Schneier on Security

Brian Dell • September 16, 2014 2:04 AM

“XKEYSCORE.. is not limited to or even used largely for the purposes of cybersecurity, as has been claimed, but is instead used primarily for reading individuals’ private email, text messages, and internet traffic.”

PRIMARILY for non-“cybersecurity” “purposes”? There’s no chance this isn’t a bit of an overstatement?

“… that solitary checkbox, the Five Eyes Defeat. One checkbox is what separates our most sacred rights from the graveyard of lost liberty.”

If only “one checkbox” “separates our most sacred rights from the graveyard of lost liberty” then why haven’t we heard about it, this “Five Eyes Defeat”, before Snowden revealing it this week?

Let’s not forget the various dubious claims Snowden has made:
– Claimed, without any evidence, that the CIA successfully bribed the Geneva police and judiciary
– Claimed that his salary was $200K until Booz said it was $122K. Has also repeatedly insisted that he was a big shot, saying earlier this summer that he “was actually functioning at a very senior level.”
– Called Reuters reporter Mark Rosenball a liar after Reuters ran a story that contradicted some of Snowden’s statements
– On June 24 of this year, a Council of Europe question for Snowden was “Can you be more precise about what internal actions you took and what kind of replies you got?” and Snowden’s reply was “I am working with the NSA in regard to these records and we’re going back and forth, so I don’t want to reveal everything that will come out because there’s still an ongoing debate. But what I can say is that… I went many colleagues… and also vertically: to supervisors, to managers, to directors, to people who worked above me… as well as the Office of General Counsel and the Office of Compliance…” This reply does not pass the smell test, as it is hard to believe that Snowden isn’t revealing evidence that exposes the NSA as liars out of deference to his, more than a year after his flight from the U.S., wanting to continue a “back and forth” with the NSA, as if he’s engaged in ongoing negotiations with his former employer so can’t make them look like liars.
– Said he has “to screen everything before releasing it to journalists” and that he “carefully evaluated every single document I disclosed to ensure that each was legitimately in the public interest. There are all sorts of documents that would have made a big impact that I didn’t turn over.” Later told a NYT reporter that before flying to Moscow, he gave all the classified documents he had obtained to journalists he met in Hong Kong, and did not keep any copies for himself. After that, however, Snowden contradicted himself, telling NBC News that he divested himself of everything before transiting RUssian not by giving it away but “by destroying the material.” How do you destroy what you’ve already given away?
– In Hong Kong Snowden told Guardian reporters that he checked into the Mira Hotel upon arrival in Hong Kong on May 20 and hardly ever went out. The WSJ fact checked this with Mira Hotel staff and found that he did not check in to the hotel until June 1.
– Both Snowden’s ACLU lawyer and his Kremlin-connected lawyer in Russia said the story in Kommersant about Snowden meeting with Russian diplomats before leaving Hong Kong was “false” yet just days later Putin himself admitted to the advance meeting. Snowden was also observed on CCTV cameras entering the Hong Kong tower where the Russian consulate is located.
– According to Snowden, “I was ticketed for onward travel via Havana—a planeload of reporters documented the seat I was supposed to be in—but the State Department decided they wanted me in Moscow, and cancelled my passport.” Aside from contradictions with Greenwald and the NYT about the timing of the ticketing, the facts are that Snowden’s passport was revoked by State more than 20 hours before Snowden left Hong Kong, as State had moved within a couple hours of Justice unsealing the indictment on Friday, June 21.
– Earlier this summer Snowden claimed that he lives “a surprisingly open life” in Russia and is recognized when he goes to computer stores yet none of the people who recognized him have come forward
– Snowden recently claimed that the NSA “bricked” a single router in Syria in 2012 and this was the reason Syria’s internet went down. The claim is implausible since 1) the Assad regime shut down the Syrian internet locally or nationally on a number of occasions and on each occasion a government attack was kicking off. It would be a huge coincidence if the NSA brought down the Syrian net just when Assad wanted them to. 2) Renesys noted on the day of the biggest outage (that Snowden is presumably referring to) some “blocks survived today’s Internet blackout in Syria, but 12 hours after the onset, they, too are off the air.” This 12 hour spacing doesn’t fit with Snowden’s story of the NSA bringing down everything by virtue of a one-off mistake and then failing in its efforts to bring it back. 3) Mobile phone coverage and interprovincial land line calls were lost at the same time. It stretches credulity to believe that a single router failure could have this effect on telephony. We’re not supposed to notice that Snowden has shifted the blame from a Russian ally, Assad, to the U.S. while Snowden is under Russian sanctuary?