Thursday afternoon, a bombshell dropped: Two leading reports claimed that the U.S. government has been spying on emails, searches, Skype calls, and other electronic communications used by Americans for the last several years, via a program known as PRISM.
According to the reports, the Web’s largest names—AOL, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Skype, PalTalk, Yahoo, and YouTube—participated, perhaps unwittingly. (Dropbox will reportedly be added as well.) The report claims that the National Security Agency had “direct access” to servers owned by those companies. Most, if not all, of those companies have denied participating in PRISM, although it’s unclear whether they were unaware of the NSA’s spying, or simply turned a blind eye.
According to The Guardian and The Washington Post, the data covered included: “email, video and voice chat, videos, photos, voice-over-IP chats, file transfers, social networking details, and more.”
If nothing else, however, the PRISM disclosure is worrying and deeply shocking. If the report is accurate, the government may simply listen in on virtually any electronic communication you’ve made, in the interests of national security. Is this something that should be encouraged to fight domestic terrorism, or is this sort of government intrusion something that should be deeply distrusted? For the purposes of this story, we’re going to err on the side of the latter; whether you take advantage of our advice is up to you.
Note that there is absolutely no guarantee that our tips will make your PC PRISM proof. One of the generally held beliefs in the security world is that, with enough resources on the part of the attacker, any secrets that are known about can eventually be unearthed. But let’s say that you support an “Arab Spring” movement in a country whose interests parallel those of the U.S. government. It’s this sort of political uncertainty that encrypting personal communications is designed to liberate.
So what can you do? Here are some tips.
Avoid using popular Web services
Ditch your smartphone
Encryption, encryption, encryption
Subscribe to a VPN
Watch those hotspots
Obviously, block that malware
Tie it up together with a hard password knot
READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE HERE:
How to protect your PC from PRISM surveillance | PCWorld.
Timeline of NSA Domestic Spying
All of the evidence found in this timeline can also be found in the Summary of Evidence we submitted to the court in Jewel v. NSA. It is intended to recall all the credible accounts and information of the NSA’s domestic spying program found in the media, congressional testimony, books, and court actions. For a short description of the people involved in the spying you can look at our Profiles page, which includes many of the key characters from the NSA Domestic Spying program.
Marky Starr: Creator of HAMMERHEAD-HEAD
Tim Brigham & David Metcalf: Hosts of 
Jeremy Begin is the writer (colorist, and letterer) of the AFTER THE DREAM comic books and the author of Fighting for G.O.D. – Gold, Oil and Drugs, a graphic novel revelation about 9/11 and the global elite. He is a long-time activist / organizer who has a degree in writing from Hampshire College. He currently resides in California’s Bay Area.
“After the Dream is a dark, realistic science-fiction series about the damaged survivors of a covert program which has used unwitting humans as test subjects in the pursuit of mind control, truth serums, and psychic powers. While the program has failed to produce any psychic or super-powered individuals, it has left a trail of broken lives and minds in its wake. The series follows two parallel story arcs, a young schizophrenic woman named Rhyda Izguerra in the present day, and a young man named Balum in a dystopian near future. Rhyda is aided by repentant drug researcher Gregory Kincaid, and together they work to save other victims of the illicit experimentation. Balum, meanwhile, is taking a more proactive approach, rallying various dissidents to directly attack the shadowy corporation which is behind the program. After the Dream is a work in progress which is envisioned to be a 24-issue monthly series.”
The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI’s Manufactured War on Terrorism …