New Docs Show NSA Can Access User Data From All Major Cell Phones—Including iPhone, Android

[Hissyspit]

Source: Der Spiegel

@trevortimm
New Snowden docs show NSA can access user data from all major cell phones—including iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/a-920971.html#ref=rss …

Privacy Scandal: NSA Can Spy on Smart Phone Data

September 07, 2013 – 06:00 PM

SPIEGEL has learned from internal NSA documents that the US intelligence agency has the capability of tapping user data from the iPhone, devices using Android as well as BlackBerry, a system previously believed to be highly secure.

The United States' National Security Agency intelligence-gathering operation is capable of accessing user data from smart phones from all leading manufacturers. Top secret NSA documents that SPIEGEL has seen explicitly note that the NSA can tap into such information on Apple iPhones, BlackBerry devices and Google's Android mobile operating system.

The documents state that it is possible for the NSA to tap most sensitive data held on these smart phones, including contact lists, SMS traffic, notes and location information about where a user has been.
The documents also indicate that the NSA has set up specific working groups to deal with each operating system, with the goal of gaining secret access to the data held on the phones.

In the internal documents, experts boast about successful access to iPhone data in instances where the NSA is able to infiltrate the computer a person uses to sync their iPhone. Mini-programs, so-called "scripts," then enable additional access to at least 38 iPhone features.

The documents suggest the intelligence specialists have also had similar success in hacking into BlackBerrys. A 2009 NSA document states that it can "see and read SMS traffic." It also notes there was a period in 2009 when the NSA was temporarily unable to access BlackBerry devices. After the Canadian company acquired another firm, it changed the way in compresses its data. But in March 2010, the department responsible declared it had regained access to BlackBerry data and celebrated with the word, "champagne!"

Read more: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/a-920971.html#ref=rss

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Visit SPIEGEL ONLINE International on Monday for the full article.

[veganlush]

1. no, they dont even need that

They need only close their eyes to see and FEEL your INNERMOST THOUGHTS! No, they dont even need to close their eyes anymore! THEY OWN YOUR EVERY THOUGHT!

[pnwmom]

2. And they need a warrant to do that, just like they do with regular phones.

When the world switched to cell phones, did anyone really expect the NSA (or the FBI) to give up its ability to tap phones?

[AtheistCrusader]

13. Tapping the incoming/outgoing communications are a little bit different than tunneling in

and grabbing the equivalent of your rolodex right off your desk.

[pnwmom]

15. They can get metadata information without a warrant but other information

requires a warrant, just as before.

[AtheistCrusader]

19. It is still not equivalent.

A normal warrant for that rolodex means they knock on your door and present you with a warrant, come in and get it.

In this case, the subject of the warrant remains totally unaware a warrant has even been served.

[MyNameGoesHere]

23. Its got electrolytes. eom

[TheMadMonk]

36. Really. What's the betting that under the NSA rules of engagement...

...contacts, location tracking records, calender, texts, the EXIF data from every photograph, every file name, and so much more is considered meta data, free for the taking.

You might want to note a recent court ruling (not sure if it was one state, or federal) which allows the police to examine the contents of the phone of any person being held in custody without first obtaining a warrant?


The functional equivalent of warrantless metadata is walking into an office or home and recording anything which is not actual content: Every file name; every tab in the filing cabinets; the outside of every envelope; every book spine; every subversive song tittle; every Micheal Moore video; every publication; every letterhead down to where it says Dear <we know who>; Your water, gas, electricity and itemised phone bills are meta data; Your home loan details are meta data; Your MEDICAL RECORDS are metadata; Your reading list from the public library is metadata.


Argued the NSA WAY, every single aspect of a person's life that has the least publicly facing facet is METADATA. Anything not specifically protected by name in established precedent is fair game.


It's entertaining when Sherlock or Horatio use a minutiae of METADATA to deduce the criminal on TV. Or when "Magnifico Magnificat" successfully cold reads your "life" in a stage show. (You might want to look up how these people do their thing sometime. Hint: If you or I did it to an ex, it would be called STALKING.)

The thought of one's government doing it should be absolutely terrifying.

What you're shrugging off as nothing is actually worse than a plain sight search by police who can waltz through your door at any time of the day or night. No container is closed to the NSA, and it's a criminal offense to not hand over the (encryption) keys on demand.

[PSPS]

17. "need" doesn't mean "gets"

This is far different from "tapping a phone" with a real warrant. This is wholesale collection of everything and storing it "for future use." In other words, rank violation of the 4th amendment.

I see the swooners and apologists are out in full force.

Worshiper/Apologist Hit Parade:

1. This is nothing new
2. I have nothing to hide
3. What are you, a freeper?
4. But Obama is better than Christie/Romney/Bush/Hitler
5. Greenwald/Flaherty/Gillum/Apuzzo/Braun is a hack
6. We have red light cameras, so this is no big deal
7. Corporations have my data anyway
8. At least Obama is trying
9. This is just the media trying to take Obama down
10. It's a misunderstanding/you are confused
11. You're a racist
12. Nobody cares about this anyway / "unfounded fears"
13. I don't like Snowden, therefore we must disregard all of this
14. Other countries do it

[questionseverything]

22. more news

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/obama-administration-had-restrictions-on-nsa-reversed-in-2011/2013/09/07/c26ef658-0fe5-11e3-85b6-d27422650fd5_story.html

Obama administration had restrictions on NSA reversed in 2011
By Ellen Nakashima, E-mail the writer

The Obama administration secretly won permission from a surveillance court in 2011 to reverse restrictions on the National Security Agency’s use of intercepted phone calls and e-mails, permitting the agency to search deliberately for Americans’ communications in its massive databases, according to interviews with government officials and recently declassified material.

In addition, the court extended the length of time that the NSA is allowed to retain intercepted U.S. communications from five years to six years — and more under special circumstances, according to the documents, which include a recently released 2011 opinion by U.S. District Judge John D. Bates, then chief judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

What had not been previously acknowledged is that the court in 2008 imposed an explicit ban — at the government’s request — on those kinds of searches, that officials in 2011 got the court to lift the bar and that the search authority has been used.

Together the permission to search and to keep data longer expanded the NSA’s authority in significant ways without public debate or any specific authority from Congress. The administration’s assurances rely on legalistic definitions of the term “target” that can be at odds with ordinary English usage. The enlarged authority is part of a fundamental shift in the government’s approach to surveillance: collecting first, and protecting Americans’ privacy later.

[phleshdef]

3. This government employs professional hackers and they are good at their job.

Since when was this new news?

[TheMadMonk]

38. Because there's a world of difference between staying ahead of the game...

...and poisoning the opposition.

RULE THE GAME.

DO NOT GAME THE RULES.

Hard coded back door, or secretly introduced algorithmic flaw, it's a given, that such 'devices' will eventually become public knowledge and exploited detrimentally.

Ultimately exploited in such a fashion that trust becomes a non-concept. If I know that the NSA has deliberately introduced flaws into software, all I have to do is record everything and wait for some kid to find that flaw. And since most people are predictable, it's generally a trivial task, to guess today's password, if we happen to know the passwords of the past.

[kimbutgar]

4. Well duh

Did you not think some company who wanted a NSA contract wouldn't offer that capability for a fee?

I just read an article about an obscure actor who was murdered in 1968. They found out the killers by tracing a call made from the actors home to the killers family in Chicago. You're pretty naive to think they wouldn't or couldn't tracked you. The technology is so invasive and easy to get.

[Ellipsis]

5. They've been doing it for a long time... It's just simpler now, and it's not just the NSA.

They don't need a warrant to intimidate or harass.

Who ya going to call... ghost busters?

[MotherPetrie]

6. K&R

[bhikkhu]

7. "Can access" is to be expected

Their budget would hardly be justified if they couldn't snoop on simple cell phone calls.

The real debate is whether they followed the rules regarding privacy and so forth, and whether we are still ok with the rules, now that so many people (who seem to have been unaware before) now realize how the programs have been operating.

[Cryptoad]

8. ZZZZZZZZZZZ

this is News?

Where have you people been the last 30 years?

LMAO!

[onehandle]

9. I'm laying in bed with my iPad, so I'm cool.

Seriously. Since my first cell phone. Since my first email. Since my first web page view.

I have been honest with myself and assumed that every bit of data is monitored.

Fool, otherwise.

[Ellipsis]

11. Is it on vibrate?

..


...couldn't help it.

[TheMadMonk]

39. Well duh, but....

...everything ultimately hinges on what we ALLOW OURSELVES to do with that knowledge.

The greater the potential for harm from misuse, the stronger the restrictions should be against such potential misuse and when it comes to labeling a person "ENEMY OF THE STATE" those restrictions should be ABSOLUTE.

How easy would it be to reveal that my political opponent's favourite porn search terms are: titless, young, teen and fetish, fetish, fetish. (We ALL KNOW what THAT means.)

[jtuck004]

10. "If everyone would please turn their cellphones off, and if you are with the NSA,

would you please refrain from eavesdropping until after the ceremony..."

Ah, the new age of wedding etiquette.

[Lonr]

12. Not mine

just kicked my Android to the curb and went back to a landline.

[madrchsod]

32. listen for a click...that`s agent mike listening to your call

[TheMadMonk]

40. Um why exactly? Unless you happen to be midconversation...

...on the phone, you will never know the moment that the alligator clip hits the copper. AND I ABSOLUTELY guarantee you they are watching the relay contacts or glowing LED to ensure that YOU DO NOT HAVE THE RECEIVER LIFTED AT THE MOMENT THEY PHYSICALLY INTRUDE THEMSELVES INTO YOUR TELEPHONIC LIFE.


Theoretically communicating over a landline SHOULD protect your conversations under established precedents. However, this only remains true if an unbroken length of copper (and analogue circuitry) can be traced from source to destination. Introduce a digital translation layer and ALL BETS ARE OFF.

[stevenleser]

14. We already knew that hackers could do this. I would assume the government is at least as good as

hackers are. http://www.dailyfinance.com/on/hackers-find-security-holes-smartphones-smart-tvs-toilets/

[Downwinder]

21. Do the laws against hacking computers except the government?

[stevenleser]

29. I assume you mean "exempt". The OP describes an article that itself describes a capability. It does

not say how or when or even if this capability is used. The answer to your question is, the fourth amendment and appellate and SCOTUS cases surrounding it describe how it is legal for local law enforcement to do searches when they get a warrant and in certain exigent circumstances. FISA and appellate law surrounding its use describe how the federal government can do this legally in national security situations.

[Downwinder]

30. L have only seen the published charges for hacking.

I have never investigated the damage claims but usually there are substantial claims. I wonder what those claims entail. What physical damage to a computer or software is incurred by looking around?

[TheMadMonk]

41. Generally one can assume that if a party spend millions DEVELOPING...

...a CAPABILITY, then that capability will be put to use absent specific regulation restricting such use.

One glaring fact we've seen coming out of the Snowden reaveal, is that the NSA accepts no restriction and will use every device possible to circumvent whatever restriction is forced upon it.

Are you a fool or a tool to claim otherwise when the NSA's own documentation reveals their multitudinous effort to circumvent (or just outright ignore) law and constitution.

[stevenleser]

43. No, that is demonstrably false

The government has spent billions over the years testing weapons designs that were never implemented for one reason or another. Google Valkyrie bomber for one of tons of examples

Then there are nuclear and biological weapons. We've spend all kinds of money on those. If we follow the rather poor attempt at logic you have thrown out there we would all be dead from nuclear war.

To follow on your last question, do you ever research things for yourself or do you find an author that writes crap that fits what you want to believe and then turn off your critical thinking skills? I think the answer is obvious. You certainly haven't thought this through or done any research at all to back up the allegation you made.

[wisenupoet]

16. o my say it ain't so

The nsa is doing what the nsa does.. you know their job.. not news worthy ..next

[Lonr]

18. Some of us

are not so quick to throw away our very rights, for which so many have sacrificed their lives to protect over the last 2+ centuries.

[Ezlivin]

35. Yep. We even raised our hands and swore to uphold the Constitution

Apparently the NSA doesn't have such an oath.

I fucking hate it when people are so willing to give up our rights and freedoms and with such a cavalier attitude.

[Agschmid]

20. So their job is to spy on us?

Just checking...

Welcome to DU of course.

[NutmegYankee]

25. Yep. Just like terrorists do their job.

Fuck the NSA.

[cantbeserious]

27. Desecrating The 4th Amendment Daily - Job One For The NSA

eom

[KansDem]

24. This is why I think the whole "Who's behind the gas attack?!!" is a charade

The NSA collects a billion communications a day, and yet, we don't know who's behind the gas attacks in Syria?

Horseshit! We know!

We know who authorized it; we know who provided the gas; we know who manufactured it.

And all this ooo...ooo...who did it?...ooo...ooo... is merely part of the script.

[cantbeserious]

26. Big Brother Will Not Ne Deterred - We Are All Winston Smith Now - Next Stop - Room 101

eom

[Igel]

28. Yes, they can read data on my iPhone.

If I sync it with a computer that's running their script.

Seriously?

I'd assumed if they wanted the information they'd have found a more useful way. I don't sync my phone. (Heck, most of the time I'm not even sure where it is.)

[madrchsod]

31. they can read mine...doctors calls and bill collectors

[blkmusclmachine]

33. Hoover it all up, boys. Don't miss a thing. That worked so well for Boston...

[IDemo]

34. Isn't it time to dump the "Smart phone" label?

Besides being an anthropomorphism of a device which doesn't really exercise any true intelligence, it's becoming increasingly clear that the user is really the product, much like FaceBook.

[quadrature]

37. other countries don't need a warrant ...

to look thru your iphone

[Safetykitten]

42. Remember kids, "Freedy" the cell phone safety imp sez, "If you are doing nothing wrong,

then you are doin OK!"

[bobthedrummer]

44. Here's the 9-9-13 Der Spiegel Online post via cryptome Hissyspit-thanks for starting this thread

How the NSA Accesses Smartphone Data by Marcel Rosenbach, Laura Poitras and Holger Stark
http://cryptome.org/2013/09/nsa-smartphones-en.pdf