EU and US internet privacy talks continue in spite of PRISM spying scandal

The European Union and the US have finished the first round of negotiations for a trade-enhancing agreement to cover online privacy and piracy, in spite of the recent PRISM allegations of US agents spying on EU meetings.
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is designed to "liberalise" trade between the EU and the US, with a view to remove cross-border regulatory issues, which can bring about extra costs and stifle trade.
It has attracted much attention from privacy groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and La Quadrature du Net, the latter of which has revealed leaked documents that detailed some of the topics under discussion in the private meetings. The topics under review include e-commerce, email and telephone marketing, copyright and censorship.
La Quadrature du Net claims that the partnership will put current laws regarding the liability of internet service providers - they are currently not obliged to censor networks at the request of police - in jeopardy, and likens the scheme to the failed ACTA agreement, which targeted online piracy. The organisation said in a statement: "Altering this regime is precisely what [the] entertainment industry wants and almost got through ACTA."
ACTA was rejected by the European Parliament for, among other things, being "too vague", but politicians admitted that a solution to the problem of piracy still needed to be found.
Elsewhere, La Quadrature du Net also points out that the EU and US are looking to co-operate on cyber security, in spite of the recent revelation that US agents were tapping the phones and emails of EU staff and monitoring secret meetings in EU buildings. The leaked EU document said of the partnership: "A uniform approach across the Atlantic would facilitate trade in products, services and applications while at the same time ensuring a high level of security."
There had been warnings of the TTIP negotiations being cancelled as a result of the spying allegations, but the discussions apparently went ahead unabated.
EU chief negotiator Ignacio Garcia-Bercero said: "It's been a very productive week. We have been striving already for many months to prepare the ground for an ambitious trade and investment deal that will boost the transatlantic economy, delivering jobs and growth for both Europeans and Americans."
The talks will continue in Brussels during the week of 7 October.

German spies made use of U.S. surveillance data

Germany's foreign intelligence agency (BND) has known about U.S. surveillance and storage of German data for years and used it in cases of Germans kidnapped abroad, the mass-circulation daily Bild reported on Monday.
Questions over how much the German government and its own security agencies knew about U.S. surveillance have touched a raw nerve in Germany, given historical memories of spying on citizens by former communist East Germany and the Nazi regime.
The matter has also become an issue in Chancellor Angela Merkel's campaign for re-election to a third term in office and, although favored to win, she is keen to quash any impression that she knew more than she has let on.
Citing U.S. government sources, Bild said the BND had asked the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) for the email and telephone records of German citizens kidnapped in Yemen or Afghanistan to help ascertain their whereabouts and contacts.
The BND was not immediately available for comment.
Last month, the United States confirmed the existence of an electronic spying operation codenamed PRISM after ex-spy agency contractor Edward Snowden revealed that it mines data from European and other users of Google GOOG.O, Facebook FB.O, Skype and other U.S. companies. In a separate leak, Washington was accused of eavesdropping on EU and German offices and officials.
Merkel, who has said she first learned about the U.S. surveillance program from the media, pledged on Sunday to seek tougher European Union data protection rules and said she expected Washington to stick to German laws in future.
Those remarks were the closest she has come to acknowledging that Washington may have breached Germany's strict laws.
Last week Merkel sent her interior minister to Washington to demand answers but he has been derided by opposition parties for failing to return with any concrete U.S. assurances, despite fighting talk in advance that he would make clear he did not expect such behavior from a partner country.
The minister, Hans-Peter Friedrich, is due to brief the parliamentary committee responsible for Germany's intelligence agencies about his trip this week.
A poll last week by the Forsa opinion research institute showed 4 out of 5 Germans did not believe the government when it said it knew nothing of NSA spying.
Last week Merkel's spokesman said German intelligence agencies cooperated with American peers but their interaction fulfilled Germany's legal guidelines.
Viviane Reding, the EU's justice chief, told Reuters on Monday she welcomed Merkel's commitment to strong, uniform EU data protection rules. She said such laws were the best way to ensure protection of the personal data of EU citizens.

Hacked Verizon device Mobile Spy Station

Two security experts said they have figured out how to spy on Verizon Wireless mobile phone customers by hacking into devices the U.S. carrier sells to boost wireless signals indoors.
The finding, which the experts demonstrated to Reuters and will further detail at two hacking conferences this summer, comes at a time of intense global debate about electronic privacy, after top-secret U.S. surveillance programs were leaked by a former National Security Agency contractor, Edward Snowden, last month.
"This is not about how the NSA would attack ordinary people. This is about how ordinary people would attack ordinary people," said Tom Ritter, a senior consultant with the security firm iSEC Partners.
Verizon said it has updated the software on its signal-boosting devices, known as femtocells or network extenders, to prevent hackers from copying the technique of the two experts.
But Ritter said motivated hackers can still find other ways to hack the femtocells of Verizon, as well as those offered by some 30 carriers worldwide to their customers.
Femtocells, which act as tiny cellphone towers, can be purchased directly from Verizon for $250. Used models can be obtained online for about $150.
Ritter and his colleague, Doug DePerry, demonstrated for Reuters how they can eavesdrop on text messages, photos and phone calls made with an Android phone and an iPhone by using a Verizon femtocell that they had previously hacked.
They declined to disclose how they had modified the software on the device, saying they do not want to make it any easier for criminals to figure out similar ways to hack femtocells.
The two said they plan to give more elaborate demonstrations two weeks from now at the Black Hat and Def Con hacking conferences in Las Vegas. More than 15,000 security professionals and hackers are expected to attend those conferences, which feature talks on newly found bugs in communications systems, smart TVs, mobile devices and computers that run facilities from factories to oil rigs.
Verizon Wireless released a Linux software update in March that prevents its network extenders from being compromised in the manner reported by Ritter and DePerry, according to company spokesman David Samberg.
"The Verizon Wireless Network Extender remains a very secure and effective solution for our customers," Samberg said in a statement. He said there have been no reports of customers being impacted by the bug that the researchers had identified. The company is a joint venture between Verizon Communications Inc and Vodafone Group Plc.
Samberg said his company uses an internal security team as well as outside firms to look for vulnerabilities in the devices it sells, before and after they are released.
Still, the two researchers said they are able to use the hacked femtocell to spy on Verizon phones even after Verizon released that update because they had modified the device before the company pushed out the software fix.
The researchers built their "proof of concept" system that they will demonstrate in Las Vegas with femtocells manufactured by Samsung Electronics Co and a $50 antenna from Wilson Electronics Inc.
They said that with a little more work, they could have weaponized it for stealth attacks by packaging all equipment needed for a surveillance operation into a backpack that could be dropped near a target they wanted to monitor.
For example, a group interested in potential mergers might place such a backpack in Manhattan restaurants frequented by investment bankers. Verizon's website said the device has a 40-foot range, but the researchers believe that could be expanded by adding specialized antennas.
The iSEC researchers are not the first to warn of vulnerabilities in femtocells, but claim to be the first to hack the femtocells of a U.S. carrier and also the first running on a wireless standard known as CDMA.
Other hacking experts have previously uncovered security bugs in femtocells used by carriers in Europe.
CTIA, a wireless industry group based in Washington, in February released a report that identified femtocells as a potential point of attack.
John Marinho, CTIA's vice president for cyber security and Technology, said that the group is more concerned about other potential cyber threats, such as malicious apps. He is not aware of any case where attacks were launched via femtocells.
Still, he said, the industry is monitoring the issue: "Threats change every day."

Snowden affair chills US-Latin American ties

America's "backyard," as Secretary of State John Kerry once referred to Latin America, is sprouting angry weeds as the scandal involving intelligence leaker Edward Snowden lays bare already thorny U.S. relations with Latin America.
Taking the opportunity to snub their noses at the U.S., Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua have already said they'd be willing to grant asylum for Snowden, who is wanted on espionage charges in the United States for revealing the scope of National Security Agency surveillance programs that spy on Americans and foreigners. Ecuador has said it would consider any request from him.
Relations between the U.S. and these countries were already testy, and the Snowden affair is further complicating the Obama administration's effort to improve ties with friendlier nations in the region like Mexico and Brazil.
Snowden hasn't been the only recent setback. Leaders in the region harshly criticized the U.S. earlier this week when a newspaper in Brazil, which was privy to some documents released by Snowden, reported that a U.S. spy program was widely targeting data in emails and telephone calls across Latin America. That revelation came just days after an uproar in Latin America over the rerouting of Bolivian President Evo Morales' plane over Europe amid suspicions, later proven untrue, that Snowden was aboard.
And all this comes right after President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Kerry have all made recent treks to the region to bolster U.S. engagement in Latin America.
"What the Snowden affair has done to the reinvigorated effort to re-engage with Latin America is to dump a pail of cold water on it," said Carl Meacham, a former senior Latin America adviser on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "It won't stop trade deals, cooperation on energy, but it's going to be harder for the president to portray the image that 'We are here to work with you.' It's a step back."
The U.S. has sought to downplay the fallout from the disclosure of information about its intelligence activities. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki acknowledged that the United States does gather foreign intelligence just like other nations.
"I can tell you that we have spoken with Brazilian officials regarding these allegations," she said this week. "We plan to continue our dialogue with the Brazilians through normal diplomatic channels, but those are conversations that, of course, we would keep private."
Psaki has also said that any country granting asylum to Snowden would create "grave difficulties in our bilateral relationship."
While other nations may spy on their friends, the allegations have fueled anti-American sentiment already simmering in the region. Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Ecuador are led by populist leaders who have balked at any dominance by the U.S. in the Americas and pursued policies that often run counter to Washington's wishes. Venezuela refers to the United States simply as "The Empire."
"What they're saying is 'See, the U.S. hasn't changed. It doesn't matter who is in the White House, the U.S. is the same. The U.S. is the big imperial power ... they are not treating us as equals. Look, they are even spying on us,'" said Meacham, who directs the Americas program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The flap over the rerouting of the Bolivian president's plane prompted a special session Tuesday of the Organization of American States' permanent council. Bolivian Interior Minister Carlos Romero delivered blistering remarks about the incident, calling it an "act of aggression" conducted "at the behest of the United States.
Countries like Ecuador, which has cozied up to U.S. rivals Iran and China, joined the verbal slugfest against the U.S. Ecuador has sheltered WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in its embassy in London for more than a year and has given mixed signals about offering Snowden asylum.
Latin America wants international standing and chafes at any attempt by the United States to downplay its stature, hence the ruffled feathers when Kerry referred to the region as "America's backyard." Latin America is now home to 600 million people. The U.S. looks to the region for oil and is heavily vested in bilateral trade agreements.
Together, Mexico and Brazil are responsible for 65 percent of Latin America's production, and some experts suggest that they are destined to jump into fourth and fifth place on the list of the world's biggest economies, behind the U.S., India and China. Last year alone, trade between the U.S. and Mexico totaled nearly $500 billion, making it the United States' second-largest trading partner and Mexico could eventually overtake Canada for the No. 1 spot.
The Snowden affair is not likely to unravel these strong U.S. connections to the region, but it is a roadblock to efforts to improve cooperation, said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based policy forum on Western Hemisphere affairs.
"I don't think it's going to paralyze relations," Shifter said. "But I think it's a setback overall — even with countries that have been friendly."
Obama got off to a slow start with Latin America. The president spent little time on the region during his first term and uttered few, if any, words about the area during his re-election campaign, though he took more than 70 percent of the Hispanic vote in winning a second term. In May, he went south to Mexico and also traveled to Costa Rica to meet with Central American leaders.
Passing immigration reform would remove a major irritant in U.S.-Mexico relations and could prevent the U.S. from becoming more isolated in the region, but the U.S. was facing problems in the area before the Snowden affair.
In Bolivia, Morales on May 1 acted on a long-time threat and expelled the U.S. Agency for International Development, saying it was trying to undermine the government — allegations the State Department said were baseless. Morales said Washington "still has a mentality of domination and submission" in the region, and he also harangued Kerry for offending the region when, in congressional testimony in April, he said the "Western Hemisphere is our backyard."
Cuba — a possible transit stop for Snowden if he is granted asylum in a Latin American country — has a history of conflict with the United States. Fidel Castro's brother Raul, who now leads the government, has recently explored new diplomatic entrees with Washington. At the same time, he earlier this year assumed the rotating presidency of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States in what was a demonstration of regional unity against U.S. efforts to isolate the communist government through a 50-year-old economic embargo.
In Brazil, which wields the most influence in Latin America, former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva lent support to the Iranian government and also backed Venezuela's late president Hugo Chavez, who ranted against U.S.-style capitalism and formed alliances with Russia, China and Iran. The new president of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, appears more moderate. Biden visited Brazil in May, saying stronger trade ties and closer cooperation in education, science and other fields should usher in a new era of U.S.-Brazil relations.
During his visit, Biden announced that Obama was hosting Rousseff at the first official state dinner of his second term. The October dinner is a sign of respect and Brazilian officials say the spying allegations won't taint it, yet Rousseff herself has said that any such data collection infringed on the nation's sovereignty and that Brazil would raise the issue at the United Nations.
U.S. relations with Venezuela have been a lot thornier.
While Nicolas Maduro, appears to be more pragmatic than his predecessor, he has loudly voiced his own anti-American rhetoric since taking office — even alleging that the U.S. had a hand in Chavez' death from cancer. Maduro expelled two U.S. Air Force attaches from Caracas, accusing them of trying to foment instability. The Obama administration responded by expelling two Venezuelan diplomats from Washington.
In a gesture that could have signaled a thaw in relations, Venezuela released an American documentary filmmaker who had been jailed for alleged espionage in the country. Timothy Tracy, 35, was released just hours before Kerry met with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua on the sidelines of a regional gathering in Guatemala. Kerry said the two agreed to take steps to change the dialogue between the two countries and hopefully, quickly move to appoint ambassadors, which haven't been in either capital since 2010.

Confession of a Phone Hack victim

In the wake of the National Security Agency cyber-spying revelations, you may be worrying about the government keeping track of your digital life. But, for less than $300, a group of ordinary hackers found a way to tap right into Verizon cellphones.
This is a group of good-guy, or "white hat", hackers. They hacked the phones to warn wireless carriers that the phones have a security flaw.
I got to experience having my phone broken into. I met the hackers at a hotel room in downtown San Francisco. A moment after I stepped in, Tom Ritter pulled me over to look at a computer screen. Ritter is a security consultant for iSEC Partners, which specializes in helping companies locate technology security flaws.
As I looked down at Ritter's laptop screen, he pointed to a number.
"Is this your phone number?" he asked.
It was. The minute I'd walked into the room Ritter had gotten into my phone.
Then, he showed me how he could listen to my conversations. I called up Nico Sell, who works with Ritter. We had a brief conversation. After I hung up, Ritter played a recording of the entire call for me.
Ritter said he was able to tap into my call with something called a femtocell, also known as a wireless network extender. The one he used was made by Samsung for Verizon and cost about $250. The femtocell is about the size of a wireless router. You can buy one at Best Buy.
And, Ritter said, "Everything we did can be done with free software you can download online — nothing terribly special."
He says companies like Verizon support these devices for customers who live in rural areas or high-rise buildings and have poor cellphone reception.
"You can get these from carriers to give yourself a better signal," he said.
Ritter explained that the femtocell is basically cell phone tower; that's why it's able to pick up all the phone signals around it. In case you were wondering, it also intercepts your text messages, including photos and if you use the browser to sign into your bank's website, the device will be able to get your login and password. Yikes!
Ritter says someone has to be within around 40 feet of the femtocell for it to tap into their phone. But, given that it can fit in a purse Ritter imagines a lot of situations where getting close enough would be easy.
Ritter painted a scenario in which "a lady goes out to ... a bar in downtown DC ... At this place a whole bunch of congressman are hanging out." In her purse, this "lady" had a femtocell.
"She happens to pick up a whole bunch of picture messages," Ritter said. "It doesn't take a whole lot of stretch of the imagination to see that there's a lot of potential here for targeting high-profile individuals or just ordinary people."
In case you're wondering, the lady with the purse could be in a different room. The femtocell will pick up a signal through most walls.
This particular femtocell taps into Verizon phones. However, Ritter believes it might be possible to find a similar problem with femtocells that work with other providers.
Ritter is trying to help these companies. So, he told Verizon about the hack. David Samberg, a Verizon spokesman, says the company patched the flaw in the femtocells without customers realizing it.
"It was an over-the-air software push," he said. "All of the devices received the software upgrade."
Samberg claims it's no longer possible to do what Ritter and iSEC did. Samberg said that anyone who tried to block the fix on their femtocell would be disconnected from the network. However, he could not explain how Ritter and iSEC were still able to tap into my phone.
Ritter and other security analysts don't agree that the problem has really been fixed. Ritter will be part of a presentation at Def Con, a conference for Web developers. iSEC and Ritter were chosen to present because Def Con organizers have always believed that these femtocells, which have been on the market for a few years, were vulnerable because they mimic cellphone towers.
Chris Wysopal, the CTO of the security firm Veracode, who sits on the committee that picked Ritter to present at Def Con, says that "with the way that these devices work, you know, mimicking a cell tower, looking like a trusted connection to your phone, it is a point of vulnerability."
The femtocell may electronically look like a cell tower to your phone, but to a hacker Wysopal said, it's a lot easier to get into than a real cell tower. "It's a physical device that an attacker can get their hands on they can open it up," he said. "That's not something you can do with a cell tower, obviously, because it's a locked building with fences around it."
For its part, Verizon says it has its own team of security experts who are regularly looking for vulnerabilities in its hardware and software. But the company says it's a constant battle. Like building a better safe at a bank, it will deter more people but nothing is perfect, Verizon says.
Ritter of iSEC says there are much better fixes than what Verizon has done, but they cost a lot more money.
"I make sure that I don't send anything over the phone that I wouldn't be comfortable with someone else seeing," Ritter said.

BRITISH PM LINKS TO SPOOF TWITTER ACCOUNT

British Prime Minister David Cameron fell victim to a Twitter spoof on Monday when he sent a message linked to a fake account that lampoons the government and portrays ministers as a privileged elite.
Cameron once said that the trouble with the social networking service was its "instant-ness" and the risk of people making themselves look foolish by sending too many Tweets.
On the day the government launched a controversial cap on welfare payments, Cameron sent this message: "@IDS_MP and I are determined to make work pay and help the UK compete on the #GlobalRace".
He meant to link to the account of Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, the minister behind the new limits on benefit payments.
However, Duncan Smith does not appear to have a Twitter account. Instead, the link was to a spoof page that jokes sardonically about the high price of champagne and foie gras.
One message said: "A 15 percent increase in MPs' pay is a disgrace. Has anyone seen the price of foie gras and Armand de Brignac...we need at least 25 percent."
Another read: "I've always supported a mansion tax. Your tax buys my mansion. Chin chin!"
Cameron's official spokesman made light of the slip-up, suggesting the episode could be summed up with the Twitter hashtag: #onetotakeonthechin.
Asked whether Cameron writes his own Tweets or approves them before his team sends them out, he said: "The prime minister's Tweets are entirely his views."

Edward Snowden, come on home

Espionage. International intrigue. Secret government surveillance. Bad airport food. The Edward Snowden saga continued on Friday, when the leaker–who revealed information about the NSA’s surveillance of phone and internet records–spoke out from the Moscow airport, where he’s been holed up for three weeks, to demand that the U.S. stop interfering with his attempts to escape prosecution. ”I did not seek to sell U.S. secrets. I did not partner with any foreign government to guarantee my safety,” he said.
Which is why my letter this week is to Edward Snowden.

Dear Ed,
It’s me, Melissa.
I hear you’re looking for a country. Well, wouldn’t you know, I have an idea for you! How about…this one?
Come on back to the U.S.A., Ed. I know you’re not super pleased with the government these days–and I feel you. The information you revealed about surveillance raises serious issues about the behaviors of our leaders and how they justify and hide those practices from the public. But, here is the deal: it’s time to come home and face the consequences of the actions for which you are so proud.
I know you must feel you’ve already given up a lot to reveal government secrets: your well-paid job, your life in Hawaii, your passport.
And maybe your intentions were completely altruistic–it’s not that you wanted attention, but that you wanted us, the public, to know just how much information our government has about us. That is something worth talking about. But by engaging in this Tom Hanks-worthy, border-jumping drama through some of the world’s most totalitarian states, you’re making yourself the story.
We could be talking about whether accessing and monitoring citizen information and communications is constitutional, or whether we should continue to allow a secret court to authorize secret warrants using secret legal opinions.
But we’re not. We’re talking about you! And flight paths between Moscow and Venezuela, and how much of a jerk Glenn Greenwald is. We could at least be talking about whether the Obama administration is right that your leak jeopardized national security. But we’re not talking about that, Ed.
We’re talking about you. I can imagine you’d say, “Well, then stop! Just talk about something else.” But here’s the problem, even if your initial leak didn’t compromise national security, your new cloak-and-dagger game is having real and tangible geopolitical consequences. So, well, we have to talk about…you.
We’re talking about how maybe now you’re compromising national security by jumping from country to country, causing international incidents and straining U.S. relationships with Russia and China. Really. Important. Relationships. And we’re talking about how you praised countries like Russia and Venezuela for “standing against human rights violations” and “refusing to compromise their principles.”
I mean, where do you even come up with that kind of garbage, Ed? What are you thinking?
I understand that you don’t want to come back. To do so would mean giving up your freedom, definitely before the trial, and likely for several months or years thereafter.
I get it. It’s in its prisons where the U.S. commits actual human rights violations.
More than 80,000 prisoners are held in solitary confinement, some for years, some indefinitely, despite the fact that solitary is cruel and psychologically damaging.
I know those aren’t the human rights violations, though, that you’re complaining about, Ed. But you might not have anything to worry about, anyway. Unlike most of the people in solitary confinement–including Private Bradley Manning, on trial for giving data to Wikileaks–you have cultivated a level of celebrity that itself will act as protection if you ever find yourself in U.S. prison. You’ve made a spectacle of yourself, and the Obama Administration will be very careful about how it treats you. Unlike all those other prisoners.
So come on home, Ed. So we could talk about, you know, something else.
Sincerely,
Melissa

US officials are preventing me claiming asylum

NSA whistleblower calls meeting with Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch at Sheremetyevo airport

Passengers wait for their flights at Sheremetyevo airport: Edward Snowden has been stuck in the transit zone for over three weeks. Photograph: Ivan Sekretarev/AP

The NSA surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden has said US officials are waging a campaign to prevent him from taking up asylum offers as he called a meeting in Moscow airport with human rights groups.
In a letter sent to groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, the former intelligence agency contractor claimed there was "an unlawful campaign by officials in the US government to deny my right to seek and enjoy … asylum under article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights" and invited them to meet him at 5pm local time.
"The scale of threatening behaviour is without precedent: never before in history have states conspired to force to the ground a sovereign president's plane to effect a search for a political refugee," he wrote to the groups.
"This dangerous escalation represents a threat not just to the dignity of Latin America or my own personal security, but to the basic right shared by every living person to live free from persecution."
Reuters quoted an airport official as saying Snowden would meet the groups on Friday afternoon in the transit area of Sheremetyevo, where he has remained since flying to Russia from Hong Kong on 23 June.
The 30-year-old former NSA employee is trying to negotiate asylum elsewhere to avoid facing charges in the US, including espionage, for divulging details about US electronic surveillance programmes.
"I can confirm that such a meeting will take place," an airport spokeswoman said.
Reuters said Amnesty and Transparency International had been invited to meet Snowden, with the former confirming it would attend.
Sergei Nikitin, the head of Amnesty International Russia, said: "Yes, I have received a brief email. It said that he would like to meet with a representative of a human rights organisation – there was not much information there. I'm planning to go."
Tanya Lokshina of Human Rights Watch confirmed she had been invited to the meeting and posted Snowden's letter on Facebook.
In the emailed letter – which Lokshina said she could not independently verify as coming from Snowden – the former intelligence worker said he had been "extremely fortunate to enjoy and accept many offers of support and asylum from brave countries around the world". He added: "These nations have my gratitude, and I hope to travel to each of them to extend my personal thanks to their people and leaders. By refusing to compromise their principles in the face of intimidation, they have earned the respect of the world.
"Unfortunately, in recent weeks we have witnessed an unlawful campaign by officials in the US government to deny my right to seek and enjoy this asylum."
The email ends with an invitation for rights groups to meet him at the airport at 5pm (2pm BST).
Snowden is still believed to be weighing up his options. Late on Thursday, Venezuela's foreign minister said the country had yet to receive a formal response to its offer of asylum.
"We communicated last week. We made an offer and so far we haven't received a reply," Elias Jaua told Reuters during a regional foreign ministers' meeting in Uruguay.
Venezuela is one of three countries to offer asylum to Snowden, along with Bolivia and Nicaragua.
In a separate email to Reuters, Snowden confirmed that the meeting with human rights groups would go ahead but said it would be closed to the press. He said he planned to speak to the media later.
The letter told the groups to bring identification and meet at 4.30pm at Sheremetyevo airport in Terminal F, "in the centre of the arrival hall [where] someone from airport staff will be waiting there to receive you with a sign labelled G9".

Obama Administration Must Step Up Efforts To Get Edward Snowden

A key congressional Republican said on Sunday that the Obama administration must step up efforts and exert "any and all pressure" on Russia to get it to hand over Edward Snowden, the former U.S. spy agency contractor turned fugitive leaker.
"I'm sure Russia loves this," Representative Michael McCaul, chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, said of the Snowden drama that has opened the United States to international criticism.
McCaul told "Fox News Sunday" that the Russians are "making a mockery" of U.S. foreign policy, and, "I'm sure every day, they're extracting more and more information from this man."
Snowden, a former contractor with the National Security Agency, released previously secret documents revealing details of U.S. telephone and internet surveillance programs as part of counterterrorism efforts.
He has been stranded at a Moscow airport since late last month. He broke three weeks of silence on Friday and said he wanted asylum in Russia until he can go to Latin America.
Washington has asked Moscow to return Snowden to the United States where he is wanted on espionage charges but has not been able to get him.
McCaul described the showdown as "a test of our foreign policy," and, he said, "I would give the administration low marks for what they've done so far."

"We should be putting any and all pressure we have - economic, trade," on Russia to get Snowden, McCaul said.
McCaul said that the administration has failed to develop an acceptable relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"It's not working," McCaul said. "They're thumbing their nose at the United States." (Reporting by Thomas Ferraro; Editing by Cynthia

Edward Snowden's asylum request to Russia hasn't been received, officials say

 Russian immigration officials said Saturday they have not received an application from Edward Snowden, the U.S. National Security Agency leaker who wants to get asylum in Russia.
Snowden came to Moscow's Sheremetyevo international airport on June 23 from Hong Kong, apparently intending to board a flight to Cuba. But he did not get on that flight and is believed to have spent the last three weeks marooned in the airport's transit zone.

On Friday, he met with human rights activists there and said he would seek Russian asylum, at least as a temporary measure before going to Venezuela, Bolivia or Nicaragua, all of which have offered him asylum.
But the Interfax news agency quoted Russian migration service head Konstantin Romodanovsky as saying no asylum request had been received as of Saturday. The state news agency RIA Novosti cited migration service spokeswoman, Zalina Kornilova, as also saying no request had been received.
Anatoly Kucherena, a well-known lawyer in Russia, said that he would be helping Snowden with the necessary paperwork to officially request asylum, CBS News' Svetlana Berdnikova reported from Russia Friday.
"Mr. Snowden is a courageous person," Kucherena told Russian television station Russia Today Friday. "He is a hero."
Kucherena said he would meet with Snowden again to expedite the process, which was estimated to take at least another two weeks, Berdnikova reports.

Snowden had made a previous bid for Russian asylum, but President Vladimir Putin said he would have to agree to stop further leaks of information about American intelligence service activities before it would be considered. Snowden withdrew the bid, but participants in Friday's meeting said he was now ready to agree to stop leaks.
Granting asylum to Snowden would add significant new stress to already-troubled Washington-Moscow relations.
Putin and President Obama are expected to hold a summit in Moscow in early September, right before both take part in the Group of 20 summit in St. Petersburg, and the Snowden issue could overshadow both gatherings.

Mr. Obama and Putin discussed Snowden, among other issues, during a telephone call on Friday, the White House said in a terse statement that provided no specifics of their conversation about the NSA leaker. White House spokesman Jay Carney said the call was planned several days ago, suggesting that it was unrelated to Snowden's meeting with the activists.
Russia so far has sidestepped the issue by claiming that it cannot take action on Snowden because his presence in the transit zone puts him technically outside Russian territory. But by agreeing to the condition that he stop leaks, Snowden could force Russia's hand.
Friday's meeting in the airport's transit zone included representatives of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. The presence of these internationally respected organizations could add weight to Snowden's asylum bid.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Friday the United States disapproved of Russia facilitating what she called a "propaganda platform" for Snowden, "despite the government's declarations of Russia's neutrality with respect to Mr. Snowden."
On Saturday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov aimed to keep up the appearance of neutrality. "We are not having contact with Snowden," he said at a meeting of a regional security organization in Kyrgyzstan, according to Interfax.

Hackers Strategies

Right now, millions of hackers, spammers and scammers are hard at work. They're after your Social Security number, bank account information and social media accounts. With any of these, they can steal your money or trick your friends into giving up theirs.

The scary part is that anyone can be a hacker. For as little as $3,000, you can buy a complete and fully operational exploit kit. This kit does most of the illegal work for you automatically. You get to sit back and rake in the cash, until you get caught.

Between semi-amateurs with automated systems and serious hackers who are masters of technology and trickery, how can you possibly hope to stay safe?

The best way is to know how hackers do what they do. Once you know that, you can counter their malicious acts. Here are five popular hacker strategies.

1. Phishing scams
Lucky you! A Nigerian prince has selected you to help smuggle millions out of his country. For a little bit of effort -- a few simple wire transfers -- you'll get a substantial cut. What could be easier?

I bet you're asking yourself, "Who would fall for that?" Well, tens of thousands of people do every year. That's why Nigerian scams, or 419 scams, are still very popular.

Other versions might say you won a contest or have a job offer. Maybe someone wants to meet you, or you can make money for shipping some goods.

The catch is that you have to send in personal or banking information, or pay a fee. Of course, your information and money is going straight to hackers.

Use common sense before reacting to any email. Scams rely on making you act quickly. If you think about things long enough, you can usually see through them. Just remember the old saying, "If it looks too good to be true … "

2. Trojan horse
Many hackers want to slip a virus on your computer. Once installed, a virus can record everything you type and send it back to the hacker. It can send out spam email or attack other computers.

To do this, the hackers disguise the virus as something harmless. This is called a Trojan horse, or just Trojan.

One of the most popular ways to deliver a Trojan is a variation of the phishing email scams.

For example, the email might say it's from a shipping service, bank or other reputable company. There's been a problem with a transaction! To learn more, you have to open an email attachment.

The attachment might look like a normal file, but it really contains a Trojan. Clicking on the file installs it before you can do anything.

Similar scams appear on Facebook and Twitter. You think you're going to watch a funny video your friend posted. Instead, a popup tells you to update your video player. The "update" file it provides is really a Trojan.

The key to defeat this tactic, as with phishing emails, is common sense. However, up-to-date security software is essential as well. It should detect and stop most Trojans before they can install.

3. Drive-by downloads
Security software is good, but it isn't always enough. Programs on your computer might have weaknesses that hackers can use to bypass security software.

To take advantage of these weaknesses, hackers set up website embedded with viruses. You might get there by clicking a malicious link in a phishing email or on social media. You can even find these sites in a search for popular programs or topics.

It isn't just malicious sites, though. Hackers can sneak malicious code on to legitimate websites. The code scans your computers for security holes. If it finds one, a virus can download and install without you doing anything.

To stay safe, you have to keep your programs up to date. Every month, Microsoft releases updates for Windows and Internet Explorer. These updates close critical security holes that hackers exploit.

Other critical programs to patch are Adobe's Flash and Reader, and Oracle's Java. Using old versions of these programs is like sending hackers an engraved invitation.

You should also be using the latest version of your programs. Anyone using Internet Explorer 6, 7 or 8 needs to update or switch browsers immediately.

4. Bypassing passwords
In Hollywood movies, hackers are masters of guessing account passwords. In the real world, however, very few hackers bother.

Instead, they go around passwords. They might get your password from a data breach at a company or website you use.

It's important that you use a different password for every account. That way, if a hacker discovers one, they can't get in to every account.

Perhaps the hacker slipped a virus on to your system. It records your passwords and sends them to the hacker; no guessing needed. As I mentioned above, you can stop viruses with up-to-date security software and programs.

A hacker might tackle your account's security question. Most security questions can be answered with information people post publicly.

You should change how you answer security questions. Give a random answer that has nothing to do with the question. That way, no one can guess it.

5. Using open Wi-If
I'm sure you have a Wi-Fi network at home. Is it encrypted? If you don't know the answer, then it's probably, "no."

That means hackers, and neighbors, can connect to your network from outside. They can see and record everything you do. They can surf to bad websites and download illegal files on your connection. You might be getting a visit from the police.

You need to take a few minutes and secure your network. The instructions will be in your Wi-Fi router's manual. Trust me; it's worth it.