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US, UK and others push for mandatory access to encrypted data
Western intelligence allies are presenting a united front in their fight against encryption. The "Five Eyes" countries (US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand) have issued a Statement of Principles indicating that they will push for "lawful access" to private data as often as possible. While the governments acknowledged that encryption was valuable, they argued that encrypted data use "should be rare." They hoped companies would voluntarily offer legal solutions, but vowed "technological, enforcement, legislative or other measures" to force access if the tech industry didn't cooperate.
New Zealand used NSA data to spy on rival trade leader candidates
Want to understand why far-reaching, poorly scrutinized spying programs are dangerous? Here's why. The Intercept and the New Zealand Herald have obtained a document showing that New Zealand used the US National Security Agency's XKeyscore surveillance system to spy on other countries' candidates for the World Trade Organization's director general role. The 2013 snooping campaign searched for keywords in communications that referenced New Zealand's own candidate (Minister of Trade Tim Groser, above), the competition and the WTO itself. Any relevant results were passed on to a "trade team" within the country's surveillance agency, the Government Communications Security Bureau, which is rather alarming when the leadership run had nothing to do with national security.
