Slashdot Mirror
NSA Cracked Into Encrypted UN Video Conferences
McGruber writes "According to documents seen by Germany's Der Spiegel, the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) successfully cracked the encryption code protecting the United Nations' internal videoconferencing system. NSA first breached the UN system in the summer of 2012 and, within three weeks of initially gaining access to the UN system, the NSA had increased the number of such decrypted communications from 12 to 458. On one occasion, according to the report, while the American NSA were attempting to break into UN communications, they discovered the Chinese were attempting to crack the encryption code as well."
were trying to break in , so we did it first to warn you.
If the NSA can do it, so can other people. So should the NSA reveal what they can do so the UN can switch to more secure communications. Or should the NSA have continued to monitor with the knowledge that the Chinese, Russians and probably a few others were also listening in?
If I was the state department I would be furious about this.
Short of a direct attack on a diplomat I don't think there is a worse breach of international custom and law.
Snooping on citizens is bad enough, but this is playing with fire.
Am I the only one seeing a war on information soon descending upon us?
Governments, once they realize the full breadth & capability of the US surveillance, and the fact that they themselves are vulnerable, and not only their citizen... they will soon decide to take action! And of course the US, having the confrontation with China in mind (and that it cannot weaken its position in such a critical time), will not back down easily.
Net neutrality is the first that could go, but I'm not sure it will be the last.
Do you think that Snowden will prove to be the trigger to the 3rd WW? (but an information/electronic one this time)
So where did Der Spiegel get these documents? On Friday, Edward Snowden accused the US government of intentionally leaking documents to The Independent that were potentially damaging, in an effort to discredit the responsible reporting being done by The Guardian and the Washington Post. He said he had never worked with nor even spoken to anyone at The Independent. Is the same thing happening here?
Breakfast served all day!
RT is infamous for being virulently anti-American; it's a Russian news organization with an agenda that is fairly obvious at times. Now, that said, Der Spiegel is a totally valid news organization...so can someone provide something directly from that, instead of interpretation by people with their own agenda regarding this?
Ah, never mind: here you go: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/25/us-usa-security-nsa-idUSBRE97O08120130825
For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
USA.
First you make bribing politicians legal, destabilize the entire world's banking industry and start war after war in 3rd world countries so your military industrial complex can get more tax payer money. And now new private contractors show up and bribe some politicians who in return give them the right and money to spy on whoever they want.
And do you even protest or riot? No you assholes whine on /. I think there have been more protests here in germany over that than in the US
Don't have a conniption fit. Maybe it was just a couple guys trying to stalk their girlfriends.
And it's not like anything important is ever accomplished at the U.N.
Mange your expectations.
Why would any country trust a closed-sourced product produced by a US Technology firm?
You sir are full of gibberish.
Doubt the collective will see the decryption news as a white hat proof of concept.
Since the UN does nothing and accomplished nothing,,,,no breach here.
since he did zero at the UN...how could he write so much? he must be vain.
Was the encryption cracked, or was it just bypassed?
Very worrisome if it's the former.
I can't tell if they just disabled encryption on one of the end points.
That puts the 'anal' in 'analogy'.
Governments have spied on each other since the beginning of time. Odd to see how it's newsworthy that it continues. It's a necessity of survival to know what ones neighbors are up to.
In related news, water is wet.
I'm flabbergasted by the utter naifs who are upset about this.
WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK A SPY AGENCY DOES!?!?!
the chinese where exploiting huawei routers firmware, while nsa where at it with the cisco stuff
I'm thinking Switzerland would make the perfect host for UN headquarters. It's quite obvious now that the Americans cannot be trusted to host such an important building.
The US hasn't declared war since WWII.
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
Oh give it up. How about early European settlers wiping out 12 million indigenous Americans by smallpox and influenza within a decade of landing on shore? Yes, we should remember the Holocaust during WWII. And Rwanda. And Nanking. And godknowswhatelse. Nobody's ancestors have much of a moral high ground.
Move along.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Aren't both the USA and China member states of the UN? With pretty far-reaching veto powers, even? Why would they need to break into the internal communications of an organization they're part of?
Security agency whose purpose is to decrypt communications of other nations successfully decrypted communications of other nations.
By the way, that's how Alan Turing helped win WW II.
The video conferencing equipment we have at work is terrible. There is no reason why other solutions should be more secure.
* Root login is enabled with default passwords
* Incredibly weak encryption
* Writable persistent storage, which means that you can plant stuff there which then attack the rest of the company.
The only thing that is impressive by this is how little companies care about security.
Richard was fucking a dead horse when Wang entered the room to do the same. TFA didn't mention, but in the end they* decided to have a threesome.
* by 'they' I mean Dick & Wang, because the horse was still dead and soon Dick & Wang would be too since they didn't use condoms. :D
I'm not condoning what the NSA has done, but this is firmly within their mandate. Who they spy on and how may be completely secret. The fact that this is what they do is not.
From their Mission Statement:
The Signals Intelligence mission collects, processes, and disseminates intelligence information from foreign signals for intelligence and counterintelligence purposes and to support military operations.
Cheers,
Bruce.
Bruce A. Knack
Silicon Surfers
Past vs. present. You dig?
Seriously: 'The Germans' are out, the Turks are out, the french, the British, the Spanish, the Dutch, the Japanese... All those nations with a history (sic)... oh, never mind.
It's sat, btw.
nuff said
What about bugging the White House? I mean, anyone can get to be president (in theory of course, in practice it is any multimillionaire with lots of friends in the US establishment). You've got to check on them, or else how can they be trusted? And what about all those that know the president or is related to the president, you've got to check on what they are saying ... and so on.
Either the USA is guilty or then Snowden isn't. Can't have it both ways.
You're still suffering under the delusion that the U.S. are the "good guys"? lol.
"Since the 1979 Iranian revolution and the downfall of the US Puppet Ruler the Shah, Iran has been an Islamic state. In that interval of time, 1979 to the present, Iran has not invaded anyone. Not once. People of all religions live in peace in Iran, even Jews, who find life so comfortable in Iran they refused an offer by the government of Israel to emigrate!
In the same period of time, Israel, a self-declared Jewish state, attacked Iraq in 1981, bombing the power station at Osirik, claiming it was a clandestine weapons factory. Subsequent examination of the ruins following the 2003 invasion proved Israel had lied. In 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon. This led to the Massacres at Sabra and Shatilla. In February 2003 Israel staged incursions into Gaza and Nablus. In September 2007 Israel bombed Syria, again insisting they were destroying a clandestine weapons laboratory. Again there was no evidence to support Israel’s claims. In 2006, Israel attacked Lebanon, killing 1200, mostly civilians, several UN observers, and littering the landscape with land mines on their way out. In February 2008 Israel again raided Gaza, killing over 100. HAMAS agreed to a cease fire and kept it for 6 months until November 4, when Israel again attacked without warning, killing 6 HAMAS members, and launching operation CAST LEAD.
1300 Gazans, mostly civilians, were killed. Israel lost 13 soldiers. Violations of international law included the use of White Phosphorus incendiary bombs against civilians and non-military targets. The United Nations investigated, but Israel refused to cooperate. In May 2010, Israel attacked an international aid flotilla bringing food and medical supplies to Gaza in international waters. 9 people were murdered including an American from New York.
In the same period of time, the United States, officially a secular nation but predominantly Christian, attacked El Salvador (1980), Libya (1981), Sinai (1982), Lebanon (1982 1983), Egypt (1983), Grenada (1983), Honduras (1983), Chad (1983), Persian Gulf (1984), Libya (1986) , Bolivia (1986), Iran (1987), Persian Gulf (1987), Kuwait (1987), Iran (1988), Honduras (1988), Panama (1988), Libya (1989), Panama (1989), Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru (1989), Philippines (1989), Panama (1989-1990), Liberia (1990), Saudi Arabia (1990), Iraq (1991), Zaire (1991), Sierra Leone (1992), Somalia (1992), Bosnia-Herzegovina (1993 to present), Macedonia (1993), Haiti (1994), Macedonia (1994), Bosnia (1995), Liberia (1996), Central African Republic (1996), Albania (1997), Congo/Gabon (1997), Sierra Leon (1997), Cambodia (1997), Iraq (1998), Guinea/Bissau (1998), Kenya/Tanzania (1998 to 1999), Afghanistan/Sudan (1998), Liberia (1998), East Timor (1999), Serbia (1999), Sierra Leon (2000), Yemen (2000), East Timor (2000), Afghanistan (2001 to present), Yemen (2002), Philippines (2002) , Cote d’Ivoire (2002), Iraq (2003 to present), Liberia (2003), Georgia/Djibouti (2003), Haiti (2004), Georgia/Djibouti/Kenya/Ethiopia/Yemen/Eritrea War on Terror (2004), Pakistan drone attacks (2004 to present), Somalia (2007), South Ossetia/Georgia (2008), Syria (2008), Yemen (2009), Haiti (2010), etc. etc. etc. etc.
So, who is the danger to world peace?"
It's newsworthy because it's in the public spotlight.. it's topical.. and that means ad revenue. It's not about whether or not something is "newsworthy" it's about what's currently being discussed and how that relates to the corporate revenue stream.
Are you telling me the NSA actually spends time and money on doing the job it's supposed to, not just spying on US citizens? I am absolutely shocked.
Where were your holocaust protests during WWII? I'm no defender of US practices but for a German to brag about protests while that country's citizenry sad idly by while 5+ million Jews were exterminated is beyond ridiculous.
You forgot about the "others". Why is that?
The NSA appears to slowly be learning that there is always someone just a little smarter, just a little further ahead of you out there.
Just a little personal message to the boys cracking this and breaking that: when the paranoia gets to you, I recommend going fishing (like with a boat, and some tackle). Might save your life.
I am John Hurt.
US is suck a huge dick, I can't get over it.
You would chew a limb off like an animal in a leg hold trap to get out of sitting through one of those baffle gab fests.
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
Finally a story about the NSA doing something that makes sense and is within their charter.
"THEY" don't need to. "THEY" already have access to the bugs we purchase like smartphones and other devices with mics and/or cameras.
wave to your friends at the TLA! Enjoy your KINECT xBONEd.
bring on the PARTY VAN!
Their job is to break into stuff and record it. They are an electronic intelligence organization.
Get over it.
The issue with them is spying on Americans which is illegal. Not spying on diplomatic organizations, other countries, or GASP actually conducting intelligence work.
Think no one else does it to us? Get real. The chinese are doing it like crazy. The Russians are doing it like crazy. And everyone not doing it is relying on briefings from a power that is doing it... such as much of europe does FROM the NSA... or they're so backward as to not matter in the global power struggles.
Look, get upset about all this all you want... hold your breath until you turn blue. Start now. Get it over with.... there will be organizations like this operated by the US and other major powers. End of story.
The issue will be limiting them so their activities are reasonable. Create a new UN convention at the UN. See who signs it. IF you can get Russia and China to sign then the US might sign as well... if all three powers sign then it might actually be followed. Maybe.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
That particular German was very likely not yet born back then.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
I saw that your window was poorly secured so I broke in and took all your stuff. I am leaving this note so that you know how risky it is leaving your house unsecured. This isn't a very good neighborhood you really should buy an alarm and better locks. I hope this letter find you well. You're welcome The NSA.
There are treaties governing the presence of the UN on US soil. If these have been breached by the NSA action, the US has broken treaty obligations. Now, as the Native American Tribes of the US will testify, this usually doesn't make a lot of difference, but there's a chance that such a breach is actionable in US courts, which could get VERY messy.
Read at least a little history. The SDP and German Communist party fought valiantly against Hitler, right up until the enabling acts were forced through parliament (and that only succeeded because the Communists were evicted before the vote). The German left fought street battles against the brown shirts trying to prevent their rise to power.
The Nazis were way more committed to what they were doing than the US Government is. If the dissenters in the US (I'm looking at you, Occupy) showed a fraction of the resolve that the Weimar left showed, we'd have cleaned house by now.
Even after Hitler came to power, leaders in the one place there was still some free speech -- the independent churches -- continued to voice and rally dissent. German intellectuals fled the country and loudly protested the Hitler regime from around the world.
The first concentration camps were set up to detain Nazi political opponents, they were only turned to the purpose of ethnic cleansing in 1938.
You frankly don't know what you're talking about.
What surprises me is ... the surprise.
Seriously, what do you guys think spy agencies DO?
The moment you say "well, THAT's off-limits", then if I were a bad guy, I'd be quite the idiot not to use that method to communicate.
It's like you morons think there are RULES or something?
-Styopa
What treaties are you claiming were broken? Please, cite a specific treaty, since you are pretending to know something about this topic.
Wow, this post is thread-awesome on so many levels.
Wow! NSA just wont die.
Gen. Alexander, NSA Director, will be called to Congress yet again to explain why he lied yet again!
Well, we know what a credible source Putin's lavishly-funded personal propaganda outfit is, don't we?
Our German friend is referring to the present, not the crimes of ancestors. You can influence the future by acting in the present.
I'll like to know what change has been achieved by the protests in Germany, I suspect not much...
perhaps some actual role playing game. How about things like http://www.xyllomer.de/
The main difference:
Old world countries have done the same and worse then USA, but that was quite a while ago. Some would say before the introduction of modern civilization
Why do these "new" countries all have to try and prove to the rest of the world how awesome they think they are?
Obama has no concrete information or more likely any earthly clue who did what in Syria.
Great, there were dissenters. I don't recall them marching in the streets. LOL, "german intellecutals fled the country and loudly protested" and "independent churches contiued to voice and rally dissent". Is that the best you can muster? 5+ million civilians killed at the hands of the government the populace voted in and quiet and distant dissent is your counter argument? There was more forceful dissent about the discontiuation of the McRib.
It appears then that the NSA were not quick enough so the Chinese thought there's no point waiting to buy it from one of the weak points of the commercialised outsourced parts of the NSA - sometimes if you want a job done well you have to do it yourself.
The site of the United Nations Headquarters has extraterritoriality status.
From stories I have heard from within the Australian public service, once you are at the sensitive stage of trade negotiations with the United states, you don't discuss any of it over the phone.
A report of the NSA doing it's job, for once, instead of spying on you and me on behalf of the Carlyle Group, Wall St. , sons of V.I. Lenin by way of Frank Davis, and the once and future Brother Jedidiah Smiths waiting in the wings. Not to mention the local PD and loan shark both.
Our military spying on a (ahem> potential enemy. Ironic, since it helped set it up, but my, goodness, how shocking! Tut, tut, what are they trying to do, ruin their reputation?
Aren't you Americans proud of your leader! Maybe the only thing stupider than Americans that voted for Obama are the people who picked him for the Nobel Peace prize.
That's about the "job it's supposed to do" pretty much like it's the job a butcher is supposed to do to decimate the number of children in the neighborhood.
Now it's as if the US dollar hasn't had enough problems by the NSA snooping on our allies beyond their trying to break the fed printing presses, and it wasn't enough for them to stick their nose up everyone's back side domestically, but now they have to go and stick their nose in a bee hive. Sanctions anyone? NSA: "Yes, over here please". US dollar fails next month? Pure friggin genius. Absolutely mind blowing. Maybe "We the People" can enter a plea of insanity by and for our leadership?
What part of the UN is supposed to be secret ???
Back alley deals can be performed outside of that venue.
The UN is supposed to be for presenting a countries position and discussions, not conspiracies.
Maybe for foreigners who have no Constitutional Right to privacy this might be an outrage, but its only a minor importance to America whos Privacy the NSA is breaking is much more important.
I expected slashdot (and many other news outlet) to have at least some specific technical details. What encryption did UN use? How was it compromised?
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
There's a certain level of fuck-up where the breadth of its impact is so widespread, to simply un-fuck it is easier said than done. The NSA has spent the last decade erecting the most offensive violation of posse comitatus & the 4th Amendment imaginable. Infrastructure which represents contempt & disdain for the rule of law merely by existing. This colossal construction of political cynicism and good intentioned nationalistic idiocy is so large now, that to dismantle it overnight would leave in its place a vacuum with enough volume to be disruptive to the economy.
My recommendation on how to deal with this is simple: split the agency in half and distribute funding(fiefdom building/raises/promotion opportunities) according to the agency which has a better track record for oversight and respecting the scope of it's mandate. Then do absolutely nothing to investigate the subject yourself, but extend the agencies mandates to include oversight of their competitor. You've now created a zero sum game that incentivizes leveraging this obscene investigating capability as a tool for reigning itself in.
Problems like this are created from poor understanding of incentive structures, and gamification can fix problems created by it's absence. Said another way: you give an agency an enormous amount of money to find evidence of unicorns, big foot, and the loch ness monster and you'll end up with a bunch of bored people with resources spying on whales, primates, and horses. If you evaluate them based on the number of mythical creature sightings, don't act surprised when they get caught gluing horns on horses and breaking in to stables in the middle of the night. It's just a matter of anticipating the outcome of your selected metrics with an eye towards the law of unintended consequences.
Not to mention, that if the SDP and Communist parties had agreed to cooperate and stand together as one against the Nazi party, it's highly likely the Nazis would have never made it to power in the first place. Unfortunately, it was politics as usual and the threat was not neutralized before it was too late.
...need more be said? You folks have been fed on a steady diet of UN paranoia. Why waste time, money & processing power spying on a rubber-stamp legislature filled with the verbally incontinent? Might as well hack Sy Sperling's VPN to listen in on his marketing team discussing sales strategies for his new line of Hair club for men products....The fact that the Chinese are also doing this is an indication that their runaway govt. bureaucracy has outlived its usefulness. Just to remind you, while the the US was regaled with tales of secret UN this plans for world domination, black helicopters, etc. The Soviet Union failed without so much as a notice from the NSA, the CIA & the balance of your alphabet-soup agencies. You're paying attention to things that do not matter in the least, while avoiding the things that do. In all of its history, the UN has been a pawn of the security council; two of its members have now been found spying on the same august body they co-control.
The Nazis fought the Communists not because they were polar opposites, but because they were the wrong kind of leftists. Just think of the Trotskyite heresy or the part of Life of Brian about the Judean People's Front and the People's Front of Judea and you'll get the idea. Other leftists are worse enemies than the actual stated enemies of leftism.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
I'm baffled that ANYONE with half a brain thinks that the primary agency of the US Government charged with intercepting and deciphering/decrypting information is somehow only breaking the encryption of those who are actively in the process of attacking our country.
The entire mission of the NSA is to crack anything and everything in an attempt to get as clear a picture as possible of world affairs everywhere at every moment. Since when did the US become some crazy Superman figure who waits until someone is just about to commit a crime and then swoops in with superhuman power to foil the crime. For smart people, you all seem to be incredibly naive about how real things work in the real world. This is not some summer blockbuster or epic novel where the good guys just magically win.
Please, go live in your magical pixie world.
This may come as a shock to everyone, but nearly every nation that participates at the United Nations is *gasp* spying on the United Nations or other nations' missions at the United Nations. If they don't, it's probably more reflective of the fact that the nation doesn't have the resources to do it. The United States, the Chinese, the French... Before you quote Scandinavian nations, just ask yourself, what exactly do you think the Swedish KSI is doing?
.1% of its annual budget for espionage, that's still $60B.
The shock is not that the United States, or any other nation for that matter, is spying on the United Nations, the shock is that the United States is as good as it is. Even this shouldn't be a surprise given that the United States has a total of $6T in government spending a year, so even if you carve out a mere
Oh give it up. How about early European settlers wiping out 12 million indigenous Americans by smallpox and influenza within a decade of landing on shore? Yes, we should remember the Holocaust during WWII. And Rwanda. And Nanking. And godknowswhatelse. Nobody's ancestors have much of a moral high ground.
Move along.
What are you talking about? My Puritanical ancestors were saints! They followed the word of God religiously and did much good in this world. In fact, they helped prevent the witches and warlocks of Europe from starting an American chapter Hogwarts. You should be thankful that they stood on such moral high ground!
There are treaties governing the presence of the UN on US soil. If these have been breached by the NSA action, the US has broken treaty obligations. Now, as the Native American Tribes of the US will testify, this usually doesn't make a lot of difference, but there's a chance that such a breach is actionable in US courts, which could get VERY messy.
I do not believe that the UN building in NY is on US Soil. I believe that, for political purposes, it would be considered just as an embassy is. Sovereign land that happens to be surrounded by the country that hosts the Embassy delegation./P.
SSL, TLS, SSH? Did they really crack it be factoring the key, or did they discover an idiot with an easy password? Can somebody explain in more detail?
Cambodia?
So, we did not bother to bury the dead. So we did not do any mass graves?
And Iraq. Try some ancient history there, but still during my life. We certainly have a very strong involvement in the causalities therein.
As anti-America as the UN is, we should be spying on them. We shouldn't support the UN, and we should boot them right out of our country. And we should boot the NSA and any government official who thinks they have the right to violate our privacy rights by spying on all citizens without just cause.
I see a great comedy TV series and/or movie coming within a year.
At 07:31 UTC, B52 bombers from Minot AFB Minnesota carrying AGM-86 ALCM W80 nuclear warheads equipped cruse missiles and B61 nuclear bombs are orbiting outside Syria in southern Europe, Northern Africa and over Saudi Arabia. On the ground in Syria, USA Green Beret, Ranger and Seal Teams are taking positions with gps equipped laser target-ers to paint targets (points of interest) in Damascus and points of interest in the countryside for upload to JSTARS (4) which are orbiting outside Syria. NRO tasked three LACROSSE IN-SAR LEO platforms to sweep Damascus in particular and Syria in general for target positioning information within buildings as well as 4 meters underground two weeks ago (Ha Ha). Late 25 August 2013 a squadron of B-2 Sprits from Whiteman AFB is the 509th Bomb Wing (509 BW), assigned to the Eighth Air Force of the Air Force Global Strike Command armed with nuclear weapons banned buy SALTI and SALTII treaties launched and are at 08:00 UTC en-route to Russia for targets in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Arkhangelsk Oblast, Baikonur Cosmodrome Kazakhstan and other population and industrial centers in Russia. Obama signed at 20:00 EST a secret executive order placing the USAF SAC 90th, 91st and 341th Strategic Missile Wings to DEFCON Level 1 and to target all Russian population centers with population of equal to or greater than 500,000 for total destruction within 15 km blast radius. At 00:00 EST Obama gave GO CODE to commence USA military operations in Syria and Russia.
DoD projected loss of life within Syria and Russia, confirmed kills, at 50 million to 240 million within first 24 hrs from start of operations.
Business is good!
Actually I'm surprised it's as many as that; usually American Presidents have been allergic for a mixture of xenophobic and pseudo-legal reasons to place American troops under the command of any other nation.