PRISM

Pierluigi Paganini January 23, 2014
Who is spying on Tor network exit nodes from Russia?

Researchers Winter and Lindskog identified 25 nodes of Tor network that tampered with web traffic, decrypted the traffic, or censored websites. Two researchers, Philipp Winter and Stefan Lindskog of Karlstad University in Sweden, presented the results of a four-month study  conducted to test Tor network exit nodes for sneaky behavior, it has been discovered that a not specified Russian […]

Pierluigi Paganini January 07, 2014
Project NETRA – The Indian Internet Surveillance

The Indian Government is launching Netra project for internet surveillance. Obvious concerns for online privacy and freedom of expression of Indian population. The Internet surveillance in India is reality thanks  a project codenamed NETRA (Network Traffic Analysis), it is able to detect and automatically capture any voice traffic passing through software such as VoIP systems […]

Pierluigi Paganini January 02, 2014
DROPOUTJEEP – How NSA completely controls your iPhone

Leaked documents shared by Der Spiegel show how NSA spyware codenamed DROPOUTJEEP can spy on every Apple iPhone. Apple denies any claim. Users buy the iPhone, NSA controls them. This is not a slogan for the last Apple advertising, it is the uncomfortable truth revealed by another set of NSA documents leaked by Snowden and […]

Pierluigi Paganini November 01, 2013
I don’t like – Facebook Clickjacking and track screen cursors

A misleading script to increase the number of “I like” and an invasive technology to track screen cursors are threatening the Facebook users. The social media are money machines, the interest of private companies, governments and cybercrime are increasing exponentially. Security experts are observing an alarming trend, a growing number of subjects are spending a […]

Pierluigi Paganini October 12, 2013
NSA FOXACID servers used to drive the hack into target systems

NSA leaked documents reveals the existence of FOXACID servers that provides an automated hacking platform used to drive operators into hacking targets. Security expert Bruce Schneier revealed in a recent post that the NSA has a wide-ranging arsenal of zero-day exploits to use for cyber operations, mainly used for cyber espionage campaigns. The effort spent by government for the […]

Pierluigi Paganini October 06, 2013
How NSA tries to compromise Tor anonymity. Tor Stinks document

Top-secret presentation Tor Stinks leaked by Snowden shows the techniques implemented by the NSA to overwhelm Tor Anonymity with manual analysis. Tor anonymity has been debated many times, according to majority security experts it was one of the most secure ways to stay online being far from prying eyes avoiding government surveillance. Recently a series of events have completely changed […]

Pierluigi Paganini September 09, 2013
Surveillance – NSA can access data on your mobile device

The German news agency Der Spiegel reported last act of US surveillance, the NSA is able to access data stored in a wide range of mobile devices including Android, iPhone and BlackBerry. Here we are with weekly news on NSA surveillance activities, last week we were shocked by the news on Bullrun program meanwhile today we discuss on the capability of the agency to access data stored […]

Pierluigi Paganini September 08, 2013
Mevade botnet responsible for the spike in Tor traffic

Security researchers at Fox-IT firm found evidence that the spike in Tor traffic is caused by a Mevade botnet that hides its C&C in the anonymizing network. Is the Mevade malware the real responsible for the spike observed in the number of users directly connected to the Tor network? In an article I wrote recently I analyzed the impact on the use […]

Pierluigi Paganini September 07, 2013
NSA Bullrun program, encryption and false perception of security

Revelations on Bullrun program demonstrated that NSA has capabilities against widely-used online protocols such as HTTPS and encryption standards. The latest nightmare for US Administration is named Bullrun, another US program for massive surveillance. Snowden‘s revelations represented a heartquake for IT security, the image of NSA and US IT companies are seriously compromised such the trust of worldwide […]

Pierluigi Paganini August 31, 2013
PRISM repercussion on the Tor network accesses

The article proposes the analysis of the impact on the use of the Tor network after the events related to PRISM surveillance program disclosure. The use of Tor Network to preserve user’s anonymity and to avoid government surveillance, we discussed this topic several times explaining that through the analysis of Tor metrics data it was possible to […]