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The Telecom Digest for November 3, 2013
Volume 32 : Issue 224 : "text" Format
====== 32 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
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Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
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we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands
against crime. - Geoffrey Welsh
See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details
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Date: Sat, 2 Nov 2013 15:30:49 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: No Morsel Too Minuscule for All-Consuming N.S.A.
Message-ID: <p06240800ce9b02683b08@[10.0.1.2]>
No Morsel Too Minuscule for All-Consuming N.S.A.
By SCOTT SHANE
November 2, 2013
When Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, sat down with
President Obama at the White House in April to discuss Syrian
chemical weapons, Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and climate change,
it was a cordial, routine exchange.
The National Security Agency nonetheless went to work in advance and
intercepted Mr. Ban's talking points for the meeting, a feat the
agency later reported as an "operational highlight" in a weekly
internal brag sheet. It is hard to imagine what edge this could have
given Mr. Obama in a friendly chat, if he even saw the N.S.A.'s
modest scoop. (The White House won't say.)
But it was emblematic of an agency that for decades has operated on
the principle that any eavesdropping that can be done on a foreign
target of any conceivable interest - now or in the future - should be
done. After all, American intelligence officials reasoned, who's
going to find out?
From thousands of classified documents, the National Security Agency
emerges as an electronic omnivore of staggering capabilities,
eavesdropping and hacking its way around the world to strip
governments and other targets of their secrets, all the while
enforcing the utmost secrecy about its own operations. It spies
routinely on friends as well as foes, as has become obvious in recent
weeks; the agency's official mission list includes using its
surveillance powers to achieve "diplomatic advantage" over such
allies as France and Germany and "economic advantage" over Japan and
Brazil, among other countries.
Mr. Obama found himself in September standing uncomfortably beside
the president of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, who was furious at being
named as a target of N.S.A. eavesdropping. Since then, there has been
a parade of such protests, from the European Union, Mexico, France,
Germany and Spain. Chagrined American officials joke that soon there
will be complaints from foreign leaders feeling slighted because the
agency had not targeted them.
James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence, has
repeatedly dismissed such objections as brazen hypocrisy from
countries that do their own share of spying. But in a recent
interview, he acknowledged that the scale of eavesdropping by the
N.S.A., with 35,000 workers and $10.8 billion a year, sets it apart.
"There's no question that from a capability standpoint we probably
dwarf everybody on the planet, just about, with perhaps the exception
of Russia and China," he said.
Since Edward J. Snowden began releasing the agency's documents in
June, the unrelenting stream of disclosures has opened the most
extended debate on the agency's mission since its creation in 1952.
The scrutiny has ignited a crisis of purpose and legitimacy for the
N.S.A., the nation's largest intelligence agency, and the White House
has ordered a review of both its domestic and its foreign
intelligence collection. While much of the focus has been on whether
the agency violates Americans' privacy, an issue under examination by
Congress and two review panels, the anger expressed around the world
about American surveillance has prompted far broader questions.
If secrecy can no longer be taken for granted, when does the
political risk of eavesdropping overseas outweigh its intelligence
benefits? Should foreign citizens, many of whom now rely on American
companies for email and Internet services, have any privacy
protections from the N.S.A.? Will the American Internet giants'
collaboration with the agency, voluntary or otherwise, damage them in
international markets? And are the agency's clandestine efforts to
weaken encryption making the Internet less secure for everyone?
Matthew M. Aid, an intelligence historian and author of a 2009 book
on the N.S.A., said there is no precedent for the hostile questions
coming at the agency from all directions.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/03/world/no-morsel-too-minuscule-for-all-consuming-nsa.html?pagewanted=all
Date: Fri, 1 Nov 2013 10:01:30 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: FAA allowing most electronic device use throughout flights
Message-ID: <p0624080dce991aa87252@[10.0.1.8]>
FAA allowing most electronic device use throughout flights
http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/31/travel/faa-portable-electronic-devices/
FAA allowing most electronic device use throughout flights
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/31/faa-gadgets-personal-electronics/3238207/
F.A.A. Moves to Ease Electronics Ban, Opening the Runways to Angry Birds
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/01/business/passengers-to-be-free-to-use-electronics-on-flights-faa-says.html
Press Release - FAA to Allow Airlines to Expand Use of Personal Electronics
http://www.faa.gov/news/press_releases/news_story.cfm?newsId=15254
Date: Fri, 1 Nov 2013 10:01:30 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Angry Over U.S. Surveillance, Tech Giants Bolster Defenses
Message-ID: <p06240804ce9918aafaa9@[10.0.1.8]>
Angry Over U.S. Surveillance, Tech Giants Bolster Defenses
By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER
October 31, 2013
SAN FRANCISCO - Google has spent months and millions of dollars
encrypting email, search queries and other information flowing among
its data centers worldwide. Facebook's chief executive said at a
conference this fall that the government "blew it." And though it has
not been announced publicly, Twitter plans to set up new types of
encryption to protect messages from snoops.
It is all reaction to reports of how far the government has gone in
spying on Internet users, sneaking around tech companies to tap into
their systems without their knowledge or cooperation.
What began as a public relations predicament for America's technology
companies has evolved into a moral and business crisis that threatens
the foundation of their businesses, which rests on consumers and
companies trusting them with their digital lives.
So they are pushing back in various ways - from cosmetic tactics like
publishing the numbers of government requests they receive to
political ones including tense conversations with officials behind
closed doors. And companies are building technical fortresses
intended to make the private information in which they trade
inaccessible to the government and other suspected spies.
Yet even as they take measures against government collection of
personal information, their business models rely on collecting that
same data, largely to sell personalized ads. So no matter the steps
they take, as long as they remain ad companies, they will be
gathering a trove of information that will prove tempting to law
enforcement and spies.
When reports of surveillance by the National Security Agency surfaced
in June, the companies were frustrated at the exposure of their
cooperation with the government in complying with lawful requests for
the data of foreign users, and they scrambled to explain to customers
that they had no choice but to obey the requests.
But as details of the scope of spying emerge, frustration has turned
to outrage, and cooperation has turned to war.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/01/technology/angry-over-us-surveillance-tech-giants-bolster-defenses.html
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