House votes to continue NSA spying on citizens

[Fisherking]

Yes, I saw the article but looked for other sources and couldn’t find much at the time.

It is shameful, abusive, and someone would have to explain in great depth how they think it is remotely constitutional.

But it would seem that all of out government agencies, from federal to local are taking an equally heavy hand in dealing with people who do not wish to comply or surrender their rights.

http://elkodaily.com/news/state-and-...9bb2963f4.html

This may already be in the Police Abuse thread but to me it all ties together. Government vs. Citizens.

[Xiahou]

NYT via Snowden confirms what we already suspected.... N.S.A. Foils Much Internet Encryption

The N.S.A. hacked into target computers to snare messages before they were encrypted. In some cases, companies say they were coerced by the government into handing over their master encryption keys or building in a back door. And the agency used its influence as the world’s most experienced code maker to covertly introduce weaknesses into the encryption standards followed by hardware and software developers around the world.

Some of the agency’s most intensive efforts have focused on the encryption in universal use in the United States, including Secure Sockets Layer, or SSL; virtual private networks, or VPNs; and the protection used on fourth-generation, or 4G, smartphones. Many Americans, often without realizing it, rely on such protection every time they send an e-mail, buy something online, consult with colleagues via their company’s computer network, or use a phone or a tablet on a 4G network.

Simultaneously, the N.S.A. has been deliberately weakening the international encryption standards adopted by developers. One goal in the agency’s 2013 budget request was to “influence policies, standards and specifications for commercial public key technologies,” the most common encryption method.

The very organizations that the NSA set up to help companies design robust encryption have actually been used to do the opposite- introduce weakness. It's doubly upsetting to know not only can the NSA decrypt pretty much everything, but they do so by introducing security flaws that others could also exploit.

[Papewaio]

So how many billions/trillions of dollars is this going to potentially wipe out of the US IT economy long term?

[drone]

I imagine a large horde of geeks are currently going through the Linux source code at the moment.