NSA

A couple weeks ago, we learned from leaked documents that the NSA has the capability to record an entire country’s calls, texts, and email in real time. That’s a hell of a capability, and those documents revealed that it was being used in one country. Now, thanks to a retired NSA leader, we know which Continue Reading →

Security industry pioneer RSA adopted not just one but two encryption tools developed by the U.S. National Security Agency, greatly increasing the spy agency’s ability to eavesdrop on some Internet communications, according to a team of academic researchers. Reuters reported in December that the NSA had paid RSA $10 million to make a now-discredited cryptography Continue Reading →

One of the key points in the “fact sheet” that the White House published about its plan to end the NSA’s bulk collection of phone record data is that while the NSA will no longer have possession of phone data, it will still have access to it. Under the newly proposed program, the White House Continue Reading →

Google released its latest transparency report on Thursday, revealing tens of thousands of law enforcement requests from across the world. In the second half of 2013, the report lists more than 27,000 requests for user data from around the world, affecting more than 42,000 different accounts. It’s a 120 percent jump in requests over the Continue Reading →

President Barack Obama has officially announced his plan to reform the National Security Agency’s collection of phone records. Under his new proposal, the agency would no longer keep a database holding a large percentage of all American call records. Instead, phone companies like AT&T and Verizon would keep them for the same length of time Continue Reading →

The Obama administration is preparing to unveil a legislative proposal for a far-reaching overhaul of the National Security Agency’s once-secret bulk phone records program in a way that — if approved by Congress — would end the aspect that has most alarmed privacy advocates since its existence was leaked last year, according to senior administration Continue Reading →

Former presidents — they’re just like us (minus the generous pension, 24-hour-a-day Secret Service protection, dedicated presidential library and a few other perks that come to mind). If you want to keep something private, send an old-fashioned letter, advises former President Jimmy Carter. The 89-year-old former president told NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell in a new Continue Reading →

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and a handful of other CEOs had an “honest talk” with President Obama Friday afternoon at a hastily arranged meeting to discuss Silicon Valley’s continued unhappiness with U.S. government surveillance practices. White House officials characterized the meeting as a “continued dialogue” on the surveillance issue, but it appeared to be a Continue Reading →

The Chinese government called on the United States on Monday to explain its actions and halt the practice of cyberespionage, after news reports said that the National Security Agency had hacked its way into the computer systems of China’s largest telecommunications company. The reports, based on documents provided by the former security contractor Edward J. Continue Reading →

American officials have long considered Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications giant, a security threat, blocking it from business deals in the United States for fear that the company would create “back doors” in its equipment that could allow the Chinese military or Beijing-backed hackers to steal corporate and government secrets. But even as the United States Continue Reading →