DefenceTalkIt would be another powerful tool in the arsenal of US and British spy services: encryption keys for a large share of the SIM cards used for mobile phones. A report by the investigative news website The Intercept, citing leaked documents from former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, said the US and British agencies […]https://www.defencetalk.com/stolen-sim-card-keys-could-be-powerful-spy-tool-63275/

DefenceTalkChina’s military on Thursday told the United States to end air and naval surveillance near its borders, saying it was damaging relations between the Pacific powers and could lead to “undesirable accidents”. The US should “take concrete measures to decrease close-in reconnaissance activities against China towards a complete stop”, defence ministry spokesman Yang Yujun said […]https://www.defencetalk.com/china-defence-ministry-tells-us-to-stop-close-in-surveillance-60473/

DefenceTalkWashington will push Beijing to crack down on cyber-spying and halt the theft of corporate data when the two powers meet next week for high-level talks, a US diplomat told AFP Wednesday. Concerns about widespread Internet hacking as well as regional maritime tensions will be among a slew of issues on the table during two […]https://www.defencetalk.com/us-to-push-china-on-hacking-at-high-level-talks-60021/

DefenceTalkThe Moscow-based Kommersant newspaper claims citing a source in the Russian Defense Ministry that the last satellite of the Oko-1 ballistic missile attack early warning system has been lost. In April, the 71XC satellite codenamed Cosmos-2479 stopped sending signals and became de-facto unmanageable, the source said, adding that attempts to reanimate it had failed. The […]https://www.defencetalk.com/russia-loses-its-last-early-warning-satellite-59992/

DefenceTalkThe US National Security Agency is scooping up large quantities of images of people for use in facial recognition programs, the New York Times reported Sunday, citing top secret documents. The Times said documents, which were obtained from fugitive former US intelligence analyst Edward Snowden, show a significant increase in reliance on facial recognition technology […]https://www.defencetalk.com/nsa-scoops-up-images-for-facial-recognition-programs-report-59741/

DefenceTalkThe use of home-made servers in Beijing’s national banks may prevent inclusion of hidden backdoors that facilitate intelligence gathering by the US National Security Agency, according to expert in the US-China relations, RIA Novosti reports. Chinese government institutions, including the People’s Bank of China and the Ministry of Finance, are reviewing domestic commercial banks’ reliance […]https://www.defencetalk.com/chinas-replace-ibm-servers-national-security-59729/

DefenceTalkA new push to encrypt email, keeping messages free from government snooping, is gaining momentum. One new email service promising “end-to-end” encryption launched on Friday, and others are being developed while major services such as Google Gmail and Yahoo Mail have stepped up security measures. A major catalyst for email encryption were revelations about widespread […]https://www.defencetalk.com/nsa-row-sparks-rush-for-encrypted-email-59615/

DefenceTalkChina’s President Xi Jinping questioned his US counterpart Barack Obama about reports that Washington had secretly tapped Chinese telecoms giant Huawei for years, a top security aide said Monday. “President Xi did raise that recent report in the context of their discussions on cyber-security,” Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser, told a press briefing. […]https://www.defencetalk.com/chinas-xi-challenges-obama-on-telecoms-spying-report-59136/

DefenceTalkThe National Security Agency has developed malware that allows it to collect data automatically from millions of computers worldwide, a report based on leaked documents showed Wednesday. The report co-authored by former Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald for the online news site The Intercept said the program has dramatically expanded the US spy agency’s ability to […]https://www.defencetalk.com/nsa-has-industrial-scale-malware-for-spying-report-59010/

DefenceTalkThe US National Security Agency has developed a secret technology to spy on computers via radio signals, gathering information even when the devices are offline, a report said Wednesday. The New York Times reported that the NSA has implanted software on 100,000 computers around the world to be able to conduct surveillance, and which gives […]https://www.defencetalk.com/nsa-taps-offline-computers-with-secret-bug-report-50127/