[BLU/Officers] Fwd: Linux Journal: Awesome Tech Magazine or Extremist Forum?

[jabr at blu.org (John Abreau)]

Well, this is disturbing.


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Linux Journal <LinuxJournalservices at linuxjournalservices.com>
Date: Tue, Jul 8, 2014 at 8:00 AM
Subject: Linux Journal: Awesome Tech Magazine or Extremist Forum?
To: jabr at blu.org


        *Linux Journal*: Awesome Tech Magazine or Extremist Forum?

 NSA: Linux Journal is an "extremist forum" and its readers get flagged for
extra surveillance
<http://linuxjournalservices.com/portal/wts/uemc%7Cy-e4kqqefyOvL%7CTrc%5EL%7CNDO2b>
*by
Kyle Rankin*

A new story published on the German site Tagesschau
<http://linuxjournalservices.com/portal/wts/uemc%7Cy-e4kqqefyOvL%7CTrcva%7CNDO2b>
and followed up by BoingBoing
<http://linuxjournalservices.com/portal/wts/uemc%7Cy-e4kqqefyOvL%7CTrcvq%7CNDO2b>
and DasErste.de
<http://linuxjournalservices.com/portal/wts/uemc%7Cy-e4kqqefyOvL%7CTrcv6%7CNDO2b>
has uncovered some shocking details about who the NSA targets for
surveillance including visitors to *Linux Journal* itself.

While it has been revealed before that the NSA captures just about all
Internet traffic for a short time, the Tagesschau story provides new
details about how the NSA's XKEYSCORE program decides which traffic to keep
indefinitely. XKEYSCORE uses specific selectors to flag traffic, and the
article reveals that Web searches for Tor and Tails--software I've covered
here in *Linux Journal* that helps to protect a user's anonymity and
privacy on the Internet--are among the selectors that will flag you as
"extremist" and targeted for further surveillance. If you just consider how
many *Linux Journal* readers have read our Tor and Tails coverage in the
magazine, that alone would flag quite a few innocent people as extremist.

While that is troubling in itself, even more troubling to readers on this
site is that linuxjournal.com has been flagged as a selector! DasErste.de
has published the relevant XKEYSCORE source code
<http://linuxjournalservices.com/portal/wts/uemc%7Cy-e4kqqefyOvL%7CTrcvL%7CNDO2b>,
and if you look closely at the rule definitions, you will see
linuxjournal.com/content/linux* listed alongside Tails and Tor. According
to an article on DasErste.de
<http://linuxjournalservices.com/portal/wts/uemc%7Cy-e4kqqefyOvL%7CTrcwa%7CNDO2b>,
the NSA considers *Linux Journal* an "extremist forum". This means that
merely looking for any Linux content on *Linux Journal*, not just content
about anonymizing software or encryption, is considered suspicious and
means your Internet traffic may be stored indefinitely.

One of the biggest questions these new revelations raise is why. Up until
this point, I would imagine most *Linux Journal* readers had considered the
NSA revelations as troubling but figured the NSA would never be interested
in them personally. Now we know that just visiting this site makes you a
target. While we may never know for sure what it is about *Linux Journal*
in particular, the Boing Boing article speculates that it might be to
separate out people on the Internet who know how to be private from those
who don't so it can capture communications from everyone with privacy
know-how. If that's true, it seems to go much further to target anyone with
Linux know-how.

It's bad news to all of us who use and read about Linux on a daily basis,
but fortunately we aren't completely helpless. Earlier in the year I
started a series on security, privacy and anonymity in my Hack and / column
that included articles on how to use the Tor browser bundle and Tails. With
either piece of software in place, you can browse *Linux Journal* (and the
rest of the Internet) in private.

Read this and other privacy-related stories at LinuxJournal.com.

   - A Bundle of Tor
   <http://linuxjournalservices.com/portal/wts/uemc%7Cy-e4kqqefyOvL%7CTrcwq%7CNDO2b>
   - Tails above the Rest: the Installation
   <http://linuxjournalservices.com/portal/wts/uemc%7Cy-e4kqqefyOvL%7CTrcw6%7CNDO2b>
   - Tails above the Rest, Part II
   <http://linuxjournalservices.com/portal/wts/uemc%7Cy-e4kqqefyOvL%7CTrcyq%7CNDO2b>
   - Are you an extremist?
   <http://linuxjournalservices.com/portal/wts/uemc%7Cy-e4kqqefyOvL%7CTrcy6%7CNDO2b>
   - Dolphins in the NSA Dragnet
   <http://linuxjournalservices.com/portal/wts/uemc%7Cy-e4kqqefyOvL%7CTrcyL%7CNDO2b>

          Are you an extremist? Get the T-Shirt!

Get the T-Shirt by itself or take advantage of our special (and temporary)
offer and get a 1-year subscription with your shirt for just $10 more!
[image: Order Now]
<http://linuxjournalservices.com/portal/wts/uemc%7Cy-e4kqqefyOvL%7CTrcza%7CNDO2b>
     [image: Linux Journal Reader - EXTREMIST T-Shirt]
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-- 
John Abreau / Executive Director, Boston Linux & Unix
Email jabr at blu.org / WWW http://www.abreau.net / 2013 PGP-Key-ID 0x920063C6
2013 / ID 0x920063C6 / FP A5AD 6BE1 FEFE 8E4F 5C23  C2D0 E885 E17C 9200 63C6
2011 / ID 0x32A492D8 / FP 7834 AEC2 EFA3 565C A4B6  9BA4 0ACB AD85 32A4 92D8
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