NSA 'infected' 50,000 networks with malware

[Tyr-Ziu Saxnot]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25087627 The US National Security Agency (NSA) infected 50,000 networks with malware, Dutch newspaper NRC has reported.

The Tailored Access Operations department used it to steal sensitive information, according to a censored slide leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

NRC said 20,000 networks had been hit in 2008, with the program recently expanded to include others in Rome, Berlin, Pristina, Kinshasa, Rangoon.

The NSA declined to comment.

The malware could be pit in a "sleeper" mode and activated with a click of a button, the paper said.

"Clearly, conventional criminal gangs aren't the only people interested in breaking into computer networks anymore," wrote computer security expert Graham Cluley in a blogpost.

"All organisations need to ask themselves the question of whether they could be at risk."

The reports come as Twitter introduces technology it says will help protect people's messages from unwanted scrutiny.

It has employed a system known as "forward secrecy" that makes it harder for eavesdroppers to access the keys used to encrypt data passing between Twitter's servers and users' phones, tablets and PCs. Now we should be asking why all this spying on European nations, Latin America , China, Russia ETC. and it seems like everybody --BUT-- ARAB/Muslim NATIONS! Obama admin. giving the Muslim nations a wide berth in this spying policy and we should be asking why!!!!!!!!!!!! Or give him a damn pass on that like has been done on every other treasonous activity he has engaged in. --Tyr

[fj1200]

everybody --BUT-- ARAB/Muslim NATIONS!

Do you really think they're NOT being spied on?

[logroller]

Now we should be asking why all this spying on European nations, Latin America , China, Russia ETC. and it seems like everybody --BUT-- ARAB/Muslim NATIONS! Obama admin. giving the Muslim nations a wide berth in this spying policy and we should be asking why!!!!!!!!!!!! Or give him a damn pass on that like has been done on every other treasonous activity he has engaged in. --Tyr

Things aren't always as they seem....


Duqu and Stuxnet raised the stakes in the cyber battles being fought in the Middle East – but now we’ve found what might be the most sophisticated cyber weapon yet unleashed. The ‘Flame’ cyber espionage worm came to the attention of our experts at Kaspersky Lab after the UN’s International Telecommunication Union came to us for help in finding an unknown piece of malware which was deleting sensitive information across the Middle East. While searching for that code – nicknamed Wiper – we discovered a new malware codenamed Worm.Win32.Flame.https://www.securelist.com/en/blog/208193522/The_Flame_Questions_and_Answers


As the Kaspersky researchers have laid out in a blog post, a section of Flame’s “platform”–the main module of code to which plug-ins for various spying operations could be added, was identical to code in an early, June 2009 version of Stuxnet. Given that Flame is thought to predate Stuxnet, Kaspersky’s researchers believe that the two must have been built by the same creator. And after an extensive report from New York Times reporter David Sanger that details Stuxnet’s creation and use by American and Israeli government agencies to tamper with Siemens programmable logic controllers in Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities, there can be little doubt that Flame is a U.S.-Israeli tool as well.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2012/06/11/new-research-shows-flame-malware-was-almost-certainly-a-u-s-or-israeli-creation/

i think that few really care if the NSA spies in the ME.

[revelarts]

for what it's worth, I care if they spy on you log. It's the same as the feds reading your postal mail IMO. Unconstitutional and illegal on it's face.
And Tyr if it started in 2008 then it was begun under Bush. Obama just let the good times rolls....
for your safety.
malware on networks... for your safety, spying on everyone... for your safety.

privacy, freedom, constitution, rule of law? phffft gitouttahere, do-u-wanna DIE?

[logroller]

for what it's worth, I care if they spy on you log. It's the same as the feds reading your postal mail IMO. Unconstitutional and illegal on it's face.
And Tyr if it started in 2008 then it was begun under Bush. Obama just let the good times rolls....
for your safety.
malware on networks... for your safety, spying on everyone... for your safety.

privacy, freedom, constitution, rule of law? phffft gitouttahere, do-u-wanna DIE?

I value your concern-- likewise unto you. Specific to the context of the OP, its international and therefore the Constitution bears little proscription upon the int'l actions of government in regards to privacy, freedom, rule of law-- therefore consideration of legality would rest upon int'l treaties regarding such. Of course, if you give a mouse a cookie...but nonetheless, just because an action is unconstitutional or illegal in the domestic context does not make it so internationally; neither does an action's legality infer that its a good course of action.

[revelarts]

I value your concern-- likewise unto you. Specific to the context of the OP, its international and therefore the Constitution bears little proscription upon the int'l actions of government in regards to privacy, freedom, rule of law-- therefore consideration of legality would rest upon int'l treaties regarding such. Of course, if you give a mouse a cookie...but nonetheless, just because an action is unconstitutional or illegal in the domestic context does not make it so internationally; neither does an action's legality infer that its a good course of action.

ok sure,
but don't most countries still prosecute captured spies? Death, prison and such?
Does the drone operator or NSA hacker/eavesdropper sitting safely withen the u.s. boarders have default "immunity" when they kill or spy on foreigners?

And if it's good for the goose..?
even though a certain amount of spying is probably overlooked as the price of doing business, by most countries, still
it seems to me that it's not only probably illegal in foreign countries it's also bad policy on our part.

[Larrymc]

Now we should be asking why all this spying on European nations, Latin America , China, Russia ETC. and it seems like everybody --BUT-- ARAB/Muslim NATIONS! Obama admin. giving the Muslim nations a wide berth in this spying policy and we should be asking why!!!!!!!!!!!! Or give him a damn pass on that like has been done on every other treasonous activity he has engaged in. --TyrIt seems Obama will get a pass, on everything he does, "WHY" Will he have to go all "Saddam" and kill some people on the White House Steps before people will see the real danger of this man? Seriously i have no doubt that Obama is watching the Meddle East with full consent, He has to know were to send Military Supply's to his Muslim Buddy's.

[Tyr-Ziu Saxnot]

Do you really think they're NOT being spied on? I am 100% sure that Obama stopped it or had it severely reduced after he took office. I mean why spy on his muslim outreach NASA pals!?? Right? Why spy on his holy Koran buddies? I seriously doubt you are this gullible ...

[logroller]

ok sure,
but don't most countries still prosecute captured spies? Death, prison and such?
Does the drone operator or NSA hacker/eavesdropper sitting safely withen the u.s. boarders have default "immunity" when they kill or spy on foreigners?
Questionably relevant to the OP. Unless an operator is captured within the sovereign territory of another country, they would be as immune as any other pilot. Spies are no different I would think. If they're rogue, I would think that us policy would have its own laws to which they're subject. But let's face it, if captured abroad actually having information they'd probably just disappear.; no trial, no public exposure.

But back to the topic--As far as I'm aware, there aren't any treaties on cyberwarfare.


And if it's good for the goose..?
even though a certain amount of spying is probably overlooked as the price of doing business, by most countries, still
it seems to me that it's not only probably illegal in foreign countries it's also bad policy on our part.
Diplomacy is all about perception, not policy per se.

[jafar00]

Now we should be asking why all this spying on European nations, Latin America , China, Russia ETC. and it seems like everybody --BUT-- ARAB/Muslim NATIONS! Obama admin. giving the Muslim nations a wide berth in this spying policy and we should be asking why!!!!!!!!!!!! Or give him a damn pass on that like has been done on every other treasonous activity he has engaged in. --Tyr

But, its for your safety remember?

[fj1200]

I am 100% sure that Obama stopped it or had it severely reduced after he took office. I mean why spy on his muslim outreach NASA pals!?? Right? Why spy on his holy Koran buddies? I seriously doubt you are this gullible ...

It's clear the evidence is overwhelming. :rolleyes:


British and US Internet surveillance in the Middle East and surrounding regions occurs from a secret base on the island of Cyprus, as l'Espresso, the German daily “Sueddeutsche Zeitung”, the Greek daily “Ta Nea” and the Greek channel “AlphaTV” can reveal. The country only has a million citizens and is a small player in world affairs, but it is a key site for the mass surveillance systems revealed by US whistleblower Edward Snowden.
http://cryptome.org/2013/11/cyprus-uk-us-spy.htm

[revelarts]

Questionably relevant to the OP. Unless an operator is captured within the sovereign territory of another country, they would be as immune as any other pilot. Spies are no different I would think. If they're rogue, I would think that us policy would have its own laws to which they're subject. But let's face it, if captured abroad actually having information they'd probably just disappear.; no trial, no public exposure.

But back to the topic--As far as I'm aware, there aren't any treaties on cyberwarfare.


Diplomacy is all about perception, not policy per se.

mmm well ..
Log that's quite a rhetorical disarming but not necessarily point negating response,
are you sure your not going to be running for something soon? :poke:

[fj1200]

it seems to me that it's not only probably illegal in foreign countries it's also bad policy on our part.

Are you suggesting that we don't spy?

[jafar00]

Are you suggesting that we don't spy?

If you can't keep it a secret, don't spy ;)