Upset over US cyber spying!

There are increasingly strong reactions to revelations that United States agencies are spying on Internet use by Americans and foreigners as well as planning cyber actions on foreign targets.

 

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THE revelations of data collection on a massive scale by the United States’ security agencies of details of telephone calls and Internet use of its citizens and foreigners are having reverberations around the world.

Much of the responses have been on the potential invasion of privacy of individuals not only in the United States but anywhere in the world who use US-based Internet servers.

Also revealed is a US presidential directive to security agencies to draw up a list of potential overseas targets for US cyber-attacks.

This lays the Unites States open to charges of double standards and hypocrisy: accusing other countries of engaging in Internet snooping or hacking and cyber warfare, when it has itself established the systems to do both on a mega scale.

The revelations, published in the Guardian and Wall Street Journal, and based on a leak by a former US intelligence official, include that US security agencies have access to telephone data of Verizon Communications, AT&T and Sprint Nextel, as well as from credit card transactions.

They also can access data from major Internet companies – Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Facebook, AOL, Apple, PalTalk, Skype and YouTube—under the Prism surveillance programme.

Millions of Internet users around the world use the servers or web-based services of the companies mentioned.

Two American citizen groups, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the New York Civil Liberties Union, have filed a lawsuit against the US administration.

“Those programmes constitute unreasonable intrusions into American’s private lives that’s protected by the Fourth Amendment (on search and seizure),” said Brett Kaufman of the ACLU, as quoted by IPS news agency.

Governments and people outside the United States are equally upset, or more so, that they apparently are also covered by the massive US surveillance programme.

The European Union’s commissioner of justice Viviane Reding has written to the US attorney general asking if European citizens’ personal information had been part of the intelligence gathering, and what avenues are available for Europeans to find out if they had been spied on.

In China, commentators and opinion makers are citing double standards on the part of the United States.

An article in the China Daily commented that the massive US global surveillance programme as revealed is certain to stain Washington’s overseas image and test developing China-US ties.

An editorial in another Chinese paper, Global Daily, stated: “China needs to seek an explanation from Washington.

“We are not bystanders. The issue of whether the United States as an Internet superpower has abused its powers touches on our vital interests directly.”

In their summit last week in California, United States President Barack Obama reportedly pressed Chinese President Xi Jinpeng to curb cyber-spying by Chinese agencies and companies.

The breaking news about the United States snooping on Internet users must have caused some discomfort to Obama when bringing up this issue.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson last week reiterated that “China is also a victim to the most sophisticated cyber hacking”.

Though less publicised, a part of the leaks published in the Guardian, was a 18-page directive from President Obama to his security and intelligence officials to draw up a list of potential overseas targets for US cyber-attacks.

The October 2012 directive states that what it calls Offensive Cyber Effects Operations (OCEO) “can offer unique and unconventional capabilities to advance US national objectives around the world with little or no warning to the adversary or target and with potential effects ranging from subtle to severely damaging”, according to the June 7 Guardian article by Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill.

The directive says the government will “identify potential targets of national importance where OCEO can offer a favorable balance of effectiveness and risk as compared with other instruments of national power”.

The aim of the document was “to put in place tools and a framework to enable government to make decisions” on cyber actions, a senior administration official told the Guardian.

Obama’s move to establish a potentially aggressive cyber warfare doctrine will heighten fears over the increasing militarisation of the Internet, comments the Guardian article.

It adds that the United States is understood to have already participated in at least one major cyber attack, the use of the Stuxnet computer worm targeted on Iranian uranium enrichment centrifuges, the legality of which has been the subject of controversy.

In the presidential directive, the criteria for offensive cyber operations in the directive is not limited to retaliatory action but vaguely framed as advancing “US national objectives around the world”.

Obama further authorised the use of offensive cyber attacks in foreign nations without their government’s consent whenever “US national interests and equities” require such non-consensual attacks. It expressly reserves the right to use cyber tactics as part of what it calls “anticipatory action taken against imminent threats”.

The Guardian commented: “The revelation that the US is preparing a specific target list for offensive cyber-action is likely to reignite previously raised concerns of security researchers and academics, several of whom have warned that large-scale cyber operations could easily escalate into full-scale military conflict.”

Meanwhile, UN Human Rights Council’s Special Rapporteur Frank La Rue issued a report on June 4 on the increasing use of surveillance, warning that unfettered state access to surveillance technologies could compromise human rights to privacy and freedom of expression, as protected by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

The report warned too against the use of “an amorphous concept of national security” as a reason to invade people’s rights to privacy and freedom of expression, arguing that such an invasion potentially “threatens the foundations of a democratic society”.

Global Trends
By MARTIN KHOR

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US Spy Snowden Says U.S. Hacking China Since 2009

Support: Protesters shout slogans in support of former US spy Edward Snowden as march to the US consulate in Hong Kong

Video:
Director Robert Mueller says Edward Snowden has caused damage to national security.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2341451/Whistleblower-Edward-Snowden-smuggled-secrets-everyday-thumb-drive-banned-NSA-offices.html
 

The United States has hacked hundreds of Chinese civilians since 2009. But its favored hacking technique isn't to target individual PCs via advanced persistent threat (APT) attacks, in the manner of the Chinese military. Instead, it prefers to compromise foreign network backbones, thus potentially gaining access to hundreds of thousands of systems at once. 

 That revelation was delivered by whistle-blower Edward Snowden, until recently a contractor for the National Security Agency. He emerged from hiding Wednesday to grant an interview to Hong Kong's South China Morning Post.

"We hack network backbones -- like huge Internet routers, basically -- that give us access to the communications of hundreds of thousands of computers without having to hack every single one," he told the Post.

According to NSA documents reviewed by the Post, which haven't been verified, targets of the NSA's Prism program have included computers in both mainland China and Hong Kong. People targeted included systems at Hong Kong's Chinese University, as well as government officials, businesses and students in the region. But the Post reported that the program didn't appear to target Chinese military systems.

 [ Security standoff at recent U.S.-China summit: Read U.S.-Chinese Summit: 4 Information Security Takeaways. ]
 
According to Snowden, he learned of at least 61,000 such NSA hacking operations globally. The Post didn't specify whether those operations all allegedly occurred since 2009.

Why go public with the NSA's alleged hacking campaign? Snowden said he wanted to highlight "the hypocrisy of the U.S. government when it claims that it does not target civilian infrastructure, unlike its adversaries."

"Not only does it do so, but it is so afraid of this being known that it is willing to use any means, such as diplomatic intimidation, to prevent this information from becoming public," he said.

Snowden first arrived in Hong Kong May 20, and said that the choice of venue wasn't accidental. "People who think I made a mistake in picking Hong Kong as a location misunderstand my intentions. I am not here to hide from justice, I am here to reveal criminality," he said, noting that he planned to stay until "asked to leave." Noting that the U.S. government had already been "bullying" Hong Kong authorities into extraditing him, Snowden said that he would legally fight any such attempt.

How will Hong Kong handle Snowden's case? "We can't comment on individual cases," Hong Kong's chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, told Bloomberg Wednesday. "We'll handle the case according to our law."

Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China, and Beijing could influence the government's legal thinking. But when asked in a Thursday press conference if the Chinese government had received any requests from Washington related to Snowden's case, Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman for China's foreign ministry, said only: "We have no information to offer," reported The Hindu in India.

Snowden previously said he would prefer to "seek asylum in a country with shared values," and named Iceland. Asked to respond to a spokesman for Russian president Vladimir Putin recently saying that were Snowden to apply for asylum in his country, authorities would consider his request, Snowden replied: "My only comment is that I am glad there are governments that refuse to be intimidated by great power."

Snowden said he hadn't contacted his family since leaving the country, but feared for both their safety as well as his own. He also appeared disinclined to glorify what he'd done. "I'm neither traitor nor hero. I'm an American," he said. "I believe in freedom of expression. I acted in good faith but it is only right that the public form its own opinion."

How has China reacted to Snowden's revelations that the NSA is spying on the Chinese? Chinese foreign ministry spokewoman Hua said in a regular press conference Thursday that the government has been following the revelations of NSA monitoring detailed by Snowden, and she repeated calls from the Chinese government -- agreed to in principle at last week's U.S.-China summit in California -- to launch a cybersecurity working group to increase "dialogue, coordination and cooperation" between the two countries.

"We also think adoption of double standards," she said, "will bring no benefit to settlement of the relevant issue."

By  Mathew J. Schwartz
IT finally has its security priorities right, our annual survey shows. Also in the new, all-digital Strategic Security issue of InformationWeek: Five counterintuitive insights on innovation from our recent CIO Summit.

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Gen Y – they are different, deal with it

Understand them, get the best out of them rather than trying to remould them

SINCE I started the column about a year ago, I often get requests to write about the “younger” generation (Gen-Y).

They are also referred to as Millennias, those born from 1981-1991 (22-year-olds who are new graduates joining the workforce to those who are in the early 30s). Some famous people in this generation include Mark Zuckerberg and Lady Gaga.

There are many surveys to find out who they are, their characteristics and how to better manage them. There are many studies on them because they make up 25% of the world's population.

Retailers, computer and mobile phone companies, games and gadget producers would certainly like to know their tastes, habits, likes and dislikes. Financial institutions would like to know their spending patterns, propensity to save, online purchasing habits, among others.

At work, managers, senior managers and many of the older generation would like to know how to better relate and work with them.

The complaints my friends have about Gen-Y would be something like this:

They have hired a young graduate from a good school, the resume looked impressive, he is pleasant looking, dresses professionally and speaks quite well.

Six to eight months into work, and the guy seems to be always late for work, late for important meetings, appears distracted at work, cannot be reached (on handphone), leaves work at 6:30pm and complains he has no work-life balance, makes mistakes in documents and presentations to clients, goes to meeting unprepared the list goes on.

“When you give them feedback, they don't take it too well and may want to resign.

“They don't know what they don't know. They make mistakes and think they are right. They have unrealistic expectations and think they were unfairly treated.

“They are choosy about what they do. They want interesting and exciting work but cannot deliver. They don't take on much responsibilities but think they should be paid more”.

Someone asked me what they could do to change them. I thought it ought to be the other way around we need to change our ways, expectations and how we work with them.

The generation is a reflection of the society they have grown up in. They didn't cycle nor walked to school. They didn't grow up poor and deprived.

They grew up in a world of celebrities, designer goods, smart phones, computers and the Internet, 24/7 connectivity, iPod, Facebook, Youtube and addictive e-games (instead of games played in the field, rivers or jungle).

They are different in many ways. Accept it and deal with it.

We believe in doing one thing at a time and being focused. Are they distracted and cannot focus or are they good at multitasking?

At work, they listen to music, chat and surf all at the same time. When they are chatting, it is not with one person at a time but with half a dozen different chat groups (as opposed to a few individuals).

They move more they spin the pen when they are at their desk, they click the mouse and turn the pages faster. They have so many windows opened, they flip back and forth.

While they are eating, they surf, text, send pictures on Instagram, make Facebook posts, listen to music, tweet and have conversation with the person in front of them or maybe squeeze in a game at the same time. That is the way they are.

That means they can handle eight tasks while having a meal which equals to higher productivity.

Be sure to engage them with multi tasks and challenging tasks. Don't assume they ought to slowly learn the ropes like how it was 20 to 30 years ago when we were a new graduate. Take advantage of their savviness by having them set up tools, work on complex spread sheets and make searches, gather data or come up with ideas.

(There may be qualifications why you will not assign certain work to them. But if you don't and let them make the mistakes, they would miss the learning opportunity and become bored)

They are used to direct communications having grown up with emails, tweets, handphones, smses, messengers, facebook; they don't like the rigid hierarchy in the organisation or being limited by their position.

If they have something on their mind, they should be able to talk to or email someone higher in the organisation (regardless of level) rather than their immediate superior who don't seem to be able to help or understand.

This can be a positive. They are helping highlight stifling work environment that we have got used to and give meaning to better collaboration between different levels in the organisation. Their opinion counts. We need to get used to their feedback and having our views questioned.

Retention is an issue. They may move on for something more interesting or aspire to be entrepreneurs. How could they not when there are so many Internet multi-millionaires or those who became multi millionaires because they started a business or sold an application to Yahoo or Facebook.

They have been told by billionaires, actors and many successful personalities “not to settle”, they can do anything they set their mind to and should dare to fail.

Inspire them with the right ambitions at work. They are a group prepared to work hard if you can show how the hard work fuels that ambition. Spend time to understand their personal buyer values what they value most in their job and aspire for.

Every generation complains about the next generation. The new generation is somehow less respectful, less hardworking but somehow in time they will become responsible adults with major responsibilities at work and as parents.

The hippies from the 70s became responsible adults and CEOs.

Gen Y is our future. If you are at work or at home with them, spend more time with them. They will shape trends, politics, culture, our work place and many other aspects in the world.

If you experience pain and frustration trying to convince your young boss how things are done in the past, don't try too hard. Listen to his ideas and get used to his ways. You may find that you can still learn and develop.

They are different, they are here to stay. Get used to it... until Gen Z comes.

TAKE ON CHANGE By JOAN HOI  
 Joan Hoi is the author of Take on Change. We need to throw out some of our old selves to better appreciate this young, fun and bright group!

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