[Bradford] Fwd: GNU hackers discover HACIENDA government surveillance and give us a way to fight back

John R. Hudson j.r.hudson at virginmedia.com
Thu Aug 21 20:25:07 UTC 2014


Very relevant to David's talk on Monday.

John
--
On Thu, 2014-08-21 at 08:50 +0100, d.carpenter wrote:
> This may or may not be news to some of you...
> 
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Free Software Foundation <info at fsf.org>
> Date: 21 August 2014 00:26
> Subject: GNU hackers discover HACIENDA government surveillance and
> give us a way to fight back
> 
> 
> 
>                                                     
>                                             Dear David,
>                                                     
>                                                     
>                                                     
>   GNU community members and collaborators have discovered threatening
> details about a five-country government surveillance program codenamed
> HACIENDA. The good news? Those same hackers have already worked out a
>               free software countermeasure to thwart the program.
>                                                     
>                                                     
>                                                     
> According to Heise newspaper, the intelligence agencies of the United
> States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand, have used
>   HACIENDA to map every server in twenty-seven countries, employing a
>   technique known as port scanning. The agencies have shared this map
>    and use it to plan intrusions into the servers. Disturbingly, the
> HACIENDA system actually hijacks civilian computers to do some of its
>    dirty work, allowing it to leach computing resources and cover its
>                                                tracks.
>                                                     
>                                                     
>                                                     
>    But this was not enough to stop the team of GNU hackers and their
>     collaborators. After making key discoveries about the details of
>    HACIENDA, Julian Kirsch, Christian Grothoff, Jacob Appelbaum, and
>   Holger Kenn designed the TCP Stealth system to protect unadvertised
>    servers from port scanning. They revealed their work at the recent
>                        annual GNU Hackers' Meeting in Germany.
>                                                     
>                                                     
>                                                     
>   You can view a video announcing the discovery on fsf.org. Please be
>       sure to share this with everyone you know who cares about bulk
>                                           surveillance.
>                                                     
>                                                     
>                                                     
> We must fight the political battle for an end to mass surveillance and
>  reduce the amount of data collected about people in the first place.
>  On an individual level we have to do everything we can to thwart the
>                 surveillance programs that are already in place.
>                                                     
>                                                     
>                                                     
>       No matter your skill level, you can get involved at the FSF's
>                                        surveillance page.
>                                                     
>                                                     
>                                                     
> Ethical developers inside and outside GNU have been working for years
>  on free software that does not keep secrets from users, and programs
>    that anyone can review to remove potential vulnerabilities. These
>      capabilities give free software users a fighting chance against
>        surveillance. Now, our community is turning its attention to
>    uncovering and undermining insidious programs like HACIENDA. Free
>   software and its ideals are crucial to putting an end to government
>                                        bulk surveillance.
>                                                     
>                                                     
>                                                     
>   Share this news with your friends, to help make people aware of the
>          importance of free software in fighting bulk surveillance.
>                                                     
>                                                     
>                                                     
> Jacob Appelbaum of the TCP Stealth team gave a remote keynote address
> at the FSF's LibrePlanet conference this year. Watch the recording of
>                "Free Software for freedom: Surveillance and you."
>                                                     
>                                                     
>                                                     
>                                                     
>                                                     
>                                Libby Reinish and Zak Rogoff
>                                        Campaigns Managers
>                                                     
>                                                     
>                                                     
>                               You can view this post online.
>                                                     
>                                                     
> Follow us on GNU social | Subscribe to our blogs via RSS | Join us as
>                                       an associate member
>                                                     
>                        Sent from the Free Software Foundation,
>                                                     
>                                        51 Franklin Street
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> 
> 
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