CSEC Wi-Fi snooping experiment prompts calls for review
CBC - 17 hrs ago
A B.C. MP is calling for an independent review of the activities of
Canada's electronic spy agency, after CBC News revealed this week that
the agency conducted an experiment tracking internet users who logged
in through wireless access points at Canadian airports.
Vancouver Quadra MP Joyce Murray, the Liberal Critic for National
Defence, said the Vancouver and Toronto Airport Authorities should
investigate the alleged security breaches that allowed the information
of airport Wi-Fi users to be harvested en masse.
"This agency is out of control," Murray said in a written statement Friday.
"Like most Canadians, I was shocked to learn that Communications
Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) has been monitoring the internet
traffic of unsuspecting, law-abiding Canadian travellers at the
Vancouver and Toronto airports," Murray said.
Murray also said that all domestic surveillance must cease, immediately.
"Domestic spying is clearly not permitted under CSEC's mandate. What
they are doing is a violation of Canadian law, and it is unacceptable
that the Minister of National Defence downplayed this violation," she
said.
A 2012 document leaked by Edward Snowden — titled "IP Profiling
Analytics & Mission Impacts" — indicates that Canada's spy service was
provided with information captured from unsuspecting travellers'
wireless devices by the airport's free Wi-Fi system over a two-week
period.
The document shows the federal intelligence agency was then able to
track the travellers for a week or more as their wireless devices
showed up in other Wi-Fi "hot spots" in cities across Canada and even
at U.S. airports.
The document also described how CSEC had so much data it could even
track the travellers back in time through the days leading up to their
arrival at the airport.
Representatives with the Vancouver International Airport and with
Boingo, which supplies Wi-Fi services at other Canadian airports,
including Toronto Pearson, have denied supplying Wi-Fi traffic
information to CSEC.
A B.C. privacy watchdog hopes the new revelations about CSEC's
activities will help strengthen its court case against the security
giant.
In October, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) filed a
lawsuit against CSEC, claiming its activities violated Canadians'
charter rights by intercepting private communications and by
conducting a sweeping collection of communications metadata.
Lawyer Caily DiPuma, speaking for the BCCLA, said the leaked document
outlining the Wi-Fi interception and tracking experiment is an
"appalling" example of the type of spying her group is concerned with.
"This is the kind of indiscriminate dragnet spying that we've been
concerned about since these Snowden revelations started happening,
about six months ago," she said.
DiPuma said not only is the BCCLA concerned about the alleged secret
spying activities, but it is also "deeply concerning" that CSEC
appears to be operating without parliamentary or judicial oversight.
"There is no parliamentary committee that's watching what CSEC is
doing, there's no judge authorizing any of these types of collections.
This is really, compared to the U.S., even a worse situation in terms
of the accountability and oversight for what CSEC is doing," she said.
The BCCLA has argued in its lawsuit that CSEC's sweeping
data-collection activities infringe on Charter rights that guarantee
free expression and protection against unreasonable search and
seizure.
"This kind of information, when it's collected, can tell the
government all sorts of things about yourself: intimate details of
your personal life, your relationship to other people, your religious
affiliation, your sexual orientation, where you are at any given
time," DiPuma said. "That is unacceptable and it's unconstitutional."
The federal government has filed a response to the civil claim.
The suit is now in the pre-trial phase of discovery, with both sides
gathering evidence.
CSEC, which says it reports to the minister of defence, describes
itself as "Canada's national cryptologic agency."
CSEC says it supplies two main services: foreign signals intelligence,
which means monitoring electronic communications emanating from
abroad, and protecting domestic electronic information and
communication.
http://ca.m.yahoo.com/w/legobpengine/news/csec-wi-fi-snooping-experiment-prompts-calls-review-022839973.html?.b=index&.cf3=Canada&.cf4=2&.cf5=CBC&.cf6=%2F&.ts=1391370513&.intl=ca&.lang=en-ca
34 comments

I remember back in 1982 when I went to a western Canadian concept
party meeting in my town, when the meeting was over, their was CSIS
sitting outside the hotel entrance taking every ones photograph, the
CSEC is just another branch of the RCMP (which is a part of the
military, not a civilian agency) and the DND that monitors new
technologies. The RCMP, has been spying on Canadians for years, just
ask any hippie who went to a peace rally in the 60's. Also We have
been under martial law since the FLQ crisis of Oct / 70, that's 43
years. The war measures act (now called the emergencies act) that was
brought in for the crisis and was "never rescinded" before the acts
name was changed in 1988, this gives the government and their police
force the right to spy on any one, any time, any where and allows them
to give the collected info. to the Yanks under the joint defence
agreements.
A Yahoo! User, 1 hr ago

turns out Big Brother is a bully - who could've imagined it - besides
everybody. and politics has one person with integrity? let's keep her
people, and kick all the rest of them out to the curb - but not with
our taxpaying money - no platinum pensions, bonuses, travel, secretary
or chauffeur expenses. be done with the whole rotten to the core,
corrupt self-serving system. charge them all with breaking the law and
start fresh with civil service - what a concept! way overdue but about
time - DON'T VOTE in 2016 and let the whole thing go to non-confidence
- time for a BIG change around here...
A Yahoo! User, 6 hrs ago

just another reason why Canadians should have never, ever let the
Harper Reform/Alliance near power. How do you like the Harper
Reform/Alliance listening in on your conversations, capturing photos
of your friends, your family. Not to mention your kids. And doing what
ever they want. This is the gang whose point man on law enforcement
was having sex with his baby sitter. Hows that make you feel knowing
these kinds of people are taking your information, without a warrant,
without a judge ever approving, or even knowing and without parliament
ever knowing. Welcome to Harperland. You were warned. Remember this if
the Harper Reform/Alliance ever allow another vote.
A Yahoo! User, 1 hr ago

I find it very odd the Canadian media hasn't revived their decades old
reporting about CSEC involving Mike Frost (Spyworld) ... which pretty
well said it all decades ago ... Note Globe and Mail which has
reported on this ... that ... In 1995, former CSEC employee Mike Frost
wrote in his memoir, Spyworld, that he set up "listening posts" at
Canadian embassies. His book says CSEC signals intelligence
technicians during the Cold War were funded and mentored by NSA
counterparts who taught them how to conceal a piece of spy machinery
inside what appeared to be an office safe.
ΟΕΔ, 2 hrs ago

Gotta keep the slaves from hiding their trip to see aunt Bessy. I
helped pay for this technology and feel all those people who travel
might be a threat to the good wishes of the fascist government we have
therefore should be carried out without explanation and anyone who
complains is a gawdarnmed special target. "I wonder why he went to
Calgary and went to the Tim's on 17842 Street W by NNW.Seems the trail
ends there and he showed up back at home without using the wi-fi at
the airport again...get some insiders at this Tim's, this is a
gathering place. Filk I like my job."
Tan Telephone, 1 hr ago
We've seen various government officials act in all sorts of bizarre
ways after revelations of illegal spying on their own people (and
foreigners), but none may be quite as bizarre as the response from the
Canadian government, following the release late last night from the
CBC (with help from Glenn Greenwald) that they're spying on public
WiFi connections. That report had plenty of detail, including an
internal presentation from the Canadian electronic spying agency,
CSEC. In the Canadian Parliament today, Prime Minister Stephen
Harper's parliamentary secretary, Paul Calandra, decided to respond to
all of this by insisting it's all a lie and then flat out insulting
both the CBC and Glenn Greenwald.
A Yahoo! User, 12 hrs ago

Well, the CONS have already sunk to 27%, this will see them sink even
lower and ROBOgate is coming down the pipe this year to boot!
Multi-million-multi billion dollar fines await. Not to mention the
jail sentences which the PPO is seeking. 2 arrests so far. One just
struck an immunity deal. 237 ridings reported fraud in 2011. 7000
confirmed calls in Guelph alone. Read my posts for full details. This
so-called "party", which is nothing more than a group of fascists who
rigged the election, will lose party status altogether very soon. No
corporation would be stupid enough to fund these imbeciles moving
forward. Not with this liability hanging over them. Also, they will
never be voted back into office anyway. Bye, bye CONS!
Yahoo, 8 hrs ago

George Orwell Thanks for the warning. Problem is nobody cares. Even
the Americans that preach about freedoms don't care. Keep pointing
fingers at every other countries but 4 are pointing back... Guess this
is being watched and recorded? Please don't point at other countries.
Tell us more about our freedoms. Love the story. Don't believe it
though
A Yahoo! User, 10 hrs ago

Don't doubt for a second that the law doesn't allow CSEC to do
domestic surveillance and/or surveillance on Canadians without a
warrant. However its the people in and above CSEC that I don't trust
and the facts would seem to point to sufficient reason for that
mistrust. 'In God we trust---all others with power over people need to
be watched and controlled.'
A Yahoo! User, 1 hr ago

So if the gov can breach Canadian law i guess we can too. Im going to
the bank...
Frank, 2 hrs ago
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