facility:government communications headquarters

Edward Snowden elected Rector of Glasgow University - World Socialist Web Site

▻http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/02/20/snow-f20.html

Students at the University of Glasgow in Scotland voted Tuesday to elect Edward Snowden as Rector of the University, in a powerful display of opposition to attacks on democratic rights by the NSA and Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ).

The former National Security Agency consultant and whistle-blower received 3,124 votes, more than double his nearest challenger, Kevin Holdsworth, a local clergyman and gay rights campaigner. Snowden received 51 percent of the vote, and will serve as Rector for three years.

#snowden

#DDoS : une unité d’espionnage britannique cible des Anonymous
▻http://www.generation-nt.com/ddos-gchq-anonymous-hacktiviste-lulzsec-actualite-1846932.html

D’après des documents fuités par Edward Snowden et analysés par NBC, les services de renseignement électronique britanniques ( Government Communications Headquarters ; #GCHQ ) ont usé d’attaques DDoS pour perturber les moyens de communication de membres d’Anonymous.

(...)

Baptisée Rolling Thunder et menée par une unité d’espionnage Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group, une opération aurait réussi en l’espace d’un mois à réduire de 80 % le nombre d’hacktivistes se réunissant sur des chat rooms IRC utilisées par Anonymous.

(...)

Le JTRIG a par ailleurs utilisé Facebook, Twitter, Skype, de la messagerie instantanée ou l’email pour diffuser auprès d’hacktivistes un message selon lequel les attaques DDoS sont illégales. Manifestement, ce n’est pas illégal pour tout le monde...

The New Snowden Revelation Is Dangerous for Anonymous — And for All of Us
▻http://www.wired.com/opinion/2014/02/comes-around-goes-around-latest-snowden-revelation-isnt-just-dangerous-anonym

Whether you agree with the activities of Anonymous or not — which have included everything from supporting the Arab Spring protests to DDoSing copyright organizations to doxing child pornography site users — the salient point is that democratic governments now seem to be using their very tactics against them.

The key difference, however, is that while those involved in Anonymous can and have faced their day in court for those tactics, the British government has not. When Anonymous engages in lawbreaking, they are always taking a huge risk in doing so. But with unlimited resources and no oversight, organizations like the GCHQ (and theoretically the NSA) can do as they please. And it’s this power differential that makes all the difference.

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(...) that means we’re inching into the same territory as the dictatorial regimes criticized by democratic governments for not respecting internet freedoms.

NSA infiltrates links to Yahoo, Google data centers worldwide, Snowden documents say - The Washington Post
▻http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-infiltrates-links-to-yahoo-google-data-centers-worldwide-snowden-documents-say/2013/10/30/e51d661e-4166-11e3-8b74-d89d714ca4dd_story.html?Post+generic=%3Ftid%

The NSA’s principal tool to exploit the data links is a project called MUSCULAR, operated jointly with the agency’s British counterpart, the Government Communications Headquarters . From undisclosed interception points, the NSA and the GCHQ are copying entire data flows across fiber-optic cables that carry information among the data centers of the Silicon Valley giants.

The infiltration is especially striking because the NSA, under a separate program known as PRISM, has front-door access to Google and Yahoo user accounts through a court-approved process.

The MUSCULAR project appears to be an unusually aggressive use of NSA tradecraft against flagship American companies. The agency is built for high-tech spying, with a wide range of digital tools, but it has not been known to use them routinely against U.S. companies.

British Spy Agency #GCHQ Hacked Belgian #Telecoms Firm - SPIEGEL ONLINE
▻http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/british-spy-agency-gchq-hacked-belgian-telecoms-firm-a-923406.html

Documents from the archive of whistleblower Edward #Snowden indicate that Britain’s GCHQ intelligence service was behind a cyber attack against Belgacom, a partly state-owned Belgian telecoms company. A “top secret” Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) presentation seen by SPIEGEL indicate that the goal of project, conducted under the codename “Operation Socialist,” was “to enable better exploitation of Belgacom” and to improve understanding of the provider’s #infrastructure .

#cybersécurité

Alan #Turing's Second World War research papers released online
►http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/news/705.htm

To commemorate the centenary of of Alan Turing’s birth, GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters) has released two of his mathematical research papers, believed to have been written at Bletchley Park during the Second World War, to The National Archives. These records are now available to download.

#crypto #mathématiques #histoire #informatique #recherche