Monday, December 30, 2013

The NSA's new TAO of Spying (video)

Wisdom Quarterly; Der Spiegel, Glenn Greenwald, Amy Goodman (DemocracyNow.org)

Glenn Greenwald and story on the NSA's TAO of Spying starts at Minute 25:30
 
The TAO, in NSA terms, refers to a unit of hackers it hires, trains, and continues to develop, the office of Tailored Access Operations.

NSA can "watch every keystroke [we] make"
The German publication Der Spiegel ("The Mirror") has revealed new details about a secretive hacking unit inside the National Security Agency called the Office of Tailored Access Operations, or TAO. The unit was created in 1997 to hack into global communications traffic. 

Hackers inside the TAO have developed a way to break into (hack) computers running Microsoft Windows by gaining passive access to machines when users report program crashes to Microsoft [both installing malware and getting the cooperation of Microsoft], according to Glenn Greenwald.

Panel backs major curbs on NSA
In addition, with help from the CIA and FBI, the NSA has the ability to intercept computers and other electronic accessories purchased online in order to secretly insert spyware and components that can provide backdoor access for the intelligence agencies. American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer and journalist Glenn Greenwald join Democracy Now! to discuss the latest revelations, along with the future of Edward Snowden.
Greenwald is the journalist who first broke the NSA spying document revealed by Edward Snowden. Snowden now lives in Russia for safety. He was previously a columnist at Britain's The Guardian newspaper and is creating a new media venture with Laura Poitras (who is forced to live in abroad because England is redefining journalism that reveals a country's secrets as "terrorism"), Jeremy Scahill (author of Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield, which is also a movie), and eBay founder Pierre Omidyar.

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