- cypherpunks-legacy - lists.cpunks.org

NSA Mimics Google, Pisses Off Senate
by Eugen Leitl 18 Jul '12

18 Jul '12

http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/07/nsa-accumulo-google-bigtable/ NSA Mimics Google, Pisses Off Senate By Cade Metz July 17, 2012 | 6:30 am | Categories: Database Software Follow @cademetz The Senate Armed Service Committee isnbt exactly pleased with the NSAbs Google-like database. Image: jim.greenhill/Flickr In 2008, a team of software coders inside the National Security Agency started reverse-engineering the database that ran Google. They closely followed the Google research paper describing BigTable b the sweeping database that underpinned many of the Googlebs online services, running across tens of thousands of computer servers b but they also went a little further. In rebuilding this massive database, they beefed up the security. After all, this was the NSA. Like Google, the agency needed a way of storing and retrieving massive amounts of data across an army of servers, but it also needed extra tools for protecting all that data from prying eyes. They added b cell levelb software controls that could separate various classifications of data, ensuring that each user could only access the information they were authorized to access. It was a key part of the NSAbs effort to improve the security of its own networks. But the NSA also saw the database as something that could improve security across the federal government b and beyond. Last September, the agency open sourced its Google mimic, releasing the code as the Accumulo project. Itbs a common open source story b except that the Senate Armed Services Committee wants to put the brakes on the project. In a bill recently introduced on Capitol Hill, the committee questions whether Accumulo runs afoul of a government policy that prevents federal agencies from building their own software when they have access to commercial alternatives. The bill could ban the Department of Defense from using the NSAbs database b and it could force the NSA to meld the projectbs security tools with other open source projects that mimic Googlebs BigTable. The NSA, you see, is just one of many organizations that have open sourced code that seeks to mimic the Google infrastructure. Like other commercial outfits, the agency not only wants to share the database with other government organizations and companies, it aimed to improve the platform by encouraging other developers to contribute code. But when the governmentbs involved, therebs often a twist. The U.S. government has a long history with open source software, but there are times when policy and politics bump up against efforts to freely share software code b just as they do in the corporate world. In recent years, the most famous example is NASAbs Nebula project, which overcame myriad bureaucratic hurdles before busting out of the space agency in a big way, seeding the popular OpenStack platform. That said, the Accumulo kerfuffle is a little different. In trying to determine whether Accumulo duplicates existing projects, the bill floated by the Senate Armed Services committee uses such specific language, some believe it could set a dangerous precedent for the use of other open source projects inside the federal government. The NSA at bInternet Scaleb Originally called Cloudbase by the NSA, Accumulo is already used inside the agency, according to a speech given last fall by Gen. Keith Alexander, the director of the NSA. Basically, it allows the NSA to store enormous amounts of data in a single software platform, rather than spread it across a wide range of disparate databases that must be accessed separately. Accumulo is whatbs commonly known as a b NoSQLb database. Unlike a traditional SQL relational database b which is designed to run on a single machine, storing data in neat rows and columns b a NoSQL database is meant for storing much larger amounts of data across a vast array of machines. These databases have become increasingly important in the internet age, as more and more data streams into modern businesses b and government agencies. With BigTable, Google was at the forefront of the NoSQL movement, and since the company published its paper describing BigTable in 2006, several organizations have built open source platforms mimicking its design. Before the NSA released Accumulo, a search outfit called Powerset b now owned by Microsoft b built a platform called HBase, while social networking giant Facebook fashioned a similar platform dubbed Cassandra. And this is what bothers the Senate Armed Services Committee. The Senate Armed Services Committee oversees the U.S. military, including the Department of Defense and the NSA, which is part of the DoD. With Senate bill 3254 b National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 b the committee lays out the U.S. military budget for the coming year, and at one point, the 600-page bill targets Accumulo by name. The bill bars the DoD from using the database unless the department can show that the software is sufficiently different from other databases that mimic BigTable. But at the same time, the bill orders the director of the NSA to work with outside organizations to merge the Accumulo security tools with alternative databases, specifically naming HBase and Cassandra. The bill indicates that Accumulo may violate OMB Circular A-130, a government policy that bars agencies from building software if itbs less expensive to use commercial software thatbs already available. And according to one congressional staffer who worked on the bill, this is indeed the case. He asked that his name not be used in this story, as hebs not authorized to speak with the press. At this point, the staffer says, the committee isnbt concerned with the man power the NSA required to built the database. But it doesnbt want the government using Accumulo if there are larger, more active communities developing projects such as a HBase and Cassandra. He says that the committee encouraged the NSA to build its security controls into existing open source projects, but that the agency declined to do so. The NSA press office could not immediately provide someone to officially discuss the matter. But for Gunnar Hellekson b the chief technology strategist in U.S. Public Sector group at Red Hat, the open source software outfit b the committee has gone too far. He was pleased to see a senate bill that has such intimate knowledge of open source software b a rarity on Capitol Hill b but he argues that since Accumulo has already been built and open sourced, the committee has no business intervening. b When Accumulo was written, it was definitely doing new work,b he tells Wired. b Some of its differentiating features are being handled by other pieces of software. But other core concepts are unique, including the cell-level securityb&. Thatbs are incredibly important feature, and to do it properly is incredibly complicated.b Not All Open Source Projects Are Created Equal The bill benefits HBase and Cassandra b two very popular open source projects. But it certainly undermines the progress of Accumulo, and thatbs a particular worry for Oren Falkowitz, one of the developers of the database, who has left the NSA to start Sqrrl, a company that seeks to build a business around Accumulo in much the same way Red Hat built one around the Linux operating system. Like Hellekson, Falkowitz argues that since Accumulo already open source b and its backed by the Apache Software Foundation, a major open source steward b it doesnbt violate government policy. b The launch of sqrrl validates the success of Apache Accumulo as a project,b he says, pointing out that sqrrl has received funding from two well-known venture capital firms. b Accumulobs technical strengths are not limited to government use cases, and already, webve seen interest and adoption of Accumulo by financial, healthcare, and a broad range of other commercial firms.b He also argues that Accumulo is still quite different from other BigTable mimics. BigTable and other similar database splits massive amounts of data into tiny pieces and spreads them across potentially tens of thousands of servers. But unlike any other platform, Falkowitz says, Accumulo lets you tag each tiny piece of data so that it can only be accessed by certain outside servers. This is useful not only to the NSA, he says, but to other government organizations and health care outfits legally required to separate data in this way. b Basically, each [data object] has an extra label thatbs attached to it, and you can use that to authenticate and authorize users against each object,b Falkowitz says. b Most systems do that at the columns or the rows level of the database.b Red Hatbs Hellekson b who has blogged about the issue on multiple occasions b goes further, arguing that the bill could undermine the progress of open source projects well beyond Accumulo. The bill doesnbt just ask that the DoD prove that the Accumulo project is no more costly than the likes of HBase and Cassandra. It wants proof that Accumulo is a b successful Apache Foundation open source database with adequate industry support and diversification.b b It doesnbt take much imagination to see that same badequacy criteriab applied to all open source software projects,b Hellekson writes. b Got a favorite open source project on your DoD program, but no commercial vendor? Inadequate. Only one vendor for the package? Lacks diversity. Proprietary software doesnbt have a burden like this.b If the bill passed with the current Accumulo language intact, the onus is on the chief information officer of the Department of Defense to determine whether Accumulo can be used within the department. But whatever the verdict, it would not bar the NSA from using the database b just the rest of the DoD. Open source is a complicated thing. Especially inside the government. Cade Metz Cade Metz is the editor of Wired Enterprise. Got a NEWS TIP related to this story -- or to anything else in the world of big tech? Please e-mail him: cade_metz at wired.com. Read more by Cade Metz

1 0

КУРС СПЕЦИАЛИСТА АНТИКВАРНОГО И АУКЦИОННОГО ДЕЛА
by "Школа антикварного дела" 18 Jul '12

18 Jul '12

ЕСЛИ ВАМ НЕБЕЗРАЗЛИЧНО ИСКУССТВО… …Школа антикварного дела приглашает Вас на экскурсии для взрослых и детей: в галереи и салоны, на выставки и антикварные магазины, в музеи и центры искусства. Государственная Третьяковская Галерея, музеи Кремля, ГМИИ им. Пушкина и многое-многое другое! Центр Москвы. Тел.: +7 (495) 650-12-62; +7 (985) 999-11-45. www.школа-антиквар.рф

1 0

NSA Whistleblower Drake: You're automatically suspicious until proven otherwise
by Eugen Leitl 18 Jul '12

18 Jul '12

(O brave new world that has such people in't) http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/nsa-whistleblower-drake-youre-au… NSA Whistleblower Drake: You're automatically suspicious until proven otherwise NSA whistleblower Thomas A. Drake is backing the EFF's lawsuit over the government's massive spying program. Drake also had a lot to say about the establishment of a 'surveillance society' in America. In a video interview, he said it was bsoft tyranny. It raises the specter of you're automatically suspicious until we prove that you're not. It raises the specter of a universal wiretap, a persistent universal wiretap on every single person, or if not, they can create one.' By Ms. Smith on Mon, 07/16/12 - 4:32pm. Continuing in the theme of what NSA whistleblowers have to say about Americans under mass surveillance, such as William Binney's claim that the NSA has dossiers on nearly every U.S. citizen, we'll take a look at another former NSA official, Thomas A. Drake, who was also brave enough to turn whistleblower and had his life turned upside down because of it. RT had a very interesting interview with Drake, who said, "Security has effectively become the State religion; you don't question it. And if you question it, then your loyalty is questioned." . . . "Speaking truth of power is very dangerous in today's world." The journalist pointed out that investigative journalists are labeled as "terrorist helpers" for trying to reveal the truth, to which Drake said the government's take is "you go after the messenger because the last thing you want to do is deal with the message." The NSA, the government, "They object" to anyone who dares to "air dirty laundry" or show the skeletons in the closet. "Not only do they object to it, they decide to turn it into criminal activity." Drake added, "Most people don't stand up to power because power wields a lot of power and power can do you in, or make life very difficult." This almost made me throw up since those who are brave enough to object to our country moving away from the Constitution and everything that America stands for, cannot possibly mean those people are for the terrorists! Most are people who love our country and believe in freedom, believe in the USA! Those people believe the government can't stomp out our rights and hide behind national security secrets to avoid telling We the People the truth about mass domestic spying. Some of those people who are brave enough to not only stand up and be counted, but also to fight for our rights include the EFF with Jewel v. NSA. EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn wrote: For years, government lawyers have been arguing that our case is too secret for the courts to consider, despite the mounting confirmation of widespread mass illegal surveillance of ordinary people. Now we have three former NSA officials confirming the basic facts. Neither the Constitution nor federal law allow the government to collect massive amounts of communications and data of innocent Americans and fish around in it in case it might find something interesting. This kind of power is too easily abused. We're extremely pleased that more whistleblowers have come forward to help end this massive spying program. Many people do not read the law, proposed bills, or what is happening in the court. If you are so inclined, you can read the EFF's motion for partial summary judgment, William Binney's declaration and J. Kirk Wiebe's declaration. Among many other eye-openers, Thomas A. Drake's declaration states: The NSA has the capability to do individualized searches, similar to Google, for particular electronic communications in real time through such criteria as target addresses, locations, countries and phone numbers, as well as watch-listed names, keywords and phrases in email. The NSA has the ability to do individualized or small scale searches for particular electronic communications in real time. It also has, or is in the process of obtaining, the capability to seize and store most electronic communications passing through its U.S. intercept centers. The wholesale collection of data allows the NSA to identify and analyze Entities or Communities of Interest later in a static database. Some more of Drake's statements in the video interview included, "The NSA had entered into a secret agreement with the White House in which NSA would become the executive agent for this secret surveillance program. On the front end, it was designed to deal with the threat, the terrorist threat, and that was probably understandable. But what it did is it actually, essentially, turned the United States into just a collection platform." He spoke a little bit about how CISPA would take the secret law of the Patriot Act, Section 215, up a notch so that under the label of "cyber threats and to provide cybersecurity, the government wants even more invasive access -- almost persistent access to networks which are not normally available to the public." If you take what has been happening post 9/11 security world, what you're seeing is the establishment of a surveillance society. You're seeing the establishment of the surveillance network....People don't realize the extent to which we are already surveilled in many, many different ways -- the extent to which vast amounts of our own transactional data, in all forms -- all electronic forms, and emails, and your tweets, and bank records, and everything else, are all subject -- or suspect, in terms of surveillance....It raises the specter of kind of the rise of soft tyranny. It raises the specter of you're automatically suspicious until we prove that you're not. It raises the specter of a universal -- I call it a universal wiretap, a persistent universal wiretap on every single person, or if not, they can create one. "You also have the fear element. Fear in itself is control. And what people will do if they are fearful is to censor themselves." Regarding NSA and other government surveillance powers, Drake added, "What happens if they don't like you? What happens if you speak ill-will against the government? What happens if you say something that they consider disloyal?" Drake pointed out that what happened to him, a top government executive, sends a "very chilling message that if you speak out, if you speak up, we're going to hammer you and we're going to hammer you hard." Wielding fear like a weapon and using policy as opposed to the Constitution and protections granted to us via the Bill of Rights is very dangerous and seems very anti-American. I agree with Drake, "We are going down a very slippery slope in America." If cursing upsets you, then please don't watch this clip gone viral about "Good Will Hunting had it right 14 years ago."

1 0

Полный спектр услуг по международным перевозкам и таможенному оформлению
by DOOR - DOOR 18 Jul '12

18 Jul '12

Полный спектр услуг по международным перевозкам и таможенному оформлению.  Осуществляем доставку импортных грузов (“DOOR – DOOR”) Примеры: - Одежда из Европы  - от 9 евро за кг. - Одежда из Китая – от 6 евро за кг. - Мебель из Европы – от 370 евро за м. куб. - Посуда из Европы – от 2 евро за кг. - Светильники из Турции – от 2 евро за кг.   Для просчета Вашего груза сообщите нам: 1.  Наименование 2.  Количество 3.  Вес 4.  Объём 5.  Отправитель 6.  Страна происхождения 7.  Адрес место забора груза 8.  Инвойсовая стоимость груза   §  Предварительная подготовка сопроводительных документов. §  Организация таможенного оформления на таможенных терминалах Москвы. §  Способствуем в осуществлении денежных переводов изготовителю (продавцу) всего за 2% от стоимости по инвойсу. §  Содействие в получении сертификатов. §  Вы можете сравнить цены, по которым сейчас идут Ваши грузы. Для просчёта в реальном времени обращайтесь по скайпу: tamozhimvse  или по телефону  (495) 565 34 52 (многоканальный) Позвоните и наши менеджеры в кратчайшие сроки рассчитают для Вас стоимость доставки груза и его таможенного оформления.

1 0

10 рассылок за 10 000 рублей +хостинг на месяц в ПОДАРОК
by "Е-Маркетинг" 18 Jul '12

18 Jul '12

10 рассылок за 10 000 рублей + хостинг на месяц в ПОДАРОК (для указания вашего сайта в письме) - По вашему графику - Без ограничений по срокам - Возможно менять макеты все 10 раз !!! - Подготовка макетов бесплатно АКЦИИ: Месяц 44(46) рассылок - 2 раза в день - 5 раз в неделю - 20 000 рублей Под акцию попадают базы: Вся Россия - 23 млн адресов - из них 4 млн ЮР. Вся Москва - 8 млн адресов - из них 1,7 млн ЮР. Вся Украина - 4 млн адресов - из них 1 млн ЮР. и др. Тел: (495) 585-79-04 ICQ: 286 926 971

1 0

дешевая междугородная связь!
by "Нина" 18 Jul '12

18 Jul '12

БЕЗЛИМИТНЫЙ МЕЖГОРОД! 3000 рублей! Безлимитные звонки по всей России включая звонки на мобильные. Подключим за 1 день. БЕСПЛАТНЫЕ тестовые звонки! Звоните сегодня - (495) 225 04__62

1 0

Картина на свадьбу в подарок! - 1490руб
by "Картина" 18 Jul '12

18 Jul '12

Лето - время свадеб. Подарок на свадьбу - красивая картина в роскошной раме и в подарочной упаковке. Летняя скидка 50%!!! - 1490руб вместо 3000руб! Подарок доставят Вам домой или в офис! Купить картину здесь: www.картина-тут.рф/11.shtml

1 0

безлимитная междугородная связь
by "Всеволод Сатторович" 18 Jul '12

18 Jul '12

БЕЗЛИМИТНЫЙ МЕЖГОРОД! 3000 рублей! Безлимитные звонки по всей России включая звонки на мобильные. Подключим за 1 день. БЕСПЛАТНЫЕ тестовые звонки! Звоните сегодня - (495) 225 04...62

1 0

ШОК √ ЦЕНЫ НА ПОЛИГРАФИЮ
by "ТИПОГРАФИЯ" 18 Jul '12

18 Jul '12

ФАБРИКА ПЕЧАТИ Г. МОЖАЙСК ГАРАНТИРУЕТ САМЫЕ НИЗКИЕ ЦЕНЫ НА ПОЛИГРАФИЮ +7 (495) 940-7322 СКЛАД - г. Мытищи (по желанию - доставка и самовывоз) ПРОДУКЦИЯ - Каталоги, брошюры, плакаты, пакеты, буклеты, листовки, воблеры, шелфтокеры, кашированные изделия, папки, коробки и т. д. ОБОРУДОВАНИЕ - Машины формата А1,А3, полный цикл постпечатной обработки Ждем Ваши задания на калькуляцию! Телефон Московского представительства: 940-7322

1 0

ЗДОРОВЬЕ НОГ ИЗНУТРИ. ВЕНАРУС
by "Службы Доставки Лекарств" 18 Jul '12

18 Jul '12

ПРЕЗЕНТАЦИЯ КРАСИВЫХ НОГ. ВЕНАРУС® 2012 Новинка в ассортименте Службы Доставки ЛекарствВЕНАРУС® - здоровье Ваших ног изнутри.Препарат ВЕНАРУС® для лечения варикоза: - воздействует на причину болезни - повышает тонус венозной стенки - устраняет отеки и чувство тяжести в ногах - усиливает эффект от применения мазей и гелей - на 40% дешевле импортного аналога   Подробнее>>> Препарат можно заказать в Службе Доставки Лекарств>>>:+7(495) 775-20-00, Предупреждение: Препарат отпускает по рецепту врача. Необходима консультация специалиста, имеются противопоказания.Информация о лекарственных препаратах, размещенная в данном разделе, носит описательный характер и предназначена исключительно для информационных целей. Получатели не должны использовать данную информацию в качестве медицинских советов и рекомендаций. Выбор и назначение лекарственных препаратов, а также контроль над их применением может осуществлять только врач, который всегда учитывает индивидуальные особенности пациента. В коротком варианте: Беспокоят отёки и чувство тяжести в ногах? ВЕНАРУС® поможет сохранить здоровье Ваших ног изнутри! +7(495) 775-20-00

1 0