[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
> Floor 5
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>
>
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