Inside PRISM: Why the Government Hates Encryption 457
Lauren Weinstein writes "Now, what's really going on with PRISM? The government admits that the program exists, but says it is being 'mischaracterized' in significant ways (always a risk with secret projects sucking up information about your citizens' personal lives). The Internet firms named in the leaked documents are denying that they have provided 'back doors' to the government for data access. Who is telling the truth? Likely both. Based on previous information and the new leaks, we can make some pretty logical guesses about the actual shape of all this. Here's my take."
Re:More likely (Score:4, Informative)
Narus STA 6600 deep packet inspection gear
It's called PRISM because that's what you use to split optical fibres.
Passive man-in-the-middle attacks. Doesn't matter if they can't get access to contents due to encryption if they're analysing traffic patterns with ThinThread - which is exactly what they're doing.
There are also specific trojans that have been deployed inside major companies without their knowledge (well, without their knowledge until now).
Companies did not deny giving data to gov't (Score:3, Informative)
The companies denied knowing a code name (PRISM) and using a specific method for giving data to the gov't (backdoors). They didn't deny participating in a program to give data to the government. ABC News has a good analysis of their statements:
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/nsa-prism-dissecting-technology-companies-adamant-denial-involvement/story?id=19350095 [go.com]
Re:Guility motherfucker! (Score:4, Informative)
To keep the wrong, abortion limiting, homosexual right denying, health care privatizing, global warming denying, Social Security gutting lizard out.
Re:Morons (Score:2, Informative)
China might be the safest place right now... (Score:4, Informative)
... from US government intrusive spying. Oh, the irony.
Consider this- The Great Wall of China filters out most of the debris. Most Chinese citizens use local equivalents such as Sina, Weibo, QQ etc which PRISM doesn't touch. The Chinese government has demanded (and received) and vetted source codes of software such as Microsoft's Windows which are used internally. Chinese telecoms are immune to FISA.
Then again, if you go down that route all your data belongs to China.
On a related note, this whole PRISM thingy does give a lot more credence to China's complaints about being victims of US covert intelligence.
Re:Definitions. (Score:2, Informative)
You have a strange definition of "asses handed to us", in general.
In Vietnam they call it the "American War" and you know what? They are not particularly pissed about it.
You know why? Because they fucking won.