Cybersecurity & Privacy

U.S. surveillance state grows ever more pervasive, domestically and globally, as the corporate version of the same expands exponentially, as prying “eyes” and “ears” of every technological variety proliferate as people fall for the "Big Data" craze.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the real inventor of the internet, believes an online equivalent of England’s 13th century Magna Carta, a global bill of rights or constitution, is needed to protect his invention from governments and corporate influence.

Britain's surveillance agency GCHQ, with aid from the US National Security Agency, intercepted and stored the webcam images of millions of internet users not suspected of wrongdoing, secret documents reveal.

Edward Snowden, the former US National Security Agency analyst who revealed US surveillance of phone and Internet communications, was elected rector of Glasgow University in Scotland.

President Barack Obama signs authorizations for assassinations that remain valid for 60 days. If a target cannot be located within that period, it must be reviewed and renewed. The National Security Agency is using complex analysis of electronic surveillance, rather than human intelligence, as the primary method to locate targets for lethal drone strikes – an unreliable tactic that results in the deaths of innocent or unidentified people.

President Xi Jinping will head China's new national security commission, the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee decided on Friday.

Unchecked expansion of White House-maneuvered cyber empire is unsustainable and will incur widespread resistance.

The American newspaper, Washington Post, is facing a tsunami of criticism and calls for full disclosure after its new owner, Amazon C.E.O. and Bilderberg Group member Jeff Bezos, secured a $600 million contract with the CIA for “cloud” services.

A report aired Sunday night by Brazilian television says documents leaked by former U.S. National Security contractor Edward Snowden reveal Brazil’s Mines and Energy Ministry was targeted by the government of Canada’s spy agency, Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC). Phone calls, emails and internet use were mapped in detail, using the Olympia software program.

The US National Security Agency (NSA) vast data storage facility in Utah suffers delaying its opening due to widespread technical failures, including 10 “meltdowns” within the past 13 months according to a report.

Qwest is the only one major American telecommunications company that refused to participate in a legally dubious NSA surveillance program in 2001. The refusal was not taken lightly. A few years later, its CEO was indicted by federal prosecutors, was convicted, and served four and a half years. He was released this month. To this day, Joseph Nacchio insists that his prosecution was retaliation for refusing to break the law on the NSA's behalf and feels vindicated by Edward Snowden leaks.

The NSA monitors banks and credit card transactions -- sometimes in apparent violation of national laws and global regulations. The European SWIFT financial transaction network is being tapped on different levels, internal documents from the US spy agency show.