The NSA may have the ability to intercept data from around the world, but we now know that it has some impressive (and intimidating) equipment for snooping on nearby targets. Security guru Jacob Appelbaum told those at the Chaos Communications Congress this weekend that the NSA's big box of tools includes Nightstand , a custom device that can compromise WiFi networks for the sake of inserting spy software. The Linux-powered device can exploit Windows systems from up to eight miles away; it's unlikely that you'll catch agents wardriving in the parking lot. Nightstand may not see significant use today given that it dates back to 2008, but its existence suggests that the NSA also has newer, more advanced WiFi surveillance gear at its disposal. http://www.engadget.com/2013/12/30/nsa-can-hack-wifi-devices-from-eight-miles-away/

Following up on the latest stunning revelations released yesterday by German Spiegel which exposed the spy agency's 50 page catalog of " backdoor penetration techniques ", today during a speech given by Jacob Applebaum (@ioerror) at the 30th Chaos Communication Congress, a new bombshell emerged: specifically the complete and detailed description of how the NSA bugs, remotely, your iPhone.  The way the NSA accomplishes this is using software known as Dropout Jeep, which it describes as follows: "DROPOUT JEEP is a software implant for the Apple iPhone that utilizes modular mission applications to provide specific SIGINT functionality.  This functionality includes the ability to remotely push/pull files from the device. SMS retrieval, contact list retrieval, voicemail, geolocation, hot mic, camera capture, cell tower location, etc. Command, control and data exfiltration can occur over SMS messaging or a GPRS data connection. All communications with the implant wil...

A former political reporter turned the tables on a former spy chief. Tom Matzzie, who last wrote for Huffington Post, overheard former NSA director Michael Hayden Thursday afternoon bashing the Obama Administration ‘on background’ – and live-tweeted the whole conversation. A source talking on background can be directly quoted, but cannot be cited by name and is usually referred to ambiguously – in this case as ‘a former senior administration official.’ ‘Former NSA spy boss Michael Hayden on Acela behind me blabbing ‘on background as a former senior admin official’ Sounds defensive,’ Mr Matzzie tweeted just before 4:30pm. Sitting directly  in front of Mr Hayden while riding an Acela train that left Washington, D.C. at 3pm, Mr Matzzie had a front row seat to listen in on multiple interviews being given by the former head spook. Mr Hayden spoke critically of the Obama Administration on topics ranging from 'a famous blackberry' to rendition and black sites, Mr Matzzie detailed in...

The NSA has been graphing American’s social networks and plotting them as they do organized crime since at least 2010, according to the latest published Edward Snowden leak. The highly secretive intelligence agency has been mapping out American citizens’ social connections – identifying associates, determining locations, and logging who they talk to – by taking advantage of loosened rules previously meant to restrict surveillance actions. As far back as November, 2010, the agency authorized spies to conduct ‘large-scale graph analysis on very large sets of communications metadata without having to check foreignness,’ the New York Times revealed Saturday. The agency augmented that information with bank codes, insurance information, Facebook profiles, passenger manifests, voter registration rolls, property records and tax data, the Times further divulged. There does not appear to be any restriction on the types of data culled, or who it is gather on, the Times noted. First ...