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News

• TrustyCon vs. RSA and NSA: New conference pushes trustworthy agenda

  Who do you trust? That's a question asked increasingly by a security industry with a growing sense that the National Security Agency (NSA) has sought to weaken encryption or get backdoors into computers, based on documents leaked by Edward Snowden to the media. Now, trust is also the theme of a new conference called TrustyCon that will vie for attention on Feb. 27 in San Francisco while the big RSA Conference for security pros is also taking place in that city.

• Obama's surveillance reform speech invokes history for context

  President Barack Obama positioned his proposals for government surveillance reforms within the context of U.S. history to argue that spying is -- and always has been -- necessary.

• President Obama praises NSA, offers little in mass surveillance reform

  President Barack Obama today said his administration is going to change some aspects of how the National Security Agency and other U.S. intelligence agencies conduct surveillance and hold data collected on U.S and foreign individuals. But his goals fell far short of what was recommended in the 46 proposals for reform of the NSA spelled out last month by the five-member working group he appointed.

• Spy agencies around the world use radio signals to tap data from targeted systems

  Reports this week that the National Security Agency uses radio signals to collect data from tens of thousands of non-U.S. computers, some not connected to the Internet, is sure to fuel more acrimony towards the U.S. spy agency.

• The NSA blame game: Singling out RSA diverts attention from others

  RSA may have earned much of the criticism being heaped upon it for allegedly enabling a backdoor in one of its encryption technologies under a contract with the National Security Agency. But singling out the company for reproach deflects attention from the role that other technology vendors may have had in enabling the NSA's data collection activities.

• NSA scandal spooking IT pros in UK, Canada

  The National Security Agency's massive data collection practices that have come to light in the past six months have apparently spooked at least some businesses in Canada and the United Kingdom, based on a survey out today that says many are moving their company's data away from the U.S. due to "the NSA surveillance scandal."

• Palo Alto Networks acquires stealthy start-up with NSA roots

  Next-generation firewall maker Palo Alto Networks today announced its first acquisition, an intriguing buyout of a stealthy Mountain View start-up called Morta Security whose founders hail from the NSA. The price of the purchase was not disclosed.

• NSA critic Bruce Schneier joins security firm Co3 as CTO

  The network security industry's legendary free thinker Bruce Schneier Monday said he's taken a job as CTO at Co3 Systems, but that this in no way will curtail his determination to speak and write candidly on important topics such as the National Security Agency's (NSA) practices.

• Costs of NSA phone records collection program outweigh the benefits

  An analysis of the NSA's controversial bulk telephone records collection initiative suggests that the cost of running and maintaining the effort may far outweigh any benefits.

• Edward Snowden's Christmas message: a child born today will have no conception of privacy

  "A child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all," Edward Snowden warned Wednesday in a message broadcast to U.K. television viewers.

• Security researcher cancels talk at RSA conference in protest

  Security researcher Mikko Hypponen has canceled his talk at a RSA security conference in San Francisco, reacting to a report that the security division of EMC allegedly received US$10 million from the U.S. National Security Agency to use a flawed random number generator in one of its products.

• Report on NSA 'secret' payments to RSA fuels encryption controversy

  The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) paid US$10 million to vendor RSA in a "secret" deal to incorporate a deliberately flawed encryption algorithm into widely used security software, according to a Reuters report that is reigniting controversy about the government's involvement in setting security standards.

• Court's NSA ruling sets stage for contentious battle over surveillance

  U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon's ruling in a case challenging the National Security Agency's bulk collection of phone records sets up what's likely to be a contentious legal fight over government surveillance in the U.S.

• The worst security SNAFUs of 2013

  This year's award for "Biggest Security SNAFU" can only go to the National Security Agency. Since June, NSA officials have winced as former NSA contractor Edward Snowden began dispensing secrets to the media about how NSA carries out massive surveillance around the world using advanced technology.

• German coalition favors German-owned or open source software, aims to lock NSA out

  Germany's new coalition government listed open source software among its IT policy priorities, and said it will take steps to protect its citizens against espionage threats from the NSA and other foreign intelligence agencies.