[plug-discuss] Fwd: GNU hackers discover HACIENDA government surveillance and give us a way to fight back

[Jean-Pierre Depetris <jdepetris@xxxxxxx>]

Amicalement

jp


-------- Message transféré --------
Sujet : 	GNU hackers discover HACIENDA government surveillance and give 
us a way to fight back
Date : 	Wed, 20 Aug 2014 19:47:39 -0400
De : 	Free Software Foundation <info@xxxxxxx>
Répondre à : 	Free Software Foundation <info@xxxxxxx>
Pour : 	Jean-Pierre Depetris <jdepetris@xxxxxxx>



Dear Jean-Pierre,

GNU community members and collaborators have discovered threatening 
details about a five-country government surveillance program codenamed 
HACIENDA. The good news? Those same hackers have already worked out a 
free software countermeasure to thwart the program.

According to Heise newspaper 
<http://www.heise.de/ct/artikel/NSA-GCHQ-The-HACIENDA-Program-for-Internet-Colonization-2292681.html>, 
the intelligence agencies of the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, 
Australia, and New Zealand, have used HACIENDA to map every server in 
twenty-seven countries, employing a technique known as port scanning. 
The agencies have shared this map and use it to plan intrusions into the 
servers. Disturbingly, the HACIENDA system actually hijacks civilian 
computers to do some of its dirty work, allowing it to leach computing 
resources and cover its tracks.

But this was not enough to stop the team of GNU hackers and their 
collaborators. After making key discoveries about the details of 
HACIENDA, Julian Kirsch, Christian Grothoff, Jacob Appelbaum, and Holger 
Kenn designed the TCP Stealth <https://gnunet.org/kirsch2014knock> 
system to protect unadvertised servers from port scanning. They revealed 
their work at the recent annual GNU Hackers' Meeting 
<https://www.gnu.org/ghm/> in Germany.

You can view a video announcing the discovery on fsf.org. Please be sure 
to share this with everyone you know who cares about bulk surveillance. 
<https://fsf.org/blogs/community/gnu-hackers-discover-hacienda-government-surveillance-and-give-us-a-way-to-fight-back?pk_campaign=hacienda&pk_kwd=email>

We must fight the political battle for an end to mass surveillance and 
reduce the amount of data collected about people in the first place 
<https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/surveillance-vs-democracy>. On an 
individual level we have to do everything we can to thwart the 
surveillance programs that are already in place.

*No matter your skill level, you can get involved at the FSF's 
surveillance page 
<https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/surveillance/?pk_campaign=hacienda&pk_kwd=email>.*

Ethical developers inside and outside GNU have been working for years on 
free software that does not keep secrets from users, and programs that 
anyone can review to remove potential vulnerabilities. These 
capabilities give free software users a fighting chance against 
surveillance. Now, our community is turning its attention to uncovering 
and undermining insidious programs like HACIENDA. Free software and its 
ideals are crucial to putting an end to government bulk surveillance.

*Share this news with your friends, to help make people aware of the 
importance of free software in fighting bulk surveillance.*

/Jacob Appelbaum of the TCP Stealth team gave a remote keynote address 
at the FSF's LibrePlanet conference this year. Watch the recording of 
"Free Software for freedom: Surveillance and you." 
<http://media.libreplanet.org/u/zakkai/m/free-software-for-freedom-surveillance-and-you/>/

Libby Reinish and Zak Rogoff
Campaigns Managers

/You can view this post online 
<https://fsf.org/blogs/community/gnu-hackers-discover-hacienda-government-surveillance-and-give-us-a-way-to-fight-back?pk_campaign=hacienda&pk_kwd=email>./

Follow us on GNU social <https://status.fsf.org/fsf> | Subscribe to our 
blogs via RSS <https://fsf.org/blogs/RSS> | Join us as an associate 
member <https://www.fsf.org/jf>

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