{"id":1227,"date":"2013-12-16T10:57:13","date_gmt":"2013-12-16T16:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/?p=1227"},"modified":"2015-04-24T16:51:39","modified_gmt":"2015-04-24T21:51:39","slug":"is-your-network-being-monitored-by-the-nsa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/is-your-network-being-monitored-by-the-nsa\/","title":{"rendered":"Is your Network Being Monitored by the NSA?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\"Edward<\/a>This year has proved to be something of an embarrassment for the US and UK governments, both having been caught red-handing spying on their own, and other country\u2019s, citizens by whistle-blower Edward Snowden. Of course, it\u2019s not the government themselves so to speak, but the agencies the US National Security Association (NSA) and UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ).\n<\/p>\n

\n\tSnowden is of course being pursued around the globe in order to halt the documentation that he\u2019s leaked to UK newspaper the Guardian<\/a> slowly over the course of the last six months, but for many ordinary people, the ex-CIA agent is something of a hero.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThis is all too reminiscent of an Orwellian state aka 1984 and I\u2019m sure I\u2019m far from the first to point out the \u2018Big Brother\u2019 aspect to the surveillance, but what does it mean to your business? Should you be worried about monitoring, or is it something that is acceptable?\n<\/p>\n

\n\tPrivacy Concerns<\/strong><\/span>
\n<\/h2>\n

\n\tWhile for consumers, the outrage is understandable (after all, surely we\u2019re all entitled to privacy in the comfort of our homes when participating in personal communications), are businesses too?\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to CSO<\/a>, for technology companies in the US it could impact heavily, as data is collected from corporations as heavily as it is from the consumer. This, CSO says: \u201ccould cause some serious international blowback for the U.S., both politically and economically\u201d.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tNot only is there a danger that corporate secrets surrounding intellectual properties could be exposed, but it\u2019s thought that the implications for the US\u2019 governance of the internet itself could be at stake.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\"NSA<\/a>\"The revelations that have emerged will undoubtedly trigger a reaction abroad as policymakers and ordinary users realize the huge disadvantages of their dependence on U.S.-controlled networks in social media, cloud computing, and telecommunications, and of the formidable resources that are deployed by U.S. national security agencies to mine and monitor those networks,\" Ron Deibert, a political science professor at the University of Toronto was cited as saying by CSO.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tClouds on the Horizon<\/strong><\/span>
\n<\/h2>\n

\n\tThere has been plenty of discussion surrounding what impact the revelations could have on the tech industry when it comes to cloud computing too. Many of world\u2019s largest cloud computing service providers are based in the US and so there is now not as much confidence in the market as there was.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe fear of surveillance is something which may prompt many cloud users to move to data centers located closer to their own location, geographically. However, this is a fear that seems to have settled in recent months as the world has come to realize that it\u2019s not all <\/em><\/strong>about the US spying, but is commonplace in many government agencies.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat sets the US aside is the sheer volume of data that they are sifting through under the \u2018war against terrorism<\/a>\u2019 umbrella. However, the huge list of keywords<\/a> that alert the NSA to supposed terror subjects could apply to any of us, at any time. I would challenge anyone to look at the list and say they have never used any of those words in a communication.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tWords such as dictionary, toad, fish, sweeping, virus \u2026 these are extremely common, as are many of them. However, this is not an up-to-date list (circa 1998), so it\u2019s not too much of a stretch to imagine how many more have been added.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat can Businesses do to Protect their Data?<\/strong><\/span>
\n<\/h2>\n

\n\t\"Googleplexwelcomesign\"<\/a> Not a great deal, it would seem, if the likes of Google and Yahoo are having trouble fighting against it. It has recently emerged that the NSA has been collecting information from major tech companies for some time and this has led to an open letter being published from the US\u2019 leading tech companies, as shown below:\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDear Mr. President and Members of Congress,\n<\/p>\n

\n\tWe understand that governments have a duty to protect their citizens. But this summer\u2019s revelations highlighted the urgent need to reform government surveillance practices worldwide. The balance in many countries has tipped too far in favor of the state and away from the rights of the individual \u2014 rights that are enshrined in our Constitution. This undermines the freedoms we all cherish. It\u2019s time for a change.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tFor our part, we are focused on keeping users\u2019 data secure \u2014 deploying the latest encryption technology to prevent unauthorized surveillance on our networks and by pushing back on government requests to ensure that they are legal and reasonable in scope.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tWe urge the US to take the lead and make reforms that ensure that government surveillance efforts are clearly restricted by law, proportionate to the risks, transparent and subject to independent oversight. To see the full set of principles we support, visit ReformGovernmentSurveillance.com\n<\/p>\n

\n\tSincerely,\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAOL, Apple, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Twitter, Yahoo\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n\tGoogle\u2019s chief legal officer has said that the snooping issue has been a concern to the search company for some time: \u201c\u201cWe are outraged at the lengths to which the government seems to have gone to intercept data from our private fiber networks, and it underscores the need for urgent reform,\u201d he said in a statement<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tPicking up the Monitoring<\/strong><\/span>
\n<\/h2>\n

\n\t\"Protect<\/a>So is it possible then to establish whether or not your network is indeed under surveillance? A high level of skill is needed to ascertain the appropriate information, although resources have inevitably popped up, such as this one<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tPerhaps what the NSA issue will eventually mean for the tech industry is that IT security professionals will come up with ways to ensure that the data stored by businesses, whether it be on site or in a data center, is better protected in the future.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThis will mean that the industry will have to change and essentially fight back, but it\u2019s the responsibility of every business that retains customer data to ensure that it\u2019s not available to any third party without the explicit agreement of the customer.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tWhatever the case, it\u2019s certainly been a bumpy ride for the US government this year and it would seem that it\u2019s not an issue that\u2019s going to go away any time soon. However, the IT industry has a responsibility to help ensure that the internet is a place of freedom all <\/em><\/strong>over the world and not just where it suits government agencies. It\u2019s the height of hypocrisy to allow the internet to be used as a political tool when it comes to oppressed citizens across the world and then deny freedom of expression to its own country\u2019s citizens.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the meantime, it\u2019s a case of securing your network as well as you can, utilizing tools such as latest generation firewalls and taking a layered approach to security. Monitoring tools can also help to ascertain if your network is being infiltrated too and this is all really something that any responsible company should be doing as a minimum anyway.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tImage Credits
\n\tLaura Poitras \/ Praxis Films [CC-BY-3.0 (http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
\n\tBy EFF (Own work) [CC-BY-3.0 (http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
\n\tBy Coolcaesar (Googleplexwelcomesign.jpg) [GFDL (www.gnu.org\/copyleft\/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0\/)], via Wikimedia Commons
\n\tBy Berishafjolla (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

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\n\t\"Share<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This year has proved to be something of an embarrassment for the US and UK governments, both having been caught red-handing spying on their own, and other country\u2019s, citizens by whistle-blower Edward Snowden. Of course, it\u2019s not the government themselves so to speak, but the agencies the US National Security Association (NSA) and UK Government […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1229,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,13,6,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-it","category-pc-security","category-tech","category-technical"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1227"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3550,"href":"https:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1227\/revisions\/3550"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}