
X-Keyscore: A system used by the United States National Security Agency for searching and analysing internet data about foreign nationals.
Unclear origin
GhostNet: A fictitious code name given to a large-scale surveillance project that is believed to be operated by the People's Republic of China.
Stuxnet: It is the first discovered malware that spies on industrial systems, and it was used to attack Iran's nuclear facilities. It is believed to have originated from the United States under the Bush administration.
Recently discontinued
Information Awareness Office: An office established to bring together several DARPA projects focused on applying surveillance and information technology to track and monitor terrorists and other threats to U.S. national security.
Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange (MATRIX): A data mining system originally developed for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Terrorist Surveillance Program: Replaced by PRISM.
ThinThread: A U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) program that involved wiretapping and sophisticated analysis of the resulting data.
Trailblazer Project: U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) program intended to develop a capability to analyze data carried on communications networks including cell phone networks and the Internet.
See also
2013 Public disclosures of surveillance and espionage activities
Electronic police state
List of public disclosures of classified information
NSA warrantless surveillance (2001–07)
Politico-media complex
References
Military lists
Surveillance databases
National security
Signals intelligence
Secret government programs
Mass surveillance |
39677141 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mocana | Mocana | Mocana (founded 2002) is a San Jose-based company that focuses on and embedded system security for industrial control systems and the Internet of Things (IoT). One of its main products, the IoT Security Platform, is a high-performance, ultra-optimized, OS-independent, high-assurance security platform that is intended to support all device classes. This decoupling of the security implementation from the rest of application development allows for easier development of software for devices comprising the "Internet of Things", in which numerous independent networked devices communicate with each other in various ways. Mocana was originally launched as an embedded systems security company, but as of the early 2010s, the company has shifted its focus to protecting mobile devices and the apps and data on them.
History
Mocana introduced its products in 2004 with a focus on embedded systems security. That same year the company launched Embedded Security Suite, a software product to secure communications between networked devices. In February 2005, while based in Menlo Park, California, the company joined the Freescale Semiconductor Developers Alliance Program, and delivered that group's first security software. In 2008, Mocana was cited as an example of how an independent company could provide security for smartphones.
Mocana CEO Adrian Turner published an article in the San Jose Mercury News on the risks associated with non-PC networked devices; and the New York Times reported that Mocana's researchers had "discovered they could hack into a best-selling Internet-ready HDTV model with unsettling ease," and highlighted the opportunity for criminals to intercept information like credit card billing details. Media outlets across the U.S. cited this point in their coverage of the risks associated with advances in technology.
Mocana sponsored the 7th Workshop on RFID Security and Privacy at the University of Massachusetts in 2011. It launched the Mobile Application Protection platform in 2011 with support for Android apps, and added iOS app support in 2012. Following a Series D funding round in 2012, total investment in Mocana was $47 million.
New CEO James Isaacs replaced Turner in September 2013. Interim CEO Peter Graham replaced Isaacs in April 2016.
In April 2016, Mocana spun off its mobile security business to Blue Cedar Networks. William Diotte replaced Graham as CEO in May 2016.
Mocana was originally based in San Francisco but moved to Sunnyvale in December 2017 and later to San Jose.
The company was acquired by DigiCert in January 2022.
Products and services
Mocana's IoT Security Platform is a security software suite for embedded systems. The software provides the cryptographic controls (e.g. authentication, confidentiality, encryption, and device and data integrity verification) for embedded devices and applications.
The company also offers customizable user agreements and optional FIPS 140-2 validated cryptographic engines. Access to application source code is not required. The product's design is based in the assumption that many assurances of security from the device and its operating system may be compromised. This obviates the necessity of having "infallible" system-wide security policies.
In addition, Mocana offers consulting services, evaluating and advising on security threats in networked devices.
Industries served
Mocana's security technology is used in airplane in-flight entertainment systems, medical devices, battlefield communications, automobile firmware, and cell phone carrier networks. Mocana senior analyst Robert Vamosi was cited in a 2011 piece in Bloomberg Businessweek comparing tech companies' approaches to security.
Funding
Mocana's investors include Trident Capital (2012), Intel Capital (2011), Shasta Ventures, Southern Cross Venture Partners, and Symantec (2010). As of the August 2012 Series D, a total of $47 million has been raised.
Awards, recognition, and accomplishments
Recognized by Frost & Sullivan as the leading IoT security platform for industrial manufacturing and automation in 2017
Mocana named most innovative security company by Leading Lights in 2017
Named as to the OnDemand 100 in 2013.
Recognized by the World Economic Forum as a 2012 Technology Pioneer
Named to the "Red Herring Global 100" in 2008.
Authored by Mocana personnel
Mocana senior analyst Robert Vamosi published the book "When Gadgets Betray Us: The Dark Side of Convenience" in 2011.
Mocana CEO Adrian Turner published the book Blue Sky Mining in 2012.
Mocana engineer Dnyanesh Khatavkar presented the paper Quantizing the throughput reduction of IPSec with mobile IP at the 2002 (45th) Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems, an IEEE conference.
References
Software companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area
Computer security companies
2002 establishments in California
Companies based in San Francisco
Software companies of the United States
Companies based in Sunnyvale, California |
39677596 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tresorit | Tresorit | Tresorit is an online cloud storage service based in Switzerland and Hungary that emphasizes enhanced security and data encryption for businesses and individuals. The Business version offers up to 1TB of storage space per user (the Solo version offers 2TB for one user) and extra security features such as DRM, granular access levels and other functions, which Tresorit cites to creating a safer collaborative environment.
Tresorit's service is accessible through client desktop software, a web-based application and mobile apps. Currently, the software is available for Windows, macOS, Android, Windows Phone 8, iOS, and Linux.
Currently as of 2021, Swiss Post owns a majority stake in the cloud storage service. Tresorit works as an independent entity under Swiss Post.
History
Tresorit was founded in 2011 by Hungarian programmers Istvan Lam, who remains CEO, Szilveszter Szebeni, who is currently CIO and Gyorgy Szilagyi, who is the CPO of the company.
Tresorit officially launched its client-side encrypted cloud storage service after emerging from its stealth beta in April 2014.
In August 2015, Wuala (owned by LaCie and Seagate), a pioneer of secure cloud storage, announced it was closing its service after 7 years, and recommended their users to choose Tresorit as their secure cloud alternative.
By the end of 2016, Tresorit launched a beta of the software development kit (SDK) ZeroKit. In January 2017, Apple's SDK project CareKit announced the option for mobile app developers using CareKit to integrate ZeroKit, enabling zero knowledge user authentication and encryption for medical and health apps.
Technology
Tresorit claims to encrypt files using client-side encryption with AES-256 before uploading them. Files are also secured by HMAC message authentication codes applied on SHA-512 hashes.
"Tresors" (German for safes) are encrypted counterparts of uploaded directories. Tresors automatically sync with the cloud as files are added or removed from them, similar to Box.com and Dropbox's desktop software. The main difference between Tresorit and its competition is that Tresorit applies AES-256 client-side encryption to files while they are still local and then uploads them to the cloud. The company claims that due to its end-to-end encryption, users can share protected files and folders with others and work together on them, keeping the documents synced and secure in every step of the process. There are additional layers of security, but the core privacy feature of the service is that the encryption key never leaves the user: Using Zero-Knowledge encryption protocols, Tresorit is not in possession of the users’ authentication data, so the content of files cannot be accessed from their servers nor delivered to authorities upon request.
Hacking contest
In 2013 and 2014, Tresorit hosted a hacking contest offering $10,000 to anyone who hacked their data encryption methods to gain access to their servers. After some months, the reward was increased to $25,000 and later to $50,000, challenging experts from institutions like Harvard, Stanford or MIT. The contest ran for 468 days and according to the company, nobody was able to break the encryption.
Reception
Tresorit has received a number of nominations and awards. Up-Cloud Rewards named it one of the top 5 Cloud security solutions for 2012. Early 2016, Forbes listed Tresorit's cofounder Istvan Lam among the European "30 under 30". In 2017, Tresorit was listed as finalist in the Cybersecurity Excellence Awards, category Encryption.
See also
Comparison of file hosting services
Comparison of online backup services
Encryption
Remote backup service
References
File sharing services
Cloud storage
Cloud applications
Online backup services
Data_synchronization
Email attachment replacements
File hosting
File hosting for macOS
File hosting for Windows
File hosting for Linux
MacOS software
Linux software
Cryptographic software
Office software
Companies' terms of service |
39739775 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed%20M.%20Atalla | Mohamed M. Atalla | Mohamed M. Atalla (; August 4, 1924 – December 30, 2009) was an Egyptian-American engineer, physical chemist, cryptographer, inventor and entrepreneur. He was a semiconductor pioneer who made important contributions to modern electronics. He is best known for inventing the MOSFET (metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor, or MOS transistor) in 1959 (along with his colleague Dawon Kahng), which along with Atalla's earlier surface passivation and thermal oxidation processes, revolutionized the electronics industry. He is also known as the founder of the data security company Atalla Corporation (now Utimaco Atalla), founded in 1972. He received the Stuart Ballantine Medal (now the Benjamin Franklin Medal in physics) and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for his important contributions to semiconductor technology as well as data security.
Born in Port Said, Egypt, he was educated at Cairo University in Egypt and then Purdue University in the United States, before joining Bell Labs in 1949 and later adopting the more anglicized "John" or "Martin" M. Atalla as professional names. He made several important contributions to semiconductor technology at Bell, including his development of the surface passivation and thermal oxidation processes (the basis for silicon semiconductor technology such as the planar process and monolithic integrated circuit chips), his invention of the MOSFET with Kahng in 1959, and the PMOS and NMOS fabrication processes. Atalla's pioneering work at Bell contributed to modern electronics, the silicon revolution, and Digital Revolution. The MOSFET in particular is the basic building block of modern electronics, and is considered one of the most important inventions in electronics. It is also the most widely manufactured device in history, and the US Patent and Trademark Office calls it a "groundbreaking invention that transformed life and culture around the world".
His invention of the MOSFET was initially overlooked at Bell, which led to his resignation from Bell and joining Hewlett-Packard (HP), founding its Semiconductor Lab in 1962 and then HP Labs in 1966, before leaving to join Fairchild Semiconductor, founding its Microwave & Optoelectronics division in 1969. His work at HP and Fairchild included research on Schottky diode, gallium arsenide (GaAs), gallium arsenide phosphide (GaAsP), indium arsenide (InAs) and light-emitting diode (LED) technologies. He later left the semiconductor industry, and became an entrepreneur in cryptography and data security. In 1972, he founded Atalla Corporation, and filed a patent for a remote Personal Identification Number (PIN) security system. In 1973, he released the first hardware security module, the "Atalla Box", which encrypted PIN and ATM messages, and went on to secure the majority of the world's ATM transactions. He later founded the Internet security company TriStrata Security in the 1990s. In recognition of his work on the PIN system of information security management as well as cybersecurity, Atalla has been referred to as the "Father of the PIN" and an information security pioneer. He died in Atherton, California, on December 30, 2009.
Early life and education (19241949)
Mohamed Mohamed Atalla was born in Port Said, Egypt. He studied at Cairo University in Egypt, where he received his Bachelor of Science degree. He later moved to the United States to study mechanical engineering at Purdue University. There, he received his master's degree (MSc) in 1947 and his doctorate (PhD) in 1949, both in mechanical engineering. His MSc thesis was "High Speed Flow in Square Diffusers" published in 1948, and his PhD thesis was "High Speed Compressible Flow in Square Diffusers" published in January 1949.
Bell Telephone Laboratories (19491962)
After completing his PhD at Purdue University, Atalla was employed at Bell Telephone Laboratories (BTL) in 1949. In 1950, he began working at Bell's New York City operations, where he worked on problems related to the reliability of electromechanical relays, and worked on circuit-switched telephone networks. With the emergence of transistors, Atalla was moved to the Murray Hill lab, where he began leading a small transistor research team in 1956. Despite coming from a mechanical engineering background and having no formal education in physical chemistry, he proved himself to be a quick learner in physical chemistry and semiconductor physics, eventually demonstrating a high level of skill in these fields. He researched, among other things, the surface properties of silicon semiconductors and the use of silica as a protective layer of silicon semiconductor devices. He eventually adopted the alias pseudonyms "Martin" M. Atalla or "John" M. Atalla for his professional career.
Between 1956 and 1960, Atalla led a small team of several BTL researchers, including Eileen Tannenbaum, Edwin Joseph Scheibner and Dawon Kahng. They were new recruits at BTL, like himself, with no senior researchers on the team. Their work was initially not taken seriously by senior management at BTL and its owner AT&T, due to the team consisting of new recruits, and due to the team leader Atalla himself coming from a mechanical engineering background, in contrast to the physicists, physical chemists and mathematicians who were taken more seriously, despite Atalla demonstrating advanced skills in physical chemistry and semiconductor physics.
Despite working mostly on their own, Atalla and his team made significant advances in semiconductor technology. According to Fairchild Semiconductor engineer Chih-Tang Sah, the work of Atalla and his team during 19561960 was "the most important and significant technology advance" in silicon semiconductor technology, including the history of transistors and microelectronics.
Surface passivation by thermal oxidation
An initial focus of Atalla's research was to solve the problem of silicon surface states. At the time, the electrical conductivity of semiconductor materials such as germanium and silicon were limited by unstable quantum surface states, where electrons are trapped at the surface, due to dangling bonds that occur because unsaturated bonds are present at the surface. This prevented electricity from reliably penetrating the surface to reach the semiconducting silicon layer. Due to the surface state problem, germanium was the dominant semiconductor material of choice for transistors and other semiconductor devices in the early semiconductor industry, as germanium was capable of higher carrier mobility.
He made a breakthrough with his development of the surface passivation process. This is the process by which a semiconductor surface is rendered inert, and does not change semiconductor properties as a result of interaction with air or other materials in contact with the surface or edge of the crystal. The surface passivation process was first developed by Atalla in the late 1950s. He discovered that the formation of a thermally grown silicon dioxide (SiO2) layer greatly reduced the concentration of electronic states at the silicon surface, and discovered the important quality of SiO2 films to preserve the electrical characteristics of p–n junctions and prevent these electrical characteristics from deteriorating by the gaseous ambient environment. He found that silicon oxide layers could be used to electrically stabilize silicon surfaces. He developed the surface passivation process, a new method of semiconductor device fabrication that involves coating a silicon wafer with an insulating layer of silicon oxide so that electricity could reliably penetrate to the conducting silicon below. By growing a layer of silicon dioxide on top of a silicon wafer, Atalla was able to overcome the surface states that prevented electricity from reaching the semiconducting layer. His surface passivation method was a critical step that made possible the ubiquity of silicon integrated circuits, and later became critical to the semiconductor industry. For the surface passivation process, he developed the method of thermal oxidation, which was a breakthrough in silicon semiconductor technology.
The surface passivation process was a breakthrough in silicon semiconductor research, as it enabled silicon to surpass the conductivity and performance of germanium, and was the breakthrough that led to silicon replacing germanium as the dominant semiconductor material. The process also laid the foundations for the monolithic integrated circuit chip, as it was the first time that high-quality silicon dioxide insulator films could be grown thermally on the silicon surface to protect the underlying silicon p-n junction diodes and transistors. Before the development of integrated circuit chips, discrete diodes and transistors exhibited relatively high reverse-bias junction leakages and low breakdown voltage, caused by the large density of traps at the surface of single crystal silicon. Atalla's surface passivation process became the solution to this problem. He discovered that when a thin layer of silicon dioxide was grown on the surface of silicon where a p–n junction intercepts the surface, the leakage current of the junction was reduced by a factor from 10 to 100. This showed that the oxide reduces and stabilizes many of the interface and oxide traps. Oxide-passivation of silicon surfaces allowed diodes and transistors to be fabricated with significantly improved device characteristics, while the leakage path along the surface of the silicon was also effectively shut off. His surface oxidation method provided a semiconductor surface that was insensitive to the environment. This became a fundamental p–n junction isolation capability necessary for planar technology and integrated circuit chips.
Atalla first published his findings in BTL memos during 1957, before presenting his work at an Electrochemical Society meeting in 1958, the Radio Engineers' Semiconductor Device Research Conference. The semiconductor industry saw the potential significance of Atalla's surface oxidation method, with RCA calling it a "milestone in the surface field." The same year, he made further refinements to the process with his colleagues Eileen Tannenbaum and Edwin Joseph Scheibner, before they published their results in May 1959. According to Fairchild Semiconductor engineer Chih-Tang Sah, the surface passivation process developed by Atalla and his team "blazed the trail" that led to the development of the silicon integrated circuit. Atalla's silicon transistor passivation technique by thermal oxide was the basis for several important inventions in 1959: the MOSFET (MOS transistor) by Atalla and Dawon Kahng at Bell Labs, the planar process by Jean Hoerni at Fairchild Semiconductor, and the monolithic integrated circuit chip by Robert Noyce at Fairchild in 1959. By the mid-1960s, Atalla's process for oxidized silicon surfaces was used to fabricate virtually all integrated circuits and silicon devices. In addition to silicon semiconductor technology, the surface passivation process is also critical to solar cell and carbon quantum dot technologies.
MOSFET (MOS transistor)
Building on his earlier pioneering research on the surface passivation and thermal oxidation processes, Atalla developed the metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) process. Atalla then proposed that a field effect transistor–a concept first envisioned in the 1920s and confirmed experimentally in the 1940s, but not achieved as a practical device—be built of metal-oxide-silicon. Atalla assigned the task of assisting him to Dawon Kahng, a Korean scientist who had recently joined his group. That led to the invention of the MOSFET (metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor) by Atalla and Kahng, in November 1959. Atalla and Kahng first demonstrated the MOSFET in early 1960. With its high scalability, and much lower power consumption and higher density than bipolar junction transistors, the MOSFET made it possible to build high-density integrated circuit (IC) chips.
There were originally two types of MOSFET logic, PMOS (p-type MOS) and NMOS (n-type MOS). Both types were developed by Atalla and Kahng when they originally invented the MOSFET. They fabricated both PMOS and NMOS devices with a 20µm process. However, only the PMOS devices were practical working devices at the time.
Atalla proposed the concept of the MOS integrated circuit chip in 1960. He noted that the MOS transistor's ease of fabrication made it useful for IC chips. However, Bell Labs initially ignored MOS technology, as the company was not interested in ICs at the time. Despite this, the MOSFET generated significant interest at RCA and Fairchild Semiconductor. Inspired by the first MOSFET demonstration by Atalla and Kahng in early 1960, researchers at RCA and Fairchild fabricated MOSFETs later that year, with Karl Zaininger and Charles Meuller fabricating a MOSFET at RCA, and Chih-Tang Sah building an MOS-controlled tetrode at Fairchild. His concept of the MOS IC chip eventually became reality, starting with an experimental MOS chip demonstrated by Fred Heiman and Steven Hofstein at RCA in 1962, after which MOS would become the dominant fabrication process for IC chips. CMOS, which combined aspects of both PMOS and NMOS, was later developed by Chih-Tang Sah and Frank Wanlass at Fairchild in 1963. The development of MOS technology, which was capable of increasing miniaturisation, eventually became the focus of RCA, Fairchild, Intel and other semiconductor companies in the 1960s, fuelling the technological and economic growth of the early semiconductor industry in California (centred around what later became known as Silicon Valley) as well as Japan.
The MOSFET was the first truly compact transistor that could be miniaturised and mass-produced for a wide range of uses, and went on to revolutionize the electronics industry. The MOSFET forms the basis of modern electronics, and is the basic element in most modern electronic equipment. It is the most widely used semiconductor device in the world, and the most widely manufactured device in history, with an estimated 13sextillion MOS transistors manufactured as of 2018. The MOSFET is central to the microelectronics revolution, silicon revolution, and microcomputer revolution, and is the fundamental building block of modern digital electronics during the Digital Revolution, information revolution and Information Age. It is used in a wide variety of electronics applications, such as computers, synthesizers, communications technology, smartphones, Internet infrastructure, digital telecommunication systems, video games, pocket calculators, and digital wristwatches, among many other uses. It has been described as the "workhorse of the electronics industry" due to being the building block of every microprocessor, memory chip and telecommunication circuit in use. The US Patent and Trademark Office calls the MOSFET a "groundbreaking invention that transformed life and culture around the world". The invention of the MOSFET by Atalla and Kahng has been credited as "the birth of modern electronics" and is considered to be possibly the most important invention in electronics.
Nanolayer transistor
In 1960, Atalla and Kahng fabricated the first MOSFET with a gate oxide thickness of 100 nm, along with a gate length of 20µm. In 1962, Atalla and Kahng fabricated a nanolayer-base metal–semiconductor junction (M–S junction) transistor. This device has a metallic layer with nanometric thickness sandwiched between two semiconducting layers, with the metal forming the base and the semiconductors forming the emitter and collector. With its low resistance and short transit times in the thin metallic nanolayer base, the device was capable of high operation frequency compared to bipolar transistors. Their pioneering work involved depositing metal layers (the base) on top of single crystal semiconductor substrates (the collector), with the emitter being a crystalline semiconductor piece with a top or a blunt corner pressed against the metallic layer (the point contact). They deposited gold (Au) thin films with a thickness of 10 nm on n-type germanium (n-Ge), while the point contact was n-type silicon (n-Si). Atalla resigned from BTL in 1962.
Schottky diode
Extending their work on MOS technology, Atalla and Kahng next did pioneering work on hot carrier devices, which used what would later be called a Schottky barrier. The Schottky diode, also known as the Schottky-barrier diode, was theorized for years, but was first practically realized as a result of the work of Atalla and Kahng during 19601961. They published their results in 1962 and called their device the "hot electron" triode structure with semiconductor-metal emitter. It was one of the first metal-base transistors. The Schottky diode went on to assume a prominent role in mixer applications.
Hewlett-Packard (19621969)
In 1962, Atalla joined Hewlett-Packard, where he co-founded Hewlett-Packard and Associates (HP Associates), which provided Hewlett-Packard with fundamental solid-state capabilities. He was the Director of Semiconductor Research at HP Associates, and the first manager of HP's Semiconductor Lab.
He continued research on Schottky diodes, while working with Robert J. Archer, at HP Associates. They developed high vacuum metal film deposition technology, and fabricated stable evaporated/sputtered contacts, publishing their results in January 1963. Their work was a breakthrough in metal–semiconductor junction and Schottky barrier research, as it overcame most of the fabrication problems inherent in point-contact diodes and made it possible to build practical Schottky diodes.
At the Semiconductor Lab during the 1960s, he launched a material science investigation program that provided a base technology for gallium arsenide (GaAs), gallium arsenide phosphide (GaAsP) and indium arsenide (InAs) devices. These devices became the core technology used by HP's Microwave Division to develop sweepers and network analyzers that pushed 2040 GHz frequency, giving HP more than 90% of the military communications market.
Atalla helped create HP Labs in 1966. He directed its solid-state division.
LED display
He oversaw HP's research and development (R&D) on practical light-emitting diodes (LEDs) between 1962 and 1969, along with Howard C. Borden and Gerald P. Pighini. The first practical LED displays were built at Atalla's Semiconductor Lab. They introduced the first commercial LED display in 1968. It was one of the first uses of LED lamps, along with the LED indicator lamp introduced by Monsanto Company the same year.
In February 1969, the same HP team under Borden, Pighini and Atalla introduced the HP Model 5082-7000 Numeric Indicator, the first LED device to use integrated circuit technology. It was the first intelligent LED display, and was a revolution in digital display technology, replacing the Nixie tube and becoming the basis for later LED displays.
Fairchild Semiconductor (19691972)
In 1969, he left HP and joined Fairchild Semiconductor. He was the vice president and general manager of the Microwave & Optoelectronics division, from its inception in May 1969 up until November 1971. He continued his work on light-emitting diodes (LEDs), proposing they could be used for indicator lights and optical readers in 1971. He later left Fairchild in 1972.
Atalla Corporation (19721990)
He left the semiconductor industry in 1972, and began a new career as an entrepreneur in data security and cryptography. In 1972, he founded Atalla Technovation, later called Atalla Corporation, which dealt with safety problems of banking and financial institutions.
Hardware security module
He invented the first hardware security module (HSM), the so-called "Atalla Box", a security system that secures a majority of transactions from ATMs today. At the same time, Atalla contributed to the development of the personal identification number (PIN) system, which has developed among others in the banking industry as the standard for identification.
The work of Atalla in the early 1970s led to the use of high security modules. His "Atalla Box", a security system which encrypts PIN and ATM messages, and protected offline devices with an un-guessable PIN-generating key. He commercially released the "Atalla Box" in 1973. The product was released as the Identikey. It was a card reader and customer identification system, providing a terminal with plastic card and PIN capabilities. The system was designed to let banks and thrift institutions switch to a plastic card environment from a passbook program. The Identikey system consisted of a card reader console, two customer PIN pads, intelligent controller and built-in electronic interface package. The device consisted of two keypads, one for the customer and one for the teller. It allowed the customer to type in a secret code, which is transformed by the device, using a microprocessor, into another code for the teller. During a transaction, the customer's account number was read by the card reader. This process replaced manual entry and avoided possible key stroke errors. It allowed users to replace traditional customer verification methods such as signature verification and test questions with a secure PIN system.
A key innovation of the Atalla Box was the key block, which is required to securely interchange symmetric keys or PINs with other actors of the banking industry. This secure interchange is performed using the Atalla Key Block (AKB) format, which lies at the root of all cryptographic block formats used within the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) and American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standards.
Fearful that Atalla would dominate the market, banks and credit card companies began working on an international standard. Its PIN verification process was similar to the later IBM 3624. Atalla was an early competitor to IBM in the banking market, and was cited as an influence by IBM employees who worked on the Data Encryption Standard (DES). In recognition of his work on the PIN system of information security management, Atalla has been referred to as the "Father of the PIN" and as a father of information security technology.
The Atalla Box protected over 90% of all ATM networks in operation as of 1998, and secured 85% of all ATM transactions worldwide as of 2006. Atalla products still secure the majority of the world's ATM transactions, as of 2014.
Online security
In 1972, Atalla filed for a remote PIN verification system, which utilized encryption techniques to assure telephone link security while entering personal ID information, which would be transmitted as encrypted data over telecommunications networks to a remote location for verification. This was a precursor to telephone banking, Internet security and e-commerce.
At the National Association of Mutual Savings Banks (NAMSB) conference in January 1976, Atalla announced an upgrade to its Identikey system, called the Interchange Identikey. It added the capabilities of processing online transactions and dealing with network security. Designed with the focus of taking bank transactions online, the Identikey system was extended to shared-facility operations. It was consistent and compatible with various switching networks, and was capable of resetting itself electronically to any one of 64,000 irreversible nonlinear algorithms as directed by card data information. The Interchange Identikey device was released in March 1976. It was one of the first products designed to deal with online transactions, along with Bunker Ramo Corporation products unveiled at the same NAMSB conference. In 1979, Atalla introduced the first network security processor (NSP).
In 1987, Atalla Corporation merged with Tandem Computers. Atalla went into retirement in 1990.
As of 2013, 250million card transactions are protected by Atalla products every day.
TriStrata Security (19931999)
It was not long until several executives of large banks persuaded him to develop security systems for the Internet to work. They were worried about the fact that no useful framework for electronic commerce would have been possible at that time without innovation in the computer and network security industry. Following a request from former Wells Fargo Bank president William Zuendt in 1993, Atalla began developing a new Internet security technology, allowing companies to scramble and transmit secure computer files, e-mail, and digital video and audio, over the internet.
As a result of these activities, he founded the company TriStrata Security in 1996. In contrast to most conventional computer security systems at the time, which built walls around a company's entire computer network to protect the information within from thieves or corporate spies, TriStrata took a different approach. Its security system wrapped a secure, encrypted envelope around individual pieces of information (such as a word processing file, a customer database, or e-mail) that can only be opened and deciphered with an electronic permit, allowing companies to control which users have access to this information and the necessary permits. It was considered a new approach to enterprise security at the time.
Later years and death (20002009)
Atalla was the chairman of A4 System, as of 2003.
He lived in Atherton, California. Atalla died on December 30, 2009, in Atherton.
Awards and honors
Atalla was awarded the Stuart Ballantine Medal (now the Benjamin Franklin Medal in physics) at the 1975 Franklin Institute Awards, for his important contributions to silicon semiconductor technology and his invention of the MOSFET. In 2003, Atalla received a Distinguished Alumnus doctorate from Purdue University.
In 2009, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for his important contributions to semiconductor technology as well as data security. He was referred to as one of the "Sultans of Silicon" along with several other semiconductor pioneers.
In 2014, the 1959 invention of the MOSFET was included on the list of IEEE milestones in electronics. In 2015, Atalla was inducted into the IT History Society's IT Honor Roll for his important contributions to information technology.
Despite the MOSFET enabling Nobel Prize winning breakthroughs such as the quantum Hall effect and the charge-coupled device (CCD), there was never any Nobel Prize given for the MOSFET itself. In 2018, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences which awards the science Nobel Prizes acknowledged that the invention of the MOSFET by Atalla and Kahng was one of the most important inventions in microelectronics and in information and communications technology (ICT).
References
External links
20th-century American engineers
20th-century American inventors
21st-century American engineers
21st-century American inventors
1924 births
2009 deaths
American cryptographers
American physical chemists
American electrical engineers
American electronics engineers
American mechanical engineers
Benjamin Franklin Medal (Franklin Institute) laureates
Egyptian chemists
Egyptian cryptographers
Egyptian electrical engineers
Egyptian emigrants to the United States
Egyptian Muslims
Egyptian inventors
Egyptian mechanical engineers
Egyptian physicists
Electronics engineers
Internet pioneers
Modern cryptographers
MOSFETs
People from Atherton, California
People from Port Said
Physical chemists
Purdue University College of Engineering alumni |
39790905 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotspot%20Shield | Hotspot Shield | Hotspot Shield is a public VPN service, was formed and until 2019 operated by AnchorFree, Inc. and at January 2006 is operated by Aura. By establishing an encrypted connection with the Hotspot Shield servers, the service protects its users' Internet traffic from eavesdropping. Hotspot Shield was used to bypass government censorship during the Arab Spring protests in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya.
Overview
Hotspot Shield is developed and operated by Dnick (former AnchorFree Inc.), a company in Chester county with offices in the Ukraine and Russia. The first Hotspot Shield client app was released in April 2008 for Windows and macOS operating systems. It was expanded to include support for iOS and Android in 2011 and 2012, respectively.
The Hotspot Shield client establishes an encrypted VPN connection with one of its supported public VPN servers, through which the user can connect to the Internet. The connection protects the traffic between the user and the server from eavesdropping, and the IP address of the client is not exposed. While the service cannot make users completely anonymous on the Internet, it can greatly increase privacy and security. Users can bypass censorship using Hotspot Shield by connecting to a VPN server located outside their country. Both the client software and the service are freemium: the main features of the client app, as well as a number of public servers are available free of charge, but users have to pay to get additional features, which include the elimination of advertisements, antivirus protection, connecting to more servers and choosing the geographic location of the service to which they connect.
International use
Hotspot Shield has been used to bypass Internet censorship in countries with strict Internet censorship programs. During the Arab Spring protests in 2010, protesters used Hotspot Shield to access social networking tools to communicate and upload videos. Hotspot Shield was also widely used during the Egyptian protests and revolution in 2011, when the Mubarak regime cracked down heavily on access to social media sites. In 2013, usage of Hotspot Shield increased in Turkey, in response to the suspected efforts of the Turkish government to censor social media and citizen access to international websites. In 2014, usage of Hotspot Shield increased in Hong Kong after the outbreak of the 2014 Hong Kong protests.
In 2012, Hotspot Shield usage increased among Mac users in the United States and Europe, as 500,000 Mac users were infected by the Flashback virus. Hotspot Shield was used as a protection against the virus.
Critical reception
Hotspot Shield has generally received positive reviews by industry publications and websites. PC Magazine rated the software "excellent" and praised its status indicator, traffic encryption, connection speed at times and payment flexibility, but criticized the software's ad platform, website code injection, slowdown of overall response time and browser setting modifications.
In August 2017, the Center for Democracy and Technology issued an open complaint to the Federal Trade Commission which they state "concerns undisclosed and unclear data sharing and traffic redirection occurring in Hotspot Shield Free VPN that should be considered unfair and deceptive trade practices under Section 5 of the FTC Act." CDT "partnered with researchers at Carnegie Mellon University to analyze the app and the service and found 'undisclosed data sharing practices' with advertising networks."
In February 2018, a security researcher discovered an information disclosure bug in the app that results in a leak of user data, such as in which country the user is located, and the user's Wi-Fi network name, if connected.
See also
Comparison of virtual private network services
References
Freemium
Virtual private network services |
39800950 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PE | PE | PE may refer to:
Science and technology
Computing and telecommunication
Phase encoding, another name for Manchester code
Portable Executable, a computer file format
Windows Preinstallation Environment, a lightweight version of Microsoft Windows
Progressive enhancement, a strategy for web design
Protocol encryption, a feature of some peer-to-peer file-sharing clients
Provider edge router, a router between computer networks
Project Euler, a problem solving website
Medical conditions
Pectus excavatum, a structural deformity of the anterior thoracic wall in which the sternum and rib cage are shaped abnormally
Pleural effusion, excess fluid accumulation in the pleural cavity, the fluid-filled space surrounding the lungs
Pre-eclampsia, a disorder of pregnancy
Premature ejaculation
Pulmonary embolism, a blockage of the pulmonary artery
Medical interventions
Penis enlargement
Phenylephrine, a common over-the-counter decongestant
Phenytoin equivalent, used to measure doses of fosphenytoin
Physical exercise
Prolonged exposure therapy, a form of behavior therapy designed to treat posttraumatic stress disorder
Organic chemistry
Pentaerythritol, a polyol
Phenylephrine, a common over-the-counter decongestant
Phenytoin equivalent, used to measure doses of fosphenytoin
Phosphatidyl ethanolamine
Phycoerythrin, a water-soluble protein used as a fluorescent marker in microscopy and flow cytometry
Polyethylene, a common plastic polymer
Physics
Positron emission, a type of radioactive decay
Potential energy, the energy stored in a body or in a system due to its position in a force field or due to its configuration
Proton emission, a type of radioactive decay
Protective earth, a type of electrical protective system
Reduction potential, the negative logarithm of electron activity
Other uses in science and technology
AEG PE, a German World War I armored ground-attack aircraft
Population equivalent, a concept used in sanitary engineering
Present Era, a year numbering system commonly used in archaeology that uses 1950s as the epoch marker
Professional Engineer, a post-nominal suffix indicating such a certification
Primary energy, an energy form found in nature that has not been subjected to any human engineered conversion process
Arts and media
Parasite Eve (video game), on the original PlayStation
Pineapple Express (film), a 2008 American action-comedy film starring Seth Rogen
Power electronics (music), a type of noise music
The Press-Enterprise, a newspaper serving the Inland Empire in Southern California
Private eye, a character class in the MMORPG Neocron
Public Enemy (group), a hip hop group from Long Island, New York
Minecraft: Pocket Edition, the mobile version of the game
In business and economics
P/E ratio, or price-to-earnings ratio
Performance Evaluation, a journal
Professional Engineer, a post-nominal suffix indicating such a certification
Private equity, equity investments in companies that are not traded on a public stock exchange
Permanent establishment, a fixed place of business establishing taxable presence of a business in a host country
Businesses and organizations
Air Europe Italy (IATA Code 1989-2008)
People Express Airlines (1980s) (IATA Code 1981-1987)
Pacific Electric, a defunct Los Angeles rail transit company
PerkinElmer, an American technology company
Army Police (Brazil), (Portuguese: Polícia do Exército) a Brazilian Army Police force
Army Police (Portugal), (Portuguese: Polícia do Exército) a Portuguese Army Police force
Places
PE postcode area, UK, covering Peterborough
Pernambuco, a state of Brazil
Peru (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 and NATO country code PE)
Port Elizabeth, a city in South Africa
Prince Edward Island, a Canadian province
Other uses
Pakistani English, the variant of English language spoken in Pakistan
Physical education
Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup, a rowing event at Henley Royal Regatta
See also
Pe (disambiguation)
Pee (disambiguation) |
39802440 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted%20execution%20environment | Trusted execution environment | A trusted execution environment (TEE) is a secure area of a main processor. It guarantees code and data loaded inside to be protected with respect to confidentiality and integrity. A TEE as an isolated execution environment provides security features such as isolated execution, integrity of applications executing with the TEE, along with confidentiality of their assets. In general terms, the TEE offers an execution space that provides a higher level of security for trusted applications running on the device than a rich operating system (OS) and more functionality than a 'secure element' (SE).
History
The Open Mobile Terminal Platform (OMTP) first defined TEE in their "Advanced Trusted Environment:OMTP TR1" standard, defining it as a "set of hardware and software components providing facilities necessary to support Applications" which had to meet the requirements of one of two defined security levels. The first security level, Profile 1, was targeted against only software attacks and while Profile 2, was targeted against both software and hardware attacks.
Commercial TEE solutions based on ARM TrustZone technology, conforming to the TR1 standard, were later launched, such as Trusted Foundations developed by Trusted Logic.
Work on the OMTP standards ended in mid 2010 when the group transitioned into the Wholesale Applications Community (WAC).
The OMTP standards, including those defining a TEE, are hosted by GSMA.
Details
The TEE typically consists of a hardware isolation mechanism, plus a secure operating system running on top of that isolation mechanism – however the term has been used more generally to mean a protected solution. Whilst a GlobalPlatform TEE requires hardware isolation, others such as EMVCo use the term TEE to refer to both hardware/software and only software-based solutions. FIDO uses the concept of TEE in the restricted operating environment for TEEs based on hardware isolation. Only trusted applications running in a TEE have access to the full power of a device's main processor, peripherals and memory, while hardware isolation protects these from user installed apps running in a main operating system. Software and cryptographic isolation inside the TEE protect the trusted applications contained within from each other.
Service providers, mobile network operators (MNO), operating system developers, application developers, device manufacturers, platform providers and silicon vendors are the main stakeholders contributing to the standardization efforts around the TEE.
To prevent simulation of hardware with user-controlled software, a so-called "hardware root of trust" is used. This is a set of private keys that are embedded directly into the chip during manufacturing; one-time programmable memory such as eFuses are usually used on mobile devices. These cannot be changed, even after device resets, and whose public counterparts reside in a manufacturer database, together with a non-secret hash of a public key belonging to the trusted party (usually a chip vendor) which is used to sign trusted firmware alongside the circuits doing cryptographic operations and controlling access. The hardware is designed in a way which prevents all software not signed by the trusted party's key from accessing the privileged features. The public key of the vendor is provided at runtime and hashed; this hash is then compared to the one embedded in the chip. If the hash matches, the public key is used to verify a digital signature of trusted vendor-controlled firmware (such as a chain of bootloaders on Android devices or 'architectural enclaves' in SGX). The trusted firmware is then used to implement remote attestation.
When an application is attested, its untrusted component loads its trusted component into memory; the trusted application is protected from modification by untrusted components with hardware. A nonce is requested by the untrusted party from verifier's server, and is used as a part of a cryptographic authentication protocol, proving integrity of the trusted application. The proof is passed to the verifier, which verifies it. A valid proof cannot be computed in a simulated hardware (i.e. QEMU) because in order to construct it, access to the keys baked into hardware is required; only trusted firmware has access to these keys and/or the keys derived from them or obtained using them. Because only the platform owner is meant to have access to the data recorded in the foundry, the verifying party must interact with the service set up by the vendor. If the scheme is implemented improperly, the chip vendor can track which applications are used on which chip and selectively deny service by returning a message indicating that authentication has not passed.
To simulate hardware in a way which enables it to illicitly pass remote authentication, an attacker would have to extract keys from the hardware, which is costly because of the equipment and technical skill required to execute it. For example, using focused ion beams, scanning electron microscopes, microprobing, and chip decapsulation or even impossible, if the hardware is designed in such a way that reverse-engineering destroys the keys. In most cases, the keys are unique for each piece of hardware, so that a key extracted from one chip cannot be used by others (for example physically unclonable functions).
Though deprivation of ownership is not an inherent property of TEEs (it is possible to design the system in a way that allows only the user who has obtained ownership of the device first to control the system), in practice all such systems in consumer electronics are intentionally designed so as to allow chip manufacturers to control access to attestation and its algorithms. It allows manufacturers to grant access to TEEs only to software developers who have a (usually commercial) business agreement with the manufacturer, and to enable such use cases as tivoization and DRM.
Uses
There are a number of use cases for the TEE. Though not all possible use cases exploit the deprivation of ownership, TEE is usually used exactly for this.
Premium Content Protection/Digital Rights Management
Note: Much TEE literature covers this topic under the definition "premium content protection" which is the preferred nomenclature of many copyright holders. Premium content protection is a specific use case of Digital Rights Management (DRM), and is controversial among some communities, such as the Free Software Foundation. It is widely used by copyrights holders to restrict the ways in which end users can consume content such as 4K high definition films.
The TEE is a suitable environment for protecting digitally encoded information (for example, HD films or audio) on connected devices such as smart phones, tablets and HD televisions. This suitability comes from the ability of the TEE to deprive owner of the device from reading stored secrets, and the fact that there is often a protected hardware path between the TEE and the display and/or subsystems on devices.
The TEE is used to protect the content once it is on the device: while the content is protected during transmission or streaming by the use of encryption, the TEE protects the content once it has been decrypted on the device by ensuring that decrypted content is not exposed to the environment not approved by app developer OR platform vendor.
Mobile financial services
Mobile Commerce applications such as: mobile wallets, peer-to-peer payments, contactless payments or using a mobile device as a point of sale (POS) terminal often have well-defined security requirements. TEEs can be used, often in conjunction with near field communication (NFC), SEs and trusted backend systems to provide the security required to enable financial transactions to take place
In some scenarios, interaction with the end user is required, and this may require the user to expose sensitive information such as a PIN, password or biometric identifier to the mobile OS as a means of authenticating the user. The TEE optionally offers a trusted user interface which can be used to construct user authentication on a mobile device.
With the rise of cryptocurrency, TEEs are increasingly used to implement crypto-wallets, as they offer the ability to store tokens more securely than regular operating systems, and can provide the necessary computation and authentication applications.
Authentication
The TEE is well-suited for supporting biometric ID methods (facial recognition, fingerprint sensor and voice authorization), which may be easier to use and harder to steal than PINs and passwords. The authentication process is generally split into three main stages:
Storing a reference "template" identifier on the device for comparison with the "image" extracted in next stage.
Extracting an "image" (scanning the fingerprint or capturing a voice sample, for example).
Using a matching engine to compare the "image" and the "template".
A TEE is a good area within a mobile device to house the matching engine and the associated processing required to authenticate the user. The environment is designed to protect the data and establish a buffer against the non-secure apps located in mobile OSes. This additional security may help to satisfy the security needs of service providers in addition to keeping the costs low for handset developers.
Enterprise, government, and cloud
The TEE can be used by governments, enterprises, and cloud service providers to enable the secure handling of confidential information on mobile devices and on server infrastructure. The TEE offers a level of protection against software attacks generated in the mobile OS and assists in the control of access rights. It achieves this by housing sensitive, ‘trusted’ applications that need to be isolated and protected from the mobile OS and any malicious malware that may be present. Through utilizing the functionality and security levels offered by the TEE, governments and enterprises can be assured that employees using their own devices are doing so in a secure and trusted manner. Likewise, server-based TEEs help defend against internal and external attacks against backend infrastructure.
Secure modular programming
With the rise of software assets and reuses, modular programming is the most productive process to design software architecture, by decoupling the functionalities into small independent modules. As each module contains everything necessary to execute its desired functionality, the TEE allows to organize the complete system featuring a high level of reliability and security, while preventing each module from vulnerabilities of the others.
In order for the modules to communicate and share data, TEE provide means to securely have payloads sent/received between the modules, using mechanisms such as objects serialization, in conjunction with proxies.
See Component-based software engineering
TEE Operating Systems
Hardware support
The following hardware technologies can be used to support TEE implementations:
AMD:
Platform Security Processor (PSP)
AMD Secure Encrypted Virtualization and the Secure Nested Paging extension
ARM:
TrustZone
IBM:
IBM Secure Service Container, formerly zACI, first introduced in IBM z13 generation machines (including all LinuxONE machines) in driver level 27.
IBM Secure Execution, introduced in IBM z15 and LinuxONE III generation machines on April 14, 2020.
Intel:
Trusted Execution Technology
SGX Software Guard Extensions
"Silent Lake" (available on Atom processors)
RISC-V:
MultiZone™ Security Trusted Execution Environment
Keystone Customizable TEE Framework
Penglai Scalable TEE for RISC-V
See also
Open Mobile Terminal Platform
Trusted Computing Group
FIDO Alliance
Java Card
Intel Management Engine
Intel LaGrande
Software Guard Extensions
AMD Platform Security Processor
Trusted Platform Module
ARM TrustZone
NFC Secure Element
Next-Generation Secure Computing Base
References
Security
Security technology
Mobile security
Mobile software
Standards |
39836304 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitmessage | Bitmessage | Bitmessage is a decentralized, encrypted, peer-to-peer, trustless communications protocol that can be used by one person to send encrypted messages to another person, or to multiple subscribers.
In June 2013, the software experienced a surge of new adoptions after news reports of email surveillance by the US National Security Agency.
Bitmessage was conceived by software developer Jonathan Warren, who based its design on the decentralized digital currency, Bitcoin. The software was released in November 2012 under the MIT license.
Bitmessage gained a reputation for being out of reach of warrantless wiretapping conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA), due to the decentralized nature of the protocol, and its encryption being difficult to crack. As a result, downloads of the Bitmessage program increased fivefold during June 2013, after news broke of classified email surveillance activities conducted by the NSA.
Bitmessage has also been mentioned as an experimental alternative to email by Popular Science and CNET.
Some ransomware programs instruct affected users to use Bitmessage to communicate with the attackers.
References
Further reading
Bitmessage: A Peer‐to‐Peer Message Authentication and Delivery System (Jonathan Warren) - Bitmessage white paper
External links
Cryptographic software
Free software programmed in Python
Email authentication
Internet privacy software
Open standards
Peer-to-peer software
Software using the MIT license
Tor onion services |
39840579 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahindra%20Centuro | Mahindra Centuro | Mahindra Centuro is a 110cc Motorcycle manufactured in India by Mahindra Two Wheelers.
The Centuro gets a remote lock with a flip key, the remote lock uses a 96-bit secure access just like four wheelers. The Centuro has already created a buzz in the market with its design and features and is likely to give leaders Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj, TVS and Honda some serious competition. The bike has been designed and developed from the ground-up at their R&D facility in Pune, in view of demands and much criticism received from thousands of customers in the segment.
Unveiling the new bike, Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra said the company's success in the two-wheeler territory had disproved sceptics who had advised him against venturing into the segment.
Engine
Under the tank of the Centuro, there is an indigenously developed, 106.7-cc, MCi-5 (Micro Chip Ignited-5 Curve) single-cylinder, air-cooled four-stroke motor developing 8.4PS and a four-speed transmission. The bike has a five-step rear suspension to provide greater riding comfort on Indian roads. It produces 8.5 bhp at 8500 rpm and a maximum torque of 8.5 Nm at 5500 rpm. It has a four-speed manual transmission and can zoom to 60 kmph from rest in 8.9 seconds.
Anti-theft key
A striking feature of the Mahindra Centuro is a Central Locking Anti-Theft System with Engine Immobiliser and multifunctional (car-like) flip key with 96-bit encryption, something that is first not just in the segment but a first for all motorcycles made in India.
This encryption key invented by Mr. Anik Majumdar. He is a young genius from Konnagar, District : Hooghly, West Bengal, India. He invented many things in his home laboratory, named Holuni.
Find-me lamp
The bike key can be used to start follow-me-home lights that stay on for while after the key is removed from the ignition, flashing lights with an alarm that aids locating the motorcycle in crowded parking lots, and a LED torch on the key to help find the ignition slot when in a poorly lit area.
Fully lit digital dashboard
The bike sports an advanced, fully lit digital dashboard which is divided into three parts. The left part hosts the DTE and the fuel gauge. The middle has a big-font digital speedometer with one indicator each for service due and for economy mode. The right toggles between a trip meter, odometer and a clock. It is an unusually comprehensive feature set for an entry-level motorcycle where most bikes offer little more than a speedo, fuel gauge and the idiot lights.
Mileage
Mahindra claims an ARAI certified fuel-efficiency of 75 kmpl and the bike comes with a five-year warranty.
References
External links
Motorcycles of India
Motorcycles introduced in 2013 |
39904365 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upptalk | Upptalk | Upptalk (formerly known as Yuilop) was a proprietary voice-over-IP service and software application that provided mobile phone numbers in the cloud and allows users to call or text any phone for free whether or not the device receiving the calls and texts has the Yuilop application. The service was discontinued in 2017 and even its domain was abandoned.
Yuilop provided phone numbers can be accessed across any device on the internet (IP) and are reachable via regular phone calls (PSTN) from any landline or mobile phone, and SMS. Calls and chats to other users within the yuilop network service are free of charge. Unlike most other VoIP services, yuilop does not charge for off network communication. Calls and SMS to landline telephones and mobile phones use virtual credits that are earned for free through participating in promotional activities and using the app. Yuilop does not require credit for national calls and SMS in the U.S. Yuilop has additional features, including instant messaging, group chat, and location, and photo sharing. Competitors include Skype, Viber and Google Voice.
Overview
Yuilop was created by former simyo CEO, Jochen Doppelhammer in November 2010. Yuilop's headquarters are located in Barcelona, Spain and the app is available in over 200 countries including the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, Israel, and Mexico.
The app had approximately 5 million users and is available on Android, iOS, Windows Phone, BlackBerry OS.
As of July 2013, Yuilop has raised approximately $9 million in funding from investors such as Nauta Capital, Shortcut Ventures GmbH, Bright Capital, and the Spanish government.
In 2014, the company UppTalk entered insolvency procedures.
Yuilop's services are split into two main categories:
Calls and texts made to other Yuilop users using VoIP.
Calls and SMS made to mobile phones and landlines and virtual numbers like Skype and Google Voice by connecting to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).
Features
Yuilop provides free calling and texting between Yuilop users as well as to mobile and landline numbers not in the Yuilop network. Yuilop allows these registered users to communicate through instant messaging, SMS, voice chat, and calling with yuilop.me. Yuilop's text chat client allows group chats, emoticons, photo sharing, and location sharing.
Yuilop.me
Yuilop.me is an option to receive a virtual mobile phone number. The number can be used across devices with access to the internet and is not tied to a SIM card or an operator. Yuilop.me is currently available to Yuilop users in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Spain.
Credits
Calls and instant messages made to other Yuilop users via the app are free and unlimited. Calls and SMS made to mobile phones and land lines use "credits". Credits are acquired by:
Inviting friends and having them sign up to become users of Yuilop.
Completing an online offer such as downloading apps, filling out a survey, shopping, or signing up for a trial period of a listed product.
Redeeming voucher codes shared on Yuilop's Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Using the app, i.e. receiving chats from other Yuilop users, receiving calls, and receiving SMS to a yuilop.me number.
Version 1.9 of the iOS app also allows users to purchase credits.
The number of credits used to call mobile phone and land lines is determined by the location to which the call or SMS is sent. Sending calls or SMS to mobile phones requires no credit in or between some countries, such as the United States.
Security
Yuilop used a 2048 bit encryption to encrypt data traffic and call signalling over any transport medium (Wi-Fi, 2G, 3G, 4G LTE). A STARTTLS extension is used through a Transport Layer Security protocol.
See also
Comparison of instant messaging clients
Comparison of VoIP software
Mobile VoIP
Presence information
Secure communication
Unified communications
References
External links
2011 software
Android (operating system) software
Cross-platform mobile software
Cross-platform software
Freeware
Instant messaging clients
IOS software
Portable software
VoIP services
VoIP companies of Spain
VoIP software
Windows Phone software |
39936650 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XKeyscore | XKeyscore | XKeyscore (XKEYSCORE or XKS) is a secret computer system used by the United States National Security Agency (NSA) for searching and analyzing global Internet data, which it collects in real time. The NSA has shared XKeyscore with other intelligence agencies, including the Australian Signals Directorate, Canada's Communications Security Establishment, New Zealand's Government Communications Security Bureau, Britain's Government Communications Headquarters, Japan's Defense Intelligence Headquarters, and Germany's Bundesnachrichtendienst.
In July 2013, Edward Snowden publicly revealed the program's purpose and use by the NSA in The Sydney Morning Herald and O Globo newspapers. The code name was already public knowledge because it was mentioned in earlier articles, and, like many other code names, it appears in job postings and online résumés of employees.
On July 3, 2014, German public broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk, a member of ARD, published excerpts of XKeyscore's source code. A team of experts analyzed the source code.
Scope and functioning
XKeyscore is a complicated system, and various authors have different interpretations of its actual capabilities. Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald explained XKeyscore as being a system which enables almost unlimited surveillance of anyone anywhere in the world, while the NSA has said that usage of the system is limited and restricted.
According to The Washington Post and national security reporter Marc Ambinder, XKeyscore is an NSA data-retrieval system which consists of a series of user interfaces, backend databases, servers and software that selects certain types of data and metadata that the NSA has already collected using other methods.
According to Snowden and Greenwald
On January 26, 2014, the German broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk asked Edward Snowden in its TV interview: "What could you do if you would use XKeyscore?" and he answered:
According to The Guardians Glenn Greenwald, low-level NSA analysts can, via systems like XKeyscore, "listen to whatever emails they want, whatever telephone calls, browsing histories, Microsoft Word documents. And it's all done with no need to go to a court, with no need to even get supervisor approval on the part of the analyst."
He added that the NSA's database of collected communications allows its analysts to listen "to the calls or read the emails of everything that the NSA has stored, or look at the browsing histories or Google search terms that you've entered, and it also alerts them to any further activity that people connected to that email address or that IP address do in the future".
According to the NSA
In an official statement from July 30, 2013, the NSA said "XKeyscore is used as a part of NSA's lawful foreign signals intelligence collection system. ..." to legally obtain information about "legitimate foreign intelligence targets in response to requirements that our leaders need for information necessary to protect our nation and its interests. ... to collect the information, that enables us to perform our missions successfully – to defend the nation and to protect U.S. and allied troops abroad."
In terms of access, an NSA press statement reads that there is no "unchecked analyst access to NSA collection data. Access to XKeyscore, as well as all of NSA's analytic tools, is limited to only those personnel who require access for their assigned tasks." and that there are "...stringent oversight and compliance mechanisms built in at several levels. One feature is the system's ability to limit what an analyst can do with a tool, based on the source of the collection and each analyst's defined responsibilities."
Workings
According to an NSA slide presentation about XKeyscore from 2013, it is a "DNI Exploitation System/Analytic Framework". DNI stands for Digital Network Intelligence, which means intelligence derived from internet traffic.
Edward Snowden said about XKeyscore: "It's a front end search engine" in an interview with the German Norddeutscher Rundfunk.
XKeyscore is a "piece of Linux software that is typically deployed on Red Hat servers. It uses the Apache web server and stores collected data in MySQL databases".
XKeyscore is considered a "passive" program, in that it listens, but does not transmit anything on the networks that it targets. But it can trigger other systems, which perform "active" attacks through Tailored Access Operations which are "tipping", for example, the QUANTUM family of programs, including QUANTUMINSERT, QUANTUMHAND, QUANTUMTHEORY, QUANTUMBOT and QUANTUMCOPPER and Turbulence. These run at so-called "defensive sites" including the Ramstein Air Force base in Germany, Yokota Air Base in Japan, and numerous military and non-military locations within the US. Trafficthief, a core program of Turbulence, can alert NSA analysts when their targets communicate, and trigger other software programs, so select data is "promoted" from the local XKeyscore data store to the NSA's "corporate repositories" for long term storage.
Data sources
XKeyscore consists of over 700 servers at approximately 150 sites where the NSA collects data, like "US and allied military and other facilities as well as US embassies and consulates" in many countries around the world. Among the facilities involved in the program are four bases in Australia and one in New Zealand.
According to an NSA presentation from 2008, these XKeyscore servers are fed with data from the following collection systems:
F6 (Special Collection Service) joint operation of the CIA and NSA that carries out clandestine operations including espionage on foreign diplomats and leaders
FORNSAT which stands for "foreign satellite collection", and refers to intercepts from satellites
SSO (Special Source Operations) a division of the NSA that cooperates with telecommunication providers
In a single, undated slide published by Swedish media in December 2013, the following additional data sources for XKeyscore are mentioned:
Overhead intelligence derived from American spy planes, drones and satellites
Tailored Access Operations a division of the NSA that deals with hacking and cyberwarfare
FISA all types of surveillance approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court
Third party foreign partners of the NSA such as the (signals) intelligence agencies of Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, etc. However the Netherlands is out of any cooperation concerning intelligence gathering and sharing for illegal spying.
From these sources, XKeyscore stores "full-take data", which are indexed by plug-ins that extract certain types of metadata (like phone numbers, e-mail addresses, log-ins, and user activity) and index them in metadata tables, which can be queried by analysts. XKeyscore has been integrated with MARINA, which is NSA's database for internet metadata.
However, the system continuously gets so much Internet data that it can be stored only for short periods of time. Content data remain on the system for only three to five days, while metadata is stored for up to thirty days. A detailed commentary on an NSA presentation published in The Guardian in July 2013 cites a document published in 2008 declaring that "At some sites, the amount of data we receive per day (20+ terabytes) can only be stored for as little as 24 hours."
Types of XKeyscore
According to a document from an internal GCHQ website which was disclosed by the German magazine Der Spiegel in June 2014, there are three different types of the Xkeyscore system:
Traditional: The initial version of XKeyscore is fed with data from low-rate data signals, after being processed by the WEALTHYCLUSTER system. This traditional version is not only used by NSA but also at many intercept sites of GCHQ.
Stage 2: This version of XKeyscore is used for higher data rates. The data are first processed by the TURMOIL system, which sends 5% of the internet data packets to XKeyscore. GCHQ only uses this version for its collection under the MUSCULAR program.
Deep Dive: This latest version can process internet traffic at data rates of 10 gigabits per second. Data that could be useful for intelligence purposes are then selected and forwarded by using the "GENESIS selection language". GCHQ also operates a number of Deep Dive versions of XKeyscore at three locations under the codename TEMPORA.
Capabilities
For analysts, XKeyscore provides a "series of viewers for common data types", which allows them to query terabytes of raw data gathered at the aforementioned collection sites. This enables them to find targets that cannot be found by searching only the metadata, and also to do this against data sets that otherwise would have been dropped by the front-end data processing systems. According to a slide from an XKeyscore presentation, NSA collection sites select and forward less than 5% of the internet traffic to the PINWALE database for internet content.
Because XKeyscore holds raw and unselected communications traffic, analysts can not only perform queries using "strong selectors" like e-mail addresses, but also using "soft selectors", like keywords, against the body texts of e-mail and chat messages and digital documents and spreadsheets in English, Arabic and Chinese.
This is useful because "a large amount of time spent on the web is performing actions that are anonymous" and therefore those activities can't be found by just looking for e-mail addresses of a target. When content has been found, the analyst might be able to find new intelligence or a strong selector, which can then be used for starting a traditional search.
Besides using soft selectors, analysts can also use the following other XKeyscore capabilities:
Look for the usage of Google Maps and terms entered into a search engine by known targets looking for suspicious things or places.
Look for "anomalies" without any specific person attached, like detecting the nationality of foreigners by analyzing the language used within intercepted emails. An example would be a German speaker in Pakistan. The Brazilian paper O Globo claims that this has been applied to Latin America and specifically to Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Venezuela.
Detect people who use encryption by doing searches like "all PGP usage in Iran". The caveat given is that very broad queries can result in too much data to transmit back to the analyst.
Showing the usage of virtual private networks (VPNs) and machines that can potentially be hacked via TAO.
Track the source and authorship of a document that has passed through many hands.
On July 3, 2014 ARD revealed that XKeyscore is used to closely monitor users of the Tor anonymity network, people who search for privacy-enhancing software on the web, and readers of Linux Journal.
The Guardian revealed in 2013 that most of these things cannot be detected by other NSA tools, because they operate with strong selectors (like e-mail and IP addresses and phone numbers) and the raw data volumes are too high to be forwarded to other NSA databases.
In 2008, NSA planned to add a number of new capabilities in the future, like VoIP, , Exif tags, which often include geolocation (GPS) data.
Contribution to U.S. security
The NSA slides published in The Guardian during 2013 claimed that XKeyscore had played a role in capturing 300 terrorists by 2008, which could not be substantiated as the redacted documents do not cite instances of terrorist interventions.
A 2011 report from the NSA unit in the Dagger Complex (close to Griesheim in Germany) said that XKeyscore made it easier and more efficient to target surveillance. Previously, analysis often accessed data NSA was not interested in. XKeyscore allowed them to focus on the intended topics, while ignoring unrelated data. XKeyscore also proved to be outstanding for tracking active groups associated with the Anonymous movement in Germany, because it allows for searching on patterns, rather than particular individuals. An analyst is able to determine when targets research new topics, or develop new behaviors.
To create additional motivation, the NSA incorporated various gamification features. For instance, analysts who were especially good at using XKeyscore could acquire "skilz" points and "unlock achievements." The training units in Griesheim were apparently successful and analysts there had achieved the "highest average of skilz points" compared with all other NSA departments participating in the training program.
Usage by foreign partners of the NSA
Germany
According to documents Der Spiegel acquired from Snowden, the German intelligence agencies BND (foreign intelligence) and BfV (domestic intelligence) were also allowed to use the XKeyscore system. In those documents the BND agency was described as the NSA's most prolific partner in information gathering. This led to political confrontations, after which the directors of the German intelligence agencies briefed members of the German parliamentary intelligence oversight committee on July 25, 2013. They declared that XKeyscore has been used by the BND since 2007 and that the BfV has been using a test version since 2012. The directors also explained that the program is not for collecting data, but rather only for the analysis of collected data.
Sweden
As part of the UKUSA Agreement, a secret treaty was signed in 1954 by Sweden with the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand (called the Five Eyes) for the purpose of intelligence collaboration and data sharing. According to documents leaked by Snowden, the National Defence Radio Establishment (FRA) has been granted access to XKeyscore.
Denmark
In an ongoing scandal, where it has been revealed that NSA helped FE (Danish Military Intelligence Service) build a new Spy datacenter at Sandagergård, Amager, Xkeyscore has been made available for FE to use on the collected data.
Japan
The classified documents leaked by Snowden also indicate that in April 2013, NSA had secretly provided the XKeyscore system to the Japanese government.
See also
List of government surveillance projects
PRISM
:File:XKeyscore presentation from 2008.pdf, a redacted presentation about X-Keyscore via The Guardian (UK) via Edward Snowden via U.S. National Security Agency
Targeted surveillance
References
External links
A full NSA presentation about XKeyscore from 2008
Building a panopticon: The evolution of the NSA’s XKeyscore
2013 scandals
Counter-terrorism in the United States
Espionage
Human rights in the United States
Mass surveillance
Obama administration controversies
Privacy in the United States
Privacy of telecommunications
American secret government programs
Surveillance scandals
United States national security policy
War on terror
GCHQ operations
National Security Agency operations
Intelligence agency programmes revealed by Edward Snowden
Federal Intelligence Service
Communications Security Establishment |
39945948 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serval%20Project | Serval Project | The Serval Project (often referred to as Serval) is a project financed by the Shuttleworth Foundation, as well as various other organisations and accepting individual donations. It is headquartered at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia. The project aims to develop technology that can be used to create direct connections between cellular phones through their Wi-Fi interfaces, without the need of a mobile phone operator. The technology allows for live voice calls whenever the mesh is able to find a route between the participants. Text messages and other data can be communicated using a store and forward system called Rhizome, allowing communication over unlimited distances and without a stable live mesh connection between all participants.
The Serval Project includes a collaborate mapping application intended to support disaster relief and recovery efforts. A "mesh extender" is being developed, which establishes a short range Serval mesh over WiFi and joins it with other more distant meshes by linking to other mesh extenders over packet radio operating in the ISM 915 MHz band.
Serval Mesh
Serval Mesh is an Android application and the Serval Project's flagship product. It is currently distributed through various application distribution platforms and repositories and can also be downloaded directly from the project's website. The application may be shared directly from one device to others nearby over WiFi or Bluetooth.
The Serval Mesh application is built out of two components: a user interface called Batphone, and a core networking, encryption, and file sharing component called Serval DNA. The Batphone source code is licensed to the public under the terms of the GPLv3 license, whereas the Serval DNA source code is licensed under the terms of the GPLv2 license.
See also
smartphone ad hoc networks
similar projects
Briar (software)
B.A.T.M.A.N.
FireChat
References
External links
Politics and technology
Internet-related activism
Proposed telecommunications infrastructure
Mesh networking |
39994293 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speck%20%28cipher%29 | Speck (cipher) | Speck is a family of lightweight block ciphers publicly released by the National Security Agency (NSA) in June 2013. Speck has been optimized for performance in software implementations, while its sister algorithm, Simon, has been optimized for hardware implementations. Speck is an add–rotate–xor (ARX) cipher.
The NSA began working on the Simon and Speck ciphers in 2011. The agency anticipated some agencies in the US federal government would need a cipher that would operate well on a diverse collection of Internet of Things devices while maintaining an acceptable level of security.
Cipher description
Speck supports a variety of block and key sizes. A block is always two words, but the words may be 16, 24, 32, 48 or 64 bits in size. The corresponding key is 2, 3 or 4 words. The round function consists of two rotations, adding the right word to the left word, xoring the key into the left word, then xoring the left word into the right word. The number of rounds depends on the parameters selected, as follows:
The key schedule uses the same round function as the main block cipher.
Reference code
The following is the designers' reference implementation, written in C, of the Speck variant with a 128-bit block size and key, where key = (K[1], K[0]). It is adapted from their IACR ePrint.
#include <stdint.h>
#define ROR(x, r) ((x >> r) | (x << (64 - r)))
#define ROL(x, r) ((x << r) | (x >> (64 - r)))
#define R(x, y, k) (x = ROR(x, 8), x += y, x ^= k, y = ROL(y, 3), y ^= x)
#define ROUNDS 32
void encrypt(uint64_t ct[2],
uint64_t const pt[2],
uint64_t const K[2])
{
uint64_t y = pt[0], x = pt[1], b = K[0], a = K[1];
R(x, y, b);
for (int i = 0; i < ROUNDS - 1; i++) {
R(a, b, i);
R(x, y, b);
}
ct[0] = y;
ct[1] = x;
}
Note that this code computes the round keys (key schedule) on-demand. In practice, as with other block ciphers it is common for implementations to compute the round keys just once and cache them, rather than recomputing them for every block encrypted or decrypted. Although, as the authors point out, "Given that small code size was a major goal of the design, it made sense to reuse the round function for round key generation. This approach enables on-the-fly round key generation for microcontroller implementations, using just the round function code, very little ROM, and no RAM beyond what is required to hold the key and plaintext."
For 16-bit words (Speck32), the rotates are 7 bits right and 2 bits left; for all other word sizes, they are 8 and 3 as shown here.
If the key is more than 2 words long, there are 2 or 3 a values, which are used in rotation.
Endianness
The original Speck paper does not explicitly state the endianness of bytes when the plaintext block is interpreted as the two words used in the cipher algorithm. The test vectors given in the paper suggest big-endian order. However, the authors of the algorithm have advised some implementers that little-endian byte order is to be used for keys, plaintext, and ciphertext, and the practice was accepted by others.
Performance
According to ECRYPT's stream cipher benchmarks (eBASC), Speck is one of the fastest ciphers available, both for long as well as short messages. Some median performances for long messages (128-bit, 128-block size version) are: 1.99 cycles per byte (cpb) on an AMD Ryzen 7 1700; 1.27 cpb on an Intel Core i5-6600; 15.96 cpb on a Broadcom BCM2836 Cortex A7. For example, on the ARMv7 platform, Speck is about 3 times faster than AES.
When implemented on 8-bit AVR microcontroller, Speck encryption with 64-bit blocks and 128-bit key consumes 192 bytes of flash memory, temporary variables consume 112 bytes of RAM, and takes 164 cycles to encrypt each byte in the block.
Salsa20 is a stream cipher with comparable performance, but it is difficult to use stream ciphers securely in some applications where block ciphers like Speck work well. This led Google to add an implementation of Speck in Linux kernel version 4.17, planning to offer it as an option for disk encryption on low-end Android devices that would otherwise be unencrypted due to slow AES performance on processors that lack AES instructions. Speck was later dropped from the Linux kernel due to backlash and concerns, and Google switched to the Adiantum algorithm instead.
Security
Cryptanalysis
The designers claim that Speck, though a "lightweight" cipher, is designed to have the full security possible for each block and key size, against standard chosen-plaintext (CPA) and chosen-ciphertext (CCA) attacks. Resistance against related-key attacks was also stated as a goal, though a less crucial one as attacks in that model are not relevant for typical use cases. No effort was made to resist attacks in the known-key distinguishing attack model, nor did the designers evaluate Speck for use as a hash function.
As of 2018, no successful attack on full-round Speck of any variant is known. Due to interest in Simon and Speck, about 70 cryptanalysis papers have been published on them. As is typical for iterated ciphers, reduced-round variants have been successfully attacked. The best published attacks on Speck in the standard attack model (CPA/CCA with unknown key) are differential cryptanalysis attacks; these make it through about 70–75% of the rounds of most variants, though these best attacks are only marginally faster than brute-force. The design team states that while designing Speck, they found differential attacks to be the limiting attacks, i.e. the type of attack that makes it through the most rounds; they then set the number of rounds to leave a security margin similar to AES-128's at approximately 30%.
Speck has been criticized for having too small a security margin, i.e. too few rounds between the best attacks and the full cipher, in comparison to more conservative ciphers such as ChaCha20.
Ciphers with small security margins are more likely to be broken by future advances in cryptanalysis. Speck's design team counters that there is a real-world cost to unnecessarily large security margins, especially on lightweight devices, that cryptanalysis during the design phase allowed the number of rounds to be set appropriately, and that they targeted AES's security margin.
Speck includes a round counter in the key schedule. The designers state this was included to block slide and rotational cryptanalysis attacks. Still, rotational-XOR cryptanalysis has been used to find distinguishers against reduced-round versions of Speck. Though the authors don't describe standard key-recovery attacks based on their distinguishers, their best distinguishers on Speck32 and Speck48 in the known-key distinguishing attack model for certain weak key classes make it through slightly more rounds than the best differential distinguishers. One of the authors has said that his research was resource-constrained and that rotational-XOR distinguishers on more rounds are probably possible. However, this type of cryptanalysis assumes the related-key or even the known-key attack models, which are not a concern in typical cryptographic protocols and solutions. The designers also state that Speck was not designed to resist known-key distinguishing attacks (which do not directly compromise the confidentiality of ciphers).
The designers state that NSA cryptanalysis found the algorithms to have no weaknesses, and security commensurate with their key lengths. The design team says that their cryptanalysis included linear and differential cryptanalysis using standard techniques such as Matsui's algorithm and SAT/SMT solvers, though a full list of techniques used is not given. Speck's designers have been criticized for not providing more details on NSA cryptanalysis of the ciphers.
The NSA has approved Simon128/256 and Speck128/256 for use in U.S. National Security Systems, though AES-256 is still recommended for non-constrained applications.
Side-channel attacks
Being an ARX cipher, Speck does not use S-boxes or other lookup tables; it is therefore naturally immune to cache-timing attacks. This contrasts with ciphers that use lookup tables such as AES, which have been shown to be vulnerable to such attacks. However, like most block ciphers (including AES) Speck is vulnerable to power analysis attacks unless hardware countermeasures are taken.
Block and key sizes
Although the Speck family of ciphers includes variants with the same block and key sizes as AES (Speck128/128, Speck128/192, and Speck128/256), it also includes variants with block size as low as 32 bits and key size as low as 64 bits. These small block and key sizes are insecure for general use, as they can allow birthday attacks and brute-force attacks, regardless of the formal security of the cipher. The designers state that these block and key sizes were included for highly resource-constrained devices where nothing better is possible, or where only very small amounts of data are ever encrypted, e.g. in RFID protocols. Only the variant with a 128-bit block size and 256-bit key size is approved for use in U.S. National Security Systems.
Standardization efforts and controversies
Initial attempts to standardise Simon and Speck failed to meet International Organization for Standardization super-majority required by the process and the ciphers were not adopted. Expert delegates to the ISO from several countries including Germany, Japan and Israel opposed the efforts by the NSA to standardise the Simon and Speck ciphers, citing concerns that the NSA is pushing for their standardisation with knowledge of exploitable weaknesses in the ciphers. The position was based on partial evidence of weaknesses in the ciphers, lack of clear need for standardisation of the new ciphers, and the NSA's previous involvement in the creation and promotion of the backdoored Dual_EC_DRBG cryptographic algorithm.
In response to concerns, the NSA stated that more than 70 security analysis papers from some of the world's leading cryptographers support NSA's conclusion that the algorithms are secure and NSA affirmed that it is not aware of any cryptanalytic techniques that would allow them or anyone else to exploit Simon or Speck
After initial attempts to standardise the ciphers failed, the ISO standardised Simon and Speck in other working groups. As of October 2018, the Simon and Speck ciphers have been standardized by ISO as a part of the RFID air interface standard, International Standard ISO/29167-21 (for Simon) and International Standard ISO/29167-22 (for Speck), making them available for use by commercial entities.
On August 7, 2018, Speck was removed from the Linux kernel 4.20 release completely.
References
Block ciphers
National Security Agency cryptography |
39994308 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon%20%28cipher%29 | Simon (cipher) | Simon is a family of lightweight block ciphers publicly released by the National Security Agency (NSA) in June 2013. Simon has been optimized for performance in hardware implementations, while its sister algorithm, Speck, has been optimized for software implementations.
The NSA began working on the Simon and Speck ciphers in 2011. The agency anticipated some agencies in the US federal government would need a cipher that would operate well on a diverse collection of Internet of Things devices while maintaining an acceptable level of security.
Description of the cipher
The Simon block cipher is a balanced Feistel cipher with an n-bit word, and therefore the block length is 2n. The key length is a multiple of n by 2, 3, or 4, which is the value m. Therefore, a Simon cipher implementation is denoted as Simon2n/nm. For example, Simon64/128 refers to the cipher operating on a 64-bit plaintext block (n = 32) that uses a 128-bit key. The block component of the cipher is uniform between the Simon implementations; however, the key generation logic is dependent on the implementation of 2, 3 or 4 keys.
Simon supports the following combinations of block sizes, key sizes and number of rounds:
Description of the key schedule
Let notate a left circular shift by bits.
The key schedule is mathematically described as
The key schedule structure may or may not be balanced. The key word count of is used to determine the structure of the key expansion, resulting in a total bit width of . The key word expansion consists of a right shift, XOR and a constant sequence, . The bit operates on the lowest bit of the key word once per round.
Description of the constant sequence
The constant sequence, , is created by a Linear Feedback Shift Register (LFSR). The logical sequence of bit constants is set by the value of the key and block sizes. The LFSR is created by a 5-bit field. The constant bit operates on a key block once per round on the lowest bit in order to add non-key-dependent entropy to the key schedule. The LFSR has different logic for each sequence; however, the initial condition is the same for encryption. The initial condition of the LFSR for decryption varies on the round.
Cryptanalysis
The designers claim that Simon, though a "lightweight" cipher, is designed to have the full security possible for each block and key size, against standard chosen-plaintext (CPA) and chosen-ciphertext (CCA) attacks. Resistance against related-key attacks was also stated as a goal, though a less crucial one as attacks in that model are not relevant for typical use cases. No effort was made to resist attacks in the known-key distinguishing attack model, nor did the designers evaluate Simon for use as a hash function.
As of 2018, no successful attack on full-round Simon of any variant is known. Due to interest in Simon and Speck, about 70 cryptanalysis papers have been published on them. As is typical for iterated ciphers, reduced-round variants have been successfully attacked. The best published attacks on Simon in the standard attack model (CPA/CCA with unknown key) are differential cryptanalysis attacks; these make it through about 70–75% of the rounds of most variants, though these best attacks are only marginally faster than brute-force.
The design team states that while designing Simon, they found differential attacks to be the limiting attacks, i.e. the type of attack that makes it through the most rounds; they then set the number of rounds to leave a security margin similar to AES-128's at approximately 30%.
Simon has been criticized for having too small a security margin, i.e. too few rounds between the best attacks and the full cipher, in comparison to more conservative ciphers such as ChaCha20.
Ciphers with small security margins are more likely to be broken by future advances in cryptanalysis. Simon's design team counters that there is a real-world cost to unnecessarily large security margins, especially on lightweight devices, that cryptanalysis during the design phase allowed the number of rounds to be set appropriately, and that they targeted AES's security margin.
Simon includes a round counter in the key schedule. The designers state this was included to block slide and rotational cryptanalysis attacks. Still, rotational-XOR cryptanalysis has been used to find distinguishers against reduced-round versions of related ciphers like Speck. Though the authors don't describe standard key-recovery attacks based on their distinguishers, their best distinguishers on Simon32 and Simon48 in the known-key distinguishing attack model for certain weak key classes make it through slightly more rounds than the best differential distinguishers. One of the authors has said that his research was resource-constrained and that rotational-XOR distinguishers on more rounds are probably possible. The designers also state that Simon was not designed to resist known-key distinguishing attacks (which do not directly compromise the confidentiality of ciphers).
The designers state that NSA cryptanalysis found the algorithms to have no weaknesses, and security commensurate with their key lengths. The design team says that their cryptanalysis included linear and differential cryptanalysis using standard techniques such as Matsui's algorithm and SAT/SMT solvers, though a full list of techniques used is not given. Simon's designers have been criticized for not providing more details on NSA cryptanalysis of the ciphers.
The NSA has approved Simon128/256 and Speck128/256 for use in U.S. National Security Systems, though AES-256 is still recommended for non-constrained applications.
Standardization efforts and controversies
Initial attempts to standardise Simon and Speck failed to meet International Organization for Standardization super-majority required by the process and the ciphers were not adopted. Expert delegates to the ISO from several countries including Germany, Japan and Israel opposed the efforts by the NSA to standardise the Simon and Speck ciphers, citing concerns that the NSA is pushing for their standardisation with knowledge of exploitable weaknesses in the ciphers. The position was based on partial evidence of weaknesses in the ciphers, lack of clear need for standardisation of the new ciphers, and the NSA's previous involvement in the creation and promotion of the backdoored Dual_EC_DRBG cryptographic algorithm.
In response to concerns, the NSA stated that more than 70 security analysis papers from some of the world's leading cryptographers support NSA's conclusion that the algorithms are secure and NSA affirmed that it is not aware of any cryptanalytic techniques that would allow them or anyone else to exploit Simon or Speck.
After initial attempts to standardise the ciphers failed, the ISO standardised Simon and Speck in other working groups. As of October 2018, the Simon and Speck ciphers have been standardized by ISO as a part of the RFID air interface standard, International Standard ISO/29167-21 (for Simon) and International Standard ISO/29167-22 (for Speck), making them available for use by commercial entities.
See also
Balanced boolean function
Bent function
References
Block ciphers
Feistel ciphers
National Security Agency cryptography |
40029539 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whonix | Whonix | Whonix (formerly TorBOX) is a Debian–based security-focused Linux distribution. It aims to provide privacy, security and anonymity on the internet. The operating system consists of two virtual machines, a "Workstation" and a Tor "Gateway", running Debian Linux. All communications are forced through the Tor network.
Design
Whonix is based on Kicksecure, a hardened Debian derivative with anonymity packages installed on top. It is distributed as two virtual machine images: a "Gateway" and a "Workstation". These images are installed on a user-provided host operating system. Each VM image contains a customized Linux instance based on Debian. Updates are distributed via Tor using Debian's apt-get package manager.
The supported virtualization engines are VirtualBox, Qubes OS, and Linux KVM.
An "advanced" configuration uses two physically separate computers, with the Gateway running on the hardware of one of the computers, and the Workstation running in a VM hosted on the second. This protects against attacks on hypervisors at the cost of flexibility. Supported physical hardware platforms include the Raspberry Pi 3 and unofficial community efforts on the PowerPC workstation hardware, Talos, from Raptor Computing.
On first startup, each VM runs a check to ensure that the software is up to date. On every boot, the date and time are set using the sdwdate secure time daemon that works over Tor's TCP protocol.
The Gateway VM is responsible for running Tor, and has two virtual network interfaces. One of these is connected to the outside Internet via NAT on the VM host, and is used to communicate with Tor relays. The other is connected to a virtual LAN that runs entirely inside the host.
The Workstation VM runs user applications. It is connected only to the internal virtual LAN, and can directly communicate only with the Gateway, which forces all traffic coming from the Workstation to pass through the Tor network. The Workstation VM can "see" only IP addresses on the Internal LAN, which are the same in every Whonix installation.
User applications therefore have no knowledge of the user's "real" IP address, nor do they have access to any information about the physical hardware. In order to obtain such information, an application would have to find a way to "break out" of the VM, or to subvert the Gateway (perhaps through a bug in Tor or the Gateway's Linux kernel).
The Web browser pre-installed in the Workstation VM is the modified version of Mozilla Firefox provided by the Tor Project as part of its Tor Browser package. This browser has been changed to reduce the amount of system-specific information leaked to Web servers.
Since version 15, like Tails, Whonix supports an optional "amnesiac" live-mode. This combines the best of both worlds by allowing Tor's entry guard system to choose long-lived entry points for the Tor network on the Gateway, reducing the adversaries' ability to trap users by running malicious relays, while rolling back to a trusted state. Some precautions on the host may be needed to avoid data being written to the disk accidentally. Grub-live, an additional separate project, aims to allow bare-metal Debian hosts to boot into a live session, avoiding forensic remnants on disc. Additional testing to confirm the efficacy of the package is needed as of yet.
For the best defense against malicious guards, it is recommended to boot up the gateway from a pristine state and have a unique guard paired to each user activity. Users would take a snapshot to be able to switch to, and use that guard consistently. This setup guarantees that most activities of the user remain protected from malicious entry guards while not increasing the risk of running into one as a completely amnesiac system would.
Scope
Anonymity is a complex problem with many issues beyond IP address masking that are necessary to protect user privacy. Whonix focuses on these areas to provide a comprehensive solution. Some features:
Kloak - A keystroke anonymization tool that randomizes the timing between key presses. Keystroke biometric algorithms have advanced to the point where it is viable to fingerprint users based on soft biometric traits with extremely high accuracy. This is a privacy risk because masking spatial information—such as the IP address via Tor—is insufficient to anonymize users.
Tirdad - A Linux kernel module for overwriting TCP ISNs. TCP Initial Sequence Numbers use fine-grained kernel timer data, leaking correlatable patterns of CPU activity in non-anonymous system traffic. They may otherwise act as a side-channel for long running crypto operations.
Disabled TCP Timestamps - TCP timestamps leak system clock info down to the millisecond which aids network adversaries in tracking systems behind NAT.
sdwdate - A secure time daemon alternative to NTP that uses trustworthy sources and benefits from Tor's end-to-end encryption. NTP suffers from being easy to manipulate and surveil. RCE flaws were also discovered in NTP clients.
MAT 2 - Software and filesystems add a lot of extraneous information about who, what, how, when and where documents and media files were created. MAT 2 strips out this information to make file sharing safer without divulging identifying information about the source.
LKRG - Linux Kernel Runtime Guard (LKRG) is a Linux security module that thwarts classes of kernel exploitation techniques. Hardening the guest OS makes it more difficult for adversaries to break out of the hypervisor and deanonymize the user.
Documentation
The Whonix wiki includes a collection of operational security guides for tips on preserving anonymity while online. Additionally, a number of original content guides on which security tools to use, and how to use such tools, have been added over time. This includes how to access the I2P and Freenet networks over Tor.
See also
Tails (operating system)
References
External links
2012 software
Operating system security
X86-64 Linux distributions
Linux distributions |
40044707 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDrive%20Inc. | IDrive Inc. | IDrive Inc. is a technology company that specializes in data backup applications. Its flagship product is IDrive, an online backup service available to Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS (iPhone and iPad) and Android users.
Overview
Pro Softnet Corporation was founded in 1995 and is based in Calabasas, California, within Los Angeles County.
Pro Softnet Corporation's initial product was called IBackup, but it acquired the idrive.com domain name from defunct company I-drive around mid-2003.
IDrive products were mentioned by Lifehacker, Macworld, PC World, CNET, Tech Crunch, Notebook Review, PC Magazine and Engadget.
Pro Softnet Corporation has been plagued by patent infringement lawsuits and has spoken out publicly about how they are a drain on the company's resources.
Products
IDrive is an automated backup application that runs on Windows, Mac, iOS and Android. Once installed, users select folders and files to be backed up at user-specified times. IDrive offers incremental and compressed backups so users only upload modified portions of a backup file, and files may also be updated in real time with a continuous backup option. Users have the ability to limit bandwidth usage during the backup process. The previous 10 versions of a file are automatically retained and IDrive does not automatically delete backup data, even if backup files are deleted on the user's computer. Users can share their files through email, social media sites including Facebook and Twitter, and via a mobile phone application for Android, iPhone and Windows Phone.
IDrive allows a user to back up data from all compatible devices to a single account. The iDrive application runs natively on Windows, OSX, as well as on several models of NAS devices made by Synology, QNap, and Netgear.
IDrive provides multiple data retrieval options. Backup files can be accessed remotely from any Internet browser or with IDrive's client software. If a user wants access to all backup files, IDrive can ship all backup files on a 3 TB hard drive.
Files on IDrive are stored using 256-bit AES encryption allowing for an optional user-defined key that must be shared with IDrive, but which IDrive claims will not be permanently stored on their servers. IDrive also provides activity reports, backup status reports and shared file reports.
IDriveSync
IDriveSync allows a user to synchronize files across different devices.
IDrive Portable and IDrive Express
IDrive Portable is a USB hard drive designed for local backup. The hard drive has 3 terabyte of storage space and runs at 5,400 RPM.
IDrive Lite
IDrive Lite is a free application for iOS, BlackBerry and Android devices, which allows users to back up their contacts list online. Users can also restore their backup contacts to different devices, even devices that have different operating systems.
IDrive EVS
In 2012, IDrive released IDrive EVS, publicly available software development kit and API. The kit, which includes built-in encryption and a command-line API, allows users to create applications for use with IDrive's cloud storage services.
IDrive Photos
IDrive Photos is a subscription-based app for iOS and Android devices that allows users to back up photos from their phones. By default, photos are saved in their original resolution in cloud storage.
IDriveConnect - allowing users to access their Google Docs as if they were sitting in a regular folder on their computer.
IDrive 360 - Endpoint cloud backup for enterprise, IT and Service providers
References
Backup software
Companies based in California
Web hosting
File hosting for macOS
File hosting for Windows |
40057171 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BeAnywhere | BeAnywhere | BeAnywhere is a cloud computing company, focused on the development of cloud-based "advanced remote solutions". It has two main products: BASE (BeAnywhere Support Express) and inSight. BeAnywhere's software provides remote access, support, management and monitoring to workstations, including technical support, desktop sharing, file transfer, and administration tools.
True to a software-as-a-service business model, all BeAnywhere updates are free to subscribers. It is also available a 14-day trial with full features and a free professional version with limited number of sessions. BeAnywhere is compatible with iOS, Android, OS X and Microsoft Windows and it can also be used through a Java-based web console.
History
BeAnywhere was a Portuguese company owned by Ruben Dias with special focus in the development of advanced remote solutions. Before BeAnywhere, Dias had founded Euro Carisma, a computer security company which, within five years, had become one of the first Country Partners of Panda Security, a leading Anti-Virus software vendor. This background in information technology motivated Dias to found BeAnywhere in 1996. Since then, the company has expanded into the Brazilian and Portuguese Markets, and continues to show growth.
1996 - BeAnywhere was founded. It is the only remote access software producer based in Portugal
2002 - Started developing the protocol for the group's internal use
2008 - Started concept for a corporate version of BAPE (future BASE - BeAnywhere Support Express - product)
2012 - First steps to test international markets with BASE
2013 - Started BeAnywhere inSight development
2014 - BASE reaches 3 million sessions. Open offices in Canada
2015 - BeAnywhere inSight commercial launch. BASE reaches 9 million sessions.
2015 - BeAnywhere has been acquired by SolarWinds
Main features
The main features of BeAnywhere's software are:
Desktop sharing, enabling access to and control of any computer, regardless of geographic limitations. The only requirement is an internet connection. The software also allows unattended remote access.
File transfer facilities, enabling the transfer of files between remote and local machines.
An Admin Area, with options and configurations allowing managers to control technicians and support hours, view reports, create inquiries and perform other business administration tasks.
In-session chat and VoIP facilities, enabling VoIP calls with clients and collaborative tech sessions.
The software requires no installation and works regardless of firewalls and other hardware configurations.
Security
The whole session (all of its content, including but not limited to Remote Desktop, VoIP, file transfer...) is sheltered by a proprietary protocol, with guaranteed global security by the Rijndael algorithm – Advanced Encryption Standard or (AES) – using a 256 bit cipher, whether when establishing the session (the subsequently used key exchange is protected by an SSL based in Advanced Encryption Standard-cipher block chaining with Transport Layer Security v1.1) or all the way through it. Additionally, all commands containing images, computer keyboard and mouse strokes, file transfer and clipboard information have a Digital signature. All encryption is based on an end-to-end negotiation, preventing the transferred information from being intercepted or decoded it in the gateway. The encryption keys are randomly generated in each session between the Viewer and the Applet or the BASE Agent. The client can also configure a Master-Password or choose Windows Account authentication, as well as requiring a previous authorization for the machine user to launch of the session.
References
External links
Software companies of Portugal
1996 establishments in Portugal |
40061391 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation%202%20technical%20specifications | PlayStation 2 technical specifications | The PlayStation 2 technical specifications describe the various components of the PlayStation 2 (PS2) video game console.
Overview
The sixth-generation hardware of the PlayStation 2 video game console consists of various components. At the heart of the console's configuration is its central processing unit (CPU), a custom RISC processor known as the Emotion Engine which operates at 294 MHz (299 MHz in later consoles). The CPU heavily relies on its integration with two vector processing units, known as VPU0 and VPU1, the Graphics Synthesizer, and a floating-point unit (FPU) in order to render 3D graphics. Other components, such as the system's DVD-ROM optical drive and DualShock 2 controller, provide the software and user control input.
PlayStation 2 software is distributed on CD-ROM and DVD-ROM. In addition, the console can play audio CDs and DVD movies, and is backwards compatible with original PlayStation games. This is accomplished through the inclusion of the original PlayStation's CPU which also serves as the PS2's I/O processor. The PS2 also supports limited functionality with the original PlayStation memory cards and controllers. The PS2's DualShock 2 controller is an upgraded version of the PlayStation's DualShock with analog face, shoulder and D-pad buttons replacing the digital buttons of the original. Like its predecessor, the DualShock 2 controller features force feedback technology.
The standard PlayStation 2 memory card has an 8 MB capacity and uses Sony's MagicGate encryption. This requirement prevented the production of memory cards by third parties who did not purchase a MagicGate license. Memory cards without encryption can be used to store PlayStation game saves, but PlayStation games would be unable to read from or write to the card such a card could only be used as a backup. There are a variety of non-Sony manufactured memory cards available for the PlayStation 2, allowing for a larger memory capacity than the standard 8 MB. However their use is unsupported and compatibility is not guaranteed. These memory cards can have up to 128 MB storage space.
The console also features USB and IEEE 1394 expansion ports. Compatibility with USB and IEEE 1394 devices is dependent on the software supporting the device. For example, the PS2 BIOS will not boot an ISO image from a USB flash drive or operate a USB printer, as the machine's operating system does not include this functionality. By contrast, Gran Turismo 4 and Tourist Trophy are programmed to save screenshots to a USB mass storage device and print images on certain USB printers. A PlayStation 2 HDD can be installed via the expansion bay in the back of the console, and was required to play certain games, notably the popular Final Fantasy XI.
Central processing unit
CPU: MIPS III R5900-based "Emotion Engine", clocked at 294.912 MHz (299 MHz on newer versions), with 128-bit SIMD capabilities
250-nm CMOS manufacturing (ending with 65-nm CMOS), 13.5 million transistors, 225 mm² die size, 15 W dissipation (combined EE+GS in SCPH-7500x and later SCPH-7000x): 86 mm², 53.5 million transistors) (combined EE+GS+RDRAM+DRAM in SCPH-7900x ended with 65 nm CMOS design)
CPU core: MIPS R5900 (COP0), 64-bit, little endian (mipsel). CPU is a superscalar, in-order execution 2-issue design with 6-stage long integer pipelines, 32 32-bit GPR registers, 32 128-bit SIMD linear scalar registers, two 64-bit integer ALUs, 128-bit load-store unit (LSU) and a branch execution unit (BXU).
Instruction set: MIPS III, MIPS IV subset with Sony's proprietary 107 vector SIMD multimedia instructions (MMI). The custom instruction set was implemented by grouping the two 64-bit integer ALUs.
32-bit FPU coprocessor (COP1) with 6-stage long pipeline (floating point multiply accumulator × 1, floating point divider × 1). FPU is not IEEE compliant.
Two 32-bit VLIW-SIMD vector units at 294.912 MHz: VPU0 and VPU1 (floating point multiply accumulator × 9, floating point divider × 1) each VPU contains a vector unit (VU), instruction cache, data cache and interface unit. Each vector unit also has upper execution unit containing 4 × FMAC and lower execution unit containing FDIV, integer ALU, load-store unit, branch logic, 16 16-bit integer registers and 32 128-bit floating point registers. VPU1 has an additional EFU unit.
VPU0 (COP2; FMAC × 4, FDIV × 1) is tightly coupled with the main CPU and is typically used for polygon and geometry transformations (under parallel or serial connection), physics and other gameplay related tasks
VPU1 (Elementary Functional Unit, EFU; FMAC × 5, FDIV × 2) operates independently controlled by microcode, parallel to the CPU core, is typically used for polygon and geometry transformations, clipping, culling, lighting and other visual based calculations (texture matrix able for 2 coordinates (UV/ST))
Parallel: results of VU0/FPU sent as another display list via MFIFO (for e.g. complex characters/vehicles/etc.)
Serial: results of VU0/FPU sent to VU1 (via 3 methods) and can act as an optional geometry pre-processor that does all base work to update the scene every frame (for e.g. camera, perspective, boning and laws of movement such as animations or physics)
Image Processing Unit (IPU): MPEG-2 compressed image macroblock layer decoder allowing playback of DVDs and game FMV. It also allowed vector quantization for 2D graphics data.
Memory management unit (MMU), RDRAM controller and DMA controller: handle memory access within the system
Cache memory: 16 KB instruction cache, 8 KB + 16 KB scratchpad (ScrP) data cache
Scratchpad (SPR) is extended area of memory visible to the EE CPU. This extended memory provides 16 kilobytes of fast RAM available to be used by the application. Scratchpad memory can be used to store temporary data that is waiting to be sent via DMA or for any other temporary storage that the programmer can define.
Interfaces
I/O processor interconnection: remote procedure call over a serial link, DMA controller for bulk transfer
Main RDRAM memory bus. Bandwidth: 3.2 GB/s
Graphics interface (GIF), DMA channel that connects the EE CPU to the GS co-processor. To draw something to the screen, one must send render commands to the GS via the GIF channel: 64-bit, 150 MHz bus, maximum theoretical bandwidth of 1.2 GB/s.
Display lists generated by CPU/VPU0 and VPU1 are sent to the GIF, which prioritizes them before dispatching them to the Graphics Synthesizer for rendering.
Vector Unit Interface (VIF), consists of two DMA channels VIF0 for VPU0 and VIF1 for VPU1. Vector units and the main CPU communicate via VIF DMA channels.
SIF – Serial Interface or Subsystem Interface which consists of 3 DMA channels:
Subsystem Interface 0 (SIF0) and Subsystem Interface 1 (SIF1), used for communication between the EE main CPU and IOP co-processor. These are serial DMA channels where both CPUs can send commands and establish communication through an RPC protocol.
Subsystem Interface 2 (SIF2), used for backwards compatibility with PS1 games and debugging.
Performance
Floating point performance: 6.2 GFLOPS (single precision 32-bit floating point)
FPU 0.64 GFLOPS
VU0 2.44 GFLOPS
VU1 3.08 GFLOPS (Including internal 0.64 GFLOPS EFU)
Tri-strip geometric transformation (VU0+VU1): 150 million vertices per second
3D CG geometric transformation with raw 3D perspective operations (VU0+VU1): 66–80+ million vertices per second
3D CG geometric transformations at peak bones/movements/effects (textures)/lights (VU0+VU1, parallel or series): 15–20 million vertices per second
Lighting: 38 million polygons/second
Fog: 36 million polygons/second
Curved surface generation (Bezier): 16 million polygons/second
Image processing performance: 150 million pixels/second
Actual real-world polygons (per frame): 500–650k at 30FPS, 250–325k at 60FPS
Instructions per second: 6,000 MIPS (million instructions per second)
System memory
Main memory: 32 MB PC800 32-bit dual-channel (2x 16-bit) RDRAM (Direct Rambus DRAM) @ 400 MHz, 3.2 GB/s peak bandwidth
Graphics processing unit
Parallel rendering processor with embedded DRAM "Graphics Synthesizer" (GS) clocked at 147.456 MHz
279 mm² die (combined EE+GS in SCPH-7500x: 86 mm², 53.5 million transistors)
Programmable CRT controller (PCRTC) for output
Pixel pipelines: 16 without any texture mapping units (TMU), however half of pixel pipelines can perform texturing, so fillrate is either 16 pixels per clock with untextured 2400 Mpixels; or 8 pixels per clock with 1200 megapixels with bilinear texturing, and 1200 megatexels (bilinear).
Video output resolution: Variable from 256×224 to 1920×1080
4 MB of embedded DRAM as video memory (an additional 32 MB of main memory can be used as video memory for off-screen textures); 48 gigabytes per second peak bandwidth
Texture buffer bandwidth: 9.6 GB/s
Frame buffer bandwidth: 38.4 GB/s
eDRAM bus width: 2560-bit (composed of three independent buses: 1024-bit write, 1024-bit read, 512-bit read/write)
Pixel configuration: RGB:alpha, 24:8, 15:1; 16-, 24-, or 32-bit Z-buffer
Display color depth: 32-bit (RGBA: 8 bits each)
Dedicated connection to main CPU and VU1
Overall pixel fillrate: 16 × 147Mpix/s = 2.352 gigapixel/s
1.2 gigapixel/s (with Z-buffer, alpha, and texture)
With no texture, flat shaded: 2.4Gpix/s (75,000,000 32-pixel raster triangles)
With 1 full texture (diffuse map), Gouraud shaded: 1.2Gpix/s (37,750,000 32-bit pixel raster triangles)
With 2 full textures (diffuse map and specular, alpha, or other), Gouraud shaded: 0.6Gpix/s (18,750,000 32-bit pixel raster triangles)
Texture fillrate: 1.2 Gtexel/s
Sprite drawing rate: 18.75 million/s (8×8 pixels)
Particle drawing rate: 150 million/s
Polygon drawing rate: 75 million/s (small polygon)
50 million/s (48-pixel quad with Z and A)
30 million/s (50-pixel triangle with Z and A)
25 million/s (48-pixel quad with Z, A and T)
16 million/s (75-pixel triangle with Z, A, T and fog)
VESA (maximum 1280×1024 pixels)
3 rendering paths (path 1, 2 and 3) GS effects include: Dot3 bump mapping (normal mapping),, mipmapping, spherical harmonic lighting, alpha blending, alpha test, destination alpha test, depth test, scissor test, transparency effects, framebuffer effects, post-processing effects, perspective-correct texture mapping, edge-AAx2 (poly sorting required), bilinear, trilinear texture filtering, multi-pass, palletizing (6:1 ratio 4-bit; 3:1 ratio 8-bit), offscreen drawing, framebuffer mask, flat shading, Gouraud shading, cel shading, dithering, texture swizzling.
Multi-pass rendering ability
Four passes: 300 Mpixel/s (300 Mpixels/s divided by 32 pixels = 9,375,000 triangles/s lost every four passes)
Audio
Audio: "SPU1+SPU2" (SPU1 is actually the CPU clocked at 8 MHz and SPU2 is PS1 SPU)
Sound Memory: 2 MB
Number of voices: 48 hardware channels of ADPCM on SPU2 plus software-mixed definable, programmable channels
Sampling Frequency: 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz (selectable)
PCM audio source
Digital effects include:
Pitch Modulation
Envelope
Looping
Digital Reverb
Load up to 512K of sampled waveforms
Supports MIDI Instruments
Output: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound, DTS (Full motion video only), later games achieved matrix encoded 5.1 surround during gameplay through Dolby Pro Logic II
I/O processor (IOP)
Input Output Processor (IOP)
I/O Memory: 2 MB EDO DRAM
CPU Core: Original PlayStation CPU (MIPS R3000A clocked at 33.8688 MHz or 37.5 MHz+PS1 GTE and MDEC for backwards compatibility with PS1 games)
Automatically underclocked to 33.8688 MHz to achieve hardware backwards compatibility with original PlayStation format games.
Sub Bus: 32-bit
Connection to: SPU and CD/DVD controller.
Replaced with PowerPC-based "Deckard" IOP with 4 MB SDRAM starting with SCPH-7500x.
Connectivity
2 proprietary PlayStation controller ports (250 kHz clock for PS1 and 500 kHz for PS2 controllers)
2 proprietary Memory Card slots using MagicGate encryption (250 kHz for PS1 cards. Up to 2 MHz for PS2 cards with an average sequential read/write speed of 130 kbit/s)
2 USB 1.1 ports with an OHCI-compatible controller
AV Multi Out (Composite video, S-Video, RGBS (SCART), RGsB (SCART or VGA connector), YPBPR (component), and D-Terminal)
RFU DC Out
S/PDIF Digital Out
Expansion Bay for 3.5-inch HDD and Network Adaptor (required for HDD, SCPH-300xx to 500xx only)
PC Card slot for Network Adaptor (PC Card type) and External Hard Disk Drive (SCPH-10000, SCPH-15000, SCPH-18000 models)
Emotion Engine (EE) includes an on-chip Serial I/O port(SIO) used internally by the EE's kernel to output debugging and messages and to start the kernel debugger.
Ethernet port (Slim only)
i.LINK (also known as FireWire) (SCPH-10000 to 3900x only)
Infrared remote control port (SCPH-500xx and newer)
Standard RGB mode only allows interlaced modes up to 480i(NTSC) and 576i(PAL) and progressive up to 240p. A display or adapter capable of Sync-on-green (RGsB) is necessary for higher modes. Furthermore, the PS2's Macrovision copy protection isn't compatible with either RGB mode, thus DVDs cannot be played with RGB. Motherboard modifications have been known to bypass both issues.
VGA connector is only available for progressive-scan supporting games, homebrew-enabled systems, and Linux for PlayStation 2, and requires a monitor that supports RGsB, or "sync on green," signals.
Contrary to popular belief, the PS2's YPBPR/component output fully supports 240p and games from the original PlayStation. However, 240p output isn't part of the YPBPR standard, thus not all HDTVs support it. Upscaling can be used as a workaround.
Optical disc drive
Disc Drive type: proprietary interface through a custom micro-controller + DSP chip. 24x speed CD-ROM [3.6 MB/s], 4x speed DVD-ROM [5.28 MB/s] — region-locked with copy protection.
Supported Disc Media: PlayStation 2 format CD-ROM, PlayStation format CD-ROM, CD-DA, PlayStation 2 format DVD-ROM, DVD Video. DVD5 (Single-layer, 4.7 GB) and DVD9 (Dual-layer, 8.5 GB) supported. Later models starting with SCPH-500xx are DVD+RW and DVD-RW compatible.
See also
PlayStation technical specifications
PlayStation 3 technical specifications
PlayStation 4 technical specifications
References
Hardware
Video game hardware |
40106257 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penzu | Penzu | Penzu is a private online diary-hosting website. Users can create written entries similar to a standard personal journal and can also upload photos from their devices. Penzu uses a freemium business model with special paid features including unique fonts, AES encryption, rich text formatting, and others. As of 2014, the website had over 1 million users in 170 countries worldwide.
History
Penzu was founded in 2008 in Toronto by Alexander Mimran (CEO), Simon Wilkinson (CTO), and Michael Lawlor (former CTO). Mimran took out a second mortgage on his house in order to initially fund Penzu. Capital has come only in the form of self-funding and customer revenue through PayPal. Three thousand users signed up during the company's first week of operation. The early version of the website mimicked standard notebooks with no custom fonts, colors, themes, or other distinguishing features. In 2009, Penzu launched a paid "Pro" option that cost $19 per year. Features that came with the Pro version included AES encryption, tagged posts, rich text editing, offsite backups, new themes, and other customization options. Opening a journal, making private posts, and several other customization features remained free.
In 2011, the company announced that it was serving over 250,000 users. It also released Penzu apps for Android and iOS devices. Both apps could only be used in conjunction with a Penzu Pro subscription. In 2012, Penzu launched a new platform called "Penzu Classroom" designed for teachers and students. With the service, teachers can create a Penzu journal and allow their students to add to that journal with their own accounts.
In 2014, Penzu underwent a full relaunch, which included a redesigned website, free syncing between mobile and web apps, and other new features. At the time, the company had around 1.1 million users in 170 countries across the world.
Service
Penzu offers an online cloud-based diary platform that is designed to be private by default. It is free to sign up for Penzu and to create entries, upload images, and share posts selectively. The Penzu Pro plan offers several other features. These features include unique customization options like fonts, colors, themes, and others; 256-bit AES encryption; tagging; importing and exporting (as, for example, a PDF); rich text formatting; the ability to post by email; reminders; and numerous others. The site's encryption feature works for entire journals. If the password is lost for a particular journal, then that entry cannot be retrieved under any circumstance. Other Pro features include Looking Glass, which sends excerpts of older posts to the journal owner via email, and Legacy, which allows users to choose specific individuals to access the journal after the journal owner's death.
Penzu Classroom is another feature offered by Penzu. It is designed for teachers who can open a Penzu journal and allow students to write their own entries with their own accounts. Penzu Classroom also allows teachers to grade and comment on student-submitted entries.
References
External links
Canadian companies established in 2008
Online companies of Canada
Computer companies established in 2008 |
40191165 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavabit | Lavabit | Lavabit is an open-source encrypted webmail service, founded in 2004. The service suspended its operations on August 8, 2013 after the U.S. Federal Government ordered it to turn over its Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) private keys, in order to allow the government to spy on Edward Snowden's email.
Lavabit's owner and operator, Ladar Levison, announced on January 20, 2017 that Lavabit would start operating again, using the new Dark Internet Mail Environment (DIME), which is an end-to-end email encryption platform designed to be more surveillance-resistant. However, as of June 2017, while the DIME transition was being completed, service was only being offered to past customers and those who took advantage of the early signup offer. As of October 2017, the ability for new customers to purchase service was again being offered.
History
Lavabit was founded by Texas-based programmers who formed Nerdshack LLC, renamed Lavabit LLC the next year, who cited privacy concerns about Gmail, Google's free, widely used email service, and their use of the content of users' email to generate advertisements and marketing data. Lavabit offered significant privacy protection for their users' email, including asymmetric encryption. The strength of the cryptographic methods used was of a level that is presumed impossible for even intelligence agencies to crack. In August 2013, Lavabit had about 410,000 users and offered free and paid accounts with levels of storage ranging from 128 megabytes to 8 gigabytes. In January 2011, Lavabit had launched a shared web hosting service.
Before the Snowden incident, Lavabit had complied with previous search warrants. For example, in June 2013 a search warrant was executed against a Lavabit account for suspected possession of child pornography.
Connection to Edward Snowden
Lavabit received media attention in July 2013 when it was revealed that Edward Snowden was using the Lavabit email address [email protected] to invite human rights lawyers and activists to a press conference during his confinement at Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow. The day after Snowden revealed his identity, the United States federal government served a court order, dated June 10, 2013, and issued under 18 USC 2703(d), a 1994 amendment of the Stored Communications Act, asking for metadata on a customer who was unnamed. Kevin Poulsen of Wired wrote that "the timing and circumstances suggest" that Snowden was this customer. In July 2013 the federal government obtained a search warrant demanding that Lavabit give away the private SSL keys to its service affecting all Lavabit users. A 2016 redaction error confirmed that Edward Snowden was the target.
Suspension and gag order
On August 8, 2013, Lavabit suspended its operations, and the email service log-in page was replaced by a message from the owner and operator Ladar Levison. The New Yorker suggested that the suspension might be related to the US National Security Agency (NSA)'s "domestic-surveillance practices". Wired speculated that Levison was fighting a warrant or national security letter seeking customer information under extraordinary circumstances, as Lavabit had complied with at least one routine search warrant in the past. Levison stated in an interview that he has responded to "at least two dozen subpoenas" over the lifetime of the service. He hinted that the objectionable request was for "information about all the users" of Lavabit.
Levison explained he was under gag order and that he was legally unable to explain to the public why he ended the service. Instead, he asked for donations to "fight for the Constitution" in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Levison also stated he has even been barred from sharing some information with his lawyer. Meanwhile, the Electronic Frontier Foundation called on the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to provide greater transparency to the public, in part to help observers "understand what led to a ten-year-old business closing its doors and a new start-up abandoning a business opportunity".
Levison said that he could be arrested for closing the site instead of releasing the information, and it was reported that the federal prosecutor's office had sent Levison's lawyer an email to that effect.
Lavabit is believed to be the first technology firm that has chosen to suspend or shut down its operation rather than comply with an order from the United States government to reveal information or grant access to information. Silent Circle, an encrypted email, mobile video and voice service provider, followed the example of Lavabit by discontinuing its encrypted email services. Citing the impossibility of being able to maintain the confidentiality of its customers' emails should it be served with government orders, Silent Circle permanently erased the encryption keys that allowed access to emails stored or transmitted by its service.
In September 2013 Levison appealed the order that resulted in the closing of his website.
Levison and his lawyer made two requests to Judge Claude M. Hilton to unseal the records, both of which were denied. They also launched an appeals case regarding legality of the original warrant. The appeals court then requested the records to be unsealed, and Judge Hilton granted the request. On October 2, 2013, the Federal District Court in Alexandria, Virginia unsealed records in this case, but only censored the name and detail of the target of the search order. Wired suggested the target was likely Snowden. The court records show that the FBI sought Lavabit's Transport Layer Security (TLS/SSL) private key. Levison objected, saying that the key would allow the government to access communications by all 400,000 customers of Lavabit. He also offered to add code to his servers that would provide the information required just for the target of the order. The court rejected this offer because it would require the government to trust Levison and stated that just because the government could access all customers' communication did not mean they would be legally permitted to do so. Lavabit was ordered to provide the SSL key in machine readable format by noon, August 5 or face a fine of $5000 per day. Levison closed down Lavabit 3 days later.
On October 14, 2013, Levison announced he would allow Lavabit users to change their passwords until October 18, 2013, after which they could download an archive of their emails and personal data.
The court documents stated that on July 13 Levison sent an open letter to the assistant US attorney, offering to give email metadata (without email content, usernames or passwords) to the FBI if it paid him $2,000 "to cover the cost of the development time and equipment necessary to implement my solution" and $1,500 to give data "intermittently during the collection period".
Afterwards, Levison wrote that after being contacted by the FBI, he was subpoenaed to appear in federal court, and was forced to appear without legal representation because it was served on such short notice; in addition, as a third party, he had no right to representation, and was not allowed to ask anyone who was not an attorney to help find him one. He also wrote that in addition to being denied a hearing about the warrant to obtain Lavabit's user information, he was held in contempt of court. The appellate court denied his appeal due to no objection, however, he wrote that because there had been no hearing, no objection could have been raised. His contempt of court charge was also upheld on the ground that it was not disputed; similarly, he was unable to dispute the charge because there had been no hearing to do it in. He also wrote that "the government argued that, since the 'inspection' of the data was to be carried out by a machine, it was exempt from the normal search-and-seizure protections of the Fourth Amendment."
Legacy
One year after the suspension of Lavabit, its founder Ladar Levison announced a specification for the Dark Internet Mail Environment (DIME) at DEF CON 22. It is under development by the Dark Mail Alliance.
In April 2014, after a contempt of court conviction for providing the key as a printout was upheld by an appeals court, he described the initiative to Ars Technica as "a technological solution which would take the decision away from the will of man."
In November 2015, Levison said that work on DIME was still progressing, although slower than he would like. As of July 2016, posts to the Dark Mail Alliance forum suggest that all collaborators have left the project and Ladar has been working on DIME alone.
Relaunch
On January 20, 2017, Lavabit owner Ladar Levison relaunched the service. Per the wording of the announcement, this date was apparently timed to coincide with the inauguration of Donald Trump (though he was not mentioned by name). The service has been revamped to use the Dark Internet Mail Environment protocols and software that Ladar had been working on for the past few years. This DIME platform, and the associated Magma open source email server, are designed to use end-to-end email encryption in such a way that when operating with the highest security settings, subpoenas cannot force service providers to give governments access to customer email (or be forced to shut down in order to avoid this). When using the maximum security settings, even an attacker breaking into DIME servers would have no feasible way to access customer emails, leaving client-side attacks as likely the only potential points of vulnerability.
See also
Comparison of mail servers
Comparison of webmail providers
References
External links
Lavabit's Ladar Levison: 'If You Knew What I Know About Email, You Might Not Use It' Forbes, August 8, 2013.
, October 23, 2013
Interview with Ladar Levison BBC News, January 31, 2014.
Lavabit Founder: Gov’t "Bold-Faced Lies" & Mass Surveillance Effort Forced Me to Close My Company | Democracy Now! 2014/5/22
Email clients
2004 establishments in Texas
Privacy in the United States
Privacy of telecommunications
History of cryptography
Internet properties established in 2004
Products and services discontinued in 2013 |
40212550 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid%20Cryptofiler | Acid Cryptofiler | Acid Cryptofiler is a cryptographic software program designed by the department for "control of information" (Centre d’Electronique de l’Armement) of the French General Directorate of Armament (Direction générale de l'armement). It is an online storage service. The software is now manufactured by ACID Technologies (France).
History
Acid Cryptofiler is on a list of cryptographic software approved for usage by the European Union and by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, and is known to have been used by those organizations as well as by the European Parliament and European Commission since the summer of 2011. It was approved for usage in the EU, in version V7, on 29 September 2011.
In January 2013, as the Red October campaign was being discovered, researchers noted that the malware particularly targeted documents with .acid extensions, referring to documents processed by Acid Cryptofiler, including the file extensions acidcsa, acidsca, aciddsk, acidpvr, acidppr, and acidssa.
Overview
Acid Cryptofiler is based on the integration of government cryptographic libraries, including a CCSD API (CCSD means "Defense Security Cryptographic Layers"). It offers the following functions:
Asymmetric encryption (cf. public-key cryptography) in archive format (multi-file, multi-recipient) called Acid Archives.
Volume encryption (containers) in symmetric mode and asymmetric mode.
Acid Cryptofiler is delivered with a directory function to file public keys, that is compliant with LDAP and Active Directory.
A bunch file contains all public keys held by a user. A user can belong to different cryptographic domains (a domain is a CCSD library and a set of cryptographic parameters). Private keys are also stored in a bunch file.
The keys are generated by a centralized office under the responsibility of the chief information security officer. Before a user is given a key (or a pair of keys), he/she must be trusted by the centralized office. In France, Acid Cryptofiler does not fit for defense classified information.
Acid Cryptofiler was designed and developed by the Direction générale de l'armement. . It runs on Microsoft Windows. The software is classified.
According to a book by Gérald Bronner, Acid Cryptofiler was so slow that sending an email took 10 minutes.
References
Cryptographic software |
40280591 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure%20instant%20messaging | Secure instant messaging | Secure instant messaging is a form of instant messaging. Both terms refer to an informal means for computer users to exchange messages commonly referred to as "chats". Instant messaging can be compared to texting as opposed to making a mobile phone call. In the case of messaging, it is like the short form of emailing. Secure instant messaging is a specialized form of instant messaging that along with other differences, encrypts and decrypts the contents of the messages such that only the actual users can understand them.
Instant messaging background
Instant messaging has existed in some form or another for decades. Generally, it is a process by which users on a computer network can quickly communicate with one another using short text-based sentences rather than using email. Each user has a piece of software that communicates with a common server that connects the chat sessions. Over the past few years, two distinct settings for the use of instant messaging have evolved.
The first is the corporate or institutional environment composed of many potential users but who are all under the same organizational umbrella.
The second setting is individual users "after work" or at home who do not have a mission-oriented commonality between them, but are more likely family and friends.
In the corporate setting, security risks are apparent from the outset. What stops a disgruntled employee from messaging some sensitive company data to a colleague outside the enterprise? The reverse of that would be the example disgruntled employee downloading some virus or spyware onto his machine inside the corporate firewall to release as desired. Accordingly, organizational offerings have become very sophisticated in their security and logging measures. Typically, an employee or organization member must be granted a login and suitable permissions to use the messaging system. This creating of a specific account for each user allows the organization to identify, track and record all use of their messenger system on their servers.
The specialized requirements of the organizational messaging system, however, run almost completely contrary to what an individual user may need. Typically non-organizational use instant messengers advertise their availability to the Internet at large so that others may know if that person is online. The trend has been too that manufacturers of instant messaging clients offer interoperability with other manufacturer's clients.
This competitive edge grew out of the heretofore use of proprietary communications protocols used by the client manufacturers. Compatibility between clients is likely to become almost universal, as a unified messenger protocol (the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP)) is being adopted by more and more manufacturers. The XMPP has been, at least in part, formalized by the Internet Engineering Task Force as RFC 6120, RFC 6121 and RFC 6122 which will further the trend towards instant messaging standardization.
For the typical social individual user this product evolution spells greater ease of use and more features.
Traits of a secure instant messenger
In November 2014, the Electronic Frontier Foundation listed seven traits that contribute to the security of instant messengers:
Having communications encrypted in transit between all the links in the communication path.
Having communications encrypted with keys the provider does not have access to (end-to-end encryption).
Making it possible for users to independently verify their correspondent's identity e.g. by comparing key fingerprints.
Having past communications secure if the encryption keys are stolen (forward secrecy).
Having the source code open to independent review (open source).
Having the software's security designs well-documented.
Having a recent independent security audit.
In addition, the security of instant messengers may further be improved if they:
Do not log or store any information regarding any message or its contents.
Do not log or store any information regarding any session or event.
Do not rely on a central authority for the relaying of messages (decentralized computing).
Recent news events have revealed that the NSA is not only collecting emails and IM messages but also tracking relationships between senders and receivers of those chats and emails in a process known as metadata collection. Metadata refers to the data concerned about the chat or email as opposed to contents of messages. It may be used to collect valuable information.
See also
Comparison and overview of secure messengers
Comparison of user features of messaging platforms
References
Internet Relay Chat
Videotelephony |
40281611 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%20Imitation%20Game | The Imitation Game | The Imitation Game is a 2014 American historical drama film directed by Morten Tyldum and written by Graham Moore, based on the 1983 biography Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges. The film's title quotes the name of the game cryptanalyst Alan Turing proposed for answering the question "Can machines think?", in his 1950 seminal paper "Computing Machinery and Intelligence". The film stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Turing, who decrypted German intelligence messages for the British government during World War II. Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Rory Kinnear, Charles Dance, and Mark Strong appear in supporting roles.
The Imitation Game was released theatrically in the United States on November 28, 2014. The film grossed over $233 million worldwide on a $14 million production budget, making it the highest-grossing independent film of 2014. It received eight nominations at the 87th Academy Awards, winning for Best Adapted Screenplay, five nominations at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards, and three nominations at the 21st Screen Actors Guild Awards. It also received nine BAFTA nominations, and won the People's Choice Award at the 39th Toronto International Film Festival.
The film was criticized by some for its inaccurate portrayal of historical events, and for downplaying Turing's homosexuality, a key element of his original struggles. However, the LGBT civil rights advocacy organization the Human Rights Campaign honored it for bringing Turing's legacy to a wider audience with its subtle and realistic approach.
Plot
In 1951, two policemen, Nock and Staehl, investigate the mathematician Alan Turing after an apparent break-in at his home. During his interrogation by Nock, Turing tells of his time working at Bletchley Park during the Second World War.
In 1928, the young Turing is unhappy and bullied at boarding school. He develops a friendship with Christopher Morcom, who sparks his interest in cryptography. Turing develops romantic feelings for him, but Christopher soon dies from bovine tuberculosis.
When Britain declares war on Germany in 1939, Turing travels to Bletchley Park. Under the direction of Commander Alastair Denniston, he joins the cryptography team of Hugh Alexander, John Cairncross, Peter Hilton, Keith Furman, and Charles Richards. The team are trying to analyze the Enigma machine, which the Nazis use to send coded messages.
Turing is difficult to work with, and considers his colleagues inferior; he works alone to design a machine to decipher Enigma messages. After Denniston refuses to fund the construction of the machine, Turing writes to Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who puts Turing in charge of the team and funds the machine. Turing fires Furman and Richards and places a difficult crossword in newspapers to find replacements. Joan Clarke, a Cambridge graduate, passes Turing's test but her parents will not allow her to work with the male cryptographers. Turing arranges for her to live and work with the female clerks who intercept the messages and shares his plans with her. With Clarke's help, Turing warms to the other colleagues, who begin to respect him.
Turing's machine, which he names Christopher, is constructed, but cannot determine the Enigma encryption settings quickly enough; the Germans reset them each day. Denniston orders it to be destroyed and Turing fired, but the other cryptographers threaten to leave if Turing goes. After Clarke plans to leave on the wishes of her parents, Turing proposes marriage, which she accepts. During their reception, Turing confirms his homosexuality to Cairncross, who warns him to keep it secret. After overhearing a conversation with a female clerk about messages she receives, Turing has an epiphany, realising he can program the machine to decode words he already knows exist in certain messages. After he recalibrates the machine, it quickly decodes a message and the cryptographers celebrate, but Turing realises they cannot act on every decoded message or the Germans will realise Enigma has been broken.
Turing discovers that Cairncross is a Soviet spy. When Turing confronts him, Cairncross argues that the Soviets are allies working for the same goals, and threatens to retaliate by disclosing Turing's sexuality. When the MI6 agent Stewart Menzies appears to threaten Clarke, Turing reveals that Cairncross is a spy. Menzies reveals he knew this already and planted the messages Cairncross leaks to the Soviets for British benefit. Fearing for her safety, Turing tells Clarke to leave Bletchley Park, revealing that he is a homosexual. Clarke states she always suspected but insists they would have been happy together anyway. Turing then tells her he never cared for her, and only used her for her cryptography skills. Heartbroken, she decides to stay anyway, deeming this the single most important task she'll undertake, and she now refuses to cow to what Turing or her parents want her to do, or think of her decisions. After the war, Menzies tells the cryptographers to destroy their work and that they should never see one another again or share what they have done.
In 1952, Turing is convicted of gross indecency and, in lieu of a jail sentence, undergoes chemical castration so he can continue his work. Clarke visits him in his home and witnesses his physical and mental deterioration. She comforts him by saying that his work saved millions of lives.
The epilogue reveals that after a year of government-mandated hormonal therapy, Turing committed suicide on June 7, 1954. In 2013, Queen Elizabeth II granted Turing a posthumous Royal Pardon, honouring his work which would eventually go on to create the modern computer.
Cast
Production
Before Cumberbatch joined the project, Warner Bros. bought the screenplay for a reported seven-figure sum because of Leonardo DiCaprio's interest in playing Turing. In the end, DiCaprio did not come on board and the rights of the script reverted to the screenwriter. Black Bear Pictures subsequently committed to finance the film for $14 million. Various directors were attached during development including Ron Howard and David Yates. In December 2012, it was announced that Headhunters director Morten Tyldum would helm the project, making the film his English-language directorial debut.
Principal photography began on September 15, 2013 in Britain. Filming locations included Turing's former school, Sherborne, Bletchley Park, where Turing and his colleagues worked during the war, and Central Saint Martins campus on Southampton Row in London. Other locations included towns in England such as Nettlebed (Joyce Grove in Oxfordshire) and Chesham (Buckinghamshire). Scenes were also filmed at Bicester Airfield and outside the Law Society building in Chancery Lane, and at West London Film Studios. Principal photography finished on November 11, 2013.
The bombe seen in the film is based on a replica of Turing's original machine, which is housed in the museum at Bletchley Park. However, production designer Maria Djurkovic admitted that her team made the machine more cinematic by making it larger and having more of its internal mechanisms visible.
The film's title refers to Turing's proposed test of the same name, which he discussed in his 1950 paper on artificial intelligence entitled "Computing Machinery and Intelligence".
The Weinstein Company acquired the film for $7 million in February 2014, the highest amount ever paid for US distribution rights at the European Film Market. The film is also a recipient of Tribeca Film Festival's Sloan Filmmaker Fund, which grants filmmakers funding and guidance with regard to innovative films that are concerned with science, mathematics, and technology.
Music
In June 2014, it was announced that Alexandre Desplat would provide the original score of the film. It was recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios in London. Desplat uses continuous piano arpeggios to represent both Turing's thinking mind and the workings of a mechanical machine. He said of the complexity of the continuity and structure of the score:
[W]hen the camera at the end of the film has those beautiful shots of the young boy, the young Alan, and he's meeting with the professor who's telling him his friend Christopher is dead, and the camera is pushing in on him, I play Christopher's theme that we heard very early on in the film. There's a simple continuity there. It's the accumulation of these moments that I can slowly but surely play that make it even stronger.
The score received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score, losing to the score of The Grand Budapest Hotel, also composed by Desplat.
Release
Marketing
Following the Royal Pardon granted by the British government to Turing on December 24, 2013, the filmmakers released the first official promotional photograph of Cumberbatch in character beside Turing's bombe. In the week of the anniversary of Turing's death in June 2014, Entertainment Weekly released two new stills which marked the first look at the characters played by Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Matthew Beard, and Allen Leech. On what would have been Turing's 102nd birthday on June 23, Empire released two photographs featuring Mark Strong and Charles Dance in character. Promotional stills were taken by photographer Jack English, who also photographed Cumberbatch for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
Princeton University Press and Vintage Books both released film tie-in editions of Andrew Hodges' biography Alan Turing: The Enigma in September 2014. The first UK and US trailers were released on July 22, 2014. The international teaser poster was released on September 18, 2014 with the tagline "The true enigma was the man who cracked the code".
In November 2014, the Weinstein Company co-hosted a private screening of the film with Digital Sky Technologies billionaire Yuri Milner and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Attendees of the screening at Los Altos Hills, California included Silicon Valley's top executives, such as Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, LinkedIn's Reid Hoffman, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Airbnb's Nathan Blecharczyk, and Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. Director Tyldum, screenwriter Moore, and actress Knightley were also in attendance. In addition, Cumberbatch and Zuckerberg presented the Mathematics Prizes at the Breakthrough Awards on November 10, 2014 in honour of Turing.
The bombe re-created by the filmmakers has been on display in a special The Imitation Game exhibition at Bletchley Park since November 10, 2014. The year-long exhibit features clothes worn by the actors and props used in the film.
The official film website allowed visitors to unlock exclusive content by solving cryptic crossword puzzles supposedly conceived by Turing. The website puzzle was a shorter version of the Daily Telegraph puzzle of January 13, 1942 that was actually used in Bletchley Park recruitment during the war (and the puzzle was not set by Turing, who was no good at them). Google, which sponsored the New York Premiere of the film, launched a competition called "The Code-Cracking Challenge" on November 23, 2014. It is a skill contest where entrants must crack a code provided by Google. The prize/s will be awarded to entrant/s who crack the code and submit their entry the fastest.
In November 2014, ahead of the film's US release, The New York Times reprinted the 1942 puzzle from The Daily Telegraph used in recruiting codebreakers at Bletchley Park during the Second World War. Entrants who solved the puzzle could mail in their results for a chance to win a trip for two to London and a tour of Bletchley Park.
TWC launched a print and online campaign on January 2, 2015 featuring testimonials from leaders in the fields of technology, military, academia, and LGBTQ groups (all influenced by Turing's life and accomplishments) to promote the film and Turing's legacy. Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, PayPal co-founder Max Levchin, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, and Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales all gave tribute quotes. There were also testimonials from LGBT leaders including HRC president Chad Griffin and GLAAD CEO Sarah Kate Ellis and from military leaders including the 22nd United States Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
Theatrical release
The film had its world premiere at the 41st Telluride Film Festival in August 2014, and played at the 39th Toronto International Film Festival in September. It had its European premiere as the opening film of the 58th BFI London Film Festival in October 2014. It began a limited theatrical release on November 28, 2014 in the United States, two weeks after its premiere in the United Kingdom on November 14. The US distributor TWC stated that the film would initially debut in four cinemas in Los Angeles and New York, expanding to six new markets on December 12, before being released nationwide on Christmas Day.
Home media
The Imitation Game was released on March 31, 2015 in the United States in two formats: a one-disc standard DVD and a Blu-ray with a digital copy of the film.
Reception
Box office
The Imitation Game grossed $91.1 million in North America and $142.4 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $233.5 million, against a budget of $14 million. It was the top-grossing independent film release of 2014.
The film opened at number two at the UK box office behind the big-budget film Interstellar, earning $4.3 million from 459 screens. Its opening box office figure was the third highest opening weekend haul for a British film in 2014. Its opening was 107% higher than that of Argo, 81% higher than Philomena and 26% higher than The Iron Lady following its debut.
Debuting in four cinemas in Los Angeles and New York on November 28, the film grossed $479,352 in its opening weekend with a $119,352 per-screen-average, the second highest per-screen-average of 2014 and the 7th highest of all time for a live-action film. Adjusted for inflation, it outperformed the Weinstein Company's own Oscar-winning films The King's Speech ($88,863 in 2010) and The Artist ($51,220 in 2011), which were also released on Thanksgiving weekend. The film expanded into additional markets on December 12 and was released nationwide on Christmas Day.
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 89% based on 285 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "With an outstanding starring performance from Benedict Cumberbatch illuminating its fact-based story, The Imitation Game serves as an eminently well-made entry in the 'prestige biopic' genre." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 73 out of 100, based on 49 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". The film received a rare average grade of "A+" from market-research firm CinemaScore, and a 90% "definite recommend" rating from its core audience, according to PostTrak. It was also included in both the National Board of Review and American Film Institute's "Top 10 Films of 2014".
The New York Observers Rex Reed declared that "one of the most important stories of the last century is one of the greatest movies of 2014". Kaleem Aftab of The Independent gave the film a five-star review, hailing it the "Best British Film of the Year". Empire described it as a "superb thriller" and Glamour declared it "an instant classic". Peter Debruge of Variety added that the film is "beautifully written, elegantly mounted and poignantly performed". Critic Scott Foundas stated that the "movie is undeniably strong in its sense of a bright light burned out too soon, and the often undignified fate of those who dare to chafe at society's established norms". Critic Leonard Maltin asserted that the film has "an ideal ensemble cast with every role filled to perfection". Praise went to Knightley's supporting performance as Clarke, Goldenberg's editing, Desplat's score, Faura's cinematography and Djurkovic's production design. The film was enthusiastically received at the Telluride Film Festival and won the "People's Choice Award for Best Film" at TIFF, the highest prize of the festival.
Cumberbatch's performance was met with widespread acclaim from critics. TIME ranked Cumberbatch's portrayal number one in its Top 10 film performances of 2014, with the magazine's chief film critic Richard Corliss calling Cumberbatch's characterisation "the actor's oddest, fullest, most Cumberbatchian character yet ... he doesn't play Turing so much as inhabit him, bravely and sympathetically but without mediation". Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times declared Turing "the role of Cumberbatch's career", while A.O. Scott of The New York Times stated that it is "one of the year's finest pieces of screen acting". Peter Travers of Rolling Stone asserted that the actor "gives an explosive, emotionally complex" portrayal. Critic Clayton Davis stated that it is a "performance for the ages ... proving he's one of the best actors working today". Foundas of Variety wrote that Cumberbatch's acting is "masterful ... a marvel to watch", Manohla Dargis of The New York Times described it as "delicately nuanced, prickly and tragic" and Owen Gleiberman of the BBC proclaimed it an "emotionally tailored perfection". It is "a storming performance from Cumberbatch: you'll be deciphering his work long after the credits roll" declared Dave Calhoun of Time Out. In addition, Claudia Puig of USA Today concluded in her review, "It's Cumberbatch's nuanced, haunted performance that leaves the most powerful impression". The Hollywood Reporters Todd McCarthy reported that the undeniable highlight of the film was Cumberbatch, "whose charisma, tellingly modulated and naturalistic array of eccentricities, talent at indicating a mind never at rest and knack for simultaneously portraying physical oddness and attractiveness combine to create an entirely credible portrait of genius at work". Gossip blogger Roger Friedman wrote at the end of his review, "Cumberbatch may be the closest thing we have to a real descendant of Sir Laurence Olivier".
While praising the performances of Cumberbatch and Knightley, Catherine Shoard of The Guardian stated that the film is "too formulaic, too efficient at simply whisking you through and making sure you've clocked the diversity message". Tim Robey of The Telegraph described it as "a film about a human calculator which feels ... a little too calculated". Some critics also raised concerns about film's alleged reluctance to highlight Turing's homosexuality. British historian Alex von Tunzelmann, writing for The Guardian in November 2014, pointed out many historical inaccuracies in the film, saying in conclusion: "Historically, The Imitation Game is as much of a garbled mess as a heap of unbroken code". Journalist Christian Caryl also found numerous historical inaccuracies, describing the film as constituting "a bizarre departure from the historical record" that changed Turing's rich life to be "multiplex-friendly". L.V. Anderson of Slate magazine compared the film's account of Turing's life and work to the biography it was based on, writing, "I discovered that The Imitation Game takes major liberties with its source material, injecting conflict where none existed, inventing entirely fictional characters, rearranging the chronology of events, and misrepresenting the very nature of Turing's work at Bletchley Park". Andrew Grant of Science News wrote, "... like so many other Hollywood biopics, it takes some major artistic license – which is disappointing, because Turing's actual story is so compelling." Computing historian Thomas Haigh, writing in the journal Communications of the ACM, said that "the film is a bad guide to reality but a useful summary of everything that the popular imagination gets wrong about Bletchley Park", that it "combines the traditional focus of popular science writing on the lone genius who changes the world with the modern movie superhero narrative of a freak who must overcome his own flaws before he can save the world", and that, together with the likes of A Beautiful Mind and The Theory of Everything, is part of a trend of "glossy scientific biopic[s]" that emphasize those famous scientists who were surrounded by tragedy rather than those who found contented lives, which in turn affects the way "[s]ome kinds of people, and work, have become famous and others have not."
The Turing family
Despite earlier reservations, Turing's niece Inagh Payne told Allan Beswick of BBC Radio Manchester that the film "really did honour my uncle" after she watched the film at the London Film Festival in October 2014. In the same interview, Turing's nephew Dermot Turing stated that Cumberbatch is "perfect casting. I couldn't think of anyone better." James Turing, a great-nephew of the code-breaker, said Cumberbatch "knows things that I never knew before. The amount of knowledge he has about Alan is amazing."
Social action
In January 2015, Cumberbatch, comedian-actor Stephen Fry, producer Harvey Weinstein, and Turing's great-niece Rachel Barnes launched a campaign to pardon the 49,000 gay men convicted under the same law that led to Turing's chemical castration. An open letter published in The Guardian urged the British government and the Royal family, particularly Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, to aid the campaign.
The Human Rights Campaign's Chad Griffin also offered his endorsement, saying: "Over 49,000 other gay men and women were persecuted in England under the same law. Turing was pardoned by Queen Elizabeth II in 2013. The others were not. Honor this movie. Honor this man. And honor the movement to bring justice to the other 49,000." Aiding the cause were campaigner Peter Tatchell, Attitude magazine, and other high-profile figures in the gay community.
In February 2015, Matt Damon, Michael Douglas, Jessica Alba, Bryan Cranston, and Anna Wintour among others joined the petition at Pardon49k.org demanding pardons for victims of anti-gay laws. Historians, including Justin Bengry of Birkbeck University of London and Matt Houlbrook of the University of Birmingham, argued that such a pardon would be "bad history" despite its political appeal, because of the broad variety of cases in which the historical laws were applied (including cases of rape) and the distortion of history resulting from an attempt to clean up the wrongdoings of the past post facto. Bengry also cites the existing ability of those convicted under repealed anti-homosexuality laws to have their convictions declared spent.
This petition eventually resulted in the Policing and Crime Act 2017, informally known as the Alan Turing law, which serves as an amnesty law to pardon men who were cautioned or convicted under historical legislation that outlawed homosexual acts, and which was implemented on January 31, 2017. As the law and the disregard process applies only to England and Wales, groups in Northern Ireland and Scotland have campaigned for equivalent laws in their jurisdictions.
Controversy
During production, there was criticism regarding the film's purported downplaying of Turing's homosexuality, particularly condemning the portrayal of his relationship with close friend and one-time fiancée Joan Clarke. Hodges, author of the book upon which the film was based, described the script as having "built up the relationship with Joan much more than it actually was". Turing's niece Payne thought that Knightley was inappropriately cast, as she described the real Clarke as "rather plain", and said: "I think they might be trying to romanticize it. It makes me a bit mad. You want the film to show it as it was, not a lot of nonsense."
Speaking to Empire, director Tyldum expressed his decision to take on the project: "It is such a complex story. It was the gay rights element, but also how his (Turing's) ideas were kept secret and how incredibly important his work was during the war, that he was never given credit for it". In an interview for GQ UK, Matthew Goode, who plays fellow cryptographer Hugh Alexander in the film, stated that the script focuses on "Turing's life and how as a nation we celebrated him as being a hero by chemically castrating him because he was gay". The producers of the film stated: "There is not – and never has been – a version of our script where Alan Turing is anything other than homosexual, nor have we included fictitious sex scenes."
In a January 2015 interview with The Huffington Post, its screenwriter Graham Moore said in response to complaints about the film's historical accuracy:
When you use the language of "fact checking" to talk about a film, I think you're sort of fundamentally misunderstanding how art works. You don't fact check Monet's Water Lilies. That's not what water lilies look like, that's what the sensation of experiencing water lilies feel like. That's the goal of the piece.
In the same interview, Tyldum stated:
A lot of historical films sometimes feel like people reading a Wikipedia page to you onscreen, like just reciting "and then he did that, and then he did that, and then he did this other thing" – it's like a "Greatest Hits" compilation. We wanted the movie to be emotional and passionate. Our goal was to give you "What does Alan Turing feel like?" What does his story feel like? What'd it feel like to be Alan Turing? Can we create the experience of sort of "Alan Turing-ness" for an audience based on his life?
For the most part, Hodges has not commented on the historical accuracy of the film, alluding to contractual obligations involving the film rights to his biography.
Historical inaccuracies
Several events depicted in the film did not happen in real life. The visual blog Information is Beautiful deduced that, while taking creative licence into account, the film was just 42.3% accurate when compared to real-life events, summarizing that "shoe-horning the incredible complexity of the Enigma machine and cryptography in general was never going to be easy. But this film just rips the historical records to shreds".
Historical events
The naming of the Enigma-breaking machine "Christopher" after Turing's childhood friend, with Turing the only cryptographer working on it while others either did not help or outright opposed it.
In reality, this electromechanical machine was called "Victory" and it was a collaborative, not individual, effort. It was a British Bombe machine, which was partly inspired by a design by the Polish cryptanalyst Marian Rejewski. Rejewski designed a machine in 1938, called bomba kryptologiczna, which had broken an earlier version of Germany's Enigma machines by the Polish Cipher Bureau before the Second World War.
A new machine with a different strategy was designed by Turing in 1940 with a major contribution from mathematician Gordon Welchman who goes unmentioned in the film. His contribution is instead attributed to Hugh Alexander.
The building of only one machine, with Turing playing a large role in its construction.
More than 200 British Bombes were built under the supervision of chief engineer Harold Keen of the British Tabulating Machine Company. None of them were built at Bletchley Park.
The overall plot arc in which the British cryptographers were stymied for the first few years of the war and then a sudden breakthrough enabled them to finally break Enigma.
In reality, the Polish cryptanalysts Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Różycki and Henryk Zygalski from the Polish Cipher Bureau had been breaking German Enigma messages since 1932. Their effort allowed the Poles to build replicas of German machines in Warsaw for the Polish secret service. Just before the war, the Polish secret service revealed their work to their French and British allies in a secret meeting on July 26 and 27, 1939, in Pyry near Warsaw. Thousands of men and women were working on the project by the time the war ended in 1945. The computing advances did not obviate the need for human labour, as the many teams of largely female operators certainly knew. Throughout the war, there were breakthroughs and setbacks when the design or use of the German Enigma machines was changed and the Bletchley Park code breakers had to adapt.Moreover, the breakthrough depicted in the film gives the impression that the Bombe was developed first, and only became effective later, after Turing suddenly realises that deciphering could be made easier by looking for known or speculated items contained in an intercepted message. In reality, this is a cryptanalysis technique known as employing a crib, and the use of this technique predated the construction of the Bombe and had already been used in manual attacks on Enigma.
The suggestion that Enigma was the only German cipher broken at Bletchley Park.
The breaking of the Lorenz cipher, codenamed "Tunny", arguably made just as important a contribution to Ultra intelligence as the breaking of Enigma, and breaking Tunny was in many ways more difficult. Neither the Tunny effort nor its main contributors, mathematician W. T. "Bill" Tutte and electrical engineer Tommy Flowers, are mentioned in the film. The Colossus computer they built goes unmentioned by name in the film, although there is an implicit suggestion that Turing was responsible for it, which he was not.
The scene where the Hut 8 team decides not to use broken codes to stop a German raid on a convoy that the brother of one of the code breakers (Peter Hilton) is serving on, to hide the fact they have broken the code.
In reality, Hilton had no such brother, and decisions about when and whether to use data from Ultra intelligence were made at much higher administrative levels.
The sequence in which Turing writes a letter to Churchill to gain control over the project and obtain funding for the decryption machine.
Turing was actually not alone in making a different request with a number of colleagues, including Hugh Alexander, writing a letter to Churchill (who had earlier visited there) in an effort to have more administrative resources sent to Bletchley Park, which Churchill immediately did.
The recruitment of Joan Clarke as a result of an examination after solving a crossword puzzle in a newspaper.
In reality, Joan Clarke was recruited by her former academic supervisor, Gordon Welchman, to the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS). Puzzles were used by Bletchley Park in recruitment but neither Turing nor Clarke were ever involved with them.
Turing's personality and personal life
The presentation of Turing's social difficulties as so severe as to suggest Asperger syndrome or some form of autism.
While a few writers and researchers have tried to assign such a retrospective diagnosis to Turing, and it is true that he had his share of eccentricities, the Asperger's-like traits portrayed in the film – social awkwardness, difficulty working co-operatively with others, and tendency to take things too literally – bear little relationship to the actual adult Turing. Despite enjoying working alone, Turing was sociable and had friends, was also viewed as having a sense of humour, and had good working relationships with colleagues.
The scenes depicting Turing's childhood friend, including the manner in which Turing learned of Morcom's illness and death.
The sequence, which brackets the whole film, in which Turing is arrested in 1951 when a detective suspects him of being a Soviet spy, which leads to the discovery that Turing is gay.
Turing's arrest was in 1952. The detective in the film and the interview as portrayed are fictional. Turing was investigated for his homosexuality after a robbery at his house and was never investigated for espionage.
The suggestion that chemical castration made Turing unable to think clearly or do any work.
Despite physical weakness and changes in Turing's body including gynaecomastia, at that time he was doing innovative work on mathematical biology, inspired by the very changes his body was undergoing due to chemical castration. While the physical changes distressed Turing, his friends did not notice any meaningful changes to his disposition or comportment in the period between the beginning of his castration and his death.
The scene in which Clarke visits Turing in his home while he is serving probation.
There is no record of Clarke ever visiting Turing's residence during his probation, although Turing did stay in touch with her after the war and informed her of his forthcoming trial for indecency.
The statement that Turing committed suicide after a year of hormone treatment.
In reality, the nature of Turing's death is a matter of considerable debate. The chemical castration period ended 14 months before his death. The official inquest into his death ruled that he had committed suicide by consuming a cyanide-laced apple. Turing biographer Andrew Hodges believes the death was indeed a suicide, re-enacting the poisoned apple from Snow White, Turing's favourite fairy tale, with some deliberate ambiguity included to permit Turing's mother to interpret it as an accident. However, Jack Copeland, an editor of volumes of Turing's work and Director of the Turing Archive for the History of Computing, has suggested that Turing's death may have been accidental, caused by the cyanide fumes produced by an experiment in his spare room, and that the investigation was poorly conducted.
Personalities and actions of other characters
The depiction of Commander Denniston as a rigid officer, bound by military thinking and eager to shut down the decryption machine when it fails to deliver results.
Denniston's grandchildren stated that the film takes an "unwarranted sideswipe" at their grandfather's memory, showing him to be a "baddy" and a "hectoring character" who hinders the work of Turing. They said their grandfather had a completely different temperament from the one portrayed in the film and was entirely supportive of the work done by cryptographers under his command. There is no record of the film's depicted interactions between Turing and Denniston. Indeed, before the war, Denniston recruited lecturers at Oxford and Cambridge, and Turing, Welchman, and others began working part-time for him then. Turing was always respected and considered one of the best code-breakers at Bletchley Park and in short order took on the role of a leader there.
All the interactions between Turing and Stewart Menzies, head of the British Secret Intelligence Service.
There are no records showing that they interacted at all during Turing's time at Bletchley Park.
An espionage subplot involving Turing and Soviet spy John Cairncross.
Turing and Cairncross worked in different areas of Bletchley Park and there is no evidence they ever met. Alex Von Tunzelmann was angered by this subplot (which suggests that Turing was for a while blackmailed into not revealing Cairncross as a spy lest his homosexuality be revealed), writing that "creative licence is one thing, but slandering a great man's reputation – while buying into the nasty 1950s prejudice that gay men automatically constituted a security risk – is quite another."
Hugh Alexander is said to have won the British Chess Championship twice near the beginning of the film.
Although this is true, he won it once in 1938 and the second time in 1956, after the war.
In the scene where Joan Clarke arrives at Bletchley park for the first time she travels there on a coach with vehicle registration HOD 75.
This vehicle registration was not issued until 1949, several years after the end of the war.
Accolades
The Imitation Game was nominated for, and received, numerous awards, with Cumberbatch's portrayal of Turing particularly praised. The film and its cast and crew were also honoured by Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBT civil rights advocacy group and political lobbying organisation in the United States. "We are proud to honor the stars and filmmakers of The Imitation Game for bringing the captivating yet tragic story of Alan Turing to the big screen", HRC president Chad Griffin said in a statement.
References
External links
The Imitation Game (2014) at History vs. Hollywood
Cultural depictions of Alan Turing
Bletchley Park
2014 films
2014 independent films
2014 LGBT-related films
2014 thriller drama films
2014 war drama films
American films
American independent films
American LGBT-related films
American thriller drama films
American war drama films
Cryptography in fiction
2010s English-language films
Biographical films about computer and internet entrepreneurs
Films scored by Alexandre Desplat
Films based on biographies
Films directed by Morten Tyldum
Films set in Buckinghamshire
Films shot in England
Films shot in Buckinghamshire
Films shot in Dorset
Films shot in Oxfordshire
Films set in the 1920s
Films set in the 1930s
Films set in the 1940s
Films set in the 1950s
Films set in England
Gay-related films
LGBT-related thriller drama films
World War II films
Films whose writer won the Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award
American nonlinear narrative films
Biographical films about mathematicians
2014 drama films
Homophobia in fiction
Films about anti-LGBT sentiment
The Weinstein Company films
Biographical films about LGBT people |
40284069 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/InstantGo | InstantGo | InstantGo or Modern Standby (formerly Connected Standby) is a Microsoft specification for Windows 8 (and later) hardware and software that aims to bring smartphone-type power management capabilities to the PC platform, as well as increasing physical security.
Description
The specification describes a Microsoft proprietary standard for Windows 8 software and hardware that developers and hardware vendors can optionally comply with to enable devices to be turned on and off instantly. It also allows the operating system to continue performing background tasks, such as updating content from apps, when a device is not being used. Devices must be able to turn on in less than 500 milliseconds. The hardware requirements extend to battery life, in that systems must not drain more than 5% of battery capacity while idle over a 16-hour period.
It requires the following:
A firmware flag indicating support for the standard
The boot volume must not use a hard disk drive
Support for NDIS 6.30 by all network devices
Passive cooling on standby
Trusted Platform Module 2.0
There are additional security-specific requirements, for example for memory to be soldered to the motherboard to prevent cold boot attack vectors that involve removing memory from the machine , as well as support for Secure Boot.
On Windows 8.1, supporting InstantGo and having a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 chip will allow the device to use a passive device encryption system.
Compliant platforms also enables full BitLocker Device encryption. A background service that encrypts the whole system which can be found in 'Settings'>'Device'>'About' page in Windows 10.
Limitations
Systems that support this specification are incapable of booting legacy BIOS operating systems. PCs with Modern Standby also cannot manually enter the Sleep power state and OEMs will often block S3 and S4 power states at the firmware level.
See also
Advanced Configuration and Power Interface
Trusted Computing Group
Unified Extensible Firmware Interface
References
Further reading
BIOS
Windows 8 |
40312341 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven%20Stalinsky | Steven Stalinsky | Steven Stalinsky is an expert on the Middle East, terrorism and terrorist use of the Internet, and encryption technologies, and has served as Executive Director of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) since 1999. Since 2006, his research has focused on detailing and developing strategies against cyber jihad, describing how terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda, ISIS, and others use the Internet, social media, and encryption for propaganda, recruiting, and hacking. He was an early advocate of calling on the tech community to take stronger action on removing terrorist content from their platforms and for creating industry standards to combat it.
Research on terrorist use of social media
Stalinsky has published extensive research and documentation of the use of Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Tumblr and other social media by Al-Qaeda and ISIS. He has been interviewed about terrorist use of social media by Fox News, The Washington Post, The Telegraph, the South China Morning Post, The Washington Times, The Mercury News, The Hill, WIRED, and The Daily Telegraph.
Vice's social media website, Motherboard, reported on MEMRI research co-authored by Stalinsky. Stalinsky was credited by Fast Company with publishing "one of the only studies to date" on how Jihadists use the social media service Instagram. In the article, Stalinsky noted that much of this content also appeared on other corners of the Internet and was shared via other forms of social media. Stalinsky was one of the first to write about terrorist use of the encrypted messaging app Telegram in his research report, 'Supporters of the Islamic State' – Anatomy Of A Private Jihadi Group On Encrypted App Telegram. He also debated the issue with the app's founder, Pavel Durov, via Twitter. Stalinsky has been interviewed numerous times about his research on terrorist use of Telegram, VK and encryption, including articles from The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, Voice of America, The Hill, SCmagazine.com, CNN, NBC, The Jerusalem Post, The Los Angeles Times, Discovery, FedScoop, The Dallas Morning News, Homeland Security Today, Wired, CBS, Business Insider and others.
Stalinsky's research on Al-Qaeda's online magazine Inspire was cited in a U.S. Department of Justice terrorism case. The U.S. government used translations and analysis quoted in Stalinsky's research as Exhibit 1 to answer a lawsuit by the father of Anwar Al-Awlaki, who petitioned President Barack Obama, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and CIA Director Leon Panetta, seeking his son's removal from the U.S. government's "kill list."
In 2013 and 2014, several media organizations used Stalinsky's research describing the indoctrination and exploitation of young children by Al-Qaeda and other Jihadist groups. A Voice of America article quoted Stalinsky, "There is a concerted effort by Al-Qaeda central and splinter groups – greater than ever – to concentrate on children. Al-Qaeda has realized that this is an effective way for the group to spread its ideology and grow."[ A Washington Post article included Stalinsky's research, quoting him, "This is the future threat... These are the children of Al-Qaeda." Fox News also reported on the issue and included his research.
Research for the Middle East Media Research Institute
Mr. Stalinsky has authored over 100 (nonacademic) research reports while at the Middle East Media Research Institute, on issues ranging from reform in the Arab world to online activity by Al-Qaeda, ISIS, the Taliban and other terrorist organizations, as well as their use of encryption technology. Other research reports detailed terrorist use of U.S.-based libraries such as the Internet Archive, Arab and Iranian hacking groups and more. He was one of the first to write about Jihadism's use of social media, including YouTube, Twitter and Telegram, with a series of research reports on specific terrorist activity, such as Hezbullah's presence on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and apps from Google Play and iTunes. He also reported on the thousands of YouTube videos – with over 3 million views at that time – featuring extremist Yemeni-American sheikh Anwar Al-Awlaki . Stalinsky led early efforts to persuade YouTube to add a feature to flag terrorist content, and one of his reports documented his 2010 meeting with Google officials on this matter. Another report detailed his years of effort to prompt Twitter to take action about Jihadis' use of their social networking service – efforts which culminated in a 2013 Congressional letter to the FBI urging them to take action.
Stalinsky authored a report for the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) titled, "Will President-Elect Trump Defeat Cyber Jihad?" The report describes how Islamic terrorists use social media and the Internet for recruitment, fundraising, planning and propaganda, and calls on the Trump administration to address the issue. It calls on the Trump administration to bring together technology experts and researchers in a Bletchley Park like setting and urges the government to be forward thinking on the issue.
Chronicling Al-Qaeda leader Adam Gadahn
Stalinsky first wrote about Gadahn on September 13, 2006, when the New York Sun published, “A Jewish Musician's Son Joins Al Qaeda's Ranks,” by Stalinsky. The op-ed provides details of the life of Adam Gadahn (born Pearlman), the American who left his home in California to join the ranks of Al-Qaeda. Gadahn was put on the FBI's Most Wanted list in 2004, reportedly received training at terrorist camps in Afghanistan and was sent to Baltimore on a suicide-bombing mission. The op-ed notes Gadahn's appearances in several Al-Qaeda media productions, including his formal introduction in a September 2, 2006 video by then-Al-Qaeda second-in-command Ayman Al-Zawahiri.
After the United States Government announced it had killed Gadahn in a drone attack, Stalinsky wrote “Why Adam Gadahn’s Killing Matters to Al Qaeda,” which was published in Homeland Security Today on May 19, 2015. The op-ed discusses the significance of Adam Gadahn's death to Al-Qaeda, and his role as part of the organization's media outreach efforts to the Western world. Stalinsky notes that Gadahn was one of the few people remaining in contact with Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Stalinsky also points out that, as an Al-Qaeda propagandist, Gadahn's story could resonate with susceptible populations in the United States and other Western countries, and expand the organization's effort to reach a broader audience.
A longer version of the article "Why Adam Gadahn's Killing Matters to Al Qaeda" appeared as MEMRI Daily Brief 45 on the website of MEMRI on April 24, 2015. On the one-year anniversary of Gadahn's death, Stalinsky wrote, “Revisiting American Al-Qaeda Spokesman And Leader Adam Gadahn's Influence On The First Anniversary Of His Death." Stalinsky also authored a report published on September 8, 2016, "Al-Qaeda's U.S.-Born Leader Adam Gadahn and 9/11" that includes a very detailed report on Al-Qaeda's American spokesman Adam Gadahn.
Stalinsky's book about Adam Gadahn, AMERICAN TRAITOR: The rise and fall of Al-Qaeda's U.S.-Born Leader Adam Gadahn, provides detailed background on Gadahn's life story, including his American upbringing, his conversion to Islam and subsequent radicalization, his move to Pakistan, the translation and video work he did for Al-Qaeda, and how he became accepted by Al-Qaeda's top echelons - including the architects of the September 11 attacks. Gadahn was the first American since WWII to be indicted for treason by the U.S. Government. In writing the book, Stalinsky had access to research from the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), including videos featuring Gadahn and a lengthy interview Gadahn made for publication after his death.
Research on terrorist use of drones
Stalinsky co-authored a major study for MEMRI on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s and other Jihadi organizations use of drones that has been cited by many media outlets. The Washington Post subsequently interviewed Stalinsky for an article on how ISIS [Islamic State] uses Unmanned aerial vehicle. The website TheStreet.com interviewed Stalinsky for an article about ISIS and drones. The website MeriTalk.com quoted Stalinsky for an article on ISIS and UAVs. A Discover article draws on a report authored by Stalinsky.
See also
MEMRI
Hezbollah
Islamic terrorism
References
External links
Articles.washingtonpost.com
Living people
American nonprofit executives
American non-fiction writers
Year of birth missing (living people)
Place of birth missing (living people) |
40312974 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox%20modding | Xbox modding | Xbox modding is the practice of circumventing the built-in hardware and software security mechanisms of the Xbox video game console.
History
The popularity of the Xbox, as well as (in the United States) its comparatively short 90-day warranty, inspired efforts to circumvent the built-in hardware and software security mechanisms, a practice known as "cracking". Within a few months of its release the initial layer of security on the Xbox BIOS (which relied heavily on obfuscation) was broken by MIT student Andrew Huang and the contents of the "hidden" boot ROM embedded on the MCPx chip were extracted using some custom built hardware. Once this information was available, the code was soon modified so that it would skip digital signature checks and media flags, allowing unsigned code, Xbox game backups, etc., to be run. This was possible due to a number of critical flaws. A flaw in the RC4 encryption algorithm implemented by Microsoft, used to encrypt the Secret ROM, gave attackers means to use brute-force attacks effectively, giving access to the console's secret RC4 key, the second part of the bootloader, '2bl', and the kernel. The 'visor' bug, found by a hacker who never revealed his real name, was a critical flaw found in the console, due in part to Microsoft's decisions around suppliers for the microchips for use in the console. All of Microsoft's Xbox prototypes were, in fact, AMD. Hackers from the Xbox Linux team checked with AMD employees and explained that AMD chips throw an exception in the case of EIP overflows, but Intel CPU's do not. visor used XCodes to write the assembly instruction for “jmp 0xFFFF0000” to the memory location 00000000 in RAM, and changed the last four bytes in 2bl, in order to make the secret ROM run the panic code. The Secret ROM then 'falls down' to Flash memory where it can be captured. Another flaw exposed poor decisions around sandboxing games and savegame data. Plenty of Xbox games had buffer vulnerabilities in their savegame handlers. It is possible to use most USB sticks with the Xbox, and just store hacked savegames on them. It was often as easy as extending the length of strings like the name of the player, and the game would overwrite its stack with data and eventually jump to the code embedded in the savegame. The procedure for the user was then to simply copy a hacked savegame from a USB stick onto the Xbox hard disk, run the game and load the save-game. But after a buffer exploit, we would expect only to be in user mode - but not on the Xbox, as all Xbox games run in kernel mode. The Dashboard loads its files from hard disk, and with savegame exploits modifying hard disk content was possible. The Dashboard and its dependencies were RSA-2048 signed, apart from two files: the fonts. An integer vulnerability allowed for unsigned code to be run. Coupled with the savegame exploit, this made 'cracking' a console as easy as transferring a modified savegame and loading it, running a script to modify the font files. Now every time the Xbox is turned on, the Dashboard crashes because of the fonts and runs code embedded in these files. The code reloads the Dashboard with the original fonts, hacks it, and runs it. Modding an Xbox in any manner will void its warranty, as it may require disassembly of the console. Having a modified Xbox may also disallow it from accessing Xbox Live, if detected by Microsoft, as it contravenes the Xbox Live Terms of Use, but most modchips can be disabled, allowing the Xbox to boot in a "stock" configuration. Softmods can be disabled by "coldbooting" a game (having the game in the DVD drive before turning the console on, so the softmod is not loaded) or by using a multiboot configuration.
Methods
Modchip: installing a modchip inside the Xbox that bypasses the original BIOS, with a hacked BIOS to circumvent the security mechanisms.
TSOP flashing: reflashing the onboard BIOS chip with a hacked BIOS to circumvent the security mechanisms. The Xbox BIOS is contained on a commodity EEPROM (the 'TSOP'), which can be made writable by the Xbox by bridging points on the motherboard. Flashing is usually carried out by using a specially crafted gamesave (see 'Game save exploit', below) to flash the onboard TSOP, but the TSOP can also be de-soldered and re-written in a standard EEPROM programmer. This method only works on 1.0 to 1.5 Xboxes, as version 1.6 (the final hardware version produced) replaced the commodity TSOP with an LPC ROM contained within a proprietary chip.
Softmods: installing additional software files to the Xbox hard drive, which exploit programming errors in the Dashboard to gain control of the system, and overwrite the in-memory copy of the BIOS. Soft modification is known to be safe for Xbox Live if the user enables multibooting with the Microsoft dashboard and an original game disc is used.
Game save exploit: using select official game releases to load game saves that exploit buffer overflows in the save game handling. When these special game saves are loaded, they access an interface with scripts for installing the necessary softmod files. Disassembly of the Xbox is not required when installing most game save exploits.
Hot swapping: using a computer to change the data on the hard drive. This requires having the Xbox unlock the hard drive when it is turned on, then swapping the powered hard drive into a running computer. By using a Linux-based Live CD, data on the hard drive can be read, altered, and deleted. In most cases, an automated script will automatically install the softmod files directly to the Xbox hard drive. This technique has been used extensively to harbor cheating on many online games. Disassembly of the console is required to perform a hot swap. It's the least recommended as it might shock the Xbox hardware or the user's PC components.
Alternative operating systems
Beyond gaming, a modded Xbox can be used as a media center with XBMC4Xbox.
There are also distributions of Linux developed specifically for the Xbox, including those based on Gentoo, Debian, Damn Small Linux and Dyne:bolic.
List of alternative operating systems:
Xbox Linux is a project that ported Linux to the Xbox.
FreeBSD and NetBSD have also been ported to Xbox.
Windows CE
ReactOS
A port of Windows XP is available on some modding websites but this usually involves removing the CPU and resoldering a different Pentium III as well as a heavily modified BIOS.
References
Xbox (console)
Hacker culture |
40315660 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemon%20Wallet | Lemon Wallet | Lemon Wallet was a cloud-based digital wallet that allowed users to store digital copies of credit cards, debit cards, reward cards, as well as identification, and other card information. The service was released in July 2011 and the company is based in Palo Alto, California, United States. Wences Casares was the company's CEO.
The Lemon Network platform, launched in July 2013, connected payment information from Lemon Wallet directly to a merchant for payment processing.
In December 2013, Lemon Wallet was acquired by LifeLock.
Services and products
Lemon used OCR technology to store and organize users' information from various cards (IDs, health insurance, credit, debit, rewards, etc.) and receipts. An upgraded version allowed users to monitor bank accounts and includes expanded security features such as credit card balance monitoring, alerts for questionable charges, card expiration reminders, and the ability to cancel and restore cards. Lemon also allowed users to store receipt data. The service also organized expense reports (using receipt data), which could be accessed from the web application or mobile device. This data could also be used to submit expense reports. A freemium version of the service was available, as well as a paid subscription. The Lemon application was compatible with iOS, Android, and Windows Phone devices.
History and product developments
Beta version
The company released the beta version of the service as an expense tracking and management service in July 2011. It soft-launched at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference's startup alley in September 2011 and officially launched in October 2011. In February 2012, the company announced it had reached one million users.
Lemon Wallet App
Lemon received $8 million in a funding round led by Maveron in May 2012. Other investors in the Series A round included Lightspeed Venture Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, CampVentures, and Social+Capital Partnership. The round followed Lemon's release of the Lemon Wallet app, a service designed to store credit, debit, health insurance, and ID card information using the same photo system the company utilized for expense management. The extended capabilities allowed users to backup everything in their wallet using Lemon's cloud-based, PIN protected database. The app's security features include a 256-bit encryption as well as the ability for the user to remote-wipe sensitive information if the mobile device is lost or stolen.
Beginning in September 2012, Lemon customers could access cards stored in their Lemon account through Apple's Passbook service.
Application upgrade
In May 2013, Lemon announced an upgraded expense reporting tool. The enhancement to the Lemon Wallet granted users the ability to have their receipts and e-receipts processed through lemon.com and saved as a PDF copy and a CSV or XLS format copy to be compatible with other expense software. Lemon CEO Wences Casares has reported that as of May 2013, the digital wallet service is capturing and storing approximately 1,000 new cards every hour.
On December 12, 2013, it was announced that LifeLock, Inc., a provider of identity theft protection services, acquired Lemon.
Security issues
On May 16, 2014, LifeLock, Inc. announced that it had temporarily disabled the mobile application due to a security flaw. Despite there being no evidence that user information had been compromised, LifeLock deleted all data stored by current users. Previously, LifeLock was fined $12 million for "deceptive business practices and for failing to secure sensitive customer data".
References
External links
Official website
Lemon Wallet on Facebook
Financial services companies established in 2011
Companies based in Palo Alto, California
Payment systems
Mobile payments
2013 mergers and acquisitions |
40316085 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation%203%20homebrew | PlayStation 3 homebrew | Some enthusiasts participate in homebrew for the PlayStation 3 video game console. Homebrew software was first run on the PS3 by a group of hackers under the name "Team Ice" by exploiting a vulnerability in the game Resistance: Fall of Man. Following various other hacks executed from Linux, Sony removed the ability to install another operating system in the 3.21 firmware update. This event caused backlash among the hacker communities, and eventually the group Fail0verflow found a flaw in the generation of encryption keys which they leveraged to restore the ability to install Linux. George Hotz (Geohot), often misattributed as the genesis of homebrew on the PS3, later created the first homebrew signed using the private "metldr" encryption key which he leaked onto the internet. The action of leaking the key led to Hotz being sued by Sony. The court case was settled out of court, with the result of George Hotz not being able to further reverse engineer the PS3.
Private key compromised
At the 2010 Chaos Communication Congress (CCC) in Berlin, a group calling itself fail0verflow announced it had succeeded in bypassing a number of the PlayStation 3's security measures, allowing unsigned code to run without a dongle. They also announced that it was possible to recover the Elliptic Curve DSA (ECDSA) private key used by Sony to sign software, due to a failure of Sony's ECDSA implementation to generate a different random number for each signature. However, fail0verflow chose not to publish this key because it was not necessary to run homebrew software on the device. The release of this key would allow anyone to sign their code and therefore be able to run it on any PlayStation 3 console. This would also mean that no countermeasures could be taken by Sony without rendering old software useless, as there would be no distinction between official and homebrew software. On January 3, 2011, geohot published the aforementioned private key, represented in hexadecimal as C5 B2 BF A1 A4 13 DD 16 F2 6D 31 C0 F2 ED 47 20 DC FB 06 70, as well as a Hello world program for the PS3. On January 12, 2011, Sony Computer Entertainment America filed lawsuits against both fail0verflow and geohot for violations of the DMCA and CFAA. The suit against geohot was settled at the end of March, 2011, with geohot agreeing to a permanent injunction.
Custom firmware (CFW)
To allow for homebrew using the newly discovered encryption keys, several modified versions of system update 3.55 have been released by Geohot and others. The most common feature is the addition of an "App Loader" that allows for the installation of homebrew apps as signed DLC-like packages. Although Backup Managers could run at that time, they could not load games at first even though some success had been made by making backups look like DLC games and then signing them. An LV2 patch was later released to allow Backup Managers to load game backups and was later integrated into the Managers themselves so that it doesn't have to be run whenever the PS3 is restarted.
PS3 System Software update 3.56 tried to patch Miha's exploit for 3.55, however, within a day the system was circumvented again. This caused Sony to release another update shortly after, 3.60, which was secure against circumvention.
However, users may choose not to update and games requiring a firmware version above 3.55 can be patched to run on v3.55 or lower. Soon after v3.60 was released, updates to the PlayStation Network were conducted to block any methods known that allowed PSN access on firmware older than the latest required official firmware (v4.87 ), thereby blocking users who chose not to update.
A custom firmware known as "Rebug", released on March 31, 2011, gave retail PS3s most of the options and functionality of debug/developer PS3 units. One week later, tutorials became available allowing users to download PSN content for free, using fake (rather than stolen) credit card numbers. One April 12 report described hackers using the jailbroken firmware to access the dev-PSN to get back on games like Call of Duty, with widespread reports of cheating. While some sources blamed Rebug for the subsequent intrusion to Sony's private developer network, Time "Techland" described such theories as "highly—as in looking down at the clouds from the tip-top of Mount Everest highly—speculative".
In late 2017, there was a tool released to convert 4.82 PS3 to . A new exploit toolset was released in 2020.
See also
PlayStation 3 Jailbreak
Notes
References
Homebrew
Homebrew software |
40379651 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM | IBM | International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) is an American multinational technology corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, with operations in over 171 countries. The company began in 1911, founded in Endicott, New York, by trust businessman Charles Ranlett Flint, as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) and was renamed "International Business Machines" in 1924. IBM is incorporated in New York.
IBM produces and sells computer hardware, middleware and software, and provides hosting and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology. IBM is also a major research organization, holding the record for most annual U.S. patents generated by a business () for 28 consecutive years.
Inventions by IBM include the automated teller machine (ATM), the floppy disk, the hard disk drive, the magnetic stripe card, the relational database, the SQL programming language, the UPC barcode, and dynamic random-access memory (DRAM). The IBM mainframe, exemplified by the System/360, was the dominant computing platform during the 1960s and 70s.
IBM is one of 30 companies included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and one of the world's largest employers, with over 345,000 employees .
History
IBM was founded in 1911 in Endicott, New York, as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) and was renamed "International Business Machines" in 1924. IBM is incorporated in New York and has operations in over 170 countries.
In the 1880s, technologies emerged that would ultimately form the core of International Business Machines (IBM). Julius E. Pitrap patented the computing scale in 1885; Alexander Dey invented the dial recorder (1888); Herman Hollerith (1860–1929) patented the Electric Tabulating Machine; and Willard Bundy invented a time clock to record a worker's arrival and departure time on a paper tape in 1889. On June 16, 1911, their four companies were amalgamated in New York State by Charles Ranlett Flint forming a fifth company, the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) based in Endicott, New York. The five companies had 1,300 employees and offices and plants in Endicott and Binghamton, New York; Dayton, Ohio; Detroit, Michigan; Washington, D.C.; and Toronto.
They manufactured machinery for sale and lease, ranging from commercial scales and industrial time recorders, meat and cheese slicers, to tabulators and punched cards. Thomas J. Watson, Sr., fired from the National Cash Register Company by John Henry Patterson, called on Flint and, in 1914, was offered a position at CTR. Watson joined CTR as general manager then, 11 months later, was made President when court cases relating to his time at NCR were resolved. Having learned Patterson's pioneering business practices, Watson proceeded to put the stamp of NCR onto CTR's companies. He implemented sales conventions, "generous sales incentives, a focus on customer service, an insistence on well-groomed, dark-suited salesmen and had an evangelical fervor for instilling company pride and loyalty in every worker". His favorite slogan, "THINK", became a mantra for each company's employees. During Watson's first four years, revenues reached $9 million ($ today) and the company's operations expanded to Europe, South America, Asia and Australia. Watson never liked the clumsy hyphenated name "Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company" and on February 14, 1924, chose to replace it with the more expansive title "International Business Machines" which had previously been used as the name of CTR's Canadian Division. By 1933, most of the subsidiaries had been merged into one company, IBM.
In 1937, IBM's tabulating equipment enabled organizations to process huge amounts of data. Its clients included the U.S. Government, during its first effort to maintain the employment records for 26 million people pursuant to the Social Security Act, and Hitler's Third Reich, for the tracking of Jews and other persecuted groups, largely through the German subsidiary Dehomag. The social security-related business gave an 81% increase in revenue from 1935 to 1939.
In 1949, Thomas Watson, Sr., created IBM World Trade Corporation, a subsidiary of IBM focused on foreign operations. In 1952, he stepped down after almost 40 years at the company helm, and his son Thomas Watson, Jr. was named president.
IBM built the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator, an electromechanical computer, during World War II. It offered its first commercial stored-program computer, the vacuum tube based IBM 701, in 1952. The IBM 305 RAMAC introduced the hard disk drive in 1956. The company switched to transistorized designs with the 7000 and 1400 series, beginning in 1958.
In 1956, the company demonstrated the first practical example of artificial intelligence when Arthur L. Samuel of IBM's Poughkeepsie, New York, laboratory programmed an IBM 704 not merely to play checkers but "learn" from its own experience. In 1957, the FORTRAN scientific programming language was developed. In 1961, IBM developed the SABRE reservation system for American Airlines and introduced the highly successful Selectric typewriter.
In 1963, IBM employees and computers helped NASA track the orbital flights of the Mercury astronauts. A year later, it moved its corporate headquarters from New York City to Armonk, New York. The latter half of the 1960s saw IBM continue its support of space exploration, participating in the 1965 Gemini flights, 1966 Saturn flights, and 1969 lunar mission. IBM also developed and manufactured the Saturn V's Instrument Unit and Apollo spacecraft guidance computers.
On April 7, 1964, IBM launched the first computer system family, the IBM System/360. It spanned the complete range of commercial and scientific applications from large to small, allowing companies for the first time to upgrade to models with greater computing capability without having to rewrite their applications. It was followed by the IBM System/370 in 1970. Together the 360 and 370 made the IBM mainframe the dominant mainframe computer and the dominant computing platform in the industry throughout this period and into the early 1980s. They and the operating systems that ran on them such as OS/VS1 and MVS, and the middleware built on top of those such as the CICS transaction processing monitor, had a near-monopoly-level market share and became the thing IBM was most known for during this period.
In 1969, the United States of America alleged that IBM violated the Sherman Antitrust Act by monopolizing or attempting to monopolize the general-purpose electronic digital computer system market, specifically computers designed primarily for business, and subsequently alleged that IBM violated the antitrust laws in IBM's actions directed against leasing companies and plug-compatible peripheral manufacturers. Shortly after, IBM unbundled its software and services in what many observers believed was a direct result of the lawsuit, creating a competitive market for software. In 1982 the Department of Justice dropped the case as "without merit".
Also in 1969, IBM engineer Forrest Parry invented the magnetic stripe card that would become ubiquitous for credit/debit/ATM cards, driver's licenses, rapid transit cards, and a multitude of other identity and access control applications. IBM pioneered the manufacture of these cards, and for most of the 1970s, the data processing systems and software for such applications ran exclusively on IBM computers. In 1974, IBM engineer George J. Laurer developed the Universal Product Code. IBM and the World Bank first introduced financial swaps to the public in 1981, when they entered into a swap agreement. The IBM PC, originally designated IBM 5150, was introduced in 1981, and it soon became an industry standard. In 1991 IBM spun out its printer manufacturing into a new business called Lexmark.
In 1993, IBM posted an $8 billion loss – at the time the biggest in American corporate history. Lou Gerstner was hired as CEO from RJR Nabisco to turn the company around. In 2002 IBM acquired PwC consulting.
In 2005, the company sold its personal computer business to Chinese technology company Lenovo and, in 2009, it acquired software company SPSS Inc. Later in 2009, IBM's Blue Gene supercomputing program was awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation by U.S. President Barack Obama. In 2011, IBM gained worldwide attention for its artificial intelligence program Watson, which was exhibited on Jeopardy! where it won against game-show champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. The company also celebrated its 100th anniversary in the same year on June 16. In 2012 IBM announced it has agreed to buy Kenexa and Texas Memory Systems, and a year later it also acquired SoftLayer Technologies, a web hosting service, in a deal worth around $2 billion. Also that year, the company designed a video surveillance system for Davao City.
In 2014, IBM announced it would sell its x86 server division to Lenovo for $2.1 billion. Also that year, IBM began announcing several major partnerships with other companies, including Apple Inc., Twitter, Facebook, Tencent, Cisco, UnderArmour, Box, Microsoft, VMware, CSC, Macy's, Sesame Workshop, the parent company of Sesame Street, and Salesforce.com.
In 2015, IBM announced three major acquisitions: Merge Healthcare for $1 billion, data storage vendor Cleversafe, and all digital assets from The Weather Company, including Weather.com and the Weather Channel mobile app. Also that year, IBM employees created the film A Boy and His Atom, which was the first molecule movie to tell a story. In 2016, IBM acquired video conferencing service Ustream and formed a new cloud video unit. In April 2016, it posted a 14-year low in quarterly sales. The following month, Groupon sued IBM accusing it of patent infringement, two months after IBM accused Groupon of patent infringement in a separate lawsuit.
In 2015, IBM bought the digital part of The Weather Company;, Truven Health Analytics for $2.6 billion in 2016, and in October 2018, IBM announced its intention to acquire Red Hat for $34 billion, which was completed on July 9, 2019.
IBM announced in October 2020 that it would divest the Managed Infrastructure Services unit of its Global Technology Services division into a new public company. The new company, Kyndryl, will have 90,000 employees, 4,600 clients in 115 countries, with a backlog of $60 billion. IBM's spin off will be greater than any of its previous divestitures, and welcomed by investors. In January 2021, IBM appointed Martin Schroeter, who had been IBM's CFO from 2014 through the end of 2017, as CEO of Kyndryl.
IBM has regularly sold off low margin assets while shifting its focus to higher-value, more profitable markets. Examples include:
1991: Spun off its printer and keyboard manufacturing division, the IBM Information Products Corporation, to Lexmark
2002–2020: Acquired PwC Consulting (2002), SPSS (2009), The Weather Company (2016), Red Hat (2019), and European cloud consultant Nordcloud (2020)
2005 and 2014, respectively: Sold its personal computer (ThinkPad/ThinkCentre) and x86-based server businesses to Lenovo
2015: IBM adopted a "fabless" model with semiconductors design, while offloading manufacturing to GlobalFoundries
2021: IBM spun-off its managed infrastructure services unit into a new public company named Kyndryl. IBM also announced the acquisition of the enterprise software company Turbonomic for $1.5 Billion.
2022: IBM announced that it would sell Watson Health to the private equity firm Francisco Partners.
Headquarters and offices
IBM is headquartered in Armonk, New York, a community north of Midtown Manhattan. A nickname for the company is the "Colossus of Armonk". Its principal building, referred to as CHQ, is a glass and stone edifice on a parcel amid a 432-acre former apple orchard the company purchased in the mid-1950s. There are two other IBM buildings within walking distance of CHQ: the North Castle office, which previously served as IBM's headquarters; and the Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., Center for Learning (formerly known as IBM Learning Center (ILC)), a resort hotel and training center, which has 182 guest rooms, 31 meeting rooms, and various amenities.
IBM operates in 174 countries , with mobility centers in smaller markets areas and major campuses in the larger ones. In New York City, IBM has several offices besides CHQ, including the IBM Watson headquarters at Astor Place in Manhattan. Outside of New York, major campuses in the United States include Austin, Texas; Research Triangle Park (Raleigh-Durham), North Carolina; Rochester, Minnesota; and Silicon Valley, California.
IBM's real estate holdings are varied and globally diverse. Towers occupied by IBM include 1250 René-Lévesque (Montreal, Canada) and One Atlantic Center (Atlanta, Georgia, USA). In Beijing, China, IBM occupies Pangu Plaza, the city's seventh tallest building and overlooking Beijing National Stadium ("Bird's Nest"), home to the 2008 Summer Olympics.
IBM India Private Limited is the Indian subsidiary of IBM, which is headquartered at Bangalore, Karnataka. It has facilities in Ahmedabad, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Gurugram, Noida, Bhubaneshwar, Surat, Coimbatore, Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Jamshedpur.
Other notable buildings include the IBM Rome Software Lab (Rome, Italy), Hursley House (Winchester, UK), 330 North Wabash (Chicago, Illinois, United States), the Cambridge Scientific Center (Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States), the IBM Toronto Software Lab (Toronto, Canada), the IBM Building, Johannesburg (Johannesburg, South Africa), the IBM Building (Seattle) (Seattle, Washington, United States), the IBM Hakozaki Facility (Tokyo, Japan), the IBM Yamato Facility (Yamato, Japan), the IBM Canada Head Office Building (Ontario, Canada) and the Watson IoT Headquarters (Munich, Germany). Defunct IBM campuses include the IBM Somers Office Complex (Somers, New York) and Tour Descartes (Paris, France). The company's contributions to industrial architecture and design include works by Marcel Breuer, Eero Saarinen, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, I.M. Pei and Ricardo Legorreta. Van der Rohe's building in Chicago was recognized with the 1990 Honor Award from the National Building Museum.
IBM was recognized as one of the Top 20 Best Workplaces for Commuters by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2005, which recognized Fortune 500 companies that provided employees with excellent commuter benefits to help reduce traffic and air pollution. In 2004, concerns were raised related to IBM's contribution in its early days to pollution in its original location in Endicott, New York.
Finance
For the fiscal year 2020, IBM reported earnings of $5.6 billion, with an annual revenue of $73.6 billion. IBM's revenue has fallen for 8 of the last 9 years. IBM's market capitalization was valued at over $127 billion as of April 2021. IBM ranked No. 38 on the 2020 Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. IBM has been criticized for using "financial engineering" to hit its quarterly earnings targets, rather than investing for the longer term.
Carbon footprint
IBM reported Total CO2e emissions (Direct + Indirect) for the twelve months ending 31 December 2020 at 621 Kt (-324 /-34.3% y-o-y).
Products and services
IBM has a large and diverse portfolio of products and services. , these offerings fall into the categories of cloud computing, artificial intelligence, commerce, data and analytics, Internet of things (IoT), IT infrastructure, mobile, digital workplace and cybersecurity.
IBM Cloud includes infrastructure as a service (IaaS), software as a service (SaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) offered through public, private and hybrid cloud delivery models. For instance, the IBM Bluemix PaaS enables developers to quickly create complex websites on a pay-as-you-go model. IBM SoftLayer is a dedicated server, managed hosting and cloud computing provider, which in 2011 reported hosting more than 81,000 servers for more than 26,000 customers. IBM also provides Cloud Data Encryption Services (ICDES), using cryptographic splitting to secure customer data.
IBM also hosts the industry-wide cloud computing and mobile technologies conference InterConnect each year.
Hardware designed by IBM for these categories include IBM's Power microprocessors, which are employed inside many console gaming systems, including Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Nintendo's Wii U. IBM Secure Blue is encryption hardware that can be built into microprocessors, and in 2014, the company revealed TrueNorth, a neuromorphic CMOS integrated circuit and announced a $3 billion investment over the following five years to design a neural chip that mimics the human brain, with 10 billion neurons and 100 trillion synapses, but that uses just 1 kilowatt of power. In 2016, the company launched all-flash arrays designed for small and midsized companies, which includes software for data compression, provisioning, and snapshots across various systems.
IT outsourcing also represents a major service provided by IBM, with more than 60 data centers worldwide. alphaWorks is IBM's source for emerging software technologies, and SPSS is a software package used for statistical analysis. IBM's Kenexa suite provides employment and retention solutions, and includes the BrassRing, an applicant tracking system used by thousands of companies for recruiting. IBM also owns The Weather Company, which provides weather forecasting and includes weather.com and Weather Underground.
Smarter Planet is an initiative that seeks to achieve economic growth, near-term efficiency, sustainable development, and societal progress, targeting opportunities such as smart grids, water management systems, solutions to traffic congestion, and greener buildings.
Services provisions include Redbooks, which are publicly available online books about best practices with IBM products, and developerWorks, a website for software developers and IT professionals with how-to articles and tutorials, as well as software downloads, code samples, discussion forums, podcasts, blogs, wikis, and other resources for developers and technical professionals.
IBM Watson is a technology platform that uses natural language processing and machine learning to reveal insights from large amounts of unstructured data. Watson was debuted in 2011 on the American game-show Jeopardy!, where it competed against champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter in a three-game tournament and won. Watson has since been applied to business, healthcare, developers, and universities. For example, IBM has partnered with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to assist with considering treatment options for oncology patients and for doing melanoma screenings. Also, several companies have begun using Watson for call centers, either replacing or assisting customer service agents.
In January 2019, IBM introduced its first commercial quantum computer IBM Q System One.
IBM also provides infrastructure for the New York City Police Department through their IBM Cognos Analytics to perform data visualizations of CompStat crime data.
In March 2020, it was announced that IBM will build the first quantum computer in Germany. The computer should allow researchers to harness the technology without falling foul of the EU's increasingly assertive stance on data sovereignty.
Research
Research has been a part of IBM since its founding, and its organized efforts trace their roots back to 1945, when the Watson Scientific Computing Laboratory was founded at Columbia University in New York City, converting a renovated fraternity house on Manhattan's West Side into IBM's first laboratory. Now, IBM Research constitutes the largest industrial research organization in the world, with 12 labs on 6 continents. IBM Research is headquartered at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center in New York, and facilities include the Almaden lab in California, Austin lab in Texas, Australia lab in Melbourne, Brazil lab in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, China lab in Beijing and Shanghai, Ireland lab in Dublin, Haifa lab in Israel, India lab in Delhi and Bangalore, Tokyo lab, Zurichlab and Africa lab in Nairobi.
In terms of investment, IBM's R&D expenditure totals several billion dollars each year. In 2012, that expenditure was approximately $6.9 billion. Recent allocations have included $1 billion to create a business unit for Watson in 2014, and $3 billion to create a next-gen semiconductor along with $4 billion towards growing the company's "strategic imperatives" (cloud, analytics, mobile, security, social) in 2015.
IBM has been a leading proponent of the Open Source Initiative, and began supporting Linux in 1998. The company invests billions of dollars in services and software based on Linux through the IBM Linux Technology Center, which includes over 300 Linux kernel developers. IBM has also released code under different open source licenses, such as the platform-independent software framework Eclipse (worth approximately $40 million at the time of the donation), the three-sentence International Components for Unicode (ICU) license, and the Java-based relational database management system (RDBMS) Apache Derby. IBM's open source involvement has not been trouble-free, however (see SCO v. IBM).
Famous inventions and developments by IBM include: the Automated teller machine (ATM), Dynamic random access memory (DRAM), the electronic keypunch, the financial swap, the floppy disk, the hard disk drive, the magnetic stripe card, the relational database, RISC, the SABRE airline reservation system, SQL, the Universal Product Code (UPC) bar code, and the virtual machine. Additionally, in 1990 company scientists used a scanning tunneling microscope to arrange 35 individual xenon atoms to spell out the company acronym, marking the first structure assembled one atom at a time. A major part of IBM research is the generation of patents. Since its first patent for a traffic signaling device, IBM has been one of the world's most prolific patent sources. As of 2020, the company holds the record for most patents generated by a business, marking 28 consecutive years for the achievement.
Five IBM employees have received the Nobel Prize: Leo Esaki, of the Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., in 1973, for work in semiconductors; Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer, of the Zurich Research Center, in 1986, for the scanning tunneling microscope; and Georg Bednorz and Alex Müller, also of Zurich, in 1987, for research in superconductivity.
The Turing Award has been won by six IBM employees, including the first female recipient Frances E. Allen.
Ten National Medals of Technology (USA) and five National Medals of Science (USA) have been awarded to IBM employees.
Current research includes a collaboration with the University of Michigan to see computers act as an academic advisor for undergraduate computer science and engineering students at the university, and a partnership with AT&T, combining their cloud and Internet of Things (IoT) platforms to make them interoperable and to provide developers with easier tools.
The company is also involved in research into advanced algorithms and machine learning and their decision-making processes. To that end, the company recently released an analysis tool for how and why algorithms make decisions while scanning for biases in automated decision-making.
Brand and reputation
IBM is nicknamed Big Blue in part due to its blue logo and color scheme, and also partially since IBM once had a de facto dress code of white shirts with blue suits. The company logo has undergone several changes over the years, with its current "8-bar" logo designed in 1972 by graphic designer Paul Rand. It was a general replacement for a 13-bar logo, since period photocopiers did not render narrow (as opposed to tall) stripes well. Aside from the logo, IBM used Helvetica as a corporate typeface for 50 years, until it was replaced in 2017 by the custom-designed IBM Plex.
IBM has a valuable brand as a result of over 100 years of operations and marketing campaigns. Since 1996, IBM has been the exclusive technology partner for the Masters Tournament, one of the four major championships in professional golf, with IBM creating the first Masters.org (1996), the first course cam (1998), the first iPhone app with live streaming (2009), and first-ever live 4K Ultra High Definition feed in the United States for a major sporting event (2016). As a result, IBM CEO Ginni Rometty became the third female member of the Master's governing body, the Augusta National Golf Club. IBM is also a major sponsor in professional tennis, with engagements at the U.S. Open, Wimbledon, the Australian Open, and the French Open. The company also sponsored the Olympic Games from 1960 to 2000, and the National Football League from 2003 to 2012.
In 2012, IBM's brand was valued at $75.5 billion and ranked by Interbrand as the third-best brand worldwide. That same year, it was also ranked the top company for leaders (Fortune), the number two green company in the U.S. (Newsweek), the second-most respected company (Barron's), the fifth-most admired company (Fortune), the 18th-most innovative company (Fast Company), and the number one in technology consulting and number two in outsourcing (Vault). In 2015, Forbes ranked IBM as the fifth-most valuable brand, and for 2020, the Drucker Institute named IBM the No. 3 best-managed company.
People and culture
Employees
IBM has one of the largest workforces in the world, and employees at Big Blue are referred to as "IBMers". The company was among the first corporations to provide group life insurance (1934), survivor benefits (1935), training for women (1935), paid vacations (1937), and training for disabled people (1942). IBM hired its first black salesperson in 1946, and in 1952, CEO Thomas J. Watson, Jr. published the company's first written equal opportunity policy letter, one year before the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. Board of Education and 11 years before the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Human Rights Campaign has rated IBM 100% on its index of gay-friendliness every year since 2003, with IBM providing same-sex partners of its employees with health benefits and an anti-discrimination clause. Additionally, in 2005, IBM became the first major company in the world to commit formally to not use genetic information in employment decisions; and in 2017, IBM was named to Working Mothers 100 Best Companies List for the 32nd consecutive year.
IBM has several leadership development and recognition programs to recognize employee potential and achievements. For early-career high potential employees, IBM sponsors leadership development programs by discipline (e.g., general management (GMLDP), human resources (HRLDP), finance (FLDP)). Each year, the company also selects 500 IBM employees for the IBM Corporate Service Corps (CSC), which gives top employees a month to do humanitarian work abroad. For certain interns, IBM also has a program called Extreme Blue that partners top business and technical students to develop high-value technology and compete to present their business case to the company's CEO at internship's end.
The company also has various designations for exceptional individual contributors such as Senior Technical Staff Member (STSM), Research Staff Member (RSM), Distinguished Engineer (DE), and Distinguished Designer (DD). Prolific inventors can also achieve patent plateaus and earn the designation of Master Inventor. The company's most prestigious designation is that of IBM Fellow. Since 1963, the company names a handful of Fellows each year based on technical achievement. Other programs recognize years of service such as the Quarter Century Club established in 1924, and sellers are eligible to join the Hundred Percent Club, composed of IBM salesmen who meet their quotas, convened in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Each year, the company also selects 1,000 IBM employees annually to award the Best of IBM Award, which includes an all-expenses-paid trip to the awards ceremony in an exotic location.
IBM's culture has evolved significantly over its century of operations. In its early days, a dark (or gray) suit, white shirt, and a "sincere" tie constituted the public uniform for IBM employees. During IBM's management transformation in the 1990s, CEO Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. relaxed these codes, normalizing the dress and behavior of IBM employees. The company's culture has also given to different plays on the company acronym (IBM), with some saying it stands for "I've Been Moved" due to relocations and layoffs, others saying it stands for "I'm By Myself" pursuant to a prevalent work-from-anywhere norm, and others saying it stands for "I'm Being Mentored" due to the company's open door policy and encouragement for mentoring at all levels. In terms of labor relations, the company has traditionally resisted labor union organizing, although unions represent some IBM workers outside the United States. In Japan, IBM employees also have an American football team complete with pro stadium, cheerleaders and televised games, competing in the Japanese X-League as the "Big Blue".
In 2015, IBM started giving employees the option of choosing Mac as their primary work device, next to the option of a PC or a Linux distribution. In 2016, IBM eliminated forced rankings and changed its annual performance review system to focus more on frequent feedback, coaching, and skills development.
IBM alumni
Many IBM employees have achieved notability outside of work and after leaving IBM. In business, former IBM employees include Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook, former EDS CEO and politician Ross Perot, Microsoft chairman John W. Thompson, SAP co-founder Hasso Plattner, Gartner founder Gideon Gartner, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) CEO Lisa Su, Cadence (CDNS) CEO Anirudh Devgan, former Citizens Financial Group CEO Ellen Alemany, former Yahoo! chairman Alfred Amoroso, former AT&T CEO C. Michael Armstrong, former Xerox Corporation CEOs David T. Kearns and G. Richard Thoman, former Fair Isaac Corporation CEO Mark N. Greene, Citrix Systems co-founder Ed Iacobucci, ASOS.com chairman Brian McBride, former Lenovo CEO Steve Ward, and former Teradata CEO Kenneth Simonds.
In government, alumna Patricia Roberts Harris served as United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the first African American woman to serve in the United States Cabinet. Samuel K. Skinner served as U.S. Secretary of Transportation and as the White House Chief of Staff. Alumni also include U.S. Senators Mack Mattingly and Thom Tillis; Wisconsin governor Scott Walker; former U.S. Ambassadors Vincent Obsitnik (Slovakia), Arthur K. Watson (France), and Thomas Watson Jr. (Soviet Union); and former U.S. Representatives Todd Akin, Glenn Andrews, Robert Garcia, Katherine Harris, Amo Houghton, Jim Ross Lightfoot, Thomas J. Manton, Donald W. Riegle Jr., and Ed Zschau.
Others are NASA astronaut Michael J. Massimino, Canadian astronaut and former Governor General Julie Payette, noted musician Dave Matthews, Harvey Mudd College president Maria Klawe, Western Governors University president emeritus Robert Mendenhall, former University of Kentucky president Lee T. Todd Jr., NFL referee Bill Carollo, former Rangers F.C. chairman John McClelland, and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature J. M. Coetzee. Thomas Watson Jr. also served as the 11th national president of the Boy Scouts of America.
Board and shareholders
The company's 15 member board of directors are responsible for overall corporate management and includes the current or former CEOs of Anthem, Dow Chemical, Johnson and Johnson, Royal Dutch Shell, UPS, and Vanguard as well as the presidents of Cornell University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a retired U.S. Navy admiral.
In 2011, IBM became the first technology company Warren Buffett's holding company Berkshire Hathaway invested in. Initially he bought 64 million shares costing 10.5 billion dollars. Over the years he increased his IBM holdings however he reduced it by 94.5% to 2.05 million shares at the end of 2017. By May 2018 he was completely out of IBM.
See also
List of electronics brands
List of largest Internet companies
List of largest manufacturing companies by revenue
Tech companies in the New York City metropolitan region
Top 100 US Federal Contractors
References
Further reading
.
External links
1888 establishments in New York (state)
Technology companies established in 1888
American companies established in 1888
Cloud computing providers
Collier Trophy recipients
Companies based in Westchester County, New York
Companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average
Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange
Data companies
Data quality companies
Display technology companies
Electronics companies of the United States
Foundry semiconductor companies
Information technology consulting firms of the United States
Multinational companies headquartered in the United States
National Medal of Technology recipients
Outsourcing companies
Point of sale companies
Software companies based in New York (state)
Storage Area Network companies
Software companies of the United States |
40388886 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transbase | Transbase | Transbase is a relational database management system, developed and maintained by Transaction Software GmbH, Munich. The development of Transbase was started in the 1980s by Rudolf Bayer under the name „Merkur“ at the department of Computer Science of the Technical University of Munich (TUM).
Transbase largely conforms with the SQL standard „SQL2 intermediate level“ (SQL-92) and supports various features of SQL2 follow-on versions (SQL:1999, SQL:2003 etc.).
History
As a professor of the computer science department of the Technical University of Munich, Rudolf Bayer
developed a database management system called "Merkur" in the 1980s. The development involved a larger number of diploma and PHD students and resulted in 1987 in a new company, called Transaction Software GmbH, founded by Rudolf Bayer and several co-workers of his institute at TUM. In 1989 „Merkur“ was renamed and called "Transbase".
The wide use of Transbase, especially as basis for repair part management and documentation systems in the automobile industry soon led to a considerable number of ports to diverse operating systems, such as UNIX derivatives, Linux, Windows, VMS, and Mac OS. Major steps in the further development of Transbase were the integration of functions for distributed queries to several databases in parallel, the fulltext-search extension and the support of foreign languages, („Myriad“) such as Chinese and Japanese,
as well as the support of data warehouse functions („Transbase Hypercube“)
and the dynamic, parallel execution of queries.
Properties and functions
Standard SQL properties
Transbase supports all important functions of the SQL standard:
extensive transaction concept, complex queries with included subqueries, referential integrity (primary keys, foreign keys, check constraints and others),set operations, updatable views, trigger, interface for C, C++, Java/JDBC, PHP, ODBC export and import of data as well as database schema. The database is extensible via additional functions and custom data types.
Extensions
ROM-Operation
The TransbaseCD database option can use read-only storage media such as CD, DVD or Blu-ray Discs. In addition, a persistent disk cache can be utilized to store data for performance improvement and/or for updates of data supplied originally as read-only media.
Hypercube search
Transbase Hypercube supports Relational Online Analytical Processing (ROLAP), which is primarily used in data warehouse applications. The search function for OLAP data cubes („hyper cubes“) is accelerated dramatically through the use of UB-Trees (in comparison to queries using standard indices).
Encryption
Transbase offers optional encryption of data stored on disk, using the DES algorithm, as well as encryption of data transferred through database connections.
Parellism of queries
Transbase provides parallel execution of queries via dynamic multithreading technology. This feature executes parts of the query tree in separate threads or splits query sequences into separate threads.
Replication
Transbase supports replication of a master database in several slave database instances.
Limits
The following summarizes the current limits as implemented in version 6.9 of Transbase:
The size of the database is limited to 2^31 pages or 128 Terabytes.
The size of a (data) page can vary between 4 KB and 64 KB.
The size of a table is limited solely by the maximum size of the database itself.
The maximum size of BLOB (Binary Large Objects) is 2 GB.
The number of attributes per table is limited to 256. In addition, the length of a record is limited to one data page.
The number of records per table is not limited except as given by the maximum size of the database.
References
External links
1987 software
Cross-platform software
Client-server database management systems |
40406090 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tron%20%28hacker%29 | Tron (hacker) | Boris Floricic (Floričić), better known by his pseudonym Tron (8 June 1972 – 17 October 1998), was a German-Croat hacker and phreaker whose death in unclear circumstances has led to various conspiracy theories. He is also known for his Diplom thesis presenting one of the first public implementations of a telephone with built-in voice encryption, the "Cryptophon".
Floricic's pseudonym was a reference to the eponymous character in the 1982 Disney film Tron. Floricic was interested in defeating computer security mechanisms; amongst other hacks, he broke the security of the German phonecard and produced working clones. He was subsequently sentenced to 15 months in jail for the physical theft of a public phone (for reverse engineering purposes) but the sentence was suspended to probation.
From December 2005 to January 2006, media attention was drawn to Floricic when his parents and Andy Müller-Maguhn brought legal action in Germany against the Wikimedia Foundation and its German chapter Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. The first preliminary injunction tried to stop Wikipedia from publishing Floricic's full name, and a second one followed, temporarily preventing the use of the German Internet domain as a redirect address to the German Wikipedia.
Early life
Floricic grew up in Gropiusstadt, a suburb in southern Berlin (West Berlin at the time). His interests in school focused on technical subjects. He left school after ten years and completed a three-year Vocational education (Berufsausbildung) offered by the Technical University of Berlin and graduated as a specialist in communication electronics with a major in information technology (Kommunikationselektroniker, Fachrichtung Informationstechnik). He subsequently earned the Abitur and began studies in computer science at the Technical University of Applied Sciences of Berlin.
During his studies, Floricic attended an internship with a company developing electronic security systems. In the winter term 1997/1998, Floricic successfully finished his studies and published his diploma thesis, in which he developed and described the "Cryptophon", an ISDN telephone with built-in voice encryption. Since parts of this work, which were to be provided by another student, were missing, he could not finish his work on the Cryptophon. His thesis, however, was rated as exceptional by the evaluating university professor. After graduation, Floricic applied for work, but was unsuccessful. In his spare time he continued, among other activities, his work on the Cryptophon.
Interests
Floricic was highly interested in electronics and security systems of all kinds. He engaged in, amongst other things, attacks against the German phonecard and Pay TV systems. As part of his research he exchanged ideas and proposals with other hackers and scientists. On the mailing list "tv-crypt", operated by a closed group of Pay TV hackers, Floricic reported about himself in 1995 that his interests were microprocessors, programming languages, electronics of all kinds, digital radio data transmission and especially breaking the security of systems perceived as secure. He claimed to have created working clones of a chipcard used for British Pay TV and would continue his work to defeat the security of the Nagravision/Syster scrambling system which was then used by the German Pay TV provider "PREMIERE".
Later, American scientists outlined a theoretical attack against SIM cards used for GSM mobile phones. Together with hackers from the Chaos Computer Club, Floricic successfully created a working clone of such a SIM card, thus showing the practicability of the attack. He also engaged in cloning the German phonecard and succeeded. While Floricic only wanted to demonstrate the insecurity of the system, the proven insecurity was also abused by criminals which led to the attention of law enforcement agencies and the German national phone operator Deutsche Telekom. After Deutsche Telekom changed the system, Floricic tried to remove a complete public card phone from a booth by force (using a sledgehammer) on 3 March 1995 in order to, as he told, adapt his phonecard simulators to the latest changes. He and a friend were, however, caught by the police upon this attempt. Floricic was later sentenced to a prison term of 15 months which was suspended to probation.
Cryptophon
"Cryptophon" (or "Cryptofon") was the name Floricic chose for his prototype of an ISDN telephone with integrated voice encryption. It was created in the winter term 1997–1998 as part of his diploma thesis, titled "Realisierung einer Verschlüsselungstechnik für Daten im ISDN B-Kanal" (German, meaning, "Implementation of Cryptography for Data contained in the ISDN Bearer channel"), at the Technische Fachhochschule Berlin. Floricic focused on making the Cryptophon cheap and easy to build for hobbyists. The phone encrypts telephone calls using the symmetric encryption algorithm IDEA. As IDEA is patented, the cipher was implemented on a replaceable daughter module which would have allowed the user to exchange IDEA for another (probably patent-unencumbered) algorithm. In addition, the system was about to be supplemented with a key exchange protocol based on the asymmetric algorithm RSA in order to achieve security against compromised remote stations.
The Cryptophon is built on the foundation of an 8051 compatible microprocessor which controls the whole system and peripherals (e.g. ISDN controller, keypad and display). For the cryptography, Floricic used cheap DSPs from Texas Instruments which he scrapped out of old computer modems, but which could also be bought at affordable prices. As this type of DSP is not powerful enough for the cryptography algorithm chosen, Floricic used two of them for the Cryptophon – one for sending and one for receiving. He planned to extend the phone so it would also be possible to encrypt data-connections. Floricic developed both the operating software of the phone as well as the cryptography implementation in the DSPs. He found a new way to implement IDEA to save significant processing time.
Death
Floricic disappeared on 17 October 1998 and was found dead in a local park in Britz in the Neukölln district of Berlin on 22 October after being hanged from a waistbelt wrapped around his neck. The cause of death was officially recorded as suicide. Some of his peers in the Chaos Computer Club, as well as his family members and some outside critics, have been vocal in their assertions that Floricic may have been murdered. It is argued that his activities in the areas of Pay TV cracking and voice scrambling might have disturbed the affairs of an intelligence agency or organized crime enough to provide a motive.
The German journalist Burkhard Schröder published a book about the death titled Tron – Tod eines Hackers (Tron – Death of a Hacker) in 1999 in which he presents the facts about the case known at the time. Because he concludes that Floricic took his own life, the author was harshly criticized by both members of the Chaos Computer Club and Floricic's parents.
Naming controversy
As Floricic's family did not wish his full name (Boris Floricic) to be used, many German newspapers referred to him as "Boris F." On 14 December 2005, his parents obtained a temporary restraining order in a Berlin court against Wikimedia Foundation Inc. because its freely editable online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, mentioned the full name in its German language version. The order prohibited the Foundation from mentioning the full name on any website under the domain "wikipedia.org". It furthermore required the Foundation to name a representative in Germany within two weeks following the decision.
This was widely reported in the Dutch and German press. The initial order was mistakenly addressed to Saint Petersburg, Russia rather than to St. Petersburg, Florida, United States; this was corrected five days later.
On 17 January 2006, a second preliminary injunction from a court in Berlin prohibited the Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. local chapter from linking to the German Wikipedia, resulting in the change of the wikipedia.de address from a link to German Wikipedia to a page explaining the situation, although the page did not mention Tron. Despite media reports to the contrary, the German Wikipedia itself was never closed or made inaccessible in Germany. Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. confirmed to the Internet news site golem.de that the new injunction was related to the prior case against the Wikimedia Foundation and was issued on behalf of the same plaintiffs. Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. was reported as intending to fight the injunction, arguing that no valid case was presented and the freedom of the press must be defended.
As Müller-Maguhn, one of the spokespersons of the Chaos Computer Club, was deeply involved in the case on the side of the plaintiffs, some media reported this as a case of Chaos Computer Club against Wikipedia. The Chaos Computer Club had issued a public statement that this was a case between a few of its members and Wikipedia, and that the CCC itself did not take any position in the matter.
The Austrian online magazine Futurezone interviewed Andy Müller-Maguhn on 19 January 2006 about the case and its background. Maguhn admitted that the true reason behind the incident was a fictitious work recently published by a German author in which the main character had the same (civil) name as Floricic. The parents sent a protest to the publisher but were turned down with the argument that the German Wikipedia was using the name as well. Müller-Maguhn then asked the German Wikipedia to remove the name, but was turned down for a number of reasons, including failure to present proof that he was entitled to speak and act on behalf of the parents.
On 9 February 2006, the injunction against Wikimedia Deutschland was overturned. The plaintiffs appealed to the Berlin state court, but were turned down in May 2006.
See also
List of hackers
References
Further reading
Burkhard Schröder: Tron: Tod eines Hackers ("Tron: Death of a hacker"). rororo, 1999,
Chenoweth, Neil: Murdoch's Pirates: Before the phone hacking, there was Rupert's pay-TV skullduggery. Allen & Unwin, 2012,
External links
Spiegel Online: "How a Dead Hacker Shut Down Wikipedia Germany", 2006-01-20
Wired.com: "Out of Chaos Comes Order", by David Hudson, 1998-12-28 (about the suicide)
Possenspiel um Wikipedia (Die Zeit online edition)
tronland.org (Site dedicated to Tron's memory)
1972 births
1998 suicides
Death conspiracy theories
German computer criminals
Suicides by hanging in Germany |
40419701 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadchurch%20%28series%202%29 | Broadchurch (series 2) | The second series of the British crime drama Broadchurch began airing on the ITV broadcast network in the United Kingdom on 5 January 2015. The eight-episode series focused on the continuing fallout of the murder of 11-year-old Danny Latimer in the fictional, close-knit coastal town of Broadchurch in Dorset, England. The series focuses on the effect of Joe Miller's trial on his wife, former DS Ellie Miller (now a uniformed police officer in Devon); the Latimer family's struggle to achieve a normal life during Joe's trial; and new revelations that former DI Alec Hardy is protecting a witness in the failed Sandbrook child murder case.
Although Broadchurch was conceived as a trilogy, the second series was only announced on 22 April 2013 as series one ended. Writing occurred over most of the following year, with series creator and lead writer Chris Chibnall using a plot-development process he used for the first series. The return of series stars Olivia Colman and David Tennant and some of their returning co-stars was reported by the media in late 2013, although both returning and new cast members were not formally announced by ITV until May 2014. Filming began in late May 2014 under the supervision of four directors. Extensive efforts were undertaken to keep the plot secret from the cast, crew, and public. Extensive location shooting occurred along the United Kingdom's Jurassic Coast and in South West England. Icelandic musician and composer Ólafur Arnalds returned as the series' musical and sound composer. Series two debuted to very high ratings and critical praise, but subsequent episodes saw a sharp drop in viewership and a more mixed response from critics and audiences alike. Later episodes of the series, however, saw a more positive critical consensus.
Episodes
Supplement content
On 1 December 2014, a number of media outlets reported that ITV had commissioned a third series of Broadchurch. ITV later that day denied that a third series had been greenlit. Chibnall himself said on 18 December 2014 that a third season might not be possible. "Who knows who will be standing at the end (of series two)?", he told Broadcast magazine.
Minutes after the end of the Series 2 finale on 23 February 2015, ITV announced Broadchurch would return for a third series, with Tennant and Colman as the leads.
Cast
Characters in series two of Broadchurch included the following:
Police
Detective Inspector Alec Hardy (David Tennant) – invalided from Wessex Police at the end of Series 1 because of a heart problem, Hardy is now a Training Officer and awaiting an operation. He attempted to hide Claire Ripley, his key witness in the failed Sandbrook murder case, in Broadchurch.
Detective Sergeant Ellie Miller (Olivia Colman) – married to Joe Miller, mother to 13-year-old Tom and two-year-old Fred. She berates herself for not recognising the problems that led her husband to have a relationship with the dead boy and suffers from guilt. Following this, she moved to Devon to become a uniformed Police Constable (PC) with Devon and Cornwall Police. She later returned to Broadchurch with her son Tom and regained her position as a Detective Sergeant.
Detective Sergeant Tess Henchard (Lucy Cohu) – Hardy's ex-wife. She remains employed with the South Mercia Constabulary, the same force that investigated the Sandbrook Case.
The Latimers
Beth Latimer (Jodie Whittaker) – mother to Chloe and murder victim Danny, and wife to Mark. She struggles with grief, and is bitter and angry toward her former friend, Ellie Miller. Beth's pregnancy, which began in series one, is close to term at the start of series two.
Mark Latimer (Andrew Buchan) – father to Chloe and murder victim Danny, and husband to Beth. His son's death helped him to reconcile with his wife after he had an affair with local hotelkeeper Becca Fisher, but the problems in his marriage didn't go away. He is secretly meeting with Tom Miller, with whom he has closely bonded.
Chloe Latimer (Charlotte Beaumont) – Beth and Mark's 16-year-old daughter.
The Millers
Joe Miller (Matthew Gravelle) – Ellie's husband and father to 13-year-old Tom and two-year-old Fred. Joe murdered Danny Latimer in series one, and is now on trial after pleading not guilty. He says he will expose secrets other Broadchurch residents are hiding.
Tom Miller (Adam Wilson) – Ellie and Joe's 13-year-old elder son. He blames his mother for his father's incarceration, and is living with his cousin Olly Stevens.
Lucy Stevens (Tanya Franks) – sister of Ellie Miller and mother of Oliver "Olly" Stevens, she has a gambling habit. She witnessed Joe destroying evidence in the Latimer case, but this is known only to the police.
Press
Maggie Radcliffe (Carolyn Pickles) – editor of the local newspaper, the Broadchurch Echo, and a friend of Jocelyn Knight's.
Oliver "Olly" Stevens (Jonathan Bailey) – Lucy Stevens' son and Ellie Miller's nephew, he is a reporter for the Broadchurch Echo and is caring for his cousin Tom Miller.
Lawyers
Ben Haywood (William Andrews) – QC Knight's junior barrister.
Sharon Bishop QC (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) – Joe's lead defence counsel. She was once Jocelyn Knight's pupil.
Jocelyn Knight QC (Charlotte Rampling) – a Broadchurch resident and former barrister who is persuaded out of retirement to lead the prosecution against Miller. Danny Latimer argued with the postman near her home a short time before he was murdered. The character's name and role was a "comically strict secret" on the series.
Abby Thompson (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) – Sharon Bishop's junior barrister.
The Honourable Mrs Justice (Sonia) Sharma (Meera Syal) – the judge overseeing Joe Miller's trial.
Townspeople
Lee Ashworth (James D'Arcy) – Claire Ripley's former husband, and the lead suspect in the failed Sandbrook murder case.
Jonah Bishop (Nakay Kpaka) – QC Bishop's imprisoned son.
Nigel "Nige" Carter (Joe Sims) – Mark Latimer's best friend and co-worker at the plumbing company.
Reverend Paul Coates (Arthur Darvill) – a young Anglican priest in Broadchurch, he secretly provides spiritual counsel to Joe Miller. Becca Fisher is his current love interest.
Becca Fisher (Simone McAullay) – the owner and manager of the Trader Hotel who once had an affair with Mark Latimer. Reverend Paul Coates is her current love interest.
Daisy Hardy (Hannah Rae) – Fifteen-year-old daughter of DI Alec Hardy.
Claire Ripley (Eve Myles) – a witness in the Sandbrook murder case, Hardy attempted to protect her by hiding her in Broadchurch. Married to Lee, now separated.
Susan Wright (Pauline Quirke) – Nigel's biological mother, whose first husband raped and then murdered their daughter. Embittered by her incarceration as an accessory to his crimes (she denied her guilt), she sought to reconcile with Nigel, whom authorities took from her and placed for adoption. She fled Broadchurch as the search for Danny's killer reached its climax, but is a critical eyewitness to the crime.
The Gillespies
Cate Gillespie (Amanda Drew) – The mother of murdered Pippa, and wife to Ricky. Left bitter and alcoholic by her daughter's death, she divorced her philandering husband when the Sandbrook case fell apart.
Ricky Gillespie (Shaun Dooley) – Father of murdered Pippa, and husband to Cate. He blames Hardy for the collapse of the case against Lee Ashworth, but hid an affair with Claire Ripley.
Pippa Gillespie (Hollie Burgess) – Twelve-year-old daughter of Cate and Ricky. She was being babysat by her cousin, Lisa, when she was kidnapped and murdered. Her body was found in a stream by Alec Hardy.
Lisa Newbery (Eliza Bennett) – Nineteen-year-old cousin of Pippa Gillespie. Kidnapped along with Pippa, her body has never been found.
Production
Production approval
While conceiving and writing the first series in 2012, Broadchurch creator and lead writer Chris Chibnall designed his story to be told as a trilogy. Series one was written to work both as the first part of this trilogy as well as a self-contained drama. The first series had to be self-contained, he felt, in case the show did not do well in the ratings and a second series was not commissioned. When Chibnall pitched series one to ITV in the autumn of 2012, he also pitched series two and three at the same time.
As series one aired, Chibnall had discussions with ITV executives about commissioning series two. According to Chibnall, ITV was more concerned that people were enjoying the show than they were with the series' ratings (which were very high). ITV agreed to green-light series two about midway through the airing of series one. This allowed Chibnall to announce series two as a "gift" to viewers at the end of series one, so the public would not remain in suspense about a second series.
The final episode of series one finished on 22 April 2013 with a caption reading "Broadchurch Will Return". ITV executives confirmed that same night that a second series of Broadchurch had been commissioned, with production to begin in 2014. Following this episode, an extra scene was released on YouTube depicting Danny Latimer's wake. This video also ended with the words "Broadchurch Will Return". Olivia Colman said that Chibnall telephoned the cast of series one before the announcement to tell them that series two had been greenlit, and outlined his concepts for series two.
Jane Featherstone and Chris Chibnall continued as executive producers of the programme in series two, with Richard Stokes returning as producer. Chibnall also acted as lead writer. ITV executive creative director Tony Pipes declined to reveal the budget for series two, but said it was about the same as other major drama series at the network.
Writing
Chibnall told the Daily Mirror in the summer of 2013 that "the focus of the next series will be on how the shattered community rebuilds itself after the grisly events" of series one. Series one actor Will Mellor strongly implied in an interview that a new murder would not be the focus of the new season, while actor David Tennant told the Associated Press that the series would go in a "very unexpected direction" which he called "as gripping as the first season". While grief was the key theme of series one, Chibnall chose an entirely different theme for series two. Tennant described series two, "Tonally, it's the same show, but structurally, it's completely different."
Chibnall said he mapped out the show's plot and characters on several whiteboards in his office before beginning the writing process. "You have to be very methodical," he said about plotting Broadchurch. "It's like a mathematical puzzle where you put all these blocks together and move them around for the most satisfying thing." Chibnall was assisted in storyboarding series two by his good friend Sam Hoyle, a television script executive who also worked with him in laying out series one. "By the time I sat down to type scenes and dialogue," Chibnall said, "I'd already done quite a lot of work." As early as mid-July 2013, Chibnall told the Daily Mirror that he had finalised the plot and written the second series' first and last scenes, and was now working on the rest of the script. Chibnall also said that the second series' themes, story, and basic mysteries are clearly established by the end of the first episode. Much of series two draws on plot elements established in series one. Lead actor Olivia Colman noted "You find out very early in the first episode which direction it's going in and it's an instant, 'Whoooa!'. Chris set up a lot of things we never even thought about in the first series and now they've come to the fore. At the read-through we were going, 'You sneaky b*****d'." There were constant rewrites of the script as filming occurred.
In August 2014, Erin Kelly, author of the Broadchurch novelisation, said that Chibnall inserted a one-line clue about series two into her book three days before printing was due to begin. Kelly said the clue is revealed in the early pages. Although it does not spoil the plot, she said, it does provide a hint about it. The clue involved the argument the postman had with Danny Latimer. Jack Marshall identifies the location as near Jocelyn Knight's home. On 19 December 2014, ITV revealed that Charlotte Rampling's character is named Jocelyn Knight.
Casting
Actor Matthew Gravelle was the first member of the series one cast to be asked to return for series two. Chris Chibnall asked him if he would appear in a "courtroom drama" follow-on to Broadchurch the next year, and Gravelle instantly agreed. Only his wife, actress Mali Harries, knew of his participation.
According to Olivia Colman, Chris Chibnall telephoned the series one cast in April 2013 and secured their verbal assent to return for another season. But it wasn't clear who would be returning. Jodie Whittaker said the cast was told during the week between episodes seven and eight of series one that Broadchurch was being brought back for a second season. But Chibnall did not tell the actors who would be returning for series two.
David Tennant and Olivia Colman both agreed to star in series two. Neither actor was obligated to return, but without them, Chibnall said, "We would not have done it, absolutely. Luckily they wanted to come back because they weren't contracted to." Chibnall initially expressed his opinion that Tennant would be unable to return, due to both Tennant's heavy work schedule as well as character Alec Hardy's health problems. Attitude magazine went so far as to call Tennant's return "unlikely". Nevertheless, Colman and Tennant's participation was first reported by the Daily Mirror in late October 2013. Colman confirmed her participation on 5 November 2013. Tennant denied being cast on the show in February 2014, saying "I'm still waiting" to hear if his character would be in the second series, but his participation was attested to in March 2014 by co-star Jodie Whittaker. Colman and Tennant's casting was officially announced by ITV on 12 May 2014 by the Radio Times.
Other returning cast members included Andrew Buchan ("Mark Latimer"), Arthur Darvill ("Rev. Paul Coates"), Jodie Whittaker ("Beth Latimer"), Charlotte Beaumont ("Chloe Latimer"), Joe Sims ("Nigel Carter"), Carolyn Pickles ("Maggie Radcliffe"), Jonathan Bailey ("Olly Stevens"), Pauline Quirke ("Susan Wright"), Tanya Franks ("Lucy Stevens"), Simone McAullay ("Becca Fisher"), and Adam Wilson ("Tom Miller"). Darvill confirmed his casting for series two on 17 September 2013. Buchan and Whittaker's participation was announced on 12 May 2014. Beaumont's return was reported on 30 May 2014 when Metro printed photographs of her filming a scene with other cast members. Sims' casting was finally revealed in late August 2014, when the media reported he was shooting scenes for series two. Actor Will Mellor character (alleged psychic Steve Connolly) and actress Vicky McClure character (journalist Karen White) do not return in series two. Actor Matthew Gravelle's return was never confirmed prior to airing.
Casting for Broadchurch series one was overseen by casting directors Kelly Valentine Hendry and Victor Jenkins of VHJ Casting. New series two cast members included James D'Arcy, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Eve Myles, Charlotte Rampling, Meera Syal, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge. None of the new characters were connected to the Latimer murder or any other homicide, Chibnall said. Rampling was named to the cast on 12 May, and Chibnall said her "character is an integral part of the new story". He decided to ask Rampling to join the cast after seeing her perform in a video art piece directed by Steve McQueen. ITV announced that D'Arcy, Jean-Baptiste, Myles, and Waller-Bridge were joining the series on 21 May 2014. Rampling, who lives in France, had seen series one on French television and was a fan of the programme. "The sense of community, the idea of solidarity in a small town — all that is broken when suspicion starts to creep in. There is something very human about it. You don't know what happens in real life when people suffer this kind of tragedy. People go off and live their lives. But here we can actually accompany them and go through the grieving process with them."
Eve Myles' agent called her on 15 February 2014, just four days after Myles gave birth to her daughter, Sienna, telling Myles of the opportunity to audition for Broadchurch. Myles auditioned on videotape in her home, performing her scenes as swiftly as she could before her child made noise or needed attention. Ten days after submitting her video audition, Myles learned she'd won the role. After being cast in series two, Myles received the script for the first episode. "I kept it for bedtime; lights off, iPad out, cup of tea in bed," she said. "It was amazing, like watching a film, the writing is so good. I was shocked, exhilarated and surprised. And it made me laugh."
Chibnall said he wrote Jean-Baptiste's role specifically for her. Baptiste admitted that, living in Los Angeles, California, she was unaware of Broadchurch and had heard little about the show from friends when she was approached to star in series two. She watched the programme and was so impressed that she agreed to star in series two without having seen any of the scripts. Syal's casting was not announced until 18 September 2014—about midway through filming. Chibnall also described her role as critical to the plot.
The role of Nigel Carter's adopted mother was played by Anne Sims, the mother of actor Joe Sims. Broadchurch series one had photographs of character Nigel Carter with his adopted mother. The production used actual photos of Sims as a child and teenager with his real-life mother, Anne. When series two needed an actress to play Nigel's adopted mother in a few scenes, Sims suggested his own mother play the role. The producers quickly agreed.
Eight-month-old twin girls Ava and Millie Priddis also were cast in series two. The daughters of Luke Priddis and his partner Rosie, of Beacon Heath, Exeter, the girls' paternal grandmother saw a newspaper advertisement for twin babies to appear on television. Although hundreds of twins applied, the producers settled on Ava and Millie just 30 minutes after receiving their photograph. The girls play a role in the Latimer family, but the exact nature of the role was not clear prior to airing.
ITV News West Country presenter Ian Axton has a cameo in episode one. Axton jokingly asked show creator Chris Chibnall if he could appear in series two after Chibnall appeared on his show. Chibnall surprisingly contacted him some time later and said yes.
Principal photography
James Strong, who directed five of the eight episodes in series one, directed the first two episodes of series two. Mike Barker, Jessica Hobbs, and Jonathan Teplitzky also directed episodes, with Barker directing episodes seven and eight. John Conroy was the director of photography for all eight episodes. Editing for series two was overseen by Mike Jones, Ben Lester, Dom Strevens, and Helen Chapman, with production design by Simon Rogers and art direction by John West.
The production was much larger than for the first series. With many scenes taking place outside the small fictional town of Broadchurch, the production expanded away from the Jurassic Coast to include many more locations over much of Southwest England. With an increase in the size of the cast, this created significant new logistical obstacles. Series two had a concomitant increase in budget, and a much more complex production schedule compared to series one.
Secrecy
The plot of series two was a closely guarded secret, and ITV and Kudos held meetings to plan security measures long before shooting began. Although already one of series two's highest-budget items, the cost of security on series two went significantly over budget as the public and press sought to learn about the plot. All documents were password-protected, and passwords were changed frequently. Email and other electronic communications between producers, cast, and crew could only make oblique reference to plot details, fake emails were circulated to mislead those who might leak them, and some emails were coded.
New cast members were told before being hired that they would be sworn to secrecy about the plot. According to producer Richard Stokes, some of the new cast were surprised at the requirement. "What was really interesting was the new cast members saying 'what do you mean we won't know'. Some lead actors want to know what happens at the end so they can pitch their performance to it. In this they have to trust Chris and have to trust the directors." Cast members swore not to reveal any details of series two, and were required to sign legally binding non-disclosure agreements. Daily call sheets used pseudonyms for cast members and characters. Scripts were individually watermarked to prevent them from being photocopied, used pseudonyms for characters, and were locked away by security guards when not in use by the actors. Each actor's or crew member's script had the individual's name watermarked across the page as well, so that leaks could be traced back to the person responsible.
Actor Andrew Buchan said cast members were told little about the plot, except on a need-to-know basis as they prepared for their performances in each episode. The actors also received only parts of scripts and only two scripts at a time to ensure that they did not know story details too far in advance. Cinematographer John Conroy said the cast and crew did not know how series two ended until three weeks before shooting began on the final two scripts. Two former Coldstream Guards were hired to stand in front of news reporters when they visited the set, to block possible photographs of the filming. Several different endings for series two were filmed, and the cast was not permitted to see completed episodes of the series.
The production went to some length to keep actor Matthew Gravelle return a secret as well. His character, Joe Miller, confessed to the crime of murder at the end of series one, and there appeared to be no reason for Joe to return in series two. But Chibnall planned to bring Joe back, and include a major plot twist involving him. As late as January 5, his participation in series two remained unconfirmed. To keep Gravelle's presence a secret, he had to wear glasses and a wig and wear a hoodie while filming on location so that the public and press would not recognise him and link him to the programme. Gravelle also had to stay in a different hotel from the rest of the cast, and could not socialise with them after filming ended each day.
ITV held no preview screenings of series two with the press. News media, however, revealed some aspects of the plot as filming occurred. Press outlets confirmed in March 2014 that at least part of the second series would still take place in the fictional town of Broadchurch. At least one scene was filmed in a cemetery, and others depicted a very pregnant Beth Latimer.
The secrecy campaign extended to the soundtrack as well. Composer Ólafur Arnalds was sworn to secrecy about the plot along with the cast and crew. To prevent hackers from breaking into the computer servers used to store and transmit the music and sound effects to the UK, his studio servers were upgraded using the latest encryption technology and software. Ólafur was prevented from telling his musicians or co-arrangers what sort of scenes his music was intended to accompany. "I just say 'play something exciting!'", he told The Independent.
The secrecy campaign was criticised by reporter Susanna Lazarus of Radio Times. While generally decrying the over-use of plot highlights and one-liners in film and television marketing, she argued that there was nonetheless a role for spoilers so that audiences could decide which shows to watch among the wide array of media choices. There was a "thin line", she said, between too much and too little information, but she asked the producers of Broadchurch to walk it.
Location shooting
Much of Broadchurch series two was shot on location. Chibnall felt location shooting was critical to the mood and tone of series two, much as it was for series one. While many crime dramas are shot in gritty, urban locations, Chibnall believed that the bucolic Jurassic Coast setting signalled to viewers that Broadchurch was not a typical detective programme. Producer Richard Stokes said that the Dorset area provided "that sense of the extraordinary, [that] the tragic and the terrible [can] happen in a rather beautiful and moving environment." Early in the pre-production process, the producers and location managers discussed filming in locations other than Dorset. Among the areas considered were cliff locations near Bristol; Essex; Hastings in East Sussex; Kent; and Weston-super-Mare in Somerset. But the producers felt none of the locations could replicate the look of the Jurassic Coast, and the quality of the light in each area was different from that in Dorset.
Filming began in late May 2014, with the first cast read-through occurring on 22 May. About 70 cast and crew worked on Broadchurch series two, and each episode took 12 and a half days to complete. Joel Holmes was the production's location manager. The code name "Tea and Sympathy" was used as a cover to disguise as much of the production's activities as possible.
Shooting primarily occurred in the counties of Berkshire, Devon, Dorset, and Somerset. Most filming occurred in the town of Clevedon in Somerset, with some filming in Bristol. The production spent nearly three months filming at the University of Exeter in the city of Exeter in Devon. Extensive shooting was also done in West Bay in Dorset, where the production used the Station Road Car Park for its production trailers and offices. A car park next to the West Bay Hotel in Bridport served as the production's base camp while filming in that area, while the Rivermead Leisure Centre car park served as production headquarters in Reading, Berkshire. The John Nike Leisuresport Complex served as production headquarters in Bracknell, Berkshire.
David Tennant took a break from filming the second series to shoot episodes of Broadchurch American remake, Gracepoint. He returned to the Broadchurch series two production about 15 September 2014.
The production team was strongly criticised by the West Bay Coastguards in June 2014 for filming too close to the edge of East Cliff at West Bay. Severe weather and recent rockslides left the cliffs unstable, and a Coastguard volunteer said the production team should have used stakes, safety lines, harnesses, and helmets. A spokesperson for the Broadchurch production defended the film crew, noting that the production team received all necessary filming permits, visited the site numerous times to ensure safety, and took other reasonable health and safety precautions.
Filming for series two of Broadchurch concluded just before midnight on 12 October 2014. Final scenes were shot at the village of Eype.
Studio shooting and shooting schedule
Each episode of series two took about two and a half weeks to shoot.
Unlike the first series, series two contained a great deal of studio filming. Chibnall said this was because of the changed nature of the story, and he said that nearly all the major story moments in the second series occurred on a stage. David Tennant said that while the Jurassic Coast and several locations from series one are still featured in series two, most shooting occurred on studio sets near London.
Some sets were built at Longcross Studios in Longcross, Surrey, where art director John West built a very large set. Additional scenes were shot at North Light Film Studios in Armitage Bridge, West Yorkshire.
Two weeks were spent location filming at Britbank, the blue chalet in West Bay which doubled as Alec Hardy's new home in series two.
Acting
The casting of Rampling led to apprehension among many series two cast members, who were intimidated by her. But Chris Chibnall said that Rampling's humour (she's "a proper giggler") alleviated this immediately. Colman described Marianne Jean-Baptiste as "the coolest woman on the planet", and said that Eve Myles and Phoebe Waller-Bridge (a long-time friend of Colman's) both had a terrific sense of humour to the production.
Chibnall had particular praise for Olivia Colman's performance. "She's got such range, Olivia. ... She can do anything I throw at her — she's a writer's dream."
Actor Matthew Gravelle took his role as the alleged murderer and possible paedophile Joe Miller very seriously. "You don't want to get it wrong with whoever you're playing. You try to be as true to somebody who might actually be like that as possible," Gravelle said. "Whatever happens, he's still ultimately not a good person and you've got to try and be sympathetic towards him just to see it from his point of view." He did not research paedophilia per se, but tried to discover research on individuals with pre-paedophiliac tendencies. He found there was little scientific research in the area. Gravelle was therefore forced to come up with his own rationales for Joe's crimes. "The need to be loved was the root of it," he said. "Joe had love but he didn't have the attention in the way that he got it from Danny. It's probably an ego thing. ... He's not working. It's a self-worth issue." Forced to stay apart from the rest of the cast to prevent the public or press from suspecting his involvement in series two, Gravelle used his sense of isolation to bring his character to life. Gravelle said he found that the key to his character in series two was desperation. Joe Miller, he said, sought spiritual relief in both series one and two out of a desperate bid to feel better about himself and his crime. His not-guilty plea in series two, Gravelle felt, was also motivated by desperation (rather than a months-long plan to expose the town's secrets).
Music
Icelandic musician and composer Ólafur Arnalds composed the music for Broadchurch series two, as he did for series one. Ólafur met with Chibnall and the other producers to discuss the score on 16 August 2014, and began work on the soundtrack the first week of September.
Ólafur tweeted via Twitter on 8 October that the series two soundtrack would have a much stronger percussion sound. He later said that he intended the heavy percussion and faster pace of the music to reflect the confusion and feeling of madness that the characters in series two feel. The musical sound was created using a string quartet, piano, drums and percussion instruments, synthesizer, electronic music, and recorded ambient sounds. The soundtrack differed from the music for the first series in another way as well. In the first series, musical themes could be identified for each character. As the music played, a viewer could anticipate what that character would do. Special musical clues even helped identify Joe Miller as Danny Latimer's murderer. But in series two, the music represents the town of Broadchurch as a whole. Doddi, a member of the musical quartet that performs with Ólafur in live shows, provided the percussion music and sounds for the new soundtrack, which (like the first series) was recorded with live musicians in an abandoned church in Reykjavik. Ólafur reported on 26 August that the opening episode involved a 10-minute-long sequence underscored with music. The composer finished writing the first musical cue for episode one on 10 October, and began recording the strings music for series two on 11 November. Music for the second episode of series two was delivered on 14 November 2014.
Ólafur tweeted on 13 November 2014 that he and longtime collaborator, singer Arnór Dan of the Icelandic band Agent Fresco, had written a new closing theme for each episode of series two. As of 11 January 2015, Ólafur was completing work on the music for episode seven, and had not yet finished composing for episode eight.
Ólafur's musical and sound contributions to Broadchurch series two have been highly praised. Show creator Chris Chibnall called Ólafur's soundtrack "a narrative all its own". Susanna Lazarus at Radio Times described the soundtrack as full of "ethereal vocals and haunting music". Alison Graham of Radio Times also had high praise for the soundtrack, saying, "The terrific music is important in building Broadchurch chilly atmosphere and dark mood. Like the best music, it's unobtrusive and doesn't tell you what you should be feeling." Catherine Bolado in the Dorset Echo called it "Haunting, achingly beautiful, angry, harrowing, and joyous — the Broadchurch soundtrack is as emotionally charged as the show it is taken from."
A compilation of Ólafur's music from Broadchurch series one and two was released by Mercury Classics on 19 January 2015. The album contains 13 tracks, two of which (the songs "So Close" and "So Far") have a sung vocal component.
Post-production
The post-production process was a lengthy one. Actress Jodie Whittaker said that the cast would not be able to preview their performances before they aired on ITV in January.
Audio post-production was overseen by Sonorous, a company founded in 2013 by Howard Bargroff. Sound mixing was done using PMC Ltd. twotwo.6s nearfield studio monitors.
Marketing
On 9 November 2014, two 20-second teaser trailers began airing on ITV, each titled "The End Is Where It Begins". On 16 November 2014, a third 20-second teaser trailer aired on ITV, in two versions, voiced by characters Alec Hardy and Ellie Miller, respectively. These were also titled "The End Is Where It Begins". Old Faces, a song written and performed by Laura Doggett, featured on the trailers.
A fourth series two trailer was released on 11 December, with ITV announcing a series two air date of 5 January 2015. ITV released only a small portion of the full trailer at first, and said it would release longer versions on YouTube as the hashtag #BroadchurchReturns was tweeted a certain number of times. (The network did not disclose the retweet goals it established.) ITV executive creative director Tony Pipes said the goal was to generate online buzz about series two.
Other marketing efforts included an 'above the line' online advertising campaign. This consisted primarily of a linear advertising campaign. ITV also said it would begin billboard advertising after Christmas 2014.
Another marketing component involved the publication of short stories after each episode airs. Chibnall was so enthused by author Erin Kelly's novelisation of Broadchurch series one that ITV contracted with her to write a short story to accompany each episode. The short stories, each to be published individually as an e-book, focus on a single character from series two.
Reception
Critical reception
The premiere of Broadchurch series two met with a highly positive critical reception. The Independent awarded the premiere episode four stars out of five and labelled it "a brilliant demonstration of the risks a writer can get away with when there's a proven cast to fall back on". When questioning whether the series would be able to retain the quality of the previous series, reviewer Ellen E. Jones stated, "On the evidence of last night's twist-packed opener, perhaps even more so". Ben Lawrence in The Daily Telegraph also awarded the premiere episode 4/5, praising the performances of Tennant and Colman. They closed their review by stating "Broadchurch continues to be a rich and complex tapestry which respects the viewer's intelligence and commands you to become an armchair detective". Kevin O'Sullivan, writing for the Daily Mirror, called the first episode "tension-packed" and "an impressive opening salvo[] looks set to grip the nation all over again." He also singled out the "chilling Nordic noir-style music" for praise. Awarding the episode a full 5/5, Andrew Billen of The Times labelled the first episode "expansively told and imaginatively filmed". He also stated, "With an extraordinary ensemble cast that churns the narrative like waves in a harbour, Broadchurch will this time free us with nothing but the truth". Mark Lawson in The Guardian called the premiere episode "an ingeniously seamless reboot" and went on to say, "Chibnall has gathered enough old loose ends and intriguing new strands to suggest that Mondays may again become a bad night for the nation's pubs and restaurants". They also praised Tennant and Colman's performances, saying "the pleasure comes from Tennant and Colman's scenes together, forcing them together, each on the edge of disintegration". Natalie Corner at the Daily Mirror singled out Olivia Colman's acting, calling it "fantastic". The Independent Neela Debnath called the cinematography "stunning".
Episodes two and three did not fare as well, critically. Discussing the second episode, Michael Hogan in The Daily Telegraph found the quickened pace invigorating, and found the story gripping. But Neela Debnath at The Independent criticised the writing, concluding, "Sadly, all the electric tension of episode one has evaporated, instead events are becoming improbable and additional drama seems to be shoehorned in for the sake of it. ... There's so much going on that it's starting to feel unbelievable." Ross McG at Metro largely agreed with these points, and noted that the courtroom drama seemed bland because it essentially reiterated facts viewers already knew. Ben Skipper at the International Business Times was harsh in his appraisal, calling episode two "Broadchurch first truly bad hour of television." He blasted the plot, particularly the apparent kidnapping of Claire Ripley, the clichéd timing of Beth Latimer going into labour, and legal inconsistencies. He also called Marianne Jean-Baptiste's performance "lacking". There was limited praise for episode three, however. Ben Dowell at Radio Times had high praise for cinematographer John Conroy's work: "The cinematography was beautiful. Broadchurch always looks fabulously bucolic but tonight the lovely summer dawns and countryside was shown off to an even greater degree..." He also lauded Olivia Colman's performance, calling her "once again on top form".
Episodes four, five and six received more positive reviews. The Guardian said episode five was better than its predecessor, saying "everything felt a little less crammed in." Discussing the sixth episode, The Telegraph declared the show "back on form" and ultimately awarded it four out of five stars. The Independent also reacted more warmly to this episode, stating "All told Broadchurch is rumbling along with the help of some good one-liners and an excellent cast". Digital Spy heavily praised episode six, claiming that "the various threads seem to be coming together as each character makes their mark. Decisions have been made, revelations have come to light and Broadchurch remains as gripping and as fascinating as ever".
Episode seven also received positive reviews. The Independent stated that "the stakes are high just in time for next week's finale". Radio Times believed that "next week's finale really will be worth waiting for" and praised the episode's cinematography by stating "The court scenes came into their own, with beautiful sweeping shots of all the protagonists and bewigged drama that was not weighed down by ponderous and unconvincing legal wrangling".
Episode eight ended the series with a generally positive critical reception, with many praising the performances of Tennant and Colman. Radio Times praised Tennant's performance, saying that "the episode belonged to [him]". They also heavily praised the ending to the Joe Miller case, labeling the resolution "brilliant" and claiming "Yes, he got off, but writer Chris Chibnall and his fabulous cast fashioned a quite brilliant climax where justice of a sort was done". Digital Spy responded positively, labeling the finale "satisfying and unsatisfying - complete closure has not been achieved. Reflecting the inequality and injustices of everyday life, Chibnall's choices for the finale were thoughtful, saddening and even worrying. A brave move, just as the entire two series have been". They also praised Tennant's performance, they said "It's a cracking performance from the actor who delves deep to deliver some fiery moments but also, having solved the Sandbrook case, his own breakdown at the station - as he sits alone and cries - is touching and deserved". The Independent, in a mixed review, praised many of the cast by saying "Whenever the plot dragged, we could rely on Ellie (Olivia Colman), Beth (Jodie Whittaker) or Mark (Andrew Buchan) for a performance which delivered that missing emotional connection".
Effect on tourism
National news media also identified a phenomenon known as the "Broadchurch effect", a surge of interest in real estate and tourism in areas where Broadchurch was filmed. The Bridport area saw tourism leap 67 percent after series one ended. After the debut of series two, The Independent reported that major Web search engines saw a 200 percent increase in searches for Dorset and Somerset. Searches for holidays in Dorset rose 50 percent, according to a study by the hotel booking web site Hotels.com. When Britbank, the blue chalet in West Bank, went on the market in January 2015 for £275,000, real estate expert Malcolm Gill said the price had gone up £25,000 to £50,000 because of the "Broadchurch effect".
Ratings
The premiere episode of series two drew an average of 7.3 million viewers for a 30.1 percent share on 5 January 2015. An average of 300,000 viewers watched it on ITV+1 an hour later. The episode opened with just 6.8 million viewers at 9 P.M., and ended with 8.7 million viewers (with a peak viewership of 8.9 million). Broadchurch was the second-most-watched programme of the evening, with the most-watched being Coronation Street (which had a peak audience of 8.3 million). After accounting for DVR and other viewers over the next seven days, the first episode's consolidated viewership figure was 9.9 million. The series two premiere drew 800,000 (28.1 percent) more viewers than the series one premiere, and was 22.6 percent higher than average ITV viewership (5.2 million) in the same time-slot over the past 12 months.
Viewership dropped significantly for the second episode, to just 6.11 million viewers (a 22.4 percent share) after accounting for ITV+1 viewership. That was the lowest overnight viewership rating for the series since episode five of series one. It was still good enough to win its timeslot, however. Overnight ratings dropped again for the third episode to just 5.2 million viewers, the lowest for any episode of the series. Overnight viewership dropped again for episode four, reaching a low of 5.6 million viewers. However, the series won its timeslot, beating Silent Witness.
Home media releases
Acorn Media UK announced it would release series two on DVD and Blu-ray in the United Kingdom on 23 March 2015.
Notes
External links
References
Bibliography
2015 British television seasons
Broadchurch |
40434301 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ImmuniWeb | ImmuniWeb | ImmuniWeb is a global application security company headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. ImmuniWeb develops Machine Learning and AI technologies for SaaS-based application security solutions provided via its proprietary ImmuniWeb AI Platform.
Early Security Research
Security Advisories
High-Tech Bridge Security Research Team has released over 500 security advisories affecting various software, with issues identified in products from many well-known vendors, such as Sony, McAfee Novell, in addition to many web vulnerabilities affecting popular open source and commercial web applications, such as osCommerce, Zen Cart, Microsoft SharePoint, SugarCRM and others.
High-Tech Bridge's Security Research Lab was registered as CVE and CWE compatible by MITRE. It is one of only 24 organizations, globally, and the first in Switzerland, that have been able to achieve CWE certification.
The company is listed among 81 organizations, as at August 2013, that include CVE identifiers in their security advisories.
Free Online Services and Related Research
High-Tech Bridge launched an SSL/TLS configuration testing tool in October 2015. The tool can validates email, web or any other TLS or SSL server configuration against NIST guidelines and checks PCI DSS compliance, it was cited in articles covering the TalkTalk data breach.
Security and Privacy Research
The discovery of vulnerabilities in Yahoo! sites by High-Tech Bridge was widely reported, leading to the t-shirt gate affair and changes in Yahoo's bug bounty program. The firm identified and reported four XSS vulnerabilities on Yahoo! domains, for which the company was awarded two gift vouchers to the value of $25. The sparse reward offered to security researchers for identifying vulnerabilities on Yahoo! was criticized, sparking what came to be called t-shirt-gate, a campaign against Yahoo! sending out T-shirts as thanks for discovering vulnerabilities. High-Tech Bridge's discovery of these vulnerabilities and the subsequent criticism of Yahoo!'s reward program led to Yahoo! rolling out a new vulnerability reporting policy which offers between $150 and $15,000 for reported issues, based on pre-established criteria.
In December 2013, the firm's research on privacy in popular social networks and email services was cited in a class action lawsuit for allegedly violating its members' privacy by scanning private messages sent on the social network.
In October 2014 the firm discovered a Remote Code Execution vulnerabilities in PHP. In December 2014, they identified the RansomWeb attack, a development of Ransomware attacks, where hackers have started taking over webs servers, encrypting the data on them and demanding payment to unlock the files.
In April 2014, the discovery of a sophisticated Drive-by download attacks, revealed how drive-by download attacks are used to target specific website visitors after their authentication on a compromised web resource.
In December 2015, the firm tested the most popular free email service providers, for SSL/TLS email encryption. Hushmail, previously considered as one of the most secure email providers, received a failing "F" grade. Just after, the company updated its SSL configuration and received a score of "B+".
References
External links
Official website
See also
Penetration test
Computer security companies
Computer security software companies
Companies based in Geneva
Swiss brands |
40447995 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%9CTorrent | ΜTorrent | μTorrent, or uTorrent (see pronunciation) is a proprietary adware BitTorrent client owned and developed by Rainberry, Inc. with over 150 million users. It is the most widely used BitTorrent client outside China; globally only behind Xunlei. The "μ" (Greek letter "mu") in its name comes from the SI prefix "micro-", referring to the program's small memory footprint: the program was designed to use minimal computer resources while offering functionality comparable to larger BitTorrent clients such as Vuze or BitComet. μTorrent became controversial in 2015 when many users unknowingly accepted a default option during installation which also installed a cryptocurrency miner. The miner was removed in later versions, but had already done irreversible damage to μTorrent's reputation.
The program has been in active development since its first release in 2005. Although originally developed by Ludvig Strigeus, since December 7, 2006, the code is owned and maintained by BitTorrent, Inc. The code has also been employed by BitTorrent, Inc. as the basis for version 6.0 and above of the BitTorrent client, a re-branded version of μTorrent. All versions are written in C++.
History
Early development
Out of general discontent with bloatware, Serge Paquet suggested to Ludvig Strigeus that he should make a smaller and more efficient BitTorrent client. Strigeus began to conceptualize the plans for the program's development, which, at the time, did not include making the client feature-rich. After initially working on it for about a month during the last quarter of 2004 (the first build is dated October 17, 2004), mostly during his free time before and after work, Strigeus ceased coding μTorrent for a year. He resumed work on September 15, 2005, and three days later, the first public release (version 1.1 beta) was made available as free software, and began generating feedback.
PeerFactor SARL
On March 4, 2006, PeerFactor SARL announced the signing of a six-month contract with Strigeus for the development of "new content distribution applications on the Web." PeerFactor SARL is a relatively new company formed by former employees of PeerFactor, which was a subsidiary of the French anti-piracy organization Retspan.
Ludde stated that his coding for PeerFactor SARL was to use his expertise at optimization of the BitTorrent protocol to create a .dll which PeerFactor SARL intended to use as part of a distribution platform for files in a corporate setting. At the time there was some speculation that μTorrent may have been modified to spy on users on Peerfactor's behalf, however to date (even following μTorrent's acquisition by BitTorrent, Inc.) no evidence has been produced to support these allegations.
Ownership change
On December 7, 2006, μTorrent was purchased by BitTorrent, Inc.
On September 18, 2007, BitTorrent 6.0 was released. Although previous versions of the BitTorrent client had been open source software, with version 6 it became proprietary.
In April 2017, BitTorrent founder Bram Cohen announced that the next version of μTorrent would be web browser based. This μTorrent version allows users to stream torrents from the default web browser, similar to a regular streaming site.
Features
Features present in μTorrent include:
Magnet Links (URIs), added in version 1.8, released on August 9, 2008.
Teredo tunneling / IPv6 support
Micro Transport Protocol (µTP) preliminary support as of 1.8.2 with full-support added in 2.0
UPnP support for all versions of Windows, without needing Windows XP's UPnP framework
Protocol encryption (PE)
Peer exchange (PEX) with other BitTorrent clients:
libtorrent and clients based on it like Deluge or qBittorrent have full μTorrent PEX support
Transmission and clients based on libTransmission have full μTorrent PEX support
KTorrent has full μTorrent PEX support as of 2.1 RC1
Vuze, formerly Azureus, has full support as of version 3.0.4.3
RSS ("broadcatching")
"Trackerless" BitTorrent support using DHT, compatible with the original BitTorrent client and BitComet
User configurable intelligent disk caching system
Full proxy server support
HTTPS tracker support
Configurable bandwidth scheduler
Localized for 67 languages.
Initial seeding of torrents
Customizable search bar & user interface design.
Configuration settings and temporary files are stored in a single directory, allowing portable use
WebUI: A plugin currently in beta testing that allows μTorrent running on one computer to be controlled from another computer, either across the internet or on a LAN, using a Web browser
A new web user interface, codenamed Falcon, is in development. It supports encrypted sessions and the ability of going through firewalls without port forwarding, while being more complete and easier to start using than its predecessor.
Embedded Tracker: a simple tracker designed for seeding torrents, lacking a web interface or list of hosted torrents. It is not designed for secure or large-scale application.
Quick-resumes interrupted transfers
Versions of μTorrent up to 1.8.5 build 17091 can use as little as 14 MB of RAM running on a 486 processor on Windows 95.
Two "easter egg" hidden features in the About subsection of Help: clicking the μTorrent logo plays a Deep Note-like sound effect, and typing the letter "t" starts a Tetris-like game called μTris, which in 2008 was selected as #1 of the "Top 10 Software Easter Eggs" by LifeHacker.
The ability to use encryption of all traffic to bypass torrent blocking on the network.
Size
μTorrent is shipped as a single stand-alone compressed executable file, installed at first run. Recent versions have included the ability to install themselves on first run. Small executable size is achieved by avoiding the use of many libraries, notably the C++ standard library and stream facilities, and creating substitutes written specifically for the program. The executable is then compressed to roughly half of its compiled and linked size using UPX.
Operating system support
μTorrent is available for Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Android. A μTorrent Server is also available for Linux.
The first test version for macOS, running on Mac OS X Leopard, was released on 27 November 2008.
On September 2, 2010, the native Linux version of μTorrent Server was released. Firon, an administrator of the μTorrent community forum, said that they had been working on this project for a few months prior to the release as it was the most requested feature for some time. This release is intended for users who are seeking a fast command-line interface based BitTorrent client with a remote web-based management. They also mentioned that a full featured client with a GUI is a work in progress. He also said:
Currently μTorrent supports Windows XP or newer and Mac OS X Leopard or newer.
Revenue
In early versions, Strigeus had built in a web redirection via nanotorrent for search queries entered through the search bar that displayed advertisements in a frame on the web browser. Some users thought this suspicious because tracking could be implemented by recording the IP addresses of those downloading/receiving the advertisements, and the search functionality could easily be used to track user queries through whichever web-interface the client is going through to execute the search. After a short trial period, the advertising was disabled, mitigating possible concerns.
A later version of the software has, instead of ads, a "search all sites" feature, which is a keyword-based search bar that delivers listings of torrent files at different trackers. A frame at the top displays advertisements (server-side) in the browser when the search function is used. In version 1.5, no ads are present in the program itself.
As of build 463, a redirect bypass feature became available in the Advanced options.
As of version 1.8.2, the μTorrent installer gives the user the option to download and install the Ask.com toolbar. This is done on the first run of the program and the user may explicitly opt out of this feature by deselecting it. The developers stated the addition was needed for funds to continue development. In late 2010, this was replaced with the Conduit Engine.
Toolbars
In late 2010, some controversy arose with a release of μTorrent which included adware in the form of the Conduit Engine, which installed a toolbar, and made homepage and default search engine changes to a user's web browser. A number of users reported that the installation was made without the user's consent. There were some complaints that the adware software was difficult to remove.
In 2011, μTorrent bundled the Bing Toolbar.
Paid version
On July 15, 2011, BitTorrent announced that they would offer a paid version of μTorrent called "μTorrent Plus". This new version would offer extra features, such as integrated file conversion, anti-virus and a built in media player. On 6 October 2011, the Pre-alpha of μTorrent Plus was released to an invitation only community. As of December 2011, μTorrentPlus 3.1 was available for $24.95; as of December 2014, the Plus version was available as a $19.95 yearly subscription.
Ads and malware
In August 2012, BitTorrent announced the addition of advertising in the free version of µTorrent which could be individually dismissed by users. Due to response from users, a few days later, the company stated that ads could be optionally turned off. A user-created tool known as "Pimp My µTorrent" was also created to simplify the process of disabling ads in the Windows version. Starting with µTorrent version 3.2.2, the software also contains in-content advertisements described as "Featured Torrent". As with ads, it is possible to disable this content.
In March 2015, it was alleged that μTorrent had automatically installed a program known as Epic Scale: a program classified as "riskware" by some security programs, which mines the cryptocurrency Litecoin in the background for BitTorrent, Inc. (allegedly giving a portion to charity), utilizing CPU and GPU power. A μTorrent developer disputed the claim that it was automatically installed, and claimed that as with all other "partner" programs bundled with the software, users could decline the installation. On 28 March, Epic Scale was permanently removed from the installation and as a software bundle partner.
Russian and Ukrainian users of μTorrent are being tricked into installing Yandex Browser and other Yandex-produced software.
Pronunciation
An admin on the μTorrent forums wrote in 2005, "I don't really know how it's pronounced... ...I usually say 'you torrent' because it looks like a u", while stating they were not sure, they also mentioned the correct pronunciations for "μTorrent" "microtorrent", "mytorrent" (as "my" is the Swedish pronunciation of the Greek letter μ) and "mutorrent". In Greece, where the software is widely
used, it is called 'me torrent', since the letter μ of the Greek Alphabet is pronounced [mi] in modern Greek.
The symbol μ is the lowercase Greek letter mu, which stands for the SI prefix "micro-". It refers to the program's originally small footprint.
Contributors
Original development was performed by Ludvig Strigeus ("ludde", from Sweden), the creator of μTorrent. Serge Paquet ("vurlix", from Canada) acted as release coordinator, and had intended to work on Linux and macOS ports. He maintained the μTorrent website and forum up until the end of 2005, but is no longer affiliated with μTorrent.
Since its purchase in 2006, development has been performed by various employees of Bittorrent Inc. Strigeus is no longer affiliated.
Reception
μTorrent has been praised for its small size and minimal computer resources used, which set it apart from other clients. PC Magazine stated that it "packs an outstanding array of features" in 2006 and listed it in their 2008 "Best free 157 software tools". It was also in PC World's "101 Fantastic freebies". The website TorrentFreak.com said it was the most feature rich BitTorrent client available, later summarizing a 2009 University of California, Riverside study which concluded that "μTorrent Download Speeds Beat Vuze By 16%" on average and "on 10% of [the 30 most used] ISPs, μTorrent users were downloading 30% faster than Vuze users". About.com said it was the best BitTorrent client available, citing its small size and "minimal impact to the rest of your computer's speed." Wired.com said its "memory footprint is also ridiculously small". PC & Tech Authority magazine (Australia) gave it 6 stars (out of 6). Lifehacker.com rated it the best BitTorrent client available (Windows) in 2008, 2011 (Windows and Mac) and a follow-up user poll rated it the most popular torrent client in 2015. CNET.com gave it 5 stars (of 5) saying it features "light and quick downloading".
In November 2009, 52 million users were reported to be using the application, and in late 2011, 132 million.
According to a study by Arbor Networks, the 2008 adoption of IPv6 by μTorrent caused a 15-fold increase in IPv6 traffic across the Internet over a ten-month period.
See also
Comparison of BitTorrent clients
References
External links
uTorrent: A Beginner's Guide to BitTorrent Downloading by Jared M
p2pnet uTorrent interview by Alex H
Can great software live in 130 kilobytes? by George Ou
Glasnost test BitTorrent traffic shaping (Max Planck Institute for Software Systems)
Android (operating system) software
BitTorrent clients
2005 software
C++ software
Cross-platform software
Freemium
Adware
MacOS file sharing software
Windows file sharing software
Portable software
Proprietary freeware for Linux
BitTorrent clients for Linux
Internet properties established in 2005 |
40455685 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullrun%20%28decryption%20program%29 | Bullrun (decryption program) | Bullrun (stylized BULLRUN) is a clandestine, highly classified program to crack encryption of online communications and data, which is run by the United States National Security Agency (NSA). The British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) has a similar program codenamed Edgehill. According to the Bullrun classification guide published by The Guardian, the program uses multiple methods including computer network exploitation, interdiction, industry relationships, collaboration with other intelligence community entities, and advanced mathematical techniques.
Information about the program's existence was leaked in 2013 by Edward Snowden. Although Snowden's documents do not contain technical information on exact cryptanalytic capabilities because Snowden did not have clearance access to such information, they do contain a 2010 GCHQ presentation which claims that "vast amounts of encrypted Internet data which have up till now been discarded are now exploitable". A number of technical details regarding the program found in Snowden's documents were additionally censored by the press at the behest of US intelligence officials. Out of all the programs that have been leaked by Snowden, the Bullrun Decryption Program is by far the most expensive. Snowden claims that since 2011, expenses devoted to Bullrun amount to $800 million. The leaked documents reveal that Bullrun seeks to "defeat the encryption used in specific network communication technologies".
Naming and access
According to the NSA's Bullrun Classification Guide, Bullrun is not a Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) control system or compartment, but the codeword has to be shown in the classification line, after all other classification and dissemination markings. Furthermore, any details about specific cryptographic successes were recommend to be additionally restricted (besides being marked Top Secret//SI) with Exceptionally Controlled Information labels; a non-exclusive list of possible Bullrun ECI labels was given as: APERIODIC, AMBULANT, AUNTIE, PAINTEDEAGLE, PAWLEYS, PITCHFORD, PENDLETON, PICARESQUE, and PIEDMONT without any details as to what these labels mean.
Access to the program is limited to a group of top personnel at the Five Eyes (FVEY), the NSA and the signals intelligence agencies of the United Kingdom (GCHQ), Canada (CSE), Australia (ASD), and New Zealand (GCSB). Signals that cannot be decrypted with current technology may be retained indefinitely while the agencies continue to attempt to decrypt them.
Methods
Through the NSA-designed Clipper chip, which used the Skipjack cipher with an intentional backdoor, and using various specifically designed laws such as CALEA, CESA and restrictions on export of encryption software as evidenced by Bernstein v. United States, the U.S. government had publicly attempted in the 1990s to ensure its access to communications and ability to decrypt. In particular, technical measures such as key escrow, a euphemism for a backdoor, have met with criticism and little success.
The NSA encourages the manufacturers of security technology to disclose backdoors to their products or encryption keys so that they may access the encrypted data. However, fearing widespread adoption of encryption, the NSA set out to stealthily influence and weaken encryption standards and obtain master keys—either by agreement, by force of law, or by computer network exploitation (hacking).
According to a Bullrun briefing document, the agency had successfully infiltrated both the Secure Sockets Layer as well as some virtual private networks (VPNs). The New York Times reported that: "But by 2006, an N.S.A. document notes, the agency had broken into communications for three foreign airlines, one travel reservation system, one foreign government's nuclear department and another's Internet service by cracking the virtual private networks that protected them. By 2010, the Edgehill program, the British counterencryption effort, was unscrambling VPN traffic for 30 targets and had set a goal of an additional 300."
As part of Bullrun, NSA has also been actively working to "Insert vulnerabilities into commercial encryption systems, IT systems, networks, and endpoint communications devices used by targets". The New York Times has reported that the random number generator Dual_EC_DRBG contains a back door, which would allow the NSA to break encryption keys generated by the random number generator. Even though this random number generator was known to be insecure and slow soon after the standard was published, and a potential NSA kleptographic backdoor was found in 2007 while alternative random number generators without these flaws were certified and widely available, RSA Security continued using Dual_EC_DRBG in the company's BSAFE toolkit and Data Protection Manager until September 2013. While RSA Security has denied knowingly inserting a backdoor into BSAFE, it has not yet given an explanation for the continued usage of Dual_EC_DRBG after its flaws became apparent in 2006 and 2007. It was reported on December 20, 2013 that RSA had accepted a payment of $10 million from the NSA to set the random number generator as the default. Leaked NSA documents state that their effort was “a challenge in finesse” and that “Eventually, N.S.A. became the sole editor” of the standard.
By 2010, the leaked documents state that the NSA had developed "groundbreaking capabilities" against encrypted Internet traffic. A GCHQ document warned however "These capabilities are among the SIGINT community's most fragile, and the inadvertent disclosure of the simple 'fact of' could alert the adversary and result in immediate loss of the capability." Another internal document stated that "there will be NO 'need to know.'" Several experts, including Bruce Schneier and Christopher Soghoian, had speculated that a successful attack against RC4, an encryption algorithm used in at least 50 percent of all SSL/TLS traffic at the time, was a plausible avenue, given several publicly known weaknesses of RC4. Others have speculated that NSA has gained ability to crack 1024-bit RSA/DH keys. RC4 has since been prohibited for all versions of TLS by RFC 7465 in 2015, due to the RC4 attacks weakening or breaking RC4 used in SSL/TLS.
Fallout
In the wake of Bullrun revelations, some open source projects, including FreeBSD and OpenSSL, have seen an increase in their reluctance to (fully) trust hardware-based cryptographic primitives.
Many other software projects, companies and organizations responded with an increase in the evaluation of their security and encryption processes. For example, Google doubled the size of their TLS certificates from 1024 bits to 2048 bits.
Revelations of the NSA backdoors and purposeful complication of standards has led to a backlash in their participation in standards bodies. Prior to the revelations the NSA's presence on these committees was seen as a benefit given their expertise with encryption.
There has been speculation that the NSA was aware of the Heartbleed bug, which caused major websites to be vulnerable to password theft, but did not reveal this information in order to exploit it themselves.
Etymology
The name "Bullrun" was taken from the First Battle of Bull Run, the first major battle of the American Civil War. Its predecessor "Manassas", is both an alternate name for the battle and where the battle took place. "EDGEHILL" is from the Battle of Edgehill, the first battle of the English Civil War.
See also
HTTPS
IPsec
Mass surveillance
Mass surveillance in the United Kingdom
Mass surveillance in the United States
MUSCULAR
PRISM
Tailored Access Operations
Transport Layer Security
Voice over IP
References
External links
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/09/crucial-unanswered-questions-about-nsa-bullrun-program
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/09/05/us/documents-reveal-nsa-campaign-against-encryption.html?_r=0
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2013/10/defending_again_1.html
Cryptography Opening Discussion: Speculation on "BULLRUN" John Gilmore
https://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/crypto_wont_help.pdf
American secret government programs
Mass surveillance
National Security Agency operations
GCHQ operations
Intelligence agency programmes revealed by Edward Snowden
Encryption debate |
40463989 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application%20Defined%20Network | Application Defined Network | Application Defined Network (ADN) is an enterprise data network that uses virtual network and security components to provide a dedicated logical network for each application, with customized security and network policies to meet the requirements of that specific application. ADN technology allows for a simple physical architecture with fewer devices, less device configuration and integration, reduced network administration and a lower tax on IT resources. ADN solutions simplify businesses' need to securely deploy multiple applications across the enterprise footprint and partner networks, regardless of where the application resides. ADN platforms provide policy-based, application-specific delivery to corporate data centers, cloud services and/or third-party networks securely and cost-effectively. Some ADN solutions integrate 3G/4G wireless backup services to enable a second internet connection automatically and instantly when connectivity is lost on the primary access connection. The ADN design provides an application-to-application (A2A) based model that evolves enterprise networks beyond the site-to-site (S2S) private model.
ADN fundamentals
ADN solutions address the need to enable multiple different applications, such as guest WiFi (hotspot) while strictly securing regulated applications such as payment on the same network. Traditionally, in site-to-site networks, having multiple applications introduces significant security policy conflicts. Technologies, such as guest Wi-Fi, mobile payment and/or cloud services open the traditional private network to outside security threats and create significant complexity in security policies and network administration. ADNs can be customized with specific security features that address specific application needs, and enhanced with performance and reliability features such as traffic management for application prioritization and fail-over for back-up connection services.
Complexity breeds vulnerability. Application Defined Networks (ADNs) significantly reduce complexity and the resulting costs of multiple device investment and management, configuration, integration, and problem isolation and resolution. ADNs are typically enabled on a secure appliance at the distributed enterprise locations that integrate with a cloud network to connect applications to corporate data centers, cloud services, payment gateways and partner networks. ADNs eliminate the potential for route conflicts, security cascade across applications, and problem cascade caused by one application misbehaving and affecting other applications on the same network.
Route Conflicts – traditional site-to-site networks facilitate multiple applications over single connections (ex. VPNs, MPLS VPNs, and Ethernet) and require complex security rules to partition applications from one another. Simple errors in device configurations can create routing problems that can breach strict security and compliance-based applications such as PCI-DSS and HIPAA certifications. The ability to completely segment these applications into their own discrete ADN removes that complexity of managing multiple security partitions across many locations.
Security Cascade – traditional site-to-site networks are subject to security bleed when a network segment that is open to the Internet gets breached. Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) are becoming more frequent, effective and damaging. The damage is occurring when the threat roots inside the breached segment and stealthily probes entry points into other network segments. Several security breaches have been the result of this security cascade where vulnerability between network segments is exploited. ADNs eliminate the ability for a security breach to cascade between network segments and applications by compartmentalizing applications into secure and isolated networks.
Problem Cascade – On a traditional site-to-site network, when a specific problem in an individual application's configuration results in abnormal behaviors, the problem ends up affecting all other applications on the network. Essentially, one application misbehaving results in all applications being affected and the entire network being compromised. Isolating the root of the problem becomes extremely difficult and time-consuming when a network is in chaos, or completely down. On an Application Defined Network, problems are isolated to the specific application's network, allowing for simpler fault isolation and resolution.
ADNs are logically defined virtual networks that extend from application enabler to application gateways. ADN solutions combine the ability to define specific LAN segments with an actual ADN. This provides the ability to extend the ADN through the LAN to a specific interface on the application enabler (POS system, server, etc.). An assigned zone will lock down a specific LAN port to a specific use. For example, serial port 1 would be assigned to the payment ADN/LAN segment only, and no other devices can use that specific LAN port, and if unauthorized device is plugged into zone 1, it will not work. This provides both physical and logical security protections against unauthorized use of a port.
The ADN then facilitates the connection from the specific LAN port over the public broadband connection independently of any public IP addressing. The ADN is then authenticated inside the cloud and transported to the destination application gateway. This provides an end-to-end application enabler to an application gateway network that is independently defined, both physically and logically. The application gateway can reside within the corporate office or data centers, cloud service providers, partner networks or virtually anywhere.
A2A
Application-to-application (A2A) networks remove site-to-site (S2S) limitations by defining the network architecture at the application level. A2A networks open the enterprise network to be able to securely connect to any application, no matter where it resides. A2A networks free the enterprise network from burdensome controls and restricted hub and spoke traffic patterns, by facilitating any-to-any traffic pattern based on the specific needs to the application itself. Companies no longer have to overspend by purchasing application licenses and building the application within their data centers, and incur all the associated capital, network and IT resource costs. A2A networking allows companies to implement innovation, and efficiently deploy multiple applications using cloud services that address needs, such as, improved customer value, operational efficiencies and product differentiation.
Security
ADN network simplifies security by establishing discrete independent networks that do not require complex security rules to partition traffic types. ADNs reduce the risk of human error in maintaining complex Access Control Lists (ACLs) across many sites which can create security vulnerabilities. For example, if an ADN with public Internet access is breached by an outside party, the ability of the breach to bleed between ADNs, such as a payment ADN, is eliminated.
ADN standard security features include firewall, intrusion detection, logging, wireless scanning, content filtering, access control list, multi-factor authentication, Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption and compartmentalization. Additional custom security features can also be easily deployed such as HTTPS filtering, Security and Event Management (SIEM), or any best-of-breed security application hosted on virtual servers within the cloud.
References
Networks |
40471340 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brynhildr%20in%20the%20Darkness | Brynhildr in the Darkness | is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Lynn Okamoto. It was serialized in Shueisha's seinen manga magazine Weekly Young Jump from January 2012 to March 2016. An anime television series adaptation by Arms aired between April and June 2014.
Plot
Ten years ago, Ryōta Murakami along with his childhood friend Kuroneko set out to search for signs of alien life. Although Ryōta is skeptical about her theory, Kuroneko insists that aliens are real. During their search, a tragic accident occurs which gravely injures Ryōta but kills Kuroneko. Due to his strong memory, Ryōta cannot forget about Kuroneko. Since then, he has been continuously staring at the night sky in order to prove that aliens exist, and also to fulfill Kuroneko's dying wish.
Presently, Ryōta is a top student at his school and the sole member of the Astronomy Club. Until he gets the shock of his life when a new transfer student named Neko Kuroha arrives in his class. She bears a striking resemblance to Ryōta's dead childhood friend, although she dismisses the fact as a bluff. Ryōta later notices something amiss about Neko. When a student almost drowned is saved by a mysterious force, Neko predicted that Ryōta will also die. After displaying superhuman strength in saving his life, it is then revealed that Neko is a witch who escaped from an alien research lab.
Ryōta becomes a part of Neko's life, learning more about her dilemma and the hidden forces that exist in the universe. As he sinks deeper and deeper into a world of magic and artificially created witches, Ryōta must use necessary means of preserving and sheltering other escaped witches and allow them to live normally, despite knowing the scientists of the lab would kill any outsiders involved.
Characters
Astronomy Club
A high school student with high intellect and photographic memory. Ryouta has his sights set on being a researcher for NASA due to a promise he made with his beloved childhood friend Kuroneko. He is president of the astronomy club and was the only remaining member before inviting Neko and the others. After meeting the magic-users, he decides to provide shelter for them at an old observatory despite knowing that their pursuers have orders to kill whoever comes in contact with them, usually coming up with plans to have their location concealed and live normally. All the while, he is constantly looking for ways to acquire more "Death Suppressants" (DR623G), drugs that are necessary to keep the magic-users alive; and prevent the Hatching process. After the Valkyria incident, Ryouta struggle in hopes for Neko to remember the times they spent together. According to Nanami, Ryouta was also a subject of Vingulf's experiments himself, and his photographic memory is linked to the 'Edda' (a global latitude organ that stores unlimited information or consciousness he and Loki are linked with) was one of its effects, but for some reason was allowed to live a normal life. However, his lifespan was greatly shortened, and will soon die. When the Vingulf staff kidnaps Ryouta, he learns the truth about his origin. With the last of his time, Loki consumes Ryouta; in the process, Ryouta overtakes his consciousness and the merging of god powers then erases his manifestation. Ryouta's bodiless soul is left roaming the Earth, then Neko joins him inside the Edda to share their affections where a young girl approaches them, who appears to be Kazumi as a child.
Neko is a B-rank magic-user with the ability of telekinesis, to destroy inorganic matter as far as . She has a striking resemblance to Ryouta's supposedly deceased childhood friend and it is later proven that both are one and the same (a birthmark with the shape of three dots is on her upper left breast). Her research no. is 7620. When Neko uses her powers, part of her memories are lost; Ryouta thus refrains from having her use them as much as possible. She joins the astronomy club as its vice-president. She loves to sing but does not do it in front of others without getting flustered. She aims to find out how many constellation there are in total.
Neko is actually a prototype Valkyria. When Neko's true power is awakened, she remembers who she really is; she regains full access to her SS-rank power. Sorcerian speculates Neko could be the Brynhildr, an entity that is being sought by the institute for a yet unknown purpose. This allows her to use the same type of abilities as Mako, as well as her ultimate ability to create a micro black hole which she used to defeat Mako's anti-matter but overexerted herself at the cost of losing all her memories, including recent ones. The new Neko is rather cold to Ryouta, due to her cluelessness. Following several adventures, Neko rediscovers her feelings when reading her former self's notebook. After Makina dragged her back to Vingulf, she was set to be offered to Loki until Ryouta re-pressed her top button harness then fully reformed. As the fight between Neko and Loki has gotten nowhere, Ryouta sacrifices himself to save her and the world from the total revolution. Three months later, Neko parts with the real world to dive into Edda so she can be with Ryouta forever.
A C-rank magic-user who had an accident while being harnessed. Her magic is the ability to see the near future when someone is about to die. Her entire body is paralyzed aside from her left hand. Kana uses a keyboard that synthesizes her voice to communicate with the outside world. Her research no. is 4010. Ryouta makes use of this to prepare in advance against those who pose a threat to Neko and the others. Kazumi states that Kana could move if she wanted to, but she refrains from doing so. It is later revealed that she silently vowed to protect Neko by retaining her power in foreseeing her death in the future that would be the reason for it. Kana poses as a mascot for the club. She is initially rude to Ryouta and the others, but she eventually warms up to them. She has to have her food in a liquid form to eat. After pushing the top button on her harness, Kana loses her foresight ability in exchange for the ability to move at super-speed, though has low stamina. Kana is actually now able to foresee in more detail whenever there's going to be a serious crisis. She grows close to Mina at the point she prefers her life over Ryouta's.
A B+rank magic-user specialized in computer hacking, gathering intel, and breaking encryption keys in mere seconds. Kazumi is half-Austrian but speaks Japanese with a Kansai dialect. Her research no. is 2670. Like Neko, Kazumi hacks in to get into high school then joins the same class and club as Ryouta and Neko. Kazumi tends to do perverted things. She gets angry when someone compares her chest size or makes fun of it. Following the act of falsely confessing to Ryouta to avoid her impending death informed by Mizuka, Kazumi proved her feelings for Ryouta afterward and desires to bear a child with him as living proof of her existence. It is proven that Kazumi's ranking is not indicative of her true abilities, which surpasses that of a ranked AAA. Engaging Loki's genocide assault, Kazumi pushes her limits to hack and destroy Loki's genetic memory inside the Edda and spare Ryouta; unfortunately, it leaves him only act on instincts, and Kazumi melts in the process. However, Kazumi's life has somehow succeeded. She is named after an Austrian ski jumper Gregor Schlierenzauer.
Another B-rank magic-user capable of "teleportation," though in reality she can only swap places with other people (even resets the kinetic energy). Her research no. is 1107. Kotori is cheerful but also a klutz. She has good cooking skills and registers for the club. She was friends with another magic-user hacker named Chie who died because she gave up her death suppressants to allow Kotori to live long enough to celebrate her birthday. The institute is after Kotori as their main objective, apparently being a person that could potentially destroy the world.
She has two hidden abilities: one is dispelling magic with an entity called the Grane, and the second is "Ain Soph Aur" aka "The Light That Rules Over Life" which can only be used when the consciousness inside her harness is released, is a light that is capable of fusing the cells of all living things together at the same time once it fully covers the entire planet destroying all life. When this power is released, Kotori kills herself via ejecting to save the world. It is revealed that Kotori is one of many containers for premature aliens. A clone Kotori sides with the astronomy club, and also dies protecting Ryouta and experiencing a nostalgic feeling. It is unproven that a Kotori lives in Edda based on a silhouette.
In a side story, Kotori's classmate, Hirano, was really fond of her and share lunches with her until her sudden transfer away. He asked Ryouta for her contact info, but fears to tell of Kotori's death.
She is a fellow A-rank magic-user with a straightforward attitude who possesses the power of regeneration with the capability of restoring her body, or the body of others, from otherwise fatal injuries though only within 5 minutes. Her regeneration is so effortlessly potent that she's able to regenerate from just her harness, meaning that she can only die if she doesn't take the medicine within the standard period of time or if her eject button is pressed. When she tested Ryouta's loyalty, she immediately becomes infatuated with him. Hatsuna becomes an important key to the club members' survival. She later bonds with her classmate Takaya, but soon after, she hatches. After killing Takaya, who steps in to stop her, she is smashed by Makina, but luckily her Drasil survived the unavoidable death, saving Takaya's life as well.
Vingulf
The institute meaning "witch castle" is the Organization that unearthed aliens in Germany by gold miners and a Japanese geologist (Ryouta's great-grandfather) in 1910, but never made it a public discovery, instead began the top-secret research over it to sought God's destruction. In the conclusion during World War II, they moved to Japan and gained secluded authority. Sorcerian research no. A008; and Loki are kept in incubator chambers for the uprising fate of humankind.
The chief professor in charge of the magic-user experiment. His mission is to capture the escapee magic-users, seeing the B-rank magic-users as failed specimens, and create the perfect alien no matter what the sacrifices are. In college, he was successful in engineering the digestive enzyme 'protease' which could be the source of the genetic melting. The higher-ups have him retrieve Kotori. He eventually learns that a high school boy is supporting the magic-users, but has yet to identify its Ryouta until Mako confirms Kotori's location. Chisato's younger sister whom he only shows empathy to before her death. He implanted Rena's brain into Grane within Kotori's harness, only hoping to revive the Rena he knew, which is against the organization's intention. He later died from blocking the bullets for Mako.
A staff member at the research lab. He has an unknown backstory, but he used to feel really carefree for the magic-users. Chisato acknowledges him for his brilliance. Kurofuku gets fired when failed his last chance to capture the fugitive B-rank magic-users with Mizuka's foresight, and then he is a victim of an assassination attempt, but survives, although his brain had been greatly injured. He was abducted from a hospital by Mina. After months of recovery, he manages to locate the magic-users hideout, revealed to have abnormal strength to outmatch them before engaging by Takaya. When learning Nanami's forgiveness and Chisato's death, Kurofuku gives up his reasons and Miki invites him to Hexenjagd.
A newly-appointed employee placed to work at the Vingulf research lab. Not suitable for the job, however, she finds sympathy with the aliens and magic-users. She teams with Kazumi and the astronomy club during their infiltration inside the institute.
A woman who is Chisato's replacement and acquainted with the higher-ups. She has a sadistic and nearly bipolar personality and is also a magic-user with a harness just like that of Valkyria. It is shown that she can negate anti-matters. She has a shadowy objective when literally sending out magic-users that are about to hatch and ensure chaos. Onodera intends to use Valkyria to shape the world.
He is Ryouta's supposedly deceased younger brother and the prototype of Sorcerian (the ultimate hybrid of a male human and an alien chimera). His real name is . Due to being imperfect, Makina's body melts if he stays too long in the outside world. His presence is more frightening than Valkyria and has a flawed behavior. He appears to have a massive ability to destroy and teleport far distant places and tries to take Neko for himself which infuriates Ryouta. Makina kills the President of the United States while holding a worldwide press conference before they announce the existence of aliens. He had the ambition to become Adam of the new world. Abusing the sudden revival of Sorcerian and losing interest in Neko, he gets devoured. Makina was instrumental to Vingulf's objectives, but after his death, it was revealed that a replacement for him was prepared in advance, and that replacement is no other than Ryouta himself.
The leader of Vingulf and Makina and Ryouta's father. The reason for the deception of his supposed death has not been revealed. He has harvested the Sorcerian, the source of all Drasils and the entire reason behind the organization's existence. It was completely conscious and aware since the beginning of Vingulf, and could easily leave at any time it wanted but it waited for a Valkyria to be brought to it first. Takachiho's determination is to revive Loki the gods feared, in order to destroy and recreate mankind. His two sons are born as hybrid alien humans for that purpose. He teaches Ryouta the belief in religions. Takachiho relatively says he cared for Ryouta, before getting killed by Loki.
Witches
A unique AA+rank magic-user. She is soft-spoken and has a taste in sugar. Her research no. is 5210. Her ability is scanning and modifying people's memories. Ryouta's observant skill impresses her. After having become friends with Neko and the club, she, unfortunately, melts from her harness ejected but managed to implant her consciousness within Ryouta's memory and she'll only appear occasionally or whenever Ryouta in a desperate situation and share personal intel. Overtime, Nanami able to manifest tangible illusions before Ryouta, such as her appearance as Aphrodite; however, she also reveals that her consciousness is occupying a huge part of his mind that will put his life at risk once he reaches his maximum capacity, and must be deleted from his brain to prolong it, which she does after instructing Ryouta to write down all he needed to know in order to locate Vingulf and rescue Neko in a notebook for him to memorize later. Ryouta now only remembers Nanami by name, marking her true and complete death.
Aphrodite can be seen in the Edda realm.
An AA+rank magic-user titled as the bombardment unit. Her research no. is 5010. She's a mere weapon that assassinates her targets with a strong beam fired from her mouth. Kotori tries her own hands to a pole and then switches positions with Kikako in defeat, who is later taken back to the lab. Despite Kurofuku's assurances that having succeeded in her mission, she will be spared, she is warned that harsh punishment awaits her. She is subsequently violently interrogated regarding her encounter with Kotori.
An AA-rank hybrid magic-user with two types of magic; she is able to slice anything within a 3-meter radius and can manipulate time by one minute although it will cause her to hang up immediately. Her research no. is 6001. As she failed to kill Neko, her harness ejected and her body melted as a result.
An AAA-rank magic-user. She possesses the power of technopathy and computer hacking just like Kazumi and is said to be the most powerful in that regard. Chisato gave Freya a room full of video games in exchange for her cooperation. She is now under the care of Yuki. Freya briefly engages in a battle against Kazumi.
The AAA-rank strongest magic-user, codename: Skadi. She has the foresight ability to see in a dream but with 100% exact accuracy as of future traveling. In contrast to Kana, her body also suffered a massive penalty for this power and as a result, she is no longer able to move or hear very well. Mizuka bonds with Yuki. In a future dream, she gives Kazumi options as to which future she wishes to choose. Using the last of her power, she melts the moment she informs Kurofuku of Kotori's whereabouts. It is presumed that Mizuka predicted the entire series' events.
, , &
The three magic-users that Onodera sends out to execute Kurofuku taking the precaution of the Valkyria incident. Rie's magic is unknown. Misaki capable of turning herself invisible, but that only affects herself, not her clothes, so she has to be naked. Rurumi controls people via a voodoo doll. They encounter Kana, surprised to see her alive and moving freely, and stop Rurumi from killing her. When they infiltrate the hospital, Rurumi's harness unexpectedly hatches, and the monster devours the body of Rurumi. Kana attempts to save Rie but gets both of her legs crushed. Believing the monster to be Rurumi, Rie allows it to devour her out of guilt. Misaki saves Kana and Kitsuka from the Drasil just before Initializer destroys the monster; Misaki's harness is then ejected having failed in the mission.
Valkyria
One of the strongest hybrid magic-users ever known with an S-rank. She is known to be a next-generation magic-user with a very complex harness. Mako's power capability is very large, with 8 different abilities. She can kill anyone in her sight within just seconds by dismembering them, detecting other witches' presence, and also has the ability to teleport and regenerate quickly. Her strongest power is to create anti-matter which is capable of destroying a whole wide-range area. She has a sociopathic personality with deep feelings towards Chisato due to saving her from genetic failure. Mako is claimed to be Neko's older sister and she is very protective towards her. After a gruesome fight with Neko, she was swallowed into Neko's micro black hole and all that was left is her harness. Ryouta then tramples on Mako's Drasil, eliminating her for good (finding herself with Chisato in the afterlife).
An SS-rank magic-user that was created by Vingulf following Mako's death, and it is said that she is the strongest Valkyria in existence. Her real name is . When she's still being held custody by Vingulf in a crucifix way, she manages to awake her teleport ability to run away, just to be recaptured by Onodera and brought back to the lab. Unlike Mako, she has a caring behavior, refusing to kill others even under coercion, but is ultimately forced to kill by Onodera when she starts ejecting witches in front of them, giving her the option of killing them instantly or watch them have an excruciating death, with the intention of awakening her true powers and turn her into an obedient killer. After terrorizing a rally at the National Diet, Eri is taken by Takachiho to have Loki consume her to increase his proportions.
Hexenjagd
A resistance group meaning "witch hunt" that is built by scientists who defected from the Organization due to the threat that they posed to God himself. Hexenjagd is responsible for the magic-users' escapee.
Miki is the founder of Hexenjagd. She initially speaks to Ryouta via the device Neko gave him. She first appears with the objective of capturing Kotori in order to confront Chisato and destroy the Grane inside Kotori. Miki wears a nun's hood with a short dress and stockings. She announces that all of the magic-users must die. When Ryouta protests, Miki explains the truth about witches - that their soul now resides inside the alien called "Drasil" within their harness and that the drugs merely feed the life form, allowing the Drasil to grow until it eventually hatches and devours their human body. She tells them that they sympathize with their plight.
In the manga, Miki offers the ingredients and protocol to create death-suppressant medicine in exchange for their assistance (just as Mizuka had foretold). Kazumi agrees to help find Kotori, but Miki promises that she will give them the formula for the drug after they destroy the Grane and that she will try to spare Kotori's life if possible. After Kotori's death, she fulfills her part of the bargain and gives Ryouta access to the formula, allowing Kogorou to provide the medicine to Neko and the others.
He has the appearance of a little boy. His real name is unknown. Initializer has the ability to nullify all kinds of magic from a witch, but he has to know what magic a witch used before he could "initialize" them. However, he can only nullify a witch's magic for eight seconds, except during the three-day New moon. He also can destroy a hatched Drasil instantly. It is unknown how he could have such an ability.
A former Vingulf researcher who got wounded during Neko's escaping attempt. She gave Neko a package and entrusted her the following mission: "Save the world from utter destruction and ruin." The package contains an alien's fertilized egg and a communication device. Neko later gave the alien sample and device to Ryouta.
Supporting characters
Ryouta's maternal uncle. Working as a scientist whom Ryouta entrusts to reproduce the medicine needed for the magic-users. He dislikes traveling long distances, rejecting invitations that include going overseas, and prefers to stay in his own town. He is doubtful of any supernatural phenomena unless Kana's foresight was proven or witnessing Nanami's death. Kogorou went to the same college with Chisato whom he admired. Then Kogorou gets captivated in examining the alien's fertilized egg that Ryouta had him look upon, and search for means to defend against Vingulf. The alien soon develops into an embryo. Sending a sample to America for some bait to learn the expectation of Vingulf's superiority, and then Kogorou deduces they are owned by a mysterious Dresden national government institute when examined the satellites' monitoring ranch through JAXA. He uses extreme methods in dealing with those who arrogantly want to take credit for the alien discovery.
A middle-school student who lives next door to Ryouta that he tutors. Kitsuka has a crush on Ryouta that he is completely oblivious to. She later becomes classmates with Kana when she starts attending middle school and befriends her after learning of her secret. Kitsuka is afraid of swimming but gains courage thanks to Kana. Sometime later, Kitsuka is found to have been taken to Vingulf in means to be Ryouta's Eve of the new world.
Ryouta's classmate. She regularly expresses how intelligent Ryouta is, even though he usually was distant from females. Risa befriends Neko the day of her transfer originally due to saving her from drowning and invites her to karaoke. Risa later gets into a car accident, and Hatsuna heals her burned wounds. As the story proceeds, she realizes Neko's mysterious power.
Ryouta's classmate. Takaya was first introduced when visiting the Maid café that Neko, Kazumi, and Hatsuna were serving at. He dropped out of the first semester because there were rumors it was a violent incident. He is handsome, with aggressive behavior, but actually kind-hearted. After fighting some bullies, he learns of Hatsuna's secret. He becomes fond of Hatsuna, then confessed when heard of her foretold death. However, Hatsuna's excitement at the time accelerates her hatching and she ends up almost killing him, just to later save his life after she is restored. Despite having a kind heart, Takaya is proven to have no touch while dealing with others, because as soon as Hatsuna agrees to date him, he demands her to have sex with him instead, much to her chagrin. He supports the astronomy club afterward.
The long-lost older sister of Kana Tachibana, says was kidnapped ten years prior. She is a journalist that is personally investigating Vingulf and the 'number of children that went missing in hopes that she will be reunited with her sister.
Examining the vast damage Valkyria caused, she suspects the story the media gave, that the damage caused by bombs (despite no sign of nuclear radioactivity) is a cover-up. Meeting with her fellow male reporter, the man cautions about her intention to inspect and warns her of possible danger. They learn about Kurofuku whom they believe had connections with Vingulf is confined in a hospital. Realizing this is the lead she was looking for, Mina conspires to move Kurofuku out, which they succeeded. Depressed that Kurofuku vanishes, she silently resumes her search with little hope from a photo (Rurumi's hatching and Kana's appearance) taken at the hospital. Until Mina and Kana reunite when visiting the Maid café. As Mina shares memories of their late parents with Kana and how to have been kidnapped, similar to Neko's case, they take an expensive trip to Ishigaki Island along with Ryouta's class to make up for the long separation. Unfortunately, Mina is killed by Makina, blocking the killing blow that was meant for Kana. She tearfully says goodbye to her sister.
Media
Manga
The Gokukoku no Brynhildr manga is written and illustrated by Lynn Okamoto. It was serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Young Jump from January 26, 2012 to March 31, 2016. Shueisha collected its chapters in eighteen tankōbon volumes, released from May 18, 2012 to May 19, 2016.
Anime
An anime adaptation was announced on November 11, 2013. The anime is directed by Kenichi Imazumi at studio Arms, with Yukinori Kitajima acting as head writer and Hiroaki Kurasu as chief animation director and character designer. The series premiered between April 6, 2014 and June 29, 2014 on Tokyo MX and later on ytv, CTV, BS11 and AT-X. For episodes 1-9 the opening is "BRYNHILDR IN THE DARKNESS -Ver. EJECTED-" by Nao Tokisawa. From episode 10 onwards, the opening is "Virtue and Vice" by Fear, and Loathing in Las Vegas. The ending song is "Ichiban Boshi" by Risa Taneda, Aya Suzaki, MAO, & Azusa Tadokoro.
Reception
Critical reception of the anime of the series has mostly been negative with many reviewers comparing it to the 2004 series Elfen Lied, also created by Lynn Okamoto, and the many similarities between the two works. In reviews of the anime the story has been called "shoddy" and "incomplete" with none of the characters being particularly memorable or having much depth. In addition they have also noted the overuse of harem antics and cliches to the extent that the series often feels more like an ecchi harem comedy as opposed to a serious sci-fi/horror series.
References
External links
Manga official website
Anime official website
Anime series based on manga
Arms Corporation
Dark fantasy anime and manga
Mystery anime and manga
Norse mythology in anime and manga
Science fiction anime and manga
Seinen manga
Sentai Filmworks
Shueisha franchises
Shueisha manga
Works banned in China |
40473285 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neural%20network%20synchronization%20protocol | Neural network synchronization protocol | The Neural network synchronization protocol, abbreviated as NNSP, is built on the application-level layer of the OSI upon TCP/IP. Aiming at secure communication, this protocol's design make use of a concept called neural network synchronization. Server and each connected client must create special type of neural network called Tree Parity Machine then compute outputs of their neural networks and exchange them in an iterative manner through the public channel. By learning and exchanging public outputs of their networks, client's and server's neural networks will be synchronized, meaning they will have identical synaptic weights, after some time. Once synchronization is achieved, weights of networks are used for secret key derivation. For the purposes of encryption/decryption of subsequent communication this symmetric key is used.
References & External Links
Official website
http://www.cisjournal.org/journalofcomputing/archive/vol4no1/vol4no1_1.pdf
http://giesl.blogspot.in/2012/09/neural-network-synchronization-protocol.html
Artificial neural networks |
40482715 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%20Code%20%28Australian%20TV%20series%29 | The Code (Australian TV series) | The Code is an Australian drama television program created and produced by Shelley Birse. Developed from a partnership between Playmaker Media and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, it premiered on ABC1 in Australia on 21 September 2014, and the first season aired through 26 October 2014. Season 2 of The Code premiered on 1 September 2016, and aired through 6 October 2016.
The first six-part series, set in both outback and metropolitan areas of Australia, interweaves several plot lines. The first follows brothers Ned (Dan Spielman) and Jesse Banks (Ashley Zukerman), who publish a video of a mysterious outback accident, and Hani Parande (Adele Perovic), who becomes involved with them. The second follows the accident, which sees teacher Alex Wisham (Lucy Lawless) and policeman Tim Simons (Aaron Pedersen) becoming involved in the personal affairs of accused teenager Clarence Boyd (Aaron L. McGrath). The third covers Ned's journalism office, managed by Perry Benson (Adam Garcia). The fourth chronicles the intrigues of Deputy Prime Minister Ian Bradley (David Wenham), and political staffers Randall Keats (Aden Young) and Sophie Walsh (Chelsie Preston Crayford) while the after-effects of the accident unfold.
ABC in June 2015 renewed The Code for a second season, after receiving significant funding from the Australian Capital Territory's film fund, Screen ACT. The new series that commenced screening in 2016, deals with fictional brothers Ned and Jesse Banks facing deportation to the United States of America to face trial in connection with security breaches. Anthony LaPaglia, Sigrid Thornton, Robyn Malcolm, and others joined the cast for the second series.
Synopsis
Series 1: A stolen vehicle collides with a transport truck in the middle of the desert. Two Aboriginal teenagers in the car are critically injured but nobody called for help because someone involved works for a major stakeholder in a secret research project. The accident would have remained a mystery if it weren't for Ned Banks, a young internet journalist desperate for a break and his brother Jesse Banks, a hacker on a strict good behaviour bond.
Series 2: Two Australians are murdered in West Papua, the only survivor being Jan Roth, the fugitive founder of a "dark web" site, who is being chased by both Australian and US authorities. At the same time a young boy is kidnapped in Australia by someone offering to sell him to paedophiles through the same site. The Australian Federal Police contacts the Banks brothers and informs them that the US authorities have demanded their extradition to the US for their previous actions, but if Jesse helps the police find the boy, the government will resist the extradition demands. Jesse agrees, but soon finds that the truth is very different.
Cast
Main
Dan Spielman as Ned Banks, journalist at Password
Ashley Zukerman as Jesse Banks, Ned's brother
Adele Perovic as Hani Parande, student and hacktivist who befriends Jesse
Series 1
Adam Garcia as Perry Benson, chief editor of internet news journal, Password
Chelsie Preston Crayford as Sophie Walsh, director of communications at PM's office
Paul Tassone as Andy King, head of security at Physanto
Dan Wyllie as Lyndon Joyce, AFP investigator
Lucy Lawless as Alex Wisham, schoolteacher at Lindara
Aden Young as Randall Keats, Chief of Staff, Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet
David Wenham as Ian Bradley, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade
Series 2
Anthony LaPaglia as Jan Roth, fugitive hacker living in West Papua
Sigrid Thornton as Lara Dixon, head of the government's cyber ops unit
Robyn Malcolm as Marina Baxter, Minister for Foreign Affairs
Geoff Morrell as David Banks, Ned and Jesse's estranged father
Ben Oxenbould as Nolan Daniels, senior AFP agent
Ella Scott Lynch as Meg Flynn, a photographer and activist for West Papuan independence
Recurring
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
David Roberts as Peter Lawson, political journalist, National News Australia (series 1)
May Lloyd as Isabelle Banks, mother of Ned and Jesse (series 1)
Steen Raskopoulos as Edan, editorial staff member at Password (series 1)
Zindzi Okenyo as Millie Hussey, journalist at Password (series 1)
Sophie Gregg as Trina Daniels, data encryption technician at Physanto (series 1)
Erik Thomson as Niko Gaelle, international black marketeer in arms and stolen IP (series 1)
Victoria Haralabidou as Alila Parande, Hani's mother (series 1 and 2)
Michael Denkha as Nasim Parande, Hani's father, bio-tech engineer (series 1 and 2)
Nathan Lovejoy as Will Sharp, Marina Baxter's Chief of Staff (series 2)
Steve Rodgers as Malcolm Coover, head of AFP Cyber Crime Unit (series 1)
Lindsay Farris as Dean Carson, AFP Cyber Crime Unit interrogator (series 1)
Kelvin Shone as local policeman at Parliament House (series 1)
Guy Edmonds as Gary Hunter/Youngblood, operator of the paedophile forum on the UndaCounta site (series 2)
Otis Pavlovic as Callum McCray, abducted teenage boy (series 2)
Sandy Winton as Michael McCray, Callum's father (series 2)
Liz Harper as Courtney McCray, Callum's mother (series 2)
Stephanie King as Erin Jennings, Ned's ex-girlfriend and contact at Parliament House (series 2)
Arka Das as Farid (series 1)
Lindara, New South Wales
Aaron L. McGrath as Clarence Boyd, driver of the stolen car
Aaron Pedersen as Tim Simons, local policeman at Lindara
Ursula Yovich as Kitty Boyd, Clarence's mother
Mitzi Ruhlmann as Missy Wisham, Alex's daughter
Madeleine Madden as Sheyna Smith, the passenger in the car
Tim McCunn as Carl Smith, Sheyna's father
Lisa Flanagan as Eadie Smith, Sheyna's mother
West Papua
William Ani as Marcus Komblan, leader of the West Papuan independence movement
Emele Ugavule as Kiki Gangi-Roth, Jan Roth's wife
Annabelle Malaika Süess as Tahila Gangi-Roth, Jan Roth's daughter
Episodes
Series 1 (2014)
Series 2 (2016)
Production and filming
The fictional town of Lindara was filmed in Broken Hill, Silverton in New South Wales, and Cockburn in South Australia. The main street and post office of Cockburn doubles as the main street and school in Lindara, while the houses of the Lindara families were filmed in Silverton.
Parts of Canberra were used for filming, including the Australian Parliament House, the surrounds of Lake Burley Griffin, and parts of the Australian National University Acton campus, including the John Curtin School of Medical Research and the Shine Dome.
Broadcast
The first series was acquired by BBC Four in the United Kingdom in April 2014, and premiered on 11 October 2014, less than three weeks after the Australian premiere. Because it aired as back-to-back episodes over three weeks, the final episode aired first in the UK on 25 October, over twelve hours ahead of its first Australian broadcast 26 October. The first series was also broadcast on DirecTV's Audience Network in the US, and ARTV in Canada.
Awards and nominations
References
External links
The Code: ABC TV
2014 Australian television series debuts
APRA Award winners
Australian Broadcasting Corporation original programming
English-language television shows
Television shows set in Australian Capital Territory
Television shows set in Indonesia
Television series by Playmaker Media
Political thriller television series
Australian political drama television series |
40505703 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core%20Storage | Core Storage | Core Storage is a logical volume management system on macOS that was introduced by Apple to Mac OS X Lion. Core Storage is a layer between the disk partition and the file system.
Core Storage is the basis for Apple's Fusion Drive technology, which presents several partitions on multiple drives as a single logical volume. It does this by using tiered storage, whereby it keeps the most frequently used blocks on the fastest storage device in the pool, which is, by default, an SSD.
Description
Apple CoreStorage defines four types of objects, instances of which are uniquely represented by a UUID:
Physical Volume (PV)
This is the actual physical storage device such as an internal hard drive or solid state drive. A PV is normally real media but it can be a disk image or even an AppleRAID Set. A disk offered to be a PV must be a partition and the encompassing scheme must be GPT.
Logical Volume Group (LVG)
This is the equivalent of volume groups in Linux LVM. The Logical Volume Group (LVG) is the top or "pool" level; zero or more may exist during any OS boot time session. An LVG exports zero or more Logical Volume Families (LVFs).
Logical Volume Family (LVF)
An LVF contains properties which govern and bind together all of its descendant Logical Volumes (LVs). These properties mainly provide settings for full disk encryption (such as whether the LVG is encrypted, which users have access, etc). An LVF exports one or more LVs.
Logical Volume (LV)
A logical volume exports a dev node, upon which a file system (such as Journaled HFS+) resides.
Notes
Apple's current implementation is not intended for the traditional roles that LVMs were/are used for. For example, as of 2014, the pool cannot be expanded as the storage grows. Also in 10.7, the pool can comprise only a single drive. Core Storage also doesn't support thin provisioning, different RAID levels or resiliency. However, like in Linux, but unlike in Windows, the LVM can be used as the root filesystem, a significant advantage for home users who prefer to have a single volume for the OS and storage or find the need to extend the amount of storage available to the core operating system.
See also
Logical volume management
Fusion Drive
References
macOS APIs
Apple Inc. file systems |
40509014 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolab%20Now | Kolab Now | Kolab Now is a web-based email and groupware service, based completely on free and open-source software. It is owned and operated by Kolab Systems AG and was formerly known as MyKolab.
Kolab
Kolab Systems AG is the company behind the Kolab groupware suite. Founded in 2010 in Zürich, Switzerland, Kolab Systems has taken the place of the Kolab Konsortium which initially provided Kolab services primarily in German speaking areas from 2004 to 2010. It is also the largest contributor to the Roundcube web mailer project. The company's board of directors is composed of CEO Georg Greve, the founding president of Free Software Foundation Europe, CTO Jeroen van Meeuwen, Michael Moser, CCO and co-founder of Switzerlands leading Open Source Integrator Adfinis AG, and Philipp Koch, co-founder of Swiss hosting company Nine.ch.
Background
Kolab Now, under the original name "MyKolab", was launched in January 2013 as a public beta release and became fully available later that year on August 1, as a paid service.
After documents detailing United States and British government mass surveillance programs like PRISM and Tempora were leaked by Edward Snowden in May 2013, US-based companies Lavabit and Silent Circle, under pressure of government agencies, decided to shut down their email services rather than run the risk of having to disclose personal data of their users. In turn, Pamela Jones, author of now-defunct legal site Groklaw, revealed her use of MyKolab in her farewell post. Jones' endorsement increased demand for MyKolab.
Based outside of the United States, Kolab Systems received media attention as one of the few and most secure alternatives still in operation.
Privacy of customer data
Hosted in Switzerland, Kolab Now claims the benefit of strict privacy laws; it uses exclusively free or open source software, guaranteeing transparency. Because the service is subject to the national laws of Switzerland, Kolab Now states that there will be no access to a user's data by third parties without a duly authorized warrant issued by a Swiss judge. It is also stated in the terms of service that only the minimum of logs, necessary for debugging and improvement of the service, is kept.
Requests from government agencies
Like any company, Kolab Now can be obliged to provide access to lawful interception requests. However, the Swiss authorities are generally reluctant to make such requests for access, and the government publishes anonymised statistics of all such lawful interceptions along with the rationale.
As of 1 September 2015, Kolab Now reports having granted only one request from a government agency for data concerning a customer, and they note that this was an "administrative request", i.e. a request for information about a customer rather than a request for access to the customer's data. Kolab Now received two further requests but denied them because they came from an agency with no jurisdiction in Switzerland (both were from U.S. local police).
In 2012, in all of Switzerland, there were only 20 cases of real-time internet wire-tapping and a further 26 for retroactive communication meta-information. Swiss Federal Intelligence Service traditionally have no mandate to operate within the country. A controversial revision of the law, effective 1 September 2017, has recently given them wider license, in particular wholesale monitoring of cross-border traffic. According to Kolab Now, not much will change for its customers, however. ()
Email encryption
Kolab Now chose not to provide server-side encryption, and recommends using Kontact or Mozilla Thunderbird with Enigmail for proper end-to-end encryption. With server-side encryption, the encrypted data, the key, and the passphrase would need to pass through the web interface and be available on the server. Holding all three, the provider would have access to all the data despite the encryption.
Account types
Kolab Now offers 2 types of accounts: Individual and Group manager accounts.
Individual account
It is aimed at the individual who wishes a more secure and private alternative to free email services, with full groupware functionality. There's the option of a Lite version, which offers the email service only and do not include the groupware synchronisation feature. Standard storage size for this account type ranges from 2 up to 100 GB, with cost incurring accordingly.
Group Manager account
This account type provides the customer with an administration login, used purely to set up the actual groupware account within a domain under the customer's control, and to administrate users existing within that domain. It is also possible to use an own SSL Certificate for that domain. Cost is incurred per user in a similar fashion to the individual accounts.
Features
Synchronisation with mobile devices
The ActiveSync option allows to synchronize emails, contacts, events and tasks from Kolab Now to a mobile device. This works with all devices that support ActiveSync, such as Android, iPhone or Blackberry Z10. Alternatively, it is possible to use CalDAV and CardDAV capable clients to synchronise data.
Native desktop client for all platforms
The Kolab Client runs on all modern operating systems such as Linux, Windows and MacOS. It supports different applications such as Mail, Address Books, Calendars, ToDo Management, Journals, Notes and offers many detailed features for each of them. It is based on Kontact and uses the Qt Technology to be fully portable.
Server-side mail filtering
It is possible to define the criteria for emails to be filtered into different mail folders. The filtering will happen on the server right after the mail is received. This way emails are the same on all devices. Users can edit the filters as SIEVE scripts directly.
Free/Busy Information for Planning
Allows to see whether the participants of events are free or busy without revealing any information about what they are doing during these times. This allows to schedule appointments and ensure that everybody is able to participate.
Other available features:
Threaded mailview
Task management
File storage
Customisable webclient
Set up multiple identities
Multiple calendar folders and views
Payment and pricing
Kolab Now currently supports PayPal and Bitcoin as well as credit card as payment methods for monthly subscriptions and wire transfer for yearly payments only. The current monthly price for individual accounts with standard groupware functionality is 8.99 CHF, and for the email-only version, 4.55 CHF.
Controversies
In 2015, Kolab Systems, now known as Apheleia IT AG, collected approximately US$103,000 through crowdfunding to modernise the Roundcube email client as "Roundcube Next". However, the work was never completed. Thomas Bruederli, the maintainer of the crowdfunding project, has blocked requests for information about the project's status.
See also
Comparison of mail servers
Comparison of webmail providers
References
External links
Kolab Now
Roundcube
Groklaw
Kolab Systems AG
Adfinis-SyGroup AG
Nine.ch
Email clients
Free software for cloud computing
Privacy in the United States
Privacy of telecommunications
Free groupware |
40550153 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DriveSavers | DriveSavers | DriveSavers, Inc. is a computer hardware data recovery, digital forensics and electronic discovery firm located in Novato, California. It was founded by CEO Jay Hagan and former company President Scott Gaidano in 1985.
History
In 1985, former Jasmine Technologies executives Jay Hagan and Scott Gaidano founded DriveSavers, operating from Gaidano’s condo with $1,400. DriveSavers originally offered both hard drive repair and data recovery services, but the company dropped its drive repair services within its first eight months. In 1992, DriveSavers signed an agreement with SuperMac Technology to assume technical support and warranty obligations for SuperMac Mass Storage Products.
The company merged with Data Recovery Disk Repair in 1994 and retained the DriveSavers name. In 2008, DriveSavers invested two million dollars to build a series of five ISO-certified cleanrooms to disassemble and rebuild damaged hard drives. From 2004-2009, the company grew from 35 to 85 employees.
DriveSavers also works with "the more secretive" branches of government and celebrities. In order to provide comfort and assistance to clients with a data loss situation, DriveSavers has had on staff an individual "data crisis counselor." This counselor has had experience in working for a suicide hotline.
DriveSavers is the only recovery firm licensed with every major hard-drive manufacturer, so their work on a drive does not void the warranty. It can recover data from hard disk drives, solid state drives, smart phones, servers, digital camera media and iOS devices. The company can recover data from T2 and M1-powered Macs with embedded SSD storage. Even with cloud backup, personal data loss is still possible, but can be recovered. The company recovered data from old floppy disks of the deceased creator of Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry, potentially containing lost episodes of the franchise.
DriveSavers is certified HIPAA-compliant, undergoes annual SOC2 Type II reviews and has encryption training certificates from GuardianEdge, PGP, PointSec and Utimaco.
Security certifications and practices
DriveSavers facility is made up of cleanrooms. The cleanrooms come in different ratings depending on the application and range from federal standards of 100,000 to 100. The rating is a measure of the number of 0.1-micron-sized airborne particulates per square meter.
DriveSavers employees have to go through background checks, because of contracts with state, and federal government agencies. The company also has to meet data-security standards its clients do, like HIPAA certification to work with hospitals and GLBA certification to work with financial institutions.
Awards
Diamond Certified, 2013–18
Storage Visions, Visionary Company Award, 2014
Flash Memory Summit, Most Innovative Flash Memory Consumer Application Award, 2018
See also
List of data recovery companies
References
External links
Official site
Computer forensics
Data recovery companies
American companies established in 1985
Novato, California
Companies based in Marin County, California |
40568155 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resident%20Identity%20Card | Resident Identity Card | The Resident Identity Card () is an official identity document for personal identification in the People's Republic of China. According to the second chapter, tenth clause of the Resident Identity Card Law, residents are required to apply for resident identity cards from the local Public Security Bureau, sub-bureaus or local executive police stations.
History
Prior to 1984, citizens within the People's Republic of China were not required to obtain or carry identification in public. On April 6, 1984, the State Council of the People's Republic of China passed the Identity Card Provisional Bill (中华人民共和国居民身份证试行条例), commencing the process of gradual introduction of personal identification, in the footsteps of many developed countries at the time. The first generation identification cards were single paged cards made of polyester film. Between 1984 and 1991, trials for the new identity card system took place in Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin. Shan Xiurong (单秀荣), a Chinese Opera performer and soprano from Beijing, was the first person to receive a first-generation identity card in China.
On September 6, 1985, the Standing Committee of the 12th National People's Congress passed the Identity Card Bill of the People's Republic of China, which regulated that all citizens over the age of 16 apply for identification cards. At that point, the Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China created a unified authority responsible for the issuing and management of the ID cards. From 2003, it is reported that a total of 1.14 billion ID cards have been created in China, for a total of 960,000,000 holders. However, as a result of technological development and certain techniques made available to the civilian population, the existing cards became relatively easier to counterfeit, opening the increasing threat of false identification.
On June 1, 2003, the National People's Congress passed the new Resident Identity Card Law, which expanded the scope of documents issued, and allowed soldiers in the People's Liberation Army and members of the People's Armed Police to apply for special identity cards. Individuals under the age of 16 were also permitted to voluntarily apply for an identification card. The law also established the use of newer, second-generation cards, which are machine-readable and more difficult to forge.
Contents
The identity card contains basic information regarding the individual, such as the following:
Reverse side
Full name – in Chinese characters only. Non-Chinese ethnic names and foreign names are transliterated into Chinese. First-generation ID cards contained handwritten names for rare Chinese characters, whilst the second-generation cards exclusively used computer-printed text in a larger font compared to that of the first generation, and do not support rarer characters.
Gender – containing one character for either male (男) or female (女).
Ethnicity – as officially listed by the People's Republic of China.
Date of birth – listed in the Gregorian calendar format, in YYYY年MM月DD日 Big-endian (ISO 8601) order.
Domicile – the individual's permanent residence as dictated by the Identity Card Bill of the People's Republic of China.
Identification number
Photo of the individual
Obverse side
Issuing authority (first-generation cards utilised a stamp; second-generation cards display text only)
The limits to validity of the document (for individuals under 16 years of age: five years; for individuals between 16 and 25 years of age: ten years; for individuals between 26 and 45 years of age: twenty years; for individuals over 46 years of age: long-term)
Information stored in the identity database for second-generation ID cards includes work history, educational background, religion, ethnicity, police record, medical insurance status, landlord's phone number and personal reproductive history. In addition, more detailed personal information can be obtained by viewing hukou information from the card database. Starting on January 1, 2013, Beijing has started trials to include fingerprints in the ID cards, making it more difficult to forge ID cards or for people to use the ID cards of others.
In 1984, discussion over the contents of the identity card became controversial regarding whether to include details such as "marital status" and "occupation"; considering the actual situation of the People's Republic of China at the time, these details ultimately were not included in the ID card.
The first-generation ID cards contained a black-and-white photograph portrait of the individual; following the introduction of the second-generation cards, all identification portraits are printed in colour. From 1 January 2013 a mandatory switch to the second-generation cards came into force; all first-generation cards became void and unusable. If used, first-generation cards are treated as expired ID cards, and will not be accepted. It is a criminal offense to accept first-generation ID cards if the person who accepts it know that it is a first-generation card.
The dimensions of the second-generation cards are 85.725 mm × 53.975 mm × 0.900 mm, and the identity photo is sized at 358 × 441 pixels (width by height), printed at a resolution of 350dpi on RGB using 24-bit True Color, prepared using JPEG compression techniques in line with the requirements of ISO DIS 10918-1. The final image appears as a 26 mm × 32 mm portrait box in the top-right hand corner.
Identity cards in ethnic minority areas
Within the ethnic minority regions in China, identity cards possess corresponding text in the respective minority language for both first-generation and second-generation cards. For example, cards officially signed and issued in Guangxi all contain accompanying text in Zhuang, as well as Chinese characters. According to the fourth clause of the Resident Identity Card Law, "based on the de facto situation within the organs of self-government within autonomous ethnic regions, the content of the resident identity card can, alongside Chinese characters, be decided to include the text of the ethnic group exercising regional autonomy or choice of a local generic text". This law permits resident identity cards within designated ethnic minority regions to have bilingual text, and depending on region, cards may contain accompanying text in Zhuang, Uyghur, Yi, Tibetan, Mongolian or Korean.
Ethnic minority residents represented by the local autonomous region can apply to have an additional ethnic minority language displayed on their identity cards, whilst Han Chinese and other ethnic residents' cards only have Chinese characters displayed. Ethnic minorities within their representative autonomous regions can have their personal name displayed in both their native language and Chinese characters; for example, within Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, a card belonging to an Uyghur may display the cardholder's name as "" (Effendi Nasreddin), however ethnic Kazakhs and Xibe people living in Xinjiang may only have their names written in Chinese. The following table shows the languages used on identity cards within minority regions:
Identity card number
From October 1, 1999, the PRC State Council approved the establishment of a citizen identification number system, and currently consists of an 18-digit code. This number, to some extent, has a function similar to that of the social security number in the United States, and each citizen has a unique number that remains unchanged for their entire lifetime. An exception previously existed, however, in rare instances where the same ID number had been accidentally issued to two people before the system was digitalised.
Address code refers to the resident's location, where administrative divisions (including cities, banners, and districts) have their own specific codes. (For example, the code for Xicheng District in Beijing is 110102.) Change of address does not modify this code however, which means that the code therefore reflects one's birthplace or the location of one's first-time card issuance (in the case where people are born before the resident identity card system was introduced).
Date of Birth in the form YYYY-MM-DD.
Order code is the code used to disambiguate people with the same date of birth and address code. Men are assigned to odd numbers, women assigned to even numbers.
The Checksum is the final digit, which confirms the validity of the ID number from the first 17 digits, utilizing ISO 7064:1983, MOD 11-2. The checksum is obtained by:
Marking the Identity card number right-to-left ， for the parity-check codes;
Weight coefficient calculation ;
{| class="wikitable"
!i!!18!!17!!16!!15!!14!!13!!12!!11!!10!!9!!8!!7!!6!!5!!4!!3!!2!!1
|-
!Wi
|7||9||10||5||8||4||2||1||6||3||7||9||10||5||8||4||2||1
|}
Calculation of
Checksum derivation process in Visual Basic
Dim a, w, s ,id
msgbox "This procedure for checking the identity card number and or-bit",vbokonly+vbinformation,"identity check procedures"
id=inputbox("Enter the ID number 15 or 18 before the identity card numbers of 17 or","ID","11010519491231002")
if vartype(id) <> 0 then
'Test the legality of the importation of numbers
l = 0
do until l = 1
l = 1
p = ""
if len(id) <> 17 then
if len(id) <> 15 then
l = 0
p = "enter the median is not correct, please enter 15 or 17-digit."
end if
end if
for i = 1 to len(id)
a = mid(id, i, 1)
if asc(a) < asc("0") or asc(a) > asc("9") then
l = 0
p = p & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & "Please enter the number, do not include the characters“" & a & "”。"
exit for
end if
next
if l = 0 then
id = inputbox("illegal input" & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & p, "input error", id)
end if
loop
'Will be number 15 or 17 places to number
if len(id) = 15 then
id = left(id, 6) & "19" & right(id, 9)
end if
'Number 17 for the calculation of parity-check codes
for i = 2 to 18
a = mid(id, 19-i, 1)
w = 2^(i-1) mod 11
s = a * w + s
next
s = (12 - (s mod 11)) mod 11
if s = 10 then s = "X"
'After checking the number of output
inputbox "the identity card number of the parity-check codes for the“" & s & "”" & vbcrlf & vbcrlf & "by checking the ID card numbers are as follows:", "Check completed", id & s
end if
Checksum derivation process in JavaScript
// Must input 17 bit string of RID from left to right
function calcChecksum(rid) {
var workArr = rid.split('').reverse();
function W(i) {
return Math.pow(2, i - 1) % 11;
}
function S() {
var sum = 0;
for (var j=0; j<17; j++) {
sum += workArr[j] * W(j + 2);
}
return sum;
}
return (12 - (S() % 11)) % 11;
}
// Test
alert(calcChecksum('63280119790817003')); // will alert 6
Checksum derivation process in Ruby
str = "34262219840209049" #身份证前17位 first 17 digits of ID number
wi = [7,9,10,5,8,4,2,1,6,3,7,9,10,5,8,4,2] # Wis
s = 0 # S in the context
for i in 0..str.length-1
n = str[i].to_i-48
s = s + n * wi[i]
end
a1 = (12 - s % 11) % 11
puts a1 # checksum
Checksum derivation process in Python
>>> id_checksum = lambda s:(1 - 2 * int(s, 13)) % 11
>>> check('63280119790817003')
6L
>>> check('34052419800101001')
10L # according to the standard, this means 'X'
Checksum derivation process in PHP
/**
*身份证验证，传入身份证，返回true即为正确。 ID number validation, pass in ID number, return true if success.
*只能传入字符串，传入参数必须加引号。 can only pass in strings, parameter should be surrounded by quote marks.
**/
function check_id_number($id)
{
if (strlen($id) != 18) {
return false;
}
$temp = (str_split($id));
$temp[17] == 'x'|| $temp[17] == 'X' ? $check = 10 : $check = $temp[17];
array_pop($temp);
$temp = array_reverse($temp);
$sum = 0;
foreach ($temp as $key => $value) {
$w = pow(2, $key+1) % 11;
$sum += $value * $w;
}
if ((12 - $sum % 11) % 11 != $check) {
return false;
}
return true;
}
Checksum derivation process in R
> checkCode
function(ID) {
stopifnot(length(grep('^[0-9]{17}$', ID)) != 0)
code <- (12 - sum( (2^(17:1))%%11 * as.integer(strsplit(ID, split=NULL)[[1]]) )) %% 11
}
> print(checkCode('34262219840209049'))
[1] 10
Usage of identification
The identity card is the only acceptable legal document used to obtain resident permits or driving licenses, open bank accounts, register for mobile phone numbers, apply for tertiary education and technical college for mainland Chinese citizens, and is one of the acceptable legal documents used to buy train tickets and pass through security checkpoints within domestic terminals at airports in mainland China. Documentation is also required for marriages, household registrations and legal cases.
Recently, there have been more services that require the display of Resident Identity Cards, such as at Internet cafes and certain stores.
Police are required to inspect identification documents where:
Criminal suspects need to be identified;
To inspect those related to personnel involved in an incident;
In the occurrence of a serious security emergency, and there is a requirement to obtain the identity of a person at the scene;
If the law requires so during a case.
Anti-counterfeiting measures
First generation identity card
Polyester plastic film, which utilizes an anti-counterfeit laser logo.
Second generation identity card
Second-generation identity cards contain a non-contact IC chip card, a directional holographic "Great Wall" image, an anti-counterfeiting film made of green multi-layer polyester (PETG) composite material, optical variable optical storage containing the text "中国CHINA" situated on the card, and a microfilm string generating the letters "JMSFZ" (initials for the Pinyin of "Jumin Shenfenzheng"), and a "Great Wall" logo revealed by ultraviolet light.
Security and criticism
Unlike the biometric identity cards in EU countries which comply with ICAO standards, the second-generation ID card imposes older technologies similar to MIFARE used on public transportation systems, which, unlike its ICAO-compliant counterparts, lacks the proper encryption of personal data such as BAC control, thus making the information stored on the chip openly accessible to any ID card readers at a near enough distance. Strangely, the document's validity period is not recorded on the IC chip, therefore one can only tell the validity of the document by physically examining the dates printed on the back of the card. Also, because identity cards lacks a different numbering scheme from the citizen's identity number for Chinese nationals, there's currently no way to deregister a lost ID card completely even when the loss of the identity card is reported to the police. The above characteristics have made identity cards vulnerable to identification theft, which is overwhelmingly common in China, with stolen ID cards retailing for over 200 yuan each on the black market. Despite the criticism from public, Ministry of Public Security has yet to announce any changes apart from the addition of fingerprint data on the already-insecure chip. On 2019, Ministry of Public Security announced that they would move forward resigning fingerprint data
See also
Residence Permit for Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan Residents
Taiwanese identity card
Indian identity card
Hong Kong identity card
Macau identity card
Singaporean identity card
Identity document
References
External links
PRC Resident Identity Card law
Identity law issues – XINHUA
History of identification
Concerns regarding second-generation cards
Mobile phones, identity cards and individual positioning
Government of China
China
People's Republic of China society |
40584315 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multipath%20TCP | Multipath TCP | Multipath TCP (MPTCP) is an ongoing effort of the Internet Engineering Task Force's (IETF) Multipath TCP working group, that aims at allowing a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection to use multiple paths to maximize resource usage and increase redundancy.
In January 2013, the IETF published the Multipath specification as an Experimental standard in RFC 6824. It was replaced in March 2020 by the Multipath TCP v1 specification in RFC 8684.
Benefits
The redundancy offered by Multipath TCP enables inverse multiplexing of resources, and thus increases TCP throughput to the sum of all available link-level channels instead of using a single one as required by standard TCP. Multipath TCP is backward compatible with standard TCP.
Multipath TCP is particularly useful in the context of wireless networks; using both Wi-Fi and a mobile network is a typical use case. In addition to the gains in throughput from inverse multiplexing, links may be added or dropped as the user moves in or out of coverage without disrupting the end-to-end TCP connection.
The problem of link handover is thus solved by abstraction in the transport layer, without any special mechanisms at the network or link layers. Handover functionality can then be implemented at the endpoints without requiring special functionality in the subnetworks - in accordance to the Internet's end-to-end principle.
Multipath TCP also brings performance benefits in datacenter environments. In contrast to Ethernet channel bonding using 802.3ad link aggregation, Multipath TCP can balance a single TCP connection across multiple interfaces and reach very high throughput.
Multipath TCP causes a number of new issues. From a network security perspective, multipath routing causes cross-path data fragmentation that results in firewalls and malware scanners becoming inefficient when they only see one path's traffic. In addition, SSL decryption will become inefficient by way of the end-to-end encryption protocols.
User interface
In order to facilitate its deployment, Multipath TCP presents the same socket interface as TCP. This implies that any standard TCP application can be used above Multipath TCP while in fact spreading data across several subflows.
Some applications could benefit from an enhanced API to control the underlying Multipath TCP stack. Two different APIs have been proposed to expose some of features of the Multipath TCP stack to applications: an API that extends Netlink on Linux and an enhanced socket API.
Implementation
In July 2013, the MPTCP working group reported five independent implementations of Multipath TCP, including the reference implementation in the Linux kernel.
The currently available implementations are:
Linux kernel (reference implementation) from Université catholique de Louvain researchers and other collaborators ,
FreeBSD (IPv4 only) from Swinburne University of Technology,
F5 Networks BIG-IP LTM,
Citrix Netscaler,
Apple iOS 7, released on September 18, 2013 is the first large scale commercial deployment of Multipath TCP. Since iOS 7, any application can use Multipath TCP.
Apple Mac OS X 10.10, released on October 16, 2014.
Alcatel-Lucent released MPTCP proxy version 0.9 source code on October 26, 2012.
In July 2014, Oracle reported that an implementation on Solaris was being developed. In June 2015, work is in progress.
During the MPTCP WG meeting at IETF 93, SungHoon Seo announced that KT had deployed since mid June a commercial service that allows smartphone users to reach 1 Gbit/s using a MPTCP proxy service. Tessares uses the Linux kernel implementation to deploy Hybrid Access Networks
There is an ongoing effort to push a new Multipath TCP implementation in the mainline Linux kernel,
Use cases
Multipath TCP was designed to be backward compatible with regular TCP. As such, it can support any application. However, some specific deployments leverage the ability of simultaneously using different paths.
Apple uses Multipath TCP to support the Siri application on iPhone. Siri sends voice samples over an HTTPS session to Apple servers. Those servers reply with the information requested by the users. According to Apple engineers, the main benefits of Multipath TCP with this application are :
User-feedback (Time-to-First-Word) 20% faster in the 95th percentile
5x reduction of network failures
Other deployment use Multipath TCP to aggregate the bandwidth of different networks. For example, several types of smartphones, notably in Korea, use Multipath TCP to bond WiFi and 4G through SOCKS proxies. Another example are the Hybrid Access Networks that are deployed by network operators willing to combine xDSL and LTE networks. In this deployment, Multipath TCP is used to efficiently balance the traffic over the xDSL and the LTE network.
In standardisation of converged fixed and mobile communication networks 3GPP and BBF are interoperating to provide an ATSSS (Access Traffic Selection, Switching, Splitting) feature to support multipath sessions, e.g, by applying Multipath TCP both in the User Equipment (UE) or Residential Gateway (RG) and on the network side.
Multipath TCP options
Multipath TCP uses options that are described in detail in RFC 6824. All Multipath TCP options are encoded as TCP options with Option Kind is 30, as reserved by IANA.
The Multipath TCP option has the Kind (30), length (variable) and the remainder of the content begins with a 4-bit subtype field, for which IANA has created and will maintain a sub-registry entitled "MPTCP Option Subtypes" under the "Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) Parameters" registry. Those subtype fields are defined as follows:
Values 0x8 through 0xe are currently unassigned.
Protocol operation
Simplified description
The core idea of multipath TCP is to define a way to build a connection between two hosts and not between two interfaces (as standard TCP does).
For instance, Alice has a smartphone with 3G and WiFi interfaces (with IP addresses 10.11.12.13 and 10.11.12.14) and Bob has a computer with an Ethernet interface (with IP address 20.21.22.23).
In standard TCP, the connection should be established between two IP addresses. Each TCP connection is identified by a four-tuple (source and destination addresses and ports). Given this restriction, an application can only create one TCP connection through a single link. Multipath TCP allows the connection to use several paths simultaneously. For this, Multipath TCP creates one TCP connection, called subflow, over each path that needs to be used.
The purpose of the different protocol operations (defined in RFC 6824) are:
to handle when and how to add/remove paths (for instance if there's a connection lost of some congestion control)
to be compatible with legacy TCP hardware (such as some firewalls that can automatically reject TCP connections if the sequence number aren't successive)
to define a fair congestion control strategy between the different links and the different hosts (especially with those that don't support MPTCP)
Multipath TCP adds new mechanisms to TCP transmissions:
The subflow system, used to gather multiple standard TCP connections (the paths from one host to another). Subflows are identified during the TCP three-way handshake. After the handshake, an application can add or remove some subflows (subtypes 0x3 and 0x4).
The MPTCP DSS option contains a data sequence number and an acknowledgement number. These allow receiving data from multiple subflows in the original order, without any corruption (message subtype 0x2)
A modified retransmission protocol handles congestion control and reliability.
Detailed specification
The detailed protocol specification is provided in RFC 8684. Several survey articles provide an introduction to the protocol.
Congestion control
Several congestion control mechanisms have been defined for Multipath TCP. Their main difference with classical TCP congestion control schemes is that they need to react to congestion on the different paths without being unfair with single path TCP sources that could compete with them on one of the paths. Four Multipath TCP congestion control schemes are currently supported by the Multipath TCP implementation in the Linux kernel.
The Linked Increase Algorithm defined in RFC 6356
The Opportunistic Linked Increase Algorithm
The wVegas delay based congestion control algorithm
The Balanced Linked Increase Algorithm
Alternatives
Stream Control Transmission Protocol
Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) is a reliable in-order datagram stream transport protocol originally intended for telecommunication signaling. It supports concurrent use of multiple access links and allows the application to influence the access interface selections on a datagram stream basis. It also supports mobility via access renegotiation. Hence, SCTP is also a transport layer solution. It offers type 3 flow granularity with concurrency, but with more flow scheduling control than Multipath TCP. It also fully supports mobility in a fashion similar to Multipath TCP.
IMS SIP
Within the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) architecture, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) can support the concurrent use of multiple contact IP addresses for the registration of one or more IMS user agents. This allows for the creation of multiple IMS signaling paths. On these signaling paths, signaling messages carry Session Description Protocol (SDP) messaging to negotiate media streams. SDP allows for the (re-)negotiation of the streams of one media session over multiple paths. In turn, this enables application layer multipath transport. From this point of view, IMS can therefore offer application layer multipath support with flow granularity and concurrent access. A multipath extension to Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) has been under discussion within the IETF. Multipath RTP can offer flow granularity with concurrent access and mobility (via IMS, SDP signaling or the RTP control protocol). Very recently in addition a proposal to extend also DCCP (Datagram Congestion Control Protocol) by a multipath feature is discussed at IETF in TSVWG (Transport Area Working Group) dubbed as MP-DCCP.
Multipath QUIC
The IETF is currently developing the QUIC protocol that integrates the features that are traditionally found in the TCP, TLS and HTTP protocols. Thanks to the flexibility and extensibility of QUIC, it is possible to extend it to support multiple paths and address the same use cases as Multipath TCP. A first design for Multipath QUIC has been proposed, implemented and evaluated.
Other protocols and experiments
At the session layer, the Mobile Access Router project experimented in 2003 with the aggregation of multiple wireless accesses with heterogeneous technologies, transparently balancing traffic between them in response to the perceived performance of each of them.
Parallel access schemes used to accelerate transfers by taking advantage of HTTP range requests to initiate connections to multiple servers of a replicated content, are not equivalent to Multipath TCP as they involve the application layer and are limited to content of known size.
RFC
- Threat Analysis for TCP Extensions for Multipath Operation with Multiple Addresses
- Architectural Guidelines for Multipath TCP Development
- Coupled Congestion Control for Multipath Transport Protocols
- TCP Extensions for Multipath Operation with Multiple Addresses (v0; replaced by RFC 8684)
- Multipath TCP (MPTCP) Application Interface Considerations
- Analysis of Residual Threats and Possible Fixes for Multipath TCP (MPTCP)
- Use Cases and Operational Experience with Multipath TCP
- TCP Extensions for Multipath Operation with Multiple Addresses (v1)
- 0-RTT TCP Convert Protocol
See also
Transport protocol comparison table
References
External links
The Linux Kernel MultiPath TCP project
A clear article explaining the Linux MPTCP implementation |
40600736 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenZFS | OpenZFS | OpenZFS is a CDDL licensed open-source storage platform that encompasses the functionality of traditional filesystems and volume manager. It includes protection against data corruption, support for high storage capacities, efficient data compression, snapshots and copy-on-write clones, continuous integrity checking and automatic repair, encryption, remote replication with ZFS send and receive, and RAID-Z. The eponymous OpenZFS project brings together developers from the illumos, Linux, FreeBSD and macOS platforms, and a wide range of companies via the annual OpenZFS Developer Summit.
Founding members of OpenZFS include Matt Ahrens, one of the main architects of ZFS. The OpenZFS project is an open source derivative of the Oracle ZFS project. , OpenZFS (on some platforms such as FreeBSD) is gradually being pivoted to be based upon ZFS on Linux, which has developed faster than other variants of OpenZFS and contains new features not yet ported to those other versions. The merged code-base will include a number of new features and performance enhancements, and is proposed to be known as OpenZFS 2.0.
History
The ZFS file system was originally developed by Sun Microsystems for the Solaris operating system. The ZFS source code was released in 2005 under the Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL) as part of the OpenSolaris operating system, and it was later ported to other operating systems and environments.
The following is a list of key events to the development of ZFS and its various implementations, leading to the creation of OpenZFS as an umbrella project:
2001: Closed-source development of ZFS started with two engineers at Sun Microsystems.
2005: ZFS source code was released as part of OpenSolaris.
2006: Development of a FUSE ZFS port for Linux started.
2007: Apple started porting of ZFS to Mac OS X.
2008: A port to FreeBSD was released as part of FreeBSD 7.0.
2008: Development of a native ZFS Linux port started, known as ZFS on Linux.
2009: Apple's ZFS project closed, and the MacZFS project continued to develop the code.
2010: OpenSolaris was discontinued, resulting in the further development of ZFS on Solaris being no longer open-source.
2010: illumos was forked from OpenSolaris as its open-source successor, and continued to develop ZFS in the open. Ports of ZFS to other platforms continued pulling in upstream changes from illumos.
2012: Feature flags were introduced to replace legacy on-disk version numbers, enabling easier distributed evolution of the ZFS on-disk format to support new features.
2013: Coexisting with the stable version of MacZFS, its prototype generation (known as OpenZFS on OS X or O3X) uses ZFS on Linux as the new upstream codebase.
2013: The first stable release of ZFS on Linux.
2013: Official announcement of the OpenZFS as an umbrella project. New features and fixes are regularly pulled into OpenZFS from illumos and pushed into all ports to other platforms, and vice versa.
2016: Ubuntu 16.04 includes the open-source ZFS file system variant by default
Ported versions (2005–2010)
As the FSF claimed a CDDL and GPL legal incompatibility in 2005, Sun's implementation of the ZFS file system wasn't used as a basis for the development of a Linux kernel module, it wasn't merged into the Linux kernel mainline, and Linux distributions did not include it as a precompiled kernel module. As a workaround, FUSE, a framework that allows file systems to run in userspace, was used on Linux as a separation layer for which the licensing issues are not in effect, although with a set of its own issues that include performance penalty. However, the April 2016 release of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS includes CDDL-licensed ZFS on Linux as a kernel module that is maintained as a separate project, outside the Linux kernel mainline, claiming license compatibility.
Apple/macOS
In the release version of Mac OS X 10.5, ZFS was available in read-only mode from the command line, which lacks the possibility to create zpools or write to them. Before the 10.5 release, Apple released the "ZFS Beta Seed v1.1", which allowed read-write access and the creation of zpools; however, the installer for the "ZFS Beta Seed v1.1" has been reported to only work on version 10.5.0, and has not been updated for version 10.5.1 and above. In August 2007, Apple opened a ZFS project on their Mac OS Forge web site. On that site, Apple provided the source code and binaries of their port of ZFS which includes read-write access, but there was no installer available until a third-party developer created one. In October 2009, Apple announced a shutdown of the ZFS project on Mac OS Forge. That is to say that their own hosting and involvement in ZFS was summarily discontinued. No explanation was given. Apple eventually released the legally required, CDDL-derived, portion of the source code of their final public beta of ZFS, code named "10a286". Complete ZFS support was once advertised as a feature of Snow Leopard Server (Mac OS X Server 10.6). However, by the time the operating system was released, all references to this feature had been removed from its features page. Apple has not commented regarding the omission.
Apple's "10a286" source code release, and versions of the previously released source and binaries, have been preserved and new development has been adopted by the MacZFS project to resume its development elsewhere. As of July 2012, MacZFS implements zpool version 8 and ZFS version 2, from the October 2008 release of Solaris. Additional historical information and commentary can be found on the MacZFS web site and FAQ.
Implementations
Solaris
OpenSolaris
OpenSolaris 2008.05, 2008.11 and 2009.06 use ZFS as their default filesystem. There are over a dozen 3rd-party distributions.
OpenIndiana
OpenIndiana uses OpenZFS with feature flags as implemented in Illumos. ZFS version 28 used up to version 151a3.
By upgrading from OpenSolaris snv_134 to both OpenIndiana and Solaris 11 Express, one also has the ability to upgrade and separately boot Solaris 11 Express on the same ZFS pool.
BSD
macOS
OpenZFS on OSX (abbreviated to O3X) is an implementation of ZFS for macOS. O3X is under active development, with close relation to ZFS on Linux and illumos' ZFS implementation, while maintaining feature flag compatibility with ZFS on Linux. O3X implements zpool version 5000, and includes the Solaris Porting Layer (SPL) originally written for MacZFS, which has been further enhanced to include a memory management layer based on the illumos kmem and vmem allocators. O3X is fully featured, supporting LZ4 compression, deduplication, ARC, L2ARC, and SLOG.
MacZFS is free software providing support for ZFS on macOS. The stable legacy branch provides up to ZFS pool version 8 and ZFS filesystem version 2. The development branch, based on ZFS on Linux and OpenZFS, provides updated ZFS functionality, such as up to ZFS zpool version 5000 and feature flags.
A proprietary implementation of ZFS (Zevo) was available at no cost from GreenBytes, Inc., implementing up to ZFS file system version 5 and ZFS pool version 28. Zevo offered a limited ZFS feature set, pending further commercial development; it was sold to Oracle in 2014, with unknown future plans.
DragonFlyBSD
Edward O'Callaghan started the initial port of ZFS to DragonFlyBSD.
NetBSD
The NetBSD ZFS port was started as a part of the 2007 Google Summer of Code and in August 2009, the code was merged into NetBSD's source tree.
FreeBSD
Paweł Jakub Dawidek ported ZFS to FreeBSD, and it has been part of FreeBSD since version 7.0. This includes zfsboot, which allows booting FreeBSD directly from a ZFS dataset.
FreeBSD's ZFS implementation is fully functional; the only missing features are kernel CIFS server and iSCSI, but the latter can be added using externally available packages. Samba can be used to provide a userspace CIFS server.
FreeBSD 7-STABLE (where updates to the series of versions 7.x are committed to) uses zpool version 6.
FreeBSD 8 includes a much-updated implementation of ZFS, and zpool version 13 is supported. zpool version 14 support was added to the 8-STABLE branch on January 11, 2010, and is included in FreeBSD release 8.1. zpool version 15 is supported in release 8.2.
The 8-STABLE branch gained support for zpool version v28 and zfs version 5 in early June 2011.
These changes were released mid-April 2012 with FreeBSD 8.3.
FreeBSD 9.0-RELEASE uses ZFS Pool version 28.
FreeBSD 9.2-RELEASE is the first FreeBSD version to use the new "feature flags" based implementation thus Pool version 5000.
FreeBSD 13.0-RELEASE switches ZFS implementation from illumos-based code base to the unified OpenZFS 2 code base. This change allows FreeBSD to receive OpenZFS improvements much quicker.
MidnightBSD
MidnightBSD, a desktop operating system derived from FreeBSD, supports ZFS storage pool version 6 as of 0.3-RELEASE. This was derived from code included in FreeBSD 7.0-RELEASE. An update to storage pool 28 is in progress in 0.4-CURRENT and based on 9-STABLE sources around FreeBSD 9.1-RELEASE code.
TrueOS (formerly PC-BSD)
TrueOS (formerly known as PC-BSD, now defunct) was a desktop-oriented distribution of FreeBSD, which inherited its ZFS support.
TrueNAS Core, (formerly FreeNAS)
TrueNAS Core, an embedded open source network-attached storage (NAS) distribution based on FreeBSD, has the same ZFS support as FreeBSD and PC-BSD.
pfSense
pfSense, an open source BSD based router, supports ZFS, including installation and booting to ZFS pools, as of version 2.4.
XigmaNAS
XigmaNAS (formerly NAS4Free), an embedded open source network-attached storage (NAS) distribution based on FreeBSD, has the same ZFS support as FreeBSD, ZFS storage pool version 5000. This project is a continuation of FreeNAS 7 series project.
Debian GNU/kFreeBSD
Being based on the FreeBSD kernel, Debian GNU/kFreeBSD has ZFS support from the kernel. However, additional userland tools are required, while it is possible to have ZFS as root or /boot file system in which case required GRUB configuration is performed by the Debian installer since the Wheezy release.
As of January 31, 2013, the ZPool version available is 14 for the Squeeze release, and 28 for the Wheezy-9 release.
Linux
Although the ZFS filesystem supports Linux-based operating systems, difficulties arise for Linux distribution maintainers wishing to provide native support for ZFS in their products due to potential legal incompatibilities between the CDDL license used by the ZFS code, and the GPL license used by the Linux kernel. To enable ZFS support within Linux, a loadable kernel module containing the CDDL-licensed ZFS code must be compiled and loaded into the kernel. According to the Free Software Foundation, the wording of the GPL license legally prohibits redistribution of the resulting product as a derivative work, though this viewpoint has caused some controversy.
ZFS on FUSE
One potential workaround to licensing incompatibility was trialed in 2006, with an experimental port of the ZFS code to Linux's FUSE system. The filesystem ran entirely in userspace instead of being integrated into the Linux kernel, and was therefore not considered a derivative work of the kernel. This approach was functional, but suffered from significant performance penalties when compared with integrating the filesystem as a native kernel module running in kernel space. As of 2016, the ZFS on FUSE project appears to be defunct.
Native ZFS on Linux
A native port of ZFS for Linux produced by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) was released in March 2013, following these key events:
2008: prototype to determine viability
2009: initial ZVOL and Lustre support
2010: development moved to GitHub
2011: POSIX layer added
2011: community of early adopters
2012: production usage of ZFS
2013: stable GA release
, ZFS on Linux uses the OpenZFS pool version number 5000, which indicates that the features it supports are defined via feature flags. This pool version is an unchanging number that is expected to never conflict with version numbers given by Oracle.
KQ InfoTech
Another native port for Linux was developed by KQ InfoTech in 2010. This port used the zvol implementation from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as a starting point. A release supporting zpool v28 was announced in January 2011. In April 2011, KQ Infotech was acquired by sTec, Inc., and their work on ZFS ceased. Source code of this port can be found on GitHub.
The work of KQ InfoTech was ultimately integrated into the LLNL's native port of ZFS for Linux.
Source code distribution
While the license incompatibility may arise with the distribution of compiled binaries containing ZFS code, it is generally agreed that distribution of the source code itself is not affected by this. In Gentoo, configuring a ZFS root filesystem is well documented and the required packages can be installed from its package repository.
Slackware also provides documentation on supporting ZFS, both as a kernel module and when built into the kernel.
Ubuntu integration
The question of the CDDL license's compatibility with the GPL license resurfaced in 2015, when the Linux distribution Ubuntu announced that it intended to make precompiled OpenZFS binary kernel modules available to end-users directly from the distribution's official package repositories. In 2016, Ubuntu announced that a legal review resulted in the conclusion that providing support for ZFS via a binary kernel module was not in violation of the provisions of the GPL license. Others, such as the Software Freedom Law Center followed Ubuntu's conclusion, while the FSF and SFC reiterated their opposing view.
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS ("Xenial Xerus"), released on April 21, 2016, allows the user to install the OpenZFS binary packages directly from the Ubuntu software repositories. , no legal challenge has been brought against Canonical regarding the distribution of these packages.
As of 2019, Ubuntu supports experimental installation of ZFS as a root filesystem, starting with the 19.10 release ("Eoan Ermine"), to support coexistence of a nearly pure ZFS OS with GRUB and other operating systems on the same disk.
TrueNAS Scale
A version of TrueNAS by iXsystems, but based on Debian Linux. Still uses OpenZFS for main storage. But adds some container support, via Kubernetes & Docker. Further more, it will allow clustered Docker and ZFS via gluster. In Beta as of 22 June 2021.
Microsoft Windows
A port of open source ZFS was attempted in 2010 but after a hiatus of over one year development ceased in 2012. In October 2017 a new port of OpenZFS was announced by Jörgen Lundman at OpenZFS Developer Summit.
Releases and feature histories
Within illumos and (from 2013) OpenZFS
2010: illumos founded as an open source successor, and continued to develop ZFS in the open. Ports of ZFS to other platforms continued porting upstream changes from illumos.
2013: OpenZFS project founded, aiming at coordinated open-source development of ZFS. The OpenZFS project provides a common foundation for any interested groups and organizations to contribute and collaborate towards a common open source ZFS core, and in addition, to also maintain any specific code and validation processes needed for core ZFS code to work with their own individual systems.
Other ports and forks
The following is a list of open-source ZFS ports and forks:
2006: Development of a FUSE port for Linux started.
2007: Apple started porting ZFS to Mac OS X.
2008: A port to FreeBSD was released as part of FreeBSD 7.0.
2008: Development of a native Linux port started.
2009: Apple's ZFS project closed. The MacZFS project continued to develop the code.
Detailed release histories
With ZFS in Oracle Solaris: as new features are introduced, the version numbers of the pool and file system are incremented to designate the format and features available. Features that are available in specific file system versions require a specific pool version.
Distributed development of OpenZFS involves feature flags and pool version 5000, an unchanging number that is expected to never conflict with version numbers given by Oracle. Legacy version numbers still exist for pool versions 1–28, implied by the version 5000. Illumos uses pool version 5000 for this purpose. Future on-disk format changes are enabled / disabled independently via
feature flags.
Version history
Pool versions and feature flags
Originally, version numbers of the pool and file system were incremented as new features were introduced, in order to designate the on-disk file system format and available features. This worked well when a single entity controlled the development of ZFS, and this versioning scheme is still in use with the ZFS in Oracle Solaris.
In a more distributed development model, having a single version number is far from ideal as all implementations of OpenZFS would need to agree on all changes to the on-disk file system format. The solution selected by OpenZFS was to introduce feature flags as a new versioning system that tags on-disk format changes with unique names, and supports both completely independent format changes and format changes that depend on each other. A pool can be moved and used between OpenZFS implementations as long as all feature flags in use by the pool are supported by both implementations.
In OpenZFS, the pool version is permanently set to 5000, signifying that the pool indicates new features by setting or unsetting ZFS feature flags rather than by incrementing the pool version. The number 5000 was chosen because it is expected to never conflict with version numbers given by Oracle. Legacy version numbers still exist for pool versions 1–28. Future on-disk format changes are enabled / disabled independently via these feature flags.
Legacy version numbers still exist for pool versions 1–28, and are implied by the pool version 5000; the initial proposal was to use 1000 as the pool version. Future on-disk format changes are enabled and disabled independently via feature flags.
Feature flags are exposed as pool properties, following these naming scheme rules:
Format of the property name is
is the reverse DNS name of the organization that developed the feature, ensuring unique property names.
Property names can be shortened to when they remain unambiguous.
For example, is a valid property name, and it could be shortened to .
Each pool feature can be in either disabled, enabled, or active state. Disabled features are those that will not be used, and no on-disk format changes will be made; as a result, such features are backward-compatible. Enabled features are those that will be used, no on-disk format changes have been made yet, but the software may make the changes at any time; such features are still backward-compatible. Active features are those that have made backward-incompatible on-disk format changes to the pool.
When any pool feature is enabled, legacy version of the pool is automatically upgraded to 5000 and any other prerequisite features are also enabled. By default, new pools are created with all supported features enabled. In general, state of a feature can be changed from active back to enabled, undoing that way performed on-disk format changes and making the pool compatible again with an older OpenZFS implementation; however, for some features that might not be possible.
On-disk format changes can be associated with either features for write or features for read. The former are the features that an OpenZFS implementation must support to be capable of writing to the pool, while supporting such features is not mandatory for opening the pool in read-only mode. The latter are the features that an OpenZFS implementation must support to be able to read from the pool or to just open it, because opening a pool is not possible without actually reading from it.
For example, feature adds a new on-disk data structure to keep track of freed datasets, but an OpenZFS implementation does not need to know about this data structure to access the pool in read-only mode. Additionally, writing to a pool that has some features in active state is not possible by an OpenZFS implementation that does not support the same features.
A list of feature flags and which operating systems support them is available from the Open-ZFS.org Web site
OpenZFS 2.0
Historically, OpenZFS has been implemented as a core ZFS code, with each operating system's team adapting it to fit into their projects. This led in some cases to feature stagnation and divergence of features and command lines, as different operating systems developed divergent features and bug fixes, often for a single platform rather than across all platforms. Over time, new feature development shifted from Illumos to Linux. These new features and fixes then had to be backported to Illumos before they could be re-ported for FreeBSD. But this was difficult because the Linux version also included many smaller changes, which were hard to disentangle.
In 2018, it was agreed that OpenZFS development would be overhauled to remedy these issues. Rather than try to import all the Linux changes to other platforms piecemeal, the entire Linux ZFS code would be 'pivoted' as a whole, with other platforms being based on the more actively developed Linux version. A wide range of ported and new features, including many long-desired enhancements, would also be rolled out or ported across platforms, and future changes would be discussed across platforms before being implemented. The plans included appropriate porting layers to prevent Linux, GPL or Linux-KPI shim code from being introduced to other platform kernels.
The features in progress or ported for OpenZFS 2.0 is lengthy, and includes:
Faster rollout of enhancements and new features across platforms.
Command line standardisation
Improved pool portability (ZFS pools created on one system can be equally used by another)
Wider cross-platform feature parity and platform independence
Overlay (union) mounts accepted by default
Bug fixes and enhancements
ZTS and various other features working on FreeBSD
TRIM and ACLMODE enhancements
ZFS holds (from FreeBSD)
Enhanced native NFSv4 ACLs (FreeBSD)
Enhanced AES-GCM performance for encrypted pools
Redacted send/receive
Log spacemap and other metaslab management enhancements - a project to re-implement ZFS' management of free space and "metaslabs" for much greater efficiency
Fast clone deletion
Zstd data compression as a new option
Channel program property inheritance
AltiVec RAID-Z
Bookmark support and copying
Direct IO support
Persistent L2ARC (L2ARC retained across reboots)
Sequential (high speed) scrub and resilver
Scrub pause/resume
Resilver restart
Device (VDEV) removal
Zpool initialize and checkpoint
Channel programs
Large Dnode
Allocation classes (allowing specific high speed storage to be designated for metadata and deduplication tables)
Parallel pool mounting
Per-vdev properties
Deduplication enhancements - dedup-log (high speed deduplication), dedup table size limits, and deduplication table preloading (loaded fully at one time rather than piecemeal as needed), listed as "nice to have" in 2018, were all stated in April 2020 to be "coming along nicely" or largely complete
See also
Comparison of file systems
Btrfs — a copy-on-write file system for Linux
HAMMER — a high-availability file system for DragonFly BSD
Write Anywhere File Layout (WAFL) — NetApp's proprietary file layout
References
External links
The OpenZFS Project: and list of
FreeBSD: Webpage GitHub wiki
illumos: Webpage GitHub
Linux: Webpage GitHub
macOS: Webpage GitHub Google
Windows: Webpage GitHub
, October 11, 2013, by Matt Ahrens
OpenZFS Device Removal, January 15, 2015, by Alex Reece
Compression file systems
Disk file systems
File systems supported by the Linux kernel
RAID
Software using the CDDL license
Volume manager |
40618038 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NetGenie | NetGenie | NetGenie is a wireless router that offers security and protection against internet and network threats. It is a part of the Cyberoam's product portfolio and was launched in 2011. NetGenie network security appliances are primarily built for internet security for home users (HOME) and small office users (SOHO).
NetGenie appliances intend to address the frequent security concerns that parents and small office owners face regarding Internet usage by their family members and employees. In addition to secure wired internet surfing, NetGenie appliances are capable of providing secure Internet surfing experience over multiple devices such as laptops, iPhones, iPads, gaming consoles, and other next-gen devices.
Product Range
Considering the product range, NetGenie offers 4 basic products, two for HOME users and two for SOHO users. The appliance available for the HOME users are NG11VH and NG11EH and the appliance available for the SOHO users are NG11VO and NG11EO.
NG11VH
NG11VH is a Wireless VDSL2 /ADSL2+ Modem Router for home users. NG11VH Supports VDSL2, ADSL2+, Cable Internet, 3G USB modem connections. This router from NetGenie product range protects family from harmful Internet content and devices from hackers and bots. NG11VH is primarily build in to offer safe Internet access over any Internet-enabled device including laptops, PDA, smartphones, IPTV and even gaming consoles, with its wireless capabilities and WEP, WPA and WPA2 encryption standards. It comes with built-in firewall and Intrusion Prevention System offering online security and 3G Ready support.
NG11EH
NG11EH primarily offers protection to home users and their families. This appliance offers features like Multi-Device Wi-Fi Security, parental control, Security, 3G ready, Threat-free Wi-Fi, Reports, Remote Management and more. Apart from the other features mentioned above NG11EH also offers in-depth parental control that comprises facility for blocking Unsafe/Adult Internet Control (under lists of pornography, Spyware, nudity), security coverage for all connected devices (Including laptops, desktops, iPads, iPhones), Age-Appropriate Internet Access for Kids, List of pre-categorized websites and applications with regular updates, Customizable Internet Access and Reports on Online Activities for all relevant information about security on kids’ /users Internet activities such as – websites visited, online applications used, attempts to visit blocked websites and more – with its logs and reports.
NG11VO
NG11VO is a Wireless VDSL2/ADSL2+ Integrated Security Appliance for small offices. It supports VDSL2, ADSL2+, Cable Internet, 3G USB modem connections. NG11VO offers advanced Internet controls to manage employees’ time and productivity. It also protects organisational staff from harmful Internet content and devices from hackers and bots, securing users against Internet risks. NG11VO offers preconfigured security against unauthorized access and misuse of office Wi-Fi network protecting users against legal liabilities and data loss. It also offers secure connectivity to central/vendor offices at remote locations with VPN security. It comes with wireless capabilities and WEP, WPA and WPA2 encryption standards, offering safe Internet access over any Internet-enabled device including laptops, PDA, smartphones, secure access to remote locations. NG11VO offers complete visibility into employees’ online activities.
NG11EO
NG11EO is for small offices or home offices which can be managed through a web-based GUI, available over any Internet-access device within the office network. This appliance offers features like Security, VPN, 3G ready, Internal controls, Pre-configured Wi-Fi Security, Reports, Remote Management and more. Apart from these, the other features this appliance offers include controls to enhance employee productivity through Real-time reports on online activities of employees, Blockage of unsafe/entertainment websites, Customized employees access of applications – sites, Time-based controls that limit user access to specified hours or duration of the day and flexibility to add specific websites that should be allowed/blocked to match the Internet access needs of employees.
See also
Wireless router
Unified Threat Management
Network Security
References
External links
NetGenie - Official Website
Cyberoam - Official Website
Networking hardware
Wireless networking
Routers (computing)
Computer storage companies
Content-control software |
40624990 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open%20Control%20Architecture | Open Control Architecture | The Open Control Architecture (OCA) is a communications protocol architecture for control, monitoring, and connection management of networked audio and video devices. Such networks are referred to as "media networks".
The official specification of OCA is the Audio Engineering Society (AES) standard known as AES70-2015, or just AES70. This document will use the newer term "AES70" to refer to the standard and the architecture it specifies.
AES70 is an open standard that may be used freely, without licenses, fees, or organization memberships.
Applicability
AES70 is intended to support media networks that combine devices from diverse manufacturers. Targeted for professional applications, AES70 is suitable for media networks of 2 to 10,000 devices, including networks with mission-critical and/or life-safety roles.
AES70 is for device control, monitoring, and connection management only. It does not provide transport of media program material. However, AES70 is designed to work with virtually any media transport scheme, as the application requires.
AES70's parts are separable and may be used independently. For example, a device may implement AES70 connection management, but use other means for operational control and monitoring.
AES70 is termed an "architecture" because it provides the basis for definition of multiple control protocols. These protocols all share a common programming model, but vary in signalling detail, depending on the form of the underlying data transport mechanism. An AES70 application will use whichever AES70 protocol is appropriate for the communications method available.
Background
OCA, the architecture of AES70, was developed by the OCA Alliance, trade association, beginning in 2011. OCA was based on an existing control protocol named OCP, which had been created by Bosch Communications Systems in 2009 and 2010. OCP was in turn based on an embryonic control protocol standard named AES-24
developed by the AES in the early 1990s.
From the outset, it was the intention of all involved to have OCA rendered into an open public standard. The Alliance completed OCA development in the Fall of 2014, and transferred the specification to the AES for rendering into a formal standard. AES70, the formal standard, was published on January 4, 2016.
Today, the OCA Alliance works to develop and enhance the functionality of AES70 and to promote AES70's adoption throughout the professional media systems industry. The Alliance promotes understanding and adoption of AES70, facilitates the creation of AES70 implementations and related tools and technologies, and develops future functional enhancements of the AES70 standard.
Structural Overview
Scope
AES70 defines the control interface that a media device presents to a network to which it is connected. Thus, AES70 is concerned with the representation of device functions in a systematic way, and with the control and monitoring of those functions via a well-defined family of protocols.
Media networks normally include one or more devices called "controllers" with user interfaces that allow humans to control and monitor the audio and/or video functioning of the networked devices. In AES70-compliant networks, controllers use AES70 protocols to communicate with the devices they control.
AES70 defines the control protocol used between controllers and devices; its scope does not extend to cover the design or construction of controllers or their user interfaces.
AES70 is intended to be used for professional applications. Technical requirements for such applications have been detailed elsewhere
. OCA's scope excludes applications in homes, automobiles, and other consumer areas.
Device Model
The AES70 Device Model is the canonical description of the control interface that an AES70-compliant device presents to the network. The AES70 Device Model is object-oriented.
It defines a required and an optional set of objects ("OCA objects") that the device's control interface implements. Using an AES70 protocol, controllers may access the properties of these objects to perform control, monitoring, and connection management operations.
OCA objects are abstractions that represent device control and monitoring points and media connections. They may or may not correspond to actual programming objects or hardware components inside the device. If a device correctly implements an AES70 protocol, it is AES70-compliant. AES70 does not define how that may or should be accomplished.
Generally speaking, the AES70 device model tends to differ from device models in other control architectures.
in several ways:
AES70 does not presume a hierarchical device structure.
AES70 does not predefine specific processing configurations, signal processing modules, device types, or device families.
AES70 does not define controller user interfaces or user interface elements.
AES70 has strong support for dynamically reconfigurable devices.
AES70 offers a strong and transport-agnostic model for connection management.
AES70's repertoire of management and housekeeping functions is relatively rich.
Class Structure
The AES70 Class Structure defines a set of classes ("OCA Classes") that devices may use to instantiate OCA objects. There are three kinds of classes:
Workers, which represent application functions of devices—gain controls, level meters, switches, equalizers, et cetera.
Agents, which modify and assist control functions in various ways.
Managers, which represent various global device states.
OCA classes may be broadly grouped into three functional sets:
Management classes, which provide basic device management and housekeeping functions.
Control and monitoring classes, which are concerned with device operation.
Connection management classes, which are concerned with setup, supervision, and teardown of media stream connections, and with directory (aka "discovery") services for location and identification of network devices.
Protocols
As noted above, the AES70 architecture supports multiple protocols, depending on the nature of the network medium used. At present, AES70 defines one protocol, named OCP.1. OCP.1 is the AES70 protocol for TCP/IP networks. Future plans include OCP.2, a byte-serial version for USB networks, Bluetooth connections, and point-to-point links, and OCP.3, a text version in JSON.
Each AES70 protocol defines three kinds of messages, as follows:
Commands - directives from a controller to an object in a device, requesting some kind of action or retrieving some parameter value;
Responses - replies from an object to a controller, indicating success or failure of a previous command, and returning parameter values, where requested;
Notifications - automatically generated messages from an object in a device to a controller, indicating the occurrence of some condition or periodically reporting a parameter value such as signal amplitude.
Control Repertoire
The AES70 control repertoire covers control, monitoring, and connection management of audio devices. Future versions will expand the audio control repertoire, and may address video devices as well.
AES70 includes features that allow manufacturers to extend the OCA class structure to address functions not in the standard repertoire. Such extensions may be public or confidential, as the manufacturer chooses.
Table 1 summarizes the AES70-2015 control repertoire.
Notable Features
Connection Management
Although AES70 does not itself provide media transport functions, it is designed to interface with modern media transport standards to control signal routing and other connection setup functions, and to interface with network directory/discovery services. In this capacity, AES70 provides a useful level of abstraction for applications, allowing controllers and devices to use one common software model for managing stream connections of various transport architectures.
The OCA Alliance defines recommended practices for interfacing AES70 with various well-known media transport architectures. The specification for interfacing AES70 with a given media transport scheme is called an AES70 Adaptation.
Control Grouping
AES70 includes an architectural solution to the problems of control grouping, i.e. the use of a single control input to effect multiple operating parameters. An example of control grouping is a master gain control covering multiple device channels in one or more devices.
Control grouping poses difficult problems, especially in systems where a given operating parameter may be affected by multiple control groups. For example, in a stereophonic multiway sound system, the gain of the left-channel high-frequency amplifier may be affected by settings of master controls for (a) overall high-frequency level, (b) left-channel level, and (c) overall level of the entire system. In such systems, machine intelligence is required to manage cumulative settings effects that lead to overrange or underrange parameter values. The AES70 grouping mechanism provides a basis for such management, for one or many devices.
Snapshot and Preset Management
AES70 includes a powerful and general mechanism for applying, storing, recalling, uploading, and downloading sets of operating parameter values. Both partial and full snapshots are supported.
Reconfigurable DSP Device Setup
AES70 includes complete support for managing the configurations of reconfigurable DSP devices, i.e. software-based devices whose signal processing topologies can be defined and redefined at runtime by external controllers. For such devices, AES70 supports creation, configuration, and deletion of signal processing elements and the internal signal paths that connect them.
Proprietary Extensibility
AES70 is designed to support proprietary extensions with maximum compatibility. Manufacturers may define their own extensions to the control repertoire, and these will coexist peacefully with standard elements.
Upward / Downward Compatibility
AES70 devices and controllers will continue to interoperate as AES70 evolves over the years. Devices that use various versions of OCA will generally be intermixable in one media network without problems.
Security
AES70 protocols offer encryption and authentication options that allow the construction of secure control and monitoring networks. Completely secure media networks will require encryption of transmitted program content as well; the mechanisms for such encryption lie outside the scope of OCAAES70 although AES70 may be used to configure and control them.
Reliable Firmware Update Capability
AES70 defines primitives that allow reliable update of device firmware over the network. These primitives may be used by maintenance software to ensure that incomplete firmware updates do not render critical devices and networks inoperative.
Availability
AES70 is an open and license-free standard. It may be freely used in products as manufacturers choose. Although AES70 is nurtured and promoted by the OCA Alliance, membership in the Alliance is not required in order to use AES70.
AES70 Documents
AES70 documents are available from the Audio Engineering Society (AES) Standards Store. The standard is in three parts and two significant appendices, as follows:
1. AES70 Framework
Also known as OCF, this specification describes the overall architecture of AES70 and describes its mechanisms. OCF is published in a document named AES-1-2015: AES standard for Audio applications of networks - Open Control Architecture - Part 1: Framework.
2. AES70 Class Structure
Also known as OCC, this specification describes the object-oriented class structure that defines the functional repertoire (connection management, control, and monitoring) of AES70. OCC is published in a document named AES70-2-2015: AES standard for Audio applications of networks - Open Control Architecture - Part 2: Class Structure
It is critical for readers also to download this document's Appendix A in either of two forms (see below for explanation):
AES70-2-2015 Appendix A (Enterprise Architect format)
or
AES70-2-2015 Appendix A (XMI format)
3. AES70 Protocols
Also known as OCP.1, OCP.2, etcetera, these specifications describe protocols that implement OCA control over various types of networks.
In AES70-2015, only one protocol -- OCP.1 -- is defined. It is for TCP/IP networks. Future updates to the standard will define additional protocols. OCP.1 is published in a document named AES70-3-2015: AES standard for Audio applications of networks - Open Control Architecture - Part 3: Protocol for TCP/IP Networks
Readers should also download this document's Appendix B in either of two forms (see below for explanation):
AES70-3-2015 Appendix B (Enterprise Architect format)
or
AES70-23-2015 Appendix B (XMI format)
The Appendices
The two appendices listed above are Universal Modeling Language (UML) specifications.
The UML files are in two forms:
The *.eap files are master files from a UML tool named Enterprise Architect from Sparx Systems. The usual version of the tool costs US$240, but Sparx Systems offers a free viewer.
The *.xmi files are master files in XMI 2.1, a standard format for representation of UML information. XMI stands for "XML Metadata Interchange". XMI files can be opened by most UML editors, including free ones. See XML Metadata Interchange for more information.
The OCA Alliance
The OCA Alliance, is a non-profit corporation originally formed to secure the standardization of the OCA. With the publication of the AES70 standard in 2016, the Alliance's purposes have evolved, and are now:
Promoting the adoption of AES70 through marketing, education and training.
Developing documents and tools that complement the AES70 standard, by providing useful advice and materials to developers of AES70-compliant products and to end users of AES70 systems.
Working with other standards groups to ensure the optimum blending of AES70 with other industry media networking standards, especially those related to media program transfer.
Developing recommended enhancements to the AES70 standard.
Alliance members are large and small companies who desire to steer the evolution of AES70, and to benefit from the exchange of technology and business information that a trade association can provide. New members are always welcome.
Available development tools / code
A number of development tools / open source code is available which helps in start developing AES70 compatible products.
A device implementation example in C++ can be downloaded from https://github.com/OCAAlliance/OCAMicro
AES70 demo - ALSA (Linux Sound Card Driver) as OCA Device with Cloud UI controller: https://deuso.de/alsa-demo/
Free tools can be downloaded from https://ocaalliance.github.io/downloads.html
A javascript controller library can be downloaded from https://github.com/DeutscheSoft/AES70.js
A npm package with AES70.js is available at https://www.npmjs.com/package/aes70
References
External links
http://ocaalliance.com/, the OCA Alliance website.
http://www.aes.org/standards, the Audio Engineering Society standards page. AES standards participation is open to all; AES membership is not necessary.
https://github.com/OCAAlliance/OCAMicro, a device implementation of the AES70 protocol. Supported by OCA Alliance members.
Audio Engineering Society standards
Application layer protocols
Network protocols |
40629989 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire%20OS | Fire OS | Fire OS is a mobile operating system based on the Android Open Source Project and created by Amazon for its Fire tablets, Echo smart speakers and Fire TV devices. It includes proprietary software, a customized user interface primarily centered on content consumption, and heavy ties to content available from Amazon's own storefronts and services. Apps for Fire OS are provided through the Amazon Appstore.
History
Amazon only began referring to the Android derivative as Fire OS with its third iteration of Fire tablets. Unlike previous Fire models, whose operating system is listed as being "based on" Android, the "Fire OS 3.0" operating system is listed as being "compatible with" Android.
Fire OS 5
which is based on Android 5.1 "Lollipop", added an updated interface. The home screen features a traditional application grid and pages for content types as opposed to the previous carousel interface. It also introduces "On Deck", a function which automatically moves content out of offline storage to maintain storage space for new content, the speed reading tool "Word Runner", and screen color filters. Parental controls were enhanced with a new web browser for FreeTime mode featuring a curated selection of content appropriate for children, as well as "Activity Center" for monitoring usage by children. Fire OS 5 removed support for device encryption; an Amazon spokesperson stated that encryption was an enterprise-oriented feature that was underused. In March 2016, after the removal was publicized and criticized in the wake of the FBI–Apple encryption dispute, Amazon announced that it would be restoring the feature in a future patch.
Fire OS 6
which is based on Android 7.1.2 "Nougat", its main changes/new additions include:
Adoptable storage: allows users to format and use their SD card as internal storage,
Doze/App standby: aim to improve battery life by forcing device to sleep when user is not actively using it. This adds restrictions on Apps that want to do background processing and polling etc.
MediaTek Exploits (2019)
In early 2019 exploit(s) for 6 Fire Tablet models and 1 Fire TV model were discovered and allowed: gaining temporary root access, permanent root access, bootloader unlocking, these exploit(s) were caused due to security vulnerability(s) in multiple MediaTek chipsets
Fire OS 7
Which is based on Android 9.0 "Pie" was released in 2019 and is available for all 8th generation and above Fire tablets.
Further History
In February of 2022 Amazon announced that the Docs app would be replaced by document creation functionality in the Files app in May of 2022.
In February of 2022 Amazon introduced a improved home editing system.
Features
Fire OS uses a customized user interface designed to prominently promote content available through Amazon services, such as Amazon Appstore, Prime Video, Amazon Music & Audible, and Kindle Store. Its home screen features a carousel of recently accessed content and apps, with a "favorites shelf" of pinned apps directly below it. Sections are provided for different types of content, such as apps, games, music, audiobooks, and video among others. A search function allows users to search through their local content library or Amazon's stores. Similarly to Android, sliding from the top of the screen exposes quick settings and notifications. Fire OS also provides integration with Goodreads, Facebook, and Twitter. X-Ray is also integrated into its playback functions, allowing users to access supplemental information on what they are currently viewing. The OS features a user system, along with Kindle FreeTime, a suite of parental controls which allow parents to set time limits for using certain types of content. Another feature is Amazon GameCircle, which is a retired online multiplayer social gaming network released by Amazon. It allowed players to track their achievements and compare their high scores on a leader board. It debuted in July 2012 and was retired September 5, 2018.
Amazon's ecosystem
Fire OS devices comes with Amazon's software and content ecosystems such as Here WeGo with a clone of Google Maps API 1.0. Amazon cannot use the Android trademarks to market the devices. Apps for Fire OS are provided through the Amazon Appstore.
Fire OS devices do not have Google mobile services, including the Google Play Store or proprietary APIs, such as Google Maps or Google Cloud Messaging. Google Play Store can be installed, and third-party apps can still be sideloaded via APK files, although full compatibility is not guaranteed if the app depends on Google services.
Members of the Open Handset Alliance (which include the majority of Android OEMs) are contractually forbidden to produce Android devices based on forks of the OS; therefore, Fire tablets are manufactured by Quanta Computer, which is not an OHA member.
List of Fire OS versions
The releases are categorized by major Fire OS versions based upon a certain Android codebase first and then sorted chronologically.
Fire OS 1 – based on Android 2.3 Gingerbread
system version = 6.3.1
system version = 6.3.2 – longer movie rentals, Amazon cloud synchronization
system version = 6.3.4 – latest version for Kindle Fire (1st Generation) (2011)
Fire OS 2 – based on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
system version = 7.5.1 – latest version for Kindle Fire HD (2nd Generation) (7" 2012)
system version = 8.5.1 – latest version for Kindle Fire HD 8.9" (2nd Generation) (2012)
system version = 10.5.1 – latest version for Kindle Fire (2nd Generation) (2012)
Fire OS 2.4 – based on Android 4.0.3(?)
Fire OS 3 Mojito – based on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
3.1
3.2.8 – rollback point for Kindle Fire HDX (2013)
3.5.0 – introduces support for Fire Phone; Android 4.2.2 codebase
3.5.1 – Fire Phone maintenance version
Fire OS 4 Sangria – based on Android 4.4 KitKat
4.1.1
4.5.5.1
4.5.5.2
4.5.5.3 – latest version for some tablets released in 2013, Kindle Fire HDX (3rd Generation), Kindle Fire HDX 8.9" (3rd Generation), Kindle Fire HD (3rd Generation)
4.5.5.5 – latest version for some tablets released in 2013 (e.g. some Kindle Fire tablets of 3rd Generation)
4.6.6.0 – Fire Phone
4.6.6.1 – latest version for the Fire Phone
4.7.8.4 – Last version for the fire phone (2019)
4.8.2.9 – Last version for the fire phone (2019)
Fire OS 5 Bellini – based on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop
5.0
5.0.5.1 – introduction of Fire TV
5.0.1
5.1.1
5.1.2
5.1.2.1
5.1.4
5.2.1.0 – Fire TV devices
5.2.1.1
5.2.1.2
5.2.4.0
5.2.6.0
5.2.6.1
5.2.6.2
5.2.8.4
5.3.1.0
5.3.1.1 – August 2016
5.3.2.0 – November 2016
5.3.2.1 – December 2016
5.3.3.0 – March 2017
5.3.6.4 – version for Fire HD 8 (6th Generation)
5.3.6.8
5.3.7.0
5.3.7.1
5.3.7.2 – for Fire HD 8 & Fire HD 10 (7th Generation)
5.4.0.0 – June 2017
5.4.0.1 – August 2017
5.5.0.0 – November 2017: Only for Fire HD 10 (2017) with hands-free Alexa
5.6.0.0 – November 2017
5.6.0.1 – January 2018
5.6.1.0 – March 2018: version for tablets released in 2014 (e.g. some Fire tablets of 4th Generation)
5.6.2.0 – July 2018: Hands-Free Alexa For Fire 7 & HD 8 (2017) only
5.6.2.3 – April 2018: Latest version for first and second generation Fire TV devices
5.6.3.0 – November 2018: for Fire 7 (5th to 7th Generation); Due to a mistake, this version was accidentally released as 5.3.6.4 on some Fire tablets instead of 5.6.3.0, but includes the same update features.
5.6.3.8 – April 2019
5.6.4.0 – May 2019, September 2019: for Fire HD 8
5.6.6.0 – May 2020
5.6.7.0 – August 2020
5.6.8.0 – November 2020: Latest version for Fire (5th Generation), Fire HD 6 (4th Generation), Fire HD 7 (4th Generation), Fire HD 8 (5th and 6th Generation), Fire HDX 8.9 (4th Generation), and Fire HD 10 (5th Generation)
5.6.9.0 – December 2020: Latest version for Fire (7th Generation), Fire HD 8 (7th Generation), and Fire HD 10 (7th Generation)
5.8.6.8 – July 2019
5.8.7.9 – August 2019
5.7.8.2 – September 2019
Fire OS 6 – based on Android 7.1.2 Nougat
6.2.1.0 – October 2017, released on third generation Fire TV
6.2.1.2 – December 2017
6.2.1.3 – May 2018
6.3.0.1 – November 2018
6.3.1.2 – July 2019: version for Fire 7 (9th Generation)
6.3.1.3 (information needed)
6.3.1.4 (information needed)
6.3.1.5 – September 2019: last version of FireOS 6 for Fire HD 8 (8th generation)
6.5.3.4 – September 2019: Last version for Fire 7 (7th generation)
6.5.3.5 – November 2019
Fire OS 7 – based on Android 9.0 Pie
7.3.1.0 – October 2019: First version for Fire HD 10 (9th Generation)
7.3.1.1 – October 2019: Second version for Fire HD 10 (9th Generation)
7.3.1.2 – February 2020: Third version for Fire HD 10 (9th Generation)
7.3.1.3 – April 2020: Fourth version for Fire HD 10 (9th Generation)
7.3.1.4 – June 2020: Fifth version for Fire HD 10 (9th Generation)
7.3.1.5 – August 2020: First version of FireOS 7 for Fire HD 8 (8th Generation)
7.3.1.6 – October 2020
7.3.1.7 – November 2020
7.3.1.8 – February 2021
7.3.1.9 – May 2021
7.3.2.1 – September 2021
7.3.2.2 – November 2021: Latest version for 8th Generation, 9th Generation, 10th Generation and 11th Generation devices
List of Fire OS devices
Fire Tablets
Fire TV
Fire Phone
Amazon Echo
Amazon Echo Show
See also
Nokia X software platform, a similar fork by Nokia
Tizen, a Linux-based OS by Samsung Electronics with an optional Android runtime
Sailfish OS, a Linux-based mobile OS by Jolla which includes an Android runtime
BlackBerry 10, a QNX-based mobile OS by BlackBerry which includes an Android runtime and comes with the Amazon Appstore preloaded
Comparison of mobile operating systems
References
External links
Amazon (company)
Android (operating system)
Android forks
ARM operating systems
Mobile operating systems
Tablet operating systems |
40668315 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mujahedeen%20Secrets | Mujahedeen Secrets | Mujahedeen Secrets (transliterated Arabic: Asrar al-Mujahedeen) is an encryption program for Microsoft Windows. It was publicly offered to supporters of Al-Qaeda as a tool to protect the confidentiality of their electronic messages.
The authors of the software are anonymous.
Uses
The software allows users to encrypt and decrypt text messages and files with a range of encryption techniques. This is primarily to ensure that any parties intercepting the messages during transmission, such as via Internet e-mail or cellphone, cannot easily view the message's contents.
Software releases
First release: In 2007, the Global Islamic Media Front, the propaganda arm of Al Qaeda and other Islamic terrorist groups, announced the release of the Mujahedeen Secrets software.
Second release: In 2008, an updated version, Mujahideen Secrets 2, was released, offering further encryption methods.
References
Cryptographic software
Al-Qaeda
2007 software |
40670871 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MultiOTP | MultiOTP | multiOTP is an open source PHP class, a command line tool, and a web interface that can be used to provide an operating-system-independent, strong authentication system. multiOTP is OATH-certified since version 4.1.0 and is 9786808873 under the LGPL license. Starting with version 4.3.2.5, multiOTP open source is also available as a virtual appliance - as a standard OVA file, a customized OVA file with open-vm-tools, and also as an Hyper-V downloadable file.
A QR code is generated automatically when printing the user-configuration page.
Overview
Spyware, viruses and other hacking technologies or bugs (such as Heartbleed) are regularly used to steal passwords. If a strong two-factor authentication system is used, the stolen passwords cannot be stored and later used because each one-time password is valid for only one authentication session, and will fail if tried a second time.
multiOTP is a PHP class library. The class can be used with any PHP application using a PHP version of 5.3.0 or higher. The multiOTP library is provided as an all-in-one self-contained file that requires no other includes. If the strong authentication needs to be done from a hardware device instead of an Internet application, a request will go through a RADIUS server which will call the multiOTP command line tool. The implementation is light enough in order to work on limited computers, such as the Raspberry Pi.
History
Version 1.0.0 of 7 June 2010 was only a basic command line tool called otpauth, already written PHP. The tool has been renamed to multiotp in version 1.1.4 some days later in order to avoid confusion with another project with the same name.
Version 2.0.0 of 19 July 2010 has been completely rewritten as a PHP class, and the command line tool became an implementation of the class. Under Windows operating systems, the command line tool exists as an executable file including in one file the source code and the PHP interpreter. This version received the phpclasses.org Innovation Award in August 2010.
Version 3.0.0 of 2 September 2010 allowed PSKC unencoded provisioning files import and the internal structure had been improved.
Version 3.1.1 of 19 December 2010 allowed data storage in a MySQL backend database.
Version 3.2.0 of 6 July 2011 allowed to authenticate with a generic account and by passing the specific user and the password in the password field (useful if the library is used with a Windows authentication which needs a specific user).
Version 3.9.2 of 25 October 2011 is the version that was released for the workshop about integrating strong authentication in Internet applications. This workshop was presented during the Application Security Forum - Western Switzerland 2011 in Yverdon-les-Bains (Switzerland). The library has also been used to validate and distribute the seed of the tokens given by Feitian, the sponsor of the event. Each participant had to give an email address, a mobile phone number, a token serial number and the OTP code displayed on the token, than an encrypted email was sent to the participant and the encryption key was sent by SMS.
Version 4.0.7 of 30 August 2013 added a lot of enhancements, like a client/server feature with a local cache storage of the definition files of the used tokens, a completely new implementation of the MySQL support (including database tables creation and update), CHAP authentication (in addition to PAP authentication), QRcode generation for direct provisioning in Google Authenticator, fast creation of a user in a single command, ...
Version 4.0.9 of 22 September 2013 was an intermediate release that has been used to demonstrate the concept of strong authentication in several forums like a Rump Session during the Application Security Forum - Western Switzerland 2013 in Yverdon-les-Bains (Switzerland) and 45 minutes talk during the Studerus Technology Forum (TEFO) 2013 in Zürich (Switzerland).
Version 4.1.0 of 23 December 2013 is OATH certified for HOTP and TOTP, which means full compatibility with certified hardware tokens, including encrypted PSKC provisioning files. This beta version has been used for a 30 minutes talk during the PasswordsCon 2013 in Bergen (Norway). Instructions and all necessary files to build a strong authentication server device on a Raspberry Pi nano-computer are included. Self-registration of unattributed hardware tokens and automatic resync/unlock during authentication have also been added, and a basic web interface is now also available.
Version 4.1.1 of 20 January 2014 provided some bug fixes and a better support of Microsoft Authenticator. Resyncing a token (using two consecutive OTP) didn't need the PIN code anymore.
Version 4.2.0 of 7 February 2014 supported MS-CHAP and MS-CHAPv2 protocols.
Version 4.2.1 of 14 February 2014 added Active Directory / LDAP support in order to create accounts based on users present in a particular group.
Version 4.2.2 of 3 March 2014 provided an enhanced web interface in order to import hardware tokens, create accounts, synchronize tokens or unlock accounts. An extended support of TekRADIUS was added in order to send back some particular informations, which is useful for MS-CHAP or MS-CHAPv2 connections.
Version 4.2.3 of 13 March 2014 fixed a bug with the send back to TekRADIUS.
Version 4.2.4 of 30 March 2014 enhanced MySQL backend support and added mysqli support. Since this version, it is also possible to define in configuration file which fields must be encrypted or not. Some external classes have been updated or replaced, and a lot of new QA tests have been added, both for PHP class and command line versions.
Version 4.2.4.1 of 6 April 2014 added NT_KEY support (for FreeRADIUS further handling, like VPN key generation). It is now also possible to import tokens based on a simple CSV file (serial_number;manufacturer;algorithm;seed;digits;interval_or_event). The new option -user-info has also been added, and some bug fixes have been done too.
Version 4.2.4.2 of 13 April 2014 consolidated XML handling with one single library for the whole project. It also fixed a possible bug concerning tokens import based on a simple CSV file.
Version 4.2.4.3 of 12 June 2014 fixed a bug with the SMS provider aspsms.
Version 4.3.0.0 of 4 November 2014 added AD/LDAP password support (instead of static PIN only). It also added Yubico OTP, including keys import using the log file provided by the Yubico Personalization Tool. Synchronization of AD/LDAP users was completely redesigned. This version has been used the 4. November 2014 during a training of the Application Security Forum - Western Switzerland 2014 in Yverdon-les-Bains (Switzerland)
Version 4.3.1.0 of 9 December 2014 added a special CLI proxy in order to speed up the Raspberry Pi implementation. Generic LDAP support had been added (like Synology and every Linux based implementation). OTP with integrated serial number is now also better supported (in PAP). Starting with this version and if activated, the prefix PIN is also needed when using a scratch password. MULTIOTP_PATH environment variable is now supported in order to define where is the root of multiotp (if a specific implementation cannot detect correctly the root directory of multiotp).
Version 4.3.1.1 of 15 December 2014 provided a better LDAP and AD support, handling more fields during synchronizations. The multiOTP project is now also available on GitHub.
Version 4.3.2.2 of 9 June 2015 enhanced some ugly parts (!), added/adapted some default values, allowed the use of minus (-) in the password, enabled by default the autoresync option, handled better the resync during authentication (directly in the class), enabled by default the server cache and cleaned some log information.
Version 4.3.2.3 of 10 June 2015 was the version presented during the Dev(Talks): 2015 in Bucharest (Romania). This version contained some web GUI improvements.
Version 4.3.2.4 of 24 June 2015 fixed a bug when special characters were used for scratch password generation. It also automatized the support of multi_account when synchronizing with AD/LDAP.
Version 4.3.2.5 of 15 July 2015 changed the behavior of the CLI when it's called without parameter, returning now an error code (30) instead of an information (19). Ready to use virtual appliance is now provided in standard OVA format, with open-vm-tools integrated and also in Hyper-V format.
Version 4.3.2.6 of 18 July 2015 added QRcode generation for mOTP (Mobile-OTP), and a new method is now implemented to read the data of a single user in an array.
Version 5.0.2.5 of 16 October 2016 added better SSL support, ability to select a specific LDAP/AD attribute to synchronize the accounts, better MS-CHAPv2 support, better repeated password handling, YUbicoOTP private ID is now checked, SSL AD/LDAP compatibility with Windows 2012(R2), better AD/LDAP special chars support (RFC4515), new methods to implement asynchronous activities when data is modified in the backend.
Version 5.0.2.6 of 4 November 2016 enhanced log messages, updated some external packages and adapted the backup configuration file format in order to be compatible with commercial edition.
Version 5.0.3.0 of 14 November 2016 added Dial-In IP address support (including the synchronisation with the Active Directory msRADIUSFramedIPAddress attribute), enhanced token importation process with binary encryption key support.
Version 5.0.3.4 of 26 January 2017 enhanced the AD/LDAP synchronisation process for huge AD/LDAP directories by using by default disk caching in the system temporary folder. Several CLI commands can now be done at once. Multiple groups per user is now supported (warning, not all devices support multiple group). The default proposed TOTP/HOTP generator is now FreeOTP (for Android/iOS). Multiple purpose tokens provisioning format PSKCV10 is now supported.
Version 5.0.3.5 of 3 February 2017 fixed some bugs and add the GetUserInfo method.
Version 5.0.3.6 of 21 February 2017 added the support of base32 and raw binary for SetUserTokenSeed and SetTokenSeed methods. The restoreCOnfiguration method has been updated.
Version 5.0.3.7 of 23 February 2017 added some minor enhancements like trimming the group names and handling the Linux folder mode.
Version 5.0.4.4 of 16 May 2017 enhanced the rejection policy with out incrementing the error counter for the same replayed token.
Version 5.0.4.5 of 29 May 2017 added PostgreSQL support, based on source code provided by Frank van der Aa
Version 5.0.4.6 of 2 June 2017 redefined with Linux the location of the config, devices, groups, tokens and users folders to be always located in /etc/multiotp/
Version 5.0.4.8 of 6 June 2017 fixed SSL/TLS LDAP failed connection for PHP 7.x
Version 5.0.4.9 of 7 July 2017 fixed some minor bugs and added some TLS configuration methods.
Version 5.0.5.0 of 8 September 2017 removed the use of the nircmd.exe tool due to false virus detection
Version 5.0.5.2 of 29 September 2017 defined the default mOTP generator for Android/iOS to OTP Authenticator
Version 5.0.5.6 of 4 November 2017 enhanced the FreeRADIUS 3.x documentation and fixed some minor bugs
Version 5.1.0.3 of 19 February 2018 added expired AD/LDAP password support and better unicode handling. Some enhancements for multiOTP Credential Provider (for Windows) has been done too.
Version 5.1.0.8 of 5 March 2018 enhanced the multiOTP Credential Provider and it's now possible to use registry entries. It fix also the "receive an OTP by SMS" link for Windows 10
Version 5.1.1.2 of 20 March 2018 provided the first Dockerfile to create a full multiOTP open source server docker
Version 5.2.0.2 of 16 July 2018 enhanced AD/LDAP support for huge Active Directory, and added Users DN option (which is optional, otherwise Base DN is still used to search users)
Version 5.3.0.0 of 21 August 2018 added multiple "Users DN" (separated by semicolumn) for AD/LDAP synchronization (with additional synchronization debug messages) and a new "without2FA" algorithm if some users just want the prefix password without tokens
Version 5.3.0.1 of 22 August 2018 added some monitoring fields to have more information about the synchronization process
Version 5.3.0.3 of 26 August 2018 fixed the restore process in command line edition and enhanced the client/server process
Version 5.4.0.1 of 14 September 2018 fixed the compatibility mode of the Windows radius server component during installation
Version 5.4.0.2 of 13 November 2018 enhanced import of PSKC definition files with binary decoding key file and added the support for several SMS provider (Swisscom LA REST, Afilnet, Clickatell2, eCall, Nexmo, NowSMS, SMSEagle and custom SMS)
Version 5.4.1.1 of 7 January 2019 added Raspberry Pi 3B+ support
Version 5.4.1.4 of 18 January 2019 added Debian 9.x (stretch) support
Version 5.4.1.6 of 25 January 2019 fixed a NTP DHCP option problem
Version 5.4.1.7 of 30 January 2019 changed the QRcode generation library and provided a new Raspberry Pi binary image ready to used for Raspberry Pi 1B/1B+/2B/3B/3B+
Version 5.4.1.8 of 29 March 2019 added Access-Challenge support
Version 5.8.0.2 of 20 September 2020 added generic web based SMS provider definition, automatic purge of inexistent AD/LDAP users and support for Debian Buster 10.5, PHP 7.3 and Raspberry PI 4B
Version 5.8.1.0 of 12 February 2021 enhanced the Web interface with better accounts state information
Features
For Windows, the multiOTP library is provided with a pre-configured RADIUS server (freeradius) which can be installed as a service. A pre-configured web service (based on mongoose) can also be installed as a service and is needed if we want to use the multiOTP library in a client/server configuration.
Under Linux, the readme.txt file provided with the library indicates what should be done in order to configure the RADIUS server and the web service.
All necessary files and instructions are also provided to make a strong authentication device using a Raspberry Pi nano-computer.
Since version 4.3.2.5, ready to use virtual appliance is provided in standard OVA format, with open-vm-tools integrated and also in Hyper-V format.
The client can strongly authenticate on an application or a device using different methods:
software tokens (like Google Authenticator)
hardware tokens (any OATH/HOTP and OATH/TOTP certified token, like NagraID tokens, and some other non-certified but compatible tokens, like Feitian C200 time based tokens)
code sent per SMS (since version 4.0.4)
scratch passwords list (since version 4.0.4)
YubiKey in proprietary Yubico OTP mode (since version 4.3)
without2FA for accounts that doesn't nedd strong authentication (since 5.3)
Standardization and normalization
multiOTP is OATH certified for HOTP and TOTP and supports currently the following algorithms and RFC's:
HOTP, HMAC-Based One-Time Password Algorithm (RFC4226)
TOTP, Time-Based One-Time Password Algorithm (RFC6238)
Yubico OTP
mOTP, Mobile-OTP, strong, two-factor authentication with mobile phones
Google Authenticator (OATH/HOTP or OATH/TOTP, base32 seed, QRcode provisioning)
SMS tokens (using aspsms, clickatell, intellisms, or even your own script)
PSKC (Additional Portable Symmetric Key Container Algorithm Profiles) (RFC6030)
CHAP (Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol) (RFC1994)
MS-CHAP (Microsoft PPP CHAP Extensions) (RFC2433)
MS-CHAPv2 (Microsoft PPP CHAP Extensions, Version 2) (RFC2759)
Syslog Protocol (client) (RFC5424)
SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) (RFC2821)
SMTP Service Extension for Secure SMTP over TLS (RFC2487)
Scope of the class
The multiOTP class provides strong authentication functionalities and can be used in different strong authentication situations:
adding a strong authentication in order to identify a user (to avoid static password)
fixing a hardware token at a specific place, and be sure that somebody was there at a specific time (the token code displayed to the user at the specific time will give information about where it was displayed)
authenticating a user by sending him a code through SMS, which will validate automatically the mobile phone number of the user.
creating automatically strong authentication accounts for users present in a specific group of the Active Directory (or LDAP).
Several free projects use the library:
Since November 2016, the multiOTP team provides an up-to-date Credential Provider for Windows 7/8/8.1/10/2012(R2)/2016, with options like RDP only and UPN name support, called multiOTP Credential Provider, based on the MultiOneTimePassword Credential Provider created by Last Squirrel IT.
ownCloud OTP is a One Time Password app based on the multiOTP class that add strong authentication to the OwnCloud project, an open source Dropbox alternative.
2FA Credential Provider for Windows is another strong authentication Credential Provider for Windows Login using the multiOTP library.
The multiOTP class has been used as a learning tool in security demonstrations and a Bachelor thesis
See also
One Time Passwords
Tokens
TOTP
HOTP
OATH
Multi-factor authentication
OTPW
OPIE Authentication System
Google Authenticator
References
Authentication methods
Applications of cryptography
Access control
Computer access control
Linux |
40690533 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caspar%20Bowden | Caspar Bowden | {{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix =
| name = Caspar Bowden
| honorific_suffix =
| image = Caspar Bowden-IMG 8994.jpg
| alt = Caspar Bowden on black background, giving a speech
| caption = Caspar Bowden at the Congress on Privacy & Surveillance (2013) of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/30/privacy-and-surveillance-jacob-applebaum-caspar-bowden-and-more-speak-in-switzerland|title=LIVE BLOG: Congress on Privacy and Surveillance (2013) at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne|first=Charles|last=Arthur|date=30 September 2013|access-date=10 June 2020|work=The Guardian}}</ref>
| birth_date =
| birth_place = London
| death_date =
| death_place = Saint-Gaudens, Haute-Garonne, France
| resting_place =
| resting_place_co-ordinates =
| nationality = British
| other_names =
| citizenship =
| education =
| alma_mater = Magdalene College, Cambridge
| occupation =
| years_active =
| era =
| employer =
| organization =
| known_for = Humans Rights and privacy advocacy
| notable_works =
| style =
| home_town =
| spouse = Sandi Bowden
| partner =
| children =
| parents =
| party = Labour
| relatives = Simon Bowden (brother)Malcolm Bowden (brother)
| awards = Winston award (2000)
| signature = File:Caspar Bowden-signature.jpg
| signature_alt =
| signature_size =
| website =
| footnotes =
}}
Caspar Pemberton Scott Bowden (19 August 1961 – 9 July 2015) was a British privacy advocate, formerly a chief privacy adviser at Microsoft. Styled as "an independent advocate for information privacy rights, and public understanding of privacy research in computer science", he was on the board of the Tor anonymity service. and a fellow of the British Computer Society. Having predicted US mass surveillance programmes such as PRISM from open sources, he gathered renewed attention after the Snowden leaks vindicated his warnings.
Biography
Born in London, Bowden was educated first at Westminster Under School (1970-74) where he already showed precociousness in the sciences, and then at the prestigious Westminster School (1974-9) and then studied Mathematics at Magdalene College in Cambridge. He dropped out and worked as an independent entrepreneur in technology before joining Goldman Sachs.
Bowden served on the Executive Committee of Scientists for Labour and helped shape the stance of the Labour Party on the matter. In 1997, he entered the world of privacy advocacy when he attended the first Scrambling for Safety event, in response to the UK government's plans for key-escrow encryption, organised by Simon Davies at the London School of Economics. After the Labour won power in 1997 and reneged on its promises, considering instead to enforce mandatory cryptographic backdoors, Bowden co-founded the Foundation for Information Policy Research (FIPR) in May 1998. He became its first director, earning the Winston award in 2000 for his work against the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.
In 2002, Bowden joined Microsoft; he served as a Senior Privacy Strategist for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (not the US) until 2004, and became a Chief Privacy Advisor, Microsoft EMEA Technology Office, UK in 2005. In 2007, Bowden lead "the privacy pillar of the Trustworthy Computing initiative across Europe, Middle-East and Africa for Microsoft". During his tenure, he expressed vocal opposition against the Human Rights discrimination between US citizens and foreigners enforced by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which he dubbed being "guilty of being a foreigner". His public advocacy led to his dismissal from Microsoft in 2011, after he stated that "If you sell Microsoft cloud computing to your own governments then this law (FISA) means that NSA can conduct unlimited mass surveillance on that data."Ex-Microsoft Chief Privacy Officer Warns About Cloud Surveillance , cloudwards.net, Vladimir Covic, 8 January 2015
In 2012, prior to the Snowden leaks, he co-authored the Note on privacy and Cloud computing, forewarning that the USA used European reliance on cloud computing services to monitor its data. After Snowden's disclosures vindicated him, he criticised PRISM, stating he had suspected the existence of the project during his time at Microsoft, although he had not known it by name.
In 2013, Bowden authored the 2013 European Parliament inquiry briefing on the US FISA law, The US surveillance programmes and their impact on EU citizens' fundamental rights, In an interview to The Guardian, he stated that he did not trust Microsoft. Instead, he advocated the use of Tor and Qubes OS, and stated he had eliminated all Microsoft products from his software stack, opting for free software, and stopped using a mobile phone. In October, he joined the Advisory Council of the Open Rights Group.
In winter 2014, he gave a talk on the subject at the 31st Chaos Communication Congress in Hamburg, The Cloud Conspiracy, detailing how he had worked out the shape of PRISM from open sources, and the lack of reaction to his warnings to European Union institutions.
A resident of London and Toulouse, Bowden died of melanoma in Saint-Gaudens, Haute-Garonne France on 9 July 2015 at the age of 53. He was survived by his wife Sandi, and brothers Malcolm and Simon.Caspar Bowden, European Privacy Advocate, Dies at 53, Ania Nussbaum, The Wall Street Journal blog, 10 July 2015 Jacob Appelbaum reported that on his deathbed, Bowden asked "that we work to ensure equal protection regardless of nationality".In the hospital @CasparBowden asked that we work to ensure equal protection regardless of nationality. Privacy is a universal human right, Jacob Appelbaum, Twitter post, 9 July 2015 He was posthumously awarded the Liberty Lifetime Achievement Award (2015) and EFF Pioneer Award (2015).The Caspar Bowden Legacy Fund for privacy advocacy and technology was founded on 12 July, with an initial staff comprising Bart Preneel (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven), Claudia Diaz (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven), Roger Dingledine (The Tor Project, Inc) and George Danezis (University College London).
Works
Bowden, Caspar: "Closed Circuit Television For Inside Your Head: Blanket Traffic Data Retention and the Emergency Anti-Terrorism Legislation ", Computer and Telecommunications Law Review, March 2002.
N. Robinson, H. Graux, M. Botterman, L. Valeri: Review of the European Data Protection Directive] (interviewee)
Bowden, Caspar: "The Cloud Conspiracy 2008–2014: how the EU was hypnotised that the NSA did not exist" (video), 31st Chaos Communication Congress (31C3)
Bowden, Caspar: Chapter Five Part I: Data preservation instead of data retention , chapter of [https://www.openrightsgroup.org/ourwork/reports/digital-surveillance/ Why the Snoopers’ Charter is the wrong approach: A call for targeted and accountable investigatory powers, report of the Open Rights Group.
Remembrances
"Combative and prickly, Caspar was also unfailingly kind and generous...Caspar was a big believer in a Rawlsian model of justice, a stickler when it came to the universality of human rights and was unstinting in his criticism of corporate or government entities or agents who sought to undermine those rights and principles. He was prepared to wrestle with the user unfriendly inconveniences of privacy enhancing technologies, as the almost meltdown of his laptop, four minutes into his 'Reflections on Mistrusting Trust' talk at QCon last summer, demonstrated." - Ray Corrigan, senior lecturer in technology at the Open University
"(He) was a fervent believer in privacy, and technology's role in creating and ensuring it. He hacked legislation to see what it was that governments were trying to do and called them on it, was then labelled paranoid, until proven right down the road. He foresaw Tempora, Prism....I'm gutted we will be without him in the coming debates over the Investigatory Powers Bill...He would have been the intellectual powerhouse and a forceful critic of all who fell short in the defense of privacy." - Gus Hosein of Privacy International
"I remember clearly the first time I saw Caspar Bowden. It was spring 2011, and he had just shot a bolt of electricity through a dusty seminar on online privacy with a passionate invective on sham anonymization of datasets that went into idiocy-explainer levels of detail about how current U.K. data protection law was being a complete ass." - Natasha Lomas, techcrunch
" I met Caspar in 2001 while working for EFF; he was working for the Foundation for Internet Policy Research, which tirelessly lobbied the Lords and Parliament on the new surveillance powers that the Blair government wanted to bring in...He was tireless, fierce, and had an encyclopedic knowledge of privacy legislation, regulation, and technology. He went to Microsoft for a while to be their main privacy advocate, beat his brains out on that gig, walked out with his head held high, and went back to shit-disturbing for activist groups." - Cory Doctorow, boingboing
"I think I first met Caspar Bowden back in 2007...I first encountered him at privacy conferences, where he would, without fail, be the first person to the microphone anytime a tech company employee or government official spoke, and he would hammer them with the most uncomfortable, probing questions about privacy and surveillance." - Christopher Soghoian, security and privacy researcher
"I met Caspar Bowden for the first time back in 2013 when he was visiting Warsaw for a privacy conference. I was expecting to meet another boring policy/legal person, but that expectation was quickly revisited. First, he surprised me by pulling his laptop, which turned out to be running… yes, that’s correct: Qubes OS!" - Joanna Rutkowska
"Very few people I know can combine a rigorous grasp of first principles and unswerving moral sense with the ruthless attention to detail and relentless practicality required to do something about them all. Caspar could. And did." - Phil Booth, of the NO2ID campaign
"Caspar was to me, a great friend and a mentor but more than that he was a beacon in what is a very lonely sea - there are not many of us fighting these issues but when we find each other we make each other stronger - Caspar made me stronger. Like me, Caspar was more interested in fighting the issues than who he might upset along the way - it made him a controversial figure but his intelligence, commitment and knowledge were without question." - Alexander Hanff, CEO, Think Privacy
"Yes, he could be abrupt, and yes, he often 'bent' convention by asking direct and probing questions in ways that risked alienating the policymakers he sought to influence. But I never saw him do so rudely, inappropriately, or in a way that demonstrated anything less than total integrity. That took strong moral principles, intellectual rigour, and courage." - Robin Wilton, Senior Advisor for Internet Trust, Internet Technology Office, Internet Society
"Where others would have been slowed down by false reassurance, or given up in the face of intimidating detail, Caspar would read the legislation, read the code, understand the context, and keep going until he had a way forward. Once the analysis was clear, and the solution formulated, he would set about communicating it, with the same dogged enthusiasm."- Ben Goldacre
"Over the years, we met on the same conference circuit, surrounded by the usual suspects. We’d share our frustration about legal developments and government idiocy. He’d rant about 'charlatans and crooks', 'sinister drafting', 'disingenuous politicians'. He’d draw diagrams on paper napkins when excited, wanting to show someone how TOR worked. Jump up and gesticulate wildly, as if solving a Rubik’s cube, describing YouProve and anonymous credentials. He boycotted conferences he’d urged me to attend (after I’d bought my flights) on grounds that the sponsors were evil. He could be brilliant on stage and a troll when in the audience, banging on about US exceptionalism and FISA. He’d confess to me after that he may have gone too far, but it was better than not having idiot bureaucrats understand fundamentals. He wasn’t a lawyer, but had a finer legal mind than most." - Malavika Jayaram, Executive Director of Digital Asia Hub
"In the roughly 20 years I knew him, which encompassed his ten years trying to implement privacy at Microsoft, I never heard him mention family other than his wife. He argued with everyone: "Prickly for the right reasons," a friend said on hearing the news. I was astonished and flattered when, years afterwards, he told me that one of the things that led him into the politics of cryptography was articles I wrote in the early 1990s. Moments like that can keep a writer motivated for decades." - Wendy M. Grossman, 2013 Enigma Award winner
References
External links
The Caspar Bowden Award for Outstanding Research in Privacy Enhancing Technologies (sponsored by) The Caspar Bowden Legacy Fund
Caspar Bowden - EDRi
Microsoft people
2015 deaths
British computer specialists
British human rights activists
Privacy activists
1961 births |
40691435 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass%20surveillance%20in%20the%20United%20Kingdom | Mass surveillance in the United Kingdom | The use of electronic surveillance by the United Kingdom grew from the development of signal intelligence and pioneering code breaking during World War II. In the post-war period, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) was formed and participated in programmes such as the Five Eyes collaboration of English-speaking nations. This focused on intercepting electronic communications, with substantial increases in surveillance capabilities over time. A series of media reports in 2013 revealed bulk collection and surveillance capabilities, including collection and sharing collaborations between GCHQ and the United States' National Security Agency. These were commonly described by the media and civil liberties groups as mass surveillance. Similar capabilities exist in other western European countries, such as France.
Surveillance of electronic communications in the United Kingdom is controlled by laws made in the UK Parliament. In particular, access to the content of private messages (that is, interception of a communication such as an email or telephone call) must be authorised by a warrant signed by a Secretary of State. Although the law provides for governance and safeguards over the use of electronic surveillance, these safeguards have been criticised as not far-reaching enough, nor protective enough of the public's privacy Further oversight including a requirement for judges to review warrants authorised by a Secretary of State, as well as new surveillance powers, were introduced by the Investigatory Powers Act 2016.
The judicial body which oversees the intelligence services in the United Kingdom, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, ruled in December 2014 that the legislative framework in the United Kingdom does not permit mass surveillance and that while GCHQ collects and analyses data in bulk, its practices do not constitute mass surveillance. Other independent reports, including one by the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament, also came to this view although they found past shortcomings in oversight and disclosure, and said the legal framework should be simplified to improve transparency. However, notable civil liberties groups and broadsheet newspapers continue to express strong views to the contrary, while UK and US intelligence agencies and others have criticised these viewpoints in turn.
Various government bodies maintain databases about citizens and residents of the United Kingdom. These include "bulk data sets" such as medical records. In January 2016 the Home Secretary stated she would neither restrict the data sets that might be accessed for such purposes, nor state whether or not communications protected from law enforcement access such as journalist's sources and legal privilege had been accessed covertly. Although the use of video surveillance cameras in the United Kingdom is common, as it is in many countries, its prevalence may historically have been overstated . Legal provisions exist that control and restrict the collection, storage, retention, and use of information in government databases, and require local governments or police forces operating video surveillance cameras to comply with a code of conduct: the Surveillance Camera Code of Practice.
With over six million in operation, there are currently more surveillance cameras in the United Kingdom than any other nation on earth except the Mass surveillance in China.
Legal framework for lawful interception
The legal framework in the United Kingdom for lawful interception and storage of communications data and, when a warrant exists, the content of electronic communications is based on the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 and several other pieces of legislation. The Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act (DRIPA) 2014 deals with the retention of certain types of communications data (not the content of messages). It was brought into effect after the European Union's Data Retention Directive was declared invalid. The Telecommunications Act 1984 has also been used by the government to facilitate bulk communications data collection. The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 includes several provisions related to controlling or restricting the collection, storage, retention, and use of information in government databases. The Human Rights Act 1998 requires the intelligence agencies, including GCHQ, to respect citizens' rights as enumerated in the European Convention on Human Rights.
Compatibility with human rights law
The Investigatory Powers Tribunal ruled in December 2014 that the legal frameworks in the United Kingdom governing the bulk interception of data and intelligence sharing with agencies in other countries do not breach the European Convention on Human Rights, and are compliant with Articles 8 (right to privacy) and 10 (freedom of expression) of the European Convention on Human Rights. However, the Tribunal stated that one particular aspect of intelligence sharing, the data-sharing arrangement that allowed UK Intelligence services to request data from the US surveillance programmes Prism and Upstream, had been in contravention of human rights law until two paragraphs of additional information, providing details about the procedures and safeguards, were disclosed to the public in December 2014.
Privacy and civil liberties advocates such as Liberty and Privacy International, who brought a legal case against the government to force the judgement, continue to oppose to the temporary bulk collection of data, powers to access this and retain selected data, as well as intelligence sharing relationships; they intend to appeal the judgement to the European Court of Human Rights. Intelligence agencies and MPs have criticised the viewpoint of privacy campaigners on this issue.
Following the publication of a special report by the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament in March 2015, which identified shortcomings in past oversight and potential improvements to the legislative framework, Prime Minister David Cameron initiated an inquiry into the legalisation governing the interception powers of the intelligence agencies.
A third independent report into surveillance in the UK published in July 2015 found the intelligence agencies are not knowingly carrying out illegal mass surveillance of British citizens. However, it did say the laws governing the agencies' powers to intercept private communications need a significant overhaul. This view is consistent with separate reports by the Interception of Communications Commissioner.
In October 2016, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal ruled British security services had, in secret, unlawfully collected citizens' information, including financial information, individual phone and web use, and other confidential personal data, without adequate safeguards or supervision for 17 years. The tribunal found that from its inception in 1998 until its public acknowledgement in 4 November 2015, this bulk collection was in breach of article 8 of the European convention on human rights.
After a High Court victory by two MPs challenging the legality of DRIPA, the UK government appealed to the European Court of Justice (ECJ), but in December 2016 the verdict of the national court was upheld. The ECJ ruled that general and indiscriminate retention of emails and electronic communications by governments was illegal, opening the way to challenges against the UK’s new Investigatory Powers Act (2016), which replaced DRIPA.
Investigatory Powers Act 2016
, the Investigatory Powers Bill was published for scrutiny. The bill would introduce new powers, as well as restate existing ones, for targeted interception of communications, bulk collection of communications data, and bulk interception of communications. New oversight procedures would be introduced, including a requirement for a judge to review a warrant signed by a Minister for interception of communications, that is reading the content of messages. The bill would require Internet connection records – which websites were visited but not the particular pages and not the full browsing history – to be kept by internet service providers for one year.
On 16 November 2016, the Investigatory Powers Bill had passed both houses of parliament and is scheduled to become law.
The Investigatory Powers Act 2016 is a comprehensive statute which makes provision for both targeted and bulk retention of content and metadata. It consolidates much of the previous legislation and makes public a number of previously secret powers (equipment interference, bulk retention of metadata, intelligence agency use of bulk personal datasets).
Controversially, it enables the Government to require internet service providers and mobile phone companies to maintain records of (but not the content of) customers' Internet connections for up to 12 months. Police and intelligence officers may seek approval for access to these records without a warrant, as part of a targeted investigation.
In addition, the Act creates new safeguards, including a requirement for judges to approve the warrants authorised by a Secretary of State before they come into force.
The Bill that gave rise to the Act was informed by reports of seven parliamentary committees, as well as an external report from the Royal United Services Institute and two influential reports by David Anderson QC, the UK's Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation: A Question of Trust (2015) and the report of his Bulk Powers Review (2016). The latter contains a detailed appraisal (with 60 case studies) of the operational case for the bulk powers used by MI5, MI6 and GCHQ and often characterised as mass surveillance.
The Act may yet require amendment as a consequence of legal cases brought before the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights.
Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act 2014
In April 2014, the European Court of Justice ruled that the European Union's Data Retention Directive was invalid. Since October 2007, telecommunication companies had been required to keep records of phone calls and text messages for a minimum of 6 months and at most 24 months under this directive. The European Court of Justice found it violates two basic rights, respect for private life and protection of personal data.
Supported by all three major political parties in the UK, Parliament passed the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act in July 2014 to ensure the police and security services retained their existing powers to access telephone and internet records. No additional powers were granted by the legislation, but it did make clear that the requirements also apply to foreign companies, based abroad, whose telephone and internet services are used in the UK.
The data being retained does not include the content of messages and telephone calls, just metadata describing when and who the users contacted by email, telephone, or text message. In circumstances when the Home Secretary issues a warrant for intercepting the content of private messages, the Act clarifies the law with which internet services providers must comply.
Provisions were included in the Act to "increase transparency and oversight"; the BBC reported that this included the following:
The creation of a Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board to scrutinise the impact of the law on privacy and civil liberties.
Annual government transparency reports on how these powers are used.
The appointment of a senior former diplomat to lead discussions with the US government and internet firms to establish a new international agreement for sharing data between legal jurisdictions.
A restriction on the number of public bodies, including Royal Mail, able to ask for communications data under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA).
Inclusion of a termination clause ensuring the powers under this Act expire at the end of 2016.
Statement that a wider review of the powers needed by government should be undertaken during the next parliament (after the general election in May 2015).
In July 2015, the High Court issued an order that parts of the Act were unlawful, and to be disapplied, suspended until 31 March 2016, thereby giving the government a deadline to come up with alternative legislation which is compatible with EU law.
Protection of Freedoms Act 2012
Context
Following the 2010 general election, the new government stated it would take measures to "reverse the substantial erosion of civil liberties and roll back state intrusion".
A report by the House of Lords Constitution Committee, Surveillance: Citizens and the State, had warned in 2009 that increasing use of surveillance by the government and private companies was a serious threat to freedoms and constitutional rights, stating, "The expansion in the use of surveillance represents one of the most significant changes in the life of the nation since the end of World War II. Mass surveillance has the potential to erode privacy. As privacy is an essential pre-requisite to the exercise of individual freedom, its erosion weakens the constitutional foundations on which democracy and good governance have traditionally been based in this country."
A YouGov poll published in 2006 indicated that 79% of those interviewed agreed that Britain has become a 'surveillance society' (51% were unhappy with this). In 2004 the Information Commissioner, discussing the proposed British national identity database gave a warning of this, stating, "My anxiety is that we don't sleepwalk into a surveillance society." Other databases causing him concern were the National Child Database (ContactPoint), the Office for National Statistics' Citizen Information Project (which subsequently became part of the national identity database), and the National Health Service National Programme for IT.
As part of the new measures announced by the government in 2010, the national identity database, including ContactPoint (and the Citizen Information Project), was scrapped.
In addition, the Draft Communications Data Bill, which would have extended powers, for example to include web browsing history, was abandoned by the government in 2013 after opposition from the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and his party, the Liberal Democrats.
Legislation
The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 includes several provisions related to controlling or restricting the collection, storage, retention, and use of information in government databases, specifically:
Part 1, Chapter 1 requires that fingerprints, footwear impressions, and DNA profiles taken from persons arrested for or charged with a minor offence be destroyed following either a decision not to charge or following acquittal; amends the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, and the Crime and Security Act 2010, relating to the retention of fingerprints; and instructs the Secretary of State to make arrangements for a "National DNA Database Strategy Board" to oversee the operation of a DNA database.
Part 1, Chapter 2 requires schools and colleges to obtain consent of one parent of a child under 18 before acquiring and processing the child's biometric information, gives the child rights to stop the processing of their biometric information regardless of any parental consent, and requires that if any parent of the child objects to the processing of biometric information, it must be discontinued.
Part 6 extends the existing Freedom of Information Act 2000 and amends the role of the Information Commissioner, including widening the rules on applying for and receiving datasets from public authorities for re-use. And, while the Information Commissioner was already independent of Government in making regulatory decisions, the Act takes steps to further enhance the day-to-day corporate and administrative independence of the Commissioner.
Part 2, Chapter 1 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 creates a new regulation for, and instructs the Secretary of State to prepare a code of practice regarding the use of closed-circuit television and automatic number plate recognition.
Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000
The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIP or RIPA) is significant piece of legislation that granted and regulated the powers of public bodies to carry out surveillance and investigation. Activities covered by the Act include the interception of the content of telephone, internet, and postal communications; collection of information about, but not the content of, telephone, Internet, and postal communications (type of communication, caller and called telephone numbers, Internet addresses, domain names, postal addresses, date, time, and duration); use of agents, informants, undercover officers; electronic surveillance of private buildings and vehicles; following people; and gaining access to encrypted data.
RIPA allows certain public bodies:
to demand that an ISP provide access to a customer's communications in secret;
to engage in bulk collection of communications in transit;
to demand ISPs fit equipment to facilitate surveillance;
to demand that someone hand over encryption keys or passwords to protected information;
to monitor people's Internet activities;
to prevent the existence of interception warrants and any data collected from being revealed in court.
The powers granted by RIPA can be invoked by government officials on the grounds of national security, for the purposes of preventing or detecting crime or serious crime, preventing disorder, protecting public safety or health, in the interests of the economic well-being of the United Kingdom, assessing or collecting any tax, duty, levy or other imposition, contribution or charge payable to a government department, or in an emergency, preventing or mitigating death, injury, or any damage to a person's physical or mental health. Some of the powers granted by the Act are available to a relatively short list of from 5 to 12 government bodies, while others are available to longer lists of over 40 bodies.
The 2000 Act received Royal Assent on 28 July 2000 and Commencement Orders bringing provisions within this Act into force were issued between 2002 and 2012. Where prior legislation exists, the 2000 Act works in conjunction with that legislation, in particular the Intelligence Services Act 1994, the Police Act 1997, and the Human Rights Act 1998.
The Act has been amended several times, to both extend and restrict the powers granted. In 2002 the UK government announced plans to extend the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act so that at least 28 government departments would be given powers to access metadata about citizens' web, e-mail, telephone and fax records, without a warrant and without a subject's knowledge. Public and security authorities made a total of 440,000 requests to monitor people's phone and internet use in 2005–2006. In the period 11 April to 31 December 2006 the UK government issued 253,557 requests for communication data, which as defined by the RIPA includes who you phoned, when they phoned you, how long they phoned you for, subscriber information and associated addresses.
Safeguards
RIPA and the Data Protection Act 1998 require a formal warrant before private data may be gathered by the government. Warrants authorising interception of the content of electronic communications can only be issued by a democratically elected Member of Parliament, usually the Home Secretary, or another Secretary of State. RIPA imposes constraints to ensure the activities authorised meet the requirements of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), in particular that they are necessary and proportional. The Intelligence and Security Committee reported that GCHQ applies these standards to all of its work, not just activities governed by RIPA, to act as a check over all of its activities being necessary and proportional as required by the ECHR.
The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act established the Investigatory Powers Tribunal to provide judicial oversight and hear complaints about surveillance activities by intelligence agencies and other public bodies. The Tribunal replaced the Interception of Communications Tribunal, the Security Service Tribunal, and the Intelligence Services Tribunal on 2 October 2000. Between 2000 and 2009 the Tribunal had upheld 4 out of the 956 complaints received.
Telecommunications Act 1984
The use of the Telecommunications Act 1984 for communications data collection, and the lack of oversight of this capability, was highlighted in the April 2014 report of the Home Affairs Committee of the House of Commons on Counter-terrorism. This was reiterated in the March 2015 report of the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament on Privacy and Security. Section 94 of the Telecommunications Act 1984 allows a Secretary of State to give providers of public electronic communications networks "directions of a general character… in the interests of national security", which may be protected from disclosure. The Act also gives the government certain powers to block foreign involvement in the critical national infrastructure of the United Kingdom. In November 2015, it was revealed MI5 had been using the Telecommunications Act 1984 to collect phone data in bulk for a decade.
GCHQ programmes
A series of media reports in 2013 revealed bulk collection and surveillance capabilities involving GCHQ in the United Kingdom such as Tempora and its component programmes Mastering the Internet and Global Telecoms Exploitation. The Tempora programme involves a large-scale buffer for storing internet content for three days and metadata for 30 days. A number of other GCHQ operations were revealed, including hacking into telecoms equipment, access to fibre-optic cables and programmes operated jointly with the NSA.
GCHQ was originally established after the First World War as the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) and was known under that name until 1946. During World War II, staff including Alan Turing worked on decoding the German Enigma machine, and many other foreign systems. In 1940, GC&CS was working on the diplomatic codes and ciphers of 26 countries, tackling over 150 diplomatic cryptosystems.
After World War II, the United Kingdom and the United States signed the bilateral UKUSA Agreement in 1948. It was later broadened to include Canada, Australia and New Zealand, as well as co-operation with several "third-party" nations. This became the cornerstone of Western intelligence gathering and the "Special Relationship" between the UK and the USA. ECHELON is a code name often used for this global signals intelligence collection and analysis network.
Legislation and governance
GCHQ was placed on a statutory footing for the first time by the Intelligence Services Act 1994. Activities that involve interception of communications were legislated for under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000; this kind of interception can only be carried out after a warrant has been issued by a Secretary of State, usually the Home Secretary. The Human Rights Act 1998 requires the intelligence agencies, including GCHQ, respect citizens' rights as enumerated in the European Convention on Human Rights.
The Prime Minister nominates cross-party Members of Parliament to an Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC). The remit of the Committee includes oversight of intelligence and security activities and reports are made directly to Parliament. A special report on Privacy and Security, published by the ISC in March 2015, found that although GCHQ collects and analyses data in bulk, it does not conduct mass surveillance. It did identify past shortcomings in oversight and said the legal framework should be simplified to improve transparency.
The UK also has an independent Intelligence Services Commissioner and Interception of Communications Commissioner, both of whom are former senior judges. Annual reports by the Interception of Communications Commissioner have found the use of interception powers by the intelligence agencies comply with existing legislation.
Judicial oversight of GCHQ's conduct is provided by the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT). The IPT ruled in December 2014 that the legislative framework in the United Kingdom does not permit mass surveillance and that while GCHQ collects and analyses data in bulk, it does not practice mass surveillance.
Reforms
The Justice and Security Act 2013 included a range of reforms to the Intelligence and Security Committee to provide for further access and investigatory powers. The Telegraph reported that this included the following:
The nine members of the committee are still nominated by the Prime Minister, but the House of Commons has the power veto the Prime Minister's suggestions. Previously, Parliament had no power to block such appointments.
The panel now probes recent operations by the agencies. Before, its remit had only been for "resources, policy and administration" and it had seldom looked at specific operations.
Officials acting for the committee are able to enter the premises of the intelligence agencies to inspect files and decide what the panel needs to see.
Agencies are "required" to publish information unless handing over such details would compromise national security and they can obtain permission from the Prime Minister. Previously, the committee only had the power to "request" information.
To signify the panel’s new status, its name was changed to the "Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament".
National databases
Various government bodies maintain databases about citizens and residents of the United Kingdom. Under the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, legal provisions exist that control and restrict the collection, storage, retention, and use of information in government databases.
Fingerprints and DNA
The British Police hold records of 5.5M fingerprints and over 3.4M DNA samples on the National DNA Database. There is increasing use of roadside fingerprinting, using new police powers to check identity. Concerns were raised in 2010 over the unregulated use of biometrics in schools, affecting young children. Subsequently, the government introduced legal duties on schools, if they wish to use biometric information about pupils, in the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012.
Vehicle tracking
Across the country efforts have been increasingly under way to track road vehicle movements, initially using a nationwide network of roadside cameras connected to automatic number plate recognition systems. These have tracked, recorded, and stored the details of journeys undertaken on major roads and through city centres. This information is stored for two years. In the future, mandatory onboard vehicle telematics systems have been suggested, to facilitate road charging (see vehicle excise duty).
Public transport
In London, the Oyster card payment system can track the movement of individual people through the public transport system, although an anonymous option is available. The London congestion charge uses computer imaging to track car number plates.
Overseas travel
In February 2009 it emerged that the government was planning a database to track and store records of all international travel into and out of the UK. The database would retain record of names, addresses, telephone numbers, seat bookings, travel itineraries and credit card details, which would be kept for 'no more than 10 years'. In April 2015, passport exit checks began at UK borders and data will be stored on all travellers as they leave the UK.
Protests
Police Forward Intelligence Teams have conducted surveillance of political and environmental protestors and of journalists. The information they gathered has been stored in the crimint database.
CCTV networks
The combination of CCTV and facial recognition could be considered a form of mass surveillance, and is starting to be widely used. This type of system has been trialled at airports to compare faces with biometric passports, but such an application is comparable to existing identification checks at borders.
In 2005, the City of Westminster trialled microphones fitted next to CCTV cameras. Westminster council explained that the microphones were part of an initiative to tackle urban noise and would not "be used to snoop", but comments from a council spokesman appeared to imply they could capture an audio stream alongside the video stream, rather than simply reporting noise levels. The trials were discontinued in 2008 with no further plans for use.
In 2013, the Home Office published the Surveillance Camera Code of Practice for the use of surveillance cameras, including automatic number plate recognition systems, by local and government authorities. The aim of the code is to help ensure CCTV use is "characterised as surveillance by consent, and such consent on the part of the community must be informed consent and not assumed by a system operator. Surveillance by consent should be regarded as analogous to policing by consent."
Number of cameras
The vast majority of CCTV cameras are not operated by government bodies, but by private individuals or companies, especially to monitor the interiors of shops and businesses. According to 2011 Freedom of Information Act requests, the total number of local government operated CCTV cameras was around 52,000 over the entirety of the UK.
An article published in CCTV Image magazine estimated the number of private and local government operated cameras in the United Kingdom was 1.85M in 2011. The estimate was based on extrapolating from a comprehensive survey of public and private cameras within the Cheshire Constabulary jurisdiction. This works out as an average of one camera for every 32 people in the UK, although the density of cameras varies greatly from place to place. The Cheshire report also claims that the average person on a typical day would be seen by 70 CCTV cameras.
The Cheshire figure is regarded as more dependable than a previous study by Michael McCahill and Clive Norris of UrbanEye published in 2002. Based on a small sample in Putney High Street, McCahill and Norris extrapolated the number of surveillance cameras in Greater London to be around 500,000 and the total number of cameras in the UK to be around 4.2M. According to their estimate the UK has one camera for every 14 people. Although it has been acknowledged for several years that the methodology behind this figure is flawed, it has been widely quoted. Furthermore, the figure of 500,000 for Greater London is often confused with the figure for the police and local government operated cameras in the City of London, which was about 650 in 2011.
The CCTV User Group estimated that there were around 1.5M private and local government CCTV cameras in city centres, stations, airports, and major retail areas in the UK. This figure does not include the smaller surveillance systems such as those that may be found in local corner shops and is therefore broadly in line with the Cheshire report.
Research conducted by the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research and based on a survey of all Scottish local authorities, identified that there were over 2,200 public space CCTV cameras in Scotland.
See also
Censorship in the United Kingdom
Civil liberties in the United Kingdom
Human rights in the United Kingdom
Internet censorship in the United Kingdom
List of government surveillance projects § United Kingdom
Internet Connection Record
Mass surveillance in Australia
Mass surveillance in Russia
Mass surveillance in the United States
Telecommunications data retention § United Kingdom
Other legislation
Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001
Counter-Terrorism Act 2008
Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015
Terrorism Act 2000
Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006
References
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
Human rights in the United Kingdom
Mass surveillance in the United Kingdom |
40709403 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koos%20Bekker | Koos Bekker | Jacobus Petrus "Koos" Bekker (born 14 December 1952) is a South African billionaire businessman, and the chairman of media group Naspers. The company operates in 130 countries and is listed on the London Stock Exchange and Johannesburg Stock Exchange. It has the largest market capitalization of any media company outside the U.S., China and India.
Early life
Koos Bekker was born in Potchefstroom, South Africa in 1952. He attended Hoër Volkskool Heidelberg and completed degrees at Stellenbosch University, in law and literature, and at Wits University, in law. He holds an MBA from Columbia University, New York and an honorary Doctorate in Commerce from Stellenbosch University.
Bekker is married to Karen Roos and has two children.
Career
After a few years in advertising, he received an MBA degree from Columbia Business School, graduating in 1984. As a result of a project paper, he, with a few young colleagues, founded one of the first two pay-television services outside of the US. M-Net and its sister companies, such as Multichoice, eventually expanded to 48 countries across Africa. In the 1990s, he was a founding director of mobile communication company MTN. In 1997 Bekker became CEO of Naspers, one of the initial investors in the M-Net/Multichoice group. Naspers bought out the other shareholders. During his tenure, the market capitalization of Naspers grew from about $1.2 billion to $45 billion. His compensation package was unusual in that for fifteen years as CEO he earned no salary, bonus or perks. He was compensated solely via stock option grants that vested over time.
The Forbes 2019 list of The World's Billionaires ranked Bekker as the 1002nd-wealthiest person in the world, and the fourth-wealthiest South African, with a fortune of US$2.3 billion. In 2020, Bekker was ranked as the third-wealthiest South African by Forbes, with a fortune reported as US$2.4billion.
Foreign investments
Under Bekker, Naspers invested in pay television, mobile telephony and various internet services. The group conducts business in Europe, Africa, Latin America, China, India, Russia, and various smaller countries.
Controversy
Former South African Minister for Communications, Yunus Carrim testified to the Zondo Commission into State Capture that Bekker had played a significant role in irregularly pressuring government officials to protect MultiChoice's effective monopoly over South Africa's pay-TV sector. Carrim stated that this was done by lobbying government to prevent the opening up and rollout of encryption capacity in set-top boxes. MultiChoice has denied these allegations, noting that Carrim confirmed that he had no personal knowledge of any fraud or corruption on MultiChoice's part.
The Constitutional Court has held that Government's digital migration policy is not centered around individual players in the broadcasting industry and that the policy decision to dump decryption capability in government subsidized DTT set top boxes was in the best interests of the poor and the broader public. [Electronic Media Network Limited and Others v e.tv (Pty) Limited and Others 2017 (9) BCLR 1108 (CC).
References
Columbia Business School alumni
Living people
Afrikaner people
South African businesspeople
Place of birth missing (living people)
South African chief executives
1952 births
South African billionaires |
40712897 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark%20web | Dark web | The dark web is the World Wide Web content that exists on darknets: overlay networks that use the Internet but require specific software, configurations, or authorization to access. Through the dark web, private computer networks can communicate and conduct business anonymously without divulging identifying information, such as a user's location. The dark web forms a small part of the deep web, the part of the Web not indexed by web search engines, although sometimes the term deep web is mistakenly used to refer specifically to the dark web.
The darknets which constitute the dark web include small, friend-to-friend peer-to-peer networks, as well as large, popular networks such as Tor, Freenet, I2P, and Riffle operated by public organizations and individuals. Users of the dark web refer to the regular web as Clearnet due to its unencrypted nature. The Tor dark web or onionland uses the traffic anonymization technique of onion routing under the network's top-level domain suffix .onion.
Terminology
Definition
The dark web has often been confused with the deep web, the parts of the web not indexed (searchable) by search engines. The term dark web first emerged in 2009; however, it is unknown when the actual dark web first emerged. Many internet users only use the surface web, data that can be accessed by a typical Google browser. The dark web forms a small part of the deep web, but requires custom software in order to access its content. This confusion dates back to at least 2009. Since then, especially in reporting on Silk Road, the two terms have often been conflated, despite recommendations that they should be distinguished.
The dark web, also known as darknet websites, are accessible only through networks such as Tor ("The Onion Routing" project) that are created specifically for the dark web. Tor browser and Tor-accessible sites are widely used among the darknet users and can be identified by the domain ".onion". Tor browsers create encrypted entry points and pathways for the user, allowing their dark web searches and actions to be anonymous.
Identities and locations of darknet users stay anonymous and cannot be tracked due to the layered encryption system. The darknet encryption technology routes users' data through a large number of intermediate servers, which protects the users' identity and guarantees anonymity. The transmitted information can be decrypted only by a subsequent node in the scheme, which leads to the exit node. The complicated system makes it almost impossible to reproduce the node path and decrypt the information layer by layer. Due to the high level of encryption, websites are not able to track geolocation and IP of their users, and users are not able to get this information about the host. Thus, communication between darknet users is highly encrypted allowing users to talk, blog, and share files confidentially.
Content
A December 2014 study by Gareth Owen from the University of Portsmouth found that the most commonly hosted type of content on Tor was child pornography, followed by black markets, while the individual sites with the highest traffic were dedicated to botnet operations (see attached metric). Many whistleblowing sites maintain a presence as well as political discussion forums. Sites associated with Bitcoin, fraud-related services, and mail order services are some of the most prolific.
As of December 2020, the number of active Tor sites in .onion was estimated at 76,300 (containing a lot of copies). Of these, 18 000 would have original content.
In July 2017, Roger Dingledine, one of the three founders of the Tor Project, said that Facebook is the biggest hidden service. The dark web comprises only 3% of the traffic in the Tor network.
A February 2016 study from researchers at King's College London gives the following breakdown of content by an alternative category set, highlighting the illicit use of .onion services.
Ransomware
The dark web is also used in certain extortion-related processes. Indeed, it is common to observe data from ransomware attacks on several dark web sites (data sales sites, public data repository sites.
Botnets
Botnets are often structured with their command-and-control servers based on a censorship-resistant hidden service, creating a large amount of bot-related traffic.
Darknet markets
Commercial darknet markets mediate transactions for illegal goods and typically use Bitcoin as payment. These markets have attracted significant media coverage, starting with the popularity of Silk Road and Diabolus Market and its subsequent seizure by legal authorities. Silk Road was one of the first dark web marketplaces that emerged in 2011 and has allowed for the trading of weapons and identity fraud resources. These markets have no protection for its users and can be closed down at any time by authorities. Despite the closures of these marketplaces, others pop up in their place. As of 2020, there have been at least 38 active dark web market places. These marketplaces are similar to that of eBay or Craigslist where users can interact with sellers and leave reviews about marketplace products.
Examination of price differences in dark web markets versus prices in real life or over the World Wide Web have been attempted as well as studies in the quality of goods received over the dark web. One such study was performed on Evolution, one of the most popular crypto-markets active from January 2013 to March 2015. Although it found the digital information, such as concealment methods and shipping country, "seems accurate", the study uncovered issues with the quality of illegal drugs sold in Evolution, stating that, "the illicit drugs purity is found to be different from the information indicated on their respective listings." Less is known about consumer motivations for accessing these marketplaces and factors associated with their use.
Bitcoin services
Bitcoin is one of the main cryptocurrencies used in dark web marketplaces due to the flexibility and relative anonymity of the currency. With Bitcoin, people can hide their intentions as well as their identity. A common approach was to use a digital currency exchanger service which converted Bitcoin into an online game currency (such as gold coins in World of Warcraft) that will later be converted back into fiat currency. Bitcoin services such as tumblers are often available on Tor, and some – such as Grams – offer darknet market integration. A research study undertaken by Jean-Loup Richet, a research fellow at ESSEC, and carried out with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, highlighted new trends in the use of Bitcoin tumblers for money laundering purposes.
Due to its relevance in the digital world, Bitcoin has become a popular product for users to scam companies with. Cybercriminal groups such as DDOS"4" have led to over 140 cyberattacks on companies since the emergence of Bitcoins in 2014. These attacks have led to the formation of other cybercriminal groups as well as Cyber Extortion.
Hacking groups and services
Many hackers sell their services either individually or as a part of groups. Such groups include xDedic, hackforum, Trojanforge, Mazafaka, dark0de and the TheRealDeal darknet market. Some have been known to track and extort apparent pedophiles. Cyber crimes and hacking services for financial institutions and banks have also been offered over the dark web. Attempts to monitor this activity have been made through various government and private organizations, and an examination of the tools used can be found in the Procedia Computer Science journal. Use of Internet-scale DNS distributed reflection denial of service (DRDoS) attacks have also been made through leveraging the dark web. There are many scam .onion sites also present which end up giving tools for download that are infected with trojan horses or backdoors.
Financing and fraud
Scott Dueweke the president and founder of Zebryx Consulting states that Russian electronic currency such as WebMoney and Perfect Money are behind the majority of the illegal actions. In April 2015, Flashpoint received a 5 million dollar investment to help their clients gather intelligence from the deep and dark web. There are numerous carding forums, PayPal and Bitcoin trading websites as well as fraud and counterfeiting services. Many such sites are scams themselves. Phishing via cloned websites and other scam sites are numerous, with darknet markets often advertised with fraudulent URLs.
Illegal pornography
The type of content that has the most popularity on the dark web is illegal pornography—more specifically, child pornography. About 80% of its web traffic is related to accessing child pornography despite it being difficult to find even on the dark web. A website called Lolita City, that has since been taken down, contained over 100 GB of child pornographic media and had about 15,000 members.
There is regular law enforcement action against sites distributing child pornography – often via compromising the site and tracking users' IP addresses. In 2015, the FBI investigated and took down a website called Playpen. At the time, Playpen was the largest child pornography website on the dark web with over 200,000 members. Sites use complex systems of guides, forums and community regulation. Other content includes sexualised torture and killing of animals and revenge porn. In May 2021, German police said that they had dismantled one of the world's biggest child pornography networks on the dark web known as Boystown, the website had over 400,000 registered users. Four people had been detained in raids, including a man from Paraguay, on suspicion of running the network. Europol said several pedophile chat sites were also taken down in the German-led intelligence operation.
Terrorism
Terrorist organizations took to the internet as early as the 1990s; however, the birth of the dark web attracted these organizations due to the anonymity, lack of regulation, social interaction, and easy accessibility. These groups have been taking advantage of the chat platforms within the dark web to inspire terrorist attacks. Groups have even posted "How To" guides, teaching people how to become and hide their identity as terrorist.
The dark web became a forum for terrorist propaganda, guiding information, and most importantly, funding. With the introduction of Bitcoin, an anonymous transactions were created which allowed for anonymous donations and funding. By accepting Bitcoin, terrorists were now able to fund money to purchase weaponry. In 2018, an individual named Ahmed Sarsur was charged for attempting to purchase explosives and hire snipers to aid Syrian terrorists, as well as attempting to provide them financial support, all through the dark web.
There are at least some real and fraudulent websites claiming to be used by ISIL (ISIS), including a fake one seized in Operation Onymous. With the increase of technology, it has allowed cyber terrorists to flourish by attacking the weaknesses of the technology. In the wake of the November 2015 Paris attacks, an actual such site was hacked by an Anonymous-affiliated hacker group, GhostSec, and replaced with an advert for Prozac. The Rawti Shax Islamist group was found to be operating on the dark web at one time.
Social media
Within the dark web, there exists emerging social media platforms similar to those on the World Wide Web, this is known as the Dark Web Social Network (DWSN). The DWSN works a like a regular social networking site where members can have customizable pages, have friends, like posts, and blog in forums. Facebook and other traditional social media platforms have begun to make dark-web versions of their websites to address problems associated with the traditional platforms and to continue their service in all areas of the World Wide Web. Unlike Facebook, the privacy policy of the DWSN requires that members are to reveal absolutely no personal information and remain anonymous.
Hoaxes and unverified content
There are reports of crowdfunded assassinations and hitmen for hire; however, these are believed to be exclusively scams. The creator of Silk Road, Ross Ulbricht, was arrested by Homeland Security investigations (HSI) for his site and allegedly hiring a hitman to kill six people, although the charges were later dropped. There is an urban legend that one can find live murder on the dark web. The term "Red Room" has been coined based on the Japanese animation and urban legend of the same name; however, the evidence points toward all reported instances being hoaxes.
On June 25, 2015, the indie game Sad Satan was reviewed by YouTubers Obscure Horror Corner which they claimed to have found via the dark web. Various inconsistencies in the channel's reporting cast doubt on the reported version of events. There are several websites which analyze and monitor the deep web and dark web for threat intelligence.
Policing the dark web
There have been arguments that the dark web promotes civil liberties, like "free speech, privacy, anonymity". Some prosecutors and government agencies are concerned that it is a haven for criminal activity. The deep and dark web are applications of integral internet features to provide privacy and anonymity. Policing involves targeting specific activities of the private web deemed illegal or subject to internet censorship.
When investigating online suspects, police typically use the IP (Internet Protocol) address of the individual; however, due to Tor browsers creating anonymity, this becomes an impossible tactic. As a result, law enforcement has employed many other tactics in order to identify and arrest those engaging in illegal activity on the dark web. OSINT, or Open Source Intelligence, are data collection tools that legally collect information from public sources. OSINT tools can be dark web specific to help officers find bits of information that would lead them to gaining more knowledge about interactions going on in the dark web.
In 2015 it was announced that Interpol now offers a dedicated dark web training program featuring technical information on Tor, cybersecurity and simulated darknet market takedowns. In October 2013 the UK's National Crime Agency and GCHQ announced the formation of a "Joint Operations Cell" to focus on cybercrime. In November 2015 this team would be tasked with tackling child exploitation on the dark web as well as other cybercrime. In March 2017 the Congressional Research Service released an extensive report on the dark web, noting the changing dynamic of how information is accessed and presented on it; characterized by the unknown, it is of increasing interest to researchers, law enforcement, and policymakers. In August 2017, according to reportage, cybersecurity firms which specialize in monitoring and researching the dark web on behalf of banks and retailers routinely share their findings with the FBI and with other law enforcement agencies "when possible and necessary" regarding illegal content. The Russian-speaking underground offering a crime-as-a-service model is regarded as being particularly robust.
Journalism
Many journalists, alternative news organizations, educators, and researchers are influential in their writing and speaking of the darknet, and making its use clear to the general public. Media coverage typically reports on the dark web in two ways; detailing the power and freedom of speech the dark web allows people to express, or more commonly reaffirms the illegality and fear of its contents, such as computer hackers. Many headlines tie the dark web to child pornography with headlines such as, "N.J. man charged with surfing 'Dark Web' to collect nearly 3K images of child porn", along with other illegal activities where news outlets describe it as "a hub for black markets that sell or distribute drugs".
Specialist Clearweb news sites such as DeepDotWeb and All Things Vice provide news coverage and practical information about dark web sites and services; however, DeepDotWeb was shut down by authorities in 2019. The Hidden Wiki and its mirrors and forks hold some of the largest directories of content at any given time. Traditional media and news channels such as ABC News have also featured articles examining the darknet.
See also
Deepnet
Darknet market
List of Tor onion services
OneSwarm
References
External links
Excuse Me, I Think Your Dark Web is Showing – A presentation at the March 2017 BSides Vancouver Security Conference on security practices on Tor's hidden services
Attacks Landscape in the Dark Side of the Web |
40732141 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CryptoLocker | CryptoLocker | The CryptoLocker ransomware attack was a cyberattack using the CryptoLocker ransomware that occurred from 5 September 2013 to late May 2014. The attack utilized a trojan that targeted computers running Microsoft Windows, and was believed to have first been posted to the Internet on 5 September 2013. It propagated via infected email attachments, and via an existing Gameover ZeuS botnet. When activated, the malware encrypted certain types of files stored on local and mounted network drives using RSA public-key cryptography, with the private key stored only on the malware's control servers. The malware then displayed a message which offered to decrypt the data if a payment (through either bitcoin or a pre-paid cash voucher) was made by a stated deadline, and it threatened to delete the private key if the deadline passes. If the deadline was not met, the malware offered to decrypt data via an online service provided by the malware's operators, for a significantly higher price in bitcoin. There was no guarantee that payment would release the encrypted content.
Although CryptoLocker itself was easily removed, the affected files remained encrypted in a way which researchers considered unfeasible to break. Many said that the ransom should not be paid, but did not offer any way to recover files; others said that paying the ransom was the only way to recover files that had not been backed up. Some victims claimed that paying the ransom did not always lead to the files being decrypted.
CryptoLocker was isolated in late May 2014 via Operation Tovar, which took down the Gameover ZeuS botnet that had been used to distribute the malware. During the operation, a security firm involved in the process obtained the database of private keys used by CryptoLocker, which was in turn used to build an online tool for recovering the keys and files without paying the ransom. It is believed that the operators of CryptoLocker successfully extorted a total of around $3 million from victims of the trojan. Other instances of encryption-based ransomware that have followed have used the "CryptoLocker" name (or variations), but are otherwise unrelated.
Operation
CryptoLocker typically propagated as an attachment to a seemingly innocuous e-mail message, which appears to have been sent by a legitimate company. A ZIP file attached to an email message contains an executable file with the filename and the icon disguised as a PDF file, taking advantage of Windows' default behaviour of hiding the extension from file names to disguise the real .EXE extension. CryptoLocker was also propagated using the Gameover ZeuS trojan and botnet.
When first run, the payload installs itself in the user profile folder, and adds a key to the registry that causes it to run on startup. It then attempts to contact one of several designated command and control servers; once connected, the server generates a 2048-bit RSA key pair, and sends the public key back to the infected computer. The server may be a local proxy and go through others, frequently relocated in different countries to make tracing them more difficult.
The payload then encrypts files across local hard drives and mapped network drives with the public key, and logs each file encrypted to a registry key. The process only encrypts data files with certain extensions, including Microsoft Office, OpenDocument, and other documents, pictures, and AutoCAD files. The payload displays a message informing the user that files have been encrypted, and demands a payment of 400 USD or Euro through an anonymous pre-paid cash voucher (i.e. MoneyPak or Ukash), or an equivalent amount in bitcoin (BTC) within 72 or 100 hours (while starting at 2 BTC, the ransom price has been adjusted down to 0.3 BTC by the operators to reflect the fluctuating value of bitcoin), or else the private key on the server would be destroyed, and "nobody and never will be able to restore files." Payment of the ransom allows the user to download the decryption program, which is pre-loaded with the user's private key. Some infected victims claim that they paid the attackers but their files were not decrypted.
In November 2013, the operators of CryptoLocker launched an online service that claimed to allow users to decrypt their files without the CryptoLocker program, and to purchase the decryption key after the deadline had expired; the process involved uploading an encrypted file to the site as a sample and waiting for the service to find a match; the site claimed that a match would be found within 24 hours. Once found, the user could pay for the key online; if the 72-hour deadline passed, the cost increased to 10 bitcoin.
Takedown and recovery of files
On 2 June 2014, the United States Department of Justice officially announced that over the previous weekend, Operation Tovar—a consortium constituting a group of law enforcement agencies (including the FBI and Interpol), security software vendors, and several universities, had disrupted the Gameover ZeuS botnet which had been used to distribute CryptoLocker and other malware. The Department of Justice also publicly issued an indictment against the Russian hacker Evgeniy Bogachev for his alleged involvement in the botnet.
As part of the operation, the Dutch security firm Fox-IT was able to procure the database of private keys used by CryptoLocker; in August 2014, Fox-IT and fellow firm FireEye introduced an online service which allows infected users to retrieve their private key by uploading a sample file, and then receive a decryption tool.
Mitigation
While security software is designed to detect such threats, it might not detect CryptoLocker at all, or only after encryption is underway or complete, particularly if a new version unknown to the protective software is distributed. If an attack is suspected or detected in its early stages, it takes some time for encryption to take place; immediate removal of the malware (a relatively simple process) before it has completed would limit its damage to data. Experts suggested precautionary measures, such as using software or other security policies to block the CryptoLocker payload from launching.
Due to the nature of CryptoLocker's operation, some experts reluctantly suggested that paying the ransom was the only way to recover files from CryptoLocker in the absence of current backups (offline backups made before the infection that are inaccessible from infected computers cannot be attacked by CryptoLocker). Due to the length of the key employed by CryptoLocker, experts considered it practically impossible to use a brute-force attack to obtain the key needed to decrypt files without paying ransom; the similar 2008 trojan Gpcode.AK used a 1024-bit key that was believed to be large enough to be computationally infeasible to break without a concerted distributed effort, or the discovery of a flaw that could be used to break the encryption. Sophos security analyst Paul Ducklin speculated that CryptoLocker's online decryption service involved a dictionary attack against its own encryption using its database of keys, explaining the requirement to wait up to 24 hours to receive a result.
Money paid
In December 2013, ZDNet traced four bitcoin addresses posted by users who had been infected by CryptoLocker, in an attempt to gauge the operators' takings. The four addresses showed movement of 41,928 BTC between 15 October and 18 December, about US$27 million at that time.
In a survey by researchers at the University of Kent, 41% of those who claimed to be victims said that they had decided to pay the ransom, a proportion much larger than expected; Symantec had estimated that 3% of victims had paid and Dell SecureWorks had estimated that 0.4% of victims had paid. Following the shutdown of the botnet that had been used to distribute CryptoLocker, it was calculated that about 1.3% of those infected had paid the ransom; many had been able to recover files which had been backed up, and others are believed to have lost huge amounts of data. Nonetheless, the operators were believed to have extorted a total of around $3 million.
Clones
The success of CryptoLocker spawned a number of unrelated and similarly named ransomware trojans working in essentially the same way, including some that refer to themselves as "CryptoLocker"—but are, according to security researchers, unrelated to the original CryptoLocker.
In September 2014, further clones such as CryptoWall and TorrentLocker (whose payload identifies itself as "CryptoLocker", but is named for its use of a registry key named "Bit Torrent Application"), began spreading in Australia; the ransomware uses infected e-mails, purportedly sent by government departments (e.g. Australia Post to indicate a failed parcel delivery) as a payload. To evade detection by automatic e-mail scanners that can follow links, this variant was designed to require users to visit a web page and enter a CAPTCHA code before the payload is actually downloaded. Symantec determined that these new variants, which it identified as "CryptoLocker.F", were not tied to the original.
See also
Locky
PGPCoder
WannaCry
Petya
References
Blackmail
Cyberattacks
Cybercrime
September 2013 events
Cryptographic attacks
2013 in computing
Ransomware
Hacking in the 2010s
Windows trojans |
40765043 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vince%20Cate | Vince Cate | Vincent Aron Cate (born 1963) is a cryptography software developer based in Anguilla. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley and ran an Atari hardware business in the 1980s before beginning a Ph.D. programme at Carnegie Mellon University, but dropped out and moved to Anguilla to pursue business opportunities there. In his new home, he would go on to establish an internet service provider, a computer club for young students, and an annual cryptography conference. A former U.S. citizen, he gave up that citizenship in 1998 in protest of U.S. laws on the export of cryptography.
Career
In the early 1980s, Cate lived in San Jose, California, where he ran a business producing software and hardware to interface CP/M-compatible printers, disk drives, and keyboards with Atari computers such as the Atari 400. This allowed CP/M system owners considering the purchase of an Atari computer to save on the cost of peripherals for their new computer. Cate graduated from the University of California, Berkeley and later enrolled as a doctoral student at Carnegie Mellon University, where he did research on file systems with Thomas Gross, and also worked on allowing remote file systems to be mounted over FTP. However, with the rise of the Internet, Cate lost interest in his research and left the university without completing his dissertation, receiving a master's degree.
In 1994, Cate moved to the British Overseas Territory of Anguilla to pursue business opportunities. He was attracted to Anguilla for several reasons, including the tropical climate, low taxes, and stable government compared to other Caribbean countries and territories. As he stated in an interview, "The country has many of the characteristics of a small town in the USA. Seems like everyone knows everyone ... [but] I could not imagine too many towns of 10,000 in the US having this much computer infrastructure."
At first, Cate attempted to start an electronic money business. However, in those early years, local banks were wary of Cate's business model, which involved accepting credit cards over the Internet, and so instead he started an internet service provider, offering dial-up Internet access to island residents. Eventually, Cate's company, Offshore Information Services, expanded from the ISP business to offer company formation services, aimed at helping clients operate e-commerce businesses in Anguilla. OIS' servers ran software from C2Net, one of the early supporters of Transport Layer Security, in order to allow clients to offer secure online transactions to their customers. OIS also sold cryptographic software aimed at end-users in the finance sector. One motivation of Cate's work was to provide a haven from increasing internet censorship in China, France, Germany, and the United States; he mentioned the U.S.' Communications Decency Act of 1996 as an issue of major concern to him. His work prompted comparisons to the Bruce Sterling novel Islands in the Net.
Other activities
Outside of his work in Anguilla, Cate also started a computer club which helped schools in Anguilla acquire donations of old computers for the use of their students; he described it as his "best source of talent searching", and by 1998 had hired three members of the computer club for his own business.
In 1997, Cate collaborated with cypherpunk Robert Hettinga and Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher Rafael Hirschfield to organise the International Conference on Financial Cryptography. Presenters at the first conference included Ron Rivest. The conference was highly successful, though the list of famous presenters was not the sole contributing factor: presentations were all scheduled for the morning hours, allowing participants to enjoy the beaches in the afternoon.
Since the 1990s, Cate has also been involved with the administration of .ai, Anguilla's country code top-level domain.
Political views
Cate engaged in civil disobedience against U.S. cryptography policy by setting up a webpage inviting readers to "become an international arms trafficker in one click". The page contained an HTML form which, when submitted, would e-mail three lines of Perl code implementing the RSA public-key encryption algorithm to a server in Anguilla; this could have qualified as unlicensed export of munitions under U.S. law at the time. Visitors could opt to have their names and e-mail addresses displayed publicly in a list on that page. By 1997, the list contained the names or aliases of more than one thousand visitors; that number grew to nearly seven thousand by September 1998.
In September 1998 Cate took his protests a step further, paying $5,000 to naturalise as a citizen of Mozambique and then giving up his U.S. citizenship. (He would have had to wait for more than a decade longer to qualify for naturalisation as a British Overseas Territories citizen with Anguilla Belonger status.) Cate stated in that he was motivated by the desire "to be free from the silly U.S. laws on crypto", and that by giving up citizenship "[t]here's less chance of getting in any trouble with the U.S. government and there's also less chance of getting shot by a terrorist." In April 1999, a notice confirming his loss of U.S. citizenship was published in the Federal Register as required by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
Publications
References
External links
1963 births
Living people
American emigrants to Anguilla
Carnegie Mellon University alumni
People from San Jose, California
Former United States citizens
University of California, Berkeley alumni
Naturalized citizens of Mozambique
Mozambican people of American descent
Anguillan scientists |
40790819 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoutr | Shoutr | shoutr is a mobile application that allows users to transfer data of any kind between Android-powered devices. It works without an internet connection or pre-existing network infrastructure. All that is needed are two or more Android devices equipped with Wi-Fi technology. All data sent with shoutr is protected by WPA2 encryption.
The technology behind shoutr is based on the WiFi capability built into the respective Android device. This is used to connect devices directly: One device opens up a WiFi hotspot; other devices connect to it and get the data - this does not need a WiFi hotspot around.
According to Google Play, shoutr is available for Android devices from Android 2.2 (Froyo) on.
See also
AirDrop, a similar technology for iOS smart phones
Zapya, a similar app for both iOS, Android, Windows and Mac
Wi-Fi Direct, a similar technology
References
File sharing software
Proprietary software |
40855141 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tigerspike | Tigerspike | Tigerspike is a software company headquartered in Sydney. It was founded in 2003 by Luke Janssen, Oliver Palmer, and Dean Jezard. Tigerspike was acquired by Concentrix in 2017, and rebranded as Concentrix Tigerspike in 2020.
History
Tigerspike was founded in 2003 in Sydney, Australia. In 2008, Tigerspike opened its Innovation Lab, which focuses on new technologies, including encryption and compression. The lab is headed by Oliver Palmer.
In 2011, Tigerspike secured a US$ 11 million investment from Aegis Group. The same year, Tigerspike was featured on Forbes’ list of America’s Most Promising Companies and expanded into Singapore.
Tigerspike released Karacell, a quantum computing encryption technology designed for mobile devices in 2012.
In July 2017, Tigerspike became part of Concentrix, a business services company and a wholly owned subsidiary of SYNNEX Corporation (NYSE: SNX).
In November 2020, Tigerspike announced that it was changing its operating name to Concentrix Tigerspike.
Products
Concentrix Tigerspike has designed and developed applications for print media companies such as The Economist and Haaretz. Their cloud-based service platform is used by clients including Pepsi, Vodafone and the World Wide Fund for Nature. The company also developed the ICSA Blueprint BoardPad app, an enterprise app used for board meetings and agenda for 71 of the FTSE 100 companies.
See also
Cross Platform
Service Delivery Platform
Quantum Cryptography
References
Further reading
Future Tech Report: PC market will die in 2015
Trends in mobile technology: the next decade
How far ahead can you plan for a business?
BYOD an opportunity for NZ businesses
Tapping into apps to transform business
External links
Official site
Companies established in 2003 |
40870403 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan%20Katz%20%28computer%20scientist%29 | Jonathan Katz (computer scientist) | Jonathan Katz is a professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Maryland who conducts research on cryptography and cybersecurity. In 2019-2020 he was a faculty member in the Volgenau School of Engineering at George Mason University, where he held the title of Eminent Scholar in Cybersecurity. In 2013–2019 he was director of the Maryland Cybersecurity Center at the University of Maryland.
Biography
Katz received BS degrees in mathematics and chemistry from MIT in 1996, followed by a master's degree in chemistry from Columbia University in 1998. After transferring to the computer science department, he received M.Phil. and PhD degrees in computer science from Columbia University in 2001 and 2002, respectively. Katz's doctoral advisors were Zvi Galil, Moti Yung, and Rafail Ostrovsky. While in graduate school, he worked as a research scientist at Telcordia Technologies (now ACS).
Katz was on the faculty in the computer science department of the University of Maryland from 2002 to 2019. From 2013–2019 he was director of the Maryland Cybersecurity Center there. He joined the Department of Computer Science of George Mason University as professor of computer science and Eminent Scholar in Cybersecurity in 2019, before returning to the University of Maryland one year later. Katz has held visiting positions at UCLA, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, and the Ecole Normale Superieure. He was a member of the DARPA Computer Science Study Group in 2009-2010. He also works as a consultant in the fields of cryptography and computer security.
Research
Katz has worked on various aspects of cryptography, computer security, and theoretical computer science. His doctoral thesis was on designing protocols secure against man-in-the-middle attacks, most notably describing an efficient protocol for password-based authenticated key exchange. He has also worked in the areas of secure multi-party computation, public-key encryption, and digital signatures. He has served on the program committees of numerous conferences, including serving as co-program chair for the annual Crypto conference in 2016 and 2017 and co-program chair for the ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security in 2019-2020. He is also currently an editor of the Journal of Cryptology, the premier journal of the field.
Awards
Katz received the Humboldt Research Award to support collaborative research with colleagues in Germany during 2015. He also received the University of Maryland "Distinguished Scholar-Teacher" award in 2017. In 2019 Katz was named an IACR Fellow for his research contributions in public-key cryptography and cryptographic protocols along with his service and educational contributions to the cryptographic field. He also received the ACM SIGSAC Outstanding Contribution Award in 2019 for "his commitment to education in cryptography, through teaching and research, and for dedication to the advancement and increased influence of cryptographic research."
Books
According to WorldCat, the book is held in 310 libraries. The second edition of this book was published in 2014.
According to WorldCat, the book is held in 348 libraries
Coeditor with Moti Yung of Applied Cryptography and Network Security: 5th International Conference, ACNS 2007, Zhuhai, China, June 5–8, 2007 : Proceedings. Berlin: Springer, 2007.
References
External links
Living people
Modern cryptographers
American cryptographers
American computer scientists
Place of birth missing (living people)
1974 births
University of Maryland, College Park faculty
Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni
Columbia University alumni |
40894235 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helix%20ALM | Helix ALM | Helix ALM, formerly called TestTrack, is application lifecycle management (ALM) software developed by Perforce. The software allows developers to manage requirements, defects, issues and testing during software development.
History
Helix ALM's precursor, TestTrack Pro, was developed by Seapine Software, and first shipped in 1996. In November 2016, Perforce acquired Seapine, and rebranded the software as Helix ALM.
Functionality
The software tracks software development processes including feature requests and requirements to design revisions and actual changes in the code. It keeps track of what tests were done, what was tested, who performed the test and when, on what platform, under which configuration and in what language. It offers the ability to create, manage, and link artifacts from the beginning through the end of a design and development project providing end-to-end traceability of all development artifacts and giving managers a better handle on the shifting requirements that define their projects. It enforces regulatory compliance to meet regulatory compliance requirements, including 21 CFR Part 11 and Sarbanes-Oxley.
Architecture
Helix ALM has a client–server architecture. The server manages a central database of requirements, test cases, testing evidence, defects, feature requests, work items, test configurations, users, and security group. The client and server communicate via a TCP/IP connection using 512-bit encryption.
Server
Helix ALM stores data in a variety of relational database management systems including SQL Server, Oracle, and Postgres.
Clients
There are several different categories of Helix ALM clients: GUI, Web UI, SOAP, REST API, and plugin.
The cross-platform GUI client is developed with Qt and available on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. It fully supports all end-user operations and administration operations.
The unified web application allows software developers and testers to create and review requirements, work with issues, and execute and track tests from their web browser.
Helix ALM's SOAP SDK allows language and platform independent way to extend built-in functionality by writing applications that access and manipulate its data.
The plugin interfaces integrate with popular IDEs to perform functionality, such as closing a defect or manually assign a work item to another team member, from the third-party applications. Helix ALM plugins are available for Eclipse, Visual Studio, Outlook, Excel, and QA Wizard. Helix ALM also integrates with various SCM tools including Git, CVS, Perforce, Subversion, Surround SCM, and SourceSafe.
See also
Comparison of issue tracking systems
References
External links
Helix ALM page on Perforce website
Proprietary version control systems
Project management software |
40907644 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norton%20Zone | Norton Zone | Norton Zone was a cloud file sharing and online backup tool service operated by Symantec that can be used to share, sync, access, store, and backup data. It also allows for file collaboration with commenting. Norton Zone is accessible through apps for Windows, Windows RT, Android, Mac, and iOS platforms. Norton Zone uses encrypted and replicated cloud storage and provides client-side encryption.
As a leading AntiVirus provider via its Norton AntiVirus software, Symantec distinguishes Norton Zone from competition by automatically scanning files for malware and viruses.
Norton Zone offered 5 GB of storage for free and larger storage allocations via subscription.
On June 3, 2014, Symantec announced that Norton Zone would be discontinued on August 6, 2014.
References
Cloud applications
Data synchronization
File hosting
File sharing services
Email attachment replacements
Online backup services
Cross-platform software
Cloud storage
File hosting for macOS
File hosting for Windows |
40922798 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B1%20Free%20Archiver | B1 Free Archiver | B1 Free Archiver is a proprietary freeware multi-platform file archiver and file manager. B1 Archiver is available for Microsoft Windows, Linux, macOS, and Android. It has full support (compression, unpacking and encryption) for ZIP and its native B1 format. The program decompresses more than 20 popular archive formats. It creates split and encrypted archives.
B1 Free Archiver is translated into more than 30 languages. Translations are made by volunteers through the Crowdin localization management platform. The program can be used through graphical user interface or command line interface.
B1 Free Archiver is written in C++/Qt and is released under a proprietary license.
Features
B1 Free Archiver supports opening most popular archive formats (such as B1, ZIP, RAR, 7z, GZIP, TAR.GZ, TAR.BZ2 and ISO) but can create only .b1 and .zip archives. The utility can also create split archives which consist of several parts each of specified size and password-protected archives, encrypted with 256 bit AES algorithm.
Desktop application supports editing of the archive - adding new files, deleting files from the archive, editing files directly in the archive.
B1 Free Archiver has full drag-and-drop support, keyboard shortcuts and hotkeys navigation.
The program works on Windows (XP and higher), Linux (Ubuntu/Debian, Fedora), macOS (10.6 and higher) and Android. There is also Online B1 Free Archiver decompression tool.
Main disadvantages are that files inside the B1 archives doesn't retain timestamps.
References
External links
File archivers
file managers
Windows compression software
Cross-platform software
Data compression software |
40925030 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lai%E2%80%93Massey%20scheme | Lai–Massey scheme | The Lai–Massey scheme is a cryptographic structure used in the design of block ciphers. It is used in IDEA and IDEA NXT. The scheme was originally introduced by Xuejia Lai with the assistance of James L. Massey, hence the scheme's name, Lai-Massey.
Design
The Lai-Massey Scheme is similar to a Feistel Network in design, using a round function and a half-round function. The round function is a function which takes two inputs, a sub-key and a Data block, and which returns one output of equal length to the Data block. The half-round function takes two inputs and transforms them into two outputs. For any given round, the input is split into two halves, left and right.
Initially, the inputs are passed through the half-round function. In each round, the difference between the inputs is passed to the round function along with a sub-key, and the result from the round function is then added to each input. The inputs are then passed through the half-round function. This is then repeated a fixed number of times, and the final output is the encrypted data. Due to its design, it has an advantage over a Substitution-permutation network since the round-function does not need to be inverted - just the half-round - enabling it to be more easily inverted, and enabling the round-function to be arbitrarily complex. The encryption and decryption processes are fairly similar, decryption instead requiring a reversal of the key schedule, an inverted half-round function, and that the round function's output be subtracted instead of added.
Construction details
Let be the round function, and a half-round function, and let be the sub-keys for the rounds respectively.
Then the basic operation is as follows:
Split the plaintext block into two equal pieces, (, ).
For each round , compute
where , and .
Then the ciphertext is .
Decryption of a ciphertext is accomplished by computing for
where , and .
Then is the plaintext again.
The Lai–Massey scheme offers security properties similar to those of the Feistel structure. It also shares its advantage over a substitution–permutation network that the round function does not have to be invertible.
The half-round function is required to prevent a trivial distinguishing attack . It commonly applies an orthomorphism on the left hand side, that is,
where both and are permutations (in the mathematical sense, that is, a bijection – not a permutation box). Since there are no orthomorphisms for bit blocks (groups of size ), "almost orthomorphisms" are used instead.
may depend on the key. If it doesn't, the last application can be omitted, since its inverse is known anyway. The last application is commonly called "round " for a cipher that otherwise has rounds.
Literature
X. Lai. On the design and security of block ciphers. ETH Series in Information Processing, vol. 1, Hartung-Gorre, Konstanz, 1992
X. Lai, J. L. Massey. A proposal for a new block encryption standard. Advances in Cryptology EUROCRYPT'90, Aarhus, Denmark, LNCS 473, p. 389–404, Springer, 1991
Serge Vaudenay: A Classical Introduction to Cryptography, p. 33
References
Block ciphers |
40940064 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent%20Circle%20Instant%20Messaging%20Protocol | Silent Circle Instant Messaging Protocol | The Silent Circle Instant Message Protocol (SCIMP) was an encryption scheme that was developed by Vincent Moscaritolo of Silent Circle. It enabled private conversation over instant message transports such as XMPP (Jabber).
SCIMP provided encryption, perfect forward secrecy and message authentication. It also handled negotiating the shared secret keys.
History
Silent Circle used SCIMP in their encrypted instant messaging application called Silent Text. Silent Text was discontinued on September 28, 2015, when its features were merged into Silent Circle's encrypted voice calling application called Silent Phone. At the same time, Silent Circle transitioned to using a protocol that uses the Double Ratchet Algorithm instead of SCIMP.
References
Cryptographic protocols |
40956538 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History%20of%20bitcoin | History of bitcoin | Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, a digital asset designed to work as a store of value that uses cryptography to control its creation and management, rather than relying on central authorities. The history of bitcoin started with its invention and implementation by Satoshi Nakamoto, who integrated many existing ideas from the cryptography community. Over the course of bitcoin's history, it has undergone rapid growth to become a significant store of value both on- and offline. From the mid-2010s, some businesses began accepting bitcoin in addition to traditional currencies.
Background
Prior to the release of bitcoin, there were a number of digital cash technologies starting with the issuer based ecash protocols of David Chaum and Stefan Brands. The idea that solutions to computational puzzles could have some value was first proposed by cryptographers Cynthia Dwork and Moni Naor in 1992. The idea was independently rediscovered by Adam Back who developed hashcash, a proof-of-work scheme for spam control in 1997. The first proposals for distributed digital scarcity based cryptocurrencies were Wei Dai's b-money and Nick Szabo's bit gold. Hal Finney developed reusable proof of work (RPOW) using hashcash as its proof of work algorithm.
In the bit gold proposal which proposed a collectible market-based mechanism for inflation control, Nick Szabo also investigated some additional aspects including a Byzantine fault-tolerant agreement protocol based on quorum addresses to store and transfer the chained proof-of-work solutions, which was vulnerable to Sybil attacks, though.
Creation
On 18 August 2008, the domain name bitcoin.org was registered. Later that year, on 31 October, a link to a paper authored by Satoshi Nakamoto titled Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System was posted to a cryptography mailing list. This paper detailed methods of using a peer-to-peer network to generate what was described as "a system for electronic transactions without relying on trust". On 3 January 2009, the bitcoin network came into existence with Satoshi Nakamoto mining the genesis block of bitcoin (block number 0), which had a reward of 50 bitcoins. Embedded in the coinbase of this block was the text:
The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks
The text refers to a headline in The Times published on 3 January 2009. This note has been interpreted as both a timestamp of the genesis date and a derisive comment on the instability caused by fractional-reserve banking.
The first open source bitcoin client was released on 9 January 2009, hosted at SourceForge.
One of the first supporters, adopters, contributors to bitcoin and receiver of the first bitcoin transaction was programmer Hal Finney. Finney downloaded the bitcoin software the day it was released, and received 10 bitcoins from Nakamoto in the world's first bitcoin transaction on 12 January 2009 (bloc 170). Other early supporters were Wei Dai, creator of bitcoin predecessor b-money, and Nick Szabo, creator of bitcoin predecessor bit gold.
In the early days, Nakamoto is estimated to have mined 1 million bitcoins. Before disappearing from any involvement in bitcoin, Nakamoto in a sense handed over the reins to developer Gavin Andresen, who then became the bitcoin lead developer at the Bitcoin Foundation, the 'anarchic' bitcoin community's closest thing to an official public face.
Satoshi Nakamoto
"Satoshi Nakamoto" is presumed to be a pseudonym for the person or people who designed the original bitcoin protocol in 2008 and launched the network in 2009. Nakamoto was responsible for creating the majority of the official bitcoin software and was active in making modifications and posting technical information on the bitcoin forum. There has been much speculation as to the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto with suspects including Dai, Szabo, and Finney and accompanying denials. The possibility that Satoshi Nakamoto was a computer collective in the European financial sector has also been discussed.
Investigations into the real identity of Satoshi Nakamoto were attempted by The New Yorker and Fast Company. The New Yorker's investigation brought up at least two possible candidates: Michael Clear and Vili Lehdonvirta. Fast Company'''s investigation brought up circumstantial evidence linking an encryption patent application filed by Neal King, Vladimir Oksman and Charles Bry on 15 August 2008, and the bitcoin.org domain name which was registered 72 hours later. The patent application (#20100042841) contained networking and encryption technologies similar to bitcoin's, and textual analysis revealed that the phrase "... computationally impractical to reverse" appeared in both the patent application and bitcoin's whitepaper. All three inventors explicitly denied being Satoshi Nakamoto.
In May 2013, Ted Nelson speculated that Japanese mathematician Shinichi Mochizuki is Satoshi Nakamoto. Later in 2013 the Israeli researchers Dorit Ron and Adi Shamir pointed to Silk Road-linked Ross William Ulbricht as the possible person behind the cover. The two researchers based their suspicion on an analysis of the network of bitcoin transactions. These allegations were contested and Ron and Shamir later retracted their claim.
Nakamoto's involvement with bitcoin does not appear to extend past mid-2010. In April 2011, Nakamoto communicated with a bitcoin contributor, saying that he had "moved on to other things".
Stefan Thomas, a Swiss coder and active community member, graphed the time stamps for each of Nakamoto's 500-plus bitcoin forum posts; the resulting chart showed a steep decline to almost no posts between the hours of 5 a.m. and 11 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time. Because this pattern held true even on Saturdays and Sundays, it suggested that Nakamoto was asleep at this time, and the hours of 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. GMT are midnight to 6 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (North American Eastern Standard Time). Other clues suggested that Nakamoto was British: A newspaper headline he had encoded in the genesis block came from the UK-published newspaper The Times, and both his forum posts and his comments in the bitcoin source code used British English spellings, such as "optimise" and "colour".
An Internet search by an anonymous blogger of texts similar in writing to the bitcoin whitepaper suggests Nick Szabo's "bit gold" articles as having a similar author. Nick denied being Satoshi, and stated his official opinion on Satoshi and bitcoin in a May 2011 article.
In a March 2014 article in Newsweek, journalist Leah McGrath Goodman doxed Dorian S. Nakamoto of Temple City, California, saying that Satoshi Nakamoto is the man's birth name. Her methods and conclusion drew widespread criticism.
In June 2016, the London Review of Books published a piece by Andrew O'Hagan about Nakamoto.
After a May 2020 YouTube documentary pointed to Adam Back as the creator of bitcoin, widespread discussion ensued. The real identity of Satoshi Nakamoto still remains a matter of dispute.
Growth
2010
The first retail transaction involving physical goods was paid on May 22, 2010, by exchanging 10,000 mined BTC for two pizzas delivered from a local pizza restaurant in Florida, marking May 22 as the Bitcoin Pizza Day for crypto-fans. At the time, a transaction's value was typically negotiated on the Bitcoin forum.
On 6 August 2010, a major vulnerability in the bitcoin protocol was spotted. While the protocol did verify that a transaction's outputs never exceeded its inputs, a transaction whose outputs summed to more than would overflow, permitting the transaction author to create arbitrary amounts of bitcoin. On 15 August, the vulnerability was exploited; a single transaction spent 0.5 bitcoin to send just over 92 billion bitcoins ( satoshis) to each of two different addresses on the network. Within hours, the transaction was spotted, the bug was fixed, and the blockchain was forked by miners using an updated version of the bitcoin protocol. Since the blockchain was forked below the problematic transaction, the transaction no longer appears in the blockchain used by the Bitcoin network today. This was the only major security flaw found and exploited in bitcoin's history.
2011
Based on bitcoin's open-source code, other cryptocurrencies started to emerge.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit group, started accepting bitcoins in January 2011, then stopped accepting them in June 2011, citing concerns about a lack of legal precedent about new currency systems. The EFF's decision was reversed on 17 May 2013 when they resumed accepting bitcoin.
In June 2011, WikiLeaks and other organizations began to accept bitcoins for donations.
2012
In January 2012, bitcoin was featured as the main subject within a fictionalized trial on the CBS legal drama The Good Wife in the third-season episode "Bitcoin for Dummies". The host of CNBC's Mad Money, Jim Cramer, played himself in a courtroom scene where he testifies that he doesn't consider bitcoin a true currency, saying, "There's no central bank to regulate it; it's digital and functions completely peer to peer".
In September 2012, the Bitcoin Foundation was launched to "accelerate the global growth of bitcoin through standardization, protection, and promotion of the open source protocol". The founders were Gavin Andresen, Jon Matonis, Patrick Murck, Charlie Shrem, and Peter Vessenes.
In October 2012, BitPay reported having over 1,000 merchants accepting bitcoin under its payment processing service. In November 2012, WordPress started accepting bitcoins.
2013
In February 2013, the bitcoin-based payment processor Coinbase reported selling US$1 million worth of bitcoins in a single month at over $22 per bitcoin. The Internet Archive announced that it was ready to accept donations as bitcoins and that it intends to give employees the option to receive portions of their salaries in bitcoin currency.
In March, the bitcoin transaction log, called the blockchain, temporarily split into two independent chains with differing rules on how transactions were accepted. For six hours two bitcoin networks operated at the same time, each with its own version of the transaction history. The core developers called for a temporary halt to transactions, sparking a sharp sell-off. Normal operation was restored when the majority of the network downgraded to version 0.7 of the bitcoin software. The Mt. Gox exchange briefly halted bitcoin deposits and the exchange rate briefly dipped by 23% to $37 as the event occurred before recovering to previous level of approximately $48 in the following hours. In the US, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) established regulatory guidelines for "decentralized virtual currencies" such as bitcoin, classifying American bitcoin miners who sell their generated bitcoins as Money Service Businesses (or MSBs), that may be subject to registration and other legal obligations.
In April, payment processors BitInstant and Mt. Gox experienced processing delays due to insufficient capacity resulting in the bitcoin exchange rate dropping from $266 to $76 before returning to $160 within six hours. Bitcoin gained greater recognition when services such as OkCupid and Foodler began accepting it for payment. In April 2013, Eric Posner, a law professor at the University of Chicago, stated that "a real Ponzi scheme takes fraud; bitcoin, by contrast, seems more like a collective delusion."
On 15 May 2013, the US authorities seized accounts associated with Mt. Gox after discovering that it had not registered as a money transmitter with FinCEN in the US.
On 17 May 2013, it was reported that BitInstant processed approximately 30 percent of the money going into and out of bitcoin, and in April alone facilitated 30,000 transactions,
On 23 June 2013, it was reported that the US Drug Enforcement Administration listed 11.02 bitcoins as a seized asset in a United States Department of Justice seizure notice pursuant to 21 U.S.C. § 881. This marked the first time a government agency claimed to have seized bitcoin.
In July 2013, a project began in Kenya linking bitcoin with M-Pesa, a popular mobile payments system, in an experiment designed to spur innovative payments in Africa. During the same month the Foreign Exchange Administration and Policy Department in Thailand stated that bitcoin lacks any legal framework and would therefore be illegal, which effectively banned trading on bitcoin exchanges in the country.
On 6 August 2013, Federal Judge Amos Mazzant of the Eastern District of Texas of the Fifth Circuit ruled that bitcoins are "a currency or a form of money" (specifically securities as defined by Federal Securities Laws), and as such were subject to the court's jurisdiction, and Germany's Finance Ministry subsumed bitcoins under the term "unit of account" a financial instrument though not as e-money or a functional currency, a classification nonetheless having legal and tax implications.
In October 2013, the FBI seized roughly 26,000 BTC from website Silk Road during the arrest of alleged owner Ross William Ulbricht. Two companies, Robocoin and Bitcoiniacs launched the world's first bitcoin ATM on 29 October 2013 in Vancouver, BC, Canada, allowing clients to sell or purchase bitcoin currency at a downtown coffee shop. Chinese internet giant Baidu had allowed clients of website security services to pay with bitcoins.
In November 2013, the University of Nicosia announced that it would be accepting bitcoin as payment for tuition fees, with the university's chief financial officer calling it the "gold of tomorrow". During November 2013, the China-based bitcoin exchange BTC China overtook the Japan-based Mt. Gox and the Europe-based Bitstamp to become the largest bitcoin trading exchange by trade volume.
In December 2013, Overstock.com announced plans to accept bitcoin in the second half of 2014.
On 5 December 2013, the People's Bank of China prohibited Chinese financial institutions from using bitcoins. After the announcement, the value of bitcoins dropped, and Baidu no longer accepted bitcoins for certain services. Buying real-world goods with any virtual currency had been illegal in China since at least 2009.
On 4 December 2013, Alan Greenspan referred to it as a "bubble".
2014
In January 2014, Zynga announced it was testing bitcoin for purchasing in-game assets in seven of its games. That same month, The D Las Vegas Casino Hotel and Golden Gate Hotel & Casino properties in downtown Las Vegas announced they would also begin accepting bitcoin, according to an article by USA Today. The article also stated the currency would be accepted in five locations, including the front desk and certain restaurants. The network rate exceeded 10 petahash/sec. TigerDirect and Overstock.com started accepting bitcoin.
In early February 2014, one of the largest bitcoin exchanges, Mt. Gox, suspended withdrawals citing technical issues. By the end of the month, Mt. Gox had filed for bankruptcy protection in Japan amid reports that 744,000 bitcoins had been stolen. Months before the filing, the popularity of Mt. Gox had waned as users experienced difficulties withdrawing funds.
In June 2014 the network exceeded 100 petahash/sec. On 18 June 2014, it was announced that bitcoin payment service provider BitPay would become the new sponsor of St. Petersburg Bowl under a two-year deal, renamed the Bitcoin St. Petersburg Bowl. Bitcoin was to be accepted for ticket and concession sales at the game as part of the sponsorship, and the sponsorship itself was also paid for using bitcoin.
In July 2014 Newegg and Dell started accepting bitcoin.
In September 2014 TeraExchange, LLC, received approval from the U.S.Commodity Futures Trading Commission "CFTC" to begin listing an over-the-counter swap product based on the price of a bitcoin. The CFTC swap product approval marks the first time a U.S. regulatory agency approved a bitcoin financial product.
In December 2014 Microsoft began to accept bitcoin to buy Xbox games and Windows software.
In 2014, several light-hearted songs celebrating bitcoin such as the "Ode to Satoshi" have been released.
A documentary film, The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin, was released in 2014, featuring interviews with bitcoin users, such as a computer programmer and a drug dealer.
On 13 March 2014 Warren Buffett called bitcoin a "mirage" .
2015
In January 2015 Coinbase raised US$75 million as part of a Series C funding round, smashing the previous record for a bitcoin company. Less than one year after the collapse of Mt. Gox, United Kingdom-based exchange Bitstamp announced that their exchange would be taken offline while they investigate a hack which resulted in about 19,000 bitcoins (equivalent to roughly US$5 million at that time) being stolen from their hot wallet. The exchange remained offline for several days amid speculation that customers had lost their funds. Bitstamp resumed trading on 9 January after increasing security measures and assuring customers that their account balances would not be impacted.
In February 2015, the number of merchants accepting bitcoin exceeded 100,000.
In 2015 the MAK (Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna) became the first museum to acquire art using bitcoin, when it purchased the screensaver "Event listeners" of van den Dorpel.
In October 2015, a proposal was submitted to the Unicode Consortium to add a code point for the bitcoin symbol.
2016
In January 2016, the network rate exceeded 1 exahash/sec.
In March 2016, the Cabinet of Japan recognized virtual currencies like bitcoin as having a function similar to real money. Bidorbuy, the largest South African online marketplace, launched bitcoin payments for both buyers and sellers.
In July 2016, researchers published a paper showing that by November 2013 bitcoin commerce was no longer driven by "sin" activities but instead by legitimate enterprises.
In August 2016, a major bitcoin exchange, Bitfinex, was hacked and nearly 120,000 BTC (around $60m) was stolen.
In November 2016, the Swiss Railway operator SBB (CFF) upgraded all their automated ticket machines so that bitcoin could be bought from them using the scanner on the ticket machine to scan the bitcoin address on a phone app.
Bitcoin generates more academic interest year after year; the number of Google Scholar articles published mentioning bitcoin grew from 83 in 2009, to 424 in 2012, and 3580 in 2016. Also, the academic journal Ledger published its first issue. It is edited by Peter Rizun.
2017
The number of businesses accepting bitcoin continued to increase. In January 2017, NHK reported the number of online stores accepting bitcoin in Japan had increased 4.6 times over the past year. BitPay CEO Stephen Pair declared the company's transaction rate grew 3× from January 2016 to February 2017, and explained usage of bitcoin is growing in B2B supply chain payments.
Bitcoin gains more legitimacy among lawmakers and legacy financial companies. For example, Japan passed a law to accept bitcoin as a legal payment method, and Russia has announced that it will legalize the use of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.
Exchange trading volumes continue to increase. For the 6-month period ending March 2017, Mexican exchange Bitso saw trading volume increase 1500%.
Between January and May 2017 Poloniex saw an increase of more than 600% active traders online and regularly processed 640% more transactions.
In June 2017, the bitcoin symbol was encoded in Unicode version 10.0 at position U+20BF (₿) in the Currency Symbols block.
Up until July 2017, bitcoin users maintained a common set of rules for the cryptocurrency. On 1 August 2017 bitcoin split into two derivative digital currencies, the bitcoin (BTC) chain with 1 MB blocksize limit and the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) chain with 8 MB blocksize limit. The split has been called the Bitcoin Cash hard fork.
On 6 December 2017 the software marketplace Steam announced that it would no longer accept bitcoin as payment for its products, citing slow transactions speeds, price volatility, and high fees for transactions.
2018
On 22 January 2018, South Korea brought in a regulation that requires all the bitcoin traders to reveal their identity, thus putting a ban on anonymous trading of bitcoins.
On 24 January 2018, the online payment firm Stripe announced that it would phase out its support for bitcoin payments by late April 2018, citing declining demand, rising fees and longer transaction times as the reasons.
On 25 January 2018 George Soros referred to bitcoin as a bubble.
2019
2020
On 2 July 2020, the Indian company 69
Shares started to quote a set of bitcoin exchange-traded products (ETP) on the Xetra trading system of the Deutsche Boerse.
On 1 September 2020, the Wiener Börse listed its first 21 titles denominated in cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, including the services of real-time quotation and securities settlement.
On 3 September 2020, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange admitted in its Regulated Market the quotation of the first bitcoin exchange-traded note (ETN), centrally cleared via Eurex Clearing.
In October 2020, PayPal announced that it would allow its users to buy and sell bitcoin on its platform, although not to deposit or withdraw bitcoins.
2021
On 1 June 2021, El Salvador President, Nayib Bukele announced his plans to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, this would render El Salvador the world's first country to do so.
On 8 June 2021, at the initiative of the president, pro-government deputies in the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador voted legislation—Ley Bitcoin or the Bitcoin Law—to make Bitcoin legal tender in the country alongside the US Dollar.
Prices and value history
Among the factors which may have contributed to this rise were the European sovereign-debt crisisparticularly the 2012–2013 Cypriot financial crisisstatements by FinCEN improving the currency's legal standing, and rising media and Internet interest.
Until 2013, almost all market with bitcoins were in United States dollars (US$). History of Bitcoin (Bitcoin wiki)
As the market valuation of the total stock of bitcoins approached US$1 billion, some commentators called bitcoin prices a bubble. In early April 2013, the price per bitcoin dropped from $266 to around $50 and then rose to around $100. Over two weeks starting late June 2013 the price dropped steadily to $70. The price began to recover, peaking once again on 1 October at $140. On 2 October, The Silk Road was seized by the FBI. This seizure caused a flash crash to $110. The price quickly rebounded, returning to $200 several weeks later. The latest run went from $200 on 3 November to $900 on 18 November. Bitcoin passed US$1,000 on 28 November 2013 at Mt. Gox.
Forks
A fork referring to a blockchain is defined variously as a blockchain split into two paths forward, or as a change of protocol rules. Accidental forks on the bitcoin network regularly occur as part of the mining process. They happen when two miners find a block at a similar point in time. As a result, the network briefly forks. This fork is subsequently resolved by the software which automatically chooses the longest chain, thereby orphaning the extra blocks added to the shorter chain (that were dropped by the longer chain).
March 2013
On 12 March 2013, a bitcoin miner running version 0.8.0 of the bitcoin software created a large block that was considered invalid in version 0.7 (due to an undiscovered inconsistency between the two versions).
This created a split or "fork" in the blockchain since computers with the recent version of the software accepted the invalid block and continued to build on the diverging chain, whereas older versions of the software rejected it and continued extending the blockchain without the offending block.
This split resulted in two separate transaction logs being formed without clear consensus, which allowed for the same funds to be spent differently on each chain. In response, the Mt. Gox exchange temporarily halted bitcoin deposits. The exchange rate fell 23% to $37 on the Mt. Gox exchange but rose most of the way back to its prior level of $48.
Miners resolved the split by downgrading to version 0.7, putting them back on track with the canonical blockchain.
User funds largely remained unaffected and were available when network consensus was restored. The network reached consensus and continued to operate as normal a few hours after the split.
August 2017
Two significant forks took place in August. One, Bitcoin Cash, is a hard fork off the main chain in opposition to the other, which is a soft fork to implement Segregated Witness.
Regulatory issues
On 18 March 2013, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (or FinCEN), a bureau of the United States Department of the Treasury, issued a report regarding centralized and decentralized "virtual currencies" and their legal status within "money services business" (MSB) and Bank Secrecy Act regulations. It classified digital currencies and other digital payment systems such as bitcoin as "virtual currencies" because they are not legal tender under any sovereign jurisdiction. FinCEN cleared American users of bitcoin of legal obligations by saying, "A user of virtual currency is not an MSB under FinCEN's regulations and therefore is not subject to MSB registration, reporting, and recordkeeping regulations." However, it held that American entities who generate "virtual currency" such as bitcoins are money transmitters or MSBs if they sell their generated currency for national currency: "...a person that creates units of convertible virtual currency and sells those units to another person for real currency or its equivalent is engaged in transmission to another location and is a money transmitter." This specifically extends to "miners" of the bitcoin currency who may have to register as MSBs and abide by the legal requirements of being a money transmitter if they sell their generated bitcoins for national currency and are within the United States. Since FinCEN issued this guidance, dozens of virtual currency exchangers and administrators have registered with FinCEN, and FinCEN is receiving an increasing number of suspicious activity reports (SARs) from these entities.
Additionally, FinCEN claimed regulation over American entities that manage bitcoins in a payment processor setting or as an exchanger: "In addition, a person is an exchanger and a money transmitter if the person accepts such de-centralized convertible virtual currency from one person and transmits it to another person as part of the acceptance and transfer of currency, funds, or other value that substitutes for currency."
In summary, FinCEN's decision would require bitcoin exchanges where bitcoins are traded for traditional currencies to disclose large transactions and suspicious activity, comply with money laundering regulations, and collect information about their customers as traditional financial institutions are required to do.
Jennifer Shasky Calvery, the director of FinCEN said, "Virtual currencies are subject to the same rules as other currencies. ... Basic money-services business rules apply here."
In its October 2012 study, Virtual currency schemes, the European Central Bank concluded that the growth of virtual currencies will continue, and, given the currencies' inherent price instability, lack of close regulation, and risk of illegal uses by anonymous users, the Bank warned that periodic examination of developments would be necessary to reassess risks.
In 2013, the U.S. Treasury extended its anti-money laundering regulations to processors of bitcoin transactions.. Blog.aarp.org (19 March 2013). Retrieved on 20 April 2013.
In June 2013, Bitcoin Foundation board member Jon Matonis wrote in Forbes that he received a warning letter from the California Department of Financial Institutions accusing the foundation of unlicensed money transmission. Matonis denied that the foundation is engaged in money transmission and said he viewed the case as "an opportunity to educate state regulators."
In late July 2013, the industry group Committee for the Establishment of the Digital Asset Transfer Authority began to form to set best practices and standards, to work with regulators and policymakers to adapt existing currency requirements to digital currency technology and business models and develop risk management standards.
In 2014, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed an administrative action against Erik T. Voorhees, for violating Securities Act Section 5 for publicly offering unregistered interests in two bitcoin websites in exchange for bitcoins.
By December 2017, bitcoin futures contracts began to be offered, and the US Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) was formally settling the futures daily.
By 2019, multiple trading companies were offering services around bitcoin futures.
Bitcoin faucets
A bitcoin faucet is a reward system, in the form of a website or software app, that dispenses rewards in the form of a satoshi, which is worth a hundredth of a millionth BTC, for visitors to claim in exchange for completing a captcha or task as described by the website. There are also faucets that dispense alternative cryptocurrencies. The first bitcoin faucet was called "The Bitcoin Faucet" and was developed by Gavin Andresen in 2010. It originally gave out five bitcoins per person.
The rewards are dispensed at various predetermined intervals of time as rewards for completing simple tasks such as captcha completion and as prizes from simple games. Faucets usually give fractions of a bitcoin, but the amount will typically fluctuate according to the value of bitcoin. Some faucets also have random larger rewards. To reduce mining fees, faucets normally save up these small individual payments in their own ledgers, which then add up to make a larger payment that is sent to a user's bitcoin address.
Because bitcoin transactions are irreversible and there are many faucets, they have become targets for hackers interested in stealing bitcoins. Advertisements are the main income source of bitcoin faucets. Faucets try to get traffic from users by offering free bitcoin as an incentive. Some ad networks also pay directly in bitcoin. This means that faucets often have a low profit margin. Some faucets also make money by mining altcoin in the background, using the user's CPU.
Theft and exchange shutdowns
Bitcoins can be stored in a bitcoin cryptocurrency wallet. Theft of bitcoin has been documented on numerous occasions. At other times, bitcoin exchanges have shut down, taking their clients' bitcoins with them. A Wired'' study published April 2013 showed that 45 percent of bitcoin exchanges end up closing.
On 19 June 2011, a security breach of the Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange caused the nominal price of a bitcoin to fraudulently drop to one cent on the Mt. Gox exchange, after a hacker used credentials from a Mt. Gox auditor's compromised computer illegally to transfer a large number of bitcoins to himself. They used the exchange's software to sell them all nominally, creating a massive "ask" order at any price. Within minutes, the price reverted to its correct user-traded value. Accounts with the equivalent of more than US$8,750,000 were affected.
In July 2011, the operator of Bitomat, the third-largest bitcoin exchange, announced that he had lost access to his wallet.dat file with about 17,000 bitcoins (roughly equivalent to US$220,000 at that time). He announced that he would sell the service for the missing amount, aiming to use funds from the sale to refund his customers.
In August 2011, MyBitcoin, a now defunct bitcoin transaction processor, declared that it was hacked, which caused it to be shut down, paying 49% on customer deposits, leaving more than 78,000 bitcoins (equivalent to roughly US$800,000 at that time) unaccounted for.
In early August 2012, a lawsuit was filed in San Francisco court against Bitcoinica a bitcoin trading venue claiming about US$460,000 from the company. Bitcoinica was hacked twice in 2012, which led to allegations that the venue neglected the safety of customers' money and cheated them out of withdrawal requests.
In late August 2012, an operation titled Bitcoin Savings and Trust was shut down by the owner, leaving around US$5.6 million in bitcoin-based debts; this led to allegations that the operation was a Ponzi scheme. In September 2012, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had reportedly started an investigation on the case.
In September 2012, Bitfloor, a bitcoin exchange, also reported being hacked, with 24,000 bitcoins (worth about US$250,000) stolen. As a result, Bitfloor suspended operations. The same month, Bitfloor resumed operations; its founder said that he reported the theft to FBI, and that he plans to repay the victims, though the time frame for repayment is unclear.
On 3 April 2013, Instawallet, a web-based wallet provider, was hacked, resulting in the theft of over 35,000 bitcoins which were valued at US$129.90 per bitcoin at the time, or nearly $4.6 million in total. As a result, Instawallet suspended operations.
On 11 August 2013, the Bitcoin Foundation announced that a bug in a pseudorandom number generator within the Android operating system had been exploited to steal from wallets generated by Android apps; fixes were provided 13 August 2013.
In October 2013, Inputs.io, an Australian-based bitcoin wallet provider was hacked with a loss of 4100 bitcoins, worth over A$1 million at time of theft. The service was run by the operator TradeFortress. Coinchat, the associated bitcoin chat room, was taken over by a new admin.
On 26 October 2013, a Hong Kong–based bitcoin trading platform owned by Global Bond Limited (GBL) vanished with 30 million yuan (US$5 million) from 500 investors.
Mt. Gox, the Japan-based exchange that in 2013 handled 70% of all worldwide bitcoin traffic, declared bankruptcy in February 2014, with bitcoins worth about $390 million missing, for unclear reasons. The CEO was eventually arrested and charged with embezzlement.
On 3 March 2014, Flexcoin announced it was closing its doors because of a hack attack that took place the day before. In a statement that once occupied their homepage, they announced on 3 March 2014 that "As Flexcoin does not have the resources, assets, or otherwise to come back from this loss [the hack], we are closing our doors immediately." Users can no longer log into the site.
Chinese cryptocurrency exchange Bter lost $2.1 million in BTC in February 2015.
The Slovenian exchange Bitstamp lost bitcoin worth $5.1 million to a hack in January 2015.
The US-based exchange Cryptsy declared bankruptcy in January 2016, ostensibly because of a 2014 hacking incident; the court-appointed receiver later alleged that Cryptsy's CEO had stolen $3.3 million.
In August 2016, hackers stole some $72 million in customer bitcoin from the Hong Kong–based exchange Bitfinex.
In December 2017, hackers stole 4,700 bitcoins from NiceHash a platform that allowed users to sell hashing power. The value of the stolen bitcoins totaled about $80M.
On 19 December 2017, Yapian, a company that owns the Youbit cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea, filed for bankruptcy following a hack, the second in eight months.
Taxation and regulation
In 2012, the Cryptocurrency Legal Advocacy Group (CLAG) stressed the importance for taxpayers to determine whether taxes are due on a bitcoin-related transaction based on whether one has experienced a "realization event": when a taxpayer has provided a service in exchange for bitcoins, a realization event has probably occurred and any gain or loss would likely be calculated using fair market values for the service provided."
In August 2013, the German Finance Ministry characterized bitcoin as a unit of account, usable in multilateral clearing circles and subject to capital gains tax if held less than one year.
On 5 December 2013, the People's Bank of China announced in a press release regarding bitcoin regulation that whilst individuals in China are permitted to freely trade and exchange bitcoins as a commodity, it is prohibited for Chinese financial banks to operate using bitcoins or for bitcoins to be used as legal tender currency, and that entities dealing with bitcoins must track and report suspicious activity to prevent money laundering. The value of bitcoin dropped on various exchanges between 11 and 20 percent following the regulation announcement, before rebounding upward again.
Arbitrary blockchain content
Bitcoin's blockchain can be loaded with arbitrary data. In 2018 researchers from RWTH Aachen University and Goethe University identified 1,600 files added to the blockchain, 59 of which included links to unlawful images of child exploitation, politically sensitive content, or privacy violations. "Our analysis shows that certain content, e.g. illegal pornography, can render the mere possession of a blockchain illegal."
Interpol also sent out an alert in 2015 saying that "the design of the blockchain means there is the possibility of malware being injected and permanently hosted with no methods currently available to wipe this data".
References
External links
Interactive bitcoin history
Bitcoin
Online advertising
Cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin
Bitcoin |
41029085 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexagonal%20sampling | Hexagonal sampling | A multidimensional signal is a function of M independent variables where . Real world signals, which are generally continuous time signals, have to be discretized (sampled) in order to ensure that digital systems can be used to process the signals. It is during this process of discretization where sampling comes into picture. Although there are many ways of obtaining a discrete representation of a continuous time signal, periodic sampling is by far the simplest scheme. Theoretically, sampling can be performed with respect to any set of points. But practically, sampling is carried out with respect to a set of points that have a certain algebraic structure. Such structures are called lattices. Mathematically, the process of sampling an N-dimensional signal can be written as:
where is continuous domain M-dimensional vector (M-D) that is being sampled, is an M-dimensional integer vector corresponding to indices of a sample, and V is an N X N Sampling Matrix.
Motivation
Multidimensional sampling provides the opportunity to look at digital methods to process signals. Some of the advantages of processing signals in the digital domain include flexibility via programmable DSP operations, signal storage without the loss of fidelity, opportunity for encryption in communication, lower sensitivity to hardware tolerances. Thus, digital methods are simultaneously both powerful and flexible. In many applications, they act as less expensive alternatives to their analog counterparts. Sometimes, the algorithms implemented using digital hardware are so complex that they have no analog counterparts. Multidimensional digital signal processing deals with processing signals represented as multidimensional arrays such as 2-D sequences or sampled images. Processing these signals in the digital domain permits the use of digital hardware where in signal processing operations are specified by algorithms. As real world signals are continuous time signals, multidimensional sampling plays a crucial role in discretizing the real world signals. The discrete time signals are in turn processed using digital hardware to extract information from the signal.
Preliminaries
Region of Support
The region outside of which the samples of the signal take zero values is known as the Region of support (ROS). From the definition, it is clear that the region of support of a signal is not unique.
Fourier transform
The Fourier transform is a tool that allows us to simplify mathematical operations performed on the signal. The transform basically represents any signal as a weighted combination of sinusoids. The Fourier and the inverse Fourier transform of an M-dimensional signal can be defined as follows:
The cap symbol ^ indicates that the operation is performed on vectors. The Fourier transform of the sampled signal is observed to be a periodic extension of the continuous time Fourier transform of the signal. This is mathematically represented as:
where and is the periodicity matrix where ~ denotes matrix transposition.
Thus sampling in the spatial domain results in periodicity in the Fourier domain.
Aliasing
A band limited signal may be periodically replicated in many ways. If the replication results in an overlap between replicated regions, the signal suffers from aliasing. Under such conditions, a continuous time signal cannot be perfectly recovered from its samples. Thus in order to ensure perfect recovery of the continuous signal, there must be zero overlap multidimensional sampling of the replicated regions in the transformed domain. As in the case of 1-dimensional signals, aliasing can be prevented if the continuous time signal is sampled at an adequate sufficiently high rate.
Sampling density
It is a measure of the number of samples per unit area. It is defined as:
.
The minimum number of samples per unit area required to completely recover the continuous time signal is termed as optimal sampling density. In applications where memory or processing time are limited, emphasis must be given to minimizing the number of samples required to represent the signal completely.
Existing approaches
For a bandlimited waveform, there are infinitely many ways the signal can be sampled without producing aliases in the Fourier domain. But only two strategies are commonly used: rectangular sampling and hexagonal sampling.
Rectangular and Hexagonal sampling
In rectangular sampling, a 2-dimensional signal, for example, is sampled according to the following V matrix:
where T1 and T2 are the sampling periods along the horizontal and vertical direction respectively.
In hexagonal sampling, the V matrix assumes the following general form:
The difference in the efficiency of the two schemes is highlighted using a bandlimited signal with a circular region of support of radius R. The circle can be inscribed in a square of length 2R or a regular hexagon of length . Consequently, the region of support is now transformed into a square and a hexagon respectively.
If these regions are periodically replicated in the frequency domain such that there is zero overlap between any two regions, then by periodically replicating the square region of support, we effectively sample the continuous signal on a rectangular lattice. Similarly periodic replication of the hexagonal region of support maps to sampling the continuous signal on a hexagonal lattice.
From U, the periodicity matrix, we can calculate the optimal sampling density for both the rectangular and hexagonal schemes. It is found that in order to completely recover the circularly band-limited signal, the hexagonal sampling scheme requires 13.4% fewer samples than the rectangular sampling scheme. The reduction may appear to be of little significance for a 2-dimensional signal. But as the dimensionality of the signal increases, the efficiency of the hexagonal sampling scheme will become far more evident. For instance, the reduction achieved for an 8-dimensional signal is 93.8%.
To highlight the importance of the obtained result , try and visualize an image as a collection of infinite number of samples. The primary entity responsible for vision, i.e. the photoreceptors (rods and cones) are present on the retina of all mammals. These cells are not arranged in rows and columns. By adapting a hexagonal sampling scheme, our eyes are able to process images much more efficiently. The importance of hexagonal sampling lies in the fact that the photoreceptors of the human vision system lie on a hexagonal sampling lattice and, thus, perform hexagonal sampling. In fact, it can be shown that the hexagonal sampling scheme is the optimal sampling scheme for a circularly band-limited signal.
Applications
Aliasing effects minimized by the use of optimal sampling grids
Recent advances in the CCD technology has made hexagonal sampling feasible for real life applications. Historically, because of technology constraints, detector arrays were implemented only on 2-dimensional rectangular sampling lattices with rectangular shape detectors. But the super [CCD] detector introduced by Fuji has an octagonal shaped pixel in a hexagonal grid. Theoretically, the performance of the detector was greatly increased by introducing an octagonal pixel. The number of pixels required to represent the sample was reduced and there was significant improvement in the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) when compared with that of a rectangular pixel. But the drawback of using hexagonal pixels is that the associated fill factor will be less than 82%. An alternative method would be to interpolate hexagonal pixels in such a manner that we ultimately end up with a rectangular grid. The Spot 5 satellite incorporates a similar technique where two identical linear CCD's transmit two quasi-identical images that are shifted by half a pixel. On interpolating the two images and processing them, the functioning of a detector with a hexagonal pixel is mimicked.
Hexagonal structure for Intelligent vision
One of the major challenges encountered in the field of computer graphics is to represent the real world continuous signal as a discrete set of points on the physical screen. It has been long known that hexagonal sampling grids have several benefits compared to rectangular grids. Peterson and Middleton investigated sampling and reconstruction of wave number limited M dimensional functions and came to the conclusion that the optimal sampling lattice, in general, is not hexagonal.
Russell M. Mersereau developed hexagonal discrete Fourier transform (DFT) and hexagonal finite extent impulse response filters. He was able to show that for circularly bandlimited signals, hexagonal sampling is more efficient than rectangular sampling. Cramblitt and Allebach developed methods for designing optimal hexagonal time-sequential sampling patterns and discussed their merits relative to those designed for a rectangular sampling grid.
One of the unique features of a hexagonal sampling grid is that its Fourier transform is still hexagonal. There is also an inverse relationship between the distance between successive rows and columns (assuming the samples are located at the centre of the hexagon). This inverse relationship plays a huge role in minimizing aliasing and maximizing the minimum sampling density. Quantization error is bound to be present when discretizing continuous real world signals. Experiments have been performed to determine which detector configuration will yield the least quantization error. Hexagonal spatial sampling was found to yield the least quantization error for a given resolution of the sensor.
Consistent connectivity of hexagonal grids: In a hexagonal grid, we can define only a background of 6 neighborhood samples. However, in a square grid, we can define a background of 4 or 8 neighborhood samples (if diagonal connectivity is permitted). Because of the absence of such a choice in Hexagonal grids, efficient algorithms can be designed. Consistent connectivity is also responsible for better angular resolution. This is why hexagonal lattice is much better at representing curved objects than the rectangular lattice. Despite of these several advantages, hexagonal grids have not been used practically in computer vision to its maximum potential because of the lack of hardware to process, capture and display hexagonal based images. As highlighted earlier with the Spot 5 satellite, one of the methods being looked at to overcome this hardware difficulty is to mimic hexagonal pixels using square pixels.
References
Computer graphics |
41047035 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data%20in%20use | Data in use | Data in use is an information technology term referring to active data which is stored in a non-persistent digital state typically in computer random-access memory (RAM), CPU caches, or CPU registers.
Scranton, PA data scientist Daniel Allen in 1996 proposed Data in use as a complement to the terms data in transit and data at rest which together define the three states of digital data.
Alternative definitions
Data in use refers to data in computer memory. Some cloud software as a service (SaaS) providers refer to data in use as any data currently being processed by applications, as the CPU and memory are utilized.
Concerns
Because of its nature, data in use is of increasing concern to businesses, government agencies and other institutions. Data in use, or memory, can contain sensitive data including digital certificates, encryption keys, intellectual property (software algorithms, design data), and personally identifiable information. Compromising data in use enables access to encrypted data at rest and data in motion. For example, someone with access to random access memory can parse that memory to locate the encryption key for data at rest. Once they have obtained that encryption key, they can decrypt encrypted data at rest.
Threats to data in use can come in the form of cold boot attacks, malicious hardware devices, rootkits and bootkits.
Full memory encryption
Encryption, which prevents data visibility in the event of its unauthorized access or theft, is commonly used to protect Data in Motion and Data at Rest and increasingly recognized as an optimal method for protecting Data in Use.
There have been multiple projects to encrypt memory. Microsoft Xbox systems are designed to provide memory encryption and the company PrivateCore presently has a commercial software product vCage to provide attestation along with full memory encryption for x86 servers. Several papers have been published highlighting the availability of security-enhanced x86 and ARM commodity processors. In that work, an ARM Cortex-A8 processor is used as the substrate on which a full memory encryption solution is built. Process segments (for example, stack, code or heap) can be encrypted individually or in composition. This work marks the first full memory encryption implementation on a mobile general-purpose commodity processor. The system provides both confidentiality and integrity protections of code and data which are encrypted everywhere outside the CPU boundary.
For x86 systems, AMD has a Secure Memory Encryption (SME) feature introduced in 2017 with Epyc. Intel has promised to deliver its Total Memory Encryption (TME) feature in an upcoming CPU.
CPU-based key storage
Operating system kernel patches such as TRESOR and Loop-Amnesia modify the operating system so that CPU registers can be used to store encryption keys and avoid holding encryption keys in RAM. While this approach is not general purpose and does not protect all data in use, it does protect against cold boot attacks. Encryption keys are held inside the CPU rather than in RAM so that data at rest encryption keys are protected against attacks that might compromise encryption keys in memory.
Enclaves
Enclaves enable an “enclave” to be secured with encryption in RAM so that enclave data is encrypted while in RAM but available as clear text inside the CPU and CPU cache. Intel Corporation has introduced the concept of “enclaves” as part of its Software Guard Extensions. Intel revealed an architecture combining software and CPU hardware in technical papers published in 2013.
Cryptographic protocols
Several cryptographic tools, including secure multi-party computation and homomorphic encryption, allow for the private computation of data on untrusted systems. Data in use could be operated upon while encrypted and never exposed to the system doing the processing.
See also
Also see Alternative Definition section of Data At Rest
Homomorphic encryption is a form of encryption that allows computation on ciphertexts.
Zero-knowledge proof is a method by which one party (the prover) can prove to another party (the verifier) that they know a value x, without conveying any information apart from the fact that they know the value x.
Secure multi-party computation is a method for parties to jointly compute a function over their inputs while keeping those inputs private.
Non-interactive zero-knowledge proof (NIZKs) are zero-knowledge proofs that require no interaction between the prover and verifier.
Format-preserving encryption (FPE), refers to encrypting in such a way that the output (the ciphertext) is in the same format as the input (the plaintext)
Blinding is a cryptography technique by which an agent can provide a service to a client in an encoded form without knowing either the real input or the real output.
Example privacy-enhancing technologies
References
Computer data
Cryptography |
41135246 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-governance%20in%20the%20United%20States | E-governance in the United States | Electronic governance, or E-governance in the United States describes the systems by which information and communication technology are used to allow citizens, businesses and other government agencies to access state and federal government services online. Since the Internet boom in the 1990s, people in the United States can now access many government programs online, including electronic voting, health care and tax returns. They can also access governmental data that were not previously available.
Three models of interaction in e-government
According to Andrew Chadwick and Christopher May, in their article Interaction between States and Citizens in the Age of the Internet: “e-Government” in the United States, Britain, and the European Union, there are three major models of interaction associated with e-government, the managerial, the consultative and the participatory.
The managerial model stresses a vertical flow of information from the government to its citizens. This model is concerned with efficiency, especially with the increase in speed when delivering information and services, as well as a reduction of the costs. This model establishes a client type relationship between the government and its citizens.
The consultative model also stresses vertical information flow but is more concerned with responding to needs of societal interest as expressed electronically by the citizens. This includes online elections, and other input from voters and requires an enormous amount of citizen involvement.
The participatory model is the most interactive of the three major models of involvement between government and citizens. Unlike the other two, the participatory model strives for horizontal and multi directional flow of information that creates a cyber society that can be more effective for the general public. This model becomes relevant when universal access and widespread usage of the technology have become part of the norm in terms of government-citizen interaction.
Although at any given time these models of interaction can stand alone as the ideal form of involvement between the parties, often they overlap and provide multiple forms of interaction. These three models show potential ways for citizen and government interaction, there are advantages and disadvantages to the implementation of e-government and how it can affect people involved in the political process in the United States.
Citizen involvement
Understanding the involvement and interaction between government and its citizens through the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) is crucial when discussing e-governance in the United States. Holden defines e-government as “the delivery of government services and information electronically 24 hours per day, seven days per week.”
There are many benefits associated with e-governance in the United States and the involvement of citizens in the process. Due to e-governance, relevant information is more readily available to the public, while governmental programs become less expensive and more efficient. This allows most citizens to become part of the political process without leaving the comfort of their home. This increases the number of people willing to be involved in democracy and voice their opinions due to the instant access to the government.
Another benefit in citizen involvement in e-government is building trust between the citizens and the state. Over the past decades there has been a decline in citizens overall trust in the government. With such easy access to information, government programs and officials, e-government provides the perfect platform to start building the trust between these two parties.
There are also a few potential issues with citizen involvement associated with e-government.
Citizen involvement stems from problems with the actual technology used for e-governance and the potential that it will not always function as it is supposed to. A good example of this was the problems with the healthcare.gov website that was established to help citizens with healthcare information and enrollment during the Obama Administration. Since the technology initially did not consistently work, this limited the initial effectiveness of the program and ultimately made it more difficult instead of more efficient. The website has since been modified in the attempt to continue providing this healthcare e-governance service.
Information dispersal and public engagement
Information dispersal and public engagement are key to the success of e-governance. However, the process of successfully engaging the public is quite complex. Due to the wide range of Internet advancements in recent years, the coordination of public engagement is difficult. Yet, the common desire to stay informed and find accessible methods to govern remains crucial.
EGov prospective future
The focus of technological implementation during each generation has faced a new and difficult sets of challenges. Previously Size and cost and function caused there to be a small focused use of computers. As computers became cost efficient and versatile there was difficulty dealing with the management of the new technology. Increasingly, privacy and security are becoming important issues. Since technology permeates our society and all of our lives are within the digital spectrum a whole new dimension of vulnerabilities is now needing to be addressed.
Currently the focus majority of the government application has been the increase in efficiency and information and communication technologies. In the future this trend will continue. Recently increased emphasis has been placed in democratic engagement.
As new technology is developed new rules and policies have to be crafted, and old policies adapted, each time adding another layer of complexity to integration and potentially mitigating benefits from embracing new technology. Many government agencies have struggled to adjust to the adoption of digital data. Other agencies struggle to control the flow of information such as security and police organizations not sharing information, and the controversial gathering of too much information.
If e-governance in the United States is to advance the demand more sophisticated technological solutions for encryption, information sharing, and interactive communication will need to be addressed.
References
Sources
Public Governance of Healthcare in the United States: A Transaction Costs Economics (TCE) Analysis of the 2010 Reform
Subjects: Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design ; National Government Expenditures and Health ; State and Local Government: Health; Education; Welfare; Public Pensions ; Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
E-government in the United States
Politics of the United States by issue |
41139401 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans%20Hermes | Hans Hermes | Hans Hermes (; 12 February 1912 – 10 November 2003) was a German mathematician and logician, who made significant contributions to the foundations of mathematical logic. Hermes was born in Neunkirchen, Germany.
Personal life
From 1931, Hermes studied mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and philosophy at the University of Freiburg. In 1937 he passed the state examination in Münster and was attending there in 1938 when the physicist Adolf Kratzer was present. After that he went on a scholarship to the University of Göttingen and then became an assistant at the University of Bonn. During World War II he was a soldier on the Channel Island of Jersey until 1943 and then on to the Chemical Physics Institute of the Navy in Kiel. At the end of the war he moved to Toplitzsee, where he was tasked with working on new encryption methods. In 1947, he became a lecturer at the University of Bonn where he took his habilitation, his thesis called Analytical manifolds in Riemannian areas. In 1949 he became a Professor at the University of Münster, where he turned back to the subject of mathematical logic.
Work
Hans Hermes was a pioneer of the Turing machine as the central concept of predictability. In 1937, Hermes reported under the title Definite terms and predictable numbers an article about the Turing machine, which still adheres closely to Turing ideas, but doesn't contain the concepts of the universal machine and the decision problem.
In 1952, he published together with Heinrich Scholz, an encyclopedia, which has significantly promoted the development of mathematical logic in Germany.
In 1953 he took over management of the influential Institute for Mathematical logic and basic research at the University of Münster, from Heinrich Scholz. Under his leadership, the Institute became a noted centre for attracting young researchers, both within the Federal Republic but also abroad. With Hermes there, among others, were Wilhelm Ackermann and Gisbert Hasenjaeger. In 1966 he accepted an appointment to the newly established Chair of Mathematical Logic and the Foundations of Mathematics at the University of Freiburg and began to build an eponymous department at the Mathematical Institute, becoming Professor Emeritus there in 1977.
In 1954 Hermes produced an informal proof, that the possibilities of programmable eigenvalues include the predictable functions , so the calculating machines have the same cardinality as Turing machines re: Turing completeness.
Hermes textbook's, as well as his scientific work, persuaded Heinz-Dieter Ebbinghaus to note the originality, accuracy and intuitive clarity of his textbooks. He was also an outstanding academic teacher who knew how to convey difficult issues and complicated proofs and make them extremely understandable.
Hermes was also worked on the compilation and publication of the papers of Gottlob Frege, already begun by Scholz. In 1962 he was one of the founding members of the German Association for mathematical logic and for basic research of the exact sciences (DVMLG). In 1950, he was with Arnold Schmidt and Jürgen von Kempski, co-founder of the Archive for Mathematical Logic and Foundations of Mathematics. In 1967, he became a member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences.
Publications
Definite terms and predictable numbers., Semester reports for the care of the relationship between university and school from the mathematical seminars, Münster 1937, 110–123.
An axiomatization of general mechanics., Research on logic and the foundations of the exact sciences, Issue 3, Leipzig, 1938.
Machines for decision of mathematical problems., Mathematics and Physical semester reports (Göttingen) (1952), 179–189.
The universality of program-controlled computing machines., Mathematics and Physical semester reports (Göttingen) 4 (1954), 42–53.
Introduction to lattice theory. Berlin – Göttingen – Heidelberg 1955 2 Advanced edition 1967
Enumerability – Decidability – predictability. Introduction to the theory of recursive functions., Berlin – Göttingen – Heidelberg 1961 2 Edition 1971 (as Heidelberg Paperback).
Introduction to Mathematical Logic – Classical predicate logic. Teubner Verlag, Stuttgart 1963, 2nd expanded edition in 1969.
A Term logic with choice operator., Berlin, 1965.
Recursive functions., With Klaus Heidler and Friedrich-K. Mahn, Mannheim – Vienna – Zurich 1977.
Figures and games., Heinz-Dieter Ebbinghaus, Friedrich Hirzebruch, Hermes, among other things: numbers, Springer-Verlag, 3rd Edition 1992
Decision problem and domino games. inc Konrad Jacobs (ed.) Selecta Mathematica II, Springer, Heidelberg paperbacks, 1970
Foundations of mathematics., with Werner Markwald, in Behnke, sweet, Fladt: Principles of Mathematics, Vol.1, 1958, Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht
Mathematical Logic, Encyclopedia of Mathematical Sciences., with Heinrich Scholz New Series, 1952
Theory of Associations, Encyclopedia of Mathematical Sciences., with Gottfried Köthe New Series, 1939
References
External links
Hermes, In memoriam WILHELM ACKERMANN 1896–1962 (pdf 945 KB)
Hans Hermes at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
1912 births
2003 deaths
20th-century German mathematicians
Mathematical logicians
Theoretical computer scientists
University of Göttingen alumni
University of Münster faculty
University of Bonn faculty |
41157074 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marques%20Brownlee | Marques Brownlee | Marques Keith Brownlee ( ; born December 3, 1993), also known professionally as MKBHD, is an American YouTuber and professional ultimate frisbee player, best known for his technology-focused videos as well as his podcast Waveform. As of December 2021, he has over 15 million subscribers and over 2.7 billion total video views. Vic Gundotra, a former Senior Vice President of Google, called Brownlee "the best technology reviewer on the planet right now". The former name of his YouTube channel is a concatenation of MKB (Brownlee's initials) and HD (for high-definition).
Career
Brownlee joined YouTube on March 21, 2008. He first started uploading technology videos in January 2009, while still in high school, about new products or reviews of products he already owned. He produced his first videos through screencasting. His first several hundred videos were primarily hardware tutorials and freeware. As of December 2019, his channel has gained over 10 million subscribers, making MKBHD one of the most subscribed-to technology-focused YouTube channels, according to Social Blade. Brownlee uploaded his 1000th video on March 29, 2018.
Brownlee's reviews have been promoted by other review sites as well. Engadget promoted the site in January 2012 when they featured his tour of the then-new cloud storage service called Insync. In November 2013, one of Brownlee's most viral videos was posted based on the LG G Flex, where he performed various scratch tests to portray the self-healing ability of the device. The video reached one million views on the first day. , the video has almost 8 million views. In December 2013, Brownlee did an interview with Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside. In May 2014, Brownlee did the first over-the-air interview with Evan Blass.
Brownlee's video review and scratch test of a rumored 4.7-inch sapphire display component for the iPhone 6, uploaded July 7, 2014, gained immediate popularity, being featured on sites such as The Verge, Forbes, HuffPost, CNET, and Time Magazine. The video appeared on NBC News, and in newspapers across the world. , the video has gained over 9.1 million views on YouTube and has had over 62,000 ratings. Brownlee also has a similar video regarding a dummy model of the iPhone 6, uploaded a couple of months earlier, which (as of December 2019) has since gained over 6.58 million views on YouTube.
In December 2015, Brownlee interviewed professional NBA basketball player Kobe Bryant, titled Talking Tech with Kobe Bryant!, in which he talks about tech interests of Kobe and the most recent Kobe-designed Nike shoes, the Kobe 11.
During one of the 2016 Democratic presidential primary debates that was cosponsored by YouTube, Brownlee asked the candidates, by video, whether tech companies and the government can find a middle ground over encryption while considering rights to privacy and national security.
In October 2016, he interviewed Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering Craig Federighi during the release of their latest MacBook Pro 2016. The latter was, again, invited to Brownlee's channel after WWDC 2020 in June.
In March 2018, he interviewed Neil deGrasse Tyson. In April 2018, Brownlee won Shorty Awards Creator of the Decade. In June 2018, Brownlee was a guest on Hot Ones. In August 2018, he interviewed Tesla CEO Elon Musk and with assistance of TLD (Jonathan Morrison) filmed Tesla Factory Tour with Elon Musk! In December 2018, Brownlee was featured in YouTube Rewind, later releasing a video on his complaints about the series.
In February 2019, he interviewed Bill Gates. In October 2019, he interviewed Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella before Microsoft's Surface announcement, in addition to actor Will Smith.
Marques Brownlee reached 10 million subscribers on December 18, 2019.
He interviewed Bill Gates again in February 2020. In September 2020, he interviewed Mark Zuckerberg, discussing holograms and the future of virtual reality. In December 2020, he interviewed Barack Obama, discussing use of technology and social media in government. In December 2020, he was honored in the Forbes 30 Under 30 listing in its social media category.
In May 2021, Marques interviewed Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google on various subjects such as future technology and AI.
Retro Tech
Retro Tech is an YouTube Original series produced by Vox Media Studios starring MKBHD which aired on December 2, 2019. In the series, Brownlee interviews fellow YouTube creators and celebrity guests and discusses iconic pieces of technology from the past which have had a major impact on modern life and culture. Season 2 of Retro Tech began in April 2021, in which he reviews technology that was believed to be the future but failed to ever reach production or the general public.
Waveform: The MKBHD Podcast
Brownlee is the host of a technology podcast with co-host Andrew Manganelli, who is a producer for the MKBHD YouTube channel. The podcast is called the Waveform: The MKBHD Podcast and is sometimes referred to as Waveform and WVFRM. The podcast is focused on consumer electronics and surrounding topics. The first episode was aired on July 31, 2019. Brownlee announced the podcast on his YouTube channel on August 13, 2019, in the video titled "Introducing Waveform: The MKBHD Podcast!". There have been multiple high-profile guests on the podcast, including iJustine, Mark Zuckerberg, Craig Federighi, and Carl Pei.
The Studio
Brownlee is also the host of another YouTube channel called The Studio, which focuses on behind-the-scenes activity of the MKBHD team.
Smartphone Awards
In December 2014, Brownlee started his Smartphone Awards series, where he picks the best phones in certain categories from the past year. In 2017, Brownlee started to create physical awards that were featured in the video, most of which were requested and sent to the companies whose phones won them. The Smartphone Awards are usually posted towards the middle of December, after all of the phones of the year have been released and tested.
Personal life
Brownlee grew up in Maplewood, New Jersey. He attended Columbia High School graduating in 2011 and studied at the Howe School at Stevens Institute of Technology, where he majored in business and information technology. Brownlee graduated from college in May 2015 and became a full-time YouTuber. His videos were produced at his apartment until he moved out in 2016, and he now works out of a studio in Kearny, New Jersey, using RED video equipment. He owned a Tesla Model S P100D, which he occasionally featured in his channel until he replaced it in 2020 with the Performance (Raven) Model S, and again in 2021 with the Model S Plaid.
American Ultimate Disc League (AUDL)
Brownlee is a professional ultimate frisbee player for the New York Empire (AUDL), who were the 2019 AUDL champions. Brownlee previously played for the Philadelphia Phoenix (2017) and Garden State Ultimate (2015–2017). Other previous team engagements include the now-defunct New Jersey Hammerheads, a team belonging to the American Ultimate Disc League (AUDL), and the New York Rumble, which was in the now-defunct league Major League Ultimate.
Notes
References
External links
1993 births
21st-century African-American writers
African-American media personalities
American bloggers
American technology news websites
American YouTubers
Columbia High School (New Jersey) alumni
Forbes 30 Under 30 recipients
Living people
Male YouTubers
People from Maplewood, New Jersey
Streamy Award winners
Technology YouTubers
Ultimate (sport) players
Video bloggers
Writers from Hoboken, New Jersey |
41180634 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induction%20of%20regular%20languages | Induction of regular languages | In computational learning theory, induction of regular languages refers to the task of learning a formal description (e.g. grammar) of a regular language from a given set of example strings. Although E. Mark Gold has shown that not every regular language can be learned this way (see language identification in the limit), approaches have been investigated for a variety of subclasses. They are sketched in this article. For learning of more general grammars, see Grammar induction.
Example
A regular language is defined as a (finite or infinite) set of strings that can be described by one of the mathematical formalisms called "finite automaton", "regular grammar", or "regular expression", all of which have the same expressive power. Since the latter formalism leads to shortest notations, it shall be introduced and used here. Given a set Σ of symbols (a.k.a. alphabet), a regular expression can be any of
∅ (denoting the empty set of strings),
ε (denoting the singleton set containing just the empty string),
a (where a is any character in Σ; denoting the singleton set just containing the single-character string a),
r+s (where r and s are, in turn, simpler regular expressions; denoting their set's union)
r⋅s (denoting the set of all possible concatenations of strings from r 's and s 's set),
r+ (denoting the set of n-fold repetitions of strings from r 's set, for any n≥1), or
r* (similarly denoting the set of n-fold repetitions, but also including the empty string, seen as 0-fold repetition).
For example, using Σ = { 0,1 }, the regular expression (0+1+ε)⋅(0+1) denotes the set of all binary numbers with one or two digits (leading zero allowed), while 1⋅(0+1)*⋅0 denotes the (infinite) set of all even binary numbers (no leading zeroes).
Given a set of strings (also called "positive examples"), the task of regular language induction is to come up with a regular expression that denotes a set containing all of them.
As an example, given { 1, 10, 100 }, a "natural" description could be the regular expression 1⋅0*, corresponding to the informal characterization "a 1 followed by arbitrarily many (maybe even none) 0es".
However, (0+1)* and 1+(1⋅0)+(1⋅0⋅0) is another regular expression, denoting the largest (assuming Σ={0,1}) and the smallest set containing the given strings, and called the trivial overgeneralization and undergeneralization, respectively.
Some approaches work in an extended setting where also a set of "negative example" strings is given; then, a regular expression is to be found that generates all of the positive, but none of the negative examples.
Lattice of automata
Dupont et al. have shown that the set of all structurally complete finite automata
generating a given input set of example strings forms a lattice, with the trivial undergeneralized and the trivial overgeneralized automaton as bottom and top element, respectively.
Each member of this lattice can be obtained by factoring the undergeneralized automaton by an appropriate equivalence relation.
For the above example string set { 1, 10, 100 }, the picture show at its bottom the undergeneralized automaton Aa,b,c,d in , consisting of states , , , and . On the state set { a,b,c,d }, a total of 15 equivalence relations exist, forming a lattice. Mapping each equivalence E to the corresponding quotient automaton language L(Aa,b,c,d / E) obtains the partially ordered set shown in the picture.
Each node's language is denoted by a regular expression. The language may be recognized by quotient automata w.r.t. different equivalence relations, all of which are shown below the node. An arrow between two nodes indicates that the lower node's language is a proper subset of the higher node's.
If both positive and negative example strings are given, Dupont et al. build the lattice from the positive examples, and then investigate the separation border between automata that generate some negative example and such that do not.
Most interesting are those automata immediately below the border.
In the picture, separation borders are shown for the negative example strings 11 (), 1001 (, 101 (), and 0 ().
Coste and Nicolas present an own search method within the lattice, which they relate to Mitchell's version space paradigm.
To find the separation border, they use a graph coloring algorithm on the state inequality relation induced by the negative examples.
Later, they investigate several ordering relations on the set of all possible state fusions.
Kudo and Shimbo use the representation by automaton factorizations to give a unique framework for the following approaches (sketched below):
k-reversible languages and the "tail clustering" follow-up approach,
Successor automata and the predecessor-successor method, and
pumping-based approaches (framework-integration challenged by Luzeaux, however).
Each of these approaches is shown to correspond to a particular kind of equivalence relations used for factorization.
Approaches
k-reversible languages
Angluin considers so-called "k-reversible" regular automata, that is, deterministic automata in which each state can be reached from at most one state by following a transition chain of length k.
Formally, if Σ, Q, and δ denote the input alphabet, the state set, and the transition function of an automaton A, respectively, then A is called k-reversible if : , where δ* means the homomorphic extension of δ to arbitrary words.
Angluin gives a cubic algorithm for learning of the smallest k-reversible language from a given set of input words; for k=0, the algorithm has even almost linear complexity.
The required state uniqueness after k+1 given symbols forces unifying automaton states, thus leading to a proper generalization different from the trivial undergeneralized automaton.
This algorithm has been used to learn simple parts of English syntax;
later, an incremental version has been provided.
Another approach based on k-reversible automata is the tail clustering method.
Successor automata
From a given set of input strings, Vernadat and Richetin build a so-called successor automaton, consisting of one state for each distinct character and a transition between each two adjacent characters' states.
For example, the singleton input set { } leads to an automaton corresponding to the regular expression (a+⋅b+)*.
An extension of this approach is the predecessor-successor method which generalizes each character repetition immediately to a Kleene + and then includes for each character the set of its possible predecessors in its state.
Successor automata can learn exactly the class of local languages.
Since each regular language is the homomorphic image of a local language, grammars from the former class can be learned by lifting, if an appropriate (depending on the intended application) homomorphism is provided.
In particular, there is such a homomorphism for the class of languages learnable by the predecessor-successor method.
The learnability of local languages can be reduced to that of k-reversible languages.
Early approaches
Chomsky and Miller (1957)
used the pumping lemma: they guess a part v of an input string uvw and try to build a corresponding cycle into the automaton to be learned; using membership queries they ask, for appropriate k, which of the strings uw, uvvw, uvvvw, ..., uvkw also belongs to the language to be learned, thereby refining the structure of their automaton. In 1959, Solomonoff generalized this approach to context-free languages, which also obey a pumping lemma.
Cover automata
Câmpeanu et al. learn a finite automaton as a compact representation of a large finite language.
Given such a language F, they search a so-called cover automaton A such that its language L(A) covers F in the following sense: , where is the length of the longest string in F, and denotes the set of all strings not longer than .
If such a cover automaton exists, F is uniquely determined by A and .
For example, F = { ad, read, reread } has and a cover automaton corresponding to the regular expression (r⋅e)*⋅a⋅d.
For two strings x and y, Câmpeanu et al. define x ~ y if xz∈F ⇔ yz∈F for all strings z of a length such that both xz and yz are not longer than . Based on this relation, whose lack of transitivity causes considerable technical problems, they give an O(n4) algorithm to construct from F a cover automaton A of minimal state count.
Moreover, for union, intersection, and difference of two finite languages they provide corresponding operations on their cover automata.
Păun et al. improve the time complexity to O(n2).
Residual automata
For a set S of strings and a string u, the Brzozowski derivative u−1S is defined as the set of all rest-strings obtainable from a string in S by cutting off its prefix u (if possible), formally: , cf. picture.
Denis et al. define a residual automaton to be a nondeterministic finite automaton A where each state q corresponds to a Brzozowski derivative of its accepted language L(A), formally: , where L(A,q) denotes the language accepted from q as start state.
They show that each regular language is generated by a uniquely determined minimal residual automaton. Its states are -indecomposable Brzozowski derivatives, and it may be exponentially smaller than the minimal deterministic automaton.
Moreover, they show that residual automata for regular languages cannot be learned in polynomial time, even assuming optimal sample inputs.
They give a learning algorithm for residual automata and prove that it learns the automaton from its characteristic sample of positive and negative input strings.
Query Learning
Regular languages cannot be learned in polynomial time
using only membership queries or using only equivalence queries.
However, Angluin has shown that regular languages can be learned in polynomial time
using membership queries and equivalence queries, and has provided a learning algorithm
termed L* that does exactly that.
The L* algorithm was later generalised to output an NFA (non-deterministic finite automata) rather than a DFA (deterministic finite automata), via an algorithm termed NL*.
This result was further generalised, and an algorithm that outputs an AFA (alternating finite automata) termed AL* was devised. It is noted that NFA can be exponentially more succinct than DFAs, and that AFAs can be exponentially more succinct than NFAs and doubly-exponentially more succinct than DFAs.
Reduced regular expressions
Brill defines a reduced regular expression to be any of
a (where a is any character in Σ; denoting the singleton set just containing the single-character string a),
¬a (denoting any other single character in Σ except a),
• (denoting any single character in Σ)
a*, (¬a)*, or •* (denoting arbitrarily many, possibly zero, repetitions of characters from the set of a, ¬a, or •, respectively), or
r⋅s (where r and s are, in turn, simpler reduced regular expressions; denoting the set of all possible concatenations of strings from r 's and s 's set).
Given an input set of strings, he builds step by step a tree with each branch labelled by a reduced regular expression accepting a prefix of some input strings, and each node labelled with the set of lengths of accepted prefixes.
He aims at learning correction rules for English spelling errors,
rather than at theoretical considerations about learnability of language classes.
Consequently, he uses heuristics to prune the tree-buildup, leading to a considerable improvement in run time.
Applications
Finding common patterns in DNA and RNA structure descriptions (Bioinformatics)
Modelling natural language acquisition by humans
Learning of structural descriptions from structured example documents, in particular Document Type Definitions (DTD) from SGML documents
Learning the structure of music pieces
Obtaining compact representations of finite languages
Classifying and retrieving documents
Generating of context-dependent correction rules for English grammatical errors
Notes
References
Formal languages
Computational learning theory |
41184517 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google%20Brain | Google Brain | Google Brain is a deep learning artificial intelligence research team under the umbrella of Google AI, a research division at Google dedicated to artificial intelligence. Formed in 2011, Google Brain combines open-ended machine learning research with information systems and large-scale computing resources. The team has created tools such as TensorFlow, which allow for neural networks to be used by the public, with multiple internal AI research projects. The team aims to create research opportunities in machine learning and natural language processing.
History
The Google Brain project began in 2011 as a part-time research collaboration between Google fellow Jeff Dean, Google Researcher Greg Corrado, and Stanford University professor Andrew Ng. Ng had been interested in using deep learning techniques to crack the problem of artificial intelligence since 2006, and in 2011 began collaborating with Dean and Corrado to build a large-scale deep learning software system, DistBelief, on top of Google's cloud computing infrastructure. Google Brain started as a Google X project and became so successful that it was graduated back to Google: Astro Teller has said that Google Brain paid for the entire cost of Google X.
In June 2012, the New York Times reported that a cluster of 16,000 processors in 1,000 computers dedicated to mimicking some aspects of human brain activity had successfully trained itself to recognize a cat based on 10 million digital images taken from YouTube videos. The story was also covered by National Public Radio.
In March 2013, Google hired Geoffrey Hinton, a leading researcher in the deep learning field, and acquired the company DNNResearch Inc. headed by Hinton. Hinton said that he would be dividing his future time between his university research and his work at Google.
Team and location
Google Brain was initially established by Google Fellow Jeff Dean and visiting Stanford professor Andrew Ng. In 2014, the team included Jeff Dean, Quoc Le, Ilya Sutskever, Alex Krizhevsky, Samy Bengio and Vincent Vanhoucke. In 2017, team members include Anelia Angelova, Samy Bengio, Greg Corrado, George Dahl, Michael Isard, Anjuli Kannan, Hugo Larochelle, Chris Olah, Salih Edneer, Benoit Steiner, Vincent Vanhoucke, Vijay Vasudevan and Fernanda Viegas. Chris Lattner, who created Apple's programming language Swift and then ran Tesla's autonomy team for six months joined Google Brain's team in August 2017. Lattner left the team in January 2020 and joined SiFive.
In 2021, Google Brain is led by Jeff Dean, Geoffrey Hinton and Zoubin Ghahramani. Other members include Katherine Heller, Pi-Chuan Chang, Ian Simon, Jean-Philippe Vert, Nevena Lazic, Anelia Angelova, Lukasz Kaiser, Carrie Jun Cai, Eric Breck, Ruoming Pang, Carlos Riquelme, Hugo Larochelle, David Ha. Samy Bengio left the team in April 2021 with Zoubin Ghahramani taking on his responsibilities.
Google Research includes Google Brain and is based in Mountain View, California. It also has satellite groups in Accra, Amsterdam, Atlanta, Beijing, Berlin, Cambridge (Massachusetts), Israel, Los Angeles, London, Montreal, Munich, New York City, Paris, Pittsburgh, Princeton, San Francisco, Seattle, Tokyo, Toronto, and Zurich.
Projects
Artificial-intelligence-devised encryption system
In October 2016, Google Brain designed an experiment to determine that neural networks are capable of learning secure symmetric encryption. In this experiment, three neural networks were created: Alice, Bob and Eve. Adhering to the idea of a generative adversarial network (GAN), the goal of the experiment was for Alice to send an encrypted message to Bob that Bob could decrypt, but the adversary, Eve, could not. Alice and Bob maintained an advantage over Eve, in that they shared a key used for encryption and decryption. In doing so, Google Brain demonstrated the capability of neural networks to learn secure encryption.
Image enhancement
In February 2017, Google Brain determined a probabilistic method for converting pictures with 8x8 resolution to a resolution of 32x32. The method built upon an already existing probabilistic model called pixelCNN to generate pixel translations.
The proposed software utilizes two neural networks to make approximations for the pixel makeup of translated images. The first network, known as the “conditioning network,” downsizes high-resolution images to 8x8 and attempts to create mappings from the original 8x8 image to these higher-resolution ones. The other network, known as the “prior network,” uses the mappings from the previous network to add more detail to the original image. The resulting translated image is not the same image in higher resolution, but rather a 32x32 resolution estimation based on other existing high-resolution images. Google Brain's results indicate the possibility for neural networks to enhance images.
Google Translate
The Google Brain team contributed to the Google Translate project by employing a new deep learning system that combines artificial neural networks with vast databases of multilingual texts. In September 2016, Google Neural Machine Translation (GNMT) was launched, an end-to-end learning framework, able to learn from a large number of examples. Previously, Google Translate's Phrase-Based Machine Translation (PBMT) approach would statistically analyze word by word and try to match corresponding words in other languages without considering the surrounding phrases in the sentence. But rather than choosing a replacement for each individual word in the desired language, GNMT evaluates word segments in the context of the rest of the sentence to choose more accurate replacements. Compared to older PBMT models, the GNMT model scored a 24% improvement in similarity to human translation, with a 60% reduction in errors. The GNMT has also shown significant improvement for notoriously difficult translations, like Chinese to English.
While the introduction of the GNMT has increased the quality of Google Translate's translations for the pilot languages, it was very difficult to create such improvements for all of its 103 languages. Addressing this problem, the Google Brain Team was able to develop a Multilingual GNMT system, which extended the previous one by enabling translations between multiple languages. Furthermore, it allows for Zero-Shot Translations, which are translations between two languages that the system has never explicitly seen before. Google announced that Google Translate can now also translate without transcribing, using neural networks. This means that it is possible to translate speech in one language directly into text in another language, without first transcribing it to text. According to the Researchers at Google Brain, this intermediate step can be avoided using neural networks. In order for the system to learn this, they exposed it to many hours of Spanish audio together with the corresponding English text. The different layers of neural networks, replicating the human brain, were able to link the corresponding parts and subsequently manipulate the audio waveform until it was transformed to English text. Another drawback of the GNMT model is that it causes the time of translation to increase exponentially with the number of words in the sentence. This caused the Google Brain Team to add 2000 more processors to ensure the new translation process would still be fast and reliable.
Robotics
Aiming to improve traditional robotics control algorithms where new skills of a robot need to be hand-programmed, robotics researchers at Google Brain are developing machine learning techniques to allow robots to learn new skills on their own. They also attempt to develop ways for information sharing between robots so that robots can learn from each other during their learning process, also known as cloud robotics. As a result, Google has launched the Google Cloud Robotics Platform for developers in 2019, an effort to combine robotics, AI, and the cloud to enable efficient robotic automation through cloud-connected collaborative robots.
Robotics research at Google Brain has focused mostly on improving and applying deep learning algorithms to enable robots to complete tasks by learning from experience, simulation, human demonstrations, and/or visual representations. For example, Google Brain researchers showed that robots can learn to pick and throw rigid objects into selected boxes by experimenting in an environment without being pre-programmed to do so. In another research, researchers trained robots to learn behaviors such as pouring liquid from a cup; robots learned from videos of human demonstrations recorded from multiple viewpoints.
Google Brain researchers have collaborated with other companies and academic institutions on robotics research. In 2016, the Google Brain Team collaborated with researchers at X in a research on learning hand-eye coordination for robotic grasping. Their method allowed real-time robot control for grasping novel objects with self-correction. In 2020, researchers from Google Brain, Intel AI Lab, and UC Berkeley created an AI model for robots to learn surgery-related tasks such as suturing from training with surgery videos.
Interactive Speaker Recognition with Reinforcement Learning
In 2020, Google Brain Team and University of Lille presented a model for automatic speaker recognition which they called Interactive Speaker Recognition. The ISR module recognizes a speaker from a given list of speakers only by requesting a few user specific words. The model can be altered to choose speech segments in the context of Text-To-Speech Training. It can also prevent malicious voice generators to protect the data.
TensorFlow
TensorFlow is an open source software library powered by Google Brain that allows anyone to utilize machine learning by providing the tools to train one's own neural network. The tool has been used by farmers to reduce the amount of manual labor required to sort their yield, by training it with a data set of human-sorted images.
Magenta
Magenta is a project that uses Google Brain to create new information in the form of art and music rather than classify and sort existing data. TensorFlow was updated with a suite of tools for users to guide the neural network to create images and music. However, the team from Valdosta State University found that the AI struggles to perfectly replicate human intention in artistry, similar to the issues faced in translation.
Medical Applications
The image sorting capabilities of Google Brain have been used to help detect certain medical conditions by seeking out patterns that human doctors may not notice to provide an earlier diagnosis. During screening for breast cancer, this method was found to have one quarter the false positive rate of human pathologists, who require more time to look over each photo and cannot spend their entire focus on this one task. Due to the neural network's very specific training for a single task, it cannot identify other afflictions present in a photo that a human could easily spot.
Other Google Products
The Google Brain projects’ technology is currently used in various other Google products such as the Android Operating System’s speech recognition system, photo search for Google Photos, smart reply in Gmail, and video recommendations in YouTube.
Reception
Google Brain has received coverage in Wired Magazine, National Public Radio, and Big Think. These articles have contained interviews with key team members Ray Kurzweil and Andrew Ng, and focus on explanations of the project’s goals and applications.
Controversy
In December 2020, AI ethicist Timnit Gebru left Google. While the exact nature of her quitting or being fired is disputed, the cause of the departure was her refusal to retract a paper entitled “On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models be Too Big?” This paper explored potential risks of the growth of AI such as Google Brain, including environmental impact, biases in training data, and the ability to deceive the public. The request to retract the paper was made by Megan Kacholia, vice president of Google Brain. As of April 2021, nearly 7000 current or former Google employees and industry supporters have signed an open letter accusing Google of “research censorship” and condemning Gebru's treatment at the company.
In February 2021, Google fired one of the leaders of the company's AI ethics team, Margaret Mitchell. The company's statement alleged that Mitchell had broken company policy by using automated tools to find support for Gebru. In the same month, engineers outside the ethics team began to quit, citing the “wrongful” termination of Gebru as the reason why. In April 2021, Google Brain co-founder Samy Bengio announced his resignation from the company. Despite being Gebru's manager, Bengio was not notified before her termination, and he posted online in support of both her and Mitchell. While Bengio's announcement focused on personal growth as his reason for leaving, anonymous sources indicated to Reuters that the turmoil within the AI ethics team played a role in his considerations.
See also
Artificial intelligence
Deep Learning
Glossary of artificial intelligence
Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab – run by Google in collaboration with NASA and Universities Space Research Association
Noogenesis
TensorFlow
Timnit Gebru
Samy Bengio
References
Applied machine learning
Brain |
41211324 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global%20surveillance%20disclosures%20%282013%E2%80%93present%29 | Global surveillance disclosures (2013–present) | Ongoing news reports in the international media have revealed operational details about the Anglophone cryptographic agencies' global surveillance of both foreign and domestic nationals. The reports mostly emanate from a cache of top secret documents leaked by ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden, which he obtained whilst working for Booz Allen Hamilton, one of the largest contractors for defense and intelligence in the United States. In addition to a trove of U.S. federal documents, Snowden's cache reportedly contains thousands of Australian, British and Canadian intelligence files that he had accessed via the exclusive "Five Eyes" network. In June 2013, the first of Snowden's documents were published simultaneously by The Washington Post and The Guardian, attracting considerable public attention. The disclosure continued throughout 2013, and a small portion of the estimated full cache of documents was later published by other media outlets worldwide, most notably The New York Times (United States), the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Der Spiegel (Germany), O Globo (Brazil), Le Monde (France), L'espresso (Italy), NRC Handelsblad (the Netherlands), Dagbladet (Norway), El País (Spain), and Sveriges Television (Sweden).
These media reports have shed light on the implications of several secret treaties signed by members of the UKUSA community in their efforts to implement global surveillance. For example, Der Spiegel revealed how the German Federal Intelligence Service (; BND) transfers "massive amounts of intercepted data to the NSA", while Swedish Television revealed the National Defence Radio Establishment (FRA) provided the NSA with data from its cable collection, under a secret treaty signed in 1954 for bilateral cooperation on surveillance. Other security and intelligence agencies involved in the practice of global surveillance include those in Australia (ASD), Britain (GCHQ), Canada (CSE), Denmark (PET), France (DGSE), Germany (BND), Italy (AISE), the Netherlands (AIVD), Norway (NIS), Spain (CNI), Switzerland (NDB), Singapore (SID) as well as Israel (ISNU), which receives raw, unfiltered data of U.S. citizens that is shared by the NSA.
On June 14, 2013, United States prosecutors charged Edward Snowden with espionage and theft of government property. In late July 2013, he was granted a one-year temporary asylum by the Russian government, contributing to a deterioration of Russia–United States relations. Towards the end of October 2013, the British Prime Minister David Cameron warned The Guardian not to publish any more leaks, or it will receive a DA-Notice. In November 2013, a criminal investigation of the disclosure was being undertaken by Britain's Metropolitan Police Service. In December 2013, The Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger said: "We have published I think 26 documents so far out of the 58,000 we've seen."
The extent to which the media reports have responsibly informed the public is disputed. In January 2014, Obama said that "the sensational way in which these disclosures have come out has often shed more heat than light" and critics such as Sean Wilentz have noted that many of the Snowden documents released do not concern domestic surveillance. The US & British Defense establishment weigh the strategic harm in the period following the disclosures more heavily than their civic public benefit. In its first assessment of these disclosures, the Pentagon concluded that Snowden committed the biggest "theft" of U.S. secrets in the history of the United States. Sir David Omand, a former director of GCHQ, described Snowden's disclosure as the "most catastrophic loss to British intelligence ever".
Background
Barton Gellman, a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who led The Washington Posts coverage of Snowden's disclosures, summarized the leaks as follows:
The disclosure revealed specific details of the NSA's close cooperation with U.S. federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), in addition to the agency's previously undisclosed financial payments to numerous commercial partners and telecommunications companies, as well as its previously undisclosed relationships with international partners such as Britain, France, Germany, and its secret treaties with foreign governments that were recently established for sharing intercepted data of each other's citizens. The disclosures were made public over the course of several months since June 2013, by the press in several nations from the trove leaked by the former NSA contractor Edward J. Snowden, who obtained the trove while working for Booz Allen Hamilton.
George Brandis, the Attorney-General of Australia, asserted that Snowden's disclosure is the "most serious setback for Western intelligence since the Second World War."
Global surveillance
, global surveillance programs include:
The NSA was also getting data directly from telecommunications companies code-named Artifice, Lithium, Serenade, SteelKnight, and X. The real identities of the companies behind these code names were not included in the Snowden document dump because they were protected as Exceptionally Controlled Information which prevents wide circulation even to those (like Snowden) who otherwise have the necessary security clearance.
Disclosures
Although the exact size of Snowden's disclosure remains unknown, the following estimates have been put up by various government officials:
At least 15,000 Australian intelligence files, according to Australian officials
At least 58,000 British intelligence files, according to British officials
About 1.7 million U.S. intelligence files, according to U.S. Department of Defense talking points
As a contractor of the NSA, Snowden was granted access to U.S. government documents along with top secret documents of several allied governments, via the exclusive Five Eyes network. Snowden claims that he currently does not physically possess any of these documents, having surrendered all copies to journalists he met in Hong Kong.
According to his lawyer, Snowden has pledged not to release any documents while in Russia, leaving the responsibility for further disclosures solely to journalists. As of 2014, the following news outlets have accessed some of the documents provided by Snowden: Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Channel 4, Der Spiegel, El Pais, El Mundo, L'espresso, Le Monde, NBC, NRC Handelsblad, Dagbladet, O Globo, South China Morning Post, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Sveriges Television, The Guardian, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.
Historical context
In the 1970s, NSA analyst Perry Fellwock (under the pseudonym "Winslow Peck") revealed the existence of the UKUSA Agreement, which forms the basis of the ECHELON network, whose existence was revealed in 1988 by Lockheed employee Margaret Newsham. Months before the September 11 attacks and during its aftermath, further details of the global surveillance apparatus were provided by various individuals such as the former MI5 official David Shayler and the journalist James Bamford, who were followed by:
NSA employees William Binney and Thomas Andrews Drake, who revealed that the NSA is rapidly expanding its surveillance
GCHQ employee Katharine Gun, who revealed a plot to bug UN delegates shortly before the Iraq War
British Cabinet Minister Clare Short, who revealed in 2004 that the UK had spied on UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan
NSA employee Russ Tice, who triggered the NSA warrantless surveillance controversy after revealing that the Bush Administration had spied on U.S. citizens without court approval
Journalist Leslie Cauley of USA Today, who revealed in 2006 that the NSA is keeping a massive database of Americans' phone calls
AT&T employee Mark Klein, who revealed in 2006 the existence of Room 641A of the NSA
Activists Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning, who revealed in 2011 the existence of the mass surveillance industry
Journalist Michael Hastings, who revealed in 2012 that protestors of the Occupy Wall Street movement were kept under surveillance
In the aftermath of Snowden's revelations, The Pentagon concluded that Snowden committed the biggest theft of U.S. secrets in the history of the United States. In Australia, the coalition government described the leaks as the most damaging blow dealt to Australian intelligence in history. Sir David Omand, a former director of GCHQ, described Snowden's disclosure as the "most catastrophic loss to British intelligence ever".
Timeline
In April 2012, NSA contractor Edward Snowden began downloading documents. That year, Snowden had made his first contact with journalist Glenn Greenwald, then employed by The Guardian, and he contacted documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras in January 2013.
2013
May
In May 2013, Snowden went on temporary leave from his position at the NSA, citing the pretext of receiving treatment for his epilepsy. Towards the end of May, he traveled to Hong Kong. Greenwald, Poitras and the Guardian's defence and intelligence correspondent Ewen MacAskill flew to Hong Kong to meet Snowden.
June
After the U.S.-based editor of The Guardian, Janine Gibson, held several meetings in New York City, she decided that Greenwald, Poitras and the Guardians defence and intelligence correspondent Ewen MacAskill would fly to Hong Kong to meet Snowden. On June 5, in the first media report based on the leaked material, The Guardian exposed a top secret court order showing that the NSA had collected phone records from over 120 million Verizon subscribers. Under the order, the numbers of both parties on a call, as well as the location data, unique identifiers, time of call, and duration of call were handed over to the FBI, which turned over the records to the NSA. According to The Wall Street Journal, the Verizon order is part of a controversial data program, which seeks to stockpile records on all calls made in the U.S., but does not collect information directly from T-Mobile US and Verizon Wireless, in part because of their foreign ownership ties.
On June 6, 2013, the second media disclosure, the revelation of the PRISM surveillance program (which collects the e-mail, voice, text and video chats of foreigners and an unknown number of Americans from Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Apple and other tech giants), was published simultaneously by The Guardian and The Washington Post.
Der Spiegel revealed NSA spying on multiple diplomatic missions of the European Union and the United Nations Headquarters in New York. During specific episodes within a four-year period, the NSA hacked several Chinese mobile-phone companies, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Tsinghua University in Beijing, and the Asian fiber-optic network operator Pacnet. Only Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK are explicitly exempted from NSA attacks, whose main target in the European Union is Germany. A method of bugging encrypted fax machines used at an EU embassy is codenamed Dropmire.
During the 2009 G-20 London summit, the British intelligence agency Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) intercepted the communications of foreign diplomats. In addition, GCHQ has been intercepting and storing mass quantities of fiber-optic traffic via Tempora. Two principal components of Tempora are called "Mastering the Internet" (MTI) and "Global Telecoms Exploitation". The data is preserved for three days while metadata is kept for thirty days. Data collected by GCHQ under Tempora is shared with the National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States.
From 2001 to 2011, the NSA collected vast amounts of metadata records detailing the email and internet usage of Americans via Stellar Wind, which was later terminated due to operational and resource constraints. It was subsequently replaced by newer surveillance programs such as ShellTrumpet, which "processed its one trillionth metadata record" by the end of December 2012.
The NSA follows specific procedures to target non-U.S. persons and to minimize data collection from U.S. persons. These court-approved policies allow the NSA to:
keep data that could potentially contain details of U.S. persons for up to five years;
retain and make use of "inadvertently acquired" domestic communications if they contain usable intelligence, information on criminal activity, threat of harm to people or property, are encrypted, or are believed to contain any information relevant to cybersecurity;
preserve "foreign intelligence information" contained within attorney–client communications; and
access the content of communications gathered from "U.S. based machine[s]" or phone numbers in order to establish if targets are located in the U.S., for the purposes of ceasing further surveillance.
According to Boundless Informant, over 97 billion pieces of intelligence were collected over a 30-day period ending in March 2013. Out of all 97 billion sets of information, about 3 billion data sets originated from U.S. computer networks and around 500 million metadata records were collected from German networks.
In August 2013, it was revealed that the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) of Germany transfers massive amounts of metadata records to the NSA.
Der Spiegel disclosed that out of all 27 member states of the European Union, Germany is the most targeted due to the NSA's systematic monitoring and storage of Germany's telephone and Internet connection data. According to the magazine the NSA stores data from around half a billion communications connections in Germany each month. This data includes telephone calls, emails, mobile-phone text messages and chat transcripts.
July
The NSA gained massive amounts of information captured from the monitored data traffic in Europe. For example, in December 2012, the NSA gathered on an average day metadata from some 15 million telephone connections and 10 million Internet datasets. The NSA also monitored the European Commission in Brussels and monitored EU diplomatic Facilities in Washington and at the United Nations by placing bugs in offices as well as infiltrating computer networks.
The U.S. government made as part of its UPSTREAM data collection program deals with companies to ensure that it had access to and hence the capability to surveil undersea fiber-optic cables which deliver e-mails, Web pages, other electronic communications and phone calls from one continent to another at the speed of light.
According to the Brazilian newspaper O Globo, the NSA spied on millions of emails and calls of Brazilian citizens, while Australia and New Zealand have been involved in the joint operation of the NSA's global analytical system XKeyscore. Among the numerous allied facilities contributing to XKeyscore are four installations in Australia and one in New Zealand:
Pine Gap near Alice Springs, Australia, which is partly operated by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
The Shoal Bay Receiving Station near Darwin, Australia, is operated by the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD)
The Australian Defence Satellite Communications Station near Geraldton, Australia, is operated by the ASD
HMAS Harman outside Canberra, Australia, is operated by the ASD
Waihopai Station near Blenheim, New Zealand, is operated by New Zealand's Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB)
O Globo released an NSA document titled "Primary FORNSAT Collection Operations", which revealed the specific locations and codenames of the FORNSAT intercept stations in 2002.
According to Edward Snowden, the NSA has established secret intelligence partnerships with many Western governments. The Foreign Affairs Directorate (FAD) of the NSA is responsible for these partnerships, which, according to Snowden, are organized such that foreign governments can "insulate their political leaders" from public outrage in the event that these global surveillance partnerships are leaked.
In an interview published by Der Spiegel, Snowden accused the NSA of being "in bed together with the Germans". The NSA granted the German intelligence agencies BND (foreign intelligence) and BfV (domestic intelligence) access to its controversial XKeyscore system. In return, the BND turned over copies of two systems named Mira4 and Veras, reported to exceed the NSA's SIGINT capabilities in certain areas. Every day, massive amounts of metadata records are collected by the BND and transferred to the NSA via the Bad Aibling Station near Munich, Germany. In December 2012 alone, the BND handed over 500 million metadata records to the NSA.
In a document dated January 2013, the NSA acknowledged the efforts of the BND to undermine privacy laws:
According to an NSA document dated April 2013, Germany has now become the NSA's "most prolific partner". Under a section of a separate document leaked by Snowden titled "Success Stories", the NSA acknowledged the efforts of the German government to expand the BND's international data sharing with partners:
In addition, the German government was well aware of the PRISM surveillance program long before Edward Snowden made details public. According to Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert, there are two separate PRISM programs – one is used by the NSA and the other is used by NATO forces in Afghanistan. The two programs are "not identical".
The Guardian revealed further details of the NSA's XKeyscore tool, which allows government analysts to search through vast databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals without prior authorization. Microsoft "developed a surveillance capability to deal" with the interception of encrypted chats on Outlook.com, within five months after the service went into testing. NSA had access to Outlook.com emails because "Prism collects this data prior to encryption."
In addition, Microsoft worked with the FBI to enable the NSA to gain access to its cloud storage service SkyDrive. An internal NSA document dating from August 3, 2012, described the PRISM surveillance program as a "team sport".
Even if there is no reason to suspect U.S. citizens of wrongdoing, the CIA's National Counterterrorism Center is allowed to examine federal government files for possible criminal behavior. Previously the NTC was barred to do so, unless a person was a terror suspect or related to an investigation.
Snowden also confirmed that Stuxnet was cooperatively developed by the United States and Israel. In a report unrelated to Edward Snowden, the French newspaper Le Monde revealed that France's DGSE was also undertaking mass surveillance, which it described as "illegal and outside any serious control".
August
Documents leaked by Edward Snowden that were seen by Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) and Norddeutscher Rundfunk revealed that several telecom operators have played a key role in helping the British intelligence agency Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) tap into worldwide fiber-optic communications. The telecom operators are:
Verizon Business (codenamed "Dacron")
BT (codenamed "Remedy")
Vodafone Cable (codenamed "Gerontic")
Global Crossing (codenamed "Pinnage")
Level 3 (codenamed "Little")
Viatel (codenamed "Vitreous")
Interoute (codenamed "Streetcar")
Each of them were assigned a particular area of the international fiber-optic network for which they were individually responsible. The following networks have been infiltrated by GCHQ: TAT-14 (EU-UK-US), Atlantic Crossing 1 (EU-UK-US), Circe South (France-UK), Circe North (Netherlands-UK), Flag Atlantic-1, Flag Europa-Asia, SEA-ME-WE 3 (Southeast Asia-Middle East-Western Europe), SEA-ME-WE 4 (Southeast Asia-Middle East-Western Europe), Solas (Ireland-UK), UK-France 3, UK-Netherlands 14, ULYSSES (EU-UK), Yellow (UK-US) and Pan European Crossing (EU-UK).
Telecommunication companies who participated were "forced" to do so and had "no choice in the matter". Some of the companies were subsequently paid by GCHQ for their participation in the infiltration of the cables. According to the SZ, GCHQ has access to the majority of internet and telephone communications flowing throughout Europe, can listen to phone calls, read emails and text messages, see which websites internet users from all around the world are visiting. It can also retain and analyse nearly the entire European internet traffic.
GCHQ is collecting all data transmitted to and from the United Kingdom and Northern Europe via the undersea fibre optic telecommunications cable SEA-ME-WE 3. The Security and Intelligence Division (SID) of Singapore co-operates with Australia in accessing and sharing communications carried by the SEA-ME-WE-3 cable. The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) is also in a partnership with British, American and Singaporean intelligence agencies to tap undersea fibre optic telecommunications cables that link Asia, the Middle East and Europe and carry much of Australia's international phone and internet traffic.
The U.S. runs a top-secret surveillance program known as the Special Collection Service (SCS), which is based in over 80 U.S. consulates and embassies worldwide. The NSA hacked the United Nations' video conferencing system in Summer 2012 in violation of a UN agreement.
The NSA is not just intercepting the communications of Americans who are in direct contact with foreigners targeted overseas, but also searching the contents of vast amounts of e-mail and text communications into and out of the country by Americans who mention information about foreigners under surveillance. It also spied on Al Jazeera and gained access to its internal communications systems.
The NSA has built a surveillance network that has the capacity to reach roughly 75% of all U.S. Internet traffic. U.S. Law-enforcement agencies use tools used by computer hackers to gather information on suspects. An internal NSA audit from May 2012 identified 2776 incidents i.e. violations of the rules or court orders for surveillance of Americans and foreign targets in the U.S. in the period from April 2011 through March 2012, while U.S. officials stressed that any mistakes are not intentional.
The FISA Court that is supposed to provide critical oversight of the U.S. government's vast spying programs has limited ability to do so and it must trust the government to report when it improperly spies on Americans. A legal opinion declassified on August 21, 2013, revealed that the NSA intercepted for three years as many as 56,000 electronic communications a year of Americans not suspected of having links to terrorism, before FISA court that oversees surveillance found the operation unconstitutional in 2011. Under the Corporate Partner Access project, major U.S. telecommunications providers receive hundreds of millions of dollars each year from the NSA. Voluntary cooperation between the NSA and the providers of global communications took off during the 1970s under the cover name BLARNEY.
A letter drafted by the Obama administration specifically to inform Congress of the government's mass collection of Americans' telephone communications data was withheld from lawmakers by leaders of the House Intelligence Committee in the months before a key vote affecting the future of the program.
The NSA paid GCHQ over £100 Million between 2009 and 2012, in exchange for these funds GCHQ "must pull its weight and be seen to pull its weight." Documents referenced in the article explain that the weaker British laws regarding spying are "a selling point" for the NSA. GCHQ is also developing the technology to "exploit any mobile phone at any time." The NSA has under a legal authority a secret backdoor into its databases gathered from large Internet companies enabling it to search for U.S. citizens' email and phone calls without a warrant.
The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board urged the U.S. intelligence chiefs to draft stronger US surveillance guidelines on domestic spying after finding that several of those guidelines have not been updated up to 30 years. U.S. intelligence analysts have deliberately broken rules designed to prevent them from spying on Americans by choosing to ignore so-called "minimisation procedures" aimed at protecting privacy and used the NSA's agency's enormous eavesdropping power to spy on love interests.
After the U.S. Foreign Secret Intelligence Court ruled in October 2011 that some of the NSA's activities were unconstitutional, the agency paid millions of dollars to major internet companies to cover extra costs incurred in their involvement with the PRISM surveillance program.
"Mastering the Internet" (MTI) is part of the Interception Modernisation Programme (IMP) of the British government that involves the insertion of thousands of DPI (deep packet inspection) "black boxes" at various internet service providers, as revealed by the British media in 2009.
In 2013, it was further revealed that the NSA had made a £17.2 million financial contribution to the project, which is capable of vacuuming signals from up to 200 fibre-optic cables at all physical points of entry into Great Britain.
September
The Guardian and The New York Times reported on secret documents leaked by Snowden showing that the NSA has been in "collaboration with technology companies" as part of "an aggressive, multipronged effort" to weaken the encryption used in commercial software, and GCHQ has a team dedicated to cracking "Hotmail, Google, Yahoo and Facebook" traffic.
Germany's domestic security agency Bundesverfassungsschutz (BfV) systematically transfers the personal data of German residents to the NSA, CIA and seven other members of the United States Intelligence Community, in exchange for information and espionage software. Israel, Sweden and Italy are also cooperating with American and British intelligence agencies. Under a secret treaty codenamed "Lustre", French intelligence agencies transferred millions of metadata records to the NSA.
The Obama Administration secretly won permission from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in 2011 to reverse restrictions on the National Security Agency's use of intercepted phone calls and e-mails, permitting the agency to search deliberately for Americans' communications in its massive databases. The searches take place under a surveillance program Congress authorized in 2008 under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Under that law, the target must be a foreigner "reasonably believed" to be outside the United States, and the court must approve the targeting procedures in an order good for one year. But a warrant for each target would thus no longer be required. That means that communications with Americans could be picked up without a court first determining that there is probable cause that the people they were talking to were terrorists, spies or "foreign powers." The FISC extended the length of time that the NSA is allowed to retain intercepted U.S. communications from five years to six years with an extension possible for foreign intelligence or counterintelligence purposes. Both measures were done without public debate or any specific authority from Congress.
A special branch of the NSA called "Follow the Money" (FTM) monitors international payments, banking and credit card transactions and later stores the collected data in the NSA's own financial databank "Tracfin". The NSA monitored the communications of Brazil's president Dilma Rousseff and her top aides. The agency also spied on Brazil's oil firm Petrobras as well as French diplomats, and gained access to the private network of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France and the SWIFT network.
In the United States, the NSA uses the analysis of phone call and e-mail logs of American citizens to create sophisticated graphs of their social connections that can identify their associates, their locations at certain times, their traveling companions and other personal information. The NSA routinely shares raw intelligence data with Israel without first sifting it to remove information about U.S. citizens.
In an effort codenamed GENIE, computer specialists can control foreign computer networks using "covert implants," a form of remotely transmitted malware on tens of thousands of devices annually. As worldwide sales of smartphones began exceeding those of feature phones, the NSA decided to take advantage of the smartphone boom. This is particularly advantageous because the smartphone combines a myriad of data that would interest an intelligence agency, such as social contacts, user behavior, interests, location, photos and credit card numbers and passwords.
An internal NSA report from 2010 stated that the spread of the smartphone has been occurring "extremely rapidly"—developments that "certainly complicate traditional target analysis." According to the document, the NSA has set up task forces assigned to several smartphone manufacturers and operating systems, including Apple Inc.'s iPhone and iOS operating system, as well as Google's Android mobile operating system. Similarly, Britain's GCHQ assigned a team to study and crack the BlackBerry.
Under the heading "iPhone capability", the document notes that there are smaller NSA programs, known as "scripts", that can perform surveillance on 38 different features of the iOS 3 and iOS 4 operating systems. These include the mapping feature, voicemail and photos, as well as Google Earth, Facebook and Yahoo! Messenger.
On September 9, 2013, an internal NSA presentation on iPhone Location Services was published by Der Spiegel. One slide shows scenes from Apple's 1984-themed television commercial alongside the words "Who knew in 1984..."; another shows Steve Jobs holding an iPhone, with the text "...that this would be big brother..."; and a third shows happy consumers with their iPhones, completing the question with "...and the zombies would be paying customers?"
October
On October 4, 2013, The Washington Post and The Guardian jointly reported that the NSA and GCHQ had made repeated attempts to spy on anonymous Internet users who have been communicating in secret via the anonymity network Tor. Several of these surveillance operations involved the implantation of malicious code into the computers of Tor users who visit particular websites. The NSA and GCHQ had partly succeeded in blocking access to the anonymous network, diverting Tor users to insecure channels. The government agencies were also able to uncover the identity of some anonymous Internet users.
The Communications Security Establishment (CSE) has been using a program called Olympia to map the communications of Brazil's Mines and Energy Ministry by targeting the metadata of phone calls and emails to and from the ministry.
The Australian Federal Government knew about the PRISM surveillance program months before Edward Snowden made details public.
The NSA gathered hundreds of millions of contact lists from personal e-mail and instant messaging accounts around the world. The agency did not target individuals. Instead it collected contact lists in large numbers that amount to a sizable fraction of the world's e-mail and instant messaging accounts. Analysis of that data enables the agency to search for hidden connections and to map relationships within a much smaller universe of foreign intelligence targets.
The NSA monitored the public email account of former Mexican president Felipe Calderón (thus gaining access to the communications of high-ranking cabinet members), the emails of several high-ranking members of Mexico's security forces and text and the mobile phone communication of current Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto. The NSA tries to gather cellular and landline phone numbers—often obtained from American diplomats—for as many foreign officials as possible. The contents of the phone calls are stored in computer databases that can regularly be searched using keywords.
The NSA has been monitoring telephone conversations of 35 world leaders. The U.S. government's first public acknowledgment that it tapped the phones of world leaders was reported on October 28, 2013, by the Wall Street Journal after an internal U.S. government review turned up NSA monitoring of some 35 world leaders. GCHQ has tried to keep its mass surveillance program a secret because it feared a "damaging public debate" on the scale of its activities which could lead to legal challenges against them.
The Guardian revealed that the NSA had been monitoring telephone conversations of 35 world leaders after being given the numbers by an official in another U.S. government department. A confidential memo revealed that the NSA encouraged senior officials in such Departments as the White House, State and The Pentagon, to share their "Rolodexes" so the agency could add the telephone numbers of leading foreign politicians to their surveillance systems. Reacting to the news, German leader Angela Merkel, arriving in Brussels for an EU summit, accused the U.S. of a breach of trust, saying: "We need to have trust in our allies and partners, and this must now be established once again. I repeat that spying among friends is not at all acceptable against anyone, and that goes for every citizen in Germany." The NSA collected in 2010 data on ordinary Americans' cellphone locations, but later discontinued it because it had no "operational value."
Under Britain's MUSCULAR programme, the NSA and GCHQ have secretly broken into the main communications links that connect Yahoo and Google data centers around the world and thereby gained the ability to collect metadata and content at will from hundreds of millions of user accounts.
The mobile phone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel might have been tapped by U.S. intelligence. According to the Spiegel this monitoring goes back to 2002 and ended in the summer of 2013, while The New York Times reported that Germany has evidence that the NSA's surveillance of Merkel began during George W. Bush's tenure. After learning from Der Spiegel magazine that the NSA has been listening in to her personal mobile phone, Merkel compared the snooping practices of the NSA with those of the Stasi. It was reported in March 2014, by Der Spiegel that Merkel had also been placed on an NSA surveillance list alongside 122 other world leaders.
On October 31, 2013, Hans-Christian Ströbele, a member of the German Bundestag, met Snowden in Moscow and revealed the former intelligence contractor's readiness to brief the German government on NSA spying.
A highly sensitive signals intelligence collection program known as Stateroom involves the interception of radio, telecommunications and internet traffic. It is operated out of the diplomatic missions of the Five Eyes (Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand, United States) in numerous locations around the world. The program conducted at U.S. diplomatic missions is run in concert by the U.S. intelligence agencies NSA and CIA in a joint venture group called "Special Collection Service" (SCS), whose members work undercover in shielded areas of the American Embassies and Consulates, where they are officially accredited as diplomats and as such enjoy special privileges. Under diplomatic protection, they are able to look and listen unhindered. The SCS for example used the American Embassy near the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin to monitor communications in Germany's government district with its parliament and the seat of the government.
Under the Stateroom surveillance programme, Australia operates clandestine surveillance facilities to intercept phone calls and data across much of Asia.
In France, the NSA targeted people belonging to the worlds of business, politics or French state administration. The NSA monitored and recorded the content of telephone communications and the history of the connections of each target i.e. the metadata. The actual surveillance operation was performed by French intelligence agencies on behalf of the NSA. The cooperation between France and the NSA was confirmed by the Director of the NSA, Keith B. Alexander, who asserted that foreign intelligence services collected phone records in "war zones" and "other areas outside their borders" and provided them to the NSA.
The French newspaper Le Monde also disclosed new PRISM and Upstream slides (See Page 4, 7 and 8) coming from the "PRISM/US-984XN Overview" presentation.
In Spain, the NSA intercepted the telephone conversations, text messages and emails of millions of Spaniards, and spied on members of the Spanish government. Between December 10, 2012, and January 8, 2013, the NSA collected metadata on 60 million telephone calls in Spain.
According to documents leaked by Snowden, the surveillance of Spanish citizens was jointly conducted by the NSA and the intelligence agencies of Spain.
November
The New York Times reported that the NSA carries out an eavesdropping effort, dubbed Operation Dreadnought, against the Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. During his 2009 visit to Iranian Kurdistan, the agency collaborated with GCHQ and the U.S.'s National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, collecting radio transmissions between aircraft and airports, examining Khamenei's convoy with satellite imagery, and enumerating military radar stations. According to the story, an objective of the operation is "communications fingerprinting": the ability to distinguish Khamenei's communications from those of other people in Iran.
The same story revealed an operation code-named Ironavenger, in which the NSA intercepted e-mails sent between a country allied with the United States and the government of "an adversary". The ally was conducting a spear-phishing attack: its e-mails contained malware. The NSA gathered documents and login credentials belonging to the enemy country, along with knowledge of the ally's capabilities for attacking computers.
According to the British newspaper The Independent, the British intelligence agency GCHQ maintains a listening post on the roof of the British Embassy in Berlin that is capable of intercepting mobile phone calls, wi-fi data and long-distance communications all over the German capital, including adjacent government buildings such as the Reichstag (seat of the German parliament) and the Chancellery (seat of Germany's head of government) clustered around the Brandenburg Gate.
Operating under the code-name "Quantum Insert", GCHQ set up a fake website masquerading as LinkedIn, a social website used for professional networking, as part of its efforts to install surveillance software on the computers of the telecommunications operator Belgacom. In addition, the headquarters of the oil cartel OPEC were infiltrated by GCHQ as well as the NSA, which bugged the computers of nine OPEC employees and monitored the General Secretary of OPEC.
For more than three years GCHQ has been using an automated monitoring system code-named "Royal Concierge" to infiltrate the reservation systems of at least 350 prestigious hotels in many different parts of the world in order to target, search and analyze reservations to detect diplomats and government officials. First tested in 2010, the aim of the "Royal Concierge" is to track down the travel plans of diplomats, and it is often supplemented with surveillance methods related to human intelligence (HUMINT). Other covert operations include the wiretapping of room telephones and fax machines used in targeted hotels as well as the monitoring of computers hooked up to the hotel network.
In November 2013, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and The Guardian revealed that the Australian Signals Directorate (DSD) had attempted to listen to the private phone calls of the president of Indonesia and his wife. The Indonesian foreign minister, Marty Natalegawa, confirmed that he and the president had contacted the ambassador in Canberra. Natalegawa said any tapping of Indonesian politicians' personal phones "violates every single decent and legal instrument I can think of—national in Indonesia, national in Australia, international as well".
Other high-ranking Indonesian politicians targeted by the DSD include:
Boediono (Vice President)
Jusuf Kalla (Former Vice President)
Dino Patti Djalal (Ambassador to the United States)
Andi Mallarangeng (Government spokesperson)
Hatta Rajasa (State Secretary)
Sri Mulyani Indrawati (Former Finance Minister and current managing director of the World Bank)
Widodo Adi Sutjipto (Former Commander-in-Chief of the military)
Sofyan Djalil (Senior government advisor)
Carrying the title "3G impact and update", a classified presentation leaked by Snowden revealed the attempts of the ASD/DSD to keep up to pace with the rollout of 3G technology in Indonesia and across Southeast Asia. The ASD/DSD motto placed at the bottom of each page reads: "Reveal their secrets—protect our own."
Under a secret deal approved by British intelligence officials, the NSA has been storing and analyzing the internet and email records of British citizens since 2007. The NSA also proposed in 2005 a procedure for spying on the citizens of the UK and other Five-Eyes nations alliance, even where the partner government has explicitly denied the U.S. permission to do so. Under the proposal, partner countries must neither be informed about this particular type of surveillance, nor the procedure of doing so.
Towards the end of November, The New York Times released an internal NSA report outlining the agency's efforts to expand its surveillance abilities. The five-page document asserts that the law of the United States has not kept up with the needs of the NSA to conduct mass surveillance in the "golden age" of signals intelligence, but there are grounds for optimism because, in the NSA's own words:
The report, titled "SIGINT Strategy 2012–2016", also said that the U.S. will try to influence the "global commercial encryption market" through "commercial relationships", and emphasized the need to "revolutionize" the analysis of its vast data collection to "radically increase operational impact".
On November 23, 2013, the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad reported that the Netherlands was targeted by U.S. intelligence agencies in the immediate aftermath of World War II. This period of surveillance lasted from 1946 to 1968, and also included the interception of the communications of other European countries including Belgium, France, West Germany and Norway. The Dutch Newspaper also reported that NSA infected more than 50,000 computer networks worldwide, often covertly, with malicious spy software, sometimes in cooperation with local authorities, designed to steal sensitive information.
December
According to the classified documents leaked by Snowden, the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), formerly known as the Defense Signals Directorate, had offered to share intelligence information it had collected with the other intelligence agencies of the UKUSA Agreement. Data shared with foreign countries include "bulk, unselected, unminimized metadata" it had collected. The ASD provided such information on the condition that no Australian citizens were targeted. At the time the ASD assessed that "unintentional collection [of metadata of Australian nationals] is not viewed as a significant issue". If a target was later identified as being an Australian national, the ASD was required to be contacted to ensure that a warrant could be sought. Consideration was given as to whether "medical, legal or religious information" would be automatically treated differently to other types of data, however a decision was made that each agency would make such determinations on a case-by-case basis. Leaked material does not specify where the ASD had collected the intelligence information from, however Section 7(a) of the Intelligence Services Act 2001 (Commonwealth) states that the ASD's role is "...to obtain intelligence about the capabilities, intentions or activities of people or organizations outside Australia...". As such, it is possible ASD's metadata intelligence holdings was focused on foreign intelligence collection and was within the bounds of Australian law.
The Washington Post revealed that the NSA has been tracking the locations of mobile phones from all over the world by tapping into the cables that connect mobile networks globally and that serve U.S. cellphones as well as foreign ones. In the process of doing so, the NSA collects more than five billion records of phone locations on a daily basis. This enables NSA analysts to map cellphone owners' relationships by correlating their patterns of movement over time with thousands or millions of other phone users who cross their paths.
The Washington Post also reported that both GCHQ and the NSA make use of location data and advertising tracking files generated through normal internet browsing (with cookies operated by Google, known as "Pref") to pinpoint targets for government hacking and to bolster surveillance.
The Norwegian Intelligence Service (NIS), which cooperates with the NSA, has gained access to Russian targets in the Kola Peninsula and other civilian targets. In general, the NIS provides information to the NSA about "Politicians", "Energy" and "Armament". A top secret memo of the NSA lists the following years as milestones of the Norway–United States of America SIGINT agreement, or NORUS Agreement:
1952 – Informal starting year of cooperation between the NIS and the NSA
1954 – Formalization of the agreement
1963 – Extension of the agreement for coverage of foreign instrumentation signals intelligence (FISINT)
1970 – Extension of the agreement for coverage of electronic intelligence (ELINT)
1994 – Extension of the agreement for coverage of communications intelligence (COMINT)
The NSA considers the NIS to be one of its most reliable partners. Both agencies also cooperate to crack the encryption systems of mutual targets. According to the NSA, Norway has made no objections to its requests from the NIS.
On December 5, Sveriges Television reported the National Defense Radio Establishment (FRA) has been conducting a clandestine surveillance operation in Sweden, targeting the internal politics of Russia. The operation was conducted on behalf of the NSA, receiving data handed over to it by the FRA. The Swedish-American surveillance operation also targeted Russian energy interests as well as the Baltic states. As part of the UKUSA Agreement, a secret treaty was signed in 1954 by Sweden with the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, regarding collaboration and intelligence sharing.
As a result of Snowden's disclosures, the notion of Swedish neutrality in international politics was called into question. In an internal document dating from the year 2006, the NSA acknowledged that its "relationship" with Sweden is "protected at the TOP SECRET level because of that nation's political neutrality." Specific details of Sweden's cooperation with members of the UKUSA Agreement include:
The FRA has been granted access to XKeyscore, an analytical database of the NSA.
Sweden updated the NSA on changes in Swedish legislation that provided the legal framework for information sharing between the FRA and the Swedish Security Service.
Since January 2013, a counterterrorism analyst of the NSA has been stationed in the Swedish capital of Stockholm
The NSA, GCHQ and the FRA signed an agreement in 2004 that allows the FRA to directly collaborate with the NSA without having to consult GCHQ. About five years later, the Riksdag passed a controversial legislative change, briefly allowing the FRA to monitor both wireless and cable bound signals passing the Swedish border without a court order, while also introducing several provisions designed to protect the privacy of individuals, according to the original proposal. This legislation was amended 11 months later, in an effort to strengthen protection of privacy by making court orders a requirement, and by imposing several limits on the intelligence-gathering.
According to documents leaked by Snowden, the Special Source Operations of the NSA has been sharing information containing "logins, cookies, and GooglePREFID" with the Tailored Access Operations division of the NSA, as well as Britain's GCHQ agency.
During the 2010 G-20 Toronto summit, the U.S. embassy in Ottawa was transformed into a security command post during a six-day spying operation that was conducted by the NSA and closely coordinated with the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC). The goal of the spying operation was, among others, to obtain information on international development, banking reform, and to counter trade protectionism to support "U.S. policy goals." On behalf of the NSA, the CSEC has set up covert spying posts in 20 countries around the world.
In Italy the Special Collection Service of the NSA maintains two separate surveillance posts in Rome and Milan. According to a secret NSA memo dated September 2010, the Italian embassy in Washington, D.C. has been targeted by two spy operations of the NSA:
Under the codename "Bruneau", which refers to mission "Lifesaver", the NSA sucks out all the information stored in the embassy's computers and creates electronic images of hard disk drives.
Under the codename "Hemlock", which refers to mission "Highlands", the NSA gains access to the embassy's communications through physical "implants".
Due to concerns that terrorist or criminal networks may be secretly communicating via computer games, the NSA, GCHQ, CIA, and FBI have been conducting surveillance and scooping up data from the networks of many online games, including massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) such as World of Warcraft, as well as virtual worlds such as Second Life, and the Xbox gaming console.
The NSA has cracked the most commonly used cellphone encryption technology, A5/1. According to a classified document leaked by Snowden, the agency can "process encrypted A5/1" even when it has not acquired an encryption key. In addition, the NSA uses various types of cellphone infrastructure, such as the links between carrier networks, to determine the location of a cellphone user tracked by Visitor Location Registers.
US district court judge for the District of Columbia, Richard Leon, declared on December 16, 2013, that the mass collection of metadata of Americans' telephone records by the National Security Agency probably violates the fourth amendment prohibition of unreasonable searches and seizures. Leon granted the request for a preliminary injunction that blocks the collection of phone data for two private plaintiffs (Larry Klayman, a conservative lawyer, and Charles Strange, father of a cryptologist killed in Afghanistan when his helicopter was shot down in 2011) and ordered the government to destroy any of their records that have been gathered. But the judge stayed action on his ruling pending a government appeal, recognizing in his 68-page opinion the "significant national security interests at stake in this case and the novelty of the constitutional issues."
However federal judge William H. Pauley III in New York City ruled the U.S. government's global telephone data-gathering system is needed to thwart potential terrorist attacks, and that it can only work if everyone's calls are swept in. U.S. District Judge Pauley also ruled that Congress legally set up the program and that it does not violate anyone's constitutional rights. The judge also concluded that the telephone data being swept up by NSA did not belong to telephone users, but to the telephone companies. He further ruled that when NSA obtains such data from the telephone companies, and then probes into it to find links between callers and potential terrorists, this further use of the data was not even a search under the Fourth Amendment. He also concluded that the controlling precedent is Smith v. Maryland: "Smith's bedrock holding is that an individual has no legitimate expectation of privacy in information provided to third parties," Judge Pauley wrote. The American Civil Liberties Union declared on January 2, 2012, that it will appeal Judge Pauley's ruling that NSA bulk the phone record collection is legal. "The government has a legitimate interest in tracking the associations of suspected terrorists, but tracking those associations does not require the government to subject every citizen to permanent surveillance," deputy ACLU legal director Jameel Jaffer said in a statement.
In recent years, American and British intelligence agencies conducted surveillance on more than 1,100 targets, including the office of an Israeli prime minister, heads of international aid organizations, foreign energy companies and a European Union official involved in antitrust battles with American technology businesses.
A catalog of high-tech gadgets and software developed by the NSA's Tailored Access Operations (TAO) was leaked by the German news magazine Der Spiegel. Dating from 2008, the catalog revealed the existence of special gadgets modified to capture computer screenshots and USB flash drives secretly fitted with radio transmitters to broadcast stolen data over the airwaves, and fake base stations intended to intercept mobile phone signals, as well as many other secret devices and software implants listed here:
The Tailored Access Operations (TAO) division of the NSA intercepted the shipping deliveries of computers and laptops in order to install spyware and physical implants on electronic gadgets. This was done in close cooperation with the FBI and the CIA. NSA officials responded to the Spiegel reports with a statement, which said: "Tailored Access Operations is a unique national asset that is on the front lines of enabling NSA to defend the nation and its allies. [TAO's] work is centred on computer network exploitation in support of foreign intelligence collection."
In a separate disclosure unrelated to Snowden, the French Trésor public, which runs a certificate authority, was found to have issued fake certificates impersonating Google in order to facilitate spying on French government employees via man-in-the-middle attacks.
2014
January
The NSA is working to build a powerful quantum computer capable of breaking all types of encryption. The effort is part of a US$79.7 million research program known as "Penetrating Hard Targets". It involves extensive research carried out in large, shielded rooms known as Faraday cages, which are designed to prevent electromagnetic radiation from entering or leaving. Currently, the NSA is close to producing basic building blocks that will allow the agency to gain "complete quantum control on two semiconductor qubits". Once a quantum computer is successfully built, it would enable the NSA to unlock the encryption that protects data held by banks, credit card companies, retailers, brokerages, governments and health care providers.
According to The New York Times, the NSA is monitoring approximately 100,000 computers worldwide with spy software named Quantum. Quantum enables the NSA to conduct surveillance on those computers on the one hand, and can also create a digital highway for launching cyberattacks on the other hand. Among the targets are the Chinese and Russian military, but also trade institutions within the European Union. The NYT also reported that the NSA can access and alter computers which are not connected with the internet by a secret technology in use by the NSA since 2008. The prerequisite is the physical insertion of the radio frequency hardware by a spy, a manufacturer or an unwitting user. The technology relies on a covert channel of radio waves that can be transmitted from tiny circuit boards and USB cards inserted surreptitiously into the computers. In some cases, they are sent to a briefcase-size relay station that intelligence agencies can set up miles away from the target. The technology can also transmit malware back to the infected computer.
Channel 4 and The Guardian revealed the existence of Dishfire, a massive database of the NSA that collects hundreds of millions of text messages on a daily basis. GCHQ has been given full access to the database, which it uses to obtain personal information of Britons by exploiting a legal loophole.
Each day, the database receives and stores the following amounts of data:
Geolocation data of more than 76,000 text messages and other travel information
Over 110,000 names, gathered from electronic business cards
Over 800,000 financial transactions that are either gathered from text-to-text payments or by linking credit cards to phone users
Details of 1.6 million border crossings based on the interception of network roaming alerts
Over 5 million missed call alerts
About 200 million text messages from around the world
The database is supplemented with an analytical tool known as the Prefer program, which processes SMS messages to extract other types of information including contacts from missed call alerts.
The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board report on mass surveillance was released on January 23, 2014. It recommends to end the bulk telephone metadata, i.e., bulk phone records – phone numbers dialed, call times and durations, but not call content collection – collection program, to create a "Special Advocate" to be involved in some cases before the FISA court judge and to release future and past FISC decisions "that involve novel interpretations of FISA or other significant questions of law, technology or compliance."
According to a joint disclosure by The New York Times, The Guardian, and ProPublica, the NSA and GCHQ have begun working together to collect and store data from dozens of smartphone application software by 2007 at the latest. A 2008 GCHQ report, leaked by Snowden asserts that "anyone using Google Maps on a smartphone is working in support of a GCHQ system". The NSA and GCHQ have traded recipes for various purposes such as grabbing location data and journey plans that are made when a target uses Google Maps, and vacuuming up address books, buddy lists, phone logs and geographic data embedded in photos posted on the mobile versions of numerous social networks such as Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, Twitter and other services. In a separate 20-page report dated 2012, GCHQ cited the popular smartphone game "Angry Birds" as an example of how an application could be used to extract user data. Taken together, such forms of data collection would allow the agencies to collect vital information about a user's life, including his or her home country, current location (through geolocation), age, gender, ZIP code, marital status, income, ethnicity, sexual orientation, education level, number of children, etc.
A GCHQ document dated August 2012 provided details of the Squeaky Dolphin surveillance program, which enables GCHQ to conduct broad, real-time monitoring of various social media features and social media traffic such as YouTube video views, the Like button on Facebook, and Blogspot/Blogger visits without the knowledge or consent of the companies providing those social media features. The agency's "Squeaky Dolphin" program can collect, analyze and utilize YouTube, Facebook and Blogger data in specific situations in real time for analysis purposes. The program also collects the addresses from the billions of videos watched daily as well as some user information for analysis purposes.
During the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, the NSA and its Five Eyes partners monitored the communications of delegates of numerous countries. This was done to give their own policymakers a negotiating advantage.
The Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) has been tracking Canadian air passengers via free Wi-Fi services at a major Canadian airport. Passengers who exited the airport terminal continued to be tracked as they showed up at other Wi-Fi locations across Canada. In a CSEC document dated May 2012, the agency described how it had gained access to two communications systems with over 300,000 users in order to pinpoint a specific imaginary target. The operation was executed on behalf of the NSA as a trial run to test a new technology capable of tracking down "any target that makes occasional forays into other cities/regions." This technology was subsequently shared with Canada's Five Eyes partners – Australia, New Zealand, Britain, and the United States.
February
According to research by Süddeutsche Zeitung and TV network NDR the mobile phone of former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder was monitored from 2002 onwards, reportedly because of his government's opposition to military intervention in Iraq. The source of the latest information is a document leaked by Edward Snowden. The document, containing information about the National Sigint Requirement List (NSRL), had previously been interpreted as referring only to Angela Merkel's mobile. However Süddeutsche Zeitung and NDR claim to have confirmation from NSA insiders that the surveillance authorisation pertains not to the individual, but the political post – which in 2002 was still held by Schröder. According to research by the two media outlets, Schröder was placed as number 388 on the list, which contains the names of persons and institutions to be put under surveillance by the NSA.
GCHQ launched a cyber-attack on the activist network "Anonymous", using denial-of-service attack (DoS) to shut down a chatroom frequented by the network's members and to spy on them. The attack, dubbed Rolling Thunder, was conducted by a GCHQ unit known as the Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG). The unit successfully uncovered the true identities of several Anonymous members.
The NSA Section 215 bulk telephony metadata program which seeks to stockpile records on all calls made in the U.S. is collecting less than 30 percent of all Americans' call records because of an inability to keep pace with the explosion in cellphone use according to the Washington Post. The controversial program permits the NSA after a warrant granted by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to record numbers, length and location of every call from the participating carriers.
The Intercept reported that the U.S. government is using primarily NSA surveillance to target people for drone strikes overseas. In its report The Intercept author detail the flawed methods which are used to locate targets for lethal drone strikes, resulting in the deaths of innocent people. According to the Washington Post NSA analysts and collectors i.e. NSA personnel which controls electronic surveillance equipment use the NSA's sophisticated surveillance capabilities to track individual targets geographically and in real time, while drones and tactical units aimed their weaponry against those targets to take them out.
An unnamed US law firm, reported to be Mayer Brown, was targeted by Australia's ASD. According to Snowden's documents, the ASD had offered to hand over these intercepted communications to the NSA. This allowed government authorities to be "able to continue to cover the talks, providing highly useful intelligence for interested US customers".
NSA and GCHQ documents revealed that the anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks and other activist groups were targeted for government surveillance and criminal prosecution. In particular, the IP addresses of visitors to WikiLeaks were collected in real time, and the US government urged its allies to file criminal charges against the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, due to his organization's publication of the Afghanistan war logs. The WikiLeaks organization was designated as a "malicious foreign actor".
Quoting an unnamed NSA official in Germany, Bild am Sonntag reported that whilst President Obama's order to stop spying on Merkel was being obeyed, the focus had shifted to bugging other leading government and business figures including Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, a close confidant of Merkel. Caitlin Hayden, a security adviser to President Obama, was quoted in the newspaper report as saying, "The US has made clear it gathers intelligence in exactly the same way as any other states."
The Intercept reveals that government agencies are infiltrating online communities and engaging in "false flag operations" to discredit targets among them people who have nothing to do with terrorism or national security threats. The two main tactics that are currently used are the injection of all sorts of false material onto the internet in order to destroy the reputation of its targets; and the use of social sciences and other techniques to manipulate online discourse and activism to generate outcomes it considers desirable.
The Guardian reported that Britain's surveillance agency GCHQ, with aid from the National Security Agency, intercepted and stored the webcam images of millions of internet users not suspected of wrongdoing. The surveillance program codenamed Optic Nerve collected still images of Yahoo webcam chats (one image every five minutes) in bulk and saved them to agency databases. The agency discovered "that a surprising number of people use webcam conversations to show intimate parts of their body to the other person", estimating that between 3% and 11% of the Yahoo webcam imagery harvested by GCHQ contains "undesirable nudity".
March
The NSA has built an infrastructure which enables it to covertly hack into computers on a mass scale by using automated systems that reduce the level of human oversight in the process. The NSA relies on an automated system codenamed TURBINE which in essence enables the automated management and control of a large network of implants (a form of remotely transmitted malware on selected individual computer devices or in bulk on tens of thousands of devices). As quoted by The Intercept, TURBINE is designed to "allow the current implant network to scale to large size (millions of implants) by creating a system that does automated control implants by groups instead of individually." The NSA has shared many of its files on the use of implants with its counterparts in the so-called Five Eyes surveillance alliance – the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.
Among other things due to TURBINE and its control over the implants the NSA is capable of:
breaking into targeted computers and to siphoning out data from foreign Internet and phone networks
infecting a target's computer and exfiltrating files from a hard drive
covertly recording audio from a computer's microphone and taking snapshots with its webcam
launching cyberattacks by corrupting and disrupting file downloads or denying access to websites
exfiltrating data from removable flash drives that connect to an infected computer
The TURBINE implants are linked to, and relies upon, a large network of clandestine surveillance "sensors" that the NSA has installed at locations across the world, including the agency's headquarters in Maryland and eavesdropping bases used by the agency in Misawa, Japan and Menwith Hill, England. Codenamed as TURMOIL, the sensors operate as a sort of high-tech surveillance dragnet, monitoring packets of data as they are sent across the Internet. When TURBINE implants exfiltrate data from infected computer systems, the TURMOIL sensors automatically identify the data and return it to the NSA for analysis. And when targets are communicating, the TURMOIL system can be used to send alerts or "tips" to TURBINE, enabling the initiation of a malware attack. To identify surveillance targets, the NSA uses a series of data "selectors" as they flow across Internet cables. These selectors can include email addresses, IP addresses, or the unique "cookies" containing a username or other identifying information that are sent to a user's computer by websites such as Google, Facebook, Hotmail, Yahoo, and Twitter, unique Google advertising cookies that track browsing habits, unique encryption key fingerprints that can be traced to a specific user, and computer IDs that are sent across the Internet when a Windows computer crashes or updates.
The CIA was accused by U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein of spying on a stand-alone computer network established for the committee in its investigation of allegations of CIA abuse in a George W. Bush-era detention and interrogation program.
A voice interception program codenamed MYSTIC began in 2009. Along with RETRO, short for "retrospective retrieval" (RETRO is voice audio recording buffer that allows retrieval of captured content up to 30 days into the past), the MYSTIC program is capable of recording "100 percent" of a foreign country's telephone calls, enabling the NSA to rewind and review conversations up to 30 days and the relating metadata. With the capability to store up to 30 days of recorded conversations MYSTIC enables the NSA to pull an instant history of the person's movements, associates and plans.
On March 21, Le Monde published slides from an internal presentation of the Communications Security Establishment Canada, which attributed a piece of malicious software to French intelligence. The CSEC presentation concluded that the list of malware victims matched French intelligence priorities and found French cultural reference in the malware's code, including the name Babar, a popular French children's character, and the developer name "Titi".
The French telecommunications corporation Orange S.A. shares its call data with the French intelligence agency DGSE, which hands over the intercepted data to GCHQ.
The NSA has spied on the Chinese technology company Huawei. Huawei is a leading manufacturer of smartphones, tablets, mobile phone infrastructure, and WLAN routers and installs fiber optic cable. According to Der Spiegel this "kind of technology […] is decisive in the NSA's battle for data supremacy." The NSA, in an operation named "Shotgiant", was able to access Huawei's email archive and the source code for Huawei's communications products. The US government has had longstanding concerns that Huawei may not be independent of the People's Liberation Army and that the Chinese government might use equipment manufactured by Huawei to conduct cyberespionage or cyberwarfare. The goals of the NSA operation were to assess the relationship between Huawei and the PLA, to learn more the Chinese government's plans and to use information from Huawei to spy on Huawei's customers, including Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kenya, and Cuba. Former Chinese President Hu Jintao, the Chinese Trade Ministry, banks, as well as telecommunications companies were also targeted by the NSA.
The Intercept published a document of an NSA employee discussing how to build a database of IP addresses, webmail, and Facebook accounts associated with system administrators so that the NSA can gain access to the networks and systems they administer.
At the end of March 2014, Der Spiegel and The Intercept published, based on a series of classified files from the archive provided to reporters by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, articles related to espionage efforts by GCHQ and NSA in Germany. The British GCHQ targeted three German internet firms for information about Internet traffic passing through internet exchange points, important customers of the German internet providers, their technology suppliers as well as future technical trends in their business sector and company employees. The NSA was granted by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court the authority for blanket surveillance of Germany, its people and institutions, regardless whether those affected are suspected of having committed an offense or not, without an individualized court order specifying on March 7, 2013. In addition Germany's chancellor Angela Merkel was listed in a surveillance search machine and database named Nymrod along with 121 others foreign leaders. As The Intercept wrote: "The NSA uses the Nymrod system to 'find information relating to targets that would otherwise be tough to track down,' according to internal NSA documents. Nymrod sifts through secret reports based on intercepted communications as well as full transcripts of faxes, phone calls, and communications collected from computer systems. More than 300 'cites' for Merkel are listed as available in intelligence reports and transcripts for NSA operatives to read."
April
Towards the end of April, Edward Snowden said that the United States surveillance agencies spy on Americans more than anyone else in the world, contrary to anything that has been said by the government up until this point.
May
An article published by Ars Technica shows NSA's Tailored Access Operations (TAO) employees intercepting a Cisco router.
The Intercept and WikiLeaks revealed information about which countries were having their communications collected as part of the MYSTIC surveillance program. On May 19, The Intercept reported that the NSA is recording and archiving nearly every cell phone conversation in the Bahamas with a system called SOMALGET, a subprogram of MYSTIC. The mass surveillance has been occurring without the Bahamian government's permission. Aside from the Bahamas, The Intercept reported NSA interception of cell phone metadata in Kenya, the Philippines, Mexico and a fifth country it did not name due to "credible concerns that doing so could lead to increased violence." WikiLeaks released a statement on May 23 claiming that Afghanistan was the unnamed nation.
In a statement responding to the revelations, the NSA said "the implication that NSA's foreign intelligence collection is arbitrary and unconstrained is false."
Through its global surveillance operations the NSA exploits the flood of images included in emails, text messages, social media, videoconferences and other communications to harvest millions of images. These images are then used by the NSA in sophisticated facial recognition programs to track suspected terrorists and other intelligence targets.
June
Vodafone revealed that there were secret wires that allowed government agencies direct access to their networks. This access does not require warrants and the direct access wire is often equipment in a locked room. In six countries where Vodafone operates, the law requires telecommunication companies to install such access or allows governments to do so. Vodafone did not name these countries in case some governments retaliated by imprisoning their staff. Shami Chakrabarti of Liberty said "For governments to access phone calls at the flick of a switch is unprecedented and terrifying. Snowden revealed the internet was already treated as fair game. Bluster that all is well is wearing pretty thin – our analogue laws need a digital overhaul." Vodafone published its first Law Enforcement Disclosure Report on June 6, 2014. Vodafone group privacy officer Stephen Deadman said "These pipes exist, the direct access model exists. We are making a call to end direct access as a means of government agencies obtaining people's communication data. Without an official warrant, there is no external visibility. If we receive a demand we can push back against the agency. The fact that a government has to issue a piece of paper is an important constraint on how powers are used." Gus Hosein, director of Privacy International said "I never thought the telcos would be so complicit. It's a brave step by Vodafone and hopefully the other telcos will become more brave with disclosure, but what we need is for them to be braver about fighting back against the illegal requests and the laws themselves."
Above-top-secret documentation of a covert surveillance program named Overseas Processing Centre 1 (OPC-1) (codenamed "CIRCUIT") by GCHQ was published by The Register. Based on documents leaked by Edward Snowden, GCHQ taps into undersea fiber optic cables via secret spy bases near the Strait of Hormuz and Yemen. BT and Vodafone are implicated.
The Danish newspaper Dagbladet Information and The Intercept revealed on June 19, 2014, the NSA mass surveillance program codenamed RAMPART-A. Under RAMPART-A, 'third party' countries tap into fiber optic cables carrying the majority of the world's electronic communications and are secretly allowing the NSA to install surveillance equipment on these fiber-optic cables. The foreign partners of the NSA turn massive amounts of data like the content of phone calls, faxes, e-mails, internet chats, data from virtual private networks, and calls made using Voice over IP software like Skype over to the NSA. In return these partners receive access to the NSA's sophisticated surveillance equipment so that they too can spy on the mass of data that flows in and out of their territory. Among the partners participating in the NSA mass surveillance program are Denmark and Germany.
July
During the week of July 4, a 31-year-old male employee of Germany's intelligence service BND was arrested on suspicion of spying for the United States. The employee is suspected of spying on the German Parliamentary Committee investigating the NSA spying scandal.
Former NSA official and whistleblower William Binney spoke at a Centre for Investigative Journalism conference in London. According to Binney, "at least 80% of all audio calls, not just metadata, are recorded and stored in the US. The NSA lies about what it stores." He also stated that the majority of fiber optic cables run through the U.S., which "is no accident and allows the US to view all communication coming in."
The Washington Post released a review of a cache provided by Snowden containing roughly 160,000 text messages and e-mails intercepted by the NSA between 2009 and 2012. The newspaper concluded that nine out of ten account holders whose conversations were recorded by the agency "were not the intended surveillance targets but were caught in a net the agency had cast for somebody else." In its analysis, The Post also noted that many of the account holders were Americans.
On July 9, a soldier working within Germany's Federal Ministry of Defence (BMVg) fell under suspicion of spying for the United States. As a result of the July 4 case and this one, the German government expelled the CIA station chief in Germany on July 17.
On July 18, former State Department official John Tye released an editorial in The Washington Post, highlighting concerns over data collection under Executive Order 12333. Tye's concerns are rooted in classified material he had access to through the State Department, though he has not publicly released any classified materials.
August
The Intercept reported that the NSA is "secretly providing data to nearly two dozen U.S. government agencies with a 'Google-like' search engine" called ICREACH. The database, The Intercept reported, is accessible to domestic law enforcement agencies including the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration and was built to contain more than 850 billion metadata records about phone calls, emails, cellphone locations, and text messages.
2015
February
Based on documents obtained from Snowden, The Intercept reported that the NSA and GCHQ had broken into the internal computer network of Gemalto and stolen the encryption keys that are used in SIM cards no later than 2010. , the company is the world's largest manufacturer of SIM cards, making about two billion cards a year. With the keys, the intelligence agencies could eavesdrop on cell phones without the knowledge of mobile phone operators or foreign governments.
March
The New Zealand Herald, in partnership with The Intercept, revealed that the New Zealand government used XKeyscore to spy on candidates for the position of World Trade Organization director general and also members of the Solomon Islands government.
April
In January 2015, the DEA revealed that it had been collecting metadata records for all telephone calls made by Americans to 116 countries linked to drug trafficking. The DEA's program was separate from the telephony metadata programs run by the NSA. In April, USA Today reported that the DEA's data collection program began in 1992 and included all telephone calls between the United States and from Canada and Mexico. Current and former DEA officials described the program as the precursor of the NSA's similar programs. The DEA said its program was suspended in September 2013, after a review of the NSA's programs and that it was "ultimately terminated."
September
Snowden provided journalists at The Intercept with GCHQ documents regarding another secret program "Karma Police", calling itself "the world's biggest" data mining operation, formed to create profiles on every visible Internet user's browsing habits. By 2009 it had stored over 1.1 trillion web browsing sessions, and by 2012 was recording 50 billion sessions per day.
2016
January
NSA documents show the US and UK spied on Israeli military drones and fighter jets.
August
A group called The Shadow Brokers says it infiltrated NSA's Equation Group and teases files including some named in documents leaked by Edward Snowden. Among the products affected by the leaked material was Cisco PIX and ASA VPN boxes.
2017
In March 2017, WikiLeaks published more than 8,000 documents on the CIA. The confidential documents, codenamed Vault 7, dated from 2013 to 2016, included details on the CIA's hacking capabilities, such as the ability to compromise cars, smart TVs, web browsers (including Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Firefox, and Opera), and the operating systems of most smartphones (including Apple's iOS and Google's Android), as well as other operating systems such as Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux. WikiLeaks did not name the source, but said that the files had "circulated among former U.S. government hackers and contractors in an unauthorized manner, one of whom has provided WikiLeaks with portions of the archive."
2018
2019
2020
2021
In May 2021, it was reported that Danish Defence Intelligence Service collaborated with NSA to wiretap on fellow EU members and leaders, leading to wide backlash among EU countries and demands for explanation from Danish and American governments.
Reaction
Reactions of citizens
The disclosure provided impetus for the creation of social movements against mass surveillance, such as Restore the Fourth, and actions like Stop Watching Us and The Day We Fight Back. On the legal front, the Electronic Frontier Foundation joined a coalition of diverse groups filing suit against the NSA. Several human rights organizations have urged the Obama administration not to prosecute, but protect, "whistleblower Snowden": Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Transparency International, and the Index on Censorship, among others. On the economic front, several consumer surveys registered a drop in online shopping and banking activity as a result of the Snowden revelations.
Reactions of political leaders
United States
Domestically, President Barack Obama claimed that there is "no spying on Americans", and White House Press Secretary Jay Carney asserted that the surveillance programs revealed by Snowden have been authorized by Congress.
On the international front, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder stated that "we cannot target even foreign persons overseas without a valid foreign intelligence purpose."
United Kingdom
Prime Minister David Cameron warned journalists that "if they don't demonstrate some social responsibility it will be very difficult for government to stand back and not to act." Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg emphasized that the media should "absolutely defend the principle of secrecy for the intelligence agencies".
Foreign Secretary William Hague claimed that "we take great care to balance individual privacy with our duty to safeguard the public and UK national security." Hague defended the Five Eyes alliance and reiterated that the British-U.S. intelligence relationship must not be endangered because it "saved many lives".
Australia
Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott stated that "every Australian governmental agency, every Australian official at home and abroad, operates in accordance with the law". Abbott criticized the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for being unpatriotic due to its reporting on the documents provided by Snowden, whom Abbott described as a "traitor". Foreign Minister Julie Bishop also denounced Snowden as a traitor and accused him of "unprecedented" treachery. Bishop defended the Five Eyes alliance and reiterated that the Australian–U.S. intelligence relationship must not be endangered because it "saves lives".
Germany
In July 2013, Chancellor Angela Merkel defended the surveillance practices of the NSA, and described the United States as "our truest ally throughout the decades". After the NSA's surveillance on Merkel was revealed, however, the Chancellor compared the NSA with the Stasi. According to The Guardian, Berlin is using the controversy over NSA spying as leverage to enter the exclusive Five Eyes alliance.
Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich stated that "the Americans take our data privacy concerns seriously." Testifying before the German Parliament, Friedrich defended the NSA's surveillance, and cited five terrorist plots on German soil that were prevented because of the NSA. However, in April 2014, another German interior minister criticized the United States for failing to provide sufficient assurances to Germany that it had reined in its spying tactics. Thomas de Maiziere, a close ally of Merkel, told Der Spiegel: "U.S. intelligence methods may be justified to a large extent by security needs, but the tactics are excessive and over-the-top."
Sweden
Minister for Foreign Affairs Carl Bildt, defended the FRA and described its surveillance practices as a "national necessity". Minister for Defence Karin Enström said that Sweden's intelligence exchange with other countries is "critical for our security" and that "intelligence operations occur within a framework with clear legislation, strict controls and under parliamentary oversight."
Netherlands
Interior Minister Ronald Plasterk apologized for incorrectly claiming that the NSA had collected 1.8 million records of metadata in the Netherlands. Plasterk acknowledged that it was in fact Dutch intelligence services who collected the records and transferred them to the NSA.
Denmark
The Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt has praised the American intelligence agencies, claiming they have prevented terrorist attacks in Denmark, and expressed her personal belief that the Danish people "should be grateful" for the Americans' surveillance. She has later claimed that the Danish authorities have no basis for assuming that American intelligence agencies have performed illegal spying activities towards Denmark or Danish interests.
Review of intelligence agencies
Germany
In July 2013, the German government announced an extensive review of Germany's intelligence services.
United States
In August 2013, the U.S. government announced an extensive review of U.S. intelligence services.
United Kingdom
In October 2013, the British government announced an extensive review of British intelligence services.
Canada
In December 2013, the Canadian government announced an extensive review of Canada's intelligence services.
Criticism and alternative views
In January 2014, U.S. President Barack Obama said that "the sensational way in which these disclosures have come out has often shed more heat than light" and critics such as Sean Wilentz claimed that "the NSA has acted far more responsibly than the claims made by the leakers and publicized by the press." In Wilentz' view "The leakers have gone far beyond justifiably blowing the whistle on abusive programs. In addition to their alarmism about [U.S.] domestic surveillance, many of the Snowden documents released thus far have had nothing whatsoever to do with domestic surveillance." Edward Lucas, former Moscow bureau chief for The Economist, agreed, asserting that "Snowden's revelations neatly and suspiciously fits the interests of one country: Russia" and citing Masha Gessen's statement that "The Russian propaganda machine has not gotten this much mileage out of a US citizen since Angela Davis's murder trial in 1971."
Bob Cesca objected to The New York Times failing to redact the name of an NSA employee and the specific location where an al Qaeda group was being targeted in a series of slides the paper made publicly available.
Russian journalist Andrei Soldatov argued that Snowden's revelations had had negative consequences for internet freedom in Russia, as Russian authorities increased their own surveillance and regulation on the pretext of protecting the privacy of Russian users. Snowden's name was invoked by Russian legislators who supported measures forcing platforms such as Google, Facebook, Twitter and Gmail and YouTube to locate their servers on Russian soil or install SORM black boxes on their servers so that Russian authorities could control them. Soldatov also contended that as a result of the disclosures, international support for having national governments take over the powers of the organizations involved in coordinating the Internet's global architectures had grown, which could lead to a Balkanization of the Internet that restricted free access to information. The Montevideo Statement on the Future of Internet Cooperation issued in October 2013, by ICANN and other organizations warned against "Internet fragmentation at a national level" and expressed "strong concern over the undermining of the trust and confidence of Internet users globally due to recent revelations".
In late 2014, Freedom House said "[s]ome states are using the revelations of widespread surveillance by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) as an excuse to augment their own monitoring capabilities, frequently with little or no oversight, and often aimed at the political opposition and human rights activists."
Gallery
Comparison with other leaks
See also
Global surveillance whistleblowers
Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act
Harris Corporation
PositiveID
References
External links
Collections
"Global Surveillance. An annotated and categorized "overview of the revelations following the leaks by the whistleblower Edward Snowden. There are also some links to comments and followups". By Oslo University Library.
NSA Spying Scandal Der Spiegel
Six months of revelations on NSA by the Washington Post's Kennedy Elliott and Terri Rupar on December 23, 2013
A collection of documents relating to surveillance.
Part 2 of the above.
Part 3 of the above.
Documents relating to the surveillance against Dilma Rousseff and Enrique Peña Nieto
The NSA Archive by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) – All documents released since June 5, 2013—both by the media and the U.S. government—are housed in this database established and operated by the ACLU.
ACLU article "Introducing the ACLU's NSA Documents Database" by the ACLU's Emily Weinrebe on April 3, 2014 on the above NSA Archive established and operated by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
NSA Primary Sources – A List of all leaks and links to media articles related to the disclosures based on the material of Edward Snowden sorted by Date, Document and Media outlet established and operated by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Snowden disclosures at the Internet Archive.
Global surveillance
2010s in politics
2010s in international relations
News leaks
Edward Snowden
2010s scandals
Articles containing video clips
Cover-ups
Surveillance scandals
Works about security and surveillance |
41227810 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global%20surveillance%20by%20category | Global surveillance by category | This is a category of disclosures related to global surveillance.
Court orders, memos and policy documents
Memorandum of understanding between the NSA and the Israel SIGINT National Unit (ISNU)
April 2013 FISC Order demanding that Verizon hand over all telephony metadata to NSA. The order had been initially granted in May 2006. In 2009 the FISC discovered that the government had made repeated and substantial misrepresentations to the court about its use, and had routinely been "running queries of the metadata using querying terms that did not meet the required standard for querying." It further concluded that the violations had been routine and systematic.
Legal Justification of the bulk telephony metadata collection (officially released)
2009 NSA Procedures for Targeting Foreigners for Surveillance
2009 NSA Procedures for Minimizing collection on US Persons
2011 NSA Procedures for Minimizing collection on US Persons (officially released)
Reference to a 2011 Change in the court-approved Minimization Procedures allowing analysts to run search queries using US persons' identifiers if there is "effective" oversight by NSA (it is not publicly known if such oversight has been established, or if any such searches have been conducted). The court order mentioned was later officially released.
October 2011 Court decision finding NSA's upstream collection program, which collected tens of thousands of non-target communications, to have violated the law. It held, citing multiple Supreme Court precedents, that the Fourth Amendment applies to the contents of all communications, whatever the means (they are "papers"). It also finds that the NSA's minimization and targeting policies to be legally and/or constitutionally deficient, and recommends changes. (officially released). Additional findings:
The collection of Upstream data had begun before a court order approving it, in violation of 50 USC § 1809(a), which makes it a crime to engage in, use or disseminate surveillance knowing, or having reason to know such surveillance was not authorized.
March 2009 FISC ruling showing a consistent pattern of misrepresentations of the bulk telephone metadata collection program by the government to the Court. It also held that the data was being routinely queried in ways that did not meet "reasonable articulatable suspicion", demonstrating inadequate safeguards in the software and training of analysts. Showing that "thousands of violations resulted from the use of identifiers that were not "RAS-approved by analysts who were not even aware that they were accessing BR metadata," and that in 2006 "there was no single person [in the NSA] who had a complete understanding of the BR FISA system architecture," a situation which persisted until February 2009 or later. RAS is shorthand for Reasonable Articulatable Suspicion. The Court nonetheless reapproved the collection of bulk phone metadata, while mandating additional safeguards and training, and "end-to-end system engineering reviews," and reports from the review. (Officially released by court order)
October 2012 Presidential Policy Directive 20 (PPD20), outlining cyberwarfare.
2007 Michael Mukasey memo proposing broader powers.
April 2013 list of US Spying targets and topics by priority. The top priority countries are: Iran, Russia, China, Pakistan, North Korea and Afghanistan. Germany, France, the European Union, and Japan are mid-level priorities; Italy and Spain rank lower.
FY 2013 Intelligence "Black Budget" Summary.
A memorandum of understanding concerning US sharing of raw SIGINT with Israel. The data has not been scrubbed to eliminate US persons, it asks Israel not to deliberately target US persons, however the agreement allows Israel to retain US person data for one full year. The memorandum is not legally binding. A separate document states "And there are other kinds of CI threats that are right on our midst. For example, one of NSA's biggest threats is actually from friendly intelligence services, like Israel.", it continues "Balancing the SIGINT exchange between US and Israeli needs has been a constant challenge. In the last decade, it arguably tilted heavily in favor of Israeli security concerns. 9/11 came and went, and with NSA's only true Third Party CT relationship being driven almost entirely driven by the needs of the partner."
September 13, 2013 FISC Court order declassifing all the legal opinions relating to Section 215 of the Patriot Act written after May 2011 not already the subject of Freedom of Information Act litigation. The FISA Court ruled that the White House must identify the opinions in question by October 4, 2013.
1,000 pages of documents were released by James R. Clapper Jr. on November 19, 2013, in response to lawsuits filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation and a directive by U.S. President Barack Obama. Among the documents are what appeared to be the original court document authorizing the National Security Agency to conduct sweeping collections of Americans' electronic communications records for counterterrorism purposes, the NSA's failure to abide by court-imposed rules to protect Americans' privacy, reports to Congress, training slides and regulations issued under President Obama.
December 16, 2013 ruling by US district court judge for the District of Columbia Richard Leon declaring that the mass collection of metadata of Americans' telephone records by the National Security Agency probably violates the fourth amendment prohibition unreasonable searches and seizures. Leon granted the request for an preliminary injunction that blocks the collection of phone data for two private plaintiffs (Larry Klayman, a conservative lawyer, and Charles Strange, father of a cryptologist killed in Afghanistan when his helicopter was shot down in 2011) and ordered the government to destroy any of their records that have been gathered. But the judge stayed action on his ruling pending a government appeal, recognizing in his 68-page opinion the "significant national security interests at stake in this case and the novelty of the constitutional issues."
2013-12-27 ruling by U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley III in New York City holding the U.S. government's global telephone data-gathering system is needed to thwart potential terrorist attacks, and that it can only work if everyone's calls are swept in. In his opinion, he wrote, "a bulk telephony metadata collection program [is] a wide net that could find and isolate gossamer contacts among suspected terrorists in an ocean of seemingly disconnected data" and noted that a similar collection of data prior to 9/11 might have prevented the attack. U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley III also ruled that Congress legally set up the program and that it does not violate anyone's constitutional rights. The judge also concluded that the telephone data being swept up by NSA did not belong to telephone users, but to the telephone companies. And further he ruled that, when NSA obtains such data from the telephone companies, and then probes into it to find links between callers and potential terrorists, this further use of the data was not even a search under the Fourth Amendment. He also concluded that the controlling precedent is Smith v. Maryland: "Smith's bedrock holding is that an individual has no legitimate expectation of privacy in information provided to third parties," Judge Pauley wrote.
Reports
2009 OIG report on STELLARWIND
Extracts from reports relating to XKeyscore. One entitled "Tales from the Land of Brothers Grimm" and others detailing the successes of said software, another is a note from an analyst who felt that he always had one foot in prison when using it. XKeyscore is also described as "big and scary, strong and powerful" and lets an analyst do whatever they like.
Reports detailing thousands of privacy violations
Numerous reports relating to drones, including "Threats to Unmanned Aerial Vehicles", a report summarizing attempts to shoot down, intercept, control or otherwise spoof drones. While the report details vulnerabilities of specific aircraft, the document itself has not been published, but only excerpts described. Other reports detail American spin efforts, suggesting that the phrases "drone strike," "kill list," "robot warfare," "Aerial Assassins" be avoided, offering "lethal UAV operations" instead, and also terms like "Pre-emptive and Preventive Military Action" and "Inherent Right of Self Defense." Likewise, reports detail efforts by Al-Qaeda to spin, portraying attacks as cowardly and immoral. Analysts also questioned whether America was losing rhetorical battle in courts, media, and public opinion. Another report stated that drone strikes "could be brought under increased scrutiny, perceived to be illegitimate, openly resisted or undermined."
The US learned that Pakistan engaged in a pattern of extrajudicial killings, mostly against militants. However, not all targets militants, Pakistan also planned to murder a human rights activist, Asma Jahangir, while she was on a visit to India. The plot was aborted when she learned of it. The US sought to avoid public disclosure of this, and other incidents.
The NSA and GCHQ have access to user data in iPhones, BlackBerrys, and Android phones. They are able to read almost all smartphone information, including SMS, location, emails, and notes.
The following table describes what is known about the below SIGINT Activity Designators (SIGADs). It is not presumed to be complete.
Note: SIGADs not otherwise designated are presumed to operate under the legal authority of Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act (FAA)
Cyber Hit Counts: no explanation has been provided in the source material.
Directory ONMR: no explanation has been provided in the source material.
DNI: Digital Network Intelligence.
DNR: Dial Number Recognition.
MARINA: An NSA Database of Internet metadata.
Timing Advances: no explanation has been provided in the source material.
Transit Authority: A legal authority that states communications that transit the United States are collectible, provided that both endpoints are foreign.
Collection and analysis programs or hardware
Boundless Informant – Computer program that physically performs the data collection.
Dropmire – A program that specifically targets foreign embassies and diplomats
XKeyscore – A program which allows searching collected data in a variety of ways.
SHELLTRUMPET – A metadata program that targets international communications.
Unified Targeting Tool (UTT) – A graphical frontend for querying databases.
LOPERS – A software based system to spy on PSTNs
TURBULENCE – Includes cyber-warfare capabilities, such as targeting enemies with malware. (updates to existing knowledge)
JUGGERNAUT – A system to intercept mobile networks, including voice, fax, data, and text.
SPYDER
CHALKFUN
VLR – Visitor Location Register
TransX
RAGTIME – A blanket term for any of four different surveillance programs
Special Collection Service – Joint CIA/NSA eavesdropping team focused based in about 80 US embassies and consulates around the world. There are known branches in Frankfurt and Vienna. According to Der Spiegel, many of their operations are a direct violation of at least 3 signed treaties: "The Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations of 1946, the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961, and a signed an agreement in 1947 that rules out all undercover operations.
STATEROOM – Surveillance on embassies and consulates. Highly Classified.
BULLRUN, named after the Battle of Bull Run. – Bullrun refers to the NSA's set of codebreaking capabilities, including the use of Computer Network Exploitation (hacking) to obtain keys, weakening of encryption standards and providing backdoors to the same. The following codenames are known to be related to BULLRUN: APERIODIC, AMBULANT, AUNTIE, PAINTEDEAGLE, PAWLEYS, PITCHFORD, PENDLETON, PICARESQUE, and PIEDMONT. No further explanation of the above codenames has been provided to date.
Treasure Map, near real-time, interactive map of the global Internet. Collects Wi-Fi network and geolocation data, and the traffic of 30–50 million unique Internet addresses. It can reveal the location and owner of a computer, mobile device or router on a daily basis. NSA boasts that the program can map "any device, anywhere, all the time."
Relationships with corporate partners
Special Source Operations (SSO) – Is a division of the NSA responsible for all programs which collaborate with corporate entities.
Upstream collects data from fiber-optic cables and internet backbones.
Codenames of companies participating in Upstream: BLARNEY (a surveillance program which was established by the NSA with AT&T and which operates at or near key fiber-optic landing points in the U.S. to capture foreign communications coming in and out of the country), STORMBREW, FAIRVIEW (a highly classified program for tapping into the world's intercontinental fiber-optic cables according to NSA whistleblower Thomas Andrews Drake), and OAKSTAR. There are conflicting sources: some that call these "programs", versus the official statement called "The National Security Agency: Missions, Authorities, Oversight and Partnerships" that describes them as codenames of cooperating companies. A third source, just released groups them with describes them as "programs authorized to collect cable transit traffic passing through US Gateways with both sides of the communication being foreign.The FY 2013 budget for the above programs is as follows:
BLARNEY – $65.96 million
FAIRVIEW – $94.06 million
STORMBREW – $46.06 million
OAKSTAR – $9.41 million
Miscellaneous codenames of companies: LITHIUM
RAMPART – Described as being part of Special Source operations, there is at least one known subdivision.
RAMPART-T – Started in 1991 or earlier, documents describe this program as: "Penetration of hard targets at or near leadership level". The information is intended for "the president and his national security advisers". Rampart-T is aimed at China, Russia, and Eastern European countries, there are around 20 nations targeted.
Microsoft allows the NSA to bypass encryption on Outlook.com.
Names and Codenames of companies assisting GCHQ:
Verizon Business (codenamed "Dacron")
British Telecommunications (codenamed "Remedy")
Vodafone Cable (codenamed "Gerontic")
Global Crossing (codenamed "Pinnage")
Level 3 (codenamed "Little")
Viatel (codenamed "Vitreous")
Interoute (codenamed "Streetcar")
NSA databases
PINWALE – Stores email and text
NUCLEON – Stores voice data
MAINWAY – Stores telephony metadata (i.e. call records)
MARINA – Stores Internet metadata
TRAFFICTHIEF – Stores metadata from a subset of assigned targets.
CLOUD/ABR
DISHFIRE
FASTSCOPE
SIGINT NAVIGATOR
TRACFIN – A database of financial information.
TUNINGFORK
OCTAVE – A database with a graphical frontend
ANCHORY – A database of completed SIGINT reports.
Nymrod – Apparently a database of names (appears in UTT Screenshot)
Signals intelligence directorates (SIDs)
PRINTAURA – According to Ambinder, "NSA Unit involved in data filtering for TRAFFICTHIEF"
Protocol Exploitation – Sorts data types into specific databases
Technical directorates
SCISSORS – This team sorts data types for analysis.
Names associated with specific targets
Apalatchee = The EU mission by the East River, in New York.
Magothy = The EU embassy in Washington, DC. This embassy had its internal videoconferencing, and other areas of the computer network tapped. Both by the US, and by the Chinese. The US effort was conducted by the team working for the BLARNEY program.
Wabash = French diplomatic office in Washington. This office was bugged.
Blackfoot = French diplomatic office in the UN in New York. This office was bugged and computer screen captures obtained.
KATEEL = Brazilian embassy in Washington.
POCOMOKE = Brazilian Permanent Mission to the UN in New York.
Uncategorized or insufficiently described codenames
CERF CALL MOSES1
CONVEYANCE – Provides filtering for PRISM
EVILOLIVE – Collects internet traffic and data.
FACELIFT
FALLOUT – Provides filtering for PRISM
LONGHAUL – Involved in the process of decrypting communications.
MATRIX
MOONLIGHTPATH
SPINNERET
STEELKNIGHT
CASPORT
DANCINGOASIS
GCHQ operations
The Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) is the main British intelligence agency responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance to the British government and armed forces.
Tempora – Collects data from transatlantic fibre-optic cables of major telecommunications corporations by directly tapping on them and from Internet backbones. Tempora uses intercepts on the fibre-optic cables that make up the backbone of the internet to gain access to swaths of internet users' personal data. The intercepts are placed in the United Kingdom and overseas, with the knowledge of companies owning either the cables or landing stations. It is a GCHQ program to create a large-scale "Internet buffer" which stores Internet content for three days and metadata for up to 30 days. Its component programs are Mastering the Internet and Global Telecoms Exploitation.
Karma Police – Internet metadata collection program designed to profile the web browsing habits of 'every visible user on the Internet'.
Britain runs a large-scale intercept station in the Middle East, capable of tapping underwater fiber-optic cables and satellites, and extracting email, telephone, and web traffic. The information is then passed to the GCHQ and shared with the NSA. The operation costs around £1 billion and is still being assembled. It is part of the "Tempora" project. Edward Snowden disputes the Independent's claim that he, or anyone he has had direct contact with is the source of this information. Süddeutsche Zeitungs fiber optic revelations were also described as having been obtained from GC-Wiki by Snowden.
GCHQ is believed to have forced some six global telecommunications and Internet companies to allow them to access more than 14 fiber optic cables that transport telephone communications. The six companies, BT, Vodafone, Viatel, Interoute, Verizon and Level-3, gave GCHQ access to the cables in return for payment, it is believed the companies had no choice in this decision. Three of the cables' terminal stations are on German territory; two of the cables are partially owned by Deutsche Telekom, who have denied knowledge of or participation in GCHQ's activities.
Spying on the 2009 G20 Summit in London.
GC-Wiki – An internal wiki at GCHQ.
Access to the majority of Internet and telephone communications throughout Europe, and occasionally as far as the United States.
GCHQ has a team dedicated to cracking encrypted traffic on Hotmail, Google, Yahoo and Facebook.
The Belgian telecom company Belgacom reports that it had been hacked, and has filed criminal charges, and will be cooperating with the investigation into the hacking. According to documents released by Der Spiegel, the operation against Belgacom was entitled 'Operation Socialist' and was done by the GCHQ for the purpose of enabling Man-in-the-middle attacks against smartphones.
Edgehill, named after the Battle of Edgehill, is a program operated by GCHQ similar to the NSA's BULLRUN program.
Other programs operated jointly with the NSA include MUSCULAR, Dishfire, Stateroom and Optic Nerve (GCHQ).
Other programs include Squeaky Dolphin, WARRIOR PRIDE, and XKeyscore.
Organizational groups within GCHQ include the Human Science Operations Cell, the Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group, and the Joint Operations Cell.
NSA operations
Hacking Tsinghua University, and also Pacnet in China.
Spying on Latin America with the help of Global Crossing.
The NSA operates the global monitoring network Special Collection Service that collects from more than 80 embassies and consulates worldwide, often without the knowledge or consent of the host country.
The NSA spied on a UN videoconferencing system, in violation of the US agreement with the UN not to do so. In the process NSA discovered that the Chinese had already done so, and then started analyzing what the Chinese were taking. Shortly thereafter, the NSA gained access to approximately 500 other UN channels of communications.
Additional details of the raid on Osama bin Laden's Abbotabad, Pakistan compound. The work of Tailored Access Operations, in installing spyware on phones is highlighted. Also highlighted are the roles of the CIA, other agencies, and the Navy SEALs.
The NSA's Network Analysis Center cracked the reservation system for Aeroflot, and also hacked Al Jazeera, accessing specially protected material, according to a document dated in 2006.
The NSA hacked the French Foreign Ministry, and bugged the French diplomatic offices in Washington and New York in 2010.
The NSA conducted extensive spying on Enrique Peña Nieto, and his aides, accessing their emails. Likewise, the NSA spied on the communications of Dilma Rousseff, and her aides, and also created a two hop contact graph. The source document is dated June 2012, it is unclear whether the operation is ongoing.
The NSA and GCHQ target banks and credit card companies by various means including "Tailored Access Operations", specifically by targeting printer traffic from banks. VISA has also been targeted. According to a GCHQ document, the collection involves "bulk data" containing "rich personal information" that is mostly "not about our targets".
From collection points outside the United States, the NSA gathers contact lists belonging to users of e-mail and instant messaging services, including Yahoo, Hotmail, Facebook and Gmail.
NSA relationships with foreign intelligence services
Payments to GCHQ from NSA totaling at least £100 million
Relationships with Germany's BND, exchange of technology: (XKeyscore, and the German programs and bulk metadata (500 Million records in one month alone)).
The US directly spies on most of its allies, even those with intelligence sharing agreements, with only the Five Eyes being immune.
Suggested protective measures from surveillance
Encryption
In cryptography, encryption is the process of encoding information in such a way that eavesdroppers or hackers cannot read it, but that authorized parties can. According to Snowden's recommendations published by The Guardian Edward in September 2013, properly implemented strong crypto systems were among the few things which one can rely on. However, endpoint security is often too weak to prevent the NSA from finding ways around it.
Underground bunkers
In September 2013, it was reported by the press that a number of countries deemed by the US and its allies to be rogue states, such as Syria, Iran and North Korea, had successfully evaded U.S. government surveillance by constructing secret bunkers deep below the Earth's surface.
China's underground megaproject, the 816 Nuclear Military Plant in Chongqing (now declassified and opened to tourists), was reported to be "most worrying" for the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency.
Libya evaded surveillance by building "hardened and buried" bunkers at least 40 feet below ground level.
Unrelated to Edward Snowden
In 2002, the NSA, in cooperation with the FBI, and in cooperation with Qwest, monitored nearly all communications in the Salt Lake area in the six months surrounding the Olympic games.
Since 2005, Canada has been running a bulk phone metadata, email and text message program.
The NYPD is engaging in mass surveillance, particularly of Muslims, in mosques, in social gatherings, and even at home. The department employs "rakers" to troll Muslim neighborhoods. The unit employing said rakers, was once called "The Demographics Unit," the name was changed in 2010 to the "Zone Assessment Unit" to mask the appearance, though not change the fact of racial profiling. Knowledge of this program was kept from the city council.
Devices made by the American company Blue Coat Systems, which are used for Internet surveillance and censorship, have turned up repeatedly in countries that censor and surveil the Internet, and have a record of human rights abuses, such as Iran, Syria, China, Burma (Myanmar) and Sudan.
The ACLU has released a report on the proliferation of license plate readers and on the retention of data from them.
The FBI has been pressuring ISPs to install surveillance software, referred to as the "harvesting program".
The FBI has been using malware and hacking to surveil suspects. Reports indicate however, that hacking and malware usage remains a last resort, and that warrants are sought for individual cases.
The NSA collects the contents of emails that transit from the US to abroad, and searches them for keywords.
The Post Office scans all mail cover (envelopes, outsides of packages and postcards) and enables retroactively tracking mail correspondence by its Mail Isolation Control and Tracking programme.
France's Equivalent of PRISM
India will be building a mass domestic surveillance program called the "Central Monitoring System", which will be able to track all voice, fax, and text across all telephone networks in the country. It will also contract the Israeli company Verint Systems to monitor encrypted Gmail, BlackBerry, Skype and Yahoo! mail.
More than 230 thousand people were questioned under The United Kingdom's Schedule 7 of the Terrorism act of 2000 between April 2009 and March 2012.
New Zealand passed a bill allowing domestic spying against its citizens and residents, by a narrow margin (61–59).
Russ Tice, on June 19 gave an interview to Boiling Frogs Post, in which he expanded his previous disclosures. Specifically he names persons who had been wiretapped by the NSA, namely: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Dianne Feinstein, Colin Powell, Evan Bayh, Samuel Alito and many others including journalists and political groups. He asserts that all telephony content is collected.
Blueprints of the Utah Data Center
"The Find," the NSA can locate cellphones even when they were turned off.
The DEA's and IRS's use of NSA data to start criminal investigations against US citizens, and their method of "Parallel Construction" to conceal the true origins of their evidence.
CIA operative De Sousa, convicted in absentia in Italy in the extraordinary rendition case of Osama Mustapha Hassan Nasr AKA Abu Omar goes on camera describing the case.
Insider Threat Program – policy requiring federal employees to report "high-risk persons or behaviors" from among co-workers, as well as to punish those who fail to report such colleagues. In 2013, the NSA planned to investigate over 4000 cases.
The German Federal Office for Information Security has warned that Windows 8 has a built-in backdoor, that could allow Microsoft, and by extension the NSA to access many Windows 8 machines via the Trusted Platform Module that comes embedded on many Windows 8 machines. Of the subset of CIA applicants whose backgrounds raised flags, one fifth were found to have ties to either terrorism or foreign hostile intelligence.
The NSA has admitted about a dozen cases of willful violations by analysts over the last 10 years. One common form, in which an analyst spies on a love interest, has been dubbed "LOVEINT"
The Hemisphere Project, a secret partnership between federal and local drug officials and AT&T since September 2007. Law enforcement has access to electronic call detail records for any telephone carrier that uses an AT&T switch to process a telephone call. Records go back to 1987 and about 4 billion are added every day. Officials are instructed to obfuscate the existence of the program, by a method similar to "Parallel Construction" in which a separate subpoena is obtained for records which had already been returned by the Hemisphere project, thus disguising the true origin of the data.
Sweden is helping the GCHQ tap fiber-optic cables and has become, effectively, a member of the 'Five Eyes', according to Duncan Campbell in a hearing of the EU parliament's LIBE committee. He further states that the codename for the tapping operation is "Sardine" and is classified several levels above top secret, and that the information about Sweden was withheld from publication in the Guardian, The New York Times, and Pro Publica.
CIA, BND and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution ran Projekt 6 (P6 for short) from 2005 to 2010. Its aim was to gather intelligence on suspected jihadists and terrorism supporters. An American query request for the internal database, code name PX' contains the passport number, date of birth and name of German investigative journalist Peter Buchen.
The ACLU released a 69-page report on the FBI entitled "Unleashed and Unaccountable" detailing warrantless wiretapping, spying on political activists and journalists, biased training and racial profiling, proxy detentions in foreign countries, use of the no-fly list as a means of pressuring people to become informants, bulk data collection (eGuardian and bulk telephony metadata), dodging oversight and misleading the public.
The NSA purchases zero-day exploits from Vupen, as revealed in a FOIA request. In response, the CEO of Vupen suggested that a FOIA request also be made for Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and Northrop, because they also sell exploits.
References
Global surveillance
National Security Agency operations
GCHQ operations |
41227816 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global%20surveillance | Global surveillance | Global mass surveillance can be defined as the mass surveillance of entire populations across national borders.
Its existence was not widely acknowledged by governments and the mainstream media until the global surveillance disclosures by Edward Snowden triggered a debate about the right to privacy in the Digital Age.
Its roots can be traced back to the middle of the 20th century when the UKUSA Agreement was jointly enacted by the United Kingdom and the United States, which later expanded to Canada, Australia, and New Zealand to create the present Five Eyes alliance. The alliance developed cooperation arrangements with several "third-party" nations. Eventually, this resulted in the establishment of a global surveillance network, code-named "ECHELON" (1971).
Historical background
The origins of global surveillance can be traced back to the late 1940s after the UKUSA Agreement was collaboratively enacted by the United Kingdom and the United States, which eventually culminated in the creation of the global surveillance network code-named "ECHELON" in 1971.
In the aftermath of the 1970s Watergate affair and a subsequent congressional inquiry led by Sen. Frank Church, it was revealed that the NSA, in collaboration with Britain's GCHQ, had routinely intercepted the international communications of prominent anti-Vietnam War leaders such as Jane Fonda and Dr. Benjamin Spock. Decades later, a multi-year investigation by the European Parliament highlighted the NSA's role in economic espionage in a report entitled 'Development of Surveillance Technology and Risk of Abuse of Economic Information', in 1999.
However, for the general public, it was a series of detailed disclosures of internal NSA documents in June 2013 that first revealed the massive extent of the NSA's spying, both foreign and domestic. Most of these were leaked by an ex-contractor, Edward Snowden. Even so, a number of these older global surveillance programs such as PRISM, XKeyscore, and Tempora were referenced in the 2013 release of thousands of documents. Many countries around the world, including Western Allies and member states of NATO, have been targeted by the "Five Eyes" strategic alliance of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, and the United States—five English-speaking Western countries aiming to achieve Total Information Awareness by mastering the Internet with analytical tools such as the Boundless Informant. As confirmed by the NSA's director Keith B. Alexander on 26 September 2013, the NSA collects and stores all phone records of all American citizens. Much of the data is kept in large storage facilities such as the Utah Data Center, a US $1.5 billion megaproject referred to by The Wall Street Journal as a "symbol of the spy agency's surveillance prowess."
On 6 June 2013, Britain's The Guardian newspaper began publishing a series of revelations by an as yet unknown American whistleblower, revealed several days later to be ex-CIA and ex-NSA-contracted systems analyst Edward Snowden. Snowden gave a cache of documents to two journalists, Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras. Greenwald later estimated that the cache contains 15,000–20,000 documents, some very large and detailed, and some very small. In over two subsequent months of publications, it became clear that the NSA had operated a complex web of spying programs that allowed it to intercept Internet and telephone conversations from over a billion users from dozens of countries around the world. Specific revelations were made about China, the European Union, Latin America, Iran and Pakistan, and Australia and New Zealand, however, the published documentation reveals that many of the programs indiscriminately collected bulk information directly from central servers and Internet backbones, which almost invariably carry and reroute information from distant countries.
Due to this central server and backbone monitoring, many of the programs overlapped and interrelated with one another. These programs were often carried out with the assistance of US entities such as the United States Department of Justice and the FBI, were sanctioned by US laws such as the FISA Amendments Act, and the necessary court orders for them were signed by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Some of the NSA's programs were directly aided by national and foreign intelligence agencies, Britain's GCHQ and Australia's ASD, as well as by large private telecommunications and Internet corporations, such as Verizon, Telstra, Google, and Facebook.
Snowden's disclosures of the NSA's surveillance activities are a continuation of news leaks which have been ongoing since the early 2000s. One year after the September 11, 2001, attacks, former U.S. intelligence official William Binney was publicly critical of the NSA for spying on U.S. citizens.
Further disclosures followed. On 16 December 2005, The New York Times published a report under the headline "Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts." In 2006, further evidence of the NSA's domestic surveillance of U.S. citizens was provided by USA Today. The newspaper released a report on 11 May 2006, regarding the NSA's "massive database" of phone records collected from "tens of millions" of U.S. citizens. According to USA Today, these phone records were provided by several telecom companies such as AT&T, Verizon, and BellSouth. In 2008, the security analyst Babak Pasdar revealed the existence of the so-called "Quantico circuit" that he and his team discovered in 2003 when brought on to update the carrier's security system. The circuit provided the U.S. federal government with a backdoor into the network of an unnamed wireless provider, which was later independently identified as Verizon.
Snowden's disclosures
Snowden made his first contact with journalist Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian in late 2012. The timeline of mass surveillance disclosures by Snowden continued throughout the entire year of 2013.
By category
Documents leaked by Snowden in 2013 include court orders, memos, and policy documents related to a wide range of surveillance activities.
Purposes
According to the April 2013 summary of documents leaked by Snowden, other than to combat terrorism, these surveillance programs were employed to assess the foreign policy and economic stability of other countries, and to gather "commercial secrets".
In a statement addressed to the National Congress of Brazil in early August 2013, journalist Glenn Greenwald maintained that the U.S. government had used counter-terrorism as a pretext for clandestine surveillance in order to compete with other countries in the "business, industrial and economic fields". In a December 2013 letter to the Brazilian government, Snowden wrote that "These programs were never about terrorism: they're about economic spying, social control, and diplomatic manipulation. They're about power." According to White House panel member NSA didn't stop any terrorist attack. However NSA chief said, that surveillance programs stopped 54 terrorist plots.
In an interview with Der Spiegel published on 12 August 2013, former NSA Director Michael Hayden admitted that "We (the NSA) steal secrets. We're number one in it". Hayden also added: "We steal stuff to make you safe, not to make you rich".
According to documents seen by the news agency Reuters, these "secrets" were subsequently funneled to authorities across the nation to help them launch criminal investigations of Americans. Federal agents are then instructed to "recreate" the investigative trail in order to "cover up" where the information originated.
According to the congressional testimony of Keith B. Alexander, Director of the National Security Agency, one of the purposes of its data collection is to store all the phone records inside a place that can be searched and assessed at all times. When asked by Senator Mark Udall if the goal of the NSA is to collect the phone records of all Americans, Alexander replied, "Yes, I believe it is in the nation's best interest to put all the phone records into a lockbox that we could search when the nation needs to do it."
Targets and methods
Collection of metadata and other content
In the United States, the NSA is collecting the phone records of more than 300 million Americans. The international surveillance tool XKeyscore allows government analysts to search through vast databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals. Britain's global surveillance program Tempora intercepts the fibre-optic cables that form the backbone of the Internet. Under the NSA's PRISM surveillance program, data that has already reached its final destination would be directly harvested from the servers of the following U.S. service providers: Microsoft, Yahoo!, Google, Facebook, Paltalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, and Apple Inc.
Contact chaining
The NSA uses the analysis of phone call and e-mail logs of American citizens to create sophisticated graphs of their social connections that can identify their associates, their locations at certain times, their traveling companions and other personal information.
According to top secret NSA documents leaked by Snowden, during a single day in 2012, the NSA collected e-mail address books from:
22,881 Gmail accounts
82,857 Facebook accounts
105,068 Hotmail accounts
444,743 Yahoo! accounts
Each day, the NSA collects contacts from an estimated 500,000 buddy lists on live-chat services as well as from the inbox displays of Web-based e-mail accounts. Taken together, the data enables the NSA to draw detailed maps of a person's life based on their personal, professional, religious and political connections.
Data transfer
Federal agencies in the United States: Data gathered by these surveillance programs is routinely shared with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In addition, the NSA supplies domestic intercepts to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and other law enforcement agencies.
Foreign countries: As a result of the NSA's secret treaties with foreign countries, data gathered by its surveillance programs are routinely shared with countries who are signatories to the UKUSA Agreement. These foreign countries also help to operate several NSA programs such as XKEYSCORE. (See International cooperation.)
Financial payments monitoring
A special branch of the NSA called "Follow the Money" (FTM) monitors international payments, banking and credit card transactions and later stores the collected data in the NSA's financial databank, "Tracfin".
Mobile phone location tracking
Mobile phone tracking refers to the act of attaining the position and coordinates of a mobile phone. According to The Washington Post, the NSA has been tracking the locations of mobile phones from all over the world by tapping into the cables that connect mobile networks globally and that serve U.S. cellphones as well as foreign ones. In the process of doing so, the NSA collects more than 5 billion records of phone locations on a daily basis. This enables NSA analysts to map cellphone owners' relationships by correlating their patterns of movement over time with thousands or millions of other phone users who cross their paths.
In order to decode private conversations, the NSA has cracked the most commonly used cellphone encryption technology, A5/1. According to a classified document leaked by Snowden, the agency can "process encrypted A5/1" even when it has not acquired an encryption key. In addition, the NSA uses various types of cellphone infrastructure, such as the links between carrier networks, to determine the location of a cellphone user tracked by Visitor Location Registers.
Infiltration of smartphones
As worldwide sales of smartphones grew rapidly, the NSA decided to take advantage of the smartphone boom. This is particularly advantageous because the smartphone contains a variety of data sets that would interest an intelligence agency, such as social contacts, user behaviour, interests, location, photos and credit card numbers and passwords.
According to the documents leaked by Snowden, the NSA has set up task forces assigned to several smartphone manufacturers and operating systems, including Apple Inc.'s iPhone and iOS operating system, as well as Google's Android mobile operating system. Similarly, Britain's GCHQ assigned a team to study and crack the BlackBerry. In addition, there are smaller NSA programs, known as "scripts", that can perform surveillance on 38 different features of the iOS 3 and iOS 4 operating systems. These include the mapping feature, voicemail and photos, as well as Google Earth, Facebook and Yahoo! Messenger.
Infiltration of commercial data centers
In contrast to the PRISM surveillance program, which is a front-door method of access that is nominally approved by the FISA court, the MUSCULAR surveillance program is noted to be "unusually aggressive" in its usage of unorthodox hacking methods to infiltrate Yahoo! and Google data centres around the world. As the program is operated overseas (United Kingdom), the NSA presumes that anyone using a foreign data link is a foreigner, and is, therefore, able to collect content and metadata on a previously unknown scale from U.S. citizens and residents. According to the documents leaked by Snowden, the MUSCULAR surveillance program is jointly operated by the NSA and Britain's GCHQ agency. (See International cooperation.)
Infiltration of anonymous networks
The Five Eyes have made repeated attempts to spy on Internet users communicating in secret via the anonymity network Tor. Several of their clandestine operations involve the implantation of malicious code into the computers of anonymous Tor users who visit infected websites. In some cases, the NSA and GCHQ have succeeded in blocking access to the anonymous network, diverting Tor users to insecure channels. In other cases, the NSA and the GCHQ were able to uncover the identity of these anonymous users.
Monitoring of hotel reservation systems
Under the Royal Concierge surveillance program, Britain's GCHQ agency uses an automated monitoring system to infiltrate the reservation systems of at least 350 luxury hotels in many different parts of the world. Other related surveillance programs involve the wiretapping of room telephones and fax machines used in targeted hotels, as well as the monitoring of computers, hooked up to the hotel network.
Virtual reality surveillance
The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) have been conducting surveillance on the networks of many online games, including massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) such as World of Warcraft, as well as virtual worlds such as Second Life, and the Xbox gaming console.
Political Espionage
According to the April 2013 summary of disclosures, the NSA defined its "intelligence priorities" on a scale of "1" (highest interest) to "5" (lowest interest). It classified about 30 countries as "3rd parties", with whom it cooperates but also spies on:
Main targets: China, Russia, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan were ranked highly on the NSA's list of spying priorities, followed by France, Germany, Japan, and Brazil. The European Union's "international trade" and "economic stability" are also of interest. Other high priority targets include Cuba, Israel, and North Korea.
Irrelevant: From a US intelligence perspective, countries such as Cambodia, Laos and Nepal were largely irrelevant, as were governments of smaller European Union countries such as Finland, Denmark, Croatia and the Czech Republic.
Other prominent targets included members and adherents of the Internet group known as "Anonymous", as well as potential whistleblowers. According to Snowden, the NSA targeted reporters who wrote critically about the government after 9/11.
As part of a joint operation with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the NSA deployed secret eavesdropping posts in eighty U.S. embassies and consulates worldwide. The headquarters of NATO were also used by NSA experts to spy on the European Union.
In 2013, documents provided by Edward Snowden revealed that the following intergovernmental organizations, diplomatic missions, and government ministries have been subjected to surveillance by the "Five Eyes":
International Cooperation
During World War II, the BRUSA Agreement was signed by the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom for the purpose of intelligence sharing. This was later formalized in the UKUSA Agreement of 1946 as a secret treaty. The full text of the agreement was released to the public on 25 June 2010.
Although the treaty was later revised to include other countries such as Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Norway, Turkey, and the Philippines, most of the information sharing has been performed by the so-called "Five Eyes", a term referring to the following English-speaking western democracies and their respective intelligence agencies:
– The Defence Signals Directorate of Australia
– The Communications Security Establishment of Canada
– The Government Communications Security Bureau of New Zealand
– The Government Communications Headquarters of the United Kingdom, which is widely considered to be a leader in traditional spying due to its influence on countries that were once part of the British Empire.
– The National Security Agency of the United States, which has the biggest budget and the most advanced technical abilities among the "five eyes".
Left: SEA-ME-WE 3, which runs across the Afro-Eurasian supercontinent from Japan to Northern Germany, is one of the most important submarine cables accessed by the "Five Eyes". Singapore, a former British colony in the Asia-Pacific region (blue dot), plays a vital role in intercepting Internet and telecommunications traffic heading from Australia/Japan to Europe, and vice versa. An intelligence-sharing agreement between Singapore and Australia allows the rest of the "Five Eyes" to gain access to SEA-ME-WE 3.
Right: TAT-14, a telecommunications cable linking Europe with the United States, was identified as one of few assets of "Critical Infrastructure and Key Resources" of the US on foreign territory. In 2013, it was revealed that British officials "pressured a handful of telecommunications and Internet companies" to allow the British government to gain access to TAT-14.
According to the leaked documents, aside from the Five Eyes, most other Western countries have also participated in the NSA surveillance system and are sharing information with each other. In the documents the NSA lists "approved SIGINT partners" which are partner countries in addition to the Five Eyes. Glenn Greenwald said that the "NSA often maintains these partnerships by paying its partner to develop certain technologies and engage in surveillance, and can thus direct how the spying is carried out." These partner countries are divided into two groups, "Second Parties" and "Third Parties". The Second Parties are doing comprehensive cooperation with the NSA, and the Third Parties are doing focused cooperation. However, being a partner of the NSA does not automatically exempt a country from being targeted by the NSA itself. According to an internal NSA document leaked by Snowden, "We (the NSA) can, and often do, target the signals of most 3rd party foreign partners."
Australia
The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), formerly known as the Defence Signals Directorate (DSD), shares information on Australian citizens with the other members of the UKUSA Agreement. According to a 2008 Five Eyes document leaked by Snowden, data of Australian citizens shared with foreign countries include "bulk, unselected, unminimised metadata" as well as "medical, legal or religious information".
In close cooperation with other members of the Five Eyes community, the ASD runs secret surveillance facilities in many parts of Southeast Asia without the knowledge of Australian diplomats. In addition, the ASD cooperates with the Security and Intelligence Division (SID) of the Republic of Singapore in an international operation to intercept underwater telecommunications cables across the Eastern Hemisphere and the Pacific Ocean.
In March 2017 it was reported that, on advice from the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, more than 500 Iraqi and Syrian refugees, have been refused entry to Australia, in the last year.
Canada
The Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) offers the NSA resources for advanced collection, processing, and analysis. It has set up covert sites at the request of NSA. The US-Canada SIGNT relationship dates back to a secret alliance formed during World War II, and was formalized in 1949 under the CANUSA Agreement.
On behalf of the NSA, the CSEC opened secret surveillance facilities in 20 countries around the world.
As well, the Communications Security Establishment Canada has been revealed, following the global surveillance disclosures to be engaging in surveillance on Wifi Hotspots of major Canadian Airports, collecting meta-data to use for engaging in surveillance on travelers, even days after their departure from said airports.
Denmark
The Politiets Efterretningstjeneste (PET) of Denmark, a domestic intelligence agency, exchanges data with the NSA on a regular basis, as part of a secret agreement with the United States. Being one of the "9-Eyes" of the UKUSA Agreement, Denmark's relationship with the NSA is closer than the NSA's relationship with Germany, Sweden, Spain, Belgium or Italy.
France
The Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE) of France maintains a close relationship with both the NSA and the GCHQ after discussions for increased cooperation began in November 2006. By the early 2010s, the extent of cooperation in the joint interception of digital data by the DGSE and the NSA was noted to have increased dramatically.
In 2011, a formal memorandum for data exchange was signed by the DGSE and the NSA, which facilitated the transfer of millions of metadata records from the DGSE to the NSA. From December 2012 to 8 January 2013, over 70 million metadata records were handed over to the NSA by French intelligence agencies.
Germany
The Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) of Germany systematically transfers metadata from German intelligence sources to the NSA. In December 2012 alone, the BND provided the NSA with 500 million metadata records. The NSA granted the Bundesnachrichtendienst access to X-Keyscore, in exchange for the German surveillance programs Mira4 and Veras.
In early 2013, Hans-Georg Maaßen, President of the German domestic security agency Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV), made several visits to the headquarters of the NSA. According to classified documents of the German government, Maaßen agreed to transfer all data records of persons monitored in Germany by the BfV via XKeyscore to the NSA. In addition, the BfV works very closely with eight other U.S. government agencies, including the CIA. Under Project 6, which is jointly operated by the CIA, BfV, and BND, a massive database containing personal information such as photos, license plate numbers, Internet search histories and telephone metadata was developed to gain a better understanding of the social relationships of presumed jihadists.
In 2012, the BfV handed over 864 data sets of personal information to the CIA, NSA and seven other U.S. intelligence agencies. In exchange, the BND received data from U.S. intelligence agencies on 1,830 occasions. The newly acquired data was handed over to the BfV and stored in a domestically accessible system known as NADIS WN.
Israel
The Israeli SIGINT National Unit (ISNU) routinely receives raw, unfiltered data of U.S. citizens from the NSA. However, a secret NSA document leaked by Snowden revealed that U.S. government officials are explicitly exempted from such forms of data sharing with the ISNU. As stated in a memorandum detailing the rules of data sharing on U.S. citizens, the ISNU is obligated to:
According to the undated memorandum, the ground rules for intelligence sharing between the NSA and the ISNU were laid out in March 2009. Under the data sharing agreement, the ISNU is allowed to retain the identities of U.S. citizens (excluding U.S. government officials) for up to a year.
Japan
In 2011, the NSA asked the Japanese government to intercept underwater fibre-optic cables carrying phone and Internet data in the Asia-Pacific region. However, the Japanese government refused to comply.
Libya
Under the reign of Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan regime forged a partnership with Britain's secret service MI6 and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to obtain information about Libyan dissidents living in the United States and Canada. In exchange, Gaddafi allowed the Western democracies to use Libya as a base for extraordinary renditions.
Netherlands
The Algemene Inlichtingen en Veiligheidsdienst (AIVD) of the Netherlands has been receiving and storing data of Internet users gathered by U.S. intelligence sources such as the NSA's PRISM surveillance program. During a meeting in February 2013, the AIVD and the MIVD briefed the NSA on their attempts to hack Internet forums and to collect the data of all users using a technology known as Computer Network Exploitation (CNE).
Norway
The Norwegian Intelligence Service (NIS) has confirmed that data collected by the agency is "shared with the Americans". Kjell Grandhagen, head of Norwegian military intelligence told reporters at a news conference that "We share this information with partners, and partners share with us ... We are talking about huge amounts of traffic data".
In cooperation with the NSA, the NIS has gained access to Russian targets in the Kola Peninsula and other civilian targets. In general, the NIS provides information to the NSA about "Politicians", "Energy" and "Armament". A top secret memo of the NSA lists the following years as milestones of the Norway-United States of America SIGNT agreement, or NORUS Agreement:
1952 – Informal starting year of cooperation between the NIS and the NSA
1954 – Formalization of the NORUS Agreement
1963 – Extension of the agreement for coverage of foreign instrumentation signals intelligence (FISINT)
1970 – Extension of the agreement for coverage of electronic intelligence (ELINT)
1994 – Extension of the agreement for coverage of communications intelligence (COMINT)
The NSA perceives the NIS as one of its most reliable partners. Both agencies also cooperate to crack the encryption systems of mutual targets. According to the NSA, Norway has made no objections to its requests.
Singapore
The Defence Ministry of Singapore and its Security and Intelligence Division (SID) have been secretly intercepting much of the fibre optic cable traffic passing through the Asian continent. In close cooperation with the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD/DSD), Singapore's SID has been able to intercept SEA-ME-WE 3 (Southeast Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 3) as well as SEA-ME-WE 4 telecommunications cables. Access to these international telecommunications channels is facilitated by Singapore's government-owned operator, SingTel. Temasek Holdings, a multibillion-dollar sovereign wealth fund with a majority stake in SingTel, has maintained close relations with the country's intelligence agencies.
Information gathered by the Government of Singapore is transferred to the Government of Australia as part of an intelligence sharing agreement. This allows the "Five Eyes" to maintain a "stranglehold on communications across the Eastern Hemisphere".
Spain
In close cooperation with the Centro Nacional de Inteligencia (CNI), the NSA intercepted 60.5 million phone calls in Spain in a single month.
Sweden
The Försvarets radioanstalt (FRA) of Sweden (codenamed Sardines) has allowed the "Five Eyes" to access underwater cables in the Baltic Sea. On 5 December 2013, Sveriges Television (Swedish Television) revealed that the FRA has been conducting a clandestine surveillance operation targeting the internal politics of Russia. The operation was conducted on behalf of the NSA, which receives data handed over to it by the FRA.
According to documents leaked by Snowden, the FRA of Sweden has been granted access to the NSA's international surveillance program XKeyscore.
Switzerland
The Federal Intelligence Service (NDB) of Switzerland exchanges information with the NSA regularly, on the basis of a secret agreement to circumvent domestic surveillance restrictions. In addition, the NSA has been granted access to Swiss surveillance facilities in Leuk (canton of Valais) and Herrenschwanden (canton of Bern), which are part of the Swiss surveillance program Onyx.
According to the NDB, the agency maintains working relationships with about 100 international organizations. However, the NDB has denied any form of cooperation with the NSA. Although the NSA does not have direct access to Switzerland's Onyx surveillance program, the Director of the NDB acknowledged that it is possible for other U.S. intelligence agencies to gain access to Switzerland's surveillance system.
United Kingdom
The British government allowed the NSA to store personal data of British citizens.
Under Project MINARET, anti-Vietnam War dissidents in the United States were jointly targeted by the GCHQ and the NSA.
United States
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
The CIA pays AT&T more than US$10 million a year to gain access to international phone records, including those of U.S. citizens.
National Security Agency (NSA)
The NSA's Foreign Affairs Directorate interacts with foreign intelligence services and members of the Five Eyes to implement global surveillance.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
The FBI acts as the liaison between U.S. intelligence agencies and Silicon Valley giants such as Microsoft.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
In the early 2010s, the DHS conducted a joint surveillance operation with the FBI to crack down on dissidents of the Occupy Wall Street protest movement.
Other law enforcement agencies
The NSA supplies domestic intercepts to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and other law enforcement agencies, who use intercepted data to initiate criminal investigations against US citizens. Federal agents are instructed to "recreate" the investigative trail in order to "cover up" where the information originated.
White House
Weeks after the September 11 attacks, U.S. President George W. Bush signed the Patriot Act to ensure no disruption in the government's ability to conduct global surveillance:
The Patriot Act was extended by U.S. President Barack Obama in May 2011 to further extend the federal government's legal authority to conduct additional forms of surveillance such as roving wiretaps.
Commercial cooperation
Over 70 percent of the United States Intelligence Community's budget is earmarked for payment to private firms. According to Forbes magazine, the defense technology company Lockheed Martin is currently the US's biggest defense contractor, and it is destined to be the NSA's most powerful commercial partner and biggest contractor in terms of dollar revenue.
AT&T
In a joint operation with the NSA, the American telecommunications corporation AT&T operates Room 641A in the SBC Communications building in San Francisco to spy on Internet traffic. The CIA pays AT&T more than US$10 million a year to gain access to international phone records, including those of U.S. citizens.
Booz Allen Hamilton
Projects developed by Booz Allen Hamilton include the Strategic Innovation Group to identify terrorists through social media, on behalf of government agencies. During the fiscal year of 2013, Booz Allen Hamilton derived 99% of its income from the government, with the largest portion of its revenue coming from the U.S. Army. In 2013, Booz Allen Hamilton was hailed by Bloomberg Businessweek as "the World's Most Profitable Spy Organization".
British Telecommunications
British Telecommunications (code-named Remedy), a major supplier of telecommunications, granted Britain's intelligence agency GCHQ "unlimited access" to its network of undersea cables, according to documents leaked by Snowden.
Microsoft
The American multinational corporation Microsoft helped the NSA to circumvent software encryption safeguards. It also allowed the federal government to monitor web chats on the Outlook.com portal. In 2013, Microsoft worked with the FBI to allow the NSA to gain access to the company's cloud storage service SkyDrive.
Orange S.A.
The French telecommunications corporation Orange S.A. shares customer call data with the French intelligence agency DGSE, and the intercepted data is handed over to GCHQ.
RSA Security
RSA Security was paid US$10 million by the NSA to introduce a cryptographic backdoor in its encryption products.
Stratfor
Strategic Forecasting, Inc., more commonly known as Stratfor, is a global intelligence company offering information to governments and private clients including Dow Chemical Company, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, and the U.S. Marine Corps.
Vodafone
The British telecommunications company Vodafone (code-named Gerontic) granted Britain's intelligence agency GCHQ "unlimited access" to its network of undersea cables, according to documents leaked by Snowden.
In-Q-Tel
In-Q-Tel, which receives more than US$56 million a year in government support, is a venture capital firm that enables the CIA to invest in Silicon Valley.
Palantir Technologies
Palantir Technologies is a data mining corporation with close ties to the FBI, NSA and CIA.
Based in Palo Alto, California, the company developed a data collection and analytical program known as Prism.
In 2011, it was revealed that the company conducted surveillance on Glenn Greenwald.
Surveillance evasion
Several countries have evaded global surveillance by constructing secret bunker facilities deep below the Earth's surface.
North Korea
Despite North Korea being a priority target, the NSA's internal documents acknowledged that it did not know much about Kim Jong-un and his regime's intentions.
Iran
In October 2012, Iran's police chief Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam alleged that Google is not a search engine but "a spying tool" for Western intelligence agencies. Six months later in April 2013, the country announced plans to introduce an "Islamic Google Earth" to evade global surveillance.
Libya
Libya evaded surveillance by building "hardened and buried" bunkers at least 40 feet below ground level.
Impact
The global surveillance disclosure has caused tension in the bilateral relations of the United States with several of its allies and economic partners as well as in its relationship with the European Union. On 12 August 2013, President Obama announced the creation of an "independent" panel of "outside experts" to review the NSA's surveillance programs. The panel is due to be established by the Director of National Intelligence, James R. Clapper, who will consult and provide assistance to them.
According to a survey undertaken by the human rights group PEN International, these disclosures have had a chilling effect on American writers. Fearing the risk of being targeted by government surveillance, 28% of PEN's American members have curbed their usage of social media, and 16% have self-censored themselves by avoiding controversial topics in their writings.
Gallery
See also
2013 Department of Justice investigations of reporters
Terrorist Finance Tracking Program
Top Secret America
References
Further reading
"Global Surveillance". An annotated and categorized "overview of the revelations following the leaks by the whistleblower Edward Snowden. There are also some links to comments and followups". By Oslo University Library.
Politico Staff. "NSA leaks cause flood of political problems." Politico. 13 June 2013.
NSA inspector general report on email and internet data collection under Stellar Wind as provided by The Guardian on 27 June 2013.
"Putin talks NSA, Syria, Iran, drones in exclusive RT interview (FULL VIDEO)." Russia Today. 12 June 2013.
Ackerman, Spencer. "NSA warned to rein in surveillance as agency reveals even greater scope." The Guardian. 17 July 2013.
Ackerman, Spencer. "Slew of court challenges threaten NSA's relationship with tech firms." The Guardian. Wednesday, 17 July 2013.
Ackerman, Spencer and Paul Lewis. "NSA amendment's narrow defeat spurs privacy advocates for surveillance fight." The Guardian. Thursday, 25 July 2013.
Ackerman, Spencer and Dan Roberts. "US embassy closures used to bolster the case for NSA surveillance programs." The Guardian. Monday 5 August 2013.
Two of the 'trips' (numbers 29 and 76) in the 2006 book, 'No Holiday', are investigating the NSA and its activities.
Greenwald, Glenn. "Members of Congress denied access to basic information about NSA." The Guardian. Sunday 4 August 2013.
Liu, Edward C. Surveillance of Foreigners Outside the United States Under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Congressional Research Service, 13 April 2016.
MacAskill, Ewen. "Justice Department fails in bid to delay landmark case on NSA collection." The Guardian. Thursday 25 July 2013.
Rushe, Dominic. "Microsoft pushes Eric Holder to lift block on public information sharing." The Guardian. Tuesday 16 July 2013.
Perez, Evan. "Documents shed light on U.S. surveillance programs." (Archive) CNN. 9 August 2013.
Gellman, Barton. "NSA broke privacy rules thousands of times per year, audit finds." Washington Post. Thursday 15 August 2013.
Roberts, Dan and Robert Booth. "NSA defenders: embassy closures followed pre-9/11 levels of 'chatter'." The Guardian. Sunday 4 August 2013.
Greenwald, Glenn. "The crux of the NSA story in one phrase: 'collect it all'." The Guardian. Monday 15 July 2013.
Sanchez, Julian. "Five things Snowden leaks revealed about NSA’s original warrantless wiretaps." Ars Technica. 9 July 2013.
Forero, Juan. "Paper reveals NSA ops in Latin America." Washington Post. 9 July 2013.
Jabour, Bridie. "Telstra signed deal that would have allowed US spying." The Guardian. Friday 12 July 2013.
Ackerman, Spencer. "White House stays silent on renewal of NSA data collection order." The Guardian. Thursday 18 July 2013.
Naughton, John. "Edward Snowden's not the story. The fate of the internet is." The Guardian. 28 July 2013.
Adams, Becket. "MAD MAGAZINE USES ICONIC CHARACTERS TO HIT OBAMA OVER GOV’T SURVEILLANCE." The Blaze. 8 August 2013.
Howerton, Jason. "HERE IS THE PRO-NSA SURVEILLANCE ARGUMENT." The Blaze. 10 June 2013.
"Edward Snowden NSA files: secret surveillance and our revelations so far – Leaked National Security Agency documents have led to several hundred Guardian stories on electronic privacy and the state" by The Guardians James Ball on 21 August 2013
2013-07-29 Letter of FISA Court president Reggie B. Walton to the Chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Patrick J. Leahy about certain operations of the FISA Court; among other things the process of accepting, modifying and/or rejecting surveillance measures proposed by the U.S. government, the interaction between the FISA Court and the U.S. government, the appearance of non-governmental parties before the court and the process used by the Court to consider and resolve any instances where the government entities notifies the court of compliance concerns with any of the FISA authorities.
A collection of documents relating to surveillance.
Part 2 of the above.
Part 3 of the above.
Documents relating to the surveillance against Dilma Rousseff and Enrique Peña Nieto
NSA surveillance: A guide to staying secure - The NSA has huge capabilities – and if it wants in to your computer, it's in. With that in mind, here are five ways to stay safe by The Guardians Bruce Schneier on 5 September 2013.
GCHQ
National Security Agency
Mass surveillance
Surveillance
Edward Snowden
Espionage
Intelligence operations
National security
Articles containing video clips |
41273427 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online%20video%20platform | Online video platform | An online video platform (OVP), provided by a video hosting service, enables users to upload, convert, store and play back video content on the Internet, often via a structured, large-scale system that may generate revenue. Users generally will upload video content via the hosting service's website, mobile or desktop application, or other interface (API). The type of video content uploaded might be anything from shorts to full-length TV shows and movies. The video host stores the video on its server and offers users the ability to enable different types of embed codes or links that allow others to view the video content. The website, mainly used as the video hosting website, is usually called the video sharing website.
Purpose of video hosts (for users)
Save on bandwidth and hosting costs often eliminating costs entirely;
Creating a common place to share and view video content;
Making a user friendly experience, where uploading a video and streaming or embedding video does not require advanced programming knowledge. It is now commonly achieved through a web browser, and can be done by users with no programming experience.
Description
Online video platforms can use a software as a service (SaaS) business model, a do it yourself (DIY) model or user-generated content (UGC) model. The OVP comes with an end-to-end tool set to upload, encode, manage, playback, style, deliver, distribute, download, publish and measure quality of service or audience engagement quality of experience of online video content for both video on demand and live delivery. This is usually manifested as a User Interface with log-in credentials. OVPs also include providing a custom video player or a third-party video player that can be embedded in a website. Modern online video platforms are often coupled up with embedded online video analytics providing video publishers with detailed insights into video performance: the total number of video views, impressions, and unique views; video watch time, stats on user location, visits, and behavior on the site. Video heat maps show how user engagement rate changes through the viewing process in order to measure audience interaction and to create compelling video content. OVPs are related to the over-the-top content video industry, although there are many OVP providers that are also present in broadcast markets, serving video on demand set-top boxes.
OVP product models vary in scale and feature-set, ranging from ready-made web sites that individuals can use, to white label models that can be customized by enterprise clients or media/content aggregators and integrated with their traditional broadcast workflows. The former example is YouTube. The latter example is predominantly found in FTA (Free-To-Air) or pay-TV broadcasters who seek to provide an over-the-top media service (OTT) that extends the availability of their content on desktops or multiple mobility devices.
In general, the graphical user interface accessed by users of the OVP is sold as a service. Revenue is derived from monthly subscriptions based on the number of users it is licensed to and the complexity of the workflow. Some workflows require encryption of content with DRM and this increases the cost of using the service. Videos may be transcoded from their original source format or resolution to a mezzanine format (suitable for management and mass-delivery), either on-site or using cloud computing. The latter would be where platform as a service, is provided as an additional cost.
It is feasible, but rare, for large broadcasters to develop their own proprietary OVP. However, this can require complex development and maintenance costs and diverts attention to 'building' as opposed to distributing/curating content.
OVPs often cooperate with specialized third-party service providers, using what they call an application programming interface (API). These include cloud transcoders, recommendation engines, search engines, metadata libraries and analytics providers.
Video and content delivery protocols
The vast majority of OVPs use industry-standard HTTP streaming or HTTP progressive download protocols. With HTTP streaming, the de facto standard is to use adaptive streaming where multiple files of a video are created at different bit rates, but only one of these is sent to the end-user during playback, depending on available bandwidth or device CPU constraints. This can be switched dynamically and near-seamlessly at any time during the video viewing. The main protocols for adaptive HTTP streaming include Smooth StV\S Creaming (by Microsoft), HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) (by Apple) and Flash Video (by Adobe). Flash is still in use but is declining due to the popSAZXularity of HLS and Smooth Stream in mobile devices and desktops, respectively. Each is a proprietary protocol in its own right and due to this fragmentation, there have been efforts to create one standardized protocol known as MPEG-DASH.
There are many OVPs available on the Internet.
Influence
In the 2010s, with the increasing prevalence of technology and the Internet in everyday life, video hosting services serve as a portal to different forms of entertainment (comedy, shows, games, or music), news, documentaries and educational videos. Content may be either both user-generated, amateur clips or commercial products. The entertainment industry uses this medium to release music and videos, movies and television shows directly to the public. Since many users do not have unlimited web space, either as a paid service, or through an ISP offering, video hosting services are becoming increasingly popular, especially with the explosion in popularity of blogs, internet forums and other interactive pages. The mass market for camera phones and smartphones has increased the supply of user-generated video. Traditional methods of personal video distribution, such as making a DVD to show to friends at home, are unsuited to the low resolution and high volume of camera phone clips. In contrast, current broadband Internet connections are well suited to serving the quality of video shot on mobile phones. Most people do not own web servers, and this has created demand for user-generated video content hosting.
Free video format support
Some websites prefer royalty-free video formats such as Theora (with Ogg) and VP8 (with WebM). In particular, the Wikipedia community advocates the Ogg format and some websites now support searching specifically for WebM videos.
Copyright issues
On some websites, users share entire films by breaking them up into segments that are about the size of the video length limit imposed by the site (e.g., 15-minutes). An emerging practice is for users to obfuscate the titles of feature-length films that they share by providing a title that is recognizable by humans but will not match on standard search engines. It is not even in all cases obvious to the user if a provided video is a copyright infringement.
For privacy reasons, the users' comments are usually ignored by websites of the Internet preservation, as it happens in Web Archive, or in Archive.today copy saving.
Mobile video hosting
A more recent application of the video hosting services is in the mobile web 2.0 arena, where video and other mobile content can be delivered to, and easily accessed by mobile devices. While some video-hosting services like DaCast and Ustream have developed means by which video can be watched on mobile devices, mobile-oriented web-based frontends for video hosting services that possess equal access and capability to desktop-oriented web services have yet to be developed. A mobile live streaming software called Qik allows the users to upload videos from their cell phones to the internet. The videos will then be stored online and can be shared to various social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Videos will be stored on the servers and can be watched from both the mobile devices and the website.
History
Practical online video hosting and video streaming was made possible by advances in video compression, due to the impractically high bandwidth requirements of uncompressed video. Raw uncompressed digital video has a bit rate of 168Mbit/s for SD video, and over 1Gbit/s for full HD video. The most important data compression algorithm that enabled practical video hosting and streaming is the discrete cosine transform (DCT), a lossy compression technique first proposed by Nasir Ahmed in 1972. The DCT algorithm is the basis for the first practical video coding format, H.261, in 1988. It was followed by more popular DCT-based video coding formats, most notably the MPEG and H.26x video standards from 1991 onwards. The modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT) is also the basis for the MP3 audio compression format introduced in 1994, and later the Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) format in 1999.
Video hosting sites
The first Internet video hosting site was ShareYourWorld.com. Founded in 1997, it allowed users to upload clips or full videos in different file formats. However, Internet access bandwidth and video transcoding technology at the time were limited, so the site did not support video streaming like YouTube later did. ShareYourWorld was founded by Chase Norlin, and it ran until 2001, when it closed due to budget and bandwidth problems.
Founded in October 2004, Pandora TV from South Korea is the first video sharing website in the world to attach advertisements to user-submitted video clips and to provide unlimited storage space for users to upload their own clips. The company has developed an auto-advertisements system that automatically inserts advertising to the clips posted to the website. It was founded in the Gangnam District of Seoul.
Video streaming platforms
YouTube was founded by Chad Hurley, Jawed Karim and Steve Chen in 2005. It was based on video transcoding technology, which enabled the video streaming of user-generated content from anywhere on the World Wide Web. This was made possible by implementing a Flash player based on MPEG-4 AVC video with AAC audio. This allowed any video coding format to be uploaded, and then transcoded into Flash-compatible AVC video that can be directly streamed from anywhere on the Web. The first YouTube video clip was Me at the zoo, uploaded by Karim in April 2005.
YouTube subsequently became the most popular online video platform, and changed the way videos were hosted on the Web. The success of YouTube led to a number of similar online video streaming platforms, from companies such as Netflix, Hulu and Crunchyroll.
Within these video streaming platforms like Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube, there are privacy concerns about how the websites use consumers' personal information and online behaviors to advertise and track spending. Many video streaming websites record semi-private consumer information such as video streaming data, purchase frequency, genre of videos watched, etc.
See also
Comparison of video hosting services
Flash Video ("Flash")
Fliggo
List of online video platforms
Online video analytics
Streaming media
References
Internet hosting |
41277583 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alec%20Muffett | Alec Muffett | Alec David Edward Muffett (born April 22, 1968) is an Anglo-American internet-security evangelist, architect, and software engineer. He is principally known for his work on Crack, the original Unix password cracker, and for the CrackLib password-integrity testing library; he is also active in the open-source software community.
Technology career
Muffett joined Sun Microsystems in 1992, working initially as a systems administrator. He rose “through the ranks” to become the Principal Engineer for Security, a position which he held until he was retrenched, with many others, in 2009 (shortly before Oracle acquired Sun). While at Sun he was one of the researchers who worked on the factorization of the 512 bit RSA Challenge Number; RSA-155 was successfully factorized in August 1999. Muffett also worked on the Sun MD5 hash algorithm, which was introduced in Solaris 9 update 2. The new algorithm drew on Muffett's work in pluggable crypt, and it is now implemented in many different languages, for example Python.
The algorithm uses the complete text of the famous soliloquy from Shakespeare's Hamlet: "To be or not to be, that is the question..." as the constant data. Muffett justified the choice of this text because "it exposes more programmers to Shakespeare, which has got to be a good thing". After a sabbatical year, Muffett began to work on The Mine! Project, as lead developer. He subsequently became a director and consultant at Green Lane Security; he also consults for Surevine. He was a director of the Open Rights Group from October 2011 until January 2020.
Muffett has blogged professionally, for Computer World at Unscrewing Security and personally at Dropsafe, and has numerous publications to his credit, besides being a frequent presenter at technical conferences.
Muffett is a co-inventor (with Darren Moffat and Casper Dik) of the patent "Method and apparatus for implementing a pluggable password obscuring mechanism", United States Patent 7,249,260, Issued June 12, 2003.
In 2015 Muffett was named as one of the Top 6 influential security thinkers by SC Magazine. In October of that year he coauthored RFC 7686 "The ".onion" Special-Use Domain Name", with Jacob Applebaum.
More recently, Muffett assisted the New York Times with the creation of their own Tor onion site. Following that he created a temporary Onion Wikipedia site, accessible only over Tor, and assisted building further onion sites for
BBC News
and Brave
Previously, Muffett has worked as a software engineer for Facebook, leading the team which added end-to-end encryption to Facebook Messenger. and as Principal Engineer, Infrastructure Security at Deliveroo.
In July 2020 Muffett shared DoHoT (DNS over HTTPS over Tor) which tunnels DoH queries over Tor with a reasonable latency.
References
External links
Personal blog
Factorization of a 512 Bit RSA Modulus
Crypticide I: Thirteen Years of Crack
Computer security specialists
1968 births
Living people
Alumni of University College London
Place of birth missing (living people)
American software engineers
British software engineers
Sun Microsystems people |
41306226 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMS%20security | IMS security | IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) is a set of specifications to offer multimedia services through IP protocol. This makes it possible to incorporate all kinds of services, such as voice, multimedia and data, on an accessible platform through any Internet connection (fixed or mobile).
IMS's origin
Initially defined by 4G.IP (a set of companies belonging the telecommunications sector), it was 4G (3rd Generation Partnership Project) who definitively adopted the definition of IMS as a part of the standardization 4G system in networks UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System), specified in Release 5 and 6.
Architecture
It can be divided into three layers:
Application
Where there are AS (Application Servers), the MRF (Media Resource Function) and a HSS (Home Subscriber Server).
The AS used the SIP(Session Initiation Protocol) for the signaling, used in establishing multimedia sessions, such as audio and video calls over Internet. The services offered by the telephony operators are hosted and run on AS.
A HSS is similar devices to the HLR of GSM technology, where the user´s credentials are stored.
Control
Formed by different subsystems among which is IMS core.
Other important devices in this layer are the CSCF (Call Session Control Function), which includes three subsystems: P-CSCF (Proxy CSCF), S-CSCF (Serving CSCF) and I-CSCF (Interrogating CSCF). These subsystems are the responsible, basically, of: processing and routing the signaling; to control the resources of the transport subsystem, to register and authenticate users; provisioning IMS services by diverting signaling application servers in question and to generate billing records.
The MRF (Media Resources Function) provides functions related to media, such as the manipulation of the media and the reproduction of tones and announcements. Each MRF divides into a MRFC (Media Resources Function Controller) and a MRFP (Media Resources Function Processor). The MRFC is a signaling plane node that interprets the information coming from an AS and S-CSCF to control the MRFP. The MRFP is a node of the plane of the media, is used to mix the source or process media streams.
Transport
Composed by the UE (User Equipment), the access network, the NASS (Network Attachment Subsystem) and the RACS (Resource Admission Control Subsystem). The transport of network is performed using either IPv6 or IPv4, allowing QoS's implementation, integrated security, autoconfiguration…
Security
Having seen a little of what is IMS and the devices that act, we enter IMS specifications relating to security.
From the point of view of the standardization, only exists a mechanism of authentication and access control, specified in the TS 33.203 of 3GPP (Access Security for IP-Based Services) and commonly called AKA (Authentication and Key Agreement). However, there are many other mechanisms for authentication and access control, defined to meet the needs of inherited terminals and to enable faster deployment. The most common are:
Early IMS 3GPP for mobile access. They are those that IMS deployments in advance for your time are not entirely compatible with the specifications so that the security mechanisms are not applicable. Examples include IPv4 based implementations as 2G devices.
Digest authentication of TISPAN and Packet Cable.
NASS-IMS authentication inseparable TISPAN for fixed networks. It is an authentication method in which it is intended to reuse the authentication layer in IMS network. It was developed by TISPAN for fixed networks in which the user terminal does not have an ISIM (IP Multimedia Services Identity Module). The security of this mechanism is practically the same as that of the access network.
Digest Authentication with Packet Cable's TLS.
The existing variety of authentication mechanisms used in networks, causes problems related with the interoperability, the existence of networks with different security levels, the most adapted method selection during the client registration, etc. In this respect, 3GPP has developed the recommendation TR 33.803 to guide in selecting the most appropriate authentication method.
AKA (Authentication and Key Agreement)
The security in IMS is based on a secret key of long duration shared between the ISIM and the AUC (Authentication Center) of the local network.
ISIM: it is an application that runs on a smart card UICC (Universal Integrated Circuit Card) that contains the identification parameters and authentication of the IMS user.
AUC: Associate in this case to the HSS. Contains information required to perform the authentication and encryption services. Stores the authentication and encryption algorithms and generates the necessary keys for each service.
The AKA used to establish both the encryption keys (3DES or AES-CBC) and the integrity keys (HMAC-MD5 or HMAC-SHA-1).
ISIM ↔ HSS: Required for the mutual authentication. Both the HSS and the ISIM have stored a secret key and private identification (IMPI) associated with that key.
UA ↔ P-CSCF: Ensures a secure link between the UE and network.
I/S-CSCF ↔ HSS: Establishes a security association for information transfer between the I/S-CSCF and the HSS.
P-CSCF ↔ I/S-CSCF: This security association applies only when the P-CSCF is not in the Home Network.
I-CSCF ↔ S-CSCF: Provides security between SIP nodes within a network.
Registration process
Before a user can get access to IP Multimedia services, it must register at least one IMPU (IP Multimedia Public Identity), such as a telephone number. Then the IMS network must authenticate the IMPI (IP Multimedia Private Identity) at application. The registration process is initiated by the IMS terminal sending a SIP REGISTER message to the P-CSCF directed his IMPI and IMPU. This message reaches the P-CSCF, and it forwards the message to the I-CSCF. The I-CSCF sends a DIAMETER message authentication request of the user who sent the REGISTER message, DIAMETER UAR to HSS, who responds with another message DIAMETER UAA and parallel to I-CSCF informs the direction of the S-CSCF assigned to the user. Then the I- CSCF forwards the registration message to the S-CSCF, which in turn sends the message DIAMETER MAR including IMPI, which is used by the HSS to calculate the Authentication Vector (AV) and generates the quintuple < RAND, AUTN, XRES, CK, IK > and returns the S-CSCF to fivefold through DIAMETER MAA message. This message is an indication that the network is requesting that the terminal uses its security algorithms in order to authenticate. Then the S-CSCF sends the SIP 401 Unauthorized message accompanied by four of the five parameters making up the AV to I-CSCF, which forwards the message to the P-CSCF. Again, the P-CSCF forwards the message to the UE but leaving him only two parameters, the RAND and AUTN. Since the terminal has the same secret key that has a corresponding HSS, the user can calculate the AUTN. If this matches the one received from the network, the network is considered legitimate. The UE also calculates its response RES which is sent to another SIP REGISTER message with IMPI and ARPU. This message reaches the P-CSCF which forwards the I-CSCF. After the I-CSCF sends a DIAMETER UAR to HSS who responds with the address of S-CSCF through a DIAMETER UAA message. Then the I-CSCF forwards the registration message with the RES to S-CSCF. The latter sends the message DIAMETER SAR to the HSS who replies with DIAMETER SAA. If the RES parameter sent by the user is equal to XRES had calculated the HSS during the first registration attempt, then the HSS authenticates the user by means of the message DIAMETER SAA. Finally the S-CSCF sends a SIP 200 OK message to P-CSCF, which forwards it to the user.
Security processes are always executed by the Home Network, even if the user is roaming.
Support confidentiality of SIP messages between the UE and the P-CSCF through the use of is provided.
IMS Access Security for SIP
According to 3GPP specifications, user authentication must be based on Digest AKA, somewhat analogous to the UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) access authentication but for SIP. The 3GPP specification TS 33.203 exposed to signalling between the user agent and the P-CSCF should be based on IPsec ESP (Encapsulating Security Payload) in transport mode. However, the use of IPSec in this mode was not suitable for use in fixed networks. The problem lay in the intersection IPsec NAT (Network Address Translation), so TISPAN (Telecommunications and Internet Convergence Services and Protocols for Advanced Networks) mode selected UDP (User Datagram Protocol) encapsulation of IPsec.
GAA (Generic Authentication Architecture)
All security mechanisms we've seen are used in access networks and IMS domains. However, it is possible to extend the above authentication mechanisms at the application or service using what is known as GAA.
The GAA is the authentication architecture that makes it possible to extend the existing authentication mechanisms in IMS application layer/service.
GAA employs two authentication mechanisms. One is based on the possession of a shared secret between the communicating entities (GBA-Generic Bootstrapping Architecture) derived from the keys used in the AKA authentication, and the other based on asymmetric cryptography (public and private key) and digital certificates or PKI (SSC - Support for Subscriber Certificates).
Authentication using a shared secret
Of the two types of implementation, the most used is based on shared secrets. The great advantage of GAA/GBA is that it allows the creation of security associations between the user agent and the various applications. These partnerships consist primarily to share a key (the shared secret), which allows subsequent user agent authentication against the application, and, if necessary, other security features such as the guarantee of confidentiality and integrity of information (through encryption and digital signature), non-repudiation (digital signature), etc. The problem with these mechanisms is the way to agree on this shared secret. As I mentioned earlier, the secret is derived from the authentication keys used in AKA.
A new network element called BSF (Bootstrapping Server Function) is introduced. This BSF has an interface with the HSS. The UE runs AKA with the HSS via the BSF. An application server called NAF (Network Application Function) can retrieve this session key from the BSF, with the subscriber profile information. Thus, NAF server applications and UE share a secret key that can then be used for security application, in particular to authenticate the UE and the NAF in the beginning of the application session (possibly for the integrity and/or protection of confidentiality). The communication between the UE and the BSF as well as between and among NAF and BSF and HSS, are independent of the application.
Asymmetric cryptography based authentication and certificates
An alternative to the use of shared secrets for authentication is the use of asymmetric cryptography. This means that the entity that wants to be authenticated must have a key pair (public and private) and validating a digital certificate key pair. Once in possession of the key and the certificate, the UE can use them to produce digital signatures. The main disadvantage of this type of authentication is that you need a PKI and asymmetric key operations require more computational effort.
If a customer wishes to use asymmetric encryption technology, you need a digital certificate issued by a CA (Certification Authority). The certificate binds a public key to the identity of their respective owners. If a mobile subscriber wants to have and use a pair of keys (private and public), the certificate must be pre-installed or the subscriber must have the means to generate or obtain a key pair and, likewise, to dynamically obtain one digital certificate. To obtain a digital certificate dynamically a UE should send an application for a site certificate to PKI, and PKI portal must authenticate the certificate request. The key pair and digital certificate can also be used for the integrity and protection, but these are not part of the scope of the GAA.
Liberty Alliance and SSO (Single Sign On)
The Liberty Alliance is a group of companies dedicated to creating specifications related to authentication, privacy and identity management applications users online. One of the concepts handled is the SSO (Single Sign On), in which a user needs to authenticate only once to access various applications or services.
The 3GPP has introduced a recommendation for the combination of GAA/GBA and SSO and authentication mechanisms defined by Liberty Alliance and SAML v2.0. Thus, it is possible to benefit from strong authentication based on AKA, the mechanisms defined by Liberty Alliance and SAML v2.0 SSO to provide. However, the biggest disadvantage of GAA / GBA is designed for user agents that have some kind of support card. OMA specified authentication solutions, for example based on HTTP Digest with user credentials, for terminals that do not have an ISIM card.
Attacks
Network snoop
Breaking confidentiality. Without the protection with SSL/TLS or IPSec, it will be easy for an attacker to capture the SIP signalling and RTP (Real-time Transport Protocol) traffic using tools like Wireshark. Another attack against confidentiality can be realized by using scan tools to gather sensitive and valuable information about IMS components, operating systems and network topology.
Session hijacking
Directed integrity of session. The attacker can insert malicious packets in a session and can even replace some of the traffic. For example, the attacker can send SIP Re-Invite to modify the parameters of the session.
DoS (Denial of Service)
Attack against availability. The attacker sends a large number of datagrams in a short period of time, causing degradation of performance or completely stopping services. Examples include TCP SYN floods, UDP floods...
P- CSCF Discovery
Concerns integrity and availability. The P-CSCF is the entry point to the UE. DHCP (Dynamic Host Control Protocol) and DNS (Domain Name System) are commonly used to discover the P-CSCF. An attacker can break the process of P-CSCF discovery cache poisoning DNS for a domain name or IP false is returned to the UE. The result is that the UE cannot be registered to the network or is registered to a fake server.
Service Abuse
Impact availability and integrity of IMS. Authorized users can use the services more than expected or gain access to services that are not allowed for them.
Toll Fraud
Attack on the accounting. An attacker can forge a UE and send a Bye request to CSCF. The CSCF will think that the session is end, and stop accounting at this time the UE don’t release the media streams. This means that the UE continues exchanging flows without being counted. This threat calls media theft, and use the weakness of lack of effective control of media streams.
Permission Acquisition
Attack authentication. An attacker can obtain the password authentication due to a crack or other methods. Basically, a UE does not have a SIM card used, as mentioned above, HTTP Digest. This method is based on a username and password, which usually is not high security level. HTTP Digest lists several attacks, such as brute force or a replay attack.
Mitigated
To mitigate these attacks on the IMS network that must be met:
The subscriber access to the IMS network with strong authentication.
Network security: the flow exchanged between clients and application servers must be secured.
Systems and applications must be secured.
See also
4G
Softswitch
Voice over IP
Mobile VoIP
SIMPLE
3GPP Long Term Evolution, UMB (4G network efforts that will use technologies like IMS)
Mobile Broadband
Peer-to-peer video sharing
Video share
Image share
IP Connectivity Access Network
Text over IP
Multimedia Telephony
Voice call continuity
Push to talk
IMPS
Rich Communication Suite
Service Capability Interaction Manager
References
http://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_tr/133900_133999/133919/06.02.00_60/tr_133919v060200p.pdf
http://www.3gpp.org/
http://edadmovil.wordpress.com/casos-de-desarrollo/implementacion-ims/funcionamiento-ims/
https://web.archive.org/web/20131213060910/http://departamento.pucp.edu.pe/ingenieria/images/documentos/seccion_telecomunicaciones/IMS/Capitulo%207%20QoS%20y%20Seguridad.pdf
https://web.archive.org/web/20131218095643/http://blog.s21sec.com/2008/12/ims-introduccin.html
http://www.efort.com/media_pdf/IMS_ESP.pdf
IMS services
Telecommunications infrastructure |
41310584 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SkyJack | SkyJack | SkyJack is an unmanned aerial vehicle created by Samy Kamkar which specifically seeks out other Parrot drones and hijacks them through their wireless network, giving the SkyJack pilot the ability to control and view the camera sources of the affected drone.
Background
Parrot AR.Drone is a radio controlled flying quadcopter helicopter built by the French company Parrot. The drone is designed to be controlled by mobile or tablet operating systems such as the supported iOS or Android. No authentication or encryption is used by the Parrot to secure the connection with the pilot.
Description
Samy Kamkar released the SkyJack hardware and software specification on December 2, 2013, as open source and detailed the creation on his website.
According to the project's website:
SkyJack is a drone engineered to autonomously seek out, hack, and wirelessly take over other drones within wifi distance, creating an army of zombie drones under your control.
Using a Parrot AR.Drone 2, a Raspberry Pi, a USB battery, an Alfa AWUS036H wireless transmitter, aircrack-ng, node-ar-drone, node.js, and my SkyJack software, I developed a drone that flies around, seeks the wireless signal of any other drone in the area, forcefully disconnects the wireless connection of the true owner of the target drone, then authenticates with the target drone pretending to be its owner, then feeds commands to it and all other possessed zombie drones at my will.
The SkyJack software seeks out other Parrot drones wirelessly by their organizationally unique identifier without requiring any previous knowledge of the targeted drones. The only security currently in the Parrot drones prevents a second pilot from taking over, however SkyJack uses Aircrack-ng to perform a "deauthentication attack" against the pilot, exploiting a mechanism in wireless security. The SkyJack software then takes over the drone as the primary pilot and provides full control and camera access to the SkyJack pilot.
See also
Unmanned aerial vehicle
References
Radio-controlled helicopters
Unmanned helicopters |
41322476 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wickr | Wickr | Wickr is an American software company based in New York City. The company is best known for its instant messenger application of the same name. The Wickr instant messaging apps allow users to exchange end-to-end encrypted and content-expiring messages, including photos, videos, and file attachments. The software is available for the iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, and Linux operating systems. On June 25th, 2021, Wickr was acquired by Amazon Web Services.
History
Wickr was founded in 2012 by a group of security experts and privacy advocates. Nico Sell served as the company's CEO until May 2015 when she became the co-chairman of Wickr and CEO of Wickr Foundation, the newly launched nonprofit whose seed funding was provided by the company. Mark Fields, who previously led CME's Strategic Investment Group, became the company’s CEO. He served in that position until November 2016, when he was replaced by Joel Wallenstrom, co-founder of iSec Partners, becoming the company's CEO and President.
Apps
Initially unveiled on iOS and later on Android, the Wickr Me app allows users to set an expiration time for their encrypted communications. In December 2014, Wickr released a desktop version of its secure communications platform. The release of the desktop Wickr app coincided with introducing the ability to sync messages across multiple devices, including mobile phones, tablets, and computers.
Since developing its first app, Wickr Me, the company has released Wickr Pro, Wickr RAM, and Wickr Enterprise. Wickr RAM was designed with the military in mind; the app stays secure even in “harshest environments.” While Wickr Enterprise was created for companies with larger workforces to easily integrate into their organization’s IT workflows.
All communications on Wickr are encrypted locally on each device with a new key generated for each new message, meaning that no one except Wickr users have the keys to decipher their content. In addition to encrypting user data and conversations, Wickr strips metadata from all content transmitted through the network.
Since its launch, Wickr has gone through regular security audits by prominent information security organizations, which verified Wickr's code, security and policies. Wickr has also launched a "bug bounty program" that offers a reward to hackers who can find a vulnerability in the app.
On January 5, 2015, the Electronic Frontier Foundation gave Wickr a score of 5 out of 7 points on their "Secure Messaging Scorecard". It received points for having communications encrypted in transit, having communications encrypted with keys the provider didn't have access to (end-to-end encryption), making it possible for users to independently verify their correspondent's identities, having past communications secure if the keys were stolen (forward secrecy), and having completed a recent independent security audit. It was missing points because its source code was not open to independent review (open source), and because its security design was not well-documented. In 2015, Wickr published a white paper outlining the encryption protocol that they use for end-to-end encryption.
In 2015, the Electronic Frontier Foundation announced that Wickr, among only nine companies earned stars in every applicable category for its effort to protect user privacy: “We commend Wickr for its strong stance regarding user rights, transparency, and privacy.”
In December 2016, Wickr announced Wickr Professional, a new business collaboration and communication product designed to couple the functionality of tools like Slack with end-to-end encryption and ephemerality.
In February 2017, Wickr opened one of its crypto protocols for public review on GitHub and published a paper “The Wickr Messaging Protocol” as an aid to those who wish to review the source code. At the time of its publication, the crypto protocol was only used in the company's enterprise product, Wickr Professional. The company said that its consumer product, Wickr Messenger, still uses another protocol, and that they intend to replace this protocol with the one that they published.
In early 2020, Wickr RAM was included in a review by the NSA of secure communication & collaboration platforms. Wickr RAM was the only app that was found to meet every single criterion that was assessed.
According to the Washington Post, Wickr markets itself to government agencies. Government transparency advocates note that Maryland governor Larry Hogan's use of Wickr destroys government records before any determination of whether they should be public can be made, under the Freedom of Information Act and state law.
Funding
In March 2014, Wickr announced its Series A funding round of $9 million led by Gilman Louie of Alsop Louie Partners. The series also included investments from Juniper Networks and the Knight Foundation.
In June 2014, Wickr announced its Series B funding round of $30 million led by Breyer Capital, including CME Group and Wargaming.
On 12 October 2021, A Vice Motherboard article revealed that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had invested $1.6 million into Wickr via the CIA's shell company In-Q-Tel.
Gilman Louie is the former CEO of In-Q-Tel, and other investors, including Richard Clarke and Michael Wertheimer, also have close ties to the U.S. intelligence and national security communities. It is also known that Erik Prince, the founder of the controversial private security firm Blackwater, is one of the principal investors.
Wickr Foundation
Wickr Foundation is a non-profit founded by Wickr founder Nico Sell.
The foundation operates a social-impact venture fund with a global mission to advance the Private Web and transform how society uses the Internet. In addition to educating the public on privacy and information security, Wickr Foundation is focused on incubating and investing in ideas that revolutionize user control and empower data ownership.
The foundation is dedicated to providing information security and privacy training to human rights activists, policy-makers, children, and journalists, and leads several initiatives to raise global awareness on privacy and encourage the development of security-enhancing technologies.
See also
Comparison of instant messaging clients
Internet privacy
Secure instant messaging
References
External links
Privately held companies based in California
Companies established in 2012
Instant messaging clients
Companies based in San Francisco
Amazon (company) acquisitions
2021 mergers and acquisitions |
41322836 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VNS3 | VNS3 | VNS3 is a software-only virtual appliance that allows users to control access and network topology and secure data in motion across public and private clouds. VNS3 is a virtual router, switch, firewall, protocol re-distributor, and SSL/IPSec VPN concentrator. The Network Virtualization Software creates a customer controlled overlay network over top of the underlying network backbone
Uses
VNS3 is a network routing and security virtual appliance that lets extend networks into public, private, and hybrid clouds VNS3 lets enterprise data center administrators "create encrypted LAN between virtual machines in a private cloud, as well as encrypted WAN across multiple public clouds."
History
Developers Cohesive Networks first named their multi-sourced infrastructure concept "v-cube-v." The software ran in internal production starting in 2007. The company named the early commercial version of VNS3 "VPN3" or "VPN-Cubed" and later renamed the software to VNS3 in 2012.
Amazon Web Services users first began downloading VPN-Cubed from the partner directory on 5 December 2008. VNS3 gained popularity (as VPN-Cubed) as part of the Amazon Web Services public cloud ecosystem and with independent reviews from ZDNet, High Scalability, InfoQ, Chris Hoff, and CloudAve.
In 2012, developers Cohesive Networks released a major version update. The release updated the software to 3.0 and rebranded it as VNS3 (VNS-Cubed). 451 Research analyst William Fellows wrote "VNS[3] is not only for VPNs – hence the name change – since overlays can be within a cloud, between clouds, between a private datacenter and a cloud (or clouds), or between multiple datacenters."
In 2013, Cohesive Networks released a 3.0.1 version of the product, as well as a free edition of VNS3 in Amazon Web Services. VNS3 was recognized in the 6th Annual International Datacenters Awards as the winner of the Public Cloud Services & Infrastructure award In early 2014 VNS3 3.5 was released with major software updates and a new integration with Docker Docker's open-source virtualization platform added the ability to run other networking applications as containers inside VNS3 virtual machines. Users can create an overlay network "as a substrate for layer 4-7 network application services – things like proxy, reverse proxy, SSL termination, content caching and network intrusion detection" William Fellows writes.
In early 2015 the company renamed to Cohesive Networks to emphasize the networking capabilities of VNS3 and to spin off the less successful part of the business. The company later announced a new line of VNS3-based products, including VNS3:turret application segmentation controller, the VNS3:ms network management platform, and the VNS3:ha - high availability add on.
After 2008, VNS3 became available in more public cloud providers and geographic regions, including Amazon Web Services EC2, GoGrid, Flexiant, IBM SoftLayer, Google Compute Engine, HP Cloud Services, Mircorsoft Azure, and CenturyLink Cloud.
Software
VNS3 software creates IPSec tunneling connections similar to a site to site VPN. The connections can ensure a single LAN connection between virtual or cloud environments VNS3 gives secure access to cloud assets, extends the Virtual LAN segmentation, isolation, and security of a cloud provider's network.
The first VNS3 was built on a customized Ubuntu-based Linux using open source networking applications Openswan and OpenVPN. The development team chose OpenVPN "primarily because it uses standard OpenSSL encryption, runs on multiple operating systems and does not require kernel patching or additional modules."
VNS3 Managers are virtual machines that act as a VPN gateway for the other virtual machines in the same cloud infrastructure. VNS3 synchronizes between cloud managers using RabbitMQ. VNS3 enables users to turn multicast on and off in order to work on public clouds, allowing software configurations dependent on multicast to function in the cloud.
VNS3 software creates IPSec tunneling connections similar to a site-to-site VPN. The connections can ensure a single LAN network between multiple cloud environments. VNS3 secures connections to cloud deployments, extends the Virtual LAN segmentation, and ensures network isolation and security in a cloud provider's virtual environment. VNS3 has a web-based UI and traditional Linux system command line interface. The VNS3 API uses a Ruby script and Ruby language binding.
The developers earned a patent on the underlying cloud VPN technologies in 2010.
Availability
VPN-Cubed has been available in Amazon Web Services cloud since December 5, 2008.
According to the Cohesive Networks website, VNS3 is delivered as a virtual machine and is available in public clouds including: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Compute Engine, ElasticHosts, IBM SoftLayer, and CenturyLink Cloud. Private clouds availability includes: Abiquo, Eucalyptus, Openstack; and virtual infrastructures such as: Xen, VMware, KVM, Citrix.
Pricing
Since October 2008, VNS3 has been available for free on Amazon Web Services Microsoft Azure, and CenturyLink Cloud. Additional paid editions are listed on the Cohesive Networks website.
Release History
References
External links
Routing software
Gateway/routing/firewall distribution
Routers (computing)
Virtual private networks |
41391692 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forever%20%28website%29 | Forever (website) | Forever.com is a digital archive and internet storage startup company for photographs, documents, videos, and audio files. Founded in May 2012 by Glen Meakem, the company is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
History
Forever was founded in May 2012 by Glen Meakem and publicly launched in November 2013. 1,000 people became Forever members prior to its public launch on November 22, 2013. It is a digital archive and internet storage startup company for photographs, documents, videos, and audio files. In 1990, Meakem and his wife went on a summer road trip from their Boston home to the states of Delaware, Connecticut, New York, Kentucky, and Florida to visit and film all of their living relatives, including their six grandparents. Their goal was to record their relatives' history. He conceived of Forever during the trip. Meakem wanted to create an enduring Internet archive for all of his family photos, and he turned the idea into the company Forever.
In December 2012, Forever received its series A round funding of $9 million from the venture capital firm Meakem Becker, which was co-founded by Forever founder Glen Meakem. In December 2012, Forever moved to the twentieth floor of PPG Place in Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where it is based. In November 2013, the advertising efforts of Forever helped it gain 1,000 paying customers. In December 2013, Forever had a Series B round of funding of $8.6 million.
Acquisitions
In September 2014, Forever bought Panstoria, a digital scrapbooking company. The purchase allowed Forever customers to use Panstoria's scrapbooking services and permitted Forever to advertise its services to Panstoria's 100,000 customers.
In September 2015, Forever bought Life Highlights Digital Media, a Wisconsin company established in 2011 by Brenda Broberg, that helped customers digitize family photos and videos. Forever turned Life Highlights' store in Green Bay, Wisconsin, into a Forever Retail Store. In March 2016, Forever expanded the store's functionality also to be their North American Media Conversion and Processing place, to digitize customers' photos and videos. In March 2018, Forever had 55 employees.
Services
According to Barron's, Forever aims to differentiate itself from other online photo storage services like Google Photos, Amazon Prime Photos, Dropbox, and Shutterfly by additionally offering customized help. Customer service representatives on its toll-free telephone number offer advice about how to create greeting cards or digital scrapbooks. Forever helps customers convert VHS cassettes into digital files and pledges to convert the files' types into any new file types used in the future.
Forever gives users free 2 gigabyte accounts. Users who want to store more photos past the 2 GB limit have the option of paying for a minimum of 10 GB or a maximum of 1 terabyte.
Forever backs up the data in three places different places around the world and uses bank-grade encryption to protect the data.
Forever Guarantee Fund
Forever created a "fully-restricted fund" named the Forever Guarantee Fund. According to WTAQ, the fund "acts like a permanent endowment or reserve". Forever invested $1 million into the fund when establishing it and adds more money from customers' payments. Of customer's payments, the company places 70% into the fund and invests the other 30% into operational expenses and expanding its services. According to Forever founder, Glen Meakem, the fund is invested in a diversified collection of stocks and bonds and targets an 8% annual return. 4% of the fund's profits is withdrawn every year to cover operational expenses.
The fund's aim is to allow Forever to maintain customers' accounts for a century after the customers' deaths. But David Thaw, an information security specialist at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, found the Forever 100-year warranty to be uncertain if Forever closes, noting, "As with all things, you can't make perfect guarantees and ensure they will be followed because things can happen." Forever terms of service dictates that if Forever cannot sustain customers' accounts, it will use the Forever Guarantee Fund to give the customers' data back to Forever customers.
Reception
Michael Spring, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Information Sciences, said, "It seems a little overpriced. It may end up being a service used more by those who have disposable income".
In an April 2018 Photography Life review, Bob Vishneski, who works in the media software industry, wrote, "as people begin to grasp and appreciate the importance of Digital Estate Planning, I believe Forever and others that venture into this space will gain traction. At a minimum, people concerned with having their digital archives live on after they are gone should ensure that their wills include account names and passwords to the various services they subscribe to."
References
External links
Official website
Companies based in Pittsburgh
American companies established in 2012
Internet properties established in 2012
2012 establishments in Pennsylvania
Online archives of the United States |
41471518 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill%20chain | Kill chain | The term kill chain is a military concept which identifies the structure of an attack. It consists of:
・identification of target
・dispatching of forces to target
・initiation of attack on target
・destruction of target
Conversely, the idea of "breaking" an opponent's kill chain is a method of defense or preemptive action.
Military
F2T2EA
One military kill chain model is the "F2T2EA", which includes the following phases:
Find: Identify a target. Find a target within surveillance or reconnaissance data or via intelligence means.
Fix: Fix the target's location. Obtain specific coordinates for the target either from existing data or by collecting additional data.
Track: Monitor the target's movement. Keep track of the target until either a decision is made not to engage the target or the target is successfully engaged.
Target: Select an appropriate weapon or asset to use on the target to create desired effects. Apply command and control capabilities to assess the value of the target and the availability of appropriate weapons to engage it.
Engage: Apply the weapon to the target.
Assess: Evaluate effects of the attack, including any intelligence gathered at the location.
This is an integrated, end-to-end process described as a "chain" because an interruption at any stage can interrupt the entire process.
Previous terminology
The "Four Fs" is a military term used in the United States military, especially during World War II.
Designed to be easy to remember, the "Four Fs" are as follows:
Find the enemy – Locate the enemy.
Fix the enemy – Pin them down with suppressing fire.
Fight the enemy – Engage the enemy in combat or flank the enemy – Send soldiers to the enemy's sides or rear.
Finish the enemy – Eliminate all enemy combatants.
Proposed terminology
The "Five Fs" is a military term described by Maj. Mike "Pako" Benitez, an F-15E Strike Eagle Weapons Systems Officer who served in the United States Air Force and the United States Marine Corps.
Designed to update the Kill Chain to reflect updated, autonomous and semi-autonomous weapon systems, the "Five Fs" are described in "It's About Time: The Pressing Need to Evolve the Kill Chain" as follows:
Find encapsulates the unity of effort of Joint Intelligence Preparation of the Operating Environment, matching collection assets to commander's intent and targeted areas of interest. This inevitably leads to detections, which may be further classified as an emerging target if it meets the intent.
Fix is doctrinally described as "identifying an emerging target as worthy of engagement and determines its position and other data with sufficient fidelity to permit engagement."
Fire involves committing forces or resources (i.e., releasing a munition, payload, or expendable)
Finish involves employment with strike approval authorities (i.e., striking a target/firing directed energy/destructive electronic attack). This is similar to a ground element executing maneuvers to contact but then adhering to prescribed rules of engagement once arriving at the point of friction.
Feedback closes the operational OODA Loop with an evaluative step, in some circumstances referred to as "Bomb Damage Assessment".
North Korean nuclear capability
A new American military contingency plan called "Kill Chain" is reportedly the first step in a new strategy to use satellite imagery to identify North Korean launch sites, nuclear facilities and manufacturing capability and destroy them pre-emptively if a conflict seems imminent. The plan was mentioned in a joint statement by the United States and South Korea.
Cyber
Attack phases and countermeasures
More recently, Lockheed Martin adapted this concept to information security, using it as a method for modeling intrusions on a computer network. The cyber kill chain model has seen some adoption in the information security community. However, acceptance is not universal, with critics pointing to what they believe are fundamental flaws in the model.
Computer scientists at Lockheed-Martin corporation described a new "intrusion kill chain" framework or model to defend computer networks in 2011. They wrote that attacks may occur in phases and can be disrupted through controls established at each phase. Since then, the "cyber kill chain" has been adopted by data security organizations to define phases of cyberattacks.
A cyber kill chain reveals the phases of a cyberattack: from early reconnaissance to the goal of data exfiltration. The kill chain can also be used as a management tool to help continuously improve network defense. According to Lockheed Martin, threats must progress through several phases in the model, including:
Reconnaissance: Intruder selects target, researches it, and attempts to identify vulnerabilities in the target network.
Weaponization: Intruder creates remote access malware weapon, such as a virus or worm, tailored to one or more vulnerabilities.
Delivery: Intruder transmits weapon to target (e.g., via e-mail attachments, websites or USB drives)
Exploitation: Malware weapon's program code triggers, which takes action on target network to exploit vulnerability.
Installation: Malware weapon installs access point (e.g., "backdoor") usable by intruder.
Command and Control: Malware enables intruder to have "hands on the keyboard" persistent access to target network.
Actions on Objective: Intruder takes action to achieve their goals, such as data exfiltration, data destruction, or encryption for ransom.
Defensive courses of action can be taken against these phases:
Detect: Determine whether an intruder is present.
Deny: Prevent information disclosure and unauthorized access.
Disrupt: Stop or change outbound traffic (to attacker).
Degrade: Counter-attack command and control.
Deceive: Interfere with command and control.
Contain: Network segmentation changes
A U.S. Senate investigation of the 2013 Target Corporation data breach included analysis based on the Lockheed-Martin kill chain framework. It identified several stages where controls did not prevent or detect progression of the attack.
Alternatives
Different organizations have constructed their own kill chains to try to model different threats. FireEye proposes a linear model similar to Lockheed-Martin's. In FireEye's kill chain the persistence of threats is emphasized. This model stresses that a threat does not end after one cycle.
Reconnaissance
Initial intrusion into the network
Establish a backdoor into the network.
Obtain user credentials.
Install various utilities.
Privilege escalation/ lateral movement/ data exfiltration
Maintain persistence.
Critiques
Among the critiques of Lockheed Martin's cyber kill chain model as threat assessment and prevention tool is that the first phases happen outside the defended network, making it difficult to identify or defend against actions in these phases. Similarly, this methodology is said to reinforce traditional perimeter-based and malware-prevention based defensive strategies. Others have noted that the traditional cyber kill chain isn't suitable to model the insider threat. This is particularly troublesome given the likelihood of successful attacks that breach the internal network perimeter, which is why organizations "need to develop a strategy for dealing with attackers inside the firewall. They need to think of every attacker as [a] potential insider".
Unified
The Unified Kill Chain was developed in 2017 by Paul Pols in collaboration with Fox-IT and Leiden University to overcome common critiques against the traditional cyber kill chain, by uniting and extending Lockheed Martin's kill chain and MITRE's ATT&CK framework. The unified version of the kill chain is an ordered arrangement of 18 unique attack phases that may occur in end-to-end cyberattack, which covers activities that occur outside and within the defended network. As such, the unified kill chain improves over the scope limitations of the traditional kill chain and the time-agnostic nature of tactics in MITRE's ATT&CK. The unified model can be used to analyze, compare, and defend against end-to-end cyber attacks by advanced persistent threats (APTs). A subsequent whitepaper on the unified kill chain was published in 2021.
References
Crime prevention
Data security
National security
Security |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.