Month: June 2013

In the age of electronic media where nothing seems to work without internet and gadgets become an air to breathe, secrecy or privacy takes a back seat as everything goes online without even anyone’s knowledge. I use Facebook religiously and so as my friends and as over 750 million use Facebook regularly its motive and purpose is under scanner. you don’t need to be a genius to understand that why Facebook and Microsoft have been held responsible for providing stupendous access to USA secret services like CIA, FBI AND NSA. its not only Facebook and Microsoft under scanner now but services like Skype , Google , LinkedIn have also been convicted for providing user data to secret services.

USA been spying on Americans its known but its not surprising when I came to know that USA spying has gone beyond USA and its spying on the world. I was not surprised at all when I saw Monday morning newspaper and it was all over the place at the front page . USA been seen as a world power and yes its a world power there is no down about it. but what USA is doing is a clear violation of human rights and this is not right.

What we do ?

Take a look at this.

Every update you make on Facebook.

Every picture you upload on social networking sites.

You update your status , where you are ,where you working , what are you doing now and what will you do tomorrow.

Every comment you make ? Every like – dislikes you do , Every support to give and every twit you make.

Every communication you do on Skype or Yahoo or on Msn messenger .

They are watching you and they are spying on you. they know your each and every move and they are prepared for it and they are still preparing for tomorrow. everything you do online become someone else property and it never remains your own. you are giving an access to others around the globe and its no longer yours as it does not have any protection. it goes to the server and from there it can be accessed by its providers and they can fetch any data they want about you. your date of birth , your occupation, your hobbies , your likes and dislikes, your aspiration, what kind of music you listen and what kind of movies you watch , what kind of books you read, do you like travelling , what places you want to do and what kind of people you would like to meet , what kind of person you are , all these questions you answer online and can let the experts know about you a lot. a common man will not even notice about it and his / her life been out in the open for the Secret Services to use.

Smart phones are very good examples of the technology tool which can be used against its user. its a weapon of mass destruction in a way . you are carrying a weapon which Secret Services can use to track you down with GPS system. we do everything with our smartphones on the move these days. we take pictures and upload them online , we use it for internet banking and for chatting and emails. every possible thing we can think of we do it with our smartphones. don’t forget that everything you do with your smartphones can be accessed by experts anywhere and anytime. there are people who you don’t even know and they don’t come into limelight since there job is so secret that they are not authorized to share it with the world. what they do ? they spy on you. they keep track of you , they know your every move and the move you want to take or wish to take , they know it and you can’t hide.

Its a scary situation these days . this world has become very scary indeed. hey ! why and how I am talking like this. to know all this you don’t have to be a genius . its a common sense . keep your eyes and mind open and stay alert to know about what’s going on around you . you will know.

Edward Snowden.

This man is making news these days and he is in Hong Kong as I write this post , he may leave Hong Kong soon , he may not leave or he may seek for political asylum ,what’s going on in his mind ,only he knows. but he is in the news , why ?

Lets talk about him a little.

Edward Snowden is a former CIA technical worker who leaked sensitive information about the USA secret surveillance program.

Snowden is 29 years old, master of computers, he was living with his girlfriend in Hawaii before flying to Hong Kong where he reportedly staying in a hotel but now its believed that he checked out from the hotel and his whereabouts are not known.

Explaining why he decided to leave the US, he told the Guardian: “I don’t want to live in a society that does these sort of things… I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded.”

‘Disillusioned’

He described himself as an average student , he studied computers at the Maryland community college to obtain a high school diploma however he never finished the course.

In 2003 he joined the US army and began training with special forces only to get discharged later after he broke his legs in a training accidents.

His first job with the NSA was as a security guard for one of the agency’s secret facilities at the University of Maryland. He then worked on IT security at the CIA.

Despite his lack of formal qualifications, his computer wizardry allowed him to quickly rise through intelligence ranks.

By 2007, he was given a CIA post with diplomatic cover in Geneva.

In Snowden’s words “Much of what I saw in Geneva really disillusioned me about how my government functions and what its impact is in the world. I realized that I was part of something that was doing far more harm than good.”

He left the CIA in 2009 and began working at the NSA as an employee of various outside contractors, including consulting giant Booz Allen.

“News reports that this individual has claimed to have leaked classified information are shocking, and if accurate, this action represents a grave violation of the code of conduct and core values of our firm, it said.

He was formally sacked on 11 June.

Snowden was on a salary of $122,000 according to a statement from his employer.

He and his girlfriend moved out of their home in Waipahu, West Oahu, Hawaii, on 1 May, estate agents said, leaving nothing behind.

A neighbour told ABC that the couple usually kept the blinds and doors closed and “didn’t really talk to anyone at all around here”.

His girlfriend, whose personal blog includes photos of her pole dancing, has said her partner’s sudden disappearance caught her by surprise.

“My world has opened and closed all at once,” Lindsay Mills wrote. “Leaving me lost at sea without a compass.”

How surveillance came to light

• 5 June: The Guardian reports that the National Security Agency (NSA) is collecting the telephone records of millions of US customers of Verizon under a top secret court order.
• 6 June: The Guardian and The Washington Post report that the NSA and the FBI are tapping into US Internet companies to track online communication in a programme known as Prism.
• 7 June: The Guardian reports President Obama has asked intelligence agencies to draw up a list of potential overseas targets for US cyber-attacks.
• 7 June: President Obama defends the programmes, saying they are closely overseen by Congress and the courts.

• 8 June: US director of national intelligence James Clapper calls the leaks “literally gut-wrenching”.
• 9 June: The Guardian names former CIA technical worker Edward Snowden as the source of the leaks.

PRISM (surveillance program)

Prism is national security electronic surveillance program operated by UNITED STATES NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY ( NSA) since 2007

PRISM is a government codename  for a data collection effort known officially as US-984XN.

Response from companies to PRISM

• Microsoft: “We provide customer data only when we receive a legally binding order or subpoena to do so, and never on a voluntary basis. In addition we only ever comply with orders for requests about specific accounts or identifiers. If the government has a broader voluntary national security program to gather customer data we don’t participate in it.”
• Yahoo!: “Yahoo! takes users’ privacy very seriously. We do not provide the government with direct access to our servers, systems, or network.”
• Facebook: “We do not provide any government organization with direct access to Facebook servers. When Facebook is asked for data or information about specific individuals, we carefully scrutinize any such request for compliance with all applicable laws, and provide information only to the extent required by law.”
• Google: “Google cares deeply about the security of our users’ data. We disclose user data to government in accordance with the law, and we review all such requests carefully. From time to time, people allege that we have created a government ‘back door’ into our systems, but Google does not have a backdoor for the government to access private user data.”
• Apple: “We have never heard of PRISM. We do not provide any government agency with direct access to our servers, and any government agency requesting customer data must get a court order.”
• Dropbox: “We’ve seen reports that Dropbox might be asked to participate in a government program called PRISM. We are not part of any such program and remain committed to protecting our users’ privacy.”

Study the Images below to learn more about Prism Program

Details of information collected via PRISM

Slide showing that much of the world’s communications flow through the US

Slide listing companies and the date that they joined PRISM

Slide showing two different sources of NSA data collection. The first source the fiber optic cables of the internet handled by the Upstream program and the second source the servers of major internet companies handled by PRISM.

This is not new story and not strange to USA as it has happened in the past also when Bob Lazar former worker at infamous Area-51 claimed that USA government had an access to Aliens Spaceship and they were working on reverse engineering. Julian Assange also came into light saying that USA been keeping tracks and records of people around the world through its spying program.

Lets not play the blame game here . lets not say who is responsible and who is not. USA though defends its spying program and Obama Administration is in full support to PRISM.

But think about this ” Are we not culprit to what’s happening around us than being a victim” ?

Ask these questions to yourself.

Why these spying programs ever required ?

Why there are surveillance on people ,on political structures , social developments and reforms.

Why there is a discrimination between back and white and the color decides your identity as you are good or bad ?

There are plenty more questions like these but unfortunately we don’t wish to answer even if we know it and decides to keep mum.

What this world has become and how its going to be like tomorrow is anyone’s guess but is it not in our hands ?

Whose hands its going to be in ?

ASK YOURSELF ! YOU WILL FIND AN ANSWER.