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The Snowden files: where are they and where should they end up?
(Updated: April 28, 2019)Last month, The Intercept shut down access to the Snowden documents both for internal and external research. But where are these files in the first place, and what should be...
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Daniel Hale arrested for being the source of The Drone Papers
Since the start of the Snowden revelations in June 2013, there have been more than 25 publications based upon classified documents provided by other leakers than former NSA contractor Edward...
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The NSA's regional Cryptologic Centers
For many years, the US National Security Agency (NSA) was identified with its almost iconic dark-glass cube-shaped headquarters building at Fort Meade in Maryland.Only when Edward Snowden stepped...
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A document about the UKUSA partnership with unknown classification compartments
(Updated: September 13, 2019)A highly sensitive document about the intelligence sharing relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom reveals the existence of three classification...
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From 9-Eyes to 14-Eyes: the Afghanistan SIGINT Coalition (AFSC)
For over five years it was a mystery: the 9-Eyes intelligence cooperation, which was first revealed by The Guardian in November 2013. It was only an extensive new piece on the website The Intercept...
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The communications equipment in Trump's Situation Room photo
Last Sunday, October 27, the White House released a photo showing president Trump and his national security team in the Situation Room of the White House.The photo caused some discussion because people...
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Review of Snowden's book Permanent Record - Part I: At the CIA
More than 6 years after the first disclosure of Top Secret documents from the NSA, after numerous video appearances and more than 4000 tweets, Edward Snowden has now written an autobiography. It's...
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Leaked report reveals security risks at the Austrian security service BVT
A classified report that was published by an Austrian newspaper has revealed a range of security risks at the Austrian security service BVT, especially regarding its internal computer network.The...
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Review of Snowden's book Permanent Record - Part II: At the NSA
More than 6 years after the first disclosure of Top Secret documents from the NSA, after numerous video appearances and more than 4000 tweets, Edward Snowden has now written an autobiography. It's...
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US government uses Swiss diplomatic network to communicate with Iran
A number of countries are connected to each other through bilateral hotlines in order to prevent misunderstandings and miscommunications in times of severe crisis. But what when there's a crisis...
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The serial numbers of NSA reports
On January 14, the NSA disclosed a serious vulnerability in the CryptoAPI service of the Windows 10 operating system (vulnerability identifier: CVE-2020-0601) and in a rare public Cybersecurity...
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Edward Snowden and the STELLARWIND report
Last September, Edward Snowden published his memoir titled Permanent Record (see Part I and Part II of my extensive review). According to this book, he had one of his "atomic moments" when he read a...
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Maximator and other European SIGINT alliances
(Updated: May 19, 2020)One of the topics covered by this weblog is international cooperation among signals intelligence agencies. The Snowden-revelations already provided many details about the various...
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Bulk interception by Germany's BND and what the Constitutional Court said...
On May 19, the German Constitutional Court presented its decision in a case about the untargeted interception of foreign communications by the German foreign intelligence service BND.Unlike suggestive...
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NSA documents and cover names from the book Dark Mirror
On May 20, yet another book about the Snowden-revelations was published: Dark Mirror, Edward Snowden and the American Surveillance State. It's written by Barton Gellman, who was in direct contact with...
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A unique note from the BND about European SIGINT alliances
(Updated: July 22, 2020)Last April, an academic article by the Dutch professor for computer security Bart Jacobs revealed the existence of Maximator, a hitherto unknown SIGINT-sharing alliance of five...
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Head of Danish military intelligence suspended after misleading the oversight...
The Danish military intelligence service (Forsvarets Efterretningstjeneste or FE), which is also responsible for signals intelligence, has been accused of unlawful activities and deliberately...
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About the legality and constitutionality of the Section 215 metadata program
It was one of the NSA's most controversial activities: the bulk collection of domestic telephone records under the Section 215 program. On September 2, a court of appeal ruled that this violated the...
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Danish military intelligence uses XKEYSCORE to tap cables in cooperation with...
Last August, it came out that a whistleblower accused the Danish military and signals intelligence service (Forsvarets Efterretningstjeneste or FE) of unlawful activities and deliberately misleading...
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The NSA tried to spy on Danish and other European targets via cable tapping...
(Updated: December 2, 2020)According to new revelations by the Danish broadcaster DR, the NSA tried to use its collaboration with the Danish military intelligence service FE to spy on targets in some...
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