ITworld Government

Report: NSA has little success cracking Tor

IDGNS staff — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 18:23:01 +0000

The U.S. National Security Agency has repeatedly tried to compromise Tor, the government-funded online anonymity tool, but has had little success, according to a new report in the U.K.'s Guardian.

Shutdown affects government sites, but Weather.gov remains up as storm looms

IDGNS staff — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 16:11:34 +0000

As a tropical storm and possible hurricane bears down on the Gulf Coast of the U.S., the National Weather Service's website was churning out weather alerts Friday, despite a partial U.S. government shutdown that has affected citizens' access to other online resources.

What’s an unemployed spook to do? [CARTOON]

Phil Johnson — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 10:00:00 +0000

The government shutdown has forced the NSA to furlough a lot of people. What’s an unemployed spook to do?

EU government telco provider was subjected to major attack

IDGNS staff — Thu, 03 Oct 2013 16:14:54 +0000

The Internet service and telco provider to all the European Union’s official institutions was subjected to a malware attack that “no single company or authority could withstand on its own” admitted the company’s secretary general on Thursday.

Lawmaker: Snowden may have had help with leaks

IDGNS staff — Thu, 03 Oct 2013 15:50:18 +0000

Edward Snowden may not have acted alone, and may have had outside assistance, when he leaked information about the U.S. National Security Agency's data collection and surveillance programs earlier this year.

US demanded access to encryption keys of email provider Lavabit

IDGNS staff — Thu, 03 Oct 2013 03:27:54 +0000

The U.S. government demanded from email service provider Lavabit access to all user communications and a copy of the encryption keys used to secure web, instant message and email traffic for its investigation into several Lavabit user accounts, according to a post on the Facebook page of founder Ladar Levison.

Senator vows fierce defense of NSA data collection, surveillance programs

IDGNS staff — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 19:16:18 +0000

Massive data collection and surveillance programs at the U.S. National Security Agency are necessary to keep the nation safe from terrorism, several senators said Wednesday.

US DOJ opposes company requests to publish surveillance statistics

IDGNS staff — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 17:40:02 +0000

The U.S. Department of Justice has opposed requests by Facebook, Google, Microsoft and other companies to publish the number of surveillance requests they receive from the U.S. National Security Agency and other agencies.

Yahoo concerned that release of redacted FISA papers may mislead

IDGNS staff — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 04:25:49 +0000

Yahoo has asked that it be allowed to review declassified documents of a secret court about a dispute over data collection between the Internet company and the government, as the release of the redacted documents could mislead the public.

Fed shutdown forces NSF websites to go dark

IDGNS staff — Tue, 01 Oct 2013 21:59:01 +0000

The partial U.S. government shutdown that began Tuesday morning counts the National Science Foundation websites and applications, and those who would use them, as victims.

Utility cuts IT workforce, hires Indian outsourcers

IDGNS staff — Tue, 01 Oct 2013 21:35:56 +0000

Northeast Utilities confirms plan to outsource IT work to India-based outsourcers; move will affect some 200 jobs.

NSA encryption-defeating efforts will backfire, privacy advocates say

IDGNS staff — Tue, 01 Oct 2013 19:57:13 +0000

The U.S. National Security Agency's efforts to defeat encryption will backfire by eroding trust in U.S.-based Internet services and in the agency's own efforts to aid U.S. companies with cybersecurity, a group of privacy advocates said Tuesday.

Government CIOs see big data as Internet-like innovation platform

IDGNS staff — Tue, 01 Oct 2013 19:51:22 +0000

Government IT leaders envision open, machine-readable data sets from across departments and agencies offering a testbed for innovative new applications and services the feds would never create on their own.

Obamacare exchanges hit by early technical glitches

IDGNS staff — Tue, 01 Oct 2013 19:02:50 +0000

Would-be insurance customers in the U.S. ran into early problems today accessing the new federally run healthcare exchange as well as several state-run exchanges.

Shutdown could test IT security at federal agencies

IDGNS staff — Tue, 01 Oct 2013 16:05:49 +0000

A government shutdown that lasts more than a few days could test the ability of federal agencies to protect their information systems against security threats.