The U.S. government has demanded that major Internet companies divulge users’ stored passwords, according to two industry sources familiar with these orders, which represent an escalation in surveillance techniques that has not previously been disclosed.
If the government is able to determine a person’s password, which is typically stored in encrypted form, the credential could be used to log in to an account to peruse confidential correspondence or even impersonate the user. Obtaining it also would aid in deciphering encrypted devices in situations where passwords are reused.
Related: The NSA’s New Spy Facilities are 7 Times Bigger Than the Pentagon
Via Drudge
time to ditch the internet
isn’t that what they want?
All I can say. Is this is just to bloody frightening.
This is beyond intrusion. Does it mean they have access to your bank accounts, paypal, or even your loans?
How many employee’s would you trust from this administration. Unlike a bank that has no accountability, no protocols? Can we say Identity theft by your own Government. Money laundering using your accounts by an Intelligence agency? Liable by proxy? Who seees this Information? With your passwords they can plant evidence for any crime they want. This is Dictatorship baked in a Police State.
Yep, when they have your passwords you might as well be walking buck naked down the median of a 10 lane expressway. Your expectation of privacy will be nil…
Of course the NSA facility is 7 times larger than the Pentagon, the “Uber-Stasi” watchers need a “Wunder Kompooter” to decrypt your life in very short order.
The East Germans had the Iron Curtain but they will be considered pikers once the “Electronic Curtain” gets into high gear.
Cheers
Hans Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group “True North”
I wouldn’t trust a government headed by Sarah Palin and Ron Paul with this, let alone a bunch of freakin commies.
Is there any chance of SDA getting a better graphic box for this captcha nonsense? Half the time I cannot tell what the letters are, why the camouflage?
They can hack your car too.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/07/24/hackers-reveal-nasty-new-car-attacks-with-me-behind-the-wheel-video/
Remotely. As in, by phone. Any car with a built in satellite radio, GPS, OnStar, Sync, etc. can receive remote data. Therefore hackable, particularly by a government that can strong arm the codes out of the manufacturers.
Price of older cars is about to go up, I bet.
Heh a whole new angle to “cash for clunkers”..
And wait for the excuse that this is for “security” from terrorists. How can you have that security,when they are running your country? And make no mistake. Even when the Comrade in Chief is gone,his minions will carry on,with or without gubermint approval.
I’m from the government and I’m here to help you………….
Right you are Revnant Dream. Of course, this was the evil plan right from the start…Agenda 21 on steroids. As the people of the Ukraine can attest, starvation and terrorism are the keys to absolute control. Why did people not look at the ‘cards’ in the B.O. Deck of pals before they went to vote? Thugs, Communists, human haters, America haters, shysters, freaks….As Peter O’Donnell says above; I would hate to have to trust Ron Paul and Sarah Palin with this kind of power; the group in there now I would not trust with a two dollar bill or a fruit stand in California.
This is a very terrible time for all people as we are teetering on the abyss – slavery/death (Agenda 21) vs risking all to make a last stand for the God given Rights endowed by the Creator and enshrined in the Magnificent American Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Do the frightened, cowering people have any spines? And I wonder – do I? (have such a spine).
Ne jamais attribuer à la malveillance ce qui est bien expliqué par l’incompétence.
Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.
Napoleon Bonaparte
This regime makes the Stasi look like cub scouts. Every week brings another revelation. And yet they were allegedly clueless about the marathon bombers. So what’s the point of it all except for Barry’s storm troopers to use against their political enemies.
And never attribute to government concern for your safety, that which can be explained by the hunger for absolute control…
We hear that argument about security from all too many so-called conservatives.
We were told just weeks ago that they were only monitoring traffic, not content. Demanding passwords for everything means they want content as well. And as I’ve said repeatedly before, this information can and will be used for purposes other than security.
Mark of the Beast can’t be to far behind.
I have complained about SDAs captcha display as well, then I notice the option of ‘signing in’ and voila, the cap thingy is gone.
My point … I have been gradually moving out of banks and into other places tha no one can have access to. I also decided to invest cash into things of valu that are easily turned back into cash and some that actually generate cash.
The new America now is to get as invisible to your government as possible because they harp e turned us into a whack a mole game … If y ou stick your head up they whack your wallet and gi ve you as much grief as possible.
In short we are gradually finding outer selves at war with our government … It’s a cold right now, but who knows where it will lead. We don’t have the MAD (mutually assured destruction) a la nuclear weapons, but it will still come down to mutual destruction. We will wind up with a lot of death and anarchy Mad Max style and the government will wind up with nothing to govern. … JUST LIKE IT IS MOW IM DETROIT.
JUST LIKE IT IS NOW IN DETROIT
Sorry about that
For crying out Pete’s sake Kate!
Quit mixing the NSA surveillance program speculative cringing with stories and issues surrounding other obviously corrupted agencies.
These agencies have discreet operational differences and vastly different track records regarding unlawful activities.
You’re doing Obama’s work for him.
These agencies have discreet operational differences and vastly different track records regarding unlawful activities.
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA how adorable. He really thinks the NSA is The Good Part of Government. “They’re different because…the name is different!”
You’re doing Obama’s work for him.
WTF?
It is dismaying that the US government is so frightened of ordinary Americans.
“It is dismaying that the US government is so frightened of ordinary Americans.”
So was Stalin,and Mao,and etc.You must remember,the goobermint is NOT for you,but for their own power and kleptocracy.
LAS you may just have been an unwitting catalyst.
If not…. unwitting none the less.
You should never trust any government with this.
You should never trust any government
I never though I would say this, but I honestly think that this endless expansion of the state’s power over its citizens will not be possible to reverse without some sort of “revolution” by the people.
Now the House has agreed that continued unlimited funding for these password,
phone calls, credit/debit card, checking/savings, internet blogs/searches, tax records/PayPal/stock investment contracts, or anything else they want to steal, spy agency’s is in our national interest, or theirs.
Come Spring,
its time to clean House..
They are lucky,
Our ancestors would have lynched these bastards..
NSA/Obama
I know you are reading this,
so kiss my ass..
Johan, all that is needed is a tax cut. You cut their budget, they won’t be able to run these systems. Plain and simple. Personally I would much prefer a tax revolt and collapse of government services to a revolution. Those things only ever make life so much worse.
Look at Russia. 100 years on, still a frigged up basket case run by exactly the same @$$h0les as it was under the Czars. Not a good option.
What amplifies this is that there is a lot of talk among the people that value freedom, this becoming a rare and unique characteristic of the plebeians of the early 21 first century.
Remember, the current occupant of the White House said in the first campaign for the presidency that he was going to fundamentally change the American society.
However people complain, the guy got elected twice, the syllogism would be that most Americans are cool with the changes.
The quality of those that got the guy in the White House is of course on the lower end of food chain.
Then you have the “opposition” republicans that are so afraid of consequences of some strong actions, like shutting down and defunding the NAS operations that are clearly against their own citizens and constitution, they have been rendered impotent.
As mentioned before, the former KGB and other such institutions had nothing on the US government in watching the populace. If the former communist institution had the same technology, they would have conquered the rest of the world, it seems the US population was ripe for it.
The current administration of the US, up to now wants to conquer the American spirit and constitution. There may be other plans, though not apparent.
So, what is one to do.
Not altogether out of the question is an American revolution II
I disapprove of government abusing snooping power.
But read the original article. Notice anything missing? It does not say that any of this was mass (give up all of them) requests, with the possible exception of one request for the code and data used to encrypt passwords. This is a curious lack – could it be that the requests were for the passwords of specific accounts?