Controversial Cyber Security Bill CISPA Passed Again By The US House

Controversial Cyber Security Bill CISPA Passed Again By The US House

Couple of months ago we reported that the White House is planning for an executive cyber security order, from some official sources it has also come to know that the U.S. President Mr. Barack Obama has a special plan to re-introduce the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). Today that deceleration get executed as the US House of Representatives has passed the controversial Cyber Information Sharing and Protection Act. This is the second time when CISPA have been passed by the White House, first it was rejected by the Senator while saying that the bill did not do enough to protect privacy. But yet again with the initiative of Obama and a substantial majority of politicians in the House backed the bill. Though there is a huge chance of getting rejected. According to some relevant sources it has been came to light that, this time also CISPA could fail again in the Senate after threats from President Obama to veto it over privacy concerns. Sources are saying that the main reason of re-introducing CISPA is the the President Barack Obama expressed concerns that it could pose a privacy risk. The White House wants amendments so more is done to ensure the minimum amount of data is handed over in investigations.  The law is passing through the US legislative system as American federal agencies warn that malicious hackers, motivated by money or acting on behalf of foreign governments, such as China, are one of the biggest threats facing the nation.  "If you want to take a shot across China's bow, this is the answer," said Mike Rogers, the Republican politician who co-wrote CISPA and chairs the House Intelligence Committee. 

On the other hand CISPA has also secured the backing of several technology firms, including the CTIA wireless industry group, as well as the TechNet computer industry lobby group, which has Google, Apple and Yahoo as members. By contrast, some other big names like Mozilla, Reddit has been vocal in its opposition to the bill. In the beginning the social networking giant Facebook supported CISPA but later they took back its support. The American Civil Liberties Union has also opposed CISPA, saying the bill was "fatally flawed". The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Reporters Without Borders and the American Library Association have all voiced similar worries.

-Source (BBC)

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#opSOTU By Anonymous To Oppose Executive Cyber Security Order (The Revised CISPA)

#opSOTU By Anonymous To Oppose Executive Cyber Security Order (The Revised CISPA)

Last year the Internet and its trillion of users across the globe has faced several barrier when, number of approach from Senate and government, along with few corporate and other organization were in the target to make the entire Internet censored. To engage this motive they have approached and introduced a number of regulations and act such as SOPA, PIPA, CISPA & ACTA. But to implement those enactment was not that easy, as huge number of organization (including White House, Wikipedia & so on), billions of mass people stand against those controversial act, and as expected those acts were ruled back, that said protest might not get the full success, if hackers around the globe did not take part in it. It was the hackers communities who forced the govt to roll back those rules. But the victory was not that easy to achieve, as the president of U.S. appeared before a joint session of Congress to deliver the State of the Union Address and he plans to sign an executive order for cyber-security as the House Intelligence committee reintroduces the defeated CISPA act which turns private companies into government informants. As soon as the deceleration of the executive order for cyber-security came, immediately protest came. Hacktivist group Anonymous yet against stand against the controversial CISPA, and called an operation dubbed Operation SOTU (#opSOTU). In the campaign the hacker group states a clear intent to obstruct Internet broadcasts of the president's State of the Union address, an action the group justifies by pointing to renewed interest in Congress to pass the Cybersecurity Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), a measure Anonymous has long opposed. 

Press Release of Anonymous (#opSOTU):- 

Citizens of the Internet,
Last year we faced our greatest threat from lawmakers. We faced down SOPA, PIPA, CISPA and ACTA.

And we won!

But that victory did not come easily. Nor did it come without a price.

Aaron Swartz was one of the leading voices in the fight against these idiotic and destructive efforts to control the last free space on Earth.

Aaron Swartz was persecuted. Now Aaron Swartz is dead.
Tonight, the President of the United States will appear before a joint session of Congress to deliver the State of the Union Address and tomorrow he plans to sign an executive order for cyber-security as the House Intelligence committee reintroduces the defeated CISPA act which turns private companies into government informants.

He will not be covering the NDAA, an act of outright tyrannical legislation allowing for indefinite detention of citizens completely outside due process and the rule of law. In fact, lawyers for the government have point-blank refused to state whether or not journalists who cover stories or groups the Government disfavors would be subject to this detention.

He will not be covering the extra-judicial and unregulated justifications for targeted killings of citizens by military drones within the borders of America, or the fact that Orwellian newspeak had to be used to make words like “imminent” mean their opposite.

He will not be covering Bradley Manning, 1000 days in detention with no trial for revealing military murders, told that his motive for leaking cannot be taken into consideration, that the Government does not have room for conscience.

He will not be covering the secret interpretations of law that allow for warrant-less wiretapping and surveillance of any US citizen without probably cause of criminal acts, or the use of Catch-22 logic where no-one can complain about being snooped on because the state won’t tell you who they’re snooping on, and if you don’t know you’re being snooped on, you don’t have a right to complain.

We reject the State of the Union. We reject the authority of the President to sign arbitrary orders and bring irresponsible and damaging controls to the Internet.
The President of the United States of America, and the Joint Session of Congress will face an Army tonight.
We will form a virtual blockade between Capitol Hill and the Internet. Armed with nothing more than Lulz, Nyancat and PEW-PEW-PEW! Lazers, we will face down the largest superpower on Earth.

And we will win!

There will be no State of the Union Address on the web tonight.

For freedom, for Aaron Swartz, for the Internet, and of course, for the lulz.

We Are Anonymous,
We Are Legion,
We Do Not forgive,
We Do Not forget,
Expect Us.

..."

But unlike last year, this time the approach of CISPA is more organized, as not only Congress but also the White House will also unveil President Barack Obama's long-awaited executive order on cyber security. So to stand against such an organized and well planned act, the protester need to be more decent and more united. As we all want and prefer freedom and privacy in our personal life as well as in the Internet, so we will fight and expect to win. So stay tuned with VOGH, and lets see what is coming for us. 

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Worse Than SOPA- CISPA Will Allow Monitoring Any Online Communication (#Censorship)

Worse Than SOPA- CISPA Will Allow Monitoring Any Online Communication #Censorship

In the wake of SOPA and PIPA, there is yet another terrifying bill on the table. The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (or CISPA for short) which is currently being discussed by Congress. The title of this controversial act is H.R. 3523 and it has been dubbed the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act. It is feared that CISPA is far worse than SOPA and PIPA in its possible effects on the Internet.
While this paper has been created under the guise of being a necessary weapon in the U.S. war against cyberattacks, the wording of the paper is vague and broad. It is thought that the act could allow Congress to circumvent existing exemptions to online privacy laws and would allow the monitoring and censorship of any user and also stop online communications which they deem disruptive to the government or to private parties. CISPA is described as a “cybersecurity” bill. It proposes to amend the National Security Act of 1947 to allow for greater sharing of “cyber threat intelligence” between the U.S. government and the private sector, or between private companies. The bill defines “cyber threat intelligence” as any information pertaining to vulnerabilities of, or threats to, networks or systems owned and operated by the U.S. government, or U.S. companies; or efforts to “degrade, disrupt, or destroy” such systems or networks; or the theft or “misappropriation” of any private or government information, including intellectual property. CISPA has also been condemned by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an online advocacy group. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) adds that CISPA’s definition of “cybersecurity” is so broad that “it leaves the door open to censor any speech that a company believes would ‘degrade the network.’” Moreover, the inclusion of “intellectual property” means that companies and the government would have “new powers to monitor and censor communications for copyright infringement.” According to both CDT and EFF, this means some of the largest corporations in the country, including online service providers like Google, Twitter, Facebook or AT&T could, if pressured, copy confidential information from a user and send this information to the Pentagon, as long as the government believes there is a reason to suspect wrongdoing.
Critics warn that CISPA gives private companies the ability to collect and share information about their customers or users with immunity — meaning we cannot sue them for doing so, and they cannot be charged with any crimes.

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Mozilla Stand Against CISPA, Saying The Bill Will Infringes on Our Privacy

Mozilla Stand Against CISPA, Saying The Bill Will Infringes on Our Privacy

 

When almost 99% of leading IT Industry, software giant like Microsoft, Facebook, AT&T, Intel, Verizon has been either silent or quietly supportive of the controversial bill HR 3523 Act dubbed the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). But here we get one exception late Tuesday, Mozilla’s Privacy and Public Policy lead sent me the following statement:-
"While we wholeheartedly support a more secure Internet, CISPA has a broad and alarming reach that goes far beyond Internet security. The bill infringes on our privacy, includes vague definitions of cybersecurity, and grants immunities to companies and government that are too broad around information misuse. We hope the Senate takes the time to fully and openly consider these issues with stakeholder input before moving forward with this legislation."

CISPA’s official supporters include Facebook, Microsoft, IBM, Intel, Oracle and Symantec among others–carriers including AT&T and Verizon have signed on, too. Despite reports that Microsoft had backed off its support for the bill citing privacy, a Microsoft spokesperson Monday told reporters that the company’s supportive position on CISPA remains “unchanged.”

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Anonymous Hit USTelecom & Tech America To Protest Against CISPA (#OpDefense)

Anonymous Hit USTelecom & Tech America To Protest Against CISPA (#OpDefense) 

As expected the protest against Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) took place. The hacker group Anonymous claimed responsibility for taking down the websites of USTelecom and Tech America while engaging massive distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, which both back the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2011. Both sites remained unreachable as of Monday afternoon. A member of Anonymous posted a YouTube video showing USTelecom's site down Sunday, and the site was down for about 24 hours, according to a USTelecom spokesman. The trade group discovered that the site was down at about 6 a.m. Monday, he said. 

Last Friday Anonymous released a YouTube video threatening supporters of the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, a bill focused on encouraging U.S. government agencies and private businesses to trade information about cyberattacks. The bill would harm the Internet, the video said. "We will unleash the worst pain on those who threaten our existence," the video added. The video declared Operation Defense (CISPA) and these two attacks ware the part of this ongoing operation. Earlier we have seen massive protest from not only hackers but also different part of the world in case of controversial SOPA, PIPA & ACTA. So again the history reveled for CISPA. 

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Facebook is Supporting Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA)

Facebook is Supporting Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA)

Facebook's vice-president of US public policy, Joel Kaplan said that Facebook is supporting HR 3523 Act dubbed the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). Not onlt fb but also AT&T, Intel, Verizon, and Microsoft are among some 800 firms who have reacted positively to the bill.In the official note Facebook said- "More than 845 million people trust Facebook with their information, and maintaining that trust is at the core of everything we do. Keeping the site secure to protect our users and their information requires a combination of technological innovations; around-the-clock coverage from our dedicated staff; and relationships within the broader security community."

Cispa "would make it easier for Facebook and other companies to receive critical-threat data from the US government", stated Mr Kaplan. "Importantly, HR 3523 would impose no new obligations on us to share data with anyone - and ensures that if we do share data about specific cyber threats, we are able to continue to safeguard our users' private information, just as we do today."

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#OpPhilippines - Anonymous Hacked & Defaced Several Philippine Govt Sites

#OpPhilippines -Anonymous Hacked & Defaced Several Philippine Govt Sites 

When the topic or act of Internet surveillance or Internet privacy rises its head, every time the Hacktivist group Anonymous stand against it. Earlier the world seen not only Anonymous but also hackers from different of the world joined in the protest against controversial act like SOPA, PIPA, ACTA or CISPA. Quit similar scenario happens to Philippines, as soon as the anti-cybercrime law get passed, immediately hackers shown a massive protest against it. The cyber fence of Philippine was heavily disturbed since Wednesday. At the very first stage of the attack the hacker group calling themselves "Anonymous Philippines" targeted several government, civil society and other private websites of Philippine and defaced them. This ongoing cyber attack against Philippine have been dubbed as Operation Philippine (#OpPhilippines)

As of Wednesday midnight, the website of Bangko Sentralng Pilipinas, Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System, the American Chamber of Commerce, and the Philippine Anti-Piracy Team succumbed to the cyber-attacks. The websites of the anti-smoking campaign unit of the Department of Health and think tank Institute for Development and Econometric Analysis followed suit, bringing to six the number of websites attacked. One hactivist announced the challenge to commit cyber-crime in social networking site Facebook by a user #pR.isOn3r.  The post hinted in its footnote that the BSP website was a target.

“Challenge Accepted,” the hacktivist said. “If speaking up against idiocy in government and unconstitutional amendments is a crime, then I am PROUD TO BE A CYBER CRIMINAL.”

“We are anonymous. We are Legion. United as one. Divided by none,” the hacktivist said. “The corrupt fear us. The honest support us. The heroic join us. Expect us.”

This attack followed by few more Govt sites and they are- National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), Philippine Information Agency (PIA) and the Food Development Center sites. 

Message of the Hacker on Deface Page:- 

“This domain name associated with GOV.PH has been seized pursuant to an order issued by Anonymous Philippines,

“A federal grand jury has indicated several individuals and entities allegedly involved in the operation of this website / department / office charging them with the following federal crimes: Conspiracy, Violations of Human Rights, Corruption, Copyright infringement, Money Laundering, PIRACY, Misuse of Devices, Libel, Plagiarism, and Destruction of Freedom of Speech.”

The attack is yet not over, The government portal of  Philippine also faced cyber attack. A twitter account which is recognized as one of of legitimate of source of hacker collective anonymous, took responsibility of engaging denial of service (DoS) attack against www.gov.ph 

"Anonymous Operation Philippines | Target: DOWN | http://www.gov.ph  | #Anonymous #OpPhilippines #FuckTheCyberCrimeLaw #Freedom  |" said the hacker, in his twitter

-Source (inquirer.net)

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President Obama & Congress Will Issue Long Awaited Executive Cyber Security Order

President Obama & Congress Will Issue Long Awaited Executive Cyber Security Order 

Last week we reported that Pentagon has declared that they are moving toward a major expansion of its cyber security force to counter increasing attacks on the nation’s computer networks, as well as to expand offensive computer operations on foreign adversaries. Just one week after this declaration another crucial movement came from the U.S. government.  A secret legal review on the use of America’s growing arsenal of cyber weapons has concluded that President Obama has the broad power to order a pre-emptive strike if the United States detects credible evidence of a major digital attack looming from abroad. According to sources President Barack Obama will issue a long-awaited cyber security executive order this week. Two former White House officials told the publication that the order is expected to be released after Tuesday night's State of the Union address. 

Given his status as commander-in-chief, Obama seems to be the clear choice, but since cyber warfare is such a new and unknown thing, the government hasn't actually figured out the rules of engagement yet. In the past couple of decades, the power to use America's cyber weapons has been shared between the Pentagon and the various intelligence agencies. With the exception of a series of strikes on the computer systems that run Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities an attack that Obama ordered himself the U.S. hasn't launched any major cyber attacks in recent memory, however. This probably won't be the case in the future. So the government is working on new rules of engagement, as it realizes that the capabilities of cyber weapons are evolving at a startling rate. The rules will be not unlike the set that governs how drone attacks are ordered and who orders them. Cyber warfare certainly stands to affect the average American more, though.  On Capitol Hill this week, Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.) and Rep. Mike Rodgers (R-Mich.) are set to reintroduce the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) during a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

According to an exclusive report the bill would allow the government to share classified cyber threats with the private sector so that those companies can then protect their systems from cyber attacks. The bill was killed last year due to privacy concerns. Civil-liberty groups argued that the bill allows companies to exchange too much personal information back and forth without regulation. 

-Source (Bloomberg, NY Times & Atlantic Wire)

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WikiLeaks Launched Wlfriends.org - New Encrypted Social Network

WikiLeaks Launched Wlfriends.org - New Encrypted Social Network

WikiLeaks Twitter feed announced on 20 May 2012 that the WL Friends/Friends of WikiLeaks (FoWL) network is ready to launch an 'encrypted Facebook' as the whistleblowing website claims that Facebook sells users' information to governments. Wikileaks also criticize Facebook recently came out in support of CISPA, a proposed US law that infringes on privacy and freedom of speech. So WL claimed that from now onwards Facebook cannot be trusted any more.

In the press release WL said- "FoWL is currently in its beta stage. This means that people from all over the world are registering to be part of this network to support WikiLeaks. For some time, nothing else will happen - we need the network to be of a certain size before we can start introducing you to candidate friends. Registering now will allow you to be a part of the network before the beta stage network gets full. As soon as we are ready to give you some candidate friends we will let you know."

One WikiLeaks tweet noted that "Facebook sells your information to governments, is lauded by MSM. WikiLeaks gives government information to you for free and we're terrorists". Following this statement, WikiLeaks tweeted a dozen reasons why this new site is better than Facebook.

Reasons:- 

1. WL Friends introduces you to people you want to know, but don't know yet. Facebook connects you to people you already know - no point.
2. Facebook is a mass surveillance tool. You put your friends into it, you betray your friends. Do friends betray friends? WL Friends doesn't know your friends. It introduces you to new friends.
3. Facebook records everything you do, hands it over to the US government and corporations. WL Friends doesn't.
4. WL Friends keeps your data so encrypted, not even the system admins can decrypt it. You and your friends decrypt on login automatically.
5. WL Friends uses military grade cryptography and the best industry standards (OpenPGP + Elliptic Curves).
6. WL Friends even uses homomorphic encryption for certain operations so WL Friends doesn't even know how many friends you have.
7. The more you use WL Friends, the less you use WL Friends. WL Friends is designed to build, not control, a robust network of shared value.
8. WL Friends is designed for more than just WikiLeaks. It is a general solution to build a robust support network under hostile conditions.
9. Friends of Israel, Friends of Palestine, Friends of the Tea Party, Friends of Catholicism are all possible with WL Friends.
10. WL Friends is designed to make infiltration costly. No person can be seen to be more important than any other or individually targeted.
11. WL Friends builds a strong support network instantly for any shared belief by connecting supporters in a way that maximizes communication.
12. As time goes by the WL Friends network for any shared belief is designed to mathematically grow stronger and stronger. 

-Source (WL Central, Wikileaks)

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