New NSA PRISM Slides

[Warlord]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/prism-collection-documents/

Grab 'em before they disappear!

[Warlord]

Naughty

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/prism-collection-documents/images/prism-slide-4.jpg

[Warlord]

DETAILS!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/prism-collection-documents/images/prism-slide-5.jpg

[Warlord]

Real time surveillance:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/prism-collection-documents/images/prism-slide-8.jpg

[KEEF]

Long and the short on the graphics, they grab everything and then get the puppet FISA Court to put a rubber stamp on a search so that they can convince the American people that the system has checks and balances... HA HA HA HA!

...and if you, the American Citizen, doesn't like it, then you are a traitor.

[Elias Graves]

State media: "Yawn. Old news. We're busy covering Paula Deen's evil racist remarks."

Oh, and thanks for posting these.

[Warlord]

Makes me laugh how all these companies lie with a straight face and hide behind their lawyers.

You're all traitors to the constitution. Go to HELL

[FrankRep]

Actually, Microsoft got busted in 1999 for giving the NSA a backdoor.


The New American
October 11, 1999



NSA and Microsoft

Microsoft is denying claims that its Windows operating system contains a backdoor specifically designed to give the National Security Agency (NSA) access to personal computers. The backdoor was found by Andrew Fernandes, chief scientist for the security software firm Cryptonym in Ontario, Canada, along with the Berlin-based hackers of the Chaos Computer Club, said Wired News. What Fernandes and his hacker collaborators found was a “key,” unlabeled in early versions of Windows but now labeled “_NSAKEY.” According to Fernandes (http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/1999/09/21577), “By adding NSA’s key, they have made it easier — not easy, but easier — for the NSA to install security components on your computer without your authorization or approval.”

But Microsoft security product manager Scott Culp said the key was intended to comply with federal regulations governing the export of “crypto” (computer encryption) programs, and was not shared with anyone outside of Microsoft. “The only thing that this key is used for is to ensure that only those products that meet US export control regulations and have been checked can run under our crypto API [application programming interface],” said Culp. “It is used to ensure that we and our cryptographic partners comply with United States crypto export regulations. We are the only ones who have access to it.”

Andy Muller-Maguhn of the Chaos Computer Club was not impressed with that explanation. “For American citizens it seems to be normal that the NSA is in their software,” he told Wired News (http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/1999/09/21577). “But for countries outside of the United States, it is not. We don’t want to have the NSA in our software.” Americans shouldn’t either, particularly in light of ongoing efforts to give the federal government the ability to conduct real-time, comprehensive surveillance of all computer communications and transactions.

[QuickZ06]

What are some of you using for a email account?

[DGambler]

What are some of you using for a email account?

I'd be interested in knowing this as well. I looked into shushmail but it just seemed off.

[CPUd]

Actually, Microsoft got busted in 1999 for giving the NSA a backdoor.


The New American
October 11, 1999



NSA and Microsoft

Microsoft is denying claims that its Windows operating system contains a backdoor specifically designed to give the National Security Agency (NSA) access to personal computers. The backdoor was found by Andrew Fernandes, chief scientist for the security software firm Cryptonym in Ontario, Canada, along with the Berlin-based hackers of the Chaos Computer Club, said Wired News. What Fernandes and his hacker collaborators found was a “key,” unlabeled in early versions of Windows but now labeled “_NSAKEY.” According to Fernandes (http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/1999/09/21577), “By adding NSA’s key, they have made it easier — not easy, but easier — for the NSA to install security components on your computer without your authorization or approval.”

But Microsoft security product manager Scott Culp said the key was intended to comply with federal regulations governing the export of “crypto” (computer encryption) programs, and was not shared with anyone outside of Microsoft. “The only thing that this key is used for is to ensure that only those products that meet US export control regulations and have been checked can run under our crypto API [application programming interface],” said Culp. “It is used to ensure that we and our cryptographic partners comply with United States crypto export regulations. We are the only ones who have access to it.”

Andy Muller-Maguhn of the Chaos Computer Club was not impressed with that explanation. “For American citizens it seems to be normal that the NSA is in their software,” he told Wired News (http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/1999/09/21577). “But for countries outside of the United States, it is not. We don’t want to have the NSA in our software.” Americans shouldn’t either, particularly in light of ongoing efforts to give the federal government the ability to conduct real-time, comprehensive surveillance of all computer communications and transactions.

LOL "_NSAKEY is a NSA backdoor" is incorrect on so many levels.

[FrankRep]

LOL "_NSAKEY is a NSA backdoor" is incorrect on so many levels.

Is it?

NSA has total access via Microsoft Windows
'They can effectively compromise your entire operating system' (http://www.wnd.com/2013/06/nsa-has-total-access-via-microsoft-windows/?cat_orig=politics)

WND.com

The National Security Agency has backdoor access to all Windows software since the release of Windows 95, according to informed sources, a development that follows the insistence by the agency and federal law enforcement for backdoor “keys” to any encryption, according to Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
...
Computer security specialists say the Windows software driver used for security and encryption functions contains unusual features the give NSA the backdoor access.
...
The security specialists have identified the driver as ADVAPI.DLL. It enables and controls a variety of security functions. The specialists say that in Windows, it is located at C:\\Windows\system.

Specialist Nicko van Someren says the driver contains two different keys. One was used by Microsoft to control cryptographic functions in Windows while another initially remained a mystery.

Then, two weeks ago, a U.S. security firm concluded that the second key belonged to NSA. Analysis of the driver revealed that one was labeled KEY while the other was labeled NSAKEY, according to sources. The NSA key apparently had been built into the software by Microsoft, which Microsoft sources don’t deny.

This has allowed restricted access to Microsoft’s source code software that enables such programming.
...
Such access to the encryption system of Windows can allow NSA to compromise a person’s entire operating system. The NSA keys are said to be contained inside all versions of Windows from Windows 95 OSR2 onwards.

Having a secret key inside the Windows operating system makes it “tremendously easier for the NSA to load unauthorized security services on all copies of Microsoft Windows, and once these security services are loaded, they can effectively compromise your entire operating system,” according to Andrew Fernandez, chief scientist with Cryptonym Corporation of North Carolina.

[FrankRep]

Windows 'back door' security alert (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/sci/tech/437967.stm)

BBC News
September 3, 1999

Cryptographers are sounding the alarm on a major security issue involving Microsoft Windows that could eclipse its Hotmail public relations disaster.

The findings of a computer security expert that America's National Security Agency (NSA) may have been given a back door into every copy of Windows 95, 98, NT4 and 2000 worldwide are being debated across the Internet.

Microsoft has issued a strong denial of allegations of misuse of a second encryption "key" in Windows.
...
Significantly, the key has the data tag "_NSAKEY" giving rise to speculation that the NSA persuaded Microsoft to give it special access to Windows in a secret deal.

[CPUd]

What do you think _NSAKEY is there for?

[HOLLYWOOD]

Try suing Bill Gates and see what happens... Obama/FISA will give them RETROACTIVE IMMUNITY... just like the TELCOs.

There is no rule of law... it's the lawlessness of the JUST-US system.

Washington DC has destroyed the US Constitution... every single one of these scumbags that took an oath to uphold. They destroyed it... the illusion of freedom. Where you are judged, NOT by what you committed, but rather by who you are in this political world.

[tangent4ronpaul]

Real time surveillance:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/prism-collection-documents/images/prism-slide-8.jpg

Anyone else see what's wrong with the above slide?


LOL "_NSAKEY is a NSA backdoor" is incorrect on so many levels.

Frank, put your mind in the gutter and you will understand...

==
There was an interesting comment @ the OP URL:

"The Jihaddis have been using their own custom very strong encryption scheme for years. Not trusting that a backdoor to commercial products didn't exist. The latest iteration is called Ansar Al-Mujahideen 2. And has been in use since 2008.

So no, he didn't help Al-Qaeda or anybody serious into jihad. They already knew."

=======
Asrar AL-Dardashah plugin
The First Islamic Program for Encrypted Instant Messaging
http://ansar1.info/printthread.php?t=44677 <== WARNING! This is a jihadist site

An Overview of Jihadist Encryption Programs
http://www.rbijou.com/2013/03/18/an-overview-of-jihadist-encryption-programs/ <== This is NOT a jihadist site

The ‘brand’ value of groups like GIMF and the al-Mahalem Media Foundation benefit from disseminating these tools. While the tools are less secure than their more popular, mainstream counterparts, actions like blatantly tagging all public keys with ‘#—Begin Al-Ekhlaas Network ASRAR El Moujahedeen V2.0 Public Key 2048 bit—’ and the group branding on the program itself promote the associated al-Qaeda media brands. Despite the fact that using these tools clearly increases the attack surface for these groups through easily identifiable and unique methods,

...
the programs may arguably protect against ‘backdoors’, but provide easily recognizable data to identify terrorist communications, organizations, and users online.

-t

[RickyJ]

What do you think _NSAKEY is there for?

They have already proved not only that but other areas of the code are open for the NSA. Why do you think the government backed off on its attempt to break up Microsoft? Because Microsoft started cooperating with them to spy on all of us.

[CPUd]

They have already proved not only that but other areas of the code are open for the NSA. Why do you think the government backed off on its attempt to break up Microsoft? Because Microsoft started cooperating with them to spy on all of us.

But what do you think having _NSAKEY in the distribution is supposed to allow NSA to do?

[FrankRep]

But what do you think having _NSAKEY in the distribution is supposed to allow NSA to do?

Actually, 3 secret keys were found.


How NSA access was built into Windows (http://www.heise.de/tp/artikel/5/5263/1.html)


Heise Zeitschriften Verlag
April 09, 1999

...
A third key?!

But according to two witnesses attending the conference, even Microsoft's top crypto programmers were astonished to learn that the version of ADVAPI.DLL shipping with Windows 2000 contains not two, but three keys. Brian LaMachia, head of CAPI development at Microsoft was "stunned" to learn of these discoveries, by outsiders. The latest discovery by Dr van Someren is based on advanced search methods which test and report on the "entropy" of programming code.

Within the Microsoft organisation, access to Windows source code is said to be highly compartmentalized, making it easy for modifications to be inserted without the knowledge of even the respective product managers.
...
Can the loophole be turned round against the snoopers?

Dr van Someren feels that the primary purpose of the NSA key inside Windows may be for legitimate US government use. But he says that there cannot be a legitimate explanation for the third key in Windows 2000 CAPI. "It looks more fishy", he said.

Fernandez believes that NSA's built-in loophole can be turned round against the snoopers. The NSA key inside CAPI can be replaced by your own key, and used to sign cryptographic security modules from overseas or unauthorised third parties, unapproved by Microsoft or the NSA. This is exactly what the US government has been trying to prevent. A demonstration "how to do it" program that replaces the NSA key can be found on Cryptonym's website.

According to one leading US cryptographer, the IT world should be thankful that the subversion of Windows by NSA has come to light before the arrival of CPUs that handles encrypted instruction sets. These would make the type of discoveries made this month impossible. "Had the next-generation CPU's with encrypted instruction sets already been deployed, we would have never found out about NSAKEY."

[CPUd]

Actually, 3 secret keys were found.


How NSA access was built into Windows (http://www.heise.de/tp/artikel/5/5263/1.html)


Heise Zeitschriften Verlag
April 09, 1999

...
A third key?!

But according to two witnesses attending the conference, even Microsoft's top crypto programmers were astonished to learn that the version of ADVAPI.DLL shipping with Windows 2000 contains not two, but three keys. Brian LaMachia, head of CAPI development at Microsoft was "stunned" to learn of these discoveries, by outsiders. The latest discovery by Dr van Someren is based on advanced search methods which test and report on the "entropy" of programming code.

Within the Microsoft organisation, access to Windows source code is said to be highly compartmentalized, making it easy for modifications to be inserted without the knowledge of even the respective product managers.
...
Can the loophole be turned round against the snoopers?

Dr van Someren feels that the primary purpose of the NSA key inside Windows may be for legitimate US government use. But he says that there cannot be a legitimate explanation for the third key in Windows 2000 CAPI. "It looks more fishy", he said.

Fernandez believes that NSA's built-in loophole can be turned round against the snoopers. The NSA key inside CAPI can be replaced by your own key, and used to sign cryptographic security modules from overseas or unauthorised third parties, unapproved by Microsoft or the NSA. This is exactly what the US government has been trying to prevent. A demonstration "how to do it" program that replaces the NSA key can be found on Cryptonym's website.

According to one leading US cryptographer, the IT world should be thankful that the subversion of Windows by NSA has come to light before the arrival of CPUs that handles encrypted instruction sets. These would make the type of discoveries made this month impossible. "Had the next-generation CPU's with encrypted instruction sets already been deployed, we would have never found out about NSAKEY."

What do you think having these keys in the distribution is supposed to allow Microsoft or NSA to do?

[RickyJ]

But what do you think having _NSAKEY in the distribution is supposed to allow NSA to do?

I don't know exactly, but I do know that not all of the holes in Microsoft Windows are there by accident, some were planned and the NSA was informed of them. Some of the best software engineers in the world would not produce a product with all the holes Windows has in it, some of them yes, but certainly not the high number of them that have been discovered so far, and I am sure many more are still undiscovered.

[kcchiefs6465]

What do you think having these keys in the distribution is supposed to allow Microsoft or NSA to do?
What do they do?

[FrankRep]

What do you think having these keys in the distribution is supposed to allow Microsoft or NSA to do?

Okay, after reading the technical notes from securityfocus.com, the NSAKEY is not a backdoor.

Here's the deal: (http://slashdot.org/story/99/09/09/138209/microsoft-nsa-key-follow-up)



...
The NSA got their own CSP verification key, because they want to be able
to change their own secret US government CSPs required for the handling
of classified documents, without having to go to Microsoft each time to
get a signature for an NSA CSP update. Fair enough. So Microsoft built
in a second verification key such that the NSA can produce and install
on DoD PCs their own CSPs without requiring any Microsoft involvement.

The real funny part is that Microsoft did not protect the NSA key
particularly well, such that everyone can easily replace the NSA key
easily with his own key. This was reported by Nicko van Someren at the
Crypto'98 rump session. This means that everyone can now easily install
his own CSPs with arbitrarily strong cryptography. This means that the
NSA's demand to get quickly a second key added led in effect to the easy
international availability of strong encryption CSPs. My guess is that
this is Microsoft's sweet revenge against the NSA for creating all these
Export hassles (e.g., the requirement that CSPs be signed) in the first
place. It backfired nicely against the NSA. :)

All this has nothing to do with an NSA backdoor, because the CSP keys
are an export enforcement tool and not an integrity protection tool.
They do not protect all parts of the system that could be compromised by
someone who wants to install some eavesdropping malware. The CSP
verification keys only authenticate that no cryptography that violates
export laws has been installed. If you are worried about the NSA
installing malicious software on your PC, you should not rely on the CSP
verification keys (which were never designed for that purpose anyway),
but on virus scanners with tripwire functionality that report any
modifications to your DLLs. There is no digital signature functionality
required to implement these, simple secure hash algorithms will
perfectly do.
...

[CPUd]

What do they do?

Frank nailed it ^^

When leaving the U.S., Customs used to treat encryption algorithms/implementations almost the same as a weapon. Since Windows is shipped worldwide, Microsoft had a mechanism in place to show the encryption tools used were compliant with the regulations, and were OK to export. The other keys, they claim were backups in case they had lost the original key. Nowadays, they generally don't bother to enforce it, since you no longer need a physical disc to distribute software..

[tangent4ronpaul]

Frank nailed it ^^

When leaving the U.S., Customs used to treat encryption algorithms/implementations almost the same as a weapon. Since Windows is shipped worldwide, Microsoft had a mechanism in place to show the encryption tools used were compliant with the regulations, and were OK to export. The other keys, they claim were backups in case they had lost the original key. Nowadays, they generally don't bother to enforce it, since you no longer need a physical disc to distribute software..

For classified encryption software used on US Gvmt machines, I can buy _NSAKEY as a name, domestically and internationally. But for what they are claiming. I don't really buy it. It would have been named _ITARKEY or something similar.

-t

[Warlord]

I'd be interested in knowing this as well. I looked into shushmail but it just seemed off.

There is no escape particularly from the transatlantic cables or the AT&T boxes. Warlord uses 'gpg4usb' to encrypt sensitive emails to the receivers key so they can't unscramble anything as it travels along their tapped cables.