Monday, February 23, 2015

Proof that the NSA despises the courts

NSA steals billions of mobile phone SIM encryption keys:
The Intercept has an extraordinary story: the NSA and/or GCHQ hacked into the Dutch SIM card manufacturer Gemalto, stealing the encryption keys for billions of cell phones. People are still trying to figure out exactly what this means, but it seems to mean that the intelligence agencies have access to both voice and data from all phones using those cards.

Me in The Register: "We always knew that they would occasionally steal SIM keys. But all of them? The odds that they just attacked this one firm are extraordinarily low and we know the NSA does like to steal keys where it can."
Now why would they do that?  After all, it's trivially easy for them to get a warrant from the lap dog FISA court.  But even that is too much interference, and so they hack the GSM companies.

Me thinks it's time to put some of those people out to pasture.

7 comments:

Glen Filthie said...

Well...the fact is I despise the courts too, and regard them with utter contempt and suspicion. So much so that I no longer accept their authority on some things, and abide by their rulings only when it is in my interest to do so. Fortunately for them I am a law abiding man.

This is where I part ways with libertarians. Surveillance proves innocence too. Our courts dance to the tune of public opinion justers...and they are all to happy to convict (and release) perps without proper evidence to support their decisions.

Comrade Misfit said...

So, "if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear, mein herr"?

How free of a conversation will you have, knowing that there is a chance that the government is listening in to your call?

Eagle said...

The NSA receives its operational rules from the Oval Office and operates under the auspices of DOD. Its current authorization comes from Executive Order 12333, not by a law passed by Congress.

If Big-O decided that it was in the national interest to reduce the NSA's reach, he could do it with the stroke of a pen. Or Congress could easily defund the NSA, or severely restrict its funding to prevent it from continuing to infringe on the rights of American citizens.

Obama won't restrict the NSA's operations against American citizens, and Congress won't vote to restrict its funding. Now, I'm not saying "we're doomed"... uh... maybe I *am* saying that...

matism said...

These filthy maggot bastards do NOT just deserve to be "put out to pasture". They deserve to be swinging by their necks and then burning in hell. Along with every one of their enablers in "Law Enforcement" AND the "Legal" system.

Spike said...

One issue I have is that Gemalto currently supplies smartcards to the DOD.

Sure the PKI stuff is different than the SIM certificate infrastructure, but what could they have broken by accident or intentionally?

And who is to say that someone else didn't follow them in?

Old NFO said...

No question they need to be gone... And Spike brings up a good point, since it seems NIPR has been 'accessed' by unfriendly parties...

Anonymous said...

Out to pasture? Or UNDER the pasture? Methinks the latter might be the only way TPTB get the message...