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Wikileaks a “non-state hostile intelligence service”?

By on April 17, 2017 in Assange, Big Government, Civil liberties, Civil rights, Deep State, Democracy, Free Information, Freedom of Speech, Rule of law, US, Wikileaks

In a speech Thursday at a Washington DC think tank, CIA Director Michael Pompeo called the whistleblower site WikiLeaks a “non-state hostile intelligence service” and said news organizations that reveal the government’s crimes are “enemies” of the United States. (…)

Referring to WikiLeaks’ founder, Pompeo declared that “Julian Assange has no First Amendment freedoms.” (…)

In his remarks, Pompeo said, “We have to recognize that we can no longer allow Assange and his colleagues the latitude to use free speech values against us. To give them the space to crush us with misappropriated secrets is a perversion of what our great Constitution stands for. It ends now.”

WSWS: CIA Director calls WikiLeaks an “enemy,” says Assange has “no First Amendment freedoms” »

Update, also read:

Techcrunch: Hypocritical CIA Director Goes On Rant About Wikileaks, Free Speech »

The Intercept: Trump’s CIA Director Pompeo, Targeting WikiLeaks, Explicitly Threatens Speech and Press Freedoms »

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The NSA SWIFT hack

By on April 17, 2017 in Big Brother, Data Protection, EU, Europol, IT security, NSA, Privacy, Rule of law, surveillance, US

Reuters: Hacker documents show NSA tools for breaching global money transfer system »

Documents and computer files released by hackers provide a blueprint for how the U.S. National Security Agency likely used weaknesses in commercially available software to gain access to the global system for transferring money between banks, a review of the data showed.

On Friday, a group calling itself the Shadow Brokers released documents and files indicating NSA had accessed the SWIFT money-transfer system through service providers in the Middle East and Latin America. That release was the latest in a series of disclosures by the group in recent months.

Told you so.

Below, video from the hearings on NSA and mass surveillance in the European Parliament, 24 September 2013 – where Europol and many others try to steer clear of the SWIFT issue. (Some translation problems during a few minutes in the video, but it soon gets better.)

Youtube »

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Freedom of expression under attack in Germany

By on April 6, 2017 in Big Brother, Censorship, Free Information, Freedom of Speech, Germany, Rule of law, social media

Minister Maas has proposed the law which places a variety of obligations on the companies, in the apparent hope that this will lead profit-motivated companies to take over private censorship measures. Following years of deletions of perfectly legal content by, for example, Facebook, Minister Maas seems to believe that this will lead to outcomes that are appropriate in a democratic society based on the rule of law. (…)

Another addition to the draft law is a procedure to prohibit the distribution of pornography. The effects on group chats, such as WhatsApp which might also be affected by the law, depending on the scope, will be interesting as partially public exchanges of legal content such as pornography would suddenly become the focus of deletions. (…)

In total, 24 criminal offences have been added to the latest draft, including counterfeiting and fake news for the purpose of treason against the nation, defamation of the state and its symbols, as well as insults to the Federal President.

EDRi: Reckless social media law threatens freedom of expression in Germany »

Zerohedge: Germany Passes Bill To Fine FaceBook, Twitter Up To $50MM For “Fake News” »

Related, EU Observer: Germany calls for EU laws on hate speech and fake news »

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EU censorship of social media launched

By on April 6, 2017 in Censorship, Democracy, EU, Free Information, Freedom of Speech, Rule of law, social media

A database set up jointly by Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube aims to identify “terrorist and radicalising” content automatically and to remove it from these platforms. (…)

It appears that no research whatsoever has been done on the likely impact of this initiative, including no review mechanisms on its impact and no way of establishing whether the initiative has counter-productive effects. (…)

The role of judicial and law enforcement authorities in this process has, unsurprisingly, not been mentioned.

EDRi: Social media companies launch upload filter to combat “terrorism and extremism” »

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The EU ePrivacy regulation

By on March 26, 2017 in Big Brother, Big Data, Data Protection, Privacy, Rule of law

The latest dossier on our watch list is the EU ePrivacy regulation. (Aiming to replace the ePrivacy directive from 2002.)

EDRi explains…

This new regulation complements the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), adding more clarity and legal certainty for individuals and businesses – helping to protect our personal data by providing specific rules related to our freedoms in the online environment.

EDRi also list some comments…

  • extending the scope of application of the new rules is a welcome improvement;
  • the principle of “privacy by default” should not be partly replaced by the proposed “privacy by option”;
  • the way in which consent will be required needs further clarifications;
  • we need to secure citizens from ubiquitous tracking and ban sites from blocking visitors who do not accept cookies;
  • the proposal to allow offline tracking of users needs to be amended to bring it into line with the rest of the proposal;
  • collective redress mechanisms need to be explicitly mentioned.

Read more at EDRi:
• New e-Privacy rules need improvements to help build trust »
• e-Privacy Directive: Frequently Asked Questions »
• EDRis quick guide on the e-Privacy Regulation (PDF) »

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Decrypt, or else…

By on March 22, 2017 in Big Brother, Cryptography, IT security, Law enforcement, Privacy, Rule of law, US

Falkvinge:

An appeals court has denied the appeal of a person who is jailed indefinitely for refusing to decrypt files. The man has not been charged with anything, but was ordered to hand over the unencrypted contents on police assertion of what the contents were. When this can result in lifetime imprisonment under “contempt of court”, the United States has effectively outlawed file-level encryption – without even going through Congress.

Falkvinge: With appeals ruling, the United States has effectively outlawed file encryption »

Ars Technica: Man jailed indefinitely for refusing to decrypt hard drives loses appeal »

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The Assange case – coming to a close, or not?

By on March 19, 2017 in Assange, Human rights, Rule of law, Sweden, Wikileaks

In the Assange case, Swedish prosecutors seem to be running out of excuses for dragging their feet.

The hearing at the Ecuadorian embassy in London is completed, after many years of delays. The transcript has been translated into Swedish. At least almost. On its web page, the Prosecutors’ Office writes (my translation)…

The prosecutors still awaits the translation of minor sections of the report. These are expected to be completed shortly.

Now, the Prosecutors’ Office will analyze the report and subsequently decide what other investigative meassures could be taken to move the investigation forward.

I suspect that the phrase »other investigative measures« will be of importance.

This case has dragged out for years, partly because of Assange – but mainly because of Swedish prosecutors unwillingness to move the case forward.

You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to suspect that there are interested parties who are quite happy having Julian Assange tucked away and guarded in a small embassy behind Harrods in London. This will hamper the work of Wikileaks and take a mental toll on Assange himself. Even a U.N. panel has objected to this form of treatment.

Once again, all attention will be directed at the Swedish Prosecutors’ Office. Will it finally decide to move the case forward or maybe close it? The latter would make most sense – if you look at the facts in this case, already well known to the world.

Or will they invent some new »investigative measures« as an excuse to keep Assange in limbo? I wouldn’t be surprised if they do.

This is no longer about justice. It’s about Sweden handling this case in a biased and unjust way – because of who Julian Assange is. And this goes all the way back to the Prosecutors Special Unit for »Advancement« of Sex Crimes re-opening this case after it had been closed by the regular branch of the Prosecutors’ Office.

I guess we’ll know what’s going to happen within the next few weeks. Or maybe not.

/ HAX

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The »EU Internet Forum« and transparency

By on March 9, 2017 in Censorship, EU, Freedom of Speech, Internet, Rule of law, social media, Transparency

How the EU set up a private-public forum to censor the Internet – and denied EDRi access to documents, as it would expose the bureaucracy’s »decision-making process«.

Which pretty much is the whole idea. You should not have extrajudicial censorship, especially not without democratic accountability.

EDRi: The tale of the fight for transparency in the EU Internet Forum »

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Wikileaks on CIA / Vault 7

By on March 8, 2017 in Big Brother, Data Protection, IT security, Law enforcement, Privacy, Rule of law, US, War on Terror, Wikileaks

“Year Zero” introduces the scope and direction of the CIA’s global covert hacking program, its malware arsenal and dozens of “zero day” weaponized exploits against a wide range of U.S. and European company products, include Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows and even Samsung TVs, which are turned into covert microphones. (…)

These techniques permit the CIA to bypass the encryption of WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Wiebo, Confide and Cloackman by hacking the “smart” phones that they run on and collecting audio and message traffic before encryption is applied.

Wikileaks » Vault 7: CIA Hacking Tools Revealed »

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