[Mauzen]

I know theres already a thread about prism, but as guardian just released information about a far wider reaching system, called XKeyscore, it deserves an own thread in my opinion, as theres all different stuff to discuss.

So, prism collects metadata, thats why most people say it isnt that bad, because it doesnt actually collect the content and the communication, but is just like reading the envelope of a letter. XKeyscore is the next step. It opens the envelope and reads the letter. Actually, it completely stores any kind of digital communication of millions of people worldwide. Browser history, Emails and sent files, chats, whatever else. Communications automatically get assigned to specific persons, internet activitiy of a certain person can be followed live any time. 20 terabytes of data, 1-2 billion records, are stored daily on hundreds of servers all over the world (and just a very few of these are located in the usa). The amount of data is the only technical bottleneck, as data can just be stored for some time between 7-30 days.

XKeyscore is especially designed to get detailled information about a specific people out of millions. Check the original presentation for some example queries to see what it actually can do. To name some: Show me all encrypted VPN startups and decrypt their users. Show me all encrypted word documents from iran/with reference to X. Show me all exploitable machines in country X

Alright then, this is global observation. Not to mention that this program is free to use and does NOT require any kind of authorization, like from a court, and has already been used in millions of cases.
German institutions confessed that they are using xkeystore, but they claimed "it isnt by far as mighty as prism is" (while they earlier claimed they are using another program called "prism" that got the same functions and also access to nsa databases, but isnt the "usa prism"), us government also said they "arent reading our email" before, theres some damn trouble coming for some governments now.


Rather offtopic, I noticed something interesting: PROBABLY-NSA-GOT-AN-EYE-ON-ME-FOR-UPLOADING-THIS.jpg
Whats up with those servers located straight on the south? I doubt they are there by mistake, but it is interesting that they are located in a straight line, even in the ocean. Almost looks like they got a set of large datacenters down there.


No USA hate posts or other shit, just discussion here please.

[linuxthefish]

Who cares, all private information should be sent encrypted anyway you noob!

[justsomeguy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by linuxthefish Who cares, all private information should be sent encrypted anyway you noob!

01011001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110100 01100101 01101100 01101100 00100000 00100111 01101101 00101100 00100000 01100110 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111 01110111 00100000 00110001 00110011 00110011 00110111 00100001

Ow sorry, that was binary, hold on, maybe this is more safe!:
59 6f 75 20 74 65 6c 6c 20 27 6d 2c 20 66 65 6c 6c 6f 77 20 31 33 33 37 21

[Cameryn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by linuxthefish Who cares, all private information should be sent encrypted anyway you noob!

Which could be easily decrypted afterwards.

I knew the whole personal data is coming to National Security at the beginning. Next, they will probably get into our personal lives.... oh wait they have already planned to do that. XBOX One. You can't stop them apparently, well you can if you don't use the internet.

[Mauzen]

Quote:

Originally Posted by linuxthefish Who cares, all private information should be sent encrypted anyway you noob!

Did you read that xkeyscore includes decrypting stuff? Really thought they run a multi-billion dollar project that you can simply stop with encryption?

[linuxthefish]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mauzen Did you read that xkeyscore includes decrypting stuff? Really thought they run a multi-billion dollar project that you can simply stop with encryption?

http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...b082a2ed2f5fc5

Quote:

Encryption works. Properly implemented strong crypto systems are one of the few things that you can rely on. Unfortunately, endpoint security is so terrifically weak that NSA can frequently find ways around it.

[Mauzen]

I guess you do it the good old way and personally distribute all your keys on handwritten papers?
If you dont, once you send them via the internet somehow, and youre currently being recorded, they got the key and dont even need their hardware for aggressive decryption.

BTW: I heard double posting is a terrorist risk factor and moves you up on their observation list quickly.

[linuxthefish]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mauzen I guess you do it the good old way and personally distribute all your keys on handwritten papers?

I'm not paranoid enough, and nothing most people send through the internet is of any importance to the NSA people i'm sure.

[linuxthefish]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mauzen BTW: I heard double posting is a terrorist risk factor and moves you up on their observation list quickly.

oh shit

[iLinx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by justsomeguy 01011001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110100 01100101 01101100 01101100 00100000 00100111 01101101 00101100 00100000 01100110 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111 01110111 00100000 00110001 00110011 00110011 00110111 00100001 Ow sorry, that was binary, hold on, maybe this is more safe!: 59 6f 75 20 74 65 6c 6c 20 27 6d 2c 20 66 65 6c 6c 6f 77 20 31 33 33 37 21

That's just a hexadecimal representation of the binary data though. This type of monitoring makes sense though, it's the internet version of tapping phones.