In The News

How to Keep the NSA Out of Your Computer

Clive Thompson August 21, 2013
Creating a regional “mesh” online connection, avoiding the internet, began as a cost-cutting move in rural areas of Spain, Greece and Africa to avoid costly connection fees. But activists in countries as diverse as Syria and the United States now create exclusive mesh networking systems as a way to avoid surveillance systems. “Scores of communities worldwide have been building these roll-your-own...

Big Brother Is All Ears: India Proposes What Snowden Discloses

August 14, 2013
India’s Department of Telecom, has posted a new telecommunications licensing agreement with controls that echo those of the US National Security Agency. The Telegraph in Calcutta reports: “The 176-page document that was placed on the DoT’s website on Friday evening has never explicitly spelt out in such great detail the manner in which the government can access call records of private citizens,...

Fears Over NSA Surveillance Revelations Endanger US Cloud Computing Industry

Charles Arthur August 13, 2013
Cloud computing allows users to share tech capabilities, such as storing data or trying software over the internet or individual servers, yet reports about intrusive surveillance programs may scare away customers. News reports allege that US tech companies comply with government requests for customer data with minimal checks and balances. “A survey by the US-based Cloud Security Alliance, quoted...

Obama’s Putin Snub Puts New Focus on Moscow’s China Ties

Geoff Dyer, Courtney Weaver August 9, 2013
The leaders of the world’s largest economies meet in September, but the US president has cancelled a meeting with the Russian president, suggesting that little progress is developing from the relationship. The two leaders have a testy relationship, and the US decision came soon after Russia approved temporary asylum for Edward Snowden, a contract worker for the US National Security Agency who...

Urgent Need to Protect the Internet

John Negroponte August 8, 2013
The internet has contributed to unprecedented global connections, but its openness distresses some governments. Censorship takes many forms, and some nations even consider creating an exclusive system for their citizens, cutting off contact with the rest of the globe, notes John Negroponte, a Brady-Johnson Distinguished Fellow in Grand Strategy and senior lecturer in International Affairs at Yale...

German Firms Scramble to Boost Data Protection

August 6, 2013
German companies are reviewing procedures on data and communications, rapidly trying to improve security to prevent industrial espionage. Corporate security is already tight in Germany, reports Spiegel, with policies that include executives using disposable phones during travel, putting phones into tin cans during meetings, regularly sweeping corporate planes and conference rooms for bugs, and...

Russia Should Use Own Electronics in Defense Industry: Deputy PM

Alexei Anishchuk July 31, 2013
A former contract worker for the US National Security Agency, now stuck in the Russian airport, has suggested that the US has greater surveillance capabilities than many even in the US had once assumed. Revelations that the US is storing data on telephone calls and could access internet connections have prompted some individuals and countries to pursue preventative measures in other areas. Russia...