Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. 24/7 Space News .




CYBER WARS
NSA denies exploiting 'Heartbleed' vulnerability
by Staff Writers
Washington (AFP) April 11, 2014


Greenwald back in US after NSA revelations
New York (AFP) April 11, 2014 - US reporter Glenn Greenwald returned to his homeland Friday for the first time since he helped expose Washington's vast electronic spying network, warning that more revelations are yet to come.

Greenwald, who maintains regular contact with fugitive former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, flew into New York with filmmaker Laura Poitras to receive a journalism award for their coverage.

Greenwald and Poitras had feared they could be detained upon arrival but told reporters at a Manhattan hotel that, while US officials "deliberately created" a sense of risk, they faced no problem.

Based in Brazil with his partner, who was arrested at London's Heathrow airport and briefly held last August, Greenwald said he wants to travel freely to the United States without fear of harassment.

He paid tribute to Snowden, saying the young technician had taken an enormous risk in orchestrating the largest intelligence leak in US history, which has triggered a global debate about mass surveillance.

Greenwald maintains regular contact with the man he and many supporters consider a whistleblower, but who has been branded a traitor and a security threat by several US officials.

"I don't think we could help the US government get to him in Russia," Greenwald said when asked about his contact.

He also warned that the vast trove of documents given to him and Poitras and other journalists by Snowden before he fled to Russia still contain many startling secrets that have yet to emerge.

"In my opinion the stories that are the most significant and most shocking and will have the broadest and most enduring implications are the ones we're currently working on," he said.

Poitras, an award-winning American filmmaker based in Berlin, said she had been stopped nearly 40 times over the last six years at US borders but had no problem on Friday.

She said there was a "very real" risk of being subpoenaed.

"The fact that we're here is not an indication that there isn't a threat. We know there is a threat," she told reporters. "The reason we're here is we're not going to succumb to those threats."

Greenwald and Poitras shared the George Polk Award for national security reporting with Ewen MacAskill of The Guardian and Barton Gellman of The Washington Post, who also covered Snowden's leaks.

Greenwald, MacAskill and Poitras interviewed Snowden last June in Hong Kong, where he first revealed himself after fleeing the United States with his vast stockpile of secret NSA documents.

James Clapper, the US director of national intelligence, has branded the journalists Snowden's "accomplices", telling them to return stolen documents to prevent "more damage" to US security.

Greenwald, who broke the story for The Guardian, now heads the editorial board at The Intercept, a new online magazine backed by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar.

The awards were established in 1949 by Long Island University to commemorate Polk, a US correspondent murdered in 1948 while covering the Greek civil war.

The US National Security Agency on Friday denied a report claiming it was aware of and even exploited the "Heartbleed" online security flaw to gather critical intelligence.

The stern denial came amid growing panic among Internet users the world over about the newly exposed flaw, after a report by Bloomberg News said the spy agency decided to keep quiet about the matter and even used it to scoop up more data, including passwords.

"NSA was not aware of the recently identified vulnerability in OpenSSL, the so-called Heartbleed vulnerability, until it was made public in a private-sector cybersecurity report," NSA spokeswoman Vanee Vines said in an email.

"Reports that say otherwise are wrong."

OpenSSL is online-data scrambling software commonly used to protect passwords, credit card numbers and other data sent via the Internet.

A White House official also denied that any US agency was aware of the bug before it was revealed by security researchers earlier this month.

"Reports that NSA or any other part of the government were aware of the so-called Heartbleed vulnerability before April 2014 are wrong," White House national security spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in a statement.

"This administration takes seriously its responsibility to help maintain an open, interoperable, secure and reliable Internet.

"If the federal government, including the intelligence community, had discovered this vulnerability prior to last week, it would have been disclosed to the community responsible for OpenSSL."

- 'Part of NSA arsenal' -

Bloomberg, citing two people said to be familiar with the matter, said the NSA was able to make Heartbleed part of its "arsenal" to obtain passwords and other data, without making public a vulnerability which could affect millions of Internet users.

The report said the secretive intelligence agency has more than 1,000 experts devoted to ferreting out these kinds of flaws and found the Heartbleed glitch shortly after its introduction.

The agency then made it part of its "toolkit for stealing account passwords and other common tasks," the report said.

The claim was met with concerns in the security community.

"If the NSA really knew about Heartbleed, they have some *serious* explaining to do," cryptographer Matthew Green said on Twitter.

The Heartbleed flaw lets hackers snatch packets of data from working memory in computers, creating the potential for them to steal passwords, encryption keys, or other valuable information.

Warnings about the dangers have expanded in recent days, with everyone from website operators and bank officials to Internet surfers and workers who tele-commute being told their data could be in danger.

NSA was already in the spotlight after months of revelations about its vast data-gathering capabilities, along with partner intelligence agencies.

Documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden indicated that the NSA has been able to collect data from millions of phone records and Internet conversations as part of its intelligence gathering.

NSA officials argue they use such data only to help root out suspected terrorists.

President Barack Obama has ordered reforms that would halt government bulk collection of telephone records, but critics argue this does not go far enough to protect civil liberties.

.


Related Links
Cyberwar - Internet Security News - Systems and Policy Issues






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle




Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News





CYBER WARS
Cuba plans own social media sites after US row
Havana (AFP) April 09, 2014
Cuba plans to launch its own social media networks to counter "subversive" ones such as a Twitter-like app the United States was funding, an official said Wednesday. Last week, the White House acknowledged the existence between 2009 and 2012 of "ZunZuneo," which was set up by USAID so that Cubans, who face strict curbs on expression, could "talk freely among themselves" on their cell phones. ... read more


CYBER WARS
Science, Discovery Channels to broadcast private race to the moon

Take the Plunge: LADEE Impact Challenge

Land a Lunar Laser Reflector Now!

New research finds 'geologic clock' that helps determine moon's age

CYBER WARS
Mars Exploration in a Deep Mine

NASA's rover Curiosity discovers Australia on Mars, sort of

Opportunity Moves Further Southwest On Murray Ridge

What's so hard about counting craters?

CYBER WARS
Orion Avionics System Ready for First Test Flight

New Catalog Brings NASA Software Down to Earth

Using ethic frameworks for decisions about health standards on long duration spaceflights

China, Asia-Pacific, will power world tourism: survey

CYBER WARS
China launches experimental satellite

Tiangong's New Mission

"Space Odyssey": China's aspiration in future space exploration

China to launch first "space shuttle bus" this year

CYBER WARS
Progress Departs, New Cargo Ships Awaiting Launch

Progress M-22M to be undocked from ISS and sent on science mission

Is "divorce" between Russian and US space agencies possible?

ISS conducts debris avoidance maneuver

CYBER WARS
On-board camera provides a unique perspective on Arianespace Flight VS07

The DZZ-HR satellite is fueled for Arianespace's upcoming Vega launch

EUTELSAT 3B Mission Status Update

Soyuz ready for Sentinel-1A satellite launch

CYBER WARS
The Importance of Planetary Plumes

Orbital physics is child's play with 'Super Planet Crash'

Lick's Automated Planet Finder: First robotic telescope for planet hunters

Space Sunflower May Help Snap Pictures of Planets

CYBER WARS
Middle Eastern country orders more border radar

Dropbox out to be a home in the Internet 'cloud'

Vanguard Space Technologies Antenna Reflectors on Amazonas Satellite Launch

Headwall Extends Global Reach in Asia/Pac and Israel




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service.