Analyst's note: Finally, a title that will surely get your attention. Absolutely must read and carefully consider what is being reported here in this posting. You still have time to act .... but not much. And yes, the impact is even worse than most of you can imagine. Remember, "When the government does the same thing, those who don’t comply are considered the criminals." Yes, this is yet another Obama scandal!
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The Obama administration is ramping up its gathering of private citizens information and is now demanding that internet companies turn over the encrypted passwords of their users.
from CNet:
The U.S. government has demanded that major Internet companies divulge users’ stored passwords, according to two industry sources familiar with these orders, which represent an escalation in surveillance techniques that has not previously been disclosed.
If the government is able to determine a person’s password, which is typically stored in encrypted form, the credential could be used to log in to an account to peruse confidential correspondence or even impersonate the user.
Obtaining it also would aid in deciphering encrypted devices in situations where passwords are reused.
"I’ve certainly seen them ask for passwords," said one Internet industry source who spoke on condition of anonymity. “We push back."
A second person who has worked at a large Silicon Valley company confirmed that it received legal requests from the federal government for stored passwords. Companies “really heavily scrutinize" these requests, the person said. “There’s a lot of ‘over my dead body.’
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Some of the government orders demand not only a user’s password but also the encryption algorithm and the so-called salt, according to a person familiar with the requests.
A salt is a random string of letters or numbers used to make it more difficult to reverse the encryption process and determine the original password. Other orders demand the secret question codes often associated with user accounts.
At this juncture, both Microsoft and Google are claiming that they have never turned over users passwords to the Federal government; but that’s of little comfort.
If another citizen tries to obtain your password, it’s a crime. When the government does the same thing, those who don’t comply are considered the criminals.
