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Archive | September, 2014

Anakata in court: Hearsay instead of evidence

By on September 13, 2014 in Hacktivism, NSA & Snowden

The Danish court case against Pirate Bay founder Gottfrid Svartholm Warg got another bizarre twist this week: The police has no evidence.

According Politiken.dk the police and prosecutor have had no access to any actual evidence or to the alleged hacked IT equipment–in the most extensive hacking case in Danish history.

All information comes directly from the company supposedly being hacked, CSC.

It is absurd that this high profile court case seems to rely–totally–on blind trust in information given by one of the involved parties, on hearsay.

The phrase “trust us” has a rather hollow ring to it, comming from a company with close connections to US intelligence organisations, such as the NSA and the CIA.

This strange case just got even stranger.

Links:
Politiken.dk (in Danish) »
Background to the Anakata case »

/ HAX

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Swedish ISP forcing EU Commission to act on data retention

By on September 12, 2014 in Data Retention, EU, Privacy, surveillance

As you can see from the blog post below, the EU Commission is avoiding the data retention dispute. The European Court of Justice has declared it illegal and in breach with human rights. This is being ignored by some EU member states–such as the UK and Sweden–who have no intention of ending blanket data retention.

But now the Commission will have to get on top of this controversy. Today Swedish ISP Bahnhof and the 5 July-foundation have filed a formal complaint, urging the Commission to take measures to end Swedish data retention.

This will take matters to a new level. The European Commission is obliged to uphold the EU treaties. And as the Charter of Fundamental Rights prohibits data retention (according to the ECJ)–there should be no alternative for the Commission, other than to act against member states not complying with this ban.

From the press release…

“We will fight in Swedish courts to the end but this is not about Bahnhof and our rights. It is about every citizen’s human rights. Bahnhof has always stood up for privacy of communications. We do not intend to retain traffic data about our customers and we are confident that we have the backing of the EU Charter and Court of Justice.”

Read the press release from Bahnhof and the 5 July-foundation here »

/ HAX

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EU: Commission dodging data retention dispute

By on September 11, 2014 in Data Retention, EU, Privacy

EU member states closely associated with US/NSA mass surveillance (such as the UK and Sweden) have made it clear that they have no plans to end mass retention of data about all citizens all tele- and data communications. (The scheme was introduced with the EU data retention directive*.)

This will put the EU Commission between a rock and a hard place.

The Commission is the guardian of the treaties. One integrated part of the EU treaties is the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. And the European Court of Justice has invalidated the EU directive on data retention–as it is in breach of human rights, according to the Charter.

So, what will the guardians of the treaties do?

For now, there has been nothing but silence from the Commission. Will it continue to dodge the issue, leaving the data retention issue to the member states?

The people in Berlaymont might want to. But I don’t think they can.

It ought to be irrelevant if the breach of the Charter is in an EU directive or in member states national legislation. The Charter trumps both.

This is the opinion of the lawyers at the European Council, the German secretary of justice, the Austrian supreme court and many others. The group of European data protection authorities–the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party–has given a statement along the same lines…

“…national data retention laws and practices should ensure that there is no bulk retention of all kinds of data and that, instead, data are subject to appropriate differentiation, limitation or exception.”

There you have it.

Blanket data retention is a big no-no.

Sooner or later, the European Commission will have to confront EU member states who persist in carrying out this form of mass surveillance.

/ HAX

* Directive 2006/24/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2006 on the retention of data generated or processed in connection with the provision of publicly available electronic communications services or of public communications networks and amending Directive 2002/58/EC.

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Copyright lobby to back data retention

By on September 8, 2014 in Uncategorized

In Australia, the entertainment industry is strongly supporting data retention–to fight online piracy.

Content industry lobbying is globally coordinated, so we should expect something similar if this issue is to be reopened in the EU.

That might happen soon–as the European Court of Justice has suspended the EU data retention directive, finding that it violates human rights.

Some EU countries have declared blanket data retention now being an obsolete concept, while others like the UK and Sweden have no intentions to stop the practice.

This will lead to competition issues on the single European market, for the EU Commission to tackle. (Competition issues was the pretext for an EU directive in the first place.)

There is also a slight possibility that the Commission backs of–and leaves the data retention dilemma to the respective member states. That would move the fight from Brussels to 28 national parliaments.

But we can be pretty sure that there will be a battle, as the copyright lobby has locked on target.

Read more: How film studios want to use data retention to crack down on piracy »

/ HAX

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Stallman on free software and free society

By on September 7, 2014 in Free Software, Hacktivism

Legendary founder of the Free Software movement Richard Stallman at TEDxGeneva 2014.

In this talk Stallman describes how nonfree programs give companies control of their users and what users can do in order to recover control over their computing.

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United States of Secrets

By on September 6, 2014 in Big Brother, NSA & Snowden, surveillance

ussecThis is a Must See!

The PBS two part documentary United States of Secrets will give you the background to NSA surveillance and the Snowden leaks.

The film shows how US politicians at the highest level knowingly violated the law and the constitution; how the NSA bullied and silenced whistleblowers; how the US IT- and telecoms community cooperates with the NSA – and how all of this lead to Edward Snowden becoming the most important whistleblower in history.

See it at: PBS Frontline »

Or on Youtube: Part 1 » | Part 2 »

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EP access to EU evaluation of EU-US surveillance agreement denied by the US

By on September 4, 2014 in Uncategorized

The European Parliament and the EU Ombudsman have been denied access to a report drafted by the EU:s own police agency Europol–because the US say so.

The purpose of the report is to evaluate how the EU-US terrorist financial tracking programme (TFTP) is being implemented, including handling of data about European bank transfers.

Earlier evaluations have been heavily redacted, but have still managed to point out serious problems with the TFTP (a.k.a the SWIFT agreement). There is reason to believe that the US don’t keep their part of the agreement. And there is information that the NSA has broken into the SWIFT bank transfer system anyway.

The European Parliament has demanded that the TFTP should be suspended–because of US mass surveillance and the fact that the US doesn’t respect the “safe harbour” agreement (regulating how US companies should protect personal data about European customers).

However, the European Commission has refused to do anything of that sort–so the TFTP agreement is still in effect.

This is so wrong… The people’s elected representatives are not allowed to scrutinize the TFTP. And they are not allowed to revoke the agreement on their own. All they can do is to watch when data about European citizens and companies bank transfers are shipped in bulk to the US.

The Dutch liberal member of the European Parliament Sophie In’t Veld comments the latest TFTP information cover up in the EU Observer…

“If the US says ‘No disclosure’ then it won’t be disclosed, which is ridiculous because we are EU citizens, we vote, we pay taxes, we have EU laws, and we decide what happens on this continent. Nobody else.”

Read more over at the EU Observer: Europol chief takes instructions on document access from Americans »

/ HAX

Update Sept. 9th: Techdirt »

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Anakata in court: Things to keep in mind

By on September 1, 2014 in Hacktivism, NSA & Snowden, surveillance

This week internationally renowned hacktivist Gottfrid Svartholm Warg–a.k.a. Anakata–will appear in court in Denmark, accused of breaking into the IT system of Computer Sciences Corporation, CSC.

GSW is known as one of the founders of The Pirate Bay. He hosted Wikileaks before the whistleblower site rose to fame–and is credited for his assistance with making the video Collateral Murder going viral and global. He is also a passionate defender of freedom of speech, with a libertarian background.

Since being extradited from Cambodia to Sweden, GSW has been serving prison time for his work with The Pirate Bay and some hacking related charges. However, a Swedish high court has cleared him in a case of hacking where the circumstances are just about the same as in the Danish case. (Jacob Appelbaum gave witness for the defence.)

As the media tends to copypaste prosecutors press releases, here is some additional information worth keeping in mind…

  • It is claimed that GSW computer was “remotely controlled”. For most people this might sound odd. However it seems that it’s all about a lab server, open for other people. Put in this way, this claim seems much more understandable and plausible.
  • As I mentioned, the evidence is essentially the same as in a case where GSW was cleared by one of the Swedish high courts. (It’s the same computer…)
  • When it comes to CSC, it is no ordinary tech company. For instance they are managing the IT system for the US spy and surveillance organisation NSA.
  • CSC is also being accused by human rights organisations for providing airplanes used by the CIA for secret flights, connected to the extraordinary renditions program.

I have no idea what Gottfrid Svartholm Warg might have done or not done. Or any possible intentions. But I don’t like the look of this case…

/ HAX

In Swedish / På svenska »

Update: The Local – Pirate Bay Swede’s trial set for final stage »

Update 2, Sept. 2nd: Pirate Bay founder case starts in confusion »

Update 3, Sept. 8th: Gottfrid Svartholm Trial Starts & Ends Week in Controversy »

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