NSA has contributed to Android source code

[Joe1986]

http://www.infowars.com/the-nsa-has...roid-os-or-three-quarters-of-all-smartphones/

This won't go over well with foreign governments.

 

[lothar]

People making a mountain out of a mole hill...
***Yawn***What else is new?

All Android code is available for public review, and plenty of people are reviewing it.

It came to light today (though it was never a secret) that the NSA (the National Security Agency), a U.S. intelligence service that's been in the news as of late for things nobody likes, is contributing code to Google's Android project. Of course, the Internet's first reaction was predictably "OMG PRISM! They're building in PRISM!!11one!"

You can relax folks. While the NSA has no official statement about what they call their Security Enhancements for Android project's link to the PRISM project, this isn't something new. They've been working on this Android code since 2011, which is an offshoot of their SE (Security-Enhanced) Linux project before that. Their SELinux code was peer reviewed by anyone and everyone, and the commits were generally accepted as being great additions that make a secure operating system even more safe.

While Android isn't developed in the open, upon release the code is all available. There are all manner of very smart and god-like code nerds pouring through it, and any shenanigans would be quickly uncovered. Let's just take a deep breath, and realize that the NSA could be very helpful writing code to keep systems secure.

http://www.androidcentral.com/nsa-contributes-android-there-no-secret-backdoor

 

[gevorg]

it doesn't matter, they don't even need to have the source code to track and archive your cellphone/web activities 24/7/365

 

[vshah]

god i hate "tech" blogs sometimes

 

[foghorn67]

Infowars, lol.

 

[Joe1986]

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-07-03/security-enhanced-android-nsa-edition

 

[soccerballtux]

eh they have a vested interest in making a secure system. Only way to get a secure android kernel on a phone from a linux trunk is to have it committed.

because of the open source peer review I'm not too worried.

 

[Brian Stirling]

It may well be there interest, and afterall, why would they otherwise care, is to make sure the system can be gotten into. What earthly purpose would the NSA have toying around in the system? Does the SEC or HUD or other federal agencies do coding for it? There may be no rat here but I smell one...

Again, it may only be they want to make sure they can easily get into the system and that they are not leaving a secret back door -- just making sure they aren't encrypted out.


Brian

 

[KB]

They really have no need to put backdoors in android when they are tapping all communications on the wire.

 

[gmaster456]

infowars tends to be a bit over the top in many cases.

 

[Sheep]

god i hate "tech" blogs sometimes

Infowars hardly qualifies as a tech site.

 

[Joe1986]

If I was in charge of the NSA, I'd have a crew writing the best custom roms and apps for all mobile platforms, and exploring jailbreaks for iOS. And a back door in every single one.

But that's just me, the NSA is totally transparent and only cares about preserving everyone's privacy.

Seriously, are you guys that naive?

 

[vshah]

Infowars hardly qualifies as a tech site.

hence the quotes.

 

[Brian Stirling]

And still the question of why the NSA is coding for Android...

Why not FEMA, or ATF, or the GAO, or NOAA, or the DOE?


Brian

 

[theevilsharpie]

What earthly purpose would the NSA have toying around in the system?

Security-Enhanced Android

 

[A5]

And still the question of why the NSA is coding for Android...

Why not FEMA, or ATF, or the GAO, or NOAA, or the DOE?


Brian

Because the NSA employs tons of EE/CS types and deal with communication? They're also in charge of a lot of information security policy for government systems. With more and more mobile devices in the government, it is in their interest to secure it as well as they can.

NOAA and DOE are the only others of those with any kind of computing core competency, but their contributions are in the Supercomputer space for obvious reasons.

 

[A5]

If I was in charge of the NSA, I'd have a crew writing the best custom roms and apps for all mobile platforms, and exploring jailbreaks for iOS. And a back door in every single one.

But that's just me, the NSA is totally transparent and only cares about preserving everyone's privacy.

Seriously, are you guys that naive?

That wouldn't be worth their time. Very few people jailbreak or run custom ROMs.

 

[Brian Stirling]

Because the NSA employs tons of EE/CS types and deal with communication? They're also in charge of a lot of information security policy for government systems. With more and more mobile devices in the government, it is in their interest to secure it as well as they can.

NOAA and DOE are the only others of those with any kind of computing core competency, but their contributions are in the Supercomputer space for obvious reasons.

I have no doubt that the NSA employs large numbers of EE/CS types but generally government isn't permitted to assist one company over another. I can well imagine them assisting any in-house needs for smart phones by providing custom roms for there own use and other government use -- that adds up, but why contribute to one companies (Google) OS at the expense of other companies OS's (iOS, WindowsMobile, etc.) There are laws against such activity...


Brian

 

[Red Storm]

I have no doubt that the NSA employs large numbers of EE/CS types but generally government isn't permitted to assist one company over another. I can well imagine them assisting any in-house needs for smart phones by providing custom roms for there own use and other government use -- that adds up, but why contribute to one companies (Google) OS at the expense of other companies OS's (iOS, WindowsMobile, etc.) There are laws against such activity...

Because one is contributing to an open source project and the others are not?

 

[lothar]

I have no doubt that the NSA employs large numbers of EE/CS types but generally government isn't permitted to assist one company over another. I can well imagine them assisting any in-house needs for smart phones by providing custom roms for there own use and other government use -- that adds up, but why contribute to one companies (Google) OS at the expense of other companies OS's (iOS, WindowsMobile, etc.) There are laws against such activity...


Brian

If iOS and WP8 were open source, you *might* have a point.
Too bad they aren't, so therefore any potential point you're trying to make is completely useless.

Also, if there are laws against government contributing to an open source project over a closed source project, then go ahead and cite such laws so we can see them.

 

[Brian Stirling]

If iOS and WP8 were open source, you *might* have a point.
Too bad they aren't, so therefore any potential point you're trying to make is completely useless.

Also, if there are laws against government contributing to an open source project over a closed source project, then go ahead and cite such laws so we can see them.

Not my point at all...

The fact that a government agency, any government agency, is seem supporting one brand over another is the problem. Will anyone in government say anything about it -- I highly doubt it.

The fact that the other brands are closed doesn't mean they haven't been looked at and tweaked by the NSA -- there are reports that M$ has been very welcoming to the governments prying eyes including code modifications though there hasn't been any official statements from either M$ or the NSA. I'd be shocked if Apple hasn't provided some manor of access as well.

The government and the telecomms/ISP's have a kind of mutually parasitic relationship that limits the little peoples ability to stop the extinction of our privacy. Business wants to record everything we do for there economic data mining operations and governments wants access to that information about us.

In prior generations government would have stopped the erosion of privacy long ago, but now they want the fruits of that game and have convinced themselves the 4th amendment no longer matters. So, business can continue to spy on us without fear because they know government wants the same info.

It's true, of course, that the NSA doesn't need access to our cell phones to record all comm activity to/from it, but others do want to be able to get direct access to our phones. There was a story a while back about a Verizon customer the FBI was interested in and they had Verizon send some codes to the phone that allowed them to remotely turn on the GPS and send data to them.

Fearing for the loss of privacy isn't tin foil hat stuff -- it's this era's greatest transgression against the constitution...


Brian

 

[Fox5]

Pretty boring news, this is just an off shoot of SELinux, which was also developed at NSA. They even tell you all about it on their page.

http://www.nsa.gov/research/selinux/

Coincidentally, there was a huge stink a few years ago about SELinux, because it was perceived as the government helping one vendor over another. IMO, it should be exempt since SELinux is open source and thus free for use by anyone, including Microsoft or whomever.

News about SEAndroid predates this news by a long period of time, NSA announced it. It's not news.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/248275/nsa_releases_a_securityenhanced_version_of_android.html

That said, I'm in agreement with some of the other posters. Once the government can tap into the Internet backbone (which any nation is going to be able to do), there is no privacy. I don't think there's any way to put that cat back in the bag anywhere in the world, if you have communications that really need to be secure from any prying eyes, then use a real encryption scheme. IE, use AES or RSA encryption on all your sensitive communications.

 

[Crono]

The plain and simple answer is they are looking to improve Android for their own use. That's the main reason anyone contributes to open source projects.

We might want to entertain the idea that they are doing nefarious things right under our own noses, but really when you can get away with doing far worse things secretly, there's no reason to muck around with an open source project where others can see the submissions they make.

 

[BladeVenom]

Microsoft was working with the NSA before Google was.

 

[ewdotson]

Y'all should look into the history of the NSA consulting on the development of DES. I can understand people's concern given recent news, but it's quite possible that this is the exact opposite of something nefarious.