Breaking Big Data: Evading Analysis of the Metadata of Your Life

Presented at Black Hat Europe 2016, Nov. 4, 2016, 10:45 a.m. (60 minutes)

You are under surveillance. We all are. If you're targeted by a government, nothing you can do will save you. But even if you aren't, the metadata of your life is being gathered and stockpiled by collection capabilities that even Orwell couldn't have imagined, and it's not just being done by governments. The big data industry is rapidly growing and may soon be on par with NSA-style mass surveillance, but with a different goal: to learn everything they can about you in order to sell your information, and sell you the next new thing. <br> <br> Encryption is only half the battle. Your metadata is often more valuable than your data. Every route you drive, every social media post you make, every aisle you visit in the grocery store, every email, every check-in, and every site you browse is being collected and correlated. The intelligence community calls this pattern-of-life analysis, and there's not much you can do to prevent it. Hiding behind seven proxies won't protect you from Google, the NSA, or the app on your phone with global permissions. This complete erosion of privacy impacts every one of us, and there is a complete lack of transparency around this.<br> <br> In this talk, a former NSA professional will cover a variety of the techniques used by the mass surveillance industry to analyze an individual's metadata and develop a profile of you, your activities, your affiliations, and what you are likely to buy next. Techniques that can be used to prevent selected activities from being associated with your true persona will be covered, with a focus on making your true persona blend in with the masses.

Presenters:

  • David Venable - Vice President, Cyber Security, Masergy Communications
    David Venable is a former intelligence officer with the National Security Agency, with extensive experience in Computer Network Exploitation, Information Operations, and Digital Network Intelligence, and cryptography. He has also taught about these subjects while serving as adjunct faculty at the National Cryptologic School. David has developed and managed several U.S. national-level projects in support of global anti-terrorism operations and the Global War on Terror, in addition to providing security consulting to Global 500 companies. David has also authored several cyber security articles, he regularly teaches classes on information security, and he has received numerous awards from the US Air Force, the National Security Agency, and the European Academy of Diplomacy. David is a cyber security fellow with Strategikon, a European think tank focused on global security. David is currently the Vice President of Cyber Security at Masergy Communications where he is responsible for protecting a global network infrastructure, as well as advising multinational companies about protecting their vital digital assets.

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