Pocket-protector terrorists?
by digby
Must be. The government is monitoring their private communications and they have assured us that they only monitor people they have reason to believe are a threat:
With these stolen encryption keys, intelligence agencies can monitor mobile communications without seeking or receiving approval from telecom companies and foreign governments. Possessing the keys also sidesteps the need to get a warrant or a wiretap, while leaving no trace on the wireless provider’s network that the communications were intercepted. Bulk key theft additionally enables the intelligence agencies to unlock any previously encrypted communications they had already intercepted, but did not yet have the ability to decrypt.
As part of the covert operations against Gemalto, spies from GCHQ — with support from the NSA — mined the private communications of unwitting engineers and other company employees in multiple countries…
Leading privacy advocates and security experts say that the theft of encryption keys from major wireless network providers is tantamount to a thief obtaining the master ring of a building superintendent who holds the keys to every apartment. “Once you have the keys, decrypting traffic is trivial,” says Christopher Soghoian, the principal technologist for the American Civil Liberties Union. “The news of this key theft will send a shock wave through the security community.”
You just never know which engineer might be aiding some terrorists somewhere, even by accident. Best monitor all of their communications. Just in case.
But hey, if you’re not a terrorist or a drug dealer or a money launderer or a journalist or an activist or a Muslim or a government worker or an engineer or possibly anyone who might be mistaken for any of them or might know someone who knows someone who knows any of those people you have nothing to worry about. Relax.
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