Nigeria Ranked 16th In FBI Global Cybercrime Victims Report

Nigeria has been ranked 16th among the countries most affected by internet crime in the world in 2020.

United States To Use Internet of Things (IoT) For Surveillance - Director of National Intelligence

The United States Director of national intelligence has acknowledged for the first time that agencies might use a new generation of smart household devices to increase their surveillance capabilities.

Cybersecurity: Why Even the FBI is Distressed About Internet of Things Security

Notwithstanding the excitement about the possible benefits of the Internet of Things, a slew of warnings have been sounded by IT pros, vendors and analysts about looming security threats. Now you can add the FBI to that list of those cautioning enthusiasts.

FBI Push To Weaken Cell Phone Security, Skirt Encryption Alarms Privacy Advocates

The FBI’s push to ensure a backdoor into cellphones so that federal agents can skirt around tricky encryption technology in order to track terrorists is evoking backlash from privacy groups and technology companies.

FBI Admits No Major Cases Cracked with Patriot Act Snooping Powers

FBI agents can’t point to any major terrorism cases they’ve cracked thanks to the key snooping powers in the Patriot Act, the Justice Department’s inspector general said in a report Thursday that could complicate efforts to keep key parts of the law operating.

Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz said that between 2004 and 2009, the FBI tripled its use of bulk collection under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which allows government agents to compel businesses to turn over records and documents, and increasingly scooped up records of Americans who had no ties to official terrorism investigations.

The FBI did finally come up with procedures to try to minimize the information it was gathering on nontargets, but it took far too long, Mr. Horowitz said in the 77-page report, which comes just as Congress is trying to decide whether to extend, rewrite or entirely nix Section 215.

Backers say the Patriot Act powers are critical and must be kept intact, particularly with the spread of the threat from terrorists. But opponents have doubted the efficacy of Section 215, particularly when it’s used to justify bulk data collection such as in the case of the National Security Agency’s phone metadata program, revealed in leaks from former government contractor Edward Snowden.

The new report adds ammunition to those opponents, with the inspector general concluding that no major cases have been broken by use of the Patriot Act’s records-snooping provisions.

“The agents we interviewed did not identify any major case developments that resulted from use of the records obtained in response to Section 215 orders,” the inspector general concluded — though he said agents did view the material they gathered as “valuable” in developing other leads or corroborating information.

The report said agents bumped their number of bulk-data requests under Section 215 from seven in 2004 to 21 in 2009 as a result of technological advances and legislative changes that the intelligence community believed expanded the reach of the law.

Increasingly, that meant scooping up information on those who weren’t targets of a terrorism investigation, Mr. Horowitz said. He said that while Section 215 authority allows the government to do that, the FBI needed more checks to make sure it was using the power properly.

“While the expanded scope of these requests can be important uses of Section 215 authority, we believe these expanded uses require continued significant oversight,” he concluded.

The report was an update to a previous study done in 2008 that urged the department to figure out ways to minimize the amount of data it was gathering on ordinary Americans even as it was targeting terrorists.

In Thursday’s report Mr. Horowitz said the administration finally came up with procedures — five years later. He said it never should have taken that long but that he considers that issue solved.

The report was heavily redacted, and key details were deleted. The entire chart showing the number of Section 215 requests made from 2007 through 2009 was blacked out, as was the breakdown of what types of investigations they stemmed from: counterintelligence, counterterrorism, cyber or foreign intelligence investigations.

Section 215 of the Patriot Act is slated to expire at the end of this month. The House, in an overwhelming bipartisan vote, passed a bill to renew it but also to limit it so the government could no longer do bulk collection such as the NSA phone data program. That legislation is known as the USA Freedom Act.

But Senate Republican leaders have balked, insisting the NSA program and Section 215 should be kept intact as is.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who is leading the fight to protect the NSA program, is counting on his opponents not being able to muster the 60 votes needed to pass the bill, leaving them with the choice of either extending Section 215 or seeing all of the powers expire — including those that would go after specific terrorist suspects. Mr. McConnell believes that, faced with that choice, enough of his colleagues will vote to extend all of the powers.

FBI Director James B. Comey asked Congress this week to make sure Section 215 and two other parts of the Patriot Act, also slated to expire at the end of the month, are preserved. Those other powers include the ability to target lone wolf actors and to switch wiretaps if suspects switch their phones.

As for Section 215, Mr. Comey said Congress should at least preserve the power to go after individuals’ records.

“If we lose that authority, which I don’t think is controversial with folks, that is a big problem,” he said Wednesday at a forum at the Georgetown University Law Center.

But most of the Section 215 debate has revolved around bulk collection. Earlier this month a federal appeals court ruled that the Patriot Act does not envision the kind of phone program the NSA has been running, which gathers and stores five years’ worth of records of the numbers, dates and durations of calls made in the U.S.

For anti-bulk surveillance advocates, Thursday’s report further undermines Section 215.

“This report adds to the mounting evidence that Section 215 has done little to protect Americans and should be put to rest,” said American Civil Liberties Union Staff Attorney Alex Abdo.

Bulk data collection creates false leads, ties up investigative resources and, essentially, undermines national security, said Stephen Kohn, an attorney at Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto, LLP and advocate for government whistleblowers. Also, increased FBI dependency on that bulk data collection indicates that the agency is lacking the appropriate resources for conducting successful counterterrorism operations, Mr. Kohn said.

“They have a large amount of agents who are working counterterrorism that have no human resources, no leads, no infiltrations, so they have nothing else to do,” he said. “In other words, when they staffed up and made [counterterrorism] a major priority, these agents need to do something. And they’re doing what they know to do, and that’s electronic surveillance.”

But former FBI agents said opponents wanted to callously cripple one of the government’s investigative agencies by depriving it of a critical data collection tool at a time of new terror threats.

“ISIS is singing a siren song, calling people to their death to crash on the rocks — and it’s the rocks that ISIS will take credit for,” said Ron Hosko, president of Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund and former assistant director of the FBI. “They’re looking for those who are disaffected, disconnected and willing to commit murder. So if we’re willing to take away tools, OK, congressman, stand behind it [and] take the credit for putting the FBI in the dark.”

Source:
Washington Times

Cybersecurity: FBI Warns of Bogus Govt Sites, ISIS Defacements

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is warning that individuals sympathetic to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shams (ISIS) are mass-defacing Websites using known vulnerabilities in WordPress. The FBI also issued an alert advising that criminals are hosting fraudulent government Web sites in a bid to collect personal and financial information from unwitting Web searchers.

United States Offers $3m Reward For Information On 'One of World's Prolific Hackers'

Evgeniy Bogachev

The US government has announced a $3m reward for information leading to the arrest of a man American authorities call one of the world's most prolific cyber hackers.

The Spy Cables: A Glimpse Into The World of Espionage

A digital leak to Al Jazeera of hundreds of secret intelligence documents from the world's spy agencies has offered an unprecedented insight into operational dealings of the shadowy and highly politicised realm of global espionage.

Social Network Do's and Don'ts: US Military Personnel Advised To Hide Online Identity With Cartoons, Avatars

Members of the U.S. military are being instructed to hide their identities on social media websites by replacing their profile images with cartoons or avatars.

FBI Wants to Hack Computers Globally, Seeks Search Warrant Expansion

The Justice Department is looking to remove restrictions on the FBI’s ability to hack into and monitor computer systems everywhere by easing the requirements necessary for it to obtain a search warrant.

White House Computers 'Hacked'

A White House computer network has been breached by hackers, it has been reported.

NSA and FBI Spied on 5 High-Profile Americans Muslims - Report

US spy agencies snooped on the emails of five high- profile Muslim Americans in an effort to identify security threats, documents leaked by fugitive ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden show.
The targets include a lawyer, professor and a political operative, according to a report published in the Intercept.

The Intercept is an online news site overseen by Glenn Greenwald, who helped publish many of Mr Snowden's
leaks.
The FBI and NSA said they only spied on Americans when they had probable cause. "The National Security Agency and FBI have covertly monitored the emails of prominent Muslim Americans... under secretive procedures intended to target terrorists and foreign spies," according to The Intercept report.

Those allegedly spied on include:
• Faisal Gill, a Republican Party operative and former Department of Homeland Security employee
• Asim Ghafoor, a lawyer who represented clients in terrorism-related cases
• Hooshang Amirahmadi, an Iranian-American professor at Rutgers University
• Agha Saeed, a former political science professor at California State University
• Nihad Awad, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

According to the report - the result of a three-month investigation using classified documents obtained from
Mr Snowden - all five individuals have denied involvement in terrorist activities. 'Ethnic stereotypes'
The NSA and Department of Justice quickly responded to the report, saying emails of Americans are only accessed if there is probable cause.
"It is entirely false that US intelligence agencies conduct electronic surveillance of political, religious or activist figures solely because they disagree with public policies or criticise the government, or for exercising constitutional rights," the agencies wrote in a joint statement.
The White House has ordered a review of national security agencies in the wake of the allegations, however.
"Upon learning of this matter, the White House immediately requested that the Director of National Intelligence undertake an assessment of Intelligence Community policies, training standards or directives that promote diversity and tolerance," White House national security spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said on Wednesday.
"The use of racial or ethnic stereotypes, slurs, or other similar language" is not acceptable, she added.

Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor, leaked a trove of secure documents to international media
Several dozen civil liberties groups have also spoken out against the allegations made in The Intercept report, urging US President Barack Obama to provide a full public accounting of domestic surveillance.
It is not the first time US agencies have been accused of snooping on Americans. Previous documents leaked by Mr Snowden indicate the electronic files of thousands of citizens were scanned by the NSA.
Last year, Mr Snowden - a former NSA contractor now residing in Russia - fed a trove of secret NSA documents to news outlets including the Washington Post and the Guardian, where Mr Greenwald worked.

The US Congress has attempted to curb online snooping in the wake of the snooping revelations, with the House of Representatives passing legislation to that effect in mid-June.
The measure, added to a $570bn (£335bn) defence spending bill, would bar the NSA from collecting Americans' personal online information without a warrant.
Earlier this year the House also passed the USA Freedom Act that would limit the NSA's bulk data collection and storage of some American landline
telephone call records.

Courtesy:
BBC

United States House of Representatives Backs Limits on NSA Spying

WASHINGTON –  House libertarians and liberals banded together for a surprise win in their fight against the secretive National Security Agency, securing support for new curbs on government spying a year after leaker Edward Snowden's disclosures about the bulk collection of millions of Americans' phone records.

The Republican-led House voted 293-123 late Thursday to add the limits to a $570 billion defense spending bill. The provision, which faces an uncertain fate in the Senate, would bar warrantless collection of personal online information and prohibit access for the NSA and CIA into commercial tech products.